Fighting Games – Page 851

December 20, 2016

UDON Collectibles Offers Street Fighter T-Shirts Inspired by Classic Comic Book Covers

UDON pays tribute to iconic comic books past with these great Street Fighter designs.

Fans of both classic comic books and Street Fighter will want these t-shirts from UDON Collectibles twice as much, as UDON has released these designs that pay tribute to some of the most memorable comic books and characters in history. Many of these have been featured as alternate covers to UDON’s Street Fighter Unlimited series; check out these call-outs to The Dark Knight Returns, She-Hulk, Archie, Secret Wars, and more.

They’ll run you about $29.99 USD each over on UDON Collectibles’ storefront, in both men’s and women’s sizes. The “Ken Masters: Cyborg Fighter” design is limited-edition, so don’t dawdle if cyborg-punching is your bag.

Source: UDON Collectibles

December 20, 2016

VesperArcade Bids Farewell to Season One with a Final Street Fighter V Tier List

How does the Street Fighter V roster stack up at the close of Season One?

Season Two’s patch is rolling out at this very moment; to send off Street Fighter V’s first-year roster, VesperArcade has compiled one final tier list for the first twenty-two fighters before all those buffs and nerfs get installed tonight. In the video below, he lists the characters according to grade, and discusses his reasoning as to why they ended up there.

According to VesperArcade’s reckoning (characters are in no particular order within their grade):

A+: Chun-Li
A: R. Mika, Cammy, Ken, Necalli, Nash
A-: Ryu, Urien, Guile, Karin

B+: Vega, Alex, Rashid
B: Birdie, Dhalsim, Balrog

C: M. Bison, F.A.N.G, Zangief, Ibuki, Laura
C-: Juri

Source: VesperArcade

December 20, 2016

New Dead or Alive 5 Last Round Starter Set Available on PSN for a Limited Time

Despite the base game’s age, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round still has a decent-sized competitive following, as evidenced by last weekend’s Dead or Alive 5 Last Round Battle Royal grand final at NEC 17. This is helped by Team NINJA’s constant injection of downloadable content into the game. That said, this tidal wave of DLC can make the game financially intimidating to get into.

To help these players out, Team NINJA has put up a limited time Dead or Alive 5 Last Round starter pack for the game on PlayStation 4. This package, the third of its kind that they’ve offered, is available on PSN for $92.99, and comes with a good amount of DLC, including downloadable character Naotora Ii, as well as Season Pass 3. The latter includes 101 costumes, including the Tatsunoko themed costumes and originally retailed for $92.99 on its own. Additionally, Season Pass 3 is itself on sale for only $65.09.

Interested players should get on these soon however, as both the starter pack and the discount on Season Pass 3 will only be available for a limited time.

Source: PlayStation Store

December 20, 2016

Combo Breaker 2017 Announces Its Massive Game Line Up and Opens Registration

Moving to the Mega Center at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois, Combo Breaker is back for yet another jam-packed Memorial Day weekend of fighting game action. Running from May 26th-28th, Combo Breaker 2017 promises 18+ tournaments, a 24 hour venue, and loads of different events to keep fighting game fans pleased outside of playing their tournament matches.

First off, what games are going to be present at Combo Breaker? Well, for contemporary fighters, you have:

Street Fighter V
Tekken 7
Mortal Kombat X
Injustice 2 (this is pending a release date before May 26th)
Killer Instinct
The King of Fighters XIV
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-
BlazBlue: Central Fiction
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Brawlhalla

While for retro fighters, Combo Breaker is partnering with 2 Old 2 Furious to bring players special tournaments for Vampire Savior, Soul Calibur II, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and a special arcade-authentic Super Street Fighter II Turbo bracket.

Combine this with player workshops, the return of the Character Auction tournaments, cosplay contests, an arcade room, offline Ranked ladders and much more, there is absolutely no fear of running out of things to do at Combo Breaker 2017. If you aren’t looking to compete, great news: you can actually attend for free as a spectator, just to see the excitement and joy of the fighting game community doing what they love.

If you are interested in competing, registration for Combo Breaker 2017 is now open, with early registration costing $50 and running until January 17th. You can actually skip those lengthy badge pickup queues, as Combo Breaker is offering a service where they ship your badge to you ahead of the event.

Do check out the Combo Breaker website for all the information and check out the trailer below to hype you up even further.

Sources: Combo Breaker; TheHadou

December 20, 2016

SRK Interview: “Fantasy Strike” Creator David Sirlin — The Game’s Concept, Character Design, & Future Plans

Well-known for being a notable Super Street Fighter II Turbo competitor, former Capcom developer and author of the book “Playing To Win,” David Sirlin has been an integral part of the FGC for more than a decade. He is also the designer of a multidude of card and puzzle games, such as Yomi and Puzzle Strike, that borrow concepts and ideas from fighting games and you find at his website, Sirlin Games.

During PlayStation Experience 2016 earlier this month, I stopped by Sirlin’s booth to play and talked about his latest creation-in-progress, Fantasy Strike (based off of the characters and world of Yomi), a new fighting game with the goal of attracting both new and experienced players with easy-to-pick-up controls and a low execution barrier, while still having the depth and strategy of classic–and modern–fighters. You can read my first impressions of the alpha build in an earlier post.

Marcos Blanco: When and how did the concept for Fantasy Strike first pop up?

David Sirlin: I’ve wanted to make a fighting game for many, many years. I think Divekick was a big influence. The reason I say that is because when you hear how Divekick works, it sounds like it’s going to be a garbage game, like there’s nothing to it. But when you actually play it, it really exceeded my expectations. There was a lot more to it than I thought, and I was really impressed by that. It really opened my eyes and made me think of designing a fighting game in a different way. Instead of thinking about “Lets take Street Fighter or Guilty Gear and try to make it more accessible by making those games easier,” I started thinking from the other end of the spectrum. We started with Divekick, like what if you added the ability to move left and right? That would change it. What if you added one attack button? That would change it. And piece by piece, I added things in my mind until I felt like it was capturing what’s fun about more complicated fighting games like Street Fighter.

Fantasy Strike actually started as an experiment. We didn’t know if it would be a good idea. Would it be compelling? Would it be fun? I did a prototype of it with a programmer. After only one month, it was playable and we started showing it to close friends and other people. They liked it and they encouraged us to keep going. It just kind of built up from there, and as we got a little farther and farther, people were more encouraging. Somewhere in the first few months we realized–okay, this is not an experiment anymore. Everyone we showed this to seems to like it.

Marcos Blanco: Do you think the simplistic nature of Fantasy Strike might turn off the the hardcore crowd of gamers that like heavy execution in their fighting games? How are you going to market this game towards both the casual and hardcore groups of fighting game players, after the game is finished, to get it into as many hands as possible?

David Sirlin: What’s fun about fighting games? Execution can be one thing that’s fun about fighting games. The reason that tournaments are so hype is strategy, the decisions, great zoning, great reads, frame traps and all the techniques that aren’t about hard combos. Everyone understands that. The question is what percentage of all of that should execution really be? If you ask different players, you’ll get wildly different answers. Some are going to say the more execution, the better. I come on the other end of the spectrum, where I know it’s there and I respect it, but I actually want it to be as little as possible, because I find the other parts to be more compelling. I think the strategy and decisions are the most exciting parts of fighting games to me, and difficult execution gets in the way of that. If someone wants their fighting games to have as much execution as possible, they have lots of games to choose from.

We can still get them to be interested in Fantasy Strike, but we wouldn’t appeal to them because of execution. So the casual, and hardcore market that wants the game to be more about strategy, would be an appeal. Players from almost any fighting game can come to Fantasy Strike and very quickly–in a few minutes–be ramped up to playing the real game. So that’s one way you can appeal to even the execution-based player, because they’re getting an experience with their friends from other fighting games that’s hard to have in another way.

Marcos Blanco: There are some characters in Fantasy Strike such as Setsuki, Geiger and Rook who share striking similarities with certain characters from the Street Fighter series, when it comes to character types and move sets. Was this intentionally done to pay homage to that series, that seems to have influenced this game?

David Sirlin: Some of it is and some of it isn’t. I guess Geiger being somewhat similar to Guile and Rook being somewhat similar to Zangief are on purpose. If we want to have an iconic grappler and a charge character archetype, we’re trying to signal to you “Hey. It’s that.” It just helps you know what the point of the character is, when there’s some kind of reference to something you’re familiar with. A good example is Rook’s jumping spin attack. It reminds you of a lariat. Everybody knows lariats go through fireballs because we’ve been trained in that forever; it’s kind of like the universal language so we don’t to explain to people “Hey. That move goes through fireballs.” That’s the reason it’s in the game.

Marcos Blanco: When the game is finished and released, do you have any future plans for DLC content afterwards such as additional mechanics, modes or characters?

David Sirlin: We have several game builds planned for release, not even after. I’d like to hold back on talking about that until they’re a little more solid. If you go to fantasystrike.com, we have shown one of the new modes called Arena Mode. This idea fits especially well in a simple fighting game, as opposed to a complex one like Guilty Gear. Before you play, you pick one of three power-ups that alter your moves in some way and then you pick one of three again and again until you have a total of five power-ups. Then you do a run where you play as this character you built with the five power-ups, against other people who do the same, until you win like 10 times or something and get as far as you can; similar to Hearthstone. For release, we are going to have 10 characters. It’s the same 10 that you were in the Yomi card game, but Yomi has 20 characters now, which are the same characters that are in all of my card games. So I think everyone just understands and expects that those same 10 expansion characters will find their way into this game, too.

Marcos Blanco: When people play Fantasy Strike on both a casual as well as a competitive level, what do you want them to feel about this game as they’re playing against each other?

David Sirlin: That’s a tricky question [laughs]. The first emotion that comes to mind is surprise, like I had with Divekick; like there was more to this than I thought. I don’t know the name of it, but there’s a feeling I’ve experienced in competitive games. I think I’m just trying to communicate that feeling over and over to people. I made Yomi, a card game about fighting games, because I’m trying to capture what’s fun and to pass it onto everyone else in a way that doesn’t use dexterity. I wrote “Playing To Win” which was about looking at the inner circle of competitive people, and passing on their secrets to everyone else. Again, I don’t the know the name of the emotion, but it’s just the thrill of competition, that’s what I hope a wider audience would take away with it.

Additional sources: Fantasy Strike; Sirlin Games

December 20, 2016

Two of the Top Korean Players NL and XYZZY Square Off in Street Fighter V Online

For the longest time, the two perennial Street Fighter monsters from Korea that people think about are RZR|Infiltration and Secret|Poongko, with an occasional mention of Laugh in the mix. But that’s quickly changing, as two other names are becoming well-known within the circuit.

Both XYZZY and NL are quickly climbing people’s charts as great players. Having become quite the travelers across the tournament circuit, they are always in the conversation about making top 8 at the majors they attend. But now: the Korean Birdie and Ryu players face off against each other in a first to three online. Who is the better pupil of Infiltration?

Source: XusesGB

December 20, 2016

Browse Street Fighter V’s Season Two Shake-Ups More Easily with This Web-Based Changelog

A slightly less-intimidating version of the massive Season Two changes to Street Fighter V.

If you’re finding Capcom-Unity’s 92-page textbook of today’s incoming balance changes to Street Fighter V a bit daunting to look at, check instead this web-based version, with a handy sidebar menu to jump to your favorite character (or worst matchup) a bit more easily. It can even be switched between English and Japanese.

You can still grab the basic PDF version, and read about the other additions coming in today’s patch, here.

Source: game.capcom.com via David Stanfield

December 20, 2016

The Curse Remains Unbroken at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga

Even the undisputed number one could not break the Curse. The forces of fate smiled upon 2GG this weekend, as a new champion was crowned at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s 2016 ended with one of, if not the best, tournaments of the year. Much of the established ideas about Smash 4 were given a proper shake-up during this event, making the up-and-coming Panda Global Rankings even more contentious. Let’s look back at some of the key moments from this weekend’s action in Las Vegas.

Locus, the Fist of Canada

Another tournament, another Ryu to dragon punch through some of the top competitors. This time, the Power of Nothingness came to UBC|Locus, a Ryu main currently residing in British Columbia. Initially going into Losers after losing 2-0 to LG|Abadango, something must have awakened in Locus, as he proceeded to Shoryuken all the way to top 12–earning him the SRK seal of approval.

