Author: Lance "Tarnot" Hood

Persona is still hard at work perfecting their King of Fighters XIII combo video collection, which received an update earlier this week with another look at Kula Diamond, who outputs damage in ways that transcend practicality in favor of flashy goodness.

Going into this video, you’re likely expecting plenty of Lay Spin loops, and rightly so; Persona piles on the icy kicks through the use of both Drive Cancels and HD Mode, milking every bit of damage out of the situations presented. Be sure to check out the second combo against Yuri, which manages a stun into a kill without the use of HD Mode.

Source: Persona

In a game dominated by speedy, agile characters, those with a slower-than-average run speed and a floaty jump tend not to have much of a place at the higher echelons of competitive play in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Lucas sadly finds himself among the slowest of the cast members, but that doesn’t mean that he lacks viability. With some simple tricks, he can hang with the best of them–and not just because of his record hang times.

In the video below from fyazkoSSB, you’ll learn how to step up your Lucas game to be the best protector that Onett could ask for. The video includes tips on how to more quickly reover from air dodges, use Psi Magnet to speed Lucas’ approach while shielding from projectiles, optimize ledge cancels, and much more.

Source: fyazkoSSB via Smash Boards

2ndState has already put together some impressive tutorials relating to the topics of May’s okizeme and counter-hit combos in Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-. These advanced tactic videos, while undeniably helpful, don’t mean much to fledgling dolphin flingers who’ve yet to familiarize themselves with heaving around their anchors.

With that in mind, 2ndState put together a tutorial covering basics for those making their first foray into the world of aerial piracy. The video covers fighting on the ground as well as in the air, throws, overdrives and how to properly use her projectiles.

Source: 2ndState

Proper defensive techniques play a major role in securing victory in every fighting game, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is no exception. Though it’s shield button seems simple enough, there are actually tons of options players hunkering down behind those bright bubbles have at their disposal. Some, like dodge rolling, spot dodging, jumping, and grabbing require no real knowledge of game systems in order to use at least to some degree of success, but those are far from the only options that players have.

In their latest video, AceStarThe3rd discusses the more advanced ways to drop shield, including out of shield up smash and out of shield up special. As explained in the video, these two options take advantage of pre-jump frames to drop shield. If timed correctly, players can go from a defensive posture to an offensive one in a matter of just a couple of frames.

For a full breakdown on how to perform these attacks as well as some potential uses, be sure to check out the video below.

Source: AceStarThe3rd via Smash Boards

With all the hype surrounding Laura’s recent (official) reveal, it’s easy to–at least temporarily–forget about the rest of the Street Fighter V cast. But while the rest of the world was trying out the new Brazilian brawler, Burnout Fighter put together some footage for R. Mika, which we’ve embedded below.

The video opens with a section dedicated to the wrestler’s V-Skill, which as you might already know offers a hit of armor while powering up her grabs. What you may have missed, however, is the exact nature of the monologue that Mika regales her opponent with before reaching full power. It seems that she likes to talk about optimal workout routines and how swell pro wrestling is, both of which are far cries from what one might consider hot fire. At any rate, this will hopefully be the only time we hear these speeches in full. If not, well, we’d be wise to not get grabbed.

Burnout Fighter also includes a host interesting uses for Nadeshiko’s assist, which provides plenty of high damage combo options, so check out their video and see what you can learn.

As these techniques all come from the beta, none of them are guaranteed to make it to the final release, so keep that in mind as you watch.

Source: Burnout Fighter

Novril and the Chemical Lovers team recently uploaded the second video in their Guilty Gear Crash Course series. Their first episode covered basic offensive options in Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, so it only makes sense that the second episode should focus on the defensive side of the same coin.

As in the first tutorial, you’ll see some small comparisons made to Street Fighter with regards to blocking, but the team moves on quickly to discuss Faultless Defense and its uses. It’s good to see that the team drives home just how important proper defense can be, stressing that using Faultless Defense is itself often more important than spending meter to deliver damage to opponents.

If you’ve got friends getting into Guilty Gear, be sure to pass this series along to them to help ease the process.

Source: Novril

Kirby brings an undeniably unique set of moves to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. On top of having a full set of his own attacks, Dreamland’s puffy pink patriot excels in turning his opponent’s neutral special against them. This makes for some interesting situations, and finds more use in some matches than others–looking at you, Rosalina. If you’re fond of donning match-specific fashion trends, My Smash Corner’s newest video will be right up your alley.

On top of sharing combo options for each hat, as well as setups (where available) My Smash Corner has ranked them in order of usefulness so all you Kirby mains out there can pick up the most important ones first. Since it doesn’t matter how much hat-based knowledge a Kirby player possesses if they don’t have a way to get the hat in the first place, the video also includes some setups for landing that initial Inhale as well.

Source: My Smash Corner

It’s not like Sheik needs any help in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, but that didn’t stop the Beefy Smash Doods from figuring out how to reliably increase the range of her up special, allowing her even more ridiculous return trips to the stage.

This is one of those things that’s been possible for quite some time–likely since the game’s release–and there’s a good chance that top Sheik players have employed the technique to some degree, but the Beefy Smash Doods wanted to spread the knowledge so that everyone commanding Zelda’s alter ego can live to fight another day, regardless of how near the blast zone they wandered.

The inputs required to gain this Vanish range extension aren’t complicated, but the timing can be awkward to get used to. For a full breakdown of how to pull this off, as well as some situations where it could be useful, be sure to check out the video below.

Please note that Wario had a similar momentum-changing glitch early in the game’s life, which was patched out. With that in mind, Nintendo could remove this option in a future update.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods