

However, Autumn Games was quickly hit with a series of lawsuits regarding Def Jam Rapstar, preventing it from funding Skullgirls at all. Things seemed to be going well immediately after the April launch, with Reverge and Autumn Games teasing more content coming in the game’s future. RELATED: 10 Most Underrated Fighting Games Of All Time

With fully-voiced visual novel story mode for every character, many fighting game fan-requested features like rollback netcode, and freely available frame data and hitboxes, Skullgirls was quick to become an indie darling. Two of Skullgirls’ claims to fame and traits that mark it as a fighting game made by the fighting game community are its variable team sizes and custom assist moves. The game offered an eclectic cast of fighters to choose from, and the gameplay was as out-there as one would imagine. Skullgirls’ various artists have left their mark on the game, giving it an art style that mixed everything from Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood to Capcom's Darkstalkers. Finally, in 2012, Skullgirls was released. Publisher Autumn Games and even Konami jumped on board to fund and distribute the game over the next year. The game’s development truly hit its stride when the duo teamed up with the recently formed indie studio Reverge Labs in 2010. The game was initially the brainchild of illustrator Alex Ahad, who partnered with the fighting game competitor and aspiring designer Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont to start work on Skullgirls in 2008. One of the main elements that attracts people to Skullgirls is how it is essentially designed and funded by the fighting game community. RELATED: 10 Games That Will Help You Improve At Fighting Games Skullgirls’ Rise to Fame With its successful mobile spin-off continuing to run beside it and a spot on the EVO main stage finally looking locked in, Skullgirls’ next year may be its brightest yet. While not reaching the size of the industry’s leading fighting games, Skullgirls has received mostly good word of mouth over the past decade and recently underwent a series of major content updates. Skullgirlscelebrates its tenth anniversary on April 10, 2022, and is thriving more than it ever has. In the midst of all this, a humble indie fighting game called Skullgirls continues to thrive.
MIKE Z SKULLGIRLS OFFLINE
Offline tournaments have even begun cropping up again, with Combo Breaker and EVO returning to their physical roots. Smaller releases like Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and DNF Duel are cropping up everywhere, and indie fighters like MerFight: Curse of the Arctic Prince and Fraymakers continue plowing ahead with their development.

Guilty Gear Strive and The King of Fighters 15 came out in the past year, and are continuing to impress fans with their content offerings. The promise of new entries from the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and possibly Tekken franchises feels real, and they could all arrive soon to take advantage of new consoles. The state of fighting games in 2022 is a little uncertain, if still hopeful.
