Look, Fatal Fury City of the Wolves Rev System is not the first fighting game to be tuned more aggressively for a modern audience. While many probably wouldn’t have even played the home game of characters like Terry Bogard, they’re an integral part of the SNK fighter experience- not being beholden to the team mechanics of King Of Fighters in favor of true 1v1 brawls.
I am one such person, having missed out the original games. Yet, I managed to take Fatal Fury City of the Wolves Rev system out for a spin thanks to the playable demo at EVO Japan. It’s an interesting adaptation of a lot of modern fighting game mechanics- most similarly resembling Street Fighter 6’s Drive System.
Going All In With The Rev System
The catch is simple: Do whatever you want at the cost of Rev. Max out your rev, and lose it. This can include big flashy EX moves that can chain into each other via Rev Accel, push-blocking via Rev Guard and more. When you have Rev to spare, City of the Wolves is an intense bout. If you’re in SPG mode, you even have access to Rev Blow- an armored strike that breaks your opponents pressure at the cost of Rev. Yet, your first instinct is to be careful with how you spend that Rev. Just like Burnout, you don’t want to be caught in Overheat, since you’ll lose all those tools just as quickly as you had them.
It should be noted that if you’re trying to avoid the Overheat of shame, the solution isn’t necessarily to start going on defense. Normals also cool your Rev, so all it’s telling you to do is just be a little bit above the speed limit rather than flooring it like you stole it. Characters like Terry Bogard are particularly great at this- sure, you’ll want to cool it with the EX Burning Knuckles, but that doesn’t mean a light one won’t still put the fear of God into your enemies.
Be Aggressive But Mind The Speed
Thankfully, the only real way to overheat is by aggressively going all-in. As a fan of rushdown playstyles myself, I only ever Overheated once in four games- and that was while I was comically testing out how many Rev Blows I could do before the CPU caught on and stopped mashing on me. Just like how Street Fighter 6 absolutely empties the Drive Meter if you over-commit to pressure, the Rev System exists to warn you of when you’re going too hard on your offense- though that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t if you’re sure you can bag the win for it.
Still, the biggest surprise is just how much more there is to the game outside of the Fatal Fury City of the Wolves Rev System. While at first glance you’ll rely on it a little too much, the game has enough legacy mechanics not bound to it that you’ll have plenty to learn. Four matches was far from enough time to get the hang of Braking and Feinting- mechanics that let you cancel out of animations and really mess with your opponent. I suspect these will be the biggest components of high-level play: to me, the Fatal Fury City of the Wolves Rev System is a game of Texas Hold’Em, and the ability to change up your gameplay on the fly via moves like Braking and Feinting is akin to bluffing and raising- that is, highly skilled maneuvers that will require you to force your opponent into making mistakes.
