Category: Fighting Games

The folks over at Nintendo have just gone live with their latest Direct presentation. This time around, they will focus entirely on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and promise to reveal fifty details about the title that set it apart from its handheld counterpart. If you’re eagerly awaiting the home console release next month, this is the program for you.

We’ve included the stream below, but you can also visit YouTube if you feel like chatting.

Source: Nintendo

What do you get when you assemble a team featuring an adamantium-infused mutant, a son of Sparda, and a master of the Dark Hadou? XusesGB likes to call it “Raging Demonic Claws,” and that feels rather fitting. You may have seen this team used by SomeBrownKid at The Fall Classic 2014 earlier this month, and it’s easy to see the potential in the composition.

In stark contrast to many combo videos, XusesGB aims to demonstrate combos for this team that not only deliver high damage, but are also relatively easy to perform. Xuses has included some Team Aerial Combo options as well, due to their belief that every team needs to have some tech involving the mechanic.

Can these combos help make this team more popular? Check out the video and let us know what you think.

Source: XusesGB

Since its return for a second season of content, Killer Instinct has not been afraid to shake up the status quo. Developer Iron Galaxy Studios has added both new mechanics and old faces to the Microsoft Studios fighter, creating a product that feels familiar even while the series wanders into uncharted territory. And as the months pass and new characters release, it is certain that Killer Instinct will evolve into something much different from the original product.

I spoke to Iron Galaxy’s Adam “Keits” Heart about the path their studio is taking with Killer Instinct, the bumps in the road and whether we might see one of my favorite boss characters show up in this chapter of the franchise.

Paul Dziuba: There have been quite a few changes to Killer Instinct from Season 1 to Season 2, from the new aerial juggle system to character rebalancing all the way to the eight new fighters. What were the goals Iron Galaxy had in mind when creating this second round of content?

Adam Heart: With the rebalance and updates, we had to consider a lot of things. We have, essentially, three groups to consider. What does Microsoft love or hate about Season 1 and what would they like to see changed? How do the designers and combat guys at Iron Galaxy feel about that topic? And, of course, we have our community team monitor forums and perform focus groups and surveys to try to pin down what we think fans of all skill levels want to see changed.

And, as if that wasn’t complicated already, we have to sit down and discuss our plans for Season 2 and figure out how it all fits together. This requires all the top minds at both Microsoft and Iron Galaxy to really think about what we plan on adding to the game and theory-fight our way into answers that keep the entire cast competitive and balanced. And its not just balancing character vs. character…we must also balance risk vs. reward within the whole system.

To answer your question, the goal from our MS/IG development team is to make the game as fun and entertaining as possible for players of all skill levels, while doing our very best to ensure that no matter which character you decide to love, you’ll have a reasonable shot at being competitive. Another goal we have is to really make sure every new character is a unique experience in the context of Killer Instinct.

PD: What is the hardest part about making large additions—characters, system changes—to a game that Iron Galaxy originally had no part in developing?

AH: I think the hard part is figuring out an entire set of development tools you’ve never used. Thankfully, the tools we use in HexEngine are pretty easy to work with and provide a lot of flexibility and quick iteration times! Another thing that can be difficult is having to assume what the intention of some design decisions was. Fortunately, the guys at Microsoft who worked on Season 1 are still here grinding away with us on Season 2, so they can provide context and guidance when needed.

PD: You recently commented on Twitter that much of the “strong, scary stuff” in Killer Instinct isn’t going to change, and immediately people jumped on that. What did you mean by the statement, and what does it mean for Killer Instinct going forward?

AH: I think of a game like Street Fighter IV as very tame, while I view something like Darkstalkers to be a very wild take on the traditional fighting game. Of course, you have your Marvels and your Guilty Gears that are just completely insane. And then I look at Killer Instinct Season 1, and it’s not tame at all. It really gives me that wild, adventurous vibe. It’s like the developers didn’t care that something might be scary or powerful, they tried it anyway. We want to keep doing that. We want to try new, scary things that cause players to think deeply about each new character matchup that gets added to the game. We don’t want you to say, “This character is like that character with a few differences.”

So, the statement I made was really saying, “Are you scared of Orchid Grenades? Wulf’s Feral Cancel? Call of Sky? Good! Lets make every character scary!” That is what the team here is trying to do. We want to wow and terrify you.

PD: As Iron Galaxy expands or revitalizes parts of the Killer Instinct universe, what kind of limitations are placed on development? Are any characters or ideas considered off-limits?

AH: Having spent many months working with the awesome people at Microsoft, I can confidently answer “NO” to this question. Nothing is off-limits. When you see some of the stuff we are doing this season…I mean, I still can’t believe we are trying some of this stuff! It’s wild!

PD: Ever since Iron Galaxy has taken over work on Killer Instinct, the company has held various focus tests for the title. How have these tests helped the development process?

AH: The focus tests are fantastic. We get unfiltered gut-check responses from mid- to high-level players that we can discuss and take action on the next day if we think it is needed. There are a lot of things TJ Combo can do, for instance, that we tried because our focus groups wanted a bit more in certain areas. These guys give us invaluable feedback and it’s fun getting together with them to pound on new changes or a new character.

PD: Characters such as Maya, Riptor and Cinder all each only appeared in one Killer Instinct game, but fans are very glad to have them back. How important is nostalgia to the success of Killer Instinct?

AH: Nostalgia is very important. People want that thing they love from the past again, no doubt about it. Season 1 had to deliver hard on that with seven returning and reimagined characters. With Season 2, we get to go half and half. You get TJ, Maya, Riptor, and Cinder, but you’re also going to get four brand new faces to the Killer Instinct universe.

