As previously reported, ARIKA’s new fighting game Fighting EX Layer is getting an official Evo 2018 side tournament, despite being just over a month old. To celebrate this milestone — and help get players who may be interested to try out this excellent new fighter — the company is hosting a special Evo sale.
From August 2 up until August 14 (August 15 in Japan and Asia), Fighting EX Layer will be on sale on the PlayStation Store. Both the Light and Standard version are subject to a 10% discount — unless you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, where the discount goes up to 44%.
The sale will be available for the PlayStation Store in Japan, Asia, and North America. Whether or not Europe will also get the sale is “to be decided”.
Evo 2018takes place from August 3 to 5 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV.
With all the advances in portable and mobile hardware these days, it’s easy to forget just how hard it was for fighting games to be played on the go during the genre’s early years. With the limitations that the technology had back in the day, it’s a wonder that any fighting games on those early portable systems got made at all.
In a new video, Stop Skeletons From Fighting gives us a look at not just any fighting game, but the fighting game — Street Fighter — and the various ports the franchise received for Nintendo’s Game Boy line of portables.
Now, the video refers to ports because, thanks to the Game Boy’s longevity and numerous updates, various Street Fighter games have indeed been ported to it over the years. What this does though is give its viewers a look at how the games evolved with the hardware, as glimpses of what the dev teams at Capcom and Crawfish Interactive (who did the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter Alpha 3 ports) had to do to get the games to work.
As the mainstage Evo lineup selection seems to become more challenging with every year, in a market burgeoning with fighting games, some choices have to be made. It felt like a controversial decision to some members of the fighting game community to include such a recent title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series. Even within the BlazBlue/Arc System Works sphere, there was a worrying sentiment regarding the fading of the more traditional 1 vs. 1 BlazBlue: Central Fiction. And yet, the numbers top over 1,100 for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle — the highest in history for an ASW game that doesn’t have Dragon Ball in its name.
Post the game’s May release, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle‘s path has been a little strenuous. Initial announcements teased 20 base characters, the DLC cast doubling that number to 40, which felt like starting off on a wrong foot. Furthermore, ASW played it coy with the RWBY girls, not letting us know from the start that Blake and Yang would be free, forever. Lastly, it turned out that only 31 out of 40 fighters will be available to play at Evo 2018.
Considering how complex (and sometimes buggy) the 2 vs. 2 game can get, it’s unsurprising that the company drew a line at a certain point. The skill difference between players can be so huge, matches can range anywhere from 30 seconds (where both characters fall into an enemy combo and die quickly) or close to running its 180-second timer, due to regenerating health and good defense. If time permits, the latter matches of the tournament might play out in a 3/5 round format, which seems to be preferred by the community. Who knows — maybe this Evo will confirm which format the game should follow.
Indeed, this is a big test for Arc System Works’ newest venture. Even if it’s not shown as a Sunday finals game, there’s a huge audience for this title. ASW’s games aren’t always that well balanced in their first “season,” and the top-tier characters have been rather universally agreed upon; many tier-lists emerged, including ones from American player PG|SKD and Japan’s top player Kubo.
Many anime and Central Fiction players jumped into BBTAG. Kubo is considered the best player, but other than him, we’ll also see Abegen, GGP|Kazunoko, CAG|Fenritti, Ho-chan, and Dora, among others. They’ll surely clash with PG|SKD, the herald of BlazBlue; but other than him, we might see high placements from UYU|BeautifulDude, Method|Flux, Eshi, PAG|Fame96, KidViper, Echo Fox|Punk, CLE|NecroUndine, and many, many others. Personally, I’d love to see Uri make it far, as he posts seriously crazy combos on Twitter. Though many other people also get creative — surely we’ll get to see some hype, technical showcases. Maybe a lesser-known netplay warrior will make it to the top?
Seeing 1,181 players from many countries compete in BBTAG for the first time surely will give ASW plenty of data for their inevitable balance patch (unless they already have one in the works). It’s also probable to expect some new character announcements — which, unfortunately, have been spoiled by datamining. Though it’s sad to have them spoiled, at the same time, the nine additional characters seem like just the right choices to round out the fairly diverse cast. Time and time again, series producer Toshimichi Mori reiterates that the growth of BBTAG is highly dependent on support from the fans.
With such a high number of entrants, it should be obvious to ArcSys that there is indeed a big interest in the game. I can’t wait to see what kind of teams, strategies, and techniques will rise to the top (hopefully it won’t be only Ruby/Hyde pairs). With more characters coming, the game will only get deeper and more interesting.
Fates will cross, and no one can escape from them.
VesperArcade discusses the high probability of an upcoming fighting game using the League of Legends IP.
