Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

As with all of their most recent events, ticket demand for the Evolution Championship Series was incredibly high this year. So high, in fact, that passes to the main tournament hall during Sunday finals have sold out a little over three weeks after registration opened.

Part of the reason for this, the organizers say, is because the venue they booked at the Bally’s / Paris in Las Vegas can only hold about half the attendees as the hall they had in 2014. But don’t worry! There are still a few options open to you if you missed out on grabbing one of these badges.

In addition to the main ballroom, there will be a separate viewing hall to hold additional spectators, complete with a live broadcast of the ongoing matches and live commentary. Luckily, direct feed footage is set to be shown in this secondary area, so there won’t be any delay between what folks see there and what is happening on stage.

Evo 2015 competitor registration is still very much open as well, so don’t let this turn of events keep you from taking part in the largest fighting game tournament in the world.

In closing, the Evo staff had this to say about the situation:

“Evo always does its best to secure the largest possible hall at the best location, but competition for ballrooms in Vegas is very intense and 2014’s Westgate ballrooms were not available this summer. Players gave very high marks to Evo 2013 at Paris/Bally’s, and it was a fantastic event, but the floorspace is divided differently and the main hall is not as large.

We’ve been blown away by the demand this year, and as a result, the spectator passes to the main hall on Sunday have sold out in a record 24 days. Registration for all tournaments, and all events are still open to anyone–it is only spectator access passes to the main hall on Sunday that are no longer available. New registrations are still able to attend the Sunday finals in the Viewing Hall, with a live, zero delay broadcast of the event, which will include live commentary alongside the matches. The game tournaments, panels, exhibitions, and other special events are also all still available to new registrations. These spots are also going quickly, so we encourage anyone interested in Evo 2015 to sign up as soon as they are able.

We’re also proud to announce that in only 24 days, both Ultra Street Fighter IV and Smash Bros. Melee have surpassed 1000 registrations.”

Evo 2015 is scheduled for July 17-19. More information is available through the official website.

With an April launch planned for BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, retailers are starting to ramp up promotion with a variety of exclusive pre-order items. While many are offering items like posters, tapestries, and accessories for lobby avatars, online vendor AmiAmi is making a special item available to their customers.

In case you’re confused or maybe just don’t speak Japanese, here’s a quick breakdown: that’s an Azrael mousepad.

While tie-ins like this typically utilize a character’s physical attributes to make them more appealing (in fact, one such mousepad of Azrael already exists), it’s cool to see Arc System Works attach a more conventional bonus item to their upcoming title, one that you wouldn’t have to answer any embarrassing questions about if, say, your parents came across it during a holiday visit.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND is scheduled to release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita on April 23. If you’re interested in grabbing this rather common mousepad with your game, you can do so through AmiAmi for ¥6080 JPY (~$51 USD).

Source: AmiAmi via Zerochan

After failing to be selected for this year’s Evolution, the King of Fighters community has banded together for a special tour focused entirely on their series of choice.

Much like similar tours, Journey to Dream Cancel Cup will encompass various events, including Id Global Tournament 2015, Combo Breaker, and even Evo 2015, through which players will be able to accrue points and even qualify outright for the final tournament bracket. Unlike its contemporaries, however, Dream Cancel Cup will be open to the public, allowing everyone to try their hands against some of the best players in the world.

And it won’t be restricted to the most recent entry in the franchise, either: the official lineup will consist of King of Fighters XIII, King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, and King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition.

Dream Cancel Cup itself is currently scheduled to take place at Winter Showdown 3 next January.

More details on this tour can be found in Dream Cancel’s official announcement.

Source: Dream Cancel

While the lack of compatibility between Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and various arcade sticks is certainly worrying for folks looking to jump into the new fighter as soon as possible, a bug found in the game’s tutorial mode can be even more detrimental to the overall experience.

According to Team NINJA, entering two specific tutorial lessons with the German, Spanish, French, or Italian languages enabled will cause the game to freeze and possibly even corrupt your save data, wiping clean any work you had already put into the title. No explanation for why this occurs was provided, but the developers did take the opportunity to extend an apology and assure they are working on the problem.

This glitch can be found in every version of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, so be cautious as you’re learning how to play if you use any of the four dialects mentioned above.

Source: Team NINJA

Earlier this month, a variety of previews by IGN provided us with quite a few details on what kind of content Mortal Kombat X will include, from concrete details on the title’s Living Towers and online Faction battles to more subtle clues about playable characters.

One thing that’s for certain, however, is that brutalities will be returning to the series in some form with the upcoming tenth installment. First introduced in Mortal Kombat 3, these finishing moves functioned more like extended combos than simple finishing moves like fatalities, but still managed to deal out some nasty retribution to the unfortunate opponent on the other end.

With Mortal Kombat X’s launch rapidly approaching, NetherRealm Studios has been pumping out new content on a regular basis, and it appears as if they may be on the verge of officially revealing the game’s brutalities.

The developers will be going live this Thursday, February 26, with another one of their fantastic Kombat Kast broadcasts, and a teaser mentions that the festivities are bound to be brutal.

We won’t have exact specifications until the show concludes later this week, but we’re interested in what our readers are hoping from this returning finisher. Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for official details.

Source: NetherRealm Studios

Bandai Namco Games recently announced their plans to revive the Dragon Ball Z: Butouden series with a brand new installment. Developed by Arc System Works for Nintendo 3DS, Super Extreme Butouden will feature both one-on-one matches and team battles that utilize support characters.

The original report from V Jump mentioned that the game will feature over 100 playable characters, but its official website has started out by focusing on some of the franchise’s most iconic characters.

Series protagonist Goku appears to fit a space similar to Street Fighter’s Ryu, acting as a good all-around character. He will have access to moves like his Kaio-ken Kamehameha and Spirit Bomb.

Vegeta’s toolset, on the other hand, will center around attacks like Final Flash and Gallick Gun, which he will use in tandem with quick, tricky movement.

As a character who aged over the course of the series, Gohan typically has numerous forms to choose from when he appears in Dragon Ball Z titles. The first of these versions to be revealed for Extreme Butouden is Teen Gohan, whose dash attacks give him a great amount of reach. While he won’t focus on combos as much as Goku and Vegeta, he will have access to moves like his Masenko and Explosive Madan.

And lastly, Trunks will make an appearance in his Future Super Saiyan form, taking advantage of surprise maneuvers and mid-range offense. His repertoire will include the Buster Flash and Buster Cannon.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Extreme Butouden is scheduled to land in Japan this summer. Details for other playable characters are sure to be released as we near launch, so stay tuned!

Source: Siliconera

Over the years, Shoryuken has tried to stay away from stories involving celebrities playing fighting games, someone famous mentioning fighting games, or really just anything very barely related to fighting games just because we are Super Serious Blogging People. But a recent story cropped up that we felt needed to be highlighted here.

Kim Jong-un, who many of you will know as supreme leader (read: dictator) of North Korea, showed up to a recent executive committee meeting sporting a brand new haircut. While he and his predecessors have been known to rock some funky hairdos in their time, this one definitely takes the cake.

Give it a gander below and let us know what you think.

Pretty crazy right?

Oh, whoops! That’s actually Street Fighter veteran guile, not North Korean despot Kim Jong-un. Silly me! Let’s see if I can get it right this time.

Ah yes, that’s better.

Anyways, there you have it. Dude thought maybe a silly new haircut would boost morale after starving the populace and restricting basically every human right in the country. His morale, of course, because screw everyone else.

Let’s just hope this doesn’t further jeopardize Guile’s inclusion in Street Fighter V.

Source: Vox via NeoGAF