When most people stay up late, they make bad decisions. Saying dumb things to the girl they fancy, buying shit they don't need, whatever. Me, though? I make bad sprite comics.
Arakune is saying 'Well, is it?', if you can't interpret Arakune's fractured English, by the way.
So, gameplay videos have made it onto the net of Ono's announcement that vastly eclipsed Third Strike for PSN and XBL, even though 3S is hype as fuck and you all know it. So far, only Ryu, Chun, Kazuya and Nina have been shown, and its only in alpha, but dayum, it looks so hype. Tag team super combos, Kazuya's epic EWGF to the sky, wallbounces, fuck. Its got everything. The fact the roster is restricted to SF and Tekken makes me even more hype, since Q could finally be represented in a crossover game, and Q is amazing. Here's the video if you have yet to see it:
So, yeah, not much actual gameplay, and I really doubt they'll leave it hubless, but really, this is the biggest possibility for fanservice fighting game players have ever seen. It looks like they intend on having awesome character-specific rival intros, which could, quite frankly, be fucking hype for some rivalries, tag team specific super combos (since Kazuya's followup super EWGF looks like its part of the cinematic), and just anything else they wanted. I was suspicious at first of it working, since the two engines are so different, but if they do have two games, and the quality of both is high, then why not? Also, fuck yeah roll techs, I missed you so much. But, yeah, as I said, not much to really talk about yet.
Forgot to mention earlier, probably should've. Two black silhouettes are on the arcade SSF4 character select screen, so that probably means two new characters to be announced. Tomorrow, maybe? Arcade Super is close to release, so, it should be fairly soon if they get announced. Maybe it really is the rumour of Alex and Rolento? If not, I'd expect R. Mika and Rolento, though I hope for Q and Urien. Who do you want, and why?
So, if you haven't realised, are one of the plebeians who doesn't read comics at all, or don't really enjoy fighting games (lol), its currently the Comicon weekend. This is important because, as of recent, fighting games are apparently comics, and thus they get quite a show. Obviously, Marvel vs Capcom 3 will probably get the most, since its actually related to comics, and looking quite awesome, but Ono will be making some announcements tomorrow (probably either Super Street Fighter 4 DLC or Namco vs Capcom, or Darkstalkers 4/Vampire Saviour 3, or god knows what), and Skullgirls will be there, so hopefully MikeZ has got some new footage to show us that I can talk about.
Starting off with something that isn't at Comicon but happened this weekend, however, is Arc Sys's heralded announcement. While it wasn't the Guilty Gear XXX many were expecting/hoping for, it was almost as inspiring. Arcana Hearts 3 will be ported to the current gen consoles by Arc Sys, meaning this is the first time in history Arcana Hearts won't have a god awful console port that kills the community. Is this the herald of a multi-cultural Evo2011, with more brands than you can poke a stick at? I certainly hope so. Super Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Melty Blood: Actress Again, BlazBlue and Arcana Hearts 3 would be a pretty damn amazing line up, really. It'd also tie in well with the 'global presence' they're trying to secure for Evo, and the Japanese Evo coming along later this year. Oh, and it'd be cool if Melee was there, but, yeah, no, I don't have very high expectations given the meshing between the Super Smash Bros. community and Shoryuken community in previous times. Anyway, with the lack of Guilty Gear, it seems the BlazBlue community will survive. Be thankful, BlazBlue fans, that your game isn't going to die due to the infinitely superior series returning. :P
Returning back to Comicon now, we've got the announcement of 4 new characters and the accidental announcing of 2 others for Marvel vs Capcom 3. This video:
So Alzi's a lazy fuck who probably wouldn't have done a good job anyway, so I decided to work on my sigs in GIMP. Previously, I'd done courses on using photoshop and done quite well (top of the class, since I worked out of spite). However, this was counteracted by the fact that GIMP is completely fucking useless. Anyway, I tried hard enough, following a fairly simple formula for the sigs, and here they are:
Dudley (Street Fighter 3/Super Street Fighter 4)
Q (Street Fighter 3)
Eddie/Zato-1 (Guilty Gear)
Hazama (BlazBlue)
Morrigan and Lilith (Darkstalkers)
Robo-Ky (Guilty Gear)
Hisui and Kohaku (Melty Blood/Tsukihime)
Olimar (Pikmin)
Comment on what you like, what should be improved, etc.
