"The story here is this guy cannot be stopped," said commentator Aris, as 23-year-old Arslan Ash mopped the floor with EVO 2018's Tekken 7 champion. Tekken 7 had an exciting grand final at this year's EVO fighting game tournament, but not because it ever really looked neck-and-neck. South Korean champion Knee, who won EVO last year and has been a powerhouse in the Tekken scene for years, never looked like he had the match under control.

Knee scrapped his way through a few rounds, but Arslan pressed on relentlessly, and then all of a sudden it was over: With a perfect sidestep and two quick jabs, Arslan was the new EVO champion. The excitement was in knowing just how hard it was for Arslan to get to that point.

Arslan Ash is undoubtedly, in 2019, the best competitive Tekken player in the world. Earlier this year he beat Knee and the rest of Tekken's finest at EVO Japan, ragged from two-and-a-half days of air travel across five flights. Arslan is from Pakistan, and has had trouble getting visas for countries like Japan and the US just to compete. Pakistan has a huge Tekken community, according to Arslan, but few of its players compete internationally, and his sudden dominance over the last year has taken the Tekken world by surprise.

Dominance really is the right word: Arslan stayed in the winners bracket through all his EVO 2019 matches, beating Knee in the semifinals and another Tekken favorite, Anakin, to make it to the grand final. And then he took down Knee again, without a bracket reset (meaning Knee, fighting from the loser's bracket, couldn't take enough rounds to force a second set, which often happens in nail-biter grand finals).

And it's not like EVO and EVO Japan were Arslan's only accomplishments. He won another tournament in Vegas the day before EVO, casually tweeting that it was a good warm up. Since winning EVO Japan in February he's been gaining attention, and the fighting game community has rallied behind him—a project called the EFight Pass helped Arslan get a visa to travel to the US.

"He is now the guy to watch out for," commentator Mark Julio said as Arslan celebrated his victory on the EVO stage. "But like many champions in the past, once the mark is on you, everyone's going to come after you. So Arslan Ash, I'm sure you were ready already, but everyone's going to be gunning for you."

In Tekken, at least, Arslan is the first winner of EVO Japan and EVO Vegas in the same year. Last year, Knee—who Arslan has now beat time and again—took EVO Japan and the Tekken World Tour championship. Arslan has an unprecedented shot at a triple crown, and while he fights for it he's lifting the rest of Pakistan's Tekken community up along with him.

This weekend, EVO hosted a few fighting game announcements amid the relentless brawling of the tournament's competitors, and one in particular got folk all in a lather. During the Tekken 7 finals, it looked like Metal Gear Solid's Snake was being teased as an upcoming fighter. Hopes were raised and then, tragically, dashed. 

"That was some good-ass Tekken," said Snake in a codec that played for the EVO audience. The random appearance of a character from an unrelated series usually means crossover is due, so the clip quickly spread outside of the tournament. You can watch it below, courtesy of AllGamesDelta. 

Unfortunately, it was all a misunderstanding—just a joke gone awry that was just meant for the audience. EVO put it together without talking to Bandai Namco and it was meant to be a "little joke". The organisers posted an apology on Twitter. 

Snake's appeared in a few fighting games before, including Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Ultimate, so it wasn't much of a leap. Who knows, though? Maybe all the excitement will inspire an actual crossover. Bring him out of retirement.

While Snake is absent, Tekken 7 is still getting some new characters. Bandai Namco revealed the Season Pass 3, bringing back Zafina and introducing a new character, Leroy Smith. Zafina will return in September, followed by Leroy in winter 2019. 

Update: Longtime Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter was very clear about his displeasure with the "joke" on Twitter. 

The newest iteration of the Humble Bundle is a nice collection of games from Bandai Namco including Impact Winter, Little Nightmares, Project Cars, and Tekken 7, among others, with funds raised going to support Save the Children and Extra Life—or the charity of your choice, if you'd prefer to direct your cash elsewhere. 

