Denial Esports’ Chris Tatarian has a lot to say about Street Fighter V’s changes in season 2. For that reason, he reached out to Michael Martin at Yahoo! Esports to talk to publicize his thoughts on Converastions and Fireballs.
In the video, he details the problem he has with Capcom having reduced damage for most characters, and then giving it to other characters. He calls it “the same problem in the other direction,” and that it “won’t make anyone happy.” He also discusses in great detail how he disliked Cammy in Season 1, citing her as impossible to whiff punish, but also states that he is happy overall with season 2.
Peach was known as a perennial zoning character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and her traditional gameplan has not changed in Super Smash Bros for Wii U. However, she has received various nerfs over the series to make her slightly less viable; to top things off, the mechanics of the game have changed enough to make you approach everything differently.
In this tutorial, Peach’s neutral game is explained in great detail. Since a lot of her game plan revolves around spacing out characters with aerial moves–enhancing the range with floats–it goes over auto-cancelling moves in detail as well.
It is no secret that Street Fighter V did not do as well as expected on launch–selling only 1.4 million copies, short of their 2 million fiscal goal. In December, it was announced that the sales had increased to 1.5 million–only 100,000 additional units being sold since February 2016. That is a big deal, given the additional content being packed in.
VesperArcade has released a video speculating why the sales have stagnated. First of all, while a lot of content has been released for free since, the AAA title cost of the title itself does not bode well when compared to other games with microtransactions. Also, he muses that the game may actually be too balanced, with too many similarities between the characters that makes the title seem bland to casual and competitive players alike.
Explore the frame advantage Juri gains with a Feng Shui Engine alpha cancel.
Juri’s Feng Shui Engine alpha V-Trigger state is deadly once activated; but naturally, like most V-Triggers it can also have deadly results when activated as well, by canceling normal/special moves into it and linking from there. The frame advantage gained opens up many possibilities to follow up your V-Trigger cancel with additional attacks, ready to pursue with your Feng Shui Engine-enhanced combos afterwards!
This video from marlonlonmilk offers up a variety of these V-Trigger cancel options for you to study and work into your own sadistic playtime.
(Note that Juri’s costume in the video isn’t a standard option, but a PC mod–sorry, PS4 players!)
One of Captain America’s oldest tricks in his Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 book is cancelling Hyper Stars & Stripes from Charging Star. It is a relatively safe frame trap that, when it connects, does a decent amount of damage.
However, there are ways to punish this frame trap, and everyone in the cast can do it. A lot of punishes require a Delayed Hyper Cancel, but if you hit a counter on his Hyper Stars & Stripes, you can extend into a full combo. One of the notable characters is Trish, who requires you to actually get hit by the Hyper, but she can still nearly kill Captain America off the punish if done properly.
Ryu is the perennial crowd favorite in the Street Fighter series. Every time a new iteration of the game releases, Ryu becomes a go-to character for many players. His easy-to-understand buttons and maneuvers–as well as his straightforward play style–make him a staple for newcomers and veterans alike.
While Ryu saw a major decline in power in season 2 of Street Fighter V, he still has a legion of faithful players. In this compilation, we see some of the best plays online from great Ryu regulars such as HyperX|Daigo Umehara, Echo Fox|Tokido, WFX|XsK Samurai, and Four Wude.
There are many people enjoying the chance to play the Beta for Injustice 2 right now; some are enjoying the lore details we’re getting, some just like playing it early, and a few are reveling in the early competitive edge they’ll have at tournaments. In this effort to explore the new game–for whatever reason each player has–content creators are already putting together combo videos for the new game.
One such content creator is YouTuber ETCChile, who has put together combo videos for Mortal Kombat games in the past. He sets his sights on the Dark Knight this time around. The video contains combos that may of course change at some point leading up to the main game’s release, but seeing the combo extensions and side switch combos in their current state is still pretty exciting.
Relative newcomer to the world of esports–and one of the handful of fighting games in the platform fighter category–Brawlhalla hasn’t been shy about making waves. Between the rare free-to-play model for a fighting game and the professionally-dressed nature of its scene, the game and its community have been making big strides into carving out their own niche as an FGC.
