Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Mortal Kombat 1 failed to chart despite Khaos Reigns release last month

Although the Marvel vs. Capcom series went almost completely silent over the past 7 years, their latest revival appears to be showing that fans will still show up for the big crossover.

Circana (formerly the NPD Group) recently released their latest video game sales charts where the Marvel vs. Capcom Collection managed to reach among the top ranks while Mortal Kombat 1 did not.

According to the sales data shared by Mat Piscatella for September 2024, Marvel vs. Capcom managed to hit in the top 20 chart for the United States in its launch month.

The collection finished in 16th place overall.

That placement may not sound like the most impressive thing in the world, but it’s very rare for a retro collection to reach the top 20, let alone one for fighting games.

It also released in a month with seven other new titles that charted, and Marvel managed to even beat out Space Marine 2 for sales.

Post by @matpiscatella

View on Threads

This comes after the MvC collection previously almost topped PlayStation’s download charts for September too.

We have to remember too that this is only counting the digital sales for Marvel since the physical edition doesn’t release until November, so there will be another release wave soon (plus an Xbox version coming in 2025).

Capcom themselves, however, have not commented specifically on MvC’s numbers so far, which at least indicates the collection hasn’t reached 1 million copies sold yet.

Despite that, the Arcade Classics Marvel compilation appears to be off to a strong start in a month where it was the only fighting game to chart (after none of them did in August).

Even with the boost from the Khaos Reigns expansion launching in September, Mortal Kombat 1 did not hit the top 20 for the second month in a row.

This isn’t too surprising, though, as Mortal Kombat 11’s Aftermath release was also not enough to push it back on the charts a few years ago either.

We know the latest Mortal Kombat already crossed over 4 million in sales though it’ll be interesting to know how much more that changes in the coming months.

Post by @matpiscatella

View on Threads

As for Tekken 8, Bandai Namco’s fighter is still hanging on in the year to date sales chart for all of 2024.

Tekken did drop a few spots from 11th to 13th place for the year, but that’s still a pretty good sign the game is continuing to sell decently even if it’s not making the monthly top 20 these past few months.

Hopefully, this apparent success for the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection spells good things for its future and is enough to get the pipeline started on something new eventually.

They did it, y’all

The folks over at NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Games have shared the latest look at the next DLC character slated to enter the bloody battle soon. Ghostface, the iconic slasher from the Scream movie series, is joining the main playable Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns roster next, and today a short teaser trailer provided some new things to talk about regarding the upcoming fighter.

While we didn’t really get a look at Ghostface’s actual gameplay this time around, the developers did add in several variations of the killer’s iconic mask which seems to confirm that this will be the character’s interchangeable gear item. Of the different masks that were shown, fans were quick to spot one that might look really familiar to anyone who celebrated Halloween and went trick-or-treating in the late ’90s.

The Ghostface killer made its debut on December 20, 1996, with the release of the first Scream film. It was directed by Horror film legend Wes Craven, who is most widely known for the Nightmare on Elm Street series featuring fellow slasher, Freddy Krueger.

Scream was unsurprisingly a huge hit, and it wasn’t long before Halloween costumes of Ghostface hit the shelves. If you were a ’90s kid and celebrated Halloween, then you undoubtedly either ran into this costume somewhere or wore it yourself. It was extremely popular, and the Ghostface mask has become iconic in its own right still being produced and worn on Halloween today.

If you were a kid back then and participated in the holiday, then you probably also remember a variation of the Ghostface mask that had a dripping blood effect. It blew our minds as children, and this “Bloody Ghostface” had two hoses connected to the mask and a small pump that you’d hold in hand, which you would squeeze to make the blood drip down the face and move around.

Doing some digging on the internet, I found that the initial costume came out around the time that the first Scream movie came out in late 1996. The bloody variation dropped as early as the next year, 1997, and yet, here we are still talking about it in 2024.

The bloody version is something many of us remember, and when Ghostface was first revealed to be a DLC character in Mortal Kombat 1 many fans wondered if we’d see not only the mask as their gear option, but if NetherRealm would actually put that iconic bloody variation from the classic ’90s Halloween costume into the game.

Based on what we saw today, it looks like that bloody variation might indeed be one of Ghostface’s gear options in Mortal Kombat 1.

In the teaser trailer, we see a montage of what appears to be very brief glimpses at the fighter’s Fatalities and what we’ve seen as their win pose previously. The character flashes in and out with several lightning strikes, and each time with these flashes we see the mask change revealing several of the different gear options we’ll be able to equip when the fighter is released.

