Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

The Street Fighter Alpha series was originally released as a way of lowering the player skill required as one of its design goals, which is frequently regarded as a bad idea in fighting game circles. Despite this, the Alpha series took off after its initial release 1995, and has become a favorite of many since that time.

Enter S-Tier, who has created beautiful tapestries of the cover artwork for both Street Fighter Alpha 1 and 2, based on their love of the series.

These tapestries are over 5ft in size, 62×62 inches, and because they’re zoomed in, it actually depicts Ryu, Ken and Akuma in larger than what their real-life counterparts would be from the Street Fighter Alpha entries. They will fit over a queen-sized bed as well.

The tapestries will set you back about $170 USD, which includes taxes. The images are woven into the fabric and you can see the outstanding detail in the close up shots below.

“Unlike most tapestries in the market, ours are made in the USA, and are a lot more durable, so I just use a push pin to put it into the wall,” said Christian Davis, the founder and creative director of S-Tier.

“Since the artwork is woven into the fabric, you don’t have to worry about anything peeling or scraping off,” he said. Check out the video and the images below of these two tapestries.

Click images for larger versions

With a handsewn leather label, recycled cotton and images woven into the fabric–these made-in-the-USA tapestries are a great find for Street Fighter fans. S-TIER’s tapestries can be pinned to the wall or used as a picnic blanket during the spring!

Now Available! pic.twitter.com/4LPnLlo3CS

— OFFICIAL S-TIER (@official_stier) January 3, 2025

During The Game Awards 2024 ceremony, Sega announced that a new Virtua Fighter was in development via a special sneak peek trailer. Though Virtua Fighter 5 has featured many remakes and updates, it’s been nearly 18 years since the latest numbered iteration in the series was released.

Since then, much about this new Virtua Fighter remains shrouded in mystery, but Sega did recently tease some key details in a sit down with Famitsu. The article is in Japanese, but luckily we have Nicholas MajinTenshinhan Taylor providing us with his top tier translations as usual.

In the interview, the developers explain how they will compete with Street Fighter and Tekken in this modern era of fighting games. Of course, the developers acknowledge that this will be no easy task.

“On that note, when it comes to Virtua Fighter and the story around it, it feels similar to K-1 to me.” — Masayoshi Yokoyama

We recently took notice of a leaked image of the new Virtua Fighter that seemingly displayed an extra gauge within the user interface during gameplay. Many have theorized that this could be some sort of EX or super gauge, but there’s also the possibility that it might just be a stun bar.

Regardless, it would seem that we won’t have to worry about Virtua Fighter reworking its identity to be more like Street Fighter or Tekken. In other words, the developers have explained that they intend to have Virtua Fighter’s revolve around “plain and honest” fighting techniques.

“On that note, when it comes to Virtua Fighter and the story around it, it feels similar to K-1 to me,” said Masayoshi Yokoyama, Sega executive and Sega CS Research and Development No. 1 head.

“K-1 was originally a straight-laced karate organization event started by Kazuyoshi Ishii. The K-1 fighters would use karate, kickboxing or things that had been around for a long time and there wasn’t anything new,” continued Yokoyama. “The entertainment of the matches was quite different from something like pro wrestling, there wasn’t anything flashy and it was a very plain fight. But by adding in the path and story which had led the fighters to this point, it became top level entertainment.”

“So rather than change the rules or fill the screen with flashy things, we’d like to keep it plain and honest and trying to enhance that side of it as its draw. From my perspective, that’s what we have to do.” — Masayoshi Yokoyama

Essentially, the developers are indicating that Virtua Fighter is intended to be closer to the fighting techniques of the real world. We won’t be seeing a character suddenly throwing a fireball during a match despite what’s been working for Street Fighter and Tekken.

“That’s why you can look at games that have a Hadoken or flashy special moves like a Pro Wrestling-type of entertainment while the entertainment that Virtua Fighter is aiming for would be closer to what K-1 was,” declared Yokoyama.