Here's what you'll get for your money: 

The $1: 

• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Premium Edition
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
• Impact Winter

The Beat-the-Average:

• Little Nightmares
• 11-11 Memories Retold
• Get Even
• Project Cars

The One-Fiver ($15):

• God Eater 2 Rage Burst
• Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet

The Big Brawler ($25):

• Tekken 7 

It's not a huge discount on Tekken 7, which normally goes for $40, but it's still better than paying full pop if you've got a huge hankerin' for it right at this very moment. For me, the average-price tier is the real appeal in this bundle: Well under a tenner for Project Cars is a good deal on its own, and with Little Nightmares, 11-11 Memories Retold, and Get Even included, it's hard to go too wrong. The Humble Bandai Namco Bundle is available until April 23.

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Tekken 7's next two DLC fighters, series favourite Julia Chang and The Walking Dead's Negan, will both arrive on February 28, Bandai Namco has announced.

It's unusual for two DLC characters to arrive at once, something the development team makes light of at the end of the trailer, above. "You the developers?" asks Negan, as he leers over producer Katsuhiro Harada. "The ones that pull that shit releasing characters one at a time? You're going to put me in the next update, right Harada?"

The trailer also shows you how both fighters operate. Julia Chang, who has appeared in every Tekken game since Tekken 3, has a fairly compact fighting style consisting of solid kicks, punches and slams, with some acrobatics thrown in. For Negan, it's all about that bat, and whacking enemies around the head with it—although he also has a knife to stab them in the back.

The pair mark the eighth and ninth DLC packs for Tekken 7. Julia Chang will cost $5, while Negan will cost $8.

The Walking Dead’s Negan got his proper Tekken 7 unveiling at the Tekken World Tour Finals. The bizarre crossover was teased back in August, but now you can see how he fights. And, it turns out, he fights like a some guy with a baseball bat.

Bandai Namco recreated a scene from the show, with Tekken characters replacing the cast of The Walking Dead, aside from Negan. If you’re not caught up on the show, it might count as a bit of a spoiler. It’s a grim scene and a weird introduction to a new character. 

Take a gander at the reveal below.

His fighting style is pretty simple: he hits things with his bat and he hits them very hard. In a game that’s had demons, robots, dinosaurs and kangaroos, a man with a bat is pretty conservative. 

“When it purely comes to fighting, Tekken 7 is glorious fun,” Dave Houghton said in his Tekken 7 review. Of course it should be, given that its combat model is only a slight refinement of the expansive, immediate and free-flowing set-up perfected some time around Tekken 3 on the PlayStation. But an improved version of a near-perfect thing is nothing to be sniffed at.“

Negan doesn’t have a release date yet, but he's part of the second season pass. 

The 2018 Evolution Championship Series, better known as Evo 2018, went down this weekend, pitting the best of the fighting game community against one another in mano a mano combat across eight games: Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, Injustice 2, Super Mash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. When the dust cleared, this is who was left standing:

Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition 

• 1st - Problem X - Benjamin Simon
• 2nd - Tokido - Hajime Taniguchi
• 3rd - Fuudo - Kenta Ai
• 4th - Gachikun - Kanamori Tsunehiro
• 5th - Fujimura - Fujimura Atsushi
• 5th - Luffy - Olivier Hay
• 7th - THE COOL KID93 - Marcus Redmond
• 7th - Caba - Cristhopher Rodriguez Nade 

Street Fighter's grand finals were once again the capstone event, and last year's champion, Japanese veteran Tokido, nearly took the title again. Another Japanese veteran, Fuudo, sent Tokido to the loser's bracket, but Tokido battled his way back and made it to the grand final, where he reset the bracket in a real nail biter. But Problem X's M. Bison was too strong, and he became the first UK Street Fighter Evo champion.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

• 1st - SonicFox - Dominique McLean
• 2nd - GO1 - Goichi Kishida
• 3rd - Fenritti - Shoji Sho
• 4th - Moke - Naoki Nakayama
• 5th - KnowKami - Perry Vinson
• 5th - Kazunoko - Ryota Inoue
• 7th - Kubo - Tsutomu Kubota
• 7th - Supernoon - Steve Carbajal

DBFZ set a viewership record for EVO and provided a slightly controversial, dramatic finish, as SonicFox asked to switch from P2 to P1 between matches. Some called it a delaying tactic to put the red-hot Goichi off his game, and SonicFox did turn things around to win in a dominant pair of final rounds.

