Despite it being fairly recently that Ultra Street Fighter IV was the talk of the town, the landscape of the competitive scene has completely changed since Street Fighter V was announced. USFIV’s time was a time where esports was still a pretty elusive concept to the FGC–while today it’s an everyday aesthetic. Many things seems to have shifted since those days, not least of all the players.
As we saw last week, YogaFlame24 has put together a compilation in memory of those players seemingly “lost” in the transition from one era to the next. If you long for those days past, or simply never got the chance to see them in their heyday, be sure to check it out.
This installment will be featuring detailed breakdowns of series veterans Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn, both of whom have received new traits, with the Amazon forgoing her stance-switching for a blessing from Hermes, and Harley putting away her “Bag-O-Tricks” to receive assistance from her (and the Joker’s) pet hyenas, Bud and Lou. The team will also be taking questions for the stream with the hashtag #AsktheWatchtower. Given their track record, should be extremely informative for anyone looking to main either of these iconic women.
Additionally, the next character reveal has been scheduled for the following day–February 23rd–according to the Injustice website. Could it be one of the characters we’ve seen from the mobile game, or someone else entirely? You should stay tuned to the IGN and InjusticeGame YouTube Channels, along with Shoryuken to see the latest character trailer as soon as it arrives!
You can view the tweets below:
Join us on the Watchtower tomorrow! We will be doing character breakdowns of Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman. pic.twitter.com/kDWkMNdtVA
This retro-styled action game demonstrates its mechanics through re-creation of an iconic FGC moment!
Indie developer Team Einherjar are working on a new game they call a “technical platformer,” with style and mechanics inspired and derived from classic games like Mega Man and Street Fighter. Dubbed “FictionSphere,” this game–currently a work-in-progress on Steam Greenlight–promises a action/adventure title with gameplay elements from Capcom’s most revered games.
According to Team Einherjar:
FictionSphere is a “Technical Platformer” with a story-driven agenda. Its packed with some of your favorite mechanics from the platforming, hack and slash, and fighting game genres.
We aim to have TWO compelling stories, as well as 2 different styles of gameplay. The protagonist Ratio will have more of a Platformer feel, while Paradox will take more of a Hack-and-Slash route. Both play styles require precision, execution, and timing. This game will be a true testament of your gamer-like reflexes!
To demonstrate these mechanics, the developer decided to pay homage to that string of parries we all know so well:
More gameplay screens, concept art, and information about the developers can be seen on their Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter pages. As the game is still in development and not yet fully funded, no release date is yet confirmed.
Build that Muscle Spirit and widen your repertoire with these meaty setups for Mika!
Rainbow Mika struck fear into the hearts of her opponents in Season 1 of Street Fighter V–and she’s still a terror, even after her Season 2 nerfs! For players that still believe that “pro wrestling is the strongest discipline,” NurseLee has provided another batch of meaty setups for this tag team, this time focusing on two of R. Mika’s signature techniques: her Shooting Peach and her Passion Press. In the case of the latter, the removal of the “invisible wall” bounce is accounted for. Keep up that training regimen and check them out below!
After kicking off the year by covering the bosses of Final Fight 2, the Shadaloo Combat Research Institute takes a look at a number of assorted persons from various games, including an extremely obscure character only seen in an ending, and a much-beloved figure finally making his canonical Street Fighter debut.
We begin by heading back to 2006’s Final Fight: Streetwise, a 3D beat-’em-up released by Capcom Studio 8 (who also developed Final Fight Revenge) for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. This was the only game in the Final Fight series to never be released in Japan, and follows the story of Cody’s younger brother, Kyle, who has become an underground pit fighter in Metro City (thanks to Cody’s training). He seeks to rescue his brother from the clutches of the villainous Father Bella, who looks to kill him in revenge for the death of his brother, Horace Belger, in the original Final Fight. Bella wants to spread the highly-addictive drug GLOW (derived from “Glyco Lauric Octanol” and its glowing effect) all throughout Metro City so that he can “cleanse it of all sinners” and become its “savior.” As always, Private Nakagawa returns to convey Shadaloo’s information on these characters:
Private Nakagawa: “A young man living in Metro City. He’s cool and serious. He has an older brother with particular issues, you say?”
Basic Info:
Name: Kyle
Height: 187 cm
Weight: 75 kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: Unknown
Home Country: USA
Likes: Beer, Motorbike, His Girlfriend
Dislikes: Police
Private Nakagawa: “A young man with military experience, who spends his nights in and out of underground fighting clubs. He’s currently training in a gym and lives on the money he gains by knocking out his opponents with his quick punches. A rookie with great potential, who might have yet to show his true strength. It seems he likes billiards.”
