Month: March 2015

Although he was supposed to have stepped down from his position in January, Apex co-creator Johnathan “Alex Strife” Lugo is reportedly still very much involved with the popular tournament series, and may even resume business duties in the near future.

These details come courtesy of The Daily Dot’s Michael Hathaway, who was relayed this information by numerous sources close to the organization. According to his report, Apex’s internal plans aim to keep chief executive Cristin “Crismas” DeSaro on as their public face while Lugo works behind the scenes in a role geared more towards financial matters like sponsor relations.

Numerous accusations of harassment were leveled at Lugo a little over a week before Apex 2015’s doors were schedule to open, forcing the community to take a long look at the main heading up their largest annual tournament. A statement released shortly after his misconduct came to light mentioned that he would be “stepping down from his duties,” though his status as owner was left up in the air.

Despite this, Apex 2015 turned out to be a shining beacon of the Smash scene’s spirit. Venue issues forced a mad scramble to salvage the weekend’s events, but a last-second change of scenery gave the community two days of high-level competition they can all be proud of.

This news, however, could very well dismantle whatever good will was accrued during that event. In the event Lugo truly remains at Apex, community members will once again be forced to make a decision as to whether or not they should continue supporting the tournament series.

Source: The Daily Dot via Alex Jebailey

It’s interesting to watch how character designs change from one version of a game to the next. Over time, as technology advances, characters naturally gain higher resolution models, but they often pick up plenty of small changes along the way that help them stand out from their peers.

This sort of evolution may be most apparent in the case of Mortal Kombat’s male ninja cadre. What began as a group of fighters who differed only by way of special attacks and the color of their garb have become a variety of drastically different entities who, while still associated with their trademark colors, could easily be told apart if they were to show up side-by-side.

We’ve watched a similar change occur in the series’ female ninjas over the years, with Mileena, Kitana, Jade, and others all receiving tweaks to make them more than just recolored sprites that happen to wield different weapons. These differences have become even more pronounced in Mortal Kombat X, with Kitana and Millena taking on rather drastic design overhauls and Jade out of the picture completely.

While Kitana’s design in the 2011 version of the game was easily her most distinct up until that point, her latest update goes even further, allowing her to come off as both more elegant and deadlier than ever before.

As characters evolve, so too does the world of cosplay, which brings them outside of the game world and into our own. Even though we won’t be getting our hands on Mortal Kombat X for another full month, fans of the series are already bringing some of these new character designs to life.

Brazilian cosplayer Ju Tsukino reently put together an impressive take on Kitana’s new look, which she showed off earlier this week on Instagram. Though she has only posted a couple of pictures of the final result, it looks to be incredibly accurate. Check out her work below and let us know what you think.

This is the first test a few days ago. Now is tottaly done and I want photos *.* #mkx #cosplaywip #mortalkombatx

A photo posted by Ju Tsukino (@jutsukino) on Mar 9, 2015 at 2:16pm PDT

Source: Ju Tsukino