Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Mortal Kombat 1 just saw its latest DLC character, Conan the Barbarian, added to the playable roster, but all anyone can talk about right now is some character named “Floyd.” Well, as it turns out NetherRealm Studios appears to have hidden a secret fight against a unique opponent — a pink palette swap ninja named, well, Floyd — into the game with the latest patch, and it’s feeling like a true, old fashioned Mortal Kombat hunt.

This is the first time in what feels like ages that we’ve seen a fighting game developer hide something inside one of their titles that didn’t get discovered almost immediately here in the modern age of the internet. This pink Floyd ninja still has not been unlocked through traditional means, but PC modders have already found a way to access him and play as him to learn more about what he can actually do. Potential spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

At the time of writing this, the big Floyd mystery does not appear to have been solved. Here’s what we know so far.

There now exists a secret fight against a mysterious pink ninja named Floyd that can only be accessed when certain criteria are met. We have seen a lot of reports about what that criteria is, but so far, it doesn’t seem like we’ve had anything concrete that has been recreated by another person 1:1.

From the looks of it, Floyd will randomly appear in matches and give you hints at what requirements you need to meet in order to face off against him. If you successfully complete one of his tasks, you’ll see a small notification pop up in-game that says “Floyd” and you’ll hear a quick electric guitar riff that signifies that you did it successfully.

Right now, the community believes that you must complete three of these special Floyd requirements in order to actually fight him, and if you do manage to do so and go on to win the bout, you’ll gain access to a special new grassy field stage.

According to modder TheThiny, there are a total of 37 different clues that Floyd can give you and each has its own criteria for clearing it. At this point, however, it is unclear what the specifics for each clue are, and we don’t know how the whole thing really works.

Updated list – All Floyd Requirements
Can Check During Fight = True means in Fight
= False means during Fatality Sequence.

Once you unlock a requirement, you cannot do it again until you face Floyd. pic.twitter.com/jMjVBDLQye

— thethiny (@thethiny) January 22, 2025

It does seem that different players get different clues, which we’ve seen happen with two players locked in the same fight against each other. But once again, we just don’t know if this means every person has their own set of potential clues that is tied to their copy of the game, or what is going on there exactly.

We do know that TheThiny managed to gain access to the new stage via PC modding, which gives us our first look at the stage in action.

The Stage is indeed real. Footage of the Field stage with @SonicFox. pic.twitter.com/CW0HwUORba

— thethiny (@thethiny) January 22, 2025

Going even further beyond, modder interloko has also been doing some Floyd work behind the scenes and has managed to gain access to a playable version of the fighter. They shared some footage of Floyd in action, and surprisingly, he appears to have a full on move list as well.

Naturally, the majority of Floyd’s attacks are pulled from the other palette swap Mortal Kombat ninjas, though they do appear to have some traits that are unique to the secret fighter.

Even better is that some of Floyd’s moves are clearly named after Pink Floyd songs, such as “Wish You Were Here” for his version of Scorpion’s Spear and “The Wall” where he places a large crystalized wall behind the opponent.

Until we actually solve this modern fighting game mystery, you can check out the footage of Floyd in Mortal Kombat 1 to get a better idea of what he can do.

Mai Shiranui is en route to Street Fighter 6 not only as the game’s next DLC character, but also as the second ever outside guest fighter to join a mainline Street Fighter game in history.

As we draw closer to her early February release date Capcom continues to share more about the Shiranui warrior, like her full theme song which was released just yesterday. Today, Capcom has returned with even more Mai, and this time we get a fresh look at her in World Tour Mode with some details on how to encounter her in this single player experience.

In a new tweet, the official Street Fighter 6 Twitter page shared a couple of new screenshots of Mai from World Tour, the game’s big single player adventure mode.

“She will appear in the new Aokigahara area of World Tour with lots of new missions for you to tackle,” the tweet says. As we discussed in previous articles, Aokigahara is in Japan and acts as Mai’s stage in Fatal Fury 2.

Going further, Capcom also provided some quick details on how you can find and meet Mai herself in World Tour. Doing so will allow you to become her pupil and complete missions for her to progress further within the mode and unlock her Outfit 2.

