Ermac Returns in Mortal Kombat X, Stream Archive

During a Kombat Kast stream on Jan. 29, NetherRealm Studios announced that Ermac will be making his return in MKX. Originally playable in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the telekinetic red ninja appears with a new hooded appearance for the title.

During the stream, Ermac's three selectable styles were shown: Master of Souls, Mystic and Spectral. NetherRealm also showed off a new stage, Destroyed City, and walked through the various interactions characters will be able to perform in it. NRS also displayed gameplay for Kung Lao and revealed one of Ermac's fatalities.

Viewers can check out the stream archive after the jump.

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Super Desperation Radio Episode 345 Archive Online

The latest episode of Super Desperation Radio is now available for watching on IPLAYWINNER'S YouTube channel.

On the heels of Frosty Faustings VII, SDR talked about the tournament that was, examining the characters in top 8 and talking about how FF was an important evolutionary step for the U.S. Xrd scene.

Faustings was also the fist non-Evo, out-of-state tournament for Sanchez, and he briefly explained his thoughts on the Midwest.

Later in the show, the cast went over the Evo 2015 game lineup, talking about the surprises of two Smash games and two airdash titles along with the complaints from those scenes left on the sidelines.

Super Desperation Radio is live every Monday at 6:30 p.m. PST on Twitch and YouTube.

BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend Coming to PS Vita

At the end of 2014, Arc System Works announced that BBCP Extend would be coming to consoles in April 2015. The game will feature the characters added to Chronophantasma 2.0 in Japanese arcades and new story elements. Now the company has added that BBCPE will be coming to the PS Vita in Japan on the same day of its console release, April 25.

The game will be available as a download from the PlayStation Network, but a price has yet to be determined by Arc System Works. The company is also not willing to say what differences, if any, the game will have from its console counterparts. A physical release for the game was not detailed.

A release date for BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend has not been announced for the U.S.

Video: Guilty Gear Xrd Top 8 from Frosty Faustings

Nobody.exe has uploaded the top 8 matches from the main event of Frosty Faustings VII to his YouTube channel. The event, which was held Jan. 23-24, had a Xrd bracket of roughly 100 competitors featuring the strongest players in the Midwest along with other notable players including Mexico's Kusanagi.

The grand finals of the event saw ElvenShadow, recently returned to the U.S. after living in Japan, face off against BananaKen. Viewers who would like to follow along with the bracket can find it here.

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Tekken X Street Fighter Still in Development, No Release Date Yet

Polygon recently talked with Katsuhiro Harada about his work at Bandai Namco, and while there were many topics to discuss one that stood out was the lack of information surrounding the company's half of its collaboration with Capcom.

"[Tekken X Street Fighter is] very difficult to talk about," Harada said. "Obviously, I had originally planned to release it much earlier than we're currently looking at."

The Tekken series director said there is currently no solid release date planned for the game but that it is still in development with "around 40 people currently working on it." Harada did, however, say that when the game is finally ready for release he hopes to deliver it in a special way.

"People have been talking about the game for such a long time that they aren't going to be surprised if you just release it normally ... I don't know if that's what we have planned, but we do plan to have some kind of surprise," he said.

Evolution 2015 Lineup Announced

In sitdown interview with Mike Ross at Twitch headquarters, Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar revealed the games that will be part of this year's Evo. The Evolution staff is putting on nine games for the competitive fighting game community, complete with a surprise or two. The games are:

Ultra Street Fighter IV

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

Killer Instinct

Mortal Kombat X

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tekken 7 (arcade)

One of the biggest surprises is that Tekken 7 will be played on the arcade version of the title, which Mark "MarkMan" Julio said will be available "all over" before Evo. However, with the game still in development, it remains to be seen what that will mean for the community.

Super Desperation Radio Episode 344 Archive Online

The latest episode of Super Desperation Radio is now available for watching on IPLAYWINNER'S YouTube channel.

With the announcement of games for Evolution 2015 soon to come, SDR took most of the show talking about which games each cast member felt will make it to the big event in July.

First, however, Walkman lead a discussion about Smash 4 that branched into a conversation about patches, updates and how games are or should be balanced.

