It’s been a while since we’ve had new updates (and new activities for that matter).

As such, we’re kicking off our revival with a new tournament!

Date : Saturday, 30th April 2011
Venue : Suncomic @ E-Curve

Schedule of events :

Afternoon – KL vs PG Wager Match SSF4 team battle. (1.30pm, please be punctual. In case of late comers, they will be forfeited from the match.)
Afternoon – KL vs PG MVC3 team battle. (Depending on what time the Wager Match finishes.)
Evening – Casuals; Free play on MVC3/SSF4. (Any time in between.)
Night – MY vs SG online battle. (Set up by 9pm, start on 9.30pm.)

SSF4 PG vs KL 12v12 Team Battle

FORMAT

Entrance Fees: RM20 per person
Winning team takes the pot. Sponsors welcomed.

Tournament will be split into 2 teams. Team roster is to be predetermined before the tournament, ie. player 1, player 2 … player 10.
The players will play according to their number, vs the opposing side. Losing players will be kicked out and the next player in line will take his/her place. This is the format used in Japan’s team battles.

Tournament is character locked. Means each player needs to identify their character before the tournament starts and will have to use the same character throughout.

Matches are 3 rounds, best of 3 games. Standard rules apply including no hassling other players, no pausing the game, no verbal distractions etc. Be sporting!

Game marshal will be kileak (when not playing), LT5 and hflee. Decisions they make are final.

Questions can be fielded in this thread, or to kileak directly.

MVC3 6v6 Tournament

FORMAT

Entrance Fees: None, bragging rights tournament.

Tournament will be split into 2 teams. Team roster is to be predetermined before the tournament, ie. player 1, player 2 … player 10.
The players will play according to their number, vs the opposing side. Losing players will be kicked out and the next player in line will take his/her place. This is the format used in Japan’s team battles.

Tournament is character locked. Means each player needs to identify their character before the tournament starts and will have to use the same team throughout.

Team assists may be changed between matches, and order of characters as well.

Matches are best of 3 games. Since MVC3 is a faster paced game, it will be best of 3 instead of single knockout.

As usual, be sporting and no harrassment to the opposing team.

Game marshal will be kileak (when not playing) and hflee. Decisions they make are final.

And for the final event…

SG vs MY Online Tournament (15v15)

Live stream will be available at justin.tv/sgfighter, starting from 9.30pm onwards, so tune in for the matches live.

Check out Shoryuken | SSF4 – Singapore Vs Malaysia Episode II : Attack of the Insert Coin for more information!

Be sure to join in the forum discussion over at forum.insert-coin.my : LINK HERE , and check out the participants roster if you’re interested.

Cheers, and hope to see everyone there!

Kileak out.

Update : Stream started now. Matches will be starting @ 10th Sharp. Log in to the stream now!

Full Sanwa arcade parts. Handle for convenient carrying. Cable storage compartment. It doesn’t get any better than this

The whole of Empire Team which consist of Justin Wong, Martin “Marn” Phan, Arturo Sanchez, Sanford Kelly, and Joe “iloveu” Ciaramelli will be using Qanba sticks in their tournaments in future.

To those who have had second thoughts on the build of the sticks in the past, if it’s good enough for them. I think it might be good enough for you as well.

After a series of exciting matches, Xian from Singapore and Chucky from KL met in a nail-biting grand final, pitting a very technical and aggressive Dhalsim versus a relentless and mixup/combo infused C.Viper. Eventually Xian triumphed over Chucky in a display of both smart offence and solid defense, taking the champion of the night.

The top 8 players are:
1. Xian (SG) – Dhalsim
2. Chucky (SE) – C.Viper
3. Vern (SE) – Abel
4. Andy (PG) – Ryu/Cammy
5. Mikeeeee (KL) – Akuma
6. Man (PG) – Ken
7. Law Choon Keat (PG) – Dhalsim/Ryu
7. WahLau (PG) – Blanka

Congratulations to the winners! Discussions, results, photos and videos will be available in this forum:
http://forum.insert-coin.my/viewforum.php?f=74&start=0

A couple of spots are available, register here:
REGISTER AS A CONTESTANT HERE – http://www.insert-coin.my/autocitybrawlregistration

Note: Registration does not mean automatic placement as a contestant in the tournament. The organizing committee will determine the right number of participants on a first-come-first-serve basis (we’re targeting 64 players at this moment).

All accepted registration will be published here: AutoCity Brawl Participants List
Check the page often to confirm your registration. No further emails or communications will be sent out to confirm your placement.

Information and Details: AutoCity Brawl Announcement

Questions/Answers and Discussions forum: AutoCity Brawl Q&A

** You might need to register yourself as a member in insert-coin.my to post in the forums. It is free, and easy! Follow this link to register as a member and enjoy the various forums and discussions relating to fighting games in Malaysia – http://forum.insert-coin.my/ucp.php?mode=register

Here are the details:

Venue: Segafredo Autocity Penang (Right next to the Porsche showroom)

Date/Time: Every Saturday until 12th June. Starts at 6pm until late.

