Fighting Games Friday: A City of Hungry Wolves
It continues to be special that SNK is tackling a Fatal Fury/Garou: Mark of the Wolves sequel, specifically with Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu: City of the Wolves. When SNK returned as primarily a video game developer after their temporary shift to the pachinko and mobile markets, this was among the top projects the company’s dedicated fanbase wanted them to take on. This desire further intensified after it was revealed that the company’s older iteration once had a sequel in the works, a sprite-based direct sequel to the original that would have added a bunch of characters that have yet to appear in any of the company’s works. Now that they’ve fully reestablished themselves with two The King of Fighters games and a new Samurai Shodown title (and SNK Heroines, I guess), they’re taking it on.
The project was first announced at Evo 2022 and revealed at Evo 2023, but SNK is finally beginning the promotional campaign in earnest after several months of teases. The newest trailer provided a far better look at the gameplay, quickly outlining similarities and differences the game will have compared to its predecessor. Five characters were definitively confirmed — and I can’t emphasize “definitively” hard enough.
Terry Bogard and Rock Howard, the protagonist of the older Fatal Fury games and the new protagonist who took over with MotW, respectively, were shown in action before. Both were bound to return considering their importance in the previous game and the way the story ends. Hotaru Futaba and Tizoc will also return from the previous game, with the latter reassuming his “face” wrestling persona with the Griffon Mask instead of the “heel” one from the KOF games with the King of Dinosaurs. Like any sequel worth its salt, the game will have brand-new characters.
The first introduction honor goes to Preecha, an apprentice of Joe Higashi who uses Muay Thai. There were a bunch of people who said she didn’t look Thai enough, those whose definition of a young Thai person clearly comes from fighting games and old action movies. That, or they were hoping the art design ideas would be extremely 1990s, even though the new characters from the last two KOF games (specifically Sylvie Paula Paula and Shun’ei) should have convinced anyone otherwise. Chances are she’s a rework of Kuan Konta, an apprentice of Joe originally set to be introduced in the original MotW sequel concept, albeit with modern design sensibilities. Perhaps the other planned characters will all be reworked for this installment too, though I wouldn’t complain if some were entirely original.
These are the only characters who’ve been shown in action thus far. The other characters shown in previous pieces of promotional artwork are presumably set to appear in playable form and not through cameos. Main villain Kain R. Heinlein will undoubtedly reappear playable but Joe Higashi himself, Andy Bogard, and Billy Kane are likely set to return from prior Fatal Fury games too. SNK would presumably not do something as cruel as showcasing characters in artwork who won’t be playable. There’s surely a reason why this game is called “Garou Densetsu” in Japan, like the older Fatal Fury games, instead of maintaining the “Garou” name. It’s likely not because anyone would confuse it for GARO. It helps that all those characters already have usable models thanks to the KOF games.
Not to mention the characters teased through vocal quips during the Evo 2023 trailer. B. Jenet, Gato, Kevin Rian, and Marco Rodrigues (formerly Kushnood Butt outside Japan, a bad rename that they’re wisely pretending never existed) are bound to appear. I’m assuming every character from the previous MotW game will return here, especially those playable in the recent KOF games. But it would be neat if Mai Shiranui returned with the aforementioned pre-MotW characters. If there turns out to be no Mai, certain fans have no reason to buy.
All the gameplay features from the previous game have returned, including Just Defend, Feints, and Breaking, but there are other new features. The biggest is the REV System, which allows for four unique features. REV Guard (a special guard beyond Just Defend), REV Blow (an updated version of the T.O.P. system from the previous game), REV Arts (apparently EX versions of special moves), and REV Accel (the Special-on-Special Move cancels from The King of Fighters XIII). SNK will have to further demonstrate these so they’ll fully make sense, just as Capcom had to do for all the unique Drive features prior to Street Fighter 6’s release. CitW will also have the common modern (or “Modern”) fighting game feature of having “Arcade Style” control schemes and “Smart Style” controls for one-button combos.
SNK is truly going all out here when this will be the first fighting game they’re providing an English Dub with a budget for, in addition to the Japanese voices. It will include popular talent like the currently-omnipresent Suzie Yeung as Hotaru and Jalen Kassel as Tizoc. If this game is successful enough, they might do this for some of their non-KOF games in the future from here on.
I’ll be optimistic and assume that characters previously shown through promotional artwork will indeed be playable. The game’s roster will be stacked with characters in this case. Hell, maybe they’ll even include Geese Howard, since few characters truly die in fighting games. There’s a chance that SNK will never make another Fatal Fury game again after this, so they should make this installment count. City of the Wolves is planned for release in early 2025, about a whole damned year from now, so they’ll have plenty of time to reveal the remaining roster faces.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
