Category: News

Over the past week, Mortal Kombat X on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One received a patch that introduced some balance changes and fixed a few bugs.

The main balance changes directly address Liu Kang’s blockstring infinite, reducing the amount of blockstun done by a meter burned Double Dragon Kick into a Bicycle Kick. In addition to this, it also fixes the damage scaling on the drop portion of Ermac’s Tele-Hang.

Other changes include a fix on Sonya’s Air Strike, preventing it from being punished on hit when done as a reversal, as well as some fixes to frame data.

Aside from balance concerns, the patches also addressed some other bugs in the game, including one that kept certain switches in the Krypt from working properly as well as various issues that crashed the game on both consoles.

Check out the complete patch notes for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One below.

Balance Changes

• Ermac (Mystic) – Damage from dropping from Tele-Hang will now properly be combo damage scaled.
• Liu Kang (Dragon’s Fire) – Meter-burning a Double Dragon Kick into a Bicycle Kick is now +2 block     advantage to remove a potential block trap.
• Sonya (Covert Ops) – Air Strike can no longer be reversal wakeup punished on hit by some characters.
• Liu Kang – Towards Front Kick & towards Back Kick attacks can no longer be High Parried.
• Movelist Frame Data – Many corrections and now includes frame 0 in the startup frames

PlayStation 4 Bug Fixes

•  Switches in the Krypt now work as intended.
•  Fixed crash relating to downloading store content information
•  Koins awarded for actions on mobile game now appear correctly in user’s bank.
•  Fixed issue with purchase of easy fatalities.
•  Various text fixes.

Xbox One Bug Fixes

• Switches in the Krypt now work as intended.
• Leaderboard now works as intended.
• Koins awarded for actions on mobile game now appear correctly in user’s bank.
• Fixed issue with purchase of easy fatalities.
• Fixed issue where having no accounts signed in, then attempting to sign in as player 2 in two player mode crashes the game.
•  Various text fixes.

Source: WB Games

If you’re planning on attending the inaugural installment of Combo Breaker in Chicago next month, now is the best time to register. As of this writing, registration for the event costs only $35. Tomorrow, however, that will increase to $45 and on-site registration will be $70–double the current early registration fee.

This event, which is the spriritual successor to the wildly popular Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament, is set to include games like Ultra Street Fighter IV, Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and plenty more.

If you need more reason to pack your things and head out to the midwest, check out the event’s recent hype trailer. It should get your blood pumping.

Combo Breaker is set to take place May 22-24 in Chicago, Illinois. More details, including register information, can be found on the event’s official website.

Source: Combo Breaker

Ever since his announcement at the end of last month, Killer Instinct players have been longing to light up opponents as their favorite fiery character, Cinder. This redesigned version of the classic fighter has seen a full graphical overhaul paired with a dapper accent and fresh back story that ties in alien technology to a game already loaded with stone golems, killer robots, and dinosaurs.

As of just a few short hours ago, the wait to take control of this blazing brawler is finally over.

To accompany the return of this classic combatant, Mick Gordon released his official theme on YouTube earlier today as well. As you’ll quickly see, this newest theme lives up to the high standards that the composer has set with his previous tracks for the game. So check that out below, crank it up, and start burning up those leader boards.

Source: Mick Gordon

As part of their new tournament-supporting efforts, the folks at Microsoft has made a special Killer Instinct bundle available to the public. For twenty bucks, players will be able to get their hands on the limited Shadow Jago skin as well as a bunch of in-game currency for buying unlockables.

All proceeds collected with this and other downloadable content will go into a special community fund with a maximum cap of $100,000, set aside to boost the prize pools of various Killer Instinct tournaments. The largest portion of this–up to $50,000–will go to Evo 2015.

Not only that, but should the community reach the upper limit of this promotion, the Killer Instinct developers will flesh out Shadow Jago’s gameplay, making him a unique character instead of just a skin.

Even though this bundle appeared a day before the fundraiser is set to begin, don’t worry about purchasing it as soon as possible; all the money collected will still go towards the community pot.

Killer Instinct’s Shadow Jago community bundle will be available until May 14.

Sources: Xbox Live, Ultra-Combo

We recently learned quite a bit about Skullgirls 2nd Encore, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita port of Lab Zero Games’ indie fighter. While fans won’t be treated to a free upgrade if they own an older version, these upcoming releases will feature cross-buy (meaning a purchase of the console title will net you the handheld one and vice versa) and cross-platform netplay, allowing even those on PlayStation 3 to enjoy the influx of new players.

