I haven't enjoyed a fighting game as much as Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves since I got to play the return of a personal favorite franchise with Soulcalibur VI in 2018.
Even if the single-player offerings aren't up to the modern standards set by games like Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8, the core mechanics are deep and surprisingly challenging (yet fun) to learn, in an era where it seems developers are aiming to simplify system mechanics to appeal to a wider audience.
REV It Up
The main attraction of COTW is the REV System. Think of it as your Drive Gauge from Street Fighter 6. There are a variety of things you can do with your REV meter: using EX moves (REV Arts) to deal extra damage, linking those special moves by using the REV Accel mechanic that essentially lets you chain as many REV Arts as you can come up with, and even REV Guard, a special defensive tool that adds more pushback while blocking and protecting you from chip damage.
There's one more mechanic involving the meter, called REV Blow, which is tied to the Selective Potential Gear bar (S.P.G). Now, the S.P.G bar is a different can of worms, but suffice it to say that REV Blow will be a bit controversial. Not to lean into the SF6 comparisons again, but REV Blow does, in practice, serve a similar purpose to that of Drive Impact. You can use it to brush off your opponent's offense, leading to massive damage if you land it. However, if your opponent also has the S.P.G meter active, they can react to it and counter-REV Blow it.
Sound familiar? It is, to a degree. REV Blow does lead to more unique situations as its properties vary from character to character. During my playtime, I could counter-REV Blow an opponent who had successfully managed to REV Blow back my initial attempt. Why? You see, the character I was using, Hokutomaru, can perform a follow-up REV Blow attack. That's not something universal; it's a character-specific thing.
Speaking of the S.P.G bar, that's another mechanic that makes the game more strategic, even before round 1 starts. S.P.G is tied to your health bar, and at the beginning of a match, you can choose where to place it. It covers around a third of your health, so you can choose to start with a significant advantage or save it to use as a comeback mechanic. This bar offers unique buffs beyond the REV Blow: your moves will deal more damage, and you'll also gain access to your character's Hidden Gear, a unique two-bar super that will cool down your REV Meter completely.
Speaking of which, when you do go into COTW's version of being burnt out, called Overheat, you'll be at a serious disadvantage. For one, your combo potential will be severely neutered as you don't have access to REV Arts, and you'll be susceptible to chip damage without REV Guard.
Furthermore, when you block incoming moves, your guard gauge starts to deplete. Once it's gone, you'll go into a guard crush state, opening you up for massive incoming damage.
Unlike other modern fighting games, defensive mechanics are key. Practicing Just Defense and Hyper Defense will separate the good from the great in City of the Wolves. As the name implies, Just Defense will trigger when you block an incoming attack as you're about to get hit. You'll regain some health, and your REV Meter will also decrease.
The real benefit of Just Defense is being able to Guard Cancel. While it does cost a small amount of REV Meter, guard canceling will let you perform special moves to punish things that you usually wouldn't be able to.
Hyper Defense takes it a step further: during a multi-hit move, you can tap forward at the right time and then buffer a super that has a Zero Frame property. That means it will come out immediately and skip the startup animation. There are some odd occurrences when using multi-hit supers with invincible start-ups that can get interrupted. It's a niche scenario, but I hyper-defended the first hit of a REV Art fireball and did an invincible multi-hit super. While it managed to connect, it eventually traded with the second fireball hit, so keep that in mind.
Beyond that, you also have feints and brakes. Both can be used to set a neutral game plan by baiting opponents with feint moves and maintaining your offensive pressure with brakes. This mechanic allows you to cancel the animation of certain special moves that would otherwise be unsafe to perform.
A Lukewarm Solo Trip To South Town
So, the mechanics are all fascinating. What's the selling point for more casual players? It turns out that there's not a lot of meat in COTW's single-player content.
City of the Wolves features your standard arcade mode with all characters, barring Cristiano Ronaldo (SNK did promise it's coming later down the line). If you're not a fan of the series, expect to be completely lost in terms of story. If you are, though, you'll find plenty to enjoy seeing how these characters have grown over the past few years since their last iteration.
