Dracu

Man, LCF Winners is freaking packed!

So following Ed's reveal, I kept thinking about it and came to the conclusion that Ed and Falke should have just been combined into one character. Having a female boxer, with Ed's SF6 moveset from the start, would have done a lot to warrant the character a spot in the roster. While I don't necessarily agree with the criticism that Ed reduced other boxer's chances to be in the game (especially since now he borrows a little more from Dudley, whit the dash backs and whatnot), I can see the point that three boxers is a bit much, when there are so many other untapped martial arts they could represent. But if the third boxer was a girl, well, that just tilts the balance even more in favour of actually having it as a new character. There was already some ambiguity from Barlog's endings in SF4 if the child was a boy or a girl, so Capcom certainly could've made whatever move they wanted. I'm sorry for Falke but she was really forgettable and while I'm sure if they give her a cool redesign and revamp her gameplay she could be cool as well, but I really think this would've worked so well. Maybe in SF10, when they'll add Ed and Falke's daughter lol

That second outfit should have been his main since Street Fighter 5. It's just perfect! Love the new gameplay and that they made him a pure boxer. Much better than SF5, but I've yet to see Capcom miss with a character in this game, so I kind of expected them to improve Ed. I trust them with their choices by now. The stage also looks very cool! Can't wait to see his interactions in World Tour mode and maybe learn more about what happened to Neo-Shadaloo.

That Tekken 8 story was kinda nuts. Some very nice surprises thrown in there. I really enjoyed it!

Yeah, I have my own version of Darth's Street Fighter sprite work, but never got around to posting it. Maybe I should one day. As for the art style, I agree. I love classic SNK sprite work and while I don't hate XIII's art style like you do, I do prefer the old one. Not to mention there is a very dedicated fan base doing original sprites for the new characters. As you can see, the XV sprites are crazy good. I'm especially inlove woth the Re-Verse and Otoma=Raga ones.

So, I made some KOF Teams. You can find them listed below. I have to say, I think I managed to get most of everyone I wanted in and the teams make sense even at just a quick glance. The only one I screwed up with was Angel's team, since I had Ramon in it, looking to make Team Mexico... but I already had him in Team Wrestling, so I just threw Malin in there just cause she was the only one left out. Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

Ken, Blanka-Chan, Zangief, Dee Jay and Manon are top tier. Guile is freaking slick. Not sure how much it fits him as a character but the costume itself looks amazing. Lily, Honda and Dhalsim are pretty boring, but I guess it fits them. Ryu, JP and Marisa are good ideas but I feel they look kinda weird in-game. Luke's is great. Looks better than in SFV and with the added lore mentioned above it's certainly very cool.

Eternals, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, Ms.Marvel and Wakanda Forever are worse than anything in Phases 1 to 3. Simply unwatchable drivel. Their best projects: No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness and GOTG Vol.3 are building up on what came before them, but considering Gunn is moving on from the Guardians, Dr.Strange rushed an entire character arc between credits and Spiderman is up in the air, there's no reason to expect much from future projects involving them either. The only one I'd be willing to give a pass to is Wakanda Forever as Boseman's death certainly threw a huge wrench in their plans, but even then, it's debatable if not recasting the main lead was honoring the man, considering we ended up with a piece of shit that craps all over the world Boseman worked hard to establish. Iron Man 2, for how boring it was, certainly treated the characters better than whatever they're doing / planning with Riri Williams. And Thor the Dark World, for how plain it is, at least is not full on insultingly terrible like Love and Thunder. The decline in quality is obvious.

Moving on from Endgame would have always been hard for the MCU, considering everything was building up to it for more than a decade, but they dropped the ball harder than it was expected. Except for some uber MCU nerds I think most of the good will Marvel struggled to build just went up in the air. I don't think there's any recovery from the hole they dug themselves into. Their most exciting projects are in development hell, while even those without much production turmoil ended up the worst of the MCU bar none.

Can you take a SS of him?

