I'm a little ashamed to say this, but this was my first year actually watching EVO. I know, I know, I may be tardy to the party but I was so impressed and amazed by the last day of EVO 2014 that I wanted to talk about it a bit. So here are the games played on the final day, and what I thought of the fights. (From when I started watching anyway).
SPOILERS AHEAD! If you didn't watch EVO this year and want to, DO NOT READ ON!
BlazBlue: Chrono Fantasma
First of all, this game is gorgeous looking. Arc System Works games are usually very stylish and this one is no different, and this is a game is no different. Also Arc System Works fighting games are super hard to pick up and play, you HAVE to take A LOT of time to get a character down. Watching this makes me REALLY wanna play some Persona 4 Arena, another game developed by Arc System Works.
Anywho, the fights were exciting as hell and moves started coming out of nowhere. The Grand Finals here were heart pounding as Galileo came from the losers bracket, went down 2 - 0 out of the best of 5 series, won 3 straight to reset the bracket, went down 2 - 0 again, then won 3 straight AGAIN! Absolutely nuts!
Killer Instinct
It is great to see this game on the EVO main stage since the Xbox One was booed off the stage at EVO 2013. It seems that the fighting game community (or FGC as it were) is giving this game and the Xbox One a chance. A lot of Sabrewolf and Thunder play here. I also saw one guy (Rico Suave) play 3 characters in one set (Jago, Glacius, Fulgore).
The finals were intense and all, loved it, but the thing I am going to take away from KI at EVO 2014 is this:
I lost my shit, that was the coolest intro of like ever and as much as I dislike the term, I feel HYPED!
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Yep, it's 2014, y'all, and they were playing a Gamecube game on the main stage of EVO. Of course this is after Reggie Fils-Amie recorded a video getting players HYPED for the new (Still without a sub-name) Super Smash Bros. for 3DS (October) and Wii U (Holiday). No announcements or reveals, just "Hey, thanks for playing and supporting the series, don't forget we have new games coming out this year". Which is fine, guess I was expecting a new character reveal or a new stage or SOMETHING.
These finals took a while since it was 1-on-1, 4 lives, best of 3 then best of 5 in the finals. A LOT of Fox/Falco/Jigglypuff play. This is one of those games that I'd rather watch amatuer play instead of pro play, since they don't allow any items and only play on a select few stages it seems. I'd rather gather up my friends, grab a few drinks, and go nuts.
Finals ended up being a Fox player (Mango) vs. a Jigglypuff player (HungryBox) with Mango (also last year's champion) winning. Dynasty?
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
I don't remember much of these finals since I required having a wallet under my tongue from all the damn seizures. Seriously, it is ALWAYS ON in a UMvC3 fight. Shit is popping off everywhere, people are flying in and out of the sides of the screen, flying in the air, lasers coming out, screen changing colors, I don't know how these guys can keep up with the action, but they do, and it's damn impressive.
A good mix of characters here I found, I did see a fair amount of Vergil play as well as Magneto, with a few appearances from Haggar which always makes me happy. One incident that stood out was a fight where the Magneto player used a "Force Push" style maneuver over and over again on a Haggar player to keep him away until the round timer expired. Needless to say, the crowd was less than thrilled about the time scam.
Also these were the craziest finals of the day. Seriously, go watch the replay on twitch at the finals matches with the eventual winner Justin Wong, he pulled the craziest comeback ever.
Ultra Street Fighter IV
At some point, Capcom is going to count to 5 right? This is the 4th iteration in the Street Fighter IV line, and it may very well be the final one (Don't quote me on that, there is still possibility for a 'Turbo' or something). Ultra features new characters, a few new stages (taken from Street Fighter X Tekken), new costumes, and the ability to select which version of the character you want (based on balance changes that were presented in SFIV, Super, Arcade Edition, and now Ultra).
All that being said, the main characters being used were Zangief ("bad guy", that not mean he bad guy), Rose, Juri, Fei Long, and Sagat, with a Ken sighting once. After the non-stop action of UMvC3, this felt to drag on forever, which I am not meaning in a bad way at all. Street Fighter IV is still an awesome game and it was very cool to see pro play.
The eventual winner (Luufy, I think, something like that, it was getting late in the PM/early in the AM by then), came from the losers bracket and ended up, I believe, going 6 - 2 vs the player from the winners bracket. Using his Rose against the losing efforts of Sagat.
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There were other games present at EVO, including Skullgirls, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and I hear possibly Persona 4 Arena. There also was a reveal for Tekken 7. I definitely will be going back through the twitch/YouTube archives and watching the entire event again as it really got my interest high again into fighting games, probably until I try going online and get absolutely destroyed.
Oh well, part of being a gamer who enjoys the occasional fighting game.
Dare I say, GET HYPED! ....ugh....
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