Again in March, SNK lastly pulled again the curtain on Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves, the newest installment within the storied combating sport franchise. The return 24 years within the making impressed with its American comic-style artwork, hard-hitting motion, and distinctive combating mechanics just like the S.P.G. system. We had an opportunity to take one other spherical of hands-on time with Fatal Fury at Summer time Sport Fest, and it continues to be a knockout.
This new demo eliminated two characters from the earlier hands-on–sorry, Hotaru and Tizoc followers. Nonetheless, changing them on this demo’s roster have been two characters who’ve been confirmed since that first preview session: Marco Rodrigues, who was introduced in April, and Vox Reaper, one in all two new characters confirmed throughout Summer time Sport Fest Dwell. The different, B. Jenet, was not current in our demo.
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Even earlier than we took the controller, we continued to be impressed with Fatal Fury’s artwork model; the “American comedian” strategy to paint and shading actually makes every character pop off the display. In an interview with GameSpot after the hands-on session concluded, Fatal Fury artwork director Nobuyuki Kuroki stated that this visible model, slightly than taking a extra lifelike strategy, was at all times the intention.
“In case you take a look at what different sport firms are doing, you may already see video games on the pinnacle of lifelike graphics and even anime graphics,” Kuroki stated. “We have been looking for a distinct segment that no one else has used, after which tried to excellent it and make it our personal.” When requested which character revealed to this point is the very best instance of what the group has achieved, he rapidly responded with “all of them,” earlier than ultimately selecting Tizoc as probably the most visually spectacular to this point.
Throughout our hands-on, we centered on utilizing Marco and Vox Reaper. We tried out Vox first, who’s evocative of the sub-boss Grant from Garou: Mark Of The Wolves. Vox thrives within the impartial sport; his highly effective one-off strikes pay dividends as a match progresses. His sport is extra of a affected person one, the place we might be biding time and ready for a gap to strike earlier than transferring in.
His command throw is a significant a part of his arsenal, as he can instantly observe it up together with his uppercut particular transfer or one other massive transfer as quickly because the animation ends. He additionally takes just a few particular strikes straight out of Grant’s Garou equipment, which is able to give longtime Grant gamers an edge from the soar. Of the 2 new characters on this construct, Vox is the one we want we had extra time to determine.
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After just a few turns with Vox, we moved on to Marco, and from the phrase “battle,” we instantly clicked. Marco practices Kyokugenryu Karate, which within the deep lore of SNK, is a method additionally utilized by the Sakazaki family–most notably Ryo and his father, Takuma. As such, Marco performs very very like these two martial artists, and his tackle the model packs a robust but acquainted punch.
Marco’s equipment consists of each the Kouken fireball and the Kohou uppercut, in addition to the Hien Shippuu Kyaku jumping-kick combo. His highly effective Haoh Sho Kouken fireball tremendous transfer fills the display with hearth, as nicely, offering one of many martial artist’s flashiest strikes. The place Vox requires some extra time on the sticks after this demo, we really feel we may maintain our personal towards anybody proper now.
This new hands-on wasn’t the one SNK replace of the weekend, nevertheless: One of many extra groundbreaking bulletins of Summer time Sport Fest was the addition of Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui to Road Fighter 6. The inclusion makes Terry and Mai the first-ever visitor characters within the core Road Fighter franchise, regardless of Capcom and SNK partnering up up to now.
Fatal Fury producer Yasuyuki Oda says that these discussions started again in 2022, when Evo returned to Las Vegas for the primary time because the COVID-19 pandemic. “At Evo in 2022, we had SNK- and Capcom-themed posters that we collaborated on,” Oda stated, and people kicked off additional talks throughout the identical occasion.
“There have been a few dinners throughout that point, and that is principally when the talks started,” Oda stated, including that the 2 groups “are on very nice phrases these days; I do know [Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki] Nakayama is a big SNK fan, and we’re all massive Road Fighter followers as nicely.”
Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves just isn’t solely a reinvention of the traditional combating franchise; it is a signal of SNK’s renaissance as a complete. With extra video games and partnerships coming down the pipeline, the corporate could discover itself in a brand new age of glory earlier than lengthy, and primarily based on how City Of The Wolves has performed in two preview periods, we’re wanting ahead to what’s subsequent.
Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves will launch in early 2025 for Xbox Collection X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.