Category: Fighting Games

While Square Enix is currently hard at work at a new installment of their Dissidia Final Fantasy fighting franchise, there are some out there who would probably prefer a more traditional, 2D game based on the storied roleplaying franchise.

In their latest trailer for Final Fantasy XIV, the developer gave us a glimpse of what this kind of fighter may look like. The video, which you can watch below, takes one of the game’s biggest boss battles, Livia Sas Junius of the Garlean Empire, and turns it into a fighting game complete with mechanics adapted from series staples, such as limit breaks turned into super moves.

Sadly, this video will remain only that, as Square Enix has not stated any plans whatsoever to turn this into an actual game.

Source: Square Enix

I recently was asked to test out a new game trading site. The site is called Leaptrade, and they provide an alternate to video game stores that charge top dollar for used games.

What is Leaptrade?

Leaptrade provides an outlet to buy and sell video game that you own through the mail. Basically you go to their website choose which video game you want, and start your place in line. When you are done with the game, you hop back on the site and put it up for sale. It’s basically an eBay for video games.

Quality & Selection

Leaptrade has a huge selection of titles. I didn’t have any trouble getting any game I wanted, though I have heard that some people have had to wait to get newer games. A good idea is to not have your heart set on any particular title, and have an open mind on what is available and what isn’t.

Price

This is where I had a problem with the site. All of the prices are set in stone, and the user has no control over setting your price. If you are a stickler for setting your own price, you are better off using an auction site for your business.

Selling

Games generally sell for slightly more on Leaptrade than on other sites. This all balances out by the fact that sellers pay for the shipping on Leaptrade, as opposed to other sites that make the buyer pay for shipping. The negatives are money from sales can only be spent on other games at Leaptrade.

Leaptrade does not charge a fee per trade, the only fee is $3.49 for shipping (In the U.S.) which is paid by the seller. Sellers can’t pay for shipping with credit earned by trading in the game, they have to use real money.

Game Consoles Covered

Leaptrade has games for every major console currently on the market including: Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One, XBox 360, Nintendo WiiU, and many older gaming systems. They do not have PC games and for good reason. Most require a key which is a one-time use, and would not benefit multiple owners.

Membership

There is no membership fee, so you can just come and go if you choose. This is a good thing, especially if you are a bargain hunter looking for that great game that might be of an older generation.

Alternatives

The used game market is still very valuable for many consumers. The digital age is still coming around, so many players like to be able to sell a game right after the have completed it. There are auction sites like eBay, or used game shops like Gamestop and Best Buy if you want to get some games, but the prices are relatively high for newer games.

Should you use Leaptrade?

I think if you are looking for an older game, this site might be perfect for you. A lot of players have old games laying around, and are looking to get more money than trading it in a video game store. Set prices benefits the seller over the buyer as you might get more than a few dollars for your old game and this isn’t a bad thing. All in all, this site is worth at least checking out (if you are in the US), and it’s free to join so no need to worry about cancelling or membership fees, that is.

www.leaptrade.com

Today SEGA will be hosting its second annual national tournament for its ALL.Net P-ras MULTI arcade titles, D-1 ULTIMATE CLIMAX BLADE, at the Hulic Hall in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. Joining last year’s titles DEAD OR ALIVE Ultimate: Arcade and Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX is the Shining series spin-off BLADE ARCUS from Shining. You can catch the action from the event on Niconico Live.

Players

Capcom is holding a special two-day broadcast as part of this years Niconico Chokaigi convention. The broadcast is set to cover a ton of their upcoming games, including Street Fighter V.

In addition to this, Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada will also be on the stream with brand new Tekken 7 information as well as a never-before-seen video.

Street Fighter V is set to appear on the stream at 4:20 PM JST (3:20 AM EST, 12:20 AM PST tonight) and 3:50 PM JST (2:50 AM EST, 11:50 PM PST tomorrow night). Meanwhile, the Tekken announcement is scheduled for 2 PM JST (1 AM EST, 10 PM PST tomorrow night).

