Fighting Games Friday: Fighter Shodown on the Grid

It was understandable to think that Capcom was sunsetting support for Street Fighter V with the release of Champion Edition, given the excellent value it offered. The package included the base game and most of the content released over the last four years, including characters, a dizzying number of outfits, and plenty of stages. It didn’t include everything, like the Capcom Pro Tour content and the Extra Battle outfits, but $40 was a good deal when each Season Pass started at $30. It very much felt like the kind of comparatively inexpensive collection release publishers provide when they don’t plan to release anything further.

That’s why the announcement of another SFV season came as a surprise this week. Capcom confirmed that the cheekily-named “Season V” is coming, the final season, which will include five more characters and three new stages. There’s reason to believe that this wasn’t the original plan given the logic surrounding CE and prior subtle hints at a new Street Fighter game, but the COVID-19 pandemic has altered plenty of schedules. There’s a good chance Capcom also wants to give SFV a proper sendoff by holding normal in-person tournaments instead of during the Capcom Pro Tour Online 2020 tournament happening right now, but 2021 is likely the earliest that can happen safely.

They’re also holding an outfit contest where fans can submit designs for new character outfits. Two winners will have their outfits made for characters in the game, and released as part of the next season.

Capcom didn’t reveal any characters here, but will start doing so sometime this summer. They could be part of Evo Online, but nothing is stopping them from revealing news on their own time with all announcement events are being done digitally these days — including a CPT Online event. Predictions as to who the characters could be are well underway, but it might be best to start those guesses with those who already have models or moves in the game, like Decapre (the final Ultra Street Fighter IV character) and Abel.

It’s been over a year since SNK announced the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection for current-generation consoles, notably before the new Samurai Shodown released. They’ve only provided sporadic updates in the year since, including a playable appearance at Evo Japan 2020, but they didn’t forget about releasing it. The collection will arrive on June 11th for the Epic Games Store, and on June 18th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One (left out the original announcement and still not on the official website, for some reason), Switch, and Steam. Even better: It will be free to own on the EGS for the first week, a good incentive to make an account if you haven’t already.

The Collection will include Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown III, Samurai Shodown IV, Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Special, and the never-before-released Samurai Shodown V Perfect. The Perfect version preserves the well-balanced gameplay of Special, but adds a brand-new story and ending. If that isn’t enough to justify the lengthy wait, the English versions of every game will have rollback netcode for online play. Including a rare game and likely-great online will be enough to make this one of the best fighting game collections ever released.

Speaking of the new Samurai Shodown: The PC version will finally arrive as a temporary EGS-exclusive title on June 11th. No, this one won’t be free, but a ten-percent discount will be offered for preorders, and the Season Passes will launch at $19.99 — $5 less compared to other platforms. That’s… something, at least.

The underappreciated Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid will receive a third season, which will fittingly include three characters. Among them will be Robert “RJ” James, the Violet Wolf Ranger from Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, and Lauren Shiba from Power Rangers Samurai, who became the first mainline female Red Ranger in the franchise’s two-decade history. The third character was only shown in a mysterious silhouette with a shape that doesn’t resemble any Ranger. Most fans are guessing Scorpina from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, but there’s speculation that it could also be Trakeena from Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. Scorpina is considerably more popular, so she’s the more likely character to join despite MMPR being more than accounted for among the current roster.

I said “underappreciated” because Battle for the Grid doesn’t get the attention it deserves, a fighting game with great rollback netplay and a good roster of characters. It has, in a hell of an achievement, become the first fighting game to have cross-play across all platforms. It’s further proof that first impressions mean a bit too much in the gaming world, thanks to this game launching with a small roster for a three-on-three title and balancing issues. Both of these were forgivable given how small the developer is, and the continued content they’re providing suggests it’s done well for them. Still, it could have used grander attention on the larger digital stage, like Evo Online.

This week was busy for fighting game news, but there’s no way to tell whether this pace will be maintained. All events are digital now thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, so announcements are made when publishers feel like it. The future unpredictability could make these posts more fun — we’ll find out.