Why I'm not talking about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Hello friends. Thank you for dropping by. You probably know that I’m a huge fan of fighting games. I’ve been playing them for 45 years. The first fighter I remember playing was Warrior by Vectorbeam. I wrote about this when I was doing a look at the Virtua Fighter relaunch. With that said I’ve avoided posting on the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves for some time now. People may think that I’m biased against SNK, or only write about Street Fighter, but that is far from the truth. In fact the very first blog that I posted here in 2014 was dedicated to Mr. Karate from the SNK universe. I’ve written a lot about the history of Fatal Fury, the creators, and the characters on this blog. I was such a fan of the Garou series specifically that I tracked down the manhua (Chinese comics) based on Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I loved all fighting games, it’s just I loved some titles more than others.

I was very passionate about the Garou / Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves project for some time. I started talking about the development of the game in 2022. It had been ages since I was excited for a classic game to return. By March of 2024 I shared everything that I could pull from the character reveal, and gameplay trailers. I did a look at how the characters featured in the game evolved from concept art. With the guest character reveals of Mai, and Terry in Street Fighter 6 I had to mention why Mai Shiranui was important in fighting game history. Yet once the final details of the game were announced this year, and released on April 25, 2025 I had yet to say anything.

Why would I walk away from a sequel that I had been waiting on since November 26, 1999? That was when the original Garou: Mark of the Wolves came out. After a quarter-century wasn’t it going to be worth the wait? Sadly the answer would be no. The game was the embodiment of The Monkey's Paw. The short story taught us to be careful of what you wish for. Sometimes it’s better for things to stay dead, and buried. Even though SNK said that their new Saudi owners would not influence the direction of the games it was obvious that wasn’t entirely true. The game would be pandering to pop culture, rather than celebrating the fighting game legacy that built an industry. Will Borger with Digital Trends summed up everything that needed to be said about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Mr. Borger's review touches all the basis for the game itself, but does us all a favor and explains why it doesn't reflect the fighting game community at all.

There was a quick answer as to why I walked away from the game after a release date was announced. The two guest characters revealed were shockingly disappointing. Rather than include a classic character from the SNK universe, or any crossover characters from Capcom, Sega, ARIKA, or Namco. The developers decided that a professional futbol / soccer player, and a DJ would be the welcome additions. These two people were so outside of the fighting game orbit that they would have never been voted on by the actual players. The athlete himself had been in the news for sex crimes. As for the Swedish-Bosnian DJ... he might be a global superstar but I had never even heard of him. Apologies to Super Greg for being overlooked as a better Hip Hop representative. It was obvious that the Saudis were directly influencing the development of the game. SNK would not bother to do as much of a cultural deep dive as Capcom did with Street Fighter 6.

That is not to say that a soccer character couldn’t be used in a fighting game. Roberto Miura from the Capcom game Rival Schools: United by Fate showed us that it was possible way back in 1997. Not only that but athletes had already been used in an SNK fighting game. Team USA aka Team American Sports appeared in King of Fighters ’94. These was a professional boxer named Heavy D! A pro football player / race car driver named Brian Battler. Lastly there was the basketball pro named Lucky Glauber. So yes the game could have used pro sports athletes, as long as they were made somewhat fantastic, and not just a copy / paste of an existing athlete. As for the DJ… fighting breakdancers could be done well. See Helicopter in Capoeria Fighter 3.

In many ways the bigger insult to the Fatal Fury series was in adding a real DJ to the game (whom I would also not name). Hip Hop already had a representative in the series called Duck King. This character debuted in the original Fatal Fury on November 25, 1991 then appeared another 11 times over the decades. The mohawked star was a literal street fighter. He was a battling b-boy (breakdancer) using tumbles, and sweeps to great effect. He was followed by a crew of baby ducks, wore street clothes, had a flamboyant personality, and was beloved in the fighting game community. Even if it was revealed that mentored the DJ in the new game it would have been better to stay with the original South Town legend. It was clear that the people working on SNK today didn’t understand the tone, and feel of the original series.

The early days of the arcade era were very experimental for most studios. In the ‘80s SNK was known for its bold game designs. They did combat game exceptionally well because SNK founder Eikichi Kawasaki was a boxer in his younger days. He wanted the fights in his games to be more visceral. This meant that masters of various forms were welcome to be represented in their releases. That was why SNK introduced Capoeira to arcade goers way back to 1989. The developers had a great appreciation for fighting in all styles. When MMA started to surpass all combat sports in the late ‘90s they developed a rare 3D title called Buriki One in 1999. It was the same year that they released Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Many of those team members had since retired, or moved to other studios. The current team at SNK was good at recreating themes, and elements of classic games with modern art, aesthetics, controls, and game play. The thing they seemed to lack was the imagination, and appreciation of the influences that created the iconic series. 

