Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama and Producer Shuhei Matsumoto were recently interviewed by Gamerbraves and shared a good deal of insight in terms of Capcom’s fighting game division’s direction and plans.

At one point, Gamerbraves asked about the potential of Nakayama and Matsumoto adding in a new mechanic to mix things up in Street Fighter 6, and though clearly on the hesitant side, the developers are indeed open to the idea.

When asked directly about the potential for new SF6 mechanics, Director Nakayama offered his answer in Japanese to Capcom’s translator.

“So, he does think about it, but maybe not so much in the near future, but maybe in the future it’s something that’s possible,” she translated. “…isn’t there already so many new mechanics? Wouldn’t it be really difficult for people to balance everything if they add more?”

As Nakayama gets at, proposing a new mechanic in Street Fighter 6 may, at first, seem rather ludicrous right now seeing as players have long noted how difficult it is to juggle the multi-faceted Drive System that’s already in place.

If such a new mechanic did indeed serve to increase mental stack, that would likely be overwhelming for a game like Street Fighter 6, but as we’ve seen in the past, such additions can actually balance the playing field out and make for an overall more engaging experience.

Indeed, in virtually every main Street Fighter entry, save for SF1, Capcom has implemented one or more new gameplay mechanics to freshen up the fight. These have historically been more defensive than offensive, suggesting that Street Fighter games tend to follow a pattern of being initially offense heavy, and need to be balanced on the mechanical level later on.

For instance, Capcom added V-Shift during the later years of Street Fighter 5 in an attempt to balance out the game’s tendency toward overwhelming offense. The Ultra Street Fighter 4 update gave players the option to delay their wake up timing so as to thwart overpowering vortex pressure, and brought Red Focus into the mix.

Going back to the days of Street Fighter 3, Guard (Red) Parry was implemented to give defenders more options during block strings, and a whole slew of mechanics were added or altered in the transition from Street Fighter Alpha 2 to 3. Finally, Street Fighter 2 eventually gave players the ability to tech/soften throws (how’s that for a defense buff?) and perform Super combos.

For those who feel Street Fighter 6 is imbalanced at the moment, especially surrounding Drive Rush and overwhelming corner control, perhaps a new, global, defensive maneuver would be just the thing to balance the scales. Admittedly it is a bit early in the game’s lifespan (we’re coming up on 17 months on November 2) and if the pattern were to be more closely followed, we wouldn’t expect such alterations for another two or so years, which does line up with Nakayama’s statement.

What do you think, though? Do you think SF6 needs additional mechanics to help balance out the Drive System and other facets of the game with particularly high gravitational pulls, or should developers focus on continuing to tweak what’s already in front of us?

For more from the SF6 developers, be sure to check out our story regarding classic fighting titles Capcom still wants to bring to modern consoles.

Playtonic Games released a console announcement trailer Thursday morning for Yooka-Replaylee, a remastered version of 2017’s spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie: Yooka-Laylee.

We normally wouldn’t be covering much Yooka-Replaylee here on EventHubs, except for the fact that fans have quickly pointed out some peculiar hints that seem to suggest the game is coming to a Nintendo console other than the Switch.

This updated version of the platformer is headed to the powerful PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. It’s also headed to a noticeably nondescript “Nintendo” as we see in this final, informative image of the trailer. Instead of the usual “Nintendo Switch” text and logo, we simply get a standard Nintendo logo with Cappy eyes suggesting there’s more to be looked into here:

Click images for larger versions

Playtonic pushes this hint further in their X post, once again drawing attention (this time via eye emoji) to the console-less Nintendo amid a list of otherwise clarified platforms:

As well as PC, Yooka-Replaylee WILL be on PS5, Xbox Series and… Nintendo

Peep the latest trailer to get a look at some gorgeous 3D-platforming, new gameplay and beautiful ORCHESTRAL music

Wishlist it now! Wishlist it everywheeeere! pic.twitter.com/DTbwaFjPgP

— Slaytonic (@PlaytonicGames) October 24, 2024

We’ve known since May that Nintendo plans to unveil the Switch’s successor this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025 for Nintendo.

It’s hard to imagine what these apparent hints could be pointing at beyond the coming announcement that Yooka-Replaylee will also be available on a new Nintendo console, perhaps as the first official title to be so.

Of course, once we do get official word of Nintendo’s Switch successor, we’ll be on the lookout for the announcement of another Super Smash Bros. entry.

