Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Tekken 8 just crowned its first world champion at the Tekken World Tour 2024 Finals this past weekend, but there wasn’t a big DLC character reveal at the event like usual.

Instead, Bandai Namco is opting to announce the last fighter of Tekken 8’s first season at The Game Awards 2024 this week, and signs are pointing to it being a guest character.

Now interestingly, the developers did seemingly tease Anna Williams for Season 2, so we at least know it probably won’t be her turn in the spotlight just yet.

With Tekken 8 itself up for Best Fighting Game and Best Multiplayer Game at the awards ceremony, it would make sense for Bamco to keep something back that’s extra special for the event to hopefully please active players while also appealing to those who don’t own the fighter yet.

Hardcore fans may be wishing for characters like Julia, Bruce, Christie or Marduk to return, however, that won’t really mean much to the general audience watching at home.

We’re expecting Bamco to bring some sort of bombast to the big stage that’ll get people excited, and the best way to do that is with the game’s first guest character.

Tekken 7 already opened that door with the likes of Street Fighter’s Akuma, Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard, Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis and The Walking Dead’s Negan.

There’s certainly a few very strong candidates to pick from, especially among the other Game Awards nominees.

And while we think a Warhammer Space Marine could be cool or funny, they aren’t at the top of our list.

So let’s dive into the best candidates starting with the one who is probably the most obvious pick of all.

Fans have been clamoring for Tifa’s inclusion in the fighting game series long before Tekken 8 was even announced or released.

Her hand to hand martial arts fits the 3D fighter almost perfectly on paper and certainly much more so than Noctis did in Tekken 7.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth itself is going to have a heavy presence at The Game Awards considering Square Enix’s action RPG is tied for the most total nominations at 7 alongside Astro Bot — so there’s already going to be a lot of eyes on that game in particular.

This also wouldn’t even be the first time a FF7 character got announced as a guest fighter at The Game Awards considering Super Smash Bros. Ultimate already set that precedent with Sephiroth in 2020.

Even Katsuhiro Harada himself has commented on Tifa’s popularity and high amount of requests they receive for her with the longtime director responding “we all know she’s attractive” to a fan’s question back in January.

At that time, he also claimed they did not decide anything when it came to guest characters yet, but that was almost a year ago now (and that doesn’t mean he was telling the truth).

Things are looking almost perfect for Tifa’s arrival across from Jin and Reina, but we’re not putting all of our eggs in that basket yet.

Just because something fits and would make sense doesn’t mean it’ll actually happen, but a lot of people seem to be hoping it finally does.

She would also get the biggest pop off out of anyone at this point.

The characters probably closest to rivaling Tifa in terms of requests come from Sega’s ever-popular Like A Dragon / Yakuza series, and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is another title receiving a bunch of accolades at The Game Awards this year.

Although Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima were the most likely to show up before as the original faces of the franchise, Ichiban Kasuga has taken over that protagonist role these past two mainline entries — so there’s a very good chance he’d be the pick for Tekken now to show off his street brawling and made up RPG powers.

Bandai Namco and Sega do appear to have a good working relationship that we’ll get into more shortly, but there may also be some more hurdles preventing Ichiban or Kiryu from answering the call.

Like A Dragon Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama was previously asked this year directly about crossing over into fighting games, but he indicated he believes it’s best to go outside of the medium like the Yakuza TV series rather than going to another video game.

The original series creator Toshiro Nagoshi was also apprehensive about including Kiryu in fighting games years ago because that means he’d have to hit women, but he doesn’t really have a say anymore since hasn’t been at the company since 2021.

So we’ll be seeing soon if that’s still the case or not.

Virtua Fighter and Tekken have a shared history between their rivalry as the first major 3D fighters and original Sega members joining Namco back in the day though Tekken was basically the last one left standing up until recently.

