Category: Fighting Games

The first weekend after the official release of Mortal Kombat X is fast-approaching, but before you pack up your stick and head off to local tournaments, be sure to equip yourself with the latest technology from around the community! Today, we’ve collected yet another wide spread of character representation in the form of combos, gameplay breakdowns, and plenty more.

To get things started today, we’ve got a video from Avoiding the Puddle that every Mortal Kombat X player should give a watch. In it, Aris demonstrates the most reliable way to go about getting an EX special when intending to do so, as well as how to run in the most efficient manner. These are both minor points, but they directly affect every character in some way or another, so they’re definitely worth incorporating into your game plan sooner rather than later.

Another day, another Kotal Kahn showcase from Spabrog! This time, the Emperor of Outworld is shown using a double EX parry to produce some sizable damage against an unsuspecting Takeda. As usual, to net this sort of damage, the kombatant must be under the effects of his damage totem as well as his blood sacrifice.

Shoryuken’s own M’Ellis took D’Vorah to the lab and discovered a useful way to net respectable damage off of her F22 string. If followed by a run cancel, this overhead starter can produce a respectable 39% damage for a single bar.

TMP|NYChrisG has teamed up with the folks at Cross Counter TV again to bring us another extensive combo showcase, this time focusing on Takeda. As with his previous Reptile video, this reel is positively loaded with combos for all three of the fighter’s variants and features followup options to any opener that you can imagine: long-range overhead, anti-air, jump in punch, you name it.

If you’d prefer a set of hand-selected Takeda combos, Michael “IFC Yipes” Mendoza has provided just that with the following five videos. Each features a single combo for the fighter’s Shirai Ryu variant and each produces high damage.

Up next, Honzo Gonzo throws down some high-damage strings with Ferra/Torr’s Vicious variant. With these combos, the duo can claim an average of 35% damage without having to spend any meter. Of course, tacking an X-Ray on to the end where applicable will push the number much higher.

For a full input breakdown, be sure to check out the video’s description.

PND|Ketchup constructed a tutorial for the MKX version of Quan Chi’s infamous rune trap technique. With proper timing and some meter to spend, the sorceror is able to produce massive chip damage in the corner against a majority of the cast. Following a single combo, Quan Chi can drop his chip damage increasing field and then proceed to pummel opponents for nearly half of their health while they’re stuck blocking.

Players looking for Kenshi technology may have noticed that there’s currently a good deal more information out there for the Balanced and Possessed variants of the fighter than his Kenjutsu form. Pig of the Hut changed all that when he uploaded an extensive video that explores this specific form for the blind fighter.

He covers important normals, how to go about starting and maintaining pressure, optimal distances for keeping opponents on their toes, and how to force others into situations where they’ll be prone to blocking at nearly half a screen away, which leaves a great opening for running in and going for some high/low mixups or a throw.

The video also includes ways to easily and reliably give Kenshi a 50/50 opportunity. These setups don’t come cheap, but, honestly, they probably shouldn’t.

As with our previous roundups for Mortal Kombat X, we’re closing things out today with a few character breakdowns from SupermanSajam. Today, the breakdowns cover Reptile, Jax and Erron Black, detailing their various fighting styles, important buttons, basic strategies and more. If you’re looking to pick up any of these three characters, I highly recommend these videos to help establish a solid base to work from.

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: Avoiding the Puddle, SpabRog, M’Ellis, Cross Counter TV, IFC Yipes, Honzo Gonzo, PND|Ketchup via Haketh, Pig of the Hut via Test Your Might and SupermanSajam

ShowDown recently went live with another installment of their weekly Churning the Butter tournament. They have once again taken over Folsom Street Foundry in San Francisco, California to put on an Ultra Street Fighter IV for some of the strongest players in the region.

Tonight’s event continues their Spring Championships series, allowing the best of the best to show their chops against other high-level opponents in preparation for the finals.

If you’re interested in seeing what the NorCal cats have up their sleeves, be sure to check out the stream below and show your support. You can also head on over to Twitch if you prefer to chat.

Watch live video from showdowngg on www.twitch.tv

Want to check these tournaments out for yourself? Well, you’re in luck, because even if you missed out this week, Churning the Butter is held every Thursday at 8 PM PDT during ShowDown’s game night at Folsom Street Foundry.

Source: ShowDown

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS players who recently got their hands on the newly-added fighter Mewtwo were sad to discover that the character came equipped with only a single set of special moves. This means that the legendary Pokémon stands out from the cast as the only one stuck in a factory default setting.

