Author: Sam "Trilby" Foxall

Having covered his previous video on how to analyse match replays, KillerJawz is back with another episode in his Trainer Tips series, focusing on how players can mix up their own landings and counter someone else’s. While the video focuses mainly on Mewtwo’s landing options, this guide acts as a great template for looking at your own character’s aerial movement and offense landing tools and finding out which are best for when you are trying to land.

If you are looking to counter Mewtwo while he is landing, or are a Mewtwo main struggling to get back to stage safely, this guide is perfect for learning your options and how to fight back in certain situations. It covers platform edge cancels using Teleport, shifting aerial momentum using Shadow Ball, and how to use Confusion as a mini third jump which can be wavebounced or B-reversed.

Source: KillerJawz Arancinix

After a brief break for Super Smash Con, Jason from Wavedash Games is back with another developer vlog. This week’s topic is discussing whether their platform fighter will have an analog shielding system, like the system in Melee, or a digital system similar to holding the block button in a fighter like Mortal Kombat.

With an analog shielding mechanic, players can choose the strength of their shield with a light shield or a full shield. Thanks to the Gamecube controller’s analog shoulder buttons, the controller can detect variances in your button press and give you either a full shield or light shield based on the force applied. This makes the shielding system very easy to understand at first–push button, defend yourself from attacks–but provides added depth once players have mastered the initial system by varying up the strength of pressing that shield button, depending on the situation. This mechanic is consigned to a single button press, making the concept of shielding easy to grasp for a brand new player.

However, with modern controllers dispensing with analog buttons and using digital buttons where your input is either on or off, you lose this extra degree of control. With a digital shielding system, there would be a designated block button, alongside extra inputs like pressing two buttons at once if you wanted a different shield type as the controller cannot read variable inputs via that single button press. As Jason says in the video, this minor input change drastically increases the barrier to entry as the once easily understandable single shield button has to have a bunch of caveats lumped on it for different scenarios.

The team at Wavedash have not quite decided on their shield system just yet and are trying to design something that works whether you use analog or digital buttons, but this video provides a enlightening glimpse into the theory behind crafting control systems for fighting games. The game could end up having a push block system, a parry mechanic similar to 3rd Strike or it may dispense with shields all together, similar to Rivals of Aether.

Source: Wavedash Games

Acting as one of the prime tech researchers in the world of Smash 4, the Beefy Smash Doods have set their sights on a quirk with Smash 4’s input buffering system, which they called the ‘Aerial Input Lock’. Most easily observed with Yoshi’s Egg Lay move, players have noticed that despite mashing a certain aerial while encased in the egg, their character seem to perform a different aerial upon busting out of the shell.

In the video, Risuno of the Beefy Smash Doods explains that if a player continues to mash the attack button while in the egg, they essentially lock their character’s input until they stop hammering the attack button. So if you accidentally pressed down and A as your first input upon entering the Egg Lay animation yet you wanted to do an up air instead, you could only reset the lock until you stop pushing the A button and allowed the game to register a fresh new input.

So, to stop this locking of inputs, all you really have to do is press your desired attack input once. That’s all there is to it. While this sounds like an incredibly niche bit of information, this Aerial Input Lock doesn’t just apply to Yoshi’s Egg Lay. It actually applies to every single animation in the game where you must wait before your character can act again. This includes aerials, air dodges, specials and even hit stun. This information explains many complaints players have of the game ‘eating’ their inputs and not doing the move they desire – it’s probably because you were frantically mashing A. Make sure to check out the video to see the possible applications of the Aerial Input Lock and how being aware of it can help diagnose why you SDed or dropping that crucial combo.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods

The top level of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U fluctuates from tournament to tournament, with old guard players sinking down the pecking order while newer stars can catapult to success over a few events. With opinions and placings changing so rapidly, it is natural that some players will get lost in the shuffle and be slept on by a large portion of the Smash playing public.

In his new video, TSM|ZeRo seeks to redress this balance by listing five players he believes are the most underrated at this point in time–whether it is due to inactivity or other players overshadowing their successes. Three of them are US players who are known for their skill, but other players who also play their character have been having more noticeable wins as of late. The remaining two are Japanese players who either haven’t performed that well when coming overseas, or have yet to make the trip over the ocean, so they are mainly known as a major threat within their own region.

With more and more esports teams picking up Smash 4 talent, videos like this will help point organizations and other players to those who have been flying under the radar.

Source: ZeRo

Known for their informative Guilty Gear tutorials, the Chemical Lovers are branching out into Killer Instinct with a new series designed to get players up to speed with KI’s unique mechanical quirks. Before diving into the nitty gritty of Manuals, Combo Breakers and all of that fun stuff, Novril focuses on things like the pricing model for Killer Instinct, resources which will help pick your character, the Shadow Labs training mode, as well as the in-game tutorial which acts as a great introduction into the combat system present in KI.

There is also a brief discussion of how Killer Instinct’s neutral game works, compared to a game like Street Fighter–with the answer being fairly similar, in case you’re wondering. Killer Instinct offers a free-to-play edition, and with the cut-price Definitive Edition and the single player Shadow Lords mode coming on September 20th for both Xbox One and Windows 10, this guide series will be the perfect aid to any players want to pick up KI in the coming months.

Source: novriltataki