Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves hosted the 2nd Beta bout this past weekend. For a lot of us, it bodes a good way for SNK to enact on major feedback from the fans. For others, this is considered the dress rehearsal of Southtown’s return to the fighting games front without the need of a King Of Fighters title, Capcom vs SNK, nor Street Fighter VI, in order to do so. Just ask HiFight and their all characters combo video. Unfortunately, since his announcement last week, Cristiano Ranaldo didn’t make it to the pitch on time for this beta, though.
The modes have been slightly more open this time. One major difference is that Practice mode is enabled in this Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves beta. McGuyvering the Versus mode is a thing of the past. The options menu is four pages deep to accommodate any situation. Need to test out a full-resource combo before going into Overdrive? They’ve got you. Want to refine your Hyper Defense game? They’ve got you, too—with full record and replay functionality for easy analysis.
Stats are also available, allowing you to gauge factors such as frame data and damage potential. It was much easier to determine which of Mai’s REV specials would combo into each other without having to test them in live matches.
For this run, I experimented with Vox Reaper, Mai, and Hotaru. Terry was an afterthought before the game shut down.
The Champ Is Here For the Children
Wrestler Tizoc gets his time in the ring in this beta. His Universal Arena wrestling stage features a certain Fatal Fury veteran watching the matches unfold, occasionally chiming in with faint commentary. Whether we’ll see Raiden… err, Big Bear, in action remains to be seen.
Grapplers are scarce in City of the Wolves so far, and Big Bear could bring a needed edge. But based on what’s been shown, Raiden seems more likely to appear as the Heel character—or maybe even Wolfgang Krauser, for all we know. Tizoc’s new OTG throw is a menacing addition to any combo, and one of his command throws can singlehandedly demolish an SPG activation. And yes, he does say his iconic “For the children!” line.
Matchmaking feels more refined on both ends. Players can practice while waiting, honing their skills with reduced load times on the PS5. Match setups felt noticeably quicker compared to the first run, with few instances where a request didn’t come in after about 10 seconds or so.
Road Bumps in City of the Wolves
There are a few missteps in City of the Wolves’ second beta. The avatar lobby trend seems to be completely absent in SNK’s approach. Avatars and the lobbies that house them feel as outdated as the “Fight Club” stages from the 128-bit fighting game era—back when titles like Virtua Fighter 4 and Tekken 4 all had their own underground brawl settings.
More modern fighting games, such as 2XKO, Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, and Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, embrace lobby systems with avatars. Even Tekken 8 went as far as building an entire extra story mode around them. Yet, City of the Wolves, like other recent SNK games such as KOF XV and Samurai Shodown, has opted out. For a game of this stature, it would have been a great way to celebrate the series’ legacy. Imagine a Pao Pao Café lobby, bustling with Sokaku or Jins cosplayer avatars chanting and interacting with others. Instead, matchmaking feels designed for a single function, with little innovation in that area—at least for now.
Another odd design choice is how matchmaking is handled from practice mode. Instead of seamlessly queuing players while they train, the game takes them to matchmaking screens, disrupting the flow. Compared to other titles, it feels less like flipping a light switch and more like launching a missile. Having to manually re-enter practice afterward makes it even more jarring.
A smaller nitpick is the inability to change music in practice mode. A jukebox feature appears to be present for unlocking classic franchise tracks, but it wasn’t available in this beta build. SNK will likely make it an unlockable feature down the line.
As for the tutorial, nothing has changed in terms of deeper game theory. Perhaps this will be addressed in the full release.
The Road To The New Battle
From the look of things, SNK has responded swiftly to fan feedback and is nearly ready to unleash the wolves next month. With lingering questions about how Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will bridge the gap for modern players, this second beta may help alleviate any last-minute doubts—just before the pain train rolls into Southtown.
