With such a fighter renaissance happening before our eyes, it’s little wonder we’re seeing the return of some real classic franchises.

After recent releases of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken, it’s now the turn of Fatal Fury. And to be fair, this is one series that has been long overdue a comeback.

A whopping 26 years since the last mainline instalment, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves reintroduces the world to South Town in a mostly successful way. It’s not as eloborate as SF VI’s incredible World Tour and Online modes, sure, but what we have from SNK is an enjoyable fighter all the same.

Led by Terry Bogard, who’s been keeping himself relevant in other fighters, including cameos in Smash Bros, King of the Fighters and even Street Figther, players can tackle Ranked and Casual matches online, as well as Tournaments baked into the PS5 infastructure.

But there’s also classic Arcade mode where you fight through a range of foes to get through your characters story. And then finally the more elaborate Episodes of South Town, which basically sees you take on a wealth of different warriors, levelling up, and fighting the mysterious ghost of Geese. Who died but also sees his ghost haunting everyone and everything.

City of the Wolves feels a fairly grounded brawler on paper, not as overwhelming with flashy powerful super moves that feel like they should blow up a planet and more about the hard, knuckle and knee striking street warfare with some fancy moves added in for good measure. I like that about it. It takes things back to basics where other fighters really like to dazzle you with flashes and color.

As such, the game handles really well. Moves feel weighted, character movement feels appropriate for each character, and as a result, it does genuinely feel like you have to have a different strategy for every fight you take on. That’s a good thing, we’ve seen it so many times where characters rarely feel different from one another and on balance, it gets a bit boring.

I’d also argue there’s a good volume to the roster here. If I’m being honest, sometimes I get overwhelmed by too much choice and more elaborate franchises are able to boast a much bigger roster than City of the Wolves. Right now, there’s just 17 fighters in the game with 5 more to come post launch. That is definitely going to seem meager compared to what you’ve come to expect from other fighters – particularly Mortal Kombat – but it works for Fatal Fury as each character is able to shine and you can really tell they play differently.

Beginning with Episodes of South Town, players can take 16 of the fighters out onto the streets and fight in three different regions – Central City, Second South and East Island. Each character takes a different route with their story but it all ends up interconnecting in different ways as you encounter certain fighters who are on their own missions.

There are main missions to accomplish within each region, but often times you’ll need to build up your level to be ready for them. Fortunately, there’s lots of side fights you can take on to build up your level, earn XP and even equip skills to make yourself an even more destructive force, like boosting your strength, health and defensive properties.

There’s even special missions you can take on and have to find them by hovering your cursor around. These unlock special stages where you fight a gold character that cannot be hurt, save for a 1 in 66th chance of strike. That strike basically defeats the enemy in one hit, but 99% of the time, your strikes will do no damage. It’s kind of a fun, creative way to mix formulas up.

City of the Wolves does that in other ways too, like giving you multi-team fights to work through in order to attain victory, or fighting an enemy with a permanently on power bar that lets them unlock their specials.

And even when you do complete Episodes of South Town, there’s a new game plus mode that you can access for even tougher challenges and so you can keep building up your fighter.

The replayability value is definitely there between this and Arcade, though I did start to find in the New Game + and even when playing other characters after completing EOST then being able to equip more powerful skills that the ride was a bit easier. New Game + definitely has challenges, but having fought through every battle the first time out then heading straight back in, I was basically able to defeat the first boss of the first area without much trouble because I was a bit OP.

There’s even a fun mini game to check out where you chop through beer bottles but with a QTE element to it, I also found I was surprisingly able to breeze through this without much thought, and never looked back at it again. So it was a nice diversion for a few minutes at most.

Arcade is great, though. It’s classically styled, working through your opponents one by one to then see your individual story concluded, all of them focused around the King of the Fighter tournament held in the wake of Geese’s death. And in combat, the game really shines. It’s both a nice first game for people who aren’t always comfortable with fighters, but also really encourages you to dive deep in order to get the most of your characters.

As such, it doesn’t present as the most creative or diverse of fighters on the market, though one cool feature it does have being able to adjust where you have your S.P.G bar within your health. Basically, this gives you special abilities for a short time until your health is reduced past the point. And you can have it so you have access to it right at the beginning of your fight.

But the cool thing about the S.P.G placement is that you can make it strategic, placing it in the middle of your health bar or even towards the end. So if you’re anticipating being rushed early and losing that ability right away, maybe it makes sense to have it midway through the fight or even as a last resort to stay alive. I love that idea!

Combat also sees you performing technical counters, both making sure to time your defenses correctly, but also knowing when you need to go on the offensive and really studying your opponents carefully to know when to strike. There’s just enough of that in City of the Wolves to make battles enjoyable, combat refreshing and really want to explore what each combatant has to offer.

Best of all, the netcode feels mostly solid. I definitely had a few occassions where mine stuttered and stammered in ranked matches – part of me wondering if this was being exploited purposefully at times by the opponent – but for the most part it was fast, fluid and offerered a pleasant, enjoyable online fighting experience. There’s even Crossplay so you shouldn’t ever be kept waiting too long for a fight.

City of the Wolves even lets you play as Cristiano Ronaldo, that bizarely only in Versus and Training modes, with him exempt from Arcade and ESOT. I guess they couldn’t think of a cool storyline reason to have the footballing star decide he wanted a crack at King of the Fighters. And really, he is a bit of a weird inclusion as a Guest Fighter, though full credit to SNK, they’ve at least given him a moveset that works and makes sense – focused on punt kicks, headers and dives.

A quick note on the aesthetics as well, because City of the Wolves is a really stunning looking game. The striking visual art style blends something old with a modern gaming look and it works really, really well! Character models are sharp, the animation is beautifully designed and the landscape variety is a really great mix of amusement arcades, wrestling rings and even a science center. Some stages even have multi-lanes which you can switch between while in battle.

All this complete with a really ace sounding soundtrack that just wonderfully tickles that nostalgia while giving you something modern to vibe with. I really dig City of the Wolves and have been enjoying spending time with it, despite the shortcomings.

I do think there’s question marks about the value of content for the price. Street Fighter VI and Tekken 8 are in the same ballpark and honestly, you do get a better value proposition there for more long-term play. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves does suffer a bit with a limited amount of modes and as mentioned above, your success in those modes can impact on other playthroughs. The menus are also a bit of a hot mess, to be honest.

But what’s here works very well – in the case of Ronaldo, surprisingly well – and as a package it’s pretty tight, well presented and a solid comeback for a series that has been long overdue a return.

Verdict

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is not as involved, expansive and creative as some more recent fighters on the market but what it offers is solid, weighted, and as such makes for a mostly successful return to form for a long dormant franchise. For the content, the price is a bit of a sore spot, but the solid netcode, beautiful aesthetic, and good base of fighters mean what you do play will be enjoyable and memorable, with the promise of more support over the long term.