The Fighting Games of 2012

There were a ton of fighters released and re-released during 2012. Here is what the year had to offer;

Arcade

• BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (November)
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (September)
• Persona 4 Arena (March)
• The Rumble Fish 2 (September)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Unlimited (March)

PC

• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (February)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (May)

Playstation 3

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)
• Dead or Alive 5 (September)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection (November)
• Fighting Vipers (November)
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (December)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (August)
• Makeruna Makendo 2 (December)
• Marvel vs. Capcom Origins (September)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (March)
• Persona 4 Arena (August)
• Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (November)
• Skullgirls (April)
• Sonic the Fighters (November)
• Soulcalibur V (January)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (March)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September)
• UFC Undisputed 3 (February)
• Virtua Fighter 2 (November)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (June)
• WWE '13 (October)

XBox 360

• Dead or Alive 5 (September)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection (November)
• Fighting Vipers (November)
• Fire Pro Wrestling (September)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (August)
• Marvel vs. Capcom Origins (September)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (March)
• Persona 4 Arena (August)
• Skullgirls (April)
• Sonic the Fighters (November)
• Soulcalibur V (January)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (March)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September)
• UFC Undisputed 3 (February)
• Virtua Fighter 2 (November)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (June)
• WWE '13 (October)

Wii / Wii U

• The King of Fighters '96 (July)
• The King of Fighters '97 (March)
• The Last Blade 2 (October)
• Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (August)
• Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (September)
• Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge (March)
• Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (April)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: WiiU Edition (November)
• World Heroes Perfect (July)
• WWE '13 (October)

PSP

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)

Vita

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)
• Mortal Kombat (May)
• Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (November)
• Reality Fighters (March)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (October)

DS / 3DS

• Tekken 3D: Prime Edition (February)

iOS

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (April)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (September)

Android

• The King of Fighters Android (March)
• Street Fighter IV HD (January)

Skullgirls Nominated for an Annie Award

Skullgirls has been nominated for the Annie Award in the Best Animated Video Game category. They are competing against Journey, Borderlands 2, and Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse. As much as I love Borderlands 2 (which can also be blamed for the lack of updates in recent months), I would be thrilled to see SG win this prestigious award.

In other SG news, it was revealed Friday evening that the SG team is working pretty much non-stop on a Japanese localization of the game. Also, SG has been nominated for IGN's Best Overall Fighting Game of 2012. They are up against Dead or Alive 5, Persona 4 Arena, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, & Street Fighter X Tekken for the award. And finally, SG lost against Max Payne 3 in the Best Animation category at the Inside Gaming Awards that took place last evening.

Mad Catz Brawlsticks on Sale Through December 17th

If you are looking for decent entry-level stick, the Brawlsticks for the PS3 & XBox 360 are a good way to go. Mad Catz currently has them on sale for $19.99 during their "12 Days of Christmas" sale. For that price it may even be worth it to buy two.

Capcom Hires Haunts & Combofiend

Capcom announced the hiring of Neidel “Haunts” Crisan and Peter “Combofiend” Rosas for yet to be revealed positions. The announcement took place at the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary tournament this weekend. It's been rumored since August that Combofiend has joined Capcom ever since he left compLexity.

Street Fighter X Tekken Ver. 2013 Trailer

A trailer for the 2013 update for SFxT was shown during the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary tournament that took place this weekend. The patch will go live on January 29, 2013. Further details on the patch can be found on the Capcom Unity blog.

Evo 2013 Date & Location Announcement Trailer

The Evolution 2013 tournament will be taking place on July 12th through the 14th at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. No main event games have been announced, yet.

Killer Instinct Trademark Denied

Thanks to the NeoGAF poster Rösti, it has been revealed that Microsoft's KI trademark renewal has been rejected because the name is currently own by Fox. The reason Fox has KI trademarked is because of a short lived TV show they had back in 2005/06. Microsoft has six months to respond to the rejection. You can read the full document here.

