Street Fighter V vs. The King of Fighters XIV

Now that we have Capcom’s Street Fighter V and SNK’s The King of Fighters XIV I wanted to digest both games to see which one is the better fighting game because you know there has always the discussion of which is the better fighting game series so let’s find out shall we?

Street Fighter V has been out for about seven months and still adding a couple more features. The King of Fighters XIV has been out for almost a month.

To start things off let’s talk about the Graphics. Were now in the age of 3D fighting games  on a 2D plane. Capcom was the first to do this with Street Fighter IV and now SNK has joined the trend with The King of Fighters XIV unless you want to count Maximum Impact. In a lot of fighting games graphics aren’t the most important thing. It’s mainly the roster and gameplay. You sometimes forget about the graphics if the gameplay is awesome. Now most 2D fighting game fans don’t like how certain characters transform into their 3D models but if we're going to pick who has the better graphics I would have to give to Street Fighter V. Now not all characters look good in their 3D model (cough cough Ken….) but most of the 3D models look really good such as Cammy who I really love and Chun-li. Karen looks beautiful as well it almost seems as though i’m in love with the female models than the males.

Now The King of Fighters XIV graphics aren’t the best. It’s definitely a slight improvement from the announcement trailer. Now I always wasn’t the biggest fan of The King of Fighters sprites except for the The King of Fighters XIII I did like those character sprites. But bad character sprites never stopped me from having fun in a fighting game.

The second thing that I want to get into is one of the most important thing in a fighting game is the gameplay. Both games followed its traditional gameplay with a few tweaks. Street Fighter V is still a footsie game and a bit slower than its predecessor especially when it comes to projectiles… The V trigger is definitely a huge game changer that makes the game different from Street Fighter IV.

The King of Fighters XIV gameplay is a little bit more tougher than Street Fighter V. The King of Fighters is more offensive. You can still play a little bit of a footsie game but you really want to put pressure on your opponent. Max mode is the biggest feature in this game. To be successful at this game players need to use Max mode to extend their combos and deliver powerful combos.

Combos are the biggest thing in fighting games. It’s really hard to say which game has an easier combo system to perform. They are both different in their own way but I will say Street Fighter combos aka links are a little more patient meaning that you can’t perform these actions super fast. Sometimes you to pause. The King of Fighters XIV combos aren’t the easiest to do. It requires great execution and you have to be fast too especially when you enter Max Mode during your combo.

 Now I can’t really say which has the better gameplay. I like how both of them are different. It depends on what type of player you are.

Third topic is another important feature is the roster. When Street Fighter V was released it only featured 16 characters. Now for me I wasn’t really happy because 16 characters isn’t enough for a fighting game especially in this generation. DLC characters were being released every month players could buy them or use fight money that they earn by playing the game but in my opinion I believe these characters should’ve already been in the game on it’s release date.

The King of Fighters XIV roster is huge. I was really surprised that it would feature 50 characters but it was a great idea. The King of Fighters is a team based game so you would expect a huge roster but 50 was perfect I definitely hope to see more DLC along the road.

For the roster I have to give it to The King of Fighters XIV. I mean you have 50 characters to choose from it can sometimes be overwhelming. It’s not to say that Street Fighter V roster is bad but it can definitely have more than 22 characters. Now I will say that the character roster from both games that all characters play different no one really plays the same and that's what you want in a fighting game. And I will say both games seem to be missing some classic characters which we hope to see in the future.

Next we’ll talk about the modes they feature. When Street Fighter V was released it was missing a good amount of modes. There wasn’t a whole lot to do offline. There’s a character individual story mode that only had about three fights. It’s pretty short and confusing. Of course players have training mode to practice their combos. Another offline mode is the frustrating survival mode. There are four difficulty levels of survival mode. Players would play this mode to gain more fight money and unlock character colors. This mode annoyed a lot of players. At times you get closer and closer but tend to lose in the final match. There’s of course versus mode. Challenge mode wasn’t available at first but it was available the next month. In challenge players complete trails for characters and also learn more about their favorite characters moves and learn the advantages and disadvantages. General Story mode wasn’t available until the summer.

The King of Fighters XIV had a good amount of offline modes when released. They have Story Mode which is basically the Arcade Mode with endings. There’s Versus, Training, Mission that features Trail (same thing as Street Fighter V minus character playstyle), Time Attack and Survival. All these modes were available when it was released. As far as I know SNK didn’t say anything about more features coming in the future.

