It has been a long time since I’ve partaken in a fighting game with a quest-based system beneath it. It has been a concept that needed to be dug back up and executed brilliantly for it to stick permanently. It’s a concept needed to expand the fighting genre and make it more than just a punch/kick experience. Fatal Fury: City of Wolves may have just moved the needle with this concept and how it works with the genre.
Fatal Fury: City of Wolves from developer SNK Corporation brings a unique storyline, a cool 7-10 hours of quest-led gameplay, and a solid online PvP presence. It contains everything you want out of a fighting game, and it brings a balance that is catered toward veterans and newbies. It’s got a lot going on. The only hiccup in its giddy-up is that it ends all too quickly, at least the PvE side of the tracks.
So, let’s get punching and kicking on this review.
A newbie’s point of view
While I didn’t know much about the 1990s arcade series, as my SNK love went as far as the NEO GEO during that time period (never could afford it, but always enjoyed looking at it), it was fascinating to see a sequel to a game that was 20+ years old. Honestly, not knowing much about this series has sent me into a rabbit hole of information, and this newness will probably provide you with the freshest take on this latest game.
With that said, let’s jump into some gameplay chattiness.
Still fighting
Fatal Fury: City of Wolves is a fascinating game. At its core, the structure is built on old fighting concepts. You are thrown into a match, you build up special abilities, and you unleash hell on your opponent to progress. In addition, you fight different characters with their styles and unique personalities. This is an old-school fighting concept that never fails to entertain.
Beyond that core, the game does some neat things that I have never seen before in a fighting title. The first big one is adding a campaign component with quests. This isn’t simply just shoddy storylines that are pushing toward a two-round battle; rather, the quests follow the story of Rock Howard and his investigation of his missing mother, Marie. The quests take you through different avenues with twists and turns, and present different fighting scenarios that are counter to what a typical fighting game would be. For example, you may take on one quest where you just fight a single round with an enemy. You also might fight a slew of enemies in one setting with one round each. Then maybe you run into a quest that takes you through a tournament where you fight multiple people who might be friends or foes.
Ultimately, there are an abundance of these quests in the campaign mode (Episodes of South Town) that are split into three separate areas of South Town, which include Central City, East Island, and Second South. Each area has several quests attached to it, which eventually lead to one big boss fight. The quests are organized by fighting levels of enemies, and contain their own set of rules and regulations on how to complete them. When you complete enough quests, the area will open up a mid-boss, harder quests, and will eventually lead to a big boss fight. The latter of which is tough as nails, so bring your senses and tamed frustration – it is going to be a doozy.
RPG elements
With every quest that your character completes, the story progresses, and your character progresses. Your character will gradually level up depending on who you fight, what level they are, and what XP is offered for victory. With each level upgrade, your character becomes more powerful (though you have little control over how), and the fights seem evenly matched all the way through (sans the boss fight). I would have loved to have some say-so with the leveling and what attributes I wanted to upgrade on my guy, Terry, but the game knows better. Honestly, it does know better.
Pretty Special
As you level up in the game, you also get to level up your S.P.G. (Selective Potential Gear), which is a way to pull off special moves in the game. This directly corresponds to special moves that can do some damage to an enemy, and something that you can use when you want to disrupt or counter an enemy’s punch/kick. For Terry, I used it by pressing the circle and triangle buttons together, which delivered a nasty knee and punch. Now, there are only a limited number of times to use this before Terry becomes overheated. Should your character overheat, you will be restricted from using S.P.G. again until the character cools off.
In addition, the S.P.G. can be eliminated by enemies if the character they’re fighting against takes too much damage. For example, if you’re in a boss fight and the boss hits you 6-7 times in a row, more than likely, you’ll lose the S.P.G. bar on your energy bar. Once it is gone, you can’t recover it until the next round/fight. It’s a good power to have, but it’s also something that can be easily lost, which adds some intrigue to fighting, as well as a good amount of strategy when deciding to unleash it and when to hold back.
