Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

With the next installment of the Evolution Championship Series just a few months away, the fighting game community is looking forward to hearing which games will be included in the official lineup. While titles like Ultra Street Fighter IV and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are practically shoe-ins at this point (well, Street Fighter at least), the rest of the group is anyone’s guess.

One of the main contenders is Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. As the sequel to a title previously featured at Evo and one of the biggest releases of 2014, Ultimax would have no problem bringing players to Las Vegas. A few notable Japanese competitors, in fact, are dead set on attending should the game be chosen.

According to Jiyuna, himself a longtime member of the airdasher community, four notable players from the island nation are very interested in visiting Evo 2015 to play Ultimax, including ARC REVOLUTION CUP 2014’s respective first and second place finishers Mad and Souji. On top of that, Tahichi (who bowed out at fifth during the same tournament) and DIE-chan have also made similar claims.

Although a variety of North American players made quite a splash during Evo 2013’s Persona 4 Arena tournament, there’s no doubting the added hype these four Japanese juggernauts would bring to the proceedings this year–now let’s just hope Ultimax makes an appearance.

Evo 2015 is scheduled for July 17-19. News about the official lineup is expected to drop sometime this month.

Source: Jiyuna

As a thank you to the community for successfully funding their donation campaign, the folks at Lab Zero Games have offered up every single Skullgirls Encore roster addition free of charge after each respective launch, allowing players to keep up with the competitive scene at absolutely no cost.

Their most recent character, however, is about to end her three-month lifespan as a free download and enter into paid territory.

Eliza, the dive songstress, will be leaving the realm of free characters next Tuesday, January 13, across PlayStation Network in North America and Japan, Xbox Live, and Steam. After that, her price will climb to $4.99 / ¥543, matching fellow newcomers Squigly and Big Band.

Keep in mind that it isn’t necessary to actually own Skullgirls Encore in order to take advantage of the free character releases; the frugal among you would be wise to grab them while they are available in case you purchase the game in the future.

Lab Zero Games’ Earl “render” Gertwagen told us that they are still waiting for confirmation on the date Eliza’s price will change on PlayStation Network in Europe, so stay tuned.

Big news erupted in the world of competitive gaming today with the announcement of Curse Gaming’s merger with Team Liquid, effectively combining their respective strengths into one organization under the latter’s name.

While on the surface this appears to be a move by Liquid to grab a competent League of Legends squad, the collaboration will also affect some big names in the fighting game community. Du “NuckleDu” Dang, Evo 2014 Super Smash Bros. Melee runner-up Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma, and Kashan “Chillindude” Khan will see their talents transfer to the organization as well, giving Liquid their very first Street Fighter representative and effectively doubling their Smash roster.

Moving forward, Liquid’s Victor “Nazgul” Goossens and former Curse Gaming head Steve Arhancet will serve as co-owners of the restructured organization. Full statements from both individuals can be found here.

Source: Team Liquid

During the height of Street Fighter x Tekken’s popularity back in 2012, Capcom partnered with UDON Entertainment to put out an extensive collection of artwork for the crossover title. Much like their previous collaborations, the publication contained both official and concept art, the latter of which depicted versions of the game that differed from the final release.

A few of these early designs focused on the character select screen. While they eventually settled on the layout seen below, the developers sifted through numerous ideas beforehand, some radically different than what we saw at launch. That being said, a core theme saw inclusion in many of the concepts, one of conflict between Capcom’s Street Fighters and Bandai Namco Games’ Tekken veterans.

We first caught wind of these pieces of art earlier today thanks to Kelvin Jeon, one of Street Fighter x Tekken’s most vocal proponents, when he shared them through Twitter. He provided us some larger images to work with, which you’ll find included in the following gallery. While they all share some common qualities, each one goes about detailing the selected characters differently, the second in particular providing a great full body look at the particular pairing.

Fun fact: you may also recognize the third piece of art as the basis of a particularly noteworthy fan depiction of Ultra Street Fighter IV’s character select screen, whipped up before the title was officially released. It looked so nice, in fact, that some were tricked into believing it was a leak.

So, what do you think? Feel free to drop your opinions in the comments below. Special thanks to Kelvin Jeon for making this article possible!

As a huge Nintendo fan, the months preceding the release of a Smash title are always exciting. With new characters, stages, and music showcased on a regular basis, that period of time is a veritable smorgasbord of nostalgia, and the tradition continued as we eagerly awaited the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS.

