SG's New Chapter is BIG

According to the statement, Jason Donnell of Autumn Games has stated that the next chapter of Skullgirls development is gonna be big and Autumn is stepping up to leading the development of Skullgirls. But how would this chapter is big? Let's take a dive into the post.

I'm back with another standalone Skullgirls post. Also, as you can see, it has been a year since my father died and will soon be a year since I attended at my father's funeral at my old stomping grounds. But let's not talk about that and move on to something very interesting. Anyway, let's get right into the post.

Autumn Games has owned the rights of the Skullgirls IP from the get-go. For years, they have worked behind the scenes as the unwavering backbone of Skullgirls, ensuring its grouth. They have been working with multiple teams like Reverge Labs, Lab Zero Games, Future Club and Hidden Variable, before they quit Skullgirls development or course. Now, before I tell you what happened to Hidden Variable and why they quit Skullgirls development, I like to rewind back to the point where Hidden Variable took over for 2nd Encore's development.

Back in 2020, the developers had left Lab Zero Games because of Mike Z's behavior and went on to form their own development studio dubbed thee Future Club. This is a development studio they formed and it's basically the same people without Mike Z. They also stepped up for the development of the Skullgirls IP with Hidden Variable because they stated that they planned to work with the people who left Lab Zero, which is a great thing. Back in 2021, the next chapter of Skullgirls development has began with the Season 1 Pass that contains four new characters. Back in 2024, the Season 1 Pass containing Annie, Umbrella, Black Dahlia and Marie is complete and the update for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox ports were done and dusted so that they would double their efforts on the general balance patch. Originally, they wanted to bring in the additional voice content, but they decided to release it in 2025 for quality so that there wouldn't be problems. But what happened?

Well, let's get to what is factual on what we heard on the grapevine of things. In November 1, 2024, the payments have rolled in and Hidden Variable stated that Autumn owes them that much money. But Autumn refused to make a single payment they owed, not one.

Because of Autumn's refusal to make payments, Hidden Variable has quit Skullgirls development because of the legal dispute with Autumn Games for alleged breaches of contract, implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and for goods and services rendered according to the court papers and for $1.2 million in unpaid fees. That explains why we haven't gotten a roadmap in January. They also added that they wouldn't make further comments until the dispute is resolved. But we haven't heard from Hidden Variable yet because they are still having a legal battle with Autumn for eight months.

It wasn't just Hidden Variable that is no longer involved in Skullgirls development, but Future Club as well, the same people minus Mike Z as they were working on their first original indie title, Part Time Hero: I'm Broke, but I'm Here to Save the World. But it did not reach the funding goal. It fell way short from it. And now, they are on hibernation, but they'll be back at some point. With no developer in sight, there's no way Skullgirls can continue active development... until one glimmer of hope came.

Jason Donnell of Autumn Games had released a statement saying that Skullgirls is more than just a game, it's a passion project. They are stepping up to reinvest in the IP. To make it even more groundbreaking, Guilds are coming to Mobile later this year and we're getting close to their release as they are in the final stages. That is nice, but that's only just a taste on how Autumn would usurp Skullgirls development. Since Autumn is taking over, left over pieces of content such as the third Guest Star being Roxie, additional VO for the Season Pass characters and the second season of the Webtoon adaption are still on the docket. Skullgirls is about to be taken into the next chapter and the Mobile release is going strong that we're getting more Silver Variants every month and Guilds are getting closer to launch.

How is that possible? Well, Hidden Variable has said that they gave Autumn until January 21 to make payments to them. However, when Autumn made none of the payments, Hidden Variable has provided Autumn with all of the account login information required to continue providing community support for the game so that it wouldn't cause a single damage to it so that Mobile and 2nd Encore would continue active development regardless. They done that before quitting Skullgirls development and suing Autumn.

Speaking of 2nd Encore, this brings me to my point. Remember what I said that additional VO for the Season Pass characters are still on the docket? I don't think that we're get the additional VO for the Season Pass characters this year Hidden Variable had originally planned before they quit Skullgirls development, so I have thought about this for a while and believe that Autumn is not gonna pick up where Hidden Variable left off during the development of 2nd Encore this year because they got to get the extraordinarily long promised feature being Guilds out of the way first before taking over 2nd Encore development. But that's just me speculating and spitballing. But it can be true because if we go back to Jason for a second here...

"However, it has become especially clear that we have not been delivering on our promises to you the fans; to bring new characters, stories, features, and game modes in the way you deserved. To be blunt, that is why we're making changes now."

Now, this is something you need to hone in on. This means Autumn is making changes to guarantee us to bring in new characters, stories and all that to not just Mobile, but 2nd Encore as well in the way we wanted, so Roxie and the Season 2 Pass are thankfully still on the docket and this is considered as big. Just so you know, I don't think that Autumn is gonna poke the bear when it comes to Skullgirls that they wouldn't release new characters or pick up where Hidden Variable left off with development of left over content like additional VO for the Season Pass characters in 2nd Encore until the Guilds are released as Guilds are an extraordinarily long promised feature being the most important one and fair enough. While Autumn taking over Skullgirls' ongoing development is a great deal, there is one thing that could've happened that serves as a silver-lining of all this.

Now, if I remember correctly, Naughty Dog and Sony had worked together under a licensing deal from Universal to make Crash Team Racing after Sony negotiated between the companies after Universal treated Naughty Dog poorly by turning off the air conditioning to the building, right? So, if Future Club was still involved in Skullgirls' development while Hidden Variable is still having a legal dispute with Autumn, then maybe they could negotiate between the companies, meaning that both Hidden Variable and Future Club would work together under a licensing deal from Autumn so that Hidden Variable would have the least amount of contact with Autumn as possible.

But rest assured that this will be a good difference that if they get Guilds out of the way in November or December, the new chapter of Skullgirls development on both 2nd Encore and Mobile can REALLY begin in 2026. They will not make a lampoon out of themselves in both sections like they did to get themselves wound up getting sued by Hidden Variable for breach of contract and $1.2 million after their refusal to pay what they owe.

Speaking of making a lampoon out of themselves in both sections, did you know that moderators of the Skullheart made a lampoon out of themselves with their pig slop low content post penalty smear, on both the Beta thread and the visual issue reporting thread? I have the link to the post that covers all of that if you're interested.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2024/06/low-content-post-penalty-rant.html

PlayStation 2 Turns 25!

It's official, gaming fans. The PlayStation 2 has turned 25 when it came out in Japan and in North America. This is the console that became developer-friendly and has most popular and critically acclaimed titles. In fact, it is arguably one of our most favorite Sony consoles of all time. I'm gonna start from the beginning on playing PS2 games during my childhood as well as the life cycle.

October 26 is when the PS2 came out in North America. There was a point of time when I was playing PS2 games during my childhood when I was a kid. I have enjoyed a lot of them and I was astonished at them. This console became the most popular because of backwards compatibility to every PS1 game and accessory, most popular and acclaimed titles and all that. It became developer-friendly unlike other platforms that failed and didn't come close to the renowned Sony did in both eras. This has exposed a reason why I'm into PS2 games as I am with PS1 games because both consoles became renowned and so appealing.

I remember what former PlayStation boss, Jim Ryan, has said about PS1 and PS2 games while he was at a Gran Turismo event. He has disrespected and infuriated us retro gamers to our face. He said all that about what we love and cherished for years. How dare he talk down to the golden media that is playing PS1 and PS2 games.