When it comes to offline modes I have to give it to The King of Fighters XIV mainly due to the fact that it has a good amount of modes when it was released. Street Fighter V was really lacking modes when it was released. I mean it’s good that now they have a trail and story mode but these modes should’ve already been in the game when it was released and they are still missing an Arcade mode. Now it’s not to say The King of Fighters isn’t some features too. Their Story Mode is pretty much an Arcade mode. So I guess you argue that they have both but it would’ve been better if they had both Story and Arcade Mode just like in The King of Fighters XIII.

Now the last part I want to dive in is the Online Mode. Online is another important feature in fighting games especially if you don’t have a friend to play it with on the couch.

Street Fighter V features Ranked Match where you battle players  to improve your rank, Casual Match where you battle players that don’t affect your rank and Battle Lounge is where players can host rooms that can have up to eight players. For the ranked and Casual matches players have to go to battle settings and pick their character because there is no character select. Once you pick your character in battle settings they become the character you will use in both ranked and casual matches. Now at first Battle Lounge could only hold up to two people which was a problem. Capcom fixed this problem the next month after its release. In that same month Ranked and Casual match made the option to have a rematch best two out of three which was a great idea. I guess Capcom wanted to make it more like tournament settings and sometimes you just want revenge against certain players. Connection wasn’t bad it was more of a loading time before the match which was annoying and another problem was the rage quits. Capcom will finally fix this problem soon.

Now The King of Fighters XIV online is quite interesting. There’s ranked match and free match. Just like in Street Fighter V players have to register their favorite character before playing a ranked match. I’m a huge fan of Free Match. Free match is where players can host rooms that can have up to 12 people. Players can either choose to do single matches or team matches. One of the things I really love is that in the rooms people don’t really have to wait for other players to get done their match. They can go to another empty slot in the same room and wait for another player to join them. SNK really thought ahead with this feature. Another great feature is the party mode where six players can fight each other controlling their own character. Now let's get into the connection. At first the connection was slow and sometimes the connection can be good. It really felt random but SNK fixed that problem in a short amount of time. It took them about a week and a half. I was really impressed with that because most companies take a while to fix these problems and now the connection runs great.

In the end with giving all the features from both fighting games it's time to choose which is the better game. I have to choose The King of Fighters XIV and the reason why I choose this game because when this game came out on it’s release date you got what you payed for. You got a full game. You have a couple of offline modes, 50 characters and a good online mode where six players can fight against each other.

Whereas Street Fighter V I didn’t get a full game at the beginning of it’s release. Players want a full game when you buy it. Now granted Capcom did have an option that players can purchase things with their fight money and not use actual money but like i said before these features should have already been in the game at the start.

I like both games. Both of them are fun but I have to be fair. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Which do you think is the better game.  

Kombat Pack 3 Coming?

Kombat Pack 3 Coming?

Robert Knuckles

With Injustice 2 announced recently we all assumed that content for Mortal Kombat X would be over until Ed Boon Sent out an interesting tweet.

http://media.eventhubs.com/images/2016/06/20_boontwee.jpg

It seems that Mortal Kombat X extra content is far from over. Also if you look at the tweet closely you’ll notice the letter E,V and O are capitalized. These letters spell EVO. So we can expect new Mortal Kombat X content at this year’s EVO July 15th weekend which is only a couple weeks away. Now the question is what are we going to get?

Most people assume that it’s going to be a Kombat Pack 3 which in a way might be possible because a few months ago Boon did release poll asking what we want out of the three choices Mortal Kombat 11, Shaolin Monks 2 or Kombat Pack 3. Kombat Pack 3 got the highest amounts of votes so it wouldn’t surprise if we get that. Now at the same time I’m thinking isn’t that pretty fast to have another Kombat Pack released in the same year? Because Kombat Pack 2 was just released back in March I’m thinking that there would need to be more time. I could be wrong I actually hope I’m wrong.

Another clue for what we can expect is that we could be getting Noob Saibot and Jade as DLC. Boon did also post a poll asking what male and female fighters do we want to see in Mortal Kombat X. Noob Saibot got the highest for the guys and Jade got the highest for the girls. So instead of a new Kombat Pack we could just be getting two DLC characters.

In the end  we really don’t know what we're getting. Heck for all we know it might not be DLC characters. It might be extra modes or a new online mode. We can only keep on guessing until EVO but it’s definitely something to be excited for.

Will there be an Injustice 2 Announcement at E3?

As were getting closer to E3 and the wonderful games developers have in store to announce a couple of questions have been roaming around the fighting game community.

