Jump Force is starting to get internet hate for its less than impressive cut scene visuals
Jump Force is just three days away from official launch, but footage of the Story Mode has some potential players worried that visuals won't meet 2019's standards.
A Twitter user by the name of Nitomatta posted a 16 second clip of one of the game's cut scenes as a group of heroes chit chat amongst themselves. It came along with the following caption:
"The cut scenes in Jump Force are so bad that characters barely emote and move like they have a stick up their ass." Said tweet has already garnered 7,200 likes and nearly 2,600 retweets. This was just one of a handful of similar posts from other users.
This isn't the first time we've seen unreleased fighting games catch some heat for their visuals, as King of Fighters 14 was relentlessly hounded for its graphics after its initial reveal.
We also have to call back to the story of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which started to become defined in the public eye by its abysmal pre-release character appearances, an issue that wound up being a major player in the game's eventual downfall.
You can see a full 35 minutes of the game's Story Mode in action via the full video after the jump thanks to MKIceAndFire. Immediately below is a clip taken by Nitomatta and another from @Scourgey which has added audio, but depicts actual in-game footage.
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Two fighting game professionals have made Forbes' 2019 30 Under 30 list
We're very happy and proud to announce that two of the fighting game community's own have been honored by Forbes and included on their 2019 30 Under 30 European Sports and Games list.
The two competitors are none other than the United Kingdom's Ben "Mouz|Problem X" Simon and Sweden's Adam "Alliance|Armada" Lindgren, absolute greats in Street Fighter 5 and Super Smash Bros. Melee respectively.
For Simon, 26, this award was surely captured in no small part because of his EVO 2018 victory wherein he defeated reigning champion Tokido after a nail biting bracket reset. The UK player showed promise back in the Street Fighter 4 days, and has been leveling up consistently ever since.
He's also qualified for the Capcom Cup four years in a row, placing in the top eight in 2017. Read on to see what Forbes had to say about Simon in their 30 Under 30 highlight text.
This 67 year old dad will bring a smile to your face as he recreates Super Smash Bros. Ultimate taunts for his son... all 200+ of them
For those that haven't had the pleasure yet, Nick Luciano has made a habit of getting his dad to recreate some of the more notable poses and animations made famous by fighting game characters.
We can only imagine the overwhelming feeling the pair had when they first heard that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would feature more than 70 playable characters, but they wound up taking on the challenge anyway and have produced an all new video.
This time Luciano's dad shows off taunts for all the characters in the game, not failing to add in some of his own sound effects as an added bonus.
Some of the stand outs for us were Snake with his trademark cardboard box, Wario with his tushy shake and then just about anyone that uses a sword, since Luciano equips his father with less than threatening household items for those.
Nick Luciano is a comedian in Los Angeles, and the majority of the videos on his YouTube channel feature his personalized style of "dad comedy," which is... different, but hey, it's working.
Continue on to see the full video and have yourself a laugh. Once you're done there, have yourself yet another laugh with the Luciano recreation of Street Fighter 2 win poses.
Nintendo has sold over 12 million copies of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but isn't quite satisfied with the game's performance yet
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is an absolute powerhouse of a game, hitting demographics from all over the field and selling hotter than any fighting game title we've seen in recent years.
Nintendo's latest entry into the Smash franchise was purchased more than 12 million times by December 31st of last year, a mere three weeks after its initial launch date of December 7th.
Compare this with Street Fighter 5, which recently celebrated reaching the 2.9 million sale mark nearly three years after release, and you get an idea of just how popular Smash has become.
You might think Nintendo would be overjoyed with the success their latest fighter has seen, but while they surely aren't upset, they're also not quite satisfied. It's not so much that Ultimate hasn't sold enough, but rather more about who it is that's been buying it.
Game-breaking glitch discovered in Street Fighter 5 gives Blanka an infinite
A new glitch has been discovered in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition that involves Blanka. Essentially, the Season 3 character is able to freeze opponents on screen when his Critical Art is performed a certain way.
