World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 54 KOs) will now fight Britain’s Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) on November 28 at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The Ukrainian had been scheduled to defend his IBF, WBO and WBA belts against Fury on October 24, at the same venue, but the bout was called off after Klitschko tore a tendon in his left calf in training. He has now been given the all clear from his doctor to resume training.
“My injury will heal quickly enough for me to enter…
Meet Laura, Street Fighter V’s (Leaked) Brazilian Newcomer
Coming just on the heels on the reveal of Zangief, another, all-new Street Fighter V cast member has been revealed… on accident. Earlier today, Famitsu posted in an article with details on Zangief’s announcement. Within the image gallery of that article however, are pics of another character, Brazilian fighter Laura.
Oops.
Laura joins as the third of four new characters planned for Capcom’s upcoming fighter, and she’s a shocker. The leaked images show off some of her strikes, along with grapple moves, electricity-based attacks, and in a few, a combination of the two.
With Laura now out of the bag, the leak might prompt Capcom to do a proper announcement for the character. But for now, enjoy the pictures of the new fighter and tell us what you think of her in the comments below.
Source: Famitsu
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Glitch Makes Diddy Kong Unthrowable
Diddy Kong was considered strong before, but a new glitch discovered after Nintendo’s implementation of a recent patch could possibly see the primate banned from competition.
Here’s how it works. If Diddy is hit by a multi-hit attack while shielding, and then unshields for whatever reason, he will become impossible to throw. This bug was first discovered by a player named Kibzu, and brought to our attention by Nick Riddle; both of their videos can be found below.
While this glitch is active, Diddy can still be damaged normally, and will be grabbable should he lose a stock. This weird state will also be reverted if Diddy’s shield be attacked again. As Kibzu notes above, all characters are capable of falling victim to this same problem, and even nontraditional grabs like Kirby’s inhale become ineffective.
Is this a bannable offense? Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.
Sources: Kibzu, Nick Riddle via D1
Rivals of Aether Receives Bug Fixes, Balance Changes, and an Exciting New Jab Mechanic in Early Access Patch
Even though Rivals of Aether has only been flying the Steam Early Access flag for a little over a week, it has already received a sizable update.
If you’ve spent some time playing the game, you’ll know a couple of things to be true: Kragg and Zetterburn positively swarm the online matchmaking system, and many players resort to jab strings as opposed to more stylish options when looking to tack on damage. That means that both the beetle and the lion had some of their numbers and abilities toned down, and the game’s jab mechanic has changed to allow more creative combo options after landing that first swing.
On top of plenty of slight shifts in damage and the like across the whole cast, the game received some minor bits of polish and a handful of bug fixes generally aimed at helping to improve the online experience.
For full patch notes, including a breakdown of how the new jab string system works, you can check out the box below or head over to Reddit.
Rival of Aether ver.0.0.4 Patch Notes
Since this update is mostly bug-fixes and only minor balance changes, we are pushing it as a full update. Later in Early Access, we might play with the balance some more and could look at doing Beta Opt-Ins before those changes go live. Because we are still early into our development and learning just like you are, please be patient with our process.
General
Jab combos are fun, but they don’t give players much chance to style. At high or low percents, finishing a jab combo is optimal unless you expect a tech. Now we are allowing players to get more creative with their jab combos.
- Jab Combos can now be cancelled into tilts on the same frame that they can be continued. Jab 1 or Jab 2 can be cancelled into any of the 3 tilts by holding a direction while pressing the A button. You can continue the jab combo by keeping your stick neutral while pressing A. This works for all 6 characters.
- Jab 1s now cause a flinching animation to grounded opponents instead of knockback. This prevents Jab 1s from being tech-able when hitting a grounded opponent.
- Neutral Respawns: Players now respawn in the center of the stage. This change will hopefully reduce respawning players from gimping opponents.
- Up and Down Angles Adjusted on Left Controller Stick. The input angles for both up and down have been increased. Hopefully now you will have to hold your controller at an angle closer to 45 degrees to register an Up or Down rather than 30 degrees.
Zetterburn
Alright Zetterburn mains, I know you are worried about your favorite lion. I am here to say that we are keeping his core intact for the foreseeable future. With that said, some of his numbers are a bit off compared to the rest of his kit and to the other Rivals. Therefore, we are hitting some of Zetterburn’s damage numbers so he doesn’t rack up it up so quickly with some of his aerials.
- Zetterburn Down Air Damage Reduced from 15 to 12.
- Zetterburn Neutral Air Damage Reduced from 3,3,5 to 2,2,5.
