Defeat Gill’s enemies with both style and strength.
Upcoming DLC character Ed is in the spotlight presently, but we shouldn’t forget about his immediate predecessor and how she shook up Street Fighter V’s gameplay herself. YouTuber cjbqulix admits to struggling to find passion for SFV, but Kolin’s unique style of play helped draw them back in.
Kolin has become known for her very strong combo potential, and in the video below cjbqulix explores this with some stylish and powerful new content that includes OTG combos into her Frost Tower Critical Art, Crush Counter juggles, and some resets and mixups, too.
Get a good earful of Ed’s sweet theme music, then join VesperArcade in a closer look at Ed’s reveal trailer.
After Kolin’s reveal trailer featured a track from Lupe Fiasco, hearing more hip hop on Ed’s reveal was hardly a surprise–but most didn’t expect that what we heard is actually Ed’s in-game theme music! Definitely standing apart from other music in Street Fighter V so far, it’s great that we’re getting more variety. Check out VesperArcade’s extended mix of Ed’s theme below:
Naturally, VesperArcade has been closely examining what we’ve seen of Ed so far, and has provided a couple of videos discussing Ed’s playstyle as seen in the trailer. His simplified move inputs will definitely give him a very different feel than other characters on the roster.
Playergodaines is back, and this time he’s sharing with us combos for the former Yakuza bodyguard Yamazaki.
Yamazaki is a damage monster, capable of breaking 400+ with one bar Max Mode combos. It gets even scarier once he gets meter built up, in large part thanks to his new poison super “Pit Viper.” Using Pit Viper early in a long combo allows you to apply the poison damage, then watch it tick away during the cinematic of other supers. If you’ve wanted to learn Yamazaki, he appears to be very strong right now, and would likely fit well in the 2nd or 3rd slots on any team.
Does a greater quantity and complexity of mechanics make for a “better” game?
Inspired by BornFree‘s interviews of Street Fighter V pros at recent events, in which multiple players have stated something to the effect of Street Fighter V being too easy or simple, CrossUPDP has made a video examining that idea a little further. Comparing SFV to the much more elaborate Guilty Gear Xrd series, the question of whether or not more mechanics and more difficult execution make a game superior is explored. Their answer: yes, but to only a small percentage of the potential audience.
CrossUPDP divides the audience for Street Fighter V (and basically any fighting title) into three categories: the casuals, the pros, and the “in-betweeners”: more experienced players or casuals that are not at professional level and may or may not be looking to move up. With the vast majority of a game’s potential audience falling into the casual and in-between ranges, a game that is easier to understand and play will definitely be preferable to something more dauntingly complex, even while pros would prefer greater depth and versatility to accommodate their greater skill and experience. The high enrollment numbers for SFV events seem to indicate that the accessibility is drawing more players to compete.
The viewpoint of spectators–something clearly taken into consideration in SFV’s design–is also mentioned, as the average spectator can more easily enjoy watching a game with simpler, more obvious mechanics. Of course, spectators fall into the above categories too–so some will appreciate watching high-level mechanics and ability more than others.
Do you think Street Fighter V’s built-in “accessibility” serves it well, or should everyone just jump ship and play Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 at the end of the month? Sound off in the comments.
Echo Fox’s Dominique “Sonic Fox” McLean is a player who needs no introduction, particularly for players in the NetherRealm scene. Recently, the 4-time Evo champion for all three previous NRS titles shared his picks and insight for which characters in Injustice 2 will be the most effective in competitive play, before the title’s release next Tuesday.
Mainly focusing on the many newcomers to the cast, he notes that his Day 1 main will be Captain Cold, NRS’s first attempt at a true trap character.
It’s the first time that NRS is actually doing a trap character and setup-y character, like perfectly, and that’s my archetype I look for in fighting games. He has so much trickery and setups that he can just keep the opponent guessing over and over on their knockdown. He looks like he has a solid advancing mid, a very fast low that he can setup traps from, a D1 that looks like it’s about 7 frames. He looks like he’s all around very hard to get in on, very hard to approach, and if you’re put into the wrong situation, it might be game.
