FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves adds Kim Kaphwan at last

FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves has finally put a father on the same roster as his two sons. Kim Kaphwan, the taekwondo master SNK has been wheeling out since Fatal Fury 2 in 1992, is now available as the third Season 3 fighter, the company announced on 24 September. The release comes with Japanese and English character trailers, a new chapter of the game's solo story mode and an animated short directed by Masami Obari, the man behind Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.

What SNK has actually released

Kim is the middle entry of a seven-character Season 3, following Rick Strowd and Duck King. SNK notes that this is the first time he has been playable in the same game as his sons, Kim Dong Hwan and Kim Jae Hoon, which is a strange sentence to have to write about a character who has been around for almost 35 years. He is voiced by June Yoon in English and Kunihiro Kawamoto in Japanese.

The rest of the season leans on crossovers. Manjiro “Mikey” Sano and Ken “Draken” Ryuguji from Tokyo Revengers arrive together in October, Laocorn from Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture lands in November, and a seventh fighter is being kept under wraps until December, all under the tagline “Destined for Revenge”.

Obari's short is the showpiece. Dong Hwan and Jae Hoon are getting flattened by South Town's worst until their father turns up to remind everyone what a legendary taekwondo master looks like when he is annoyed. Obari is president of Studio G-1NEO and was character designer and chief animation director on the Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf TV anime, so this is not a studio waving at the franchise from a distance.

Episodes of South Town goes gentler: Kim returns after a long absence and visits Tizoc, who has been keeping an eye on his sons, and the three Kims finally talk. Arcade Mode sends him back into the King of Fighters tournament to prove his convictions still hold up.

Why the old taekwondo dad is the interesting pick

SNK has been selling Kim on one joke since 1992: taekwondo is the strongest martial art in the world and evil is simply unforgivable. Fighting games love a gimmick, but his has aged well, because a character who is furious about justice can be handed any story and it fits. It is also why putting him next to his sons works: Dong Hwan and Jae Hoon are fighting to live up to a father who has no intention of slowing down, and the game gives that an episode rather than ten seconds of punching.

The anime connection is doing more work than the guest slots here. Obari directed the Fatal Fury film, drew on the TV series and also made The King of Fighters XV's special movie, so his short is continuity rather than marketing garnish. Laocorn arriving in November makes the point: SNK is mining its own animation history.

What it costs to keep up

Kim Kaphwan is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store as part of Season Pass 3 or on his own, at $4.99, €4.99 or £3.99 for a single fighter. Season Pass 3 is $19.99, €19.99 or £15.99, and the Revenge Edition, which bundles the base game with Season Passes 1, 2 and 3, is 20 per cent off during the launch window: $39.99, €39.99 or £31.99, down from $49.99, €49.99 or £39.99.

Nintendo Switch 2 owners wait until 22 October for their own versions, including a Starter Edition with all three passes at $29.99 and €29.99 digitally and a physical release dated 21 January 2027.

Our opinion

Do the sums on that Revenge Edition before buying anything else. Season Passes 1, 2 and 3 cost $54.97 when you add $14.99, $19.99 and $19.99 together, and the sale price of the whole bundle is $39.99 with the base game included. That is a rare case of the discounted package undercutting the passes on their own, which makes £31.99 the only sane entry point for anyone who waited for the roster to fill out. Already playing? Buy Kim for £3.99 and skip the pass, because a mystery seventh fighter in December is a promise, not a product.

The bigger question is what kind of crossover season this is. Mikey and Draken from Tokyo Revengers chase an audience that may not own a fighting game, while the Obari short and Laocorn are aimed squarely at the people who were already here. This release shows where SNK's instincts actually point: taekwondo, bad hair, family melodrama and a director who knows what a South Town showdown should look like.

If you own City of the Wolves, Kim is a £3.99 purchase you will probably make on the strength of the anime short alone. If you do not, take the Revenge Edition sale while it lasts. Either way, this is a fighting game season whose DLC characters feel chosen rather than licensed.