news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

In the history of 2D fighting games, there is a series that once led the craze for arcade fighting games in the 1990s and became the first fighting game for many players. Even after 30 years, its characters are still very popular among fighting players.

This is the Fatal Fury series.

Unfortunately, the glory of Fatal Fury did not last long. After the launch of Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves in 1999, this IP, known as the "treasure of SNK", became a swan song. Its glory was gradually overshadowed by the then-popular King of Fighters series.

After 26 years, SNK finally officially announced the latest work in the series, "City of the Wolves" (hereinafter referred to as "CotW"), and announced that the game will be released in early 2025.

During this CJ, SNK also showed up with Fatal Fury CotW. Thanks to this, we were fortunate enough to go to the SNK booth to try out Fatal Fury CotW.

Of course, I also watched a COS performance, which was a feast for the eyes.

As a reboot spanning more than 20 years, Fatal Fury: CotW does not make people feel too unfamiliar, with old friends such as Terry and Locke all appearing. In addition to nostalgia, you can also see that when this old IP entered the 3D era, its graphics, actions, and combat performances have evolved significantly.

New and old collide

One of the main features of the Fatal Fury series is its rich storyline. It is precisely because of the excellent storyline setting and thought-provoking storyline that the Fatal Fury series is called "the fighting game with the richest storyline" by many players.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience the story mode in the demo. But from the official introduction, it’s not hard to guess that this game is likely to continue the series tradition and hold another fighting tournament in South Town. As for whether the plot of this game can respond to the foreshadowing of the ending of Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves and explain Andy’s whereabouts, I’m afraid we can only know after the game is officially released.

This trial offers a total of 5 characters for players to experience, including familiar faces to old players such as "hardworking" Terry Bogard, Rock Howard, and Marco Rodriguez, as well as two new characters, Pritchard and Box Reba. However, the previously exposed Futaba Hotaru, Griffin Mask, Janet, and Billy Kane, who only appeared at this year's CJ, did not appear.

Pricha is the chief disciple of the original character Dongzhang, so her fighting style naturally bears the shadow of Dongzhang. Not only can she use sharp Muay Thai close combat, but she can also integrate strong winds into her fighting moves like Dongzhang.

In the background setting, Box Reba is the disciple of Grant, the number one villain in the series. In order to realize his master's wish of "revenge", he went to South Town to participate in this fighting tournament.

It is worth mentioning that Box Reba has the simplest combo among the five characters, which is very suitable for novice players. Pritchard is also a friend of new players. Many of her moves have subsequent derivatives, and players can easily perform cool combos.

Old characters like Marco, Terry and Locke are more likely to test the player's proficiency. Terry's rising dragon combo, Locke's various variations of super speed running, and Mark's command combos at different distances all require practice before they can be used proficiently in actual combat.

From the perspective of the plot, "Fatal Fury CotW" stages a collision between the old and the new centered around a new generation of fighting tournament. The interweaving of foreshadowings from the past and contradictions from the future also makes the plot of this work more interesting.

In fact, where you can feel the collision of the old and the new in Fatal Fury CotW is not only in the plot, but also in the game's visual presentation.

In terms of graphics, Fatal Fury CotW does not continue the realistic style of The King of Fighters 15, but adopts a style similar to American comics in the 1990s. With SNK's exquisite cartoon rendering, the game as a whole presents an outstanding graphics performance.

I have to say that the change in art style gives people a refreshing feeling.

For example, perhaps it is precisely because of the influence of the comic style that the visual effects of this game are very gorgeous, even gorgeous to the point of being a bit "light pollution". However, this is harmless, whether it is the scene or the character's skill special effects, they all present bright and gorgeous colors, coupled with the particle effects that splash when the character casts skills, the overall picture complements each other and does not make people feel abrupt.

In terms of combat performance, Fatal Fury CotW has also made great progress. Both the scene and character modeling have been improved and become more detailed. The cool close-ups when releasing super special moves, plus the tense animation performances, greatly enhance the combat experience.

The outstanding visual effects combined with the refreshing combat feedback of fighting games give you an instant sense of satisfaction when you punch someone in the flesh.

A battle full of games

In terms of basic operations and combat logic, Fatal Fury CotW follows the series' consistent settings, which are also divided into light and heavy punches and kicks, and requires combining the direction keys with punch and kick commands through rubbing moves to perform a variety of derivative skills. If you are an old player of the series, you may feel the familiar taste at the first time.

