Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

If you are an avid Do-It-Yourself nut and looking for an arcade stick, you are at no loss for option on the market to build your own. FightStickAsia has been known for their replica MadCatz TE bodies originating from Hong Kong for quite a while, but are now entering the market with their own original stick casing, known as the EXC Samurai Metallic.

This is a hefty all-metal fightstick casing with a hinge and latch to hold down the top panel, as well as not one, but two exit points for your USB cable. Jonyfraze was sent a body to review from the folks at the company, and found the case sturdy and well weighed, but commented that the slick bottom of the case needs some anti-slip surfacing in order to keep it from sliding on your lap.

Source: Jon Bonilla

As the first Mortal Kombat guest character in Injustice 2, Sub Zero has big shoes to fill — for a time, Scorpion was consider top tier in the original Injustice. He hasn’t lived up to that potential, and has yet to see any real usage in majors.

While this guide notes that he is weak against long-range combat — Sub Zero is still capable of being strong in the right hands. He has very useful combos which deal a lot of damage. He does however need more work than most of the cast due to his very limited range of combo starters.

Source: MadDoggGames

People are still jumping in the lab with Menat, and we’re increasingly seeing some amazing stuff with this character. As such, the amount of material coming out is rather large, so we’re doing a weekend roundup just in case you can’t get enough of her.

Firstly, we have TrueUnderDawgGaming who has compiled a great video chronicling her normals and specials into an amazing tutorial. He also chronicles a few of her best bread and butter combos.

rooflemonger has put together this great okizeme guide for dealing with your opponents’ wakeup safely. Menat has some great buttons and frame data to make it easier to deal damage on knockdowns.

Next up, we have desk with yet another Menat combo video. How does a 60-hit combo that shows obvious loops sound to you?

After seeing a very situational combo from Sako earlier in the week, Nick Polmolea decided to do something to try to optimize it. The results are pretty awesome.

Finally, we have Go1, who has been showing major promise recently with Menat. Now he’s going up against two of the best Master ranks in the business. How does he fare? Really well, showing some insane potential with her mixups and footsies.

Sources: TrueUnderDawgGaming; RektScrub; desk; Nick Polmolea; rooflemonger

With Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite less than three weeks away from its release date, people are digging deeper into the trenches of theory and trying to speculate on how the game will actually perform in the competitive landscape. One picture that’s been painted during the preview builds has been the belief that the Reality Stone — which causes a homing projectile to chase down your opponent — is the strongest one of the bunch of Infinity Stones.

Novriltataki however views the stone in a different light and believes that things will shape up differently to the point that Reality is rarely used. Given the fact that if you pushblock at a certain timing, you can reflect projectiles back at your opponent, it makes sense as to what the stone may be overrated at this point. He also talks about how tag switching could quite possibly make reflecting an even more dangerous game.

Source: novriltataki

Frame traps are essential to capitalize in damage with any character, and Ed’s light moves are prime buttons to create frame traps. As such, it is important to understand your frame data to know what to do to create a frame trap with him and exactly how you can capitalize from the counter hits you receive from it.

This guide gives you prime examples of follow-up buttons to create frame traps, and goes from the most basic punishes off of them to the most elaborate. Needless to say, Ed can get a lot of mileage off of one simple frame trap with his damage and mix-up potential, so be sure to toy around in the lab to see what you find.

Source: Young Commander

Broken is a word thrown around loosely within the FGC these days, but not always meant in the exact context of what it actually means. But when we talk about broken characters, we are literally talking about characters that are seriously unbeatable in all matchups, and these characters are the worst offenders.

ScrewAttack recently rated their 10 most broken characters in fighting games, and the list has some interesting ones. Did you know that Ibuki had a standing roundhouse infinite in the original Street Fighter III? How many people have heard of how bad Ivan Ooze is in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? Well, now you can hear about the most broken of the broken.

Source: ScrewAttack!

People who have played Capcom vs. SNK 2 know how amazing A-Groove can be. Its custom combo mechanic makes its damage potential higher than any other Groove, and there are three characters that can utilize this very well. If you’ve seen anything of Capcom vs. SNK 2 on YouTube, you’ve likely seen M. Bison paint the fence, or Sakura rhythmically chanting “sho-sho-sho-sho” throughout an A-Groove custom combo.

However, with great power comes great responsibility, as it is one of the most difficult grooves to master. Silentscope attempts to show off every bit of the mechanics of the groove, including quick rise, alpha counters, supers, and the dreaded custom combo mechanic in this tutorial.

Source: silentscope88