Well, everyone, this year is starting to be the best and we are nearing the end of 2022 before we get to 2023. So before we get to how 2022 became the best year, we'll talk about the past years.
2020:
It has become a dreadful year because of the pandemic of the virus called COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019). It started this late 2019. We all know that it has an origin to what caused the pandemic. There was an animal being sold at the Wuhan seafood market or whatever the heck that is and it caused the virus to spread across the world. That's when every place closes, we were locked up in the house, had to practice social distancing and wear masks. I was able to watch Sonic the Hedgehog 1 at my local movie theater that makes me think of Skullgirls before the pandemic started. Great video game movie, by the way.
On that year, we went digital and organizers had to start their big fighting game tournaments in an online format to have games with rollback netcode to produce a good and smooth online experience without all that lag. But one good thing has happened that year. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S came out, but they started out rocky because they were immediately sold out.
2021:
The previous year is when vaccines start to roll out across the globe. They usually take years, but global teamwork is how vaccines get finished in record time. They are an important tool to end the COVID-19 pandemic and create a light at the end of the tunnel. Then all of a sudden, variants pop out of the wazoo to prolong the pandemic. Then there are booster shots that can target the dreaded Omicron variant. Weird, we got Transformers up in this.
While people are getting vaccinated, the virus circulated until enough people get immunized to trigger herd immunity, which couldn't be reached because of the variants. It was an alright year that they announced that they are getting their tournaments back to their offline tournaments in 2022.
It is also the year when Joe Biden became President of the United States and his first order was to get millions of people vaccinated and his goal was reached. I am giving props to him for such remark. While we couldn't hit herd immunity, there has been some developments, like working towards the return to our normal activities, That development turned out well and pandemics usually last two years. We do know that there won't be a permanent pandemic and that's a good thing. All I care about is wanting the pandemic to end.
2022:
Now, this year became the best year. Not only we recovered from the pandemic after two years. But there are a lot of good things that happened below.
The Launch of the New PlayStation Plus:
I'm gonna start with the elephant in the room, the all new PlayStation Plus. Since the PS4 came out, it introduced PSNow, a streaming service that has a limited amount of games across the PlayStation family and no more classic games have not been added. Nine years later, PSNow is retired in favor of the all new PlayStation Plus to have three tiers, Essential, Extra and Premium. The Premium tier is something special. It has access to streaming, trials and playing classic games released on the PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3. That caught mine and other players' eye that we can celebrate the legacy with the PS Plus Premium tier.
The PS3 library is huge and has a lot of games, but they are only available for streaming since the PS3 console is a hurdle. The library of PS1, PS2 and PSP games started out small, but more games are being added monthly. Even the PS3 games. I'm looking for the ones that are on my wish list and so far, more PS3 games have been added this month, though it has a big library.
I got a couple of PS2 games and one PS1 game on my library at the moment and I felt reunited with them after years. What really hit me is when I get ready to play some Jak X: Combat Racing the first time in a while, the Dolby Surround Pro Logic II logo appears and then comes the Science of Sensation and the THX logo. Man, oh, man, it feels good to be reunited with my favorite PS2 and PS1 games and I felt that emotional. December is around the corner and I hope they added more PS2 and PS1 games on that month and not just PS3 games because they are only available for streaming and there are plenty to choose from. Even if they do, it has to be at least the ones in my wish list.
The Return to Offline Events:
Ever since the pandemic has hit, fighting game tournaments have been relegated to their online format to have games with rollback netcode. But this year, it is not the case. Offline tournaments are back and better than ever. But this time, they had to wear masks as a safety precaution.
You know that episode in South Park where the boys watch the Russell Crowe Show for the Terrance and Phillip movie trailer in one of the commercial breaks? Well, it inspired me to do the same, by watching events for reveals, like EVO for example. It's the biggest event that has reveals. That's why they called EVO the "Super Bowl" of the FGC and we are so glad the biggest thrill ride of the year is back in Vegas. So does the Japanese venue of EVO, returning early 2023 with seven games on the lineup.
The lineup reveal show was amazing. It had exhibitions and became a celebration. When they mentioned the word "sharpie", I was like "Sharpie? *gasp* That means... It's officially happening! Skullgirls is making its mainstage debut at this year's EVO!" That's the moment that made me feel so emotional that Skullgirls has finally made its mainstage debut at EVO as the mainstage game after ten years. That's how I feel when I was watching the Hi-Rez Presents keynote. That's how the New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer episode inspired me to do the same.
It's too bad Smash couldn't make it at EVO this year because Nintendo has announced that they won't be joining the party to mean that any of their Smash games won't be in the lineup. Since 2007, Smash has been a great starting point for EVO and Nintendo has decided not to continue the tradition after 15 years. For the record, it's Nintendo's fault that Smash couldn't make it, not Sony's fault for purchasing EVO.
Back in 2020, before the pandemic raged, Smash Ultimate was announced to be in that year's lineup. Later, the COVID-19, pandemic came to be and EVO Online was announced to have fewer games, but with rollback netcode to produce a smooth and lag-free netplay and Smash isn't one of them due to its terrible netcode. EVO Online 2020 was cancelled due to the expected controversy that was caused by allegations of sexual misconduct against former CEO.
15 years later, Nintendo has announced that they won't be attending at EVO this year, but they'll continue to assess EVO and other opportunities as they plan future online and offline Smash tournaments. It's okay. I don't blame Nintendo for their decision. Smash is usually limited to tournament legal stages, like Pokemon Coliseum and Final Smashes are banned in official tournaments anyway. If they made the Final Smash meter legal in official tournaments, that would make it feel like they are playing a traditional fighting game because you know, super meters in fighting games.
Smash may not be at EVO since Nintendo made a decision following Sony's purchase, but that didn't stop Smash players from attending. There is one Smash player named Leffen, who attended to sign up for Guilty Gear Strive, which had the most sign ups to be played last at the arena where the top four games with the highest signups are played at. That's what also makes EVO the biggest thrill ride of the year. EVO 2022 had the same moments I experienced on Hi-Expo, which is the Super Bowl of the Hi-Rez community but back in 2018 when the event moved to Dreamhack Atlanta and it deserved the Team Sonic Racing seal of approval. What made it so are Sony's purchase of EVO, A Smash-less EVO after 15 years since 2007, the return to Las Vegas and Skullgirls' main stage debut. These are the four things that made it so.
Keef has an EVO 2022 skit up on YouTube. Go check it out. I do feel bad about Smash not being in EVO this year since Nintendo does not want to work with Sony following their purchase. Just because Sony bought EVO doesn't mean they are restricted to bringing only Sony consoles. Nintendo actually removed their games from the lineup and I don't blame them. That's what the "it's not me, it's you" slang is for. I fear that the future of EVO won't have any of the Smash games ever again. We'll find out as we get closer to the point.
EVO is back and better than ever. Here's to EVO 2023 and EVO Japan 2023 and the possibility of watching more reveals while being inspired by the South Park episode, the New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer. I have a couple of things to improve my experience with watching EVO.
- Less frequent commercial breaks
- Lineup announcement shows without exhibitions
The Return of Nevercake:
My favorite YouTuber is back after a hiatus of three and a half years. There is the return of the SMITE Lore series with Yu Huang and the return of the Nevercake Twins with the first OH! So Spooky Show episode. It has been a good moment and we are glad he's back, though I noticed some of his videos were deleted. It is indeed hopeful that Nevercake is back and that's what made this a good thing that happened this year.
Modus Games' Acquisition with MANE6:
This is the second to best thing that happened and it's big too. Before I get to the point, I start with the past.
Back in February 22, 2018, Them's Fightin' Herds was released on Steam. It's developed by MANE6 and was published by Humble Games.
Before the name "Them's Fightin' Herds" was announced, the game was previously named "My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic" and it was developed by a developer that is named after a group in My Little Pony, MANE6. But Hasbro has witnessed that they are infringing their copyright and dropped a cease and desist order on them. So MANE6 started developing their project from scratch and this time, they are renaming it to "Them's Fightin' Herds" and redoing characters from their My Little Pony bodies into their original bodies to avoid copyright infringement. But one pony character is still there but for totally different reasons.
