Garou: Mark of the Wolves is widely considered to be one of the absolute gems of the overall SNK fighting arcade library. The style, precision, and altogether impressive technicality of the game have brought fighting fans back to it for years. It can truly be considered the masterpiece of the Fatal Fury franchise, but what if we could see a return of it? For what it’s worth, Streets of Rage 4 developers Lizardcube seems to be interested and even drew up a mock of what a new Garou might look like in its style. The results left us wanting more to say to least.
Lizardcube posted its artistic mockup of a Garou: Mark of the Wolves sequel on its Twitter, as well as a concept art timelapse video on its YouTube channel, on January 19, 2021. The mockup shows the iconic Rock Howard standing off with an original character of Lizardcube design on a stylish background and complete with a full fighting game HUD. The whole thing is wonderfully done in an artistic style similar to that of Streets of Rage 4, which Lizardcube also had a heavy hand in.
It’s a delightful look at what could be to say the least. Streets of Rage 4 was a masterpiece of side-scrolling brawler design in 2020, good enough to score high marks here in its Shacknews review, as well as earn its spot on the Shacknews Top 10 Games of the Year 2020 list. A big part of that was its striking art style that permeated the characters and backgrounds, and it looks like Lizardcube certainly has an idea of how they’d translate that to Garou.
It seems doubtful SNK would give up the reins anytime soon, especially considering that they just announced Season 3 of Samurai Shodown and the reveal of King of Fighters XV. That said, if SNK ever outsources its old work for a new project, Lizardcube seems like a perfect fit for the shortlist.