Author: John "Zidiane" Silvia

Combo videos for fighting games are commonplace, and there isn’t any shortage of players trying to put their own spin on the notion. Themed combo videos are always neat, but what we have here today is something particularly neat: this video takes heavy inspiration from Nintendo’s popular Rhythm Heaven series, creating something that’s almost unrecognizable as a combo video.

The video’s creator, Salty Noob, has some other interesting content on his channel as well, such as narrative combo videos.

Source: Salty Noob

Skullgirls has been on the rise recently, experiencing a revitalization due to updates and the sheer willpower of its devoted community. Through this effort, players are still finding tech that’s been in there since day one. At Combo Breaker 2016–Skullgirls’ biggest event of the year–Mike Z showed off some interesting tech, explained in-depth here; that tech has been called a few different things, from Hitstop Drop to Happy Un-Birthday, but the basics are that you catch both the main character and the assist character while figuring out how to make the assist recover, resetting the damage scaling on the assist, while still keeping the combo going.

This tech is most easily and universally used with supers, as the hitstop on supers–which freezes the opponent in place for a few frames–only effects the point character and not the assist. However, Dragonos451 shows in this video that this isn’t the only way to perform this incredibly useful technique, and that it can be done without meter at all.

Certain characters benefit from this more than others, so it’ll be interesting to see if this increases the frequency of use and effectiveness of those characters in the metagame. If you’ve been out of the loop on Skullgirls’ metagame, you can read more about it in this detailed editorial.

Source: Dragonos451

As far as best-to-worst lists, players tend to rank specific characters, or even matchups. However, ESAM took to ranking actual moves in Smash4. He considered things like whether or not a character always has access to the move, and how easy it is to counter vs how effect it is if you don’t know how to deal with it. He points out moves that make or break a character, as well as moves that force the opponent to completely switch up their playstyle to even play the matchup. He breaks down the moves, how effective it is in which situations, and where he thinks the character would be on the tier list without that specific move.

Source: imESAM

Trial mode is an often overlooked mode. Usually trial combos are impractical and unnecessarily stressful on newer players, while not offering much to learn about the game. In the past couple years games have been getting better, but fans still sometimes find them lacking. This time around youtuber Desk decided to beef up the trials in SFV with Juri, making these Hardcore Trials for Execution junkies. Try them at your own risk.

Desk has been having a lot of fun with Juri, apparently. Check out the combo video he did earlier this week with her!

Source: Desk

The King of Fighters XIV hype is everywhere, and now that we have the demo available fans can get a good long chance at a hands-on experience. Desk, well known for his amazing Street Fighter combo videos, tries his hand at the new title.

First up is King Dinosaur, a fan favorite since his initial reveal. Desk shows off a low of high damage combos, crossup confirms, guardbreak punishes, and even some crazy OTG combos that don’t look like they should work at all.

It appears that another fighter caught Desk’s eye, the peppy pop star look-a-like has an electrifying arsenal. She can combo from her supers, dishing out nearly 75% life in some questionably-practical combos, as well as some other neat shenanigans.

Source: Desk

With Juri having officially released, even getting a nifty introduction video to go along with her release, fans are at a fever pitch with excitement and giddiness. Between the form fitting spandex, the spine-defying poses, and the sadistic innuendos, there’s a lot to love. One fan, Ray Ishima, took to making a combo video showing off some of her practical and impractical combos.

Another long time Combo crafter, Desk, also tries his hands at a combo video, heavily featuring Juri’s V-Trigger.

If you want more of Juri, there was a roundup of tech earlier this month, as well as a useful V-Trigger guide. With all this tech already available, this Spider-like spandex-sporting sadist seems like a real force to be reckoned with, if a bit frail. Whether or not you win with her seems like it’ll all be in the Feng Shui you use her.

Source: Ray Ishima

Gearing up for a big event is a special time. From packing to the airport to arriving at a still and subdued venue, there is nothing quite like it in Fighting Games. This moment, of course, followed by an explosive weekend of exciting matches, great friends, heart pumping upsets, and stadium shaking cheers. This moment has often been felt, though occasionally it’s shown.

One Evo attendee chronicled his trip this year, his first Evo on his way from Hawaii. The video is perfect, and captures the spirit and thrill of everything that makes trips to events so special.

Source: Austin Alimbuyugen