Another tool in the Ken rushdown arsenal, at least for now.
Longtime Street Fighter players are no stranger to kara throws–for those unfamiliar: basically tricking the game engine into extending your fighter’s throw range by entering the command for a longer-ranged normal attack immediately before the throw command. Joutai has found a kara throw for Ken in the current version of Street Fighter V, in this case using his light kick to reach out just that much farther. You can see it demonstrated in the video below!
Before the announcement of REV 2, everyone’s eyes were preemptively set on Baiken, Robo Ky, Zappa, and a host of other classic Guilty Gear characters. No one expected Chipp’s assistant, Answer, to step into the fray.
The Business Ninja’s moveset strongly revolves around setting up scrolls on the screen that he can cling to and dash from. This not only gives him lots of movement options but also expanded movement and mix-up options. The Answer Discord has been busy compiling an Answer guide. It’s a great starting point–that will also evolve over time, as the authors add more to it. But if you’re more of a visual learner or just want to check out Answer in action, scroll below.
Here’s also the move list for reference:
Here’s some high-level play between GGP|Kazunoko’s Answer and Machaboo’s Sin. Right off the bat, at 1:30, Kazunoko confirms into a great instant-air-dash combo (while Sin is on the ground). To see other matchups, Kazunoko also has footage against Baiken, Sol, and Ky as well as Souji’s Bedman.
So Answer can set scrolls on the screen to give him extra movement options. What kind of sick mix-ups can you do with him? (And can look forward to experiencing from Answer players?) Kazunoko provides the answers.
Here’s another way Answer can combo into a knockdown to then set up a cross-up on wake up. Should be useful against those who want to mash out a dragon punch or super reversals.
Four card combo which has Answer going around the screen like crazy.
Looks like players will have lots of fun with Answer’s mobility. The Business Ninja has plenty of tools to keep the opponents guessing, so the more creative you get, the bigger the payoff. All while taking business calls.
The UDON comic book version of the Street Fighter universe is an interesting animal: reaching back to the Alpha/Zero era, it tells the story of a timeline matching the Capcom games precisely on some points, while broadly rearranging and twisting the character’s lives in other ways, to make the UDON comics into their own sort of Street Fighter parallel universe.
While covering the subject matter of the Street Fighter Alpha series, Street Fighter II, and Street Fighter IV, the comics did a thorough and entertaining job of filling in the gaps around the beginnings of most of the SF cast, the original Shadaloo-hosted Street Fighter tournament, and the rise (and fall) of Shadaloo-offshoot S.I.N. As these comics were being produced while new games were also being made, the new characters in the game continuity often got inserted into the narrative in interesting ways–but overall, the gist of the past stories doesn’t stray too far from the game’s own canon. In the Street Fighter Unlimited series, we’re now dealing with the post-SFIV and pre-SFIII era directly–and with the events of Street Fighter V taking place in that same zone, it’s here where UDON starts to diverge even more from the Capcom games’ canon to tell its own tale of the rise of the Secret Society. The result is both an intriguing alternate take on the storyline and characters, and an entertaining vehicle for our favorite characters to smack each other around. Minor spoilers follow!
A new enemy, a new journey
The Super Street Fighter graphic novels featured the early machinations of the Secret Society, in the immediate wake of Seth and S.I.N. In the second volume (“Hyper Fighting”) Evil Ryu and Oni were made straight-up canonical in UDON’s own universe, once Ryu drew the Satsui no Hado out of Sakura with his own ki, and succumbed to the equivalent of two fighter’s darkness to become Evil Ryu; meanwhile Akuma unleashed his full potential as Oni to fight him. At the close of Super Street Fighter volume two, Gill appeared and used his godlike power to suppress the Satsui no Hado in both of them, returning Ryu and Akuma to “normal” (though confused and frustrated). The volume ended with Gill deciding that the time had finally come to reveal the Secrety Society and their intentions to the world.
This is where Street Fighter Unlimited picks up: Ryu is conflicted and ashamed of his murderous moment, his chest scarred as a reminder of Evil Ryu’s emergence. This scar acts as a reminder to the reader as well–Ryu has no such scar in Street Fighter V. We’re in new, unfamiliar territory. While Gill–with the loyal help of Kolin, and the grudging obedience of Urien–stages a disaster-thwarting PR event to reveal himself and his power to the world at large, Ryu sets out on a new pilgrimage to figure out if he can ever utilize the power of the Satsui no Hado without losing himself to it. After seeking out old Retsu and coming face-to-face with the master he thought was dead, Ryu’s search takes him to Brazil to train with the bizarre and unorthodox hermit Oro.
Blanka makes a guest appearance in Oro’s training regimen.
Meanwhile, the story follows Alex, Guile, Cammy, Ken, Chun-Li and others as they follow the Secret Society’s trail through the remnants of Shadaloo, to learn what the Society’s agenda actually is. Following the layout of the single comic issues, the story is broken up into the main sections punctuated with smaller side-stories.
