Densetsu's piano only rendition of Karin's theme is a work of beauty and may make you want to pick up the instrument to up your Street Fighter skills
Musical covers and renditions have been around since at least the invention of what we know as modern music, but there's always something special about great fighting game tracks getting broken down in simpler forms to show off their great compositions.
Piano Densetsu may be known more in the fighting game community for his Street Fighter streams and appearances on fgc match compilations for his crazy good Urien play, but he's a grand master of the piano too as his name suggests.
The fighting game player musician recently uploaded a piano only rendition of Karin's theme from Street Fighter 5 which will likely give you a new appreciation for the piece and perhaps the soundtrack as a whole.
Seeing this may make you want to pick up and learn the piano to possibly increase your own fighting game skills which could help in areas like memorization and flow, but Densetsu is a piano instructor and claims to have been playing said instrument for over 20 years — so don't expect to be playing Moonlight Sonata right away or anything.
Piano Densetsu has a number of other fighting game musical covers on his YouTube channel including the themes of Cody, Ken, Rashid, Alex, Guile, Sakura and Dr. Doom among others.
This current rendition of Karin's theme is just over a minute long, so it's a quick listen and well worth the time too. You can check out Piano Densetsu's cover in the clip below along with Karin's Street Fighter Alpha 3 and SF5 themes after the jump.
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Update: Nintendo releases new overview Super Smash Bros. Ultimate trailer narrated by the announcer showing off Master Hand, Spirits, online and more
Update: Nintendo has uploaded the English version of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overview trailer to their YouTube channel, and it's actually narrated by the game's announcer. You can check out the full video after the jump.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is just over two weeks away from release, and we're still learning about all of the modes and features that will be available in the already massive fighting title.
Nintendo released a brand new, seven-minute overview trailer for the latest Smash Bros. title to show off everything we should expect to find in the game come December 7.
The trailer begins with a look at the game's general fighting system that we've come to know over the years plus its new additions for Smash Ultimate like the Final Smash meter which will fill up during battle similar to many other fighting games.
Classic Mode is also briefly shown off where each character will have their own themed runs through the mode with Roy's appearing to be based around fighting other Fire Emblem characters. Master Hand is finally shown off here for a few seconds returning as the final boss of the mode who players will fight after completing the first seven or so battles in Classic.
Spirits are once again on display here as well with the apparent confirmation that players will be able to hold special matches against each other with the power ups equipped along with a general look of how they work and how to obtain them.
The online features and 'World of Light' Adventure Mode close out the trailer though it mostly only shows what was first revealed during the last previous Nintendo Direct; the first 10 minutes of the new mode are now also online too, however. You can check out the full Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overview trailer below.
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Three major takeaways from Red Bull Conquest and the Capcom Pro Tour North America Regional Finals
The roller coaster of hype was real at this past weekend's Capcom Pro Tour North America Regional Finals as an absolute ton of fighting game tournaments played out.
Red Bull Conquest saw its ultimate stage play out and we worked through two final Street Fighter 5 brackets to conclude the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour regular season.
Eyes were voraciously checking up on the CPT standings as the event's happenings would fill in the final qualification spots for this year's Capcom Cup, save for the Last Chance Qualifier in December.
There was also a certain sense of North American pride on the line as invaders from other parts of the world showed up to try to nab last minute points, but we're happy to report that US representatives came out on top across the board.
While there were so many noteworthy happenings this weekend, we're recollecting three in particular that we felt were especially noteworthy.
Read on to see our three major takeaways from Red Bull Conquest and the Capcom Pro Tour North America Regional Finals.
Mang0 travels back in time to stop HungryBox, Leffen pays for his sins in a game of 'Never Have I Ever' and more; Smash Summit skits are too funny
Smash Summit has become more than just a Super Smash Bros. tournament as fans look forward not only the the yearly Smash bouts, but also a handful of other avenues of entertainment the event has come to be known for.
