Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Introduction

Released in 1999, Garou: Mark of the Wolves is the most recent game in SNK's Fatal Fury series. Considered by many to be SNK's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter 3 series, not entirely because of the game's sudden dramatic change in roster (Only Terry Bogard was carried through from previous titles). Ports of Garou are available for the Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 2, XBOX 360 as well as the Neo-geo AES home console and MVS arcade hardware.

The overall feel of Garou is far more in line with Capcom's fighters than any of SNK's other fighting games. The game is frequently recommended to Capcom fans looking for an SNK game to try. If you've had difficulty adjusting to the King of Fighters series, Garou may be much more to your liking.

Game Versions

There exist several versions of the game:

• Arcade Neogeo MVS
• Neo-Geo AES Home Console
• Playstation 2
• Xbox 360 - Xbox Live Arcade
• Dreamcast (Titled Fatal Fury: MOTW in the US)

Version Differences

• Most Neo-Geo emulators support a Prototype version of Garou:MOTW that should be avoided at all costs. This version has many bugs and changes from the released versions that make unsuitable for real play.
• The Neo-Geo AES (home console) and Neo-Geo MVS (arcade) versions are considered the only pure versions, and they are identical. Support for Garou is available on all worthwhile Neo-Geo emulators.
• The Japanese Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 versions are the best home console versions. The controls are very tight and the game play is perfect. On the PS2 version during play the words 'Guard Cancel' do not flash on the screen like the other versions do. On the 360 version it fixes that problem. The training mode for PS2/360 are superior to all other versions, they allow for recording and playback of the training dummy's actions. So for practicing setups and other single player training, the PS2/360 versions are the best, even better than the pure Neo-Geo versions. Another thing to take notice is that both the PS2 and 360 versions run at a faster framerate than the original arcade MVS/AES versions. Only takes a bit to adjust to the speed difference and shouldn't cause any problems when running tournaments. The online play over Xbox Live is better than previous SNK releases, but is still bad nonetheless. GGPO/Supercade/Arclive are your better options for online play. The PS2 version also contains the arranged soundtrack, while the 360 version does not (as it is based directly on the original Arcade version).
• The Dreamcast version is the worst of all possible versions. It offers nothing over the Neo-Geo versions other than the unlockable image gallery and the arranged soundtrack mode. Inputs are delayed, Terry's stage lags the game and some versions show problems with sound effects delaying as much as 2 seconds from when they should play. Some of Terry's voice samples are also not the ones from the game, but from as early as Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. If possible, select the original soundtrack option instead of the arranged soundtrack, and play on the original GD-ROM to lessen these effects. Even with these adjustments, this is the worst option for play; even playing on an emulator will be more satisfying.

Notation

Joystick Notation

• - Forward - Tilt stick forward/towards the opponent.
• - Backward/Back - Tilt stick backward/away from the opponent.
• - Up - Tilt stick upwards.
• - Down - Tilt stick downwards.
• - Quarter circle forward/Hadouken/Fireball - Tilt stick d, df, f.
• - Quarter circle backward - Tilt stick d, db, b.
• - Half circle forward - Tilt stick b, db, d, df, f.
• - Half circle backward - Tilt stick f, df, d, db, b.
• - Dragon punch - Tilt stick f, d, df.
• - Reverse Dragon Punch Motion - Tilt stick b, d, db.
• - 360 - Complete a 360 (1 full circle) rotation of the stick.
• , -720 - Complete a 720 (2 full circles) rotation of the stick.
• SJ - Super Jump
• TK - Tiger Knee
• JD - Just Defend
• FC - Feint Cancel
• GC - Guard Cancel

Button Notation

• - LP - Light Punch
• - LK - Light Kick
• - HP - Hard Punch
• - HK - Hard Kick

Game Mechanics

Throws

Press either / + / up close (Gato and Tizoc/The Griffon are the only two with ) throws) or in the air with (Jenet, Hoku, Hotaru and Dong only have air throws in the game with jump ). You can tech out of throws by pressing the / button. You can air grab when you small jump, regular jump or even super jump as well. You cannot tech out of command grabs or air grabs. There is also a bug in MOTW that allows you to escape any ground normal/command throw. Whenever you input a TOP attack/Super during the recovery of one of your specials/supers, you won't be able to get thrown. It's a strange bug but it works pretty easy. This video shows it in application: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gRoJcRI-Jc&p=6B41D61AD830D624

Short/Small Jump

Tap //. Your character jumps about half the amount of a normal jump which can help you when you want to throw an opponent off. Since small jumps tend to be a bit more difficult to counter from the amount of jump height. Use small jumps to throw off opponents that think you'll attack low as you jump in, to land a overhead attack opening. Also remember that you cannot JD when you small jump so make sure you use it wisely.

