Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Yes, we’ve all seen and felt the power of Zangief to melt your life bar with crazy Drive Rush juggles into Super combos in Street Fighter 6, and thus have felt the fear of having the towering Russian march forward to deliver your impending doom.

We’re not saying he’s top tier, necessarily, but he is scary and stressful to fight. As daunting as it can be to have Gief breathing down your neck in SF6, though, MC Mura takes us on a not so distant trip into history to remind us of a grappler that was easily more terrifying than SF6 Gief has ever been: Vanilla Street Fighter 5 Rainbow Mika.

The year was 2016 and Capcom’s developers had just rolled out Street Fighter 5. The community didn’t know it yet, but they were about to experience the power of unscaled V-Triggers, anti-air jabs, and Crush Counters, all within an atmosphere of fluctuating input lag.

We know what you’re thinking, “how could things be made to be any more fun than that?” Well, enter a high-on-life, bubbly as can be grappler named R. Mika. Mika could take advantage of all the above in some interesting ways (you could manually alter the timing of her Crush Counter, for instance) and quickly shot to the top of the tier list amid her fellow insanely broken roster mates.

People quickly lost faith in trying to play honest neutral in early Street Fighter 5 because the risk vs. reward of fishing with heavy Crush Counters while playing input delay neutral heavily leaned in favor of reward.

This encouraged jumping to circumvent the fear of playing random footsies, but certain blessed characters (Mika was one of these, of course) could swat you out of the air with nothing more than standing jabs.

This would reset you in midair and afford your opponent a left/right mix up as they either walked under you or didn’t. This was scary enough against regular characters, but grapplers like Mika have the additional threat of command grab.

We haven’t addressed her incredible Irish Whip into invisible walls, the efficacy of her tag-team V-Trigger for both engagement and life-melting mix ups, and her damage output. Mura has you covered, though, as he details all of this and more in his full video below:

During an appearance at Anime Riverside early this year, long time Dragon Ball voice actors Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat offered a few interesting thoughts on the process of recording for animes such as Dragon Ball Daima and video games like Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero.

Schemmel, who offers the English voice for Goku, and Sabat, who voices Vegeta along with a number of other prominent characters, both had a few things to say when it comes to the two mediums. The consensus? Anime wins just about every time. Thanks to It’s Recording Time Media, we can hear their thoughts in the full video below.

Though there’s clearly a good amount of overlap in both processes, especially because games tend to allow players to replay through familiar scenes and scenarios, but there isn’t as much context when you’re working on video games.

“I can see a lot more context with animation,” begins Schemmel, “and so I can see exactly what kind of scream I need to do. I can see the emotion on the characters.”

He goes on to explain that, by contrast, video game involve a very different process wherein the visual assets are not available for reference when the vocal assets are being recorded. In other words, the voice actors widely lose an important resource when they’re working on games.

That’s not the only aspect that makes animation preferential to games for these actors, though, as Chris Sabat weighs in on just how meticulous and repetitive the process can be given how many extra grunts, yells, and general noises need to be captured.

“It becomes a bit of a grind,” says Sabat, “people have come [and said] ‘hey can I watch a recording session?’ and I’m like ‘okay,’ and then after about an hour they’re like ‘can I go, because this is boring,’” he explains.

There’s more detail in both answers that you can hear all of in the full video below.

Want more from Sean Schemmel when it comes to voicing Goku in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero? Be sure to hear what he had to say about geeking out after finishing recording in our recent article.

If you’ve been staring at the hourglass waiting for time to pass so that you might get your next glimpse of what’s coming to Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns, then I’m happy to tell you that your patience has not been for naught.

NetherRealm Studios announced today that the next Kombat Kast live stream is scheduled to air next week, and it will be shining the spotlight on the next DLC character joining the fight, Scream’s Ghostface. During this broadcast, we’ll finally be getting an in-depth look at what the iconic slasher can do in Mortal Kombat.

“Out of the shadows and into the spotlight,” the official MK1 Twitter page began. “Ghostface will be making their #MK1 debut on the Kombat Kast, Wednesday, 11/13 at 10am PT/12pm CT.”

As noted in the tweet, this upcoming Kombat Kast is slated for 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, November 13. Surprisingly, though, this likely won’t be the first time we see Ghostface’s actual gameplay.

Generally speaking, these Kombat Kast presentations tend to air after a new character’s official gameplay trailer is released. The show often opens up by showing that fighter’s trailer, then transitions into an in-depth breakdown with the developers to further detail what all the combatant has to offer.

With that having been said, there’s a good chance we’ll be getting Ghostface’s Mortal Kombat 1 trailer early next week, potentially Monday morning, though nothing has been confirmed on that front just yet.

What is confirmed is that this upcoming Kombat Kast will focus mainly on Ghostface’s abilities, so we’ll very likely be seeing the slasher’s various normal attacks, special moves, Fatal Blow, and at least one Fatality in full.

Ghostface is technically the fourth DLC character being added to Mortal Kombat 1 here in the Khaos Reigns expansion as part of Kombat Pack 2. Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot all joined the fight as part of the expansion package (though they can now be purchased individually), and Ghostface is next in line to be added to the game.

After Ghostface, we’ll also be seeing Terminator 2’s main villain, the T-1000, as well as Conan the Barbarian round out the rest of the Kombat Pack.

Raging Demon is a move unlike almost any other in Street Fighter history. From the lore behind it, to the way it functions, to its peculiar command input, Demon has always been meant to stand out from the rest of the pack.

Street Fighter 5 Evo 2022 champion, G8S|Kawano, has been faring well in Street Fighter 6, especially since his switch to Akuma earlier this year. During a recent stream, the Legend-ranked player used some of the most brilliant misdirection we’ve ever seen to land a Raging Demon for a brilliant comeback.

Demon is a command grab that glides forward and doles out ridiculous amounts of damage on hit. It’s also garnered a reputation for starting up instantly, which it does in Street Fighter 6, meaning if Akuma activates it up in your face, you’re getting hit unless you’ve preemptively jumped or maneuvered otherwise.

Unlike most previous versions of this attack, however, developers stripped it of any invincibility frames during start up in Street Fighter 6. This definitely dampens the utility as it can’t be used as a threat on wake up or in anti-air fashion as it was in back in Street Fighter 4.

We join Kawano’s bout nearly 50 seconds into a round against another Legend-ranked player using Guile. The opposition has the lead with about half their health in reserve, contrasting with Kawano’s Akuma’s 8% or so (remember that Demon only becomes available to Akuma when his health drops below 25%).

Kawano lands a crucial hit with his foe’s back to the corner and proceeds to go into a fairly standard Akuma sequence involving EX Adamant Fist, which gives the demonic fighter a wall bounce to work with. Kawano uses this opportunity and his remaining Drive Gauge to juggle his foe for some extra damage, but it’s not going to be enough to close the round out.

With less than a single bar of DG remaining, Kawano (seemingly erroneously) rifles off a Drive Impact. Not only does this attack whiff entirely, but it sends him into burnout and thus an insanely disadvantageous situation.

You might be able to guess what happens next, and we’ll let the clip do the rest of the talking (as well as the villainous laughing):

え〜彼女さん厳しい〜笑

でもスト6のが厳しいよ pic.twitter.com/bJ5MQk9rxD

— カワノ Hit Box｜Kawano (@kawanoChannn) November 8, 2024

Do you think Kawano figured this sequence out in the lab and did it on purpose, or just flubbed and got lucky with an especially effective recovery? Let us know in the comments, and for more on Raging Demon’s interesting history, be sure to check out our video detailing all the times Demon failed to do its job in terms of canonical lore.

The Throne 2 is a special invitational happening in San Jose, California, U.S.A.

Players participating in this event are FaZe|Sparg0, LG|Tweek, Moist|Light, E36|Hurt, LG|MkLeo, Liquid|Riddles, Shadic, Moist|Kola, MuteAce, DFM|Zackray, LG|Marss, FE|Tilde, CF|ChunkyKong, Rimu, Candle and Drybie.

The event had 10 pre-invited players and 6 slots for vote-ins culminating in these 16 competitors being chosen.

Matches will play out similar to the tried and true Summit format where players are divided into Round Robin groups and play against each other to decide their eventual bracket position and for the bracket to play out on Sunday.

There will also be some side events, including a tournament for the newly released Rivals of Aether 2.

Streaming is being done at VG Boot Camp.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Producer Jun Furutani announced Friday morning that Bandai Namco is putting on a series of tournaments that will lead up to an international clash next January.

There’s a catch, however, as The Dramatic Showdown Tournament (DST), as it’s been named, will function unlike any competitive event we’ve ever seen. For starters, characters for the final 16 have already been picked… sort of.

Furutani explains that the DST is aimed to be a celebration, and more specifically a celebration of the characters of Dragon Ball. Tournament organizers have chosen 16 of Sparking Zero’s 182-character roster to be used by the finalists, but the predetermination goes a even a step deeper.

Players across the globe will compete in a series of online Sparking Zero events (via PlayStation 5) and champions from nine areas of the world will punch their tickets to the final event, The Battle Hour, which we be held in Los Angeles in January.

In the announcement video below, Furutani randomly chooses country names from a box to assign characters to finalists from their respective countries. Ultra Instinct Goku, for instance, will be played by the finalist from France while Germany will have to use Super Baby 2.

