Freeze opponents in their tracks with some cool combos.
Street Fighter V’s newest roster addition Kolin is a tricky fighter to pick up, as technically-demanding as she is on the player to yield results. But when her complex combos and setups come together, few members of the SFV cast look as good.
Smash and Grab have compiled this assortment of stylish combos for Kolin–most highly-situational and probably impractical, but these should help inspire aspiring Kolin mains to get out there and drop some ice on their enemies!
Ken has always been known to be slightly glitchy in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. In November, we reported on a glitch where the hitbox on Ken’s fireball disappeared in the ST Grand Finals at Canada Cup between Mattsun and Kusumondo. Now, there’s even more Ken glitchiness to go around.
In a match on Fightcade against well-known US player Binary, Aznpikachu215 experienced an instance where after blocking E. Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap, he had a peculiar Tatsumaki Sempukyaku come out on reversal. The move never moved forward, but stayed in the spot where it started.
While Aznpikachu has stated that he was attempting to do an air Tatsu, the common explanation is that this was caused by Ken’s Reversal Super Glitch, which causes the last special move performed to come out instead of Super. While grounded Tatsu would move forward as the Super Glitch is performed, an airborne Tatsu will not. The reason for this is that the move doesn’t have any airborne velocity to start, which is required for the move to go forward. This can also be proven by doing air tatsu off of a neutral jump–if this happens, the move only moves forward slightly.
VesperArcade clarifies what the incoming changes to uppercuts in Street Fighter V will actually mean.
Capcom has given us a detailed list of upcoming changes to Street Fighter V, inbound as a balance patch due before the end of April. One of the most vocally-lamented losses from Season 1’s build of SFV were meterless reversals–specifically, invincible dragon punch-type moves that could be used on wakeup to counter meaty attacks without burning off meter with an EX special move. These were yanked out of SFV Season 2; removing that option from the fighters that possessed them.
In the new patch notes, Capcom details how these uppercut moves thus became too “risk intensive” and describes a new universal model for DPs: lightShoryuken attacks have throw invincibility, medium Shoryuken attacks have airborne invincibility, and heavy Shoryuken attacks have frames of attack and projectile invincibility. In the individual character notes, they also list what the active frames of invincibility will be for these moves, which–unsurprisingly, as DPs have already been messed with in the last major patch–is causing some players confusion as to how exactly these changes will influence gameplay when they’re introduced.
VesperArcade has taken to YouTube to help clarify what these changes actually mean. The characters in question here are Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Akuma, and Juri, because Necalli already follows this new DP model in Season 2. Light Shoryukens already have throw invincibility, meaning that on wakeup (or otherwise), a light DP will hit a throw attempt. While medium DPs will not regain their initial frames of complete invincibility, they will gain total invincibility against air attacks, cementing their use as reliable anti-airs, as well as counters for other moves that have the airborne property. Heavy DPs are getting strike/projectile invincibility starting on frame 3–meaning they still aren’t an invincible anti-meaty reversal (unless the meaty is poorly timed), but can break into a wide frame trap or “fake” blockstring, or punish a blockstring that ends in a projectile at too-close a range and has a large enough frame gap. EX DPs will be unchanged, with invincibility on frame 1–for the price of some meter.
Check out the full video for further details, and Necalli-based demonstrations of these situations!
Explore what the Red Cyclone needs to do to escape divine immolation.
Is it Zangief’s worst matchup in Street Fighter V? In terms of concept, what could be worse for a dedicated grappler than a character built specifically for long-range combat? Thus the “flame that lights the way” has been a tough opponent for ‘Gief since Street Fighter II.
In the latest episode of Muscle Memory, Mr. Slay n man examines how to approach this troublesome matchup with the Red Cyclone. As per usual, the lengthy exploration starts with some basic tech versus tech in neutral, and expands to general discussion of counter-strategy, closing with a look at top-level play of the matchup. Joe Munday (author of Gief’s Gym) and anhdeptrai are on deck to assist with this one.
Check out prior episodes of Muscle Memory to prepare for these other SFV matchups:
With the number of fighting games being developed during the 1990s, it’s no surprise that there are a handful of promising titles that never got released. One such title is Primal Rage II, the sequel to Atari’s hit dinosaur fighting game.
For the longest time, the only way for anyone to play Primal Rage II was through the handful of prototype arcade boards that Atari developed, such as the one used by Galloping Ghost Arcade. However, anyone who wanted to try the game from the comfort of their own home was out of luck, as popular emulators like MAME were unable to run the game–until now that is.
After years of work, a custom build of MAME called MAME4RAGE, designed solely to play Primal Rage II, has been released. Now, the emulation itself still has some bugs–on top of the fact that the Primal Rage II prototype itself has some unfinished bits–but the game itself works, as you can see from these videos from Gruntzilla94 and WLNONYMOUS.
