{"id":37942,"date":"2025-04-21T09:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37942\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T09:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:20:11","slug":"fatal-fury-city-of-the-wolves-review-ps5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37942\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Review (PS5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

SNK, once on the brink of bankruptcy, is back with a marketing budget that would make genre titans Street Fighter<\/a> and Mortal Kombat<\/a> blush.<\/p>\n

With Saudi Arabia\u2019s untold riches powering it, the push behind niche 90s fighter revival Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves<\/a> has been unprecedented, adorning London buses and New York boxing rings.<\/p>\n

But does the actual game have the chops to capitalise on its monstrous marketing cycle?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s perhaps the strangest thing about this latest effort from the revitalised KOF Studio: away from all of the advertising pizazz, it still feels relatively low-budget.<\/p>\n

The game, effectively a sequel to 1999\u2019s iconic Garou: Mark of the Wolves<\/a>, features a fairly strong roster of returning faces \u2013 supplemented by two gimmicky guest characters, which we\u2019ll touch on later.<\/p>\n

We should note that the Special Edition \u2013 which is more or less the standard version of the game despite its name \u2013 comes with the release\u2019s first Season Pass, promising five additional characters post-launch. Among those new challengers are Ken and Chun-Li from Street Fighter, continuing SNK and Capcom\u2019s long history of crossover content.<\/p>\n

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a generous package, then, and while it can all feel extremely no-frills while you\u2019re browsing its stiff and ugly user interface, you can tell a lot of care\u2019s gone into it.<\/p>\n

The fighting system is really fun, but there are a few systems we\u2019d like to draw attention to.<\/p>\n

REV is the release\u2019s headline feature, and everything revolves around it. Before a bout, regardless of which character you pick, you can select the placement of your SPG \u2013 or Selective Potential Gear.<\/p>\n

When your health bar hits your determined SPG zone, your character\u2019s combat arsenal opens up, including devastating REV Blows (a little bit like the Drive Impacts in Street Fighter 6<\/a>) and Hidden Gear super-attacks, which work in conjunction with your Power Gauge.<\/p>\n

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

Outside of the SPG sweet spot, you can also use REV on powered-up special attacks and defensive manoeuvres, but these cause your character\u2019s overall heat to increase. If you get too hot, then you\u2019ll be locked out of certain special attacks for a while, unless you can effectively cool down through combat and by dashing around the stage.<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s quite a lot to consider about the overall combat system, then \u2013 but it works. Fights are fast and frenetic, and there\u2019s an underlying tactical aspect: will you go on the offensive from the outset by starting with your SPG active, or save it for the end of a fight as you eke out an unexpected comeback?<\/p>\n

While the core mechanics are consistent across the entire cast, each fighter presents new potential and problems for you to grapple with. SNK stalwarts Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui maintain their tried and tested fighting styles from past games, while newcomer Preecha is a kind of kickboxer with tornado-style capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

All of the core characters are beautifully animated, with the exception of the guest characters Salvatore Ganacci and Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n

The DJ presents as a kind of Dan-like joke character, so we can somewhat get behind his ludicrous music video-inspired moves \u2013 but the Portuguese football phenom doesn\u2019t really make any sense at all, to the point where he isn\u2019t even featured in the traditional Arcade mode.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, in addition to the aforementioned \u2013 which consists of a series of bouts bookended by some simple cutscenes \u2013 the main single player mode here is Episodes of South Town.<\/p>\n

While this is described as an RPG, it\u2019s effectively a list of combat scenarios placed on a static map, interspersed with visual novel sequences. Each character has his or her own storyline \u2013 again, apart from CR7 \u2013 and you earn EXP after each fight which levels you up.<\/p>\n

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s very little more to it than that.<\/p>\n

As you level up you gain more HP and more powerful attacks, but your opponents will also get stronger so there\u2019s no real sense of progression. You do eventually begin to unlock perks which allow you to marginally tailor your playstyle, but it\u2019s basic stuff.<\/p>\n

Of course, fighting games don\u2019t need epic campaigns to be enjoyable, but when you compare what\u2019s here to Street Fighter 6\u2019s ambitious World Tour and Mortal Kombat 1\u2019s<\/a> cinematic storylines, those budgetary constraints come into focus once again.<\/p>\n

While we haven\u2019t been able to test the online play on live retail servers yet, the rollback netcode felt robust in previous beta tests, and the multiplayer content is accompanied by a \u201cclone\u201d mode, which allows you to battle against AI facsimiles of an opponent\u2019s playstyle. It\u2019s a bit like the ghosts you can find in recent Tekken<\/a> games.<\/p>\n

\"Fatal<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also find the traditional genre staples: a gallery which collates all of the unlocked artwork you\u2019ve discovered thus far, a jukebox which allows you to listen to both the new game\u2019s slamming soundtrack and all of the songs from past entries in the property, and various robust training options.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a complete package, then, and one that feels well-positioned to expand with future updates and DLC packs. If we have any one criticism outside of the core fighting, it\u2019s that the menus really do feel remarkably slow to navigate.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/p>\n

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won\u2019t blow you away like Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8, but as a more rudimentary fighter, it\u2019s got guile. Its layered fighting system and vibrant, well-animated characters make for an entertaining overall package that\u2019s been 26 years in the making.<\/p>\n

While the gimmicky guest fighters feel out of place and the supposed RPG-inspired single player mode is insultingly basic, if you\u2019re looking for a fine alternative to the more established fighters already on the market, this is more than up to the task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SNK, once on the brink of bankruptcy, is back with a marketing budget that would make genre titans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[21718,10516,3462,6959,3669,154,55,6080,6082,991,21719,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-37942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-fatal-fury-city-of-the-wolves","9":"tag-fighting","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-multiplayer","12":"tag-online","13":"tag-playstation-5","14":"tag-ps5","15":"tag-review","16":"tag-reviews","17":"tag-single-player","18":"tag-snk","19":"tag-technology","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114375217974745017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}