Author: Franz "d3v" Co

Some time back, we reported on the Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game by Jasco Games and Joe “Angy Joe” Vargas that they were hoping to crowdfund; well, the tabletop game has launched their Kickstarter — and it reached its goal of $400,000 in less than 24 hours.

For those who missed our previous coverage, Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game is a tabletop game that lets two to six players duke it out in a custom system designed by Angry Joe. The game allows for both free-for-all and team versus play on boards reminiscent of classic Street Fighter stages. A “Boss Expansion” also exists that lets players get a 3-versus-1 mode as well.

One of the highlights of the game are the highly detailed miniatures representing characters from the series. The figures come pre-painted, and are about 65mm in height – about the same size as a Nintendo Amiibo (as demonstrated on the Kickstarter page). The Core Set includes figures for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat, Vega, and Zangief while the “Boss Expansion” adds M. Bison, and Akuma. You can see these figures in the video below.

In addition to these, the stretch goals that have been reached include adding Guile as a playable character, Spot UV logos on the boxes, a “Power Ups Mode”, and finally the addition of Blanka. According to the crowdfunding page, this game is going to be offered only as a Kickstarter exclusive, with no retail release planned at this time.

Source: Kickstarter via Siliconera

Alongside the reveal of Hayate and Sanane last week, ARIKA president Akira Nishitani also mentioned that a new mode would be coming to Fighting EX Layer. Now, we know what that mode is: Expert Mode.

A recent video post by ARIKA’s Ichiro Mihara shows off how Expert Mode works. Veterans may remember Expert Mode from the Street Fighter EX games, where it’s analogous to the trial modes in other fighting games.

Players pick a fighter and then try to complete one of a number challenges for that character. These challenges are ranked according to difficulty, with the video example showing off C, D, and E rank listing for trials — though we assume that we’ll get A and B rank ones in the final game.

FIGHTING EX LAYER
ムービーを編集してる時間がなかったので日本語版をダイレクトUPします。
西谷さん渾身のぶっ込み、
エキスパートモードです！#FEXL pic.twitter.com/YtbZtJNSen

— 三原さん。＠ARIKA (@miharasan) April 4, 2018

Fighting EX Layer is set to launch on PlayStation 4 sometime later this June.

Source: Ichiro Mihara

SNK has revealed the final character in their second batch of DLC fighters for The King of Fighters XIV. Joining Oswald, Heidern, and Najd is none other than fan-favorite Blue Mary.

Introduced in Fatal Fury 3 Road to the Final Victory, private investigator turned freelancer “Blue” Mary Ryan made her King of Fighters debut in KoF ’97, having been hired by a “mysterious benefactor” who ironically turned out to be Geese Howard, eternal rival of her close friend (and speculated love interest) Terry Bogard.

Part of what makes Mary such a popular character is her unique moveset, a form of Combat Sambo that involves a combination of fast strikes and takedowns — not something often associated with a female character.

On the PlayStation Blog, KoF XIV producer Yasuyuki Oda shared some insight on developing Blue Mary’s moveset, stating that “Blue Mary has always been a challenge to design as a result of how complex her grapple moves are to animate.” He continues by sharing how he actually had to get physical during her development back in the ’90s. “At one point, one of the designers working on Blue Mary, Youichiro Soeda, actually used me as a training dummy to show off some of the attacks he had in mind to the rest of the team. Just watching this new trailer of hers, I think I can feel my neck hurt a bit…”

You can check out this trailer — and some screenshots of her in action — below.

Click to view slideshow.

The King of Fighters XIV‘s second batch of DLC characters will arrive alongside the version 3.0 update on April 12.

Source: PlayStation Blog

When we first reported on the launch date for The King of Fighters ’97 Global Match, the April 5 date was only for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, but not on PC. Now however, we know when the game can be purchased on Steam — right now.

The King of Fighters ’97 Global Match can now be purchased for $9.99 on Steam. Prior to this, the game didn’t even have a listing on the platform, despite being announced for it. It seems that SNK waited until the game was available before putting the page up.

While never reaching the same competitive status as The King of Fighters ’98 or The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, The King of Fighters ’97 has garnered something of a cult following in some places (most notably China). The Global Match release takes the original KoF ’97 and adds online play, and comes with all characters already unlocked. In addition to this, it also adds an artwork gallery and menu background music selection.

As stated above, The King of Fighters ’97 Global Match is also coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on April 5. In the meantime, check out this launch trailer for the game.

Sources: Steam; SNK

AOne Games just recently released a new trailer for their upcoming horror-themed fighter Omen of Sorrow. While the trailer mostly covers a bit of gameplay and features, it also announces something that some people might not have expected from an indie fighter — a physical release!

That’s right, Omen of Sorrow is getting a physical release on PlayStation 4 thanks to Soedesco. Additionally, it seems that this isn’t just a limited collector’s release, unlike many other physical releases of indie games.

While indie games tend to be released purely in digital form, the dedicated player bases these attract can often justify the investment in a physical release. Prior to this, Lab Zero Games’s Skullgirls also got a limited run physical release on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, thanks to Limited Run Games.

The rest of the trailer below covers the game’s other features — including its 12-character base roster, and its GGPO-based online netcode.

Omen of Sorrow is set to release on PlayStation 4 sometime later this year.

Source: Soedesco