The SRK Rollback: Best of October 28 to November 3, 2016

Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news and our favorite SRK articles from October 28 to November 3, 2016!


Zavian “mushin_Z” Sildra, Editor-in-Chief:

Frame 1:
sfv_xuses_daigo_vs_yhcmochi_thumb_crop
Ryu Versus Dhalsim: Watch Daigo Umehara Go First-to-Ten Against YHCmochi in Street Fighter V

This is a go-to set to see high level play for both of these classic characters, absolutely worth a watch if you play either Ryu or Dhalsim.

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sf5-cammy-mika
Learn Your Best Options Against R. Mika in Street Fighter V with an Anti-Mika Lecture from MTLSF

Mika’s vortex is a definite threat in Street Fighter V; just look to the results of Canada Cup 2016 for proof of that! Players that want to fend her off will do well to start with this advice.

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NuckleDu Canada CupDu Done Did: Shoryuken Interviews NuckleDu After His Canada Cup 2016 Victory

Canada Cup 2016 was full to the brim of impressive Street Fighter V play, but watching Liquid|NuckleDu put the SFV top 8 through his R. Mika blender was both fascinating and terrifying at once.


Sam “Trilby” Foxall, Assistant Editor:

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sfv_red_bull_snake_eyez_mod_comparison_750Someone’s Transforming Street Fighter V’s Zangief Into Red Bull’s Snake Eyez

This Pixar-esque Snake Eyez skin for Zangief is brilliant, and I hope it kicks off a trend for mod makers creating player skins for certain characters. Infiltration Nash or Daigo Ryu, anyone?

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otaking_streetfighter_animation_bisonHere’s a Sneak Peek At a Beautifully Animated Street Fighter Fan Film

If Otaking’s “TIE Fighter” animated short is anything to go by, this Street Fighter short should be a great tribute to the series and its previous animated films.

Frame 3:
croagunk-revealCroagunk Revealed as Newest Pokkén Tournament Arcade Character

Hidden in plain sight, most Pokkén fans expected Empoleon as the latest addition to the roster. Instead, you’ve got this cheeky amphibian who zones people out with poison clouds and conjured projectiles.


Keegan “Interrobang!?” Spindler, Features Editor:

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coachingA Discussion on Coaching in the Fighting Game Community

Coaching is always a controversial issue in the fighting game scene, and it seems to flare up again with every major that comes around. This is a fantastic breakdown of the issue, well worth a watch.

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blazblue-central-fiction-aug2016-screenshot7Is the ArcSys Cycle Hurting Its Community?

The ArcSys Cycle is a common complaint of every Blazblue player, and there’s no end in sight. Woocash has suffered along with the rest of us, and has written some fantastic analysis of just how damaging it can be for the community.

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laura-chun-superA Humorous Look at Why Laura Struggles in the Chun-Li Match-Up in Street Fighter V

As someone who has a chronic addiction to low tiers, this is a lament that I have been singing for many years now. It’s fascinating to see just how Laura struggles in a match-up, and the actual tools that are so difficult to bypass.


Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article and the selected posts are solely those of the writers, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Ryo & Kukri Are in the Spotlight in These New Combo Videos for The King of Fighters XIV

Some more practical–and impractical–combos for SNK’s latest.

SNK has made quite the impact on the world of fighting games with the latest installment of The King of Fighters, and dedicated fans are showing no sign of slowing down the combo content creation. Below, we showcase two of the most recent videos to hit the web.

First, if Kukri shares a spot on your team, you’ll want to give a look to this combo video from Persona Entertainment:

Next, on the flashier and less useful (but entertaining) side, check out the latest combo exhibition from the COMBONAUTS, this time starring Ryo Sakazaki.

Sources: COMBONAUTS; Persona Entertainment

SSFC2016 Continues with King of Fighters ’98, Samurai Shodown 64 Tournaments

We’re over halfway through with Super Street Fighter Carnival 2016! Mikado Arcade is nowhere near close to running out of surprising titles to throw at i’s (extremely skilled) patrons.

Samurai Shodown 64 (known simply as Samurai Spirits in Japan) was SNK’s first foray into 3D fighters. The weapons-based fighter may not have caught on at it’s arcade only release, but it did well enough to see a sequel on it’s Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade board. The game is a predictably odd mash of 2D and 3D, combining longer chain combos (normally not present in Samurai Shodown OR 3D games!) and duckable grabs into the same engine.

SSFC2016’s catalog this year has been particularly unorthodox, so a classic game like KOF ’98 might have been a sigh of relief for some players by this point. Given the skills shown off in the variety of bizarre titles up until this point, it’s safe to say Mikado players know what they’re doing in this beloved title. Also, Spoiler:  If you’re as much of a fan of the American Sports Team as I am, you’re going to want to watch this. 

