Johnny, the flagship swashbuckler from the Jellyfish Pirates, is one of the more stylish and flashy characters in Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-. While he was known as the “touch of death” character before the Evolution 2016 patch, he can still be a formidable opponent in the hands of advanced players, whether they’re Japanese or American.
KidViper recently streamed a couple of sets against an American Sol and Raven, Nakkiel and Koogy. The long sets are good to study the match-up and detail, and KidViper commentates during them.
For a Japanese perspective on the character, there’s none better to watch than Karinchu and Omito. Below, Omito has a long set against a variety of some of the finest in the land, like Roi, Fumo, 310, and more. As part of the Tenkaichi Budokai league, Karinchu fought Kazuki’s Dizzy. He also has another recent set against Nage, which is always a pleasure to watch.
The annual event covering all things Super Smash Bros. is back for yet another year! The Super Smash Con 2017 has been announced for August 10th to 13th, with the event to be held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
This four-day event has featured every title in the Smash library to date, including the community-built Project M in the past, and is one of the largest events on the Smash circuit. There is currently no set game list, and while we could see other platforming titles at the event such as Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether, this still remains a Smash-centric event.
Skullgirls 2nd Encore is in the process of receiving its final update, which brought many tested beta changes to the retail copy of the game. These changes were paired with new animations, bug fixes, and quality-of-life changes, but the coveted Japanese dub is still on its way. The patch that adds those Japanese voices appears to be the definitive version of the game with no further changes, as this will also be the version on the physical releases that Limited Run Games is distributing, and Mike Zaimont is approaching the community about one final change he’d like to make to the game.
As he says in his community address, “Skullgirls is based on community-oriented game development,” and “We have one specific gameplay problem. We have one patch left, to add Japanese voices and fix lobby bugs.” The problem being discussed here specifically refers to teams of 3 characters being optimized to the point of having one-reset kill combos, like you see below:
For those who don’t know, damage ratios for 3v3 matches are boosted beyond their normal damage output, meaning they can do this with 3v3, but not 2v3 or 1v3. Though Mike goes on to say that “losing a character in two touches just becomes an overall downside of playing a trio, since trios can already lose a character in two (or even one) touch in 2v3 or 1v3,” he claims that these one-reset kill setups showcase a “symptom of Undizzy” that he’s never liked, which is getting a short chain into a high-damage ender:
Some of the solutions he’s listed, which players will be able to test for a maximum of 3 days–meaning if any bugs occur in the chosen changes, they will remain forever–include scaling non-super hits at max Undizzy to minimum damage, some character-specific changes to Cerebella, Beowulf, and Big Band, and changing the way combo stages work so a reset at max Undizzy allows less freedom. He’s also mentioned lowering the meter gain for the attacker to minimum while boosting it for the defender to maximum, which won’t fix the 3v3 kills but will make doing long combos into resets benefit the defender at every level.
The thread is leaning towards making some kind of change as opposed to doing nothing, with a lot of activity from big names and everyday community members alike. The problems listed are some of the biggest in the game’s current state, making matches lean to players who’ve counted their damage and have one reset that’ll close the match. Whether you like the game like that or hate it, having a focal issue and it’s solution discussed openly with the developers isn’t something you see every day in today’s fighting game landscape. Hopefully more companies learn from Skullgirls and Mike Z’s example to improve other modern fighters.
With Super Smash Bros. being a strong mainstay in the tournament scene, it seems that platform fighters are growing into a market all their own. With Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether making a buzz at events, can the platformer scene adopt another game of this nature?
That’s what we’ll find out, as Japanese-developed title River City Melee: Battle Royal Special releases worldwide on March 28th. Already out in Japan for a couple months now, the game has done well, and will see a release across the planet on PlayStation 4, in the form of a digital release. This game features the same sprites from River City Ransom that we all know, and features online play. This title was also developed in part by BlazBlue developers, in order to improve user experience.
With the Nintendo Switch’s launch being just under a month away, everyone is eager to hear about everything the system may be capable of when it launches on March 3rd. In an interview with TIME ahead of the Switch’s launch, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima discussed Nintendo’s future plans for esports, along with the potential of legacy controller support for the system.
What does this have to do with fighting games? Well, everyone knows that the Smash community is on tenterhooks waiting for possible news of a port of both Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Melee–maybe even Pokkén Tournament–for the new system. According to Kimishima, “support for certain controllers may be considered for a future update” and that “games from past systems may be re-released for the Nintendo Switch system as either enhanced or original versions.” These criteria match Smash’s situation perfectly so hopefully, this suggests that Nintendo are open or are even currently working on remasters for the Switch.
