Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

By now, you’ve probably seen that Street Fighter 6 clip where BigBird’s Rashid tossed out the character’s level 2 super against a burnt out Akuma with no super and very little life left making for an inescapable situation. The win was so guaranteed, in fact, that the Rashid player even took the opportunity to taunt from fullscreen away while the massive tornado closed in on the Shoto and ultimately chipped him out for the KO.

This exact situation came very close to repeating itself in a match featuring Hoji_FGC’s Akuma, however, things played out a little differently this time. Feel vindicated as you watch the Akuma player find a way out of this terrible situation.

During one of Hoji’s recent online sessions the Akuma player took on a Rashid that aimed to pull off the same troll tornado taunt set up that BigBird did.

We see a burnt out Akuma get into a scramble with the Rashid player that culminates in a dropped punish opportunity for the Shoto. The Rashid player hits a quick meterless combo, then lands a raw crouching medium kick to put Hoji at just a sliver of health left.

From the looks of the gameplay here and based on the resources Rashid had when landing the previous two openings, it seemed as though they were actively aiming to finish the game with this set up. Sure enough, Rashid backs up, throws out an OD tornado (which Hoji neutral jumps and avoids), then tosses out level 2 super and immediately goes into one of Rashid’s taunts.

As the massive whirlwind heads toward Akuma and Rashid is jumping and flipping around in glee, Hoji uses the one answer to this scenario that could enable escape. Akuma fires into his Raging Demon Critical Art, which has projectile invincibility, and though it doesn’t quite reach Rashid itself it does allow the Shoto to pass right through the tornado unscathed.

One thing about Street Fighter 6’s taunts is that whenever you activate one your character is locked into it (and vulnerable) until the animation runs the entirety of its course. Rashid was still flipping and trolling all while Akuma recovered from the big super, which allowed him to crack the master of the turbulent wind with a heavy punch to close out the round.

If that original Rashid clip ticked you off, you’ll definitely want to see him get his comeuppance in the footage below.

NEVER GIVE UP pic.twitter.com/XR8QsgAdiO

— Hoji_FGC (@Hoji_FGC) October 9, 2024

The final Grab Bag video from Masahiro Sakurai was released on Friday and recounts the relationship the Super Smash Bros. creator had with legendary Nintendo programmer, businessman, and eventual CEO, Satoru Iwata.

Here we get a bit of a story about how a legend influenced a then up and coming legend. Iwata had a great deal of influence on Sakurai in both direct and indirect ways, including offering a key bit of wisdom when it came to coming up with the name of the Super Smash Bros. franchise.

Sakurai paints a picture of a hard-working, young developer hoping to prove himself with noteworthy contributions to his company. Meanwhile Iwata is the always-busy manager who is juggling responsibilities as he leads multiple teams through multiple projects.

Iwata took some precious time to devote some direct attention to a new Nintendo fighting game that was in development, and was especially enthralled as he had a particularly good time testing and working on it.

When it came time to come up with a name, Iwata was invested enough to add his voice to the group tossing around ideas, and promoted the concept of adding “brothers” to the title. This was the family-friendly Nintendo, after all, and promoting a sense of playful rivalry as opposed to bad-blood violence was important.

You can hear all about this episode along with a handful of others, including an emotional final meeting between Sakurai and Iwata, in Sakurai’s full video below:

Time flies as the original Super Smash Bros. came out a full quarter century ago, and now the young up and comer from these stories has an immensely successful franchise and is semi-retired.

Even so, fans have not thrown out speculative hope that one more Super Smash Bros. entry might be on the horizon. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received a surprise (albeit small) update patch on Wednesday, and with the Switch’s successor now en route we wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear about a Smash title headed to it.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is officially out en masse today and fans everywhere will undoubtedly be jumping in to enjoy the quality Dragon Ball-themed experience. Up until now, the game has only been available via early access, and review scores have been very solid so far.

There has been a lot said about Sparking Zero this past week, but one thing you probably heard above all else is that the Great Ape Vegeta boss fight is really hard. Players have been struggling with this fight in particular, and if you’re just starting out, you’ll definitely want some tips on how to defeat him without lowering the difficulty. All you need is two minutes to learn how to deal with him.