LOOK AT HIM. LOOK AT HIS GENTLEMANLY-NESS. SURE, HE'S NOT HOLDING A TEA CUP YET, BUT YOU KNOW HE WILL.
HOLY FUCK HYYYYYPPPEEEEE. YOU'LL GET A SERIOUS POST LATER WHEN MY BLOOD-SUGAR LEVEL IS LOWER AND THE INSTANTANEOUS HYPE IS DONE. HYPE BEING THE GRADIENT OF AWESOME AND TIME.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Two more new ultras to discuss: Abel's Breathless and Sagat's Tiger Cannon.
Abel's Breathless (called that because he winds you with a knee to the gut) is a grab where he dashes forward and grabs you, as that would imply. The time he takes before he dashes forward can be changed by holding down the buttons, and apparantly it can be cancelled, but they didn't try it in the video. Being a grab, it won't be comboable, and does fairly bad damage for a grab, but I guess the 'charge' ability of it makes up for that with pressure and mindgames capabilities.
Tiger Cannon is fairly basic, really. Its Metsu Hadouken, but follows the path of a high Tiger Shot, and thus doesn't hit crouchers (it does look fairly big, though, so it may hit crouching Zangief or some such). Tiger Uppercut FADC Tiger Cannon is possible, as shown in the video, but does fairly bad damage as well. Whether that's because comboable/easily setup ultras are toned down or because damage scaling is alot harsher now is unknown as of yet.
Aren't you lucky? I found another video, with even more to analyze!
So, this is all the ultras recorded live in fairly bad quality because ustream sucks quality-wise, most of the time.
To start things off, we have Balrog showing off his new one against Akuma. Akuma's low life makes it look more impressive than it is, really. It looks like a command grab (seems like alot of characters are getting them now) where Balrog grabs you, and headbutts at fairly close range, but it doesn't really do enough damage for it to be an amazing option for Balrog, especially with his current ultra being so easily comboed, relative to this grab. Still, with a bit of a damage buff and a push towards more aggression for Rog in general, this could be a very viable option against characters not named Zangief and T.Hawk.
Cammy's new CQC is up next, with damage bars shown making it alot more impressive than before thought. Since Juri is a girl, she has below 1000 health, but I'd assume 900 for her, so its still pretty impressive damage, and the counter window looks fairly large. Still, her great focus attack at the moment lends her to a more proactive ultra, like her current one, but if that changes, I could see this being used against characters like El Fuerte and such to prevent them from forcing mixups whenever they want, and putting it more on your terms.
Since I can't really tell what Juri's is doing, I won't comment. Looks kinda like Genei Jin, scarily, as she's certainly faster than she was before, movement-wise, but they don't do enough for me to really be able to tell.
Kikosho returns as the next ultra shown, and gets quite a bit of screentime, really. But it looks like it deserves it, comboing off EX Legs as a juggle, doing a fair bit of chip damage to Adon and looking pretty damn safe against him. Gives Chun great options for corner mixups, as this would easily beat most options most characters have, which her current ultra just can't do. The fact it keeps the comboability and loses the whole 'they can fall out of the ultra' thing makes it look like Kikosho will become the better option.
Vega's ultra does quite a bit of damage to Dan relative to its speed, though to be fair, it is fully charged. It starts off fairly quickly, entering into a damn fast slide, so depending on slide distance and maybe fireball immunity (he's fairly low to ground, moreso than usual) it looks infinitely better as a punisher than his current ultra. Presumably they'll make one of them better for combos, or some such. Good to see Vega's ultras are still creepy, though.
