Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Though there’s definitely some contention in the conversation, the Street Fighter 6 community has garnered a general idea of which of the game’s current 24-character roster are thriving along with which are struggling to eek out wins.

Competitor and content creator Broski has had his ear to the ground for some time now, watching Capcom’s decisions through previous patches as Street Fighter 6 has evolved in its first two years. The UK player has some inclinations to how the next SF6 balance patch may play out as he’s rolled out a new video explaining how likely each character is to be nerfed vs. buffed in the next update.

You may have a few characters that seem to keep winning in mind for the front of the nerf line, but those of us who have been around for more than a few Street Fighter game lifespans know that Capcom tends to surprise us more often than we’d like with changes that don’t seem to fit the current landscape at all.

Cammy, for instance, during the first few years of Street Fighter 5 was clearly one of the game’s strongest contenders, but for some reason developers seemed to only slap her on the wrist or even give her small buffs.

Ryu, on the other hand, was famously worse than the community felt the franchise poster boy should be during the majority of his Street Fighter 5 stint. Developers eventually made clear attempts to buff him, but they were arguably never enough to actually get him to an appropriate place.

With all that in mind, how do we feel Capcom will handle the likes of Bison, Ed, Rashid, Akuma, Cammy, and Ken? How about obvious strugglers like Manon, Jamie, Lily, and E. Honda?

Broski does ultimately express his thoughts here through a tier list organization, of sorts. He has six different categories for potential change ranging from “Prepare to learn a new character, bucko,” to “This man’s stocks are going to the f****** moon, invest now,” which is reserved for just one character: Terry.

You can view the full visual chart by clicking the thumbnail here, but to hear all of Broski’s thoughtful reasonings behind each and every one of his placements, you’ll want to watch the full video below.

Click images for larger versions

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns was released on September 24, 2024. Though Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot were immediately made playable, Ghostface, T-1000, and Conan the Barbarian were slated to join in future updates. Among those guest characters, only Ghostface is available right now.

The future was looking bright for Mortal Kombat 1 as Ed Boon confirmed plans for years of content. This was only the second year for Mortal Kombat 1. However, it seems that plans might be changing according to a certain insider

According to Reddit “verified insider” FateUnknown, NetherRealm Studios had plans to work on Kombat Pack 3 and a second story expansion after they were finished with the Khaos Reigns content. Unfortunately, it’s now being claimed that this roadmap has been cancelled.

If this is true, then it means that there won’t be any additional DLC fighters for Mortal Kombat 1 after Kombat Pack 2. FateUnknown also claims that there will probably only be one or two more additional DLC Kameo characters added, but only because they’ve already had work done on them.

These cancellations are apparently due to the poor performance of Khaos Reigns. In other words, Khaos Reigns has underperformed in terms of sales.

No way???

To be fair a lot of people did say MK1 Khaos reigns was overpriced including the players & review outlets. But it’s interesting to see the knock on effect of this.

But it kind of sucks though that the game was getting better & better with these QoL updates & recently… pic.twitter.com/WQprywKEKk

— iScream (@iScreamFGC) November 26, 2024

While we’re not able to confirm this, it is worth mentioning Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns went on sale recently. From $49.99, the story expansion and DLC characters can now be acquired for $32.49, which marks the content down by 35%.

Rumors were suggesting that characters like Jade, Sonya, Cassie, and Kung Jin were potentially in consideration for Kombat Pack 3. If what FateUnknown says is true, then it means that these combatants won’t be coming to Mortal Kombat 1 at all.

During our review for Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns, we noted that the story expansion was the worst one that NetherRealm Studios had ever produced. Despite that, we did praise the design for Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot as DLC fighters.

Ultimately though, we felt as though Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns was being overpriced for what it was. At the time, it was our recommendation to just purchase the DLC characters individually while skipping the story, but we learned later that doing this would only result in saving a few dollars.

Evidently, the Khaos Reigns story expansion has not been well received by fans and outlets alike. Needless to say, this is likely what resulted in it selling poorly.

As of right now, it’s unknown what could be next for NetherRealm Studios if future content for Mortal Kombat 1 is truly being cancelled. More than likely, Warner Bros. will be pushing NetherRealm Studios to ramp up development on their next game, which has apparently been in preproduction for about three years now.

Could this be the start of the ‘Super Smash Bros. cinematic universe’?

The Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie is scheduled to hit theaters on December 20, 2024. Most notably, it will feature Keanu Reeves as the voice of Shadow the Hedgehog, the main antagonist of the movie.

