SNK’s next big fighting game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, launches on April 24th for Xbox Series, PS5, PC, and PS4, with three days of early access available for pre-orders. There’s much to look forward to, but more than anything, it’s the sequel that Garou: Mark of the Wolves fans have been waiting decades for. Check out 15 things you should know before picking it up.
Roster
At launch, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves features 17 playable characters. A good chunk of the roster carries over from Garou: Mark of the Wolves, including B. Jenet, Gato, Hotaru, Rock, Terry, Tizoc, etc. However, some newcomers include Preecha, a Muay Thai fighter trained by Joe Higashi, and Vox Reaper, an assassin and apprentice to Grant. You also have Fatal Fury stalwarts like Mai Shiranui and Billy Kane, and even Kain R. Heinlein, previously a boss, is playable for the first time.
The Wildcards
While all this sounds just fine, SNK announced two more characters which can only be described as out of left field. These include footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrives in South Town and immediately sets about schooling opponents with kicks and energy balls, and DJ Salvatore Ganacci who, as you probably guessed, can use his voice as a weapon (and swim in mid-air). Imagine if they end up being the meta.
Stages
While you’re still fighting on a 2.5D plane, City of the Wolves features some returning classic stages. Freight Express is a homage to Terry’s stage from Fatal Fury 2 and Garou, though some new faces adorn the rock in the background, and Tizoc’s Universal Arena looks better than ever. You can also look forward to IP Space Center, Yuri’s Fitness Club (seemingly inspired by Yuri’s Art of Fighting 2 stage), and much more.
Training
Training Mode, as you would expect, lets you practice with various customizable settings. You can measure damage, impact frames, and more while fine-tuning your commands and combos. And of course, it’s possible to enable matchmaking in the background while you practice.
Just Defend and SPG
Just Defend and T.O.P, now known as S.P.G., return. As in Garou, the former is meant for correctly timed blocks (and there’s even Hyper Defense for combos). Both are beneficial for cooling down the REV Meter, slightly recovering health and potentially cancelling into an attack.
S.P.G. is a mechanic that activates at a certain point in your health bar, which you can set before a match. It lets you unleash REV Blows for massive damage and shrugging off incoming attacks. You also deal more damage, allowing for a strong starter or comeback if you’re on the ropes.
Ignition, Redline and Hidden Gears
Super moves, known as Gears, also return and depend on your Gear gauge. In Arcade Style, Ignition Gears are activated with one bar while Redline Gears require two (and deal more damage). If you really need to turn things around, there’s also the Hidden Gear. Available only during S.P.G., it spends both bars and executes a devastating attack.
REV System
The REV System is brand new to the franchise and SNK titles in general, dictated by a meter at the bottom of the screen. It allows for executing the previously mentioned REV Blows, REV Arts (which are stronger versions of Special Moves), REV Accel for chaining REV Arts and REV Guard which prevents chip damage and also gives a bit more breathing room.
However, if the meter is in the Overheat stage, your guard meter can be broken, causing temporary stun, and you won’t have access to any of the REV moves. It’s very much akin to Street Fighter 6’s Drive Gauge, but fits pretty well.
Episodes From South Town
Further adding to the Street Fighter 6 comparison is Episodes From South Town. Like World Tour, you’ll explore Central City (and Second South, based on the official trailer) and challenge various other fighters, gaining experience, levelling up and learning skills. The biggest difference is that you can play as a roster member rather than a custom fighter.
Arcade Style and Smart Style
The era of multiple control styles is here to stay and Fatal Fury is hopping on the train. It offers two control schemes – Arcade Style, which functions as your standard control scheme, and Smart Style, a more streamlined set-up for easily executing combos. The differences are interesting because Smart Style lacks a lot of the nuance of Arcade. You can’t brake or feint at all; Hidden Gear isn’t available; and Super Moves will consume the entire meter.
Cosmetic Customization and Jukebox
Expanding on cosmetic customization is the ability to color a character’s eyes, hair, clothing, shoes, and more separately. You can select different textures, adjust their sizes, add a specular effect, and more. Want Hotaru to have yellow tiger print paints? Go for it. The Jukebox is also available and seemingly includes all the songs from past Fatal Fury titles if you want to revisit the classics.
Online Modes
As for online modes available at launch, you can look forward to Casual Match, Room Match and Ranked Match. The latter allows for customizing connection speed and whether you want to enable cross-play while Room Match allows for customizing a room based on the number of members, region, privacy settings and more. The UI also helpfully outlines rank, win-loss record, and winning streaks.
Rollback Netcode and Cross-Play
Fans of Garou had to wait many years for features like rollback netcode and cross-platform play. City of the Wolves includes both, which means you can take on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC players at launch. Impressions for the netcode have been generally positive with the overall quality receiving praise after past betas, though there are a few matchmaking issues. Of course, how this will all perform at launch remains to be seen.
Full English Voice Acting
One of the biggest new features in City of the Wolves relates to the voice-acting. This will be the first Fatal Fury title with English voice-acting, and the first SNK title in years to receive the same. Even if the purists will stick to Japanese, it still says a lot about how seriously SNK is marketing this to the world.
Post-Launch Characters
We already know that Ken Masters and Chun-Li from Street Fighter are joining the roster, seemingly in exchange for Terry and Mai appearing in Street Fighter 6. But that’s not all. The first post-launch DLC character is actually Andy Bogard, who arrives first this Summer (with Ken out shortly after). Joe Higashi is next this Fall, followed by Chun-Li in the Winter. Wrapping up Season 1 is Mr. Big, who debuted in Art of Fighting as a boss. He’ll join the roster in early 2026.
PC Requirements
PC players need 60 GB of storage space to install the game, though an SSD isn’t mandated. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200, 8 GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB). The recommended requirements include a Core i7 8700 or Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, and an RTX 2070 or Radeon RX 5700 XT. Not too shabby, though the graphical quality and resolution that each provides are unknown.
