The best videos in the Street Fighter world from the past year, for your enjoyment.
The Combonauts Zero Damage series of combo vids are very original. Credit to them for doing something no one else has done. This third one (embedded) has some really flashy stuff with double Seth, double Rose, and a great Ibuki-Juri scene. Hot.
Start this one at the 8:00 mark, there are a couple of moments in the last two matches, notably Warahk's reverse Super to Ultra, and Tatsu going taunt crazy in the final round. This may not be a big tournament final, but it's an extremely exciting and very competitive match.
Marn knocking Daigo out of Seasons Beatings Redemption. The most hype SF moment in quite some time, and it wasn't even Top 8.
Previously mentioned here on Killa Blog, Tokido's Top 8 match against Clakey D's Ibuki at SCR, including Tokido's godlike projector pose.
Happy New Year.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Better Early [Killa Blog GOTY GAME OF THE YEAR 2010]
What's Killa Blog's Game of the Year? (It's pretty obvious when you look back, just like it was last year...)
(Please keep in mind all games involved with KB GotY are games that I've played and were released in calendar '10. League of Legends was released in 2009, making it ineligible, even though I didn't play it until 2010. Starcraft II should be a huge presence, but I didn't play it, so it's not up.)
GAME OF THE YEAR: Super Street Fighter IV
Well, if this isn't a weak knock off of last year's KB GotY's, I don't know what is. Vanilla Street Fighter IV dominated last year, and its Super upgrade keeps the industry's most uncoveted award on lock. SSFIV featured ten more fighters than its predecessor, (two of which were completely new), a new Ultra combo for every single character (and two for Gen), and the relatively unnoteworthy new locales and the return of bonus stages.
I'll have to take a look, but I've likely dumped even more hours into SSFIV than I did Vanilla, and my rivalry with Legoman has only intensified as our execution and overall gameplay has leveled up considerably. While we both still enjoy some Tekken or Soul Caliber when a guest suggests it, by default, the game we play is SSFIV. I don't know how things will change when Marvel 3 drops in February, but I have a feeling if the pendulum of playtime does swing away from Street Fighter, it'll swing back right around the time Arcade Edition DLC drops. (Smart Capcom.)
Super edged out some strong contenders including BioShock 2, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, and Final Fantasy XIII. I never played Mega Man 10 or Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker as I had intended, but that is emblematic of my gaming this year. BS2 and FFXIII were the only singleplayer games I chose. The rest of my gaming was devoted to competition, either LoL'ing with Big Sis Prinny or testing my Theory Fighter against Legoman and the trolls of PSN.
To review:
BEST NEW CHARCTER DESIGN: Juri (SSFIV)
BEST NEW ENEMY: Big Sister (BioShock 2)
BEST NEW LEVEL: Taejin's Tower (FFXIII)
BEST NEW GAMEPLAY MECHANIC: Baroque (TvC)
You're welcome for the early arrival. Figured I'd make amends. Thoughts?
(Please keep in mind all games involved with KB GotY are games that I've played and were released in calendar '10. League of Legends was released in 2009, making it ineligible, even though I didn't play it until 2010. Starcraft II should be a huge presence, but I didn't play it, so it's not up.)
GAME OF THE YEAR: Super Street Fighter IV
Well, if this isn't a weak knock off of last year's KB GotY's, I don't know what is. Vanilla Street Fighter IV dominated last year, and its Super upgrade keeps the industry's most uncoveted award on lock. SSFIV featured ten more fighters than its predecessor, (two of which were completely new), a new Ultra combo for every single character (and two for Gen), and the relatively unnoteworthy new locales and the return of bonus stages.
I'll have to take a look, but I've likely dumped even more hours into SSFIV than I did Vanilla, and my rivalry with Legoman has only intensified as our execution and overall gameplay has leveled up considerably. While we both still enjoy some Tekken or Soul Caliber when a guest suggests it, by default, the game we play is SSFIV. I don't know how things will change when Marvel 3 drops in February, but I have a feeling if the pendulum of playtime does swing away from Street Fighter, it'll swing back right around the time Arcade Edition DLC drops. (Smart Capcom.)
Super edged out some strong contenders including BioShock 2, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, and Final Fantasy XIII. I never played Mega Man 10 or Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker as I had intended, but that is emblematic of my gaming this year. BS2 and FFXIII were the only singleplayer games I chose. The rest of my gaming was devoted to competition, either LoL'ing with Big Sis Prinny or testing my Theory Fighter against Legoman and the trolls of PSN.
