Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Developer: KOF Studio
Publisher: SNK
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $99.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

When it comes to fighting games SNK used to be one of the biggest names around back in the ’90s. Whether it was King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, or Fatal Fury, SNK always had a steady stream of  2D fighters arriving on the scene over that decade, each offering unique mechanics and rosters to keep fans interested. Among these three long running series though, one is quite different as, unlike King of Fighters and even Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury has not seen a new release since Garou: Mark of the Wolves back over 26 years ago. Now that the long dormant fighter has been revived and brings with it a collection of familiar faces not seen in over two decades, a few fan favorites that are often seen in crossovers, newcomers, and a couple of… nepotism picks, combined with new mechanics, does Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves make a successful return?

Story

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves may not offer a general storyline; it does provide quite a few story options through two separate single player modes. One of these is a standard arcade mode that will see almost all of the character roster having an introduction to why they are joining the “King of Fighters” tournament, some searching for others, others trying to claim Geese’s legacy, and others trying to uncover a mystery. The only pre-set characters that a chosen fighter will battle against are the last two which are presented through comic-style presentations and a few pieces of artwork for an ending that works well enough for most characters, especially since it actually ties up a lot of the random loose ends that have been hanging for some of the returning cast for over two decades.

The other story option is called “Episodes of South Town” and is an RPG-like mode that sees players select a character, except one, that can be changed at any time, and experience a completely separate storylines from the arcade mode with these characters. Each character has a unique story and “boss” battles against other characters with every boss battle unlocking a new advancement in their storyline. These stories are generally quite basic but do provide a little extra personality for the cast and even a little history about some of the fighting stages as players can read extra bits of information about most stages and even character comments from random members of the cast. While not the most elaborate, this extra bit of storytelling is appreciated especially when it comes to newcomers Preecha and Vox Reaper while longtime fans will be happy to see Tizoc and Hotaru expanded on a little as well as fan favorites like Mai Siranui and Terry Bogard.

Now, while some of the newcomers to the roster in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves are welcome, two inclusions are not and not only reek of nepotism and the developer being forced to include them in the game at their owner’s behest, as SNK has been owned by a Saudi Arabian crown prince since 2022. This includes a soccer player named Cristiano Ronaldo who plays for the prince’s soccer team as well as a DJ named Salvatore Ganacci that literally no one that I know knew of until he performed this past weekend at Wrestlemania, ironically to promote this game. While guest characters in fighting games are nothing new, in fact they are often celebrated and both Terry and Mai are the best known guest characters that SNK has, the inclusion of these two is not only completely off-brand but doesn’t even mesh into the story. 

Ronaldo is entirely absent from Arcade and Episodes of South Town, and isn’t even voiced by himself during fights while Ganacci’s storyline is something out of a bad dream who plays like the worst type of gag character. Considering the seventeen characters available at launch and the many that not only can be pulled from Garou and past Fatal Fury games, sacrificing two spots in the launch line-up for these additions will likely sour those whose favorite fighter from the past didn’t make the initial cut. That being said, the only version of the game available does at least include the first “season pass” of five characters to that will add guests Chun-Li and Ken from Street Fighter as well as Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, and Mr. Big, likely to make up for this.

Gameplay

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves holds true to its original playstyle by being a four-button fighter that offers light punch, heavy punch, light kick, and heavy kick and all manners of combinations that can be strung together to put together special moves, combos, and other flashier high damaging attacks. There are of course pokes and quicker versions of each of these attacks, meant to whiff-punish overreaching opponents but it is interesting to note that for those who do want things a bit simpler, there is an option for them as well. Like many fighting games in recent years, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has offered a “Smart Controls” option that will allow players to not only pull off special moves and certain combo strings easier, but make other newer mechanics easier to handle. That being said, the trade-off with Smart Controls is the fact that it limits the player’s combo capabilities heavily to the point of completely locking out certain attacks and techniques to those that use it. This makes it a great way to learn a character or try them out in single player, but perhaps not the best way to test your skills online.

The single player modes are fairly robust as players have the aforementioned Arcade Mode and Episodes of South Town for story, a survival mode, a time attack mode, and a fairly robust training menu that not only walks players through mechanics with both the Arcade Controls and Smart Controls but even a “mission” system for each character to help teach them how to best utilize a fighter’s toolkit. It is interesting to note that while Episodes of South Town is an RPG-like mode, it is extremely bare-bones as players will simply gain experience from winning fights scattered around a generic overworld map that will increase their fighter’s health and strength and, occasionally, unlock a skill that can be equipped for extra buffs. Some fights have unique mechanics such as having players battle multiple opponents in a row, fight enemies that only have a 1/66th chance of actually being injured and insta-killed by an attack, surviving until the time runs out, and so on. Players can swap between characters at any time to see different stories, but their XP does not carry over at the moment, only skills will. SNK has stated that XP will be rewarded in later patches, as well as adding in additional challenges but no timeline has been given for that.

Now, onto the main fighting mechanics and the biggest details regarding what City of the Wolves brings to the table. Players can still make use of the “Just Defend” mechanic by blocking right when an opponent’s blow is meant to strike, giving the player a chance to retaliate faster as well as guard cancels that can really pull the rug out of an opponent’s combo if pulled off correctly. Similarly players can perform feints and attack cancels to keep opponents guessing by not fully committing to a move and instead breaking into a new one. Then of course there are flashy finishing moves that can deal tons of damage to enemies that vary in damage deepening on how many gauges the player has filled, with one dealing minor damage and two dealing signature attack style damage that is even further enhanced if the character is in their SPG mode, ut more on that later. This style of combat makes it feel like Fatal Fury has not lost a single step despite its long hiatus, feeling as fast-paced and analytical as before, though now a number of new mechanics have been added in to add even more complexity to these battles, most of all the REV system.

