Skullgirls is often a game praised for the freedom it gives players in playing how they want, crafting their own combos, and all around shaping the game to their needs. Combo creator Mr. Peck shows off how much is truly possible within the Skullgirls engine, with sliding Peacock combos, Double Fridge loops, ground bounce loops, midscreen assist kills, and crazy side switch corner carry combos. Not much of this is practical, but it sure as hell is fancy.
If you enjoyed that, be sure to check out Mr. Peck’s last CMV, that we covered earlier this year.
Skullgirls is a game that particularly rewards players for knowing their opponent’s next action. There are so many defensive and offensive options that if you know your opponent, you can press that knowledge both in neutral and during pressure.
For our topic today, Skullgirls has IPS, which protects the game from having infinite combos. If IPS sparks are activated, pressing a button will allow the defender to burst out of the combo. However, if the attacker anticipates this and avoids the burst, they are awarded with a full punish. This CMV showcases just how powerful burst baits are when used properly.
Making his first appearance in Tekken 6 alongside fighters like Bob and Lars, the ruthless Spaniard Miguel is making a comeback in Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. Known for his brutal street brawler fighting style and his fondness for showing off his abs, Miguel is ready to knock some heads in this latest edition of the Tekken series.
He does sport a new look for this installment, rocking a snazzy new jacket with a fur lining and packing a knuckle duster on his right hand to add some spice to his punches. He’s still as cocky as ever, as seen through his new Rage Art where he trash talks his opponent while beating their face in.
CEOtaku was a blast, according to many of the attendees. If you weren’t able to make the event, fear not! We have a recap video here to help relive the experience, courtesy of the folks over at CEOgaming.
In addition to this, we also have a CMV made out of the streamed footage of the event. Each game is featured, so there is something here for just about everyone.
Smash tournaments tend to be pretty self-sufficient and independent of the rest of the FGC, as they’ve proved for themselves over the past 10 years. The two communities had very little crossover until Evo 2013, where they were heavily showcased. Since then, aside from the annual Evo there have been a few events scattered across the calendar, like CEO/Apex, or the handful of local venues around the country. Though the communities are distinct, with culture and identity very unique to each group, more and more events are beginning to bring the two under the same roof. An upcoming event in November, Kings of the North, is the next to chip in at the monumental task of bridging the gap between these two communities.
At Kings of the North, Street Fighter V, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- are featured; something noteworthy, since it was an event that focused exclusively on Smash in the past. These games are, of course in addition to Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Project M. Not only are these games considered main games, along with Melee and Smash 4, SFV is getting a $1000 pot bonus! The event is November 19-20, in Wisconsin.
Companies polling fans to decide their next step with a product isn’t particularly new. We’ve had character polls before, with Capcom or NeatherRealms gauging interest on potential roster members. Even Lab Zero did this, back during the fundraising campaign they did for Skullgirls DLC characters. Despite being nothing new, the recent poll by Lab Zero and Autumn Games is a little different. They’re asking if we would like a physical copy of their flagship indie fighter, Skullgirls.
Japanese fans already have a physical release of the game, provided by AkSys, and since then Lab Zero has been very receptive of US fans asking for the same. This poll has two options on it: Would you buy a physical release with Japanese voices, and if you would buy one without them. I’m rooting for the option to switch between US and JPN voices, as the JPN voices are completely new additions that are currently only available on Japanese discs. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what comes of this poll.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
One of the most important aspects of a fighting game–outside of the gameplay–is the selection of color palettes for its characters. Colors define much of how we perceive and feel about a fighting game before we even start playing, and they have a lasting impact once we grow accustomed to our title of choice. The character we choose acts as our avatar and our outlet for competition. Having a varied selection of good palettes helps the player connect more strongly to their character, making them feel more unique among other people using that same fighter.
We identify and define ourselves, our friends, our rivals, and our celebrities all by their choice of colors. It’s so prevalent that we know and expect our favorite players to use specific palettes, we take notice when they don’t, and we may even be able to know who’s playing simply looking at the palette choices. A good example of this that I like to use is showing players this simple screenshot:
Most can identify the scene, the players, and the hype of one of the FGC’s most famous moments on sight because of this. Simple changes to an outfit’s tint have proven drastic enough to constitute clone characters, most easily seen in the Mortal Kombat games with Ninja clones. It’s clear that color is very important to how we perceive our games, and I think it is necessary to discuss the need of distinct palette diversity.
Today, our topic will be revolving around Street Fighter V’s palette selection.
As an aside, I would just like to state that I do not at all agree with Street Fighter V’s method of putting so many colors behind a pay wall, or having them be unlockable by putting in literal hours of effort in Survival Mode. Street Fighter IV had a similar mechanic, where you had to play each character a certain number of times to receive their colors. I’ve seen the argument made that making palettes difficult to unlock actually rewards the player for their effort. This “reward,” having an interesting color scheme, was something given to players without such time-consuming methods in the past. Booting up any copy of 3rd Strike gives you access to every variant, provided you know the button input (for example, Start+Roundhouse gives my favorite Ibuki color). Since the point of a different palette is to make the player feel unique, withholding that feeling until the player puts in X amount of time or money doesn’t feel like the appropriate way to handle colors.
With that out of the way, let’s get into the actual colors themselves. I started off with a criticism, so let’s talk about a set of palettes that I believe were handled really well: Balrog.
