As 2024 draws to a close and gets nearer and nearer, the release of SNK’s next big fighting game title, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves approaches and with it more release trailers begin to drop. This weekend we were greeted by the trailer of an old fan favorite among the Garou cast, the kenpo master Gato.
The first thing players might notice about Gato is that his eyes are constantly closed. This isn’t a character design choice like you’d see in anime, Gato is actually fighting with his eyes closed. This is a reference to his ending in the original Mark of the Wolves, which saw him get blinded by a mysterious stranger. However Gato has since recovered his eyesight, but continues to willingly fight blind as his other senses have been enhanced so much so that he’s arguably stronger without it.
Gato’s is a traditionally explosive character, probably one of the most satisfying characters to play in Fatal Fury and King of Fighters purely on just how much oomph his animations have, and a lot of his classic moves have returned as we see in this trailer. Most obviously, his Totsuga thrust punch, a staple among kenpo/shaolin style fighting game characters makes a return as a key part of his moveset. It also appears that Ura Fuuga, a stomp with several key follow-ups for combo routes and neutral moves, will also return. Gato also has a parry and what appears to be a stance, though we won’t know for sure until the full release of the game.
Said release will be on April 25th, 2025. With the trailer for Gato, the number of returning characters from the original Garou is dwindling with only Hokutomaru, Kim Jae-Hoon, Freeman, and the final boss Kain Heinlein yet to be revealed for City of the Wolves.