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When it comes to fighting games in the 90s, you were either a SNK fan or a Capcom diehard. There’s no middle line. Being a poor ass kid then, I couldn’t afford a NeoGeo, so I fell in with the Capcom crowd. Street Fighter II was available on the SEGA Mega Drive after all! Makes you wonder then…what if SNK had released Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves on the console back in the day?
Then again, it wasn’t as if I hated SNK. I grew up playing King of Fighters, from 94 onwards all the way up to Maximum Impact. Still, none of their fighters held much sway with me other than the Fatal Fury series. I didn’t care much for pretty boys Robert and Kyo from Art of Fighting, and feuding Kyo and Iori from King of Fighters were too brooding for me.
That’s why I jumped at the chance to try Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves at SNK’s booth during last year’s Tokyo Game Show! I’ve been awaiting months for another chance to play the game since then.
What is Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves?
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is a 2.5D fighting game (with 3D characters and backgrounds) developed and published by SNK. It is available now for the PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles.
Our review copy was provided by SNK! Thanks so much!
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves stands off with a recap of the most important event in the series’ history; Geese Howard’s death. For those familiar with the series, it’s a great reminder and refresher. For those new to the game, it’s a great set up without too much exposition.
The game’s premise this time around should be familiar to those who’ve played a Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting or even King of Fighters.
Somebody is organizing yet another King of Fighters tournament, with invites sent out to prominent fighters. This time around the prize is mentioned to be Geese’s Legacy. What that exactly is not elaborated upon, just that the winner will gain access to it.
Lots of old fighters return, alongside a handful of new faces. Terry Bogard, Rock Howard and Mai Shiranui are of course welcome and expected, but I’m a bit shocked that Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi are DLC fighters instead of Day One entries.
It’s not too big a deal, because the game’s initial roster of 17 is still diverse enough (though I do wish there were more grappling focused characters) to entertain. A ton of the cast from Garou: Mark of the Wolves return and the new additions are fun to play too.
Even better, the jump to 3D characters hasn’t done any harm to the art design too! Terry and the cast look great, and I especially love Mai’s new look. The stages look great too, and quite a number of them obviously take inspiration from the King of Fighters games. You fight under expressways, you fight on a flatcar…hell, you even fight in a bar.
It all sounds generic, but if you’re an old school King of Fighters or Art of Fighting fan, you’ll definitely see the references to those games.
On top of that, most of the stages feature cameos too! It’s super fun to look at them and try to see who might be in the background! Again, SNK aficionados will appreciate this more than anybody else. The fanboy in me positively squealed in glee the first time i spotted Ryo!
I do have to question the inclusion of real world personalities like Christiano Ronaldo and Salvatore Ganacci though. Unless they’re in the game for free (I honestly doubt it), the budget spent on them could’ve been used on other aspects of the game.
There are a ton of other fighters that I would’ve loved to see in the game instead of them. Blue Mary, Wolfgang Krauser, Ryuji Yamazaki…they deserve a roster spot more than Ronaldo and Ganacci. Hell, why not make the guest fighters be from other games instead of real world ‘stars’?
Yes, I know Ken and Chun-Li are from Street Fighter are coming soon, but SNK surely could’ve gotten more characters from companies like Bandai Namco (Jin or Kazuya from Tekken would fit right in) or Arc System Works (basically anybody from BlazBlue or Guilty Gear can make the leap) instead of the two.
Even if SNK had to use real people, why those two though?
Neither are really involved with videogames.
A better choice would’ve been Austin Creed aka Xavier Woods, a WWE wrestler who has a gaming Youtube channel called UpUpDownDown. He’s already a wrestler and his style would’ve fit right in with the game! Hell, he could’ve even be a rival to fellow wrestler Tizoc in the game’s lore!
Apart from that complaint, there’s one other major problem I have with the game.
It’s the lack of a substantial and entertaining single player mode.
After being spoiled by Street Fighter 6 and its World Tour mode (which will be the standard for all fighting game single player modes from now on), Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and its Episodes from South Town (EOST) mode doesn’t cut it.
It tries, it really does. Each of the characters have their own stories in the mode. This is separate from the stories in the game’s Arcade mode. You have to give it points for that, but in the end the mode simply falls flat.
I did enjoy unlocking skills as I level up and customizing my fighters and it’s clear that you can invest a LOT of time in the mode. That’s because each fighter has their unique unlocks, so completists will want to finish up everybody to unlock their skills. In another stroke of brilliance, those unlocked skills can be used by anybody, as long as they have enough skill points to equip them.
Still, the grind does wear you down after a while.
