Category: Fighting Games

The era of the PC fighting game enthusiast has been upon us for a good bit now. Sure, we of the PC persuasion still lack confirmation on whether or not some upcoming titles will appear on our platform of choice, but things are definitely on the upswing. We’ve even recently found ourselves able to access more eclectic titles. One such upcoming title is Koihime Enbu.

Earlier this year, Koihime Enbu hit Japanese PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 systems. Now, the game’s publisher, Degica Games, is looking to bring the game west in the form of a PC release over Steam.

The game will include the following features:

• Play as 13 different characters and 7 “assist” characters to create a huge variety of strategies!
• Explore the Fatal Counter system which gives moves different properties that make comboing easier, and longer!
• Utilise the Tactics Meter with special moves, ex special moves, super moves, and ultimate moves!
• Save your best bouts for later, or learn from your previous battles with Replay Mode!
• Ascend the online rankings by battling in ranked matchmaking, keep it closer to home and play with your friends in local versus mode!

Koihime Enbu is set to hit Steam on May 19. Pricing and other details are forthcoming.

Source: Steam via Gematsu, Siliconera, with tips from Michael A., Orochi_Kyo

Those who watched the King of Fighters XIV’s latest trailers, may have noticed something interesting in them. Instead of the logos of SNK Playmore we’ve been seeing for quite some time now, the trailers showed only the old SNK logo, dropping the “Playmore” bit.

It turns out there’s a reason for this: SNK Playmore has announced that they are officially changing their corporate logo and will simply be known as “SNK” henceforth. In addition to this, they are bringing back the classic “The Future Is Now” corporate tagline.

Founded by Eikichi Kawasaki back in 1978, the original SNK, short for Shin Nihon Keikaku (New Japan Project) was responsible for creating a number of beloved arcade and fighting franchises, many of which made their way into the King of Fighters, before eventually going bankrupt in 2001. SNK Playmore became a reality a couple of years after Kawasaki’s subsequent company, Playmore, acquired the rights to the original SNK intellectual properties.

The change of their corporate logo back to SNK, alongside their marketing efforts for King of Fighters XIV, seem to be symbolic gestures to generate goodwill among fans by showing that the spirit of the old company is still alive.

Source: SNK, thanks to Behemothbear for the tip.

If there’s one name that’s become synonymous with streaming within the fighting game community, it’s Victor “Spooky” Fontanez. Spooky has been a pioneer in terms of live streaming fighting game community tournaments and events, and its safe to say that we wouldn’t be where we are now without him.

Now, it seems that Spooky is moving up in the world, as he has recently announced that he will be joining XSplit as a program manager for XSplit Broadcaster.

As part of this, Spooky will be spending more time in the Philippines (where XSplit’s development office is based) and Asia in general. This also means that there will be more Team Spooky broadcasts of events in the Asia Pacific region. As for current Team Spooky streams, such as the Next Level Battle Circuit, Spooky has stated that he will be backed up by other Team Spooky members during the times when he’s unable to stream himself.

Spooky will be joining other fighting game community members such as Louis “Offcast” Vigil, Yu Shen “Farpenoodle” Tan, and Kevin “Burnout Fighter” Kim who have been hired by XSplit to help them improve their software.

We here at Shoryuken wish Spooky and XSplit the best in their new relationship.

Source: Spooky, feature image courtesy of Kara “Karaface” Leung

If there’s one thing that’s been haunting The King of Fighters XIV since its announcement, it’s the game’s graphical quality. The initial reveal was underwhelming to say the least, and while significant improvements have been made, it’s often hard to see these due to how videos are compressed when posted online.

Luckily for us, SNK has, alongside their recent launch date announcement, also shared a brand new batch of screenshots showing off the improved graphics in the game’s latest build.

Most of the changes involve improvements to the lighting. You can see this clearly in certain shots–such as this one of Angel–that are do-overs of older screenshots.

In the above example, Angel looks more natural on the newer shot on the right than in the one on the left thanks to the updated lighting.

Of course, that’s not the only reason to look at these screens. We also get to see more of newly revealed characters such as Nakoruru and Shun’ei alongside shots of other characters like Sylvie, Banderas, Mai, Geese, and more.

You check out more of these screenshots with the updated graphics in the gallery below.

Source: SNK, via Shoryuken forums.

Since the King of Fighters XIV was announced last year, SNK Playmore has slowly but surely continued to reveal more about the upcoming game. Now, at their King of Fighters XIV Experience event in Tokyo, the company has just dropped their biggest reveal yet.

SNK Playmore has just revealed the game’s entire playable, non-boss, roster. That’s it, no more guessing, no more trying to verify leaks, we now know who exactly will be in the game.

• China Team: Shun’ei, Tung Fu Rue, Meitenkun
• Japan Team: Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikaido, Goro Daimon
• Official Invitation Team: Sylvie, Kukri, Mian
• South America Team: Nelson, Zarina, Bandeiras
• Yagami Team: Iori Yagami, Vice, Mature
• Kim Team: Kim Kaphwan, Gang-Il, Luong
• Mexico Team: Ramon, Angel, King of Dinosaurs
• Another World Team: Nakoruru, Mui Mui, Love Heart
• Villains Team: Xanadu, Chang Koehan, Choi Bounge
• K’ Team: K’, Kula Diamond, Maxima
• Ikari Team:  Ralph Jones, Clark Still, Leona Heidern
• South Town Team: Geese Howard, Billy Kane, Hein
• Fatal Fury Team: Terry Bogard, Joe higasi, Andy Bogard
• Women Fighters Team: King, Mai Shiranui, Alice
• Psycho Soldier Team: Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou, Chin Gentsai
• Art of Fighting Team: Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki

We also know that the game’s penultimate boss is called “Antonov”, though the final boss has yet to be named.

In addition to this, we now know that the coming out for PlayStation 4 in Japan on August 25. As part of this, the company has announced that those who pre-order will be getting a classic Kyo skin, representing his look from the Orochi Saga.

Other features that the company has mentioned include a story mode, mission mode, an online training mode, and online 3 player teams.

SNK Playmore is sure to reveal more on these features as well as the game’s cast in the months to come. In the meantime, check out these new trailers showing many of the newly revealed features and characters.

Source: SNK Playmore

UPDATE: “Charlie0816 has shared more shots from the event, including images of what seem to be the characters listed as “Kim’s master” and “Geese’s butler” from the original leak”

一気に全キャラ公開してきた！！！！ pic.twitter.com/SrArmVVYpQ

— チャーリーとネオジオ工場 (@charlie0816) April 25, 2016

As some of you may be aware of, SNK Playmore is currently hosting a King of Fighters XIV Exerience event in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. As part of the event, the hosts have been passing out bottles of an “official drink” of an unspecified brand at the event. These bottles contain images of the game’s characters, including some that have not yet been officially announced.

Over on twitter, charlie0816 shared a photo of one of these bottles which shows images Nakoruru, Ramon, and also of two new characters. One of them, right under Nakoruru, looks to be the 3rd member of Chang and Choi’s villains team from the leaks from early this year. More importantly however, off the right is what may be the new protagonist for the game.

There’s a new King of Fighters XIV trailer due later today after the event, maybe we’ll learn more about these characters then.

Source: Charlie0816, via the Shoryuken forums.