Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Conan the Barbarian has been available to play in Mortal Kombat 1 since early last week. He was launched via early access for those who purchased the Khaos Reigns expansion, and one of the benefits of doing so is getting a chance to play as the newest DLC fighters a week ahead of everyone else.

Unfortunately, those who purchased the expansion on Nintendo Switch were unable to get their early access to Conan due to an unforeseen issue that sprouted up. It appears that this issue has now been resolved, however, according to the official Mortal Kombat Twitter page.

Conan first saw his early access period begin on all other platforms outside of the Switch on January 21. That same day was supposed to also include the Nintendo Switch, but when players went to try and play him they were instead greeted with an in-game notification that prompted them to buy the new DLC character — even though they already did.

On January 24, the official MK Twitter sent out a quick tweet letting fans know that they were aware of the Switch users’ woes and that the issue was being worked on.

“We are still working to address the Conan the Barbarian issue for Nintendo Switch players,” the Twitter account said. “Thank you for the continued patience. We’ll keep you posted on progress.”

We are still working to address the Conan the Barbarian issue for Nintendo Switch players. Thank you for the continued patience. We’ll keep you posted on progress. #MK1

— Mortal Kombat 1 (@MortalKombat) January 24, 2025

Earlier today, however, the official MK account followed up an announced that the issue with Conan on Nintendo Switch has been resolved.

“We’ve resolved the Early Access issues with Conan the Barbarian affecting Nintendo Switch players. Please download the latest patch to your system. We apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience,” their tweet reads.

We’ve resolved the Early Access issues with Conan the Barbarian affecting Nintendo Switch players. Please download the latest patch to your system. We apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience. #MK1

— Mortal Kombat 1 (@MortalKombat) January 27, 2025

Nintendo Switch players should be able to jump in now and get some early time in with Conan the Barbarian in Mortal Kombat 1.

Unfortunately, though, this fix comes only hours before Conan is set to be released to everyone (which is happening tomorrow, January 28). So those who purchased the Khaos Reigns expansion to get early access to this character missed out on the majority of said early period.

At this time, we have not heard any word on whether or not those who paid for early access on Nintendo Switch will receive any compensation for this matter.

Mai Shiranui is slated for release in Street Fighter 6 next week, and in order to prepare those of us who are excited to play her, Capcom has now launched the upcoming fighter’s official character guide.

The new showcase, much like previous ones, walks viewers through a large portion of what this warrior can do in Street Fighter 6. In Mai’s case, we see a breakdown of each of her special moves and her supers, with explanations and strategies attached to further explain their functionality.

“Mai is a quick character that bedazzles opponents with superb mobility and tricky projectiles,” the in-game character guide begins. “She has a wide array of techniques that make it difficult for her opponents to pin her down.”

Kachousen is Mai’s fan toss projectile, and Capcom describes it here as your “main attack” for Mai. They encourage players to throw a fan, then use Drive Rush to slip in, find openings, and employ hit-and-run tactics to set up effective offense.

This character guide does a great job of detailing all of Mai’s special moves, which provides a recap of how they all work. Her Hishou Ryuuenjin (her flip kick / Dragon Punch), for example, looks to be a great anti-air, and Capcom gives some tips on which version to use at what ranges in order to put forth optimal play.

Mai’s Kagerou no Mai (level 1 super) is lacking in horizontal range, but makes up for that in vertical range. The guide explains that this super is best used as an anti-air option or as a reversal against strikes or throws, as when it is used it grants Mai five Flame Stocks that she then uses to power up her special moves and her level 1 and level 2 supers.

Her level 2 super lacks strike and throw invincibility, but it can pass through projectiles and gives Mai some great corner carry for her troubles. The guide notes that this attack is best used to close out combos, and it can also be performed in the air.

This Mai Street Fighter 6 character guide video is the abridged version of her actual tutorial section that we’ll be able to find in-game when she is released. With the full guide, we will likely learn more about her normal attacks, her unique attacks, and even strategies that tell you how to actually utilize her tools in battle.

