Category: Fighting Games

Marvel Entertainment has returned with Part 2 of their Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite behind-the-scenes documentary: “Bringing the Story Mode to Life.” This time, the Executive Creative Director of Marvel Games, Bill Rosemann, Capcom writer Paul Gardner, Capcom Associate Brand Manager Brett Elston, and the game’s producer, Capcom’s Mike Evans, speak about the process of writing the 2-hour-plus Cinematic Story Mode, which is a first for the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise.

“This time around, we decided, let’s really get into what has brought the characters together. I know as a Marvel fan, I always want a story,” said Rosemann.

With 30 playable characters, along with several NPCs and DLC characters Sigma, Black Panther and Monster Hunter making appearances, the team felt it was best suited to introduce characters in various groups of teams on “Stone Missons.”

“One of the things that was very fun early on was thinking of what character pairings would work, and even if they didn’t work throughout the entirety of the Story, they would at least set up good moments,” Elston noted.

Writer Paul Gardner best summed this up in the interactions between Spider-Man and Frank West, as they infiltrate the newly-formed A.I.M.brella Corporation, along with Resident Evil‘s Chris Redfield.

“They both have a similar kind of way of dealing with the world through their wit. The difference is, Spider-Man kind of uses his wit as a weapon, and Frank’s using his wit as a shield.” He also noted how much he enjoyed writing for Ghost Rider and Morrigan.

“Morrigan is a succubus, and so she draws her power from seduction. Ghost Rider is very stoic and he’s kind of almost immune to her charms.”

Other topics discussed include the decision to make Xgard Ultron Sigma’s base of operations, how Jedah’s use of the Soul Stone has corrupted his usual code of honor, ensuring that they preserved the spirit and voice of each character, as well as “peeling back the layers” to show what led to the beginning of the Convergence, as well as weaving all of the characters and their various quests back into the scope of the overall narrative.

Paul Gardner closed with the following statement:

“You know, we’re a game first and foremost. The goal of the Story is to give meaning, motivation, substance and a sense of stakes, to the gameplay.” You can see the full video below, and can check out Part 1 of MvC:I BTS here.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam PC.

Source: Marvel Entertainment

Tekken 7‘s throw breaking will frustrate you the first time you encounter it. People that have been playing the Tekken series longer then you will say “Oh, just look at the hands and you can react!” and your incredulous glare will be justified… for now.

Once you see BoxeR-King‘s throw breaking tutorial, though, you’ll have no more excuses. In addition to giving a decent and basic run down of how throw breaks work and how to practice breaking them, check out the video’s description for excellent throw-related resources such as a Throw-Break Trainer and King’s Chain Throw Chart.

Source: BoxeR-King

Maximilian is back with more of his character breakdowns for the cast of Dragon Ball FighterZ, this time moving on to the first member of the game’s villainous trio, Perfect Cell. Noting that while Android 16 currently stands as his favorite character in the game, Max feels that Perfect Cell is the character he’s likely best with, due to a combination of “really good normals, really good approaching advancing attacks, supers that lead from almost any situation that you can think of to do them from, and EX special moves that bring you back down to parts of the screen where your other team members can act from. He’s just multi-utility, really damn good, a great comeback character.”

Not at all surprising, given that Dr. Gero’s greatest creation contains the combined DNA of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza, King Cold, Nappa, Krillin and Gohan, along with countless lifeforms. He also has absorbed the bodies of Androids 17 and 18 into himself, allowing him to utilize any of their techniques he wishes, making him the ultimate fighting machine.

Cell’s normals are some of the longest in the game, with his crouching medium being an M. Bison-esque slide he’s possessed throughout multiple Dragon Ball games, while his special skill, the step-in low kick, allows him to move forward during combos to tack on a few more hits and a bit more damage. His Hell Strike immediately teleports him behind his foes, allowing Cell to connect with a swiping strike, which is great for closing out rounds. It can also be canceled into Vanish for a bar, allowing the perfect specimen to confound his challengers with multiple teleports for even more perfectly deceptive mix-ups.

For his Ki Blasts, Cell points downward, blasting at his opponent’s feet, while his aerial Ki attack sees him toss a slashing blast, which looks similar to Rugal’s Genocide Cutter. Cell’s specials include his Telekinesis Crush (which Max sadly got no footage of), which is a full-screen unblockable command grab utilizing QCB+S. The Rolling Crush lunges Cell forward if grounded, or he dives forward if airborne. This causes a hard knockdown, and is super, special and Vanish-cancelable. His aptly-named Perfect Attack is a flip-kick that, when EXed, knocks the opponent to the ground regardless of screen location, where Cell finishes them with a backbreaker — even if already KOed. Since this move is super-cancelable, it is perfect for DHC opportunities — especially if Cell is paired with Teen Gohan, whose supers can only be executed when he is in a grounded state. Perfect Cell’s Kamehameha can only be done on the ground, unlike the Saiyans, but if you hold up or down, Cell will either aim upwards as an anti-air, or at a down-forward angle off of an automatic jump.

Cell only has two super special moves, the Level 1 Energy Field and the Level 3 Solar Kamehameha. The Energy Field covers a massive circular radius around him, and is excellent for waking up, tacking on extra damage, or DHCing him out or into the battle. The Solar Kamehameha can only be used on the ground, but covers a wide screen space and does good damage (even at the end of combos) and can easily be connected off of heavy Perfect Attack for the hefty cost of 4 bars. You can see the full video below, with links to his previous breakdowns.

• Future Trunks
• Piccolo, Android 16 & Android 18
• Krillin
• Goku
• Vegeta
• Teen Gohan

Dragon Ball FighterZ will be released in February 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam PC.

Source: Maximilian Dood

Have you ever dreamed of playing as the boss in a shoot ’em up, rather than the small-but-heroic ship? Wished that you were the one taking up most of the screen, against another player, who’s in their tiny vessel, doing their best to at least survive the barrage of attacks you’re unleashing? You have overpowered beams, bullet-hell-style waves that fill the screen, and whatever else the Boss Mode allows. This is just one aspect of Senko no Ronde 2, a hybrid shooter and fighting game that beamed over to the Western market recently.

The series originally hails from the Japanese arcades in 2005, succeeded by an Xbox 360 port called WarTech: Senko no Ronde. Senko no Ronde 2 is essentially a reboot of the series’ first title for proper release in the West. For the first time, the game’s extensive Story Mode is translated into English. Taking place far in the future, after Earth is no longer inhabitable, the game’s world involves warring government factions across the galaxy. When a terrorist unit strikes and steals a valuable weapon, it changes the balance of power. New combatants arise, but their motives aren’t entirely known.

That’s the gist of the story, which should satisfy anime/visual novel fans, but I didn’t have an opportunity to delve into that when I tried the game at CEOtaku. Rather than reading and listening to Japanese-voiced dialogue, I braved a somewhat complicated battle system and tried a variety of pilots and co-pilots with a goal of blasting my opposition into stardust.

Jumping into Versus Mode, a screen familiar to fighting game players greets the eyes. A row of faces displays available pilots. Pressing up or down changes the co-pilot, which mostly changes a cooldown ability of a pilot. Every character differs pretty significantly from one another by ship, main weapon and subweapon, Barrage attack, and Boss Mode. That last mechanic uses “stock” which is gained between rounds. Players can enter their Boss version at any time, which turns them into a giant ship for a limited duration, dependant on how much power meter they had. It also restores health. Playable either on arcade stick or gamepad, the controls are in-depth, but not too overwhelming.