Every one of Locus’ matches was close, going 3-2 against all of his opponents until he met his maker just before Top 8 Losers side. His play can best be described as fearless, running straight into damage to kill his opponents with a Rage True Shoryuken even earlier than normal. This fearlessness from Locus caused absolute terror for his foes, with many spending much of the match running scared from the threat of a dragon punch.

His Losers bracket run saw him defeating Seagull Joe, Japan’s 9B, and 7s|saj before running into Mr. R, who was just coming off a 3-1 loss to IMT|ANTi. Many would think this match would be free for Mr. R, as an accomplished Sheik should be able to camp out Ryu with no real difficulty. This did not deter Locus, barrelling directly into much of Mr. R’s attacks in order to land those few powerful strikes needed to put Sheik into kill percentage. With the set going to game 5, Locus ended it in the craziest way possible, finishing Mr. R by juggling him across the top platforms of Town and City into a lethal aerial SRK. The combo looked more like something from Marvel rather than Smash, sending Mr. R soaring off the top platform at 17th place. This victory brought the house down, and we weren’t even in top 16.

Locus took on Tweek next, forcing this Cloud main to switch back to his old main of Bowser Jr. to try and find an answer to the World Warrior. Tweek was clearly debilitated by Locus’ “no fear” approach, looking lost in the final matches as Locus surged to victory.

With TSM|ZeRo now in Losers, the crowd was cracking with excitement. Could Locus defeat another legend on his way to top 8? The answer was no, as his audacious approaches simply did not work against the dominating ledge game and mobility of ZeRo’s Diddy. After several back to back nailbiters, it was a bit of a comedown seeing ZeRo dismantle Locus, but this Ryu will likely return and hopefully, he’ll be able to temper his recklessness into more controlled aggression.

The Civil War continues as the Curse deploys its enforcers

Before the brackets started, 2GG held a special exhibition where ZeRo was set to play against all the players that had bested him in past sets. It was a gruelling gauntlet of 12 players, resulting in ZeRo being on the sticks for roughly 5 hours as previous bracket demons returned to challenge him again. The result was a blowout 12-0 victory for ZeRo, with it going to game 5 with only two out of the 12 players. Based on this performance, a final 2016 tournament win looked assured, right?

The curse did not seem to think so. The wheels were set in motion in Winners Quarters, as ZeRo had to play nemesis C9|Ally in the first match of top 8. Although ZeRo did defeat Ally with no major difficulty the night before, the 2016 set count was still 4-1 in Ally’s favour. Their last meeting at Endgame resulted in ZeRo’s first win against Ally for 2016, so maybe he had the technology to vanquish Ally where it really counted.

This was not the case, as a gruelling five game series saw Ally take the win, making it 5-1 in sets and fulfilling the first stage of the Saga Curse. While Ally would go on to lose to eLv|Larry Lurr in Winners’ Semis, his job as the curse’s enforcer was complete. The set count will reset come 2017 and with 2GG’s Civil War Saga in March of next year, we may see this rivalry change direction as ZeRo regains his footing.

ZeRo was not out by any means, as an angry Losers bracket ZeRo is more force of nature than man. Facing down Locus’ Ryu, 2GG|komorikiri’s Bayonetta, NRG|Nairo’s Ryu and Bowser, ZeRo was on course for a runback Smash 4 enthusiasts had been waiting for since KTAR XIX. With the last set between MKLeo and ZeRo being a narrow 3-2 win for the world number one, this match was expected to be a close one. In reality, it was a complete blowout for MKLeo, dismantling ZeRo’s ledge traps and punishing his constant use of Monkey Flip with Marth’s ability to dominate the mid-range. Once Leo had cottoned on to ZeRo’s reliance on the banana at the ledge and his weaker neutral, it was curtains for the world number one. The plot armour crumbled, the curse was fulfilled as ZeRo was sent out at fourth place.

Komorikiri, the Hope of Japan

With a recent win at Smashdown World notched on his sword, komorikiri was looking promising going into ZeRo Saga. However, so did the rest of Japan, with compatriots Abadango and DNG|Kameme cleaning up at the USA versus the World crew battle the night before. It would be a race to the top among the Japanese contenders, with all of them desperate for a win on US soil.

