Cristiano Ronaldo is rubbish, but you can't enjoy Fatal Fury with a clean conscience anyway

Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most famous soccer players in the world, is now a fighting game character. While some may have thought it to be an ill-timed April Fools joke, Ronaldo really is a character in the base roster of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and it has left the fighting game fan base more divided than ever before.

First, how did we get here? It might come across as strange that Ronaldo would find himself inside a fighting game, but even stranger that it’s Fatal Fury. City of the Wolves is the sequel to 1999’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and developer SNK’s “golden era” is more than two decades ago now. In 2022, the Saudi Arabian Misk Foundation purchased 96% of SNK, making it a majority stakeholder in the company. That explains why City of the Wolves has been so well funded and marketed, even opening Las Vegas’ recent Wrestlemania.

If you’ve been following the career of Cristiano Ronaldo at all, you’ll already understand how these things tie together. In January 2023 Ronaldo was signed to a Saudi club, Riyadh’s Al-Nassr FC, and currently plays as Captain. With a reported salary of €200 million per year, he’s understood to be the highest paid professional soccer player of all time. So when Fatal Fury needed a strong cross-promotional opportunity, Ronaldo wasn’t likely to turn it down, especially when his contract has reportedly been extended.

While SNK’s games like Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters might not be household names in English-speaking territories, they are most definitely a global phenomenon. In South and Central America, Fatal Fury characters like Terry Bogard are held in the same high regard as Goku and Lionel Messi. In these regions, video game fans know all about Fatal Fury, and they know all about soccer legends like Ronaldo too.

But as a cross-promotional opportunity, something has gone terribly wrong. While celebrity scandals are nothing new for sports fans, video game fans aren’t used to having real-life people appear as major characters in games while portraying themselves. Soccer fans can mostly ignore a scandal as long as the games are good, but the diverse fighting game community hasn’t let go of Ronaldo’s controversies. Ronaldo’s inclusion brings his baggage with it, and serves as a reminder of who is running the show: a nation with known human rights violations, according to Amnesty International.

To add insult to injury, instead of feeling like a blockbuster event, Ronaldo’s inclusion in Fatal Fury cheapens the entire experience. Even if you are able to look past other controversies and concerns, Ronaldo isn’t playable in City of the Wolves’ Arcade mode, nor the Episodes of South Town story mode. His moveset is dull in-game too, with a simple array of kicks, slaps, and tackles. There’s no sauce, no vibes, and playing as Ronaldo feels like playing a worse version of the game.

It can be done well, as proven by another character in the same game. Salvatore Ganacci is a real-life Swedish Bosnian DJ who is a character in the game, has been heavily featured in promotional material, and has even produced several tracks for the game. His attack animations are ludicrously silly, but that makes him a joy to watch, while dripping with all the personality that the real-life Ganacci has infused into his DJ persona in music videos and performances. Almost every move he makes is a reference to a past performance or a similarly funky fighting game character from the past. 

Ronaldo, meanwhile, taps a ball at opponents and has a little hobbling run that soccer players do before a big kick. He’s even been done dirty in the game’s animated opening intro. It plays to a song produced by Ganacci, with every character getting a fully animated sequence — save for Ronaldo, who has a still frame piece of key art scroll across the screen. His whole inclusion feels rushed and immensely disappointing — the character model doesn’t even really resemble Ronaldo at all, looking more like a legally distinct clone (or that weird bronze bust from a few years back).

Whatever Ronaldo was supposed to do for Fatal Fury has already been done. A few promotional trailers have been released, and he’s in the game. It’s already over. Ganacci, meanwhile, is finding a place in the hearts of players thanks to his charisma and clear love for the game. Ronaldo’s inclusion has done nothing for Fatal Fury other than draw the ire of the most dedicated fighting game fans, and the confusion of soccer fans who don’t play somewhat niche Japanese fighting games. An example on how to do this properly is already here, in the same game, but for whatever reason Ronaldo is in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and he probably shouldn’t be.