Discovered by TeamPIESci, the original clip showed the Birdie player up against a Blanka online. After being launched into the air, the Blanka player attempted to combo into his Critical Art, but instead activated a weird screen freeze that locked Birdie in place, yet still allowing Blanka to move freely.
WydD later confirmed the bug's existence, showing how it's done. Blanka players have to basically cancel the super into his forward hop using a plink of the punch button and forward + all three kicks.
The timing is strict, as WydD notes that if you wait one frame or more between the Critical Art input and the hop, it won't trigger. However, pulling it off has some major benefits.
For one thing, when the opponent is stuck in the screen freeze their inputs will not come out. This renders them helpless in situations like during a jump in or if they committed to a big attack and are countered with this glitch.
On top of that, successfully activating this oddity negates the use of Blanka's Critical Art meter, despite the bug centering around super. If Blanka does the glitch, he'll still have a Critical Art at his disposal, and you can see examples of both situations below.
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Waluigi is decimating everyone in Nintendo's Valentine's Day poll right now with a nearly 1 million-vote lead
Have you ever asked yourself "what Nintendo character would I want to be my Valentine?" No? Me neither...
But if you have, Nintendo is currently running a poll that lets you vote for which of their characters (and characters that appear on their platforms) you'd send a Valentine's Day card to. Though it's a little ridiculous, I suppose it's just a little fun before the holiday this Thursday.
Nintendo allows fans to select one of 12 different characters for their Valentine here. Mario, Peach, Luigi, Yoshi, Pikachu, Wario, Waluigi, Animal Crossing's Isabelle, Link, Zelda, Kirby, and Jibanyan from Yo-kai Watch are all on the table here.
While you might think classic Super Mario Bros. princess, Peach, or cutesy Super Smash Bros. Ultimate newcomer Isabelle would be the front-runners here, there's one character who is currently decimating the competition. That character, of course, is Waluigi.
At the time of writing this, Waluigi has a staggering 1,249,888 votes. The #2 placer is Isabelle with 321,528, giving Waluigi a lead of almost one million votes.
Waluigi's recent popularity cannot be denied as fans were crushed when he did not make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable character — he remained an Assist Trophy. Still, Nintendo is aware of the high demand as Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime addressed the matter back in November, saying that polls pushing for the character won't influence DLC choices that have already been made.
Because of Waluigi's unfortunate situation, the internet has created countless memes of the purple Luigi doppelganger, have petitioned for Waluigi to get his own element on the periodic table, and even inspired our own story of characters that should be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate before him. Waluigi's crazy lead in the poll is probably a result of a lot of fans doing it for the meme, which isn't surprising in this day and age.
Memes aside, who did you vote for in Nintendo's Valentine's Day poll? (Come on, I know you voted...)
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Via Nintendo Life.
Fuudo busts out 'top tier' Birdie's V-Trigger 2 against Daigo to great effect in HiFight's latest Street Fighter 5 match analysis video
Rage's Street Fighter League has been going down in Japan for two weeks now where some of the best players in the world have teamed up to compete for the title of number one and the grand prize of 3 million yen ($27,300 USD).
Resident fighting game highlight guru HiFight recently put out their latest 'Just Frame' analysis video breaking down CYG|Daigo Umehara and CYG|Fuudo's recent bout during day three this past weekend.
Fuudo is known for playing R. Mika for the first three seasons of Street Fighter 5's competitive run, but so far he's been testing the waters with Birdie, a character that many Japanese players believe is at the top of the tier list, and even made quick work of Daigo's Guile.
HiFight's play-by-play breakdown largely focuses on Birdie's V-Trigger 2 set ups with the chain, which was largely ignored in Season 3, plus the individual character / move changes made to the game that both player take advantage of.
Birdie's Bull Head, for example, can more easily punish Sonic Booms since their recovery has been nerfed, but Daigo uses the extended frames of Guile's heavy kick to anti-air Fuudo's approach. The hungry fighter can also get strong combo potential from using his Birdie Time trigger by using his chains to juggle the opponent potentially multiple times in one go or even cover up some of his more negative on block attacks.