DNG|Nietono was the first out, not even making it to top 48 after losing to Ryo and Mr ConCon in pools. 9B soon followed, losing to CLG|VoiD in pools and being eliminated by Locus and his Ryu at 25th place. DNG|Kameme was next, getting upset earlier in bracket after his Sheik was sent spiralling into the abyss by FS|Fatality’s Falcon. Defeating Tyrant and Zinoto with back to back 3-0s, he had to battle with ANTi in a runback of Smashdown World, where Kameme lost to ANTi’s magic bag of counterpicks. While Kameme did pull out his own counter picks for this set, defeating ANTi’s Mario with his Yoshi in game 4, his signature red Mega Man was knocked out of commission by the Italian plumber, granting him a ninth place finish.

In the same stage of bracket, komorikiri and Abadango were forced to duel, resulting in two of Japan’s finest going out at ninth place. Abadango had finally lost to Larry Lurr 3-1 in Winners Quarters, while komorikiri had been dispatched by MKLeo in an intense Cloud mirror in the first round of Winners’ top 48. The match between komorikiri and Abadango was intense, with countrymen trading stocks and growing ever bolder as the set went on. In the end, the Buster Sword beat the Shadow Ball, with komorikiri clutching out a 3-2 victory of Abadango.

While he would lose to ZeRo in the following round, komorikiri has truly established himself as Japan’s number one player, with the potential to go even further if he puts a little more work into his Bayonetta to complete his holy trinity of guest fighters.

The eternal rivalry of Larry and VoiD

Speaking of countrymen clashing, SoCal brethren Larry Lurr and VoiD were both on a tear this Saga, both determined to break into Winners Finals and clear the dreaded fourth place. Starting off by sending JK to Losers’ 3-0, VoiD had to do battle with the wunderkind MKLeo to keep his Winners’ bracket life going. It was down to the wire, with Leo forcing momentum shifts with a drop of a hat, thanks to his immaculate spacing on Marth’s tipper. VoiD’s nerve held though, sending MKLeo to rampage through Losers and forcing VoiD to face his demon, NRG|Nairo in Winners’ Semis. Despite the 5-0 set count in Nairo’s favour, every single set between these two has been close, with Nairo clutching out the victory each time. One only need to flash back to Abadango Saga to see how close these sets can be. VoiD’s diligence in figuring out the ZSS matchup had clearly worked, as he forced Nairo to switch to Lucina after victory in game 1. VoiD was clearly unafraid of the power of Zero Suit Samus in Rage, which had been Nairo’s trump card in their previous sets, so Lucina was his only option. Well I say only option, as Nairo did eventually switch to Bowser in game 4. While Nairo’s Bowser was undefeated in tournament, VoiD was taking none of Nairo’s nonsense and finally took a set, making it 5-1 at the end of 2016.

Meanwhile for Larry, he had to face down his own demon in the form of Abadango. With losses to Abadango at Evo and CEO this year, Larry was determined to finally take a set with Fox and end the tyranny of the psychic cat. His spacing on Neutral Air was phenomenal, abusing Mewtwo’s weakness to crossups to wear down Abadango’s defences and finally score a win. Imbued with confidence after this win, it was up to Larry to face off against Ally. The set count in 2016 was 4-3 in Ally’s favour, with their last set at Abadango Saga going 3-0 to Larry, so the result could have gone either way, should Larry have the confidence to stick with Fox for the whole set. Fox stayed on target and the spirit of 20XX prevailed, setting Larry up to face VoiD in a SoCal Winners Finals.

This Winners Finals marked the 37th set between the two combatants since the beginning of Smash 4, with the current set count being drawn at 18-18, thanks to Larry’s victory over VoiD at LA Smash City. You’d be selling yourself short to say this rivalry is close; the balance of power shifts every other tournament with these two. The nature of Fox vs. Sheik ensures that each match is explosive, with Fox’s difficulty recovery but high burst damage countering Sheik’s consistent damage output but difficulty in closing out a stock. Outside of the one match on FD where Larry switched to DK, this matchup played out as expected, with the two going to a game 5 in yet another close set.