To review:
BEST NEW CHARCTER DESIGN: Juri (SSFIV)
BEST NEW ENEMY: Big Sister (BioShock 2)
BEST NEW LEVEL: Taejin's Tower (FFXIII)
BEST NEW GAMEPLAY MECHANIC: Baroque (TvC)
You're welcome for the early arrival. Figured I'd make amends. Thoughts?
Better Early [2010 GOTY BEST NEW GAMEPLAY MECHANIC]
BEST NEW GAMEPLAY MECHANIC: Baroque (TvC)
To be honest, this was the toughest category by far, sadly only because none of the nominees really stood out. The Baroque from Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom narrowly edged out FFXIII's Paradigm Shift job-changing system which was slick, but ultimately not that much fun. BioShock 2's Protect Little Sister segments were a lot of fun, but ultimately not very original. SSFIV's Ultra Select has been quite a game changer, but when compared to SFIII's Super Art select, it's really not all that new.
The Baroque is not tremendously original either, borrowing heavily from Guilty Gear's Roman Cancel, better known these days as BlazBlue's Rapid Cancel. The SFIV series also has the EX Focus Attack. All of these expend meter to cancel an attack during its animation, normally to either extend a combo, or to cancel out of a blocked move to avoid punishment. The X-Factor in the upcoming Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 performs a similar cancelling function, bestows boosts based on when it is activated, and has been seen in early videos to allow characters to X-Factor cancel one Hyper into another, or the same Hyper. Double Magnetic Shockwave == "Welcome to Die".
The Baroque has a couple of interesting characteristics that differentiate it from the aforementioned. Instead of using meter, or a one time activation (ala X-Factor), Baroque sacrifices a character's recoverable red health to activate the cancel. Once activated, subsequent attacks in the combination recieve a damage bonus based on the amount of red health used to execute the Baroque. This all adds up to some intense comebacks, wherein the more badly beaten a character is, the greater the potential damage they can unleash.
In the VS series, traditionally, a character will slowly recover their red health while tagged out. The choice then becomes, swap characters so that the injured partner can come back strong later in the match, or throw caution to the wind and go for Baroque.
And, man, do I like comebacks.
This pic is actually from Marn vs. Keits at the 2010 Midwest Championships. To be clear, Marn does not use Baroque for comebacks in TvC, since he's never behind in TvC. Baroque is kind of broken on a rushdown character with extended combo's like Martin Phan's Zero because it can be used over and over again in a match.
To be honest, this was the toughest category by far, sadly only because none of the nominees really stood out. The Baroque from Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom narrowly edged out FFXIII's Paradigm Shift job-changing system which was slick, but ultimately not that much fun. BioShock 2's Protect Little Sister segments were a lot of fun, but ultimately not very original. SSFIV's Ultra Select has been quite a game changer, but when compared to SFIII's Super Art select, it's really not all that new.
The Baroque is not tremendously original either, borrowing heavily from Guilty Gear's Roman Cancel, better known these days as BlazBlue's Rapid Cancel. The SFIV series also has the EX Focus Attack. All of these expend meter to cancel an attack during its animation, normally to either extend a combo, or to cancel out of a blocked move to avoid punishment. The X-Factor in the upcoming Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 performs a similar cancelling function, bestows boosts based on when it is activated, and has been seen in early videos to allow characters to X-Factor cancel one Hyper into another, or the same Hyper. Double Magnetic Shockwave == "Welcome to Die".
The Baroque has a couple of interesting characteristics that differentiate it from the aforementioned. Instead of using meter, or a one time activation (ala X-Factor), Baroque sacrifices a character's recoverable red health to activate the cancel. Once activated, subsequent attacks in the combination recieve a damage bonus based on the amount of red health used to execute the Baroque. This all adds up to some intense comebacks, wherein the more badly beaten a character is, the greater the potential damage they can unleash.
In the VS series, traditionally, a character will slowly recover their red health while tagged out. The choice then becomes, swap characters so that the injured partner can come back strong later in the match, or throw caution to the wind and go for Baroque.
And, man, do I like comebacks.
This pic is actually from Marn vs. Keits at the 2010 Midwest Championships. To be clear, Marn does not use Baroque for comebacks in TvC, since he's never behind in TvC. Baroque is kind of broken on a rushdown character with extended combo's like Martin Phan's Zero because it can be used over and over again in a match.
Better Early [2010 GOTY BEST NEW LEVEL]
BEST NEW LEVEL: Taejin's Tower (FFXIII)
SSFIV's Solar Eclipse and Crumbling Laboratory were fun, but I can't really give a KB GotY award to a background. Siren's Alley in BioShock 2 really stood out as well, using a relatively small space to convey a great deal of action and narrative, but it was not as impressive as the Tower.