            Now there have been some discussions about Netherrealmn’s Mortal Kombat X. Not too long ago Ed Boon has been doing polls asking fans what characters would they like to see in Mortal Kombat X and votes have been Jade for the girls and Noob Saibot for the men. Boon also posted another poll asking fans to vote for one out of three choices being: Kombat Pack 3, MK11 or Shaolin Monks sequel. Kombat Pack 3 got the most votes with 44%. Now with that in mind it brings the question will there be an Injustice 2 announcement at E3 this year? I know a lot of people have been talking about it but I wanted to give my opinion on it.

            I want to say that there is a possibility that there could be an Injustice 2 announcement next month. A couple reasons are that for starters we know that an Injustice 2 is coming out Netherrelamn announced about a year and a half ago and E3 would be the place to announce it at.

            Another reason is the pattern of how Netherrealmn makes their announcements. For example back in 2010 Netherrealmn announced Mortal Kombat 9 at E3, two years in 2012 Netherrealmn announced Injustice at E3 and in 2014 Netherrealmn announced Mortal Kombat X at E3. Every two years Netherrealmn always announces a new game in the works which makes me lean onto the side that there will be an Injustice 2 announcement at E3 this year.

            Now I’m also leaning to the side that there might not be due to the fact that Boon asked these poll questions and most of the time Boon delivers. So I don’t see why he wouldn’t do a Kombat Pack 3 after doing these polls.

            A couple of other reasons as to why there might not be an Injustice 2 announcement is that Mortal Kombat X just released their Kombat Pack 2 DLC and they did an online patch that completely changes the net code making it playable for fans. It still feels new to a lot of players. I feel that there should be more time to have these features develop over the next couple of months or maybe a year because if Injustice 2 is announced Netherrealmn will have to abandon all their work on Mortal Kombat X.

            In the end I still feel that there’s more to come for Mortal Kombat X. This is one of the best fighting games ever. It seems too early to end future DLC for this game. We know Injustice 2 is coming and I believe announcing it at E3 might be too early to do. Please give me your thoughts on this topic.

Street Fighter V Review

Street Fighter V Review

Robert Knuckles

“Time to Rise Up!!”

            Capcom’s legendary fighting franchise has return and it’s ready to make a huge impact!! It feels like yesterday that we just got Street Fighter IV Omega Edition man does time fly for a lot of us but no need to feel soppy the day is finally here that Street Fighter V has arrived.

            This is Capcom’s first fighting game to make it to the next gen system and boy does it look beautiful. Street Fighter V features a diverse cast of 16 characters. Fan favorites Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Chun-Li and others return with the roster. Also returning are Street Fighter Alpha characters such as Charlie, R. Mika, Karin and Birdie. Now of course we all new Capcom will be releasing some new characters as well. Newcomers Laura aka Sean’s older sister is a close range grapple character that has electric attacks that remind fans of Blanka and you have another new character F.A.N.G. who’s a keep away character that has poison attacks that can slowly decrease the characters health.

            I will say that almost every returning character from the previous one plays different in this game. For example Vega and M.Bison have quarter circle moves. Vega has always been a charge character but that has drastically changed. He feels like a new character with these new inputs. Chun-Li has changed up a bit as well. Her famous kicking move is now quarter circle which was the same input in Street Fighter X Tekken. Other than that she’s still a beast.

            Now let’s dive into the gameplay of Street Fighter V. It plays different from the previous which is no surprise. IT feels a bit slower but still plays great but with it with it moving slower fireballs are not as affective in this one. They are decent but the recovery time seems slower. Players still can perform EX moves and Super Arts but the biggest thing that separates this game from the previous one is that there are no focus attacks and Ultras. That is replaced by the V-Gauge. The V-Gauge features V-Skill, V-Reversal and V-Trigger. The V-Skill gives characters special moves such as Ryu being able to parry and Bison giving the ability to reflect projectiles. The V-Reversal lets players use a counter while they are being and attack. The V-Trigger which uses the whole gauge gives characters unique abilities. Each has different ability. All of Ken’s super moves have fire damage, Cammys cannon drill gives multiple hits and can leave them in a juggle and Karin can perform Guren Ken that can lead to cross ups. Now by all means the V-Gauge isn’t a huge comeback mechanic but players will have to strategize to use them to deliver huge damage. The V-gauge definitely makes this a different game and not an exact copy of the previous one. It’s going to be interesting as time goes on to see what the pros do with this new mechanic.

            Street Fighter V currently has two offline modes and those are Story Mode and Survival. Now the story isn’t the best thing right now. It only has a few easy battles and the reason why I say that is because the player starts off with a full gauge of V and Super Art against each computer. In the story you see a few animated cut scenes but another to watch in story mode is that you see other Street Characters like Ibuki, Juri and Guile which are going to be DLC later on but you also see others like C. Viper and Sakura who haven’t been announced as DLC but we can only hope. The story is a bit confusing and still leaves unanswered questions. In the end this current story mode is a small appetizer until we get the main FULL story mode later this year. Now granted players will still get fight money for completing each characters story and can use that to buy costumes and characters.

