Not only is Mark of the Wolves one of the best Fatal Fury games ever, it's one of the finest 2D fighters ever...period.
Graphics: I have heard one too many fanboys rant and rave about how 2D graphics look "old," that they're not impressive, and that if you've played Street Fighter II, you've seen everything the genre has to offer. Not so newbies. Anyone with any experience can take one look at games like Mark of the Wolves and see all the little details that would have been lost on older home consoles, the smooth character animation, super move animations and the live, but what really makes Mark of the Wolves special is that it is, in effect, a Dreamcast port of a 16-bit game. Enter the Neo Geo, MotW's hardware of origin, basically a 16-bit machine held together by the tried and true Motorola 68000 (the same processor in the Sega Genesis). This is more or less a straight port of that Neo Geo title too, you won't see the 3D backgrounds thrown into the Dreamcast King of Fighters games that look oddly out-of-place, but SNK's animated, hand-drawn backgrounds. Thanks to the Neo's RAM, there was plenty of room for all those frames of animation, and it looks as if every single frame has made it to Dreamcast. In this day of 30,000,000 polygons/sec 3D accelerators and the like, it's a small wonder that a game like Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves even exists, particularly when it was originally on 10 year-old hardware (still making games for it too - KOF 2002). As it stands, Mark of the Wolves is easily one of the best animated 2D fighters in recent memory, joining the likes of Street Fighter 3, Guilty Gear X and Art of Fighting 3.
Sound: Sound isn't reall MotW's strong suit, but it's largely passable. Voices are decent, as are all the grunts and groans you'll hear when opening up that can of whoop arse (or vice versa), and the music is surprisingly good, though it won't really be to everyone's liking (hmmm...jazz). All-in-all, the sound package is a solid affair, if an altogether unremarkable one.
Gameplay: Mark of the Wolves does everything its predecessors did, and then some. While SNK did do away with a couple of the staple Fatal Fury features, such as the 3-button attack setup and multi-plane fighting, the fighting experience is a much more refined and graceful affair than in many 2D fighters of late. The 'new' 4 button attack scheme works well in MotW, just as it has in the King of Fighters series for years, and that's partly why the title is so successful. The 4 button scheme works wonderfully on the Dreamcast (hmmm...wonder if that's why Capcom used it in MvC2?), and the control is spot on. Special moves are accomplished by the usual quarter-circles and button combos, and there really aren't many difficult moves to throw you off. SNK's fighters have always been about finesse, not huge 50-hit combos, and as such, the moves are easy to do and the control is spot on, which really helps when playing against another person. All-too-often in 2D fighters you'll have a player who is used to a setup against one who isn't, and usually, the one who isn't resorts to cheap tactics (tappa-tappa, nothing but hadokens, you know the drill) which usually puts a damper on having the fun you should, and can result in some real street fighting, if you know what I mean. In MotW, even the most clueless of participants can be pulling off moves within minutes, which means the best man really does win. In the spirit of the Wolves, that's a good thing...
Theme: I'm a bit biased here, so if this number seems a bit high to you, well, I have no problems with that. The fact is that I love SNK fighting games, I always have, and I always will. While I do like Capcom's efforts, they just don't have the soul and fervor found in many of SNK's particularly those of late, such as The Last Blade 2, King of Fighters: Evolution and of course, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves. With MotW you see this very clearly. When Capcom tried doing a similar thing with Street Fighter III, bringing only Ken & Ryu back, along with a new cast, it just felt flat. Sure, the game played well enough, and is probably one of the most extensively-animated 2D games to date, but the new characters were off and the gameplay additions were only mildly interesting at best. Not so with Mark of the Wolves, as the character design is up to snuff, with only one I'd rather not see in the sequel (no more wrestlers...Raiden was enough). The story, what little there is, actually makes some sense with some of the characters, while the endings are your usual, minimally animated, but well done cinemas. Even if none of this were the case, you HAVE to love a game that has a character named Khushnood Butt.
Overall: As you've no doubt gathered, I really like this game. There are games that you really want to like, but can't because they often end up falling short. In this case, MotW is good enough to stand on its own merits, and ranks among the best in its genre over the past couple of years. Whenever you recreate something in a new mold, you take the risk of alienating your fan base, and when that fan base spans 7 previous games, it's that much more intense. SNK pulled it off brialliantly, with a game that could well stand on its own, but also continues the long-running Fatal Fury series with style, and in a whole new direction. Of course, SNK has managed to be a shining light for a great many years, a company that really went to the beat of its own drum, despite the rest of the industry. It's sad to see them go, but hopefully, this is only a temporary condition, as it seems we'll see more games in the future bearing the names King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Last Blade, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, etc. Good thing too, because this game literally screams for a sequel...or is that just me?
Final Grade: 90%