Lastly, SDR talked briefly about the upcoming NorCal Regionals 2015, and the accommodations available in Sacramento.

Super Desperation Radio is live every Monday at 6:30 p.m. PST on Twitch and YouTube.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax 2.0 Changes Translated by Xie

Arc System Works recently released the list of system and character changes to Persona's second fighting game in a post on the company's website. However, as the document was in Japanese many U.S. players were left filtering the text through automated translation programs or waiting on fellow gamers to fill in the information.

James Xie has now come to competitors' rescue, releasing a Google Doc translating the entire change list for the public to view. Xie admits that his work may not be perfect and that the file "still needs to be proofread/formated/verified," but it certainly lessens the legwork players would otherwise have to do to see the changes for the whole cast.

Players can find the document here. 

P4U2 Arcade Update Releases Jan. 15, Changes Detailed

Arc System Works has announced that the new update to the arcade version of Persona 4 Arena's sequel—named Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold in Japan—will launch on Jan. 15. After several loketests in November, the company has finalized changes in the title and is ready to release it to the general public. 

Changes in P4U2 include not only character tweaks but also system changes to the game. ASW has made all those changes available to the public in a recent post on the company's website. The change list is in Japanese, but posters over at Dustloop are in the process of sharing translations in the character sub-forums.

Super Desperation Radio Episode 343 Archive Online

The first episode of Super Desperation Radio in 2015 is now available for watching on IPLAYWINNER'S YouTube channel.

January means the start of a new season of fighting game major tournaments, and SDR talked about the upcoming Kumite in Tennessee, APEX and Frosty Faustings events that round out the month.

Talk then briefly switched to the recent controversy over Patreon before moving on to the upcoming Cooperation Cup tournament for Street Fighter III: Third Strike in Japan.

Later, the news that Tekken 7 is testing a method to allow both players to start on the first player side generated discussion and a bit of confusion, as did the roster of playable characters for the upcoming game.

Super Desperation Radio is live every Monday at 6:30 p.m. PST on Twitch and YouTube.

Curse Gaming Merges with Team Liquid

Two pro gaming teams have decided to join forces as the former Curse Gaming will fold into Team Liquid. Former Curse owner Steve Arhancet will be known as "Liquid112" going forward, and will co-own Liquid with team founder Victor Goossens.

"Across all games, Liquid is better equipped than ever to attract new recruits and treat our players better. We're able to cater better to our sponsors, and are able to provide better conditions for our staff. By doing all of this, we place ourselves right among the largest esports teams in the world," Goossens said in a statement.

The new Team Liquid will include former Curse fighting game players Kashan "Chillindude" Khan, Juan Manuel "HungryBox" Debiedmad and Du "NuckleDu" Dang.

Omen, Herald of Gargos, Coming to Killer Instinct

In the most recent textual stream for Microsoft and Iron Galaxy's Killer Instinct, the new character Omen was announced as a bonus character for owners of Season 2 of KI. As a bonus character, Omen is not initially being offered separately and will instead be a gift to owners of the second season.

Omen is based on the boss version of Shadow Jago, but has been redesigned to be its own separate entity. The post showed only a partial picture of Omen, showing a clawed wing and hand emitting energy. The character is also said to be "one of the best zoning characters in KI… situationally." Omen will be previewed in a gameplay stream and then a full trailer in the upcoming weeks.

Hit the jump for a small overview of the character from Ultra-Combo.

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Kung Lao Returning to Mortal Kombat X

According to an article from a recent issue of Finnish gaming magazine Pelaaja, Kung Lao will be making his return in Mortal Kombat X.

An image, which shows other confirmed fighters Quan Chi, Goro and Raiden, surfaced as the magazine's January issue made it into the hands of subscribers.

One such player, AeroGrunt at Test Your Might, dedicated a thread to images from the magazine and a translation of pertinent information from the article. Some of that news includes new details on how online play will be handled in the new game.

Hit the jump for the translations.

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Super Desperation Radio Episode 342 Archive Online

The holiday episode of Super Desperation Radio is now available for watching on IPLAYWINNER'S YouTube channel.