“So rather than change the rules or fill the screen with flashy things, we’d like to keep it plain and honest and trying to enhance that side of it as its draw. From my perspective, that’s what we have to do.”

With the aforementioned leaked image, many longtime Virtua Fighter fans were worried that the series would take on these flashier techniques that we’ve seen in Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat. Ultimately though, it seems that Sega intends to compete with other modern fighting games by sticking to their roots.

Indeed, during the short gameplay sequence shown to us during The Game Awards 2024 trailer, Akira (now wearing a fedora and coat) is seen engaging in a skirmish against someone who was initially believed to be Sarah Bryant, but is actually known as “Stella.”

During this gameplay snippet, we only saw Akira and Stella throwing out realistic moves that we’d expect from the Virtua Fighter franchise. The two remained relatively close to one another, indicating that the new title may emphasize rush down.

Of course, neither fighter threw out a fireball or something one might expect from Street Fighter or Tekken. It was a segment that could easily be recognized as being Virtua Fighter.

There’s still a lot about this upcoming fighting game that we don’t know about just yet, but we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more reveals as they happen.

We’ve seen a number of clips from Rde that has him reenacting a number of different fighting game moves and mannerisms in real life. However, one of his latest clips is… something else entirely.

Essentially, Rde attempts to recreate Kirby’s moveset and other interactions from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Of course, this presents an interesting challenge considering that Kirby only vaguely resembles a humanoid character.

Kirby is effectively a head with little nubs attached that are supposed to be his arms and legs. Needless to say, it wouldn’t be enough for Rde to simply perform Kirby’s movements in real life.

Ultimately, Rde decides to duck his head into a pink shirt with Kirby’s face at the front. His arms protrude from out of the sleeves and then bend back into them, resulting in only the elbows being exposed.

Though Kirby is supposedly only eight inches tall, he’s scaled up with the rest of the fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Still, he’s considered to be one of the shortest characters in the game. To represent this, Rde bends his legs for the entirety of the video, performing each action while crouched.

Rde ends up showcasing Kirby’s taunt, down tilt, down throw, rapid jab combo, and up special. In certain segments, the video is clearly being sped up so that Rde can match the speed in which Kirby is seen attacking.

Check it all out below… if you dare:

pic.twitter.com/aLDZYdqs4Y

— rde (@rde_irl) January 2, 2025

From speaking with various fighting game community developers through the years, they’ve told me that one of the most intense debates that happens within their companies surrounds who will be included on the roster when a game launches.

These fires burn hot within the community itself, and you can only imagine how passionate the developers must be when they know that it takes 6 months to make a base character model, and about 4 months to create a signature move.

Back in the 1990s, when Capcom was working on what would eventually be called Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel had very strict requirements on who had to be included on their side of the game’s roster, specifically Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Hulk.

“When we were starting the development of Marvel vs. Capcom, the contract stated that the four representative characters for Marvel had to be Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Hulk (meaning that these characters were essentially the faces of Marvel and were not to be excluded under any circumstance),” wrote the game’s producer, Kenji Kataoka, back in 1998.

It wasn’t just the roster that was under strict guidelines, as the colors they could wear in prior and future games would face scrutiny from Marvel.

“For player two colors, back then Marvel didn’t really give us the OK on any of our suggestions,” wrote Atsushi “Tomichin” Tomita, who worked as a planner on several Versus Capcom fighting games.

“Just the slightest variations of the first player colors were all that passed their checks, but they gradually become more lenient,” he said about X-Men Children of the Atom, which was released in North America in 1995.

Marvel wasn’t the only side of things where intense debates took place, as Capcom wanted to include some human characters as well, and settled on Sir Arthur (Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts), Strider, and Captain Commando as candidates for the first Marvel vs. Capcom.