For players interested in fighting game developments, VesperArcade is certainly the man to know. With combo guides for new characters, tournament highlights, and interviews with notable players, Vesper’s YouTube channel has everything fighting game fans — and Street Fighter fans in particular — can look for. Vesper recently uploaded another video, this time discussing the possibility of a fighting game using Riot Games’ League of Legends IP.
Vesper began his examination by looking at the staff of Rising Thunder — a fighting game released in 2015 that focused on accessibility, while likewise allowing for high-level play. The game was developed by Radiant Entertainment — which was headed by the Cannon Brothers, founders of Shoryuken.com, the quickly-approaching Evolution Championship Series, and GGPO rollback netcode. The two were also joined by Seth Killian, best known for his work as Capcom’s Community Manager before joining Sony’s Santa Monica Studios.
Rising Thunder was quickly acquired by League of Legends developers Riot Games after just a year of accessibility in its alpha stages, and was subsequently cancelled. Vesper cites Tom Cannon’s official post on the SRK forums concerning this development, where he expressed a desire to bring fighting games to a greater height and believed that Riot could help him achieve that desire. With this information in mind, VesperArcade concludes that Riot picked up the team of fighting game specialists to create one of their own. Due to League of Legends’ unique mechanics and diverse cast of characters, a fighting game using the MOBA’s IP doesn’t sound too far-fetched.
Since Riot Games’ acquisition of Radiant Entertainment two years ago, Rising Thunder has since gone live once more with a “Community Edition.” A statement from the developers was also released at that time, which hinted at another forthcoming project. “All of this is free, and will stay that way forever,” the post read. “In the meantime, our team has moved on to develop something new, and we’ll share that with you when the time is right!”
Will fans see a brand-new fighting game revealed at this year’s Evolution from the Rising Thunder team? Is a League of Legends fighting game truly in store? Only time will tell — and with Evo just a couple of days away, anything is possible.
A while back, some details about the upcoming arena fighter Kill la Kill the Game: IF were revealed via Famitsu. Now, Arc System Works has given out a bit more information (and some screenshots) via the game’s official website.
Most of the information posted is basically more detailed explanations of what was revealed before. This includes breakdowns of the simplified attack scheme, as well as the rock-paper-scissors style system between “Guard”, “Break Attack”, “Blows”, “Read Evasion Attack”, and “Evade Actions”. You can see how these interact with each other in the chart below.
As part of this, we get a clearer explanation of how the “Ketsui Hyoumei Enzetsu” (Speech of Expressed Determination) combat speech-making system works.
Designed to mimic the in-fight conversations from the original anime, the system is triggered by landing a “Ketsui Burst”, activated by pressing L1 and R1 at the same time. When this lands, players will then be able to trade arguments using a rock-paper-scissors style system. If the player who activated the Ketsui Hyoumei Enzetsu either wins or ties, their “Ketsui Level” increases permanently for the duration of the match.
Increasing a character’s Ketsui Level will significantly strengthen their character, increasing their strength, or even turning some special moves into super special moves. If a character’s Ketsui Level is maxed out, it will enable a deadly blow called “Seni Soushitsu Ougi”. Fans of the anime will recognize these as the moves Ryuko uses to end fights, so these may likely be this game’s version of the “Instant Kill” moves from other Arc System Works fighters.
In addition to all this, they’ve also released a bunch of new screenshots of the game. You can check these out in the gallery below.
It’s happening, folks. One of the games that helped shaped the Evolution tournament series into what it is today is back for another round. Ultra Street Fighter IV is back as a side tournament at Evo 2018 this weekend!
This will take place in the BYOC area of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV this Saturday at 1:30 PM. It’s a $5 entry with 70/20/10 pot split, and it is a double-elimination format. The game will be played on PlayStation 4, and there is a 128-player cap.
Currently, 110 players have already signed up on Challonge, which include some big names such as CYG BST|PR Balrog, Brenttiscool, Iansanity, Wolfkrone, Vicious, CastBlanka, and many more. If you want to compete, be sure to sign up now since slots are filling up fast. There might be on-site sign-ups an hour before the tournament begins if certain players don’t show, but no guarantees, since this might hit the 128-player cap soon.
This is a community-driven event and since it was last minute, there might not be a live stream for this game, so if you’re at Evo and want to spectate some high-level USFIV action, be sure to hit up the BYOC area. I’ll be competing myself, and helping out with this event by recording some matches to upload after Evo 2018 is over. Stay tuned for more details if anything new comes up!
