Since we saw Freddy in Mortal Kombat 9, Jason has been one of the most requested characters, and with the first Kombat Pack we finally got the chance to pit the horror star against our favorite kombatants.
The character hasn’t exactly taken the scene by storm–unlike some other MKX guests of horror movie fame–but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything going for him. In fact, the one and only SonicFox has made him the focus of the next installment in his “Fox it Up” series, spending nearly an hour breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of each variation the slasher star has to offer.
Keep in mind, this is the current Mortal Kombat champion of the world showing exactly what Jason is capable of, so if he says that an option is really good, you can be damn sure that it’s one you want to use. So grab some popcorn, clear your diary and take some time to Fox it Up!
Steam’s Summer Sale is upon us which means that, once again our wallets cry out in the face of great gaming deals. For any King of Fighters fans who were hoping to make it through this year unscathed, well you’re out of luck as the King of Fighters titles on Steam are part of the sale.
The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition, arguably the best port of that game thanks to its improved online play, is on sale for $4.99, 75% off the regular price of $19.99. In addition to this, both the King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match and the King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition–updated versions of some of the greatest KoF titles ever–are on sale for $2.99 each, 80% off their regular retail price of $14.99.
For those looking to pick up all three titles, the King of Fighters Triple Pack is also on sale. Interested fans can pick this bundle up for only $10.49, 70% off the regular price of $34.99.
This year’s Steam Summer Sale runs until 10:00 AM PDT on July 4.
Last week, Super Smash Bros. Melee was already well on its way to joining its Wii U sequel in the Evo 2016 2K club; today, an official Tweet revealed that SSBM now indeed has reached that benchmark, with over 2000 registered competitors eager to Smash Las Vegas up.
Congrats Melee players! You have also topped 2,000 entries, making Evo 2016 the biggest smash tournament ever! #Evo2016
The hype for SSBM and SSB4 is strong, and evidently growing stronger: Evo 2016 has already become the biggest Smash Tournament ever, even before Melee broke the 2K mark. Super Smash Bros. Melee has a place of honor in the Sunday Finals at Mandalay Bay Events Center, so it’s probably not a coincidence that Mr. Wizard followed Evo’s announcement with this:
Some additional floor seats for Evo 2016 Sunday’s Finale have been released! Head on over to https://t.co/RprKx3sU5s to pick them up!
Directly following the Evo grand finals on Sunday, July 17, the folks at Red Bull will be hosting an after party to send off the year’s largest fighting game event in style. This celebration, set to take place at the Luxor’s LAX Nightclub, will feature setups for Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U so guests can battle against each other, as well as the top players in attendance.
The evening’s matches will be streamed throughout the party courtesy of Red Bull eSports to make sure hype levels remain high well into the night.
VIP and standard tickets for the party are currently available for purchase.
Evo 2016 takes place July 15-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The latest video in the Capcom Pro Tour Interview Series features Tokido, speaking from DreamHack Summer 2016. After musing about how Street Fighter V’s Ryu is much improved over his Ultra Street Fighter IV version, Tokido talks about how RZR|Fuudo’s skill with R. Mika still earned him the win over Tokido despite his belief that Ryu is stronger in that matchup. Tokido also comments on BX3|Phenom’s qualification (as this year’s first European) for Capcom Cup, and the differences between Phenom’s and YouDeal.MJS|Haitani’s Necalli play.
Tokido also spoke recently with Yahoo! Esports, and with Shoryuken’s own Corey “Missing Person” Lanier at Seoul’s ArcadeStream.
During E3, NRS commentators and content providers, Ketchup and Mustard, managed to get a few hours of time in with the initial build of Injustice 2. Feeling that there was a lack of information about two of the game’s new villainous additions, Flash nemesis Gorilla Grodd, and Atrocitus, the leader of the Red Lantern Corps, they recorded a video detailing their early findings and impressions with the characters.