Conversely, he doesn’t think that Cheetah will be that great, as she not only has to get in as a pure rushdown character, but appears to live and die by her 50/50 mixups, that could be unsafe if the opponent guesses correctly. But he’ll reserve full judgment until he sees more of her. He also had an interesting perspective on DLC character Darkseid.
He looks top tier as I don’t know what. He has traps, 50/50s from just jumping at you, one of the best zoning games ever. A crazy Trait that allows him to combo after his grab. He looks like he might be a little too ridiculous, so that’s why I’m learning him too if he’s allowed in tournaments day 1. What’s his weakness?
Shifting to the subject of returning veterans, Fox expressed great hope in The Joker’s greatly-improved quality of life.
He’s going to take a lot of work, but he’s going to be a lot better than he was in Injustice 1. I’m really excited to try him. He looks really cool, and seems to have a lot of new trickery and setups. Hopefully they did him right this time.
You can catch the full video–where Fox also discusses Brainiac, Black Canary, Firestorm, Dr. Fate, Harley Quinn and Robin–below.
I spent the summer of 1998 at my grandmother’s house with my older cousin. Since he was older, and had a rough upbringing, he had a different perspective on things than I had. We did things most kids do during the summer, like playing ball in the street and riding bikes around town. Every night was a showdown in Street Fighter Alpha 2, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr., or NBA Jam–except for Mondays and Thursdays. Those nights were three-hour channel-changing sessions, going back and forth between WWF Raw and WCW Nitro. Though the NWO was running rampant and Stone Cold held the WWF Championship, the storyline that hit me hardest was “The Streak.” I’m still not sure why I was so enamored with it, but there was something about Goldberg’s streak that kept my cousin and I glued to the television every Monday and Thursday night.
Released in 2005, Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star in English, often abbreviated as HnK) is an Arc System Works-developed fighter based on the iconic anime of the same name, famous for its speed, insane combos, instant kills, and loyalty to its source material. HnK is often categorized as “kusoge,” which literally means “shit game.” In regards to fighting games, this means the title is really broken, or of questionable quality. Though this game was never released outside of Japan in an official capacity, it was a popular import-only title overseas among kusoge fans, and 2D fighting game/anime enthusiasts in the mid to late 2000s. Despite its zany nature and reputation, this game was very popular in Japanese arcades, and enjoyed a period of competitive spotlight during the middle of the SBO Tougeki era. Since then, the Seikimatsubutoukai tournament series emerged as the HnK national tournament to succeed the late SBO Tougeki series. Thanks to Mr. Matsuda (Former SBO tournament director, and JP FGC Event Coordinator), K.I (Seikimatsubutoukai Tournament Organizer), and Twitch Japan’s influence, the foreign audience has also been able to enjoy the past several iterations of this awesome tournament. Given the reputation for being a fun spectator event, on March 19, 2017, I decided to check out the 6th annual Seikimatsubutoukai.
-The 6th Annual Seikimatsubutoukai-
The 6th annual Seikimatsubutoukai took place in what has come to be a highly important venue for the East Japan FGC: e-sports Square Akiba.
Like many Japanese fighting game community tournaments, events like this are specifically curated for the community and serve as a celebration for that scene.
The 6th annual Seikimatsubutoukai hosted 129 players from regions all over Japan, split into 43 3-player teams. There were several meaningful exchanges for competitive HnK players that occurred throughout this event to complement the typical zaniness that dribble combos, instant kills, and shenanigans HnK brings to this kind of stage. For reference, the instant kill system (a central element of HnK play) revolves around the star gauge underneath each player’s life bar. Different attacks take off different star counts under different conditions. When an opponent’s star gauge is depleted, they become vulnerable to a Fatal KO. These Fatal KOs can even be used in combos. Consider these concepts when you watch Eji face off against the opposing team anchor, Magician. In the final round, he makes a gambit at round start and converts in a classic HnK Fatal KO sequence. This win was to secure his team’s position in Top 8!
