Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Nintendo has finally provided an official sneak peek at the Switch 2. We know that there will be a new Mario Kart on the hybrid device, but the rest of its library is still shrouded in mystery.

Considering that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the Switch’s third best-selling game and has recently achieved over 35.88 million sales since the game was released over six years ago, it feels extremely likely that Nintendo will want a new Super Smash Bros. entry on the Switch 2 at some point.

Of course, there’s been plenty of debate amongst the community regarding what we could potentially get with the next Super Smash Bros. In some sense, it feels like a true follow up to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would be impossible due to its “Everyone Is Here” theme.

“I am not thinking of a sequel. I am not thinking of it every time. However, I can’t say with certainty that this would be the end of Smash.” — Masahiro Sakurai

Even Masahiro Sakurai himself jokingly exclaimed “Impossible!” several times when asked about this possibility in reference to the sheer amount of content found in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Afterwards, he mentioned that he wasn’t thinking about a sequel after he had written the proposal for a secret game project.

“I am not thinking of a sequel. I am not thinking of it every time,” said Sakurai. “However, I can’t say with certainty that this would be the end of Smash.”

For many, this seems to indicate that the next Super Smash Bros. might just simply be a port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch 2. However, it’s already been revealed that the Switch 2 will feature backwards compatibility with games from the Switch library. A port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to the Switch 2 wouldn’t serve much purpose, aside from it being an excuse to add more content.

Additionally, Nintendo would almost certainly want Sakurai overseeing any project that involves the Super Smash Bros. series. After all, it’s hard to imagine Super Smash Bros. without Masahiro Sakurai.

“At the very least, I don’t see any way for Smash Bros. to be produced without my involvement. For example, the Challenger Approaching trailers would not have the same level of quality if it was produced entirely by an outside firm.” — Masahiro Sakurai

Sakurai himself has noted that the series currently wouldn’t be able to continue without him, though he’d rather leave it to someone else. Even if we were to assume that the next Super Smash Bros. was a port, it would be in Nintendo’s best interest to ensure that Sakurai would still have a role within that project.

“At the very least, I don’t see any way for Smash Bros. to be produced without my involvement,” once said Sakurai in a Famitsu Column interview. “For example, the Challenger Approaching trailers would not have the same level of quality if it was produced entirely by an outside firm.”

Of course, this would imply that Sakurai’s “secret game project” is a port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, there’s a big problem with that theory. It all has to do with the timing of this secret game project.

At this point, it’s been 1,021 days since April 31, 2022 (we’re assuming that Sakurai started development on the last day of April 2022). Meanwhile, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a development period that spanned from around February 2016 to December 7, 2018. In other words, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was developed over the course of about 1,050 days or less.

By the time April 2025 rolls around with the Switch 2 focused Nintendo Direct, Sakurai will have spent more time developing his secret game project than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s entire development cycle (not including post-launch content). And yet, the game hasn’t even been officially announced.

Needless to say, Sakurai probably wouldn’t be involved with a project for this long if it was just a port job. The more likely scenarios either have him working on the next Super Smash Bros. entry for the Nintendo Switch 2 or a brand new game entirely (like a sequel to Kid Icarus: Uprising from the 3DS).

If Sakurai is working on a game outside of the Super Smash Bros. series, then it will be a lengthy wait until the next iteration. As mentioned before, it wouldn’t make sense for Nintendo to move forward with the franchise without Sakurai involved considering how successful its been with him as the director.

We’ll just have to see how things play out from here. Chances are good that we’ll learn what Sakurai has been working on all this time during that Switch 2 focused Direct in April 2025.

Super Saiyan 4 is now canon in Dragon Ball lore

Since October of last year, a new series known as Dragon Ball DAIMA has been airing. Sadly, this was the final project worked on by Akira Toriyama before his sudden passing.

As it turns out, Dragon Ball DAIMA takes plenty of inspiration from Dragon Ball GT, which was rendered noncanonical due to the existence of Dragon Ball Super. In the very first episode, a wish made of Shenron results in Goku (and everyone else) being “de-aged.” Indeed, Goku has once again turned into a kid during events that feel familiar to the first episode of Dragon Ball GT.

