Fatal Fury games to play right now for free (while waiting for City of the Wolves)

A 25-year break is extreme for any game. However, Fatal Fury recovered well from this slumber — a lot thanks to the experience of SNK with their other titles, The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown.

The newest game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, is out in April 2025. What about the previous installments? Is it possible to play early Fatal Fury games on modern consoles and PC? Read on to discover what titles you can play right now.

Technically, you still need to pay for the online multiplayer to get access to these Fatal Fury games. Practically, it is hard to believe that someone will subscribe to such services only for this. If you have Nintendo Switch Online and PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium, don’t hesitate to try out two Fatal Fury games for free.

It’s a classic game, so it looks and feels like a fighting title from 1992. It doesn’t have fancy animations and smooth moves typical for the modern era. At the same time, Fatal Fury 2 is a fun little game to enjoy now and again. Having it in the SNES catalog on the Nintendo Switch is pretty convenient.

The roster in Fatal Fury 2 is limited to just eight characters. Sure, it’s not 17 basic fighters in City of the Wolves plus DLC. Still, we have iconic Terry Bogar and Mai Shiranui here, who even made it to Street Fighter 6. It’s the first-ever game for Mai.

For those who play only newer fighting games, diving into Fatal Fury 2 may be a shock. That’s not only about visuals and animation! There is no training mode or even a comprehensive movelist in the game. It works differently: you start a match, press buttons to experiment, discover something interesting, use that in practice, and occasionally stumble across other moves.

The game is as unforgiving as classic fighting titles usually are. You learn from defeats — if you play vs CPU. Decent practice is needed to actually finish the arcade sequence of opponents.

Having a Fatal Fury 2 match with a friend is the best way to play this game. Let yourself adjust and enjoy the great classic at your own pace.

It’s the latest Fatal Fury game before City of the Wolves, and it’s really good to play even now. The original release was in 1999, and the fighting title is an era ahead compared to the first games of this series.

You can play Garou: Mark of the Wolves on the PlayStation 4 and 5. It’s part of the PS Plus game catalog.

The variety of characters is pretty decent here: 14 fighters to choose from. It’s still not the level of modern games, but you can find different archetypes to express your style in fights.

The training mode and movelist are here! Everything is just fine for you to improve your skills and don’t get washed by the CPU before starting to understand the game. Decreasing the difficulty level may be super helpful for casual players.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves still looks like a game from its era. The aesthetics are pretty beautiful, though. As for the mechanics, it sure is not KOF XV, but the feeling of playing it is close to what we have in modern games.

A great thing about Garou: Mark of the Wolves is online multiplayer with a decent netcode. Do not expect to find a random player at any time of the day — only if you are really lucky. This mode is more about connecting with friends, which is a totally great feature for such a classic game.

There is not much need to dive into many games released between Fatal Fury 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. SNK Corporation made an impressive marathon: six main games were released from 1991 to 1999 plus some enhanced versions and spin-offs.  Playing them is a great experience for a dedicated explorer of the fighting game genre. For casual fun, it may be somewhat excessive. 

However, many games are available on the Nintendo Switch. You can buy the following titles via the console store:

PC gamers also can experience some Fatal Fury games, including both Fatal Fury 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

After playing classic Fatal Fury games, you may become a fan of the early era of the fighting genre. In this case, don’t miss the chance to experience the Capcom Fighting Collection series. The second version includes Capcom vs SNK titles, which have some Fatal Fury characters.

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