The name "MANE6" applies to a six pony group in My Little Pony, so the game started out with six playable characters that are all female to stay true to their name. Whereas Arizona is inspired by Applejack for example.
Over two and a half years later since release, they cut ties with Humble Games. I know cut ties usually means no longer supporting the individuals after they did bad stuff that aren't excusable, like Kanye West's antisemitism comments that caused department stores to stop seeling Yeezys. But Humble didn't do anything wrong, so it's more like part ways. Since late 2017, MANE6 and Humble worked together to support Them's Fightin' Herds through the Early Access phase into their 1.0 and 2.0 releases. Going forward, they are gonna not only part ways with Humble, but wish them the best of luck. But the game is still up on Humble Bundle.
The game's development turned out well, even without Humble. But several problems have hit, like crowdfund rewards being in limbo for a long time and development on the Astral Heat-style lv. 3 supers turning out well, but going a bit slow.
But over three and a half years later since release, Modus Games, the publisher of Cris Tales and other projects came to be to acquire MANE6 to benefit the significant growth of their team back in January 20th of this year finishing what Humble Games could not. It benefitted a lot of resources MANE6 needs to make their game successful. Them's Fightin' Herds is going into higher acclaim and greater heights as development is speeding up and getting a ton of improvements and resources thanks to Modus.
Modus Games did this because certain crowdfund rewards have been stuck in limbo, they wouldn't develop the 8th character until Chapter 2 starring Velvet is finished and console ports are time-consuming and expensive projects. Their power made everything happen. I'm gonna go over the two things that happened thanks to Modus; the console ports and new characters.
First off, the most requested one, console ports. When Them's Fightin' Herds first released on Steam, we requested console ports and we dreamed of them. In previous updates, MANE6 said that they needed to make the Mac and Linux ports go through in development. The Mac and Linux builds have been finished and they were giving development of console ports a go, but unfortunately, they hit a snag. They are not that simple to work on because they are time-consuming and expensive. That meant that our dream will not become a reality.
But a year later since the development update, they came to Them's Fightin' Herds October 18 with crossplay thanks to the help of Modus, who are a much bigger and much richer publisher than Humble should've been and their power made them possible. It benefitted an ESRB rating of E10+ for Fantasy Violence, Use of Tobacco and Alcohol Reference and localization. And we're getting ingame subtitles that other 2D fighting games like BBTAG and Melty Blood: Type Lumina have so players can understand the smack talking too.
Seeing that has given me the courage to announce that I'll be adding a TFH character to my BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack wish list divided into six waves as a cherry on top in honor of console ports being inevitable thanks to Modus' help and I did.
Annie from Skullgirls is in Wave 5 of my wish list, so I added Tianhuo to Wave 6 of my wish list to have all six waves of four characters and they would be freaking dope in BBTAG. It's like saying Static Shock would be awesome in MultiVersus and I agree because I want him in the game and his live action movie is in the works too. Sound Stage 15 and Huoshan Capital are their stages they'll come with. And I written them a moveset to show how they perform in BBTAG.
You know that Annie will have her Japanese voice at the end of the Season 1 Pass period and it'll sound the same in BBTAG, so while MANE6 has no plans for Japanese voices, Tianuho will have hers in BBTAG.
Before Arc System Works starts adding Annie and Tianhuo to BBTAG with their stages and character themes, they need permission from not Autumn and Modus, but from Hidden Variable and MANE6. You just need to understand the concept of the Canopy Kingdom's brave TV hero and Foenum's fiery dragon teaming up with each other, but they can't escape from crossing fate.
Anyway, console ports wouldn't come to Them's Fightin' Herds without Modus' power and help. If I recall correctly, those players were having trouble setting up their controls when I was watching Combo Breaker. That's because they were playing the Steam version, which became a pain to deal with when it comes with button setups in offline tournaments. But with the console ports, players will no longer play the Steam version, but they will play the PS4 version on offline tournaments without any hassle going forward.
If Them's Fightin' Herds makes their mainstage debut at EVO 2023, I'll be ready for a Keef video about that. And console players, a paid subscription is required to play online.
Now let's go on to the second to the most requested one, the new characters. Since release, the game starts out with six characters and later, Shanty was added as the 7th playable character. The 8th character is coming, but they got to work on Chapter 2 starring Velvet first before developing the next new character and that's a snag there.
Fortunately, Modus' acquisition benefitted more than one combat developer on their team. It means the Story Mode chapters and the new characters are being developed simultaneously, as well as the lv. 3 supers that they had to finish before developing the new characters. However, Story Mode won't be finished this year because working on console ports and localization demanded more time from engineers and writers. And now that they are complete, production on Story Mode can be their top priority again.
At the end of Top 8 at Combo Breaker, they have announced a Season 1 Pass. Like Skullgirls 2nd Encore's Season 1 Pass, Them's Fightin' Herds' Season 1 Pass has four new characters with their stages and a palette pack for those who bought the Season 1 Pass. It comes with exclusive content, like lobby avatars each new character has and exclusive content. It's good enough with Skullgirls 2nd Encore getting four new characters through its Season 1 Pass to expand the roster to 18. Now it's with Them's Fightin' Herds getting four new characters through its Season 1 Pass to expand the roster to 11. That's a good thing because both fighting games with Otter UI deserved a Season Pass to join other fighting games that have them.
After Top 8 at Summer Jam, Texas was revealed as the first Season 1 Pass character and his development turned out well. He was supposed to release in November, but apparently, he is so large that he has hit a bit of a snag there. It's likely that he'll be released in December. Texas' Astral Heat remains a mystery until he is at the final stage of development. The second character, however, is not the case because production on them has made much further progress. It's because they are not large like Texas.
A before and after regarding Modus' acquisition is clear.
Before Modus' acquisition:
- The 8th character is coming, but Chapter 2 starring Velvet must be finished first.
- Since the reveal of the mockups, crowdfunding rewards been in limbo for over a year.
- No plans for console ports because they are time consuming, expensive projects. They aren't that simple, even with Humble. Because of that, our dream will not be a reality.
- Astral Heat-style lv. 3s are developing well, but being a bit slow since Chapter 1 starring Arizona was released.
After Modus' acquisition:
- Story Mode and the new characters are being developed simultaneously and faster than before. Modus' acquisition benefitted more than one combat dev to make things faster and the announcement of a Season 1 Pass is the cherry on top.
- Progression on the crowdfunding rewards are finally being made after being in limbo. Being a part of Modus gave MANE6 the power to get the rest of the crowdfund rewards fulfilled.
- Console ports being inevitable. We requested them and they aren't that simple. But thanks to their new partners Modus, our dream is becoming a reality as console ports have happened and crossplay and adding a Them's Fightin' Herds character to my BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack wish list would be the cherry on top to even out the waves so Annie wouldn't be the only character from a fighting game that uses Otter UI in my wish list. That even benefitted the possibility of shifting from playing the Steam version to the PS4 version on offline tournaments going forward.
- Development on the Astral Heat-style supers getting a boost. Their new talent helped them get to the finish line faster.
With Modus' power, the development of Them's Fightin' Herds can continue well going forward.
10 Years of Skullgirls:
This is the best thing happened this year. The only fighting game that couldn't catch a break despite previous setbacks and my local movie theater makes me think of at night because of its art deco structure. Skullgirls has turned a decade old with its debut to EVO as a mainstage game as a cherry on top. It first came out April 10th, 2012 on the PS3. Ten years later, boom, Skullgirls has stayed alive for ten years and Valentine is getting reworked and a lot of other things are coming and the release of Umbrella was just the beginning and Active Angel would be the cherry on top to fit perfectly with her so that Dolby Surround wouldn't backfire on me and I had to make a Platinum the Trinity palette out of her. With Mike Zaimont and Joey Cuellar not being a part of the party, Skullgirls' mainstage debut at EVO became so big that THX is grand there since Gormiti hadn't got a live action film adaptation yet knowing it deserved the Team Sonic Racing seal of approval.
