With the fighting game genre seemingly going througha cooling-off period right now, it is impossible to say if another Capcom Vs. SNK title is on the cards. So, the mutual exchange of guest characters between Capcom and SNK may be the closest we are going to get.
In anticipation of Ken’s release forFatal Fury: City of The Wolves, I had a chance to play around with Ryu’s boo. While he may feel a little like a consolation prize for fans still hoping for a CVS3, I am happy to report that Ken works extremely well as a bridge between City of the Wolves and Street Fighter 6.
Let me kick things off by saying that I only had access to Ken in the training mode, so I can’t comment on what role he’ll play in the Fatal Fury universe. Sorry lore-heads, you’ll have to wait for the full release for that stuff.
An Ideal Point Of Entry For Street Fighter 6 Players
For starters, there’s no question about which version of Ken Fatal Fury has received. From his default duds to his leaping Dragonlash Kick, this is Street Fighter 6’s Ken through and through. And a shocking number of combos and sequences every Ken player in Street Fighter 6 will be familiar with have survived the porting process.
Wanna land a heavy punch, shimmy into a crouching medium kick, and combo into his Shinryu Reppa super? No prob, Bob, you absolutely can. What about his infamous Dragonlash Kick being safe on block? Yup, it’s the same in City of the Wolves. SNK clearly wants their players to suffer too.
Of course, Ken isn’t exactly the same character, mind you, but he’s a lot closer than I would have ever expected. Ken players will likely find that they’ll be able to transition over to this version pretty smoothly, which I imagine is the point.
You won’t be able to do the same Jinrai Kick corner combos, but the REV mechanic gives him plenty of routes to massive damage in the corner, so it isn’t a huge loss.
I suspect that Ken is meant to act as a bit of a Rosetta Stone for Street Fighter players looking to broaden their horizons in the City of Wolves. For Ken mains, there is more legacy carryover from Street Fighter 6 to City of the Wolves than there has ever been between two numbered Street Fighter entries. They’ve even found a smart workaround to give Ken access to exclusive mechanics found in the sixth Street Fighter.
We all know that every Ken main wants nothing more than to Drive Rush in and hammer buttons. While City of the Wolves may not have the Drive Rush mechanic per se, SNK has cleverly made his command run REVable. Which helps it function similarly to his SF6 Drive Rush. So worry not, Ken mains, you can still unga bunga your butt across the screen.
If you are new to City of the Wolves, a ‘REV’ attack is just an OD/EX special. Why can’t these games just settle on common nomenclature already?
Cramming Six Buttons Into Four
The big question when trying to translate Street Fighter characters designed around six attack buttons over to a four-button game is how they’ll cram all those attacks in the limited real estate, and what they will lose in the process. I’m happy to report that Ken loses very little.
The solution SNK landed on here is an elegant one. The heavy attack buttons give you access to Ken’s mediums, while holding down-forward and pressing a heavy button will give you Ken’s heavy attacks. It works quite well, but it does mean that sloppy execution can lead to you throwing out the wrong attack, which, in turn, may lead to you receiving a broken clavicle.
But Ken isn’t just a Street Fighter 6 character, he is sporting a few new tricks to accompany his brand-new, strangely pointy nose. This stuff is all linked to the City of the Wolves mechanics, of course.
An Old Dog With New Tricks
He can freely cancel special attacks into other special attacks if he’s using the REV versions, and he can also ‘break’ certain specials, giving him ways to cancel his attacks part-way through. I am far from being an expert combo smith, but I was able to quickly find routes to heavily damaging combos using these tools. I can only imagine what we’ll see once the pros get their hands on Ken.
One fun tidbit is that Ken gets a fireball feint. This move does exist in Street Fighter, but only Ryu has ever had access to it.
While my time with the game didn’t give me much of an opportunity to face off against human players, I can already tell that Ken is going to be just as much of a menace in the world of Fatal Fury as he is in Street Fighter. While we don’t have confirmation of his release date at this time, given that EVO is currently rocking and rolling, I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll have that information in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled, folks.
