Catalogue No. - T-3105G

After the piss poor Garou Densetsu 3 on the Saturn I wasn't expecting this to be any good but then again it couldn't be any worse than the laughable PlayStation conversion. So I stick my 1 MBIT RAM cartridge in to the Saturn and boot it up. My first fear was erased straight away. The animation is nice and smooth just like the Neo Geo version, which is a relief after Garou Densetsu 3. Character animation frames seem to be very close to the Neo Geo version too, which is a great sign. For those who've never played Garou Densetsu Real Bout you'll not know about the new controls that SNK introduced to the series. Gone are the light and hard punch and kick attacks and in come kick, punch and strong (which is actually strong punch) as well as a change area plain button that allows your character to jump in to and from the background. This all seems a little fiddly at first but you soon become accustom to it.

The game it's self is a bit long winded for my liking. You must battle 3 players in order after each other on the same background. This is just plane laziness on SNK's part I feel since they didn't have to design many different backgrounds. Still, at least they change colour between each round. The stages also include a Ring Out zone just like 3D fighters do. This can be particularly handy when you're fighting sneaky opponents. Just kick them out of the ring (^v^)

Overall Real Bout is quite a nice 2D fighter but probably not worth picking up if you can get the far superior Real Bout Special. Also, just remembered that the CDDA in Real Bout is far too loud making it difficult to hear the voices and sound effects.