Tokyo Revengers' Mikey & Draken bring ruffian ruthlessness to Fatal Fury: City

• Feature

Manjiro 'Mikey' Sano and Ken 'Draken' Ryuguji come as a pair to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves this month and I dug deep into Mikey's gameplay ahead of launch.

TJ Denzer October 22, 2026 12:00 AM Shacknews 1

This month saw not one, but two characters come to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as DLC: Manjiro 'Mikey' Sano and Ken 'Draken' Ryuguji from the popular anime and manga Tokyo Revengers. They join Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star as guest characters in the game, but they're quite a bit less elegant than Ken. Both Mikey and Draken feature a smashmouth ruffian brawler style that feels like strength over skill, but it just might do the trick when you see what kind of damage they can put out. I saw for myself after going hands-on with Mikey for a while and came away convinced that nobody should count out this pint-size pugilist.

"How do you want to die?"

As one of the strongest of the Tokyo Manji Gang, “Invincible Mikey” has an incredibly nasty style about him in a way that few other Fatal Fury characters can match. Vox Reaper or Kevin might give him a run for his money, but Mikey has a cold aura about his brutality that even they don’t hit.

Mikey’s more kick-focused than Draken, focusing the majority of his kit on strong legwork and some nice command normals. He has a great sliding Heavy Kick, and his projectile (Scram!) is a bit close to that of Joe Higashi and Preecha’s, where he throws out a windy breeze that can advance for an aggressive attack or be deployed in front of him to shield himself. The kick he uses to launch the gust also has a hit box, so it can be comboed into the tornado, especially in its REV version. Also, his anti-air move (Get Out!) is straight up Rugal Bernstein's Genocide Cutter, but with a follow-up attack that launches the opponent for your other moves.

One of my favorite things on Mikey is his You’re Toast! move, where he jumps at the opponent, bouncing off their head, and can then choose to go forward, back, up or follow-up immediately with a crossing kick. You can use it to misdirect your opponent or act first on block to sneak in a counter against your foes with some good mobility. His forward jumping kick special (Shah!) is also great for catching an aggressive opponent off-guard and counter-launching them into the air for some ferocious combos and damage. For combos and feints, Mikey has a three-part kick special (I’ve Got You) which can be cut off at the first or second hit to trick your opponent into opening up for a follow-up strike or throw.

Mikey has some very high damage off of a few things, but he’ll take some practice on timing if you want to get the most out of his moves. I found it was very hard to connect into Mikey’s supers unless you got the right kind of launch on the opponent. Doing his anti-air and follow-up just doesn’t seem to give them enough lift except for in very specific conditions. His punches also leave something to be desired. Mikey has short arms and a very short range. He’s fast with them, but it leaves him susceptible to counter attacks. Outside of his jumping You’re Toast! attack, he also feels a bit simple and straightforward, so you’re going to have to think carefully about what you want to throw out and when lest you eat counters yourself.

“Don’t mess with me!”

Mikey many have some limitations, but he’s still a scrappy little dude, and for what I could see, Draken has a lot of similar things going, except he’s more focused on punches. Both of them make for some of the more brutal additions to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ roster. I don’t think they’re as strong as some of other new characters we’ve had, such as Kenshiro and Mr. Karate, but they will still be satisfying if you want the visceral vibe of pummeling your opponents to pulp. Don’t underestimate them.

This preview was based on an early version of the game supplied by the publisher. Mikey and Draken come to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves on October 22, 2026.

Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.

TJ Denzer Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at [email protected] and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.

Filed Under

Login / Register