Killer Instinct Trademark Renewed

Microsoft renewed the KI trademark today, but little else is known about the move. Rare originally stated that KI3 is dead in the water, so this may just be a move to bring KI 1 & 2 to XBLA. This isn't so bad, but some of us PS & PC fanboys would like to play the games, too.

Dead or Alive 5: Pai's Swimsuit

Tekken Tag 2: Miharu, Sebastian, Slim Bob, & Dr. Bosconovitch

The footage is from Namco Bandai Live where Katsuhiro Harada was a featured guest and he provided some clips of the new fighters in action.

JoJo's All Star Battle Coming to North America

Siliconera has discovered that Namco Bandai has trademarked "All Star Battle" for use in the states. Siliconera also mentions that Namco had trademarked the "Pirate Warriors" label a couple months before they officially made an announcement for that game.

Dead or Alive 5: Gen Fu Vs Pai

Dead or Alive 5: Mila Vs Zack

Tekken Tag 2: WiiU Version

Power ups and Nintendo franchise skins.

Dead or Alive 5: Mila's Swimsuit

Dead or Alive 5: Pai & Gen Fu Officially Confirmed

Famitsu has released screen shots confirming the addition of these two characters to the DoA5 line-up.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus Coming to Vita

According to the new Famitsu, the new Guilty Gear will also be released on the Vita some time in 2013. As a bonus, the Vita version will have full voice acting. The PSN & XBLA versions will be released in October of this year in Japan. All three versions will have game rebalancing based off of the recently released arcade version, Plus R.

Salty Cupcakes

In response to Wednesday Night Fights dropping Skullgirls, Mike Z has decided to start his own SKullgirls-esq fight night. The event combines Skullgirls, cupcakes, boba, and not-being-held-at-my-apartment into one big desserty night.

Here are the details for the event;

When: Thursdays 7pm-??, beginning September 13th.
Where: Frootsii, a 24-hr casual boba/snack/dessert hangout located at 14318 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks. There's a big comfy couch, many types of delicious drinks and food to order, and parking underground. Also tables, chairs, a floor, lights, and lots and lots of breathable air.

I will be bringing two PS3 setups (and possibly a 360), all patched. Bring sticks, and if you have a lagless monitor it would be much appreciated. If bloodlust dictates, I will run a tournament starting at 9:30 or so.

If this one-off proves successful, he will turn it into a weekly event.

Skullgirls Patch Revision

Mike Z has released details about a revision of the patch that was submitted to Konami a couple weeks ago.

The changes are as follows:

• Filia – dashcancel on airballs hit or whiff.
• Fortune – can supercancel the overhead of her Rekkas.
• Parasoul – can call RC soldier to cancel out of her Lv3.
• Double – hold Back during startup of Car to come out from the other side of the screen. Also Furoboros back to 1/6 meter gain (up from 0), and s.MK-2nd frame data restored (1f slower than it is now, rather than 5f slower).
• Peacock – can supercancel teleport recovery anytime, even before she’s vulnerable, not from fake teleports; can cancel Georges into each other as soon as the bomb is created, like Parasoul’s tear toss; Peacock’s recovery after putting out Lenny is 5f faster.
• Cerebella – longer supercancel time on j.D+MP; can cancel Ultimate Showstopper into DP+MP right before the last hit, sacrificing damage but allowing combos, scales followup damage to 33%.
• Valentine – allow movement and actions after air scalpel super.
• Painwheel – can fly-cancel scythe grabs on hit. Scythe hitboxes adjusted, air versions and ground LK version will grab from closer.

A new video has also been released displaying the updated patch.

Watch live video from themixup on TwitchTV

Tekken Tag 2: Launch Trailer

The World Tekken Federation is now Live

The online social community service is now up and running for those who have a copy of Tekken Tag 2. The service is like a social-media network which users can "track their own fighting stats, create and manage a team with other players, participate in online competitions, and discuss fighting strategies amongst each other."

