Author: Sam "Trilby" Foxall

Peach is one of those characters in Smash 4 that is touted as having great potential but she has yet to really be cracked open and mastered by a single player. Irish Peach main EOE is on his way there though, cranking loads of incredibly flashy and informative combo and tutorial videos to show off all the tech Peach has to call on in battle. In the first of eight guides about Peach and her advanced tech, EOE outlines how versatile Peach’s float is and how this one ability opens the door to loads of movement and attacking options.

From instantly cancelling ground floats, to cancelling all upward momentum with a jump cancelled fast fall and even jumping up through a platform to almost instantly grab a shielding opponent, mastering Peach’s float will make this princess an absolute demon to fight against. Remember, this guide is just about her float and EOE promises seven more videos in this general Peach series, so key your eyes glued to his Youtube and Twitter for the next installment in how to master the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Source: EOE

With The King of Fighters XIV demo releasing worldwide over the next few days, many people will be making their first strides into SNK’s fighting game series. Quite a few of them will try, have trouble adapting to the mechanical differences KOF has compared to other fighting games like Street Fighter and then quit. While it may have been made back when King of Fighters XIII was about to come out, this general beginner’s guide to KOF by Dandy J proves very helpful for those trying to learn the ins and outs of KOF’s systems.

It goes over elements like the different jump heights and how to use them, how to set up a good offense and defense during a KOF match, how rolls work as well as the basic combo flow, similar to the Magic Series in a game like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. While by no means extensive or complete, this beginner’s guide is perfect for those who still aren’t fully au fait with the basics of King of Fighters, but still want to try the demo out and know that they aren’t just button mashing.

Source: rogueyoshi

I don’t think my heart can take much more of these tournaments. CEO set the pace for the summer of Smash and Evo 2016 has only raised the bar higher, as we saw top level matches from players from around the world. Despite there being some big complaints from players about the running of Smash 4, the game is only going to get bigger and the quality of play even better so expect even more excitement from Super Smash Con in August. For now, let’s all take a look back and marvel at the weekend that was Evo 2016.

Kamemushi Leads the Japanese Charge

Tipping him as one of the players to watch at this year’s competition, the Megaman god Kamemushi did not disappoint, shredding through the bracket with his patented red Megaman and crowd-pleasing ‘Kamecombos’. While his prowess in Japan is proven, it was questionable whether Kamemushi would perform in the USA, as Japan is known for its inconsistency once it travels abroad. These thoughts were quickly put to rest as Megaman stormed through the bracket, with Kamemushi dispatching players like False, Shaky, Mr-R, Earth and CLG VoiD to make his way into Winner’s Side of Top 8. Megaman must have some special power over Sheik players, as Kamemushi was able to get both Mr-R and VoiD to miraculously SD and put the Super Fighting Robot a simple Z-drop away from victory. While Kamemushi is known for those brutal footstool combos, his pivot grabs and back-air edgeguards were lethal, making getting back to stage a nightmare for anyone who lost stage control. While Ally did hand Kamemushi a convincing loss in Winners’ Finals, he must have downed an E-Tank and souped up the Mega Buster as he proceeded to 3-0 world number 1 TSM ZeRo in a dominating set all on Final Destination.

His DI was phenomenal, surviving hits to around 150% to then get back on stage to set up an edgeguard of his own. The momentum looked on his side going into his fight versus Ally, switching to Yoshi for the first game after Megaman failed to put a dent in Ally’s Mario. The counterpick did not go to plan, forcing Kamemushi back onto his trademark main and a battle of the company mascots, with Mario facing off against Megaman for Evo 2016 champion. Kamemushi did fire back in game 2, getting on the board but he could not overcome Ally’s unrelenting pressure and punish game. For his first venture outside of Japan, Kamemushi made the world sit up and reconsider just how good Megaman actually is as a character and I hope that he sticks around for Super Smash Con in August.

While most eyes were on Kamemushi, Japan had a big presence in Top 16 with 5 players making it to the last stages. Earth put on the performance of his career with Pit, defeating rising US talent like Tweek, Z, Pugwest and Xaltis before being teamkilled by Kamemushi and then eliminated by ZeRo. The sleeping giant Ranai showed us all why he should not be forgotten about, displaying his masterful use of the Lloid Rocket and the Slingshot to control space and rack up constant damage. His usage of the Axe as a surprise kill option was another way to apply pressure and his victory over Dream Team’s Dabuz in a matchup which is awful for Villager is certainly something. Like with Earth, he was also sent to Losers by another Japanese player, being the actual Mewtwo king Abadango, who had just come off a dominating set against Team eLevate’s Larry Lurr. Falling to Ally, Abandango eventually went out at the hands of ZeRo, achieving 5^th place along with Ranai. Further down the scale, KEN proved to be the best Sonic with a 13^th place finish, with Komorikiri not far behind at 17^th while Rain, HIKARU and Kirihara all tied for 33^rd place. More Japanese players are confirmed for Super Smash Con and with the announcement of Evo Japan, expect to see even more Japanese representation at the top level of Smash 4 in the very near future.

