There’s a brand new patch update out for Mortal Kombat 1 and we’ve got all the notes waiting for you below.
Many of the adjustments are to various game modes and for online functionality, but four main roster characters and one Kameo are getting changes as well. Continue on to see the full list.
Street Fighter 6 players generally agree when it comes to the best, mid, and lowest tier characters in the game. That said, the debate as to how to specifically order these characters rages on with fiery passion, as teasing out who belongs at the top spot remains quite the challenge.
Evo 2023 champion, Angry Bird, offered his two cents on the matter in a recent upload from FGC Birds, and he kind of has two answers. For Angry Bird, the best character in the game and the best tournament character in the game are two different fighters.
As is often the case with this particular character, Akuma has so many tools that it’s hard to argue that he lacks for anything (except health, of course). Pound for pound, Angry Bird feels that the demonic fighter is indeed the best character in the game, but that health factor actually does come into relevancy here.
Life bars tend to melt fairly quickly in Street Fighter 6, especially in the corner. Akuma’s never-ending bag of tricks does grant him the highest potential, according to the Evo champ, but not in the tournament standard best of three match format.
With his 9,000 health, Akuma can afford fewer mistakes than anyone else in the game, and peppering in the fact that sometimes things just don’t go your way, he doesn’t get as many chances on defense as the rest of his roster mates.
Given his glass canon nature, Akuma is Angry Bird’s best character when the format is first to three, but not when it’s best of three. That honor goes to a different (DLC) character entirely, and we’ll let you find out who via the full video below:
What do you think of Angry Bird’s top three? If you agree, is there something to be said about DLC characters being a little too strong relative to their base roster counterparts? Chime into the comments below with your thoughts and opinions.
The climactic battle in the 1994 live action Street Fighter film features a ton of wire work and explosions as this was really the fight wherein director Steven E. de Souza decided to bridge the gap between the fantastical maneuvers in the game and the limits of actual hand to hand combat. For as obvious and kind of corny as it can be, that battle is still a lot of fun (mainly because of Raul Julia’s perfectly-tuned delivery).
We stumbled upon yet another live action Street Fighter brawl featuring heavy use of wires and explosions that is, somehow, just as fun as the aforementioned showdown between M. Bison and Guile. It’s ridiculous, it’s over the top, it’s everything you’d want out of a goofy Street Fighter match IRL, and Super Sisi has found and shared this gem with modern audiences.
According to Sissi, this is clipped from a Street Fighter New Years special from the 1990’s. The use of Street Fighter Alpha sound effects suggests that it was created some time after 1995, though it primarily references Street Fighter 2.
Chun-Li and M. Bison meet amid a very familiar street scene: an interactive version of Chun’s Street Fighter 2 Chinese street stage. Bison gets a close up with an obvious wire emerging from under his cape, and we settle in for what initially looks like it might be a kind of joke the audience is in on. It’s not, though.
The characters walk up and strike their respective poses, and it doesn’t take much looking around at all the on-point detail to realize there’s a seriousness to this drama. When the 1990’s special effects kick and fire emerges from behind Chun, we realize we’re in for more than we thought.
Just after the battle begins, Bison flies up into the air for a Devil’s Reverse and Chun-Li sends out a sparking fireball, and we’re off. Explosions, destruction of street lights and signs, and utter insanity ensues in the best way possible.
The whole bout only lasts about a minute, though you may want to watch it a few times:
Defining and articulating the ever evolving meta in Street Fighter 6 remains as difficult as it is interesting here some half way through Season 2. We’ve aimed at identifying the five most important traits for characters to reach top tier status in Street Fighter 6 a few times before, but Broski has an updated take on the matter that’s well worth a watch.
We’ve all heard how important fast Drive Rushes and effective low forwards are, and they are, but neither of these tools makes it into Broski’s five item list. In fact, he dispels many such tools as necessary for top tiers by first pointing out that one of the absolute worst characters in the game, has them.
Broski’s top tier tools from back in the day included the mentioned Drive Rush and low forward along with having a command grab, ways to change jump trajectory, and an invincible reversal. While all of these are powerful tools, the fact of the matter is that Jamie boasts all five, and rarely makes it above bottom five in most tier list opinions.
Without giving away much of Broski’s new list, we can talk about a situation that most of his list items point to or hinge upon: having your opponent cornered. It’s been a consistent truism in fighting games generally that taking away your foe’s ability to back up automatically puts you in an advantageous position, but it’s more nuanced than that.
The kinds of combos you can access and the kinds of pressure you can apply increase when paired with the advantage of a back wall to restrict movement, and that’s more true in SF6 than in most other examples.
