fighting game
Latest
RoboCop is coming to 'Mortal Kombat 11' on May 26th
The next 'Mortal Kombat 11' DLC will add... RoboCop.
Evo 2020 is canceled, but organizers are planning an online event
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers have canceled the Evo 2020 fighting game tournament in Las Vegas and are opting for an online event instead.
Registration for Sega Cup Virtua Fighter Tournament 2014 now open
Come Saturday, April 26, Walnut, California will play host to the 2014 incarnation of the Sega Cup Virtua Fighter Tournament, and now you, too, can throw your hat into the polygonal ring. As with last year's tournament, Sega Cup Virtua Fighter Tournament 2014 will focus on the latest version of the fighter, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. Games will take place on the PlayStation 3 and each round will be decided by best of three matches. The top 16 players in the tournament will take home a portion of the "over $15,000" in prize money at stake at the event. Full details on how to register for the tournament can be found at Eventbrite, though keep in mind that there is an entry fee of $10, and currently there are only 111 spots remaining. Additional details on the event can be found at the tournament's official website. [Image: Sega]
New Smash Bros. screen shows changes to edge-grab system
Ledges are important in the Super Smash Bros. series. Falling off of them? Bad. Grabbing onto them? Could save your life. Trying to grab one while your opponent hogs it in their invincibility state so you fall to your death? Infuriating. Thankfully, a new screen out of the Super Smash Bros. Miiverse shows off some upcoming changes to the edge-grab system. In previous games, players could hog a stage's edge, preventing opponents from making a return, but it looks as though this has changed. In the picture, we can see Link grabbing for a ledge while Mario looks to be getting repelled. "There are many changes being made to attack and defense options for grabbing edges," game director Masahiro Sakurai wrote. "In this picture, Link is actually trumping Mario's grab." Sakurai noted a few other changes as well. Air time and accumulated damage will determine a player's period of invincibility while hanging on an edge, and grab controls will no longer be affected by damage being above or below 100 percent. This may all sound like nitpicky things to fuss over, but details like these can make or break a fighting game's balance. Besides, you'll probably appreciate it when you're the one clawing desperately back onto a ledge.
Capcom plans for 2014: Fighting games, Ace Attorney and a classic IP
Capcom plans to enter the ring and reaffirm its presence in the fighting game world, Deep Down producer Kazunori Sugiura told 4gamer in a group interview translated by Destructoid. There's no word yet on which IPs will lead the charge. The next Phoenix Wright game is already in the works, Dual Destinies director Takeshi Yamazaki said. Director of Phoenix Wright 1 - 3, Ghost Trick and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (due for western launch in 2014) Shu Takumi said that his team will announce a game next year – yes, the year that begins in two days. Capcom will announce a revival of one of its classic IPs by "the time the weather warms," Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara producer Kenji Sugiura said. Smell that? It's the scent of pure, optimistic ambition at the start of another new year. Breathe it in, everyone.
EVO 2013 Indie Showcase features Towerfall, Aztez, SpyParty, 6 more
EVO, the annual fighting game convention and tournament, packs an underground punch this year with nine games in the Indie Showcase, bringing in four new titles and five returning champs. The four new games are Towerfall, Treachery in Beatdown City, Samurai Gunn and Super Space ____ (pronounced "Super Space Blank"), and the repeat offenders are SpyParty, BariBariBall, Nidhogg, Aztez and Super Comboman. Towerfall caught our eye on the Ouya, Aztez has been creating buzz around conventions local and otherwise, and SpyParty has a special connection with EVO – its current No. 1 player first saw it at last year's convention. The EVO 2013 Indie Showcase is organized by Nathan Vella, President of Capy Games (Below, Sword and Sworcery), and the entire show runs from July 12 - 14 in Las Vegas. Aaaaand FIGHT.