Presumably being the Shinku Gadouken buffed up (Metsu Gadouken?), Dan's new ultra looks more like a Kikosho, due to the way his hands form, the giant ball appears and such, though that could be because Vega's right in front of him. Dan gets knocked away from the opponent, so the possibility of oki mixups is lessened, though Dan gets up for Vega's even hit the ground, and his dash is really fast, so its still possible. Koryuken FADC Ultra will be possible now, assuming its counted as a projectile.
Guile gets Sonic Hurricane now, though we don't get to see it in action because the Bison player dodges it both times with his new ultra, which -looks- (can't really tell because Bison moves so quickly on the low frame rate) like a Head Stomp ultra, in which he throws you up and shoots a hole in your chest with psycho energy, then shows off once you hit the ground. Leaves Bison right next to the other player, leaving him in a great position for oki with his mixups, and judging by the psuedo-start up immunity (I can't tell if he's moved out of the way or if the Hurricane's gone through him), could be infinitely better than Bison's current ultra, by way of adding an alternative for blocking on oki/wakeup mixups.
The One Inch Punch looks more like a counter than what it was previously thought to be (either a regular move or a command grab), which is interesting. Damage can't really be told because of Viper's low health and the fact its fully charged both times, but oh well, it'll presumably be high. If they fix his current ultra's lack of comboability where there's supposed to be/should be some, it'll be an interesting choice depending on matchup. Otherwise, definitely this one because his current one just doesn't work.
I assume Guy's 'new' (i.e. second) one is a new rendition of his old 'Shun Goku Satsu', but as I've never seen his supers used, I can't really say for sure. Its definitely a command grab, due to the way Guy quite clearly grabs Cody, and should do quite high damage, but I can't really say much else. Damage is pretty insanulous first time around, but again, fully charged.
Honda's the second character to get a new command grab ultra so far that has a regular command grab, everyone else that's got one only has the ultra. Its an Ochio in which he finishes with a giant Sumo Slam. Fairly quick startup, as would be assumed. Looks to be either 0 or 1 frames, but I can't really tell with the bad framerate. Does disappointing damage to Chun, but hopefully it'll be buffed. Either way, still better than his current ultra, which doesn't really add to his gameplan in any real way, where as this provides great oki to go with the butt slam mixup.
Last but not least, we get Rufus' new ultra, a souped up Galatic Tornado. Either the guy misses the juggle, or it can't juggle, but it really wouldn't be fair for Rufus to get two easily combo'd ultras, so I'd assume the later. Looks unsafe as all hell on block, so even if it does good chip (which it looks like it does) you wouldn't want to use it until you know they'd die from the chip. Assuming no changes, I'd stick to his current ultra of awesome.
Okay, so here we have Adon vs Akuma, with Akuma showing off Demon Armageddon, his new Tatsu (kinda) ultra in which he kills you, surprise surprise. Akuma's never done that before. The line he says before shattering the giant blood ten (the kanji that appears is called ten, if you don't speak Japanese) is 'The other realm awaits', so if it wasn't for the fact he likes like the Tasmanian Devil, it'd be a pretty gruesome ultra. Looks fairly comboable, as he kicks up high fairly quickly, so FADC Ultra may be a possibility for Akuma now. If it is, I hope to god they nerfed him. Akuma with a high comeback potential is pretty insanulous (insane and rediculous in one word, update your dictionaries).
Other things in the video include Adon's FA having pretty good range and recovering fairly quickly, and EX Rising Jaguar's first hit kicks them really high, so for 3 bars you really should be able to land anything you can juggle with in his arsenal at the altitude they're falling from. His other ultra looks like it starts with a Rising Jaguar, but we can't see much because whoever activated it doesn't know how to play this game, so it should be juggleable, probably. Adon's pokes look fairly good as well, as his (I think) s.lk looks fairly quick with nice horizontal range. Nothing much else to say because I hate whoever does the Gamespot trailers. Seriously. Showing off the new ultras is cool and all, but if we could see something other than 'lol focus attacks', that'd be nice.
