As with its 2011 predecessor, Mortal Kombat X will launch aside a season pass-style downloadable content option dubbed the Kombat Pack. While all of the details surrounding it aren’t set in stone, NetherRealm Studios executive producer Shaun Himmerick hopped on Twitter earlier this week to disclose that the pack will include four characters and five skin packs, which totals to a whopping fifteen skins.
He went on to say that some of the skins included in these packs are among his favorites in the game, which shows promise that they’ll be exciting to get our hands on.
If you want to go ahead and pre-pay for a access to the PC version of the Kombat Pack once the game hits the internet, you can do so now for $30 via Steam.
One of the fastest and most effective ways to improve as a fighting game player, regardless of the game, is learning when attacks can be punished and the ways in which you can go about properly doing so. Every time an unsafe move goes without being punished, it’s like throwing away what could have turned into hundreds of free damage. Since many punishes are specific not only to the character you’re playing, but the one you’re playing against, finding exact guides online can be difficult. This really brings home the importance of knowing how to create your own punishes effectively.
If you’re still in the dark on how to go about doing something like this, Bafael has created a handy guide that covers the different sorts of punishes that are important to have ready in Ultra Street Fighter IV and the sort of thinking that goes into figuring out these things on your own. He also notes the importance of using punish opportunities to score advantageous positioning, because it’s not always just about pumping out big damage numbers.
Follow this link to check out previous Ultra Street Fighter IV Primers, as well as in-depth character tutorials from Bafael.
Over the past few months, Northern California has been stepping their collective game up with regards to consistent events, and one of the big groups behind all this is competitive gaming organization ShowDown. Their weekly Churning the Butter tournament has only been running for a couple weeks, and yet they are garnering a player base on par with other local tournaments around the country. And, as we highlighted in videos from their second outing, some fantastic talent is showing up to throw down and improve their own game.
Tonight, they have once again taken over Folsom Street Foundry in San Francisco, California to put on an Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament for the regional players. 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.
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.
The folks at OverClocked ReMix recently started accepting submissions for an upcoming album dedicated to Community Effort Orlando 2015. This album will be similar to the one that they released during Apex 2015 earlier this month.
As this year’s tournament is set to be held in June, we’ve still got plenty of time before we’ll be filling our earholes with some sweet fighting-inspired tracks, but it’s exciting to see the folks at OverClocked ReMix involved with such a major event.
Here’s the tentative list of games from which the album will draw its inspiration:
Ultra Street Fighter 4
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Killer Instinct
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Divekick
Mortal Kombat X
There’s no confirmed group of contributing artists at the moment because submissions are still open, so if you’ve got a relevant track that you’ve been working on or know someone who has, have them head over the OverClocked ReMix forums to check out the guidelines for getting it into the right hands.
In order to highlight Arc System Works’ most popular fighting game franchise, Team Spooky’s NerdJosh recently started hosting private Guilty Gear sessions featuring both Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus. These events have come to be called SoCasuals after their region of origin, which is honestly pretty catchy.
While many of these matches come in the form of first-to-five sets, which NerdJosh often streams, the dedicated YouTube playlist is packed with plenty of other footage to sate even the heartiest Guilty Gear hunger. To get a taste of what you can expect from the stream, as well as the archives, check out this set between the aforementioned nerd himself and Foo.
You’ll find the full playlist here. If you want to catch the matches live, be sure to follow NerdJosh on Twitch. Please note that, since this is an in-house stream, viewers can expect a bit of NSFW language as well as alcohol consumption from time to time because, hey, everyone can use a drink after getting nailed with a Potemkin Buster.
The inclusion of custom special attacks in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS turned a lot of heads when the game hit shelves. Naturally, everyone wanted to know what kind of tournament legality these moves would be seeing once major events started taking place.
As the one of the largest Smash events of the year, Apex 2015 obviously ran a tournament for the latest iteration of the popular Nintendo franchise, but didn’t have custom loadouts turned on. This is understandable because the game has only been out for a few months now and a last-second decision to allow some very different additions to characters would have mucked things up more than it was worth.