The new developers didn’t seem to know how to add a new character into the franchise that wasn’t pulled from old design notes. Worse yet they were listening to the whims of their Saudi owners, and just throwing in real people for no reason. This made me afraid that they would try to reboot Buriki One next. Or they might reconsider bringing back other games based on the cold reception of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. At least I hoped they would do better if they were thinking about it. What about you? Did you pick up the game? Was it your first time playing an SNK game, or were you a veteran player like me? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Capoeira Fighter 3, the interview - A 1UP classic from January 4, 2008

The fighting game genre isn't as popular as it was in the early 90's, but given the attention that Street Fighter IV has garnered in the past few months it is safe to say that the fans haven't gone anywhere. Director of SF IV, Yoshinori Ono, believes that the game is like a sleeping giant, ready to be roused from a long slumber with a kick to the ribs. I believe the genre is asleep as well but more than just to be awoken it is ready for a renaissance.

Developers from every corner of the world are going to take notes on SF IV and begin developing fighting titles of their own. I'm certain there are fans of Killer Instinct ready to pounce on Rare when they see a potential for success. Those old enough to remember Primal Rage will petition to get some closure on the sequel. But those that focus too much on the past will fail to see the future of the genre. The world has grown quite a lot since the 90's. There is a whole new generation ready to test out the fighting genre.

The only guarantee that we have is in Capcom capturing the pure aspect of the fighter without 3D gimmicks. Until SF IV comes out we have to find titles cut from the same cloth. I don't mean a fighter by SNK, Namco, Taito, Sammy or DIMPS, but something more local. The game featured today has a lot of the classic Street Fighter vibe, it's creator inspired by Capcom's greatest, Street Fighter Alpha.

It has been two years and three months since I last did an interview with Scott C. Stoddard. His name should be important to you and everyone here on 1UP, especially those that consider themselves fighting game fans. Scott created a fighting game by himself. Okay, to be fair, his friends Adam Ford (most of the backgrounds and character selection art), Ethan Halvorsen (new music), and Trent and Melissa Halvorsen (arcade dialogue and ending art) helped at the end. Regardless I don't know of anyone else that can claim to have made a good, let alone great, fighting game all by themselves. I'm talking about character designs, backgrounds, models, animation, music, balance... the works. In this age of multi-million dollar development budgets, Hollywood writers and endorsement deals, it is humbling that one man is keeping the genre alive. The name of the game (in case you haven't guessed) is Capoeira Fighter 3. Go on and check out the demo but be sure to come back here.

Capoeira is a beautiful martial art. It looks amazing in videogames like Tekken and Street Fighter III and doubly amazing on film. A former practitioner of the art, Scott currently works at a game studio but has been filling his free time by plugging away on Capoeira Fighter for near a decade. As a dedicated family man his time is precious, it takes years for his titles to come out. Unlike Capcom, Scott has never stopped working on his series. This most recent release is by far the best and deserves some love on 1UP.

BigMex: Scott, it's great talking with you again. So tell us are you still with the team at Avalanche? I understand the company is part of Disney Interactive now. How is this working out for you?

Scott Stoddard: Disney is a great employer. I did have to animate Hannah's singing lips for the Hannah Montana Wii game, but I'm lead animator on a cool IP project right now. Plus I get into Disneyland free!

BM: The team at Avalanche (and you) now keep a blog. On the Avalanche Software blog the artists all contribute to monthly themes. Are you going to become more involved with those now that Capoeira Fighter 3 has gone "gold?"

SS: I plan to. I've had a lot of fun with my posts in the past, just been a matter of priorities lately trying to get CF3 out the door. All this coding is turning my brain lefty. I definately need to do more good ol' drawing and painting.

BM: Before we get to the actual CF3 questions is there an upcoming game you are working on with Avalanche that you'd like to mention?

SS: Sorry can't mention anything here, but I can say that it is more exciting to work on than Hannah Montana.

BM: Now let's talk about the genre. The fighting game scene has been pretty quiet these past few years. Everything changed in October when Street Fighter IV was announced. What was your reaction to the announcement?

SS: Loved the trailer. Watched it a few dozen times. The motion and ink effect was fun. The impacts and cloth had a great feel to them. Only hitch was the faces and hair. They look really, I mean REALLY bad compared to what I know Capcom is capable of. They've had so many cool stylized versions over the years, but SFIV looks like they hired a middle schooler to design the faces. Very sad to see them going away from the anime look.