Fuudo would end up taking the set 2-0 over Daigo in four straight rounds which may be a sign of things to come for SF5 Season 4 — though much of this also appears to come from match up inexperience on Umehara's end. You can find HiFight's full play-by-play breakdown after the jump.
Samsora releases Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list and Peach match up chart
Most players or people who follow Super Smash Bros. likely could not have predicted the competitive force that Peach and Daisy would be in Ultimate, as the princesses have been regularly producing results at tournaments and rising the ranks of the tier lists quickly.
None have done better with the pair of heroines than perhaps eU|Samsora, who recently placed second at Smash Conference and third at Genesis 6, and he's recently taken to Twitter to release his own tier list and character match up chart for Peach / Daisy.
Unsurprisingly, Samsora placed his girls high on tiers with Peach in the top five alongside other strong contenders with tournament results like Pichu, Olimar, Wolf and Lucina though a character who many believed to be among the top tier with Inkling was placed third in the A tier likely tied to the fact that the character has not produced as high of results that was initially feared.
As for the weakest fighters currently in Smash ultimate, the top Peach candidate believes that Little Mac, Kirby and the newly released Piranha Plant make up the bottom three. Ryu is seeing some of his Street Fighter 5 woes return too not fairing much better than the aforementioned characters in the C tier.
Samsora also feels that Peach struggles a bit against the other top / high tier characters like Pichu, Wolf and Ike while performing well against Lucina / Marth plus others like Snake and Wario.
Peach and Daisy were essentially left untouched in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's latest update, so they'll likely continue to find success in the scene so long as strong players keep gravitating towards them. You can check out Samsora's full tier list and match up chart below.
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Nintendo Direct stream coming February 13 focusing on Fire Emblem: Three Houses and other Switch titles
Nintendo announced today that their next Direct stream will be coming in the very near future and is scheduled to take place on February 13 beginning at 2 p.m. PST / 5 p.m. EST.
Programming is said to last for roughly 35 minutes where we'll learn more info on Switch titles including new details for the upcoming Fire Emblem: Three Houses which is set for a 2019 release and will be the first mainline game on a home console since 2007.
We do not have information regarding the Direct's full line-up, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate news has a good chance of showing up during the event considering where the game currently sits.
Persona 5's Joker was announced as the first DLC character as a part of Smash Ultimate's Fighters Pass over two months ago though we have yet to see any gameplay for him or even know what the masked vigilante looks like in the title.
Piranha Plant has been available in Ultimate for almost two weeks now, and we first saw its gameplay trailer revealed almost three months before the fighter was officially available. Isabelle was also announced for the title at the end of a general Direct stream though her reveal was connected to a new Animal Crossing game coming to the Switch too.
There have been rumors and rumblings of Erdrick from Dragon Quest also joining the Smash roster following Joker, but a new mainline Fire Emblem game could mean another representative for the series that already has over a half dozen featured in Ultimate. You can take a look at Nintendo's full announcement below.
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Digital Artist Starman Jr. creates incredibly detailed concept art for EarthBound's Porky in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Starman Jr. is simultaneously a digital artist as well as a huge fan of the EarthBound series. We're comfortable using the adjective "huge" because of the immense amount of work he spent designing the visuals for what EB's Porky Minch might look like if he were introduced as a DLC character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
EarthBound protagonist, Ness, has been in the Super Smash Bros. series since day one back on the Nintendo 64, and saw IP pal Lucas join him in Brawl. Porky, an antagonistic character in the series, has only popped up as a boss in Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode.
Starman Jr. has illustrated not only what Porky might look like in basic design, but also the details of the character's movements, attacks, specials, entrance sequence, stage, musical themes and Final Smash.
The talented artist goes above and beyond to share multiple images for most all of these categories, and then also includes the specific references from either EarthBound or Mother3 that inspired each design.
Within a day of posting to Twitter, Jr.'s drawings have garnered over six thousand favorites and over two and a half thousand retweets. While Porky hasn't been amidst the top of many general Ultimate DLC wishlists we've seen, we can almost see him joining based on how much work has already been done here.