Or is he? Smash player Mankalor recently found a method of transferring a Mii from the home console to the handheld that allows Mewtwo to bring a random set of unfinished special moves into the fight. These moves are, for the most part, useless, as a fair majority either lack hitboxes and complete animations or, in one specific case, crash the game.

Though they’re nowhere near complete, the framework for new sets of specials is definitely there, so it should be interesting to see if Mewtwo eventually receives the same custom move treatment as his fellow combatants.

Source: Mankalor via Smash Boards

With Beowulf officially joining the Skullgirls Encore cast tomorrow, it’s now time to look ahead to the indie fighter’s next (and possibly last) character release: Robo-Fortune!

Though initially a joke started by Ms. Fortune voice actor Kimlinh Tran, this upcoming cast member is set to become reality thanks to the generosity shown during Lab Zero Games’ highly successful crowdfunding campaign. Far from a mere palette swap, Robo-Fortune brings her own technologically advanced fighting style to the table.

In the video below, the developers show off some of the work-in-progress character’s moveset along early looks at her unique stage and a brand new theme by composer Michiru Yamane. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Source: PlayStation Blog

We’re well into the third day in the life of Mortal Kombat X and the videos coming in from the community show no signs of stopping! Today’s roundup features combos, character breakdowns, bugs, and plenty more, so let’s get started!

To kick things off, we’ve got an interesting video from YenjoiXBL. In the footage, Liu Kang, while equipped with 1.5 bars of super meter, starts laying into a blocking Sub-Zero, but he never actually has to stop. This technique was shown off on Tom Brady and REO’s stream earlier this week and seems to be a blockstring infinite, akin to a similar technique available to Kabal early on in Mortal Kombat 9.

While not quite so big of a deal in other games, the fact that blocked normals still produce chip damage in Mortal Kombat X makes this technique pretty alarming here.

In Mortal Kombat X’s training mode, players can easily swap from variant to variant without having to bounce back to the character select menu. Players can also choose to strip their fighter of variants in order to practice with a sort of blank character. Through doing so, they can find universal combos that are safe to go to in all versions of the fighter.

Bafael did just that with Mileena, and below you’ll find a handful of combos that work for whichever version of the half-Tarkatan that you prefer.

The folks at Hurtbox TV provided a great selection of combos for each of Kitana’s variants for yesterday’s roundup, and today, they keep the combos coming with a similar video for Mileena. There’s an obvious preference away from the fighter’s Ethereal style, but both Piercing and Ravenous get more than enough love to make up the difference.

Nico Montano is back with two more Goro videos. The first shows off the fighters’s high-damage Kuatan Warrior variant in all its glory and the second, which is a much longer piece, focuses on the power of the Dragon Fangs version of the fighter.

As with yesterday, the musical pairings with these videos are at once hilarious and strangely appropriate; there’s just something wonderful about a four-armed brute busting skulls to old school hip-hop.

EnderGamma recently gave us a look at some Kenshi combos for each of his three fighting styles. Today, they share the same sort of video, but this time focusing on the walking well of souls, Ermac. As can be expected from this character, there’s plenty of tossing opponents around and dangling them from the air while they wait for the blows to come.

It just wouldn’t be a Mortal Kombat X roundup without a showing from Kotal Kahn. It seems that SpabRog has pushed the limits of the character just a little bit more than what we’ve previously seen. This time, the Emperor of Outworld brings the damage ticker up to the 98% mark.

Does this mean that we’ll be seeing a 100% damage combo within the first week of the game’s life? It’s certainly not out of the question at the moment.

Up next, Burnout Fighter equips Takeda with his Shirai Ryu variant and shows off some combos that begin from a handful of different openers. They’ve also included some ways to deal with opponents being too low to the ground mid-combo for a spear to connect in order to allow for combo extensions.

We haven’t showcased any bugs yet in the roundups, but today we’ve got a strange glitch from OreoTheWolf that prevents one of Scorpion’s Fatality animations from playing. After the classic tone plays, Kenshi staggers around waiting for a death that never comes. Blanche wanders by in the background. That strange animal that looks sort of like a mutant cow roars and both fighters stand there in awkward silence.

After about thirty second, the Fatality text shows up and the round draws to a close, even though no deathblow is ever dealt.

And, just like yesterday, we close things out with a couple of character breakdowns from SupermanSajam. Today, he’s got demonstrations for Takeda and Kung Jin, both of which cover normals, strings, and combos, as well as how to effectively play these newcomers.

