Even prior to Salem’s surprise victory at Evo 2017 in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the Smash community had been wrestling with themselves over their feelings about Bayonetta in the meta. A win at the world’s largest tournament, then, predictably brought up an old question no one really wants to hear: Should (insert top tier here) be banned?
ZeRo, whom many thought would win Evo this year, decided weighed in on the topic. He takes a level-headed approach, pointing to the history the Smash community has had with character bans in the past — and the unintended consequences that can result from them.
The attributes of wall combos, like most things in Tekken, have a considerable amount of depth and nuance. Because of this, it can be difficult at first to maximize the damage potential from them as a new player.
If getting the most out of your wall combos is proving a little difficult right now, I highly suggest trying out Lars. As JusticeSoulTuna demonstrates, Lars has great wall carry, and one of the easier wall combos in Tekken 7. What you learn here can also transfer to other characters, and your damage will be better for it.
It’s now become a bit of a tradition at supermajors where the original Super Smash Bros. is present to hold a combo contest. Unlike say Melee or Smash 4, combos in Smash 64 are much longer and almost always result in death, thanks to the huge amount of hitstun attacks inflict. Combine this with Smash 64’s items and wackier stages, and players can set some jaw-dropping combos.
Following on from the inaugural contest at last year’s Super Smash Con, this year’s event saw players from five different countries showing off their combo skills. All eyes were on Japanese player Prince however, who had quite frankly obliterated the competition at last year’s event and proved himself to be the 64 combo king. Prince uses everything but the kitchen sink in his combos, treating his target like a pinball as he bounces them off stage hazards and thrown items. Here are just a few of his combos from this year’s event:
If you want to see the entire combo contest, check out the entire video below. The 64 combo contest is always a highlight at any tournament it appears at, so long may it continue!
The Absolver team has sent out a cool new video to show off character creation in the game. It reveals why clothing and equipment are vital to the way a prospect plays. Various ways that characters get their own look are shown very briefly, but it’s a neat first look!
Shown off at the Rivals of Aether panel at Super Smash Con, Dan Fornace revealed one of the DLC fighters coming to the indie platform fighter. Acting as the third water-based character alongside Orcane and Etalus, Ranno is an amphibian monk who uses toxic darts and poison bubbles to bamboozle his enemies.
As a hybrid zoner/rushdown character, Ranno’s combat gimmicks are his Poison debuff and his Bubble attacks. Most of Ranno’s projectile attacks apply a special debuff, noted by the green dots floating above a character’s head. Not only do this toxin apply damage, it also determines the length of Ranno’s special Bubbled state. You can get rid of the Poison debuff by attacking Ranno, but you take damage for every attack you land. While his air speed is lacking, his fast aerials are perfect for walling out an enemy that’s trying to approach. As a new mechanic in Rivals, Ranno has a Super Jump which can be performed by crouching and then doing a full hop.
Ranno can summon a giant green bubble with his Neutral Special, which floats around the screen until either you or your opponent fall into it. Once inside the bubble, players slowly float through the air, leaving Ranno time to rack up damage. You can influence your direction while in the bubble and it will eventually pop after a short time. The more stacks of Poison you have, the longer you’ll remain suspended in Ranno’s trap. Ranno’s Down Special has him licking up and spitting out opponents inside a bubble, so don’t get too close if you are at four stacks. If he isn’t near an opponent, Ranno’s Down Special has him catapulting himself into the air using his tongue.
His Side Special are his Poison Darts, which work similar to Sheik’s needles in Super Smash Bros. You can charge these projectiles by hitting Dodge during the dart charge, with Ranno being able to fire four in a single barrage. His Poison Spin Up Special has him doing an upwards Poison Kick, which can then be followed up with either a Poison Dart barrage, or a dive kick by pressing Down Special.
Ranno is set to launch later this year, alongside three other original characters. Another guest character from an indie game is planned to be released in early 2018, bringing the Rivals roster up to 14. For those still waiting to play as Ori and Sein from Ori and the Blind Forest, the duo will be launching on Steam and Xbox One on August 23rd — meaning that console players finally have access to the full game. If you are attending Super Smash Con, both Ranno and Ori will be playable on the show floor, with Ranno being playable in tomorrow’s doubles tournament.
