2XKO Saved the Gaming Industry

I think 2XKO saved the gaming industry. And I'm dead serious. I think 2XKO saved the game industry. I know that this is a bold take. I know that many people would disagree that 2XKO did not save the game industry, but it's okay because I'm gonna highlight and explain how 2XKO saved the game industry and became a successful game from a content perspective. Let's jump right in.

I am back with a back-to-back 2XKO post, because the first thing that a lot of people are going to say is that 2XKO did not save the game industry, but Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will. In a way, yes, Marvel Tokon's announcement during State of Play definetely brought the Marvel fighting game foundation back into the limelight. But not as a free-to-play title, but as a successor to the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise to become the new heart of the FGC set to release in 2026. They did host a tournament during the game's Closed Beta, and that's the point of this.

See, we don't consider one-time purchases as a form of microtransactions being predatory. But there is one thing that is a form of microtransactions, which is a gacha mechanic. Mario Kart Tour is an obvious example of being microtransactions-fueled. The game was criticized for having a gacha mechanic, Spotlight Pipes. It's like lootboxes, but uses pipes to give you a random item. Its $4.99 Gold Pass subscription is on there. Not so much of predatory microtransactions, but definetely not well thought out.

A young boy assisted by his father sued Nintendo for implementing the gacha mechanic. It became a controversial piece to undermine player enjoyment and pressured players to pay money for Rubies, so Nintendo has removed it and replaced it with a normal shop that contains new and old content, especially the ones players' missed out, and made Spotlight Pipes earnable for free, thus making monetization duller to attract existing and new players.

As long as microtransactions are fair and less predatory and the free currency is kept, players can be able to enjoy their games smoothly and not be often pressured to pay money for premium currency to unlock low-tier items. It is possible to remove elements that involve gacha elements, pay-to-win scenarios and exploitative ways that encourage monetization over player enjoyment and that became easy to do. The thing is, you have to develop a game that undermines monetization and encourages player enjoyment. How do you do that? By making a free-to-play game that caters enjoyment and doesn't get in the way of the players' experience. But one AAA company, like Ubisoft, believed that microtransactions make their paid games fun. But I argue that they don't, especially when they are predatory.

That's why devs need freedom so that they can introduce innovations and make their games reasonably priced with the least amount of greed as possible. They can do that by spinning off from a AAA company to become an indie developer. AAA gaming became unfavorable because of microtransactions, live service elements and overpriced games. The three monetization practices became a continuous point of contention among the AAA game industry, especially to Nintendo, who seems to be facing a worldwide boycott over the Switch 2 and its accessories being overpriced because of tariffs. For the record, they SHOULD NOT be used as an excuse for Nintendo or any other big company to raise prices because of the fact that it banked on greed. To use tariffs as an excuse to raise prices makes no sense.

That's exactly why players are favoring indie devs because their games are reasonably priced and they are generally immune to tariffs, have innovations and they have the freedom to develop their games however they want and they don't face mass layoffs to be downsized to being a support team. These developers among the indie game industry have no shackles from AAA publishers. If you're quietly supporting AAA, then you're starting at a disadvantage and that money can go to waste. Each AAA company has revenues and they want to push the boundaries on monetization and greed so that they can make money, not appeasing players. That's why the indie and AA game industries hold no place for greed. This resulted in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being a reasonably priced critically acclaimed turn-based RPG that sold over 5 million units in five months since release, as well as bunch of other indie titles that show that AAA gaming is becoming greedy.

It's important to fight both the poor side of the player base that say free content and reasonable prices are the best things ever and nothing can ever put a pay wall behind them or raise prices to put the boundaries on greed to the rich side of the player base that would be delighted to pay money. Grabbing the interests of both sides of the player base is an extremely difficult practice. And sadly, there is a company that took a crack of developing their free-to-play fighting game, but landed in a very awkward spot that makes it worse than a gacha mechanic.

After the release of Smash Ultimate, Warner Bros. developed their free-to-play platform fighter with characters from their IPs, MultiVersus. Things have gone well with Open Beta. Throughout the phase, it was generally met with acclaim, with critics praising the combat, team-oriented gameplay, presentation and faithfulness to the represented franchises and the player base became decent that it won Best Fighting Game at the Game Awards 2022 despite that one form of off-putting microtransactions, pressuring players to pay money for Gleamium to gain extra lives in a game mode. Not to buy epic skins. And the game was showcased at EVO 2022 to have a side tournament outside of the main lineup and became esports worthy.

However, as soon as the game has entered full release after hibernation, things have took a turn for the worse and have gone to crap. The player base did not come close to the renowned Open Beta did. Warner Bros. struggled to maintain a renowned player base from the Open Beta and wasn't esports worthy like it was in Open Beta. Back in November, the game underperformed significantly, suffering a $100 million loss. That led to the decision to sunset the game and all of its entirety of support after a year since launch. How the game failed miserably is one possible explanation. And it's not shifting to Unreal Engine 5, releasing characters we didn't wish for like the Banana Guard or renaming Beetlejuice "Betelgeuse". No, the real source of MultiVersus' faiure and alienating a LOT of players is microtransactions.

When it comes to grinding, when MultiVersus relaunched, microtransactions were implemented when they removed Gold, the game's free currency that is used to unlock characters, palettes and perks, to pressure players to pay money for Gleamium to unlock characters, palettes, lives and uncommon and rare time-limited skins like a Friday the 13th mask, a shark head, possession with dark energy from Trigon, summer outfits, being imbued with the cosmic energy and more. The Fighter and Perk currencies, none of them can unlock palettes or uncommon and rare time-limited skins or earnable through grinding daily and weekly missions or finishing matches. This is defined as microtransactions that became a bottleneck on grinding. I call it grinding bottleneck microtransactions.

When Season 4 of MultiVersus came out, the Fighter currency was removed in favor of Fighter Road to involve grinding enough XP to unlock characters. However, Fighter Road XP is not earnable through grinding daily and weekly missions. This however created even more bottleneck-worthy microtransactions. This practice exposed why Warner Bros. had to sunset the game after five Seasons and how it became a commercial failure. During the game's full release, Player First Games has completely dropped the ball by taking microtransactions too far. That ball is the game's success in Open Beta.

I find it ironic that Mightykeef, a black comedian, would make an emotional skit to cover that, with Nintendo reacting to MultiVersus shutting down and to be honest, I expected that to drop because of the Harry Potter part and the "I'm gonna need you to never do that **** again, my boy" line. Boy howdy, that one just... came out of left field just like what I saw in the Simpsons. But Harry Potter is not in the game and he never will be along with other characters I wished for like Godzilla, Daffy Duck, Furiosa and even Barbie, because since Warner Bros. is shifting their business to bringing their collaborations to Fortnite, generally meaning that the characters from their IPs are gonna be used as skins, including new Scooby-Doo! skins that came to Fortnitemares this year, and Player First Games is shut down, MultiVersus will never again see the light of day and these characters I wished for will be used as skins in Fortnite and other games.

What is also funny to me is that when MultiVersus comes out, Nintendo became so jealous that Warner Bros. is trying to claim everything that they built just by beating 89 characters that Smash Ultimate has to become the lead company of a platform fighter, especially when it's multi-platform and has rollback netcode Smash Ultimate didn't have. However, following the announcement to shut down their game after Season 5 being the final Season because of microtransactions, it has stopped at 35 characters and that's the same number of characters Brawl has. MultiVersus' roster couldn't beat Smash Ultimate's roster. It fell short by 54 characters. It's not even close to the number of characters Smash Ultimate has. As it turned out, it wasn't just MultiVersus that became a failed Smash clone, but also other Smash clones as well and none of them came even close to the performance of the Smash franchise.

Even with microtransactions during full release, the game was not universally hated. Nevercake has posted an ad for the game. The decision to end all further support on the game was met with widespread disappointment and sadness, especially when they purchased the the third tier of the Founder's Pack that offers a number of character tickets that is overkill. In fact, for a lot of people, that was their favorite game and they made a petition to convince Warner Bros. to continue support on the game, but bring Gold back and phase out the Perk and Fighter currencies. You can't put the game into the Beta phase and remove the game's free currency at launch to encourage microtransactions to alienate a lot of players.

I like to point out that removing the game's free currency and pressuring players to pay real money for premium currency to unlock things that none of the currencies that were introduced at launch can unlock like palettes and uncommon and rare time-limited skins is a form of microtransactions and putting the aggression on monetization. That has ruined what could've been a phenomenal crossover platform fighter like it was in Open Beta, especially when it's being multi-platform outside the Nintendo line of consoles and having rollback netcode. Gold being the free currency is what made MultiVersus so phenomenal in the Beta.

When it comes to making a free-to-play fighting game, how do you develop a free-to-play fighting game that caters the best experience while also not alienating players? Well, let's take 2XKO as an example on how it became a success and how the devs of this game learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure.

2XKO is essentially a free-to-play League of Legends fighting game. Tag-oriented, duo play and SEGA vs. Capcom-style gameplay. In fact, it is arguably one of the games that I felt comfortable playing anytime soon on both PC and console and it's easy to recommend it to Deen and Noid for their Father and Son Beatdown now that the game is open for everyone to download. Well, during Early Access. The game is technically available for everyone, but they are looking at Seasons, ranked, content and competitive scenes and they're focusing on the work that takes to shift from the Alpha Lab playtests to a full-featured game on console before fully launching it.

It's so much fun to play that kids would stay home from school to play this game and the matches are fun to spectate, whether it's intro dialogues between certain characters in a team, experiencing people disrespecting those who use pulse combos, a planned cadence of releasing five new Champs per year, finisher cosmetics, Teemo and Warwick being in the mix, Ultimate finishes, making quips about characters, Jinx's theme fitting well with the action, listening to Yasuo's theme, creating the synergy from Vi teaming up with her childhood sister Jinx after making her debut, courtesy of Arcane and whatever the heck Ahri said about Darius during the intro dialogue between them.

Not only the game's development has turned out well, but also hit a problem back in 2020 when they tested out early tag gameplay that they had to go back to the drawing board and update the game's art design, making characters veer from their MOBA counterparts to blend in well in a fighting game environment and produce fast-paced gameplay. Here's one thing that you didn't know. Did you know that Darius has no wrapping around his arms, Ahri's legs are thin, wears a purple rope around her waist and a necklace, and Ekko has dreads in their updated art style? I think the reasoning for the art style update is because the original art style based on League of Legends first seen in 2019 when 2XKO was Project L became slow-paced in a fighting game. That explains why Katarina had to be cut from the game undergoing design updates to make her blend well in a fighting game environment. But she's gonna make her debut in Season 1.

