Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is known for its selection of alternate costumes, as much as it is for its gameplay–perhaps more so. Team NINJA continues to release a generous number of costume packs for the game, even to this day. Now, while most of those costumes are either their own designs, or crossovers with other franchises, they occasionally open the door for fans to get their designs in as well.
For any fans looking to get their own designs into the game, Team NINJA is once again hosting its Halloween Designer’s Challenge. Fans can submit their designs for their favorite characters (with the exception of Christie, and KOF crossover DLC character Mai Shiranui) to Team NINJA on or before May 7, 2017. Out of all the submissions, select designs will be added into the game–with 10 designers receiving special prizes from Team NINJA and Koei Tecmo Games.
Act fast to save some money on Evo sign-ups–or get your name in for the artist alley!
If you’re planning to head into Las Vegas this July to attend Evolution 2017, but haven’t signed up yet, you’ll want to make sure you do before April 2–early bird registration pricing ends that day, and the cost will jump up from $55 USD to $75. Head over to smash.gg and register now!
Evo 2017 early bird registration ends April 2nd! Make sure you register before then to save $20! https://t.co/4kBRLyj2OC#Evo2017
It seems the rumors were true, as King of Fighters XIV producer Yasuyuki Oda has today announced on the Playstation Blog that the fourth and final DLC character for KOF XIV would indeed be Rock Howard. A fan favorite and lead character in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Rock’s appearance in KOF XIV will be his first visit to the main King of Fighters series. That’s not to say that he is going to feel out of place though–apparently the team has made a big effort to make sure that he feels like a good fit for KOF XIV’s engine.
There’s other good news for fans of Geese’s estranged son: Oda is adamant that he is not going to be among the weaker members of the case, as he was in Garou.
Rock Howard was actually fairly weak and considered low-tier in Garou: Mark Of The Wolves. I can say with all confidence that is not the case with his appearance in KOF XIV!
Rock is joined by Whip, Yamazaki and Vanessa, all of whom will be available on April 5. And even if you don’t pick up the DLC characters, you’ll get free stages and background music on April 5 too!
For a glimpse of Terry Bogart’s adopted son in action, and to see some of how his style draws from both his adoptive and biological fathers, check out the reveal trailer below.
After going for nearly seven years, LiangHuBBB has finally reached episode 100 of his “Funny & Cool Moments” series, which compiles a variety of hilarious and awesome clips from different fighting games for your enjoyment. The titles featured in this most recent collection are Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat XL, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Ultra Street Fighter IV, For Honor, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, the Injustice 2 online beta, Killer Instinct, The King of Fighters XIV, Soul Calibur V, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and more.
We start things off with MDZ_Jimmy recreating Evo Moment #37 in Street Fighter V, Urien showing off some of his vice-president swag in both SFV and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, some interesting Brutality sequences in Mortal Kombat XL, and Bison sending Chun-Li airborne with his Ultimate Psycho Crusher. Imstilldadaddy makes an incredible read with Kolin’s Frost Touch on Ryu’s wakeup Shoryuken, Cammy “dying 1,000 deaths” when she Cross Stinger Assaults into a Raging Demon, a hilarious exchange between PND|Ketchup and Mustard, Natsu Ringing herself out while attempting a Brave Edge, and CYG BST|PR Balrog obliterating the life bar of Homura’s Dhalsim with a Turn Punch read for 80%.
Other highlights include a nasty Arakune combo that may bring back bad memories for BlazBlue: Continuum Shift players, PurePure crushing DSmoove’s Sho with a Labrys Red Axe combo in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax at Evo 2016, Ken literally sliding away after a Super Turbo victory, Twitch.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara’s Guile teabagging Echo Fox|Justin Wong’s Rainbow Mika during their recent “Clash of the Masters” Netflix exhibition, Canton getting some love from a Leona Heidern cosplayer after a big play, F.A.N.G flying away from R. Mika with Shishiruirui–only to kill her with the dropped poison balls from behind, a hilarious exchange from Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire: Jackie Chan Densetsu,and Ramlethal and Necalli having Super fails.
Finally, the video closes with a compilation of Sonic Move fails from Liang’s own online Nash play, along with a rap about the current power of SFV Season 2 Guile.
You can see the full video below–and can also catch Episode 99 here!
What are some of your favorite moments from the first 100 episodes? How long have you watched the series? Let us know in the comments below!
Aside from its unique 3-on-3 elimination-based combat, SNK’s The King of Fighters series has also been known for impressive official art, from different artists throughout the years. Currently, the art for The King of Fighters XIV is drawn by Eisuke Ogura, who’s best known for working as the main character illustrator for NEO GEO Battle Coliseum, as well as helping in the other numbered KOF installments.
To give fans a short glimpse of how Ogura works, SNK recently released a new video showing his digital illustration process. The art itself below is a special piece commissioned to celebrate the birthday of series anti-hero Iori Yagami, and serves to demonstrates the unique style that Ogura brings to the series.
Two fighters that get a little less spotlight get some attention from The Cool Kid93.
