Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves... The Game that Should Burn In Hell
Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate "City of the Wolves" since that rapist began to live.
Hello. You may believe that I have made this page on my website as a simple "rant". A place where I can just spit out a little game review and be on my way. "Oh they definitely ran out space in a Steam Review or something and is just dumping it here, what a loser."
No.
This is different.
This is therapy for me.
City of the Wolves - for me and me alone - is the embodiment of moral betrayal, shallow ambitions, wasted potential and shattered dreams used as a souless cog in a horrid machine. The audacity of this - product - to not only exist, but to bookend a game series that's been left unfinished for 20 years in the most meaningless possible way...
I won't lie. This product has made me a worse person. I have been enfused with a deep, venomous hatred that I've never felt before in my life. I am filled with pure, blinding rage, one where anything and everything in relation to this product becomes a target of my eternal ire, even when it is something I adore. It has brought concern and worry from my friends and partner.
This page is dedicated to putting all of my anger into a single place so that I may move on and free my soul to be a better person.
Part 1: Promises
The year is 2022 and I was deep-ish in the KOF fandom, working at my job on a Saturday for $14 an hour. I was taking a micro break in-between work to see what was happening at EVO on my phone. Twitter was popping off with tons of updates for plenty of games - Bridget was added to Guilty Gear: Strive and DragonBall FighterZ got rollback - and I was hoping for new content for KOF XV. And to be fair, I did! Season 1 of DLC was ended off with a bang with Team Samurai, one of the most anticipated additions to the series, and the announcement of Season 2 of DLC. I was excited for what was announced and was satisfied with the additions.
But then, to everyone's shock and awe, SNK announced the developement of a new fighting game... the long awaited sequel and finale to Fatal Fury! After 20 years of waiting, the epic story of Terry, Rock, and everyone in South Town would be concluded in Fatal Fury: City of Wolves!
If only we knew what the monkey's paw would give us.
Part 2: Dawning Revalations
If you know anything about SNK, you will know that SNK cannot catch a break of any kind. They may have made games that have enraptured all of South America and become a major part of the FGC, but they are pretty much addicted to going bankrupt and getting bought out by the literal worse people in the world that just keep the company alive and milk the properties for all they're worth. From sketchy pachinko companies that slapped KOF and Fatal Fury onto every slot machine they could, to today with...
The Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Now before I say anything else, let me say this: I DO NOT HATE COTW BECAUSE IT IS SAUDI ARABIAN. I feel like I don't have to say this but whenever the topic comes up that SNK is owned by Saudi Arabian companies, everyone and their mother goes, "Yep COTW is going down the drain because of those Saudis and their blood money, oooo I hate them Saudis for what they did to my video games!" even from the most super progressive people and spaces I've seen. Saudi Arabia - from what little I know about the place - it has it's corruption and such but that's no reason to paint the average everyday people in there with such scathing brushes. Do you think that COTW sucks because some guy named Javed worked his day job to get food on his plate? No! That's stupid! And I feel like people are being blindly racist just because they can't separate the people of a country from their rulers. That's how we get Sinfest, and nobody wants to be Sinfest.
But speaking of rulers, that's who people SHOULD be pointing their fingers at: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He's got a ton of dirty blood on his hands, from imprisoning peacful protestors to ordering the assassination of journalists, he's violated so many human rights that it's insane! Though this isn't a new thing, Saudi Arabia in recent times have been buying stakes and ownership of a ton of entertainment avenues such as comedians, sports teams, and video game companies/Esports in order to clean up the country's public image. Have these things that were once very critical of Saudi Arabia turn around and praise the nation while carefully dodging all of heinous things the government did and things they will do if you're LGBTQ and/or not Muslim. All to boost the country's economy with tourism and entertainment.
The MiSK Foundation - the company that the Crown Prince owns - owns 97% of SNK and stated that it wouldn't affect the content of the games.
To put this in perspective: Imagine one day Donald Trump used one of his companies to fully buy-out Nintendo, saying all the while saying that his ownership wouldn't affect the games the Nintendo would produce. Would you believe him? And now that you know that if you got a new Mario game, you're directly funding a corrupt country? No, I don't think so.
Now this is pretty rich coming from an American who's own country has been rotten to it's core and modern capitalism makes everything linked to horrific cruelty, but rot is still rot. You gotta call it like it is. Make your lines in the sand on what you'll support and what your morals will allow you to do.
And now, alot of people have drawn lines.
