Fighting Games Friday: The King of Street Kombat

July Fighting Games Friday posts in previous years haven’t been busy with news, with developers saving their biggest reveals for Evo, the biggest fighting game tournament of them all. This has led to me preparing special fighting game-related posts for the month, if I bothered with them at all. But it was a couple of weeks ago when I realized this summer season would be different, with developers dropping plenty of news to write about during the week. This pace thankfully hasn’t let up. Good, because I didn’t plan many special posts for this year.

Rashid was revealed as the first downloadable content character for Street Fighter 6 several months ago, and it’s been a couple of weeks since the character was revealed in playable form. The lengthy Character Guide has now been provided ahead of the July 24th arrival, showing how similarly and differently he’ll play compared to his Street Fighter V self. I’d provide some analysis beyond the details Capcom previously gave if I was aware of how Rashid worked, but I couldn’t fully wrap my head around him in SFV. He looks as tough and annoying to fight here as he did in that game, so I’ll just say he appears to be true to form. His theme was also uploaded, a solid track despite sorely lacking the memetic “Rashidooooo.”

Rashid will be the first of four DLC characters, with new character A.K.I. and returning characters Ed and Akuma coming in autumn 2023, winter 2024, and spring 2024, respectively. Evo would be a good time to reveal A.K.I., I think.

SNK had been hinting at a Najd reveal for The King of Fighters XV for weeks, the character first introduced in The King of Fighters XIV by a Saudi Arabian contest winner, and literally named after the geographic center of Saudi Arabia itself. (It’s all a fun coincidence considering which country is heavily invested in SNK these days.) I’m sorry to say that I was even less familiar with Najd than Rashid above, but she sure looks similar to her iteration from the previous game, albeit more polished thanks to the current game’s presentation upgrade. Najd will arrive later this summer, and will be playable at Evo. She’ll be followed by two more DLC characters, who could be Hinako and Duo Lon if dataminers are correct.

Claudio Serafino has been revealed for Tekken 8, notably the first member of Tekken 7‘s starting roster confirmed for this game. He doesn’t look much different in terms of his appearance and techniques, outside of the slight hairstyle adjustment for the former. This is also yet another trailer showcasing Lenne Hardt’s incredible name pronunciations.

Claudio is among the 16 characters playable in the Closed Network Test being held throughout the weekend, first on PlayStation 5. The multiplatform test on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam will start next weekend. Yours truly is not participating, if you were wondering. Not only is this one of those tests where codes were difficult to get, but I lack the platforms to play it on. Maybe I’ll play it in 2024, a point when the netplay will hopefully be improved over its current reported state.

The Mortal Kombat 1 panel at this year’s lower-key San Diego Comic-Con (amidst several companies having no desire to show and the SAG-AFTRA strike) revealed several returning characters with new looks. Li Mei has been highly requested as a playable character for several years, one of the 3D MK-era characters who’s received new appreciation from fans despite the titles themselves being harshly criticized upon their releases in the early-to-mid 2000s. After only appearing through a cameo in Mortal Kombat (2011) and an NPC in Mortal Kombat X, she finally returns as a playable character here. Tanya also applies to a lesser extent, previously a DLC character in MKX, but is taking a more active role in the story here. Baraka should need no introduction, having been part of the franchise since Mortal Kombat 2.

Speaking of downloadable content: Those who will be part of Kombat Pack 1 were revealed as Homelander (from The Boys), Omni-Man (from Invincible), Peacemaker (from the titular series and The Suicide Squad), Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda. In other words: The Amazon Italy leak from May was unsurprisingly correct.

Mortal Kombat 1 is planned for release on September 19th, after having only been revealed in May. The reveals are coming as quickly as expected, so more should be shown soon — perhaps at Evo. There’s never a guarantee with NetherRealm Studios and Evo.

This streak of pre-Evo news has been so good that publishers might as well keep this thing going in the lead-up to the event, being held from August 4th to the 6th. The focus in Evo will remain on the tournaments, including the first big showcase for SF6, but publishers won’t be able to restrain themselves from sharing information about the downloadable content and new games they’ve been working on. I’ll be a tad upset if SNK doesn’t reveal Fatal Fury/Garou: Mark of the Wolves 2, for instance. I know better than to expect more to drop before the main event in two weeks, so it might be up to a certain someone to plan something a bit more special for next week’s post just in case. That is, if I haven’t planned it already. We’ll see what happens.