Gruntzilla94’s video focuses more on how to actually get the game running in this custom build of MAME.
For a more detailed explanation of the game and its mechanics, check out WLNONYMOUS’s extensive hour and forty minute-long video.
For those interested, MAME4RAGE can be downloaded here.
Last weekend saw the conclusion of the Killer Instinct Ultra Tour and my, what a tournament it was. With players coming from North America, Europe and Asia to compete for the title of Killer Instinct World Cup champion, it was a stellar showing of both high level Killer Instinct play and of the community’s drive and devotion to their game.
The overall winner was Darnell “F3|Sleep” Waller, earning himself the KIWC Champion title to go alongside with his Evo 2016 trophy. Sleep’s run through Winners was mighty impressive, only dropping a single game to UA|Bass before Winners’ Finals. From there, he had his work cut out for him with a heart-in-the-mouth five game set with BH|Thompxson, before squaring off against Storm179 with another game 5 situation. Sleep’s nerve held, with his ARIA triumphing over Storm’s Hisako and earning him that double crown.
Storm’s second place is not to be overlooked however, as he defeated top level threats like Thompxson, UA|Wheels and even double eliminating first seed for the tournament Circa|Nicky. His Hisako is one dangerous spirit and with the upcoming release of Shin Hisako next week (possibly earlier), be prepared for more of this ghost girl at future KI tournaments. Thompxson’s third place is nothing to sneeze at either, with it taking the combined force of Sleep and Storm to stop his streak of 3-0 victories. Even then, Thompxson’s Jago took them both to game 5 so expect this tiger warrior to be hungry for more at Combo Breaker.
Elsewhere in bracket, MT|LetalisVenator pumped up the crowd with his rock solid Aganos play, earning a seventh place finish with a character dwelling in the doldrums of low tier. Some of his setups using Aganos’ walls were a sight to behold, dealing upwards of 60% damage with a single combo. His match against RavenIsRaw was particularly brutal, looking like a stone-cold killer against Raven’s poor Spinal.
While actually getting sent into bracket via DQ–and possibly due to oversleeping thanks to Daylight Savings Time– last year’s winner Rico Suave was able to make it all the way to seventh place as well, eventually falling to Nicky in a tense 3-2 set. Sleep actually follows in Suave’s footsteps with his victory at KIWC, becoming the second KI player to win both Evo and Killer Instinct World Cup.
Wheels’ vast character knowledge did him justice in top 64, with his revolving door of characters earning him victories against Selfless|Fiyah Liger, LCD and LetalisVenator before eventually falling to Storm and earning fifth. While Tusk lead the charge for a large portion of his tournament life, Sabrewulf, Orchid and even Gargos got their licks in during KIWC.
Puddle punching his way to fifth place and earning his rank as the world’s best Glacius, BH|Waterhorses defeated players like the UK’s HW|Valoraxe, France’s TDB|LeChatNoir as well as Wheels, before being sent to Losers’ by Thompxson. His final match versus Nicky was yet another close call, with the Ultratech killing machine just clutching it out over the alien iceman 3-2. For the full results and standings, make sure to look through the KIWC 2017 Challonge page for all of the action in top 64.
Overall, Killer Instinct World Cup was a phenomenal event in terms of action, production and excitement, so congrats to everyone involved for making it such a stellar event. KIWC will be returning in 2018, with the third round of the Ultra Tour starting with Combo Breaker and CEO 2017. You can watch relive all the top 8 matches by watching the videos below, with all of top 32 also available on Team Spooky’s YouTube channel. Fight on!
Recently, we’ve been seeing pictures of the various women from Dead or Alive 5: Last Round cosplaying some of the most popular ladies from Blazblue: Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd REV2, as part of Team Ninja’s “dream collaboration with the creator of classy fighting games–Arc System Works!”
To promote the release of the costumes, Koei Tecmo Europe has released a trailer showing the various fighters in action with their new attire. For those unaware, this pack of 16 costumes will feature Ayane as I-No, Nyotengu as Dizzy, Honoka and Lisa as Elphelt and Ramlethal Valentine, Momiji and Rachel as Baiken and Millia Rage, Christie as Jack-O’ Valentine, Leifang as Jam Kuradoberi, Mila as Makoto Nanaya, Marie Rose as Platinum The Trinity, Phase-4 as Mu-12 and Tina as Bullet, Kokoro as Celica A. Mercury, Helena as Nine The Phantom and Kasumi and Hitomi as Noel Vermillion and Tsubaki Yayoi.