We’ve seen the likes of Akira Yuki, Pai Chan, Sarah and Jacky Bryant join Dead or Alive 5 before, so we know Sega is / was open to the idea of lending their fighters out as guest characters.

With Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, they also included a Tekken costume DLC bundle, meaning there’s already been some overlap.

Sega just recently announced Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. due out this Winter, so getting one of their characters into Tekken 8 would be a good way for them to promote the upcoming release to a slightly different audience.

Harada did say as well that “we can talk” about a Virtua Fighter crossover if a new one is revealed. It may not be 6 like he was hoping for, but it certainly is something.

The question then becomes, however, who do they pick?

Akira, Pai Chan, Jacky and Sarah would be the safe choices, but the Tekken team doesn’t go for that every time.

So perhaps we could end up seeing the likes of Jean, Goh, Vanessa, or Wolf up for contention.

Bandai Namco could always fall back on a more typical strategy to pull in another iconic fighting game character into their roster to serve as Tekken 8’s first guest like we previously saw with Akuma and Geese Howard in the last game.

Street Fighter may be the most obvious pick to give fans forever waiting for that Tekken x Street Fighter project to make it out of development purgatory after more than a decade, but it doesn’t have to be.

SNK of course is very open to lending out their characters with Terry Bogard currently on his quest for world domination though maybe we could see someone else like Krauser to thematically follow up on Geese — even if it wouldn’t bring quite the same pop.

A Mortal Kombat crossover would be huge, but Harada previously discussed while getting Scorpion or the like would be wonderful, he doesn’t think it could happen (unless he’s been pulling our legs these past few months).

Or maybe they’ll just pull in someone from Dead or Alive just to make Tomonobu Itagaki mad.

Negan was arguably the most surprising and out there fighting game guest character of all time, and there’s no reason why the Tekken team wouldn’t try and pull off something similar again.

That of course makes it pretty much impossible to predict who it could be, but the choices would likely come down to what Harada and the development team have been enjoying these past few years in terms of TV shows, movies and other games.

And then the owners of said properties would have to be down to have their character punched, mauled, slashed, shot and blown up to let them in the door.

So let’s just put it out there now. Someone owes me $1,000 if Alan Wake comes to Tekken or $100 for a Baldur’s Gate character (but they’d probably go with a more off the wall pick than that).

There has been some rumblings and speculation lately about a potential Bleach representative in Tekken 8 too since Harada said earlier this year it’s his favorite manga.

Of course it’s my favorite Manga too. https://t.co/bgJ0rA2N36

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 24, 2024

Bandai Namco is also publishing the new Bleach Rebirth of Souls game next year too, which could be good cross promotion, but it’s still a bit of a stretch.

It’s hard to imagine Ichigo Kurosaki fitting in well with his swordplay even after including Noctis before, though, perhaps someone focused on hand-to-hand combat could mesh better like the best girl, Yoruichi Shihoin.

No matter who it ends up being, video game fans around the world will be seeing the last character of Tekken 8’s first year in just a few short days, so they better bring the hype.

The Game Awards 2024 is set to take place this Thursday, December 12 starting at 4:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 ET for the pre-show with the actual award ceremony going live probably around 30 minutes or so later where dozens of reveals will take place.

So let us know in the comments who you think is coming or want to join Tekken 8 the most.

After more than a year of strong sales and chart performances between the releases of Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8, things seemed to have slowed down a bit on the fighting game front though they may be making a bit of a comeback again now.

Sony just released the top download game ranks for the month of November 2024, and we can also see which titles players have actually been most active in lately with some nice results for a few fighters in particular.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero remained one of the PlayStation 5’s best-selling games for the second month in a row after release though not in nearly as high of a spot as October when it was number two only behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

For November, Goku and the game came in at 11th overall in North America and 18th in Europe, which is certainly a drop, but the arena fighter also didn’t get to benefit from any Black Friday sales on its digital version like a number of other titles above it.

