| FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves teases its fans with an open beta with 8 playable characters and online play! Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the game’s open beta, and more.
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Everything We Know About FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Plot
South Town’s streets were infamously known to be a hotspot for unbridled action, wild dreams, and fierce ambitions. Twenty-six years later, at long last, a new legend is about to emerge...
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Gameplay
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves is a 2D fighting game that brings back many of the classic mechanics from its previous iteration. These include Just Defense, Hyper Defense, Guard Cancel, Braking, Feinting, and Wild Punish. However, the most unique feature that returns is Selective Potential Gear (S.P.G.) which was formerly known as Tactical Offensive Position (T.O.P.) in the previous game.
On top of these returning mechanics, the game also introduces the REV System, a universal system for all characters that offers unique offensive options that are accessible as soon as the battle starts. With this system in place, you can use options like REV Arts, REV Accel, REV Blows, and more.
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Release Date
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will be released in April 24, 2025 for PC (Steam, Epic Games), PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X|S. Additionally, they’ve announced that pre-ordering the game will allow you to play three days earlier!
| Digital Storefronts | |||
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 Steam |
 Epic |
 Playstation |
 Xbox |
| $59.99 | |||
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Review (Open Beta)
The Return of the Wolves
SNK has decided to go back to its roots and bring back the historic Fatal Fury franchise with FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves. With a new and improved look, inspired fighting game mechanics, and an unapologetic approach to the genre, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves is looking like SNK’s ticket to get back on top of the game.
SNK’s Best Graphics to Date
When SNK made the transition from animated sprites to 3D models in King of Fighters XIV, they were heavily criticized for it as the models looked extremely subpar against their competitors. While the reason for the switch was because of how expensive the whole graphical process was in King of Fighters XIII, they still took a lot of flak at the time, deservedly so.
Since then, SNK has made it a point to improve their graphics release after release with Samurai Shodown (2019) and King of Fighters XV. It was an obvious improvement over time, and it seems that SNK has finally hit the mark on the type of aesthetic and art direction that they’re taking.
The game has embraced the cel-shaded graphics with a comic book-like aesthetic that makes everything more vibrant. On top of that, SNK was already known for their creative character designs in the past, so carrying their designs over from the previous iteration, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, made a lot of sense.
Innovative Gameplay
With the trend of fighting games nowadays moving towards accessibility and making things easier for the player, SNK has decided to take what works and innovate from existing designs. Those who are familiar with today’s top 2D fighting games, like Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive, know that the gameplay revolves around meter management.
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves builds on the idea of the Drive Gauge from the former, where you have a full resource of offense that you can spend at the start of the game as well as another resource to use for your stronger special moves. Don’t get it twisted though; they’re not the same.
What makes Fatal Fury’s meter management unique is that it also relies on the player’s health because of the S.P.G. mechanic. Some moves like REV Blow and Hidden Gear are only accessible when a player reaches a certain HP threshold that they’ve assigned to, so this means that players can choose when to have their enhanced and more powerful state. This makes the game a lot more challenging, as ideally, you want to take your opponent out of their S.P.G. zone quickly so they lose their chance to capitalize on stronger options. So not only should the player be aware of each player’s respective S.P.G.’s, but they should also factor in if they have enough resources to cash out for a big combo.
SNK has done a great job of building upon their existing systems by taking mechanics from their older games and creating a whole new design that feels familiar. Veterans who played Garou and King of Fighters should feel right at home with how everything moves and feels, while not alienating a newer audience. On top of the stellar mechanics, the whole game is balanced to the point where the design leans towards offense but has enough defensive mechanics to back up the aggression.
Network Issues
With the game still in its beta state, there are bound to be issues to be had. One glaring issue that should be addressed is the game’s matchmaking. Despite being the hot new fighting game on the block, it took a significant amount of time to get a match online. I was waiting upwards of five to ten minutes for a subpar connection, leading to unplayable matches due to the high latency.
SNK has had notoriously bad matchmaking systems before, but this is the perfect time to turn things around. Hopefully, this issue will get fixed by the time April rolls around since a good fighting game cannot exist without a good online experience in today’s day and age.
Potentially Their Best One Yet
Truth be told, SNK hasn’t exactly missed with their previous fighting games, and it’s to be expected that FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will be amazing as well. However, it does feel like SNK has a lot riding on the game to do well, and this is seen by the amount of effort that they’ve been putting into marketing the game.
They’ve secured a collaboration with Capcom where Ken Masters and Chun-Li will be playable characters in its first season DLC. Additionally, they’ve even had a trailer with football legend Cristiano Ronaldo, which may be the first time we’ve seen something of this magnitude. SNK is putting its best foot forward with FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves and is doing their best to potentially create their best fighting game yet, and I think they might be right on the money with this one.
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FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Product Information
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| Title | FATAL FURY: CITY OF THE WOLVES |
|---|---|
| Release Date | April 24, 2025 |
| Developer | SNK CORPORATION |
| Publisher | SNK CORPORATION |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, Fighting |
| Number of Players | 1-2 (Versus) |
| ESRB Rating | T |
| Official Website | FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Official Website |
