Characters / Fatal Fury: King of Fighters

aka: Fatal Fury Geese Howard

Fatal Fury | Main Index^note Includes Real Bout, Wild Ambition, and the Anime
Fatal Fury: King of Fighters | Fatal Fury 2 | Fatal Fury 3 | Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Related Series
Art of Fighting | The King of Fighters

Characters introduced in the first Fatal Fury title.

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Terry Bogard

The Legendary Hungry Wolf (From KOF XV)

^{First Design (FF1)}

^{Timeskip Design (Garou)}
From KOF XV

^{Female Terry (SNK Heroines)}
From SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

Hey, come on!

Origin: USA

Fighting Style: Mixed Martial Arts, Hakkyokuseiken

Voiced by: ^note Kazukiyo Nishikiori (for the animated features), Tsutomu Kashiwakura (young Terry, first anime special), Mark Hildreth (OVAs, English), Satoshi Hashimoto (Fatal Fury 3 onwards, The King of Fighters '95 - XIII), Takashi Kondo (The King of Fighters XIV - current), Takeshi Kusao (KOF '94 Dengeki Bunko drama CD), Chiaki Takahashi (SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy), Tony Carrol (KOF Maximum Impact series, English), Michael Schneider (City of the Wolves, English)

The protagonist of the Fatal Fury series and a world-famous street fighter.

Once an orphan who grew up in the streets of Southtown, he and his younger brother Andy were adopted by Jeff Bogard, a martial artist and rival of Geese Howard. Later on, Geese killed Jeff in front of Terry and Andy, leaving both of the boys to seek revenge as they grew older. Terry went to train under his father's old master, Tung Fu Rue, and learned the art of Hakkyokuseiken which granted him the ability to manipulate the Earth's energy for devastating attacks.

Fatal Fury: King of Fighters has Terry and Andy joining the King of Fighters tournament along with their friend, Joe Higashi. They fight their way through a roster of other strong fighters to eventually make their way to Geese. Terry and Geese engage in an intense battle atop Geese's tower, and Terry defeats him, sending Geese falling off the building to his reported death.

A year later in Fatal Fury 2, Terry is invited to a new KOF tournament hosted by the mysterious Wolfgang Krauser. The tournament takes Terry around the world, and eventually culminates in a battle between him and Krauser in Germany with Terry as the winner.

In Fatal Fury 3, Terry learns that Geese survived their original encounter, and Geese was now seeking the legendary Jin Scrolls that were said to grant immortality. After a lengthy chase around Southtown for the scrolls, Terry confronts Geese and defeats him, but Geese escapes as he lights his building on fire, forcing Terry to flee. He then confronts Ryuji Yamazaki and the Jin Brothers, who were the ones who started the chase for the Jin Scrolls in the first place, and defeats them.

In Real Bout: Fatal Fury, Geese, having managed to obtain all of the Jin Scrolls, holds one final KOF tournament, which Terry participates in. Terry defeats Geese one final time atop Geese's personal high rise building and tries to save Geese from falling off, only to see Geese refuse his help and allow himself to fall to his death. Later, Terry adopts Geese's orphaned son, Rock Howard, and raises the boy to ensure he doesn't go down the same path as his evil father.

Around ten years later in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Terry passes on his role of The Hero to a now teenaged Rock. The two enter the newest King of Fighters Tournament dubbed "Maximum Mayhem" to help Rock find his way in life.

Terry is also a mainstay fighter in The King of Fighters series, usually being the leader of "Team Fatal Fury". He's also starred ins several crossovers including the SNK vs. Capcom series, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy and many, many more.

In most of his playable appearances, Terry is a Jack of All Stats with a good mix of offensive and defensive tools. His moveset has remained very consistent across both Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters, having iconic moves like Power Wave, Burn Knuckle, Rising Tackle, and more.