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: YenjoXBL, Bafael, HurtboxTV via RegalSir, Nico Montano via SteelCouncilPresident, EnderGamma, SpabRog, Burnout Fighter, OreoTheWolf and SupermanSajam

One thing that newcomers often find hard to grasp in Ultra Street Fighter IV is how to safely apply offense without getting punished. With its large reversal window and generally low blockstun, it can sometimes be difficult to move in and pressure someone who’s mashing their reversals.

To help players reliably mount attacks, Jay Rego recently uploaded a brand new lesson video that focuses on applying safe pressure. More importantly, the video below also discusses the mental game that helps drive Ultra’s offensive play.

Source: Jay Rego

When Midway Games folded back in 2009, many were worried that this would mean the end of the storied Mortal Kombat franchise. Many were expecting the worse, especially after the last game in the series, crossover title Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, failed to capitalize on the revival of the fighting game genre. Yet somehow, a small team of former Midway developers, led by series creator Ed Boon himself, were able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes as NetherRealm Studios and bring back life into the series.

Now, four years after the release of their first Mortal Kombat game after Midway’s closure, NetherRealm returns to the franchise with their most ambitious release yet.

Prepare yourself…for Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat X is, obviously, the tenth main installment of the Mortal Kombat series. It’s also, more importantly, NetherRealm Studios’ third fighting game, following 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot and 2013’s Injustice: Gods Among Us. As with those games, this new title follows NetherRealm’s unique string-based 2D fighting game formula, meaning that inn addition to their normal and special moves, each character in the game also has a set of “canned strings”, combo moves that come out based on specific button taps, similar to moves in a 3D fighting game like Tekken or Dead or Alive.

 

In practice, combined with the traditional block button, this means that you have a game that plays very much like the previous Mortal Kombat. Players looking to deal damage will need to learn how to commit to strings for hit-confirms and mixups. It also means that a premium is placed on strings that are safe on block as well as those that end either with low or overhead hits. This is made even more important in Mortal Kombat X due to the use of a block button, meaning that players cannot rely on crossups to open their opponent’s defenses.

Proper use of these strings can lead to some strong mixups, especially for characters that have a good collection of high-low attacks. Certain characters are even able to perform powerful setups on opponents that are rising from the ground. This, coupled with the fact that moves on wakeup seem to have little or no invulnerability, seems to hint at the game leaning strongly towards a setplay style, putting a premium on getting knockdowns and creating 50/50 situations afterwards. This is something Mortal Kombat X takes from Injustice: Gods Among Us, where certain top tier characters revolved around these types of setups. That said, more characters seem capable of putting this style of gameplay to use than in the older title.

Speaking of Injustice, one key feature taken from the DC Comics fighter is interactables. Compared to the previous game, however, the items that can be used in Mortal Kombat X are a bit more subdued; while some trigger short cutscenes, there are less of the explosive, nearly screen-filling attacks that some power characters had in the former. More importantly, not only do they consume a bit of the game’s new stamina meter (more on that later), but they can be blocked.

In addition to this, a good number of interactables are single-use only; once utilized, they’re gone for good. All these changes appear to be an effort on NetherRealm’s part to reduce the influence of this mechanic in character matchups. While some cast members will surely make better use of certain interactables than others, the fact that they can only use them once per game does lessen their impact. Of course, anyone who wants can also simply turn them off at the stage select screen, though it remains to be seen how tournaments will handle this situation.

Another returning feature from both previous games is the stance switch button. This allows character to change between footings that are either facing the camera or away from it. However, in the both those games, this also hinted at stance-specific combos. Since those games used 3D hitsphere detection instead of 2D hitboxes (the former taking into consideration depth in the z-axis while the latter ignores it), this meant that some combos would occasionally not work depending on the stance of the opposing character. While we haven’t found any of these during out time with Mortal Kombat X, the fact that it does exist doesn’t really inspire confidence.

All the new things

Now, while the game as a whole is quite like its predecessor, it’s the new additions that make Mortal Kombat X stand out. The game follows in the footsteps of other fighting games such as Capcom vs. SNK 2, later Samurai Shodowns, Melty Blood, and Arcana Heart by adding a secondary option during character select, allowing players to choose between three different variations that change up certain moves and strings, making each cast member play quite differently.

These fighting styles open up two things. First, they give character loyalists the chance to have a variation that can possibly cover certain bad matchups. Second, it allows players who prefer a certain playstyle (be it zoning, rushdown, frame traps, etc.) to be able to use characters that normally wouldn’t interest them.