They preface this episode of “K & M Talk” by noting that this an extremely early build of the game, so much of what they’ve found is subject to change. Their goal was to answer some of the questions that are “kind of in limbo–things that people may wonder, but there is no conclusive answer on.”
First, the duo talk about some of the sequel’s new mechanics, noting that the game feels “more responsive and sped up, compared to the first Injustice,” which was known for its character’s extremely slow walk speed. There is also the new ability to Meter Burn your forward dash into a roll, similar to MKXL’s run, which allows you to cover distances quickly, cross up your opponents for mixup opportunities, as well as providing another method around projectiles beyond the standard dash blocking from Injustice 1.
There is also an Air Tech mechanic, that will allow you to break a combo without spending your Clash, by pressing Up+Meter Burn, in exchange for being punished on landing from a new falling animation, similar to a Burst from Arc System Works games.
Ketchup begins the character breakdown portion of the video by talking about Atrocitus, who’s game he feels revolves a lot around his Trait. Atrocitus’ ability is to summon his cat and fellow Red Lantern, Dex-Starr, who can shoot a fireball, attack the opponent with a lunge, or place a shield around Atrocitus that acts as a physical projectile that can both reflect attacks and also hit the opponent. This is comparable to Sinestro’s Beware Your Fears from Injustice 1, or Summoner Quan Chi’s Demon Spawn from MKXL. Atrocitus has a full-screen projectile in his Blood Lift, and a full-screen, tracking low, which seems to function similarly to D’Vorah’s Spawning Puddle. He has a breath attack that is safe on block and aimable, as well as a rush move similar to Goro’s Punch Walk. His final special move is a life drain where he goes into a stance that will drain the opponent’s health if they are standing near him, which can be Meter Burned to create an explosion that OTGs the opponent for a juggle or Trait extension.
Ketchup closed this portion of the video by claiming that the character has a lot of mixup potential, by using his mid hitting strings and Dex-Starr to set up jailing pressure, along with full-screen zoning and conversions, combined with knockdown situations when Trait is available. He also felt that the Red Lantern was the strongest character in the E3 6-character build, with lots of safety and high damage output.
In the third and final portion of the video, Mustard talks about Gorilla Grodd, a character who does not have much footage or descriptive information available at the moment, leaving many to wonder about this new character’s playstyle and abilities.
Mustard felt that he was unfinished, with the damage on his special moves being quite low. In terms of specials, his BF3 is similar to Bane’s Raging Charge, that has no startup, gives knockdown on hit, and is safe on block. However, its most interesting property is that you can press Back, Back or Forward, Forward to stop him from running mid-charge, which allows him to cancel it for combo extensions, or to punish opponents jumping back. His Gorilla Leap allows him to jump into the air, with air punch and kick follow-ups, as well as a Meter Burnable grab for a launchert. Though the telekinetic simian seems to be light on mixup potential, due to lacking any overheads, he can Meter Burn many of his strings to launch opponents. With grabs universally doing 16% damage now, he can condition blocking opponents to fear his command grabs, and score large punishes when they attempt to avoid them.
His Trait–for anyone familiar with him from DC comics–is his signature Telekinesis. This allows Grodd to access a myriad of new moves and strings, one of which makes him fully immune to projectiles. Lastly, he can levitate while in Trait, and gains access to an Ermac-style Ground Pound, a forward air dash, or an aerial explosion, which has large range and large hitstun–enough for Grodd to land, dash in and get a full combo.
Mustard believes he’ll be a heavy read-based character with an extremely powerful D2, though most of his specials seemed to be unsafe on block, with large amounts of whiff recovery.
Injustice 2 will be released in 2017 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Ibuki fans, rejoice–before the kunai-wielder drops into Street Fighter V, those looking to play her can at least start visualizing executing her moves, thanks to a new video from AXETB.
This video breaks down every single move of the ninja, starting from neutral normal attacks. It then goes through her aerial moves, command normals, V-Skill, and V-Trigger, the latter having her throw a bomb on the stage.
Check out the full video below, which also showcases useful ways to execute tech pressure and an extensive section on combos.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and do not reflect Shoryuken as a whole.
