Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle

I think this is the best of the three Fatal Fury movies, although the third one clearly had the biggest budget and effort expenditure by far.

In terms of the music, you get more of the same but better. Teiou Yabou, Krauser's theme song here, is absolutely magnificent, as is the orchestral piece played during the train scene. "Keep on Calling", while emotionally starkly different from "Fly Away", is an excellent high-energy rock song that's undeniably catchy, if not as memorable.

The plot is, again, melancholic martial arts tripe, but it's not done badly. Terry Bogard loses his confidence and has to regain it throughout the length of the film in order to have a rematch with the murderous Krauser.

Krauser is a compelling villain in his own right. A fabulously rich nobleman from Europe, he enjoys fighting to the death simply because he was raised into it and because he was bored. He also shows the scars of being raised in a cold and brutal family environment while still yearning for that proximity to others. A surprisingly complex character.

Terry is also rounded out a bit more. His ending message is also not entirely hypocritical as it usually is in these movies. You don't get the impression that fighting accomplishes much in these movies. It usually leaves even protagonists hurt and is more about maintaining some sort of status quo or testing one's own abilities rather than about gaining glory or defeating some evil threat. It almost does feel as if Terry would rather not do it if he had a choice.

Once again, you get all the cameos you would want but, unlike the first movie, all of the moves are represented more faithfully to the game.

Short and simple, but a good time with good music.

Honourable Mentions: Kavinsky Night Call Album Art. There's a scene where Krauswer gets red eyes in the darkness. It looks very much like the artwork from this single. I wonder if it was inspired by it.