For those of you who haven't seen yet (you poor, poor people), here's the new SSF4 trailer:
So, its time for a Pete overanaylsis of it!
There's not really much to say in this, due to most of it being for the lulz (costumes) or plot-based. Admittedly, as a (sadly) an expert on SF plot, I can analyze the plot, but the costumes, I can only say 'this is a take-off of this'. So, start off with the costumes. Here's what they're based on:
Rufus - Chinese vampire
Dan - Blanka (in the Famitsu article, Blanka gets Dan's, as well)
Balrog - I'd assume its just an overpayed rapper or some such, don't know specifically
Chun-Li - No idea, I'd assume a Japanese exclusive. Looks worse than her alt 1, though, imo.
Zangief - Several things would come to mind (Mecha Zangief, Colossus in particular), but its more likely a Mecha Zangief based on the Japanese robot craze, like Tranzor Z (the Z on the pants indicates that one).
Cammy - Cosplaying as Bison
Obviously Balrog's is the best, as it indicates he's been earning quite a bit of fight money. I'm disappointed he didn't buy a bike, though.
Plot-wise, apparantly Dee Jay and Rufus hate each other or something, despite having never exchanged any dialogue, but whatever, Rufus does that. On that note, Dhalsim is a total dick in his rival fight. Rufus just wants to know how he hovers, so Dhalsim beats him up? What an asshole. Total not yoga style. Ryu and Ken finally get the fight all the newcomers anticipated with 4, and got a 'wtf Sagat?' moment, even though Sagat is much more epic than Ken, but now we get both! Hooray. Sagat's off fighting Adon in the meantime, who apparantly wants some new power (probably the Satsui no Hadou that he would've discovered from Akuma when he went and fought him). Cody and Guy was to be expected, as that's what it was in Alpha 3, and they don't really have any other rivals. Well, Guy should fight Dan, since Dan did manage to hunt down a ninja just to get an invite to the SF2 tournament. That's not an easy task, you know. Oh, and Guile gets to be badass and fuck up Bison good. Pity Bison didn't get offered heart transplant surgery, that would've been a nice reference. The wording was probably a bit too much though, since Guile swears quite a bit at Bison in that sequence (SF2 movie, if you don't know it).
Now, onto the actual gameplay bit. First ultra up is Ken's new tatsu ultra, but with FIRE! When in doubt for a Ken move, take an old one and add fire. Always works. Looks fairly fast on startup, so he should be able to link it ala Balrog, but whether it'll be easy or not is hard to tell. Pretty long range, by the looks of it, as well, due to its fast travel time, so that should make linking easier. Damage isn't indicated, but if it is linkable, then it probably won't be much, unless the link is ungodly hard. FADC from a Shoryu also looks possible, if it can juggle. Timing would be difficult though, as you could go under them, like Tiger Destruction (that's why Sagat's combo needs the f+hk. Waiting is just too annoying and easy to screw up).
Next up is Yoga Shangri'la, the first completely new move of the new batch. Incidentally, Dhalsim's previous ultra is pretty much new, and both fit his character. Bravo, Capcom. It looks like an aerial grab, so should be unblockable, and easy to punish with due to air teleport. However, Catastrophe will be better against low tier characters still, imo, due to their difficulty getting in, and thus more potential damage with Catastrophe. I'd say both are viable, though, depending on 'playstyle' (do you force mistakes with your spacing or do you just win via attrition?), of course depending on frame data, though Shangri'la looks fast with pretty good range.
DEFENDING RUSSIA'S SKIES is a pretty awesome cinematic, really, and should greatly help Zangief's oki mixup. If you predict jump, now instead of keeping them down with Fist, you can jump up and still grab them! Not much else to say, just hoping it also has the 0 frame start-up of his current ultra. If it does, both are easily viable on different characters, to grant Zangief that extra bit of confusion he really needs on the characters that fuck him over (i.e. Sagat).
