In this latest episode of Randoms, David “UltraDavid” Graham goes over some new findings involving Street Fighter V’s V-Triggers. Upon activation, any inputs made by the opponent during the slight freeze are seemingly ignored by the system, similar to Ultra activations in Street Fighter IV.
Below, you’ll see UltraDavid utilize this input eating to prevent certain actions from coming out. From there, he theorizes and demonstrates some possible uses, such as using it to beat out wakeup reversals with characters like Chun-Li and Zangief, and convert it to damage.
Now that folks have had time to play with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s latest update, we’re starting to see some technology surface. Surprisingly, not all of it surround series newcomers Bayonetta and Corrin.
Earlier today, Fire & Dice’s Zan uploaded an interesting bit of footage which looks at a boost grab technique that equips Meta Knight with a vastly increased throw range. While boost grabbing in the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. is nothing new, it’s not nearly as potent as it was in previous titles. But that doesn’t seem to be the case any longer.
By using Zan’s maneuver, which incorporates a shield dash and a bit of walking, Meta Knight is able to scoop up opponents from several character lengths away.
Bayonetta has a markedly weaker version of the same technique.
Be sure to follow the link below to Zan’s channel for even more findings in the Meta Knight department. He’s putting in great work!
With all the great titles released during the golden age of fighting games, it’s easy to forget something like WeaponLord existed. However, as one of the first designed for online play (over the XBAND network) and introducing one of the first ever parry mechanics, it may be one of the more important titles in the genre’s history.
Two artists by the names of George Sellas and Rich Doak recently teamed up to pay tribute to WeaponLord by reimagining it in high-definition. The pair have designed character art and even mock-up screenshots (complete with backgrounds from original artist Glenn Kim) to provide a glimpse of how the game may have looked had it transitioned into the modern era.
As you can see above, the art looks fantastic. Even WeaponLord’s project lead, legendary designer James Goddard, stated that George and Rich’s work exceeds what we normally think of as fan art. “I can totally see the modern version of this game in motion and I want to play this now!” he continued, going on to state that it reminds him of why the WeaponLord team put so much work into the “visceral barbarian fantasy.”
Be sure to head on over to the tribute site by following the link below for more art, background on the project, and a quick poll concerning public perception of a spiritual successor to this classic fighting game.
Yesterday marked the addition of the last batch of downloadable content to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, packing in two more characters, a new stage, loads of new music and Mii Fighter wardrobe options and, of course, a round of balance changes.
As with previous patches, the Smash Boards community has set out to uncover every minute adjustment in the update. So far, Marth and Lucina seem to have received the bulkiest changes, both seeing shifts in the damage numbers tied to their aerials. Meanwhile, Sonic, Zero Suit Samus, Kirby, and Ganondorf had their weight shifted (very) slightly
As we’re just one day into the life of this most recent build, there are sure to be more changes added to the list. To take a look at the information gathered so far, head on over to Smash Boards post.
If you’ve followed me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been posting long reads on Tuesdays about fighting games. They’ve ranged from how-to guides to strategy and philosophy. This column is a continuation of that.
I want to share my experiences with both new and intermediate players who might be stuck. If you read one of these and think, “Well, that was obvious,” then good! If you take something away from these articles, then that’s good too.
For those of you who have been following these, I’ll occasionally add a section for action items at the end of the article. These are a bit like homework – it’s something you can try immediately. Let me know what you think in the comments!
If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, feel free to ask me on Twitter at @LordKnightBB. Previous articles in this series can be found here.
You’ve maneuvered around your opponent, applied pressure, and opened them up. What happens now?
Like offense (which I covered in a previous article), knocking someone down is usually a very advantageous situation. Your goal is equally straight forward – you want to maximize your advantage and potential return on whatever you choose to do next. This situation is a narrow and defined part of fighting games, and important to understand, as rounds can be won and lost when someone gets laid out.
Knockdowns vary greatly by character. At the very least, you can minimize your opponent’s defensive options and mount a safe offense. At most, you can eliminate your opponent’s defensive completely while simultaneously creating an ambiguous mixup of some sort.
Again, like offense, what you do after knocking an opponent down can be researched and practiced on your own in the lab. As far as goals, you want to maximize your safety (against mashing, reversals, and whatever system mechanics are available in the game) while also making sure you get as much return on your investment as possible.
Let’s take a character like Ryu, in a game with no variation in wakeup timing, and look at what a knockdown situation would look like from the perspective of the attacker and the defender.
You (playing Ryu), knock down the opponent (playing Ken), and do a cross up jumping medium kick. What does this do?
If they reversal, the reversal should whiff or be blocked by Ryu, which would lead to a punish. If they block, the jumping medium kick should connect. This is a common technique in fighting games, known as a “safe jump” – basically keeping you safe from your opponent’s defensive options when they get up.