They have been working on the game for six years since 2019. Their first demo at EVO turned out to be a hit with feedback from players kicking in back in 2023. It pretty much went well with Alpha Lab 1, the first invite-only at home playtest. Then Alpha Lab 2 came along to have drastic gameplay changes based on player feedback. While a smaller playtest, feedback was given to the team. Playtesting was then taken to the next level with Closed Beta being the final invite-only play window before the game is fully released with a focus on leaving the servers online for the foreseeable future in a way to warm things up. Invites were automatically sent to those who played in any of their Alpha Lab playtests.

After Closed Beta, the game is publicly available in Early Access on PC. It marks the game being available for everyone to download, breaking the invite-only barrier. Now, this is where you might say, "Come on, you already got an invite to Closed Beta. Why did you care about Early Access in the first place?". Well, to answer your question, Closed Beta was considered just a warmup. All of our progress we made during Closed Beta had to be reset in Early Access. It breaks the invite-only barrier so that the game would be available for everyone with things that are introduced to be looked at. 

Also, after the announcement of Early Access, gameplay trailers and moveset showcase videos are also released. They are for the first four characters who never received one in the first place. The official character art are also being released for every character in light of the game being available for free to the public with seasonal content.

But how Riot learned from MultiVersus' untapped potential, you ask? Well, they laser-focused in on what made the invite-only betas so appealing. They taken that full potential and success from invite-only playtests and amplified and multiplied it in Early Access and beyond, not breaking it by implementing microtransactions. New ways to earn Credits were introduced to take that full potential from the invite-only betas and made it shine throughout the game's development so that players can be able to grind well without hitting a bottleneck.

What I said above stated that again, Riot has laser-focused in on what made the invite-only playtests so appealing to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure. And instead of fragmenting and borderline taking microtransactions too far to put bottlenecks on grinding, they polished and multiplied what made 2XKO's trilogy of invite-only playtests so appealing in Early Access. New ways to earn Credits like combo trials would make it shine throughout the game's development cycle, so currency-wise, they honored the invite-only trilogy and improved the foundation with one butt to kick at Early Access and will continue that full potential when the game officially launches. However, Player First Games has alienated a lot of players when they implemented bottleneck-worthy microtransactions at launch by removing Gold and pressuring players to pay money for Gleamium to unlock characters, palettes, lives and uncommon and rare skins. But this is where the story comes in to fix that.

If you don't know what Credits is, I'll explain what it is. Credits is 2XKO's free currency that is used to unlock Champions, chromas, stages and avatar cosmetics and has all ways to earn them for free, like finishing matches in Casual and Ranked lobbies, completing the lessons in Tutorial and grinding daily and weekly missions and the Battle Pass. Riot has thought about microtransactions Player First Games has implemented to produce grinding bottlenecks and alienate a lot of players during the game's full release and went the extra mile to improve how Credits are earned by adding new ways to earn them like completing combo trials.

Credits being the game's free currency is what made the invite-only betas so appealing. Without it, we would be often pressured to pay real money for premium currency, KO Coins, to unlock characters, chromas, stages and avatar cosmetics, which is the prime definition of microtransactions. The player base will be alienated and they would sunset the game prematurely. That's how MultiVersus became a commercial failure and why Warner Bros. had to sunset it prematurely. It lives up to the idea of, "Hey, we learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure. We must leave our free currency alone and not implement microtransactions so that players can be able to purchase characters, stages and other items with them".

Plus, to give you a small insight on how new Champions become available to purchase with Credits, starting in Season 1 when the game is fully launched, new Champions become available to unlock with 10,000 Credits once the first three weeks of each new Season is up. Same with the stages; some new stages become available to unlock with 7,500 Credits from the get-go of a new Season while some that are in the premium track of the Battle Pass become available to unlock with 7,500 Credits when the Season is over.

This tells us that Riot has learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure by simply leaving the Credits alone and adding new ways to earn them so that when 2XKO is fully released, we can be able to unlock characters and stages with Credits, not through microtransactions, alleviating grinding bottlenecks. Grinding weekly and daily missions to earn Credits would speed up the process of unlocking every character and stage without ever being pressured to pay real money for KO Coins before a new Season launches, as well as new ways like a daily login bonus, which is not yet in the game.

Not only Riot has learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure, but they also embraced the trope that has been used a lot and the concept of the game's full potential so much that it became a core backbone of the FGC. They even went as far as supporting online and offline tournaments dedicated to 2XKO esports for the rest of 2025 through the First Impact program, planning a patch that resolves stability issues, bringing Arcane skins to characters that are featured in Netflix's hit show to honor it, making the game a good influence to Teamfight Tactics to have a 2XKO Coliseum and even confirming that Katarina will be the first post-launch Champion to be met with praise.

However, despite Early Access breaking the invite-only barrier to make the game available to download for free, 2XKO's Metacritic score remains a mystery because it is not yet officially released. But MultiVersus, on the other hand, did receive a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100, which is seemingly decent, but met with mixed reviews with those praising the combat and representation of Warner Bros.' IPs battling each other for supremacy and criticizing microtransactions, especially during full release.

With everything said and done, here's the main point I would like to make. Warner Bros. made their free-to-play fighting game that is a platform fighter with their IPs battling each other. It became a success and achieved its full potential in Open Beta. However, when the game is fully released, that full potential from the Open Beta was broken because Gold, MultiVersus' free currency used to unlock characters, palettes and perks, was removed to put the encouragement on microtransactions and they had to make a decision to shut down their game after Season 5 and shift their business to bringing their characters to Fortnite as skins. But Riot has learned from this enigma.

They created a free-to-play fighting game that continued its full potential from the invite-only play windows by still having a free currency during launch to keep microtransactions light and less predatory and make the grind easier. The game became phenomenal, especially in the competitive scene, meaning that now they won't be shifting their business to bringing their characters with the same art style to Fortnite as skins.

Development and content choices to create future free-to-play fighting games, meaning that if and when a platform fighter goes into production, they know how to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure and untapped potential even further and make another successful free-to-play fighting game. They can simply implement the free currency in the game from the get-go of the game's development to unlock characters, stages and palettes and leave it alone. They don't have to re-figure or retool the currency from the ground up. The game's free currency is already done and is what makes it so appealing, especially to unlock characters, palettes and even time-limited uncommon and rare cosmetics.

Not only that. Riot has went the extra mile to make 2XKO worthy of unleashing its full potential in the FGC and opened up to limitless creativity, meaning that if other companies behind their free-to-play games like Hi-Rez or any other company, including indie devs, plan to take a crack of developing a free-to-play live service fighting game, they'll be able to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure and not implement microtransactions that impede grinding to their game as they will make the game so repulsive and alienate a lot of players so that their game would succeed and devs wouldn't shift their business to bringing their characters to Fortnite as skins. They can use 2XKO as a leading example of a commercially successful free-to-play live service fighting game still having that free currency implemented from the get-go and being player base-alienating microtransactions-free.

Microtransactions have multiple forms of aggressive and predatory monetization mechanics on pressuring players to pay money for premium currency to unlock stuff, the removal of free currency, gacha mechanics, removal of free loot boxes, putting a pay wall on features, pay-to-win and pay-to-progress scenarios... And as long as the game has the following forms of off-putting microtransactions, the game's player base will be alienated until the devs remove them and the game will be sunset after launch. That was on that time before the midseason patch when NetEase has removed player base-alienating microtransactions from Marvel Rivals.

In conclusion, I think 2XKO has literally saved the gaming industry, by being a free-to-play live service fighting game that has the free currency and no off-putting microtransactions at launch. MultiVersus' commercial failure because of aggressive monetization practices putting the bottlenecks on grinding became a lesson learned by the other companies of the game industry and the first company that learned from it is Riot with the entry of 2XKO being a commercial success and having no grinding bottlenecks throughout the game's development cycle. But does that mean the game is perfect? No, it doesn't because the game doesn't have to be perfect, even when the game is fully released as long as game succeeds and that's what matters.

While all of this sounds great, there is a bit of a silver-lining to all this. If Player First Games left the Gold currency alone and added new ways to earn Gold like grinding daily and weekly missions instead of taking microtransactions too far, then MultiVersus wouldn't be sunset prematurely, because again, removing Gold to pressure players into paying real money for Gleamium to unlock characters, palettes and uncommon and rare skins is defined as a form of microtransactions and the source of the game's failure and alienating a lot of players. It's something that Riot didn't do when developing 2XKO.

Also, I would like to point out that starting in 2027, we should see each new Season launching two new Champions. The first Champ of the Season gets available to unlock with 1,000 KO Points, 1 Champion Token, by redeeming Battle Pass XP or purchasing the Ultra tier until the first five weeks of a Season is up and that first Champion of the Season becomes available to unlock with 10,000 Credits and the second Champion of the Season gets launched with the same algorithm; unlocked with 1,000 KO Points, redeeming Battle Pass XP during the Recruitment Event or purchasing the Ultra tier and with 10,000 Credits when the Season is over, thus following MultiVersus' footsteps and giving us ten new Champions in 2027 and beyond to expand the roster faster, but minus the microtransactions.

2XKO's Plan for Releasing FIVE Additional Champions Per Year

According to the game director of 2XKO, Shaun Rivera, we are gonna see several new Champions get released in a year. Following Teemo and Warwick's release in Season 0, each year will come with five Seasons starting in 2026 and beyond. Each Season will have a new Champion after announcing that Season 0 would introduce Teemo as the tenth Champion and even Warwick as the eleventh Champion. We're gonna see five new Champions per year. This is good news for us in the 2XKO community that we are seeing more Champions make their way into the game to expand the roster continuously. How is this groundbreaking? Let's jump right in for the answer.

I'm back with another 2XKO post that has some great news for us fighting game fans. So, if you played League of Legends or watched Arcane, chances are, there are numerous characters in League of Legends and Arcane just begging to be in 2XKO. Well, it seems this might be exactly what is coming on the docket. If you watched the Early Access announcement video, Shaun Rivera has announced that they are planning a cadence of releasing five new Champions per year, starting in early 2026 after unveiling Teemo as the tenth character in Season 0 during Early Access. However, Teemo wasn't the only Champ that came in Season 0, but Warwick as well, the eleventh Champ and definetely the desired fourth Arcane character.

