Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves | |
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Developer(s) | SNK |
Publisher(s) | SNK |
Director(s) | Hayato Konya |
Series | Fatal Fury |
Engine | Unreal Engine 4 [1] |
Platform(s) | |
Release | April 24, 2025 [2] |
Genre(s) | Fighting |
Mode(s) |
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves [lower-alpha 1] is an upcoming fighting game developed and published by SNK. It is the first new entry in the Fatal Fury series in 26 years, following the release of Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999), and serves as a continuation of that game's story. The game is currently scheduled to be released on April 24, 2025 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. [3]
Gameplay in City of the Wolves is similar to that of its predecessor, with combat taking place on a two-dimensional movement plane. Several mechanics from Mark of the Wolves are retained in City of the Wolves, including the T.O.P. system, renamed the "Selective Potential Gear" (S.P.G.) system; and the "Just Defense" mechanic, which features an expanded "Hyper Defense" variation designed to protect against attacks that hit multiple times. In addition to basic normal moves and special moves, players can also gain access to "Gear" super attacks by filling two meters at the bottom of their screen. Spending one meter will perform an Ignition Gear attack, while both meters can be spent to perform a more powerful Redline Gear attack. The most powerful super move, the Hidden Gear, requires both bars to be spent while the S.P.G. is active. [4]
A new mechanic introduced in the game is the "Rev System". Players can perform multiple types of Rev abilities, including "Rev Arts", enhanced versions of a character's special moves; "Rev Blow", an attack that can help put distance between the two characters; "Rev Accel", which assists in chaining attacks together to create combos; and "Rev Guard", a defensive block which pushes opponents away as their attack connects. Using these techniques will gradually cause the character's Rev Gauge to fill; when full, the character will enter an Overheat state and be unable to use any Rev abilities until it fully depletes. The affected player will be able to drain their gauge more quickly by actively approaching and attacking their opponent. [4] The game offers two control schemes for players to choose from: "Arcade Style", which features traditional controls akin to previous entries in the series, and "Smart Style", a simplified control scheme that allows players to perform attacks and combos using only basic directional inputs and single button presses, though certain abilities are inaccessble in Smart Style. [4]
In addition to the standard arcade mode, the game features a single player mode called "Episodes of South Town". This mode features RPG mechanics and has players selecting challenge missions scattered around a South Town map to earn experience points and additional skills for their chosen character. [2] Progressing in this mode will unlock new outfits, colors, and patterns with which to customize the characters in the "Color Edit" mode; music from other Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting games can also be played during battles or using an in-game jukebox. [2] The game supports online multiplayer, including rollback netcode and cross-platform play. [2]
While the previous game, Mark of the Wolves, featured an almost entirely new roster of playable fighters, City of the Wolves marks the return of several characters from the earlier Fatal Fury games, along with new characters. The game is set to feature 17 characters in its base roster, with an additional five planned as part of its first season of downloadable content. [2] Newcomers are marked in bold.