“In order to meet Mai, become Terry’s student first through the ‘One Fateful Day’ menu at your Hangout,” the official Street Fighter tweet concludes.

As Capcom instructs, you’ll have to become Terry’s student first if you intend to meet Mai and study under her tutelage. One of the screenshots shows you what missions you need to complete before getting to Mai to help you get started once she is officially released.

The other screenshot we see here is of Mai interacting with the main protagonist of World Tour Mode (your avatar) in the new Aokigahara area.

“Let me introduce myself again,” Mai begins in the new World Tour screenshot. “I am Mai Shiranui, successor to the art of Shiranui-style ninjutsu.”

Last week, Capcom unveiled Mai Shiranui’s Street Fighter 6 gameplay trailer which showcased a ton of what she’s capable of. In it, we saw her unique Flame Stocks in action, as well as a handful of interesting references and call backs to the series that she hails from.

Click images for larger versions

Mai is coming to #SF6 on Feb 5!

She will appear in the new Aokigahara area of World Tour with lots of new missions for you to tackle.

In order to meet Mai, become Terry’s student first through the “One Fateful Day” menu at your Hangout. pic.twitter.com/ORouMh5X9Q

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) January 21, 2025

Mai’s official Street Fighter 6 release date is set for February 5.

There’s a whole lot going on today for Mortal Kombat 1 and its fans. Conan the Barbarian, the fifth DLC fighter in this second wave of content, is now available to play via early access for those who purchased the Khaos Reigns expansion.

In addition to this, though, there’s a community-wide search going on (at the time of writing this) for the mysterious pink ninja “Floyd” as there appears to be a hidden fight with him that many players are trying to figure out how to trigger. And while all of this is happening, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has decided to casually drop our first look at one of T-1000’s Fatalities in MK1 in a tweet thread about the current standing of the game.

The T-1000 is the main antagonist of Terminator 2: Judgement Day and is coming to Mortal Kombat 1 as the final main roster DLC character in this second season of content. He is gearing up to follow Conan, and though we have seen some very brief clips of him in-game, today we get a preview of one of his upcoming finishers.

This Twitter thread from Boon basically aims to recap some of the things that have been going on with Mortal Kombat 1 for those who may have missed anything. Boon proceeded to release a series of seven tweets each with details and recent announcements regarding MK1.

For example, the first tweet notes that Conan the Barbarian is here and shares again his official gameplay trailer. “It’s hard to believe that today marks the release of MK1’s ELEVENTH DLC fighter, as Conan the Barbarian joins the roster in early access,” Boon said.

But what’s even more interesting is that just a few tweets down, Boon just… dropped in a look at T-1000’s Fatality. “With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC,” wrote Boon, and naturally, that part about trucking forward is key.

The Fatality preview shows T-1000 madly driving a large truck toward Johnny Cage before mowing him down completely. The clip is only four seconds long, so we don’t have the whole finisher here, but it does appear that a main part of it is on display in this tweet.

This Fatality isn’t just a random scenario that the development team thought might fit the character, of course. In fact, this finisher is directly inspired by the big truck chase scene in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 (portrayed by Robert Patrick in the film and in Mortal Kombat 1) is in pursuit of a young John Connor in hopes of mowing him down just like he does Johnny Cage.

Similar to the film, the truck the advanced cyborg is driving is also beaten up with a cracked windshield and other damages in Mortal Kombat 1, putting NetherRealm Studios’ incredible attention to detail on display once again.

You can check out the preview of one of T-1000’s Fatalities in Mortal Kombat 1 below.

(5 of 7) With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC ! pic.twitter.com/eC3Aqj5KDc

— Ed Boon (@noobde) January 21, 2025

And he apparently comes with special goodies for beating him

Mortal Kombat 1 has steeped itself in rumors and secrets since the very beginning over 30 years ago, and there appears to be a new one on our hands.

Today’s MK1: Khaos Reign update that added Conan the Barbarian seems to have also included a hidden fight against a brand new ninja character who’s been teased for years.

As was pointed out by Super after getting early hands on with Conan, NetherRealm Studios reportedly added Pink Floyd… or just Floyd to the game.