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• Action Dad: To Rock. He joins Kain's tournament with the latter to help him find out more about his Missing Mom. The two of them can also be put on the same team in several games like KOF XIV and Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Throughout the games, Terry has Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold. In The King of Fighters: Destiny, however, his hair is strawberry-blonde, making him a Fiery Redhead.
• Afraid of Needles: Implied by an interaction with Mature in KOF XIII
  Mature: "Hello, Wolfy! Would you like me to show you a whole new world?"
  Terry: "Ooh, the seductive blonde routine! Okay, I'll play along! What kind of world would that be, sugar?"
  Mature: "A world of pleasure beyond the threshold of pain! I'm sure you'll be hooked!"
  Terry: "Ah, that's a shame.... Thanks, but no thanks! I get creeped out just seeing a syringe."
• All-American Face: Very USA-centric motif^note In fact the only reason he has a special intro with Ken in Capcom vs. SNK is because they're both American blondes who wear red even though he generally has more in common with Ryu. His traditional outfit even has a red, white, and blue color scheme (red and white hat, red jacket over a white shirt, and blue jeans).
• All Work vs. All Play: Terry is all play, spending most of his time on playing arcade machines and eating cheeseburgers. His brother Andy, however, is all work, spending most of his time in Japan honing his skills. Despite this, Terry was always ahead of Andy because of his greater fighting skills and natural talent, which is honed by street-fighting that shapes up Terry's instinct for the unpredictable.
• Animal Motifs: The wolf. His nickname is even "The Legendary Hungry Wolf", a play on the series' Japanese title (Garou Densetsu).
• Antiquated Linguistics: As a result of SNK's very limited localization capabilities, Terry often throws out some outdated — if not absolutely ridiculous — slang in his quotes. Even by 90's standards he sounds like an old man.
  "Geese! I knew you were still alive! This time you won't be so lucky, you rapscallion!"
  "Wubba, wubba. I'm in the pink today, boy!"
  "Take a few more lessons, palooka!"
• Attractive Bent-Gender: He's been transformed into a woman on several occasions including via Demitri's Midnight Bliss super attack in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, and by Kukri in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. While not as hunky as his male form, femme Terry is still pretty muscular and hits just as hard.
• Badass Back: He has his classic victory animation where he turns his back to the camera before throwing his cap.
  "OKAY!"
• Badass Boast: He's got quite a few he can dole out.:
  "It's been quite a while since my last fight. I'm ready to maul!!"
• Badass Family: His adoptive father was a legendary martial artist like him. Both Terry and his brother Andy are world famous fighters and KOF regulars. And then Terry's adoptive son Rock is also a blossoming young fighter.
• Bash Brothers: Literally with Andy. The two teamed up to take down Geese in the first Fatal Fury. They also regularly participate in the same team through multiple KOF tournaments.
• Battle Intro: In The King of Fighters XV:
  "Hey, c'mon! It's time to get serious! This legendary wolf is gonna show you the ropes! Terry Bogard!
  Terry: "Hey, get ready!"
• Big Eater: Shown to be one in his ending from Fatal Fury 2/Special, loading up on hot dogs at the Pao Pao Cafe.
• Blithe Spirit: He spends his non-fighting days going from one temporary job to another (this can even be seen in the Fatal Fury 2 anime, where he is seen working at a construction site at the beginning) and travelling through the world without settling down anywhere, save for coming back to Southtown regularly.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a pretty chummy and energetic opponent, goading with both Trash Talk and friendly gestures alike, and being generally hammy via Calling Your Attacks.
• Calling Your Attacks: In Garou, instead of belting out "POWAH WAIF!", "BURNAKKU!", "CRAK SHOOOOT", "POWAH DANK!", "POWAH CHARGE!", "POWAH GEESAH!", and "OVAHEET GEESAH!", he says stuff like "ROCK YOU!", "BURNING!", "KICK BACK!", "BEAT UP!", "CHANGING!", "GO BANG!", and "LIVEWIRE GO BANG!" The only exception? "R U OK? BASTA WOOOOOOOOF!!!!"^note In the English version of Garou on Dreamcast, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, his voice clips are substituted for the original "POWAH WAVE", "BURN KNUCKLE", "CRACK SHOOT", etc. This only applies to the Japanese version and later The King of Fighters 2002 through XI.
• Cartwright Curse: In the anime. Fortunately, not in the games since his girlfriend love interest there is an Action Girl.
• Catchphrase: Several:
  "OK!"
  "Hey, c'mon!"
  "Are you okay! BUSTER WOLF!"
• Celibate Hero: In The Movie. Having failed to protect his now-dead girlfriend during the first OVA, he becomes incredibly wary about letting women get close to him. However, he eventually succumbs to Plucky Girl Sulia's crush on him unfortunately, as he's considering reciprocating her feelings, Sulia gets kidnapped by her crazed brother, who uses her to find an Artifact of Doom that transforms him into a godlike being that Terry and his True Companions cannot defeat... Until Sulia performs a Heroic Sacrifice, that is. Poor guy.
• Characterization Marches On: Terry's Nice Guy attitude isn't very prevalent in earlier appearances. He's actually quite belligerent towards his opponents in the first entry of Fatal Fury and loves to talk trash. From 3 onward though, his role as a Nice Guy and All-Loving Hero is played up more and he's shown to be willing to forgive even the likes of his Arch-Enemy, Geese.
• Charge-Input Special: "Rising Tackle" has him leap up from a handstand to perform a spinning kick. The input is quite like Street Fighter's Flash Kick, charging down and moving up with a kick input. The start of the move grants Terry invincibility in multiple titles.
• Chick Magnet: While in other canon he has a Cartwright Curse, he currently has Blue Mary, Bonne Jenet (though it's implied she's more interested in Rock), and Alice which is more than anyone else in the series except Kyo and Iori, who are equal.
• Clothes Make the Legend: Has had his Fatal Fury 2 design for many of his appearances in and out of his home series. then returned to his classic attire. He also has his Mark of the Wolves clothes for a couple of games, then returned to his classic attire.
• Combat Parkour: Terry's usual method of fighting, combining it with the skills he learned from his mentor Tung Fu Rue and the skills he learned on the streets. With moves like Crack Shoot, Rising Tackle, Power Dunk, and a variety of somersaulting moves. His mastery of acrobatics is best exemplified by his special, Crack Shoot, his iconic somersaulting axe kick.
• Combat Pragmatist: While he gained some training from Tung Fu Rue, the bulk of his technique was self-taught from years of wandering the streets, getting into fights, and simply figuring out what worked and what didn't.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Terry's win quote against Bob Wilson in 3 is pretty insensitive, to say the least:
  What do you call a guy with broken arms and legs floating in a pool? Bob!
• Cosmic Motifs: His iconic red vest has a big white star embroidered on the back, something that carries over onto his jacket in Garou.
• Costume Evolution: Garou: Mark of the Wolves takes place several years after the events of Real Bout: Fatal Fury. During this time, he replaces his iconic red cap and vest with a bomber jacket. He also wears his hair down without tying it in a ponytail. This version of Terry has appeared three times in the mainstream King of Fighters titles (2003, XI, and as an alternate costume for Terry in XV), NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, and as a character separate from Terry in the Maximum Impact games, going under the name "Wild Wolf".
• Cycle of Revenge: An ironically tragic one: Geese's death orphaned Rock in the same way that Jeff's death orphaned Terry and Andy. The sliver of hope here is that while Rock is initially angered (and reasonably so) over his sudden status as an orphan, Terry adopts the boy, and they strive to move past the bloody Bogard/Howard past together. It also helped that Geese wasn't exactly a good father to Rock. Said initial anger might have been because Rock wanted to deal with his father himself.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Terry and Andy both grew up as orphans in the crime-infested streets of Southtown. Eventually though they'd be Happily Adopted by Jeff Bogard who raised them both with love... and then Jeff was killed by Geese Howard.
• Determinator: Invoked. His advice to others is always very uplifting, encouraging them to keep trying even when they fail.
  "HEY! Today's humiliation's tomorrow's fuel for victory!"
  "Let's fight! Disappointment sprung me to true might!"
  "You did quite well! Keep going and don't get discouraged by this!"
• Disappeared Dad: Terry's adoptive father Jeff, who was killed by Geese a few years ago prior to the events of the first game.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Kazukiyo Nishikiori sings "Yoake no Legend" ("Legend of Dawn"), the ending theme of The Movie.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: He'll sometimes apologize to his opponent in his win quotes thinking he went too far with his strength.
  "Ooh, sorry. Looks like I overdid it a little!"
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In the King of Fighters entries. While his well-deserved reputation is regarded often in profiles and descriptions, it very rarely is regarded by any character not imported from the Fatal Fury titles. Moreover, Terry has only ever been a side character within the context of story, and even his being the champion of the original The King of Fighters tournament^note As was hosted by Geese in Southtown, which holds regardless of which continuity is being discussed is never once acknowledged.
• Drunken Montage: In Fatal Fury 2 The New Battle, Terry Bogard finds himself drinking heavily, after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Wolfgang Krauser. His fall into drunken depression comes complete with him staggering through the streets, with images of neon bar signs passing over his head.
• Eagleland: He tends to be a bit of a mix. On the one hand, he's boisterous, proud, and wears stereotypical American clothes. On the other hand, he's largely self-sufficient, at least partially self-taught, and is not only a good guy, but is considered one of the most important characters in the games.
• Elemental Punch: "Burn Knuckle!" Despite the name, it doesn't set the opponent on fire. Also, his Buster Wolf which creates a massive explosion at the end of the impact.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Terry was already pretty scrappy and resourceful as a kid, and the years of growing up in Southtown only added to this. It's not until he learns Hakkyokuseiken from Tung that he really becomes the "Legendary Wolf" of the present.
• Enhanced Punch: Terry's "Burn Knuckle" is a Ki-enhanced punch that rockets him across the screen. It's been a mainstay in his arsenal since his debut in the original Fatal Fury and the King of Fighters.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Terry is probably the single friendliest character in the entire SNK pantheon, but even he shows no respect to Geese for his murder of Jeff. That being said, despite revenge being his original motivation for fighting Geese, he still makes an effort to save Geese's life.
• Everyone Can See It: It's no secret that he and Mary have a spark between them.
  Terry: "Okay! Time to party!"
  Blue Mary: "Yeah! Where're you taking me?"
  Terry: "Heh, heh. That's my little secret."
  Joe: "I really hate those two people!"
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Mark of the Wolves, he changes his clothes and cuts his long hair.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: Terry's cap has an unusually low brim that obscures his eyes when viewed from most angles.
• False Reassurance: If you hear him saying "Are you okay?", you better be ready to block because otherwise you will not be okay afterwards.
• Fatal Attractor: In the anime and movie. At the point in time in which they were made, Terry did not have a canonical love interest (indeed, Blue Mary wasn't introduced yet and Mai, The One Girl existing in the games proper at the time, is crushing on Terry's younger brother), so a pair of Canon Foreigner girls were added in to amp of the drama:
  • The first OVA gives us Broken Bird Lily McGuire who is practically a slave to the Big Bad, Geese Howard, and in fact was partly responsible for an incident in which Geese killed Terry's father, which emotionally broke her. Regardless, the two fall for each other, and just as Lily has made her High-Heel–Face Turn and agrees to finally leave Geese to be with Terry, Geese Reppuukens her through a window to her death. His failure to protect Lily haunts Terry for the remainder of the trilogy.
  • In The Movie, Terry meets Plucky Girl Suila Gaudemus who as luck would have it, is the Crazed madman Laocorn Gaudemus' little sister. Terry spends the movie trying to keep himself from getting too close to Sulia because of what happened to Lily, but just as he's coming to terms with his feelings, Laocorn becomes a godlike being, and Sulia makes a Heroic Sacrifice that allows Terry to beat him.
• Flung Clothing: Tosses off his hat in celebration for his victory pose. In Garou: Mark of the Wolves, he doesn't wear a hat, and instead flings his bomber jacket in the air before catching it and laying it over his shoulder.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: The Power Charge special he has in some games, where he rushes at his opponent shoulder-first.
• Friend to All Children: He took in an orphaned Rock Howard when the latter was still quite young. He's also pretty friendly towards his younger opponents in KOF.
  "Uh oh, you okay, little miss? I'll make it up to you by buying you something tasty at Richard's place." (vs. Kula)
• Friendly Rival:
  • With Ryo from Art of Fighting. The two have faced off at several tournaments and generally look forward to their bouts.
    Terry: "Hey, Ryo! How's my favorite Invincible Dragon?"
    Ryo: "Doin' fine! Looks like you've sharpened your fangs a bit, Legendary Wolf! But I've been training for this day, too! You won't get by me easily!"
    Terry: "OK! Let's see if wolf fangs can pierce dragon scales, then!"
  • Also with Ralf Jones, considering the latter a Worthy Opponent to which the feeling seems mutual.
    Terry: "Hey! With you as my opponent, it looks like I'll finally get to enjoy a hot fight!"
    Ralf: "Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint you, buddy!"
  • He's pretty chummy with Ken Masters. The two of them even have a special intro where Ken hands Terry his hat before the two get pumped up for their fight.
• From Zero to Hero: A poor kid from Southtown who grew up to become one of the most legendary fighters in the world.
• The Gadfly: He loves to rile up his opponent before a match starts, usually through some well-placed Trash Talk or taunts.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: He's stated to use self-taught moves from years of wandering the streets of Southtown, getting in fights, and learning what worked and what didn't. Figuring out how to throw energy waves or explosive punches, was just icing on the cake for him.
• Good Parents: He looked after Rock with a lot of love and care, teaching him how to fight and traveling the world with him to help him grow strong. One of his special edit teams in XV is with fellow parents Vanessa (has a son of her own) and Dolores (mother of Kukri) to point at this.
• Gratuitous English: Used liberally in each of his appearances, from shouting his attack names, to his victory cry of, "OKAY!!". Since most KOF characters speak Japanese by default, this is likely done to make him sound more American.
• Ground Punch: Started with the Power Wave and was eventually supplemented by the Round Wave, which is stationary, and its DM/HDM variants the Power Geyser and Triple/Overshoot Geyser.
• Ground Wave: His Power Wave special has him strike the ground, sending forward a wave of energy. It's been his standard projectile in almost all his appearances. He can also perform a stronger version called "Power Geyser" which creates a massive eruption in front of him.
• Guest Fighter: His first appearance as a guest fighter is actually in the now-obscure Xuan Dou Zhi Wang; a Chinese free-to-play fighting game where he was also joined by Benimaru Nikaido. As for more mainstream games, Terry appears as a DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Fighting EX Layer.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's a very handsome young man with long blonde hair, and is an overall friendly guy.
• Having a Blast: Somehow Buster Wolf can hit with enough power to cause a massive explosion at the end. His other supers create explosive results too like Power Geyser, where he makes a massive pillar of energy erupt in front of him, and Star Dunk Volcano, where he creates an explosion using an empowered Power Dunk.
• Heartbroken Badass: The anime version of him who loses his love interest, Lily (no, not Billy's sister), to Geese.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Some of his designs utilize a leather jacket to emphasize his cool, traveler persona. Special mentions for Mark of the Wolves and KOF XIV.
• Hero Protagonist: Terry is the main protagonist of the Fatal Fury series and is credited for having repeatedly saved South Town by defeating Geese, Krauser, the Jin Twins, and Kain respectively.
• Hero of Another Story: In any non-Fatal Fury appearances he becomes this, particularly KOF where he has mostly nothing to do with the main plot and is there to simply be a tournament regular. He's also this in Mark of the Wolves once Rock takes over as The Hero.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers from one due to the death of Sulia in The Movie. He recovers quickly, just in time to curbstomp Mars, the God of War.
• Heroic Build: The absolutely ripped protagonist of Fatal Fury. Even by KOF standards he's super buff, making Kyo Kusanagi look scrawny by comparison Depending on the Artist.
• Heroic RRoD: Much like Robert did for Ryo, in Garou, Terry beats sub-boss Grant, but is too beat from the battle to press on, leaving the other protagonist (Rock) to fight the Final Boss Kain himself.
• Home Stage: Not in the first game, but he's had a stage dedicated to him in most subsequent titles.
  • 2: West Albuquerque, USA, where the fighters battle atop a moving train.
  • 3: Sound Beach, a very Floridan-style coast. They battle right in front of the water too.
• Hunk: A tall and muscular man with a clean-looking face. Mary likes playfully calling him "handsome".
• Humble Hero: Terry doesn't boast as much as he rightfully could do, at least in his later years (where he seems to channel his MOTW self more). He's proud of his fame, yeah, but also quite level-headed if his XIII quotes mean anything.
  Elisabeth: "I have heard of your legend and the accounts of you defeating many formidable opponents."
  Terry: "Please don't call me a legend. You're making me blush! Let's just get to fighting already! Come on! Hurry up!"
• I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: There's one official art◊ that portrays him having a hard time playing Art of Fighting at an arcade (though, strange enough, he complains at the demonstration screen). The Movie has a very similar scene where he plays a fighting game in Neo-Geo Land, and loses, something that a little kid points out. (For bonus points, AOF's John Crawley is playing Fatal Fury 2 next to Terry in said artwork.)
• I Know Madden Kombat: The Power Dunk is a modified slam dunk.
• Iconic Outfit: His most well-known version of his outfit is the one starring in KOF '98; his red jacket and shirt are sleeveless, paired with jeans and a red cap with Fatal Fury on the front. That version was based on his Fatal Fury II outfit, but replaced the Neo Geo on it.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He's on good terms with KOF fighters like Kyo and Athena who are both high-schoolers. He likes to casually chat with them before a match and exchange words of encouragement.
  Terry: "I know how to please the crowd pretty good, but you've got me totally beat in that category!"
  Athena: "D-Don't be silly! Your performance always gets the fans fired up!"
  Terry: "I'm glad to hear that coming from you! Well then, let's have a fight that'll keep people buzzin' for years!"
  Athena: "Absolutely! My fans around the globe are counting on it!"
• Intergenerational Rivalry: With Geese. Geese murdered Terry's father when the latter was a child, and this instilled a longtime grudge against Geese in Terry. Geese actively looked forward to facing Terry when he saw that the latter was doing well in the KOF tournament and was determined to defeat him for good after a humiliating loss. By 3 though, Terry has largely let go of his grudge against Geese and now only feels compelled to fight him to stop his evil plans rather than out of any personal malice. He was even willing to save Geese's life to which the latter spitefully denied.
• Irony: He's one of the most famous and powerful fighters spanning the Fatal Fury/KOF universe. And yet, he sucks at actual fighting games.
• Jack of All Stats: Terry is consistently an incredibly well-rounded fighter who can adapt to many different opponents. His normals all have good range and frame data to play footsies with, Power Wave and Rising Tackle let him zone well, and his other specials give him a variety of rushdown and punishing options.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Played with, Terry is by far the nicest of the SNK protagonists, even going so far as to try and save the man who murdered his father in cold blood. However, Terry is also a very good trash talker, and his pre and post-match banter show off that he's very good at making dickish comments to get in his opponent's head; from calling Robert a constant loser despite his many achievements in his home series to mocking his own brother for his relationship issues just to get in his head before the fight Terry can be even meaner than the series poster villains when his trash talk is at his best.
• Ki Manipulation: Nearly all of his attacks weaponize Ki, including both his signature specials: the Power Wave and his Burn Knuckle. His potential for it is immense, as many of his attacks are outright explosive in terms of the power he generates.
• Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: He raised Rock Howard after killing Geese.
• Leitmotif: He's had several throughout the Fatal Fury games.
  • Kurikinton has been one of his most reoccurring themes ever since Fatal Fury 2. It's had multiple rearrangements through the KOF games and even got a live arrangement in Smash Ultimate.
  • Big Shot from 3 is an upbeat rock tune that plays on his Home Stage, Sound Beach. It also gets an orchestral-rock arrangement in Wild Ambition.
  • Sunrise on the Train plays on his stage in Garou. A slow-tempo and pounding song with a similar big band arrangement to his past themes.
• Limited Wardrobe: He always seems to be wearing a white t-shirt and jeans in most of his appearances.
• Living Legend:
  • Terry established himself as a force to be reckoned with when he defeated Geese Howard. He has gone on to face far stronger opponents since then, earning him such distinctions as "The Legendary Lone Wolf" and "Hungry Wolf Bogard".
    Kain: "Terry, the legendary wolf... You're as good as I thought."
  • His reputation continues to flourish in The King of Fighters series, where he's become a rival of Kyo Kusanagi. When Krizalid abducted Kyo during the '99 tournament, Terry was listed among those who helped rescue him.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has a body built like a truck, long flowing hair, and a pretty face that's caught a lot of admirers' attention. He does get it cut shorter by Garou, but the trope is still in play.
• Mascot: This guy has been the face of SNK ever since The '90s, longer than even Kyo Kusanagi. This is solidified by his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. where he represents all of SNK.
• The Mentor: To Rock in Mark of the Wolves, trying to help the latter come to terms with his identity.
• Nice Guy: A very friendly, fun-loving fella. He gets along with many of the characters from his series and has even gone as far as trying to forgive the likes of Geese Howard, the man who murdered his father. Doesn't stop him from being one of the biggest badasses in Fatal Fury though.
• Papa Wolf: What gets him outta his drunken funk in the second OVA is seeing Tony get pummeled by Axel Hawk.
• Parental Substitute: He becomes the legal guardian of Rock, Geese's erstwhile son, and is a better father for the kid than Geese could have ever hoped to be.
• Pillar of Light: His Power Stream LDM from KOF 2003/XI sends a beam of light up into the sky.
• Power Trio: With Andy and Joe. The three of them teamed up to take down Geese in the first Fatal Fury. They'd later form Team Fatal Fury upon joining KOF, and have maintained this team through many installments, only occasionally mixing it up with different team members.
• Primary-Color Champion: Terry has blond hair and his iconic outfit consists of a red hat, red vest, and blue jeans.
• Red Baron: "The Legendary Hungry Wolf," which is a Stealth Pun for the Japanese title of his debut series.
• Red Is Heroic: The standout feature of his signature outfit is the bright red jacket/vest.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Andy's Blue. Terry is energetic, friendly, and takes pleasure in brawling with strong opponents. Andy meanwhile is composed, stoic, and approaches his training with a dead-serious attitude.
• Revenge: He sets out to defeat Geese Howard in the first game for his father's murder.
• Save the Villain: Attempts this on Geese. It fails, as Geese refuses Terry's help and plummets to his death with a mocking grin.
• Second Love: Implied to be the case between him and "Blue" Mary Ryan, who (in Fatal Fury's canon) has only recently gotten over her previous boyfriend's death.
• Seen It All: Parodied when he fights a Mirror Match in KOF XIII
  Terry 1: "You know what? I've been doing this so long that even seeing a copy of myself doesn't surprise me anymore."
  Terry 2: "That's right! It feels like meeting an old friend, right? How've you been, old buddy?"
• Ship Tease: With Mary. The two flirt with each other a lot, both in and out of battle, and have a generally close bond. Though, even by Mark of the Wolves it seems that they're still Just Friends.
  "OK! If I win, it's a date! Don't forget now, right?!"

