This Week in Games

Welcome To The Next Saiyan Level

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you're looking forward to starting your weekend with some game news! I could definitely use a break, I had a very busy week. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed my review of Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse published earlier this week. We had a number of other projects in the fire that I don't think I can talk about—so there wasn't much space for Xenoblade 3 this past week. And I think there's gonna be another game coming soon that I'll be covering that will also distract me from Xenoblade—but it's a fun one and I think you guys will enjoy reading about that once it's out. For now, we've got plenty to talk about!

This is...

I don't normally do the whole "fictional character's birthday"- hing, but when it's for a character I really care about... well, those normally sneak up on me and I only really notice when that X-character has suddenly gotten a ton of fanart on Twitter. And this past March 6th, I noticed a ton of people posting artwork of Ángel from the King of Fighters series, the Mexican NESTS operative from Team NESTS along with fan-favorites Kula Diamond, Foxy and K9999 (pronounced "Kay-Four-Nine"). And calling an SNK character a "fan-favorite" doesn't really help, because all SNK characters have extensive fan followings even if they haven't appeared in a game in over a decade. Even freaking Duck King (Justice for my Duck King fans, holler at my folks). But Ángel, she's a special woman.

As said before, Ángel (pronounced "an-hell", as per the Spanish pronunciation) is from Mexico. She loves soccer, motorcycles, tequila, and raw cactus slices. Her fighting style is a mix of pro wrestling and Muay Thai—not only are some of her attacks based off of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's moves, she even references his famous catchphrase with her line "Can you taste The Angel's extraordinary skill?". In King of Fighters 2001, she was voiced by Mayumi Shintani, who you might best recognize as the voice of Trigger's most famous gremlins like Jakuzure Nonon from Kill la Kill, Midori from Space Police Luluco and Rikka's Mom from SSSS.Gridman (and I really wish they'd bring her back for it). She's actually quite hard to use in-game: her combos are complicated because many of her moves are designed to be used in sequence, with many of them being used as set-up for any number of other subsequent moves. There's likely more Ángel art than there are actual Ángel users.

Ángel's existence is a response to SNK's games being really, really big in Latin America. While Ángel's native Mexico gets the (well-deserved) reputation of being the biggest fans of SNK around (as well as Saint Seiya and Dragon Ball), I can testify that SNK's games were also pretty widespread in Puerto Rico. There were plenty of ice cream parlors, beachside food shops, and even hotels that would have an SNK machine in the corner, and you could find them cycling between Puzzle Bobble and any one of the many Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters or Fatal Fury games. It's through these busted old arcade machines that I fell in love with the likes of Tarma, Fio, Shizumaru Hisame, Terry Bogard...and Ángel. So why are SNK games so prevalent in Latin America? Well, it's pretty simple: SNK games were really cost-effective. Many places in Latin America are still somewhat rural or remote. Nevermind making an entire arcade, which was prohibitively expensive. You couldn't quite find them outside of, like, a Chuck E. Cheese or somesuch and usually you'd have to go way out of your way to the one Chuck E. Cheese in San Juan for that. Anyone else looking to host a quarter-gobbler in their shop couldn't always afford a whole new arcade machine just to run the latest iteration of Street Fighter 2. SNK arcade machines were much more useful in that regard: rather than needing a whole machine for one game, you could get a machine that ran off of cartridges that actually had the games. The idea for these machines, as far as Japanese arcades were concerned, was that the machine itself could be used en masse and be resilient enough to last ages while the game cartridges were swapped as necessary. All you'd need is to change the banners on the machine. This worked in favor of the old out-of-the-way bars and ice cream taverns in Latin America: pay for a machine that'll last you until the heat death of the universe and can run two games at once, guaranteeing that any kid that comes buy will get drawn in by something and beg their parents for a quarter. It just so happened that a lot of SNK games are what the scientific community refers to as "really freaking good"; many Latin American pugilists dedicated themselves to learning the ins and outs of the King of Fighters games, which was a lot to learn considering these were three-on-three tag-team fights as opposed to Street Fighter II one-on-one bouts or Mortal Kombat's dial-a-combo controls ("dial-a-kombo"?). It was to the point where it's a standing point of honor among Mexican KOF fans to not use Omega Rugal in King of Fighters '97, or else you risk an actual fight breaking out. Spanish lesson: "Prohibido usar Rugal" means "Using Rugal is prohibited"--now you can survive in a Mexican arcade!

