Info about Idol Showdown:

Official game description:
**This is a free fan-made project, made out of love for hololive, hololive fans, and the fighting game genre.  
After 2 long years of hard work, the first complete fan-made hololive fighting game is here!**
**◆ Easy Controls**
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Pick up on this game’s easy-to-learn control scheme in no time to get straight into playing. Even hololive fans who are inexperienced with traditional fighting games can have fun!
**◆ Rollback Netcode**
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Besto Games has been hard at work developing the game’s online rollback netcode to make the online experience as smooth as we can.
**◆ An Immersive hololive Experience**
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Explore the vast world of hololive from our roster of iconic hololive talents, with moves inspired by their most memorable moments and personality traits. Fight across the virtual world in lovingly recreated hololive locations. Jam out to remixes of your favorite hololive original songs while raising idol hell.  
**◆ Fast 2D Combat**
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hololive talents are reimagined as core fighting game archetypes with a unique twist. Raise chaos in the battlefield with flashy attacks and high-octane action.  
This game is published under CCMC Corp(※1)'s Indie game brand "holo Indie".(※2)  
This game is allowed to be monetized under the examination and terms of "holo Indie".  
Please note that any monetized derivative work games that include Cover Corp.'s content outside of holo Indie is not covered by these terms and is not allowed.  
※1. About CCMC Corp.  
CCMC Corp. is entrusted with website management (ex: steam) including, examination, publishing and other necessary tasks by Cover Corp.  
※2. About "holo Indie"  
holo Indie's objective is to cooperate with hololive production fans and creators.  
It is a game brand that offers "Game Creator Support Program" for the derivative work games.  
For more details about "holo Indie", Please refer to the Cover Corp.'s "Derivative work guidelines".

Release date: 5 May, 2023

Categories: Real-time Combat, Character-based Combat, Competitive Multiplayer, Single-player, Roguelike, Character Collection


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Overall positive game experience (weight 0.6): Players consistently praise the game's overall quality, finding it fun, enjoyable, and well-made. The positive sentiment extends to its aesthetics, gameplay, and general polish, indicating a strong initial impression and satisfying experience.
- Excellent free fighting game (weight 0.59): The game is widely lauded as an exceptional free-to-play fighting game, often compared favorably to commercial titles. Reviewers highlight its accessibility for newcomers to the genre while still offering depth for seasoned players, making it a strong entry point.
- Great for playing with friends (weight 0.36): The game excels in its multiplayer offerings, particularly for local play with friends. Its ease of learning and engaging gameplay make it highly enjoyable for casual sessions, while also providing depth for more dedicated players.
- Strong Hololive integration (weight 0.36): The game is a clear love letter to Hololive, featuring accurate and well-adapted VTuber characters with numerous references. Crucially, it successfully appeals to both Hololive fans and those unfamiliar with the franchise, demonstrating broad appeal.
- Accessible controls and modes (weight 0.26): The game features intuitive and responsive controls that are easy for beginners to grasp, yet allow for depth. The well-designed tutorial and various modes (like Arcade with difficulty options) further enhance its accessibility.
- Solid fighting system (weight 0.2): The fighting system is solid and well-executed, drawing inspiration from established fighting games like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. It offers a good balance of simplicity for new players and intricate mechanics for veterans.
- Impressive fan-made quality (weight 0.2): Reviewers are consistently impressed by the game's high quality, especially considering it's a fan-made project. The dedication, care, and attention to detail from the developers are evident, elevating it beyond typical fan games.
- Diverse and unique characters (weight 0.17): The game boasts a diverse and unique roster of playable characters, each with distinct movesets and archetypes. This variety ensures different playstyles and adds significant replayability, with ongoing updates introducing more content.
- Dedicated and responsive developers (weight 0.14): The development team demonstrates exceptional dedication and passion for the game, evident in their frequent updates, bug fixes, and responsiveness to player feedback. This commitment ensures continuous improvement and refinement.
- Surprisingly deep content (weight 0.14): Beyond its core fighting mechanics, the game offers surprisingly deep and varied content, including unique roguelike and story modes. The diverse character playstyles and challenging AI contribute to a rich single-player experience.
- High-quality art and voice acting (weight 0.14): The game's visual presentation, particularly its pixel art and character sprites, is consistently lauded as excellent, cute, and detailed. The high-quality voice acting further enhances the aesthetic appeal and character portrayal.
- Excellent rollback netcode (weight 0.09): The implementation of rollback netcode is a significant positive, ensuring stable and smooth online matches. This technical feature greatly enhances the multiplayer experience, minimizing lag and connection issues.
- Fast-paced and responsive gameplay (weight 0.09): The game is praised for its fast-paced and dynamic gameplay, which remains smooth even on lower-spec PCs and with higher latency. Its skill-based combat and responsive input buffering contribute to an engaging experience.
- Great soundtrack and audio (weight 0.09): The game's audio elements, including its soundtrack and sound effects, receive high praise. The music is described as great, remarkable, and well-chosen, contributing positively to the overall atmosphere.

Common complaints:
- Limited character roster (weight 0.37): A recurring complaint is the limited number of playable characters. Players desire a larger roster to increase variety and replayability.
- Low online player count (weight 0.29): Players report a significant lack of online players, making it difficult to find matches. This low player count contributes to the game feeling 'dead' and impacts the online experience.
- Lack of polish and optimization (weight 0.23): The game is criticized for its lack of polish, including optimization issues, stiff controls, and general 'jankiness' in animations and menus. Many feel it needs more development time to feel smooth and complete.
- Character and combat imbalance (weight 0.19): There are significant balance issues among characters, with some being overly strong or weak. The combat system is also seen as too aggressive, lacking defensive options, and having limited, difficult-to-execute combos.
- Limited controller and keybind support (weight 0.1): The game has poor controller support, with many players reporting their gamepads not working correctly. Furthermore, there's a lack of keybinding customization, forcing players to use default settings or keyboard.
- Hitbox and damage frame issues (weight 0.07): Players report issues with hitboxes, where attacks land before animations complete or have strange areas of effect. There are also complaints about a lack of invincibility frames after being hit, leading to frustrating damage locks.
- Poor lobby system (weight 0.07): The current lobby system is highly criticized for its poor functionality, especially for groups larger than two. Players desire features like public lobbies, spectating, and a proper queue/matchmaking system.
- High skill gap for new players (weight 0.07): The game has a steep learning curve and a significant skill gap, making it very difficult for new players to compete. The remaining player base consists mostly of highly skilled veterans, leading to frustrating experiences for beginners.
- Persistent online lag and ping (weight 0.07): Despite having rollback netcode, players frequently experience high ping and significant lag during online matches. The lack of a ping indicator and regional information exacerbates these connectivity problems.
- Annoying character voices (weight 0.05): Some character voices are described as annoying or jarring, with some sounds seemingly sourced from external clips. There's also a desire for more language options, specifically for audio and subtitle combinations.
- Reduced visual clarity post-update (weight 0.05): A recent update significantly reduced the game's visual clarity, making the graphics blurry and text illegible. This negatively impacts the overall visual experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- VTuber Fighting Game Mechanics (weight 0.23): The game is a 2D pixel-style fighting game that incorporates VTubers as playable characters and assists. Its core mechanics are reminiscent of various established fighting games like Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, and Skullgirls, featuring a 4-button attack system, chain combos, and bursts.
- Diverse Single-Player Modes (weight 0.16): The game offers a variety of single-player modes, including a standard Arcade mode, a comprehensive Training mode, and a unique roguelike-inspired 'Virtual Frontier' mode. The Virtual Frontier mode provides a challenging experience with permadeath and strategic choices for upgrades and items.
- Varied Character Archetypes (weight 0.13): Specific characters like Botan, Sora, and Coco have distinct playstyles and move sets. Botan is a zoner with high damage, Sora focuses on setplay and projectiles, while Coco is a grappler. Aki, despite being labeled a zoner, functions more as a mix-up character.
- Accessible Controls and Tutorials (weight 0.08): The game is designed to be accessible with simple, intuitive controls and easy-to-perform special moves. It includes helpful tutorials and a clear move list, making it approachable for new players while still supporting controller input.
- Effective Burst System (weight 0.07): The game features a 'Burst' system, similar to other fighting games, allowing players to escape mid-combo and gain temporary invincibility. This mechanic, along with aggressive damage scaling, helps manage combo length and provides defensive options.
- Superchat Meter Management (weight 0.06): The 'Superchat' meter is a crucial resource for performing assists and canceling special moves. Building this gauge often involves executing command-input special moves, and it's essential for activating powerful 'Collab' supers.
- Underutilized Collab Mechanic (weight 0.05): The 'Collab' (assist) mechanic, while present and tied to the Superchat meter, is currently underutilized by many players. Its full potential, especially for combo extensions and specific situations like wall bounces or hard knockdowns, is still being explored.
- Free-to-Play Online Multiplayer (weight 0.03): The game is free-to-play and includes online multiplayer functionality, allowing players to compete against each other over the internet.
