Hiya!

Okay, a while back, I said I was going to be taking a sabbatical from Street Fighter 6. That’s still kind of true. The problem is Capcom decided to release a new Ghosts ‘n Goblins Fighter Pass and I am a sucker for free stuff. So, I did log back in and completed as many of the Challenges they had available. Thankfully, I managed to get them all in a day or so. It was also around this time I realized Chun-Li was getting released for SNK‘s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.

That game has kind of fallen off my radar. So much so I haven’t booted it up even though they added another Street Fighter character, Ken. Then again, I never really liked Ken but I was indeed curious how SNK would translate Chun-Li in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. She’s a blended motion and charge character and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is very bereft of the charge character archetype. I was also curious how they would fit a 6-button character from Capcom into the 4-button control scheme of SNK’s fighters. Well, after trying her out for several hours now, I can say Chun-Li she’s good but I’m never really going to main her.

First off, let’s go check out how SNK translated Chun-Li’s aesthetics. I can say they did a more than good job with her. They gave Chun-Li her new look in Street Fighter 6 as well as her original costume. For some reason, I do think they put a little more effort into her original costume. That’s not to say her new outfit is ugly. It’s still stunning in general. However, for some reason, I actually like how Chun-Li’s original costume looks here in City of the Wolves than in Capcom’s own game! Maybe because City of the Wolves has a more cartoony art design. Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 has a more “realistic” look and the old costumes don’t really translate that well. Here, it’s just more colorful and shiny. I like it a whole lot more.

While having a character look as good as possible is important, how he or she plays is much more vital. This is where things get a little problematic for me. If you’ve only really concentrated on playing Chun-Li in Street Fighter 6, going to City of the Wolves feels strange. That’s because SNK had to fit a 6-button controller layout into 4-buttons. So, a lot of Chun-Li’s normals which were just attached to a single button have to be finagled into command normals. For example, simply pressing Chun-Li’s heavy punch in City of the Wolves has her do her regular standing medium punch from Street Fighter 6. To do her “normal” standing heavy punch in Street Fighter 6 is done by holding forward and their heavy punch button. You would have to reconfigure a lot of your muscle memory to ensure you do the right normal during the heat of battle. Then again, Chun-Li already had quite a number of command normals in Street Fighter 6. So, I don’t think a lot of veteran fighting game players will have a problem adjusting to a few more of them.

I will say, besides this hiccup, SNK did a great job making Chun-Li work with City of the Wolves’ REV system gameplay mechanics. Like with the other characters in the game, she can cancel REV Arts into other REV Arts. The nice thing about Chun-Li is it feels much easier to do it with some of her REV Arts because of how many hits they do. It’s so easy to cancel the REV version of her Hundred Lighting Kicks into the REV Art version of, well, pretty much any of her other special moves because of how many hits it does! The same can be said for Braking a lot of her special attacks. I do like how SNK inadvertently gave Chun-Li a quick way to get in as she can Brake her Hazanshu before it connects. I’ve caught a few online players trying to block this only for me to Brake it and throw them. Some easy low level strategy there.

For her Ignition and Redline Gears, SNK retained her Kikosho and Hoyoku-Sen Super Arts from Street Fighter 6. They still work pretty much the same way. Kikosho is still a fantastic short-ranged Super attack and works well as an anti-air. They reworked her Hoyoku-Sen a little bit as, in here, you have a couple of options how to end the attack. You can let the entire Ignition/Redline Gear attack rock so that the last hit connects, dealing a really good chunk of damage. Another option is to cancel out of the last hit by jumping and following up with an air attack. This makes this very useful as you get to choose what to do based on the situation. Do you want more damage and hope to close out the round or would you rather forego the extra damage to get better positioning instead?

What SNK didn’t carry over to City of the Wolves is Chun-Li’s is her Critical Art, the Soten Ranka. It’s a good thing what they did give her, the Seven Stars Shining Kicks, looks so much better! It starts out with the opening animation of her Hoyokusen Critical Art from Street Fighter 5 but quickly transitions into a better view of Chun-Li kicking the snot out of her opponent with a powerful veresion of her Hundred Lighting Kicks. She then launches her opponent into the air and engulfs them in a Kikosho looking ball of chi. She then does a flying kick akin to her Shichisei Senkuu Kyaku from Marvel vs. Capcom 1! I just love how they referenced a lot of her super combos from other games as it shows how much SNK is familiar with the character!

As good as Chun-Li is, she doesn’t seem like she’s good for beginners such as myself. The mere fact you have to familiarize yourself with the dozen command normals (I counted!) she has is a pain to learn. I kind of wish SNK followed what the other City of the Wolves characters had and gave her proximity normals instead. While it may be breaking with the Street Fighter 6 mold, it would be easier to get used to. There is some fun to the character but the number of command normals makes her a little bit too technical for my liking. I’m sure there are fighting game players who love this sort of thing and more power to them. For me, I just wished SNK made Chun-Li play a little more like an SNK character. She’s good but you do need to concentrate a little more than normal so you always get the right attack out when necessary.

Byee!

What do you think of Chun-Li in SNK’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves? Did SNK do a good job on her? Let me know in the comments section below!