When you start your Tekken 7 journey, you can glean a simple understanding of how its step system works by just playing around. Simply put, you can step around non-homing moves, and you can’t step homing moves. Easy enough, right?
As you progress, however, you begin to learn that some non-homing moves can track quite well, and sometimes these moves are also a part of your opponent’s main offense. (Hello, Dragunov D+2, you disgustingly versatile tool, you.) This is the squishy middle ground of Tekken’s step system that can become very confusing to understand without guidance — and that’s where BoxeR-King‘s Step Guard tutorial comes in.
Since step is cancelable into guard, you can option-select many offensive options and remain safe. This is even true of many homing moves, since they tend to be on the slower side. However, it takes an understanding of how your step interacts with your opponent’s movelist. The tutorial above can help you approach learning about — and manipulating — these complex situations.
Tension Pulse, the online Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 exhibition series, is going strong. After resuming last week, we have more fighters on deck for this Thursday. Make sure to tune in for some exciting FT7 matches with skilled players and witty, insightful commentary. It’s a great event to watch for newcomers and veterans alike.
We’re seeing lots of new faces, with one returning participant. Dekline will once again show off his skills with Sin against… wait, Potemkin? Has ZotBuster been thrown to the wolves? Or will his iron will show that he can win the match-up despite a disadvantage? Before them, Maadhum and autodidact will warm up the stage with a showdown between the two Valentine sisters, Elphelt and Ramlethal. It’s bound to get explosive!
Dekline
On his growth since participating a year ago: “I think I’ve gotten a lot more match-up knowledge since the last time I played, though there are definitely still some characters I rarely play against (Answer, Jam, etc). I’ve also moved away from always going for character-specific or max damage combos in favor of more consistent confirms that still get the job done.”
On his opponent: “I don’t think I’ve ever met or played against ZotBuster, but he has solid placements, so I’m expecting some difficulty. Although the match-up is notoriously bad for Potemkin, I feel like it requires a lot of patience from the Sin player or it can fall apart very quickly.”
On his individual style: “I tend to be more of a reactive player. I usually try to feel my opponent out and then exploit their playstyle, as opposed to going in with a specific gameplan in mind.”
ZotBuster
On the match: “I’m excited to be part of it, there aren’t a lot of Potemkin players out there, so I’m happy to represent my character as well. I’m not usually one for netplay, but given how the US is distance-wise, it’s pretty tough to do exhibitions regularly any other way. I rely a lot on Instant Block, so I’m a bit worried about changing the timings for netplay.”
On his opponent: “I’ve heard of Dekline, but I’ve never gotten the chance to see him play. I fight Kizzie Kay a lot, but he definitely plays Sin in a really specific way, so I’m curious how Dekline will approach the match-up. It’s easily one of the worst in the game, probably around 7-3 in Sin’s favor? That being said, if I get in, he has to guess like everyone else. Nothing will be as bad as Kanji vs. Margaret in Persona, so at this point, I mostly just grit my teeth and try my best.”
On his individual style: “I’m not one for labbing, so I mostly just play on gut feelings. I kind of just try things that I feel will work, and if they do, I laugh about it, and if they don’t, I also laugh about it, just slightly less. A lot of the time I’ll try to find a gap in my opponent’s flow I can exploit since my character is strong at doing so.”
autodidact
On the match: “I’m excited to be a part of this exhibition! Thanks to Silva for inviting me on. I always enjoy an opportunity to take place in tournaments; but, I tend to get quite anxious when it’s time to play. Hopefully, this experience will help me, as I’m attending Texas Showdown and Combo Breaker in the upcoming weeks, and I’ll be able to draw from this when keeping calm. I hope my practice and improvement can be shown off Thursday!”
On his opponent: “I actually have not played or seen any footage of Maadhum, so his expertise and playstyle will be a mystery to me going in. This might help give him an edge; however, I am quite comfortable with the Ramlethal match-up as I have a couple friends in Texas that grind it with me. As long as I don’t overcommit and get caught being greedy, I think I have a great chance!”
On his individual style: “My playstyle from the moment I picked up Guilty Gear was crazy and aggressive; however, this has proven to be a fault of mine as I have strived to improve. Learning to reel myself in and play more calculated neutral and defense (as well as adapting to opponents’ tendencies) has been my focus these past few months. Still, sometimes I can be an absolute nut if I fall into autopilot… Elphelt as a character can definitely lend a hand in that.”
Maadhum
On the match: “I’m excited to be able to play in an exhibition, as I’ve never had an opportunity like this before. I’m definitely nervous, but this is a great opportunity for me to work on keeping my composure in a high-tension setting, something I’m usually pretty bad at.”
On his opponent: “I’m unfamiliar with autodidact, and we haven’t played at all, so it will definitely be an interesting match. I think Ram has a pretty good match-up against Elphelt. Ram has good answers to her grounded game and can also chase pretty well. I also feel like Elphelt’s anti-airs aren’t that great at dealing with Ram’s neutral game, which is great because Ram is a lot stronger in the air. Despite all that, Elphelt’s strong ability to consistently convert and deal damage and knockdowns off stray hits will be tough to deal with. I’m looking forward to it.”
On his individual style: “I think my style is pretty interesting as Ram. I like to focus on low commitment options, staying mobile, and building meter to make a big move. Even though Ram can run a very strong offense game in the corner, I always try to keep my options simple and safe. Because I hate being wrong.”
