Month: November 2016

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Physical Pre-Orders for Skullgirls 2nd Encore on PS4 and PS Vita Now Open

As we’ve been reporting, physical copies of a finalized version of Skullgirls 2nd Encore will be available through a special limited run distribution. As of yesterday, the pre-orders have become available.

You can pre-order either the PS4 version or the PS Vita version for $39.99, or get both of them in a package together for $74.99. A full-color manual and a special OST come packaged, with Japanese voices from the Arc System Works release promised to be patched in if pre-orders exceed 10,000 copies.

One interesting thing to note is that Lab Zero developer Mike Zaimont has been calling the completed version “Skullgirls 2nd Encore+”:

The beta version of the game supports this title and goes as so far as to add the plus sign to the title screen, as seen in this article banner, but the official title of the final version of the game is still simply “2nd Encore.” It is currently uncertain if this will end up just a way fans differentiate builds, or an actual full title update.

Sources: Mike Z; Limited Run Games

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desk Experiments with Stacking Counter Hits in Street Fighter V

Famous for pushing Street Fighter to its limits, desk has continued his devious experiments with Street Fighter V’s engine, exploiting the ability to be Crush Countered and counter hit at the same time. Using this initial engine quirk, desk has discovered that you can stack up to six counter hits at once, using Guile’s “Uber Boom.”

Thanks to Guile’s ability to throw multiple Sonic Booms at varying speeds during his V-trigger, desk is able to have five Sonic Booms overlap to create one mega projectile. Combine “Uber Boom” with a Crush Counter and you have six counter hits impacting on your opponent at once. Some pretty monstrous damage results from this one super counter hit, and it actually causes the usual “Counter Hit” messages that appear on screen to stack up. When you mix this with a message for a First Attack, a Reversal and a Cross-Up, you get 10 messages trying to display on screen at once.

Yet another weird aspect of Street Fighter V’s engine has been exposed by desk and he’ll no doubt discover many more during the game’s lifespan.

Source: desk

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Study the Kazama Martial Arts with Namco Sugamo’s “Asuka Offline Party” for Tekken 7: Fated Retribution

If you hang around Tekken-heads long enough you’ll probably end up hearing the same conversation. You’ll hear about how good the same characters have been in various games, and why. You’ve got your Steves, your Bryans, your Mishimas… on and on. In those conversations, Asuka’s name will rarely get brought up, despite being a fairly popular character.

Part of this is because new players tend to overvalue some of Asuka’s more gimmicky tools. The truth is, there’s going to be a lot of moves in her set that are simply not viable in a high level setting. For example, her parry! It seems to last so long and defeat so much, but then you find out it loses to knee and elbow attacks. It’s also vulnerable to all launchers if you whiff it, and the reward she gets off of parry really doesn’t make up for eating a 30-50% combo. Her down-back 4 is a low string starter that’s free to low parries. She has many string enders that are very unsafe, in general.

And yet, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution has shown no shortage of Asuka play, both in arcade streams and tournament play. There’s power in those gloved fists, but you’re gonna have to train to harness it!

Namco Sugamo, an arcade/Tekken Museum, recently held a “Asuka Offline Party,” featuring Japanese players running Asuka Mirrors for over 4 hours.  If you ever wanted or needed to sit down and take notes on the Kazam Style Practitioner, this is a great starting place. 10-frame knock down punishes, attack cancels, surprisingly safe combo starters, and excellent wakeup pressure are all on display here. There’s a lot of great tech to take away, and eventually you’ll wonder why you worried about the parry in the first place!

Source: SHUDY_JINLEE