Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Review: Good fighting game with a much greater potential

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves begins another chapter of the legendary fighting game series. The iconic team of warriors is back in a new form, with a new rookie and some unexpected guest appearances. It seems like everything is in top form with a strong visual style and a complex combat system that challenges the best in the genre. What else do you need?

Welcome back to South Town

I have to it, I was pretty skeptical about the return of Fatal Fury at first. I just didn't think SNK could pull it off. I thought we'd end up with a fighting game that would just be a copy of the latest The King of Fighters installment, both in of art and gameplay. That's not that bad on its own, but we could expect more from such comebacks, something that really stands out compared to the competition. Although the final result didn't completely satisfy me, the new fighting game undeniably possesses a unique identity and the status of a well-crafted game rich with mechanical nuances found in its deep combat system, which will be the most important aspect for many.

The main menu already made a positive impression on me because... it is essentially raw, but in a good sense of the word, without excessive fuss. Everything is classically listed and gives a clear view of the most important game modes, in which we will basically find everything we should expect from a big fighting game. So the standard arcade ladder will allow you to learn the history of each available character (except for Ronaldo, who doesn't have any storyline). The practice tab contains standard training, challenges, and mandatory tutorials, which will probably overwhelm newcomers with a multitude of different mechanics. I don't see the point in describing each of the available modes separately, because they are the classic set of gameplay modules offered by practically all fighting games. I will just add that among the more interesting things, you will come across the possibility of fighting with "clones," who are imitating the fighting style of other players.

The most important and extensive gameplay option for casuals and solo players is Episodes of South Town. This is an adventure featuring RPG elements, where we find ourselves on boards inspired by the map and neighborhoods of South Town. In practice, we just pick pins representing battles with enemies or enemy groups, and when we win, we earn experience points to level up and choose the next objectives. By cleaning the map this way, we develop our character and also get to know a simple storyline. It's a lot of fun and a unique challenge, and because the mode lacks unnecessary complexity, it feels like playing the best fighting games from the past, which I really value.

Cristiano Ronaldo got lost

The situation looks a bit worse when we look at the composition of available warriors. The devs released 17 characters for the launch day. Most of them are, of course, returning veterans. Among the new faces, we will find Preecha fighting in a modified Muay Thai style, just like her mentor Joe Higashi. You can tell right away that she's designed for beginners, offering simple basic attack combinations and easy-to-master special moves. Next, it's worth noting two quite surprising guest appearances: Cristiano Ronaldo and musician Salvatore Ganacci. Both of these characters don't fit the vibe of South Town and Fatal Fury at all, and Ronaldo's model looks like it was made in a rush, it just looks bad. Of course, for most players, artistic consistency isn't a big deal, so this marketing move won't bother them.

For me, the presence of these characters negatively affects the whole experience. Especially since the fight against them is annoying. Ronaldo seems like a strong character, he can keep the opponent at a distance with the ball, as well as quickly rush them by going into the offensive. Salvatore is purely a comedic character full of goofy animations inspired by his music videos. The character floats in the air and is an archetype of a humorous character who surprises the opponent with unconventional techniques - I definitely liked him more out of the two, although he still doesn't really fit here and I really wish the developers would spare themselves the time to develop these characters. I will add that the collaboration with Salvatore Ganacci is not limited to him being a playable character. The artist also composed some electronic tracks. I tried to approach this with an open mind, but without diminishing the DJ's talent, these tracks completely do not fit the character of the series and its atmosphere.

It's impossible not to notice that there aren't too many playable fighters, and I really miss a few iconic ones like Ryuji Yamazaki or Blue Mary. Fortunately, the devs not only promise constant with DLCs, but even offer the first season completely for free. Additionally, the characters available on the release represent various archetypes and each of them plays distinctly differently, so there is no way to complain about the lack of gameplay diversity. People who prefer long-range combat will probably choose Kain, and those looking for a classic "shoto" will choose Terry or Rock Howard. Hokutomaru is a fast and agile ninja trying to disorient the opponent. Surprisingly for me, because I usually avoid such characters, my favorite character was the powerful Tizoc, a classic wrestler - slow, but capable of inflicting gigantic damage with a successful grab. I believe that everyone should find something for themselves by experimenting with different warriors.

Wolves are sharpening their fangs

In of combat, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves adheres to contemporary trends for fighting games. It is clear that the developers were focused primarily on lowering the entry threshold, so the game offers not only the classic control scheme but also a simplified one. The game is heavily focused on creating combos, which are not the hardest to execute. Of course, it's hard to accurately assess everything before testing out a fighting game in online battles. However, it is easy to see that the devs tried to balance the offensive aspect of combat with defensive options. This is praiseworthy, because when looking at Tekken 8 now, the game suffered a gigantic failure in this aspect.

The heart of Fatal Fury's combat system is the Rev mechanic, which allows you to easily cancel attack animations into other attacks, which in turn allows you to create spectacular combos. It can be used both defensively to block the opponent's attacks and steal their turn, and aggressively to use stronger special moves - while being careful about "overheating," a temporary state during which we cannot use several mechanics.

The closest cousin of this system will obviously be Street Fighter 6 and its Drive mechanic. Nonetheless, SNK's fighting game has a slightly more classic style and, due to the accumulation of various mechanics with several options for their different uses, it can be more overwhelming - at least initially. I feel that Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has a slightly slower pace, but moving around the map plays a bigger role. This means that despite a few similarities, these two fighting games are played completely differently.

It has very strong foundations and I'm glad that despite the efforts of the devs, the entry threshold has not been set too low. Thanks to this, it's not boring - fighting the toughest opponents can be challenging and winning is satisfying. Of course, ultimately everything will come down to clashes with live opponents, because that's what fighting games are all about. I just hope that by focusing too much on combos, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won't have excessively schematic duels, but we will be able to assess this only in a few months.

There's not enough excitement here

Nonetheless, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, is clearly missing something and the game seems like a product that was released a bit hastily. Why do I think so? For example, we will find the Two-Lane combat mechanic, but in the pre-release version it is limited to one map and the combat system is not particularly well thought out around this feature. This was an iconic mechanic known from the first installments of the series, which allowed players to dive into the background of the map, for example to avoid an enemy attack - thanks to this we were dealing with gameplay, which can be most aptly described as 2.5D. If the new game was created from scratch with such rules in mind, we would have a truly unique fighting game compared to the competition, doing something completely its own way.

The smaller budget is also noticeable, especially in the varying graphics. Some maps amaze with colors and the amount of details, while others are much more modest, and even scare with ugly animations in the background. Colorful flashes and comic book s also ultimately don't quite hit the mark for me, although initially I even liked them. I was also annoyed by the plethora of loading screens, which take far too long.

It's good, although the potential was much greater

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is missing is a clear element that would make me abandon other competitive fighting games for it. The single-player modes provided me with many hours of fun and I will definitely spend some time fighting online. Nonetheless, I don't feel an addictive element in this game that would prevent me from not having more battles. It's hard for me to openly criticize this title, because I it that as a fighting game it doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but I also don't see anything truly phenomenal and more exciting in it. I believe that the potential was much greater and maybe with the announced updates, it will be possible to get something more out of it. As of today, it is a very good representative of the genre, but I feel that after a maximum of a few months I will put it aside. I want something more from a title of this caliber and subjectively I can't ire it to such a large extent as I would ultimately desire.