Mai is scheduled for release in Street Fighter 6 on February 5.

You can check out the full Mai Street Fighter 6 character guide video below.

Clive Rosfield was recently became available as the first guest character for Tekken 8. This opens the door for more guests to join in the future.

Over on Twitter, Katsuhiro Harada commented on two characters that he’s apparently a big fan of. Humorously enough, Harada even claimed that he would be willing to trade his job in return for their appearances in Tekken 8.

“If I could invite Spider-Man and Deadpool as guests, I’d be willing to quit my job in exchange,” said Harada on the matter.

These two characters are both owned by Disney, the parent company of Marvel Comics. It would probably be quite the undertaking to get these two to guest star in a game like Tekken 8.

If I could invite Spider-Man and Deadpool as guests, I’d be willing to quit my job in exchange. https://t.co/CVvDAoZcT3

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) January 27, 2025

According to Masahiro Sakurai, Sora was the most difficult character to add into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate out of the 86 characters in the game due to him being jointly owned by Square Enix and Disney. Despite Cloud Strife, Hero, and Sephiroth of Square Enix’s properties already being in Smash, Sora required supervision and direction from Square Enix, Disney, and Tetsuya Nomura specifically.

While it’s said that a lot of that difficulty was mostly due to Nomura’s meticulousness, Disney is not exactly known for being the easiest to work with either. This is probably why Harada is joking about his willingness to trade his job for Spider-Man and Deadpool’s inclusion in Tekken 8.

In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Spider-Man tends to be a really mobile character armed with projectiles that can immobilize opponents with. This mobility and play style could be very interesting in a 3D environment like Tekken 8.

Spider-Man would have to be mostly grounded during gameplay in order to give the other characters a fair chance. Even though Devil Jin is capable of flying, he only uses this trait for limited periods of time during certain interactions.

As for Deadpool, we have to imagine that he’d be utilizing blades, firearms, and ordinance to attack opponents with. Though most fighters tend to fight hand-to-hand, this wouldn’t be out of place considering how Clive and Nina use a sword and pistol respectively in Tekken 8.

Deadpool would also need to be able to break the fourth wall, which would lead to some goofy encounters. For example, in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Deadpool has a hyper that has him striking enemies with his own health bar after grabbing it from the user interface.

Considering how open Harada is about wanting Spider-Man and Deadpool in Tekken 8, perhaps it could happen someday. Of course, approval for this arrangement would depend on Bandai Namco and Marvel Comics.

The release of Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series as a DLC challenger marked the end of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s post-launch content. Though this left the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster with a grand total of 86 playable characters, it obviously was impossible to fulfill every fan request.

One such character is Waluigi. Starting with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Waluigi has appeared in the series as an Assist Trophy and has pretty much behaved identically in later iterations. Waluigi ended up being disconfirmed very early on after the initial reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its very first Assist Trophy showcase.

This revelation actually caused a bit of a backlash from some fans of the franchise. It’s bizarre to think that Masahiro Sakurai, Director of the Super Smash Bros. franchise, actually had to block some people due to the harassment he was receiving over on Twitter about Waluigi’s exclusion.

Regardless, the Waluigi situation ended up spawning a lot of memes. While there were plenty of fans that legitimately wanted the character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, there were also those that were simply perpetuating the joke.

Eventually, Reggie Fils-Aime, the then President of Nintendo of America, was asked about Waluigi during an interview with Waypoint. Fils-Aime said that any decision regarding the character would ultimately be up to Masahiro Sakurai himself.

“We look at all of the feedback and share with the devs and certainly Mr. Sakurai will be aware of the groundswell of support that appeared for a Waluigi,” said Fils-Aime. “And in the end it’s his decision to make.”

Leading up to this, a meme suggesting that Nintendo outright hated Waluigi (despite being their own creation) was circulating online. Fils-Aime was asked about this directly, but he revealed that it wasn’t true and that Waluigi was actually his personal favorite character to play as in Mario Tennis Aces.

