Author: Crow_Spaceboy

Running until 12/16, “Super Street Fighter Carnival” is the regularly occurring tournament series of Japan’s famous Mikado Arcade. Along SSFC2016’s epic two month journey, Mikado Regulars are pit against each other in a wide variety of classic and obscure arcade titles.  Today’s videos from Mikado’s YouTube Channel definitely pick from both of those categories.

Regardless of whether or not you saw SSFC2016’s Capcom v SNK 2 tournament, you likely already know of CvS2’s reputation. You probably already have a strong opinion on the game, in one way or another. Less talked about in our community is it’s predecessor, Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000. This four button fighter introduced the concept of Ratios, marked the first actual fighting game collaboration between SNK/Capcom. It’s also worth noting: If you ever thought Nakoruru was nuts in the new King of Fighters, you’ll see that this is not without precedent.

Going even further into obscurity, there’s Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash. This 1995 game is the first fighting game made by developer Racdym, and with its deliberate ground game, slick sprite work and chaotic item interactions, it’s likely their best entry in the genre.

As SSFC2016 is obviously named after the Street Fighter series, it only makes sense for a SF game to make an appearance! Mikado’s finest clashed in Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition. This version of SFII is the final version to be released in arcades, and allows players to pick any version of the cast from the previous SFII releases.

It’s hard to believe there’s still so much left to see from SSFC2016! As always, you can follow along Mikado’s upload schedule on YouTube, or try to catch them live on their UStream.

Source: Mikado

Crew battles are becoming more and more popular in the Pokkén community. Cat Fight hinted as much in our interview with him, and it’s easy to take his word on it: this is the man that was ultimately responsible for securing the narrow 5-4 victory over Japan at Evo’s 5v5 crew battle.

NEC ’17 is approaching, and Japan has announced they are ready for revenge!

Graphic courtesy of Burnside.

In a interesting role reversal from the last 5v5, it is Team USA with the more diverse character roster. Suicune Master has chosen to go with his recently acquired Lucario, and Coach Steve has seemingly all but abandoned his Garchomp in favor of Weavile’s option heavy rushdown. Meanwhile, Sasahune and Apollo will be making their US debut as a wall of Gengars.

If the intention is to surprise Team USA with strong players playing unusual low tiers, it could be a risky gamble. Sasahune in particular is an accomplished Gengar loyalist… but so are American players Madluk and Mah Man Jesus, both of which many players on Team USA have experience playing against in tournament. Then again, when your anchor is (likely) Potetin, maybe it’s no gamble at all!

On Team USA, any gaps in knowledge on Gengar or Pikachu Libre are easily filled between Cat Fight and Slippingbug. Likewise, Potetin, the current VGC World Champion, has played Weavile and Chandelure at their highest levels- there’s probably not a better team captain for Team JPN then the champ himself.

Noticeably absent from both teams? The almost universally agreed-upon top tiers: Sceptile and Braixen.

Will Team USA secure another victory, narrow or otherwise, over Team JPN? Or will World Champ Potetin lead Team JPN to their first 5v5 victory? Find out at NEC ’17!

Sources: Burnside; Big E Gaming

The party that is Mikado Arcade’s “Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016” hasn’t lost any momentum. This two-month tournament series is home to high-level play in a dizzying amount of classic (and obscure!) arcade games. If you like that concept but not the games outlined below, don’t worry! There’s a lot of tournaments to choose from. 

Believe it or not, we’re near the end of this great series. Though there’s less then a month left of SSFC2016 games to be played, the matches aren’t any less exciting. For example:

The King of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match is the re-balanced sequel to KOF ’98. What makes the Mikado series so interesting here, though, is that these are the same players we saw playing KOF ’98 last week! You really do get to see how teams and strategies evolved between the two games.

But hey. Maybe you’re wanting to see a stranger game get played at Mikado. Well…

Let’s talk about The Rumble Fish 2.

This 2D fighter is made by a little company called Dimps. That’s right, before they were employed by Capcom to make Street Fighter IV, Dimps was cutting their teeth on this odd gem. Rumble Fish 2 has a bevy of system mechanics and gauges, making it closer spiritually to air dashers then SFIV was. Air blocking, chain combos, wake-up rolls, air dodges… and this doesn’t even cover all the stuff you can do with meter! Rumble Fish 2 has been a game I’ve always enjoyed watching, and it’s really interesting to see where Dimps came from before they hit the big time.

