While trying to crack the Guile matchup alongside fellow Ryu researchers Kuroda and Tokido, the Beast has been in the wilds of Street Fighter V online by himself, attempting to master the Urien matchup. With RB’s Urien giving Daigo the business back at Red Bull Battle Grounds, he is now trying to plug any holes in his character knowledge ahead of Capcom Cup next month.
To catalogue this training process, XusesGB has been on the case to compile all of these Urien matches into a single video. Some notable Japaneses Uriens do make an appearance in this video, including Angry Ojisan and Yu5ririn, who even received his own prior montage from Xuses. Let’s hope Daigo is now prepared to face the wrath of the Aegis Reflector come December 3rd.
Expanding the pool of games past just the Smash series, the Genesis 4 team has just released a brand new trailer, announcing four more games that will feature on 2017’s lineup. Street Fighter V acts as the first traditional fighting game to have an official presence at the Smash-centric tournament series, while indie fighter Rivals of Aether makes perfect sense to be at Genesis, seeing as the RCS has its grand finale at the event.
Catherine, everyone’s favorite competitive puzzle fighter, has quite the following among Smashers and traditional fighting game players, while Towerfall Ascension has high-level movement tech like hyper dashing and jump cancelled dodges which are similar to techniques seen in Melee and Project M. The tournament organizers just need to add Windjammers and Lethal League to the lineup and it would be perfect. I will certainly be giving competitive Towerfall a go, so give one of the extra games a chance if you have the budget for it.
Sign ups are now open on smash.gg for these additional games, with the main registration period for Genesis 4 closing on the 28th of November. Seats for Sunday finals are disappearing fast, with all orchestra seats already sold out. Genesis 4 is on at the San Jose Convention Center from January 20th to 22nd.
As Black Friday is approaching in the United States, stores are bustling with deals and savings to get everyone abandoning the turkey table as fast as possible. With Sony’s launch of renewed PlayStation 4 editions,–the Slim and the Pro–the console market is ripe for big markdowns and a healthy injection of sales.
While the cheaper Slim has many deals going around, the premium Pro, retailing at $399 USD, less so. BestBlackFriday.com reports that eBay (seller unspecified) will have a Cyber Monday bundle available, featuring the PlayStation 4 Pro console with two games packaged: Street Fighter V and Watch Dogs 2. The site states that the list price for this is $499.97, but the Cyber Monday deal will offer it at $399.99.
We’re staying on the lookout for other hot deals coming up next week.
Rivals of Aether is a game that tends to fall by the wayside; it doesn’t have a really strong community yet, but it’s found a niche within the Smash community that inspired it.
At Smash Summit 3, the primary focus was on Super Smash Bros. Melee events, side events, and challenges–but the crew found some time to boot up Rivals of Aether and kicked it around for a while. Below we have highlights of some of the best moments from that segment, filled with all sorts of fun shenanigans for you to enjoy.
If there’s one feature missing from today’s top-of-the-line arcade sticks, it’s a way to plug in a pair of headphones. That’s going to change soon, thanks to a new stick coming next year.
HORI recently announced the 2017 version of their Real Arcade Pro V Hayabusa for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. The 2017 RAP V Hayabusa comes with new art, X-Input support for PCs, and a 3.5 mm jack for headphones. The last one is the arcade stick’s most notable new feature. Headphone jacks were standard for most Xbox 360 arcade sticks last generation, however the feature seems to have been forgotten by most manufacturers this generation, until now.
As with their older model, the 2017 RAP V Hayabusa comes with HORI’s Hayabusa lever and push buttons. These are the same parts that in the HRAP Premium VLX Hayabusa that we reviewed earlier this year.
The 2017 HORI RAP V Hayabusa will be available in Japan starting on December 22, 2016 for ¥ 17,258 ($158.14) including tax. No word yet on whether HORI will be bringing this to the rest of the world.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
Team Echo Fox’s Julio Fuentes has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the change to Street Fighter V. A relative afterthought in Street Fighter IV, he was never an immediate threat to the major tournament field, seeing only moderate success. In Street Fighter V, however, if Fuentes is in the pack, it’s a pretty safe bet that he will be going deep.
With him reaching Capcom Cup by way of points, how does this member of the Ken Trinity stack up?
The Kenhead, Three in One
Julio has been well-served from collaboration with the Trinity, a team of three Ken players consisting of himself, Chris Tatarian, and Brent “brenttiscool” Franks, who have helped each other build up their play. While all three of the Trinity are always a threat, Fuentes has done the most with the knowledge bestowed upon him.
Juilo Fuentes has double the first place tournament finishes–eight–than the other two parts of the Trinity combined. Each of the other two have participated in eight less tournaments than Fuentes–18 as opposed to Fuentes’ 26. But when combined–36 opportunities from Tatarian and Franks–and they still fall short of Fuentes’ level, it just goes to show how much work Julio has been putting in.
