Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves could be 2025's best fighting game, and you can try it right now

A Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves promotional screenshot.
(Image credit: SNK)

  • Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has an open beta happening right now
  • Eight characters and a selection of online modes are available to play
  • The beta ends on February 24, 2025

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, one of 2025's most hotly anticipated fighting games, has a free-to-access open beta happening right now.

While the open beta is largely limited to a handful of characters and online modes, it's giving fighting game fans and casuals alike a chance to try out the game free of charge before its April 24, 2025 release. And you've got all weekend to check it out, too, as the open beta will be live until February 24.

The Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves open beta lets you play ranked, casual, and lobby matches online. But it also has a tutorial to get you up to speed on mechanics like the REV gauge, Just Defense and special move cancels. There's no training mode or combo trials available in the open beta, though, so you won't be able to lab your favorite character just yet.

There are eight available to try in the open beta. Those are:

  • Rock Howard
  • Terry Bogard
  • Hotaru Futaba
  • Preecha
  • Vox Reaper
  • B. Jenet
  • Mai Shiranui
  • Kain R. Heinlein

It's also worth noting that any progress you make in the open beta in terms of online ranking won't carry over to the full game. As a result, you can afford to hop between characters to find a favorite without having to worry about your win / loss stats.

The open beta is available to download for free on all platforms the game is set to release on, those being PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC via Steam. Crossplay also seems to be enabled for the beta, so you'll be able to square off against opponents regardless of system.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is currently one of our most anticipated games of 2025. Notably, its first season pass of DLC characters will be available at no extra cost. The season's characters have been confirmed to be Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, and Mr. Big as well as Ken and Chun-Li from the Street Fighter series, donning their Street Fighter 6 attire.

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Rhys Wood
Hardware Editor

Rhys is TRG's Hardware Editor, and has been part of the TechRadar team for more than two years. Particularly passionate about high-quality third-party controllers and headsets, as well as the latest and greatest in fight sticks and VR, Rhys strives to provide easy-to-read, informative coverage on gaming hardware of all kinds. As for the games themselves, Rhys is especially keen on fighting and racing games, as well as soulslikes and RPGs.

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