PASBR Promising Combo Fragments

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For those you interested in making elaborate month-three combovids for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, here’s a list of naunaces that may be worth exploring.

    Platform Ledge Sweep
The reaction type caused by Kratos’ D+Square actually animates beyond the time it takes to reach the ground. Sweeping an opponent off a platform ledge gives you a few extra frames to juggle them before they air tech. I’m sure someone can find a clever use for this bit of minutia!

    Post-Stagger Meaty Setups
Heavy stagger reactions tend to force opponents low to the ground – stagger kneel (caused by Sweet Tooth’s j.Square) and stagger drop (caused by Sir Daniel’s j.F+Square). Therefore both can serve as convenient mid-combo meaty setups for high attacks and projectiles.

    Ceiling Bounce Followups
On stages with solid ceilings such as Dojo and Invasion, it’s possible to launch an opponent into a sort of ceiling splat reaction, providing an added followup opportunity as they peel off the ceiling. Certain characters can even add extra eject attacks to their air combos.

    Multi-Victim Combos
Since multi-victim combos yield diminishing returns for AP accrual, it takes a few extra hits for additional opponents to reach the infinite avoidance limit. As such, it’s possible to perform longer combos against secondary and tertiary victims.

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Game Spotlight: FGC Indie Projects of 2012

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Over the past year, the fighting game community has seen several promising independent game projects revealed by its own members. These extremely talented groups have invested their own time and resources into developing games that draw upon the FGC’s language and culture, with core gameplay mechanics heavily inspired by classic fighting game conventions. I want to highlight a few of these titles, because i think this is a very interesting trend.

Super Comboman is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up featuring a customizable combat system based on unlocking and arranging special abilities, in the form of colorful stickers. The story follows an energetic islander named Struggles, as he takes on odd jobs to support his little brother. (Un)fortunately he tends to get carried away with practicing his spectacular combos, and usually ends up destroying everything in sight! Apparently this project has been in development at Interabang Entertainment for over 1½ years. They’re currently putting the finishing touches on the game, so it’s already available for pre-order through their website.

Señor Footsies is a simplified 2D fighting game by Luke Esquivel, featuring two identical characters with very limited movesets. They can walk back and forth, perform a quick low kick, commit to a longer range sweep with more recovery, or build meter to use a pistol. Whoever lands the first kick wins the round, so the entire match revolves around cautious mobility, space control, and – you guessed it, footsies. What began with hand-drawn sprites has evolved into 3D models and a complete visual overhaul, but no release date has been set.

Street Sweeper is another minimalist fighting game built around a streamlined version of traditional footsies, developed by Robin Ramirez. The goal of the match is to connect a low roundhouse sweep, by using a quick high kick as bait, performing a well-timed parry, or simply outmaneuvering the opponent. There’s a free playable PC version available for download, including a second character recently added to the mix – and many more on the way. The character sprites and backgrounds are adapted from SNK’s various Neo Geo Pocket fighters.

Lastly, i’m sure everyone in the FGC has heard of Divekick since it was featured at MWC2012 and Evo2k12. The combat system revolves around the somewhat polarizing fighting game concept of divekicks, recently popularized by SF4’s Rufus and MvC3’s Doctor Doom. It was developed by One True Game Studios and successfully funded via Kickstarter, before picking up a publisher and refunding everyone’s donations. A release date hasn’t been announced yet, but i’m sure we’ll be hearing more details soon!

PASBR AP Burst / Infinite Avoidance System

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Quite a few players have been asking for information on the AP Burst / Infinite Avoidance System in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, so here’s a quick overview. As most fighting game players know, a “combo” is defined as a series of attacks that can neither be blocked nor escaped once the initial attack connects. Basically the victim remains locked in hit stun until the combo ends, which can take a very long time in some games.

In PASBR, whenever a combo generates 100 AP or more, the victim instantly enters infinite avoidance state. They’re automatically ejected at a 45° angle and remain invincible the entire way up and down until they land – unless they attack or perform some other offensive action to relinquish their invincibility before landing.

PASBR Parappa AP Burst ComboWhen infinite avoidance occurs, whichever character triggered it receives a 30 AP bonus. Ideally, you want to perform a combo that adds up to 99 AP, then finish it with your strongest attack (which earns around 30 AP for most characters). That would cause AP burst at 129 AP and you’d end up with 159 AP after the bonus.

Of course, most characters can’t quite reach 159 AP because the vast majority of attacks are valued in increments of 5 or 10 AP. However, many characters can rack up 90 or 95 AP, making it possible to achieve 150 or 155 AP combos.

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PASBR style exhibition v.one

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale hits store shelves today! It’s hard to believe and almost surreal, but i’m happy that all my friends will finally get a chance to play the game i’ve been working on for the past year.

I started recording combos for fun this weekend and somehow ended up with enough to release a video. I’m surprised it got done so quickly, but you know how it goes. At some point along the line i became invested in finishing the video, so i stayed up way too late last night and ultimately got lucky to capture a clip with every character. Anyway i hope you guys like it!

If you have any questions or want to learn more about PASBR’s combo system, you can find a detailed transcript at ComboVid.com with explantions of each clip. And within a month or two, i’m sure people will discover ways to top every single combo in this video. I can’t wait!

SF4 Biyearly TACV 19: Guile

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Happy Halloween! After many unexpected delays, here is the last remaining episode of my Street Fighter IV Biweekly Tool-Assisted Combo Video series. It’s hard to believe that i actually made it through the entire cast, but Guile was the only character left undone. I’m pretty happy with how his combos turned out, so this is a good way to close out the project.

The strangest thing about working on vanilla SF4 Guile combos in 2012 was knowing that his capabilities are vastly inferior to every other version from SSF4 onward. Reducing Sonic Boom charge time from 55 frames in SF4 down to 50 frames in SSF4 made a world of difference! Moreover, DF+HK was upgraded from a simple knockdown to a free juggle setup, F+HK frame advantage was boosted from +4 to +5, and he was given a combo-friendly secondary ultra in Sonic Hurricane. Many clips in this video would’ve turned out quite differently with those changes. Yet i still found SF4 Guile to be an interesting combo subject, despite his drawbacks.

0:11 Both hits of Guile’s EX Sonic Boom carry a juggle potential of two – making it possible to follow up a regular Sonic Boom knockdown with two EX Sonic Booms, provided the first EX Sonic Boom only hits once. Cammy’s vertical j.LK trades with Guile’s lvl3 Focus Attack, creating a free juggle setup for the LP Sonic Boom and allowing just enough time to charge the first EX Sonic Boom and buffer the motion to begin pre-charging the second EX Sonic Boom.

0:18 Guile’s close s.HK has 3 active frames and normally yields only +1 frame advantage. Seth’s HP Tanden Storm avoids the first active frame and provides a counterhit bonus; both necessary to link into far s.HP, which is cancelable into Guile’s MK Double Flash super because Seth’s superfreeze provides ample charge time. Interestingly enough, the airplane wing on the Small Airfield level can’t be broken until the plane comes to a complete stop and finishes bobbling. This combo deals 696 damage and 450 stun, which may be Guile’s maximum.

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