From a devil variation to a metallic one, there are some really cool looks that Ghostface is going to be able to sport in MK1. At one point, we also see a bloody version of the mask that, though not confirmed yet, looks to also be one of the interchangeable gear options.

Now, it is possible that this variation shown was just the default look after taking some battle damage in the game, but considering that it doesn’t appear as though any of the other looks have any damage on them, I think it’s safe to assume that the bloody version is a standalone option you can put on the slasher.

Among the other masks shown we see one that incorporates a Scorpion ninja face mask over the mouth and nose, an aged version, and even one that appears to channel Baraka. You can find all of the mask variations shown in the new Ghostface trailer below thanks to CopperFGC.

I compiled a list of ALL the masks! pic.twitter.com/sQdMDumPTg

— KGE | Copper aka #1 Ghostface Player (@CopperFGC) October 29, 2024

Ghostface is joining Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns via early access on November 19.

We recently took notice of MaidOfMight cosplaying as Cammy White from the Street Fighter series. Needless to say, she takes on a number of daring poses throughout the cosplay gallery that she’s posted on her Instagram.

Cammy made her debut video game appearance in Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers alongside Fei Long, Dee Jay, and T. Hawk at the arcades in October 1993. Of the “new challengers” introduced in this game, Cammy has seemingly become the most popular as she’s the only one that’s been playable all throughout Street Fighter 4, Street Fighter 5, and Street Fighter 6.

MaidOfMight appears to be portraying Cammy as she specifically appears in Street Fighter 5. As a result, no camouflage paint has been smeared on Cammy’s legs.

Additionally, it can be observed that Cammy’s green thong leotard has a harness around it. A gun holster is also wrapped around Cammy’s right thigh, though it should be noted that Cammy is purely a close-combat specialist character in the Street Fighter series as she doesn’t actually utilize projectiles in her moveset.

It’s interesting to note that Cammy’s Street Fighter 5 look is based on an earlier draft conceived during Street Fighter 2’s development. Eventually, the elements of this early draft (the harness and gun holster) would be incorporated into Cammy’s Street Fighter 5 default appearance and her Outfit 2 in Street Fighter 6 (with the camouflage markings also left intact).

In one of her photos where she’s cosplaying as Cammy, MaidOfMight makes mention of one of Cammy’s more interesting quotes. At times, Cammy tended to say this to opponents after achieving victory against other players in Street Fighter 4.

“How does it feel getting beaten up by a pretty little girl like me?” Indeed, Cammy seemed to mock her opponent with this question considering that she’s one of the more petite characters in the Street Fighter series.

Despite being smaller than most of the Street Fighter cast, Cammy, funnily enough, tends to dish out above average damage in most of the games that she’s appeared in. This, along with her incredible mobility and frame data, often leads to Cammy being a top tier candidate in a lot of Street Fighter games.

However, it should be noted that Cammy was generally considered to be one of the worst characters throughout iterations of Street Fighter 2 after she first appeared. In other words, Cammy became a popular character despite how poorly she initially performed against the rest of the characters.

As such, Cammy is often a favored target among cosplayers. Of course, it takes some serious confidence to be willing to don the green thong leotard in the first place.

Check out MaidOfMight’s Cammy cosplay below:

Few people can say they’ve put as much effort into exploring the minute details of Street Fighter 6 as YouTuber MC Mura, who just so happens to have recently launched a brand new tier list following the game’s most recent balance update.

It’s been over a month since Capcom added Terry Bogard and re-balanced a handful of Street Fighter 6’s roster members, and Mura feels he’s got enough evidence to order the cast.

Mura breaks things up five categories: Low (three characters), low mid (five characters), mid (six characters), high (four characters), and top (six characters). One of the first questions fans have right now regards the placement of the newest addition, Terry Bogard, and Mura doesn’t exactly have a ton of faith in the SNK guest.

Terry ranks at the top of low mid, eighth from the very bottom of the barrel. “I started doing better with Terry when I stopped trying to play neutral, and pretended to play netural,” says the streamer. He clarifies that he feels like Terry just doesn’t have what it takes to keep up in an honest footsie battle, and instead must manipulate neutral with specials and other maneuvers.

When it comes to the best characters in the game, Mura spends a good amount of time detailing who makes it to the top and why. He notes that many of the top tiers counter one another in interesting ways, but when the dust settles the top 6 is clearly separated from the rest of the pack.

