Cristiano Ronaldo has just been confirmed as a guest character in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Ronaldo has won 33 championships across different associations throughout his career. He may be best known for his million dollar runs in Manchester United and Real Madrid throughout the 2000s to 2010s. Today, he plays for the Portugal national team, as well as team Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro Football Club.
As you can see from Ronaldo’s Facebook account, they dropped a teaser for this all the way back in September 2024. It’s possible that that was the point that SNK and Ronaldo made the deal to add him in, and they were working on his character model and moveset this whole time. But then again, it’s also possible that SNK started work much earlier, and this was just the timetable from initial teaser to reveal.
As you can see from SNK’s website, Ronaldo is a stance character. While it looks like his footballs come on screen from out of nowhere, its presence seems situational. So, in contrast to Samurai Shodown, where you can get disarmed and are forced to get your weapon from where it dropped, Ronaldo’s ball will reappear and disappear depending on what moves he’s using.
As a stance character, it may take some time to memorize Ronaldo’s moveset, especially if you’re a football fan who decides to pick up this game just to play your favorite athlete. But high level players will know that the trick to stance players is the mixup; making their opponents guess what move they will use next from a few set possibilities.
This crossover is unusual but not entirely without precedent. For Tekken 7, the Tekken team recreated actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s likeness to add in Negan Smith, the character he played in The Walking Dead show. For Tekken 8, they worked with another actor, Vincent Cassell, to create an original character that uses his likeness, the head of the UN independent forces, Victor Chevalier.
For Bandai Namco and SNK, the objective is clear; these crossovers will hopefully drawn in people who don’t already play and are fans of fighting games. While we are left wondering how much SNK had to pay to get Ronaldo in the game, we can’t help speculate that both their connections to the Saudi government might have something to do with it.
In any case, you can watch Cristiano Ronaldo’s official introduction trailer for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves below.
