Category: News

Hot on the heels of their last interview, Famitsu have again sat down with King of Fighters XIV battle director Yasuyuki Oda to talk more about the upcoming game.

This new interview goes over many topics, including Oda’s prior experience working at SNK back in the 90s as part of the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting teams. Interestingly enough, he mentions that he’s not the only SNK veteran who’s returned to work on King of Fighters XIV, but didn’t divulge any names.

Oda also responds to questions regarding why they moved to 3D, stating that they felt it was a natural evolution as game hardware got stronger. That said, he did acknowledge that they didn’t really have much past experience with 3D before King of Fighters XIV and have begun to rectify that starting with this project.

Finally, much of the community should be happy to know that the entire 50-character roster advertised in the latest trailers will be playable at launch. Oda says that the full cast has already been decided (hint hint) and that they are trying to include as many popular characters as possible.

There’s much more to their discussion, so be sure to visit MMCafe by following the link below for a full translation.

Source: Famitsu via MMCafe

After finding success funding the project on Kickstarter, Hold Back to Block’s Esteban Martinez has spent the last two year’s crafting FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community, a documentary that highlights everything we love about our scene. Numerous teases have been dropped along the way, but now we have a release date: January 12.

Those who wish to check this out can do so by two methods, both of which will be provided through VHX. The first is a three-day streaming rental for $4, and the second is a full purchase for $10. The latter provides both downloadable and streaming versions of the film as well as bonus content not included in the rental.

It’s been a long time coming, but FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community is almost here. For updates, be sure to keep your eyes on the documentary’s official website, Twitter, and Facebook.

As part of their ongoing efforts to expand their reach in fighting game communities overseas, Twitch has brought Ryutaro “A-ru” Noda on board as part of their Japanese partnerships team.

A former tournament competitor who lists a second-place finish at the Capcom vs. SNK National Convention in 2000 among his accomplishments, Noda has since transitioned to the role of commentator. If you made a habit of tuning into Japanese tournaments over the past few years, you’ve likely heard his hype announcing accompany matches of Street Fighter IV.

Noda joins Mike Ross, Victor “Victheslik” Denchartphan, Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang, and more in the growing contingent of fighting game players making their way to Twitch to represent our community. Godspeed!

Source: Twitch via MarkMan

Canada Cup Gaming founder Lap Chi Duong announced today that the organization will be ending all current sponsorships by the end of the year. As of now, their roster includes Jonny “Humanbomb” Cheng, Kenny “Air” Lam, Henri “Chi-Rithy” Oung, and David “Detrimantix” Perras, all of whom were quick to thank Duong for his help in attending various international competitions throughout the past few years.

As for why, Duong told Shoryuken that the decision hinges mainly on the uncertainty Street Fighter V brings to the competitive scene. “All of these sponsorships are backed by my personal finances,” he explained. “Street Fighter V is a new game and we don’t really know who’s good yet.”

Of the players he is currently sponsoring, Humanbomb has perhaps had the most notable career these days thanks to his ninth place finish at Capcom Cup, but each competitor has been able to find some degree of success thanks to Canada Cup Gaming’s support.

When asked if he would ever consider getting back into the game, Duong stated that he’s not looking to sponsor anyone else at this time.

Since 2010, Canada Cup Gaming has been synonymous with high-level fighting game competition and they’ve continued to provide the same tournament quality year in and year out. Their latest event, Canada Cup 2015, was selected as a premier tournament on the Capcom Pro Tour this fall.

While numerous organizations seem to enter the fighting game community quickly and leave just as fast, Canada Cup Gaming has been one of our scene’s few constants when it comes to sponsorships. We wish everyone involved the best of luck as they move on to future endeavors.

Just two short days ago, fighting game players who prefer to throw punches through the power of their PCs received some seriously unexpected news: the time has finally come for the biggest airdashers to make their way to Steam. Appropriately, this series of releases begins with Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-.

As of this posting, you can pick up a copy of this title and all of its downloadable content through Steam for a discounted price. If you’re feeling lucky, be sure to keep an eye on Twitter, this evening as we’ll be giving away a Steam code there as well.

If you’ve not had a chance to play Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- before and don’t know where to begin once jumping into the game, it can be tough to figure out exactly where to look to find the best information on burst baiting, dust loops, and all the other things that make the franchise what it is. In order to combat that, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best beginner resources out there.

The best place to begin when it comes to this part of the fighting game community is the Dustloop forums. There, you’ll find well-known players from within the scene sharing their thoughts on matchups, setups, combos, you name it. But, as is the nature of forums, things can get a little cluttered as time passes. Luckily, the folks at Dustloop have also compiled a handy wiki page with key information for each member of the cast, broken apart into sections on frame data, move lists, general strategies, combos, and anything else you could possibly want to know about your chosen fighter.

If you prefer to absorb information in the form of video content, Novril and the Chemical Lovers team’s Guilty Gear Crash Course is also a great starting point. These videos break the game into small chunks that can be easily digested, focusing on a single aspect of gameplay and how it can be used as opposed to throwing everything at viewers at once with a heartfelt, “Have fun!” to close things out. In the drop down box below, we’ve included links to all of the current episodes.

Finally, James Chen of UltraChen TV began a series of beginner videos back in May with some help from Henry “Choysauce” Choi. In addition to taking an in-depth look at the mechanics of the game, the duo also provide important introductory information for every character. These details include general strategies, best buttons, basic combos, gimmicks, and more.

We’ve included video links in the spoiler box below, but Henry Choi also prepared a Dropbox with text versions.

It’s a lot to take in, but we hope this helps to get you started on a path to success and, more importantly, have fun learning a new game.

Sources: Steam, Dustloop, Novril, UltraChen TV

Earlier this week, a couple of images surfaced that seemed to point towards Sceptile’s inclusion in Pokkén Tournament. While these shots certainly didn’t appear to be fake, we now have official confirmation from Bandai Namco Entertainment that, yes, the grass-type Pokemon will be joining the game’s playable roster.

In addition to the playable character reveal, Sceptile’s trailer goes on to confirm that the anticipated support characters, Farfetch’d and Electrode, will also be making appearances. If you’d like to see these new Pokémon in action, be sure to check out the official trailer below.

Pokkén Tournament is scheduled to launch for Wii U in Japan on March 18, with an expected spring release window planned for North America and Europe.

Source: Bandai Namco Entertainment via Gematsu

Airdasher adepts have even more to look forward to this February thanks to a recent announcement from the folks at Aksys Games. In addition to providing tournament brackets with respectable prize pools for popular titles in the subgenre, Anime Ascension will feature access to an exclusive playable demo of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st].

This newest version of the game hit Japanese arcades back in July, but those of us stuck oceans away from those cabinets have yet to take a crack at the updated game. If you fancy yourself an avid anim fan, be sure to head out to California in February to check it out.

Anime Ascension will be held at the University of California Irvine on February 28.

Source: Aksys Games via NeoGAF

What are your thoughts on collectible figures? How about collectible figures that come bundled with exclusive content? If you’ve booked your ticket for the hype train that is Nintendo’s Amiibo line, you’ll be familiar with this business model, and it’s set to extend into the world of Killer Instinct.

Ultimate Source recently announced a brand new series of Killer Instinct figures, the first of which is a detailed model of the game’s latest addition, Shadow Jago. Limited to 5,000 units, this collectible includes an exclusive code that unlocks the spooky fighter’s tenth color palette (highlighted in the gallery below).

Click to view slideshow.

Shadow Jago stands 6″ tall and retails for $34.99. He will be followed by similar figures for Jago, Sabrewulf, Hisako, and Fulgore, as well as light-up models of Jago and Spinal, in March.

Pre-orders are now open and expected to ship the week of December 28. More details can be found here.

Sources: Ultimate Source, Ultra-Combo, Killer Instinct

After hearing that next year’s Capcom Pro Tour will be built around Street Fighter V, many in the community were curious if its predecessor would still have a place in the competitive circuit. Unfortunately for all you Street Fighter IV players out there, Capcom senior marketing manager Matt Dahlgren put the kibosh on that discussion during the most recent episode of Best of III.

“Right now, we plan on just focusing on Street Fighter V,” Dahlgren explained. “We have a pretty lean team, and to double up our production capabilities is pretty tough for us. We’ve got a lot riding on the success of Street Fighter V, so that’s where our focus is going to be moving forward.”

While that’s a pretty concrete answer, it would appear that other details of the tour are still being hammered out. When the subject of the “baseline” $500,000 prize pool was brought up, Dahlgren said they are still looking into ways to expand that figure. Additionally, they are working towards including some sort of online component in the Capcom Pro Tour again, making their continued Street Fighter V beta testing all the more important in terms of next year’s competition.

For more of their discussion with Dahlgren as well as Capcom Cup’s breakout star Keoma Pacheco, be sure to check out the full archive below.

Source: Daily Dot Esports

It’s been a great year, but all good things must come to an end, and Nintendo might be in the process of sending off Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS in style with one last Direct broadcast.

Hosted by series director Masahiro Sakurai, this “final video presentation” will focus on the upcoming release of Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife as a playable character, what he brings to the franchise, and more. As of now, it’s hard to tell if this means Nintendo is closing development on post-release characters, but due to this event’s billing as the last Smash-related broadcast, it’s an easy assumption to come to.

The stream will go live worldwide on December 15 at 2 PM PST, 5 PM EST, 10 PM GMT. Be sure to watch this space for more details.

Source: Nintendo