Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition

Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition was a 3D polygonal fighting game that originally appeared on SNK's Hyper Neo*Geo 64 arcade hardware in early 1999 and was ported to the Sony PlayStation console later that year.

Though the game was rendered with 3D graphics, the gameplay was essentially an extension of the game mechanics of Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. Many of the Wild Ambition characters who also appeared in RB2 played very similarly, right down to their special attacks, chain combos, and the properties of their desperation moves.

The game's cast included several classic Fatal Fury characters such as Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Joe Higashi, Kim Kaphwan, Billy Kane, and Geese Howard, though it also featured new characters such as schoolgirl grappler Tsugumi Sendo and "judo demon" Toji Sakata (who had more than a passing resemblance to Fatal Fury 2 character Jubei Yamada). The game also marked the return of Fatal Fury 1 villain Raiden (who appeared, unmasked, as a playable character in Fatal Fury 2 as Big Bear).

Though the game did not have Fatal Fury's trademark "plane shift" gameplay that let players jump back and forth between a foreground and background plane, it did have pseudo-3D gameplay that let players perform a quick evasive roll in 3D space to dodge incoming attacks. This was the extent of the 3D engine on gameplay; otherwise, Wild Ambition played more or less exactly like a 2D fighting game.

Wild Ambition's implementation of the traditional Fatal Fury POW meter took the form of the HEAT meter, which would charge close to full as you performed various attacks, and, when full, would let you perform a desperation move (or, if your health bar was flashing red, a super desperation move). However, if you were overly defensive and blocked too many incoming attacks, your heat meter would actually deplete and you'd eventually enter "Overheat" (dizzy), leaving you vulnerable to attack. The game also had a standard guard-crushing attack for each character with a relatively slow startup animation that would instantly break through an opponent's guard if he/she were standing on the ground, and would juggle them if it connected against an opponent if he/she were jumping.