Kill or be killed! Slice, Dice, and Rice coming to North America’s Nintendo Switch eShop in September

Parry and slice your way to victory in this no-life-bar fighter.

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Along with a new trailer, the indie one-hit-kill samurai-style fighting game Slice, Dice, and Rice just arrived on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Japan, courtesy of publisher Arc System Works and developer Dojo Games. It didn’t take long for it to be confirmed that we’d also be getting it on the Switch in North America: Slice, Dice, and Rice will be available on our own eShop on September 6th. The updated English trailer is below!

The game will run you $17.99 USD on release. Arc System Works already brought Slice, Dice, and Rice to the PlayStation 4; check out our review of the PC version for more details on the game.

Source: arcsystemworks

Ludosity kicks off the Slap League for its indie platform fighter “Slap City”

Sign up on smash.gg to participate in the first Slap City tournament series!

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Have you tried out Slap City yet? It’s an indie platform fighter developed by Ludosity, currently available on Steam Early Access:

Slap City is a streamlined platform fighter with characters and locations from the Ludosity universe! Slap your way through multiplayer modes like Battle and Slap Ball either locally or online, or take on a bunch of single-player challenges!

Play with up to four players locally or online with a variety of game modes, options, and computer controlled opponents, or play for points in online 1 on 1 ranked battles. 
Save replays of your greatest moments!

And while it still might be in Early Access, that hasn’t stopped the developer partnering up with YouTubers that have become fans of the title to launch the Slap League, and ongoing series of Slap City tournament events. The first event was on August 22nd (Alpharad’s SLAP DOWN); it continues with the Slap City Wifi Weekly series (#14 is tonight, kicking off at 4:00 PM PT) and other events.

Head over to the Slap League page on smash.gg for details on how you can participate.

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Source: Slap League (smash.gg)

Notable dataminer Miyuki-Chan returns, claims massive Variable System expansion is coming to Street Fighter V

Are a massively expanded Variable System and additional Critical Arts possibly on their way to Street Fighter V?

Over the last few years, we’ve featured several reports on a notable dataminer from Brazil, known as X-Kira, who’s leaked a myriad of content coming to Street Fighter V well before its initial release. From costumes based off of classic Capcom characters, the existence of Arcade Mode last October, a series of classic stages from past Street Fighter games — including Cammy’s English Manor and Sagat’s King’s Court from Street Fighter II — and more.

However, earlier this year, they vanished, deleting their social media accounts as well as their YouTube channel, removing all evidence of previous work. Yet they have recently resurfaced under the Miyuki-Chan alias on the Neofighters forum, offering a large post of new leaks in Portuguese. They have been translated and neatly formatted into a Google Document by NinjaWorldWarrior16.

The post notes that, “Another version of Street Fighter V is already on the way. Arcade Edition is just a beta in comparison to what we’ll have eventually. New mechanics will be added to the game soon, thus giving us V-Mode. In the next Season, we will get V-System 1 and 2, which will also be customizable, and will also have a new mode, and Hybrid.” They then say this V-Mode contains the following new features to expand the possibilities of the Variable Gauge:

  • V-Break: “It’s similar to V-Reversal, but it breaks combos, similar to Breakers in Killer Instinct.
  • V-Custom: “A mixture of SFEX2’s Excel, SFA Rose’s Soul Illusion, USFIV Juri’s Feng Shui Engine, SFIII Yun and Yang’s Seiei Enbu and Genei Jin respectively, and it also gives access to  a new type of “SFIV Ultra Combo”/”SFEX2 Meteor Combo”
  • V-Cancel: “This new feature is totally different from the well-known FADC.”

They next claim that the inputs for V-Break will be F+PPP or B+KKK, V-Custom will grant three different effects with the respective combinations of MP+LK, MP+MK, and MP+HK. Finally, V-Cancel will be activated with HP+HK, just like V-Triggers currently.