For fulfilling certain objectives during a fight, a pink Floyd icon will appear on the screen along with a couple of electric guitar notes.

The secret floyd fight in MK1 is coming with conan. I somehow activated it but didn’t actually go into the match. I tried to get it again but was not successful.

Watch the full early access conan video here pic.twitter.com/LqfFOyK2ZL

— Super (@lSuper_) January 17, 2025

Since the new update dropped just a bit ago, dataminers were already able to uncover the files and assets for Floyd, pretty much confirming his existence and conclusion.

But as of right now, it doesn’t appear as though anyone has legitimately unlocked the fight itself (or at least shared footage of Floyd online).

Said dataminers like Thethiny and Mortal Kombat Warehouse have also reportedly shared a small kollection of gears and items players can receive for presumably defeating Floyd in a fight.

They’ve also shared Floyd’s assets, which show him dressed in klassic Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s garb except he’s wearing exclusively pink head to toe quite literally.

The origins of Floyd go back to at least 2019 when MK co-creator Ed Boon stated he wanted to add a new ninja to the lore for real.

He followed that up in 2022 by posting online that Boon wants to make a pink ninja and name him Floyd.

And it seems he’s made that a reality now.

Story is developing…

pic.twitter.com/mllsK3cCjh

— thethiny (@thethiny) January 21, 2025

Floyd kombat kard backgrounds & foregrounds pic.twitter.com/9QR9c3vyyf

— Mortal Kombat Warehouse (@MKWarehouse) January 21, 2025

It’s a new year for fighting games, and Mortal Kombat 1 is one of the first to kick things into gear with some new content.

NetherRealm Studios just dropped the patch notes for their big January update for MK1: Khaos Reigns that brings Conan the Barbarian to the stage as well as character changes and more.

With this update, Khaos Reigns expansion owners will gain access to Conan while those looking to pick him up solo are going to have to wait an extra week.

On top of the new beefy character, Age of Conan skins have also been added to the shop for Ashrah, Baraka and Geras.

Kitana, Reiko and Raiden all received new moves as well though there’s even more fighter changes all around.

Havik, Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Cyrax, Sektor and Ghostface have all been handed adjustments too plus eight of the Kameos.

Interestingly, this update adds PlayStation 5 Pro support with Ray Tracing, which can be accessed on PC now also.

You can check out the full list of patch notes below, which can also be found on the official Mortal Kombat website.

Although the Khaos Reigns expansion launched not that long ago in September, Mortal Kombat 1 is already about to receive its third new DLC character of the season very shortly.

NetherRealm Studios has kicked off a round of server maintenance for Mortal Kombat 1 to prepare the game for the arrival of Conan the Barbarian as well as a new update that’ll make more changes to the existing cast.

The server maintenance appears to already be underway, however, the developers never provided a specific time for when the period will start and end like they normally do.

Judging by previous DLC releases and notable updates, the maintenance is likely to last at least a few hours, but typically end around 8 a.m. PST or before 10 a.m. PST.

During this time, all online modes and functionality will remain unavailable including matchmaking, leaderboards, the in-game store and rewards.

Conan himself is obviously the biggest addition of the incoming patch, and he’s bringing some other new toys with him too.

Characters like Reiko, Kitana, and Raiden will be receiving some brand new moves to add to their arsenals and open the door to new combo possibilities.

Like was the case after Ghostface’s release, the next Invasions season will be a repeat of the second one ever to come to MK1, though, it’ll feature some new rewards for Nitara and other characters this time around.

Players can probably expect some new gear and costumes to pop up in the shop as well, which we’ll have to wait and see more on.

Stay tuned for more updates and coverage on Conan and the patch notes once they become available.

Street Fighter 4’s combo system allowed for players to come up with and pull off some really intricate and difficult to perform sequences. Some combos were so tough to do, in fact, that they would go on to be named after the player who introduced the world to them and actually used them in real matches, such as Sako’s legendary and devastating Evil Ryu combo.

One of the main contributors that made certain combos so difficult back then was one-frame links, which basically meant that you had just a single frame window of time to properly perform the input and there was no input buffer like we have in games such as Street Fighter 6. A Balrog combo was recently uploaded to Twitter and has been making the rounds that uses a staggering 14 one-frame links in total ultimately making it one of the most difficult combos the game has ever seen.

