Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

It always depends on whom you ask, but the majority of Street Fighter fans will likely tell you that Street Fighter 3 leads the pack in terms of music. If you’re here on EventHubs, you probably have heard Jazzy NYC 99′, Kobu, and Beats in my Head more times than you can count, but that’s not the case for Emma “Battleapple” White.

Miss White is a caricature artist and music enthusiast whose ears have yet to experience the iconic themes of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. That changed recently, however, and she captured her first time experience in the video waiting for you below.

Street Fighter 3’s more urban and hip-hop theming comes across in full force in its original sound tracks. The main menu and character select songs come complete with rap lyrics and beats that you can’t help but bounce along with.

We do admit that we don’t always hear the details as we quickly navigate menus en route to the action, so it’s nice to slow things down and give these songs the attention they deserve from time to time.

The majority of the character themes are so catchy they instantly embed themselves into your brain, but none are quite as famous as Ken and Alex’s shared Jazzy NYC 99′ subway stage background track.

When Battleapple reaches this song, she is immediately blown away by the chord changes. While the chords set a relatively simple foundational melody, the rest of the band comes in for a much more detailed and intricate presentation that melds together seamlessly and makes for the full Jazzy experience.

See what she has to say about Yun and Yang’s James Bond-esque theme, Elena’s endless beats in your head, and (the best track in the game in my humble opinion) Dudley’s mind blowing You Blow My Mind in the full video below.

Want more Third Strike theme action? Check out our video ranking all 3S character themes.

Despite having a roster consisting of 86 fighters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is fairly balanced. In the real world, it’s difficult to imagine how an unarmed fighter could possibly take on someone wielding a sword or gun, so damage inflicted tends to be unrealistic for the sake of maintaining some semblance of balance.

In a recent video upload, Poppt1 decided to throw all of that out the window in favor of making Super Smash Bros. Ultimate more realistic. In other words, the more lethal an attack would be in real life, the stronger it is in the mod being featured.

As one can imagine, those fighting with swords or guns are at a distinct advantage. A single attack is enough to deal lethal damage. Additionally, attempting to block a sword slash will simply result in the player’s shield instantly being popped.

To determine which character is the deadliest under these settings, Poppt1 hosted a tournament played entirely by the computer. Of course, the game doesn’t necessarily know which moves have been buffed, so they’ll attempt to play the game as normal.

One interesting case seen in the video is Dr. Mario’s neutral special, the Megavitamins. Upon contact, the opponent will immediately be put to sleep, leaving them wide open for a powerful attack afterwards.

Characters like Kirby and Yoshi can essentially defeat opponents simply by eating them. Of course, other combatants have huge disadvantages with this sort of mod in place since they lack any moves that would be realistically powerful.

Who wins the tournament in the end? Check out the video below to see it all unfold:

It’s that time of year again where we celebrate games and their creators both big and small with a heaping helping of new announcements spread across multiple hours of broadcasting to keep people watching.

The Game Awards 2024 is set to begin in less than 24 hours on December 12, which usually brings with it a slew of new fighting game reveals, but what is most likely to show up for this go around?

We’re expecting to see at least a few new trailers and announcements starting from the pre-show, which is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 p.m. ET, and potentially last through the full event that ran for three and a half hours last year.

Only one of them has been confirmed, however, with quite a few other major titles having new DLC content and titles on the horizon they’d likely want to showcase to a larger audience.

As for the awards themselves, Tekken 8, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, MultiVersus and the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection are all up for Best Fighting Game.

Tekken is also nominated for Best Multiplayer Game as well up against Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Helldivers 2, Super Mario Party Jamboree and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

But enough of all that, let’s talk about what reveals could be coming starting with the most likely of all.

Bandai Namco has the only confirmed fighting game announcement that we’re aware of currently for The Game Awards to unveil their last DLC character of Season 1 for Tekken 8.

Although Anna Williams was already teased at the Tekken World Tour Finals, it seems she may more likely kick off Season 2.

We believe there’s a very high likelihood the final Season 1 character will be a guest fighter, and you can find much more on that in our recent Tekken crossover pick story to see who has the best shot of making it in.

