Grab Your Controllers: The City of the Wolves Open Beta Arrives in February

City of the Wolves, the much-anticipated entry in the long-dormant Fatal Fury series, drops on April 24, but you don’t have to wait until springtime to knuckle up. Developer SNK announced that City of the Wolves has an open beta headed to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s less than a month away, so ready your gamepad or fight stick.

Available from Feb. 20-24, the City of the Wolves open beta will give the general public its first taste of the upcoming fighting game. It will include eight characters and three multiplayer online modes: Casual Match, Ranked Match, and Room Match. The beta’s lone offline mode is Training, so you can practice without worrying about getting wiped. Note that the open beta’s save data cannot be transferred to the retail version.

(Credit: SNK)

Like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and other contemporary fighting games, City of the Wolves offers two control schemes: Arcade Style and Smart Style. The former features classic controls; the latter has a simplified control option that lets you perform attacks using basic inputs and single button presses (though some moves aren’t available).

As previously revealed, City of the Wolves has a cool, comic-inspired art style featuring heavy, dark shading and a print dot aesthetic when you perform super moves. Likewise, the new Rev system (powered by the new Rev Meter) potentially gives City of the Wolves more fighting depth than any other Fatal Fury release. It includes:

• Rev Blow: An offensive and defensive attack designed to alleviate an opponent’s pressure.

• Rev Arts: Character super moves

• Revel Accel: A system that lets you combo Rev Arts into other Rev Arts.

• Rev Guard: A special block performed by holding the Rev Guard button that negates chip damage and gives you breathing room.

SNK and Capcom continue their buddy-buddy relationship in this game. Though it’s not the Capcom vs. SNK 3 that fighting game fans desire, City of the Wolves will feature two Street Fighter characters: Chun Li and Ken. This is on the heels of Capcom bringing Fatal Furry stars Mai Shiranui and Terry Bogard to Street Fighter 6 as DLC.

City of the Wolves is the sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves, SNK’s classic fighter from 1999 beloved for its animation, art style, and mechanics that rivaled Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Mark of the Wolves is also notable for reimagining series hero Terry Bogard as an older, bomber jacket-wearing fighter and seeing Rock Howard (the son of Geese Howard, the series’ big bad) knuckle up.

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Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will be available physically and digitally on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X. It will receive a strictly digital release on PC (Epic Games Store, Steam) and Xbox Series S.

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About Jeffrey L. Wilson

Managing Editor, Apps and Gaming

Since 2004, I’ve penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including the late, great 1UP; Laptop; Parenting; Sync; Wise Bread; and WWE. I now apply that knowledge and skillset as the Managing Editor of PCMag’s Apps & Gaming team.

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