This is generally in response to the criticism surrounding a 2v2 tag-oriented fighting game having a small roster when others use a larger roster, especially in the competitive scene. Now this is League of Legends we're talking about. The game has over 170 Champions and many of them are itching to be in the fighting game genre. Thankfully, many of them are having a chance to be adapted into 2XKO. But it turns out that 2XKO wasn't the only thing that has a small roster being a source of criticism, but Skullgirls as well, the tag and solo fighting game that started out with eight base characters when there are tag battles, but expanded the roster to the number of characters we have today.

Early Access saw Teemo and Warwick expanding the roster to 11 characters at launch. What this means is that 2026 will expand the roster to 16 characters while 2027 will expand the roster to 21 characters and so on and so forth. That's a little more than enough to address the criticism. There are a lot of them just begging for a chance to get an adaptation to 2XKO and they will always have a chance for an adaptation to the fighting game genre. And they adapted eleven characters from the MOBA setting into the fighting game so far and they're looking to adapt the 12th character from the MOBA setting to a fighting game setting. I need to explain on how they can be able to adapt characters from League of Legends to 2XKO.

Now, the first thing to do when it comes to adapting MOBA characters into fighting game characters is to start with DNA as always. The acronym consists of design, narrative and art teams. The three teams decide how Champs in the MOBA are going to play and look like in a fighting game. They have to look at what sides they haven't explored yet, what fighting game archetypes they can fit and what aesthetics or mechanics are missing from their current roster. Once DNA is decided, concept can go in and develop a costume that highlights their planned moveset in a fighting game. Once the concept they really like is found, it comes together very nicely and the character from the MOBA environment was adapted well into the fighting game environment.

This resulted in Teemo being well-adapted into 2XKO. While he can be able to shoot darts out of his blowdart in 2XKO, he received innovations in the fighting game genre like swinging his blowdart, putting in a patch of grass, being able to use his slingshot and having a badge install mechanic to grant him poison darts, poison mushrooms and fire imbued ammo from his slingshot. Warwick's innovations in 2XKO is also pronounced. He is well-adapted into 2XKO to receive innovations in the fighting game genre like having a character-specific resource called Bloodlust. It grants him cancel options and EX special moves when the Bloodlust gauge is full. I'll tell you why I wanted a fourth Arcane character like Warwick to be in 2XKO later on.

I know that you are trying to think that I am going think that Teemo is fun to play against in 2XKO, but I'm gonna have to complain that Teemo is so annoying to play against because he's a trap character and trap characters are annoying to deal with, like zoners like Jinx and grapplers like Blitzcrank, like he is in League of Legends. The Teemo trailer was praised by fighting game players, but it frustrated League players because Teemo doesn't have a slingshot nor a badge install mechanic in League of Legends. But if there's one thing to gleam on from this, Teemo is the Sonic of 2XKO with his rolling dash, also an innovative approach in 2XKO. Warwick is pretty much relatively decent. He became fun to play as and to play against. I praised the way he is having cancel options and EX special moves during his Bloodlust feature. The Warwick trailer is also praised about his moveset.

Now, I want to do something a little creative. 2XKO's gameplay nearly resembles SEGA vs. Capcom in terms of being a tag fighter. Instead of me telling you, let's take a look at the Champ select screen. Its placement comes in two sides, so I will be imagining the left side as the SEGA side and the right side as the Capcom side. Now, before I begin, this is simply my imagination, but at least hear me out.

Right off the hop, I will be taking the old Champ select screen from Alpha Lab 1. This has an even number of characters and they are the ones that are unlocked by default. Now, on to the imagining.

Now, Yasuo, Ekko and Braum are on the SEGA side while Illaoi, Darius and Ahri are on the Capcom side on the old Champ select screen.

Let's take a look at the updated Champ select screen first seen in Alpha Lab 2. Ahri, Braum, Ekko, Jinx and Yasuo are on the SEGA side while Blitzcrank, Darius, Illaoi and Vi are on the Capcom side.

Now here's the Champ select screen that remained pretty much the same in Early Access, but now has two new characters, Teemo and Warwick, on the Capcom side and the Champ select theme was polished in Early Access. Vi was on the Capcom side. And now, she's on the SEGA side with the others.

We now have Ahri, Braum, Ekko, Jinx, Vi and Yasuo on the SEGA side and Blitzcrank, Darius, Illaoi, Teemo and Warwick on the Capcom side for now. Remained uneven, but we'll highly likely get a 12th Champion in Season 1 to even out the roster and five more Champions after Warwick will fill out each row since 2026 is expanding the roster to 16. Once the 17th Champ drops, it can pull a Dragon Ball FighterZ and manipulate the portraits in the character select screen to pave the way for more Champs after the 16th Champ in 2027 and onwards.

Before we start listing and breaking down Champions, we must go back to the explanation for a second and look at the piece of information. "They have to look at what sides they haven't explored yet, what fighting game archetypes they can fit and what aesthetics or mechanics are missing from their current roster". Now, this is the only thing I need you to focus on. What this means that Champs in the current roster have mechanics or aesthetics in their abilities that aren't seen in League of Legends. There is one following thing that applies to this to get out of the way.

Teemo can put patches of grass and use his slingshot in 2XKO, but not in League of Legends, making this a 2XKO-exclusive mechanic. What this means is that Champs that were adapted into 2XKO will have innovations that are "fighting game genre-exclusive". Darius' Ultimate in League of Legends, Noxian Guillotine, received innovations in 2XKO with the same name. I call it a fighting game genre-exclusive innovation. Now, this is a firm term as it's basically coined to explain how characters from SEGA and Capcom's IPs other than fighting game IPs, were adapted into the fighting game environment.

First off, a character from the MOBA setting, in this case, would be Teemo, uses their slingshot in a fighting game setting, but not in a MOBA setting, so Teemo uses his slingshot in 2XKO, but he doesn't do that in League of Legends. Another example of defining fighting game genre-exclusive innovation is obvious. A character from the MOBA has a unique resource in a fighting game setting, but they don't have that in a MOBA setting. Perfect example would be Warwick, so Warwick has Bloodlust, a character-specific resource that grants him EX special moves and cancel options in 2XKO, but not in League of Legends. I'm not saying that certain characters won't be well-adapted into fighting games, but they will get well-adapted into the fighting game environment guaranteed.

Now, this may be an obvious statement, but in reality, especially when it comes to fighting games that don't have characters they wished for, it isn't really THAT obvious. When you go online, whether it's social media, message boards or literally anywhere, that's where you come in to get people saying, "Oh, Riot needs to put this Champion in 2XKO!" or, "Why Riot doesn't ever bring this Champion to 2XKO?!" and, "I need Riot to give us this Champion, right now!".

But Riot has deconfirmed none of the characters in League of Legends and Arcane to be in 2XKO. That's why I call it the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 effect, because many people thought that certain Champions will never be adapted into 2XKO, hence why people are like, "Why didn't Riot ever give us this Champ?!". But in reality, since the five Champs per year release cadence is being planned, starting in early 2026, many Champs will always have a guaranteed chance to be in 2XKO with fighting game genre-exclusive innovations to their kit.

So that means Rivera announced that numerous characters in League of Legends and Arcane will always get a guaranteed adaptation into 2XKO, including support characters and characters that wield projectiles. They can develop characters from the ground up and adapt MOBA characters into fighting characters instead of copying and pasting the characters from the MOBA because both games have their own development teams.

Now, Warwick is confirmed to be the fourth Arcane character to come to 2XKO for four reasons.

Firstly is Arcane's lore. Vander became Warwick and this one is canon enough to seal the deal that Warwick is the fourth Arcane character to come to 2XKO. However, while he became Warwick, Vander remained loyal to Vi and Jinx, which Arcane centers around. Oh and there's also a synergy about Vi and Jinx being great duos. If Warwick teams up with either one of his daughters, the synergy would be created and that is relatively canon.

Secondly, the each phase of development saw the introduction certain matches. Alpha Lab 1 introduced all-male matches, Alpha Lab 2 introduced Ionia vs. Zaun matches, Closed Beta introduced all-female matches and Early Access will introduce not just all-Zaun Champion matches, but all-Arcane character matches as well in a way to honor the hit animated series that is NOT family-friendly. But works well when playing on Bridge of Progress, Firelight Run and future stages that take place in Piltover and Zaun.

Thirdly is a padding that we had with Riot is that they like to release one Arcane character on each phase of development. Alpha Lab 1 introduced Ekko, Alpha Lab 2 introduced Jinx, Closed Beta introduced Vi, and Early Access will introduce Warwick. Once the game is fully launched, we can be able to expect the fifth Arcane character.

And fourthly, the Starter Pack contains Arcane skins for Ekko, Jinx and Vi, and Warwick has one as well, but through buying the Ultra tier. What this means is that future Arcane characters that make it to 2XKO will get an Arcane skin. I wanted to obtain them, but $100 for an Ultra bundle is just too much. No wonder people couldn't buy groceries well. But at least this is a one-time purchase and it's not considered as a form of microtransactions because microtransactions are multiple time purchases. However, I can obtain Warwick's by purchasing the Ultra tier.

Now still, I know I don't play League of Legends and watched Arcane, but there are many Champions in League of Legends and Arcane the developers have planned to release, but I look specifically at Champions in my wish list. But also, I wanted to focus on Champions that catered to being frequent and popular picks in League of Legends' competitive meta depending on the patch. See, I ignored Champs that have existing mechanics or Champs that doesn't fit my criteria.

As I said before, there are a lot of Champions that are itching to be in 2XKO, so I decided to list and break down Champions in my wish list that will be updated overtime. I have the ones that are popular examples of the so-called Marvel vs. Capcom 3 effect, ones that met the criteria of missing mechanics or aesthetics and ones that are featured in Arcane with an asterisk. I will be using League of Legends' Champion gallery to help highlight how would their abilities work and how they receive innnovations in 2XKO. It leaves less room for error. Now, on to breaking down Champions I want in 2XKO. I may have the majority of Champions being humans, but this all I got.

