Geese Howard
Geese Howard is a fictional character and the main antagonist of SNK's Fatal Fury series. Debuting in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, Geese is the local crime boss of the fictional city of South Town. Geese created and hosts a fighting tournament named "The King of Fighters", in which he faces the brothers Terry and Andy Bogard who want to take revenge for their father's death. After several tournaments in the Fatal Fury series, Geese is killed by Terry in Real Bout Fatal Fury. However, he continues to appear in subsequent games as a "ghost" named Nightmare Geese. Geese has also appeared in other SNK games such as The King of Fighters series, in which he seeks to get the power from the creature Orochi and often sends teams representing him. His young self makes an appearance in Art of Fighting 2 as a secret final boss character. He also appears as downloadable content in Bandai Namco's fighting game Tekken 7.
Outside video games, Geese has appeared in the Fatal Fury animated adaptations as well as the CGI series The King of Fighters: Destiny. The character has been popular within both the SNK staff who decided to feature him as a spectre in games following his death as well as Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada who believed the character would fit in Tekken 7.
Video game journalists have given Geese popular response due to how overpowered Geese acts in his boss appearances across most of his story. Geese's reveal as guest character in Tekken 7 was met with acclaim due to how well he fit within the series' cast.
Creation and development
Although Geese was not modeled after any famous person or fictional character, SNK based him on Italian mafia. Geese became famous for his special moves which allows him to interrupt the player's attacks and counterattack in a grab. Sub-boss Billy Kane obtained similar fame with both Geese and him having The Godfather-like influences that were expanded on later games. SNK was surprised by Geese's popularity in the Fatal Fury series, topping Terry Bogard in terms of fan response in regard to what players wanted as playable character. Real Bout Fatal Fury was originally created with the goal of putting an end to the series' story with Geese Howard's death in the ending, but Geese's high popularity resulted in Real Bout Special having him again.According to writer Akihiko Ureshino, Geese's life as a fighter originally began with him being thoroughly beaten by Wolfgang, who was younger than him. Geese is said to have a genius sense for fighting arts, but he is not just a genius. Geese had obtained everything and reached the top, but regardless of the outcome, he put up the best fight with Terry. Calling as an arrogant ruler Geese never have considered the possibility of losing to Terry. However, the moment he actually lost to Terry, he felt strangely satisfied. Ureshino believes Terry had no intention of killing Geese and getting revenge, and at most he just wanted to defeat Geese and make Jeff apologize after he died. Ureshino thinks Terry's feelings were expressed when he instinctively reached out his hand to Geese as he was falling off the building. However, Geese refused even that, and selfishly ended his life, abandoning the future of Billy and the connections he had built up. Ureshino said there are many people who don't want to see Geese as an emaciated old man with gray hair, but perhaps the person who least wants to see him is Geese himself.
Dominated Mind, the PlayStation version of Real Bout Special, features Geese sporting a halo over his head as a reference to his passing, while the arcade version of Real Bout Special and The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match features Geese sporting an aura of chi surrounding his feet, which would later be canonized in Maximum Impact 2 as "Nightmare Geese". If he was a completely bonus character who didn't interact with other characters, a living Geese instead of a Nightmare, but the Maximum Impact series has a grown-up Rock, and Billy is also participating this time, so the writer Akihiko Ureshino thinks they deliberately chose to have him appear in this form. For Urenshino, it was fun to think about the reactions of Rock, or Billy, who faced Geese's nightmare. Of course, players should also pay attention to how Terry and the other Garou characters, or Southtown characters like Alsowa and Ryo, react when they come face to face with the revived nightmare. In response to rumors that Geese was a hidden character in Garou, the Neo Geo staff denied it.
Geese was first added to franchise The King of Fighters in The King of Fighters '96. His inclusion highly awaited by developers and fans, as he was originally meant to appear in the previous game. Geese was partnered with two other SNK bosses, Mr. Big and Krauser. Even throughout the game, this boss team received special treatment. Leitmotif music were prepared for each member and at the time of this title's release, enthusiasm for this game reached a feverish pitch. Numerous special moves were prepared for Geese, but in view of the memory capacity and time required for adjustments, a number of moves had to be left out. The character was meant to return in The King of Fighters XII and The King of Fighters XIII but the developers did not have the time to add him. Due to the importance of Geese's character to SNK, the company decided to include quickly in The King of Fighters XIV. This gave the team pressure in regards to adding his son Rock Howard as the character came from a game where Geese had been dead for a decade.
Design
In the making of Fatal Fury: The King of Fighters, SNK had multiple doubts how his design should be until it was decided he would wear a gi based on martial arts, as well as his overall name, likeness, and appearance being references to the three boss characters Black Gallop, Geese, and King from SNK's previous Neo Geo game The Super Spy. Despite being American, SNK wanted him to be a man inspired by Japanese culture resulting in his final look. The appearance of Geese in Art of Fighting 2 was of a younger man with long blond hair wearing a light purple and blue suit with red necktie. The character's popularity in Fatal Fury and his younger look from the first original video animation influenced his appearance in Art of Fighting 2 as a hidden boss.In the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters, Geese appears as a middle-aged German American man with blond short, slicked hair, wearing a gi with red hakama and white uwagi without sandals. In most games of the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series - except Fatal Fury: King of Fighters and The King of Fighters '96 - Geese only wears the red hakama pants with the white uwagi either not present or hanging off the back/sides. The development team behind The King of Fighters XIV found his design as one of the most challenging ones to make alongside Terry Bogard's. In the end, he kept his original look but topless. For his "Nightmare Geese", an alternate look was given to the character, making Geese look like a zombie with silver hair, rotten skin and purple flames.