IGN has released a very concise and easy to understand guide that features tips on how to beat Great Ape Vegeta in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. The crux of this tutorial runs for only two minutes, and by the end of it, you should have a strong strategy to slay the beast.

Playing through Goku’s story in Sparking Zero will ultimately see you encounter a boss fight against the giant ape version of Vegeta. You’ll run into him fairly early into your journey, and by most accounts, this boss is a skill check for anyone who dares face him.

The first tip this tutorial provides is that of “staying alive.” You’ll surely feel the urge to rush in and hit this towering behemoth as much as you can to inflict damage, but in reality, what you want to do is move around a lot, keep your distance, and use the hit and run approach to tag him where you can before getting out of dodge.

When it comes to the tech that will likely save your life, though, there’s no question that it’s the following. IGN suggests that you aim to utilize ranged attacks (specifically Goku’s Kamehameha blast), and there is a crucial timing you need to know in order to consistently and safely pelt him with the powerful beam in order to knock the ape’s health down.

There’s a bit more to this tutorial, so be sure to check out the quick video below to learn how to beat Great Ape Vegeta in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero without having to lower the difficulty.

Yes, Mortal Kombat has allowed us to pit the likes of Predator, Freddy Kreuger, Alien, and Leatherface against one another in a perfectly gory and violent fighting game setting, but if you’re looking for a true horror fighting game experience this October, we have just the thing.

First introduced way back in 2018, Terrordrome: Reign of the Legends is an indie title that’s been in development for some six years now and is finally on the verge of release. YouTuber Casper has been having a frighteningly good time with it, and right now is probably the best time to buy.

First off, this is not Terrodrome: Rise of the Boogeyman, but a sequel; the characters in the first installment included copyrighted figures like Freddy Krueger and Michael Meyers. Reign of the Legends offers players 12 characters to control, some of which are classic horror icons like Frankenstein, Dracula, Bloody Mary, Van Helsing, and Sasquatch, but those are all old enough to now be in the public domain.

Others are instantly recognizable inspirations from more modern horror figures. Instead of It, you get T.H.I.S, a chainsaw-wielding clown who seems to have found equal parts inspiration from Pennywise and Leatherface. Lady in White seems to be a spin on La Llorona, Neverman is a take on Slenderman, and there are a few others you’ll surely recognize.

Though this game has been in Early Access for a few years now, developers have announced they’re right on the verge of launching. Herein lies the reason you should grab this game as soon as possible: it’s half price right now.

In their August update, the development team noted they were very close to finishing and noted they only needed to implement character stories and achievements before being ready to launch, and when that happens the price will be $29.99. Right now, however, you can get it for just $14.99, if you purchase Early Access you’ll get the full game when it launches without having to make up the difference.

Check out this gallery of stills and then peep Casper’s full video below to get an idea of what Terrordrome 2 is doing best at the moment. Let us know in the comments if you’ll be spending at least some of your spooky season playing this upcoming fighter, and whom your first main will be.

While there are myriads of attacks and maneuvers in Bandai Namco’s brand new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, there are also some universal abilities that most every character has. These include ki charges, auto combos, and grabs that, if you perform at the same moment as your foe, will cause you to enter a clash state.

Clash states are part and parcel for the Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series (of which Sparking Zero is the latest installment) and have traditionally seen characters engage in a mini-game flurry to see who garners the advantage. Future Gohan, however, famously lacks one of his arms, and so this otherwise universal mechanic does not apply to him.

Developers at Bandai Namco were careful to seemingly not miss any opportunities to sneak a little extra flavor anywhere they could in Sparking Zero. Special character interactions are plentiful and hidden throughout the experience, for example, as are unique animations that reference noteworthy moments from the anime and manga.

Since Future Gohan lost his arm battling the likes of Future Androids 17 and 18, he can’t exactly enter into the two-handed lock up animation that usually plays during a clash. Instead it seems he or his opponent will simply zip into the throw animation depending on who pressed the input first.

You can see footage of Future Gohan grabs in action via the clip from Ashura below:

Okay so while I was playing Sparking Zero, I finally decided to check out how did they address the grab clash issue with Future Gohan, and he satraight up doesn’t have one?? And instead gets priority on the grab???

