My most anticipated fighting game has an awesome demo out now where you can brawl with a bunch of giant, scarily quick frogs who wreak havoc by slapping you across the face with their tongues or belly flopping onto you. But, it seems, those frogs are proving to be too much of a challenge for players.

The awkwardly titled BREKEKEKEX is a third-person, single-player anime fighting game "vaguely inspired by Smash Bros. and Naruto," according to developer nohost, and it's not hard to see how. All your slashes and special moves are governed by directional inputs rather than button combos, hence the Super Smash Bros. DNA.

Meanwhile, the deadly frogs are what made me exclaim 'holy Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm,' along with the game's anime-style characters and swaying third-person camera that looks absolutely sick in motion.

But BREKEKEKEX's new demo wasn't kind to everyone. "The difficulty curve is for sure too steep though it's encouraging that some people have said it becomes more fun with practice/experimentation," nohost tweets. "The 'tutorial' in the demo was admittedly kinda last minute."

After a handful of fights where you control an agile young guy wielding a spear that can keep enemies at a distance, the game suddenly puts you in the webbed-feet of another frog, which is the fight that's seemingly kicking everyone's butts. "This fight is giving a lot of people trouble," the dev writes. "Without a proper explanation of all the systems it's pretty hard to brute force" - but at least they left a tutorial down below.

Nohost says they'll be tweaking the game before its full launch, but that viral demo might not be up for long. You can download it on Steam if you're interested, then.

As for the rest of the game, there are apparently multiple playable characters outside of stabby anime man and chubby frog, each with their own movesets. "This isn't an RPG. There are no skill trees to grind and no stats to pad. There is only you, your skills, and the weight of your weapon." Or the weight of your croak.

Here are the best Steam Next Fest demos from this year's latest event.

Dead or Alive is staging a comeback for the 30th anniversary of the fighting series, but judging by the response from players, the first stage of that return is dead on arrival. Dead or Alive 6: Last Round just launched with $1,700 worth of DLC and very few of the features fighting game fans have come to expect from the genre, and it's taking an absolute drubbing in the Steam reviews.

Dead or Alive 6 originally launched in 2019, and the new Last Round version is billed as the "definitive" edition of the game. It features a photo mode, new costumes, and… well, that's about it. It's otherwise identical to the original, right down to the lack of crossplay or rollback netcode – absences that were odd in 2019, and darn near unforgivable for fighting fans here in 2026.

Last Round will soon get new updates and DLC characters, offering a bit of new life to the original game, but even that's got caveats to annoy existing players. The previous version has been delisted, and there's no upgrade path to Last Round, which means that players who bought the old game will have to spend $40 for the privilege of paying to access the next round of DLC.

At least old DLC purchases transfer to the new game, but new players are going to have a major case of sticker shock when they see that Last Round is launching with 440 pieces of DLC which, according to IsThereAnyDeal, totals out to $1,707.60.

That total is a little unfair to Dead or Alive 6, since it includes both standalone costumes and bundle sets, as well as character unlocks for the free-to-play version of the game, but it's still downright galling to see all this years-old content being sold at its original price. In fact, the character unlocks have actually doubled in price – characters that once cost $4 apiece are now $8 each.

With all those factors in mind, you can probably start to see why the game's 709 Steam reviews are 79% negative. "im usually pretty resilient to koei tecmo greed but this is too far," as the top review puts it. "$40. No new content, just the privilege of being able to spend more money on unrevealed DLC later," another goes.

Dead or Alive 6 is an entertaining fighting game – but like every entry in the series since 5, it's also a vehicle to sell endless arrays of costumes for players trapped in their thirst for the series' cast of anime hotties. If there was any hope that Koei Tecmo would pull back on its aggressive DLC practices with a brand-new series entry on the way, I'm not sure how that hope is going to survive Last Round's launch.

These are the best fighting games you can play today.

It's been 20 years since the last new Virtua Fighter game. In those decades, the fighting game genre has supposedly died and risen from the proverbial ashes multiple times over, but Sega's once-mighty series has remained dormant even as the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken continue to reassert themselves. I think it's safe to say that Virtual Fighter Crossroads – a narrative-driven action-adventure game from the Yakuza developers – is not the comeback the fighting game community had expected.

In a behind-closed-doors presentation led by producer Riichiro Yamada, I start to get a sense of what Crossroads is all about. I'm not convinced that RGG Studio's take on the fighting series will deliver on what the genre's most dedicated fans will want, since the traditional versus mode that usually powers these games seems to be a sideshow here. But for me, a casual fighting game fan who loves the lore and likes diving into a robust story mode? Virtua Fighter Crossroads is offering one hell of a pitch. And, incredibly, it's a pitch inspired by both Watchmen and Detroit: Become Human.

Expanding the niche

"In Japan, fighting games are a pretty small niche, honestly," Yamada explains via translator. When he presented his pitch for a Virtua Fighter revival, then, "there were a lot of people who were kind of against it." But Yamada, a veteran of the Yakuza series, had something very different in mind: an "open sandbox RPG" that blends Virtua Fighter's old-school fighting game mechanics with the robust narrative that RGG is known for.

I don't see much gameplay beyond what's in the extended story trailer, but it sounds like fans of RGG's previous games will be right at home here – it's just that you can expect a more intricate fighting system true to the Virtua Fighter legacy as opposed to the more straightforward brawling we get in the Yakuza games.

That sounds especially appropriate for the story of Cielo, which plays out similarly to a "kung-fu movie," Yamada says, but he's not the only central figure in the plot. The other protagonists will each give us "different tone and story feel," with one offering a "very dark and gritty" plot and another taking us to a noir-influenced detective story.

Yamada promises that "there's gonna be a lot of side content," ranging from "side quests with the legendary old cast" to a wide array of minigames. Those minigames are something else you'd typically expect from the Yakuza series, but Yamada suggests we shouldn't expect the same sorts of goofy, eclectic side activities that Kiryu usually gets up to, since when building the optional content the team "wanted to really ground it in this world" for Crossroads.

In fact, creating a grounded sense of reality was a particularly strong point of emphasis for crossroads, and here Yamada cites an unexpected reference as one of his "big inspirations": Watchmen. Yamada says that what he "really felt and loved about Watchmen was how the world – even if they're dressed as superheroes – it feels so believable." He wanted to take a similar approach to creating a believable world in Crossroads.

Meeting at the Crossroads

One key difference from the Yakuza series, Yamada explains, is that "player choice really matters." The story will play out differently depending on the decisions you make along the way, which Yamada believes will make the game feel "completely new" compared to RGG's previous titles.

For his part, Yamada – who served as a game design assistant on the JRPG-inspired Yakuza: Like a Dragon – "doesn't really like JRPGs." He reveals that detail with a laugh, worrying that "some people might be very angry" and immediately insisting he "didn't say that." It seems part of the issue is the linear narrative that JRPGs typically present.

Virtua Fighter Crossroads, instead, shares more in common with games that Yamada "personally really liked, like Detroit: Become Human, and stuff like that, where you really change the story. Depending on how you play, it becomes a whole different game."

How do these choices actually play out in Crossroads? Unfortunately, that's another area where Sega's currently a bit secretive. However, Yamada does say that he wants players "to play multiple times to get a multitude of different experiences, rather than just one time." Hopefully that means these choices are more than smoke and mirrors, and the differences between playthroughs actually feel meaningful.

Without actually getting to put my hands on Virtua Fighter Crossroads, I don't yet know how well RGG Studio's signature narrative and Virtua Fighter's signature combat will meld together in practice. But Yamada's pitch is a compelling one. Plenty of fighting games have had robust story modes in the past, but this looks much more like a full action-adventure game that simply happens to have fighting game combat at its core, and the major emphasis on player choice might just be the thing that ties it all together.

Here are all the best fighting games you can play today.

Street Fighter fans are getting the exact thing Tekken players have been demanding for years: Final Fantasy 7's Tifa Lockhart is joining the roster in an official Capcom x Square Enix crossover.

Tifa joined the fun at Summer Game Fest in an anime-style trailer debuting Street Fighter 6's Year 4 roster additions. In addition to Tifa, who joins the roster early 2027, Street Fighter 6 is adding two new fighters, Yasmine and Arjun, as well as Bosch, who was a non-playable character in World Tour.

But let's be real, this is the Tifa show, even though I'm disappointed to say we didn't get to see any gameplay or even any real suggestions of what her move set might be. Just a cute little anime vignette that shows her smiling and clutching her right wrist.

At the end of the reveal, we see some official artwork showing Tifa in her iconic white-and-black crop top look from the games, rendered in Street Fighter 6 graphics. This is seemingly what she'll look like in the fighting game collab, although it's also safe to assume she'll have different costumes to choose from.

It's hard not to report this news without feeling some sympathy for the Tekken community, who have been hoping against hope for Tifa to become a playable character for so long that it's become a meme online. To see the game's biggest competitor secure the crossover without even trying has gotta sting. Maybe one day, Tekken fans, but realistically now that Tifa's coming to Street Fighter, probably not.

Find out where Tekken and Street Fighter rank on our list of the best fighting games to play in 2026.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is about to have a very big year with the impending launch of GTA 6 – which, depending on who you talk to, will either be the biggest video game release of all time or the biggest cultural event in all of human history. (No pressure.) For Zelnick himself, however, that surely pales in comparison to the accomplishment he's spent years preparing for: becoming a virtual WWE superstar.

Yes, Zelnick was quietly added to the WWE 2K26 roster in a free update earlier today. You won't find him mentioned in the official patch notes, but players soon saw him there in the character select screen, faintly smiling with his 77 character rating. That kind of score won't win him many matches, but apparently the crowd treats him as a babyface, flying in the face of the relationship most gamers have with the executives running AAA publishers these days.

They even licensed My Way – the Frank Sinatra song, not the Limp Bizkit track that was famously used in promotion of Wrestlemania 17 – for Zelnick's entrance. They recorded unique lines from Wade Barrett and Michael Cole, complete with terrible puns, on commentary. The only thing the devs didn't do is give Zelnick proper ring attire, instead opting to have him come to the ring in a suit.

Please don't think that I spend my days thirsting over gaming CEOs – Zelnick's presided over his fair share of layoffs, after all – but I learned a piece of trivia about the Take-Two boss years ago that has stuck with me ever since: he's really buff. You wouldn't know it from his occasional interview appearances, where he's typically covered up in a light sweater, but beneath that business casual wrapping lies the rippling muscles of someone who takes exercise very seriously. That "The Program" branding you see around his in-game entrance is a reference to his fitness group.

Zelnick revealed his 8% body fat physique to the world back in 2018, when the then-60-year-old CEO was promoting a fitness book he'd co-written. He said at the time that the photo wasn't intended as a thirst trap, but instead insisted that "the shirtless picture is an athletic picture and is intended as such."

Which is fair enough, but it's still so bizarre to see a video game executive in this kind of shape that I still think about it every time Zelnick's name comes up, something that's increasingly common here in the leadup to GTA 6. A colleague and I collaborated on this ill-advised tweet for a former employer when Zelnick's physique was first revealed to us, and I still can't let it go. I guess turning him into a pro wrestler is just bringing the whole thing full circle.

GTA 6 finally releasing won't lead to a Rockstar staff exodus, Take-Two boss expects: "We have a lot of work to do after the launch."

Longtime Tekken director Kouhei Ikeda has announced his departure from Bandai Namco after 20 years at the company.

Tekken hasn't exactly been at its best over the last year or so, with a disastrous Tekken 8 Season 2 launch, followed by an also disastrous Tekken 8 Season 3 launch. On top of that, the development team has seen several departures.

Last September, Tekken 8 producer Yohei Shimbori left Bandai Namco Studios, then at the end of the year, longtime series producer Katsuhiro Harada – who many associate with the series more than series creator Seiichi Ishii – left Bandai Namco after 31 years to open VS Studio at SNK. Now, half a year later, Tekken 8 director Ikeda has announced he has left the company.

Ikeda – who worked on Soul Calibur 4 before moving onto Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as a designer and directing Tekken 7 and 8 – posted an announcement on Twitter, saying "I have officially left Bandai Namco Entertainment after many years with the company." He continues, "I am deeply proud that I had the opportunity to create games alongside such incredible people who poured their hearts into this work. While my role leading the team as game director is coming to a close, the values that both I personally and the Tekken project have always cherished – staying close to the fans and the community and building the game together with everyone – will never change.

"I have entrusted those values, and that baton, to the incredible team that will continue to shape the future of Tekken," he adds, saying, "As I look forward to the future of Tekken and the FGC, I will also continue taking on new challenges as a game developer. I hope our paths cross again someday."

Naturally, some are already speculating that he'll be joining Harada at SNK. While nothing has been announced, Harada has often said that he wants more 3D fighting games on the market to compete with Tekken, so working on a new one with Tekken 7's director could be a no-brainer. And of course, change is scary, so some are already worried that without Harada and Ikeda, Tekken is as good as dead, which I doubt will be the case given it's one of Bandai Namco's biggest series.

At the very least, Tekken fans seem to be a bit more excited about the game, as the post-launch updates for Season 3 have been received far better, and the announcement that the next DLC character will be Baki the Grappler villain Yujiro Hanma is so out there that people are hyped for another silly crossover after Negan showed up in Tekken 7.