To make up for his stubby reach, Goku even decides to utilize his Power Pole. This serves as yet another reference to Dragon Ball GT.

However, the most impactful element that was seemingly borrowed from Dragon Ball GT appeared in the latest episode. During a battle that featured a massive team up against the big baddie of Dragon Ball DAIMA, Gomah, Goku appears to be down for the count as Gomah is preparing to finish everyone off with one final blast.

Before this can happen, Neba, a Namekian that still resides in the Demon Realm, approaches a paralyzed Goku. By this point, Goku had already attempted to fight Gomah using his Super Saiyan 3 form, which is regarded as Goku’s most powerful transformation by this point in the lore.

Although the scene appears to depict Neba seemingly attacking Goku, what he actually does has now changed Dragon Ball lore forever. Once Neba’s energy is absorbed by Goku, a new transformation emerges.

While the form is never actually named within Dragon Ball DAIMA, this is basically Goku’s Super Saiyan 4 form, now made canon. Of course, there are some notable differences between Dragon Ball DAIMA and Dragon Ball GT’s take on the Super Saiyan 4 powerup.

In Dragon Ball GT, transforming into his Super Saiyan 4 form allowed Goku to temporarily return to his adult body, extending his overall height and the reach of his limbs. It was a unique form as he retained his black hair, though his body and tail were now coated in red fur.

The depiction of Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball DAIMA apparently doesn’t have the almost magical ability of reverting Goku back to adult proportions. Additionally, Goku can be observed to be sporting red hair instead of black hair, similar to his Super Saiyan God form in Dragon Ball Super (or Gogeta’s version of Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball GT).

Present in both versions of the form, Goku’s body and tail are coated in red fur. Even with his childlike body in Dragon Ball DAIMA, Goku appears to be muscular to an extreme degree.

Since the transformation was accessed through Neba’s intervention, we have the explanation as to why Goku wouldn’t use his new Super Saiyan 4 transformation against his fight against Beerus a little later in the story. This appears to be a one-time deal.

All of this implies that Goku’s Super Saiyan God form is more powerful than the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Of course, it goes without saying that this also means that the Super Saiyan Blue form is even more impressive by comparison.

Regardless, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation has now been made canon. As a result, we’ll probably be seeing it in more games going forward.

In terms of fighting games, this likely means that Super Saiyan 4 Goku will appear in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero at some point. Should there ever be a Dragon Ball FighterZ sequel, we could see it show up there as well.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is looking more and more promising the more we learn about it. While it was first assumed that it would just be another arena fighter, something that is quite standard for anime-based fighting games, the fact that it’s being done by developers from the old Battle Arena Toshinden series coupled with gameplay videos showing movement more akin to standard fighting games, it’s safe to say that there’s potential for something here.

Until we get our hands on it, it’ll be hard to tell just how interesting it’ll be, but for the time being us Bleach fans can at least enjoy seeing more and more of our favorite characters getting added to the roster. My colleague Dakota “DarkHorse” Hills recently outlined the currently known roster, but with about a month left until its March 21st release date there’s likely to be a few reveals left… So who are we missing, exactly?

Be warned that this article will contain several spoilers for the Bleach series for all arcs preceding the final arc, The Thousand Year Blood War. Proceed with caution.

Before delving in to the potential launch roster candidates, I’d like to bring attention to the fact that with their Season Pass announcement, it was stated that the DLC characters for Bleach: Rebirth of Souls would be focusing on the series’ final arc, The Thousand Year Blood War, which currently has an ongoing anime season.

Since the DLC is said to be focused on this part of the story and with all of the promotional material so far avoiding it entirely, it seems highly likely that said arc will be confined specifically to DLC content. So for the purposes of this story, we’ll only be looking at content which precedes it as potential launch roster additions.

One more thing I’ll add is that I think it’s a bizarre choice that one of the central characters of the game, Orihme Inoue, does not appear to be playable, but given that she’s been part of promotional materials and trailers since the very start yet never confirmed as playable, that does indeed seem to be the case, so my own personal feelings notwithstanding, I’m just going to assume for this story that she’s simply not going to be part of the roster.

