Boy, what a crazy weekend that was. Evo 2023 provided us fighting game fans some of the best action we’ve seen in years out of the competition, but that’s not all that was there.
It feels like this year’s Evo had potentially more announcements and reveals than ever before, and it would have been easy to miss out on some of them by looking away from the screen for more than a few minutes.
That’s why we’re here to provide a roundup of everything that was unveiled this past weekend for the future of our favorite genre.
While we didn’t really see anything new for Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, pretty much everyone else on the mainstage had something to show and then some.
So let’s start in reverse order and work our way down.
Capcom had arguably the biggest surprise of Evo since no one probably saw a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Street Fighter 6 collaboration coming.
Starting tomorrow, August 8, SF6 is adding TMNT avatar costumes for the turtle brothers as well as more accessories and items to use in the Battle Hub and World Tour.
Though they didn’t give us gameplay or a release date, Capcom also showed off the World Tour introduction cutscene for their next DLC character A.K.I. where she looks pretty darn menacing.
Arc System Works announced that Johnny will be the first of four new DLC characters coming to Guilty Gear Strive Season 3.
On top of that, a handful of characters are going to be receiving brand new special moves to use as well as new universal mechanics for the whole cast to provide more options on offense and defense.
Season 3 is set to kick off on August 24 with the launch of Johnny and the battle system update.
NetherRealm Studios released a new trailer for Mortal Kombat 1 that revealed Reptile, Ashrah and Havik as playable characters along with Sareena being a Kameo.
Reptile can now transform between human and reptilian forms and seems to be helping out the good guys alongside Ashrah.
Havik is looking possibly creepier than ever since he’s out here pulling off his own limbs to beat you with and twisting his head around.
Bandai Namco had a couple of new characters to reveal for Tekken 8 including their first fighter to ever hail from Peru in Azucena, who is already looking like a fan favorite with her stylish moves and love of coffee.
Raven is also back after being replaced by Master Raven in Tekken 7, and it seems he’s come up with a bunch of cool new ninjutsu tricks in his absence.
Former Capcom Producer Yoshinori Ono also made a surprise appearance on stage to poke fun at Katsuhiro Harada over Tekken X Street Fighter.
Cygames came out to Evo with a handful of reveals for the upcoming Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising including a gameplay trailer for the previously announced Nier.
They also teased Grimnir as a new playable fighter as well as confirmed the game will release worldwide on November 30, 2023.
After coming out with the big surprise at last year’s Evo, SNK revealed that their new Garou sequel will be titled Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
They also dropped a teaser trailer for the game that showed Rock Howard and Terry Bogard in a more cell-shaded style.
We don’t know much else about the game yet though, so we’ll have to wait and see more about the return of the wolf.
SNK had a multitude of announcements this weekend, and that included The King of Fighters 13 Global Match too.
The devs revealed the updated port of the beloved fighter will be launching on November 16, 2023.
First announced as a surprise a year ago, SNK revealed when Samurai Shodown will be receiving its long-awaited update.
We don’t have an exact date yet, but rollback netcode will arrive for SamSho sometime this September.
【SAMURAI SHODOWN】
Rollback arrives September 2023!#SamSho #SamuraiShodown pic.twitter.com/cnQDe6y5YP— SNK GLOBAL (@SNKPofficial) August 6, 2023
For their current title, SNK revealed that Najd will be releasing as the new DLC character for Season 2 tomorrow, August 8.
Moreover, they announced that Duo Lon is back as the second to last addition of the year, and he’ll be coming with a new balance update to boot.
Alongside the TMNT, Microsoft had probably the biggest surprise of the weekend when they revealed that Killer Instinct was coming back with a new 10th anniversary update.
Iron Galaxy has returned to give KI one more balance overhaul sometime this Fall alongside new optimizations for the Xbox Series X|S and upgraded matchmaking.
More information will be revealed in the near future.
Before A.K.I. and the TMNT, Capcom had a few other things to show off for Street Fighter 6.
They revealed the designs of costume 3 for Guile, Juri, Marisa and Dee Jay via some artwork though they’re working on new outfits for the whole cast.
After what feels like years of hearing about it and seeing its progress, Statera Studio is currently racing towards the finish line for their fighting game.
Pocket Bravery will finally be releasing on PC at the end of this month with a console launch to follow shortly after.
What’s more is they’re going to hold an open beta later this week.
During Friday’s Evo Showcase, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 revealed Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants as their new playable character who fights in a giant mech of himself.
On top of that, the game is also adding Slime mechanics to the gameplay that will offer up things like EX special moves, a Slime Burst, Slime Cancels and air dashes.
French Bread and Arc System Works announced Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] as a sequel to the fan favorite anime fighter.
There’s not a ton of details to go off of yet, but the new game will be building off of the first with new characters, features and of course, rollback netcode.
Although he was basically leaked beforehand, Riot Games revealed Yasuo as their latest playable champion for Project L.
He was playable on the Evo floor alongside Darius, Ekko and Ahri with his gameplay being a mixture of fast sword slashes and even faster dashes.
We’re still waiting on that release date and official title though.
Idol Showdown gained a lot of attention when it launched earlier this year, and they’re about to add a new star to the show.
Usada Pekora is joining the cast on August 11 as seen in her new trailer.
Character Debut Trailer: Usada Pekora / 兎田ぺこら
Pekora blasts her way into Idol Showdown!
ぺこーらがIdol Showdownを爆破する！ #IdolShowdown #ぺこらーと #hololive #ホロライブ pic.twitter.com/TAkM42sy8v— Idol Showdown: hololive Fighting Game! EVO 2023 (@IdolShowdown) August 5, 2023
Aether Studios had a few things to talk about and show off at Evo this year including their latest playable character for Rivals of Aether 2, Maypul.
The new platform fighter is still on track for a 2024 release date and will now be using Snapnet netcode to power their online matches.
We just revealed Maypul live on stage at #Evo2023! The Sylvan Watcher returns as the latest Rival to be included in our 2024 launch roster. Learn more and show your support for the game at pic.twitter.com/ktqKuZm0jj
— Aether Studios (@StudiosofAether) August 4, 2023
Let us know in the comments what your favorite / most unexpected announcements were for Evo this year and if we somehow managed to miss anything.