I don't really know what to say about El Fuerte's. It looks like a short range command grab, like Zangief's ultra, where he does a souped up version of his Haberno Dash hp (forgot the name). It could really improve his close-up game, via things like run stop ultra, but I can't really tell what it is. Again, I'd assume close range command grab with (hopefully) high damage, which would be a great option for El Fuerte, but depending on damage, I'd say his current ultra is probably better, as El Fuerte is easily capable of forcing a jump back on some characters, and then catching them with a run stop ultra, which has now become Kai's signature thing.
The One-Inch Punch is also a great cinematic, but I can't tell what it is, either. The little footjab is Fei Long's command grab thing, so it could be that, or it could just be a close range attack. Doesn't look very comboable if it is an attack, but I'm sure they'd let his current one juggle, so flame kick fadc ultra should be possible. I'd still pick this because its awesome, though. Best new ultra cinematic, probably best ultra cinematic in general. Maybe KKZ will beat it, if its added.
Typically, Shin Shoryukens aren't juggleable, and Ryu's Metsu Shoryuken probably will be the same, but they might surprise us. If it is, there's still a pretty big difference between this and Metsu Hadouken. Metsu Hadouken won't have startup invincibility, which the Shoryu probably will, while Shoryuken won't have the range to do Ex Tatsu > Ultra or Ex Fireball > Ultrax except maybe in the corner, which is pretty major knock to comboability. Frame data will really decide it between the two, so I can't really speculate at the moment. Punishing tool vs combo damage..
So, that's it for my overanalysis. Not really much new gameplay footage to talk about this time, alas. Hopefully I'll get to speculate about Dudley next trailer. :D
So, here we have the new trailer for the new SSF4 characters: Guy, Cody and Adon. The first two are originally from Final Fight, while Adon is originally from Street Fighter 1 as Sagat's student, making this even more of an 'old' update than even the SF2 characters being brought back. Admittadly, Cody's playstyle is a tad unlike his original in FF, and he's now a criminal on the run as of Alpha 3, because really, original Cody was the blandest character ever.
First off in the video, we have the fallen hero Cody. His knife is returning, as shown by the video, and will probably use the same old pick up mechanics as it had in Alpha 3 (as in, if you get holding it, you drop it, and you pick it up with down + pp.) His rocks aren't shown in the video, but its hardly a large wager to bet if he's criminal Cody and has his knife, the rocks will be returning. His ultra looks fairly bland, which ironically makes it stand out, due to Cody being the only actual street fighter in the game. I like how it really is just him smacking the crap out of someone.
Next up, we have Guy, the bushin ninja. He's joining fellow ninjas Vega and Ibuki (her kunai is shown clearly in one of his magazine shots, with the text even saying 'I WONDER WHO USES KUNAIS'. Bit of a giveaway, really). He's fast, has a super jump, wall jumps, air throws, command runs, in the Alpha series, and hopefully he'll be the same to spice up the relatively slow SF4. Not much of him is shown besides high hitting corner combos, and he can still go under regular sized fireballs (damn Sakura and DJ). His ultra looks fairly swish, if a bit reminiscent of Vega's (though alot less creepy).
Lastly (of the new 3), we have Adon, the muay thai specialist who's out for revenge against Ryu and Sagat. Jaguar Kick and Rising Jaguar are looking just as good, and Jaguar Tooth looks like it'll still be up for punishing fireballs well (even if only EX is shown, the mind games will still probably be there). His ultra is my favourite of the new ones, since it just looks utterly brutal as he slams that last knee into Sagat's head. EDIT: If you watch Adon's section closely, it appears he can do j.mk > Jaguar Kick > c.lk, which is where it becomes hard to tell if the combo then links into the Rising Jaguar, or if it cuts away. I'm resting on the second one for the moment.
There you have it, a brief wrap up of the nothing that really happened besides aesthetics summarized by someone you don't care about.
EDIT:
~~~~~Michael?!~~~~~Tampa Bay officially suck, they lost to Carolina and Toronto...WTF! says:
man
you know too much about things
There you have it. That's why I deserve a blog, and you regular people don't. :D