If they do choose to block (which, if you judge the risk/return on doing a reversal, they should), they would have to change the direction that they are blocking. If not, they’ll get hit, which would lead into the same situation.
What happens here is all based on how much knowledge your opponent has. When you get knocked down, you generally have an extremely limited amount of options available. The more awareness they have of how your knockdown works, the better they should be able to judge the risk about trying to counter you.
Let’s look at a more specific example. I’ll use a character that has a relatively simple but extremely effective knockdown – Mitsuru from Persona 4 Arena.
When Mitsuru knocks you down in the corner, she can set up an ice mirror that the opponent is forced to block. From there, she may choose to do a low, an instant overhead, a delayed low, or a delayed instant overhead. If the opponent gets hit, then they get frozen by the mirror, and you can combo them again into the same knockdown. If they block, Mitsuru can continue her offense safely.
The basic mixup is just high or low. The delayed low and delayed high is to force them to block “properly” – since the default low or high don’t hit at the same time, the opponent can block low, then switch high.
As far as defensive options, Mitsuru recovers so quickly that she can block most reversals in the game.
With all of the above in mind, it’s on the defender to know how this works and what they can do about it. The setup covers most defensive options, but Aigis, for example, can use her Awakening super to escape, since it’s faster than a standard reversal.
Since this is a recurring situation, it is easy to break down and refine the plan. I generally split it up like so:
General idea
Exceptions (As in, what characters can stop me)
Counters to those characters
And I’ll do that for every type of knockdown at my character’s disposal. On defense, you don’t necessarily need to know all the intricacies of what your opponent does when they knock you down, but you should be able to recognize what knockdown they are going for, what kind of options they’ll try to cover, and how. The description of Mitsuru’s corner knockdown above can be read from both an offensive and defensive perspective – and as I said before, the more aware you are of your opponent’s options, the better you’ll be able to defend against it.
Take advantage of your knockdown; depending on the game, a solid knockdown can mean you win the round!
While not as drastic as Nina Williams’ wedding dress wardrobe change, the entire cast of Tekken 7 Fated Retribution will be receiving similar updates to their default outfits. Each of the characters in the initial reveal trailer sported brand new designs, and now we have a hint of Alisa Bosconovitch fresh digs courtesy of director Katsuhiro Harada.
Harada also revealed that Bandai Namco Entertainment will be previewing additional Tekken 7 Fated Retribution designs Friday evening in Japan (or early Friday morning for those reading in North America). Stay tuned for more details.
Part of getting better at fighting games means having to take losses. It’s just the nature of the genre and its one-on-one competitive format – you will eventually lose and it will, most likely, be your own fault.
In his latest video, longtime fighting game enthusiast and genre scholar Patrick Miller talks about dealing with your losses and, more importantly, how to figure out why you lost in the first place.
When it comes to why you lost, Patrick breaks this down to one of two things. Either you pressed the wrong button, courtesy of an execution error or choosing poorly, or you did something at the wrong time. Additionally, he also mentions that there are times where any button is the “wrong button,” especially in games like Street Fighter V that seem to greatly emphasize frame traps when compared to others.
The second deals with the fact that everything in a fighting game happens in real time. Just pressing the right button isn’t enough; you need to make sure that you press it at the right time. Time is a resource that you have to play around, and you’ll need to train your reactions to be able to use the “right button” at the “right time.”
You can learn more about these concepts in the video below, as well as in the corresponding blog post.
For those who would like to catch Patrick’s inisights live, be sure to check out his Twitch channel where he streams twice a week, with interviews taking place on Mondays and lectures and gameplay streams on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
Although the Killer Instinct reboot has only been around for a couple of years, few players have dominated its competitive landscape as much as Jonathan “Rico Suave” Deleon. Since its release, Deleon has never placed outside of top eight at a high-level event, showing a mastery of the rebooted title’s mechanics and titles that surpasses many of his peers.
This past weekend, Deleon cemented that reputation with a victory at the inaugural Killer Instinct World Cup, besting veterans and newcomers alike in his first major appearance since becoming Evo 2015 champion. We recently caught up with Mr. Suave to gather some of his thoughts on the event, where his future lies, and more.
Some of the answers below have been edited for clarity and brevity.
You’re fresh off your win at the inaugural Killer Instinct World Cup. Explain to me some of the emotions you felt at the time.
Rico Suave: It’s hard to explain. Coming off an Evo Championship, I felt like the pressure was gone. It’s great to have people still consider me a serious competitor in this game.
Has that worn off at all or are you still pretty stoked?
RS: Without a doubt, I’m still feeling the love and support! It’s a little overwhelming at times, having every social media page of mine blowing up.
Lots of folks may know you mainly as a Street Fighter guy. What prompted the transition to Killer Instinct?
