SNK’s whole history is a fascinating story – built by ex-Streetfighter developers, they wanted to build a rival to Capcom’s own hit. That was when Fatal Fury was born. Big, bright, and bold, each of the games had a colour palette that distinguished it. This was largely thanks to artist Shinkiro who created a house style. Then a lot of things happened including bankruptcy and investment from a Saudi company.
In the last few years SNK (Playmore) has gone back and revitalised their old games and I think that the Xbox Tavern crew like the games quite a bit. It felt inevitable that Fatal Fury would come back but the questions were: would this adopt the fighting planes (instead of single 2D plane the characters jumped between two and used attacks from those) of the original series and bring back the original roster? Would it adopt some of the elements from its sequel Garou: Mark of the Wolves? Would there be a response to Streetfighter 6’s single player?
The answer to all those questions is ‘yes… to varying degrees’.
The story sticks to the timeline of Garou – the main villain of the Fatal Fury series, Geese, has died after being launched off a building. The protagonist, Terry, raises Geese’s son Rock creating a weird dynamic where Rock fights using both his father’s and Terry’s style. Then there are other stalwarts like Mai, Terry’s brother Andy (coming soon) and Tizoc a wrestler who wears a bird mask. There is the same sort of bonkers story of kidnapping, betrayal, team ups and a ridiculous boss fight to contend with that anyone who hits the arcade mode will have some fun working through.
City of the Wolves has gone for 3D models much like the rest of the fighting games out here, after serving gorgeous pixel art previously, but the artists have made an effort to ape Shinkiro’s heavy outline style (if you have seen the poster he did for Resident Evil 4 you will know what I mean). It works and feels like it is staying true to the series while also accepting the modern concessions that the developer has had to make given that hand drawn art is now not cost-effective.
The gameplay itself sticks to the SNK style, with two kicks and two punches, there are also a couple of buttons dedicated to special moves. An acknowledgement of the changing times is that it has both the standard control system with quarter circle style inputs, as well as the ‘Easy Operation’ version that triggers specials and even advanced combos. There is an S.P.G. system that appears to be a reworking of the old system from Garou – this allows a player to select an area on their health bar that allows them access to more powerful attacks. The tactic then becomes deciding where to place that as well as trying to mitigate when an opponent uses theirs. New is the REV system that allows for breaking through attacks and some defense moves. All of it feels fresh and allows for a wide range of tactics.
Fortunately, there is also a really good tutorial that shows you how to perform each of these moves. What was lacking in some of SNK’s previous titles was a context for where and why to use these systems, and often I had to go and watch tutorials from Youtubers to get proper context.
This is where the new EOTS option in the game steps in and is a considered response to the campaign from SF6. The player picks a character then selects from fights available on a 2D map, levelling up and unlocking more fights and story for each of the playable characters. It isn’t the grandiose open-world of SF6 but it does the job well with each character having their own story, and the fights doing a good job of teaching when to use abilities. For example, the first few fights can be buttons spammed through but soon enemies will use the parry system and force you to learn high low abilities, jump over charged attacks, counter and eventually learn to use REV attacks effectively. Presentation budget is not through the roof but again it is really well put together considering this game is going to be on a tighter budget than some other games in this genre.
Unwilling to neglect a nod to old Fatal Fury this new version even contains a stage that uses the dual parallel plane system. I don’t recommend it as a way to play but it is a nice touch to keep it in there without making it City’s whole identity.
Finally, the Multiplayer; this was down for a lot of the review period but I finally got into a match a few days ago. The fights seem responsive and netcode is solid. If people gel with the systems, then they are going to have a good time both offline and online.
My major gripes? This is a fighting game that begs for a fight stick. Some of the button combination presses involve contorting one’s thumb that just don’t feel conducive without customising the controls heavily or using a stick.
It dampens mid-high play and that extra investment in this economy should be considered a barrier for anyone planning to become dedicated.
The second is insulting – yes, this is sort of a Garou game but to have both Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi as Season DLC when they are fan favourites in the Fatal Fury franchise is nakedly an attempt to make people fork out more money straight away.
Conclusion
City of the Wolves is a solid instalment in the series, and a game that is in love with its past, while adding new layers everywhere that counts. There is substantial single player content, multiplayer of value and considerable roster. SNK fans will be eating well today – as long as they are prepared to pay extra for content.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
