Idol Showdown Review – The Unoffical Hololive Fighting Game

There is a hololive fighting game on Steam now. It's free, made by fans, and actually good?! Find out more here in our Idol Showdown Review!

Fighting games are as popular as ever with the recent success of Guilty Gear Strive on top of Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 being on the horizon.

More and more gamers seem to be interested in the genre that puts esports on the map.

So what if we combined Vtubers and the most popular brand in the genre, hololive with a well-made and fairly accessible fighting game? You get Idol Showdown. A fan-made hololive fighting game.

While this kind of waifu cockfighting is contained to angry Reddit threads and youtube comment sections. But now you can fight for the honor of your Oishi as your Oishi.

But is it good? Yes. Here's why!

Oishi On Oishi Violence

Come to think of it, the concept of a Vtuber fighting game is a no-brainer. Sure this idea has probably already existed in someone's brain and I'm pretty sure there is a MUGEN game like that out there.

But despite the boys and girls of hololive being nearly inescapable to anyone who dears to enter the Vtuber bubble, they haven't been featured in any games of their own.

At least not in an official release outside of the occasional promotional event in some mobile games.

Good for them then that hololive has a dedicated and enthusiastic fanbase. Making one of their favorites popping up in advertisements at Times Square as a birthday surprise? No problem. Sure a video game would not be that hard either.

And after HoloCure, an amazing fangame inspired by the cult hit Vampire Survivors, we now get Idol Showdown. A fan project that has been in development for the better part of 2 years.

With 8 playable characters and 9 support characters as well as an expansive rogue-lite adventure mode it was well worth the wait. Even if the presence of my beloved Kaichou feels a little out of place by now.

If you're a more recent fan or a fan of the EN/IN talent then you will be a bit disappointed as most of the playable characters are the big Japanese streamers.

But some of them still pop up in one form or another in the background so keep an eye out!

And as much as I'd like to play as Pekora and do her funny laugh while beating someone up with a comedically large carrot, MLG pro, and grenade enthusiast Botan is playable.

I don't have any complaints anymore. But please add Subaru and Watame in any capacity, please.

Funny Chainsaw Doog vs Voidcat

The spectacle of having your favorite streamers is something fighting games should've embraced long ago. With all the streamer-related memes and other nonsense, they make perfect characters for this kind of game.

Take Inugami Korone, everyone's favorite doog. Her move set is comprised of spilling tea, using a chainsaw, firing half-eaten fingers (yubi yubi), and turning into a Mario sprite.

If you don't find this funny, then this game is probably not for you. But if like fighting games it's still a very competent fighter if you can deal with some of the, let's call it lack of balance.

Some characters like Fubuki or Botan currently feature moves that fall into the “you really don't want to be in this situation” category. But this will hopefully be fixed/nerved with patches.

As for the way it plays, it's very similar to anime 2D fighters like Skull Girls or Melty Blood. You have four buttons to attack with, simple inputs for finishing moves, and assist characters with two skills each.

There is some decent depth here, and you can tell the folks behind Besto Games do have a great understanding of what makes a good 2D fighter. It's by no means perfect yet but perfectly playable for bants.

That Content Tho

As for content, Idol Showdown punches above its weight. Not only does it feature an excellent training and arcade mode.

The real meat is the roguelike Virtual Frontier mode. Here you pick and chose a series of battles and events that feature items and special win conditions to mix things up.

It's by no means elaborate, but if you're a fan of hololive you're sure to catch the odd reference to two. And you get invited into Amelia Watson's van.

The mode even features an item you can select at the start that enables auto-combos if you're not really into that whole learning how to play fighting games thing. Understandable. It's painful.

All in all what is here is pretty darn good, considering what kind of game this is.

I can't really say much on the online play though, while the game features the holy grail of fighting games, rollback-netcode. But matchmaking in my region seemed borderline impossible.

However, I did manage to forcefully convince some of my more cultured friends to play a few sets with me and it went off without a hitch.

But if you're looking for more serious competition, maybe check out their discord.

Idol Showdown Is Just A Good Time

If you're into hololive and fighting games, you're gonna have a good time with Idol Showdown. If you're just into one of the two, it will come down to how much you can tolerate the other.

For a fighting game enthusiast, Idol Showdown features some little quirks that are honestly more fun than frustrating.

But if you're on the other end of the spectrum, this gets a little more complicated. Sure the references are fun and the game's entire energy is a sight to behold, but you won't get around the usual fighting game nonsense.

So if you just want to see what the game is about, maybe stick to the Virtual Frontier mode and finish up that collection.

Idol Showdown is available for free on Steam! For more reviews and esports, visit us here on ESTNN