Stop Monkeying Around and Pick Up Some High-Level Techniques for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U iteration doesn’t need much of an introduction. Stick him on a stage with a low ceiling and suddenly there’s little chance that his opponent will come out on top–well, actually, there’s a very good chance that his opponent will be knocked right off of the top. If you’re looking to expand your Diddy horizons to include techniques beyond the infamous down throw to up air, this video from My Smash Corner has plenty to offer.

You’ll learn how to use Diddy’s Monkey Flip to add momentum to his crawl as well as change his momentum midair through Pop Gun reverse canceling–two techniques that allow for serious baiting potential. My Smash Corner also covers some tips and tricks surrounding Diddy’s recovery move that should help make him harder to put down.

Source: My Smash Corner

Senran Kagura Costumes Coming to Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

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Team NINJA has announced a new crossover of sorts for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, a round of costumes based on Marvelous Entertainment’s popular Senran Kagura franchise.

In addition to adding a fresh layer of flair to Dead or Alive’s cast, these new outfits will suffer battle damage much like they do in series they are inspired by.

These costumes will only be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A release date is as of yet unknown.

Source: Famitsu via Gematsu

SPLITFRAME and Arcade Shock Announce New Arcade Stick Bags

Arcade sticks are one of the most important pieces of equipment for any competitive fighting game player. That said, carrying them around to tournaments and events can be a bit of a chore due to their size and weight. To help alleviate this, SPLITFRAME, in cooperation with Arcade Shock, are announcing a brand new line of of arcade stick carrying bags.

The FS Transporter differs from other stick carrying solutions in that they are designed with a layer of ballistic padding to protect the equipment being carried inside. The bags will also come with extra pockets where players can carry their phones, headsets, and even documents.

Two sizes will be available: regular, which should fit most arcade sticks, such as the Mad Catz Tournament Edition 2 or HORI Real Arcade Pro 4, and XL, which is designed specifically for the HORI’s Premium VLX line of sticks (including the recently announced HRAP 4 Premium VLX Kuro).

These bags are expected to be released in time for Evolution 2015. Prices will be announced on Thursday, March 5 with pre-orders opening on Saturday, March 7. In the meantime, check out some pre-production shots of the bags below.

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Source: SPLITFRAME

Take a First Look at the Upcoming Blazblue: Battle Cards

We’re used to seeing the likes of Jin, Tager, and the rest of the BlazBlue crew duking it out in the form of highly-detailed sprites on 2D backdrops, but the folks at Metaversal Studios are about to add a new way to think of the Arc System Works-developed universe.

The company, who already have a handful of mobile games under their belt, recently released the first bit of footage from their upcoming title BlazBlue: Battle Cards, which promises to take this favorite series and blend in elements of collectible card games.

Since the to-be-released game draws inspiration and mechanics from an entirely different medium, players can expect to build fighters through a variety of normal, special, and distortion attack cards, and then take the battle online.

Though the clip provided is rather short, we do get to see some examples of how matches will unfold once this title hits iOS devices. Check out the footage below and let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: Metaversal Studios

Help Iron Galaxy Studios Adjust Fulgore’s Heavy Eye Laser in Killer Instinct

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As Iron Galaxy Studios has stepped up to the plate to develop Killer Instinct’s second season alongside Microsoft Studios, one piece of gamepay from the opening round of content has continued to draw their focus: Fulgore’s heavy Eye Laser.

Due to the angle and distance traveled by this attack, Fulgore was given a powerful tool to deal with aerial attacks from cast members with floaty jumps, harming players that main cast members like Glacius, Thunder, Kan-Ra, and others due to the incredibly easy counter-pick this ability bestows.

In order to gauge community opinion on this matter, combat designer Adam “Keits” Heart recently took to the Ultra-Combo forums to run a couple of ideas by the folks who this change would affect most. Both tentative plans are relatively simple: they will either lift the angle of the Eye Laser in order to keep it from hitting opponents jumping from full-screen or shorten its range to match the medium version.

While there’s a poll attached to the thread, Heart made sure to state that numbers alone won’t move their hands; once you vote, make sure to jump into the thread and provide your reasoning in order to provide them with deeper insight into your decision.

It’s unclear how long this discussion will last, so head on over to Ultra-Combo and make your voice heard.

Source: Ultra-Combo

Gill Hustle Demonstrates Dead or Alive 5 Last Round’s Blocking Options

One of the unique things about Dead or Alive is that it allows players to block both by using the block button or by holding back. While this helps beginners used to either system get used to the game, there are some advanced tricks this opens up once competitors learn to use these properly.

To help make players aware of these, UGS Live’s Gill Hustle released a new video that goes over some of the more advanced strategies, including how the system can can be used to beat tick throws in a way that leads to a counter-hit and more.

