Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite — Story Demo combo video mini-roundup: Dante, X, & Chun-Li

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s Story Demo, unsurprisingly, seems more focused on letting players have a taste of the game’s single player content. While this is understandable, considering that Street Fighter V was lacking in this department, this has left players that are looking to test out the gameplay systems somewhat wanting. That said — more than a few enterprising players have toughed it out and made some combo videos based on the Story Demo.

First up, we have Isedelica, who put together this sick-looking Dante combo that gets some decent mileage using the Power Stone’s Infinity Surge, combined with Dante’s Devil Trigger. That said, while it outright kills the Ultron Drone in the video, these do have less life than the regular characters, so it might not be a true touch of death in competition.

Meanwhile, Swillo & BimmyQuestion have put together a more detailed combo video for X. Here, they demonstrate how he can extend his combos using a combination of Buster Shot follow ups and Sonic Slashes bounced off the wall. Additionally, one of the combos uses the mechanic that allows for a free level 3 hyper combo during an Infinity Surge, at the cost of sacrificing the rest of remaining Infinity Surge time.

Finally, Team Lago demonstrates a ground loop Chun-Li can do by instant air dashing in between ground strings. The loop itself seems tricky, and you can see them dropping it multiple times in the video. But it’s still an interesting showcase of the freedom that the game’s combo system allows.

Sources: IsedelicaSwillo & BimmyQuestionTeam Lago

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite footage and impressions from the E3 floor: Angelic, Justin Wong, FChamp, and others

While the Story Demo of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is now in our hands, this is more to show off the game’s single player content than it is for people to try mechanics out. At E3 2017 however, a different — more complete — and seemingly better-looking build is playable on the show floor. As expected, a number of top players have made their way to the Los Angeles Convention Center for a chance to try the game out and share their impressions. Luckily for us, they have taken to social media and YouTube to share some clips and impressions of the game.

Some of these are just short clips of stuff they found surprising. Armando “Angelic” Mejia, for one, seems surprised at Zero’s new moves, using the kicks he’s now gained with MvC:I’s more traditional control scheme.

Meanwhile, Team Spooky’s Josh “NerdJosh” Jodoin was playing some sets with Eliver “Killer Kai” Ling. One thing he found surprising was how the game handled tagging pre-match. Simply hitting the tag button during the ready state, before the word “fight” comes out, resulted in a tag.

In addition to this, both Josh and Eliver shared a few more impressions, mostly testing stuff with Morrigan — who was pretty dominant in the previous game.

Eliver also shot this video of Splyce’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez going up against Snake Tits.

Snake Tits himself has this to say about the game’s mechanics.

Meanwhile, Filipino Champ and fellow NorCal resident, Echo Fox’s Justin Wong, have been posting a lot of videos and photos of the game. Both seem pretty impressed with Thanos, showing off some mixups with the mad titan.

FChamp also shot some footage of a Thanos combo being performed by Capcom’s Peter “ComboFiend” Rosas himself.

Rosas also demonstrated another combo, this time for Nova:

Justin himself seems pretty impressed with Nova’s incarnation in the game.

He also mentioned finding “the best team in the game” which, judging by his photos, is either Zero and Mega Man X, or Ultron and Captain Marvel.

Of course, with E3 still ongoing, there’s bound to be more footage and impressions coming out of the event. Stay locked on to Shoryuken for more of these as the week goes on!

Sources: AngelicKiller KaiNerdJoshSnake TitsJustin WongFilipino Champ

Razer has a new limited-edition Street Fighter V-themed Panthera arcade stick coming in July

Special, limited-edition arcade sticks aren’t a new concept in the industry, with multiple manufacturers putting out special versions of their sticks throughout the years. Now, Razer is getting into the act with a limited-edition Street Fighter V variant of their Panthera arcade stick.

Now, most limited-edition game-themed arcade sticks use art from the game that they represent, and the Street Fighter V Panthera for PlayStation 4 is no exception. What’s unique about this stick, however, is that the art by veteran art director Long Vo has been specifically commissioned for it — it isn’t just some piece of existing art slapped onto the stick.