Help keep the Guilty Gear community going strong by supporting, sharing, and watching the stream on Silva_hime’s Twitch channel. Ryyudo and BxA|dot_Nova will play hosts on Thursday, commentating the action at 9:30 PM ET/8:30 PM CT/6:30 PM PT. In case you missed last week’s Tension Pulse, here’s a video:
While the Consortya KickStarter did not meet its goal, development on the unique “concert simulation” MMO is continuing. In a new developer video, viewers are given a look at a recent pitch to Idea Fame which allows innovative thinkers to submit projects for consideration of a $10,000+ prize.
SNK’s The King of Fighters is one series that’s steeped in lore and backstory. Even before its creation, the games that spawned it were already laying the seeds of a shared universe filled with different characters, with interesting and interconnected backstories.
One such character is Takuma Sakazaki, founder of the Kyokugen-ryu school of Karate. Originally hailing from Art of Fighting, Takuma’s backstory has been fleshed out throughout the years to the point where it involves more than just those involved in the Kyokugen school.
As this new History and Lore of the Fighter video from AcidGlow explains, Takuma’s story ties him to many of the other influential old masters in The King of Fighters universe, such as Jeff Bogard and Saisyu Kusanagi. Of course, this is on top of his ties with none other than Geese Howard, whose threats against him eventually led to the creation the Mr. Karate identity. From this, we learn of his exploits, leading to his appearances in a number of games in this storied series.
There’s always that one or two match-ups that just make you swell up with anger, because the designers decided to give that character strong counters to your moves. This is true for pretty much every fighting game, but it might stand out even more in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Beefy Smash Doods now go through a few of the match-ups that might make your blood boil.
First up, they talk about Rosalina and Ness. The crux of the match-up lies in Rosalina’s ability to negate projectiles, which is what Ness frequently uses to save himself from falling. This can happen with Villager as well, who can put projectiles in his pocket. When it comes to Pac-Man and Little Mac, the latter has a ground-focused game. A good Pac-Man can steadily punish and platform-camp the boxer. Next up is Meta Knight versus Jigglypuff. This match-up is very scary for the Pokémon, who can easily get knocked out from combos.
Check out the rest of the bad match-ups in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and let us know in the comments what other match-ups you hate with a passion!
When version 3.0 dropped for The King of Fighters XIV, some characters made it out in better shape then others. One of the characters that made it out considerably better than their previous incarnation was Geese’s butler, Hein — and if you aren’t caught up as to why that is, Apolo Loussalier has the scoop right here:
Backdash buffs, more damage, and new anti-DP setups with “Castling” allow Hein to stay mobile, hit harder, and keep the threat of pressure always on. If there was ever a time to brush up on your manners and play Hein, it’s now.
The Fractured team has sent out a full 15-minutes of pre-alpha gameplay that showcases both the exploration (“hike”) and combat (“slash”) that players can expect when venturing through the game world. The video features a look at a 1km x 1km procedurally generated map complete with a look at some of the environmental design and ARPG combat.
With the advent of Season 3 in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition last January, one of the characters who quickly became a hot topic of discussion was Rashid, with many top players arguing that he was perhaps the best character in the entire game. After starting out as a solid fighter in Season 1 and seeing continuous buffs in subsequent updates, the recently-released Season 3.5 patch was rather unkind to the wielder of the “Turbulent Wind”.
His stun was reduced from 1,000 to 950, making him easier to dizzy — on top of an overall damage, stun, invincibility, and frame advantage reduction for a large portion of his moveset, including his new V-Trigger II “Easifa”. However, his standing light kick is now cancelable and will now naturally combo into his light Eagle Spike, and his standing medium kick has seen an increase in its forward hitbox, despite becoming a weaker button overall.
In VesperArcade’s latest video, Mir examines the consequences of the Arabian techie’s changes, and also offers players who have chosen to stick with the character some new approach options to overcome these setbacks, that they perhaps hadn’t previously considered. You can see the full video below:
You can find links to VesperArcade’s pervious coverage of Season 3.5 character changes below:
What are your thoughts on Rashid’s current play in the SFVAE meta? Do you think Capcom was too hard on him, or that this list of nerfs was justified? Feel free to start a dialogue in the comments section below.
Street Fighter III veterans will likele be familiar with Oro, the hermit who limits himself by tying one hand behind his back. This new video by desk isn’t about combos for Oro specifically — rather, he channels the hermit master by performing all the combos in it one-handed!
The video below is the result of 70 days worth of training, where desk mastered the art of playing a number of fighting games one handed. Specifically, the games covered are Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter V, and of course, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.
Part of the reason for this is that desk did hurt his right hand a few months back. As part of his “training” for this, a good chunk of the video shows desk performing some of the in-game challenges and trials for some of the games above, before going on to some more impressive things.
“Reading is not just pattern recognition… it’s understanding how they think.”
“How did Daigo just walk up and Dragon Punch that guy?” is a sentence that has been said more then once by announcers in the FGC. It might seem like a player is psychic when they make an incredible correct guess in fighting games, but the skill being tested isn’t supernatural. “Reading”, as Frabisaur explains in his latest tutorial video, is deduction, not precognition. Like any other skill, you can hone your ability to deduce through character and match study — check out the video above to find out how!