There is also "Episodes of South Town," a single-player RPG-like story mode that can be tackled with all characters (barring one Portuguese superstar). Sadly, it doesn't commit to being a goofy single-player alternative for those looking to dip their toes into the fighting game genre. Almost every match plays like a regular one with the occasional gimmicky challenge, including a secret one that's so annoying I'd rather not spoil it so you can get to experience it for yourself.
The best thing about the offline or more goofy modes is the return of two-lane battles. They're restricted to one stage for now, with more coming in the future, but it adds a level of uniqueness to the game, even if it's a small novelty that likely won't get a lot of playtime unless you're really into old SNK titles.
In terms of customization, the edit color feature is amazingly detailed. COTW may lack alternative outfits (unless you're a Terry main), but giving me the ability to get a Strider-inspired color palette for Hokutomaru makes up for it.
Another highlight is that SNK gladly gave fans a massive jukebox that serves as a virtual musical museum of their long history in the genre. You can set up a playlist with your favorite tunes and have it ready on different stages.
Not So Smart Style
While the single-player is not particularly deep, it does an okay job of being a good distraction from the ranked grind. Where the game is a bit faulty is in its accessibility options.
Smart Style, SNK's answer to Street Fighter's Modern or Tekken's Special Style, is a subpar experience that feels useless and somewhat shoehorned in. In Smart Style, you can access features such as auto combos and one-button supers, but you have no access to feints or brakes, two key components of how the game is played. There's a difference between missing a couple of moves and just having entire game-defining mechanics out of reach.
Furthermore, Hidden Gears still require players to make the motion input, defeating the entire purpose of Smart Style.
Time To Hit The Lab
If you're looking to practice in a more serious environment, the training mode offers some solid options for you to tinker with. It's still lacking a few quality-of-life features that players have come to expect, such as replay takeover, though.
On that note, the combo trials are also rather barebones. I assume that SNK doesn't want to directly hint at optimal combo routes, letting the player's sense of discovery take over. However, having only five trials for Arcade Style (classic controls) and three for Smart Style feels underwhelming.
Still, training mode is more than serviceable with plenty of recording options to set up multiple scenarios. One thing newcomers, particularly Street Fighter 6 refugees, will miss is the lack of in-game character guides. You'll still find them online, but it would have been nice to have all that information easily accessible without having to open YouTube or Twitter.
An Online That's Not Quite There Yet
Maybe I've been spoiled by the netcode of recent games like Street Fighter 6, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, or Guilty Gear Strive, but City of the Wolves is, while good, not one I'd consider among the very best.
It's still rollback netcode, and for the most part, you'll have a smooth experience playing the game under the right conditions. However, if you do end up facing that one Wi-Fi player in ranked, you might encounter some serious issues. It's stuttery, and your moves can get rollbacked like crazy. At one point, I was playing someone with over 180ms, and the screen went dark for a second while trying to do a REV Art follow-up.
Say what you will about crouching medium kick into drive rush, but the wizardry Capcom pulled with SF6 to make it feel that smooth of an online experience still can't be replicated by other developers.
The lobby system does feel sluggish, and SNK will have to address this issue. It can become annoying fast if you plan to enter online tournaments consistently.
Overall, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is a fantastic fighting game. If you were missing a demanding fighter with plenty of defensive and offensive mechanics to juggle and keep you on your toes, SNK's got you covered.
If you were looking for an experience similar to what other AAA fighters have offered in recent years, however, you may end up a bit disappointed. That said, the fact that the first season of DLC is essentially free is an excellent consumer-friendly practice that should at least entice you to give this game a shot if you're burnt out by others who have relied on battle passes on a paid experience to keep milking consumers for more money.
As for me, I'm sticking around South Town for the foreseeable future.
SNK provided PS5 and Steam codes for this review.