If you’d like to see the final product right away, you can do so by simply clicking the thumbnail to see Mura’s full tier list. To hear all his reasonings (and he has plenty of thoughtful information to share) you’ll want to watch his full video embedded below.

Click images for larger versions

What do you think about Mura’s tier list? Do you agree with his top six ordered picks? Are Bison and Rashid really not top three? Share your opinions with the rest of us in the comments section.

Over the last 15 years or so, there has been a lot of talk about execution requirements in newer fighting games not being as strict as older competitive titles. Whether you love it or hate it, fighting game developers have been making strides to lower the ceiling on performing combos and moves (for certain things) as a means of making games more accessible to newcomers.

In Street Fighter 6, some players claim that the game’s combo system is “easy” and that there are no tough combos to pull off at all. Not only is that not the case, but prominent content creator known for having exceptional execution, Brian_F, recently put together a video that discusses Street Fighter 6’s most difficult to perform combos and what actually makes them tough to do.

One of the main reasons why combos in Street Fighter 6 (and Street Fighter 5) feel easier to perform than they do in, say, Street Fighter 4, is because of the 4-frame buffer window the former two have. As Brian explains, attacks you do in a game like Street Fighter 6 have a 4-frame buffer window during which the move has the chance of coming out.

To give this a real world example, Street Fighter 4 is often regarded for its “one frame links,” a term that refers to extremely tight combo links that require you hit the proper input within that single frame window (1/60th of a second) in order for it to connect and continue the combo. While Street Fighter 5 and Street Fighter 6 technically have one frame links, that universal 4-frame buffer enlarges that window of time you have to hit the link, meaning one frame links ultimately give you a 5-frame window to perform them making them overall much easier to land consistently.

The misconception is that simply because this 4-frame buffer window exists in a game like Street Fighter 6, that all combos are universally easier now and there exist no difficult combos you can perform in the game. Obviously, this isn’t the case, and in fact, the more difficult and higher execution stuff can be found in different places outside of combo links themselves.

One of the first secrets Brian talks about that is more well known than the others is the “just frame” attacks that ask for specific timing and reward the player with additional benefits. The best examples of these attacks include Luke’s “perfect” Flash Knuckle and Guile’s “perfect” Sonic Booms, both of which can be done with a precise timing that add better juggles and better frame advantage on hit, respectively, when done correctly.

Less commonly known are the microwalks that in many cases can be difficult to perform consistently, but grant benefits such as more Drive Gauge. Because the Drive Gauge in Street Fighter 6 begins to refill when a player moves forward, the idea here is that you can squeeze a tiny walk forward in between linking normal attacks (and sometimes specials in juggles) to get the Drive Gauge to refill slightly, which can do things like give you access to a third Drive Rush cancel in the same combo when normally you’d only ever be able to perform two at the max.

There are a lot of interesting bits of information regarding Street Fighter 6’s combo system, and to learn the secrets of how to perform some of the game’s hardest combo techniques, be sure to check out Brian’s full video below.

M. Bison was released as the first DLC combatant of Season 2 for Street Fighter 6 earlier this year. It was immediately obvious that M. Bison was a contender for top tier due to his Double Knee Press (which was jarringly safe) as well as his absurd damage output.

Though the Terry Bogard compatibility patch did tone down M. Bison’s Double Knee Press (mostly commonly referred to as the “Scissor Kicks”), he has retained his capacity to inflict tons of damage. However, it should be noted that M. Bison’s most damaging combos generally require the usage of his Psycho Mine mechanic.

To implant a Psycho Mine, M. Bison must first hit the opponent with his Backfist Combo special. Afterwards, M. Bison must then find another opening to hit with his Backfist Combo, Psycho Crusher Attack, or Devil Reverse with the Psycho Mine still attached to really lay the hurt into the opponent.

However, it turns out that M. Bison is actually capable of inflicting huge damage even without utilizing the Psycho Mine mechanic at all. This has been recently demonstrated by Saishunkan|Nemo in a short clip.

The sequence begins by hitting the opponent with a standing heavy kick as a Punish Counter. Doing so will cause the opponent to be crumpled. Ideally, the player should aim to bait out a reversal before using this as a punish.

Following this, M. Bison then links into his Overdrive Shadow Rise. Specifically, he goes into the Head Press follow up, which puts the opponent into a juggled state.

Comboing after this requires M. Bison to spend more Drive Gauge to go into a raw Drive Rush. From here, the player must input crouching heavy punch and then cancel into Overdrive Double Knee press to launch the opponent even higher into the air.