According to Namco, The WTF abides by two fundamentals;

• Scout: The World Tekken Federation gives the vast TEKKEN community a centralized hub for all things TEKKEN. Participate in the forums to discuss character strategies, move sets and gain insightful knowledge from the community. Connect with TEKKEN players of all skill levels to join or create teams and track their personal or team stats against other teams as they make their way through the leaderboards. Team leaders will be able to recruit rising competitors in the community to create an all-star roster of players.
• Train: The World Tekken Federation gives players access to a wealth of fighter stats to help improve their chances of defeating their foes in the King of Iron Fist arena. Players will be able to view and analyze their player card to gain insightful metrics pertaining to their entire battle history. Find out which character tag-team combinations work best, and which characters need more time with TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2’s robust training mode known as the Fight Lab. Players will also be able to extract valuable information about their opponents for the next time they meet in the ring.

Dead or Alive 5: Mila

Dead or Alive 5: Hitomi Vs Hayate

Dead or Alive 5: Pai Confirmed

Thanks to the trademark in the image above, Pai has been confirmed for the game.

Dead or Alive 5: Mila and Tina Cutscene + Gameplay

Tekken Tag 2: Kunimitsu

Final Six Tekken Tag 2 Fighters Revealed

Thanks to someone who got an early copy of the game, a .dat rip revealed the last six characters yet to be revealed through a promotion. The names of the final six are,

• Miharu Hirano
• Doctor Gepetto Boskonovitch
• Sebastian
• Violet
• Unknown
• Slim Bob

More details on the characters can be found at Shoryuken.

JoJo's All Star Battle Famitsu Scan

I don't read moonspeak, so just a scan for now.

Tekken Tag 2: Michelle Chang

Kat Accidentally Revealed for Playstation All-Stars Battle

Kat's, from Gravity Rush, profile was accidentally put up a little too soon and by the time Superbot realized their mistaken, someone had already grabbed a screen shot of the page. The official reveal will probably be some time next week.

Two Additional Characters Announced for JoJo’s All Star Battle

SiliconEra, via Jump, is reporting that Giorno Giovanna and Guido Mista, from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, will be playable characters in All Star Battle.

In other ASB news, the official site is releasing daily screen shots to tease the new game.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Angel & Ancient Ogre

Namco to Attempt World Record with Tekken Tag 2

Namco Bandai is holding a Tekken Tag 2 tournament on September 11th in Sydney, Australia to attempt a new Guinness record for the "largest screen used in a video game tournament" category. They'll be using the IMAX theater for the event and 400 combatants will be taking competing.

First Footage of Rumble Fish 2 on the NESiCA board

Turn down or mute the volume while watching. The announcers are quite loud.

Golden Joysticks 2012: Nominees for Best Fighter

The nominees for the Best Fighter category of the Golden Joystick Awards have jest been announced. The games chosen are;

• Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm - Generations
• Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
• Soul Calibur V
• Street Fighter X Tekken
• UFC Undisputed 3

To vote for your favorite, just visit the Best Fighter Nominees page.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Awesome Combos

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe 2, Probably Never

CVG asked Ed Boon if there will ever be MKvDC2. Ed stated that it is unlikely and that they'd rather develop the two series separately. His main concern with a MKvDC game is balancing the "violence and blood" from MK with the over-the top "superhero moments" from DC. By developing the two lines separately, NetherRealm can achieve both of those elements without stepping on fans toes.

No Mortal Kombat 2 Until Next Gen Consoles

In an interview with CVG, Ed Boon said the next Mortal Kombat game must be innovative instead of just releasing a rehash of the last game with new characters. For them to do this, he feels that they must wait until PS4 and/or XBox 720 to achieve their goal.

"If you introduce another edition of your game on the same console, you cannot provide a radically different experience."

"I'm sure, if we were to do a new Mortal Kombat game on next generation systems, I think we would be able to provide dramatically different experiences."