When the PS3 came out, none of the models support full backwards compatibility. Some are backwards compatible to PS1 games while some are backwards compatible to PS2 games. The PS3 has a vast library of PS1 games, but a limited selection of PS2 games, which doesn't do us any good. Then PS Now came to have a limited selection of PS2 games and that's not nearly enough. I have been wanting to revisit my PS2 games from my childhood other than the ones on PS Now, but none of Sony's modern platforms were fully backwards compatible to classic generations because of the PS3's Cell processor and PS Now had a limited selection, rendering it terrible. For years, we've been requesting for an upgrade to PS Now that would bring in a PS1 catalog and a vast selection of games.

But fast forward to 2022, Sony has planned to compete with Xbox Game Pass by developing a beefed up PlayStation Plus with two additional tiers, Extra and Premium. The Premium Tier caught millions of players' eye that it offers a vast selection of PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games. This was met with fan excitement about those that are looking forward to playing their games they played during their childhood. However, when the service launched, there aren't any new PS2 games so far, until in 2024 when Sony has a brand new PS2 emulator to pave the way for more PS2 games. Finally, my endeavor to revisit PS2 games I played during my childhood has been claimed after all these years.

It went well with revisiting Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, a PS2 game I played during my childhood. I pretty much loved it and I have beaten it, but not when I was a kid. It also went well with revisiting the sequel. I loved the innovations the game has made, having a Mickey, Donald and Goofy-style trio. I am looking forward to revisit Sly 3 and its crazy adventures soon. I gave my shoutout to Kevin Miller for killing the voice acting of Sly Cooper, both when I was a kid and in this generation.

And I heard Sucker Punch is eyeing on the return of Sly Cooper or the third Ghost game. I thought Sucker Punch said that they're done with Sly Cooper after Sanzaru took over. I think Sucker Punch should bring Sly Cooper back into the limelight and resolve the cliffhanger that was left off in Thieves in Time. Sly is stuck in Egypt and we need them to get him out of there lickety-split and maybe have an episode where the Cooper Gang goes to Hawaii in search of a new member of the Cooper Gang because none of the games involved a Hawaii episode.

To support a Hawaii episode for the new Sly Cooper, I made an Old Man Sly video where the Cooper Gang are going to Hawaii in search of a new member. I have the link, so go check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkREGugNbRI

Of course, I had to make this video that features the new gal from Hawaii where Old Man Sly throws a tantrum over desserts at Boss' Pizza & Chicken. I have the link to it below as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4BTFMhNsfk

So originally, this video was supposed to cover that place I want to go in my old stomping grounds, Wana Pizza, but decided to make it Boss' Pizza & Chicken instead. How ironic that being around those people in big places at my old stomping grounds would bolster seeking my old friends to apply to this.

I was able to put the whole Cooper Gang together, including the new gal from Hawaii between Penelope and Sly. Her name is Moana and this character's name is NOT affiliated with Disney in any way, shape or form or appear in any of the games. You need to understand this. Also, I have the next Old Man Sly in the works that is gonna be big. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

The process of releasing PS2 games is turning out to be smooth so far and had not backfired. Not one time. If I recall correctly, they have been releasing a lot of PS2 games so far to make things up, especially when PlayStation turned 30, three new PS2 games were revealed with a little bit of Sly Cooper news and it became a big win for us. 

However, while the PS2 does have critically acclaimed and most popular titles like the PS1, there are two outliers that have games that were released on the PS2, but couldn't become successful like those in the PS1 era, the orange marsupial Crash Bandicoot and the purple fiery roastmaster Spyro the Dragon. Both of them became kings of the PlayStation in their time in their original trilogies that became the most popular. Naughty Dog and Insomniac had a three-game contract with Universal to develop the original trilogies after the release of Way of the Warrior and Disruptor. They are the developers of Crash and Spyro that made Universal so amazing even though they treated them like crap just by turning off the air conditioner to the building during crunch time, which is just not cool.

After Naughty Dog and Insomniac left for Sony to make Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank for the PS2, things took a turn for the franchises after the IPs were passed to different studios to continue the franchises. None of the games that came out after the original trilogies came close to the renowned performance of the original trilogies. We can all agree that they all fell short because Universal became a terrible company and they had NO idea what they were doing. But I do love some of these games as a kid and been wanting to revisit them today. I don't care if none of them came close to how well the originals have performed. I just want to revisit the Wrath of Cortex, which sold more units than the original trilogy being an excuse to defend it and its great music.

But here's another thing. Not only the PS2 is developer-friendly, but has great games based on TV shows, movies and anime. The Simpsons: Hit & Run became a perfect example of a great game based on a TV show. While not critically acclaimed, it's a decent game overall. The plot is bearable and based on the unhinged moments we seen in the Simpsons. Then Buffy the Vampire Slayer came along to receive a video game adaptation. There are games based on anime like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Naruto. They became successful. These games are what made the PS2 so appealing. Japanese companies were able to develop games for the PS2 well without losing any money.

Japanese companies developing games on the PS2 led to releasing games by NIS, Square Enix and other companies. There is a vast majority of games released on the Japanese market. The GameCube also did do somewhat well in the Japanese market, but the original Xbox however, didn't do well in the Japanese market because the system was well-liked in the American market. This exposed why the PS2 became the bestselling system in the 6th generation because it was developer-friendly like the PS1.

Couple things to conclude with on what makes the PS2 generation the best generation like other consoles in the 6th generation is first off, the use of elements and things like Dolby Pro Logic II, Sofdec, ADX and THX, advanced power and games produced by nostalgic defunct video game companies. These respective elements have less room for error and their respective logos were present in retro 3D generations. I have to stress out nostalgic defunct video game companies. What do I mean is that I'm talking about nostalgic companies that went defunct during the PS2 and PS3 generations, like Midway, THQ, Universal (not the movie company), Namco, SquareSoft, Enix, Koei and Tecmo. The ones that aren't nostalgic are SEGA, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Koei Tecmo, and WB Games. They aren't considered as nostalgic because they are still prevalent and around in today's market, especially in this generation.

This gaming generation does suck because of greed banked by AAA companies' handling of microtransactions and $70 games that caused frustration. That's why they prefer indies now because they're reasonably priced. I prefer indies too, especially the ones that are released on consoles. But I loved the new systems that produce faster loading times, 4K resolution at 60 FPS and Sony's innovative approach of the DualSense controller. In fact, I like to play my oldies on PS5 rather than buying a PS2 or PS1 and its games because downloading classics on PS5 and PS4 is much faster. You don't even have to put in discs.

When it comes to not just PS2 games, but also PS1 games that have silent copyright and trademark notice screens and logos after that, they have been my favorite part in gaming. I would reset my console to watch the flow over and over. Fast forward to now, playing PS1 and PS2 games given me an option to record the flows and that's something I would do. They don't take up too much space. See, embracing the copyright and trademark notice screens and the logos after them was the reason why the 6th generation of gaming had to be the best and I am still embracing them today once I record them. It applied to what I saw in 2XKO, all-female matches. They made me say "Come on, ladies, don't go easy on each other." That also made me think of not just the Buffy the Vampire Slayer promo on the WB, which I know it led to having a video game adaptation with the nuances in it, but also that Last Generation gameplay I experienced.

But I digress. There are endless possibilities for us retro gamers that will cherish the golden standard and fair enough, even on the PS6 and the PSVita 2 or whatever the new handheld console is gonna be called Sony is planning is being greenlit to have backwards compatibility support on PS4, PS5 and PS6, but not on PS1, PS2 and PS3 sadly due to two obvious things; the PS3's Cell processor and its notoriously weird structure. This hurdle prevented modern Sony consoles from achieving full backwards compatibility and is why the PS3 games are only available through streaming and it requires an Internet connection that playing remasters of games released on the PS3 is the way.