Between updates heralding the return of veteran fighters like Mario, Link, and Samus Aran, the developers made sure to throw fans bones here and there with announcements for brand new characters. From relatively mundane reveals like Wii Fit Trainer and Charizard to surprising additions like Animal Crossing’s Villager and Duck Hunt’s infamous dog partner, the fourth installment of Nintendo’s crossover franchise had something for just about everyone to enjoy.

One character in particular, however, nearly had to look for space on the cutting room floor alongside Popo and Nana.

While the aforementioned ice climbing veterans were left out of the games due to handheld limitations, Bowser Jr. was almost passed over because of normal developmental woes. Director Masahiro Sakurai divulged this information when asked about the process of creating each game’s cast during an interview with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream, stating that the son of Mario’s most iconic rival stayed put due to a late push by his staff.

“On our side, we are re-creating characters from the previous title, and keep on adding more, so the word ‘reduce’ is not appropriate. There are cases where we simply couldn’t make it in the end, but on the whole we did a good job I think and the people at Bandai Namco Games did a great job,” Sakurai explained. “We had discussions on giving up on something many, many times; Bowser Jr. was on the brink of being cut but the staff said, ‘We’ll do our best!’ and we made it.”

Not only was Bowser Jr.’s butt saved by this turn of events, but so were the ever-popular Koopalings due to their status as mere alternate costumes instead of separate characters.

Sakurai also spent time discussing his own work on the series, most notably his process between installments. While he typically can never see himself developing another Smash title after release, he works incredibly fast after setting his mind to it. In fact, he worked out Greninja’s moveset all by himself in one night after receiving early concept art, even before a proper name had been decided on by Pokémon developers.

More details have been compiled by SmashBoards, so be sure to visit their post for further information from Sakurai’s interview with Nintendo Dream.

Source: Nintendo Dream via NeoGAF and SmashBoards

As one of the largest tournaments our scene has, many looked upon Super Smash Bros. Melee’s inclusion at Community Effort Orlando in 2014 as a sign the title had finally received wide acceptance from the fighting game community at large. While the franchise previously made appearances at Evolution, it’s bleeding out into other yearly staples was a good sign for its resurging community.

But that love wasn’t only shown by tournament organizer Alex Jebailey; Smash players showed up to the event in droves, giving him enough motivation to include Melee at Community Effort Orlando 2015. In his official announcement, Jebailey further states that the Smash ballroom this year will be double the size of the area it was given during Community Effort Orlando 2014 to accommodate the larger numbers he’s expecting.

When asked about Project M’s future at the event, however, Jebailey was less than optimistic.” As of now, [Project M] unfortunately will not be [at Community Effort Orlando 2015] in any official capacity. [Super Smash Bros. for Wii U] will most likely be added as well, so running three Smash games at an event with 8+ other games wouldn’t work well because of resources and time.”

A popular mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Project M was developed give the slower Wii title the same competitive edge that continues to make Super Smash Bros. Melee so exciting. Sadly, due to its unofficial status, the title’s tournament support has been dropping in recent months, even at events that cater specifically to Smashers.

The organizers behind Apex, a tournament series regarded as one of the most prestigious Smash competitions around, made waves late last year by deciding to not include Project M in the Apex 2015 lineup. While no reason was given for the title’s disappearance, many surmised that Nintendo’s heightened involvement in the competitive scene may have had something to do with it.

In any case, Community Effort Orlando 2015 is shaping up to be an interesting mixture of both old and new Smash scenes, and it should be fun to see how newcomers getting their start in the recent Wii U release take to the big stage.

Community Effort Orlando 2015 is scheduled for June 26-28 in Orlando, Florida.

Source: Alex Jebailey via SmashBoards

While a lot of the discussion surrounding Tekken 7 has, for better or worse, focused on the characters that will be making up its cast, Bandai Namco Games’ Katsuhiro Harada took to Twitter recently to discuss another interesting aspect of the game that has to do with its camera.

According to the longtime director, a feature is currently being developed for Tekken 7 that will allow both competitors to play on the same side of the screen. Though still being tested internally, this mirroring of the fighting plane is an interesting addition that hasn’t seen play in fighters up until now.

As a fair majority of competitors use the single-player training mode to practice their combos and such early on, this will end worries over occupying the first player position when taking part in serious matches. On the flip side, however, it also removes some of the impetus to learn strings on the right-hand side of the screen.

Obviously, this feature will only be available on setups that utilize two screens, such as head-to-head arcade setups or online matches, but it still shows the lengths Tekken’s developers are willing to go to in order to make their titles as comfortable for players as possible.

Tekken 7 is scheduled to launch in Japanese arcades sometime this March.

Source: Katsuhiro Harada via Avoiding the Puddle