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Fatal Fury is an important pillar of fighting game history. It had a distinct tone and played quite differently than anything else at the time. It also helped solidify SNK as a legit fighting game heavyweights, a title they maintain to this day with a collection of beloved classics and a hardcore fanbase that has been around for decades. We were invited to go hands-on with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves at the 2023 SNK World Championship in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, and our brief hands-on time left us craving so much more. Check out our interview with the team here.
REV it into Overdrive
For the uninitiated, City of the Wolves isn’t just the next installment in the legendary Fatal Fury series; it’s a direct sequel to its most revered entry in the series, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. MOTW was a landmark title, albeit one that became a cult classic after its release rather than during its initial run. It was a fast-paced, fantastic-looking experience with a large cast of new faces led by Rock Howard. City of the Wolves looks to pick up where it left off, featuring an eye-popping visual style backed up by a flurry of returning and new mechanics designed to keep the action fast and flashy.
The REV System is a catch-all phrase encompassing a wide range of universal mechanics designed to maximize your offensive pressure and push the fight as much as possible. If you love being a turtle or building a shell, this isn’t the game for you. Now, some of these mechanics might seem familiar to you if you’re a fan of the FGC (Fighting Game Community) as a whole. Here is a brief rundown of each REV mechanic and how they function.
- REV Arts – Think of these as your standard EX attacks.
- REV Blow – Essentially a unique form of Street Fighter 6’s Drive Impact. It is a heavy, armored attack that can be used on its own or part of a combo.
- REV Guard – A defensive block stance that causes each blocked attack to create more distance than normal.
- REV Accel – This will allow you to combo REV Arts into each other.
Notably, all of these techniques do come at a cost. An Overheat meter will fill whenever you use one of these techniques. If you fill it, you enter Overheat, which can lead to getting blown up and stunned. In a fight with this much offense, you don’t want to give your opponent a free chance to shift an entire round, so managing this gauge will be key in high-level play.
Keep it Old School
If you’re a hardcore fan of Mark of the Wolves, fear not, as many of those mechanics are also back and better than ever. Braking, two (TWO) different parries, feints, and guard cancels are all here and better than ever. These mechanics blend pretty seamlessly with the REV systems, but at first glance, it can be quite daunting to keep track of which technique is best for each situation and keep all of the toolset in mind for each and every moment of every round. It’s a lot to take in, but it lends itself to a very high skill ceiling, as new players won’t need these tools much but will be crushed handily by a veteran who has mastery over them.
Underneath it all is the return of the original Arcade-Style controls and the new Special Style. This is the new player-friendly system that allows for easy combos, one-button specials, and supers. The heavy offensive focus and the Special Style will make this a fun, straightforward, and flashy button-mashing good time and still allow players to pick up on the nuance of the REV system as they get more experience under their belts. I mean, these Smash Bros Terry Bogard mains have to start somewhere, don’t they?
Visuals and Tizoc Pack a Punch
As for how it all comes together, I spent the bulk of my hour of playtime with Tizoc, who felt pretty easy to pick up and play despite his distinct high-flying options and up-close command grabs. He came to life once I started incorporating the REV system to combo into his command grabs, which felt incredibly satisfying to pull off. Newcomer Preecha, a student of Fatal Fury legend Joe Higashi, was also incredibly fun to use and seemed tailor-made for the REV Accel system in particular.
The superb use of harsh cell shading brought all of the action to life, packing City of the Wolves with a very eye-catching and distinct art style that caught us all by surprise when we saw it in person. It brought me back to the old arcade days when you would see a fighting game in motion and couldn’t wait to put your quarters up and go a few rounds.
We were fortunate enough to speak with Hayato Konya, director of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. In our interview, we asked him about the challenges of balancing big-body grapplers, keeping the legacy intact versus appealing to new players, and what to expect from the story.
For players looking for a piece of the action, EVO Japan 2024, which takes place April 27-29, will have a booth set up for hands-on demo time. Visit the EVO Japan 2024 official website for more information. The rest of us who aren’t EVO-bound will have to wait until early 2025 to get our mitts on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