“From home console games, we of course chose Mega Man, but Capcom had a lot of arcade games as well. When doing our research, we realized that there weren’t as many original humanoid characters as we thought, though,” wrote Tomita.

“We worked in the same building as the Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts team so we chose Arthur, and Strider Hiryu was popular in our country so we added him based on that (not personal feelings). Captain Commando had the company’s name on him so we decided we could push him a bit.

“However, for Arthur from Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts, my superior Funami-san didn’t allow it,” wrote Tomita. “I think he felt the art styles were too different.”

Arthur would later see his playable debut in 2011, as part of the base roster in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

The lack of X-Men characters is often attributed as one of the reasons that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite didn’t match sales expectations, which is ironic considering that Wolverine was one of the must-have characters that Capcom was contractually required to include roughly a couple decades before. Apparently, Marvel had no such requirement for MvC: Infinite.

Fans may be surprised to hear how much debate and red tape happens behind the scenes when it comes to their favorite fighting game characters. While not all cases are highly intense, roster debates can be a polarizing and challenging obstacles for development teams to overcome.

You can vote in our poll as well

A long-running debate in the fighting game community is which title is the most difficult to play. Taking aim at this topic, the Esports World Cup asked numerous pros if Street Fighter or Tekken is more difficult.

NASR|BigBird, NASR|AngryBird, Falcons|MenaRD, FLY|Punk, SR|NuckleDu, Tokido and others all weigh in on the topic, and give a couple of reasons as to why they believe that’s the case.

This is a debate that goes clear back to the 1990s, where proponents of 3D fighting games would often argue that due to the amount of moves in those games, their difficulty curves are more arduous.

Proponents of Street Fighter would often cite the active player base and a focus on controlling space in a 2D environment.

You can check out the video below from the Esports World Cup which has the thoughts from the pros they asked.

Also, feel free to vote in our poll which asks the same question or our community and sound off in the comments with your thoughts.

Let the battle begin

What’s more difficult: Street Fighter or Tekken? pic.twitter.com/UDjOppFswv

— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) January 2, 2025

The best moves in fighting games are typically the hardest to execute upon. For example, a super is known to deal far more damage than a typical normal or special move, but requires about double the number of motions that of a special (though these sort of attacks also spend a lot of meter).

Jmcrofts recently released a video that had him reviewing many of the “impossible inputs” that he was told about. While some of these attacks felt truly impossible for Jmcrofts, there were a number of them that were surprisingly easy.

It’s said that King Piccolo’s “Maou Rebirth Ranbu” is the most difficult move to perform in Super Dragon Ball Z. From the game menu, the motion looks like a literal star. It ends up being a tricky attack to perform, but Jmcrofts is able to showcase it quite a few times.

The same couldn’t be said of one of Kazuya Mishima’s combos in Tekken 8. Jmcrofts claims that even many of the best players in the world are unable to perform this interaction.

After landing a counter hit with a specific move, the player must then launch the opponent with an Electric Wind God Fist. The catch? Every single input of the Electric Wind God Fist must be performed with frame perfect timing and without any buffering.

In other words, the player must hold every direction on the joy stick for just a single frame going from forward, down, and then down forward while pressing the attack button at the same time. After many attempts, Jmcrofts concludes that he’s not able to get the combo to work at all.

Check it all out in the video below:

Throughout the Super Smash Bros. series, there have been a number of characters that have been considered in previous entries that then got scrapped before finally joining the roster later on. This leads us to believe that other characters that have been in the consideration stages could have a chance in future iterations.

However, characters that have been in Masahiro Sakurai’s thoughts twice before seem a little less likely. For example, the chances for Heihachi Mishima feel very low as he was conceptualized for both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate before ultimately losing out to Kazuya Mishima.

On the other hand, Geno was considered for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, but never came to fruition for some reason. Considering the number of Square Enix reps in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well as the recent release of the Super Mario RPG for the Switch, Geno’s chances now feel higher than ever.

