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This Week in Games
A New (Old) Challenger Approaches!

by Heidi Kemps,

... I need to get all of this pent-up excitement out of me.

*Deep breath*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---

THERE'S A NEW VIRTUA FIGHTER HAPPENING

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Oh, this feels so good, y'all. Yes, as indicated in the teaser above, Sega is going to be revisiting their long-running, well-respected, especially beloved by yours truly Virtua Fighter series. How much do I love it, you ask? Well, let's go back to that trailer above. Go to…. about the 0:23 mark. Here's a screencap.

That random white girl you see at the bottom, towards the center? That's me. They used crowd footage from a Japanese Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution tournament I attended in 2003! I still have souvenirs from it!

Though the trailer is light on gameplay footage, the message of “Virtua Fighter x eSports” is pretty clear: something Virtua Fighter-related is in the works, and it's going to have a particular focus on the eSports side of things. This, rather predictably, got some backlash from people who generally have a negative reaction to anything “eSports”-focused. Which is understandable, I mean, a fair few games have fallen flat on their face by trying to chase eSports popularity first and foremost.

However, one thing you have to understand is that the Virtua Fighter scene in Japan was essentially the prototype for eSports as we know it. Virtua Fighter isn't chasing eSports, Virtua Fighter was eSports the whole time.

Even going back to the mid-90s, when Virtua Fighter 2 was booming in popularity, there were famous pro VF players known across Japanese gaming circles. That 1996 TV show clip above features two such players, Bun Bun Maru and Daimon Lau (with a bit of an appearance from another player, Ikebukuro Sarah), in a heated VF2 rivalry. There's even a book and a stage play called Tokyohead that presents an account of the fierce pro Virtua Fighter scene of the mid-90s.

Those early VF scenes laid the groundwork for similar scenes that gathered around the follow-up sequels. The sort of things we associate with eSports today – teams, epic rivalries, large-scale tournaments with an eager crowd of viewers, online rankings and record-tracking – can be traced back to what Japan's Virtua Fighter scene established. So yes, I'm 100% down with Virtua Fighter proclaiming its intention to fully embrace modern eSports, and am eager to see what Sega has planned on that front.

Also, bring back the queen

MEANWHILE, OVER IN SMASHVILLE…

So why is this column later than usual? Well, as usual, it's Nintendo making big announcements. Specifically, Nintendo making Super Smash Bros Ultimate character announcements, which, from my experience, tend to make the collective gaming internet explode. And boy oh boy oh BOY, did this one ever get people talking!

It's Steve! And, uh… a whole bunch of reskinned variants of Steve! From Minecraft! Yes, once again, Sakurai actually took everyone's memeing seriously and said, hey, maybe we can make this work! Congrats, Smash faithful, you're getting a Minecraft character and a Minecraft-themed stage in your game, and now Steve and company get to chill with the likes of Mario, Sonic, Snake, and Megaman in mashup heaven.

Of course, every Smash announcement pleases some folks while others -- mostly people whose favorite character of choice wasn't implemented -- get extremely salty and frantically try to come up with some reasoning why said character shouldn't be a part of Smash. At this point, though, it's hard to argue against Minecraft’s inclusion: it might be newer compared to many other series in Smash, but it has indisputably made a mark on gaming history as a whole and has demonstrated tremendous staying power.

This also ties in a bit with what I was talking about last week – how Microsoft is generally willing to play nice with non-Xbox platforms if an opportunity for goodwill and money is there. And what better goodwill exists than letting a character and game world you own appear in Smash?

Anyhow, if you want to see more Steve and skins in action, you can watch Smash creator Masahiro Sakurai talk about the character in one of his usual lengthy breakdowns on Minecraft Live, which broadcasts on the 3rd.

ALSO, HERE'S MORE DAN IN STREET FIGHTER V

There have certainly been some big competitive gaming announcements in the past week, so it might be a bit easy to forget that, hey, there's a new season of Street Fighter V happening over the next several months! The first character from the game's final season is lovable incompetent jerkface Dan Hibiki, and Capcom took to the Tokyo Game Show stage to show off more of Dan's fighting, uh, “prowess.”

Glad to see that he's still got his super taunt! Though, if you were hoping that Dan might have a chance of being competitively viable, that… doesn't seem likely. At least, not from what we're seeing here. Of course, the character's still under development, but Dan being good appears to be expressly forbidden by Capcom law. (They saw what happened with Sean in SF3 Second Impact and said “never again!”)

KONAMI'S MAKING GAMES BASED ON EDENS ZERO

Manga author Hiro Mashima (of Rave and Fairy Tail fame) is a proven global hitmaker, and his latest manga, Edens Zero, has a lot of those same ingredients that made his previous works a hit… but, as we all know, it usually takes an anime-adaptation spark to light that popularity powder keg. So it's unsurprising that an anime adaptation of Edens Zero is in the works… but what was surprising is that the production committee decided to showcase a lot of information at Tokyo Game Show Online.

Well, now we know why TGS was chosen – not only is an Edens Zero anime in production, but both console- and mobile-game adaptations are happening as well… by Konami!

Yes, we all joke about how Konami is just a pachinko and mobile company nowadays, but they do still put out “traditional” games… though there's considerably less corporate focus on that side of things. But hey, anime licensed games can be tremendous moneymakers, and Konami knows a thing or two about those: besides having made about a bazillion Yu-Gi-Oh games since the late 90s, Konami absolutely swamped the GBA, GC, PS2, and DS with licensed anime games throughout the aughts. So I guess this is something of a return to form!

Anyhow, we've covered the anime side of things in our news writeup, so let's take a closer look at the games. The console Edens Zero game will be a third-person view action-RPG, while the mobile game will take more of a top-down approach. There's an English teaser trailer, which bodes extremely well for localization prospects:

Unfortunately, we don't have too much to go off on here in terms of gameplay, though it looks like you'll have multiple characters to control and possibly even some flight sequences. It's also worth noting that Hiro Mashima is designing unique costumes for the characters that will only be seen in-game, hopefully not as extra paid DLC or gacha drops!

Anyhow, while some might be glad to see Konami making “real games” again, I'm not so sure. We remember a lot of great Konami licensed output from the 90s, but… a lot of those PS2 and Game Boy Advance licensed games are a far cry from the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tiny Toon Adventures titles from the 8- and 16-bit days of yore, and current-day money-hungry Konami seems even more likely to go the “cheap and mediocre” route than early 2000s Konami.

NEWBITS OF SOME IMPORT

  • The NieR Replicant: It's Always Pi Day remake has a release date of April 23, 2021, almost exactly eleven years after the original made its debut. Also, NieR Re:Incarnation is now confirmed to be getting an English release, avoiding the SiNOALICE situation of “So, is this actually going to get localized or what?” No idea if we're looking at a simultaneous global release or an English version that's a bit behind the Japanese, hopefully the former!
  • On the subject of Squeenix mobile games, the strategy-RPG Dragon Quest Tact will be getting an English version, as well! If you're interested and have an Android device, you can pre-register here. (Nothing yet for iOS, I'm afraid.)
  • The next Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion, The Crown Tundra, will be launching on the 22nd. There's also an anime music video to promote the new expansion by beloved Japanese band Bump of Chicken, who, ah… are having a bit of a rough time right now. Poor timing, that.
  • Remember when I talked about the Aleste shooter games getting a collected re-release? Well, there's a bit more to it. At Tokyo Game Show Online, M2 announced that the collection will contain another Aleste game, GG Aleste 3 – a completely new shooter made from the ground up.
    Even more interestingly, it conforms to Game Gear hardware spec, so you could theoretically play it on actual Game Gear hardware! It's also included on that special Aleste Game Gear Micro, which sold out instantaneously and will enrich several scalpers, I'm sure!
  • Speaking of old-school shooters, during last year's TGS it was confirmed that Deathsmiles I and II were getting re-released. It's a year later, and we have more details: the collection will be coming to PS4, XBOne, and Switch in 2021, and it will include basically every permutation of Deathsmiles I and II out there. Here's a trailer!

So, yeah! Did the news coming out of TGS make you all excited? I mean… yeah, not a lot of new stuff announcements, but I got my Virtua Fighter so I'm happy as a clam over here. Are you all excited to see what Steve brings to Smash? And… hey, what all are you playing right now? Hades, Genshin Impact, Super Mario 35… I'm playing all three! You can engage in talk about all the latest gaming news in our forums below, so why not join us? Anyhow, I've got to get back to gaming, so I'll see you again next week!


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