Evo is no stranger to having limited edition arcade stick made just for the event, and this year is no different. This time, however, Evo has partnered with Controller Chaos for a super limited edition variant of the Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2+.
The Evo 2016 Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2+ features a white shell with black trim. The top panel art is the familiar blue and purple Evo starfield. This same art also extends to the stick’s custom painted sides.
Only 30 of these will ever be made and each one is individually numbered. Interested players should hurry to pick one up at Evo 2016.
For any players looking to pick up the rebooted Killer Instinct, here’s some interesting news for you. It seems that Microsoft may be planning to release a “Definitive Edition” of the game this coming August.
Both Amazon.UK and Newegg have posted listings for Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition on their sites. The listings states that the game will be released on August 30 with a retail price of $39.99.
As for what this “Definitive Edition” entails, while no details were given, it’s highly likely that it’ll come with characters from all three seasons for a total of 26 characters (including Season Three’s final, as of yet unrevealed character).
We’ll have more on this story as it develops. In the meantime, here’s the box art for the Definitive Edition.
SNK’s The King of Fighters XIV is launching on PlayStation 4 in a little over a month from now. To help keep the hype train going on the way to the launch, the company has just announced the KOF XIV: World Premiere Tour.
This tour will see the game making appearances at multiple events around the world and kicks off this weekend at the the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, Evolution.
The tour itself will feature the final balanced version of the game with 48 playable characters (bosses not included). Those interested can check out the initial set of dates and locations below.
Dates
Location
Event
July 15 (Fri) – 17 (Sun)
Las Vegas
EVO 2016
July 22 (Fri) – July 24 (Sun)
South Korea
Bifan 2016
July 28 (Thu) – July 31 (Sun)
Shanghai
Chinajoy 2016
July 29 (Fri) – August 2 (Tue)
Hong Kong
ACGHK 2016
August 5 (Fri) – August 7 (Sun)
Taipei
PlayStation Gaming Festival in Taipei
August 19 (Fri) – August 21 (Sun)
Philadelphia
Summer Jam X
August 20 (Sat)
Osaka
SNK Event
August 21 (Sun)
Tokyo
SNK Event
Additionally, SNK has stated that they will be announcing further dates and venues in the coming weeks.
The King of Fighters XIV hits PlayStation 4 on August 23 in North America, August 25 in Japan, and August 26 in Europe.
Most fans of DC Comics or NetherRealm Studios’ games are now hard at work trying to figure out which characters will be in Injustice 2.
In a recent interview with EPNdotTV, Ed Boon was asked about which books from DC Comic’s library fans should look to for hints on who will be making it into Injustice 2. In response to this, the NetherRealm founder point to two specific books: Alan Moor’s classic graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, and the more recent Flashpoint crossover from Geoff Johns.
For those not familiar with it, The Killing Joke is a highly influential graphic novel that defined Batman stories for more than a decade after. Aside from the Dark Knight himself, the book features the Joker and Batgirl, who would later become the Oracle after the events of the book.
Flashpoint on the other hand was a crisis crossover that made several alterations to the DC multiverse, while setting up their 53. Heavily involved in it are the Flash, as well as chararcters such as Booster Gold, Reverse Flash, Cyborg and more.
Of course, this isn’t the only thing covered by the interview. You can see what else they talk about including Ed Boon’s comments on the possibility of an MK vs. DCU 2, in the video below.
Injustice 2 is set to launch in 2017. In the meantime, NetherRealm studios is set to announce two more characters next week at the San Diego Comic-Con.
We recently reported on the fact that Team NINJA will be adding the King of Fighters’ Mai Shiranui to Dead or Alive 5 Last Round. This isn’t exactly anything new for fighting games in general–other games such as Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct have also been piling on crossover characters. Meanwhile, Dead or Alive has arguably had them from the start.
In light of all of this, PVPLive’s Chris Bahn sat down with Team NINJA’s Creative Director Tom Lee to talk about the subject of crossovers, why they’re so compelling, and why we shouldn’t expect them to go away any time soon.
Regarding Dead or Alive’s history of crossovers and guest characters, he relates how when making the first game, Team NINJA realized that Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa would be a natural fit due to the former’s emphasis on ninjas.
As for why there has been an increase in the number of crossovers and guest characters as of late, Lee points out how they’re a good way to maintain fans’ attention on a game. “There are so many options for fans to get into or be distracted away from what they enjoy,” Lee states, “so, the recent spike in crossovers and collaborations between established franchises and licensed IPs is a move from publishers to keep their aging franchises relevant without ‘reinventing the wheel’. Collaborating with another company for a crossover,” he continues “can breathe new life into that game.”
Lee also points out that this is something that isn’t just limited to video games, and that you see the same thing happening in traditional media such as TV and films. As such, he doesn’t expect this trend to slow down anytime soon.
Of course, this is just part of what they talk about, head on over to PVP Live to read the full interview, including Lee’s list of other characters he’d like to add to DOA5 Last Round.
The San Diego Comic-Con is a great place for many creators to interact with their fans. As such, it’s no surprise that, even those outside of comics, tend to hold panels at the event.
One such company is Bandai Namco, who will be holding a panel on Friday, July 22. The panel will include Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada, Senior Producer Michael Murray, and will be moderated by none other than Mark “MarkMan” Julio.