Equipment:   Playstation 3. (We do provide stock TE arcade sticks however you’re free to bring your own controllers and sticks.)

The session is open to anyone however it is prioritized for those who have registered for the tournament (coming soon). More information and questions/answers can be found in the forum posting here (http://forum.insert-coin.my/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=423).

Come play, learn and challenge Super Street Fighter 4 enthusiasts in Penang! And even when you’re not playing, there are plenty of plenty of pleasant distractions in Segafredo on Saturday nights

*** The Autocity Tournament will be announced shortly. Please stay tuned!

Tourney just ended not long ago. Prize giving ceremony already done and all of us took group photos.

Here are the results !

1ST PLACE
Bear Press Nightmare – Furbolg69 (Abel)  & Gigatonpress (Zangief/Blanka)
Score : 5-1 (Race to 5)

2ND PLACE
DeParkingGrappler – Mikee (Akuma) & Jaylike (Balrog / Boxer)

3RD PLACE
Random Psycho Crusher – Fremont88 & Victorlaw (Both are M.Bison / Dictator)

4TH PLACE
WongStopBrothers -  Nic (Rufus, Balrog, Ryu, Chun-Li) & Kileak (Rufus, Balrog, Rose)

Also Special thanks to the Organizers, and Also SCE (Smart Choice Entertainment)

and Suncomic for sponsoring the Prizes.

Top left: Kai, Gigatonpress, Equal2k, Big mac™, Vanishing aka Loren, Breakthru7, Evern, Rawfish

Sitting from Left: Mikeeeee, Jaylike7, Grabbie, Nic

FINALLY THANKS TO EN.HALIM AND ALL OF YOU GUYS WHO SUPPORTED US IN THE EVENT.

SEE YOU AGAIN IN SUPER STREET FIGHTER 4.

“This will probably be the last chance you can join a SF4 tournament. After SSF4 is out you won’t get to test your hard earned training of Sf4 because its a different ballgame”.

So here are the tournament details.

Tournament Schedule:
12pm – 2:30pm Participants Check In & free play session
2:30pm – 3pm Group A & Group B draw placing(Participants must reach before 2.30pm)
3pm – 8pm League games , Top 4 from each league and their placing in knock out (Quarter final)
8pm – 9pm Dinner Break
9pm – 11pm Knockout stages (quarter , semi and final)
11pm onwards Prize giving ceremony and free gaming session till late (max 2am).

!!! IMPORTANT !!!
Participants that fail to Check In by 2:30pm will be subjected to disqualification of participation. The free up slot will be pass on to any other interested member. ICMY reserves the right for final decision.

Venue: Suncomic @ eCurve

Date: APRIL 10th 2010

Fighting Format:
Player 1/先锋 (team A) vs player 1/先锋 (team B) in match 1
player 2/大将 （team A) vs player 2/大将 (team B) in match 2
if player1//先锋 from team A won the first match, he will be reserve for his team member in case player2/大将 lose.
if player2/大将 from team A lose the 2nd match, then the player1/先锋 from team A have to fight player2/大将 (team B) in match 3
Maximum fighting matches = 3

Tourney format:
stage 1 – league base, split to groups
stage 2 – knockout stage (within this stage separated to three tiers, quarter, semi and final)

Point system:
in Stage 1 – League stage

- Each team has to fight against every team in same group.
- Each team has to win 1 SET to score a point.
- 1 point for winning team and none for loser team.
- Top 4 of each groups will advance to knockout stage.
- If there is a tie score in the group, tie teams have to fight against each team until there is/are a tie breaker(s).
- We will depends on number of participant teams and split the groups accordingly .

In Stage 2 – Knock out stage – Quarter Final, Semi Final and Final
- In Quarter Final – Race to 2 SET s
- In Semi Final – Race to 3 SET s
- In Final – Race to 5 SET s

Character Selection:
- Free pick is allowed, no fixed char.

SET definition
1 set – Race to 2 matches
1 match – best of 3 rounds
1 round – 99 seconds

For discussions please visit the link below:

Battle Royale SF4 Tournament @ Suncomic

For Registering, even though you still don’t have a partner, please visit the link below:

BAttle Royale SF4 Tourney Registration

More details of the location of suncomic, please refer to the post below titles ‘ICMY FRIDAY’

to share with your friends through Facebook, please visit the link below:

Insert-Coin Facebook Fanpage

Requirements and in house fees.

