Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently confirmed plans for the mysterious new Nintendo Switch successor to be unveiled within this fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025. Other official details about the Switch successor (dubbed the “Nintendo Switch 2”) are currently scarce, but Furukawa also revealed that the new console will feature backwards compatibility with its predecessor.

New rumors about the Switch 2 continue to surface with the latest one now indicating when we might be able to expect the new device to launch. This information comes directly from Nintendúo, who claims that they’ve received direct confirmation from at least six game development companies.

According to Nintendúo, the Nintendo Switch 2 is slated to be released somewhere around June or July 2025. This would give Nintendo a short window between the console’s announcement and release, but this is fairly similar to how the Nintendo Switch’s launch was handled.

Notably, the Nintendo Switch was originally announced back on October 20, 2016. It would then be released worldwide a little over four months later on March 3, 2017.

At this point, it’s been over seven years since the Switch was made available in retail. This longevity can be mostly attributed to its success considering that it’s now the third best-selling gaming device of all time with 146.04 million sales.

Based on what is now officially known about the Switch 2’s backwards compatibility, it feels like a safe bet to assume that the upcoming console will be also be a hybrid device that acts as a direct upgrade over its predecessor.

Rumors seem to be suggesting that the Switch is to be priced around 400 to 500 Euros. For those of us in the United States, that’d be somewhere in the area of $422.67 to $528.33.

“Yes! Yooka-Replaylee will be playable on PS5, Xbox Series consoles and… Nintendo? Ooh mysterious. We’ll have more on that as soon as poss!” — Yooka-Replaylee website

In a recent trailer advertising Yooka-Replaylee, fans learned that the game will be coming to the PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and “Nintendo.” There was a suspicious animation that appeared to feature the eyes of Cappy (from Super Mario Odyssey) that was specifically hovering around the Nintendo logo.

Over on the official website for Yooka-Replaylee, the developers provided more information about this. Through these coy actions, it really does feel like they’re explicitly hinting that Yooka-Replaylee is slated to be released for the Switch 2. Of course, there’s currently no information about this game’s release date.

“Yes! Yooka-Replaylee will be playable on PS5, Xbox Series consoles and… Nintendo?” said in an official statement by the Yooka-Replaylee developers on their website. “Ooh mysterious. We’ll have more on that as soon as poss!”

Around this time, Masahiro Sakurai wrapped up his schedule for releasing content on his YouTube channel. In his final celebratory video, he revealed that he had been working on a secret game project since April 2022.

“I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later.” — Masahiro Sakurai

“It was around July 2021. I was busy working on the DLC of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” said Sakurai back then. “To be precise, I was putting together the video for ‘Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya.’ Sora was in development too, of course. While I was busy working on those tasks, I received a request to write a game proposal, which I finished at lightning speed.”

Considering the length of time in which Sakurai has been involved with this mysterious game, it seems likely that the announcement of this project is being held off until the unveiling of the Switch 2. Ultimately though, Sakurai did declare that we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for this to happen.

“I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later,” said Sakurai.

All of this seems to be pointing towards the imminent announcement of the Switch 2, likely after the 2024 holiday season. With that in mind, a release window around June or July 2025 feels like a credible possibility.

Tekken World Tour 2024 Finals has now been concluded. Leading up to this event, Bandai Namco communicated to the fans that there would be no character reveals just yet.

However, Bandai Namco did end up releasing a trailer that provided a sneak peek at the future for Tekken 8. Needless to say, there’s a lot for fans to look forward to.

First off, the second season of DLC content has been confirmed. As of right now, we don’t know how many fighters will join the roster via Season 2, but we suspect it will probably be four just like with Season 1.

There’s a scene during the trailer that sees a helicopter shooting at Nina. Notably, there’s also a zoom in on one of the helicopter’s rockets that shows us a lipstick insignia adorned to it.

With all of this in mind, it seems highly likely that Anna will be the first DLC challenger of Season 2. The scene that we were shown was likely the intro animation that plays when Anna and Nina are pitted against one another.

