While there have been rumors that Harada has been in meetings with the likes of Arc System Works (and he’s certainly been close to them, lately), the reveal ended up being a partnership with another big name fighting game company: SNK.
South Town’s biggest boss, Geese Howard, will be slugging it out with the Tekken cast and Akuma (hey, it’s the world’s tiniest version of Capcom vs SNK!) in Winter 2017. Get practicing your pretzel inputs in readiness.
Arika, the minds behind Street Fighter EX and Fighting Layer, just revealed two new characters for their latest project “Arika EX”. And who were those characters?
That’s right, Street Fighter EX favorites Skullomania and Darun Mister are joining the Arika EX roster! I could write something about how long the FGC has been waiting for these characters to appear, but why not just let them tell you?
Y'all been asking for Skullomania and (Darun) you got him. New reveal at #evo2017 for Arika's Fighting Layer EX (?) pic.twitter.com/PjSHwLhXNn
Arika continues to deliver hype surprises in their signature style. They also revealed that not only is the game in full development for the PlayStation 4 with a worldwide release planned for sometime in 2018, but that a beta is planned for later this year! Expect more details from Arika later this year, with pre-orders for Arika EX going live at the same time as the beta. I wonder if it will release on April 1st, 2018…
At the conclusion of Evo 2017’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament, Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez and Peter “Combofiend” Rosas sat down for an exhibition of the latest build of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. The best of three set originally seemed like it was there to show off the previously teased Guardians of the Galaxy character, Gamora. After the set tied 1-1, however, Combofiend went back to the (unseen up until this point) character select screen.
The biggest surprise is the Gougi system. Somewhat similar to Street Fighter x Tekken’s Gem System, you chose a “deck” (a set of 5 Gougi Icons with different attributes) and fulfill various actions to get bonuses during gameplay. Unlike SFxT, however, you are locked to a particular set, and each set seems geared towards fairly specific goals.
If you’re in Las Vegas and at Evo 2017, you have the opportunity to play the in-development indie fighter Punch Planet. Sector-K Games is (wisely) using Evo as the launch pad for their latest character, the Amazonian Princess Tyara. For those of us that can’t make it to the floor, though, they’ve put together this teaser to show us what we’re missing:
Tyara is a (giant) Amazonian Warrior fitting the role of the game’s grappler. Her brutal moves, comically lackadaisical prance, teleporting weapons and retro sci-fi design make her stand out positively in a game already noted for its unique visual flair.
Looking at her from a gameplay standpoint, she boasts some great looking long range normals, a jumping air grab, charging shield bash, charged armor moves, and a signature command grab. Using the game’s cancel system allows her to cancel the command grab’s last hit and tag on a stylish elbow drop on the fallen opponent. Overall, she seems like a great spin on the grappler archetype.
A while back we covered one of the stranger announcements to come across this site: a modern re-release of SNK’s Breakers on the Sega Dreamcast. Well, it looks like the French published port will be available on the floor Evo this year.
The game is showing up courtesy of VideoGamesNewYork, a gaming store from East Village, New York. Their site mentions they offer their customers a “personalized service, very different from the cold and aseptic chain stores.” I absolutely believe them if they are the sort to show up to Evo with a stack newly printed Dreamcast discs in 2017.
Persona Entertainment is some back with more crispy King of Fighters XIV combos. His latest entry is for the burly solider, Clark Still.
One of King of Fighters XIV’s iconic grapplers, Clark benefited heavily in the latest 2.01 patch from a new super cancel off of his command grab follow up “Flashing Elbow”. His buff to his health and his special move “Gatling Attack” getting reduced recovery frames certainly didn’t hurt him either. Combining that with a better hurtbox on Step and hitbox on his heavy kick, the version 2 patches have overall been very kind to Clark’s combo possibilities and neutral.
When I was putting together the EVO Spectator’s Guide for Tekken 7, one of the biggest surprises I had was the fact that Stephen “Speedkicks” Stafford was a free agent. One of the most dominant forces and well known faces in competitive Tekken didn’t have a backer, despite a string of top performances. Why?