Perhaps the most notable of these avenues are the pre-recorded skits put on by Beyond the Summit, which feature some of the community's biggest names mocking themselves, each other and/or general Smash culture and happenings.
This year upped the ante with a handful of top notch shorts guaranteed to make you laugh unless you have no sense of humor at all. (Get option selected.)
We've rounded up three to share with you here, but there are even more waiting on the Beyond the Summit YouTube page.
In these three skits we get to see TsM|Leffen engage in his first ever game of "Never Have I Ever," but it becomes immediately apparent that the cards are stacked against him as the group hones in on the Melee god slayer.
We also get to see C0|Mang0 go back in time to stop Liquid|HungryBox from ever playing Melee... but things don't go at all as planned, much to our amusement. Check out the three videos below and let us know what you thought.
'Chun or Akuma would have been better than Ken' - Justin Wong shares his top five picks for additional Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters
FOX|Justin Wong has a long legacy of fighting game credentials, none of which (I think) have "Super Smash Bros." in the title. That said, he's still hype for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Though he's venturing away from his more Marvel vs. Capcom/Street Fighter-based realm, Wong has a list of five additional characters that he'd personally like to see appear as DLC in Ultimate.
His picks are somewhat varied between regularly brought up names when it comes to this kind of conversation and characters that you may not have thought of as candidates.
On top of this he also offers a few thoughts on the more recently revealed roster members such as Incineroar, Ken and Piranha Plant, the latter two of which he isn't all that thrilled about.
The Street Fighter professional actually thinks Ken is not all that good of a choice for Ultimate, and would have rather seen someone like Chun-Li or even Akuma in his stead.
Check out the video below to see all five of Justin's picks and then share your reactions to them as well as your personal picks in the comments after.
Today's Street Fighter 5 holiday costumes were called by X-Kira; he's also reported future content involving Rival Schools, Resident Evil and more
First of all, the 2018 Holiday pack for Street Fighter 5 looks especially well done as Capcom hit the nail on the head with each of their four characters this year. Speaking of hitting the nail on the head, data miner X-Kira gets to claim another "W," having called out today's reveal months ago.
We wrote up an article back in early October detailing some of the proposals from the Brazilian miner. Here's a quick excerpt from that article about content that had not yet been revealed:
"As for the new costumes, X-Kira has reportedly found data for new classic and nostalgia costumes for Ryu and M. Bison, brand new "Mech" costumes for Juri and F.A.N.G, a Cannon Spike costume for Nash, as well as a currently unnamed set for Cammy, Urien and Kolin.
This year's roster for holiday costumes was also shared by X-Kira with Sakura, Blanka, Falke and Cody reportedly receiving some holiday cheer in a few months and maybe dressing up like Santa."
Those Mech costumes for Juri and F.A.N.G were revealed on October 22nd and the Cannon Spike Nash was revealed on October 23rd. Here we are in mid November with all four of the characters that were previously named now en route to having Holiday threads.
As he adds yet another check mark to his resume, we figured we'd highlight a few other X-Kira prophecies that haven't come to fruition yet. First off, he claims a second general story as well as an expansion to Arcade Mode are still in the works.
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Black Friday sale puts several top notch fighting games more than 50% off on PlayStation Store
If you're looking for some killer Black Friday fighting game deals, look no further than Sony's PlayStation Store. A handful of the best fighting games made in recent times are currently on sale on the digital marketplace.
Sony is currently running a Black Friday sale that sees a plethora of their games discounted for the holidays. There are several triple A titles on the list including God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 (special and ultimate editions), Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and many others.
On the fighting game end of things, you'll find Bandai Namco / Arc System Works' hit title Dragon Ball FighterZ marked down to an impressive $26.99 USD. This is down from its original price tag of $59.99.
Additionally, NetherRealm Studios has two discounted games on the list: Mortal Kombat XL and Injustice 2: Legendary Edition. Mortal Kombat XL can be purchased for a staggering $5.99, while Injustice 2 Legendary Edition — that which includes all of the game's added DLC — will only run you $17.99.
