Posts

This Is the Year You Will Learn How to Perform Tekken’s Korean Backdash!

Image
“I want to play Tekken, but I don’t know how to/can’t do that  Korean Backdash  thing.” –  any random person in FGC for the past 20 years Backdash Cancelling  (or  BDC ) defines tournament play in Tekken. For the uninitiated, it’s exactly what it sounds like: it’s a method of movement based on cutting the recovery of your backdash. A version of this technique, known as the “Korean Backdash” in Tekken Tag Tournament, is the first thing people tend to bring up when talking about competitive play. It represents the gap between novice and advanced play, and fills curious players with fear. It’s the struggle that keeps smart people in intermediate levels. It baffles scientists! Doctors hate this one weird trick! It doesn’t have to be this way, friends. It’s not as hard as you may think it is. The Korean Backdash has been mythologized to the point of absurdity, and not without reason. This non-intuitive spacing tool is integral to the highest l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pokkén Tournament’s Burst Mode, Exhaust Frames, and design philosophy

Note: This article uses  numpad notation  for moves! It’s easy to walk away from playing Pokkén Tournament with the sense that this game was designed to bring new players into the fighting game genre. Pokkén distances itself from typical fighting game conventions at almost every turn; the lack of a mid/low block mixup, single button specials, the shifting Phase perspectives, and the color-coded attack triangle are all examples of this. Pokkén Tournament does a good job of streamlining the fighting game experience for new players, while still being grounded enough for any FGC-head to march in with strong fundamentals and run the shop. Burst Mode , on the surface, seems like an extension of this accessibility philosophy. Pokkén’s equivalent of a super meter grants you temporary access to both a high-powered super attack (which, for almost every character, is safe on block, if not having frame advantage!), and a passive defensive buff that allows you to furthe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creating mini-games to improve your own gameplay

Image
I have a feeling that everyone remembers their first rivalry, regardless of how friendly or heated it may have been. Mine was in a run-down Namco arcade in an outlet mall in Alabama. That’s where I was born, little Crow_Mashboy standing in front of a Soul Calibur 2 machine. My friends and I would go there a few times a week to play, but someone, the  same  someone, would always show up to destroy us. To my right, on the player 2 stick, was a guy probably in his 30s or so, dressed in a suit. I guess he worked somewhere in the mall. He always appeared at around the same time, and would only stay for 30 minutes or so.  I couldn’t tell you anything else about the man. But I can tell you this: “HOW DO I STOP IT!?” Crow_SpaceTeen shouted into the void. He lived for Ivy’s 1A. Mr. Suitman’s Ivy was purely keep out, and revolved around basically any move that had long range. It’s the sort of thing that’s woefully unimpressive in hindsight, but when you’re new and lac...
Post a Comment
Read more
So, this is weird. I apparently owned this at once point in time. And lost it. And now have it again? I don't know. Blogger is a strange format. Anyways! I am a professional writer for shoryuken.com. Gaming and art are both really big to me, and you can find a lot of that on my twitch account here , and on my youtube account here . That's where I predominately am. Come say hi! I think I will use this as a sketchpad of sorts for writing, and also a place to back up some of my favorite editorials that I've written for SRK, should I find the time. So this won't just be abandonedware or anything. - Crow
Post a Comment
Read more