Lizardcube β the French studio which worked on both the Wonder Boy: Dragon's Trap remake and Streets of Rage 4 β has an uncanny talent for making classic games really sing in HD, and two of its artists, Ben Fiquet and Julian Nguyen-You, have spent a little time imagining what a sequel to SNK's classic Garou: Mark of the Wolves could look like.
The time-lapse above shows the pair at work, from researching existing official art all the way up to pulling together their own take on the game, as well as the detail background artwork. It shows just how much work goes into creating concept work, and also makes us really, really want Lizardcube to work on this game.
Part of the Fatal Fury series of one-on-one fighters, Mark of the Wolves launched on the Neo Geo back in 1999, and was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast. It came to the Switch eShop in 2017.
SNK is clearly open to resurrecting its older franchises, but could it be convinced to allow an external studio to handle such a project? Let us know what you think with a comment below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 39
Stop disrespecting Garou like that.
I'm not saying the artwork looks bad, but it looks terrible as a representation of Garou.
I thought that was neat but for a second I got hyped that MoTW2 had been announced!
Honestly I don't think the hand drawn art fits it nearly as well as SNK's immaculate sprite work. They knew how to make fighting game sprites better than practically everyone else in the genre at that time. The only thing that comes close is Capcom's work on the SFIII games
My biggest issue with the style of Streets of Rage 4 was the thick black outlines of the characters and even a lot of background elements. In fact, there was concept art of Axel and Blaze without the thick lines that I thought looked a lot better. I like that they avoided those outlines for this and I think it looks more cohesive. I think it looks pretty good and they've managed to capture the SNK character style here in this image.
@TheFrenchiestFry
This.
Everyone that played/plays Garou for an extensive period knows what makes that game tick, and one of the things is precisely what you said.
My heart gave a little jump when my eyes detected "mark of the wolves" and a 2.
I don't know how to say I don't like this without complimenting the artist's work. It looks lovely. But it misses the soul of the artwork. SNK's art has a certain 'meatiness' that really expresses itself through their animation. I would love to see this animated, but I wouldn't like it to be official. Gah. I don't want to insult it. I just don't think it's quite right. Sorry.
They are very talented indeed. I'm not a fan of vs. fighters, personally, but would love them to make a new Golden Axe.
CΓ©line Dion needs to be the ultimate boss, so she can beat the living vibratos out of Garou. Or vice versa.
I love pixel art, but I can also appreciate good HD 2D artwork and this looks nice. That said, this game, like SFIII, was all about the animation. Without seeing it in motion I can't really say if it is 'worthy' or not.
Mind you, they haven't exactly gone out there on the design as the characters pretty much look like they would if very clever AI removed all the pixelated edges and turned the original artwork into sharp HD graphics.
I'd be fine with the SoR4 team trying their hand at an original fighting game. I'm sure it'd be great.
@JuiceMan_V calm down.
@GraphicJon
Not sure what you're talking about, buddy.
If you have something to say, then say exactly that.
Garou 2 is one of those "shut up and take my money" sort of games that nonetheless never seems to happen.
@JuiceMan_V It's just like, a drawing for fun man. You get so offended like it's an insult to art. Have an ice tea.
@GraphicJon
Not really offended, just a Garou fan, so I'mma speak my mind.
Definitely not an "insult to art" or whatever you're saying lol!
@GraphicJon It does look pretty dead and bland as far as art is concerned.
-2021 LETβS BOTH HAVE ICED TEA ITβS NINJA CONFIRMED DELICIOUS-
On topic, original pixel art is much better looking.
@BloodNinja
To be fair, he's probably not into Garou that much, so he doesn't understand how it looks to most fans and to him, it's "just art".
That impeccable Lizard Cube talent. Anyone who does illustration certainly knows these guys are top shelf at what they do. But Iβd like to see them continue on with Segaβs archived properties
Itβs hard to tell how it would look in motion, as Garou features impeccable animation. I quite like this look but it would be interesting to see it animated.
I, for one, would be perfectly fine to see these guys making new games and remaking old ones, if they manage to output the same level of quality they put on display with Wonder Boy remake and Streets of Rage 4. I absolutely love how at least some artists are still using strong outlines to give that awesome comic feel to things, I've had it up to here with the "minimalistic abstract shapes with no outlines" graphics, in the end they end up looking so soulless and samey, whereas a strong outline around sprites give such a nice impact to the visuals.
Of course it needs to be said that SNK's spritework is pretty top tier, itself.
Iβll take some more B. Jenet, please.
@JuiceMan_V Thatβs true! Garou does have a very distinct and beautiful style, itβs one of the best looking and best playing fighting games out there. Simplicity is a giant, so they say.
NINJA APPROVED
Its gorgeous, but instead Garou, give them a Metal Slug or as someone else said: Golden Axe. I don't think this art would make for a precision fighter. Happy to be proven wrong tho!
As much as I like Garou, I would rather have a new Last Blade. Thatβs just me.
Everybody knows who Garou MOTW will be like this when are released:
http://alvanista.com/retroninjas/posts/3343027-garou-mark-of-the-wolves-2-estava-em-producao-na-epoca
And I'm don't are a troll account, please admins don't be paranoids.
Just like art for Streets of Rage 4, but to a slightly lesser degree, NO!
Get some of the original artists on this kind of stuff because they are clearly leagues ahead of most modern game artists trying to do this more cartoon/illustration look. Those guys actually understood basic human anatomy and correct and/or pleasing proportions and so on. And the quality of the background art in most of those classic arcade games was on another level from what we got in SOR4 and indeed what we are seeing here too.
PS. I really don't like what they did with the art in SOR4.
Ugh. No. Please donβt do this to garou.
was not a fan of the art style when they did it to streets of rage, no need to do it to other pixel art too.
Visuals of the first is betten than this sample.
I like it as a fan art, the lines and colours are a bit too sharp for SNK and specially Garou.
The overall design of the characters is fine and I think the background could work.
But if I'd make a pick I'd have Arc system works and SNK team up for a MotW 2
I wish sam should was done this way... maybe it would have ran at 1080p 60fps then...
Iβd like Fatal Fury 4 to be the next in the series, going back to the original numbering even though it wouldnβt be the fourth game in the series. It could still be a successor to Mark Of The Wolves though.
Nice but it doesn't fit Garou...the western style of drawing just doesn't fit a Japanese game.
Looks good but it also needs to play good as well too. Not sure why people still pissing about Streets of Rage 4, that game was freaking good and plays way better than that piece of garbage fan made hack that people love so much which basically just reused assets from the Genesis game. If I want to play the old games I'll play the old games, I don't need for the new game to be a carbon copy of the old ones.
@Bass_X0 Calling it Fatal Fury 4 would be weird now since none of the older characters aside from Terry would return or cameo. Joe had retired from fighting for good and is enjoying life, Andy married Mai and had a family now, Kim is a father and doesn't compete in tournaments anymore and characters like Tung and Jubei are probably dead. Eventually they'll have to replaced Terry with Rock as Terry's ambition in the storyline is over and Rock is the main focus going forward. They could however make new characters that replace Joe and Andy too, they could call it the Neo Fatal Fury or Neo Garou. Neo means "new" in Japanese btw.
@JuiceMan_V Woolie likes, apparently the new guy is from prototype Characters from the Cancelled Garou 2.
Cool @BloodNinja
@Ghost_of_Hasashi Could set Fatal Fury 4 after 3 in the timeline, bringing back the characters from the first three games.
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