Although they haven’t confirmed anything for the show, The Game Awards would be a really good place for Bandai Namco to show off what they’ve been working on for Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero considering it is up for Best Fighting Game too.

The Season Pass is said to have over 20 playable new characters (presumably including transformations), but they’ve only shown Gamma 1 and 2 from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and Glorio and Vegeta (Mini) from Dragon Ball Daima in just their artwork.

With the game being out a few months now, it’s probably time to start showing off those new fighters in action.

And fans are definitely ready to see Beast Gohan and Orange Piccolo in Sparking Zero too.

This was originally going to be quite a bit lower on the list, but that changed earlier today.

An open beta test for Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. appeared to leak online a little while ago, so busting that announcement out at The Game Awards would be a smart move to raise awareness for the upcoming title and get more people in the door to try the series for the first time for free.

Since we’re getting this as another updated version of VF5, however, this means a true Virtua Fighter 6 is probably still years off from being revealed / released.

But maybe this is all meant to build hype for a grander return sooner than expected.

We already know Fatal Fury’s Mai Shiranui is the next DLC character coming to Street Fighter 6 Season 2, and she’s due out sometime this Winter.

She would have been much higher on the list here, but Capcom just dropped Mai’s teaser trailer last week in an unexpected move.

The developer has continued strong ties with Geoff Keighley’s game shows over the past few years and even revealing the Season 2 DLC cast at the Summer Games Fest this year, so we’re not ruling out more for The Game Awards.

Perhaps they were just getting the teaser out of the way to offer up a second teaser or gameplay trailer this week… or maybe they’ll just end up showing the same teaser again.

NetherRealm Studios is basically in the exact same boat as Capcom for this event as well.

Mortal Kombat 1’s next DLC character for Khaos Reigns is Conan the Barbarian, and Ed Boon showed off a brief teaser of him last week too.

NetherRealm also has longtime ties Keighley’s shows, so there could be more footage of Conan in action or his interactions with others on the cast.

But it’s hard to really say at this point.

Arc System Works did reveal Elphelt at The Game Awards last year (though technically she was leaked early), so they could do the same here in Guilty Gear Strive Season 4.

Venom is slated to come to the game sometime in early 2025 this Winter, so it’d be more of a wait than Elphelt, who released right after the announcement, but this would still be the place to get the most eyes on the blind fighter.

Or perhaps ArcSys will hold him back another week for CEOtaku 2024 where the developer usually brings something to show for their fighters.

Season 1 content for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising wrapped up a little while back with Vikala, but ArcSys and Cygames already confirmed there’s more on the way.

Since Versus Rising is also nominated for Best Fighting Game, it would be a good idea for them to offer up a much better look at Sandalphon, who’d been one of the most requested characters since the original fighter launched.

Though again maybe they’ll save him for CEOTaku or more likely save Sandalphon for the Granblue Fantasy Fes 2024 in Japan next week.

Fatal Fury would have been much higher on our list since SNK has also been a regular on Keighley’s shows the past few years, but we’ve got some doubts now with the timing.

The Game Awards are going down at the same time that SNK is releasing Vice and Mature for The King of Fighters 15 alongside a big new balance update, so we’re not sure the developers want to steal any thunder from their own current title.

City of the Wolves does still have like five more characters to reveal before launching next April, so there is a decent chance.

We’re just not really willing to put down money on it or get our hopes too high right now.

Although it was slated to originally be out by the end of 2024, Hunter x Hunter’s fighting game got delayed to add rollback netcode and more polish.

While we technically already know the full starting roster for Nen Impact, there’s still a few characters remaining left to receive actual trailers.

So perhaps we could see Morel and or Kite show up sometime in the pre-show tomorrow though we’re not putting much stock there.

That definitely seems like the type of reveal ArcSys would hold for CEOtaku or a different anime-focused event.

This completes all the fighting games we believe could show up with new reveals for The Game Awards in just a matter of hours, but let us know what you think / hope is coming and if we forgot anything.

You can watch the award show stream alongside us tomorrow, and we’ll be updating stories and information as they occur.

After rumors had been swirling for quite some time, Sega finally revealed not Virtua Fighter 6, but Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. and looks like players will get to try it out soon.