But the beefed up PlayStation Plus will continue on the new handheld console so that retro titles, with the exception of PS3 games, would be played on the go. I'm not getting the PS6, but I'm getting the new handheld console to play not just new games on the go, but to also play games I played in my childhood on the go, including PS2 games.

All of this is why the PS2 is our most favorite console of all time. We can be able to celebrate the console's 25th year by playing PS2 games on the PS4 and PS5, including Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Soul Calibur III, which are the two new PS2 games launching on the classics catalog this year and they are going to be a part of the PS2's 25th year celebration to make things even more exciting.

However, the lackluster one classic game per month release cadence was slammed by many, especially when there are many of their fan-favorites are just itching to be on the classics catalog. But Sony is listening to the criticism surrounding the one classic game per month release cadence and they will never return to their lackluster cadence ever again and hopefully picking up the pace by releasing five classic games per month, so this means the Simpsons Hit & Run, Ape Escape 3, Ratchet and Clank (Not the PS3 release) and other heavy hitters will have more of a chance. Regardless, the PS2's 25th anniversary will still be hype because we can play PS2 games on the PS4 and PS5, including the ones with emulation features.

We saw the brand's 30th anniversary celebration become even more hype because of PlayStation Plus Premium that we can be able to play PS1 games on the PS4 and PS5. I have the link to the post that covered it all right here.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2024/12/playstation-30th-anniversary-is-here.html

Companies' Plan of Porting Classic Fighting Games to Modern Platforms

There are diehard classic fighting game fans of the FGC that are wanting to revisit fighting games from back in the day and their wish has been fulfilled. Several companies are porting their beloved classic fighting games to modern consoles and I have some groundbreaking news to give you, so you must stay tuned until the end of the post. Anyway, let's dive right into the post.

If you're a big fan of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, you probably played any of these games in the 90s when you were younger, and that's nice. But specifically, I like to point out to the practice the companies are planning to do. It has come to my attention that companies like Capcom are open to porting their classic fighting games to modern platforms with online play with rollback netcode and a ton of other modern features. Diehard FGC members are itching to revisit classic fighting games back in the day and it's exactly happening.

First off, Capcom was able to compile their retro fighters into several compilations, like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Capcom Fighting Collection 1 and 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.th All of the compilations became successful among those of the FGC who like to revisit them when they were kids. All of the collections are available now, so go check them out.

Now, there is not one, but two companies that are following Capcom's footsteps. Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios have announced the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection. It's a compilation that has every classic Mortal Kombat game, including the two spin-offs that were universally hated, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Both games were critically panned over bland and repetitive gameplay, poor storytelling and unbearable difficulty. Both games were universally hated. I am suprised that they revealed the two critical pan-worthy spin-offs instead of the 2000s 3D-era trilogy that involves switching between three fighting styles, so they might be seen in Vol. 2. Who knows? The collection is available now, so go check it out.

The FGC is in a bit of a thriving moment. Modern fighting games weren't hated. They have innovations that people favored. Marvel Tokon became a perfect example of being an innovative tag team-oriented fighting game with 4v4 combat that teams share with one health bar unlike typical tag-oriented fighting games. Marvel Tokon is developed by Arc System Works, the Japanese company that is not a part of Sony, so it is a AA developer free from influence of a AAA company, meaning that Arc System Works has somewhat of a freedom to develop their games however they want and they met the critieria indie and AA devs have met.

I have to cut to the chase and explain why I love to revisit fighting games from back in the day. When it comes to classic fighting games, they don't bear bad influences of AAA developers they have today, especially to the fifth, sixth and seventh generations of gaming, which I think it's perfect. I ignored compilations of retro fighting games as we have compilations of them in this generation today. That said, I like to talk about classic fighting games from retro 3D generations that are available in the classics catalog today.

Very loosely, there are classic fighting games currently available in the classics catalog. On the Nintendo side of things, Killer Instinct Gold is now available on the N64 Classics catalog and Soul Calibur II is available on the Switch 2-exclusive GameCube Classics catalog, so you need a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership to play them. And on the Sony side of things, Tekken 2, Tekken 6 for the PSP and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny are available now on the classics catalog and they are also purchaseable so that you can play them 24/7. And here's the groundbreaking part regarding classic fighting games.

During September's State of Play, two additional classic fighting games have been revealed. They were revealed to be Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur III. Bandai Namco, or should I say Namco's, threequels of fighting games are coming to the catalog later this year and this marks a less lackluster lineup. So why these games deserved to be in the classics catalog? Let's get to the topic.

First off, Tekken 3. This game is the peak of the franchise and the final game to ever be released on the PS1 before later games of the franchise get released on the PS2. It released in arcades before being ported to consoles. There's even a Tekken Force side scrolling beat-em-up game mode and a Tekken Ball game mode. My brother played this game when he was young. I played it when I was young as well and I pretty much loved it. I have been wanting this game to come to the PS3's library of PS1 games and it's finally available on classics catalog on the PS4 and PS5 along with Tekken 2. This month's lackluster lineup may have one game, but what matters is that it's one game I wished for and that's Tekken 3.

Interestingly, Tekken 3 won't be the only threequel under the Namco name because Soul Calibur III is also coming to the classics catalog later this year. This is another fighting game I played back in the day and it's a direct sequel to Soul Calibur II. I have rented it from Hollywood Video in my old stomping grounds and I loved it. And it uses Sofdec, ADX, and THX. We know Tomb Raider: Anniversary is launching in November, but it's unknown as to when Soul Calibur III is launching, but I would say December. You see, Sofdec, ADX and THX are the reason why the 6th generation-era had to be the best era and the first game that uses these elements coming to PlayStation Plus is Soul Calibur III.

And I have received another piece of groundbreaking news. Edia is open to bringing the original Battle Arena Toshinden trilogy released on the PS1 to modern consoles. This was met with excitement among fans who played these games before. I know I never played Battle Arena Toshinden, but I'm interested in these games. This is another big win for us in the fighting game community, along with Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur III launching this year, exciting the ever thriving FGC as they became a unwavering backbone of the community. It's possible that EVO and Combo Breaker are two tournaments that showcased throwback fighting games, so we can see a retro fighting game tournament someday.

We're seeing more classic fighting games released in 3D retro generations coming to the classics catalog. This means the first Tekken, Bloody Roar, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and Clash of Ninja, the 3D-era Mortal Kombat games that involve switching styles and even wrestling games that are more charming under the THQ umbrella than the ones under the 2K umbrella, especially the ones released on 6th generation titles, may have more of a guaranteed chance to release on Nintendo and Sony's classics catalog on their modern platforms. That's something we can chase for.

Retro fighting games from back in the day being ported to modern platforms aren't the only things to chase for because we're also chasing for not one, but two things; two of the Simpsons games developed by Radical and the original Crash and Spyro games. I have two links to two posts covering the following.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/04/radicals-two-simpsons-games.html

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/10/playstations-two-legendary-ips.html

PlayStation's Two Legendary IPs

The PlayStation was established in 1994 when the first came out in Japan. Fast forward to 1996, and one of the legendary IPs came in and to 1998, another one came in. I like to talk about how PlayStation has those two kings in this post.

We all know that PlayStation is the brand that was launched in 1994, the year I was born and the brand will soon be turning 31 this year. 1996, one man who worked for Universal named Mark Cerny and his friends, came in to hire the developers for their three-game contract.

Universal has brought on and hired Naughty Dog for their three-game contract after being impressed their first game that is a fighting game, Way of the Warrior, released on the 3DO. Naughty Dog wanted to make a 2.5D platformer that is family-friendly for the PS1 and that's where Willy the Wombat comes in. Naughty Dog continued development, but wasn't a fan of the name and asked Universal if they can change it to something that fits well.

