Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

By now, lucky fighting game fans have been able to get their hands on Rising Thunder through the indie title’s alpha test. Developed by Seth Killian and Radiant Entertainment, the studio headed by Evo organizers Tom and Tony Cannon, Rising Thunder is a fighter that aims to be accessible at all skill levels and shake up the way we look at the genre.

While opinions have been generally positive, the one thorn in Rising Thunder’s side has definitely been its online component. Issues have been raised over the last week concerning frequent disconnects during netplay, and the team has taken the first step towards correcting these problems with a patch released earlier today.

In addition to fixing bugs, this update also adds some new visual and audio effects, introduceds two new special move variants, and tweaks the existing roster a bit. The full list of changes can be found below.

The developers also mentioned on Twitter that this patch was accompanied by their largest wave of invites yet, so be sure to check your email if you’ve yet to receive an alpha code.

Source: Rising Thunder

After a bit of a delay, Skullgirls players on Xbox 360 can finally get their hands on the title’s latest (and last) downloadable character, Robo-Fortune. While originally planned to be a skin for the existing Ms. Fortune, this robotic remix brings an entirely unique playstyle to the game, with new animations and attacks setting her apart from the original.

Much like her predecessors, Robo-Fortune is free to download for the next three months. After that, her price will go up to $4.99, so do your best to grab her (even if you don’t own the game) and take advantage of Lab Zero’s generosity.

A quick preview of what Robo-Fortune is capable of can be found in the video below.

But this new character isn’t the only addition to Skullgirls Encore. The latest update also adjusts gameplay balance with a number of general and character-specific changes. Check out the full list here.

Sources: Skullgirls, Ninja

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Idolmaster, a fellow Bandai Namco property, various female members of the Tekken 7 cast will soon receive costumes based on those worn by the franchise’s pop stars. This should certainly come as no surprise due to Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada’s love of the simulation/rhythm series, proclaimed openly on occasion by wearing shirts depicting his favorite idol, Iori Minase.

The characters scheduled to have their wardrobes expanded in this update include Lucky Chloe (Miki Hoshii), Xiaoyu (Yayoi Takasuki), Alisa (Yukiho Hagiwara), Katarina (Takane Shijou), Asuka (Haruka Amami), Kazumi (Chihaya Kisaragi), Lili (Iori Minase), and Josie (Hibiki Ganaha). Unfortunately, the Paul Phoenix teaser at the beginning was only a joke, and he will not join in on the fun in either series.

For a close look at how the outfits look in Tekken 7, check out the trailer below. More details can be found here.

Source: Tekken Channel via Gematsu

One of the quickest ways for a game to “die” in our community is for players to be unable to find local competition. Without other like-minded folks nearby to run casuals with and decent-at-best netcode outside of Japan, the drive to learn and improve can falter pretty quickly even for the most diehard

Over the years, forums have served as a fantastic way to find local players, but with the community’s shift from messageboards to social media, it’s once again become pretty difficult to connect with the people around you. Fortunately, resources like IPLAYWINNER’s fighting game community database have cropped up recently to help out, and two members of the airdasher community took the baton just this week to meet the needs of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue players.

With over 100 unique entries in each, these new spreadsheets (curated by ChosenNinja and MashThat5A, respectively) have gathered together a wide assortment of players from across the United States as well as countries like Brazil, Peru, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and more. While not as focused on offline meet-ups as the aforementioned IPLAYWINNER database, these lists should certainly help you find competitors nearby and alleviate the woes of online play.

Below, you’ll find links to both the submission form and the full player base for both games. Don’t miss out on finding your next training partner!

Sources: ChosenNinja, MashThat5A

This week, Nintendo dropped an update for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U that, on the surface, added a variety of content. While the brand new tournament mode and replay uploading capabilities are very welcome features, competitive players were interested in one thing above all else: gameplay adjustments.

In typical fashion, Nintendo saw fit not to release details on what was included in the balance department, but the Smash community has come up big yet again by diving into the patch themselves to see what was changed. Their research has yielded quite a bit of information, showing that the update brought adjustments for a majority of the cast.

