During my 14-year hiatus from fighting games, I missed out on some of the genre’s biggest franchises. Since I’ve come back to the scene, I’ve caught up on Street Fighter Alpha I and II, as well as Marvel vs. Capcom 2. However, the biggest fighting game I’ve yet to play is Third Strike.
That is, until now. Street Fighter III: Third Strike is available now on PSN, and will be available on XBOX Live tomorrow. I’ll for sure pick it and see what I’ve missed all these years.
If you’ve ever had any sort of interest in fighting games, you’ve probably stumbled across a combo video or two. They’re very cool to watch, and you may have even taken it upon yourself to be as good as the person in the video by going to a guide and learning how to read an execute something like this from BlazBlue:
214D -> B (FC), 623D, dash, 3C xx 236236B, 214D -> C, 5C 2C 4D -> D, [j.C x n] [dj.C x n] xx j.214B – 50% Heat
While you may be tempted to learn the big fancy combos the moment you start playing a new fighting game, it’s not the best way to level yourself up. Mastering the physical execution of big combos is nice, but learning the big combos without knowing the context behind them first is like trying to run without learning how to walk. This is post 1 in a two-part mini-series about understanding combo systems. Part 1 will deal with the elements that make up most combo systems, while part 2 will discuss how to put context to those elements to shape your offensive capabilities. Let’s get moving with part 1!
Long before I ever watched an episode of the Japanese anime Bleach, I owned an import copy of Bleach DS. During the apex of my Nintendo DS love, I was importing almost many hot Japanese games that likely would never see the light of day here. Of that set were two notable fighting games: Jump Super Stars and Bleach DS . I imported both. While Jump Super Stars had more hype surrounding it, I had a really hard time getting into its Smash Bros-inspired gameplay. Bleach DS on the other hand was much more up my alley. Bleach DS was a hardcore 2D fighting game that played in line with many of the modern fighting games at the time. Bleach DS came out in North America as Bleach: The Blade of Fate almost two years after the original Japanese release.
As awesome as the original was, Bleach DS 2nd (or Bleach: Dark Souls in North America) was even better. In my opinion, it will forever stand as the gold standard for 2D fighting games on the Nintendo DS.
Earlier this week, Capcom released its first update to Street Fighter IV: Volt. While the most obvious change to the game is the addition of Sakura and Makoto to the roster, Capcom has also taken measures to curb the rampant rage quitting problem that is ruining the current online experience. On one hand, it boggles my mind to see how childish the community has handled the online experience. On the other hand, it boggles my mind to know that Capcom did not build in any measures to punish rage quitters in the first place.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition has been a huge disappointment for me. While most casual players won’t notice much of a difference to the core game from what’s found in the previous two iterations of Street Fighter IV, competitive players have been crying foul about Arcade Edition’s character balance since its launch in late 2010. I didn’t get my hands on it until early June, but it didn’t take me long to notice that their vision to intentionally unbalance Arcade Edition did not jive with what I wanted out of the game. Because of my bitterness around Capcom breaking what I felt wasn’t broken, I lost interest in playing Street Fighter IV competitively.
It looks like I wasn’t alone in this view, as Capcom has recently announced that they’re going to do something about it.
One of the cool side-effects of the growth of the fighting game community is that the personalities within the community have in their own way, reached pro-wrestler status. There’s good guys and bad guys, as well as story lines around the games themselves that fans intently follow. One of those players that has reached that level is Mike Ross, who is one of the best Street Fighter players on the planet. It also doesn’t hurt that he and Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez have been supporting the community with their Cross Counter content and that Mike Ross seems like a genuinely good guy.
Just days before EVO, G4TV decided to do the community a solid and release the Mike Ross documentary entitled “Focus” for our viewing pleasure for free.
The biggest fighting game tournament in the world is only a week away. As a hardcore fighting game fan and stream monster, I can’t wait to sit in front of the computer all weekend to watch the scene’s best go at it all weekend long. If you’ve never watched a fighting game stream before, but have any interest in it, EVO 2011 is definitely the place to start.
If you do start here, you should know that this EVO tournament is actually the last tournament in the 2011 EVO season. A lot of drama has taken place between the start of the season and now. Unless you want to sit through hundreds of hours of tournament footage or read through much more comprehensive and better written recaps on the EVO tournament season, I can give you a primer on a few of the story lines surrounding EVO’s biggest games.
If you’ve ever had any sort of interest in fighting games, you’ve probably stumbled across a combo video or two. They’re very cool to watch, and you may have even taken it upon yourself to be as good as the person in the video by going to a guide and learning how to read an execute something like this from BlazBlue:
214D -> B (FC), 623D, dash, 3C xx 236236B, 214D -> C, 5C 2C 4D -> D, [j.C x n] [dj.C x n] xx j.214B – 50% Heat
While you may be tempted to learn the big fancy combos the moment you start playing a new fighting game, it’s not the best way to level yourself up. Mastering the physical execution of big combos is nice, but learning the big combos without knowing the context behind them first is like trying to run without learning how to walk.
Out of nowhere, SNK released King of Fighters i-002 for the iPhone. Until it hit the iTunes store, SNK hadn’t even acknowledged this game’s existence. Because of the flash announcement and release, it’s really hard right now to find any sort of impressions on it. As curious as I was to try it out, I was initially weary on picking this up immediately, as $7.99 seemed like a lot to gamble on for an iPhone game, especially when I just bought Street Fighter IV: Volt for $0.99.
However, out of my own curiosity and my desire to inform anyone interested in picking this game up, I decided to pony up the funds and give it a go. Does King of Fighters have what it takes to topple the Street Fighter IV series of iPhone games as the king of fighting games on the platform?
Over the past few days, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Street Fighter IV: Volt’s online multiplayer. I’ve been doing so because I want to unlock Akuma, which can be done either by playing 100 online matches or beat the game with all 18 characters. On paper, 100 online matches is easier to complete than 144 matches against the computer. Boy, was I wrong.
In Third Person 