Evo 2017’s biggest announcements

Evo is the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, so there’s no surprise that fighting game developers save their biggest announcements for this annual event. Evo 2017 was no exception, with a handful of big character reveals for popular fighting games and the announcement of several brand new titles.

In case you missed all the action this weekend, here are some of the biggest stories coming out of Evo 2017.

EVO JAPAN AND ARMS’ FIGHTING GAME TOURNAMENT DEBUT

Since Evo Japan was announced at last year’s Evo, fans have been waiting on a final date and confirmation on which games would be headlining the inaugural event. Last night, the organizers of Evo confirmed that the tournament will take place in Tokyo on January 26-28. While titles like Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Xrd, King of Fighters XIV, BlazBlue: Central Fiction and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will be making an appearance, one notable game will not: Super Smash Bros. Melee. While that game might not be there, a brand new fighting game, Arms, will make its tournament debut.

GEESE HOWARD FROM FATAL FURY WILL BE IN TEKKEN 7

Since Tekken 7 already featured a guest character from outside the series, Street Fighter’s Akuma, fans have been curious about who the next guest star might be. After the Tekken 7 grand finals at Evo, players got their answer: Geese Howard from the Fatal Fury series. We’re not sure what unique fighting system Geese will bring over from Fatal Fury, but it looks like he still has all of his projectiles and counter attacks. You can look forward to playing Geese this winter.

STREET FIGHTER 5 REVEALS ITS BIGGEST CHARACTER EVER, ABIGAIL

The current Street Fighter 5 DLC roster is meant to give the spotlight to characters who may not have been in a Street Fighter game in a while, or at all. And last night, before the Street Fighter 5 finals, Capcom unveiled its biggest character yet — literally: Abigail from Final Fight. This new character is nearly twice the size of the most recent newcomer, Ed, who is 5'6". Fans will be able to play as Abigail on July 25.

DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z SHARES TRAILER FOR TRUNKS AND DETAILS BETA

On the last day of Evo, Dragon Ball Fighter Z producer Tomoko Hiroki took the stage to reveal the trailer for the game’s latest character, Trunks. In addition to showing the new character in action, the trailer detailed the upcoming closed beta. Registration for the beta begins on July 26 for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players.

JEDAH FROM DARKSTALKERS JOINS MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE

During a gameplay exhibition, Capcom revealed a brand new character for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite: Jedah from Darkstalkers. Without much warning, Capcom showed the new character in action and offered little explanation. But it’s clear that the developers took care in making sure his moves looked as impressive as they did in his 2D form. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will be released on September 19.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is revealed

During the final day of Evo, Arc System Works unveiled a brand new game, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. This mashes up three Arc System Works games: BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth, and adds RWBY to the mix. There aren’t many other details about the game outside the fact that it will utilize a 2 vs. 2 tag system and that it will see the light of day sometime in 2018.

Arika makes their April Fool’s joke a real game

Earlier this year, Arika, the developers behind the Street Fighter EX series, created a high quality April Fool’s joke showing off an apparently new game. While the developer was quick to confirm it was a joke, they announced on the final day of Evo that they are in fact making a game called Mysterious Fighting Game (Title Still Undecided).

The game is currently in development for the PS4 and will have a simultaneous release in North America, Europe and Japan in 2018. The game will feature a limited beta test at the end of 2017 with pre-orders for Japanese players going up at the same time.