The landscape of fighting games in the 90s and 00s is nothing like the current landscape. While today there is an important niche with anime fighting games and a scene dominated by Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Guilty Gear, there was a time when this was not so simple. There were very regular releases of games in this genre, with names and companies dominating the discourse that have now been practically forgotten. Or at least, relegated to the background.
One of these names is SNK. They are now going to revive one of their most beloved franchises, the classic Fatal Fury, with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
With a release date set for early 2025, this game was originally announced with an extremely brief and uninformative teaser in August 2022 during the EVO celebration. The biggest fighting game tournament in the world. Now we have been given a deeper look at the game, allowing us to gather the first details about it.
In this nearly three-minute trailer, we can gather quite a few things. The cel shading style of the characters with 3D background models seems to be inherited from another SNK game, King of Fighters, and five characters have already been confirmed, four of them returning from the original with a new addition in the form of the mysterious Preecha.
In terms of gameplay, it strongly resembles a combination of Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Real Bout Fatal Fury. That is, a fast-paced game with combo chains and a powerful blocking system based on parry – the Just Defend system. Additionally, there seems to be some kind of special attack reminiscent of Street Fighter 6’s Drive, but it is still unclear how it will work in practice.
Nevertheless, we won’t have to wait long to know more. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won’t be released until 2024, but it will be playable at the upcoming EVO Japan, which will take place from April 27th to 29th in Tokyo, Japan.