Next, it’s necessary to go into another raw Drive Rush to link another crouching heavy punch. This crouching heavy punch is then cancelled into a Drive Rush to hit one more crouching heavy punch.

Of course, it should be noted that M. Bison will need to microwalk at some point during the combo in order to generate enough Drive Gauge to afford this last bit. Regardless, this will result in M. Bison fully exhausting his Drive Gauge.

To end the combo, M. Bison then must cancel into his Psycho Crusher, and then cancel that into his level 3 super art. What’s interesting about this is that the damage can be boosted by a little bit with a Critical Art instead.

Through this combo, M. Bison ends up dealing 6,744 points of damage. Indeed, this is damage befitting for the final boss of the Street Fighter series.

Check it all out below:

ベガのマイン無しでの最大(6744)

ODニーからの微歩きラッシュ安定する気がしない… pic.twitter.com/onYEuQCrxk

— Nemo（ねも） (@GOOD_NEMO) October 29, 2024

There’s never a bad time to get free stuff, especially free money — even if it’s just a premium game currency.

Tekken 8 players can now pick up a nice helping of free Tekken Coins as part of Bandai Namco’s apology to owners of the game.

Starting today, October 29, through November 26, players can receive 500 Tekken Coins as soon as they log in.

That’s the equivalent of $5 USD, which can be used in the Tekken Shop to buy premium in-game items — although it’s not quite enough to purchase the premium fight pass since that is 600 coins.

Players can also get a Tekken 30th anniversary hoodie for all characters free in the store now too after the Version 1.09.01 update.

The coins come as part of an apology from Bamco for how the company handled the Genmaji Temple stage DLC situation when Heihachi released.

Many players were surprised / confused when the new arena wasn’t free or included in the Year 1 Pass considering the beach stage that came alongside Lidia wasn’t an extra charge — though it was never stated to be part of the pass before.

Since the stage was priced at 500 coins, this basically gives players who bought it a refund plus some free currency for everyone else.

Owners of the Year 1 Pass will also receive the next DLC stage coming this Winter as well.

Bandai Namco had to make another announcement this week removing and banning a player from the Tekken World Tour Finals for breaking the rules.

Morrigan Aensland is one of Capcom’s most iconic and popular figures despite hailing from Darkstalkers, a franchise that’s been conspicuously lifeless for more than a quarter century. Capcom and other developers have seized the opportunity to feature the sensual succubus across tons of titles including multiple appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, the Teppen card game, Pocket Fighter, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Namco x Capcom, and a number of additional pieces of media.

Perhaps the most obvious crossover, a guest appearance in a main Street Fighter entry, still remains an unchecked line on Morrigan’s otherwise fleshed out resume. Given the landscape Capcom is currently in, however, it seems as though the stars are more aligned than ever for Morrigan to finally throw down with the World Warriors on their home turf.

Until recently there was a historical precedent that fully explained why Morrigan, Lilith, Lord Raptor, Felicia, or any of the Darkstalkers have never been in a Street Fighter game: no one had. Capcom made early exceptions (starting in Alpha) to include Final Fight characters in Street Fighter, but that was where the buck clearly stopped.

It wasn’t until 2020 that Capcom invited a character from a property outside of Final Fight to become playable in a main Street Fighter game, namely when they revealed Rival Schools’ Akira for Street Fighter 5.

The mold has been further broken here in 2024, however, as SNK’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui were announced as the first ever non-Capcom characters to be added into a Street Fighter game when they were both revealed as incoming Street Fighter 6 DLC. Though they haven’t gone as far perhaps as NetherRealm Studios’ moves to bring non-fighting game characters from popular culture into Mortal Kombat, the way for a character like Morrigan to join Street Fighter 6 is wide open.

Capcom has been including prominent Darkstalkers references in Street Fighter for a few years now as well. An entire alternate DS costume campaign rolled out back in 2018, and just this month developers added six special Darkstalkers-inspired color schemes into Street Fighter 6. As is the case with seemingly every such Darkstalkers endeavor, Morrigan plays a prominent role in both examples.

The Darkstalkers alt costumes available in Street Fighter 5

With all this on the table, it almost feels odd that we haven’t seen a Darkstalkers character (and it would almost have to be Morrigan, perhaps with one more guest by her side) in Street Fighter yet. As it turns out, we actually did get a form of this back in Street Fighter 5.

We recently unearthed some statements made by Takayuki Nakayama that heavily suggest F.A.N.G, a character first introduced in Street Fighter 5, started as an unused design for a modern Darkstalkers game that never wound up seeing daylight.

