One of the so-called classics of the franchise, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is as known for some of the rather interesting things the engine will let you do, on top of the competition around it.
In this new video, Bob Sagat shows off some of the unique mechanics that Street Fighter Alpha 3 had. These include guard crushes, alpha counters, and even the advancing guard that was unique to Dan and Juni. These are put to good use to create situations and interactions that would look really flashy in a real match.
People who have played Capcom vs. SNK 2 know how amazing A-Groove can be. Its custom combo mechanic makes its damage potential higher than any other Groove, and there are three characters that can utilize this very well. If you’ve seen anything of Capcom vs. SNK 2 on YouTube, you’ve likely seen M. Bison paint the fence, or Sakura rhythmically chanting “sho-sho-sho-sho” throughout an A-Groove custom combo.
However, with great power comes great responsibility, as it is one of the most difficult grooves to master. Silentscope attempts to show off every bit of the mechanics of the groove, including quick rise, alpha counters, supers, and the dreaded custom combo mechanic in this tutorial.
With the recent release of the Ultimates Monster Pack, the support for Iron Galaxy’s Killer Instinct continues with the release of the title’s next large balance update, version 3.9. Rukari notes that, though characters such as Fulgore, Kan-Ra, Spinal and Sadira have been a difficult challenge to balance over the years, they feel that after this patch the game will be in a pretty satisfactory place in terms of balance. This will likely being the game’s last big balance update for the foreseeable future. It was also mentioned that details about the long-awaited Steam version of KI will be released soon, and that the team is looking for it to drop within the coming weeks, rather than months. (The Killer Instinct comic book will also begin releasing in September.)
As is customary with new character releases, Eagle is the subject of the most changes, with this being his initial set of modifications following his arrival to the roster. He’ll be losing his corner Arrow Rain loop, due to their now reduced hitstun, bird attacks and commands have been adjusted to remove any safe Counter Breaker attempts he once had, as well as being able to use the bird to combo off of Throw Techs. Many other fighters have seen adjustments to their damage and frame data as well. You can see the full list, as well as a video of Rukari narrating some of the more notable changes, below.
System Changes:
Fixed an issue preventing Opener -> Instinct Cancel -> Ultra from working if the move you performed had a non-hitting “landing” (recovery) sequence your character is forced into immediately on hit. Jago Wind Kick.
Fixed an issue that caused damage from some throws to not reset the potential damage healing process as expected.
Fixed an issue that could cause a reset into an opener attack to sometimes have followup manuals be unbreakable.
Fixed an issue that could cause your gravity to get stuck at a lower value if your opponent was hit out of the early frames of a ground-to-air Counter Breaker attempt.
Thunder:
Shortened the window for inputting an Ultimate after starting Thunder’s Ultra to avoid a situation in which the characters could become misaligned.
Sadira:
[Sadira was a very strong character in both Season 1 and Season 2, and throughout Season 3 we tried to increase her fun factor without making her too overwhelming. While we are happy with where her fun factor ended up, we saw the need for her to hit just a bit harder in some key areas in order to help her compete with the current cast.]
Instinct Webs no longer gain a first hit damage bonus.
Instinct Web damage raised 500% (from 2 to 10)
Instinct Webs now deal 1 chip damage (was 0) [These three changes combine to give Sadira much higher damage from webs both upfront and in combos, without the upfront damage being overly high due to the first hit damage bonus.]
Web Cling (Damage) Ender damage increased by 25% [Sadira’s damage ender doesn’t hit much harder than her exchange ender, which gets her better setups, so we amped this one up a bit to make it more worth it]
Fixed a bug that let Sadira cancel early jump frames into auto doubles and linkers outside of instinct.
Fixed a bug that could cause Lv1 Blade Demon ender to drop in some situations.
Spinal:
[Spinal is difficult to adjust because of how strong his momentum can be. We noticed that many of his bad matchups include strong air priority characters, so we wanted to give him some slightly better ways to handle characters at awkward air angles without buffing his ground game.]