Considering Sparking Zero became the best-selling Dragon Ball game ever in the United States after just one month, that gap is only widening now for a title that’s selling a majority of its copies in the Americas as opposed to Asia.

The Z Fighters weren’t alone on the top charts this time either.

Mortal Kombat 1 returned after being absent for multiple months from the charts up to 14th place in North America though it did not appear on Europe’s rankings — Mortal Kombat X still made it on the PS4 charts at least.

It is rather interesting that MK1 failed to chart in the two months after the launch of its big Khaos Reigns expansion, but manages to do so again now.

This boost could very likely be due to the Black Friday / holiday deals for Mortal Kombat that saw the price drop by 35–50% even including the Khaos Reigns content as well as Ghostface’s arrival on the roster.

The lack of Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 here after similar sales indicates they did not get in nearly as many new players during that important window. and the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection did not come back after its first month either.

Said current jump could also lend a bit more credence to the ongoing rumors circulating that MK1’s future Kombat Pack 3 and other DLC were canceled in part because of Khaos Reigns’ disappointing sales figures.

That doesn’t mean people have stopped playing Mortal Kombat, however.

Mat Piscatella of Circana, formerly NPD Group, has been sharing charts for the top weekly games ranked based on total weekly active users lately where both of the aforementioned big titles are seeing success too.

Throughout all of November, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero managed to impressively stay in the top 10 every single week on PlayStation and held onto the top 15 in the first three weeks on Xbox too.

This is a bit interesting considering the PC version of Sparking saw its average playerbase drop by around 90% after the first month, but it seems things have stayed pretty steady on PS5 week after week.

What’s perhaps even more notable, however, is Mortal Kombat clawing its way onto the chart too.

Starting on the week for November 16, MK1 became the 15th most-played title on PS5 and would end up rising to meet Dragon Ball at the end on the month at 11th.

So it’s certainly looking like those sales and Ghostface’s release were pretty darn successful in getting a bunch of players picking up or logging into the game lately.

But now we’ll have to see how that holds up after these rumors of cancelation and likely losing major support beyond next year.

Plus, the yearly sales totals for 2024 will be coming in the next month or so to see how Tekken, Dragon Ball, and Mortal Kombat managed to do overall.

It’s now been a bit over a week since Street Fighter 6 received a new balance update that shook up the entire roster, and pro players have certainly been digging into what that means for their favorite characters and the competition.

BST|Daigo Umehara recently released a new video where he goes through some of the new balance changes in SF6 to see what they look like in practice and offer some early impressions — especially for Cammy.

The Killer Bee was arguably one of the fighters hit hardest in the patch, and Daigo doesn’t seem to disagree — though he also looks pretty happy about it as an Akuma player.

“At long last… She’s finally obeying the law,” said Umehara after reading through just a few of her adjustments. “She read through the entire Japanese constitution.”

The biggest things he seems to focus on is crouching medium punch being made much easier to whiff punish, and Cammy no longer switches sides after Overdrive Cannon Spike.

This means she can’t get out of the corner simply by guessing right on a reversal, but that doesn’t mean she’s weak now.

And Daigo has some funny analogies to help explain how he felt about Cammy before.

“I guess this makes her a normal strong character now?” Umehara continued. “She’s certainly not ‘weak.’ They just fixed things that were broken before. She was totally out of whack. Big time out of whack. She wasn’t paying taxes or obeying traffic lights. She was dining and dashing. That’s what it was like.”

So it sounds like he doesn’t expect her to really drop off much or anything but that Capcom hopefully did a decent job balancing her now.

Moving on to other characters, Daigo doesn’t seem overly impressed with E. Honda and Marisa’s buffs in the new update though does note they should have some better options now.

For Manon, however, he was surprised by her buffs to increase her meter gain at higher medal levels, which he describes as “amazing” and maybe a bit scary.

Daigo previously released videos focusing on his thoughts on Ryu’s buffs and M. Bison’s nerfs in the update as well. He does have others on Akuma and Ed as well, but those don’t have English subtitles just yet.

