The Evolution Championship Series is hands down the largest and longest running fighting game tournament in the world. Evo brings together the sickest players from around the world to square off in some intense 1v1 action. The greatest thing about Evo is the immense passion these players have to fight through open-format gameplay to determine a grand champion. Evo is open for anyone to play or spectate, and features many “free play” stations for relaxed play. Which makes for a more intimate and personal gaming experience.

Heres a list of Fighting games you can expect to see at Evo.

• Super Street Fighter 4 (PS3)
• Tekken 6 (PS3)
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (Wii)
• Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, HD Remix (PS3)
• Marvel vs Capcom 2 (PS3)
• Melty Blood (PS2)

Evo was scheduled to hit Japan on September 11th, but Evo has decided to push back the event to the Spring of 2011. It seems like a lot of fans have requested a later date to prepare for the event, and to save up that cheddar. It can be quite a costly affair for any game to take a trip across the world, so this push back will definitely benefit gamers and Evo.

From Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar at Shoryuken:

“With the overwhelming response we have received from the fans of Evo, we have decided to push back the date of Evo Japan to Spring 2011. This will ensure all the fans of Evo can join us in the land of the rising sun to test their skills against Japanese players.”

Promotional trailer used for Evo Japan coming in 2011 for the first time ever.

Be on the look out for some big names and super stars from Evo. There are some definite beasts and fan favorite to keep your eye on, for some exciting matches. Two of the most recognizes names from Evo are Daigo “The Beast”  Umehara, and Justin Wong. They have both gained massive success and respect from their performances in Fighting tournaments all over the world. Here are two popular clips from both players. Enjoy the clips, and I hope to see you all in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Justin Wong vs Sanford l Marvel vs Capcom 2 l Evo 2010

Daigo vs Justin Wong l Street Fighter 3 l Evo 2004

Games that are simple and consistent take skill to be great at them right? This is why these two features should be a guideline to any gaming production company. Having these two features really opens up the skill gap between the average player and a pro player. Simple games have pretty much died off but here is a list of games that I have either played or watched competitively that were very consistent:

• Halo 1
• Quake 3
• Unreal Tournament 2006
• Counter Strike 1.6
• Starcraft/Warcraft
• Killzone
• Street Fighter’s

There are more games out there that are consistent and simple but these are the most popular ones. Nowadays games that are being developed have a lot of so called “dumb” things added to them. For example, take a look at the changes from Halo 1 to Halo 2/3, the game took a drastic change by adding a burst weapon which is very inconsistent and random. Having a burst weapon on a Xbox Live system is outrageous because of latency and host issues so why add that element to the game? Also, Bungie decided to add a lunge system which is also a very poor addition to the game. Online gameplay and latency/lag issues do play a part in adding the lunging system which is understandable, but seriously, remember the Halo 2 lunges? Give me a break. Halo 3 or should I say Halo 2.5, has got to be by far the worst Halo. The amount of inconsistency in the game is ridiculous. The rockets are slow and will most likely not kill your target. Really though, it’s a ROCKET, it should not take two rockets to kill someone. All I can say about the Halo series is H1>>>>>H2>H3. Please Bungie make Reach good.

Ok, sorry for my rant, let’s move on. Take a look at Quake 3, this game has been around for years. Pro players still play it to this day, because it is consistent, simple, and it takes skill to be the best of the best. A lot of players have quit the game just because they want to play a new game, and I don’t blame them. When are companies going to realise that competitive people want games that take skill? Another old, simple game that took skill is Counter Strike 1.6. There are still thousands of people that play CS 1.6 because it doesn’t have all of the random inconsistent things as in CoD MW2. I can go on and on about other games, but I think you get my point. They were simple games without the lame aspects and that is why they have been around for so long.

Today’s generation of games have gone down hill. Companies are now all about greed and money, in my opinion. What company is going to want to sell a game to a kid that is going to pick it up, get frustrated because he/she sucks at it, and turn it off to go play MW2 to noob tube someone? No company is going to do that because they want that kid to sit there and play it for hours. Companies are going to make games to sell to their general users that just want to sit down and “think” they are good, because there are more “noob tube, speed kit, dual shot gun, quick scoping put it in my montage” kids than there are actual players that are good at the game.

Want my solution? Keep all of the annoying bubble shields, speed kits, armor locks, noob tubes, etc. and give the competitive people a play list that is for competitive players. Also, make it completely customizable so they can make it how they want it. This is why Reach seems so promising because of how customizable it is. Bungie has also gotten rid of the burst weapons and went back to their Halo 1 roots which makes the game less random. Call of Duty: Black Ops on the other hand is just going back to the same type of “routine” games they have put out. To know what I am talking about check out Canex’s article that shows some videos on the latest games coming out this fall. As you can see Black Ops looks exactly the same but with a RC explosive car. /facepalm…

To sum it up companies need to start realising that some people want a competitive, skillful game. Widen the skill gap in games and then we will see the real pro players come out and play.

Big news this year out of Comic-Con, Street Fighter Vs Tekken! Two of the worlds biggest fighting franchises are about to duke it out, in two versions of this game, to see who will reign supreme. SSF4 Producer Yoshinori Ono approached Tekken 6 producer Katsuhiro Harada about making this huge cross-over since hearing that Harada was a fan of SSF4. This is a huge surprise to many in the industry because Namco, the makers of Tekken, have always been kind of “Iffy” about letting their games and characters be licensed out. This problem seems to be solved by making two different versions of the game. There will be a “Street Fighter Style” made by Capcom and there will be a “Tekken style game” made by Namco. Both of which will be released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Now let’s talk a little bit about both games. I love both Street Fight and Tekken. Both are completely different games and both have different styles of game play. When I first heard about this my first thought was that it wasn’t going to work. SF has projectile and Special attacks, where Tekken doesn’t have either but has a third dimension with the ability to side-step. After watching the video below, my mind changed a little bit.

Now the last question in this big announcement is…. Will it be embraced by everyone? Will SF fans accept this? Will Tekken fans love these games? Or will everyone just think their favorite franchise is ruined? Only time will tell.