We've rounded up the images and included them in the gallery here for you to check out for yourself. You can view the originals in ridiculously high resolution right here.
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What was supposed to be Street Fighter 2 became Final Fight, and was influenced by... Breakfast at Tiffany's and Les Misérables?
Many in the fighting game community are aware that the Street Fighter phenomenon didn't really start with the franchise's first entry as much as it did with the second, but getting from Street Fighter 1 to Street Fighter 2 was no easy adventure, and Capcom actually wound up with another little title known as Final Fight as a result of the process.
There's an all new developer interview on the Shadaloo CFN site wherein we get some insight from Final Fight developers such as Akira "Akiman" Yasuda about how the design and execution process all went down.
It all started when Capcom decided they wanted a sequel to SF1, but just so happened to do so during a worldwide shortage of memory chips. This wound up ushering the team in a different direction that would be more realistic given the resources at hand.
"We originally had a plan to make a sequel to Street Fighter (SF1). However, at the time due to an increase in the production of the NES, there was a global shortage of 1 MB ROM chips," articulated Akiman.
"For SF1, we used 48 MB just for the graphics, so if we wanted to make a sequel we only had 32 MB to play with. So, we needed to buy time until the 1 MB ROMS became available again."
Here are all 43 character transformations and Ultimate Attacks in Jump Force, including Kane, Galena and the final boss
We're on the home stretch on our wait for Bandai Namco's latest title, Jump Force, and the next four days are going to be long ones.
Thanks to Zanar Aesthetics we've now got footage of all Jump Force's 43 characters' Ultimate Attacks and transformations. This includes that of the game's final boss, so spoilers ahead.
While there's certainly much more to each and every fight than a mere finishing move, there's nothing quite like seeing each anime character performing their most devastating attacks.
Not only do these amazing displays of power give us an idea of how these characters fight, they also just look downright gorgeous on screen. Seeing Goku charge up and heave his Spirit Bomb, or Luffy activating Gear Fourth and blast his foe into next week (when Jump Force will be available!) are joys to watch.
After you give these a look through, let us know which of these top tier attacks are your favorites and why.
Jump Force is scheduled to be released on February 15, 2019 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You can get a sneak peek at final boss Prometheus' Ultimate Attack via the clip right here:
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'The world has changed, but E3 hasn't necessarily changed with it' - Sony's Shawn Layden on why the company is skipping E3 2019
It was back in November of last year that we first caught wind that Sony would not be attending the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019, which, at the time felt like a somewhat unfathomable happening.
How is it that one of the three giants of video gaming would be skipping the premier trade event for the video game industry? As Bob Dylan once said, "The times they are a-changin'" and Sony feels that E3 just isn't keeping up with those changin' times... at least, not in a way that suits Sony's purposes.
Shawn Layden is the head of the company's 13 development studios, and recently sat down with C|Net to further articulate the motivation behind the major decision to not appear at E3 this coming June.
According to Layden, the reason the company is bowing out of the world's most notable video game trade show is twofold, and revolves around both retailers and journalists.
Capcom has an insane amount of their best video game music on Spotify right now — soundtracks for Street Fighter, Mega Man, and more
Capcom has some of the most iconic music in video games among their library. From classic 8-bit Mega Man tunes to widely recognized tracks like Street Fighter 2 Guile's theme, the company has had some truly fantastic music featured in many of their games.
Earlier today, Twitter user _watsu pointed out that there is an absolute ton of great Capcom songs on Spotify right now courtesy of Capcom Sound Team. Apparently, these tracks were available in the past, were taken down for a while, but now are back for your listening pleasure.
What we have here is close to a "you name it, they got it" situation, as there has to be over 1,000 songs here, easy. Included are original soundtracks for several main entries in the Street Fighter series, a slew of Mega Man games, Monster Hunter, Okami, Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry, and more.
On top of the OSTs, you'll also find numerous arrangement albums and remixes. There's so much to listen to hear, it's going to take you ages to get through it all — if that's what you plan on doing.