The World Warrior
I don’t think that the difference in performance is down to the amount of events Fuentes has played in. The amount is, realistically, negligible between himself, Tatarian, and Franks. Where we see the main difference is location, Fuentes has traveled, where the rest of the Trinity hasn’t.
Chris Tatarian only really began traveling outside of the West Coast in the approach to Evo 2016. His first tournament outside of that region was Final Round, but he waited until CEO to get outside of the area again. Brenttiscool has only five tournaments outside of the same region.
Had they had the same sponsorship and travel opportunities that Julio has had this season, the standings could have looked different this year. The fact here however, is that Fuentes has had more chances to travel outside of California, and this has helped elevate his game by playing against competitors that Chris Tatarian and brenttiscool simply have not had as much access to. Once you reach a certain plateau in your region, you simply need that access to get any better. Echo Fox’s sponsorship granted Fuentes that opportunity and he is capitalizing on it.
The Japan Factor
The biggest issue with a tournament like Capcom Cup, and any international event to be honest, is keeping up with Asia–and Japan in particular. Can X player from the West beat Y player from Asia?
Usually, the answer has unequivocally been “no.” But with sponsorship opportunities growing for fighting game players in the West, the chances to play high-level players from Asia has been growing, and Julio is no exception.
Although he placed 25th at Japan Cup, Fuentes went to Japan with the intention of staying after the event to train. But how has he done since getting this training?
It’s hard to speculate, as at Red Bull Battlegrounds Fuentes lost to RB from Taiwan to miss the top 8 of the event. He also found himself out of ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown when he fell to Haitani. SoCal Regionals didn’t even see him make it far enough to face any Japanese or Asian talent, but Julio was eliminated from The Fall Classic by John Takeuchi.
He is on the right track by training against high-level players. He is on the right track by traveling and getting experience against the rest of the field. But it does not seem that he is at the level where he is going to be running through a field populated by Asia’s best just yet.
Final Thoughts
Julio is on the ride of his life this year. He is definitely the best Ken in North America by a long shot. But is he best Ken in the world? Sadly, probably not–that title would likely go to Momochi at this point.
He is working hard and is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years, if he continues to improve. But I look for him to go 1-2 at Capcom Cup at best, two and out at worst.
If you want to style on your opponents with explosive setups and tricky mix-ups, Ibuki is most definitely your girl. In this latest highlight video from RnK_Lucius, he shows off just how crazy a good Ibuki player can be, with some impressive bomb juggles and stun combos.
The editing is as equally as slick, with clever transitions from combo to combo and a suitable soundtrack to match the raw speed of this ninja. Also, for that extra little bit of disrespect, Lucius has chosen not to blur the names of any players that rage quit matches during the creation of this highlight video. If you ever face this Ibuki, don’t go reaching for that Ethernet cable or you could end up exposed in a future mixclip.
If there’s one company that’s made their mark in the world of arcade stick modding and customization this generation, it’s Brook. With their line of converters and internal circuitry for arcade sticks, they’ve quickly become to go-to name when people need older controllers to work on today’s consoles.
Now, Brook is in the process of bringing out a new version of their PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC-compatible Fighting Board. This new PCB hosts some changes and new features, including a 3.5 mm jack for headphone support.
Modder Jon “Jonyfraze” Bonilla has been testing a prototype of the new Brook Fighting Board, and he’s reached out to Shoryuken with an exclusive first look video detailing the new board–which you can watch below!
No pricing and release date for the new Fighting Board has been given, as of yet. However, Brook is currently talking to various release channels and these should be announced soon.
It looks like Daigo Umehara is no longer the only fighting game player recognized by Guinness for his achievements, and it’s only fitting that the newest inductee is none other than his Evo Moment #37 adversary. Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong now has claimed two Guinness World Records himself. He announced on Twitter that he has received the two records: one for most wins at Evolution, dating from 2002 to 2014; one for the most Evolution wins in a single game, via his exploits in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 during the game’s lifespan.
Super Smash. Bros has come a long way since it was first released on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. What was initially a quirky all out brawl between beloved, iconic Nintendo characters has evolved into a thriving competitive scene that is respected by many members of the FGC and the eSports community as a whole.
In this video, YouTuber Master of Hyrule demonstrates the ways in which the roster’s Smash attacks the have changed over the years. He starts with the original 12, and proceeds to show the Melee character’s evolutions as well. He focuses on how the graphics, voices, animation and–in some cases–the attacks themselves have changed. The jump from 1999 to 2016 could trigger some serious feelings of nostalgia for some, so longtime Smashers should watch with that in mind!
