While we do love them, fighting games are a hard genre to get into. As such, they’re not exactly going to appeal to everyone. This is what makes this new video about getting into the genre from the Cosmonaut Variety Hour unique: it’s from someone who initially didn’t like the genre. It was only after coming across another video on now defunct gaming video site GameTrailers that the Cosmonaut Variety Hour got their mind changed.
Now, they’re attempting to create a video that hopefully does the same for other people: as part of this, they’re also going into both the reasons they like fighting games, and some reasons why some people may not like them. This is in addition to discussing actual concepts that anyone interested can apply to approach the genre. The result is a video that could be something that us fighting game fanatics can share with those who don’t get why we love the genre.
Final Showdown has returned with more videos exploring combos for some of the characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ. This time, he’s focusing on Frieza and Teen Gohan, two characters he’s done numerous combos for prior to the new patch.
For Frieza, the big change he explores is that for his Death Saucer. The was it was changed means that many of his old combos using them are harder to hit now. That said, the changes do make some of his old multiple super set ups much easier to do.
Teen Gohan received some changes to his auto combo. The result of this is the opening up a light link against some larger characters for some damaging, but specific, combos. Additionally, one combo that used to be specific against Kid Buu now works against most if not all of the cast.
While not as versatile as a technique like Korean Back-Dashing, crouch canceling is a useful and vital skill you’ll eventually want to add to your repertoire in Tekken 7 — and many other 3D fighters, too.
“Crouch Canceling” does exactly what it sounds like — you can simply and quickly cancel your crouch with a sidestep or small dash, allowing you to perform non-crouch moves in situations where you would be forced to otherwise. Check out ApocryphicV‘s tutorial to see how this can be applied to unlock new punishes on defense and new options on offense.
It’s no secret that arcade business and its culture in the United States had been on life support since the ’80s to mid ’90s, with the expansion of the home console market, lack of promotion, and the advent of online play being key contributing factors. There has been a recent resurgence of arcade gaming in the form of “barcades” in various parts of the country in the last few years, but the boom can’t compare to when arcades were in their golden age.
Fighting games, of course, were a huge part of the arcade industry back in its heyday. You couldn’t go anywhere — be it a mall, liquor store, movie theater, or family amusement centers — without seeing (and probably popping quarters into) Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter, Tekken and many others. With the decline of the arcade business starting in the ’90s, however, fighting games went through a “dark age” of sorts. Sure, there were still titles being made and released in the few surviving arcades scattered throughout the United States despite the decline in the business, but none that took fighting game community or the mainstream by storm until Street Fighter IV was released in late 2008 — and not only revitalized the FGC, but I would daresay partially reignited mainstream public interest in arcades.
That being said, arcade and video games in general had long been scrutinized and looked down upon as something that was a bad influence on young kids: wrongfully blamed for violence and other woes in American society, with shooters and fighters being the genres the mainstream media and politicians targeted as the main culprits. Even though arcade and video game culture have become somewhat more accepted by the general public in the United States, it is still experiencing the same problems it faced at the beginning.
This two-part documentary titled “Why Arcades Died in America” by Jabril Power examines this period of decline in arcades with deep insight into key factors. In the first part, he explains how the mainstream media portrayed arcade and video games that came from Japan, through archived footage from various new outlets and the negative — albeit subdued — prejudiced language reporters used to convey that it was an “addiction, “invasion, or “craze.” In the second part, Jabril Power goes over the decline of malls and department stores due to big online retail websites such as Amazon taking over, and relates it to how arcade and video games are being represented in a negative light in the United States — as opposed to how Japan embraces and celebrates the culture instead.
If you ever wanted to delve deeper into the decline of US arcade culture, watch both parts of this intriguing documentary in the two videos below. This one definitely hit close to home for me — as I’m sure it will for a lot you, who grew up playing at your local arcades — and how much of an impact it had in our lives as a hobby we still enjoy now.
Override: Mech City Brawl is an ambitious, upcoming 3D arena fighter from indie company Modus Games. It may seem like Namco has cornered the 3D Arena market with Gundam Versus and Pokkén Tournament, but Modus Games’s latest trailer shows that they have a lot of heart — and interesting features — they are ready to show to the world.
But its not all customs and flash! There’s serious depth, too: to dive into the specifics of the competitive side is FGC commentator/content creator, and now community manager for Override: Mech City Brawl, GeoffLife:
Override: Mech City Brawl launches on December 4th for Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
That Blasted Salami has been in the process of thoroughly documenting every new change, and its implications for each character, in Tekken 7. They’re at Eliza now, who has been a much troubled character since inception — have the Season 2 changes been kind to her?
Well, yes and no. Core elements to Eliza’s game-play in Season 1 took an overall hit — namely, divekicks and damage — but in its place is a more well rounded toolkit with considerable quality of life buffs. Check out the video above to see what Namco’s sleepiest vampire can do in the latest version of Tekken 7.
“I’m always moving. A lot of people think I’m a troll because I’m always doing something, but it feels natural for me.”
P. Ling is no stranger to the big stage — this online-born pro for UYU made big waves in 2016 as the highest finishing US player in The King of Iron Fist tournament. Despite his youth and uniquely erratic stance-heavy playstyle, he’s carved his own path and made himself one of the world’s most recognizable top players.
He still feels nervous about his place in the tournament scene — shocking, considering his tournament placements — but that self-awareness is what makes his interview with BornFree fascinating. Check out the video above to hear his thoughts on Online play, his history in the FGC, and more!
Street Fighter V took a drastic shift from Street Fighter IV in many ways, and the loss of proximity normals — normal moves that change depending how close you are to your opponent — is one of them. James Chen feels that this is one of the most glaring errors in the design of modern Street Fighter.
In his most recent episode of “Unchensored”, he discusses why he thinks this the case. Citing how the speed of proximity normals worked within Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter IV, he shows how the stripping down of non-command normals in Street Fighter V of their utility has created the linear playstyle that the game has been known for. He thus explains that by adding proximity normals, he feels that the variety of game-play would start to return.
If you were watching the Tekken World Tour finals, then you were likely as blind-sided as everyone else was when Harada-san revealed the rest of the Season 2 cast: Armor King, Marduk, and Julia Chang.
I guess if Paul can bring a wall with him everywhere, Marduk can lug a car around.
And Armor King has his own personal turnbuckle to flip onto? Tekken 7 intros are wild — but maybe not as wild as the fact that these two characters are going live tomorrow, Dec. 3rd. Julia Chang was also revealed, though not included in the 12/3 release. Given the way characters are launched in Tekken 7, she will likely drop with Negan at a later date.
Speaking of Negan, we finally have our first glimpse at some Walking Tekken gameplay — and a new stage! Namco, needless to say, didn’t hold back with the bat —
Who are you most excited for in Season 2, now that we know the rest of the character slots?
Justin Wong has had a wild ride in 2018. On top of capturing several tournaments and qualifying for Capcom Cup in the top half of the brackets, he also recently got engaged and began making his own YouTube content to show another side of the FGC.
Proving Grounds TV caught up with him at Red Bull Conquest 2018 to talk about his life as it stands today. They talked about the reason he didn’t show up to his pools for the final premier event of the year, and also his desire to limit his travel to North America in 2019 to focus on being with his new family.
