Category: Fighting Games

The unique qualities of Tekken 7‘s Howard Estate allows nearly the entire cast to get either close to, or over 100% damage combos by way of its multiple breakable walls. But what if the character doesn’t even need all the walls to do that?

Certainly, Akuma is a case study in how damage cannot be the only factor when ranking a character’s overall effectiveness in a game. Despite his widely known damage potential, the Ansatsuken user is a niche pick in tournament play at best. But it’s hard not to see how a stage like the Howard Estate plays directly to his strengths, giving him potential death combos in multiple rounds.

Source: HapkidoRed

There’s few players, if any, pushing the Zeku meta quite in the way AutoMattock has. You may have seen AutoMattock’s numerous mixup and safe jump setups, but were daunted to jump into the ex-Bushinryu Master’s gameplay without knowing his fundamentals.

Well, that’s where AutoMattock’s Survival Guide comes into play. Covering both Old and New forms, AutoMattock’s new series is something of a ‘Zeku Bible’ for new players to efficiently learn the character from. This is the first part of what will prove to be a long and informative series, covering Throws, Anti-Airs, and winning the neutral.

Source: AutoMattock

In Pokkén Tournament DX, Garchomp’s Burst Attack breaks several of the games “rules” for Synergy Bursts. It breaks your shield if you block it, it has super armor on frame 1, and although technically unsafe, it pushes out so far that most characters can’t punish it properly without a wall.

It is, however, possible to use a backdash’s invincibility to go through the last (and most important) hit. But if you’re even slightly off on the input, you’ll take the hit and completely unnecessary damage.

Depending upon your character, the timing on this can be very difficult, as some characters have a very small amount of invincibility on their backdash. Gardevoir main H2 Who has broken down the move’s extended block-stun properties, and has found a backdash timing that gives us a guard if we mess up the backdash timing, and a proper backdash if we don’t.

Source: H2 Who

Did you think that Excels were the only source of truly disgusting damage in Street Fighter EX2+? Then you haven’t been watching the Excel-less Combo Series from Shin Tanimoto!

With Fighter Layer EX not far off, it’s both entertaining and enlightening to see the various ways you can manipulate ARIKA’s combo systems. As you can see from the infinites and meter-positive loops, juggle states are very flexible, and the game has some… creative interpretations of what counts as a cross up on wake up.

Source: Shin Tanimoto

“Super Street Fighter Carnival 2017” marches on! SSFC2017 is the currently-ongoing Japanese tournament series at Mikado Arcade for a wide variety of classic (and sometimes, obscure) arcade titles. If you missed the first few tournaments from SSFC2017, there’s a lot to catch up on!

Last week’s game was the classic Vampire Hunter: Darkstalker’s Revenge. I doubt anyone needed a run-down of Capcom’s fighting pedigree, but this week’s game (and developer) are a little bit more on the obscure side.

Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash was a 1995 2D fighting game by developer Racdym (now ‘Racjin’). It’s presentation contains bright colors, slick sprite animation and chaotic item interactions. The game’s interesting character designs are based on the “Far East of Eden” RPG series, which is more then a little ironic since the RPG series has never been released outside of Japan while Kabuki Klash has.

Enjoying SSFC2017? You can follow the action by subscribing to Mikado’s official YouTube channel, or you can even try to catch Mikado Arcade when they livestream!

Source: Mikado

As part of Sony’s PlayStation Experience Opening Celebration, the company showed a number of trailers and videos for games coming to the system. One of these videos was some actual gameplay from Bandai Namco’s SoulCalibur VI.

The footage showed Mitsurugi and Sophitia in action against each other. Now some of the footage isn’t exactly new, bits of it can bee seen playing in the background of Bandai Namco’s official website. Still, there’s much to dissect here, especially with what we know about the game’s new “Reversal Edge” mechanic.

For those who missed the video, GamersPrey has shared a recording of it from the PSX stream. You can check this out below.

Of course, that isn’t the only gameplay we’re bound to see this weekend. A gameplay demo for the game is set to happen today at 10:30 AM Pacific on the PSX stream.

SoulCalibur VI launches on PlayStation 4, as well as PC, and Xbox One sometime in 2018.

Source: Gamers Prey

If Urien is the Matrix, Nemo is the source. The internet has looked at Alienware’s Naoki Nemoto as their inspiration for Urien tech since the very beginning of the character’s existence in Street Fighter V, and while he has played an abbreviated schedule of events during the Capcom Pro Tour this year, he now finds himself sitting in Capcom Cup after a grueling 10-hour last chance qualifier to enter the bracket.

Today, he finds himself up against none other than the Alpha, PG|Punk. Will he be able to overcome the first — most difficult — hurdle, on his way to a Capcom Cup title?

The Source

Let’s face it, we know who the original Urien is. Everyone else feels like copycats. They may be solid copycats, but they can’t fully replicate the soul that Nemo has put into this character. Nemo’s usage of space and V-Skills are hard to reproach. His V-Trigger setups are things of beauty, and few players have fully replicated everything he has brought to the table.

But Nemo is more than just a technician. His understanding of match-ups, and his adaptability to his opponents’ shifts in play have made him hard to beat when he has shown up to events.

Statistics

If you wanted a valid reason that Nemo wasn’t already in Capcom Cup outright, his abbreviated schedule was certainly it: he only played five events across 2017. But of those five events, he finished top 8 in three of them, including a top 8 in a star-studded Japan Cup.

In his brief travels to the United States, he has been able to find success with top 8s at both East Coast Throwdown and DreamHack Montréal. In between those, he also decided to come to New York and take people’s money at Next Level Battle Circuit. It’s without question that his tournament prowess will come in to play at Capcom Cup, and he has some solid experience both West and East to give him clout.

The Anomaly

The next thing that stands in his way? If Nemo is the Source, his biggest fear is the One. The One this year has easily been Punk. And America’s (or Zion’s, if I have to keep The Matrix comparison up) best hope at winning it all this year has had a solid track record against Nemo over the year, having beaten him at East Coast Throwdown in tournament after also defeating him in a money match the night before top 8.

Also waiting in the ranks of players that have beaten him this year are Justin Wong, who defeated him at DreamHack Montréal, Phenom, who eliminated him at LAN Story Cup, and Oil King, who put him into Losers Bracket at Japan Cup. While these are totally situational, this factors in that Nemo does have some demons to watch out for in this tournament. These are also three completely separate characters with totally different playstyles, which means that Nemo definitely struggles with those he is unfamiliar with.

Has he had enough time to really study who he might face at Capcom Cup? Surely he has looked at Punk, since he previously went on record to say that Punk is the best in the world at NLBC, but who else did he study? It’s possible that LCQ was taxing enough for him to not have time to research the entire bracket for Capcom Cup, should he make it in.

Final Thoughts

Nemo has a couple of big wins under his belt in stacked brackets at Tokyo Game Show and Red Bull Kumite. Is that enough to ensure success at Capcom Cup after the difficult climb he had to get there? Definitely not. But just Punk and a handful of players who have outwitted him isn’t enough to say he won’t.

He likely won’t finish any lower than top 16, but you should seriously expect fireworks when he plays Punk. This match alone will be the make or break for either player.

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Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!

Additional source: Jacked23