Hiya!

As of this writing, EVO Japan has just concluded and, for the first time, I was actually able to watch most of it live! I will say I was surprised with how much fun this entire weekend was and how much hype some of the games were! As an example, I have no idea how busted old fighting games like Hokuto No Ken/Fist of the North Star was but it was extremely gratifying to find out!

Although watching the pros play all these fighting games at high level is the main reason to watch each EVO, another reason is to watch all the big reveals which come out of the show. Unfortunately, at this year’s EVO Japan, we really didn’t get that many. However, there were indeed some announcements which did more than just catch my attention. So, as there really aren’t that many, I thought we can go look at them and I’ll rank them on how high they are on my hype meter!

Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond added to Dead or Alive 6: Last Round… again?

I was never a big fan of the Dead or Alive fighting game franchise. It’s one of those weird fighting games where it plays both as a button masher and a very technical rock-paper-scissors kind of games. I never really could get into it because of that. Still, I don’t have any disrespect to the fighting game engine. What I do have disrespect for is how Tecmo is seemingly re-releasing this game now and sort of pretending it’s a brand new thing!

Case-in-point, they showed off a new trailer featuring SNK guest characters Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond… but didn’t they already have them show up in the original Dead or Alive 6? I’m very sure they did!

As much as I am a Mai and Kula fan, the mere fact they’re essentially re-hashing an old trailer feels very icky to me. It’s very hard to feel excited about this because this isn’t new news. It’s old news and dressing it up as if it’s something revolutionary. What makes this bit of news even worse is it looks like both guest characters won’t be part of the base roster of Dead or Alive 6: Last Round! No, you’ll have to purchase them as DLC characters! That’s just seems insulting to me!

Hype Meter: 3 “Me Bouncies” out of 10

World Heroes Perfect is being re-released

You know what happened in 1995? I was born on that year. You know what else happened in 1995? SNK released World Heroes Perfect, the 4th entry in the World Heroes series. So, you’ll excuse me if I have no idea about what this fighting game series is all about because, you know, I was just born when the last game came out.

It seems odd how, despite this being an SNK fighting game (and SNK was known for making really good fighting games back in the day), no one really talks about the World Heroes series. Everyone still knows SNK’s other fighting games like Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters. I even have to ask why none of the World Heroes cast ever made it into a King of Fighters games as a team? This does make me question if the World Heroes games are any good because it seems like SNK weren’t doing anything with this “beloved franchise” until now.

Anyway, as I’m not familiar with the World Heroes games, I can’t really be all that excited for it. I might go check it out as SNK is selling the game at a dirt-cheap price right now. I just hope it controls better than SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos because I couldn’t pull off a Dragon Punch motion 5 times consecutively there even if my life depended on it!

Hype Meter: 4 “I was just born yesterdays” out of 10

SNK is rebalancing King of Fighters XV

It’s been more than a hot minute since I even touched King of Fighters XV. That’s mainly because I thought SNK was already done with that game and they’ve moved on to focusing on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and other projects. It turns out I was wrong as they’re actually releasing a new balance patch for the game in July!

It is important to note this is just a balance patch. They didn’t say if they’re going to add any new mechanics or new characters to King of Fighters XV. This is just a balance patch. Now, to me, the hype all hinges on how extensive the adjustments will be. Will it radically change the game meta? Will there be more buffs than nerfs all across the board? They haven’t said anything yet and I can’t really deduce anything major from the trailer because I’ve forgotten a lot of what I could do in the game already.

Still, I am very cautiously optimistic about this news as it could breathe a lot of new life into King of Fighters XV. I might try to pick it up again if the balance changes sound interesting. Time will tell but, for right now, I can’t help but feel a twinge of excitement.

Hype Meter: 7 “more buffs please” out of 10

Wait… that’s not the real Mr. Karate, isn’t it?

Apparently, I’m still not done talking about all the announcements SNK made during EVO Japan! SNK has been rushing through releasing all of the 6 new characters which will be joining Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves‘ roster. They tried to make the 5th character more of a mystery… despite already showing it would be Mr. Karate from the Art of Fighting games. They did add a little twist to it all as this wasn’t any of the previous Mr. Karates we’ve seen before. It’s not Takuma nor is it Ryo. No, I’m more than fairly sure the man behind the tengu mask is Robert Garcia.

