TAI-X

Oh man, I can just imagine the wails of agony if they decided to lock DLC characters behind Amiibos. Nintendo has already made one freemium game themselves - Steel Diver: Sub Wars - and the digital release of Tank! x3 follows a similar scheme, as will Harada's other upcoming Wii U release, Project Treasure. Quite a few first-party Nintendo games also feature paid DLC at this point, even more if you count Amiibos. The Big N are no longer strangers to nickel-and-diming.

I think Harada got sidetracked by Project Treasure for a while. I'm not expecting much of Pokken, but I hope they don't go the sleazy route and make it another freemium game when it comes to Wii U.

Unorthodox, slow, highly technical new character with an alleged (though pretty much unfounded at the moment) low tier ranking. I know one Anakaris player who's taken to him quite naturally, though.

Regardless of my shared misgivings on the game, it's great to see Speedwagon getting a playable appearance, even if there's no way he'd last a second against any of the other characters in canon. I wonder if he'll use a hammer like in Phantom Blood PS2.

Reminder that Leo ranks himself C- in story mode, lol.

Leo probably won't get a solid ranking until the arcade players get their hands on him, by which time the game will have been rebalanced. One thing I can say about this game - Compared to AC/+R, it really feels like you have to WORK to get damage with Potemkin. The shift to widescreen and the loss of his hyper armor Force Break definitely play a role in this.

I've landed HS Stinger Aim YRC -> rush in to close range three-hit S launcher -> air combo in a real match a couple times.

Honestly, I never pay much attention to it. As a comeback mechanic it's hardly comparable to SFIV Ultras, and isn't even in the same galaxy as MvC3 X-Factor. That's a compliment.

I would say it's extremely likely that it will have a main event tourney at EVO 2016 and at least a side tourney at 2015.

Against someone who really knows what they're doing, you mean. I got plenty of hatemail and ragequits from spamming books online when the US release was new, and my friend even asked me to stop using her.

Poor Itagaki must be facepalming a thousand times over right now. If his forehead wasn't already smashed in from seeing NG3 Vanilla and Yaiba. You know what? It's only this year that we're going to see his first game released since he left Tecmo (Devil's Third).

Temjin would be rather out of place, as the Border Break mecha are built to a different scale and are much less agile, with weaker and more conventional weaponry (hence the emphasis on teamwork).

That only happened because 5pb partially owns the rights to Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate.

Border Break is more like Unreal Tournament with mecha. The arcade cabinet even uses a mouse. To my knowledge, it's also multiplayer-only, making it perfectly suited to becoming a freemium PC game.

Is it ever worth it to use Bishop Runout? If I need to bring the pressure, I always feel like the meter is better spent on a Dark Angel, if not a Stinger Aim YRC -> rush-in combo. And the function of Runout seems pretty well served by charged QV balls.

The game is complete, and Examu has moved on to other projects (they're currently tied up with Nitroplus Blasterz). Barring a new standalone update like Love Max, it won't be getting another rebalance or patch.

PC version of Border Break seems more likely.

Grapplers will always have an inherent advantage in netplay lag environments. Also at lower levels of skill in general, since they can deal mega damage without combos or needing to get past block. They rarely hold up at the top against more technical, combo-oriented characters though; later revisions of Tager being an exception (because he can pull you in to a 360, reset you from downed state AND has armor frames).

Fate Unlimited/Codes, brother. It's the spiritual predecessor to MvC3 (also by Eighting), with insanely long death combos that can be linked from a single lucky jab. (This is not a compliment.)

For better or worse, I definitely feel this game has less strongly defined tiers and matchup charts than any previous GG fighter. Much like focus attacks in SFIV, Blitz Shield and YRC are "one size fits all" fail-safe mechanisms that can be used to subvert weaknesses in a character's matchups that have no moveset-based solution. The effect of YRCs is universally shared across the roster, while each available FRC in the XX series had a precisely defined, moveset-specific function. The blanket slo-mo effect now applied to all RCs also serves to lessen distinct weaknesses in characters and matchups. Furthermore, Danger Time results in chaotic situations where either character in any matchup can easily gain the upper hand from a lucky hit (I strongly suspect it will be removed or heavily neutered in the next iteration of Xrd).

It's not promotional, it's a call for new employees to work on KOF XIV (and presumably the new Samurai Shodown that has also been mentioned). The model could be scrapped before release, but right now it's very likely planned for in-game asset use. I agree that Iori's model and the Kyo one they showed earlier seem a bit rough if this is gonna be on PS4/One, but I'm betting they'll look better after being run through whatever filters and shaders the game will use.

A glimpse of Iori's KOF XIV model was added to SNKP's recruitment page.

The finished 1.01 patch is now released. Huge improvement, pretty much everything is fixed, including the netcode (which no longer has the ridiculous ping spikes). If they can release 2002 UM in this state from day one, I'll consider Code Mystics redeemed. EDIT: It still sometimes crashes upon getting a game over in arcade mode, but this only happened to me once.

First trailer. SoWL called it, it's a free-roaming fighter like J-Stars or Anarchy Reigns, though it's likely built off the same engine as ASB.

This indeed looks like Aquapazza 2. Shame about assists freezing the match, but it seems like something that could still be altered before release based on feedback. Saya's stage is too bright and cheery. Those could easily be blobs of strawberry jam. Nitro+ VNs are characterized by a grittier, darker aesthetic than AquaPlus's that I don't think is being represented well enough here.