With the beta edition of Fighting EX Layer fast approaching, Shin Tanimoto has continued his combo series for Street Fighter EX 2 Plus, showcasing the combos that are available to all characters without using the Excel custom combo system.
In this video, he shows off combos for Pullum and Shadowgeist, with the latter having devastating combos, including an infinite combo with relatively easy inputs. But let’s not forget the final combo with Pullum where she literally dances her opponent to death. What a way to go.
A simple technique to ready your response to your opponent’s Hyper combos!
rooflemonger continues his “Let’s Learn Marvel!” series with a single, simple execution technique that will ensure your inputs in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite come out when they need to, taking the timing guesswork out of responding to a Hyper combo flash. This new video examines MvC:I’s “button-hold trick”: first brought to rooflemonger’s attention via the SRK Forums, holding any command button during a screen-freeze will allow your input to activate on the first possible frame. Check out the video for a look at the potential applications.
As we continue navigating Snake Way, getting ever closer to the release of the highly-anticipated Dragon Ball FighterZ, we were recently gifted a trio of character reveals by Shenron in the forms of Gotenks, Ultimate Gohan and Kid Buu. After getting unintentionally caught up in the overpowering hype, IKevinX has released his latest anime and manga reference video, based off of the short gameplay trailer of Gotenks that recently dropped.
Drawing primarily on his battle with Super Buu — particularly the version depicted in the anime — the fused Saiyan warrior will be able to utilize shoulder rams, a tornado-like spinning attack that bears a striking resemblance to Ryu’s Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, his Continuous Die Die Missile and Victory Cannon, as well as some original attacks that seem to have been created for DBFZ. This does fit his extremely childish and flamboyant fighting style.
His specials include his signature Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack (complete with no eyebrows and the Super Saiyan 3 hairstyle), the Galactic Donut and Super Donut Volley, which look great for restraining foes from long-range, and, of course, the Charging Ultra Buu Buu Volleyball attack — which, despite being utilized with Piccolo to reenact the classic passing scene, will have character-specific passing animations depending on the characters you’ve chosen to team him up with him for the current battle. He also appears to assault Kid Buu with a barrage of Super Miracle Punches as well. You can catch the full video — as well as links to his coverage of previous cast members — below.
Dragon Ball FighterZ will be released in North America and Europe on January 26th, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. A Japanese release on those same platforms will follow on February 1st. An open beta period will also take place sometime in January, preceding the game’s full release.
While Brook has been the go-to in the last couple years for joystick aftermarket parts, they have also set their sights on cornering the controller market. Their new wired controller, the Mars, boasts compatibility with PS4, PS3, PC, and the Nintendo Switch with minimal lag. How close to their claims have they come?
In his review of the controller, Jonyfraze says that they hit the bull’s eye. While he indicates that some of the removable directional pad options are cumbersome to use, he also states that the buttons, triggers, and analog sticks are incredibly responsive and feel great. He also praises the controller for its build quality — and even the port for the USB cable, for making the connection really sturdy.
Pikachu Libre, a.k.a. R. Pika, is the most versatile and mobile grappler in the Pokkén Tournament DX cast. Pokkén Pros BadIntent and Slippingbug put together the ultimate combo guide for any aspiring Pikadores to quickly pick up this popular and powerful tournament Pokémon.
Be it a jab, anti-air, counter, or throw, Libre will always convert or put you in a situation for another terrifying coin flip. It’s at the trade off of a lower health pool then other characters, but as you can see from her damage output and tournament results, that’s not exactly holding the Masked Pikachu back.
Next month is shaping up to be huge for fans and players of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. The game’s final three DLC characters (as part of the 2017 Character Pass), Marvel’s trio of Black Widow, Winter Soldier and Venom will be available in two weeks on Tuesday, December 5th, along with their Premium costumes.
But arguably more important is the title receiving its first proper large-scale balance update: affectionately dubbed the “Dante Must Die” patch, due to the staggering number of changes to the Son of Sparda, as well as the Reality Stone’s Infinity Surge. The update is also providing a large number of bug fixes, imposing quite a few combo limitations on certain OTG and Capture State moves, as well as providing balance changes to a large number of frequently — and not-so-frequently — used characters.
