If you have followed Super Smash Bros. Melee in the past few months, you are most likely aware of the emergence of the Smash Box prototype, the Hitbox-esque alternative to the GameCube controller for competitive Smash play. You may not be as aware of the B0XX: the fork of the project introduced by Aziz “Hax” Al-Yami, due to his frustration with development of the original project–or of the verbal sparring between the two teams.
Having been kept abreast of the situation surrounding the two projects, Daniel “Tafokints” Lee and Mohan “Launders” Govindasamy talk about the two projects. They discuss the features of the two projects and their benefits to the community. They also discuss whether either project will overtake each other–or even the default GameCube controller, whether either project will be a money maker, and what it will take for either project to become tournament-legal across the board.
CrossUPDP’S “Pro Player Analysis” series now takes aim at recent Final Round 20 winner RZR|Xian, in an attempt to understand the mind behind the mixup master:
While the destination is Xian’s current tournament-winning Ibuki, CrossUPDP’s 11-minute examination maps out all of Xian’s characters across his Street Fighter journey. Originally a King of Fighters 2000 player, Xian’s focus on his entire Street Fighter career has been to take the road less traveled (or the character less picked), and blindside his opponents. In his own words, he “likes the feeling” of his opponents not understanding what he’s doing.
The guys behind Beefy Smash Doods are no strangers to bizarre Smash techniques and combos. Wario has never been a straightforward character in any Smash game, using his obnoxious hitboxes like N-air and Motorcycle to confirm into a Waft kill. A Wario combo video from Beefy Smash Doods promises to be full of insane confirms off strange situations, and “It’s a Wii, Wario!” by SiC doesn’t disappoint.
I think Motorcycle Toss, down throw into Waft confirm is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in Smash in a while. That was only a minute into this video, though: the awareness and performance of SiC clearly shown in their footstools, gimps, and low percent kills is impressive. If you’re a Wario main, there is definitely something you can learn from this.
Another tool in the Ken rushdown arsenal, at least for now.
Longtime Street Fighter players are no stranger to kara throws–for those unfamiliar: basically tricking the game engine into extending your fighter’s throw range by entering the command for a longer-ranged normal attack immediately before the throw command. Joutai has found a kara throw for Ken in the current version of Street Fighter V, in this case using his light kick to reach out just that much farther. You can see it demonstrated in the video below!
Before the announcement of REV 2, everyone’s eyes were preemptively set on Baiken, Robo Ky, Zappa, and a host of other classic Guilty Gear characters. No one expected Chipp’s assistant, Answer, to step into the fray.
The Business Ninja’s moveset strongly revolves around setting up scrolls on the screen that he can cling to and dash from. This not only gives him lots of movement options but also expanded movement and mix-up options. The Answer Discord has been busy compiling an Answer guide. It’s a great starting point–that will also evolve over time, as the authors add more to it. But if you’re more of a visual learner or just want to check out Answer in action, scroll below.
Here’s also the move list for reference:
Here’s some high-level play between GGP|Kazunoko’s Answer and Machaboo’s Sin. Right off the bat, at 1:30, Kazunoko confirms into a great instant-air-dash combo (while Sin is on the ground). To see other matchups, Kazunoko also has footage against Baiken, Sol, and Ky as well as Souji’s Bedman.
So Answer can set scrolls on the screen to give him extra movement options. What kind of sick mix-ups can you do with him? (And can look forward to experiencing from Answer players?) Kazunoko provides the answers.
Here’s another way Answer can combo into a knockdown to then set up a cross-up on wake up. Should be useful against those who want to mash out a dragon punch or super reversals.
Four card combo which has Answer going around the screen like crazy.
Looks like players will have lots of fun with Answer’s mobility. The Business Ninja has plenty of tools to keep the opponents guessing, so the more creative you get, the bigger the payoff. All while taking business calls.
The King of Fighters XIV’s recent 2.0 patch brought with it a rather significant number of balance changes. With this, many players are likely wondering what new things the game’s characters can do, in terms of combos.
Now while the patch is barely a day old, many players have started to figure out new combos for the existing cast, as well as some powerful ones for the newcomers.
First up we have Gatoray, who has been experimenting with the game’s original cast. The video below showcases some new combos, links and cancels that the original cast members can perform in version 2.0.