SDR closed out 2014 talking about the year that was with IPLAYWINNER boss and producer Chris Ceglia as a special guest.

The crew talked about the possibility of Aftershock 2, remembering the first event and centering the discussion on the recent NorCal versus SoCal arguments on Twitter about UNIEL.

The show switched gears as everyone talked about comeback mechanics and their place in games, and it eventually ran late as Ceglia answered a few listener questions including 'what makes for a good commentator?'  

Super Desperation Radio is live every Monday at 6:30 p.m. PST on Twitch and YouTube.

Dead or Alive 5: Last Round to Include Free DLC Costumes

Dead or Alive 5: Last Round will be including a number of the Dead or Alive 5 and DOA5 Ultimate downloadable costumes free of charge.

In a recent post on the game's website, Team Ninja listed the content that will be standard for those who purchase the new version of the game.

Hit the jump for the full list.

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KOF 2002 Unlimited Match Coming Back to PlayStation?

Siliconera is reporting that King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match will likely be showing up on a PlayStation console in the near future. Citing a Korean Rating Board listing, the site says that the game has Sony Computer Entertainment Korea as a publisher.

It is uncertain, however, what this means for 2k2UM. The version that comes out for PlayStation is likely to be—like KOF '98 UM and Samurai Showdown VI—a PlayStation Classics release of the game if history is any indication. PS Classics are emulated versions of the Playstation and PlayStation 2 releases of titles, and have always included plenty of lag rendering them unplayable to competitors.

It is possible, though, that this could be a new version of the game to coincide with the forthcoming Steam release of 2k2UM. For now, details are too scarce to make a conclusion one way or the other.

Super Desperation Radio Episode 341 Archive Online

The holiday episode of Super Desperation Radio is now available for watching on IPLAYWINNER'S YouTube channel.

This episode of SDR focused largely on the developing U.S. scene for Guilty Gear Xrd, talking about recent tournament results and what characters seem to be achieving the most success during the early weeks of tournament play.

The cast also discussed the recent patch to Xrd that has seemingly hampered online play, and compared it with the recent release of King of Fighters '98 UMFE on Steam. 

Lastly, there was discussion about unblockables or "hard-to-blockables" and their place in games, which dovetailed into Ogawa's upcoming visit to Norwest Majors in April 2015.

Super Desperation Radio is live every Monday at 6:30 p.m. PST on Twitch and YouTube.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Frame Data by Kedako

Japanese Guilty Gear player and May specialist Kedako has taken the time to compile the frame data for every character—including DLC entrants—in the home version of Xrd. The data has been uploaded as text files onto Ruu's blog, and there is even a separate document containing a breakdown of all the system mechanics.

As the files are text documents, simply downloading them and opening with Notepad will cause them to look very disorganized. However, players can use more sophisticated writing programs or Google Translate to keep the formatting of the original document. For those who view the document in the original Japanese, Ruu also offered a translation of terms.

Killer Instinct Classic to soon Feature Online Play

According to Microsoft, the original version of Killer Instinct will be getting online play. As part of a post detailing some updates and known issues in version 2.2 of Killer Instinct, it was announced that Code Mystics will be adding the feature to its port of KI1 as a Christmas bonus to fans.

The online update for KI1 is scheduled to roll out by 5 p.m. PST on Dec. 23. Iron Galaxy, meanwhile, also answered a number of fan questions about KI and future updates to the game. That Q&A can be found here.

Ogawa, KOG, Dogura Coming to Northwest Majors

At the end of the Pacific Northwest Regionals Guilty Gear Xrd tournament, it was announced that three Japanese players will be attending Northwest Majors on April 24-26, 2015. While fellow players KOG—known for his T. Hawk play in both Street Fighter IV and Super Turbo—and Dogura—a top player in both BlazBlue and Guilty Gear—are big names added to the event, the major news is that Japan's top Zato-1 player, Ogawa, will be making an appearance.

Ogawa has always been a well-known name in the Guilty Gear community, considered one of the top players in the world. He made mainstream fighting game community news several months ago by supposedly saying that U.S. players were not of a high enough skill level for him to travel to the States for tournaments.