However, after the developers put in crates into the game in a way to make levels more fun and challenging, they came up with a different name, Crash Bandicoot. Universal didn't want to call it that however. It was all or nothing that Naughty Dog threatened to drop the project completely if Universal doesn't accept the Crash Bandicoot name. So they did and Naughty Dog went on with the project. After Naughty Dog entered crunch time during the development of Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Universal caused the poor treatment to Naughty Dog by turning off the air conditioning to the building. How dare they turn off the air conditioner to the building during crunch time and treat Naughty Dog like garbage. It's not cool.

Naughty Dog wanted to leave the Crash IP in its entirety once their three-game contract was up after Crash 3's release, but PlayStation wanted another game. But following Universal's poor treatment, Naughty Dog refused to work with Universal. Additionally, they wanted to get away from the platforming scene and do something different like making a kart racer, so after Sony negotiated with the companies, PlayStation has conducted it so that Naughty Dog and Sony would work together under a licensing deal from Universal so that Naughty Dog would have the least amount of contact with Universal as possible.

This has resulted in the development of Crash Team Racing. This is a spin-off racing game that doesn't count as a mainline game because CTR was developed by Naughty Dog without a contract. But it would be their final game developed by Naughty Dog before the IP gets passed to Eurocom for a party game, Crash Bash, which would be the final Crash game for the PS1. Sony negotiatiing between the companies is a good deal after Naughty Dog refused to work with Universal after their poor treatment. However, nothing has ever gotten as close with Hidden Variable suing Autumn for a breach of contract and Future Club didn't even bother negotiating between the companies.

If you look at the release dates of each game, the first game came out in 1996. Then a sequel came in 1997, followed by the final game of the original trilogy in 1998. The cherry on top of it, CTR came out in 1999. Naughty Dog was able to release a game every year for four years. Skylanders also has the practice of releasing a game every year, but there are multple studios that are working on the projects to help alleviate the workload for all teams. Naughty Dog did it all solo.

Naughty Dog wasn't the only company that was brought on by Universal for the three-game contract because they also brought on Insomniac and they also had a three-game contract with them to develop their own family-friendly IP after the release of Disruptor. They have a legendary and titular purple dragon, Spyro the Dragon.

Now, Spyro, our titular purple dragon, is also getting a family-friendly IP like Crash Bandicoot, but it's more charming than the other because of collecting gems and it's a 3D platformer with open exploration. And sequels in the original trilogy have two of the best goddesses, Elora the Faun and Bianca the Rabbit. So these dudettes are canon and they are the best chicks like Sally Acorn and Bunnie Rabbot. This also defines the fact that Spyro is more charming than Crash Bandicoot and what the forests make me think of, so I used Mortal Kombat 11's soundtrack to boost it.

Insomniac has followed Naughty Dog's footsteps and they were also treated like crap during crunch time like Naughty Dog was. Universal turned off the air conditioning and gutting their employees for how much they were worth. That's why they didn't had the time to come up with fresh new ideas. However, they did come up with a new idea when developing Spyro: Year of the Dragon. They brought in four side characters, each came with their own theme that plays in their perspective. The experience in Insomniac's work of bringing in side characters became a fresh new idea in Year of the Dragon. It has got as close as it did with SEGA making Sonic's friends also playable in Sonic Frontiers.

But the only difference between them is that Naughty Dog did a kart racer for the Crash IP while Insomniac didn't for the Spyro IP. After their three-game contract was up, Naughty Dog and Insomniac were done with Crash and Spyro and left to pursue Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank while Universal wasn't because Sony doesn't own Crash or Spyro, but Universal did, meaning that they can brand their IPs however they want.

This led to Universal passing their Crash IP to Traveller's Tales to develop their very first Crash game for the PS2 and Mark Cerny has their own team after leaving Universal to help them on the project titled Crash Bandicoot Worlds. It was originally a 3D free-roam game and planned to be published by Sony. But when Cerny left, Traveller's Tales went back to the drawing board and started from scratch. This resulted in the creation of their first Crash Bandicoot game that is not developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.

Behind the scenes, Wrath of Cortex was developed in multiple platforms beyond PlayStation because of their partnership with Konami. Upon release, the reviews were mixed with critics praising the return of elements seen in the original trilogy and criticizing the low innovation on elements from the originals, how they handled Coco and the long load times on the PS2 version when the Xbox and Gamecube versions have reduced load times being met with praise. But it sold well and passed the average sales of the original trilogy because of being multiplatform and a return to its roots of a 2.5D platformer after Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash, making this the most popular and bestselling Crash Bandicoot game of all time. While the game had mixed reviews, it was actually a good game overall. I played it back in the day and I pretty much loved it when I was a kid. I even realized why we are defending Wrath of Cortex in the first place. It's because the title has established a slightly larger audience than the original trilogy, making it as an excuse to do so.

Then Universal passed their Spyro IP to Check Six and Equinoxe for their first Spyro game not developed by Insomniac that became... oh my god, an unmitigated disaster, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly.

Behind the scenes, Enter the Dragonfly kept on getting rewrites and ideas scrapped after nothing worked and so on, which is why Elora did not make it into the game and then was given an awfully short development time to release it for the Christmas season. When the game was ready to release, it was a Homer Simpson mess that it was riddled with bugs with a big LMFAO because Universal couldn't figure out what they want to develop for a new Spyro game. I saw the video covering the bugs in the game and I laughed. But it turns out that Enter the Dragonfly wasn't the only game that became a mess because Sonic 06 was also a mess of game. I was at a loss for words on that one.

I have been wanting to revisit the original trilogies since the PS4 came out, but PS Now lacked a PS1 catalog and none of the modern consoles were fully backwards compatible because of the PS3's Cell processor and its notorious architecture. Fortunately, rewind back to 2022, Sony has planned a beefed up PlayStation Plus to have three tiers, with the highest offering a vast library of classics released on the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP. So far, their progress of bringing back their beloved games has turned out well, but still no Crash or Spyro game on the PS1 yet, until I realized something.

Crash Bandicoot has turned 29 this year while Spyro turned 27 this year. I wanted to revisit their original games, but I don't think that the original trilogies are gonna make it to the classics catalog until Crash turns 30 in 2026 and Spyro turns 30 in 2028. But that's just me speculating. We can find out if my speculation comes true or not. I do miss the charming polygon models of the original games, as well as hearing woahs often. Also, I can revisit Wrath of Cortex, but not Enter the Dragonfly because it was an unmitigated disaster and a rush of a game.

The PS1 era was defined as charming because of its two IPs that defined the generation of gaming. PlayStation was able to market Crash and Spyro games and put their money to Mark Cerny of Universal to keep their games exclusive to the PS1. They only had publishing rights to the original games and never owned the rights to both games in terms of intellectual property. This also defined the PS1 era as charming.

It pretty much lived up to the idea of Universal enlisting Naughty Dog and Insomniac for their three-game contract after the release of Way of the Warrior and Disruptor. They are the two developers that were able to make three nearly perfect original games and they made Universal look amazing even though they treated them like garbage during crunch time where the devs had to stay and work after hours if they want to release a game every year. In fact, Naughty Dog and Insomniac are the reason why the original trilogies are the best games. After both companies parted ways with the series, Universal passed along to different studios to continue the franchises and they became a terrible company then.

It took years for Universal to actually figure out what they were doing. They still struggled with figuring out how to make a decent Crash and Spyro game even though they became Vivendi Universal. Twinsanity became an obvious example. Dozens of gameplay hours have been cut from the game due to Universal not having any idea what they were doing.