The top SpyParty player is a fighting game guy from EVO 2012
Four months before SpyParty debuted at EVO 2012's Indie Showcase, convention founder Seth Killian threw down a gentlemen's bet with SpyParty creator Chris Hecker: "An EVO attendee will be your No. 1 player in subsequent tests, and take down whoever the existing top players might be." Hecker took the bet. One year later, SpyParty is on its way to EVO 2013, and Hecker owes Killian a beer. SpyParty is slow-paced for a one-on-one "fighting game," but it requires the same mad obsession with detail prevalent in many fighting games. Players are either the spy or the sniper: As the spy they must blend in with a room of AI characters attending a fancy party and complete tasks unbeknownst to the sniper. The sniper has to spot the human character with enough certainty to shoot it before the other player completes all the tasks. The top SpyParty player in the world is Korey Mueller, AKA "kcmmmmm" (pictured above, standing in the blue button-down), and as a lifelong fighting game fan, it's fitting that he first heard about SpyParty at EVO 2012. Since the convention, Mueller has played 6,436 games of SpyParty and has spent 262 hours in-game, with 1,020 hours total log-in time. The player that comes closest to these numbers clocks in at 5,151 games and 213 hours in-game. After picking out which beer he's going to buy Killian, Hecker asked Mueller about his fighting game roots and how he thinks SpyParty fits into the fighting game community. "There's always this feeling that there's some way I can improve, and every time I meet a personal goal, I find another one," Mueller tells Hecker. "I couldn't really look at the game and decide to be a top player, I just wanted to continue to improve – and at some point, I guess I got pretty decent at it. Now that you mention it, 6,000 games is a lot." Yeah, it is.
Would you play this mocked up Warcraft fighting game?
Let's be honest with ourselves: chances are we'd all play this Warcraft fighting game mocked up by Redditor GuardianReflex. And while this game isn't a reality, we can always hope that Blizzard will one day allow us to do to participate in an epic battle in which Varian gets to punch Sylvannas in the face (or vice versa). And if this epic, Blizzard vs. Capcom style battle isn't possible, perhaps a pet battle in which we control tiny faction leaders? But since we aren't likely to see this in actual game any time soon, GuardianReflex is making more mockups based on user requests. We have Thrall vs. Garrosh behind the cut and hope to see more soon!
Divekick takes a leap of faith on Steam Greenlight, due in summer
Divekick, the two-button fighting game from One True Game Studios, is trying its luck on Steam Greenlight with an updated launch window of summer 2013, pushed back from this spring.Divekick was the subject of a successful Kickstarter campaign in July, but Iron Galaxy canceled that fundraising drive once it secured a publishing deal with Street Fighter 3: Online Edition's Iron Galaxy. Perhaps One True Game is hoping to transfer all that unfinished mojo into a Steam launch.One True Game Studios and Iron Galaxy have plans to bring Divekick to PC, PS3 and Vita this summer. Divekick began as a parody but is now a rising name in the fighting game circuit; it'll be at PAX East in booth 899, if you're around and down for some serious kicking action.
Unlicensed My Little Pony fighter shut down by Hasbro
Indie developer/non-profit brony collective Mane6, the folks responsible for the unofficial My Little Pony fighting game MLP: Fighting is Magic, have received a cease and desist order from Hasbro Inc., according to its official blog. As a result, all Fighting is Magic related material has been stripped from Mane6's official YouTube channel and other online media portals."We have attempted negotiating with Hasbro for the continued use of the property in our non-profit, voluntary project, but so far we haven't received an answer," the update reads. "As such, we're complying with the contents of the C&D letter until we receive answer from their PR and/or Legal departments."Whether development on the title continues behind the scenes remains uncertain. MLP: Fighting is Magic was one of the many games under consideration for this year's EVO 2013 Championship Series, with its community raising a total of $5,280 during the tournament's breast cancer research charity drive competition.[Thanks, Aries!]
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Kaiju Combat
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, former Godzilla dev Simon Strange is back to bring some mega-monster pain to Kickstarter with Kaiju Combat. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is Kaiju Combat, an online multiplayer game with behemoths fighting in destructible city environments.What inspired you to make Kaiju Combat?Sunstone Games is almost entirely made up of ex-Pipeworks employees, who made the very popular Godzilla fighting games from 2002 - 2007. We get messages every few days asking about a sequel, so making a game like this has always been something we've considered. The rise of Kickstarter funding this year presented a real opportunity to get the game made on our own terms – that's been the missing piece before now.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus on North American PSN Dec. 4
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus will arrive on the PlayStation Network in North America on December 4 for $14.99, according to Arc System Works' Takeshi Yamanaka over on Twitter. The game (which was originally released on the PS2 back in 2008) has quite a few different versions floating around, including one for the PSP, another on the Wii, and an XBLA version earlier this year. The PSN version has only been released in Japan thus far.Europeans: you'll need to "wait a bit more" for your release, says Yamanaka.Update: This post originally listed Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus' price on PSN as $4.99, which is incorrect. The body of this article has been updated to accurately reflect its real price of $14.99.
