From: shawnh@csn.net (Shawn Holmes) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Subject: Neo*Geo BOSS FAQ v3.2 [1/1] Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 19:27:47 GMT Neo*Geo Boss FAQ Ver 3.2 (01/22/96) Compiled and written by Shawn Holmes (based on an original idea by Shawn Holmes) I wrote this 'cause I was bored. Alright? Is THAT a good enough reason for ya?!? ;] Special thanks are extended to: Johhny Larkspur --> jmanning@titan.oit.umass.edu AMAKUSA BACKGROUND HISTORY Matt Hall --> lordBBH@aol.com ADDITIONAL INFO (Agressors, FF3, Double Dragon) Marcus Lauer --> melauer@uclink2.berkeley.edu CHRONOLOGY EDITING Joe Palanca --> jgpalanca@csupomona.edu GALAXY FIGHT/KABUKI KLASH/GOWCAISER INFO ??? --> shimkevi@world.std.com GALAXY FIGHT/ZANKURO'S PAST INFO Shungo --> pbamba@emerald.tufts.edu SAVAGE REIGN INFO Presented here are all the bosses for all the fighting games that ever appeared on the Neo Geo video game system. Here you can find out more information on them, cross-referenced and fully listed for your ease of use. Have fun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- In alphabetical order: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- BARNSHUTAIN, RUGAL Age: Don't know. First Appearance: THE KING OF FIGHTERS '94 Also appeared in: The King of Fighers '95 Story: Every year, a special fighting tournament is held for the best fighters around. But, the rules change to allow teams of three to enter, and the winners...must face the host. The host? Rugal himself, a tall sonofabitch that really wails like no other boss has wailed before. Rugal has got to be one of the singularily TOUGH bosses ever created in a fighting game. He maintains all the attacks of all the characters in the game, and literally lets them all fly when you fight. Three against one just doesn't seem like fair odds...for us... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIG, MR. Age: No idea. First Appearance: ART OF FIGHTING (as 1st boss of 2) Also appeared in: Art of Fighting 2 (as final boss) Story: Mr. Big was just an ugly bald guy working for Geese Howard, and had to keep everbody in line. I like knocking his sunglasses off, it's funny. And like anybody could really be a contender with a pair of fighting sticks. Yeah, right. He was easy to beat in 1. He was easy to beat in 2. 'nuff said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CRAIS, FELDEN Age: Unknown First Appearance: GALAXY FIGHT Also appeared in: N/A Story: A number of legends exist throughout the planets of our galaxy that say the Divine Being appears once every millenia. The millenia is upon us now, and many have converged on the Denius system to greet the Divine Being. Without this God of legend, all is dark and empty. His name is Felden Crais and he know only one way of doing things. He is neutral; neither benevolent nor malvolent, but his power is omnipotent. No mortal being is more powerful than he. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIO (NEODIO) Age: Unknown -- an alien being First Appearance as final boss: WORLD HEROES 2 Also appeared in: World Heroes Perfect (as NEODIO) Story: Still suffering from the same lack of a serious storyline that plagued World Heroes, Dio was cast as the final boss of WH2. Made of the same silverish "morphing" material that Geegus was made of, Dio promised to be much more devilish and evil. Instead of morphing into the other heroes, Dio took the shape of bladed weapons, moved like flashes of lightning, and proved to be one of SNK's toughest (and cheapest) bosses of all time. If you think you're good at fighting games, give Dio a try. He'll humble you VERY quickly... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEEGUS (NEOGEEGUS) Age: Unknown -- an alien being First Appearance as final boss: WORLD HEROES Also appeared in: World Hereoes 2 (as NEOGEEGUS) Story: Not much to tell...World Heroes suffered from an interestingly POOR story line, but a scientist who created a time machine, to allow the greatest fighters of all time to come together, ended up finding a spaceship from outer space that was interested in competing against the human champion. Geegus was SNK's rip-off of the T-1000, (or Midway's Shang Tsung, whichever way you want to look at it) a morphable enemy made of an silverish alien material. Geegus morphed into multiple characters while being fought, but proved to be no match for the amazing power of the World's Heroes (insert Pomp and Circumstance here...) and he fell. He resurfaced as the 1st (of 2) bosses in World Heroes 2, calling himself NEOGEEGUS, and still morphing as before. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOWARD, GEESE Age: Unknown...