“Just because you try hard doesn’t mean you’ll make it into battle.” — Masahiro Sakurai

Eventually, a fan made a joke online indicating that Sakurai believed that the fan demand for Waluigi was “insincere.” Though Sakurai never actually made a comment like this, that declaration would often be falsely attributed to him.

Looking back, the only thing notable that Sakurai has said about Waluigi in Super Smash Bros. was during a Miiverse post for Super Smash Bros. 4 that revealed that the character would be returning as an Assist Trophy from Brawl.

“Just because you try hard doesn’t mean you’ll make it into battle,” said Sakurai on the subject.

Click images for larger versions

Overall though, there’s never been any evidence to suggest that Sakurai has ever seriously considered Waluigi for a playable slot in a Super Smash Bros. entry. Of course, that could someday change with future iterations in the series.

Nintendo only just recently officially unveiled the Switch 2. As of right now, we only know that Mario Kart will be part of the new console’s library.

Incidentally, Masahiro Sakurai revealed that he’s been working on a secret game project since April 2022. We don’t know much about this game project yet, but Sakurai also told fans that he whipped up the proposal for it back in July 2021 while he was still juggling the DLC development for Kazuya and Sora for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

If Sakurai really is working on the next Super Smash Bros. for the Switch 2, then it feels like Waluigi could be considered as a serious candidate this time around. Should this game get announced, we likely won’t have to wait too long as Waluigi will likely either be shown as a character or immediately disconfirmed as an Assist Trophy like before.

A small glimpse of the future for the Virtua Fighter series?

It’s crazy to think that Virtua Fighter 5 first showed up in the arcades in Japan back in July 12, 2006. Nearly 19 years later, Sega is still updating the game with their latest version of the game, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. At long last, Virtua Fighter 5 is now available on the PC.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. offers rollback netcode, 4K visuals, and a new balance patch for the first time in 13 years. This is just a taste of what’s to come as Sega has also recently announced that development has already begun on a new Virtua Fighter project.

Although I’m a complete newcomer to the series, I have to admit that what I’ve seen of the new Virtua Fighter looks very interesting. Sega was kind enough to give me a review copy of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. a few days before it was released to give me an opportunity to learn the ropes.

As mentioned before, one of the main features that the R.E.V.O. version is adding to Virtua Fighter 5 is the rollback netcode. Unfortunately, online play wasn’t available before launch, but I was able to spot a nifty setting that allows users to adjust the rollback frames in order to best optimize their online experiences (do note that this is labeled as a “beta” feature).

Despite this, I still had access to the game’s training mode, arcade mode, and versus mode (though with nobody around for me to play against). Within the training mode, I found a very useful tutorial function that teaches how to play the game.

On the surface, Virtua Fighter 5 appears as a simple game to jump into. There are only three buttons that do anything — punch, kick, and guard. By default, the other buttons just serve as macros of commands consisting of the three aforementioned inputs.

In reality, Virtua Fighter 5 sports some pretty intense execution requirements. While the game is easy to pick up, truly mastering it is something that will prove to be quite the time investment due to its intense depth.

As for the arcade mode, it offers players the opportunity to practice against the CPU, but is fairly barebones otherwise. The player must play through a set number of matches, but doesn’t come with any sort of story attached to it.

Of course, it’s amusing to note that there was a non-playable boss at the end that pretty much just destroyed me before ending my arcade runs after just one attempt. It’s been a good while since I last got “one-and-done’d” by an CPU like that, but there it is.

Virtua Fighter 5 was built for the arcades and it definitely shows. Having said that, it’s important to understand that the developers have already talked about how they’re building the next Virtua Fighter for home consoles, to the point that they’re not even thinking of an arcade port right now.

Regardless, Virtua Fighter is pretty interesting for what I’ve been able to do within it so far, but it will be necessary to play against opponents online in order for me to say anything about how good the netcode feels. Still, I think it’s worth picking up both for longtime players of the series and those of us wanting just jumping in for the first time with the announcement of the new entry that’s eventually coming out.