- Zetterburn Forward Air Damage Reduced from 10 sour, 15 sweet to 8 sour, 13 sweet.
- Zetterburn Up Air Damage Reduced from 15 sweet to 13 sweet.
- Zetterburn Forward Tilt hitbox adjusted to match visual. Has more range forward now.
Kragg
Kragg players are also worried about their favorite beetle. To that I say, we aren’t impacting much today except we took a good hard look at his Pillar and tried to hit at some of the campy strategies both on stage and off stage. We also looked at Down Special which has the ability to slow down a match greatly due to how safe it is.
- The Pillar will now start falling under the weight of players. One and a half seconds after spawning, the pillar will begin to slowly descend if any player or rock is sitting on it. This prevents players from camping on a pillar below the stage line.
- The Pillar can now be destroyed on the way up, causing Kragg to go into fall state. This will force Kragg to be a bit more careful about when he uses his Pillar on stage and will also allow players to counter the Pillar with a projectile if they can make a good read.
- Kragg’s Down Special Recovery has been increased from 12 to 16 frames.
- Kragg now has an appropriate amount of Parry Stun if Down Special is parried allowing it to be punished.
- Bug Fix: Kragg can no longer tech while holding a rock.
Wrastor
Wrastor is the king of the air and players are having a great time as long as they can read their opponents. Our Wrastor updates are focused on his Down Air to make the move more enjoyable to use.
- Wrastor Down Air has a new animation that looks and feels way better.
- Wrastor Down Air has a bigger hitbox during the active frames.
- Wrastor Down Air now has a sour spot after the active frames on his wings that causes a weak semi-spike.
- Wrastor Down Air Startup increased from 7-8 frames and recovery increased from 12-15 frames.
- Parrying Wrastor’s Up Special will no longer stop him in his tracks.
Forsburn
We are still watching Forsburn’s clone very closely but want to give it some more time to develop. We are also watching his recovery into smoke clouds. However, today we are adjusting one of this most used attacks to hopefully open up more creativity in his game.
- Forsburn Dash Attack Damage reduced from 11-9
- Forsburn Dash Attack Knockback Scaling increased from .3 to .4.
- Fixed a bug where Forsburn could not perform the second hit of his Forward Strong with the attack button when facing left.
- Fixed a bug where a clone on fire was causing Forsburn burn damage.
Orcane
Seems like players are having a great time learning our Whale Cat Snake (terminology courtesy of Sky Williams). We tweaked his Up Air in efforts to make the move more reliable and line it up with other KO abilities.
- Orcane Up Air Base Knockback Reduced from 10-9. Knockback Scaling increased from .75 to .8.
- Orcane Up Air Sour Spot Active Frames increased from 8-10.
Maypul
Now that the game has been out for a week, players are just now beginning to uncover the craziness that is Maypul. We wanted to adjust some of her gameplay in attempts to open up some variety in her playstyles.
- Maypul Jab 1 and 2 startup reduced from 5 frames to 3 frames.
- Maypul Dash Attack Horizontal Speed reduced from 14 to 12. This is to allow the move to combo into itself more appropriately and prevent it from having too large of punish range.
- Maypul Back Air hitboxes increased to match the visuals.
- Maypul Up Strong Active Frames increased from 3 to 6. Hitbox also adjusted to match her visual.
Bug Fixes
- We have found a bug causing players to lose their double jumps in specific scenarios. We have removed this issue and expect players to retain their double jumps more consistently.
- AI Kragg will now recover from his pillar in practice mode.
- Fixed a bug that caused frame one of hitboxes to be incorrectly aligned.
- A Profile’s Right Stick Settings should now work in online matches without having to enter the options menu again.
- The Simple Smoke setting has been renamed to Simple Effects. It now also disables particles on the basic version of the Treetop Lodge. We will be adding more effects to this option in later updates.
- Kragg can now create a pillar under the Air Armada due to the stalling potential being removed.
- Kragg no longer retains Super Armor after cancelling his Side Special into Jump into Up Strong immediately.
Online
- We have fixed some bugs causing players to be automatically matched when glitched or AFK in queue. This should reduce the impact of Wishbone561s even more.
- We have updated the visual at the top of match-made games to be crowns so players are more aware of the best of three format.
- Added a “Game and Set” UI Element for when a Best of Series ends.
- We have fixed a bug that allowed players to deselect a character after choosing ready causing the match to load incorrectly.
- Invites have moved away from best of 3 and are now currently just a counter. Players can play as many matches as they want and scores will reset if they leave. Matchmaking remains best 2 out of 3 series.
