Mai Shiranui Returns to Fatal Fury With a Redesign in City of the Wolves

Fighting games have been breaking new ground in all manner of ways. Street Fighter 6 is the first mainline Street Fighter game to feature guest characters from other developers’ franchises, while Tekken 8 defied its own executive producer and brought Heihachi back from the dead. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won’t be shown up, and is doing something groundbreaking in its own right: the alluring ninja girl Mai Shiranui will be returning, and she will be wearing pants.

The fan-favorite character Mai Shiranui was first introduced in Fatal Fury 2. While she did return in Fatal Fury 3, she was not in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, with the only returning character in the game being Terry Bogard. While the series went on hiatus for over 20 years, Mai instead took part as an integral character in The King of Fighters games, donning the same red kunoichi garb each time with only minor alterations. The most recent Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer, however, not only confirms her return to the Fatal Fury series but shows off her new default outfit. This will be the first time she isn’t wearing her red kunoichi attire as her default outfit, instead opting for a stylish leather jacket and black pants with high-heeled boots.

The trailer also shows off her classic outfit, but there’s no confirmation on how it can be obtained. At this time, the only other alternate outfit we know of is Terry’s classic outfit, which is shown at the end of the Mai reveal trailer as a preorder bonus DLC costume. 

While it isn’t certain if Mai’s classic costume will be DLC or not, what is certain is City of the Wolves’s release date. The gameplay trailer confirms an April 24, 2025 release date for the game, as well as five slots for characters in the Season Pass 1 of DLC. The silhouettes used are generic, so there is no way to guess which characters will make their way into the game as DLC at this time. We can at least rule out Mai, whose triumphant return to Fatal Fury is accompanied by an admirable addition to her wardrobe.