Tekken 7

• 1st - LowHigh - Sun-woong Yoon
• 2nd - Qudans - Byung-moon Son
• 3rd - Lil Majin - Terrelle Jackson
• 4th - JDCR - HyunJin Kim
• 5th - Book - Nopparut Hempamorn
• 5th - Rangchu - Hyunho Jung
• 7th - Noroma - Takumi Hamasaki
• 7th - Chirichiri - Takumi Hamasaki

Super Smash Bros. Melee

• 1st - Leffen - William Hjelte
• 2nd - Armada - Adam Lindgren
• 3rd - Plup - Justin McGrath
• 4th - Hungrybox - Juan DeBiedma
• 5th - Wizzrobe - Justin Hallett
• 5th - Mang0 - Joseph Marquez
• 7th - Swedish Delight - James Liu
• 7th - S2J - Johnny Kim

Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2

• 1st - Omito - Omito Hashimoto
• 2nd - Machabo - Masahiro Tominaga
• 3rd - LostSoul - Eli Rabadad
• 4th - Nage
• 5th - Rion - Hisatoshi Usui
• 5th - Zadi
• 7th - Teresa - Fukuda Norihiro
• 7th - Fumo - Harukuni Suga

 BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle

• 1st - Heiho
• 2nd - Fame96 - Jerome Latham
• 3rd - DoraBang - Ryuji Utsumi
• 4th - kojiKOG - Kazuyuki Koji
• 5th - Kazunoko - Ryota Inoue
• 5th - Fenritti - Shoji Sho
• 7th - Gouda
• 7th - DettyWhiteRock - Kohki Hayashi

Injustice 2

• 1st - Rewind - Curtis McCall
• 2nd - Tweedy - Tommy Tweedy
• 3rd - SonicFox - Dominique McLean
• 4th - Big D - Ryan DeDomenico
• 5th - Hayatei - Alexandre Dube-Bilodeau
• 5th - Semiij - Andrew Fontanez
• 7th - SylverRye - Mo Amaechi
• 7th - Biohazard - Matthews Commandeur

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

• 1st - Lima - Bharat Chintapall
• 2nd - CaptainZack - Zack Lauth
• 3rd - Nietono - Yuta Uejima
• 4th - Mistake - Tamim Omary
• 5th - Mr E - Eric Weber
• 5th - MVD - Jestise Negron
• 7th - Raito - Tetsuya Ishiguro
• 7th - Choco - Toshimasa Hayakawa

Street Fighter 5 action put up big numbers on the opening days of the tournament, according to this GitHyp report, but Dragon Ball FighterZ ultimately took the viewership crown, hitting nearly 258,000 concurrent viewers at one point, the highest viewership count of all time for an Evo main event on Twitch.  

And like all good sporting events, there was a spot of controversy as well. Kotaku reported that the audience booed players who opted to use the Bayonetta character in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competition because it's viewed by many as having an unfair advantage over others. It got bad enough that a pre-finals match between CaptainZack and eventual 7th-place finisher Raito ended with a victorious CaptainZack flipping off the entire crowd as he walked off the stage; the announcers said they didn't condone his action, but acknowledged that the behavior of the audience was in "such bad taste" that it wasn't entirely unjustified. In the final match, Lima and CaptainZack, who were both playing with Bayonetta, simply stopped playing at one point, until Evo staff compelled them to keep fighting. 