There has been a change in the winds in the competitive world of Super Smash Bros. Melee since Evo 2017. Sure, it’s still usually the same top players that win or place high consistently during the year, and there has been little change in the character tiers and overall meta. However, certain players that have long stood in the shadow of the “gods” of Melee for for years have risen up to the challenge of trying to dethrone these seemingly unbeatable players and becoming… demi-gods? God-slayers? Or maybe even new “gods” of Melee themselves. Since the current Melee gods are well-established already, lets instead take a look at the new blood, as well as seasoned top players who I feel have shaken up the old Melee guard and how they will fare going into Evo 2018 this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Plup Club President: Justin “Plup” McGrath Sponsor/Team: Panda Global Gaming Characters: Sheik/Zelda, Fox, Samus
Shortly after Evo 2017, something significant happened. PG|Plup — who placed fourth at Evo 2015, third at Evo 2016, fifth at Evo 2017, and ranked fifth on SSBMRank in 2017 — took home his first major tournament win at DreamHack Atlanta 2017, where he overcame stiff competition which included momentous victories over two of the Melee “gods,” Team Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” DeBeidma and Echo Fox’s Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman with his dynamic Sheik and Fox play. Needless to say, this was a huge moment in the Melee community seeing as how this was an accomplishment that hadn’t been done in years during the game’s competitive lifespan.
At The Big House 7 in Detroit, Michigan, Plup ascended to “god-slayer” status with his biggest win yet over arguably the best Melee player in the world at the time and one of his tournament demons — Alliance’s two-time Evo champion Adam “Armada” Lindgren from Sweden — besting him 3-1 in winners semis, marking this occasion for Plup as one of the few players who has defeated every Melee god. He would then go on to defeat Armada’s fellow countryman and “god killer,” Team SoloMid’s William “Leffen” Hjelte in an intense winners finals set 3-2 to advance to grand finals. Sadly, that’s where his insane run would end at the hands of his fellow Floridian and one of the Melee gods, Liquid|Hungrybox coming from the losers bracket being sent there by Leffen earlier in top eight winners semis. Plup would fall convincingly 3-1 in both sets to Hungrybox which to the dismay of many in the audience at The Big House 7, felt like he had stolen Plup’s first super major win where all the Melee gods were present.
Then at the next big super major Genesis 5 in Oakland, California earlier this year, the unthinkable happened. For the first time ever in the history of the event, grand finals was not between Cloud 9’s Joseph “Mango” Marquez and Alliance’s Armada and instead saw a different outcome with Plup and Hungrybox facing each other in grand finals once again — eliminating both of the usual suspects along the way. This time, Plup would barely emerge victorious over Hungrybox after losing the first set 3-0 very quickly and then barely squeaked by with a 3-2 win that came down to the last stock!
With his first super major win under his belt, Plup had cemented himself as possibly one of the new Melee gods and the rest of 2018 has been the year of the “Plup Club” as they say in the Melee community. He has either won, placed second, or stayed within the top five at every event so far this year. While being consistent is a good sign for him going into Evo 2018, the events where he has placed second he has lost to the same opponent every time: Hungrybox. At some of these tournaments, Plup would send his fellow Florida player to losers only for Hungrybox to comeback against him in grand finals in quick and decisive fashion out of seemingly nowhere. During these grand finals sets, Plup who is usually calm and collected, starts to crack and his emotions get the best of him due to the frustrating nature of Hungrybox’s defensive playstyle with Jigglypuff. As a result, Plup starts to become impatient and overextends himself when he shouldn’t.
Plup is extremely capable of winning Evo 2018 with his meticulous balance of both offense and defense with Sheik and Fox — and busting out his amazing Samus when he needs to as a surprise pick. He has proven that he can beat everyone in the world at the highest level of competitive Melee. Plup just needs to overcome not only Hungrybox and his Jigglypuff, but also himself if he wants to win Evo 2018 and erase any doubts of him being one of the new Melee gods.
The Premier Fox Specialist: William “Leffen” Hjelte Sponsor/Team: Red Bull, Team SoloMid Characters: Fox, Mewtwo
One of the best, if not, the best Fox main in the world and the original “god-slayer,” TSM|Leffen has come a long way since he started competing in Melee in 2011 and worked hard for it despite being labeled a “villain” in the community for quite some time before cleaning up his act in the last few years. Leffen has since learned to embrace his villainous role and even though his behavior is nowhere near as toxic as it once was (look up evidence.zip), he is not afraid to speak his mind and talk trash once in a while to rile up the competition before attending his next big major.
It shows a lot of confidence in his skill and Leffen has been backing it up for years taking sets from various top players as well as the Melee gods themselves and winning tournaments when they’re all in attendance — establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with his optimal Fox play. If it weren’t for his visa issues from late 2015 to early 2016 that stopped him from traveling to the United States to compete, Leffen would be in contention for top three Melee players in the world right now.