Next, we head back to 1997’s Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, to meet a character who only appears in Dan’s ending: his younger sister, Yuriko Hibiki!
Private Nakagawa: “This time we’ll speak about a very real, reasonably rare, character. She is Dan Hibiki’s sister (in a parallel setting). A good-natured girl that worries about her carefree brother while continuing to attend school. She’s a softball pitcher, apparently.
Basic Info:
Name: Yuriko Hibiki [Her first name (“Lily”) is a direct reference to AoF’s/KoF’s Yuri…]
Height: 169 cm
Weight: 63 kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: December 7th
Home Country: Japan
Likes: Cakes, Her Brother
Dislikes: Cyber-Akuma, Wakame
Private Nakagawa: “She is a constantly curious girl. She is secretly following her older brother, who travels the world bragging about his Saikyō-ryū, without him noticing. (apparently, neither Dan, nor the player, nor the developers ever noticed) Yuriko has no interest in fighting at all, and wishes her brother would settle down soon. She sees through her brother’s business ability and wants someday to work with him for a mail order website, or something like that. (It’s a parallel setting…)”
During Dan’s MSHvSF Ending, he stands over a beaten Cyber-Akuma, looking to avenge his past humiliations and make clear that he is the world’s strongest! He is then stopped by a crying Yuriko who appears to begin telling Dan that Akuma is their father, but the screen fades to black before she can finish her statement. Longtime fighting game fans will note that this ending is a parody of Ryo Sakazaki’s ending in SNK’s Art o Fighting, where his sister Yuri stops he and Robert Garcia from killing Mr. Karate, as she reveals that under the mask is their father, Takuma. Being that Dan was created as a parody of SNK’s characters at the time, it only makes sense for his sister to be a non-fighting version of Yuri, which makes this joke all the more humorous. You can see both endings below, so that you can fully understand the reference being made!
Finally, we move on to an extremely long-awaited profile. It’s finally time to head back to 1994’s Street Fighter film (and 1995’s Street Fighter: The Movie fighting game), to meet Captain Sawada!
Private Nakagawa: “The blue shirt makes his muscles shine! The miraculous new fighter who uses Sawada-ryū kenkajutsu [“Sawada-style brawling techniques”] and a wee bit of ninjutsu. A man with a strong sense of justice, and straighter than a ruler!”
Private Nakagawa: “He willingly took part in operations for the destruction of Shadaloo. Currently, he’s traveling around the world for reasons of duty. With his passionate heart and a well-trained body, he beats his opponents using personal techniques. His “Gokusatsu Jibakujin” [“Fierce self-destruction prison killing.” His + P. The move serves as an overhead attack to stop jump-ins, with the EX version also reflecting projectiles, but his animation depicts him committing Harakiri by slicing his abdomen with his katana and weaponizing the arc of blood that sprays around him.] is a sight to behold, but you must not imitate it. He has a strong resistance to cold.”
Here are Sawada playthroughs in both the Arcade and Sega Saturn versions–which are completely different games; the console versions being developed by Capcom, while the arcade game was created by the Chicago-based Incredible Technologies, and Capcom simply distributed it to arcades.
Do you have any memories of playing as Sawada and Kyle in their respective games? Do you think we could see either of them in Season 2 of Street Fighter V, now that they’re canon? Did you remember Dan’s sister even existed?! Sound off in the comments below, and keep watching the front page, as we’ll post more CFN Portal profiles as they’re released.
Special thanks to Midgardsorn for translations and footnotes.
In October, I got a chance to sit down with Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang, fresh off his victory at Canada Cup. Little did we know at the time that Dang would go on to hoist the biggest Street Fighter V trophy of them all in Anaheim, in December.
When I found out he was going to be at Frosty Faustings IX, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up with him–given his recent catapult into the limelight after Canada Cup, and to see how he felt about the Season 2 changes that he had to overcome to stay competitive with R. Mika.
Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Firstly Du, congratulations. You’ve been on the wildest ride of your life since I talked to you in Toronto. How has it been for you?
Du “NuckleDu” Dang: It’s an adjustment, because I’m not used to winning so many majors. I was always able to win local events in Florida. But now I just keep winning, and I’m not fully sure how to take it in yet.
Missing Person: When we talked at Canada Cup, one of the keywords of that interview was confidence. You had said that winning that event helped to boost your confidence. At what point did your confidence level increase to the point where you believed you could win Capcom Cup?
NuckleDu: I think it was after Canada Cup. When I beat Tokido at the Red Bull event in Seattle, it proved to me that it wasn’t just the character I was using. It might actually be a bit of my own skill.