Unfortunately, there are some large omissions such as music from the Versus series. I was really hoping to rock some Marvel vs. Capcom 2 jams here, but what is included is definitely no slouch on its own.
Just a bit of warning, a lot of the track and album names are written in Japanese, so it might take some time to navigate. However, each album comes with a picture that will let you know exactly what game you're checking out.
'This is what I do against every character that has an abuseable offensive tactic or free get-in tool' - Justin Wong shares his secret to defense
A joy to watch but a nightmare to actually face off with, VP|Justin Wong has seen a lion's share of success in many different fighting game titles.
The particular reason we deem him a nightmare to play against stems from Wong's trademark approach to use patience and reservation as the counter to the much more commonly-seen all out offensive style.
His most recent YouTube upload gives us an insight into how the living fighting game legend not only musters up the restraint to play this way, but finds actual enjoyment and fun in doing so.
This lesson acts as a thread that moves through most any fighting game you might choose to play, but it's especially pertinent to Street Fighter 5, one of the most popular titles in the genre right now.
"This is what I do against every character that has an abusable offensive tactic or free get-in tool where they don't have to worry about neutral," Wong explains. People familiar with SF5's natural gameplay flow will already appreciate how important such a tactic would be.
Continue on to hear the details of Wong's defensive strategy, and let us know if his secret technique helped you level up.
Ed Boon addresses Mortal Kombat 11 leaks on Twitter, Injustice 2 leak history might be repeating itself
Mortal Kombat 11 is set for release in about two months, and as it stands right now only 11 characters have been officially revealed as playable. The identities of the remaining characters were potentially leaked earlier this month, and it looks like Ed Boon may have responded to the leak in classic Boon style on Twitter — which might actually be adding more credibility to the list given a similar situation that arose a couple of years ago.
The Steam database updated last week with a list of trophies for Mortal Kombat 11. From the descriptions, we seem to have learned the names of several other playable characters in the game, though they were listed as abbreviations such as "SON" and "BAR" — presumably referring to Sonya and Baraka.
10 new names were shown within these trophies, including several returning Mortal Kombat characters and what appears to be a handful of newcomers and/or guests. NetherRealm Studios Creative Director, Ed Boon, has since taken to Twitter to respond to the potential leaks, and as you might imagine, he isn't too pleased about them.
Still maintaining a humorous approach, Boon shared a tweet that reads, "Hey Sonya... what are your thoughts on leaks?" Attached was a video of Sonya in Mortal Kombat 11 performing her devastating Fatal Blow on Scorpion — obviously a means to represent frustration or anger.
While Boon doesn't directly state that he's referring to the Steam leaks in his tweet, it's a fair assumption considering the gravity of them and the amount of traction they've been getting.
We actually saw a similar situation with Injustice 2 back in 2016, and Boon's acknowledgement could once again be pointing to legitimacy.
Click images for tweets and clip
Professional Tekken player Kazuaki 'BKC' Tsukagoshi has passed away
It is with heavy hearts that we report the loss of professional Tekken player Kazuaki "BKC" Tsukagoshi who passed away over the weekend.
The Namco Sugamo arcade — an establishment where BKC was employed — shared the unfortunate news yesterday morning on their Twitter account. They released a series of statements, and translated versions of them can be found here courtesy of StealthGaijin on Twitter.
According to their report, Tsukagoshi was discovered deceased by his family on the morning of February 9th, 2019, after he did not come down for breakfast. He intended to compete at the Strong Style Japan tournament that took place in in Tokyo, Japan this past weekend, as he had told his family about it the day before his passing.
BKC was a sponsored Tekken player, representing Walker Gaming. He was most well-known for playing Bryan Fury, and in recent times competed in Tekken 7 at major events such as EVO 2018 (tied for 49th) and Strong Style 6 (tied for 5th).
Numerous members of the fighting game community took to social media to share their condolences for BKC, including Walker Gaming and the official Tekken Twitter page.
Losing a member of our FGC family is never easy. Our thoughts go out to BKC, his family, and friends.
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Via Avoiding The Puddle. Photo source: BKC on Twitter.