But that’s not all. Earlier today, the developers updated the game’s official website with a listing of all the new features included in Skullgirls 2nd Encore. The most noteworthy in an aesthetic sense is certainly the fully-voiced story, but Lab Zero is also looking to make great strides with a brand new trial mode.

Unlike other games, which often throw somewhat obscure concepts and strings at players, Skullgirls’ trials will incorporate competition-ready combos, from basic bread and butters to more complex fare, in an effort to work newcomers into the fold gradually with useful information.

All in all, Skullgirls 2nd Encore is shaping up to be a worthy addition to the franchise’s tumultuous timeline. More details on the port’s new content can be found by following the link below.

Source: Lab Zero Games via NeoGAF

After placing a spotlight on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 last year with a huge exhibition between co-organizers Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli and Matt “Shock” Luongo, East Coast Throwdown 2015 will continue showing love to the NetherRealm community by making Mortal Kombat X the tournament’s finale.

Yes, you read that right. While nearly every other tournament across the world is scheduling Street Fighter to close out the event, Scorpion and company will be bringing this year’s East Coast Throwdown to a close.

But that’s not all. The organizers will also be providing a $1500 pot bonus to Mortal Kombat X’s prize pool, along with smaller boosts for Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

With the ridiculous number of fighting game tournaments starting to pack into every calendar year, it only makes sense that organizers are trying their hardest to craft a unique experience and identity for their events. Community Effort Orlando saw great success with their wrestling motif and ran with it, NorCal Regionals features an incredibly heavy focus on Capcom titles, Final Round can always be expected to give Tekken the shine it deserves, and now East Coast Throwdown is looking to set themselves up as the premier location for Mortal Kombat competition.

After seeing the insane amount of attention streamers received from folks both inside and outside the community upon Mortal Kombat X’s launch, it should be interesting to see how well those numbers transition to a much different setting.

East Coast Throwdown 2015 is scheduled for June 13-14 in Morristown, New Jersey. Further information can be found through the event’s official website.

Source: East Coast Throwdown, special thanks to Arturo Sanchez for bringing this to our attention.

Back during this year’s hectic April Fool’s Day, Bandai Namco dropped a video featuring popular Tekken characters joining the world of Galaga to participate in some vertical shooting instead of the fisticuffs they are known for. While many likely wrote that off as a clever joke, it appears as if the mashup is indeed real and will be arriving on mobile devices incredibly soon as a way of celebrating the fighting franchise’s twentieth anniversary.

Famitsu reports that the developers are planning to release Galaga Tekken sometime tomorrow, April 30, at the completely reasonable price of free. As the new screenshots below highlight, players will be able to control characters like Heihachi, Lili, and Asuka as they blast fellow cast members from the sky. Though the sprites are a little hard to make out, the game also appears to feature cameos from King, Alisa, Panda, and newcomer Lucky Chloe.

Galaga Tekken will be released for both iOS and Android devices, though its availability outside of Japan is still up in the air.

Source: Famitsu via Siliconera

Back in February, we learned that the organizers behind the annual KVO tournament series had partnered with Team St1ckbug to foster a greater relationship between the Japanese and North American fighting game communities, resulting in a larger-than-usual event with an impressive eleven-game lineup. But it appears that wasn’t the only exciting collaboration set for this year’s competition.

According to new details from Alan “St1ckbug” Bakes himself, KVO x TSB 2015 has been designated as an official ARC REVOLUTION CUP qualifier for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND, which will allow first-place finishers automatic entry into Arc System Works’ prestigious event. Due to scheduling, they will also be acting as the very first ArcRevo qualifier, kicking off what is sure to be an exciting few months of fighting game action.

The joint event will also feature qualifiers for Evo 2015’s Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax tournaments and offer ranking points for Capcom Cup 2015.

KVO x TSB 2015 is scheduled to take place this weekend, May 2-4, in Osaka, Japan. More details can be found through their official websites.

Source: St1ckbug

Learning to play fighting games at a competent level, like any other skill, requires a great deal of study and practice. Even those we consider naturals, such as Justin Wong, wouldn’t be where they are today without focusing on their gameplay and constantly striving to improve.

