Category: News

Final Round is one of the most storied events on the major circuit in the FGC. The Atlanta, Georgia, based event has been in existence since 1997, and next year will be its 20th anniversary of bringing the FGC together in the south.

Today, we learned that Larry “ShinBlanka” Dixon has set the dates for Final Round to March 10th through 12th of 2017. While a venue has yet to be set, if you are someone who can’t miss a Final Round, you now have dates to plan your flights around!

SAVE THE DATE: Final Round 20 // March 10-12, 2017 in ATL, GA (Venue TBA) @ATLfinalround

More @Tekken events: https://t.co/AMIpuTowTz

— TekkenGamer.com (@TekkenGamercom) September 29, 2016

Final Round is always one of the biggest events, with one of the broadest range of service toward fighting games, so if you are a fan of games new and old, you need to be there!

Source: TekkenGamer

Revealed in a brief teaser ahead of Twitchcon this weekend, the dueling tug-of-war simulator Nidhogg is getting a sequel in 2017. Nidhogg II has duelists now fighting with axes, throwing knives and bows–on top of the standard swords and fists–brutally slaughtering their opponent on as they race to the finish.

The most notable and divisive shift is the change in artstyle, going from the minimalist pixel art of the original, to a much more cartoony and vibrant aesthetic. Gone are the lithe stick figures of the original Nidhogg; instead Nidhogg II has fleshy, bulging fighters which look like the offspring of a Jelly Baby and a Simpsons character. While the character models may not be to everyone’s liking, the new backgrounds and weapons look great, bringing to mind old Amiga platformers which were bursting with color.

We may see more footage of Nidhogg II at Twitchcon, complete with more curb stomps and double KOs, but in the meantime watch the short teaser below.

Source: messhof

Degica Games, a Western publisher for Japanese titles that we had previously covered regarding CEOtaku’s Koihime Enbu pot bonus, has just released a lot of amazing information. Without further adieu, let’s get into it!

First, Degica has just released a free demo version of Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena on Steam. The game has 3 available characters–Xiao Mei, Rick, and Ryuga–and is playable online. If you are looking for a new title to get into, this game would be worth a try.

Second, Degica is announcing a community Thursday Fight Night on Steam. This is being billed as an event where you can “play fighting games, make new friends, earn points (which you can redeem for prizes, and have fun.” The event will take place on Thursday nights from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM PST, and will feature not only playing games such as Blade Arcus and Koihime Enbu, but also trivia games.

Finally, Degica will be starting a weekly stream hosted by Brett Young, who is well known streamer and tournament organizer in the anime FGC. Future streams will feature other top players.

Sources: Mitchell Scott, Degica Games (via email)

If you were at Evo 2016, you may have seen a bunch of shiny silver and gold metallic arcade parts from Sanwa Denshi on sale. If you missed the chance to get these at the event, we have some great news for you. After the limited release at Evo 2016, Sanwa Denshi will now be officially releasing their silver and gold metallic parts!

Starting on October 11, the Sanwa OBSF-30-AG (Gold) and OBSF-30-AU (Silver) pushbuttons, as well as the LB-35-AG (Gold) and LB-35-AU (Silver) 35 mm balltops will be available at retailers such as Arcade Shock, Paradise Arcade Shop, and Sanwa Denshi’s own store. Prices for these have not yet be released, and may very depending on region, exchange rates, and shipping costs.

In addition to these, Sanwa also recently showed off 24 mm variants of the metallic push buttons as well, and metallic dust and shaft covers for the arcade sticks. They have stated that they are looking into putting these into production, with the metallic dust and shaft covers being the last ones down the line.

Sources: Sanwa Denshi; Arcade Shock

While the genre is slowly growing as an esport, fighting game prize pools are still comparatively small compared to other genres, especially for games that don’t have large publisher backing. This is why when someone claims to have won nearly $30,000 dollars in a tournament, it tends to raise a few eyebrows.

When an unnamed temp staffer for Ota City, Japan held a press conference to claim that he had won ¥ 3,000,000 ($29,776 USD) for winning a Guilty Gear Xrd tournament held on September 20 and 21 in France, more than a few people were skeptical. With such a large prize pool, you’d think that this news would have been covered by major fighting game news sites, including us at Shoryuken. Indeed, not even Arc System Works’ own website lists such a tournament–a fact that, according to IT Media, had led many skeptics to dispute the player’s claim.

However, others also treated the story as legitimate. Both Jomo News and Asahi News reported on the story and the latter even interviewed the staffer in a now deleted article where he made statements on how his “driving force” to win was due to being mortified if he lost.

