Whoever comes up with the best title for this week’s screenshot gets to choose the next featured SF4 Biweekly TACV character after Chun Li and Balrog’s installment! As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.
COTA Wolverine’s Berserker Barrage has enough startup invincibility to beat CPU Juggernaut’s Juggernaut Headcrush cleanly, but it must be initiated slightly later than shown here.
When i got on stage at Evo, jchensor asked how i have time to write weekly strategy articles, manage Strategy Corner features on SRK, and still find enough material for combo videos. My answer was, “It’s not just me.” I’d like to explain that briefly.
I always tell people that i would rather explore any decent game with massive community support, over a game i absolutely love which nobody plays. There’s a simple reason for that: Everything i can find on my own in two years, a dedicated community like Shoryuken.com could find within three months.
The later stages of a fighting game’s evolution are what fascinate me, personally. I’ve never been a big fan of the surface-level week-one stuff. Obviously someone has to do it, but it’s not a particularly sophisticated phase when all is said and done.
In fact, i waited fifteen months after SF4 was released to begin working on combos for that game. By then all the basics were well-established, giving me the opportunity to dive right into the deep end of the pool. It would’ve taken three years to reach that point on my own.
Read more…
As i’m sure Guilty Gear fans have noticed, style exhibition v.one features two GGXXAC Johnny combos courtesy of jchensor. As it happens, both clips were originally part of a much larger batch, now compiled into a new video.
“Go Johnny Go!” – A GGXX Accent Core Johnny Combo Video
If you take a look at the dates listed at the end, there’s a three-year gap between the initial recording date and when these clips finally saw the light of day. The story behind that is they were given to an editor three years ago, but he kind of disappeared.
With the deadline for Evo2k10 looming, i asked jchensor if we could use a couple of these combos in our project. He agreed, so we picked out two of the more stylistically-oriented ones and they fit perfectly. Since everyone seemed to like them at Evo, he’s released the full set. Even after all this time, i think they still stand up well – and the music is a perfect match.
Last month, i said that combo videos and combos in general comprise a relatively small piece of the complete fighting game puzzle. How exactly do they factor into the overall picture?
Tactically speaking, executing a combo is a lot like finishing a traditional three-point play in basketball. As a reward for driving past a perimiter defender and baiting an interior defensive mistake, the player is granted an additional free throw after the made basket. The two primary components of free throw shooting are technical ability and maintaining composure.
Can free throws decide games? Absolutely. Does anyone consider free throws a core strategic aspect of the game? No. They serve a clear purpose, but there’s much more to the game on a fundamental level: spacing, timing, footwork, adaptation, defense, etc.
In fighting games, landing a combo involves recognizing an opportunity, evaluating damage options, having the technical ability to perform the combo, and maintaining enough composure to pull it off under pressure. Anyone who drops a combo during tournament play should absolutely be penalized for failing to complete a simple task that they can ice ninety-nine times out of a hundred in practice. That’s a perfectly valid part of the game.
Read more…
To kick off the X-Men: Children of the Atom shots, here’s a still from our Super Fireball Battle special premiered at Evo2k10. Whoever comes up with the best title for it gets to choose the character paired with Chun Li for the next SF4 Biweekly TACV! As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.
COTA Cyclops fires a barrage of s.HP and c.HP optic bullets at Sentinel’s s.MP missles, while Sentinel starts up his s.HP laser beam. Both characters are suki-canceling after every eligible attack to cut down recovery times.
