Fighting Games Friday: Souls in the Area

We are deep within the Pre-E3 period for E3 2019, a fun time when publishers announce games they either can’t keep secret until E3 proper arrives or think will be buried among larger announcements. That’s why several are being announced now… if they haven’t leaked first.

But the period has been light on fighting game news, and some just happened to coincide with the current time. Fighting game announcements are primarily made on the last day of the Evolution (aka “Evo”) fighting game tournament now, which happens in early August, so most publishers are withholding news for games in the genre until then. Not to say there hasn’t been anything; some good news came out in the last week.

For one: NetherRealm Studios confirmed a bunch of downloadable content (or “kontent” — I will not keep this trend up) for Mortal Kombat 11, of which there will be plenty to justify the $39.99 Season Pass — a mere $20 cheaper than the full game. It will include six characters, including returning franchise characters Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, and Sindel, along with Spawn and two more guest characters. Around 24 character skins will also be included, and Early Access to all this content for one week.

Shang Tsung was previously confirmed as a DLC character, when NetherRealm and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed that Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa reprised the role from the 1995 Mortal Kombat film though his motion-captured appearance and voice talent. They’ve now shown how damn good he looks in motion. Shang Tsung has always been a visual treat, thanks to the ability to transform into various characters and use their techniques for a temporary time. It’s even more of a treat when combined with modern production values, as the trailer shows.

Shang can’t shapeshift into every character in the same match, but the kicker is that he can take the appearances of several ninjas from previous games who aren’t playable in MK11. Those include Ermac, Smoke, and Reptile, though only one technique is possible while using them. (Reptile fans were already rabid about how he’s not part of the initial or DLC rosters before, so you can imagine how they’re taking this.) That’s in addition to his ability to shapeshift into his opponent after stealing their soul, where he’ll temporarily look almost identical to them and definitely won’t make the match confusing from a short time. This means players will need to at least know a few moves from the opponent they’re fighting, which will make him one of the tougher characters to play — though not quite as tough as he was in previous games.

Shang Tsung will arrive on June 18th through Early Access, and will be unlocked for everyone else on June 25th. There’s no telling when the other characters will arrive at the moment, but they shouldn’t take too long.

In addition to Spawn, rumor has it the other two guest characters will be Ash from the Evil Dead series and the Terminator. Bruce Campbell denied being involved with the game when rumors first surfaced, but implied in a recent tweet that he might have been fibbing. Might. There’s no telling who the Terminator could be, but does anyone think of a Terminator other than the T-800 upon hearing the name? If that’s the case, it would be remarkable if they enlisted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s talent, though it’s not like WB doesn’t have the resources to make that happen. But it’s possible he won’t talk, or will use archived voices. If Campbell and Schwarzenegger are involved, this should answer why the Season Pass is $40. Regardless of the case, I’ll have to schedule another fighting game guest character post in the future.

Meanwhile, Arika is still releasing DLC for Fighting EX Layer, the spiritual successor to the Street Fighter EX games and Fighting Layer. What’s cool here is that unlike other fighters, all the DLC characters and stages have been free, guest character Terry Bogard notwithstanding. The next, and potentially last, character coming is Area, the nerdy roller-skating girl with a bionic arm (just tell me if you instinctively thought about this upon reading that) who debuted in Street Fighter EX 2 Plus. Videos Arika uploaded show how she’ll retain all the techniques from the last two SFEX titles, with many of the same combos to boot.

Area could be the last character released for Fighting EX Layer, and it’s a great gesture on Arika’s part to release all this content for free. Part of me is hoping the game did well enough for them to go ahead and add Fighting Layer characters, but the other part knows it likely isn’t popular enough for that. There isn’t much talk about the game within the fighting game community, and it’s only played in side events at tournaments if it’s played at all. It’s a pity it wasn’t more popular, and it’s possible being a nearly-full-priced digital-only release hurt it; but I’m glad Arika gave it a shot.

In another quick piece of news: XSeed confirmed that they will publish Cygames and Arc System Works’ Granblue Fantasy Versus in North America, which had a mostly-successful closed beta test last weekend. The game will be playable at their E3 2019 booth next week, with a possible hint that at least one new character could be announced.

As I said above: Most fighting game announcements happen at Evo these days, so expect little from E3 2019 next week. Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono and Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada are likely attending E3 for the fun of it. Keep your expectations low.