Category: News

As we march towards the end of 2016’s tournament season, players will no doubt be glancing at their calendars and trying to lock in their tournament attendance for 2017. Returning after a break last year and helping to fill the void left by Stunfest taking a year off, Street Grand Battle is coming back to Lyon in February, promising a weekend of exciting Street Fighter V action.

Running a 384-player singles tournament and a 128-team 3v3 tournament, there will certainly be a fair few fights on the street at SGB 2017. There are eight invited top players planned to attend, with LI Joe, Zowie|Gamerbee, FA|Big Bird and BX3.TP-Link|Phenom being announced as the first four who are set to play at Street Grand Battle. All the details, including rules, travel information and places to stay in Lyon are all available on the official SGB 2017 website and you can check out the official announcement trailer below.

Sources: Ladosenet; SGB

Good news for PC Street Fighter V players who play with a PS4 pad, the latest Steam Client Beta has added controller support for the DualShock 4. Do note that this is still in beta, so there may be bugs and glitches present when using your DualShock with Steam.

To activate the controller support, first opt into the beta program and restart Steam. Once you’ve restarted, activate Big Picture mode, go into Settings and then click Add/Test Controller. Check the “PS4 Configuration Support” box which causes Steam to consider the PS4 pad as a Steam Controller. All you need to do is then make sure the Steam overlay is enabled for Street Fighter V and your controller should work natively when plugged into your computer.

This update is just for the DualShock 4 at the moment, so fightsticks and fight pads will not be treated as a Steam Controller and thus won’t have their inputs inserted directly into the Steam overlay. Xinput and other controller drivers will still be needed to get a stick working with Street Fighter V on PC.

Source: Steam via r/StreetFighter

Last April, SNK Playmore started to rebrand itself back into just SNK. This involved dropping the Playmore label from their games and bringing back their classic “The Future Is Now” tagline. That said, despite all this, they were still officially known as SNK Playmore Corporation.

That will change soon as SNK Playmore has announced that they will finally be officially changing their corporate name back to SNK Corporation on December 1, 2016.

SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION is proud to announce the change of its name to “SNK CORPORATION” from December 1st, 2016. https://t.co/CpzcAUdecH pic.twitter.com/EmGlW6tMGp

— G-Mantle (ゲーマント） (@SNKPofficial) November 1, 2016

This change is just the latest in a long series of steps that the company has been undertaking as of late, in an effort to win back its core audience by evoking the original SNK’s golden era in the ’90s. Prior to this, and their rebranding last year, the company already started to focus on their core gaming audience, bowing out of the pachinko business.

Source: SNK

After arcade versions split into three acts, Japanese console version, and pre-release demos, BlazBlue: Central Fiction–said to be the final chapter of Ragna the Bloodedge’s story–releases today in the United States and Canada.

In addition to a lengthy Story Mode, improved RPG/survival mode Grim of Abyss, Tutorial, Training, and Challenge Modes, this release packs 35 characters. Newcomers include: Hibiki Kohaku, Naoto Kurogane, Nine the Phantom, Hades Izanami, Susano’o, Es, and Mai Natsume, the last three being console-exclusive.

The game runs for $49.99 (PS3 version) and for $59.99 (PS4 version).

Other than the regular editions, there’s also the BlazBlue: Central Fiction Limited Edition and a bundle with a special HORI game pad sold by the Aksys Games store.

Es is available to download for free for two weeks from the PSN store, while Susano’o is unlockable by clearing Story Mode. Mai Natsume, the second DLC character, is also purchasable now.

The European release follows on November 4th.

Is the Wheel of Fate Turning for you? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: PlayStation Blog, psychelocks

Croagunk has been revealed to be the newest playable Pokkén Tournament character, as shown on a livesteam earlier today. The fourth generation Pokémon was already considered one of the game’s stronger support characters, but Croagunk will now have his shot at the center stage. In footage from the livestream Croagunk appeared to have a projectile heavy play style, with some projectiles relying on RNG (Random Number Generation) in similar fashion to Guilty Gear’s Faust.

The reveal certainly is a shock to the Pokkén Tournament community, which had been anticipating the announcement of a different Pokémon, Empoleon. Data referencing Empoleon was found within the same patch files that hinted at the addition of Darkrai and Scizor to the game’s cast, but in an ironic turn, the data miners who discovered the update data dismissed new files referencing Croagunk, as it was already a support character. Players had gone so far as to piece together a movelist for Empoleon, making Croagunk’s announcement even more of a surprise.

Along with the new character the new arcade patch will bring nerfs to Sceptile and Braixen, along with changes to Chandelure, Gengar, and Darkrai and potentially more. The patch notes were released during the livestream but have yet to be translated. So far it has been reported that Chandelure’s Minimize will no longer dodge grabs, and several Pokémon will lose the ability to create unblockables using throws alongside projectiles.

There is still no word on when or if Darkrai, Scizor or Croagunk will be available on the Wii U version of Pokkén Tournament.

Sources: Pokkén Livestream; Circa|CatFight; Jetsplit

After taking a look at the two new challengers of Street Fighter EX 2 Plus, the CFN Portal site rounds out the Shadaloo Activity Report’s files on the EX2 roster by spotlighting the anti-hero Shadowgeist, and the secret agent who lives a double life as a caring nun: Sharon! Once again, Senior Officer of Shadaloo NIN continues to provide his supplementary commentary to Private Nakagawa about ARIKA’s creations.

Private Nakagawa: Another one has appeared! A mysterious man! His costume looks cooler than the previous man of mystery. What, … a hero? …. Is that so.

Basic Info:

Name: Shadowgeist
Height: 197cm
Weight: 100kg
Blood Type: Unknown
Birthday: Unknown
Country of Origin: Unknown
Likes: Justice
Dislikes: Irrationality in the world

Private Nakagawa: His wife was murdered by his country which is lead by a dictatorship, and his beloved only daughter had also gone missing. He remodeled his own human body by strengthening it in order to take his revenge, turning himself into an enhanced human and a tragic hero. He fights to protect the people from becoming victims of that country like he once was.

As I expected, he has a very hardcore background profile…. In addition, it seems he has a self-destruct mechanism embedded in his body. Even today, we have a comment from our Senior colleague!

NIN: He is really cool! Definitely one of my favorite designs. Me, personally, I really enjoy this kind of mysterious men and monsters! His Super Combo “Death Energy” has the effect of pulling in the opponent towards him, which was the result of the various awkward bugs which occurred, I feel bitter remembering it…

Lastly, to close out the EX2 characters, we have the woman who is a caring nun by day, yet a secret assassin by night, Sharon!

Private Nakagawa: The beautiful woman with rose-colored hair. Formally, she is ostensibly a monastery nun. Though her true identity is that of an agent of the intelligence organization!

Basic Info:

Name: Sharon
Height: 172cm
Weight: 62kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: September 7th
Home Country: France?
Likes: Lost parents
Dislikes: Unconvincing circumstances

Private Nakagawa: She was raised in a French monastery as an orphan. When she was a young girl she dreamed of reuniting with her long-lost parents. She’s an A-class spy with prospective abilities and she is prompted to carry out the assassination of a certain individual… She has a rose tattoo on her chest. Apparently, it seems she’s also skilled with handling firearms.

NIN: She’s pretty and I really like her design, another one of the unsung heroes (?). How sad. I wonder if the generally proportioned, comparatively common, feeling among the darker members is suited for the EX series? Among other things is her rose tattoo, somehow it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot in terms of an interesting story background and settings? What if you were the person in charge of preparing and writing the original narrative, LOL.

And so, we arrive at the end of the EX2 cast. For further information on the EX2 characters, you can take a look at our coverage of Nanase, Hayate, Vulcano Rosso and Area here and here, as well as a special piece on Secret “Heroes & History” rejected costume concepts here. Keep it locked on Shoryuken for more CFN Portal profiles as they appear!

Source: CFN Portal

After taking a look at the two new challengers of Street Fighter EX 2 Plus, the CFN Portal site rounds out the Shadaloo Activity Report’s files on the EX2 roster by spotlighting the anti-hero Shadowgeist, and the secret agent who lives a double life as a caring nun: Sharon! Once again, Senior Officer of Shadaloo NIN continues to provide his supplementary commentary to Private Nakagawa about ARIKA’s creations.

Private Nakagawa: Another one has appeared! A mysterious man! His costume looks cooler than the previous man of mystery. What, … a hero? …. Is that so.

Basic Info:

Name: Shadowgeist
Height: 197cm
Weight: 100kg
Blood Type: Unknown
Birthday: Unknown
Country of Origin: Unknown
Likes: Justice
Dislikes: Irrationality in the world

Private Nakagawa: His wife was murdered by his country which is lead by a dictatorship, and his beloved only daughter had also gone missing. He remodeled his own human body by strengthening it in order to take his revenge, turning himself into an enhanced human and a tragic hero. He fights to protect the people from becoming victims of that country like he once was.

As I expected, he has a very hardcore background profile…. In addition, it seems he has a self-destruct mechanism embedded in his body. Even today, we have a comment from our Senior colleague!

NIN: He is really cool! Definitely one of my favorite designs. Me, personally, I really enjoy this kind of mysterious men and monsters! His Super Combo “Death Energy” has the effect of pulling in the opponent towards him, which was the result of the various awkward bugs which occurred, I feel bitter remembering it…

Lastly, to close out the EX2 characters, we have the woman who is a caring nun by day, yet a secret assassin by night, Sharon!

Private Nakagawa: The beautiful woman with rose-colored hair. Formally, she is ostensibly a monastery nun. Though her true identity is that of an agent of the intelligence organization!

Basic Info:

Name: Sharon
Height: 172cm
Weight: 62kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: September 7th
Home Country: France?
Likes: Lost parents
Dislikes: Unconvincing circumstances

Private Nakagawa: She was raised in a French monastery as an orphan. When she was a young girl she dreamed of reuniting with her long-lost parents. She’s an A-class spy with prospective abilities and she is prompted to carry out the assassination of a certain individual… She has a rose tattoo on her chest. Apparently, it seems she’s also skilled with handling firearms.

NIN: She’s pretty and I really like her design, another one of the unsung heroes (?). How sad. I wonder if the generally proportioned, comparatively common, feeling among the darker members is suited for the EX series? Among other things is her rose tattoo, somehow it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot in terms of an interesting story background and settings? What if you were the person in charge of preparing and writing the original narrative, LOL.

And so, we arrive at the end of the EX2 cast. For further information on the EX2 characters, you can take a look at our coverage of Nanase, Hayate, Vulcano Rosso and Area here and here, as well as a special piece on Secret “Heroes & History” rejected costume concepts here. Keep it locked on Shoryuken for more CFN Portal profiles as they appear!

Source: CFN Portal