The art itself is a throwback to the classic Ryu versus Akuma stare-down art from Street Fighter Alpha 2. This time however, the art is a bit more beardy: Akuma sports his default Street Fighter V look, and Ryu is in his bare-chested and bearded alternate, known to many fans as “Hot Ryu.” Meanwhile, Sakura in the back has been replaced with her rival, Karin.

Click to view slideshow.

The new Street Fighter V-themed Razer Panthera will be available in limited quantities, starting this July. For more on the Panthera, check out our review.

Source: Razer

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s new Directional Influence mechanic allows for a King of Fighters-style short hop

Even if the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite story demo is a single-player affair meant to show off its Story Mode, that doesn’t mean that players aren’t out there breaking the game down! A number of players are already poring through the game, trying to figure out how it works.

One such player is Marvel vs. Capcom 2 veteran Shoultzula, who has discovered some a new bit of advanced movement that seems unique to MvC: Infinite. This new movement uses the game’s Directional Influence mechanic. Unlike previous games in the series, MvC:I allows players some amount of influence on the movement after a super jump. Using this, Shoultzula has discovered that players can set up a King of Fighters-style “short hop.”

This advanced movement opens up some interesting and unique options during a tag. In addition to this, it also sets up an option select for some characters between a cross-up, or an air throw.

Take note however that with the game still in development, it’s possible that this may be changed before release!

Source: Shoultzula via r/MvC3

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT: 15 minutes of new gameplay footage, featuring Cloud and Lightning

Ever since the announcement it was announced, both fighting game and Final Fantasy fans are eagerly looking forward to Dissidia Final Fantasy NT on PlayStation 4 next year. However, most of what we know about the game comes from gameplay footage from Japanese arcades, alongside comparisons with its predecessors on Sony’s portable systems, until now.

Square-Enix shared around 15 minutes of gameplay footage from Dissidia Final Fantasy NT over on IGN’s pre-E3 live stream.  As part of the presentation, they go over some of the game’s mechanics, and its vaunted “Bravery Combat System.” In addition to this, they also give an in depth look at Cloud and Lightning as they play in the game.

Source: IGN

Here’s our first look at Dragon Ball FighterZ in action

Ever since it was announced a couple of days ago, people have been looking forward to seeing Bandai Namco and Arc System Works’ Dragon Ball FighterZ in action. Well, this morning (afternoon in Japan), they held a special live stream over on Nico Nico focused on Dragon Ball games, and Dragon Ball FighterZ was part of the show.

The gameplay itself is quite interesting. While it’s a 3-on-3 tag team fighter similar to the last 2 Marvel vs. Capcom games, the game itself seems to play closer to Arc System Works’s own games, especially the Guilty Gear series — there’s even an attack that seems to work similar to that series’ Dust attack. However, assists do tend to work similar to other games with the feature, with characters coming in to perform attacks, and then being unable to be called for a short recovery period.

One thing that the game won’t have compared to other tag team fighters is incoming mix ups after a character goes down. After a character is KOed, a cinematic plays of the incoming character coming in and clashing with the surviving character, and the the action resets to back to the middle of the stage.

Other mechanics seem to be taken from other Dragon Ball games. There’s a powered-up dash that seems to home in and hit opponents (tagged in characters also use the same dash). And, of course, characters can charge up their ki to build meter. Speaking of super meter — from what we’ve seen, the game allows for more than five bars of meter. This meter itself is used to power several techniques, aside from super moves. These included dodges, and of course, transformations. At the very least, Frieza was shown transforming into his golden form at the cost of three bars.

The super themselves are pretty dramatic, filling the screen with all manner of beams. These supers, along with other powerful moves, leave visible damage on the stage. Some powerful supers, however, seem to actually be able to change the stage. In the demo, Vegeta’s Final Flash was shown to change the Namek stage to the burning, lava filled version of it from the end of the Frieza saga, when it was about to explode.

Now for all those who missed the stream and are salivating at all these things, more than a few folks have uploaded clips of it onto YouTube. The PS360HD channel has put up these three matches from the stream.

Source: nico nico; footage from PS360HD2

The King of Fighters XIV: Steam Edition hitbox viewer now available for download

Some time back, we reported that a hitbox viewer for The King of Fighters XIV: Steam Edition was in development. Now, the tool is finally available for download.

