Skullgirls headed to Xbox in 2022 but, more importantly, here’s Black Dahlia

Death Becomes Her

Some tubular news for Xbox fighting game fans today, as publisher Autumn Games has announced that the charleston-tastic scrapper Skullgirls 2nd Encore is currently in development for Xbox platforms, with a tentative release date of late-2022. In addition, developer Hidden Variable released the very first gameplay footage of yer boy’s favorite Skullgirls character, the terrifying Black Dahlia!

As you can see from this alpha footage, The Medici Family’s sinister assassin is shaping up to be quite the unliving nightmare. Dahlia’s gameplay is built around her explosive (and literal) side-arm, which allows the exquisite maniac to control the playing field with a variety of differently equipped rounds. So, for example, Dahlia may choose to keep her prey at bay with explosive rounds, get up close and personal with buckshot rounds, or perhaps she will create health-sapping fire traps with her flame rounds.

And thus, it will take savvy management of Dahlia’s options to switch between offensive, defensive, and environmental damage in order to keep Dahlia a threat at all distances. From this early footage, Black Dahlia looks to be a pretty complex character, requiring her player to quickly adapt to the changing situation. However, with a little practice, Dahlia-lovers will become masters of mixing up their opponent from any angle — including the air — in the deadliest game of playing hot ‘n’ cold.

I’ve been awaiting Black Dahlia’s arrival ever since she failed to make the current for the initial Skullgirls roster. So the wait has been painfully long. But you know what they say about the best things…

Black Dahlia will arrive on PC alpha next month, before receiving a full release on PC and PlayStation for Season Pass holders in late-2022. The Nintendo Switch Season Pass DLC remains in development. Skullgirls 2nd Encore will launch on Xbox One and Xbox Series X in late-2022.