This is exciting because its a real test-the-waters moment for the franchise. Does Killer Instinct have room to expand its universe and will fans respond well to these additions? If so, the franchise probably has the legs it needs to go far into the future. #Broccoliman

PD: Lastly, I have one more important question: When is Eyedol?

AH: Counter-question: Why do you like this character design?

We know Desk, you know Desk. He’s an execution master with a penchant for creating ridiculous combo videos, and he’s set to follow up one of his previous projects sometime in the near future with a brand new Ultra Street Fighter IV exhibition.

To tease his sequel to Playing Street Fighter, Desk has released a quick video demonstrating a lengthy El Fuerte combo that incorporates numerous reps of his Run Stop Fierce loop, a handful of high-execution links, stun, and more to shave off about 80% of Dhalsim’s health, without the use of Super or Ultra.

One of the more interesting things about this video (outside the combo itself, obviously) is Desk’s use of on-screen prompts to show you just what he’s using in the devastating string. This is similar to another series of his from back in 2011.

Playing Street Fighter 2 is coming soon but, for now, feel free to check out the teaser above and let us know what you think. If you missed out on the first installment, you can watch it here.

Source: Desk, tip via Saki

Chris Redfield is no doubt a meter-building machine in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but he’s also capable of cranking out some good damage without resorting to meter expenditure thanks to moves like his land mine and magnum shot.

He does, however, have problems with his approach. Luckily, this video from Jason “GCYoshi13″ Wang shows plenty of ways to use other characters to open up opponents and allow Chris to enter the fray from a raw tag before doing what he does best.

The combos all offer incredible damage output and show that Chris has more than enough time after all sorts of knockdowns to get in and keep the combo going. Toward the end of the first part, you’ll see a combo that allows Chris and Iron Fist to kill Magneto without using any meter, with the combo itself building almost three full bars.

Wang plans to release a third chapter to this video series, so stay tuned for more useful Chris techniques.

Source: GCYoshi13

Matt and Woolie, best known for their work as part of the Super Best Friends and their much-loved Fighterpedia series, have teamed up with Did You Know Gaming to bring even more lesser-known facts about the Killer Instinct franchise to light.

In this second episode, they discuss how much Rare had to cut back on the animations to make this arcade classic port over to the Super Nintendo. According to the duo, about 80% of the animations were removed from the game, which left only the most important frames of attacks to be seen.

The title’s Game Boy port understandably lost even more content in order to fit itself snugly into a handheld console that was even more dated than the SNES itself.

This installment also touches on the rumors that surrounded Killer Instinct 3 and all of the games that referenced the title throughout the years–there are a lot more than you think.

As always, there’s plenty more to learn in the video, so give a watch below and let us know your favorite Killer Instinct fact.

Did you miss the first batch of Killer Instinct trivia featuring Maximilian? Follow this link to check it out!

Source: Did You Know Gaming

As part of their celebration of Virtua Fighter’s twentieth anniversary last year, Sega launched an official website for the momentous occasion complete with the series’ full chronology, old-school footage, and interviews with developers both in and outside the development team.

After the aforementioned interviews first began to appear on the portal in August, a community member by the name of Modelah has been hard at work translating them from Japanese into English, providing those of us without any knowledge of the original language the opportunity to catch up.

So far, discussions with longtime Virtua Fighter director Yu Suzuki and character designer Katsuya Terada have been translated, along with thoughts from fellow fighting game developers Yosuke Hayashi of Team NINJA, Bandai Namco Games’ Katsuhiro Harada, and Yoshinori Ono of Capcom on what Virtua Fighter has meant to the genre over the past two decades.

Similarities will always be drawn between Virtua Fighter and the handful of 3D fighters that followed due to the latter’s creation of the sub-genre, and Hayashi provided some input as to their goals when first developing Dead or Alive in opposition to Virtua Fighter. “[We] developed some aspects of Dead or Alive to be quite the opposite to Virtua Fighter,” he replied when asked of his series foundations. “In Virtua Fighter, there’s a great deal of satisfaction to be found in learning the moves and executing them with precision when playing, whereas in Dead or Alive great satisfaction can be found in beating your opponent to the punch with your input timing and expertly delaying your moves.”

Harada’s team at Bandai Namco, however, were interested in something outside of Virtua Fighter’s mechanics in the early days of Tekken’s development. “Instead of looking at how Virtua Fighter played as a game,” he explained, “we looked at how the actual game was made and how they incorporated human movement into it.”

Funnily enough, the producer mentions drawing more inspiration from Street Fighter than Virtua Fighter while they were working on the initial Tekken installment.

Speaking of Street Fighter, Ono also saw something very special in Virtua Fighter when it was first released. “I think Virtua Fighter is the title that truly marked a great leap forward in game making technology,” he divulged. “[Its] fresh, gimmick-free bare knuckle style and the feeling of being in the game itself left me awestruck.”

While all three have their own unique experiences with the Virtua Fighter franchise, each one mentions looking forward to a follow-up to Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, which saw release three years ago.

These interviews make it very apparent what an impact Virtua Fighter has had not just on the fighting game community but the wide assortment of developers who help bring the games we love to life. Even though the anniversary has yet to provide any details on a new installment, it’s amazing to look back and see how far the genre has come.

Be sure to visit the official post on VFDC for much more information from these and other notable figures.

What are your favorite Virtua Fighter memories from the last twenty years? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Virtua Fighter via VFDC and NeoGAF