Katarina

Right off the hop, I'm gonna highlight one of the Noxian Champs who was cut during 2XKO's earlier stage of development when it was Project L. Katarina was sadly cut from the game in its earlier stage of development because they had to go back to the drawing board and update the game's art design to make characters veer from their MOBA counterparts and fit well in the fighting game environment. She is one of the characters I wanted as a launch character, but since Teemo and Warwick have taken the spot, she's highly likely to be the first post-launch Champion and the 12th Champion with an updated design to fit with other characters because if you look at 2XKO's Wikipedia page, it has been updated to have her name on the list of current characters with a [b] label for post-launch Champions.

This seals the deal that Katarina is guaranteed to be the 12th (first post-launch, fifth female and second Noxian) Champion in 2XKO. That's why she's on my wish list and she can be a decent Champion to play. And to be honest, this exposed a reason why Katarina needs to be in the game because Darius is the only Noxian Champion, but not for long. Maybe she can have intro dialogues with Darius, Ahri or Yasuo. And maybe we can see a Noxus vs. Ionia match because both regions waged war.

Miss Fortune

Our red-haired female pirate of Bilgewater wields her dual pistols that shoot tiny cannonballs. I believe that playstyle can work like that in 2XKO, meaning that if she makes it into the game, she may not be as mobile as Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue or Star-Lord in Marvel Tokon, but she can shoot down bullets to the ground vertically while in mid-air with ↓+S2 like these characters.

Looking at her stats and abilities, Miss Fortune is gonna be an easy-to-learn Champion. Make it Rain would be her S1 super while Bullet Time would be her S2 super. In fact, I would like to see another Bilgewater Champ in 2XKO.

Caitlyn Kiramman*

The member of the noble Kiramman family and Vi's best friend in Piltover is one of the characters that wields her rifle and is featured in Arcane. Her low normals would involve using her fists while her mid and high normals can involve swinging her rifle and she would have fighting game-exclusive innovations to her kit like Hextech grenades and mines in her arsenal to deem her playstyle similar to Erron Black from Mortal Kombat and/or Black Dahlia from Skullgirls. I genuinely would love to see Piltover's sheriff make her way into 2XKO in any way, shape or form and she can be a decent Champion to play.

Oh and she's likely to be the fifth character to have her Arcane skin since Ekko is the first, Jinx is the second, Vi is the third and Warwick is the fourth.

Jayce*

Now this is one of the characters that can be the most interesting out of the other Champs and is yet another Arcane character. Jayce is a hammer-wielding Champion. He can stun enemies with his hammer and I believe that his hammer attacks would be perfect for 2XKO. Sure, I know Jinx has a hammer, but Jayce would be a totally different story that he would use his hammer in most of his moveset. If Jayce comes to 2XKO, he'll come with an Arcane skin.

Xin Zhao

It comes to my attention that 2XKO never had a Demacia Champion and Xin Zhao is one of the Demacia Champions that can be decent. I would like to see our spear-wielding warrior of Demacia make his way and his spear attacks are adequate enough to be in 2XKO. There are several characters in fighting games that use a spear and Xin Zhao can take the playstyle from one of the spear-wielding characters in fighting games.

Akali

Another interesting Champion. Akali is the rogue assassin and she bears great mobility like any Assassin in League of Legends. She can throw shurikens and kunais and create a shroud of black mist. According to her kit, Akali would be great Champion to come to 2XKO. And there is one user I came across who also wanted Akali in the game by having a username titled "Akali One Trick". In a nutshell, Yasuo is the samurai of the wind and there's a ninja of the twilight shroud.

Mel Medarda*

Mel is a Noxian like Darius, Katarina and other Noxians. She is featured in Arcane while the show takes place in Piltover and Zaun. Mel would make a great addition to 2XKO. One of her abilities involved summoning an eclipse surrounding her enemies and that would be her Ultimate. If she does make it to 2XKO, she can a somewhat similar playstyle to Dr. Strange in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and can have an Arcane skin. In a way, I genuinely would love to see the Noxian mage make it to 2XKO.

Rumble:

Another Yordle of Bandle City, Rumble has a great arsenal of missles, harpoons and a flame thrower in his mech. We got Teemo as the first Yordle to come to 2XKO, so I like to see another one. In fact, in League of Legends, Rumble never wields his spiky ball and he will be when he gets into 2XKO, meaning that he can have the same playstyle as Tron Bonne from Mega Man Legends in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and he can thrust his spiky ball similar to Rygar. That's one example on how characters in the MOBA are adapted well into fighting game genre.

Ambessa Medarda*

Now, Ambessa might be the next interesting Champion to talk about. Like Mel, daughter of the Medarda family, Ambessa is a Noxian and also one of the characters featured in Arcane. She wields her twin drakehounds and uses them in her kit. After looking at her kit, I would love to see Ambessa make her debut to 2XKO. Her gameplay in League of Legends is fun to experience. And she is featured in Arcane and she retains her twin drakehounds in the show. That's what driven me to put her in this list highlighting the Champs I want for 2XKO. Not only that. She can come with an Arcane skin if she makes her debut to 2XKO.

Sona

Sona is a healer of Demacia in League of Legends and she is imbued with the power of music in her instrument. If Sona makes it into 2XKO, her instrument can be innovated into something that fits in the fighting game environment and have innovative healing powers that accelerate her gray health healing and I believe that it can fit into the fighting game environment. And that's the point of bringing Champs to 2XKO with innovative abilities exclusive to the fighting game environment.

Lee Sin

Here is another most interesting Champ to highlight. We need to keep this one. Lee Sin is a martial artist in Ionia. He is one of the Champs I want in 2XKO and he can definetely fit into the fighting game genre. Think of martial artists in fighting games like Marshall Law from Tekken, Fei Long from Street Fighter, and Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat. I believe that Lee Sin is gonna be adapted well into 2XKO to have the same playstyle from the mentioned characters.

Nidalee

One of Ixtal's Champs that we need to keep as well. Nidalee transforms into a cougar and throws her javelin in League of Legends. And it's possible to innovate that in 2XKO, meaning she can swing her javelin in all of her normals, but can still throw her javelin using S1 and can transform into a cougar using ↓+S2. Think of Valkenhayn from BlazBlue; he transforms into a wolf in a fighting game. That said, Nidalee is gonna fit well in the fighting game environment in any way, shape or form.

Kennen

Any of the eagle-eyed fans has spotted someone in the background of Bandlewood Crossing in the trailer and that's another Yordle coming to 2XKO, and that's Kennen. Weirdly enough, Kennen could be a decent Champion to play overall and a less annoying Yordle to play against than Teemo. Since Riot has confirmed that no Champion is deconfirmed yet, this means that Kennen will have a guaranteed chance of receiving an adaptation into the fighting game setting. And maybe he can have a rolling dash Teemo has, but with lightning effects with a little bit of Sonic gameplay from SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level.

Annie

Annie is capable of summoning Tibbers, her monsterous teddy bear in League of Legends. If Annie comes to 2XKO, she'll likely have an innovative approach with a playstyle similar to Carl and Relius Clover from BlazBlue and Chaos from Under Night In-Birth. What this means is that both Annie and Tibbers can stand on the ground in combat at the same time and Tibbers can follow Annie around throughout the match. According to my highlight, this duo is likely to do well in 2XKO. Annie can be able to perform normals with L, M and H and special moves with her S1 specials and Tibbers can be able to attack with S2 supers. Think of it as Annie's Drive attack in 2XKO. Press the S2 button and Tibbers attacks.

Nunu & Willump

Here's another Champion that comes in a duo. According to their abilities, Nunu and Willump are gonna do well in 2XKO. If this duo of the Freljord comes to 2XKO, it's highly likely that they'll mark it to pull a Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite where Rocket Raccoon stands on Groot, with Nunu standing on Willump's head throughout the match.

Wukong

We need to keep this one as well. Wukong is gonna do well in the fighting game environment that he can be able to summon clones and use his Cyclone as one of his supers. The Monkey King is deemed to be a decent Champion to play in 2XKO. Not only that. There are characters that wield staves in fighting games. If Wukong makes his debut to 2XKO, he'll likely have a same playstyle as that of SonSon from Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Nilah

Since Nilah has a whip blade, a weapon that is a hybrid between a sword and whip according to her kit, it's possible that she can be able to have that playstyle similar to Ivy from Soul Calibur, though it is a 3D fighting game franchise. It can be intriguing for Nilah to make it into 2XKO.

Lillia

It wouldn't hurt to bring a centaur into the fighting game environment. Motaro is a centaur from the Mortal Kombat franchise, so I would love to see Lillia make her way into 2XKO. In fact, she could be a great addition to the roster with her rod and she can do well in the fighting game environment. However, she can put enemies to sleep in League of Legends, so I don't think that no character can put enemies to sleep in a fighting game.

Twisted Fate

He is a Champion that wields cards. What is really about interesting Twisted Fate is that he holds the power of cards. He can do well with his cards in 2XKO, but they can be innovated into something that does well in the fighting game environment so that he can pull a Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Yunara

I think Yunara is gonna be peak in 2XKO. Ahri was well-adapted into the fighting game scene to have her normals involve swinging her magic, so I would like to see Yunara in 2XKO in some way, shape or form with a similar playstyle as Ahri. If Ahri was well-adapted into 2XKO, then Yunara should also be well-adapted into 2XKO. She is an Ionian Champion like her, so...

Ziggs

I have another Yordle in my wish list that can be kind of decent, but this one is a Yordle from Zaun. Ziggs is capable of throwing his bombs in League of Legends and he's likely to be a trap character in 2XKO like Teemo because he can place charges that detonate on enemy contact and can throw bombs too. I know that Teemo is so annoying to play against, but Ziggs can be a bit less annoying to play against. Now, if Teemo, of all characters, had to make his debut to 2XKO, then Ziggs should also make his debut to 2XKO. Not only that. The handling of his Ultimate will be similar to Jinx's without the trapping and it's canon that Ziggs befriends Jinx and moves to Zaun after taking her advice. In fact, there will likely be an intro dialogue between Ziggs and Jinx.

Yone

Interestingly, Yasuo is not the only Ionian Champion that bears the burden after his wrongdoing bias that made him unforgiven, but Yone as well, the Forgotten and Yasuo's half-brother who was called Yone in life. We never had a character who wields two swords on 2XKO yet and Yone meets the criteria of missing aesthetics or mechanics in the current roster.

*Champion featured in Arcane and may come with a skin inspired by Arcane.