So with that, let’s have a look at which characters might be likely additions to the already stellar roster of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls.

Honestly, the Shinigami faction is very well-covered already. The vast majority of characters you’d want to see from them are already in the game and even though they’re the majority of interesting characters in the Bleach universe, they’re already bordering on potentially being over-represented.

That said, there are still a few that wouldn’t be too bad to include on top of what we already have. First of all, Yumichika Ayasegawa is a long-recurring character whose main partner Ikkaku Madarame is already part of the roster.

While Ikkaku does have a few more shining moments than Yumichika, he also has his fair share of battles and is a decently popular character with a fairly unique skill set, as his main ability revolves around siphoning energy from his opponent.

There’s a variety of ways you could implement this in a fightin game and while they’ll probably be eternally frustrating to fight against, it also leads to a high move set diversity.

Besides Yumichika, there’s also Ichigo’s very own dad, Isshin Kurosaki. The sheer power he displays in the few fights he has coupled with his obvious plot relevance as the father of the series main protagonist make him a very solid addition to the roster if he were to be included.

The only other character I can think of that seems important enough but isn’t confirmed yet from the Shinigami faction would be Jushiro Ukitake, though honestly, he barely ever fights on-screen at all so if he’s left out it… well, it would make sense.

By far the most glaring omissions so far are the most powerful of Aizen’s personal Arrancar guard, the Espada.

So far we’ve seen ranks #4 through #6 all presented with Ulquiorra, Nnoitra and Grimmjow, and while Ulquiorra and Grimmjow definitely top the popularity ranks as far as the Arrancar go, in actual power they’re both dwarfed by the numbers above them.

The #3 ranked Espada, Tier Harribel, is the only female member of the top ten and she’s always been a popular character. With an iconic battle against fan favorite Toshiro Hitsugaya, she has more than enough reason to appear. Plot relevance, notable battles and popularity — all boxes checked.

Directly above her in the Espada ranking is Baraggan Louisenbairn, at first glance simply an old man, but actually a character whose very power is age and deterioration itself. Much like the aforementioned Yumichika, there’s no doubt this is going to be all kinds of annoying to fight against.

Just like the argument for Yumichika, though… it’s an interesting ability to incorporate in a fighting game. Much like Harribel, he has a notable fight against one of the central characters already in the roster, Soi Fon.

On top of that, we’ve already seen that Soi Fon’s Bankai ability which is specifically from her fight against Barragan is present in her move set, making it all the more likely we’ll see this lich-lookalike appear in the game.

Finally, there’s the #1 ranked Espada himself, Coyote Starrk. Given his abilities of summoning a spiritual wolf pack at his side, he’d likely function as a summoner type of fighter, something we also don’t quite have represented in the game yet.

He also comes equipped with a gun, so you could combine the minion summoning with general zoning abilities and you’ve got yourself an extremely annoying character to fight… Sensing a theme here?

Like the other two Espada before him, he also has a central fight in his arc where he battles against Shunsui Kyoraku and Jushiro Ukitake, though since Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a 1-on-1 fighter, you could easily just narrow this down to him battling against Shunsui even if Ukitake ends up not being present in the game’s roster.

These remaining Espada seem like by far the most likely candidates to still be part of the roster. They all fit the main boxes which is plot relevance, move set potential and popularity or iconic value.

They’re very important for the totality of Bleach’s longest arc and given that several of their inferiors in the Espada ranking are already in the game, it’d be a big surprise if any of the three of them end up not making the cut.

Although it is the shortest arc of Bleach, the Fullbringer Arc serves as a bridge between the Arrancar arc and the Thousand-Year Blood War arc and serves as a very important point for main character Ichigo’s development in particular.

Though it deals with characters known as Fullbringers who aren’t quite the same as the other ability-possessing types of characters in the series, it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem incorporating them in the roster as fighters since they can still battle against each other in a game setting just fine.

The most important potential addition from this arc would be Ichigo’s new friend turned bitter enemy, Kugo Ginjo. At first appearing as an ally who wants to help Ichigo find a new purpose in life after losing his abilities, his dark past is eventually revealed and how he’s simply manipulating Ichigo to reach his own goals.