The corner effectively increases the aggressor’s options while simultaneously decreasing the defender’s, and thus gaining the high ground, so to speak, can have more impact on round results than any other single factor.
Drive gauge management is important as well, and that does pop up amid Broski’s examination here, but even meter management tends to be analyzed in the context of corner positioning and advantages. Check out the full video below and let us know where you most agree and disagree in the comments after.
TEXT
Tekken 8 launched as one of the biggest fighting games of 2024 to kick off the year with lofty expectations from both players and the publisher though there’s been a growing sense of frustration between the two parties as of late.
Bandai Namco’s flagship 3D fighter is now seeing its review ratings tank into the “Mostly Negative” range amid multiple recent controversies.
The overall Steam user review score may currently say “Mixed,” but recent reviews for Tekken 8 are being much harsher about the game.
Over just the past week, Tekken 8 received 914 negative ratings as opposed to 241 being positive.
Almost 260 of those came on October 6 alone, which was the same day that Bandai Namco disqualified the young Chinese player, Essence|XCC, from Thaiger Uppercut 2024 after making top 8.
This drew the ire of the competitive scene and some of the wider playerbase for the decision to remove him after getting so far along in the process of the event.
Just earlier today, Bandai Namco put out an apology statement for their actions and are inviting XCC to compete at the Tekken World Tour 2024 Last Chance Qualifier along with expanding the tour to allow Chinese players to officially participate.
Although the company is trying to make amends on that front, they’re also receiving backlash for their handling of Tekken 8 itself — and particularly how it’s monetized.
The other recent spike in player frustration boiled over when it was revealed the new Genmaji Stage would not be included in the Year 1 Pass or Ultimate Edition when Heihachi released.
Many were seemingly left confused or feeling misled as well after the Sea Side Resort stage previously came out for free alongside Lidia Sobieska, but now this one they were putting up for sale at $5.
Stages were never listed as part of the season pass or expanded editions for Tekken 8, but looking at the recent reviews, it seems to be just part of the symptom for the issues players are getting vocal about.
Even if there are presumably some trolls exacerbating the situation and review bombing the game, we’re also seeing quite a few lengthy posts left from players as to why they feel it’s not worth others to pick up Tekken right now.
There’s seemingly a multitude of new reviews from users with hundreds of hours clocked into Tekken 8 on Steam with the monetization being the main source of complaints that we’re seeing currently.
These players are not liking how after spending $110 on the Ultimate Edition that they’re being asked to spend more money on the premium store, battle pass and now stages, which all came after the game launched.
There’s also the usual complaints surrounding game balance, character design and online netcode as well, but problems with the DLC practices are most prevalent.
This is now the second time since launch that Tekken 8’s reviews have slipped to “Mostly Negative” with the first coming back in April that coincided with the launch of the Tekken Shop and battle pass.
Longtime Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada also recently shared his own apology statement in regards to how they handled the new stage and apparent lack of transparency.
He pointed to an apparent / potential disconnect between Bandai Namco the game developers and Bandai Namco the game publishers, who end up making much of the decisions as to how a title is marketed and sold.
“As a result, I think that there were parts of the process that did not take the Tekken community’s opinion into account,” he wrote in part of his statement. “I think I failed to create an organizational structure that would allow me to oversee things beyond my own position. One of my roles was to listen to the opinions of the Community and reflect them not only in the content but also in the out-game, but I was clearly becoming passive, worrying about the relationships between companies and not exercising my role.”
Harada concluded that he’ll “review this structure and change it to one that values the community as it did in the past.”
Despite these complaints, Tekken 8’s average player count on PC has actually increased by over 16% in the past month to more than 6,600 with Heihachi’s launch likely providing that boost according to SteamCharts.
So it doesn’t appear that Tekken 8 is in danger of being actually abandoned by its continued playerbase at this point, but there are some cracks that need some mending.
Bandai Namco hopefully being more open and transparent now will continue and lead to a healthier spot for the community and Tekken in general.
After 17 years, there were some questions as to how much demand remains for a successor to Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3 among fans, but it seems the answer has already become pretty darn apparent.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is still only in its early access release phase, but it immediately achieved record-breaking player counts for Dragon Ball games, arena fighting games and fighting games in general.
Up to this point, Dragon Ball FighterZ held the record for most concurrent PC players for a game featuring Goku and friends, but that’s no more.
While DBFZ managed to hit a still wildly impressive player peak of 44,234 on Steam alone, the latest game has more than doubled it.
According to SteamCharts and SteamDB, Sparking Zero has already crossed over 91,000 concurrent players on PC with over 66,000 in the game right now as of the time of reporting.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s highest point was 25,000, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was 13,000 and the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse reached almost 23,000.
