Everybody’s favorite arcade fighter tournament, the Evolution Championship Series (aka EVO) is slowly coming up (it happens in July in good ol’ Las Vegas) and as such they have revealed the list of games one can expect to find if they go to the event. So if you fancy any of the games on the list and you want to compete, there is plenty of time for you to get in some practice. The games are:
Street Fighter IV
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Soul Calibur IV
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom (Exhibition)
Strangely BlazBlue is missing from the list but that is likely because the console version hasn’t come along yet, which is too bad really. It also would be awesome to see KOFXII there which will be available by July but I guess this is more of a “games that appeared on arcades but are available on consoles” sort of thing as all the games will be running on a console of sorts instead of a proper arcade machine. They also dropped Super Smash Bros. Brawl from the tournament so no luck there in case you happen to be a champion at that game but on on these other fighters.Either way it looks like a good line-up and should prove to be quite an entertaining competition to watch.
[EVO 2009 website] [Via The Escapist] [Discuss on the Forum]
I am pretty disappointed with this year’s Evo. Last year’s was also disappointing since they took off Virtua Fighter. Now Tekken is absent, along with Smash. I’d rather have BlazBlue than Guilty Gear which is getting old and tiring, and I’d rather they used SF4 to replace SF3:TS which is also getting old, along with Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I also see they removed Capcom vs. SNK 2, which is pretty much the only publicity SNK gets at Evo, now all a thing of the past, but then that game is getting too old too quick as well.
I like that they added HD Remix though, which will probably be the highlight of the tournament. But really, Evo has become pretty shallow over the years, look at it now, it’s all Street Fighter, hardly any other games get a chance.
I’d like to see The King Of Fighters at an Evo tournament for once, or see them pick out a classic SNK game like Garou:Mark Of The Wolves and throw that in there. Or hell, just to try something different, they could add Arcana Heart which saw a USA release last year, and I am pretty sure the sequel will get a USA release on consoles sooner or later as well.
But yeah, Evo has been going down hill for a long time now, which is a damn shame.
There is a problem for all fan based tournament events regarding getting their hands on amusement product. Especially when they do not want to pay for them!
There is also the issue of the pressure of the consumer game sponsors against the new amusement titles.
No Virtua Fighter is pretty ridiculous alright. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is an awful game in my opinion. No way it should be on there.