            Survival mode is another offline mode that players can use. Survival mode is just like any other survival modes but with a few twists. There’s easy mode where players will have to defeat 10 characters to unlock a new color. After a win players can choose different power ups for the next round such as raising attack power, defense up and more. Each difficulty requires a different amount of characters to defeat. This mode is the best way to get each characters color. It also kind of forces players to try out each character.

            There is another Offline mode called Challenges which is currently unavailable. We can only guess that Challenge mode requires players to perform a characters combo which is in every Challenge mode but I’m sure there will be more stuff. Challenge mode will be a free feature in March.

            Online mode is where players will be at the most if they have PlayStation Plus. Online features the classic ranked and casual matches but the step up can be kind of tricky and the reason I say that because is that players will have to fill out their battle settings. There players can choose their FAVORITE CHARACTER which is going to be the character they will be using in ranked and casual matches. There is no character select so players will have to be careful.

            Battle Lounge let’s players either create a room or go to a room setting up different matchmaking rules. Players can choose from amount of rounds, times, victory requirements and a couple more settings. The issue with the Battle Lounge is that you can only have a room of two people. Past Street Fighter games players can have up to eight people. Two fighting and the other six watching. Hopefully this is something Capcom will fix in the future because a room with only two people is not very exciting.

            Now the Capcom Fighters Network is a new feature where players can view favorite fighter profiles, replays, rivals and look at rankings.

            The connection between is pretty good there’s a few bugs here but the biggest issue can be players will sometimes have to wait a bit for the match to load..

            In the End Street Fighter V is a fun game for what they have right now. It’s easy to get into especially players new to the series but that’s not to say you don’t need skill to be good at this game which you really need to have a lot of to be successful in this game. 16 characters is a decent amount to start off and we’ll be getting more with DLC starting next month and so on. Every character plays different and it’s good to see Alpha characters return. We haven’t seen them in over 10 years so they feel like new characters. The music is great too just like any other Street Fighter game. The online is okay. The connection is great but it seems like they are missing other features such as a tournament, team battle and a room that can have up to eight people. Right now this game feels incomplete but we know Capcom is far from finished with this game. So right now Street Fighter V is going to receive 7 out of 10.

Fighting Games of 2016

Fighting Games to look forward to in 2016

Robert Knuckles

With 2015 ending it's time to look forward to the fighting games of 2016. Here I’ll be talking about the upcoming Fighting games of this year that you should look forward to. Not only will I’ll be talking about future games but also upcoming DLC.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

We’ll start off with Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. The ninja storm series has been a growing franchise that not only fans of the show enjoy but fans that enjoy fighting games as well and Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 might just be the best one of the series. This game will feature the ending arc of the Fourth Great Ninja War. There are a couple of new features as well. One returning new feature is the wall running that was first introduced in the first ultimate storm and was absent ever since. Wall running seems pretty interesting. It makes it feel more ninja like in a way. A new feature that I’m pretty excited for is that now players can switch between characters during battle but when players tag in their character they share the same health chakara meter. They have also introduced element damage for example fire can burn clothing slowly draining the character's health. 4 will also feature the largest roster of the franchise with over 100 characters. Look out for Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 on February 9 , 2016 for PS4 and Xbox One.

Street Fighter V

You guys had to have known that this will be on the list. Street Fighter V was announced at 2015 E3 and ever since then players have been excited for this game. Veteran fighters Ryu, Cammy,
Chun-Li return along with some surprising Street Fighter Alpha Vets returning such as Nash, Karin, R-Mika and Birdie alongside  few new characters. Street Fighter V adds some new mechanics such as the V-Gauge adding three new techniques V-Skills, V-Reversals and V-Triggers. V-Skills add a special unique move that each character can perform. Ryu can activate a parry and Bison can reflect projectiles. The V-Reversal can have players use a section of the V-Gauge to perform a counter while being attacked. The V-Trigger allows characters to perform unique moves. Each character has a different V-Trigger. Bison is a bit faster and creating pressure on your opponent, Chun-Li’s normal hits become multiple hits and Ryu has damage boost to his fireballs. A couple of new changes makes Street Fighter V a bit different from it’s predecessor. Now when people purchase the game they’ll have 16 characters at launch but later through the year Capcom will release Six DLC characters featuring fan favorites Ibuki, Guile, Juri, Balrog, and Street Fighter III veterans Alex and Urien. Players can purchase these DLC characters online or they can keep on playing the game to earn fight money to get these characters rather than paying money to get them. Players can look forward to Street Fighter V on February 16, 2016.

