The eve of Evo, the world’s biggest celebration of fighting games, is almost upon us. This massive event in Las Vegas Will host over 10,000 participants in 2024, making it officially the biggest esports event yet on record. Prepare for plenty of world-premiere announcements, upcoming game showcases, and the main draw: tournaments for eight carefully selected fighting games.
Are you unsure what’s on the roster or what to expect from the different games? We’ve assembled a handy primer on what makes each game special and what to look out for.
Street Fighter 6
Publisher: Capcom | Developer: Capcom
The newest installment of Capcom’s legendary, genre-defining fighting game series. Released last year, it quickly became (and remains) Evo’s biggest game.
Street Fighter 6’s gameplay is built around the all-new Drive gauge. By spending Drive, players can perform all sorts of advanced techniques: the momentum-shifting Drive Impact, the defensive Drive Parry, a fierce Drive Reversal counterattack, the aggressive Drive Rush dashing movement, and the special-move enhancing Overdrive. Drive management is crucial to strategy: running out of Drive puts a competitor in a very bad Burnout position, restricting their Drive usage and inflicting other disadvantageous effects.
Street Fighter 6, having the largest pool of competitors, is undoubtedly going to have some major upsets in the brackets. Plenty of the biggest names in the Street Fighter series’ competitive scene will be in attendance, but just because you’re a big name doesn’t mean you can’t be caught off-guard by a fresh-faced player who happens to be really good and with two recent DLC character additions, fan favorites M. Bison and Akuma, a lot of surprises could happen.
Tekken 8
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment | Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Inc.
Bandai-Namco’s Tekken 8 is the most popular 3D fighting game on the planet right now. It’s also one of the newest games at Evo, released in January of this year.
Tekken 8 is a game built around skillful movement, big launchers into flashy combos, and the newly-introduced Heat system. Each character can enter Heat mode once per round, and it lasts a short while. It’s built for aggression since it gives character attacks additional damage and other new enhancements, but you’ll also see skilled players using the powerful cinematic Heat Smash special attacks and the Heat Dash to cancel their Heat mode into even more intense pressure.
The last few years have been interesting for Tekken. For a long time, Korean players dominated the scene. However, a few years ago, the Pakistan Tekken community began traveling internationally to compete and wowing everyone with their amazing gameplay, and now plenty of other skilled players across the globe are eager for their shot at the crown.
Guilty Gear Strive
Publisher: Arc System Works | Developer: Arc System Works
The premiere anime fighting game is known for flashy visuals, fast-paced and highly technical gameplay, and some of the most awesomely weird character designs in the genre.
The Guilty Gear series is known for being a smorgasbord of gameplay mechanics. Alongside classic returning features like the series-trademark Roman Cancels and the offense-interrupting Burst. The Wall Break mechanic is new to Strive, which can send a cornered and comboed opponent flying into a completely new arena in spectacular fashion.
Guilty Gear Strive has evolved a lot since its initial release (and initial Evo tournament debut), adding numerous characters with unique mechanics. The game’s enduring popularity has given it a big pool of dedicated, high-level players from across the globe.
Mortal Kombat 1
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games | Developer: NetherRealm Studios
The infamous fighting franchise has recreated its timeline once again, bringing a host of new and old faces to its famously dark and gory supernatural martial arts universe.
Mortal Kombat has gained fame (and infamy) for numerous reasons, but MK1’s gameplay depth is more than skin-deep. The Kameo Fighter system is the newest shake-up to the gameplay, introduced in this installment. Fighters pulled from across the entire MK series, are chosen alongside the main fighter, and can be called to assist in various situations, adding extra layers of strategizing.
Mortal Kombat developer Netherrealm Studios frequently updates their games, meaning that shifts in Mortal Kombat 1’s meta happen often. The best players are quick to adapt their gameplay and strategies to the changing environment.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
Publisher: CyGames | Developer: Arc System Works
It is a beautifully rendered fighting game featuring a host of characters from Cygames’s massive Granblue Fantasy game and media series. Rising, released late last year, is a significant overhaul to the Versus series, adding new mechanics and characters.
Granblue Fantasy is known for its varied cast, and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising builds on this to give every character a distinct playstyle. It’s more subsystem-heavy than games like Guilty Gear Strive or Under Night In-Birth, but offers a lot of similar aesthetics and movement. If you feel lost or overwhelmed trying to process everything that’s going on in other fighters, you’ll appreciate the pacing and style of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
The relative newness of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and strong support from publisher Cygames in balance patches make it exciting to watch, as players have been on their toes reacting to changes and creating new strategies. Players agree that the character Nier is particularly strong, but don’t count the rest of the cast out.
Under Night In-Birth II Sys: Celes
Publisher: Arc System Works | Developer: French-Bread
The name might be a mouthful, but Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys: Celes is the latest installment in the fan-favorite fighting game series.
Under Night In-Birth is beloved by its fans for its unique spins on standard fighting game systems. One of these elements is the Grind Grid, or GRD, a meter that rises and falls in reaction to the player’s actions. When the GRD’s cycle timer circle fills, the player with the most GRD blocks enters the Vorpal state, granting them access to a host of benefits and special skills until the next GRD cycle. Combine this with defensive options like Shield, the incredibly powerful Veil Off state, and a cast of beautifully drawn and animated characters with wild gameplay, and you’ll see why UNI2 gets the love that it does.
The GRD acts like a miniature tug-of-war: Players not only try to land successful attacks but also want to gain an edge through their actions, which leads to many interesting strategies and gameplay depth unique to UNI2.
The King of Fighters XV
Publisher: SNK | Developer: SNK
The most recent installment of SNK’s world-famous team-based fighting game featuring many of the company’s most popular characters.
King of Fighters is known for its 3-versus-3 battles. Competitors will assemble a team of three characters from the large roster and play against each other: when one fighter falls, the next character on the team jumps in to continue. This adds a lot of unique strategies in team construction and the character’s place on the team.
Famous SNK faces Terry Bogard, and Mai Shiranui were recently announced as guest characters in Street Fighter 6, so if you want to see them (and plenty of SNK’s other delightful characters), be sure to check this out. The pacing is different from other fighters, leading to exciting moments like single-character victories: knocking out all the other team’s fighters using the starting character or–even cooler–a player being down to their last character and making a comeback.
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Publisher: Capcom | Developer: Developer: Capcom
One of the foundational games of Evo, Street Fighter III Third Strike, has been a player favorite for over 25 years. To celebrate two of its big anniversaries, it joins the lineup as an Evo Throwback game.
Some of the finest 2D animations ever seen in games combine with incredibly technical gameplay, resulting in an all-time classic: Evo moment #37, aka the “Daigo Parry.”
This happened at Evo in 2004, 20 years ago. It’s an incredibly exciting moment in Evo’s history that highlights the incredible level of skill that Street Fighter III Third Strike allows. In the 20 years since this famous moment, Third Strike’s devoted fans have kept on playing, raising the skill ceiling even higher.
At over 1000 entrants, this is the largest Third Strike tournament ever, so you’re bound to see some offbeat character picks and unexpected upsets.
Don’t see your favorite game here? Evo will also be hosting plenty of tournaments besides the eight main games, both officially sanctioned and community-run, like Bandai-Namco’s official DragonBall FighterZ World Tour Evo event. Follow the Evo Community Showcase to find your faves.
