Here’s the news recap for this week. Unless you hate PlayStation games, you’ll love what’s in store here.

Other Cool Stuff You Should Read & Watch

That really detailed Killer Instinct 2013 documentary.

This week, I learned that Double Helix used to be the team that made that pretty cool Buffy The Vampire Slayer video game on the Xbox. And that somehow contributed to one of video game’s best and most underrated revivals.

What irks me is that this video highlights how good Killer Instinct was, and still is, as a fighting game. And also as a sellable product that’s well-made and comes with a fair price tag -or lack thereof if you went for the F2P option. The fact that it was made available for PC and people still didn’t flock to it was quite a surprise given the polish it has already maintained.

Killer Instinct set the following trends for future fighting games post-2013:

• A game-changing special skill you can activate in the middle of the match that’s unique to a particular character.
• Seasonal character releases, alongside different payment models depending on how much you want to commit to the game. The base price is free-of-charge, while the complete set is the same price as a triple-A retail game.

Gee, I friggin’ wonder which major fighting game-publishing companies are pushing out seasonal content and roster additions every year? Oh right, ALL OF THEM!

Fighting game players, you wouldn’t see innovations like these were it not for Killer Instinct, which somehow was made fair and affordable by Microsoft than what these other publishers were, and are still doing.

Harumi Fujita at MAGFest 2020

Criminally low views on a music-making pioneer at Capcom. Pretty insightful stuff, especially since she’s still making music; her most recent entry being Estelle’s boss themes in Streets of Rage 4.

Emulation, The Law, and You

A detailed video on whether emulation is legal or not in the long run, delivered in a deadpan and humorous manner by Nerrel.