Is Shantae a likely roster candidate for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Alpha Stoutland compiles 'all the evidence' for the dancing genie's chances
There's no doubt that Shantae is a character that has received a lot of support from fans and WayForward, the indie company responsible for the creation of Shantae, as a Super Smash Bros. combatant.
While many were disheartened about Shovel Knight's disconfirmation as a playable fighter when he was revealed as an Assist Trophy, others believed that it was Shantae's time to shine as the series' first indie representative.
One fan, Alpha Stoutland, took the time to compile "all the evidence" that supports the possibility of this dancing genie's chances. While even he states that some of the evidence is "reaching," there are a lot of circumstances that are very interesting to say the least.
For example, during the Smash Ballot period of Super Smash Bros. 4, WayForward was very vocal about garnering fan support to vote Shantae into the series. Strangely, WayForward suddenly became very silent regarding the subject after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced. Is it possible that a non-disclosure agreement is in effect here?
Notably, Shantae has been extremely popular in character polls on a number of different websites. While our poll was not specifically mentioned in the video, it's worth noting that Shantae came in 7th — directly above Shovel Knight — on our poll before E3 2018. Interestingly enough, King K. Rool, Ridley, and Simon Belmont were ranked above Shantae in that poll and have already been confirmed as playable.
It's also peculiar how Shovel Knight is a playable combatant in Blade Strangers, Rivals of Aether, and Brawlhalla when Shantae has yet to make her debut in a fighting game. Obviously the creators of Shantae do believe she is capable of fighting, or else they wouldn't have pushed for her in Super Smash Bros. in the first place.
In Shantae's latest game, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, enemies fly off screen when defeated in a similar fashion to the Super Smash Bros. series. One of her outfits (and gameplay modes) was previously exclusive to concept art that pitched the idea of Shantae joining the Super Smash Bros. roster.
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Here is the PSN trophy list for Soul Calibur 6
Soul Calibur 6 will be releasing later this week. On October 19, 2018 to be exact.
There are a total of 21 characters available on the base roster. These fighters are Astaroth, Azwel, Cervantes, Geralt of Rivia, Grøh, Inferno (unlockable), Ivy, Kilik, Maxi, Mitsurgi, Nightmare, Raphael, Seong Mi-na, Siegfried, Sophita, Taki, Talim, Tira, Voldo, Xianghua, Yoshimitsu, and Zasalamel.
Tira will also be available at launch, but as the game's first DLC combatant. More than likely, she won't count as a "base-game character" — this will be important to note for later.
We now have confirmation on the title's trophy list for the PlayStation 4. It's been reported that the game's main story mode, the 'Libra of Soul' mode that supposedly has Kilik and Grøh as the main characters, will be over 10 hours long.
A number of these trophies can only be obtained while utilizing a base-game character. Obtaining these trophies can range from performing certain combos a number of times outside of training mode, winning a required number of ranked matches, playing online, unlocking the legendary difficulty for the game's arcade mode, beating the story mode, and so on.
Hit the jump to check out the full list of trophies and their value.
Rumor: The Nintendo 64 Classic might have been leaked
The NES Classic and the SNES Classic were both huge successes for Nintendo. So much so that it would be surprising if they were to just stop there in terms of releasing these "classic" mini consoles.
There's no doubt that another business opportunity is sitting in front of Nintendo. For a long time now, fans have been hoping that the rumors about a supposed "Nintendo 64 Classic" being in development were true.
Supposedly, Nacho on Twitter was provided with images from an unnamed contact of such an item. Given, not everything we hear or see on the internet has been 100% accurate. People have a tendency to lie when they can act anonymously.
Users in a Reddit thread have expressed some concerns in regards to the legitimacy of the images. For one, there is worry that the old school ports cover extends too far, which might make it too fragile.
Notably, Nintendo recently listed the manuals for 19 Nintendo 64 games — like Super Mario 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Star Fox 64, Pokémon Snap, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and many more — on their website without any explanation. While it's possible they might be planning for some sort of implementation with the Nintendo Switch's online service, this could potentially be in preparation for a Nintendo 64 Classic announcement.
Unfortunately, no fighting games were listed among these 19 titles. Not even Super Smash Bros. 64. Still, the NES and SNES Classics were both prone to having games adding via the modding community.
