The eve of Evo, the world’s largest fighting game festival, is upon us. The massive Las Vegas event will attract over 10,000 attendees in 2024, officially making it the largest esports event on record. Get ready for world premiere announcements, upcoming game demos, and the main attraction: tournaments for eight carefully selected fighting games.
Not sure about the list or what to expect from the different games? We’ve put together a helpful article on what makes each game special and what to look out for.
Publisher: Capcom | Developer: Capcom
The latest installment in Capcom’s legendary, genre-defining fighting series. Released last year, it quickly became (and remains) Evo’s biggest game.
Street Fighter 6’s gameplay is built around the all-new Drive bar. Using Drive, players can perform all sorts of advanced techniques: the moving Drive Impact, the defensive Drive Parry, the fierce counterattacking Drive Reversal, the fast-moving Drive Rush, and the special-attack-enhancing Overdrive. Drive management is crucial to strategy: running out of Drive puts your opponent in a terrible Burnout position, limiting their ability to use Drive and causing other detrimental effects.
Street Fighter 6, with its largest field of competitors, is sure to have some big surprises in the brackets. Many of the biggest names in the Street Fighter series’ competitive scene will be in attendance, but just because you’re a big name doesn’t mean you can’t be surprised by a newbie who happens to be really good, and with two new DLC characters recently added, fan favorites M. Bison and Akuma, there’s plenty of room for surprises.
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment | Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Inc.
Bandai-Namco’s Tekken 8 is the most popular 3D fighting game in the world right now. It’s also one of the newest games at Evo, having been released in January of this year.
Tekken 8 is a game built around slick movement, big attacks for flashy combos, and the newly introduced Heat system. Each character can enter Heat mode once per round, and it lasts for a short time. It’s built for aggression, as it gives characters extra damage and other new enhancements to their attacks, but you’ll also see skilled players using the powerful Heat Smash and Heat Dash special attacks to cancel out their Heat mode for even more intense pressure.
The last few years have been interesting for Tekken. For a long time, Korean players dominated the scene. However, a few years ago, the Pakistani Tekken community started traveling around the world to compete and wow everyone with their amazing gameplay, and now many other skilled players from around the globe are eager to take the crown.
Publisher: Arc System Works | Developer: Arc System Works
This top anime fighting game is known for its eye-catching visuals, fast and highly technical gameplay, and some of the most bizarre character designs in the genre.
The Guilty Gear series is known for its mix of gameplay mechanics. Along with returning classics like the series’ trademark Roman Cancels and the offensive-breaking Bursts. The Wall Break mechanic is new to Strive, which can take a cornered opponent and combo flying into a whole new arena in spectacular fashion.
Guilty Gear Strive has evolved a lot since its initial release (and Evo tournament debut), adding more characters with unique mechanics. The game’s enduring popularity has earned it a large, dedicated group of high-level players from all over the world.
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games | Developer: NetherRealm Studios
This infamous fighting series has reimagined its timeline once again, bringing many new and old faces to its famous dark and bloody supernatural martial arts universe.
Mortal Kombat has become famous (and infamous) for many reasons, but MK1’s gameplay depth doesn’t stop at the surface. The Kameo Fighter system is the latest gameplay change introduced in this installment. Fighters are drawn from across the MK series, selected alongside the main fighter, and can be called upon to assist in various situations, adding another layer of strategy.
Mortal Kombat developer Netherrealm Studios updates their game frequently, meaning that changes in the Mortal Kombat 1 meta are a regular occurrence. The best players quickly adapt their playstyle and strategies to the changing environment.
Publisher: CyGames | Developer: Arc System Works
It’s a beautifully designed fighting game featuring characters from Cygames’ massive Granblue Fantasy series and media. Rising, released late last year, is a significant overhaul of the Versus series, adding new mechanics and characters.
Granblue Fantasy is known for its diverse cast of characters, and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising builds on this by giving each character a distinct playstyle. The game is heavier on the subsystems than games like Guilty Gear Strive or Under Night In-Birth, but has many of the same aesthetics and movements. If you feel lost or overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything going on in other fighting games, you’ll appreciate the pace and style of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
The relative newness of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and the strong support from publisher Cygames in balance patches make it interesting to watch, as players have responded quickly to the changes and come up with new strategies. Players agree that Nier is particularly strong, but don’t rule out the rest of the characters.
Publisher: Arc System Works | Developer: French-Bread
The name may be wordy, but Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys: Celes is the latest installment in the fan-favorite fighting game series.
Under Night In-Birth is beloved by fans for its unique twists on standard fighting game systems. One of these elements is the Grind Grid, or GRD, a meter that increases and decreases based on the player’s actions. When the GRD’s cycle timer circle is full, the player with the most GRD blocks enters a Vorpal state, granting them access to a variety of special benefits and skills until the next GRD cycle. Combine this with defensive options like Shield, the incredibly powerful Veil Off state, and a cast of beautifully drawn and animated characters with wild gameplay, and you’ll see why UNI2 is so beloved.
GRD works like a miniature tug-of-war: Players not only try to land successful attacks, but also gain an advantage through their actions, which creates a lot of interesting strategies and unique gameplay depth in UNI2.
Publisher: SNK | Developer: SNK
The latest version of SNK’s world-famous team-based fighting game features many of the company’s most popular characters.
King of Fighters is famous for its 3v3 battles. Players will assemble a team of three characters from a large roster and play against each other: when one fighter falls, the next character on the team will jump in to continue. This adds a lot of unique strategies in team building and character placement within the team.
Famous SNK faces Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui were recently announced as guest characters in Street Fighter 6, so if you want to see them (and a bunch of other cool SNK characters), be sure to check this one out. The pacing is different from other fighters, which leads to exciting moments like a single-character victory: taking out all of the other team’s fighters with the starting character or–even better–a player being down to their last character and coming back.
Publisher: Capcom | Developer: Developer: Capcom
One of Evo’s foundational games, Street Fighter III Third Strike, has been a fan favorite for over 25 years. To celebrate two big anniversaries, it joins the lineup as an Evo Throwback game.
Some of the most beautiful 2D animations ever seen in gaming combined with incredibly technical gameplay, creating an all-time classic: Evo Moment #37, aka “Daigo Parry”.
This happened at Evo in 2004, 20 years ago. It was a very interesting moment in Evo history, highlighting the incredible skill level that Street Fighter III Third Strike allowed. In the 20 years since that famous moment, Third Strike’s loyal fans have continued to play, raising the skill level even higher.
With over 1000 participants, this is the biggest Third Strike tournament ever, so you’re sure to see some unusual characters picked and unexpected things happening.
Don’t see your favorite game here? Evo will also host a variety of tournaments outside of the eight main games, both officially sanctioned and community-run, like Bandai-Namco’s official DragonBall FighterZ World Tour Evo event. Follow Evo Community Showcase to find your favorites.