Despite the two being sisters, Anna and Nina really hate one another. It’s actually fairly common for the sisters to be gunning for each other in scenes just like this one.

As for the final DLC combatant of Season 1, we’ve been provided confirmation as to when to expect their trailer. Near the very end of the video, we’re told to keep an eye on The Game Awards 2025 ceremony that starts on December 12, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. PST.

Considering the timing of this reveal, many are speculating that this character could be the first third party featured in Tekken 8. We haven’t had any in Tekken 8 thus far, but there were quite a few of them present in Tekken 7.

There was also information pertaining to the Spring 2025 update. There is a major balance patch currently in the works.

With this upcoming patch, every single character will gain access to new moves. We’ll likely be seeing some shifts in player tier lists with these changes on the horizon.

Check it all out and more in the trailer below:

Click images for larger versions

After months of grinding competitions around the globe and multiple days of setup, Tekken 8 is about to crown its first world champion for the new title.

The Tekken World Tour 2024 Finals has entered the last stage of the huge tournament, and we’ve gone back and gathered up the full character stats for the Last Chance Qualifier, Group Stage and top 16.

Starting out with the LCQ, we ended up seeing 31 of 35 characters in the top 64 receive main play from the competitors fighting it out for the last two spots in the main event.

Hwoarang and King were the most popular choices with Bryan, Dragunov, and Nina right behind them.

T1|Edge was the only Hwoarang to qualify for the final bracket, and the same could be said for ZETA|Keisuke and his Kazuya making some new believers out of fans.

The only characters we didn’t see at all were Devil Jin, Jin, Panda and Xiaoyu. Some of them would continue that trend, but one would definitely not as we continue through the stats.

Moving on to the top 35 players with the most world and regional points split up between 7 groups, 19 different mains were present with 23 fighters showing up throughout the Round Robin matches in total.

There were 8 repeats among them with Jin and Dragunov seeing the most play, which isn’t too surprising in the current meta, but 4 out of those 5 Jins would actually manage to make their way to the final bracket.

Other popular picks throughout this first competitive season like Nina, Shaheen and Claudio were up there too.

But of course only 14 of these 35 could stay in the money for the grand prize.

Finally, we’ve got the top 16 where things are technically much more diverse besides on character we alluded to before.

The last bracket to determine the champion had 13 different fighters on display, and the only repeat was Jin, who made up 25% of the picks by himself.

So that means we get a pretty nice spread overall to showcase and highlight this first season for Tekken 8 with the players who’ve been putting in the most work.

There’s of course TM|Arslan Ash’s Nina, Navi|Kkokkoma’s Feng, Ashes|TheJon’s King and of course VARREL|Rangchu doing what he does with Kuma better than anyone else.

You can check out the breakdown for TWT top 16 below, but we’ve also got a bit more to look at under that you should find interesting.

We’ve combined all of the character usage throughout the entire Tekken World Tour Finals to get a broader view of the event minus any repeats from the players who managed to move on.

When put into a graph, it becomes clear that Dragunov was actually the most used character of the whole event with 8 different mains and then Nina right behind him.

Despite his big impact on top 16, Jin was still tied for 5th overall in popularity with Hwoarang and Jun.

And at the end, the only fighters we unfortunately didn’t seem to witness at all during this multi-day event were Devil Jin and Panda.

Note: Numbers in parenthesis represent secondary / side character choices.

Or maybe nays?

Out of seemingly nowhere, Capcom decided to drop the first look at Mai Shiranui as the next DLC character of Street Fighter 6 via her teaser trailer a few days ago.

But unlike her compatriot Terry Bogard, we’ve been seeing much more of a split reaction when it comes to Mai’s appearance and design in SF6 — but how are you all feeling now that she’s had a few days to marinate?

Across our own comments and social media in general, Capcom and SNK fans have been sharing their takes and reactions to her reveal, and since there’s no gameplay yet, all we really have to go on is Mai’s overall look at the moment.