Taejin's Tower was one of many visually stunning environments in Final Fantasy XIII, along with Orphan's Cradle, Oerba, and Gran Pulse in general, and it was one of the relatively few with bearing on gameplay. It is actually a little talked about series hallmark, joining the ranks of FFVII's Shinra Tower, FFVIII's Deep Sea Research Center, and FFX-2's Via Infinito, among others, as vertically oriented dungeons with enumerated levels.
While not labyrnthine, Taejin's Tower contains some of the more robust puzzle elements in all of FFXIII, which isn't really saying much.
(I really would have liked to have had LoL's Magma Chamber up for the award, but , *cough* riot *cough*.
SSFIV's Solar Eclipse and Crumbling Laboratory were fun, but I can't really give a KB GotY award to a background. Siren's Alley in BioShock 2 really stood out as well, using a relatively small space to convey a great deal of action and narrative, but it was not as impressive as the Tower.
Taejin's Tower was one of many visually stunning environments in Final Fantasy XIII, along with Orphan's Cradle, Oerba, and Gran Pulse in general, and it was one of the relatively few with bearing on gameplay. It is actually a little talked about series hallmark, joining the ranks of FFVII's Shinra Tower, FFVIII's Deep Sea Research Center, and FFX-2's Via Infinito, among others, as vertically oriented dungeons with enumerated levels.
While not labyrnthine, Taejin's Tower contains some of the more robust puzzle elements in all of FFXIII, which isn't really saying much.
(I really would have liked to have had LoL's Magma Chamber up for the award, but , *cough* riot *cough*.
Better Early [2010 GOTY BEST NEW ENEMY]
BEST NEW ENEMY: Big Sister (BioShock 2)
The outstanding opponent this time around is the incredibly strong Big Sister of the sequel to BioShock. If you thought Rapture threw some tough baddies your way the first time around, you were in for a surprise in BioShock 2. A far deadlier and more agile boss than the Big Daddies of the predecessor, these encounters (at least earlier in the game) necessitated a greater degree of caution and planning than their lumbering counterparts.
By the end of my second run through the original BioShock, Big Daddies were no longer very frightening, as I had learned to beat them to death with a pipe wrench, which denotes a degree of comfort. Bigger, stronger Big Daddies with more hit points wouldn't have been a game changer in BS2, which lead to the inclusion of their nimbler cousins. In the original, Big Daddies would be seen in the wild, making their rounds, escorting Little Sisters, ignoring the player, which enabled the player to observe and learn the route and plan accordingly.
Encounters with Big Sister followed a different pattern. After taking care of enough Little Sisters (one way or the other), Big Sister would come find you, wherever you were, to initiate the fight. She would then proceed to blast you with plasmids, drain your EVE with a giant needle, go fucking Maximum Spider on your ass, as well as generate telekinetic debris storms to deter you. Overall a much more harrowing experience.
This official final sketch by Colin Fix.
A runner up nod goes to the recurring boss Barthandelus from FFXIII.
The outstanding opponent this time around is the incredibly strong Big Sister of the sequel to BioShock. If you thought Rapture threw some tough baddies your way the first time around, you were in for a surprise in BioShock 2. A far deadlier and more agile boss than the Big Daddies of the predecessor, these encounters (at least earlier in the game) necessitated a greater degree of caution and planning than their lumbering counterparts.
By the end of my second run through the original BioShock, Big Daddies were no longer very frightening, as I had learned to beat them to death with a pipe wrench, which denotes a degree of comfort. Bigger, stronger Big Daddies with more hit points wouldn't have been a game changer in BS2, which lead to the inclusion of their nimbler cousins. In the original, Big Daddies would be seen in the wild, making their rounds, escorting Little Sisters, ignoring the player, which enabled the player to observe and learn the route and plan accordingly.
Encounters with Big Sister followed a different pattern. After taking care of enough Little Sisters (one way or the other), Big Sister would come find you, wherever you were, to initiate the fight. She would then proceed to blast you with plasmids, drain your EVE with a giant needle, go fucking Maximum Spider on your ass, as well as generate telekinetic debris storms to deter you. Overall a much more harrowing experience.
This official final sketch by Colin Fix.
A runner up nod goes to the recurring boss Barthandelus from FFXIII.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Better Early [2010 GOTY BEST NEW CHARACTER DESIGN]
Time for the Killa Blog Game of the Year Awards again. I am sure everyone is thrilled.
I'll break up what was once an extremely long post in an effort to not frighten y'all. I'll do one category each post culminating in the Game of the Year award. As if it wasn't painfully obvious.