In 2005, during the KOF Year-End Party fan event, SNK illustrator Falcoon mentioned that a sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves was around 70% complete for the Neo Geo by the SNK team. Falcoon also confirmed that one of the new characters meant to appear was a student of legacy Fatal Fury character Joe Higashi. [11] In July 2006, SNK reported that they were still working on the sequel, saying that they would use modern high-resolution graphics instead of the resolution quality level seen in the original game. [12] During an interview in March 2008, SNK USA developers commented that there was not any concrete schedule of demands for the game and that they planned to make the sequel with some new technology. [13] In June 2016, SNK revealed artwork and sprites of the cast of the cancelled Neo Geo version. [14] SNK director Nobuyuki Kuroki stated in February 2020 that he was personally interested in 'reviving' the Fatal Fury series. [15]
During EVO 2022, it was revealed that a new Fatal Fury game was officially in development at SNK. [7] At EVO 2023, SNK announced the game's title to be Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and revealed a first look at the gameplay, demonstrating it would be a 2.5D fighting game similar to their other contemporary fighting games Samurai Shodown (2019) and The King of Fighters XV (2022). [16] In March 2024, the game was officially announced for a 2025 release. Additionally, it was announced that City of the Wolves will be the first Fatal Fury game to feature an English-language voice track, and the first SNK game to do so since The King of Fighters XII (2009). [8]
The game is set to be released on April 24, 2025. [2] It will only [17] be available in a "Special Edition" format, which includes the base game and the first season pass. [2] Players who pre-order the game will receive an additional costume for Terry based on his appearance in Fatal Fury 2 (1992), along with three days of early access. [18]
The King of Fighters (KOF) is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of The King of Fighters '94 in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main platform for the series until 2004 when SNK retired it in favor of the Atomiswave arcade board. Two King of Fighters games were produced for the Atomiswave platform (The King of Fighters Neowave and The King of Fighters XI) before SNK decided to discontinue using it for the series. The series' most recent arcade hardware is the Taito Type X2, first used with the release of The King of Fighters XII. Ports of the arcade games and the original The King of Fighters games have been released for several video game consoles. The latest entry in the series, The King of Fighters XV, was released in February 2022.
Fatal Fury, known as Garō Densetsu in Japan, is a fighting game series developed by SNK, first released on the Neo Geo system.
Terry Bogard is a fictional character created by SNK as the protagonist of their Fatal Fury series. Introduced in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters in 1991, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide "The King of Fighters" tournaments to combat his father's murderer, Geese Howard. Following Geese's defeat, Terry becomes the guardian of Geese's son Rock Howard. He is also a regular character in the crossover video game series The King of Fighters, where he continues participating in tournaments. He has also been a guest character in other games, including the Capcom vs. SNK series, Arika’s Fighting EX Layer, Street Fighter 6 and Nintendo's crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In addition to video games, Terry has appeared in anime films based on Fatal Fury, and manga serialized in Comic Bom Bom.
Geese Howard is a fictional boss character and the main villain in SNK's Fatal Fury fighting game series. Debuting in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, Geese is the local crime boss of the fictional city of South Town. Geese created and hosts a fighting tournament named "The King of Fighters", in which he faces the brothers Terry and Andy Bogard who want to take revenge for their father's death. After several tournaments in the Fatal Fury series, Geese is killed by Terry in Real Bout Fatal Fury. However, he appears in following games without storyline as a "ghost" named Nightmare Geese. Geese has also appeared in other SNK's games such as The King of Fighters games, in which he seeks to get the power from the creature Orochi and often sends teams representing him. His young self makes an appearance in the second Art of Fighting game as the final boss character. He also appears as downloadable content in Bandai Namco's fighting game Tekken 7.
Fatal Fury 2, known as Garō Densetsu 2: Aratanaru Tatakai in Japan, is a 1992 fighting video game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms, and later ported to several other home systems. It is the sequel to Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991) and the second game in the Fatal Fury franchise. Its updated version, Fatal Fury Special, was released in 1993.
KOF: Maximum Impact (KOFMI) is a fighting game developed by SNK subsidiary Noise Factory and published by SNK Playmore for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. An enhanced version was released for both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 under the title KOF Maximum Impact: Maniax. The PS2 version of 'Maniax' was only released in Japan, and the Xbox version was not released in Europe.
The King of Fighters 2006, known in Japan as KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (KOF:MI2), is a 3D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore and released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. An updated version was released in 2008 under the title KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A. It is the sequel to KOF: Maximum Impact, which itself was a spinoff of The King of Fighters series.
Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a 1999 fighting game produced by SNK, originally for the Neo Geo system and then as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves for the Dreamcast. It is the sixth main installment of the Fatal Fury series.
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special is a 1997 fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo platform. It is the sixth installment in the Fatal Fury series and the second game in the Real Bout sub-series, following the original Real Bout Fatal Fury. Real Bout Fatal Fury Special features all new graphics and returns to the two-level plane system from Fatal Fury 2. The game was later included in Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, a compilation released for the PlayStation 2. In March 2017, this compilation was re-released in the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 4.
The King of Fighters Neowave(KOF Neowave, or KOF NW) is a 2D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore and released as a coin-operated arcade game for Sammy's Atomiswave hardware in 2004. It was the first game SNK Playmore produced for the Atomiswave. This is a remake of The King of Fighters 2002 with a major change of roster and stages, the game was also made on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The PS2 version was released only in Japan and the PAL region, the Xbox version was released both in Japan and North America; additionally, the Xbox version was the last game released for the console in Japan. The North American version was released on April 18, 2006. In 2020, a Dreamcast homebrew adaptation of the arcade version was also made possible due to the Dreamcast sharing almost identical hardware with its Atomiswave cousin. The character artwork was done by Tomokazu Nakano. In Japan, it was the last game to be released for the Xbox.
Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, known as Garō Densetsu: Shukumei no Tatakai in Japan, is a 1991 head-to-head fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. Fatal Fury was SNK's first fighting game for the Neo Geo system and served as the inaugural game in their Fatal Fury series, as well as the first game to depict the fictional "King of Fighters" tournament, which became the basis for the later The King of Fighters games.
The King of Fighters '94 is a fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system in 1994, as the first in The King of Fighters series. The game was also released for the Neo Geo home console systems, including the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD. In 2008, KOF '94 was one of sixteen games included in SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii.
The King of Fighters XII (ザ・キング・オブ・ファイターズ XII)(KOF XII) is the twelfth installment of The King of Fighters series of fighting games developed and published by SNK Playmore. The game was originally released in Japan in April 2009 for arcades. Home versions of the title for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had a worldwide release on July 28 of the same year. Like The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002, this game does not have a storyline; but it is the third chapter in the Tales of Ash Saga that started in The King of Fighters 2003.
Satoshi Hashimoto is a Japanese actor and voice actor currently affiliated with the Cube. Inc voice actor agency. Hashimoto is noted for his roles as Terry Bogard and Kim Kaphwan in the Fatal Fury, Capcom vs. SNK and King of Fighters fighting game series.
The following is a list of video game characters featured in the Fatal Fury fighting game series developed by SNK. The series consists of the original Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
The King of Fighters XIV(KOF XIV) is a 2016 Japanese fighting game. Part of SNK's franchise The King of Fighters (KOF) series, with this installment being published by Atlus USA in North America and Deep Silver in Europe. After the 13th installment that used 2D raster imagery, this game is rendered entirely in 3D similar to the spin-off Maximum Impact. The game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 in August 2016 and ported to Windows and Japanese arcade cabinets in June 2017.
Yasuyuki Oda is a Japanese game designer. Oda showed an interest in gaming during his childhood that led him to study animations when growing up. He debuted as a developer for SNK, doing debugs of certain games while being a major planner in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. In 2000, he moved Dimps to later work once again in SNK in mid-2010s to direct The King of Fighters XIV and other installments from SNK's properties.
Nobuyuki Kuroki is a Japanese game designer working for SNK. He did art for several Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games and took a bigger role in The King of Fighters XIV and Samurai Shodown.
The King of Fighters XV, also called KOF XV, is a fighting game developed by SNK. It was released on February 17, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. It is the first game in The King of Fighters series created using Unreal Engine 4, and the first to implement GGPO rollback networking. Taking place after the events of The King of Fighters XIV, the narrative primarily revolves around two fighters with multiverse-related supernatural powers, Shun'ei and Isla, among other returning heroes facing revived threats. King of Fighters XV generally received praise for its character roster, team-based gameplay, and smooth online performance, but criticism for its story mode, complex tutorials, and mechanics.
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will only be available in this Special Edition format. There are no plans at this time to sell the base game and Season Pass 1 individually.