With just over a month to go until the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Capcom have released a full story trailer for the crossover fighter. Showing off Jedah, Dormammu, Ghost Rider and Firebrand ahead of Gamescom, this Story Mode summary hints at the true scale of MvC:I’s plot.
Jedah is a main villain in MvC:I, conspiring with Dormammu to unleash a giant Symbiote beast to stop the Marvel and Capcom heroes from taking the Soul Stone. As heroes like Haggar and Spider-Man are beaten back, Ghost Rider flies in with Morrigan to fight the malevolent vampire. Based on this trailer, the Story Mode will have us hopping between different missions, as our heroes try to stop both Ultron-Sigma and other villains from claiming the remaining Infinity Stones.
Other things to note in this trailer are the appearance of Dr. Light from the Megaman series — and that Capcom have finally fixed Chun-Li’s face! Producer Mike Evans had promised that Chun-Li’s character model would be improved in time for MvC:I’s launch, and Capcom looks to have delivered on that promise.
Capcom have also revealed the suite of modes that will be available when MvC:I launches in September. Alongside Story Mode, you’ve got the standard single player selection of Arcade Mode, Training Mode, tutorial missions, character challenges and the Dr. Light Database — basically MvC:I’s art and music collection. As for online modes, the big standout is the Beginners League, which allows players between ranks 1-14 to play in a special training league. For those who are still learning the ropes, this seems like a great way to find your footing before you set off into the wilds of Ranked play.
Jedah, Dormammu, Ghost Rider, and Firebrand bring the launch roster of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite up to 30 characters, with six more to come via the game’s season pass. Based on previous leaks and announcements from Capcom, we know at least five of the six characters. They are:
Black Panther
Sigma
Winter Soldier
A Monster Hunter
Venom
There is still one character up in the air, but we’ll no doubt find out who they are in the coming months. If you want to get your hands on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite before its September 19th launch, it will be playable at Toronto Fan Expo, PAX West, as well as Sony’s Road to Greatness games tour. For all the dates on the Road to Greatness tour, check out the official tour site.
Appearing in the Alpha series along with Street Fighter III, certain characters would have special introductions when they met in battle. Ryu and Ken would fist bump, Hugo and Alex would re-enact the famous Andre the Giant/Hulk Hogan standoff, and so on. While only being small animations, they added some character to certain match-ups and reminded players of the lore surrounding the Street Fighter series.
While special intros still appear in games like Injustice 2, they have all but disappeared from modern Street Fighter games. Hoping to inject some of that lost character back into the series, sigmaG19 has remade some of his favorite special intros, using models from Street Fighter IV and V. Fingers crossed that Capcom takes notice and brings these beloved animations back for the rumored Super Street Fighter V expansion.
Returning to the Anaheim Convention Center for the second year in a row, Sony has announced the dates for this year’s PlayStation Experience. Running from December 9th-10th, it acts as a mecca for PlayStation players and — more importantly to some of us — it’s the site of this year’s Capcom Cup.
That’s right, Capcom Cup 2017 will form part of this year’s PlayStation Experience, with the Street Fighter V world final bringing the event to a close on December 10th. It is unsure at this time if Capcom Cup will run similar to last year (with it being split across both days of the event) but Sony has stated that more will be revealed in the coming weeks.
There is also the possibility of a Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite final at PSX as well, if the leaked Capcom esports presentation is to be believed. According to the internal marketing pitch, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will share the stage with Street Fighter V at the PlayStation Experience, in the hope of it becoming a permanent fixture of 2018’s Capcom Pro Tour. We will no doubt find out more when MvC:I launches September 19th.
Early bird tickets are currently available for PSX 2017, going for $65 for a two-day pass. Once the batch of early bird tickets are sold, standard passes will go for $75. If you want to secure your pass, head on over to the official PSX 2017 website.
With Akuma being in both Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V, Capcom UK has created a bit of a challenge for skilled practitioners of the Satsui no Hado. Through some careful arcade stick modding, it is possible to wire up your stick to play both games at the same time. As the Raging Demon input is the same across both games, you can essentially perform a double Raging Demon with careful timing.
