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Here’s a rundown of all the Evo 2022 announcements

Franz Co 0 Comments , , , , , , , , , ,

As the year’s biggest fighting game tournament, Evo 2022 came packed with a number of announcements and reveals. With the event returning to face-to-face competition for the first time since the pandemic put it on hold in 2020, many expected the big fighting game publishers to be out in force, and the latter did not disappoint.

The announcements cover the gamut from new content to important updates to existing games. These give something for fighting game players to look forward to while assuring them that their old favorites are still being supported.

In addition, some companies actually dropped their announcements early, during the week leading up to the event, so as to not get lost in the shuffle

For all the fighting game fans out there, here is everything that was announced at Evo 2022.

King of Fighters XV to get cross-platform play, more characters

SNK was one of the first companies to make their announcements at Evo 2022, making some reveals on day one, then dropping a few more as the weekend progressed. They led off by revealing that the King of Fighters XV would be getting cross-platform play between PC, Xbox and PlayStation sometime next year. Cross-platform play has become more common in recent years as developers realize that unifying a game’s player base helps a game’s longevity. Only a few fighters currently have the feature, however, so getting the feature into more titles is always welcome.

Beyond that, SNK also revealed more about the upcoming characters for the game. First, they confirmed that the next DLC team, Team Awakened Orochi, would be out on Monday, August 8 (Tuesday, August 9 here in the Philippines). Then, they revealed the identity of the final team for Season 1—Team Samurai, featuring characters from Samurai Shodown. But that wasn’t all, SNK also confirmed that Season 2 was in development, dropping art of two of the characters coming in that season—fan favorites Shingo Yabuki and Kim Kaphwan.

A new Tekken game is coming, Tekken 7 Global Finals date revealed

Following the final set of the Tekken 7 tournament at Evo 2022, Bandai Namco dropped the news that a new Tekken project was in the works. While the company didn’t drop any information beyond that, many are assuming that the new game will be Tekken 8. That said, there are a few other possibilities for what this game could be, such as a new Tekken Tag game, or maybe even the long-in-limbo Tekken x Street Fighter.

Beyond that, Bandai Namco also confirmed that another battle update would be coming to Tekken 7 on August 17. This update will bring balance changes as well as what the developers termed “new tactics,” including what seems to be a new type of wall bounce.

Finally, the company also revealed that the Tekken World Tour 2022 Global Finals would be taking place in Amsterdam from February 4 to 5, 2023.

Street Fighter 6 character reveals

Capcom actually spoiled their own Evo 2022 announcements. The company’s German Twitter account posted about the reveals early before pulling them. Series veteran Juri Han and newcomer Kimberly have been revealed for Street Fighter 6. The former was introduced in Street Fighter IV and hasn’t missed a game since then. Her Street Fighter 6 incarnation looks to carry over most of her revamped moveset from Street Fighter V.

Kimberly, on the other hand, is a newcomer who is a student of Guy, another Street Fighter (and Final Fight) veteran who has yet to return. With her master seemingly absent once again (as far as week know) it looks like Kimberly will be representing his high-flying Bushinryu style in the game (Read: 6 things we’d like to see in Street Fighter 6)

Bridget is returning to Guilty Gear Strive

Before top 8 for Guilty Gear Strive, Arc System Works revealed the next character coming to the cel-shaded fighter. Bridget, the gender-flipping, yoyo-wielding fighter that was last seen in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R, is finally becoming playable in a modern Guilty Gear title. More importantly, she arrives in-game the day after Evo 2022, August 8 (August 9 for us here in the Philippines).

SNK is working on a sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Moving back to SNK, the Osaka-based company dropped a bombshell during the finals for the King of Fighters XV. Producer Yasuyuki Oda confirmed that a sequel to 1999’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves is in development.

The final game in SNK’s classic Fatal Fury series (itself part of SNK’s original video game “universe” before they moved on to the alternate KOF timeline), Garou is a cult classic that many consider the best 2D sprite-based game SNK put out for the Neo Geo system in the 1990s. It’s also a game that Oda has wanted to make a sequel to for the longest time now, and it looks like he finally got his wish.

Samurai Shodown, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Persona 4 Ultimax are getting rollback netcode

One of the things that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare was just how important stable online play was for fighting games. As such, it should come as no surprise that games released before the pandemic are getting updated with rollback netcode. Specifically, Samurai Shodown is getting rollback netcode on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC, meanwhile Dragon Ball FighterZ is getting it on PC, Xbox Series and on the newly announced PlayStation 5 version. In addition, Personal 4 Ultimax‘s long-awaited rollback patch also went live during the event.

For those not familiar with it, rollback netcode is a form of networking that ensures that inputs in a fighting game—or any peer-to-peer game for that matter—are not affected by internet lag. It does this by allowing a player’s inputs to play out immediately, without having to wait for the other player. Of course, doing so risks having both players games lose sync with each other. To deal with this, the netcode constantly checks both players’ inputs behind the scenes and, if it detects that the games are no longer in sync, rolls back (hence the name “rollback”) the game to a synced state. (Read: Fighting in the time of COVID: the problems of online play and how the community has adapted)

Learn more about rollback in this video by developer Code Mystics, who is working with SNK on Samurai Shodown‘s implementation.

Melty Blood: Type Lumina is getting more free characters

Type-Moon actually made their Evo 2022 announcements a week before the event, likely to beat the rush of news coming out of it. Melty Blood: Type Lumina is getting two new characters for free.

The first of these is none other than Neco-Arc. This character is a fan favorite not only for how she plays but for how easy it was to use her sprite in various memes. She’s joined by Mash Kyrielight, a guest character from Type-Moon’s Fate/Grand Order games. Mash will be only the second guest character in the game following Fate/stay night‘s Saber.

“Project L” confirmed to be free-to-play, new character revealed

Another company that made their Evo 2022 announcements early was Riot games, whose unnamed fighter—currently codenamed “Project L”—is being helmed by Tom and Tony Cannon, two of the co-founders of Evo.

In the first Project L update in months, Tom Cannon confirmed that the game will be free-to-play. While this is in line with Riot’s other releases, such as Valorant, it’s big news for fighting games, which tend to stick to the more traditional retail model. As part of this, Cannon did his best to reaffirm that the team was doing its best to make sure every decision they made would make fighting game fans happy. (Read: Riot’s “Project L” is an assist-based League of Legends fighting game similar to Marvel vs. Capcom)

“One of our goals is to remove as many barriers as possible from you enjoying Project L,” stated Cannon during. “We want you to be able to play no matter where you live, what your skill level is, or how much money you have to spend on a game. To that, I’m happy to confirm that Project L will be free-to-play.”

In addition, the update also confirmed a new character for the as-of-yet untitled game: Illaoi. The update stated that the summoner would make use of the god Nagakabouros.

Evo Japan will return next year

Before Guilty Gear Strive‘s top 8, Evo General Manager Rick “the Hadou” Thiher came up on stage to confirm that Evo Japan would return next year. The event will take place from March 31 to April 2, 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight. The games announced so far are Guilty Gear Strive, the King of Fighters XV, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 with more to be revealed ata a later date.

With all of these announcements, it looks like 2023—and the rest of 2022—will be an exciting time for fighting game fans.

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Author

Franz Co

managing editor | addicted to RGB | plays too many fighting games

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