Category: News

After running a closed alpha session over the past two weeks, the developers behind upcoming fighter Rising Thunder are ready to let the entire fighting game community have at the title. They recently announced that their game, while still in alpha, is now open to everyone who signs up.

Rising Thunder is a game straight out of the minds of Seth Killian and Radiant Entertainment, the development studio led by Evo co-founders Tom and Tony Cannon. Boasting a simple control scheme, they hope to remove some of the execution barriers placed on newcomers to help slowly ease beginners into our favorite genre.

If you want to try it out for yourself, be sure to visit their official website and create an account.

Source: Rising Thunder

With this year’s Evo behind us, now is the perfect time to check out a brand new fighting game. Luckily, sales abound on a regular basis, and Humble Bundle has provided a few of their own as part of their Anime Weekend promotion. Over the next few days, the online retailer will be providing deep discounts on three specific titles, with PC codes redeemable through Steam.

First off, indie darling Skullgirls can be purchased for only $3.74, which represents a 75% markdown from its original price. Additionally, two older Guilty Gear titles, Guilty Gear XX #Reload and Guilty Gear Isuka, will be available for $4.99.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of these deals, be sure to follow this link before they expire. Let us know what you grab!

Source: Humble Bundle

Apart from the memorable newcomers and unique gameplay mechanics, the Killer Instinct reboot on Xbox One stands strong even in the crowded fighting game market thanks to its focus on audio, particularly Mick Gordon’s fantastic work on its character themes. That’s why when Rash landed in the game as part of an early beta test, it was no surprise that the backing track included in his debut trailer–and featured below–was nothing short of incredible.

What was a surprise, however, was learning that Gordon had nothing to do with the rocking composition featured above.

In an official statement provided by the developers, the Australian composer explains that the time has come for him to move on and thanks the fanbase for the love they’ve sent him over the past couple of years. “I’ve absolutely adored every tweet, forum post, email, FB message, letter, handshake, hug and fistbump. Your endless support and encouragement is the driving force behind the Killer Instinct sound,” Gordon says. “We do this for you. There would be no KI without you. Thank you. Keep blocking, spot those lights/mediums/heavies, trick a lock-out and go in for Ultra.”

Now, you may be thinking, just who the hell will be coordinating the music with our button presses in season three if not Mick Gordon? That would be Atlas Plug and Celldweller, who will be joining forces to fill the gigantic hole left by Gordon’s departure. With numerous features and even original video game compositions under their belts, these two musicians are certainly no strangers to this realm of entertainment, and their past collaborations have made jumping into Killer Instinct together a relatively painless experience.

For many, Mick Gordon was Killer Instinct, but as the track above indicates, the game’s music is in very capable hands moving forward. Godspeed Mick, and a hearty welcome to both Atlas Plug and Celldweller. Hope you enjoy your stay in the fighting game community!

Source: Ultra-Combo, tip via DeusXmachina

While we’ve seen quite a few fighting game community documentaries release over the years, none of them have shined a light on one specific scene like Circuit Spark. Focusing entirely on the airdasher–or ‘anime’–subgenre, this film seeks to highlight the players who have dedicated their lives to these unique fighters.

Due to our community’s proclivity to push aside anything outside the realm of Street Fighter and Marvel, Circuit Spark fills a very important void by giving shine to fans of Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Melty Blood, Arcana Heart, and the countless other titles that find themselves grouped under the anime label.

As the video below teases, it will feature interviews with both American and Japanese competitors, as well as the father of Guilty Gear himself, Daisuke Ishiwatari.

Circuit Spark has no set release date at this point in time, so be sure to follow @colorinlive for updates straight from the director.

Source: kozupro via AnimEvo, tip via Zane H.

TAITO’s official Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament will be getting a sequel this fall. The Ultra Hyakkishu Cup (“Ultra Hundred Demon Fall Cup”, a play on Akuma’s Hyakkishu/Demon Flip) is scheduled for Saturday, October 17 at the Tokyo Big Sight TFT Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Like last year’s event, the Ultra Hyakkishu Cup will serve as a Capcom Pro Tour premier qualifier–Japan’s second–coming about month after Mad Catz’ Tokyo Game Show tournament in September. As such, it follows the standard double-elimination, best-of-three (best-of-five for top eight) singles tournament format, with the winner qualifying for the Capcom Cup finals later this year. Of course, as you might expect from a TAITO event, the tourney will be played on arcade setups.

TAITO will be providing prize money for the event, alloted to the top eight placers, with first place taking home a cool one million yen (~$8005 USD).

