Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Back in 2019, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon revealed to fans in a Game Informer interview that he legitimately wanted to add yet another ninja character his franchise. Then in 2022, NetherRealm Studios’ head honcho brought this idea up yet again when he explicitly stated how he’d want a pink ninja in an X post.

While such a character has yet to make it onto a Mortal Kombat roster, there is a suspicious render of a pink character in the background files of Mortal Kombat 1. History Behind the Warrior has done a deeper dive on this mysterious pink potential fighter, and shares his findings in the video below.

“Yes. I honestly want to make a PINK ninja and name him FLOYD. No kidding,” said Boon in the aforementioned X post. Boon has been known to reference his favorite musical artists in his characters, as is the case of Rain, who was widely inspired by Prince.

This character was to wield chlorokinetic abilities which would allow him to manipulate plants, vegetation, and other forms of plant life through supernatural or psionic means.

As HBTW digs into the files data mined from Mortal Kombat 1, we learn that there were actually two different places a potential Floyd seemed to appear, one of which has unfortunately been removed since its initial discovery.

Putting some pieces together, it may have been the case that there were plans for Floyd’s fruition, but given the relatively fledgling state of Mortal Kombat 1 and the rumored cancellation of future plans due to poor sales numbers, we won’t be seeing him anytime soon.

Check out the full video from History Behind the Warrior below to hear all about the story of Floyd and how he still could become the first new Mortal Kombat male ninja since the MK3 days.

Update: The official Tekken 8 patch notes have been released, and Clive is now available to use for owners of the Year One Character Pass.

Final Fantasy is back in Tekken, but it’s not quite the representative that many fans were thinking they were going to get.

Bandai Namco is set to run extended server maintenance today in Tekken 8 to prepare the game for its Version 1.10.01 update and the arrival of Final Fantasy 16’s Clive Rosfield.

The server maintenance period is slated to start a bit earlier than usual today at 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET and is scheduled to be down longer too.

Tekken’s new update itself should be available to download around 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET, however, the online servers themselves won’t be back until around 8 p.m. PT / 11 p.m. ET.

During this time, all online features and functionality will remain unavailable including matchmaking, lounges, the in-game shop, battle pass and more.

Click images for larger versions

On top of Clive himself, Bamco is also going to be adding new Final Fantasy collaboration DLC packs to the Tekken Store as well.

One includes Joshua Rosfield’s costume for character customization as well as the Moogle Nektar the Bold while the other lets you dress as Jill Warrick and comes with an avatar skin for Clive.

Each set is priced at 500 Tekken Coins or $5 apiece.

The lead developers from both Tekken and Square Enix came together to create multiple special Dev Talk videos discussing Clive’s inclusion in the fighting game, all the crazy stuff he can do in the gameplay, his customization abilities and what he means to the teams.

They managed to give Clive all of his Eikons from FF16 (what the game calls Summons) as well as his faithful hound Torgal plus Limit Break for his moveset, which the Square devs didn’t even think could be possible.

Final Fantasy 16’s Creative Director also requested that the Bamco guys please make Clive a regular member of Tekken games moving forward beyond 8.

Stay tuned to EventHubs for the full patch notes that accompany Clive as they become available soon.

Marvel vs. Capcom’s classic titles finally returned in official form a decade after Marvel vs. Capcom Origins and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 were pulled down and delisted, but the real dream remains hoping for a brand new entry in the franchise.

Capcom just dropped an official new player survey for the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection with the apparent purpose of helping them develop “future titles.”

This particular “Product Evaluation Survey” is different than their previous one from September with a new round of questions and responses.

Capcom says this questionnaire should be completed only by those who’ve played and purchased the MvC collection with most of the prompts asking about your ratings and satisfaction for the product in a number of areas.

There’s some other pieces of interest about this survey, however, with the company stating these responses may help “inform the development of future titles.”

We’re conducting a product survey for MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics! Complete the survey to get a digital wallpaper.

Responses collected in surveys may help inform the development of future titles.

https://t.co/dJZwqyPyQW

— Marvel vs. Capcom (@marvelvscapcom) December 16, 2024

It’s obviously not said what those future titles may be, but you may actually have a bit of sway over that.

The middle of the survey also offers players an open prompt asking them what they’d like Capcom to do now.

“Is there any feedback you would like to give Capcom after playing the game? Please let us know if there is something you would like more of, or if there is something you would like us to do next. You can tell us anything!”