Playstation All-Stars Battle: Nariko & Sir Daniel Fortesque + Gameplay

Playstation All-Stars Battle: Raiden + Gameplay

Two New Game Play Videos for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HD

Jotaro vs. Dio

Polnareff vs. Iced

Street Fighter x Tekken Vita Gamescom Trailers

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Dante, Ratchet & Clank, Sackboy, and Spike

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to Feature Collaboration Costumes

Namco Bandai is pulling out all the stops for the new costumes in TTT2. They also released some concept are of a few others that they're working on.

More concept art can be seen over at Blue Gartr.

Persona 4: Arena 30th Challenge Demo DLC

This weeks P4A DLC is a demonstration mode of the 30th challenge for all characters. Although it is a free download, these same demos can be unlocked through game play.

Revelations 2012 (August 17-19)

• Over $50,000 in guaranteed cash pots
• One of the lowest registration fees ever ($25)
• Beautiful 43,000+ Sq. Ft Santa Monica L3 Location

More information can be found at Tournament Legacy and the event will be streamed on Ustream.

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma will be in Arcades by December

Famitsu posted an article stating that Arc intends to have BB:CP in arcades by Q4 2012 (October, November, December). There will be an early public testing chance at the Tokyo Game Show and an yet unannounced test at a arcade somewhere in Japan.

Producer Toshimichi Mori mentioned that CP is a direct sequel to Continuum Shift Extend and he recommends that players should replay the story mode to keep things fresh. He also said that in CP instead of having a story for each individual that instead there will be three main stories which will tie into one "true ending." Players will be able to switch characters as they advance the storyline. Mori mentioned that the tutorial mode will be returning, with more voices this time, and an mode based off of Abyss from Extend.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Delayed to November

Superbot posted on the PS Blog that the PSASBR released date has been pushed back to November 20th. The reason being that they want to deliver a fun, well-balanced, and compelling gameplay experience. Feedback from the current closed beta helped to make this decision.

Dead or Alive 5 Story Page Updated

The official Dead or Alive 5 story page has been updated with a synopsis and a chart displaying character relationships.

The new synopsis;

" Two years after the destruction of the TriTower, headquarters and symbol of DOATEC…

Helena Douglas has begun the task of rebuilding DOATEC, this time with the aim of using its technology for peaceful ends. She has ordered the dissolution of the Biotechnology Division, the indefinite suspension of the Military Division’s Projects Alpha, Epsilon and Omega, and the expulsion of all members of the Donovan faction from DOATEC’s offices around the world.

Now in the same position once held by her father, DOATEC founder Fame Douglas, Helena has announced that she intends to hold the fifth Dead or Alive tournament, to show the world the principles and philosophies upholding the new DOATEC."

And the relationship chart;

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Sly Cooper & Fat Princess

Sly Cooper

"Sly Cooper is a somewhat different type of character. He can turn invisible, but he loses the ability to block or roll."

Fat Princess

"Fat Princess is a character that’s heavy on combos and uses specials that require no skill."

Two New Videos for Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Cinematic Trailer

Lesson 2: Intermediate Techniques

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R Coming to Arcades in September

On September 20th, Arc System Works will be bring Guilty Gear back to arcades. The game will be using RingEdge 2 hardware and will support Sega's All.Net P-RAS Multi passes. PSN & XBLA ports are also on the way, but no release date has been set, yet.

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Catwoman Gameplay

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: The Basics

Lesson 1: The Basics

Namco Bandai in association with Level Up Your Game are releasing a series of tutorials that will lead up to the release of the game.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Sweet Tooth Explained

Today's PSASB feature from Superbot is a look at Sweet Tooth and his play style.

"His attacks hit hard and tend to send the opponent flying, but his play-style doesn’t involve a large amount of combos. Instead, he uses hit-and-run tactics."

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special Now Available for Wii

The 6th Fatal Fury is now available on the Wii Virtual Console for 900 Wii Points or $9. No new features were added, so it remains simply a port.

Persona 4: Arena is Playable With Only Two Buttons

DJ Cream built a two-button stick for P4A. One button is for "A mash" and the other is for "Dragon Punch." Everyone thought this was a joke, but now there is video that proves it works.