While the panel itself will be primarily about their upcoming fighter, Tekken 7, they will also be holding a special discussion about Bandai Namco’s other 3D fighting franchise, Soulcalibur. Specifically, they will be talking about the series’ 20th anniversary (while Soul Edge launched in arcades in December 1995, 1996 saw the release of arcade Ver. II before hitting PlayStation in December).
For those who’re going to SDCC and are interested in checking the panel out, it will be taking place at Room 25ABC of the San Diego Convention Center from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM on Friday, July 22.
Against all odds, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is once again returning to the main stage at Evo 2016. This brings up something of a conundrum, however. With most other games at Evo now being played on PlayStation 4, players who are competing in UMvC3 need to consider bringing a second controller just for the game.
To help these players out, Brook and Paradise Arcade Shop have come together to bring a limited edition PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 to Xbox 360 converter to Evo 2016. With this, players joining the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at Evo can simply pick up the converter for their existing PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 stick instead of having to bring a separate input device for Xbox 360.
The limited edition Brook PS3/PS4 to Xbox 360 converter will be available for $44.99 at Paradise Arcade Shop’s booth at Evo 2016. Take note however that this is an extremely limited stock item with only 65 being made. Availability of these after the event is entirely dependent on whether or not they have any remaining stock.
SNK and Deep Silver brought the King of Fighters XIV to the Japan Expo in Paris, France this past weekend. As part of this, producer Yasuyuki Oda took the stage to participate in an open Q&A session.
While the Q&A session was in French, BzChoy from the Shoryuken forums has translated and posted notes on some important bits from it.
The session itself covered a plethora of topics concerning SNK’s upcoming fighter. This includes things related to the game’s cast, including whether or not there will be unlockables (only the 2 boss characters need to be unlocked by finishing Arcade Mode), as well as future DLC and whether there will be more characters from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
On the former, Oda stated that they have no plans for DLC as of yet. Meanwhile, regarding the latter, he stated that he thought that there were enough characters from the Fatal Fury franchise, which is why they didn’t add any MOTW characters. He did, however, made some joking hints about the King of Dinosaurs, who SNK continues to deny is Tizoc, despite the in-game dialogue saying otherwise.
As for guest characters, he stated that he would like to see Street Fighter’s Akuma in KoF.
In addition to this, he was asked questions about some of the features of the game, as well as the game’s online mode. While he didn’t specifically state anything about the game’s netcode, he did confirm that there will be both regular and ranked battles online for both 1-on-1 and 3-on-3 team formats. In addition to this, the online party battle that allows 3 players to form a team will also have the ability to shuffle the player and character orders.
He also dropped a bit of bad news for European players, as he confirmed that there will be no Collector’s Edition for the region. Anyone who wants one will have to import it from the US.
Oda was quite coy about any future projects, stating that anything after KoF XIV is currently being kept secret. As for bringing more of their past games on to PlayStation 4, he stated that there are no plans for releasing any physical remastered classics.
Of course, this is just part of what Oda talked about. For those interested in watching the whole thing, shinblaze was able to record footage from the event, which he’s split into three videos you can see below.
Take note that the session is in french. Additionally, the third video also has some gameplay footage featuring Team Mexico.
Since the initial set of reveals during the week of E3 last month, we haven’t really heard much about NetherRealm Studios’ upcoming comic book fighter, Injustice 2. That, however, is soon to change, as the folks at NRS are set to make some more reveals at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con.
In a recent tweet, Ed Boon announced that they would be revealing 2 more characters for Injustice 2 at their panel at SDCC.
The panel itself will take place on Friday, July 22 from 12:30 PM PDT to 1:30 PM PDT at room 6DE of the San Diego Convention Center. In it Ed Boon will be joined by writer Tom Taylor, voice actors George Newbern (Superman), Phil LaMarr (Aquaman), Laura Bailey (Supergirl), and possibly some surprise guests, as they reveal new gameplay and discuss details about the game and its customization system.
Team NINJA is wont to share exciting information at their annual Dead or Alive Festival in Japan. Last year’s event saw the announcement of Dead or Alive Xtreme 3. This year, however, they’re collaborating with a couple of known franchises to bring some extra flavor to Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.
The biggest collaboration is with legendary fighting game company SNK. None other than Mai Shiranui from SNK’s King of Fighters and Fatal Fury series will be joining the cast of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round this coming September. In a way, this addition makes sense since Mai served as the prototype for the kunoichi archetype that Dead or Alive as a series is fond of.
You can see the teaser for Mai at around 3 hours and 42 minutes into the official YouTube archive of the Dead or Alive Festival live stream. For those who don’t want to have to go through the entire stream, Rojikku was able to capture the teaser portion from it.
In addition to Mai, the game will also be getting costumes based on the King of Fighters characters Yuri Sakazaki, Hinako Shijou, and Kasumi Todoh.
Now this is just one big collaboration that’s going on with DOA5 Last Round. The second big collaboration is with another “SNK,” this time the hit anime and manga franchise Shingeki no Kyojin, known in the west as Attack on Titan. A new stage as well as downloadable costumes based on the franchise will be coming to Dead or Alive 5 Last Round on July 19.
Guiseppe’s Gaming was able to capture the video of these stages and costumes from Team NINJA’s stream.
In addition to these, Team NINJA also announced the game’s 5th Season Pass for costumes, which includes an exclusive Nyotengu costume, as well as a collaboration based on the visual novel and anime franchise To Heart.