  His win quote vs. Mary in Real Bout
• Shipper on Deck: He teases his brother a lot in regard to whether or not the latter will finally end up with Mai. Though it's possible he also just does this to get under Andy's skin before a fight.
  Terry: "This may not be the time or the place, but come on... Tell me what's going on between you and Mai."
  Andy: "Wh-What are you talking about, brother? That's totally unrelated to what's going on!"
  Terry: "Well, it's just that every time I run into her at a KOF tournament, she's going about "my Andy" this and "my Andy" that... Man, I get tired of hearing all that stuff! You two should just make up your minds already!"
  Andy: "You and Joe are so harsh! Are you trying to agitate me or something?"
  Terry: "Breaking your opponent's pace by taunting him is all part of the game, Bro! I thought you were raised in the streets!"
• Shoryuken: One of his signature anti-airs is the "Rising Tackle". Terry jumps into the air with an upwards spinning kick.
• Shotoclone: Downplayed. He's got a projectile move (Power Wave), a Shoryuken-esque move (Rising Tackle or Power Dunk depending on the game) and several rushing move (Burn Knuckle, Power Charge, and Crack Shoot). This is more options than what classic Shotos like Ryu from Street Fighter can perform, but still embodies the same well-roundedness of the archetype.
• Sibling Rivalry: Terry and Andy have been battling for as long as they've both been martial artists. Andy's own motivation for improving comes from wanting to live up to Terry's influence.
  "Fighting you never gets old! You’re my best rival in the world, little brother!"
• Sibling Team: Terry and Andy are often on the same team during tournaments.
• Signature Headgear: His cap that was gifted to him by his father. It flies off his head when he's defeated. He also flings it off himself when he wins a round. By Garou however, he's retired the hat in favor of letting his hair out.
• Signature Move: Nearly his entire core move set, though he's most famous for his Power Wave and Burn Knuckle, the latter of which is implied to be the move he used to defeat Geese Howard. He's also well-known for the Buster Wolf, Power Geyser and the Triple Geyser^note in some games, it's called the Overshoot Geyser instead.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Some of his designs have him wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, exposing his very muscular arms.
• Spirited Competitor: One of his defining traits, which he shares with Kim Kaphwan and Ryo Sakazaki. Terry's been a regular at the KOF Tournament ever since the original Fatal Fury, and is still acknowledged as one of — if not its — top competitors. He's also known for travelling the globe in search of strong opponents to test himself against.
• Super-Strength: Terry's physical capabilities are often depicted as superhuman in nature. In the anime, he can hit a falling stack of steel beams with enough force to bend them in half, and then battle and defeat Mars, a literal god. In the games proper he regularly battles supernatural entities like the Jin Brothers, the agents of NEST, and is reputable for being able to fight even with superpowered fighters like Kyo and Iori.
• Talent vs. Training: Terry is a playful slacker whose fighting prowess comes mostly from natural talent and years of street fighting experience. His brother Andy is a much more serious and focused martial artist who mastered two fighting styles. Despite this, Terry always remains ahead of Andy.
• Taught by Experience: Though Terry received tutelage under Tung Fu Rue, the bulk of his knowledge comes from years of hands-on experience surviving the crime-infested streets of South Town.
• Team Pet: His pet monkey, Ukee, who served as the Mascot of SNK before Terry. He seems to have inherited Terry's fighting spirit and usually greets his owner by punching him. He pops up in one of Terry's win poses in '99.
• Tears of Blood: In the movie, after Sulia's Heroic Sacrifice. Even better, the tears appear to be imbued with bluish ki. He quickly gets over his Heroic BSoD (to the point that he's shown to be visibly angry and bearing fangs). Oh, you've done it now...
• Technician Versus Performer: Terry is the "performer" to Andy's technician. Andy has dedicated the better part of his adolescence studying Koppoken and spent his adulthood being taught the ways of Shiranui Ninjutsu under Mai's grandfather. Whereas Terry is largely Taught by Experience, having honed his skills by surviving the crime-ridden streets of South Town. Though he did receive formal training from Tung Fu Rue for a brief time. Whenever Andy challenges his brother, Terry's natural talent and experience give him a clear advantage.
• Tragic Keepsake: According to the intro of Wild Ambition as well as the first anime specials, the hat was a gift from his deceased adoptive father Jeff after he was killed by Geese. Terry later presents it to Rock, and the kid has cherished it ever since.
• Trash Talk: Despite being a general Nice Guy, Terry is surprisingly effective at talking trash with opponents.
  "It's been a long time since I fought... get ready to be hurt!"
  "You have guts. Too bad. I'm gonna tear them out."
  "Hah! Quite a claim... But you don't convince me, hidden like some weenie!"
• Unskilled, but Strong: Downplayed. Terry has had lots of formal training over the years, but a large chunk of his fighting style is self-taught and from years of surviving on the streets. Compared to Andy or Ryo, much of his success comes from strength and fighting instinct rather than a disciplined training regime.
• Variant Power Copying: It's revealed that Terry's Burn Knuckle and Rising Tackle are modified versions of Tung Fu Rue's Senshippo and Senpuuken.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Implied. By the time of Garou and Memories of Stray Wolves, he realizes that getting revenge on Geese paled to the excitement he felt being able to travel the world and challenge strong fighters through tournaments. He even tries to let go of their rivalry in 3 right before Geese lets himself fall of the tower they fought on.
• Walking the Earth: Terry's lot in life is an unending quest to better himself through practical knowledge of fighting. To that end, rather than take his brother's hardline approach to a disciplined, grounded schooling in martial arts, Terry gets into fights and learns as he goes then moves onto the next one. This has enabled him to be a better fighter by comparison, as he finds creative and new ways to come out on top vs. his brother's rigid training that doesn't give him as much flexibility.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: His entire default getup is meant to represent the American flag, with combinations of red, white, and blue, and even having a star on his back.
• Wolverine Publicity: He's featured in almost every major crossover SNK produces and is often their go-to for representing the company in third-party titles. He's appeared in every Fatal Fury, KOF, and SNK vs. Capcom title. He's the sole SNK Guest Fighter in the Fighting Layer and Super Smash Bros. series and even made it into SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy despite not being... well, a girl. Kyo lampshades it in KOF XIII, though of course Terry snips back.
  Kyo: "Man, you are here every single time, aren't you? Are you going for a perfect attendance record or something?"
  Terry: "Not really. It's just that when I hear lots of strong people are getting together, I really have to join!"
  Kyo: "You're a sick individual, Terry... And I don't think there's a cure."
  Terry: "Don't act like you're any different! I keep running into you here every time too!"
• Worthy Opponent: Geese is excited at the prospect of fighting him in the first Fatal Fury after having monitored Terry's progress through the tournament. He shows disappointment whenever he wins against Terry with his quotes expressing higher expectations for Terry's skills.
  Geese: "Terry Bogard? Someone with some backbone, finally!"
• Wrestler in All of Us: His Neck Breaker Drop from Wild Ambition is a jumping inverted neckbreaker.
• You Killed My Father: Towards Geese who killed Jeff Bogard when Terry was just a child. It motivates him to enter the first KOF tournament to defeat Geese.

Geese Howard

Charismatic Evil (KOF XV)

^{Classic Design (NeoGeo Battle Coliseum)}

^{The Commissioner of Southtown (AOF2)}

^{Nightmare Geese (KOF XIV)}
NIGHTMARE

You cannot escape from death!

Origin: USA

Fighting Style: Aiki-Jujutsu, Hakkyokuseiken

Voiced by: ^note Hidekatsu Shibata (in the anime special and The Movie), Kong Kuwata (from 3 onward), Richard Epcar (Tekken 7, English)

The Big Bad and Final Boss of the original Fatal Fury trilogy.

Geese, along with Jeff Bogard, trained under Tung Fu Rue in the art of Hakkyokuseiken. After learning that Jeff would inherit the style's secret arts, Geese left the school embittered, and swore revenge. He eventually became the most well-known mastermind in the criminal underground with his enterprise, the Howard Connection. He took control of Southtown after winning it over from Mr. Big and making him his underling. Afterward, Geese finally got his revenge by killing Jeff Bogard in a vicious battle and causing Jeff's sons to train under Tung for revenge. Over several years, he worked his way up to become the police commissioner of South Town.

He decided to host the first King of Fighters tournament out of boredom and faced Terry Bogard in the final battle after Terry defeated his right-hand man, Billy Kane. Geese lost and was given a swift boot out of the top floor of his tower, but somehow survived the fall.

After his initial defeat, he goes into hiding in Fatal Fury 2, and is revealed to have been discreetly searching for the Jin Scrolls in that time. In Fatal Fury 3, he is confronted once again by Terry in his search for the Scrolls, and is defeated and forced to retreat during the events of that game.

In Real Bout: Fatal Fury, Geese has managed to obtain the Jin Scrolls after the events of Fatal Fury 3. and once again holds the King of Fighters tournament in Southtown. He faced Terry for the last time, and history repeated itself as Geese was once again sent out of his tower. Terry tried to save him, but Geese refused and fell. His body was never found, but in the KOF Maximum Impact and Garou: Mark of the Wolves storylines, he is Killed Off for Real, coming back as literal Nightmare Fuel.

In the King of Fighters timeline, Geese is alive and well. In the Orochi Saga, interested in the new version of the King of Fighters tournament that Rugal is hosting, Geese sends Billy in '95 to form the Rival Team and enact revenge upon the Bogard Bros. Intrigued by the mysterious Orochi power used by Rugal and Iori, Geese decides to enter the King of Fighters tournament directly in '96, along with his half-brother Krauser and Mr. Big to learn more about it. Mr. Big, learning he was being used, attempted to assassinate Geese, but Billy arrived just in time to stop the sniper's bullet aimed at Geese's head. In '97 he chose Billy, Yamazaki, and Blue Mary to go and investigate the Orochi power further, albeit withholding his involvement from Blue Mary, knowing she wouldn't accept working with him.

Geese take a leave of absence for the NESTS Saga, and only briefly makes an appearance in the Tales of Ash Saga in 2003 (outside a non-canonical appearace in the console port of XI), sponsoring the Outlaw Team consisting of Yamazaki and Billy again, as well as Gato, wishing to keep an eye on their fighting prowess.

In the New Age Saga, Geese returns to directly participating in the King of Fighters Tournament, taking an interest in Verse through reading about it in the Jin Scrolls. In XIV participates in the King of Fighters tournament along with Billy and his newly-appointed butler Hein, while in XV, Yamazaki substituted for Hein.

Geese is also playable in several crossovers and guest appearances. He's appeared in the SNK vs. Capcom games, Tekken 7, and many more.

In most of his playable appearances, Geese is a defensive powerhouse; he has a strong projectile game, multiple close-ranged counters, and powerful melee pokes that reward good reads. And up close, he has a dangerous mix-up game thanks to his arsenal of versatile normals, making him a threat in the hands of players and AI alike.

