Category: News

Over the past several months, The Pokémon Company has been (very, very slowly) revealing and releasing new characters and balance updates to Pokkén Tournament’s arcade cabinets. There’s been plenty of advertisements, but no announcements for console updates, or even a Switch release. For everyone outside of the Japanese arcade market, TPC’s end goal may seem a little mysterious. The sudden announcement of the game at two large and popular japanese events, however, may be part of a larger plan for the game in 2017.

Coming via Pokkén’s Official Twitter, the unique point-of-view shifting fighter will be appearing at the multi-genre tournament Tokaigi 2017. Considering Tokaigi has run everything from tournaments for Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike to Super Mario Speed Runs, Pokkén likely feels right at home. This also isn’t the first time Pokkén has been at Tokaigi, though it is the game’s first appearance post console release. The tournament will be in a 2v2 team format, with limited signup. This tournament will take place on February 12th, 2017.

For those looking for a more standard format of Japanese Pokkén, KVOxTSB 2017 will be running a singles tournament for Pokkén. KVO of Japan and Team St1ckBuG’s game selection this year leans heavily towards the anime and airdasher side of fighting games, making Pokkén an unusually slower paced choice for the tournament. We’ll see on May 4th if this’ll help Pokkén stand out from the crowd! Of particular note for fans of japan’s Pokkén scene is that the tournament organizer will be none other then the Gengar legend himself, Sasahune.

Thanks to JiMing for the tip, and translations in their article at smashboards!

Sources: JiMing; Pokkén Official, KVO

In conjunction with the release of Athena’s The King of Fighters ’98 retro outfit, Yasukuyi Oda has announced via the PlayStation Blog that version 1.10 of The King of Fighters XIV will launch on January 11th, 2017. If you are not yet aware, this update drastically improves KOFXIV’s visuals, by overhauling the lighting engine and improving the shader quality for all of the cast.

As well as these graphical improvements, version 1.10 of King of Fighters XIV adds two new color palettes to every fighter on the roster, and a special demo ver.2 will be released ahead of the full update for fans to get to grips with this new version. Do be aware that version 1.10 will not contain any balance changes, it will just contain the graphical upgrades.

You’ll be able to see KOFXIV’s new coat of paint in motion at the Four Kings Tournaments for The King of Fighters World Championship in February; expect more big updates from SNK in the new year.

Source: PlayStation Blog via Gematsu

Expanding into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U earlier in the year with the signing of Jason “ANTi” Bates, Immortals have made their grand entrance into Super Smash Bros. Melee with the acquisition of notable NorCal Sheik main, DaJuan “Shroomed” McDaniel.

Following his split from Winterfox earlier this month, Shroomed entered a period of free agency as he looked for a new team. With his energetic personality, stellar teams ability and his world class Sheik, the Immortals have picked a fan favorite by signing Shroomed to their growing Smash stable. With top 8 placings at Get on My Level 2016, Smash ‘n’ Splash 2, CEO 2016, and Super Smash Con, Shroomed looks set to hit new heights with Immortals.

“Shroomed isn’t only a skilled competitor, but also a player that consistently reflects the IMT commitment to holistic performance,” says CEO of Immortals, Noah Whinston. “DaJuan’s focus on mental and physical wellness as keys to competitive performance made him an easy choice as Immortals’ SSBM representative.”

Shroomed will be representing Immortals at Genesis 4 in January, so look out for him rocking a new black and green jersey in San Jose next month.

Source: Immortals

For those looking to pick up Mortal Kombat XL on PlayStation 4 as either a gift for a friend–or for themselves–now is a great time to do so. NetherRealm’s flagship fighter is on sale as part of PlayStation’s Holiday sale, week 3.

Mortal Kombat XL can currently be purchased on the PlayStation Store for only $19.99. This represents a 50% discount of the game’s regular price of $39.99.

Included in Mortal Kombat XL is all the previously released downloadable content for Mortal Kombat X, including characters in both Kombat Pack 1 and Kombat Pack 2.

The PlayStation Holiday Sale lasts up until 8:00 AM Pacific Time on December 27. Interested players can check out the discounted Mortal Kombat XL as well as other games on sale at the PlayStation Store.

Source: PlayStation Store

After taking a few weeks off, the CFN Portal site is back to posting profiles once again, continuing the Shadaloo Activity Report’s look into the members of the Mad Gear Gang from 1989’s Final Fight, this time focusing on three of the gang’s portlier members, known for their powerful charging headbutts: Wong Who, Bill Bull and G. Oriber!

Private Nakagawa: I think there were many of you who were surprised by a sudden headbutt charge from offscreen. That sound, THOOM, THOOM, THOOM, was so scary!

Basic Info:

Name: Wong Who
Height: 191 cm
Weight: 214 kg
Blood type: 0
Birthday: March 8th
Home Country: USA
Likes: Karaage, Sweet Foods in general
Dislikes: Useless Efforts

Private Nakagawa: A giant active in the vicinity of Metro City’s harbor. He earned his living from weapon smuggling and contraband. He has a big tiger tattoo on his back. It seems he has a relative able to spit poison from his mouth, active in an Asian organization specialized in drugs. [It seems Wong Who’s related to T.U.S.K from the Nguuhao, who was killed by M. Bison during their failed coup attempt against Shadaloo.]

Next up, we have Bill Bull!

Private Nakagawa: Another one of the headbutt brigade. Sometimes he dished out a powerful front kick. He drinks, rages and breaks beer bottles. Scary, scary!

Basic Info:

Name: Bill Bull
Height: 195 cm
Weight: 212 kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: April 2nd
Home Country: USA
Likes: His Original Cocktail, Watching Baseball
Dislikes: Exercise

Private Nakagawa: He’s renowned for his original cocktail, in which he mixes Worcestershire sauce, shōyu, mustard, Chili oil and dressing. It seems that he’s recently enjoying mellowing it with honey. He tried a diet once, but it didn’t last long.

Rounding out the trio is G. Oriber!

Private Nakagawa: He’s the last member of the headbutt brigade. He has the strongest kicks amongst all its members. Well, at least he thinks so.

Basic Info:

Name: G. Oriber
Height: 191 cm
Weight: 209 kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: September 4th
Home Country: USA
Likes: Hamburgers, Fatty Foods
Dislikes: Police

Private Nakgawa: He has great faith in himself, and always tyrannises people. He boasts about his sideburns, that he never forgets to trim. Apparently, he doesn’t use an electric shaver, instead insisting upon using a straight razor. The G. in his name stands for “Graham.” [I also suspect that “Oriber” was actually Oliver (again, its kana interpretation goes both ways). That would nicely fit Capcom’s tendency to randomly reference rock artists in Final Fight.]

That wraps another set of CFN Profiles. For a look at more Mad Gear members, take a look at Axl, Slash and Roxy here, as well as El Gado and Holly Wood here,  Bred, Dug, Jake and Simons here, and TWO.P and J here. Stay tuned to Shoryuken, where we’ll bring you more CFN Portal site profiles as they’re released!

Source: CFN Portal, special thanks to Midgardsorn for translation and footnotes on these profiles

Following the costume’s release a couple of days ago in Europe and China, the classic King of Fighters ’98 costume for Athena Asamiya is now out for The King of Fighters XIV owners in North America. While the costume is part of a holiday pack in Europe, the costume comes by itself in North America. While this omission doesn’t really affect the game itself, it does mean that North American players are missing out on a couple of well-made PlayStation 4 themes, complete with custom music and icons.

Athena’s classic KOF ’98 costume is currently available for free for North America for an unspecified amount of time. Interested players should head on over the PlayStation Store to download it.

Source: PlayStation Store

Some post-launch cleanup for Season 2?

Since that big patch rolled out Tuesday night, there have been complaints about the Street Fighter V server stability, particularly in Ranked and Casual matches:

We are aware of the issues with the game server and currently investigating the cause. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

— SFV Server (@SFVServer) December 21, 2016

Capcom is taking the SFV servers down for an hour this morning–between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM PST–for “urgent server maintenance&#8221$$ hopefully to address this Season 2 launch hiccup.

We will perform urgent server maintenance from 11am to 12pm PST on 12/22 (THU). Thank you for your patience and continued support.

— SFV Server (@SFVServer) December 22, 2016

Here’s hoping SFV online is running smoother when they come back up at noon.

Source: SFV Server (Twitter)

Chief Thunder has been one of the favorite characters across the Killer Instinct series since its inception. He has, however, been seen as a negative stereotype of Native Americans based on his original design. This has been something that Microsoft Studios has aimed to correct since acquiring Rare. While they initially got his look closer to accuracy, it just wasn’t enough. So what is a design team supposed to do?

They brought in the experts. The result of a collaborative effort between the design team and the Nez Perce tribe of Lapwai, Idaho, the Legend of Thunder costume is meant to be the most faithful representation of a Native American in any game to date.

This new skin for Chief Thunder is free for owners of Killer Instinct on both Xbox One and Windows 10.

Source: Xbox