This Week in Fighting Games: New Tekken 8 trailers and more!

It has been another exciting week of announcements around the world of Fighting Games as the new major titles all battle for an opportunity to take over the spotlight. From Tekken 8's consistent trailer output to news on MenaRD's impact on esports for the Dominican Republic. We got you covered with this weekly bite of information.

Keicho Nijimura joins JoJo’s roster

First off a Keicho Nijimura trailer was released for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. Keicho is a minor villain from the Diamond is Unbreakable arc, and is Okuyasu’s older brother. Keicho's stand, Bad Company, is a complete miniature army composed of soldiers, helicopters, landmines and even tanks, all under his control. As you’d imagine, this seems to translate well to a zoning-focused playstyle. Keicho Nijimura joins the roster on March 24. However, pass holders will receive him a bit earlier on the 22nd.

Marshall Law and King gameplay

Two fresh gameplay trailers for Tekken 8 were revealed during the week, this time for Marshall Law and King. Law is looking more like Bruce Lee than ever, with a foot stomp directly referencing Enter the Dragon, whilst King is cribbing even more iconic pro-wrestling moves, like the Pedigree and a Diamond Cutter. Both trailers were very well received by fans and continue Bandai Namco’s drip feed of Tekken 8 content in the run-up to EVO Japan, which is just around the corner.

According to plans, Tekken 8 is now one of the publisher's most important games in development. The product is described as "to release in 2023 or later", which places the release date in the fiscal year 2023, which starts from March 31, 2023. Of course, this still leaves a possibility of a release in early 2024.

MultiVersus disabled Ranked

Meanwhile in MultiVersus, Player First Games announced that they’re temporarily disabling Ranked Mode in MultiVersus. This outage happened shortly after the release of the latest patch, which was intended to fix bugs, but it looks like the update only made matters worse. The MultiVersus community isn’t too happy with the amount of new content in the second season. Let’s hope that Player First Games can turn things around for the next season, which kicks off in less than two weeks.

MenaRD is promoting esports in the Dominican Republic

MenaRD made history by becoming the first (and only) person to win two Capcom Cups in Street Fighter V. His home country, the Dominican Republic, is also really starting to get into esports now. Since his win, MenaRD has visited many Dominican organizations and associations, the latest of which was the Chamber of Deputies. 

According to a tweet from the official Twitter handle of Bandits Gaming, the visit from MenaRD was to discuss the potential of esports within the country and why lawmakers should harness the power of youth within video games as a means of social development and economic growth for the country.

Mena presented his Bandits jersey to his hosts at the Chamber of Deputies, which they held up and took photos with. The jersey has become such a hit that Mena announced that a limited run of it would soon be available to buy.

DNF Duel roadmap

Arc System Works has announced an ambitious roadmap for further updates in DNF Duel. The developers presented a season pass, which includes five more fighters, the first of which, Spectre, is coming in the Summer. 

With the release of the DLC, the developers plan to expand the game's mechanics with new systems, among which will be a reworked Awakening system, as well as a new stage that will be added towards the end of 2023.

European Tekken Cup

Finally, Super Akouma has won the European Tekken Cup which took place during the weekend in Lyon, France. The Akuma player took home the gold following an exciting set against the German Miguel player, Sephiblack who came 2nd, and in 3rd place was Frizen the Polish Steve player. An exciting weekend all around and a great show of talent for the European Tekken scene.

That is all for this week, but make sure to come back in 7 days for your next package of FGC news.