That said, these are far from totally new characters. Each variation still retains many of the same normals, specials, and, strings. The latter is quite important, as strings define a good part of a character’s neutral game. A large number of the strings and some combos that players will be looking out for when facing a character will generally remain the same across variations.

But the question still remains as to how these variations should be handled in competition. While each version doesn’t constitute a totally new character, they still represent a shift in the matchup, which could be used as an argument against letting the winner of a match switch. That said, in both Melty Blood and Arcana Heart, which have similar systems (moon phases and Arcanas, respectively), these secondary options are not locked, as the communities for these games have deemed this choice to provide for a more interesting game.

Another new mechanic in Mortal Kombat X is the stamina meter. As mentioned before, this two-stock resource is consumed by using interactables, as well as other movement options like running and back dashing.

Unlike the way it was utilized in Mortal Kombat X, rus are performed by holding down a dash’s second forward input. This sprinting allows characters a chance to close in on their opponents faster than if they just dashed, which is important as dash blocking–the ability to block out of dash and then dash in again–from the previous game has been removed.

Meanwhile, back dashing consumes an entire stock of the stamina bar. This means that players can only back dash twice in succession before having to wait for it to restock. This might be part of the way NetherRealm is addressing the strong zoning present in earlier titles, especially now that dash blocking is gone. Instead being able to back dash continuously, players who are playing keep away will need to learn to use pokes and combos to push their opponents out of their faces. This seems to be a fair trade now that approaching is more dangerous.

Add that to the fact that setplay may turn out to be a strong force in Mortal Kombat X, and it’s possible NetherRealm meant for zoning to be less dominant this time around. Whether this is a good thing for competition in the long run, well, only time and tournament play will tell.

Faction Wars and Online

The first thing every player will do when booting up Mortal Kombat X is choose a faction. The game’s persistent “Faction War” awards points to players for performing select actions in game, both in single-player and multiplayer modes. At the end of each week, the faction with the most number of points wins that week’s war and gains certain rewards.

The rewards themselves are mostly cosmetic and none change the game competitively in any way. That said, they do provide bragging rights and are a great incentive for players to keep playing the game, both offline and online.

Speaking of online, NetherRealm has done their best to address the complaints regarding the netcode of their other fighters, and Mortal Kombat X’s is noticeably improved from previous efforts.

Unfortunately, despite these strides, Mortal Kombat X’s netplay is still at least a generation behind games such as Killer Instinct and Skullgirls due to its use of variable input delay. This means that, to compensate for the inevitable lag caused by sending data between peers on the cloud, the game will change the amount of input delay, forcin players to constantly adjust their timings online. In contrast, the rollback based netcode present in its aforementioned contemporaries uses a smaller, fixed amount of delay, and utilizes rollbacks to deal with desyncs caused by network fluctuations.

In practice, this means that players will need to restrict their matches to other users with the best relative connections. The situation is pretty similar to fighters, such as those in Capcom’s Street Fighter IV series or the BlazBlue and Persona games developed by Arc System Works. Compared to these, Mortal Kombat X’s netcode fares much better, being somewhat comparable to Street Fighter IV’s, though Arc’s games are still the gold standard for variable delay netcode.

Another issue with online play, at least for the PlayStation 4 version (which our review copy happens to be), is the fact that online play is region-locked on that console. Players with North American copies of the game won’t be able to play with those in Europe or Asia, and vice versa. While it can be argued that this keeps netplay monsters from competing on bad, transoceanic connections, it does limit the online playerbase, slowing the matchmaking process.

Cinematic Story Mode

For those who don’t want to play online, Mortal Kombat X continues NetherRealm’s trend of strong single-player modes.

The main attraction when it comes to this experience is the game’s story mode. For the most part, the narrative follows a single, linear path that simply changes main characters for each chapter. This is in contrast to BlazBlue and Persona’s branching visual novel style or Dead or Alive’s system of showing multiple, related events and character arcs happening around the same time. NetherRealm’s method is simpler and more straightforward, giving players a chance to play as most of the characters without muddling the proceedings.

Where Mortal Kombat X goes beyond its predecessors, however, is in just how much more cinematic everything feels. The team are trying their best to capture the atmosphere of a summer blockbuster and, in line with this, more action takes place outside of the actual fights. However, to retain a sense of interactivity, quicktime events will keep you on your toes.

The addition of these quick time events to the story mode is interesting. To keep them from interfering with the core game, none of them happen in actual matches, but for anyone who simply wants to sit back and enjoy the cutscenes, they can be a bit jarring.

