Fighting Games (& DLC) To Look Forward To in 2024

2023 began a brand new era in the Fighting Game genre and for the Fighting Game Community as a whole.

Last year, we saw several releases with blockbuster titles such as Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1, as well as other games such as Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Pocket Bravery, Virtua Fighter 3tb Online, Nickelodeon All-Star Battle Royale 2, and Breakers Collection. As for DLC, we’ve witnessed Season 3 of Guilty Gear -STRIVE- with Johnny and Elphelt returning to the cast, Season 2 of The King of Fighters XV, and a surprising amount of DLC from both SF6 and MK1 in which we’ll get to in a moment.

As for the FGC, we’ve witnessed a lot of shocking moments such as Leffen winning Guilty Gear -STRIVE- at EVO 2023, SonicFox becoming a free agent as well as taking on Waka Flocka Flame in a game of Mortal Kombat 1 (and even beating him while blindfolded), Leffen winning a tournament that is not Smash Bros, and Capcom announcing the Capcom Cup X where the there’s a $2 Million prize pool with 1st place taking $1 Million overall.

Now that 2023 has come and gone, 2024 will continue on with the new era of fighting games! Here’s what to expect this year for fighting games…

Tekken 8

Tekken 8 is almost here and there’s not much to be said about it with the information that came out last year. But if you missed out or needed a reminder, here it is again:

Tekken 8’s gameplay introduces the Heat system in which the character gains more additional movesets and causes chip damage to your opponents, as well as certain moves now have different properties such as a heavy guard break for example. You can go into Heat mode by either Heat Burst, or a character-specific Heat Engager. While in Heat mode, you can use Heat Dash to dash into your opponent and begin your combo or continue your offensive move, or end it with a Heat Smash for your ultimate attack. Using Heat Smash will completely deplete the rest of your Heat Gauge, so it’s recommended to use it as a combo ender. Keep in mind that you have limited time while in Heat Mode, so make it count! 

Rage Mode and Rage Arts make a return to Tekken 8, but now they’re more cinematic as ever! In addition to that, stage destruction is now more similar to the Dead or Alive series, but now we know that Yohei Shimbori, who worked on the DOA series from DOA Ultimate to DOA6, is credited as one of the producers for the game.

Aside from Story Mode, Tekken 8 also has several modes such as Arcade Quest mode, a story mode involving players aiming to be the #1 player in the Tekken World Tour series, Ghost Battle mode in which players can fight other player’s AI, and the returning Tekken Ball mode from Tekken 3 and the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

We now have a full roster of 32 characters full of returning fan favorites such as Kazuya, Jin, Paul, Nina, Yoshimitsu, Asuka, Lili, and Bryan, as well as the epic return of Jun Kazama, who hasn’t been in a mainline Tekken game since Tekken 2. In addition, we have three brand new characters who are making their debut: Azucena: an MMA fighter who is also the daughter of an coffee owner from Peru, Victor Chevalier: a legendary war veteran who is the founder of the Raven Unit, and Reina: a Japanese teenager who has mysterious ties to the Mishima clan that uses a combination of Mishima-Style Karate and Taido. In addition, we have four characters confirmed for Season 1 DLC.

Tekken 8 releases this month on January 26, 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Steam. Also, this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Tekken series!

Will it Be At EVO?: Tekken 8 is already confirmed for EVO Japan 2024, so yeah it’s going to be part of EVO 2024 as well.

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]

Back in 2012, the Under Night series made an impressive debut in the FGC with Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (or UNIEL for short), and it was followed by several updates with Exe:Late[st] (UNIST) and Exe:Late[cl-r] (UNICLR). And now, here we are in 2023 with the upcoming release of Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes], or UNI2 for short.

UNI2 is a sequel that introduces several new mechanics such as the Celestial state, in which it fills the GRD gauge on the player’s end once you win the Vorpal cycle with six or more blocks of GRD. Another new mechanic, Creeping Edge, allows you to dodge roll past an attack at the risk of losing GRD.

The game’s story serves as the conclusion to the events of the previous game known as the “Hollow Knight” storyline. As a light-novel styled fighting game, Players take the role of Hyde as he encounters an mysterious girl named Lynne as both of them take on the most evil EXS user of them all, Paradox. All 21 characters from the previous games, including guest characters such as Melty Blood’s Eltnum and Akatsuki Blitzkampf’s Akatsuki, return to the base roster, with three more characters making their debut: Tsurugi, Kaguya, and Kuon. In addition to that, there will be three DLC characters that are currently part of the first Season Pass.

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] will be released on January 25, 2024 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

Will it Be At EVO?: Just like Tekken 8, UNI2 is one of the games confirmed for EVO Japan 2024. I feel like Under Night has never got a chance to be part of the main lineup for EVO in the USA, but it should have a strong chance this year. 

Project L

For years, we’ve heard of Riot Games going into the FGC with their own League of Legends fighting game, which was revealed a while ago. 

