These new, spicy Jam combos in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 are too hot to handle

Jam players in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 should be happier than ever in the Xrd series. With a good set of buffs, Jam’s gameplay seems more coherent than ever before. It’s easier to get knockdowns, land the Parry combos, and her new double Puff Ball move is quite useful. Therefore, Jam is definitely emerging as a bigger threat in REV 2.

Taihot3 shows off a few creative combos in a compilation video. There’s a clever use of a Blitz Shield attack to charge a power-up card in the middle of a combo, a nice Burst bait from a Dust attack and big damage Overdrive finishes.

For even more combos, AKI TAK made a compilation of mostly more advanced corner combos:

You’re asking for Jam spreadsheets? Sway got your back. He made a chart that shows Parry P K follow-ups and how they work on every character:

View the Jam Combo Notes in Google Doc format. Make sure to view Sway’s timeline for more combo ideas.

Sources: @OkaySway; AKI TAK; Taihot3

DidYouKnowGaming turns its attention to Super Smash Bros. Melee in its latest trivia video

Following up on its previous episode on the original Super Smash Bros., DidYouKnowGaming has turned its attention to Super Smash Bros. Melee for its latest episode. Focusing on cut characters, cancelled features and other pieces of trivia, this episode sheds some light on some lesser-known facts about Melee’s development.

For example, Banjo-Kazooie, James Bond and Sonic the Hedgehog were all considered as characters to be featured within Melee. While Sonic was eventually added in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Banjo-Kazooie and James Bond were left out due to issues with licensing. The only potential remnant of James Bond’s possible inclusion is with the Proximity Mine item which has a passing resemblance to the Goldeneye weapon of the same name.

Eight player Smash was even considered as early as Melee, but the GameCube’s hardware limitations stopped this from happening. It was only until the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U that Sakurai could implement this feature.

Source: DidYouKnowGaming?

Check out Mikado Arcade’s “Samurai War 2017”, a Samurai Shodown tournament series

This past week has been a special time for Mikado Arcade. 侍大戦2017, or “Samurai War 2017”, is a sprawling Samurai Shodown event that tackles every game in the series. If you’ve been wanting to see high level Samurai Shodown gameplay but unsure where to start, well, why not try sampling them all? No entry in the series is overlooked- everything from the 1993 series debut, to the 2008’s 3D fighter, Samurai Shodown Sen.

In addition to seeing just how the series changed (and in some ways, didn’t) over the years, it’s also a great way to introduce yourself to parts of the franchise you were unaware of. I personally think I might pick up a copy of Sen after this, as the string-and-juggle-heavy gameplay is certainly a change of pace.

Source: Mikado Arcade

Check out the KVO x TSB Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 tournament footage from Japan with English commentary

It’s been a wild week for Guilty Gear fans, as KVO x TSB 2017 has seen players from all over Japan gather for one hell of a tournament. There’s so much high quality Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 play, as most top players showed up to represent a wide variety of characters. Don’t worry if you’re not a Japanese speaker, as the English commentary from Team Spooky has been a great way for Western fans to get acquainted with the new balance changes coming in REV 2.

First up, here’s the footage from the 3v3 tournament:

Ron captured most of the top 16 matches:

Next up, check out the hype top 8 and Grand Finals:

Keen on learning some Guilty Gear yourself? Check out Novril’s Guilty Bits guides.

Sources: Team Spooky; Ron

BornFree interviews Ronin’s Alex Myers just after breaking top 8 at Dreamhack Austin in Street Fighter V

Ronin | Alex Myers, high off his wins over EG|K-Brad and CJ Truth at Dreamhack Austin, found time before competing in top 8 to sit down with popular interviewer BornFree. Where most would likely work on practicing for their next matches, Alex generously talked for nearly an hour with BornFree about a long list of topics: Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, character selection, Dreamhack, tier lists, the state of SFV, and much more.

There’s a lot of little details revealed you may not have known about Alex, going in. For example, he got into the competitive scene because of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but didn’t really find his footing in high level play until he switched to Street Fighter 4. If you wanted to know more about the Cammy pro, this is an entertaining listen!

Sources: BornFree

Beef up your Street Fighter V Laura game with World Warrior’s meaty setups

World Warrior has delivered us his a video detailing some of his own personal combo and meaty setups for Street Fighter V’s Brazilian grappler. As if Laura needed more ways to cause mass hysteria in a wake up situation!

Many of the strongest setups in here are designed to counter-hit opponents that ground tech and wake up with buttons. As World Warrior demonstrates, this allows Laura to unleash a volley of Step Elbows, st.MP, and pressure.There’s some flashy combos and fake cross up setups thrown in for good measure, too!

