Author: Crow_Spaceboy

While everyone strives for ‘perfect play’ in any fighting game, is such a thing really possible when human reactions are factored in?

This is the subject of Beefy Smash Doods’ latest video. Taking the theory of playing ‘safe’ and ‘perfectly’ to its most clinical conclusion, the Doods work backwards and figure out why ‘perfect’ play is an ideal, not a reality. While the examples provided pull largely from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the overall concept can be applied to any fighting game.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods

“Street Fighter Carnival X” is Mikado Arcade’s currently-ongoing multi-game tournament series for a wide variety of classic (and sometimes, obscure) arcade titles. To see the beginning of these high level Japanese tournaments, go here!

Because ARIKA’s 1998 3D fighter Fighting Layer never found its way outside of arcades, it’s easy to feel like it has been lost to the sands of time. Even ARIKA’s latest spiritual successor bearing its name, Fighting EX Layer, completely lacks any original characters from the series. (Blaire and Allen, who are in Fighting Layer, are originally from Street Fighter EX). And that’s really a shame, because there’s some great original designs in Fighting Layer, and some fun mechanics unique to it — such as its universal side-switch grabs and meter-consuming combo escape “Super Illusion.”

For the curious, you can read more about Fighting Layer‘s gameplay over on the SRK Wiki.

You can follow the action of SFCX 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 Arcade

Spacing is wildly important in Tekken 7, regardless of what character you play. So even if BoxeR-King‘s latest tutorial looks at the subject from the perspective of Tekken’s local Luchador, the advice here can benefit any player:

Being mindful of both your opponent’s options and different ranges, and your own, is only one of the fundamental aspects of spacing. As demonstrated in the above video, there’s also different input tricks you can make use of to constantly slide out of your opponent’s careless offense.

Source: BoxeR-King

Touch of death combos are technically fine in “Versus” style fighters because the team aspect means that it’s only a third of your total “lifebar” gone when a character is knocked out. This is in addition to the fact these combos are resource intensive and — usually — situational. Dragon Ball FighterZ also protects the victims of character deaths to a degree by resetting stage position, thereby removing the threat of a mix-up on an incoming character a la Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Based on the submissions you sent to us this week, though, none of the above has stopped the DBFZ community on a fervent quest to push TOD combos as far as possible. Nearly everything sent to us this week was a touch-of-death: so if you’re hunting for big combos, today’s post is a good place to look! Let’s jump in:

TheRealDMac‘s guide opens us up with a dissertation on DBFZ’s neutral game, the lone theory-heavy submission this week. Hey, you gotta land a hit before you start your combo, right?

Rebel2_Seo shows off just how much potential there really is with Adult Gohan.

Lvl 0 Adult Gohan ToD
definitely not optimized but the idea is there#DBFZ #DBFZ_AGH pic.twitter.com/sa6kaf6zrO

— Seo (@Rebel2_Seo) February 15, 2018

AGohan ToD with lvl 1 potential

what on earth is this character#DBFZ #DBFZ_AGH pic.twitter.com/rTXCKeBUxu

— Seo (@Rebel2_Seo) February 14, 2018

Alrikir shares some solo and assist BnBs for Lord Yamcha.

But! If you’re having trouble fighting against the Wolf Fang Fist, then sikshot gaming has put together this anti-Yamcha-on-block discussion.

Kosless has a touch-of-death for Android 18.

“Surely, that’s not the only Android that can get a 100% combo,” I’d like to pretend Silvius Sama said, in response to the above video.

Meanwhile, Persona Entertainment is over here flexing with touch-of-death combos for several characters in his first entry to his “100% Combo” video series.

On a lighter note, enjoy this anime/DBFZ opening mash-up from Arcade Infinity:

As always, if you see anything worth sharing, let us know by submitting a tip for our next roundup. Thanks everyone!

Sources: TheRealDMac; Rebel2_Seo; Alrikir; Kosless; sikshot gaming; Persona Entertainment; Silvius Sama; Arcade Infinity

Panic buttons are a problem in any game. Tekken 7 is no exception, but many of these odd “panic buttons” can have odd recovery states you have to know about in order to punish properly, if you can at all.

It doesn’t help any that panic buttons come in a wide variety of forms in Tekken: from Feng’s B+1 speedy counter-hit fisher to Claudio’s superior hopkick, you need to be prepared for each character’s tool and the nuanced way to deal with them. Scallywag 93‘s latest tutorial video breaks down some of the most common panic buttons you’ll run into, and the proper response for when you recognize them.

Source: Scallywag 93

A fundamental aspect of 2D fighting games is pinning your opponent in the corner and keeping them there as long as possible. There’s a lot of different ways to do that in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, but not many are as flashy or deceiving as Ken’s corner options.

Most of the good stuff in World Warrior FGC‘s latest Ken exploration comes from a crush counter in the corner. You can earn such a thing in a lot of ways, but for demonstration purposes, the lead-in setup here is off a throw. The real magic begins once the st.HK hits as a counter; check out the above video for some vicious side-switching resets.

Source: World Warrior FGC

Air-dash style fighters are always attractive for their free-form combo possibilities. It’s probably no surprise that the logical conclusion of such open-ended combo systems are touch-of-death combos, and our submissions are starting to reflect that.

Let’s jump into the SRK tipline and see what the community is up to!

KOF combo maker COMBONAUTS tries his hand at another DBFZ Combo Exhibition:

Here comes a wave of touch-of-death combos. @NYoption shows off this one for Krillin…

Krillin/Tien/Vegeta touch of death pic.twitter.com/GaCzqbIcTI

— DSC | Option (@NYoption) February 11, 2018

…SupahFro64 has one for the most Perfect Cell…

and Kosless shows off this one for Android 18.

@NYoption also wanted to show off Krillin’s meter build, which is pretty incredible with the right assists + the corner.

Krillin 6764 damage combo (builds 2 bars of meter) @jav1ts @Di3mini0n @MrSpab @AutoMattock @GentThief pic.twitter.com/MHQxRSqZQq

— DSC | Option (@NYoption) February 7, 2018

MrSlaynman has some frustrating which-way and overhead resets with Nappa’s Saibamen.

sikshot gaming talks about how to use, and beat, Adult Gohan’s block string options.

Clayton chapman continues to push Captain Ginyu’s combo game to absurd levels.

Peter Souvannarath shows off how easy it is to get several Goku Black supers into one combo.

and closing us out, TDG Oso demonstrates the appropriately-named “Senzu bug.”

As always, if you see anything worth sharing, let us know by submitting a tip for our next roundup. Thanks everyone!

Sources: @NYoption; Kosless; MrSlaynman; COMBONAUTS; sikshot gaming; Clayton chapman; SupahFro64; Peter Souvannarath; TDG Oso

CherryBerryMango, a popular Korean Tekken 7 streamer (and a tournament force worth reckoning, as evidence by his defeat of Chanel at the Tekken World Tour 2017) encountered a surprise when playing on the PC version of Tekken 7 versus a use appropriately named “HiddenStage.”

The stage, originally the story mode only setting for Alisa and Nina’s battle, is so narrow for a Tekken stage that it might be too claustrophobic for most tournament players. On the bright side, the stage has some nice, dramatic lightning from the back-lit industrial fan in the center. It’s impossible to say whether the stage was intended for competitive play and scrapped due to its size, or if it’s part of a future DLC pack.

The most interesting (and possibly troubling) thing about the hack is that it works for both parties. This hacker, after all, showed us the stage on CBM’s stream, whom as far as we know has not hacked the game.

Sources: 체리베리망고 CherryBerryMango; Tekkengamer.com