SNK and Capcom have been walking hand-in-hand lately, a welcome sight to longtime fans of the studios’ past collaborative fighting games.
After Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui made their appearance in Street Fighter 6, Ken and Chun-Li are now headed to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as guest characters in another surprising move.
With Ken’s release date on the horizon, we got the chance to bend the ear of CotW producer Yasuyuki Oda, who revealed the difficulties SNK faced bringing the Capcom mainstay to their game and what could be coming in the future for the beloved fighting game franchise.
SNK’s Oda speaks on “expanded universe” between SF6 and Fatal Fury
For Oda, the most challenging aspect of translating Ken into City of the Wolves was ensuring that he didn’t feel too different from his iconic Street Fighter iteration — a series mainstay whose shoto moves are basically fighting game gospel at this point.
“The biggest challenge was adapting Ken into the City of the Wolves system and making sure that his movements and design didn’t feel out of place or unnatural compared to his appearances in Street Fighter.
“As for his moveset, Ken as a character fits quite naturally into City of the Wolves, but we had to be selective as to which moves we wanted him to have.”
On top of that, it was important for the team to stay true to Ken’s interactions with Terry as seen in other Capcom vs SNK games and media. In City of the Wolves, they’re bringing back his friendship with Terry, which spans a number of games including titles like CvS2, Super Smash Bros. and more.
“We wanted to preserve the memories that longtime fans have of that rivalry, as well as continue the expanded universe that Terry and Mai’s inclusion in Street Fighter 6 began,” Oda told us.
“Since Terry is featured in Street Fighter 6, we wanted to make sure we stayed consistent with the story interactions he had with Ken there. We also wanted to make sure that Ken’s struggles in the SF6 story and his development as a character were properly represented in City of the Wolves.
“During discussions with Capcom, we explored the idea of setting Metro City and Southtown as neighboring cities, which we thought would lead to plenty of interesting interactions.
“Personally, I have thought for a long time that Street Fighter characters like Ken would fit perfectly within the world of Fatal Fury. In that sense, we didn’t have to change much about him when adapting him. I’m excited to see how both Street Fighter and Fatal Fury fans enjoy Ken and Chun-Li when she is eventually released.”
Could Fatal Fury be next in line for a movie? Oda says yes
Oda’s comments open up quite a bit of room for speculation regarding the future of collaborations between Capcom and SNK. Given that their appearances in CotW and SF6 have created an “expanded universe,” the possibilities seem endless, and rumors of a new CvS title have already run rampant online.
It’s something that Oda is excited for, too — but he admitted that he couldn’t say too much about the topic during our discussion.
“As of right now, we can’t speak about future collaborations with Capcom, but it’s something we would definitely like to continue,” he said.
However, he did seem enthusiastic about the idea of a new Fatal Fury film, something that hasn’t happened since Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture anime released in 1994. Given that many fighting games have been getting Netflix series, such as Tekken, or major motion pictures like the forthcoming Street Fighter movie, we had to ask Oda about Fatal Fury’s fate on the silver screen.
“I would definitely like to do that someday,” an enthusiastic Oda replied. “Especially since there hasn’t been a full-length Fatal Fury anime since the anime adaptation in the 90s. I personally think it would be a great time to revive that idea.”
Ken will come to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves in Summer 2025 as a DLC character in Season 1, following Andy Bogard’s release in June. Chun-Li is scheduled for release in Winter 2025.
All Career Mode changes in EA FC 26