Although his abilities aren’t necessarily the most interesting from a fighting game perspective, he serves as an excellent foil for Ichigo and if the goal is to adapt the entirety of Bleach’s run, simply ignoring the Fullbringer arc would be a bad oversight.

Besides Ginjo himself, the other notable addition from this arc would be Shukuro Tsukishima, seemingly the main antagonist of the arc who was actually working together with Ginjo all along.

Tsukishima has a very creative ability that seems quite difficult to embody in a fighting game, though I’d be very excited to see the developers try. He essentially is able to cut directly into the past of his target and insert himself in their own personal histories, essentially manipulating reality itself to his whims.

This is obviously an ability that is interesting from a narrative perspective but quite difficult to imagine having utility within a fighting game beyond being a mere super move cutscene, but if you get really creative you could possibly make him manipulate the opponent’s moveset or abilities in some way.

The Fullbringer arc is the shortest in Bleach and it often gets overlooked when discussing the series, but as it is an important part of its history and also relevant for what comes later, I do think it’s vital to include it in Rebirth of Souls which seems to be aiming to be the definitive Bleach gaming experience.

With only just over a month left to go, we’ll soon get our eyes on what the final roster (before DLC of course) will look like. Are there any other characters that you’re hoping to see? Let us know in the comments.

Update: Sony’s State of Play stream is now live, and you can watch it with us below.

It’s that fun time of the month again where some big video game reveals are about to happen, and no one really knows what’s coming our way.

The PlayStation State of Play live stream is scheduled to begin shortly today, and it’s going to be a rather long showcase too.

Sony’s stream is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET where it will last for roughly 40 minutes.

There’s no real confirmation as to what’s going to be included in the show, but there’s some obvious hopes for things like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and always Bloodborne.

As for fighting games, Street Fighter 6 is probably not going to have anything to reveal since Mai Shiranui just came out, however, some others potentially could.

Tekken 8 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (or The King of Fighters 15 before it) have previously popped up on State of Play streams, so we could end up seeing some new characters or updates there.

There’s also the rumor of Sony’s alleged new MOBA with Super Smash Bros.-like elements potentially making its debut too.

You can watch the show along with us below or on PlayStation’s official YouTube and Twitch channels.

For the first time, the Evolution Championship Series is holding its own awards show as a completely separate event, and it seems they plan to make a full spectacle out of it.

The Evo Awards are slated to go down with weekend featuring nominees and guests from across the fighting game community as well as a wealth of announcements.

Their showcase is set for this Saturday, February 15 with a pre-show beginning at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET with the main event scheduled to start at 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET.

Guests for the pre-show include Maximilian Dood, A.K.I. voice actor Faye Mata, Justin Wong, IFC|YipeS, Sanford Kelly, Duc Do, Mike Ross, and GoldenBoyNeo.

The press release also confirms a number of game reveals are taking place during the evening.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact and Under Night In-Birth 2 are all listed as having news for the show.

SNK’s upcoming fighter is set to receive an open beta the following weekend, so perhaps we’ll learn more about the included roster there at least.

Award categories include Best Pop Off, FGC Content of the Year, FGC Meme of the Year, Comeback of the Year, Match of the Year, Best On-Air Duo, Player of the Year, Moment of the Year and more.

Legends Tokido, John Choi and Alex Valle will be inducted officially into the Evo Hall of Fame as well.

The Evo Awards can be watched on the official Evo Events YouTube and Twitch channels, and you can find more information about the show itself and awards below.

5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET – The Evo Awards Pre-Show hosts Tasty Steve and Hollywood RobTV kick-off the evening that will stream live on Evo’s Twitch Channel and Evo’s YouTube Channel. Additional special guests include Maximilian Dood, Faye Mata and Evo Award Nominees.

5:15 p.m. PT / 8:15 p.m. ET – Pre-Show continues with Arcade Carpet Interviews and the Marvel vs Capcom 2 “Tournament of Champions” featuring FGC Legends Justin Wong, Michael “IFC Yipes” Mendoza, Sanford Kelly, and Duc Do and commentated by Mike Ross and GoldenBoyNeo.

