Author: Lance "Tarnot" Hood

Rush and Kill Clan released yet another Ultra Street Fighter IV exhibition earlier today, this time focusing on team member Lucius. The Ode to Skill highlight reel features skillful use of Juri, C. Viper, Akuma, Seth, and Decapre. By just looking at that list of characters, you should know to what to expect: truly explosive damage output.

Each character gets a good deal of time in the spotlight as Lucius demonstrates their corner dominance and full mid-match combo potential. You’ll see an alarming amount of corner cross-unders, some incredibly high-execution combos, and a few Decapre mix-ups that will leave your head spinning.

Of course, no highlight reel would be complete without a little humor, and Seth scoring a stun after multiple successful head stomps definitely fits the bill.

Source: RnK Clan

It’s only natural that we try to carry over our past fighting game experiences when picking up a new title. Everything from how we move, to how we shape our strategies, to the terms we use to describe all of this are fresh in our minds and ready to be applied as soon as we hit the start button. But what we often find is that some piece of old information will clash with something new and we’ll wind up confused, frustrated, or even discouraged as a result.

These sorts of information clashes occur the most when making a major transition, yet still remaining securely beneath the fighting genre umbrella. Making the move from something like Ultra Street Fighter IV to Persona 4 Arena or from a background heavy in more traditional fighters to Super Smash Bros. 4 can be daunting or off-putting for this reason.

Luckily, DelxDoom of the Smash Boards community created a guide to help ease those of us who have been tossing Hadoukens for as long as we can remember into the world of tilts, spikes, and bairs. If you’re scratching your head at what any of those words mean, you’re likely not alone; fortunately, the guide covers that, too, with a simple glossary of common terms to prime readers for the in-depth information to follow.

DelxDoom spends a great deal of time breaking down how matches of Super Smash Bros. flow. Some may be surprised to find that the same basic goals we aim to achieve in Street Fighter or other, more traditional fighting titles exist in the Nintendo franchise: pummel your opponent until you’re the last one standing through the use of well-timed attacks, carefully-planned defensive options, and baiting.

Though all of the general information given is sure to help newcomers, the real magic of this guide lies in the comparisons made between Smash and the other games we all know and love.

As an example, everyone likes landing a hard knockdown in Street Fighter and it’s easy to understand why: they limit our opponent’s options while leaving our own intact. This same sort of situation happens in Smash as well, but isn’t limited to a single scenario like the hard knockdown. Instead, these advantageous situations occur when opponents are, well, knocked down (which is an easy comparison to draw), when they are above you in the air and you are below waiting to combo, and when you’ve knocked them off the stage and they’re trying to make their return to solid ground.

There are plenty more comparisons that will help make this transitory period much easier and, if you’re in the process of picking up Smash for the first time, this guide is the perfect place to use what you already know about fighting games to your advantage.

I’d also like to encourage those still skeptical of Smash’s place within the fighting game community to check out the guide, too; it could change the way you think about the franchise.

Source: Smash Boards

Charizard’s Rock Smash special in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U already has a lot going for it: armor, loads of damage, and now, thanks to this technique, the option of forward momentum to make it a threat over much longer ranges. This helps to cover the special move’s lack of start-up speed and effective distance by getting Charizard where it needs to be as the move is being activated.

This added forward momentum comes from canceling a jump into the special move and then rolling the stick forward. The timing between the jump and the special input aren’t quite as tight as plinking moves in Street Fighter IV, but that’s a good way to think of how the button presses should occur.

Source: My Smash Corner via Smash Boards

Triox has been releasing a wealth of Juri information lately for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Many of his recent videos come in the form of hour-long tutorials that are loaded with all sorts of useful tips and tricks. Today, though, we’ve got a video of his that takes a brief look at some character-specific options available to the villainess.

These combo paths are rather specific, as they all begin require Feng Shui Engine and begin with an overhead, but having combos that begin from that normal as well as a couple of low-hitting attacks is a great way to keep the pressure up once her eye starts to glow. Since this is the first entry in this combo series, the video only covers a handful of the cast, but we are sure to see more in the future.

If you missed out on Triox’ previous tutorials, which cover the transition from Arcade Edition to Ultra, maximizing situations and combo damage, how to approach footsies, and other ways to utilize Feng Shui Engine, follow this link to take a look.

Source: Triox

Hopeful Sin Kiske and Elphelt Valentine mains looking to gather as much information on Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-‘s console newcomers before its release this month just received a couple of nice resources thanks to the folks over at 4Gamer. The website recently released a couple of videos that demonstrate basic combos for both characters, which should serve as a great starting point for more advanced strategies once everyone gets their hands on the game.