It appears an open beta test has just leaked early for VF5 R.E.V.O., which means an announcement is likely imminent as well.

A SteamDB listing appeared earlier today for “Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Open β” specifically, so it’s clearly not just for the main game that’s coming to PC.

There’s no release date attached, so we don’t know when exactly it’s coming though would presumably set for sometime in the very near future.

The Steam app listing is also shown as “hidden to the public,” meaning there’s almost no information attached to the page at all besides the title and banner images.

We can take an educated guess, however, that the R.E.V.O. beta will allow players to try out at least some of VF5’s available roster online.

This is actually a pretty exciting prospect for a game that originally came out in 2006 because the rebuilt version of VF5 will be the first time Sega is offering rollback netcode and the game on PC in general.

We may not have to wait much longer to learn more about the beta and perhaps R.E.V.O. in general with The Game Awards 2024 taking place tomorrow, December 12, where Virtua Fighter may show up — especially given the timing of this listing appearance.

While PlayStation owners will apparently not be receiving R.E.V.O., Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is also slated to get a Version 2.0 update sometime this Winter with balance adjustments and more changes though rollback is probably not among them.

Stay tuned to learn more about Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. when more information becomes officially available.

Cammy had a lot going for her before the latest Street Fighter 6 patch, so much so that developers at Capcom put her squarely in the sights of their nerf guns and pelted her with arguably more status-reducing darts than anyone else on the roster, save maybe for Ed.

Ask a Cammy player and you very well might hear that the character has been destroyed beyond recognition. This may be a little extreme, but there’s no doubt Cammy has been toned down in some conspicuous ways. How exactly, and how bad is it? MC Mura’s latest video offers answers.

Cammy is one of the fastest SF6 characters on her feet, and that strength paired with her ability to zip up into the air and come down at unpredictable speeds and angles made her quite the chaotic kitten to fight.

She still has these strengths, in fact her dreaded Canon Strike now builds 150% more Drive Gauge than it used to, so why all the doom and gloom about her? Capcom removed many of the multiple means Cammy had to side switch, and given just how important corner pressure is in SF6, this is a significant change.

Some of the best characters in this game share the propensity to carry their foe to a corner and take advantage of the multitude of advantages this position nets you. Cammy’s corner carry abilities were fine, but did not necessarily stand out as notably better than others.

Cammy’s side switch abilities, however, made it so that a single correct guess from a cornered Cammy suddenly meant a massive change in momentum. Uncountable are the times we’ve carefully and meticulously pushed Cammy to the corner, only to have ultimately done the work for her as she side switches and proceeds to melt our remaining life bar.

There’s more to it, and Mura goes into much greater detail along with the use of visual aids in the full video below. Give it a watch, subscribe to his informative channel on YouTube, and then let us know what you think of Cammy’s latest changes in the comments afterwards.

If you do a YouTube search for “Mortal Kombat 1” here in December, you won’t have to scroll long to find more than a few videos that claim the game is dead or dying, and while there are recent reasons for such takes, the fact is the same search would have gotten widely similar results 10 months ago.

Mortal Kombat 1 has struggled to keep its head above water since shortly after day one, and Gaming Bolt is one of the many taking closer looks as to exactly why the latest entry in the long-running franchise is struggling so hard. If we look beyond the individual faults of MK1, might it be a case of over saturation of Kombat?

NetherRealm Studios kicked off back in 2011 with Mortal Kombat 9, an entry that, like Mortal Kombat 1, revamped the franchise’s main story. The 2011 entry was a success upon release and is now revered as one of the most important in franchise history, but developers did not just skip right along to Mortal Kombat X after that.

Instead, Ed Boon and his team surprised their two dimensional fighting game fan base with Injustice: Gods Among Us, a similar to Mortal Kombat experience that featured DC characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman duking it out in elaborate but Teen-rated battles.

It wasn’t until 2015 that NRS rolled out the aforementioned Mortal Kombat X, and that wound up being hailed as another one of the franchise’s best entries. The tenth Mortal Kombat was then followed a few years later with a sequel to Injustice, and thus a pattern was established that fans could resonate with.