You can check out Daigo’s latest translated video below to get his thoughts and some chuckles about where SF6 is heading now.

Capcom recently released the December 2024 patch for Street Fighter 6. Though it was advertised to just be a minor update, every single character received some changes.

It’s still early, but it feels like Ryu ended up being one of the big winners of the update with the buffs that he received. Two-time Capcom Cup champion Falcon|MenaRD has apparently taken a sudden interest in Ryu and has recently been practicing with him online.

In a series of videos uploaded by The FGC Place, MenaRD can be seen taking on other pro players Chris Tatarian and Bandits|Caba, who are playing Ken and Guile respectively.

Ryu’s fireball game has been improved with the latest patch in that he can now safely cancel into his projectile from a blocked crouching medium kick without having to fear any sort of reprisal from a Drive Impact. However, Ken did not benefit from this change, which results in MenaRD reminding Tatarian that he can still Drive Impact to interrupt this string.

As Caba tends to be MenaRD’s training partner, you can tell both players are fairly familiar with how the other plays. This results in MenaRD playing very methodically in this match up.

It’s likely that MenaRD is simply experimenting with Ryu’s changes to get a better feel for the character after the patch. This certainly seems like a smart approach considering that Kusanagi qualified for Capcom Cup with Ryu. Of course, there’s also that possibility that MenaRD could be planning to pull out Ryu himself during the big event.

Check out the match footage of MenaRD’s Ryu in the videos below:

Capcom recently treated fans to Mai Shiranui’s teaser trailer for Street Fighter 6, revealing plans to make the SNK guest character available sometime in Winter 2025 (around January or February). We also took notice of the fact that Mai is likely coming alongside her Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special stage, which we haven’t seen for over 30 years at this point.

Orpheus has since released a video that goes over the many references that can be spotted in Mai’s trailer. There are various side-by-side comparisons for many of the set pieces and interactions that have been observed.

As mentioned before, Mai’s World Tour location appears to be in Aokigahara. A stone statue in the background depicts a hand grasping some sort of orb. The flags and temple also come across as being familiar to Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special fans.

For Mai herself, she’s seen dispatching enemies while maintaining graceful movements. Of course, Mai tends to actually utilize these attacks during gameplay in the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series.

At one point, a ninja attempts to attack Mai while airborne. However, Mai is easily able to defeat this opponent with her Hishou Ryuuenjin, which is likely to be her anti-air special in Street Fighter 6.

Just like with Terry Bogard, it appears that Capcom will be referencing past SNK games with Mai’s moveset in Street Fighter 6. She ends up performing a number of her iconic techniques in the teaser trailer.

Check it all out below:

Ed Boon has released a teaser trailer for Conan the Barbarian in Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns. He’s slated to be become available for Kombat Pack 2 owners on January 21, 2025.

What’s interesting about this teaser is that it actually provides us with our first look at Conan the Barbarian’s gameplay. As expected, he wields a sword during combat, which appears to give him quite a bit of extra reach.

Near the beginning of the fight, Conan the Barbarian is shown reflecting Kameo Cyrax’s Net back against General Shao. This seems like a powerful option, but it should be noted that it will cost meter based on how Conan glows with this action.

The rest of the clip showcases just our powerful Conan’s combos will be. He’s able to cause General Shao to be ground bounced twice in one combo, though Conan has to spend meter to do this the second time.

We also get to hear an exchange between General Shao and Conan at the beginning. It’s unknown who is voicing Conan, but it’s clear that NetherRealm Studios are really emphasizing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s take on the character.

As of right now, it’s not entirely clear what type of archetype Conan will fulfill within Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns, but it does feel as though he will be troublesome for zoning characters thanks to his built-in reflector. Based on his build, he will probably excel at rushing opponents down.

Check it all out below:

Conan the Barbarian joins the #MortalKombat1 roster Jan 21, 2025!#Conan #ConanTheBarbarian pic.twitter.com/e6OXoggnDx

— Ed Boon (@noobde) December 10, 2024

Today we’re sharing some fabulous fighting game artwork from São Paulo artist Conto.

Iconic fighting game characters like Chun-Li, Cammy, and Mai Shiranui strike poses both in and out of their usual attire as Conto’s illustrations range from on the job to at a summer beach party.

The artist’s style is heavily influenced by manga, with exaggerated features, expressive faces and sometimes humorous or dramatic compositions. The first image pits two iconic fighting game characters against each other, SNK’s Mai Shiranui and Capcom’s Chun-Li.

The style captures their essence with exaggerated features typical of manga and anime, emphasizing their distinct outfits and accessories. Mai’s new City of the Wolves costume contrasts with Chun-Li’s Street Fighter 6 look.

The second image places Cammy in a beach setting, showcasing Conto’s ability to adapt characters into different environments. The vibe here is playful and relaxed, though upon closer inspection we’re not exactly sure what to make of Juri’s attire in the background. Is that a body suit or is she down to just ink markings?

The third image is a pool party scene featuring characters from all over the fighting game space. Kyoko Minazuki from Rival Schools gets the center stage position as she winks at us, but we can spot characters from other Capcom properties in the background, namely Darkstalkers and Street Fighters.

Give the full gallery a look through below and let us know your thoughts in the comments afterwards. If you enjoy what you see, be sure to follow Conto on X and check out the myriad of additional work they have there.

Click images for larger versions

Both Street Fighter 6 and the Capcom Pro Tour have been moving through turbulent times as Capcom’s recent and highly-anticipated Street Fighter 6 update patch brought with it an unintended bug that instantly hampered the game’s competitive viability.

To make matters worse, this update was rolled out in the middle of the Capcom Pro Tour Regional Finals, a series of 24 major Street Fighter tournaments used to determine the top players across the globe. Organizers have announced that the US/Canada West Regional Finals event, one that was slated to take place on the day the bug was discovered, has officially been rescheduled.

Level Up, the organization tasked with running the US/Canada West Finals, announced back in December 4 that they’d be postponing their Pro Tour event after players quickly discovered a bug that caused characters who were knocked down after being Perfect Parried to lose the ability to buffer attacks during their wake up.

Just two days after the bug was discovered, Capcom rolled out a roll back patch that reverted some intended changes made to Perfect Parry, but also got rid of the bug those changes caused.

Level Up took to X once again on Monday to announce a new date for the postponed event, which will now take place on a Sunday nearly three weeks after the initially planned date.

“Our Regional Final date is set for Dec. 22 at 8pm Pacific Time,” starts the post. “We understand the date falls on a Sunday but choosing an available option which compliments every players schedule takes priority over our traditional Wednesday.”

“We want to thank our finalists for working with us so quickly on this matter and we can’t wait to see you compete at the finals! Watch the finals unfold on as we send our next qualifier to Capcom Cup 11!” it concludes. You can see the original embedded here:

#WNF x WW2024 US/Canada West Regional Final Update!

Our Regional Final date is set for Dec. 22 at 8pm Pacific Time.

We understand the date falls on a Sunday but choosing an available option which compliments every players schedule takes priority over our traditional… pic.twitter.com/GfR4IQ0OJa

— level | up (@levelupseries) December 9, 2024

We still have no word on if and when Capcom will try again to implement their intended Perfect Parry alteration, but for now getting the Pro Tour back on track and the game in a proper place are surely the highest priorities. Below is the updated schedule for the remainder of the regular season CPT:

Although Vice and Mature aren’t set to hit The King of Fighters 15 for a few more days, it appears fans are getting a taste of what else the ladies are bringing with them to the game.

SNK just dropped the official patch notes for KOF15’s Version 2.41 update offering balance changes and adjustments to the entire cast.

