Over the weekend, a monthly Capcom vs. SNK 2 tournament at Japan’s Club Sega Shinjuku held a special exhibition between three established competitors. The event had brought these three players together due to the similarities in how they play the game, particularly their use of a specific fighting style that rewards…

At first glance, Pichu doesn’t come across as a super strong Super Smash Bros. character. The diminutive Pokémon is cute as a button, sure, but its weaknesses meant it was always overshadowed by its fellow cast members in Super Smash Bros. Melee. But that all changed with the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

As a kid who grew up with arcades around every corner, nothing feels better to me than sitting down with a balltop joystick and several clacking buttons. But the 90s also gave birth to the universally panned Virtual Boy. Oddly enough, one determined fan has taken the time to produce a high-quality arcade stick for…

Cooperation Cup, a massive Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike team tournament held in Tokyo every year, stands out from the pack because of its punishing and exciting tournament format. The event got 2019 started right this past weekend with two days of fantastic competition featuring over 500 players, grouped into teams…

Over the holidays, Netflix added animated series Hi Score Girl to their streaming lineup. The anime, based on the manga of the same name by Rensuke Oshikiri, is set in Japan during the arcade boom of the 1990s. Hi Score Girl is a slice-of-life comedy focused on the budding love triangle between three childhood…

On the evening of December 30, a group of fighting game veterans gathered together in New York City for Battle of the Strongest, a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 exhibition featuring some of the game’s best east coast competitors. Even though it was a small show with relatively low stakes by modern standards, the tournament…

The future of Dragon Ball FighterZ competition is in flux. Over the last few months, several prominent fighting game events have had to pull the game from their official lineups, and no one is quite sure who’s to blame.

Capcom Cup wrapped up a year of Street Fighter V over the weekend with an explosive grand finals match between Japanese powerhouses Kanamori “Gachikun” Tsunehori and Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada. The players were incredible, but the tournament itself was a bewildering mishmash of poor scheduling and tiresome…

Street Fighter V has had its share of disappointments since it arrived in 2016, from a shoddy launch to installing dangerous backdoors for malware in players’ computers. Capcom’s latest brilliant idea is to plaster the entire game with advertisements, turning the most storied fighting game franchise of all time into a…

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate officially landed on the Nintendo Switch last Friday, giving folks just enough time to hold inaugural tournaments for the new game over this past weekend. Local event series Smash @ Xanadu hosted the first of many Ultimate competitions on Saturday, bringing in players from surrounding states…

Although most players are eagerly anticipating the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate later this week, tournaments are still being run for the previous installment during what many consider to be its twilight hour. And lucky us, because, otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen this cool moment from an event last weekend…

Pokémon Go is ready to expand once again with the upcoming addition of trainer battles, offering the first real head-to-head competition the game has seen since it launched in 2016. Last week, Niantic invited Kotaku to try out this new mode at their offices, and much like the game itself, these battles are a little…

Hyeon-ho “Rangchu” Jeong is the new Tekken 7 champion after winning the Tekken World Tour finals over the weekend at an event in Amsterdam. His victory was the culmination of a year’s worth of competition, but at times it felt like he was fighting against history and even his own character en route to earning his…

After months of competition, the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour is nearing its January conclusion. Matches have been fierce as international competitors have fought for a spot at the finals, but the fiercest among them is apparently Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue, who hasn’t stopped winning Saga events despite qualifying for…

Shout it from the rooftops: Cammy White will be trading in her traditional battle gear for an outfit with pants, thanks to Street Fighter V’s upcoming cross-promotion with Resident Evil. In paying homage to frequent Resident Evil protagonist Jill Valentine, the Killer Bee is set to have an outfit with ample bottom…

Red Bull Conquest wrapped up its team-based fighting game competition in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, bringing Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 competitors together to decide which American city is the strongest. Victor “Punk” Woodley, who famously placed second at Evo 2017, ending up…

In response to recent allegations of domestic violence, South Korean fighting game competitor Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee has been dropped by Panda Global, the professional esports organization that signed him in March, and will not participate in official Street Fighter V events for at least a year.

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean won the biggest Injustice 2 tournament of the year. Again.