Players in the Street Fighter community looking to improve their game have likely encountered the efforts of Dantarion. Dantarion’s work in providing HUDs, hitbox information and frame data have proven to be invaluable to players looking to break down SFIV and SFV. This dedicated reverse engineer’s work is not just educational: his wildly entertaining SFIV KenBot was one of the very first attempts of crafting the Deep Blue of Street Fighter. He’s also coded for Project M, and created hitbox viewers for other games, like Under Night In Birth: EXE Late.
FrameTrapped, too, noticed the work ethic of this code obsessed player, and have decided to recruit him for their own various projects.
Very happy to announce that @dantarion is now part of the Frame Trapped Software Group and will be joining us with making awesome SFV tools!
Considering the tools FrameTrapped is developing (in-game SFV camera control, for example), and the fact they provide their own hitbox viewer, this partnership seems like common sense.
Street Fighter V is probably the most heavily-criticized popular fighting game to have ever been released. Everyone–from news sites to fans to top players–have been discussing all the places the game has fallen down, between the shaky launch and the questionable design decisions: things like online problems, rootkits, quality-of-life issues (such as allowing player 2 to continue the match) and input lag, to name the hot topics. Through all of this criticism, many loyal fans are still enjoying the game, and were excited to see how the game would change with the new season.
Unfortunately, some players feel as though Season 2 isn’t being put together for them. SFV Evo 2016 Champion Infiltration sat down with Core-A-Gaming to talk about how he feels about the upcoming season. He starts off by lamenting Capcom’s decision to–in his words– throw away the hard work that people who loved Season 1 have put into the game over the past year, in favor of attracting new players. Infiltration does make it clear, however, that his criticisms of the state of SFV come from a “place of love” for Capcom and Street Fighter.
After getting his general concerns out of the way, he does go more into talking about the Season for what it is. He talks about characters he feels were buffed or nerfed, and also goes into his opinions on the invincible reversal changes, which mirror his opinion on the general direction of Season 2. He talks about a number of topics, like problems he had with the CPT–which he’s discussed before–so be sure to watch the whole interview.
Japanese players have been gradually picking up Skullgirls since its release–check out our article on the growth and development of the Japanese Skullgirls meta game–and now that the game has arrived in (some) Japanese arcades and on PS4, Skullgirls is bigger there now than it’s ever been.
One of the more prominent Skullgirls content creators in Japan is Poccola, who is particularly popular for the special visual and audio effects he adds to his sets after the fact. One of his effects was so well liked that it was added to the main game: the effect and soundtrack that plays during a Double Snap.
Poccola is celebrating 2016 with a compilation of his favorite moments from the sets he regularly uploads to YouTube. Be sure to check out his channel as well, he regularly uploads quality Skullgirls content!
YHC-Mochi has been one of the better Dhalsims for a while. However, Dhalsim still struggles, having to be played in a certain matter, as opposed to more flexibly like many other characters.
One of the best readers of patterns has been Tokido. However, learning a new character in Akuma still gives him a new challenge in relearning every matchup in the game. So when he comes up against YHC-Mochi’s Dhalsim, is he ready?
Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite underdog to prove that he can slug it out as well as the likes of Balrog, Dudley or Steve Fox. Little Mac is here for his own chance to shine in this combo video.
Watch as he uses everybody in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U cast as a punching bag as he trains for the dream bout. The more you watch, the more you start to realize that he isn’t quite the underdog after all.
For Street Fighter V players of all varieties, the changes made in Season 2 still need some time to be adjusted to. The little nuances that comprise match-up knowledge and strategic angles have all been shifted slightly, and the new information can be overwhelming to try and take in all at once.
Taking an abbreviated approach to the season 2 learning journey, YouTuber Rocwell has a few short videos that quickly cover some new Laura tech. The longest of the three clips hovers around a minute and a half, but some valuable information regarding set-ups, hit confirms and resets are covered, with notes and input data on screen to aid comprehension.
If you are a Laura main and you find these quick tips useful, you can subscribe to Rocwell for even more Laura-focused Street Fighter V strategy videos.
It seems like every time we turn around, there is another pot bonus piling on at Frosty Faustings IX–in Elmhurst, Illinois on January 27 and 28. With various members of the community and even corporate sponsors stepping up, this is shaping up to be a big year for the annual event.
The team behind the tournament announced that Bryan Armitage of Paradise Arcade Shop has stepped up in partnership with the event, to sponsor a $500 pot bonus for Street Fighter V. With all these pot bonuses showing up, is this the tipping point for you to get in on the event before registration closes on Friday night?
While one of the Five Gods of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kevin “PPMD” Nanney is a player that has been absent from many high profile events, due to continued health problems which have impacted his ability to play Melee. While he is almost there to return to competition, PPMD fans will have to wait that little bit longer to see the good doctor’s Falco and Marth in action.
