Category: News

Not long ago the folks at Versus Scotland released a trailer teasing the announcement of information surrounding next year’s Hypespotting tournament. Earlier today, organizers lifted the veil and made Hypespotting 5 official. As luck would have it, this fifth installment of the Glasgow-based tournament comes within just a couple short months of the release of Street Fighter V. Needless to say, the flagship Capcom fighter will be making its mark at the event–one of the first majors to host the game–but it’s far from the only fighter that will be featured.

The event is also set to hold double-elimination tournaments for games ranging from classics like Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter III: Third Strike to current crowd-pleasers like Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and no, they’ve not forgotten Ultra Street Fighter IV either. With such a wide array of games in the lineup, organizers plan to run multiple streams to get the most action possible to those who can’t make it out to the event.

If you’ve already got plans to attend, now is the time to register. For the remainder of 2015, event tickets will be 25% off when using the code “AREYOUHYPE” (no quotation marks) upon registration. If you’re feeling confident, you can also gain entry to the tournament through Road to Hype seeding tournaments, the dates of which will be announced as they draw closer.

Hypespotting 5 is set to take place April 2-3 at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland. For a full list of games, as well as any other Hypespotting information you could possibly desire, be sure to head over to the event’s official website.

Source: Hypespotting

King of Fighters XIV finally made its playable debut at PlayStation Experience this past weekend, giving attendees an opportunity to see what the upcoming title has in store. As a new numbered entry to SNK Playmore’s storied franchise, it brings with it a variety of changes in both gameplay and aesthetics.

Famitsu recently got a chance to talk to battle designer Yasuyuki Oda about why they’re making these changes.

According to Oda, one of their goals with King of Fighters XIV is to simplify the systems. This means that things like the Drive meter from King of Fighters XIII and their respective Drive Cancels have been removed, replaced by the MAX Mode of older games.

The reason behind this is to strike a balance that appeals to players of both combo-heavy installments, like King of Fighters 2002, and older titles that were less so, like King of Fighters ’98. And now that they are starting out on consoles instead of in arcades, SNK wants to attract more players to the franchise by keeping controls simple, but still giving the game depth to be explored.

King of Fighters XIV is scheduled to arrive on PlayStation 4 sometime next year. Oda mentions that the title is about 70% complete, so it might hit consoles sooner than you think.

Source: Famitsu via MMCafe, thanks to Zakeru for the tip.

SNK Playmore’s fighting game releases on PC have mostly focused on the King of Fighters series, with both old and new titles finding their way to the digital platform. But if a new database entry is correct, they’re also planning to bring Garou: Mark of the Wolves to Steam.

This listing doesn’t really come as a huge surprise thanks to prior hints from the developer, and with Garou staff member Yasuyuki Oda now acting as King of Fighters XIV’s battle designer, it only makes sense to refresh our memories.

As the last official release for this title was on mobile devices, this release would be great news for fans of old-school SNK fighters and would allow newcomers to experience it for the first time. We’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Source: SteamDB, thanks to Zakeru for the tip.

As we found out at the beginning of the month, Pokkén Tournament has a new character on the horizon. While no official announcement has yet been made regarding this upcoming addition, the folks at Siliconera have given us reason to believe that Sceptile will be filling this slot on the roster.

As you can see in the images below, the green creature appearing atop the featured Pokkén Tournament setup certainly bears a strong resemblance to the grass-type Pokémon. Additionally, upon closer inspection, the image potentially reveals two additional support Pokémon that will also be joining the fun: Electrode and Farfetch’d

Click to view slideshow.

Of course, all of this information is currently speculative–though quite likely–so stay tuned for the official announcement on Thursday, December 10.

Source: Siliconera via My Nintendo News

While we’ve seen a fair bit of King of Fighters XIV footage so far, those of us who weren’t able to make the trip to PlayStation Experience still don’t have a clear idea of how new mechanics function in the upcoming title. Fortunately, N4Us, LordWalkman, Wild Wallace, MMCafe’s Professor, and ATRyoSakazaki from our own forums have provided breakdowns of the various systems and changes.

One of the biggest change is the replacement of King of Fighters XIII’s HD system with the MAX Mode mechanic from earlier installments. Activating MAX Mode costs one bar of meter and grants access to an unlimited number of EX attacks as long as the mode is active and MAX Desperation moves.

SNK Playmore has also seen fit to add auto-combos into the game. These Rush combos, as they’re called, are performed by mashing light punch, and can automatically cancel into Desperation Moves if the player has enough meter.

King of Fighters XIV reportedly borrows mechanics from other classic SNK games, including the Just Defend system from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Somewhat similar to Street Fighter III’s parries, Just Defend previously lowered blockstun and allowed a defending player to recover faster, but may function differently in this new iteration.

Other new mechanics include King of Fighters XI’s forward roll on ground recovery and meter gain on character loss. Finally, Blowback attacks (performed with MP+MK) can set up wallbounces on counter-hit.

While these details come from knowledgeable members of the community, the game itself may have more mechanics that have yet to be discovered or revealed, and some are likely to change as development continues.

King of Fighters XIV will arrive on PlayStation 4 sometime next year.

Sources: N4Us, LordWalkman, Wild Wallace, MMCafe, Shoryuken forums

After the conclusion of Capcom Cup 2015, executive producer Yoshinori Ono took the stage to announce the beginning of Capcom Pro Tour 2016.

Next year’s tournament circuit will begin at Final Round in Atlanta, Georgia, with another base prize pool of $500,000 up for grabs throughout its various events.

Other details have yet to be confirmed, but we do know that Street Fighter V will form the basis of this upcoming round of competition.

Final Round 19 is scheduled for March 18-20.

Source: Capcom Fighters

After twelve hours of grueling competition, Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue has taken first place at Capcom Cup 2015 and earned the right to be regarded as the strongest Ultra Street Fighter IV player in the world.

His journey to this storied tournament started by qualifying at Community Effort Orlando 2015, but he also had great results at events like Evo, SoCal Regionals, and South East Asia Major. Of course, the most pressing test of Kazunoko’s skill came today, as he was forced to face and defeat Mad Catz’ Daigo Umehara, Razer’s Xian, and more along the way.

With this, Kazunoko has become $120,000 richer, a fitting end to a terrific career in Ultra Street Fighter IV before the release of Street Fighter V in February. Capcom Cup’s full results can be found in our coverage hub.

With all the news surrounding Street Figher V and King of Fighters XIII during the PlayStation Experience keynote, it would be easy to look over the quick announcement Sony’s Gio Corsi made regarding an old-school fighter called The Last Blade 2.

SNK Playmore and Code Mystics are currently working on bringing The Last Blade 2 to both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. While not as popular as the developer’s other franchises, this classic title still holds a special place in fighting game history thanks to its weapons-based gameplay mechanics and beautifully animated backgrounds.

No word was provided as to when players can expect to get their hands on this port, but keep your eyes on Shoryuken for more as this story develops.

Source: PlayStation