Look forward to seeing your favorite Japanese players duke it out on October 17.

Source: TAITO, Famitsu

We’ve made our way into the middle of summer again and that means our cross-country road trips with nothing but an arcade stick in tow are likely behind us. But not to worry, now is the perfect time to hit up the lab and spend some quality time with titles both old and new.

If you’re looking to familiarize yourself with some of the classics, you’ll be pleased to know that you can currently pick up a copy of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus for only $3.74 on Xbox Live.

The title that’s on sale does not come accompanied with the most recent +R update, but that can be downloaded separately free of charge. This deal will be available until next Monday, August 10, so be sure to act quickly if you’re looking to bolster your Xbox fighting library.

Source: Xbox Marketplace, tip via cinnamonpirate

In addition to making Rash a playable character for a limited time, Killer Instinct’s latest update also adjusted the game with a number of bug fixes and introduced Riptor and Omen to the Shadow Lab, allowing players to utilize the season two fighters in its unique training mode.

As we near the game’s third season, these patches will have less to do with balancing and focus more on tightening up the gameplay in anticipation of the expansion, so don’t be disappointed if this and future patches don’t change Killer Instinct as drastically as their predecessors.

That being said, you can check out the full list of changes below.

Source: Ultra-Combo

Heads-up, Dragon Ball fans! Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden is now playable in North America and Europe courtesy of a demo that just appeared in Nintendo’s eShop.

This handheld title was developed for the Nintendo 3DS by fighting game veterans Arc System Works, and gives players the opportunity play as a wide array of Dragon Ball Z characters. The demo includes Goku, Kid Gohan, Vegeta, and Majin Buu as playable characters, with backup provided by Korin, Great Saiyaman, Hercule, Recoome, Tien, Turtle, Mercenary Tao, and Majuub.

Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden is scheduled to launch this fall (October 16 in Europe, October 20 in North America), so use this opportunity to try the game out for yourself before the final release lands on store shelves.

Editor’s note: If you are having a hard time finding this title in the eShop, it should show up with a quick search. Sorry for the confusion.

Sources: Bandai Namco US, Bandai Namco UK

Reports have surfaced that Japanese video game studio SNK Playmore has been acquired by Ledo Millenium, a subsidiary of the Chinese investment firm Leyou Technologies. This was made possible by two separate companies, Oriental Securities and Shunrong Sanqi, investing in Ledo Millenium, allowing them to acquire majority control of SNK from former CEO Eikichi Kawasaki for $63.5 million USD.

Moving foward, Oriental Securities will act as the majority shareholder thanks to their control of 80% of the company, and it would appear as if they have big plans for the future.

Oriental Securities CEO Zheng Jianhui named the developer’s vast amount of intellectual property and their tie-in possibilities as the main impetus behind their purchase, mentioning that they hope to follow Marvel’s lead and expand SNK’s presence in comics, movies, and television in addition to video games.

With SNK’s rather disappointing focus on pachislot development in recent years, this news could definitely provide a shift to more proactive work on their fighting game series as well as introduce a whole new generation to franchises like Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters.

Sources: Shunrong Sanqi, Sina, Yicai, hksilicon via Dream Cancel, Reuters via MMCafe

It’s impossible to deny the popularity of NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat X. On top of breathing life into its own sector of the competitive fighting scene, the game brings buckets of blood for the masses who prefer mashing to calculated bouts of footsies; in short, it has a little something for everyone.

A recent report from Fortune gives gamers a more concrete sense of just how popular the game has proven to be in the first half of 2015 with a list of the top-selling video games, courtesy of information direct from The NPD Group, who tracks such things. Mortal Kombat X ranks in at number one.

This chart tracks sales of games in the first six months of the year, regardless of when they released. That means heavy hitters like Minecraft made the list, as did other titles that saw release prior to 2015, including Nintendo’s newest Super Smash Bros. run.

While the list offers an accurate glimpse of retail sales, according to Fortune, it “does not include hard figures for digital sales directly from game platforms like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.” With this in mind, the folks at Chicagoist, in their report, wondered whether or not downloadable content sales were included when figuring out the rankings. This is a good question, and is certainly something that would have affected the outcome of the sales of most titles that made the list, but to what degree?

It’s not that Mortal Kombat X could have transcended the first place slot and found itself in 0th place–that doesn’t exist–but the sales of characters, skin packs, and, hell, even those easy fatality tokens would have likely done a fair amount of work to ensure that title’s dominance. Let’s see if it has enough staying power to last through the rest of the year.

Source: Fortune via Chicagoist