I really like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. I would go as far as say that I kind of love it. In my review last year, I called it the most fun I’ve had with a fighting game since Dragon Ball FighterZ and SoulCalibur VI in 2018. However, the SNK marketing makes it incredibly hard to recommend the game without appearing to be a sellout.
Let me give some context about the latest massive SNK screw-up. On January 15, SNK responded to the leaked Season 2 roster announcement that occurred a day prior, officially unveiling that the next COTW season would have six characters, including the return of fan-favorites like Blue Mary and Geese Howard (as Nightmare Geese). What’s even more exciting: they are going to be dropping them monthly from January 22 until June.
Sadly, fans are justifiably bashing the company for using a completely atrocious AI-generated reveal trailer that completely sucked off the hype for anything that SNK was trying to show off. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the stuff of nightmares.
Basically, the entire conversation has shifted to the awfully produced, uncanny valley-like attempts at recreating iconic characters using a soulless tool like AI. You can’t in good conscience tell me this is how Terry Bogard should look.
Truth be told, I hear what half of you will probably say: “Who cares? Just play the damn game.” I get it, City of the Wolves is an incredible fighter, with a very unique art style. Yet, I can’t simply ignore the fact that SNK, time and time again, with this game’s marketing, has fumbled the bag big time. It’s egregious how they’ve managed to squander the work of the hard working developing team by consistently having the worst first impressions.
During the lead-up to the release of City of the Wolves, the addition of two bizarre guest characters like football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and DJ Salvatore Ganacci puzzled the community. The roster wasn’t big enough to justify two completely random characters taking spots from beloved fan-favorites in a returning franchise that had been dormant for decades. Following on that, as cool as seeing Chun-Li and Ken Masters join South Town (following Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui hitting Metro City in Street Fighter 6), the number of guests was bumped to four in a roster of 27 by the time Season 1 ended.
The entire marketing blitz was woeful and completely missed the mark. Sure, it was neat seeing the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves logo splattered all over the wrestling canvas at WrestleMania 41, but did any of those wrestling fans get turned into Fatal Fury enthusiasts? I’ll give SNK the benefit of the doubt, after all, both the wrestling and FGC have a lot of crosspollination (see Kenny Omega consistently supporting and championing Street Fighter), but the whole IShowSpeed vs KSI debacle just showed how out of touch they actually were when promoting the game.
Back to the AI situation, it does give the impression that SNK might have given up trying to appeal to an audience that has largely not cared for City of the Wolves. Beyond the dull marketing strategies during the first few months of the game's existence, the company did put in actual effort with incredible cinematics and trailers. Legendary anime director and character designer Masami Obari crafted a visually stunning trailer to promote the Street Fighter x COTW crossover. The opening cinematic is also a joy to watch.
Now, we've gone from that to a barely recognizable Geese Howard. And it sucks. It sucks because it cheapens the brand, it gives a bad impression to those looking from the outside, and in the eyes of many, it invalidates the effort of dozens of developers who have managed to deliver a highly polished fighting game, turning them into an easy thing to laugh at within the FGC.
Despite that, I still highly encourage you to try the game. Be loud and vocal about the sloppy AI trailers and out-of-touch marketing decisions, but if you're even slightly interested in leaving the Street Fighter or Tekken trenches, City of the Wolves is a fantastic alternative that, in terms of gameplay, seems to be doing right by the, sadly, continuously shrinking playerbase.
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