---

• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Terry Bogard for the murder of his adopted father, Jeff Bogard. Whereas Geese has been out for revenge against Terry ever since his defeat.
  • He's also made enemies with the entire Sakazaki Family and their friend, Robert Garcia, for ordering Yuri's abduction in Art Of Fighting I. Then Geese used her as leverage to blackmail her father, Takuma, into working for him.
• Archnemesis Dad:
  • Regarding his relationship to his son Rock, it depends on the continuity.
    • In The King of Fighters continuity, at least in XV, Rock and Geese get an actual interaction and Destined Battle Theme if the two are up against each other. Before this, he and Rock also appeared together in the Alternate Continuity KOF: Maximum Impact 2/The King of Fighters 2006. If Rock and Geese are pitted against each other, they have a special intro scene.
  • Geese himself has a grudge against his own biological father, Rudolph Krauser von Stolheim, for a similar reason (leaving him and his mother to fend for themselves when he was just a boy). He attempted to kill him, but was halted by Wolfgang Krauser, his half-brother. This left deep emotional scars and gave him his motivation to seek power at any expense.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Downplayed. Geese will not hesitate to treat his opponents as less than dirt unless they've earned his respect. Consequently, he respects and recognizes Terry as a formidable adversary, looking forward to whenever they fight each other.
• Atomic F-Bomb: In KOF XV, for some reason, he may curse out as he gets up after being knocked down.
  SHIT!
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's the head of the Howard Connection for a reason: because he has extensive underworld connections and influence among South Town's top politicians and law enforcement. And he's capable of singlehandedly wasting anyone that challenges his authority.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Triggering "Raging Dead End" in KOF '02 is a task, as once you activate it you have to connect an Atemi Nage (any that you like). And against an opponent that fights back, it's difficult to predict it and act accordingly. Be thankful though that you have infinite time to do so here. Its spiritual predecessor via the original Raging Dead End in Fatal Fury Wild Ambition had a time limit that, after it ran out, thanks to that game's power bar mechanics, meant that the next hit connected on Geese would stun him, no questions asked.
• Badass Arm-Fold: It's a common part of his Victory Pose.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: First seen during his cameo appearance in Art of Fighting 2 and, later, in the opening animation for Fatal Fury 3 which shows him in a different suit (a brown one with a red necktie). For his DLC appearance in XV, he finally appears wearing a slightly different-colored variation of his iconic Fatal Fury suit.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: In Real Bout Fatal Fury Special he begins fights against Mary by punching her dog Antonio offscreen.
• Battle Aura: As Nightmare Geese, he has a perpetual purple aura coming off of him. This is further emphasized in KOF XIV where he emits a stronger aura performing super moves.
• Battle Intro: In KOF XV:
  CEO of Howard Connection and Emperor of South Town, he's a martial arts nightmare! Geese Howard!
  Geese: You cannot escape from death!
• Benevolent Boss: Despite his reputation, Geese treats his subordinates fairly and with the utmost respect. This is part of why Billy actively enjoys working for Geese.
  Whoa! Do I feel good! Billy, gather our thugs and let's have some fun!
• Big Bad: Throughout all the series, Geese is this. The only games he appears in where he's not a final boss or a True Final Boss are Special (which reuses the engine from the second game, thus leaving Krauser as the final opponent, on top of being a non-canon Dream Match Game) and 3 - and even in the latter, it's his plans for the Scrolls of Jin that drive the story.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With the Jin Brothers in 3, they both seek the Jin scrolls.
• Big "NO!": As he falls off his tower in the first game of the series.
• Blood Knight: Geese takes Terry's love of fighting in a much darker direction. He takes a sadistic glee in personally crushing his opponents' spirits, and considers anyone not strong enough to last against them unworthy of his time. He enjoys it enough that he personally tells his underlings not to bother with calling for backup when Hein and Yamazaki makes their attempt on his life in Team South Town's XV ending, considering it just an amusing little diversion.
  That wasn't enjoyable... Are all the people in this competition gonna be little runts like this?
• Breakout Villain: Geese's legacy has persisted well past the scope of Fatal Fury. Not only is he in several other SNK titles like Art of Fighting, The King of Fighters and SNK vs. Capcom, but he's also guest starred in Tekken 7, and had a significant cameo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as both an NPC and boss battle^note Through the game's spirits mode. Even dying in the main Fatal Fury series hasn't stopped him from continuing to be an omnipresent force in that and the KOF universe as a whole.
• Bring Him to Me: He has his men capture Terry mid-tournament so that he can personally fight him as the Final Boss.
• Bring It: Easily his most iconic pose and taunt.
  Come on!
• The Bus Came Back: While Geese's presence always permeated in the KOF continuity even after his only canon playable appearance '96, XIV marked the first time he actually returned to the tournament.
• Cain and Abel: He and Krauser despise each other. The latter denied Geese his chance for revenge against their father, and the two maintained that animosity all the way to Fatal Fury 2.
• The Cameo:
  • He makes an appearance in Team Fatal Fury's ending in The King of Fighters '95, as well Special Team's '97 ending.
  • He appears in the background of KOF Stadium in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and also has a spirit battle based on him that's way harder than the others from the DLC.
• Coat Cape: He combines this with Badass Armfold before flinging it off in nearly all of his intros. In the Capcom vs. SNK games, while Geese wears the top of his gi properly, he wears his suit jacket as a cape instead.
• The Coats Are Off: Pushing your arms out of your gi top and letting it hang around your waist has the same effect of "lowering the straps" of a wrestling singlet, as it were.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Although it's hard to even say that considering the Howard Connection is itself merely a front for Geese's underworld dealings. The company only exists so Geese can be as corrupt behind the scenes as he pleases without drawing attention.
• Counter-Attack:
  • His Atemi series of counters. It was especially bad in the original Fatal Fury, where he can counter someone jumping toward him.
  • XIV added Oni Hanmon to his novelist. It's a Frame One Counter that will counter any physical attack if they connect.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: A major lynchpin to his charisma and personality. Hate him or not, one can't help but feel respect for the fact that he essentially walked the dark road to power in the criminal underworld and became all the richer and more powerful for it, ruling the city of Southtown in all of its late 1980s glory, and became a powerhouse CEO, kingpin crime lord, AND master martial artist that makes the archetypical yuppies of the era look like outright posers, and rules the city from high above on his name owned skyscraper penthouse suite like a god.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Raimei Gouha Nage went from a dragon punch motion in KOF XIV to a half-circle back then forward in KOF XV, partly because while
  • Played With with Raging Storm as of XIV. While the original "Pretzel" motion can still be used as an Easter Egg, its default the simpler Orochinagi motion (quarter-circle back, then half-circle forward).
• Dash Attack: "Ja'ei Ken" (Dark Gale Fist) has him rush forward with a ki-charged shoulder attack and ends with a Three-Strike Combo.
• A Day in the Limelight: He starred in a single-issue manga called The Geese Howard Story that chronicles his backstory and rise to power prior to both Fatal Fury: King of Fighters and Art of Fighting 2.
• Degraded Boss: A downplayed example in Fatal Fury 2: Special. In that game, you fight Geese before Wolfgang Krauser and Ryo Sakazaki. However, the downplayed part is that Geese is still a boss character and a reasonably tough opponent.
• Die Laughing: He laughs maniacally as he plummets to his death.
• Difficult, but Awesome: His Raging Storm command has an unusual series of inputs consisting of going from down-back, then to a half-circle back (so from forward to back), and then finishing with a down-forward. The easiest way to do it is to go from down-back to up-forward before going to the half-circle back motion and then going one direction past (up-back) before finishing at down-forward, forming a pretzel-pattern. Despite this, Raging Storm as a move is a good all-purpose reversal and anti-air, so mastery of the motion is rewarded. Even in XIV and XV, the original pretzel input can still be used for those who mastered it.
• Dirty Cop: He used to be the police commissioner of Southtown, using his power to expand his massive crime network.
• Disappeared Dad: His father ditched him and his mother when he was a child.
• Disney Villain Death: The first time he's knocked off of Geese Tower by Terry, he gets better. The second time, however, kills him for real.
• The Dreaded:
  • For most of South Town, Geese is a modern-day Capone. He can ruin lives through his various criminal connections, or take lives by ordering the hit. Worse, he might decide to do it himself and he's likely to get away with it since most of the city's police force is in his pocket.
• Dying Smirk: Maniacal grin, actually: Geese sees his death as the last slap in Terry's face, and he lets it show as he falls to his death laughing.
• Easter Egg: In KOF XV, you can still do the classic "Pretzel" motion (1632143CD, to be exact) for his iconic Raging Storm in addition to the standard 2141236CD input.
• Elemental Motifs: Many of his attacks have wind and storm-themed names. There's Reppuken (Gale Fist), Shippuken (Swift Wind Fist), Shinku Nage (Vacuum Throw), and of course, Raging Storm.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He did genuinely care for his late mother, having worked to help support the two of them and being devastated by her death. It was enough of a motivator to make him seek revenge on his father.
• Evil Counterpart: To Terry.
  • Both fighters grew up in poverty on the streets of South Town, and then lost their only parental figure; Terry's adoptive father, Jeff, and Geese's mother, Maria. While Terry had a network of loved ones to keep him grounded, including his brother and his father's mentor, Geese became embittered and ruthless as the years went on, eventually turning to a life of crime.
  • Both of them seek revenge for the death of their loved ones; Terry faced off against Geese for Jeff's murder, and Geese sought his own father to avenge his mother's death. Terry however was the only one who successfully defeated his targeted adversary, while Geese was never able to have that same closure and continued to live for years with internalized rage. Terry was at the very least able to move on from those feelings after years of reflection and love from those around him.
  • Terry and his brother Andy were inseparable as children, and even as adults, they maintain a friendly Sibling Rivalry as professional fighters. Meanwhile, Geese and his brother Krauser hate each other; Krauser was the one to deny Geese's chance of revenge against their father, and the few times they interacted after that ended with one backstabbing the other.
  • Geese ended up becoming a cruel deadbeat like his father, abandoning his wife and child to poverty so he could pursue his own ambitions. Terry ended up adopting Geese's son, Rock, and gave him a happier childhood, much like how Jeff was able to provide for Terry and Andy.
  • Geese lives in a comfortable, wealthy environment thanks to a ruthless career in the criminal underworld. Terry is a working-class drifter content to live through odd jobs and tournament winnings.
  • Even their designs have a lot of parallels; they're both blonde-haired, blue-eyed Americans with color palettes consisting of red, white, and blue. Terry though is a case of Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold and Innocent Blue Eyes, while Geese has a serious case of Icy Blue Eyes. They both also happen to represent a West vs. East contrast; Terry wears casual American-styled street clothes, while Geese battle garb is usually a style of Japanese garments.
• Evil Is Hammy: He's almost as boisterous as Terry. Some of his battle interactions go the extra mile:
  Die like your father, you pin-headed son of an ice cream maker!
  Coming up against me takes guts. I like guts—with catsup.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Although he wears a rather modest dogi and hakama pants, Geese's battle attire also includes a blinged-out gold necklace.
• Evil Laugh: And he goes plum crazy when you beat him as Nightmare Geese in Real Bout Special.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Many of his voice actors give him a deep, gravelly tone, evoking a sense of strength and menace.
• Evil vs. Evil: He and Mr. Big are pitted in a war for control over Southtown's criminal empire.
• Executive Suite Fight: Most of his boss battles take place in his office atop the Howard Connection's tower.
• Expy: Of Thouzer, from Fist of the North Star. Much like the Holy Emperor, Geese shares avian Animal Motif themes, and a backstory of a harsh world without love coming to shape a man into a person of great power but also great evil.
• Final Boss:
  • Of the original Fatal Fury. He is also the True Final Boss in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special as "Nightmare" Geese if the conditions are met.
  • Of The King of Fighters: Neowave, as his younger Art of Fighting 2 self with his white Waistcoat of Style and long blonde hair.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Nobody is entirely sure why SNK chose to name a major crime boss and master martial artist after waterfowl, but after a few fights with him you forget how odd it sounds.
• Flung Clothing: In some of his intros, he'll be shown wearing an elaborate haori that gets taken off. In games where his in-game sprite or model is a Walking Shirtless Scene, he'll throw off his dogi top instead.
• Freudian Excuse: He and his mother were abandoned by his father to the dark slums of Southtown. Geese had to work to help support him and his mother, but she eventually passed away from illness.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a nasty scar on his back from the survival of his first fall. He also has a massive scar across his chest, though the cause of it is uncertain. Initially, it was implied to have been inflicted by Krauser, when they were teenagers^note Geese tried to attack Krauser's father for allegedly abandoning his mother, but Krauser blocked the attack then struck Geese back in retaliation. But during The Motion Picture, Geese attributes the wound to his fight with Terry and implies that his Burn Knuckle left the wound in his chest.
• Grapple Move:
  • His counter move will toss his opponent behind him, putting them in an incredibly disadvantageous state.
  • His Rashomon DM has him fling his opponent upward, then gathers energy around his body and proceeds to unleash a mean punch as the foe falls down.
• Gratuitous English: Just as bad as his rival (most famous for "PREDICTABO!").
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of the first Art of Fighting game, being Mr. Big's boss who gave him the go to kidnap Yuri Sakazaki and force her father to follow his commands
• Ground Wave: His "Reppuuken" special (when it's not a close-ranged clawing attack) sends a wave of Razor Wind across the ground.
• Guest Fighter: Appears as a first season DLC character in Tekken 7.
• Hidden Depths: His bio mentions that he enjoys billiards and he's a fan of The Godfather, as noted by how his favorite music is the "Love Theme" from its score. KOF XV also suggests through his first canonical interaction with his son Rock beyond their initial meeting (as Geese dies in the Fatal Fury timeline before the two ever meet again) that even though he threw her away in pursuit of his own ambitions, he still never forgot about his secret wife Marie after all this time.
• Hypocrite: Much of his formative years and his lust for power are driven by his father's abandonment and desire to prove himself in spite of it. Later on he marries a woman and fathers a son only to leave them with nothing as his criminal ambitions grew, cementing his son's own desire for revenge (thankfully, his apparent death combined with Terry trying to steer Rock away from becoming his father has managed to disrupt the Cycle of Revenge, if not outright break it).
• I Have Your Wife: He kidnaps Takuma Sakazaki's daughter Yuri in Art of Fighting to blackmail him into becoming an enforcer.
• Immortality: Speculation rages over whether Geese received immortality from the Jin scrolls. It's unknown if he truly gained it by KOF, but he seems to love stating that he's immortal whenever he returns in games where his appearance isn't canon. His ending in XIV reveals the status of this sub-plot within the KOF timeline: he has not unlocked the secrets of the Jin scrolls yet, but he entered the tournament to learn more about the events they prophesized regarding Verse and, later on, Otoma=Raga.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Although he isn't ugly nowadays nor does he seem to lament this, Geese's appearance in Art of Fighting 2 (also seen in Neowave) had him as an evil version of Andy Bogard who was a Badass in a Nice Suit.
• In Love with Your Carnage: He gets excited when fighting particularly bloodthirsty opponents like those who have succumbed to Orochi blood.
  That bloodlust, it feels nice... Show me more of that madness of yours. (vs. Iori)
• Incest Subtext: It's a bit... odd, that both Geese's mother and his wife were waifish Caucasian women with almost identical names (Maria, Marie).
• Intergenerational Rivalry: With Terry. Geese murdered Terry's father when the latter was a child, and this instilled a longtime grudge against Geese in Terry. Geese actively looked forward to facing Terry when he saw that the latter was doing well in the KOF tournament, and was determined to defeat him for good after a humiliating loss. By 3 though, Terry has largely let go of his grudge against Geese and now only feels compelled to fight him to stop his evil plans than out of any personal malice. He was even willing to save Geese's life which the latter spitefully denied.