Though he’s technically semi-retired, Masahiro Sakurai has been working on a secret game project since 2022, which suggests that, whatever it is, it could very well be a launch title for the Switch 2.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and suspicions in the comments below. Here’s the full Yooka-Replaylee trailer to check out first:

Street Fighter 6 is a better balanced game than any of its predecessors, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without its blemishes. Perhaps the single most egregious such blemish is Rashid’s Super 2: Ysaar, which effectively shuts down the action for a few moments while Rashid is given enough advantage (unparalleled by any other situation in the game, by the way) to try to open you up multiple times for big damage.

Most everyone who has played SF6 has experienced the pain of Ysaar, sometimes more than once a round, and so it’s with gusto we share a recent clip from one of Beckmon’s streams wherein she absolutely shuts down this silly Super in ways the majority of the rest of us have only dreamed about.

Though she plays a handful of characters competently, Beckmon has been grinding with Zangief in recent times and it was with the Russian wrestler that she ran into a Diamond ranked Rashid.

Having had her health whittled down to next to nothing (thanks in no small part to a Rashid Super 2 earlier in the round) Beckmon finds herself in an extremely dire situation with a very low probability for comeback. This probability falls to next to zero when the Rashid conjures up a Ysaar from full screen away.

The streamer takes a half step back, but that’s enough to place her firmly in the corner. Her opponent proceeds to take his first offensive pass and elects for an enhanced overhead (Ysaar also gives Rashid access to buffed versions of many of his moves) from fairly far out.

Beck times a parry perfectly and goes into a command grab with Zangief, which only lops off about half of Rashid’s remaining health thanks to immediate 50% scaling following a Perfect Parry. You’d think a hit like this would mean the Super would be thwarted, but the tornado remains long enough to force Beckmon to block as soon as recovers from landing the grab.

This, of course, allows the Rashid to take yet another offensive swipe despite having just been pristinely countered. He Drive Rushes over to go for yet another overhead, which is also met with a Perfect Parry. This time Beck uses Gief’s OD command grab to ensure total victory.

She laughs it off in stride, but as we said earlier, this kind of sequence is what most of the rest of us dream about doing as we otherwise are trounced by Ysaar offense. As such, we felt this was a particularly cathartic clip and want to share it with the rest of you:

Giefmaxxing pic.twitter.com/8f8xNifRs9

— Beckmon (@mtggirl_) October 21, 2024

If you want a chance at becoming as good with parries as Beckmon, you can follow her various social media pages.

The Tournament of Power acted as the climactic finale to Dragon Ball Super. In the end, Goku, Frieza, and 17 were just barely able to defeat Jiren through their combined efforts. However, the recently released Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero allows players to explore a number of “What If” scenarios where the story effectively deviates from the canon material.

For example, we’ve seen a scenario play out in which Gohan continues his training and even faces off against an original antagonist. Another deviation from the story can see what happens if Jiren prevails over Universe 7 in the Tournament of Power.

In this latest situation, it’s possible for Universe 7 to recruit Trunks for the Tournament of Power instead of Frieza. Needless to say, this ends up creating less tension within the team considering just how antagonistic Frieza is with everyone else.

Trunks ends up being a good pick since his unique “Super Saiyan Rage” form gives him a power level that’s fairly comparable to Goku and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue transformations. Even with this transformation, Trunks ends up enduring a number of tough battles throughout the event.

Initially, Trunks opts to join the tournament in hopes of using the Super Dragon Balls to undo the damage of his timeline. Of course, it should be mentioned that if Trunks fails to perform well enough in a practice battle, he’ll basically just depart back to his timeline rather than continuing on with the Tournament of Power.

Eventually, however, he’s presented with a branching path of either interacting more with Vegeta or 17. This will ultimately affect which character Trunks ends up bonding with during the series of battles.

Either way, the character development that Trunks undergoes during this story has him conclude that it’d be better to bring back the universes lost during the Tournament of Power, just like with what happens in the canonical story.

In one branching pathway, Jiren is actually defeated off screen, funnily enough. Trunks doesn’t even end up interacting with Jiren, while he and Vegeta are able to overcome Toppo after effectively ascending to a God of Destruction’s level.

With the other choice, Trunks basically takes Frieza’s place in the final battle. This results in a slightly different outcome in terms of which contestants are left standing after the final push.

Ultimately though, the whole story does seem to undermine Frieza’s participation as it basically suggests that Frieza wasn’t as essential of a team member as the canonical story made him out to be. Me personally, I think I would’ve liked to see more “What If” scenarios that had bad endings due to how things diverge from the canonical timeline.