While a massive wall of text chronicling the changes can be a lot to take in — particularly since it lacks developer notes from Capcom specifically explaining what some of the changes mean, or why they’re being applied — Unequalled Media’s Tyrant and Maximilian have taken it upon themselves to provide players with detailed breakdown videos covering the most significant changes coming to the game. Though both videos are a bit long, they’re certainly great resources for those curious on how their favorite heroes and villains may be impacted by these upcoming adjustments in a few short weeks. (Be advised though: there is a fair amount of NSFW language in both videos, so exercise caution if you’re at work or have family around!)
Lastly, for those worried about how this update could impact the upcoming Battle for the Stones Finals at Capcom Cup, you can rest easy. Capcom has officially stated that, in order to maintain the integrity of the tournament, the event will be using the current version of the game, with Black Widow, Winter Soldier and Venom, being unavailable for use in the competition.
What are your overall thoughts on these upcoming patch notes? Do you agree or disagree with Max or Tyrant’s opinions, after giving these videos a watch? Sound off in the comments section below.
DNG|Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada was far and away the best Zangief player on the circuit last year. Unfortunately that was not enough to parlay his play into a berth for Capcom Cup 2016, as he narrowly saw himself on the outside looking in.
He continued along his path of the character specialist this year, and it paid off in dividends. While some things didn’t change — he is still the best Zangief on the planet — one thing did. This year he finds himself on the way to Anaheim in an attempt to muscle his way to a title. What are the odds of him flexing his way to glory?
True Muscle Power
One thing is for certain: Itazan is the greatest example of character loyalty there is. At no point in his career have we seen him deviate from the Red Cyclone. He knows this character inside and out, and makes it work time and time again.
One of his biggest strengths is paralyzing his opponents with his presence alone. Watching him at Evo 2017 — where he took fourth — I noticed so many times where he just simply churned SPD on meaty wake-ups, with full expectation that it would work. More often than not, it did. I commented to my friends around me, wondering why his opponents wouldn’t just simply jump back to evade it, knowing it was likely coming.
And from a casual perspective of looking at the game, I would be right. But there are more layers of depth to Itazan’s game that make the easy choice not so easy. While yes, he does a lot of SPDs, it’s the fact that he makes opponents afraid that he won’t that makes them not do anything. He does just enough normal throws on wake-up to make them think it won’t come. There’s also that looming threat of an air SPD, should you be convinced that he will SPD for the third time in a row. And it’s not just a threat — it’s something he actually does to make you stick to the ground.
That just shows a level of complexity to his mindgames that you really have to study to fully see. The things he does are totally read-dependent. And there are few players who read their opponents’ next moves like he does; this is what makes him a great player.
To also state that his entire gameplan revolves around the grab game would also be too linear for him. He also knows the exact instances to jump in for a combo. He also is highly patient and intelligent in his approach. Any disadvantages that he has to fireball characters seem to shrink, because he doesn’t feel the need to rush in without calculating when it’s time to. This is not just a ‘Gief who churns butter: this is one of the most calculated players on every aspect of the game.
Top Contender
The road of a Zangief main can be insanely tricky. The bracket can fall any which way, and you could see your tournament end early just because of bad match-ups. If you don’t try to mitigate that problem with a secondary, it’s made exponentially more difficult. This is something that RB.CYG BST|Snake Eyez has done, that Itazan simply powered through.
In doing so, he still puts up insanely consistent results. At DreamHack Summer, he finished third to Yukadon and Oil King. At Canada Cup — in one of the most stacked fields the CPT saw this year — he finished third yet again, losing only to Fuudo and Dogura.
In eight events, he only missed top 8 three times. For a Zangief main, that’s the equivalent to winning several majors. Given that one of three events that he missed top 8 in was the sole ranking event he competed in, that speaks a great deal to his skill, having amassed a large amount of points via Premiers only.