PlayStation's Black Friday sale is going on until November 27th at 8 a.m. PST. Be sure to scoop up your games of choice while you can.
The PlayStation Store can be accessed directly through your PlayStation 4 console (you'll need an internet connection), or you can head over to their website.
M. Bison shouldn't be changed at all in Season 4 according to Vesper Arcade, here's why
With the highest win rate percentage online and an EVO 2018 victory, it's no wonder that M. Bison gets a ton of hate from frustrated Street Fighter 5 players. While few, if any, would argue he's amongst the game's top five characters, the evil dictator does seem to excel in being particularly nettlesome.
With Season 4 of SF5 en route, many would ask that certain aspects of this character be toned down in one way or another, but not Vesper Arcade. Both Vesper and his stream partner, Mir, think Bison is exactly where he should be.
Normals that seem to offer him positive pressure forever, a throw range to augment them, a crouching jab anti-air and one of the most robbing of V-Triggers are some of the more common items on complaint lists. Vesper and Mir are well aware of these, but still stick to their guns.
They go down the list of commonly heard qualms and explain why each one technically works given where Street Fighter 5 is currently at. They also note that if weaker characters are buffed and stronger characters are nerfed around him, Bison will remain in a relatively balanced place.
If I can offer my own two cents, I would still alter Bison's V-Trigger one so that dashing removes chunks from his gauge and lessens the time his Trigger is active. I argue this because his dashes in VT1 are so fast that they not only trick players, but "trick" the game as well as your character will often attack in the wrong direction as Bison zips about the screen.
The Trigger turns the game into a guess fest that's very much in Bison's favor and very much saps the fun out of the experience. Check out the video and let us know if you'd change the dictator at all in the comments.
Yoshinori Ono is hinting at a potential Street Fighter 5 announcement for Capcom Cup 2018
Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono is hinting at a potential Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition reveal at Capcom Cup 2018. Doing what he's very well known for doing, Ono released a tweet this morning with a cryptic message and a photo of his trademark Blanka toy.
"Thank you all your support for #CPT2018 season. I can't thank you enough for always helping me," Ono wrote on Twitter. "Blanka and I'll leave Washington D.C soon. We're going to be making preparation for Capcom Cup 2018 at Las Vegas! How's Blanka's pocket? hahahaha ;P"
If you're unfamiliar with the whole "Blanka's pocket" thing, this is something Ono has used in the past to signify a Street Fighter 5 announcement is inbound. Essentially, he's saying that he and the Blanka toy will be at the upcoming event, and Blanka has something to present to fans waiting in his pocket.
Ono and his Blanka were in attendance at the Capcom Pro Tour North American regional finals this weekend in Washington, D.C., and despite this event being the platform for a teaser of what's to come for Street Fighter 5 the last two years, this year fans were disappointed to see that no teaser or hint was unveiled by the tournament's end. We did see blue and yellow confetti dropped from the ceiling when the tournament ended and Ono was tweeting about it, but it did not appear to represent anything about Street Fighter 5's future that viewers could decipher.
Now, Ono is hinting at something for Capcom Cup 2018 — taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 14th - 16th.
While I don't think too many folks are surprised about a possible reveal at Capcom Cup, this might actually be the first hint at a potential Season 4's existence for Street Fighter 5. Fans are expecting another year of content for the game, but now we have a Capcom representative pointing at what might be the next installment.
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New Street Fighter 5 holiday costumes announced
Update: We've added a handful of additional high definition images from Capcom Unity to the gallery.
New holiday-themed costumes are coming to Street Fighter 5, Capcom has announced this morning.
Cody, Falke, Sakura, and Blanka will each be receiving a new DLC outfit, all of them steering toward the Christmas style.
"Cody on the streets is frightful, but Sakura is delightful. Since Falke has learned to let go, Blanka glows, Blanka glows, Blanka glows!" the official Street Fighter Twitter account wrote.