Continuing on, Miyuki-Chan next states that Season 4 will give each character a second Critical Art, with Sagat and G already having theirs already completed in the game’s latest build, while Ed’s is apparently only accessible on the PS4 version of the game due to the files already being present, as PC only has the animation. [This seems to be very reliable, as we’ve already seen “A True Martial Artist” Ryu boss in Extra Battle use the Shin Shoryuken Critical Art. – Editor] The current Variable System is also set to receive additional features, such as a second V-Reversal for each World Warrior, with the goal to give each character both a Strike and Evasive one. Additional V-Skills and the ability to sacrifice your remaining V-Trigger time for a single V-Reversal, could also arrive in Season 4.

To close things out, X-Kira/Miyuki-Chan claims that Capcom will be releasing stage packs, with the first packing bringing more Street Fighter II arenas, such as Ken’s Battle Harbor, Blanka’s Amazon River Basin, and Dhalsim’s Maharajah’s Palace. Volume 2 will be focused on Street Fighter Alpha locations, such as Nash’s Detroit Highway, Birdie’s W.C. in the London Underground, Ryu’s Field in a Thunderstorm, and M. Bison’s Ridge Overlooking Guyana Falls. A third Volume will supposedly provide stages to Street Fighter V’s New Challengers, with a Russia stage for Kolin, an Egypt stage for Menat, Zeku’s Strider Base, and the Neo-Shadaloo Headquarters for Falke. Cody’s Metro City Slums stage from Final Fight and Urien’s Olmec Ruins from 3rd Strike will be released outside of these packs.

They also note some changes within Capcom’s intended release schedule for Season 3: a second General Story was seemingly held back and could possibly be announced at September’s Tokyo Game Show, and there was going to be an additional CPT costume for Zeku that didn’t come to pass.

As usual, none of this is being added to the game for certain until we get official confirmation from Capcom. What do you think of all of these developments, and would you like to see this content hit Street Fighter V in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Google Docs via Neofighters

HQRubbish shows how to make safe, consistent mid launchers for Tekken 7’s Akuma

One of the ways Namco attempted to preserve Akuma’s 2D feel was to flip traditional Tekken character design on its head. Between his d+4 sweep and his d+4 c.mk proxy, Akuma has two of the best lows in Tekken 7 — at the cost of anything resembling a safe, frightening mid.

But if you’re willing to put in the work, there are two ways you can still make your opponents afraid of the mid-option without gambling your lifebar on a DF+2,1. HQRubbish demonstrates the power of WS+2’s special cancel in his latest tech video, and how you can manipulate (with meter and considerable practice) the situation on hit and block.

Source: HQRubbish

Shoryuken interview: LowHigh, Evo 2018’s Tekken 7 Champion

With Tekken 7 having experienced its largest tournament ever at Evo 2018, many top players thirsted for its title. The prestige of winning a 1500-player bracket was undeniably one of the biggest motivators.

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When the dust settled, Sun Woong “LowHigh” Youn took the most important tournament of his career to date, with his Shaheen play overcoming everyone in his path. After the tournament, I got a chance to sit down for a quick interview with the champion.

Responses edited for length and clarity.


Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: First of all, congratulations on your win at Evo 2018. As a first timer on the Evo finals stage, how did it feel?

Sun Woong “LowHigh” Youn: When I first walked on the stage, I couldn’t imagine how many people were there to watch. When I saw them, my mind went black and I felt like I was going to faint. Once I sat down at the station though, I felt no nerves at all.

KINGMissing Person: At what point did you start to think you could win this tournament? Was it in Winners Semifinals, where you beat Qudans, or was it in Winners Finals where you beat Lil Majin?

LowHigh: It was definitely in my first set with Qudans. It was the most tense set for me, as it went down to the wire, but when I won that, I realized this could be my chance.

Missing Person: It’s interesting that you say that was the toughest set. Let’s talk about Grand Finals, where you again faced Qudans, and he started off by resetting the bracket. What was going on in your head when he reset?

LowHigh: When the reset happened, I just took a second to process it. I realized that I was taking too many risks, and using a lot of high risk moves. They were all caught by Qudans. So when the reset happened, I optimized my play, and tried to play more stable.

tekken7-shaheenWhen it reset, I really wasn’t disappointed with myself. I tried to match him damage for damage, and it just simply wasn’t working. So I had to make adjustments, and I was able to do so.

