It’s always exciting to see our favorite characters from video games, comic books, movies–nearly anything, really–brought to life in physical mediums. On top of offering these characters a real-life manifestation, such pieces can really tie the room together. While such works have often drawn inspiration from the fighting genre, we’ve never seen inspiration quite like what the muses recently brought Kinetiquettes.
Earlier this week, when the company teased an upcoming product reveal–the fruits of a partnership with both Mad Catz and Capcom–no one could have guessed the split image showing Ryu bumped up against his markedly more evil counterpart would end up including the face of Mad Catz’ Daigo Umehara.
On top of representing the “end of an era,” (their words, long live Street Fighter IV) this diorama represents Daigo’s transition from Wandering Warrior to Herald of the Dark Hadou. Standing at 1/4 scale, the massive piece features The Beast himself flanked by Ryu and Evil Ryu, the three of them appropriately situated atop a Yin Yang symbol.
There’s no questioning the fact that being able to break apart every piece of information on the screen can help fighting game players level up their game, but accessing all of it isn’t always as easy as we would like it to be. Features like hitbox viewers rarely find their way into the games we love; however, the community boasts plenty of people capable of using their technical know-how to bring these useful details out of hiding.
If you’ve had a chance to use Frame Trapped with Ultra Street Fighter IV, you know that the program was built to do just that: help players explore the game through hitbox viewing, combo training, and more. With Street Fighter V coming next week, creator Tom Piddock was pleased to announce earlier today that Frame Trapped will be making its way to the new title.
When we spoke to Piddock, he told us users can expect to see the program launch with a fully-functional hitbox viewer. He and his team, which includes Camera Man developer Lullius, are currently working to equip Street Fighter V players with the Combo Trainer tool found in the Ultra Street Fighter IV version of the program as well, and plan to add more features down the road.
Perhaps the most exciting of these future additions comes in the form of what Piddock calls a “Game-to-Speech” accessibility feature, which will provide blind players with on-screen information they may otherwise be missing.
Players can expect to get their hands on the program “as soon as possible after [Street Fighter V’s] release.” For now, tide yourself over with these images of the work in progress.
We’ve all been there: our fresh paycheck now sixty bucks lighter, we slip the cellophane from a Brand New Game, pop it into our Current-Generation Gaming Machine’s disc tray, and poke the power button. As our pressing of start force-fades the title screen to black, we find our digital feet atop a vast field and marvel at the promise of open-world combat laid out before us–a blank page to pound out our fist-fueled poetry. We smirk when we catch a glimpse of our first target standing safely distant, seemingly enraptured by its own idle poses. We rush toward it with abandon, hoist our hands to the sky, and, upon entering striking distance, deliver what we expect to be a devastating blow.
The attack connects, the enemy loses health, our fists recede back to our sides allowing for a second strike, but something doesn’t feel quite right. We swing again. The raw-meat-to-pavement sound of digital skin connecting with digital skin and the pad vibrating in our palms assure us our fists have, yet again, met their mark, but something still feels off. There’s a disconnect we may not be able to explain.
We may be quick to shrug off this odd feeling, assuring ourselves there’s so much more canvas to work with–so many more heads to crack–certainly this one incident was an anomaly. We may continue our adventure through several more play sessions, or we may soon shelf the Brand New Game, though perhaps not entirely sure why.
Or maybe we pick up on the general issue right away, knowing something isn’t right about the animation. Maybe the collision is bad. Maybe our fists look as if they exert the force of tyrannosaur arms. Maybe it’s something else entirely.
As with any art form, successful video game animation evokes emotions in those who witness it. While any who peruse the artistic musings of others may not necessarily be able to explain the feeling they’re experiencing while doing so, they can certainly confirm that the feeling exists, or, in the case of our hypothetical Brand New Game, doesn’t.
While many titles have other positive factors to fall back on, the more combat-focused a game, the more important meaningful animations become. How can we be expected to sink hours into a release providing us with nothing but head-to-head combat if there’s no fist-to-the-gut feeling–like when Makoto connects with a Hayate in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike–tied to the attacks?
A couple of years ago, Mariel Cartwright, the lead animator for Skullgirls, spoke at the Game Developers Conference, and the archive recently made its way to YouTube. Her talk, “Fluid and Powerful Animation within Frame Restrictions,” addresses this topic at length while offering samples from, you guessed it, Skullgirls.