Kolin teaches Sodom some manners.
While stuffed with a generous amount of Street Fighter action, Street Fighter Unlimited has a noticeably more thoughtful, philosophical tone than prior comics–a lot of panels are devoted to exploring Ryu’s internal struggle and guilt, while he seeks a new teacher to guide him onward. Gill is shown as he presents himself to the world–angelic and wise, powerful but gentle, a caring and benign ruler for a new world order. In volume two, once Gill has gathered street fighters from around the world to his island, the question arises–what do fighters do when there’s no one to fight? Is there a place for them in a world of complete peace?
Of course, Gill’s darker agenda begins to surface, and Urien’s jealousy and intention to betray his brother become apparent–once Gill announces a new Street Fighter tournament, and expresses dissatisfaction with the level of ki the fighters can produce. A strange machine is revealed: it’s based on recovered S.I.N. technology, and Gill wants to charge it with the fighters’ ki; as we get these clues that Gill’s new world order won’t be exactly as cheerful as hoped, Alex learns that he has an unexplained connection to the Secret Society.
As these volumes form only the first two thirds of the full Street Fighter Unlimited arc, volume two does end rather abruptly, leaving us hanging for volume three for the conclusion of the story threads that have been laid out (of course, you can read the full story in the completed monthly issues, too). The result is still some great Street Fighter storytelling with more than its share of memorable moments. Highlights include: a slice of Haggar’s daily workload as mayor of Metro City; Alex, Chun-Li, Guile, and Cammy battling an army of shape-shifting Twelves; Oro’s unusual (and brutal) testing and training of Ryu; and a side-story in which Dan gains his chance to avenge his father’s death at Sagat’s hands.
This can’t go well.
Throughout the story the influence of Street Fighter IV and V can be felt in the inclusion of costume and character cameos. Street Fighter V content gets directly engaged in the bonus story for volume one–each volume has an additional tale not published in the monthly run–where F.A.N.G makes his presence known to re-recruit Balrog and Vega into a new Shadaloo. Both bonus stories tie directly into the Street Fighter Legends: Cammy comics (to be collected into their own volume in May 2017).
An unlikely alliance.
Works of art
As lavish hardcover collections, the books are frankly gorgeous–although, maybe we’ve grown accustomed to that from UDON by now? The stories are broken up by the individual issues’ original covers, and each volume includes a massive gallery at the end, full of bonus covers and concept art.
The homage covers are a big highlight, almost worth the price of admission on their own!
The main story duties fell to Ken Siu-Chong, with Jim Zub, Adam Warren, Chris Sarracini, and Matt Moylan as guest writers. They have certainly provided an engaging main storyline, along with fun side-stories here. Art is shared between tales by Joe Ng, Edwin Huang, Josh Perez, Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz, Omar Dogan, Sarah Stone, Hanzo Steinbach, Brendan Tapper, and Genzoman; all of them bring their own unique flavor to the visuals, all of it a pleasure to behold–especially in the increased size format the hardcover offers over the original comics. Colors by Edwin Huang and Espen Grundetjern, flats by Ludwig Olimba, and lettering by Marshall Dillon complete the beautiful presentation in these books. While the main story art is shared between different artists, by volume two Huang is handling the main story sections exclusively–which suits me just fine, as I love his distinctive style of Street Fighter artwork.
The King of Fighters XIV’s recent 2.0 patch brought with it a rather significant number of balance changes. With this, many players are likely wondering what new things the game’s characters can do, in terms of combos.
Now while the patch is barely a day old, many players have started to figure out new combos for the existing cast, as well as some powerful ones for the newcomers.
First up we have Gatoray, who has been experimenting with the game’s original cast. The video below showcases some new combos, links and cancels that the original cast members can perform in version 2.0.
Now for the new DLC characters, people have also been figuring out stuff for them as well, of course. First up, we have these day 1 combos for Vanessa by Fredchuckdave. These include some basic Advanced Cancels for her in MAX mode, that allow her to deal significant damage with meter.
Speaking of damage, Ryuji Yamazaki looks to be a monster in terms of damage output. In the video below, iori_q8 demonstrates a combo that can outright kill 900 health characters with full meter.
In addition to this, Ryon Damon has put together this video showcasing more combos for Yamazaki:
Of course, the DLC character that many newcomers are likely looking forward to trying is Rock Howard, who’s making his KoF series debut here. For those players, Ryon Damon has also put together this video showcasing a number of combos for Rock.
VesperArcade continues his discussions of the balance changes coming to Street Fighter V by looking at the “Master of the Fist,” Akuma. Being the first character released in Season 2, it seems Capcom didn’t want to change Akuma too much, as his only adjustments are the universal changes to Shoryukens, as well as his health being increased from 875 to 900–putting him in a 3-way tie with Cammy and Karin for lowest in the game. According to VesperArcade: “Akuma will be in slightly better condition, I should say. Especially with such an expensive V-Trigger and [the fact] he has to sacrifice health with his V-Skill as well.”