• It's All About Me: Most of his goals involve consolidating power and influence for himself, from running a massive crime empire to seeking out scrolls of immortality. Even his bio states his favorite thing is "himself".
• Jerkass: Villainy aside, Geese wastes no effort in deriding his opponents, engaging in enough Trash Talk to make Terry's quips seem squeaky clean.
  You repulse me!
  Pathetic!
  You're not worth my disgust!
• Joker Immunity: An odd example; in the continuity of The King of Fighters, he's alive and well, but in his home continuity of Fatal Fury and KOF's own Alternate Continuity, the Maximum Impact series, he's dead. And even then, he's appeared in games where he's canonically dead in the form of "Nightmare Geese", a much more powerful "spirit" version of his normal self.
• Kamehame Hadoken: "Shippuken" is an airborne fireball that Geese fires downwards. Rashomon also ends with him firing a massive ki blast at his opponent.
• Ki Manipulation: Like Terry, Geese learned Hakkyokuseiken and can use ki as his attacks, such as his Reppuken and air projectile, Shippuken. His Raging Storm's most common appearance is a rising cage of ki.
• Kick the Dog: A literal example. If Blue Mary fights him as a boss in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special he will begin the match by attacking her dog Antonio.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: His Raimei Gouha Nage command throw only works on downed opponents. His new DM in XIV, Raigou Reppuuken also works like this.
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of Real Bout Fatal Fury. Geese still shows up in the following sequels, Real Bout Special and Real Bout 2: The Newcomers, but both of those titles are considered to being Dream Match Games which has no effect on the current Fatal Fury storyline.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Invoked after his match against Ryo Sakazaki, in Art of Fighting 2. Geese was losing and fled before Ryo could claim his revenge,^note for ordering his sister, Yuri's abduction to blackmail his father, Takuma into working for him by finishing him off with his Haoh Shoko Ken.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Him being Krauser's brother is treated as The Reveal of Fatal Fury 2, but by the time of their reappearance in The King of Fighters '96, the fact is treated pretty casually by the game.
• Leitmotif: "...For Geese" is a series of themes that, from game to game, remains fairly consistent; a combination of hard rock guitar riffs and traditional Japanese instrumentation. The name changes every game, but the most well-known variant is "Soy Sauce for Geese".
• Lightning Bruiser: Some games have him designed as an absolute monster up close. If he can get in his opponent's space, he'll unleash an onslaught of devastating mixups. Deadly Rave also plays this up, with Geese striking faster than he can with any of his normals.
• Longhaired Pretty Boy: In his younger years as South Town's police commissioner (AOF2), which caused some gamers to mistake him for Andy Bogard.
• Long Lost Sibling:
  • He and Krauser are revealed to be half-brothers. And the two don not have a friendly relationship, given Krauser denied Geese his chance of revenged against their father.
  • He's Kain's brother-in-law, having married the latter's sister, Rock's mother.
• The Man Behind the Man: Geese's connection to Mr. Big was first mentioned in the Takara version of Art of Fighting for the SNES, and revealed he was actually the one responsible for ordering Yuri Sakazaki's abduction. This wasn't shown in the arcade version, which ended on a cliff-hanger. But the intro of AOF2 made it official by canonizing the Takara ending almost verbatim.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Geese portrays the image of a corrupt politician: from neatly pressed corporate attire, lavish penthouse suites, to regularly being chauffeured around in black limousines. Even in his first appearance, despite coming to the fight dressed in his akijutsu garb, he reminds everyone who he really is by keeping his Rolex on.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Nightmare Geese's Raging Dead End HSDM/MAX2DM in 2002: Unlimited Match IS this trope, via its Kokuu Reppuu Zan (Empty Air Gale Slash) followup (it was originally one of his normal Supers in Wild Ambition). His hands glow, and if hit, Geese takes off his dogi and starts firing Reppukens like there's no tomorrow. Eventually, they form one XBOX HUEG Reppuken roughly four times the size of a regular one that encases his opponent. He then fires it.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: It was first assumed that being named after a waterfowl doesn't exactly evoke a sense of fear, but geese are also known for dickish behavior. As his name suggests, that doesn't stop him from being a notorious crime lord, and he will kick your ass.
• Never Found the Body: Geese was never seen again after his last fall in 3. It's reported In-Universe that he died from that final encounter with Terry.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Let's face it: when you can survive a fall from a 50-story building (TWICE, depending on the continuity), you are most definitely this.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Nightmare Geese. Both the actual one (at least in Maximum Impact) and the DLC skin you get for Geese when you digitally pre-order KOF XIV. It's Geese as a zombie with glowing red eyes, decaying skin, a completely disheveled and tattered gi, and a Voice of the Legion. The artwork released for the skin even has his facial expression as a Slasher Smile.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His Deadly Rave LDM/HSDM is a Ranbu-style super move where he unleashes a brutal string of strikes on his opponent.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Survived two falls from his tower before the third one that stuck. Or did it?
• Noble Demon: Zig-Zagged. Against many others, Geese is pretty much a textbook scumbag, using manipulation and any other means necessary to reach his goal, and is not above murder, not to mention that he's very much a Corrupt Corporate Executive. However, if someone earns his respect, then he damn well will show it genuinely. He also treats his subordinates very fairly and respectfully, and has a personal sense of honor when it comes to direct combat, the only time he'd ever dismiss that is when he killed Jeff.
• Not Quite Dead: His infamous defeat that sent him flying off a skyscraper wasn't enough to keep him down for good.
• Occidental Otaku:
  • It's heavily implied in almost all his stages and the way he dresses (with the only exception of Art of Fighting 2 when he fights in an executive dress, and in his office) that Geese seems to love Japanese culture maybe too much. In fact, in AOF2, he escapes to Japan after he's defeated.
  • The "Southtown" stage in KOF XIV clearly takes place at the top of Geese Tower and amidst all the Oriental-themed decorations you can spot some American flag banners too so this side of his personality still exists in the KOF timeline.
• Old Shame: In-universe. It's a little-known fact that he once fought Ryo Sakazaki during the finals of the very first King of Fighters tournament. The embarrassing part was, Ryo thrashed him so soundly, that Geese turned tail and ran before Ryo could deliver the coup de grace.
• Optional Boss: In 2002: Unlimited Match, Geese is the last Expert challenge of the Challenge Mode.
• Orcus on His Throne: From KOF '97 to XIII, he was relegated to this, being in his office giving Billy orders. It wouldn't be until XIV that Geese gets an actual playable appearance in a canonical game.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • His father, an Austrian terrorist, left him and his mother to fend for themselves in Southtown. This left his mother to die from health issues and instilled a deep hatred in Geese for the man that abandoned them.
  • He did this to his own son as well. Rock loathes the man not only for abandoning him and his wife Marie, but for turning down his pleas to save his mom the very night that she died. Ironically, Geese hates his father for leaving him and his mother Maria to fend for themselves in Southtown while he went on to become the head of the Strolheim family. Geese even tried to kill his dad, but half-bro Krauser stopped him.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He helped out a young Billy and Lily Kane when the two were orphans on the streets of London. Billy later took a job with Geese out of gratitude, and the two have maintained a close professional relationship.
  • The anime shows him tending fish.
• Pillar of Light: While it's usually a Cage or Claw of Light, the SDM variant of his Raging Storm actually took on this form in '96.
• Playing with Fire: For some odd reason, Geese's Level 3 version of his Deadly Rave in the CvS titles has the final hit setting the opponent ablaze with purple flames.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Speak Softly, Love Is his favorite piece of music according to his bio.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: He was one of Tung's most promising students along with Jeff Bogard. But Tung realized about Geese's thirst for power and criminal connections, so he decided to pass his most sacred techniques to Jeff which caused Geese to leave the school in anger. Years later, Geese would murder Jeff.
• Purple Is Powerful: His specials are sometimes rendered with purple effects, but his Desperation Moves like Raigo Reppuken from KOF XIV stand out. Nightmare Geese takes the trope further by emitting a purple Battle Aura.
• Put on a Bus: Had a lengthy absence starting with KOF '96. Aside from the home ports of 2002 and XI, 98UM, Neowave and 2002UM, SNK never put him in any of the other mainline KOF games. This changes when he comes back in XIV in the base roster and for XV as DLC.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: As Nightmare Geese. Coupled with Glowing Eyes of Doom in 2002: Unlimited Match's artwork.
• The Rival
  • With M. Bison in the SVC games, being the resident Big Bads of their respective series. The two enjoy some very hearty gloating with each other.
  Geese: Well, well. The leader of Shadaloo. So you're Bison?
  Bison: ...Geese Howard, is it? What brings you here?
  Geese: You can't control the world, but I can. So... Now you can die happy.
  Bison: Foo ha ha! How amusing.
  • His guest appearance in Tekken 7 sees him as a rival to Heihachi Mishima, as both of them are the respective villains of their franchises, as well as CEOs of major corporations who have a reputation for being terrible fathers.
  "Mishima...the world is too big for you to control. Leave it all to me. You can just die."
• Running Gag: Falling to his death from the top of Geese Tower. For something that's only happened twice canonically, the second of which led to his actual death, the event gets referenced quite a bit. Best summed up by a fanmade map of Southtown
  Geese Tower Description: The owner of this skyscraper has been spotted falling from the penthouse on countless occasions. He eventually landed wrong.
• Say My Name: Gets this a lot from the Bogard Bros.
• Schrödinger's Cast: Has been dead in the Fatal Fury storyline since 1996, but in KOF he is still alive and well.
• Self-Made Man: Everything Geese earned, he used any means necessary to take it for himself, even if it meant staining his hands with blood and making countless enemies along the way.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Fighting at the top of a tower that doesn't even have proper guard rails isn't the wisest idea, since while he was lucky the first time he fell off, the second one killed him in the Fatal Fury continuity.
• Shock and Awe: His other elemental motif besides wind. Raimei Gouha Nage, Thunder Break, and Raigou Reppuken have his ki come out in the form of a lightning strike.
• Shoryuken: His "Hisho Nichirin Zan" (Sun Cutter) special in older games is similar to Terry's Power Dunk in that he knocks his opponent up as he rises, then does a slicing arm attack that knocks the foe back down.
• Shout-Out: His Hidden Desperation Move from Fatal Fury 3 is a homage to Great Mazinger's "Thunder Break", right down to the name and aesthetics.
• Signature Move: Many of his moves are memorable, but special mention goes to Reppuken, his counter throws and Raging Storm.
• Slasher Smile: Although he's usually a Smug Smiler, his Nightmare incarnation has this as his default expression.
• Smug Smiler: Wielder of one of the most sinister grins in all of fighting game history. The one on Real Bout Fatal Fury's promotional art shows it off best.
• SNK Boss: One of the two main Trope Codifiers (alongside Rugal), though not a Trope Maker (that honor went to Dr. Muckly). Geese's battles are notoriously difficult thanks to an unforgiving AI and plethora of powerful attacks.
• Spell My Name With An S: His Ground Pound energy move (S)DM has been either called Rising Storm or Raging Storm.
• Spirited Competitor: Despite having ulterior motives for entering KOF, it's no secret that Geese enjoys his time even if his opponents tend to not put up much of a fight against him.
• Spiteful Suicide: When Terry defeats Geese for the last time, he tries to save the latter from falling to his death, but Geese lets go of Terry's grip and laughs the whole way down.
• Start of Darkness: In his youth, he managed to track down his father to Europe so that he could kill the latter to avenge the death of his mother. But he was intercepted by Wolfgang Krauser, starting a long feud between the two men. He then went to train under Tung Fu Rue in an effort to achieve greater power, but Tung later expelled him for this very motivation. Years later he would spitefully murder his fellow trainee, Jeff Bogard.
• Super Mob Boss: A crime boss who's controlled the city of Southtown since The '70s during the events of Art of Fighting. But also, he's an incredibly dangerous martial artists who can pulverize enemies who challenge most fighters without help.
• The Syndicate: The Howard Connection is this, controlling a massive network of illicit trading, assassinations, and so on. Although Geese fools the people by using his seemingly benevolent actions and the police force as a front.
• Three-Strike Combo: His Ja'ei Ken special in older games has him strike 3 times if the initial move hits. In XIV he replaces this move with the Fudou Ken which has three different followups depending on the second input entered.
• Too Dumb to Live: While a very capable and cunning villain in every other respect, Geese's propensity for letting himself get knocked off his own tower is so well-known it reaches memetic status in some circles (once could happen to anyone, but twice and you're just being careless).
• Tornado Move: In KOF XIV his Raging Storm is depicted as a tornado around him like his son's version. Geese's is much bigger and significantly more powerful.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Rare steak according to his bios.
• True Final Boss: Of Art of Fighting 2, provided the player won every fight without continuing, or losing any rounds.
• Turn to Religion: Also counts as both a Heel–Faith Turn and his Start of Darkness. When Geese couldn't fulfill his revenge against his father, he turned to religion for a while to ease his hatred and seek forgiveness to such a cruel world he was born into. However, he couldn't keep down the taste of humiliation of defeat and the fear of those who mercilessly reigned power over him violently, leading him to turn to martial arts and learning the meaning of power.
• Undeathly Pallor: The Nightmare Geese skin in XIV depicts him as a decaying zombie with pale blue skin.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Geese was once a kind boy who lived a poor but modest life with his mother Maria. But a combination of Southtown's cruel and cold environment beating him down, the helplessness of his mother dying of malnutrition over his well-being, poverty, being beaten by his half-brother and developing a fear of him, and summing the dark conclusion that power ultimately brings results-regardless of doing good or evil-turned him into the man we all know, respect, and fear today.
• Variant Power Copying: Deadly Rave was created after his battle with Ryo in AOF2. It was a result of Geese taking interest in the Kyokugen style's Ryuuko Ranbu.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: When you beat him in Art of Fighting 2, he escapes when a blackout hits his office and hightails it to Japan.
• Villain of Another Story: He's the Man Behind the Man of Art of Fighting's Mr. Big, making him the Greater-Scope Villain of that series.
• Villain Respect: He likes challenging strong fighters, seeing people like Terry and Ryo as worthy opponents for their continued growth and strength.
  "Drawing out my power this much... I commend you."
• Villain with Good Publicity: Geese's real machinations are generally unknown to the people of South Town because his company, the Howard Connection, creates a substantial firewall between what they appear as and what they actually do. By and large, he's seen as a benevolent and charitable man who uses his connections to better the city but it belies his various criminal ties (turning the company's real purpose into a protection racket that shakes down the locals just so he can step in and clean things up with the front-facing entity).
• Villainous Friendship: He and Billy share a genuine respect and comradery with each other, which explains why Billy continues taking jobs with Geese.
• Villainous Lineage: His father was a terrorist who left Geese and his mother for dead. Geese would grow up to also be a ruthless criminal who left his wife and child for dead. His son Rock narrowly avoids repeating this cycle by actively suppressing Geese's villainous influence.
• Voice of the Legion: All of Nightmare Geese's dialogue in XIV is filtered with a warping effect.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: From Special onwards, he never wears the top of his dogi, effectively becoming his Iconic Outfit. This sticks in KOF XIV and is an alternate outfit in XV.
• Waistcoat of Style: Worn by his younger version, the final boss of Neowave.
• Would Hit a Girl: He kills Lily in the first Fatal Fury movie.
• You Will Be Spared: Occasionally he'll spare his opponents from death or more humiliating defeats if he thinks their skills are commendable.
  "Very interesting. Fine, I'll let you live out of respect of your strength." (vs. Shun'ei)
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The fight against Nightmare Geese is heavily implied to be one big nightmare. Naturally, this version is usually an SNK Boss as well.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: For his first appearance only, the American flag was plastered onto the back of Geese's dogi.