There’s been a real mix of those who feel the kunoichi just looks worse than she did in The King of Fighters 15, Dead or Alive 6 and how Mai is going to appear in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves with her new outfit.

And then there’s those who immediately jived with Capcom’s new take on the classic heroine, and others who were on the fence and started warming up to it.

We’ve already put together a comparison of Mai’s modern appearances, so you can see how she’s looked in other games side-by-side with SF6.

At least they’re all arguably better than Mai’s random crossover in a mobile zombie game earlier this year.

The main points of contention don’t really come from her red dress and costume and general, but Capcom’s direction for Mai’s face and hair.

Unlike KOF15, for example, where Ms. Shiranui had sharper facial features, she has a softer look to her face in SF6.

Even personally, I wasn’t very sure if I liked Mai’s newest design here or not, but I’ve come around on it quite a bit now, especially after understanding their apparent intention with her.

Mai’s face and hair with the short bangs line up much more with Shinkiro’s classic Fatal Fury and King of Fighters artwork for the character, however, it seems they could could still touch her up to make her feel more like “Mai” some more too.

Like Terry before, Capcom seems to be going more for a celebration of the original Fatal Fury titles as opposed to what SNK is doing with the series and fighters right now. And there were some questions about Terry’s appearance after his initial teaser too, which were mostly quelled after seeing him fully in action.

But whether or not you like that approach or think it turned out well or not is still up to personal preference.

So we’ve put together a couple of new polls for you all to vote and voice your opinions in.

Let us know below how you’re feeling about Mai’s first appearance in Street Fighter 6 below as well as which modern fighter you feel she looks best in.

The latest patch for Street Fighter 6 made some significant adjustments to the balance of the game. While it’s still not clear exactly where Ryu will end up in this new meta, he does appear to be one of the big winners right now due to all the impactful buffs he received.

In a recent video upload, BST|Daigo Umehara took the time to go over and analyze the changes made to Ryu. By the end of the session, he ends up “howling” in excitement with some of the changes that he goes over.

“I’ve got to say, Ryu seems totally viable,” says Daigo at one point. “I suspect he’s quite strong.”

After experimenting with some corner combos, Daigo takes notice of how much Drive Gauge Ryu’s High Blade Kick depleted from the opponent when they block the technique. This seems quite strong considering how it basically takes away an entire bar while remaining safe (even more so than before).

“He’s good enough that I’d like to try playing with him when I have time,” continued Daigo later in the video. “Still, as long as this game has corner throw loops, I feel like he’s still going to fall short.”

Every time Ryu gets buffed since Street Fighter 5, there tends to be a lot of hype that he may finally end up being viable. One also has to imagine that there’s always a lot of pressure on Daigo to play Ryu, but it sounds like he’ll probably still be sticking with Akuma while using Ryu for more casual sessions.

Still, it’s worth noting that Kusangi was able to qualify for Capcom Cup 11 with Ryu not too long ago. We’ll probably get a better feel for what these buffs will do for Ryu around that time.

Check out all of Daigo’s reactions to Ryu’s changes in the video below:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its roster consisting of 86 fighters is truly a monumental feat in gaming. Much of the roster is made up of the veterans from prior titles due to its “Everyone Is Here” theme.

Of course, it’s important to mention that there have been numerous characters that were conceptualized or worked on, before getting scrapped along the way. Had these combatants been included, they would’ve been obligated to return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to maintain its important tagline.

Shortly after the release of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, Masahiro Sakurai immediately began brainstorming for a sequel on the GameCube, Super Smash Bros. Melee. During this timeframe, Sakurai polled Japanese fans about who they’d want to see for a theoretical sequel explicitly for Super Smash Bros. Melee, though Sakurai coyly attempted to mask that a sequel was in development.