While the coin flip was already a dead giveaway, I actually thought it was a red herring. However, seeing Mr. Karate sporting stylish threads, a long ponytail and that one-legged stance, there’s no mistake: that’s Robert Garcia. It’s weird because I never thought of him to be all that serious about martial arts. So, him donning the Mr. Karate monicker is a curve ball… but a curve ball that’s a hit.

The only thing that bummed me out is the trailer didn’t show any gameplay. I wanted to see how Robert Garcia Mr. Karate would translate in the world of Fatal Fury. We didn’t get that so my hype levels for this, while pretty high initially, has to be brought down.

Hype Meter: 6 tengu masks out of 10

Melty Blood is getting an update

Remember how I said I haven’t touched King of Fighters XV because I thought SNK was done with it? That’s usually the case when a fighting game has hit the ripe old age of 4 to 5 years. The company behind it stops updating it and it becomes old news. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Melty Blood: Type Lumina because, despite it being released in 2021, is still getting updated. They are releasing Melty Blood: Twi-Lumina next year.

Sadly, it’s hard for me to get extremely excited for this as I’ve never touched a Melty Blood fighting game in my life! I’ve seen pros play it, however, and… I still can’t get into the game! Look, I’m sorry to the Melty Blood community but I just don’t really care for it so you already know what my hype meter score for this will be.

Hype Meter: 2 ennuis out of 10

Hulk and Shuri/Black Panther complete the Fighting Avengers team in Marvel TOKON: Fighting Souls

Well, so far, none of my predictions on who will appear in Marvel TOKON: Fighting Souls is panning out! Sure, it took me down a peg but none of that matters if the actual characters Arc System Works adds to it are great. So far, they’ve been doing great, adding twists like Magik, Danger and Peni Parker to the roster as well as some mainstays like Wolverine.

At EVO Japan, they announced the complete roster for the Fighting Avengers team, which many deduced would include Captain America and Iron Man. Arc System Works decided to play it both safe and risky with the final couple of members as they pick Hulk and Black Panther AKA Shuri.

I say they were playing it safe because Hulk’s moveset looks very similar to his incarnation in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. They even carried over his Gamma Charge and something akin to his Gamma Tornado (although it looks more like what he did to Loki in the original Avengers movie). They did make a risky move with picking the Shuri incarnation of Black Panther, though. Well, that’s mostly in my eyes because I didn’t like her taking up the Black Panther mantle in the movie as it felt very rushed. Sure, circumstances facilitated that decision but that mean I have to like it, right?

Still, the gameplay is shaping up really good and I do like the mix of familiarity with Hulk’s attacks and the idea of learning what Shuri/Black Panther can do to make her stand out. Color me hype for this.

Hype Meter: 8 Gamma Bombs out of 10

Kunimitsu enters the fray in Tekken 8… finally!

Earlier this year, Bandai Namco already revealed several characters who are going to appear in Tekken 8’s 3rd Season. As this is now officially the start of that said season, they finally showed off the gameplay trailer for the 1st character slated for this season: Kunimitsu. Took them long enough!

Now, I’m not a Kunimitsu stan or anything like that. It’s just that they announced she was going to be the first character and waiting for 3 months after that announcement just felt like a long time. Anyway, the folks who make the trailers for Tekken 8 have always done a bang-up job making the new characters look OP. This is no exception. I love all the teleporting she does and all the quick strikes she does with her short sword. I also enjoyed that counter upon counter sequence she had against Raven. That looked incredibly cool!

Too bad I suck at Tekken 8! While I will acknowledge Kunimitsu looked incredibly cool with all of her juggles and whatnot, I just know I’ll never be able to do all of that. So, while I can enjoy looking at high level players controlling Kunimitsu, as I can’t do half of what they can do, that diminishes some of my excitement. Still, very cool looking trailer!

Hype Meter: 7 schoolgirl ninjas out of 10

Byee!

What was your favorite announcement from EVO Japan this year? Let me know in the comments section below!