Rock Howard

Rock Howard (Japanese: ロック・ハワード, Hepburn: Rokku Hawādo) is a fictional character from SNK's Fatal Fury series. Previously debuted as a non-playable character in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, Rock makes his first playable appearance in the 1999 fighting game Garou: Mark of the Wolves, a sixth canonical chapter in the series, as the new lead character of the Wolves sub-entry storylines. Rock appears in the series as the son of Geese Howard, the main antagonist from the previous Fatal Fury games, who fell to his death after refusing to be saved by Terry Bogard. However, Terry adopted Rock in order to put his past with Geese behind him, and helped teach Rock how to fight. The mystery behind his missing father leads him to clash with Terry in Mark of the Wolves is further explored in the 2025 sequel Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. 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. The King of Fighters XIV and The King of Fighters XV feature him as downloadable content with the latter incorparting him into the main KOF canon for the first time as the leader of the Garou Team with B. Jenet and Gato, two fellow rivals from his original game. Rock was created by Nobuyuki Kuroki to be the new Fatal Fury as well as Terry's successor. This resulted in his younger contrasting look and dark fate caused by his relationship with Geese. Rock's development in the KOF spin-off series was handled by Akihiko Ureshino who wanted to further explore Rock's life before Garou while in KOF DLC he was developed to be a stronger fighter. His returns in City of the Wolves is meant to...