As COTW's release approached, characters began to to be revealled to spark hype, new characters with Preecha and Vox, old returning characters with Tizok, Dong Hwan, and Hotaru, redesigns for Mai and Gato! Everyone was so eager and all eyes were on SNK, what could possibly ruin the moment?
March 26, 2025
Cristiano Ronaldo is a confirmed fighter for the game.
April 3rd, 2025
Salvatore Gannachi is a confirmed fighter for the game.
What do these two have in common that got them into the game? They both have connections to Mohammed bin Salman. For Ronaldo, FIFA was partially owned by Mohammed and used by the Crown Prince as promotion. For Gannachi, he's a close friend of the Prince that frequently performed "music" at the Mohammed's parties
I don't care that people will give Gannachi a pass because he's "chill" or Ronaldo because he's a worldwide superstar, both are blatant and naked pawns of a corrupt man that signed off the deathes of innocent people. These two men licked the bloody boots of a monster and were rewarded like the loyal bitches they are.
And they aren't innocent themselves! To my knowledge Salvatore Gannachi (real name Emir Kobilic) hasn't had any public controversies besides being rude and his connection to the Crown Prince. But given that connection, I wouldn't be surprised if there's skeletons in his closet. Cristiano Ronaldo on the otherhand, has a cemetary in his closet.
In 2007, Ronaldo allegdy raped Kathryn Mayorga during a Las Vegas holiday, with Ronaldo quoted saying that, “she said no and stop several times” during the crime, to which he allegdy apologizing afterward. In January 2010, Ronaldo’s legal team agreed to pay Mayorga an out-of-court settlement of $375,000 in return for her agreeing to never go public with the accusations, but she repopen the case later due to being inspired by the #MeToo movement. Investigations in 2018 by the Las Vegas Police concluded that the claims made by Mayorga could not “ be proven beyond reasonable doubt ”. And six months later, it was confirmed that Ronaldo would face zero charges of sexual assualt, while Mayorga was left "mentally incapacitated".
I do not care that Cristiano was found Not Guilty by the law. He confessed to the crime back in 2007 and by the time the police got involved nothing remained. This piece of shit faced zero consequences for alledged rape, ruined a woman's life, and then became immortalized in one of the most anticipated fighting games of all time.
You couldn't write evil this blatant and make it believable.
And it didn't stop there! After that there were a ton of wack marketing stunts and campaigns leading up to and after the game's release: getting advertising spots at Wrestlemania events, sponsoring boxing events, crossing over with Street Fighter (more on that later), making an ad with KSI and iShowSpeed right off of the heels of Ronaldo's addition.
...all while bringing ZERO attention to the game itself! They just slapped the name Fatal Fury on stuff, made influencers get surrounded by army of Terrys (god I wish that was me), and called it a day because they thought it was a big enough brand to sell itself! Casuals didn't know that Fatal Fury was a video game, they thought Fatal Fury were the boxing matches themselves!
It was a mess... and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
And so... the game released. People bought it, people played it, starred at EVO, got DLC, and even became The Fighting Game of the Year at the Game Awards.
Was all of this worth it? Was dragging Fatal Fury's name in the mud worth it?
No.
Part 3: Within the City Lies Mistakes
April 25th came and the game with it. I had put my foot down, firmly against the game and what it supports.
Past me didn't get the memo and preordered the game for exclusive content, like the doofus I am. And the thing about me is that when I make a mistake, I stubbornly embrace my folly and live with it. If I make Acid Soup that gives you Diarrhea for a Week, then by god I'm chugging the whole pot so nobody else has to experience my failiures!!!!
But I figured that it would give me the opportunity to see if my first impressions were accurate. I've had a similar outlook on Palworld and after playing that I became a massive fan. So I went in with a sliver of hope that I could salvage something from this horrid situation.
And so - in the interest of fairness - I will list out some positives I have with the game.
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THE POSITIVES
1. Distinct Visual Identity
Fighting games since the beginning have always been praised and honored by their aesthetic. Many of the most popular games in the genre - Blazblue, Guilty Gear Strive, Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3, Dragonball FighterZ - and even more obscure/niche games - Them's Fightin' Herds, Melty Blood, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising - are defined by their unique artstyles that draw people in and make matches engaging to watch unfold.
This is an aspect that SNK's been a master of for years. In the 2D sprite games the world felt grounded yet with a fantastically cool flare, packed with so many details and artistic charm, making living and breathing settings that are close to our own yet intriguing and fun to experience. The games that I think are the best at this are Fatal Fury 3, Fatal Fury Real Bout 2, Garou: MoTW, KOF '99, KOF 2003, and KOF XIII. These games - in my opinion - succeed at having beautiful art that captivates the player and make them stand out from the crowd.
