Vs Shows Recap: June 2025
Sakura vs Yuri (Street Fighter vs Art of Fighting)
Release Date: 7th of June
Link: https://youtu.be/ymCRNZGMq7A
Mini-review: The show has the kind of technical polish indicative of a low budget, but if you can look past that it’s fine, the analysis feels like they gave a decent rundown of these characters, and the animation was fast paced the entire way through. The analysis was strange, especially the argument of a teleport nullifying a speed advantage (which reads to me as a misunderstanding of what’s actually important about speed in a vs debate), but overall the conclusion seemed fair enough beyond the confusion of the peak potential being talked about before the “standard” power.
Doctor Octopus vs Viktor (Spider-Man vs League of Legends)
Release Date: 8th of June
Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVos-jLes04
Mini-Review: The analysis dug into the characters decently well (though there’s no avoiding missing some stuff for Otto due to the sheer bloat a long running franchise like the MCU has), dove into their abilities and powers rather well. The animation was fine enough for Fan Battle’s style, and I can’t really argue with the conclusion. It’s depressingly one sided, but that’s still a, well, conclusive conclusion.
Wile E. Coyote vs Tom Cat (Looney Tunes vs Tom & Jerry)
Release Date: 22nd of June
Link: https://youtu.be/6BDk8SyGMNo
Mini-Review: A very funny episode, definitely fits the silly feeling and stylings of the cartoons these characters come from. And the analysis sections, in turn, do provide a narrative framework for the characters while still focusing mainly on the goofy stuff they’ve built up over the years. I agree with the winner, but I’m not entirely sure about their arguments for said winner. Ah well, still a very fun episode by the end.
Episodes I missed last month:
Ryuji vs. Joey Wheeler (Persona vs. Yu-Gi-Oh)
Link: https://youtu.be/5SK4rdXw-64
Mini-Review: Truth be told, this just isn’t my kind of fight, so it’s hard to really like it for that. Despite that, the analysis worked fine enough, and the animation, while a bit stilted, did portray some semblance of strategy (although it also showed moments of baffling decisions, like Joey summoning a monster with a passive effect, making a moment of showing off that passive effect, and then immediately sacrificing it to summon another monster for, I guess, the iconography). The conclusion was fine enough, though it didn’t sell me on the match-up being quite close enough. Sorry to hear about Dormonos having dropped off the internet, though.
Other older shows I have yet to cover an episode of (covered for the same reason I covered such episodes last recap):
King Boo vs Gengar (Super Mario Bros. vs Pokemon)
Release Date: 31st of October, 2023
Link: https://youtu.be/dMGY2eltWNA
Before I give the mini-review, I’d like to mention that the show seems to be coming back under a new team, so keep an eye out for their revival if you want to see Crossover Colosseum again.
The show’s (former) closure is also why the analysis isn’t in the episode proper, and is instead a link in the comments section.
Mini-review: The animation is quite fun, and captures the chaotic fun of a silly Halloween themed match-up quite well, and they know how to keep upping the stakes. My biggest complaint in the animation is definitely the army fight, which felt like it had the worse choreography and the worse pacing, both sides just running at each other until the leaders decided to change into their “costumes”. As for scaling, I’m left confused at the standards needed to get a stat considered applicable for this show, and I hope that’s resolved when the show comes back.
Aang vs Po (Avatar vs Kung Fu Panda)
Release Date: 9th of March, 2025
Link: https://youtu.be/Mh9t2D1GMlw
Analysis portion available here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7bKpoTEajcf1_BpQpFjkgA/community?lb=UgkxEi3UvISy9SQDf2PFFUmfxuRaBpkxt2HW
Mini-review: For the financial budget that went into this show (and thus the limitations of the sprites used), I’d say the animation is choreographed decently - though some sections still feel a little slow or like one character just stands around and lets the other hit them. The analysis (besides being something I had to dig up instead of being in, say, a reply to a pinned comment on the video itself) is incredibly barebones, especially the experience category which doesn’t really give anything. Skill? General intelligence? No, just raw experience, and only from one side.
Arzette vs Asha (Arzette: the Jewel of Faramore vs Wonder Boy/Monster World)
Release Date: 22 of June, 2024
Link: https://youtu.be/_v2zXYj9dtQ
Mini-review: I don’t like the style used for the animation, buuut since it’s clearly an homage to Arzette, which itself is an homage to CDi Zelda, I guess that’s mission accomplished, since it is exactly that. As for the debate, I’m not sure about the logic used for the multipliers and speed calcs, and those are kind of important to determining the result, so, while I have no idea on who I’d say wins, I’m not sure how much I trust the result. So uh… Yeah, that’s the mini-review.
