At long last, Street Fighter V’s much-anticipated Cinematic Story Mode is almost here! Capcom wants to keep up the hype with this trailer, featuring the current roster of Street Fighter V as well as newcomers Ibuki and Balrog–and upcoming fighters Juri and Urien, of course. A weaponized moon, glimpses of Shadaloo’s Dolls, rampaging Necalli, M. Bison more powerful than ever before: there’s a lot going on in this minute and a half, but very soon we’ll be able to see F.A.N.G’s apocalyptic plan unfold for ourselves.
Steam isn’t the only service with a big sale running at the moment, as Sony’s PlayStation Store is also holding its annual mid-year sale. One of the titles that’s a part of this sale is Capcom’s Street Fighter V.
Street Fighter V is now available for purchase for only $40.19 which is 33% off the game’s $59.99 retail price. In addition to this, the Deluxe Edition of the game that comes with this year’s Season Pass is also subject to the same 33% discount, making its final cost $60.29, down from $89.99.
With this discount, now may be a good time to purchase Capcom’s flagship fighter, especially since the game’s Cinematic Story Update, alongside downloadable characters Ibuki and Balrog, are coming out this Friday.
Over the years, Alex Jebailey’s Community Effort Orlando event has become synonymous with its Pro Wrestling-themed attractions. From the Ultra Street Fighter IV Omega Mode and Street Fighter V Royal Rumbles, to wrestling-themed entrances with music on finals day, and of course, having the streamed matches on the main stage take place inside a boxing ring, it’s served as a love letter for any and all fans of Sports-Entertainment.
While many undoubtedly had their eyes glued to the myriad of tournament games being played, Jebailey also put on a special FT5 exhibition set on the Capcom Fighters channel between two of the most notable gaming wrestlers, the leader of The Bullet Club Elite, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Kenny Omega, and one-third of the current WWE World Tag Team Champions, Xavier Woods, representing The New Day.
Longtime friends and rivals outside the ring, the two have been waging war on Twitter about whose trio is superior, with Woods even taking shots at the Bullet Club during a promo on Monday Night Raw last week. The two have have also engaged in a rivalry across many different games on Woods’ YouTube channel, UpUpDownDown throughout this year.
Since the six men comprising these teams can’t meet in the Squared Circle, due to being contracted to different promotions, Woods and Omega decided to settle things in the virtual ring of Street Fighter V, though they could never find time for the matchup…until this past weekend.
The Cleaner had previously announced he’d be attending the event back in February, but Woods, who was in town for a live event in Jacksonville last Sunday, made an unadvertised appearance on Capcom Fighters, to interrupt an interview between Omega and Twitch’s Mike Ross, during which he laid down the challenge for a first-to-dive exhibition match! So with the FGC’s own UltraDavid and Mike Ross on call, the two headed to the ring for an epic battle!
To make the moment even more appropriately hype, the two Superstars chose to be represented by a pair of SF’s finest grapplers, with Kenny Omega using Alex, who he’d been running in pools throughout the singles tournament, while Woods opted to use Birdie.
In the beginning of the set, Omega took an early lead, displaying his knowledge of Alex’s Hard Hit setups with his Overhaul V-Skill, as well as some frame kill techniques. Xavier took the first game, due to Omega running into Birdie’s buttons and stunning himself, as well as the headbutt-happy glutton’s massive damage output. After engaging in some of New Day’s signature dancing and even the Bullet Club’s trademark finger gun gesture for a pop-off, Omega took a 3-1 lead after some words of encouragement from Jebailey. After Omega boldly proclaimed that he had Xavier downloaded, and would make a run of four straight rounds to take the set, Woods proclaimed he was enacting a “Security Blanket” strategy of making him feel comfortable with his 4-1 lead, before strangling him with it.
After proclaiming he could beat Omega at Dance Dance Revolution, Woods took his second game of the series, ensuring Kenny would not get four straight wins on him, and cutting his lead a bit, to merely a 4-2 advantage.
The next game was back and forth, with both wrestlers displaying fundamental character knowledge and taking it to the final round, where Omega would take the set 5-2 following a great neutral jump over Birdie’s Drink Time, as the soda can harmlessly rolled off the stage, which lead to him eating a full combo punish for a Bullet Club Elite victory!
After the set, Woods was gracious in defeat, offering Omega a CEO Championship Title Belt, which should make a great replacement for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship he recently lost at NJPW’s Dominion event earlier in the week. Afterwards, they had a show of respect and officially ending their rivalry by channeling Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Jax and Johnny Cage for you Mortal Kombat fans, with the duo’s infamous handshake.
The event was also picked up by numerous Professional Wrestling news sites, such as WrestlingInc. and PWTorch, in another display of just how far the fighting game community’s reach is becoming these days.
Street Fighter certainly is very summer-focused this year, first with the Kanzuki Private Beach DLC coming for Street Fighter V this Friday, and now this: UDON Entertainment announced today that they will be publishing a 32-page, full-color Street Fighter Swimsuit Special.
This gallery of flirty fighters will bring us art from UDON mainstays such as Genzoman, Edwin Huang, Rob Porter, Jeffrey Cruz, Steven Cummings, and Long Vo; it will also feature work from guest artists including Gisèle Lagacé, Xa, Vincenzo Cucca, and others. It will be available in two standard covers (Cover “A” by Ecchi-Star, cover “B” by Aki Lee) a special blank sketch cover, and a retailer incentive cover by Nei Ruffino.
Are only the ladies are getting featured in this Special, or will Hot Ryu make an appearance? If that Chun-Li cover is any clue, the men may also get some attention! Expect to see the Swimsuit Special in stores around September 2016, for $3.99 USD. Diamond Comics order codes can be found here.