These are the Champions in my wish list that will always have a chance to be in 2XKO and they are likely guaranteed. In fact, these are the ones that are not only guaranteed, but can bring aesthetics or mechanics that are currently missing in 2XKO. So that means Nidalee, Kennen and even Sona will have more of a chance to be adapted into 2XKO with innovations exclusive in the fighting game genre because adapting a character from a MOBA to a fighting game comes with innovations introduced in their abilities.

In case if you're unaware, 2XKO is now available to download for free for everyone on PC for now, but consoles will join as well, hopefully this year because they're aiming towards releasing the game on PC and console this year and they're now focusing on the work that it takes to shift from the console betas from the Alpha Lab playtests to being a full-featured game. If you haven't downloaded it yet, I suggest that you do so.

Joe's Monologues - 7/26/25

Hello, everyone. Today's Joe's Monologues is potentially the last of the month and it's gonna have exciting things that I'm going to talk about, so without further ado, let's dive right in.

Update Regarding Our Trip:

Originally, me and my family were supposed to visit Indiana, but apparently, we won't be able to visit there because of crisis reasons that associate with airports and airlines facing a crisis. To be honest, I am a little disappointed that I will not be going on a forest show where we drive through the road while watching trees through Portage. But I am fine with that because I know for a fact that we might go for the less innovative and cheap airline. Regardless, I did visit my old stomping grounds on November. I got to see bare trees and trees that have orange and yellow leaves and experience kids going to school for the first time since I moved to Arizona. However, the first time was better because it was on June and that's when the weather was nice and the forests made me think of Elora, especially when they have green leaves.

But it did fill out the Indiana-shaped sadness in my heart, though, especially when I loved being around those people there to bolster seeking my old friends and I'm going places I have been to. Big places I visited that have a lot of people were Franciscan Health, City Lanes and Blue Chip. The ones that were well-liked were City Lanes and Blue Chip with Franciscan Health trailing behind due to my mother getting sick. Let's not forget that Franciscan Health was formerly St. Anthony Memorial Hospital. Even though it was trailing behind, I got to visit there and it retains its charm. I just like being around those people in these big places, especially when I'm seeking my old friends back in the day. But the only conception is that the bowling alley is number one due to me and my family having nostalgic fun.

But that is not the only one that came to me. Remember what I said that my old stomping grounds in Indiana has the street that has its charm? Well, Franklin St. is not the only one because another street being Tilden Ave. has its charm because that's where you'll find the cemetery at and where my bus driver has taken me through when I was in high school to pick up remaining students.

I was able to conquer my fear of flying in a plane that I felt no tingle on my stomach when taking off and sat near the window to have a better view at the sights. I call it the Buena Vista Effect. It's when you sit near the window in a plane, you'll have a better view as Buena Vista is a Spanish term for good view. I don't know when I'm visiting my old stomping grounds, but it's only a matter of time.

32GB RAM Can't Be Beat:

It has been a week since I have upgraded my gaming computer to having 32GB RAM. So far, the performance has been greatly improved and I was able to play most of my games well. It is way better than having 8 GB RAM, which is the bare minimum for gaming. I am making 32GB RAM my new standard from here on out. For those of you asking if I could upgrade my gaming computer to have 64GB RAM or higher, it's not happening anytime soon. 32GB RAM is more than enough for future-proofing and higher resolution gaming and I currently have no plans to expand to 64GB RAM or higher due to being so expensive.

2XKO:

The devs have dropped an update regarding 2XKO. It comes in not one, but multiple announcements. First off, the game is entering Closed Beta on September 9. Closed Beta is the first phase of game development that marks the start of bringing it to everyone globally. But in order to participate in Closed Beta, new players that never participated in Alpha Lab 1 or 2 must register for a Riot account, and since Closed Beta marks the start of shipping 2XKO to everyone globally, new players that registered will get a guaranteed invite and wouldn't be left behind. When Closed Beta starts, invites will start rolling out and gradually to new players, the ones that has never participated in a single playtest and registered during the course of Closed Beta and the servers will remain online from here on out, which is by all means a good thing, especially when they aren't following MultiVersus' footsteps to let 2XKO fail and allow it to prematurely bite the dust.

But there is one catch. Because they intend to keep the game running and online outside of any necessary maintenance, the Closed Beta will be only for PC, so console players will have to wait a while longer, probably until either Open Beta or official launch. But cross-progression is coming that if you start on PC first, you can switch to console with progress you made on PC. Since the Closed Beta is only for PC, existing players that participated in any of the Alpha Lab playtests on PC are already in. Luckily for existing players that participated in any of the Alpha Lab playtests on console, they will automatically gain access through the Riot Client on PC, which is only downloadable by installing one of the games on the website, so technically, console players that participated in either playtest are already in and they can download it from the Riot Client.

There's even gameplay changes that they made based on player feedback from Alpha Lab 2. Those changes established faster gameplay to make timeouts any less frequent and involved UI changes, like the text of player names are now black, the text of the Champ names are in italic and the name of the fuse is now located above the health bar. We don't know how will the gameplay unfold during Closed Beta, but we can see it in action at EVO as they are setting up their booth there.

And to make things even spicier, 2XKO is teaming up with Chipotle to bring spicy goodies and giveaways. It all starts off at EVO 2025 where they will be setting up the demo on custom-designed 2XKO x Chipotle arcade cabinets. Chipotle is running daily and hourly brackets starting at 11:00 AM. There is spicy rewards up for grabs. With Chipotle being a launch partner, the Closed Beta launch is set to become even spicier.

Now let's talk about the next Champ coming to 2XKO. That is Vi, the Piltover Enforcer. Now, Vi is known for wielding Hextech gauntlets with the blue Cherry Bomb effect in them. She is a boxing powerhouse in 2XKO and she's gonna be playable starting in Closed Beta and at the devs' booth at EVO 2025, which is around the corner. So why is it that Vi is coming to 2XKO and why I wanted her to be in the game? Well, there are three reasons on why Vi deserves to be in 2XKO.

The first reason is straight up Jinx's debut and Arcane's lore. In Arcane, Vi and Jinx are childhood sisters of Zaun and their parents were killed by Vander. At the beginning of the series, Powder came to be until in Episode 3 where she becomes Jinx, and Vi is still related to her. It's considered canon in Arcane.

Second reason, a perfect opportunity for those who didn't get invited to Alpha Lab 2 due to being a smaller playtest than Alpha Lab 1 is that they are likely to try both Jinx and Vi out on the same team when Closed Beta starts. I figured that having them on the same team would make it canon to Arcane since 2XKO will have Champions that were featured in Arcane also. Now, if I am correct, there were skins of them in Fortnite, but will not make a return sadly.

Third reason, after having four male Champs in the roster and Vi makes her debut as the fourth female Champ in 2XKO, it created an even gender composition on the roster created from having four male Champs and four female Champs to work with at the start of Closed Beta.

Plus, all-women matches in 2v2 tag team fighting games are not as common of the FGC today, and it's largely dominated by WWE with their entry of Women's Tag Team matches. To have a fourth female Champion being Vi in 2XKO, especially when there are currently four male Champs, is a good thing and it can establish an even gender composition.

If I recall the last time when they revealed the sixth character, I expected the sixth Champion to be female Champion to even the gender composition after Illaoi became the fifth Champion, but it was revealed to be a male champion, which was Braum. But the good news about Braum being the fourth male Champion is that we get to experience an initial 2XKO Male Tag Team Match in Alpha Lab 1 and 2, so that's a good thing. When Jinx was revealed as the seventh Champ, I had a desire for the eighth Champ to be a female and it has been fulfilled as Vi made her way. We have experienced an all-men match in Alpha Lab 1 and 2, so it's likely that we can experience an all-women match in Closed Beta and beyond, but no mirrors.

I am using this splash art that contains the eight characters that will be played starting in Closed Beta as a thumbnail for my reaction video, but will have the text to distinguish things. If you're not familiar with this font, it is used in the following games in the original trilogy of the Sly Cooper franchise and Thieves in Time. Honestly, I wanted 2XKO to have ten champions on Closed Beta, but having eight Champs at the phase where 2XKO gets released globally is a good deal, especially since 2XKO is a 2v2 fighting game and it holds an even gender composition of four male Champs and four female Champs. Now, since we're going into Closed Beta, we must be aware the game is in a pre-release stage of development. This means the game will have bugs and may not work properly like it should and may crash. Many UI elements were polished, but there's still work to be done.

Forgot to mention about something cool I heard in the EVO 2025 Announcement Show. You know that the number "8" was mentioned many times? The "8" meme showed that Top 8 is back, we got eight games in the main lineup and eight games in the extended lineup. To top the "8" meme off, 2XKO now has eight characters to work with, all on a silver platter and ready to go at the EVO booth and at the start of Closed Beta.

Now, will the game stay at eight Champs? Absolutely not. League of Legends and VALORANT get new characters endlessly, so it's likely that 2XKO will get new Champs beyond Vi, hopefully during the game's pre-release stage of development. Just have faith in Riot as they are developing their game. Now, besides the changes made based on their feedback from Alpha Lab 2, the fact that the game is gonna support cross-region play at the start and Vi, we don't know what will Closed Beta and beyond have in store, so cosmetics, battle pass and offline game modes remain a mystery until September 9 is closer.

As we're getting closer to 2XKO's launch in its Closed Beta phase, the game's ESRB rating has been updated to still be rated T, but for violence, mild blood, mild language and alcohol reference and it's gonna stay that way going forward as Closed Beta marks the start of releasing the game globally to everyone and it's considered the real deal. Previously, it was rated T for use of alcohol, blood, suggestive themes and violence, but it was actually incorrect. There aren't any suggestive themes, there is bleeding and the tavern stage conveys an alcohol reference. And you'll hear bad words at a mild level due to making the voice acting any less repetitive, unlike in Arcane where there are swearing at an explicit level and puddles of blood. I may not make it to EVO to go to their booth and try the demo, but I can wait until September because there is one game to hold me off until then.

Speaking of EVO, there was supposed to be a Keef skit about how people reacted to the EVO 2025 lineup, but apparently, it was postponed due to his adventure in Japan he had and ensuring that it's done at the quality level. So according to this, I don't think that this year's EVO skit is likely gonna see the light of day. I think next year's EVO skit is likely to happen. But the extended lineup will still be on next year's EVO.

What I found intriguing is that Deen TV has covered SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. Deen and Noid played that game. Deen was talking crap and making tropes about the characters in the game, even the chili dogs part. Sonic likes chili dogs, so... Anyway, like if Deen TV covered SEGA vs. Capcom and Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact, they should also do 2XKO because I want to hear Deen make crazy quotes on characters, like "Sister vs. sister," "You're gonna give them the literal axe, Darius?," "Bang, bang, bang!" "The nine-tailed fox strikes back," "Show them what you got, Jinx, or should I also say Powder." "Dang Powder. Hmm? You think Powder fell down a well, Jinx?" and so on. I want them to do 2XKO for their Father and Son Beatdown, but they gotta sign up to have access to the Closed Beta on PC.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level:

And speaking of SEGA vs. Capcom, the game is indeed memory-intensive and loading a match while I had 8GB RAM at the time caused a bottleneck. It takes a higher capacity of memory to play this game and with that much memory I'm having, I can be able to play this game well. But the catch is that the RAM usage is not going down, so I turn it off and relaunch it. What has happened is that SEGA vs. Capcom was showcased at Combo Breaker as a Mystery Tournament to shock everyone. That driven commentators and attendees to try this game out, especially when it has been on the radar for quite some time and well made.

What is next? Well, they have a "red patch" for BETA 2.75 coming, hopefully fixing the analog issues and the controls. After that, it's off to Beta 3 where it is an overhaul and Linn Kurosawa from Alien vs. Predator will make her debut along with possibly Sakura from Sakura Wars. She was supposed to release next, but her development time takes a long time because she is three characters in one, so they had to do Batsu from Rival Schools next instead due to him being much faster to work with. Since Beta 3 is an overhaul, what I want for it is a core mechanic that 2XKO has; Duo Play. What I mean is that the game must have up to four players generally in all modes since Tag Mode is now only available to keep it traditional and two players on the same team get to control their own character and Cross Fever has up to four players.

For context, this game was made before 2XKO. Both games have tag battles, but with the exception of Jinx, none of the current characters in 2XKO are faithful to the current characters in SEGA vs. Capcom. Jinx had to be an exception because like Mega Man X, she has an arsenal of weapons as she is the Marksman type Champion in League of Legends.

SEGA vs. Capcom just finally posted on X after nearly two months of silence with an art that shows that they are bringing Special Partners into the game. According to the art, there will be 20 Special Partners, ten on each side and they will be similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 1's Special Partners system, hoping we can choose one ourselves and even Skullgirls Mobile's Guest Stars system. Who are the Special Partners? We can find out. Looking at the at HUD on the art, it's likely that we can choose a Special Partner after choosing our characters.

Conclusion:

And that's for this Joe's Monlogues post. August is almost upon us and summer is coming close to an end as you must get ready to go back to school and that is my favorite part. Once school starts, grab your supplies and get ready to learn and always make good choices. This means you must stay out of trouble and follow directions, or you'll face consequences ranging from timeouts and expulsions.

32GB RAM Upgrade

Gaming computers are known for not just gaming, but also taking care of business. I am having fun with my gaming computer. I was able to stream and MultiVersus well and all that stuff that the GPU and CPU I'm having are powerful enough to play every game well. However, there was only one flaw I had at the time; not enough RAM. What this means is that I didn't have enough RAM to play memory-intensive games as I had 8GB RAM at the time. This amount is the bare minimum, but only runs older and less-demanding titles well.

You see, I am a part of the gaming community and that ignited my love for gaming. I went to Amazon to look for another gaming computer and I have decided to let it go and stick with playing less memory-intensive games. But fast forward into today, I have noticed that I can be able to remove a pair of 4GB RAM sticks that add up to 8GB RAM and replace them with the pair that contains the higher amount of RAM and I had the money and tools to do so, so what's stopping me?

I went to Amazon and have ordered a pair of RAM sticks that have a higher amount of memory. The one I have ordered is a pair of 16GB RAM sticks that make up to 32GB RAM, which is becoming the new standard for gaming and multitasking that it becomes the new sweet spot. Upon doing so, performance has been greatly improved and became so much better than with having 8GB RAM.

What does this mean? It means the memory my gaming computer has expanded. Multitasking became superior and has more than enough room. Practically speaking, along with a powerful and a dedicated GPU and CPU, it takes a gaming computer with a higher amount of RAM to establish better and smoother performance and with a bigger capacity I'm now having on my gaming computer, I can be able to experience shorter load times, better visuals and play memory-intensive games and up content creation without experiencing a single bottleneck. Here's what this means on the following things.

Memory-Intensive Games:

Playing memory-intensive games while having 8GB or 16GB RAM has huge bottlenecks caused by longer load times and stuttering that I had to stick with playing older and less memory-intensive games. But with the help of 32GB RAM, all of that will be remedied. I have memory-intensive games on my Steam wish list and I'll be ready to become a modern PC gamer.

Smooth Content Creation:

I am still on the verge of becoming a content creator and now that I have more memory, I can be able to do video editing, make complex videos on my Wrapper: Offline career and take care of business without experiencing a single bottleneck.

Higher Resolution Livestreaming:

Livestreaming while having 8GB RAM comes with a bottleneck when on 1080p or higher and being disciplined to lower the settings is just annoying and a pain. Now that I have 32GB RAM on my gaming computer, 99.9% of the RAM bottleneck on livestreaming on higher resolutions is going to be alleviated.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level:

When this game starts loading before a match, it comes with a RAM bottleneck, which is struggling to load a match despite closing other programs. The game struggled to load and been stuck in limbo when I had 8GB RAM at the time due to being a memory-intensive game. This applies to playing a memory-intensive game while having 8GB RAM to cause a bottleneck. 16GB RAM is enough for matches to load, but every time it loads before a match, the memory usage gradually increases up until the point where the game struggles to load before a match and gets stuck in limbo and never goes down. But thanks to having 32GB of RAM on my gaming computer, I can be able to have a lot of space and not worry about the usage getting up to the point where the game will struggle getting into the match for a little while. I'm looking to livestream this game now that I have more RAM and it's gonna be a part of the better performance showcase stream. However, there is a catch. Since the memory usage gradually goes up every time the game loads before a match and wouldn't go down, I have to close other programs first, even with 32GB RAM on my gaming computer.

2XKO:

Not a memory-intensive game, but I'm happy to announce that 2XKO will be one of the fighting games that I will be comfortable playing anytime on both PC and console since a paid subscription is not required to play this game online and will be well-playable while having 16GB of 32GB of memory. The only conception is that 32GB of memory is overkill for 2XKO and my GPU and CPU are powerful enough to play it well. Alpha Lab 2 went strong with a lot of improvements from Alpha Lab 1. But I didn't get my invite to Alpha Lab 2 because it was a small playtest. I was stoked to try Jinx out too and I had zero luck. To not receive my invite to Alpha Lab 2 is a dang shame and does sting and I was a bit disappointed. They had to downsize that because they need to focus on launching the game sooner and we understand that.

And I just received a tweet from the 2XKO devs. They said they are now heading to EVO and setting up their booth there and they have exciting announcements to give us tomorrow morning and it's likely that they are gonna reveal the 8th Champion.

Further Future-Proofing:

It's possible that future-proofing can be done while having 16GB RAM, but 32GB RAM can expand future-proofing even further for games coming out this year and beyond. I now have that much memory I need for further future-proofing.

They also have a pair of 32GB RAM modules that make up to 64GB RAM, which is overkill for pure gaming and leaves a ton of room for multitasking, but since I heard it is very expensive and a waste of money, I have no plans to upgrade my gaming computer to 64 GB RAM, so upgrading to 32GB RAM is enough. Here's a breakdown on each amount of RAM with fun quips.

4GB RAM and less - Your kid isn't advanced enough to be a gamer and can't handle the concept of modern gaming.

8GB RAM - It's likely that your kid can be laughingstock for being uncool because they are stuck playing a low graphical game.

16GB RAM - You would disappoint your kid at their birthday without being obvious that you wouldn't allow them to play a cooler more modern game that every other kid is playing right now.

32GB RAM - This is the only amount that will make your kid look cool in front of their friends and become the most savage gamer on the block.

64GB RAM and more - An amount that will never be required because they don't have the balls to get it, and giving this amount to your kid will make them a legend.

Gaming computers have become more popular than mainstream computers due to each of them having a dedicated GPU to accelerate graphics, especially when it comes to gaming, multitasking, taking care of business and doing Vyond. Ideal amounts are usually 16GB and 32GB, with 8GB trailing behind due to better performance benefitted by the higher amounts. When upgraded to 64GB RAM, dimishing returns occur. To be clear, the only conception is that 16GB and 32GB are enough since upgrading to these amounts sets the balance between spending and gaming. But 32GB of memory is becoming the new standard in 2025 and beyond so that they wouldn't have to worry about a single bottleneck for the foreseeable future.

I now have more memory than when I had 8GB RAM at the time, I am looking forward to getting more games on Steam.

The PS1 and PS2 Became Gems of the Gaming Industry

Did you know that both the PlayStation 1 and 2 became the bestselling Sony consoles in both eras? Sony became kings of the gaming industry in their time in the PS1 and PS2 eras. So today, I like to talk about Sony's first two of their consoles that became gems of the gaming industry and what is so interesting about it.

The PS1 era became the community's most favorite era because of the polygon models, the original Crash and Spyro trilogies and the iconic start up screen. 1994 is when the PlayStation brand was first established. What is so special about the PS1 era is that it became the most charming era. It has great games that launched franchises. Crash Bandicoot became the mascot of the PS1 after Polygon Man was rejected to throw in commercials that feature the mascot suit. Our orange marsupal became well liked that his first game became a huge success, along with the rest of the original trilogy. Now here's what is really interesting about the PS1 era.

Naughty Dog had a three-game contract with Universal after Way of the Warrior was released on the 3DO. When Naughty Dog signed their three-game contract with Universal, the initial name was Willy the Wombat. But the developers weren't a fan of the name and asked Universal if they can change it. When the developers put in crates, they decided on a different name, Crash Bandicoot. It was all or nothing that Naughty Dog threatened to drop the project as a whole if Universal did not accept the Crash Bandicoot name, so they did and Naughty Dog went on with the project. It saw commercials that feature the Crash mascot suit. However, during crunch time, Universal treated Naughty Dog like crap, by simply turning off the air conditioning to the building in the Californian summer weather.

After Crash 3, Naughty Dog wanted to leave the Crash IP once their three-game contract was up, but Sony wanted another Crash game that would be a kart racer. But Naughty Dog refused to work with Universal because they don't want to deal with their bullcrap anymore, not especially after for what they did to turn off the air conditioning to the building during crunch time, so PlayStation conducted that so that Sony and Naughty Dog would work together under a licensing deal from Universal so that Naughty Dog would have the least amount of contact with Universal as possible following their poor treatment. This resulted in the creation of Crash Team Racing and it was made by Naughty Dog themselves without a contract. That would be Naughty Dog's final Crash Bandicoot title before they parted ways with the IP and the Crash IP gets passed to Eurocom to make a party game, Crash Bash. That would be the final Crash title to ever be released exculsively on the PS1.

All of this on the Crash Bandicoot side would mark the PS1 becoming the most popular 5th generation console, with Sony negotiating between Universal and Naughty Dog to pave the way for Naughty Dog to make a kart racer. However, nothing has gotten as close to the part where Hidden Variable is suing Autumn over an inexcusable faliure like the breach of contract and Future Club not negotiating between companies so that they and Hidden Variable would work together under a licensing deal from Autumn so that Hidden Variable would have the least amount of contact from Autumn as possible.

Universal also brought on Insomniac, who also had a three-game contract with Universal after Disruptor was released on the PlayStation and they started development on the titular purple lad, Spyro the Dragon. Insomniac followed Naughty Dog's footsteps by having their three-game contract with Universal, but they were also treated poorly like Naughty Dog was during crunch time. After Spyro 3, Insomniac followed Naughty Dog's footsteps and moved on to pursue the next IP with Sony. I'll continue the story later on.

Naughty Dog and Insomniac have worked with Mark Cerny at Universal. Both developers did a great job on the original trilogies. Universal now has two IPs created just for them and they were the publishers of the original Crash and Spyro IPs. And there's one most obvious thing to note. Sony doesn't own Crash or Spyro, but they own both studios that developed the original trilogies and released them on the PS1 as it was the most popular console. Universal owned both IPs and they can brand them however they want. Naughty Dog and Insomniac's three-game contract with Universal is how the PS1 era became interesting, even though Universal treated developers poorly by turning off the air conditioning in the building during crunch time, which was not cool and was an uncomfortable thing they have done.

Along with the polygon models, the original Crash and Spyro trilogies became the source of fueling the PS1-era with charm and the reason why the era is believed to be community's most favorite since both companies' three-game contract with Universal sparked a lot of charm. As it turned out, there is one other reason why, which is console ports of retro games that were first released in arcades and they became a part of the PlayStation's massive library. This factor showed that the PS1 has sold really well, even in Japan since Japanese game companies were able to develop their games for it well without losing any money. The PS1 became well-sold because of its widespread third-party support, attention to detail, a massive library of games and high quality games.

Over to PS2. We have experienced a lot of charming stories we already heard for generations. During launch, the PS2 has sold the most units because of the same factors the PS1 did and backwards compatibility to PS1 games and accessories. Sony now has two legendary bestselling most popular consoles that became gems of the gaming industry, all on a silver platter and ready to go for emulation. The experience of the legendary consoles became well-liked by gamers that were born in the 90s and when they became adults, they feel the nostalgia in them.

When the PS2 came out, after Naughty Dog and Insomniac  are done with Crash and Spyro, they pursued their next IPs. Naughty Dog released Jak and Daxter while Insomniac released Ratchet and Clank. As I said, Sony doesn't own Crash or Spyro because Universal owned all rights to the IPs, so this means Universal wasn't done with Crash and Spyro and they can brand them however they want.

This resulted in Universal passing the Crash IP to Traveller's Tales to develop the first Crash title for the PS2 and Mark went along with them. However, Cerny had parted ways with the studio and Traveller's Tales had to start the game from scratch. This resulted in the creation of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. This game would be the first mainline Crash game being multiplatform and not developed under the Naughty Dog umbrella, courtesy of Konami, who was responsible of making the game multiplatform, unlike the original trilogy, which was sold on one console. It attributed Wrath of Cortex to establish a slightly larger audience than the original trilogy, making it the commercially successful multiplatform Crash game. I remember playing this game back in the day when I was a kid and I pretty much loved it. To be clear, Wrath of Cortex did sell well, but has mixed Metacritic reviews.

Then Universal passed the Spyro IP to Check Six and Equinoxe to make Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. This would be the first Spyro title being multiplatform and not developed by Insomniac. This game got approved, but during production, things got cut, rearranged, didn't work, got cut again and so on and was then given an awfully short development time to release it for the Christmas season. The final product became very buggy and became a Homer Simpson mess of ideas. I saw the blooper that covers the bugs in Enter the Dragonfly. I laughed my butt off watching it. I remember playing Enter the Dragonfly back in the day and it was a totally crappy Spyro game that was riddled with bugs with a big LMAO and did not come close to how well the original trilogy has performed, all because Universal has darn near blew it and they couldn't figure out what they want to develop for a new Spyro game. That resulted in giving the game a bad Metacritic score. This shows that without Insomniac around, Universal became terrible.

I wanted to revisit it, but it was so buggy that I may not want to revisit it at all. Unless if I can use the bugs to my advantage for the cheese, of course. But if there is one thing I like about Enter the Dragonfly, it's Spyro being like Mega Man, by having different breaths, which lives up to the Spyro vs. Mega Man thing, and this is something I want for a new Spyro in development, along with Elora to be the Sally Acorn of Spyro because in Sonic SatAM, the friendship between Sonic and Sally lives up to the Sonally term, so I believe that them friendship between Spyro and Elora can also live up to the Spylora term and that's the way terms go.

Twinsanity has also suffered the same fate Enter the Dragonfly suffered. Dozens of hours of gameplay and content have been cut from the game because of Universal not having any idea what they were doing, even though they merged with Vivendi to establish Vivendi Universal. That's how both games made a terrible entrance on the PS2 era. That's where Matt McMuscles comes in to make videos covering Twinsanity and Enter the Dragonfly's putrid performance on his What Happened? series.

In conclusion, Universal had found two AAA developers. They are the reason why the original trilogies performed well in the first place and they were crunched to release a game per year. The two developers were the source of making Universal amazing, even though they treated them poorly. When both developers parted ways with the IPs to make Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank, Universal lost their bearings and proven that they are awful to Crash and Spyro.

Of course, they would still be a close relationship, especially later on with the remastered trilogies, but nothing ever got as close as it did with the original trilogies. Then the IPs would get passed on to Xbox, meaning that Xbox has had more ownership than PlayStation had.

Remember the part where Jim Ryan has disrespected us retro game fans just by talking down to the golden age that is revisiting PS1 and PS2 games while he was at a Gran Turismo event? That part reminds me of something familiar... Oh, I know. It sounds a lot like two things.

First off, the sadistic joke Mike Z has created. During One More Once, Mike made an "I can't breathe" joke. When he made that joke, it alienated a lot of users from playing Skullgirls and they made calls to get the game off EVO and boycott the game in light of the situation, until he apologized to the whole community and he regretted making that joke. Now let's go on to the next one, two Mightykeef skits that involved disrespecting. One for anime and the other for Persona 5. When he simplified anime as cartoons, the thoughts of an anime watcher emerged. One is the aggression while the other is reasonability. The skit about Persona 5 also has that. These events have occured in 2020, the year when the COVID-19 pandemic has hit.

Resources, time and money are indeed finite when it comes to developing a new console. Ryan has stated that after he apologized about his rude comment. But the PS3's unique structure and Cell processor are the reason why none of the modern consoles were backwards compatible to PS3 games and beyond. But PlayStation Plus Premium has resolved this enigma just by offering a vast catalog of PS1 and PS2 games with emulation features and PlayStation 30th Anniversary became even more exciting because of it and future anniversaries of the brand will be even more exciting going forward.

PS3 games may only be available on cloud streaming due to the PS3's notoriously weird structure the Xbox 360 didn't bear, but I can invest in an Ethernet cord to provide a stable experience. However, I can't do Remote Play or record longer clips when streaming a game and that's the only problem with PS3 games being only available for cloud streaming and playing remasters and ports of PS3 games is the way. Sure, remasters may have killed the old school charm, but they are faithful to the original. And to be honest, I am into revisiting PS1 and PS2 games more than PS3 games because fan favorites are usually PS1 and PS2 with the PS3 trailing behind due to the overwhelming worldwide sales established on the first two systems and the criticism surrounding the PS3's launch model.

But when we get to the PS4, oh my gosh, the retro titles we know and love were fizzled out except for the ones on PS Now. If there is one silver lining for this, if the PS3 hadn't beared a weird structure or a Cell processor in the first place, then full backwards compatibility would've been established on later systems. But who needs full backwards compatibility when we have emulation of PS1 and PS2 titles and we can invest in an Ethernet connection for a stable streaming experience anyway? It's faster and better. We can be able to finally revisit our cherished titles we played in our childhood on PS4 and PS5 after nine years since the PS4 came out. The PS2 boot up screen is still here, but the PS1 boot up screen has not returned. There is one game that I found interesting to play and experience.

Now, if you're around on the year when Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus released, one of the games in the PS2 era was Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626. In this game, it serves as an origin story and a prequel to the the 2002 animated film that entails 626's standalone adventure where he is ordered by Jumba Jookiba to collect DNA across the world of Greemas to assist him in performing more experiments. There are weapons and gadgets that navigate 626 on certain levels and squid bots that have a film reel. Each film reel has scenes of the movie.

The game was originally gonna be called "Experiment 626: Stitch on the Loose!" but they renamed it to "Stitch: Experiment 626" for unknown reasons. But what I'm gonna say is that it points out to the fact that the game serves as an origin story and a prequel to take place before the events of the film where our blue furry lad escapes from the United Galactic Federation and goes to Hawaii to befriend a charming Hawaiian girl and her big sister. While a classic Disney game, it became a PS2-exclusive as Sony is the publisher of the game. However, the game wound up with mixed reviews upon release and couldn't become critically acclaimed.

