Fighting Games Friday: The Fighters of E3 2018

For fighting games, E3 2018 was an underwhelming event. But this shouldn’t have been a surprise, despite how my recent fighting game posts showed how I clearly didn’t expect this. When a fan asked Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada why he didn’t have anything to present despite being present at E3, he concurred with another tweet on Twitter which said the convention isn’t a good place to make new fighting game announcements. He’s right, as there were so many big games shown and announced that small and even mid-level ones would likely be buried.

Fortunately, some big games shown were fighting games, and two were revealed this year. There was also general news about two upcoming fighters, so it’s not like I don’t have anything to cover here.

The biggest reveal by far was for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which absolutely counts as a fighting game, to the chagrin of those who use alternate arbitrary definitions. The title was confirmed to be on the way on a Nintendo Direct earlier in the year, but Nintendo saved the main showcase for E3 this year. Given how it dominated just under half of the 45-minute Direct this year, they’re fully aware of how many of those who watched were massive fans of the franchise.

There are good reasons why they spent so much time on it, as this installment will be stuffed with more content than any previous title. Every character from the previous games will be available here, including those conspicuously absent from the last installment, like Solid Snake, the Ice Climbers, and Star Wolf. It will also have new characters fans have been requesting for years, including Daisy and Ridley (get it!?), meaning it will have at least 66 characters. It’s possible there will be more character announcements between now and the game’s release, though the chance of Waluigi being among them is sadly low.

Since the reveal, the biggest itinerary for Nintendo has been proving how this isn’t an updated port of the Wii U title. The Direct presentation did a good job showing how this is a brand-new game thanks to the serious adjustments each character has received, though it was bound to look similar to the Wii U game thanks to that console and Switch being similar in power. But Nintendo Treehouse localization manager Nate Bihldorff told USgamer this installment has been “built from the ground up,” and it contains new lighting and particle effects. Clear visual differences between the two can be seen even in merely-okay comparison videos.

Nintendo spent a lot of time on Smash Ultimate at E3, but they undoubtedly have plenty more to show. They’ll provide more info and media during the marketing cycle between now and its December 7th release date.

Meanwhile, a bigger surprise was the reveal of Jump Force, a new Shonen Jump crossover fighter from developer Spike Chunsoft and publisher Bandai Namco announced at Microsoft’s conference. The choice in developer and gameplay style indicate that it’s a successor to J-Stars Victory VS, another Shonen Jump crossover fighter released by this same developer and publisher team, though there are noticeable differences between the two.

This can be seen in how it was introduced, as the reveal trailer showed Naruto, Monkey D. Luffy, and Goku from Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z, respectively, in a CG video looking far more realistic than they’re typically portrayed. Unlike its predecessor, this installment will be aimed towards the western market, even though I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded a cel-shaded style.

Unfortunately, the art style is the least of their worries, because all the gameplay footage from E3 suggests the game needs serious polishing before it’s released on the market. Heck, I’m surprised Bandai Namco was willing to give it a playable demo on the E3 show floor. A gameplay video from a more current build would have sufficed, to not give anyone seeing it in action a false impression of what the final game could resemble. While a bad first impression can doom a project’s sales potential, the name recognition from the characters in this game could help it bounce back when Bandai Namco starts promoting its polished form.

In addition to the characters shown in the reveal video, Sasuke, Zolo, and Frieza were also revealed from the three aforementioned franchises. Light Yagami and Ryuk from Death Note were also shown at the end of the reveal trailer, though they won’t be playable. Expect to see more characters from Jump Force on a regular basis from here on, until it releases sometime next year.

Sure, it’s become less customary to make character announcements for fighting games being displayed at E3, but SNK tried it with SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy regardless. Both Luong and Mian were confirmed for the game, both of whom were introduced in The King of Fighters XIV.

Luong was accidentally leaked through a short trailer uploaded and quickly pulled down by SNK last week, who’s receiving a schoolgirl outfit and new tight-fitting threads in addition to her default outfit for this game. Mian, meanwhile, is getting a Chinese dress and an office outfit with a short skirt for her extra outfits, but she noticeably loses her mask for her default outfit this time. Mian was one of the more conservatively dressed characters in SNK’s games, but everything is off limits for this title.

SNK Heroines will release for PS4 and Switch on September 7th, with the former version being digital-only in western territories. It will only have 14 characters, at least initially, so only two reveals remain.

While no characters were confirmed for Soulcalibur VI at E3, Bandai Namco provided the release date through its new Story Trailer: October 19th. They didn’t announce any new characters thanks to the logic explained in the opening paragraph, but the ESRB might have hinted at the remaining characters in their rating description. Characters referenced could include Cervantes, Seong Mi-na, Hilde, and Astaroth, but we’ll find out their identities over the next four months.

Also, Dragon Ball FighterZ is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year, though it was seldom shown throughout the week. It looks like a great port from the videos released, so it could be nice for those who don’t own the PS4, XB1, or PC versions, especially if it includes the DLC.

Despite how some companies didn’t to reveal anything at E3, there was still plenty of news, as you can see through the size of this post. But you’ll have to wait until Evo 2018 to see a much larger string of news, which is notably happening in early August instead of mid-July this year.