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"The successor of two legends! Will his heritage decide his future? ROCK HOWARD."
- The King of Fighters XV

Rock Howard (ロック・ハワード) is a character from the Fatal Fury series. He was introduced in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory as the biological son of the main antagonist of the series, Geese Howard, who gained a friendship with his arch-nemesis, Terry Bogard. He made his proper playable debut in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the latest chapter in the Fatal Fury series, as the new protagonist of the franchise.

His official nickname is "The Wolf's Pedigree" (おうかみ血統けっとう)[2], and in KOF XV, "Fly-By-Night Wolf" (やみかけるける餓狼がろう).

Personality[]

Rock is a shy young man with an inner struggle. Usually as a bit of a gag, he's often nervous around women, especially those older than him, with the exception of Hotaru Futaba (for being kind and compassionate with him). He is also a childhood friend of Kim Kaphwan's sons, Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan.

He is shy with women as aforementioned due to being around men throughout most of his early life as Terry was raising him, though in a more serious case of his insecurities, every day Rock fights off his evil side in order not to succumb to it, and tries to get out of the shadow of his father. He often decries the evil blood in him, which intensifies whenever he uses stronger energy-based attacks, which in some cases causes him pain. He is not proud of his heritage and refuses to refer to Geese as his father, stating him to be "that man" or "that person".

He is the "middle ground" between Geese's excessive evil and Terry's excessive festive personality. Rock is also very compassionate, offering to help those in need (he offered to help Hotaru find her brother).

Powers[]

  • Gather Chi - Rock can gather chi energy.
  • Sense - Rock can sense the presence of people nearby.
  • Energy Projectile - Rock can fire a projectile of energy called Reppuuken, just like his father's. He can even use the Double Reppuuken.
  • Energy Attack - Rock can use chi to increase the damage of his normal attacks (punches, kicks and so forth). He uses this power in a similar fashion Terry does and, sometimes, the energy takes the form of wings.
  • Energy Geyser - By touching the ground with his hands, Rock can make a geyser of energy come from below the ground. He called this attack Raging Storm. Rock's Raging Storm differs from Geese because Rock's version is weaker (as well as resembling a gust of wind more so than Geese's).

Skills[]

  • Acrobatics - Taught by Terry, Rock is proficient in acrobatics. His move Rising Tackle is an example of this.
  • Basketball - Having played basketball with Terry since a young age, he has become a very proficient player.
  • Cooking - Having learnt to live by himself since a young age under Terry's tutelage, Rock is very proficient at cooking, as he knows how to cook and prepare several kinds of different culinary recipes.
  • Motorcycle Driving - Rock likes to drive around Second Southtown with his Honda.
  • Musical Instrument - Rock is a very skillful bass player.
  • Musical Mimicry - Rock can recall and replay a musical melody he hears.

Fighting Style[]

Much of Rock's fighting style came from Terry and Geese. Terry taught him the arts of Boxing, Karate, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Street Fighting, while he instinctively uses aikijutsu moves derived from his father, Geese Howard. A combination of both of these sides tends to be his Crack Counter technique, a counter/reversal move that is a combination of aikijutsu's reversal-techniques and Terry's form of basketball-motif kickboxing (via Terry's Crack Shoot). Rock also uses a version of Terry's Buster Wolf known as the Shining Knuckle.

The techniques Rock directly lifts from his father are so far, the Reppuuken, Raging Storm, Shinkuu Nage and Deadly Rave (known instead as the Deadly Rave Neo); like his father, he too has a mythology demon-based attack, known as the Rasetsu (the Japanese name for Rakshasa). Via Terry's influence, Rock uses a variation of his Power Dunk during his Rage Run: Type "Dunk" (with his Type "Shift" variation being named after the over-shift term), though the only shared technique between them is the Rising Tackle.

Even so, by mixing all these arts, Rock uses a unique fighting style, which gameplay-wise transitions into a well-rounded style that can allow him to apply pressure, mix-up and mindgames all at once. However, this comes with trading both Geese's power and Terry's simplicity in favor of versatility and speed, which still leaves gaps he must try hard to make up for.