Fast forward into now, Toys for Bob has spun off from Activision to become an indie developer and they are working on a brand new Spyro the Dragon game. They started development in January 2024 and we still haven't gotten word about it since. After hearing the new Spyro is gonna be big and ambitious, it's unlikely that the new Spyro is gonna be a modern Spyro that is based on the Insomniac trilogy that was the most popular to get the same treatment as Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. This means that it won't have the elements the original trilogy is known for like hub worlds with a bunch of levels, one boss, one flight level, collecting gems in a level and partaking missions. Instead, it's gonna be open world and have a skill tree. But will retain all that charm the original trilogy has. The only things I want in the new Spyro is having the goddesses from the sequels in the original trilogy and elemental breaths.

But Crash Bandicoot, on the other hand, is in a bit of a pickle. The next mainline game was in development, but it was then cancelled due to Xbox being let go. But we heard one developer under the Activision umbrella that we didn't know much about. They are called Iron Galaxy Studios, the developers of Killer Instinct. Iron Galaxy has developed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 after Vicarious Visions left Activision for Blizzard to become Blizzard Albany. And hey, maybe Iron Galaxy can take a crack of developing Crash Bandicoot 5 and team up with Toys for Bob for a Crash and Spyro crossover game.

So, this concludes on how the two IPs became so well-liked in the PlayStation. Both of these guys became kings and they made comebacks for the past few years. Crash and Spyro are two platformers that classify the PS1 era as charming and we can find out if the original games are gonna launch in PlayStation Plus during the 30th anniversary of the legendary duo or not. We will soon see. It's something that we've been chasing for since the launch of the beefed up PlayStation Plus.

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 bone 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 to teach AAA gaming a lesson for putting the boundaries on greed.

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 and this has created a pay to progress scenario. This is defined as microtransactions that became a bottleneck on grinding. I call it grinding bottleneck microtransactions that create pay to progress scenarios.

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 pay to progress scenarios. 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.

But then, I realized that Player First Games is an indie studio and MultiVersus is actually a game developed by an indie developer. If it's true, then why the heck they take microtransactions too far when indie developers have less greed? From what I see, Warner Bros. Games is a AAA company. When they acquired Player First Games, they became a AAA developer. That's why microtransactions were taken too far. I mean, come on!

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 didn't use pal.

See, 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 with pay to progress scenarios. 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 of this game 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 Ahri and Yasuo, 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 and creating the synergy from Vi teaming up with her childhood sister Jinx after making her debut, courtesy of Arcane.

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 and cel shading used in Guilty Gear and other Arc titles that use cel shading.

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 guaranteed.

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 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. However, the limit is 12,000 Credits. Riot has thought about microtransactions Player First Games has implemented to produce pay to progress scenarios 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 bottleneck-worthy 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; new stages become available to unlock with 7,500 Credits from the get-go of a new Season.

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 and even planning to support more tournaments in 2026 and beyond, including BoxJam Slam, the duos-only toournament to encourage duos, 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 widespread praise and excitement as her name is listed on the game's wiki.

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, I'll update this part here once the game's Metacritic score has been revealed. 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 the free currency from the get-go 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, launch the game with it and leave it alone. They don't have to re-figure or retool it from the ground up. The game's free currency for unlocking characters, palettes and even time-limited uncommon and rare cosmetics is how microtransactions became less predatory.

Not only that. Riot has went the extra mile to make 2XKO worthy of unleashing its full potential in the FGC and in the competitive scene and opened up to limitless creativity, meaning that if other companies behind their free-to-play games like Hi-Rez, Blizzard 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.

Predatory microtransactions have multiple sources of alienating players with 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 and that's something Player First Games should've done instead of sunsetting the game.

In conclusion, while in Early Access, 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 in Early Access and onwards. 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 New Characters Per Year

According to the game director of 2XKO, Shaun Rivera, we are gonna be seeing an annual cadence of releasing five new Champions a year starting in 2026. Following Warwick's launch in Season 0, each Season will have a new Champion. 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. Also, the game has went into Early Access and it's now available on PC and coming soon to console, so if you hadn't played it yet, go check it out. But besides that, let's dive into the post.

So, if you played League of Legends or watched Arcane, chances are, there are numerous and I mean numerous characters just begging to be in 2XKO because of its small roster. 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 an annual release cadence of five new Champions a year, starting in early 2026, following Warwick's launch in Season 0. However, Warwick wasn't the only new Champion, but Teemo as well.

This is generally in response to the criticism surrounding a 2v2 tag-oriented fighting game having a small roster of characters when others have a larger roster. 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 a small roster of eight base characters when there are tag battles, but expanded the roster to the number of characters we have today. I know bigger isn't always better, but in this case, would be 2XKO, a bigger character roster is always better than a smaller character roster, especially in the competitive scene.

Early Access saw Teemo and Warwick expanding the roster to 11 characters at launch, so since an annual five-new-characters-a-year release cadence is being planned, 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. They adapted 11 characters from the MOBA setting into the fighting game setting so far and they're looking to adapt the 12th character from the MOBA setting to a fighting game setting. I'll talk about who will that 12th character be later on in this post.

But how they well-adapted characters from League of Legends to 2XKO? Well, Arucelli, the lead concept, has given a perfect explanation on how would they adapt League of Legends characters into 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. These three teams decide how characters from 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, the character's concept art 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's get put together by a team of animators, character, tech and VFX artists so that the character from the MOBA environment would be adapted well into the fighting game environment after their redesign process is complete.

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 that are impactful in the fighting game genre like swinging his blowdart, putting in a patch of grass, being able to use his slingshot, having a badge install mechanic to grant him poison darts, poison mushrooms and fire imbued rocks from his slingshot and a spinball dash. Warwick's innovations in 2XKO are 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 in the future of this post.

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 spinball 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, before we start listing and highlighting potential characters that Shaun is referring to, 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."

This is the only point I need you to focus on. I was chatting with one of my friends when the game was in Closed Beta who made their wish list of characters and has a lot of them. As we were chatting in a casual lobby, we got into the subject of Riot expanding the roster continuously and learning how characters were able to be adapted from the MOBA setting into the fighting game setting.

See, typically, developing new characters take time depending on their personality, but the developers are in a bit of a pickle. When it comes to developing characters, they need to focus on adding core mechanics that aren't seen in the MOBA. That's where someone I chatted with ingame given me the first impression of how characters from the MOBA function well in a fighting game like I was with Kids' WB back in the day when I was a kid.

I want to do something a little creative. 2XKO's gameplay nearly resembles SEGA vs. Capcom in terms of being a tag fighter. I'm making characters in League of Legends having the same playstyle as the characters first seen in SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level if they come to 2XKO a criteria on this post when highlighting characters Rivera could be potentially referring to.

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 listed in backwards ABC order. Because these characters are available by default to newcomers, they have to pick these characters until they have enough Credits or KO Coins or when they have Champion Tokens that are earned from completing the First Steps, the First Fight tutorial and purchasing the standard or deluxe edition of the Arcane pack to unlock the later characters. Now, on to the imagining.

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. 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 Tekken Tag Tournament 2 by shrinking the characters' portraits and the random selection and making a new row to pave the way for more Champs after the 16th Champ in 2027 and onwards.

It doesn't have to be characters that have the same playstyle as the characters in the fangame, but characters in other fighting games as well.