So that is probably going to be a spot where fans are going to put their request for things like Marvel vs. Capcom 4, Capcom vs. SNK 3 and specific Street Fighter 6 DLC character wishes, but you could technically write anything in (though that doesn’t mean it’ll end up happening of course).

The rest of the survey doesn’t really give indications that it’s meant to help gauge audience interests and wants for a new Marvel vs. Capcom specifically either.

Most of the questions are asking about topics like where and how soon you purchased the collection as well as which games you’ve played on it and how likely you are to recommend it to friends.

There’s also multiple questions regarding in-game menus, readability, sound and music featured in the compilation of arcade titles.

Those latter options are making us think these survey responses could have a more immediate impact on the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection 2 featuring Capcom vs. SNK titles as well as Power Stone, Rival Schools and more.

So if there’s anything you’d like to see improved with how Capcom handles their fighting game collections after MvC (perhaps something like crossplay), now would be the time to tell them about it.

This also comes after Capcom stated they are “focusing on reactivating dormant IPs” following last week’s reveals of new Onimusha and Okami titles, so it’ll be very interesting to see what exactly comes out of this approach in the near-ish future.

A brand new Darkstalkers or Rival Schools may be too far outside the realm of possibilities still, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask.

The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection launched to largely positive reviews back in September, and player sentiment seems to have mostly followed suit as well.

This was backed up by the MvC release showing up on the top game sales ranks in the United States and on PlayStation for the month though Capcom hasn’t provided any numbers as to how the title is performing.

Capcom did say, however, the Marvel collection is selling exactly within their projections.

Completing this survey will land you the same reward as the last one, which is just some official wallpapers of the Marvel Fighting Collection key art for phones and computers.

The survey can be completed on Capcom’s website here.

Sega finally announced a new Virtua Fighter at The Game Awards 2024. Shortly afterwards, the developers provided a few insights about their plans in regards to the upcoming Virtua Fighter game, but refrained from revealing any concrete details.

“Our goal is for everyone to recognize [the new Virtua Fighter as the most innovative fighting game],” said Riichiro Yamada, producer for the new Virtua Fighter game. “Our goal with this project is to make every aspect of it feel fresh and exciting.”

Recently, a new image depicting the new Virtua Fighter was seemingly leaked onto the internet. The scene depicted in the shot has Akira facing off against himself in a mirror match.

As seen in the recent teaser trailer, Akira’s appearance has changed drastically since the previous Virtua Fighter games. By default, Akira now appears to wear a fedora and coat.

The alternate costume for Akira seems to more closely resemble the character’s more iconic appearance in that he’s wearing the bottoms of a gi. His hair looks different and he’s now shirtless. Fans have pointed out that Akira looks especially buff in this shot.

We can also observe the health bars at the top left and top right of portions of the screen. It’s interesting to point that there are extra gauges sitting below the health bars for both users.

As of right now, it’s unknown what these bars could be for. We could see a situation where characters gain access to EX specials and supers, just like with the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat series.

It’s also possible that this could be a stun gauge of some sort. After suffering enough hits in a row, a character would be left wide open for additional follow ups if they allow the gauge fill up on the way.

Some have even pointed to the possibility of the gauge being for some sort of guard crush system. Such a mechanic would certainly emphasize offense over defense.

Considering this image is depicting a mirror match, this mechanic could be functionally unique for Akira. Sarah Bryant, the only other character confirmed for the new Virtua Fighter so far, could have a health bar that looks different to that of Akira’s.

As of right now, the validity of this image cannot be confirmed, but it seems likely that it is legit. Regardless, the new Virtua Fighter game is one that’s currently in development so the mechanic surrounding this mysterious extra gauge could change or be scrapped entirely before we see more of the game.

Check it out below:

Click images for larger versions

Application Date and Time

[JST] From around 7:00 on Tuesday, December 17th, applied sequentially

[CET] From around 23:00 on Monday, December 16th, applied sequentially

[PST] From around 14:00 on Monday, December 16th, applied sequentially

Maintenance Date and Time

[JST] Tuesday, December 17th, 6:30 – 13:00

[CET] Monday, December 16th, 22:30 – Tuesday, December 17th, 5:00

[PST] Monday, December 16th, 13:30 – 20:00

Note: Please note that the date and time may change without prior notice.
All online content will be unavailable during maintenance.

