Over a week since its initial reveal and its closed technical alpha, Seth Killian’s upcoming free-to-play PC fighter Rising Thunder is making waves.
While fighting games were originally intended for everyone, as the genre developed it had become increasingly complex, requiring a certain level of technical proficiency. While this yielded rewards in high level competition, it also drove casual fans in succeeding generations away.
Different studios sought to lower the bar in different ways. While fans will most recently remember Divekick, for trying this, by reducing moveset, other games also sought to resolve this issue in their own ways, including Killer Instinct, Dead or Alive, Super Smash Bros, and Naruto Storm.
Rising Thunder represents a reframe on the fighting game formula, that replaces traditional direction based controls with keyboard inputs. Every move, including normals, specials, and supers are mapped to a keyboard, and there will be options for special move variants and what the game calls Kinetic Mode.
It’s the brainchild of former competitive player and professor turned game designer Seth Killian, who can take credit for working on Street Fighter 4 and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. This time, he’s gone indie and making this game with Radiant Entertainment.
You know Rising Thunder is getting a good reception when combo videos are already being made. Chell, Crow, Dauntless, Edge, Talos, and Vlad have each found their champions, pushing the boundaries to find gamebreaking infinites and resets. Check out a sample below.
Rising Thunder will eventually be released free-to-play, and promises a premier online experience. Aside from taking control cues from MMOs, it will use Path of Exile’s ethical microtransactions model, based solely around cosmetics.
Can’t wait for its full release? You can sign up for the technical alpha here.