Xbox 360 Patch Now Available for Persona 4: Arena

If you own P4A for the Xbox 360, a patch was released this morning that worked out the net code kinks that plagued the Japanese & NA release copies. Get on that!

Super Street Fighter IV: PC Patch 1.07 Approved

Capcom has announced that the PC patch that was supposed to go live a few weeks ago has finally gotten approval and will be available next week. 1.07 will fix a number of bugs including;

• In the Car Crusher stage, a bug that made it impossible to advance has been fixed.
• Against specific characters, a bug that caused Juri to pass through her opponents when they were hit at point blank range with close standing medium punch has been fixed.
• Against specific characters, a bug that caused Dee Jay to pass through his opponents when executing close standing heavy kick super canceled into heavy Sobat Carnival has been fixed.
• Against Sagat, a bug that caused Cody's EX Bad Stone to miss when Focus Attack Lv. 3 -> Dash -> EX Bad Stone was performed has been fixed.
• In SSFIV AE, a bug where Dudley's Step Straight caused an opponent's hit animation to not operate as expected has been fixed.

New Screen Caps of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

Arc released screen caps of the three new characters and one for the new version of Noel today.

Amane

Azrael

Bullet

Noel

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: PaRappa Explained

Today Superbot displayed PaRappa the Rappa on the PSBlog.

"PaRappa is a quick, agile character, so he’s been designed to be accessible, just like Kratos, although he has very limited range."

New Dead or Alive 5 Trailer, Opening Declaration

A new trailer for DoA5 was released today featuring all the characters that will be available in the game.

New JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle Details

CyberConnect2 released some new details about the new JoJo's game in the new Famitsu. Here's what they mentioned;

• The game will have a character count at the level one would expect of a general fighting game
• There will be a story mode of a different nature than normal
• There won't be quick time events
• Some complained that the sound effects in the game's reveal trailer were soft. The final version will have proper sound effects.

PS3 Version of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Confirmed

A post over on Andriasang details that in the next issue of Famitsu, the Playstation 3 version of BlazBlue: CP is confirmed. Neither a release date nor any word of a X-Box 360 version is mentioned.

Update:
Andriasang posted a follow-up to their previous post stating that the Famitsu feature was a full preview for the PS3 version and that as of this time, there is no X-Box 360 version, at least in Japan. It looks like Arc is focusing a lot of time to make sure the net code works right out of the box. Currently the home version is 30% done, but no release date has been decided.

4Gamer attended a localization test for the arcade version and shared a image of what the character select screen looks like in it's current state.

Extended coverage of the event can be viewed on their site.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Kratos & Radec Explained

The studio behind PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, SuperBot Entertainment, has released videos explaining the basics of Kratos and Radec.

Kratos

"Kratos is described as a short-to-midrange fighter with high combo potential. His Super moves are based around his Blades of Olympus, and SuperBot designed him as a character that would be easy to pick up, due to his popularity."

Radec

"One of the first six characters created for the game, Radec is a long-range character who is weak up close. His melee moves are meant more to push the opponent out of melee range."

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will be available on Playstation 3 and the Vita on October 23rd.

Dimps to Revive The Rumble Fish Series

Siliconera has reported that Dimps, the developer for Street Fighter IV, has obtained the rights to The Rumble Fish series which they developed for Sammy Studios years ago. Their first order of business is to bring The Rumble Fish 2 back to arcades with new features including NESiCAxLive support, re-balancing, and a new double impact cancel system.

New Street Fighter X Tekken DLC Added

There are 40 new gems available, 20 for each side, and a new color palette pack. The gems for Street Fighter include a mix of anti-Pandora and vitality recoveries. While the Tekken gems help characters to Harmonize their skills. The gem packs, 10 per pack, go for $0.99 each or you can download a trial pack for free. The new color palette, the 6th of the series, adds 4 new colors for character customization and is available for free.