BM: Back when I first interviewed you two years ago, you mentioned that Capcom needs to do a cel-shaded 3D fighter with all the characters from past titles. Your words now seem prophetic as details of SF IV have been released. Were these steps logical for the franchise?

SS: As long as the gameplay stays true to the old 2D version, 3D has some very attractive advantages.

BM: What are the advantages of working in 3D over a sprite-based system?

SS: Iteration, iteration, iteration. It is so much easier to fix and change things on a 3D character, or tweak 3D animation. Let's say you want to make Ryu's head smaller (or you want to make it ridiculously small like they apparently have for SFIV). In a 3D system, you just open the model, scale down the head, re-export and your done, maybe 5-10 min tops. If you want to shrink the head on a 2D character, you're pixel pushing every sprite, probably days, if not weeks of work.
The main thing 2D still has going for it is control. You know exactly what that sprite is going to look like because it is only ever going to be seen from one angle. In a 3D game, an animation might look great from one angle, and terrible from another.

BM: Is there a particular character that you can't wait to try out?

SS: Mostly I'm just curious to see the gameplay in motion. The screen grabs didn't wow me, but you've really got to see it in motion to judge it fairly. Some of the screens looked like the faces were going to be a lot more animated, which looks promising. I guess I would go for Ryu because it would be easiest to get a feel for the new gameplay using a familiar character, unless of course they include Elena... got a soft spot for capoeiras.

BM: What do you think about the Saving / Revenge system that EGM / 1UP has reported on?

SS: Hmm... I'll have to try it out. Sounded kinda muddy in the article I read, but might work better in actual gameplay. The idea of keeping the match interesting to the very end is definitely a good goal.

BM: Now that we have established your love of the Street Fighter franchise let's talk a little about your title. It's been two years and change since we last spoke, can you guess how many hours you've spent bringing Capoeira Fighter 3 from beta to final copy? Or specific time spent balancing moves and tweaking the engine?

SS: 1,000's easily. Adam Ford who worked on the backgrounds, and had a strong SF background played CF3 with me on our lunch break almost everyday. I also played nights, and my brother John put in quite a few hours with me. Overall I am very satisfied with the final product. There are still a lot of things that other games do better, but I have to honestly say, when I get together with friends that used to play SF, we would rather play Capoeira Fighter now.

BM: How has the reaction been for your title during development and final release?

SS: We've got some diehard fans out there. We're starting to get more fan vids on youtube. That's fun to see what people are doing with the game. I've also invited the shoryuken.com forums to test it out, they have responded pretty positively, and made some very useful suggestions that I implemented. Things are still pretty quiet as the final build is only available on my site right now where it's had a few thousand hits. Shockwave is really where most of the fans play it. I expect things to be more exciting when Shockwave releases the download version in Jan-Feb '08. Usually get over a million hits a month there.

BM: You mentioned previously that once CF3 was finished you hoped that a publisher might bring it to the home consoles. Any luck with that?

SS: I've talked to a few companies about getting it ported to XBLA and there have been plenty of fans asking for a console version. Turns out it's really tough and expensive to develop for consoles, so to answer your question, we're looking into it, and we want to do it. It's just a matter of finding the right company that is willing to port our game instead of working on their own IP.

BM: There are new and expanded modes in your game, ways to cancel out of combos and supers, a story mode, tag team, solo and versus options. Can you highlight the control scheme and these new modes for us?

SS: Yeah, CF3 is um... full featured to put it nicely (bloated is how I was feeling trying to bug test all the little things I've put in over the years), but the final product is very satisfying and much deeper than most fighting games.

As far as the fighting system goes, there are quite a few little polishing tweaks in the final build. CF3 is very combo heavy. Special moves can be linked with regular moves, but cannot be repeated in a combo unless a hyper move is used to cancel the move usage. To balance out the crazy long combos, you can special dodge to escape between moves or to air recover. So you see a lot of situations where one guy gets an uppercut into a jump kick, then he escapes and returns a punishing downward blow sending the attacker back into the ground. The back and forth in the air is lots of fun, and tends to generate gameplay that is more focused on the flow of combos and escapes than any one move by itself.

We also added color coated swooshes to indicate overhead hits so you can tell how you need to dodge.

