Category: News

Last week, the organizers behind Combo Breaker announced that Jason Voorhees will be legal at next weekend’s tournament, news that undoubtedly brought a smile to the faces of players who had already established a love for the slasher flick guest character.

However, the release of yesterday’s patch to Mortal Kombat X for PlayStation 4 (forthcoming on Xbox One and PC) causes a bit of a complication with regards to downloadable characters like Jason: since tournaments will need to connect to the internet to grab these additional fighters, they will be forced to grab the newest patch in addition to that content.

This means that using the most recent Mortal Kombat X patch at Combo Breaker was unavoidable. It is perhaps a little unfortunate that the patch had to release so close to a major tournament, but it’s likely this sort of thing would have happened anyways even if the patch had come earlier or later than it did; that’s just the nature of having so many premier events year-round.

The plus side to this is that players who have already acquired the patch are fully capable of practicing before the big event instead of having to hold off in an effort to avoid familiarity with a patch that wouldn’t have been used in competition. Combo Breaker reportedly spoke with NetherRealm Studios and numerous Mortal Kombat players from around the community before deciding that this is the best route to take for the tournament, and feel it shouldn’t affect the integrity of the matches.

Combo Breaker will be held next week, May 22-24, in Chicago, Illinois.

Source: Combo Breaker

As fighting game tournaments continue to grow, audience space becomes a very important part of putting on a competent event. This necessity is magnified exponentially when it comes to Evolution, the largest such competition in the world, and folks who have yet to purchase passes now run the risk of missing out entirely.

According to new details from the Evo 2015 organizers, only about 10% of viewing hall passes are left, making them very nearly sold out. As the best alternative to seating in the main hall, which saw its own tickets disappear back in February, these badges are currently the only way to view Sunday’s finals in the tournament venue without having to resort to second-hand broadcasts.

These passes will grant holders access to the exhibitor hall throughout the entire weekend. On Sunday, that area will be transformed into a viewing hall, complete with a true live stream of the competition (no delay!) and in-house commentary.

“Evo continues to grow leaps and bounds year after year. While that growth is exciting, we’ve hit the point where we’re just too big for our traditional Las Vegas hotel venue,” co-founder Tom Cannon said of this development. “We were caught off-guard by this in 2015, but we’re already taking steps to make sure we have more than enough space in 2016 and beyond.”

Should you still be in need of a pass, be sure to visit the official Evo website and grab a viewing hall ticket before they’re gone for good. Competitor registration will still be accepted even after these passes sell out.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has entered a rather strange period in the fighting game community. While regularly one of the most exciting games at tournaments, registration numbers have started to dwindle, failing to keep up with other popular titles like Street Fighter IV.

With Community Effort Orlando 2015’s bracket standing at 40 players in total, the folks over at One Frame Link have decided to give them a bit of a kick in the pants. Should the Marvel bracket reach 100 players before pre-registration ends on June 1, they will provide an extra $1000 to the prize pool.

Now, sure, while most folks joining the competition will likely be doing so only to give extra money to folks like Justin Wong, Filipino Champ, and NYChrisG, financial rewards are the tiniest part of what makes fighting games great. If you feel like jumping in and having a great time at one of our scene’s biggest events, be sure to visit the their official registration page.

Community Effort Orlando 2015 is scheduled for June 26-28.

Source: Community Effort Orlando

In the early hours of the morning, Razer announced yet another addition to their fighting game roster in Taiwanese competitor Arubi “RB” Kao. A player who first appeared on the global stage starting with Super Street Fighter IV, Kao has proven he’s someone to pay attention to with impressive showings at Hong Kong Esports Tournament and Taiwan’s last two Capcom Cup qualifiers.

With players like Kun Xian Ho, Keita “Fuudo” Ai, and Carl “Perfect Legend” White currently occupying their roster, Team Razer is one of the most decorated competitive squads in the fighting game community today, and Kao’s multi-character skills with Rufus, Guy, Hugo, and Rolento are sure to complement them well.

As a player with much less global recognition than his teammates, it should be great to see him compete at more international tournaments. Be on the look out for Kao as we continue through the 2015 season.

Source: Razer

It’s not a big surprise that Mortal Kombat X topped the PlayStation Store’s sales charts for April, but it did beat out some heavy-hitters, including the system exclusive (and console-moving) Bloodborne.

The real shock here is that the new title wasn’t NetherRealm Studios’ only representative on this list of top sellers. If you look all the way down at rank 19 on the PlayStation 4 chart, you’ll see that Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition barely made the cut, and it climbed all the way to 8th place on the PlayStation 3 list, which, obviously, couldn’t include Mortal Kombat X or a couple of the other big contenders available on its younger sibling.