Normal Jump

Press and hold //. You can't air block in Garou MOTW but you can JD while you are in a normal jump state. You simply press // just as you are about to get hit so you can JD their attack.

Super Jump (SJ)

Tap d then quickly tap // (Only for Dong and Jenet). Cannot JD during SJ animation.

Dash/Run

Tap , .

Here is a list of character that run:
Rock, Hoku, Dong, Terry, Gato and Hotaru.

These characters that dash:
Grant, Kain, Jae, Freeman, Kevin, Jenet, Butt/Marco and Tizoc/The Griffon.

Characters that dash usually have better mixup options since dashes are faster than runs. So for feint cancels or breaks this can be helpful for a lot of situations where your opponent is cornered.

Back dash

Tap , . Everyone can back dash in Garou. It has invincibility during the back dash so you can go through normal, special or super attacks. It does have a small period of recovery at the end of it. So use it wisely and don't do it at the wrong times cause you might get hit as you finish the back dash animation. Certain characters can cancel out of their backdash animations as well. Here is a list of which characters can cancel their backdashes:

• Jenet - During the backdash animation cancel into + (Might need to double tap down at times for it to come out more consistant)
• Hoku - During backdash animation cancel into either + or +
• Kain - During backdash you can cancel into his charge , + , TOP attack (+), all supers. His backdash cancels require real fast strict timing. As soon as you backdash with him you have to cancel within two frames of the backdash start up animation.

T.O.P. Mode

Tactical Offense Position: When selecting your character, you can designate a 1/3 portion of your life bar for T.O.P. When your character's health is within this portion you will notice that your character will begin flashing. The following benefits become available to you once you are in T.O.P.:

• Enhanced damage to all of your attacks
• Faster meter build up
• Slow regeneration of your health bar (however, it doesn't regenerate past the T.O.P section)
• T.O.P. special move becomes available

T.O.P. sizes other than 1/3 of a life bar are available in home console versions of Garou and are usually ignored in competitive play. The shorter the T.O.P. is, the more damage can be dealt (max. of 1.75x), conversely the longer your T.O.P. is, the less damage can be dealt (Min. of 1.25x = standard arcade setting).

T.O.P. Attack

+ while in T.O.P. mode only.

All characters in Garou have an extra move that becomes available to them only when they are in T.O.P. (the orange region of the health bar). T.O.P. moves tend to do a decent amount of damage and almost always deal substantial guard crush damage.

Super Meter

The super meter can hold up to 2 stocks. Meter can be filled by doing one of the following: attacking the opponent with anything, whiffing a special move, throwing an opponent, Just Defending an attack, or getting hit by the opponent. Whiffing normal and command attacks will not build any meter. In some cases, a super move connecting on an opponent will also give you a little meter.

Super Moves

S Power Supers - Level 1 Supers (, + /) - Available with 1 Super Stock
P Power Supers - Level 2 Supers (, + /) - Available with 2 Super Stocks
Hidden Supers - Level 2 Only Super - Available with 2 Super Stock, only 5 characters have them:

• Rock Howard - , +
• Kim Dong Hwan - , , +
• Khushnood Butt - , , +
• B. Jenet - Press , and quickly as you are JDing.
• Gato - , + , , + , , + . You have to keep doing it like a reka type special to land it fully.

Feints

Feints are partial attack animations that can be done in either of 2 ways:

• + +
  
• + +
  

Feints show the first few frames of animation and sound of a special or super attack, but do not follow through with the actual attack. While they can be used for mindgames to make your opponent think you're going to go for a special move, they truly show their power when used in combos, since you can cancel out of certain normal attacks with feints. This is called a feint cancel (FC). Since the feints are very short and can be cancelled by anything, this will often allow you to recover from a move faster, and even give opportunites for linking more normals than would otherwise be possible. For example with Terry you can do stand , then hit + + (since the + + feint cancels the stand from its recovery animation and also moves Terry foward as well), stand again, + + , etc.

