Blanka, everyone’s favorite South American electric-powered combatant, is coming to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Conspicuously absent since Street Fighter IV, Blanka’s return to the series marks the second installment of the Season 3 Character Pass which will also adds five other, lesser characters to the game over the next few months. Blanka is green, barrel rolls into opponents, and has amazing hair. They could rename the game Blanka Fighter and I’d be okay with that.
Blanka launches onto Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on February 20th.
Remember the epic moment when Ryu betrayed Ken? Or that time when Chun Li finally got revenge for her father’s death? Apparently there are Street Fighter fans that love the convoluted soap opera stories that go with the Street Fighter games. It’s not all hundred-hand-slaps and whirlwind kicks. There’s drama! For all the players that look forward to more exposition and histrionics, Sony and Capcom have some good news. They’ve announced that Street Fighter V will get a free story expansion post-launch. Confusingly, he storyline will take place between the events of Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter III.
M. Bison and Shadaloo will be a main focus of the story…and I can’t say much more than that right now.
Will anything in the game be better than Raul Julia’s portrayal of M. Bison? “For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.” Street Fighter V launches on PlayStation 4 and PC on February 16th.
A video has leaked online purportedly showing Street Fighter V. Capcom has since set the video to private and taken down mirrors, but Kotaku was able to grab some screenshots of the action. Although Chun Li and Ryu fighting in a neon-lit street is exciting, the big news is that according to the video, the game will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PC. Is it a timed exclusive, or the real deal? We’ll probably know more when Capcom decides to actually talk about it, but just by looking at sales of the Xbox One in Japan, (less than 40k lifetime to date) it’s not a surprising development.
In related brawler news, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round is coming to Steam on February 17th. This will be only the second game in the Dead or Alive fighting game series to make it to PC at all. (Previously, there was the Dead or Alive Online beta in 2009.) Here’s a riddle for you: What is a PC fighting game without online multiplayer? I don’t know either, but Koei Tecmo says that online functionality will be patched in “within 3 months” of the launch. Last Round is the supposedly final iteration of Dead or Alive 5 which originally launched in September 2012. Besides PC, it will be available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. The console versions will launch with online multiplayer.
