Category: News

While this morning’s news of their partnership with Nintendo is plenty exciting, the folks behind Apex 2015 are far from finished when it comes to hype-building.

According to a recent announcement, Apex 2015 will see a grand total of $10,900 added to its prize pool courtesy of Twitch, split across the nine games that constitute the official lineup. The full breakdown of how this sizable pile of money will be distributed is as follows:

In addition to the fighting games, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will also be given an extra $200.

Apex 2015 is scheduled for January 30 – February 1 in Seacaucus, New Jersey. Tournament registration ends this Sunday, January 11, so be sure to visit the official website for more details.

Source: Apex

While we’ve known for some time that Kung Lao will be making a grand reappearance in Mortal Kombat X, our only glimpses of him in-game have been through poor magazine scans. Now, however, we have one great screenshot to go off thanks to NetherRealm Studios’ own Ed Boon.

Seriously, look at this glorious mug.

Because Kung Lao was killed in Mortal Kombat (don’t whine about spoilers, that game is over three years old!) many are interested why he’s returned. Some theories, backed up by statements from the developers, point towards Quan Chi’s nefarious powers of necromancy at work, but we’ll have to wait for more details on that front.

In any case, this series veteran will bring his trademark blade hat to battle in Mortal Kombat X, modified by the three variations players will have at their disposal. These unique versions will give Kung Lao the opportunity to use his cap as a whirling shield, control it after being thrown, and more.

Mortal Kombat X is scheduled to release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC on April 14.

Source: Ed Boon

This morning, the folks behind Apex, a tournament series widely regarded as one of the largest and most important annual Smash majors, revealed the worst-kept secret of all time: they will be entering an official partnership with Nintendo for Apex 2015.

Unfortunately, Apex and Nintendo holding hands is about all we got from the announcement. While people involved with the tournament and other prominent members of the community stepped forward with vague promises of big things on the horizon, absolutely nothing in the way of specifics were provided.

This is generally par for the course with news like this, so the lack of follow-up in itself isn’t a major issue. But, when looking at the context of the entire situation, it becomes clear that more details may have been the smarter step here.

Back in November, the Apex organizers announced the official lineup for this year’s event, which includes four generations of official Smash titles. We say “official” because one title, Project M, was left out in the cold.

For those of you out of the loop, Project M is a modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that was created in an effort to make the game as competitive as its hugely popular older sibling, Super Smash Bros. Melee. As such, it operates as a very interesting addition to the scene, one that gets play at smaller tournaments but is effectively starting to be phased out at larger events.

Ever since the lineup announcement, voices within and without the Smash community quickly came to the conclusion that Project M was given the boot due to some sort of official involvement by Nintendo. While historically averse to giving competitive Smash attention, the company has made some major strides with the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS to make connections with fans outside the core, casual demographic. Thus, the idea that they would rather not give an unofficial modification of one of their titles the spotlight made complete sense.

Now, I’m not going to get into a debate about the decision to not include Project M at Apex 2015; the inferred reasoning behind it is sound. That being said, any further news about the event, the game, or Nintendo’s involvement in the community will instantly be saddled with that previous discussion. While I have no doubt that this partnership will have a net positive effect on the Smash scene, at the moment the only tangible change is a negative one: the loss of a prominent, competitive title.

I’m of the mind that letting others fill in the blanks you’ve left for them will, for the most part, bite you in the ass. Hopefully Apex and Nintendo has the opportunity to show what this partnership brings to the table soon to quell this rather Mad Libs-type situation.

Apex 2015 is scheduled for January 30 – February 1 in Seacaucus, New Jersey. More details and registration information can be found through their official website.

Source: Apex

Two years ago, the east coast saw a new major stroll into North Carolina courtesy of some of the region’s biggest names in tournament organization. The Fall Classic served a variety of purposes, most important its filling of specific gaps across both the yearly event calendar and geographical landscape.

So, with a pair of successful tournaments under their belts, the minds behind The Fall Classic will (of course) be returning this year, and a recent announcement just made your planning a whole lot easier.

Co-organizer Eric Small took to Facebook earlier today to reveal that The Fall Classic 2015 is scheduled for September 11-13. While it’s a bit sooner than the event’s regular October spot, it will still be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, smack dab in the middle of the United States’ east coast.

More information is expected to drop soon, so stay tuned.

Source: Eric Small

Back in my day, when video game developers wanted to tease something, they usually took out a spread in some physical publication, smashed together a silhouette and possibly an unbearably awesome pun, and called it a day. It could be frustrating, sure, but the small glimpse still felt tangible somehow.

While the Killer Instinct crew adhered to this standard in their season two trailer, revealing every new fighter with converstation-stirring shadows, they also seem to have quite the fascination with the lower extremities. Back before she was fully revealed, Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Isgreen saw fit to give fans a single-leg preview of the returning fighter, and he’s repeated that strategy with another upcoming character.

Omen, who has also been referred to as the Herald of Gargos, will join the expanding Killer Instinct roster later this month, bringing with him a strong zoning game that combines unique tools with a few he pulled from Jago during his time as a possessing spirit.

But who cares about all that? Here’s his leg.

Sweet.

Source: Adam Isgreen, tip via Miguel O.

A lot of attention has been placed on PlayStation 4 peripherals lately due to their high demand, making it easy to forget that a number of fighting games will be following Killer Instinct to the latest Microsoft platform as well.