As always, you can follow along Mikado’s upload schedule on YouTube, or try to catch them live on their UStream.

Source: Mikado

The Cycloids and Ace Round Out the CFN Portal’s Street Fighter EX Profiles

After finishing the Street Fighter EX2 characters by covering Shadowgeist and Sharon, the CFN Portal site completes the Shadaloo Activity Report’s Profiles on the playable members of the EX cast, by shining the spotlight on the Cycloids and Ace!  As always, NIN, Senior Official of Shadaloo and alter-ego of ARIKA founder Akira Nishitani, joins Private Nakagawa in providing additional commentary on the characters he had a hand in creating.

First up, we have the wireframe warrior who debuted in 1997’s EX Plus, Cycloid Gamma!

Private Nakagawa: Barba, the father of Pullum Purna, has been constructing combat weapons. Barba had created various products but now he’s willing to work for Shadaloo! (I just don’t know where they are.)

street-fighter-ex-cycloid-gamma

Basic Info:

Name: Cycloid – γ
Height: 180cm
Weight: 80kg
Blood Type: None
Date of Manufacture: January 17th
Place of Manufacture: Shadaloo
Likes: Learning combative techniques and maneuvers
Dislikes: Being treated carelessly

Private Nakagawa: It had originally been produced for Shadaloo as a devastating weapon. Thankfully, with the help of Barba, who is now affiliated with Shadaloo (forcefully), it’s been promoting our plans for world domination. Since the final adjustments had been halted and refused by Mr. Barba, Shadaloo’s Technology Department took the initiative to finish it. During the occasional times that it runs away, it adds to its collection of skills, which makes it an excellent fighter. It’s orange wireframe-ish look is certainly fashionable.

Huh, oh, it escaped! Oh dear, wait a second. This just in, I just received word from our Senior correspondent!

NIN: For some reason, I wanted a character which gave off a strange vibe, and thus it was created. Naturally, at first it was just a wireframe and merely a representation of textures, but the lines were being magnified as the camera came in for a close up. Overall, I think it was rough. The manner in which we drew the lines directly, eventually that became its current look. Doctrine also used similar wires which resulted in the same blunder, so I remember deciding to draw the lines.

Next, we have it’s more humanoid-looking counterpart, which also debuted in EX Plus, Cycloid Beta!

Private Nakagawa: I don’t know where this mysterious weapon came from. It seems composed of a translucent pale blue material. I wonder if it’s cold to the touch.

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Basic Info:

Name: Cycloid – β
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Blood Type: Unknown
Date of manufacture: Unknown
Production field: Unknown
Likes: Unknown
Dislikes: Unknown

Private Nakagawa: The last time Cycloid – γ escaped, it had discovered an unidentified weapon it was tracking. It seems to like the activity of running away like Cycloid – γ. Other than that, it’s shrouded in mystery. Similar to Cycloid – γ it has learned mixed martial arts skills from other fighters.

NIN: Just like γ we wanted him to have a strange vibe. It’s just, in the world of programming around that time, mirror surface processing, refraction of light through transparent objects, and representation of flames, had all started to become the new craze. I wanted to know how we could introduce these elements in EX.  Though we were a bit late for the time of being pioneers, we maintained in releasing the character, and later as the character’s representation became interesting, I got a sense of wanting him to reappear.

Finally, we have the last playable EX Character, and the only New Challenger to appear in EX3, the cyborg with a fully-customizable fighting style: Ace!

Private Nakagawa: Apparently, a spy has infiltrated our Shadaloo base and has accomplished his mission in securing the confidential blueprints of the “weapon.” If he understands it, then he’s discovered a lot!

street-fighter-ex-ace

Basic Info:

Name: Ace
Height: 182cm
Weight: 83kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: May 5th
Home Country: Japan
Likes: Training
Dislikes: Horror movies

Private Nakagawa: The man who is rumored to be a talented and competent agent. He has a device implanted in his spine which can analyze cards that hold data on fighting skills, and by loading them, he can learn every type of mixed martial art, holding the ability to possibly master them all.

NIN: He’s able to be edited with a variety of techniques. In fact, there was a grand scheme, I had wanted to add him into a side-scrolling action mode.

Examples of the obstacles were:

  • Darun’s Indra Bahsi A, B, C due to the continuous jumping up and down you could slip out of it conveniently.
  • Doctrine’s wire being swung like a pendulum. It would disconnect whenever the opponent was on the opposite side of it, and with good timing, you could slip through it.

We could’ve made edits according to the situations needed and continued to go ahead with the project. But it was just a dream, no matter how irrational the decision the project was abandoned during production.

Well, that closes the curtain on all of the Street Fighter EX profiles, as the entire playable cast has now been covered. For more information on the EX Characters, you can check out the profiles for the rest of the cast below:

Stay tuned to Shoryuken for continued coverage of more CFN Portal profiles! Let us know about your experiences with the EX series in the comments below! Do you hope any of these characters could return in a future Season of Street Fighter V?

Source: CFN Portal

Professors Umehara and Kuroda Perform Lab Work in the Research Institute of Ryu

Following on from the first translated video, showing BeasTV’s live meeting of the Research Institute of Ryu, Toshio Gurupon is back to bring English viewers part two of this instructional stream. Professor Emeritus of the Hadoken Daigo Umehara takes Chief Researcher Kuroda from the theoretical physics of throwing a fireball, to a live demonstration test in Street Fighter V.

Instead of just talking about the finer points of Ryu’s fireball, Daigo and Kuroda do some actual testing with the help of the Twitch chat. Whereas the first part of the stream was more humorous than informative, Daigo really shows his almost 20+ years of knowledge playing Ryu which makes it essential viewing for Ryu mains looking to learn more about the character. There will be a test at the end of the lecture, so take notes!

Source: Toshio Gurupon

Alex Jebailey Will Be the Head Tournament Organizer and Event Planner for DreamHack in 2017

When he announced that he was leaving Avyd, Alex Jebailey originally stated that he was going to focus full-time on his Community Effort Orlando. However, it seems that he’s once again being called to help organize fighting game events for another esports organization.

In a recent Tweet, Jebailey has announced that he is will be the head fighting game community tournament organizer and event planner for DreamHack in 2017.

With this, Jebailey will be involved in all the fighting game tournaments at all of DreamHack’s events next year. That said, he will still be focusing on CEO as well, and will actually miss DreamHack Summer 2017 due to scheduling conflicts with CEO 2017.

We here at Shoryuken wish Alex Jebailey and DreamHack the best success in this new relationship.

Source: Alex Jebailey

Relive All The Hype of Olympus’ Top 8 for Project M

The Smash community’s feature mod, Project M, enjoyed a very healthy competitive season this year with their Championship Circuit. After 11 qualifying events, the final tournament Olympus had some of the most high level play to date, vying for a $4500 pot bonus along with the prize pool.

CLASH Tournaments uploaded the entire Top 8 onto their channel, which features a great selection of hype sets. These matches are riveting, it’s definitely worth a watch.

Sources: smashboards; CLASH Tournaments

Pop Culture Shock’s “Murderous Intent” and “Dark Hadou” Evil Ryu Statues Now Available for Pre-Order

Pop Culture Shock has done a bang up job with their line of Street Fighter based collectible statues. For the past couple of years, they’ve been releasing a steady line of figures for both Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V. For their latest statues, they’re going back to the former with a new set of Evil Ryu statues.

This latest series of Evil Ryu statues comes in two distinct variants. The first, called “Murderous Intent” shows Evil Ryu in his default Street Fighter IV look – a corrupted Ryu with the big hole in his chest. The second one however, called “Dark Hadou” has him in his long haired alternate costume.

Both statues are now available for pre-order exclusively at Pop Culture Shocks website. The “Murderous Intent” version goes for $389.99, while the “Dark Hadou” version goes for $399.99.  However, those who pre-order can avail of a 10% discount, bringing the prices for both down to $350.99 and $359.99 respectively.

Both statues are expected to ship in December 23, 2017. In the meantime, here check out some photos of them in the gallery below.

Click to view slideshow.

Source: Pop Culture Shock

Get Ready for Combo Breaker 2017 with New Announcement Trailer

After a very successful event the past two years running, Combo Breaker is back again as the FGC’s most prominent Midwest event. 18 tournament games will be featured, with the full game list being released next month.

As far as today’s announcement goes, it confirms the event to be held on May 26th-May 28th, 2017 on Memorial Day weekend. Registration will be announced December 20th. There will be some returning features from prior years, like the Artist Alley, Cosplay Contest, Auction Tournaments, Indie Showcase, and of course a 24-hour venue.

Source: Combo Breaker

Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe PlayStation 4 Release Date Detailed and English Option Available

We’ve been reporting on the remastered, expanded version of Chaos Code, subtitled “New Sign of Catastrophe” that’s coming exclusively to PlayStation 4. Among new modes such as network play and two additional characters, news has surfaced about the game’s release date.

Arc System Works announced the Japanese and Asian release date for Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe as November 9th. It will cost 1,980 yen (close to $20).

While F K Digital, the developer, hasn’t said anything about a Western release, Gematsu reported the Asian version will include an option for English text.

Learn more about Chaos Code mechanics as well its cast of characters like Kagari, Catherine, and Bravo by watching character trailers.

The next version of Chaos Code is slated for Japanese arcades sometime in 2017.

Source: Gematsu