Category: News

Announced just ahead of the event this weekend, the team over at Super Smash Con have stated that TSM ZeRo has dropped out of The Smash Masters exhibition event–to be replaced by Splyce’s Nintendude. It is unclear as to why ZeRo pulled out of this exhibition, but one can hazard a guess that it is so he can focus all of his energies into winning Super Smash Con’s illustrious Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament.

Nintendude is definitely no slouch across the Smash games–known primarily for his Ice Climbers play in Melee, but he also has quite the resume for the original Super Smash Bros., placing within top 20 for singles tournaments and in top 8 in doubles tournaments. He does play Smash 4 casually, having faced off against fellow Ice Climbers main VGBC|ChuDat at Evo, but his proficiency in that game is nowhere near his skill in Melee and Smash 64.

With Nintendude now facing Mew2King in the opening round, the shape of this tournament has radically changed. ZeRo was certainly a favorite to win this exhibition, but with his bowing out of the competition, it looks like it may be a final showdown between Wizzrobe and Mew2King for the title of best overall Smasher.

Source: Super Smash Con

As we recently reported, Skullgirls 2nd Encore is in the process of getting a huge update to its core game. New animations and lobbies–among other changes–are on their way soon. Probably some of the most exciting changes coming are in the form of balance adjustments for multiple characters; while some of the characters are scarcely getting touched, or having simple bug fixes added, other characters are getting large reworks to core aspects of their gameplay–and some of the biggest changes in that department are going to Robo-Fortune.

While these changes are tentative at the moment, and extremely experimental–none of them are guaranteed to go into the full game, and new changes are being added almost daily–they are currently live in Skullgirls’ Endless PC Beta, which has been running since the PC launch. Robo-Fortune is currently getting large buffs to her keep-away game, but in return is suffering large nerfs to her damage output. Fukua is also receiving a really big change: in the ability to call and hold her shadows until she wishes to release them. This means she can pressure the opponent with the threat of a incoming low or overhead shadow. In return for this, she does lose health while holding a shadow, as well as a large nerf to her damage as well. Check out this video featuring some of the changes.

You can play with these changes for yourself, or wait for them to make their way to retail. Either way, check this link for a current list of all the changes, which will be updated regularly as new changes are added.

Sources: Lab Zero; DragonSlave

As we recently reported, Skullgirls 2nd Encore is in the process of getting a huge update to its core game. New animations and lobbies–among other changes–are on their way soon. Probably some of the most exciting changes coming are in the form of balance adjustments for multiple characters; while some of the characters are scarcely getting touched, or having simple bug fixes added, other characters are getting large reworks to core aspects of their gameplay–and some of the biggest changes in that department are going to Robo-Fortune.

While these changes are tentative at the moment, and extremely experimental–none of them are guaranteed to go into the full game, and new changes are being added almost daily–they are currently live in Skullgirls’ Endless PC Beta, which has been running since the PC launch. Robo-Fortune is currently getting large buffs to her keep-away game, but in return is suffering large nerfs to her damage output. Fukua is also receiving a really big change: in the ability to call and hold her shadows until she wishes to release them. This means she can pressure the opponent with the threat of a incoming low or overhead shadow. In return for this, she does lose health while holding a shadow, as well as a large nerf to her damage as well. Check out this video featuring some of the changes.

You can play with these changes for yourself, or wait for them to make their way to retail. Either way, check this link for a current list of all the changes, which will be updated regularly as new changes are added.

Sources: Lab Zero; DragonSlave

Cross-platform play has been a hot topic of discussion as of late, particularly after Microsoft stated that they are more than open to the idea of Xbox One/PlayStation 4 connectivity. With Tekken 7: Fated Retribution still in development, some fans are asking Bandai Namco directly if there are any plans of implementing interaction between the destination platforms.

Twitter user @IPT_eL recently asked Tekken 7 game designer Michael Murray if the upcoming fighting game would include a more inclusive online network:

@IPT_eL please ask Sony. MS already publicly said they're interested in cross platform

— Michael Murray (@mykeryu) August 5, 2016

Sony is no stranger to cross-play however: the company has supported play between PlayStation 4 consoles and PC for quite some time. Titles like Street Fighter V and Final Fantasy XIV already have this kind of connectivity. The real question is if Sony is willing to cooperate with their competitor to have one unified playing space.

