Echo Pack Fighter - Rock Howard
Rock Howard is one of the main protagonists from SNK's Fatal Fury series, who first appeared in
Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, which was released for their Neo-Geo arcade system in March 27th, 1995, before making his playable debut in
Garou: Mark of the Wolves four years later. He is the biological son of Geese Howard, who be-friended his arch-enemy Terry Bogard, having hated his father since he refused to help his ill mother who later apparently deceased, and Terry taking care of him under his wing since having defeated Geese once and for all in
Real Bout Fatal Fury. Ten years later, Rock has grown to be a formidable fighter and joined the Maximum Mayhem tournament shortly after
Second Southtown was established to search for his purpose in life, while facing off the host and his uncle,
Kain R. Heinlein.
Lately, after like over twenty years since Garou's release, the last month in EVO 2022, SNK has finally announced a new mainline Fatal Fury installment, which is specifically said, the long-awaited sequel of Garou: Mark of the Wolves (considering it's cliff-hanger ending). And let me tell you guys,
everyone in the crowd were very excited about this,
even Maximilian Dood himself. This would make Rock feel kind of like a shill pick, besides his recent relevance as the leader of Team Garou alongside
Gato and
B. Jenet, the first DLC team released for The King of Fighters XV earlier this year.
I know that the last time this was suggested didn't go quite well, but listen out. While he was listed as Ryu's Echo Fighter with variable differences in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ken did have moves of his own (as noted in normals, throws and Final Smashes) while still sharing some of those from his long-time friend's since the original 1987 arcade game. In the Fatal Fury series, Terry has taught Rock fighting for years after his father's demise with some of their moves being actually a bit identical to each other's. His in-universe nickname was "The Wolf's Pedigree", after all. Besides his own animations such as taunts and victory poses, some adjusted statistics (like how Ken is faster than Ryu) and maybe even
a potential victory theme:
- Like how Ken has Hell Wheel as his Back Throw, Rock's Down Throw will be Shinkuu Nage which involves him tossing the opponent high into the air. If the player holds a special button during this, Rock will follow up with Rasetsu, where he then blasts them away with a blue fiery blast from his hand.
- Power Wave = Reppuken (holding the button allows Rock to perform Double Reppuken as a "strong" variant, with the aerial version being used as a close-ranged burst similarly to it)
- Burning Knuckle = Hard Edge
- Rock's Back Special will be Rage Run, which involves him running forward and phasing through opponents with Type Shift. Pressing the special button again will make Rock perform a Power Dunk-like attack as he hops while dashing with Type Dunk.
- Alternatively, Rock will instead use his T.O.P. skill from Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Overhead Kick, which has him performing an aerial back-flip kick that hits overhead. Pretty much closer to Crack Shoot, and was seemingly the inspiration behind Terry's Up Air in Ultimate.
- Rock definitely keeps the Rising Tackle, working exactly the same as Terry's.
- Power Dunk is replaced with Crack Counter, which involves Rock performing a Crack Shoot-like overhead axe kick when an opponent's attack connects against him.
- Otherwise, if we do keep Rage Run, it would be like swapping Crack Shoot and Power Dunk's original special inputs (
being honest, before Sakurai's presentation stream, I always thought Crack Shoot would be Terry's Down Special).
- Raging Storm is pretty much like Power Geyser, except that it is more vertical rather than being diagonal. Shine Knuckle is almost identical to Terry's Buster Wolf, except that instead of a second blow/punch, Rock will do an elbow attack and follow up with a powerful Rising Tackle.
- Rock's Final Smash, NEO Deadly Rave, replaces Triple Geyser with him starting by lunging forward. If he hits a single opponent, Rock will spread out a pair of blue wings made of ki and perform a powerful combo before finishing off with an explosive blow of blue energy.
These two things below, a YouTube video explaining how Rock would work as a Echo Fighter for Terry and my friend
Infinity Sorcerer
's moveset from a Bonus DLC creation thread, can be seen as examples here:
