Category: Fighting Games

Last month, the folks at NetherRealm Studios announced the upcoming release of an unexpected collection of skins for Mortal Kombat X. Instead of donning ancient armor or suiting up in some kind of war-related garb, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Johnny Cage have decided to show off their love for Brazil.

As all versions of the game seem to have hit the same point patch and content-wise, you can currently purchase these skins on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Regardless of platform, these duds will set you back $3.99.

Source: Mortal Kombat Community

As part of their E3 2015 festivities, Capcom and Sony revealed that the previously announced beta program for Street Fighter V will commence on PlayStation 4 this summer, starting July 23. While the details only pertained to residents of North America, we now have a clearer view of how folks around the world can participate.

Much like the the rest of the western hemisphere, residents of South American countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay are only required to pre-order the game through PlayStation Network to gain access to the beta.

Unfortunately, things won’t be as easy for fans in Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. Instead of a simple “pre-order and play the beta” system, players will need to submit a sort of application to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for a mere chance at joining the program. If you happen to live in any of these areas, filling out the survey requires information about your history with fighting games, how many Player Points (PP) you’ve accrued playing Street Fighter IV, and more.

Players in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore will have to wait until July 9 to sign up.

Areas outside of North and South America are, without a doubt, getting the short end of the stick here, and it’s a shame a similar system couldn’t be worked out for other regions worldwide. There may be hope in the Steam beta planned for this fall, but few details have been provided for that public testing phase at this point in time.

For more details on how to take part in Street Fighter V’s public beta, be sure to visit Capcom’s official portal.

Source: Capcom

Photo c/o Mark Teo Photography

With the amount of hype that fighting game tournaments and events can generate these days, it’s easy to forget that our community is still something of a niche market, even within the greater competitive gaming scene. This is why it’s always nice when a more mainstream news outlet pays attention to one of our own.

In a recent article, Channel NewsAsia shined a light on none other than Evolution 2013 champion Ho Kun Xian of Team Razer. The article in question looks at his efforts to change the impression that people have of professional fighting game players in his home nation of Singapore.

In the interview, Xian talks about how walking away as Street Fighter champion at Evolution 2013 has helped change the negative stigma against professional gamers in his country. Thanks to the success he’s found, Xian was recently included in the book Living the Singapore Story, which honors noteworthy Singaporeans as part of the nation’s 50th anniversary.

As for why they decided to include Xian in this important collection, Singapore National Library Board assistant director Frances Dorai said that they thought it would be “interesting” to feature someone who pursued a unique vocation. “[T]he fact that [Xian] has risen to the fore, and risen to the top of his game and made a name for himself – I think that in itself is something to celebrate.”

For those interested, you can read the entire article over at Channel NewsAsia.

Source: Channel NewsAsia

With Street Fighter V having a fully playable build at E3 2015, a number of players at the event are tearing through the new engine and putting it through its paces. There are many updated systems in place to limit techniques discovered in previous games, and some players have taken the time to experiment around these to look for new ways get past them.

Earlier today, a tweet from Evil Geniuses Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez surfaced proclaiming a version of the crouch tech option select had been discovered, a technique Capcom recognized and attempted to remove in the upcoming title. To confirm, we got in contact with Josh “Nerdjosh” Jodoin of Team Spooky, who claims to have discovered this altered strategy during his time at the convention, and he took the time to briefly explain to us how this works.

While crouching, a player can input light punch or light kick, then slowly roll or piano their input over to hit the other button at the same time, resulting in a throw tech input. If you input the throw tech late enough so that a throw whiff can’t come out, the character will perform both normals in quick succession. Should the opposing player throw you, the game will recognize the throw tech input and counter the attempt.

This closely resembles a technique from Street Fighter IV used to crouch tech using jab. Jodoin made sure to note that this technique is much more difficult to pull off due to some strict timing requirements; input too early and you get a kara grab, too late and the throw whiff will be buffered and come out anyways.

With this being discovered so early, there’s a good chance it will be brought to Capcom’s attention, and they can decide how best to address the viability of this strategy in the game. Many thoughtful systems have been put in place in an attempt to restrict defensive option selects, and most of them have been successful. However, developers can never count on what happens when a community as creative as the fighting game scene get their hands on something.

Sources: Nerdjosh, PR Balrog via NeoGAF

The final patch for Killer Instinct’s season two went live just a short while ago. This patch brought with it a handful of bug fixes, added the new Story Mode and made both retro ARIA and the ARIA announcer available. For a full list of the changes that came along with the patch, you can head over to the Ultra Combo forums, or check out the drop down list at the bottom of this post.

In addition to pushing out these changes, the folks at Iron Galaxy Studios also released a trailer to celebrate the end of the game’s second season. If you missed any of the action that came along with this most recent leg of the KI journey, the video below does a good job summing it up.

And with all of this to show off, it’s impossible not to look forward to what season three will bring.

Source: Ultra Combo forums via Adam Isgreen

After a ridiculous mid-season showdown, ESL’s Mortal Kombat X competition returns to its regular weekly schedule with their fifth outing. A recent qualifier narrowed the playing field down to sixteen competitors, and those players will be going at each other’s throats tonight to prove they have what it takes to do well in this new arrival to the fighting game community.

Some of the more noteworthy names you can expect to see play tonight include cR|WoundCowboy, , and more.

The tournament’s stream can be found below, but you can also visit Twitch if you prefer to chat with fellow viewers.

Watch live video from NetherRealm on www.twitch.tv

Results

Mortal Kombat X

1.
2.
3.
4.
5. ONYX|DR Gross (Hollywood Cassie Cage, Shirai Ryu Takeda)
5.
5.
5.

9. Immortal Angel (Hellfire Scorpion)
9.
9.
9. Maiircos
9.
9. Dragon Warrior XVI
9.
9.

Top 8 Winners

Crawlingshadow (Covert Ops Sonya Blade) vs. ONYX|DR Gross (Shirai Ryu Takeda, Hollywood Cassie Cage) – 3-1

First Round

ONYX|DR Gross (Hollywood Cassie Cage) vs. Immortal Angel (Hellfire Scorpion, Inferno Scorpion) – 3-0
STB|Karl Malone vs. Chaotic Fear
cR|WoundCowboy vs. MessyMarv
Crawlingshadow vs. Maiircos
Cyrophoikronic vs. D-Que Beats
RZR|Perfect Legend vs. Dragon Warrior XVI
Infinite Resign vs. Dab
Pig of the Hut vs. Emperor Rebelo

Sources: ESL, NetherRealm