Category: News

The recent announcement about Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, an upcoming update to -REVELATOR-, has the fans bristling with anticipation for new story content, rebalancing of the cast, and characters Baiken and Answer. A few details about REV 2 escaped from under the lid as a rewrite of a Famitsu article page surfaced on the internet before the magazine’s next publication.

In line with the Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 announcement, the arcade version is slated for Spring 2017. The console releases aren’t nailed yet, but as we know, PlayStation 3 and Steam will only have digital upgrades, while PS4 users can get a standalone physical copy (but also a digital upgrade). Reportedly, REV 2 will be priced at 2,000 yen to jump from -REVELATOR- (approximately $20).

The Story Mode content is supposed to be fairly extensive, though not quite as long as -REVELATOR-‘s cinematic narrative. There are no brand new modes, but Network Mode will get a performance tune-up. Some characters are slated to receive new moves, like Ramlethal, while Axl and Faust get some reworks to their toolset. There will be more randomness to Faust’s items–his bomb will have a chance to explode into fireworks. Axl’s Haitaka (Sparrowhawk) Stance will be significantly changed. Potemkin’s crouching hurtbox is lowered, and his crouching looks shorter as well.

As for Answer, the Business Ninja, there’s a few details on his gameplay flow. He throws around scrolls and business cards. He then utilizes them for fast pressure, either teleporting to the business cards or launching shadow clones from them. Scrolls allow some special moves. When it comes to the Lone Samurai Baiken, it’s a little harder to grasp her changes–the translation says that overall, she’s much more simplified in comparison to her past versions. The only guard cancel move she has is called Azami, used anytime while blocking on the ground and in the air. It sounds like after using Azami, she may be able to ad-lib and go into her regular special moves.

Keep in mind that this early leak may not be entirely accurate, or completely disproved. While we’re all hungry for details about Guilty Gear, there’s sure to be official information and hopefully footage from Famitsu and the upcoming loketests soon. The loketests start on January 20th.

Read up on the translated REV 2 leak on Evernote.

Sources: Evernote; original post; translation by @GREATFERNMAN

Just on the cusp of Genesis 4, Panda Global has made the move to sign two more players within the Super Smash Bros. community, and both on very opposite ends of the spectrum.

Rich Brown is one of the signings, who is a strong player in both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. With Brawl oft neglected at tournaments these days, Brown will be playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U at Genesis 4.

The more amazing signing was SuPeRbOoMfAn. He is a top player in the original Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64, and will be focused solely on that at Genesis. While it could be perplexing that they are signing someone focused on the original title, there is a strong revival of that game currently happening, so it should be quite interesting to see the direction they take with their signings from herein.

Source: ESPN Esports

SNK has been quick to support The King of Fighters XIV with post-launch content, and that doesn’t look to change this year. However, it seems there has been some confusion on what that downloadable content will be, with some Chinese sites even reporting that the game would be getting a new character.

That confusion has now been cleared up, thanks to the efforts of Gatoray and MOJO82. Some Chinese news outlets, had mistranslated a quote from KoFXIV producer Yasuyuki Oda during a press conference, claiming that he had confirmed a new character. In reality, Oda had mentioned that KoFXIV would be getting 2 new downloadable costumes later this month.

The costumes in particular are supposed to be for new protagonist Shun’ei, and Samurai Shodown character Nakoruru. The selection of these two characters is interesting, as it means that, unlike with Kyo or Athena, the new costumes won’t be callbacks to earlier games (XIV is Shun’ei’s first appearance, and Nakoruru is in her traditional look from previous games).

These costumes are expected to drop sometime near the end of this month. Whether or not they’re for China only–or if they’ll be out for the rest of the world–is as of yet unknown.

Sources: Gatoray; MOJO8217

For all the free-to-play Killer Instinct players, this is your lucky day. Last year, prior to the release of Killer Instinct on Windows 10, Microsoft released Season 1 free for Games with Gold. This year, it looks like they’re doing the same thing.

If you are a Xbox Live Gold subscriber, Season 2 of Killer Instinct is now available on Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. This pack will allow you continual access to Season 2’s characters for no cost. This also supports DLC crossplay, so Windows 10 players can also purchase the pack through Xbox’s web store and have it available on their PC build of Killer Instinct.

Source: Microsoft Store

Another round of maintenance is scheduled for tomorrow.

Tuesday is once again Street Fighter V server maintenance day: the SFV online functions will be down tomorrow from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM PST.

If there is a specific reason for this particular server outage, it has not been stated; many players are still experiencing shaky online play since the December update, so perhaps this will help address the issue. Or maybe Capcom is sneaking in some other improvements? We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Street Fighter V [in-game]

It looks like a new update to Street Fighter II isn’t the only classic fighting game coming to Nintendo Switch. For fans of SNK’s Neo-Geo and its myriad of fighting games, three fighters from that console’s heyday are coming to the Switch.

The King of Fighters ’98, World Heroes Perfect, and Waku Waku 7 are coming to Nintendo’s Switch as part of the expansion of Hamster Corporation’s Arcade Archives series into Nintendo console/portable hybrid.

The King of Fighters ’98 needs no introduction, being one of the best installments of the King of Fighters series. Meanwhile, World Heroes Perfect is the final title in ADK’s World Heroes series, and the best iteration of it as well. Sunsoft’s Waku Waku 7 is probably the most obscure one of the bunch, but also the most interesting, with its colorful and eclectic cast of characters who are all parodies of characters and tropes from other franchises.

In addition to these three, classic run-and-gun games Shock Troopers and Metal Slug 3 are also coming to Switch. No release dates are clear as of yet–as is still the case with most titles for Nintendo’s upcoming platform.

Source: Famitsu