Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Those who pre-ordered a physical copy of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection were also gifted a special new Marvel vs. Capcom comic that legitimately introduces the likes of Capcom’s Street Fighter characters to the world of the X-Men and Avengers.

Though formidable for sure, the characters of Street Fighter don’t tend to get quite as over the top as those in Marvel, and so it’s relatively interesting to see which Capcom character was chosen to do battle with Thanos, one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel universe. They did, however, and the Capcom representative gave Thanos and other powerful Marvel figures quite the run for their money.

The main big baddie of Street Fighter, M. Bison, does play a prominent role in the 32-page issue as he is juxtaposed quite nicely with Dr. Doom. The two team up (though with a palpable sense of distrust and contingency plan coming from either side) to wreak havoc on everyone under the MvC banner, but Bison is not Capcom’s ultimate champion.

One might think poster boy Ryu might ascend to the top to clash with Thanos, especially if he’s in his stronger than ever post-Street Fighter 5 state, but that isn’t the case either. One character from the Street Fighter universe (sort of) that could feasibly fight Thanos would be Ingrid, a literal goddess, but she’s not exactly canon and everyone seems to hate her, so she wasn’t used.

When it’s all said and done, it’s actually Akuma who winds up clashing with Thanos. The demonic fighter is simultaneously one of the strongest and most beloved characters in all of Street Fighter, and is one of the few that would actually enjoy taking on a nigh-impossible fight with the Mad Titan.

In a likely effort to build up the power of both Thanos and Akuma before they fight, the latter defeats the mighty Wolverine with relative ease. While we get that this is in service to making him feel formidable, we still have a hard time swallowing the idea that Logan might fall so quickly to even a powered up Shin Akuma.

Thanos and Akuma appear evenly matched as they battle, which creates a problem for everyone in the MvC universe as the two threaten to destroy everything a la collateral damage. The fix, eventually provided by Doom, is to open a portal and send the rampaging combatants to an uninhabited dimension where they can roll for the rest of eternity.

Is it believable? Probably not, but given how hype it is to see our favorite MvC characters in an actual MvC comic, we’re more than happy to come along for the ride.

The recent reveal and release of Final Fantasy XVI protagonist Clive Rosfield as the latest DLC character for Tekken 8 has placed fan attention on the horizon of potential as we consider new and imaginative directions the franchise might go as it welcomes increasingly diverse guests.

If the likes of Negan, Akuma, Noctis, or Clive feel like stretches from the norm, Tekken 8 chief Katsuhiro Harada recently reminded IGN that he’s long had his sights on Bandai Namco’s most iconic figure: Pac-Man. What’s more, the stars may have suddenly aligned to allow such a thing to happen.

Pac-Man has already appeared in multiple fighting games, Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken and a few of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. entries, so he’s even thrown down with various Tekken characters in the past.

Harada explains how the yellow circle was actually considered for a mainline Tekken entry some years back, but the concept that would make him fit in better (small characters can be absolute nightmares in fighting games for hitbox reasons, alone) wound up being a deal breaker that he was actually scolded for even considering.

“Many years ago, Iwatani-san, the original creator of Pac-Man, was still in the company when we were here. And I thought about maybe using Pac-Man as a guest character,” Harada starts. “So I had the artist come up with a sketch and it turned out to be that the character had like a Pac-Man head, but the body was this really muscular bodybuilder type… I showed it to Iwatani-san, and Iwatani-san got so upset and scolded me quite heavily.” said Harada to IGN.

So what’s changed since the manifestation of this particular red light? Would the powers that be (and the community) suddenly be okay with an anthropomorphic, muscular take on Mrs. Pac-Man’s husband? Our guess would still be no, but Pac-Man is seeing some modernized action in setting that lends itself surprisingly well to Tekken.

At the Game Awards, the same event Clive was revealed at, Bandai Namco also showcased a trailer for an upcoming Metroidvania style platformer called Shadow Labyrinth. Though you wouldn’t know it by its initial dark and dramatic presentation, Shadow Labyrinth is a modern take on Pac-Man, and even includes the iconic character.

