Yasuyuki Oda on why it's taken over a quarter of a century for a new Fatal Fury game
gamesindustry.bizTheFatal Fury fighting game series stretches all the way back to 1991, when SNK Corporation released Fatal Fury: King of Fighters for arcades. The franchise had numerous iterations in the 90s, with Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999) being the last – at least until now. A quarter of a century after Mark of the Wolves came out, we find ourselves sitting in SNK's booth at the Tokyo Game Show, eagerly playing the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
It goes without saying that 25 years is a long time to wait for a mainline entry in a fighting game series, but perhaps it's well worth it. After all, we've seen the resurgence of mainline titles from SNK, such as 2019's Samurai Shodown and 2022's The King of Fighters 15. This revival of dormant SNK franchises is led by none other than Yasuyuki Oda, the producer of those two games, as well as the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
After playing the demo, we sit down with Oda to learn about the new features, character design, competitive play, and, naturally, why it took so long to see a new Fatal Fury title.
"I wanted to develop [a new Fatal Fury game] earlier but we got tied up with other projects," Oda tells GamesIndustry.biz. "However, bringing back Fatal Fury was always in the cards and it was just a matter of finding the right timing. After multiple successful games utilizing other SNK IPs, it was the most natural next choice, as it was always one of the cornerstones of the company. It's just purely coincidental that it's been over 25 years since the last release."
Given the huge gap between the two releases, there had to be some challenges along the way. Oda cites that their team, SNK Studio 1, has always been composed of the original Fatal Fury team members. They also reached out to former developers who are now working freelance to help with the project, effectively bringing the band back together.
Still, Oda admits that one of the biggest challenges was the knowledge gap between the veteran Fatal Fury team
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