But with such a major event out of the way, now could be the time to start taking a serious look at these options, not only to allow different playstyles to surface for characters, but also to potentially dethrone the current top tiers.
At their most recent Smash Attack event, Team Spooky ended the night with an exhibition match between IQHQ|Gohan and Ho3K|JohnNumbers. What was special, however, is that both players were allowed to customize their character’s moveset.
One of the things that’s immediately noticeable is that Wii Fit Trainer becomes a completely different character with these options in play, sporting an up special that allows her to float around for an incredible amount of time, among other things. Captain Falcon’s customs, on the other hand, are a bit more subtle, as you can’t rightly take away the racer’s signature punch and still have him be the same character, though the adjustments are definitely there.
As you can see above–if you haven’t taken a serious look at custom moves before–this does stand to change the game quite a bit. Some have made the argument that time spent to unlock all of the moves on every console at an event wouldn’t be worth it. Luckily a single 3DS version of the game with all of the moves can transfer the data to every available Wii U, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
There is, of course, the concern of added setup time and “move checks” as opposed to button checks, which could make an already lengthy event stretch on longer than normal; that too is being looked into.
So what do you think about custom moves and their place in major tournaments? Let us know in the comments!
Today, NetherRealm Studios will be connecting with the community through another special Mortal Kombat X broadcast. Like their streams for Injustice: Gods Among Us, this Kombat Kast will give fans the opportunity to check out new footage of the upcoming fighter as well as ask any pertinent questions they may have leading up to its release next year.
The show is expected to present some more details regarding Kitana and Reptile. They will also be taking fan questions, so be sure to get them in through Twitter by using the #KombatKast hashtag.
The stream can be found below, but feel free to head over to Twitch if you feel like chatting with your fellow viewers. We’ll be collecting all pertinent information, so stay tuned if you can’t tune in yourself.
Texas Showdown, the largest fighting game tournament in the American southwest, returns this May. This year’s event is scheduled for May 8-10 at the Sheraton Brookhollow in Houston, Texas and features a plethora of games for players to compete in.
As far as the main lineup goes, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Mortal Kombat X will be playable. Additionally, there will also be side tournaments for BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Full Boost, among others.
For those interested, early bird registration for the event is open from now up until March 1. In the meantime, check out the trailer for the event below.
Here’s some great news for any PlayStation owners looking to pick up some SNK Playmore titles. A bunch of their games are currently on sale over on PlayStation Network.
Fans of the company’s fighting games can now grab King of Fighters XIII for only $14.99. Older titles on sale include King of Fighters ’94, King of Fighters ’95, King of Fighters ’96, Samurai Shodown, Art of Fighting, and World Heroes, all of which have been knocked down to $4.49.
Meanwhile, for those who like their fighting on the go, King of Fighters’94, King of Fighters’95, King of Fighters ’96, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and World Heroes on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita can be purchased for $3.49.
Of course, these aren’t the only SNK games that are on sale, so be sure to head on over to PlayStation Network for a full list of markdowns.
As some of you may know, Bandai Namco Games recently held a series of location tests for Pokémon fighter Pokkén Tournament in arcades across Japan. While, for the most part, the build used at the public showing featured content that had already been announced, players did notice a few new things such as alternate colors and a brand new stage.
Some of the new colors are quite interesting as they don’t really conform to the readily available shiny looks already available to the pocket monsters in their main series. Examples include a two-tone color scheme for Machamp that’s a bit reminiscent of Street Fighter III series boss Gill as well as some nice red tones for both Gardevoir and Lucario.
The new stage, on the other hand, takes place in a previously unseen underwater dome. Legenday Pokémon Lugia, who was first introduced in Gold and Silver, can be seen swimming in the background.
A full gallery of off-screen photos can be found below.
Pokkén Tournament is expected to land in Japanese arcades sometime this year.