Jumping LP hitbox extended to cover more space above Spinal.
Jumping MP range extended to reach farther away from Spinal.
Jumping MP is now active for 2 additional frames.
Fulgore:
[Fulgore has been pretty difficult to balance. We’ve adjusted his rushdown, his zoning, and his instinct during Season 3 and he is still an extremely powerful character, which shows how tricky it is to find the sweet spot for him. Now that the dust has settled a bit, the team feels confident that Fulgore now has the weaknesses we intended him to have, but on the journey to this spot, we went a little far in a few areas. These buffs will not send Fulgore over the top again, but should help with some small quality of life aspects of his game.]
Raised Energy Bolt damage by 42% (from 7 to 10) [This gives him more zoning damage and more damage on his Energy Bolt into Teleport mixups]
Raised Light Cyber Uppercut damage 33% (from 15 to 20)
Raised Medium Cyber Uppercut damage 16% (from 12 to 14) [Usually, you’d expect the heavy version of a move to do the most damage, but in this case we wanted the reverse. The benefit of the light uppercut is the highest damage and most invulnerability, while the benefit of the heavy version is more potential damage left behind and multiple hits.]
Light and Medium Eye Lasers can now be Pip Cancelled into Energy Bolts. Heavy Eye Beam still cannot be. [This is a big buff to pip cancels and these versions of Eye Lasers, and as a result, his instinct mode as well.]
The minimum reactor spin speed has been increased slightly. It now takes about 10 seconds at the lowest speed to build one pip, instead of 12.5 seconds. [Fulgore’s weakness should be the odd way in which he gains meter. The old instinct mode gave him so much free meter per game that this weakness didn’t matter. Now that we have things functioning the way we want, we feel his default ‘slow’ meter gain is just a hair too low. Over the course of an average match, this should result in 3 to 5 more pips than you used to get.]
TJ Combo:
Reduced the combo breaker window on a successful Tremor by 4 frames. [The tremor moves have one of the largest breakable windows in the game, even after this change. This just tightens it up a bit.]
Kan Ra:
[Another character with a very complex moveset that has proven difficult to balance, especially due to how much he benefits from training mode experimentation. After watching Season 3 Kan-Ra players, we decided that he struggled just a bit too much up close, now that getting closer to him is slightly easier than it was in Season 2. We adjusted some frame data on his close normals that should allow him to fight back without having to always commit to a negative on block special move.]
Standing LK is now 0 on block (was -2) [This is a big change for Kan-Ra, as it lets him use his fastest normal to try to push enemies away from him with much less risk.]
Standing LP is now +1 on block (was -2)
Standing LP is now +1 on hit (was -1)
Fixed a bug causing standing LP to deal less hitstun on counterhit than normal
Crouching LP is now -1 on block (was -4)
Crouching LP is now 0 on hit (was -2)
Crouching MK is now -2 on block (was 0)
DownBack + MP range increased [We did a review of the rest of his frame data and attack boxes after changing standing LK to be 0 on block to make sure the rest of them made sense around that change. Slower normals are better on block or have increased range to compensate so you aren’t just pressing standing LK and nothing else.]
Wall Splat enders are now +23 (was +13), allowing new combos and setups, and making it easier to land them consistently on different sized opponents. [Some characters could not be thrown before recovering from a Wall Splat, so adding more time fixed this issue and made Kan-Ra’s options off of a Splat more versatile.]
Riptor:
Fixed an issue preventing Riptor from using her run forward or back to avoid Shin Hisako’s Creepy Hands.
Fixed a bug causing the final hit of Shoulder Charge Enders levels 2-4 to add 10 KV.
Fixed a bug causing close standing HP to deal less hitstun on counterhit.
Fixed a bug that caused crouching HP to cause a hard knockdown on juggled opponents.
