During a special BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND pre-release broadcast earlier today, producer Toshimichi Mori announced that Arc System Works is set to host another installment of their annual Japanese national tournament, ARC REVOLUTION CUP 2015.
In a change-up from previous years, ArcRevo 2015 will be played on console, with cash prizes available to finalists. The main tournament has been trimmed down to two titles, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND, but the studio is also planning mini-events featuring past and present titles from their game catalog.
ARC REVOLUTION CUP 2015 is set for Saturday, August 15 at the Shinagawa Intercity Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Stayed tune for more details on the event as we near that date.
As of yesterday, Tekken 7’s debuting eskrimadora character Josie Rizal is playable in arcades. For those interested in seeing how players are taking to this newcomer, a few have uploaded videos of gameplay online.
First up is this video showing Josie in practice mode from Guntama Miraclein. This video should give folks a good glimpse at her moveset.
Next up, we have a video showing some actual matches from Peichan, providing an idea of how she fares in actual matches against other players.
Today’s Mortal Kombat X roundup includes the usual spattering of combo videos, but we’ve got a few more random bits of strategy than we’ve been highlighting in recent updates. This shows that players are beginning to move away from creating the longest combos possible and are instead figuring out ways to open up opponents and actually land those combos in the first place.
First, we’ve got a Kano option select that allows the cybernetic fighter incredible pressure on a downed opponent. As you’ll see in Redemptionmusicz’ clip below, this series of inputs beats all of Sub-Zero’s wake up options (including EX slide) by slamming out enough hits fast enough to break armor, and it doesn’t cancel into the Eye Burst on block or back dash.
Up next, we’ve got a few assorted bits of strategy from Tom Brady and REO that everyone should be sure to check out.
Starting out, they offer up a strange Sub-Zero option against D’Vorah. Typically, if Sub-Zero’s EX slide tosses an opponent into an ice clone on the first hit, its second hit will break the frozen state that the ice clone causes. At a certain range against some of D’Vorah’s attacks, Sub can throw out an EX slide, knock her into an ice clone, and the second hit of the EX slide will whiff and leave D’Vorah frozen for whatever sort of slick combo he feels like unleashing.
This isn’t the sort of thing that will come up very often at all, but it’s weird and worth keeping in mind for this match-up.
Up next, the duo display a bit of Liu Kang technology that, so far as anyone can tell, appears to be a bug. It seems that if Liu Kang manages to put an opponent in hitstun, he can then perform an air fireball and land without having to go through his recovery frames. This makes the fighter a much bigger threat from full screen.
And lastly, Tom Brady and REO show off a meterless vortex for Jacqui’s shotgun variant. The idea behind it is fairly simple: just combo into a shotgun re-stand, cover the ground to your opponent, make them pick high or low block, and if they guess wrong, do it all again.
The first thing that a Jacqui player will likely note when watching this is the absurd amount of stamina bar required to keep up the spacing necessary to maintain the 50/50 pressure. Tom and REO made sure to address this as well; Jacqui has a normal that moves her quite far forward and can be used in this situation as part of an option select in order to provide spacing when the stamina bar isn’t available to do so. She can, through the use of this option select and her stamina bar, move the opponent from one corner to the other with this vortex.
At the moment, she isn’t able to score much damage off this setup due to the sort of requirements that the re-stand has. This will likely change at some point in the future when a Jacqui player discovers a way to get big damage into a re-stand.
So often, combo videos assume that players are prepared to look at a combo once and immediately know the inputs based purely on the animations, or at least repeatedly pause the footage to jot down notes on which hit follows which so they can pull off the string themselves.
That isn’t the case for this next video, because in addition to including a lengthy selection of Kitana combos, Savage Ogre spends the last half of the video showing each combo in slow motion, complete with the inputs required to pull them off.
Up next, you can pick up some Ferra/Torr combos from Hurtbox TV. As with previous videos, this one covers each of the variations that this fighter brings to the field and shows great ways to score easy damage, as well as some less practical means to push the numbers ever higher as your execution with the duo improves.
Nico Montano is back with another Goro video, this time focusing on the four-armed fighter’s Tigrar Fury variant. In this mode, Goro gains access to a handful of fire-based special attacks, one of which is a low-hitting fireball that pops opponents up when it connects. As Nico demonstrates, this can be used to create safe pressure as well as offer a very fast high/low mix-up on opponents.
Nico spends a good deal of time explaining how this pressure works and the different ways to apply it, as well as what to do after a fireball lands to score the most damage.
And, as we’ve been doing since we started making these roundups, we close things out today with a few character breakdown videos from SupermanSajam. Today’s selection includes Shinnok, Goro, and Scorpion. If you’re looking to pick these characters up, there’s no better place to get a quick and dirty look at how to get into the fight.
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!
Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7 debuted in the United States at Final Round 18 in Atlanta, Georgia, and has since made or is set to make appearances at a number of other fighting game events around the country. Joining the Tekken tour will be the upcoming Texas Showdown 2015, giving players from Texas and surrounding areas to get their hands on the game.
Texas Showdown 2015 is scheduled for May 8-10 at the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Hotel in Houston, Texas. For more information on the event, including online registration, check out the official site. Online registration ends April 28.
