Quick Time Events

There was a time when Quick Time Events or QTES were in nearly everything. What was it about hitting the right button at the right time that felt so exhilarating? Maybe it was the minimal effort to do cool things, but entire franchises leaned on them, from shooters and cinematic adventures to hack-and-slash titles.

Nowadays, however, they’re rare, most likely due to oversaturation. Despite being present in the original, Resident Evil 4 Remake removed them and added new mechanics like knife parries. Like a Dragon: Ishin! has them for certain attacks and climatic battles, but it is a remake of a 2014 title. While they won’t go away entirely – who knows with the next Dark Pictures Anthology title – QTEs aren’t as favored as direct control over gameplay scenarios.

The world’s premier competitive fighting game tournament is almost here, and for the first time in years, it looks like Street Fighter 5 has been dethroned from its top spot of having the most number of registrations. Instead, this year, the most popular game at the tournament seems to be Arc Systems Works and Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball FighterZ, which has 2,530 fighters registered for the event.

Street Fighter 5 still took second place, with 2,421 registrations, while Tekken 7 saw year on year growth, with 1,504 entrants. Super Smash Bros. fell dramatically this year- presumably because of dwindling interest in Melee, and because the Smash Wii U scene is getting ready to move on to Smash Ultimate, which comes out later this year. Smash Wii U had 1,303 registrants, while Melee almost matched it with 1,302 registrants. They were trailed by BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Guilty Gear Xrd, and Injustice 2, which had 1,148, 621, and 356 registrations respectively.

Given how spectacular Dragon Ball FighterZ is to look at, and just how much fun it is to watch matches in it, it’s no surprise that it seems to have led the pack on registrations this year. Will things change next year, especially with a new Smash game, which presumably consolidates the audiences for Melee and Wii U? That remains to be seen. For now, Dragon Ball is king.

https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/1020203089670782976

The Japanese release date for the belated Switch port of DragonBall FighterZ was announced shortly after the game was confirmed at E3 this year; the game, we were told, would be coming September 27. As it turns out, that’s just about when we folks in the west will get it too, because Bandai Namco have confirmed that the game’s western launch will be just a day later, on September 28.

I say western, but technically, it’s only been confirmed for North America so far. That said, it’s highly unlikely that the European launch for the Switch will see much, if anything, in the way of a delay, so honestly, I’d just assume that’s when everyone else in the world outside of Japan will be getting it.

Bandai Namco also confirmed that pre-ordering the Switch version will get you a free copy of the fan favorite SNES Dragon Ball fighting game Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden. It will also get you early access to both SSGSS Goku and Vegeta as playable fighters.

If you’re interested in the game and don’t want to wait till September, it’s out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you want it on the go, it’s just a little more of a wait now- you’re almost there.

It seems like DragonBall FighterZ is winning big at EVO this year so far, at least in terms of the number of registrants. According to Mr. Wizard, it currently has more entries than any other fighting game being featured at the tournament, beating even Capcom’s Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, which, if you remember, just got its relaunch this year.

Street Fighter 5 is, however, in second place, while Tekken 7 comes in at a surprising third place. Smash Bros. Melee and Smash Bros. 4 round out the top five respectively. It is to be noted that as of right now, entries are still open, so things might just end up shifting around a bit- but even so, DragonBall FighterZ strong showing indicates that interest in it is strong from not just the mainstream community, but also the competitive fighting one.

EVO 2018 will be held later this year- it will be interesting to see whether FighterZ is able to maintain this level of popularity going into next year.

https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/973659377117798400

DragonBall FighterZ promises to kick off 2018 for gaming in style, with the striking anime fighter based on the beloved Japanese property looking to stop the show with its gorgeous graphics, and its technically proficient gameplay thanks to ArcSystem Works. To add to that, it’s also stoking 1990s kids’ nostalgia for the property with how faithful to the series it looks.

This is a point driven home in the various trailers for the game, the latest of which you can see for yourself below. The brand new trailer shows us Beerus, also showing us how the rather eccentric character will be translated into the fighting game.

DragonBall FighterZ is due out at the end of this month, on January 26, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in North America and Europe (in Japan, the release is in February, presumably to avoid the launch of Monster Hunter World, which promises to be a far bigger game there).