Category: Fighting Games

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Wednesday Night Fights to Host The King of Fighters XIV on June 15

While the King of Fighters XIV will be playable at E3 next week, the event isn’t exactly the best place for the public to get some hands-on time with the game. Luckily, for those in Southern California looking for a chance to try the game, it’s also going to be playable at another venue.

Level Up’s Alex Valle has just announced over Twitter that the King of Fighters XIV will be making a stop on Wednesday Night Fights on June 15–the same week as E3.

Whether or not this will be the same 36-character build that SNK has been touring around Japan is unknown. That said, Valle has stated that more details about the game’s appearance at WNF will be revealed soon.

Source: LU|Alex Valle

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Pick Up Some Mismagius Unblockables in Pokkén Tournament

Working in conjunction with Chandelure pro DTN8 Cat Fight over on Twitter, YouTuber Stealthless has put together a showcase of the whole Pokkén Tournament cast making use of a new unblockable discovered with the support Pokémon Mismagius.

The way this works is relatively simple. Mismagius’ huge active frames coupled with Pokkén’s rock-paper-scissors approach to combat creates a situation where, while the cat ghost is roaming free, a properly timed throw beats all get up options from the opponent. Mismagius’s slow charge time reduces this technique’s availability, but that may be for the best, since some characters get devastating rewards off of its setups. Any command grab character, particularly those that have command grabs that cover the air, can use the specter to scare up massive damage in burst mode. Pay special attention to the Garchomp and Charizard examples at the end of the video.

Will this help push Mismagius/Ninetails into the main support meta of Pokkén? We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Stealthless

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Study Up on Spacing and Footsies in Mortal Kombat X with the Latest Lesson from ESL’s Master of Kombat Series

ESL is continuing their video series on Mortal Kombat XL lessons with a new chapter. This time, PND’s Ketchup and Mustard look into the various aspects of controlling space in the brutal fighter.

Starting with footsies, they explain a fairly straightforward technique with a lot of depth. While the general idea is to stay out of the opponent’s range, it’s also possible to bait them into attacking, then take a slight step back before punishing. Characters with long-range moves with short recovery excel at this.

They move on to discuss proper anti-airing. Technically, any attack can be an anti-air when timed correctly, the video explains, but it’s worth it to find out which character-specific moves are best for the situation.

Lastly, they mention the benefits of good zoning while admonishing repetitive or predictable patterns.

Check out their previous video for a lesson on attack direction in Mortal Kombat XL.

Source: ESL

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Flash Joins Team Naventic as First Fighting Game Representative

Late last week, Team Naventic signed Peter “Flash” Susini–the gamer formerly known as Flash Metroid–as their first fighting game representative. The Vega player had a fantastic run at the recent Combo Breaker tournament, making it to winners finals and ultimately placing 2nd in Street Fighter V at the stacked major.

Flash recently returned to the tournament circuit with the release of Street Fighter V, after a prolonged hiatus from the fighting game community. Based on his recent performance, it seems like his skills are still very much intact.

In a brief interview with ESPN, Flash describes his goals as a signed player: “Joining Naventic will allow me to travel to more events and just focus on playing at the best of my ability[.] I’m excited for what the future holds.” Flash also mentions that his first outing as a representative of Team Naventic will be at Community Effort Orlando, June 24th-26th.

Sources: Naventic, ESPN

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Filipino Champ Shares Thoughts on Street Fighter V’s Reception, Dhalsim, and His Legacy

As an Evolution champion for Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, along with having multiple top 8 finishes in a wide array of other fighting titles, Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez has proven to be one of the strongest fighting game players around. In a recent interview with theScore esports, he discussed a number of topics, including his competitive goals and what he wants his legacy as a fighting game player to be.

“My goal is to be the greatest of all time. I know that that’s hard, and I might not get there, but I want to set my goals so high all the time. So even if I don’t get there, I’m at least at the top of the food chain. I always aim for success and greatness, I just don’t want to sell myself short.’

When asked about his personal metric for such a claim, Champ offered the following:

“I’m really far from it, but I know that I’m one of the best players in the world now. I’m probably let’s say, Top 15, Top 10, best fighting gamers of all time. Because I can play multiple fighting games at a high level. In Marvel I’ve basically solidified myself as one of the best players in the world who ever touched that game. I’m far from it, but that’s my goal.  Maybe if I win Street Fighter at Evo, maybe. Maybe I could be in talks of [being] Top 5 or something because I won Marvel and Street Fighter, and I don’t think that’s been done before.”

Champ was then asked his thoughts on the SFV iteration of Dhalsim, and why he continues to play him in the new game:

“He’s not a Dhalsim like Street Fighter IV, he’s definitely a different architecture. I don’t think he played anything like SFIV, but I think I’m versatile enough in fighting games that I can play any type of character I want, it just happens that I really like my image as a Dhalsim player. I carried the character for awhile and I wanted to continue with him into Five.  But I think he is a way better character in V than he was in IV. I don’t think he’s the best character in this game, but I think he’s pretty damn good. I’m sticking with him, but I also play Nash.

Champ also offered his thoughts on Street Fighter V as a competitive game:

“Street Fighter V, from a competitive standpoint, is very good. I think it’s very exciting for spectators to watch. It’s very diverse, mostly every Top 8 you see there’s a lot of variety of characters, which is a good sign that the game is balanced. Also, there’s a lot of support from the fighting game community and the developers as well, so I think we should be fine.”

In the remainder of the interview, Champ discusses the similarities between SFV Dhalsim and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3’s Dormammu, his thoughts on the Bud Light All-Stars sponsorship contest, what characters he believes are top tier in SFV, why Chun-Li hasn’t seen much competitive success, despite many hailing her as the best character in the game right now, as well as his strategy for this year’s Capcom Pro Tour.