Since 2XKO is set in the League of Legends universe, I have to look at the current roster of characters and identify what region they are from real quick. Very loosely, the current roster has 11 characters, so there are two Ionian characters being Ahri and Yasuo, four Zaun characters being Ekko, Jinx, Blitzcrank and Warwick, one Piltover character being Vi, one Noxian character being Darius, one Bilgewater character being Illaoi, one Freljordian character being Braum and one Bandle City character being Teemo. But the current roster has none of the characters from Targon, Demacia, Shurima, Shadow Isles and Ixtal.

This criteria comes in not one that points out to 2XKO not having a single champion from certain regions, but also the other one that points out to the game having one character from Noxus, Bilgewater, the Freljord, Bandle City and Piltover.

Now, I have to explain this part real quick because when we get to breaking down characters that Rivera is potentially talking about, we need to know the following things to get out of the way. Teemo swings his blowdart and a skillet, puts patches of grass, uses his slingshot and performs a Sonic Spinball dash in 2XKO, These can't be done in League of Legends, making them 2XKO-exclusive mechanics. I call it a fighting game-exclusive innovation. Now, this is more of a firm term as it's basically coined to explain how Granblue Fantasy characters that use projectiles were adapted from the RPG environment into the fighting game environment to receive innovations.

But it means a Marksman character, in this case, would be Teemo, performs a Sonic Spinball dash in the fighting game setting, but he doesn't do that in the MOBA setting, so Teemo performs a Sonic Spinball dash in 2XKO, but not in League of Legends. Another way of defining a fighting game-exclusive innovation is for a Mage character. In this case, Ahri swings her foxfire in the fighting game setting, but she can only throw her foxfire in the MOBA setting. So yeah, Ahri swings her foxfire in 2XKO, but not in League of Legends as she's, of course, a Mage character.

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. But they get impatful innovations to their kit when it comes to adapting ranged characters from the MOBA setting into the fighting game setting. When someone I chatted with had told me about this, I asked them what made people think that certain characters are deconfirmed, but haven't been given a clear reason. But regardless, we know what exactly Shaun Rivera is alluding to.

The next thing when is what characters Riot has confirmed. 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 or message boards and type in the name of a not yet released character before or after 2XKO in the Google Search bar, 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 Dragon Ball FighterZ effect, because many people thought that certain characters will never be adapted into 2XKO, hence why people are like, "Why didn't Riot ever give us this Champ?!". But in reality, since 2XKO is having an endless roster, Champs they wished for will always have a guaranteed chance to be in 2XKO.

Now, this criteria when breaking down characters Rivera is talking about to conclude with is two things dedicated to Arcane. First off, Warwick is confirmed to be the fourth Arcane character to come to 2XKO for four reasons. I am stressing FOUR because there are now FOUR Arcane characters in 2XKO.

Firstly is Arcane's lore. Vander became Warwick. 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 to explore Piltover and Zaun. 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. However, there isn't an intro dialogue between Ekko and Warwick.

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 more Arcane characters.

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. Fortunately, if I purchase the standard bundle first, the price of higher bundles will decrease.

In order to honor Arcane to the max, players must choose different Arcane charaters without mirrors, equip the Arcane skin for them and choose either Bridge of Progress or Firelight Run.

Now let's go on to the next thing that is dedicated to Arcane, outliers. Outliers are characters from Piltover and Zaun that are not in Arcane. Let me give you an example of an outlier in 2XKO. Blitzcrank is essentially the first outlier to come to 2XKO. Grappler, robot from Zaun, built to fight. He won't be the only outlier because more outliers are coming and they won't be getting an Arcane skin since they are outliers. It wouldn't hurt to bring in more Piltover and Zaun outliers to 2XKO. I think what is really cool is that if there are matches that feature three Arcane characters and one outlier, it would be called, "If {outlier} Was in Arcane". But it doesn't have to be just Piltover and Zaun outliers, but characters from other regions in Runeterra with the exception of two characters that are not from Piltover or Zaun or are outliers. I'll talk about them later.

But I think this is probably more important than you might initially think. Arcane is a very special animated TV series that is in a very special situation. It driven games in the League of Legends franchise to have skins for characters that are featured in Arcane. As a lot of people watched Arcane, they would love to see the characters make their debut to 2XKO and wish that the outliers were in Arcane, but they're not. 2XKO now has four Arcane characters and one outlier. Will soon be having more Arcane characters after Warwick and more outliers after Blitzcrank once 2XKO is fully launched. And the latest of the League of Legends IP that got the Arcane skins for characters is 2XKO.

So that means Rivera is referring to characters that meet the following criteria below.

-Featured in Arcane
-Outliers that aren't featured in Arcane
-Confirmed by Riot
-Missing aesthetics or mechanics
-Ranged characters to receive innovations to their kit and personality that can fit in the fighting game genre
-Have the same playstyle as characters in not just SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level, but characters from other fighting games as well
-Characters from certain regions that are not yet in 2XKO (Specifically the ones from Demacia, Shurima, Targon, Ixtal and the Shadow Isles)
-Characters from certain regions that have one character in 2XKO (Specifically the ones from Noxus, the Freljord, Bilgwater, Piltover and Bandle City)

Now still, I know I don't play League of Legends, but there are many characters the developers have planned to release, but also, I wanted to focus on characters that I want are meeting up to my standards as they would be awesome in 2XKO. See, I ignored Void Champions and characters that I don't want aren't meeting up to my standards.

As I have said, there are numerous characters in League of Legends just begging to be 2XKO, so I decided to highlight characters that I think could potentially be coming to 2XKO. But I'll be highlighting characters I want to meet at least one criteria. Champions that are marked with an asterisk are featured in Arcane.

Now, I will be using the universe page's Champion gallery to sort Champions by region. It has a region name labelled on each character, and this is the only site I can use when it comes to what regions the Champions are from. It also has the ones that have the Runeterra label to represent that they are not from a region that is listed. However, I will also be using League of Legends' Champion gallery to help analyze how characters would play in 2XKO. It has every Champion released so far and leaves no error screen when clicking on the Champion to view their abilities. Now, let's get to highlighting and breaking down the Champions I want for 2XKO. I may have the majority of characters I want being humans, but they are all I want.

Katarina

Now let's talk about the possible 12th Champion coming to 2XKO, and that is Katarina. So right off the bat, I'm gonna explain what happened to the red-haired Sinister Blade of Noxus and why our Noxian assassin was Thanos snapped from the game.

In 2019 when Riot has announced Project L and began initial development to celebrate League of Legends' 10th anniversary, Katarina was introduced from the get-go. She was well-developed and her moves were figured out, until in 2020, the game went through development limbo. They hit a snag and it's not on the fault of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Riot had to go back to the drawing board and learn from their failure in the first go. During their second try, they updated the game's art style to bring cel shading and make characters veer from their original conception. That's what happened to Katarina and why she was Thanos snapped from the game.

I wanted her as a launch character, but since Teemo and Warwick have taken the spot, she's highly likely to return as 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 after it for post-launch Champions.

This seals the deal that Katarina is guaranteed to be the confirmed 12th (first post-launch, fifth female and second Noxian) Champion to be adapted into 2XKO. That's why she's listed here and she can be a decent Champion to play. 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

It turns out that it wasn't just Katarina being a red-haired character I want, but Miss Fortune as well, the red-haired Bounty Hunter of Bilgewater who is best known for wielding dual pistols that fire bullets in the shape of a tiny cannonball in my wish list. Now, if Sarah Fortune makes her debut to 2XKO, she's likely to be as mobile and agile as characters that wield dual pistols like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue, Star-Lord in Marvel Tokon and Eltnum from Melty Blood and have innovations that would be normals that involve swinging her pistols and have an OTG special that involves shooting bullets on the ground while standing and a special that involves shooting on the ground while in mid-air like these characters since she is a Marksman.