Pac-Man is a forever companion of the main character in Shadow Labyrinth, and though this doesn’t look to be much closely related to traditional Pac-Man style gameplay, the spirit is certainly there.

If not buff Pac, perhaps this Pac-Man/shadowy protagonist hybrid as a guest in Tekken 8? With all the legacy fighters yet to join the roster and the myriad of other potential guests that would admittedly be more exciting, we can’t say this would be our first choice, but we thought you all should know the idea does have a certain momentum to it right now.

The sky is blue, water is wet, and characters in Mortal Kombat die… a lot. We’re not talking only about Fatality sequences meant to add insult to injury once a player beats a best friend, but also in higher-stakes canonical scenes that ceremoniously send beloved characters to the NetherRealm (see the intro sequence for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance for an example).

Despite these conclusive kill offs, characters tend to find their way back to the realm of the living by one means or another, and such appears to be the case in the transition from the live action 2021 Mortal Kombat film to its sequel as the actor who played the most entertaining character in the 2021 film has teased his return an interview with The Direct.

Of all the familiar (and the one new) faces in the first Mortal Kombat film, Josh Lawson’s Kano stood out as the most spirited and charismatic by a wide margin. The actor’s widely-improvised one-liners made him stand out as the one to watch anytime he appeared on screen, which was relatively often in the first two-thirds of the film.

Somewhat unfortunately, Kano meets his end at the hands of Sonya Blade, specifically through a gnarly garden gnome to the eyeball incident. Despite how final this scene looked, Lawson is slated to return as Kano in the follow up. We don’t know yet if this will be through some kind of sorcery, divine intervention, alternate dimension tampering (please, no) or otherwise, but the important thing is Lawson’s Kano will have a presence.

“I can say that in the second ‘Mortal Kombat,’ Kano has a new chapter in his life, that [chapter] being death,” Lawson told The Direct.

“And you know, death alters you. So yeah, prepare yourselves for a Kano 2.0. As we all know, if anyone’s a fan of games, Kano’s alliances can change at the drop of a hat, and that’s certainly true in the second one… [It’s going to] keep you on your toes guessing [about] who Kano’s kind of siding with,” he finished.

In addition to the head of the Black Dragon, a slew of other fan favorite characters are confirmed for the 2025 film. Some of these include Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, and plenty more.

Mortal Kombat 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on October 24, 2025.

The action begins anew and looking better than ever after months of hard work

What began as an attempt to “simply” update the graphics and shaders for the infamous Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite earlier this year has evolved into something much bigger, and it’s almost time to get hands on the results of all this hard work.

Maximilian just announced the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond mod project he’s been leading is slated to release later this week, and there’s a launch trailer now available to see how much they’ve changed from the original game.

The project has grown from initially being a part time mod experiment worked on by WistfulHopes before top fighting game streamer and content creator Maximilian stepped in and brought more people aboard to try and make the experience much grander as a whole.

Now, there’s apparently almost 40 people working on this mod after more than eight months while Max himself has reportedly spent around $30,000 of his own money to help make this labor of love a reality (on something that cannot make him money back).

The team includes developers, animators, a multitude of artists and even musicians like Alex Moukala and Little V Mills to produce new tracks just for this mod.

As can be seen in the trailer, Infinite has been made over with a brand new and more colorful artstyle, and it shows shots side-by-side to see how different the game looks in action with the mod.

The user interface, costume colors, stages and have also been changed up as well while some characters also received some much needed model upgrades to appear better than ever before in MvCI — so Dante and Captain America no longer look weird.

There’s even some new costumes too plus a bunch of cool new artwork for the menus crafted by talented fans from across the community.

Even the gameplay is seeing an upgrade with a fan-developed balance update for the mod that gives characters better combo tools and even some new abilities like Thanos getting the full Infinity Gauntlet.

The mod itself is scheduled to release this Friday, December 20, for owners of the PC version of Marvel Infinite on Steam for free.