- Flexible Combo System (weight 0.03): The combo system allows for extensions through various sequences, including linking weak, medium, and strong attacks, incorporating launchers, jump attacks, and special moves. This provides depth for players to explore different combo routes.
- Beginner-Friendly Characters (weight 0.03): Some characters, such as Fubuki and Ayame, are particularly suitable for players who struggle with precise combo timing. They offer simpler inputs for strong anti-air moves, making them more forgiving for beginners.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent game performance (weight 0.05): Player feedback indicates inconsistent game performance, with some experiencing lag and difficulty running at max settings, while others note improvements. This suggests optimization issues persist for a segment of the player base.
- Playable with high ping (weight 0.02): Despite potential lag issues, some players report that the game remains playable even with high ping. This suggests a degree of network tolerance or effective netcode that allows for a functional experience under less-than-ideal network conditions.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Game (weight 0.41): The game receives strong recommendations from a wide range of players, including Hololive fans, fighting game enthusiasts, and newcomers to the genre. Many consider it a high-quality, well-made title, often praising its pixel art and accessible mechanics.
- Strong Future Support (weight 0.06): Players express strong support for the game's future, hoping for continued success, participation in major tournaments, and further development including new characters and updates. This indicates a desire for the game to grow and thrive.
- High Replayability (weight 0.03): Players indicate a strong likelihood of continuing to play the game or being interested in a potential sequel. This shows long-term engagement and satisfaction.
- Character Recommendations (weight 0.03): Specific character recommendations are provided for different skill levels, guiding new players on who to pick and suggesting more complex characters for experienced players. This highlights character balance and accessibility.
- Steam Deck Verification (weight 0.02): There is a specific request for the game to be officially verified for Steam Deck compatibility, indicating a desire for portable play.
- Offline Play Preferred (weight 0.02): One review suggests the game is perfect when played offline, implying potential issues or a less enjoyable experience in online modes.
- Join Community Discord (weight 0.01): A player encourages others to join the game's community Discord server, suggesting an active and welcoming community.
- Don't Judge by Cover (weight 0.01): A general piece of advice to not judge the game solely by its initial appearance, suggesting it has hidden depths or qualities.

Other player notes:
- Desire for more content and polish (weight 0.17): Players are looking for more content and polish, including additional game modes like ranked and spectator modes, and general improvements to existing features. There's also a desire for the game to feel more complete and less like an early access title, especially concerning the online beta.
- VTuber focus and appeal (weight 0.16): The game heavily features VTuber characters and references, which is a major draw for fans. However, some players are unfamiliar with VTubers or express indifference, and there's a specific mention of Holostars' presence. The character voices are noted to be extracted from stream videos.
- Free, fan-made indie project (weight 0.13): The game is recognized as a free, fan-made indie project, often developed by a small team. Players appreciate this and some are willing to financially support the developers, despite the game being free. There's also a technical note about the game being coded in Ren'Py.
- Online room setup quirks (weight 0.04): Specific instructions are provided for online room creation and joining, indicating that the process might not be intuitive for new players. This includes needing to click 'Appear' for rooms to show up, default room code entry, and both players needing to be ready to start.
- Character specific endorsements (weight 0.04): Some players express strong preferences or mains for specific characters like Fubuki, Shishiro Botan, and Sora, indicating character loyalty.
- Suggests official sponsorship (weight 0.02): A reviewer suggests that Cover Corp. should officially sponsor the developers and license the characters to turn the game into a proper franchise, highlighting its potential.
- Suggests mod support (weight 0.02): The reviewer suggests that implementing mod support could allow the community to maintain and extend the game's life and content.
- Frequent patches released (weight 0.02): The game is noted for receiving frequent patches, almost daily, indicating active development and responsiveness.
- Requests Chinese localization (weight 0.02): There is a specific request for the game to be localized into Chinese, indicating a desire for broader accessibility.
- UI appears cluttered (weight 0.02): One piece of feedback notes that the user interface can appear cluttered at times, suggesting a need for UI optimization.
- Game is 'too much trouble' (weight 0.02): A player finds the current state of the game 'too much trouble,' which could imply issues with complexity, difficulty, or overall user experience.
- New environment confusion (weight 0.02): The reviewer notes that existing players might find new environments confusing but could adapt and expand their experience.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.4): Players are highly satisfied with the game's overall quality, especially considering it's a free-to-play title. Key factors include polished gameplay, well-designed mechanics, effective netcode, and a diverse, fun character roster. The game's accessibility for new players and its engaging single-player and multiplayer modes also contribute significantly to positive experiences.
