While Tekken Revolution might have been the latest of the free-to-play games to be revealed, it has been the first to hit the market, with the game releasing over the Playstation Network days ago. F2P is still a pretty new concept for fighting games, and while other franchises have taken tentative steps with familiar concepts, the folks at Namco have dived right into the idea, releasing what is effectively a Facebook game for PSN. The thing about that is, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The final Injustice Season One DLC character was revealed on TBS show Conan last night. General Zod, renegade Kryptonian and enemy of Superman, will round out the first season of DLC characters, joining Lobo, Batgirl, and Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion, released not long ago.
Amidst the hype for Killer Instinct, Tekken Revolution and Super Smash Bros., Koei Tecmo has let slip a new trailer for their own new(ish) fighter, Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate. In it we see a number of new core gameplay changes, as well as two new additions to the roster: returning Leon and Ninja Gaiden beauty Rachel.
Aside from the new fighters, of particular note in this new trailer is the Power Launchers, hard hitting attacks that send opponents catapulting into the air in a new out of control flipping state, allowing for greater comboability.
DOA5U is due for release in September, in the form of a complete stand alone disc, and a downloadable free-to-play Core Fighters version, which comes with four playable characters (Kasumi, Ayane, Hayate, Hayabusa).
A new character was revealed for Nintendo’s latest version of Super Smash Bros., and I guarantee you it’s not someone you’d expect. The Wii Fit Trainer was confirmed as an addition to the cast of eleven, demoed for the first time during a stage show at E3 yesterday. And here’s the kicker: she looks great.
Since the reveal of Killer Instinct days ago, confusion has reigned over the form the game will take when it releases with the Xbox One later this year. Community manager “Filthie” Rich Bantegui took to the GameSpot stage yesterday to address it, dousing some of the panicking fires.
Killer Instinct will release as a free-to-play game, with a single character Jago available immediately. The player will be allowed to take Jago into any of the available modes, including online, training and a free-to-play story mode. With this version, additional characters would be made purchasable through XBox Live, released by themselves and with a variety of packs, who would then have all the same access as Jago has.
Something that wasn’t made as clear, however, was that other versions of the game would be released as regular paid titles, with varying levels of completion. Fans had feared they would be forced into a format tailored for maximum profitability, with no option to buy in bulk; with this new information that fear has been put on its head.
Tonight’s Nintendo Direct let loose a heavy hit: Super Smash Bros. titles for both the Nintendo platforms, due next year.
Featuring nine returning characters, we were given a good long look at what to expect from a game series suddenly finding itself accepted by the broader fighting games community. Mario, Link, Pikachu, Kirby, Samus, Fox McCloud, Pit and Donkey Kong were all on hand, showing off some new tweaks on old moves, the fruits of handing development over to a team at Namco Bandai.
But the real surprises were to come.
Free to play: it’s the craze that’s sweeping the nation! First Dead Or Alive do it, then Tekken do it, and now the long awaited return of Killer Instinct has caught the bug as well. Three franchises in very quick succession have announced their plans to cash in on the free to play phenomena. But is it the right move for the fighting games genre?
Each of the titles above plan to approach free to play in a very different way, with varying degrees of consumer placation. If one is a stand out in terms of returns, it’s likely that companies yet to make the jump will look to it when considering their own F2P business model. Having not played any of these titles yet, let’s take a look at the different approaches taken to the free-to-play fighting game.
Rare have unveiled a reboot of Killer Instinct at the Microsoft E3 press briefing, showing off a brand new updated graphical direction and three returning characters, Jago, Glacius and Saberwulf. You can hit the jump to check out more trailers as they appear, starting off with a Jago character demo.
More as it happens.
As part of the festivities of the Arc System Works Festival held this weekend, the team behind BlazBlue and Persona 4 Arena showed off a number of new projects in the pipeline, including a new BlazBlue anime and adventure game set in the BlazBlue world. But no one expected this.
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, the first entirely new GG game since the ill-fated brawler Guilty Gear 2 Overture, will hold truer to its fighting game roots while breaking new ground for the main series. Being built on the Unreal engine, main characters Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske are shown in 2.5D, taking advantage of the new 3D models to showcase new camera tricks and angles. Unlike its competition, however, Xrd appears to be entirely hand-animated, reproducing to a tee the art and animation styles from previous 2D GG games. Signature attacks of Sol’s and Ky’s are all faithfully recreated with the 3D models, looking like GG had never left the scene at all.
In addition to Sol and Ky, the trailer gives a brief look at two more returning characters, Millia Rage and Eddie, the former sporting a new look. No release date or platform has been given yet, although being on the Unreal engine it’s a reasonable assumption that it’ll be on all the major consoles. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Tecmo Koei have let a new trailer slip regarding their new DOA property. Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate appears to be a stand alone game, boasting the addition so far of Ninja Gaiden character Momiji, an impressive brand new stage, and other as yet unrevealed goodies, along with many carry over features from the recent DOA5 Plus Vita port.
The other major conversation piece of this trailer is the glimpse at the end of a future roster addition; returning DOA veteran Leon. Check out the trailer below.