Trying Out Downloadable Characters in Living Towers

Apart from the story mode, Mortal Kombat X also offers up diversions like the Krypt, Test Your Luck, and Towers. The lattermost provides various challenges for players to complete, including a survival mode, variations of Mortal Kombat’s classic Test Your Might mini-games, and all sorts of other ways to put a twist on the traditional fighting game experience.

One interesting thing that NetherRealm is trying out with Mortal Kombat X is the ability for players to try out any downloadable character for a limited amount of time in the Living Towers subsection. This allows fans who are on the fence about dropping money to try out new cast members before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

Better Start Training

For those that prefer to spend their alone time honing their skills in training mode, Mortal Kombat X offers a comprehensive amount of options. As with Injustice, the adjustments for the dummy opponent alone have their own separate page, allowing players to set up all sorts of situations to practice against. Additionally, multiple slots for recorded dummy actions are present where most other fighting games only have one.

The training mode also gives better indication of where interactables can be activated by placing boxes on the floor that turn green when a nearby item is available. This is especially useful in learning the spacing for certain interactables that require the opponent to be close.

The game also allows players to change variations for both the character they control and the one they are practicing against without having to exit back to character select. While not a huge deal, it’s a nice touch that makes training a more seamless affair.

One feature that training mode lacks, however, is hitbox display. While this omission is by no means a deal breaker, it’s still disappointing to see a game without the feature in this day and age.

Legacy Controllers

We were provided a copy of the PlayStation 4 version for this review, which uses Lab Zero Games’ driver for generic USB controllers that allows most PlayStation 3 peripherals to work with the game.

But there’s one particular quibble when using legacy controllers. Each older item requires that a matching DualShock 4 is active in the system. This could definitely be an issue when trying to set up games between two players using PlayStation 3 arcade sticks or pads.

Aesthetics

So far, we’ve covered Mortal Kombat X’s gameplay and features. However, as a game that’s going to be played primarily on the latest console generation, we’re sure many folks are likely to also be concerned about its aesthetics. The good news is that this is an absolutely stunning game. It clearly looks more than a few steps ahead of its predecessors thanks to better lighting and more detailed character models.

In terms of design, Mortal Kombat X features a refinement of the style seen in NetherRealm’s previous games. While the lighting is still on the dark side, the color palette is more vibrant. Besides making for a richer experience, this also helps the characters stand out more from the background, even though the models still suffer from the fact that they aren’t lit to further separate them.

Aurally, this title features the same, somewhat subdued soundtrack as previous Mortal Kombat installments. The classic “Shao Kahn” announcer also returns, which is a welcome change from the rather uninspired, computer voice used in Injustice. Combine this with the series trademark semi-campy voice work and visceral sound effects, and you have a game that very much sounds like Mortal Kombat.

Special mention must be made for the heads-up display. This time out, NetherRealm have gone for a rather minimalist take on the traditional fighting game layout, making for a very crisp, uncluttered presentation, one that is in stark comparison to the many Japanese franchises that have elaborated on their displays as time has gone on. This simplified focus helps keep the spotlight on the action while still providing the player with the data that they need, and is something that we hope other fighting game developers adapt to their games.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Mortal Kombat X is still pretty much a Mortal Kombat game. People expecting something totally new should look somewhere else. However, as with any fighting game sequel, it’s the many changes that have been made to the base formula that help define the game in the face of its predecessors. NetherRealm Studios is taking some interesting risks with the way the game plays, adding in features to address what they may have seen as problems in previous titles.

The different character variations put a new spin on existing cast members while at the same time giving them more tools to better deal with certain matchups, though the changes to the game’s movement may possibly be just as game-changing in the long run. Combined with other system and balance changes, NetherRealm appears to be shooting for a more offensive and setplay-heavy game this time around. Whether or not this will turn out to be a positive adjustment remains to be seen.

If you’re not fond of competitive play, Mortal Kombat X provides a strong story mode, one that now features additional interactivity via quick time events, as well as a multitude of other single-player diversions. And with continued rewards via the Faction War system, there’s even more incentive to keep playing the game, either offline or online, with or without another person to face off against.

The one major fly in the ointment here is Mortal Kombat X’s online play. While not horrendous–in fact, it’s quite improved from previous NetherRealm titles and is just about on par with games that use the same type of netcode–it’s still saddled with variable delay. With many other fighters now sporting rollback-style netcode, it’s quite the letdown to see newer titles forgo its usefulness.