Countering the Specialist
The worry is, of course, that he isn’t winning events. This could well be attributed with his insistence on playing Zangief, who has a great deal of mobility issues. While a lot of effort has been made to make him more mobile — including armored moves, his V-Skill, and his lariat — that doesn’t mean those problems go away entirely.
This couldn’t have been any more apparent than when Punk — fresh off of a loss to Snake Eyez at CEO — countered him at Evo 2017 with Nash. This shows the difficulty Zangief has with pure zoning characters who don’t have to worry about playing the poke game with normals, something that Zangief wins more often than not. This was a calculated move by Punk that paid off tremendously for him, but sent Itazan into losers where he fell to yet another strong zoner in Tokido’s Akuma.
If you look down the line of players he’s fallen to, zoners outweigh any other character Itazan loses to. He lost to Dogura’s Urien at Canada Cup. He lost to Sako’s Akuma and Yukadon’s Ibuki at DreamHack Summer. He lost to a Taiwanese Ken player, and was later eliminated by stormKUBO’s Abigail — a character who actually can still outzone Zangief, despite his lack of a projectile — at TWFighter Major. And if you look at the roster for Capcom Cup, almost half of the players use a zoning character that will cause him issues.
Final Thoughts
To say a Zangief player can’t win a major is foolish. Snake Eyez proved that. But there’s still a difference: Snake Eyez has an Akuma to fall back on, and that did come out during CEO.
Itazan has no such fall-back character. He will rock Zangief no matter what. And while that is admirable, and he will do some damage — maybe even making top 8 — it’s unlikely he’ll win it all.
“Super Street Fighter Carnival 2017” marches on! SSFC2017 is the currently-ongoing Japanese tournament series at Mikado Arcade for a wide variety of classic (and sometimes, obscure) arcade titles. If you missed the first few tournaments from SSFC2017, there’s a lot to catch up on!
Sometimes, a newer arcade title gets to shine at Mikado Arcade. Even rarer are the times when a completely new fighter makes it in to Mikado’s SSFC series, and this is one of those times: welcome to Mikado’s day one Million Arthur Arcana Blood tournament.
The real tournament is time-stamped above at 36:05.
Million Arthur Arcana Blood is the new 2D fighter from Square Enix, based on thier Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur mobile game. This brand new air-dasher seems largely built around the versatile and powerful pre-set assist system, but who knows how the game will develop beyond this very early footage!
Mikado is constantly uploading a wide variety of arcade entertainment on their channel, so be sure to check them out. You can also try to catch them when they livestream!
Prayers for a Melee HD may soon be answered, thanks to an upcoming Smash 4 mod. Creatively titled “Melee HD,” modders are currently in the process of implementing a Melee-esque air dodge into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. By making Smash 4’s air-dodge similar to Melee’s, this also adds wavedashing into the game — something that fans have been clamoring for since the launch of SSB4.
The mod is very much a work-in-progress, with the team still having to tweak some elements to make air-dodges identical to Melee’s. Even so, it is a fantastic proof-of-concept and will no doubt see some fans dusting off their Wii Us and trying this mod out. So far, the Melee HD team have been able to remove ledge trumping, re-add ledge invincibility, as well as jump-canceled grabs and Shine. Once they manage to remove Rage, I’ll instantly be downloading the mod.
If you want to keep abreast of Melee HD’s development, you can check out its official Discord for the latest updates.
Jin Kazama might not have the Mishima jab confirms that his father employs, but he trades that for a long list of safe, pressure-oriented string mix-ups.
Once you block any of Jin’s 10 frame jabs (both his 1 and 2 are 10 frames!), you have a world of safe, irritating pokes that you must prepare for in advance if you intend to fight him. You may recall this is similar to the way Tekken 7‘s other Kazama is built, but Asuka could only wish she had something like Jin 2,4 i10 knockdown options to compliment her string mix-ups. Scallywag 93‘s new video will walk you through each of Jin’s options, and show you the most effective way to deal with each.