Paramount Pictures recently released their second trailer to advertise the movie. There’s one scene in particular that has everyone talking.

Early into the trailer, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are seen hanging out together at the “Chao Garden,” which appears to hold similarities to the real world Chuck E. Cheese. Eventually, the trio are approached by a couple of young girls.

“Are you Detective Pikachu?” asks one of the girls of Tails. Needless to say, this prompts quite the response from Knuckles.

“Ha ha! He does look like a Pokémon!” mocked Knuckles. “Pika pika!”

This was quite an interesting exchange as nobody was expecting a Sega film to reference a Nintendo movie. Are these two universes somehow connected, or does Detective Pikachu simply exist as a movie in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie universe?

Regardless, fans have often been talking about how Nintendo is in a prime position to create the “Super Smash Bros. Cinematic Universe.” There’s an obvious parallel here to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Notably, the The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the two Sonic the Hedgehog movies released so far were extremely successful for Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures respectively. It might be crazy to think there could someday be movie featuring a crossover between Mario and Sonic, but they are both playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series starting with Brawl.

While this could just be intended as nothing more than a playful reference for the purpose of comedy, there could be greater ramifications for this line in the distant future.

Of course, it’s also worth mentioning that Nintendo already has plans for a Legend of Zelda movie. With The Super Mario Bros. Movie already featuring characters like Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Peach, Yoshi, and Bowser, quite a number of characters present in the Super Smash Bros. series are already being represented in this theorized “cinematic universe.”

Check out the second Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie trailer below:

If you’ve played more than a few rounds of Street Fighter 6 then you likely know how it feels to jump at your foe as they’re recovering from a move, confident you’re going to nail them with a full jump in combo, only to see the screen freeze up and your opponent turn blue as they’ve just used Perfect Parry as an anti-air.

Instantly flipping from expecting a full combo to being parried is a total bummer, and through one’s frustration it’s easy to view such sequences as potential poor game design. MC Mura really dislikes the way Perfect Parry anti-airs currently work in Street Fighter 6, but is it accurate to go as far as to say this is poor game design?

Mura himself doesn’t make the leap to calling this poor design, but instead frames it as something he more personally wishes was differently implemented or executed. That’s fair, as having your jump in PP’d can suck the motivation to keep going right out of you.

You also might argue that going for an option like Perfect Parry, which can still lose if you mistime or your airborne opposition decides to empty jump, is scrubby when you could also go for a surefire anti-air that has invincibility to air attacks.

It’s widely known that you can get some 20% of your foe’s health while also draining some of their Drive Gauge if you throw a Perfect Parry attempt, but be that as it may, one might argue the risk vs. reward of PP as an AA is skewed too heavily in the parrying player’s favor.

Mura files the fighting game community into two types of players: those who see winning mix-up or 50/50 contests as an important skill and thus such situations contribute to the fun of the experience, and those who feel like rock/paper/scissors scenarios more as frustratingly more random variables.

At its core, is this debate really just a matter of preference around mix-ups vs. surefire hits, or should we really break down the nitty gritty details and crunch all relevant numbers to determine whether or not Perfect Parry anti-airs are kosher parts of the Street Fighter 6 experience?

Give Mura’s video a watch and then let us know how you think and feel about the topic in the comments below.

Want more from Mura? Be sure to check out his recent look at the peculiar reason why Guile keeps getting better in every modern Street Fighter.

Don’t go testing Mister Crimson’s reactions it seems

The various Street Fighter Leagues have provided some of the most consistent high-level action and on-screen rivalries for years now where each week / day offers up some crazy sequences you don’t often see in other competitions.

That goes for the current Street Fighter League Pro-EU 2024 season as well where we just got to witness what appeared to be a sure victory turn into a set loss for a risky decision that didn’t pan out as hoped.

During the day 9 match between the Aegis and Reason Gaming teams, Boltstrike and his Jamie were already down one game against Mister Crimson’s signature Dhalsim, but the former was looking to make a comeback.

After pushing the yoga master to the corner, Boltstrike manages to open his opponent up by getting tricky with his jump options, and this lets him land a level 3 Super Art.

It’s not enough to seal the deal on its own, but Jamie’s level 3 is one of the few Supers that allow for a follow-up in SF6 — so there was still a shot to take.

With just one bar of Drive Gauge and one drink stored, that didn’t leave as many options to get that last bit of damage in that combo without getting tricky.

