Category: Videos

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MySmashCorner breaks down what makes a mind-game

At its core, winning in a fighting game is all about mind-games. Strip out execution and the main struggle in any fighting game is successfully outwitting your opponent to achieve victory. Whether that is through successfully reading your opponent or baiting out a bad option, mastering mind-games is key to become a great fighting game player. But how do you improve your mind-games? Hoping to improve the mental fortitude of struggling players, MySmashCorner has released a new video discussing what makes a mind-game.

After briefly discussing the idea of thinking of strategies on multiple levels (traditional fighting game players will know this concept by the word “yomi”), MySmashCorner gives specific examples of using mind-games in a typical match. Most of these mind-games are thought up in the heat of battle, so it’s helpful to see them broken down piece by piece, in order to understand the reasoning behind each one. Of course, some mind-games require one player’s deliberately switching their brain off to make them hard to read, but you shouldn’t rely on this as a common tactic.

Most of the mind-games presented in this video–techchasing, tomahawks, edgeguards–are specific to Smash, but things like shield/block pressure, conditioning and reads are universal to all fighting games. Even if you aren’t a dedicated Smash player, you may learn something about improving your general mental game by watching this analysis.

Source: MySmashCorner

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Snake Eyez breaks down his Street Fighter V Akuma method for Yahoo! Esports

RB.CYG BST|Snake Eyez temporarily lays down his ‘Gief mantle to talk to Yahoo! Esports about his philosophy on playing Akuma in Street Fighter V. While demonstrating his aptitude for handling the Raging Demon in a friendly set with Bizzaro Mike, he gives some useful tips to aspiring Akuma mains, and explains what type of character he is–from a Zangief specialist’s viewpoint.

Versatility, better ground game, and defensive advantages are a few of the perks Snake Eyez cites for choosing Akuma as his pocket shoto. Hear his full thoughts, and see his answer to the Kolin matchup in the video below.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

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VesperArcade discusses balance patch changes to Cammy in Street Fighter V

For those that missed the patch notes, VesperArcade is here to cover the Cammy Changes for season 2!

The universal dragon punch changes, while buffing other characters, will end up being a nerf for the British assassin. These changes will force Cammy players to use the slower medium kick version Cannon Spike if they want to anti-air. It also negatively impacts her wake-up game due to the angle it travels. On the flipside, she gets a new air throw that allows her to switch positions–but does that compensate for the loss of light kick Cannon Spike’s invincibility?

Outside of these changes, the relatively strong Cammy remains mostly unchanged, which surprises VesperArcade.

Source: VesperArcade

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Use REO’s new Flip Stance tech to more effectively evade command grabs in Mortal Kombat XL

Top NRS player and notable lab rat REO has posted a shocking–and seemingly quite useful–discovery in Mortal Kombat XL, that even reaches back all the way back to 2008’s Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. It utilizes the Flip Stance button (L2 on PlayStation 4, LT on Xbox One), a function many players have felt is a superfluous or outright useless mechanic in NetherRealm’s more recent titles, aside from some situational uses involving the execution of X-Rays and certain Fatalities. However, with this new tech, players can more easily evade command grabs from characters like Kotal Kahn and Jason Voorhees by doing a neutral jump and immediately tapping Flip Stance. Due to a bug, your character will cancel the first or second frame of their neutral jump startup, before transitioning into the Flip Stance animation. REO explains the specifics of this technique.

What this does is it actually tricks the game into thinking that your character is jumping for the first two frames. Now your character won’t be considered airborne, they’ll still be hit by any ground attacks or unblockables. But because the game reads that I input a neutral jump, it will give me instant immunity to throws and command grabs for that 1 or 2 frames.

In the video, he shows Kobu Jutsu Tanya being able to punish a whiffed command grab from Relentless Jason, using this tech after making a correct read. REO notes that this bug has been around in the last four games produced by NRS/Midway, as Flip Stance was first introduced in MKvDCU, but had little usage there or in Mortal Kombat 9 due to those games’ general lack of command grabs. Perhaps this could prove useful in the upcoming Injustice 2 as well, since MK’s sister series also possesses this function?

Lastly, REO notes three important things to keep in mind about this tech in his TYM discussion thread:

  1. Still a hard read, like jumping out of command grabs.
  2. Makes you look like a hacker/swag god when you pull it off in a KOTH with a bunch of people (LOL)
  3. Gives some characters better punishes/optimal combos that they normally wouldn’t get off their NJP vs. some command grabs.

You can see the full video below, and head over to REO’s discussion thread on Test Your Might for more details.

Source: MK_REO; via Test Your Might

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Get your classic 2D fix with Mikado Arcade’s Fatal Fury Special tournament

Mikado Arcade–Japan’s fighting game Mecca–just ran a tournament for SNK’s classic fighter Fatal Fury Special.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe how innovative Fatal Fury Special was. It originated 2-lane fighting years before Virtua Fighter found it’s own 3D plane. This 1993 release was just barely a year after Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, and may be the very first fighting game with stage interactions. All of this, and it still has the same solid footsies expected from the genre, as evidenced by this gameplay from the denizens of Mikado.