Aganos:
Fixed an issue that could cause Payload and Ruin enders to fail if a wall already existed at just the right (wrong?) ranges.
Hisako:
Increased the range from which Hisako can trigger an Ultra. [Hisako’s ultra would not trigger off some of her far manuals, so we increased the range at which this is allowed to happen.]
Cinder:
Reduced the PD output of Inferno on block by 20%
Reduced the PD output of Shadow Inferno on block by 22% [Cinder has made great use of the PD/Breaker changes, and is in a good place overall. We wanted to reduce the PD he generates from his Inferno moves a bit to reduce the pressure on his opponents slightly, but we’ve left the PD on his Burnouts the same. He still won’t have any trouble generating Level 4 enders.]
Increased the range at which Cinder can trigger his Ultra.
Fixed an issue that could cause his throw to whiff its final hit against Mira in the corner.
Fixed an issue that could cause manuals after Pyrobomb explosions in some situations to be unbreakable.
Aria:
[Most players agree that Aria is incredibly strong in Season 3, but because she promotes so many interesting decisions on offense and defense, and because she can often be quite fragile, we didn’t want to adjust any of her most interesting mechanics. In this patch we touched on just one of the moves that seems to cause many characters trouble, while keeping the rest of her very strong gameplan intact.]
Reduced the range of Jumping MK
Reduced how far back Jumping MK pushes Aria
Reduced the blockstun from Jumping MK by 8 frames [This move is a key reason why Aria, in any body, can be extremely frustrating to fight against for a large part of the roster. This change weakens the move just enough that Aria players will need to be more thoughtful about when and where to use it.]
Both medium auto doubles now last 6 frames longer, making them more similar to the speeds of other medium auto doubles. [People complained for a long time about Aria’s Medium Punch Auto Double being very fast, but her Medium Kick one was just as fast. We’ve slowed them both slightly.]
Shadow Jago:
Dark Fury (Damage) ender damage increased by 20% [The damage on this ender wasn’t much higher than his hard knockdown and exchange enders, which both give him better setups. We’ve increased the damage to make this ender more worth it.]
Rash:
Fixed a bug causing his Exchange Ender to do the damage of his Splat Ender, and his Splat Ender to do the damage of his Exchange Ender. [Rash’s wall splat pressure is very strong, so this bug fix which slightly lowers wall splat damage to its intended value will help players survive the onslaught just a little bit longer.]
Fixed a bug that could cause the Lv2 and Lv3 Big Bad Boot enders to drop when cancelled late after a light auto double.
Fixed a bug causing auto doubles to fan the flames incorrectly when burned out by Cinder.
Fixed an issue causing Big Bad Boot to deal less damage than expected on counterhit.
Arbiter:
Fixed a bug that caused Arbiter to get cursed when parrying certain status-effect inducing attacks, and could let Jago heal with Instinct Endokukens even if Arbiter parried them.
Fixed a bug that caused the whiff version of Shadow Mercy’s Demise to not spawn its attack box. You may now be able to catch someone trying to jump over this now.
Extended the duration of the force block box on Medium, Heavy, and Shadow Truth Seeker to fix an issue preventing the Random Block option in training from being able to block this move.
Fixed an issue causing Jumping F+HK to push back farther on counterhit than expected, and deal less hitstun than expected.
Fixed an issue causing the counterhit versions of all Gunbutt attacks to deal less damage than expected.
Fixed an issue preventing Arbiter from Shadow Countering projectiles while shielded.
Mira:
[Our main change to Mira this patch has been to slightly adjust her control over the neutral by giving her slightly less access to meter, making decisions on spending meter more important, and making perhaps the best shadow move in the game work in slightly fewer situations. Overall, we are happy with how the rest of Mira’s strong gameplan is meshing with her crucial blood health weakness.]
Reduced the meter gain from Bat projectiles by 23% [It used to take 7 full sets of bats to build a meter, and now it takes 9. Overall this is a pretty minor change, as Mira can simply go in on her opponent to gain meter as needed.]