Boltstrike attempted to close the game out by hitting a punch reset into Drive Impact, but Mister Crimson was ready for it.

The Reaction #SFLEU2024 pic.twitter.com/2ViLYwirJL

— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) November 25, 2024

The Dhalsim was able to counter DI back with just enough health to survive and instantly turn the tables.

Crimson was able to side-switch after his clutch reaction and set up his own Drive Impact in the corner against the Jamie with no more resources, leading to the stun.

Dhalsim is another character who can combo after a Super, and Mister Crimson shows that off masterfully with his big level 2 fireball leading to a double Drive Rush to be able to land his level 1 at the end too.

Even that wasn’t enough to finish the job, but Boltstrike went for the wakeup reversal to try and snatch the win back and ended up being blocked.

Crimson would take the set 2-0, and the rest of his Aegis team would sweep the competition too.

After the highlight started getting attention, Boltstrike chimed in with a funny post offering up some insight to what was apparently going through his mind in that moment.

Brain: “Don’t do it. Don’t try the DI reset. If he reacts to the DI, you’ve lost the game. It’s not worth it”

Heart: “Ehhh chill out brain, it’ll be fine. He won’t react. I’m so sneaky hehehe”

Brain: “Good job idiot.” https://t.co/pvFs53oqPL

— Boltstrike (@Boltstrike_) November 25, 2024

If we believe this was really his thought process, the Jamie player had the worry that he’d lose the match if Crimson reacted to the Drive Impact.

But he talked himself into going for it in the heat of the moment thinking he could sneak it in, but the opposition was aware and waiting.

There’s obviously no telling what would have happened if Boltstrike went for a different reset or combo to knock down, so he can’t really be blamed for going for the win. His back was already against the wall needed that roundto stay in the set.

Sometimes these gambits work out and sometimes they don’t.

And sometimes the intrusive thoughts win.

We’re now about half way through Bandai Namco’s Dramatic Showdown Tournament, a special series of events featuring the new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero that will end with an exciting international finals bracket in Los Angeles in January.

France, arguably the most competitive region when it comes to Sparking Zero right now, played its online qualifier over the weekend. This culminated in a highly-controversial grand finals set that exposed the fact that the current most effective strategy involves spamming evasive maneuvers to time your opponent out. This alone turned the tournament’s climax into a bit of a farce, but competitor statements following the finals only added to the controversy.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero released back on October 11 and has already rolled out one emergency balance patch to nerf some unintended Yajirobe abilities. Expectations that this 180+ character roster will be at all balanced for competitive fighting game tournament play this early in the game’s life (or perhaps, ever) are understandably minuscule.

With its single elimination format, pre-selected character picks for the final bracket, and lack of prize pool thus far, Bandai Namco’s promotional Dramatic Showdown Tournament circuit does not smack of traditional competition, either.

That said, players are still giving Sparking Zero their all as they rush to figure out optimal strategies for winning, and that effort was put on clear display during the weekend’s French online qualifier. Competitors Hilliasteur and Shiryxu wound up as the event’s two finalists.

Both chose teams consisting of Android 19 and Dr. Gero (also known as Android 20), two characters that notably have infinite access to the game’s universal “ki” mechanic, which is essentially a meter required for specific attacks and movements. One ki-dependent maneuver is a speedy dash that can cause characters to zip up, down, left, or right, and spamming this dash makes you nigh-impossible to hit.

As grand finals started, a Dr. Gero mirror quickly turned into a dash fest as both competitors immediately and incessantly spammed this maneuver. Commentators Tyrant and Jake Ryan quickly noticed the peculiar action and began remarking about the lack of interaction, clearly wondering if this was an instance of collusion or some kind of jest. After about two minutes without a single clash, Bandai decided to cut away from the gameplay and only feature the commentators as they filled the next 8 minutes with casual Dragon Ball talk.

As it turns out, both players were approaching the game with the most effective known strategy right now: spam dash until you get an opportunity to land a single hit, then evade until you win via timer scam. Though we didn’t get to see it, the first round wound up going to Shiryxu, who presumably scored a single hit at some point during the 10 minute fight.