6:45 p.m. PT / 9:45 p.m. ET – Pre-Show wraps up with major announcements about Evo 2025 including ticketing, hotels, special guests and more game reveals.

7:00 p.m. PT / 10:00 p.m. ET – The Evo Awards presented by Qiddiya Gaming hands out the first of 22 Awards that include Player of the Year, Match of the Year and Moment of the Year.

Best Pop Off

• Nominees: Hayao NoahtheProdigy, Nitro, AK, Punk

FGC Content of the Year

• Nominees: Tekken 8 Tutorials, Marvel vs Capcom 2 Streams, Sajam Tekken Slam, Will It Kill?, Trash Talk Podcast

FGC Meme of the Year presented by Chipotle

• Nominees: The Wazzler, Hand Heart & Thumbs Up, Hayao Does The Splits, Let’s Go Gambling, Attacks IRL

Comeback of the Year presented by NACON

• Nominees: Hayao, Arslan Ash, G_Conceptz, SonicFox, Yagami

Match of the Year Award

• Nominees: Punk vs Big Bird, Hayao vs FrankieBFG, Xiao Hai vs Kusanagi, Nitro vs Tatuma, Arslan Ash vs ATIF

Best On-Air Duo

• Nominees: IFCYipeS + Sajam, RIP + Tasty Steve, Sajam + Tasty Steve, Justin Wong + IFCYipeS, Vicious + Justin Wong

Best Commentary

• Nominees: That is a Worthless Button!, This Could Be Game… And It Is, Arslan’s Gonna Do It! He’s So Close! He’s So Close, Steve!, That Could Be an Evo-Losing Anti Air, Break His Guard!

Best Custom Hardware presented by Chipotle

• Nominees: C.O.M.B.O. Extension Buttons, Snack Box Micro, MPress Nano, Custom Claiomh Solais Arcade Stick, Haute Pad T-Series

Best FGC Cosplay

• Nominees: Chonibu, MSValentine, Chiba Josui, Onesaya, Kryrayne

Best Dressed presented by Zenni

• Nominees: Tasty Steve, Logan Sama, Vicious, Hollywood RobTV, IFC|YipeS

Best Button of the Year

• Nominees: Dragunov Ignition Switch (QCF+4), Luke Crouching Medium Punch, Dash Light Attack, Johnny Cage Forward 3, Ken Crouching Medium Kick

Tech of the Year

• Nominees: Pro KO Leverless, SWORL Arcade Controller, Hit Box Ultra, Sapphire Leverless Controller, LVL Controller

Marketing Campaign of the Year

• Nominees: Evo + SFG + Tekken 8, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves X Cristiano Ronaldo, 2XKO, Street Fighter 6 Season 2, ECT Commercial

Fighting Game Release of the Year

• Nominees: Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6 Season 2 downloadable content, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade series, Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes, Rivals of Aether II

They’ve Got Next presented by PlayStation Tournaments

• Nominees: EnzoTheHokage, Booce, NoahtheProdigy, KingReyJr, Blaz

Best FGC Local

• Nominees: Tatakai Tuesday, NLBC, Abou Dojo, FGC Meetups, Ozimeme

Invitational of the Year

• Nominees: Red Bull Kumite, Sajam TEKKEN Slam, Crazy Raccoon Cup, Red Bull Golden Letters, Topanga Championship 5

Best Online Series

• Nominees: CasaBunch, TNS Online, Saltmine League, The Kolosseum, Can Opener

Content Creator of the Year

• Nominees: Sajam, Justin Wong, Brian_F, Broski, Diaphone

Commentator of the Year

• Nominees: IFCYipeS, Tasty Steve, Sajam, Rynge, Vicious

Player of the Year presented by Qiddiya Gaming

• Nominees: Punk, Arslan Ash, MenaRD, Xiao Hai, Nitro

Moment of the Year presented by Qiddiya Gaming

• Nominees: Punk Wins Street Fighter 6 at Evo, Hayao “Moment 38,” Xiao Hai Wins Esports World Cup, Lilypichu vs Harada at Evo Showcase, MenaRD Wins His First Evo

After months of grinding and tough battles, there remains just 48 players from around the world qualified for Capcom Cup 11 next month.