With these new costumes, Blanka wears an outfit that makes him look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Cody dons more of a Santa Claus look. As for the ladies, Falke appears to be some sort of showgirl with her staff becoming a candy cane, while Sakura takes on more of a goth look with reindeer antlers on.
These new holiday outfits will be released on November 27th. Based on what we've seen previously, these costumes will likely run you $3.99 USD each.
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Ruroni Kenshin's Himura Kenshin and Shishio Makoto officially revealed for Jump Force with these new screenshots
Ruroni Kenshin's Himura Kenshin and Shishio Makoto were previously revealed as playable characters in Jump Force. Over the weekend, scans of a recent entry in V-Jump Magazine showed these new characters for the first time, as well as Dragon Ball Z fighters Piccolo and Cell.
Bandai Namco, the company behind Jump Force, has since made their official announcement of Himura Kenshin and Shishio Makoto by way of new screenshots that they have released on Twitter.
"Two legendary swordsmen from the past are stepping into JUMP FORCE! Enter KENSHIN HIMURA and SHISHIO MAKOTO!" Bandai Namco's tweet reads.
These screenshots give us close up looks at both characters, as well as what appears to be some of their attacks.
Jump Force is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15th, 2019.
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First 10 minutes of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's World of Light mode have been released and it already looks fantastic
New footage of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is beginning to surface. Today, we get a better look at the game's story mode World of Light.
A preview event for the game was recently held in which publications and content creators were given some time to try out Smash Bros. Ultimate's launch build. As a result, the first 10 minutes of World of Light have been released.
GameXplain uploaded 10 minutes of footage of the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate mode, and from what we can see so far it looks fantastic.
As we know, the story tells of a catastrophic scenario where all of the characters in the Super Smash Bros. universe meet their demise at the hands of the new boss, Galeem. Each one has their spirit captured and mindless puppet versions of everyone aim to cause destruction — everyone except Kirby, who managed to escape the initial attack.
World of Light sees Kirby (and later other characters) walking around a game board fighting these puppets who are possessed with different spirits to ultimately save and unlock the playable cast in the mode. We see several battles here, and each one is varied with interesting stipulations to them.
Whether it be facing off against a giant R.O.B. or taking on an Eevee-Yoshi who brings in colored reinforcements with elemental effects that represent Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon, this mode is already looking like it's going to be a lot of fun.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming to Nintendo Switch on December 7th.
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Here's what the Capcom Cup 2018 brackets should look like
With Red Bull Conquest concluding, we now know 31 out of the 32 players that will be competing at Capcom Cup 2018. The last player will be decided by the Capcom Cup 2018 Last Chance Qualifier.
As a result of this, we can now establish what the Capcom Cup 2018 bracket will look like. We've created a mock up based on 2017's bracket.
The player with the highest number of points — FOX|Tokido with 4,431 points — will face off against the player with the least number of points — CrossoverRD with 161 points — in the first round. Essentially, the first seed will face off against the last seed of the event.
REC|Punk, NASR|AngryBird, RB|Gachikun, and CrossoverRD's spots in the Capcom Pro Tour are guaranteed regardless of their point counts thanks to their amazing performances at the North American Regionals, the European Regionals, the Asian Regionals, and the Latin American Regionals respectively.
RISE|MenaRD will also return to defend his crown. He was the winner of the Capcom Cup 2017. While points don't matter for these players' entry, they do affect their seeding.
Unlike last year, the Last Chance Qualifier player will be seeded at 19 rather than 32. This is so the #1 seeded player will be able to properly prepare for their opponent.
Please keep in mind that this is just a mock up of what the bracket should look like and does not officially represent Capcom's tournament.
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Smash Summit 7 results
Updated with final results: This story has been updated with the results for Smash Summit 7.
This week, Smash Summit 7 is taking place after a rigorous period of voting. It's happening in Los Angeles, California.
11 players were invited beforehand or qualified through event placings, those placers being Liquid|Hungrybox, TSM|Leffen, PG|Plup, C9|Mango, FOX|Mew2King, ExG|Wizzrobe, PG|Zain, Tempo|Axe, CLG|SFAT, VGBC|aMSa and PS|Bananas.
