Happening straight after the Super Saiyan Showdown between Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat, Esports Arena are holding a special Dragon Ball FighterZ invitational — where four top anime fighter players will fight for glory. Hosted by Marc Dorris, this exhibition will have LordKnight, Nakkiel, NerdJosh and Tatsu showing off some high-level DBFZ play, before the game comes out on January 26th.
It's almost time to throw down. After the #SuperSaiyanShowdown, watch these four fighters try to achieve glory in the #DragonballFighterZ Battle of the Gods Invitational!
Tickets are still available from the Esports Arena website and there will be demo stations at the event, meaning you can start experimenting with the full roster before Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s full release. With players discovering tons of tech during the open beta, expect the first two weeks of DBFZ to be truly spectacular.
After announcing the Oceania International Championships earlier this month, the Pokémon Company have officially revealed that the Pokkén Championship Series will indeed be returning for 2018. Held over three regional qualifier and a last chance qualifier, this year’s championship will culminate at the Pokkén World Championships in Nashville, Tennessee.
In a change from last year, there will be two age divisions for the 2018 Pokkén Championship Series, similar to Pokémon TCG and VGC tournaments. The Senior Division is for players born in 2003 or later (below the age of 16), while the Masters Division is for those born in 2002 or earlier — so those aged 16 or older. The final Masters bracket will be made up of 16 players, with the Senior Division bracket being composed of only eight competitors. For those wanting to know how many players qualify from each tournament, here’s the breakdown:
Oceania International Championships: Top two from Masters Division, winner of Senior Division
North America International Championships: Top four from Masters Division, top two from Senior Division
Sheffield (UK) Regional Championships: Top four from Masters Division, top two from Senior Division
The rest of the Worlds invitations will be awarded to players from Japan and high placers in the Last Chance Qualifier.
All tournaments will use a double elimination format and players must either use the official HORI Pokkén controller or a wired fight stick. You are not allowed to use a wired Nintendo Switch pro controller — which is odd when you consider the one of the second place prizes in a Senior Division qualifier is a pro controller.
For all the details regarding prize money and how to register for each event, head on over to the official Pokkén Tournament DX website. While the dates have been decided for both the Oceania and Sheffield qualifiers, the Pokémon Company have yet to confirm the dates for the North American qualifier.
Dan Fornace and the Rivals of Aether team have just announced a brand new character during the Rivals Championship Series 2 finale at Genesis 5. This new fighter is Sylvanos, the Heart of the Forest — a raging spirit who rules the Aetherian Forest floor.
Taking clear inspiration from Ivysaur in Project M, this monstrous half wolf/half plant excels at the mid range, using its vines to keep foes at bay. Similar to Ivysaur’s Bullet Seed, Sylvanos can shoot a man-eating flower bulb from its tail, which can create a spinning projectile or plant grass on the stage. Sylvanos can also plant grass by simply running around the stage, which can be used to extend the range of certain projectiles or his dash attack. He can even awaken the grass, causing thorns to sprout up from the ground and knock opponents into the air. If you don’t stop Sylvanos early, he’ll spread across the stage like a weed.
Sylvanos’ vines make him a devastating ranged fighter, with his up smash causing a giant wooden stump to erupt from the ground and hit airborne opponents. His up air is a lot like Ivysaur’s Vine Whip, with it having a tipper hitbox on the tip of the vine. Not only can he uses these vines like Corrin’s Pin — lodging them in platforms to keep him briefly suspended in the air — but one of his specials has Sylvanos burrowing through the side of the stage and erupting up from the floor. You’ll have to drastically reconsider your edgeguards against this overgrown opponent.
Sylvanos doesn’t have a release date as of yet, but expect him to release alongside the final original character for Rivals of Aether, who was briefly teased at the end of this trailer. Based on a Twitter poll from last year, this final fighter will be either a snake or a rabbit, piloting what sounds like a propeller-powered robot.
Teased in their closed beta announcement, Wavedash Games have revealed Icons: Combat Arena‘s duo character, Afi and Galu. Twin statues imbued with the power of water and fire, Afi and Galu break with the traditional formula for duo characters in platform fighters, as only one of them can be active on screen at once.
When one statue is active, the other will lay dormant — standing stock still until the player switches to the other one. Awakening Afi will cause a water geyser to shoot up around them, while waking up Galu will cause a jet of flame to erupt from around them. Playing Afi and Galu at a high level will involve mastering statue positioning, and punishing an opponent who puts a foot wrong. You’ll need to be playing multi-dimensional chess, while your enemy is playing checkers.