There’s one more challenger that was briefly thought about twice, but has never actually been playable in Super Smash Bros. That character is Takamaru from the Japanese exclusive The Mysterious Murasame Castle (it did later get released abroad via the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014).

The Mysterious Murasame Castle was originally released back on April 14, 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. It was also remade into Famicom Mini Series: The Mysterious Murasame Castle for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, though it sported virtually no changes from the original game.

Compared to The Legend of Zelda, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is a pretty obscure game even in Japan. Regardless, Takamaru does have an important place in Nintendo’s history as he is their first samurai protagonist.

Despite hailing from a fairly unknown series, references to the samurai can be found in Captain Rainbow, WarioWare D.I.Y., Samurai Warriors 3, Nintendo Land, and Super Mario Maker 2.

“Which has a higher possibility… The Mysterious Murasame Castle getting another entry in its series, or Takamaru joining the fight in the next Smash Brothers? Both are extremely unlikely (dang).” — Masahiro Sakurai

Quickly after the release of Super Smash Bros. 64, Masahiro Sakurai began secretly polling fans in Japan about which characters that they’d like to see for a sequel under the guise that a sequel wasn’t being planned even though it actually was. As such, this swordsman’s name ended up coming up in one of Sakurai’s responses to fans.

“Which has a higher possibility… The Mysterious Murasame Castle getting another entry in its series, or Takamaru joining the fight in the next Smash Brothers?” said Sakurai according to Source Gaming’s translation. “Both are extremely unlikely (dang).”

At the time, the Fire Emblem series was exclusive to Japan, but Marth and Roy still got added to Super Smash Bros. Melee as the franchise was at least popular. Takamaru, however, wasn’t quite as relevant.

Many years later, Takamaru would actually make his debut in the Super Smash Bros. series, but as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4. He would return as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There also exists a DLC costume that effectively dresses the Mii Swordfighter as the character.

“I thought about having Takamaru as a player character for a second… but it was probably impossible due to a lack of popularity.” — Masahiro Sakurai

During an interview (along with Takamaru’s voice actor in Super Smash Bros. 4), Masahiro Sakurai revealed that Takamaru was once again in consideration for a spot on the roster. This idea fell through as he was still lacking in terms of his popularity.

“I thought about having Takamaru as a player character for a second… but it was probably impossible due to a lack of popularity,” said Sakurai on the subject.

Despite this, the voice actor in Super Smash Bros. 4 (who had his voice clips recycled for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), Tomokazu Sugita, was thankful for the opportunity to do voicework as Takamaru and seemed oddly hopeful about the character’s future chances.

“Popularity, huh… I made an appearance! I made an appearance! For popularity abroad… I won’t give up,” said Sugita in Takamaru’s voice.

Popularity, huh… I made an appearance! I made an appearance! For popularity abroad… I won’t give up” — Tomokazu Sugita, voice actor for Takamaru in Super Smash Bros.

Ultimately though, the character’s popularity hasn’t changed much since then. For Takamaru’s chances to increase in any meaningful way, a new game in The Mysterious Murasame Castle series would need to be released, but even that doesn’t feel particularly likely.

Indeed, his most modern appearance was actually in the Super Smash Bros. series as an Assist Trophy. Despite all of this, it’s interesting to note that, unlike other Assist Trophies that reference characters with retro backgrounds, Takamaru was given an updated look.

It’s not an uncommon thing for Sakurai to go back on some of the things that he’s said. While the samurai’s odds still feel exceptionally low at the moment, it’s not a complete impossibility.

Notably, Masahiro Sakurai recently informed fans that he had been working on a secret game project in which he originally wrote up the game proposal for back in July 2021 and started development back in April 2022. Curiously, the game has not been revealed yet.

This seems to line up with what Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said of the Switch successor. Nintendo’s new device is slated to be revealed sometime before March 31, 2025.