In Street Fighter V, Alex and Rashid both have their loyal supporters–possibly a bit more for Alex than Rashid, though. In the compilation below, you can see The Cool Kid93 take both characters through their paces in some online bouts:
While Alex is getting some buffs to toughen him up in the next balance patch, The Cool Kid93 feels that Alex has some problems that the new balancing still won’t address–such as a lack of options to follow up an EX Air Knee Smash on the ground to reward your successful anti-air, a lack of similar pressure options after a back drop, the short range of his heavy command grab, and more.
You can hear about Alex’s upcoming changes in more detail in VesperArcade’s video breakdown here. A new Air Knee Smash/Slash Elbow bug has also been found for Alex; check it out here.
While Examu is known predominately for their air-dash-heavy fighting series Arcana Heart, the small 30-person company has tried their hand at quite a few fighters since their inception in 1999. Aquapazza, Nitroplus Blasterz, and Arcana Heart’s numerous sequels all did well enough to keep this small company with big competitive dreams afloat. Every fighter that Examu has put out has survived long enough to make it to consoles, and some have dedicated-enough followings to garner major tournament play to this day.
With one notable, console-less exception.
Daemon Bride was the second franchise from Examu after their modest success with Arcana Heart. Examu’s work has an obvious style and market: their games and settings are at the intersection of cute anime and competitive Japanese arcade culture. Where Arcana Heart leaned heavily towards the cute anime side, 2009’s Daemon Bride was an attempt at being more serious, detailed, and gritty. Its projectile-focused gameplay evoked the frenzied, nuanced pace of the shmup genre, while its airdash and homing cancel mechanics still kept it spiritually close enough to Arcana Heart. Since Arc System Works’s BlazBlue had come out the year before, I can imagine Daemon Bride was an attempt to get in the ground floor of this more grown-up anime resurgence.
It didn’t work. Daemon Bride received one title update in 2011 (Daemon Bride: Additional Gain) then quietly disappeared from the market. Examu’s later works, Aquapazza and Nitroplus Blasterz, backed far away from Daemon Bride’s shmup inspiration, and returned to Examu’s cuter, less serious looking art style.
Those that still want to play it will have to make a bit of a trek over to the Japanese arcade Game a-cho. Thankfully, the good folks there have provided us with hours of recent high-level gameplay footage. Regardless of Daemon Bride‘s fate, there was something special enough there in its direction to keep some players playing, even today.
The true power of Kanzuki-ryu lies in the Guren no Kata!
When Karin was first revealed in Street Fighter V, it became apparent that her classic Guren techniques would rely on her V-Trigger, the Kanzuki-ryu Guren no Kata. In the video below, Jay Rego explores the properties of Karin’s Guren V-Trigger and how to turn that data into potent combos and setups. Aspiring Karin mains should check this out to dig deeper into this significant aspect of her Street Fighter V mechanics–and you can skip straight to the setups, if you’re eager to try them for yourself.
Bonchan plans a pilgrimage across Japan to unite their Street Fighter V competitors.
Red Bull’s Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi seeks to build a stronger Street Fighter V community in Japan, mitigating the lack of an arcade release in an FGC that still revolves around the video arcade model–and one that is becoming seemingly thin, having been pushed into online lobbies to play the current version of Street Fighter.
His plan is to travel across all of Japan’s 47 prefectures and check out each regional scene, while encouraging them to build up their own local connections. “My main goal is to inspire the young players in these regional areas to start their own offline community… While throwing an event might be an exhausting job, it’s also very rewarding, and it’s always better to have a rival or a friend to play and communicate with rather than playing alone at home online.”
Bonchan echoes a prior observation from Twith.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara: that no arcade version of Street Fighter V has made it tougher for Japanese players to train and communicate in the way they’re used to. But he has a positive outlook on the future of the game and its communities. “I’m looking forward to seeing the cultural differences in these communities, meeting new players, and exchanging ideas. My stops in Hokkaido and Nagoya have been very successful, in my opinion, so I’d like to continue this project in 2018. My goal for this year is to successfully lead this project to grow the local Japanese communities, but of course I will do my best to train hard for the Capcom Pro Tour as well.”
Read the full article and interview from Ian Walker over on Red Bull eSports.
Additionally, you can check out some footage of Bonchan’s own exclusive Nash color–awarded for victory at Genbu Cup–in action in this FT2 against Majorboy, below:
Because of the sheer size of The King of Fighters XIV’s roster, some players neglect to fully educate themselves in some of the base mechanics, getting lost in learning character matchups and such. Certain mechanics that, in a smaller game, would have been explored to death take a bit longer to be fully learned. Thankfully, there are many helpful fans out there working hard to explain such mechanics.
Today’s content creator is PLSX, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to put together an educational guide on the defensive nature of backdashes in KOFXIV. This guide covers all the things they can dodge, what kind of attacks will hit you, recovery time, and how best to weigh these properties in real situations.
There’s another guide by the same creator that addresses Leona’s strong mixup game, which features the above mechanic to get out of most of her options.