For those regulars who always attend our offline matches, you will understand the requirements below. For new comers, we have to tell you that Insert-coin.my is a non profit committee, and we are utilizing a very special cafe’ in the most convenient spot in PJ @ eCurve for our offline outings and this tournament. Hence what is written below is considered normal or in this case Special privileges thanks to KAI’ and the proprietor of Suncomic

- RM15 Suncomic in-house fee, special only during Tourney.
- All Participants gets to order whatever they want (excluding Half Chicken combo)
- All normal combos will be “beefed” up by default on that day. Chicken chop becomes Special Chicken Chop. Quarter Chicken becomes Special Quarter Chicken (yeah so i suggest to stretch ur $, order those ).
Should a participant order anything thats “cheap”, THE CHEF automatically gives extra Finger Food (worth couple of bucks) along with the ordered meal. The Propriertor wants to make that day “special” for Tourney Participants. Hence RM15 is the “right price”.
- Participants use coupon to select what they want to order.
- Coupon is valid to use at anytime on the Tourney day, but not after.

PRIZES (sponsored by Smart Choice Entertainment)

Champion: Super SF4: Limited Edition (upon release, and either PS3 or XBOX360 version)
First Runner-up: Standard Super SF4 version (ditto as above)
Second Runner-up: Ryu and Viper figurine.

We will keep you posted if there are any updates. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the thread.

WHERE?
Lower Ground, LG-12
e@Curve (Cineleisure) Suncomic

In the eye of a passerby, it appears to be just  an Anime / Manga retail company Outlet. Inside it is a hidden cafe’ serving food and drinks with a Console there for infinite Street Fighter 4/tekken6  games.(image below)

Being in a shopping mall means parking ain’t a problem. 7-eleven is  nearby, Washroom is nearby and for those who want to smoke, its a smoking section when the event is on. (brb need to go take a puff)

Back. For those who comes with taxi or from outside, there is also a back entrance, actually its below ‘The Library outdoor cafe’. There is a small road that leads to a mirror door entrance.

WHAT?

what do you do there? Offline outings. Whether you are a SF4 fan, or a Tekken6 fan, SF3, KOF98, etc. This is where everyone gathers for some casual matches.  usually SF4 in the large LCD screen, T6 in the 23 Lcd, and older games will be played using notebooks ( all 2nd setups are voluntarily supplied by ICMY officials and regulars (Nic, desimundo, Evern,Tzx, etc)

Most of the members that came over to Insert-coin.my bring their JoySticks and nowadays 90% of the regulars here uses Joysticks. Questions about stick mods, artworks, stick maintanence are frequently asked and handled amongst members.

There are 2 stock joysticks. so for 1 setup/console will be sufficient, but players sometimes prefer to use custom buttons.

WHEN?

Most probably every Friday. with some exception for some Fridays if we have an event on Saturday or all there are no officials of ICMY present. time always starts at 6pm until late night. For those who plan to come after 10.00pm, you must ask your friend or contact ICMY officials to pre-order your combo meal. yes. Every i mean everyone that utilizes the place for matches are bound to order a Combo meal there.(Refer to image)

In a nutshell. Those who just found out about us, you can participate in our Friday events. the steps are:-

1. Register yourself and introduce yourself in our forum.

2.Post that you are coming.

3.Remember to keep your stomach empty so you can enjoy the food there.

Check out the new Team Korea vs. Team Japan!

Kindevu (Rufus) vs Laugh (Ryu)
Momochi (Gouki) vs RealRAIz (Rufus)
Kyabetsu (C.Viper) vs Poongko (Ryu)
Mago (Sagat) vs Infiltration (Gouki)

Director Okada, engineer Taguchi, and Tsukamoto would like to talk about the bonus stages in SSFIV, and what it took to add them in.

Tell us the details of adding the bonus stages to the game.

Tsukamoto:
We wanted to have the bonus stages in the original arcade version. However, these days not many players bother racking up high scores in fighting games, and we’ve heard that arcade operators even disable them. So we weren’t sure if people even wanted them. Then, we thought that we’d be better off spending the time that we’d use on bonus stages on better balancing the game, so we eventually gave up on them.

Okada:
We also wanted to put in the bonus stages for the console version, but due to various circumstances we weren’t able to. This time, when we got the green light for SSFIV from producer Ono, he told us to definitely get them in, and I also personally felt that I wanted to put them in the game.

So then since you couldn’t get the bonus stages in the arcade or the console versions, then the third time’s a charm?

Tsukamoto:
That’s right. We finally got them in!

The desire to see bonus stages brought back was particularly strong from overseas…

Okada:
While there weren’t any specific requests for a particular stage, we heard that the bonus stages were popular overseas so they wanted them back. As for why, we felt that it gave players a real way to experience their strength. Breaking up the cars and the barrels is a way of showcasing your Street Fighter strength. At least, I think so…

As cars and barrels are real objects that we know, it adds to our feeling of awe.

Okada:
Bonus stages give for some degree of interaction with real objects. For those of us who live in the real world, it shows us how much stronger these guys are than we are. As there are many people overseas who love real-world objects, this is something that will let them enjoy the game more.

Did you play with the bonus stages in the original SFII?

Tsukamoto:
I remember giving it my all to try and get the high scores!