Music[]

Song Title Game Appearances Track
Fatal Fury series
Spread the Wings
  • Garou: Mark of the Wolves
The King of Fighters series
Emergence
  • The King of Fighters XIV
  • The King of Fighters All Star
Sympathy For The Wolves -KOF XV ver.-
  • The King of Fighters XV
Way to the Horizon
  • The King of Fighters XV (as Geese's opponent)
Days of Memories series
Raging Fight
  • Days of Memories

Voice Actors[]

Japanese[]

Eiji Takemoto Yūma Uchida Ami Koshimizu
Etvarhr
Yūma Uchida
Amikoshimizu
List of Roles:

English[]

Jon Thomas Mike Lane Griffin Puatu
List of Roles:
List of Roles:
Griffinpuatu

Appearances[]

Games

Mobile

Cameos

Anime

Trivia[]

  • Rock's face looks similar to Awakened Kaede from The Last Blade series, featuring nearly identical hair color, style and eyes. Possibly to take a jab at this similarity, SNK Playmore included Kaede's outfit as an extra uniform for both KOF: Maximum Impact games.
    • In Kimi wa Hero, Terry was unable to tell them apart and greets Kaede under the assumption that he's Rock.
    • He inadvertently caused a redesign for K' due to a similar hairstyle; K' is now wearing his shades constantly since XIII.
  • Rock's theme in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Spread the Wings, uses part of the melody from the late Robert Miles's song, Children. This was intentional as the composer of Garou′s soundtrack is a fan of Miles.
    • Unlike some theme song entries in KOF XIV, Rock's original theme does not receive an arranged, new version, but instead is replaced by an entirely new theme, Emergence, possibly due to copyright issues. This also extends to Rock and Geese's Destiny Battle Theme, Way to The Horizon, which contains elements to both songs (Spread the Wings and Emergence).
  • Ironically, Rock's predicament of losing his mother, Marie, and developing a vendetta against his own father is exactly the same scenario in Geese's life as well, unwittingly repeating history with his own son.
    • The only difference is that Rock does not have a sibling (unlike Geese's case, who has a half-brother, Wolfgang Krauser).
  • Despite of being a German/American descent, in his battle quotes, Rock mostly speaks in Japanese, compared to both Terry and Geese's English, who at least codeswitches in recent appearances.
    • This was first averted in Maximum Impact, and most recently, in City of the Wolves.
  • A character that looks similar Rock Howard appears in the Fatal Fury Team's ending in The King of Fighters 2003. He has blue eyes and an orange-and blue jacket, and blond hair similarly shaded to Rock's. However, this character is not Rock, as he appears as a child in KOF 2003's opening.
  • At the time of his debut, he was voted as the number one favorite character with a total of 190 votes.[3]
  • Although his canonical appearance in The King of Fighters main series was highly anticipated, the KOF staff revealed that they had no plans to place him in the roster due to their respects for the old Fatal Fury staff; SNK members seem more interested in placing Rock in the next Fatal Fury installment. Despite this, Rock would make his first playable appearance in KOF: Maximum Impact, and then again in a mainline entry, The King of Fighters XIV and later in The King of Fighters XV, for the first time having an official team as the leader of Team Garou.
  • In his development blog for KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Ureshino states that he doesn't know about Rock's mother or the true inheritor of Geese's legacy, but hints that it would most likely conflict with Terry. Rock's scenario in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 explores his personal take on the character's actions in the yet to be released Mark of Wolves sequel.

Cards[]

Card Fighters Clash DS Untitled1 Kimi Wa Hero

Sprites[]

