Better late than never! The Fatal Fury saga was discontinued in 1999 in an extremely painful way: Garou: Mark of the Wolves is -without question- one of the best games released by SNK itself in its entire history, but the grand finale of its protagonists opened the doors to a sequel that never came. 23 years later, the Osaka company takes up that promise.
Taking advantage of the grand finale of The King of Fighters XV during EVO 2023, SNK released three major announcements related to its star sagas. The most anticipated: the first advance of a Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves that will leave a huge smile on the fans, those nostalgic for the golden days of Neo Geo, and those who never lost hope of seeing the sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
From the outset, the first thing that is shown is the common denominator of all the games of Fatal Fury: a review of the map of South Town in which several mythical scenarios go before us, ranging from the Geese Tower to an abandoned Dojo in which we already told you that the Kyokugenryu Karate style is practiced. A brief tour in which you can hear the voices of Hokutomaru, Tizoc, Marco Rodriguez and, of course, the legendary Terry Bogard.
From that point we see for the first time what the game will look like. As advanced by SNK itself, and following the line of the last Rey de peleas, Three-dimensional models will be chosen with the classic game scheme instead of the pixel art of the first installment.
What’s more, the style is very, very similar to the one seen in The King of Fighters XV, although with distinctive elements, including an aesthetic and cell shading filters and details that give it an appearance more similar to the classic illustrations of the saga.
We know that SNK has been working on the game for a year: the announcement of the game (untitled at the time) took place in August 2022. However, it is still early to put a date on the project. According to those in Osaka, the project is in “furious development” and invite us to look forward to ensuring that legends do not die, but become better.
Which does not mean that we have to sit idly by until further news.
More content and updated classics for fans of The King of Fighters
We have good and better news for fans of SNK’s star saga. First of all, one of the best installments returns to PlayStation and Switch this year: The King of Fighters XIII Global Match is the updated review of a title that 13 years later continues to impress us visually and playably. And now, in addition, it will offer some much-needed online functions with Rollback Netcode for the joy of all.
A new commitment to modernize the best of the legacy of the saga the king of Fighters game to game However, this case is really special: it is the delivery that was the highest point at an artistic level, but it is also still a delight at a playable level. And what about Xbox? In the absence of news, it is worth remembering that the game has been backwards compatible on Microsoft consoles for years, starting with the Xbox 360 version.
On the other hand, SNK continues to expand the contents of The King of Fighters XV: to the imminent arrival of Najdthe fighter created by the fans and that will give additional value to the second season pass of the game, we must add the return and the entrance on the scene of Duo Longone of the best contributions to the most complicated stage of SNK during the beginning of the millennium.
Although Najd’s arrival is scheduled for August 8, Duo Long is expected to arrive starting in the fall, leaving a mysterious fighter to be announced by the end of the year. That said, the reasons to continue playing are still very present: the season system of The King of Fighters XV continues the tradition of offering a powerful character completely free and for all players between the arrival of news. And in the case of season 2 we are talking about Goentznothing less.
In a sensational stage for lovers of fighting games and great sagas, SNK wants to revalidate its status. It has the sagas, it has a very powerful legacy and it retains that gameplay that has consecrated them for decades. And, hopefully, sooner rather than later we’ll all get the highly anticipated sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
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