SNK Reveals FATAL FURY: CotW Season 1 And Open Beta Character Roster

SNK didn't miss the opportunity to drum up some excitement at the recent EVO Awards. The company has unveiled the full line up for the Season 1 Character Pass, so let's start with that.

For Season 1, you can expect 5 new characters that will be released in the span of a year, from Summer 2025, to Early 2026. Within this package, we got a bit of variety. The Fatal Fury OGs are getting some more representation with aged up Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi, with both sporting new designs (does anyone else think this is the best Andy ever looked?). The original Art of Fighting is also getting some love, big love. Mr. Big, who is perhaps better known through his appearances in the King of Fighters series, is going to be the last one to arrive.

Apologies for bringing them up out of order, but the remaining two characters are somewhat special. Street Fighter has recently got its second guest from Fatal Fury, and now we know that Capcom is keen to share a duo of their own as well. The picks are not exactly unexpected, can't go wrong with the classics, after all. Nonetheless, I'm curious to see how SNK will apply their own style to SF6 iterations of Ken and Chun-Li, especially considering that they will have a few less buttons to work with. We're bound to see some interesting decisions on that front.

If you want to get your hands on the game, you won't have to wait too long. SNK has also shared more details about the upcoming open beta test. This test will be active from February 20th to 24th, and feature 8 playable characters:

• Kain R. Heinlein

• Rock Howard

• Terry Bogard

• Hotaru Futaba

• B. Jenet

• Mai Shiranui

• Preecha

• Vox Reaper

The character picks are rather notable here. You obviously get some classics, so long time players should find something that they are comfortable with, but they've also included new characters. Vox Reaper and Preecha represent the new and original characters for the franchise, and while Kain R. Heinlein was playable in the past, he was a bit of a secret character, and has undergone a slight redesign when it comes to his command inputs.

With that said, don't miss your chance to check out the game, and make sure to provide a bit of feedback for SNK, if you have any. Rocky launches are nothing new for fighting games, so it's best for the developers to get as much data as possible in order to iron out the kinks.