The vtuber community, specifically the fandom around the streamers operating under Hololive, has produced some remarkably good fan games over the years, including what might be the best Vampire Survivors imitator. Idol Showdown, a new Hololive fighting game coming to Steam, might be the most impressive one yet.
Developer *checks notes* Besto Game Team has apparently been working on Idol Showdown for over two years already, and it's now due to launch in Spring 2023. This being a fan game, and apparently "the first complete fan-made Hololive fighting game" at that, it will be totally free to play.
The reveal trailer shows off a bunch of playable Hololive characters based on the virtual characters portrayed by the actual streamers who work for Hololive owner Cover. Sora, Korone, Fubuki, and Ayame are the focus, but plenty of other characters appear in backgrounds and miscellaneous animations. It looks like the game will launch with eight playable characters, which is a fraction of Hololive's shockingly large streamer roster, but still pretty impressive.
I'm always impressed by the love that goes into these fan games – dialogue plucked from live streams, lore-accurate special attacks, music straight from the Hololive discography – and Idol Showdown seems to have some solid fighting game chops as well. Besto Game Team promises a robust online experience with rollback netcode, featuring combat built in a way so that "even Hololive fans who are inexperienced with traditional fighting games can have fun." Plus you can run it on a baked potato, so it ought to be plenty accessible. Godspeed, vtuber fans.
The Hololive fandom has even bled into other communities, like that time Deep Rock Galactic players embraced an influx of weebs after Shishiro Botan streamed the game.