Divekick, a fighting game parody of fighting games, hits Kickstarter
Divekick started out as a joke. It was meant to be a commentary on fighting games and the community surrounding it, but has escalated into much more since people discovered it was ... actually fun.Now creator Adam "Keits" Heart is holding a Kickstarter campaign to finance a PC release. Divekick only uses two buttons: jump and kick. The first hit scored wins the round, and the first to win five rounds takes the match. A Kick-Meter fills during the match and activates Kick-Factor, speeding up your diving and kicks.Divekick has 28 days to go at the time of publishing, and has earned $9000 toward its $30,000 goal.
Street Fighter's Seth Killian is now lead game designer at Sony Santa Monica
Seth Killian, former Capcom strategic marketing director of online and community, has taken the role at Sony Santa Monica as lead game designer, working on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and with other outside studios.Killian is best known for his work in the fighting game community – he co-founded the EVO championships and handled Capcom's fighting games during his six-year employment – and he says that experience will help him at Sony Santa Monica."Fighting games are very close to my heart, and as someone that's spent much of my life with traditional fighters, All-Stars has been a great opportunity to take a step back and rethink fighting fundamentals from the ground up," Killian writes on the PlayStation Blog. "All-Stars is also a total love-letter to Sony fans. From the characters, to their special moves, to the incredible level 3 supers, and the stages themselves, I'm not sure there's ever been such a giant dose of fan-service in Sony history."Did we mention Killian used to be in PR? He will be working with third-party studios such as Fun Bits Interactive, Queasy Games, thatgamecompany, Giant Sparrow, and of course All-Stars' SuperBot Entertainment. Killian will be bringing All-Stars to EVO this weekend, as part of PlayStation's first official presence at the tournament.
Crashing EVO: SpyParty's Chris Hecker on depth and fighting games
When we asked Chris Hecker how SpyParty snuck its way into EVO 2012, we didn't think he'd actually tell us – revealing sensitive information is opposed to an entire half of his game's title, after all. We assume it was the other half that allowed him to divulge the details behind how SpyParty, a one-on-one asymmetric Turing Test, snagged a featured spot at the year's largest fighting-game gathering:"It all started with Seth Killian," Hecker said. "Seth and I have talked about my goals for SpyParty to be a game that can eventually be counted among the most intensely competitive player-skill games we have, games like Counter-Strike, Starcraft, LoL, Dota and Street Fighter, and he's been really supportive of that goal."Seth emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in bringing SpyParty to EVO. I knew a bit about EVO and was kind of blown away by the offer."SpyParty is one of EVO 2012's Indie Showcase titles, and will be available for anyone to try out on the expo floor, which is completely free and open to the public July 6-7 at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace.The game itself is based on subtlety, precision and practice, much like many fighting games, but it doesn't involve any twitch movements, bright, flashing colors or hadoukens – and it comes with a four-page manual that must be read before anyone attempts to play it. In terms of pacing for the American audience: if Mortal Kombat is football, SpyParty is soccer.