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Dogura used big-body assist characters to block Gotenks' ghost kamikaze super during Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament at SEAM 2018
Over the weekend, SEAM 2018 wrapped up its Dragon Ball FighterZ Saga Event. There were a number of impressive sequences that occurred throughout the tournament.
Perhaps the coolest moment of all is something only someone with a very keen eye might notice. Pala on Twitter pointed out a couple of unique exchanges between CO|Dogura and Mokemoti
Dogura was utilizing his Kid Buu, Android 16, and Cooler team. Meanwhile, Mokemoti was combating him with Gotenks, Android 16, and Bardock. On two separate occasions, Mokemoti was able to setup an okizeme scenario in the corner against Dogura with his Gotenks.
This was a grand opportunity to utilize Gotenks' ghost kamikaze super. Doing this would put a lot of pressure on Dogura's team and force him to block numerous mix ups... And yet, the ghosts simply exploded before they could fulfill their purpose.
Apparently, Dogura intentionally called assist attacks from big-bodied characters to block the ghosts at the sacrifice of some of their health. It happens so fast, you can really only notice this by looking at the health bars as it occurs.
It's been pointed out that Android 16's hurtbox is big enough to block all four ghosts — as seen in the first clip — while Cooler's hurtbox was only capable of blocking three while Android 16 was the point character.
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Buenos Aires True Salt 2018 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
Even though the Capcom Pro Tour is nearing the end of its run this year, we're not quite there yet.
This weekend, another CPT-designated event is taking place, this time in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This is a Capcom Pro Tour Ranking event, so points are still on the line, and since we're nearing the end, they're more important than ever before.
Besides Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, this event will also feature tournament play in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken 7 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
As for players participating, you can expect to see Furia|HKDash, Umbrella|Dark, AAG|Pr3da, 2DR|YoungHou, Misterio and many more.
Streaming is being done at UAFG.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite's under performance more than made up for by Monster Hunter: World as Capcom's consumer sales soar 32% over last year
Though peppered with a few noteworthy victories, it had been a somewhat turbulent last year or two for Capcom in the fighting game department.
Street Fighter 5 has been a roller coaster of ups and downs while Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite failed to become the smash eSports hit many imagined and hoped it would be.
That said, the company has actually seen an incredible 16 billion yen upswing in its consumer sales numbers from last year. That's more than a $142 million increase, and more than double the kind of growth garnered from 2015-2016 or 2016-2017.
One could argue that this was a group effort from Capcom's healthy list of gaming titles, but the overwhelming majority of this success is thanks to Monster Hunter: World, which released in January.
"Monster Hunter: World, the latest title in the flagship series, significantly contributed to increased profitability by delivering record high sales of 7.9 million units..." notes the 2018 integrated report. "... on the other hand, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite delivered a certain level of sales, primarily overseas owing to deep-rooted popularity, but under performed overall."
The implications of such financial prosperity expand well beyond the single IP of Monster Hunter, and, as the sub header says, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Check out the consumer sales chart below to see this year's vast increase as well as previous years' performance and next year's predictions:
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Geralt is currently the only guest character in Soul Calibur 6, who else should — and shouldn't — join him?
We've been getting exciting reveals for the better part of a year now, but Geralt remains as the only guest character to join the roster thus far of the soon to be released Soul Calibur 6.
While we're more than happy to have the iconic hero from The Witcher, fighting games these days very often welcome a handful of comers from foreign IPs and Soul Calibur has been especially known for doing so.
Soul Calibur 2 wowed many back in 2002 when it welcomed Heihachi, Spawn and Link to duke it out with mainstays like Taki and Kilik. Bandai Namco continued to capitalize on the allure of outsiders by incorporating a number of Star Wars characters in future titles, such as Yoda, Darth Vader and Starkiller.
In light of all this, History Behind the Warrior has produced a video in which he lists a few characters that would potentially work well as guests in Soul Calibur 6.
The first and perhaps most obvious of these is Dante of the Devil May Cry series. Not only is the gun slinging demon hunter on the verge of launching his own new title soon in Devil May Cry 5, he also wields a giant blade and Devil Trigger could easily translate into Soul Charge.
Continue on to see the full video and hear HBTW's full list, which also includes a few fighters that may sound like good ideas at first glance, but actually don't fit as well as you may think.