Check it all out below:

Shields could be a really big deal

MultiVersus finally had its full release back in May, but the developers are apparently still working to add more mechanics and features to the platform fighting game.

PlayerFirst Games announced today that the Warner Bros. crossover game is going to become more like Super Smash Bros. with the testing of a long-requested defensive mechanic that players can try out very shortly.

That’s right, MultiVersus is finally going to attempt adding shields to the game, which could really shake up how matches actually play out.

Back during the beta, the only universal defensive option was dodging, and while the full release did add parries to the mix, focus for the gameplay remained on offense and movement.

For now, shields will be limited to the new Testing Grounds Queue starting tomorrow, October 24, after the scheduled 9 a.m. PT server maintenance.

The team also released a video breaking down the new mechanic as well, which goes over how it works as well as the benefits and drawbacks of defending yourself.

On the surface, MultiVersus’ shields appear as though they’ll work very similar to Smash titles where players can hold the dodge button down to guard incoming attacks.

It even has a similar bubble appearance, but instead of shrinking, using your shield will cause your dodge meter to drain as long as it’s held down.

New mechanic on the way so here is a look into some fun matches we have had trying out Shields!

They have been providing a fun new way to approach offense and defense, while also leading to some very hype moments. Makes decision making feel faster on the go #MultiVersus pic.twitter.com/kpRMFP9hQR

— AJAX (@AJAX_HQ) October 23, 2024

You are also able to dodge out of shield and boost jump for the cost of some extra meter drain too.

This should be big especially for giving a consistent option to defend against incoming projectiles without losing spacing or putting yourself in a potentially dangerous position out of dodge.

Interestingly, they’re also adding a universal shield break attack by pressing dodge plus attack at the same time or beat some moves coming out of shield.

Command grabs are another way to get around shields too.

Since it’s only being tested right now, there will likely be tweaks and changes made from their data and player feedback before shields come to the game proper.

You can check out the full breakdown of the shield mechanic for MultiVersus below.

After releasing nearly a year ago already, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is gearing up to release its final DLC content of Season 1, and there’s a special guest coming as part of the package too.

Cygames recently announced that Twitch’s number one subscribed streamer, Ironmouse, is going to be featured in Granblue Rising with Vikala’s update this week.

The popular VShojo VTuber has something of a cameo voice acting role as part of Vikala’s character.

She’s not Vikala herself for the English dub, however, as that honor goes to Hayden Daviau.

Instead, Ironmouse plays a very fitting part considering her name, as she’s actually the rat astral’s sentient metal trap named Dormouse.

Behold Vikala’s Skybound Art, Gilded Heaven Strike!

Dormouse (voice: @ironmouse ) is a metal menace that you do NOT want to get caught in!

Vikala joins the #GBVSR roster in the Ver 1.60 update on Oct 25! pic.twitter.com/sivm2a1w6z

— GBVS/Granblue Fantasy Versus (@gbvs_official) October 22, 2024

You can hear her part of Vikala’s Skybound Art though it’ll be funny to see where else she pops up.

The VTuber with over 164,000 active subscribers on Twitch also shared the news with her massive audience, so we’ll see if that leads to any sort of uptick for Granblue with her fans’ attention.

SURPRISE IM A CHARACTER IN GRANBLUE FANTASY!!!!! https://t.co/oZIU3TqDJV

— ironmouseVSHOJOTIME TO FEAST OUT NOW! (@ironmouse) October 22, 2024

Vikala is set to close out the first season of new characters alongside Versusia, Beatrix, Vane, 2B and Lucilius though we already know Season 2 is on the way.

The rodent queen is set to launch in Granblue Rising on Friday, October 25.

Marvel vs. Cacpom 2 is back in the form of the highly renowned Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. This compilation of legendary titles sees the return of one of the most beloved fighting games in the fighting game community, and despite it being nearly 25-years-old now there are still things to learn about it.

This iconic title is back in the spotlight again here in 2024, and with that many content creators and longtime fans of it are creating new videos to help explain various aspects of it to better introduce new fans to all it has to offer. JMCrofts has released a new video that delves into the innerworkings of one of the game’s most interesting and important mechanics, and you might be surprised to learn that it does not work quite how you think it does.

Now, the “unfly” technique is something that those of us that have played Marvel vs. Capcom 3 should be fairly familiar with. Certain characters have the ability to enter into a flying state that usually involves gaining better mobility often at the cost of not being able to block whilst in the air.

When we talk about unfly, it usually refers to these character performing the same input again to exit out of the fly state, to which they are able to either attack on the way down, block, or do whatever they need to to continue the fight. Fly and unfly are most commonly used for combos, offensive pressure, and mix ups.

Fly/unfly also exists in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but it doesn’t quite work in the same way that you might expect it to. As JMCrofts explains, in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when a character exits out of their fly state with unfly, they are unable to block or do anything after other than descend back to the ground.

However, there is a way to make unfly work more like it does in MvC3, but it’s actually by way of a very common glitch.

What’s so strange about unfly in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is that when a flight character does fly and unfly normally, they can’t perform any action on their way down from the unfly. If the character is hit out of the air with certain attacks, though, they gain access to the unfly glitch which allows them to continue to act during unfly.

Essentially, if the flight characters gets tagged with a soft knockdown or an attack that resets them in the air, it will activate the glitch.

What’s so fascinating about this glitch is that unfly actually has a ton of utility in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. From extended combos and pressure to simply being able to do it then block immediately if the opponent tries to punish with a long-ranged super, there’s a ton of use for it making this glitch something anyone playing MvC2 should know about.

JMCrofts goes on to explain much more about this mysterious glitch, including which characters can use it, how they best utilize it, other ways the glitch can be activated or deactivated, and more.

The Capcom fighting game department is firing on all cylinders as Street Fighter 6 blazes the trail ahead while simultaneously classics packaged accessibly in bundles like the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection remind us of nostalgic beginnings.

It seems blasts from the past are still very much on Capcom’s radar as during a recent interview with Gamerbraves Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama and Producer Shuhei Matsumoto noted they’re not done with old titles quite yet.

“As we speak right now, [Nakayama and Matsumoto] are also working on bringing back as many games as possible that have been out in the past that are no longer playable to make sure that it’s on as many playable platforms as possible in the future,” explains Jessica, Capcom’s English/Japanese translator.

“The producer himself does want to bring back every past game, if possible,” continues the Capcom rep, “but there are certain limitations that can happen, especially with games like in the Versus series, it’s not just Capcom. So, then, of course, there’s a lot of hurdles that you have to jump through, and physical limitations as well, in terms of which hardware, which version of the past game to bring back on, which hardware, stuff like that,” she finishes.

So which games actually fall into the category we’re discussing here? Both the Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom franchises have seen the majority of their older entries made playable via the aforementioned bundles, and we can currently run previous console versions of both Ultra Street Fighter 4 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on current gen systems thanks to backwards compatibility, not to mention both are standalone options on Steam.

As we sift through the titles available on Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, 2022’s Capcom Fighting Collection as well as the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection 2, we find that the company has already accomplished much of what they’re aiming for here, but with a few notable exceptions.

Titles that still can still be categorized as not all that accessible on modern consoles include the likes of Rival Schools: United by Fate, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Tech Romancer, Star Gladiator, Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future.

An additional and much more recent title fits into this mix as well: Street Fighter X Tekken. The 2012 crossover is not currently available on Steam nor is it on consoles after the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era, so for us to get it on modern machines, Capcom would have to work a little magic.

How does this all land with you? Are any of these mentioned titles on your list of favorites you’d like to see come back? Let us know in the comments below.

Queen Dizzy’s gameplay has been revealed for Season 4 of Guilty Gear Strive. She’s slated to be released on October 31, 2024.

By the end of the trailer it was reaffirmed that Venom would be returning in early 2025. Newcomer Unika would later join the fight sometime in Spring 2025 while Cyberpunk: Edgerunner’s Lucy will be added in Summer 2025.

From a lore standpoint, it seems like Dizzy has undergone quite the character development. In previous games, Dizzy actively had to prevent one of her shapeshifting wings from outright nuking opponents.

However, in Guilty Gear Strive, it would appear that Dizzy is now able to act more in tandem with both of her shapeshifting wings. Though it doesn’t appear as that the “Queen of Compassion” wants to kill anyone, she will now participate alongside Necro and Undine (her shapeshifting wings) during her most powerful attacks.

In terms of gameplay, Queen Dizzy is shown to have access to a powerful attack that can actually freeze the opponent. This gives the character access to some powerful combo extenders as a result.

Queen Dizzy appears to mostly attack through Necro and Undine. Since they’re so large, many of her attacks eat up large sections of the screen.

