Terry Bogard (テリー・ボガード Terī Bogādo) is a video game character created by SNK Playmore, and is the main character of the Fatal Fury series. In the series, Terry Bogard is an American fighter who enters the worldwide tournaments called The King of Fighters to kill Geese Howard, a criminal who killed Terry's father when he was a child. Terry becomes a formidable fighter, earning the title of "Legendary Hungry Wolf". In the fourth tournament he participates, Terry manages to kill Geese with help from his friends, but he retracts from this at last moment. He eventually decides to become the guardian from Geese's son, Rock Howard.
In addition to the video game series, Terry has also appeared in anime films based on his adventures from the Fatal Fury series, as well as soundtracks and manwha. Terry is also a regular character from the crossovers video game series The King of Fighters, in which he continues participating in tournaments, but along with his friends. Terry's character has been well-received by video games players. He has ranked high in several popularity polls developed by SNK and video games magazine. Publication from video games and other media have praised his character, and how he was developed from Fatal Fury to The King of Fighters. He has also been used to symbolyze merchandising from SNK and crossover series.
Character design
In the Fatal Fury games up until the Real Bout sub-series and in most of the King of Fighters games, Terry wears a red leather vest with a white star on the back (with sometimes the words "Running Wild" beneath the star) worn over a short-sleeved white t-shirt shirt, sometimes with tattered sleeves, or sometimes just a sleeveless white shirt, fingerless gloves (biker/fighting gloves), blue jeans and a pair of red Chuck Taylor All Star shoes. He tops it off with his trademark red-and-white baseball/trucker cap. Terry wears his blonde hair long, but keeps it tied in a ponytail with bangs around his forehead/cheeks.[7][8] In the original Fatal Fury, Terry wears a red leather jacket that features rolled-up sleeves with a pair of white Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
In Mark of the Wolves, and other recent games, Terry's design consists of a brown bomber jacket with a white star on the back with the words "Running Wild" below it, as well as a white shirt, blue jeans, brown boots, and no hat. His hair, while still notably lengthy, is considerably shorter than his former ponytail. He let's his hair flow freely instead of braiding it. All of the King of Fighters games from the main series up until 2002 featured Terry Bogard in his Fatal Fury 2 outfit. The King of Fighters 2003 and XI features the Mark of the Wolves depiction of the character. In The King of Fighters XII, Terry was given his Fatal Fury 2 outfit once again since the staff wanted to "use the most macho, stand-out, original Terry" as well as to keep in line with the "original clashing of fists"
Attributes
Terry Bogard is an incredibly charismatic, cheerful and friendly man with everyone around him. He bears no ill will towards anyone other than Geese Howard, the killer of his adoptive father. He and Andy Bogard were orphans adopted by Jeff Bogard, who would later be killed by the criminal Geese Howard. Wishing to take revenge, Terry trained alone in the streets until he developed a unique fighting style in which he combines boxing, kung fu, kickboxing and street fighting moves.[14] He became strong enough to enter The King of Fighters tournament, in which he is often referred to as the Legendary Hungry Wolf (from Garou Densetsu, meaning Legend of the Hungry Wolf) for his remarkable skills. Although Terry manages to defeat Geese, he tries to save him when Geese is about to fall from a tower. Geese avoids his help, and dies.[15] Some time after that, Terry met Geese's son, Rock Howard, and started taking care of him. He treats Rock as his son, but gives him some freedom of choice.[16] Terry appears to fit many Japanese stereotypes for an American character in appearance, personality and speech (his in-game vocabulary is usually limited to American colloquialisms, such as "Okay!" and "Hey, c'mon, c'mon."). He has a pet monkey named Ukee (ウッキー ) which commonly appears around him in some games. Terry is also streetsmart as his knowledge of what goes on in the streets and slang is vast.[17] During the Fatal Fury series Terry meets Blue Mary, who he holds a longtime relationship.[18]
Appearances
In video games
Terry has served as the lead character of the Fatal Fury series since his debut in the first game of the series. The original Fatal Fury centers around Terry and his younger brother Andy, who enter the King of Fighters tournament to avenge their father's death, who was murdered a decade ago by the tournament's sponsor, Geese Howard, along with their friend Joe Higashi.[14] Together, they manage to defeat Geese and his soldiers; the former dies falling from a tower after fighting one of the three main characters.[19]
The numerous Fatal Fury sequels released afterwards featured Terry and his friends competing in new tournaments. The initial sequel, Fatal Fury 2, introduced a new antagonist for Terry to defeat named Wolfgang Krauser, who tries to conquer Southtown. The finals of this new tournament would again see Terry fighting the sponsor and him ultimately defeating Krauser.[20] Geese would return in Fatal Fury Special and Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, who survived his apparent death at the end of the first game and now seek revenge against Terry and other rivals.[21] Real Bout Fatal Fury concludes the Bogard and Howard rivalry by killing off Geese at the end of the game.[15] Two subsequent Real Bout sequels were produced, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, although neither game contains any storyline.[22][23] A 3D fighting game version of the series, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition was produced as well, which retells the plot of the first game.[24]
Terry Bogard's character would be reinvented for Garou: Mark of the Wolves, which features an older Terry as the mentor of Geese Howard's son, Rock Howard. During this time, Terry and Rock enter a new King of Fighters tournament dubbed Maximum Mayhem. Rock decides to join the host Kain R. Heinlein, to work in Geese's document by offering information regarding Rock's mother—whom Kain claimed was still alive.[16]