Shadow Bats now starts up in 16 frames (was 12) [This is a bigger change for Mira. Shadow Bats are not a true block string from all the same attacks as before; notably, canceling from medium normals and both medium and heavy Reaping will leave a gap to launch a projectile invincible attack, while light Trephine and all heavy normals work as before. Mira has to take slightly more risks to ensure Shadow Bats will be blocked so she can mix up behind their cover.]
Standing HP can be cancelled on hit/block 1 frame sooner. [We also moved the cancel window up so it would be a true block string into the new slowed down version of Shadow Bat]
Increased the range at which Mira can trigger her Ultra.
Gargos:
Izzik’s special now does 1 chip per hit (was 0)
Dretch’s special now does 3 chip damage (was 0) [We reduced a lot on Gargos over the last few updates. We felt that the minion special moves doing chip was a good reward for Gargos protecting his minions for a while, which is now harder due to their expanded vulnerable boxes, so we put this back the way it was.]
Medium Reckoning damage increased by 20% [Adding just a little more reward back to the anti air version of Reckoning will reward Gargos players who have great defense.]
Shin Hisako:
Spirit Orbs will now be destroyed if they go off screen for more than one second. [Shin Hisako’s ability to run away was very powerful against a lot of the cast. This change ensures that when she teleports behind you, it must be pretty quickly after the orb goes off screen, and the farthest she can appear behind you is the screen edge.]
Fixed a bug allowing Shin Hisako to cancel out of her Linker Shadow Shin On Ryo Zan after the fourth hit, causing the final fifth hit to not come out.
Increased the range from which Shin Hisako can trigger an Ultra. [Hisako’s ultra would not trigger off some of her far manuals, so we increased the range at which this is allowed to happen.]
Eagle:
All air arrow shots will no longer auto correct to face the opponent.
Hitstun on Lv2 and Special arrows reduced by 2 frames. [This removes his corner Arrow Rain loop.]
Any bird attacks in progress will be cancelled immediately if you input a Counter Breaker or a Shadow Counter. [This removes safe Counter Breaker attempts]
You can no longer command the bird while attempting a Shadow Counter. [This, along with the above change, removes safe Shadow Counter attempts]
You can no longer command the bird while teching a throw or having your throw teched. [This removes throw tech punishes]
Added 4 more frames of hitstun on Wingspan’s Surprise Knee followup, making comboing off of this on a grounded opponent more consistent.
Fixed a bug that could cause the charged up arrow state to get stuck and carry over to Rain Shot, Scatter Shot, or Throws.
Fixed a bug causing Air DF+HP Arrow to mess up Eagle’s air momentum if he jumps over his opponent.
Fixed an issue causing Cinder’s flames to fan any time Eagle aimed his bow or released an arrow, instead of just on the initial button press.
Fixed a bug that could cause Bird attacks to not count as openers.
Fixed a bug causing his Shadow Counter to hit on frame 10 instead of the intended frame 8.
Fixed a bug that could cause Eagle to dash away from his opponent using a broken animation when attempting a Counter Breaker from certain frames of his Wingspan Linker.
Fixed a bug causing the bird to go farther away from Eagle than expected when performing Sonic Screech with his back to the corner.
Fixed an issue that could cause a force block hitbox to get stuck on the bird when performing the QCB+3K command to trigger Bird Magnet.
Fixed an issue preventing the player from kara canceling into Shadow Scatter and Shadow Rain when the quiver was empty.
Fixed an issue preventing kara cancels into Shadow Rain from working.
Fixed an issue preventing kara cancels into Shadow Bird Magnet from working.
Fixed a bug causing Sonic Screech to build 3x as much meter as expected.
Fixed a bug that allowed Eagle to perform a linker after a Shadow Slide linker.