Katsuhiro Harada said that if he could add a guest character into Tekken 7 it would be Geese, praising the characters as he would fit into the cast. He added that both he and an interviewer liked the character which led to the idea of casting him into Tekken 7. While remaining true to Geese's character, Harada stated his movements and design were completely remade so that fans from other series will try to play Tekken 7 and learn its different mechanics. The King of Fighters XIV producer Yasuyuki Oda was pleased with Geese's inclusion in Tekken 7 and celebrated it by taking a picture with Harada. For The King of Fighters XV, Tomohiro Nakata designed Geese with his business suit but with an emphasis on the black color, believing it fits his evil personality and reinforces his connection with the Howard Connection. Nakata also claimed that Geese's classic gi was still available to select, finding his hakama iconic.
Appearances
In video games
Geese first appears as the final boss of Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. Backstory material reveals that he and fellow martial artist Jeff Bogard trained together under Tung Fu Rue, but he became jealous when Tung chose Jeff as his successor, leading him to murder Jeff in front of his adopted sons Terry and Andy. The central plot of the game centers around the Bogard brothers returning ten years later to avenge their father by defeating Geese in his "King of Fighters" tournament. After the player defeats Geese, he falls from the top of the building, being declared dead during the game's ending. While Geese does not appear in Fatal Fury 2, the plot revolves around his half brother Wolfgang Krauser seeking out the Bogard brothers to test himself against Geese's killers. Geese returns in the revised version of the game, Fatal Fury Special, where it is revealed that he survived his fall at the end of the first game. Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory centers around Geese's attempt to return to power by collecting the "Sacred Scrolls of Jin", which is said to give their holder great power.In the next game, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Geese is once again the final boss in the single-player tournament, confronting the player atop Geese Tower. In either, Terry's or Andy's ending, Geese falls off his tower once again, refusing to accept help from either of the Bogard brothers, leaving Terry to later raise Geese's young son, Rock Howard. Although this game was developed with the intention of featuring the character's death, Geese's popularity resulted in him still appearing in the next titles. Geese appears in the subsequent game which does not feature a plot, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, as a hidden final boss named Nightmare Geese. He also appears as a regular character in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, as well as Wild Ambition, a remake of the first Fatal Fury game. In Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Nightmare Geese initially appeared as non-playable boss character before being made playable via downloadable content. The story reveals that before his death, Geese ordered the Sacred Scrolls destroyed due to being descended from the Jin family through the Stroheims, hoping to prevent himself and Rock from inheriting the scrolls' curse, and willingly distanced himself from his wife and son to protect them from his enemies.
Geese also makes an appearance in the second game in the Art of Fighting series. Art of Fighting 2, which is set a decade before the first Fatal Fury, features a younger Geese Howard as the corrupt police commissioner of Southtown. Geese is revealed to be Mr. Big's boss and the mastermind behind the events of the previous game such as the kidnapping of Yuri Sakazaki. If the player wins every match against all the previous computer-controlled opponents without losing a round, the player's character will face Geese Howard as a hidden final boss. In the non-canon crossover video games NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and the SNK vs. Capcom series, Geese appears as a playable character; in the latter he commonly appears as a boss character.
Geese also appears in a few games in The King of Fighters series, which does not follow the continuity established by the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting games, despite sharing many characters and plot elements. In The King of Fighters '96, Geese serves as the leader of the "Boss Team" along with former subordinate Mr. Big and rival Wolfgang Krauser, seeking to find the Orochi power. Geese would appear again in a non-playable role as the sponsor of the "Special Team" in The King of Fighters '97, which is composed of Billy Kane, Blue Mary, and Ryuji Yamazaki. The team would reappear in The King of Fighters 2003 renamed "Outlaw Team", with Mary replaced by Gato from Mark of the Wolves. Geese also appears in The King of Fighters 2000 as a striker, in the Xbox version of The King of Fighters 2002 and The King of Fighters XI as a selectable character, as well as in The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match, which brings back the Boss Team from '96. He is also a playable character in The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, alongside his "Nightmare" variant. The younger version of Geese from Art of Fighting 2 also appears as a boss in The King of Fighters Neowave. He also returned in The King of Fighters XIV as a playable character alongside Billy and his butler, Hein. In the ending, Geese reveals he has not unlocked the secrets of the Jin scrolls yet but these scrolls predicted the events of the tournament.
Outside the main The King of Fighters game, he has been present in the spin-offs. In The King of Fighters Kyo he appears in South Town where he antagonizes the Bogard brothers as well as the protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi. In The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood Geese organizes a new tournament in order to obtain the power from the participant Iori Yagami. After Iori is defeated, Geese will act as a boss character. In KOF: Maximum Impact 2 and Regulation A, Geese is playable under the name of Nightmare Geese. His normal persona appears in the mobile phone game The King of Fighters All Star as well as 98 Ultimate Match Online. His Art of Fighting persona is also available in Kimi wa Hero.
Geese appears as a playable guest fighter in Tekken 7 as downloadable character. He also appeared in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a background character in the King of Fighters Stadium stage and a spirit.