Taguchi:
Using the FP shoryuken to deliver the final hit to the car, and then landing on top of it – man that felt great. (laughs)

Tsukamoto:
I did the same thing. You get a nice “THUNK!” sound as it finishes.

Okay, now tell us about what happened after bonus stages were decided on.

Taguchi:
First off we brainstormed ideas. What would make for a good bonus stage? At that time, there were a lot of ridiculous ideas though.

…Ridiculous ideas? Does that mean you were thinking of making new bonus stages?

Okada:
We were. There were a lot of strange ideas. A lot of them had nothing to do with Street Fighter at all. Some were more suited to the music/beat games. I just remembered one, involving Guile jumping from one fighter jet to another…

Taguchi:
Oh man, I remember that! (laughs)

Okada:
It was all about jumping from one high-speed fighter jet to another. We thought the situation was cool at least. (laughs) At that time, we were just thinking about general bonus stages that could be enjoyed, but then we figured that there weren’t really Street Fighter bonus stages. We decided to only do bonus stages that made you remember back to that time, so that’s how we arrived at what we have now.

And that’s how the car and barrel stages were chosen.

Okada:
When we asked our development team “what’s a Street Fighter bonus stage?”, ten out of ten people said “breaking the car”. So that was set in stone.

Taguchi:
Its a dynamic bonus stage that leaves an impression

Okada:
So the car breaking stage was the first to be decided. We then figured we wanted to add at least another stage. We thought about (oil) drums, barrels, or even a brick-splitting game, but then we thought “if we’re going through the trouble of adding two, let’s do something different from the car.” As the drums, like the car, are stationary, we felt that the moving barrels would be more interesting, so we decided on that.

So that’s why the barrel stage was chosen?

Okada:
One nice thing about the bonus stages is that it gives you a chance to practice combos and your own techniques that you’d like to use in battle. In the car stage, as the car stands still you have a chance to practice your moves and combos. As the barrels fall from above, you can practice your air combos or anti-air strategies.

Okay, so could you tell us some details about the car wrecking stage?

Okada:
We wanted to bring back the SFII feel, but if that’s all we accomplished that’d be a little sad. So we wanted to bring back the feel and the reactions, but add the “next generation” visual impact of SFIV to it. So we were particularly concerned with the “moving picture” theme and bringing out that visual quality.

The car does have a real sense to it.

Okada:
The designer who made the car model really took painstaking detail in making and analyzing it. He aimed for reality.

How did you decide on the type of the car?

Okada:
At the beginning there were a lot of different thoughts for this as well. The car wrecking stage was also featured in SF3, and the car at that time was a SUV. So with a sedan in SFII, and a SUV in SF3, we thought about what to do in SSFIV. One of the suggestions was one of those big yellow trucks you often see at construction sites. You know, increase the the size and scale of things to destroy. We also thought about using a fighter jet. But then the whole theme of SFIV has been “going back to the roots” as it were, so going along those lines picking the sedan was the obvious choice.

How difficult is the car wrecking stage?

Okada:
About the same as SFII. A little harder than SF3.

In what ways do the difficulty change?

Okada:
In SF3, you could break one side just by pushing punch buttons. There was no general concept of breaking by direction. However, as the bonus stage now uses SFII as a basis, we’ve re-created the concept of breaking in an order.

Can you tell us about any incidents that happened during development of the car wrecking stage?

Taguchi:
There were some bugs that popped up during development, it shouldn’t have been funny but we couldn’t help but to laugh. For example, Abel’s super…he grabs the opponent and pushes them to the corner, right? On the car stage, if you do super Abel would just get stuck in the car and continually keep running. (laughs) Honda’s headbutt would just continually grind against the car. (laughs)

Okada:
As the bonus stages use the basic battle system, we had to make for a lot of exceptions. That’s where the bugs came from.

Taguchi:
Its true for both bonus stages, but your opponent is not another character, but a third-party foreign object. So determining what happened when you attack it was quite difficult. Even bringing in the guys in charge, it was a whopper of a task to pull off. And of course we had to fix the bugs that we mentioned before.

Tsukamoto:
Energy drinks once more!!
(See the previous entry regarding the energy drinks)

Taguchi:
Those did the trick. (laughs)

Would you say that grappler characters are at a disadvantage?

Okada:
Not at all. For grapplers or even just the big characters, their regular moves do a lot of damage. It might actually be a little easier for grapplers to wreck the car. Without having to use a lot of different moves you can total the car.

Taguchi:
So, does that mean we can throw the car?

Okada:
No no no, the theme is going back to the basics here. (laughs) Even without throws…for example, T.Hawk’s crouching fierce does quite a lot of damage in 2 hits. And Zangief’s punch lariat is also pretty nice. Grapplers don’t mean you don’t need to ever use attacks. I feel like the car wrecking stage is a good chance to reacquaint yourself with the basic moves.

