Toronto Top Tiers – organizers behind T12, and Toryuken – are back! A few days ago, they announced the that they will be hosting T13, Toronto’s second major fighting game tournament of 2012; set to take place in October. This year, they’re planning on running 13(!) different games, which would make it the biggest tournament lineup I’ve ever seen. Click through for the full list of games, and some of my initial thoughts!
Back in the old days of fighting games, you only had to worry about one meter: the life meter. As long as that meter didn’t run out, you were golden. However, as the genre progressed, so to did the number of meters you were required to manage. Today, almost every fighting game has some sort of super/EX/resource meter that grants you additional moves at the cost of the resources in your meter. In this edition of the Universal Fighting Game Guide, we’re going to cover resource meters and how to leverage them to your advantage.
Arc System Works, and Atlus are poised to take the fighting game community by storm with their fighting game spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona franchise. Persona 4 Arena has already built up a ton of buzz in the community, and it would not surprise me in the least to see this game become a tournament staple over the next few months.
As someone who has 0 interest in the RPG, and as someone who has a history of sucking at Arc System Works’ previous fighting game efforts, I approached Persona 4 Arena with a bit of caution. Having just reviewed it for Splitkick, it’s good to know first-hand that my concerns did not come to fruition. If you want to read my full review for it, head over to Splitkick and check it out now!
Over the past few days, Mike R and I have been discussing a number of things relating to the fighting game community. As a means of bringing some of these conversations to the forefront, he’s provided me with some questions that I’ll answer in this post. Read through for some insight regarding the FGC!
Currently, I’m in the midst of reviewing Persona 4 Arena for Splitkick. Yes, I did end up caving, which should a surprise to no one. Though I have a clear idea of where I want to go with my review, I wanted to see how others approached reviewing this RPG/fighting game mash-up.
While the general consensus is positive, reviewers are coming at this game from wildly different perspectives. Sites like Shoryuken, and 1Up are putting most of their emphasis on the fighting game aspect of it, while others like Giant Bomb, and Joystiq are focused on how this progresses the franchise’s lore.
I’ll never forget my first few hours at Toryuken, Toronto’s most recent major fighting game tournament. Scrambling for someone to partner with me for Street Fighter X Tekken, I was repeatedly rejected by dozens of players, all of whom claimed to not play the game. Inside the main room, not a single station was running the game. As the tournament was nearing its start time, one of the tournament organizers got on the mic and asked the community if it was alright if they set up a Street Fighter X Tekken station, and the crowd roared with boos. Though I’d seen a number of negative comments about the game by players in blogs, and message boards, seeing the hate manifest in that way made the sentiment really hit home for me.
Players have had no shortage of reasons to dislike this game, from its on-disc DLC, to the inclusion of the controversial gem system, to its garbled mess of gameplay systems, one game-breaking glitch, and then some. Starting now, however, Capcom is hoping to take steps to reinvigorate this under-performing title.
I’ve been on the competitive fighting game front for over 3 years now. In that span, I’ve poured in hundreds of hours into the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series, and over 1,000 hours in the Street Fighter IV series. The fruits of that labour include me still being the #1 ranked Rose in Canada on the leaderboards, me being the #1 ranked Cammy in Canada at one point, and three good showings at major fighting game tournaments. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, and I don’t regret any of it
With that said, I think it’s time to chill out for a bit.
Since the hey day of fighting games, the throw as a maneuver has received a lot more heat than it deserves. In the early days of Street Fighter II, I remember going to the arcades and hearing other kids talk about how the throw as a move was ‘cheap’ and that people shouldn’t use it in fights. Even now, I still get hate messages on XBOX Live and PSN about my use of throws in a fighting game, regardless of what game I’m playing.
Particularly around entry-level fighting game players, there’s a weird dichotomy at work where there’s a group of players who think throws are super awesome and will exploit them at every turn, and another group of players who actively handicap themselves by not using throws because of some phony gentleman’s rule that’s reached urban legend status. In this edition of the Universal Fighting Game Guide, we tackle the art of the throw, which is a key element to almost every fighting game ever made.
Last weekend, the Super Bowl of fighting games took place in Las Vegas. If you missed out on the action, or are looking for someone else’s point-of-view on what went down, I encourage you to check out my EVO 2012 wrap-up on Splitkick.com!
Get hype!
The Evolution Championship Series is just a few weeks away. To get you ready for all of the action, I’ve put together a viewer’s guide to EVO, which you can now check out at Splitkick. This covers where to watch it, what games will be played, as well as some of the big story lines and players to look out for. If you have any interest in watching the event, definitely check out the guide for some additional context.
In Third Person 