Fixed a bug that caused arrow projectiles to inherit to hit properties (stagger, sweep, etc) of Eagle’s whiffed attacks.
Fixed a bug preventing Skyfall from blowing out a combo, which allowed a between rounds infinite loop.
Fixed a bug that could crash the game if Kim Wu reflected Scatter Shot.
Fixed a bug that caused Arrow Fetch and Bird Magnet to remove Aganos Chunks on block.
No Changes:
Jago
Sabrewulf
Glacius
Orchid
Maya
Omen
Kim Wu
Tusk
General RAAM
Eyedol
Kilgore
Ultra-Combo.com notes that while they planned to release the patch this past Tuesday, but it will now drop sometime between now and Tuesday September 5th. What are your thoughts on these changes? Do you agree with Iron Galaxy’s assessment that the game will be in a solid place of balance following this update? Or do you think there’s still more work to be done, to refine KI into the best game possible? Give us your perspective in the comments, and Fight On!
It’s been over a week since Gamescom and as such, players are most likely suffering from withdrawal from Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite gameplay footage. Luckily for those people, Capcom brought the game to the GameStop Expo in Las Vegas this past weekend.
One player who was at GameStop Expo was the real American hero himself, Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli, who got a chance to play the game against other players and against Capcom’s staff. Btide, who was also at the event, got to record some of LI Joe’s matches and has uploaded them onto his channel.
Now while the footage isn’t direct feed footage, we do see to get some decent character usage — including footage of characters like Hulk, who we haven’t really seen much footage of as of late.
The famous cat Sensei from BlazBlue: Central Fiction‘s Story Mode is finally a playable character on home consoles! Now that he’s here, are you ready to learn him? Get studying.
Monarch has recorded all the Jubei Challenge Mode combos for your perusal, if you aren’t able to play him currently. The missions range from Normal to Hard and Expert. They typically extend or build on the earlier combos introduced. They also showcase a variety of confirms: from various positions like air and corner, from an overhead starter and the special counters he has.
Having tried some of these challenges myself, for the most part, the inputs aren’t that challenging. What’s harder though is getting used to the way his normal attacks work. Most of them have two parts, like 5C and 3C. Knowing whether to hit with one strike or two is very important.
Additionally, SyaoranQ8 compiled a showcase of all the special win and pre-battle interactions Jubei has in the game.
The time draws close to think ahead to another tournament! Winter is marked by a popular Midwest tournament, Frosty Faustings X. While the event mainly celebrates Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 and its legacy, it’s open to all kinds of fighting games, beyond just anime titles.
“We are excited to announce our full game lineup and event info for Frosty Faustings X,” Mike “ElvenShadow” Boczar, the co-organizer of the event, told SRK in a statement. “We are very proud to be carrying on the tradition with our 10th year anniversary event, returning again to the Waterford Conference Center in Elmhurst, IL! Our unique two-day format is back with over 30 individual tournaments and other special events to maximize player enjoyment and experience!”
If you want to jump ahead to registering, here’s the full schedule with a smash.gg link. Registering early saves money:
Registration and Pricing Schedule for Frosty Faustings X
You might already be interested, but in case you were wondering if your game made it into the lineup, here’s the extensive list of games that will be at the event:
Arcana Heart 3: Love Max Six Stars
BlazBlue: Central Fiction
Catherine
Chicago’s Mystery Tournament
Divekick AE+
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (2v2)
Guilty Gear XXAC+R
Gundam Versus (2v2)
Injustice 2
Killer Instinct
The King of Fighters XIV
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
Melty Blood AACC
Pokkén Tournament DX
Puyo Puyo Tetris Swap
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Smash Bros. Melee
Smash Bros. Melee (2v2)
Smash Bros. Wii U
Smash Bros. Wii U (2v2)
Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V (3v3)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Tekken 7
Tekken 7 (2v2)
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st]
Vampire Savior
“As usual, you can expect Guilty Gear Xrd as our main event along with many other airdashers, as well as classic legacy games and all of the newest fighting games released this year!” Boczar said. “Don’t miss out on what is sure to be one of the most exciting FGC events of 2018! I want to thank everyone who has ever attended and contributed to Frosty Faustings over the years. It’s because of all of you that this event has grown so much, and we are looking forward to celebrating our 10th year with all of you! Stay tuned as we will have plenty more exciting announcements coming your way soon!”