Not everyone who played one franchise played the other, but time and distraction between titles surely allowed hearts to grow fonder than they might have otherwise. NetherRealm hit us with Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019, but when fans naturally started suspecting an Injustice 3 around 2021, they were left wanting.

The two-year release pattern was broken, and when Mortal Kombat 1 finally dropped in late 2023, so was the alternating franchise pattern. One does have to wonder if, in addition to the myriad of issues MK1 has faced from within, whether or not fans are suffering from a little bit of Kombat fatigue given they were just recently conditioned with different expectations.

Gaming Bolt covers MK1’s early, recent, and bigger picture issues in their full video here. Give it a watch and then let us know in the comments how you feel about MK1, what NRS should do next, and if Injustice 3 would come as a much-appreciated breath of fresh air at this point.

Earlier this year, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa informed fans that the Switch successor was slated to finally be unveiled within this fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025. In a separate post, Furukawa then revealed backwards compatibility as one of the Switch successor’s features, which is something that has been highly anticipated by fans.

That’s about the full extent of what we officially know about the “Nintendo Switch 2” (as dubbed by fans). However, rumors and supposed leaks have told us a lot more about the mysterious console. One of the major implications of these rumors suggests that the Nintendo Switch 2 will utilize NVIDIA’s DLSS technology.

DLSS, the abbreviation for deep learning super sampling, utilizes artificial intelligence to improve images, upscaling, and frame rates. What makes DLSS so impressive is that it’s specifically designed to allow cheaper hardware to perform beyond its normal parameters.

Evidence suggests that the Switch 2 is being manufactured with the T239 processor chip installed. The T239 is said to be a variant of the T234 chip made specifically for Nintendo, though with the removal of features that would be redundant for a gaming console.

With these specs in mind, the Nintendo Switch 2 was supposedly capable of playing an improved version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and showcasing The Matrix Awakens during a private viewing at Gamescom 2023. Overall, it sounds like the Nintendo Switch 2 will offer vast improvements over the previous hybrid console.

The tech experts at Digital Foundry were recently asked if they thought that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be capable of consistently outputting 720p or 900p for third party games with DLSS enabled while the console is in handheld mode.

“I think it’s fair to say that we’re going to be seeing quite a lot of DLSS in the Switch 2 simply by virtue of the fact that it’s a mobile chipset,” responded Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry.

“Yeah, I think we will be seeing a lot of DLSS [on the Switch 2], but I also think we’ll be seeing a lot of DLSS that does not go to the native 1080p resolution of that handheld screen, and probably not especially the native 4K resolution that this thing will be targeting when connected to 4K televisions,” chimed in Oliver Mackenzie.

While it would be reasonable to assume that the Switch 2 with its DLSS functionality will be able to target 720p and 900p, it’s noted that DLSS tasks can become too strenuous with 1080p and 4K resolution. Having said that, Mackenzie speculates that the Nintendo Switch 2 could be capable of utilizing DLSS at 1080p for ports that were originally designed within the PlayStation 4 era. With these variables, maybe 1440p could also be possible with dock mode.

Still, the team believes that Nintendo themselves will optimize specifically for the Switch 2’s handheld mode for first party games. Nintendo has a tendency to create games that are less demanding compared to Microsoft or Sony software.

Recent rumors suggest that Nintendo could be targeting June or July 2025 for the new console’s launch window. Considering the plans to reveal the console in early 2025, this timeline does seem probable.

Playtonic Games has heavily implied that Yooka-Replaylee is slated for the Switch 2. Despite specifically naming the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series, and PC as platforms for Yooka-Replaylee, the developers playfully teased that it was also coming to the “Nintendo,” without any specifics beyond that.

Additionally, Masahiro Sakurai told fans that he’d been working on a secret game project since April 2022. It’s speculated that the reason why it hasn’t been revealed yet is because it’s intended specifically for the unannounced Switch 2.

Plenty of evidence does suggest that the Switch 2 will perform well as a direct upgrade over the Switch, but the new console will still likely be somewhat outpaced by other current generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. Regardless, DLSS will certainly help Nintendo close the gap, especially with their first party titles that will be specifically optimized for handheld mode.

The future for Nintendo fans is looking pretty exciting. Of course, we’re still playing the waiting game in terms of official information from Nintendo themselves.