Even though some strong characters like Benimaru, Isla, and have received a few nerfs to make a couple moves slower on startup or have longer recovery, the general idea lf this update appears to be buffing fighters all around and opening up some new combo options.

The official update is slated to release this Thursday, December 12 alongside Vice and Mature.

They also released a new video highlighting some of the bigger changes that can be found below.

SNK previously put out the character guide video breakdowns for Vice and Mature to show off what the new DLC can do in action.

You can check our the full list of patch notes for what may be KOF15’s final balance update here, which can also be found on the official SNK website.

Click images for larger versions

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero was an immediate smash hit after quickly becoming the best-selling Dragon Ball game ever in the United States already, but the game has definitely had its share of issues too.

With a big update slated to hit Sparking Zero at some point this month, it appears some lucky players got their hands on the changes early.

The Bandai Namco booth at Manga Barcelona in Spain reportedly featured a new Dragon Ball build that quickly became noticeable.

People like Tamurex began sharing photos and supposed information about the update from the event that should definitely shake things up a bit in terms of both characters and features.

Hey, I think that there’s a new Build on Barcelona, it’s on a official Bandai Booth
It has split screen on all stages and on Character Select it says the cost of the Super Attacks pic.twitter.com/ERIEH2WmwC

— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 5, 2024

As for balance changes, quite a few abilities allegedly had their skill count requirements increased by 1 level to nerf them a bit like Ultra Instinct Goku’s Greater Potential, Bardock’s Shockwave of Rebellion, False Courage and supposedly every move that applies instant Spark.

On the flip side, Saiyan Spirit had its cost decreased a level though Afterimage Strike reportedly is the same despite calls for the powerful technique to be nerfed too.

Hello there pic.twitter.com/9OJPK7WBro

— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 6, 2024

One of the most interesting changes, however, comes on the feature side that should make players pretty happy.

Images are being shown of Sparking Zero running split-screen matches on more stages like the world martial arts tournaments arena and Namek though it could apply to all of them.

This would be a really nice upgrade because this Dragon Ball game launched with the option to only play locally on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage, which was disappointing.

Some that are similar to the ones I’ve been posting, but I’ll put them here anyway pic.twitter.com/U2gUg7jY3r

— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 8, 2024

Developers previously pointed to technical issues standing in their way, so it seems they’ve been able to push past those limits — though it may come at the cost of visual effects, fidelity, and / or performance.

More images of the reported update build also show what appears to be a new way to organize the character select screen.

Instead of having every transformation for every character just put into one giant list, you may be able to simplify that down to only one form on the main screen with their different versions then popping up upon selection like previous Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi games.

SPARKING ZERO MIGHT ACTUALLY RELEASE THIS MONTH THEY ARE COOKING #SparkingZero pic.twitter.com/3yMLM42kJm

— Sparking! ZERO News (@DBSparkingNews) December 5, 2024

Other screenshots, however, show the select screen looking the same as before, so it may be an optional feature to use soon.

One photo also suggests characters like Super Saiyan Gogeta may have an updated model, textures or lighting that makes his skin tone appear much lighter than it currently does though it’s hard to say for certain without direct footage.

Here are some more photos that I didn’t published (I think) of the unreleased Build pic.twitter.com/d1MhUNrOmY

— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 8, 2024

The official Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Dramatic Showdown tournament series has been facing controversies these past few weeks when players were reportedly warned to stop using a flight exploit with the Android characters before getting disqualified days after the fact anyway.

And when a very similar case appeared to occur during a different qualifier, the event organizers supposedly let the tech slide without issue.

There’s obviously much more issues for Sparking Zero outside of the tournament space, so it’ll be very interesting to see how Spike Chunsoft and Bandai Namco attempt to approach the game’s balance now.

Sparking Zero’s update is slated to release at some point in December, so we should be hearing more about it very soon as well as the official patch notes whenever they drop.