As I’ve talked about many times over the past couple of years, I’m a huge fan of Skullgirls (Free) on mobile. Developer Hidden Variable has done a masterful job of adapting the full console and PC fighting game to mobile with streamlined gameplay and touchscreen-friendly controls, but still retaining the depth and strategy that makes fighting games so compelling. Following a somewhat sticky departure from their previous publisher and having to release an entirely new app in January of last year, Hidden Variable has been keeping Skullgirls constantly updated with new content and features throughout 2018. In May of last year we received new playable character Squigly, and in September we received new character Ms. Fortune. Then in December another big update arrived adding in the Rift Battle system, which has been a hit with players so far but will probably still undergo some tweaking. And these are just the major updates, as there have been plenty of more minor updates released in between.

Now Hidden Variable’s latest big update for Skullgirls is right around the corner, and it’ll bring another huge fan favorite character into the fold: Robo-Fortune. This robotic version of everybody’s favorite crazy cat lady features a similar character ability to the flesh and bone Ms. Fortune, who can detach her head and have it fight alongside her during a match. Robo-Fortune can also detach her head, but hers will actually float around her immediate area like a little drone. In fact, they call it a “HEADRONE." These floating heads can then be directed to perform various abilities. One is to plant itself into the ground and act as a proximity mine that you can bait your opponent to walk into. Or you can command your HEADRONE to ram itself into your opponent and explode upon impact, acting as a nice ranged attack. And finally you can command your drone to launch a salvo missile attack which will launch several missiles into the air and rain them down onto your opponent after a short delay. That last move especially can be utilized to create some seriously devastating combos. Oh and did I mention the coolest part? You can deploy up to THREE of the HEADRONES at a time. You can see the HEADRONE abilities in action in this following clip of Robo-Fortune.

I actually had a chance to go hands-on with Robo-Fortune when I met up with Hidden Variable at GDC last week, and I can’t even describe what a fun character this is to play as. She’s very much the opposite of Ms. Fortune, who is designed for close quarters play and keeping pressure on the opponent, in that all her moves and abilities are designed for longer range play and keeping distance between you and your opponent. Another very cool wrinkle is that Robo-Fortune’s stats are not pre-defined like other characters and instead are determined on a variant to variant basis. This means one Robo-Fortune variant might be a tank-y character like Big Band who can absorb tons of damage but doesn’t dish it out as much, or another variant might be more like Painwheel who can do phenomenal damage but is very fragile. All around Robo-Fortune is just a really interesting character.

This is all but a taste though, and over the next several weeks Hidden Variable will be teasing looks at Robo-Fortune’s variant names and skins, Signature Abiltiies, and more on the official Skullgirls Mobile Twitter account, so be sure to be following along with that. Robo-Fortune is set to arrive with the version 3.2 update likely releasing in April, and we’ll have a more in-depth look at what else is in store with that update soon.