Now for the new DLC characters, people have also been figuring out stuff for them as well, of course. First up, we have these day 1 combos for Vanessa by Fredchuckdave. These include some basic Advanced Cancels for her in MAX mode, that allow her to deal significant damage with meter.
Speaking of damage, Ryuji Yamazaki looks to be a monster in terms of damage output. In the video below, iori_q8 demonstrates a combo that can outright kill 900 health characters with full meter.
In addition to this, Ryon Damon has put together this video showcasing more combos for Yamazaki:
Of course, the DLC character that many newcomers are likely looking forward to trying is Rock Howard, who’s making his KoF series debut here. For those players, Ryon Damon has also put together this video showcasing a number of combos for Rock.
VesperArcade continues his discussions of the balance changes coming to Street Fighter V by looking at the “Master of the Fist,” Akuma. Being the first character released in Season 2, it seems Capcom didn’t want to change Akuma too much, as his only adjustments are the universal changes to Shoryukens, as well as his health being increased from 875 to 900–putting him in a 3-way tie with Cammy and Karin for lowest in the game. According to VesperArcade: “Akuma will be in slightly better condition, I should say. Especially with such an expensive V-Trigger and [the fact] he has to sacrifice health with his V-Skill as well.”
Moving on to the pair of bug fixes that went into effect with Kolin’s release, VesperArcade examines why the cancel window of Akuma’s crouching light punch was shortened by 1 frame:
As far as I know, they did this change to prevent specific option selects where Akuma could use his long chain cancel window of his cr. LP to buffer into anything he wants, while staying safe on whiff. I’m not sure if people explored or exploited this, but I’m sure Capcom wanted to nip it in the bud before people found something crazy.
Vesper’s final verdict on Akuma’s changes is “very slightly buffed.”
So the only one real balance change Akuma got was his health going up. Honestly, I don’t like this change, because I like the idea of Akuma having the lowest health in the game. I think that makes him very unique, and I feel like Capcom should’ve buffed his offense or raised his damage. I really like the idea of just making him a bigger glass cannon.
Injustice 2 is approaching fast, and NetherRealm Studios hasn’t been shy about hitting hard with character reveals and story trailers. They’ve released 4 Shattered Alliance trailers so far, including today’s video–which showcases the Society, led by Gorilla Grodd.
This trailer shows off all the presumed focal villains for the story. In these shots we see more of what appears to be Professor Zoom, but we also see Superman and Batman seemingly working together and dusting off the old Justice League base. We also get some nice shots of Deadshot and Scarecrow.
First shown off in the “It’s Good to Be Bad” trailer last week, NetherRealm Studios have shown off some extended footage of the chilling commando Captain Cold in his own introductory trailer. Heavily inspired by a certain ice ninja, Captain Cold controls the mid range with his freeze ray, locking opponents in place so he can set up cool mixups.
Similar to Sub Zero’s Ice Clone, Captain Cold can set up an ice wall, which can absorb limited projectiles and be kicked at the opponent if meter burned. This moving ice wall gives Captain Cold time to summon a block of ice from the sky, forcing his foe to block correctly to avoid a hit. He can also create an ice puddle like the frosty leader of the Lin Kuei, causing enemies to slip up and allowing Captain Cold to close the gap.
He can also summon a slowing bubble, which slows anything that enters its freezing grasp. It looks like Captain Cold is a capable counter-zoner, with his ice wall and slow fields stopping the hail of projectiles which may be coming from characters like Green Arrow or Doctor Fate. He also seems to have taken some pointers from Street Fighter V’s Kolin, as one of his aerial specials has him summoning an ice platform to extend his jump range, similar to Gill’s attendant.
Next Level’s tournament series dedicated to older titles–2 Old 2 Furious–has entered its tenth iteration, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the coming release of Ultra Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, and the announcement of a new Arika title based on Street Fighter EX/Fighting Layer characters, older titles like Street Fighter EX 2 Plus and Super Street Fighter II Turbo are due for some extra attention.
Team Spooky recently posted the top 5 from Street Fighter EX 2 Plus, which features one character confirmed for the upcoming Arika title–Hokuto–as well as Area, who could potentially be in the title. This gives a glimpse at what the new title could be–will any of these mechanics make their way into the game?
Also on display is the top 8 for Super Street Fighter II Turbo–which features top players Damdai, Riz0ne, Tecmo Super Bowl, Ultracombo, and Marsgatti.
