Category Archives: Spotlights

Game Spotlight: Skullgirls

What is Skullgirls? If you haven’t heard, Skullgirls is a brand new 2D fighting game developed by Reverge Labs – a small but talented team in Marina Del Rey, California. The full game is available for download on both PSN and XBLA today.
Skullgirls logo
Skullgirls is also Mike Z’s love letter to Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. I’ll skip over the game’s charming aesthetics and storyline because they’ve been covered plenty. This is more about the remarkably elegant system mechanics you’ll discover as you learn to play.

Skullgirls is a truly hardcore fighting game which pulls no punches when it comes to offering challenging gameplay. Yet beneath the surface, it’s extremely clever about staying accessible and streamlining basics to minimize drudgery.

As you delve into exploring Skullgirls, you’ll notice that the smallest details feel like someone put genuine thought and effort into improving conventional designs. Air dashing, throw teching, input buffering, infinite avoidance, assist selection, and even 360 commands have been brilliantly implemented – with subtle innovations that you’ll be delighted to uncover.

In this day and age of developers dumbing down the genre to conceal that steep learning curve from new players, Reverge Labs has taken a huge risk by making a title for fighting game veterans – and i think the community should support them for it.

If you really want to play the game well, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty and learn all those scary things that make fighting games rewarding. The interactive tutorial will teach you the essentials as quickly as possible, but that won’t keep better players from putting you in frightening situations that only skill and experience can overcome. There’s no escaping that simple fact, but isn’t that what the genre is all about?

CV Spotlight: OHNX CMV

OzHadou Nationals X was held in Australia this weekend as a Road to Evo 2012 tournament. CPS2 stepped up to edit this multi-game collaborative combovid for a live premiere in front of the attending audience. It was shown yesterday, between KoFXIII and UMvC3 finals.

OHNX CMV

Featuring contributions from eleven well-known combo makers, this video contains a wide assortment of classic and modern fighting games. Usually these projects take several months to come together, but somehow CPS2 got it done in 2-3 weeks – and it turned out great!

The two ST Guile combos were recorded as test clips a long while ago. The one at 1:02 was the prototype for the Guile mirror combo at 7:29 in SF? Guile Exhibition – minus the Time Over setup. In case anyone was wondering how it would look without that setup, now you know. The other clip at 4:02 was the most i could get out of a backwards super vs Zangief.

I also recorded the CvS and CFE combos based on some ideas that Keiko and i brainstormed, but i don’t have much to say about those clips – except that Izuna Dropping dinosaurs is cool.

CV Spotlight: ComboVid.com SSF4AE Exhibition v.one

This project grew out of a Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition combovid that Snoooootch was working on with his friend Lukenessmonster. Somehow it evolved from a relatively quick collaboration between the two of them, into an elaborate five-minute video containing twenty combos from over seven contributors.

ComboVid.com SSF4AE Combo Exhibition v.one

Personally, i think it turned out really well. (I can say that without bragging because i only recorded two short clips, and my involvement was otherwise minimal.) By the way, for those of you waiting on me for Seth combos, you’ll find a ton of solid Seth material here – in addition to some great Ryu and Yun stuff. Those three seem to be the stars of this combovid.

If anything makes you scratch your head, there’s a complete transcript on ComboVid.com with detailed explanations for each clip. About half of these combos were manually executed, while the others were tool-assisted via macro scripting or programmable controllers. Absolutely no hacks, cheats, or game-altering devices were used in the making of this video – as always.

Balrog: Behind the Glory (Evo2k11 Premiere)

Balrog: Behind the Glory premiered last Sunday at Evolution 2011, between MvC3 and SSF4AE finals. It was seen by a live audience of approximately six thousand attendees, and their immediate reaction was overwhelmingly positive. An additional 60,000 viewers from all over the world watched the movie live-streamed online.

It was an honor to play a (relatively minor) role in bringing such an ambitious project to life. For anyone who missed it, you can now watch the entire short film in HD-quality for free.

Balrog: Behind the Glory

If you enjoyed watching it, here are some additional resources you may want to explore. The whole project was produced independently by Chubby Boy Films with no external funding or financial support. Complete cast and crew credits can be found on the film’s IMDb page.

For news on future productions, follow @ChubbyBoyFilms on twitter. They’ve been posting exclusive extras for the past few weeks, including snazzy promo materials and high-quality stills – many of which can be seen on CBF’s flickr photostream.

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Balrog: Behind the Glory Movie Poster

Need another reason to attend Evo 2011 this summer?

It is my pleasure to introduce Balrog: Behind the Glory – an independent short film presented by an awesome, creative, dedicated group of Street Fighter fans! It will premiere on July 31st at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, on the Evo Championship Series grand stage.

Balrog: Behind the Glory Poster PromoPlease visit the Chubby Boy Films website for an exclusive sneak peek at the full-size movie poster, and follow @ChubbyBoyFilms on twitter for updates and extras.

Balrog: Behind the Glory explores the meteoric rise and fall of one of the world’s most iconic boxing legends. In documentary format, it follows Mike Bison’s transformation from heavyweight champion to international crime syndicate underboss. To this day, M.Bison’s true story remains shrouded in mystery and his whereabouts unknown.

The screenplay was written by Brett D. Bayonne, produced by Greg Gertmenian, and directed by Vahe Gabuchian – with cinematography by Tigran Tovmasyan, costume design by Hunter Wells, and makeup by Sarah Dorsey. (Check out Chicken on a Pizza for a look at the last comedy project Vahe, Brett, and Greg shot together.)