Impact of the Update

The application of the update data will affect the following modes and features:


– Downloaded Replays / My Replay & Tips
Replay data from before the update will no longer be playable.


– Online Replay
All replay data from before the update will be deleted.


– Super Ghost Battle / Ghost Match

The behavior and performance of characters after the update will be reflected in ghost data.

There will be no loss of data.

There are big implications here for the fighting game community as well

The Game Awards 2024 unveiled some exciting announcements last weekend. For us fighting game fans, we learned that Clive Rosfield was joining Tekken 8 and a new Virtua Fighter has been teased.

Aside from that, it was interesting to learn that Capcom is reviving Onimusha and Okami in the form of modernized sequels. This news was particularly surprising considering that it’s been nearly 20 years since either series saw a mainline sequel.

It turns out that this is only just the beginning of Capcom’s plans to revive some of their dormant franchises. Capcom confirmed as much on their investor relations site.

“In addition to regularly releasing major new titles each year, Capcom is focusing on re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently.” — Capcom

“In addition to regularly releasing major new titles each year, Capcom is focusing on re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently,” said Capcom. “The company is working to further enhance corporate value by leveraging its rich library of content, which includes reviving past IPs like the two titles announced above [Onimusha Way of the Sword and the Okami sequel project], in order to continuously produce highly efficient, high-quality titles.”

This could be seen as a risky move by Capcom considering that these are IPs not known for selling a massive amount of units in the past. Still, it would seem that Capcom is devoted towards catering to their fans through this strategy.

“Capcom remains firmly committed to satisfying the expectations of all users by leveraging its industry leading game development capabilities in order to create highly entertaining gameplay experiences,” stated Capcom.

Okami and Onimusha both ranked quite highly on the Capcom Super Election, but it’s interesting to note that they only ranked seventh and ninth respectively on the poll asking fans about any Capcom game series (including spinoff games) that they’d like to see get a sequel or new game.

Though franchises like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil ranked even higher and have already had games recently added to their libraries, there are a number of interesting series that showed up in the top 10 of this poll. If what Capcom said is true, then we could be hearing word of highly anticipated sequels in the near future.

Indeed, this is definitely a promising sign for fans of Dino Crisis, Mega Man, Darkstalkers, Vs. Capcom, Ace Attorney, and Breath of Fire. Even if all of these games aren’t necessarily fighting games, characters from Mega Man and Ace Attorney did show up in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Capcom has already released Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics that features many of the older collaborations between Marvel and Capcom. It’s been years since a new entry was added to the mainline Marvel vs. Capcom series, so perhaps it’s something that Capcom is already considering and working on.

Meanwhile, the Darkstalkers series also ranked fifth on the poll, though any attempts to revive the series have thus far failed. Regardless, Darkstalkers can certainly be classified as one of Capcom’s more dormant IPs.

While franchises like Mega Man, Dino Crisis, and Ace Attorney aren’t directly tied to fighting games, a renewed focus on them could actually have impact on future Capcom fighting games. Should Capcom ever venture down the path of creating a new Marvel vs. Capcom entry, characters from these games are likely to show up in some form.

The same could be said for characters appearing in the upcoming Okami and Onimusha titles. Okami was playable in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but was notably absent in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. As for Onimusha, it’s been a series missing from the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

These announcements and statements are certainly very interesting for fans. We’ll just have to see how future fighting games get impacted by this new direction (or old direction) by Capcom.

The most famous mini-game in Tekken, Tekken Ball, is making a return here in Tekken 8 as part of the new Clive Rosfield DLC update.

Katsuhiro Harada and a few developers from Bandai Namco show this new old favorite off alongside Final Fantasy XIV Main Director, Hiroshi Takai and some of his team from Square Enix.

Tekken Ball first appeared back in 1997’s Tekken 3 as an unlockable mini-game players could use for a fun, more lighthearted approach to Tekken’s action. Characters would suddenly find themselves on Gon’s Beach Island stage, now updated with a volleyball court, using their abilities to more or less play the classic game with a bit of a violent twist.

Instead of a point system, competitors cause damage to one another either by getting them to fumble the ball, or be hit by it more directly as each successful volley imbued the ball with more and more energy and momentum.

Though fans showed appreciation for Tekken Ball, it would not come back until the 2012 Wii port of Tekken Tag 2, where it was widely unchanged from its first appearance.