Andy Bogard

Human Weapon (From KOF XV)

"Get a real taste of the Shiranui style!"

Origin: USA

Fighting Style: Shiranui-ryuu Ninjutsu, Hakkyokuseiken

Voiced by: ^note  Jun Hashimoto (Fatal Fury - KOF 94), Keiichi Nanba (95-XIII), Hiroshi Okamoto (XIV-current), Jeff Manning (XII, English), Ryō Horikawa ('94 Dengeki Bunko drama CD), Toshinari Fukamachi (King of Fighters for Girls)

Younger brother of Terry and a McNinja. He was taught a basic form of Shiranui ninjutsu by Mai's grandfather Hanzo. After hearing of his father Jeff's death at the hands of Geese Howard, he joins forces with Terry and Joe Higashi, and the three enter Geese's King of Fighters tournament. Although Andy fights Geese first, he loses badly, and Terry finishes the villain off... maybe. He's also the apple of Mai's eye, although he rejects her advances.

Andy is most prominently a very honest and well-rounded fighter evocative of a Shotoclone, possessing a fireball, several forward-traversing specials, and a Shoryuken, giving him a little bit of everything to play flexibly in battle.

---

• Adaptation Dye-Job: The first anime special gives him blue hair instead of blond.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: As weird as it may sound nowadays, for a brief while he was SNK's closest equivalent to Street Fighter's Ryu, at least before the first Art of Fighting game came out a year later: Andy is vaguely asian-themed, wears sleeveless white clothing with red accessories, and has the closest moves to Ryu/Ken's repertoire among the initial trio. Keep in mind that Fatal Fury was created by the director of the first Street Fighter game, and that Ryu/Ken's Hurricane Kick (their only move without an obvious counterpart in Fatal Fury) was added in at the last minute to replace the unused "Fire Kick".
• Always Second Best: To his older brother, Terry. Andy has lost every time they've competed, despite having studied Koppo Ken and Shiranui ninjitsu. By Mark of the Wolves, he's finally made peace with the fact that Terry's skills exceed his own.
• Always Someone Better: It doesn't get in the way when the rubber meets the road (the duo will always have each other's back) but there is some definite yearning on Andy's part to become the kind of fighter his brother is seen as.
• Animal Motifs: Invoked in the XIV ending. Joe associates him with a praying mantis (due to Mai's fierceness making her his superior) solely because he wanted Andy to fit in with Joe's own tiger motif as well as Terry's wolf one.
• Badass in Distress: The reason why Terry and Mai join the party in Sky Stage is that Andy is among the fighters who got caught in the time/space paradox that the group has to fix.
• Battle Intro: In The King of Fighters XV:
  "A master of Shiranui style ninjutsu. His body is a weapon honed to perfection! Andy Bogard!
  Andy: "Get a taste of the Shiranui style!"
• Best Friend: Of Joe Higashi. Moreso in the anime adaptations, where they're stated to be sparring partners.
• The Bus Came Back: After spending his time in the background to see how Hokutomaru has grown in Garou: Mark of the Wolves (and only getting The Cameo in his ending), Andy returns to help his brother in Garou 2.
• The Cameo: He appears in the background of KOF Stadium in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and also has a spirit battle based on him; the stage and music are based on his Fatal Fury 2 appearance.
• Celibate Hero: Andy's relationship status with Mai varies wildly depending on the incarnation of the character.
  • In the original Fatal Fury canon, Andy's relationship with Mai is strictly platonic, much to her consternation as he's more dedicated to his training rather than pursuing a romantic relationship and has always viewed her as a younger sister.
  • The Fatal Fury OVAs sees the two rather definitively in a romantic relationship.
  • The King of Fighters franchise, which is a loose alternate universe to FF, at first portrays Andy as a Chaste Hero, but he and Mai eventually undergo an official Relationship Upgrade. In fact, their pre-battle interaction in KOFXV sees Mai wager that if she wins then Andy will have to propose to her on the spot. Andy is more alarmed that she would want a proposal right then and there rather than at a proper time.
• Deadly Lunge: His Zan'ei Ken is him doing a quick slide while elbowing his foe.
• Disappeared Dad: Like Terry. The boys' father Jeff was murdered by Geese when Andy and Terry were just kids.
• Diving Kick: In NESTS saga he gets this in form of Gen'ei Shiranui, although it's more of a Diving Knee. It also has a "high" followup and "low" followup.
• Elemental Motifs: Fire. His clothes often have the iconic red flame pattern, and in many games, several of his super moves empower his specials with red hot ki.
• Flash Step: Finally gains one in the form of his Chou Shinsoku Zan'ei Ken Neo MAX from KOF XIII.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: He suffers an injury in 3 that continues to plague him throughout the Real Bout series, but it doesn't seem to hamper him in actual fights.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Despite training extensively in two martial arts forms, Terry still surpasses him through natural talent, resulting from years of surviving on the streets of South Town.
• Henpecked Husband: Or rather "Henpecked Boyfriend". Mai has Andy by her finger once they become an item in XIV, granted Andy was pushing Mai away in all previous King of Fighters so the girl has her reasons; Joe jokes about Andy being completely whipped.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Yes, white is good for camouflage in the winter, but how many times have you seen snow in KOF? No wonder Mai can easily find him... And what need is there for stealth in a fighting tournament anyway? At least alternate palettes are available.
• Home Stage: Not in the first game, but he's had a stage dedicated to him in most subsequent titles.
  • 2: Venice, Italy, where the fighters battle atop a gondola.
  • 3: Howard Arena, a Japanese-style gardened area with authentic-looking shrines in the background.
• Hurricane Kick: "Kuuha Dan" is an arcing kick that can be used to travel across screen and doubles as his secondary anti-air attack. Cho Reppa Dan is the flaming HDM variant.
• Kamehame Hadoken: "Hisho Ken" is his standard projectile, which travels full screen. Whereas the HDM version requires him use it in close quarters.
• Ki Manipulation: Like Terry, he's been taught to harness Ki to empower his fighting abelites. He can utilize it for projectiles or enhancing his melee attacks.
• Leitmotif:
  • From 2, he has "Pasta" for his Home Stage in Italy. The song was rearranged for both KOF XIV (listen here) and Smash Ultimate (listen here).
  • From 3. he has "Thunder Surge Warrior".
• McNinja: A highly visible American ninja. Sure, white does work as camouflage especially in snow, but what need is there for stealth in a Fighting Game?
• Power Trio: With Terry and Joe. The three of them team up to take down Geese in the first Fatal Fury. They'd later form “Team Fatal Fury’’ upon joining the KOF series, and have maintained this team through many installments, only occasionally mixing it up with different team members.
• Put on a Bus: Andy was absent from the rosters of KOF 2003 and XI. As these were the games that were attempting to tie into Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Andy's absence from Team Fatal Fury was explained as him being busy training his new disciple, Hokutomaru.
• Red Is Heroic: His outfit is adorned with red flame pattern; his bracers and footwear are red as well. He's often one of the most morally sound characters in the series.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Terry's Red. Terry is energetic, friendly, and takes pleasure in brawling with strong opponents. Andy meanwhile is composed, stoic, and approaches his training with a dead-serious attitude.
• Relationship Upgrade: Is finally together with Mai as of KOFXIV.
• The Rival:
  • To Terry. He's not the only one, but Terry recognizes Andy as his most legitimate and fiercest rival.
  • In Hokutomaru's ending from Garou, Andy praises his disciple for his growth as a fighter, but then states that their relationship is no longer that of master and student, but that of two rivals.
• Running Gag: A short-lived one during the NESTS Chronicles; in both KOF '99 and 2001, Mai shows up with a tyke of her own in her arms, which then acknowledges Andy/crawls towards to him while shouting "Papa!" Andy's stricken with a look of pure horror and disbelief, only for Mai to reveal that the baby is just a puppet. Andy then nervously attempts to save face. The meaning behind Andy's reaction, of course, is up to interpretation, but them having slept together isn't out of the question since Andy wouldn't freak out that badly if he didn't think the "kiddo" isn't his's...
• Ship Tease: With Mai in the anime movie only. The ‘Fatal Fury’ games make it more one-sided. The King of Fighters XIV gives them a Relationship Upgrade and confirms them as an item in the Fatal Fury team ending.
• Shoryuken: His similarly named "Shoryudan", though it looks more like Kyo's 118 Shiki Orochi, minus the flames.
• Shoto Clone: His moveset is the closest of the original cast to a traditional Shoto's, having a standard fireball, uppercut, and forward-traversing attack.
• Spectacular Spinning: His Shoryodan and Kuuha Dan have him spinning as he performs the attack.
• The Stoic: Andy is very composed overall, contrasting the boisterous attitudes of his brother, his best friend Joe, and his admirer Mai.
• Talent vs. Training: Andy is a much more serious and focused martial artist than his slacker brother Terry. Despite this, Terry always remains ahead of Andy through raw talent.
• Technician Versus Performer: Andy has dedicated the better part of his adolescence studying Koppoken and spent his adulthood being taught the ways of Shiranui Ninjutsu under Mai's grandfather. Whereas Terry is largely Taught by Experience, having honed his skills by surviving the crime ridden streets of South Town. Though he did receive formal training from Tung Fu Ru for a brief time. Whenever Andy challenges his brother, Terry's natural talent and experience gives him the clear advantage.
• This Is a Drill: His Kuuha Dan is him doing a drilling kick while leaping forward. It has a DM version called Chou Reppa Dan where he spins much faster.
• Will They or Won't They?: His Real Bout 2 ending pokes fun at this as Mai imagines the two of them getting married. Otherwise whether or not Andy will truly reciprocate Mai's feelings is up in the air. As of KOF XIV, the two are now officially in a relationship, and XV seems to imply he just wants to approach the relationship at a slow and steady pace.

Joe Higashi

Young Muay Thai Champ (From KOF XV)

"The legend of Joe Higashi begins here!"

Origin: Japan

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Voiced by: ^note Katsuhisa Namase (Fatal Fury - KOF 94), Nobuyuki Hiyama (95-XIII), Kozo Mito (XIV-current), Greg Irwin (XII, English), Kazuki Yao ('94 Dengeki Bunko drama CD), Chiharu Sawashiro (King of Fighters for Girls), George Peter (The New Battle, "Joe vs Big Bear" scene, 2021 English dub)

A Japanese nak muay, he is the best friend of both Bogard brothers, and is a constant in nearly every King of Fighters tournament. He is currently dating Billy Kane's sister Lilly, something her overprotective older brother Billy is not happy about, given his connection to the Bogards (that's for the Fatal Fury continuity; in The King of Fighters he possibly remains single, later being chased around by his unnamed loyal fan). Quite possibly the strongest Muay Thai practitioner in the SNK 'verse, much to credit for his many team ending sequences of him winning other fighting tournaments by himself.
Joe is a fighter with a well-rounded kit, able to bounce between defensive play and breakneck offense, his specials all allowing for explosive combos up close.

---

• Adaptational Jerkass: He's antagonistic towards King in the KOF series, often by flaunting his Bantam Weight championship belt in front her; knowing she isn't allowed to compete for it^note according to Art of Fighting's canon, King once fought for championship, but was disqualified during the title bout when the officials realized she was a woman. The incident became a permanent disgrace for her. because of her gender. And adds insult to injury in KOF XIII by calling her Nak Muay style "fake".
  King: Seems like a good opportunity to ask you something. You say my moves are Muay Thai knock-offs, right? Well, in that case, what's real Muay Thai? Creating a bit of wind with your fists?
  Joe: Ha! My Hurricane Upper came from perfecting the art. Only a true champ can use it! Not that I expect you to understand!
• All Your Powers Combined: His Climax Super, "Bakuretsu Screw Premium", combines the wind power of Hurrican Upper and the lightning-fast punches of a standard Bakuretsu, resulting in Joe's punches launching a barrage of tornadoes at his opponent.
• Alone Among the Couples: Has become something of a running gag in Team Fatal Fury endings in the KOF series. While Terry and Andy both have canon love interests (Blue Mary and Mai respectively), Joe is comically left dateless and playing the fifth wheel on their group dates. To add insult to injury, his repeated attempts to score a date with Lilly Kane is always doomed to get blocked by her older brother Billy.
• Anime Hair: Joe's hair is a bunch of spikes, which have steadily grown taller with each new game.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Loud, boisterous, and loves to project himself as a powerful fighter. He's more arrogant and boastful than Hwa Jai, who's supposed to be the bad Muay Thai user. It helps that Hwa, in XIII, is faking his supposed "badness"; It Makes Sense in Context.
• Battle Intro: In The King of Fighters XV:
  "The Satan of martial arts himself! His fists are a storm chaser's dream come true! Joe Higashi!"
  Joe: "The legend of Joe Higashi begins here!"
• The Big Guy:
  • To the Bogard brothers, of course. As you can see, his might can't go wrong hoisting an alligator over his head.
  • In 2 and Special, he can do a frankensteiner.
• Blow You Away: "Hurricane Upper" is one of his signature specials, resulting in a mini tornado that travels across screen. In later games, it's supplemented by his "Double Hurricane," while the "Exploding Hurricane" is a finisher that has to be manually linked from the final hit of his Tiger Talon HDM.
• Boisterous Bruiser: While the Bogard brothers are typically reserved, Joe is the good-natured braggart of their group.
• The Bus Came Back: Joe completely vanished without even any mention or successor in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. However, it turns out that he's just away from the spotlight for some reason. In Garou 2, he returns and reunites with the Bogard brothers in the battle in Second Southtown.
• Butt-Monkey: Zigzagged.
  • Joe wasn't always loveless, until the anime adaptations characterized him as being unlucky when it came to women. In the game series itself, however, Joe briefly dated Billy Kane's kid sister, Lilly (during the Real Bout saga). But in the King of Fighters series, Billy has prevented Joe from seeing her.
  Joe: Aren't you Lilly's big brother?
  Billy: I'm gonna kill you.
  • The trend continues in some of their team endings, such as KOF XIII where Mary and Mai show up to congratulate Terry and Andy hi on their victory. But Joe gets hugged by the loony fan he rescued in the previous game.
• Calling Your Attacks: While not as memorable as Terry, Joe does still do this with many of his attacks.
  "Hurricane Upper!!"
  "Slash Kick!"
  "Tiger Kick!"
  "SCREW UPPER!"
• The Cameo: He appears in the background of KOF Stadium in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and has a spirit battle based on him; the stage and music are based on his 'Fatal Fury 2'' appearance.
• Celibate Hero: Implied and then defied. Out of the three men in his team, he's the only one who never showed any interest in dating and women to favor his training. In XIV, he secretly becomes quite stressed over this in his team's ending, especially when Terry and Andy are both having dates (with Mai and Blue Mary respectively). Before that in his 2003 ending, Joe gets upset that Terry rescued a sexy lady (Tizoc rescued the child) while he winds up rescuing a gay man who begins to have the hots for him, much to Joe's horror.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In the first two games, Joe was relatively laid-back and reserved. It wasn't until the anime specials (complete with Nobuyuki Hiyama's trademark fiery passion) that Joe evolved into the guy we know today. This characterization has stuck ever since 3.
  • While the later games in the Fatal Fury series often had Joe as the Plucky Comic Relief, he was still treated as a serious and competent fighter. In the KOF series, he's straight up the Butt-Monkey, often the victim of demeaning gags in Team Fatal Fury endings.
• Dash Attack:
  • "Slash Kick" has him rush forward with a leaping kick, often engulfed in flame-like effects.
  • "Ougon no Kakato" has Joe leap forward with an overhead kick.
• Demoted to Extra: Joe used to be a constant companion of the Bogard brothers, but his role and presence in their group has steadily diminished ever since they joined the KOF roster. In later installments, his spot is usually filled by either Blue Mary or Tizoc, and he doesn't even get a mention in Mark of the Wolves.
• Flung Clothing: One of his intros has him dispose of a robe.
• Handwraps of Awesome: He wears kumpur, which are a staple form of hand-protection in Muay Thai. He always wears these in any iteration of the franchise.
• Home Stage: Not in the first game, but he's had a stage dedicated to him in most subsequent titles.
  • 2: Chiang Mai, Thailand, amid a small fishing village.
  • 3: National Park, a jungled area that Joe appears to have trained in, complete with a punching bag wearing Geese's robes.
• Hot-Blooded: He has a clear tendency for talking very loud and has a Screaming Warrior thing going on in the various games he appears in.
• I Shall Taunt You: Big time, usually by mooning his opponent, or poking out his tongue at them. In King's case, he does it by flaunting his championship belt at her at the start of the match.
• Jerkass to One: Joe is generally portrayed as a cocky but otherwise nice fellow. Despite this, over in the KOF series Joe displays a consistent one-sided antagonism towards King. His pre-fight interactions always see him trying to get under her skin by saying her Muay Thai is inferior and bragging about being a champion. King, for her part, tends to treat him like a pest more than anything else.
• Leitmotif: From 2 he has "A New Poem that Southern Thailand Wants to Recite" (try saying that fifty times).
• Martial Arts Headband: Part of his trademark costume. He always wears a Japanese flag headband.
• Megaton Punch: He received one as his LDM in KOF 2003.
• Mooning: His very, very infamous Taunt Button animation. (And his winning portrait in 2001!) Too bad it was suppressed around the start of the NESTS saga.
• Out of Focus:
  • He's absent during Mark of the Wolves and in King of Fighters XI.
  • His relationship with Lilly Kane, and his beef with Billy because of it, hadn't been addressed in the King of Fighters continuity up until XIV. Before that, in XIII, both Terry and Andy get their women, Mary and Mai, embraced in their arms congratulating them for winning the tournament, the logical course of action would be Lilly appearing to congratulate Joe as well, but no, what happens is Joe being chased by the fan he saved in 2003 (named Okama), which appears to be turning into a Running Gag. XIV has him get a special intro with Billy that does bring back this particular animosity. While Joe does manage to score a date with her (though she sees it more as a friendly get together) in the Fatal Fury ending in XV, Lilly has to back out due to visiting a friend in the hospital. If that wasn't bad enough, she tells Billy about it, setting him on Joe's trail, promptly shows up where Joe is and beats him up for it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His Bakuretsu Hurricane Tiger Kakato is basically him chaining 4 of his specials in quick session.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While an impressive fighter in his own right, his skills (and Andy's) pale in comparison to those such as Terry and Rock Howard.
• Playing with Fire: Joe's signature finish is his "Screw Upper": a standing uppercut that results in a massive flame tornado, but it's stationary unlike his standard hurricane. In later games, he tops it with his Twin Tornado HDM, which spawns two of them at once, one on each side.
• Power Trio: With Terry and Andy. The three of them team up to take down Geese in the first Fatal Fury. They'd later form “Team Fatal Fury’’ upon joining the KOF series, and have maintained this team through many installments, only occasionally mixing it up with different team members.
• Pretender Diss: Directed towards King, during their pre-fight dialogue in KoF XIII, when he calls her Nak Muay style "fake" and says he won't lose to her because of it (seen at 2:26-2:37).
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Joe's Bakuretsu, aka the "TNT punch". Though it lacks the vacuum effect of Ryo Sakazaki's "Zanretsuken".
• Shoryuken: "Tiger Kick" is a leaping knee strike, and Joe's primary anti-air.
• Signature Move: Most of his moves are memorable, but especially his Hurricane Upper and Screw Upper, which have been staples of his kit in most playable appearances.
• Slide Attack: He has a sliding kick for a command normal.
• Super Special Move: "Screw Upper" takes his Hurricane Upper and turns it into a massive cyclone, striking well past the top of the screen.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Downplayed and defied in KOF XV. After many years of playing the third wheel to Terry and Andy, Joe finally made some headway with Lilly and scores a date with her in his team's ending. Unfortunately, not only does she have to back out at the last moment, she had also told Billy about it and led him to Joe. In The Stinger, Joe clarifies he isn't deterred despite the beating Billy gave him.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: The Tiger to Hwa Jai's Dragon.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Always fights shirtless in all iterations of the game and in The King of Fighters series. A staple for a traditional Muay Thai fighter.

