Author: Sam "Trilby" Foxall

Razer is restarting its controller offensive, with the release of the Razer Panthera arcade stick and the Razer Raiju controller. Designed for esports, the Raiju sports a $170 price tag–enough to make anyone think twice about trading in their trusty DualShock 4 or fight pad to something that costs as much as an arcade stick. Does the Razer Raiju’s pedigree and customization options make up for its ludicrous price? Let’s give it a thorough inspection, courtesy of Razer.

As with the Panthera, the Raiju ditches the old green-and-black styling of previous Razer products for the PlayStation 4’s blue-and-black color scheme. The blue is certainly easier on the eyes than the neon-green of older Razer peripherals and the actual Razer branding is subtle, limited to the logo embossed on the touch pad. The actual shape is almost identical to that of an Xbox One controller, if you ignore the customization bar at the bottom of the controller.

You’re certainly not going to get any remarks on the beautiful design of the Raiju, thanks to the bulky customization bar. However, the bright blue stick caps and back grips means that you won’t mistake it for someone else’s DualShock at a dimly-lit tournament venue.

The blue styling is needed for visibility, as the Raiju does not have a lightbar–or any wireless functionality built into it. While most tournaments require controllers to be plugged in to avoid any connectivity issues, the lack of wireless is not ideal for playing at home, where you may already have a mess of wires coming out of your system.

The Raiju is very comfortable to hold for long play sessions, with the hair triggers and shallow face buttons requiring the slightest bit of force to activate. There is a satisfying click whenever you press a button, successfully emulating the feel of a mechanical keyboard. You can even lock the triggers in place, meaning that you only need to tap them gently rather than press them all the way down. While the additional back bumpers don’t get in the way, I was prone to accidentally hitting the additional triggers on the back of the Raiju in the heat of battle. Their placement is not fantastic, especially when it can lead to you dropping a combo due to an input flub.

Luckily, you can rebind the button mapping for the back triggers or remove them all together, if they are causing you trouble. The Raiju comes with a special screwdriver inside its carrying case to help you screw and unscrew the additional triggers. During my Street Fighter V testing, I had them set as dedicated V-Skill and V-Trigger buttons by mapping them to duplicate the button input of clicking in the analog sticks. You can remap the triggers to duplicate any button input on the Raiju, which is helpful if you want a dedicated trigger to help you tech throws, or pop X-Factor.

Those silver triggers can become a nuisance, but they are easy to remove should you wish to.

If you’re someone who uses the analog stick to control your character in a fighting game, the Raiju has you covered. The sticks are durable, with special rubber stick caps to stop your thumbs slipping off during high-intensity sessions. Compared to the DualShock 4, where the rubber on the sticks seems to wear off within a few hours of play, the Raiju stayed firm even when the stick caps were removed.

While the sticks are definitely up-to-snuff, the Raiju’s D-Pad will be a polarizing feature for many. Unlike the vast majority of D-Pads out there, the Raiju’s D-Pad is not a single rocking pad; it’s made up of four separate buttons. As such, it is hard to hit down-forward, up-forward, and other inputs, making it problematic for playing fighters which require rolling inputs. Due to the angular nature of the D-Pad buttons, it is not an easy task to slide your thumb between different directions, making it needlessly difficult to perform simple inputs like dragon punches and quarter-circle-forward motions. However, if you are a charge character user, the stiff buttons and clicks from the D-Pad do make it easier to perform those direct back-forward, up-down inputs. For NetherRealm fighters, where inputs are focused more around the four cardinal directions, the separate buttons of the Raiju’s D-Pad may be beneficial, but it will require retraining your muscle memory.

While this may be more efficient for shooters, the lack of a singular connected D-Pad—a feature that has existed since the NES—makes the Raiju difficult to recommend for someone who mainly plays fighters with Street Fighter-style input rolls. If–like Liquid|NuckleDu–you play by switching between the analog stick and the D-Pad depending on your character, the Raiju may be for you, but dedicated pad players will find there is quite the learning curve switching to this D-Pad setup.

With all this in mind, the Raiju is a difficult one to give a solid recommendation for. While its tactility and customizable triggers are a bonus, its alternative D-Pad design and price tag are two massive black marks against it. It is a definite hard sell for dedicated pad players, as the non-rolling D-Pad does feel alien to use upon the first few hours of play. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool charge character user, you may find the mechanical D-Pad easier for guaranteeing cleaner charge motions. However, you could very easily buy multiple fight pads–like the HORI Fighting Commander–with the money it takes to buy a single Raiju.

If, like me, you do switch between the analog stick and the D-Pad depending on your situation, the Raiju may be worth your money at a lower price point. While its ergonomics are certainly a bonus, the $170 price tag is simply too much to gamble on.

One thing that trips a lot of novice players on their first steps into the world of fighting games is understanding frame data. When you hear phrases like “hit advantage,” “safe on block,” and “active frames” on top of seeing frame data charts, you can feel like you are being blinded with science as you are just getting to grips with the basics of play.

To help demystify frame data, especially for Killer Instinct players, FinchoMatic has created a handy guide which breaks down how to read and utilize frame data when learning a fighting game. Using KI’s extensive Training Mode, FinchoMatic goes through what startup, active and recovery frames are, how to determine what moves are safe or unsafe on block, as well as briefly describing what a frame trap and what counts as a punish. In Killer Instinct, there is even a special “Punishment” pop-up which tells the attacking player that they have been successful in punishing an opponent while they are recovering from an unsafe move.

This primer is fantastic for those just learning a fighting game, or even for veterans who need a bit of a refresher on some of the more technical jargon you’d read when trying to improve your game. FinchoMatic even includes a list of every character’s frame data in Killer Instinct, to help players memorize what is and isn’t safe on block.

Source: FinchoMatic

It’s already been documented by others, but Pac-Man is an incredibly buggy character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. He’s had a number of glitches associated with him, including one which causes opponents to fall through the bottom of the stage, unable to recover. While many of the glitches that exist now are either useless in an actual match or act as mild annoyances, a new Pac-Man glitch has been discovered which could potentially be useful in doubles.

Christened the Piñata glitch, Pac-Man can actually clone the Bonus Fruit he summons via his neutral-B. If hit by a move which causes temporary paralysis–like Corrin’s Dragon Fang Shot, Zero Suit Samus’ Paralyzer or Pac-Man’s own Bell–Pac Man can then clone the Bonus Fruit that he currently has in his hand if he is then hit by another paralyzing move. The only caveat to this is that the first paralyzer must knock Pac-Man into the air and the following paralyzers must hit Pac-Man while he is using his Bonus Fruit in the air, in order to clone something.

It sounds complicated but if you watch the video from PEPESPAIN below, it will make a lot more sense. The best application of this glitch would be in doubles, where a Pac-Man can duplicate select Bonus Fruit like the Bell or the Key to set up certain combos. The only problem is that the stun gives opponents ample time to rack up damage on Pac-Man, and that the stun itself causes damage to the yellow fellow.

Source: PEPESPAIN SmashLab

The Akuma hype train shows no sign of stopping, as fans of the demonic martial artist continue to discover and showcase his power in Street Fighter V. In today’s roundup, we have match compilations from the likes of Tokido and hameko, some max damage combos, how to effectively use his anti-air options, as well as a way to cancel Akuma’s sweep animation into Raging Demon. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Taking his old pal for a trip around his new hangouts, Tokido has been back on the online grind with Akuma, trying to train up his hopeful new main as the 2017 season of the Capcom Pro Tour rolls round. In this grand 21-minute match montage from DeadAceBS, Tokido fights against several other Diamond ranked players, including Rintarou and Chris Wong.

Next up, Van Diesel continues his extensive Akuma breakdown, by covering all of his anti-air options, including how to capitalize off of his three Crush Counter moves.

neekogaming has discovered that you can actually cancel the recovery frames of Akuma’s sweep into Raging Demon, should you hit an opponent’s block. It’s a very situational punish but could net you the round if done correctly.

If you’re looking for damage, phant om has you covered with a series of max damage combos for Akuma, ranging from meterless to three bar to V-Trigger three bar combos. If you’re looking to maximize your damage potential, jump into Training Mode and get these learned.

It’s Muscle Power versus the Assassination Fist as hameko faces off against DNG|Itazan in this online set.

Hoping to crack some of the secrets of Akuma, James Chen is joined by OlafRedland and CoryGunso in this hour-long lab session, devoted to learning Akuma.

And to finish off today’s roundup, RektScrub has brought together a series of Raging Demon finishes from players like ChrisG, MDZ|jimmy and subrin. Prepare to die one thousand deaths if you see one of these players pop V-Trigger.

Sources: DeadAceBS; Van Diesel Productions; neekogaming; phant om; YogaFlame24; UltraChenTV; RektScrub

Working his way through the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U roster, the time has come for Lucario to get his own “Art of” tutorial. One of the most polarizing fighters in Smash 4 due to his Aura mechanic, playing Lucario involves riding the line between deliberately taking damage to boost your Aura and actively losing the lead due to mismanagement of your stocks.

For those who aren’t aware, all of Lucario’s moves gain power as he takes damage. While he starts off fairly weak, getting him to around 100% causes his Aura to become extremely powerful, meaning that a command grab or a back air could kill at around 50%. Lucario’s Aura also gains a natural boost if he is a stock down, meaning he starts off his next life with his Aura already boosted.

Due to Lucario mains having to keep track of Aura, his combos require players being able to react on the fly to the increased knockback of certain moves to keep their attacks going. As such, much of his neutral game is based around tricky aerial movement by B-reversing his Aura Sphere and other specials, while looking for that one grab to finish up a stock.

As with most of his “Art of” tutorials, IzAw goes through all of Lucario’s specials, normals and some starter combos to help get you started with this steadfast Pokémon. With Aura and Rage mixed together, Lucario is an absolute beast at higher percents, so choose your moves carefully.

Source: IzawSmash