With neither side making any promises, it’s tough to tell if cross-platform play will be a feature shipping with Tekken 7, but there is always hope for a compatibility patch down the road if all parties come to an agreement.

Tekken 7: Fated Retribution will be releasing on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in early 2017.

Sources: Michael Murray (Twitter); GameRant; Push Square

One of the most influential players when it comes to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is none other than one of its “gods”: Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez. Aside from being one of the game’s best players, FChamp is also quick to give his opinions on various topics regarding the game and its community.

Now, FChamp has tweeted a list of who he thinks are the top 7 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 players of all time. The list features some of the game’s greatest players, including the 3 “gods”–himself, Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong, and newly-crowned Evo 2016 champion Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzales–and other players who’ve been threats in and out of Evo such as Kane Blue River, EG|PR Balrog, and Rayray.

My top 7 players in MVC3/UMVC3 of all time
Consistency / results / overall in 5 yrs
Chris G
Jwong
Fchamp
Flocker
KBR
PrRog
Rayray

— PG.Ryan Ramirez (@fchampryan) August 7, 2016

More interesting, however, is his follow-up list of 7 more players who could all be contenders for the 8th, 9th, and 10th spots–if he were to make a top ten list.

I think 8th 9th and 10th of all time could be any of the following (Any order)
Clockwork
Cloud@GoldenBoyNeo
Apologyman
Angelic
Flux
Jan

— PG.Ryan Ramirez (@fchampryan) August 7, 2016

This list is interesting in showing that despite the game having stratified at the top, there are still enough great players in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, waiting in the wings, just below the upper pantheon.

Source: PG|Filipino Champ (Twitter)

Tekken 7: Fated Retribution is receiving an arcade update tomorrow: called the “Version C” update, this new patch will see the return of heavyweight fighter Bob. In addition to Bob however, Version C will also bring with it more than a few balance changes. These changes affect a number of the existing cast members, most notably Street Fighter guest character Akuma, who sees more than a new nerfs–including damage reductions and frame data adjustments.

Avoiding the Puddle’s Flying Wonkey has translated these changes which you can read below or on their site.

Source: Tekken Official via Avoiding the Puddle

In what is perhaps the biggest news for Skullgirls 2nd Encore since the release of physical copies in Japan, Lab Zero has announced what appears to be the final update to their flagship game.

This patch–promised to bring the lobbies found on Steam to consoles–is said to “come with a number of general bug fixes, as well as minor gameplay fixes, tweaks, and balance adjustments.” Some of these bugs and tweaks have been shown off in the Steam version of the game, such as the best-of-five function to quick match, as well as improved replay functions. The replay feature has not been stated to be coming to consoles, however.

As far as the new animations are concerned, it was stated that there were “new intro animations being created” for Skullgirls Mobile, the mobile fighting game that uses Skullgirls sprites. There was new art spotted in the trailer for that game, and some new palettes, but only time will tell which assets will make their way over from the mobile game.

Improvements to the Vita version of the game were also mentioned. There are a few issues with blurry text and textures, due to the small screen; Lab Zero stated “we can’t promise that this will be improved in the lobbies patch, but please know that we’re considering every option at our disposal.”

The mention of balance changes is particularly interesting: there haven’t been any balance changes since the Robo-Fortune patch over a year ago, so there’s been a lot of time for Lab Zero to think about rebalancing. While it is stated that the changes will be minor, Skullgirls is known for massive patch notes. The Endless Beta–which has been in place for Skullgirls since the beginning–is currently being used to test out the aforementioned changes. You can read the whole patch notes here, which contain ten pages of incoming updates. These changes are said to be simply experimental at this point, so none of them are definite–and there are said to be even more changes coming soon.

The final bombshell was the announcement of an English physical release for Skullgirls. Thanks to Arc System Works, it’s already happened for our friends in Japan–but it would be great to have a stateside version. It went unsaid whether or not a collector’s edition was planned, like Japan’s Skullbox.

Source: Skullgirls; ArcSys