The Rev Meter is a unique type of gauge as it is one that, as it fills up, is actually a bad thing. Every round the Rev gauge starts at 0% and it is decreased by moving forward or completing standard combo attacks but as players use special Rev techniques such as EX special moves, Rev Guard that not only avoids chip damage but pushes the attacker back, and most importantly Rev Blows that are earmored and can be pulled off out of almost any combo.In fact, even Ex Special Moves also have armor depending on the character utilizing it, making it a powerful move tool at the player’s disposal. Anytime a Rev technique is used in any way the Rev Meter fills up, and if it hits 100% a fighter will be placed into overheat. In overheat none of these attacks can be easily utilized though players can still string together special moves without it but it is also worth noting that players in overheat can also have their standard guard broken, leaving them wide open for a punishing combo from their opponent.

Part of the Rev mechanics also come from the SPG (Selective Potential Gear), which is a special buff that players can place in three parts of their health bar. They can start off right off the bat at the beginning, leave it in the middle, or place it at the end as a clutch style defense. Rev Blows, and certain chainable attacks and ultimates can only be used while a character is in their SPG mode, meaning it is vital to figure out how to best place it to fit your playstyle. That being said, it is also worth noting that Rev Blows are incredibly overpowered in some fighters and take a fairly minimal amount of Rev Gauge to utilize. 

Fighters such as Preecha and Tizoc can utilize their armored Rev Blows almost instantly out of most combos and chain together some absolutely brutal damage strings, especially in the case of Tizoc and his grappling. And since a fighter’s Rev gauge resets between matches, chaining together Rev Blows and extending combos is an incredibly viable option. In fact, while it may have been against a CPU, we were able to utilize Mai’s chain combos mixed together with Rev Blows and invincible attacks to completely obliterate opponents before they had a chance to put up much of a fight. It is worth noting that players can retaliate against an incoming Rev Blow with one of their own, countering it, but since they can only be utilized during SPG, players will be out of luck if their health hasn’t drained far enough to reach it or is already pushed past it.

Despite the potential issues that the Rev Blow mechanic might bring about, it is worth noting that City of the Wolves does offer plenty of ways to stay on the offensive and reward defensive play as well, in fact thanks to whiff punishing and just blocks, as well as a built-in throw invulnerability to avoid throw loops and players will find plenty of ways to make use of the seventeen characters at launch. Both Terry and Mai play nearly the exact same as many fans will remember, even with their guest appearances in other games, while Preecha is newcomer friendly with an easy to learn style with plenty of combo strings to learn and master. As for Vox Reaper, he is a pure rushdown character meant to utilize his quickness to overwhelm fighters with safe-on-block dash attacks and more. As for the guest characters, the less said about them the better but at least Ronaldo’s utilization of soccer balls for his attacks and sending random soccer balls around the screen is unique even if it makes zero sense.

Outside of battle it is worth noting that there are a few other extras such as the ability to completely re-color most characters’ outfits however they wish, a jukebox containing tons of music from SNK properties, and of course the online mode. The online mode offers a standard suite of options such as ranked matches, player matches, lobbies, and a replay theater. Interestingly enough there is even a Ghost type mode that allows players to battle against AI that tries its best to mimic the player it is based off of. Unfortunately, not only in the online mode mind you, but throughout the entire game the menu system is some of the clunkiest menu’s a fighting game can offer and I’m surprised that it was given the go ahead to ship with how annoying the UI is. As for the online matches themselves, while we were only able to try around two dozen fights online due to the server’s going live quite late it is nice to note that City of the Wolves does utilize rollback netcode as well as crossplay. That being said, even with these mechanics in place we had more than a few matches that felt absolutely dreadful to play, two of which saw our opponent completely disconnect and others feel like fighting in mud. Let’s just hope that now that the servers are fully live, things will get fixed up a bit.

Audio & Visuals

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has transitioned entirely to 3D models, obviously foregoing the 2D sprites of the past and it has worked rather well here in most regards. This is partially thanks to the high level of detail placed into the characters themselves and their moves, including their flashy finishing moves. It is also partially thanks to a comic-book stylee aesthetic that the developers have seemed to overlay over the entire game, providing a unique looking feeling to the fighter even if it does mean that some character models do load in rather oddly from time to time in the character select screen. It is also worth noting that while it may not be a sticking point, Mai Shiranui’s signature outfit, at least for now, is only briefly shown when using the strongest version of her ultimate attack as she transforms into her classic version for the move compared to her updated outfit.

Players have the option of selecting between the English voice track for the characters in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as well as the Japanese voice track, with players being able to swap between them easily in the menu. It is worth noting that there is not much voiced dialogue in the story mode outside of intro scenes and winning screens and of course the intro to the story and finale, but the Episodes of South Town are completely unvoiced. The soundtrack features a great collection of tracks ranging from the franchise’s entire history, with the aforementioned Jukebox allowing players to customize what songs they want to hear the most during battles.

Overall

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is a little bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it feels like a successful return to form with a fast fighting game that makes the one-on-one fighting feel as intense as fans can remember, especially with the new mechanics and the return of fighters that were thought lost to time. On the other hand, questionable guest decisions that feel like wasted spots, some oddly unvoiced story content, and incredibly clunky menu system coupled with online server issues at least at launch means Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves still has a lot of dust to blow off after its over twenty five year hiatus.

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