Source: Mikado

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ChrisG talks Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite with BornFree

While primarily known as a Marvel vs. Capcom player, Evil Geniuses’ Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzales has also seen some success in Street Fighter. Considered one of the top Guile players in Street Fighter V, ChrisG recently competed at NorCal Regionals 2017, where he finished in the top 8 of the Street Fighter V event.

While at NCR 2017, Mark “BornFree” Sheridan caught up with ChrisG for an interview. While they go over a lot of the same things that BornFree has been asking other players at the event–such as character choice–they also talk a bit about the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. ChrisG says that he hopes for the game to be creative: he wants to be able to do things that other people cannot. Considering that this creative freedom has been a hallmark of the series, it’s not surprising the Chris wants it to remain part of the new game.

Of course, that’s not all that they talk about; hit up the video below for Chris’ thoughts on Street Fighter V Season 2’s balance, characters he’d want to see added, as well as some insights into his training and motivation.

Source: BornFree

 

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Analyze This! Fuudo & Xian spar in slow motion with this in-depth match analysis for Street Fighter V

Jay Rego has returned with his highly insightful “Analyze This!” series for Street Fighter V. This time, we see game one of Grpt|Fuudo vs. RZR|Xian’s grand finals set from the recent Final Round 20.

The game is slowed down to allow text overlay, while we get an excellent run down of the choices each player made, and the potential reasons why each player chose their option.

Along with the eye-opening tidbits offered on the match commentary, there are breaks in the match to educate you on Ibuki’s mixup options off of tricky V-trigger setups. Whether you play these characters or not, there is a lot to be learned here!

Source: Jay Rego

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Check out the first episode of YogaFlame24’s new “Top 5 Plays of the Week” series for Street Fighter V

Top Street Fighter YouTube channel YogaFlame24 has created a new weekly series for “The Home of Fighting Entertainment.” This new “Top 5 Plays of the Week” series will count down what they feel are the five best SFV plays each week, based off of clips of online matches sent in by viewers to Twitter, as well as taken from various streams of top players.

The first episode features the controversial Wolfkrone making a V-Trigger comeback with Laura after being perfected the previous round, and Realistic’s crazy bomb shenanigans with Ibuki. There’s an absolutely breathtaking Critical Art escape from HORI|Sako, LI Joe taking an unsuspecting Zangief on a trip to Mixup City, and Chris Hu showing he’s more than just a commentator with a hype comeback at a recent Next Level Battle Circuit. (You might not want want to watch that last moment with headphones on.) You can catch the full video below to experience the hype for yourself.

YogaFlame24’s looking to make this a new weekly feature on the channel, so feel free to provide feedback in the comments and send him some clips of your own to YTYogaFlame24 on Twitter.

Source: YogaFlame24

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Level Up Your Game’s MYK breaks down Eliza’s Tekken 7 trailer in this analysis video

After taking a break from creating Tekken content, Level Up Your Game’s MYK returns with a breakdown and analysis video focusing on Tekken 7‘s pre-order DLC character, Eliza! Though the narcoleptic vampire first appeared in Tekken Revolution (which Bandai Namco Entertainment ended support for in March), she will be making a proper comeback to the series in its latest installment. Since these two Tekken titles play very differently–and she was created to be a gateway for fans of 2D fighters to try out the series–MYK has taken what we know about her so far and begun to speculate on how she will play, in comparison to her previous appearance.

After introducing the character and speaking about her sleeping mechanics–which allowed her to partially heal back lost health in Revolution, in exchange for being unable to block while she is asleep–MYK moves on to her moveset differences. Noting that she now has a normal jump, some type of command jump or divekick, additional specials (some of which are cancelable), and a meter gauge, similar to Akuma’s. Her “Blood Gauge” sports a unique design and contains a maximum of two stocks, giving her access to EX moves and what appears to be an additional super, separate from her Rage Art–it likely replaces her Rage Drive, as is the case with Akuma.

Next, MYK covers what look to be some new combo strings, such as a new extension off of her d/f2, that he believes is possibly a launch-punishable d/f23 natural-combo launcher. Eliza’s F1+2, which was a homing move in Revolution, is now her Power Crush, likely without its former counter hit properties. She also has a pair of new moves coming out of her F4; her unique forward dash, Moon Glide, provides her with new mixup opportunities. She also appears to have a fake-out version of her Dark Wave projectile, to further discourage evasive foes. Eliza can even special cancel her normals like Akuma, going into a Shoryuken-style uppercut from her S1, as well as a seemingly-new B4.

Finally, MYK spotlights her jump-in normals, which are very reminiscent of 2D air control, as well as what seems to be a projectile super that will be tied to her meter. From MYK:

My final thoughts on this character is that she seems a lot more interesting now, compared to her Tekken Revolution counterpart. She’s definitely a cool take on a Tekken character that’s been evolved in a way that makes her like a Street Fighter hybrid. I’m pretty excited for this new iteration of Eliza, and I can’t wait to try her out.

You can catch the full video below, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on Eliza in the comments!

Tekken 7 will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam on June 2nd.

Source: Level Up Your Game