If you’ve ever played Super Street Fighter IV’s trial mode, then odds are you’ve run into the type of challenge displayed above. After the challenge mode covers each character’s special moves, they go into a section on link combos. Pictured above is Cammy’s level 8 trial, which asks you to combo crouching hard punch into crouching medium kick. For the uninitiated, this seems like something that would be very easy to do. After hours of switching from character-to-character to see if these would get any easier, I gave up in frustration. I thought I was the worst Street Fighter player of all-time for not being able to make two button presses combo into each other. However, as I started to investigate, it turns out there’s a lot more to this than simply hitting two buttons in succession.
fighting games
Phoenix Wright Revealed in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Yes! After months of waiting, Phoenix Wright has been finally revealed in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. As a huge fan of the Phoenix Wright series, I was really excited/curious to see how Capcom would incorporate a non-violent lawyer into a fighting game with super heroes and other-worldly fighting machines, but the new trailer has answered my questions. Hit the jump to see the first glimpse of Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3!
About You: My Understanding of the In Third Person Readership Based on the Numbers

I love analytics. As someone who works in the online advertising industry, I find the process of analyzing numbers and deriving insights from those numbers to be very interesting. Although WordPress.com has a very limited analytics dashboard, I still check the numbers multiple times a day to see how everything is doing.
For the fun of it, I thought I’d write a mini-report of sorts to share with you some of the insights I’ve gathered about you and those who frequent this site. I sort of did this about a year ago, but I thought it’d be fun to try and make a persona model of you, the In Third Person reader. I understand that you’re all unique people, but the purpose of this exercise is to try and boil you down into one main archetype based on the numbers I have available to me. How does this match up to you?
Watch My Performance on the NeoGAF Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Lobby
A few nights ago, I was on the NeoGAF Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition live stream, hosted and streamed by Kadey. As a long-time lurker of their Street Fighter IV threads since the original Street Fighter IV, I was excited to see Kadey’s lobby appear on my list of lobbies to choose from, which I did immediately. It was really cool to play against a number of forum members that I recognize by their NeoGAF name and see where I stack up. If you’d like to see me in action, click through to the rest of this post!
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Street Fighter II Collection for iPhone Review

When Capcom Arcade first hit iOS, I was super-excited to get my hands on an iPhone version of Street Fighter II. I was hoping that Capcom would roll in the same special move assist controls found in their Street Fighter IV iPhone games into the Capcom Arcade version of Street Fighter II. Unfortunately, all of the Street Fighter II ports through Capcom Arcade have suffered from the same faults: the image didn’t take up the full screen, you could only play single player, and the special move assist controls were gimped to the point of being almost useless.
Capcom has decided to make amends and address a number of the issues found in the Capcom Arcade ports. However, they’ve decided to do them outside of Capcom Arcade completely. In a move that is sure to rub some people the wrong way, Capcom is upgrading all three Street Fighter II iOS games and selling them as a separate bundle on the iTunes Store. Is it worth the $3.99 investment, especially if you’ve paid for the previous Capcom Arcade ports?
Universal Fighting Game Guide: Understanding Combos Systems Part 2 – Putting It All Together

Welcome back to part 2 of a mini-series of combo systems posts within In Third Person’s Universal Fighting Game Guide. Part 1 dealt with the elements that make up a combo system in most fighting games, which you can find here. This post will take those fundamental elements and try to outline a process you can use to help you establish a knowledge and execution foundation to build your combo abilities on.
I’m Going To T12: Toronto Fighting Game Championships
Last year, I dipped my toe into the competitive gaming waters by participating in Fan Expo 2010’s Super Street Fighter IV tournament. While I was bummed out that Fan Expo didn’t run any fighting game tournaments this year, I am attending something that will most likely be way cooler.
Out Now – Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online

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.
Universal Fighting Game Guide: Understanding Combo Systems Part 1 – The Elements

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!
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A Look Back At Bleach: Dark Souls, The Best Nintendo DS 2D Fighting Game

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.