The pendulum swing was on Larry’s side for this Saga, as he clutched the set out to sail into Grand Finals of another Saga and the advantage in the VoiD/Larry rivalry. With the Saga seeming to smile on Larry, he looked primed to take the final Saga of the year and add to his previous Saga victory at Mexico Saga. Unfortunately for him, Mexico wanted revenge.

Viva la Mexico! Leo takes his first major

With a recent victory at Showdown: Battle Royale and experience against most of the USA’s top talent, MKLeo was one to watch during ZeRo Saga. With an inhuman ability to adapt to his opponent and mastery characters who can easily force momentum swings, Leo is a dangerous player, no matter the state of the match. Getting knocked into Losers by VoiD, the Mexican mercenary went on a Losers run the likes of which we haven’t seen since Larry’s own Losers run at Abadango Saga.

Leo turned into an unstoppable force in Losers, constantly gaining momentum with every victory. Shields were broken and swords sliced through souls as Leo racked up victories on RNG|Dabuz, ANTi, Ally, ZeRo and VoiD on his way to Grands. His final match versus ZeRo was brutal, getting a zero to death for the first stock and then ending the set with a disgusting pivot up-smash read to keep the Saga Curse alive with a 3-0 win. His Losers Finals match against VoiD was a completely different story than in Winners, downloading VoiD’s playstyle from the previous set to demolish him 3-0.

You could have mistaken Winners, Losers’ and Grand Finals of ZeRo Saga for something out of Melee, with Fox, Marth and Sheik all making it to the final stages as opposed to newer fighters like Diddy, Cloud or Bayonetta. It was truly a clash of the titans for Grands, with Leo resetting the bracket with a swift 3-1 in set one, just for Larry to fire back and bring the second set to a game 5 situation. It was neck and neck but the might of Mexico was just too powerful, with Leo defeating Larry and taking the crown at ZeRo Saga. Not only does the victory act as Leo’s first major win out of Mexico, but he is now the youngest person to ever take a Smash 4 major at the tender age of 15. The new generation of Smashers is here folks, and they are out for blood.

I have to say, ZeRo Saga acts as a perfect end to what turned out to be an amazing year for Smash 4. With tournament organizers, players, commentators and the general community really stepping up their game throughout the summer, the future of this game looks incredible, let me tell you. The Saga Curse remains in-tact for now and we must now all wait for the excitement to start again at Genesis 4 next month. If you thought 2016 was eventful, prepare yourself for 2017.

RESULTS

Source: smash.gg

December 20, 2016

Guile’s V-Trigger Sonic Boom Loops May Still Be in Street Fighter V’s Second Season

One of the things that Guile players are worried about in Street Fighter V’s second season: the possible closure of his V-Trigger Sonic Boom loop. The official patch notes indicate that the loop was possibly removed, by giving his standing fierce punch and crouching strong punch more pushback. However, it seems that the loop may still be possible, based on this clip from B. Shazz.

As demonstrated in the tweet below, using the beta test of the game on PC, B. Shazz has found that a variation of the loop still works. The main difference is that he substitutes a crouching strong punch with 2 chained crouching jabs instead. Doing so allows Guile to remain close enough for the rest of the loop to still connect.

@NYChrisG there's hope for Huile season 2 loop https://t.co/uxA3LDPA7F

— B. Shazz (@MK_Shazzyam) December 17, 2016

Now whether or not this is still applicable once Season 2 actually goes live, however, is still to be confirmed.

Source: B. Shazz

December 20, 2016

King of Fighters XIV’s Classic Athena Costume is Now Out in Europe

For those looking forward to the classic Athena costume for The King of Fighters XIV, it seems that you can download it for free right now–if you live in Europe.

The costume is available as part of the so-called Athena Holiday Pack, which can be downloaded for free right now on the European PlayStation Network. In addition to the costume, the comes with two new PlayStation 4 themes, one focused on Athena, and another holiday one featuring Athena, Yuri, and Kula.

The European release of the costume is in line with the release for the traditional Chinese version, which also comes out today. This also likely means that the release for the North American version is coming soon. In the meantime, here’s the official trailer for the pack from SNK.

Sources: PlayStation Store; SNK