Pools of Lava

If you thought the CEO pools were dangerous, they were like the kiddy pool compared to the carnage going on in Evo pools. There was upset on upset in the race to top 32, with champions and top level picks failing to make competition on Saturday. Panda Global’s ESAM lost to Nick C’s Falcon, a match up that Pikachu should win no problem while team mate MVD joined him after losing to NotLast’s Peach. Zinoto, a player many people picked to do well after his CEO performance was knocked out by DOOM’s Rosalina before going out to Tyrant’s Meta Knight while CEO champion, Dream Team’s ANTi was eliminated by Robin main Dath after being sent to Losers’ by Xaltis. It seems that Mario mains must swap positions at majors, with ANTi achieving 33^rd while Ally went onto win the whole event. New England’s Pugwest eliminated Tweek, one of the USA’s top Clouds while Vegas resident FOW was sent out by Rich Brown’s Mewtwo, making a marked difference from last year’s Evo where FOW successfully made top 8. Mr E also managed to knock ZeRo into Losers’ during pools, making the climb to his eventual 3^rd position a living hell for anyone that stood in his way. While Smash 4 is already super volatile, 2/3 sets made mistakes all the more painful so it was no wonder that so many good players reach lower than expectation. With 3/5s coming in earlier at Super Smash Con, some of this inconsistency should be ironed out somewhat. We hope.

Canada Takes the Gold

After winning on home turf at Get On My Level and a less than stellar performance at CEO, Ally had quite a lot to prove going into Evo as another Mario main was looking to steal his crown. Only dropping 2 games during the course of top 32, Ally keeps proving that Mario should be considered a top 10 or even a top 5 character based on his high placings. He looked untouchable in some matches, especially the Winners’ Final set against Kamemushi where he actually forced Kamemushi to switch off Megaman and make a panic Cloud pick, which promptly got steamrolled. Kamemushi did look like he was learning how to tackle Ally during game 4 of Grand Finals but the Canadian just proved too strong. Ally’s victory earns him the record of the highest single payout in Super Smash Bros history, as well as the only Canadian to ever win an Evo title. The supposed counterpick meta isn’t looking so true now, as Ally’s Mario was able to up smash through every obstacle in his way.

Diversity’s Still King

Evo Top 8 had each of its 8 contenders playing different characters, a first in any Top 8 in Smash 4’s history. From Mewtwo to Megaman to Mario to Sheik, character diversity is still very much alive and considerations for top tier will always be changing. There were no Cloud mains in Top 8 which further proves the point that Cloud is not the best character in the game and guarantees an easy win, whereas Sheik continues to place in top 3 and appear repeatedly in top 16. Marth got his time in the sun, with Mr E and Pugwest placing in top 32, with Lucario squeaking in at 13^th, thanks to Day. Zero Suit Samus continues to be inconsistent, with both Nairo and Marss placing outside of top 8 while Earth’s Pit showed that the most vanilla character in Smash 4 can actually place well. Still no signs of Ganondorf or Zelda surging up the table but the top 15 characters keeps on changing.

And It’s Still All To Play For!

For all the fanfare and celebration, I can tell you right now that these placements will look radically different come the end of Super Smash Con. While Ally is looking dominant at the moment, all it takes is another death pool or an unknown player to come out of nowhere to send him into Losers’ and put his position in jeopardy. While ZeRo went into Losers’, his amazing run to 3^rd proved that you cannot count him out despite his lower placings as of late while newer players like VoiD are only snowballing in terms of skill. VoiD got 49^th at Evo last year and now he has placed 4^th; improvement of that scale is happening constantly as people practice harder and harder. Moreover, there is the likely chance of someone like Kamemushi coming out of the Japanese cohort and making a massive first impression and further shaking up the top placements. Smash 4 continues to be the biggest game of ‘who could it be’ in the FGC at the moment and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In part of their Super Smash Bros. content offensive, Panda Global have drafted in resident analyst and team player Robert “Wobbles” Wright for a series of tournament wrap ups, going over key moments and matches during recent Melee tournaments. This pilot episode involves Wobbles going over performances at WTFox 2, analyzing such matches as Echo Fox’s Mew2King’s 3-0 over Liquid|Hungrybox and C9|Mango’s convincing play against Alliance|Armada in grand finals.

The show is a little rough and ready at the moment, it being a pilot and all, so expect better sound and video quality for the next episode, where Wobbles will be going over all of the intense Melee action at this year’s Evo. Panda Global is encouraging constructive criticism and feedback to this first episode so make sure to leave your opinion about the editing and overall style of the show in the video comments.

Source: Panda Global

For those people who do not play on arcade stick, Controller Chaos still has you covered for commemorative controllers to celebrate Evo 2016. Alongside special Evo PS4, Xbox One and GameCube controllers, Controller Chaos will have a very limited selection of HORI Pokkén controllers which will be available to buy from their stall, located next to the official Evo merch booth.

Each of the controllers will be numbered from 1 to 100 for the PS4, Xbox One and GameCube with there only being around 25 Pokkén controllers available from the booth. Do not fret if you cannot make it to Evo as these designs will be available from the official Controller Chaos website sometime in the future. There will also be a wide range of other designs that Evo attendees can pick from, should the nebula design not appeal to them. Controller Chaos have released a short video showing what the PS4 pad looks like, so expect the same design and sheen on all other controllers.

Source: Controller Chaos