And remember, this is still only the early access release window for players who pre-ordered the more expensive Deluxe or Ultimate Editions, so these numbers will probably reach even higher once it becomes available for everyone tomorrow, October 10.
That also beats out Street Fighter 6’s record for a paid fighting game release too that reached over 70,000 upon launch while Tekken 8 hit 46,000.
You may be thinking this could just be because anime arena fighters have more general appeal than traditional fighting games, but Sparking Zero is wildly outperforming its peers too.
Jump Force never quite cracked 10,000, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 only hit 8,300, Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash hit 5,200, and Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles at just under 8,000 for their peaks.
So Sparking Zero seems like it’s turning out to be something special for fighters in general, though it will be very interesting to see what sort of staying power this Dragon Ball game has after the launch window.
Considering FighterZ and the Xenoverse games have retained dedicated bases for years while modders have kept Budokai Tenkaichi 3 alive for over a decade, there’s a good chance Sparking may have a long tail of support for how big of a success this already looks to be for Bandai Namco.
The only fighter that still has DBSZ beat is MultiVersus with the beta having reached over 150,000 and the full launch hitting 114,000, but we have a feeling that may be broken come tomorrow too.
Currently, Sparking Zero is reviewing well as the second-highest rated Dragon Ball game of the past few generations, remaining only behind Dragon Ball FighterZ with the best scores overall.
And remember, these numbers only apply to the PC version of the game, so the console versions probably at least double or triple that count.
Sparking Zero is shaping up to be a multi-million seller upon release at this rate, and Bandai Namco will probably happily share those initial numbers soon to make it official.
But now how many other developers (or Bamco themselves) are going to be trying to chase this success moving forward? Those numbers are going to be hard to ignore.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is now out via early access and players all over are grinding through its Episode Battles story mode with lightning speed… until they run into Great Ape Vegeta.
This early bout in anime’s most famous rivalry is proving insanely hard and frustrating users left and right. Indeed, seemingly every gaming outlet already has a “how to defeat Great Ape Vegeta” article out already, and Bandai Namco even chimed in on X with the advice that players lower the difficulty… which is a contender for most anti-Dragon Ball Z thing you could say to someone facing adversity.
Perhaps the most consistent thread running through the entire Dragon Ball property is the concept of believing in oneself to rise to occasions and overcome seemingly impossible adversity. The original manga artist behind Dragon Ball, the late great Akira Toriyama, somehow managed to make this theme feel fresh and inspiring time and time again despite its near constant repetition.
We get it, Bandai wants its players to strike that perfect balance between challenge and triumph, which is why Sparking Zero (like so many games that have come before it) offers players the option to reduce the difficulty of fights should they find themselves losing on repeat.
Developers want to make sure as many people stick around as possible, and if a particular challenge proves so difficult that large swaths of fans turn off the game, that’s just not good for business.
Still, it’s interesting to see how a “Great Ape Vegeta” search on X will currently yield tons of references to how hard the fight in Sparking Zero is, but the moment Bandai suggested making things easier, everyone seemed to respond with their Saiyan pride.
It’s as if the community is screaming “Yes, we’re frustrated. Yes, I’m on my 150th attempt today. Yes, I’m not seeing much progress. BUT… if I learned anything from watching Goku and Vegeta duke it out over the last 40 years, it’s that this is how it’s supposed to feel, and glory awaits on the other side.”
My Sayin pride wont let me pic.twitter.com/FUFqNGfH0C
— Grilled Cheese (@Chern00byl) October 8, 2024
In the spirit if finding a strategic way forward, here’s a quick video from Accelerated Ideas that offers advice on how to beat Great Ape Vegeta whilst still maintaining one’s Saiyan pride:
MuscleNoob, a Capcom Pro Tour World Warrior Finals finalist for the United Kingdom & Ireland, has released a new tier list for Season 2 of Street Fighter 6. Though MuscleNoob states that he’s currently unsure of Terry Bogard’s positioning, he does have him sitting near the bottom of the A tier category.
Of course, the S tier combatants, which indicates who the strongest combatants are, are pretty much who we’ve all come to expect at this point. There are a total of eight characters sitting at the top of the tier list.
According to MuscleNoob, the characters with the best tools in Street Fighter 6 right now are Cammy, Ken, Guile, Ed, Rashid, M. Bison, A.K.I., and Akuma. Notably, MuscleNoob himself is known to be a Ken player.
A tier consists of characters like JP, Ryu, Luke, Dee Jay, Zangief, Terry, as well as four others. These type of characters tend to struggle against those sitting above them, but they could be made to work under the correct circumstances.
