I love that, somehow, in 2026, they are still finding ways to add more Goku's to Dragon Ball Fighters 😆

It's kind of amazing.

Good call going with such thick plastic. Less likely to break when you get punched in the face for wearing them in public 🤔

3-panel comic. (1) (A person with a picture of a spacecraft behind head.] PERSON 1: There are now three spacecraft headed to Europe: NASA’s *Europa Clipper*, which will investigate Europa’s subsurface ocean, (2) [Person is gesturing at a picture of a different spacecraft while talking to a person with a ponytail and a person with short hair.] PERSON 1: ESA’s *Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer*, which will study the topography and chemistry of Europa and the other moons, (3) [Person with a picture behind head of a Zamboni with a rocket launcher underneath] and the NHL’s *Zamboni Voyager*, which plans to resurface Europa. PERSON FROM OFF-PANEL: Oh no. PERSON 1: We tried to stop them, but the league is set on an expansion.

Europa Missions

xkcd.com/3234/

Infowars/Onion combo logo in rainbow saying “I support the onion’s hostile media takeover.”

It’s finally happened. After 18 months. Finally, a media merger you can root for.

Employee pensions and healthcare for factory workers.

I wish there was a competitive scene for four player, items on Smash. Or 2v2. Or not-stock. Etc.

They're all valid and would all have wildly different metas and strats and viable characters.

It'd be so cool 😔

... based on Lufia, I think, 2's 100 level dungeon crawler side dungeon thing? It's so cool. People run tournaments for it! 😁

Oh hey. Someone made a Lufia V fangame that just came out 😯

No idea if it's good. Never played Lufia.

But it sure looks like a SNES game and I know people LOVE those original Lufia games so, fyi.

I do love me a niche passion project.

Also I kind of want to make a dungeon crawler roguelike...

That's so real 😏

Never got far into Croc 2 as a kid, now that I'm an adult I've finally finished it and i gotta say it kinda sucks! 🐊

...space should be more celebrated for what they've achieved instead of compared to Smash as disappointments 🤔

Some of my favorite fighters are pretty small after all but their creators set proper expectations for themselves and thus seem to be thriving in a 2026 game industry.

Crazy stuff. But it also highlights that success in the genre just means something different on some level.

Maybe that even without Smash being the 500lb gorilla stepping on everyone's throats, the platform fighter genre would still be just as niche and that the successes people HAVE had in the...

...figures press releases for Guilty Gear Strive; you know the ones companies like to do to pat themselves on the back for reaching big milestone targets.

Except it was for numbers like 50K and 80K. For the best selling iteration of the flagship IP from the premier fighting game dev going today 😵‍💫

Absolutely.

Take Rivals 2. That game kind of has everything going for it except an IP and it feels totally invisible as a result.

Smash is so popular it feels kind of crazy it hasn't made a bigger impact.

But I then try to remind myself of how Arc System Works was putting out those sales...

New living room arrangement makes falling asleep in there pretty (french accent) dangerous 😬

In the sense that it's pretty cozy af.

The IP thing is of course huge. Itsa Mario.

But it's not everything. Playstation All-Stars flopped, Multiversus crashed, that Nickelodeon game, etc.

Definitely need the other things you mentioned to retain people.

Personally my big turn off to Smash is, uh, the communities online persona 😅

Giving players that jump back is a huge friendly difference to accessibility.

Even if long term, learning to use it PROPERLY, is also exponentially more complex and crucial to your success at a platform fighter then Ryu's basic ass three direction hops ever were 😏

And I think when even the most basic ass element of the game, simply moving your character back and forth across the screen, can so easily and effortlessly be done wrong, to devastating effect, simply by using the the most basic inputs given to you... that matters.

15/

Now jumping isn't free in those games. And you still have all the other "Stop. Don't do that right now or you'll die" mentalities of other fighting games.

But we're not talking about being "good", we're talking about getting into the genre and learning to not just play it but to enjoy it.

14/

They are fighting games still but they are also platformers.

Smash and it's contemporaries GIVE YOU JUMPING BACK.

I think this might be a huge deal and easing of an invisible pain point when it comes to onboarding new players who are invested into gaming but not fighting games.

13/

...like to be told "No" 😅😔

And to be fair this is a huge mental adjustment from almost all games.

Even in Souls movement is your friend. It's what you do when you're NOT hitting the wrong buttons at the wrong time.

Platform fighters are different though. It's right there in the name.

12/

...you for "doing things" at the wrong time are now also telling you that half the movement options on the d-pad/stick, the most basic element of a game, are BAD and you should NOT do them most of the time.

People, you guessed it, really struggle with this.

Some people really don't...

11/

Especially if you don't know what you're doing.

Jumping is very powerful a tool but also incredibly dangerous and can be a death sentence if it becomes predictable.

Once again all other games give you your abilities and say "Go do them to win" but fighting games, which are already punishing..

10/

...is jumping. It's this entire dimension of the screen, tied to the same input that moves and blocks (usually) that gains you access to an entire suite of aerial moves, specials, the ability to be unblockable to crouching targets, etc.

And 90% of the time you SHOULD NOT be doing it.

9/

...attack back, and because they're more powerful, annihilate you. People construe this as "hard" when really they're just thoughtlessly throwing haymakers at a professional boxer.

What does this have to do with Platform Fighters?

Well a HUGE thing that trips new players in fighting games...

8/

... they're "bad" at Souls games and it's the same issue as fighting games.

They are just "Going In" because this is what all other games have taught them to do. Mario doesn't wait. You just hold down run and GO.

They're attacking, but the enemy has to audacity to...

7/

...games to step outside fighting games and give a broader example.

They have a lot in common. You cannot mash. You have to be patient and observe. You have to learn the enemies strengths, weaknesses, patterns, etc.

People really struggle with this. Again.

You look at people who think...

6/

...you're always alone. You need to respect who and what you're fighting to win and this flies in the face of a lot of games.

NOT pushing buttons. NOT attacking. These are key to winning in a fighting game.

People really struggle with this.

You see it very broadly with Dark Souls style...

5/

...aware of the other players load out. Just do your thing faster and better then the other person and time to kill is so fast its just over one way or another. True highlevel play comes more from team work, strategy, etc, then in complexity of the tool set.

Fighting games hit back AND...

4/

...then expects you to utilize it to achieve whatever goal is being asked of you. It's all player action and not really ever expecting you to respect the opposition you'll face because it merely exists to be overcome.

Even in competitive games, you're not really worried about, or often even...

3/