While many of the PlayStation controllers released thus far feature dual-compatibility with Sony’s previous console, we haven’t seen that function transfer to Xbox One arcade sticks like Mad Catz’ first Tournament Edition 2 or Razer’s Atrox. Fortunately, it appears as if that’s going to change in the near future.

Set to coincide with the release of Mortal Kombat X, the folks over at Performance Designed Products (or PDP) will be releasing yet another fightpad for players who prefer the more compact form they provide over traditional arcade sticks. In addition to some very competitive-minded features like the default D-Pad and microswitch buttons, PDP’s controller will also include a toggle that allows it to be used on both Xbox One and Xbox 360 (similar to the switch we’ve used in the sticks we previously mentioned).

This information comes to us from CNET’s Brian Tong, who was given an exclusive preview of the controller during his visit to this year’s installment of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. His quick video demonstration can be found below.

Sometime after the above video was released, Mad Catz community manager Mark “MarkMan” Julio jumped online to get ahead of the inevitable, “When’s Mad Catz?” questioning, mentioning that this licensing isn’t exclusive to PDP.

“We have already been working on making an Xbox One/360 compatible FightStick,” he revealed, leading us to believe an official announcement may be coming soon.

As for how soon? Julio only says to stay tuned.

Sources: Brian Tong, Mark “MarkMan” Julio

Of the numerous discussion topics inherent to the fighting game community, one of the most pressing has to be, “Is this anime?” While titles like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are most notable for adhering to the airdasher sub-genre’s requirements (which differ wildly from person to person), some see fit to also add the Marvel and King of Fighters series into the mix on occasion.

Now, thanks to one very unlikely source, we may finally have a concrete answer to this incredibly important question with regards to one of these fighters.

As they are often wont to do, Steam recently went live with a new round of sales on their digital gaming platform. This time around, they all subscribe to a loose anime theme, from Recettear’s cutesy item shop adventure to the bird-dating simulator Hatoful Boyfriend. The aforementioned BlazBlue also makes two appearances, with older entries Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift EXTEND available for $2.49 and $22.49 respectively.

Interestingly enough, the recent PC port of King of Fighters XIII is also included in the mix. While it may not feature a ton of the gameplay mechanics seen in typical anime titles, strong arguments can be made that its aesthetic definitely fits the bill.

All joking aside, King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition can now be purchased at the incredibly low price of $7.49, a 75% discount from its normal $29.99. If older titles are more your speed, however, you can also grab King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition for $11.99.

These sales will only be in place until January 12, so be sure to take advantage before then.

Source: Steam via RPG Site

New console generations always come with the need for compatible controllers, and nothing much has changed with the release of Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.

For the fighting game community in particular, Mad Catz has been on the forefront of providing arcade sticks for these new consoles with their line of Tournament Edition 2 models, which so far have come in Killer Instinct, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- flavors. The latter in particular has seen incredibly high demand, making it nearly impossible for folks who didn’t pre-order to get their hands on one.

Earlier today, Mad Catz went live with a special restock of 100 sticks, sold through their online shop on a first come, first served basis. They were gone within fifteen minutes.

For a bit more insight into the mad rush that occurred this afternoon and their plans for future releases, we contacted community manager Mark “MarkMan” Julio for some specifics.

“It was insane,” he divulged. “The traffic/demand for the product due to the lack of options of [PlayStation 4] sticks on the market is extremely obvious by now. That being said, we are doing our best to make more of the Mad Catz version of the [Tournament Edition 2] and the Ultra Street Fighter IV one available again.” During the rush, which saw outages to their website from high traffic, Julio likened it to the hype created by limited edition sneaker sales.

The sticks he mentioned, which work on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, will be restocked sometime in late February or early March, depending on how their production and subsequent shipping pan out.

“We’ve ordered a lot more for that time frame and hopefully everyone will be satisfied then. We really want to apologize to everyone who tried to order and wasn’t able to get one.”

Mad Catz isn’t the only developer having a hard time keeping PlayStation 4 sticks in stock either. Similar controllers sold by companies like HORI are becoming increasingly hard to come by, though alternatives will be available sometime next month.

After the restock’s selling out this afternoon, Julio took to Twitter to talk to his followers directly, saying, “I’ll be talking to whomever I need to to try and make more Xrd sticks possible in the near future.”

With Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- out now and titles like Mortal Kombat X and Street Fighter V on the horizon, demand for PlayStation 4 compatible arcade sticks definitely won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Fortunately, these recent events have made it hugely apparent that the market for such peripherals exists, which means it’s likely that we’ll see production shifted towards making larger quantities available at regular intervals in the future.

What makes the Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- stick so great apart from working on PlayStation 4? Be sure to check out our official review and find out!

If there’s one game that jump started the 1990s fighting game boom, it’s none other than the original Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Without this game, the genre would likely never be where it is today.

For those of you who want to experience this seminal game in a rather interesting form, here’s some great news. The Internet Archive recently added almost 2,400 old MS-DOS games to their repository, among these none other than the original MS-DOS port of Street Fighter II.

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of digitized materials for free public access, including video games. It is currently subject to an exemption from the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act which allows it to host these games for the purposes of preservation or archival reproduction.

Street Fighter II’s arcade debut was added to the archive back in November, using a similar in-browser emulator.

As part of this latest batch of games, the MS-DOS port of Street Fighter II can now be played here.

Source: Internet Archive via Gizmodo