This combo was uploaded by Twitter user ushioni_G00, who provided a couple of key details about why it’s so difficult to perform. This is a Balrog combo that works specifically on Blanka while Blanka is crouching, and this foundation sets up the first portion of it.

Before getting into the nitty gritty, the general gist of this crazy combo (which doesn’t look that crazy on the surface) is this. There are a total of 14 one-frame links used throughout the entire thing, and as the uploader explains, this appears to be the most hits we’ve seen so far for Balrog in a single combo without using stun — and there are 34 hits total.

The combo begins by hitting a jump in heavy kick into two crouching light punches, a crouching light kick, and then a light Rush Punch. The most significant part of this intro sequence here is that because Blanka is crouching, Balrog’s Rush Punch ends up hitting meaty due to how the hitbox and hurtbox collide, and hitting with the tail end of the special move allows Rog to continue the combo without having to use any meter.

Right out of the light Rush Punch we see a crouching light kick connect, which leads into a crouching light punch, and then a crouching medium punch — all of these links being one framers.

Using Balrog’s ability to extend his combos with EX Rush Upper for one bar, ushioni_G00 continues the sequence using basically nothing but one frame links between each normal and after the EX Rush Uppers until it all culminates in a final one-frame link from far standing jab into Ultra 1.

This combo is exceptionally hard to do, and if you feel like you want a challenge that will easily eat up your whole day, feel free to give it a try.

ウル4バイソン現時点での最多ヒット数(スタン無し)＋最高難易度コンボ。
34ヒット、0F目押し14回！ pic.twitter.com/872oEyh2yb

— うしおにバイソン (@ushioni_G00) January 13, 2025

VARREL|Rangchu has released a new tier list for Tekken 8. Rangchu is perhaps most famous for winning the Tekken World Tour 2018 Finals with Panda, a low tier in Tekken 7. Even Katsuhiro Harada himself was flabbergasted at this by the end of it all.

Within this new tier list, Rangchu has ranked every combatant in Tekken 8 (including Clive Rosfield, Heihachi Mishima, Lidia Sobieska, and Eddy Gordo) into one of six different tier categories. What’s interesting about this tier list is that Rangchu has an unexpected character sitting at the very top.

It’s not entirely clear what the Korean characters are saying about the tier category that sits above S tier, but Kuma is the only fighter that occupies it. While this might seem like a joke, Rangchu was able to achieve first place with Kuma during the Tekken World Tour 2024 Finals. As such, Rangchu seems to be indicating that Kuma’s top tier position is “pending” at the moment.

Yoshimitsu, Jin, and Nina sit just below Kuma in the S tier group. These combatants are often seen in the top five, but it’s interesting to note that Rangchu is outright stating that they’re better than Dragunov and Feng, who both reside in A tier this time.

Final Fantasy 16’s Clive Rosfield also resides in A tier of Rangchu’s tier list. This implies that Clive is currently the strongest of the DLC characters since Heihachi, Lidia, and Eddy have been placed in A tier or lower.

Although Rangchu was able to make Panda work in Tekken 7, even he acknowledges how difficult it is to win with Panda in Tekken 8. Panda, along with Raven, Devil Jin, and Asuka, can be found at the very bottom of Rangchu’s tier list.

Check it all out below:

Click images for larger versions

SNK’s Mai Shiranui is slated to become the second guest character to ever join a mainline Street Fighter game when she becomes available in Street Fighter 6 on February 5, 2025. With Terry and Mai’s crossover into Street Fighter, the dream of Capcom vs. SNK 3 finally becoming a reality feels like it’s within grasp for many fans.

With Mai Shiranui’s trailer recently dropping, Suncosplays opted to remind her followers that she’s pulled off a stunning cosplay of Mai in the past. Needless to say, the posted photos managed to catch our attention.

In Mai’s most iconic appearance, she tends to wear a red and white kunoichi dress. From the backside, it can be observed that there are tassels that are tied to an obi around her waist.

