The Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves open beta is right around the corner. If you're on the fence regarding whether or not to give it a shot, I've got some tips and general recommendations to, hopefully, steer you in the right direction.
If you’re a veteran fighting game fan, you likely don’t need much convincing. On the other hand, perhaps you've been looking from the outside in and characters like Mai Shiranui caught your eye as her portrayal in Street Fighter 6 skyrocketed her popularity.
All of a sudden, you got two big reasons to try out a brand-new fighting game featuring the iconic kunoichi: beating up your friends and just having a good time learning the intrinsic mechanics that make it special, of course.
So with that said, if you want to enjoy the COTW beta and eventual full release this coming April, here are some useful tips.
You Don't Need a Fancy Controller
I'll reveal a dark secret of the FGC: you don't actually need a fightstick to play fighting games. I've discussed this ad nauseam before, but one of the biggest unnecessary hurdles and excuses newcomers give is the fact that they don't own a fancy Victrix, or even an F300 to "properly" play fighting games.
In fact, many modern fighting games are built with regular controllers in mind, commonly referred to as pads within the FGC. Why? Because developers want to appeal to bigger audiences and without concrete information I'm willing to bet the vast majority of gaming fans own regular pads rather than archaic sticks.
click to enlargeI personally recently swapped from fightstick to a regular PS5 pad. It's a tough period of adjustment but, ultimately, it does feel like recent titles such as Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6 favor the ergonomics of a normal controller.
That said, you do you. If you're looking for a good fightstick to enjoy City of the Wolves, by all means, don't let me stop you from maintaining the sanctity of the old-school arcade feeling alive.
Mess Around With Every Character
The roster for City of the Wolves will feature fan-favorites like Rock Howard, Terry Bogard, or the aforementioned Mai Shiranui but also some unique newcomers with Street Fighter's Ken and Chun-Li will come during the game's season 1.
The beta will feature a total of eight characters, which is already a healthy amount. My recommendation is that you choose and jump into the offline tutorials with all of them. At least see how they feel to control, check out their move list and fancy supers.
If there's someone that piques your interest visually or mechanically, then start learning more nuanced things. Slowly but surely, you'll turn the oftentimes dull process of practicing or "labbing" into a fun discovery experience.
Smart Style Is There For You
SNK is known for some wild inputs. City of the Wolves is changing certain inputs to make execution slightly simpler. It will also ship with Smart Style controls.
If you've played games like Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6, it's similar to Special Style or Modern controls. It allows you to execute special moves with easy directional inputs.
The full move list for characters shows that the special moves available to players in Smart Style will be smaller and you'll still need some regular inputs, but it's the perfect way to ease you into the world of fighting games if you're a newcomer, so don't be afraid to try Smart Style out.
Grab Your Crew and Set Up Some Custom Room Matches
If you have a group of friends who perhaps never tried a fighting game, there's no better way than to start the journey together.
The COTW beta will feature custom room matches. So, if fighting strangers in casual or ranked doesn't sound like your thing, jumping on a Discord call with your friends while you mash and trash talk is most definitely an option.
Knowing there's someone else on the other side of the screen makes enjoying fighting games even better. With luck, you'll get yourself a long-time training partner who will continuously push you to improve.
And that's it! Don't be afraid to jump into the City of the Wolves beta when it starts this February 20.
The full game will launch this April 21 and will be available on PC (via Steam), Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.
For more articles like this, take a look at our Guides and Fighting Games page.