When Street Fighter II hit arcades in 1991, it launched the standard model of one-on-one fighting games that’s still played to this day–but that aspect of the game lived parallel to the quarter-munching single-player battle against the CPU. That experience–fighting increasingly difficult CPU opponents in the 2/3 rounds format until you reach the boss character–is deeply coded into Street Fighter DNA. This was how Street Fighter told us about its world and characters: through powerful bosses, rival fights, mysterious hidden opponents, and the short cutscenes and exposition between.
In the original Street Fighter II, the Four Heavenly Kings were true bosses, and the only way to fight them was to play through Arcade Mode. Their iconic stages and themes spoke volumes about their importance; when you got to Las Vegas and faced Balrog, you knew the game just got serious. The tension could only build: the confusion of Vega’s strange fighting style, the fear of Sagat’s raw power when you knew you were almost there–leading, maybe, to the sheer terror that was fighting M. Bison. Reaching and defeating them was a trial of guts, skill, and coin–and later, when Akuma threw M. Bison down to challenge you at the end of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the appearance of a hidden boss even more powerful than M. Bison was a big deal. The concept of the single player Arcade Mode is central to Street Fighter as a game–which is why it’s significant that Street Fighter V has abandoned it.
The Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III series continued and expanded on this model with more hidden fighters and expanded narrative elements. But the presence and importance of video arcades gradually diminished; when Street Fighter IV came on to the scene in 2008 as a triumphant return of the Street Fighter franchise, the gaming landscape it arrived in was much different than the one known to SFIII: 3rd Strike almost a decade earlier. But Street Fighter IV was (and still is) an arcade game at heart, following in the same footsteps as its predecessors. At the launch of IV, Arcade Mode was still a given, even as the game pushed into the new world of online player vs. player and downloadable content. The Street Fighter IV series were arcade games feeling out the new possibilities of an always-connected online world.
Street Fighter V is the first mainline Street Fighter title to launch without an Arcade Mode. At its February 2016 debut, it was immediately criticized for how lean a package Capcom sold us. The online beta offered so much promise behind the unresponsive menus, under a gray veil assumed to be lifting on retail release. But the game hit the streets with key functions still grayed out–no Challenges, no Shop, a brief and ridiculously easy character-specific Story Mode, and a Survival mode–it left the strong impression that we’d paid for an incomplete product. The lack of strong single-player options was particularly frowned upon: Survival mode lets you battle against the CPU, but it has a very different dynamic than the classic 2/3 rounds feel of an Arcade Mode, and none of the narrative. Video game webcomic Penny Arcade voiced what much of the gaming community was thinking: Street Fighter without the Arcade Mode wasn’t Street Fighter at all.
This lack of a satisfying single-player game in SFV deserved all the criticism it got. Other publishers have only increased the single player content for the home versions of their arcade games; for example, Arc System Works titles offer quite robust single player content: in addition to its Arcade Mode, BlazBlue Chronophantasma features Abyss Mode, Score Attack Mode, Unlimited Mars Mode, and Highlander Attack Mode, piled on top of an ever-expanding storyline told through its Story Mode and “Teach Me, Miss Litchi!” episodes. Comparatively, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, part of a franchise that has no arcade version, includes options such as Classic, All-Star, Event Mode, Special Orders, Smash Tour, Multi-Man Smash, Home-Run Contest, a Stage Builder–practically drowning you in single player diversions.
For the casual player, trading blows with the CPU is clearly a vital part of the Street Fighter experience; however for competitive players, the CPU AI can never match the challenge of a human opponent. Capcom made a deliberate choice with SFV to focus on player vs. player, be it online, or in local casual and professional competition. The increasing focus on the Capcom Pro Tour has shifted Capcom’s attention to the aspects of the game that operate outside of a single player and their own console. In doing so, it may seem that a hole has been left in the game, a sense of emptiness–yet this is a logical progression in the development of the Street Fighter franchise. Street Fighter V is, importantly, the first Street Fighter game to launch solely for home platforms instead of the arcade, and it has a different design goal. This is a clear reflection of the environment SFV is born out of: the fall of the local arcade, the rise of the online lobby.
