Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

This film is a continuation of the two previous Fatal Fury movies, but unlike the previous two members of the trilogy, this one is of normal length for a film and appears to have a theatre-release budget.

The time and budget were put to competent use, as no one can deny that this is the most "epic" of the three. The fight scenes are bigger and longer, the moves from the game are shown in their full glory, and you just get more and better of what you got in the first movie as well as a lot more of the sexualization of Mai from the second movie.

In raw terms, however, the plot is generic martial arts fluff. A rich man with apparently infinite money at his disposal is looking to collect a bunch of pieces of Exodia to achieve ultimate bragging rights. He has cyborg henchmen and mutant henchmen (whose eyes also glow red sometimes so they might actually be cyborg mutant henchmen).

The plot will be like water, filling any of the various containers it's put into. Characters will defy gravity for no reason, the relationship between twins will show a complete defiance of basic biological principles, and a team of martial artists that had trouble defeating the henchmen of gods will suddenly have no problem defeating the giant god itself. I would would laugh at how they turned a game about petty revenge in martial arts circles into an international action thriller of global proportions, but actually the King of Fighters series is no stranger to plots involving the saving of the world from otherworldly divine forces, so it fits.

It's a big beautiful mess, with sleek animation and all the cameo appearances from the game you could want, as well as a healthy dose of Mai Shiranui and the twins. Action anime fans and fans of SNK lore won't be disappointed with this adaptation.

Honourable Mentions: Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle (1993). I found the simplistic plot arc and marginally better character and villain development in the second movie to be much more fulfilling from an artistic standpoint, but the grand nature of this film did give it a lot more mainstream appeal.