These costumes can either be purchased individually, as part of the “Arc System Works Mashup Set” bundle, or as part of Season Pass 6 for PS4, or New Costume Pass 6 on Xbox One, which also includes the “High Society Costume Set,” the “Alluring Mandarin Dress Set,” and three more costume packs set to be released between April and June. You’ll also receive the exclusive Pop Idol costumes for Marie Rose and Honoka for purchasing the Season Pass. You can catch the full trailer below, set to the character select theme of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core.
A new week means it’s time for a new Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League match. As the League is now into its fourth week, a different set of challengers awaits. The Daredevils face each other in first-to-seven sets, while commentary will be provided by Sway and wne–with the latter having competed last week on the stream.
Here’s a breakdown of the participants:
Mynus
On the match: “Meta-wise, I feel I-no wins the matchup solidly solely based on things that Jam can’t control. Many of I-no’s countermeasures against her involve low profiling many of her moves ie. (6H, Puffball, f.S, etc.) with Stroke the Big Tree. The ability of I-no to low profile her Dragon Punch makes the rock-paper-scissors of avoiding her parry in her favor if I choose to go for note-less okizeme.
“That being said, once Jam gets started, frame traps, oki, and the ability to just go crazy sometimes is a situation I definitely have to avoid. I-no lacks defensive options outside of super, so staying mobile, countering in neutral against her approach and being relentless on offense is important to avoid someone like doren’s Jam getting started. Lastly, in this matchup, I-no needs to be conscious of wake-up parry on oki, so using note or lows on her wakeup is important to avoid that move altogether. I-no needs to treat Parry like Blitz, except for the fact that she cannot option-select parry with Vertical Chemical Love YRC like she can with Blitz Shield.”
On his opponent: “doren is a player of pure aggression! He looks to take control of every scramble situation, and anytime you might slip in neutral–he’s already taking advantage of your hesitation. Recently, doren has been making waves in multiple tournament top 8’s, showing everyone why he is the strongest Jam in the U.S. Being able to show your personality and skill through the character you play and be considered the standard of that play in peoples minds is something I respect in someone immensely.
“My main approach in this set is to set the tone that I won’t let him get away with anything sloppy in neutral or pressure, be as unpredictable on offense as possible, and don’t press too hard when on defense. If I can knock him down first, I feel that on pure momentum and mix-up alone, I can frustrate anyone to the point of total despair. In Xrd, doren and I have only met once in tournament; at Final Round 19. I put him in losers early in top 32, but he ended up beating me in the runback in top 8, and I was left with a very salty 7th place. It would be great to play him in tournament again; and hopefully that can happen this weekend at Super TSB, but for now I look to get a bit of revenge in this long set!”
On his own playstyle: “I would describe my gameplay style in Xrd as “Reactive Aggression.” I look to always stay mobile, use ALL of I-no’s movement options (which is necessary as she is actually limited by her hoverdash being a double-edged sword in neutral), counter sloppy approaches and slips in the opponents neutral, and finally, borderline unseeable mixups on offense once I score a knockdown. I-no isn’t actually a rushdown character in my opinion, she is more so of a far-mid to long range character with tools to score knockdowns to finally oppress her opponent. This is why I try to play as clean neutral as possible, and from what I’ve seen from other U.S. and Japanese I-nos, I play a lot faster than almost all of them.
“I-no’s mix-up and okizeme is one of the strongest in the game, and many of her options are unseeable to the point where actual, viable countermeasures on defense are for the opponent to take risks mashing or jumping out of mixup/pressure in order to avoid getting mixed-up to death. I actualy tell people this all the time: “defending against I-no doesn’t exist.” I originally am an MvC2 player, so I tend to play I-no as “Magneto” or “Storm” in a similar manner; there’s a certain satisfaction of making someone feel hopeless on defense, and so I always look to implement advanced movement and mix-up tactics.
“This past year, I feel I truly cemented that my play style is effective, being one of only 5 US players to make top 32 in Evo 2016. I also had the awesome opportunity to rep the U.S. alongside PG|MarlinPie at Toushinsai at Arc Revo in October and was able to show my strength as a player in general (not just with I-no) in some of the strongest Japanese arcades in Tokyo and Osaka. I know that I still have a lot of work to do to improve as a player and grow, so I truly look forward to a hard working 2017!”
doren2k
On the match: “My thoughts on the I-no match with Jam, I think it’s about even, honestly. Jam has to, of course, get through all of the Chemical Loves and Notes but when she finally gets in, I-no really has nothing that can keep Jam off except her reversal super. So I’m just gonna try my best to maneuver around whatever Mynus throws at me so I can get in and try to kill him while I have the chance. Cause nobody wants to block I-no or attempt to block I-no, you know .”
On his opponent: “Mynus has been playing Guilty Gear for a long time, I’m pretty sure longer than me. The first time I played Mynus I’m pretty sure was at NEC 2007, Jam vs I-no in a 3v3 team tournament 10 years ago . He’s very smart and really knowledgeable with his character. Easily the best I-no in the US.”