Jin remains a very popular choice in BlazBlue: Central Fiction, as his solid move set retains good damage and sneaky reset opportunities thanks to freezing mechanics. The 2.0 patch is not exactly Extend, but many combo routes do change for characters. The subtle changes on Jin’s 5B and one of his Dragon Punches, Fubuki (623B), open up entirely new paths to learn.
Roo of Curry prepared a very useful video that will get you onboard to 2.0 quickly. The first part displays some important differences in this version and goes over the BlazBlue 2.0 changes, which allow new corner combos. The video, however, provides a balanced look at both corner and midscreen routes and with varying amounts of resource.
Check it out below to prepare for the incoming console patch.
Combo videos that stand out do so because they do more then just show you optimal high damage. That’s why the juggle system of Tekken 7 works so well for combo videos: the free-form creativity it allows pushes players to come up with their own interesting twists. Adriano Lopes‘s latest Kazuya combo video “DARKANGEL” is a great example of this.
There’s some usual culprits here: 6 Electric Wind God Fists seems like a requirement at this point for a Mishima combo video, but there’s some definite standout combos that you’ll never see anywhere else. For example: 6 wall re-splats in the same combo, de-transforming from Kazuya’s devil form mid-combo, and mid-juggle cross up EWGFs.
One of the biggest names in competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee history is William “Leffen” Hjelte. While originally coming into the competitive Smash Bros. scene through Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Leffen moved to Melee and quickly established himself as one of the top players in that game.
Now, Leffen’s sponsor’s Team SoloMid have started a new documentary series about him. This documentary — the first episode of which is now available to watch — takes a more candid look at Leffen’s approach to competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, as well as at how the community has received him. At the same time, they also address concerns about Melee’s future and the issues of future growth in the scene.
Back at Evo 2017 last month, French fighting game player Kayane caught up with the producer for the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tomoko Hiroki, along with Arc System Works’ director Junya Motomura to discuss a variety of topics related to the game.
On the subject of releasing the game on the Nintendo Switch, which already has seen some fighting game action in the forms of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, ARMS, and the upcoming Pokkén Tournament DX, Hiroki noted that they couldn’t really say anything about that situation. “However, we do know that we would like our Switch users to focus on our first Switch title: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. After the release of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on the Switch, [which comes out on September 7th in Japan, before launching worldwide on the 22nd] then we will start considering whether we should have Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Switch.”
On the subject of cross-platform play, as well as the recent partnership between Capcom and Bandai Namco Entertainment to improve the quality of online infrastructure for titles like Street Fighter V, Kayane questioned Hiroki about the possibility of cross-play for Dragon Ball FighterZ. “At this time, we don’t have any plans for this game to go cross-platform. We would first prioritize on unlocking each platform’s respective features with the game.”
Lastly, Motomura spoke on what’s been the most difficult challenge when creating this project. “Probably the hardest thing is to make the character as close as possible to the original animation, however the modelers have done a tremendous job to make it happen. Another thing is developing the character’s battle characteristics, while at the same time not breaking their original images. We probably spent the most time in perfecting those two aspects.”
You can see the entire interview below — which includes the developer’s policy on GT and Super characters, when development discussions began, the future of the Xenoverse series, why they chose a 3V3 format over 2V2 or 1V1, and much more.
Revealed all the way back in January by SNK China, the first two episodes of the new CG The King of Fighters series is now available to watch on YouTube. Following famous KOF characters like Kyo, Benimaru, Terry, and Daimon, this series is set to run for 24 episodes, with all of them hopefully coming to the SNK YouTube channel.
The first episode, named “South Town,” sees Kyo arriving for the latest KOF tournament and having a brawl with rival and trucker hat aficionado Terry Bogard. Episode two — called “Kyokugen Style” — has Kyo and friends heading off to Geese Tower and fighting against Billy Kane, Geese’s bodyguard and amateur pole vaulter.
