Match of the Millennium

Hi, everyone! Here at MOTM, we're proud to be the longest-running and most successful MU* based on fighting-games. And yet... some players just want more! We gotta keep the formula fresh and interesting! So we'd like to shake the table up a little bit. The first change is, we're shuffling some terms around, reclassifying a couple games, and adding a new category. CORE SERIES -- If MOTM can't really exist without a given series, that's probably a Core Series. Without Street Fighter or Fatal Fury, there'd be no street fighting. Without King of Fighters, there'd be no precedent for team tournaments. Mortal Kombat, Darkstalkers, and BlazBlue have been an integral part of theme since our Champion's Road reboot. The MotM theme wouldn't be the same without these series, so they are Core series. EXPANSION SERIES - An Expansion series is one that dovetails nicely with stuff we've already built the game around. Expansion Series used to be called Supporting Series, and by and large, it's the same idea. Tekken's King of the Iron Fist tournament slots in nicely with ones we've already established in the Core Series. Guilty Gear adds some fresh concepts, to be sure, but it's secondary to other series such as BlazBlue in our theme. The idea is that later Expansions fleshed out the core series and expansion series a bit more, but their source canon is not really as "canon" or "integral" to our game theme in the same way that Core series are. DLC SERIES -- This one's all new, kids! Just like Expansion Series, DLC Series dovetail together with the existing Core and Expansion series, but the integration isn't as complete, there's no Story Mode for these characters. DLC Series will have their own info files to explain the adaptations for new players. But, unlike the Core and Expansion Series, DLC Series characters will not have pre-built characters. To play a character from a DLC Series, you will be submitting an Adapted Feature Character (AFC) app instead of the usual Feature Character (FC) app. And then...

The next change is -- we're going to be having monthly DLC drops for a while! For now we're going to focus on DLC additions. The first DLC drop is May 1st! .. wait, that's today! Our first DLC Series will be: * * * BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN * * * That's right! We've talked about it for years and the dream is coming alive, folks! Some history: the first game, Battle Arena Toshinden, was a launch title for the PlayStation US release way back in 1995! While games like Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage were revolutionary for combining motion-captured graphics, 3D games with high-quality graphics like Virtua Fighter and Tekken were just way too much for a home console to handle in a 1:1 format. Yes, there were adaptations -- but Battle Arena Toshinden was one of the first games developed entirely with the PlayStation hardware in mind. It was also the first weapon-based 3D fighting game - sorry, Soul Edge! It looked gorgeous for the time, and its playstyle was perfectly suited for the original PS1 controller. The thing is, the storyline was a little threadbare for MOTM standards. The main story centers around a fighting tournament called the Toshindai-Bukai. It's held by a mysterious secret society. The secret society is named Secret Society. I'm not even joking, guys. The winner of the tournament is rewarded with ... rewards. And the losers are rewarded with... "death." This is all neatly forgotten about by Battle Arena Toshinden 2. So yeah. There will be a full write-up for this series in 'info Toshinden' and 'info Toshinden Challenges' -- but for right now, the main takeaway is that the Secret Society is a division of the Illuminati faction. It fits better there than it ever could as a standalone organization, because if your "evil faction" consists of just three people, how evil -are- you really? So -- if you're interested in apping Toshinden characters, game on! If you would like some help with integration ideas, drop us a pitch email ('info pitching') Next DLC drop will be on June 1st!

The second series of our monthly DLC drop is: * * * BLOODY ROAR * * * Released first in arcades as "Beastorizer" in 1997, this game series was the first fighting game that allowed human characters to transform into ferocious beast forms to deal crazy damage! The team at Raizing combined features from many of the top-class 3D fighting games out there and combined them with fresh new character designs, vibrant and dynamic colors, and approachable, intuitive button combinations into a game that just about anyone could sink their teeth into. Bloody Roar 1 is -- compared to later entries in the series -- a little light on story. The plot centers on the animal-human hybrids, "zoanthropes," created by the Tylon Corporation for use as military superweapons. As one can expect, the zoanthropes decided to fight back against the evil corporation -- only to run into their latest experiment, Uriko the Chimera, who can not only shift into a hybrid beast form, but could go all-out into a more demonic form! Bloody Roar 2 picks up in the wake of BR1, with some of the newly freed zoanthropes banding together to form the Zoanthrope Liberation Front. Over time, though, it would become clear that the ZLF has a darker agenda in mind... The series goes on to host three more entries: Bloody Roar 3, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, and Bloody Roar 4 -- though the story gets a little off the rails for some of those. Here on MotM, we'll be assimilating the plots of Bloody Roar 1 and 2 into our existing plotline, with factions like Tylon and the ZLF cross-fading into G Corporation, Mishima Zaibatsu, and others. If you're interested in apping a Bloody Roar character, the gates are now open! Just stop by and read the two new info files first: 'info Bloody Roar' and 'info Bloody Roar Challenges'. [*werebunny noises*]