Taguchi:
Oh yeah, I just remembered! On the car wrecking stage, there was the idea that if Dhalsim does his yoga teleport, he’d teleport inside of the car. (laughs)

Everyone:
(laughs)

Taguchi:
Then he’d just say “yoga”, rev up the engine and drive off. (laughs)

Next, let’s talk about the barrel breaking stage.

Okada:
We mentioned this before, but in the barrel breaking stage, the barrels are in motion. So compared to the car stage, its a little closer to a real fight. At least, the feel of it. The barrels come one after another, so getting your timing just right is the most important thing. Also, the barrels are pretty strong, so if you miss one you can get overwhelmed. The car wrecking stage is just about destruction, while the barrels are about using your techniques. So you can enjoy the two stages as separate entities.

Taguchi:
Just like the old times, if you want to go the simple route you can just sit there and break barrels with your crouching fierce.

Okada:
But if you do that your score will be pretty low.

Tsukamoto:
What do you have to do to get a high score?

Okada:
Comboing into specials from normals, like c.strong into hurricane kick, or c.forward into shoryuken, that’ll get you a lot of points. Of course, this also increases the risk of missing, but it’s what you have to do for a high score.

Tsukamoto:
High risk high reward eh? Those are dangerous words (laughs).

Were there any incidents during the barrel bonus stage development?

Okada:
The lead for the bonus stages was going for realistic, so at first we gave the barrels hit properties. The idea was that if a barrel really did fall on you, it’d hurt. But what happened there was that because of hit trading, no one could get a perfect.

Really? No kidding?

Okada:
Even in the air it’d be a trade, punch lariat would get hit from overhead, and when the invincibility frames of shoryuken wore off…smacked with a barrel (laughs). Also, you can’t block barrels, but the characters would go into hit stun, so if you got hit with one the next one would just keep coming, and after about 5 seconds the character would get dizzied. And just as you got out of it…smacked with a barrel. (laughs) The barrels were the strongest character in the game (laughs). Of course, we’ve fixed that now!

Is there a character you would recommend for clearing the bonus stages?

Okada:
If you’re talking about breezing through the bonus stages, that would have to be Blanka. Even back during SFII, Blanka was the character for bonus stages! Even beginners could use Blanka! And that hasn’t changed now. I’d recommend him for both bonus stages.

Well then, are there any final thoughts you’d like to share for those waiting for the bonus stages?

Taguchi:
You’re free to do them as you like, so you can try to wreck the car as quickly as possible, or just destroy all the barrels in mid-air. Make up your own rules and enjoy the game like that. You can also use it as a small substitute for training mode.

Okada:
We made them with SFII in mind, so if you feel that they are similar to that time then I’ll be happy. We’ve adjusted the difficulty, so you bonus stage fans can have fun going after an unbeatable high score.

Tsukamoto:
Well, I’ll be reliving the past while breaking barrels with Blanka, but how about all of you? Has this gotten you more excited for it? Please wait while thinking up your own ways to enjoy the bonus stages!

The awesome ninja with sneakers is looking more and more kick-ass!

Check out the screenshot where he runs straight into Rose’s Soul Spark head-on.

That’s what I call fearless.

See the full article in Japanese after the jump.

Full Famitsu Article here

I send this greeting and i think you know why,
Wishing everyone Merry Christmas in Insert-coin.my.

Here’s his latest custom stick (Tekken themed) :

Do hit him up for more information and on the specifications of the innards!

Forum link here.

New pictures of Cody have emerged on Famitsu’s website.

As you can see, Cody’s clearly using some different weapons aside from the knife.

Whether or not his move list will change based on the weapons used remains to be seen; if it is indeed true, then he may be considered as a psuedo-stance based character, which could prove to be a interesting addition to the SF4 world.

See the full article (in Japanese) after the jump.

Famitsu article link here.

The Konami Code, known in Japan as the Konami Command (コナミコマンド, Konami Komando), is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, although the code also appears in some non-Konami games. The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System but was made famous in North America in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed the “30 Lives Code”. While pausing the game or during the title screen, the player could press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller

To view a list of konami code enabled games please visit this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_code_games

It has become very popular to implement this code within a website, often using jQuery to detect the keystrokes. Some famous Social networking website like Facebook.com & Tuduo.com also allows you to insert the Konami code. Now why don’t you try it sometimes?

To view a list of Konami code enabled websites, please visit this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_code_websites

They have an archive of artwork for older games as well, like the Fatal Fury series.

See the whole gallery after the jump.

SNK Playmore wallpapers.

I saw the option to toggle Motion Blur on/off. Which came off as weird to me; after all, if Namco put it in the graphics engine already, why bother to let the user turn it off?

It turns out that it’s more complicated than that.

As most PS3 Tekken owners(*cough fanboys cough*) may know, Namco compromised a fair bit of stuff to compensate for the XBox 360. What was surprising, however, was that Namco did not make identical ports; how, you may ask?