With much anticipated June Update on the horizon, the Street Fighter V development has taken some time to release early designs for SFV that were omitted from the final version of the game. Sketches of eight characters and a number of prototype V-Triggers were included in the activity reports on Capcom’s CFN Portal along with some passed over stage effects.
While some of the designs led to new characters like Laura and F.A.N.G there were a few interesting concepts left on the table. The blog offers a brief description of the rejected fighters, ranging from a fighting politician (like Guilty Gear’s Chipp/Leo?) to a tool-using “cutie” who’s clothes fall off while you fight (wonder why that didn’t make it…)
To read a short description of each fighter, visit the CFN Portal.
Among the V-Trigger ideas that didn’t make the cut were “Grab Anything” for Zangief, which would have allowed the Russian Brawler to activate a grab from any normal attack on the ground or in the air. “Sadistic Chamber” would let Vega to call down a steel cage and return to his Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha 3 days of wall climbing.
Developer Takayuki Nakayama also wrote about several stage “gimmicks” that were omitted as well. Most of them are pretty silly, but I have to admit that I’m sad there’s no Haggar stuck in an elevator at the Kanzuki Estate.
Which of the forgotten designs would you have liked to see in Street Fighter V? Let us know in the comments!
Following up on announcements from Aksys Games regarding BlazBlue: Central Fiction’s console release in North America, it turns out that European fans will also get the game by the end of 2016. Publisher PQube, who has taken care of other ArcSystem Works titles like Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, is carrying out the release of the latest in the BlazBlue fighting game series.
The newest iteration expands the cast to over 30 with newcomers like Hibiki Kohaku, Naoto Kurogane, Nine, Es, and Izanami. New system mechanics include an Active Flow which buffs damage and burst regeneration, and a character-specific Exceed Accel attack.
This release will include the new Speed Star and Alliance modes, as well as an expansive, approximately 40-hour long story mode with adventure game components.
For those looking for more fighting games to play on their PCs, here’s something for you: French Bread and Ecole Software’s hit fighting game, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, is finally making its way to PC.
Arc System Works will be bringing Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, or UNIEL for short, to PC via Valve’s Steam service on July 12.
The game, which hit arcades back in 2012 and PlayStation 3 in 2014 is an expansion to the original Under Night In-Birth and features 16 unique characters as well as accessible controls for newer players. Its most unique feature, however, is the Grind Grid, a meter that’s used to encourage certain aggressive playstyles. Proper use of this allows players to enter Vorpal State and use Chain Shifts.
In time with the announcement, Arc System Works has released the following trailer.
As for the series latest installment, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], no word has yet been given on when it’ll hit home consoles, let alone PC.
Street Fighter V’s Story Update, which will add Ibuki and Balrog to the playable cast, is now available for download on PlayStation 4. Downloading the 8GB update won’t make the content available right away, but those who want to update as soon as possible can do themselves a favor by preloading.
As of this writing, the Steam version of the game has yet to receive the ability to preload the patch.
SFV’s Story Update is available for free in the PSN Store and is expected to go live on Friday, July 1.
Source: PSN, with tips via Gigglepies, Paul and Siegfried1
Capcom has updated the official CFN portal with full move sets for both Balrog and Ibuki. Though we learned the details on Ibuki last week, Balrog’s move set had not yet been released to the public.
The Shadaloo boxer will remain a charge character in Street Fighter V but has fewer special moves overall. They are replaced by a bevy of target combos that will help keep Balrog swinging when fighting in close range. Buffalo Headbutt, which has typically been Balrog’s go-to invincible reversal attack, will now function as his V-Reversal. Balrog’s only down charge move is his Screw Smash, which has been said to function as an anti-air.
Balrog will also be able to cancel his Dash Straight and Dash Grand Blow into KKB, allowing him to dodge projectiles and certain special moves as he rushes towards his opponent. From KKB, Balrog can use two command skills, Buffalo Swing and Buffalo Pressure, which resemble his Dash Swing Blow (charge B, DF+P) and Dash Upper (Charge B, F+K) from Street Fighter IV.
After activating his V-Trigger, Crazy Rush, Balrog will be able to cancel his special attacks into one another without charge. After using the first special, Balrog can press Foward+P or Forward+K to execute a followup. When used during V-Trigger those moves are called Charging Buffalo and Bursting Buffalo, respectively. Furthermore, they too can be cancelled into KKB for even more complex combinations.
Balrog’s turn punch now only require a single button to be held, and will gain invincibility and damage the longer the button is held. In Street Fighter IV the turn punch required all three punches or kicks to be held, meaning that Balrog couldn’t break throws. Additionally, the move would actually become less safe the longer it was charged but retained the same invincibility, making anything more than a few seconds of charge impractical.
Finally, Balrog’s super, Gigaton Blow returns from Alpha 3 (after a brief cameo in USF4’s Omega mode) and can be executed without charge, making confirms possible from his forward charging moves.
Without further adieu here is Balrog’s full move list, just in time for his release this Friday.
With his inclusion in Bandai Namco’s latest fighter, more than a few Street Fighter players have been trying out Akuma in Tekken 7. One such player is Team Secret’s angry machine, Lee Chung Gon (more commonly known as Poongko) who recently took up Akuma to play an exhibition set against Avoiding the Puddle’s Aris Bakthanians and his Dragunov.
While it would be naive to think that Poongko has no Tekken experience at all, given the popularity of the series in his native South Korea, it’s still a different matter when playing against an established Tekken player like Aris. Will Aris dominate with his Tekken knowledge, or will Poongko’s machine-like play, combined with the mechanics Akuma brings with him from Street Fighter IV, allow him to take the win? Find out in the replay below.