“Character I’d like to see in Smash 2: Mach Rider. Reason: His name is great. Mach? Ha.” — Masahiro Sakurai

At one point, Sakurai was even asked which character he’d like to add to in sequel to Super Smash Bros. Funnily enough, the name that he responded with did not actually have a place on the roster in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

“Which character would you personally want to see — or want to put in — to Smash 2?” asked one fan of Sakurai according to a translation by Source Gaming.

“Character I’d like to see in Smash 2: Mach Rider. Reason: His name is great. Mach? Ha,” responded Sakurai.

The character Mach Rider hails from “Mach Rider” on the Nintendo Entertainment System, released back in 1985. Mach Rider would only return for one sequel, “Mach Rider, Vs. Mach Rider” for the arcades.

Similar to Captain Falcon of the F-Zero series, Mach Rider is only ever controlled while riding his vehicle. Instead of the Blue Falcon, Mach Rider operates the Mach Bike.

Rather than just racing, Mach Rider has to survive each track by blasting aliens operating Quadrunners with his Mach Bike’s mounted machine guns. After completing each stage, Mach Rider can be seen posing with a rifle.

Back then, Sakurai made it clear that realistic firearms couldn’t appear in the Super Smash Bros. series, which is what resulted in Snake’s moveset being comprised of CQC and heavy ordnance. Of course, Joker, a guest from Persona 5, in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate utilizes a pistol for his neutral special, but it can technically be argued that it’s actually an airsoft gun within the lore even though it very clearly resembles a realistic pistol.

With that in mind, Mach Rider would likely need an entirely original moveset for him to be included in Super Smash Bros. This wouldn’t actually pose much of a challenge to Sakurai considering how iconic Captain Falcon’s move list has become.

Attacks such as the “Falcon Punch” were conceptualized specifically for Super Smash Bros. However, it has since become such an integral part of Captain Falcon’s character that the technique was even used in F-Zero: GP Legend, an anime based on the F-Zero game series.

Regardless, Mach Rider was ultimately not included in the roster for Super Smash Bros. Melee, and has yet to be playable in the platform brawler genre thus far. Instead, he would be a trophy in Melee, a sticker in Brawl, and a spirit in Ultimate. Additionally, his theme “Mach Rider” would frequently appear as a track on the F-Zero stages.

Ultimately though, it seems that Sakurai was just using Mach Rider as a joke to avoid giving a serious answer to the original question considering that he actively was working on a sequel to Super Smash Bros. at the time. Evidently, there were plenty of candidates that got priority over Mach Rider for a roster slot.

It was likely this comment from Sakurai that inspired the inclusion of Mach Rider into the now debunked Grinch leak. The other characters that this leak alluded to included Shadow the Hedgehog, Isaac, Banjo-Kazooie, Ken Masters, Geno, and the Chorus Kids.

Of these seven fighters, only Ken Masters was actually part of the base roster. Banjo-Kazooie would later join as DLC later as the third challenger of the Fighters Pass (Vol. 1).

For years now, Sakurai has wanted Geno to be playable in Super Smash Bros., though it’s yet to actually happen. Meanwhile, there’s evidence of plans to include the Chorus Kids (or some other Rhythm Heaven rep) in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Though Mach Rider was clearly just intended as a joke, Sakurai has a tradition of including unexpected or “joke” characters such as Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., Wii Fit Trainer, Duck Hunt, and Piranha Plant. Stranger things have happened with the Smash series, so Mach Rider could still potentially become playable someday.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently confirmed plans for the Switch successor to be revealed within this fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025. It’s also been theorized that Sakurai’s secret game project that he’s been working on since April 2022 could be the next iteration of Super Smash Bros. on this new console, which would explain why this new game has yet to even be announced yet.

To be honest, Mach Rider seems like more of a longshot than many other candidates due to Sakurai’s misdirecting joke. We’ll have to see how things play out from here, but I’m personally not expecting him to join anytime soon.

The Nounsvitational is an invitational event (the name might have already tipped you off to that part) which is happening in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Players participating in the event are Nouns|Cody Schwab, Zain, Nouns|Aklo, C9|Mango, FLY|Jmook, Lil|Plup, RB|aMSa, Moist|Moky, MxM|Joshman, Soonsay, Lil|Junebug, Salt, TFT|MOF, RVL|Agent, RVL|Bing and Oasis|Bekvin.