When they made the stumble into 3D, KOF XIV was a muddy visual mess and a clear sign of inexperience with the medium (though according to the devs they had to make their own engine from scratch so I'll give them a bit of a passed). By the time KOF XV rolled around, the visuals were clearly one of the focuses of the project. I consider KOF XV to be one of my favorite 3D fightining games from a visual stand-point. It got everything just right for me - distinct eye-catching places, grounded yet stylized characters, all rendered with beautiful colors and animations. Classical Chinese Garden is my favorite stage of all time, the tranquil night vibes, the bold red interiors of the huts contrasting which the magical soft blues of the flowers upon the lake... there's a good reason why it's the theme for my KOF fan page, it's a smash hit!
So how about CoTW? Well the game runs off of the same building blocks that KOF XV is built on so the two are going to have similarities in the visuals and how the models look. So what they did to make CoTW stand out was to employ shaders and effects to give the game a comic book/pop art aesthetic. It's a clever solution and one that works pretty well. Colors are way more saturated and bright, the menus are paneled and have a printed dotty filter and paper tears to look like it came right out of a newspaper, the UI in game is sleek yet gruff with scuffs and designs that'd look like they belong on motorcycles. Characters have dark, harsh shadows, subtle cell-shading, and that same dotty dithering that looks amazing to the eyes. And the backgrounds are still bustling with detail and eye-candy that make you wonder about the world these characters live it. And everything coming to a visual cresendo with the super moves wrapping the world into a dithered realm that make the moves and characters pop! All themed with the colors of black, white and yellow.
2. New Characters and Redesigns
If there's one thing SNK cannot fumble, it's character design. They have a talent at making characters tha stick with you and stay in your brain for a heck of a long time. They balance over-the-top cool and casual realism like a tight rope and make it look easy. As an artist myself, it's suprisingly hard to make something simple and everyday look intriguing because it's inherently overlooked. It's why characters like Terry Bogard have stuck around for a long time, because he looks like anybody you can meet in the real world yet fantastical with his abilities and prowess.
The newcomers to this game are Preecha and Vox Reaper. Both are incredibly interesting in their own right - Preecha being a nerdy scientist studying Ki by becoming Joe Higashi's student, and Vox being a shady street-level assassin that became the successor to Grant and lap-dog of Kain - they both have a lot of personality, alot of promise to take the story in new directions, and to me have that casual fantastical feel that SNK excells at capturing.
But what brought a ton more eyes to the game was the resdesigns for returning characters. Billy Kane, Mai Shiranui, Hokutomaru and Gato Futaba received new radical redesigns that change up align with who the characters are while being a refresh of who they are. Mai and Billy's being the most praised for how stylish and cool they are, though my favorite's Gato's for being one that aligns with his story the most and has an edge to it. Hokutomaru's fine. He looks like he does backflips on chairs for TikTok views.
3. Color Edit Mode
This is the best part of the entire game. Hands down.
I feel like this should be a feature that should be in every fighting game in my opinion. People love customization, and people get attached to their color palettes (the Central Fiction 14 alt color for Taokaka is MINE).
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THE NEGATIVES
1. Recycled Roster and the DLC
So the base roster of CoTW consists of
2. The Bootlick Brothers and the Rancid Vibes
Yeah so the two walking advertisments gave this game a stank that won't leave. Putting in two real life people - regardless of their previous actions - as themselves is a tone deaf and moronic move to make in a fighting game. Celebrities, famous people and influencers are gonna be in video games but there are proper times, places, and roles that don't set people down a war path. Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077 is okay because he's while it looks like him, the character isn't Keanu Reeves himself but Johnny Silverhand. Having Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars and Mariah Carey in Fortnite is okay because Fortnite is built upon the concept of being able to play as literally anyone and anything so their inclusion does not keep other characters out of the spotlight. Putting in two real life people that nobody wanted in an extremely limited roster gives people the feeling that these inclusions were made at the expense of characters that people actually wanted in the game.
So why were these two put in?
Gannachi was put in because he loves the taste of boots for breakfast, but there is an argument for Ronaldo being in to draw in the casual crowd. Now I may be a gamer nerd that knows nothing about no sport ball, but I'm not dumb enough to not know that people LOVE soccer (or football if you're not American). And Ronaldo himself is one of the most famous ones out there being in a couple of memes, so surely he'd be a major magnet for casual people to come and pick up the game.
