EVO-Nation Hype

EVO-Nation Hype

The weekend of Friday July 11^th was an exciting time for fight gamers everywhere. The annual EVO tournament was held and the competition was intense. This year, EVO was held at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Second round footage of the fight between Filipino Champ and Apologyman in Ultimate Marvel Versus Capcom 3 left me in complete awe and served as a reminder that I have so much to learn. With only one character left, Filipino Champ managed to chip (PRINGLES!) away at Apologyman’s remaining character’s heath with only seconds to spare. In a miraculous display of technique and finesse, he managed to deal enough damage in approximately ten seconds to cause a draw- resulting in a tie breaker match.

EVO was not just the usual “wombo combos” and trash-talk this year though. Big names in the gaming industry gave us teasers of what to expect in the fighting game world. As some of you may have noticed, A State of Gaming was one of the first gaming news outlets to report that Tekken 7 will be released in 2015! The accompanying game trailer showed that we may finally get to know what really happen to Kazuya’s mother Kazumi. The trailer also implies that the origins of Kazuya’s devil gene may stem from his dear old mum. For those of you that are not familiar with the game and cannot understand the hype surrounding this (seriously...get hype!!!), here is a brief summary:

Kazuya Mishima is the son of Heihachi Mishima who at one point was the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu. As a child, Heihachi throws his son off a cliff and into a ravine, assuming him to be dead. Kazuya, was under the impression his father had killed his mother Kazumi. The games and movie adaptations lead us to believe that Kazuya formed a pact with the devil in order to stay alive after his father’s fatal toss. It is then that the devil gene inside him awakens and Kazuya becomes the raging, red-eyed, devil we have come to recognize. Fast forward a few years and Kazuya has fathered a son with Jun Kazama, a fellow king of Iron Fist Tournament contestant. Jun is of a spiritual variety and is portrayed as the angel yin to Kazuya’s devil yang. Jun eventually discovers that the damning gene had been passed on to Jin via his father. Jin grows up to hate his father and struggles to control the corroding devil gene. His father on the other hand has embraced the power entirely. From Tekken 4 to Tekken 6, we basically see this Three Stooges comedy of Heihachi wanting to kill Kazuya and his grandson Jin in order to get rid of the devil gene; Kazuya wants to kill his dad to avenge his mother and his son because he wants to absorb the devil gene power from him; Jin wants to destroy his father originally because he is tired of the gene wreaking havoc upon his life. This simple plot line twists when Jin takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu with the intent to kill his father, conquer the world, and take the power for himself (or so we are lead to believe...). Kazuya becomes the head of G Corporation, the Zaibatsu’s rival.

Without spoiling the ending of Tekken 6 for those that have yet to play it (shame on you), this is where we are left at in Tekken 6: A seemingly corrupted Jin, a powerful and evil Kazuya, and Heihachi M.I.A.  Tekken 7 going back to the beginning is a bold move. Bandai Namco are shining light on a case that every Tekken player has assumed was closed and shut. This could change the tide of the game completely because what was Kazuya fighting for to begin with then? Kazumi’s bloodline passed the devil gene to Kazuya?! So what really happened to Kazumi? We can only speculate, but we will have our answers in what has been teased as the final chapter/installment in the Tekken franchise in 2015.

In the meantime, EVO was not content with merely satiating our desire for competition and Tekken news; we also received word that new characters would be added to the Super Smash Bros. Wii U roster. As IGN noted around 8pm July 14^th, 2014, Captain Falcon, Lucina, and Robin will join the Smash Bros. line up. For those unaware, Lucina and Robin are from Fire Emblem. There seems to be female and male variants for Robin, but as IGN points out, it has not been reported whether or not these are distinct characters with their own fighting techniques or not.

As always, EVO was quite the treat this year. Man do I have a ways to go in the UMvC3 skills department haha. 

Until Later Guys,

^_^

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