Within the pantheon of combating video games – a style during which the neighborhood usually strikes alongside as soon as a brand new entry arrives – there are these particular video games that stand above the others and preserve a legendary standing. Video games like Road Fighter 3: Third Strike, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and Capcom Vs. SNK 2 have maintained big communities within the 20-plus years since they launched and are held in excessive regard by the combating sport neighborhood to today. There’s yet another instance with a very mythic standing: SNK’s 1999 traditional Garou: Mark of the Wolves, which was not solely was a soft-reboot of the Deadly Fury sequence but additionally the final of that sequence to ever launch, as SNK shifted focus onto The King of Fighters as its premiere combating sport franchise.
For years and years, I have been ready on a follow-up to Mark of the Wolves – which was apparently practically full earlier than SNK went bankrupt again in 2001. Each single time EVO would come round and SNK would hit the stage with a brand new announcement, just for it to be a brand new Samurai Shodown or King of Fighters (each of which have been bangers, thoughts you), I would be disillusioned. SNK producer Yasuyuki Oda, who additionally led improvement on KOF and Samurai Shodown, has been vocal about desirous to return to the sport, outright saying in 2022 that he “went again to SNK to finish Garou”. This lastly got here to go at EVO later that yr, when Deadly Fury: Metropolis of the Wolves was confirmed.
After a pair extra trailers all through 2023, and making its first playable look at EVO Japan earlier this yr, Metropolis of the Wolves was confirmed for a Summer season Sport Fest look. So, after discovering out I used to be going to the occasion this yr, naturally the very first appointment I made was going to be the combating sport I’ve waited 25 years for (okay, I solely performed Garou for the primary time like 6 years in the past, but it surely’s way more dramatic to place it that method). And after attending to play the sport, there isn’t any higher strategy to describe it than sizzling rattling, they nailed it.
After the demo I had the possibility to speak to Yasuyuki Oda, Artwork Supervisor Nobuyuki Kuroki, and SNK Producer Joshua Weatherford. Naturally the very first thing that I wished to know was ‘what took so lengthy?’ Whereas SNK went by way of some main adjustments – together with the aforementioned chapter – within the time for the reason that earlier entry, it does not look like there was some exterior power holding again a brand new Deadly Fury sport in any respect. Actually, it was only a matter of ready its flip.
Following the discharge of Garou, each males went off to work at one other combating sport studio, Dimps, with Oda being concerned in one other combating sport revival in Road Fighter 4 – the sport credited with reviving the style. “From there, the precedence was undoubtedly KOF and likewise revitalising different IPs like Samurai Shodown, and making different video games – like SNK Heroines – as properly and simply mainly build up the expertise from there,” Oda explains. “Deadly Fury’s flip got here to make it the following title to be reborn”.
Even essentially the most secure sequels can really feel remarkably completely different from the video games that preceded them, and whereas Metropolis of the Wolves clearly has variations from its predecessor, I used to be in a position to decide it up and go to city with Terry Bogard prefer it was second nature. However for individuals who aren’t as versed in fighters, SNK has additionally included a Good Type paying homage to simplified management schemes in its contemporaries.
Metropolis of the Wolves retains all the pieces that made the unique such an everlasting traditional. It is quick paced, hits are good and weighty, and the implausible T.O.P system (a mechanic during which gamers would select a particular third of their well being gauge, which might then unlock particular strikes when your vitality reaches that stage) returns because the S.P.G. system, which has been expanded to incorporate the likes of air assaults.
Following up on a combating sport is undoubtedly demanding for these concerned, however on the subject of one held in such excessive regard, I think about the strain is prone to amplify tenfold. Kuroki agrees with this sentiment. As a SNK veteran, he labored on the Actual Bout Deadly Fury and Artwork of Preventing Video games, however when he returned to the corporate and took on roles within the improvement of King of Fighters 14 and Samurai Shodown, which he hadn’t labored on earlier than, he noticed it as “extra of a contemporary expertise, which did not actually have that non-public strain.” Nevertheless, with a Garou comply with up, he feels the strain. As Weatherford tells me, “He is the one which goes out to occasions and will get requested quite a bit, like, ‘what’s gonna occur with Deadly Fury? What’s gonna occur with the Garou sequel?'”