Given the format is 3 vs. 3 teams, players from a variety of arcades and regions are encouraged to make teams and compete. Something I always find cool about these tournaments is how people in the Japanese scene support one another. For example, check out this match from top 8 when Team Risky Edge went head-to-head with Team “Triple Alliance” (a reference to how the three players on the team represent three different regions in Japan). Players and friends from three different arcades in Japan got on stage behind the team to cheer on their players during their fight.
The important thing to understand about the nature of this game and tournament format (3-person teams, FT1 single-elimination) is that moments like these happen all day, throughout the tournament.
-The Time of Retribution-
Years ago when Kusoru came to North America and stunned the world by winning the first Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at Final Round, I remember reading a blog post that talked about the mindset of kusoge players in Japan. This post gave insight on the perspective of many top kusoge players, and how they are usually pleased when opponents defeat them, as they play more for love of the game as opposed to fighting with a fierce competitive mindset. At the time, given Kusoru’s demeanor and reactions, this made sense. However, we always have to wonder when it comes to blanket statements: do all kusoge players feel this way?
When we consider the high-impact moments of this tournament, we must first discuss a big cornerstone of the HnK community, K.I. Ever since K.I claimed victory over (SBO Tougeki 2006 champion) Kurenai no Buta at SBO Tougeki 2008, he has reigned supreme in the major competitions for HnK in Japan. He has not only won every Seikimatsubutoukai tournament since the inaugural event at SBO Tougeki 2012, but he is also the producer/TO of the event series. His main character is Rei, but he has been known to play the whole cast at a high level. His execution, combos, and game knowledge are said to be of the highest class. For this tournament, his teammates were J-King and Soratobuyousei. J-King is essentially K.I’s protege. Like his teacher, he also uses Rei, and in time, he too grew into a champion all his own. These two players have claimed 11 of the 13 major events for HnK since since SBO Tougeki 2008. Soratobuyousei, playing Juda, rounds out the squad as a top class player from East Japan. These three are responsible for running, commentating, and participating in events at Nakano TRF, an independent arcade in Nakano, Tokyo that serves as a stronghold for East Japan HnK. Please consider that K.I has never lost this event, and he has partnered with J-King, who has wins on his own in addition to the four shared wins as K.I’s teammate. It goes without saying that team “Ultra Japan” was the hands down favorite to go all the way.
SBO Tougeki 2008 champion and the reigning Seikimatsubutoukai champion, K.I
The highest-impact match of the tournament occurred when Team Risky Edge came across Team Ultra Japan in the first round of top 8. Team Risky Edge consisted of Hotarukanchou (Kenshiro), KG (Toki), and Yuttori (Toki). Hotarukanchou and KG (a well known artist in the community) are skilled players but without big wins on their resumes, so this team was overlooked for the most part. Yuttori, however, finished on the 2nd place team at last year’s Seikimatsubutoukai, meaning he lost to K.I’s team. For a player like Yuttori, who has had success on the local and regional tournament scale, finishing 2nd place in the national tournament in the game you love must feel good. However, for him to come so close and not take it surely filled him with some feeling of regret.
The challenger, Yuttori
With the teams announced, the players stood near the cabinets and discussed their orders. Shortly after, both teams send their vanguards: KG (Toki) vs. J-King (Rei). This game goes to the last round, but J-King makes a good air to air on some air pursuit by KG, and drives to the basket the way he is famous for.
Seeing his opportunity for payback after last year’s tournament, Yuttori steps up after KG’s defeat. After reducing J-King’s star count while winning in the first round (thereby, making him susceptible to an instant kill), Yuttori triumphs over one of the strongest HnK players with some good abare and air tech pursuit.
In an attempt to remove Yuttori and save K.I for anchor, Team Ultra Japan sent Soratobuyousei up next. Note how Yuttori ends the first round, successfully resetting him from the combo to take another star, reducing Soratobuyousei to 4 at the next round start. This comes into play once Soratobuyousei makes a bad combo drop and eats a counter hit jump-in from Yuttori. Soratobuyousei eats a mix-up in the corner on okizeme, giving Yuttori the chance to seal the game.