Well.. I’ll give this pleasure to Lens of Truth to pick apart Tekken 6 in their Head-to-Head.

Be prepared to see a long list of flame wars going on in the sites’ comments section though.

Article link here

Here’s a some videos, courtesy of Gamesradar.com, that shows the level 3 supers from most of the characters in the game.

Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to show all of the supers, but this gives you a good idea of what to expect from TvC.

Major WTF on Roll’s Super.

Having played it a bit, Ryu’s finally in shape in the Vs. series. He used to be pretty low-tier in those series, but it looks like he can hold his own in this game now.

And that’s how you pull off a Shin-Shoryuken, complete with electricity.

See the videos after the jump.

Videos Link here.

I’ve gone through my fair share of fighting games in my day, both good and bad, so I think it’s fair to say that I’m a relative expert in the field. I trudged through multiple versions of Clay Fighter, just because I thought the graphics were cool. With Street Fighter IV looming on the horizon, fighting game enthusiasts have yet another reason to get excited.

Well, let’s get out the ground rules for this top 10 list of the best fighting games of all-time. First, it must be a relatively conventional fighting game. This means that Super Smash Bros Brawl is not eligible, even if Solid Snake will be kicking some Zero Suit Samus butt in SSBB. Second, only one game from a given series can be included. This prevents having 9 Street Fighter games hog up all the spots. Lastly, it has to be a game that was/is available in North America. If you found a crazy JDM fighting game, that’s great… but it’s not eligible.

All that said, let’s have a look at what I feel are the top 10 best fighting games of all-time.

10. Virtua Fighter

Traditional fighting games are two-dimensional and typically use hand-drawn character sprites. Sega turned this on its head with Virtua Fighter, a fighting game that featured 3D polygonal characters, ushering a whole new era of fighting games. Arguably, it was Virtua Fighter that paved the way for future titles like the Tekken series and the Dead or Alive series. Sure, the gameplay wasn’t the best in the first Virtua Fighter and the polygons were huge, but man alive was it innovative for its time. The ring out concept was pretty creative too.

9. Time Killers

Mortal Kombat is usually the game that is credited for bringing video game violence to the forefront, but the brutality of Midway’s creation pales in comparison to Time Killers. The button configuration was quite different — five buttons corresponding to the two legs, two arms, and head — but it was when you pressed all five buttons that something incredible would happen: your character would attempt to decapitate his or her opponent. Meanwhile, you could also lop off their limbs. My personal favorite was Rancid with his chainsaw.

8. Fighting Vipers

Yes, Sega was back at it again. Enjoying the success of Virtua Fighter, they applied the same 3D engine to Fighting Vipers, another arena-based battler with some rather colorful characters. There are two main reasons why Fighting Vipers deserves mention. First, the armor system was interesting, because you could target specific body parts and they’d bust open after considerable damage. Second, Fighting Vipers introduced destructible environments and there was nothing more orgasmic that busting your opponent through the wall.

7. Fatal Fury 2

Andy Bogard, Terry Bogard, and Joe Higashi are probably the most recognizable characters from this SNK-developed versus fighting game, but it was when Fatal Fury 2 was released in 1992 that we were introduced to Mai Shiranui. In many ways, Fatal Fury (in all its different incarnations) was a rip-off of Street Fighter II. The same can be said about Art of Fighting, also an SNK title. But you know what? Mai is way hotter than Chun-Li will ever be, and this difference can be summed up in just two words: “Me bouncy!”

6. X-Men vs. Street Fighter

Tag-team fighting that combined two of my biggest obsessions, X-Men vs. Street Fighter gave us the chance to do two super moves at the same time. It was absolutely explosive to see Cyclops perform his gigantic optic blast alongside Ryu performing his Shinku Hadouken, filling the screen with a massive wave of energy. Wolverine was a natural favorite as well. X-Men vs. Street Fighter was truly original for its time and it ushered in a whole era of “versus” games, like Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK. It’s called fusion, my friends. Fusion.

5. Primal Rage

Pretty well every other fighting game at the time featured human combatants, but Atari’s Primal Rage had ballistic dinosaurs and overgrown apes that released golden showers. The control scheme — which involved holding buttons and then doing a control stick motion — was a considerable departure from the norm as well. This may have been one of the most under-appreciated fighting games of our time. Who could forget playing caveman volleyball?

4. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

If you don’t really like the supernatural, if you don’t like the idea of fireballs and super specials, the Tekken series is perhaps the best fighting game for you. Well, you can play as a panda and a kangaroo, but that’s beside the point. The sole reason why I selected Tekken 5 was because it introduced the character of Raven, a blatant copycat of Blade. But that’s okay, because he’s so freaking badass. Add in the portability of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection for the PSP and you’re in mobile fighting game bliss. Be forewarned: Tekken 5 is one of the more technical fighting games with one of the steepest learning curves.