Source: Gill Hustle via Free Step Dodge

Babalities May Return in Mortal Kombat X

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Mortal Kombat has included a slew of interesting ways to finish off opponents over the years, from the classic fatality to the gruesome brutality to the confusing and often hilarious friendship–the list goes on and on. Though we’ve seen plenty of humiliating ways to round out of a match, many of these have fallen into obscurity for one reason or another and have been absent from more recent games.

In a tweet sent out earlier today, NetherRealm Studios creative director Ed Boon responded to a fan who begged that Friendships and Animalities not be included in the upcoming Mortal Kombat X. Boon, mysterious as ever, suggested that the fan need not worry about the inclusion of these two methods of match punctuation, but he did note that we shouldn’t count Babalities out of the series’ tenth iteration.

Unlike Fatalities, which require a short series of inputs for their activation, Babalities are usually a bit harder to pull off; in order to perform one in 2011’s Mortal Kombat, for instance, the player needsed to close out the winning round without blocking.

With Brutalities set to return, there’s a decent chance that little ‘ol baby Scorpion will be crying fresh tears later this year.

Mortal Kombat X will land on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on April 14.

Source: Ed Boon

Epic Games Drops Unreal Engine 4 Subscription Fees

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While not purposely designed for the purpose, Unreal Engine has frequently been used to create some great fighting games, including Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Injustice: Gods Among Us. In fact, two of the genre’s largest upcoming titles–Street Fighter V and Tekken 7–are being built on the fourth (and latest) iteration.

In an effort to help smaller studios license their product, Epic Games knocked the program’s price down early last year, but today has seen them extend an amazing opportunity to the entire development community by making Unreal Engine 4 available for no money down.

Yep, you read that right: Unreal Engine is completely free. Well, almost anyways.

Folks interested in trying out the tool for themselves can now grab a full download without having to drop any money; all Epic asks is for a 5% royalty on whatever comes from sales of your game, application, what have you. As a similar line was already written into the service agreement back when they were taking monthly fees, you can see how this is pretty great.

So, what are you waiting for? We’re entirely sure you’ve complained about a fighting game at some point or another, so be sure to visit the official website, download Unreal Engine 4, and start screwing around.

Source: Unreal

Come On, Fight Them If You Dare! Remastered ClayFighter Set to Hit PC in 2016

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Back in the 90s, it seemed that every developer wanted to get in on the fighting game market. This resulted in all sorts of unusual and truly unique products hitting store shelves and arcades alike, but none of them stood out from the crowd quite so well as ClayFighter.

The game, which as the name implies featured piles of clay slapping each other around to exert dominance, definitely raised some eyebrows with its special take on what a slugfest should look like. The series drew a decent fanbase and wound up having a handful of sequels, culminating in an extremely rare “rental only” version of the game for the Nintendo 64, which was the last time that anyone got their hands on a new entry in the series. Luckily, that’s soon to change.

Interplay and Drip Drop Studios recently announced plans to revitalize the ClayFighter franchise and bring it to PC in 2016. While we don’t have any exact dates, we do know, through IGN, that the game is set to feature over twenty playable characters and new high-definition graphics. Series mainstays like Bad Mister Frosty and Blue Suede Goo, whose hair-based fighting style may very well have influenced the design of Millia Rage (okay, maybe not) were specifically mentioned as making appearances.

Take all of that and add in modern fighting game mechanics such as counters, reversals, double-jumping and even airdashing, and it’s easy to see that fans who look back on this series warmly have a lot to look forward to next year.

Source: IGN

Saturday Morning Scrublords Battle for Neo-Amerika in Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.

The Super Best Friends are back with another episode of Saturday Morning Scrublords. This week, the team looks to the late n90s for inspiration and pulls out Midway’s Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., a title which transports them to a not-so-distant future where Amerika, for whatever reason, now fancies a “k” over a “c” in its spelling. The title originally released for Nintendo 64, Microsoft Windows and the Sony Playstation; in the footage below, you’ll see the team duke it out in the latter in all its polygonal glory.

Unless you’re familiar with the game already, there’s a good chance that the acronym in the title is conjuring up some strange strings of words, so to clear up any confusion, Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. are Biological Flying Robotic Enhanced Armored Killing Synthoids. Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty strange string of words itself.

The episode begins with some exploratory matches and quickly turns into a battle of Woolie vs. the computer as he decides to fight his way through arcade mode to test his mettle against (what the crew claims to be, anyways) an unbeatable final boss.

Do note that there’s a fair bit of NSFW language in this footage, as there’s nothing that boils the blood quite like a good robot fight. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Source: TheSw1tcher via Super Best Friends