Pokkén Tournament DX is coming to Nintendo Switch in less than a month. For those who’re still not clear on what this new version of the game brings (side from being playable on the Switch, of course), Nintendo has released a new trailer for the game, offering more details.
In terms of Pokémon, Pokkén Tournament DX adds Decidueye, who joins the four additional Pokémon added to the arcade version: Darkrai, Empoleon, Croagunk, and Scizor. This is in addition to the two new support Pokémon: Litten and Poplio.
Of course, new Pokémon aren’t all that Pokkén Tournament DX offers. The game also features The King of Fighters-style 3-on-3 team battle mode, online replays, daily challenges, and more. You can learn more about these in the trailer below.
Pokkén Tournament DX hits Nintendo Switch on September 22.
Happy Menat-Friday. I was at a local event last night and there were three different stations running Menat players, one of them with Menat mirrors. Something in my gut tells me that the Street Fighter V community is enjoying this character. Let’s see what the future holds for her!
First up, VesperArcade shares their basic Menat combo guide.
Next, we have Young Commander showing off some theoretical uses for Menat’s V-Trigger in offense and defense.
And while setups and smart play are all well and good, sometimes you just want a giant combo. Redwolfxx would like to remind you Menat can do that, too. (And get some nice punishes on block!)
Those that link a little rhythm in their long combos will appreciate Y. Xiao‘s V-Trigger loops.
Meanwhile, Speedy963 has some ideas for optimizing V-Trigger juggles.
While this is neither the first nor last time I’ll type this, someone (in this case, Eastyy) found that Abigail’s hitbox doesn’t quite match the model. Sorry, Menat.
RektScrub and karozzo have more great Menat compilations of some of the world’s best talent, RZR|Xian and CO|GO1, trying her out.
Here’s a fairly difficult combo from jav1ts. Look at the damage and stun!
The Electric Wind God Vids series was originally designed as a way to get you up to speed with the mountains of system mechanics and beginner information needed to rise in the ranks of Tekken 7. While this is still the goal of the series, we thought it’d be fun to take a brief detour. Our editor, mushin_Z, is brand new to the Tekken series and 3D fighting games as a whole. As the local 3D guy, I’m stepping in and analyzing mushin_Z’s first steps in the world of Tekken, giving him advice and a path for further growth.
This is not a replacement to the normal EWGV tutorial vids, which will resume next week with a training video on stepping! Think of this as an introductory video to a new series in the works: tentatively, we are planning on live-streaming mushin_Z’s play and giving on-the-fly tips and training.
For more TEKKEN TRAINING, be sure to subscribe to ShoryukenTube! And if you have any specific questions about Tekken gameplay you’d like covered in a future video, let us know in the comments!
Skullgirls has always been known for creativity; not once, however, could it truly be considered creative in the way you can taunt your opponent — until now.
In an online tournament set between players Havic and Pugloaf, Pugloaf had Havic down 2 games to 1, and down to his last character, Big Band. In an effort to prove that you should never give up, Havic stages an epic comeback, getting both Pugloaf’s Eliza and Cerebella caught in a Happy Birthday, killing both characters in the most stylish way possible: by using four of his five bars of meter to play the “Happy Birthday” song with Big Band before finishing off the characters with a level 1 super. (Contains NSFW language due to commentator hype.)
Havic not only won this game, but took the entire set off of the strength of his Big Band, and captured our hearts in the process. We salute you, Jazz Hero.
#ECT2017 (@NerdJosh)