Naming it the “Die 2000 Deaths!” challenge, Capcom UK tasked players like Tyrant, Shoryusengan, and even Yoshinori Ono himself to complete this devious task. You can check out their attempts in the video below — and if you think you can do better, make sure to leave a comment with your Double Demon attempt. If you’ve got the hardware, maybe set up Ultra Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and see if you can pull off a Quadruple Demon!
A recent For Honor tournament acted as a cautionary tale for fighting game developers everywhere. Held at the Intel Esports Arena in Burbank, one For Honor player managed to win an official tournament (meant to celebrate the launch of For Honor Season 3) by continuously abusing a pretty huge in-game exploit. Known as the “unlock tech,” this trick allows Nobushi players to make her attacks unparryable. While you can still block Nobushi’s attacks, the lack of a parry makes it so you’re pretty much stuck on the defensive for the entire game. When you combine this with Nobushi’s massive range and power, you’ve got the makings of a disaster.
The exploit has been common knowledge for months, with the victorious player Jakub “Alernakin” Palen even writing a lengthy Reddit post which implored Ubisoft to patch out the unlock tech. In tournament, Alernakin made it very obviously that he was exploiting the unlock tech for free wins, stating that he “hadn’t played the game for two weeks” during his victory speech.
For Honor‘s creative director was clearly displeased by Palen’s antics, saying that he would “have to change [his] playstyle” for upcoming events. Ubisoft did release patch notes ahead of the tournament, which stated that not only was unlock teching “unintended behavior,” but that the balance team were in the progress of nixing this rather troublesome exploit. Unfortunately, the well-needed balance change was not rolled out in time for this tournament, giving Palen an easy ride to $10,000.
So take note fighting game developers and tournament organizers everywhere: if there is a potentially game-breaking exploit in your game, either patch it ASAP or ban players from using it on pain of disqualification. If you want to see Palen’s tournament run, you can watch the tournament VOD below:
Acting as a tentpole event in the Summer of Smash, Super Smash Con 2017 saw players of all games gathering in Chantilly, Virginia, to enjoy three days of Super Smash Bros. related fun. With it being jam-packed with panels and exhibitions alongside the main tournaments, you may have missed key moments or matches from the convention. If you’re looking to catch up, here is one huge compilation of everything you may have missed.
We already covered the Smash 64 combo contest over the weekend, but you may not have seen the actual top 8 for the whole event. It was the Japanese who ended up dominating the event, with the top three players all hailing from the birthplace of the Super Smash Bros. series.
This year’s Brawl tournament was a surprisingly diverse affair, with only two Meta-Knights appearing the entirety of top 8. While it has been overshadowed by its younger sibling, it’s always good to look back at the game which birthed many of the greats which now dominates Smash 4.
Acting as the newest kid on the platform fighter block — well, until Icons: Combat Arena comes out — Rivals of Aether has found quite the home at Super Smash Con. Along with a panel which revealed the frog monk Ranno, Rivals of Aether had a great showing with both doubles and singles events. Current Rivals number one Edax|Fullstream held his position at the top of the mountain and he looks set to continue his reign into the finals of RCS Season 2.
Smash 4 at Super Smash Con never ceases to be dull, with this year’s event being full of upsets, comebacks and even choreographed dance routines. Fresh off his victory in Brawl and defending his throne after last year’s win, it was NRG|Nairo who held the SSC trophy aloft on Sunday, after defeating TSM|ZeRo in a grueling 10-game set. Nairo’s path to victory stands as one of the greatest Losers’ runs of all time, with him having to defeat players like 2GG|komorikiri, P1|Tweek, CLG|VoiD, EMP|WaDi, BC|Mr. R and Echo Fox|MVG|MKLeo to finally reach ZeRo. There must be something about the Super Smash Con crowd, as Nairo turns it up to 11 whenever he attends this supermajor.