It'd be one thing if Mexico just really, really loved SNK games and King of Fighters, but the story goes a bit deeper: once upon a time, a Mexican company named EVOGA was able to earn the license from SNK to localize and release SNK's titles in Mexico, including King of Fighters. EVOGA was also able to collaborate with SNK to produce Evolution Soccer and Rage of the Dragons. And—here's the fun part—EVOGA had been challenged by Neo Geo staff to a King of Fighters '98 showdown at the beloved Neo Geo arcade Neo Geo Land. Apparently, EVOGA's people won in a brutal landslide (to the chagrin of SNK's staff). Sometime later, EVOGA went back to Japan for some further business deals, and was challenged to a grudge match with some stakes: if EVOGA lost, they'd have to let SNK design a character for the in-development Rage of the Dragons, plus pay $5,000. But EVOGA's president took the bet and won, and had a character designed in his honor for the upcoming King of Fighters 2001. And his name... was Ángel Torres. And that's why King of Fighters's Ángel has the masculine version of her name instead of the more-logical feminine versions like "Ángela" or "Ángelica".

And that's the story of Ángel, and why SNK games are so beloved in Latin America. Hopefully, you now understand why she was received with such applause when she was announced for King of Fighters XV, and why Terry Bogard's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was such a massive, massive deal for folks in Latin America. It's at this point that we need to remind readers that SNK is currently owned by Saudi Arabian prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has a list of human rights violations. I hope to see Ángel and her friends in better company in the future.

The Summer of 2020 was the Summer of Vtubers, where vtubers exploded into popularity among fans in the US. But 2020 was also the year of NFTs, which have continued to be intensely unpopular among all but the most desperate of scammers. So too does 2023 appear to be the year of AI-generated content; it seems people have really hit the gun on pushing AI-generated text-to-speech programs or image generators absolutely everywhere. It used to be pretty obscure and kinda fun, like when people use an Eminem AI text-to-speech program to get him to recite the "Final Fantasy XIV free trial" copypasta or to get him to tell silly stories about his Fred Flintstone car. But now there has been increasing consternation over them: AI text-to-speech generation has come under suspicion following actor's rights, considering you're using people's voices without their permission, while AI image scraping has come under fire for basically tracing actual images without crediting the original artists. While I've watched a lot of streamers who've made Text-to-speech programs of their own voices, it's a far cry from attempts people have made at capturing the voices of actual voice actors in an attempt at replacing them. That sucks.

But the one thing that's lingered on the outskirts for a very long time are Deepfakes: doctored video that use neural networks to edit in faces and people into videos that they're not supposed to. On the one hand, it can be used for stuff like silly videos of President Obama kicking a door open as he walks off stage from a speech. On the other hand, a lot of very unsavory types have used it to doctor women's faces onto porn videos. And if invasion of consent and people's privacy isn't bad enough, the potential for political slander is even more concerning.

Of course, the porn one is the one that's most concerning for now because it's a lot more widespread than people are aware. This past January 30th, Twitch streamer Atrioc was revealed to have accessed a website featuring deepfaked porn videos of other Twitch streamers, including well-known figures like Pokimane and Maya Higa. The outrage from streamers concerning the invasion against their privacy has been loud and justified; streaming is already rough enough for women without people doctoring their faces into porn. And Twitch thankfully seems to agree; this past week, they announced that they'll be taking a hardline stance against deepfakes in all forms, with bans ready to go to anyone who disseminates them. Twitch will also be hosting a Creator Camp later this month in order to educate users on Deepfakes and how users can keep themselves safe from them.

I'm quite surprised at how quickly Twitch took a stance on the matter, especially considering how long it took Twitch to create a tag for Vtuber streams to identify themselves with. On the other hand: while I'd never say it's too little too late (it's never too late to educate people on how to keep themselves safe and warn people against deepfakes), the lightning is definitely out of the bottle. Unsavory types already have an underground culture of creating and sharing deepfakes. If we really want to stem the tide, what we need are some strong laws. Deepfakes are just one facet of a vast, unconscionable problem with non-consensual pornography on the Internet. Porn is great, but only when all participants are in on it. As the kids say, "this ain't it".