If that wasn’t enough to make the fighting in Fatal Fury: City of Wolves just a bit different, then let’s talk about S.P.G. placement. The player can place S.P.G. anywhere they want on their health bar, which is one way to create some interesting strategy during a fight. I had no idea how impactful S.P.G. placement would be until I ran into some enemies that had theirs placed either in the middle or at the end of their energy bar. It works wonders and can act as a last-ditch effort to win a match. The fact that you can move and place it where you want is cool because it adds some thick strategy to an entire fight.
Beyond S.P.G., there are also REV moves that you can do in the game. These moves can deal massive amounts of damage. The caveats to these moves are that some can be countered, and some cannot. For example, when I was fighting Mosburg early in the game, he taught me about REV moves and the ones that couldn’t be countered. When he flashed gold, winding up a punch, I thought that I could just immediately counter it because it was so slow. What I found was that you can’t counter or stop one of these punches. You simply have to block it or move out of the way. The former is the best way to survive it. Anyhoo, the inclusion of different styles of REV and how they can be used only deepens that game in the strategy department. Anytime you can make a fighting game experience deeper, that is a good time.
Veterans versus Newbies
In one regard, I do consider myself a veteran of fighting games. I have been around since they’ve been around, including the arcade days (looking at you, horrendous Street Fighter I with punching pads), and I know my way around them. Now, having said that, SNK fighting games have always offered a different level of difficulty, complexity, and style. While the Capcom fighting games are easier, SNK fighting games have always been a few degrees tougher, but I have enjoyed the latter very much.
Anyway, the reason why I am bringing up my fighting game resume is to point out that Fatal Fury: City of Wolves is truly built for all gamers. I was fearful when jumping into it that I would have an uphill battle with the fights, as I do with nearly every SNK fighting game. But it turned out to be a nice romp from beginning to end with the campaign. It never felt like I was unable to progress, and nothing felt impossible. The boss fights were a considerable step up, but never boiled my blood to the point where I wanted to quit.
Related, the control scheme felt as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. Pulling off special moves was easy, and at the same time, figuring out when/what special moves to pull off was complicated and strategic. The controls and the game overall felt quite balanced. It should satisfy the veterans and those dreamers who wanted to see this sequel happen, while also keeping the door open for new gamers to come and explore without the need to be experts. When you can make a fighting game feel like this, then you’re in a good spot.
Additional odds and ends
While I would have liked to stay in the campaign a bit longer, as it only lasted about 10 hours for me, the game does feature some additional content to keep it going. The small addition is the mini-game included, which was easy to become obsessed with. I think I spent about an hour completing all the challenges, which were just smashing X number of beer bottle tops off before I ran out of chances. The mini game was amusing and akin to smashing up cars in SFII, but nothing groundbreaking or particularly juicy/meaningful.
The game also features an arcade and versus component that is offline. This allows you to play locally and go back to old arcade-style fighting. It took me about an hour to get through the arcade mode, though going back through with different characters could be interesting. It’s just your typical arcade mode, though the versus might draw a bit more competition locally, as well as longevity. That requires having a fighting game fan in the household, though.
Now, the final mode included is the online mode, which features tournaments, ranked matches, and casual gaming. This mode is built for that ultimate PvP person, and, honestly, that ain’t me, chief. My competitive nature has been tamed over the years, and I prefer offline or campaign, but the online presence is strong for those who love it.
Finally, the game features additional content, such as art, music, and customizable characters. These are not necessary to make the game entertaining, but they’re welcome in the mix. It’s like having special features on a Blu-ray. You may not want them, but they exist in case you want them.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Fatal Fury: City of Wolves from SNK Corporation is a long-overdue fighting experience that does its best to throw variety and meaningful content into the mix. Most of what it tries to do is on point, though the experience, especially on the campaign side of the tracks (Episodes of South Town) could have been a bit longer.
