Month: November 2016

We’re over halfway through with Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016! Mikado Arcade is nowhere near close to running out of surprising titles to throw at i’s (extremely skilled) patrons.

Samurai Shodown 64 (known simply as Samurai Spirits in Japan) was SNK’s first foray into 3D fighters. The weapons-based fighter may not have caught on at it’s arcade only release, but it did well enough to see a sequel on it’s Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade board. The game is a predictably odd mash of 2D and 3D, combining longer chain combos (normally not present in Samurai Shodown OR 3D games!) and duckable grabs into the same engine.

SSFC2016’s catalog this year has been particularly unorthodox, so a classic game like KOF ’98 might have been a sigh of relief for some players by this point. Given the skills shown off in the variety of bizarre titles up until this point, it’s safe to say Mikado players know what they’re doing in this beloved title. Also, Spoiler:  If you’re as much of a fan of the American Sports Team as I am, you’re going to want to watch this. 

As always, you can follow along Mikado’s upload schedule on YouTube, or try to catch them live on their UStream.

Source: Mikado

After finishing the Street Fighter EX2 characters by covering Shadowgeist and Sharon, the CFN Portal site completes the Shadaloo Activity Report’s Profiles on the playable members of the EX cast, by shining the spotlight on the Cycloids and Ace!  As always, NIN, Senior Official of Shadaloo and alter-ego of ARIKA founder Akira Nishitani, joins Private Nakagawa in providing additional commentary on the characters he had a hand in creating.

First up, we have the wireframe warrior who debuted in 1997’s EX Plus, Cycloid Gamma!

Private Nakagawa: Barba, the father of Pullum Purna, has been constructing combat weapons. Barba had created various products but now he’s willing to work for Shadaloo! (I just don’t know where they are.)

Basic Info:

Name: Cycloid – γ
Height: 180cm
Weight: 80kg
Blood Type: None
Date of Manufacture: January 17th
Place of Manufacture: Shadaloo
Likes: Learning combative techniques and maneuvers
Dislikes: Being treated carelessly

Private Nakagawa: It had originally been produced for Shadaloo as a devastating weapon. Thankfully, with the help of Barba, who is now affiliated with Shadaloo (forcefully), it’s been promoting our plans for world domination. Since the final adjustments had been halted and refused by Mr. Barba, Shadaloo’s Technology Department took the initiative to finish it. During the occasional times that it runs away, it adds to its collection of skills, which makes it an excellent fighter. It’s orange wireframe-ish look is certainly fashionable.

Huh, oh, it escaped! Oh dear, wait a second. This just in, I just received word from our Senior correspondent!

NIN: For some reason, I wanted a character which gave off a strange vibe, and thus it was created. Naturally, at first it was just a wireframe and merely a representation of textures, but the lines were being magnified as the camera came in for a close up. Overall, I think it was rough. The manner in which we drew the lines directly, eventually that became its current look. Doctrine also used similar wires which resulted in the same blunder, so I remember deciding to draw the lines.

Next, we have it’s more humanoid-looking counterpart, which also debuted in EX Plus, Cycloid Beta!

Private Nakagawa: I don’t know where this mysterious weapon came from. It seems composed of a translucent pale blue material. I wonder if it’s cold to the touch.

Basic Info:

Name: Cycloid – β
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Blood Type: Unknown
Date of manufacture: Unknown
Production field: Unknown
Likes: Unknown
Dislikes: Unknown

Private Nakagawa: The last time Cycloid – γ escaped, it had discovered an unidentified weapon it was tracking. It seems to like the activity of running away like Cycloid – γ. Other than that, it’s shrouded in mystery. Similar to Cycloid – γ it has learned mixed martial arts skills from other fighters.

NIN: Just like γ we wanted him to have a strange vibe. It’s just, in the world of programming around that time, mirror surface processing, refraction of light through transparent objects, and representation of flames, had all started to become the new craze. I wanted to know how we could introduce these elements in EX.  Though we were a bit late for the time of being pioneers, we maintained in releasing the character, and later as the character’s representation became interesting, I got a sense of wanting him to reappear.

Finally, we have the last playable EX Character, and the only New Challenger to appear in EX3, the cyborg with a fully-customizable fighting style: Ace!

Private Nakagawa: Apparently, a spy has infiltrated our Shadaloo base and has accomplished his mission in securing the confidential blueprints of the “weapon.” If he understands it, then he’s discovered a lot!

Basic Info:

Name: Ace
Height: 182cm
Weight: 83kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: May 5th
Home Country: Japan
Likes: Training
Dislikes: Horror movies

Private Nakagawa: The man who is rumored to be a talented and competent agent. He has a device implanted in his spine which can analyze cards that hold data on fighting skills, and by loading them, he can learn every type of mixed martial art, holding the ability to possibly master them all.

NIN: He’s able to be edited with a variety of techniques. In fact, there was a grand scheme, I had wanted to add him into a side-scrolling action mode.

Examples of the obstacles were:

• Darun’s Indra Bahsi A, B, C due to the continuous jumping up and down you could slip out of it conveniently.
• Doctrine’s wire being swung like a pendulum. It would disconnect whenever the opponent was on the opposite side of it, and with good timing, you could slip through it.

We could’ve made edits according to the situations needed and continued to go ahead with the project. But it was just a dream, no matter how irrational the decision the project was abandoned during production.

Well, that closes the curtain on all of the Street Fighter EX profiles, as the entire playable cast has now been covered. For more information on the EX Characters, you can check out the profiles for the rest of the cast below:

• Darun Mister, Doctrine Dark, Pullum Purna and Blair Dame
• Hokuto, Kairi and Bloody Hokuto
• Allen Snider, Cracker Jack, Skullomania and Garuda
• Nanase and Hayate
• Vulcano Rosso and Area
• Shadowgeist and Sharon

Stay tuned to Shoryuken for continued coverage of more CFN Portal profiles! Let us know about your experiences with the EX series in the comments below! Do you hope any of these characters could return in a future Season of Street Fighter V?

Source: CFN Portal