Author: Sam "Trilby" Foxall

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Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and other titles are on sale in the UK’s PlayStation January Sale

Did you get some Fight Money in your stocking this holiday? If you’re looking for a bit of a post-Christmas spend-up, loads of fighting games are discounted as part of the PlayStation January Sale. From older games like Mortal Kombat X to newer titles like Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, you’ll find a bargain no matter what game you play.

As a quick heads-up, the January Sale is only available on the European PlayStation Store — so you may have to set up an EU account if you want to grab these savings:

There are plenty more discounts hidden within the depths of this sale, so make sure to have a look for yourself if there is a particular game you’re hunting for. The PlayStation January Sale lasts until January 19th — plenty of time to find yourself a bargain. [For those in North America, PSN’s Holiday Sale lasts until January 2nd, and includes a number of the titles above – Editor]

Source: PlayStation Blog

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NicoNico are holding a special “Ultimate Battles” exhibition, featuring Tokido, Punk, JDCR and more

Japanese streaming service NicoNico are holding a special exhibition series this New Year’s Eve, which will see players from various games settling grudge matches from earlier in the year. The three fighting game exhibitions feature Japanese players either trying to get their revenge, or proving their dominance over a particular foreign fighter.

For Tekken 7, the exhibition will see Echo Fox’s JDCR facing off against Noroma — the Japanese Jack-7 player who bested both JDCR and his teammate Saint at the Korean Master event on the Tekken World Tour. The two did clash again at the Tekken World Tour finals, with JDCR winning out and making the set count 1-1.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the match will see Japanese number one KEN battling against NRG|Nairo. These two have quite the storied rivalry, starting all the way back at Umebura SAT back in August of 2016. Since then, Nairo and KEN have been back and forth in sets, with the two clashing both in the US and Japan. As it stands, KEN is 5-3 in sets, so this grudge match hopes to put Nairo in back on the board for 2018.

And finally, the Street Fighter V exhibition needs no introduction. It’s the Demon versus the Alpha — Punk versus Tokido. Ever since Tokido’s victory over Punk at Evo 2017, the All-American Karin has wanted to defeat his demon on the big stage. He didn’t get the chance at Capcom Cup, so this ultimate battle may be Punk’s chance to turn the tide, before the release of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition.

For those wanting to watch these exhibitions, they will be streamed live on NicoNico from 1:30pm JST this Sunday.

Source: nicolive_PR

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Rock the dragon with Dragon Ball FighterZ’s opening cinematic

Shown off during Sunday’s episode of Dragon Ball Super, Bandai Namco and Arc System Works have shown the opening cinematic of Dragon Ball FighterZ off to the world. In true ASW style, you’ve got screeching guitars and guttural vocals playing, while the cast of DBFZ duke it out.

Everyone in the roster — besides SSB Goku and Vegeta — get a chance in the spotlight, suggesting that you may get a new cinematic once you unlock the two blue-haired Saiyans after completing Story Mode. DBFZ’s villain Android 21 makes the briefest of cameos, but I still reckon she will feature as the game’s secret character — filling that final spot right underneath Beerus on the character select screen.

With the open beta starting on January 13th, you haven’t got long to wait for Dragon Ball FighterZ!

Source: Bandai Namco Entertainment America

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Check out all the legends attending Cooperation Cup 16 with its official team list

With the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Cooperation Cup 16 just over two weeks away, we finally have the full team roster for this year’s event, and this one is set to be a doozy. Along with teams from all over Japan, there are a few international teams in the running this year — mainly from the US and the UK.

You’ve also got several 3rd Strike legends attending this event, with players like Genki, Kokujin, RX, Dirty ♪, Ruu and YSB all in attendance, alongside the likes of Haitani, Daigo, MOV, Onuki and even Kuroda. 9road is looking like the group to beat at the moment, as it’s got Vanao, Daigo, MOV, Haitani and Kuroda all on a single team.