- Frustration (weight 0.11): Frustration stems primarily from technical issues such as lag, dropped inputs, and connectivity problems, despite the presence of rollback netcode. Players also express frustration with character balance issues, unfair matchmaking, and a lack of essential configuration options like control customization. Specific character abilities or mechanics that feel overpowered or unfair also contribute to this emotion.
- Disappointment (weight 0.09): Disappointment is largely driven by the game's low online player count, which makes finding matches difficult and leads to empty lobbies. Other causes include a limited character roster, lack of offline content like a story mode, and general balance issues that detract from the gameplay experience. Some players also express disappointment with missing configuration options and poor optimization.
- Joy (weight 0.07): Joy is frequently expressed due to the game's fun and accessible gameplay, particularly when playing with friends. The game's aesthetics, character designs, and numerous Hololive references also bring joy to fans. The overall positive experience and the feeling that the game is made by fans for fans contribute to this emotion.
- Appreciation (weight 0.06): Players highly appreciate that the game is free, especially given its high quality and the inclusion of rollback netcode. The dedication of the developers, their frequent updates, and the game's charm as a passion project are also significant causes of appreciation. The game's effective tribute to the Hololive IP and its accessibility efforts are also valued.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Excitement is generated by the game's high overall quality, engaging characters, and appealing art style. Players are also excited by the game's potential for future content, particularly the anticipation of new character additions. The game's superior quality compared to other fighting games further fuels this excitement.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Enjoyment comes from the game's fun and engaging gameplay, especially when playing with friends. The broad appeal of the game, its unique moves, and specific game modes like the roguelike mode contribute to a positive experience. The game's charm and soundtrack also enhance overall enjoyment.
- Desire (weight 0.04): Players express a strong desire for more characters to expand the roster and for improved character balance. There is also a desire for technical improvements, such as remappable controls and a better lobby system. Additionally, players wish for more language options and specific character additions.
- Admiration (weight 0.04): Admiration is directed towards the developers' dedication, passion, and craftsmanship in creating a high-quality fan-made game. The impeccable pixel art, frequent updates, and the game's completeness for a free title are highly admired. The overall care and effort put into the game's development are also significant factors.
- Hope (weight 0.04): Hope is centered on the game's future potential, including a larger player base, mod support, and console releases. Players also hope for future content, such as new characters and arcade mode endings. The desire for balance changes, bug fixes, and continued developer support also contributes to this emotion.
- Surprise (weight 0.04): Players are surprised by the game's unexpectedly high quality, especially given that it is a free-to-play title or a fan-made project. The presence of advanced features like quality netcode and the game's effectiveness as an introduction to fighting games also contribute to this positive surprise. The game often exceeds initial expectations.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement arises from humorous elements within the game, such as character animations, witty remarks, and specific in-game warnings. Watching friends play and experiencing long combo sequences also provide amusement. The game's ability to incorporate memes and references from its source material also contributes to this emotion.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is primarily caused by significant technical problems, such as game-breaking bugs or system crashes. Extreme difficulty leading to frustration (e.g., breaking a gamepad) and severe character balance issues also provoke anger. This emotion often indicates a critical flaw impacting gameplay.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance is typically caused by minor but persistent issues, such as problems with controller support or repetitive/unpleasant character voices and sounds. These issues, while not game-breaking, detract from the overall player experience.
- Helpfulness (weight 0.01): Players express helpfulness by providing practical advice, such as character recommendations tailored to specific playstyles or skill levels. They also offer general information and guidance to assist new players in understanding and enjoying the game. This indicates a supportive community aspect.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion stems from aspects of the game that are unclear or counter-intuitive, such as AI behavior, the game's overall premise, or a confusing control scheme. This indicates areas where the game's design or presentation could be improved for clarity.
- Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism is driven by the game's potential for improvement, particularly due to the developer's attentive and responsive approach to patching and fixing issues. Frequent updates that address balance concerns reinforce this positive outlook on the game's future.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Players perceive the game as challenging due to its learning curve, especially for newcomers to fighting games. The difficulty in mastering controls and competing against highly skilled online opponents also contributes to this sense of challenge. This indicates a desire for skill progression.
- Neutrality (weight 0.01): Neutrality reflects an objective assessment of the game's mechanics or overall feel, without strong positive or negative emotional attachment. It can also describe observations about character skill variations that are neither praised nor criticized. This suggests a balanced, analytical perspective.
- Amazement (weight 0.01): Amazement is expressed when players encounter the game's exceptionally high quality, especially considering it is a free, fan-made project. The game's completeness, competent fighting mechanics, and impressive online system for a title of its nature evoke a sense of wonder and disbelief at its achievement.}