Source: World Warrior

Learn the difference between a meteor smash and a spike in this latest guide from SSBM Tutorials

SSBM Tutorials and CDK are back with another Super Smash Bros. Melee guide, this time covering meteor smashes and spikes. While used interchangeably by some people, a meteor smash and a spike are different from one another, with this tutorial hoping to inform players about these differences.

Meteor smashes and spikes look the same on first glance; they both send an opponent flying downwards at high speed. However, while you can effectively cancel the momentum of a meteor smash through meteor cancelling, you cannot cancel the momentum of a spike. There are only four so-called “true” spikes in the game–Ganondorf’s Wizard’s Foot, Marth’s down air, the upper hitbox of Falcon’s down air and Falco’s down air. In the PAL version of Melee, Marth’s down air is actually a meteor smash.

Players can meteor cancel by inputting either an Up B or a jump eight frames after the initial hit-stun of a meteor smash. If you try to meteor cancel too early, you won’t be able to meteor cancel again for 40 frames and mostly likely die. If you lock out the jump meteor cancel window, you can always use the Up B one as the lock out windows are different. Trying to save yourself with the jump meteor cancel after an failed Up B cancel can be tricky, as you can press Up too hard on the Control Stick during the Up B and buffer your double jump before the initial eight frame window ends. Make sure to practice your meteor cancels and learn which moves can and can’t be cancelled out of.

Source: SSBM Tutorials

See Darkseid, Green Arrow and Green Lantern in action with these Injustice 2 character walkthroughs

While yesterday saw the announcement of the first character pack for Injustice 2, NetherRealm Studios were also on hand for one of their informative Watchtower streams. Friday’s stream focused on Green Arrow, Green Lantern and the pre-order character Darkseid, showing off their special moves and various Gear sets which can be used in combat. GameSpot has compiled all of the relevant character walkthroughs into three dedicated videos for your viewing pleasure. First off is Green Lantern, who retains much of his moveset from the original Injustice. He also has dedicated Gear sets which turn him into a Red and Blue Lantern.

Next up is Green Arrow. Much like Green Lantern, he retains much of his moveset from the original Injustice. He can now move around while prepping one of his elemental arrows, as well as storing it in his quiver for later use. One of his new Gear pieces allows him to swap out his trademark boxing glove arrow for a bola arrow, which ties enemies in place for a few seconds.

The final character is the tyrannical ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid. Besides his trademark Omega Beams, Darkseid has control of three different minions to use in battle. One can be detonated on command, another one flies next to Darkseid and can either charge forward or fire a fireball, while the final minion teleports in for a quick overhead strike. Unlike Killer Instinct’s minion master Gargos, Darkseid’s Para-demons will disappear if Darkseid takes a hit.

Source: GameSpot via NetherRealm

Check out Japanese arcade Game A-Cho’s Ultra Street Fighter 4 2v2 tournament

A-Cho Arcade in Kyoto, Japan is back with another Ultra Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2v2 Team tournament. These guys are still dedicated, still pushing the meta, still playing the highest level they can. If you were looking for some great new SFIV footage to close out your week, this should be it.

A-cho is home to a lot of great footage for predominately air dashers like Blazblue, Melty Blood, Under Night In-Birth and more. If you enjoyed the above and also want to see some great action in those anime games, you should check out their YouTube channel!

Source: GAME A-Cho

Get ready for Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 with Drunkard Shade’s “Guilty Bits: Xrd” series

With the console release of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 fast approaching, the folks at drunkardshade.com have been putting together text character guides for every single member of the cast, leading up to release. These guides are written by knowledgeable players of each character, and provide links to each fighter’s rocking character Discord for discussions–as well as covering general style and how to approach neutral, offense, defense, okizime, pressure, key normals, and anything else a new player might need to start out. They’ve even included a section on meter usage priorities, since there are a myriad of ways to use your Tension in Xrd, and are also updated to cover new techniques characters have gained, such as Faust’s Jackpot items.

Guides for Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Potemkin, Axl Low, May, and Faust are currently available, with the remaining cast to be added in the coming days. You can view the announcement video for the series below.

If you’d like to get a head start on your training, you can grab the demo version of REV 2, which includes Training and Episode modes–as well as offline vs. with all available characters–for free (if you’re a PlayStation Plus member) at this link.

Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 releases for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on May 26th outside of Japan, with a Steam release following on June 1st.

Sources: drunkardshade.com; novriltataki