There will also be a Battle Balance Update released alongside Queen Dizzy on October 31, 2024. Check it all out below:

Click images for larger versions

Just yesterday, Masahiro Sakurai revealed that he’s been involved with some secret game project since April 2022. This was a crazy revelation as Sakurai has apparently been acting as a game director this whole time while also managing his YouTube channel for about two years now.

Of course, Sakurai was unwilling to share too many details about his next game since it hasn’t been officially announced yet. Regardless, fans have immediately begun speculating on whether this mysterious title is the next Super Smash Bros. entry or something else entirely.

According to Sakurai, he received a request to write up a game proposal back in July 2021 while Kazuya and Sora were still being developed as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Apparently, Sakurai was able to complete this task at “lightning speed.”

It feels like history might be repeating itself considering that Sakurai was tasked with writing up the game proposal for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sometime in 2015 when development on Corrin and Bayonetta as DLC characters were being wrapped up.

Shortly afterwards, Satoru Iwata passed away. This is part of the reason why Sakurai has put so much content into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as he then recognized it as being the last mission Iwata gave him.

Around the time of July 2021, it was reported that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had already achieved around 24.77 million sales worldwide. Since then, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has gone on to sale over 34.66 million units as of June 30, 2024.

As a result, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been recognized as the Nintendo Switch’s third best-selling title after Animal Crossing: New Horizons (45.85 million) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (62.90 million). Additionally, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has become the best-selling entry in the series, representing around 45.6% of the franchise’s total sales by itself.

Needless to say, it would make a lot of sense for Nintendo to want to continue the momentum of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by having its creator begin development on the next entry. Traditionally, a new Super Smash Bros. title has appeared on every console since the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo 64, so it’s logical to think that a new game will appear on the console intended to follow the Switch.

The timeline for this fits perfectly as Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently confirmed plans for the announcement of the Switch successor sometime before the end of this fiscal year, which would mean that the console should be announced before April 1, 2025. It would also provide an explanation as to why Sakurai’s project hasn’t been announced yet. Furthermore, this suggests that this upcoming game could be a launch title for the new system.

According to Sakurai, the new team was assembled to begin making the new game sometime in April 2022. Considering that work on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fully began sometime in early 2016 and was released in December 2018, the development cycle for this mysterious title seems to closely match that of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s.

Of course, we have to consider what is going on with that recent job posting by Bandai Namco’s Studio 2 & Studio S, the branch of Bandai Namco that worked on Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Members of Bandai Namco also apparently had a hand in developing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Needless to say, it would make sense for Bandai Namco to be working on “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe” for the Switch successor. This comes across as being especially apparent due to the job posting seeking those experienced with action games played from a “side-view.”

However, the timeline of this job posting doesn’t really add up with what Sakurai has been working on. Sakurai has said that the development team for his secret project was assembled in April 2022, but this job posting was reported on back in November 2023. More than likely, for better or worse, whatever this job listing was for, it was connected to that Bandai Namco game that was commissioned by Nintendo that got cancelled.

Regardless, there are plenty of other signs that seem to be pointing towards a new entry within the Super Smash Bros. series. Patch 13.0.3 for Smash Ultimate was recently launched that addressed an issue that’s been present since the game’s launch. Additionally, rumors seem to be suggesting that GameCube controllers are once again being mass produced for some reason.

Looking back through Nintendo’s history, these tend to be telltale signs of a new Smash entry being in development. Even if Bandai Namco’s Studio 2 & Studio S job position posting actually had nothing to do with Smash, there’s still a little bit of evidence to suggest that this type of game could be in the works.

Having said that, it’s important for fans to brace themselves for the alternative possibility. Rather than developing a new title in the Smash series, Sakurai could have simply just been tasked with creating a game that could demonstrate the Switch successor’s new features, similar to how Kid Icarus: Uprising was designed specifically for the 3DS.

Notably, Sakurai at one point stated that he’d have to have a discussion with Nintendo if a sequel to Smash Ultimate could succeed should they ever request that he develop it. He even went so far as to say that he was “not thinking about making a sequel” back in November 2021, a point after which he had already completed his requested game proposal.

Even Sakurai himself acknowledges that the series is unable to continue without his involvement right now, so if he isn’t involved then it probably means that it will still be a long wait until the next entry. Ideally, however, Sakurai would eventually like to eliminate Smash’s dependence on his vision of the franchise.

Regardless, things appear to be getting interesting. If Sakurai is willing to divulge that he’s been working on a secret game project, it might mean that its announcement is becoming imminent. We’ll just have to wait for more details to truly understand what it is.