Project L is a 2v2 fighting game based on the popular competitive MOBA, League of Legends, with well-known FGC players such as Cl0ckwork and MarlinPie, as well as the EVO founders, the Cannon Bros., working on the game. This game contains several gameplay elements mostly seen in anime fighters, but simplified for non-fighting game players and fans of the LoL series as a way to help them get into it. Universal moves such as Wavedashing, Anti-Airs, Launchers, and many more make up for the core gameplay elements, but the Tag Team mechanics is the star of the show. You can use a Tag Launcher to safely tag in and launch your opponent, and use Assist Action to use a partner’s special move. Charged Assists are also used as well. For dire moments in battle, Last Stand can be used while you’re KO’d and your point character is under 50% health, which can become a make or break situation, and the Dynamic Save is used when your partner is already KO'd, but they can still make the save.

Since this game is 2v2, this game contains four player support called Duo Play which creates a tag-team environment similar to Tekken Tag Tournament’s Pair Play mode and also Street Fighter x Tekken. In addition to 2v2, it also supports 1v1 and 2v1 matches as well.

As of now, four characters are confirmed to appear as part of the base roster, such as Ahri, Darius, Ekko, and Yasuo. 

Project L is still currently under development, however if you’re going to EVO Japan 2024 this year, there will be a playable build of the game if you want to try it out.

Will it Be At EVO?: Not sure where they are in development, but at best we can see some exhibitions. It was featured at EVO 2023 last year and there was an exhibition dedicated to it.

Other Games

During EVO 2022, SNK announced that a new Garou/Fatal Fury is currently under development. One year later at EVO 2023, we had a teaser trailer for the upcoming game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, which is the 7th installment of the Fatal Fury/Garou series and also the first Fatal Fury Game in over 25 years! As of now, the confirmed characters for the game are Rock Howard and Terry Bogard, however on the trailer, you could hear the voices of Kain, B. Jenet, Kevin Rian, Marco Rodrigues (aka Kushwood Butt), Hotaru Futaba, Gato, Tizoc in the teaser trailer. In addition to that, longtime Fatal Fury characters such as Joe Higashi, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, and Billy Kane were also heard as well. Not much is known about the game at the moment, but Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is currently under development.

Back in 2022, Multiversus was released as a Early Access fighting game in which characters from Looney Tunes, Cartoon Network, DC Comics, WB, and HBO pit against each other in a Smash Bros-styled platform fighter. After winning Best Fighting Game at The Game Awards, the early access release was shut down on June 25, 2023 and now the full version with all the characters will be released later this year.

Rivals 2 is the sequel to the 2017 platform fighter, Rivals of Aether. The game went from having 2D sprites to now 3D models, but retained the same core gameplay while adding new features such as shields, throws, and ledge grabs. In addition to that, there are three new special moves: The Pummel Special, Ledge Special, and the Getup Special. Rivals 2 is slated for a 2024 release later this year.

In most recent events, Yatagarasu is making a comeback this year with a brand new game called Yatagarasu: Enter The Eastward. Along with a returning cast, the game features three brand new characters: Ugui, an elderly butler who serves the last descendant of the now-disposed Suitoku royal family, Ao Tienyi, who is the last last living descendant of the Suitoku royal family, and Sistan, an automated doll originally designed to bring people joy, now reprogrammed to become a secret operative. The game retains the core gameplay found in the previous game and also new changes are coming with the gameplay and cast. In-Game Commentary returns and there will be a new online netcode made from scratch. Yatagarasu: Enter The Eastward is currently under production.

DLC Releases

Street Fighter 6 is currently on Season 1 right now with the recent releases of Rashid and A.K.I., as well as having multiple DLC cosmetics such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collab, a new costume pack, and many other cosmetics for your avatar character. In terms of characters, Akuma (Gouki) and Ed are the only two characters left who have yet to have a reveal trailer. And of course, you know SF6 will have a second season.

Mortal Kombat 1 is also currently under their first season DLC as well with the release of Onmi-Man from Invincible and Quan Chi, along with three seasonal fatalities that are pricey and new campaigns for the Invasions mode. After the release of Quan Chi, the next character in line to have a reveal trailer is Peacemaker from DC’s Suicide Squad, reprised by John Cena. Ermac, Takeda, and The Boys’ Homelander are yet to have their reveals, but they will be coming later this year for Kombat Pack 1.

Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is now currently on their 3rd Season Pass beginning in late 2023 with the release of returning characters, Johnny and Elpelt. In addition to that, there are two more characters and two more stages that are yet to be revealed, which we will see later down the road.

2024 continues the brand new era for fighting games and the FGC as a whole with these releases, along with celebrating the anniversaries of several franchises such as Tekken, Killer Instinct, and The King of Fighters celebrating their 30th Anniversary this year. Which fighting game are you looking forward to playing this year? What DLC and updates are you excited for?

Until Then… Train Up, Fighters!

LOOK WHO CAME:

Virtua Kazama