After the release of Fatal Fury 2, Terry would appear in The King of Fighters '94, where he serves as the leader of the game's "Fatal Fury" team alongside his younger brother Andy and Joe Higashi. The King of Fighters series, which was originally conceived as a crossover of SNK's previous video game franchises, eventually established their own self-contained continuity set apart from the previous Fatal Fury series and Terry himself would become a staple in both franchises.[25] While the Fatal Fury Team remains with the same members in most games, from The King of Fighters '99 to 2001 another member joins the team due to a new rule that each team must have four members; Mai Shiranui, Andy's girlfriend, in '99, and Blue Mary in 2000, and 2001.[26][27][28] In 2003 Andy leaves the team to take care of his pupil, with Tizoc replacing him.[11] In XI, Joe also leaves to participate in a Muay Thai tournament, with Kim Kaphwam and Duck King replacing Joe and Andy.[12] The King of Fighters XII bring sback the character in his Fatal Fury 2 outfit. However, like each character, he does not have an official team.[29]
The Fatal Fury Team remains as in the first KOF in the games without storyline: these games include The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002 and Neowave.[30][31][32] In The King of Fighters: Kyo, a RPG game centered on Kyo Kusanagi and settled right in between KoF'96 and KoF'97, Terry appears when Kyo goes to South Town, and helps him to fight Geese Howard.[33] In the two games for the Game Boy Advance titled EX: Neo Blood and EX2, Mai Shiranui takes Joe's place in the Fatal Fury Team.[34][35] Terry also appears in the KOF: Maximum Impact sub-series in both his Fatal Fury 2 and Mark of the Wolves outfits, with the latter being labelled as "Wild Wolf" (ワイルドウルフ ).[36] Terry also appears as a playable character in the crossover video games NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and SNK vs. Capcom series; in the former in his Mark of the Wolves outfit, and the latter in his Fatal Fury 2 outfit.[37][38]
In other media
Terry Bogard is the central character of a trilogy of Japanese animated Fatal Fury films, where his character is voiced by Nishikori Kazukiyo in the Japanese originals and Mark Hildreth in the English dubs. The first two movies, 1992's Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf and 1993's Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle, loosely follows the storylines of their respective games, while the third film, 1994's Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, features an original storyline. The first film introduces a new love interest for Terry Bogard named Lily McGwire (unrelated to the Lily Kane character from the games), an orphaned girl raised by Terry's nemesis Geese Howard. Lily is killed by Geese during the first film, but she appears in both sequels as a spirit who guides Terry.[39][40] The third film introduced a new love interest for Terry named Sulia, the younger sister antagonist Laocorn Gaudeamus, who sacrifices herself in the end of the film to help Terry defeat her brother.[41]
Terry also plays a supporting role in the 2006 original net animation The King of Fighters: Another Day. Terry appears in the episode "Accede", where he is voiced in the Japanese version by Satoshi Hashimoto, his voice actor from the video games, and Tony Carroll in the English dub.[42] Satoshi Hashimoto also voiced Terry in Memories of Stray Wolves a twenty-minute featurette which serves as a retrospective of the Fatal Fury series, with Terry narrating the events of the games to Rock.[43] Terry is also featured in the volume 3 from the soundtracks series SNK Character Sounds Collection released by Pony Canyon. The CD features several songs based on his character.[44] He is featured in several mawhua, including the Fatal Fury series, The King of Fighters and SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos which retell the stories from its respective games.[45][46] The first seven chapters from the manhua The King of Fighters 2003 by Wing Yen features a short chapter from Garou: Mark of the Wolves that tell Rock's training with Terry.[47] His character is also part of a social action program created by SNK Playmore named "Nakoruru & Terry Club". The organization supports children in order to make them decide a better future.[48]
Reception
Terry is one of the characters of choice to symbolize the company in crossover games, merchandise and publicity.[49] During KOF Year-End Party from 2005, a fan event made by SNK, caps from Terry were given to every fan coming.[50] His character has been well-received by gamers, appearing in several popularity polls from video games. In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Terry was voted as the staff's eighth favorite character.[51] In a popularity poll by SNK from Garou: Mark of the Wolves during its release, Terry ranked 2nd with one commenter from the staff commenting that "Terry's the eternal hero".[52] In a character popularity poll on the website from the Neo Geo Freak journal, he was voted as the fourth favorite character from the series with a total of 2,479 votes.[53] In a 2005 poll made by SNK-Playmore USA, he was voted as the number one fan favorite character with a total of 10,014 votes.[54] For the special endings in The King of Fighters '97, three video games journals, Gamest, Famitsu and Neo Geo Freak, had to create a team composed of three characters from the game so that they would be featured in an image after passing the arcade mode. The Gamest's team created a team composed of Terry, Blue Mary and Joe Higashi. The special ending only appears in Japanese versions of the game.[55]
Terry's character has received praise and criticism from several video game publications and other media. GameSpot reviewer Frank Provo commented that one of Fatal Fury's biggest accomplishments is the creation of Terry Bogard and for making him appear in later sequels.[56] Damien McFerran from Vc-reviews commented that in Fatal Fury 2 Terry is favoured in fights as his moves are much stronger and faster than the other characters. However, he praised Terry's design, saying that he is "emanating so much coolness it’s little wonder that SNK otaku can always be seen wearing his trademark red cap".[57] Dale Nardozzi from Reviews Teambox also praised Terry's appearance as he comments it is very distinctly. He also commented his clothes is one of the most common cosplays at every con with video game importance.[58] Andrew Sztein from GamingExcellence commented that Terry was one of his favourite characters from the series. He mentioned that he liked his design because as "he should be working at Petro Canada part time" and added that his mispronunciation of English quotes are quite funny.[59] IGN reviewer Ryan Clements also found preference over Terry from all the other characters in the Fatal Fury series, commenting he liked how he played with him in each game.[60] Dan Whitehead from Eurogamer praised each part of Terry's appearance to make him look cool. He also commented that Terry is one of the most popular characters from Fatal Fury although he is "rather bland"