Falke becomes Ivy Valentine, Menat becomes Futaba Sakura and more in these alluring Street Fighter 5 mod stills
We've got some beautiful Street Fighter 5 screens shots from various modders around the web compiled by Ryu Hoshi for your viewing enjoyment.
In honor of Soul Calibur 6 releasing in just a few days, Falke becomes Ivy Valentine in bookend images for our gallery.
Menat also makes a few appearances in different costumes as she becomes Futaba Sakura from Persona 5, Halloween Felicia from Darkstalkers.
These gorgeous stills wouldn't be possible without the skilled modders that created them, so if you like what you see here then be sure to check out Addysun, Khaledantar666, TiggieWhite and BrutalAce's home pages.
I'm sort of torn between Ivy Valentine and "Kitty Karin" for my personal favorite, though there's something that's sort of endearing about Chun-Li in Mai Shiranui's attire.
Give our gallery a look through and let us know which characters are your favorites and why in the comments below.
If Marvel vs. Capcom 4 is happening, it should take a page from Super Smash Bros'. book; Maximilian speculates on how Capcom might tackle a new MvC
"People were mad at Marvel Infinite for a good reason... people were mad that MvCI was not up to the standards of which they had set the Marvel vs. Capcom series," states Maximilian during his recent monologue about the latest potential Marvel fighting game news.
There's no hard evidence at all for this, but rumors from the leaker known only as Vergeben have been floating about saying that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will be seeing a second wind soon.
The fact that avid MvC fan Peter "Combofiend" Rosas is now working at Marvel Games is also on our radars as a possible motivator for this fantasy to come to fruition.
While the fighting game community isn't exactly convinced, even the prospect of the iconic franchise seeing some action after the rather tragic performance of Infinite has many of us speculating how and what would happen if Capcom and Marvel did indeed green light such a project.
Today we hear Max's take as he shares a few of his own thoughts on how to make the game better. Bringing back the X-Men would be a top priority, and likely very doable now that Disney has purchased Fox.
Returning to the three on three format and a total visual overhaul to make the game more flashy and exciting are just two of said thoughts from the prominent streamer. Head on below to hear everything he has to say.
'If we took Season 1 Ryu and put him in Street Fighter 5 now, would he even be good?' - Vesper Arcade shares his wish list for Ryu in Season 4
I actually had a conversation with a local fighting game friend just yesterday about how bad of a character Street Fighter's poster boy is in this fifth iteration of the franchise, and he specifically noted that the Season 1 version of the character would only be mid tier in the game's current landscape.
For those who may need a refresher, S1 Ryu was amongst the absolute best in the game as his high damage output and throw loops made him a real force to be reckoned with.
We're nearing the end of the year and Street Fighter 5 fans are expecting to see a new update proposal any day now from Capcom. As the face of Street Fighter, we're hoping Ryu gets a little better as he's been laughable low on the tier lists for quite some time now.
Vesper Arcade shares his wish list for the shoe-less wanderer in one of his most recent videos, and actually brings up that same topic as he entertains the idea of how Season 1 Ryu would fair in Season 3.
If I could personally select a buff for Ryu, I'd make his low forward consistently able to combo into his fireball. If he were able to control the space in front of him with this kind of tool, I think opportunities would open up in other areas as well.
Perhaps a farther-reaching low forward would be in order too, as you really do want the character that everyone associates with your game to viable, and perhaps a little better than just mediocre on the tier list. Read on to see all of what Vesper had to say on the matter.
Donkey Kong in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may have traded his infamous 'ding dong' combo for extremely powerful kill throws
As everybody is no doubt aware, Donkey Kong will be a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Although "everyone is here," this actually isn't too surprising as Donkey Kong has been part of the series since Super Smash Bros. 64. Nobody thought this iconic character was going to be cut.
In Super Smash Bros. 4, you could say that Donkey Kong — along with Bowser — was about the closest thing to a grappler. His strategy was simple: get the opponent to a percentage range, grab them, then perform the "ding dong" combo. As a result, Donkey Kong was one of the characters that benefited the most from the title's secret rage mechanic.
The "ding dong" (similar to Diddy Kong's pre-patch "hoo ha" combo) was performed by grabbing the opponent, initiating the cargo throw by pressing forward, jumping, throwing them upwards, double jumping, then landing the KO with Donkey Kong's up air. This had the capability to take stocks typically between 60 and 100%, depending on a number of different variables.