Crippled priority in a fighting game is crazy pic.twitter.com/WiwHUbZetP

— Ashura (@ashura_rogue) October 10, 2024

That’s not the extent of unique (or lack thereof) clash animations in Sparking Zero, though, as some characters are giant while others are quite small. Chiaotzu, for instance, could realistically fit inside just one of the Great Apes’ hands, but such mismatches in size still lead to special clash animations.

In fact, we’ve got a full video showing off a handful of such clash animations thanks to Soul Gaming. Kid Trunks and Lord Slug, for instance, lock up and we get to see what it looks like when either winds up winning the exchange.

This all points to just how much detail Bandai went into while making Sparking Zero and its 180+ playable characters. Have you noticed any unique interactions while playing thus far? Let us know in the comments how much fun you’ve been having (or are planning on having if you didn’t grab an Early Access version) in the comments.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is currently available via Early Access and is set to release on October 11, 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Big changes have hit Street Fighter 6 in the last few weeks as Terry Bogard was released for the final week in September and a patch update has altered overall balance. With all this moving and shaking, we turn an especially interested eye toward the updated character usage stats as Capcom has posted the numbers for September.

Though he only had the final few days to perform, Terry has made something of a splash, but perhaps not to the degree one might have suspected. We’ve rounded up the stats from Buckler’s Bootcamp to share and discuss with you below.

Launch month is tricky when it comes to stats for DLC characters as they get bonus momentum for being new, and Terry’s case is extra special since his introduction marks the first official instance of a guest character from outside Capcom properties to join a mainline Street Fighter roster.

Mr. Bogard also happens to be one of the most beloved fighting game characters in history, and serves as the face of not only SNK’s Fatal Fury and King of Fighters franchises, but of the company itself. As such, we naturally have some high expectations for him when it comes to initial popularity.

As take a look at the actual results, we find that Terry’s debut was not as big as Akuma’s was back in May. That’s a relatively high bar, though, as Akuma has easily been SF6’s most popular DLC character, immediately shooting to the top of most rank classes and staying there by a good margin over second placers.

Terry clocks in at 4th overall with 6.94% total usage in September despite being available for about 25% of the time everyone else was. He ranked 10th among lower level players in both Rookie and Iron ranks, and creeps up to ninth in Bronze, fourth in Silver, and eighth in Gold.

Terry reaches 7th in Platinum and then shoots up to eclipse even Akuma for a first place finish in Diamond. When it comes to the Master ranked players, however, Terry falls all the way down to just outside of the bottom 5 at 19th; perhaps the surprisingly low Terry tier rankings by players like Mago are warranted.

Though he pales in comparison to Akuma’s popularity, that’s true of everyone else in SF6 thus far. M. Bison had an even less impressive first week, but rose substantially when the numbers for his first full month rolled in.

We suspect Terry will continue to climb here in October, and though he may not have quite enough juice to dethrone Akuma anytime soon, we would be surprised not to see him amid a few more top five placings at the very least.

We’ve snapped the top 8 characters in all nine categories, which you can quickly view via the gallery below. You can see the full stats for all characters across all ranks (as well as cycle through previous month stats) over on the Buckler Bootcamp page, linked above.

Click images for larger versions

Zangief was getting a little too good for Capcom’s preferences in Street Fighter 6’s second season, and so developers took care to nerf the Russian wrestler some two weeks back when the Terry patch and balance update launched.

Gief was only hit with two nerfs that were designed to impact him in very specific ways, but one of them has made for some very peculiar combo results. MC Mura puts this all under the microscope in his latest video.

The nerf in question is to Zangief’s headbutt attack (forward+heavy punch) as Capcom added 25% initial scaling along with an additional 10% more combo scaling. As you might expect, this means that the devastating hit does a good bit less damage when used in combos.

Not only do headbutt combos dole out less damage in general, there are now instances where using weaker moves actually leads to harder hits. As Mura shows in the video, one of Zangief’s go-to combos that traditionally begins with headbutt lops off 3,969 damage, but starting this same sequence with crouching medium punch instead results in 4,412 damage.