There are the usual arcade and versus modes, plus a few other practice and minigame modes.
Capoeira Fighter 3's arcade mode is unique in the fighting genre, because of the branching story. You choose one fighter to start, and depending on that character's story, you may or may not start with a partner. The cool thing is that the partner's story is actually part of yours. Half way through you'll have the option to switch partners, or in some cases to go solo, so there are two endings for every character. Trent Halvorsen and his wife Melissa did all the writing and ending art, and they did a great job weaving all 29 character's stories together. It is also possible to play co-op if your fighter has a partner. I've had a lot of fun playing through co-op with my 4 year old son. He can already do most of the super moves.

The other unique thing to Capoeira Fighter is the match types. My brother an I grew up on SNES Street Fighter II. We started to get bored after a while, so we set up our own mini games, seeing who could get the other guy against the wall first, or who get past the guy to his back wall first. So when I made Capoeira Fighter, I wanted to put more of that stuff in the game to mix it up and keep the game fresh longer.

We ended up with 6 match types, all of which I enjoy (Adam hates the money game). Knock Out is the regular beat-up-the-other guy match. Then there is Ring-King, where you can damage your opponent by keeping them out of the center of the arena. Ring of Fire has a fire pit where you can score extra damage knocking the other guy into it. Money Game plays like capture the flag, and finally Ring Out is a quick match where the first guy to be hit out of the arena wins. You can also set it to switch randomly every round which keeps you on your toes.

Minigame Mode allows you to record scores for each fighter in things like the most damaging combo, the longest combo, busting targets etc... It's a great place to master combos.

BM: The roster of fighters has really expanded. In addition to the fantastic library of capoeira fighters you now feature a lineup of fighters from all over the world. I spy an homage to Street Fighter II as well as at least one character inspired from a popular movie. Can you introduce us to the new faces and some of the new fighting styles presented?

SS: Yeah we felt like the game needed some other styles to balance it out. We ended up building almost half of the 29 character roster with non-capoeira martial artists. Among my favorites are Jimmy Zappa who plays like a classic fireballer, except that we replaced the fireball with a lunging sweep kick. Panda is bubbly asian school girl that happens to be very good at tae kwon do. There's Aleron, the English boxing champ with small man syndrome and his nemesis, Angus, the Irish street fighting soccer player in a kilt. We also have Helicopter the German break dancer, and your monkey kung fu fighter Macaco (AKA Avery).

BM: You have some unique faces in the lineup, Arubim and Saryn aren't human, these are cameos from another game you created, right?

SS: Yes, Saryn and Arubim are from Guardians of Altarris, Spiritonin's take on a Final Fight style game. We needed two more characters to fill in the blank spots on the selection grid and we thought it would be a fun and completely non-logical mix. They are definitely some of my favorite characters to play.

BM: The CF3 design a character contest brought in some interesting designs, I was lucky enough to be one of those selected as was Pantera by a younger artist. Did you have fun coming up with moves for these characters?

SS: Yes! They both turned out to be very fun and different from the other characters in the game. They each have very distinct personalities that come across in their vocals and attacks.

BM: The fighting game genre is a hard sell for publishers. If your game is not a license, MMO or a GTA-clone then you really can't pitch it. This is where the life long gamer takes things into their own hands. You are a member of a small group keeping the genre alive. The new, unique, fighting games are not made by the big studios these days. Tekken and Virtua Fighter are becoming carbon copies of the other. 2D fighters (not made by SNK) are few and far between. Subtle Style from Japan was made by a small team and distributed on PC before it caught the attention of the industry. Now an arcade version is being released to great reviews. In Korea a one or two person team is making Chosun Musa, a fighter based on mythical Korean warriors. Here in the states you've been plugging away single-handed at Capoeira Fighter for years. How does it feel knowing that you are one of the small global developers keeping the genre alive and unique?

SS: As someone who got into video games because of games like Street Fighter II, it's sad to see the genre displaced in today's market. I made Capoeira Fighter so I could have my own engine to try out new gameplay concepts and see if I couldn't offer something worthwhile to the genre. The PC is a very small market for fighting games, but Capoeira Fighter has proved popular and profitable so far. My hope is that the fighting community give it a serious look. I don't think they'll be dissapointed.

BM: Do you think people in the industry should devote more time to building these small games in a variety of genres rather than focusing only on their work project?

SS: I think a lot of guys do that already. Maybe not on the scale that we have attempted here, but you see lots of games on the web that are developed on the side. It's definitely good for me and has helped me understand the industry better.

BM: Do you think that the industry could invest or support these developers by offering release time, stipends or distribution?

SS: It would be nice if console development was more friendly to small developers. From the research I've done, it's pretty daunting to get a game on a console, time, resource and expense wise. Even with something like CF3 that would be a simple port, it is still more than my small team could handle for a console.