It’s no secret that Rashid is one of the most dominant characters in Street Fighter 6. With his relentless pressure, mobility, and ridiculous, screen-spanning Super 2, he often feels unstoppable in the right hands. Conversely, Terry, while beloved, isn’t exactly a top-tier contender in the eyes of most players.

This makes the following sequence all the more extraordinary, as a Terry player scores an incredibly unlikely victory in the face of near defeat. Continue on to watch the cathartic clip and inspire some hope in yourself that you too, one day, may survive one of Rashid’s Ysaars.

We join our online warriors in a familiar situation: Terry has next to no health, is cornered, and Rashid whips up a trusty Ysaar to close out the round. Rashid is, however, burned out while Terry has about a half of one bar of Drive Gauge.

The Terry player is all but destined to lose, but then, in a few rare moments of pure skill and precision, the tide shifts in dramatic fashion. Rashid goes for the inevitable Eagle Spike we all know is en route, and Terry thwarts it with a Perfect Parry.

That’s all well and good, but with Ysaar still on the screen, there’s not a lot the defender can do. This player, who goes by LinkNova, was apparently ready, however, and cancels out of the Perfect Parry with a Drive Rush (real heroes run toward the Ysaar).

Seizing the moment, LinkNova launches into a level 3 Super, which Rashid has plenty of time to block. Though Rashid is still technically safe here, the fact that he’s burned out means he takes chip damage, and the fact that he’s got 8% health means Terry’s level 3 is enough to chip Rashid out just before the still-lingering tornado could end the round.

Gwan Terry pic.twitter.com/N43QeToxte

— LinkNova (@LinkNova_) December 10, 2024

Perfect Parries are notoriously difficult to pull off, requiring razor-sharp timing and nerves of steel, but when they land, the payoff can be monumental. The sequence was a masterclass in clutch play, showing how even mid-tier characters can shine in the hands of a skilled player.

This clip also highlights how the Drive System can reward both defensive and offensive creativity. Terry’s Perfect Parry followed by a Drive Rush into a game-winning Super is a perfect example of how the system allows for exhilarating turnarounds, even against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Have you ever pulled off a Perfect Parry in such a critical situation? Let us know in the comments and share your most clutch moments.

The December 2024 Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero patch has dropped. This update adds a number of features while providing some quality of life changes to the roster.

As expected, Android 19 and Dr. Gero have been nerfed. They’ll no longer be able to stall a match out indefinitely by repeatedly ascending and descending as the action now costs gauge perform, just like with the rest of the roster.

Last month, some drama emerged when two players were disqualified from an official Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero tournament for showcasing this exploit. However, it seems that the competitors were successful in making the developers aware of this major issue.

Characters like Great Ape Vegeta and Dr. Wheelo have had their health totals reduced. This should make them a little easier to defeat during gameplay.

While playing in local multiplayer, it actually wasn’t possible to select any stage. This was a strange omission, but it has since been resolved with the update.

Overall, this isn’t a super major patch as there are only a few adjustments, but the gameplay adjustments are definitely important for the game’s longevity.

Check it all out below:

In just a couple of days, Vice and Mature will become available in King of Fighters 15. In preparation for this, SNK has released patch notes for the upcoming update.

Top competitor TxC|ViolentKain released a new tier list that provides a good indicator about the current meta before the big patch. Needless to say, this adds a little extra context about the patch notes.

According to ViolentKain, Geese Howard and Benimaru are the two best characters in the game. This seems to check out considering that both of these combatants are seeing increases to the recovery frames for many of their attacks.

Isla and Ryo are also said to be very strong seeing as how they’re both in the tier category directly below Geese and Benimaru. In the tier group below them, characters like Heidern, Sylvie Paula Paula, Chizuru, Dolores, Clark, and a few others are said to relevant picks in the current meta.

As of right now, Vanessa, King, and Darli Dagger are the characters struggling the most. These fighters are getting a few buffs, but it remains to be seen if these changes will be enough to propel them up the tier list.

With the upcoming patch on the horizon, at least some of these tier positions are likely to shift either upwards or downwards. We’ll just have to see which characters end up on top in the new meta.

Check it all out below:

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