Due to that huge setback, Leffen has struggled to place consistently at every major and super major he has attended from 2016-2017. For every dominant first place or top three finish Leffen would earn, he would then tie for fifth or only get top 16 at the next event. When Leffen is laser-focused, he seems unstoppable. However, if he is not on point due to outside factors, Leffen can lose to just about anyone in the SSBMRanked top 16 or lower.
Thankfully, 2018 has been good for Leffen so far. He has been placing top five or higher consistently in every major tournament he has attended this year — taking first place at Valhalla and Flatiron 3, strong third place finishes at Genesis 5 and Smash ‘N’ Splash 6, and tying for 5th at Smash Summit 6 along the way.
Just like Plup though, Leffen has been consistently losing to Hungrybox when they meet up in top eight finals of every tournament they attend. Each of their sets has been back and forth throughout 2018, but Hungrybox seems to edge him out at the end. Their rivalry with each encounter has only intensified with both players talking trash and hurling insults at each on social media and at the events themselves.
Leffen is one of the hardest-working players in Melee and has the intelligence and skill with Fox to beat anyone when he’s fully in the zone. Hwoever, he has lost to the other gods such as Mango, Mew2King, and Armada — as well as other players ranked below him on a bad day, so he’ll have to focus on getting through those opponents first before even thinking about taking out Hungrybox, who is by far his biggest obstacle this year. He did sent his rival to losers at Low Tier City 6 this past weekend only to fall to him again in grand finals 3-1 and 3-0. Hopefully Leffen can take his experience from last weekend and apply what he learned this weekend.
I can see Leffen winning Melee at Evo 2018, or at least placing in the top three if he can get past Hungrybox somehow. He is also competing in Dragon Ball FighterZ and even though he has stated on Twitter that he will be more focused on Melee, his strength in being adept at multiple games might undoubtedly divide his attention which can bite him when playing Melee. In any case, I predict Leffen doing extremely well in both games this weekend in Las Vegas. [Editor’s note: Due to conflicts in pool schedules, it seems that Leffen may actually bow out of Dragon Ball FighterZ completely.]
A relatively new, but seasoned player from Florida in the Smash community since 2012, Wizzrobe is not only arguably the best Captain Falcon player in the world, but he is also an extremely consistent player — usually placing top eight and top 16 in every tournament he competes in. He was ranked eighth overall in SSBMRank for 2017 and has beaten many notable players including two of the Melee gods who also are from the same home state, Hungrybox and Mew2King.
So far in 2018, Wizzy is still continuing to be consistent, and has had some good placings since last month heading into Evo this weekend. He got fourth place at CEO 2018, first place at Smashadelphia 2018, and most notably taking first place beating fellow Floridian Hungrybox in two sets coming the losers bracket at Optic Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. An impressive feat for anyone not ranked in the top six.
Wizzrobe has a lot of momentum heading into Evo 2018, but his character choice of Captain Falcon, despite being one of the best players with him, holds him back in a lot of character matchups such as Fox, Falco, and Sheik. He also tends to lose to the same top players who are ranked higher than him such as Hungrybox, Mew2King, Leffen, Plup, Mango, and Armada more than he beats them — with the last two players being the ones he’s never beaten before in tournament. I can see Wizzy placing top 16, and maybe even top eight as he has been doing for the last couple of years — but if he really wants to win, he needs to dig deep to conquer his demons and maybe make some more risky plays since he usually plays too safe with Captain Falcon at times.
I would advise to maybe have a secondary character — but I’ve only seen Wizzy play Captain Falcon, so he’s just going to have to rough it out with him in the meantime. If he wins, Wizzy would be the first Captain Falcon in years to win a super major, and that’s something to definitely be excited about this weekend.
The Diamond in the Rough: Zain Naghmi Sponsor/Team: Panda Global Gaming Characters: Marth
To say PG|Zain is a new player on the rise is a huge understatement. First appearing on the scene only three years ago in 2015, he went from being ranked 66th in 2016 and then rose to almost cracking the top 20 in 2017 in a short amount of time on SSBMRank. He has had some multiple upset victories against some of the best pros in Melee who are ranked higher and more experienced than him such as his teammate Plup, CLG|SFAT, TSM|Leffen, Shroomed, PewPewU, La Luna, HugS, EMG|nOne, Lucky, and most recently and notably, C9|Mango, whom he has defeated twice now as of this writing with his insanely mobile and punishing Marth play.