Some of the most glaring include removals of Pikachu’s Thunder Wave infinite and Pac-Man’s trampoline glitch (though his ability to shoot hydrants through the stage has returned, oddly enough), across the board recovery reductions on Marth’s air normals, numerous damage increases for Wii Fit Trainer, and more.

For a full look at how Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s cast has changed in ver.1.10, be sure to visit Smash Boards and r/SmashBros for separate compilations of their discoveries. Also, be sure to keep an eye on Dantarion’s feed too, as many of the discoveries have come from him.

Sources: Smash Boards, r/SmashBros (via zenzen), Dantarion

At any level of competition, no matter your chosen field, learning to control anxiety and focus on the match at hand is a valuable asset. While I’m sure there’s some folks out there who can stroll into a tournament with very few worries in their mind, it’s probably safe to say everyone experiences these feelings at some level.

Fresh off a second-place Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- finish at Evo 2015, Japanese competitor Nage (pictured above, center) has compiled a few of the ways he deals with nerves during tournaments. Of course, these are all very personal strategies that may not work for everyone, but there may be one or two details you can pick out and apply to how you approach these same situations.

Some are pretty obvious, like focusing on having fun over winning and acknowledging that your opponent is probably nervous too, but a couple in particular stands out.

Nage has found that having a routine that shifts his thought processes into a more competitive mindset is beneficial to combating any nervousness he feels leading up to a match. He mentions incredibly specific actions that he tries to adhere to, such as wearing something pink, selecting his character at particular times, and drinking water or tea beforehand. “It’s more of a superstition,” Nage admits, “but it helps turn the switch on when playing a big tournament match.”

Another interesting tactic Nage employs is to make sure he can explain why he made certain decisions in a match to himself in order to keep his mind from going blank. “To avoid this, during casuals I try to think, ‘I did X because I wanted to do Y!’ and rationalize my playstyle,” he explains.

Again, these are personal strategies that Nage employs for himself, but I think there’s enough overlap within competitive minds that most of our readers will be able to find something useful for their own pre-tournament rituals. Be sure to check out the full translation of his writeup by TENMA0105 for even more tips.

(image courtesy of Robert Paul)

With such a lengthy history, there’s no doubt Guilty Gear has a bevy of character within its universe that could one day be playable. In Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, for example, we saw Guilty Gear 2: Overture protagonist Sin Kiske make his debut in a traditional fighting game, and the same may eventually be done with Raven in Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-.

“But who the hell is Raven?” you may be asking yourself. I admit, I had extremely vague inklings of his importance in the Guilty Gear storyline myself, but let’s first get the technical aspects out of the way. Much like Sin’s first appearance in -SIGN-, Raven reportedly makes cameos throughout -REVELATOR-‘s story mode by way of a similarly fleshed-out, in-game model, leading many to believe that he’ll follow in the flag-wielder’s footsteps in the future.

According to the Guilty Gear wiki, Raven was first introduced in Guilty Gear X. A follower of series antagonist That Man, Raven’s inherent immortality has allowed him to survive throughout the ages and act as a “witness to history.” Apparently, he also shares some sort of link with Axl Low; some speculate that Axl will one day become Raven through some “dramatic” event, but the true nature of their connection is still unclear. Although he’s been confined to story mode scenes over the years, Raven acted as a boss in Guilty Gear 2: Overture.

As for how Raven will play, that’s really anyone’s guess. Previous appearances have seen him employ spacial distortion abilities similar to Faust, needles that have the ability to stun opponents, and groups of attacking birds.

But honestly, we’re getting a little too far ahead of ourselves. There’s currently no word from Arc System Works as to Raven’s future in the Guilty Gear series, and it’s likely we won’t hear much on that front for some time, if ever.

Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- is currently undergoing its final phase of location testing in arcades across Japan, with an official release planned for sometime this summer. For more details concerning gameplay and story, be sure to keep up with the Dustloop thread dedicated to new information as well as their recently expanded front page coverage.

Sources: Kuma, Hiroki via Sourenga