Missing Person: Right, because you didn’t even use R. Mika in that set.
NuckleDu: Right, I had used Guile against him. It was a good confidence-builder. It’s easy to psyche yourself out going into Capcom Cup, which is the biggest tournament of the year. It was great that I was able to overcome that.
Missing Person: I remember seeing on Twitter, during Top 8, that you tweeted that your hands were shaking violently. Did your nerves ever come down during Grand Finals against Ricki?
NuckleDu: The reason they started shaking was because I made the mistake of looking out into the crowd. When I saw how many people were watching, it was like staring over the edge of a cliff. When you look down, you’re going to freak out, and it was the same thing for me when I looked out into the crowd. I just avoided that. Once I started looking at the screen, everything calmed down for me.
Missing Person: You’ve already done quite a bit with your money. I saw that you sent your mom on a trip to her native Vietnam. You also bought a couple of nice cars. How does it feel to have this amount of financial freedom at this point in your life?
NuckleDu: Financially, I’m at the best point of my life. I want to invest so I can have a future. But on the other hand, I’ve never had money before, so I also want to enjoy it. People have told me to put it into a time-locked account so that I can’t touch it until I’m 70. But when I’m 70, I won’t have the energy to do what I want to do!
So right now, I’m just enjoying it. But for people who are worried about my finances, they’re worried more about it than I am at this point. But for the record, I haven’t even touched the money I won at Capcom Cup. The money I’ve spent is from savings and my salary from Team Liquid.
Missing Person: You’ve heard it here first, guys. Du is not going bankrupt any time soon!
NuckleDu: No, not at all.
Missing Person: Let’s talk a bit about psychology in these games. During Winners finals of your pool at Frosty, you and Gllty both engaged in some teabagging. But some of the most notable teabags that people have talked about came at the expense of Xiaohai. Is there a reason that you go after Xiaohai like that?
NuckleDu: Truth be told, Xiaohai is my favorite player. The fact that I’m able to teabag him and still win is amusing to me. He’s also a really emotional player, so whenever I do so, I know I’m doing mental damage to him. I would never teabag a random player. But on Xiaohai, definitely.
Missing Person: It’s more gamesmanship than anything?
NuckleDu: Right. When Gllty teabagged me, people asked me on Twitter if I was offended. No. When people do it back to me, I feel honored. They’re acknowledging my work. I would never be a poor sport about it. I like seeing it.
Missing Person: With the Xiaohai matchup, you’re well ahead of him.
NuckleDu: Yes, but in China, he did very well against me, and it was close. This was after the Season 2 changes saw R. Mika get nerfed and Cammy received some buffs. It was an uphill battle, plus I had an accidental pause. But I was still able to clutch it out.
Missing Person: Do you feel like Xiaohai is starting to adapt to the match, or do you feel like the Season 2 changes has aided him?
NuckleDu: The meta in the matchup definitely changed in Season 2. I wasn’t surprised that it was so close due to Cammy getting stronger and Mika getting weaker. I just had to adapt and learn how to play Mika differently. I’m still figuring it out.
Missing Person: We know that Nash received nerfs based off his performance at Evo, and they ultimately proved to be inconsequential. Do you feel like the changes to Mika were warranted, especially with the Irish Whip nerf?
NuckleDu: I think they nerfed the speed of it, as well as the frame advantage, and that was fair. I don’t think that they should’ve changed the wall bounce properties. The problem was how fast the move was and how safe it was on block. But people suffered a year of R. Mika, so I understand Capcom’s decision. She’s still good, you just have to think a little bit harder.
Missing Person: You most notably said that you had a fear of flying, yet 2016 saw you finally take a flight to Canada. This year, you made a bigger trip to China. How was the country for you?
NuckleDu: The people organizing the event in China flew me there first class, so it was an amazing experience flying there. It made me forget I was on an airplane. The food there was great. Xiaohai took me out to dinner. He’s an extremely nice guy. He even pulled out my chair for me, poured water. The scene was really nice, and made me want to travel more.
Missing Person: Were the players welcoming, given the fact that you have been wrecking their national fighting game hero as of late?
NuckleDu: Yeah, he’s definitely the poster boy for the scene there, and when I played against him, they were naturally going to root hard for him. Aside from that, they were super polite and friendly.
Missing Person: Do you feel like China has difficulties dealing with other nation’s players, given the state of their internet and access to data?
NuckleDu: China’s internet is simply awful. Given that and the fact that country is huge, they can’t really practice with each other save for offline. There’s inherent disadvantages in that for China vs. the world, but Xiaohai is the exception when he squares off against everyone else.
