June 2024: Attack of the Crossovers
June 17, 2024
Believe it or not I'm a fan of fighting games. And as a fan of modern fighters as well, I try to keep in the loop about what's going on in the space. They're probably one of the very few modern games I still get excited about.
But it got me thinking "With all the news of upcoming games, characters, and tournaments, it would be cool if someone could just compile 'em all into one place." That's when I remembered The Fighters Generation exists. Oh well, I'll still make my own and include my own opinions on the topics. With that, FGC Roundup was born. Every few months I'll catch up on modern and upcoming FG releases and news with a new edition.
With Summer Games Fest having just wrapped up and a recent controversial game launch, what better time than now to start. So, without further ado, let's roundup some FGC news.
STREET FIGHTER 6 X FATAL FURY
Among the usual sci-fi multiplayer shooter CGI trailers you come to expect from Summer Games Fest, we had some major Street Fighter 6 news. The entirety of SF6's Season 2 was revealed. Alongside expected picks like M. Bison and Elena came not one, but TWO guest characters. Coming later this year to Street Fighter 6 is Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from SNK's Fatal Fury. Peep the reveal trailer below.
This crossover is a big deal, being the first time Street Fighter has had a non-Capcom guest character. The two picks are also significant with Capcom and SNK previously having worked together in the early 2000s. The history between these two rival companies is interesting as they actually struck a deal over 20 years ago to let eachother produce crossover games. This resulted in acclaimed titles such as Capcom vs. SNK 2, SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, among others. Unfortunately, SNK got the short end of the stick and went bankrupt. After that, it seemed that SNK and Capcom weren't on good terms, but recently that has started to change with more and more collaborations between the two.
We've gotten official crossover artwork, mobile collaborations, and even re-releases of some SNK vs. Capcom games on Switch. This new Street Fighter 6 crossover might have been the culmination from years of re-opened negotiations. The developers have even shown open interest in resurrecting the Capcom vs. SNK series, and this collaboration could be the first steps.
The announcement has not been without controversy however. SF6's launch roster has already faced criticism for lacking representation from fan-favorite SF games like the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III series. Fans will have to wait a year for the first SFIII rep, Elena, to come out with no signs of when other fan-favorites like Dudley, Makoto, Sakura, and others will return. Alongside some disappointed by the return of once thought dead M. Bison, the reveal has left some fans excited and others more cautious about the future of the game. Is this a one-time event, or could future Street Fighter 6 season passes be taken up by "marketing stunt" guest characters, like Mortal Kombat has done?
MY OPINION
I saw the initial trailer live with a friend, and completely lost my mind. I am not the biggest fan of wacky guest characters and think some games take it too far (one of which I talk about later in this article). But Terry and Mai don't feel out of place like, say, Negan in Tekken or Homelander in Mortal Kombat. They feel like they belong, especially with all the history between Capcom and SNK. I understand complaints that maybe 2 guests were too much, but I know a good number of Mai fans that I'm happy for.
I think I'm cool with this inclusion as long as this remains a one-time event. We don't need Tekken or Guilty Gear characters joining in too. If these are the only two non-Capcom guest characters I would be happy.
As for the season pass overall, I have my own characters I want in (*cough cough* Alex and Sakura). But the SF6 team has done a good job at taking unlikable or boring characters like F.A.N.G. and Ed and making them cool. They even made M. Bison look interesting enough that I might play him. Though, I certainly have my wants, I'm not too picky since SF6 hasn't failed to deliver an interesting character yet. It feels like they could even make SF4 Rufus interesting with their track record.
FATAL FURY NEWS + KOF XV ISN'T DEAD
Since the last time I spoke about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves 2 months ago, SNK has revealed 3 new characters. Marco Rodrigues and B. Jenet return from Garou: Mark of the Wolves and newcomer Vox Reaper inherents the moveset of Garou's now-dead boss Grant. It seems that unlike Capcom, SNK know how to keep a dead villain dead. For now, Terry is still the only character revealed from the original Fatal Fury cast, though others like Andy, Joe, and Billy have been teased.
During Summer Games Fest, the producer of the game Yasuyuki Oda interviewed with YouTuber... rooflemonger? Seriously, rooflemonger? This might be the most in-depth interview we've gotten of the game yet and it's with freaking rooflemonger? Well, for those who don't want to sit through a rooflemonger video, I'll just summarize the main takeaways.
- King of Fighters XV isn't dead! More characters are on the way.
- The new FF game will have more to offer than just a basic arcade mode.
- The roster will be "normal-sized" and have a "sprinkle" of legacy Fatal Fury characters.
- SNK is interested in reviving old IPs and is already thinking about building up to a King of Fighters XVI
Shortly after the interview, SNK revealed they will be showing a new special character for King of Fighters XV at EVO 2024, so we should expect more details there.
MY OPINION
My main concern for the new Fatal Fury game has always been its single player content, so it's good to hear that we can expect more than just an arcade mode. We even saw a sneak peak at a minigame in one of the recent trailers which is encouraging.
