Evo 2016, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, just concluded and boy what a weekend it was. From epic matches, today being at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and Street Fighter V finals on ESPN2, it is a weekend I will never forget as a fighting game fan. However, it was once again a great time to see what's next for the genre. New announcements on existing and upcoming games happened during panels and the tournament itself the past couple of days.
First off is King of Fighters XIV, out next month only on Playstation 4. Atlus and SNK Playmore premiered a new trailer showcasing the story mode. The big announcement from the clip above however is a demo will be out this Tuesday on the Playstation Store. The demo will have seven characters playable, training, tutorials and more to get players warmed up for the launch in August.
That was not the only SNK game announcement they had this weekend at Evo 2016. During a SNK panel, Garou: Mark of the Wolves will be getting a PS4 port later this year. This port of one of the best fighting games of all-time will be handled by Code Mystics, who also worked on the recent ports of Last Blade 2.
Microsoft and Iron Galaxy finally revealed the last character of Killer Instinct's Season 3, which is the returning Eyedol. The seires' original boss will be out for Ultra Edition folks this Friday and a week later for Combo Breaker pack owners.
Arc System Works shed some light on what's next for Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator earlier today. A new patch came out today with balance changes for the current cast. Tomorrow, we finally get Dizzy and she's free only for this week. Arc also promised another patch for this fall with more modes and changes.
Only two weeks after it's release at Japanese and Korean arcades, Evo was the venue for the first big tournament for Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. Bandai Namco promised more characters are coming to the arcade and console versions as they announced two today. First is the returning Bob, but the second character is Master Raven, a female take on Raven with most of his movelist intact.
Evo Japan was also reannounced but more details will be at the Tokyo Games Show in September. After SBO shutting down a couple years back and arcades on the decline there, it's nice to see a prestigious tournament back at the land of the rising sun.
Last but not least is Street Fighter V, which had a primetime slot on ESPN2. Capcom released more summer costumes for some characters, but the one announcement fans have been mixed about is the Capcom Pro Tour Pack. This bundle consists of a new boxing ring stage, three exclusive costumes, two exclusive titles and new colors. The catch is that it's $24.99 and some of the proceeds will go to the Capcom Cup prize pool later this year. That is a bit too much for what they're offering personally and it's only gonna be available for a limited time.
More throwback costumes and stages are in the works as well in future updates. They're also promising that Juri will be out for reals at the end of this month.
That is it from Evo 2016 in terms of new fighting game announcements. There was plenty of exciting moments from the weekend, but plenty more are in store in the months to come. Which of the announcements has you excited the most? Let us know in the comments below.