- We hope to add series back to Invited games in a later update but for now players can simply leave and then re-invite to start a new series.
- We have updated some of our join / leave logic and have reduced some of the wait time.
- Kragg’s Pillar no longer stutters during Online Play.
Source: Dan Fornace via GilesofJosh
Killer Instinct Devs Share Details on Shadow Jago’s Continued Development
Ever since being released as an alternate skin for Jago, Killer Instinct fans have clamored to see Shadow Jago become his own unique character. They were satiated for a bit thanks to the season two appearance of Omen, the spirit who haunts the series protagonist, but the question still remained: what’s going on with Shadow Jago?
Things got interesting with the start of the Killer Instinct Community Fund earlier this year. While it proved an excellent way for folks to help support major fighting game tournaments and get a little something in return, the final reward was what they had all been waiting for. The developers promised to officially add Shadow Jago to the playable cast should the campaign reach its $100,000 goal, and the community responded by hitting that mark in just three days.
After informing players of their progress on Shadow Jago back at Evo 2015, Iron Galaxy Studios’ lead combat designer Adam “Keits” Heart took to Ultra-Combo to provide even more details on this upcoming character.
From the looks of things, Shadow Jago is shaping up to be a quicker version of his regular counterpart, with a higher walkspeed to complement the commitment of his lengthy forward and back dashes. His slowest fireball is the same speed as the regular Jago’s fastest, and the Shadow version fires a barrage of plasma instead of a single, large projectile.
One of the main ways the developers seem to be setting these two characters apart is sword usage. While Jago utilizes the weapon in a number of attacks, Shadow Jago takes that to another level. His crouching heavy punch, for example, has had its reach increased to make it a more reliable poking tool, and his normal throw automatically transitions to the Laser Blade ender for more juggle opportunities. Even his uppercut has been changed from a simple dragon punch to a deadly blade swipe, as seen in the comparison images below.
The most unique aspect of Shadow Jago’s gameplay, however, is definitely his Instinct mode. Shadow Symbiosis grants the dark character additional frame advantage on his moves like Jago’s Tiger Fury, but the similarities end there. While in Instinct mode, hitting the opponent with an Endokuken or dashing through them will attach the Dark Tether, which comes with its own set of upgrades.
When the Dark Tether is active, Shadow Jago fuels his Shadow and Surge moves with the opponent’s meter, using only half of his own and stealing the rest. He will also gain access to a unique taunt that instantly grants both players a full bar of meter. A risky proposition, sure, but when you have two resource pools to work from instead of one, why not?
Oh, and before the cries of, “Overpowered!” ring out, know that a single hit will detach the Dark Tether, so smack Shadow Jago up quickly before he turns the tides.
All in all, Shadow Jago sounds like an incredibly fun addition to the Killer Instinct roster. He will be available sometime before the end of the year. For more gameplay details, be sure to check out Heart’s full write-up by following the link below.
Source: Ultra-Combo
D-Link Sponsors Steve “LordKnight” Barthelemy
If there’s one name that tends to stand out in the United States’ airdasher scene, it’s Team Spooky’s Steve Barthelemy, more commonly known as LordKnight. Barthelemy has been at the forefront of many of these “anime” games for some time, proving himself as one of the best American players in Melty Blood, BlazBlue, Persona, and Guilty Gear.
It’s no surprise then that Barthelemy has found himself a sponsor in D-Link, a Taiwan-based corporation that focuses on the production of networking equipment. While the details of his signing haven’t been made public, they will be providing him with hardware for online gaming and broadcasting.
This sponsorship represents the first time that D-Link has supported a competitive gamer, though they have made themselves available as event sponsors in the past.
Our community typically only sees these kinds of signings happen in the world of Street Fighter and Smash, so it’s great that things are starting to spread to the realm of airdashers. Let’s hope this relationship proves fruitful and leads to more like it in the future.
Source: D-Link via IPLAYWINNER, image courtesy of FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community
[UPDATE] Zangief Returns in Street Fighter V
UPDATE (8:01 PM PDT) – Well, there you have it; Zangief is back. Check out his official reveal below.
Though all eyes have been on Electronic Game Show due to Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono current trip to Mexico, it appears as if we should actually be paying more attention to goings-on in Russia instead.
According to IgroMir Expo 2015’s official schedule, an exclusive Street Fighter V character reveal is coming tomorrow courtesy of PlayStation, who will have a presence in Moscow during the large-scale convention.