During June's State of Play, we got a number of classics announced. This month, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy has launched and this game was produced by defunct video game companies. Unfortunately, there aren't any deep logos. Coming in July, Twisted Metal 3 and 4 are coming to the catalog. This marks the possibility to complete the original quadrilogy just in time for Peacock's TV series adaptation's second season. And lastly, coming in August, Resident Evil 2 and 3 are launching into the catalog. That comes with completing the original trilogy and is in preparation of the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem. In total, we have one PS2 game and four PS1 games coming out this summer. This shows that PlayStation Plus Premium is reigning supreme so far that we're getting the very first Deus Ex, the last two Twisted Metal games of the original quadrilogy and the last two Resident Evil games of the original trilogy.

During this year's Days of Play, Myst and Riven were revealed. These are point and click puzzle games that first came out on PC before being ported to consoles. They may not be on my wish list, but they at least have silent logos and to my knowledge, since playing retro games is considered a break from playing modern games, playing Myst and Riven is considered to be a break from playing violent video games.

Desiring to revisit games from our childhood is what makes Sony being kings of the gaming industry in their time on their first two consoles so interesting and special. Our desire has been fulfilled by PlayStation Plus Premium and its ever growing classics catalog. Like Nintendo Classics on the Switch, that revived classic gaming, especially for PS1 games since they weren't on PS Now. I'll be looking forward to re-experiencing the original Crash and Spyro trilogies' polygon models and charm.

And speaking of the original Crash and Spyro trilogies, remember that I was demanding the games of the franchise to be on the catalog? I don't think that we're gonna see the originals get released on the PlayStation Plus Premium catalog until 2026 when Crash Bandicoot turns 30 and 2028 when Spyro turns 30. I'm just speculating it. We can find out if my speculation is true or not, because I want to revisit the charm in them and they are the most popular games.

The golden age of PlayStation is back, with the PS1 being the shadiest like Bob Burgers' first season and the Simpsons' first two seasons. They are the golden age ones. Since the PS6 and Sony's new handheld console are in the works, it's likely that we can continue using PS Plus Premium, which became the heart of retro gaming and play retro games on these new and upcoming consoles and be backwards compatible with PS5 and PS4 games and not PS3 games and beyond due to the PS3's unique structure and its Cell processor, which is why PS3 games are only available through cloud streaming. But emulation of older titles will be on the new systems.

Speaking of becoming the heart, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls became the new heart of the FGC to surprise the community after Arc System Works is leading the way of the development of their Marvel fighter. I have the link to the post about it, so go check it out if you're interested.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-post.html

Joe's Monologues - Sly Cooper

The next Joe's Monologues will focus on one thing that I loved as kid. If you're around on the time during the PS2 era, the franchise that began in 2002 was Sly Cooper, and that what I'm gonna talk about specifically on this post. Consider it as my own and simple iceberg for the thieving and sneaky anthropomorphic raccoon.

How the Franchise Started:

In 2002, Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus came out on the PS2 by Sucker Punch Productions and it is a platformer that uses lives and is inspired by Crash and Spyro, where as taking damage can lose a life. But it uses a lucky charm system that can protect them from damage. Take damage and you lose a charm. It's similar to Crash and Spyro that taking damage can lose a charm and taking damage while having no charm can lead to losing a life and the encompassing hub worlds have levels. The game involves collecting clues to open vaults on each level, which defines a platformer game.

The first game became the starting point of the franchise. It entails the origins of the manual that is a prized possession, the Thievious Raccoonus. The book became a treasure to the Cooper family, until the group of villains known as the Fiendish Five showed up to not just ransack the place, but take the Thievious Raccoonus and tear the pages and split into parts of the world to commit crimes as well. Following the ransacking, Sly was taken into the Happy Camper Orphanage where he met two of his loyal buddies, Bentley and Murray. Together, the trio track down the Fiendish Five and retrieve the book.

Innovation of the Franchise:

After the success of Sly 1, the following game has introduced innovations to make it look different than the first game. In 2004, Sly 2: Band of Thieves marked the start of trying new things. That involved not just playing as Sly, but also Bentley and Murray, thus making a Mickey, Donald and Goofy-style trio. The trio comes with different moves and have their own health bar rather than the charm that protects from damage. The game did away with the lives and there is grinding coins to purchase abilities in the ThiefNet. They have missions to partake and the clues are scattered across the map since the platforming genre was done away since the home worlds are all in one world.

Then when Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves came out in 2005, it retains the core gameplay and mechanics from Sly 2 and has new additions and new characters beyond the trio. But there is a catch. In certain jobs, the side characters are playable and that's what makes Sly 3 so enjoyable and crazy. However, Sly 3 doesn't use clues, but they have master thief challenges and offers an option to replay the prologue and jobs you've already done Sly 2 doesn't offer.

Interestingly, Sly Cooper was not the first franchise that has the original trilogy that has the first game being a platformer and the sequels having innovation because the Gex franchise was the first to have that, with the first game being a 2D platformer and the sequels being Super Mario 64-style platformers in the original trilogy. That's called innovation.

Thieves in Time:

After the compilation of the original Sucker Punch trilogy, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time came to take place after the events. But after Sucker Punch moved on to pursue Infamous, Sanzaru Games stepped up to remaster the original trilogy and develop Thieves in Time. It is a modern Sly Cooper game where the ancestors of the Cooper Clan are featured to be playable on each episode. I played it back in the day on the PSVita first and it was okay. The first half was peak, but the second half was just meh. Regardless, the animated cutscenes were peak and the graphics blew me away. They were able to copy paste the physics from Sly 3 and started from there to make a modern Sly Cooper game, but not all of it.

What has really soured us the most is that the game has ended in a cliffhanger where Sly travelled to the past and ended up in Egypt after facing Le Paradox. A story DLC was planned to resolve the cliffhanger, but due to the poor sales of Thieves in Time, Sony rejected it. They were supposed to develop Sly 5, but Sanzaru had planned not to.

Revisiting the Originals:

Ever since PlayStation Plus Premium launched, I wanted to revisit the original trilogy and two years later, my desire has been fulfilled after hearing that Sony got a new PS2 emulator to pave the way for more PS2 games. In last year's Day's of Play, we saw the first game launched into the catalog. And during PlayStation 30th Anniversary, sequels in the original trilogy came.

Back in the day when I was a kid, I played the whole original trilogy and in this generation, I played the first one and the second one on stream and I will soon revisit Sly 3 and its crazy adventures created by new members of the Cooper Gang beyond the trio. I got my 3D glasses and I'm going to wear them because some areas are in 3D mode, meaning that I need to put on 3D glasses when I'm on certain areas.

I said that I'm gonna dive into Sly 3 soon, but decided to delay it until I upgrade to a higher RAM because HD recording and streaming and memory-intensive games and tasks consume a significant amount of RAM. That's why certain games I have on my library took longer to load when I'm having 8GB RAM on my gaming computer. The only thing about revisiting the original trilogy is that it bears the mind of the Cartoon Network skull and the Buena Vista International logos, the ones that given me the chills. It has gone to heck from both logos. That happened during my childhood and also during this generation. But you see, what I'm saying is that revisiting the original trilogy really had its perks that making a dream logo combo of Shadowmachine, Stoopid Monkey, Sony Pictures Digital, Williams Street, Cartoon Network and Buena Vista International Television would be chaotic, like if Buena Vista distributed Robot Chicken.

Astro Bot's Wild Performance:

Astro Bot's excellent performance saw Sony being convinced to revive their old IPs, including Ape Escape, Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper. Herman Hulst has announced that they are bringing their old IPs back into the limelight. The game became critically acclaimed that Sony looked into their hearts and give their nostalgic IPs back some love. That really changes everything for PlayStation.

What I Want:

If Sly Cooper is making a comeback one day, a lot of people wanted developers to dive right into a Sly 5 to resolve the cliffhanger. I'm with them, but what I want is that I want the developers to start over and remake the original trilogy to be in HD and replace Thieves in Time with something fresh. I like the fresh new fourth game to be completely on par with Sly 3 because the second half of Thieves in Time is just meh that it wasn't completely on par with Sly 3. That's why the subsequent games in the original trilogy were better. But Sly 3 was better because of the bonus characters beyond the original trio Cooper Gang.

Old Man Sly:

In honor of getting my privilege to revisit the original trilogy because of PlayStation Plus Premium, I have planned a new Old Man Sly series on my career. It was on hold until the time I get a gaming computer. What Old Man Sly, the series is about?

Well, Old Man Sly is about an old man dressing up as Sly Cooper never behaving. I originally said that I would put my career on hibernation until I get another gaming computer that has a higher amount of RAM that is the sweet spot of gaming. But decided to return to my career if I upgraded my gaming computer to have at least 16GB RAM for better performance. But upgrading to 32GB RAM is overkill and optional for Wrapper Offline, but required for modern gaming and superior multitasking.

Here is the final thumbnail of the next Old Man Sly where the Cooper Gang goes to Hawaii to recruit a new member of the Cooper Gang there and Old Man Sly misbehaves there. Along with the gang, what you're seeing in this thumbnail are changes I made to the characters, the Hawaiian flag and an arrow pointing right between the silhouette of a new member with a question mark and Hawaii to represent that the new member is located in Hawaii. The next one is gonna be big and ambitious that you will soon find out who the new member of the Cooper Gang will be and why Old Man Sly is misbehaving at Hawaii once I upload it.

Why am I pointing the next video to associate with going to Hawaii is because none of the games of the franchise involved going to Hawaii, so I am encourging that for a new Sly Cooper if it makes a comeback one day.

Summary:

Sly Cooper became a well-liked franchise that has a dedicated fanbase, especially to the original trilogy. The following games became fan favorites due to the innovation introduced in them that the first game was a Crash Bandicoot-style platformer, but with hub worlds that are encompassing and have entrances to levels like Spyro. I played the original trilogy back in the day when I was a kid and I get to revisit them since PlayStation Plus Premium has launched. I have played Sly 1 and Sly 2 in this point of time, so I will soon revisit Sly 3 and its crazy adventures once I upgrade my gaming computer to a higher amount of RAM, especially when I'm playing memory-intensive games like Marvel Rivals and multitasking.

Thanks to Astro Bot's wild performance that convinced PlayStation to bring their beloved nostalgic IPs back, our sneaky and thieving raccoon may be making a comeback one day. If Sly Cooper makes a comeback, I like the original trilogy to be remade in HD and Thieves in Time to be replaced with something fresh that is a great modern Sly Cooper game that is completely on par with the third game.