Fighting battle after battle, trying to raise your XP level so you can get stronger is boring. That’s due to the presentation definitely, because all you’re doing is moving around a mouse cursor on a map of South Town and clicking on icons to initiate fights.
Does that sound appealing to anybody?
If the mode was more interactive (and visually appealing) like Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode, I have no doubts I’d be playing it more.
There is incentive to play through the mode, clearing it with each character though. The stories are cool, and you get artwork and movies for beating the mode with each character. Then you’ll unlock South Town+ difficulty, which ramps up the fights and makes you go through them all over again for more stuff!
South Town+ is hard though, and some of the fight conditions are a bit overwhelming.
On top of that, the hidden fights are simply ludicrous. Some of them force you to fight an invincible enemy. The catch is that each of your hits have a 1 in 66 chance to instantly kill the AI. The AI meanwhile can damage you as usual.
In theory, your first hit could win you the match. In practice, you can go multiple matches without winning. It’s not skill, it’s luck and it’s incredibly frustrating.
That’s all the more irritating because the game is clearly based on skill. The REV system and the flexibility it affords is amazing.
An evolution of the T.O.P. system from Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the REV system gives you a ton of offensive options without being overpowered. There’s also an element of strategy involved in when you activate it. Do you go all out in the beginning or power up when you’re nearly defeated (and have more meter to spend) for a comeback attempt?
The REV moves are super cool too! They give you super armor and give you chances to combo with previously unavailable moves. The downside is that overuse of them overheats the REV gauge, which hampers your offensive capabilities. It’s a balancing act similar to how Street Fighter 6 utilized the the Drive meter and the characters’ Drive moves.
I do prefer the REV system though over the Drive system though. There’s more risk and strategy involved in its deployment and usage. If you’re good (and lucky) enough, you can even wipe out your opponent’s REV-enhanced life bar segment without them being able to do anything about it!
That’s because unlike most fighting games, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves isn’t shy with decimating your life bar with just a few hits from combos. It’s not uncommon to lose 33% of your life on a single chain of moves! The game’s punishing, but on the flip side, it keeps matches flowing fast! Sure, newbies can use the alternate Smart control scheme with simplified commands, but this is still not a button mashing game like Tekken 8.
That’s good because Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves seems to already have a healthy online community. I was playing during the Early Access period and had no shortage of challengers. I was usually matched to somebody within a minute or two. That’s with my requirement of only getting players with 3 network bars or more! It helps that the game supports cross play, so all the versions of the game share a single player pool.
Even with just 3 bars, the game was smooth and relatively lag free. There wasn’t any rubberbanding or hitches or freezes or any issue you’d usually experience with poor netcode. In fact, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves online play fares much better than Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8 did at launch! I still remember waiting for long periods to fight somebody (anybody!) during the Tekken 8 launch!
Playing on the ROG Ally X proved to be a good experience too. You can play on 1080p with all settings on Ultra…if you enable dynamic resolution. I don’t recommend that at all though, as it makes the game look like mush whenever there’s fast movement.
Instead, head on down to 720p.
On that resolution, the game is more than playable, with a mostly steady FPS, with Dynamic Resolution turned off and all settings on Ultra. It still looks great, and plays well enough so there’s really not much downside to this. If you want even smoother performance, tweak the settings to Medium for fluid gameplay.
The Bottom Line.
It’s only been a few days since release but Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has already become one of my favourite SNK fighters. The REV system, the varied cast and the visuals make it one of the best fighters in recent years, and on par with rivals Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6.
In some aspects, the game’s even better!
However, it’s by no means perfect.
That’s especially true if you’re a single player gamer. Episodes of South Town is interesting, but its execution leaves a lot to desired. It’s presented in a boring way, and fighting match after match for no other reason than to advance and get XP gets old quick.
Arcade mode fares better. Each character has their own story to play through, and the endings aren’t just one or two screens of exposition at the end. They’re actually substantial and lengthy, akin to Tekken 8’s ending movies instead of the pathetic semi-static screens you get from completing Street Fighter 6’s Arcade Mode.
If you’re an online gamer, then you shouldn’t be even be hesitating. Get the game because it has a vibrant online community already and should have legs for the foreseeable future, especially as everybody will get Season Pass 1 characters over the next few months.
TLDR:
One of the best fighters of this generation. Punishing but fair.
The Good:
- Varied cast.
- REV system.
- Great art design.
- Tons of extras to unlock in EOST.
- Arcade mode and EOST have their own stories to play through.
- Cross play support.
- Netcode is great.
The Bad:
- EOST is boring.
- Ronaldo and Ganacci are lame choices for guest characters.
- Very punishing to beginners.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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