Garou: Mark of the Wolves Capcom vs Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Rock's profile page from the Fatal Fury 15th Anniversary website (Japanese) Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Garou" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Garou" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Garou" defined multiple times with different content
  2. Official character profile from KOF Maximum Impact Regulation "A"
  3. Garou: Mark of the Wolves popularity poll from neogeo.freeplaytech.com
Fatal Fury characters
Fatal Fury - King of Fighters Logo Sprite Terry BogardAndy BogardJoe HigashiRichard MeyerMichael MaxDuck KingTung Fu RueHwa JaiRaidenBilly KaneGeese Howard
Fatal Fury 2 Logo Sprite Kim KaphwanMai ShiranuiCheng SinzanJubei YamadaBig BearAxel HawkLaurence BloodWolfgang Krauser
Fatal Fury Special Logo Sprite Ryo Sakazaki
Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory Logo Sprite Blue MaryBob WilsonFranco BashHon-FuSokaku MochizukiRyuji YamazakiJin ChonreiJin Chonshu
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special Logo Sprite Nightmare GeeseShadow AndyEX Blue MaryEX Billy KaneEX Tung Fu RueIori Yagami
Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special Dominated Mind Logo White
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers Logo Sprite Rick StrowdLi XiangfeiAlfred
Fatal Fury - First Contact Lao
Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition Logo Touji SakataTsugumi SendoMr. Karate II
Garou - Mark of the Wolves Logo Sprite Rock HowardB. JenetLillien KnightsKim Dong HwanKim Jae HoonHotaru FutabaItokatsuGatoTizocMarco RodriguesHokutomaruKevin RianFreemanGrantKain R. Heinlein
Fatal Fury - City of the Wolves Logo Preecha
Fatal Fury - Legend of the Hungry Wolf Logo Lily McGuire
Fatal Fury 2 - The New Battle Logo Tony
Fatal Fury - The Motion Picture Logo Sulia GaudeamusLaocorn GaudeamusPanniHauerJamin
The King of Fighters characters
KOF '94 Logo Sprite Kyo KusanagiBenimaru NikaidoGoro DaimonTerry BogardAndy BogardJoe HigashiRyo SakazakiRobert GarciaTakuma SakazakiRalf JonesClark StillHeidernAthena AsamiyaSie KensouChin GentsaiKingMai ShiranuiYuri SakazakiKim KaphwanChang KoehanChoi BoungeHeavy-D!Lucky GlauberBrian BattlerRugal Bernstein
KOF '95 Logo Sprite Iori YagamiBilly KaneEiji KisaragiSaisyu KusanagiOmega Rugal
KOF '96 Logo Sprite Leona HeidernMatureViceKasumi TodohGeese HowardWolfgang KrauserMr. BigChizuru KaguraGoenitz
KOF '97 Logo Sprite Shingo YabukiYashiro NanakaseShermieChrisBlue MaryRyuji YamazakiOrochi IoriOrochi LeonaOrochi YashiroOrochi ShermieOrochi ChrisOrochi
KOF '99 Logo Sprite K'MaximaWhipBaoLi XiangfeiJhun HoonKyo-1Kyo-2Krizalid
KOF '99 Evolution Logo VanessaSethSyo KirishimaAlfredFiolina GermiGai Tendo
KOF 2000 Logo Sprite RamónLinHinako ShijoKula DiamondClone ZeroFoxyCandy DiamondAnother K'Another IoriAnother BenimaruAnother RobertCosplayer KyokoKang Bae DalSmart ChangCool ChoiKaoru WatabeBaitangDuck KingLilly KaneKim Jae HoonKim Dong HwanUnknownKing LionKim Sue-ilKaedeDuke EdwardsRockyAthenaNeo & GeoG-Mantle
KOF 2001 Logo Sprite May Lee JinjuK9999ÁngelZeroRonGluganIgnizMistyNests
KOF EX Logo Moe Habana
KOF 2002 Logo Sprite Kusanagi
KOF EX2 Logo Reiji OogamiJun KagamiMiu KurosakiSinobu Amou
KOF 2003 Logo Sprite Ash CrimsonDuo LonShen WooTizocGatoMalinMaki KaguraAdelheid BernsteinMukai
KOF MI Logo Alba MeiraSoiree MeiraLien NevilleMignon BeartChae LimDukeRock Howard
KOF XI Logo Sprite OswaldElisabeth BlanctorcheMomokoB. JenetShionMagakiSilberSho HayateJyazuHotaru FutabaItokatsuTung Fu Rue
KOF MI2 Logo Luise MeyrinkNagaseJivatmaNinon BeartHyenaHanzo HattoriKyo Kusanagi ClassicWild WolfMr. Karate IIArmor RalfRichard Meyer
KOF MIRA Logo Xiao LonMakoto Mizoguchi
KOF '98UM Logo Nightmare Geese
KOF 2002UM Logo Nameless
KOF XII Logo Raiden
KOF XIII Logo Hwa JaiSaikiEvil AshMr. Karate
KOF XIV Logo Shun'eiMeitenkunGang-ilLuongXanaduSylvie Paula PaulaKukriMianNelsonZarinaBandeiras HattoriKing of DinosaursHeinNakoruruMamahahaMui MuiLove HeartAlice Garnet NakataAntonovVerseNajd (Aila)
The King of Fighters XV Logo Isla (Amanda) • DoloresKrohnen McDougallRe VerseOtoma=RagaHaohmaruDarli Dagger
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