3. King of Fighters ‘94

This was the title that introduced the world to team-based fighting. We grew far too accustomed to basic one-on-one battling and while that remained as the core gameplay mechanic, you had to best balance the strengths of your team members to succeed in this game. In future editions of King of Fighters, you could custom create your chosen trio as well. Some may even say that KOF is better than Street Fighter.

2. Mortal Kombat II

Flawless victory. Fatality. The first Mortal Kombat got soccer moms crying to the government and adolescents scampering to the arcades. Instead of using character sprites, Mortal Kombat actually video taped their characters, making for some of the most realistic graphics to date. Unfortunately, the first MK suffered from some pretty bad lag… but this was fixed in Mortal Kombat II. We also got a bunch of new characters, including Kitana, Baraka, and Kung Lao. The introduction of Friendship and Babality finishing moves was quite surprising.

That’s a pretty heavy list of games so far, but there can only be one game that reigns supreme…

1. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition

You must have seen this coming. No list of best fighting games would be complete without some mention of Ryu, Ken, and the rest of the Street Fighter franchise. Perhaps the most difficult decision, however, was picking which Street Fighter game was the absolute best and I had to go old school and kick it with Champion Edition. Hyper Fighting got too frantic, whereas Street Fighter Alpha (Zero) and Street Fighter III added little in terms of originality. Champion Edition let us control Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M.Bison and that made it all worth it. No super fireballs or gigantic sonic booms; just straight strategy and skill. It doesn’t get any better than Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.

A few notable games that didn’t quite make the cut are:

• Fist of the North Star (Game Boy)
• Power Stone
• Marvel vs. Capcom
• Pit Fighter
• Soul Calibur III
• Street Fighter Alpha
• Pocket Fighter
• Killer Instinct
• Dragon Ball Z
• Rival Schools
• Samurai Shodown
• Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2

*image and article sourced from Futurelooks.com

Samurai Spirits Sen, also known as Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, is to be released on the 360 tomorrow @ 10/12/2009.

Although this game was released in Arcades at 04/17/2008, thanks to the practically non-existent scene here in Malaysia, I’ve never seen nor heard about it before.

Anyway, here’s the official trailer, straight on the site.

Visit the official site after the jump.

Samurai Spirits official site

The following games are to be released on Xbox Live :

I never knew about KOF Sky Stage; upon some research, here’s what I came up with :

Yeah, it’s some sort of shoot-em-up; that’s Kyo and Athena flying around shooting stuff. Somehow. Iori and Kula is confirmed as well. Apparently this game features their trademark moves. How, that’s beyond me…

Leave it to SNK to make more wack stuff out of their franchise.

No word on the release dates yet, as it’s still marked as TBA.

Side note : SNK doesn’t seem to be showing any PS3 love; don’t see any sign of PSN notes there…

Hit the link jump for the official release.

SNK Press Release

Some screenshots from Famitsu on Adon kicking Sagat’s ass.

Poor Sagat. He presented the Ultra system to Adon in his animated intro at SF4; presumably Adon learnt about the new Ultra system, and joined in the fun as well.

Lo and behold, the HRAP-V!

For everyone’s sake, here’s my pathetic attempt in translating the specifications of the HRAP-V :

General info :
●PlayStation®3専用ジョイスティック
- Exclusively for Playstation 3 usage only

●代表的なアーケード筐体を踏襲した完全新規設計
- An all new design based on actual arcade cabinet designs(?)

●スティック機能切替スイッチ搭載 – 方向キー、左右スティックの機能を割り当てられます
- Support to switch between the directional pad, left analog stick, or right analog stick for the joystick.

【主な仕様】 – Physical Specifications
サイズ：約W430×D240×H125mm(スティックレバー含む)
- Dimensions approx. W430×D240×H125mm

質量：約2.2kg
- Weight approx. 2.2kg

ケーブル長：約3m(USB接続/背面収納可能)
- Cable length : approx 3m (seems like there’s a way to keep the cable inside the stick; correct me if i’m wrong on this)

スティックレバー：JLF-TP-8YT-SK（三和電子製）
- Joystick component: JLF-TP-8YT-SK (Sanwa Electronics)

○,×,□,△,L1,L2,R1,R2ボタン：OBSF-30（三和電子製）
- Main Buttons (○,×,□,△,L1,L2,R1,R2) : OBSF-30 (Sanwa Electronics)

STARTボタン：OBSF-24（三和電子製）
- Start button : OBSF-24 (Sanwa Electronics)

Specs already looking great, with all parts in place by Sanwa. It’s priced at 12,800 yen, which is approximately RM500/USD145.

To be released in Japan on Christmas Eve, 24th December 2009.

Hit the jump for the link to see it in all it’s glory.

Hori store link.

Eventhubs.com posted up a new interview with some in-depth look to returning character Cody in the upcoming Super Street Fighter 4 (due March 2010).