Final Fantasy 7 icon Tifa is rumored to join the Street Fighter 6 roster, stealing Tekken fans' most-requested guest fighter away from the already miserable fanbase

BitSummit Punch, the longest-running indie game festival in Japan, is back for its 14th year, running between May 22-26. But this year, we're helping bring the amazing games featured at the event to you, dear readers.

The special BitSummit Punch 2026 round-up show, aka the BitSummit Punch Mixtape Presented by GamesRadar+, will air at 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 5PM BST / 6PM CET on May 26, which equates to 1AM JST on May 27.

You can watch it live here on the GamesRadar+ website, our YouTube channel and over on Twitch too.

During the ~60-minute broadcast, the BitSummit Punch Mixtape Presented by GamesRadar+ will feature interviews, trailers and more from the ground at the BitSummit Punch 2026 festival.

You'll be able to find out more about all the games featured in BitSummit Punch 2026 over on the official event Steam page.

Started as a passion project by developers who wanted more visibility for Japanese indie games, it's gone from strength to strength. That first year in 2013 saw just 200 people attend in a single room, but 2025's festival saw more than 58,000 indie game fans walk through its doors. And that's just the physical event too, with over 10m impressions to the BitSummit Steam event last year, and over 82,000 watching the live stream.

Outside of the live stream, you can check out just some of the games that will be featuring at the festival itself in Kyoto over on the BitSummit website.

And don't forget to mark your calendars for May 26 to tune in to this year's BitSummit Punch, presented by GamesRadar+!

Over the past few weeks, rumors about Injustice 3 have been heating up in a big way – but if even those reports are true, the DC fighting game isn't the only thing in the works at NetherRealm. Studio boss Ed Boon says the team is already making plans for the next Mortal Kombat.

"I wish I could tease something," Boon tells Collider when asked about the next Mortal Kombat, moments before giving a tease anyway. "I think if I teased and gave it away, I would probably get in trouble. But we are actively pursuing – we're definitely pursuing another Mortal Kombat game, and we're definitely doing more as well. There's a lot of pots on the stove. Not just with games, though, with other forms of media and whatnot. We've got a lot of great announcements that are coming."

It's little surprise to hear that NetherRealm is making more MK, since that's the game that's built the studio's legacy, but it's always been a question of timing. Since the launch of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon in 2006, the studio had alternated its traditional, gory MK titles with T-rated comic book fighters, first with the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and then with the Injustice series.

That streak broke in 2023, when the studio followed up Mortal Kombat 11 with the reboot(ish) Mortal Kombat 1, and nary a caped crusader to break up the release rhythm. MP1st reported last week that Injustice 3 is already in the works – at least, according to the resume of one artist who claims to have worked on the game – but whether it or the next MK comes first is anyone's guess.

For now, at least, fans have the film Mortal Kombat 2 to look forward to, and the early reactions have been pretty positive so far. For my money, the last film was a dreadfully dull exercise in missing the point of the campy games, so I'm hoping the sequel has learned the right lessons – even if I care a whole lot more about MK's next video game appearance.

Mortal Kombat 2 writer called up co-creator Ed Boon for advice on the "best fatalities and stages" to put in the sequel.

Crimson-stained fists lay siege to my face. My mask torn, my resolve in question, I ride out the torturous combo until an opening finally presents itself. Omni-Man is too slow to block as I deliver a series of strikes that knock him into the air before bringing him crashing back to the ground in an explosion of blood. The opening brawl of the game's story mode is over, my dad is defeated, and I'm [Invincible title card appears].

It doesn't take long to see that Skybound Games' Invincible VS faithfully adapts the hyper-violent source material from Image Comics. This 3v3 fighter is equally as blood-spattered as the Amazon Prime Video series, with every playable character eligible to be reduced to a scarlet pulp should the battle go the way of the opposition. As a fan of the franchise, I feel right at home in developer Quarter Up's work, at least initially.

Are you sure?

Playing as Conquest, Anissa, and Omni-Man – my go-to triumvirate – there's a natural order to obliterating the likes of Allen the Alien and Rex Splode. After all, the three Viltrumites are as close to godhood as fighters in the Invincible canon can get, at least for the timeframe the game seems to be set in, which doesn't appear too far off season four of the animated show. But, it's hard to take losing one of my trio to Cecil Stedman or Titan. Not to throw shade at the two characters because they're both great, but these moments emphasize the importance of suspending disbelief when playing Invincible VS.

This isn't the first fighting game to work with problematic power level matchups (I never question Pikachu beating Sephiroth in Super Smash Bros.), but the liberal application of viscera makes the whole thing feel comedic. When watching the Invincible series, the gore is vital to the story beats. It helps us understand what Mark Grayson is up against when he fights Conquest, or how dreadful a loss Powerplex suffered on his tragic quest for revenge. But here in Invincible VS? Well, it's quite funny when Atom Eve turns Battle Beast into a shower of offal. This lack of impact is a good thing, of course. I can't imagine enduring a fighting game where every loss was emotionally devastating, but it's jarring at first nonetheless.

Luckily the game cleverly addresses this. Characters routinely smacktalk each other before bouts, with dialog varied based on the relationship between the fighters, and often tongue-in-cheek. My current favorite is when Omni-Man asks Invincible what he'll have in 500 years, only for the latter to retort with "The memory of kicking your ass." *chef's kiss* I can tell you thought about that one, Mark.

The story mode's wholly original plot similarly lessens the weight of unleashing all hell on friend and foe characters alike. To save you from any spoilers I won't go into details, but it does enough to explain why Mark could turn Atom Eve into a red stain on the ground only to have her seemingly fine afterwards without taking the sense of stakes out of said encounter. If anything, this makes the experience more fun as we get to duke it out time and again without inflicting trauma or guilt on our beloved Mark – Lord knows he has enough of that already.

Try to keep up

Invincible VS uses a pretty simple move list in comparison to the lengthier input sequences seen in the likes of Tekken or Street Fighter, but its fundamentals still take cues from other four-button fighters. Playing on PS5, the square button produces a light attack, triangle gives a medium hit, circle is a heavy blow, and X activates a special attack, with a pleasing, character-specific animation. Combining some inputs, as you'd expect, initiates other actions like a grab, while holding R2 can boost the damage of certain moves. Tapping L1 or L2 will call in a teammate to assist you, or you can swap over by holding the relevant input down for a few beats.

Comboing is just as straightforward, including a Dragon Ball Fighterz-like auto-combo when repeatedly using the square button, which unleashes a climactic special attack at the end if you have enough charge – Invincible VS' version of a special meter. Capping at five, several are required for an ultimate attack. These grand slam finishers call back to the show, and my favorite is Nolan flying his opponent face first through buildings in a red-tinted cityscape before dropping an enormous rock on them.

Mechanically, the core combat pillar of Invincible VS is rhythm. You have to choose when to use a strike or call in a teammate, often tying these actions into wider sequences. If you're on the receiving end of a beatdown then you can summon an ally to break you out of your foe's combo. Similarly, you can call on your fellow fighters to enhance your own attacks, chaining a flurry of blows into swapping over your combatant, with the next hero or villain of your choosing entering the arena with a bang.

The result is a fighting game that feels less intimidating from the off, and that's more suited to the parry-centric, post-Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 world we're living in. Not to say that other fighting games don't utilize rhythm and parrying, just that Invincible VS doesn't ask for too much more than that, at least if you want to be a competent fighter and triumph over the harder difficulty single-player modes.

In addition to the story mode, which can be played through on normal or hard difficulties, there's also an arcade mode offering several ladders, ranging from easy to Viltrumite difficulty. The latter is especially challenging because your team members' health bars don't fully reset between bouts, meaning you can start your next battle at a disadvantage.

It's a good thing Invincible VS has a comprehensive training mode, teaching you everything from the basics to advanced combat techniques that can shift momentum when it matters most. I know not everyone vibes with learning fighting games in this way, but I implore even casuals to embrace Robot's teachings before diving into the main game.

Online play is also available, with casual and ranked options. During the review period I was only able to sample this mode briefly, so I can't speak to what form it'll take upon release, but I am delighted to say I suffered no lag or similar issues during my few PvP encounters.

One noticeable deviation from the streaming series is the acting cast. Steven Yeun, who plays Invincible in the Prime Video series, doesn't return for the game, with Aleks Le (of Solo Leveling fame) taking on the title role instead. Likewise, Seth Rogen and Walton Goggins also don't feature – leading to some immersion-breaking moments when Allen and Cecil speak – although some of the show's names are present, including the great J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man.

Invincible VS is a joyfully gory fighting game adaptation that smartly dilutes the emotionally hard-hitting storytelling of its source material in order to serve up high-stakes combat that'll keep you playing for hours at a time. Its array of single-player and difficulty options encourages repeat story and arcade playthroughs, and makes character experimentation worthwhile, while its relative simplicity means Invincible fans need not be intimidated if unfamiliar with fighting games.

If you've come to Invincible VS in pursuit of the same emotional impact you'd find in other Invincible media, you may feel disappointed, but the more easygoing energy present in the fighting game is a justified and welcome change of pace. All we need now is for Skybound Games to add Seance Dog as a playable character and even Mark Grayson himself would happily pick up a copy.

Invincible VS was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

Check out our best fighting games list for more punch-ups!

These Invincible Showdown rewards are a great way to earn bonus cash fast in the fighting game. If you're a fan of the Invincible comics, you'll no doubt want to unlock the coolest skins, and while you have the defaults as, well, default, special versions can only be unlocked with cash.

Luckily, there's plenty of free cash to be obtained by redeeming the latest Invincible Showdown codes in the Roblox experience, and you might even get some other rewards from time to time.

While you're at it, check out the latest Roblox promo codes that grant rewards for use across multiple Roblox games.

All Invincible Showdown codes

• KAIDO - 1,000 Cash
• UPDATETWO - 500 Cash

While there are occasionally other rewards, Invincible Showdown codes most often reward cash, which you can exchange in-game for emotes, skins, and finishers.

How to redeem Invincible Showdown codes

To redeem Invincible Showdown codes, you must first join the Invincibly group and like the game. Then, launch Invincible Showdown and click the Rewards button on the right-hand side of the screen, then hit the Codes button in the middle. Finally, enter the code into the box, hit Redeem Code, and enjoy your rewards.

Keep in mind that Invincible Showdown codes are case-sensitive, so you're better off copying and pasting from the list above.

Expired Invincible Showdown codes

• UPDATE2SOON - 500 Cash
• 100KLIKES - 3 Spins
• HappyNewYears! - Rewards
• BattleBeastOTW - Rewards
• HappyHolidays - Rewards
• SORRYFORDELAY - Rewards
• GOD OF WAR2 - Rewards
• GOD OF WAR - Rewards
• SRYFORSHUTDOWN1 - Rewards
• chimpanzinibananini - Rewards
• PATCHBEFOREUPDATE - Rewards
• UPDATE SOON - Rewards
• THXFOR15K - Rewards
• UPDATE 0.5 - Rewards
• TYFOR2MIL - Rewards
• 10KMEMBERS - Rewards

As you can see, there are a lot of expired codes already, so don't wait around to redeem those that are live or you might miss out on the rewards.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Tekken fan morale is already at an all-time low, but it looks like it's about to get worse as the series' most-requested guest character is rumored to be coming to Street Fighter 6 .

Since Bandai Namco started introducing guest fighters with Tekken 7 – well, Tekken 3 had farting dinosaur manga star Gon, but it became widespread with 7 – fans have had two characters in mind for the roster: Kazuma Kiryu and Tifa Lockheart. Kiryu fans are probably over it as the series' lead has said he doesn't want the Yakuza character fighting women (so much so that he doesn't attack your women party members in his Yakuza 7 bossfight), Tifa fans have had it rubbed in their faces as Final Fantasy stars Noctis and Clive have made the DLC rosters of Tekken 7 and 8.

And just as Tekken 8 fans have reached an all-time low with the disastrously received Season 2 patch and then the even worse Season 3 patch, rumors have emerged that Tifa Lockheart will finally be returning to fighting games… in Street Fighter 6.

Over a month ago on the Street Fighter subreddit, user RnK_Clan claimed (spotted by Wccftech) that the leaked info that Vega will be joining Street Fighter 6 Season 4 to tie in with the upcoming Street Fighter movie is legit, and that he'll be joined by Tifa, Final Fight's Mike Haggar, and Street Fighter 4's Gouken. While this went somewhat under the radar at the time, many realized that this was the same user who accurately named the game's Season 2 roster, which included the unexpected guest characters Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury.

Rooflemonger – well known fighting game community (FGC) YouTube creator – added to this earlier this week saying: "Heard about Tifa and Vega quite some time ago, yep! The other 2? I actually heard 2 other names besides them so who even knows what's real cause I sure don't!" Rooflemonger speculates that Capcom may have sent some fake names out to weed out leakers.

I could definitely see Haggar and Gouken being fake names. Ken and Ryu's mentor Gouken was already super old when Street Fighter 4 took place, and given that Street Fighter 6 is the latest point in the timeline, he's probably not kicking about. As for Haggar, there's a massive statue of the former mayor of Metro City in the game's World Tour mode, and the "Mike Haggar Memorial Arena," seemingly implies he's also dead in the series' canon. I mean, I love Haggar so I wouldn't complain, even if I'm a bit weary after what they did to my GOAT Alex.