In the wake of this weekend's EVO 2018 grand final, Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada unveiled three of the six fighters en route to Tekken 7's second season. The following short showcases veteran King of the Iron Fist combatants Anna Williams and Lei Wulong. It then teases character art for Negan—the baseball bat-wielding bastard from AMC's The Walking Dead, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. 

Dun-dun-dun dun, little pig, little pig, let me in etc.

No footage of how Negan will perform in Tekken 7, then, but seeing Anna punch sister Nina Williams into the air, before loading a rocket launcher and firing off a missile at close range suggests little is off-limits. 

With his signature baseball bat, perhaps he'll do to Lei Wulong et al what Morgan's Negan did to one of the telly show's main characters a couple of years back. A sight for sore eyes, indeed. 

Bandai Namco reckons Tekken 7’s season 2 pass is "coming soon". In the meantime, have a gander at Dave Houghton's Tekken 7 review. 

Joining its martial arts mate Absolver, a host of fighting games are free to try on Steam this weekend. To mark the start of the EVO 2018 championships, the following beat 'em ups host free trial periods till Monday, August 6, at 10am PST / 6pm BST.

For those uninitiated, EVO is the videogame world's "most prestigious" annual fighting game tournament. For flavour, read why EVO 2017’s Street Fighter 5 grand final was like the last 15 minutes of a Rocky movie. 

With up to 67 percent off, Steam's list of great fighting games with silly names includes GUILTY GEAR Xrd -REVELATOR- (-67%), DRAGON BALL FighterZ (-40%), and the three games noted up there in the headline—Tekken 7 (-60%), Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition (-50%), and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (-10%). Injustice 2 is also going for half price at £24.99/$29.99.

Tekken 7 is likely my favourite of that bunch. Here's an extract from Dave Houghton's review: 

When Tekken 7 comes alive, it does so with a furious zest and capability. With another invested player in tow, it delivers a gratifying, hard-hitting time with the winsome giddiness of a party game. And if you’re willing to put in the work required to release that power—and have the friends on-hand to help—then I'd recommend it, no question. If your fight buddies are thin on the ground, though, and the faceless world of online scrapping isn’t for you, think carefully. Tekken 7 quickly ceases to exist for the solo player.   

Check out Steam's EVO Championship Series sale in full over here.

Tekken 7 marked the long-standing fight 'em up series' PC debut when it came to desktops in June this year. It performed well at launch, received warm reviews, and thereafter addressed some lingering issues. Now, it's announced another soon-to-be PC debutante will fight in the King of the Iron First Tournament next year: Final Fantasy 15's main protagonist Noctis.  

Noctis' inclusion follows other well-known guests such as Fatal Fury's Geese Howard and Street Fighter's Akuma. What perhaps stands this reveal apart, though, is that Noctis does not hail from the fighting genre. Here's the blue-eyed, beautiful-haired rover in motion:

With that, we can see Noctis leveraging a teleport maneuver and cycling through a few sword attacks to pretty devastating effect (RIP Jack-7 and Yoshimitsu). The familiar Hammerhead Garage backdrop looks neat, and comes with Chocobos, Cindy, and the rest of the crew cheering on from the sidelines.

Expect Noctis in Tekken 7 at some point in "Spring 2018". And while we're talking cool guest appearances in unlikely games, Injustice 2 announced over the weekend that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are en route to the superhero brawler. What a time to be alive. 

With what is easily one of the worst videogame antagonist names ever known, Fatal Frame's Geese Howard is now heading to Tekken 7—the second guest character to grace Bandai Namco's enduring fighting series, following Street Fighter's Akuma.

Perhaps best known as the baddie who contradicts the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series' continuity—Howard appears dead in one and very much alive in another—Geese made his debut in 1991's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, and seems to harbour beef with Tekken's longstanding pointy-haired baddie-cum-goodie Heihachi Mishima. 

Here's Goose Howard in Tekken action:

Fancy that? Geese Howard is due to land in Tekken 7 as DLC this winter.