You can read the piece in full at theScore esports.

Source: theScore esports, photo via IPLAYWINNER

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Yomi Gaming Opens Arcade Doors to the Public

Yomi Gaming, known for their myriad of Mortal Kombat XL, Street Fighter V and Killer Instinct players, have officially opened the doors of their arcade and training facility to the general public.

They will be featuring weekly tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on Friday nights, and events for Street Fighter V, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Pokkén Tournament on Saturday nights. In addition, they will have daily casuals, as well as other events for Project M, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, The King Of Fighters XIII, Killer Instinct and a host of other popular titles.

Visitors can pay $10 for a day’s worth of play, or opt for a membership for as low as $29.99 per month for unlimited playtime. For more information, you can visit their website.

Source: Yomi Gaming, via IPLAYWINNER

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The King of Fighters XIV Will Be Playable at Sony’s E3 Booth

While The King of Fighters XIV was just available to play at Combo Breaker, it looks like (some) North American fans of the series won’t have to wait long to give it another go. Sony recently revealed a partial list of games that will be playable at their booth at the West Hall of the LA Convention center at E3, and among the games is none other than SNK’s upcoming fighter.

Before any Angelenos start making plans of actually attending, it’s important to note that E3 is still mostly an industry-only event with the only portion open to the public being the separate E3 Live 2016 event taking place at L.A. Live. That said, companies do sometimes invite top players to their booth to play their games, so if we’re lucky, we’ll get some quality impressions and footage from the event.

E3 2016 takes place from June 14 to 16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Source: PlayStation

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Evo 2016’s Sunday Finals Game Order Announced, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Hits Another Registration Milestone

The games that will comprise the Sunday Finals of the 2016 Evolution Championship Series have been revealed, courtesy of the Evo Twitter feed. The selected games will be played at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in the following order: Mortal Kombat XL, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and last–of course–is Street Fighter V.

It was also announced that over 2000 competitors have signed up to take part in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament, showing that the largest Smash event to date has continued to draw even more participants.

There’s still room to make Evo 2016 even bigger by registering here.

Source: Evo

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Rising Up: Introducing a New Series to Detail How to Learn Fighting Games, feat. Bafael

Hello, Bafael here. I’ve partnered with SRK with the mutual interest of revitalizing the official Shoryuken YouTube channel. In light of this new partnership, and considering the recent release of Street Fighter V, I’d like to do a new series detailing how exactly to learn Street Fighter and begin playing it competitively, not coming from any prior fighting games.

In my opinion, the most important goal for the FGC is expanding the scene. My previous videos have focused on bridging the gap between mid- and high-level play, but the more new players enter the community, the more easily players can find people near their skill level, flourish, and improve. In this regard I think it is every player’s responsibility to do what they can to make the genre accessible. It is from this philosophy of accessibility that I began making tutorials in the first place.

I realize with a series on how to approach SFV, I’m just going to be preaching to the choir for the majority of Shoryuken readers. I implore you guys instead to help me get the word out regarding this series, so I can connect with the people who would benefit from it.

The series is entitled “Rising Up,” both as a pun on the name of Ryu and Ken’s signature attack, the Shoryuken (rising dragon fist, literally), and to acknowledge the fundamental goal of all fighting game players, self-improvement. Videos will cover all aspects of learning SFV, from building good defense, to fighting game terminology, to keeping your morale high. The series will be closely based on player feedback, so please feel free to contribute on any video with what you’re currently struggling with, so that I can put particular emphasis on that in the following videos.

Rising Up will begin assuming that the player both owns SFV and wants to learn it. I decided then that it was only natural that I make a video explaining why someone would want to buy SFV in the first place. In this video, part “zero,” I explain what I think the appeal of a fighting game is, from the perspective of a long time player. I then attempt to dispel some myths about fighting games that I believe are commonly held by people with little exposure to the genre, such as the perceived difficulty, the financial barriers, and the fundamental nature of the game.

Remember to subscribe to the channel, and keep an eye out for future updates. Part 1 will be coming soon.

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My Smash Corner Takes a Magnifying Glass to the Duck Hunt Stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

The Duck Hunt stage is a popular counterpick stage in Super Smash Bros for Wii U, being popular for characters who like a little more room to breathe, as well as those who like killing off the top of the stage, thanks to the tree located on the left side. In his latest video, My Smash Corner takes a closer look at this counterpick, analyzing how the ducks that fly across the stage can impact the stage layout, as well as showing the exact locations where the dog will appear during the course of a fight.

The dog will appear in between the bush and the tree, with its location depending on where players hit the ducks that spawn in the background. If players hit the ducks when they are flying outside the area between the tree and the bush, the dog will spawn as close to the duck as possible without leaving this area in the middle of stage. By keeping track of where the last duck was hit, players can use the rising dog to get kills off the top and even extend combos. My Smash Corner even details the spawn timer on the little patch of grass that randomly appears on stage. It stays up for 10 seconds, before disappearing for 11 seconds and then reappearing. This means that this patch of grass can appear up to 17 times in a 6 minute match, should players go for the time out.

While this analysis is quite extensive, My Smash Corner does miss out on how Duck Hunt (and its Omega variation) gets rid of the Z-axis, flattening players and affecting the properties of certain moves like Charizard’s forward tilt and R.O.B’s neutral B. For more details on the Z-axis and what happens on stages without it, you can check out ESAM’s video on the topic right here.

Sources: My Smash Corner, ESAM