Street Fighter 6 director says Shigeru Miyamoto is "a North Star guiding all game creators" and working with him on Zelda: The Minish Cap "shaped the way I approach game development."

Bandai Namco has confirmed the new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero DLC will be titled Super Limit-Breaking NEO, and it'll add over 30 characters and fix the biggest problem with the original roster in the process.

The main event of Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026 was the confirmation that Dragon Ball Project Age 1000 will in-fact be Xenoverse 3, but for me, the best news was Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero having its expansion announced, after being teased earlier this year alongside Age 1000.

Bandai Namco confirms the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC, which is set to include some wild omissions from the original stage roster like Kame House and Kami's Palace, and what looks like an RPG-lite mode where you level up your character through miscellaneous events. It doesn't look quite as interesting as Budokai 3's RPG-style story mode, but it evokes the same feeling.

Best of all, the expansion will see the game add 30 new characters to the roster, and we're finally getting original Dragon Ball characters like Mercenary Tao, Grandpa Gohan, Nam, and Demon King Piccolo, as well as some unexpected additions like Mighty Mask, Cheelai, and Jaco to round things out. Oh, and there's a lot of love shown to GT too, with Vegeta and Trunks getting their GT versions added to the game, for you sickos out there.

My biggest issues with the original game were the complete lack of Dragon Ball additions, and not enough absolute jobbers, so I'm very glad Bandai Namco heard me giving out about not being able to play as Android 8 this whole time.

Super Limit-Breaking NEO is set to launch this summer, alongside a free update with a new battle system, featuring gameplay changes which steer the fighting "toward fiercer, more intense battles."

If you want to catch up before Xenoverse 3 releases, here's how to watch Dragon Ball in order.

As speculated by fans, Bandai Namco finally confirmed that the previously announced Dragon Ball Project Age 1000 was actually Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 all along.

Earlier this year, at the series' 40th anniversary event, a new Dragon Ball game was announced with the catchy title, "New Game Project Age 1000," with a new character designed by series creator Akira Toriyama, who passed away in 2024. Due to the "Age 1000" subtitle being near the timeframe the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series takes place – and Bandai Namco Southeast Asia later including it in a playlist titled "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" – many had figured it to be a new entry in the series. And, would you look at that, it's Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3.

Announced at Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026, the game was revealed with a short animated trailer. A character (presumably the player-created one) answers a call from Bulma about an incoming threat, with a squad donning the Great Saiyaman logo – including Dragon Ball Super Hero's Gamma 1 – implying there's some form of Capsule Corp-funded superhero team leading the charge instead of the Time Patrol from previous entries.

Unfortunately, there was no gameplay shown, with only a couple of in-engine cutscenes appearing in the trailer, although I'd imagine it's going to be taking on a similar gameplay style to previous entries. Given, the game isn't set to release until 2027 (on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC), it may still be a while before we see it.

Frankly, I'm more interested in this Great Saiyaman superhero team idea than I ever was at the prospect of Xenoverse 3 in the first place. Xenoverse 2 is almost 10 years old at this point and is still getting DLC to this day, so I feel like the Time Patrol arc has been well and truly rinsed at this point. Not that the story is ever the best thing about these games, but a change of pace is very much appreciated.

If you want to catch up before Xenoverse 3 releases, here's how to watch Dragon Ball in order.

Street Fighter 6 has patched the controversial storyline that saw Alex marry one of his relatives, but instead of getting rid of the relation entirely, Capcom has opted to make it slightly more vague.

Last month, Street Fighter 6 released Street Fighter 3 protagonist Alex as DLC, which in turn saw the game reach its new all-time peak on Steam, as clearly many were excited to play as what I consider to be one of the best fighting game characters of all-time. But soon after launch, players checked out his arcade mode storyline which revealed a really bizarre lore choice for the character.

Alex is an orphaned character, but was taken in by Tom – the best friend of Alex's father – who trained him and acted as a father figure for the wrestler. Tom in-turn has a daughter named Patricia. In Alex's Street Fighter 6 storyline, it's revealed that Alex and Patricia are not only married, but expecting a child together, which is already a strange choice considering they are effectively a pair of step-siblings… except this was made even worse by a reveal earlier in Alex's story where the character referred to Tom as "a cousin of my mom," meaning Patricia and Alex are also actually related.

Naturally, the Street Fighter fanbase weren't exactly keen at the reveal that their favorite pro wrestler was in an incestous relationship with a character who was effectively also his sibling, and Street Fighter 6 Takayuki Nakayama responded that it will be revised in a future patch. Well, the patch is out, and Capcom has confirmed that "some of Alex's World Tour story text has been adjusted in certain languages," in the patch notes.

And, upon launching the game, players found that Tom is now "a distant relative of my mom or something." So, instead of just revising the storyline to just have Tom's friendship with Alex's dad and subsequent father figure status be the link between the two, Capcom decided to just add a load bearing "or something" while giving the implication that Alex doesn't know how family trees work. If anything, "or something" just raises further questions, and as everyone on the Street Fighter subreddit points out, Capcom could have changed it to literally anything else.

The relationship between Alex and Patricia is still going to be a bit weird regardless considering they basically grew up together as siblings, but Capcom insisting on making them be actual blood relatives is the extra added wrinkle on top of how weird of a lore decision it is. And, instead of just easily removing that by making Tom a friend of the family or whatever, Capcom wanting to keep a hint of it in there sticks out as one of the most bizarre lore decisions the series has ever had.

Street Fighter 6 director says Shigeru Miyamoto is "a North Star guiding all game creators" and working with him on Zelda: The Minish Cap "shaped the way I approach game development."

Redeeming the latest Dueling Grounds codes gives you bonus free Coins and Gems, so you can not only kit your weapons out in the most stylish new skins, but also get new weapons, ensuring you're always wielding the most powerful gear.

This fighting Roblox experience, after all, is all about the combat, and you can't win if your blade falls short of what your opponent is holding. With enough Cash, you can unlock better weapons, so every Dueling Grounds code counts.

For other rewards for use across all Roblox experiences, check out the latest Roblox promo codes available right now.

All Dueling Grounds codes

These are the Dueling Grounds codes available right now:

• MidSeasonUpdate - 1,250x Coins, 150x Gems new!
• DelayingGrounds2 - 500x Coins, 100x Gems

As you can see from the list above, Dueling Grounds codes usually offer a combination of Coins and Gems, with Coins able to buy new weapons from the Inventory screen, and Gems unlocking new skins from the Shop tab.

How to redeem Dueling Grounds codes

To redeem codes in Dueling Grounds, simply click on the Rewards menu button on the left-hand side of the screen, marked by a star icon. At the bottom, you can then enter the codes as they appear above, then click Redeem.

Expired Dueling Ground codes

• WarhammerGrounds - 500x Coins, 200x Gems
• CreatorShowdown
• PeakGrounds - 500x Coins, 80x Gems
• SeasonOneBegins - 1,000x Coins, 125x Gems
• DelayingGrounds - 500x Coins, 100x Gems
• WarhammerBuff2026
• FlamingKatana
• HappyNewYear
• ChristmasUpdate2026
• OneMillionFavorites
• GauntletsUpdate
• WingTheGoat
• FirstSpecialCode

Dueling Grounds codes do expire after some time, and a few have been and gone already, so be sure to check back regularly and redeem codes as soon as you see them to avoid missing out.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A new Mortal Kombat 2 trailer has arrived to mark tickets for the video game adaptation movie officially going on sale. It's chock-full of just about everything a Mortal Kombat fan could want, from side-scrolling levels taken straight from the game, to ninja fights, fatalities, and even a cameo from MK co-creator Ed Boon as a bartender.

Check it out:

As you undoubtedly noticed, Sub-Zero, who died in 2021's Mortal Kombat, has returned as the shadow warrior Noob Saibot, a plot point taken straight from the lore of the games. Noob Saibot originally debuted as a secret character in 1993's legendary Mortal Kombat 2. His name is a combination of the reversed last names of Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon (Noob) and John Tobias (Saibot).

Here's the official logline for Mortal Kombat 2: "From New Line Cinema comes the latest high-stakes installment in the blockbuster video game franchise in all its brutal glory, Mortal Kombat II. This time, the fan favorite champions - now joined by Johnny Cage himself - are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders."

I gotta be honest, I'm pretty hyped for this movie. I've traditionally been more of a Street Fighter fan, but seeing so much action taken straight from the Mortal Kombat games is definitely hitting the kid in me who still remembers rushing to my friend's house to play the first game on the SNES, and who still remembers the thrill of popping my first quarter into an MKII cabinet and having my mind blown by how much bigger and better it was than the original.

In other words, if there was ever a Mortal Kombat movie aimed directly at my favorite memories of the games, it's looking like it's gonna be Mortal Kombat 2.

Thankfully, we'll only have to wait a month till May 8 for Mortal Kombat 2 to land in theaters, and we can already purchase tickets. For more, stay up to date on all the upcoming video game movies, including MK rival Street Fighter.

Street Fighter 6's director recalls working with Shigeru Miyamoto on The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and says the experience still affects him to this day.

Fans have known Takayuki Nakayama as one of Capcom's all-stars ever since he directed Street Fighter 6, but as a developer, he'd already been with the company for over 20 years by that point – debuting with the Japanese-exclusive Jojo no Kimyo na Boken: Ogon no Kaze (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind's PS2 adaptation) back in 2002.

That's around when Nakayama had one of the most formative experiences of his career, while working with Nintendo on The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. It was Capcom's second entry in the series after working on the Oracle duology (which I suppose would technically make it Capcom's third?).

Speaking to GameInformer to celebrate The Legend of Zelda's 40th anniversary, Nakayama says, "I gained invaluable experience while working on The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap." He explains, "The advice I received from Shigeru Miyamoto-san left a lasting impression on me, which has greatly shaped the way I approach game development even today. He is, and will always be, a North Star guiding all game creators." He congratulates Nintendo on the "incredible milestone" of Zelda's 40th.

It's amazing. In the decades Shigeru Miyamoto has been involved in games, he's never developed a fighting game, yet his approach to design still managed to inspire the director of one contender for the best fighting game ever.

Plus, it's always good to see people shout out The Minish Cap, the first Zelda game I ever bought with my own (well, my parents') money, and the first game I ever got paid to write about. So, by the way, if you're reading this and haven't played it, go play one of the best 2D Zelda games ever made.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake could be launching this year on Switch 2, prominent leaker claims.

Untitled Boxing Game codes are a great way to boost your bank balance if you're saving up for an awesome new Knockdown - they're pretty expensive after all. If that's a little too rich for you, there are still boxes and maps to spend your cash on. While you can earn plenty by winning fights, it doesn't hurt to get a helping hand every so often.

As well as Coins, these codes often reward you with Spins or Lucky Spins in the popular Roblox experience, which give you the chance to change your Fighting Style. Lucky Spins are particularly valuable, so be sure to redeem any Untitled Boxing Game codes you see offering them for free.

For more general rewards that apply across all Roblox experiences, check out the latest Roblox promo codes you can use.

All Untitled Boxing Game codes

These Untitled Boxing Game codes can be redeemed for in-game rewards:

• 3years - 8x Spins
• lynn - 7x Spins
• 100KCASH - 1x Spin
• dragonfish - 10x Spins
• lovefromubg - 3x Lucky Spins
• loveintheair - 3,999 Cash
• justtakethecash - 5,999 Cash
• dualemotes - Random emote
• greenscreen - Greenscreen map

The list above shows just a few of the codes that have been shared in Untitled Boxing Game since its launch, and most grant players tons of Cash or spins for new Fight Styles. Either way, the codes are always case-sensitive, so make sure you type them exactly as they appear above - or just copy and paste them!

How to redeem Untitled Boxing Game codes

To redeem Untitled Boxing Game codes, you just need to launch the game, no tutorial is required. As long as you're not in a fight, you simply click the Codes button on the left-hand side of the screen, enter you code into the box, and click Redeem.

Expired Untitled Boxing Game codes

• somethingstrangeforapieceofchange - 1x Spin
• regularfish - 4x Spins
• godspeed - 3x Lucky Spins
• whitecash - 4,999 Cash
• vexthegoat - 5x Spins
• imtired - Reward
• berto - 5x Spins
• supernova - 5x Lucky Spins
• ubgliveson - 3x Lucky Spins
• adrenaline - 10x Spins

We know that Untitled Boxing Game codes expire in time, so it's worth redeeming the latest codes as soon as you see them, and check back here often for new ones.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Given Mortal Kombat's wild success at the arcades of the early '90s, home ports were inevitable – and they came from an array of different developers at differing levels of quality. At least one of them might have come from storied British developer Software Creations, if the company's co-founder hadn't been on vacation at a critical point in the development of a SNES Marvel game.

At the time, Software Creations was working with publisher Acclaim on the SNES action title Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge, and things were not going smoothly. As Software Creations co-founder Richard Kay told Retro Gamer magazine in 2013, the game's development "started going horribly wrong. Acclaim was screaming at us and threatening litigation, and we ended up with three teams on this one game. I went to Portugal with my wife and one-year-old son, and I got a fax from Acclaim saying they wanted me to fly home and sort out the problem with the game."

