The King Of Fighters XV is going to have a lovely new year thanks to its Season 2 pass and character additions.

First up is the series’ favourite tryhard fighter Shingo Yabuki, complete with the KOF XV version of his theme song “Still Green”. In the KOF series since KOF ’97, he is Kyo’s student (out of reluctance) and attempts to produce Kusanagi flames from his hands, obviously to no effect. However, he makes for it with hard-hitting knockdown moves that surprisingly reach pretty far. His trademark Shingo Kick can be activated from the air (via EX move), so that’s pretty awesome combo-wise.

Apart from that, SNK also announced a slew of upcoming characters via its Season 2 roadmap:

• A Character Refinement update (balance patch) will be due on the same day when Shingo Yabuki is out this month.
• Kim Kaphwan will be out in Spring 2023, along with Cross Platform support.
• Slyvia Paula Paula (KOF XIV) will be out in Summer 2023.
• Najd (KOF XIV) will be out in Summer 2023.
• A yet-to-be-revealed character will be out in Autumn 2023.
• Another yet-to-be-revealed character will be out in Winter 2023.

Following the 3-guys-and-3-girls character theory, the next two characters will be a male and female, with one of them being a boss character who will end up being free DLC (ala Omega Rugal last year). If you ask me, it’s high time Goenitz (from the Awakened Orochi team ending) makes an appearance after being absent for so long.

Shingo Yabuki and the upcoming character updates will be ready on 17 January for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms.