Game Informer’s month of exclusive coverage of the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ continues. After showcasing some character breakdowns for the new quartet of Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, as well as scoring interviews with Christopher R. Sabat and producers Ryo Mito and Masayuki Hirano about the future of the franchise, they return with two full matches of gameplay.
These bouts showcase SSGSS Vegeta, the unfinished Tien, and Frieza battling SSGSS Goku, the similarly-incomplete Yamcha, and Perfect Cell on the infamous World Tournament stage; as well as Android 16, Android 18, and SSGSS Vegeta going to war against Tien, Yamcha, and SSGSS Goku on the newly-revealed Islands stage (which includes a stage transition into the Rocky Field (Noon) arena). You can get a good look at how all four of these new challengers play below.
In addition, Game Informer included a compilation off all of the game’s Level 3 Supers (though they mistakenly omitted Frieza’s Nova Strike and “You Should Be Killed By Me!” as well as the alternate version of Accel Dance, that 18 performs alongside her husband Krillin).
Dragon Ball FighterZ will be released on February 1st, 2018 in Japan for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam PC. A North American and European release for those same platforms will follow soon afterwards. For more DBFZ action, don’t forget to check out the game’s two newest fighters, Nappa and Captain Ginyu, here.
If we were to talk about recent success stories within Street Fighter V, a few names immediately spring to mind. While PG|Punk and Liquid|Nuckledu are immediate names on that list, YOUDEAL’s Fujimura “Yukadon” Atsushi should be right up there on the list. He was first pinged last year as Tokido’s training partner to face Infiltration’s Nash, and quickly rose to prominence on his own accord by not only finishing third at Evolution 2016, but also finishing in the top 8 at Capcom Cup 2016.
While he was unable to replicate his results at Evo 2017 — finishing just outside of top 16 — he has stepped on the gas recently thanks to a change away from his signature Nash pick. Last year, the hot player on the circuit was Nuckledu. This year, it’s Yukadon. Will he do what his predecessor did this year at Capcom Cup — win the whole thing?
On the Scene
Yukadon carved out the foundation of his notoriety on his pristine Nash play. Even when the world started to catch on to the character’s weaknesses, Evo saw Yukadon, Infiltration, and LI Joe make the top 8 with the character, and he was still able to dominate his competition by adapting alongside them.
In Season 2, he joined the ranks of Nash mains who decided the changes to the character made continuing playing him untenable. His first tournament appearance in 2017 saw him pick Ibuki, and he hasn’t looked back. While Nash played with a unique balance of aggression and passivity, Ibuki is far more aggressive by design, and Yukadon has made it work well. While Razer|Xian first drew blood with the ninja, it is Yukadon that has been the most consistent Ibuki player over the year. That’s not to say that he’s been consistent compared to other players within the top 5 currently — his tournament results have been all over the place — but he has managed to take three premier events on the Capcom Pro Tour. While Xian has won four events, three of these came from ranking events and not premiers. Making your way through one premier event is an arduous task. Taking three titles home in premier events in one year shows amazing strength.
Consistency is Key
The biggest problem is despite his results in majors, his consistency, or lack thereof, has been notable. While he has made four top 8s and won three events out of those four, the sample size of events he had to play to get those results is far less consistent than other players. To get four top 8s, Yukadon had to play twelve events. This is far less success than his peers have had. While his results are strong, they just aren’t as strong as players like Punk, Tokido, or Nuckledu.
While this could possibly be construed as issues with the character — Ibuki can typically only be as good as getting your setups started consistently — the fact is that out of seven CPT events, Xian has only missed the top 8 once — and that was at Evo. It could be a learning curve issue, and Yukadon is just now catching up.
Fighting Against His Peers
However, as he catches up, the rest of the players on the circuit are too. While he’s doing well right now, he’s also still losing to several key players he may have to face at Capcom Cup. While at Northern Arena Knockout, he ran through every player with ease, up until he faced Echo Fox|Momochi, who double-eliminated him on the way to the title. At Hong Kong Esports Festival, he was put into losers bracket by Gachikun, then eliminated by Fuudo. At Brooklyn Beatdown, he fell to Fuudo yet again, as well as Punk.
At Dueling Dragons Dojo, he started to show that he is working on some of the flaws in his performances. He took down several of those tough match-ups on his way to the title, including Fuudo and Gachikun. It doesn’t answer every question about his ability to face his bracket demons, but it’s a start.
Last One Out Gets the Glory
Over the last few weeks, Yukadon has been on, and he’s looked unstoppable. Despite losing to Momochi at Northern Arena, he has went on to take two premiers in a row in stacked brackets. Who did this last year? Why, it was none other but the reigning champion Nuckledu.
While this doesn’t guarantee success, Yukadon is peaking at the right time to make a serious run at Capcom Cup. He’s not only playing hot, but he has found just the right balance of dirty mixups and a strong spacing game. And doing so in such a short amount of time before Capcom Cup means players will now be scrambling to solve him. Will they be able to do it in time? It’s possible, but they will have far more problems to deal with than just simply Yukadon.
Final Thoughts
Yukadon is hard to bet on. The only thing that makes me bank on him taking home the cup in December is that he is the hot player. It may not be as late as Nuckledu streaked last year, but it is notable enough to warrant a serious discussion about his potential.
I would anticipate him making top 8 so long as he is either able to vanquish the demons that have tormented him this season, or the bracket shifts enough that he can avoid them altogether. He does have a solid chance of winning it all, but it will depend on if he maintains the momentum from here until Capcom Cup.
Chicago plays host to the climatic conclusion of the Proving Grounds team series!
After three months of clashes across eleven cities, Proving Grounds’ top Street Fighter V competitors are coming together to fight for the top spot at the Red Bull Proving Grounds 2017 Fall Finals! It takes place this Saturday, October 21st in Chicago at Joe’s Live. You can tune in and cheer for your favorite team on Red Bull Esports’ Twitch channel at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT on the 21st. The livestream broadcast will offer viewers a “quad-view” of the entire tournament: rotating between four matches simultaneously with Jeremy “Vicious” Lopez, Luis “Rynge” Avila, Michael “Yipes” Mendoza, and Francis “Lee Chung” Chong on commentary. All four will commentate the grand finals between the East and West teams.
The winning team will earn a trip to the Capcom Cup North American Finals, at Red Bull Battle Grounds!
This is the first time that the Proving Grounds Finals will be open to the public, and have a live audience in the venue itself. Going to be in Chicago? Check out the event’s Facebook page, or register to attend at smash.gg. There will be a Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Battle for the Stones open qualifier and casual play at the event, as well.
I don’t know if there’s anyone that follows Daigo’s Daigo the BeasTV YouTube channel that isn’t at least somewhat familiar with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike‘s tournament scene. But if that theoretical person exists, then this dark, brooding trailer probably confused them when it dropped:
The protagonist in this eerie trailer is none other then 3rd Strike legend and multi-Tougeki winner, Kuroda. While his prowess in the 3rd Strike universe is so renowned that he’s sold DVDs of his game-play with the whole cast, his best known character is undoubtedly the iron-masked grappler, Q. Knowing all of this is important for the pun this trailer, and possibly, the whole project, ends with: “There’s a man I’m looking for. His name is… “Number 9″. The man in the iron mask.” The kanji for 9 is 九, which has two readings: “Kyuu” (“Q”) and “Ku” (Project 9road… Project Ku-road, or “Kuroda.”)
So even though no gameplay is shown at all in the trailer, we can safely assume “Project 9road” will heavily focus on Kuroda’s Q in 3rd Strike. These are all assumptions, though: we won’t have more information on the project until Daigo’s next Twitch broadcast airs on the 19th.
Diddy Kong’s Banana Toss is one of the most maligned moves in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. As a pressure tool, a trap and a combo starter, the banana can strike fear into the heart of any Smasher, regardless of their skill level. To stop any future slip-ups, the Beefy Smash Doods have created a special anti-banana guide (something I’d never thought I’d write) so players can better deal with Diddy’s devilish projectile.
Certain characters can dash straight over Diddy’s banana peel, as the opening frames of their dash animation actually have their feet floating off the ground. Captain Falcon, Mario, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Link, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Wii Fit Trainer, Mewtwo, Samus and Diddy can all dash over the banana. For some characters, it is impossible to dash over the banana if you’re standing on the left side of the screen.
If you’re not one of these select few characters, certain aerial moves can clash with the banana peel, destroying the projectile and cancelling the recovery frames of that move. Sheik players commonly do this with down air, but most other characters are capable of this tactic as well. Experiment with your main and see what moves can neutralize this pesky peel.
Have you been practicing your throw breaking in Tekken 7? When we made our throw break exercise video, it was with the express purpose of training you to break most throw mix-ups in the game. In your Tekken Journey, there is a level beyond what that video can prepare you for: distinguishing King’s Giant Swing and Shining Wizard.
BoxeR-King believes it is realistic to eventually eliminate this “mix-up,” and has some tips for practicing how to recognize and differentiate the two powerful command grabs. If you’ve moved beyond simply breaking traditional grabs and are ready to challenge yourself, you should give BoxeR-King’s lessons a try!
Zeku is arriving for Street Fighter Vnext week, finishing off Season 2’s batch of “all-new” character DLC. Already he’s looking to be one of the potentially deepest characters in the game via his stance-switching, providing two different movesets — and two different approaches to the match, based on the different strengths that old Zeku and young Zeku (a.k.a. Strider Zeku) each offer.
VesperArcade was ready to jump in and provide us some in-depth analysis of the trailer footage we’ve seen of the Bushinryu master; check out the videos below for a closer look at both of Zeku’s forms. That is, unless you plan to only play only one version of him — but nobody would do that, would they…?
Check out Zeku’s movelist here, and Capcom Fighter’s breakdown here. Zeku swoops into SFV on October 24th.
Catch up on the latest developments of Street Fighter V and the Capcom Pro Tour.
Michael Martin is back to bring you another Wake Up Wednesdays recap on everything you might have missed in the world of the Capcom Pro Tour this week, via Capcom Fighters on YouTube. This week, Martin talks about Zeku’s big reveal, the action at SEAM 2017, and Echo Fox|Tokido’s demonic dominance. Check out the news — and a bit of highlights footage — below.
Earlier this week Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite received its first patch, updating the game to version 1.03. This update added the title’s first three DLC characters: Sigma, Black Panther and Monster Hunter to the game (available to play starting yesterday), as well as 21 premium costumes for both the DLC trio and over half of the main cast.
Perhaps most importantly though were the myriad of bug fixes and character changes, particularly to Spider-Man, Frank West, Dante, Dormammu, Captain America, Chun-Li, Chris Redfield, Doctor Strange, and the Mind Stone. You can view the full list of implemented changes here, but I’ve always felt that patch notes are always better when complimented by a dose of visual aid.
On that note, here’s some full breakdowns of all the changes, courtesy of rooflemonger and Unequalled Media’s Tyrant, showing off some of the setups and situations this update will be removing from the game — from the infamous Spider-Man infinite with the Reality Stone’s Infinity Surge and his Web Balls, to inescapable Mind Surge setups and previously untechable specials and Hypers, as well as some command grab setups from the big bodies that will be slightly less guaranteed due to the increased two frames of invincibility added to air techs. You can catch both videos below.
What do you think of these patch notes? Is this a good first start for Capcom when it comes to fixing the game, or are their other issues you’d like to see addressed in a future patch when Black Widow, Winter Soldier, and Venom are released before the end of the year? Speak your mind in the comments.
Yukadon carved out the foundation of his notoriety on his pristine Nash play. Even when the world started to catch on to the character’s weaknesses, Evo saw Yukadon, Infiltration, and LI Joe make the top 8 with the character, and he was still able to dominate his competition by adapting alongside them.