The third series of our monthly DLC drop is: * * * V I R T U A F I G H T E R * * * Yu Suzuki, head of Sega's AM2 division, was riding high on the success of Virtua Racing, which brought the revolutionary "Model 1" arcade system board to the spotlight. Yu Suzuki needed another hit, and his thoughts first drifted to a game like rugby or soccer -- but the high number of human figures needed in team games turned out to be a bit much for the new Model 1 board. Fighting games, though, only needed two. And Street Fighter II was a smash hit -- so the choice was simple. Virtua Fighter was born -- and with it, the genre of 3D fighting games. While it started as a technology showcase, the Virtua Fighter series has remained consistent as one of the most technical and challenging fighting game series out there. Virtua Fighter 2 pioneered motion-captured animations and texture-mapped 3D characters. Virtua Fighter 3 introduced even more revolutionary 3D features, such as stairs and slopes in the stage, three-dimensional movement, and realistic muscle and eye animations. And, not content to be the graphical powerhouse of each successive generation of games, Virtua Fighter 4 shook the platform yet again as one of the first arcade games with internet functionality. The latest edition of Virtua Fighter 5, Ultimate Showdown, was released just one month ago on the PlayStation 4! The gates are open for Virtua Fighter characters! Just stop by the new info files: 'info Virtua Fighter' and 'info Virtua Fighter Challenges'.

The fourth series of our monthly DLC drop is: * * * S K U L L G I R L S * * * Skullgirls is an indie darling, a lovingly hand-crafted fighting game in continual development from 2008 to the current day. The game itself was first launched from April to May 2012 on the Playstation network and Xbox Live Arcade, before making its way to Japan in early 2013. A windows version would come along in 2013, while the game would then see a Japanese arcade release in 2015. Skullgirls's combat engine unabashedly builds upon tag-team fighters like Marvel Vs Capcom 2, with each player selecting up to three fighters for their team. With the Variable Tag Battle system, teams of less than three can be powered up to make a fairer fight, using a variation on Capcom vs SNK 2's Ratio system. Each player is able to make full use of tag attacks, assists, and team combos like one should expect -- and also provides an innovative anti-infinite combo feature that keeps players from being stuck in movespam hell. Skullgirls is also famous for being one of the best real-world examples of rollback netcode, allowing combatants to enjoy one of the best online experiences of any game out there. The fighting engine behind Skullgirls was also lent to the game Them's Fightin' Herds, which originally began life as an MLP:Friendship Is Magic fangame. It's no small accomplishment that Skullgirls and Them's Fightin' Herds were picked as the two of the four games selected for EVO 2020's online open brackets -- in company with Mortal Kombat 11 and Killer Instinct! The game's real claim to fame though is the lush hand-drawn animation -- featuring more animation frames per character than any other fighting game. To be sure, in 2021 that line is just begging for a "citation needed" tag, but play it yourself and find out! If you're interested in apping a Skullgirls character, the gates are now open! Just stop by and read the two new info files first: 'info Skullgirls' and 'info Skullgirls Challenges'.

The fifth of our DLC drops is: * * * F I G H T I N G V I P E R S * * * Sega had a hit series on its hands. Virtua Fighter was the first of the 3D fighters, and for a little while, king of the 3D fighters. Virtua Fighter 2 upped the bar even further. But just as their competitors had started to branch out into additional realms, Sega's Yu Suzuki wanted to address some of the concerns without tarnishing the award-winning Virtua Fighter formula. Enter Fighting Vipers. Virtua Fighter had a reputation as a "fighting simulator," and as such, was a bit more rigid than many of its 2D competitors. By launching a brand new franchise, Yu Suzuki felt free to change the parameters of the fight. To introduce newer, younger characters. To prevent ring-outs by having fights take place inside enclosed spaces. To up the intensity of the fights with flashy particle effects, taking full advantage of the Model 2 hardware's capabilities. And to add another level of complexity with the "damage" meters, that let players target specific body parts to shatter armor and deal extra damage. Fighting Vipers may not have won the name recognition of its older sibling, but it definitely made a mark with a more youthful cast of characters, a more vivid color palette, and its nonstop dynamic action! If you're interested in apping a Fighting Vipers character, the gates are now open! Just stop by and read the two new info files first: 'info Fighting Vipers' and 'info Fighting Vipers Challenges'.