His best performance so far was at Smash Summit 6 this past May, where he defeated some of those players I just mentioned including Plup and Mango — losing only to Mew2King and Armada, to finish respectively at third place to the surprise of everyone. Since then, Zain has consistently placed within the top six or top eight with his lowest placings being only top 12 or top 16.
Zain is coming in red hot to Evo 2018 this weekend, where he is probably expected to do well. Taking into consideration how he was invited to Smash Summit this early in his career to practice with a handful of the best players in Melee, Zain was able to learn and absorb a lot of things from these pros in a short amount of time in that house. That being said, he’s still too green, and he might run into other players who are up-and-coming and they could in turn score an upset victory over him. Zain is still not that experienced after all, and he has lot more room to grow with each tournament he attends beyond Evo. I can see him making top 32 or top 16, but he’ll really need to push himself and remain focused if hes want to crack top eight and possibly win the whole tournament which would be one of the biggest surprises in Melee history.
These are only a few players who have been making their mark in 2018 in Super Smash Bros. Melee. There are so many other amazing players that have been stepping their game up to shake up the status quo. Will the old “gods” maintain the old guard, or will the fresh new blood usher in a new era of Melee? Be sure to tune in this weekend to watch some of the best Melee players in the world compete for the title of Evo 2018 Champion.
The Japanese BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle website recently updated once again, revealing that the next Arc Nama stream will be taking place on Friday, August 17th. Though we’re hopefully going to see some official reveals for the nine remaining DLC characters this weekend at Evo 2018 (with Cross Character Pack 4 rumored to be releasing on Monday, August 6th, according to the Nintendo eShop). There’s a good chance we could be in store for a reveal, as Cross Character Pack 5 is rumored to drop on Tuesday, August 21st, just four days after this stream. Tthe developers may demo the trio of upcoming fighters before we get our hands on them officially.
As usual, we’ll just have to tune in at twitch.tv/arcsystemworks, at 4:00 AM PT/6:00 AM CT/7:00 AM ET to see what the team may have in store.
A Dead or Alive 5 veteran and a new challenger join the latest tournament!
Earlier today, Koei Tecmo revealed two new characters for the upcoming Dead or Alive 6, in the form of returning veteran Rig, and newcomer Diego.
Players of Dead or Alive 5 should remember Rig, the Canadian Taekwondo practitioner and oil platform worker, known as “the fighter without a past” who served Victor Donovan’s MIST organization and reactivated Project Epsilon at the climax of the game’s Story Mode. He appears to return with his stances and signature close-range pressure game intact, as he squares off with the first newcomer of this installment: the “Uncrowned Street Hero” Diego, who battles with a brutal, unrefined, “Street Style” that looks very reminiscent of Tekken’s Miguel Caballero Rojo.
IGN also provides some new gameplay of the first six previously announced characters, as we see full matches of Diego vs. Rig, Hayate vs. Kasumi, Zack vs. Ryu Hayabusa, and Jann Lee vs. Helena Douglas. The game’s Unreal Engine 4 graphics and battle damage are on full display — as well as a new stage, allowing players to fight in a dark alley with flaming oil drums and a cheering crowd who even serve as a Danger Zone by shoving combatants back into the fray, should they come to close to them. You can see both videos below.
Both of these characters will likely be playable this weekend at Evo 2018. You can check out our preview of the Dead or Alive Evo Showdown 2018, which will feature a DOA6 exhibition and a side tournament for Dead or Alive 5: Last Round on Friday, August 3rd and Saturday, August 4th, at twitch.tv/deadoralivegame.
Dead or Alive 6 will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam in early 2019.
SNK has released a number of mobile games using their The King of Fighters IP. Now, another mobile adventure will be joining the likes of Destiny and All-Stars, and it’s bringing fans’ favorite fighters to the AR realm.
The Hong-Kong based studio Gameone is bringing yet another The King of Fighters title to smartphones. Much like the famed Pokémon GO, the upcoming The King of Fighters GO will use a fusion of GPS technology and Augmented Reality to bring players a unique experience that allows them to integrate the game into the real world. Instead of monsters, players will seek to catch and collect the wide array of SNK’s The King of Fighters characters, pitting them against other players’ teams to determine the stronger combatant.
Originally titled The King of Fighters — The Orochi Saga GO, the newly-named The King of Fighters GO brings back the ‘95-’97 Orochi Saga, with Orochi returning as the game’s final boss. However, the game is currently exclusive to residents of the Hong Kong area: participants in a recent closed beta received a VIP code through Hong Kong’s Anime and Games Convention. The beta ran from July 27th through July 31st for the iPhone iteration of the title via Testflight, and with the Android beta as yet unannounced, fans of the series can expect more news in the near future.