BM: Do you foresee a time where digital distribution will replace traditional publishers and give you a chance to gain a wider audience and / or monetary compensation?

SS: I don't see publishers going anywhere, they will adapt. I still rely heavily on publishers for the majority of my profit because they handle all the marketing and ad sales etc...

BM: Any fears that Street Fighter IV will cause the other publishers to have a knee-jerk reaction and begin creating bad fighting titles rather than investing in yours? For reference think of the horrid fighters that flooded the market in the 90's after the success of Street Fighter II. We had to wade through Fighters History, Shaq-Fu, Blood Storm, Time Killers, Thrill Kill, Rise of the Robots, Pit Fighter, War Gods, etc...

SS: Yeah I remember buying all those games looking for another SFII experience and being sorely disappointed every time. It will be interesting to see. I don't think anyone is going to do anything serious until they see SFIV do really well. Grade A console games cost so much to make now. If Capcom's strategy to return to the SFII roots proves successful, and the fighting genre regains popularity, we will definitely see more fighting games. It's all about the money.

BM: Do you hope that SF IV sparks interest in your fighter as well?

SS: I hope anything sparks interest in my fighter. It will be interesting to see if any of the bigger developers use any of my ideas like the match types and abilities attached to hyper combos...

BM: You said that your back would have healed while you were working on this title. Is it well enough for you to return to practicing capoeira with your friends?

SS: Been thinking about that seriously. I do need to get back in shape, but my family also needs me back. I think I'll be taking it easy for a few months.

BM: You are a dedicated family man but does your wife ever have to pull you away from the computer and say enough is enough, especially now that CF 3 is out? Or are you just thinking of things for CF 4? SS: My wife is very supportive, and she keeps me balanced. Plus she did the voices for several of the girls! She is very excited to have a full time husband & dad back, and I am excited to be done. I imagine a CF4 is inevitable, but there will probably be a few more iterations of 3 with some characters added and a few more features that we wanted to get into it. I hope the game does well. Thanks for the interview!

So there you have it, the first interview of the new year. If you are a fighting game fan then you should support the dream and buy a copy. Even if you aren't big into fighting games then you should at least give the online version a spin at Spiritonin or at Shockwave.com. Scott deserves some exposure for his hard work so do me a favor and please, please, please tell a friend. Tell the editors at EGM and 1UP to shine some light on the small developers. Street Fighter IV is still a long ways off, so how about putting some hype behind a homegrown fighter for a change? Have a great weekend and let me know what you are up to!

---EDIT 2025---

Did you ever play this classic game when it came out? Did you know about the free download of the newly polished 60FPS version? Download the Legacy Edition of Capoeira Fighter 3. I’d like to read about which long gone fighting games would come back in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Return of Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament!

If you didn’t believe in Santa Claus then you might want to start believing now! The fighting game community got a special present before the end of the year. Shout out to Luis Lopez for giving me the heads up! The best web-based fighting game ever made (and one of my favorite fighting games of all time) was now available for free download! Windows users only. The criminally underrated Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament was a Shockwave-based game released by Spiritonin Media in the 2007. I must have played thousands of matches over the years whenever I had a break. Adobe ended support for the Shockwave plugin on 2019, and it was only a matter of time before CF3, and countless other games would be made obsolete. None of the defunct titles made me sadder than losing CF3.

Series creator Scott Stoddard had actually been plugging away at the title in his free time. Adding some polish to it, and trying to make it even better. I did a deep dive on Capoeira Fighter 3 on the blog. For the record Mr. Stoddard had also created a noir fighting game called Death Vegas shortly after CF3 had been released. I managed to dig up an old interview that I conducted with Scott during the 1UP days. I will post it this weekend. Make sure you Download the Legacy Edition of Capoeira Fighter 3, join the Discord (https://discord.gg/PTpuvqkyhF), and give Scott some feedback. It would be nice to see this game get some momentum, and even get featured at EVO.

So this is the last bit of good news that I want to leave you with. A huge thank you for Scott Stoddard for revisiting this gem, and giving it out to the community! May every project you work on bring you much joy, and success! I want to thank all of the visitors that stopped by in 2024. Thank you to those that left a comment, or shared my link on social media. This was the most prolific year that I have ever had on this blog A total of 169 posts in a year... nice! I would not have done it without the support of my friends, and family. I may not be as prolific in 2025, but I will try to find neat things to share with you. I hope 2024 went well for you, and I look forward to playing lots more Capoeira Fighter 3 in 2025. Did you ever play this game when it was available? Is this the first time you’ve heard of it? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you like my blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!