If you’re a fan of The Bard’s Tale series, then next year’s Game Developers’ Conference is going to be a thrill. Series co-creator Dr. Michael Cranford will be hosting a special “post-mortem” panel that will cover both The Bard’s Tale and The Bard’s Tale II. It will provide a behind-the-scenes look at development and center on why they are still relevant to game-makers today.
– Monster Hunter: World Beta to Begin December 9th
Capcom has confirmed that the Monster Hunter: World beta will begin in Saturday, December 9th at 9:00 am Pacific and that it will run through Tuesday, December 12th at 8:59 am. The beta is available to PlayStation 4 owners who subscribe to PlayStation Plus. Those who can participate can download the 6.0Gb client on December 8th.
Mane6’s indie fighter “Them’s Fightin’ Herds” release set for February 2018
Developer Mane6 has announced that their bovine-themed fighter, Them’s Fightin’ Herds, is officially shooting for a February 2018 release date. The announcement marks a end to a journey few thought possible for a Fighter Maker-based project marred in legal threats early on in development.
Mane6 was saved by the unlikely support of Skullgirls Mike Zaimont and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic‘s producer Lauren Faust, not to mention a successful crowdfunding campaign. Them’s Fightin’ Herds features Faust’s colorful designs, chain-based combo system, and GGPO-powered netplay.
The team has chronicled the development process of their game over on their YouTube channel, for anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes efforts needed to make an indie fighter.
Sources: Mane6; Fightin’ Fœnatics
Taito announce new King of Fighters XIV and BlazBlue Central Fiction arcade cabinets
Similar to their recent Street Fighter V arcade cabinet, Taito are planning to tour two new cabs — one for King of Fighters XIV and one for BlazBlue Central Fiction. Named King of Fighters XIV Arcade Ver. Burn 2 Fight and BlazBlue Central Fiction: Braver’s Reveal 2018, these units run the latest editions of each game, complete with balance updates and DLC characters.
To coincide with their release, Taito are running a special touring tournament for each game, where these cabinets will be exhibited in select arcades around Japan. Players who win an arcade qualifier will be invited to the finals at the MEGARAGE Taito Station in Kawasaki where a grand champion will be crowned.
While the King of Fighters XIV tournament will be 1v1, the BlazBlue tournament is a 3v3 teams tournament, with the winning team from each arcade qualifier being invited to compete in the finals. As is the case with most Japanese tournaments, the qualifiers will be best-of-one and single elimination, so there is no room for error.
If you are in Japan and wish to compete, you can find all the details about participating arcades via the official Taito website. The first KOFXIV event will be on December 16th in Kobe, while the first BlazBlue event will be on December 17th in Kanazawa.
Source: TAITO
See the Gundam AGE-2 and Mudrock Gundam in action in these latest Gundam Versus DLC trailers
Gundam Versus will be getting a number of new DLC mobile suits this month. In addition to the GM Sniper II and Aegis Gundam, coming in a couple of weeks, the game will also be getting 2 new suits next week.
Hailing from the Level-5 co-produced series Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, the AGE-2 Gundam AGE-2 comes to battle piloted by second generation pilot Asemu Asuno. It fights by switching between different AGE-2 variants, such as the “Normal” and “Double Bullet”.
The RX-78-6 Mudrock Gundam on the other hand is an original design variation by original mecha designer Kunio Okawara, that was later revamped for the PlayStation 2 game Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front. Piloted by Agar, this suit expands on the armament of the original RX-78-2 Gundam, adding a pair of 300mm cannons and another pair of grenade launchers, at the cost of some mobility.
Both these mobile suits will be available for Gundam Versus in Japan on December 5 for ¥602 each (plus tax).
Source: Bandai Namco Games
Japanese players share their favorite, hilarious fighting game bugs
A new Twitter hashtag popped up recently: #格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう — which more or less means: “talk about your favorite fighting game tunings missteps” or, in layman’s terms, bugs. Japanese players got busy posting some hilarious videos showing either bugs or obviously overpowered things that were most likely fixed, eventually. And apologies in advance, but I can’t possibly explain every single one of them, so feel free to sound out in the comments.