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. If you look closely at the Brazen Hydra, it's themed around a pirate ship and a tavern. Looking closely, Miss Fortune is potentially making her debut to 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. Since Caitlyn is a Marksman character in League of Legends, her kit and personality will receive innovations in 2XKO like swinging her rifle with her normals and Hextech mines that detonate on contact 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 potential 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 Hextech 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 Demacian Champion yet and Xin Zhao is one of the Demacian Champions that is in my wish list. 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, but not an outlier since she is featured in Arcane. 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 Soul's Reflection make it to 2XKO with innovations since Mel is a Mage character.

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 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 ranged characters in the MOBA are adapted well into fighting game genre to receive innovations.

Ambessa Medarda*

Now, Ambessa might be the next interesting Champion to talk about. Like Mel, daughter of the Medarda family, Ambessa is a Noxian, but not an outlier like her daughter since she is 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 to retain 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. Because Sona is a mage, her instrument will have innovations that fit in 2XKO 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 Mage Champs to 2XKO with innovations 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

There isn't a single Ixtal Champ in 2XKO yet. Nidalee is an Ixtal Champion in my wish list 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 so that 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 fair enough. 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 Teemo trailer and that's another Yordle coming to 2XKO, and that's Kennen, the Yordle of Ionia. 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 with innovations of swinging his lightning and a little bit of Sonic gameplay seen in SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level with his move that involves a Sonic Spinball dash with a ton of lightning since Kennen is a Mage.

Annie

Annie is capable of summoning Tibbers, her monsterous teddy bear in League of Legends. If Annie comes to 2XKO, she'll likely have a playstyle similar to Carl and Relius Clover from BlazBlue, meaning that both Annie and Tibbers can stand on the ground in combat at the same time, Tibbers can follow Annie around throughout the match, Since Annie is a Mage character, she'll receive innovations that fit in 2XKO like swinging her fire magic with her normals and Tibbers can be able to attack with S2. Think of it as Annie's Drive attack in 2XKO. Press the S2 button and Tibbers attacks. Simple as that.

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 to make Nunu stand on Willump throughout the match. This marks meeting the criteria of missing aesthetics or mechanics.

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. Hypothetically. But regardless, it can be intriguing for Nilah to make it into 2XKO and she can be a fun Champion to play overall.

Lillia

It wouldn't hurt to bring a centaur into the fighting game environment. Besides, 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. Since Twisted Fate is a hybrid of a Marksman and Mage character, he'll receive innovations that fit in the fighting game environment so that he can pull a Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, come with cards that come with status ailments to use against enemies and swinging his cards.

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, which meets the criteria of Mage characters from the MOBA receiving innovations in the fighting game setting. 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 so that she can swing her magic like Ahri does. She is an Ionian Champion like her and Ionians are renowned, especially to the ones what use magic.

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 hypothetically similar to Jinx's without the trapping and it's canon that Ziggs befriends Jinx and moves to Zaun after taking her advice. Well, Ziggs is an outlier, a non-Arcane character, but 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 labelled him as the 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.

Riven

I think Riven is gonna be dope in 2XKO. She meets the criteria of having aesthetics or mechanics that are missing in the current roster. Most notably, her Blade of the Exile to offer EX special moves and that is likely her install super. And to be honest, having a character named after a game that is a sequel to Myst is kind of interesting, but not as interesting as wanting her in 2XKO, though.

Sett

Vi is not the only boxer Champion because Sett is also a boxer in League of Legends. This may not be a missing aesthetic or mechanic, but I think Sett is gonna be awesome in 2XKO with his punches. Plus, he's likely to have the same playstyle as Axel Stone from Streets of Rage, while not a fighting game, in SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. As a bonus, Sett meets this critieria of having a similar playstyle of one of the characters in SEGA vs. Capcom and that's Axel Stone. There is a degree that is a bit much.

Sivir

2XKO doesn't have a Shurima Champion yet and Sivir is one of the Shurima Champions in my wish list. She wields a crossblade and it's possible that if Sivir makes her debut to 2XKO, she'll come with innovations that fit in the fighting game environment like swinging her crossblade.

Smolder

Our dragon of Noxus is capable of breathing fire in League of Legends, and he can receive innovations in 2XKO that would be using his claws, which is never done in League because he's both a Mage and a Marksman character. And it's likely that he'll have a playstyle similar to Tianhuo from Them's Fightin' Herds and a Spyro palette if he makes it to 2XKO. This is defined as a missing mechanic.

Briar

Briar became a failed experiment by the Black Rose to make her hungry for blood like Warwick. If Briar comes to 2XKO, she may come with a unique meter that is similar to Warwick's Bloodlust, but works when she uses her moves that involve draining her opponents' HP. That can offer EX special moves and cancel options. I would love to see a freakish Noxian failure make her way into 2XKO.

Tryndamere

This champion of the Freljord, Tryndamere, meets this criteria of a missing aesthetic or mechanic. He has a mighty weapon, the greatsword. This mighty barbarian is gonna do well in 2XKO that he can have an install mechanic that grants him his Undying Rage to offer EX special moves, but only triggers when his HP is below 25% and offers him EX special moves to be a game changer rather than increasing his attack power. But would stay at his Undying Rage state even when his HP is healed above 25%.

Ezreal

Looking at his abilities, Ezreal is gonna be dope in 2XKO with his punches imbued with lightning and that defines a fighting game genre-exclusive innovation. Vi is the Piltover Champion that wields gauntlets, but Ezreal wields one gauntlet on one of his hands and he can be a decent Champion to play. However, Ezreal is not an Arcane character despite having one of his moves having "Arcane" in the name, but he definetely deserves to be in 2XKO in an objective sense possible along with Ziggs, who is also an outlier.

Thresh

This champion would be interesting to break down because one of the users on YouTube wants Thresh in 2XKO and explains Riot how Thresh would play in 2XKO as the first Shadow Isles Champion and... he can be somewhat of a decent character to play. After all, I have a lot of characters in my wish list and Thresh is one of them because his hook can pull towards enemies. In fact, I can use him to do well against annoying characters to play against like Teemo.

Pantheon

Pantheon is gonna be awesome in 2XKO and the game doesn't have a Targon Champion yet. He has a shield and spear in his arsenal and he is another Champion I can use well against annoying zoners with his Aegis Assault. Plus, Pantheon can be a decent Targon Champion to play.

Fiora

Who could ever forget about the lovely Demacian Champion? Fiora is best known for thrust attacks in League of Legends with her rapier as a duelist. This character, I believe, is gonna set the stage in 2XKO as a duelist known for thrust and lunge attacks. This can be a potential Champion that Fiora meets the criteria of mechanics or aesthetics currently missing.

Garen

Another Demacian Champion in a row to highlight and it's one of the Champs who I found interesting. Garen is gonna peak in 2XKO with his greatsword that is bigger than Tryndamere's. Darius is labelled as the Hand of Noxus while Braum is labelled as the Heart of the Freljord, so I like to see the Might of Demacia make his way into 2XKO and see how he would fare well.

Samira

Sivir isn't the only Shuriman Champion in my wish list because Samira is the second Shuriman Champion I want, and she's gonna be dope in 2XKO. With her sword and gun in hand, she can mark it to have the same playstyle as 2B from Nier in Soul Calibur VI, which I think it's hypothetical.

LeBlanc*

As stated before, Mage characters will receive innovations in the fighting game genre and LeBlanc is the one that meets this criteria that if she makes it into 2XKO, her staff will be innovated into something that fits in the fighting game environment. Not only that. She is one of the characters that are featured in Arcane, though she is a Noxian, meaning that she can have an Arcane skin like others.

