Why does video game star Terry Bogard pose before his iconic attack? We ask the developers

We’ve got a burning question about Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters’ Burning Knuckle, and only SNK themselves can give us the answer.

Right now, Terry Bogard is the man of the hour in the world of fighting video games. After debuting as the protagonist of 1991’s Fatal Fury, Terry has gone on to appear in dozens of games for developer SNK’s ensuing Fatal Fury and King of Fighters franchises, as well as appearing as a guest fighter in Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and, as of this week, Capcom’s Street Fighter 6. He’s also set to star in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, the first new entry in the Fatal Fury series in 26 years and a direct sequel to the legendary Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Terry has picked up some new moves over the course of his decades-long career, but his signature attack is one he’s had from the very beginning, the Burning Knuckle (or “Burn Knuckle,” as it’s officially called in Japanese versions of the games), in which Terry leaps at his opponent with an outstretched fist surrounded with blazing energy.

Useful for zoning, poking, and combos, it’s safe to say that Terry just wouldn’t be Terry without the Burning Knuckle. There’s something that’s been bugging us about the move for 30-plus years, though, which is this:

Before Terry throws the punch that becomes the Burning Knuckle, he throws both of his arms out, angled slightly upwards. This pose was present in the very first Fatal Fury (pictured above), which didn’t differentiate between light and heavy attacks, and while in subsequent games it’s not always part of the light-punch version of the Burning Knuckle, it’s always present in the heavy-punch version.

▼ The strong-punch Burning Knuckle in The King of Fighter XV, the most recently released SNK-produced game in which Terry appears.

▼ The pose is even part of the rough development sketches for Fatal Fury 2 and 3.

But why does Terry do this? That pose would leave him completely exposed in the middle of a fight, so it must have some benefit, right? Researching the topic online, we came across two prevalent fan theories, one of which is that Terry is striking this pose to gather some sort of ki or internal energy, and the other is that he’s throwing his arms out to release the energy, causing it to flare up around his fist.

However, these fan theories are just that: fan theories. To get the real answer, you’d have to ask SNK themselves…so that’s exactly what we did.

Specifically, we asked Yasuyuki Oda. Oda joined SNK in 1993 as a debugger working on Fatal Fury Special, and subsequently served as the planner for Mark of the Wolves, director of The King of Fighters XIV, and producer of The King of Fighters XV and the upcoming City of the Wolves. Basically, he’s today’s highest authority when it comes to the Fatal Fury series, so we put our question to him: Why does Terry do that pose at the start of the Burning Knuckle?

His answer:

“There’s no deep meaning behind it. We just want him to do something cool as he’s throwing out a special move, and it’s a pose that came about from the idea of something that fits the image of shouting ‘Burn!’ As the fighting game boom progressed, we sometimes trimmed it [from the light-punch version] or made it quicker or less pronounced to fit the increasing speed of gameplay within the genre.”

In a way, it’s the perfect reason. A big part of Terry’s appeal as a character is how he blends a tragic backstory (he’s an orphan whose adoptive father was murdered) with an indomitably friendly, optimistic outlook and joy for the good things he has found in life, refusing to let himself be defined by the things that were taken from him. So a dash of energetic enthusiasm, but without any desire to taunt or humiliate his opponent, fits right in with his personality and makes for a cool bit of visual storytelling.

▼ And yes, the pose is present and accounted-for in City of the Wolves.

We’re not quite done picking Oda’s brain for nuggets of Fatal Fury wisdom, as we’ll be talking with him again at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. For now, though, at least we’ve got the answer to one burning question.

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