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

Source: Mikado

“Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016”, or SSFC2016, is the currently ongoing Japanese multi-month tournament series at Mikado Arcade. This event pays tribute to a variety of arcade fighting games, popular or obscure.  If you missed the action, there’s plenty of great matches to catch up on!

If you’ve been following along, you know that these titles run the gamut of “classic” to “crazy.” Given its near monolithic legacy in the FGC, most will put Capcom vs. SNK 2 in the former category. This is a game with a decade and a half of tech and passion behind it–as the matches here show.

[A timely choice, seeing as Capcom’s teaser reveal of Akuma for Street Fighter V at Red Bull Battle Grounds last night utilizes the same kanji featured by Shin Akuma in CvS2! – Editor]

But CvS2 wasn’t the only sequel to show up! SNK’s classic weapons-based fighter, Samurai Shodown 2, had its own intense tournament. Light on combos and heavy on smart poking, SS2 is a treat for anyone craving some simple and solid footsies.

You can follow the action by subscribing to Mikado’s official YouTube channel. You can even try to catch them when they livestream!

Source: Mikado

Absolute Battle 7 Pokkén Tournament Champion Labib “Slippingbug” Haq is now officially sponsored by esports team Square One.  The announcement comes just before Texas Trash Day, a large Houston major for multiple games.

We now proudly sponsor @slippingbug as our 1st Pokken player!! Wish him luck tomorrow at Texas Trashday in Houston! pic.twitter.com/awWZJGckRz

— Square One (@SquareOne_Team) November 4, 2016

Though Slippingbug will be the first Pokkén player to rock the SQ1 tag, this esports team has been quietly building results. SQ1 sponsors Mortal Kombat X players SQ1 Vibu (top 32 at Combo Breaker 2016) and SQ1 Izzzzymode (top 32 at EVO 2016). With the acquisition of Slippingbug, SQ1 hopes to add a Pokkén Tournament victory to their list. Considering Slippingbug’s consistent tournament results and dominance of the region, it’s a safe bet for the team to make.

Sources: Square One (Twitter)

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

Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016, Mikado’s multi-game extravangza, continues with some 3D titans of old!

Project Justice is no stranger to the readers of SRK. The popular 3D Capcom fighter is held fondly in the hearts of many; I don’t think I need to sell most of you on this game. Like many of the gems in this series, Mikado players shine in their understanding and execution of Project Justice.

Because of its presence at Evo, Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 might be the SEGA fighters with the most lasting impression on the FGC. VF3, though, still enjoys healthy, regular play at Mikado. The complexity and pressure the series is famous for is still here, and it’s kind of thrilling to see how present the threat of a ring out always was.

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

Source: Mikado

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

Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016, the two month long tournament series held by Mikado Arcade, is not shy about throwing curve balls at its competitors. While Samurai Shodown and Gundam Versus titles would be surprises at most tournaments, players at Mikado Arcade are ready for almost anything.

Mobile Suit Gundam EX Revue would be an outlier out at any other event. But here, in Takadanobaba, it feels right at home. The 1993 franchise-based fighter is actually a much improved sequel with better gameplay and graphics, though it doesn’t stray far from Street Fighter 2’s formula. The game has links, footsies, and punishing damage.

Here’s the curve ball, though. A few days later, players face a tournament game that also owes a lot to Street Fighter, but for different reasons.

Most players are probably not immediately familiar with Chinese video game developer Sealy. It’s okay if you haven’t heard of their fighting game CHAOS GENERATION.  After only a round of game play, though, you should realize that you have seen this game before.

That’s right- one of Mikado’s SSFC2016 events is an actual Street Fighter IV bootleg.

The game’s animations and movements are mostly from SF4, with some random other 2.5D fighters (Tekken, Mortal Kombat) also cannibalized to fill out its move-lists. It’s a surreal experience to watch, and I can imagine it feels as baffling to play.

You can follow the action by subscribing to Mikado’s official YouTube channel. For the night owls in the US, you can even try to catch them when they livestream.

Source: Mikado