fighting games

How Capcom Can Fix Street Fighter X Tekken

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Street Fighter X Tekken is in trouble. The game has gone through PR hell over the controversial gem system and the on-disc DLC debacle. The game is off to a slow start in terms of sales. The game isn’t very popular in tournaments, as it routinely draws in less competitors and less viewers than Street Fighter IV or Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Maybe the most damning strike against it is the harsh criticism and feedback the game gets from disappointed fighting game players. Personally, I’ve had a hard time taking this game seriously since Capcom introduced the ridiculously overpowered assist gems and the game-breaking Rolento glitch.

The game is losing steam fast on all fronts. While Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have maintained a loyal and steady player base over the last few years, Street Fighter X Tekken is in danger of falling off the map completely in a matter of months. Even though I like the core of the Street Fighter X Tekken experience, I’m on the brink of letting this game go to play other games. What can Capcom do to save this game from oblivion? Here’s a few of my suggestions.

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Check Out My Editorial Piece “May The Lesser Man Win” Now on Splitkick.com

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Up now on Splitkick is my first editorial piece for them entitled “May the Lesser Man Win: Parallels Between Boxing’s Latest Debacle and Modern-Day Fighting Game Design“. The idea for the piece has been floating around in my head for awhile, but the recent bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley ultimately was the catalyst for me pulling those ideas into a fully-formed piece. If an op-ed piece about the role of field-leveling mechanics in fighting games is something of interest to you, definitely head over to Splitkick to check it out!

This is also my first piece as a Staff Writer, which Splitkick announced officially in their one-year anniversary celebration post. Thanks to everyone on the Splitkick team for embracing me as one of their own. It’s been a pleasure working with Splitkick and I’m looking forward our future endeavours!

Unboxing the Qanba Q4 RAF Fightstick

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The Qanba Q4 RAF is one of the most sought-after fightsticks on the market for its ability to work with the XBOX 360, PlayStation 3 and PC right out of the box. If you have fighting games across multiple systems or regularly play in tournaments, then having just one fightstick that works with everything sounds a lot better buying multiple fightsticks to do the same thing. However, because of that key feature, this fightstick isn’t licensed by Sony or Microsoft, which means you’ll never be able to buy this at a regular store. Even tracking these down online isn’t necessarily an easy task, as the few online retailers that carry it are often sold out.

Luckily for me, I was able to purchase one at a tournament I was recently at. Let’s open this bad boy up together.

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My Experience at Toryuken

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(Me [right] vs. Rikir [left]  on the Toryuken main stage and live stream of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3)

The ability to excel in a high-pressure situation does not come naturally to most. I, for one, have found this to be the case with everything I do in life – especially in my foray into competitive gaming. I’ve suffered from a seemingly unshakable case of tournament nerves, which has plagued my ability to play to my full potential. It’s hard not to let the nerves get to you when playing for your tournament life in front of a large crowd that is judging your every action.

The cure for shaking nerves? Practice. If you put yourself in a high-pressure situation enough times, you body and mind should get accustomed to the situation. Going into Toryuken – my third tournament to date – I was hoping that this would be the tournament where I could shake off my tournament nerves once and for all.

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Universal Fighting Game Guide: How to Improve Your Execution

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When it comes to fighting games, your ability to input the right buttons at the right time is critical to success. If you’re an amateur fighting another amateur, the person who can more consistently pull off their special moves is going to have the edge. As you get better, the importance of execution continues to be a factor, as your opponent’s ability to hit you with a big combo in a crucial situation (or any situation for that matter) could put you in a really bad spot.

With that said, I think that execution is generally considered the most boring and tedious aspect of your skill-set to practice and improve upon. Because of how monotonous it may seem, it’s easy to just stick with what you’ve got and never make an honest effort to improve your execution. In this post, we talk about what execution is, different types of execution ‘concepts’ and a few different ways to approach improving your execution without boring yourself to tears.

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Game-Breaking Glitch Discovered in Version 1.04 of Street Fighter X Tekken

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In an attempt to fix infinite combos, Capcom has introduced a far worse problem. In version 1.04 of Street Fighter X Tekken, the game will crash if Rolento’s kunai makes contact with any fireball in the game. This impacts both the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 versions of the game.

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Thoughts Going into Toryuken, Canada’s Next Big Fighting Game Tournament

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In just a few days, Canada’s next big fighting game tournament touches down in Toronto. Toryuken is being run by the team at Toronto Top Tiers and I’m fairly certain it’s going to be hype. They were the same team behind T12 and overall, it was a great tournament and a great experience. I encourage everyone in the area to come down to body fools, support the FGC and get hype. If you can’t come down, make sure to tune into the live stream at www.twitch.tv/torontotoptiers.

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Game Design Talk: The Broken New Auto Block and Auto Tech Gems in Street Fighter X Tekken

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Not too long ago, Capcom released a series of new gems for use with Street Fighter X Tekken. Though I’ve grown into being a gem-hater over the last few months, the original set of gems had little impact on the overall outcome of a match. However, I found out the hard way that the new set of auto block and auto tech gems are a much bigger deal. Why are they such a problem?

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Throwing Down on SRK Live

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Ever since Shoryuken.com started running a 24/7 fighting game live stream, it’s been a goal of mine to dominate on the stream at least once. In the past, I’ve won a handful of games at best, and choked really bad at worst. The other day, however, I dished out some punishment. Playing Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Version 2012, I rattled off a 10-game winning streak to take my record to 10-0. Yes, that is me in the picture, capturing photographic evidence of this feat.

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King of Fighters-i 2012 Review

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The first King of Fighters outing on iPhone was fantastic. It did an amazing job of translating the game into an iPhone-friendly experience with a simplified control scheme and some nice touches to the feature set. The only thing that put it a place below Street Fighter IV: Volt was its lack of online play.

SNK has addressed its main criticism with the release of The King of Fighters-i 2012, which is a brand new app and not an update to the previous game. If you haven’t played The King of Fighters on your iPhone before or already own The King of Fighters-i, is it worth the extra coin?

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