Kay said, "'No, I'm on holiday with my family,' because, really, there was nothing more I could do; the team was already working on it. I got a fax the next day saying, 'The guys upstairs have said because you won't show commitment we're pulling Mortal Kombat.'"

Now, over a decade after that interview, and more than 30 years after the events Kay described, the folks at Time Extension have tracked down some of the other people involved in the story for further insight. That includes Acclaim producer Paul Provenzano.

"It was late in the summer, and they were late," Provenzano explains. "There was a real danger they would cause us to miss Christmas, and Richard WAS on vacation, which I reported back to my boss the second day I visited Software Creations."

Remember that this was the early '90s, back when games were still universally physical objects that had to be manufactured and sold in retail stores – and the bulk of those sales happened around the US shopping season leading into Christmas. "The average gaming 'expert' online is too young to know the stranglehold the hardware companies had on publishers, with manufacturing and Christmas representing a huge percentage of the potential profits a game would make," Provenzano says. "Richard should have been there."

31 years ago we were working on SNES 'Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge'. We had very little development time for this project and had 3 experienced coders on-board to get it done. Here's a FAX from production at Acclaim to give you a flavour of the pressure we were under 1/2.

— @kevedwardsretro.bsky.social (@kevedwardsretro.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-03-25T14:58:17.491Z

According to Provenzano, "the news that Richard was MIA on holiday was a HUGE issue with my boss and the Chairman of Acclaim. On my last day, I was tasked with creating a FAX that highlighted the seriousness of the situation." That fax actually made the rounds on social media a few years ago, showing dozens upon dozens of points of improvement Acclaim was demanding for the Marvel game.

"I was told to get it done even if I missed my flight," Provenzano says. "It was never really meant for the team; we already went over everything. It was meant to emphasize the seriousness of the matter to Richard. It was done in the cramped 'business center' small room of my hotel in Manchester, with my luggage beside me and no spell check. Was this meant to support the decision that Richard was not getting Mortal Kombat? It was not my decision to make. But I have never heard or seen my boss as angry as he was with Richard for not being there. And it was his decision who got Mortal Kombat, so it seems logical."

Ultimately, most of the home versions of Mortal Kombat were developed by Probe Software, a studio which Provenzano says had an established track record in building conversions for Acclaim. The ports weren't perfect, but they were wildly successful, giving players a chance to practice their moves at home before returning to the full-fat MK experience in arcades.

So how costly was the loss of Mortal Kombat? Here's how Kay put it in that 2013 interview: "A few years later after I'd left Creations I went to the first E3 show and I bumped into an Acclaim exec and he said 'You know, you lost $40 million in royalties on all the versions across the various formats.' And I do occasionally still wake up in a cold sweat over it... so now I'm paranoid about project plans to the point I actually do more project plans than actual projects!"

These are the best fighting games you can play today.

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has acknowledged the number of requests he receives from fans, but says it'd be impossible to grant them all.

Nintendo has released the latest part of the Kirby Air Riders: Development Insights, which have had Sakurai going over aspects of the game weekly – almost like a version of his now-ended YouTube channel – with this week being a "Grab Bag" of remaining features after previous entries went over specific modes in the game.

For Kirby Air Riders, Sakurai explains: "We wanted to cater to players who enjoyed decorating with headwear as well, and we knew that Kirby's headwear added to the character's appeal." However, the team considered limiting it to Kirby and similarly round characters, as "usually, that would be about as much as we could do." However, Sakurai continues, "in the end, all characters are able to wear headwear. That's all thanks to the staff who worked hard to pull it off."

The director says: "We always try to keep the perspective of the players in mind. But when it comes to the actual development, that can add a whole lot of time and labor." He adds: "I want to implement things because I understand the reasons behind the players' desires. But it would be utterly impossible to grant every request. So we have to decide what should be implemented with that balance in mind."

Even though he knows "there will be players who think customization is pointless," the director doesn't "feel like our efforts were in vain at all."

Of course, it's no wonder Sakurai is so pragmatic about dealing with fan requests, because he's probably the game developer who gets the single largest number of them as head of the Super Smash Bros series. Think of every game character ever made, and there's someone out there who has probably messaged Sakurai to ask that they be added to Smash. And even if it was seemingly a monumental feat of dealing with rights holders, Sora's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was due to him being the most requested fighter in series history.

Now that Kirby Air Riders is out, everyone is making the same joke about Nintendo immediately asking Masahiro Sakurai to work on Super Smash Bros 6: "Alright. We let you make Air Riders. You know what comes next…"

I've been looking forward to Invincible VS, the upcoming 3v3 tag fighter from developer Quarter Up, pretty much since it was first announced. I'm a stalwart fan of the Invincible animated series and have read all of the comics; a fighting game just makes sense. And if Invincible VS game director Dave Hall is to be believed, the game is going to deliver exactly what I want.

"We wanted to feel like a superhero – and a fucking superhero, is what we kept saying, because this is Invincible," Hall tells me at GDC 2026 when I ask if there was some sort of guiding light to developing the fighting game. "When they fight, the world destroys around them. If you look at when we're fighting, the arenas are actually destroying themselves in the background. As you're doing all these incredible hits, your outfit is just getting torn apart. You got blood dripping down your face. You go into your fatigued stance. Everything starts happening in this game."

Not so invincible after all

"This is a knock-down, drag-out fight until the death, is how we view it," he continues. "And it's just fun for us. We're just like, 'OK, everything needs to get destroyed. This is gonna happen.' Mechanics aside, it was just like the visuals of actually watching the fight progress [that] was really important for us."

My butt is handed to me while playing against Hall and then GamesRadar+ senior producer James Daly. I offer up the meager excuse that I've not really done tag fighters; my bread and butter growing up were games like Tekken 3. Marvel vs. who? Even so, I'm having a good time – which is exactly as it should be, according to Hall.

"If you like action games, if you like fun, we're gonna have our modes and different things to play," he says. "You don't have to play competitively. And so it's just fun to get in there and press buttons and just see the destruction happening, the characters, all their quips that they're doing throughout the whole fight. When they're talking, you get their personality."

In fact, Hall adds that you don't actually need to know anything about Invincible. "It's very honorific, and it's also fun to just press buttons," he says. "And then if you want to go take it further and you want to start to become competitive, that's when you can keep pushing yourself a little further. But that's not for everybody, so there's going to be a lot of single-player content for us to have fun with in this too."

For now, however, the team isn't elaborating on what exactly will be in this single-player content beyond the fact that it exists. What we do know is there will be 18 playable characters at launch with 10 of those available during the open beta that starts on April 9: Mark Grayson (Invincible), Atom Eve, Bulletproof, Thula, Rex Splode, Battle Beast, Omni Man, Robot, Monster Girl, and Allen the Alien. But narrowing the roster down was no easy feat.

"There was a lot of discussion on this," Hall admits when I ask how they whittled the giant Invincible cast to the main roster. "It's like, who are fan-favorites, who's been in the show already, and who do we think is going to be really fun also? It took a while to get to this, the core 18 that we're going to have out, and I think we've made a lot of really good choices."

With the release of Invincible VS just over a month away on April 30, and the open beta even sooner, there's not long to wait for people to find out for themselves just how good the choices are.

Invincible VS is set to release for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on April 30, 2026. While you wait, be sure to check out our ranking of the best fighting games of all time.

Almost three years after it first launched, Street Fighter 6 has hit an all-time player peak on Steam, and it's all thanks to the series' failed Ryu successor.

Street Fighter 3 and its subsequent iterations are perhaps one of the biggest examples of games not getting their flowers until much later in life. After six years of waiting for a true follow-up to Street Fighter 2, "The New Generation" arrived, with quite the literal name, as Capcom had only opted to bring back Ryu and Ken (and later Akuma and Chun-Li for later versions) and leave it at that. Street Fighter 3's new cast of characters was supposed to bring a whole new generation of fighters to the forefront of the series, but the negative reaction made it a bit of a flop and scared Capcom from excluding the Street Fighter 2 cast in any subsequent entry.

Alex – a pro wrestler who was pegged to be Ryu's successor as the new face of the series as the main character in 3 – was just released as DLC for Street Fighter 6, and all of these years later – despite being the face of the series biggest commercial setback – has caused the game to skyrocket.

According to SteamDB, yesterday, when Alex released, the Street Fighter 6 player count on Steam reached a new all-time high of 72,067. The game's previous high was 70,573 in June 2023 when Capcom first released the fighting game, with a spike of 70,202 in May 2024 when perennial DLC favorite Akuma joined the game.

Of course, the release of Alex also coincided with a new balance patch for Tekken 8, which the fanbase seems really unhappy about, so it may have contributed to some new players. But what I'm seeing – and what I really hope Capcom is seeing so I don't need to wait three years for my main to arrive again – is that Alex is a draw.

Capcom tries and fails to make Street Fighter 6 fans pay $40 to watch a tournament, reduces pay-per-view price to $10

During Winter Olympic's figure skating Exhibition Gala, the silver medal winning figure skating pair from Georgia, Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, took to the rink dressed as Mortal Kombat's Kitana and Sub-Zero ending the routine with a competition illegal 'Headbanger' lift.

The Exhibition Gala is an event that closes the figure skating at the Winter Olympics and the stakes could not be lower. It's usually used as a fun way to close out the competition, where skaters often dress up and pay homage to different parts of pop culture, and/or demonstrate their mettle by pulling off the dangerous moves that are banned in regular competition.

In this 'almost-anything-goes' format, you can see figure skating rarely done anywhere else including a pair dressed at Kitana and Sub-Zero re-enacting scenes from the game while on the ice. Near the end of the routine the couple pull off a type of rotational lift, informally known as the Headbanger, where the man spins the woman around by only holding onto one ankle, while bringing her head down scarily close to the ice.

It's banned in regular competition in order to not encourage skaters to learn and practice dangerous moves in order to win points, but with nothing on the line, the Exhibition Gala allows athletes to show off their best moves free from the constraints of these rules.

Following the Headbanger, Metelkina acts dazed like before you are offered to pull off a Fatality, but don't worry – Berulava doesn't 'Finish her.' The pair performed the routine to Techno Syndrome, a well-known version of the Mortal Kombat theme.

This isn't the first time that Metelkina and Berulava have performed as the fighting duo, as they took to the ice with the routine at the 2025 World Championships. However, as this showcase took place at the Winter Olympics, it undoubtedly has more eyes on it than ever before.

These are the best fighting games you can play today.

Dragon Ball Age 1000's debut trailer was posted in a playlist called Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 by Bandai Namco Southeast Asia, pre-emptively spoiling the not-so-surprising surprise.

Last month at Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri – the series' 40th anniversary event – it was revealed that series creator Akira Toriyama, who passed away in 2024, had created a new character for an upcoming game, which was revealed as "Dragon Ball New Game Project Age 1000." However, its true identity has seemingly been revealed a bit earlier than expected.

But someone didn't get the memo that it was meant to be a surprise, as last weekend, the Bandai Namco Southeast Asia account placed the trailer into a new playlist titled Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3. The playlist has since been removed, but not before it was spotted by fans online (via Wario64).

Given that Age 1000 in the series' lore is when the Dragon Ball Online MMO takes place, and the Xenoverse series takes a lot from the MMO, many assumed this could be Xenoverse 3, with the promise of more news released at Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026 this April.

Given that Xenoverse 2 was still doing well enough to be getting DLC as late as last October – nine years after it launched – it's not shocking the game would eventually receive a follow-up, although it's a bit weird to not just outright announce it.

And, of course, there's always the chance that this is a bit of a miscommunication and Age 1000 turns out to be something completely different, so maybe hold off until April to get on the Xenoverse hype train.

If you want to catch up before Age 1000 releases, here's how to watch Dragon Ball in order.

Capcom has rolled back its controversial decision to charge $40 to watch the Street Fighter 6 Capcom Cup finals, but the tournament is still not totally free, either.

Back at Tokyo Game Show 2025, Capcom announced this year's Capcom Cup finals and Street Fighter League World Championship would be aired via pay-per-view, with the previously-free Capcom Cup final costing around $26 on its own, or $40 to watch both it and the Street Fighter League. Naturally, fans were not happy at all, and MenaRD – the only two time Capcom Cup champion – expressed his distaste Capcom's decision, saying he probably wouldn't have pursued the game as his career if the whole world always had to engage in pay-per-view.

However, when tournament tickets were finally released today, they were listed at the far lower price of $10 for both streams. The official Capcom Fighters account posted a message today on Twitter alongside the release of tickets with an explanation.

"First of all, we sincerely apologize for taking time to make this announcement," said Tetsuya Tabuchi, Capcom's eSports business department manager.

Tabuchi continued, "Following the announcement that live viewing for this event would be ticketed, we carefully reviewed the many opinions and feedback from the community." He said, "We have decided on the following: To revise the pricing of live viewing tickets and to implement special collaborative initiatives within Street Fighter 6."

Live viewing ticket purchasers will also receive a special color for Rashid in Street Fighter 6, and Capcom will trial live-streaming in Street Fighter 6's battle hub. Anyone who watches the event from within Street Fighter 6 will be able to access it for free, with the caveat that you won't get commentary, and the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game doesn't support live streaming.

Reaction to the change is still somewhat mixed. One user says "It is better, but I am still never going to pay to watch Capcom cup," while another adds "We are already a niche community, If everything becomes paywalled, new players simply won't come." On the other hand, some are willing to hear Capcom out, with one user saying "This is a good middle ground for everyone."

Regardless, I wouldn't be shocked if this whole debacle makes Capcom rethink its pricing for the Capcom Cup next year. But people need to vote with their wallets – because if this year's Cup sells well enough, you may see Street Fighter esports become PPV every day, not just its finals

4v4 fighter Marvel Tokon will reportedly only have 20 fighters at launch, and not everyone is happy.

The Steam page for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has been updated, confirming 20 characters will be included in the launch roster, leaving some to wonder if that's enough for a 4v4 fighting game.

When it comes to fighting games, it's typically customary for a tag team fighter like Marvel Vs Capcom to launch with a pretty big roster due to the individual characters being less developed than you'd find in something like Street Fighter to accommodate a bigger selection of fighters – and to make it easier to remember the movesets of multiple fighters. 2XKO launching with only 12 fighters is one of the biggest criticisms about the struggling fighter, and with Marvel Tokon having 4v4 battles, some are expecting Marvel Vs Capcom 2 numbers.

But despite having four times the amount of characters per game than Street Fighter 6 it looks like Marvel Tokon isn't going much further than Street Fighter's 18 character roster. The game's Steam page was updated ahead of the PlayStation State of Play later this week, and added the now-removed blurb "Choose from an expanding roster of 20 iconic Marvel characters at launch."

Over on Reddit, some have found this number a bit shocking. "20 characters seems like a pretty small number for a 4v4 game," one user says, comparing it to 3v3 fighter Marvel Vs Capcom 3's 36-character roster, adding, "Basically a single team - any team - comprises of 20% of the entire playable roster. It doesn't seem worth the $70 asking price Sony will inevitably put on it." While another adds, "Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a miracle that spoiled me so bad with a base roster of 56 characters."

However, others point out that despite the 4v4 team structure, Marvel Tokon isn't exactly played like a traditional tag team fighting game. "I played the beta and it’s not really a 4v4 tag game. It’s a 1v1 game with assists. With shared health bar, there is not a lot of inherent gain from tagging out," one user notes, while another explains, "people forget that it's not a Marvel vs Capcom game. the shared health-bar essentially just turns it into a standard fighting game with a character-switching gimmick, not really a proper 'tag fighter'."

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls could be the comeback Marvel fighters have been waiting for, thanks to an anime makeover that pops.

League of Legends spinoff fighting game 2XKO just enjoyed its full, official launch on January 20 and now, just three weeks later, Riot has laid off a number of its developers.

Game Developer reports about 80 employees have been impacted by what executive producer Tom Cannon is describing in an announcement post as "an important update on 2XKO."

"As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO," Cannon explains. "The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term." He promises, "This isn't a judgment on individual Rioters or a signal that the journey is over. We're reshaping the team to give 2XKO a more sustainable path forward."

Cannon makes a point of noting, "The people who helped ship 2XKO poured years of creativity, care, and belief into this game. Taking creative risks like this is hard, and the work they did is real and meaningful." He emphasizes that Riot is committed to finding laid off staff employment within the publisher "where possible, and providing a minimum of 6 months of notice pay and severance where it's not."

Meanwhile, Patrick Miller, a former Riot developer who worked at the studio for 12 years and on free-to-play fighting game 2XKO for 10 of them says he was laid off with only 30 minutes notice.

"Gonna take some time," he writes on Bluesky.

Cannon doesn't have much more comfort to offer. He says vaguely in his announcement, "I know this update will raise questions and concerns. That's understandable. We'll continue communicating about how things are progressing."

League of Legends was completely down yesterday unless you reset your system clock, because Riot forgot to update a security certificate.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is arriving at precisely the right time. With new iterations of established franchises like Street Fighter and Tekken, as well as a long overdue Fatal Fury back in the ring, the return of the tag fighter is the next logical step. Sure, genre newcomer Riot Games has already thrown down the gauntlet with 2XKO in early access, with more new blood is coming courtesy of Invincible VS, but it's the IP that first gave birth to this sub-genre with X-Men Vs Street Fighter that has me the most excited.

It's arguably also got the most to prove, not just because the last Marvel fighting game, the heavily MCU-friendly Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite, was such a disappointment. Yet despite the release of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection just last year, Marvel Tokon also sees the license shifting from Capcom to anime fighter aficionado Arc System Works. It's exactly the sort of shake-up needed for a revival, and it's reassuring that despite the usual focus on cinematic realism that best describe Spider-Man and the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, Sony is learning a lesson from Marvel Rivals by letting these iconic characters from Western comics be interpreted with an Eastern style and sensibility.

Four sure

The June 2025 State of Play showcase had already convinced me of ArcSys's approach to "drawing on both American comics and Japanese shonen manga" with an announce trailer where the Japanese voices have the high energy of an anime while Captain America trades blows with Iron Man, whose suit has a design that's closer to a Gundam than anything we've seen from Stark Industries before. But having had the chance to play Marvel Tokon across two online betas and, even better, locally side-by-side at Evo France, it's just as fun to play as it looks.

But ArcSys isn't resting on its laurels by reskinning Dragon Ball FighterZ. In fact, it ups the ante from that game's 3v3 clashes as matches turn into epic 4v4 brawls where superheroes like Ms Marvel can team up with supervillains like Doctor Doom, smashing each other off the edge of the screen as they go flying to another part of the stage.

Yet despite the intimidating increase of numbers, it's also taking care to make this approachable and fun enough for newcomers who may not know the first thing about motion inputs or air juggles. That the control layout means you can opt to do single-button specials or command inputs with light, medium or heavy without having to choose a 'normal' or 'easy' option also makes things more flexible. Used to rolling quarter circles but prefer less hassle when using a super or ultimate? It's up to you.

One important detail is how matches actually begin as 2v2s, where certain actions will result in another member joining the fray, a neat nod to the idea that you're having to assemble your team. Differing again from other tag fighters is that you have just one life bar shared between the team, which means it's possible to just main one fighter and use the others as assists, while it also means matches are played as first-to-three where you'll start each round with the team you've assembled rather than having a situation where you're down to your weakest link and outnumbered.

It's the assists that make Tokon such screen-filling fun, as you just tap the assemble button along with a directional input Smash-style, which brings out the corresponding team member to throw a projectile, perform an anti-air, or activate a unique character action. You can even just mash light attack to auto-combo, which will also result in your teammates swooping in to add a few extra blows, adding insult to injury.

But even more overpowered is Marvel Tokon's equivalent of Street Fighter 6's Drive Impact, where you can perform an armored overhead attack that also calls in a teammate for follow-up damage. There's also a version of this to counter if you're feeling the pressure. But it's also not completely open to abuse, since assists also require spending bars that take time to refill, while good players will know how to bait and reflect a counter right back at you.

Tokon's already garnered positive feedback from its betas so far, and with the addition of the X-Mansion in the latest beta, it's surely only a matter of time before its mutant residents make their much awaited return. In any case, a large roster is going to be crucial, especially when 4v4s makes the prospect of mirror matches all the more annoyingly likely.

Still, with the current line-up, including all-rounder Captain America, nimble Spider-Man and his awesome Spidey-Sense counter, and the Robbie Reyes incarnation of Ghost Rider whose attacks can be powered up but also have to be managed to avoid overheating, there's a lot that ArcSys is doing right with its very first western IP. Even with Marvel's Wolverine and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra on the horizon, this is going to be a Marvel title that really stands out from the page.

Despite naming my dog after a League of Legends character, its fighting game spinoff 2XKO hasn't been on my radar. My fighting game experience is minimal, and I've never had the confidence to try online matches. Getting better at the genre is a noncommittal dream – sandwiched between wanting to learn the drums and speak a second language – but unlike the drums, which my partner has dissuaded me from with pleas to think of our tiny house and its thin walls, I don't really have an excuse for not giving fighting games a better shot. It's just scary!

Which is all to say: when Games Editor Oscar Taylor-Kent asked if I'd like to check out 2XKO, the excuses came flooding out. "But I suck at fighting games," I pleaded. "My dog ate my homework. Fighting games ate my dog!" Still, I had a trick under my sleeve. I'm good at League of Legends, and in theory, would already have an intuitive feel for its champion's kits in 2XKO. In theory.

Blind rage

After several seconds of diplomatic consideration, my politest takeaway from being repeatedly shot by Caitlyn is that 2XKO has a surprising mix of close and long-range fighters. Being outranged isn't as disadvantageous as it is in other games – 2XKO is a tag fighter, so picking two fighters means you can round out their individual weaknesses – but instead of thinking logically, I pick brawlers Darius and Illaoi for my first match because I can play them in League.

Against the much slippier Ahri and Caitlyn, I fare… poorly. Darius blunders into each one of Caitlyn's bear traps, and I can't work out how to make Illaoi do the Tentacle Stuff I know her for in League. One defeat turns into five, and If there were prizes for humiliation, I'd be too embarrassed to collect my trophies. Part of the issue is that I still don't know the controls – 2XKO's tutorial throws a lot of information at you and doesn't wait around to see if it sticks – but I get the sense that I've also doubled down on an aggressive playstyle I can't keep pace with.

Admitting defeat and slinking back to the fighter selection screen, inspiration strikes. Nasty inspiration. 2XKO's fighters may not have much mechanical overlap with their League counterparts, but the ethos of their playstyles remain intact. Illaoi is an in-your-face monster in both games, while Darius still relies on his axe-hook to keep people within his orbit. Would Teemo, a fighter known for being an absolute nightmare to play against in League of Legends, be just as annoying in 2XKO?

If you haven't played League of Legends, a little context. Teemo is a ranged character designed to be played in a lane of mostly melee fighters. Teemo poisons anyone he hits, has a speed buff to keep his enemies at arm's reach, and an ability that blinds champions. That's not to mention the poisonous mushrooms Teemo litters around the map, or his invisibility, or even the nasally laugh he gurgle-giggles whilst poisoning you. You get the picture – Teemo sucks to play against. In 2XKO, I counted on him being the same.

Playing as Darius and Teemo doesn't immediately fix my issues – namely 'I don't know how to press buttons' – but they make much better use of 2XKO's tag-in tag-out system. Having Teemo in the back pocket means I don't have to play as aggressively, as his mushrooms and poison darts are as effective in 2XKO as they are in League. Rather than trying to stay glued to Caitlyn or Ahri forever, I can apply pressure as Darius until inevitably fumbling a combo, then switch to Teemo to keep fighting from a distance.

I'm describing this plan with the benefit of hindsight. In the heat of the moment, it was a lot of button-mashing trial and error. I still don't know what I was pressing to throw mushrooms, nor can I explain how Teemo was briefly transformed into a side-scrolling attack helicopter. But there's one thing I do know: after a scrappy final round filled with shithousery, I won my first 2XKO match.

It should be painfully clear by now, but I'm not experienced enough to weigh in on how 2XKO slots into the broader fighting scene. But as someone who's played League of Legends for the last 15 years, it's wonderful to see its characters remain so vibrant in another medium. Fighting games that create strong individual identities for their fighters – think Smash, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter – have always hooked me the longest, more so than any technical or mechanical detailing, and 2XKO already has a vast universe available to draw more characters from.

Truthfully, I didn't expect to play 2XKO for more than a few matches. Yet here I sit, counting down the minutes until I can convince the rest of my League pals to go toe-to-toe in the 2D realm. After all, I've lived in this world long enough to become its villain. Another round in the mushroom minefield, anyone?

Scared to match into my Teemo? Here are the best PC games you can play instead

A brand new Dragon Ball game has been confirmed at the series' 40th anniversary event, with a character designed by series creator Akira Toriyama, who passed away in 2024.

At Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri – the series' 40th anniversary event – this past weekend, the series received a ton of news. Not only will the Dragon Ball Super anime be continuing into the Galactic Patrol arc, but the anime's first arc – that retold the 2013 movie Battle of Gods – will be remade as Dragon Ball Super: Beerus. However, the biggest announcement has to be the new game releasing in 2027.

A trailer for what is known right now as "New Game Project Age 1000" didn't actually feature all that much, barring the reveal of a new character donning a Capsule Corp uniform, fighting off robots in a training simulation before turning Super Saiyan. This character was confirmed to have been designed by late Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, with a news post on the Dragon Ball website listing "characters" as Toriyama's contribution, meaning there could be more work from the author in the game.

Age 1000 is notably when the MMO Dragon Ball Online takes place, with the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series – which borrows heavily from Dragon Ball Online – taking place in the 800s. With a similar timeframe, there's a chance that this could be Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3. The game is scheduled to have more news released at Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026 this April, so we'll hopefully find out for sure then.

Meanwhile, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero has a new batch of DLC characters confirmed to be arriving in-game this year, with the likes of Great Demon King Piccolo, Super Android 17, Tao Pai Pai, and Ciampa spotted in the teaser trailer.