Palette 01
Balrog’s colors are very well defined, and they all have a sense of power to them. This matches very well with Balrog’s character, and I think he has one of the more interesting selections of palettes in Street Fighter V. This outfit has a few tones that stand out; the coat, the two accenting details on the coat, and then the gloves. Balrog’s idle pose actually gives a distinct pattern, laying out all four of these main colors next to each other. Clever use of coloring on these pieces of his outfit can give an entirely different feel to the character. Do the gloves match the main color of the coat (color 11, below), or one of the accents (color 13)? Does the accent compliment the main color (color 03) or stand out against it (color 08)? How each outfit answers those two questions define the feel of the palette.
There is actually not much I can point out specifically that the colors themselves are lacking, though a few minor details could be improved. One such detail on his outfit is the fact that the stars on his gloves and his belt buckle are always gold, aside color 12 (pictured below) which they are silver for. There’s also the studs on the coat, which are always silver. For the stars and studs, some cases these could have been altered to accent the surrounding color and improve the overall palette. I’m uncertain why this wasn’t attempted beyond color 12.
Color 12
There is also the subject of Balrog’s shorts. While so much care is focused on the layering of colors that I mentioned earlier, it’s a little odd that the collection of shorts are so bland. Out of 15 colors, 14 have dark trunks and brightly colored trim, with 9 of those having a nearly white trim. It’s not a bad theme, but having that be the overall choice is honestly boring. A good color to look at that stands directly opposed to this theme is color 10 (pictured below), which has trunks that pop in a way that none of the other outfits do. This effect is achieved simply by making the trunks bright with dark trim.
Color 10
The overall theme I mentioned for his trunks work well occasionally, like his 12th palette (pictured above), but some of them seem like they would have been much better served with brighter trunks or a trim of another color. For example, take a look at his 5th palette:
Color 05
These trunks manage to blend in with the back of the coat when the rest of the palette is focusing on popping out and grabbing attention. With this eye-catching color scheme, having dark yellow trunks that fade from view doesn’t seem to fit, especially when considering the almost renegade white trim that matches nothing else on the outfit. For this palette, blue trunks (matching the boots) with yellow trim (matching the coat or gloves) could have pulled the theme together neatly.
Another aspect of his outfit that rarely pops are his shoelaces. Unless you happen to be looking for them, you hardly notice his laces at all in most outfits, with a notable exception being palette 07 (pictured below). This color has very dark boots with bright blue laces, which draw the eye in a way that no other color really does. Most palettes try to have the laces stand out a bit against the boots, but there is one color that does the complete opposite. Palette 09 completely hides it’s shoelaces, choosing instead to highlight and accent the boots themselves instead, which is a nice break from the expected routine.
That’s a lot to think about, and that was only one character. I picked Balrog because he has the most interesting character palette, though I would say Juri follows a lot of the same layering techniques of Balrog. Her gloves, arms, and thighs all serve different purposes depending on what the main color of the outfit is, and the only thing I really would want from her is some variation on skin and hair tone. Dhalsim is another character who fits his colors well, with both the tattoos and bangles serving as accents for his unique skin tones. Dhalsim probably wears his unique coloring the best, as many of his animations act to highlight the distinct patterns and color layers with his tattoos and skin.
That’s an analysis for another time though. Look out for my next column, which will either be about colors I didn’t like in SFV, or perhaps another game altogether. If you enjoyed this discussion please leave a comment, and feel free to check out a related article I did for our friends over at Kick-Punch-Block. That article focuses on R.Mika’s color choices, which I felt were lacking, and how those could have been improved. I even create a few colors for her out of her Alpha sprites to help illustrate my point.
Blowbacks in King of Fighters are an important mechanic that can define certain matchups. The ability to retaliate on block is powerful, and as such the techniques to deal with them are vital to playing the game at higher levels. YouTuber sigmaG19 put together this useful tech video showcasing ways to deal with blowbacks with several different characters, as well as ways that this technique was handled in past games.
There is also a great video by Gato Ray on blowbacks, covering options for nearly every character to punish blowbacks on block.
He even provided a helpful “blowback tier” chart describing how difficult to punish each character’s blowback is, and can be found here. For the most difficult to punish characters, he made this follow-up video featuring several punishes capable of reaching the opponent.
With a roster of over 50 different characters, it can be a bit difficult to keep up with all of the intricacies of The King of Fighters XIV cast. Thankfully, some dutiful community members have been hard at work lessening the burden with some helpful compilations like the ones below. YouTuber Gato Ray went through every character and compiled every instance of a character having a Guard Point–the ability to armor through opponent attacks.
It’s helpful not only for using these characters, but knowing who can and cannot armor through your own pressure. Additionally, this same KOF player compiled a list of all of the character moves that help them dodge fireballs. This next video is in a similar vein of the one we reported on recently, though with more of an educational purpose to it.
Earlier this morning, details of the latest patch for Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- were released in Japanese. These notes have since been translated and are available for everyone to read here. The patch is dropping this Friday, so make sure to brush up on these changes so you’re ahead of the game come the 30th. Of the listed changes, the characters with the most changes appear to be Potemkin, Johnny, and Dizzy–with nothing but buffs for all three of them.
CEOtaku is merely days away, with a lot of excitement around it. The patch is releasing a day before CEOtaku so Alex Jebailey, head organizer of CEOtaku, was asked that any competitors that are bringing setups to turn off automatic downloads on their PS4s to prevent the patch loading on their systems.
A lot more changes than I was hoping for, if updating them can be avoided Friday for #ceotaku then we may use the current version still. https://t.co/d8A3UOAFIP
I’m reminded of Killer Instinct, when that game updated in the middle of Combo Breaker. They were able to have that situation resolved, so hopefully CEOtaku can get everything worked out.