BEST NEW CHARCTER DESIGN: Juri (SSFIV)
There was a lot of controversy internally about last year's Best New Character Design winner, with a lot of dissent in favor of Rufus. I don't suppose this makes up for the snub, but Juri really stands out amongst her peers in the category.
Her Super counterpart Hakan is also a very fresh look for SF characters, but Juri far and away has the superior and more appealing design. FFXIII's gruff protagonist Lightning, BioShock 2's Subject Delta, and LoL's Miss Fortune were all candidates, but not quite up to snuff.
Juri Han is a malevolent bloodthirsty Korean girl with a ki boosing implant in her eye, which she uses to amp up her "Taekwondo". She has a ton of interesting normal attacks, a teleport counter, a focus-breaking dive kick, a custom combo ultra and, uh, oh yeah, she throws fireballs with her fucking feet.
This pic is from Boss Logic's Street Fighter X Tron series on Deviant Art.
I'll break up what was once an extremely long post in an effort to not frighten y'all. I'll do one category each post culminating in the Game of the Year award. As if it wasn't painfully obvious.
BEST NEW CHARCTER DESIGN: Juri (SSFIV)
There was a lot of controversy internally about last year's Best New Character Design winner, with a lot of dissent in favor of Rufus. I don't suppose this makes up for the snub, but Juri really stands out amongst her peers in the category.
Her Super counterpart Hakan is also a very fresh look for SF characters, but Juri far and away has the superior and more appealing design. FFXIII's gruff protagonist Lightning, BioShock 2's Subject Delta, and LoL's Miss Fortune were all candidates, but not quite up to snuff.
Juri Han is a malevolent bloodthirsty Korean girl with a ki boosing implant in her eye, which she uses to amp up her "Taekwondo". She has a ton of interesting normal attacks, a teleport counter, a focus-breaking dive kick, a custom combo ultra and, uh, oh yeah, she throws fireballs with her fucking feet.
This pic is from Boss Logic's Street Fighter X Tron series on Deviant Art.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Anti-Honda | Part 2: Sumo's Revenge [SSFIV Casuals]
Funga!, foiled again.
Narrowly lost the Honda-Cody showdown yesterday. I was able to run the first match 2-0, but Lego came back in a big way in the second match. He was able to get in and stay in, which results in many, many, many hands slapping me consecutively.
Third match came down to the last round, and while we were both at about half health, I was able to slide my way out of the corner, and then counter-poked him with sweep for the knockdown. Heeding the sage advice I posted to myself a few days back, I walked up and threw out some normals before his wakeup, and was able to bait the Ultra headbutt, which I blocked, and then... flubbed the Last Dread Dust input. That Ultra 2 punish would have either killed Lego's Honda, or left him low enough to be chipped out by EX Criminal Upper. But, again, LDD didn't come out, Honda pushed out of the corner, and was able to get close enough to poke me out of the match.
Normally, I'm pretty sore about losing... (Last night's 11 deaths with Jungle Irelia in LoL being a prime example.) But I came away from this loss to Lego relatively buoyant. Though my technical skills failed me, my theory fighter was top notch, and I was absolutely right in the strategy I asserted last time around. (Case in point: once I have revenge meter for LDD, and just as I escape the corner, this is the time to pressure Honda, and bait a bad headbutt, as every version is punishable in the corner with LDD, when properly executed, anyways.)
Next time, Lego.
In other SF casual news, this was the first time we battled it out on the Evo monitor I recently procured, the Asus VH236H. Lego seemed to like it much as I have, and he was hitting combos with Dhalsim that I typically don't see connect. Also, I was able to keep it classy for a win in the Dudley-DeeJay matchup, and I stole the Makoto-Dhalsim pairing with a nasty Tsurugi > Seichusen Godanzuki combo.
Narrowly lost the Honda-Cody showdown yesterday. I was able to run the first match 2-0, but Lego came back in a big way in the second match. He was able to get in and stay in, which results in many, many, many hands slapping me consecutively.
Third match came down to the last round, and while we were both at about half health, I was able to slide my way out of the corner, and then counter-poked him with sweep for the knockdown. Heeding the sage advice I posted to myself a few days back, I walked up and threw out some normals before his wakeup, and was able to bait the Ultra headbutt, which I blocked, and then... flubbed the Last Dread Dust input. That Ultra 2 punish would have either killed Lego's Honda, or left him low enough to be chipped out by EX Criminal Upper. But, again, LDD didn't come out, Honda pushed out of the corner, and was able to get close enough to poke me out of the match.