Characters like E. Honda and Lily appear to be struggling in the current meta, but there’s one fighter that MuscleNoob has labeled as being the overall worst right now. Indeed, Marisa is the only C tier character in Street Fighter 6.
While looking over the tier list, it’s important to keep in mind that MuscleNoob arranged each character so that the tier list is properly ordered based on fighters’ tools, consistency, damage, ease of use, game plans, supers, and a number of other factors.
Check it all out below:
Click images for larger versions
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is now out in the wild for those who have early access and is just a few days away from being available to the rest of the public, and as such a ton of new fun and informative footage is flooding the internet.
We’re sampling from the former right now as DBHype has posted a ton of unique character interactions that only take place when certain fighters meet on the battlefield. From impossible meetings to characters that never thought they’d see each other again, continue on to see what clever dialogue lines developers came up with.
Similar to what we’ve seen in recent Mortal Kombat titles, characters offer a bit of back and forth before launching into fights in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. These are often template lines that can more or less apply generally to any one of the 182 characters on Sparking Zero’s roster, but not always is that the case.
For instance, Goku and Vegeta have famously fused in two different ways: via the Potara earrings as well as via the Fusion dance. When using the earrings, the pair becomes Vegito, when using Fusion, the pair becomes Gogeta.
Of course, save for Dragon Ball going into the whole parallel universe gimmick (please, no) Vegito and Gogeta could never meet one another. Both of these characters are on the DBSZ roster, however, and so one has to wonder what they might say to each other if they were to meet.
The snarky side of Vegeta seems to take charge for both characters as Gogeta mocks the Potara earrings while Vegito makes sure to call the Fusion Dance “dumb.”
There are tons more such interactions to view, such as when canonical Broly meets up with his non-canonical counterpart, or when Frieza and his brother Cooler throw down. Check out the full video’s worth of fightin’ words below and let us know if any stood out to you and why.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is set to release on October 11, 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Thaiger Uppercut 2024 was set to be the final event on the Tekken World Tour 2024 over this weekend leading up to the Tekken World Tour 2024 Global Finals in December. Unfortunately, one player’s run was cut short on the winners side due to a bizarre technicality that prohibited players from China competing in the Tekken World Tour.
The Tekken World Tour 2024 regulations are very specific in terms of the regions in which players may come from to compete during the tournament series. As such, the list of permitted territories are North America, Central America, South America, West Europe, East Europe, West Africa, South Africa, North & East Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, Central & South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Korea, and Japan. None of these territories include countries such as China, Russia, or Belarus.
Of course, Essence|XCC, the 18-year-old Chinese player who got disqualified, did not run into any issues upon signing up for Thaiger Uppercut 2024. Throughout his run, he was even able to cause a few upsets by defeating strong players such as QAD|Yagami and T1|Edge, the the 20th and 29th seeded players respectively.
Just short of making top 8 on the winners side, XCC ended up being double disqualified, allowing Liquid|Shadow20z and Falcons|Farzeen to advance for free. Needless to say, XCC’s sudden disqualification had some major ramifications for the tournament bracket.
This was especially disappointing as XCC had just been picked up by Essence as a competitive Tekken player. So long as this ruling was in place, XCC would not be permitted to compete in the Tekken World Tour.
Due to the backlash that followed, this led to Bandai Namco releasing a statement in which they confirmed the reasons as to why XCC was disqualified. They also acknowledged the disappointment this decision would have amongst the community.
Now that a few days have passed, Bandai Namco has released a new statement in which they attempt to rectify the situation. Bandai Namco has declared that they’ll be reaching out directly to the affected players to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. This will likely be extended to Yagami, Edge, and XCC, as well as other players that were sent to the losers bracket by XCC.
Furthermore, the rules have now been amended to allow Chinese players to compete at the Last Chance Qualifier event for the Tekken World Tour 2024 Global Finals. Bandai Namco ends up naming XCC directly by inviting him to compete at said event.
Moving forward, Bandai Namco intends to update the Tekken World Tour 2025 rules to allow Chinese players to compete at future events. This should hopefully ensure that this problem won’t come up again.
Bandai Namco’s released statement
We sincerely apologize for disappointing our players and community due to the disqualification at hte recent Thaiger Uppercut Event.
After careful consideration, for the Tekken World Tour 2024 Global Finals, we will update the official rules to allow players from China to compete via the Last Chance Qualifier.
For the affected players from the Thaiger Uppercut event, we will be reaching out to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. We will also be inviting XCC to Tokyo to compete in the Last Chance Qualifier.
Looking ahead, we will review and improve our tournament operations and official rules for the Tekken World Tour 2025 to ensure a more enjoyable experience, where more people, including players from China, can participate and earn the right to advance to the finals.