Thanks to the "balloon knockback" of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it has been reported that kill confirms from throws will be a little more difficult. Only a select few fighters may have the capability of performing combos at low percentages from a throw. Notably, Donkey Kong is still able to reap 33 damage from a cargo up throw into Donkey Kong's forward aerial — this is with the 20% damage increase of 1v1 battles.
Getting grabbed by Donkey Kong will still be extremely scary. While opponents will be launched too far at higher percentages for the ding dong combo to work, Donkey Kong has been gifted with powerful kill throws from his cargo throw. This will also allow Donkey Kong to shift his facing direction back and forth which will create directional influence mix ups.
Abadango has created a quick clip that really demonstrates the power of Donkey Kong's grab game in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
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X Street Battle 2018 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
If you enjoyed The Mixup 2018 earlier this year, we've got good news for you.
The same people behind that monumentally successful event are going to give us some retro fighting game goodness this weekend, and two weekends from now again (at which point Darkstalkers / Vampire Savior will be taking the main stage).
As with The Mixup 2018, this is also taking place in Lyon, France, and is a culmination of the passion of the FGC all across south eastern France.
We're going to have X Street Battle 2018 taking place this week, which is a Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo focused event, featuring both solo and 3 vs 3 tournament play and even has guests from Japan participating in the competition.
A few names attending include Murasaki, Koemon, Kawasim, Psychochronic, but with over 60 entrants there's going to be a lot of matches going on.
Streaming is being done at LaDOSE TV.
Fujimura punishes the 'take the throw' meta, Fuudo gets perfect on Tokido, and Gachikun proves Rashid is still a threat
The Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition Open Premier event at SEAM Major 2018 wrapped up yesterday. That doesn't mean the action was done for the weekend though.
While there were no points on the line, RZR|Xian, AB|Chuan, CYG|Fuudo, FOX|Tokido, Gachikun, FD|Fujimura, UYU|NL, and FAV|Sako went at it for the Asian Regional Finals.
A number of these players are among the best in the world. We've got highlights to showcase from this yearly event.
"Take the throw," they said for Street Fighter 5. That's because the possible damage from being opened up by a shimmy is extremely high in this game.
During a round against Sako, Fujimura really took advantage of this trained mindset by throwing him four times in a row. This was enough to stun Sako for a round finishing combo.
Did you notice how Sako used the back throw for the fourth and final throw? This throw causes 200 stun instead of forward throw's 120.
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SEA Major 2018 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
SEA Major, formerly known as South East Asia Major, is taking place this weekend with its 2018 installment in Singapore.
This is a massively stacked event by all metrics, the full details of which you can find in our official preview, but let's do a quick recap here.
SEA Major 2018 is the Asian finals of the Capcom Pro Tour as well as hosting an Open Premier, meaning you effectively get two Premier top 8s for the price of one at this event. It's also a Master Event for the Tekken World Tour and a Saga event for Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Besides those prestigious qualifications, it's also a ArcRevo Pro Tour qualifier for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 and BlazBlue: Central Fiction on top of that. There will also be a pre-release tournament for Soul Calibur 6 at the event, so look forward to getting a good look at high level play in the title before its release next week.
Players attending include FOX|Tokido, FOX|SonicFox, Mouz|Problem X, GGP|Kazunoko, UYU|Qudans, FAV|Sako, CYG|Fuudo, Kkokkoma, CO|Dogura, UYU|Jeondding, UYU|OilKing, UYU|NL, CYG|Daigo, FOX|Justin Wong, TSM|Leffen, FOX|Dekillsage, Gachikun, Ponos|Moke, EG|NYChrisG, Yamasa|Nobi, AR|Book, RZR|Xian, PG|Speedkicks, PG|Nakkiel, COOASGAMES|Noroma, Yamasa|Take, UYU|Fergus, ESE|RunItBlack, DNG|Tachikawa, Acqua, RB|Tanukana and many, many more.
Streaming is being done at Capcom Fighters, Tekken, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Anime Illuminati and Team Spooky.
AK gets a time over victory against Jeondding at Tekken 7 while Moke's Trunks escapes Yamcha's pressure with a level 3 super in DBFZ — SEAM highlights
The Tekken 7 World Tour and Dragon Ball FighterZ Saga event have both wrapped up at SEAM 2018. Both events had some top tier talent competing in them.
