Start on the path to combo mastery with Novril’s guide to learning long combos

With the recent discovery of the hit-stun decay glitch in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, players are starting to develop super long, touch-of-death combos. If you’re still learning Marvel’s systems, it can be awfully daunting to even recreate these 100+ hit sequences, let alone think of your own. To help players who may be struggling to perform these mammoth combos, Novril has created a short tutorial which should aid you on your quest.

The most important thing to do is to break one combo down into a series of small sections. Practice each section multiple times by itself so you can build up your muscle memory. Once you have mastered each part, try linking them together in the same sequence — pausing to practice transitions that you struggle with. Keep on doing this until you can do the whole combo without any mistakes. Don’t forget to do it on both sides of the screen, just to be sure!

Make sure to take breaks if you are getting frustrated — as well as to give your hands a rest from all that work. It is a long and laborious process at first, but you will get better if you practice regularly.

Source: novriltataki

Infilament’s brilliant Killer Instinct guide is now complete, with sections on Kilgore, Eagle, and Shin Hisako

After several years of pain-staking research and writing, Infilament’s Killer Instinct guide is 100% complete. The one-stop shop for anyone wanting to learn KI, this guide now has entries for latest characters Kilgore, Shin Hisako, and Eagle, meaning all 29 fighters are now covered.

From starter combo paths, breaker timing for every Shadow move and counter-strategies for each character: Infilament’s guide is probably the most comprehensive guide for any fighting game to date. If you have just picked up Killer Instinct on Steam and are looking to learn more about the game, I wholeheartedly recommend Infil’s guide. It was essential reading when I started with KI and it will give you a decent grounding for learning the intricacies of the game.

The guide even comes with a comprehensive history of Killer Instinct patch notes, so new players can see how it has evolved to become the game it is today. Now if only there was a way to play old patches, like USFIV’s edition select…

Source: Infilament

The final DLC character for Street Fighter V Season 2 will be revealed during SEAM Top 8

The waiting is almost over people, as Capcom are finally set to reveal the final DLC character coming in Season 2 of Street Fighter V. This character — who is more than likely Guy’s sensei and ninja grandmaster Zeku — will be shown off during Street Fighter V Top 8 at South East Asia Major this weekend.

The word “infiltrate” and the use of the Kanzuki Estate stage are big hints towards a ninja character. Plus, the character silhouette on the Street Fighter Facebook page sports a visible ponytail, much like Zeku in his official Street Fighter V artwork.

But the real question remains — what will Zeku play like and when will he join the roster? Based on the Menat reveal, I wouldn’t be surprised if Zeku launches next Tuesday, the same day as Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s first batch of DLC.

Source: Street Fighter

Spider-Man’s Reality Stone infinite has been “soft-banned” at Battle for the Stones tournaments

Ahead of a new balance patch on October 16th, Capcom have instituted a “soft ban” on those who would use Spider-Man’s infinite in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. This ruling states that “a player must end the loop after a third cycle” or else they will forfeit their current match to the opponent.

According to Capcom, the Web Ball/Reality Stone loop is “an unintended effect that circumvents the gameplay mechanics,” so they have made the executive decision to issue a soft ban. The legality of any future infinites will be decided “on a case by case basis.”

It has to be said though: it’s perplexing that a game with Infinite in the title does not allow infinites to be used in a tournament…

In reality, this ban will only really affect South East Asia Major this weekend, which acts as the Time Stone tournament on the Battle for the Stones circuit. Next Monday’s patch, immediately ahead of the addition of Monster Hunter, Black Panther and Sigma, will remove this infinite from the game.

Source: Capcom

Is Plup a new god of Melee? Mew2King offers his opinion on the current competitive pantheon

For those who haven’t been keeping tabs on the competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee scene, The Big House 7 last weekend marked a pivotal moment in the game’s history. Not only did the tournament see four of the Melee Gods all in Losers’ Quarters, but it saw Plup earning his first ever victory on current king of the mountain, Armada. This victory makes Plup the second “godslayer” in Melee, joining Leffen in the small category of players who have taken a set off each of the Five Gods. Funnily enough, the Winners’ Finals of The Big House 7 saw the two godslayers facing off, with Plup coming out as the victor

A larger question remains though: can Plup now be considered one of the current Gods of Super Smash Bros. Melee? With PPMD still on hiatus and Leffen taking his spot in the rankings, is it time to make it the Six Gods of Melee, rather than just five? One of the original Five Gods and current world number four Mew2King seems to think so.

With there being such a large gap between the sixth and seventh place spots in the current MIOM global ranking, Mew2King argues that Plup has more than proved his God status — with several wins on all of the other Gods outside of Armada. When you also consider that Plup’s showdown with Armada was their first meeting in the whole of 2017 and that Plup took it 3-1, it could signal that he has cracked the match up.