Plus, combating video games are going by way of a little bit of a renaissance proper now, with the previous few years giving us Road Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Responsible Gear Attempt (Mortal Kombat 1 too, however they can not all be winners). I requested if the ‘competitors’ was placing further strain on them, but it surely seems that the group truly has the alternative viewpoint. “It simply means extra followers of the style throughout”, Weatherford stated, including, “we’re very assured in our high quality for positive… we at all times see it as only a sort of like a rising tide raises all ships form of factor.”
Talking of Road Fighter 6, we additionally obtained the information that the Road Fighter sequence was introducing the primary ever visitor characters in a mainline entry – none aside from Deadly Fury’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui. After dropping my thoughts over the announcement, I needed to ask the plain follow-up: is SNK trying to return the favour with any visitors in Metropolis of the Wolves? “We’re at all times keen on exploring it, and we at all times have enjoyable taking different individuals’s characters and bringing them into our world,” Oda says, noncommittal.
The roster in Metropolis of the Wolves is as nice as ever. I obtained to take a look at Terry, Rock Howard, and Marco Rodrigues (who you would possibly know higher as ‘Butt’ from the unique sport), in addition to the 2 newcomers Preecha, and Vox Reaper. As I’ve established, the outdated characters really feel excellent, and you will have no hassle choosing them again up (actually, I could should turn into a Marco principal, he is completely sick on this construct).
The brand new characters each match proper in too. Preecha’s playstyle is an homage to Joe, whereas carving out her personal place within the sequence, a lot the identical as Road Fighter 6’s Lily tailored T.Hawk’s moveset to a contemporary fashion. In the meantime, Vox Reaper (protege of Garou villain Grant) is a few good outdated noughties edge, the embodiment of a Linkin Park anime AMV your greatest pal would present you throughout computing class, with some Shadow the Hedgehog-esque strains popping out of his mouth, and the traditional ‘teleports behind you’ transfer that no edgy fan character was full with out. I am ragging on him, however I completely love Vox Reaper.
Metropolis of the Wolves additionally appears to be bringing again some traditional Deadly Fury characters who missed out on Garou’s near-complete roster reset – like Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi, who’ve been teased. After all, I needed to ask if this meant that Geese Howard (who’s lengthy lifeless within the Deadly Fury story by this level) had any hopes of returning. Each of them advised me they might like to have him again, however they would want to discover a method that works throughout the plot. I urged Robotic Geese and was met with well mannered laughter, so this is hoping that pans out.
An enormous speaking level with regard to some current SNK fighters has been the visible fashion, and whereas Metropolis of the Wolves will not match as much as the likes of Road Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, we’re leagues forward of The King of Fighters 14, with Kuroki admitting there’s “at all times been a number of spots that weren’t as much as even their high quality requirements.” I used to be additionally advised that making a definite artwork fashion was the aim from the start, with the sport adopting an American comic-style shader (which was described to me as one of many greatest challenges early within the venture). Nevertheless, that is one facet I am not as eager on – not as a result of it regarded dangerous, however as a result of that fashion does not really feel prefer it’s being absolutely utilised outdoors of the tremendous animations. I’d relatively the sport go even more durable with it, as it is a barely jarring leap when it does flash up.
In the end, we’re nonetheless some time out from Deadly Fury: Metropolis of the Wolves’ ‘early 2025’ launch date, so it is arduous to provide a remaining judgement name, however SNK appears to be making the entire proper strikes with this sequel. The group appears to concentrate on what made the unique so particular, Rollback Netcode and Crossplay are already confirmed (the dearth of which ruined Samurai Shodown 2019 for me), and most significantly, it feels rattling good to play. Preventing sport followers have been consuming properly as of late, and SNK could possibly be including its magnum opus to the menu.