Street Fighter V was made to be a part of the new world that SFIV only just started to explore. Made to be always online, always connected–an evolving “service” instead of a static game state. Supposedly we will never see Super Street Fighter V, or Super Street Fighter V Turbo–Street Fighter V will be a constantly growing, changing entity on its own, without revisions or new editions. Now, as we’re well into June and the long-promised Cinematic Story Mode is imminent, we’re getting a more and more complete picture of Capcom’s vision for Street Fighter V’s future.
If that vision had included an Arcade Mode, it would probably look very much like Orle-san’s YouTube mock-up video; made using existing SFV game assets, along with generous new text and some creative edits, this shows us a classic-style Street Fighter V Arcade Mode run–complete with story sections, rival fights and Necalli as a the bonus boss fight.
Orle-san’s video is a fitting tribute, but it also shows plainly how dated the Arcade Mode sequence is. It is comfortable and familiar–because we’ve seen it many, many times before.
In a game that didn’t originate in the arcade (and will most likely not appear there, though Yoshinori Ono has not ruled the idea out), what purpose would an Arcade Mode serve? We’ve lost the surprise of hidden boss characters–PC data miners would find Akuma’s code before he could ever jump in to menace us. The upcoming Cinematic Story Mode looks like it will be more than adequate at revealing SFV’s lore and narrative, making an Arcade Mode redundant for that purpose. Street Fighter V is clearly a game that wants us to fight each other–instead of the CPU–as much as possible. The Arcade Mode is a vestige of a different game, from a different time; as nostalgic as we may be for that classic style, better to let Street Fighter V live and breathe in the now, and grow into its own destiny.
Laura’s critical art, Inazuma Spin Hold, boasts a ton of utility; the grab can be hit confirmed from a number of moves and also serves as an effective punish for any move that is -4 or worse on block.
Like much of Street Fighter V’s cast, Laura is heavily dependent on meter but her high damage critical art can lead to big comebacks or game-winning combos in the right situation. Because Laura struggles to convert damage from light attacks, burning meter on a Critical Art can provide a much needed burst of damage to end a round.
Due to her heavy focus on wakeup pressure and resets, Laura has a number of meaty setups that can put her in position for a critical art confirm. Counterhit only combos like standing light kick to crouching medium punch make for easier confirms due to the multiple hits.
With its four-frame startup, Inazuma Spin Hold can also be used as a link after standing medium punch as well, making for more highly punishing counterhit setups.
If the round is on the line, you can use V-Trigger to visually hit confirm into Critical Art after long reaching normals like step elbow, crouching medium kick and standing heavy kick. Keep in mind that cancelling into V-Trigger will scale your combo damage, and the Critical art Animation will waste your V-Trigger time if the combo doesn’t end the round.
Laura’s V-Skill ability, linear movement, grants her the unique ability to cancel her normal moves into movement options. Furthermore, when using Esquivia (B+MP+MK) Laura can cancel the final frames of her backwards movement into a special attack. When used with Inazuma Spin Hold, the Esquivia cancel allows Laura to hit confirm off of certain normals with or without a counterhit.
Laura can cancel Esquivia into Critical Art after these normals:
Standing Medium Kick
Standing Medium Punch
Crouching Medium Punch
Standing Heavy Punch
Crouching Heavy Punch
Here’s a quick list of moves punishable by Inazuma Spin Hold, with a comprehensive video for reference.
TheJamk continues with more Overwatch character model swaps for Street Fighter V. This time, it’s Rainbow Mika who gets the treatment as she’s transformed into Overwatch’s Mei.
While there’s less of a connection here than with the previous two swaps–both Cammy and Tracer are British, and Zangief and Reinhardt have iron bodies–the swap still works out quite well. Additionally, Tracer makes another appearance, this time taking the place Mika’s tag-team partner Nadeshiko.
