Taking You For a Ride - The State of Fighting Games in 2024

Hello, once again, my fellow Renegades! Neoplasmic here, returning from my (frankly too long) convalescence in the Earth Realm to discuss the current state of fighting games in the Year of our Overlord Shao Kahn 2024! Oh, wait, he’s not the Emperor of Outworld anymore, is he? My, how things have changed!

All kidding aside, it’s been a banner year for those of us who grew up playing classic titles like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat in arcades (remember those, kids?), as the genre has undergone a recent resurgence over the past couple of years. I recall popular Twitch and YouTube personality Maximilian Dood posting videos of every single character announcement for Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Strive and SNK’s King of Fighters XV as if it were yesterday! Not to mention all of the Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, and Tekken 8 teasers we saw in the ensuing months! It’s truly an exciting time to be a fighting game fan, and there’s even more to come in the near and far future!

On top of the return of longtime series like King Of Fighters, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, this year has seen the rise of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, first teased at last year’s EVO fighting game tournament, as well as a bevy of DLC for SF6, MK1, Tekken 8, GG Strive, and KOF XV in the form of stages, characters, and costumes. While there have been some controversies among the updates, particularly when it comes to battle passes and cosmetics costing a combined total of, and I quote, “way too much freakin’ money,” I still say that we’re in a good place when it comes to enjoying our digital fisticuffs.

While Strive and KOF were among the first to launch of the current wave in the genre, I’d say SF6 was a huge factor in its renewed popularity. The reintroduction of such seminal characters as Ryu, Chun Li, Cammy, Blanka, Guile, Zangief, Dhalsim, Juri, and many others was a bit of a surprise, considering the fact that the series had evolved and time had passed in the storyline. Ryu was now even more of a mountain of massive muscles, Chun Li had found purpose beyond seeking revenge for her father’s death at the hands of Bison, Guile had a beard (in fact, a lot of them did, honestly). The characters still had their iconic costumes available and had never looked better in 3D, thanks to the RE Engine. Oh, and the new cast members were very cool in their own right, too, and were shown off nicely, thanks to the new single player focused World Tour mode, where characters could explore a city, discover a bunch of cool Capcom references and easter eggs, and create their own custom street fighter which they could then use in online matches against other players across the globe. SF6 was a great evolution of the series, and a worthwhile purchase!

Speaking of DLC for SF6, there’s a brand new bunch of characters coming to the game soon, as announced at Summer Game Fest just over a week ago. Included in the Year 2 package is M. Bison, who is surprisingly not dead! I’m just kidding, we’re not shocked at all. Bison is looking pretty ravaged and in rough shape, but he’s still a powerhouse and can “PSYCHO CRUSHER” with the best of ‘em. Along with the former big bad of the franchise, we have the lithe and powerful Capoeira fighter Elena, from Street Fighter III: New Generation, finally joining the cast late in the Year 2 pass, along with two characters I never thought I’d see in a main line SF game: Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from SNK’s Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series. This is absolutely stunning news, as it may indicate even greater things in the future for those of us who loved the Capcom vs. SNK series back in the early 2000s. Not only are Terry and Mai a fantastic fit for the roster in SF6, but I know I wasn’t the only one thinking we were on the cusp of a Capcom vs. SNK 3 reveal. Maybe we’ll get a collection soon, maybe we’ll get a third installment in the franchise. Who truly knows? What I am certain of is that we’re all one step closer to CvS3, and that can only be a good thing.

Now we come to the real reason I’m writing this piece to you today, dear Renegade, and that is the announcement of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, which occurred during the Nintendo Direct on this day, June 18, 2024. Not only does the Collection feature MvC 1 and 2, but also X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and the Punisher 2D brawler from back in the day. What a momentous occasion, my friends, because not only is this the re-release--nay, the resurrection--of one of the all-time greatest fighting game franchises in the history of video games… This is also the renewal of Capcom and Marvel’s agreement to license these legendary characters and work together into the future! I am so freakin’ excited! Just hearing the music and voice clips and seeing the animations and graphics again made me feel like I was in an arcade 25 years ago. I’m talking core memories unlocked over here! Truly one of the best announcement trailers I’ve seen over the past two weeks, and that’s saying a lot, as there was a ton of good stuff this year! Please do what you can to support this game: wishlist it on Steam, share the trailer, and tweet about it, because whatever you do lets Capcom know that we want more MvC!

Now, I realize that I’ve been focusing heavily on Capcom for this list, but the other companies I’ve mentioned above are definitely delivering the goods, too! Bandai Namco is bringing back one of my favorite characters from Tekken 7, the Karate-chopping Prime Minister of Poland herself, Lidia, in Tekken 8 as DLC, as well as the recent addition of Eddy Gordo, the veteran Capoeira fighter, who returns to the franchise once more. ArcSys recently brought the awesome-looking Slayer to the roster of Guilty Gear Strive. Ed Boon and Nether Realm are constantly at work adding content to MK1, such as Homelander from the Boys and Omni-Man from Invincible, with a rumored appearance by Ghostface from Scream in the near future, or so I’ve heard. SNK continues to deliver new fighters to KOF XV and is providing more info on the roster of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, with B. Jenet returning and newcomer Vox Reaper (cool name, no?) revealed at Summer Game Fest (see trailer above). We also have Project L, now known as 2XKO, a free to play tag team fighter coming from the developers at Riot Games, and continuing support for Killer Instinct, a fighter which has gone through many iterations and updates over the years since its release.

I’ve also got to shout out the indie developers who are working on some badass new titles, most of which I’ve learned about via Twitter (or X, if you’re Elon). Among them are titles like Coreupt, an Unreal Engine 5-powered 2D combo-fest featuring futuristic character designs and unbelievable air combos. The game looks like a modern take on the old school Killer Instinct arcade titles, and that’s a great thing in my book. Then you have Umbral Core, a 2.5D fighter set in a dark fantasy universe, and the 2D anthropomorphized animal brawler Blazing Worldstars, both of which remain in development but look really cool, with intriguing visual aesthetics and colorful designs.

While the fighting game genre is still nowhere near as popular as it once was in the mid to late 1990s, when arcades ruled and MK clones were ubiquitous, it’s clear that we are currently in the midst of a renaissance of sorts. Players are hungry for variety beyond open world action-RPGs, Souls-likes, and Ubisoft checklists, and some of us love to feel the nostalgia of familiar genres and mechanics as we get older and times change. And as long as indie developers are around, there will be those who wish to try their hand at innovating within the fighting genre in order to try something different or push its boundaries forward.

Either way, we’re in for a treat, as the New Era of Fighting Games continues onward, like a Hadoken fireball on the wind, just before it smacks Guile in the face. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Neo is the co-founder of Renegade Pop Culture, co-host of the Renegade Arcade, and host of the Meltdown with Neo! He can also be found on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Twitch with his best friend, Red, and on Clockshelves Entertainment’s Buffyverse and Converse podcast!

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