Author: Franz "d3v" Co

Garou: Mark of the Wolves is often considered one of SNK’s gems from the waning days of the fighting game boom at the turn of the millennium. This sequel to the Fatal Fury series pushed the limits of what was thought possible with the aging NEO GEO hardware.

Now, here’s some great news for those who want to play this classic on a modern console, provided that they’re a PS Plus subscriber with Japanese PSN account. Garou: Mark of the Wolves is now free to download for PS Plus subscribers in Japan. As an added bonus, players with PS Plus can download Garou: Mark of the Wolves for free for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. This means that those with the hardware can enjoy this SNK classic both at home, and on the go.

Of course, this isn’t this only game being given away for free for PlayStation Plus subscribers, those with Japanese PS Plus players can check out the rest of the free games for December here.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Next week, high-level Injustice 2 action is coming to Montréal, Canada in the form of the Injustice 2 Elite League at Northern Arena Experience 2018. The competition sees 16 of the best Injustice 2 players, who have qualified out of a field of 40 for a chance to compete at the event.

For those wondering exactly who will be competing, Northern Arena has released the list of players who have qualified into the top 16.  You can check out the list of players below:

The Injustice 2 Elite League takes place as part of Northern Arena Experience next week, from December 16 to 17 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. Those interested in attending can purchase tickets over at their Eventbrite page.

Source: Northern Arena

While most people these days play fighting games on PlayStation 4 or PC, more than a few folks do play them on Xbox One. For those Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite players on Microsoft’s console, Capcom has released a warning regarding a possible issue that can cause players to lose their saves, under very specific circumstances.

The issue only affects players who have the physical disc version of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. If these players have already updated their game to the latest content patch, and then have to uninstall and reinstall the game for whatever reason, they run the risk of losing their saved game if they play the game without updating it with the latest patch first.

Now while this glitch only affects a small subset of the game’s players, Capcom has deemed it serious enough to post a bulletin about it on Capcom-Unity.  They currently state that there is no known fix for this (not even a patch, for obvious reasons), and warn players to make sure to get the latest update for the game in case they ever have to reinstall it after updating.

Source: Capcom-Unity

We’ve known for some time now that Arcana Heart: Love Max Six Stars!!!!!! would be coming to Steam this December — we just didn’t know exactly when, until now. Arc System Works and Examu have officially revealed the ports release date: December 12.

The port of the arcade original was made possible through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and Backerkit early this year. The PC version of Arcana Heart 3: Love Max Six Stars!!!!!! on Steam will come with all the new characters introduced in the arcade update. This is in addition to a new character named Shark Girl, and a new arcana called “Paraclesia,” that were stretch goals for the aforementioned crowdfund campaign.

For those interested in picking up the game when it hits on December 12, the game is set to retail for  ¥2,980. No details on how much it’ll cost in the West have yet been given.

Source: Arc System Works; Steam

One of the biggest features coming to the Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition update is, as the name implies, the long-awaited Arcade Mode. Initially missing from the game — in favor of both a General, and Character-specific Story Modes, the Street Fighter V’s Arcade Mode seems to go above and beyond the usual arcade mode experience.

A new blog post over on Capcom-Unity drops some details regarding Arcade Mode. One of these is something that was previously hinted at during the update’s initial reveal. Specifically, Arcade Mode will feature multiple ladders based on previous games in the Street Fighter franchise.

The blog post details how these ladders work. Choosing a specific ladder based on a past game will limit which characters are present in that ladder — both for your own selection and as opponents. For example, picking the Street Fighter Alpha ladder will only have characters who appeared in those games. Some exceptions do occur, with new SFV characters like Kolin or Zeku “standing in” for other related characters in certain ladders. Where available, opponents appear in era-appropriate Nostalgia costumes, too.

Speaking of Street Fighter III, Arcade Mode takes a page from that game by giving the players a choice of one of two opponents to fight in each rung of the ladder.

In addition to this, some ladders will also have a new version of the barrel bonus stage. This time however, there will be a second, AI controlled character who will help keep the barrels coming back to the center of the screen with their moves, helping the player reach 20 barrel target.

Of course, Arcade Mode wouldn’t be the same without endings. It seems that Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is going to be chock full of individual character endings — over 200 of them, to be precise. How to unlock each ending will be detailed in the game’s Gallery Mode. The conditions themselves run the gamut from simply completing a ladder, to getting a “Perfect” on the bonus stage.

The Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition update hits PC and PlayStation 4 on January 16th, 2018. For those looking to try it out before it hits home, it will be playable at the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, CA this weekend from Dec. 9-10. In the meantime, here are a few more screenshots of Arcade Mode.

Click to view slideshow.

Source: Capcom-Unity