Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Almost every big developer / publisher hosts their own Nintendo Direct-style streams now to reveal what they’ve been cooking up behind the scenes, and Capcom is no exception there.

The Capcom Spotlight showcase is just about to take place where multiple of the company’s current and upcoming fighting games are going to be featured, but what are they going to unveil for them?

Their stream itself is set to be around 35 minutes in total with the first 20 minutes dedicated to the Spotlight and the rest to a Monster Hunter Wilds Showcase.

Within that first part, Street Fighter 6, the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection are all set to be included as well as Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

Given the limited time, there probably won’t be enough for any deep dives of course, however, we still likely have some new info to look forward to.

They haven’t explicitly promised new reveals beyond the “latest information” for the event, but it very rare for them to show up with no premieres to debut.

The Capcom Spotlight stream is slated to take place tomorrow on Tuesday, February 4, at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET, which you can watch alongside us here, so let’s talk about what is and isn’t probably going to be there.

Mai Recap

This may be the most obvious thing, but Capcom is likely going to try and hype up the viewers by going back over much of what we’ve already seen with Mai Shiranui just before she arrives in a few hours after the show to Street Fighter 6.

We’ll probably just see more snippets of her trailer, World Tour mode and gameplay as well as potentially some information about her Fatal Fury origins.

So probably nothing to exciting there for followers of our site exactly.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Release Date

At the very least, we’re going to see more actual footage of the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 in action, however, that may not be all.

Since it is one of the main featured titles, we may very well get an actual release date for the collection featuring Capcom vs. SNK, Project Justice, Power Stone and more.

If it doesn’t pop up here, the release date could end up being at the rumored Nintendo Direct supposedly going down as soon as sometime this week.

Marvel vs. Capcom Xbox Date

Despite originally skipping over Microsoft’s consoles last year, the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is going to come to Xbox (along with the Capcom Fighting Collection 2) sometime this year as well.

Since it’s a rather small update compared to most of the rest, we feel like the Capcom Spotlight is the most likely place that’s going to show up with a release date.

So that’s probably top of the list in likelihood.

Street Fighter 6 Costumes

Just a few days ago, this wouldn’t have made the list at all, but things have changed a bit.

Capcom finally addressed the community’s desire for Outfit 4 and that they’re coming starting this Summer, but we may see them sooner.

The team did show off the art for some Outfit 3 designs almost four months prior to their release to help tide fans over.

Perhaps it’s time they do it again considering everyone’s been waiting a lot longer this go around.

Elena

Elena is next up to bat after Mai in SF6, but we shouldn’t go expecting to see her on our screens yet.

With Mai about to launch in mere hours following the event and Capcom Cup 11 coming in a month, it’s still too soon to see the last DLC character of Season 2.

If anything, players will be waiting until at least Capcom Cup if not later to see the game’s first Street Fighter 6 representative in action if Akuma is anything to go on from last year.

Plus a slew of balance changes are on the way to close

MultiVersus is coming to an end in Season 5, but it looks like the developers are looking to send the game off with a bang and are not holding anything back in the chamber.

Player First Games just dropped a special new DLC trailer for MVS narrated by Morty that reveals a bunch of character skins that’ll be available for free once the action kicks off — including one of the biggest memes the crossover has pushed.

The trailer starts with Morty showing off some of incoming buffs / balance adjustments before complaining that Harley Quinn needs to be nerfed after whacking him.

Harley, Samurai Jack, Raven, Jason, Wonder Woman, Steven, and Garnet are all shown with seemingly new skins that’ll be up for grabs in the final season.

But the biggest addition of the bunch is probably what we can dub “Ultra Instinct Shaggy” based on the years-old memes surrounding the Scooby-Doo character’s power level and Dragon Ball Super references.

“Dude even I can’t count how high my power level is,” Shaggy explains as his vest explodes off his body.

So the meme has come full circle now and somewhat canonized though he already arguably appeared in one of the Mortal Kombat animated movies already too.

The best thing about all these new skins is you won’t have to spend any money on them.

Just like the upcoming final DLC characters Lola Bunny and Aquaman, players should be able to earn these costumes purely through gameplay and likely through the last Season Pass for MVS.

That’s because the premium Gleamium currency is no longer available for sale, so anything added to the game now has to be unlockable through other means.

Users will have until May 30 to collect as much of this content as they want before MultiVersus shuts down its servers for good after just one year since launching its full version.

Anyone who logs in between the Season 5 start on February 4 and May 30 will be able to retain all of their characters and content to use in an offline version of MVS moving forward.

And this last big balance update is looking to shake up the gameplay again, especially since they seem to be teasing wavedashes coming as an actual mechanic here at the end.

You can check out the new trailer for MultiVersus’ last big hurrah below.

Morty’s not holding anything back in Season 5. #MultiVersus pic.twitter.com/NYHHN37ZD9

— MultiVersus (@multiversus) February 3, 2025

Street Fighter 6 players are just over a day away from finally getting their hands on Mai Shiranui, and now we can see what else she’ll be bringing fans in terms of goodies.

Capcom just revealed the “Say Hello to Mai!” Fighting Pass coming to Street Fighter 6 this week.

It probably comes as little surprise that much of the contents of the new Fighting Pass are themed around Mai herself though not all of them.

The biggest addition to the premium rewards will be the ability to dress your avatar up as Mai head to toe including her dress and tail for completing the required levels.

Beyond that and her fan emote plus some titles, much of her pass is filled with items from Fatal Fury in general, especially Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

There’s stickers for Rock Howard, B. Jenet, Tizoc, Terry Bogard and Kim Dong Hwan among the paid tiers as well as music for Kim, Duck King as well as Mai from Fatal Fury Special.

Southtown is also getting some representation via a cool new Challenger Screen option in the pass.

The classic game being given away is fittingly going to be Strider as another ninja on a mission (although Mai’s mission is about love).

There will of course be free reward tiers too though we’ll have to wait and see what those are exactly.

Capcom recently broke their silence on new costumes coming to SF6 where they also confirmed changes are coming to the Fighting Pass system, however, we shouldn’t expect to see those reward changes until Season 3.

Mai herself is launching on February 5, and her pass will be landing on the same day too.

You can check out the new trailer as well as the premium rewards included below.

Click images for larger versions

His ability to speak to fish will be of some use…

Player First Games recently announced that they’ll be ending service for MultiVersus in May 2025. Shortly afterwards, MultiVersus Director Tony Huynh released a statement addressing the situation.

While this news is certainly disappointing for many, there are still two final challengers slated to join MultiVersus in Season 5 — Aquaman and Lola Bunny. Earlier today, Player First Games shared the first look at Aquaman in MultiVersus.

According to Aquaman’s MultiVersus card, he’s been classified as a tank, just like Superman, Jason, and The Iron Giant. He’s the first new tank class character that was released after the game’s relaunch. He’ll also probably be the last one ever released as Lola Bunny is unlikely to also be classified this way.

He’ll apparently have the ability to summon a “hazardous pufferfish pal” that’s capable of knocking opponents away. This is in reference to Aquaman’s ability to speak to sea life.

Another of his abilities is called the “Might of Atlantis.” Using this ability will have Aquaman impaling opponents with his trident before flinging them away.

Finally, his Aqua Crusher will have him spiral his trident in some sort of spin attack. Based on this move’s description, it will be an effective move for hitting opponents both in front of and behind Aquaman.

Check it all out below:

Wait ’til you see his fin-ishers. #MultiVersus pic.twitter.com/fi8qhWCdSe

— MultiVersus (@multiversus) February 3, 2025

Shortly afterwards, Player First Games dropped the MultiVersus card for Lola Bunny. As expected, the character is mostly based on her appearance in Space Jam.

Like LeBron James, she’s seen holding a basketball. More than likely, her moveset will take a number of cues from LeBron James in that she’ll probably have a mechanic that involves around utilizing the basketball for her attacks.

Lola Bunny has been labeled as a bruiser class. Her abilities include the Slam Dunk, This One’s For You, and Spinning Bunny Kicks.

Check it out below:

Lola’s got hops for days. #MultiVersus pic.twitter.com/chYeOEDIdr

— MultiVersus (@multiversus) February 3, 2025

In one of the longest Tweets ever produced by Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco, Harada explained his history with Dead or Alive series creator Tomonobu Itagaki. According to Harada, he first met Itagaki shortly after the announcement of the first Dead or Alive game.

The developers of Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and Dead or Alive (the main 3D fighting games) all got together for a round of drinks. During this first encounter, Itagaki and Harada both addressed one another with polite language. Harada described Itagaki as being “very professional and gentlemanly” at the time.

However, Itagaki’s language towards Harada would change in their next encounters. Evidently, Itagaki had done some research on Harada since they last met.

