Worst Combo Ever

Perfected by Maj of SonicHurricane.com, this two-hit masterpiece does zero damage. In his words, "Dan is profoundly awful at everything."

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CVS2 Match Play (with Gouki!)

Here's another example of new competition in old games from Game A-Cho. The game played here is Capcom vs. SNK 2. Watch out for the N-Groove Gouki, Ryu, Chun player, who shows some interesting high-risk play. He also employs a bunch of short jump and cross-up shenanigans that look incredibly hard to block. Take that, A-Groove!

Mortal Kombat is Broken

I found this over at TestYourMight.com. Using this glitch, Johnny Cage can perform his X-Ray move with no meter!

A Glitch is Born: How I Took Up the Viewtiful Mantle

So, Viewtiful Joe... He just doesn't seem that strong in MvC3. He's got stubby little arms only slightly compensated for by his great air mobility. What if I told you that he could put out his Shocking Pink bomb, it'll stay out for as long as you like, and you can detonate it on command even mid-move? Still not impressed? Well, you're probably right.

A few days ago I was exploring an MvC3 glitch posted on Shoryuken.com. The glitch causes Trish to stay out on-screen as an assist. It has no benefit to the player initiating it. In fact, it'll likely get Trish killed really quickly. I wanted to see if there were any weird effects that were introduced by the Trish glitch. Shuma is required to initiate the glitch, so I made a team of Shuma/Jill/Joe for both players in versus mode. Joe, I figured, could slow down Trish before initiating the glitch, possibly causing some weird stuff to happen. Eventually, I was able to get both Trishes standing on-screen, permanently slowed. With four characters standing around, I kept trying different ways to interact with them. Somehow, I performed a L Shocking Pink, then canceled into Joe's Godhand (aka Slow) super, while never letting go of L. The fuse on his bomb ran down as usual, but it never exploded. I was able to kick the bomb around the screen for as long as I wanted. When I let go of L, it exploded. The Viewtiful Detonators glitch was born. I had entered training mode trying to exploit one glitch, only to discover a completely unrelated one. I submitted it to Shoryuken and it made front-page news.



As a quick aside, the name of the glitch might not be the most elegant ("bomb glitch" would probably suffice), but it's an homage to Super Bomberman. Back in the day, during multiplayer sessions we'd refer to the remote mines as "detonators," as in "Oh, no! He's got detonators!" For whatever reason, that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the remotely-activated bomb.

The next step was to break the game with this technique. Obviously, Joe could now do all kinds of combos and tricks that were impossible before. The detonator activation may be the only attack in the game that can be activated at literally any time, including times when you cannot X-Factor or DHC. This includes during the Godhand super's cutscene. The detonator can OTG, and throwing an opponent onto the bomb is highly effective; Joe is invincible throughout the throw animation, so there's no special timing required to only hit the opponent. You can store a detonator mid-combo. With specific spacing, you can combo after the Godhand, which is usually impossible (other than a super-tight link directly to snapback). Someone suggested using the trick to get an easier combo to snapback after the Godhand. Other than the spacing requirements, it's not difficult:



This still didn't make the glitch game-breaking. Someone sent me a message that a combo video on SRK's front page was using the glitch:



Any time you see the bomb in a combo, the Detonator glitch is being utilized. These combos take the concept to the extreme. I particularly like the idea of comboing Godhand into another character who can abuse the slowdown, like Magneto or Ammy. Even so, these combos are not very practical and still don't make Joe totally unstoppable. At this point, I'm beginning to think that this glitch will never be broken. The real test will be seeing how it affects match play.

There are a few tricks that may pay off for Joe in match play. The spacing for performing an air-throw reset onto OTG detonator is not that strict, and it can combo into an air Desperado super. Another quirk of the detonator is that is will detonate any time Joe is hit. This allows for defensive uses. Joe can hide on top of the bomb, using it like Dormammu's Flame Carpet. If an opponent lands a surprise hit, the bomb will explode and knock them away. There are definite ways to send your detonator flying behind your opponent using the Desperado super. If you're able to hide the bomb just behind your opponent, you can immediately detonate upon any button press or assist call. These are only a few of the uses I expect to see in the coming days.

In conclusion, in spite of all his new tricks and tons of effort trying to abuse them, I really don't think that this glitch will make Joe overpowered in any way. He's definitely not a bad character, but I feel like he's lacking the potential to be a dominant force in the game, which is kind of pathetic considering that he has an unintended new power.

Professor Killian @ NYU

This past week, NYU's Game Center held its second annual Spring Fighter series of events. This year's endeavor was sponsored by the folks at Capcom, who were nice enough to send Seth Killian to the three-day extravaganza. Though you might be aware of the tournament portion (thanks to Team Spooky's stream) or the fact that Arcade Edition was demoed on console, Spring Fighter comprised several amazing — but less publicized — events.

The festivities began Thursday with a screening of Ian Cofino's I Got Next, a documentary about the competition and camaraderie driving the dedicated Street Fighter community. The movie was not only enjoyable for fans like myself, but also would be a great introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the fighting game community. The night concluded with a Q&A session with Seth Killian and notable fighting game player and organizer "Long Island" Joe Ciarmelli. The back-and-forth chat with the audience of about 30 people focused on community. Topics covered included online versus offline competition, how to improve your game, and how games are evolving to meet the needs of the exponentially-expanding community. Seth and Joe were frank and honest in their answers, and you could feel their honest love of the games and the community surrounding them. It was clear that this was not a PR mission; this was for the benefit of the fighting game community.