(died several times, and reincarnated) First Appearance as final boss: FATAL FURY Also appeared in: Fatal Fury Special, Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury 3, The King of Fighters '95, Fatal Fury Real Bout Story: The main characters of Fatal Fury are, of course, the Bogard brothers, Terry and Andy, along with their friend Joe Higashi. The story goes that Terry and Andy's father, Jeff Bogard, was a great fighter who eventually went up against Geese Howard. Jeff knew of Geese's control over Southtown, and felt as the mob boss, Geese had to pay the ultimate price. Unfortunately, his plans were not agreeable to Geese, and the ruler of Southtown had Jeff killed before the fight even took place. Terry and Andy are in the race to bring justice and revenge to Geese for his murdering fashion. Geese was kicked out of the top floor of his skyrise in the end of Fatal Fury, apparently sealing his doom...but he resurfaced in Fatal Fury Special, and made numerous appearances since then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- JIN CHON REI Age: Haven't a clue. First appearance: FATAL FURY 3 Also appeared in: Fatal Fury Real Bout Story: Fatal Fury 3 revolves around some secret scrolls, and near the end of the game, the scrolls are found at Delta Park in the hands of Jin Chon Shu. If the player has done well enough, then after beating Jin Chon Shu, a fight against his brother, Jin Chon Rei, will occur. He's the real boss of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- KARATE, MR. (TAKUMA SAKAZAKI) Age: Late 40's (He's Ryo's dad...) First Appearance: ART OF FIGHTING Also appeared in: Art of fighting 2, The King of Fighters '94, The King of Fighters '95 Story: Now this is where things get interesting. Apparently, Yuri Sakazaki, Sister to Ryo, and friend to Robert Garcia, was kidnapped by an underground toughie. Ryo and Robert race to the rescue, only to confront a masked creature, who fights surprisingly like Ryo and Robert. Named Mr. Karate, Ryo and Robert easily defeat him, but before they can deliver the final blow, Yuri cries "Wait, stop! That man is our...our..." YES! Mr. Karate turns out to be noneother than Takuma, Ryo and Yuri's father, and trainer to all of them. Now, TRUE enthusiasts of the game will note that the story unfolds as Mr. Karate having to kidnap his own daughter because his boss wants Ryo and Robert to take a big fall. The deal is: Ryo and Robert happen to be close friends to a certain gentleman named Jeff who wants to see Southtown become free from crime. But Geese, before anyone knew about it, had Mr. Karate knock Jeff off so that he wouldn't cause any intereference. Thus comes the beautifully interwoven story line of Fatal Fury. Mr. Karate dropped his mask at the end of AoF, and became a good guy (and playable) as Takuma Sakazaki in Art of Fighting 2, and later in other games as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- KARNOV Age: Unknown First Appearance as final boss: KARNOV'S REVENGE Also appeared in: Fighter's History (Data East), Karnov (Data East) Story: An amusing twist on an old game. Data East, a third party developer for the Neo Geo, pulled an old character out of the history books of gaming, and tossed his chubby, grinning, fire breathing face into Fighter's History Dynamite (Karnov's Revenge). There is little background info on him, but be sure to check out Karnov, if you really want to get to know the guy (I think they made it for the NES)... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- KRAUSER, WOLFGANG Age: Old, the guy's got a beard, eh! First Appearance as final boss: FATAL FURY 2 Also appeared in: Fatal Fury Special Story: Apparently, Geese had a boss (the anime kind of offers hints about this) Actually, the anime suggests Wolfgang Krauser is the half brother of Geese Howard (somehow, don't ask me) He is over seven feet tall and fought a magnificent fight in a huge dining hall in his castle (even spoke to you as the fight began!) But, Wolfgang had to take the big fall as do all bad guys. He became playable in Fatal Fury Special. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LUCIFELLER Age: Unknown First Appearance: KABUKI CLASH Also appeared in: N/A Story: Current info tells me he sort-of looks like Pyron (DS) except he's green. He's the largest character sprite ever created (larger even than Sentinel or Juggernaut [X-Men]). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MINAZUKI, ZANKUROU Age: Old. First Appearance: SAMURAI SHODOWN 3 Also appeared in: N/A Story: A wandering traveler of huge proportions, Zankurou moved silently from village to village across ancient Japan, laying waste wherever he wanted. He killed all and left nothing...but for one small town, a small infant survived. Some say he could not bring himself to kill the child...but it grew into a young boy, and came after him. Zankurou is one big mother in SS3, but is hardly tough at all. He can be defeated as easily as attacking once, blocking, and allowing Zankurou to rush and strike. After blocking Zankurou's rush, the player can repeat over and over until death...although, there is an interesting FOURTH and INSTANT DEATH round against Zankurou, in which the player can finish the game, or lose it all. The good news is, the same pattern can be used. The rumour is...Zankurou is Shizumaru's father, gone insane from training too hard...a perfect alibi for the reason he spared his apparent son's life during the devestation... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- OHGA Age: Unknown. First Appearance: GOWCAISER Also appeared in: N/A Story: The year is 2017, and Tokyo government has moved to a manmade island because of a monster earthquake that devastated the entire Kanto region of Japan in 1999. A central computer controls all governmental funtions on the island. But for some reason, unspeakable acts of evil are becoming increasingly common on the island. This began when a new principal was assigned to the National Belnar Institute, a huge school in the middle of the island with over 105,400 students. Some people suspect that this was somehow related to the immeasureable evil spreading on the island. Ohga is pretty much human looking, with some funky looking armor (like everyone else in the game). He's the worst boss since Felden and Saisyu. He's got everything in an SNK boss and he cheeses like crazy. He's got an uppercut that juggles you for a maximum of 6 times, a massive fireball, and he can teleport anywhere on screen. By the way, if you hit the fireball, it just splits into 5 or 6 smaller fireballs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- RASHOUSHIN, MIZUKI Age: She won't tell. First Appearance: SAMURAI SHODOWN 2 Also appeared in: N/A Story: Samurai Shodown made its mark with a flashy boss, and 2 wouldn't have been complete without its respective counterpart. Mizuki, a beautiful woman dressed in ancient robes, and with a pet wolf at her side, was apparently possessed by "The Dark Guy", turning her into a fiery bitch from hell, and morphing her wolf into a demonic demon (if there isn't a more fitting and redundant description of that animal, I'll never know) She fought with incredible speed, much like Amakusa, and was quite tough to beat...until the weaknesses were found. After that, Mizuki proved no harder than the day's worth of Tempest players. She has not been seen since... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROUWE Age: Unknown First Appearance: GALAXY FIGHT (hidden boss) Also appeared in: N/A Story: Apparently, he is Felden's sensei. Bonus-kun is Rouwe's punching bag that got infused with his spirit after being pounded for untold years. Yakopu is Rouwe's pet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAKAZAKI, RYO Age: Unknown First Appearance (as boss): FATAL FURY SPECIAL (hidden boss) Also appeared in: Art of Fighting, Art of Fighting 2, The King of Fighters '94, The King of Fighters '95 Story: The Fatal Fury/Art of Fighting games always cross over, so the programmers at SNK thought it would be neat to have Ryo make a guest appearance at the end of Fatal Fury Special. If you beat everyone losing a continue, you can fight Ryo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHADOW Age: Unknown. First Appearance: FATAL FURY REAL BOUT??? Also appeared in: N/A Story: (currently based on rumour) Apparently, the story is that Wolfgang Krauser sent a high-class "assasin" out to kill Geese Howard...but while Shadow was en route to the Krauser castle, Terry Bogard offed the german swine, thus leaving the mysterious "Shadow" without a job. Now, he roams Southtown causing trouble...perhaps another challenge for the boys... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHIN SHISHIOH Age: Unknown. First Appearance: SAVAGE REIGN Also appeared: N/A Story: (background story unavailable) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHUKO Age: No idea. First Appearance: DOUBLE DRAGON Also appeared in: N/A Story: (background info unavailable) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOKISADA AMAKUSA, SHIRO Age: Late teens or early twenties First Appearance: SAMURAI SHODOWN Also appeared in: Samurai Shodown 3 Story: Funny thing is, Amakusa is (apparently) based on the real life character who was, in Japanese history, a revloting Christian type. His preachings and followers, could be compared to Jim Jones, or David Koresh. The facts are that the daimyo of the Shimbara region was a ruthless man who falsified surveys of his land to turn out 200% more crop than was possible, then taxed the peasants "only" 50% of that. Peasants who could not pay their taxes had their wives and daughters taken from them and tortured in the castle, one famous example being the Mino-Oderi dance, where they'd tie the girls hands behind their backs, then put them in straw raincoats and set them on fire. Anyway, the more likely legend of the beginning of the Shimbara revolution (which would have been the only even vaguely violent Christian protest in the history of Japan) is that the most prominent farmer of the region killed one of the daimyo's taxcollectors when he had the nerve to start "torturing" (you can imagine how) his daughter right in front of him. The oppressed- to-starvation peasants rallied around the farmer, and the rebellion spread from village to village, until finally 18 year old Amakusa was chosen to lead them. The Christianity aspect only entered into the picture after the rebellion began, both as a way to say "in your face" to the government, and as a means to keep the peasants' spirits up. Plus there was a prophecy: "When five years shall have passed five times, all the dead trees shall bloom; crimson clouds shall shine brightly in the western sky, and a boy of divine power shall make his appearance." This prophecy began only 20 years (instead of 25) before Shiro's appearance, but the clouds did in fact turn sort of pinkish (a weather anomaly due to drought, I think) and that was enough for the peasants. However, once the peasants started kicking some butt, the Shimbara daimyo called for help, but the Tokugawa shogunate wasn't told about the economic aspect, only that there were a bunch of religious fanatics rampaging through the region and seizing all the food, which of course really scared the hell out of the government. Here's an actual circular (which in fact was put out by the rebellion leadership) they were given as an example: "An angel was sent as messenger and the instructions he transmitted must therefore be passed on to all the villagers. The sixty-six provinces of Japan will all be Kirishitan (Christian), of that there is no doubt. Anyone who does doubt, the Lord Deus with His own feet will kick him down into inferno; make sure this point is understood. And the august personage named Lord Shiro who has these days appeared in Oyano of Amakusa is an angel of Heaven." --dated 1637. Anyway, the shogunate sent in an army of samurai which numbered as high as 100,000 at one point to put down the rebellion, and eventually forced the 37,000 peasant, 200 of which were ronin (Amakusa was the son of a Konishi ronin) and half of which were women and children, into a last stand at Hara Castle, where they were also bombarded by Dutch artillery from the sea. Amakusa-led forces killed as many as 20,000 of the troops with minimal casualties on their side, and even managed to kill the general in a desperate counter-attack attempt. The new general simply starved them out, however, and when the Samurai finally broke through, every man, woman, and child was slaughtered, Amakusa supposedly finally going down protecting the inner sanctum, where the women and children were hiding, although others say his body was never found. The only survivor was a painter who the rebels had imprisoned for communicating with the enemy. If you go to that region nowadays there's a small-time tourist trap there, where you can buy Amakusa figurines and large fantasy portraits of him summoning doves (rumored to be a sleight-of-hand trick he pick up from Portugese missionaires and perhaps the origin of his sorcerer reputation). The only real portrait of him (done by the double-crossing painter, no less), has him in full samurai armor, and not the mystic robes in the game. Anyway, in SS, Amakusa worked for some evil force, dubbed "The Dark Guy"...whoever that was. We never did find out. But dressed in flashy robes, and armed with a magical weapon, Amakusa was quite the boss to contend with. Especially after players discovered a laughable bug in the game that gave all players a perfect instant win on the first or second (of 3) rounds. I give him the vote as best exit (after being defeated), I liked the little animation that he goes through, turning white, and folding into a line, like the 2-dimensional sprite that he is (so there!). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZEUS Age: Unknown First Appearance as final boss: WORLD HEROES 2 JET Also appeared in: World Heroes Perfect Story: Back to the wonderfully intriguing World Heroes plotline. He's just a big tough guy with a suit of armour that thinks he's so cool, and he can kick all of your butt's, even after a morphing alien couldn't do the job. Well, he's wrong, so buh-bye. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Games, as they appeared, in Chronological Order: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fatal Fury - GEESE HOWARD World Heroes - GEEGUS World Heroes 2 - DIO Art of Fighting - MR. KARATE Karnov's Revenge - KARNOV Fight Fever - ??? World Heroes 2 Jet - ZEUS Fatal Fury 2 - WOLFGANG KRAUSER Fatal Fury Special - WOLFGANG KRAUSER, RYO SAKAZAKI Samurai Shodown - SHIRO TOKISADA AMAKUSA Art of Fighting 2 - MR. BIG Agressors of Dark Kombat - NO END BOSS The King of Fighters '94 - RUGAL Samurai Shodown 2 - MIZUKI RASHOUSHIN Fatal Fury 3 - JIN CHON REI World Heroes Perfect - NEODIO The King of Fighters '95 - RUGAL Double Dragon - SHUKO Kabuki Klash - LUCIFELLER Gowcaiser - OHGA Galaxy Fight -- FELDEN CRAIS, ROUWE Savage Reign -- SHIN SHISHIOH Samurai Shodown 3 - ZANKUROU MINAZUKI Fatal Fury Real Bout - SHADOW??? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- All preceeding material collected and presented by: Shawn Holmes --> shawnh@csn.net A major Neo fan (and owner) ..and has probably played and beaten 4/5ths of these games.. ..please send in the answers to those question marks!!.. ..and read the SS2 and SS3 TAPFAQs (cheap plug).. ..insert your NEOGEO memory card now.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------