In the example at the start of this article, the fabricated game represents an open world with sandbox-style roaming and a focus on combat—something like Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid V, or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While games of this variety may occasionally fail to provide players with the visceral animations they need in order to leave their play session truly satisfied, they offer animators markedly more leeway to help assure players get what they came for, thanks in part to the inherent differences between animating player and non-player characters. In her talk, Cartwright acknowledges that enemy characters often necessitate larger tells for their attacks, affording adventurers time to tuck and roll, attack a weak spot, or employ any number of other tactics before the force of the blow can be felt.
But fighting game animators face a unique challenge in this regard, as every character–save very specific bosses along the lines of Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s Galactus–must be treated as player characters and, therefore, must be brought to life with much shorter animations overall. Were player character attacks as slow as those given to non-player characters, Cartwright notes, users would likely find the game unresponsive.
To give an idea of just how tiny these animation windows actually are, Cartwright explains that a common light attack in Skullgirls takes up, on average, only six frames. Since these animations come from the successful merging of multiple drawings, this leaves the average light attack with a paltry six images to create the illusion of movement. While this task may sound impossible, animators have found plenty of tricks to help even a jab have some heft behind it.
In the case of animating 2D attacks, as Cartwright has done for Skullgirls, some of the most important aspects revolve around deciding on a few key moments within an attack. Once picked, those moments provide anchor points to which various illusory tactics tie in. Things like anticipation, smears, and follow-through don’t necessarily make these in-between frames into works we’d want to hang from our walls, but they do serve as links between the pieces we would. When it comes to offering insight into what these specific techniques directly add to any given animation, she often says something to the effect of, “you don’t really see it, but you feel it.”
Which brings us back to the beginning example. In that fictitious game, everything appeared to line up: the user interface, the sound, tactile feedback from the controller, even the animation seemed correct–we swung our fists and the enemy eventually fell–but the combat still lacked intangibles. Soul, heart, whatever you want to call it. But fighting games, more common than not, pack in more than enough of these intangibles, these feelings of satisfaction when fist meets face, and we have teams of talented artists to thank for that.
We’ve included Cartwright’s talk below, so be sure to give it a watch for a full breakdown.
If you’re considering a career in game development, or have already started down that road, be sure to check out the Game Developers Conference YouTube channel; it’s got plenty of resources much like this talk from Cartwright.
Last month, the folks behind Street Fighter IV Remix released another patch to the mod, squashing even more bugs that were unintended interactions in the already nutty environment it presents to players. If you’ve been leery of checking it out, now’s the perfect time to give it a chance.
To help get newcomers acquainted with what the Remix offers, DE Climax put together a quick primer on its basics. Below, you’ll learn about the mechanics added to–and taken away from–the engine, how the wakeup roll system works, how to perform Alpha Counters, and how to maximize juggles to create truly devastating combos.
As an added bonus, Anotak hopes to run a Remix tournament at this year’s Final Round. While we don’t have any concrete details at the moment, this may be enough to motivate new players into giving the mod a go. If you’re interested, head on over to the official site.
Even though the final Street Fighter V beta weekend now seems far behind us, top players in the community still have plenty of new footage to share. One such batch of match videos comes from Team Spooky’s Arturo “Sabin” Sanchez. As you might expect, he has taken to spitting fire and slapping opponents with Dhalsim’s elastic limbs.
On top of fighting veterans like Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong, Sabin went up against a few of the fresher faces looking to make a name for themselves in the era of Street Fighter V, including THE COOL KID93. We’ve embedded several matches below, and you can find more videos featuring Sabin’s Dhalsim at Team Spooky After Hours.
It’s easy to get hung up on what we know a character to be. Regardless of how they may appear in new titles, it makes sense that we’re prone to want to force fighters into a form we’ve seen them take before. When it comes to Ken’s inclusion in Street Fighter V, plenty of players have been scratching their heads trying to make sense of his seemingly less-than-optimal normals and unusual V abilities.
Yesterday, Pan offered a look at M. Bison’s devastating okizeme potential in Street Fighter V and, today, they’re back with a strategy reel offering insights into how Ken should approach the match. Using insights from Viscant’s recent blog post, the video below offers an argument for Ken players to stick to a longer range.