The seven remaining finals slots will be decided in a last chance qualifier, to be held on Friday, Jan 17, the first day of The Battle Hour event. Those who want to attend as spectators can do so for free via the sign up page that’s already live. The Battle Hour will run for three days and feature Dragon Ball action from other properties beyond Sparking Zero.

The 16 predetermined finals characters are not all of the exact same in-game ability, so they’ll be further balanced via in-game items assigned by the tournament organizers.

Also, Finalists will actually go into battle with two characters at their disposal as they’ll be able to choose one additional character from a pool of 40 pre-selected teammates.

While certainly not the most traditional of formats, The Dramatic Showdown Tournament looks to be a fun and fireworks-filled celebration of Dragon Ball gaming. You can see more specifics, including the character identities and which countries they’ve been assigned to, in the full announcement video here:

One more note, developers hid the announcement of an incoming balance patch for Sparking Zero, set to hit in December after the conclusion of the online qualifiers, to adjust some of the game’s mechanics.

There’s something extremely satisfying about landing a powerful throw to open up an opponent in a fighting game. This is especially true for throws that effectively chuck the opposition from one side of the stage to the other.

RDE recently released an amusing clip of him imitating the throws of Dr. Mario from Super Smash Bros., Rock Howard from The King of Fighters, Heihachi from Tekken, and Twelve from Street Fighter.

To properly demonstrate just how powerful these throws would look in real life, RDE performs each action against a lifeless dummy. He also showcases each throw from multiple angles.

While imitating Dr. Mario, he lifts the dummy completely over his head before chucking it backwards. You can really tell that he puts his all into capturing the motion needed to pull this off.

Heihachi’s throw is particularly cool, though it would also be especially painful to use against another human. The character ends up lifting the opponent by their neck before tossing them in some direction. This scene ends up being extra cool as RDE opts to give the perspective of the victim in one of the angles.

RDE ends up going above and beyond to capture the essence of every character that he imitates. While performing their respective throws, he does his best to also look the part with his attire.

Check it all out below:

pic.twitter.com/BPxkawXk9f

— rde (@rde_irl) November 6, 2024

Though exciting new DLC content featuring familiar faces from all over the Warner Bros. universe has continued to regularly roll out for MultiVersus, a report from Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav and Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels via IGN reveals things are not going well on the platform fighter’s financial front.

Wiedenfels, on a recent financial call, reported some strikingly poor numbers for Warner Bros. Games, which then saw an additional 50% drop thanks to MultiVersus’ shortcomings alone.

The financial call revealed that Warner Bros. Games has seen a write down (reduction in the book value of an asset) of $200 million in 2024. That number rapidly increased once MultiVersus’ fledgling performance was taken into account.

“We took another $100 million plus impairment due to the underperforming releases, primarily MultiVersus this quarter,” said Wiedenfels, “bringing total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, a key factor in this year’s studio profit decline,” he finished.

After an official re-launch back in May that saw MultiVersus reach its highest concurrent player mark on Steam DB (114k), numbers saw a precipitous drop that, save for a slight blip up to almost 14k players in July, has continually waned from 10k down to around the 2k average we see here in November.

The game has been chugging along ever since May with regular character releases (Agent Smith, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, and most recently Raven, to name a few) and content drops, but the road hasn’t been without its noticeable bumps.

Initial launch was plagued by balance issues, most notably thanks to a ridiculously overpowered Iron Giant who had to be removed from the game for a period to be properly fixed. Though MultiVersus is free to play, players who want full access to the roster and all modes must fork over real cash, and fans have groaned about some of the additional content being extremely high-priced.

Warner Bros. Games also shared some strategy they’re aiming to take moving forward, honing in on four more surefire properties including Game of Thrones, Hogwarts Legacy, Batman, and Mortal Kombat. The latter has long had a powerful presence in the gaming space, but has been on unstable ground since March.

This ground became even more unstable in August when reports of WBG looking to sell its gaming division started circulating.

The future of WBG gaming and MultiVersus is pessimistically unclear right now, but if trajectories don’t change soon we may see MV support start drying up sooner rather than later.

The power of PC modding is a magical thing. Through modern technologies and know-how, crafty creators are able add, change, remove, and fix things in their favorite games, and through the power of the internet share their creations with fellow fans around the world.

While PC mods are most often used for simple things like new costumes for characters or adding new characters altogether, they can also reach a much grander scope and scale. Popular fighting game streamer and content creator Maximilian has been spearheading a mod for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite that reimagines the game’s visuals, among other things, and he recently spoke to Polygon about the project revealing some very interesting details about the mod that is officially titled Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond got its humble beginnings as a simple tech demo and experiment from modder Ryn a.k.a. Wistful Hopes. “I saw a friend talk about how [Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite] was wasted potential, and thought it’d be cool to make a tech demo mod for it,” she told Polygon. “Seeing it gain the attention it did is, quite honestly, astounding to me.”