Moving on to the pair of bug fixes that went into effect with Kolin’s release, VesperArcade examines why the cancel window of Akuma’s crouching light punch was shortened by 1 frame:
As far as I know, they did this change to prevent specific option selects where Akuma could use his long chain cancel window of his cr. LP to buffer into anything he wants, while staying safe on whiff. I’m not sure if people explored or exploited this, but I’m sure Capcom wanted to nip it in the bud before people found something crazy.
Vesper’s final verdict on Akuma’s changes is “very slightly buffed.”
So the only one real balance change Akuma got was his health going up. Honestly, I don’t like this change, because I like the idea of Akuma having the lowest health in the game. I think that makes him very unique, and I feel like Capcom should’ve buffed his offense or raised his damage. I really like the idea of just making him a bigger glass cannon.
For those looking to buy all of The King of Fighters XIV’s DLC characters, SNK has made it easy with a bundle for them. The bundle, which is currently available on the PlayStation Store, is available for $19.99–that is, unless you’re a PS Plus member.
For any King of Fighters XIV players who are also PS Plus members, The King of Fighters XIV: 4 Character Bundle pack is available for only $17.99, a 10% discount over its original price. With each character costing $5.99 individually, the bundle already saves $1 off of each. With the discount, players are now getting the characters for only $4.50 each.
Interested players need to hurry however–the discount is only available until 11:00 AM on April 11.
Having made their mark on traditional and anime fighters, Stream.me is finally branching out into the burgeoning platform fighter genre with its latest online tournament series. Partnering with Brawlhalla developer Blue Mammoth Games, Stream.me are set to host The Legend Series, the first S-Tier event for 2017’s Brawlhalla Circuit.
With a sizeable Circuit Point pot on offer alongside a $6,000 prize pot, The Legend Series will be split between singles and doubles events over two weekends. The singles tournament will take place on April 22nd and 23rd, with the doubles competitions happening on May 6th and 7th. Unlike previous Stream.me events, these Brawhalla events will be split between North America and Europe, which finally gives my European brethren a chance at competing.
The North American tournaments will be on April 22nd and May 6th, with Europe getting its turn on April 23rd and May 7th. For additional information on The Legend Series, including how to sign up for these events, make sure to check out the official Stream.me page.
Injustice 2 is approaching fast, and NetherRealm Studios hasn’t been shy about hitting hard with character reveals and story trailers. They’ve released 4 Shattered Alliance trailers so far, including today’s video–which showcases the Society, led by Gorilla Grodd.
This trailer shows off all the presumed focal villains for the story. In these shots we see more of what appears to be Professor Zoom, but we also see Superman and Batman seemingly working together and dusting off the old Justice League base. We also get some nice shots of Deadshot and Scarecrow.
First shown off in the “It’s Good to Be Bad” trailer last week, NetherRealm Studios have shown off some extended footage of the chilling commando Captain Cold in his own introductory trailer. Heavily inspired by a certain ice ninja, Captain Cold controls the mid range with his freeze ray, locking opponents in place so he can set up cool mixups.
Similar to Sub Zero’s Ice Clone, Captain Cold can set up an ice wall, which can absorb limited projectiles and be kicked at the opponent if meter burned. This moving ice wall gives Captain Cold time to summon a block of ice from the sky, forcing his foe to block correctly to avoid a hit. He can also create an ice puddle like the frosty leader of the Lin Kuei, causing enemies to slip up and allowing Captain Cold to close the gap.
He can also summon a slowing bubble, which slows anything that enters its freezing grasp. It looks like Captain Cold is a capable counter-zoner, with his ice wall and slow fields stopping the hail of projectiles which may be coming from characters like Green Arrow or Doctor Fate. He also seems to have taken some pointers from Street Fighter V’s Kolin, as one of his aerial specials has him summoning an ice platform to extend his jump range, similar to Gill’s attendant.
Next Level’s tournament series dedicated to older titles–2 Old 2 Furious–has entered its tenth iteration, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the coming release of Ultra Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, and the announcement of a new Arika title based on Street Fighter EX/Fighting Layer characters, older titles like Street Fighter EX 2 Plus and Super Street Fighter II Turbo are due for some extra attention.
Team Spooky recently posted the top 5 from Street Fighter EX 2 Plus, which features one character confirmed for the upcoming Arika title–Hokuto–as well as Area, who could potentially be in the title. This gives a glimpse at what the new title could be–will any of these mechanics make their way into the game?
Also on display is the top 8 for Super Street Fighter II Turbo–which features top players Damdai, Riz0ne, Tecmo Super Bowl, Ultracombo, and Marsgatti.
