HapkidoRed shows off the power of meter in latest Geese/Akuma combo video for Tekken 7

The Tekken series has always been known for extravagantly long juggle combos. But, it wasn’t until the addition of Street Fighter V‘s Akuma and Fatal Fury‘s Geese Howard (along with Tekken’s own Eliza) that expendable resources were used to start, and continue, these combos. This comes in the form of a 2D-genre-inspired “Super Meter,” appropriately so considering the source of these two fighting game icons.

HapkidoRed‘s latest combo video shows off some freestyle juggles for the previously-mentioned fan-favorite crossover villains. This is a direct extension of his initial exploration of these characters, and a great example of why meter-using characters are and must be polarized in their options. It’s easy to forget this when you see the life-bar breaking combos from the meter-users, but their damage output and options are much lower without these mechanics. It’s a new way to approach character design and balance in Tekken’s ecosystem, and given the response and frequency of Akuma/Geese combo video submissions here at SRK, it’s one that players respond positively towards!

Source: HapkidoRed

Brussels Challenge invites European competition in Street Fighter V, The King of Fighters XIV, Tekken 7, and more

European warriors, suit up for this weekend — as Brussels is hosting an event that features most of the popular fighting games. The Brussels Challenge – Road to Evo Japan Final Edition offers a two-day event for Street Fighter V, The King of Fighters XIV, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U warriors.

Competitors in Street Fighter V can sign up for a solo or a team event. Though not displayed on the promotional image, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was added at a later time. Sign up for the tournaments at this Brussels Challenge link. The rest of the world can spectate the event on Twitch.tv/Brusselschallenge.

Some of the big names coming to the event are:

Street Fighter V: Epsilon|Takamura, Method|Verdoyance, Kuja, Kashama, Nightcross, Soul Bison
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2: Camo, Nyphi7
Tekken 7 : Gunni

Source: Brussels Challenge

This new video from Bandai Namco has the Green Bay Packers try their hands at Dragon Ball FighterZ

A fighting game that’s based on a existing pop culture franchise has the advantage of being able to pull in players from beyond the typical fighting game fandom. Such is the case with Dragon Ball FighterZ, and to help show this, Bandai Namco Games’s latest promotional video for the game features a group of people you might not necessarily associate with the genre: the Green Bay Packers.

Bandai Namco Games took a pre-release build of Dragon Ball FighterZ to the Green Bay Packers, letting some of their players — who also happened to be Dragon Ball fans — try it out. Players such as defensive tackle Mike Daniels, quarterback Brett Hundley, linebacker Chris Odom, offensive guard Justin McCray, and others not only get a chance to play the game, but also talk about their history and love for the Dragon Ball franchise, and why they’re excited for the game.

Check out the video below:

Dragon Ball FighterZ hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on January 26 in the West, and February 1 in Japan. Before that, interested players can try it during its open beta from January 14 to 15.

Source: Bandai Namco Games

See the fierce battles of Kemonomichi: Aniken vs. Kotaka Shouten, Ogawa vs. Machabo, Ohnuki vs. Deshiken

If you missed the live stream of Daigo Umehara’s first-to-ten exhibition event Kemonomichi, BeasTV has got you covered, of course. You can relive these intense battles — or catch them for the first time — in the event VODs below!

In these exhibition matches, you’ll see Aniken take on Kotaka Shouten in Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Battle (better known to us as Super Street Fighter II Turbo); Ogawa versus Machabo in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2; and Ohnuki’s Chun-Li facing off against Deshiken’s Ken in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. These are fights that should not be missed.

Source: Daigo the BeasTV

Maximilian breaks down the unique properties of Captain Ginyu in Dragon Ball FighterZ

Captain Ginyu is quite the bizarre character in Dragon Ball FighterZ… having only one unique special on his own, he relies on the rest of the Ginyu Force to do his bidding.

Maximilian sat down to break down the character in a recent video, and explained that the Ginyu Force acts much like Teddie in Persona 4 Arena, where each character is cycled through on a set pattern. However, you have access to two separate moves per character, which makes things more interesting. Also, he talks about his game-changing body swap, which allows him to switch sides with your opponent’s onscreen character. This gives the Ginyu player access to the character swapped with, and their entire moveset — but only allows the unfortunate opponent access to Captain Ginyu and his single special.

Source: Maximilian Dood

CenCal Standoff returns to Fresno, California this February with $2,000 in pot bonuses

Bridging the gap between Northern California and Southern California, CenCal Standoff had amazing run last year, and aims to do the same this year! Once again being hosted in Fresno at Bitwise Stadium, the event this year will be on February 24th through 25th and features $2,000 in pot bonuses, with expectations that the total can increase with player attendance.

Featuring Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, the tournament already features top players such as XsK_Samurai, LPN, Jtails, and Supernoon in attendance. The stream will be hosted by NickTanella on his channel, with a substream being hosted by Jtails.

Registration is open on smash.gg.

Source: Sierra Rudolph

Enchantress Injustice 2 Watchtower Livestream set for this Friday, January 5th

With the new year now upon us, the DLC characters just keep coming for NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 2. With the first member of Fighter Pack 3 — The Atom — released last month, it’s now time to set our eyes upon the second member of this next trio of characters: the spellbinding Enchantress. NRS Community Specialist Tyler Lansdown replied last night to a few fans on Twitter asking about the next upcoming edition of the Watchtower Livestream that the team will be spotlighting Enchantress sometime this week, ahead of her upcoming release later this month.

Fortunately, the official Injustice 2 Twitter account followed up with an announcement that it will be held this Friday, January 5th, at the usual 3:00 PM CT start time (1:00 PM PT, 4:00 PM ET) at twitch.tv/netherrealm. You can see both tweets below.

Source: tylerlansdown (Twitter); InjusticeGame (Twitter)

Become New York’s strongest fighter at TSB’s special Dragon Ball FighterZ launch tournament

The hype for Dragon Ball FighterZ is reaching a fever pitch, with the open beta just over a week away and then the full release not long after. With so many people looking to compete, Team Stickbug are planning a launch tournament for DBFZ for those who want to hit the ground running.

It won’t just be Dragon Ball FighterZ though, TSB will also be holding tournaments for BlazBlue Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, with 2Old2Furious also running a Vampire Savior tournament. All of this high-intensity anime action will take place at Next Level in New York, and registration is available right now over on smash.gg.

Do note that while registration is free on smash.gg, you will have to pay at the venue. If you cannot make it to New York for the event, Team Stickbug will be streaming the event via its Twitch channel — so you can steal any Day 1 DBFZ tech!

Source: TSB_FGC

More leaks look to the future of SoulCalibur VI, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle

Last year, we had a big set of leaks from reddit poster “Vergeben” that detailed a lot of information — not the least of which was the reveal of SoulCalibur VI less than a month before Bandai Namco officially announced the game. Now, the same poster has come out with another set of leaks.

The leaks in question cover SoulCalibur VI, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Of these, only BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle wasn’t addressed by the previous leak.

For SoulCalibur VI, the leak details the possibility of  Nintendo Switch port, specifically the fact that it seems that it’s not happening at this time. Prior to this, there was some rumbling of the possibility of one, with some guest characters as well (specifically Link and a Fire Emblem character). However, Vergeben states that their source has stated that while it is “likely,” it won’t be happening for a while.

Some more interesting information reveals some details about SoulCalibur VI‘s development — including that the game wasn’t originally slated to be a reboot of the franchise, but that this all changed after a shakeup at Project Soul. That said, with the status of the game set as going back to the series’ past, characters that are supposed to be appearing in it are Kilik, Xianghua, Maxi (who is apparently now unambiguously presented as homosexual), Siegfried, Nightmare, Taki, Talim, Ivy, Cassandra, Astaroth, and Tira. Zasalamel is also being considered, but he may end up being DLC. Amy might appear in all future installments as Viola (confirming a long-held fan theory). Finally, the character teased at the end of the reveal trailer is supposedly a male character (some have speculated to it being female): an assassin, and Kilik’s rival.