Friday's session was a lecture on game theory in fighting games by Seth Killian. Professor Killian explained how he has a fondness of dissecting how competitive games are played, dating back to his days as a poker player. You see, before he was playing Street Fighter, Seth was trained in poker by none other than 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Huck Seed. For Seth, the transition to Street Fighter was just a natural progression. Every action in a fighting game, he said, is like a bet. You are putting yourself at risk in order to force your opponent to react. If you play wisely, your risks will pay off and your opponent's will not. To illustrate his points, Seth presented a Street Fighter 4 match between Daigo and Nemo (viewable below) and broke it down almost frame-by-frame. He had actually discussed the match with Daigo, so he was able to tell us exactly what was going through Daigo's head at any particular moment. It was a phenomenal insight into the moment-to-moment decisions made as each successive gambit was launched. Seth literally has fighting games down to a science, and he is clearly capable of communicating their allure in a very scholarly manner. After his lecture, the audience got a chance to ask questions. Just as he did the previous night, Seth truly shined during the Q&A. This session, however, focused more on the games themselves and the mechanics that make them interesting. It was once again a friendly, PR-free chat between a room full of fans and another fan — who just happened to be Seth Killian.

Seth reassured us that the fighting games we love are only going to get even better in the coming years. Despite all of the amazing games that have come and gone, he is confident that the perfect game has yet to be created. I'm proud to have Seth Killian working for us, the fans, and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

SSF4:AE DLC Patches Not Ruled Out

Just because SSF4:AE is the "final" version of SF4, don't believe everything you read about it remaining unchanged forever. Though there are currently no plans to tweak the game via patches, Capcom hasn't ruled it out. This is according to Sven at Capcom-Unity. To be honest, I don't expect the game to get patched, but the possibility does remain, if ever so slightly.

Breaking: Captivate News

Capcom held its annual Captivate press event last week in Miami. The embargo lifted this morning at 11:00 AM Eastern. Here's what's been revealed [One last update.]:

• Podcast by a bunch of Capcom dudes talking Captivate.
• Ton of notes on SFxT from Play.
• Great SFxT FAQ by Will
• SFxT Site is up. Trailer here.
• Unity post on SFxT
• Playable SFxT characters so far: Ryu, Ken, Chun, Guile, Abel, Kazuya, Nina, Marduk, Bob, King
• New title is called Dragon's Dogma, looks a bit like Monster Hunter meets Shadow of the Colossus
• AE will be sold on June 7 as DLC ($15) and standalone disc ($40)
• Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a what-if story, with Frank West as the protagonist of DR2 (FAQ by Zonic)
• New Asura's Wrath trailer

2 Hours of Japanese Shuma Play

Do you like watching Shuma-Gorath fight? Do you have two hours to kill? Well, then I've got just the thing for you. I found the above video on psychorarity's YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Surprise! AE DLC Coming Soon

The inevitable Arcade Edition DLC for console SSF4 was announced in a trailer at Captivate. The official announcement should follow Tuesday morning. Source: Trailer confirms Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition DLC | Joystiq

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The Marvelous Adventures of Shuma

Sweet Shuma action starts at 20:00. [Clip from The Marvelous Adventures of Gootecks & Mike Ross.]

Never Give Up: MvC3 Edition

The last 1:30 of this video is awe-inspiring. We've all seen X-Factor comebacks, but what happens when X-Factor runs out? Does Ryu even have the tools to open an opponent up with absolutely no life left? Chris G answers these questions and more in this edition of Never Give Up.

Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors

Music inspired by Mortal Kombat is nothing new. The Immortals released Mortal Kombat: The Album way back in 1994, featuring the famous titular shout. Perhaps as a nod to that, a new album, Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors, was created to complement MK9. I checked it out, hoping to have something hilarious to write about; however, the music is nowhere near as cheesy as the old album. Most of the tracks are actually not bad. You can listen to streaming versions of all the tracks on AOL's music site. My favorite so far is Reptile's Theme.

[Discovered via Jeff Gerstmann on Twitter.]

Amaterasu's Easy Infinite

Courtesy of Desk, here's a video of Ammy's infinite. It only works on Zero, Taskmaster, Hulk, and Ammy. It's really easy to do and works anywhere on the screen. Simply do F+H for one to five hits then QCB+attack. Depending on the character, you may have to do a certain number of F+H hits (two for Taskmaster) or a specific strength of the QCB attack. Try it out online; that way your opponent isn't able to reach over and punch you.

Spot the Fake Contest

What makes this picture an obvious fake? The picture on the back (of Dudley's super) is not from 3rd Strike; it is from the original Street Fighter 3: New Generation.

This is, however, not unprecedented on actual Capcom boxart. The first commenter to provide photographic proof of a Capcom fighting game with a screenshot from a totally different game on it wins a sealed copy of MvC3 for Xbox 360.

Rules: I reserve the right to decide what constitutes proper proof and to change these rules at my whim. I'm looking for a photo that clearly shows the entire side of the package containing the error, with said error clearly visible. If I don't like what I see, then that submission will not win. If I don't receive a winning submission within one week, I may end the contest without a winner. I have a specific game in mind, but would be pleasantly surprised if someone found another. Good luck, and happy hunting!

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Shuma Match Play

This is the first tournament match footage I've seen of a Shuma-Gorath player. Notice his use of the super-safe, low-to-the-ground c.M. It gets under projectiles and pulls the opponent in for a full combo. I'd like to see more high level Shuma play, but does he stand up to the game's real powerhouses?