If the notable players list didn’t already clue you in to what game is being played, this is a Super Smash Bros. Melee event featuring some of the very best competitors in the scene.

8 players were originally invited to the lineup with the rest being decided by fan voting as well as qualifying events.

The players will be divided into two groups of 8 which will fight it out in a Round Robin format to eventually battle it out in a bracket afterwards.

Streaming is being done at Nouns Esports.

Mai Shiranui’s Street Fighter 6 teaser trailer recently revealed that the second SNK guest character is slated to release in early 2025. Through this teaser trailer, we got just a small glimpse of how player avatars will be able to interact with Mai in World Tour mode.

While this hasn’t been outright confirmed yet, Mai’s stage from SNK’s Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury special may also be releasing as new DLC content within Street Fighter 6 alongside the fighter. This stage is known as Aokigahara, or the Sea of Trees.

In Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, players fight on a raft as it drifts through the sea with the real-world forest Aokigahara (located in Honshu, Japan) in the background. During this, waterfalls, statues, shrines, and flags with Japanese symbols adorned on them can be observed.

Within the real world, Aokigahara is also known as “Suicide Forest” as it’s commonly the last stop for a lot of people. Of course, this likely won’t be referenced in Street Fighter 6.

During the trailer, a statue of a stone hand grasping an orb can be seen. This set piece has a presence on Mai Shiranui’s stage in Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, which were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively. In other words, it’s been over 30 years since we’ve seen this stage.

Assuming this isn’t just a location exclusive to World Tour mode, this means that Aokigahara will be the second SNK stage featured in Street Fighter 6, after Terry’s Pão Pão Café. With this in mind, the description for Street Fighter 6’s Year 2 Ultimate Pass suggests that Elena won’t be receiving her own home stage since the pass only comes with two stages.

Check it all out below:

Mai Shiranui’s stage from Fatal Fury 2 returns in Street Fighter 6. pic.twitter.com/rYe1K3eAt3

— Nerdemia (@Nerdemia) December 6, 2024

For music and not as a fighter of course

Street Fighter is certainly no stranger to collaborations in their games and merchandising though this latest one is something nobody probably saw coming.

Alongside the new balance update, Capcom added the composer from games like Goldeneye 007, Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 into Street Fighter 6.

That’s right, the great Grant Kirkhope is now featured in Street Fighter for the first time as a guest composer, and this seems to be the first time he’s worked with Capcom too.

Kirkhope contributed the new track Annihilation to the game, which is free to use for all SF6 players.

The song can simply be played in the Music Player or set as character themes or background music in other modes via the Options menu.

There seems to be some confusion that this is the SiRN M. Bison boss theme, but Annihilation is not the song that plays during the fight as far as we can tell.

This is still a banger though.

Thank you so much for asking me Nakayama San, I loved writing it for you! https://t.co/mwOQDFLYUB

— Grant Kirknog (@grantkirkhope) December 3, 2024

It’s got a dark brooding atmosphere that does fit well with Bison mixed with the electronic beat, strings and horns that does make it sound familiar to Goldeneye and his other works.

Some are posting that Kirkhope did do Bison’s special boss theme too, but Grant himself only says he did “a track” for SF6 so far.

Kirkhope’s first ever official credit was very fittingly on Killer Instinct 2 as the guitar player, and he has of course provided a multitude of tracks to the Super Smash Bros. series — obviously including the DK Rap among them.

This obviously isn’t the first time Capcom has collaborated with music artists and composers to do something with Street Fighter before, but it was rarer to see them actually used in the games themselves before now.

Hell, there’s still the Del the Funky Homosapien rap for G in Street Fighter 5 that we don’t have an official version of yet.

You can take a listen to Kirkhope’s contribution to Street Fighter below that you can now use in the game.