For those interested, you can catch the stream both on Niconico and YouTube, the latter of which you’ll find embedded below.

Sources: Niconico Chokaigi, Capcom Channel

A special Super Smash Bros. for Wii U exhibition will be going down at Niconico Chokaigi 2015 today and tomorrow. The event pits representatives from Japan against those of the US in a class of nations.

Players

Japan

• Deus Ex Machina Ironbottom Sound Apex (Daiki, Fsann) – Premium Fight champions
• Light and Darkness (Luminous, Shadow) – Tokaigi 1 Day Tournament champions

US

• ZeRo, Mew2King (Apex 2015 champions)
• MJG, cyve (Apex 2015 2nd and 3rd place, respectively)

Saturday is the singles tournament, while Sunday will be the doubles tournament. You can catch the stream on VGBootCamp’s Twitch channel for English, or on Niconico Live for Japanese. Watch live video from VGBootCamp on www.twitch.tv

Results

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Semi-final

ZeRo vs. cyve
Mew2King vs. Fsann

First Round

Luminous (Dedede) vs. ZeRo (Diddy Kong)
cyve (Sheik) vs. Daiki (Mega Man)
Mew2King (Diddy Kong) vs. Shadow (Captain Falcon)
Fsann (Ness) vs. MJ (Villager)

While Northwest Majors is raging on in the United States, across the Pacific South Korea will see some tournament action as well with Double Elimination Tournament 2015, brought to you by Arcade Stream. Double Elimination will feature three games: Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Ultra Street Fighter IV, the last of which is a Capcom Pro Ranking Tour Ranking Tournament as well as a Capcom Pro Tour Asia qualifier. The winner of USFIV singles will qualify for the CPT Asia finals in Singapore later this year, while the top 16 players will earn ranking points.

In addition to Korean players such as INFILTRATION, LAUGH, POONGKO, BIGDANMUL, DBKoopa, quite a few names from surrounding countries will be participating: TOKIDO, Itazan, Eita, Kazunok0, Kim1234, KOK, Gonzalez, Shiro and Bonchan of Japan; Humanbomb of Hong Kong; Dark Jiewa of China; Sketch of the US; Chuan of Malaysia; and Burnout of Australia.

You can catch the action from Double Elimination on Xsplit’s Twitch channel (or ArcadeStream for Korean language). Brackets can be found on Touch Cookie TV’s Challonge page.

Saturday will feature the USFIV tournament in its entirely, so if you want to watch some Street Fighter, tune into the stream below.

ToughCookieTV (English)

Watch live video from Xsplit on www.twitch.tv

ArcadeStream (Korean)

Watch live video from ArcadeStream on www.twitch.tv

Sources:  Xsplit, ArcadeStream

This weekend is the seventh annual Northwest Majors tournament at the Highline Community College in Des Moines near Seattle, Washington. Northwest Majors 7 is the event for the Pacific Northwest and surrounding areas to show what they got. Joining these players are a few heavy hitters from Japan: Ogawa, Dogura and KoujiKOG.

MWM7 is a part of the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour as a Ranking Tournament, giving the top 16 in the Ultra Street Fighter IV singles event ranking points towards Capcom Cup 2015. In addition, Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7 will be playable at the event.

Tournament Games

• BlazBlue Chronophantasma
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
• Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
• Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Mortal Kombat X
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
• Project M
• Skullgirls Encore
• Super Smash Bros.
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Tekken Tag Tournament 7
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
• Ultra Street Fighter IV
• Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late
• Vampire Savior

Tekken 7 will also be available for play at the Mad Catz Booth.

Brackets for the event can be found on the Northwest Majors 7 Challonge Page.

Streams

Five streams will be bringing you the action from NWM7: TeamKhaos, KhaosGaming2, LogicHole, 62bitgaming and SeattleTekken.

Watch all five streams via Multitwitch

TeamKhaos

Watch live video from TeamKhaos on www.twitch.tv

KhaosGaming2

Watch live video from KhaosGaming2 on www.twitch.tv

LogicHole

Watch live video from LogicHole on www.twitch.tv

62bitgaming

Watch live video from 62bitgaming on www.twitch.tv

SeattleTekken

Watch live video from SeattleTekken on www.twitch.tv

Schedule

Click for larger view.