Ryn’s initial mod added a cel-shaded graphics look to the visuals of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and it looked so good that it ultimately caught the eye of one Maximillian Christiansen better known as Maximilian Dood.

From there, Max enlisted Ryn to begin working on the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond project, which has since grown to amass a team of over 20 people contributing. But work at this level on a project with so many moving parts does not come cheap.

Previously during one of the recent MvCI&B live stream presentations to show off the latest build, Max mentioned that he has spent five figures of his own money to fund the project. When speaking to Polygon, however, Max provided an actual ballpark number that might surprise you.

According to Maximilian, he estimates that he has spent nearly $30,000 USD funding the development of the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond mod. However, it is extremely important to also note that this mod is not being made as a product to sell and make profit, but rather as a free mod that can be shared with like-minded fans of the Marvel vs. Capcom series that ultimately ends up being “just something that I personally want to exist,” Max says.

“Nobody played [Infinite] because of visuals and roster stuff,” Christiansen told Polygon. “If the one thing that I can do within my power and budgetary scope is to fix the visuals, something that actually makes it look better, [something that] will get people to even play it, that’s the goal — for you to go to Steam and buy Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, [download] our mod, and change the game.”

Due to the large scale of MvCI&B, many that have been following its development have likely been wondering the same thing: Is Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond at risk of being shut down by Marvel and/or Capcom?

Max addressed this concern back in September and noted that though the rights holders can literally shut down nearly anything anyone does with their products if they so choose to, he does not think the mod will be such a target.

He notes that one of the main reasons why rights holders issue cease and desists to people making new things out of existing products is because they step on the toes of sales for current titles these companies might already have on the market.

In the case of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond, there is no big modern Marvel vs. Capcom game that Capcom is pushing right now that the mod would be competing with — the closest thing being the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, though this is only a compilation of old games and wouldn’t have its toes stepped on in any real way.

On the flipside, Max also explains that this mod only aims to drive more sales Capcom’s way as he encourages fans to purchase the actual Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite game so that they can try the upcoming mod.

Speaking of which, Max told Polygon that he estimates Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond will have a 1.0 release “in the coming months.”

There’s more to learn about MvCI&B in Polygon’s interview with Max and Ryn, so be sure to read through the full article.

Mortal Kombat has always been a fighting game franchise that enjoys exploring non-fighting ventures, sometimes with great success and other times not. Of its many ventures in this avenue (MK-themed chess, go-kart racing, and the many “test your” mini games, to name a few) perhaps the single best single player mode the franchise has produced is the Krypt.

The Krypt, as you may know, is essentially a creative approach to unlocking bonus content, but Ed Boon and his teams have long proven they’re amongst the most creative in the fighting game development space. In their latest video PNDKM take a look over the history of the Krypt, which is conspicuously absent from Mortal Kombat 1, to remind us of just how well-executed it’s been.

The Krypt actually started back in the 3D days with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. This was the mode’s simplest form, essentially offering a 26 x 26 grid (676) of locked coffins that could be opened with in-game currency and grant rewards of varying worth.

Especially in the days before DLC, the Krypt was where developers could include alternate costumes, colors, and even characters (I still remember that Frost was hidden in coffin IV and cost a surprisingly cheap 208 Ruby Koins). They also filled it in with things like concept art, developer notes, bonus coins, silly video sketches, and even the occasional troll via empty coffin.

Despite it’s repetitive nature, players could get lost unlocking things in the Krypt for long periods of time, often having just as much fun exploring as they did fighting. The Krypt was enough of a hit that Midway (and later NetherRealm Studios) brought it back in every subsequent MK entry until the aforementioned Mortal Kombat 1.

The mode retained its basic concept but evolved in Mortal Kombat 9 with a few more bells and whistles as developers added varying areas to the Krypt, and changed things from simply being seemingly endless rows of coffins. They also added a jump scare that would randomly pop out the moment you forgot about it, which ended up being extremely memorable despite momentarily pissing people off.

The Mortal Kombat X Krypt took things to a whole new level and turned the Mortal Kombat experience into something way closer to Zelda than we ever thought we’d get, asking players to find items and use them to unlock massive areas. The jump scares came back in greater force this time, too, but devs brilliantly tied them to getting currency bundles so we couldn’t be too mad.

The Krypt may have reached its apex in Mortal Kombat 11 in the form of an entire island for players to explore in third person. This is Ketchup and Mustard’s favorite version of the mode, and they explain why (along with offering a ton of details on the previous Krypts as well) in the full video below.