Missing Person: You’re now an Evo champion, but the Evo tournament was nowhere on the Tekken World Tour. With the finals of Tekken World Tour coming up, which would be a more prestigious win for you: Evo or Tekken World Tour Finals?

LowHigh: I feel like the Tekken World Tour Finals would be a bigger win personally. As you know, TWT Finals is an invitational, and the bracket would be set in stone. I would have a lot of time to prepare for the tournament, so I feel like the win would be better for me than Evo.

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CROW BITES: Demonstrating SoulCalibur II’s infinite Soul Charge buffer glitch

Fighting game internet culture has moved so far beyond the way we used to share information, that some of the most interesting aspects of old fighting games are lost to the sands of time. I think this is really unfortunate — some of my favorite things in fighting games are weird glitches or interesting design choices in games both popular and obscure. In the interest of preserving some of this trivia, I’ve decided to start a little show called “Crow Bites” — short videos designed to capture some the stranger bugs I’ve run into over the years in the FGC. (If I’m a responsible_spaceboy, everything in this series should be under 5 minutes. That’s the challenge I’m giving myself, at least.)

With SoulCalibur VI on the way, I thought SoulCalibur II — the game so frequently referenced by Okubo as a design reference — was a good place to start.

“Soul Charge” is fundamentally a different beast in SCVI — what was once a re-imagined version of Tekken‘s “Ki Charge” mechanic is now a panic-button meter-consuming state closer in design to Pokkén Tournament‘s “Burst Mode”. A “feature” of SCII’s Soul Charge mode that almost certainly won’t return is its graphics-breaking buffer glitch, an odd side effect from playing around in SCII’s large buffer window. Rest assured, if I stick with this series, the sentence “SCII’s buffer window caused this glitch” is a sentence you’ll read a lot.

SRK’s youtube channel features guides, reviews, odd trivia, and more, all circling the world of the FGC. If that sounds like your bag, be sure to check out our back catalog here!

The second Fantasy Strike E4i tournament is coming soon

Fantasy Strike’s second E4i online tournament is kicking off this September!

OPnoobs are hosting Fantasy Strike’s second-ever E4i online tournament. Entry is completely free, and players from across North America and the European Union are welcome to participate. The tournament kicks off on September 8th at 7:00 PM – 12:00 AM GMT (12:00 PM – 5:00 PM PT) and will be broadcast live on OPnoob’s Twitch channel.

e4i_fs

Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in the form of PC Steam games. 1st place will receive a total of five Steam titles, including Dead Rising 4, Conan Exiles, The Surge, Kerbal Space Program, and We Are the Dwarves. Second place will win Sudden Strike 4 and Day of Infamy Deluxe Edition, while 3rd place will snag a copy of Styx: Shards of Darkness.

The E4i tournament, otherwise known as ESPORTS4INDIE, is an initiative headed by OPnoobs that seeks to give competitive independent games an esports circuit of their own. Players can register for the tournament here. Don’t miss out on the chance to prove your worth in Fantasy Strike’s upcoming battle!

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Source: Fantasy Strike

The SRK Rollback: Best of August 24-30, 2018

Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news — and our favorite SRK articles — from August 24 to August 30, 2018!


Zavian “mushin_Z” Sildra, Editor-in-Chief:

Frame 1:
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Azwel is the second new character to join the cast of SoulCalibur VI

First Street Fighter V gets a “President of the World”, now SoulCalibur VI gets the “Leader of Humanity”…? But it’s about time we got a look at second original fighter for SCVI — and possibly the game’s final boss?

Frame 2:
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SoCal Regionals, Canada Cup, and Evo all planning to increase event security following the shooting at GLHF Game Bar in Florida

I really, really, really hope this is the last time we ever have to put up an article about a mass shooting at a gaming venue. Ever. This should not be a thing that happens.

Frame 3:
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The 2018 NEO GEO World Tour wraps up in a burning finish

The King of Fighters XIV and its classic cousin The King of Fighters ’98 are still going strong! There’d better be a 2019 circuit!

