Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

Fans of fighting game music should be happy to hear that Brave Wave’s “Street Fighter II The Definitive Soundtrack” is now up for purchase online. This extensive project focused on remastering the iconic sounds of Capcom’s legendary fighter with help from original composer Yoko Shimomura.

The final release collects over 100 individual tracks, and is available in both physical and digital bundles. As of this writing, the vinyl collection is sold out, but project director Mohammed Taher has relayed to us that they plan to release a second pressing sometime next year. “This is not meant to be a collector’s item. Rather, we want all the Street Fighter fans to be able to buy it,” he explained. “We will keep making new pressings are long as there’s demand for it.”

Those of you not concerned with the vinyl release can pick up this soundtrack either in a three-disc CD bundle or as a digital album, both of which are available through Bandcamp. We’ve included a few previews below, so check it out and see if this is something you would be interested in.

Source: Bandcamp

It’s no secret that the airdasher or “anime” subgenre often receives the short end of the stick when it comes to fighting game events. While they’ve managed to maintain a dedicated following that continues to grow, you’d be hard-pressed to find major events that cater to their niche apart from efforts like Frosty Faustings or CEOtaku, the latter of which just kicked off this year.

Fortunately, Aksys Games is set to rectify this problem with Anime Ascension.

Scheduled for early next year, Anime Ascension represents the publisher’s attempt to put on a large-scale airdasher event of their own, in cooperation with Mad Catz, D-Link, and Fighting Gamers @ UCI. With an official lineup consisting of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, and an overall pot of $5,000, we think they’re definitely heading in the right direction.

Anime Ascension is scheduled for February 28 at the University of California Irvine. More details can be found on the official website.

Source: Aksys Games

The developers behind Killer Instinct continue to release updates ahead of its third season, and they will soon drop a patch that adds numerous HUD elements to the rebooted title.

While a lot of fighting game knowledge comes with experience and study, Killer Instinct’s updated display puts that data right on the screen to remove some of the guesswork. Now, players will know when they’ve perfected their reversals, combo breaker strength, and the length and type of lockouts. Iron Galaxy also plans to include a punish indicator in a future update.

There’s no doubt Killer Instinct has a lot going on in each match, and these additions will go a long way in providing useful information to players and spectators alike. Further patch details can be found in the official announcement.

Source: Ultra-Combo

While fans in Japan will be able to grab four different Street Fighter V bundles when the game launches early next year, American players won’t have quite the same choices. Fortunately, Capcom has partnered with GameStop to provide some pretty massive compensation for folks in the west.

The collection in question bundles the Street Fighter V collectors edition package, which includes a Ryu figurine, art book, and more, with one of Mad Catz’ brand new Chun-Li Tournament Edition 2 arcade sticks and three months of PlayStation Plus.

This exclusive bundle is priced at $329.98, but is limited to just 400 units, so be sure to take advantage soon if you’re interested.

Street Fighter V is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 4 and PC on February 16.

Source: Capcom-Unity

Earlier this year, community member AnBi2199 released GunFrame, a Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- frame data app for Android devices. While Apple users were originally left out of the loop, this useful resource is now available for iOS.

Similar to its predecessor, the GunFrame app for iOS features handy tables full of frame data for every Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- character and, best of all, it’s completely free of charge.

While some portions of this tool still require work (trying to access the app’s additional wakeup and attack tables causes it to crash), this should be handy for anyone looking to quickly research a character and their moves before a tournament match. Pick it up on iTunes and let us know what you think.

Source: iTunes

Lab Zero Games certainly left their mark on the fighting game community with the release of Skullgirls, but they’re taking a different approach with their next title. With a battle system reminiscent of Valkyrie Profile, Indivisible gives this talented team the ability to carry over their knowledge of combo-heavy gameplay to the roleplaying genre.

But that doesn’t mean they’re ready to give up on Skullgirls just yet. As part of their planned lineup of indie cameos, the developers will be transporting Annie of the Stars over from the world of the Skull Heart. This will finally give fans heartbroken by her loss in the Encore character poll the chance to see her become playable.

Over the past few weeks, Lab Zero has been providing glimpses of their takes on these indie characters, and they recently took some time to show how Annie has transitioned to the Indivisible style. The gallery below includes her official artwork as well as comparisons to her Skullgirls concept, main character Ajna, and the rest of the guest roster.

Click to view slideshow.

Thanks to a fortunate deadline extension, Indivisible is still collecting crowdfunding contributions. They currently sit at $1,057,455 of their $1,500,000 goal, so be sure to visit Indiegogo for more details on how you can help their vision become a reality. And if you’ve yet to play their prototype, you can try it out on PlayStation 4 and PC.

Source: Indiegogo