At this point, conventional fighting games will say "You have fully mastered the operation, it's time for a hearty duel", but in actual combat, we often need to react instantly and respond quickly according to the ever-changing situation. This leads to the inherent high threshold of fighting games. Players need a lot of practice to become familiar with the character's moves, deepen their understanding, and try to find the best solution in a changing combat environment.

Fortunately, in order to help new players get started quickly, Fatal Fury CotW also simplifies the input like many fighting games. The game has a simplified mode similar to the modern mode of Street Fighter 6, where players can automatically perform combos by quickly pressing a key in addition to the direction keys. However, this combo is only suitable for simple civilian combos. If you want to perform gorgeous combos in actual combat, you still need a lot of practice and familiarity with the frame rate differences of each character.

In addition to allowing old players to regain a familiar feeling, "Fatal Fury CotW" also uses the newly added REV system to bring some novel experiences.

The so-called REV skills are enhanced versions of "ultimate moves" that can be performed by pressing a specific attack key at the same time. It should be made clear that the ultimate moves in the game do not refer to the skills that players usually understand as consuming resources to perform. They are more like the special moves in "The King of Fighters" that require a combination of moves (hereinafter referred to as special moves).

Combined with the REV ACCEL mechanism, players can smoothly link multiple REV skills together to quickly perform a cool combo. However, based on my actual experience, its judgment is still relatively strict, and new players may need to practice hard for a while.

In addition to attacking, REV can also be used for defense. Compared with regular blocking, using REV blocking can create more space between you and the enemy, making it easier for you to readjust your position and launch a counterattack.

As the saying goes, benefits and risks coexist, the REV system also has a unique temperature mechanism. Players will accumulate energy when using REV skills and REV blocks, and will enter an overheating state when the energy reaches 100%.

Seeing this, many people may think that it will provide powerful benefits to the character like the "explosion" in "The King of Fighters", but the fact is just the opposite. In the overheated state, the character will not be able to use REV skills for a certain period of time, and when you block the opponent's attack, your defense slot (the blue slot below the health slot) will be reduced, and when the defense slot drops to zero, the character will enter a broken defense state, greatly increasing the stiffness of being hit.

It is worth mentioning that players can also reduce the REV gauge by stopping attacking and getting close to opponents, thereby achieving the effect of artificial temperature control. Therefore, the REV system has become an actual combat resource. How to control the temperature or put the opponent into an unfavorable state of overheating resources may become the core game content of the official version of "Fatal Fury CotW".

Players need to think about how to use various combinations of moves to achieve the most combos and damage while avoiding overheating. In actual combat, this may require players to make certain strategic plans, which can be regarded as increasing the fun of the battle game.

The addition of the SPG system highlights this point. This system is somewhat similar to the TOP system in Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves: players can specify the launch range and place it at the beginning, middle, and end of the life slot.

In the SPG state, the character will gain attack power bonus, slow life recovery, energy accumulation speed, and REV tank temperature accumulation slowdown and other buffs. Most importantly, each character's most powerful hidden martial arts (super special moves) can only be activated in the SPG state.

This means that players need to plan the position of the SPG in advance and implement different means of output according to the position. For example, putting it at the beginning often means to seize the initiative, or to exert force in the second round and find a way to win the game. If it is placed at the end, you must accumulate energy bars as much as possible in the early stage so that you can use hidden martial arts to end the game after entering the SPG state. It is conceivable that a series of offensive and defensive games around the SPG state will inevitably become the key to the game.

In fact, in addition to SPG, other combat mechanisms also reflect the importance of game. For example, you can use "Emergency Stop" to cancel certain special moves - this not only immediately cancels the backswing of your casting, but also brings a variety of small tricks. For example, we can use emergency stop to trick the opponent's defense or movement, and then immediately cast other special moves to create more combo opportunities.

In addition, through Just Defense and Hyper Defense, players can immediately cancel stiffness and quickly connect with special moves and REV skills to counterattack, bringing more possibilities to the battle.

From this perspective, the addition of REV acceleration, SPG system, emergency stop and other mechanisms has undoubtedly further accelerated the game's combat rhythm, and also made the game have more variable factors and strategic confrontations, greatly enhancing the fun of combat.

Conclusion

All in all, after a short trial play, whether it is the better graphics performance or the deep and interesting combat system, it makes me have more expectations for "Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves", and makes me believe that SNK can give new life to the classic IP of "Fatal Fury".

In the past two years, with the launch of many excellent fighting games, the entire category has begun to show signs of a breakout revival. From the perspective of a new player, I also hope that these classic games can continue to innovate, so that players of different levels can find different fun in fighting games.