Developer Loïc Petit has now put up his hitbox viewer for the KOFXIV on Steam, called KOFBox, up for download over on GitHub. The application itself will simply overlay the hitboxes onto the game once a match is running. Petit has also shared a video of it in action over on Twitter.

Take note that there are still some issues with KOFBox. Most notably, it does not yet differentiate between hurt boxes and those with autoguard.

Interested players can download KOFBox here. The King of Fighters XIV: Steam Edition launches on June 15, however access to the closed beta can be gained simply by purchasing the game on Steam.

Source: Loïc Petit

New crossover fighting game Blade Strangers coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4

The Nintendo Switch hasn’t really seen much in terms of traditional, 2D fighting games. With that in mind, Nicalis looks to end the drought with “Blade Strangers.”

Announced over Twitch’s pre-E3 stream, Blade Strangers comes from Studio Saizensen — the team that brought you Sega’s Blade Arcus. Unlike the latter though, Blade Strangers is a crossover fighting game, featuring a number of characters from Japanese indie games such as Cave Story, Code of Princess, as well as the Umihara Kawase series.

Also unlike Blade Arcus, Blade Strangers will use traditional 2D sprites, albeit ones rotoscoped from 3D models. The rotoscoping is done via proprietary technology that they’ve developed, however each sprite is still tweaked by hand where necessary.

The game’s planned features include story mode, mission mode, versus, training, and online versus. Story mode will be like the traditional arcade mode, but will feature character interactions and clashes. There’s also mention of making the game have the easy inputs of a Super Smash Bros. game, but with the speed and complexity of something like Guilty Gear or Street Fighter.

Aside from Nintendo Switch, the game is also set to be released on PC, PlayStation 4, and in arcades as well. For more on the game, check out this footage from the stream, as recorded by Nintendo Everything.

Source: Nintendo Everything

New Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite leak gives us potential story mode and DLC character details

The story of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s development is one closely tied to leaks, with the game’s existence being hinted at by leakers and insiders before its official unveiling at PSX 2016. As such, it’s fitting that right before E3 2017, we have what seems to be another big leak for the game.

The leak in question comes from a Redditor named RunningfromTrevor who claims to be a freelance animator who’s worked with people involved in the game at Capcom USA. Most of the details of the leak, including the characters mentioned, line up with what other leakers such as Ryce have already stated.

What’s interesting here however are the additional details about the game’s story mode that it drops. While the story mode will have you play as certain characters, what’s unique here is that it gives you the option of playing either as a solo character, or as a team from the characters available.  Also, similar to Street Fighter V, there are some non-playable characters, such as Asgardian soldiers, that the player can fight in story mode.

Also similar to Street Fighter V is the fact that some of the DLC characters will make appearances in the story. However of these, only Sigma will be fought. This brings up an interesting point, work on the DLC characters is not yet done – the most that some of them have is just a 3D model.

Speaking of  the DLC characters, the leak claims that they will be coming out in sets of two at a time. In addition to this, the leak states that they won’t be splitting up the DLC characters into seasons. Rather, there’s talk of putting them out in a series of themed packs – something that lines up with prior leaks.

Of course, given the nature of these things, we should all take this leak with a grain of salt. We’re likely to learn more about Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite at E3 this coming week.

Source: r/MvCI

Get your timing right with these input frame counter mods for Tekken 7 and The King of Fighters XIV on PC

Getting the timing of inputs right is an important thing for all players to master in any fighting game. This is especially true for combo-heavy fighting games such as Tekken 7 and The King of Fighters XIV. To help players learn this skill, a couple of mods have been developed for the PC versions of both games that show the exact number of frames between each input.

The mod for Tekken 7 was developed by Altimor, and can be downloaded here. The mod in question displays the frame count on top of each input when the input display is turned on.

tekken7_input_frame_counter

The mod by Loïc Petit for The King of Fighters XIV’s PC beta works the same way. However, what’s interesting here is that the feature itself is actually built into the game — it’s just been hidden by SNK. The mod, which you can download here, simply enables it.

Why this feature was hidden is odd, especially since, as ATRyoSakazaki has pointed out, it was visible during development. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an input frame counter in a fighting game. Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late actually has this available without any mods!

Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of these tools in the future — either as mods for existing games, or actually built into them.

Sources: Altimor via r/TekkenLoïc Petit via SRK forums