Capcom themselves are asking Street Fighter 6 players who they think is going to win Capcom Cup with some interesting results here after a handful of days of voting.

The Champion Prediction Street Voter event is currently available in SF6’s Battle Hub until March 4 where users can pick their victor.

Last year, they gave out a special Juri color to the less than 300 people who correctly chose UMA as the champion of Capcom Cup X though it’s not clear what the prize is going to be for a right pick this year beyond a unique title (if anything else).

You can get like 2,000 Drive Tickets just for taking part, however.

As for the current standings, it’s not really surprising to see players gravitate towards the competitors who won the offline Capcom Pro Tour Premier events and other big tournaments.

There’s just three in particular, though, who have double digits in terms of the vote percentages with the home crowd hero Tokido in the top spot with almost 15% of the vote followed by Evo 2024 champion Punk and eSports World Cup winner Xiao Hai.

With the popularity of Street Fighter 6 in Japan and the country’s legacy with the franchise, it’s also not too much of a shock to see 5 of the remaining top 10 hailing from (or residing in) the place where Capcom Cup is being held.

Only the top 9 have above 4% of the vote, so there’s a lot of very strong players being slept on a bit too including the first SF6 Evo champ Angrybird, Kusanagi, the most consistent man in CPT history Xian, Takamura, Caba and so many more.

But no matter who gets votes, everyone still has the same shot at winning Capcom Cup and getting that $1 million because hardly anyone had UMA on their radar for champion status last year.

First, though, the groups have to be selected tomorrow, February 12, to help determine who is going to move on to the largest stage when Capcom Cup 11 takes place March 5–8.

You can check out the current vote standings below as well as vote on who you think is taking Capcom Cup this year too.

• Tokido – 14.6

• Punk – 10.5

• Xiao Hai – 10.5

• Shuto – 8.9

• Kakeru – 7.9

• Leshar – 7.8

• MenaRD – 5.1

• Fuudo – 4.7

• Itabashi Zangief – 4.1

• Nephew – 2.5

• Kusanagi – 2.5

• Angrybird – 2.2

• Broski – 2.2

• Big Bird – 1.5

• Oil King – 1.2

• iDom – 1.2

• Zangief_Bolado – 1.1

• Xian – 0.9

• Hotdog29 – 0.8

• NoahTheProdigy – 0.8

• NuckleDu – 0.7

• Mister Crimson – 0.7

• Armperor – 0.5

• Blaz – 0.5

• NL – 0.5

• Vxbao – 0.4

• Juninho-Ras – 0.4

• JB – 0.4

• Dual Kevin – 0.4

• Takamura – 0.4

• JAK – 0.3

• Uriel Velorio – 0.3

• Juicy Joe – 0.3

• Kilzyou – 0.3

• S4ltykid – 0.3

• Grantodakai – 0.3

• Jabhim – 0.3

• ChrisCCH – 0.2

• Caba – 0.2

• Salvatore – 0.2

• Bravery – 0.2

• Si Anik – 0.2

• Lexx – 0.2

• Phenom – 0.2

• Limestone – 0.2

• GGHalibel – 0.2

• Deiver – 0.2

• Sole – 0.2

Though many had hoped that BST|Daigo Umehara would return to Ryu in Street Fighter 6, he ended up playing Ken before switching over to Akuma instead. When Daigo ranked his historical mains throughout the Street Fighter series, he noted that Street Fighter 4 Ryu was the most fun for him while Street Fighter 5 Ryu was his least favorite character that he dedicated time towards playing.

Ryu in Street Fighter 6 has seen significant improvements over his Street Fighter 5 incarnation, but still ultimately suffers from many of the same problems. As a result, it would seem that Daigo has hilariously become quite critical of his teammate, Naruo, for playing Ryu.

