Double by Riftka

The 8th and final Skullgirls character has finally been revealed to be Double!  She was shown last night on Spike GTTV with a very quick 30 second segment, and today Gametrailers has posted a two part character walkthrough for her with Mike Z narration.  Her character page on the official Skullgirls website has also been added.  As Mike Z says, she is super gross, being a shapeshifting Eldritch abomination and all.  Many of her moves have her transforming into the other characters of Skullgirls.  Some of them are just modified versions of existing moves, but there are also many that are completely unique like 236p turning her into Parasoul shooting a gun.  Her Level 3 super should look very familiar to fighting game fans, and it even has cameos for Umbrella, Squiggly, and Ms Victoria!

But all pales in comparison to her Level 5, which is the most amazing thing ever.  I won’t spoil what it is, so if you haven’t already basked in its glory, go watch the videos now!

Dizzy by Toshi

This has just been an amazing week for fighting game news!  Just one day after the announcement of AC+ getting backported to arcades, Arc System Works has made an official announcement that Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus will be ported to XBox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network with built-in netplay.  This is great news and it is something that the community has been waiting on for several years now.  No information about the price and the release date are known at the moment, since details are scarce, but it’s nice to know that we Guilty Gear fans don’t have to be left behind anymore!

I-No by Yamaishi108

According to Sega’s AOU portal, there will be a “new” version of Guilty Gear on display at AOU 2012 this weekend!  The game is tentatively titled Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, and it seems to be a backport of console’s AC Plus to arcade.  The game will be on the NESICA x Live system, which is the same thing that BlazBlue uses.  Information is scarce right now, so a lot of what I’m writing here is speculation, but based on the screenshots it seems like it will retain the game’s original 4:3 ratio by adding sidebars.  It also looks like Justice and Kliff will be playable!

A lot of people are wondering as to whether the game will be re-balanced or not.  And if not that, then if Kliff and Justice will be re-balanced.  Personally, I’d like for them to keep the game the way it is and just re-balance Kliff and Justice(if they’re indeed playable).  And the main reason for that is because I feel Accent Core is the most balanced and dynamic game in the entire series: any kind of adjustment could totally mess that up.  You might argue that ArcSys has a mountain of experience at this point of time, and that any changes they make to Guilty Gear will be done carefully, but I don’t have that kind of faith!  Accent Core is a weird game, and I like to describe it as a game that’s “accidentally” balanced.  When you look at the changes from Slash->AC, it’s almost as if they just pulled some random ideas out of a hat and added them.  My impression is that the game probably wasn’t carefully and intentionally balanced; it just got lucky and ended up being pretty balanced.

But then I also have to look at this from the arcade operator point of view.  The NESICA x Live hardware is really expensive.  If the new Guilty Gear is just exactly the same as Accent Core, it’s doubtful that arcade operators would want to pay all that extra money for essentially the same game when they could get it for much less on the Naomi system.  So it seems to me like there must be some kind of rebalancing or new character additions to make it a worthwhile purchase for arcade operators.

But we’ll see how it goes.  There should be more information released this weekend, and there’s even a chance that it will get some streamtime on the Sega AOU2012 ustream channel.  Hopefully this is a step closer in getting that Accent Core next-gen console part!

EDIT: It’s up on Youtube now!

Volume 39

Volume 40
FAB(Potemkin) vs Kiisha(Faust)

Volume 41
Tanabata(Slayer) vs Woody(Testament)

There are a lot of videos, so they’ve been posted after the break.
Inoue(HOS) vs Asagami(Eddie) 1

Inoue(HOS) vs Asagami(Eddie) 2

Inoue(HOS) vs Teresa(Jam)

Inoue(HOS) vs FAB(Potemkin) 1

Inoue(HOS) vs FAB(Potemkin) 2

Inoue(HOS) vs Satou(Johnny)

Valentine by BBadruddin

The guys over at Machinima have a great Skullgirls treat for us this weekend, a 3 part video walkthrough of Skullgirls and Valentine!  With Ecko and Mike Z on board, they run through the general gameplay elements of Skullgirls and the various training mode features.  It’s very nice to see hitstun and blockstun bars implemented in training mode.  I’ve only seen two fighting games(Eternal Fighter Zero and Immaterial and Missing Power) have that feature, and it’s something that I wish all games would pick up.

This is the first footage that has the complete version of Valentine, so there are a lot of new things on display.  First off, her Level 2 super is a counter handled RIGHT.  Meaning there’s no superflash activation, and if it whiffs the meter still gets used.  Her level 5 super is a defibrillator strike, which can hit the opponent but is unsafe on block.  But the unique thing about it is that it can revive downed teammates!  I’ve always been wandering why dead characters in Skullgirls stayed on screen, and now I know why.

Len and White Len by Hitoha

Two sets of tournament footage for the price of one!  Kanto Saikyou Ketteisen SP continues with the January 22nd tournament at Freedom Yokohama and the January 29th tournament at Yawata Game ACE.  There’s a ton of footage available from the Yokohama tournament, as the A and B Block matches were recorded along with Top 4.  The Game ACE tournament is also special because the videos are actually available for direct download from the arcade homepage!  That’s something you definitely don’t see much nowadays in the age of streaming and Adobe Flash.

Tons of videos in this post, so they’re posted under the break!
2012/1/22 Kanto Saikyou Ketteisen SP at Freedom Yokohama
A Block
Valhalla(CH-Satsuki), Ginyuushijin(F-Nero), Suzuki(F-Wara) vs Fujinami(H-VSion), Akaren(HF-Len), Hagi(F-Akiha)

Kyaba(H-Akiha), Geroinu(C-Nanaya), Tintin(C-Mech) vs Yamahii(C-Nanaya), Sora(H-Shiki), Oyashiro(C-Kohaku)

Kyaba(H-Akiha), Geroinu(C-Nanaya), Tintin(C-Mech) vs Lucle(C-Hisui), Sen(C-Shiki), Karukea(C-VAkiha)

Suzuki(F-Wara), Ginyuushijin(F-Nero), Valhalla(F-Satsuki) vs Shitone(C-Hisui), Supe(Hime), Toku(Nero)

B Block
Rin(Sion), Kata(VAkiha), MaSa(Warc) vs Kyou(F-Warc), Kazuya(C-WLen), Mao(C-Roa)
Hotori(C-Seifuku), Rena(H-Nanaya), Mitten(C-Wara) vs Waka(F-Kohaku), Chabo(Ciel), Uru(Nanaya)

Bubu(C-Nero), Rei(C-Nanaya), Jin(C-Hisui) vs Rin(CH-Sion), MaSa(C-Warc), Kata(VAkiha)

Kata(H-VAkiha), Rin(C-Sion), MaSa(C-Warc) vs Chabo(C-Ciel), Waka(F-Kohaku), Uru(H-Nanaya)

Top 4
Supe(H-Hime), Shitone(C-Hisui), Toku(C-Nero) vs Sen(C-Shiki), Karukea(C-VAkiha), Lucle(Hisui)

Kata(F-VAkiha), Rin(F-Sion), MaSa(C-Warc) vs Fuusui(C-Aoko), Kouki(Arc), Suu(Wara)

Battle for 3rd place
Kata(C-VAkiha), Rin(C-Sion), MaSa(Warc) vs Shitone(C-Hisui), Toku(C-Nero), Supe(H-Hime)

Grand finals
Lucle(C-Hisui), Sen(C-Shiki), Karukea(C-VAkiha) vs Suu(C-Wara), Kouki(C-Arc), Fuusui(Aoko)

2012/1/29 Kanto Saikyou Ketteisen SP at Yawata Game ACE
Kata(VAkiha), Mania(H-Sion), MaSa(C-Warc) vs Chino(F-Seifuku), Miharu(C-Ciel), FDH(C-Nanaya)

Kame(C-Mech), Taa(F-Len), Yamahii(Ciel) vs Yoshino(H-Len), Hato(F-VAkiha), Surume(F-Nanaya)

Battle for 3rd place
Miharu(C-Ciel), Chino(F-Seifuku), FDH(C-Nanaya) vs Hato(F-VAkiha), Yoshino(H-Len), Surume(Nanaya)

Grand finals
Mania(C-Sion), Kata(C-VAkiha), MaSa(C-Warc) vs Kame(C-Mech), Taa(F-Len), Yamahii(Ciel)

Inoue(HOS) vs Machaboo(Ky), FAB(Potemkin)

This footage has also been added to the Compilation Videos page.

Parasoul by Yojio

Ravidrath’s newest post on the US Playstation blog has a brief run through of the different play modes and features available in Skullgirls, including custom soundtracks and an in depth tutorial.  There’s also a preview of the game’s Story Mode, which looks very visual novel influenced like that of Blazblue’s.  Apparently Parasoul doesn’t have a permanent frown on her face because she’s actually shown smiling in one of the preview shots.  The custom movie posters that every character has are amazing: I really hope they’re released in high quality someday!  There’s a ton of new artwork and new music used in the trailer, so if you’re at all interested in Skullgirls, get to it!