And for those who don’t already own a copy of the game, Marvel Infinite is currently on sale for 80% off on Steam until Thursday morning on December 19.

More information and the eventual download link can be found on the Marvel Infinite & Beyond website.

Max is set to host a new Direct stream on December 19 to show off more of what Infinite & Beyond Version 1.0 is going to offer in just a few days.

You can check out the launch trailer for the big mod project below.

Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite & Beyond launches 12-20-24! Keep updated on for the download link & instructions on release date. @MVCI_Beyond

This was a labor of love from nearly 40 people over 8 months of work. All available, for FREE! pic.twitter.com/4E6fqftnJT

— Maximilian Dood (@maximilian_) December 18, 2024

Though it looks like the digital PlayStation discount has unfortunately already ended

The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection was one of the few fighting games to sit out the Black Friday madness this year, but it seems the time to make a deal has arrived for the compilation.

For a limited time, the MvC Fighting Collection is running its first sale.

As part of their celebration for being nominated at The Game Awards 2024, Capcom is discounting their latest fighting game compilation by 20%.

This brings the base price down from $50 USD to $40, so that equates to around a bit under $6 per classic title.

The digital version of Marvel just went on sale for the Nintendo Switch and is slated to stay at that price until January 6, 2025, however, you’ll have to act faster for the other platforms.

Gonna take you for a ride… at a marvelous discount!

Enjoy the first sale of the digital version of #MvCFightingCollection on Nintendo Switch with 20% off for a limited time!

pic.twitter.com/S7YrVd1sWo

— Marvel vs. Capcom (@marvelvscapcom) December 17, 2024

On Steam, the MvC collection is only available at the discounted price until December 19 at 10 a.m. PST, but it looks like the PlayStation Store sale has unfortunately already ended.

Fear not, because PlayStation owners aren’t totally left out now.

The physical edition of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is also currently on sale for the same price at retailers across the United States including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Game Stop, and Walmart.

Availability will differ across the country and in different regions, so check with your local retailers if you wish to go that route — and it’s unknown how long those physical deals are going to last for.

While the dream is obviously still waiting for a Marvel vs. Capcom 4, supporting this release is probably the best way to show the companies there is indeed enough interest for a brand new title in the franchise.

On a related note, Capcom is also currently running an official survey for the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection asking for player feedback to “help inform the development of future titles.”

While there’s plenty of hype surrounding the release of Final Fantasy’s Clive Rosfield as the next DLC character in Tekken 8, there was a much more obvious first choice for a Final Fantasy guest in the immensely popular Tifa Lockhart.

Indeed, the moment Clive was revealed at the Game Awards last week marked an internet onslaught of fans decrying the choice to include the Final Fantasy XVI protagonist over Miss Lockhart. Clive’s voice actor, Ben Starr, decided to throw a little fuel on the flames with the perfect troll cosplay for the moment.

A quick scroll through Starr’s Instagram reveals he’s all about lighthearted jabs and trolls (including towards himself) on social media. And a bit more of a scroll reveals that he indeed cosplayed as Tifa Lockhart (literally everyone has a Tifa) earlier this year:

Upon seeing the rapid and rampant backlash, Starr decided to put together the following image and post it on his Instagram story:

Click images for larger versions

It’s an egregious overstatement to say that Clive or Final Fantasy XVI are hated, but neither proved to be as popular or successful as some of the long-running franchise’s most potent characters and titles. As such, it does make sense that fans would be surprised or even disappointed to see the latest instead of the most beloved used in the Tekken/Final Fantasy crossover.

How are you feeling now that we’ve had some time with the Clive announcement and (if you’ve got early access) in Tekken 8? Are you amongst the still-salty that Bandai did not choose the likes of Tifa for the crossover appearance, or is their ultimate decision growing on you… perhaps in part because of Starr’s top tier cosplay?