Great thoughts. I agree on all points and I also would like to add

I watched the full story on YouTube too so I'll give my quick thoughts. Will do my best to keep it spoiler free as I spitball here: - After three full games as jobbers, Baraka and Reptile actually get to be pretty cool in this game. However, sadly, the jobber torch is picked up by a few new characters. There's especially a pretty major one who they make completely useless. - I had my reservations on the Scorpion/Sub-Zero dynamic from the start and the story certainly confirmed I was right. What they did yo Bi Han especially was terrible, turning him from a tragic character into a full on asshole. Making Kuai Liang Scorpion brought nothing to the table. Probably the most wasted characters in the entire story. - Geras was awesome. After a lackluster debut in 11, I must say he really stood out as a hidden gem in this one. He was certainly dragged down by being under Kronika, the shittiest villain ever, but while his character and deamenor didn't change much, being under Liu Kang served him much better. Great redemption! - The lack of Special Forces was great. Too long had the cast been treated as GI Joe. Mortal Kombat works best as a martial arts fantasy story, not 80's action flick. - The overall story felt pretty basic, turning into an absolute clusterfuck by the end, but the throwbacks to the PS2 era and some creative gameplay choices in the finale at least make it interesting. However, this is without a doubt the worst of the Netherrealm stories bar none. It doesn't take advantage of it being a compelety blank state, instead chosing to tread old grounds again without much change... and when there is change, it's usually nothing too exciting or bold. Sadly, I see little potential with this new version of the cast. They simply aren't that well fleshed out. MK9 did the pseudo-reboot thing much better! - The arcade endings are actually continuing from the story and they are probably all canon, so I reccommend finishing story before doing arcade, as you might get spoiled. They are all pretty happy and optimistic too, a first in MK history! Liu Kang certainly keeps the timeline better than Kronika. - Speaking of Liu Kang, he's still awesome. While I didn't really like MK11's story, him turning back into the main hero was the reason why I forgave everything in that game (except the Sindel nonesense), so seeing him still treated with respect was good. It would've been so easy to screw him up again, but, at least for now, he seems safe. - Megan Fox sucks, but not as bad as Rhonda. I also think she probably recorded her lines somewhere comepletely different from the rest of the cast. Her audio / voice mixing sounds screwed up. - Tanya looks better than in the trailer. Too bad they chose basically the most unflattering shot for her reveal. Her design is still pretty bad tho. That hair man... it sucks so bad! - Tanya, Shao Khan, Rain and Ermac are the worst redesigns by far but almost none of them are good. So weird how they finally got Reptile right after two decades, but screw up most of everyone else. I hope there are good alternate costumes in the game, cause these new looks are crap and they do not change by the end. - Shang Tsung's actor is pretty nice. Certainly inspired by the performance Kagawa gave in 11. Hope they keep him moving forward and stop recasting every five minutes. That's it for now. Will share more once it's open season with spoilers, cause I have a lot more complaining to do, but I don't wanna ruin the experience for anyone.

For what is worth, I stand with @YagamiFireon his thoughts on the recent post, but yeah, it can't be stressed enough how top-tier quality your insights are @BigMex. Thank you for your work!

REIKO LET'S FUCKING GO! Too bad they didn't show any of his classic moves. Also, I wish he didn't have pupils, since he looks like just a dude with facepaint... but it's fucking Reiko, so let's GOOOOO! Now they just need to bring Kai back and MK4 characters will finally get the well deserved second chance. Sadly Shinnok still needs his third chance to bring out his potential, a chance I'm not sure they'll be willing to give him. Out of the PS2 era, Hotaru and Taven are the remaining ones that I think are worth a comeback. Maybe Taven and Daegon too. And of course, Onaga as a final boss.

Taking a look at the spoilers myself I must say NRS has the worst, most scummy, DLC policy in the fighting game scene. What a fucking trainwreck. I really hope this game's DLC fails bad. I have a feeling three guests in one pack is really not going to meet the expectations they have for it, but I hope people get pissed off when they see the story and speak out against the bullshit. Mild spoilers It's really sad. I'm pretty sure its mandated by WB higher-ups, as I think that actual NRS guys are fine. Or at least, I hope so.

Nitara's new design looks like ass, but glad she's back. This seems to basically be my take for all the returning PS2-era characters. Look like ass, but better that than nothing.

So that's what happened to @Daemos

Thanks guys! Story certainly sounds cool. I've recently finished watching X-Men TAS and it was so good, that it ignited an X-Men itch that needs scratching, but since most of the modern comics stories have been lame to promote the MCU, I really didn't want to go on wasting my time. This one not only sounds cool, just based on premise alone, but it fits the overall story of the X-Men so well. I'll certainly give it a look.

Can anyone fill me in on what's going on with the X-Men? It seems a bit overwhelming to go through all of it by myself. So every mutant is now located on Krakoa? Even big bads like Sinister and Apocalypse? I can understand Xavier and Magneto working together, but how did those other guys with so many conflicting goals set up a truce? Is it just the common goal of birthing new mutants from those egg things and they're plotting things in the background? It seems like a great story and I see a lot of people praising it, so it made me curious to check it out.

It amazes me how the Democrats have Biden and Harris as front-runners for President, basically the worst duo in US history and the Republicans still can't seem to find a candidate who doesn't look worse. Trump obliterates these guys easily, but he's not going to beat Biden, because the machine has worked his image out too much. He can't sway the Biden voters who chose him simply out of hate for him, despite knowing Sleepy Joe is a horrible pick himself. With what's going on the world right now, the US needs a better class of politicians ASAP. 4 more years of Biden would signal a clear downfall of US hegemony over the world. You guys need a strong hand with some strong policies and conviction to actually do something, cause these lukewarm corrupt grifters are burying the entire place and dragging the whole western world with them.

So, in the New Era, Shang Tsung is the founder of Pfizer.

Khan's redesign is lame as hell, with those shitty horns and keeping the dragon scales on his arms like in MK11, but his gameplay looks sick, as does Sindel's. I hope Sindel is not evil like MK11 and they revert her back to the good side, even tho I don't mind her being more brutal to her enemies. Motaro and Shujinko are cool Kameos. Pretty nice overall.

I guess I'm more forgiving of Asherah because the hype of her back outweighs her looking lame. Not to mention her gameplay actually looks sick. With Tanya we already had her back in MKX so when they fucked her up it was sadder, since you'd expect an improvement over the last iteration.