Normally, I'm pretty sore about losing... (Last night's 11 deaths with Jungle Irelia in LoL being a prime example.) But I came away from this loss to Lego relatively buoyant. Though my technical skills failed me, my theory fighter was top notch, and I was absolutely right in the strategy I asserted last time around. (Case in point: once I have revenge meter for LDD, and just as I escape the corner, this is the time to pressure Honda, and bait a bad headbutt, as every version is punishable in the corner with LDD, when properly executed, anyways.)
Next time, Lego.
In other SF casual news, this was the first time we battled it out on the Evo monitor I recently procured, the Asus VH236H. Lego seemed to like it much as I have, and he was hitting combos with Dhalsim that I typically don't see connect. Also, I was able to keep it classy for a win in the Dudley-DeeJay matchup, and I stole the Makoto-Dhalsim pairing with a nasty Tsurugi > Seichusen Godanzuki combo.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Anti-Honda [SSFIV Casuals]
Just took two matches from Lego's Honda with Cody.
Respect.
It's probably been weeks since I beat his Honda with Cody; I've only occassionally stolen the odd match from him with Abel or Rufus. Maybe once with Makoto. This is certainly the first time in months I have scored a proper two-out-of-three on his Honda.
I'd been focusing on Rufus as a counterpick, using jump back roundhouse and Ultra 2 to deal damage while moving away from Honda. This has been somewhat fortuitous, but ultimately not very consistent.
In today's wins using Cody, I was careful to maintain wide spacing. Using b+MP to antiair, and rocks to preserve distance, I kept him out, which really prevents him from doing big damage with HHS or Oichio. Once backed into a corner, I relied on cr.MK to crossunder, and then backed off, employing back jumps with roundhouse on reaction to long headbutts.
Once Cody has Ultra, Last Dread Dust allows him to punish any blocked headbutt when Honda is in the corner, and Fierce and U1 headbutts anywhere on the screen. I'm still not positive on the vulnerabilities of jab and EX. The threat of this punish is enough (at this point anyways) to throw Lego off his game, allowing me to get a little more creative with safe jump set ups, crossups, and tick throws.
To stay ahead I'll have to work on the consistency of the anti-airs. Once I can train him to walk forward I can try to use cr.LK option select MK Ruffian Kick to knock him back out. Also, though I have felt Cody's pressure game has been too risky to spam on Honda, I believe the pressure strings will pay higher dividends just as I escape the corner, as long as I have revenge meter to punish bad reversal headbutts.
But seriously, Legoman's Honda is no joke, yo. This original post was drafted weeks ago (11/15 to be precise) and discussed the pros and cons of the different counterpicks I had been trying versus Honda. And I was literal when I said I hadn't taken a two-out-of-three from his Honda in months, which really means: since his Honda got godlike.
W00t. Nice work, Kil.
Respect.
It's probably been weeks since I beat his Honda with Cody; I've only occassionally stolen the odd match from him with Abel or Rufus. Maybe once with Makoto. This is certainly the first time in months I have scored a proper two-out-of-three on his Honda.
I'd been focusing on Rufus as a counterpick, using jump back roundhouse and Ultra 2 to deal damage while moving away from Honda. This has been somewhat fortuitous, but ultimately not very consistent.
In today's wins using Cody, I was careful to maintain wide spacing. Using b+MP to antiair, and rocks to preserve distance, I kept him out, which really prevents him from doing big damage with HHS or Oichio. Once backed into a corner, I relied on cr.MK to crossunder, and then backed off, employing back jumps with roundhouse on reaction to long headbutts.Once Cody has Ultra, Last Dread Dust allows him to punish any blocked headbutt when Honda is in the corner, and Fierce and U1 headbutts anywhere on the screen. I'm still not positive on the vulnerabilities of jab and EX. The threat of this punish is enough (at this point anyways) to throw Lego off his game, allowing me to get a little more creative with safe jump set ups, crossups, and tick throws.
To stay ahead I'll have to work on the consistency of the anti-airs. Once I can train him to walk forward I can try to use cr.LK option select MK Ruffian Kick to knock him back out. Also, though I have felt Cody's pressure game has been too risky to spam on Honda, I believe the pressure strings will pay higher dividends just as I escape the corner, as long as I have revenge meter to punish bad reversal headbutts.
But seriously, Legoman's Honda is no joke, yo. This original post was drafted weeks ago (11/15 to be precise) and discussed the pros and cons of the different counterpicks I had been trying versus Honda. And I was literal when I said I hadn't taken a two-out-of-three from his Honda in months, which really means: since his Honda got godlike.
W00t. Nice work, Kil.
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