The answer may be because something was in the works in the background.
As of today, Speedkicks will now be PG | Speedkicks, joining the likes of pros like Punk, Coach Steve, and MarlinPie. Prior to his signing it was easy to say Team ITS was the most dominant esports team in American Tekken. Panda Global now looks poised to put a stop to that at Evolution 2017.
As we enter the Evolution 2017 weekend, ESPN.com recently ran a story on the critical decision Chun-Li Pro Ricki Ortiz may be mulling over for this year’s Street Fighter V event. And it makes sense: Ricki’s Street Fighter V career started off strong with a strong 2nd place finish at Capcom Cup 2016, but diminished quickly after a patch that directly hit her character.
For those unfamiliar with Ricki’s story or legendary status in the community, the article is a great primer and worth your time. There is, however, an important fact missing in the story that may answer the question for ESPN (and us): Rufus.
No one in the FGC doubts the sharp mind and prowess of Ricki Ortiz. She’s more then capable of playing any character she wants, even if it seems on the surface she’s in a character selection quagmire. Chun-Li wasn’t anywhere on her CvS2 teams, either.
I, personally, think it’s less character loyalty to her first favorite Street Fighter character, and more loyalty to her favorite play-style in Street Fighter V. I could be wrong, but I believe Ricki could just as easily switch to Karin or Necalli and get the same, if not better, results. But as she says in the ESPN article about Chun: “She’s the one who makes the game fun for me.” No matter how serious we get in tournament, having fun goes a long way to inspiring creativity in a player. Ricki’s character doesn’t have to be top tier, but her focus does.
The main thing that would prevent a surprise character pick is the time Ricki may have spent refining them. If Ricki’s secondary character hasn’t been seen by now by anyone (and thus, isn’t tournament ready) I can’t imagine anyone other then Chun will show up on Ricki’s side of the screen. The list of people that could handle Ricki’s level of play, even with Chun-Li’s nerfs, is so small that she still stands a good chance of doing well at this year’s event.
No matter where the cursor lands on the character select screen, I would rarely bet against Ricki.
As we enter the Evolution 2017 weekend, ESPN.com recently ran a story on the critical decision Chun-Li Pro Ricki Ortiz may be mulling over for this year’s Street Fighter V event. And it makes sense: Ricki’s Street Fighter V career started off strong with a strong 2nd place finish at Capcom Cup 2016, but diminished quickly after a patch that directly hit her character.
For those unfamiliar with Ricki’s story or legendary status in the community, the article is a great primer and worth your time. There is, however, an important fact missing in the story that may answer the question for ESPN (and us): Rufus.
No one in the FGC doubts the sharp mind and prowess of Ricki Ortiz. She’s more then capable of playing any character she wants, even if it seems on the surface she’s in a character selection quagmire. Chun-Li wasn’t anywhere on her CvS2 teams, either.
I, personally, think it’s less character loyalty to her first favorite Street Fighter character, and more loyalty to her favorite play-style in Street Fighter V. I could be wrong, but I believe Ricki could just as easily switch to Karin or Necalli and get the same, if not better, results. But as she says in the ESPN article about Chun: “She’s the one who makes the game fun for me.” No matter how serious we get in tournament, having fun goes a long way to inspiring creativity in a player. Ricki’s character doesn’t have to be top tier, but her focus does.
The main thing that would prevent a surprise character pick is the time Ricki may have spent refining them. If Ricki’s secondary character hasn’t been seen by now by anyone (and thus, isn’t tournament ready) I can’t imagine anyone other then Chun will show up on Ricki’s side of the screen. The list of people that could handle Ricki’s level of play, even with Chun-Li’s nerfs, is so small that she still stands a good chance of doing well at this year’s event.
No matter where the cursor lands on the character select screen, I would rarely bet against Ricki.
@EVO2017 (@NerdJosh)