Smash Bracket (concluded)
Dark Pit vs Dark Samus (Kid Icarus vs Metroid)
Release Date: 2nd of March 2024
Link: https://youtu.be/C8RM-FdOCw8
RIP Smash Bracket, I hope the host has been recovering well. The show’s closure is also why the analysis is in the description rather than the episode itself.
Mini-review: The animation was fine enough, nothing exceptional but there weren't any problems I found with it. But I really heavily disagreed with the stats presented, and I can never quite understand what the cut-off point for their rules is (especially when Kirby’s calc in an earlier episode just casually violates that cut-off point into dust) let’s just say that this is far from a unique instance for Smash Bracket. I found it especially baffling when they talked about how speed doesn’t matter for Dark Samus, only to then deem speed an important factor in the conclusion.
Infinite vs. Shadow Mewtwo (Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Pokemon)
Release date: 5th of September, 2024
Link: https://youtu.be/ZDuMORNVnMM
Mini-review: This one’s a bit interesting in that it doesn’t cover stats until after the fight, only giving a surface level overview in advance. As for the fight animation, I think it’s got some rather flashy sequences and good fight choreography, despite some technical issues - however, it’s characterisation is pretty abysmal, seemingly hyperfixated on making the characters as edgy as possible (especially given Shadow Mewtwo doesn’t even talk/telepathically communicate). That being said, dunking on Infinite is much appreciated, and the ending is rather interesting. As for the scaling, boy, that sure is some scaling. Let’s just say that the winner was incredibly, massively overscaled.
Currently has a fundraiser active for their second episode, if you want more then feel free to donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/thunder-clash - worth noting that it’s been open for more than a year and has yet to meet its goal, so if you’re concerned about it being still in use I understand.
Fan-Made Death Battle (one-off)
Mario vs. Sonic (Super Mario Bros. vs. Sonic the Hedgehog)
Release date: 19th of October, 2024
Link: https://youtu.be/0DAepAGsqys
Mini-review: The analysis was pretty fun and bouncy, giving a fun vibe to the characters and their adventures while building up the absurdity of not just what they’re capable of, but just the sheer variety of stuff they’ve been in. The animation was alright, though I do feel the set-up for the fight was pretty poor. As for the results… Yeah, it’s pretty good. Goes into enough depth to make the conclusion pretty clear.
Even though it’s a one-off, I think it’s pretty good for what it is, and I think more people should-
“Jeez, I hope the episode never gets popular.”
Oh. Uh. And judging by the comments being frozen, it looks like that was the case.
Thunder Clash (episode 2): https://www.gofundme.com/f/thunder-clash - currently at 2.6% of its $15,000 goal
Triple F (episode 2): https://ko-fi.com/triplef - currently at 86% of its $6,500 goal
Most recent episodes of Vs Shows (ignoring one-offs and concluded shows)
Crossover Colosseum: https://youtu.be/dMGY2eltWNA - King Boo vs Gengar (31 Oct 2023)
Showoff Showdown: https://youtu.be/_v2zXYj9dtQ - Arzette vs Asha (22 Jun 2024)
Thunder Clash: https://youtu.be/ZDuMORNVnMM - Shadow Mewtwo vs Infinite (5 Sep 2024)
Character Clash: https://youtu.be/cpbwaYYRlL4 - Perfect Cell vs Metal Sonic (15 Feb 2025)
Rewind Rumble: https://youtu.be/MHhCt7uZ59Y - Yang vs Sakura (5 Mar 2025)
Final Round: https://youtu.be/Mh9t2D1GMlw Aang vs Po (9 Mar 2025)
NOT-Death Battle: https://youtu.be/5bPbS1CsSic Fulgore vs Sektor 2 (16 Mar 2025)
Cartoon Fight Club: https://youtu.be/pMD5Bs-KwZ0 Charlie & Pim vs Mordecai & Rigby (22 Mar 2025)
Triple F: https://youtu.be/lQT3jazYrMA - Starfire vs Blaze (26 Apr 2025)
Realm of Gods: https://youtu.be/5SK4rdXw-64 - Ryuji vs Joey Wheeler 2 May 2025)
Fan War: https://youtu.be/ymCRNZGMq7A - Sakura vs Yuri (7 Jun 2025)
Fan Battle: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVos-jLes04 - Doctor Octopus vs Viktor (8 Jun 2025)
Death Battle: https://youtu.be/6BDk8SyGMNo - Wile E. Coyote vs Tom Cat (22 Jun 2025)