Capcom hasn’t been able to get a Darkstalkers game off the ground despite clear intentions to do so, and the multiple gestures they’ve made (in vain) to get one going arguably now serve, more than anything, to reinforce the notion that the franchise truly is dead.

Perhaps a successful campaign through Street Fighter is what the (un)dead franchise needs to gain enough momentum and public fanfare to actually bring a new entry to fruition.

Director Takayuki Nakayama recently explained that he and his team base their choices for new DLC characters more on general popularity than whether or not their move set is likely to gel well with the game’s established mechanics.

Part of us is intimidated to think about how mirrored Morrigans might manipulate Drive Rush, but if you’re ranking characters on popularity and their potential to bring in big bucks based on fandom and rapid recognition, Morrigan has to be close to the peak of picks.

We have no idea as to whether Capcom’s SNK Street Fighter guests mark an update to DLC character patterns, or if this is simply a one-time occurrence of clever cross marketing with the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, but after the Season 2 character reveal it would not at all be surprising to see a Season 3 DLC lineup featuring the likes of Morrigan and maybe one other DS representative come alongside two Street Fighter legacy characters.

Plans for Season 3 may already be firmly in place, or perhaps only partially so. It could be that Capcom is waiting to see how Terry and Mai ultimately perform before they pull the trigger on additional guests, in fact, one might argue that a certain level of success in this avenue would all but guarantee more of the same. If that’s true, Morrigan has to be close to the top of the list of those next in line.

Editor’s note: The image of Morrigan in the banner is a Street Fighter 6 mod created by Mighty Noob.

It’s almost Halloween, but this week also brings a brand new season of Guilty Gear packed with tricks and treats for players.

Arc System Works just dropped the official patch notes for the massive Version 1.40 update to kick off Season 4 and Queen Dizzy’s arrival.

We’ll be continuing to update this story with the patch notes here, which can also be found on the official Guilty Gear website.

Story is developing…

Click images for larger versions

Growing up, there was no better fun (at least for me) than bashing together a bunch of action figures from different TV shows, cartoons and games though nothing has really quite recaptured that magic — until perhaps now.

The developers for Knock Off: The Battle for Imagination is attempting to bring back that nostalgic vibe from the ’80s and ’90s through a cool-looking fighting game, which just launched a playable demo and Kickstarter campaign.

Knock Off is being worked on as a traditional six-button fighting game with its roster made up of action figures parodying some iconic shows / properties like He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The battle system includes open ended gatling combo mechanics, specials, EX moves, Ultra Moves, Guard Repel for defense, a chargeable Zenith Strike, and assist for each character.

Knock Off’s demo features six playable characters including Kronan, Lockjaw, Wolfgang, Oozebite, Grimrot, and Rayzenger as some legally distinct callbacks to He-Man, Skeletor, the TMNT, Mazinger, Street Sharks and more.

Check out this Basic Mechanics Guide to get the most out of the Knock Off demo! Dive in and uncover some awesome combos! Character move list is included in the game pause menu (special moves option) pic.twitter.com/0nGYujfuEa

— Knock Off (@KnockOffRD) October 29, 2024

The fighters are indeed action figures themselves with moveable joints and everything while their battle arenas are places like a bedroom desk and the backyard all given that nostalgic vibe with other toys and decorations in the backgrounds.

This indie dev team has already put a lot of time and effort into getting their game up and running with some good polish for a demo to boot though there are obviously some spots that need more fleshing out as a work in progress.

Click images for larger versions

For their Kickstarter, they plan to launch the base game with seven characters and seven stages for PC followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X if all goes well.

Rollback netcode is indeed included, and crossplay will apparently be too if / when it comes to consoles.

You’ve asked for it…and we delivered! KNOCK OFF: DEMO OUT NOW! Go to to download today!

We also remind you that if you enjoyed the demo check out our Kickstarter ! pic.twitter.com/xHLBufUhrh

— Knock Off (@KnockOffRD) October 29, 2024

The team is asking for $250,000 USD as their goal to complete this neat project with the campaign set to end on November 23 as it currently sits with over $15,000 raised as of the time of reporting.

Backers can get the full game for pledging $30 though there’s obviously higher tiers with more rewards like early access, polls and more.

Knock Off seems like a game with a lot of potential and a strong foundation already there from the little time we’ve put into the demo, so check it out for yourself and consider backing too if it tickles your fancy or nostalgia.