Insert Coin: Clang, a motion-controlled swordfighting game by no less than Neal Stephenson (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. We won't lie: this might be the ultimate Insert Coin. It's not often that you get the author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon asking for Kickstarter funding, after all. Neal Stephenson and Subutai Corporation are tired of swordfighting in video games being reduced to abstract button presses, and they want to produce both a video game and a control system that will replicate what it's really like to fight steel-to-steel, complete with pommel hits, blocks and distinct techniques. The initial game, Clang, will focus on two-handed longsword dueling with an "off-the-shelf" controller to get out the door quickly. In the long run, however, the plan is to work on custom controllers, and the project will involve an open framework known as MASE (Martial Arts System Embodiments) that will let anyone build their own fighting game. You could create a realistic Wushu simulator... or an extremely detailed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-em-up. Any pledge will help the cause, but if you'd like a credit in the game or an actual copy, you'll want to spend a respective $10 or $25. The rewards escalate quickly after that: $50 and $75 pledges first give downloadable concept art and later a digital fighting manual, while $100, $150 and $250 donations will add a very real t-shirt, a hard copy of the manual, a signed poster with a patch and eventually a signed poster. Are you a high roller? Spending $500 or $1,000 adds a signed manual as well as either the first book or whole collection of the related The Mongoliad trilogy, plus (at the higher tier) invitations to Subutai parties in Seattle. Pledges at $5,000 will supply the actual concept art; at the peak $10,000, you'll get a real longsword, lunch with Subutai and a tour of the offices. If you're game in the literal sense of the word, you'll have until mid-day on July 9th to help Neal reach the lofty $500,000 funding target.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: The King of Fighters-i 002
SNK's famous King of Fighters series has finally come to iOS with this new app for the iPhone, allowing you to play with 13 different fighters across four singleplayer modes and Bluetooth multiplayer. The setup is very similar to Capcom's Street Fighter, with virtual buttons on the touchscreen, but of course this game has all different fighters to play with, and lots of extras to unlock, from trading cards of the fighters themselves to concept art and even movies from the main console game. The King of Fighters-i 002 is pricey at US$7.99, but all indications are that this is a nice premium game, especially if you're a fan of the KoF series. Plus, while there are only 13 characters right now, more will be available to download for free, which should bring the total to 20 different characters by October, according to SNK. If you're already sold, go grab the game, and even if not, look for this one on sale in the future.
Divine Souls launches today
Divine Souls has been in the works for a while; we first previewed the title way back in March of 2010. Since then, the team at Outspark has been hard at work polishing, tweaking, and updating the free-to-play action MMO, and today gamers around the globe get to see the results. Yep, it's launch day, and very soon you'll be able to indulge in the game's detailed visuals and arcade-style fighting game functionality (including complex air- and ground-based combos). Divine Souls also boasts Xbox and PlayStation controller support and is designed to run on a huge variety of hardware configurations. The game also features a small downloadable client to get you up, running, and into the action quickly. Choose from one of three classes (Mage, Slasher, or Fighter), check out the trailer after the cut, and look for our Divine Souls first impressions later this week.
'Fight for Relief' tournament raises $30,000 for Japan
The fighting in yesterday's Fight for Relief event has ended, and the amount of funding brought in by the two charity fighting game tournaments and the live video feed has been tallied at $30,879. That's a lot of relief to come out of a day of battle, all going to Japan through GlobalGiving. If you'd like to hear about how the matches went, check out NeoGAF's live play-by-play thread, in which you can see forum members being amazed by Justin Wong's performance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as the amazingness was happening.
Breakfast Topic: Who would be playable in Blizzard vs. Capcom?
As I pointed out in The Queue on Sunday, I'm super excited for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Getting hyped up over the slow trickle of character reveals is almost as fun as getting the game itself, and the latest set of reveals got me thinking -- what if Capcom teamed up with Blizzard to make a Blizzard vs. Capcom fighting game? Most Blizzard characters are ripe for a fighting game setting, either from being part of a martial universe already or just looking the part. From the StarCraft universe, we could probably expect to see Raynor and Tychus repping the Terran side of things, Tychus with his marine armor and Jim walking around unarmored (because he looks cooler that way). Kerrigan is the best (and possibly only) choice for a Zerg representative, and Zeratul is the obvious Protoss challenger. Diablo is full of perfect fits, too -- Diablo 3's monk, for example, is already based off of fighting game characters. Going back even further into Blizzard's history, Blackthorne and the Lost Vikings could make an appearance too. But what about Warcraft? There's limited roster space and a whole lot of playable character possibilities. Would you want faction leaders? Big bads? Classic heroes? What races would make the cut? Who would best represent the expansive Warcraft universe? And most importantly, what kind of awesome special moves would they have?