One problem. Fighting games are incredibly difficult for people to get into, mostly due to motion inputs and the culture of hyper-competitivity. And CoTW doesn't have enough draw or content to keep casuals invested like Street Fighter does, so that's a flop. But because the marketing huffs egotistcal farts like gasoline, Ronaldo got in.
This just makes the whole package just feel like a vessel to advertise. We live in an age where people are trying to escape constant bombarding brands, ads, and sponsers. People use stories, videos, and games as a chance to escape this harassment on your wallet and to see advertisements, paywalls, and gambling infest themselve's into the very worlds people enjoy... it's scummy. Just scummy.
3. Gameplay? In MY Video Game? More similar than you think!
Now I may be whining here and be a baby, but I feel that the gameplay of CoTW isn't that much different from KOF XV. The feel is pretty much the same, with the only change to the gameplay being the REV System.
4. EoST and Arcade Mode: How "Story Mode" Was Handled
So one of the biggest draws for me in fighting games isn't the gameplay, it's the story and it's characters. To me, fighting games are the best genre that connects you to who you're playing as and the world you play in. It's what I enjoy the most about BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Guilty Gear: Strive, Them's Fightin' Herds (RIP funny horse game), Street Fighter 6 and KOF XV. As an example, why do like Taoakaka? I do like cats, sure, but I also love her happy-go-lucky personality: the excitement, the joy, and child-like glee emenating from every angle, it makes me happy! And that happiness makes me want to learn more about her, and learning about her in the Arcade Mode - learning about how she fights for her little village while getting distracted along the way - and then dive into the Story Mode to she how she fits into everything... it's compelling! And makes me want to play more!
Makes sense, right? Arcade Mode is for the character, Story Mode is for the game's overall story. Got it? Good!
So one of the biggest additions that CoTW gave is "Episodes of South Town", a single player mode where the stories of the characters will be explored and expanded upon! Take on little battles against NPC enemies with their own challenges, gain experience points to equip buffs and perks to get stronger, leading up to the climax of this story years in the making. It was everything I wanted and I was extremely hyped for it! A dedicated story mode for everything to resolve! It was perfect... in concept.
Imagine my... befuddlement... my absolute dismay and confusion... at the reality of what EoST and Arcade Mode was.
EoST. Is not the Story Mode. ARCADE MODE IS THE STORY MODE.
Why... would you put the story... in the short mode... and not put it... IN THE LONGER MODE WITH MORE CONTENT IN IT???????
If there was only an Arcade Mode - like with KOF XV - then I'd understand but they specifically dedicated a whole mode to single player where they advertised it would be where the story would be progressed! Who thought that this was a good idea?
5. A Budget of Zero Dollars and Zero Cents in a Gold Plated Limosuine
6. What Makes This Game Have Over KOF XV (and other FGs I know)?
7. The Story
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Part ???: The AI Aftermath
In classic SNK fashion they looked at any type of success, loaded a shotgun, looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger. And this time the shell casings had "AI" written on them.
For Season 2 of CoTW's DLC, they released a trailer to drum up hype and sales. Using their leverage of the GOTY win to give the game legitimacy and honor, as well as boasting about funding high-paying E-Sprts tournaments.
And to do this... they used AI generated footage. It has all of the tell-tales of bad footage: Absurdly hyper realistic graphics, clips that are incredibly short (about a couple seconds long each), illogical physics (during the punch out of the grave the stone face should have flown up, not sink down), conflicting artstyles (Jae Hoon's face is hyper realistic yet Geese's face is stylized), inconsistent details (during the close up on Terry's face, he has black beard hair, and the bill of his hat is missing the white rim), warped and overly detailed elements on minor aspects(a NeoGeo logo in the background morphing into a garbled mess), illogical elements (prior to this trailer, the "Wolves" in City of the Wolves were metaphorical, yet there's black shadowy wolves everywhere making me believe that the prompt took the title literally)... everything covered in flashy motion graphics and editting to try and hide the stench. But no matter how much you polish a turd, it'll still stink.