The duo also has a special dash, which allows the player to move either towards or away from your inactive partner, relative to their position. Using this life-link will be key for ending combos and also saving your hide when you overextend for an edge-guard. Keep alert though — your partner may be impervious to damage while dormant, but they still obey the laws of gravity. If a dormant statue drops into the blastzone, you will lose a stock.
As for when you’d use Afi or Galu, their elemental attacks send foes at different angles. Afi’s fire knocks the opponent outward, so they are best used for kills off the side. Galu’s water knocks the opponent upwards, so they are best for killing off the top.
While the previously announced characters for Icons stick to platform fighter archetypes quite rigidly, Afi and Galu act as the first character to really break the mold and try something new with this particular archetype. If the remaining two launch fighters are as creative as Afi and Galu are, Icons’ launch roster will be something special.
If you are in the Icons: Combat Arena closed beta, you won’t have to wait long to try these soul-swapping statues, as they will be available to play next week. Wavedash Games are continually adding players to the closed beta pool, so sign up if you want to give this platform fighter a try.
Announced as a mini-Christmas miracle last December, Radiant Entertainment have officially released Rising Thunder: Community Edition, so people can continue playing the popular but short-lived fighter. This special edition of Rising Thunder comes in three parts: the client, an open source server, and a special goodie package.
The client is fairly self-explanatory; it’s the latest version that was available internally at Radiant, with some updates to allow offline play and the open source server. While it has had some basic tests, there will be bugs so don’t expect everything to run smoothly when you boot it up. Radiant have also bundled in the source code for Rising Thunder‘s UI, meaning dedicated modders can poke around and make improvements if they wish.
The open source server is a much improved version of the original one, making it easier to run and tinker with. It is only basic at present, with rudimentary matchmaking and two-player lobbies. If you add more than two players, it will just crash so don’t bother. Things like ELO, accounts and a progression system aren’t there yet, but Radiant are looking into potential FightCade integration for the future.
Finally, the last part of Community Edition is a goodie pack, filled with concept art, early development videos, lore about all the pilots, acting as a potted history of Rising Thunder‘s development. Radiant have teased that they are indeed at work on something for Riot Games — possibly the long-rumored League of Legends fighting game — so don’t expect any more from the studio for a while.
To download everything, head on over to the Rising Thunder subreddit. Let’s hope this kicks off a mini-renaissance for this cult classic fighter!
Following his departure from his long-standing team Evil Geniuses, Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley has wasted no time in getting picked up by a new organization. The organization in question is Ghost Gaming — a relatively new North American esports team, known for their presence in shooters like CS:GO, Call of Duty, Gears of War and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, as well as Rocket League.
K-Brad will be the first fighting game player on the team, and he’s definitely one of the best people for bringing Ghost Gaming into the world of the FGC. While he missed out on Capcom Cup 2017, K-Brad made waves throughout the year, whether through high placings at events like Northwest Majors, Frosty Faustings IX and East Coast Throwdown, or via his on-going feud with Wolfkrone.
With Dignitasalso throwing its hat back into the ring, we could be seeing another surge of esports organizations taking a gamble on the FGC, as a huge raft of games are on the way.
Revealed at Jump Festa back in December, Dragon Ball FighterZ has “Dramatic Productions”: special cutscenes that play at the beginning and end of a match, depending on the characters and the stage you pick. They replicate key scenes from the anime, like Goku defeating Kid Buu with the Super Spirit Bomb or Gohan disintegrating Cell with the Father-Son Kamehameha, but in the DBFZ engine. While the open beta showed off the Goku vs. Frieza Dramatic Production, IGN have been able to show off some of the other Dramatic Finishes you’ll see in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
First off is Goku ending Kid Buu with the Super Spirit Bomb — finishing off one of the most divisive Sagas in DBZ history.
Here is a recreation of the final fight between Goku and Beerus from the Battle of Gods movie.
Here’s both the introduction to the Cell vs. SSJ2 Gohan fight, as well the big green bugman getting wasted by said angry teenager.
Pour one out for Lord Yamcha, as here he is getting blown to smithereens by the Saibamen.
And in case you didn’t see it in the beta, here is Goku becoming Super Saiyan for the first time against Frieza.
