Following up on its promise to add four new playable characters to the roster in Street Fighter 5, Capcom finally revealed one at EVO 2015 – Necalli, a beastly fighter who uses a primitive but vicious fighting style to take down opponents. Check out the trailer for Necalli below.

Necalli is interesting because he uses close range attacks combined with various throws. Hitting the V-Trigger causes his hair to flare up, providing new moves and a new critical art to demolish players with. So far, he’s not bad and makes us even more excited about the three other new characters joining the roster.

Capcom also revealed during EVO 2015 that Street Fighter 5 would feature free updates and DLC that can either be unlocked through in-game money earned through playing or by paying real world cash for Zenny. Some of the new content after launch will include new characters and any future balance changes will be free for all.

Street Fighter 5 is out during March 2016 for PS4 and PC.

EVO 2015 is almost here- the world’s premier fighting game tournament, and also one of the showcases for eSports, has record participation this year, across a full range of games, covering everything from anime based fighters like Guilty Gear and Persona, western fighters like Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, technical and exacting ones like Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom, and Nintendo’s Smash Bros., of course.

If you were planning on following this event at all, in any capacity, then you are in luck- EVO has gone ahead and released the full schedule for the tournament for this year, which you can see above by clicking on the image. The last two days appear to be especially exciting, with Smash 4, Melee, Street Figter, and Guilty Gear finals all being held in that period.

Which games are you planning on following at EVO this year? Personally, I’m excited for Persona and the two Smash games. What about you? Let us know in the comments.

It should not come as a surprise to anybody, but the games with the most entrants at the world’s biggest and most prestigious fighting game tournament, EVO, also happen to be the two most popular fighting games on the market. The numbers are in, and it appears that Ultra Street Fighter IV and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U are the two most popular games at EVO this year, in terms of numbers of participants.

The third game is Super Smash Bros. Melee, which, in an incredible feat for a fourteen year old game, saw its total participation rise, while also beating many, much newer, constantly updated games. Collectively, it appears as though Smash Bros. is the biggest attraction at EVO this year (though of course, Street Fighter remains the largest individual one).

The full numbers are:

• Ultra Street Fighter IV – 2,227
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U – 1,926
• Super Smash Bros. Melee – 1,869
• Mortal Kombat X – 1,162
• Guilty Gear Xrd – 968
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – 816
• Tekken 7 – 458
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax – 437
• Killer Instinct – 397

Personally, this is a good lineup, and I am glad to see that all of these games got so much love. And I cannot wait to see some higher level play for the sublime Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information on EVO 2015.

The PS4 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV was supposed to be the definitive version of the game, the one that would be played at all tournaments- so much so that Capcom and Sony had already announced that this would be the version that would be played at all tournaments going forward. However, in the wake of the terrible launch for the game, which we reported on yesterday, Capcom has gone ahead and withdrawn the PS4 version from the tournament circuit.

“For those experiencing issues and wondering about a patch, we are aware that you are experiencing problems with the PS4 version of USFIV, which was published and developed by SCEA’s Third Party Production group,” Capcom said in a statement. “SCEA and Capcom are currently looking into the issues that some users may be experiencing and are working to resolve them as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide updates on our progress.

“A lot of our more competitive players have wondered how the USFIV version of PS4 will affect them and the tour. To that we’d like to advise that the integrity of the Capcom Pro Tour is a top priority for us and we will continue to work with tournament organizers worldwide to ensure that the highest quality event will be run. Each region will maintain its current hardware standard for the remainder of the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour until otherwise announced. We will keep you updated as to when the PS4 version of USFIV will be integrated into the Pro Tour.”

What does this mean? Essentially, it means that each tournament will, for now, continue using the version of Ultra Street Fighter IV that it has been using so far. So if a tournament was using the Xbox 360 version, they will continue to use that. Tournaments using the PS3 version will use that one instead. Most tournaments use the Xbox 360 version, so we will probably see that one highlighted for the near future.

The lone standout so far is EVO, which has confirmed that it is assessing the situation, though given its statements yesterday, it is also likely to announce a switch soon- especially since, given Capcom’s wording of its statement, it can be implied that Capcom does not expect this port to be up to scratch until the Tournament circuit is over- which ios well after the end of this year.

We will keep you posted. Stay tuned.

Ultra Street Fighter IV was supposed to be the definitive version of the game- it was coming with all DLC included, it was going to be arcade perfect and tournament ready, it would support all fighting sticks and controllers, and it was going to remove the lag that had pervaded past versions of the title, especially the PS3 version.

The game we got, instead, seems to be absolutely broken, and a nightmarishly glitchy product that is so problematic that its status as the version of choice at future fighting game tournaments is coming under jeopardy. The issues with the game include lag, stuttering and other noticeable glitches affecting the experience. Menus suffer from dramatic slowdown, and graphical glitches are leading to inadvertent buffs for some characters, such as Guile’s Sonic Boom being practically invisible, and thus unavoidable.

There are graphical and sound glitches too (you can see the former in the video embedded above), and, hilariously enough, the title screen of the game still asks you to press Start to proceed, despite the fact that the PS4’s controller has no start button.

This sundry list of issues has led to the shoddy port coming under fire at multiple online fighting game enthusiast communities, including Shoryuken, NeoGAF, and Reddit. The outrage has prompted EVO to officially respond with a statement, and they have said that if the PSS4 version of the game is not patched satisfactorily soon, the tournament will revert to using the Xbox 360 version for its matches; other tournaments have already announced the abandonment of the PS4 version.

Meanwhile, Sony’s Gio Corsi of the Third Party Productions team (which was responsible for this port), has officially released a statement too, indicating that they are looking into the glitches.

Yikes. What a mess. For now, stick with the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions, I guess.

The world’s biggest fighting game tournament is back, and it is being headlined with some good, big games this year- the organizers of EVO have selected a very diverse bunch to be represented this time around, including Capcom’s Ultra Street Fighter IV, the unreleased Mortal Kombat X, and even the arcade version of Tekken 7.

The big news for everyone here is probably going to be that both, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will be played at EVO this year; Melee, of course, is the biggest game at the tournament, drawing in more players, viewers, and counts than anything else, and, fourteen years after release, still has a thriving competitive screen. The excellent Smash Bros. for Wii U, on the other hand, is also a competitively viable game that distinguishes its style of play enough from Melee, and is popular and nuanced enough to warrant its inclusion.

The full lineup includes:

• Ultra Street Fighter 4
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Guilty Gear Xrd Sign
• Killer Instinct
• Mortal Kombat X
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
• Tekken 7

That’s a very nice and varied lineup, though of course, EVO notes that it is subject to change.

Still, I can say I am very happy, and that EVO will be getting a lot of my viewership this year.

EVO 2015 will take place July 17-19 at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.