Rock Howard

**Rock Howard** is a character from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. He fought alongside Hotaru Futaba against Batsu Ichimonji and Hinata Wakaba from Rival Schools in episode 0 of Mini Rumble Season 3.

## Description

Rock is the son of the most noteworthy crime lord in Southtown, Geese Howard. Although he knew of his father's existence, he grew up living a modest life with his mother in a small apartment. He often wondered about his father and was excited at the prospect of someday meeting him. When Rock was seven, his mother contracted a mysterious disease and he tried his best to nurse her to health. As her illness worsened, Rock went to Geese Tower and met his father for the first time in his life.

Though the boy pleaded for medical aid and told him that Marie desperately wanted to see him, Geese would have nothing to do with the matter and sent him away. Marie died the same night and Rock has had a grudge against his father ever since. A year later, Rock meets Terry, who finally settled his vendetta against Geese. Rather than hate his father's enemy, he felt a complicated mix of loneliness and joy knowing that his father died. Since Terry left the scene soon after, the boy followed him and attended his street fights. Rock angrily charged at him once after learning about his father's death. After their scuffle, Terry quietly accepts him as his foster child and they begin their travels together.

## 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.
* Rock's theme in *Garou: Mark of the Wolves*, **Spread the Wings**, uses part of the melody from Robert Miles's song, *Children*. This was actually intentional, because the composer of *Garou*′s soundtrack is a fan of Robert Miles.
* 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.
* 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 is not Rock, as Rock 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.
* Although his canonical appearance in *The King of Fighters* main series is highly anticipated, the *KOF* staff revealed that they have 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.
* 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 this game explores his personal take on the character's actions in the yet to be released *Mark of Wolves* sequel.

### XVX

* Rock, Hotaru and their opponents are the first characters to appear in Season 3 of Mini Rumble.