Recently in a college lesson, I learned about the value of quality. How quality is one of the most valuable aspects of a product since it's an indicator to the customer that what they're engaging with is worth investing and coming back to. Here's an example: you're trying to buy a car and you have three options: a broken-down Sudan for dirt cheap, a durable and used SUV for an average price, and a brand-new CyberTruck for 8 billion dollars. The broken-down Sudan may have a low cost, but it's in great disrepair and is in a shoddy condition. This Sudan is of low quality and therefore is not worth investing in. The CyberTruck is a high-end vehicle that's made with a ton of gizmos and gadgets in it, and is marketed as a luxury brand. Plus this one is brand-new! So is this good quality? Nope. The CyberTruck is made not meeting safety requirements (no crumple zone, doors able to cut skin, the trunk's auto close can chop-off fingers, it easily breaks in the rain, etc.) and is incredibly over priced - no single car is worth 8 billion dollars. The marketing and price does not correlate with the product and the product itself doesn't match or exceed the promises the marketing made. The SUV has been used before but still functions well, and the marketing of the product is close to what was promised and matches the quality that the SUV currently has. Therefore, the SUV is the best choice.
(Finally, college teaching me something useful lol)
AI Generated content is made by scrapping and stealing the works of others, and is correctly regarded as low quality slop used exclusively by theives, knock-offs, scams, and scum (especially when people on Twitter used it to sexually harass women and make CP). Whenever people are found out to use AI, the reaction is instant disgust and it's foolish to believe that people won't catch the use. Even when the technology is getting better, there are still tells that people can see from a mile away.
So you can imagine that when people took a glance at that trailer, people were livid. Here are some random quotes in reaction to the trailer:
"this is beyond words lmfao... i feel bad for the devs at this point, their work is getting absolutely tarnished by some lazy fucking outsourced marketing drones" - John Sex
"I feel like a character from a horror movie watching the corpse of a deceased loved one be possessed by a demon or something... when's the third bankruptcy" - Anonymous
"If you need to learn how NOT to market your game, guess SNK has got you covered." - Mana_Sputachu
"I grew up with SNK games; introduced to them during my formative years, but fell out for a while because of adulting and all that jazz. Somehow I always found my way back, tho. And then COTW happened. I canceled my preorder b/c of Soccer McRapeFace, but I still had hope that things'd get better. ...And then they put out whatever the fuck they put out this morning. I have so much I want to say but I can't even articulate any of it because of how insulting it is. As a fan, as an artist... seriously, wtf? I am EXHAUSTED and I wish all AI chuds -- including those at SNK -- an awful day." - thelexhex/illyrilex
"Imagine bragging in your trailer that you have the most money of any tournament, while refusing to pay animators to make your trailer." - Thorgi's Arcade
"That COTW season 2 trailer is fucking bonkers dude, infinite prizepool money for skeleton crew tournaments and the best you can do to advertise your game getting 6 new characters is "@grok geese how hard and blue mary big boobs real life video now" " - BigYellow
"COTW Season 2 genuinely looked awesome and some dipshit suit high on coke decided 'yo i gotta make some shareholder who loves the AI happy' but they couldn't even make the AI look half decent, it genuinely looks like something I could make myself within 5 minutes with a generator." - @busterbernstein.bsky.social
"...like the vibes were already subterranean and you found a way to make them even worse." - Woolie from Woolie VS
"Using generative AI tells your customers that you are cheap; both financially, and in matters of taste. The fact that you in the C-suite think the slop looks good is exactly the reason you're supposed to pay people with TASTE: to make sure you don't embarass yourself." - Micheael Allan Schneider AKA Terry Bogard's English Voice Actor! IF YOUR OWN EMPLOYEE OF THE CURRENT THING YOU'RE PROMOTING IS CALLING YOU CHEAP, THEN YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!!!!!!
If Terry's voice lines in CoTW suddenly become more flat and robotic by the time the DLC drops, we'll probably know why.
But speaking of why, why would they use AI generation for the trailer? Considering they have all of the backing from the game sales and Crown Prince, AND have talented animators like Obari at their beck and call? The same reason the story mode is incredibly flat, the same reason a majority of the roster is reused from older games, the same reason the game was marketed pre-release with a boxing event, KSI and at the WWE.
Shareholders and creators made the CyberTruck of video games.
Flashy (and fashy) marketing that does everything in it's power to make itself look luxurious and exclusive, yet they're using garbage and sludge to do so, and if you take the bait you'll find a product that could not live up to what they told you because it was built on a throne of lies.
And the only one who's benefitting from this are the Crown Prince, cheapskate investors and shareholders who demand that SNK become the next Star Wars while giving them pennies to do so. They care more about the image of effortless success rather than the satisfaction that a hard earn victory brings.
Hate. Hate.
- And Now the Mausks -
Anywho, have fun if you can : D