It seems like he may be having multiple weapons now in his arsenal. Cody’s shaping up to be quite an interesting addition to the SF4 series.

Here’s a short excerpt from the full article :

How about a message to those looking forward to using Cody?

Okada:
As it will be up to everyone to create the play style – well, I’m sure eventually one will stand out – but its all up to you, so I believe this is part of Cody’s charm. For other characters, you only need to learn one way to fight. Then from there, its a matter of polishing your skills. But for Cody, you can start out with one way, but when that doesn’t work you can switch to another. This way you learn several different fighting styles, and can combine them together and become stronger. I feel this way of leveling up is pretty interesting, so I hope everyone enjoys it.

Hit the jump for the full article.

Super Street Fighter 4 devs discuss Cody

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of youtube videos.

And quite often, I’ve found myself wanting to share it out with people.

Alas, internet connectivity isn’t always available everywhere, not to mention the speed of it. Besides, it’s always nice to have a offline version of it.

So after some trial and experiments with the ever so robust add-on engines in Firefox, I’ve found these add-ons to grab videos off youtube :

Easy Youtube Video Downloader

This adds a link below each youtube video that allows you to download each video in FLV, 3GP, MP4 formats. Perfect for directly copying it over to your phone and carry it around in your pocket.

But wait! That’s not all! When downloading via this method, you’re using only one connection to download the video.

Anyone remember Getright? Those ‘download accelerators’ that allows you to utilize multiple connections to download a file? Well, Firefox has a pretty neat Add-on that works in the same manner :

DownloadThemAll!

With this combination, you can actually download the videos pretty fast and nice. Of course, DownThemAll! isn’t just limited to just youtube videos; you can use it to download pretty much any file, as long as the website supports multiple connections and download resumes.

Although there are other plugins that do pretty much the same, I’ve found these to be very stable and reliable, and I highly recommend them.

Have fun, and go download those huge video files (long tournament videos comes into mind here) for offline viewing!

You know, those games that feature a couple of usually buff guys who walk around beating up other presumably bad buff guys?

No matter how many punches/kicks/stabs/whatever nasty stuff the baddies throw at you, it just takes a good old banana or apple lying on the side of the street to pump your health up.

Yup.

Apparently rotten neglected food at the side of a dodgy alley, where most of these games take place, is good for you. Next time you see a cheese being served at Jalan Bukit Bintang, be sure to take a bite.

You’ll feel much better.

See more after the jump.

Fine Foods of Beat-Em-Ups.

SF4 Combo System Exploration, Part 1
SF4 Combo System Exploration, Part 2

On a side note though…

Combo systems are quite often, what makes or breaks a game.

Take the Marvel series for example, and how the combo system subtly evolved.

In Marvel Super Heroes, the engine allowed for a lot of juggle and off-the-ground possibilities. However, by introducing a very flexible engine, it also introduced a lot of infinite combos, making it a race to see who can set it up first.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter took away some of the combo components (re-launches and multiple Off-The-Grounds-OTG, for example), but there was still a lot of problematic areas which still lead to infinite combo possibilities.

Capcom then revamped the engine once more, with the next in series game Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter. Unfortunately, this turned it into a boring-as-hell game, as the gameplay failed dramatically due to really boring combos and poorly-tweaked damage scaling.

Even the Street Fighter and KOF series had its’ own fair share of problems when they tried to introduce extra elements. KOF 97, Alpha 3 and Street Fighter 3 introduced an extensive juggling system, but in its’ place, introduced juggle glitches, which often lead to ridiculous dizzy combos or 100% ones.

Thankfully, the infinites in Street Fighter 4 can either be considered as pseudo-infinites (works only in certain situations and avoidable), or just plain tough to pull off.

Or I could be wrong.

Hopefully nothing ugly comes out of Super SF4.

This series of video tutorials by Xenozip give a quick run-down of Guy’s basics and advanced techniques that you’ll probably not know about if you didn’t spend your entire wallet on Alpha 3.

I spent a big chunk of my wallet in the arcades during the Alpha days, and can’t even come close to what Xenozip have achieved here.

Wait… you do know that Guy’s back in SSF4, right…?

I’m gonna skip the mandatory ‘hello world’ part to any website, and dive straight in to publishing some actual content.

Here’s a long list of Tekken 6 combo videos (a mixture of Tekken 6 & BR) by jkstan & FFDissidia1 from youtube.

These videos has nice notations, and tells you exactly what’s the input for each of the moves used. Tekken’s a highly technical game.

As most Tekken players may know, it’s almost impossible (at least for me… maybe I’m just getting old) to remember every single move for each characters. So it’s really helpful to be able to see how to execute them, rather than, “Hey, what move is that? How did that happen?”, and for players like me, who’s been playing throughout the series, for quite a bit now, but fail to learn new moves/too lazy to read the command list.

Here’s a sample of the video (Law) :

See the videos after the jump.

Oh, and do register if you like the thread.

Forum post link