According to Hilliasteur on X, there were some interactions between players and Bandai Namco tournament organizers between the first and second game during the best of three grand finals set. Here is what Hilliasteur had to say on X about the interaction:

Hilliasteur proceeded to change characters and lose via time out in the second bout, making Shinryxu the victor. The French champion then promptly took to X to post footage of his win with the hashtag “#FIXSPARKINGZERO” prominently displayed:

I WON BY JUST RUNNING WITH ANDROIDS #FIXSPARKINGZERO https://t.co/qIeme4v9V8

— ShiryxuOnTwitch (@SHIRYXU) November 25, 2024

Commentator Tyrant took to his own live stream Monday morning to talk about the controversy from his own point of view. He was quick to decry finger pointing in any direction, noting that this kind of happening is common amid fighting games, especially so soon after launch.

“You can’t put blame on anybody,” he stated. “This is in the game, this strategy is there for everybody to use. There’s nothing in the rule set that says ‘stalling for time out is against the rules,’ or anything like that. That is what it is. That’s just the game,” concluded Tyrant.

Bandai Namco announced an additional balance patch was coming to Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero in December after the conclusion of the Dramatic Showdown Tournament online preliminaries. We have no information about what this patch will specifically attend to, though this timer scam potential is likely now a top priority.

You can view the grand finals for yourself via Bandai Namco’s VOD below. The video contains the online event in its entirety, but should skip you right to the start of grand finals around the 6:13:35 mark:

We have reached out to Bandai Namco, Hilliasteur, and Shiryxu for comment, but as of this article’s publish time, we have not heard back.

Ghostface was recently confirmed to have the most meta Fatality ever in Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns.

After butchering his opponent, the camera then zooms out to reveal… Johnny Cage sitting on a couch, losing to Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns. After hearing a brief session of salt from Johnny Cage, he’s then killed by Ghostface, splattering blood on the television screen.

As it turns out, SHAAR recently took it upon himself to showcase this Fatality being performed by every character in Mortal Kombat 1 through modding. This also includes the Kameo characters.

Funnily enough, the scene actually starts with Adam, an NPC Kameo seen during the story mode in main Mortal Kombat 1 story. Adam appears to be Johnny Cage’s co-star in what is essentially a rip off of Indiana Jones.

During the scene that we’re shown, the character that Adam is portraying ends up getting killed. With Adam killing Johnny Cage at his home like this, perhaps he has grown tired of playing second fiddle to Johnny Cage as an actor.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that not every character is able to pull off this scene as well as Ghostface himself. For example, modding Motaro into the Fatality results in it looking absolutely broken due to how different his model is to the average humanoid character in Mortal Kombat 1.

Check it all out below:

Masahiro Sakurai has dedicated years of his life developing the Super Smash Bros. series. The pinnacle of the franchise thus far, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, feels like a worthy celebration of gaming.

Shortly after the release of Kingdom Hearts’ Sora as the final DLC challenger for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Verge asked Sakurai if he ever had any regrets about other game development opportunities that he might’ve missed out on because of the time he’s dedicated to developing the Super Smash Bros. series.

“I do sometimes look back and think about the fact that there may have been other opportunities had I not been working on Super Smash Bros.,” responded Sakurai in the email interview. “However, I have no regrets because Super Smash Bros. is like none other, and this was an opportunity that I could not have gained with any other project.”

“I do sometimes look back and think about the fact that there may have been other opportunities had I not been working on Super Smash Bros.” — Masahiro Sakurai

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the game dev originally left HAL back in 2003 after the release of Kirby Air Ride. Back then, he felt a certain pressure within the gaming industry to continue developing sequels for already established intellectual properties rather than creating a new project.

Ironically, he ended up getting recruited by Satoru Iwata specifically for the purpose of overseeing the development of a sequel to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Since then, he’s developed Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Thus far, only Kid Icarus: Uprising is the only game not directly tied to the Super Smash Bros. series, and even then, it served as a revival to an already established franchise.

He has even noted that he has effectively spent nine years of his life working on the Super Smash Bros. almost consecutively with just Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate due to him transitioning immediately into work for Smash Ultimate after finishing the 3DS and Wii U entries in the franchise. As such, Sakurai has come to ponder about an early retirement from time to time, even considering himself “semi-retired” at one point.

We recently learned from the game director himself that he’s been busy overseeing the work on a secret game project. Though development started in April 2022, he has declared that he was able to write up the proposal at “lightning speed” back in July 2021. During that period, he was also juggling work on Kazuya and Sora as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Though details are scarce, the timeline surrounding this secret game project seems to match up with that of the Switch successor, which will apparently feature backwards compatibility. The console is expected to be announced before the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025.

The most talked about theory among fans suggests that Sakurai is already working on the next entry of the Super Smash Bros. series. Knowing him, he himself was probably aware that this sort of speculation would arise upon the reveal that he’s been working on an unannounced game.

Regardless, he is adamant that he doesn’t have any regrets about prioritizing the Super Smash Bros. series throughout his career. There is something truly special about this take on the platform brawler genre, and it’s really become something that fans adore.

Previously, he’s talked about the great lengths that he’d be willing to go through for the sake of getting more people to play his game.

“This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.” — Masahiro Sakurai

“If it resulted in more people playing my game, I think I would weather any hardship,” once declared Sakurai. Indeed, he once landed himself in the hospital due to being overworked during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Though Sakurai doesn’t regret the time he’s invested into Super Smash Bros. over chasing other potential opportunities, he did mention that the series has become too dependent on his vision as its creator.

“Also, I’ve been doing too much of the work myself, so I’d need to resolve that, too,” continued Sakurai. “The current Super Smash Bros. has too much of my personality poured into it. In order for a long-time series to continue thriving today, we need to think about eliminating the series’ dependence on just one person’s vision.”

As of right now, even Sakurai believes that there will someday be another entry in the Smash franchise, though he doesn’t see it happening without his involvement. It would seem that Sakurai is interested in solving this issue for the good of the series, should there be another game.

“Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before,” stated Sakurai. “This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.”

RDE recently gave us a look at how neutral skips look in real life. It was a very short clip, but there was still plenty to laugh at.

In a new clip, RDE posted another scene where he attempts to depict some of the craziest approach options in fighting games. The characters featured this time are Dee Jay from Street Fighter 6, Trunks from Dragon Ball FighterZ, Devil Jin from Tekken 8, and Iron Fist from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

For Devil Jin and Iron Fist, RDE essentially pulls off the universal wave dash options that are in the game. In both Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Tekken 8, it’s a common practice for players to dash forward and then cancelling the action into another dash as a way to approach their opponents.

Trunks ends up showing off his Super Dash in Dragon Ball FighterZ. To really sell the act, RDE uses a skateboard to help him “fly” forward. This tends to be a powerful option in Dragon Ball FighterZ, though it’s particularly weak against anti-air attacks.

Finally, RDE captures the essence of Street Fighter 6’s Drive Rush. RDE obviously decided to use Dee Jay for this purpose since his Drive Rush is especially emotive compared to other characters in the game.

As always, RDE really makes the attempt to not only sell these actions as real-life incarnations of the actions he’s depicting from the games, but he also makes it a point to look the part. Finally, each action is captured from several different camera angles to really showcase just how ridiculous these sort of sequences would appear in real life.

Check it all out below:

pic.twitter.com/hh5zQFH6eb

— rde (@rde_irl) November 24, 2024

The typical win condition for most traditional fighting games requires a player to fully deplete the opponent’s health bar by hitting them with attacks. Of course, there are alternative methods in which a player can achieve victory, such as through time over.

However, there are some games where it’s possible to lose a match specifically due to landing the wrong move at the wrong time. Needless to say, Smug had a pretty good laugh when the CPU initiated this situation against itself.

Smug recently decided to try out Real Bout Fatal Fury, likely due to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves releasing in April 2025. The game is certainly looking interesting, especially after the announcement that Capcom’s Ken and Chun-Li will be joining the fight.

During the match in question, Smug was playing as Terry against Blue Mary. By this point in the fight, Terry had the life lead, but was still at a positional disadvantage due to being near the corner.

However, Terry’s life lead would be forfeited to Blue Mary as she successfully landed a single attack. Fortunately for Smug, the health bars of the two characters no longer mattered after this hit connected.

Upon hitting with this move, Blue Mary automatically side switches with the opponent. Following this, she’ll jump away, resulting in a neutral reset due to the amount of space she travels when doing this.

Funnily enough, Blue Mary ended up moving too far to the left side of the stage. For successfully landing this attack against Smug, Blue Mary lost via an “out of bounds.”

While this is certainly a funny scenario, it feels like there’s actually a lesson that can be applied to most fighting games even without the out of bounds win condition. Regardless of the damage a move can deal, it’s sometimes better to not use a move that would position your character in the corner should it connect.

While this is clearly more punishing in Real Bout Fatal Fury than most other fighting games, the usage of these type of moves can carry consequences if the proper planning isn’t also applied. Check it all out below:

Bruh pic.twitter.com/O8UzuXb3QH

— SMUG (@SmugDaBeast) November 22, 2024