Viktor*

Well, this one may be a cop out to talk about. Viktor was not the  until he is because Jayce, his best friend, is , along with other characters that are featured in Arcane. But what the heck, Viktor can be seemingly decent in 2XKO and perhaps I would like to see the Hextech master make his way into the game. If he does, he'll come with an Arcane skin like others that will.

Gangplank

Not only Gangplank is gonna be peak in 2XKO. He has a lore that beared saying that he has murdered Miss Fortune's parents while she was a child. She went in to avenge her parents by taking down Gangplank's ship while he's still alive. Now, as I have said, the Brazen Hydra is a stage that is a half-tavern half-pirate ship. It can seal the deal that Miss Fortune won't be the only Champion to potentially make her debut to 2XKO because Gangplank can also make his potential debut to 2XKO with his pistol, cutlass and barrels of gunpowder in his arsenal.

Leona

Pantheon is not the only Targon Champion I want in 2XKO because Leona is the second Targon Champion in my wish list to meet the criteria of a missing aesthetic or mechanic. Most notably, wielding her sword and big shield. Now, Leona is gonna do well in the fighting game scene with her powers of fire and the sun as the Radiant Dawn. If Pantheon is the character to walk in the park with, Leona can also be a walk in the park, so I figured that if Leona and Pantheon duo up in 2XKO, it can have intro dialogues between them.

Gwen

I have another Shadow Isles Champion in my wish list and Gwen can do well in 2XKO with her giant magical scissors. She can be a decent character to play overall. None of the fighting games have characters that use scissors as a weapon, but Gwen meets this criteria of missing aesthetics. I would love to see the scissors wielding princess make her way into 2XKO.

Draven

In League of Legends, Draven throws his dual axes and when he comes to 2XKO, this can be innovated so that Draven can swing his dual axes, but can still throw them. Nidalee isn't the only character who will receive innovations of swing her throwing weapon with her normals in 2XKO because Draven is gonna get the same treatment as Nidalee so that he would swing his dual axes with his normals in 2XKO and fair enough.

This also brings me to my point. Remember what I said that Sett is have likely to have the same playstyle as Axel Stone and Kennen is gonna have same playstyle as Sonic with his spinball dash? Since Vyse from Skies of Arcadia is next in line with Morrigan from Darkstalkers to launch in SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level's "Red" patch of Beta 2.75, I have thought about this and believe that Draven is likely to have a bit of a same playstyle as Vyse, but minus the Skull Shield that will serve as Vyse's Persona.

And here's another interesting thing. If Sakura Shinguji from Sakura Wars goes into production and is finished, she is likely to have the same playstyle as Yasuo in 2XKO since she is a samurai of the cherry blossom. It has come to my attention to say that Sakura having the same playstyle as Yasuo in 2XKO counts as a criteria while vice versa.

However, after looking at the Champion gallery, none of the existing characters in League of Legends are gonna have the same playstyle as Linn Kurosawa from the Alien vs. Predator arcade game by Capcom when she goes into production and is finished if they make their debut to 2XKO. There are characters in League of Legends that are gonna have the same playstyle as Sonic, Axel and Vyse, and they are Kennen, Sett and Draven, and a character in SEGA vs. Capcom who will have the same playstyle as Yasuo being in 2XKO's roster when they are finished, and that is Sakura Shinguji from Sakura Wars.

Yuumi

It is possible that support characters like Yuumi will receive innovations that fit well in the fighting game genre. She does have a book and is a Yordle known for healing allies. But this can be innovated if this pretty darn cute and playful cat of Bandle City makes her way into 2XKO.

Poppy

Jayce is not the only hammer wielding character I want, but Poppy as well, the Yordle of Demacia that wields her hammer and she's gonna be peak in 2XKO. She can also be less annoying than Teemo. It's crazy that a tiny little creature like Poppy can be able to wield such a mighty weapon. But hey, she would be dope in 2XKO and can be a decent Yordle to play like Kennen would be nevertheless.

Zaahen

Recently announced new Darkin Champion in League of Legends who I already found to be peak in 2XKO because he also wields a spear like Xin Zhao. It would be nice to see a Darkin Champion like Zaahen make his way into 2XKO in any way, shape or form.

Master Yi

So Master Yi is gonna be awesome and decent in 2XKO. Yes, I know, we already have an Ionian swordsman like Yasuo, but Yi is more agile than Yasuo and he is one of the last living practitioners of the Ionian art of Wuju. It doesn't hurt to give us another Ionian character that uses a sword and I would love to see Yi do well in 2XKO.

Irelia

Sett is not the only Ionian Champion who would be decently graceful with his boxing. Irelia is gonna be a peak character with her graceful and practised movements. She's gonna be awesome to play in 2XKO and she could have a bit of a playstyle similar to Morrigan from Darkstalkers in not just SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level, but other vs. Capcom titles that feature her as well and that is because of her floating blades, which I think it could work in a fighting game.

Janna

Now, Janna is a Zaun character. She is imbued with the power of the wind and serves as the protector and a beacon of hope in Zaun. However, while a Zaun character, Janna is not an Arcane character, but she is shown on the painting if you look closely. Since Janna is a Mage, she'll receive innovations so that she can swing her wind magic on her staff with her normals in 2XKO as she meets the criteria of ranged characters getting innovations to their kit. It went well when Ahri was well-adapted into the fighting game setting and Janna, along with other Mages, will follow suit.

Camille

Another non-Arcane character in my wish list. Camille is gonna be awesome in 2XKO, hands-down. And the reason is that I looked at her abilities weirdly enough that she is a machine built for kicks. And with her kicks, it's a case to say that Camille is gonna be awesome in 2XKO, period, even though she's a Piltover character who was never featured in Arcane.

Zeri

Interestingly, Jinx is not the only Marksman character from Zaun, but Zeri as well, another Marksman character from Zaun. Zeri meets the following criteria of ranged characters receiving innovations in 2XKO to fit in the fighting game genre, characters in League of Legends having the same playstyle as other characters from other fighting games and Zaun characters that are not in Arcane. Looking at her abilities, Zeri is gonna be peak in 2XKO, with her lightning-imbued arm buster. And because of her arm buster, Zeri is likely to have the same playstyle as Mega Man in several vs. Capcom titles that feature him, including yep, you guessed it; SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. But don't call her Mega Woman.

As I have said before, it wouldn't hurt to bring in more Piltover and Zaun outliers, the ones who never been featured in Arcane like Ziggs, Ezreal, Janna, Camille and Zeri, the ones I want. Also, Mel and Ambessa, though they are Noxian characters, are featured in Arcane and they aren't considered as outliers.

Evelynn

I think Evelynn is gonna be awesome and decent in 2XKO and the reason being is because of her Lasher as this shows that she meets the criteria of a missing aesthetic. However, she did not get as close as she would do with Irelia to hypothetically have a bit of a same playstyle as Morrigan. But regardless, Evelynn is gonna be peak in 2XKO and I would love to see Agony's Embrace make her way into the fighting game setting.

*Character featured in Arcane.

These are the Champions I want that will always have a chance to be in 2XKO. I'm not saying that those are guaranteed, but they meet the following criteria set on this post. For the full list of characters I want beyond the ones I have listed here, here's the link to my wish list of characters that will be updated overtime as I remove the character I wished for is announced and I think of new characters to add. Again, I may have the majority of human characters in my wish list, but they are all I want. I'm exempting Katarina from my wish list because she is the guaranteed 12th character coming to 2XKO.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AO3JVl0O3FB53v3VDY6gS18XZAi6BrUxjsmaoXWh8qs/edit?tab=t.0