Here in 2024 the mini-game returns for a third round in Tekken 8, but this time developers have added a few more bells and whistles. First off, the game’s unique Rage Art mechanic comes into play as characters can use Rage Burst to ensure a clean hit on the ball and sends it directly at their opposition.

Developers at Bandai Namco have also included different types of balls via the red and blue explosive Final Fantasy Bomb King balls. These, which you’ll see in action in the showcase video below, can randomly explode during the game to add an extra element of unpredictability and positional strategy to the mix.

Check out Tekken Ball as it appears in Tekken 8 in the full video below (skip to 1:03:20). There’s a ton more to the Tekken 8 presentation here as Bandai and Square Enix roll out their new joint venture in Clive Rosfield’s T8 guest appearance, so you may want to watch the rest of the show as well as the previous Tekken X Final Fantasy presentations for more.

ShiShi_RuiRui2 recently uploaded an interesting clip that showcased the ending of a round between Jamie and A.K.I. in Street Fighter 6. Being that the Jamie user was cornered, in Burnout, poisoned, and only had a sliver of life remaining, it seemed like this was A.K.I.’s match to win.

After taking a quick swig to power up to Drink Level 4, Jamie immediately used Bakkai (unlocked at Drink Level 2) to avoid A.K.I.’s projectile and then cancel into his level 2 super art. Though this action ended up depleting A.K.I. of most of her remaining health, this was the last bit of super gauge that Jamie could spare.

Since Jamie only needed one more opening to win the round, A.K.I. opted to use a Drive Reversal on her wake up. From here, the A.K.I. player then made the decision to spend two bars of super gauge to set up a checkmate scenario with Jamie on the other side of the screen.

Unfortunately for A.K.I., her level 2 super art technically counts as a series of projectile hits. This means that Jamie can evade these attacks entirely using his Bakkai special.

Though Jamie was too far away to actually hit the opponent with Bakkai, it was enough to survive. Considering that Jamie’s life was so low, the player could not afford to block the attack while in Burnout since it would’ve dealt too much chip damage for his life bar to handle.

Instead, Jamie was able to recover faster than A.K.I. Since the poison wielder was left wide open, Jamie was able to secure a devastating punish for the round win.

Check it all out below:

かんっぜんに油断した pic.twitter.com/wycx7C9eNT

— るいるい (@SHISHI_RUIRUI2) December 15, 2024

It’s actually pretty rare to see a truly bad fighting game release in this day and age, especially when compared to the ’90s when the genre was still in its infancy experimenting with what could work (or get away with) following Street Fighter 2’s world-changing success.

Rise of the Robots showcased a lot of what you shouldn’t do to make a fighting game all the way back in 1994, but the title somehow earned itself a overlooked sequel that is also up there in terms of the worst the genre has to offer and somehow set an even lower bar than its predecessor.

Matt McMuscles recently dropped the latest entry in his series in search of “The Worst Fighting Game” where Rise 2: Resurrection was placed under the microscope to see where things went wrong (and right in some cases).

Released in 1996 by Mirage and Acclaim on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC, the Rise of the Robots sequel offering to go bigger and bolder with the new game’s characters, moves and graphics.

It’s never usually a great sign when a sequel has to change up its title to likely distance itself from their predecessor, and that doesn’t guarantee its fate is going to be any better.

Mirage apparently only had around 15 months between the releases to actually develop Rise 2 across three systems, which led to the console versions again suffering even more than just the main PC game.

One of the few positives of the first game was the PC version actually featuring fairly impressive and detailed character models for the time, but McMuscles points out how they mostly managed to get worse in the sequel by making them smaller — and some really weird positioning that make the fighters look like they’re standing on different planes.

That’s not something you really ever see.

The rest of the presentation mostly dropped in quality and content as well with the rendered 3D cutscenes and even unique character endings being left out of Rise 2.

But you know what they did include? Some ridiculously long loading times.

And as for the gameplay, that’s arguably even worse than the first game too somehow.

Matt does an excellent job going over the character roster, mechanics, animations and overall game feel in quite a bit of detail, so you can see and hear how strange and messed up everything managed to be.

Check out the latest episode of The Worst Fighting Game below to see if Rise 2 has what it takes to dethrone the Super Nintendo’s Pit-Fighter at the absolute bottom of the barrel.