On his own playstyle: “I like to focus on movement a lot definitely with Jam because she is easily one of the fastest characters in the game, but she also struggles in neutral. So I think to be really good with the character your movement has to be on point. And I also work on confirms a lot because of how fast I play. The character has to make sure you can get max damage or close to it from every random hit. And oh yeah, of course, charge Ryujin –full-screen YOLO.”
DaveO
On the match: “I’m excited to play the matchup. I don’t have too much experience in it, but I’ve played it enough to have at least a basic idea. It’s an interesting one, in that the characters are designed to do the opposite things as each other, so a lot of rounds can end up really one-sided when one player gets momentum, though with Axl having a Dragon Punch in Xrd makes things a little different. I’m just hoping not to lose to a combination of myself and Sparrowhawk Stance.”
On his opponent: “I played Gekioh for the first time at Frosty Faustings a few years ago (Xrd SIGN 1.1, I think). I beat him pretty handily, though I was using Slayer at the time. I played him a bunch at Combo Breaker last year and he had gotten a lot better and did smarter things overall, and we had a lot of interesting games. I haven’t seen him play since then (unless I’m misremembering), but I’m assuming he’s gotten better since then, so I’m hoping we have a real good set for people to watch.”
On his own playstyle: “The easiest way to distil the way I like to play and think about games is to play the simplest way possible that is still good. I tend not to play characters like Ramlethal or Zato=1, and play characters like Slayer, Sol. I like to play with footsies, reactions, conditioning. Having good setups and lots of layers is fine, but I try to keep it not too convoluted or complex. I like characters that focus on frame traps or grab mixups rather than high/low/left/right, etc.”
Gekioh
On the match: “In general, I find the Sol match-up to be 5-5, leaning toward 6-4 in Axl’s favor, if you can keep Sol out, you can shut down most of his hard pressuring options. It’s when Sol gets a hard knockdown or a corner carry Axl really doesn’t have many tools to retain his neutral game. Axl’s main goal in this matchup is to zone, wait, go in on whiffed attacks with long recovery, and generally frustrate him until he jumps in or does something stupid. I hope that I can adapt to my opponent’s options and find a rhythm to counter and react to different situations. And not get Wild Thrown!”
On his opponent: “I’ve gotten in some decent sets with DaveO at the last couple majors (Frosty Faustings IX, CEOtaku ’16, Combo Breaker). Great guy to have some games with, and he’s a very strong opponent that I have to be very careful about maintaining my neutral game with a lot of movement, not pressing buttons when I shouldn’t. Also to not get Wild Thrown…. He Wild Throws a lot.”
On his own playstyle: “My training partner, Kizzercrate said it best: a mixture of Japanese “wall keep away” and American rushdown with some homebrew tricks that I learned on the way. I want my opponent to feel as though it’s never safe to tech after a knockdown or jump in carelessly. Neutral is where I shine, and I use all movement and low profile options to try and make sure I keep myself in an advantageous position, as standing still will more than often not get you killed, when every button you have is usually at a frame disadvantage.”
Gekioh and DaveO’s FT7 is first, followed by Mynus and doren2k. The show is tomorrow, Thursday, at 10:00 PM EST/9:00 PM CST/7:00 PM PST. As usual, it will be on silva_hime’s Twitch channel.
Last time, KidViper fought daymendou in a rematch, while Kizzercrate faced off against wne. Check out the recorded results in the clip below:
Though Tekken 7 has not yet been released on console for fans everywhere, it still has the habit of popping up at most major tournaments. One such event was Final Round 20, which is well-favored by the Tekken community. The game’s presence this year serves to hype up fans even more for the game’s imminent home release.
The matches that took place in Tekken 7’s top 8 have since been uploaded to Bandai Namco’s YouTube channel, which you can see in the playlist below. Whether you missed it the first time, or just want to experience the hype all over again, you’re sure to enjoy this assortment of matches.
This ninja is stepping out of the shadows thanks to a prominent Capcom Pro Tour victory.
Ibuki’s technical demands on the player to achieve consistent success have kept her in the background for the most part when it comes to Street Fighter V’s metagame–but we all got a very clear reminder of how deadly she can be when Razer’s Xian tore through Final Round 20 to claim victory, undefeated, with the plucky ninja.
Ibuki can become a real thorn in her opponent’s side when applying her okizeme setups to keep them fighting a losing defensive battle; here’s a number of V-Trigger setups from Redcaliburn to work into your attack plan:
In case you want to show off a little swagger before (or after) you knock opponents down, you’ll want to check out LianHuBBB’s compilation of stylish Ibuki combos and setups below:
Ibuki also looks to come out on the other side of the incoming balance patch for SFV relatively unscathed; check out the upcoming changes here.
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