Category: News

These days, players expect characters to get some sort of benefit from being hit, whether it’s meter to amplify their specials or unleash a super. While taking damage is rarely the best course of action in a fighting game, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-‘s Raven welcomes the pain.

According to new details from Famitsu, the Guilty Gear 2: Overture boss is something of a masochist that gets stronger the more he’s attacked. Getting hit during a unique attack called “I Want It Here” fills up a separate gauge that powers up Raven’s attacks and, at times, changes their characteristics entirely.

Click to view slideshow.

Other than that, Raven specializes in long-range attacks, and focuses on controlling the match at mid-screen. More than any other fighting game character, players will need to manage Raven’s health wisely in order to get the most out of him in competition.

Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- launches for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on May 26 in Japan, June 7 in North America, and June 10 in Europe. More details on Raven’s gameplay can be found here.

Source: Famitsu via Siliconera, greatfernman

To celebrate the launch of Street Fighter V, Sony has announced that they will be letting PlayStation 4 owners play online for free this weekend.

Though netplay typically requires an active PlayStation Plus subscription, this will allow people to jump in and try it out for themselves without spending any additional cash. Let’s hope Capcom has worked out the kinks by then.

The free multiplayer weekend, which is open to every game with an online component, starts Friday at 12:01 AM PST and lasts until 11:59 PM PST on February 21.

Source: PlayStation Blog

In keeping with the schedule they set during last week’s Kombat Kast, NetherRealm Studios announced yesterday that fans can expect to find out everything they could possibly want to know about upcoming cast member Bo’ Rai Cho this Thursday, February 18 at 2 PM PST, 5 PM EST.

While perhaps not the most exciting character in Kombat Pack 2, the drunken master is sure to bring with him plenty of surprises, many of which will likely involve the bathroom humor showcased in the teaser trailer.

If you’re thinking about picking up a character who would rather not face world-destroying entities sober, you’ll definitely want to check out this week’s stream.

Source: NetherRealm Studios, tip via NightmareSteam

With Street Fighter V’s recent launch, many players, especially those who compete on a regular basis, are scrambling to find ways to get their old arcade sticks and pads working on PlayStation 4. And while the legacy controller option within the game is nice, it’s far from perfect, and only pertains to peripherals made for Sony consoles.

One solution is Brook’s line of Super Converters, which come in various configurations that allow older controllers for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 (including Akishop’s PS360+ dual console PCB) to work on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. There’s also a variant that allows Xbox One controllers to work on PlayStation 4.

Better yet, these devices have been deemed legal for use at Evo 2016 and a host of other tournaments, provided their compatibility not be patched out beforehand. Performance-wise, the converter has been shown to add no noticeable input delay.

If you’re in the market, Brook Super Converters are now available over at Arcade Shock for $24.99 apiece.

Source: Arcade Shock

It’s no secret that yesterday’s Street Fighter V launch didn’t go off without a hitch. Players were immediately beset by issues as the servers opened their gates to the community at large, including but not limited to the inability to find matches and create battle lounges. Late last night, Capcom took the servers offline in order to perform necessary maintenance, which was followed up this morning with an update straight from the developers.

While sporadic problems still persist, Capcom insists that things should be getting better. A hotfix was applied last night to improve battle lounge stability, and now that Street Fighter V’s servers have officially launched in major regions across the world, connectivity issues should be less frequent.

That said, there’s still a number of updates to be made, especially with the PC version. Capcom is looking into adding Direct Input support for PlayStation controllers in a future patch, as well as expanding key rebinding, language, and resolution options.

Be sure to visit Capcom-Unity by following the link below for the full post-launch address, and keep an eye on SFV Server for future updates.

Source: Capcom-Unity

With an upcoming appearance at the C3 Expo in Hong Kong, SNK Playmore has revealed another handful of King of Fighters XIV characters. While all of their previous announcements have dealt with returning cast members, this latest group provides us with our first glimpse of a mysterious newcomer named King of Dinosaurs alongside fan favorites Maxima, Clark Still, and Terry Bogard.

The masked fighter is referred to as a “heel” or “rudo” wrestler with an evil streak, and producer Yasuyuki Oda hints that someone may be hiding beneath the terrifying tyrannosaurus head. As you can see in the trailer above, King of Dinosaurs makes great use of his prehistoric features by munching on opponents’ heads and whipping them with his tail.

SNK also shared previews of two new stages: Guanajuato Dynamite Ring and Derelict Church. The former is featured prominently with King of Dinosaurs, expanding on his background as a luchador.