As for esports, Kimishima stated that it “is the business that many consumers expect us to engage in now and in the future” and that “titles such as Splatoon 2 and ARMS for Nintendo Switch have suitable elements for eSports.” However, the company are still “considering what Nintendo-like eSports can be in terms of the business model,” so don’t expect anything forthcoming about some kind of Nintendo-supported Smash circuit any time soon.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has gathered the most money for Make-a-Wish International!
At long last, the voting has closed for the Evo 2017 Player’s Choice, raising over $150,000 for Make-a-Wish International. The game that has earned the most money, entitling it to the opening slot at Mandalay Bay’s arena finals on Sunday–as well as a $10,000 pot bonus–is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with $71,690!
It has been a fierce battle and a close race between Pokkén Tournament ($66,906) and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the top spot, with all other games trailing behind; Killer Instinct ($6116) and–remarkably–Windjammers ($4000) held strong in the middle of the pack. Nidhogg ($158) even managed to edge out over Mortal Kombat XL ($137), though the inclusion of Injustice 2 in Evo’s main lineup likely has a bit to do with that. This morning was a particularly hard fight between the two leading games, and they were neck-and-neck in donation totals until a big push in the last moments.
The unofficial winner of the Evo 2017 Charity Drive is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3!
These results are based solely on generosity.com’s closing totals; stand by for official confirmation of Evo’s ninth main game soon, once payments clear and the results are fully processed.
As recognition of the donation efforts from the Pokkén Tournament community, Evo also announced this on Twitter:
As a nod to Pokken's incredible effort, Evo will commit $10k to support Pokken tournaments in 2017!
Street Fighter’s tweet lends even more credibility to the (possibly) leaked character details.
It seems Lupe Fiasco’s DROGAS Light release party–while still featuring Street Fighter V exhibition matches and a cosplay contest–won’t be our first look at Season 2’s next DLC character after all. According to Twitter:
It sure looks like the reported leak that the next character uses ice powers is pretty much confirmed, and Street Fighter V will be getting its own Sub-Zero-style ice warrior. Is it actually still going to be Helen (or Kolin)? Could it instead be the mysterious, speculative Eisbahn? Is the Russia stage a clue? Looks like we’ll be finding out for sure very soon.
For some of us “console peasants,” one of the things we have to deal with in Street Fighter V is the game’s rather lengthy load times. This can be especially frustrating when compared to the PC version of the game, where loading goes by much quicker. However, it seems that some relief is on the way, at least for those who upgraded to a PlayStation 4 Pro.
Sony recently opened beta testing for firmware version 4.50, which adds a special boost mode for games that haven’t been optimized for the PS4 Pro. One of the benefits of this mode, it seems, is a boost in the game’s loading times. NeoGAF poster farisr–who’s part of the beta–did some tests on Street Fighter V’s loading times with boost mode, and he’s found that there is a significant reduction.
With the firmware version 4.50’s new boost mode turned on, it now takes about 3.4 seconds less to load a match. Take note that this was on a specific stage (Hillside Plaza) so the times may change on other stages. Additionally, other areas of loading, such as the title screen as well as going into versus saw even more significant reductions in loading time.
You can check out the exact results over on NeoGAF.
The communities for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Pokkén Tournament are in a heated race to see which game makes in into Evo 2017’s Player’s Choice slot. This however does put players who compete in both games are in a rather awkward situation.
One such player is Panda Global’s Steven “Coach Steve” Delgado who, while currently acting as the team captain for PG’s Pokkén Tournament division, is also known for being a top Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player. PVP Live recently caught up with Coach Steve to ask him for his thoughts on the Evo 2017 Player’s Choice, and being torn between both games.
According to Coach Steve, Pokkén Tournament is an interesting fighting game due to how it takes aspects from various other games and puts them into one. However, he does feel that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 should have been given a guaranteed slot at Evo 2017–especially considering that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is coming next year. Without a guaranteed slot however, he feels that the future (of the game) is now unclear.
In addition to the Evo 2017 Player’s Choice, PVP Live also asks Coach Steve regarding his opinion on Street Fighter V’s tier list, as well as whether or not it should have one more balance patch before the Capcom Pro Tour season starts. You can read his thoughts on this and more in the interview on PVP Live.
NetherRealm Studios initially had stated that a new character for Injustice 2 would be revealed yesterday, after last week’s reveal of Black Canary. However, yesterday has come and gone without such a reveal.
We finally got an update on the reveal cycle, as NetherRealm has pushed back for another date. This time, the date has been moved to Monday, February 13th.
Hello! The character reveal will happen next week on February 13. We apologize for any confusion this has caused!
There is no word yet on whether the beta will receive another character update, either. However, Ed Boon is already teasing a new trailer, claiming it to be the “best trailer for any NetherRealm game.” Could this possibly be for the next character?
Just watched what is (perhaps) our best trailer for any @NetherRealm game. Can't wait for you all to see this one !#injustice2
