Rock Howard
is a video game character appearing in various games from SNK Playmore (formerly known as “SNK”). Rock makes his first appearance as a playable character in the fighting game Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the last chapter in the Fatal Fury series, as the new lead character from the series. Rock appears in the series as the son of Geese Howard, the main antagonist from the previous Fatal Fury games, who was killed by Terry Bogard. However, Terry started to take care of Rock to the point he teaches him to fight. Besides his appearance in Mark of the Wolves, Rock is featured in few games from The King of Fighters series as well as various crossovers from SNK. He is voiced by Eiji Takemoto (竹本 英史). In the English editions from KOF: Maximum Impact and its sequel he is voiced by Mike Lane.
Rock has also been featured in manwhua adaptations from the games he has appeared as well as the anime The King of Fighters Another Day. Rock’s character has received various responses from video games publications. His debut in Mark of the Wolves has been highly praised by reviewers although some of them considered his character to be too strong in comparison to the others. However, his development in the KOF: Maximum Impact series has been criticized due to his English voice actor and his new outfit.
In spite of his father´s ways, Rock is a warm, friendly and compassionate young man, possessing Terry’s strong sense of justice and heroism. Every day, Rock fights off his evil side and tries to get out of the shadow of his father. He is the middle term between Geese’s excessive evil and Terry’s excessive festive personality. Rock is also a very compassionate man, offering to help those in need such as helping Hotaru Futaba to find her older brother. He also tends to very uncomfortable and nervous around women, having been raised by men nearly all of his life.
His move list is an amalgam of Terry and Geese. He possesses several of Geese’s trademark moves such as the Wind Slice (烈風拳, Reppuken?) and the Double Wind Slice (ダブル疾風拳, Daburu Reppuken?), in which he throws various energy waves to the ground. He also has the Raging Storm (レイジングストーム, Reijingu Sutōmu?) that sends energy to an entire area, the Shinkunage throw, reversals, and the Deadly Rave (デッドリーレイブ, Deddorī Reibu?). Moves loaned from Terry include the Rising Tackle (ライジングタックル ?), a series of ascendent kicks, variants of various moves from Terry, including the Shine Knuckle (シャインナックル?), which is a DM version of Terry’s Burning Knuckle. Also, his Crack Counter is a reversal that can be directed high or low akin to Geese, where upon succeeding, Rock slams an opponent with a kick that resembles Terry’s Crack Shoot. In comparison with his father, Rock still lacks the control over his “evil blood”, which boils from time to time hurting him after ending a combat with the Raging Storm and the Deadly Rave. Thus, most of moves taken from his father take him more time for recovering or are less powerful. However, the precedent of his lineage states that Rock has not reached the top of his game yet.