Toriyama was also heavily involved in the Dragon Quest series, with Dragon Quest 12 revealed back in 2021. Series creator Yuji Horii hasn't directly confirmed if Toriyama's work will be in the game; however, he said he wants the game "to be something worthy of the posthumous work" for both Toriyama and series composer Koichi Sugiyama – who passed away in 2021 – which seems to imply he worked on it. Given that this 2027 title has Toriyama designs in it, it feels like there's a good chance the manga legend contributed to the upcoming RPG, but as of right now, nothing is confirmed.

If you want to catch up before Age 1000 releases, here's how to watch Dragon Ball in order.

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed that the recovery you get from food found in Smash and Kirby Air Riders is actually calculated based on the real-life calories of said foods.

One of the easiest ways to figure out if you're playing a Masahiro Sakurai game – aside from great UI, a checklist mode, and generally being a banger – is the inclusion of random food JPEGs as healing items. Instead of modelling foods for the Smash Bros. fighters to eat, random photographs will appear on the stage instead. This was carried over into Kirby Air Riders and is such an iconic part of the game that Nintendo made some of these foods available as Switch player icons. But it turns out the food is deeper than we thought.

The Kirby Air Riders Twitter account (via The Gamer) recently made a post highlighting the iconic healing items and mentions, "Different types also offer different amounts of healing...maybe it has to do with the calories or something?" Sakurai chimes in, quoting the Japanese account's post about the food, and saying (via machine translation) that the amount of health recovered by food in the Super Smash Bros. series is also roughly in line with the amount of calories the actual food has.

Previously, the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Food Trophy (thanks SmashWiki) said that "the fancier the food, the more damage it will heal," noting that bread will heal 10 damage while a roast chicken will heal 15 points. So the writing has been on the wall somewhat, but this is the first time it's been outright stated that these are calculated via the amount of calories. Although given the amount of attention to detail found in Sakurai games generally, I can't say this surprises me at all.

Kirby Air Riders team will disband after one final patch, says director Masahiro Sakurai, and you're on your own after that: "Please enjoy the balance of the game as a definitive version."

Capcom is seemingly a one fighting game company at the moment. With Marvel seeing other people, fans are taking it into their own hands to make some potential crossovers a reality, with Capcom vs Square: Parallel Destinies dropping a demo earlier this week.

Marvel vs Capcom's future seems very unlikely since Sony announced Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls last year – which scratches the tag-team fighting game with Marvel heroes itch. Meanwhile Street Fighter 6 adding Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui feels like a confirmation that we'll probably not see a full-blown Capcom vs SNK 3 anytime soon. So in what could be seen as an attempt to show Capcom what it could be doing, fans have created a crossover fighting game featuring Capcom and Squaresoft characters.

Capcom vs Square: Parallel Destinies is a 1v1 four-button fighting game that crosses the two companies' rosters over in the Ikemen Go game engine. The game implements mechanics from Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter 3, and Capcom vs SNK for a perfect dose of 90s nostalgia. This nostalgia extends to the roster, with the game's FAQ page explaining why it's Capcom vs Square and not Square Enix, being down to "mostly 90s nostalgia."

So far the playable roster features Ryu from Streets, Zero in his Mega Man Zero incarnation, and Tessa from Red Earth on the Capcom side – with Street Fighter's Hugo, Darkstalkers' B.B Hood, and Breath of Fire's Scias in the works. Meanwhile, Square is bringing Final Fantasy Tactics' Agrias Oaks, Ehrgeiz's Han, and – best of all – the tiny kiwi Tiki from The NewZealand Story, with Sundown Kid from Live A Live, Chrono, and Alena from Dragon Quest (who breaks the no Enix rule) coming too. Plus there are four secret characters teased for the roster too.

This is one section where a fan game is better, because I doubt Square or Capcom would make roster choices as cool as having Sundown Kid or Agrias in an actual game roster.

Actually, it's been a great week for fan-made Capcom fighting game crossovers, as Sega vs Capcom: The Next Level released a new teaser showing Vyse from Skies of Arcadia and Morrigan from Darkstalkers joining the likes of Sonic and Mega Man. As someone whose dream Capcom crossover fighter (aside from Capcom vs Capcom) is Sega, I once again hope this project shows Capcom and Sega what they're missing out on. Sega vs Capcom will have a full release this summer, while a full release date for the whole roster for Capcom vs Square is currently unannounced.

OG Final Fantasy Tactics director says he "underestimated" how popular The Ivalice Chronicles would be

Longtime Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada is leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025 after a 31-year stint at the company.

Harada, who has been with the series since the beginning and directed Tekken 3, Tag Tournament, 4, 5, and 7 – and produced a number of Bandai Namco titles – announced his departure on Twitter, saying, "With the Tekken series reaching its 30th anniversary – an important milestone for a project I've devoted much of my life to – I felt this was the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close."

Harada explains, "In recent years, I experienced the loss of several close friends in my personal life, and in my professional life I witnessed the retirement or passing of many senior colleagues whom I deeply respect. Those accumulated events made me reflect on the 'time I have left as a creator.'" He adds that he sought advice from original PlayStation lead Ken Kutaragi, whose words "quietly supported me in making this decision."

The Tekken team also shares a statement on Twitter, saying, "Rest assured that we are fully committed to the future development and content plans for Tekken 8. We will continue to take community feedback on the game and its content to heart to ensure that we uphold the vision and spirit built by Harada-san, dedicating our utmost efforts to ensure the legacy of the Tekken series continues as a fighting game franchise beloved worldwide."

Harada doesn't say what the future holds for him but adds, "For 30 years I kept saying, 'I’ll do it someday,' and never once performed as a DJ at a tournament event. So instead, I will be releasing – for the first and last time – a 60-minute Tekken DJ-style nonstop mix (DJ mix), personally edited by myself, together with this announcement." So perhaps a DJ career is next.

That being said, a major change isn't always the worst news for a series. Harada's influence may have helped shape Tekken's identity over the years, but he explains, "Over the past four to five years, I've gradually handed over all of my responsibilities, as well as the stories and worldbuilding I oversaw, to the team, bringing me to the present day."

First-time director Takayuki Nakayama absolutely killed it with Street Fighter 6, and considering Tekken 8 is having a turbulent time akin to Street Fighter 5, perhaps a new generation could result in a similar revival. It just means we won't be able to ask Harada "for shit" anymore.

Now that Kirby Air Riders is out, everyone is making the same joke about Nintendo immediately asking Masahiro Sakurai to work on Super Smash Bros 6: "Alright. We let you make Air Riders. You know what comes next…"

Now that Kirby Air Riders is out in the world, everyone is thinking the same thing – Nintendo is about to move Masahiro Sakurai back to the Smash Bros. mines.

Since Kirby Air Riders was one of the first games Nintendo announced for the Switch 2 way back in April, there was a prevailing theory among Nintendo fans: that this was Nintendo letting Sakurai make a "one for you" passion project before evoking a "one for us" and sending him back to make a new Super Smash Bros. game. After all, from Smash 4 starting development in 2012 to the Ultimate's Sora DLC releasing in 2021, he worked on Smash basically non-stop. And now that Air Riders is out, the Smash memes haven't stopped flowing.

Not even an hour after Kirby Air Riders released in Japan, Twitter user TheNCSmaster kicked off the memes with the classic Akakichi no Eleven hand-on-shoulder meme saying, "Nintendo bout to go to Sakurai like: 'Alright. We let you make Air Riders. You know what comes next…'"

What followed was a flood of memes in the same vein. Another user reposts the tweet, adding: "Sakurai when he checks his emails and sees an email titled 'Smash Bros 6'," with Paul Rudd cringing at a desk in reaction to Nude Tayne in the classic Tim and Eric sketch.

Of course, Sakurai himself has outright said Nintendo asked him to make the racer – not the other way around – but obviously that hasn't stopped players from thinking he'll be dragged kicking and screaming back into the Smash Bros. dimension. And while I did get a chuckle out of the joke about Nintendo getting mad at Sakurai for suggesting Kid Icarus (even though a version of Uprising that doesn't give you wrist pain would be a legitimate 10/10 game), plenty are hopeful that Smash 6 is next up.

Masahiro Sakurai maybe gave Kirby Air Riders players too much power as there already multiple scantily clad versions of Chef Kawasaki flooding the vehicle market.

The general manager of Marvel Games has acknowledged Marvel's place in the fighting game canon, and says Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was made with the goal of reinstating it as a pillar of the genre.

While Street Fighter, Smash Bros., Tekken, or Mortal Kombat is likely the series that sticks out to you when it comes to fighting games, Capcom titles based on Marvel super heroes (including Marvel Super Heroes) could be argued as one of the main pillars of the genre. While Mortal Kombat is more successful commercially, if EVO entrance numbers are anything to go by, Marvel vs Capcom is a far bigger deal to the fighting game community. And while Capcom is not at the helm, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls marks the return of the brand to fighting games.

Haluk Mentes, general manager of Marvel Games, spoke to Game Informer about the fighting game connection, saying that "from inception, the goal was to reinstate Marvel as a pillar of the fighting game community." And with Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ developer Arc System Works developing it, another goal was "to do it with a unique, anime-inspired art-style and some of the best tag-team fighting mechanics out there."

Mentes also speaks about the fairly drastic redesigns of some iconic Marvel characters in the game – with characters feeling ripped straight from a Tokusatsu show. He says that "from the get-go, we collectively started pushing the envelope in terms of design to bring out that unmistakable ArcSys identity," adding that "I particularly love how Iron Man looks in the game – super unique but instantly recognizable."

Marvel wanted the new Wolverine game to bring Logan back in "spectacular and visceral fashion," and Insomniac was "the perfect choice" after the Spider-Man games

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is off to a rough start with a "Mixed" reception on Steam and the PlayStation version getting slammed for input lag issues.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the latest documentary release from Digital Eclipse, akin to Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story and Tetris Forever (albeit, not officially a part of the studio's "Gold Master Series," but following that format). And, as someone who loves Mortal Kombat for its cultural impact and silly lore while also thinking a majority of the series' releases are pretty bad as fighting games (especially compared to what Capcom was putting out at the time), it's right up my alley. But after seeing the reaction online, I'm glad I've held off.

As reported by Push Square, the PlayStation 5 version – despite being the version available on the most powerful console available – is actually the worst off. Input lag tester Nigel Woodall tested Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on each platform, with PS5 having 108 milliseconds of input lag, which is pretty significant compared to 73 on Switch 2, 51 on Xbox Series X, and 22 on PC. However, despite the PC being the best platform when it comes to input lag, things aren't looking too hot there either.

At the time of writing, the collection has a "Mixed" reception on its Steam store page with users citing audio issues, the steep price point, bugs, and the rollback netcode – a solution that rolls back the game to account for inputs, as opposed to freezing the game and waiting when faced with connection issues, (which has quickly become the preferred online-play system for fighters) – apparently not working as intended.

Another major complaint is the lack of online friend lobbies, which is set to be added in a future update. One particularly scathing review from a player who recounts their days playing the original arcade games says: "This is NOT a KOLLECTION. This is a Komplete FAILURE."

One Twitter user posted a clip of the game online, showing that the audio is completely bugged out, an issue multiple Steam reviews report. However, Digital Eclipse has released a hotfix for the game which makes some improvements, including fixing the audio for online play. Hopefully the fixes keep coming to make this the ideal way to play classic Mortal Kombat games, especially when it has what seems to be a solid documentary included and the only version of WaveNet Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Mortal Kombat co-creator says the movie sequel's opening has made him cry every single time he's watched it: "It punches you in the face"

Aside from an occasional Astro Bot cameo, it's starting to feel like Sony's content to leave many of the franchises that built the PlayStation brand in the dustbin of history. Luckily, other publishers are picking up the slack with fresh revivals of PlayStation icons, and the latest is the fighting game series that helped usher in the PS1 era: Battle Arena Toshinden.

Publisher Edia plans to bring the first three Battle Arena Toshinden games to modern platforms somewhere between its 2026 and 2027 fiscal years, according to a Japanese press release (via Gematsu).

Edia has so far specialized in bringing other cult titles, like the action-platformer series Valis and the RPG series Cosmic Fantasy, to Switch. The company says it's building on that experience for Toshinden, and it plans to do more than release bare-bones ports – though what new features will be included remains to be seen.

Battle Arena Toshinden's original Japanese publisher Takara, now merged with toy manufacturer Tomy, licensed the games to Edia for this release. But the original game had a different name on the label when it launched alongside the PS1 outside of Japan in 1995: Sony Computer Entertainment.

Yes, folks, the original Toshinden – while developed by a third-party company – was a first-party published PlayStation game outside of Japan, similar to something like Stellar Blade or Death Stranding 2 today. Toshinden's 3D graphics are fairly primitive even by PS1 standards, but they felt revolutionary in 1995, which is why the game became such an icon of the console's launch.

Sony kept up publishing duties for the PS1 versions of Toshinden 2 and 3 in the EU, but a wide array of other publishers would handle other ports in other regions – an arcade port under the Capcom banner here, a Saturn port from Sega there. But there's no doubt the series is best remembered these days for helping show what the PS1 era would be about, and Sony saw the value of it then.

While Sony is happy to sell you expensive photo books and grey PS5 Pros in celebration of its 30-year legacy, it's been a lot less willing to actually touch any classic video games. Instead, third-party publishers are doing the work. Bandai Namco alone has brought back Hot Shots Golf, Patapon, and Freedom Wars, and now with Edia on board, it seems like a bonafide trend. Again, though, I ask: who do I need to talk to about a Tokyo Jungle revival?