This is the kind of news that the late, great Etika would certainly have cheered for loudly. Against all odds, or at least, completely out of nowhere, a new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is being released. Not a remake, not a re-release... an entirely brand-new game, building upon the previous Budokai Tenkaichi games. A trailer released earlier this week to widespread fanfare across the fandom.

This one might require some explanation, because plenty of anime fans today were probably born after the last Budokai Tenkaichi game was made. Now, I need to clarify, because this threw me off but hard: we're talking about the Budokai Tenkaichi games, not the Budokai games. The Budokai games were a series of 3D fighters on a 2D plane (think Tekken) starring the cast of Dragon Ball Z. Budokai Tenkaichi is more of an arena 3D fighter, wherein the characters can lock onto their opponent as they zoom around. You can also equip Capsules with extra special attacks or properties, like the Senzu Bean to revive yourself once your health was depleted. It was a deeply-beloved series for all the deep cuts it pulled off, even if the games were a little hokey and unbalanced.

Fro a lot of fans, the affection for Budokai Tenkaichi was such that even later Dragon Ball games like Xenoverse didn't quite scratch the same itch. Yeah, Budokai Tenkaichi was wildly unbalanced (God help you if you used anyone from before the Namek saga), but it did an amazing job of capturing the feel of the anime. I'd go so far to claim that it took Dragon Ball FighterZ for there to be a Dragon Ball game as exciting as Budokai Tenkaichi--and even then, the sheer fanservice isn't quite there.

The trailer is just a teaser, so we don't know much of how they'll handle Dragon Ball lore considering the changes from the early '00s. Goku appears reaching his Super Saiyan Blue form, so obviously this means they'll incorporate all of Dragon Ball Super's lore. But then what does this mean for Dragon Ball GT? It's been rendered non-canon in the years since, with only bits and pieces being brought back for Dragon Ball Super like Gogeta or Pan. Does this mean no more Omega Shenron? Does this mean no Super Android 17? Will previous non-canon versions of characters like Broly be included? We sadly don't have answers yet. What I can say is this: it's great that there's enough space for two great Dragon Ball fighting games. I'll reiterate that I think Dragon Ball FighterZ sets the high bar for the kind of fighting game an anime can aspire to; it's wonderful that even with people still excited as hell for it, they're still leaving plenty of room for Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 4. But, uh... let's hope they don't have another plagiarism scandal with the new music?

This past week we were treated to some good news for Square Enix fans: president Yosuke Matsuda announced his retirement from the company in a formal statement. Matsuda had long since worn out his welcome on behalf of Square Enix fans: his many decisions and statements at Square Enix revealed many plans that emphasized leaning in on "games as a service", which led to Square Enix tossing out so many live-service games that shuttered within the year: Chocobo Racing GP, Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, and Babylon's Fall are some of the most recent examples, but the massive and cataclysmic failure of Marvel's Avengers was definitely one that had to have led to some heads rolling at Square Enix. There's also Matsuda's constant pushes for supporting cryptocurrencies, with many of his yearly letters towards fans emphasizing his wishes to lean in towards NFTs and ways to incorporate them into games. Suffice to say, none of these sentiments were ever popular and most fans bristled at the idea that Matsuda would try to shoehorn blockchain-related elements into games people actually enjoyed like Final Fantasy XIV (which, thankfully, Yoshi-P managed to fend off at every turn). The upside is, all of Matsuda's bad decisions caught up to him. No doubt the failure of three high-profile games-as-a-service within a year of their launches must've motivated this departure.

The bad news is, it doesn't seem like his replacement will be much better. For one thing, Square Enix hasn't said anything about halting the NFT-related projects—if anything, their statement demonstrates a desire to try even harder with them, citing their desire to "reshape the management team with the goal of adopting ever-evolving technological innovations". For another, Takashi Kiryu seems very amenable to crypto. The young Takashi Kiryu is slated to pick up the position of President of Square Enix. Kiryu's had a very busy three years at Square-Enix, starting with the company as recently as June of 2020 according to his LinkedIn profile—he was only just promoted to Chairman of the Board of Square Enix's China division last year. For another, there are a lot of rumblings that Kiryu is just as enthusiastic about Blockchain technologies and the Metaverse as Matsuda. So this isn't a victory; this is just Square Enix digging its heels and banking on a younger buck to carry their ambitions.

Yeah, this all sucks. The upside to all of this is that no amount of youth will stop failures from being failures; if Kiryu attaches his names to massive bombs on the scale of Marvel Avengers or Babylon's Fall, I'd like to think he'll be next on the chopping block. The downside is, that's nevertheless a big "if", and we'd still need to sit through a ton of crypto projects eroding the goodwill of the company and the industry. Remember to vote with your wallets, folks!

If it's one thing Activision-Blizzard hasn't done much of with Overwatch, it's collaborations with other properties. Fortnite has gotten all kinds of press for its collaborations with Dragon Ball, Naruto and Street Fighter, which have had plenty of deep cuts with their outfits. So it looks like Overwatch is willing to take a crack at the whole "licensed outfit" deal. The result of their efforts is a collaboration with One-Punch Man, and it's...

... kinda uneven? Points for using the JAM Project intro, I guess, but something about these outfits just doesn't seem very inspiring. Doomfist's Saitama outfit... kinda works? I mean, his fist is still his mechanical fist painted red, which just looks weird on his yellow Saitama suit (when the joke is that Saitama's outfit is intentionally dorky and doesn't have all that weird stuff). Genji's Genos outfit... kinda works? Except that it's obvious they just recolored his hoodie to make it look like Genos's casual outfit because Genos typically doesn't wear a hoodie. Soldier: 76's Mumen Rider outfit... kinda works? It's obviously just recolored body armor, but it works as a beefier version of Mumen Rider's cheap bike-riding gear. Kiriko's outift, meanwhile, does not work—while the other outfits are really obvious recolors, Kiriko's Tatsumaki outfit is most blatantly so: it's just her base outfit painted black with a green wig slapped on. I hate to be "that guy", but Tatsumaki's known for her form-fitting outfit that shows off her legs. Kiriko's bulky satchels and padding just messes with what's supposed to be a very svelte, form-fitting design courtesy of Yusuke Murata going extremely ham. (If you wanna go there, they also kept Kiriko's spats—die-hard Tatsumaki fans won't stand for Tatsumaki's thighs being covered up like that.)

And not only are the outfits varying degrees of underwhelming, the pricing really makes me scrunch my face—while Soldier: 76's Mumen Rider outfit can be obtained for free after playing 24 Unranked, Competitive, or Arcade matches (with other minor rewards being offered every 4 matches prior to that), the other outfits will be part of individual bundles that will run you 2,100 coins in the Overwatch shop. That's 2,100 coins each—it's 6,300 coins for all three outfits. At Overwatch 2's rate of 100 coins for $1, that's $63. There's a discount for buying all three outfits in a bundle, but even then, yikes. For reference: the Mai Shiranui and Terry Bogard skins in Fall Guys ran you about $8 each, and both the Sakura and Blanka skins in Fortnite could be bought together in a bundle for 2,200 Vbucks—and $20 gets you 2,800 Vbucks. Yeah, Overwatch 2 is definitely overpriced—it's practically on the level of Action Taimanin charging you $30 for a single character skin. And at least Action Taimanin makes actually unique skins—the One-Punch Man "skins" are basically recolors!

Yeah, this is not the best showing for Overwatch 2. I don't like Fortnite but it's definitely set the standard for how these collabs should go, not just in terms of pricing but in terms of content on tap. Remember, the Dragon Ball Z and My Hero Academia collaborations also include whole maps and worlds for players to explore. Overwatch 2 is just offering some mediocre skins, some themed charms, and a few animations. At the risk of presuming, it just feels like Activision-Blizzard saw the rampant success Fortnite has seen with the Dragon Ball collabs and decided maybe it was time to bank on weebs. This really isn't enough to cut it, though. Yeah, the trailer is nice and Doomfist does Saitama's pose, but the efforts are all so lackluster. It really does seem like things are a bit of a mess over at Activision-Blizzard. I'd like to hope their next attempt goes better.

That'll do it for this week, I think. Thanks again for joining us this week. Remember to take the time to enjoy your games this weekend, folks! We talk about games a lot here, but don't be like me—give yourself time to have fun with stuff and unwind. Rest is important, and it's hard to enjoy something if you're tense as a muscle. Enjoy the moment, grab a title that makes you happy, and have a blast. Invite some buddies for some rounds of Mario Kart, run a few raids in Final Fantasy XIV, go a few rounds in Gundam Evolution. Give yourself the gift of a moment to yourself! Then come back and share your experiences with us. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.