Frame 4:
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Blade Strangers is now available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam

This crazy game is finally here, complete with forest cats, swole Shovel Knights, and bound Isaacs aplenty. Are you playing it? I hope you’re playing it.

Frame 5:
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Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial — Alex bread-and-butter combo guide & general notes

This guy was supposed to lead the Fight for the Future. Boot up the 30th Anniversary Collection and give him a try.


Crow_Spaceboy, Assistant Editor:

Frame 1:
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SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy’s first DLC character is Thief Arthur from Square Enix’s Million Arthur

Speaking bluntly, I forgot Million Arthur even exists, so this crossover is really baffling to me. MA must be huge in Japan.

Frame 2:
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Punch Planet’s Maxx converts off of command grabs, overheads, and more in latest combo primer

I think this guy is my favorite fighting game character of 2018. Balrog dash punches and Birdie throw/item gimmicks. And he’s a buff cactus frog alien.

Frame 3:
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Take some time to learn about Zasalamel’s chronomancy tricks in SoulCalibur VI

Despite many of my fears of SCVI, Zas coming back is excellent & Hayate is one of the sharpest minds to play the Calibur series, so this is worth a view for that alone.

Frame 4:
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Equinox Gaming signs Tekken 7 powerhouse JoeyFury

Congrats, Joey. This man is a pillar of American Tekken as far as I’m concerned. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Frame 5:
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On the importance of “freshness” — and why we all love Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]

Our own Bloobop talks about the FGC’s favorite game to praise, and how it has managed to be so universally loved.


Catch up on what you may have missed in our prior SRK Rollback compilations.

Here’s a peek at the special Akuma color that Tokido won for Street Fighter V at RAGE’s Byakko Cup

One of the most special tournaments for Street Fighter V is the annual tournament hosted by RAGE in the theme of the four heavenly beasts of Eastern mythology. Unlike every other tournament, these give the winner access to a special themed color for their character — that only they will ever get to use.

This year’s tournament was the Byakko Cup, and its winner was none other than Echo Fox’s Tokido. By winning the tournament, Tokido earned a unique Akuma costume all to himself; the costume features a white-haired Akuma with a dark grey gi bearing the logo of the Byakko Cup on its back.

For those curious about what this costume looks like, HiFight shared an image of it on their twitter account.

Tokido_Byakko_Cup_Gouki

With this, Tokido joins Mizuha and Fujimura as one of the owners of one of these unique costumes. You can check out Mizuha’s Chun-Li from the Suzaku Cup, and Fujimura’s Nash from the Genbu Cup below:

Fujimuri_Genbu_Cup_Nash
Mizuha_Suzaku_Cup_Chun-Li

Additionally, this means that there may be only one more costume left to win, for what should next be the Seiryu Cup.

Source: HiFight

Ultimate Fighting Arena 2018 streaming live from Paris, France

This weekend in Paris France is Ultimate Fighting Arena 2018, a Capcom Pro Tour Ranking Event and Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Saga Event. Also the line-up of titles are Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, The King of Fighters XIV and Tekken 7, along with a number of side events including BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, The King of Fighters ’98, Mortal Kombat XL, and Ultra Street Fighter IV.

With a trip to the DBFZ World Tour finals on the line, a number of players from Japan and the United States have invaded Europe for the event. Players include GO1, Souji, Tachikawa, garireo HookGangGod, ApologyMan, Supernoon, Nakkiel, Cloud805, Angelic, Alioune, Shanks, A F0xy Grampa, Zer0q, Problem-X, Phenom, Luffy, Akainu, Big Bird, Mister Crimson, will2pac and more.

To watch the event live, check out the streams below, and follow the brackets on Smash.gg.

Gameline (ENG)

Watch live video from Gameline on www.twitch.tv

DragonBallFighterZ

Watch live video from dragonballfighterz on www.twitch.tv

JVTV (FRA)

Watch live video from jvtv on www.twitch.tv

Sources: Ultimate Fighting Arena, Capcom Pro Tour