Click images for larger versions

It comes down to timing and discussions

King of Fighters 15 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves producer, Yasuyuki Oda, was asked if the company has any more crossover plans with Tekken in the future. While Oda doesn’t outright state anything is in the works, he offers the parameters that SNK looks at when considering to do a crossover.

Geese Howard was added as a playable character into Tekken 7 back in 2017, and SNK has had a tremendous amount of character crossover appearances, like Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui in Street Fighter 6, and Terry also showing up in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. SNK is often considered to be the kings of crossovers in fighting games.

Famitsu: Outside of Street Fighter, for example with something else popular like the Tekken series, do you think there’s any potential to do more crossovers there?

Oda: First of all, we don’t have any general plans of ‘wanting to collaborate with other games’. If there’s something we want to do, we go through various discussions about it, but since it’s between two different companies, it has to fit timing-wise for both which makes it difficult to actually realize.

Famitsu: But there’s no lack of will from your end.

Oda: That’s right. But there has to be merit for both sides. If the timing doesn’t add up, it’s going to end up being a detriment, and for players they’re also going to say ‘There’s still so many of your own characters we want to see, why are you adding ones from other games?’, right? Trying to balance that is quite difficult, I think.

A handful of months back, Oda spoke about having plans as far as Season 3 for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, so it’ll be interesting to see if we get some crossover characters in SNK’s latest game, later on down the road.

Translated by Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor via Famitsu.

Iconic re-imagining of moves emerged due to limits that were placed on the developers

Back in the day, the Marvel vs. Capcom series and its predecessors weren’t looked upon fondly for their game balance, and as it turns out, there was a very good reason for this.

Citing lack of time to adjust the game’s balance, the development staff put their focus on making the gameplay very flashy, adding iconic moves and having a good tempo in the 1996 release of X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

“Due to lack of time, we basically abandoned balancing entirely, but the location tests got amazingly positive feedback and before development even ended we were asked if we could do a sequel,” wrote former Capcom staffer, Atsushi Tomita, about X-Men vs. Street Fighter, where he served as a Planner.

“Our focus was on making it very flashy and feeling good to see extreme animations when you unleash your moves, and having a gameplay tempo that felt good as well. We put our all into realizing this in our short development period,” he said.

This contrasts heavily with fighting game titles in the modern era, where significant resources and time are invested into making these games as balanced as the developers can possibly make them.

Previously, the developers had said that Marvel’s lack of popularity in Japan gave them a ton of freedom, but even internally at Capcom, some people weren’t fans of how the Street Fighter characters were being used in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

“‘A game like this shouldn’t be known by anyone and just disappear quietly,’ (since it was believed it would tarnish Street Fighter’s image),” wrote Tomita on what he had heard from his fellow Capcom staffers back then, before the Versus series took off and became a huge hit.

“The reason [the previous games] didn’t become a hit in Japan was because of lack of familiarity with the [Marvel] characters and basically being something nobody had asked for, but by adding Street Fighter characters this changed and we didn’t really do any changes to the system itself besides adding character switches (tags),” he said about X-Men vs. Street Fighter following up Marvel Super Heroes.

With a heavy focus on over the top gameplay and not being worried about balance, the developers behind X-Men vs. Street Fighter had a lot of freedom, which they used to redefine some iconic moves.

“The character designers at the time all wanted to focus on characters and pushed things like effect design off on the newbies, but Mr. Sagata on our team who was in charge of effects actually surprisingly liked doing them and was very good at it,” noted Tomita.

“We thought that if we put some extra effort into this area, this is somewhere we could compete with the mainline [Street Fighter] series, so we attached new effects to all of the Street Fighter Alpha characters.

“The first thing Mr. Sagata showed me was a Yoga Fire that reached the end of the screen, and I thought ‘What should I do here?’ but having him show me something as amazing as this, I felt like I had no choice but to say OK and just figure out the balancing of it later,” Tomita said. “And like that, the effects just became more and more extreme and it kept escalating.”

