Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has always been a franchise about raw style, over-the-top personalities, and unforgettable moments. But SNK has officially taken things to galactic levels of weird by announcing that their next major fighter is none other than… Salvatore Ganacci. Yes, that Salvatore Ganacci—the EDM performance artist known for booing his own performance and dancing like he’s trying to exorcise his own skeleton. But here’s the kicker: it’s not a joke. He’s not just a meme cameo—he’s central to the game’s most ambitious mechanics overhaul in decades: the REV System.
REV Up or Shut Up: SNK’s New System Is Not Just Cosmetic
The REV System isn’t just another flavor of comeback mechanic—it’s the core tempo engine of City of the Wolves, and Ganacci is clearly SNK’s way of saying, “We’re done playing it safe.”
Here’s what we know straight from the official info: the REV System introduces two key mechanics—REV Arts and REV Blow.
- REV Arts in City of the Wolves are not your average EX moves—they’re amped-up specials with added properties, faster projectiles, longer combos, and more sauce per input. They use the REV Meter, which charges through offensive actions but punishes overuse by locking you out if it overheats. Ganacci, who practically is a walking tempo shift, seems engineered for this—think a toolkit where your fireball might come with a sub-bass wobble and your cross-up resets the rhythm mid-fight. Still waiting on his exact REV Art reveal, but he’s SNK’s poster child for the system for a reason. The fact that his in-game choreography aligns with rhythm not only visually, but potentially functionally, suggests we may be looking at the first character whose effectiveness is directly tied to beat timing. Forget quarter-circle—start practicing BPM.
- REV Blow is a heavy-hitting, cinematic smackdown that can be combo’d out of REV Arts via REV Accel and is only available when your S.P.G. (Selective Potential Gear) is active—an ability you select to trigger at different phases of your health bar. So yes, it’s a power play, but a situational one, not a meter nuke. It’s basically a parry-proof haymaker: your opponent starts cooking, and you slap the pan out of their hands with a move that screams, “Try vibing through this.” Ganacci landing a REV Blow mid-air while backflipping into a strobe effect isn’t just plausible—it’s probably a day-one combo video thumbnail.
Importantly, this isn’t just for show. Ganacci’s playstyle is built around movement feints, positional resets, and what looks like stance transitions timed to audio cues. He’s basically El Fuerte meets Daft Punk—a nightmare for lab monsters, a dream for chaos gremlins.
And if you’re a frame-data loyalist asking, “But how does this affect the meta?” The answer is: it’s already breaking it. Ganacci’s burst-heavy gameplay seems designed to exploit momentum shifts enabled by REV mechanics. If REV Arts create rhythm pressure, he’s the drop that punishes anyone playing out of time. You don’t play as Ganacci. You DJ the match.
JUKEBOX MODE: Custom Soundtracks, or Fighting Game iTunes?
Now imagine you’re getting bodied by Ganacci and suddenly the background track morphs into one of his signature bangers. That’s not flavor text—that’s the JUKEBOX system. SNK is letting players fully customize their stage BGM, choosing from tracks composed by 11 professional DJs (Ganacci among them), each tailored to the game’s fighters.
It’s an impressive fusion of gameplay and culture—and yes, it’s also a brilliant long-term engagement tool. Who’s going to uninstall a fighter when they’ve built a playlist that slaps harder than Terry’s Buster Wolf?
Guest Characters or Brand Synergy Avalanche?
But here’s the question a lot of purists are asking: Is this still Fatal Fury? With Ganacci onboard as both character and composer, and more cross-media names contributing to the soundtrack, it’s clear SNK is opening the door to non-traditional guest characters. The speculation spiraled quickly—Cristiano Ronaldo meme-punched his way into comment sections the minute Ganacci’s trailer dropped.
And then SNK actually did it. The football legend is now officially part of City of the Wolves. This isn’t a fan-mod or April Fool’s prank; it’s on their website, their socials, and in their trailer: CR7 has descended upon South Town, cleats and all. His playstyle, from what’s been shown, fuses flashy footwork with high-impact strikes and a level of confidence that practically deserves its own health bar. The man siius his way through combos.
It’s a wild move—but not unprecedented. Ganacci, too, wasn’t just dropped in as a novelty. SNK built him from scratch with lore hooks, visual identity, and an actual gameplay role that synergizes with the REV system. This is the new SNK: they’re not skin-swapping celebrities into martial arts shells—they’re integrating them deeply into mechanics, worldbuilding, and vibe.
Still, this direction isn’t risk-free. Ronaldo might bring global eyes to the game, but longtime fans of Garou: Mark of the Wolves might raise an eyebrow—or both—at the sudden pivot from underground fighters to football superstars and meme-tier DJs. There’s a balance to strike between opening the tent and setting it on fire with a sponsored flare.
But if the REV system is the new backbone of competitive play, and these wild inclusions are designed with the same depth as legacy characters, then SNK might just pull it off. You don’t have to like that Ronaldo is in the game—but you will have to learn the matchup.
The Verdict: Drop the Beat, Hold Forward
Let’s face it: SNK is no longer content with playing second fiddle in the fighter wars. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is shaping up to be a genre remix—REV mechanics for the lab warriors, JUKEBOX mode for the lifestyle players, and Ganacci for… whatever dimension he exists in.
It’s chaotic. It’s brilliant. It’s definitely going to make your old Fatal Fury main feel like he showed up to the rave in dad jeans. But if “REV Blow into Ganacci overhead into speaker toss into BPM-synced taunt” becomes the new tournament meta?
Good.
This isn’t just a fighting game anymore. It’s a live set. And you’re not just a player—you’re the drop.
Source: https://www.4gamer.net/games/649/G064915/20250404004/
Source: https://www.tgbus.com/news/232124
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