これw
#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう pic.twitter.com/ihYoO4rpmc— ダージリン
(@nekosen_saki01) December 1, 2017
I’m not sure the one above needs explanation, nor do I feel I can provide any.
どう考えてもこれでしょ#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう pic.twitter.com/m8tK9xZp5X
— 鰰 (@_wbii2) December 1, 2017
Any advantage to having that tongue, Yoshi?
#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう
この状況になったことないけどこれだよね
GO！で同時に手前にジャンプして試合開始なんだけど落下速度の違いで庵が先に行動可能なうえに8割コン+ピヨリで10割らしい pic.twitter.com/mbFef18vsT— とてち (@10techite10) December 1, 2017
Curse that slower falling speed! Curse it!
千 本 パ ン チ#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう https://t.co/IyjtfZjWn0
— ぽい子とはなたぶ (@aramakHolyNight) December 1, 2017
In the Virtua Fighter 2 combo video above, you’ll learn how to stop anyone else from playing with you ever again.
【P4U2】 EX駆け上がり派生……？ (0:44) https://t.co/nlpPm79EAZ #sm22761258#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう
ひたすら練習してた、P4U2してて一番面白かった。— いつでも無駄に長文乙 (@akira364364) December 1, 2017
In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, no one is a ninja quite as much as Yosuke Hanamura.
当時のインパクトがでかかったBBCTのカルルかなｗ#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう pic.twitter.com/vJIUdeY5eU
— 詰所頭 (@Tsumesyo_G) December 1, 2017
If you’ve played BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, maybe you’ve been a victim to Carl’s unescapable infinite loops.
#格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう
一番じゃないけどこれ好き pic.twitter.com/jv29pnuOU2— 凸Q (@totu_q) December 1, 2017
Maybe this Guilty Gear clip isn’t funny at first, but once you know what the dynamic here is, you’ll feel sorry for Chipp. After taking Chipp’s regular throw, which has slow recovery, there’s enough time for Potemkin to get up and Potemkin Buster Chipp.
Every. Time.
「 #格闘ゲームで一番好きな調整ミスを語ろう」ってかバグ。https://t.co/0ZE1Aur3o6 pic.twitter.com/VH1AvFyemL
— YAMASHO/やましょー (@yamasho1deco) December 1, 2017
The Killer Classic comes to the New York Microsoft Store on December 7th and 14th
To celebrate the release of Killer Instinct on Steam and the ability for cross-network play, Microsoft will be holding a two-day Killer Instinct tournament at the New York Microsoft Store on Fifth Avenue. Rather than being held over two days back-to-back, the qualifiers for the Killer Classic will take place on December 7th, with the finals being held a week after on December 14th.
The grand prize for this 32-man tournament will be an Xbox One X, with all of the action being streamed via Mixer — Microsoft’s bespoke streaming service. While Killer Instinct‘s online scene is still active, this event would be great way to show that the offline community is still up to compete. Registration can be found over on smash.gg, along with details on the rules and how to get to the Microsoft Store.
Source: smash.gg
“Why was it AWESOME” series explores older games; SNK’s Art of Fighting is up first
It’s never a bad moment to get a little nostalgic when it comes to video games, and video creator Gamewisk agrees. He takes a look at Art of Fighting, a ’90s trilogy of games developed by SNK, initially for the Neo Geo, and then for various other platforms.
The video focuses on the SNES port of the Art of Fighting, which introduced the creator to fighting games. It was one of the first fighting games with Super moves, more balanced fireball zoning, and dashing. Some characters, like Ryo, were a reference to Street Fighter‘s Ryu. Fans are probably familiar with King, who hides her identity as a woman unless defeated in battle. The songs are important, too, and Gamewisk raves about his favorite pieces. You’ll get to hear about Geese Howard, too.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve played Art of Fighting, and give a shout-out to the creator for this new video series. His Twitter is Gamewisk.