Even so, a game that has been out so long and that has seen so many rock-bottom sale prices clawing its way back on to the sales charts is nothing to shake a fightstick at. Perhaps this was a case of the fresher game spurring sales of the older one? In any case, kudos Injustice.

Source: PlayStation Blog

After many months of rumors and a recent false flag thanks to the game’s composer, Arc System Works has finally unveiled a brand new upgrade to French-Bread’s Under Night In-Birth franchise.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [st] will reportedly adjust the previous installment with a number of balance changes, as well as make Nanase and Byakuya, who were previously console exclusive characters, playable in the arcade version. It will also introduce a newcomer named Phonon (pictured below), who sports headphones, a whip, and the personality of a queen.

Furthermore, a new gameplay mechanic will also find its way into the game. Cross Cast Veil Off allows a player in Vorpal to cancel an attack into Veil Off state mid-combo if they have over 100 meter.

Location tests are scheduled to take place May 22-24 at CLUB SEGA Shinjuku Nishiguchi in Tokyo and SEA Nanba Avion in Osaka. Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open next weekend for even more details!

Sources: Arc System Works, Inside, translations by USD

The hits just keep on coming for Tekken 7. Just two days after Yoshimitsu rejoined the cast, Bandai Namco has announced that a brand new Jack model will be playable in the franchise’s latest installment.

As you can see in the reveal trailer below, Jack-7 is very similar to its previous incarnations, bringing a number of notable weaponry and body-modifications to the battle to edge out opponents. Give it a watch and let us know what you think.

It’s currently unknown when Jack-7 will be added to the arcade title, so stay tuned for more information.

Source: Bandai Namco

Earlier today, NetherRealm Studios dropped a rather substantial patch that addresses a number of issues in Mortal Kombat X. As with previous updates, this added some interesting details to the game regarding upcoming characters, the most prominent of which has to do with Tanya.

In addition to information on her Edenian background and current alliances, Mortal Kombat X currently features some new images of the returning fighter doing what kombatants do best: brutally mutilating bodies post-match. Tanya, it seems, will have a brand new fatalities that involves ripping out her opponent’s heart and stomping them into the ground with her boots, as you’ll see below in these extremely NSFW images from Takeda on Twitter.

Apart from its gruesome finisher depiction, the second image also sheds some light on what Tanya may bring to Mortal Kombat X in the gameplay department. The fatality in question appears to make use of her classic kobujutsu weaponry from Deception and Armageddon, which leads us to believe they won’t be relegated to her role in the game’s story mode and may possibly be included in one of her variations.

It’s unknown when Tanya will join the Mortal Kombat X cast at this point in time, but the addition of these assets makes us think it may be sooner rather than later.

Let us know what you think of Tanya’s finishers in the comments.

Source: Takeda

Back at the beginning of March, we reported that a brand new mobile title based on Arc System Works’ BlazBlue franchise would be making its way to iOS devices at some point this year.

It seems that today is the day, as BlazBlue: Battle Cards landed on iTunes this morning.

From what we’ve seen through early footage of the game, we know that it involves building decks of various types of attacks and pitting them against one another in a style akin to Blizzard’s wildly successful Hearthstone. Of course, the fact that it draws inspiration from the BlazBlue universe means that fans of the series should have a lot to look forward to with the incorporation of various characters from the series and even fighting game-esque combos.

We’ve included the official launch trailer below so you can check it out and see if this is the kind of thing that you’d like to give a shot. Do note that, while the game is completely free, it requires an iPad 2 or newer in order to play.

Source: Metaversal Studios and iTunes

The folks over at NetherRealm Studios have just announced another update to their latest title, Mortal Kombat X.

Apart from a variety of balance changes and bug fixes, the most notable of which have to do with the ridiculous meter gaining potential of Spectral Ermac and the recent discovery of how powerful armored interactables can be, the patch also adds completely new moves and matchmaking improvements.

For a full look at what will be included in these changes, take a look below.

Players on PlayStation 4 should see this update appear in the next couple of hours, while Xbox One users will apparently have to wait a little longer. No word has yet to be released regarding the PC version.

With a little more than a week until Combo Breaker, which will be receiving a $10,000 bonus to the Mortal Kombat X prize pool thanks to NetherRealm themselves, it should be more than a little interesting to see how these changes affect competition.

Source: WB Games via Test Your Might