As a general check-up for the community, Cloud 9’s Tafokints recently interviewed PPMD to get a status update on his road to recovery, along with finding out his general thoughts about how Melee’s meta is progressing, ahead of competition in 2017. His progress is coming along nicely and he may be able to attend Genesis 4, just to do some commentary and interact with the fans, rather than to actually compete in the tournament. We at Shoryuken wish PPMD all the best as he gathers his strength and hope to see him back in top 8s very soon.
Looks like the new graphical update brought a new bug in with it.
The latest patch for The King of Fighters XIV–version 1.10–provided a significant and hotly anticipated graphical update to the game’s visuals. However, it seems to have inadvertently also introduced a glitch that can interfere with online play. According to SNK:
There is an issue where the game will consider the player to have disconnected from an online battle, if they change the display settings for “Icon,” “Title,” or “Rank Match Fight Record” on “MY PROFILE” screen. We are currently looking into it and hope to have a fix as soon as possible.
Because this will affect win rates and disconnect penalties, please refrain from making any changes on the “MY PROFILE” screen. We are also investigating into any other issues with this patch, and will notify everyone once our investigation is complete. We apologize for any inconvenience and ask for your patience as we prepare another patch to solve these issues.
SNK has cultivated a good track record addressing glitches for The King of Fighters XIV since the game’s release–including the recently found Ramon infinite–so a patch to fix this issue is likely coming very soon.
If you want to look at a year where interesting and revolutionary fighting games appeared, this is it. Super Street Fighter II Turbo.Tekken. The King of Fighters. Darkstalkers. Killer Instinct. I’m not going to spend an entire article listing ’94 fighters, but that should give you an idea of what was happening in arcades at the time.
Battle K-Road also came out in 1994, completely lost in the sands of time. This game was a little off-brand fighter from Psikyo, a company that would go on to be known almost exclusively for shmups like Gunbird and Strikers 1945. Where other games were vying to be ever more extravagant, Psikyo waved their hand solemnly and said “No. We want a more respectable, realistic game.”
Look, man. It was 1994. They didn’t know better.
Now, that alone isn’t really a reason to dismiss Battle K-Road. It’s easy to see why a sales pitch like that could have worked. Battle K-Road was an attempt by a small company to make something different in a new market.
Nearly everything about the game defied contemporary convention: quarter circle forward inputs produce dashes. Characters employ 3D-esque commands for inputs, where every directional input with a button produces a different attack. Though holding down-back blocks low, it does not make your character crouch. Each attack must be blocked either high or low–there’s no universally-safe defensive option. Every character has the same command for special moves: hold down a button to charge, then release. All bold, but deliberate, choices by a team that really wanted to challenge the genre.
The end result, however, was an ambitious game with a shoestring budget. Of the 14 characters, 7 are actually just head-swaps. Animations were mostly sub-par at best, even for it’s time. Character designs are not just bland, they are aggressively and intentionally lacking in personality. (The notable exception being the final boss, Mr. Bear. K-Road came out in January–it must have really chafed Psikyo when Kuma appeared in Tekken in December.) Battle K-Road‘s biggest sin, however, is its most defining mechanic: the wake-up game.
Or, well, the absence of one.
Mikado playing the game in January, 2016.
If this is your first time watching Battle K-Road matches (provided, of course, by the fabulous Mikado Arcade) then you’ll find the experience jarring. You aren’t imagining things: the round really does restart every single time someone gets knocked down. I imagine this decision was made to make the game seem “more real,” as though a referee stepped in to check on the downed opponent.
Instead, Battle K-Road artificially kills momentum for players and brings the match to a brief, grinding halt for spectators. Fights seemingly drag on forever. An already simplified, poke heavy game gets made even slower for the sake of realism. It’s almost like Psikyo forgot they were making a video game.
There have been all sorts of complaints about wake-up mechanics over the years, ranging from games that reward being knocked down too much, to not at all. Everyone here has likely experienced option selects in Street Fighter IV, and heard some sort of frustration about their dominance. Likewise, I remember years ago being told Soul Calibur 2 had no wake-up because you could Guard Impact from the ground. Boy, I wish I had known about this game, then. I could show them what it means to actually have no wake-up game at all.
I think the idea of completely removing the downed state from a fighting game is not even entirely awful, and would absolutely appeal to someone. (Read: not me. I’m playing devil’s advocate.) It has to be executed in a way that both makes sense and works well. Battle K-Road‘s choice makes sense for its world, but is just awfully executed in-game.
Mikado playing the game in December, 2016. Technical difficulties resulted in black and white footage… but I imagine Mikado thought “Eh, it’s Battle K-Road. No one will care.”
Because of this, it’s not surprising that Battle K-Road is little more than a novelty talking point these days. It’s a bit of a shame–even though Psyiko almost entirely exited the fighting game market afterwards (only attempting one more entry: 1998’s The Fallen Angels), their courage in trying to stand out so much in a saturated field is admirable. Risk-taking and defying convention is something a lot of new companies fear. Instead of being remembered fondly for some of their brazen mechanics, though, Battle K-Road is a cautionary tale. Be creative, but also be mindful of what your game design decisions do for the game itself.