"A live-service game to me isn't really a game," former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says: "I need a story, I need a character, and I need a world."

Mortal Kombat 2 is a few months away from release, but according to the franchise's co-creator Ed Boon, who had already seen the film in its current state, the movie sequel will live up to the expectations of fans starting with the very opening scene. In fact, Boon tells Collider the sequence is so striking that it's brought him to tears each time he's watched it.

"The opening sequence in the movie is… I don't think I've seen it yet and not cried," Boon explains. "It is intense. It punches you in the face. And it absolutely is the best way to start it, but the rest of the movie just lives up to it. It's such a powerful opening scene."

Boon cites the success - and faithfulness - of the previous Mortal Kombat movie, which relaunched the film series back in 2021 with a focus on many of the original Mortal Kombat fighters. According to the MK co-creator, the movie will present everything that fans have been asking for in an updated film.

"The previous Mortal Kombat movie was the first one that was rated R, so it is unabashed Mortal Kombat. Double that, and you have this movie," Boon says. "It's pretty crazy. It absolutely lives up to what fans are gonna be expecting, demanding of Mortal Kombat. We have the tournament, which is a big request from fans. It will absolutely satisfy you."

If you are somehow not familiar with Mortal Kombat, the venerable game series launched all the way back in 1992 with a much bloodier, more gruesome form of fighting game than the well-established Street Fighter model of colorful characters and decidedly PG-13 battles.

Most famous are the game's Fatalities, brutal finishing moves that kill subdued opponents with increasingly outlandish methods.

Mortal Kombat 2 is scheduled for theatrical release on May 15, 2026. In the meantime, stay up to date on all the Mortal Kombat news you need to know.

As if conquering YouTube and the fighting game genre wasn't enough, Masahiro Sakurai is now working on a manga about his life and art.

As reported by Famitsu, the manga releases in Japan next month on November 18th and will retail for ¥1,430 (or roughly $9.50), though there are currently no plans for a worldwide release or English translation that we know of.

Masahiro Sakurai's life story is being released as an educational manga!Title: Masahiro Sakurai - Making the World More Fun with GamesIt will include behind the scenes stories about the creation of Kirby and Super Smash Bros.

— @stealth40k.bsky.social (@stealth40k.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T16:03:51.544Z

Per VGC, the book's name roughly translates to Masahiro Sakurai: Making the World More Fun with Games, and with over 160 pages it covers everything from the famed game creator's early life, the birth of pink icon Kirby, the making of Super Smash Bros, and how he set up Sora, Inc.

The manga also includes written chapters about the wider industry and Sakurai's career, but the six main chapters go as follows:

1. Young Sakurai and Games
2. The Birth of Kirby
3. The Beginning of Super Smash Bros
4. The Founding of Sora, Inc
5. The Legacy
6. A Beacon for the Future

Sakurai is also reportedly supervising the making of the manga, on top of directing Kirby Air Riders, due out on November 20 for Switch 2, because he apparently can't help but work on a million projects simultaneously. Now all that's left is an anime (a boy can hope).

Elsewhere, Sakurai debunked theories that he was working on Kirby Air Riders as an in-between Smash Bros project. Apparently, he only made the game because Nintendo's higher-ups asked him to, though it's still possible that he one day returns to the crossover brawler.

We played Kirby Air Riders and it's the perfect racer for players who've had enough of Mario Kart.

I started playing League of Legends in the summer of 2011. That fateful time would mark the beginning of a relationship that offered up Faker, Arcane, and endless copium about the LoL MMO. So as 2XKO, Riot's League of Legends fighting game, started to gather steam, friends and colleagues would look at me expectantly, hoping for a glimpse at the same kind of excitement I rustled up for the rest of the franchise. Now, a few hours with 2XKO's early access release has confirmed what I already knew – that excitement is just not there.

I went into 2XKO's early access release with no real expectations. My fighting game experience is limited almost solely to the Injustice series, and I didn't expect 2XKO to magically overturn my limited affinity for the genre straight away. What I wanted instead was an experience that would keep me coming back after the initial novelty had worn off - the League of Legends branding meant 2XKO would have no difficulty getting its hooks in me, but I hoped it would be able to hold on long enough for me to develop some genuine investment in the game itself.

Things started out well. I was a little overwhelmed by the first tutorial, but I learned enough to go 2-1 in my placement matches. Granted, I did rely on something of a brute-force strategy. While 2XKO is supposed to be a tag fighter that lets you swap between allies, I opted instead to take the Juggernaut trait into my first games, empowering my chosen champion Ahri, but removing the ability to tag in a friend. Nevertheless, I came out of my initial bouts feeling like perhaps that longer-term investment could be kindled.

The bigger they are...

Perhaps foolishly, I elected at this point to use my one free character unlock. Buoyed by my early success and enamored by the unconventional playstyle shown off in his reveal trailer, I picked Teemo. Dreams of ragebaiting friend and foe alike quickly evaporated, however, as I realized that the Swift Scout's unique toolset came at the cost of getting absolutely bodied as soon as a towering foe like Darius or Yasuo got within (their) arms' reach. I did at least succeed in ragebaiting my friend during a set of doubles matches where we swiftly realized that I had no idea how to handle myself with Teemo, setting them up for being on the wrong side of several 2v1 batterings.

Humbled, I returned to the Ahri pick that had got me through the tutorial and my placement games, but it soon became clear that I was being dramatically outpaced by the rest of the community. With very little semblance of official matchmaking present in 2XKO's arcade-style social hub, I was being placed into more and more imbalanced matchups, struggling to get in a single hit while being comboed to the Shadow Isles and back by seasoned fighting game players.

Clearly I needed practice, but the bot games were no help at all - I was dispatching them as mercilessly as my human opponents had dispatched me, which meant I wasn't learning anything. I opted instead for the advanced tutorials, only to find a wall of complex inputs in the first combo 2XKO tried to teach me. I wanted to take the lessons I might have learned back into real matches, but in my first game back I was beaten faster than ever before. I'd seen enough to decide that, right now at least, 2XKO is not the game for me.

The harder they fall

Despite making the decision to cut my losses, I understand why Riot has made 2XKO. As a studio built almost entirely around competition, a fighting game is a natural fit, and the existence of this game is an extension of the philosophy that encouraged Riot to make Valorant back in 2020. That effort paid off, and now Riot's shooter shares something of a mutual respect with Counter-Strike. A huge roster of characters very used to battling each other gives 2XKO a huge well of ideas to draw from that could grant it a very long life if it manages to build an audience within the fighting game community.

That community does not count me among its numbers, and that's fine – Valorant isn't for me either, but I'm happy to see it successfully carve out its own space. But with 2XKO failing to grab me, I'm reminded of the other Riot games that did, most notably its selection of indie games published under the Riot Forge label.

In its few short years before being killed off in 2024, Forge had managed to push out an array of cult classics from acclaimed studios, but it never really found its audience even among League of Legends players. The potential reasons for that failure are myriad, but the games it made were certainly more suited to me than Riot's other competitive efforts have proved to be. Clearly, multiplayer will remain the studio's bread and butter, but as a fan of nearly 15 years, I wish I could find something within it that felt like it fitted my tastes a little more.

2XKO director says players should know the LoL fighting game "might not be good" at everything at first, but Riot will "address it" – "We're going to make mistakes."

Karl Urban's Johnny Cage is one of the central characters of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 sequel movie, but he'll be sharing the spotlight with Adeline Rudolph's Kitana, as they both vie for the top spot in the movie's big tournament.

"Especially when I first read the script, it felt very much like the intertwining of two worlds. You have Earthrealm and then you have Edenia and Outworld," Rudolph tells EW. "Kitana's storyline feels very much interwoven into Johnny Cage's story, and they go in and out of each other throughout the movie."

According to director Simon McQuoid, that's very much on purpose as the filmmaker set out with an intent to bring more of the women of Mortal Kombat into the sequel, which finally depicts the full Outworld tournament set up by the previous film.

The Mortal Kombat tournament is the main conceit of the long running fighting game series, known for its bloody combat and brutal fatalities. Participants fight to claim the top prize and to stop the invasion of the sinister realm known as the Outworld.

"That's obviously gonna be Kitana and Jade," McQuoid explains, discussing how he picked the new characters who will appear in the sequel. "There are other great female characters, but for the second film, they seemed logical."

In the Mortal Kombat games, Kitana is a princess who hails from one of the kingdoms of Outworld, and a rebel against the dark dimension's vicious ruler Shao Khan. Meanwhile, Jade is a former assassin for Shao Khan and one of Kitana's fellow freedom fighters, who is played by Randolph's fellow Chilling Adventures of Sabrina alum Tati Gabrielle in the movie.

Mortal Kombat 2 comes to theaters May 15, 2026. While we wait, check out the 25 best fighting games you can play right now.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero launched with an absolutely massive roster, and it's only gotten bigger with DLC. We're up to 208 characters in total, and somehow Bandai Namco isn't done yet. The developers say even more character add-ons are in the pipeline, but at this point I'm struggling to think of what they could even add.

In a new "over 200 characters" trailer – I'm sure Bandai Namco is eagerly awaiting the day it can do the "over 9,000 characters" version – we get a brief rundown of every single character in the game, from Goku (Z-Early) to Goku (Daima) Super Saiyan 4 and every other fighter, Goku or otherwise, in between.

"Enjoy this character showcase as we celebrate the game’s first anniversary," the trailer description reads. "But it's not over yet. The next DLC is already in the pipeline, bringing new characters and more. More info coming January 2026!"

I'm struggling to think of what additional characters the devs could add, but you'll certainly find more hardcore Dragon Ball fans than me offering suggestions – Super 17 from Dragon Ball GT is a popular choice, but personally, I'm holding out for the farmer with the shotgun from the first arc of classic DBZ.

But what I really want to know is just how many more Gokus can be squeezed into the roster. There are somewhere between nine and 39.375 Gokus on the roster depending on how you do the math, but surely the protagonist of a series that's been running this long has a few more variants to be thrown in.

These are the best fighting games available today.

League of Legends' fighting game spin-off 2XKO might have a bumpy start come launch since Riot Games is keen to "try stuff" in a new genre, but the studio's also committed to ironing out those creases over time, according to game director Shaun Rivera.

2XKO's lead said as much in an interview with Edge Magazine's latest issue, admitting that he's both "excited" and "also terrified" about its early access launch this October because "it's going to be a little bumpy when we get out." That's partly because it's the first time a lot of the team have led a new game, and 2XKO also doesn't have the benefit of building on past games, like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter do.

"We're going to make mistakes," Rivera added. "We're the type of team where we want to try stuff. Sometimes it's going to land and sometimes it's going to whiff, but we will be trying things. I want to set those expectations for players that something we try might go wrong or it might not be good, but we'll address it."

"I do want to call out, though, that we're a team of people making a fighting game for the first time in a sense, and we don't have older fighting-game animations to reuse or things like that," he continued, before addressing the game's slightly thin beginning roster. "We're making our champions from scratch, and we're learning as we make them... we've got a lot of champions at various stages of development down the pipe that I can't wait for people to see and play."

2XKO director wants to rub shoulders with giants like Street Fighter, but the League of Legends fighting game has "got to earn that spot"

Even if you thought the PlayStation State of Play showcase, Capcom's stream with no Resident Evil news, or the Xbox Showcase was the worst presentation of Tokyo Game Show season, Sega wasn't keen on letting them take the win. During TGS, Sega and RGG Studio hosted a panel surrounding what is currently named "New Virtua Fighter Project" and from the fan reaction, it sure seems like the worst TGS show of the year.

After being completely absent from the RGG Direct (where Yakuza 3 Kiwami + Dark Ties was announced) the new Virtua Fighter was set to be showcased in the "Tokyo Game Show Special Stage" presentation. The description for the event said to "check out our overview of the battle system in the New VIRTUA FIGHTER Project," so many were expecting maybe a live demonstration – especially when they had one of the most prolific fighting game players of all time, Tokido as a co-host.

However, what we did get was slideshow presentations and previously existing clips of the game from EVO 2025. Then towards the end of the stream a small teaser was played to hint at a new character in the game. Unfortunately, there was no indication of who this actually was, nor was there any footage of the character in action, so for all we know this is a drastic redesign (which we have seen with Akira's new look in the game), or someone new.

One look at the comments for the stream will show you it didn't go down so well, with comments like "this could've been an email" (and to be honest the press release I was sent pretty much covers it), and "this was diabolical, woke up at 4AM for absolutely nothing." Another user gives an especially apt comparison of it being "just like my students when they don't finish their presentation in time and then come to class with some sort of excuse." And, in perhaps the most brutal comment of all: "How have we seen more footage for Kingdom Hearts 4 at this point?"

A "genre-defining visual novel" for Super Nintendo in Japan is making a comeback as a Street Fighter 6 bonus, and I hope we've got a Fire Emblem in Super Smash Bros situation on our hands.

After the English-speaking gaming world spent decades saying little more than "lol, Japan" at the concept of visual novels, the genre has finally grown enough in popularity for notable titles to frequently get global releases. But some of the most notable examples of the format came about long before that audience developed, and never really got their worldwide due. That's why I'm hoping the upcoming crossover between Banshee's Last Cry and Street Fighter 6 is going to open some doors.

Banshee's Last Cry originally launched for the Super Famicom – the Japanese equivalent of the Super NES – back in 1994. It's a horror-tinged murder-mystery, and helped popularize what developer Chunsoft called the "sound novel." You'd be hard-pressed to actually define the difference between SNs and VNs today, but the idea was that you'd have text-heavy game stories enhanced by atmospheric music and sound effects.

Chunsoft's game wasn't the first of its kind, but Banshee's Last Cry was popular enough to create a genre boom that influenced many of the visual novels that would come later. It's technically not lost to Japan, as an official English version came to iOS in 2014, but that version has long since been delisted and is no longer playable on modern devices.

With all that context, it's still pretty wild to see Capcom adding a Street Fighter 6 crossover with what it describes as a "genre-defining visual novel" in honor of the game's 30th anniversary. (Never mind the fact that's been nearly 31 years.) The collaboration will be a "free addition" to World Tour mode, offering a new story scenario to play through.

Judging by the brief teaser shown in Capcom's Tokyo Game Show broadcast today, it looks like the new scenario will feature plenty of visual novel-style storytelling, but you'll also go through some fights with characters rendered in the silhouetted style of Banshee's Last Cry.

It's all very odd to see presented in Capcom's English broadcast for an audience who likely doesn't have a clue what Banshee's Last Cry is, but I absolutely love seeing seemingly obscure bits of gaming history given a fresh light of day, and I'm hopeful that this might be the spark necessary for the VN to get a new English-language release on modern platforms.

After all, you can probably thank the appearance of Fire Emblem protagonist Marth in Super Smash Bros. Melee in part for Nintendo's strategy RPG series finally getting localized on GBA. Hopefully whetting the curiosity of fighting game fans will be a repeatable method of getting big Japanese games in the hands of English-speaking players.

The Banshee's Last Cry crossover lands alongside the launch of returning fighter C. Viper on October 15.

These are the best visual novels out there today.

Riot Games' League of Legends fighting game spinoff 2XKO has only been in closed beta for two weeks, but it already has a newly revealed early access release date: October 7.

In a video update, 2XKO executive producer Tom Cannon says 2XKO's closed beta ends the same day it launches into early access, simply because the restricted playtest yielded positive results.

"Let me remind you why we're doing closed beta at all. During closed beta, we've been rolling out and testing our server infrastructure across the globe," Cannon says. "Our ops and engineering teams have been tuning our matchmaker, finding and fixing bugs, and overall just verifying that everything is a go for launch. And at this point, things are holding up pretty well, and so we're ready to move on to the next phase of launching the game."

2XKO launched its closed beta on September 9, exactly two weeks ago, and six long years after its initial reveal under the codename Project L in 2019. Cannon recently told Edge the project "went back into R&D mode" after the announcement, which contributed to the long gap between reveal and beta, but director Shaun Rivera has lofty ambitions for the game, recently saying he wants it to rub shoulders with fighting game giants like Street Fighter.

"During early access, we'll dial in our in-season systems like the Battle Pass, Ranked, and balance tuning," adds Cannon. "And finally, starting in early access, we'll have no more content resets. Everything you get in early access will be yours to keep."

While we wait for October 7, here are the best fighting games you can play right now.

Bandai Namco has registered a trademark that has a suspiciously similar name to a forgotten Smash Bros. wannabe.

Bandai Namco is no stranger to the crossover fighting game, with countless Shonen Jump games coming out over the years – most recently 2019's stinker Jump Force, and Tekken and Soul Calibur have both featured crossover fighters. But most notably, Bandai Namco Studios is co-developer of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, for Wii U, and Ultimate.

As noticed by Gematsu Bandai Namco has filed a trademark for "World Fighters" in Japan. And given that Bandai Namco has quite a few fighting game franchises under its belt, this has the gears turning in people's heads. The GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit is speculating that this could be some form of crossover fighter, whether that be a Bandai Namco-wide crossover game or a new version of the Jump Stars/Jump Force list of crossover anime fighting games. Or, it could be as simple as something like a subtitle for a One Piece or Dragon Ball game.

However, interestingly, the name World Fighters has been used for a crossover fighting game before – that being 2003's forgotten Japan-only Smash Bros-like fighter DreamMix TV World Fighters from Hudson. This saw Hudson, Konami, and Takara team up for a fighting game roster that featured the likes of Metal Gear's Solid Snake, Castlevania's Simon Belmont, Bomberman, and Optimus Prime (three of which featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we're through the looking glass here people).

"Finally the sequel to DreamMix TV World Fighters for PS2," one Reddit user speculates, responding to the new trademark news, as another adds: "Optimus Prime is gonna throw hands with Bomberman again."

Now, granted, it is extremely unlikely that Bandai Namco is working on a new DreamMix TV World Fighters game for a number of reasons, first of all being the game was published by Hudson which was absorbed by Konami. But on the off chance that the two publishers are teaming up on a new crossover fighting game revival (they aren't), I want to be the first to say I called it.

If you play a pirated Super Smash Bros exactly 69 times on N64, Nintendo's "sneaky" anti-piracy measure will "lull the illegitimate user into a false sense of security" and trap you as Mario forever.

The director of 2XKO, the upcoming tag-team fighting game starring League of Legends heroes, wants the free-to-play title to be able to stand tall with genre giants like Street Fighter. That's a lofty goal, of course, but director Shaun Rivera is also aware that 2XKO will need more than League of Legend's brand recognition to "earn that spot."

Speaking to Edge Magazine's 215 issue, Rivera hoped that 2XKO could rub shoulders with Street Fighter and other EVO mainstays by the time the annual fighting game esports event rolls around next summer. He knows it's not an easy ask, though.

"We've got to earn that spot," Rivera told the magazine. "We've got to earn the right to be there from our players. Our team fully believes that. We've got to make a game that players love and believe in, and that is constantly getting better for them over time. Nothing is guaranteed, and so you better believe we'll work our butts off to try to get there."

Producer Tom Cannon previously revealed that the team actually went back to the drawing board after the spin-off's "awkward" reveal in 2019, though it was all in service of adding something new to the genre, rather than stuffing LoL characters into what looked like a Tekken or Mortal Kombat reskin.

2XKO is currently in Closed Beta on PC and, while there's no release date yet, it is set to launch in full on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5 sometime later this year.

League of Legends leadership just got a crash course in horniness when "someone started explaining what 'gooning' meant: "I shouldn't tell you this"

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has always aimed to be the ultimate Dragon Ball fighter, and as the roster expands and the Goku count grows ever higher through DLC, it's laying a strong claim to that title. Another Goku – or, perhaps, two more Gokus – are hitting the game as part of the upcoming DLC 3 release on September 24, and at this point I'm starting to worry Bandai Namco might be running out of new Gokus to add.

A fresh trailer for DLC 3 shows off a new round of Daima characters with battles based on the anime's final fight – spoiler warning, by the way. The six additional characters are Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4, Goku (Daima) Super Saiyan 4, Vegeta (Daima) Super Saiyan 3, Majin Duu, Third Eye Gomah, and Giant Gomah.

Naturally, we here at the GamesRadar+ offices soon started trying to count Gokus, and we keep coming up with different answers because few of us agree on what constitutes an entire Goku. My colleague Scott argues that transformations and other alternate forms do not count as full Gokus, and thus this DLC would bring us to a Goku count of nine.

1. Goku (Z-Early)
2. Goku (Z-Mid)
3. Goku (Z-End)
4. Goku (Super)
5. Goku Black
6. Goku (GT)
7. Goku (Teen)
8. Goku (Mini)
9. Goku (Daima)

I think this count is needlessly reductive. Both myself and US managing editor Rollin agree that Super Saiyans and other similar transformations do count as full Gokus. After all, even this DLC pack is billing Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4 as a whole new character, setting the precedent that another transformation increases the Goku count. This count would take us to 24 total Gokus.

1. Goku (Z-Early)
2. Goku (Z-Mid)
3. Goku (Z-Mid) Super Saiyan
4. Goku (Z-End)
5. Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan
6. Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan 2
7. Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan 3
8. Goku (Super)
9. Goku (Super) Super Saiyan
10. Goku (Super) Super Saiyan God
11. Goku (Super) Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
12. Goku (Super) Ultra Instinct
13. Goku Black
14. Goku (Super) Ultra Instinct -Sign–
15. Goku Black Super Saiyan Rosé
16. Goku (GT)
17. Goku (GT) Super Saiyan
18. Goku (GT) Super Saiyan 3
19. Goku (GT) Super Saiyan 4
20. Goku (Teen)
21. Goku (Mini)
22. Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan
23. Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4
24. Goku (Daima) Super Saiyan 4

While I would stop the count here, I do have to acknowledge that some might reasonably argue that fusions – where Goku joins with another character to become something else – should each count as one-half Goku. I think this gets away a bit from the spirit of what a Goku truly is, but I can respect the idea. If we count the various versions of Gogeta, Vegito, and Fused Zamasu as each being 0.5 Gokus, our Goku count reaches 29.

But I'm not the first to do research in this area. Last year, Aftermath did a thorough Goku count to try and estimate exactly how many Gokus were in Sparking Zero. Their count included transformations and fusions, but they also added one more argument: since Cell is partially made up out of Goku's cells, each version of Cell should count as one-fifth of a Goku. This idea would take the Goku count to 30.

However, I would argue that if you're counting a character made up of Goku's cells as a partial Goku, I think any character sharing Goku's genetic material should count here. Yes, that means we need to be counting Goku's children as partial Gokus. If I'm counting correctly, and we assume a child equals one-half of each parent, there are 14 Gohans – equalling seven Gokus – and two Gotens – equalling one Goku.

We've been counting fusions this entire time, so the three Gotenks included in Sparking Zero would give us another three-quarters of a Goku, and Super Buu's absorption of Gohan should probably bring us another quarter-Goku. We've also got Super Buu's absorption of Gotenks, which gives us .125 Gokus, and we can't forget about Goku's grandchildren, as Pan would give us another quarter-Goku.

I think that takes us 39.375 Gokus, but I'm starting to feel a bit like Scott Steiner here. In this instance, the numbers might lie, but they're only spelling disaster for anybody trying to do a thorough Goku audit of Sparking Zero.

These are the best fighting games you can play today.

Nintendo is even more prolific than most video game publishers in its efforts to crack down on piracy, and it was implementing anti-piracy measures in its games even decades ago. That includes a series of triggers in Super Smash Bros. for N64 that slowly make the game more and more annoying to play, with a not-very-nice trap that'll stick you in the Mario dimension forever.

"Super Smash Bros. contains a sneaky 'delayed action' anti-piracy measure to lull the illegitimate user into a false sense of security," according to fastidious Mario trivia aggregator Supper Mario Broth on Bluesky. "The game will be normal the first 68 times it is launched. Starting with the 69th time, however, every selected character will turn into Mario." The only way out of the Mario dimension is to completely delete your save file.

Yes, I know what you're thinking, and I agree: nice. But it's unlikely Nintendo picked that number for any meme-related reason. While the number 69 had developed its, er, connotations well before video games were even a twinkle in William Higinbotham's eye, it had not yet become a ubiquitous gag the internet would eventually turn it into. Plus, it's not even the only special anti-piracy number in Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. contains a sneaky "delayed action" anti-piracy measure to lull the illegitimate user into a false sense of security. The game will be normal the first 68 times it is launched. Starting with the 69th time, however, every selected character will turn into Mario.

— @mariobrothblog.bsky.social (@mariobrothblog.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T22:42:58.885Z

Supper Mario Broth's explainer is based on research from The Cutting Room Floor wiki, which notes that there are actually four anti-piracy triggers in the Super Smash Bros. cartridge. If you load up versus mode 22 times, all fighter knockback values get randomized, "essentially making the game a lot more luck based." Load versus mode 69 times, and you get the Mario lockdown described above.

Load 1P mode 43 times, and the control stick range will be halved, "essentially making it much more irritating to perform any movements and locking the player out of various attacks that require running." Load 1P mode 93 times, and you'll be forced to play Peach's Castle in every versus mode battle.

In other words, the more you play a pirated copy of Super Smash Bros., the more annoying it becomes to continue playing. Why bother with this level of subterfuge, rather than simply lock out the game when the first piracy trigger hits? Well, a pirate would notice if the game didn't boot at all, and would likely track down the trigger causing issues there. Odd bugs that only happen sporadically after repeated plays would be a lot harder to notice.

Similar sorts of anti-piracy measures are present in other games, too. My favorite example is in the 2011 FPS game Serious Sam 3, where if you flip the piracy trigger, you'll be chased by a giant, immortal scorpion monster through the entire game.

But legitimate users often get caught out by anti-piracy tricks, too, and it seems that's not entirely uncommon with Super Smash Bros. players. The piracy check can be triggered by GameShark devices, and a handful of comments on Supper Mario Broth's post suggest that's not a purely theoretical problem. "I remember using codes with it, then being confused as to why Mario was the only selectable character. This post solves my childhood mystery!"

Wow, Mario Kart World really is Nintendo's take on Grand Theft Auto, as NPCs can break into each other's cars: "He's breaking into Green Shy Guy's car! And now he's stealing it!"