2XKO Closed Beta has been scheduled for September 9th, and there are some changes I desperately want to see. The game has been in development for years now, long before the present generation of modern fighting game goliaths such as Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
People are now starting to lose interest in the title. The title aims to make the fighting game free to play, which will be historical. If the launch of 2XKO fails, then this will be the biggest loss for fighting game consumers.
Below, I have listed a few of the changes that I want to see in the game’s upcoming closed beta.
2XKO Closed Beta Changes That I Desperately Want to See
It Should Not Be a Closed Beta Test Anymore
One of the biggest changes that I desperately want to see for 2XKO is to finally have an open beta test. It’s high time, but technically, we have been seeing the game in development hell for close to 10 years now.
This also isn’t something that is an isolated opinion. A lot of fighting game content creators have also chimed in on the need for the game to go into open beta.
According to the developers, the game was supposed to launch by 2025 at best. But we are still stuck doing closed beta tests.
Too Much Accessibility Can Be Unintuitive
2D fighting games have fundamentally always used a structure for how the games work. This standard, which is motion inputs, was set by the legendary game Street Fighter 2. It may get a little daunting for new players, so games nowadays focus on having accessibility options.
But this also creates a huge gap and discourse between newcomers and old players who are used to motion inputs. Games such as Street Fighter 6 have made strides to balance this by making both accessibility as well as classic controls available.
2XKO is on the other hand, is doubling down on accessibility too much. While it may be a good thing to bring in new players, it’s also opening a new can of worms. I want to see simpler button layouts while keeping motion inputs relevant.
Removing motion inputs and having specific buttons for specific mechanics results in having to deal with more buttons. This can make a genre that relied on few buttons, and more mind games, boil down to having to deal with more buttons.
We Need a Bigger Character Roster
2XKO is a tag team fighter, and so far, the game’s development for years has resulted in fewer than 10 characters in the roster. I understand that game development takes time and resources, but I desperately want to see a bigger roster.
This is Riot Games we are talking about, a company behind one of the most played MOBAs in the world. They conduct millions of dollars’ worth of world tournaments.
A tag team fighting game needs a huge number of characters in the roster. By the looks of 2XKO right now, the game can’t be fully released anytime soon.
There Should be Variety in Characters
So far, the characters revealed in 2XKO have been very appealing from a fighting game player’s standpoint. But as a fan of League of Legends, I desperately want to see more character variety in this game.
This is not to say that the present characters are less varied. But those who keep up with League of Legends know damn well how incredibly varied the cast is.
The characters we have seen so far are very obviously meant to promote the Ruined King and Arcane storylines. I would like to see them implementing more of the unconventional characters like Tahm Kench or Aurelian Sol.
Promoting The Game Through Streamers
Fighting Games are a very niche genre of video games. It’s hard to find popularity in a world where titles like Tekken, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter dominate. But that can be changed through sponsoring streamers.
2XKO has already been working with fighting game content creators. But I want to see League of Legends streamers get sponsored to stream the game. This will help spread awareness of its existence to a much wider audience.
League of Legends is already a phenomenal video game that pulls massive stream numbers. So, to introduce this fighting game to them would bring in a huge audience, which is going to be healthy for the game.
2XKO Needs a Jukebox Mode
We have already seen how interesting the soundtracks in the game are. But what I want to see is a proper jukebox mode that will make listening to these tracks great.
Jukeboxes are like a separate music player mode in fighting games. Legacy titles such as Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Tekken have this mode. Music is very important for fighting games, so in Jukebox mode, one can sit and listen to the whole game’s playlist.
While it is pretty obvious that League of Legends never had a mode like this, there are still a lot of memorable tracks throughout the franchise’s history, in shows such as Arcane and others. So a mode that compiled all the OSTs would be great.
Rewards and Bonus Unlocks
2XKO developers have already confirmed that characters and cosmetics will be unlockable through playing the game. This is a good way to reward players, which a lot of modern fighting games have been missing.
Unlockable characters and other rewards used to be a thing of the past. 2XKO should follow suit and expand with more rewards that can be unlocked. League of Legends is a game with thousands of artworks created for the game by amazing artists.
Having the artworks unlockable through completing various challenges should be a good initiative. This can also include other rewards, such as unlocking rare game OSTs.
