There Were Good Announcements at Evo 2022

The Evolution Championship Tournament, known to so many people as “Evo” that you probably have to look up the full name if you don’t see it fully spelled out like this, delivered great matches over the weekend. It was fitting opportunity to showcase titles like Street Fighter V and Skullgirls for what will likely be their final main Evo tournaments (outside Evo Japan), the former because of the impending sequel and the latter due to how tough it is for smaller games to join their larger brethren unless a company involved (specifically Nintendo with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) is stingy with their game. The whole thing delivered, and anyone who missed it can catch the many video archives.

But it’s also one of the best opportunities for fighting game announcements, fitting enough for the first in-person Evo since 2019. There weren’t quite as many announcements compared to previous Evo events, but there were enough.

Capcom revealed two characters for Street Fighter 6, in what would have been a nice surprise had they not been leaked through Capcom Germany’s Twitter account beforehand. Spare a thought for their poor social media manager for mixing up the time zones. (In fairness, the entire starting roster has been known since concept art for all of them leaked shortly after the game was revealed.) Kimberly is the second brand-new character shown after Jamie, a practitioner of Bushinryu whose appearance is remarkable thanks to being a rarity: A black woman in a fighting game. There have been more of them in recent memory, Menat from SFV being among them, but fighting game developers have a lot to make up for.

Juri was also revealed, who, again, was part of the initial list, and was leaked by Capcom Germany. This game takes place after Street Fighter III, yet she looks as young as she ever did — maybe even younger. Someone’s got some good genes. From the trailer, her moves further resemble her Street Fighter IV iteration compared to the SFV version, the latter of which was criticized until a Juri player was among the top 8 this year. There’s still no release timeframe for SF6 clearer than “2023,” but it should be available before this time next year if this was truly the last bout for SFV at Evo.

The big Guilty Gear Strive reveal was for returning character Bridget, missing in action in the franchise since the Guilty Gear XX games. Bridget still uses the trademark dangerous yoyo as a weapon in battle for many damaging attacks and combos in battle, and only minor changes were made to the wardrobe to ensure that the character was still recognizable. This is all I’ll say here, as anything more would be drifting into spoiler territory. Bridget is now available as part of Strive’s second Season Pass.

SNK also came to Evo with good reveals for The King of Fighters XV. The Awakened Orochi team consisting of, well, the Orochi versions of Yashiro, Shermie, and Chris, are now available. The fourth and final team from the first season will be the Samurai Shodown team, consisting of Haohmaru, Nakoruru (returning from The King of Fighters XIV), and new Samurai Shodown (2019) character Darli Dagger. Would you be surprised if I told you that team also leaked beforehand? It’s also not a surprise that a second season is coming. It IS a nice surprise that Shingo Yabuki will be part of the season, alongside — sorry — the surprisingly initially MIA Kim Kaphwan. They’ll presumably come alongside teams, but the fanbase will have plenty of time to guess who those could be considering they aren’t coming until 2023.

Meanwhile, in a great announcement: The next Garou/Fatal Fury game has been green lit. This means SNK director and producer Yasuyuki Oda wasn’t trolling when he teased this a few weeks ago, so I’m glad I was on the right track with that post. The teaser was all they provided, which showed Rock Howard and the shadows of Kain R. Heinlin and almost unmistakably Billy Kane on the left. This being all means it will be until at least 2024 before it releases, but it’s refreshing to know that it’s coming.

It’s also good that SNK hasn’t forgotten about Samurai Shodown (2019), after confirming that the game is receiving rollback netplay after all.

In fact, this was the Evo for developers letting players know that they heard their cries about rollback. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax received it for PS4 and Steam through a patch during Evo’s start, while it’s also coming to the new-gen and PC versions of Dragon Ball FighterZ (it likely would have been too demanding for last-gen consoles). That is, unless you’re a fan of Granblue Fantasy: Versus, for which fans let Cygames know their disappointment. Remember to let Bandai Namco know of that for Tekken 7 too.

The next battle for Tekken was teased, for what will likely be Tekken 8 and probably not Tekken x Street Fighter. The CG model of Kazuya Mishima suggests the game will be a looker. It will be a while before it releases, unless the game is more complete than the teaser suggests. Perhaps we should look forward to another great Tekken 7 showing at Evo 2023.

Marie, who’s been part of Skullgirls as the main villain since the game launched over a decade ago, will finally be made playable. She’ll be the fourth and final character released as part of the newest (and final?) Season Pass. She’s already in the game, but adjustments will have to be made to her to ensure that a boss character won’t be (mostly) broken in the hands of players. She’s following in the footsteps of Annie, Umbrella, and Black Dahlia, all of whom are now available.

Again, this wasn’t the most news-heavy Evo in recent memory, but that’s fine for a convention just revving up again after not happening in person since 2019. But it was actually the perfect amount of news, as announcements like those for Skullgirls and KOFXV would have been overshadowed if there were more. The developers will have plenty opportunities to show and reveal further info in the near future.