Feint Cancel (FC)

+ + or + + after a standing/crouch , , and normal hits. Everyone except Grant can feint cancel, though not all normals can be feint cancelled. Some character can feint cancel all their normals while others can only feint cancel some. It usually depends also on how far or close you are to your opponent. Feint cancels are very helpful since they allow you to cancel out of normals that usually have long recovery time. Such as standing fierce attacks, since they usually have a lot of recovery time behind them. Also with feint cancels you can do combos that you can't do normally at times. For example, with Terry, do stand , then + + for his feint move, then cancel to another stand or + , + + feint cancel, etc. Experiment with each character what can or can't be feint cancelled on hit. Also if certain normals that you do on hit don't feint cancel they usually can on block. It's kinda strange but can help out certain characters from their recovery times. Same goes for normals that are blocked which can also cancel into specials/supers as well.

Command Normals

Unlike King of Fighters, Command Normals cannot be canceled after a normal attack. However, they can be canceled into specials/supers in most cases. Some that can't be canceled can be linked into specials/supers.

Break Moves

Press +
Every character has one designated special move/super move that can be broken (only Tizoc and Kain have 2 different break specials moves and Hokutomaru can break his super move. At the appropriate point(s) in the special move, inputting the break command ( + ) will tend to allow the character to recover faster, making the move far safer if blocked, and allowing more extenstive combos (mostly juggles) if hit. Garou only lets you perform 1 break move during a combo, unless you land a counter hit which lets you do another free break cancel. Break moves are some of the easiest methods of hit-confirming a combo to super in the game. All characters can break on hit and a few can whiff their breaks to build meter.

Hit Break - a hit or grab is registered before the move is broken (Tizoc is an exception to this because his break moves will cause him to backstep, but he still only has one timing for each of these).
Whiff Break - no hit or grab is registered before the move is broken.

Character	Break Move	Command
Rock Howard	Evac Toss	+
Kim Dong Hwan	Kuusa-jin	+
Hotaru Futaba	Kobi-kyaku	+
Khushnood Butt	Kohou	+
Hokutomaru	Kuuha-dan Chou Hissatsu Shuriken	+ , +
Kevin Rian	Hell Trap	+
Freeman	Morbid Angel	+
Tizoc	Poseidon Wave Olympus Over	+ +
B. Jenet	The Hind	+
Gato	Rai-ga	+
Kim Jae Hoon	Hien-zan	ch. , +
Terry Bogard	Power Dunk	+
Kain R. Heinlein	Schwarze Lanze Schwarze Panzer	ch. , + ch. , +
Grant	Kyou Choujin	+

Just Defend (JD)

While Standing - tap .
While Crouching - tap .
While Jumping - tap //.

By defending an attack just before it connects, you can "just defend" it. JDs can be done in succession on multi-hit attacks or combos. JD windows are normally 7 frames wide, and give you the following benefits:

• Air Defense: There is no air blocking in Garou, but you can JD in the air. (Note: you can not JD during any short or super jump.)
• Gain Life: Regain a small amount of health for a successful JD, even against moves that would do chip damage when blocked (the more damaging the move, the more life gained).
• Shorter Block Stun: If an attack is JD'd, the block stun is reduced by 2 frames, allowing you to recover faster.
• Guard Cancel (GC): Completing a special move (including T.O.P. Moves) or supers during a JD will cause a GCL, immediately ending the block stun and going into the attack's animation. The motions of the command can be buffered before the JD occurs, or done entirely during the JD if you are fast enough.
• No Guard Meter Loss: JD'n a move will not bring you closer to a guard crush (GCH) like blocking will.

Guard Cancel (GC)

An essential counter attacking system in Garou (there are similar counter attacking systems in other fighting games, but without the added stipulation of JD). GCs can only be performed during JD frames (while you flash blue). During a JD, a counter attack of your choosing will cancel frames in the JD animation, allowing you to counter attack. Only 3 kinds of attacks will let you guard cancel into a JD animation:

• Special Moves
  
• Super Moves
  
• T.O.P. Attack
  

Guard Cancel Option Selects

GC Upon Reaction
For people with decent to insane reaction speed, this method of GC'ing offers the player the ability to hit check (that is, actually see the hit received during a JD and decide to GC). One of the easiest of commands to use for GC upon reaction is probably , simply because it is not that complex a motion and therefore does not take long to execute. However, the TOP attack ( + ) is the easiest as it takes a single frame, though you are limited to this move's usefulness. It can be rather difficult to GCL with set commands, but definitely not impossible with a few set buffering methods.