Missing Person: You’ve done extremely well with Street Fighter V. Are you looking into other games as well?
NuckleDu: Street Fighter V will always be my main priority. I might also play Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, the 2 vs. 2 format doesn’t look as crazy as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. SonicFox has also offered to teach me Injustice 2, so I may take him up on that–since he is the best at NetherRealm Studios titles.
Is Ultra Street Fighter IV making a comeback in 2017?
When Street Fighter V first launched in early 2016, some big events did keep Ultra Street Fighter IV on their signup sheets for a little while, during the transition to SFV as the SF game. But popular focus, support from Capcom, and TO logistics soon pushed USFIV aside for its younger sibling, as expected. However–likely fueled by increased vocal dissatisfaction with SFV–it looks like Ultra might be making a quiet comeback this year: it is already part of the Capcom Pro Tour’s first European stop (as a team tournament) at Sonic Boom in Madrid, and it was also at Winter Brawl 11. Canada Cup’s Lap Chi Duong polled Twitter recently, questioning if the FGC wanted to see USFIV at Canada Cup this year:
Canada Cup 2017 needs to know if we should add Usf4 this year. Please help us with this poll.
Not exactly hard statistics, but the response does show strong interest in having USFIV as an option on the fight card. As a result, USFIV is now locked in to return to Canada Cup 2017, along with pot bonuses and a promise to return again in 2018 if registration numbers reflect this interest.
We'll add USF4 this year, with the every 50 people $500 pot bonus. If u get over 100 unique peeps we will return 2018. #ccg2017#usf4revival
Canada Cup got attention last year for hosting one of the biggest and best Super Street Fighter II Turbo events in recent memory; can it do the same for Street Fighter V’s predecessor?
Superturbo was insane last years canada cup. Are you ready for USF4 revival? #ccg2017#usf4revival
If you were waiting for the pot to be sweetened for you to put your money down on a Tekken 7 pre-order, Gamestop just upped the ante. While we have known for a while that they will be offering Eliza DLC codes as a part of their Day One Edition, there’s even incentive now.
Gamestop is now offering a Heihachi Mishima Figpin as a pre-order bonus of Tekken 7–“Figpins” are collectible pins of video game characters. On top of that, this pre-order bonus is valid for all versions of the game, including the collector’s edition.
[The Figpin bonus is not yet listed with Tekken 7 on the Canadian EB Games website, so it is unclear what regions–if any–will also be offering this extra incentive. – Editor]
Joe Munday talks about the motivation behind Gief’s Gym and its usefulness to aspiring Street Fighters.
In the latest addition to his FGC Philosophy series, Tavian “The Philocypher” Napier interviews r/StreetFighter moderator Joe Munday, well-known as the author of Gief’s Gym. Munday’s guide to learning Street Fighter V has gained great popularity in the FGC for it’s detailed and systematic approach to learning to play SFV from the ground up.
In the lengthy discussion, they talk about how the lack of clear tutorial elements inspired Munday to create Gief’s Gym, to explain elements of the game that may be second nature to the pros–but inscrutable to beginners or even intermediate players without some guidance.
What is your level of dedication, and what steps are you willing to take to improve? How to learn, why to learn, and taking personal responsibility for your skill level–rather than blaming “cheap” tactics or characters for your losses–are also explored in the interview below, and much more!
In the first episode of FGC Philosophy, you can check out the Philocypher’s interview with Hollywood Sleep.
Joe Munday talks about the motivation behind Gief’s Gym and its usefulness to aspiring Street Fighters.
In the latest addition to his FGC Philosophy series, Tavian “The Philocypher” Napier interviews r/StreetFighter moderator Joe Munday, well-known as the author of Gief’s Gym. Munday’s guide to learning Street Fighter V has gained great popularity in the FGC for it’s detailed and systematic approach to learning to play SFV from the ground up.
In the lengthy discussion, they talk about how the lack of clear tutorial elements inspired Munday to create Gief’s Gym, to explain elements of the game that may be second nature to the pros–but inscrutable to beginners or even intermediate players without some guidance.
What is your level of dedication, and what steps are you willing to take to improve? How to learn, why to learn, and taking personal responsibility for your skill level–rather than blaming “cheap” tactics or characters for your losses–are also explored in the interview below, and much more!
In the first episode of FGC Philosophy, you can check out the Philocypher’s interview with Hollywood Sleep.
+ P. The move serves as an overhead attack to stop jump-ins, with the EX version also reflecting projectiles, but his animation depicts him committing Harakiri by slicing his abdomen with his katana and weaponizing the arc of blood that sprays around him.] is a sight to behold, but you must not imitate it. He has a strong resistance to cold.”