“Ryu’s Hadoken, that was initially his Shinkuu Hadoken. His regular Hadoken was smaller, but as we added flashy effects on all the other characters, his felt really too plain. With that in mind, we figured ‘Well, he might as well shoot a beam, then! Shinkuu Hadoken Beam!’, and that’s how the current one was created.

You can also check out how Arthur from Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts was originally planned for the first Marvel vs. Capcom game but this plan fell through.

Translations provided by Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor.

• Total Disrespect – Taunt 4 Times in a match

• Jumping Gets You Nowhere – Win without jumping

• Klean Sweep – Win while having performed exactly 13 Sweeps

• Get Over Here Already – Win as Scorpion and do a Fatality or an Animality

• Flipping Out – Flip Stance exactly 16 times and win the match

• Up & Away – Perform 5 Uppercuts exactly in one match and win

• No Elder God – Get first hit against Raiden

• I Make The Rules – Double Flawless as Liu Kang

• No Luna – Double Flawless as Reptile

• Fire & Ice – Do a 400 Damage combo using Scorpion and Subzero Kameo

• Ice & Fire – Do a 5 Hit Combo as Subzero using Scorpion Kameo

• Perfect Kouple – As Johnny Cage have Sonya as your Kameo & Double Flawless

• Get The Horns – As Shao Kahn let Motaro do the Fatal Blow (Press R1 during fatal blow)

• Hip Hop 4 Ever – Jump exactly 22 times and win the match

• Yeet!!! – Throw exactly 7 times and win the match

• This Is Where You Fall Down – Lose to Johnny Cage with less than 9 seconds left

• Timed Out – Lose by running out of time

• You Suck – Lose to Shao Kahn on the Final Round when he has 1% health

• I’m Down Too – Win by Spamming Down 2 (Uppcercut) Into Brutality and one Punch

• Fists Of Fury – Win by using Punches Only

• Kicking It – Win by using Kicks Only

• Sans Jade – Win by using Front Kicks only

• Losing Is Winning – Lose without doing anything

• Keep Kalm & Finish – Press 0 buttons in round 1, win round 2 and 3.

• Demonic Duo – Use Jataaka’s Blessing on Ashrah until you regain an entire super meter

• Frosty!!! – Use kameo subzero to freeze yourself and let Enemy attack you and get frozen

• Toasty!!! – Use Flame Aura 3 times on yourself & the enemy

• Ka Ballin – Land 7 Mileena Ball Rolls

• Hat Trick – Hit your enemy with every hat from you and your Kameo including Upwards Hat

• Fatal Finish – Do 1 Fatality with 5 characters

• You Finish Yet??? – Do 5 Fatalities with 1 character

• Inner Beast – Do 2 animalities with 1 character

• Shaolin Monks – Klassic Ladder as Liu Kang With Kung Lao Kameo

• Door Buster – Succeed in baraka’s Test Your Might (Chapter 5 – Trapped sub chapter) in Story Mode

• Climb The Pyramid – Replay Chapter 15 and reach the top of the Pyramid

• Challenge Accepted – Earn 20 points from Towers of Time Challenges

• Quest Keeper – Complete a Daily Challenge 2 times

Here we go again…

At long last, Nintendo has finally unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2. The trailer has basically confirmed almost everything that the most established leaks and rumors have suggested for the upcoming hybrid console.

We also recently received word from Masahiro Sakurai himself that he’s apparently been working on some secret game project since April 2022, but was understandably unwilling to divulge too many more details beyond that. Could this secret game project be the next iteration in the Super Smash Bros. series?

Thus far, there’s only one game for the Switch 2 that we truly know anything about. During that new trailer, Nintendo showed off what appears to be a new Mario Kart. This is most likely going to be called “Mario Kart 9.”

However, it’s currently unknown if Nintendo is even planning for a new Super Smash Bros. entry right now. Of course, it certainly would make sense for them to do so considering that it was the third best-selling game on the Switch.

Regardless, there’s enough reasons for fans to believe that the next Super Smash Bros. is Sakurai’s secret game project. Just like with almost all the previous games, we should probably expect a number of leaks and rumors about it until something is officially confirmed.