GC Upon Anticipation
By far the superior method of GC'ing. Just about all commands can be done ahead of time just before you JD since Garou lets you store motions before you input the final button for the move to come out. Goes for both special moves, charge moves and super moves as well. Upon JD'n all you need to do is hit the appropriate attack button to initiate a GC, therefor you can also hit check with this method as well. Qcb is a somewhat special instance of this method. Instead of doing the command and then tapping back one more time, just time the qcb to end at back at the momement of a JD and then hit the appropriate attack button to initiate a GC.

Evasion Moves

Low Dodge Attack - Press + (Any character). When you do a low dodge attack your character gains lower body invincibilty, so if an opponent tries to trip you it wont hit you. Though everyone's low dodge attacks are different in Garou some are more useful than others. Learn when to use them at the right times when playing against trip-happy opponents. The window for invincibility lasts until the low dodge attack animation ends. Some stay on the ground and some come off the ground as well. Also can be used as an overhead attack for some of the characters, since some of them come off the ground. So it's great for mind games in certain situations like in the corner. Gato and Rock are the only characters who dont come off the ground with their + move.

High Dodge Attack - Press + + (Any character). When you do a high dodge attack, your character gains upper body invincibility. A great tool to use as an anti-air attack since you gain the advantage against jump-in attacks but make sure you time it right. If not, you might end up trading hits if done too early or not doing the high dodge move at all. Again, learn to use it wisely in a match so you can gain the advantage and maybe even land a counter hit. Also with the high dodge attack you can feint cancel it when it hits the opponent as well. You cannot feint cancel the high dodge attack when they block it though.

High/Low Dodge Attack Cancel - Press + / + + then do a special move to cancel out of its starting animation. A lot like Kara Cancels in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike you can cancel certain high/low dodge attacks with every character. Some are more useful than others and some are easier to cancel out than other characters. Great tool to use when you want to throw off your opponent, especially in wake up situations.

Here is a list of characters that can cancel their + overheards while in the air:

• Tizoc - +
• Hotaru - +
• Jenet - +
• Grant - +
• Hokutomaru - + or +
• Rock - any of his specials/supers - Rock (His doesn't come off the ground but he uses it the most effectively. Mainly because it opens up so many options for him during wake up situations.)

Kara Cancels

Japanese term that means "empty cancel". In other words when you can cancel out of normal attack into a special move, before seeing the normal attack animation fully finish. Mainly used to gain some extra range on certain special/super attacks. Each normal attack for each character has different timings for the kara cancels. Use them again to throw off opponents in mind game situations.

Counter Hits

In Garou there are 2 different types of counter hits that are possible to occur in a match. Both can help you out in either landing a free super or getting extra hits for more damage.

The first kind of counter hit is an official counter hit, when you see "Counter Hit" appear on the screen in red letters. Depending on what attack you use is usually what causes a character to fly up/flip around on the ground from a counter hit. It can happen from either normal/special/super moves and they usually all give you an opening for another extra hit. It depends on how they hit the character on the ground/air. Air counter hits or a move that makes them go up from a counter hit lets you get a free extra juggle/hit from it. So if lets say Terry does his + / then breaks it and lands a counter hit. Then he can go ahead and do another + / into break again then use a special/TOP attack/super afterward. You gain an extra break everytime after a counter hit so use it as much as possible if you can. You can see that with this type of counter hit other combo possibilities are possible. Another thing with official counter hits is that if the opponent lands on their stomach. You can roll recover from a counter hit attack when you land on your back/stomach. But if the opponent doesn't roll recover from a counter hit then you can hit them while they are laying on the ground. Think of it like a OTG (off the ground) hit, though you only get one extra hit from it. Something to know in case you don't see them roll recover off the counter hit, so you can land an extra hit. I'll get more into these type of counter hit combos in the character threads as they progress. Then there's the ground counter hit that flips them around as they get a counter hit. With these type you can walk up and start a free combo, super them, etc. When they flip around they stay stun the whole time they are in that animation. So once you see that happen it's your chance to punish them during/right after it.

The second type of counter hit is the type that doesn't show on the screen but allows you to connect a special/super only after it. This type usually happens when you trade hits most of the time, when doing two specials/supers at the same moment. So if you ever see a situation where you both do a special but you recover faster while your opponent still falls. Then you can quickly follow it up a special or better yet a super before they land on the ground.

