Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is looking to revamp the series after being gone for 25 years, and part of the way they’re doing that is adding a bunch of new features and systems beyond what was available in Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
One such inclusion seems to be taking a page out of Tekken’s recent playbook by putting their own spin on one of the 3D fighter’s cooler features.
As can be seen a few times in the new gameplay footage for Fatal Fury, CotW also has dynamic / dramatic slowdown that was popularized in more modern fighting games thanks to Tekken 7 and of course brought back for Tekken 8.
The most obvious way this slowdown seems to occur in matches is when two REV Blows clash with each other, which may not happen all that often considering each character would need to be in S.P.G. mode to use the move.
For my SF6 bros that’s on the fence about this game. pic.twitter.com/6BsTpvwxIt
— AndyO (@AndyOCR) March 19, 2024
Admittedly when it happens like this, the clash looks a bit more like when Drive Impacts collide in Street Fighter 6, but Tekken still started the trend first.
But unlike Tekken, it doesn’t have to potentially lead to a finishing blow.
That’s not the only way it can happen either.
There’s another clip of the slowdown occuring when Tizoc’s headbutt collides with Terry’s Power Charge, which again, isn’t at the end of a match.
— Alioune (@Alioune85) March 19, 2024
During my two hours with the game, I had this happen only twice. Once was the REV Blows clashing and one when I performed an overhead while the SNK rep said he was going for a throw.
So the rules of what exactly causes these slowdowns are not really known right now, but we certainly won’t say no to that showing up in more fighting games too.
If you want more Fatal Fury gameplay, you can check out our video below, and more information about the rest of the mechanics in City of the Wolves can be found in our in-depth impressions here.