The folks over at VG BootCamp recently went live with another installment of Smash @ Xanadu from Xanadu Games in Baltimore, Maryland. These weekly broadcasts provide a great look at the region’s Smash community, with tonight’s stream focusing entirely on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
As a neat twist, the event will also allow players to choose custom moves, so check it out to see what these techniques bring to the table. The stream is live below, but you can also head on over to Twitch to join the chat.
This weekend, Northwest Majors 7 will be taking place in Seattle, Washington, and it’s shaping up to be a strong event for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-. Not only has the Arc System Works title been leading in entrance numbers, but it will be feature the appearance of a very special guest: the most powerful Eddie player in the world, Kenichi Ogawa. And while he may be household name for players familiar with the Japanese community, let’s take a look at his accomplishments for those out of the loop.
Ogawa first made the scene with the release of Guilty Gear XX in 2002, picking Eddie and continuing to play him all the way through to his Xrd incarnation, Zato-1. As competition moved to #Reload, he earned notoriety as one of the strongest players in the world thanks to his absolute tear through major tournaments.
In 2005, his team would make their way to the Super Battle Opera finals, where he would perform a reverse OCV to take home the victory. Ogawa made five appearances at the national event throughout the tenures of various Guilty Gear titles, walking away on championship teams three times. Alongside other major wins, he is known for legendary winning streaks of up to one hundred games and for being to able to destroy even the strongest of Japanese players.
With the release of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Ogawa is still going strong, appearing in the top arcade rankings and regularly winning tournaments. You can usually find footage of him playing at Mikado arcade, which is regarded as one of the strongest homes of Guilty Gear in Japan.
Northwest Majors 7 marks his first appearance in a North American tournament, and will be one of the few chances to see a true god of Guilty Gear on our shores. If you want to witness America’s hopefuls going up against this absolute beast of a player, be sure to tune in this weekend. Come Heaven or Hell, it is absolutely going to rock.
Special thanks to Jourdal, Brandino, Honnou, keeponrockin, Coren, and Daiandoh for video submissions.
Alongside updating arcade versions tomorrow, Capcom will be releasing Ultra Street Fighter IV’s ver.1.05 for home platforms as well.
While there isn’t much to speak of here, Omega Edition fans will be happy to learn that numerous characters are set to receive adjustments in the unique remix mode. The only change headed to the main, competitive title is a correction for Decapre’s anti-air DCM command, which now requires a preliminary down-back charge to perform.
Unfortunately, the game-crashing sound bug currently affecting console versions of Ultra Street Fighter IV has yet to be addressed. Capcom community manager Peter “Combofiend” Rosas previously told us that they are working on fixing the issue, though it appears we will have to wait for a future patch to see any progress.
A full list of the changes headed to Ultra Street Fighter IV tomorrow can be found on Capcom-Unity. Players on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 should see their game updated by 2 AM PST, while those on Steam will have to hold off until 8 AM PST.
While every character’s variation in Mortal Kombat X has its own strengths and weaknesses, a new discovery for Spectral Ermac may just make it the best choice if you’ve decided to main the soul-infused ninja.
According to a recent video by Test Your Might community member k-frog, by using Ermac’s levitation ability in this style and performing an airborne Soul Burst, you’re able to build just over one bar of meter. That’s right, you use two moves and gain a ridiculous amount of resources for your trouble thanks to this possible bug.
Also, quick warning, the below explanation does feature some NSFW language.
As part of their ongoing Mortal Kombat X research, Bill “Tom Brady” Menoutis and Giuseppe “REO” Grosso have followed up their initial video on this finding with one that shows how Ermac’s teleport can provide the same quick meter build.
Menoutis also touches on ways these techniques can be made safe instead of blindly whiffing moves in the air, so check it out for some further proof of its usefulness.
Due to NetherRealm Studios’ hotfix system, it’s likely we’ll see this addressed in a timely fashion, though some are debating the validity of letting it rock for this weekend’s Northwest Majors 7 should it not be corrected before then. Let us know if you think Ermac’s Spectral variation should be banned from events or kept legal in the comments below.
MASTERCUP, one of the largest, most prestigious Tekken tournaments in the world, is set to return later this year for its eighth installment. The 5-on-5 team tournament has, in recent years, seen some of the hottest, most intense Tekken competition with over 500 players competing in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
This year’s edition will take place on November 22 in Tokyo, Japan, and will see the tournament move onto Tekken 7, the latest game in the storied franchise, with many players and teams looking to make a name for themselves in the new title.
More details, including those on location and participants, are sure to surface as we near that date, so stay tuned.
Eagle-eyed trophy and achievement hunters out there may have noticed that Mortal Kombat X includes a special on entitled “Keep it Secret.” This has led many to speculate that the game has a hidden fight similar to those seen in previous titles
Well, this secret is a secret no longer, as JurassicRabbit recently shared a video detailing how to get into this hidden fight. Unlocking it involves visiting the Mortal Kombat 1 Premier Tower when it’s available and peforming both a Flawless Victory and a Fatality or Brutality on the sixth fight.
Check out the video below to see the unlocking process as well as who the fight involves.
While some may be disappointed that the secret battle centers on an existing, playable cast member, older fans will likely appreciate this homage to Mortal Kombat’s very first hidden fight from the original 1993 game.