While most fighters in Fatal Fury and Street Fighter tend to fight barehanded, Mai is actually one of those type of fighters that utilizes a weapon. During gameplay, Mai can attack with and throw butterfly fans.

Overall, Mai’s outfit is extremely revealing. Not only is Mai comfortable wearing it, but it actually serves a specific purpose.

Mai’s attire is designed to distract male opponents to give her an edge during fights. During her idle stance, she tends to sway her body back and forth, which even left the developers awestruck when they first came up with it.

Of course, this tactic doesn’t seem to actually have any real relevance during gameplay, but it’s possible it might distract the human opponent that’s actually controlling the opposing character.

However, it’s funny to think that this attire did seemingly result in Mai’s absence in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In the future, Masahiro Sakurai should be able to address this with Mai’s new appearance in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, which has also become her alternate costume in Street Fighter 6.

With all of that in mind, one has to imagine that there’s a certain boldness required to cosplay as Mai in her default appearance. Despite this, Suncosplays can be seen proudly posing in photos with the attire equipped.

Suncosplays even shows that she’s got the butterfly fans to go with her costume. She ended up doing an amazing job cosplaying as Mai Shiranui.

Check it all out below:

After what felt like an eternity, the Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been revealed. Though the Nintendo Switch 2 might just be the worst kept secret of the gaming sector, there’s a lot to be excited for as many of the leaks surrounding the hybrid device turned out to be spot on. These leaks say a lot about how powerful the Switch 2 will be compared to its predecessor.

During the aforementioned trailer, fans were treated to a sneak peek at a single game for the Switch 2. We weren’t shown too much, but it’s clear that Nintendo is working on what appears to be the ninth iteration in the Mario Kart series that’s set to either be a launch title or a game released early into the Switch 2’s lifecycle.

As many of us already know, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been the undisputed top-selling game on the Nintendo Switch since release. Last we heard, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had achieved 64.27 million sales worldwide as of September 30, 2024, but it’s certainly pushed even more units since then.

Overall, it’s a smart business decision for Nintendo to be paying attention to what’s been working for them with the previous console generation. A new Mario Kart for the Switch 2 will be enough to sell consoles by itself.

Of course, this also implies that Nintendo might intend to promote some of their other biggest hits from the Nintendo Switch for the Switch 2. As such, follow ups for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seem likely.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is known to be the second most popular game on the Switch with a total of 46.45 million units sold. It was originally released on March 20, 2020.

The third best-selling title on the Switch was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s also the best-selling entry in the entire franchise, representing about 45.97% of its total sales by itself. Since it was released on December 7, 2018, it has managed to sell over 35.14 million units worldwide.

Fourth place ended up going to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with 32.29 million sales. However, it should be noted that Breath of the Wild already had a sequel recently released on the Switch hardware with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Although it might be a while until a brand new entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise is released, we’ve heard a number of “leaks” suggesting that Nintendo has been testing a beefed up version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2. Perhaps they’re planning to repackage both titles as a remastered collection.

Finally, Super Mario Odyssey achieved a respectable fifth place finish with 28.5 million sales. There are a few rumors going around that indicate that Nintendo could be working on some sort of “open world” Mario game that’s even bigger than Super Mario Odyssey on the Switch 2.

In any event, Nintendo will likely want to use their top-selling titles from the Nintendo Switch to promote the new console. This is potentially very good news for fans of the Super Smash Bros. franchise.

Incidentally, Masahiro Sakurai revealed not too long ago that he had been working on a secret game project since April 2022. The project proposal for this project was apparently whipped up at “lightning speed” back in July 2021 when Sakurai was still juggling Kazuya and Sora DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Regardless, it’s interesting to note that this mysterious game has been worked on for longer than the period of time that spanned from the start of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s development to the release of its first teaser trailer.

It seems that we’re once again caught in a waiting period for more information regarding the Switch 2. Nintendo is set to potentially reveal more games sometime in April 2025 — which would make it about three years since Sakurai began development on his secret game project.

More than likely, we’ll be finding more out about Sakurai’s secret game project here in April. Though it would be best to temper expectations in case it’s something else entirely, signs are looking very promising for fans of Super Smash Bros.