Click for larger view.

Click for larger view.

Results

Ultra Street Fighter IV

Sources: TeamKhaos, KhaosGaming2, LogicHole, 62bitgaming and SeattleTekken

Mortal Kombat X players have a lot to look forward to this weekend thanks to Northwest Majors 7. This is the first time that the new NetherRealm Studios title will be making a showing at a major tournament, so it’ll be exciting to see what sort of character mix top players will bring to the fight, as well as what kinds of high-level technology people will be putting to use.

Until then, you can get your Mortal Kombat X fix from today’s community video roundup.

To get things rolling, we’ve got the second in a series of videos from Bafael and Cross Counter TV aimed at easing players into Mortal Kombat X. This clip focuses on applying basic game mechanics such as block breakers, combo breakers, and the universal normals that everyone in the cast shares. Bafael also details the way that the block button works, which is something that everyone should be sure to check out, as it’s not an exact replication of a more traditional “hold back” sort of block.

UltraDavid has been on the forefront of uncovering effective ways to make use of various option selects in Mortal Kombat X. In the ten minute video below, David discusses three different kinds of option selects available in the game, as well as how to go about making them work and, more importantly, why they work. The basic idea centers around making the game forget that you’ve used certain inputs by inputting far too many directional inputs at the appropriate time.

David, of course, covers this in much more detail and does a better job explaining it with examples than this bit of text ever could, so be sure to check it out. This is the sort of stuff that stands to drastically change the way that the game is played and everyone serious about Mortal Kombat X should give it a watch.

Up next, we’ve got a couple of one-off combos. The first, from Rhuel47, features Marksman Erron Black cranking out an alarming 43% damage without spending any meter. Granted, the combo does require the corner, but that’s quite the big combo for not having to spend any bar.

MrOrchazm offers another D’Vorah combo next, which makes use of the fighter’s Brood Mother variant. This mid-screen series uses no meter and still manages to push out 31% damage thanks to the use of some of the tools exclusive to her Brood Mother stance.

Nico Montano has a couple more videos for us to share today as well. The Goro enthusiast seems to have taken a step back from the four-armed fighter in favor of the merciless leader of the Black Dragons, Kano. Below, you’ll find some ways to combo into Kano’s powerup in a safe manner while dealing around thirty percent damage at various screen positions without spending any meter. Of course, these numbers go much higher once Kano starts using meter and beginning the combos while already under the effects of his powerup.

If you’re just looking to put out the most damage possible for little meter use, this second video is exactly what you’re looking for. Passing over the 50% threshold seems to be no big deal for Kano in his Cutthroat variation.

Up next, Hurtbox TV takes a look at plenty of combos across all of Kung Lao’s variants. As always, you can expect a good spread of combo damage and difficulty throughout the video, so there’s a little something for everyone.

They already did a video for Kitana, which you can find here, but Hurtbox TV recently spent a good deal of time with the fighter’s Mournful stance. This homage to Jade plays quite a bit differently than Kitana’s Assassin and Royal Storm variants, so it makes sense to dedicate an entire reel to this single variation. In addition to providing plenty of combos, this video also shows each string a second time in slow motion to help ease the learning process.

Brutalities are one of the more unique mechanics in Mortal Kombat X. They offer a great way to punctuate the match by turning opponents into some sort of bloody mess without the time necessary to perform an entire Fatality, which seem longer than ever in this entry to the series.

As such, we close out today’s roundup with a video from LASummers that showcases a handful of ways to go about comboing into various Brutalities from around the roster. Be sure to use them when you can to help exert your dominance!

Have you found something brutal in Mortal Kombat X that you can’t wait to share? Drop us a line and let us know; your video could be featured in our next roundup!

Sources: Bafael and Cross Counter TV, UltraChenTV, Rhuel47, MrOrchazm, Nico Montano, HurtboxTV and LASummers