I had to say that because first comes Joey Cuellar not being at EVO following the pedophilia allegations consisting of paying young boys tokens to take off their clothes and paying the accuser to show his penis while he was 17 years old. And then comes Mike Zaimont not being a part of the Skullgirls development following the part where he sexually harassed his employees and they had to leave Lab Zero and Skullgirls' mainstage debut at EVO 2022 would be the cherry on top. I understand sexually harassing his employees who are adults to make Lab Zero Games unsafe is not a crime and not unlawful, but pedophilia; it is not something to joke about. So long to those guys that got accused right in the palm of my hand.
Look, I know I shouldn't mention the names of those who became despicable after conducting sexual actions, but I just want to inform you on what's going on if you don't know what happened to them and what did they do and it was no different than the situation surrounding Jesse McCree, who was sent to hate city.
Black Dahlia is almost here in Mobile as they give us a first gameplay trailer on Mobile to represent that all of her animations are complete. From what I noticed, she has a special not yet seen on 2nd Encore. I'm gonna keep hoarding my standard relics until 5.3 and that's where Black Dahlia gets fully available in all standard relics because if I open them when 5.2 releases, I won't be getting her variants from standard relics until 5.3.
Mariel Cartwright is working on an illustration of Black Dahlia on stream. Two parts are done, but it's not yet finished. I am hopfeul that part three might be the final part.
Once she is released on Mobile, her stuff will be added to the palette editor and that's where I come in to make changes to her Nine the Phantom palette in one of her final poses under her stuff. And we'll soon get info about her release on 2nd Encore soon. Once she is in Beta, more of her palettes will be added and that's where I come in to find out if Black Dahlia got her Nine the Phantom palette during development or not. If not, then it stays in my palette pack because it is intended to have characters that don't have palettes of BBTAG characters based on BBTAG character themes fitting well with their personality. Then it's off to the wait for Marie where I make an Orie palette out of her since Purity & Strictly is a perfect theme for her. She is a goth, but notably, her maid suit seals the deal. If she doesn't get it during development, it stays.
They are also working on the networking refactors to greatly improve online stability and fix long standing issues that have been a thorn on our side since lobbies came to consoles and add new online features. Some of the issues were fixed, but sometimes new bugs come up and that's why they are in the Beta version on Steam so they can fix many critical bugs as they can. The article has that paragraph that caught my eye.
It said that the codebase upgrades are gonna make console development easier going forward and not just on PS4. It indicated that 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass are being actively developed as an update for the Switch to be in parity with the Steam and PS4 versions and as a new release for Xbox. The Switch and the Xbox players are joining the Season 1 Pass period and beyond.
For the Xbox side of things, since Skullgirls 2nd Encore first came out on the PS4 and as a separate pack on Steam, the Xbox One couldn't get it and had to play the outdated Xbox 360 version. It's because they been suffering through headaches trying to release it on it. Then nine years later, Skullgirls is back on the Xbox scene, thanks to the rewrite of the codebase that makes console development much easier. Please understand that the Xbox development of Skullgirls only covers the Xbox One and it won't be the only Microsoft console getting it because the Xbox Series X|S is also getting the 2nd Encore release. The Xbox 360 version will most likely remain left in the dust forever as it will not be updated and will not have lobbies.
For the Switch side of things, since the announcement of Annie and the Season 1 Pass, Hidden Variable and Future Club tried giving developing it for the Switch a go, but there has been some snags that technical issues have been hit. It's not because Skybound is behind the publishing of the Nintendo Switch version of 2nd Encore. Thankfully, with the rewrite of the codebase that makes console development much easier going forward, the update for the Switch is being actively developed without hitting any snags.
Eighty Sixed has a Skullgirls 10th Anniversary t-shirt and I snagged me one along with the sweet Annie t-shirt. I think I'll pull a Cas from Fextralife by wearing my 10th Anniversary t-shirt while playing Skullgirls on both PC and console either when Black Dahlia is fully released or after I get my new 4K TV or after Marie hits Alpha on PC. We'll see.
A Webtoon comic adaptation for Skullgirls came out and I enjoyed every second of it. That's why I used the "I know the moves. Now I understand the story" tagline. Even Canopolis is up high at the beginning of the chapter released yesterday. New chapters come out every Friday.
A Webtoon adaptation is awesome, but you know what will also be awesome? A Skullgirls anime adaptation. With all of the awesomeness that would be Johnny Test, Bob's Burgers, League of Super Evil, Super Mario Bros. Z, BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Sonic the Hedgehog and Naruto, I think we need a Skullgirls anime. Originally, I wanted a movie adaptation, but I learned that it is not enough filler, so I wanted a TV show adaptation instead.
I really thought that it's gonna be rated TV-14 LSV because the game has a lot of blood and partial nudity consisting of panty shots according to the ESRB rating and there is some swearing. TV-PG rated shows don't have that much blood, use a little sex and use infrequent swearing since the rest of the Futurama episodes are rated TV-14 going forward after Season 6.
So far, besides the release of Black Dahlia, the networking refactors, a Valentine rework, the Season 1 Pass for the Switch, modern Xbox console ports for 2nd Encore and a Webtoon adaptation are happening this year. All of them are great. But the most awesome thing I wanted in Skullgirls are the cinematic lv. 5 Blockbuster Finales. I even thought of one for Black Dahlia as her development marched on too. I'll think of one for Marie once her development rages on.
Two years passed since the Regime fell. Mike Z is behind bars in the graveyard. Mr. Wiz is there with him. But we can't hold on to how they became so despicable after allegations of sexual misconduct against them. We must move on.
Sonic Frontiers:
Probably one of the best Sonic games in ages I ever played did well and couldn't flop. It is the first Sonic game that is open world. Well, open zone. What makes it so special is that it's basically Spyro the Dragon, but with Sonic since it's open zone and bigger. But it's mostly basically Year of the Dragon in terms of the story. I'll do a comparison later on. I enjoyed every second and the plot became so incredible that I felt a lot of Redakai vibes when fighting Guardians and Titans.
I can understand how some of his games had to be crappy. Especially Sonic 06, which had glitches, bad camera angle and unbearable load times. But it has great music, though. If SEGA plans to remake Sonic 06, they must fix the glitches, make load times much shorter and fix the camera angle.
Here's hoping a direct sequel gets announced, but it has to be open zone and I want to play as not just Sonic, but also his friends, like in Rise of Lyric, which I heard it played poorly, the Teen Titans video game, which is in my wish list of PS2 games I want on the PS Plus Premium catalog and Gotham Knights, which I heard bombed real hard because the console version has 30 FPS while the Steam version has 60 FPS. That's just unfair.
Now for the comparison between those two games. In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, while on a Dragon Egg hunt across the four worlds, Spyro has four of his new friends to save, such as Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Bentley and Agent 9. To do that, he must get enough gems to free his friends trapped in cages by the Sorceress. And then, Bianca McRabbitface came along and was like "Turn back." That is until in the later stage where Bianca was wrong to doubt Spyro. Nice.
It is only a matter of time before Spyro 4 is confirmed. I hope they announce it the Game Awards, which is around the corner or somehow because Crash Bandicoot 4 picked up where Warped left off, so I think Spyro 4 should happen.
In Sonic Frontiers, while on a Chaos Emerald hunt across the five Starfall Islands, Sonic must save three of his friends who are stuck in Cyberspace, such as Tails, Knuckles and Amy. To do that, he must collect memory tokens of his friends to stabilize his friends' memory. Up until Sage came along to undermine him. Geez, passive-aggresive much? But the later stages changed everything and Sage was wrong to doubt Sonic. So far, the friend department has a one friend difference.
SEGA has created a Sonic game that is open zone and basically Spyro: Year of the Dragon in terms of the story. If Nintendo makes a Super Mario game that is a platformer and basically Crash Bandicoot: Warped in terms of the story, it could be named "Super Mario Temporal" and the story could entail Mario gathering Time Stones to restore time to the Mushroom Kingdom.
These are the things that made 2022 the best year ever. This year is not perfect, but this is a good year because a lot of good things have happened. Here's to 2023.