“Harada, you’re from Waseda University, aren’t you?” asked Itagaki of Harada upon their next meeting. “I also went to Waseda, and our time there overlapped. That makes you my junior.”

“I might be your junior, but I don’t think we were there at the same time,” responded Harada. Of course, Itagaki insisted that they attended this university within the same time period.

Following this, Itagaki would insist on speaking to Harada in the same way a senior would address a junior. The polite and gentlemanly language from Itagaki had been dropped entirely.

Some time after this, Itagaki began a media strategy with the intention of having Dead or Alive toppling Tekken as the most renowned 3D fighting game. Since Itagaki was able to recognize that he couldn’t compete directly with Bandai Namco and Sega’s arcade gaming market, he instead explored using print magazines and internet media to take stabs directly at Tekken.

“In fact, during those ten years, I spent much of my time wondering, ‘Why is Mr. Itagaki so fixated on targeting and attacking me?’” — Katsuhiro Harada

“Despite his outwardly emotional demeanor, Mr. Itagaki had a very cool and calculated eye for analyzing resources and strategy,” said Harada. “Among his various strategies, one was to deliberately ‘bite’ at Tekken to draw media attention. In doing so, he even called me out by name and criticized Tekken’s game design and other aspects. Let me emphasize: this was just one of the many strategies he employed, not his only approach.”

Overall, Harada describe Itagaki’s approach as being extremely aggressive. As for Harada, he was strictly forbidden by his superiors at Bandai Namco to respond in any way.

This combination of Itagaki attacking Tekken while Harada remained silent went on for about 10 years. Looking back, Harada believes that there was no chance of developing a friendship with Itagaki under these circumstances.

“In fact, during those ten years, I spent much of my time wondering, ‘Why is Mr. Itagaki so fixated on targeting and attacking me?’” said Harada about that situation.

During this era, Itagaki curiously called up Bandai Namco headquarters to summon Harada to Tecmo in 1998. By this point, Harada’s relationship with Itagaki had already been strained, which left him confused about the invite.

Ultimately though, curiosity got the better of Harada. After meeting with Itagaki, Harada was taken to a small room that housed the development build arcade cabinet for Dead or Alive 2.

Apparently, Itagaki had two goals with this demonstration. Firstly, since Sega and Bandai Namco were the two largest buyers of arcade boards, he had hoped to secure an endorsement that could lead to Bandai Namco purchasing more Dead or Alive 2 arcade boards.

Secondly, Itagaki wanted to gauge Harada’s reactions to Dead or Alive 2. If Harada showed signs of being impressed or unsettled, Itagaki would perceive this as a sign that Dead or Alive’s implemented technologies had toppled that of Tekken’s.

“Later, I learned from a former Team Ninja member that after my visit, Itagaki returned to the development floor and declared, ‘Today, we beat Tekken.’” — Katsuhiro Harada

Just a few seconds in, Harada was quickly pressed for his reactions. Harada was ultimately overwhelmed by Itagaki being so overbearing, but Itagaki apparently perceived this as being Harada’s overall reaction to the technology utilized by Dead or Alive 2.

“Later, I learned from a former Team Ninja member that after my visit, Itagaki returned to the development floor and declared, ‘Today, we beat Tekken,’” continued Harada. “While I was merely startled by his approach, he took it as proof that I was overwhelmed by DOA2’s performance.”

Everything changed in 2008 when Itagaki left Tecmo. Despite still having a perceived adversarial relationship with Itagaki, Harada was invited to a dinner meetup. Itagaki had some surprising words for Harada during the interaction.

“Harada, you were my comrade-in-arms,” said Itagaki at the dinner. Apparently, this was how Itagaki saw their relationship.

“I never had any grudge against you, Namco, or Tekken. On the contrary, I respected you all,” continued Itagaki. “When I compared the power dynamics in development, sales, and publishing, it was clear that a straightforward approach wouldn’t work. I had to employ every strategy I could. I’m sorry for everything.”

From then on, the longstanding feud between Harada and Itagaki had been put to rest. Funnily enough, Harada claims that he would receive a drunken phone call from Itagaki at the end of every year as a sort of tradition, though this hasn’t happened in the last few years.

Regardless, it would seem that Itagaki approves of this version of events as he mentioned on Facebook that he had read Harada’s comment. This really seems to cement that the two now stand on good terms.

“I read Harada’s tweet from Bandai Namco,” said Itagaki. “As some of you know, he’s fighting on the front lines of the fighting game. I support you with all my heart.”