Needless to say, many are speculating that the secret game project that Sakurai has been working on is a new Super Smash Bros. entry for the “Switch 2.” Traditionally, there’s been a new iteration in the series for every console since the debut on the Nintendo 64.

When this does inevitably happen with the new console, there will surely be some new faces on the character select screen. As mentioned before, scrapped ideas and concepts have a way of making it into the Super Smash Bros. franchise eventually.

We’ll just have to see if Takamaru is able to defy expectations and make it into the next entry, whether that be Sakurai’s alluded to project or another game down the line.

Choosing the right Kameo in Mortal Kombat 1 might be just as important as picking your character. Perhaps even more so considering that a good Kameo can make or break a combatant’s entire game plan.

Inevitably, one simple slip up can cause everything to fall apart even if the idea initially seemed good on paper. Needless to say, X-Azeez recently posted an amusing clip that showcased a player completely missing his setup and losing because of it.

Sikander, the Sub-Zero player in the clip, was in a pretty rough spot considering that he only had about a sliver of life remaining while his opponent had about 40% of their life bar left. Despite this, he still had a pretty major advantage as his opponent was now trapped in the corner.

Though things were overall looking bad for Sub-Zero, one good opening could’ve potentially led to a comeback. As such, Sikander didn’t seem ready to give up just yet.

During one of Sub-Zero’s combo sequences, Cyrax was called as a Kameo to perform his self destruct. While this can be a powerful tool, the controlling player has to be aware that the explosion from the attack is capable of damaging both players, though less damage will be dealt to the ally fighter.

In hopes of keeping his opponent trapped in the corner with the self destruct process inevitably going off, Sub-Zero opted to use a dive kick against a blocking opponent. However, it was at this moment that the opponent decided to simply jump out.

Inevitably, this caused Sub-Zero and Kenshi to switch places. Now, Sub-Zero was trapped in the corner with a bomb that was about to go off. Check it all out in the clip below:

… pic.twitter.com/YOo2IelroU

— X-Azeez (@X_AZEEZ3) January 2, 2025

Rooflemonger shares his list of favorites

Super moves have been a staple in fighting games for a very long time now. These powerful techniques generally utilize a meter that must be filled throughout a fight, and once full, allow a fighter to unleash a devastating attack that is often big, flashy, and cinematic.

From Street Fighter to Tekken, most fighting games nowadays have super attacks, and there have been hundreds of fighting games over the years that come packed with their own version of these maneuvers. But which ones are the best of all? Rooflemonger recently put together a video that lists the top 10 super moves in fighting games, and there are some really strong picks on his list.

Rooflemonger begins by disclosing the criteria he used for selecting this top 10. Obviously, this type of list is subjective, so there’s a good chance something you think should be on here doesn’t make an appearance.

That having been said, Roof doesn’t focus on simply raw power of the super here, but instead takes into consideration things like how cool, funny, or memorable they are. Supers that are a strong showcase of the character performing the attack are also high priority.

The #10 spot on this list goes to Doomsday’s “Mass Destruction” super in Injustice: Gods Among Us. NetherRealm Studios is known for having big, cinematic attacks that have a lot of attention to detail put into them in their fighting games, and Doomsday’s is a great example of that.

Mass Destruction sees the Superman villain smash his opponent through the floor and proceed to pummel his foe all the way through the earth’s core until both fighters appear on the other side of the planet. He smashes through the surface and into the ocean before bringing the opponent back the way he came, pummeling them all the way back through to the starting point.

A simpler, but even more memorable super can be found among Terry Bogard’s move list, and it is none other than Buster Wolf. This trademark of the popular SNK fighter is among the most memorable attacks in fighting games, and it also happens to feature the character’s most popular catch phrase, “Are you okay?!”

You can check out Rooflemonger’s full list of top 10 super moves in fighting games below. Let us know if you agree, disagree, or if there’s something in particular you feel should have been given a spot on this list.