Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

The folks over at Level|Up Series recently opened registration for the second installment of their Killer Instinct Online Warrior Championships.

As the name implies, this tournament series occurs entirely through netplay, allowing players to jump onto Xbox Live and compete against some of the country’s best competitors from the comfort of their own home. The first episode saw high-level talent like eventual champion TSC|CDjr, Guttermagic, MT|Rico Suave, pH|Almakashi, and more take part, and this month’s event should be no different.

If you’re interested in taking part in this competition, be sure to head on over to the official Level|Up Series post and follow the instructions. Be aware that this tournament is only open to players in the United States that have a minimum 2 Mbps upload speed. You can find out your own stats by using sites like Speed Test.

Killer Instinct Online Warrior Championships Episode 2 is scheduled to take place November 17.

Source: Level|Up Series

While Skullgirls Encore is a fantastic fighter in its own right, one of the coolest things about it has to be the Endless Beta the developers have made available through Steam. As the name implies, this version of the game acts as a sort of non-stop testing ground of new ideas, balance adjustments, and more, allowing players to try out experiments and provide feedback before they reach the main game.

The latest update, which landed just this morning, includes a handful of changes for Peacock, Big Band, Fukua, and Double, though one particular addition to the latter-most fighter is certain to gain the most attention.

As of today, Double now has another super to play around with. Tentatively called Monster, it allows the shapeshifter to place a puddle on the ground, which will try to attack the opponent when they get close. Though it can obviously be used as a trap to catch careless advances, it’s also useful for extending combos, as shown by guitalex’s video below.

All of you Guilty Gear fans out there will certainly notice similarities between this super and Testament’s Hitomi. Much like the tree, Monster can be faked out by long-limbed attacks and out-of-reach approaches, and it will disappear as soon as Double is hit. However, players are only able to place one puddle at a time.

A full rundown of the changes introduced in this morning’s Endless Beta update can be found here.

Sources: Steam, guitalex, special thanks to Zidiane for sending this our way.

After dropping two previous updates for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, it would appear that Nintendo is in the process of readying a third for release sometime this month.

As with those that preceded it, the ver.1.0.4 patch is incredibly light on details. Though it mentions affecting game balance in some way, it does not touch on what specific changes will be coming for the core gameplay mechanics or the individual characters.

One interesting note that points towards the possibility of actual adjustments is the incompatibility of replays recorded before this patch is launched. Like other fighters, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS saves replays as a series of inputs rather than actual video, essentially playing back everything that occurred in the match with computer characters. If changes were to be made to how the game plays, replays from earlier versions would fail to play back properly.

Players will need to update to this latest build in order to continue utilizing the game’s local and online multiplayer options.

A concrete release date has yet to be announced for the ver.1.0.4 patch, but one could assume that it will arrive sometime before the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on November 21.

Source: Nintendo via CLASH Tournaments

Like every competitive arena, fighting game talent has come and gone in generational waves. While players like Daigo Umehara, Justin Wong, and Ricky Ortiz continue to compete at high levels in pretty much every game they touch, old heads regularly find themselves ousted by their younger counterparts as the years dull their reactions and real life stretches free time thin.

From Street Fighter up-and-comers like Du “Nuckledu” Dang and Chris “CJ Truth” Jayson to Tekken prodigy Alexandre “AK” Lavarez, the future has never looked brighter, and we may have recently received our first look at who will be dominating the Smash scene as the series continues on into its fourth installment.

To promote Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s upcoming release, West Hollywood’s GameStop held a special sneak peek earlier today, allowing fans to get their hands on the title before launch and see how it compares to its handheld counterpart. While all signs pointed towards a fairly normal round of festivities, one very interesting competitor spiced up the casual matches and made the preview event one to remember.

It all started this afternoon when news began to trickle out from attendees like D’Ron “D1″ Maingrette and Keith “Southpaw” Gordon that a mysterious ten-year-old had shown up and promptly shut down many of the players who were matched up against her. Karissa (or possibly Carissa, spellings differ) apparently put on quite a show, utilizing Rosalina to such an extent that these Smash players couldn’t help but be impressed.

Fortunately, her escapades would not be confined to mere Twitter mentions. Another attendee by the name of Jourdan happened to capture a decent chunk of footage, highlighting a few of the matches Karissa took part in over the course of the event. Though off-screen and thoroughly shaky, the video does a good job of showing off the youngster’s excellent fundamentals. I’m not a Smash player by any stretch of the imagination, mind you, but it’s fairly obvious she knows what she is doing, tackling her opponents head-on with characters like Sheik, King Dedede, and Diddy Kong.

Perhaps the best part of this replay, however, is Karissa’s confidence. After losing a close match to Southern California’s Matt “Xzax” Liberatore and shaking his hand, she makes sure he knows she’s coming back for him; later on, she stares up at an opponent a good foot and a half taller than her and demands to know if he is crying after handing out yet another beatdown.

Yep, I’d say she’s completely ready to enter the competitive community. Be sure to check out the footage of Karissa’s matches below, along with a bonus introduction by D1, and let us know what you think.

If for some reason you can’t view the Facebook video above, it’s been mirrored on YouTube by another user.

Sources: Jourdan (via Reddit and NeoGAF), D1

Earlier this week, Sega released financial statements detailing their business during the first half of the current fiscal year. As they are now the parent company of Atlus, this gave curious fans a look at the numbers for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, more specifically how many copies had been shipped to retailers since it first launched in Japan.

According to the information, 230,000 units of the fighter have reached store shelves globally. While at first this may seem a little low, this number only takes into account sales that occurred up until September 30, which is the date Ultimax arrived in North America.

So how does this relate to the title’s predecessor, Persona 4 Arena? Atlus’ previous jump into the fighting game genre reportedly sold 220,000 copies after roughly three months on the market in Japan. While the numbers and time frames are a bit fuzzy, it might be safe to say that Ultimax has garnered at least the same amount of attention, an admirable effort when taking into account the confusion surrounding its status in the series.

The real test, however, will be the arrival of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, which is set to release in December.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is currently available in both Japan and North America, and is scheduled to land in Europe on November 21.

Source: Sega via Siliconera