Hmm, I’m not sure how you perceive my relationship with Mr. Itagaki, but I can tell you it’s likely different from what you imagine.

Let me provide a general overview and some key topics regarding my history with Mr. Itagaki.

However, consider this a warning.

What follows is… https://t.co/zoq7T460nG

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) January 28, 2025

MrMixtape recently released a new video that describes the act of giving a combatant low vitality as being the worst way of balancing a fighting game character’s strengths. This is mostly directed at the “glass cannon” archetype that we commonly see in fighters.

As one might expect, Akuma is one of the most prominent examples covered in the video. When he first made his debut appearance in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, he was outright banned from tournaments.

Overall, Akuma is capable of dealing more damage, moving faster, and has access to more moves than almost every other character. To keep Akuma in check, he tends to have less stamina.

While he generally has access to the strongest tools, his low durability means that he’s afforded the least number of mistakes. This has held true even in Street Fighter 6 where most characters have had their health totals streamlined to 10,000. Though Akuma does feel quite strong in Street Fighter 6, he’s not quite as oppressive as he has typically been in the past.

However, the most egregious example that we’ve probably ever seen of a glass cannon character upsetting the balance of a fighting game would have to be Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s Phoenix (Jean Grey). She effectively has half the health of the fighters with the second lowest health totals, Akuma, Rocket Raccoon, and Strider.

Phoenix’s entire gameplay is to gain access to five bars of hyper meter. Once she is defeated, she’ll automatically spend those five bars to transform into Dark Phoenix with a refreshed health bar. She then becomes even more fragile as her life total continuously gets converted into white life.

Despite these shortcomings, Dark Phoenix is capable of decimating an entire team by herself. When she’s in the game, a single mistake from either player will dramatically impact the result of the match. Since all of her attacks spawn projectiles, she’s become one of the most oppressive fighting game characters ever created.

Check it all out in the video below:

The secret quest to fight Pink Floyd is one that involves many complexities. Through the combined effort of numerous parties, the community has finally determined the 37 challenges that players essentially have to go through in order to unlock this rare encounter.

Those that defeat Floyd will be rewarded with a stage that pays homage to the first trailer for the game. It’s fortunate that players are granted three chances to beat Floyd before actually getting kicked out, but not everyone will be able to succeed despite that.

Needless to say, Floyd has proven to be quite the source of frustration for a lot of players seeking to unlock that rare stage. Of course, it sadly won’t be tournament legal due to how the grass in the stage hinders the ability to perceive specific low attacks.

Under normal circumstances, players do not get the opportunity to perform a Fatality against Floyd. That’s really too bad as it’s easy to imagine how those that suffered a few defeats to this secret encounter might’ve appreciated the chance to vent some frustrations against the CPU opponent.

With all of that in mind, TZer0 has released an interesting clip that showcases what it looks like when all of the “ninja” characters in Mortal Kombat 1 perform Fatalities against Floyd. In other words, this clip showcases Floyd getting obliterated by Noob Saibot, Ermac, Rain, Smoke, Scorpion, Reptile, and Sub-Zero.

Some people will certainly be happy to see Floyd meeting such brutal ends. This also gives a look at the new stage from a variety of angles.

Check it all out below:

The Ninjas doing their Fatalities on Floyd in their UMK3 skins
[HD || 60FPS]

[For the people who hates Floyd..] pic.twitter.com/YMbypicaZT

— TZer0_ (@TZer0___) January 31, 2025

Atsushi Tomita, designer for Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, recently revealed some interesting bits of information regarding his time developing collaborative projects featuring Marvel and Capcom’s intellectual properties.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes was a 2v2 fighting game that introduced a mechanic that was new to the series of games that Tomita had worked on up to this point. Indeed, the “Variable Cross” essentially allows a player to control both of their characters at the same time.

It turns out that the idea for the Variable Cross mechanic actually originated from Tomita’s time developing X-Men vs. Street Fighter. More specifically, Tomita saw something interesting when Ikawa, the programmer for that game, was trying to get that game’s new tag system to work.

“We didn’t really have any new ideas for the game system itself so I was thinking ‘What should I do,’ but then I remembered that back when our programmer, Ikawa-san, did the tag system for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, there was a bug where two characters would stay on the screen.” — Atsushi Tomita

In one of the first tests for this tag system, it seems that it didn’t work as intended. Instead, a bug resulted in both of the player’s characters staying on the screen. While this was eventually fixed for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the scene left a certain impression on Tomita when he saw it.