Pokken Tournament

2016 looks to be a good year for Namco Bandai as they will release another fighting game called Pokken Tournament. Pokken Tournament is a fighting game that has players pick pokemon and battle it out in the ring. The gameplay is similar to Namcos fighting game Tekken but the gameplay also looks similar to the Ultimate Ninja Storm series. Now who in the world doesn’t love Pokemon? Pokemon has been a growing franchise since the 90s and now fans of the series finally get a fighting game. Players can perform various famous special moves known throughout the series and can also perform Mega Evolutions. Players can use support Pokemon to help give the player increase damage or defense. I feel as though in my opinion that Pokken might be slept on from a lot of fighting game fans but I really believe Pokken will do well. Be sure to check out Pokken Tournament in the Spring of 2016.

King of Fighters XIV

Just when people were believing the King of Fighters was dead they came back with a new trailer. Now the 3D models of the characters are not the best visual aspect of the game but it's exciting to see a new King of Fighters game. Classic characters Kyo and Iori return alongside others but the biggest thing in my opinion has to be that it will feature 50 characters new and old which is huge because nowadays some fighting games don’t have much of a huge roster. King of Fighters XIV also features a party mode that allows up to six players and of course there will be a new story arc to look forward to. Be sure to look out for King of Fighters XIV sometime in 2016.

Now the next couple of games are upcoming DLC for fighting games.

Super Smash Bros Wii U and 3DS

Good news more fighters are coming to Super Smash Bros but the bad news is that it's the last set of DLC characters and they are Fire Emblem Fates own Corrin and Bayonetta's own Bayonetta. Corrin plays a bit different from the other Fire Emblem characters. His main weapon isn’t his sword but it's the dragon in him. Most of his attacks have him using dragon attacks. Some have incredible reach and some his attacks have him even turning into a dragon attacking opponents. These attacks make him more unique then not just the fire emblem characters but throughout the entire cast.

Now to talk about the famous angel- hunter witch Bayonetta. Bayonetta is a combo fighter in Smash. Majority of her attacks can lead into a combo both on land and in the air. Players can also use her guns at the end of combos. Players of the franchise will get the same feel as she plays in her original game. It might take some time to get used to this character but Bayonetta looks to be a lot of fun heck she almost looks like a top tier character. Players can look forward to purchasing Bayonetta and Corrin sometime in February 2016.

Mortal Kombat X

The Kombat Pack returns in 2016. Mortal Kombat X came out last year and its first Kombat Pack was pretty interesting but this next one coming up might be even a bit better. This Kombat Pack features the drunk fighter Bo Rai Cho who hasn’t made an appearance in Mortal Kombat since Armageddon. A Lin Kuei Cyborg who doesn’t have a name at the moment but  features the colors Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor which we can all guess that the three variations will be based on the different colors which is very exciting. Texas Chainsaw Massacre's LeatherFace another horror movie icon that players can put against Jason to see who's the real horror movie killer. Now the last character that everyone seems to be excited for and wanted the most is the Alien from the Alien movie franchise. A lot of people wanted Alien to be in Mortal Kombat for a long time. Ed Boon gave fans a bit of hope when they announced Predator. Players were thinking Alien might make an appearance not only does the alien fit well in the Mortal Kombat but fans can get the matchup we’ve been waiting for…….. Alien vs Predator!!!!! Now there hasn’t been a release date for this Kombat Pack but Boon did say to look forward to this in 2016.

Killer Instinct Season 3

Now I forgot to talk about Killer Instinct Season 2 in my last article. Season 2 of Killer Instinct was definitely a great success in 2015. With old and new characters along with the story mode was a lot of fun but now it's time to talk about the upcoming season. Season three of Killer Instinct will feature BattleToads own Rash as a guest character. Killer Instinct 2 veterans Kim Wu, Tusk and Gargos make a return. There will also be a couple of new characters as well. It’s really nice to see all veterans from Killer Instinct 1 and 2 finally all together. There will also be a couple of changes to the  characters buffs and nerfs. It’s awesome to see another season coming up when I believe a lot of people thought season 2 would be the last but I guess due to the success from the last season and demand from fans lead Microsoft into making another season and we couldn’t be happier. Be sure to check out Season in March 2016 for the PC and Xbox One.

And those are fighting games and DLC to look forward to. If there are games that I forgot to mention please be sure to add it on the comments.