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s impressive roster of 86 characters features representation from Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Minecraft, Dragon Quest, and many other third party franchises. Unfortunately, this cast of characters probably won’t be seen together again as the game’s director, Masahiro Sakurai, believes that a collaboration this big could’ve only happened just this once.

Along the way, there were a number of characters that were considered and scrapped. Had these challengers joined, the roster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would’ve ended up looking pretty different.

During the development of Super Smash Bros. 4, there was a time where Heihachi Mishima was considered for a base roster slot. This would’ve resulted in Tekken getting representation much earlier in the Super Smash Bros. series.

“We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make. However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from ‘Tekken.’” — Masahiro Sakurai

While many believed that Heihachi was overlooked due to his presence in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which was released during the early portions of Super Smash Bros. 4’s development cycle, Sakurai actually cited difficulties in coming up with a moveset for the fighter. It seems that Sakurai wasn’t ready to implement a 3D fighting game character into Super Smash Bros. just yet.

“We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make,” said Sakurai in an interview as translated by Masked Man (via Source Gaming). “However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from ‘Tekken.’”

When Super Smash Bros. 4 was launch, the third parties present were Mega Man, Sonic, and Pac-Man. If Heihachi was added successfully, he might’ve ended up replacing Pac-Man as the Bandai Namco rep. Otherwise, it would’ve been the first instance of two separate characters representing the same third party company, though that honor eventually went to Capcom when Street Fighter’s Ryu was added as DLC.

“That’s right,” continued Sakurai when he was pressed about details regarding Heihachi. “However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…”

“However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…” — Masahiro Sakurai

At this point, the interviewer joked about how one of Heihachi’s alternate outfits could put him in his fundoshi — a traditional sumo cloth. Sakurai took the time to poke fun at the Japanese rating boards for video games, which is something he’s been known to do from time to time.

“If we did that, we’d end getting in trouble with CERO again,” responded Sakurai while apparently laughing.

Of course, the fact that Heihachi Mishima was playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate never even got acknowledged by Sakurai. Still, this wouldn’t be the last time that Heihachi was considered for a spot on the roster in Super Smash Bros.

Ultimately though, Kazuya, Heihachi’s son, would join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate instead of the original final boss of Tekken. According to Sakurai, the reason he went with Kazuya over Heihachi was because of the rep’s connection to the Devil Gene.

“In Tekken, there’s this thing called the Devil Gene… Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene… Heihachi does not have it. This is the main reason why we didn’t go with Heihachi as a fighter.” — Masahiro Sakurai

“In Tekken, there’s this thing called the Devil Gene. It’s something Kazuya’s mother, Kazumi, carried. As the name implies, it allows one to draw out the power of the devil. Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene,” explained Sakurai.

“It’s something Kazuya’s mother, Kazumi, carried. As the name implies, it allows one to draw out the power of the devil. Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene.

“Kazuya’s son, Jin Kazama, carries this gene as well. Heihachi does not have it. This is the main reason why we didn’t go with Heihachi as a fighter… I thought Kazuya would work well in this game if we made his normal attacks as similar as possible to those in Tekken, while using the Devil’s Power for his midair jump attacks, smash attacks, and special moves.”

Essentially, Tekken is a fighting game series that focuses on movement in 3D spaces. On the other hand, the Super Smash Bros. series is well established for emphasizing its vertical movement options.

While it would be relatively simple to just have any Tekken challenger like Heihachi jumping and recovering as high as the other combatants, Sakurai believed that this just wouldn’t feel like Tekken. Through Kazuya’s Devil Gene, something that Heihachi does not possess, Sakurai felt that he could replicate the design philosophies behind both Tekken and Super Smash Bros. without too much contradiction between the two.

Ultimately, Heihachi had to settle for representation in the form of Mii Brawler DLC costume parts. These parts would actually end up returning for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Heihachi can’t someday join in a future entry. After all, the franchise has a history of returning to scrapped or considered concepts from previous games. This happened with Villager, Pac-Man, Ridley, Marth, Bowser, and many more.