When thinking of ways to make Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes standout from the previous games, the development team initially didn’t have any good ideas. It was then that Tomita remembered this unintended interaction from X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Tomita got the idea to turn this bug into an intended feature.

“We didn’t really have any new ideas for the game system itself so I was thinking ‘What should I do,’ but then I remembered that back when our programmer, Ikawa-san, did the tag system for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, there was a bug where two characters would stay on the screen,” said Tomita.”

“At the time, I thought ‘I’m definitely using this at some point,’ and when I remembered, we decided to make that into the Variable Cross.”

Overall, the Variable Cross system was a powerful option that could easily overwhelm the most experienced opponents, but was limited by the player’s resources. Controlling two characters like this in a fighting game was a brand new concept.

It’s amusing how unintentional mishaps like these can sometimes serve as inspiration. This can be especially true for game design.

The next game in the series would end up being Marvel vs. Capcom 2. As it was designed as a 3v3 team fighting game, it would be a little too hectic to use the Variable Cross system to control three combatants at once.

However, something similar to the Variable Cross would return in Street Fighter X Tekken in the form of the Cross Assault. While we can’t say for sure that Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes’ Variable Clash system served as inspiration for Street Fighter X Tekken’s Cross Assault, the resemblance between these mechanics is uncanny. This bug from X-Men vs. Street Fighter seemingly had quite the impact on the fighting game genre.

A special thanks goes out to our very own Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for the translations that were used in this article.

Kitty Kaboom’s casual Mai Shiranui recreation is excellent, and even includes some work with fans

One of the best cosplayers in the Fighting Game Community, Kitty Kaboom, has done a terrific job in capturing the essence and look of Street Fighter 6’s latest DLC character, Mai Shiranui.

Sporting Mai’s casual look that she dons right before you confirm her selection on the character select screen, Kitty absolutely nails the costume and personality of this fighter.

Mai Shiranui is scheduled to release very late on Tuesday night, or early Wednesday, depending on the timezone you reside in, and she’ll be the 3rd character playable for Season 2 of Street Fighter 6, and will be followed by Elena in the spring time of 2025.

pic.twitter.com/WVHxcHsAwr

— KittySNKaboom BDAY 13th░O░R░O░C░H░I░ ░I░N░ ░B░I░O░ (@KittyKaboooom) January 30, 2025

THANK YOU! @eventhubs for showcasing my @StreetFighter 6 Mai cosplay! pic.twitter.com/w9dLpvF3JW

— KittySNKaboom BDAY 13th░O░R░O░C░H░I░ ░I░N░ ░B░I░O░ (@KittyKaboooom) February 3, 2025

Kitty’s costume work is top notch, as you’d expect, and she even has a video above of her working with fans, as you’d surmise Mai Shiranui would have with her, considering it’s one of her signature attacks.

Mai is one of the most popular characters in all of fighting games, who made her debut in the 1992 release of Fatal Fury 2.

You can find more of Kitty’s fantastic cosplay on our website, where she’s done excellent renditions of Menat, Psylocke, Shiki and Eliza, Chun-Li, Kolin, T. Hawk, B. Jenet and Ed, King of Fighters’ Shermie and Guilty Gear Strive’s Giovanna.

You can find even more of Kitty Kaboom’s cosplay on her X and Instagram pages.

You can challenge one of the game’s Battle Planners Woshige

Have you ever been frustrated by Street Fighter 6’s character balance and wanted to take it out on one of the people responsible for making Ken so ridiculously strong in basically every version of the game?

Well, Capcom has put in a V-Rival fight for Professor Woshige, also known as Ryuichi Shigeno, who’s one of the Battle Planners for the game, and an outstanding fighting game player, who infamously lost track of the rounds at Evo 2015 and celebrated prematurely.

Chun-Li’s student, Li-Fen, has prepped Akuma, Cammy and Luke, as controlled by Woshige’s V-Rival, for you to take on. All you have to do is head to the game’s Battle Hub, find the V-Rival area, and give it a go.

If you hit specific conditions, you’ll unlock a special emote and challenger screen illustration (pictured below) as a reward.

This special event starts on February 5, 2025 and will end March 9, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, and will be included with the Mai Shiranui patch for the game.

Check out the video below, which includes a reenactment of Woshige’s infamous Evo 2015 Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- winners semi-finals set.

Click images for larger versions