Duck King

From Real Bout Fatal Fury

Origin: USA

Fighting Style: Breakdance Martial Arts

Voiced by: ^note  Michael Beard (Special) Kong Kuwata (Real Bout onwards), Yūji Mitsuya (OVA; Japanese), Matt Hill (OVA; English)

A street breakdancer who appears in the first game as one of the competitors. In the second game, he opens a nightclub (alongside King), but still fights every now and then. Notable for keeping a duckling in his mohawk. He's a good friend of the Bogards, and even joined Terry's team in KOF XI

---

• Animal Motifs: Ducks; form his name to the duckling he looks after. Even the yellow of his outfit evokes the color of ducklings.
• Anime Hair: He's easily recognized by his blonde and blue striped mohawk.
• The Bus Came Back: KOF XI marks his first playable appearance ever since the Real Bout games.
• Casanova Wannabe: He flirts with many of the female fighters in KOF XI.
  "Sweetheart! Take a gander at this: I devote this dance to you. Quack!"
• Cool Shades: Duck is never seen without his trademark blue rayban sunglasses.
• Dance Battler: His fighting style is based entirely on breakdancing, from his idle animations (which usually has him either juking in place, or pop-locking), to his more devasting attacks such as his "Space Cowboy" HDM, where he generates a miniature storm by windmill kicking his opponent.
• Fun Personified: Duck isn't in it for the money, the KOF Tournament simply gives him a venue to show off his dance moves and promote his club.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: In the anime adaptations, he's friends with the Bogard brothers and Joe, but he's also shown to be on good terms with Billy Kane. The third film even has a scene where he invites Billy to hang around his new nightclub. Billy accepts the invite and congratulates Duck on the opening.
  Duck King: "Hey, Billy. Long time, no see."
  Billy: (making peace sign) "Nice place you got here, Ducky."
  Duck King: "Thanks, man. It's my grand opening. Why not hang around and check it out?"
  Billy: "Right. I think I will."
• Head Pet: His pet ducklings ride on his hair.
• Leitmotif: Duck Duck Dub.
• Perpetual Smiler: The only time you'll see a frown on his face is when he loses. Though, in later games, he simply shrugs it off.
• Put on a Bus: His last playable appearance was KOF XI and hasn't had a playable appearance since then.
• Race Lift: He was clearly white◊ in the first game.
• Spectacular Spinning: Nearly all his special moves involve spinning of some kind, either rolling attacks ala Blanka, windmills, or twirling.
• Sunglasses at Night: He almost never takes off his shades. However, you do get a glimpse of his sunglasses partially popping off of his face if his Flying Spin Attack misses and Duck King crashes into the ground on his back. The only time he's seen clearly without his sunglasses is in the Fatal Fury team's ending in KOF XI, where he has a pair of regular glasses on instead.
• Team Pet: His adorable pet baby duck, P-Chan. She even mimics his moves in battle!
• Totally Radical: With his line of work, it was inevitable, although Duck surprisingly trips the alarm less often than most.

Richard Meyer

From KOF: Maximum Impact 2

Origin: Brazil

Fighting Style: Capoeira

Voiced by: ^note Kong Kuwata (Japanese), Kofi Candela (English)

A former competitor in Geese Howard's tournament. He is the owner of the Pao Pao Cafe. He entered the tournament to promote the restaurant. Although he lost, the restaurant became immensely popular and became a local hangout for fighters in Southtown. He found an apprentice in Bob Wilson, and opened the Pao Pao Cafe 2, giving Bob the management rights.
He returns as a playable fighter in KOF: Maximum Impact 2, entering the Maximum Impact 2 tournament out of boredom.

---

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Many Brazilian players have noted that Richard Meyer's theme doesn't sound exactly like Brazilian Capoeira music, but more like a bizarre mix of traditional Brazilian, Arab and even Indian music with even more bizarre Portuguese lyrics and it fit better for a soundtrack from a movie with Arab belly dancers rather than battle music for a Brazilian capoeirista.
• The Bus Came Back: Maximum Impact 2 is his sole playable appearance to date and only the second time he has even appeared as an opponent. Every other Fatal Fury character save Michael Max have appeared in several other fighting games but Richard has never been seen before or since.
• The Cameo: Showed up as an unplayable opponent^note Usable in the home ports but only by Player 2 in the first game, relegated to dozens of cameo appearances before appearing, fully playable for the first time ever, in The King Of Fighters Maximum Impact 2.
• Chef of Iron: He owns the Pao Pao Café, and is often seen tending the bar in the background.
• Dance Battler: By the third game, technology had improved enough to allow Bob to more accurately portray the fluidity associated with the style.
• Demoted to Extra: Keeps making cameos but never returns to the arena (except once, see above). At least once it's said that he realized he was outclassed in combat and decided to focus on his restaurant.
• Leitmotif: "Haremar Faith Capoeira School - Song of the Fight: Believers Will Be Saved". It was also rearranged for Smash Ultimate.
• Mentor: He's the instructor for Bob Wilson.
• Retired Badass: From Fatal Fury 3 onwards, which introduced his student, Bob Wilson. Which leaves Meyer free to manage the Pao Pao Café full-time.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Only seen during Bob's endings in Fatal Fury 3 and Real Bout, where Richard now dresses as a bartender.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He doesn't wear one as long as he's in the ring. Though he does dress up for managing his café.
• The Worf Effect: The first anime film briefly plays up his credentials during his bout with Terry, who basically shrugs off all of his attacks. One Rising Tackle (and as many seconds) later, Richard was KO'd.

Michael Max

From Fatal Fury: King of Fighters

Origin: USA

Fighting Style: Boxing

An African-American boxer who seeks to test his skills out against many opponents. He competed in the first game, but after losing from within the competition, had decided to retire from mainstream fighting, though he does help train Axel Hawk from time to time.

---

• Alliterative Name: Michael Max.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: He was clearly meant to be SNK's equivalent of Street Fighter II's Balrog, given he was also modeled after Mike Tyson.
• Blow You Away: He also has the Hurricane Upper, though Max's version of it is faster and stronger than Joe's.
• Leitmotif: "The Sea Knows".
• Extremity Extremist: Like Balrog, all of his moves result in punches, even if a kick button is used.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He was clearly modeled after Mike Tyson, the same as with Balrog.
• Put on a Bus: From Fatal Fury 2 onward, he was replaced by Axel, who himself was later also put on the bus. However, Axel Hawk's ending in Fatal Fury Special shows him training alongside a man on a bicycle who might possibly be Max.
• Religious Bruiser: Shown when he does the Sign of the Cross after winning a round.

Tung Fu Rue

From NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

I may be old, but I'll never lose to an inexperienced brat like you!

Origin: China

Fighting Style: Hakkyokuseiken

Voiced by: ^note Shigefumi Nakai (KOF XI), Hajime Shikase (XIV)

Master of the legendary fighting art known as Hakkyokuseiken, Tung was the former sensei of Jeff Bogard and Geese Howard who made a vow not to train any more disciples after the latter killed Jeff out of jealousy. He competed in the first King of Fighters tournament held by Geese, but lost. Living his current days in retirement, Tung occasionally enters a competition to keep his body and mind in shape. In KOF XIV, he joins the King of Fighters tournament as part of the China team alongside Shun'ei and Meitenkun.

---

• Ascended Extra: In the KOF games. He goes from just cameos in the backgrounds, to a secret character in the PS2 version of The King of Fighters XI, to finally a canonical appearance in XIV. And as a member of the protagonist team, to boot!
• The Bus Came Back: After being featured as a playable character in Neo Geo Battle Colosseum and a hidden character in the Playstation 2 version of The King of Fighters XI a decade earlier, he finally makes both his big return AND his actual King of Fighters debut.
• The Cameo:
  • He has appeared in the backgrounds of many KOF stages, and his only playable appearance in the series (XI) is non-canonical as he and several other characters were simply ported over from Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. However...
  • He appears in the background of KOF Stadium in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Death by Adaptation: Died in the first anime special, but is still alive in the games as of Real Bout 2.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: His ability to power up and become a hulking giant was an actual "mode" of sorts in the first Fatal Fury, and every other appearance has him only do so for his super moves.
• Kamehame Hadoken: His Chou Shou Nami LDM.
• Ki Manipulation: Most notably, a more liberal use of muscular inner spirit from the first Fatal Fury. There, it was a Temporary Bulk Change. Now, it's more along the lines of being a Battle Aura/Fighting Spirit.
• Leitmotif: "Four Thousand Years of Chinese History"
• The Mentor: He looked out for Terry and Andy when they were young and had just lost their father. He's also the one to have taught Terry Hakkyokuseiken. He's also the one who adopted Shun'ei and helped him gain control of his abilities as an Amplified Specter.
• Old Master: The geezer is 72-freakin'-years-old and he is the master of the fighting art called Hakkyokuseiken. Not only is Tung a prolific martial artist in his old age, he was the one who taught to Jeff Bogard and both briefly mentored both of Jeff's sons.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Tung Fu Rue is actually an alias. It also happens to be the namesake of the egg dish listed in his profile, cha-tamago.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: As a throw.
• Shout-Out: Has lots of things in common with Kame Sennin/Master Roshi from Dragon Ball, but his personality is different (especially in that he's not a pervert).
• Spectacular Spinning: Senpu Ken and Senpu Gou Ken is him spinning himself around like a dervish. Terry's Rising Tackle is actually a variant of these moves.
• Super Mode: In the first game only, right after losing 1/3 of his life and until losing another third, he would morph into a hulking giant much stronger than his regular self.
• Temporary Bulk Change: In later games, his ability to become gigantic is used more freely.

Hwa Jai

From KOF XIII

Strapped for cash? Bet all your money on me! You'll be rich in no time! Hya ha ha!

Origin: Thailand

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Voiced by: ^note Sōnosuke Nagashiro

An arrogant Muay Thai fighter and early rival of Joe, he becomes a more formidable fighter after getting a little tipsy. He was defeated by Joe and became his friend and sparing partner. Now he teams up with Kim Kaphwan and Raiden in KOF XIII, seeing the tournament as a chance to revitalize his career and get another shot at besting Joe.

---

• Ascended Extra: He's a guy who hasn't been playable since the very first Fatal Fury (way back in 1991) and shows up in KOF XIII.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: He became one to Street Fighter: Alpha's Adon, when Capcom retroactively adapted Hwa's unhinged antagonism towards Joe by having Adon be insane and hostile toward Sagat. Adon also developed a similar laugh, and his moves became jaguar themed like Hwa's.
• Animal Motifs: The cobra, and the Asian dragon. Like the cobra, Hwa Jai's take on Muay Thai has garnered notoriety for being focused on being lethally dangerous to face against, while unlike a lot of martial arts fantasy and ficiton that depicts Asian dragons of being representative of protagonist aspects like mastery over ki and smarter and adaptable internal fighting styles, Hwa Jai adapts in its negative aspects, including striving to arrogantly rise above all others and violently becoming enraged and drunk with power to cruelly rein blows upon those who dare to take his spot. He does however, like how cobras can be "trained" and how Asian dragons have tales of being pacified to not ever take lives again, get better.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • He's definitely unhinged. Point in case, his Final Dragon Kick Neo MAX, where he drags his opponent into the air with a lunging knee and kicks them, leading to a Black Screen of Death. When the player sees him again, he's howling insanely and wagging his tongue. This is usually in battle only, though. Off stage, he's less deranged than other examples.
  • Even more so when he drinks. Even in his idle animation, you can see him drooling and looking crazier than usual, if it was even possible.
• Combat Pragmatist: Shades of it, considering that his DM involves kneeing a guy into the air and then breaking their back on said knee.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After years of antagonism, he finally buried the hatchet with Joe. However, he hasn't given up on trying to defeat him. The difference being that now he's motivated by sportsmanship.
• Demoted to Extra: Makes cameos around Joe, but never gets to fight again until his ascension to The King of Fighters XIII.
• Divergent Character Evolution: He was initially a pallet swap of Joe (except bald), but was eventually given his own character sprite and separate moves to further distinguish him from Joe.
• Drunken Master: He's always got a bottle of what looks like booze in hand, but it's actually an "herbal brew". That said, he still appears inebriated from it such as being red in the face, and his reflexes take a hit whenever he drinks it.
• Evil Counterpart: To Joe, in the earlier parts of the series. In the original game, they share nearly the exact same moveset with two exceptions: Hwa doesn't have a projectile, but he has a drunken mode is unique to him.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: The power drink that Hwa ingests, according to creators, is just a special herbal drink that contains no liquid legal drugs.
• Heel–Face Turn: For the most part. Hwa's defeat in the first Fatal Fury has him reform and realize the errors of his ways, leading him to be a trainer and sparring partner for Joe. In the King of Fighters series, and in XIII, he's brought into Kim Kaphwan's team along with Big Bear like Choi and Cheng, mistaking them for being evildoers who are still up to no good since 1991, and is shown to play along with the act for getting back into the fighting world.
• Leitmotif: "King Cobra is Finally Here".
• Martial Arts Headband: If you want to be technical, it's called a Mongkhon/Mon kon.
• Moveset Clone: His and Joe's movesets are practically identical, but have radically different functionality.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He is evocative of martial artist and actor Michel Qissi, and his role as the villain Tid Po, from the 1989 Jean Claude Van Damme Muay Thai action movie Kickboxer.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Hwa Jai's extreme craziness is only displayed in battle. When off the ring or in conversations, he's less unhinged and can hold his horses to fool Kim off his 'rehabilitation', being savvy enough about Kim's gullibility.
• The Rival: To Joe Higashi, ever since Joe defeated him for the Bantam Weight championship title. The third anime film finally gives him his long-awaited rematch. But after taking punishing blows form Hwa for over a minute, Joe drops him in the opening round with a single well-placed Tiger Kick.
• Start of Darkness: When Hwa lost to Joe, he began engaging in a more rigorous training regiment, but said regiment included focusing on having a more brutal and even killer fighting style, and then spurred Hwa to pick lethal to the death fights with street thugs. He won all of his deathmatches, but word soon got out that he was engaging in murdering to become stronger, and this led him to become excommunicated from the martial arts world, and especially from the Muay Thai community. Naturally, this would lead him to being sought out by Geese Howard, and accepting the favor, hearing that Joe was going to participate in the first game's King of Fighters tournament.
• Super Mode: Activated by drinking from his gourd. In the original game, it would trigger automatically once his health meter dipped below half. Later installments require the player to trigger it themselves, though it requires sufficient super meter to use. Hwa gains huge buffs to his speed and attack power, but he's unable to block until the effect wears off.
• Wakeup Call Boss: In the first Fatal Fury; Technically, all the fighters are "bosses" since you can't play as them, but the first four are easy, and then Hwa Jai amps up the difficulty tenfold, especially in his "drunken" state where he auto-dodges all of your attacks.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Always in his Muay Thai gear which excludes a shirt of any kind.