Meanwhile, moving on to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite: the big leak is that, despite the Fox buyout, season 2 will still not contain any X-Men or Fantastic Four characters. Now this somewhat makes sense, as the buyout only happened recently and the DLC was likely in development for some time now. Instead, the season 2 characters are supposed to be Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel, Asura, Lady, Gill, with the final slot being a toss-up between Rashid or Vergil.

More important, however, is the bit about the game’s future past season 2. Right now, the game is apparently in a state of flux, and what will happen after season 2 is up in the air. The two options are to either just end support for the game, or continue on with it. If the latter happens, then it’s likely that we’ll see more characters and a possible Capcom Pro Tour-style deal for it.

Moving on to Dragon Ball FighterZ, Vergeben states that the DLC characters that he’s been informed about are Broly, base form Goku, base form Vegeta, and Bardock. They also have a source stating that Raditz and Zarbon are in, though they consider this source an outlier, since those are the only two characters the source knows about. As for why we’re getting another Goku and Vegeta, the reason is apparently because of demand from the Japanese fanbase — especially with how good those characters supposedly were in Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden on the 3DS.

On top of this, there are apparently still hidden playable characters that have yet to be revealed, the least of which is Android 21, who so far has only been advertised as an NPC. Android 21 apparently has an “Ultimate Form,” though it’s unknown if this is an install type super, or a new character outright.

Finally, moving on to BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, as previously reported, Arc System Works has debunked that previous leak as well. Now this new leak says the same, and then gives out some more info. Specifically, the leaker states that Kanji Tatsumi, Naoto Shirogane, Mitsuru Kirijo, Aigis, Hilda, Merkava, Taokaka, Litchi, Blake, and Yang will be part of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle‘s roster. The supposed character picks do seem to make sense, and may be pretty “safe” with some almost being guaranteed (by being members of Persona 4‘s  team, being half of Team RWBY, etc.), that said, we’ll see if Arc System Works won’t debunk this as well.

Of course, all of the information above has not been confirmed by the publishers. As such, be sure to take it all with a grain of salt!

Source: Vergeben (reddit)

VesperArcade analyzes Necalli’s new V-Trigger specials & reported balance changes in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

We’re now less than two weeks away from the dawn of a new era (for SFV, at least!) with Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, and VesperArcade continues his analysis videos covering each character’s new V-Triggers and reported balance changes — while we await Capcom’s release of the full changelog. This time, Vesper examines “The Soul Consuming Darkness”: Necalli.

Given that his V-Trigger, Torrent of Power, is arguably one of the most unique — and most powerful — in the entirety of the game, and the title’s only “permanent” Trigger (providing the ancient warrior with a multitude of passive buffs in exchange for merely being locked out of his V-Reversal for the remainder of the round), many were curious about how they would top this with anything close to an enticing alternative.

Fortunately for him, Capcom decided to merely give Necalli access to a pair of new specials tied to his Trigger choice, as opposed to altering or forcing him to give up his powerful transformation. TOP will now grant him access to a new attack known as Clouded Mirror, which can be charged by holding down the heavy buttons to increase the length of his new forward leap — which appears to serve as a way to avoid projectiles, bait throws, and further close the gap on his foes, something that has proved problematic for him in certain match-ups.

His new V-Trigger, Explosion of Power, replaces Clouded Mirror with another new attack, the Heart of Gold, which sees Necalli spit out a short-range fireball that hits five times and is plus on block — seemingly compensating the spirit-consumer for the upcoming loss of his throw loops and knockdown advantage following forward dashes in Season 3. You can see the full video below for more details, and visual demonstrations.

You can find links to Vesper’s previous AE coverage at the following Links:

Source: VesperArcade