At the pinnacle of King of Fighters XV action this weekend, SNK showed off Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves gameplay for the first time, all while revealing a handful of new and returning characters and finally teasing a 2025 release window.
During the SNK World Championship 2023 Finals on March 17, fighting game fans around the world got their first extended look at upcoming gameplay for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, which is a follow-up to the beloved 1999 title, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. The new trailer showed off the first five characters joining the game’s roster, including a newcomer to the series—Preecha, who we know nothing about as of this reveal.
We had already seen or had confirmation for Rock Howard and Terry Bogard dating back to the game’s initial reveal at Evo 2022, but this was our first time seeing them in action with the new systems for CotW, which includes the classic Brake mechanic with a new REV system. Hotaru and Tizoc also return, with the former playable for the first time since the PlayStation 2 version of King of Fighters 11, while the latter sheds his KoF15 scales to don his Griffon Mask again.
The new REV system was on full display with these five characters, which implement specials, defensive mechanics, and ways to chain moves or cancel into other moves freely throughout the match. Full details for this system should be revealed soon.
A return to Fatal Fury is something the SNK team has wanted to do for years, and CotW is going to be entering the spotlight very soon, with the game currently set to release sometime in 2025. Before then, the game is going to have a playable demo at Evo Japan in April and then will likely make an appearance at Evo 2024 in August too.
