One Fighting Game Franchise’s Tarnished Reputation Just Keeps Getting Worse

The best Fighting Games tend to last longer among dedicated fans when they consistently get their audiences hype for new content. DLC character seasons, balance patches, and extra features are usually easy ways for fighting games to reinvigorate their hardcore players, even enticing new ones to join communities. However, one fighting game keeps taking one step forward and two steps back, causing its reputation to plummet and push players away.

Not every fighting game stays as something fans universally praise, even if it belongs to a beloved series. For example, Tekken 8‘s Season 2 balance changes alienated a good portion of its audience, and is still trying to restore the good will of its fans with overhauls planned for its next update. Fun and engaging gameplay usually keeps fighting game fans from being too critical, but some strategies from developers and marketing teams can be poor enough to entice outrage on another scale.

Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Has Been Plagued With Bad Vibes Since It Launched

The story of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is equal parts disappointing and amazing, representing the return to a fighting game franchise for the first time since 1999. At first, the return to Fatal Fury instead of SNK’s King of Fighters series was the root of tons of excitement, bringing back tons of fan-favorite characters into one of the best games developer SNK has produced visually. Yet, over time, more and more news surrounding the game dampened the anticipation many players had, with some refusing to buy the title once it released last year.

Despite interesting gameplay and a variety of cool in-game features, it was external factors that plagued the new Fatal Fury‘s launch. For starters, fans were already apprehensive to SNK being recently purchased by Saudi Arabia, who have owned 96% of the company since 2022. Despite multiple claims that SNK’s vision was not affected by their new shareholders, small decisions began to grow bigger, implying the opposite.

Another reason for players being apprehensive of City of the Wolves‘ launch comes from the game’s lackluster online betas earlier. Online rollback matchmaking was announced earlier to the glee of fans, but in practice, many had trouble connecting with others just a couple weeks before launch. As the rest of the game’s base roster was revealed, things went from bad to worse as online issues, performance problems, and the true scope of the Saudi Arabian influence were shown.

Odd Guest Characters & Strange Marketing Have Soured Fan Opinions Quickly

Only days before releasing, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves announced that famous football player Christiano Ronaldo would be a playable character in the fighting game. This marks one of the first times where a real person was made into a fighting game character, creating a huge departure from what is usually considered a “normal” guest addition to the genre. Furthermore, real-life DJ Salvatore Ganacci was revealed just soon after, showing the game would have two superstars fighting against the likes of Terry Bogard and Rock Howard.

Fans of SNK’s extensive library of memorable characters were understandably shocked at Ronaldo and Ganacci’s inclusion. Some still speculate that these characters were included due to their popularity with the individuals in the Saudi Arabian shareholders who keep ownership of SNK, making the stars mandatory inclusions alongside the Fatal Fury roster. While Ganacci’s unique and wacky moves and Ronaldo’s soccer mastery made for interesting gameplay, they both seemed forced, alienating long-time players who wanted to see other Fatal Fury fighters return.

It doesn’t help that Ronaldo is a controversial figure to say the least. The football mega celebrity has been at the center of multiple allegations, including sexual assault, tax evasion in Spain, and other things that don’t paint the best picture. To have that kind of figure representing a coveted spot in Fatal Fury‘s next big game was perceived as a downright insult to hardcore SNK fans, causing many to never buy the title in the first place.

This Legendary Fighting Game Series Can’t Seem To Stop Making Poor Choices

Unfortunately, SNK hasn’t seemed to learn from their mistakes regarding City of the Wolves‘ public perception. Despite adding many interesting DLC characters, including some well-received Street Fighter guests, this game made another big mistake going into 2026. Recently, SNK announced a second season of characters, with six fighters being released over a breakneck pace of six months. With one new character a month, one would think that this news would be an incredible way to restore fan attention.

As you might expect, though, this was not to be. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves decided to announce its Season 2 DLC through a trailer made with generative AI, revealing returning fan-favorite fighters through the lens of subpar art. Given the integral artistic history of SNK to the fighting game genre, the lack of real 2D animation or other non-AI styles to promote the DLC was downright infuriating to fans online. With legendary animator Masami Ōbari having made animated teaser shorts for this DLC just before the main trailer, it’s baffling why SNK decided to use AI at all.

Even with 1990’s nostalgia for Fatal Fury retaining some players, this AI trailer feels like another bullet point on a list of problems the game has suffered through its marketing. Once again, fans point toward the Saudi Arabian connection, as many connected to that umbrella have been pushed to use AI art in their ongoing projects. Even with a well-priced second wave of DLC, it’s unlikely that City of the Wolves will overcome its negative reputation due to the sheer number of poor choices that it has made.

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