Source: Gamewisk
Some of Japan’s best look to join the Arc System Works Fighting Game Awards with BlazBlue and Guilty Gear online qualifiers
With 2017 beginning to draw to a close, it’s time once again for the second Arc System Works Fighting Game Awards. Like last year, the event will be celebrating some of the top players in the company’s premiere airdashers, BlazBlue Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd REV2. With both titles seeing balance updates and new characters, as well as coming off of the momentum of fantastic showings at Evo and Toushinsai 2017, this will undoubtedly be a spectacular event to kick off the new year.
This year’s participants were acquired in a similar fashion to the previous lineups, though in lieu of the 2016 Award’s fan voting, the last two spots in each game were determined by a series of online qualifiers, which just recently concluded. In regards to which players will be competing in these two double-elimination tournaments, the Chosen seeking the Azure in BBCF will be:
- Monster/IGS|Kaibutsukun (Izanami, Nine The Phantom, Ragna The Bloodedge) – Co-Champion of Braver’s Rebel 2017
- Fenrich (Jin Kisaragi) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
- Iwashi (Ragna The Bloodedge) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
- Film (Hakumen) – Co-Champion of Braver’s Rebel 2017
- Meister (Lambda-11) – Gateway to BlazBlue Champion
- Grover (Carl Clover) – Highest-placing American player at Evo 2017, tied for 9th
- Online Qualifier A
- Online Qualifier B
Those who will be getting ready to rock in REV2 are:
- Samitto (Chip Zanuff) – Pre-Evo Japan: 賽 [sài] Champion
- Omitto (Johnny) – Evo 2017 Champion
- Nage (Faust) – GodsGarden #12 Champion
- Ruki (Dizzy) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
- Ogawa (Zato-1) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
- Daru (I-No) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
- Online Qualifier A
- Online Qualifier B
In order to find out who took the last two spots for each game, you can catch the online qualifiers that were held on November 25th and 26th, courtesy of Jourdal and Mdesilva, below.
The 2017 Arc System Works Fighting Game Awards will take place on Saturday, January 13th, 2018, at the e-sports SQUARE AKIHABARA in Tokyo, Japan. Streaming information was unavailable at this time, but given that Aksys Games stepped in to assist with last year’s English broadcast, and ASW has been streaming regularly on their own Twitch channel, they’re both likely candidates for home viewing. We’ll keep you updated here at Shoryuken as more details become available.
Sources: Jourdal; Mdesilva via ArcSystemWorks
Twitch’s Injustice 2 Winter Clash sees North America’s best facing off via online tournaments
Hoping to cap off a year of stellar Injustice 2 competition, Twitch has partnered with Level Up and NetherRealm for the Injustice 2 Winter Clash. Held over four separate tournaments and with each tournament boasting a $750 prize pot, these online events are a great chance for Injustice 2 players to prove their skills, from the comfort of their own home.
The events are split between North America West and North America East, with each region getting two tournaments. Within that, each tournament is split between a weekend qualifier and then a weekday Top 8. For Western players, the Top 8s will happen on a Monday while the Eastern Top 8s will happen on a Tuesday. The first qualifier for both regions is today, starting at 4pm local time — registration is still open if you want to compete!
North America East
- NA East 1 (December 2, 2017 at 4 pm EST)
- NA East 1 Top 8 (December 5, 2017 at 7 pm EST)
- NA East 2 (December 16, 2017 at 4 pm EST)
- NA East 2 Top 8 (December 19, 2017 at 7 pm EST)
North America West
- NA West 1 (December 2, 2017 at 4 pm PST)
- NA West 1 Top 8 (December 4, 2017 at 7 pm PST)
- NA West 2 (December 16, 2017 at 4 pm PST)
- NA West 2 Top 8 (December 18, 2017 at 7 pm PST)
These events are limited to PS4 players only, and make sure to see what states/regions are eligible for each event by checking the official rules. If you have never competed in an online qualifier like this, Level Up have created a comprehensive guide that will talk you through the entire process. You can also check out their official Discord, should you have any serious problems during the tournament.
The Top 8s of each event will be streamed over on the NetherRealm Twitch channel, so tune in if you want to catch some top-level Injustice 2.
Sources: Twitch Esports; smash.gg