Battles take place in round stages with a variety of backgrounds. The combat is mostly a dance of two shooting ships. A dash button allows swift strafing while pressing two buttons for standard attacks. Lev, the first character, has a relatively boring gatling gun and a jelly gun which leaves a damaging trail. His Boss Mode was more interesting; you can fire a wide spread of bullets to fill the screen, which I used to set up a narrower but much more damaging beam. I much more enjoyed Jasper, who mounts the Saiga. A ninja-like ship, Jasper’s subweapon places smoke clouds around the screen and four markers, up, down, left, and right, allowing him to teleport to either one. This lets him easily get close for melee attacks. I also resonated with Ranatus, who’s more of a typical zoner. Her weapons are either a wide spread of projectiles or a focused, damaging beam. Overall, there’s a lot of variety and some really creative subweapons — I saw some that trap the opponent and drain their power gauge, for example.

The battles are divided into traditional rounds, and as mentioned, there are a few uses of Boss Mode stocks. There’s a lot of strategy to them, since whenever you’re low on health or about to perish, you can utilize it to completely turn the tables. However, the opponent isn’t completely helpless. They can dodge the attacks until you run out of time, or worse, destroy the Boss by hitting its weak spot continuously. You have to build up meter to stay in Boss Mode long, or you can spend it alternatively on special Barrage attacks. The developers have told me that many proficient players eschew using Boss and prefer to use meter for those special attacks. Maybe they’re so good, they can avoid dying to any Boss in the game?

One difficulty I came across is that it’s definitely tough to tell what’s going on in the screen. While that’s natural for schmups, it’s a bit confusing from a fighting game perspective. The two genres clash a bit, as I’ve had problems understanding what I’m doing or what button does what, especially when going into melee. I’m sure the mechanics would be more apparent as time goes on, however, get used to seeing a screen filled with flashy, colorful objects. Nonetheless, this doesn’t subtract from Senko‘s strategic, frenetic personality.

There’s definitely a good depth to Senko. A variety of characters ensures there’s something for everyone, and there are more complex systems that I barely touched on in this post. If you like having more layers, there is plenty of strategy to explore. The Boss Mode brings a feeling of utter joy as your giant ship faces the tiny opponent — that’s definitely one of the main thrills for me and a unique selling point. If you’re wondering whether this is similar to any other fighting game, I would say the neutral game feels somewhat like ARMS if it were from a top-down perspective. Ultimately, I would encourage you to give Senko no Ronde 2 a chance.

Senko no Ronde 2 is now available on Steam and PlayStation 4. Check out the official website.

After covering the game’s combo system, Unequalled Media’s Tyrant is back with episode 4 of his Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite beginner’s guide, this time looking at movement and wavedashing. One of — if the not the most important — aspects of any Versus game is proper movement. While it’s an essential component of any fighting game you’re trying to play, in a game filled with traps, projectiles, full-screen hit grabs, Dark Spells, Flame Carpets, flight, air dashes, teleports, Drones, Infinity Stones, the ability to tag in your partner at any point off of any move in your arsenal, as well as the occasional Flora Colossus… it’s in your best interest to know how to get around the screen as quickly and efficiently as possible.

After touching on the basics of both directional and two-button dashing, Tyrant moves on to the concept of wavedashing, which involves canceling your two-button dash, into a down or down-forward directional input, with each character having a different timing and rhythm to their wavedashes that will require some Training Mode time to fully utilize. However, there are two rather “dark” exceptions to this form of movement on the Capcom side of the roster. Darkstalkers representatives Morrigan Aensland and Jedah Dohma — true to their original series — possess unique “hover dashes” that will immediately force them to leave the ground, automatically putting them in a flight state which, while limiting their overall ground mobility, allows them trickier mix-up opportunities that are not afforded to the other 28 characters.

Next, Tyrant moves on to aerial movement, which includes normal and super jumps, short hops (reminiscent of The King of Fighters or Persona 4 Arena, and are new to Infinite) as well as air dashes and flight, depending on the character. You can see the full video below, as well as links to Tyrant’s previous episodes.

• Episode 1 – Gameplay Basics
• Episode 2 – Infinity Stones
• Episode 3 – Combo System

Source: UM Tyrant