The coming one Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is already shaping up to be one of the most anticipated fighting games of 2025, but a recent announcement has topped the excitement of the game's first surprise reveal. After an official post by the famous athlete Cristiano Ronaldo, it seems that he will be involved in the upcoming one Garou sequel in some unknown capacity. About this collaboration with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves provides a playable character, the inclusion of Ronaldo would be unprecedented even for the fighting game genre.
There has already been a wave of hype surrounding the shocking addition of SNK's Mai Shiranui and Terry Bogard in Street Fighter 6 as DLC, a callback to the era of frequent crossovers between the company's IPs and Capcom. Compared to the potential for a real person to enter the world Fatal FuryBut even those kinds of collaborations pale in comparison when it comes to predictability.
A Character Slot in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Might Be Filled by Cristiano Ronaldo
SNK is no stranger to collaborations
Throughout its history of existing as different companies, SNK has embraced many partnerships and crossover events by bringing characters from other games into its titles. SNK's flagship King of Fighters the series itself is a mix of characters from shows like The art of fighting, Samurai Shodownand Fatal Furymaking the company something of a hub where legacy fighting game IPs can come together. Despite this history, however, most of these clashes have taken place between characters under the same developer umbrella or within the same arcade context, bleeding reality into uncharted territory.
Ronaldo's tease has sparked speculation that he could be playable
The situation stems from a post made on Cristiano Ronaldo's official X/Twitter account that showcased a video that left the details of the collaboration unspecified. The short clip appears to show a character breaking out from behind a metal door in a football stadium, potentially suggesting that Ronaldo could figuratively burst into Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves' familiar list.
Cristiano Ronaldo in Fatal Fury stands out as a strange crossover even in the context of fighting games
Real people as guests pushing new boundaries
Outlandish guests are a familiar idea in fighting games, with the likes of Terminator or Joker in it Mortal Kombat or Negan in Tekken having been accepted parts of the contributions they appeared in. The existence of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe has stood out as one of the most disparate pairings of franchises in particular, with Warner Bros. ownership is essentially the only connection between the two.
Regardless of how inappropriate any of these cases may have been, none of them went so far as to include a real live person in a video game release as opposed to the fictional characters they have portrayed. Although it could be argued that Cristiano Ronaldo has made several appearances such as FIFA and EA Sports FC as a high-ranked player, they are far from the visually striking combat of SNK's fighters.
The only connection between sport and SNK is business-related
In the same way that it has allowed DC to have a relationship with Mortal Kombatit seems the primary link between Ronaldo and Fatal Fury is related to business interests. Given that he currently plays for the club Al-Nassr FC, which has an owner with similar ties to the Saudi Arabian foundation that owns a majority stake in SNK, this collaboration could be a calculated move that could draw a lot of attention to the series comeback of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