Finally, K.I steps to the machine. This is his tournament. This is his legacy. This is his game. He is Hokuto no Ken.
After a dominant first round by K.I, however, Yuttori makes a good confirm in the second round and pushes his execution (and the clock) to the limit. Note K.I’s focus during the end of the second round when Yuttori attempts a move similar to what he did against Soratobuyousei in the previous game. The third round opens, and both players are flying around the screen fishing for something. K.I lands an air to air counter-hit confirm and attempts to bait on oki, but Yuttori doesn’t bite. After some good defensive movement and foresight from Yuttori, he intercepts K.I on the ground and confirms into a combo the Fist of the North Star scene will remember for a long time to come.
As the combo counter rises and the timer ticks down, reality begins to set in. Watch Team Ultra Japan’s expressions as the round comes to a close.
From J-King’s nervous laughter to Soratobuyousei hiding his face, everyone knows what is about to happen. When you watch K.I’s face as the announcer proceeds to lose his mind, do you think he is someone for whom this was simply a game? Does he look like someone who is “happy” to lose his crown? K.I then walked over to the commentator booth, and refused the microphone when it was offered to him. As he held his head in his hands, it became clear to me that though this was merely a tournament for many, for K.I, this was his life.
Just like Scott Hall at Starrcade 1998, Yuttori played spoiler to K.I’s streak on the biggest stage for the game.
The shot of the crowd at the end says it all: The streak was over. Just like Scott Hall stunned the world (and Goldberg) at Starrcade in 1998, Yuttori came in and knocked out the champ. The only question that remained was which team would play the role of Kevin Nash; Who would be the ones to claim the title of HnK champions given this huge upset?
-Decide the Destiny-
The grand finals were decided not long after Team Ultra Japan’s fall: Team Risky Edge versus Team “MicrotransactionTV.”
In classic SBO style, the championship teams are given an opportunity to address the crowd before they play.
Team MicrotransactionTV consisted of Soddo (Judah), Yowachan (Toki), and Fukunaga (Toki). Fukunaga was on the championship team last year alongside J-King and K.I. Yowachan hailing from Nagoya, also has experience being on a championship team, having joined J-King and K.I on their run at the 3rd Seikimatsubutoukai. Soddo rounds out the team as Yuttori’s teammate from last year’s 2nd place team.
Both teams send their first players up, and Fukunaga takes on KG in the Toki mirror. In the final round, KG mistimes a parry attempt, giving Fukunaga the opening he needed to remove him from the cabinet.
Yuttori then steps up to fight Fukunaga. In the first round, Fukunaga manages to not only dizzy Yuttori, but he takes full advantage of it and reduces his star count to one going into the second round. Despite Yuttori’s air to ground confirm at round start and the successful mix-up after, it only took one good call out from Fukunaga to end the game and send Yuttori packing.
With Team MicrotransactionTV on tournament point, Hotarukanchou steps up to the cabinet. After taking a moment to collect himself at the intro screen, he engages.
After two rounds of awesome baits, footsies, and abare, Hotarukanchou saves Team Risky Edge from an OCV. Fukunaga gets up, calling for Soddo to finish off Hotarukanchou. Soddo dominated the first round leaving Hotarukanchou with no stars. However, Hotarukanchou runs it back in the second round, showing off some nice pressure and confirms.
Note the exchange at the end of the round when Hotaru Kanchou dizzies Soddo. Just as Soddo did to him in the previous round, Hotaru Kanchou reduces his star count going into round three. This was the set-up for the now, iconic, third round clip that went viral.
After that jump back DP into instant kill, the crowd went nuts. Hotaru Kanchou, now riding the wave, gives (an actual) pop-off, and calls for the opposing anchor, Yowachan.
