Did you pick up the new Touhou fighting game Antinomy of Common Flowers on Steam and have no idea where to begin learning it? Being a game that’s (currently, at least) almost entirely in Japanese can make learning it seem like a difficult task, particularly when the game itself has some innovative and unique twists on common 2D fighting game conventions.
Luckily, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know Touhou! Japanese player “Yofuki” has made the excellent beginners video above, with English subtitles to help you learn the game from the ground up. On top of that, there’s a AoCF wiki and a dedicated discord for AoCF and its predecessor, Urban Legend in Limbo.
Did you miss the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 tournament scene during its heyday? Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is widely considered one of the most competitive of the retro Mortal Kombats, and it’s hard to ignore its influence on the series: it introduced the Run Button and an intentionally designed juggle system, both mechanics of which would go on to influence the rest of the series.
Famous NRS commentators Ketchup and Mustard worked together with legendary MK player Shock (whom is also at ultimatemk.com, an excellent site for more UMK3 info) to put together the excellent UMK3 primer above. Covered here are the basics of the Run-Jab mixup, wide range of juggle hitboxs, glitched jab safety, infinites, and information on the community’s “Tournament Edition” project.
Despite being a limited release game for a Japanese superhero series dating back to the 70s, Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters still gets the occasionally interesting blip on the combo-video radar. This is mostly thanks to the wall combos, flexible juggle system, and multiple forms many characters can switch between mid-combo.
Perhaps it’s just timing — KRCF is a 3D Battle Arena style game in an era where that’s the go-to fighter to make. Still, as UFOrange points out in the description of their latest combo video, it “turns out this game has some exhibition potential, so here we are.”
2017 marked the 25th year anniversary of the Mortal Kombat franchise. To celebrate the occasion, RomanovaNRS over at the First to 10 YouTube channel wanted to put something special together: a collection of thankful messages from NRS players to NetherRealm Studios.
Comprised of thank-yous and well wishes from players at NEC 18 and abroad, players sound off on what NRS games mean to them. Sonicfox, Kitana Prime, Sabin, Dragon, CircaNicky, FGCTheo, TheHadou, and more show their love for one of the longest running American fighting game studios in existence.
Phase Shifting is the core element of Pokkén Tournament DX‘s meta. A Phase Shift is the transition between the zoning-heavy Field Phase and combo-oriented Duel Phase, and it’s triggered by scoring enough Phase Shift Points to make the Shift occur.
Phase Shift Points, or PSP, are still accumulated during the Duel Phase’s combos and pokes. The FGC typically gets wrapped up in trying to find the highest optimal damage for combos, but in Pokkén, you may want to give up damage in certain situations for a wide variety of reasons, most of them involving PSP. Mewtater‘s latest Pokkén video breaks down the pros and cons of intentionally avoiding a Phase Shift, and why you would choose to shift, or stay.
ArcSys is going out of their way to jam Dragon Ball Fighter Z with as many nods and references to the extended Dragon Ball universe as humanly possible. This is largely understood already from the attention to detail in movesets and cutscenes, but it actually goes much further — right down to the color palettes. In particular, color palette slot #2:
As observed by DBFZ news show West City Weekly, slot 2 for every character references a specific moment or character in the series. Check out their latest mini-segment to track down the homages these outfits point to!
G.A.M.E.S. is a massive The King Of Fighters collaborative between DreamCancel.com, Orochinagi.com, and esports team KingsofCO. As a collaboration of the biggest names in the KOF community, it’s probably no surprise to hear that they’ve announced a The King of Fighters circuit series for the United States, the “Max Cancel Cup”:
Yes, you read that right. This isn’t just a KOF XIV event: if you are someone that sings the praises of past KOF titles, now’s your chance to show off your spirit at any of the regional events listed here on smash.gg. Check it out!
Looking for a jolt of gaming inspiration? Cammy pro Simon “Popi” Gutierrez is the subject of a brand new YouTube interview series Meet My Story, and inspiration is the core of his. Half a decade ago, he was a man that could not be stopped in Street Fighter IV. Between 2012-2014 he racked up $15,000 in earnings, and was among the first to defeat the seemingly invincible Infiltration in his break-out underdog moment.
This interview covers that monumental event, and the positive mindset that Popi employed to make it happen. It also covers the aftermath of being thrust into sudden stardom, and the marketing pitfalls therein.
We’re into another day of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition! While players are still largely experimenting with the combo potential of the new V-Triggers, we are starting to see more exploration of resets, new character options, and more. If you missed the day one video round up, you can check that out here!
So what has the community created today? Well, starting us off is The Prince‘s demonstration of M. Bison’s new V-Trigger II stun resets.
Meanwhile, El Chakotay has a comprehensive breakdown of R. Mika’s new quality of life.
Juri’s new V-Trigger, “Feng Shui Engine Beta,” is the subject of marlonlonmilk’s latest video.
JST is also on the Juri Hype train, covering her new new damage opportunities with the (now 2-bar) V-Trigger I.
NurseLee has been making the most of Ryu’s new stun/reset synergy. Beware, low stun characters!
He’s not the only one enjoying Ryu, though. Impractical combo God desk took the world warrior for a spin, too.
MrSlaynman covers Zangief’s new V-Trigger, which gives him buffed SPD damage, and an announcer that’s constantly losing his mind.
Chun-Li’s damage output is looking just fine in Brian Kasugano‘s new combo video for Season 3.
World-Warrior‘s “Upgrade Your Arsenal” series starts S3 off with (perhaps unsurprisingly for any of World-Warrior’s followers) Ken’s Shinryuken combos.
And lastly, Peter Souvannarath has an entire playlist of Dhalsim tech centered around meaty VTII setups.
If you see anything worth sharing, let us know by submitting a tip for our next roundup!
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is SNK’s newest female-only fighting game for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. This colorful, light-hearted offering has garnered a sharp divide in the FGC’s reaction, perhaps unsurprisingly: many were likely hoping for a KOF XIV port to compliment the NEO GEO ports of KOF ’94-through-2000 already on the Switch. Or, at least a fighting game that seems a little more serious about its gameplay than SNK Heroines’sinitialtrailer lets on.
Though there isn’t much to judge SNK Heroines on at the moment, one thing is for sure: if the argument against its existence is that it seems too much like a joke, that’s because that’s the exactly the point. This spiritual successor to SNK Gals’ Fighters has actually been staring us in the face since last year’s April Fool’s Day, as pointed out by reddit user fussomoro.
You can read the full fussomoro thread here. Based on the comic, he goes on to speculate exactly who will be in the game, and has further information on the full comic for those interested.
Regardless of which side of this Waifu War you’re on, it’ll be interesting to see how SNK Heroines sells on release. After all, with its announcement, it’ll be the second April-Fool’s-joke-turned-fighting-game released in 2018. I doubt we’ll ever hear directly from SNK whether they were inspired by Fighting EX Layer‘s path to advertising, but if this sort of thing becomes a trend of any sort, we can now definitively look to these games as the reason why.