Nothing here really confirms or discredits our rumored roster. King of Dinosaurs throws a bit of a wrench in the works, but it’s entirely likely that he’s the “non-human species” that serves as the final boss. Others have also posited that he may be a separate persona of Tizoc, another professional wrestler that first debuted in Garou: Mark of the Wolves and made subsequent appearances in King of Fighters 2003 and King of Fighters XI.

Whatever the case may be, we should receive more footage of these characters in action over the weekend, so stay tuned.

Source: PlayStation Blog via Gematsu, tip via NightmareSteam

Day one for any game with a heavy lean toward online modes usually sees such modes faltering, if they work at all. Street Fighter V, sadly, has proven that it’s no exception to this rule.

Luckily, the folks at Capcom are not only aware of the issues with the game’s online components, but are actively looking into ways to fix them. While exact details on what they’re looking into remain unspoken, they recently announced a plan to take the game servers offline at 7PM PST to apply a fix.

They currently plan to have everything back online by 10PM PST, so hopefully a three hour block of down time will be all we need to get back to punching as intended.

Source: SFV Server

As fighting games continue to grow, so do the ways in which you can bling out your arcade stick. If you’ve been feeling a little lackluster in that department lately, never fear, for Sanwa Denshi will soon unleash two new series of products.

The first is a collection of metallic buttons and joysticks that come in both gold and silver flavors. The Hatsuden lineup, on the other hand, is all about lights, and features buttons that illuminate with pressure.

Click to view slideshow.

Details concerning price points and release dates have yet to be finalized, but Sanwa plans to show these puppies off this weekend at Japan Amusement Expo. Stay tuned for more information.

Source: Arcade Shock

It’s been half a year since Mad Catz community and sponsorships manager Mark “MarkMan” Julio said that Evo 2015 would be his last year with the organization, and it appears as if that prediction has come true, just not in the way everyone expected.

Things have been rough at Mad Catz as of late. Earlier this month, it was announced that several members of executive leadership had resigned ahead of layoffs that would cut staff by 37% in an effort to keep the business afloat. Julio was one of the numerous employees affected by these cuts.

Anyone remotely familiar with Julio’s work in the community knows he practically radiates love for fighting games. Everything he has done in his tenure with Mad Catz was to improve our scene, from providing readily available arcade sticks to supporting fighting game tournaments across the globe. He truly deserves all the respect and gratitude in the world, and if there’s any silver lining in this series of events, it’s that he’ll be able to brighten wherever he lands with that same passion.

Speaking with 4Gamer, Julio mentioned that, as far as he knows, the longtime Mad Catz trio of Daigo Umehara, Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, and Kenryo “Mago” Hayashi are still contracted with the organization. “I wish them the best in their future endeavors and thank them for their hard work, dedication and support over the last few years,” he said.

In all honesty, it feels weird wishing Mark luck in whatever future path he embarks on because he’s more than certain to find success wherever he goes, so we’ll just say thank you. Be sure to give him some love the next time you see him at a tournament.

Sources: MarkMan, 4Gamer, featured image c/o Mad Catz

With Street Fighter V in the wild and eyes on future content, we have some pertinent information on how much post-launch characters and costumes will cost.

Let’s break things down real quick. Street Fighter V has two currencies. The first, Fight Money, is entirely in-game and earnable from completing various tasks. The second is Zenny, which is supported by real-world currency. For every dollar you put into the game, you’ll get 100 Zenny. Simple enough, right?

The possibility for confusion rises when the developers start to dictate what items can be purchased by what currency. Think of Street Fighter V’s system as an analogue to League of Legends, where Fight Money is used like Influence and Zenny can be compared to Riot Points. Sure, you’ll need to spend a whole lot more of the former to get what you want, but it’s relatively cheaper if you plan to grind the game anyways. The only cost to you is your time.

While we’ve known for some time that characters will cost 600 Zenny ($6 USD) and premium outfits will be set at 400 Zenny ($4 USD), these new details confirm previous rumors concerning how much Fight Money players will have to earn. According to Capcom, each character will be priced at 100,000 Fight Money, and story mode costumes will be 40,000 Fight Money.

That may sound like a lot, and that’s because it is. Completing the story and survival modes currently in the game should net you enough Fight Money to pick up Alex when he drops in March with a little left over for at least one costume. After that, you’ll need to focus on the upcoming daily challenges and netplay in order to earn the rest.

Fortunately, the community should never expect vital portions of gameplay, like characters, to become Zenny-exclusive purchases.