Raiden/Big Bear

From KOF XIII

^{Click to see Big Bear (FF2)}
From heel to face.

I AM RAIDEN!

Origin: Australia

Fighting Style: Pro Wrestling

Voiced by: ^note Dango Takeda (FF2-Special), John Hulaton (Wild Ambition, SNK vs Capcom series), Daisuke Gōri (XII), Iain Gibb (XIII), Hisao Egawa (anime specials), Robert O. Smith (anime specials, English), Earl Fisher (The New Battle 2021 English dub)

A professional wrestler who appeared in the first Fatal Fury game. Originally he was bribed by Geese Howard into serving him, but after Geese's defeat went straight and narrow, reverting to his kindly Big Bear persona. He doesn't make an appearance in KOF until XII (although he was originally considered to represent England in '94). His Face persona is still Big Bear, but Word of God says that Raiden was chosen over him due to a lack of villains in XII. He eventually leaves Geese's employ to return to his homeland, passing up KOF for many years due to his satisfaction with his Face and Heel personas. While there's a slight misunderstanding about his current allegiance, Raiden decides to join Kim and Hwa Jai, believing that it will help boost his reputation as a fighter.

---

• Acrofatic: He can pull off a dropkick despite being a girthy, musclebound giant. He's even more so in his appearance in XII and XIII, where he has an anti-air grab that has him leap into the air like a wildcat, and his Raiden Bomber desperation move has him actually leap impossibly high into the air to crush his opponent underneath him.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: He's SNK's equivalent of Zangief, from his beard to his massive girth and career as a pro-wrestler. It's probable that Big Bear's name itself may be an allusion to the fact that Zangief is said to have perfected his Spinning Piledriver by practicing it on Grizzly bears.
• Ascended Extra: After an unexpected appearance in both Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2, Raiden crossed over to KOF in The King of Fighters XII (originally, he was to appear in '94, but the original idea for the England Team was axed; in 2003, the dev team thought Tizoc would be a better and more popular choice).
• Awesome Aussie: The series's sole Australian rep, a massive heel wrestler who can leap across the air with an opponent.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Obviously, since he's a wrestler and all.
• Breath Weapon: In some appearances he can spit a green most at his opponent. It's unclear what it is, though it doesn't seem poisonous at least.
• Composite Character: In Wild Ambition, Raiden sports his trademark mask, but also is decked out in the beard of his Face persona, Big Bear. This would carry over into the CvS games.
• Cool Mask: As Raiden he wears this.
• Face–Heel Turn: According to his backstory, he became Raiden after his tag-team partner betrayed him in the ring. He then went to work for Geese as an enforcer. After being bested by Terry & co., Raiden had a change of heart and reverted to his honorable, kindly Big Bear persona.
• Fat Bastard: Usually as Raiden, though as Big Bear he becomes Big Fun.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: His original desperation move is a fire breath attack.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Although as of late, this is just his wrestling gimmick. In real life, he'd be a Face.
• Land Down Under: His character bio says he's from Australia, but he's missing the accent to go with it.
• Manly Facial Hair: Big Bear grows out his facial hair after his face turn, and remains a powerhouse to go with it.
• Leitmotif: "Raiden the Brave", which is rearranged into "Tarkun and Kitapy" for 2. Also has a rearrangement in Smash Ultimate..
• Megaton Punch: His Raiden Bomber Neo MAX in XIII, although a more accurate description would be Megaton Clothesline.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: As of now, Raiden has cut his ties with Geese and his Face–Heel Revolving Door status is a merely an in-the-ring gimmick. In reality, he's a face.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Of Big Van Vader, who was massively popular in Japan.
• The Rival:
  • The original anime film cast him as Joe's opponent. By the following film, Raiden tries to settle the score in a rigged exhibition match, but Joe defeats him again.
  • Zangief is his rival match in the Capcom vs SNK series, complete with a special pre-fight animation for when they face each other.
• Stout Strength: Like his inspiration Vader, he's a large, portly guy strong enough to do a Neck Lift on unfortunate souls.
• Underwear of Power: One of his XIII color schemes (based off of his very first costume from Fatal Fury). He's fighting in little more than a speedo.

Billy Kane

Right Hand of the King (KOF XV)

^{KOF XIV Design}
From KOF XV

^{FF2/Special Design}
From Special

^{Real Bout/KOF Design}
From KOF '97

Bring it on!

Origin: England

Fighting Style: Bojutsu

Voiced by: ^note Daiki Nakamura (for the first anime special, Japanese), Paul Dobson (for the animated adaptations) (English), Katsuhisa Namase (KOF '95), Atsushi Yamanishi (KOF '97-KOF 2002, Maximum Impact series), Seijirou (2003, XIII), Masaki Masaki (XIV, The King of Fighters: Destiny), Marc Donovan (Maximum Impact 2, English), Tomohiro Nishimura (Fatal Fury anime)

Geese's loyal right-hand man ever since the first Fatal Fury. A punk from England whose skill with a staff is second to none, he's nonetheless committed to his sister Lilly, and when Geese was killed, returned to England to support her. In the King of Fighters series, his involvement generally pertains to carrying out Geese's requests, such as investigating the Orochi power in the '95 and '97 tournaments, the former of which earned him a beatdown from Iori Yagami, causing a serieswide hatred of the redhead. In the Maximum Impact series, where Geese was killed, he trys to convince Rock to follow in his father's footsteps. In The King of Fighters XIII he returns to his original attire and enters the tournament for the first time not under orders from Geese; this time on a personal "mission" to find and defeat Iori. He returns to his normal duties in XIV and XV as DLC, now fighting alongside Geese for the first time in the series' history.
Billy is a fighter that can strike from afar thanks to his trusty staff. The rest of his kit gears him towards an aggressive rushdown playstyle once he's able to land a few stray hits to disorient his foe.

---

• Badasses Wear Bandanas: He's had a bandana in all of his designs, marking him as a skilled fighter.
• Bald of Evil:: It depends on the game, actually. In the original Fatal Fury games and KOF '95 he has his head shaved bald. In '97, '98 and Maximum Impact, he has let his blond hair grow. And in XIII, he shaves his head bald again. From what can be seen in XIV, it looks like he grows it again.
• Battle Intro: In The King of Fighters XV:
  "He'll bash out one who gets in the way of his leader! Also known as The Emperor's Right-Hand Man, Billy Kane!"
  Billy: "Bring it on!"
• Because You Were Nice to Me: One of his main motivations for serving Geese alongside providing for his sister Lilly, due to him picking him up off the streets and him wanting to return the favour.
• Berserk Button: Four of these. One, don't insult Geese. Two, don't bring up his sister Lilly (and worse if the other person tries to shame him because of her). Three: don't be Iori. Four: don't smoke near him.
• Big Brother Instinct: To his sister Lilly. Needless to say, he does not approve of Joe and Lilly dating.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Justfied. Despite being a much more powerful and skilled fighter than Billy, Geese is still human. He is not immune to attempts on his life such as Mr. Big's one in the Boss Team ending in KOF '96. Had Billy not positioned his staff at the exact moment and time, his boss would have been murdered.
• Boring, but Practical: His Santsetsukon Chuudan Uchi special attack simply involves a long poke from his staff. Thanks to its ridiculous range and stun properties, it also makes Billy the most broken character in The King of Fighters-i 2012, to the point where he can solo Team Battle Mode and get perfect victories on Ash Crimson.
• The Cameo: He appears in the background of KOF Stadium in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Chain Pain: Swings a sansetsukon that can also be held together as a single rod and set alight with flame.
• Counter-Attack: in some games he has 2 types of counter specials.
• Cycle of Hurting: Is vulnerable to this in Fatal Fury 1, as his staff is fragile and will break if you score a knockdown or he throws it at you like a javelin. As long as you stay on him and throw him as soon as he's given another staff, you can chain throw him into match point.
• The Dragon: Serves as Geese's right-hand and personal bodyguard, including at the KOF Tournament. Anyone who wants a shot at Geese's title has to go through Billy first.
• Energy Ring Attack: His Chou Kaen Senpuu Kon DM has him do this, twirling his staff first to build up the fire then whipping it forward and thrusting the flame as a rolling flame ring towards his foe.
• Evil Brit: He's of the British hooligan type, being Geese's top enforcer and a crafty, streetwise fighter.
• Gratuitous English: Justified given he is an Englishman.
• Hammerspace: Maybe. In his 2002 HSDM, if Billy is attacked while he doesn't have his staff, he'll pull out a second staff from underneath his jacket.
• Heel–Face Turn: EX Billy does this in Real Bout Special realizing that without anyone to care for him, he should start clean and change his ways. He even tints his bandana and cane pink. Sadly, many are freaked out by the redeemed and gentle Billy. Mai shoots down the guy's advances without hesitation, although Billy should have been expecting that...
• Hitbox Dissonance: While his weapon gives him great range (sometimes propelling him into Game-Breaker status), Billy is probably the one character in KOF most notorious for adhering to being on the wrong end of this trope. One great example can be found here.
• It's Personal: He's had a grudge against Iori since '95, where he and Eiji get beaten down viciously by Iori. The one time he enters a KOF tournament for reasons that don't relate to Geese, it's to try and settle the score with him.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Walking on a Bridge, Striking with a Staff".
  • From 2, "The London March". Also has a rearrangement in Smash Ultimate.
  • From Real Bout, "N.D.R."
• Matchstick Weapon: He can set his staff ablaze to inflict fire damage.
• Morality Pet: His sister Lilly is one to him. He provides for the both of them through his work and is generally protective of her.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: In the King of Fighters series, Billy is the reason Joe's relationship with Lilly has seemingly ground to a halt. It's mainly due to Joe helping the Bogards to oppose his boss, but also because Billy thinks Joe is a playboy.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His outfit in KOF '95 (carried over from the first Fatal Fury game) appears to be modeled after former English pro-wrestler, Dynamite Kid. Later games have Billy resembling Axl Rose.
• Noble Demon: Despite working for Southtown's most feared crime lord who also acts as its "true ruler", Billy is only in with Geese for having essentially adopted him and Lilly off of the harsh streets of London akin to his surrogate son and daughter and their shared backgrounds as those who have come from skid row out into hard fought (if dubiously attained) riches away from the gutter with immense respect. At worst, and even then, and much unlike Geese's other underlings who are in to get money by making pain out of malice, Billy's only in for the easy money and to pay Geese back for his hospitality and generosity.
• Noble Top Enforcer: He's a surprisingly decent chap for a crime boss' right-hand man, even being rather... friendly to the Fatal Fury crew he's usually at odds with.
• Odd Friendship: With Eiji and Blue Mary. The former is more so due to their mutual hatred of Iori, and he's more of Consummate Professional in regards to Mary. He's even something of a Friendly Enemy to Terry and co. nowadays.
• Oh, Crap!: He'll freak out hard if he wins a match against his boss.
  "G, G, G... Geese. Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
• Playing with Fire: All of his DM and HDM techs ignite his staff to deal insane amounts of damage. In certain installments, several of his standard specials also set his opponent ablaze when they connect.
• Precision F-Strike: He screams "Go to hell!" during his Great Windmill DM.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's 100% loyal to Geese to the end, and will bust heads on command, but he's not such a bad guy when he's off the clock.
• Punny Name: "Kon" in Japanese roughly means "cane."
• Ring of Fire: His "Salamander" HDM has him rapidly spin his staff to generate a flame ring before he flings it across screen. If done while his opponent is trapped in a corner, the spinning portion juggles them for additional damage.
• The Rival: Who it applies to varies between the games themselves and the anime adaptations.
  • In the game series, his beef is with Terry because he defeated Billy during the semi-finals of the original game. Doubly so, since Terry went on to defeat Geese and was responsible for his death.^note In Fatal Fury, Terry attempts to kill Geese to avenge his adopted father's death. The animosity carries over into KOF where he teams up with Iori to get back at Terry.
  • The anime changed it by having Andy be the one to defeat Billy. Despite this, their resulting rivalry is downplayed since Billy never gets his chance to settle the score with him. Instead, Andy is challenged by Laurence Blood and Hauer in the second and third films respectively.
• Shirtless Scene: Except for 2/Special, where he wears a Union Jack tee with the sleeves ripped. In the first game and in the Real Bout series, he wears no shirt under his dungarees or jacket, respectively.
• Shoryuken: His Kyoushuu Hishou Kon special, with an added attack where he falls down at a range from his initial position.
• Shout-Out: His original appearance was similar to former British pro wrestler Dynamite Kid. His redesign in the Real Bout series has Billy looking like Axl Rose (only without long hair).
• Straight Edge Evil: He specifically has a problem with smoking. He wears the sign on the back of his jacket and will knock the block off of anyone who blows smoke in his face. The only exception to this rule would seem to be Geese.
• Telescoping Staff: His staff can break into segments held together by a chain. Having a staff in a game full of weaponless fighters makes Billy's range his greatest asset.
• Undying Loyalty: Before anything else, he is loyal to Geese Howard. In MI, he retires to the English countryside after Geese's death... and then he hears of another gang moving into Southtown and heads right back, because only Geese deserves to rule Southtown.
• Villainous Friendship: He and Geese share a genuine respect and comradery with each other, which explains why Billy continues taking jobs with Geese.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Wore an Union Jack shirt in his Fatal Fury 2/Special appearance. His bandana in XIV (above) has a Union Jack pattern with a reversed color scheme.
• The Worf Effect: He gets his ass kicked a lot by up-and-coming villains like Iori.
• Would Hit a Girl: In the second episode of Another Day, he does not hesitate in fighting Lien Nevile.