I like the new characters shown and with Marco Rodrigues revealed, I'm officially set on my main for this game. He's a shoto that can combo off his rising uppercuts. That's the coolest thing ever and all I need!
As for the KoF XV news, I'm very happy to hear we're probably getting a Season 3. The news got me to go back and play the game again and it's still a blast, one of SNK's finest. Though I enjoyed Season 2 of KoF XV, it didn't really feel like a proper sendoff. So, I hope they can add some more exciting fan favorites into this last run.
Who knows? With SNK characters crossing over into SF6, could one of the upcoming DLC be a Capcom guest character? That would certainly explain the gap in time between Season 2 and 3. But that's just a theory...
CAPCOM CUP PRIZE SPLIT REVEALED
Capcom Pro Tour 2024 will soon begin once again. Capcom is once again boasting a $1,000,000 prize for the winner of Capcom Cup XI, but this time the overall prize pool has lessened. So even though the winner will still be a millionaire like last year, every other place will be earning less. The following is the official prize split:
The prize money drops off by $900,000 to the 2nd place winners, with the bottom of Top 8 getting as little as $5,000. This prize split has gotten much criticism from top players, suggesting it should be more evenly distributed.
MY OPINION
For all the praise I give Capcom for their gameplay, the business side never ceases to surpise me with their ineptitude. Most tournaments advertise how expensive their overall prize pool is, not just how much the winner takes. An over $1,250,000 prize pool is still impressive to advertise, but Capcom really thinks the "winner gets to be a millionaire" gimmick is worth screwing over other top players.
I'll still check out Capcom Cup, but man it's gonna be crazy hearing the interview from the 2nd place winner right after they lost $900,000. If I had to play a final set with $900,000 on the line, in as volatile a game as SF6, I'd probably faint mid match from all the stress.
MULTIVERSUS RETURNS
After a year-long hiatus, the Warner Bros. crossover fighter, Multiversus, returned with its official release in late May 2024. After a year of polishing up, the game somehow returned worse than the beta!?
Alongside new characters, Joker, Jason Vorhees, and Agent Smith, the game got a lot of changes. Overall, the gameplay has been slowed down immensely, and many characters' movekits have been overhauled. The game moved from Unreal Engine 4 to 5, which may be responsible for the litany of bugs.
Additionally, modes from the beta were missing on launch like spectator mode, free-for-all queue, and being able to try characters you haven't bought in training mode. A lot of bugs, imbalances, and missing features have been or are currently being fixed by the team, but the controversy doesn't end there. The game now has FOUR different in-game currencies and has been pumped with predatory microtransactions and tedious grinds to unlock characters.
Alongside that, some characters were leaked through voice lines in the game files from the likes of... Pickle Rick
Leak spoilers: The leaks include the Powerpuff Girls, Daffy Duck, Samurai Jack, and Ruby from RWBY. The latter leak being possibly a tone-deaf choice considering this comes months after Warner Bros. shut down the show's studio Rooster Teeth.
MY OPINION
I can't hide my bias. Something about Multiversus always seemed fishy and corporate to me. It always just gave me a feeling of "late-stage capitalist malaise" seeing children's cartoon stars fighting sanitized versions of mature characters.
Rick Sanchez, the universe-genociding nihilist, working together with Steven Universe. Arya Stark, the child soldier from the show full of incestuous oligarchs, is written like a generic "self-serious swordfighter" trope. Not to mention the obvious shoe-in characters like Lebron James and Black Adam only there for marketing.
Maybe this is me being a nitpicky downer, but the characters feel so disconnected from their original context and treated more like IP. Everything about the project just screams "Look at all the IP we own!" instead of something genuine and cohesive. There is a recent trend of forced-feeling crossovers I see a lot of studios doing that I may talk about in a future rambling.
I don't deny the genuine love that Player First games put into the project. A lot of the animations by themselves are great and the dialogue between characters clearly feels like a fanfic writer's dream. But, the game was doomed from the start being a WB Games project.
I actually tried this game recently, doing local 4-player casual matches with family and friends. It was very unfun to play. Everything felt slow and clunky, and by the end of the play session we just felt so mind-numbingly bored with the game.
But hey, this is obviously coming from someone who already wasn't a fan of the concept. I do genuinely feel bad for Multiversus fans, who had to see their game's potential get flushed due to WB Games' greed. I hope Player First games can turn things around, but I don't think I'll be keeping up with this one.
CLOSER
Here are some miscellaneous stuff I missed:
- Guilty Gear Strive released their final Season 2 character, Slayer, and announced Season 3 plans
- Mortal Kombat 1 released Homelander and an accompanying patch that introduced some bugs to the game
- Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising released DLC character Beatrix with more on the way
- Skullgirls: 2nd Encore released their final DLC character (for now), Marie, and a huge balance patch
- Tekken 8's second DLC character, Lidia Sobieska, still has no release date but should come this Summer
I'll probably check back on how the genre is doing come EVO in 2 months. Hope you enjoyed reading my screams to the void about videogames. 'Til next time.