Yowachan had complete control of the first round, and managed to bring Hotaru Kanchou’s star count very low going into the second round. From the start of the second round, you can sense the desperation on Hotaru Kanchou’s part, showing some risky DPs and Dragon Kicks. Yowachan notes this and punishes him for his impatience to seal the tournament for Team MicrotransactionTV.
For the first time in the Seikimatsubutoukai tournament series, Matsuda asked K.I to present the award for first place (since he had won the award every year before this). With a false smile, he begrudgingly hands the award to Team MicrotransactionTV.
Whether it’s the Patriots in the 2003-2004 NFL season, Anderson Silva’s UFC record in the mid to late 2000s, Justin Wong’s MvC2 run, Infiltration in SSF4AE: 2012, Sonic Fox in NRS titles, or Goldberg’s streak from 1997-1998, there is something incredibly alluring about major eras of dominance in sports and competitive gaming alike. As a fan, it doesn’t matter if you watch to see them win, or see someone else rise to take them down; you can’t deny the thrill of the spectacle.
I will never forget watching Starrcade 1998 at my friend’s house in the 4th grade. In a similar fashion, the HnK community will never forget this year’s tournament, which saw the fall of the two players who have utterly dominated the tournament scene for years. Fukunaga now has 2 consecutive years on a championship team, but we will have to wait until next year to see J-King and K.I return for their crown, hungry for revenge. Whether it’s tiddlywinks, soccer, checkers, or kusoge, if you compete, you are invested on some level. While the nuance and depth of that investment varies per person, recognize that even for fighting games like these, there are people who take the competition very seriously. If you can’t see the value people like that have for communities both in and outside of the FGC, well…
The wait for Noctis continues! Teasing a new character announcement last week, Square Enix have confirmed that the latest character coming to Dissidia Final Fantasy Arcade is the evil warlock Exdeath. Much like his Dissidia 012 incarnation, Exdeath mainly fights using his mastery of magic, only occasionally using his sword to swat away foes so he can continue his magical onslaught.
Exdeath also brings a new stage to Dissidia, based off the crystalline Castle Exdeath seen in Final Fantasy V. For a sentient tree demon living inside a blue suit of armor, Exdeath has done pretty well for himself. The villain and his stage will be added in Dissidia’s early May update. For those waiting on the console announcement, the best bet is to keep your fingers crossed for E3 in June.
Players of The King of Fighters XIV at home have so far only one option: Sony’s PlayStation 4. Those who came into the series via the PC releases of past King of Fighters games have been so far left out; that, however, will be ending soon.
At a recent press conference in China, SNK’s Yasuyuki Oda officially revealed that The King of Fighters XIV will be coming to PC via Steam. As part of this, they also confirmed that players would be able pre-order the game this month. Also coming this month is a closed beta test to iron out any bugs that may crop up with the port.
Further details on this have yet to be revealed. In the meantime, here’s a video from the conference where they announce the port.
In Pokkén Tournament, players jockey to win its 3D roaming Field Phase not for the damage-related purposes (unless you’re a zoning character!) but because the winner of Field Phase gets a massive synergy boost. Synergy is Pokkén’s super meter equivalent and, as Pokkén Pro Double demonstrates in his recent experiments below, some characters can wildly exploit this synergy boost in Field Phase to get full meter, or close to it, from one grab break.
These combos all take advantage of the Homing Cancel tech covered several months back. Whether or not this tech was a glitch originally, it’s clearly intended to stay, as it’s still in the latest build of the Japanese version. Maximizing your synergy gain post grab tech should, as the meta advances, become an integral part of tournament play.
Y. Xiao has put together a fun video showing off some of the new combos the younger Bogard brother can do in the latest patch for The King of Fighters XIV.
The primary combo-related buff Andy received is the expanded hitbox on his 2C, allowing him to connect it in places he otherwise couldn’t have. Y. Xiao also shows a few ways to re-stand after a wall splat from EX Zaneiken and EX Hishouken. Rounding it out is a 100% combo on the 950 health K’, and a impractical but flashy stun combo on King of Dinosaurs.