Guard Crush (GCH)

Blocking, but not JD'n, a move reduces a hidden guard meter for your character. When the guard meter is close to empty, your character will flash red, more strongly the closer you are to being guard crushed. When this meter empties, you are 'guard crushed', and your character reels back, completely vulnerable for a short time. Your guard meter instantly refills to full when this happen.

Guard Crush state lasts for 64 frames, but the 64th frame is invincible. Crush state lasts longer for both Dong (7f) and Marco/Butt (5f).

Guard Durability ranges from 50-60. Here is a list of guard durability for the characters:

Hokutomaru, Hotaru, Jenet - 50
Rock, Dong, Jae, Marco, Freeman, Gato, Terry - 55
Kain, Kevin, Tizoc, Grant - 60

Ground Recovery (Rolling)

Roll Recovery - When you land on the ground on your back/stomach press , , or . Depending on which button you press executes the direction you will roll towards. Use them to recover quicker than just the normal get up recovery. Helps you out by preventing possible crossups or jump in attacks from the opponent as you get up. Though be careful which ones you use as it's possible for an opponent to use the roll recovery to his advantage as well. Here is a list of what each button does, as you hit the ground press:

• - for a forward small roll recovery
• - for a backward small roll recovery
• - for a forward big roll recovery
• - for a backward big roll recovery

Motion Storing Technique

There's a technique in MOTW where you can store motions without having specials/supers triggering. For example with Freeman lets say you want to cancel his stand into his , + super. The problem with doing it normally is that Freeman has a + special which tends to overlap the super a lot of the time. It's possible to do it from a neutral stand but timing has to be fast. The best way would be to instead do qcf + + , then + . What happens instead is you still get the stand when you do + + . When you press any buttons with the game doesn't let you trigger any specials/supers. Instead the game stores the motion and has whatever you button you press with come out instead. So with Freeman + + will only give you stand and not a + special. You keep the motion stored so you can quickly just do another + and his + super will come out. Since you stored the extra qcf the game only needs you to do + for the super to activate. This also helps when doing more complex combos like trying to combo into , , + with Dong/Marco. You can also use it for simple combos if you are having problems trying to do even basic combos.

Neogeo MVS/Arcade Boss Codes

Here are the codes to pick Grant and Kain in the arcade MVS version of Garou MOTW, you can do them fast or slow but there is a timer:

-For Grant go to Dong, hold down start, tap x2, x2, , . Grant should appear if you did the code correctly, then just press , , or to pick his color.

-For Kain go to Jae, hold down start, tap x2, x2, , . Kain should appear if you did the code correctly, then just press , , or to pick his color.

Neogeo MVS/Arcade Survival Mode

In order to do survival mode in the MVS arcade version of the game you have to press and hold + + + before hitting start. It should take you directly into survival mode after you pick your character.

Tiers

Tier-list

This list has changed over the years due to new techniques and bugs discovered. The majority of the players do agree with this current list.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves Tier List

Tier	Character(s)
A	Kevin, B. Jenet, Gato, Kain, Grant
B	Dong Hwan, Jae Hoon
C	Butt, Hokutomaru, Hotaru, Terry
D	Tizoc, Rock, Freeman

Advanced Techniques

(This is still a WIP. Things will be explained a bit more clear with videos and so on. Majority of the credit goes to Yoshimizu)

0 (zero) frame unblockable supers

Here is a list of all the characters that have 0F unblockable supers:

http://www14.ocn.ne.jp/~yosimizu/mowp0frame.htm (It's in Japanese but it shows the supers you need to use)

This videos showcases setups, option selects and escape options:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsprZE755nc

I'll post the video details for each section of the video soon for those that can't make out what is happening.

Throw Reverse Guard Application

http://www14.ocn.ne.jp/~yosimizu/mowmekuri.htm (It's all in Japanese)

I'll be naking a video showcasing how to set this up and ways to counter it soon. I'll also break it down in English incase you can't translate the Japanese page correctly.

The Characters

Note: Names in () are for Japanese version

• Rock Howard
• Kim Dong Hwan
• Hotaru Futaba
• Khushnood Butt (Marco Rodriguez)
• Hokutomaru
• Kevin Rian
• Freeman
• Tizoc (The Griffon or Griffon Mask)
• B. Jenet
• Gato
• Kim Jae Hoon
• Terry Bogard
• Kain R. Heinlein
• Grant

Miscellaneous

Garou: Mark of the Wolves