Category: Fighting Games

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Street Fighter V’s Laura Matsuda is Sean’s Older Sister

Oh, Sean. While the Street Fighter III cast member has his fans, many see him as an overall weak character due to the intense nerfing Capcom performed between 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike. Before today, his future in Street Fighter V was looking pretty grim, but some updated background information on the title’s latest character may just be what his supporters need to keep hope alive.

Before her official reveal, Laura was just…Laura. Like many Street Fighter characters, she was a single name and nothing more, but today that all changed. Her last name, if you missed out on this little detail earlier, is Matsuda, same as Sean. We were a little fuzzy on what that meant this afternoon, but Laura’s page on the official Street Fighter V website sets that all straight.

Laura is Sean’s sister. Not only that, but she’s his older sister, which explains why she’s the “next heir of the famed Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu fighting style” and Sean sticks to emulating Ken and throwing basketballs around.

All in all, this isn’t a huge reveal, but it’s great to see Capcom continue to flesh out the often confusing Street Fighter universe. Let’s hope Sean is hanging onto Laura’s coattails and appears later on down the road.

Street Fighter V is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 4 and PC sometime next spring.

Source: Capcom via NeoGAF

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Dissidia Final Fantasy Possibly Hitting Arcades in November

Square Enix and Team NINJA are currently working on bringing an updated version of the Dissidia Final Fantasy fighting series to Japanese arcades. So far, the game has been undergoing location testing at various game centers around Japan, and it seems as if it’s almost ready for release.

A notice spotted at the Playland King Nanajo game center in Kyoto indicates that the game is set to launch sometime this November.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a 3D arena fighter featuring characters from various games in the Final Fantasy franchise. The arcade version mixes things up by focusing on team battles, with players controlling a a group of three characters. Check out our previous coverage for more information on its system and characters, and stay tuned for more details about this upcoming release.

Source: WENZ via Games Talk

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Extend Sheik’s Vanish Range in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

It’s not like Sheik needs any help in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, but that didn’t stop the Beefy Smash Doods from figuring out how to reliably increase the range of her up special, allowing her even more ridiculous return trips to the stage.

This is one of those things that’s been possible for quite some time–likely since the game’s release–and there’s a good chance that top Sheik players have employed the technique to some degree, but the Beefy Smash Doods wanted to spread the knowledge so that everyone commanding Zelda’s alter ego can live to fight another day, regardless of how near the blast zone they wandered.

The inputs required to gain this Vanish range extension aren’t complicated, but the timing can be awkward to get used to. For a full breakdown of how to pull this off, as well as some situations where it could be useful, be sure to check out the video below.

Please note that Wario had a similar momentum-changing glitch early in the game’s life, which was patched out. With that in mind, Nintendo could remove this option in a future update.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods

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Rising Thunder Receives Lobby Expansion, Spectating in Latest Update

The folks at Radiant Entertainment continue to push out regular updates for Rising Thunder, and this week saw improvements across the board, from the online experience to character changes and everything in-between.

First off, online lobbies can now hold up to eight players and support spectating. While the developers are still ironing out the kinks, Rising Thunder’s netplay is definitely shaping up throughout these early testing phases.

On the gameplay side of things, Crow has received a brand new variant called Dire Sting, which sets up more juggle opportunities in the corner, while Dauntless, Edge, and Talos have had things like health and attack properties adjusted slightly.

The full list of changes included in this new build has been included below.

Rising Thunder Patch Notes, Build 1423

Game Modes

  • Lobby player cap has been increased to 8 players! When two players are done with their game, the winner will continue playing while the loser will drop back to the bottom of the play queue. The next player up will have a shot at the winner.
  • Spectating has been added to lobbies! If you’re not participating in the fight currently going on in a lobby, you’ll automatically spectate the current match.

Dev Notes: Spectating is still a little rough around the edges, but it’s a work in progress. There are a few known issues, such as some audio stacking when catching up to real time. Also, the loading screen does not accurately reflect that it is waiting for the game to start before spectating. Lastly, joining a lobby during the variant selection phase of a match will cause the replay to desync from what is actually happening.

Crow

  • New S2 variant! Dire Sting is quicker than Core Puncture and creates some juggle opportunities in the corner, but it’s slightly less damaging and more vulnerable if blocked.

Dauntless

  • Reduced forward throw launch height to avoid dashing under opponents when using Kinetic Advance in the corner.

Dev Notes: Previously, dash-canceling Dauntless’ forward throw caused inconsistent behavior against different characters. This change should keep Dauntless out of the corner consistently against the entire cast.

Edge

  • Reduced base Health and Stun from 1000 to 900.

Dev Notes: Fighting game characters with high mobility, damage, and mixup potential traditionally have lower health, so we feel this change suits Edge’s play style thematically. These numbers are experimental, but Edge has remained a dominant character for quite some time now, and this gives us an opportunity to introduce more health/stun diversity into the roster.

Talos

  • Increased Magnetic Buster stun and meter gain slightly.
  • Increased Aerial Magnetic Attract range, damage, stun, and meter gain slightly.

Dev Notes: Magnetic Buster is underused among Talos players, compared to Spartan Rush. These changes are meant to make S3v1 a slightly more enticing option.

  • Increased base Health and Stun from 1100 to 1200.

Dev Notes: Talos has been struggling a bit since the recent changes to S1v2 and S2v2 armor startup. Boosting his durability gives him a few more chances to take risks, without forcing players to choose a specific variant. We feel that Talos’ S1 and S2 variants are much closer to equal viability now, so we hope players start getting more use out of all of them.

Performance

  • Numerous performance fixes that help frame rates for all players. Our min-spec laptop in the office has been able to more consistently maintain 60 fps and most of the time runs over.
  • Frame rate of the game has been uncapped from 60 fps to allow players to match their monitors refresh rate more accurately. You can still turn on VSync to cap the frame rate at your monitor’s refresh rate.

Dev Notes: This should have no impact on actual game play. Even though we render the game more often when running about 60 fps, gameplay-related updates still occur at 60 fps.

  • New client support for additional ping filtering settings. We’ll be adjusting the settings and monitoring the data throughout the week.
  • After meeting with his old friend and colleague, Zib’s head remains clouded. “Patches couldn’t… he just couldn’t. But he was so dismissive… so defensive….”

Visual Improvements

  • Slight recovery pose improvements for Crow’s far s.M and B+M.
  • Slight camera transition improvements for Talos’ Overdrive initial grab.
  • New look for dust VFX across most of the game.

Rising Thunder is currently in open alpha; feel free to visit their official website for more details.

Source: Rising Thunder

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Learn More About Street Fighter V Newcomer Laura Matsuda

UPDATE (1:27 PM PDT) – Laura was unlocked at New York Comic Con shortly after her announcement, and will apparently be playable at SoCal Regionals 2015 this weekend. Get hype!

During his visit to Brazil Game Show, Capcom executive Yoshinori Ono had the pleasure of finally showing off Street Fighter V newcomer Laura Matsuda, who may or may not have some connection to Street Fighter III debutant Sean Matsuda. Despite a couple of glaring leaks, we now have the opportunity to see previously low-grade screenshots in beautiful high-definition.

Click to view slideshow.

Laura’s reveal trailer can be found here if you’re in the mood for gameplay instead of still images.

According to new details from associate producer Peter “Combofiend” Rosas, this Brazilian newcomer is another “in your face” grappler that is capable of playing devastating mind games with her opponents. Laura’s V-Skill, Linear Movement, allows her to quickly move into or out of attack range depending on which direction is held. Players can also make use of the skill’s inherent overhead by staying at neutral.

sfv-laura-vskill-1sfv-laura-vskill-2

Laura’s V-Trigger, Spark Show, is all about improving her already impressive set of techniques. Upon activation, she gains a ton of advantages, including increased travel with Linear Movement, additional stun on attacks and grabs, and more distance for her fireball, Thunder Clap.

sfv-laura-vtrigger-1sfv-laura-vtrigger-2

Feel free to let us know what you think of Laura in the comments below.

Source: Capcom-Unity, Haunts, DaFeetLee via R.S. Black Rose

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Ono Had Some Vicious Street Fighter V Teasers in Store Before Laura Leaked

By now, the fact Street Fighter V will feature a Brazilian newcomer by the name of Laura is common knowledge courtesy of Famitsu early publishing of official assets. You know it, I know it.

While exciting for fans eagerly awaiting any scrap of information to drop about the upcoming title, one person was obviously upset by the outcome: Yoshinori Ono. A notorious troll when it comes to character reveals, the executive producer was apparently prepared to step up his game before Laura’s official reveal.

As many of you may remember, Ono’s past few hints have pointed seemingly towards one character before revealing another one entirely. For example, these screenshots had many convinced that Cody would be bringing his Criminal Upper to the world of Street Fighter V, but Rashid was revealed instead; a similar red herring pointed towards Dudley before Karin was confirmed.

Teasing for the upcoming Brazil Game Show reveal, however, got started much earlier. When first revealing Street Fighter V’s Brazil stage, Ono made sure to hint at a character announcement by donning a signature costume and adorning his work desk with numerous figures of the series’ resident electrical beast. The conclusion that everyone came to, naturally, was that Blanka was going to be featured in the launch roster.

