My colleague over here at 3rd World Geeks had covered her opinion on SNK‘s missteps with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. The game initially had the fighting game community raving over it. But, almost immediately, a lot of people, especially the casual audience, started dropping the game. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was just too hard for them. It also didn’t help how execution had to be pitch perfect, meaning only the hardcore of the hardcore who were willing to stick with the game would really go far it in.

Well, I always had hope for SNK to make a comeback with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ Season 2. A balance change here and there. Adjusting the execution windows a bit. Adding more popular characters. Things like that. And it looked like they were gearing up for making sure people would return to South Town with the mini-teasers which looked really cool and showed promise with what’s just over the horizon. Fans were excited but leave it to SNK to blow all of that goodwill quickly with their big trailer announcement for the incoming Season 2!

Like I said, things started off swimmingly. SNK was going all old-school to promote a few of the upcoming characters for COTW’s Season 2. They were just teasers on who to expect. But what made these teasers special is that they were full anime teasers. Not computer models but actual animated teasers. And these animated teasers looked good! If you’re an old school Fatal Fury fan, you can tell they were heavily inspired by the Fatal Fury animated OAVs and movie by Masami Obari.

The first teaser didn’t show much as all it did was show a mask and a guy flipping a coin. But fans of SNK fighting games understood the reference as the mask is a reference to Mr. Karate and the coin flip is one of Robert Garcia‘s trademark win poses. These are both characters from SNK’s other fighting game series, Art of Fighting. It was still vague enough to cause discussion. Were they hinting that Robert Garcia was going to don the Mr. Karate getup instead of Ryo Sakazaki this time? Only time will tell!

The second teaser was more overtly obvious. It showed the aftermath of the final battle between Terry Bogard and Wolfgang Krauser as seen in the end of the second OVA, Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle. Even new fans who wasn’t familiar with the Fatal Fury series before immediately knew that the big guy falling off the tower was going to be another Season 2 character.

The final character teaser before the big Season 2 trailer was a doozy to say the least! It showed South Town being a little big more dirty than usual. A bunch of punks have cornered a couple of helpless kids. Then, the kids recognize someone behind the punks and a wave of relief washes over them. One of the punks turns around and the rescuer pokes him in the head with a finger with a very familiar sound effect to old-school anime fans.

Nah! It couldn’t be! Can it? But it’s the only conclusion anyone can come up with! The rescuer has to be Kenshiro from the Fist of the North Star anime! So, not only is Fatal Fury getting another guest character but it’s the lead of the Fist of the North Star franchise, one of the bloodiest and goriest manga/anime franchises ever! I really want to see how he’ll fit in with this cast of rather wholesome characters!

So, everyone was happy and excited. Mr. Karate, whoever it may be is going to be a great addition and I really want to see how he plays differently from Khushnood Butt Marco Rodrigues, the other Kyokugenryu practitioner in Fatal Fury. Seeing Wolfgang Krauser, the boss from Fatal Fury 2, is also going to be fun as I really want to see how SNK makes him work with COTW’s gameplay mechanics. And, of course, we have Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. I’m excited for this guest character because, well, it’s freaking Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star!

Then SNK released the official Season 2 trailer for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. And all of that excitement quickly melted away because they decided to use AI! Now, I personally don’t have a strong opinion on using AI for marketing materials. I’m of the opinion that, if it’s handled well and fits with what you’re marketing, then I’m fine with it. I am not fine with SNK using AI for Fatal Fury: COTW’s Season 2 trailer. And I am definitely not alone here.

But the reason why I strongly dislike the trailer isn’t for the same reasons why a lot of citizens of the fighting game community hate it. They hate it because it’s “AI slop.” That’s the general gist of it. They’re upset how SNK, who’s new owner actually also owns an AI company by the way, use AI in the trailer for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. To them, they want to get really creative people, real people, to help produce the marketing. And I get it. People want other people to not get replaced by computers. That’s noble and I understand that.

But, like I said, I’m generally okay with AI doing things depending on the situation. And this didn’t seem like one of them. Why? Because they already were producing anime teasers before! Why didn’t SNK simply continue the trend and make a full-fledged trailer using the same anime production houses they were hiring to make the teasers! What we got instead was a very uncohesive trailer! A mishmash of “realistic” looking images mixed with cartoony gameplay, which doesn’t mix well together because you were already producing cartoons to mix with your cartoony gameplay!

What makes this really suck is that the Season 2 trailer revealed some really hype news! We were getting Kim Jae Hoon, Nightmare Geese and Blue Mary in Season 2! No one’s talking about that because of the AI slop! There will be a new character released every month for the next six months! No one’s talking about that because why? Oh, AI slop! There’s going to be a big balance patch! Who cares? AI slop!

I also have to add another thing the trailer did wrong. In the trailer, they say there are “two mysterious characters” that are yet to be revealed. Really? Then why did you reveal them with your teaser trailers then? You can’t say we have a surprise when you’ve already pretty much showed what the surprise is, SNK!

In the end, I do think the reaction to SNK’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ Season 2 trailer is a bit of an overreaction. I dislike it but I don’t exactly hate it. But I do understand the outrage. However, I also believe things will blow over quickly by next week as, by this time, Season 2 will officially start and the next new character, Kim Jae Hoon, will be dropping into South Town then. Still, I do hope SNK learns from this because they really blew it.

What do you think of the use of AI for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ Season 2 trailer? Let me know in the comments section below!