Despite having a World Circuit that’s running full-throttle this year, Brawlhalla hasn’t cut back on its constant influx of new characters. The latest character reveal shows off Nix, an apparent mid-range character with long-reaching command grabs that help her control space and get kills. She can use a scythe or twin guns, which seems to give her a balance between pure damage and superior zoning potential.
This past Wednesday at the Folsom Street Foundry in San Francisco, CA, Capcom and well-known hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco teamed up for some festivities to celebrate Fiasco’s new album–DROGAS Light–and to kick off the next Capcom Pro Tour season of Street Fighter V by letting attendants try out the newest DLC character, Kolin (who will be officially released on February 28). There was also an eight-person single-elimination tournament, and exhibition matches with top SFV players which included Echo Fox|Justin Wong vs. RB|Snake Eyez, EG|Ricki Ortiz vs. Liquid|NuckleDu, and PG|Filipino Champ vs. HyperX|Daigo Umehara.
In case you missed all the SFV action, you can catch up on the whole event at Capcom Fighters if you have a subscription. Commentary was provided by Stephen “Sajam” Lyon, Steve “Tasty Steve” Scott, EG|K-Brad, and Lupe Fiasco himself at times.
SFV Exhibition Results
Echo Fox|Justin Wong (Karin) defeated RB|Snake Eyez (Akuma, Zangief) 3-0
There was also a free-to-enter single elimination tournament with the prize being a Razer Panthera Arcade Stick for PlayStation 4. Unfortunately it wasn’t streamed.
SFV Open Tournament Results (76 entrants)
1st: Ultima (Rashid)
2nd: FS|Pavocado (R. Mika)
3rd: Brass (Guile)
3rd: Spoons (Laura)
5th: No Respect (Urien)
5th: DM|John B. (Ibuki)
5th: DM|Casual Phil (Rashid)
5th: DM|Burn Notice (Laura)
The event which was emceed by fighting game players/personalities Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez and Mike Ross, and was lively and entertaining for casual spectators and competitors throughout the night. There was even a mini-cosplay contest towards the end of the night, with prizes that were given out. The spectators ate it up as the cosplayers strutted their character outfits on the main stage.
Last but not least, the newest DLC character Kolin, was available to play and test out on multiple setups in the venue. I got to try her out a bit, figuring out what her normals and specials were as well test out some things that were safe and unsafe on block. I didn’t get to try out her V-Skill and V-Trigger all that much, but from what I observed from people playing, the latter seems strong so far. From my time with her, Kolin has excellent mobility both on the ground and in the air with lots of combo and mixup potential. Kolin’s main weaknesses so far seems to be on defense, since it seems like she doesn’t have anything to get the opponent off of her and her normals, while having decent range, are somewhat slow on startup. I’ll have more impressions on Kolin once she is released later this month.
I managed to record footage of Anthony “Crackfiend” Nguyen and Eliver “Killer Kai” Ling playing a Kolin mirror match and testing what she is capable. Check it out below, and sorry for the shaky camerawork.
The King of Fighters XIV World Championship just went down in Tokyo; aside from the tournament itself, many were excited for an expected big reveal at some point during the event, and thankfully we were not disappointed.
There was an announcement that Classic Iori would be available Febuary 23rd, but the most eventful news was that there will be 3 new costumes, 2 new stages, and several new characters were on their way. While no solid release date was given, the costumes were said to be available “Spring,” so the wait shouldn’t be too long.
You can see the alt costumes below. Meitenkun’s Pillow transforms into a stuffed cat doll, while Sylvie’s purse transforms into a tiny wolf bag. Kula doesn’t seem to get any noticeable model additions aside from the dress (though we do get a clear look at her normally-covered hands), and Angel gets darker skin and horns along with her attire.
The stages that were announced can be seen in the slideshow below. These are said to be free for all users, and feature one train-themed Mount Rushmore stage, while another features what looks like a section on a race track.
As for the new characters, our best look at them is this silhouette. It’s anyone’s guess who they are presently, but more details should be released next month.
While at first glance it appears to be 3 characters, it may in fact be 4 new additions; you can most easily see this by counting the number of left legs you see on the right side of the image (there appear to be 3) and then of course the character crouching on the left side of the image. While it’s hard to make out right now, that hasn’t stopped fans from outlining who they believe to be hidden in this image:
