Category: News

And now, your bi-annual reminder that Tekken x Street Fighter is indeed a thing.

With the recent reveal that Akuma will be joining the Tekken 7 cast in the upcoming Fated Retribution update, many were curious if Bandai Namco Entertainment’s longstanding companion to Street Fighter x Tekken was still in development. It was easy to assume that the announcement would be followed by more Street Fighter content, but a recent interview says otherwise.

“[Tekken x Street Fighter] is still in development,” senior designer Michael Murray told Gameblog when asked about the title’s status. “It’s difficult at the moment to find a period to launch the game since Tekken 7 was released. For the moment, we are focusing on Tekken 7.”

His answer falls in line with previous statements from director Katsuhiro Harada, who mentioned that the presence of both Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V puts them in an odd position when it comes to the crossover.

Tekken x Street Fighter was first unveiled in 2010 alongside Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken. While the latter eventually made its way to consoles in 2012, the former has been kept tightly under wraps, with only small bits of concept art available to the public. Since then, Bandai Namco has been quiet about the project, but Harada recently mentioned that it is “pretty far” into development.

Gameblog also made a point to question Murray about which platforms Tekken x Street Fighter is being developed for, seeing as their original intentions to launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have been invalidated by newer hardware. While his answers remained opaque, Murray did say that the game’s development is based on PC, meaning a transition to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One shouldn’t be out of the question.

Fortunately for those looking forward to an independent title, it sounds like Tekken x Street Fighter is still very much its own entity. And thanks to Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7, we may receive an early look at how other Street Fighter characters function in the franchise’s traditional 3D fighting engine. Stay tuned for more details, true believers!

Source: Gameblog via VersusFightingTV, translations courtesy of Almakashi

With the release of season three on the horizon, the Killer Instinct team continues to push out patches and further polish the game ahead of the new content. The latest update, which dropped yesterday, fixed a few lingering issues while also adding Combo Assist Mode, a simplified control scheme that should help newcomers begin to learn the ins and outs of the title.

A full list of the changes made in the 2.13 patch can be found below.

Source: Ultra-Combo

For years, the Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. series has offered up exciting two-on-two action that, while not technically fighting game related, incorporates many of the same competitive theories. Unfortunately, it’s never officially made its way outside of Japan, but that’s all set to change with the latest installment.

Bandai Namco Entertainment recently announced their plans to localize Mobile Suit Gundam Exteme Vs-Force for the western market. This PlayStation Vita spin-off features the same gameplay of its predecessors as well as additional modes focused on squad-based battles.

While the title is currently being eaten alive by Amazon Japan reviews, many of which cite its lack of online play and diminished roster as notable offenses, this release will mark the first time a game in the series has been released in North America and Europe, raising hopes that future titles will receive the same treatment.

Mobile suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force is expected to land on western shores sometime next year.

Sources: PlayStation Blog

Last week, Arc System Works released the first patch for the PC version of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, addressing a handful of graphical and network-related issues that have been pestering players. It may not sound like much, but when everything within the game world renders beautifully at whatever absurdly high resolution you’ve decided to run, but UI elements like health bars, tension meters and even in-game menus remain fixed at some markedly lower resolution complete with jagged edges and blurry text, it just feels off. Luckily, Arc System Works prioritized this error, and we PC folk are now free to use the resolution of our choosing without fear of degrading the quality of interface elements.

As for the rest of the patch, players will find various issues with online stability have been resolved, making for a smoother play experience. Along with the patch notes, Arc System Works noted that they’re still looking into addressing other existing bugs, so we can expect support for this port to continue for the time being.

Source: Steam via IPLAYWINNER

If you happened to miss out on the variety of fighting game deals Steam offered during their Autumn Sale, their latest round of discounts should be right up your alley. While many of these Winter Sales match their previous counterparts, some are even cheaper.

For a full look at the markdowns, consult our table below. What do you plan on picking up?

Source: Steam, special thanks to NerdJosh and N4Us for their help in putting this article together.

Here’s some great news for any fighting game fans who might be getting a Xbox One or Xbox Live Gold from Santa this Christmas: Killer Instinct’s first season will be free download for Gold subscribers during the entire month of January.

Developed by Double Helix Games in conjunction with Microsoft Studios, season one gives players access to classic character like Jago, Sabrewulf, Glacius, Thunder, Spinal, Orchid, and Fulgore, as well as newcomer Sadira and all the updates that have been released thus far. While there’s since been a whole new round of content released by Iron Galaxy Studios, this should form a good foundation to decide if you want more.

Killer Instinct currently available on Xbox One, with a third season in development.

Source: Major Nelson via Kotaku

Over the years, fighting games have tried to provide a gateway to new players with various simplified control options. After asking themselves and the community how to better cater to beginners, Killer Instinct developer Iron Galaxy Studios is ready to introduce their own: Combo Assist Mode.

In short, Combo Assist removes many of the motion-based challenges that comes with pulling off Killer Instinct’s lengthy combos. Assisted combos play out similarly to their more complex siblings: tapping a second attack button during the cancel window of a first will transition your character into a special move. After this opener, another single button press will perform an Auto Double, a technique that already exists in the game, and yet another will throw out an Auto Linker. Ending combos is as easy as holding forward and pressing heavy punch or kick.

While useful for newcomers, the fact that Combo Assist doesn’t cancel out traditional controls means there’s no abrupt change as they move on to more complex motions, allowing smooth growth to more intermediate and advanced techniques. And despite keeping everything else about the game the same, the limits Combo Assist places on a player’s options will eventually necessitate a removal of the training wheels.

Combo Assist will be included as part of Killer Instinct’s next update, full details for which are expected to drop later today.

Source: Ultra-Combo

With the “surprise” announcement that Tekken 7 would be heading to consoles, Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Katsuhiro Harada also teased that their flagship fighter will also take advantage of Sony’s PlayStation VR. While how it would utilize the virtual reality system was a little vague, WIRED’s recent interview with senior designer Michael Murray sheds some light on what this may entail.

Unfortunately for fans of Tekken 2’s secret first-person mode (pictured above), they won’t be incorporating the technology the same way in Tekken 7. “I think people think we’re going to incorporate VR into the main game itself, when we don’t currently see a way that that would enhance Tekken to a new level better than what it would be right now,” Murray explains.

What virtual reality will do for Tekken 7, however, is allow players to get up close and personal with their favorite fighters outside of regular gameplay. Finalized details are still scarce, but Murray describes a mode that highlights the Tekken team’s work on customization and animation as a possibility. He also reiterates that all of the newly-announced Fated Retribution content will be available on consoles.

For more of WIRED’s conversation with Murray, be sure to check out the full interview at the link below.

Source: WIRED

January will see the return of legendary Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament Cooperation Cup, and the latest installment of this 5-on-5 event promises to be the biggest one yet.

The 14th Cooperation Cup will feature a record breaking 445 players split into 89 teams, meaning top 3rd Strike talent like MOV, Tominaga, Boss, Kokujin, Pierrot, Vanao, Rikimaru, KSK, and Nuki will have to face an even larger pool of players than last year’s record-breaking event.

And that’s not all. The annual Pre-Cooperation Cup tournament, which regularly features teams comprised of a single character, is also bigger than last year’s with 62 teams.

The 14th Cooperation Cup is scheduled for January 10. The full list of participants can be found below or on the official Google Doc.

Source: Cooperation Cup, thanks to hismit for the tip.

As far as collector’s edition bundles for fighting games go, Arc System Works and Aksys Games put together a great package for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, and now you can grab one on Amazon at a ridiculous 70% off.

The perfect gift for the Guilty Gear fan in your life, this bundle comes with special packaging, the official Xrd soundtrack, a character book with detailed background information and artwork, a keychain modeled after Sol Badguy’s ‘FREE’ belt buckle, and more.

This sale brings the PlayStation 4 version down to only $23.52, with the PlayStation 3 release a little lower at $21.38. Those of you interested in just the base game can also take advantage of similar sales, but bear in mind that you’ll actually save money on PlayStation 4 by purchasing the larger bundle.

We’re currently unsure how long this sale will last (or how many units Amazon even has in stock), so jump on it soon!

Source: Amazon