When it comes to the Super Smash Bros. series, Melee and the Wii U iteration tend to draw the most attention. Brawl, with a release date snuggled between the two more popular titles, rarely turns any heads. Maybe Project M has something to do with this. Maybe we should blame Meta Knight. Whatever the reason the Smash crowd tends to avoid this middle child, it still has its merits.
In a recently (re)uploaded video, the guys at Rush Hour Smash remind viewers that Brawl can be just as fast-paced and exciting as the other games in the series. The footage focuses on combos performed by Lowland Lions’ Mr. R, and features a wide variety of characters. It’s Brawl, so that means you can expect plenty of Meta Knight, but it also means you get to see Snake–a worthy trade if you ask me.
There’s a chance you saw this video in its original form before it was removed from YouTube. Even if you did, it’s worth checking out again; if this is your first time seeing it, you may just find yourself looking for local Brawl gatherings to attend.
One of the more beautiful aspects of fighting games is the way the community can, even after years with a title, still find new ways to express themselves through combos and other in-game tactics. While Ultra Street Fighter IV is far from dead, in just eight days it will be forced to share some of its spotlight with its younger sibling. What better way to celebrate this final stretch before Street Fighter V’s release than with a collection of wacky combos from the still-current Ultra?
One name we’ve often seen associated with this sort of footage is Pepopulo, and they’ve compiled a final collection of combo craziness perfect for the occasion. There’s a good chance you’ve seen some of these options before, but there’s an even better chance you’ll see some thing you didn’t know were possible.
On top of combos, Pepopulo has included many situations where unexpected hits connect (or whiff) that may have you headed for training mode shortly after viewing.
The folks at Last Stock Legends recently shared footage from their upcoming mini-documentary, which is focused on a group of NorCal players as they navigate their way through Genesis 3.
This piece of sample footage offers a look into the team dynamics of Super Smash Bros. Melee doubles. While team tournaments in more traditional fighting games are not unheard of, a doubles match is unique in that it puts every player on-screen at once. Additionally, fallen teammates can choose to consume one of their partner’s stocks in order to reenter the battle. This specific mechanic works as the focal point for the footage below, wherein Liquid’s Hungrybox keeps two stocks to himself with hopes of fending off the enemy team.
Since reliance on other players–especially to this degree–is so uncommon in the genre, this clip is worth a view even if you’re not into Smash.
Last Stock Legends hopes to release the full documentary sometime this spring.
Back in November, YUBIKEN’s Kim1234, WinnerStaysOn’s Logan Sama, and Shady K kicked off The Jump-In, a podcast dedicated to all things fighting games. Since then, the crew has had several sessions, and even spoke with UltraDavid and James Chen in a recent episode.
In their latest installment, Kim and Logan discuss rivalries and trash talk in the fighting game community before moving on to a topic that has certainly been on everyone’s mind since long before we got our hands on a beta build: what kind of future can we expect from Street Fighter V?
Alex Meyers reportedly spoke to Mad Catz’ Tokido to get his opinion of Street Fighter V, and Tokido (allegedly) thinks top players in Japan will play the new title for a year, and then go back to Ultra Street Fighter IV. Since Kim can easily speak with the rest of the YUBIKEN, he was able to offer a bit of insight from the Japanese group, and it seems that they all have a fairly neutral opinion of the game so far–except Dashio. Dashio loves it.
Logan, who has gotten a fair amount of time with the game himself, went on to say Street Fighter V “feels quite limited in terms of expression,” something that will undoubtedly affect the way certain players–especially the tech-minded–interact with the game.
The duo also spend some time talking about the ways in which Street Fighter V’s launch will differ from Street Fighter IV’s, so check out the video below for all the juicy discussion.
Or maybe we pick up on the general issue right away, knowing something isn’t right about the animation. Maybe the collision is bad. Maybe our fists look as if they exert the force of tyrannosaur arms. Maybe it’s something else entirely.
To give an idea of just how tiny these animation windows actually are, Cartwright explains that a common light attack in Skullgirls takes up, on average, only six frames. Since these animations come from the successful merging of multiple drawings, this leaves the average light attack with a paltry six images to create the illusion of movement. While this task may sound impossible, animators have found plenty of tricks to help even a jab have some heft behind it.