The team list also comes with a complete character breakdown, ordering characters from most to least popular. Ken is the most commonly-picked fighter with 77 people registered to play as the blonde-haired shoto. Next up is Chun-Li with 62, and then Urien’s in third with 48. As for the bottom of the list, Sean is dead last with only two people down to play as the Brazilian martial artist.

As well as Cooperation Cup, this list also has all the teams for Pre-Cooperation Cup as well — perfect for anyone trying to learn a specific character ahead of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection! Cooperation Cup 16 will be streamed live from Japan on Sunday 7th January, with GameNewton providing both English and Japanese commentary.

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Source: hismit3rd

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The mysterious Dr. Coyle joins the ARMS roster in its final major content update

Capping off their series of free content updates, the stretchy-limbed fighter ARMS is getting one final character, and a new stage as part of its Version 5.0 update. Along with the [NAME REDACTED] stage, players can now fight as the mysterious director of the ARMS laboratory, Dr. Coyle.

The scientist behind both Springtron and Helix, Dr. Coyle hopes to put all the data she has gathered into action, in becoming the top fighter on the ARMS Grand Prix. Not only can she conjure a third arm by charging her punch up, she can briefly turn invisible to surprise her opponent. Along with a ice nunchaku ARM and an electric parasol ARM, her main weapon is based on Hedlok – the evil multi-armed robot of her own creation. With this ARM, she can fire off a deadly energy orb which explodes on impact.

While Nintendo plan to release additional balance updates in the future, Version 5.0 is the final major content update for ARMS. There are still plans for regular Party Crash events to keep players interested — so don’t hang up your gloves just yet! ARMS is also having its first major tournament at Evo Japan next month, so tune in to see the world’s best virtual pugilists fight it out.

You can read the full version 5.0 patch notes right here.

Source: Nintendo

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The Icons: Combat Arena closed beta begins this month, with additional invites rolling out in January 2018

Since its official title reveal back at this year’s Evo, people have been clamoring to get into the closed beta for Icons: Combat Arena. You won’t have to wait too much longer, as the closed beta is starting later this month for those who have play-tested the game at events like Genesis 4, Super Smash Con and Twitchcon.

500 invites will be sent out later this month, with the first wave of sign-up invites going out in January 2018. Wavedash Games are planning to release a steady flow of invites from January onward, gradually increasing the size of the closed beta test pool. This first round of beta testing is limited to North America for now — Wavedash will expand the Icons closed beta to Europe and beyond later in 2018.

So far, five of Icons’ starting eight characters have been shown off — the Duo, the Floaty and the Weapon Fighter have yet to be officially revealed. According to the dev vlog linked below, the Duo character is the next fighter to be revealed, with their name being Afi and Galu. Based on some of the concept art seen in this 2017 recap video, the Weapon Fighter looks to wield a glaive/halberd-style weapon.

Source: Wavedash Games

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Thinking in three dimensions: Core-A Gaming analyzes how 3D fighters like Tekken utilizes the extra dimension

Thanks to Tekken 7‘s runaway success, many new players are discovering the joy and complexity of 3D fighters. For those moving from 2D to 3D, there is quite the adjustment period as you adapt to the extra dimension that you can now play with. In his latest analysis video, Gerald from Core-A Gaming compares how 2D and 3D fighters tackle issues like character stances, the layout of fighting stages and more.

For 2D games like Street Fighter, characters will always revert to an open stance to ensure character readability. This means Vega swapping his claw hand so it can be seen by the player, Oro changing the arm he has hidden away and in Street Fighter II, Sagat’s eyepatch magically changing sides. In Tekken — where attacks are grouped as either left or right punches and kicks — retaining a character’s stance is important for establishing which way to sidestep attacks, whiff-punishing certain moves and so on.

Another major deviation between 2D and 3D fighters is how each genre approaches grounded movement. While 2D fighters like Guilty Gear and Marvel vs. Capcom have a heavy emphasis on aerial combat, games like Tekken sacrifice this aspect to deepen the complexity of their ground game. You need to keep track of which side of the body a move is coming from, which direction to side-step and so on, making the grounded spacing battles of SoulCalibur or Tekken super-important and thrilling to watch.