IT Media has shared a shot (with the player’s name removed) of one of the now deleted articles.

Faced with with mounting evidence and pressure from people on the net, the staffer finally admitted that the whole thing was too good to be true. “It was a lie,” he states to Mainichi News, which broke the story on the hoax. With this, the question now remains on what faces the player after his confession. According to FNN News (who covered the story on Japanese TV), Ota City officials are now looking at how to deal with him.

Sources: IT Media; Mainichi News; FNN; Kotaku

As Japan is gearing up for the console release of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, it’s Europe’s turn for an exciting announcement: dubbed “Azure Edition” and published by PQube, the latest in the BlazBlue fighting game series will go on sale this November with a handful of special goodies.

Similar to the US BlazBlue Limited Edition, the Azure Edition includes:

• An original 100-page artbook with a special collection ranging from all the games in the BlazBlue series
• The BlazBlue Song Interlude III Official Soundtrack (ten tracks)
• A Noel Vermillion Nendoroid Petit figure–the second version of the Bolverk-wielding fighter, fully supervised by BlazBlue creator Toshimichi Mori
• Exclusive artwork on the game box

This is available to pre-order exclusively through the Rice Digital store for £59.99 (PS3) or £69.99 (PS4), along with a special BlazBlue hoodie. While the date hasn’t been specified yet, the November release is closer in line with the US version.

Aksys Games also recently announced a BlazBlue: Central Fiction Limited Bundle with a HORI game pad.

Stay tuned to our continued coverage of BlazBlue as the Japanese version arrives on consoles on October 6th.

Source: Rice Digital

With their history of bringing special limited edition parts out to events, it should be no surprise that Arcade Shock have something special cooked up for SoCal Regionals 2016.

Arcade Shock will be bringing a limited edition line of Street Fighter Chibi arcade parts to SCR 2016. This line is a continuation of their previous Chibi line that originally debuted at Evo 2014. New to this batch, however, is a solid balltop design.

The Street Fighter Chibi arcade parts will be available both at So Cal Regionals 2016 as well as via Arcade Shock’s online store during that weekend.

.@SCR2016 HYPE #9: The hottest FGC Parts of all time with a limited release: SFIV Chibi Parts. #streetfighter @CapcomFighters #SCR2016 #FGC pic.twitter.com/tVj9ShfGi1

— ARCADESHOCK @SOUTHBAY MEGA MIXER APRIL 25TH (@ArcadeShock) September 29, 2016

Source: Arcade Shock (Twitter)

With a roster of over 50 different characters, it can be a bit difficult to keep up with all of the intricacies of The King of Fighters XIV cast. Thankfully, some dutiful community members have been hard at work lessening the burden with some helpful compilations like the ones below. YouTuber Gato Ray went through every character and compiled every instance of a character having a Guard Point–the ability to armor through opponent attacks.

It’s helpful not only for using these characters, but knowing who can and cannot armor through your own pressure. Additionally, this same KOF player compiled a list of all of the character moves that help them dodge fireballs. This next video is in a similar vein of the one we reported on recently, though with more of an educational purpose to it.

Source: Gato Ray

To aid fellow fighting game community member Rodalfo “Rotendo” Camarenamora who is dealing with the sudden passing of his wife, Maximillian hosted a charity stream to help cover some expenses the now-single father of three is left with. Max donated $500 dollars of his own money and pledged to contribute an additional $5 for every person who donated. At the end of the Stream, 335 people raised $8,976.89. Max cashed in on his pledge and, in a matter of hours, the total amount of money raised was over $11,000.

Rotendo has expressed his gratitude to Maximillian and everyone who has lent a hand during his difficult time. Anyone still looking to donate can still do by visiting his GoFundMe page.

You can check out Maximillian’s full update about the stream below.

Source: Maximillian

 

To sync up with the long-awaited release of Mortal Kombat XL on PC, Ed Boon has revealed on Twitter that Mortal Kombat X will be receiving a balance patch on October 4th. With Injustice 2 on the horizon, this could be the last balance patch MKX get for a fair while, that is unless a Kombat Pack 3 is released fairly soon.

To thoroughly break down this patch, Ed also announced that there will be a Kombat Kast on October 3rd at 3pm CDT, where the NetherRealm guys will go over all the major changes, buff and nerfs that will be present in this very important patch. Will Alien finally get the nerf everyone has been praying for? Will Unbreakable Sub-Zero get some loving? Will there be any general engine changes? You’ll have to tune into the Kombat Kast over on the NetherRealm Twitch channel to find out more. Who knows, we may get a hint at Kombat Pack 3 while we’re at it.

Source: Ed Boon (Twitter)