Notably, Sakurai recently revealed that he has been working on a secret game project since April 2022. As of right now, it’s unknown what this secret game project could be, but it’s speculated that it could be a new iteration of Super Smash Bros. on the “Switch 2.”

With that in mind, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa unveiled plans to announce the Switch successor within this fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025. We know that it will feature backwards compatibility, but not much else is officially known about the mysterious new console at the moment.

Considering how long this mysterious game has been in development for, it does seem likely that Sakurai was recruited to develop a game to showcase the new console’s features. If that’s the case, this title could be available at launch or early in the device’s lifecycle.

As mentioned before, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a repeat of “Everyone Is Here” unless the game Sakurai has been working on is “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe,” which does actually seem like a possibility considering Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s success. Regardless, we’ll probably see some new faces in the next game.

Heihachi has been considered and scrapped two times before. Could he someday finally get represented in a Super Smash Bros. title? Only time will tell.

Despite being one of the most anticipated DLC characters to join Street Fighter 6’s roster (in no small part thanks to the fact that he’s the first non-Capcom figure to ever be made playable in a mainline Street Fighter entry) Terry Bogard has proven to be a little less effective than fans had hoped.

In their latest Street Fighter 6 balance patch update, Capcom took some clear steps to improve Mr. Bogard’s offensive capabilities, and in a new video MC Mura details out just how impactful these buffs might be.

Pressure is especially important to Street Fighter 6’s meta as there are relatively few normal moves that leave aggressors at advantage on block, though this can be manipulated with the four extra enhancement frames that come from using a move after Drive Rush.

Getting up close and putting on pressure is an arena this game tends to favor, but losing your advantage when in close proximity can quickly turn things around for the worse, as you may wind up spending valuable resources only to effectively put yourself right where your foe wants you.

Before the patch, it felt as though Terry lacked in the pressure department, unable to take sufficient advantage of the ins he might score from playing careful neutral. Certain sequences would not reach if he was just a tad too far out, and his general inability to remain scary while up in your face appeared to be one of the aspects separating him from higher tiers.

While this may sound like a complicated problem that would require a number of nuanced changes to fix, Capcom may have figured things out with just a few small but potent tweaks. Perhaps most potent of all is the change on Terry’s standing heavy punch, which has gone from being -1 on block to +1.

What can you do with two measly frames on block? The implications are quite huge, actually, and paired with the rest of Terry’s update, he may be en route to a more widely respectable position on SF6 tier lists soon. See it all in detail in the full video from Mura here:

Clive Rosfield recently became available for early access in Tekken 8 along with patch 1.10. While Clive Rosfield might seem like a bizarre guest character to join Tekken 8’s roster, the Final Fantasy 16 Director is apparently hopeful that the character becomes a mainstay beyond Tekken 8.

Thanks to his guest appearance, we’ve been seeing numerous unique interactions between Clive and the rest of the Tekken 8 roster. As such, Meloo recently uploaded a video containing all special intro and outro dialogues that involve the Final Fantasy 16 guest character.

Being that Clive hails from a fantasy medieval setting, he’s often left confused with some of Tekken 8’s modern setting. For example, he ends up confusing JACK-8 (a robot) as a “relic of the Fallen.”

However, it’s his interaction with Reina that ends up being particularly amusing. Upon seeing him, Reina then proceeds to compliment Clive’s “cosplay.”

Of course, since Clive comes from a completely different world, the term “cosplay” doesn’t actually exist to him. He’s obviously baffled by what Reina says to him. Following this, they then proceed to fight.

It would seem Clive ends up thinking about this interaction all throughout his fight against Reina. Should he win the match against her, he considers seeking out “Harpocrates” to learn more about what cosplay is (since he apparently can’t ask Reina anymore since she’s been knocked out).

Check it all out below:

A thread of all Clive Special Intro and Outro dialogue in Tekken 8:

1. Vs Devil Jin pic.twitter.com/2TqCVoNyfI

— SpardaSon20 (@SonOf_Sparda) December 17, 2024