Garou Mow is a very good old-school SNK 2D fighter that I stumbled upon will surfing thru the back catalogue of Xbox Live Arcade one evening a few weeks ago. It was weird because instead of being under “fighting” games, it was under “classic.” You’d think it would be the other way around.

It feels like an SNK fighter; and I mean that in a good way. Other then Capcom, I’d say that they are the best at that particular genre or subgenre of gaming. Games like this Street Fighter Alpha3, KoF02, World Heroes, SFIII,…that specific type of game brings back fond memories. Going to your local arcade and plunking down quarter after quarter waiting for your turn at the kid who seems to be owning everyone that steps up. Here is some game play footage from GM with my favorite character in the game, Butts:

Things got interesting when the SNES and the Genesis brought SFII out for the first time on console. That game proved that you could do 2D fighting games on a console and have it be just as fun. The only thing that was somewhat awkward getting used to was that on the Genesi version you had to hit the start button to switch between punches and kicks. That controller only had three face buttons so in order to get all three: low, medium, high for punches and kicks they had to make a work around to do it. It worked, but I preferred the SNES version due to it being more tactically functional. The Snes simply had a better controller.

But I’m wondering if there is waning supporter for older, more obscure fighting games like this. I never see anyone online playing it. Hardly any of them do actually and I have several. Samurai Shodown II, KoF02, no ones ever playing those.

Part of it annoys me because those are experiences game play wise that you need to have. You have to test your skills on another player. There’s something about having a really good match with somebody, in particular when it comes to fighting games. Survival mode is only good for so long. Every now and then I can get my son to play with me; he’s much better at fighting games now. He used to have trouble linking combos before. He was just too young at the time to get the core mechanics down: quarter circle fwd or back, punch or kick. Add in a Dragon Uppercut and you essentially have the core of fighting games. That’s how I’ve always done it. Play it like SF and go from there. He seems to agree that it works.