Source: Most Valuable Gaming

Clobber the rest of the Smash 4 cast with Izaw’s “Art of Dedede” character guide

Moving onto a character at the lower end of the tierlist, Izaw’s latest “Art of” guide for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U focuses on Dream Land’s perfect penguin king, King Dedede. While he has the worst airspeed out of the whole cast and is combo food for most of the top tiers, Dedede excels at trapping your opponent at the ledge. Izaw has even called in Dedede specialist Girthquake and Soul Train to show off just how devastating this penguin can be. With careful use of his Gordo projectile, Dedede can rack up easy damage or even stylish kills on opponents dangling off the edge of the stage.

What he lacks in speed, Dedede makes up for in power. His f-smash shatters shields and he can line up guaranteed shield breaks with careful Gordo placement. While you probably won’t ever win a major playing Dedede, you can certainly style on your opponent. Dunking someone with his Super Dedede Jump is always satisfying.

Source: IzawSmash

Brawlhalla dives onto PlayStation 4 on October 17th

After almost two years in Steam Early Access, Brawlhalla is ready to launch on both PC and PlayStation 4 on October 17th. The free-to-play platform fighter currently has 34 playable characters, with the cannon-wielding Corsair joining the roster on October 18th.

If players download the free-to-play version, they will access just a portion of the roster, but if you purchase the $19.99 All Legends Pack on Steam or the Founder’s Pack on PS4, you’ll gain access to all 34 characters, as well as any future editions.

With the Brawlhalla World Championship coming up later next month in Atlanta, now is the perfect time to jump in on the action. Cross-play between the PS4 and PC version is planned further down the line, so all players can compete against one another.

Source: Brawlhalla

YOUDEAL is pitting Team Japan versus Team USA in a special 5v5 Street Fighter V exhibition

Bringing together some of the finest Street Fighter V players from the USA and Japan, esports organization YOUDEAL is hosting a special 5v5 team exhibition to determine which country is truly the best. With Daigo Umehara as Japan’s captain and Justin Wong as the USA’s, it’s going to be quite the showdown. The lineups are as follows:

Team Japan

  • GRPT|Haitani
  • GRPT|Fuudo
  • AW|Nemo
  • GGP|Kazunoko
  • Hx.Twitch.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara (team captain)

Team USA

  • RISE|Smug
  • Splyce|Filipino Champ
  • CYG BST|Snake Eyez
  • CYG BST|PR Balrog
  • FOX|Justin Wong (team captain)

Both teams are missing some heavy hitters, with both NuckleDu and Punk nowhere to be seen for Team USA, while Team Japan have let Tokido, Yukadon and Momochi sit this one out. You’ll have to be up pretty early to watch this exhibition, with it streaming live on NicoNico at 8pm JST/4am PDT tomorrow. Hopefully, there will be an English restream at some point, so non-night owls can catch up on all of the action.

Source: YOUDEAL LIVE

ARMS Ver 3.2 adds in a new achievement system, along with Spring Man’s robotic clone

Following its appearance at the Nintendo World Championships last night, Nintendo has released a new trailer showing off some of the new content coming in ARMS Ver 3.2. The main addition is the Badge Stash, a special achievement system where players gain badges for completing specific tasks. You can then attach these badges to your online profile, to show off your skills.

In a short teaser at the end of the trailer, we get a glimpse of a robotic version of Spring Man, designed in the style of Hedlok from the single-player Grand Prix mode. He appears on for just a few seconds, so it’s hard to tell if this metal counterpart is a brand new character, or just an alt-skin for ARMS‘ mascot.

Source: Nintendo

New update to Unreal Engine 4 will reduce baseline input latency, affecting games like Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V

While we are no longer suffering through Street Fighter V‘s eight frames of input lag, many modern-day fighters are still struggling to reduce input latency. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is clocked at having exactly six frames of input delay — at least on the PS4 version — meaning that some developers have yet to crack the five frame barrier.

Much of this stems from these games running on Unreal Engine 4, which natively has around three to four frames of input lag. As a result, fighting game developers already have an uphill battle in making games as responsive as possible. However, an upcoming update to Unreal Engine 4 aims to cut its native input latency by around two frames for games running at 60hz.

According to Unreal Engine developer Epic Games, the 4.19 update to Unreal Engine 4 will reduce input latency “by around 66ms” for 30hz games, with “the reduction [being] around half that in a 60Hz title”. With a single frame being around 16.667ms, we’re looking at a potential two frame input lag reduction for any fighting game running on Unreal 4.

This is not a direct reduction of course; developers will have to do some work on their end to utilize this engine optimization but it bodes well for those wanting hyper-responsive fighting games.

Source: Unreal Engine; thanks to WAZAAAAA for the tip