SNK conducted the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves beta last weekend starting on February 20th and ending on February 24th. The beta cuts to the network tests, which were done on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC ecosystems. Of course, being a fan of SNK fighting games, I had to dive in to see what SNK has managed to accomplish with its upcoming fighter.
Out of the eight warriors, I used my usual homegirl who’s been having the time of her life, ruining the World Warriors and their controller folk in Street Fighter VI – Mai. I also tried out Preecha, Hotaru, and Terry. It was only fair to give the previous characters their time in the hands. Especially the fighters who solidified the franchise.
Preecha was definitely a standout for her command stance moves and massive damage potential. Not too bad for a Muay Thai scientist who trained under the great Joe Higashi, who will also be coming back to Southtown for City of the Wolves as a Year 1 DLC. Crocodile Soup possibly in tow). I did like Hotaru’s kit. I’m more about Gato myself, but she’s just as strong as she was before.
A Tour Around The City
SNK titles were never afraid of showing you the basics of how the games go from the start even if you were already familar. I could remember the MVS touting around the specifics before you jumped onto the character select screen from games such as Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and The Last Blade. From which buttons did what, to how movement worked, the demo went through it all. City of the Wolves has a 3 level-based one. From beginner directional moves to that of REV functions in Expert, the Tutorial mode covers everything similar to other SNK modern titles. For this game, it’s definitely worth checking out for there’s a lot of ground to cover.
The robust system of City of the Wolves is something that fits into and does more times than just watch. The Evo Awards Exhibition matches, with Evo Champions Arslan Ash and Punk duking it out, do prove different because of the stance, but playing it for oneself is a different beast altogether. Even dodging is a thing here.
Coming from Street Fighter VI or even Guilty Gear would give one a sense as to what’s possible before Overheating – which happens when Rev Moves, blocking, and other tools are used excessively. Burning out in Street Fighter VI might be a better way to compare it. Guard Breaking can help reset it quicker more times than cooldown.
Matching Up Is Easy To Do
The game’s Ranking system isn’t tied to characters and relies on three fights to start to determine where one sits – similar to KOF. Then, it’s off to the matches for Rookie to S-level fun. Switching from characters won’t require another set of placement matches to figure out where one stands with someone else. If I wanted to go from Vox Reaper to Kain, there would be no real issues to stop one from maining another character. Rank just carries over in City of the Wolves. While this could be a good move, there is a potential for a match-up being scary because of it.
Character levels help guide players into better matches that are suitable for them at their current level. A Rookie level Kain should be able to fight a Rookie-level Dong Huawn. If it’s player-based, there is a potential of bringing in high-level character users, which can lead to skill differences.
The cool part about matching is the fact that SPG gauge playstyle can be switched before the match starts. No need to keep the SPG in one place for your health if a character is better to utilize it against a foe way better one way more times than another. For instance, if I’m using Terry to face Vox, I know can possibly get Power Gesyer to counter Vox’s aerial moves faster if I know the meter will back me up with the strength increase. With Mai, I’d know I can counter a character as a backup plan for Potential Gear if I can run pressure for made mistakes.
Since the game does cut into the title with no intros yet, and there are only 4 stages, hearing what the music can really do is limited to 5-6 tracks. The Jazz feel is definitely there. Especially with the menu music, which I’d probably let bump for a bit. The brass band sounds were originally tied to Terry’s theme in Fatal Fury and, in extension, KOF. SNK’s cool to keep the theme. Both English and Japanese voiceovers are available.
The Wrong Turns In City of The Wolves
There are slight wrongs in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves in this beta. The lack of an actual Practice Mode seems to be a glaring issue since a lot of players have not really been exposed to the game itself. For some, these characters are nearly brand new, so it could be good to have one here. Tutorial can help with this, but it’s tied towards Rock as the playable character. While it does go through the full mechanics of the fight, it can be repeated. But in a low-risk scenario with other fighters or even in an actual match? Not at all.
For instance, Tekken 8 did provide players with a safe space in the form of practice mode during their CPT a year ago, but not as many characters. SNK decided not to bother with that. Jimmying two systems together and a room could help, but match time might be a factor. For the sake of the demo, this would be the case.
Ironically, that beta was cracked within two days after launch, which has even led to certain things being exposed such as who else will be joining as base roster, 2 or 3 years beyond DLC potential, and endings that are spoiler-level. This was the fear of SNK coming true.
The menu did feel cool with what was provided, but navigating felt a bit jarring since it was spread out and some things were not meant to be available. The cursor was restricted, also.
Matchmaking seems to be smooth when there is a match. Sometimes, it does take nearly 30 or so seconds to get into a match itself. City of the Wolves doesn’t include casual wins or losses within the stats. Or at all, which felt a bit detrimental. There was screen tearing in the PS4 version when used on the PS5. Unlike Street Fighter VI, all one can do is wait at the matching screen. No practice mode or anything else but. This could be thanks to the omission of Practice Mode, but this is yet to be seen.
Tutorial Mode does lack a few key things such as how to really recover after a hit and which other ways to go about it. Its’ somewhat distant cousin/ Street Fighter VI provides 2D fundamentals such as neutral understanding, which is something that games 10-20 years back left to the community to pick up slack. City of the Wolves focuses a lot on the tools more times than the way to fight.
A Grappler character not being present is interesting, but not much of a lack, than a nitpick. Tizoc doesn’t get his chance in the sun as much as the 8 to vary the experience around. Then again, 8 fighters can be enough to use.
We're working on fixing the matchmaking and room search issues, but they likely won’t be resolved during this test. We're exploring the possibility of a second test. We apologize for the inconvenience. https://t.co/ELfXaVohqx
— Yasuyuki Oda 小田泰之 (@snk_oda) February 21, 2025
The Road To The Other Battle Is Coming
For Fatal Fury’s triumphant return to the scene imminent, City of the Wolves does feel like an amazing way to do it. With the T.O.P. system of old being repurposed and transformed into the SPG system of new, there’s no denying that improvements have been made to make City of the Wolves as expansive as it could be.
Even though there are small holes in the Open Beta, SNK has stated that they’re listening to the feedback to implement it into the full game, as Oda explained. With nearly 2 months to go before we re-enter the King of Fighters Maximum Mayhem tournament, there could be a chance that SNK will act quickly enough to give fans a more seamless transition.