As such, Hungrybox has recently released a video covering one of the first supposed “leaks” that seem to indicate that another Super Smash Bros. title is in fact in the works. Hungrybox himself had some interesting comments to add to the discussion as well.

This leak comes from 4chan, which is a site where anybody can post anonymously. While it might seem unlikely that anyone on 4Chan has the inside scoop at Nintendo, it’s been pointed out that the big leak that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s big theme of “Everyone Is Here” was actually posted on 4chan days before it was officially unveiled.

According to this individual, every character will once again be returning, just like with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Although Sakurai himself wanted to trim down the roster, Nintendo and Bandai Namco supposedly pushed for a repeat of what made Super Smash Bros. Ultimate so successful.

Characters such as Link and Samus are getting some reworks to their movesets based on recent releases such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Metroid Dread. Another examples suggests that Cloud Strife’s specials from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be making their way into the game.

Other characters such as Ryu, Ken, Bayonetta, Kazuya, and Ganondorf are getting cosmetic updates to make them look like how they do in Street Fighter 6, Bayonetta 3, Tekken 8, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. We may see their previous looks as alternate costumes.

It’s also noted that Donkey Kong’s reworked appearance will be based on how he looks in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Of course, this feels like a fairly safe bet to make considering that the aforementioned Mario Kart trailer already teased this rework of Donkey Kong. Ultimately, anybody who wanted to make a fake leak could easily include this information.

There will be a story mode that functions similar to how World of Light operated in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but basically with The Subspace Emissary’s story-telling approach. Rather than just the minimum amount of cutscenes that we saw in World of Light, there will supposedly be an hour of cutscenes contained within it.

Since every character is returning again, the number of newcomers will once again be small. This time, we’re supposedly getting Waluigi, Toon Zelda, Naoh & Mio, Sol Badguy, Crash Bandicoot, and either Ceruledge or Armarouge as the Pokémon rep. Paper Mario will apparently be day 1 DLC for those that buy the game early.

However, it’s interesting to note that Hungrybox himself claims to have a contact that’s also been telling him about a new Super Smash Bros. being in the works behind the scenes. Different from this, the only characters that he’s heard about are Waluigi and Geno.

Finally, the leak mentions that “Super Smash Bros. 6” will be released sometime in Summer 2026. This would give the game an even longer development period than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

While this leak could very well end up being fake, it’s interesting to see that these sort of rumors are already beginning to pop up. If there really is a new Super Smash Bros. entry on the horizon, we should probably be prepared for more rumors just like this one.

Frosty Faustings XVII is the big tournament that’s been capitating the attention of fighting game fans over the weekend. Mortal Kombat 1 is one of the games that featured a tournament there.

An amusing situation occurred after FSP|Han Rashid eliminated VLE|EpicZoopa in the top 8 portion of the bracket on the losers side. It was an extremely close set, so Han Rashid and his friends had a pretty epic popoff moment following the conclusion of it all.

During this popoff, it would appear that they bumped into the table that held the game and stream setup. Evidently, this was a fairly flimsy table as this resulted in almost everything on the table falling off.

This momentarily caused the stream to lose its signal, but it managed to recover quickly enough. However, the television and PlayStation 5 weren’t as lucky.

By this point, you can see the shocked and nervous expressions seen on everyone’s faces. It would be for the best for everyone involved if nothing ended up breaking from the interaction.

A photo taken of the aftermath gives us a better look at why everyone was looking so nervous afterwards. You can see everything just lying on the floor as people rush to pick everything up.

Check it all out below:

WE DON’T POPOFF NO MORE IN FIGHTING GAME TOURNAMENTS…. WE BREAK EVERYTHING ON STAGE pic.twitter.com/1I03OBDqGr

— MF$layer (@MFSlayer) January 25, 2025

LMFAOAOAOAOAOOOOOO @ElhaanR pic.twitter.com/q4LNSpLBfv

— KGE | bng @ Frosty Faustings 2025 (@bngFGC) January 25, 2025