The five players who ended up making it through via voting are OG|Swedish Delight, Balance|KJH, Rishi, Slox and DaShizWiz.
As usual, this is a long event taking place across four days where players will share a house together and tons of fun stuff will be happening outside of just the regular tournament.
Outside of the regular tournament play, there will be Doubles, Crews, 5 Character Iron Man, and even events outside of the game itself such as a Talent Show and Mafia.
Streaming is being done at BTS Smash.
The grand finals Raging Demon doesn't scare CJ Truth while Idom goes ham with Laura's mix ups — Red Bull Conquest Street Fighter 5 highlights
Red Bull Conquest has come to an end. It was here that the Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition Open Premier and North American Regional Finals took place.
The conclusion of this event has revealed 31 out of 32 of the players that are now officially qualified for the Capcom Cup 2018 tournament at the end of the year. Now the only unknown is the Capcom Cup 2018 Last Chance Qualifier player.
This event attracted the attention of players like REC|Punk, CJ Truth, FOX|Tokido, Liquid|John Takeuchi, AB|StormKubo, Idom, Ghost|NuckleDu, FOX|Justin Wong, AB|StormKubo, NVD|Phenom, Rise|Smug, and many more. Unsurprisingly, there were a number of hype sequences that occurred.
We've got a batch of highlights from both of these events to talk about.
Let's start things off with Tokido's wild Raging Demon against CJ Truth in their grand finals set where the Akuma player didn't just do the attack; he dashed up right in Cammy's face and then he finished her off in the most stylish of fashions.
Considering Tokido's stun gauge, one hit from CJ Truth would've been enough to win the tournament right here. This resulted in Tokido pulling out every trick that he could muster.
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DreamHack Atlanta 2018 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
DreamHack Atlanta 2018 is happening this weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.
While Dragon Ball FighterZ unfortunately had to be cancelled at the event, there are still many more games being played at it.
It's a three-day event, so there's going to be plenty of action to tune in to, so make sure you don't miss any of it.
Games being played include Super Smash Bros. 4, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Soul Calibur 6, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Brawlhalla and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
Some of the notable players partaking are FOX|SonicFox, Dragon, Tweek, PG|SKD, GRV|Dabuz, CLG|VoiD, Liquid|ChuDat, PG|Speedkicks, Linkorz, Tempo|S2J, PG|Esam, SS|Colbol, ESE|Fatality, Samsora, and of course many more besides them.
Streaming is being done at DreamHack Smash, DreamHack Fighters and Brawlhalla.
No character hints at Red Bull Conquest this year... unless Ono is teasing with these peculiar photos of confetti
The North American Regional Finals at the Red Bull Conquest event has now officially wrapped up. If last year was anything to go by, there was an expectation of a tease of some sort for the next season.
At the conclusion of the Red Bull Battle Grounds event, Japanese cherry blossoms, or "sakura," confetti rained down into the arena. Looking back, this was an obvious hint that Sakura was to be Season 3's first DLC character.
This year, we got... yellow, blue, white, and red confetti. It might be too much of a stretch to say that this is hinting at something, but something is definitely very odd about the inclusion of the red confetti.
Notably, the yellow, blue, and white confetti can be attributed to the Capcom Pro Tour logo colors. The red, on the other hand, is clearly more scarce than the others. Given, it's possible they were just simply thrown in there.
Oddly, Yoshinori Ono took a few pictures of the event celebration. His Blanka toy was of course present too.
One of the photos was just of the confetti sitting on the ground. At first glance, there doesn't appear to be anything special about the confetti — but we're talking about Ono here...
Could the confetti somehow be pointing towards an obscure hint or is there actually nothing here worth talking about? Ono has a history of teasing legit things, or completely throwing people off base with innocuous photos. Which category this falls into is anyone's guess.
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Ono photo source: 1up. Sent in by: Pardin and Fawaz.