Competitors for Tekken 7 included EQNX|Dimeback, UYU|Jeondding, Kkokkoma, Yamasa|Nobi, PBE|AK, Tejan, UYU|Qudans, AR|Book, COOASGAMES|Noroma, and many more. As for Dragon Ball FighterZ, players were like FOX|SonicFox, Ponos|Moke, CO|Fenrich, CO|Dogura, GGP|Kazunoko, FOX|Dekillsage, Acqua, FT|Kaimart, TSM|Leffen, EG|NYChrisG, PG|Nakkiel, and more were present and accounted for.
We've got a batch of highlights for both games. First, let's start with some of the cool moments that occurred during the Tekken tournament.
Nobi's Steve found himself matched up against Book's Jin. Book just needed one more round to win the set and eliminate Nobi. Things weren't looking good for Nobi as he had a life deficit.
It seemed like momentum was starting to swing Nobi's way as he landed a launcher on Book's Jin. He kept the pressure going just enough so that he would then have the life lead.
Book then opted to end his offense with an invincible Rage Art.
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Nintendo confirms Greninja transforms into Ash-Greninja for his Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Greninja was one of the newcomers added to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS as a representative from the latest generation of Pokémon at the time, X and Y. It came in as a fast ninja-like fighter similarly to Sheik from previous titles, and now it appears that Nintendo is adding some extra details to its next appearance.
Nintendo's Super Smash Blog posts daily updates detailing the characters, stages, Assist Trophies and music that will be featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when it releases in December. Greninja was featured during this week's updates revealing a slight change for its Smash Ultimate appearance.
Greninja will transform into Ash-Greninja — or Ash's Greninja — for its Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate though they don't show off what it looks like now in the Pokémon's character trailer.
Ash-Greninja is a special powered up version of the frog originating from the Pokémon anime belonging to Ash which has since gone on to become a special obtainable Pokémon in the more recent games on 3DS. While transformed, Ash-Greninja features an altered design of the standard frog ninja Pokémon with a new red pattern on its face, black spikes around the outside of its head, an altered design on its chest and it constantly carries a Water Shuriken on its back.
In Super Smash Bros. 4, the Pokémon's Final Smash was similar to Spider-Man's Maximum Spider Hyper Combo from the Marvel vs. Capcom series where Greninja would strike its opponents into the air and rapidly attack them from multiple directions in front of the moon for massive damage.
With Smash Balls being banned in competitive play and the fate of Smash Ultimate's new Final Smash Meter likely leaving it on the outside as well, we probably won't see Greninja's special form in tournaments though it's still cool to see the small details Nintendo and Masahiro Sakurai's team insert into the Smash series.
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Street Fighter 5's Arcade Edition expansion restored the trust of fans and recovered the brand says Capcom
Street Fighter 5 had what many would call a rocky launch with broken online servers, eight frames of input lag and poor user reviews, but Capcom has stuck with the game for over two and a half years updating the title with new content on a seemingly monthly basis.
The game is in a much better place content wise and playability wise than it was early in 2016 with a new update coming later this month to hopefully bring down Street Fighter 5's input delay even further, and it appears that the developer and publisher still has much in store for the game in the future.
Capcom released their Integrated Report for 2018 today for investors and the company early this week to detail the video game publisher's growth and it's strategy for continuing their success into the future. Street Fighter imagery is even used throughout the cover and opening pages of the report showing off a number of pictures from Capcom Cup 2017.
Along with other major titles like Monster Hunter, Street Fighter receives its own section in the report titled "Rebounding from Adversity: Combination of Ongoing Updates and eSports Significantly Grows User Base" where they discuss Street Fighter 5's poor launch, how they've turned it around and where the brand is going in the coming years.
Capcom acknowledges the 'disappointing' release of SF5 hurt the game and its image though they feel that their continued updates may have saved the brand as a whole and rebuilt some trust with the community. They also lay out some potential plans going forward for their flagship fighter to expand its appeal including making things cheaper and branching out further with eSports.
In their report, Capcom states Street Fighter 5 was "based on the development concept of [a] 'reboot' following a rethought approach to game creation aimed at enabling a wide range of users to play the game."