Despite the aforementioned Famitsu leaks, Ono has soldiered on, releasing suspicious screenshots that, if we didn’t know any better, would have led us further down the Blanka path due to the shocking attacks they depict.

sfv-laura-teasesfv-laura-tease-2

Not only that, but Ono was also planning to break out the Blanka costume at some point during his visit to Brazil, likely continuing the farce all the way up to Laura’s unveiling.

How folks in the community feel about this likely differs wildly. Some may like the speculation leading up to a character reveal, while others may want information as soon and as fast as they can get it. No one is entirely correct, obviously, but it speaks to the love fans have for Street Fighter that these kinds of tactics garner so much attention.

Fortunately, there might still be some hope for Ono’s missed trolling opportunities. Earlier today, he dropped a picture of a mysterious item hidden beneath a sheet, teasing that we can expect a “surprise gift” during the Street Fighter V stage show. Keep an eye out around 12 PM PDT, 3 PM EDT when the presentation begins for more details.

Source: Yoshinori Ono

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Learn How to Put a (Run) Stop to El Fuerte as Ryu in Ultra Street Fighter IV

Fighting El Fuerte can be a chore thanks to his mobility and ambiguity, among other things. Luckily, Spab Rog has a new series of videos dedicated to overcoming this uncommon Ultra Street Fighter IV opponent.

Today’s session delves into Ryu’s best options for dealing with the chef’s tools. Many of the tips included in the video involve short stints of walking followed by crouching forward, abusing Ryu’s reel back animation on his focus attack, and other similar positional or hurtbox related happenings. By following these tips, you’ll surely be able to poke a hole in Fuerte’s offense and pile on some damage to discourage future shenanigans.

If you missed the first session of Fighting Fuerte featuring Chun-Li, you can find it here.

Source: Spab Rog

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Alex Reportedly Appears in Street Fighter V’s New York City Stage

While Street Fighter V newcomer Laura is likely to be revealed at Brazil Game Show this weekend, it appears as if Capcom has something in store for fans at New York Comic Con as well.

In footage captured on the show floor, we’ve caught our first glimpse of Street Fighter V’s New York City stage, and if reports from folks in attendance are to be believed, a notable American grappler can be spotted in the background.

Did you catch it? According to local player Jefford “Lil’ Evil” Castillo, Street Fighter III protagonist and Manhattan native Alex appears in this new stage, and you may even be able to make out his iconic green pants and bomber jacket in the video above.

Of course, this can’t really be construed as a confirmation or deconfirmation of Alex’s inclusion, but it does fall in line with the previous Siliconera leaks that mentioned he would appear in the game alongside R. Mika, Karin, and Urien, two of which have already been revealed.

Stay tuned for more details as New York Comic Con continues on throughout the weekend.

Sources: Marcello, Jefford Castillo via NeoGAF

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Level|Up Series Releases Bracket Assignments for SoCal Regionals 2015

The folks at Level|Up Series recently released a full list of bracket assignments and registration numbers for SoCal Regionals 2015, which will run this weekend in, you guessed it, Southern California. It’s no surprise that Ultra Street Fighter IV still brings in the biggest numbers, but Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U certainly drew plenty of attention as well.

Some of you may notice that Gundam isn’t on the list below; sadly the attendance numbers didn’t quite reach an acceptable level, so it had to be struck from the lineup. Otherwise, the competition looks to be healthy across the rest of the impressive selection of games; be sure to follow the links for a look at the current bracket assignments.

SoCal Regionals 2015 Registration Numbers

If you’re in the area and looking to sign up for competition, emergency onsite registration will be available on Thursday, October 8, from 7 PM until 10 PM, as well as Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10, from 8 AM until 9:30 AM. If you just enjoy watching others beat the pixels out of one another, you can pick up spectator passes daily from 8 AM until 8 PM.

SoCal Regionals 2015 is scheduled for October 9-11 in Ontario, California. More details can be found here.

Source: Level|Up Series

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Blade Arcus from Shining EX Forgoes Netplay in Upcoming Console Release

If you’ve been eagerly waiting to import Blade Arcus from Shining EX, you might want to turn down the enthusiasm a few notches. Sega’s home conversion of the Shining series fighting game spin-off is scheduled to hit Japan on November 26, but apparently it’s going to do so without netplay.

While online play has been a standard feature for fighting games for a number of years, Blade Arcus EX is breaking the mold in an unfortunate way. The title’s official product description page specifies that the game supports 1-2 players, but in offline versus only. You’ll still need a network connection if you’re purchasing the digital version or if you want to redeem the first-print product codes, but that seems to be about all you’ll need it for with this title.

blade-arcus-ex-offline

If the lack of online play isn’t enough to deter you from purchase, you can grab Blade Arcus from Shining EX on November 26 for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, available at 6990 yen (~58.30 USD) for the standard edition package or downloadable version and at 9990 yen (~83.30 USD) for the limited edition package.

Source: Blade Arcus from Shining EX