Thanks to the captions, we can understand everything that happens in the video released on Daigo’s YouTube channel. However, even us English speakers can hear the disbelief in Daigo’s voice when Naruo announces that he’s going Ryu against Ceros’ Rashid.

“I’ve been training for this,” declared Naruo. “With Ryu!”

“Ryu, huh?” responded Daigo. “Why Ryu? Ryu vs. Rashid?”

Considering the stakes of this match, Daigo issued Naruo a stern warning of what would happen if he lost this match.

“You do realize [that] if you lose, your intentions will fall under severe scrutiny, yes?” continued Daigo on this subject. This resulted in a lot of laughter from the crew. “Very severe.”

At first, things were looking favorable for Naruo as he was surprisingly after to get win the first game against Ceros’ Rashid. It was beginning to look like Naruo’s high risk play would pay off.

However, it ultimately wasn’t meant to be. Naruo ended up losing to Ceros which then resulted in him bracing for the scrutiny that Daigo had promised him.

“What exactly is your intent!?” exclaimed Daigo upon seeing Rashid hitting Ryu with a Critical Art to end the set. “Why did you pick Ryu!? What was your goal!?”

“Don’t ever pick that character again!” continued Daigo.

“I’m so sorry,” responded Naruo. “I’m very sorry.”

The Genesis tournament series is back this weekend with Genesis X2 which is happening in San Jose, California, U.S.A.

Notable players attending include FaZE|Sparg0, SR|Zain, Cody Schwab, ZETA|Acola, Liquid|Nephew, Fennel|Miya, LG|Sonix, LG|MkLeo, C9|Mango, Liquid|Hungrybox, TM|NoahTheProdigy, iDom, Liquid|Riddles, E36|Hurt, SR|Light, LG|Tweek, FLY|Jmook, SR|Moky, RC|Shuton, Jonathan Tene, JKLY|Supernoon, Nouns|Aklo, Lil|Plup, RB|aMSa, CakeAssault, ApologyMan, GcYoshi13, EnzoTheHokage, LG|Marlon, Raru, Snow, Lima, SR|Kola, Solary|Glutonny, ESFC|Mario, BNP|Snappy, Shine, Samurai, Zomba, ShinyMark, Mothman, Pling and Whatzit Tooya, though there are of course many, many more as well.

Genesis has traditionally been a Super Smash Bros.-centered event and while it’s true that it’s still the main focus, they’ve expanded their game roster to include a wide variety of different fighting game titles in recent years.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is king at Genesis X2 with more than 1,000 entrants followed fairly closely by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at around 925 participants. Next in line is Rivals of Aether 2 with more than 500 players and after that we have Street Fighter 6 with almost 200 signups. Tekken 8 sits at over 140 registrants with Guilty Gear Strive coming in next at just about 75 names registered.

There are also sizable Doubles competitions for Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Rivals of Aether 2 and the event will also feature regular tournament play for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 64, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, Rivals of Aether, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Under Night In-Birth 2 [Sys:celes], Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo and Capcom vs. SNK 2.

Streaming is being done at Genesis GG, Genesis GG 2, Genesis GG 3 and Genesis GG 4.

Why the Comic Sans though Capcom?

It’s the most romantic day of the year, and if you can’t find out what to say to your loved ones, the fighting game companies have you covered apparently.

Capcom, Bandai Namco and Arc System Works have all shared “official” Valentine’s Day cards featuring Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive and Tekken 8 characters.

Street Fighter is going the route of putting the official SF6 character renders of Mai Shiranui, Terry Bogard, A.K.I., and M. Bison and putting them on a pink background with pun-filled text like “I have a psycho crush on you.”

I’m sure that’ll go over well if the recipient doesn’t know fighting games well.

Bamco went the route of adding text over a handful of screenshots of Clive Rosfield, and some of them can get a little steamy like activating your “Heat mechanic.”

And then ArcSys went the more cutesy route using chibi art of Elphelt, Ramlethal, Jack-O and… Potemkin to help get your romantic feelings across.

Though we suppose a grappler would want to keep you closer than anyone.

You can check out the full collection of V-Day cards below, and let us know what the best Valentine’s pun you’ve ever seen is in the comments.

Click images for larger versions