In most cases, you activate a Dramatic Finish by finishing a match off with a heavy “smash attack” on a specific stage. For Gohan killing Cell, you have to start the match in the Cell Games Arena, and then finish Cell off in the Wasteland — by causing a stage transition during the fight.
This certainly aren’t all of the Dramatic Productions in the game — the Jump Festa trailer showed at least two more, those being Trunks cutting Frieza into tiny pieces and Chiaotzu sacrificing himself in the Z-Warriors’ fight against Nappa. There could be more Dramatic Finishes than this, so start thinking of potential matches to test out when Dragon Ball FighterZ launches next week — or try them in the extended beta tonight.
First the hit-stun decay glitch, now it’s time for backturn unblockables to be smashed by the nerf bat. Revealed in a post up on Capcom-Unity, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will be getting a small patch tomorrow, fixing issues like characters being unable to block low attacks while turning around, as well as adjusting certain character backdashes and Active Switch entrances.
If it’s any conciliation, this patch shows that the MvC:I team is still on the ball when it comes to balancing the game and quashing glitches that would have been meta-defining in previous Marvel games. Let’s hope this means there are still plans for continued support — outside of just patching out big glitches. Check out the patch notes below, or on Capcom Unity.
General
Guard: Fixed a bug that made it impossible to block low attacks when turning around
Collision Boxes: Fixed a bug that made hitbox timing inconsistent depending on which direction the character was facing
Shadow: Fixed a bug that caused shadow effects to display incorrectly when recovering from a hit while using a shadow attack
Soul Stone (Infinity Storm): Fixed a bug that made it impossible to switch characters for about 5 seconds if the partner character took damage when the Soul Stone Infinity Storm ended
Character
Captain Marvel
Adjusted Active Switch entrance attack so that knockback distance matches that of other characters
Dormammu
Adjusted ground back dash so that from the 10th frame on, it can be cancelled into an attack
Hulk
Adjusted ground back dahs so that from the 15th frame on, it can be cancelled into an attack
Ultron
Adjusted Active Switch entrance attack so that knockback distance matches that of other characters
Venom
Venom Trap: Fixed a bug that caused two traps to appear when performed at certain times
Venom Glide: Fixed a bug that made it impossible to perform Venom Glide again until landing on the ground, when performing an air throw after using Venom Glide
Jedah
Fixed a bug that caused Finale Rosso to be interrupted mid-attack when it hits an opponent who has been bound by a reflected Web Ball
As the result of a rather one-sided Twitter contest, Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla have created special “crossover” character skins to appear in the opposing game. For Rivals of Aether, the draconic brawler Ragnir is guest-starring via a special Maypul skin while in Brawlhalla, the poisonous pacifist Ranno is joining the fight as a skin for Wu Shang.
The Ragnir skin radically changes Maypul’s animations, swapping plant-based attacks for jets and whips of flame. Her friendly plant assistant is gone too, replaced with Brawlhalla‘s trademark flaming weapon pickups. As for Wu Shang, his attack animations aren’t much different, but his weapons are now made out of Ranno’s poisonous secretions.
I hope this fun crossover fosters more cooperation between the burgeoning platform fighter scene, with more characters appearing as guests or special skins in other games. Let’s hope this contest sees games like Icons: Combat Arena, Brawlout and Earth Romancer experimenting with guest character skins.
Revealed as part of the 2018 Gundam Game New Year Festival, Bandai Namco have finally released gameplay trailers for God Gundam and Master Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam, as well as Build Strike (Full Package) Gundam from the Gunpla-based spin-off Gundam Build Fighters. They also revealed that Farsia from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE will be joining the roster as well.
As a fan-favorite entry, many were confused at the removal of any G Gundam Mobile Suits from the initial release of Gundam Versus — with that series being centered around a Gundam fighting tournament, after all. Luckily, the addition of God Gundam means you can finally dispatch foes through the force of your love, your anger, and all of your sorrow!
God and Master Gundam are scheduled to launch in Japan and in the West on January 23rd, with Build Strike (Full Package) Gundam and Farsia coming on February 6th. You can also download the G Sound Set on January 23rd, containing all the extra songs that were available in the Premium G Sound Edition of Gundam Versus.
After the #SuperSaiyanShowdown, watch these four fighters try to achieve glory in the #DragonballFighterZ Battle of the Gods Invitational!
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