Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (COTW) brings the heat with its fun to pick up, hard to master 1v1, 2D fighting gameplay and unforgettable characters. SNK provides their best modern outing in the fighting game genre, but does it compare to other fighters of this era?

It is hard to talk about the “COTW” without touching on the huge marketing push that has never before been seen with a fighting game. It has been widely advertised in Pay-per-view (PPV) events, such as the Canelo Álvarez vs. William Scull boxing card and WrestleMania 41, with the game’s logo in the middle of the ring and wrestler entrances being paired with the “overheat” graphic from the game.

Having been 26 years since the last “Fatal Fury” entry with Garou: Mark of the Wolves, immediately playing this off-the-bat feels like a direct sequel to Mark of the Wolves (MOTW) fighting game fans have wanted for decades. The new REV and S.P.G. systems and stellar comic book-styled visuals enhance the technical gameplay mechanics, providing an interesting new experience while maintaining the old-school SNK feel.

The REV system gives players access to stronger moves with REV Arts, defensive options, and the REV Blow, which can only be accessed in Selective Potential Gear (S.P.G.).

Before a match begins, players decide where to place their S.P.G. section on their life bar, giving them access to the REV Blow and Hidden Gear super move. Players have the freedom to either go in crazy right from the start, in the balanced middle or set their S.P.G. at the end of their life bar, giving themselves a comeback mechanic.

This is similar to the Tactical Offense Position (T.O.P.) system from the previous game, but extends combos much further, making the REV Accel that links REV Arts to each other – both fun and rewarding. However, be careful as spamming these REV moves can cause characters to overheat, making them unavailable to use REV actions until a cooldown period ends.

Beyond that, more advanced techniques like Just Defense, Feinting, Braking, and Wild Punishes keep both players on their toes and add to the depth of this frantic, over-the-top fighting game.

All these systems are in place for the characters to take full advantage of, arguably the most important aspect of a fighting game. Almost everyone from Mark of the Wolves returns, which is amazing to see. Icons like Terry Bogard are expected, but Kyokugen Karate master Marco Rodrigues (formerly known as Khushnood Butt in MOTW) and explosive SWAT officer Kevin Rian have not been playable in other SNK series, making them a sight for sore eyes. Even Fatal Fury mainstays that weren’t in “MOTW” but were in previous games, like the kunoichi Mai Shiranui, are welcome new additions.

The new additions include real-life guest characters, such as recording artist DJ Salvatore Ganacci and world-famous soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo. I welcomed Ronaldo’s inclusion because he is a global icon who knew that his inclusion would turn heads and get people interested in Fatal Fury. Adversely, I had no idea who Salvatore Ganacci was, making his inclusion a bit head-scratching.

Their inclusion received mixed responses from fans, who felt it “replaced” missing characters from MOTW, like Kim Jae Hoon and Freeman, among other complaints.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when playing both characters as they are extremely unique. In King of Fighters 98, there was an American Sports team consisting of an American football player, a basketball player and a boxer. Ronaldo feels right at home with their design mentality of translating a sport into a martial art for this game. Ganacci’s moveset mainly references his surreal music videos and performances, making him a zany fighter.

With 17 characters and six Downloadable Content (DLC) characters coming to the game at no extra cost, including Ken and Chun-Li from Street Fighter, seeing variety in an original fighting system is exciting.

Most casual fighting game fans look forward to a robust single-player experience, popularized by the Mortal Kombat series, with games like Street Fighter 6 adding a full single-player Role-Playing Game story mode with World Tour. COTW has the typical arcade ladder and combo trials with the Episodes of South Town (EOST) mode that is supposed to fill that gap, but is just shy of achieving that robust experience players are looking for.

In “EOST,” players choose a character and progress through a text-based story. They level up their characters to unlock modifiers like stronger throws and REV moves and select missions that are set with match modifiers. Many Non-Player characters, including special boss Characters, are seen as opponents in the mode, which makes it weird that they are not fully developed, playable characters lacking substance.

The Street Fighter 6 World Tour at least gradually introduced the game’s mechanics to the player, giving a bit of a guide on learning them, while “EOST” falls short in this field.

Thankfully, the online modes play great with rollback netcode, a must for fighting games. The game also has crossplay with all consoles and platforms. SNK’s last game, King of Fighters XV, had inconsistent netcode. SNK has learned from its mistakes and provides a great and serviceable netcode, crucial for a fighting game’s longevity.

Other bonuses within the game include Color Edit mode, which allows players to edit a character’s costume colors, and Jukebox mode, which lets players pick and choose different stage and menu songs from Fatal Fury.

Regarding a fighting game experience for new players, “Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves” is amazing. It rivals other modern fighting games with its unique complexity and over-the-top gameplay. This is certainly SNK’s best modern fighting game, but it falls short in providing a balanced experience for the casual player compared to contemporary games. Nevertheless, I will return to “COTW” to explore all the characters with unique REV mechanics and await the DLC characters.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and on PC via Steam & Epic Games Store. Special thanks to SNK for providing The Sundial with a review copy.