Evo 2024 Proves Good Games Never Die

Second year in a row now, Evo's legacy tournaments offer some of the most exciting actions that you can get at the event, and second year in a row it provides us with a lesson that as long as the game is fun, it will not only survive but thrive, in spite of the developer support.

Does Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have an up-to-date version with rollback and crossplay? No. Does Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike have an up-to-date version with rollback and crossplay? Eh, kinda. Capcom did release it as part of the Street Fighter collection, but without crossplay and with netcode that is inferior to the emulated netplay that the community favors.

Despite this, did those games fade into obscurity? No. Their unique qualities and charm continue to attract new generations of players and maintain the attention of those who already fell in love with the game. The fact that there's a thousand people coming out to compete in a game that is over 2 decades old is a massive testament to this.

Just imagine what could've been if fighting games weren't treated as disposable by their published. Imagine if, much like how Age of Empires games continue to receive new editions and updates, fighting game publishers continued to support the games they created. What could've been.

It goes completely against the myth of "modern audience" too. We've seen plenty of simplified and casual friendly games fail, while seemingly archaic and unbalanced games like 3rd Strike, GGACPR, and KoF2002 continue to thrive. While there are efforts from the community to update and revive UMvC3 and Infinite.

This is not to bash the accessibility of modern fighters, allowing more people to play the game is always welcome, but it's worth remembering that some of the most exciting moments in the history of fighting games come from plays that required everything. Good reads, great execution, and having both of the things at a time when it matters the most.

Hopefully, these tournaments serve not only as great entertainment for the community, but also as a reminder to the publishers that people love these games, people play them, and there is a reason to support them.