As we’ve seen with Capcom’s recent reveals of Rashid and Karin, and their upcoming visit to Brazil Game Show, the developers have been saving certain characters for conventions in their respective homelands. Pairing this knowledge with the possible nods to Zangief in Ono’s latest teasers, it’s entirely possible we’ll see the veteran grappler join the Street Fighter V cast.
The presentation in question is scheduled for Friday, October 2, at 12 PM MSK (2 AM PDT, 5 AM EDT). It’s unclear whether an official broadcast will be provided or not, so stay tuned for more details.
Expand Your Xbox Library with These NetherRealm Sales
While fighting games are always going on sale on platforms like PlayStation Network and Steam, folks who stick to Xbox Live have been getting the short end of the stick as of late. To remedy that, they are currently running a promotion for a variety of Warner Bros. titles, which of course means you should be ready for a ton of Mortal Kombat with a little DC Comics on the side.
As usual, you’ll save a tiny bit more if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. We’ve gone ahead and compiled all the sales in the table below, so check it out and see if there’s anything you’re interested in.
| Title | Platform | Gold Price | Sale Price | Regular Price |
| Mortal Kombat X Premium Edition | XB1 | $62.99 | $71.99 | $89.99 |
| Mortal Kombat X Kombat Pack | XB1 | $20.99 | $23.99 | $29.99 |
| Injustice: Gods Among Us | 360 | $6.59 | $7.99 | $19.99 |
| Mortal Kombat | 360 | $6.59 | $7.99 | $14.99 |
| Mortal Kombat Season Pass | 360 | $7.49 | $8.99 | $19.99 |
| Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection | 360 | $4.99 | $5.99 | $9.99 |
| Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe | 360 | $6.59 | $7.99 | $19.99 |
This promotion is scheduled to last until October 5, so take advantage soon.
Sources: Major Nelson, xbldb
Earn a Trip to Final Round 19 at the West Coast Paradise Qualifiers
Due to the sheer size of the United States, traveling from one coast to the other to visit out-of-state tournaments can be difficult for many players. While our community has grown to the point where you can find high-level competition around just about every corner, making appearances at every major is nearly impossible if you don’t have a sponsor.
Fortunately, the folks behind Final Round will be tossing out flights to their next tournament like Oprah at Paradise, a west coast qualifier set to be held in San Diego, California. Featuring competition in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Tekken 7, and Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, winners of each game at this event will be provided with free entry and airfare to Final Round 19 in 2016.
And for those of you unable to be there in person, Team Spooky will be streaming the festivities all weekend long.
Paradise is scheduled for November 20-22; more details and registration info can be found here.
Source: Final Round
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Patch Brings Minor Gameplay Tweaks, More Downloadable Content
A new patch hit Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS earlier this morning, and, as usual, Nintendo has chosen to keep its lips sealed with regard to the exact nature of its changes. Luckily, some folks on the Smash Boards forums have already begun breaking apart the update. Luckier still, the process of digging up what has actually been modified has become markedly easier thanks to the wonders of data mining–gone are the days of tedious side-by-side comparisons.
At the time of this writing, a partial list of changes can be found here. Since it’s still quite early in the life of the patch, there’s an excellent chance that this list will continue to expand as the day progresses. The changes at present include a reduction in shield damage on tech get-up attacks, a rework of Ganondorf’s neutral air, a host of tweaks to two of Ike’s neutral specials, and plenty more.
And just like previous patches, these changes come alongside a small offering of downloadable content to pick up if you’re into that sort of thing. We all knew to expect the addition of the Super Mario Maker stage, and as predicted earlier this month, a second stage based on Brawl’s Wind Waker-themed Pirate Ship made its way into the game as well.
But that’s not all: folks can also deck out their Miis in a handful of new duds including a business suit, Toad and Fox outfits (for when you want to be Fox without actually, you know, being Fox), and options inspired by other Nintendo properties.
As with all previous content, players can purchase the items for the Wii, the 3DS, or in a pack that contains all of the content for each in one big ol’ bundle. The price breakdowns are as follows:
- New Mii Outfits – $0.75 each per system, or $1.15 each for both systems; $5.25 for full costume bundle per system, or $8.05 for full costume bundle for both systems
- New Stages – $2.49 per system, or, $3.49 for both systems
- Entire bundle – $7.74 for the 3DS, $9.73 for the Wii U, or $13.53 for both systems
Note: The price variance in the complete bundle is due to the Pirate Ship stage being limited to the Wii U.
Source: Smash Bros. and Smash Boards