Category: Fighting Games

The Street Fighter V balance change discussions keep rolling out from VesperArcade; this time he looks at the most beautiful member of Shadaloo’s Four Heavenly Kings, Vega. The new buffs for the Spanish matador are aimed at providing more incentive for him to switch between his two stances, as Capcom feels the non-claw form is superior due to its higher damage output.

The hit advantage of his standing heavy punch with claw has been increased to +7, with reduced pushback on hit and block to improve his damage and options following a stance cancel after he confirms. His clawed crouching heavy punch is now plus on both hit and block–allowing for more pressure–as well as conversions into his lights for combos, or a Critical Art for huge damage. The Bloody Kiss Azul version of his V-Trigger is also now invincible from the first frame after hit, to prevent unfavorable trades after proper usage.

Perhaps the biggest buff to Vega in this new patch is his significantly improved clawed Flying Barcelona Attack, which will provide a myriad of new setups for Vega, some of which Vesper demonstrates.

Capcom greatly buffed Vega’s wall dive with claw on. They really want you to use this more and reward you for landing it. First off, it’s now +3 on block, so it’s still his turn. Second, they increased the damage and now you can juggle into pretty much anything you want. Right now in Season 2, after you land with the Claw, you don’t have too many options., but now you can go into pretty much any normal or you can even cancel into another wall dive for gimmicks.

EX Crimson Terror’s movement distance, which was reduced in Season 2, has now been improved to be in-between the current and original Season 1 versions of the move.

In closing, VesperArcade offers up his usual final thoughts on the impact of these changes:

My final verdict on Vega, in this patch alone, is buffed. So even though Vega’s gotten some of the most buffs in this April patch, it doesn’t seem like Capcom is focusing on any of his weaknesses… Instead, they really wanted to encourage Vega players to use both his stances equally, so most of his buffs focus on his claw stance to make it more rewarding, and to just make the character more interesting in general, since he does have a larger kit than most.

You can see the full video above, and can also check out VesperArcade’s additional coverage of the other changes coming to SFV:

• Uppercut changes
• Jump back throw OS removed
• V-Reversal and charge changes
• Alex
• Guile
• Ryu
• Urien
• New moves & Air Force Base changes
• CFN features & Kanzuki Private Beach changes
• Nash
• Akuma

Source: VesperArcade

Recently playergodaines showed us the potential of Tung Fu Rue, and demonstrated a situational stun combo with him on King of Dinosaurs. That was a surprise, but stun combos for Muay Thai practitioner Joe Higashi are not. They’ve been with the character for multiple games now, to the point they have overshadowed the character’s built-in potential without them.

Playergodaines wanted to counter this perception. In the description he mentions that he wanted to show “how (Joe) does above-average damage without relying on difficult stun combos.” The result of this work is stylish, informative, and above all else, practical!

[Editor’s note: as this video immediately preceded the new version 2.0 balance patch, some of the tech may work slightly differently in the game’s new build.]

Source: playergodaines

If you have followed Super Smash Bros. Melee in the past few months, you are most likely aware of the emergence of the Smash Box prototype, the Hitbox-esque alternative to the GameCube controller for competitive Smash play. You may not be as aware of the B0XX: the fork of the project introduced by Aziz “Hax” Al-Yami, due to his frustration with development of the original project–or of the verbal sparring between the two teams.

Having been kept abreast of the situation surrounding the two projects, Daniel “Tafokints” Lee and Mohan “Launders” Govindasamy talk about the two projects. They discuss the features of the two projects and their benefits to the community. They also discuss whether either project will overtake each other–or even the default GameCube controller, whether either project will be a money maker, and what it will take for either project to become tournament-legal across the board.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

CrossUPDP’S “Pro Player Analysis” series now takes aim at recent Final Round 20 winner RZR|Xian, in an attempt to understand the mind behind the mixup master:

While the destination is Xian’s current tournament-winning Ibuki, CrossUPDP’s 11-minute examination maps out all of Xian’s characters across his Street Fighter journey. Originally a King of Fighters 2000 player, Xian’s focus on his entire Street Fighter career has been to take the road less traveled (or the character less picked), and blindside his opponents. In his own words, he “likes the feeling” of his opponents not understanding what he’s doing.

Source: CrossUPDP

The guys behind Beefy Smash Doods are no strangers to bizarre Smash techniques and combos. Wario has never been a straightforward character in any Smash game, using his obnoxious hitboxes like N-air and Motorcycle to confirm into a Waft kill. A Wario combo video from Beefy Smash Doods promises to be full of insane confirms off strange situations, and “It’s a Wii, Wario!” by SiC doesn’t disappoint.

I think Motorcycle Toss, down throw into Waft confirm is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in Smash in a while. That was only a minute into this video, though: the awareness and performance of SiC clearly shown in their footstools, gimps, and low percent kills is impressive. If you’re a Wario main, there is definitely something you can learn from this.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods