I’ve honestly stopped playing Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. SNK‘s newest entry in their oldest fighting game making history is a good game but it doesn’t have the “fun factor” of their greatest competitor, Capcom‘s Street Fighter 6. Capcom put a lot of work to make Street Fighter 6 pretty simple to play but deep enough to keep things from being boring. I have to agree with my fellow 3rd World Geeks writer regarding Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. SNK, in my opinion, went the opposite route of Capcom, as they made Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves very complex but lacks freedom of expression to make you play the way you want to.

Still, that could change as SNK did release a new balance patch for the game, buffing some of the weaker characters and nerfing the stronger ones. Hopefully, this will add new life to some of the roster members, like Tizoc and Vox Reaper, who have been languishing in the bottom of the tier list against those who have been dominating the current meta like Billy Kane and Kain Heinlein.

But the balance patch isn’t the reason why my interest in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has been rekindled. No, the reason is the debut of Street Fighter 6’s Ken Masters in the game. I’m really curious to see if SNK did Ken justice the same way Capcom designed Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui when they were transplanted in Street Fighter 6. Now, as I don’t really play City of the Wolves all that much, I like to see of Ken Masters is a good place to start and if a player more dedicated to Street Fighter 6 can make the transition to Fatal Fury.

You might think, if you’re familiar with how the character plays in Street Fighter 6, you should have no trouble transitioning to using him in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Well, I have to say that’s a big “No.” Although Ken still has all of his moves from Street Fighter 6, he has to now abide by the game mechanics found in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. This does give him the standard tools every character has in the game, including chaining REV Arts into other REV Arts, Braking special moves for more advanced combos and even performing Feints.

However, this also limits Ken’s normal moveset as he comes from a six-button fighter. So, in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Ken players will have to adjust to doing command normals for some attacks. For example, his big Heavy Punch from Street Fighter 6 is now done by Forward and Heavy Punch. This can be rather confusing and may lead to a lot of missed inputs early on. I mean, Ken is the only one where he would have to push Down-Forward and Heavy Kick to sweep opponents! I do suggest, if you’re planning on using Ken, you spend a lot more time than you would on getting your muscle memory used to these new normal attacks.

Most of his specials have been carried over from Street Fighter 6 and they do work well here in City of the Wolves. The biggest exception is his Quick Dash. Yes, I’m adding it as a special move as you have to do quarter circle back with a punch button. Anyway, like in Street Fighter 6, it does lead to a whole number of mixups and it could be made safe if you tack on a Dragonlash Kick. The mere fact Ken can now break the heavy versions of his Tatsumakisenpuukyaku and Shoryuken instantly make them great combo starters, especially if you’re willing to burn some REV Gauge. Unfortunately, his Hadouken does kind of suck here for some reason. It just feels very slow to come out.

Talking more about his special attacks, SNK did a wonderful job of enabling him to chain most of his special attacks together to cause a lot of damage. SNK did give Ken the benefit of allowing him to juggle his opponent from some of his special attacks like in Street Fighter 6. If you were linking the light version of his Tatsumakisenpukyaku into his light Shoryuken in Street Fighter 6, you can still do that here in City of the Wolves. This is enhanced even more when you’re willing to burn REV Gauge to perform REV Arts and REV Cancels! While other South Town residents have very specific REV Arts to REV Cancel routes, Ken seems to get a lot more flexibility as he can basically REV Cancel most of them into each other easily. This does allow a lot more freedom in his combo execution.

I do think his Ignition Gears feel a little lackluster in the sense there doesn’t seem to be anything to differentiate themselves with each other. While you can definitely combo into them pretty easily thanks to the game mechanics and the juggle properties of all of Ken’s specials, they pretty much function in the same way. I don’t really see the reason why I would chose the Shoryureppa over the Shippu-Jinrai Kyaku and vice versa. Maybe one is slightly faster and maybe the other does slightly more damage? Either way, the difference between the two seems miniscule.

Now, is Ken Masters a good starting point for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves newbies if they’ve only played Street Fighter 6? Honestly, not really but it will depend on how quickly you can adapt to SNK’s game mechanics. Ken’s combo structures are generally the same but, because of the game’s four button layout, you will need to retrain a lot of your muscle memory. This is where most of your work will go. Once you get used to it, it is extremely fun to bust out REV Arts and REV Cancels because of how they easily flow into each other. This gives you much more creativity than the combo system of Street Fighter 6 and it’s highly appreciated.

However, a lot of Ken’s strengths from Street Fighter 6 seems to be negated by City of the Wolves’ game mechanics as well. Ken was a pressure monster in Street Fighter 6 but, because of the four button layout, you can’t really do that as efficiently as you’ll need to be holding forward for most of his good normals. You also can’t really just push a button like Ken’s Standing Heavy Kick for a counter hit and try to Drive Rush in anymore, you know! You’ll have to play a much more measured game, which is going to feel odd for Street Fighter 6 Ken players.

So, is Ken a good addition to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves? He’s just okay. While he’s a fine character and SNK did a good job to make most of his tools work here, I don’t see anything that’ll make him one of the top tiers. I know it’s still early and there’s a lot of tech to be discovered. But I just don’t see anything that makes this version of Ken exceptional.

What do you think of SNK’s version of Ken Masters? Do you think he’ll be a top tier in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves? Let me know in the comments section below!