The release of a new Fatal Fury is a very important milestone for SNK enthusiasts. Even if The King of Fighters is, technically-speaking, the best and most popular fighting franchise by the company, it’s Fatal Fury that, uh, “drives the plot forward”, considering how it was the first fighting series by SNK, the one where most of the famous characters come from, and the one that turned SNK into the juggernaut it is today. After a baffling pre-release campaign, with even freaking Cristiano Ronaldo (yes, the footballer) being announced as a playable fighter. I was curious but also skeptical about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. With it finally being out, I have a lot to say about it.

The presentation is sound, but I think other, more recent SNK fighters have achieved better results.

First of all, I need to commend SNK for not wanting to reboot the entire Fatal Fury franchise with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. It is a full-fledged sequel of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, arguably the most acclaimed game in the franchise, which was originally released a whopping 26 years ago. As to be expected, the protagonist is not Terry Bogard (even though he is still a major character), but Rock Howard, son of the franchise’s previous main villain, Geese Howard. It also means that City of the Wolves maintains a lot of the gameplay elements originally seen in Garou… which, at the same time, make the game feel a bit less special, a bit less Fatal Fury-ish.

You may be wondering what the hell I mean by calling something “Fatal Fury-ish”. In essence, older Fatal Fury games stood out from other fighting games by having multiple lanes in which characters could move and fight on. Some had two lanes, others had three. That was one of the main appeals of Fatal Fury, and what made the series relevant whilst The King of Fighters acted like the more “traditional” (as in, one lane only) alternative by SNK. Garou, and as a consequence, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, don’t have these lanes. Sure, there is one extra mode in City of the Wolves featuring them, but it’s barely advertised.

Cristiano, what the absolute hell are you doing in this game…

As a result, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves feels just like another modern King of Fighters game, just with a different (and by that, a much smaller) roster. I can understand the appeal for die-hard fans of Garou, but as a chance to revitalize a fighting series that actually had enough gameplay elements to stand out from the rest of the (wolf) pack, I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed that SNK simply moved along with a watered down combat system to maximize the game’s overall popularity. Whether or not that was the company’s decision, or a decision by SNK’s owners (as in, a non-profit literally owned by the freaking Saudi government), remains to be seen. Speaking of Saudi government…

I can only imagine they are the reason why Cristiano Ronaldo, the world-famous footballer currently playing for a Saudi team, is featured in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as a fully playable character… with some asterisks. For some reason, he is not playable in the single-player arcade or story modes. He is only playable on multiplayer or “Versus CPU” battles. Regardless of that… why is he here? The image Cristiano has crafted ever since the mid-2000s has always been of sportsmanship, not violence, so bringing him over with a hideous cel-shaded coat of paint just distracted me, it didn’t wow me. Again, what was the decision behind this? His die-hard, FIFA-playing fanbase won’t buy a fighting game just because he’s part of the roster. Or at least I hope so.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves retains the same high-quality level of rollback netcode seen in other SNK games.

There is another guest character in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a real-life Swedish-Bosnian DJ called Salvatore Ganacci, but given how I’ve never heard of the guy, that inclusion didn’t feel as absurd. It’s a lot easier to ignore an inclusion you’ve never heard of, after all. Then again, City of the Wolves went hard on DJ and EDM culture as a whole, with a soundtrack featuring world famous DJs such as Steve Aoki and Alok. Furthermore, they are all original compositions for the game.

If you are not a fan of EDM, don’t worry. The soundtrack from all previous Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting games is also available, and you can play the entire game with any of those Neo Geo MIDI classics if you prefer. I was particularly impressed with the inclusion of Art of Fighting content as a whole, considering the fact the franchise has been dormant for nearly thirty years. I appreciate the conservation.

I have no idea who this DJ is supposed to be. Am I getting old?

As for the presentation, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves follows the trend set by The King of Fighters XV and the Samurai Shodown reboot from a few years ago. It runs on Unreal Engine 4, and it goes for a slightly cel-shaded art style, something a bit less cartoonish than The King of Fighters XIV, but still a lot more animeish and less detailed than, say, Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6. A bit more stylized than The King of Fighters XV, but it follows the same visual premise. It runs well and it’s pretty colorful, but it’s starting to get way behind the competition in terms of impressive visuals. I wouldn’t have cared about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves feeling a bit cheaper than other fighting juggernauts if it wasn’t for the fact it’s clearly trying to compete with the higher echelon of the genre.

It’s doing so when it comes to marketing and pricing, whilst clearly looking a generation behind visually, and being a lot less impressive in terms of content. The initial roster is minuscule, and whilst there is a single player campaign, it’s very shallow. It’s enjoyable, sure, but it’s nothing more than a handful of quests on a map, coupled with very minute RPG elements. Is it fun? Well, of course it is. SNK knows how to make an engaging fighting game, even when the game is admittedly watered down when compared to its predecessors.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mai this clothed.

There’s quite a bit of content, and the gameplay itself is sound enough, but City of Wolves felt less like Fatal Fury and more like a smaller The King of Fighters outing with a different (and by that, I mean smaller) roster. Speaking of roster, the baffling celebrity inclusions didn’t feel entertaining, they felt like a desperate and distraction attempt to draw attention. If I had to choose, I’d certainly suggest picking up KoF XV or even KoF XIV instead; even if City of Wolves is fully functional, with great rollback netcode and decent controls, I feel like SNK’s other outings felt more cohesive and entertaining in comparison.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was provided by the publisher.