There has been talk about a Garou: Mark of the Wolves sequel for donkey’s years, so much so that most of us long time SNK fans thought it was nothing but a pipe dream, and had to make do with appearances from Fatal Fury characters in KOF games instead. But the past year or so has seen a huge upswing in Southtown-related activities. First of all we saw the almost unthinkable happen as Terry Bogard pitched up in Street Fighter 6, followed by Mai.
So with the series back in the public consciousness, what is the actual game like? I will be honest. As much as I adore the rich fighting tapestry of SNK fighters, I was ever so slightly sceptical about this one. The appearance of Cristiano Ronaldo screams “gimmickry” and felt a little cringeworthy. Were they going to make a right balls-up of the direct sequel to one of the finest fighting games of all time?
I should never have worried. The core Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves experience is a fun, well balanced, and outstanding-looking game that has the best interests of the fighting game community in mind. It is easy to pick up, but has a complex, yet intuitive series of fighting systems that should see it feature prominently at EVO. There is a lot for us to discuss here.
In basic terms you have your health bar, and a Gear gauge which fills up as you perform attacks and successful defensive actions, and allows you to pull off the City of the Wolves version of Super moves, which are known as Ignition (cost: one stock) and Redline (two) Gears, respectively. There is a third, even more powerful and visually stunning Gear, linked to a returning favourite from 1999.
Garou had the T.O.P system which linked additional powers and abilities to a portion of your health bar, the part of which was selectable before each bout. This returns in City of the Wolves, now called – rather awkwardly – Selective Potential Gear or SPG. When you enter the SPG part of your health bar you become more powerful, slowly regain vitality, your Gear power stocks build more quickly, and you can pull off the Hidden Gear, the most devastating attack in your arsenal.
The main draw of the new fighting engine is the REV system, a gauge that fills up each time you pull off a REV action, leading to a state of burnout if you spam it too heavily and go overboard. But manage your REV properly and you can access some seriously cool stuff. REV Arts are essentially the Fatal Fury equivalent of EX moves; more powerful and flashy specials often with extra hits or accoutrements. REV Accel is my favourite part of managing and applying the abilities linked to the gauge. It allows you to chain together EX specials to pull off lengthy, super powerful combos which can even be finished off with a Gear.
There is also an additional attacking option that ties together the REV gauge and the S.P.G state – combine the two to hit a REV Blow with HP+HK – a difficult to block attack that sees your character emit a green glow and enter a near-unblockable state.
It isn’t all about attacking, either. Just Defense returns from Garou, and there is now a Hyper version that can be used to parry attacks which feature multiple strikes. It isn’t easy to pull off, but extremely satisfying when you do. REV Guard is also linked to the aforementioned gauge and allows you to hold down R1 and enshroud your player with a shield that absorbs blows but also pushes your opponent away, highly effective in giving you a bit of breathing space if you are having your ass handed to you and need an escape. The R1 modifier combined with a directional push also allows you to dash or hop out of the shield, which can open up some prime attacking opportunities. There are also dodges and feints which allow a bit of evasion and shithousery, as you try to lull your opponent with fakery, however the feint can also be cancelled out of normal strikes which gives yet another avenue to trigger a combo.
If you are a novice and find mastering all of these complexities a bit much, SNK have also added in a simplified control scheme called Smart Style, which allocates a button each for punches and kicks, and assigned buttons for the various REV skills, and an auto combo which comes at the cost of eating most of your available gauges. As a staunch traditionalist I avoided this, but it is nice that it is there.
The roster is a mix of participants from across the history of Fatal Fury, with some brand new faces thrown in. The new additions mostly feel at home in Southtown. Preecha is a super-nimble pink-haired science boffin who is a Muay Thai protégé of series mainstay Joe Higashi. Deadly in the right hands, I had a real time of it matching up against her with a higher difficulty CPU opponent. Vox Reaper is a mysterious karate assassin who adopts characteristics from Garou’s Grant, right down to wearing the remnants of his mask. The two licensed characters may conceptually feel a little at odds with the franchise, but have been implemented into the story modes surprisingly well, and both have undeniably unique playstyles.
If you look past his real-life lack of any discernible personality and the hilarious fact he is voice acted by a voice actor, Cristiano Ronaldo plays well with his soccer ball-based attacks and specials on-brand with his real-life sporting prowess, yet transitioning seamlessly into the one-on-one matchups. Your mileage with him may depend on your attitude toward the whole brokerage of the SNK/Saudi deal here which still feels a bit shady, but it is doubtful this sequel would have seen the light of day without it, and he will put eyes on the product, for certain. Them’s the breaks I suppose.
DJ Salvatore Ganacci on the other hand does have a big personality and striking look, but his character in City of the Wolves is a real oddball, comparable to Phoenix Wright in the Marvel vs Capcom series, and I had a tough time getting to grips with his strange floaty jumps and unfamiliar attack patterns. I am sure that due to his unconventional nature he will be a handful once people get the hang of him online.
From the returning faces, Rock Howard has been given a lick of paint and some extra moves including his old man Geese Howard’s air fireball. He is perhaps the most intuitive and easy to master character for beginners, other than series icon Terry who is as fun to play as ever. B. Jenet is as comedic and charming as ever with her gaggle of sailors and winning combination of sweeping strikes and projectiles, whilst Tizoc will be a favourite for grappling fans like me who favour a bit of command throw-based raw power. There really is something for everyone here.
Everything looks great, too. The art style reminded me a lot of the modern Marvel vs Capcom titles, with 2.5D models that really pop. It looks quite unlike any other SNK game, yet the characters all feel familiar and part of the franchise, just with a new cartoon sheen. There are also loads of SNK related easter eggs dotted amongst the excellent variety of stages, which will delight long term fans. One thing that I really loved was the way the characters leave a ghostly image of their last action each time you cancel into a REV Accel move during a combo chain – stunning.
As well as the usual Arcade, Training, and move/combo-learning mission modes, City of the Wolves has the RPG-lite attraction of Episodes of South Town, where you pick a character and move around a map of South Town, taking on incrementally more difficult combat challenges and boss battles with upgradeable stats buffs unlockable. It is fun and addictive and XP earned across other modes of City of the Wolves can also be spent upgrading your characters in this mode which is a nice touch. There is a load of unlockable content and customisation options available such as palette changes, a jukebox that features historic tunes from SNK classics, meaning you can play old-school themes during battles, in a cool nostalgic touch.
Rollback netcode is almost standard for fighters these days and I have had absolutely zero issues playing online thus far. I cannot wait for the servers to be more populous and really get stuck into it. There will also be cross-platform play, which means I can play against all of my mates regardless of console.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves could be SNK’s best ever all-round fighting game. It has a great blend of new mechanics and familiar returning faves, and feels a lot like how Capcom moved things forward when they brought back the Street Fighter series kicking and screaming into the modern era with SFIV. I have had so much fun with it both on and offline, with near flawless performance on the Steam Deck. This deserves to be a huge success and with a drip feed of new characters promised down the line – including Chun Li and Ken Masters in another dream crossover, and Art of Fighting’s Mr Big – this one is set to run and run.