This effectively means that, given the option, Zangief players will want to update their standard combo route to begin with a weaker move in order to net more damage. This counter-intuitive truth is peculiar, but Street Fighter 6 has more scaling rules and regulations than other franchise entries, and this kind of thing is the result.

Mura goes on to show that Zangief is not the only character affected in this way, as there are a handful of other fighters whose combos do less damage when you begin them with stronger moves.

Give the full video a watch and then make sure you’re doing optimal sequences. It very well might be the case that starting with a medium instead of a heavy might score you 100-400 more damage every time you perform a given combo, and that’s going to add up.

The Marvel vs. Capcom series is back in the spotlight after a long hiatus. With the new Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection that was recently released, fans are not only experiencing again some of the most iconic games in the Versus series, but also heavily discussing the series as a whole.

Fighting game legend and renowned best Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player in the world, Justin Wong, has been diving deep into MvC again with this new collection of games, and in his latest YouTube video has put together a special treat. Fans have been asking JWong what his dream roster would be if a Marvel vs. Capcom 4 is made, and we now get to see which fighters from both the Marvel and Capcom sides he would choose if the decision were up to him.

Justin’s dream roster for Marvel vs. Capcom 4 consists of 30 base characters on the Capcom side and 30 for Marvel. He also goes ahead and chooses five DLC characters for both factions as well.

We won’t spoil the full cast for you here, but we are going to delve into some of JWong’s more interesting picks and what his reasoning is behind them.

Early on, Justin chooses Bass from the Mega Man series for the Capcom side. By this point, we’ve seen several fighters from this series in Marvel vs. Capcom games including Mega Man, X, Zero, Sigma, Roll, and Servbot, but Wong chooses the anti-hero here largely because he hasn’t been featured in much else.

While many folks out there weren’t the biggest fans of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Justin acknowledges this and selects Monster Hunter for one of his picks. He notes that Capcom did an excellent job with this fighter, though if she were added to Marvel vs. Capcom 4, he’d want to see more supers and attacks that utilize actual monsters in them.

In another surprising choice, Justin wants to see Donovan from Darkstalkers added to the game. He also has Marvel vs. Capcom series mainstay Morrigan in there, but adds another Darkstalker in the series’ resident vampire, Demitri.

There are some really fun and interesting selections here, so be sure to check out the full video below to see the entirety of Justin Wong’s dream Marvel vs. Capcom 4 roster. Also be sure to share some of your own picks in the comments.

While we can’t call it an “age-old debate,” the natural dilemma DLC fighting game characters create for more competitively-minded fans is very much alive and well in Street Fighter 6 as four the game’s six DLC characters are clearly among the strongest on the overall roster.

That’s not an issue, in and of itself, but slippery is the slope that takes us from strong DLC characters to the sentiment that Street Fighter 6 is a “pay to win” experience. So, what do we make of Akuma, M. Bison, Ed, and Rashid’s powerful tournament and online performances thus far? Brian F offers some in-depth thoughts in his latest video.

The introduction of DLC characters in fighting games brought with it a tension between two poles: developing new characters that people will be excited enough to pay for and hiding the easiest tools for victory behind a paywall.

Capcom seemed to toe this line quite effectively in the first season of Street Fighter 6 as Rashid, A.K.I., and Ed all successfully attracted attention and appeared decent without being blatantly overpowered. So far so good, but fans were especially intrigued at how Capcom would handle Season 1’s final character, Akuma, who has proven to be top tier in most games he appears in.

While he’s definitely strong, Akuma’s weaknesses seemed apparent enough that he ultimately fell into an acceptably high tier position. One month later M. Bison came out, and his relatively easy execution paired with massive damage output raised a few alarms.

Meanwhile, the community discovered increasingly effective strategies with both Ed and Rashid, launching both up the tier charts (a few balance updates helped with this as well). Suddenly we have four DLC characters (three fourths of the current DLC roster) all in SF6’s top five discussion, which itself warrants some discussion.

Brian takes us on a history lesson over the last year and a half to chart the rise in effectiveness of SF6 DLC characters and to ultimately try to answer whether or not the game has a DLC creep problem. Check it out below and hit us up with your thoughts on the matter in the comments afterwards.