But raw practice can only take a competitor so far. More recently, we’ve seen folks like Infiltration keep track of notes on character and player matchups, checking between sets to remind themselves of specific details they may have overlooked thanks to the often chaotic nature of tournament competition. This integration of separate technology with gameplay hasn’t been a revolutionary step in the way we approach fighting games, but one piece of equipment may see some interesting applications in the near future.

Earlier this year, Danish manufacturer SteelSeries released the Sentry Eye Tracker which, as the name so aptly describes, tracks your eye movements to provide a visual representation of what you were watching while playing a game. Though the entertainment benefits are obvious with the advent of professional streaming, the replay feature can also give competitive gamers the ability to watch their matches and develop strategies around the way they ingest information.

To highlight its usefulness, 4Gamer took the Sentry for a spin, but in a way that’s sure to interest members of the fighting game community. Instead of casually applying the overlay to a random game, they tapped HORI’s Sako Naoto to give the peripheral a whirl while playing Ultra Street Fighter IV.

What resulted, as you can see in the video above, is an incredibly detailed look at how Sako approaches a competitive match from a visual standpoint. While his eyes may be drawn to any number of menu indicators during downtime, the way in which his focus shifts and stabilizes says a lot about the resolve he (and likely many other high-level players) show when entering a game, not to mention his emphasis on tracking the space between himself and the opponent.

As more and more money is poured into events and competitive gamers begin to make a decent living off their skills, the need to stay one step ahead of your contemporaries, even by a tiny margin, becomes an important part of maintaining one’s career. Communities like StarCraft and League of Legends have seen teams sequester themselves to train for months at a time, sharing knowledge and leveling up in an environment conducive to fostering their abilities much like professional football teams hold training camps for weeks before the season begins.

Keeping with the football comparison, one could logically see fighting game players using this technology to condition themselves to concentrate on specific parts of the screen much like linebackers and safeties learn to read quarterbacks, perhaps to improve how they approach the neutral game.

In any case, with $500,000 on the line at Capcom Cup 2015, a possible $50,000 heading to Killer Instinct’s prize pool at Evo 2015, and Mortal Kombat X making huge strides with ESL, the time is ripe for players to seek out technology like this and find new ways to improve their training. Unfortunately, the $200 price tag will likely put it out of reach for most of the fighting game community.

What do you think? Could this prove to be a valuable resource for fighting game players or is it just a fun novelty? Feel free to drop your opinion in the comments below.

Source: 4Gamer via Pssych

Although fighting game sales have seemed to dry up over the past few months, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live have once again focused their attention on our favorite genre with a number of great discounts.

From newer titles like Ultra Street Fighter IV and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late to older releases you may have missed like Skullgirls Encore and Street Fighter x Tekken, there’s bound to be something here that will pique your interest.

You’ll find the entire round of fighter markdowns below, but be sure to visit the links at the bottom of this article for a full look at all the sales currently available.

PlayStation Network

Game	Platform	PlayStation Plus Price	Sale Price	Original Price
Aquapazza	PlayStation 3	$7.50	$10.20	$29.99
Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!!	PlayStation Vita	$10.00	$12.50	$24.99
Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!!	PlayStation 3	$10.00	$12.50	$29.99
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND	PlayStation Vita	$3.75	$5.10	$14.99
Chaos Code	PlayStation 3	$3.00	$4.08	$11.99
Darkstalkers Resurrection	PlayStation 3	$6.00	$7.50	$14.99
Persona 4 Arena	PlayStation 3	$7.50	$10.20	$29.99
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax – Tohru Adachi	PlayStation 3	N/A	$2.49	$4.99
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax – Marie	PlayStation 3	N/A	$2.49	$4.99
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax – Margaret	PlayStation 3	N/A	$2.49	$4.99
Skullgirls Encore	PlayStation 3	$4.50	$6.00	$14.99
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late	PlayStation 3	$23.99	$27.99	$39.99

Xbox Live

Game	Platform	Sale Price	Orig. Price
Street Fighter x Tekken	Xbox 360	$7.99	$11.99
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition	Xbox 360	$5.09	$8.99
Ultra Street Fighter IV	Xbox 360	$10.04	$11.24
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix	Xbox 360	$3.74	$4.94
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix	Xbox 360	$2.49	$3.29

Sources: PlayStation Blog, Major Nelson