Each combo is shown once at regular speed and a second time in slow motion. That second, slowed version gives viewers enough time to see each move involved, which can be important when entering the unfamiliar territory of a new game. While short, both videos include strings that end in a knockdown, anti-air combos, and some raw Dust shenanigans.

We’re also able to catch a glimpse of the massive fish and other snacks that Sin is capable of inhaling post-combo to refill his appetite meter. We do only get to see the hungry fighter consume a couple of different bits of food, but this is one of the few times when “bread and butter” combos could quite literally involve, well, bread and butter.

I’ll see myself out.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is scheduled to launch in Japan on December 4 with a North American release following on December 16.

Source: 4Gamer via BROKENTIER

It’s not like Vergil really needs any more tools to help keep him firmly placed among the top characters in the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster, but that hasn’t stopped him from receiving plenty over the life of the game. XusesGB contacted us earlier today with a video showing off a bit of new tech that this son of Sparda borrows from Wolverine, and it stands to possibly change how the character is played in certain matchups.

It turns out that, much like Logan, Vergil is capable of performing a jumping light followed immediately by an X-Factor activation. If the airborne attack hits a grounded opponent, the following X-Factor combo guarantees a kill. However, due to the nature of its hitbox, the tactic can’t be used as an instant overhead against everyone.

In cursory testing, I’ve found this strategy works against crouching opponents with unusually large hurtboxes, like Sentinel, Tron, M.O.D.O.K., Hulk, and Nemesis, but that it also whiffs on plenty of the average and smaller hurtboxes for characters like like Spencer, Wolverine, and even Captain America. These lists are, of course, far from exhaustive, and there are potentially ways to alter the tactic to make it work against the shorter folks.

There are still some situations where this tactic can be used as it currently exists, and there are certainly plenty more to be discovered. To get those thoughts flowing, Xuses has included several sample setups in the video below.

Source: XusesGB

Grab your striped jumpsuit and have your buddy deliver a knife to the center of the stage two days in advance (that’s how it gets there, right?), it’s time for another round of Cody character-specific combos from freeno0b. As many Ultra Street Fighter IV combos that stray from the standard, optimized bread and butter selections, some that you’re about to witness have rather limited uses. But that’s okay, Cody has all the time in the world, why not try and turn some heads through the vigorous application of damage scaling?

That’s not to say that there aren’t some pretty devastating and useful options in this footage, like when Cody manages to squeeze in three fierce attacks before moving on to a Criminal Upper against Sakura or the various ways that he’s able to confirm into his Ultra 2. With so many character-specific options, it’s hard to believe Cody when he says he’s bored.

If you missed the first round of character-specific combos from freeno0b, check them out here!

Source: freeno0b

Every once in a while a combo video comes along and reminds us that there’s always new territory to discover in fighting games. No matter how old or played out a title may seem, we’re sure to see things from time to time that raise eyebrows and get us back into the lab to try out some new things ourselves.

This video from TortillaHabibi has plenty of combos that fit that description perfectly. Though it weighs in at a light two and a half minutes, it spends time with over ten characters, some of which we rarely get to see in combo videos. Be sure to stick around to the end for a particularly impressive string from Juri.

Did you see something that you’ve never seen before? Let us know in the comments!

Source: TortillaHabibi

Triox recently uploaded the fourth tutorial in his series that focuses on how to become a better Juri player. As with previous entries, this video is quite lengthy–over an hour to be exact–and flows quite a bit differently than many of the tutorials you may see floating around forums. Triox’ approach to teaching is favorable to some viewers as it feels much more personal than multiple walls of text interspersed with snippets of combo footage.

This specific video centers around the proper applications of Juri’s Feng Shui Engine. While imposing on its own, that crazy eye of hers can only do so much without the right strategies to back it up. There’s no question that proper use of the Ultra can make for some alarming comebacks or help to further secure a lead, but there’s a lot that needs to be internalized before these situations can unfold on the screen.

Things like the best time to activate the buff, the times when you absolutely do not want to activate, and what can be done once the Ultra timer starts ticking are all covered here, so check out Triox’ latest offering and let us know what you learned.

If you missed out on the previous three tutorials which cover the transition from Arcade Edition to Ultra, maximizing situations and combo damage as well as how to approach footsies, follow this link to take a look.

Source: Triox