Similar to Nairo’s title defense, Cloud 9’s Mango held onto the SSC throne in Melee, managing to win the event using Falco. With no Armada in his way and Liquid|Hungrybox located on the other side of the bracket, Mango was able to win the whole event using his trusty bird. If we’re being a real stickler for the rules, he did use Mario for one match versus Axe, but Falco did all of the heavy lifting. Elsewhere in Top 8, Tempo|Axe actually pulled out his Young Link against Hungrybox and managed to take a game against the elusive puffball. He wasn’t able to finish out the set, but we may see more of the elf boy should Hungrybox and Axe meet again in tournament. The other stand-out performance of the weekend was from hometown hero Zain, who made it all the way to fifth place in a bracket of gods and demi-gods. His set versus CLG|SFAT was an absolute clinic with it acting as a masterclass in the Marth/Fox match-up. I expect Zain to be picked up by a big esports team before the year is done.
Super Smash Con saw the return of the Smash Masters event as well, with an expanded roster of multi-game players fighting for the title of best all-round Smash player. Best known for his skill in 64 and Melee, it was Wizzrobe’s turn to take up the mantle of Smash Master. I do hope they eventually add a fifth game to the Smash Masters games line-up, as its rules is still a nightmare to figure out.
It’s time to put all the time watching clips of Dragon Ball FighterZ to good use! ESL and Bandai Namco have just opened registration for Gamescom’s official DBFZ tournament. The tournament has a cap of 64 entrants, with all of the action set to be streamed on the ESL’s official Twitch channel on Friday, August 25th at 6:00 AM PDT.
The prodigal son and UK fighting game legend Ryan Hart will be providing commentary, and Namco Bandai have confirmed that the Gamescom build will have Krillin, Piccolo and Future Trunks playable. This build will probably form the basis of the version fans will get to play in DBFZ’s closed beta in September, so make sure to watch the tournament stream and take as many notes as you can!
As for the 10th character scheduled to join the DBFZ beta, they are set to be revealed in the August 21st issue of V-Jump — which is where Krillin and Piccolo were shown off. Android 17 is the bookie’s favorite for the next character to be announced due to statements made by their English voice actor, but Arc System Works may pull a fast one on us and reveal someone brand new. Come on, Ginyu.
With Dragon Ball FighterZ playable at VSFighting 2017 this past weekend, European players of all skill levels were able to get their first hands-on with the eagerly anticipated 3v3 fighter. As tons of information has already been discovered from other play-tests, a handful of keen lab monsters jumped straight into the playable demo and began pushing the game to its full potential.
You can see the fruits of their labor below, with players finding combos that use all seven bars of meter! Keep in mind that the build playable at VSF is the same as the initial E3 one, so some combos may be familiar to keen-eyed DBFZ fans.
GFAnBi has also posted some generalnotes on DBFZ as well, so give them a read if you’re looking for even more information. Gamescom is planning to host the first ever European Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament, so these combos and bits of info should stand you in good stead if you are heading to Germany for the show.
The ledge is a powerful tool in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Sets are won and lost based off devious ledge traps, missed ledge-dashes and split-second edge hogs. Seeing as ledge play is so integral to becoming a great Smash player, SSBM Tutorials is dedicating a two-part video series to keeping control of this tiny bit of stage.
This first episode is strictly about the basics, with narrator CDK telling players about the four essential rules of the ledge, as well as when to use certain get-up options. Every character has unique animations for their ledge jump, ledge roll, ledge attack and neutral ledge get-up, so make sure to learn the situations where a particular option is the most useful.
Expect the second episode of this ledge info bonanza to go live next week, with it explaining advanced techniques like ledge-dashing, Shino stalling, Sami stalling and more.
Continuing their series of combo guides for Version 2.01 of King of Fighters XIV, Persona Entertainment have set their sights on series protagonist and heir to the Kusanagi clan, Kyo. A popular pick even before the Ver 2.01 update, the latest version of Kyo has some serious combo potential.
According to Persona Entertainment, Kyo has to hit his opponent with the latest possible active frames of a move, so he has enough time to recover and continue the combo. If you master hitting people with the very last active frame of certain attacks, you can make Kyo deal some major damage. The 100% combos at the end of the video show just how hard this hot-headed delinquent can hit.