RS: Street Fighter was my first love, it’s the first fighting game I took serious. When Killer Instinct dropped, I really liked the game’s mechanics and how every character has a unique playstyle. When the announcer shouts “FIGHT!” it’s a constant mind game and I love it. I really enjoy stimulating my mind.
Do you feel as if your experiences in one game affects how you play the other? In what way do they complement each other, if at all?
RS: In my honest opinion, I do think it’s good to play different fighting games. They all bring different elements, kind of like Street Fighter being a bible of fundamentals. The more you get to experiment, the better. You get to look at things differently, depending on how the game is built.
Shadow Jago was your character of choice all the way up to winners finals, where you went with Omen against Rebelo’s TJ Combo. What prompted the switch?
RS: Shadow Jago at this point is my favorite character to play. He’s the most fun, and I have the liberty to be very creative with him. The reason I switched to Omen against Rebelo is because TJ Combo is the only character I got no matchup experience against. I don’t necessarily think Omen counters TJ Combo, but I do think he stops him from doing random and wild things from mid-screen really well. That’s Rebelo’s playstyle, you can never be sure what he’s going to do.
That was also your closest match of the tournament. You must have been pretty confident in your Omen?
RS: I was very confident with Omen. I hadn’t used him before the match against Rebelo, so I had to get in my groove with him.
In grand finals, you made another change by choosing Glacius against MyGod’s Sabrewulf. The commentators were of the opinion you did so to prove a point about the matchup. Mind expanding on that?
RS: I actually wanted to play Shadow Jago, but I had played him all day. I still believe Glacius has the upper hand against Sabrewulf. The Iceman will always be there, ready.
You’re relatively new to both Shadow Jago and Omen. Why do you think you were able to find success with them so soon?
RS: I was infatuated with Omen and Shadow Jago. I would always think of different things to try, no matter what I was doing. I would be at the gym and still be thinking about the possibilities with said characters.
You haven’t really participated in any major Killer Instinct events since Evo. Were you in the hyperbolic time chamber, taking time away from the game, or somewhere in the middle?
RS: After Evo, I really focused on enjoying some time off. I would play Killer Instinct every now and again. When time drew closer to the Killer Instinct World Cup, I spent time playing against certain character specialists.
Over the weekend, you had a chance to play around with some of the game’s upcoming content, most notably Kim Wu in the live exhibitions. Can you give us a short breakdown of her strengths and weakness from your perspective?
RS: Considering everything is subject to change, I will say in the build that we saw, she needs meter to have a real wakeup. It’s hard to build a level four ender without meter and her kick buttons don’t really have great range. On the other hand, her nunchaku have really good reach, her dragon ability is great for canceling unsafe moves, she has good pressure, and her jumping fierce punch has insane range. I really enjoyed playing Kim Wu, I can’t wait for Season 3.
With both the Killer Instinct World Cup and Evo championships under your belt, what’s your next goal?
RS: I want to keep improving. I want to stay consistent, I want to be the one who brought the game to a new level. With Street Fighter V around the corner, I want to stand out in that game as well. I want to be the greatest. Ever.
Killer Instinct’s third season will feature at least two guest characters. If you had to choose one fighter to make a surprise appearance, who would it be?
RS: I would love for Spawn to make an appearance in Killer Instinct. He looks a lot like me. He could use a little bit of coaching though.
Any parting words for the readers?
RS: I would like to thank everyone for their continued support, it means a lot to me. The Killer Instinct community may be small, but we have heart. Keep fighting.
You can follow Rico Suave on Twitter. Featured image c/o PTB Photo.
Hot on the heels of the input lockout glitch for Mortal Kombat X, we’ve got couple more videos showing another set of bugs in the game. While not as game breaking as the previous glitch, they still make Reptile’s Force Ball act in unexpected ways.
Both of the glitches shown in these videos by ElChakotay seem to stem from how the projectile interacts with certain reflect moves. In the first one, if a stopped Force Ball is reflected by Takeda, the projectile’s model stays on screen, but it loses all of its hit detection.
The second involves being reflected by Royal Storm Kitana. While it doesn’t remove the collision, it seems to cause a second Force Ball, thrown immediately as Kitana gets hit, to disappear when Reptile brings it to a stop.
Have you ever encountered this bugs? Let us know in the comments.
Here’s some great news for pad players out there: the Evolution Championship Series staff has made the decision to legalize DualShock 4 usage at this year’s event. Though normally banned due to their Bluetooth capabilities, folks who rely on these devices to compete will now be able to utilize their controller of choice.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be regulations in place to ensure they don’t interfere with the competition. It will be every DualShock 4 users’ responsibility to make sure their controller is no longer paired with the console after their match. Anyone who doesn’t risks automatically disqualified from the tournament.
If you plan to compete in Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat X, or Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, and are unsure of how to desync controllers from the PlayStation 4, the video below should have all the answers you need.
Evo 2016 is scheduled for July 15-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada. More details can be found here.