If you’re someone who wants to make the jump from 2D to 3D, or are just interested in seeing the main ways in which 2D and 3D fighters differ, this analysis is a great place to start.

Source: Core-A Gaming

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Bask in the glory of Lord Yamcha, thanks to this Dragon Ball FighterZ character breakdown from Hellpockets

Following up from a special preview event for Dragon Ball FighterZ, Bandai Namco are starting to release special character breakdowns for the majority of the game’s roster. We’ve already seen Adult Gohan detailed and now it’s time for the master of the Wolf Fang Fist and potential strongest character in the game, Yamcha.

Rather than being an utter weakling who gets trashed by Saibamen, the Yamcha in Dragon Ball FighterZ is a deadly rushdown character – capable of mixing his opponents up using his Wolf Fang Fist. Yamcha has several options from this move, so you’ll have to do some experimentation to find the best follow-up for your current situation.

He can throw in side switches, high/low mixups and even hard knockdown setups from Wolf Fang Fist, so you need to be on your toes if you get tagged by Yamcha. You can also EX-cancel the start of Wolf Fang Fist, turning it into a powerful dash strike that knocks your opponents into the air. When done in the corner, this EX Wolf Fang Fist allows Yamcha to go for an aerial combo or a ground mix-up, further developing his already terrifying rushdown.

Along with Universe 6’s assassin Hit, Dragon Ball FighterZ has plenty of options for players who like to stay in their opponent’s face.

Source: Bandai Namco Entertainment America

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Team Versus mode is coming to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

Revealed on UpUpDownDown by Austin Creed and his compatriots, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is going to launch with a special Team Versus mode on January 16th — perfect for crew battles and team tournaments.

For the sake of this special exhibition, the rules were set to 3v3 with each match being first-to-one, before players had to pass the controller onto their teammate. Don’t worry though, Team Versus will allow you to tweak the rules for any format you want — you can have up to five players fighting on each team, and you can play in either a Elimination or Best of format.

Based on the menu screen seen briefly before the exhibition starts, you can toggle the round count for each match, whether the Critical Gauge carries over from match to match, if teams have to lock in their team order at the start of the battle, and if winning characters get a health boost/V-Gauge advantage upon going into their next match. While characters are locked in at the start of a Team Versus match, you can pick your V-Trigger at the start of each match.

SFV AE Team Battle 2
SFV AE Team Battle 8
SFV AE Team Battle 1
SFV AE Team Battle 3
SFV AE Team Battle 7
SFV AE Team Battle 6
SFV AE Team Battle 4
SFV AE Team Battle 5

Just on this brief (and somewhat chaotic) preview, Team Versus looks perfect for hosting team tournaments — without the bother of having to restart Versus Mode every time a match finishes. You can check out the full breakdown over on Capcom Unity, which runs through all of the available settings for Team Versus.

Sources: CapcomUnity; UpUpDownDown

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Get ready for the next battle! London is getting its first 3v3 Tekken 7 tournament

Hoping to provide some team-based competition for Tekken fans in the UK, East London Fighters have just announced the capital’s first ever public Tekken 7 teams tournament. Run in partnership with famed anime tournament organizers NGI Events, this Tekken Team Tournament will see teams of three battling for supremacy in February of next year.

The event will take place on February 17th at EXP Leisure – a familiar venue for London’s FGC – and it should hopefully attract teams from around the UK and from the continent as well. Team entry is £30 and sign-ups are now available on the Tekken Team Tournament smash.gg page.

Combined with Rival Scenes up in Leeds and Gutter Trash’s regular 3v3 tournament for Third Strike, the UK has quite the affinity for team tournaments. Let’s hope Tekken Team Tournament becomes a regular event on the UK’s FGC calendar.

Source: East London Fighters