Welcome to Issue #1 of the Saikyo Dojo, a series of articles dedicated to exploring what is currently going on in the fighting game genre, and just talking about fighting games in general, their history, the best fights...the Saikyo Dojo is the #1 stop on GamingW for fighting games!!

This issue will explore the happenings of January + February in the fighting game genre.

"Luke, I am your father...."
For those who didn't notice, early last month Namco released a new Soul Calibur 4 trailer, and this one kind of threw the internet in a rage. Star Wars fans everywhere either rejoiced, didn't care, or got their authentic lightsabers out and roamed the streets in a blazing fury, killing anything that stood in their way.

OK, not so much the last part, but it did piss a lot of people off.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/14848

As you can see, Namco is adding Yoda and Darth Vader to the Soul Calibur universe, and while this isn't a series first when it comes to inter-universal clashes (Spawn, Link, Heihachi in Soul Calibur 2), it is the first time that the characters in question have wielded science fiction weapons. Spawn uses weapons from the powers of Hell, Link uses medieval style weapons anyways, and Heihachi uses his bare fists, but Yoda and Darth Vader use The Force and Lightsabers, the latter being a weapon able to go through metal easily.

Personally, I see the characters themselves to be great additions to the series, and I'm sure that Yoda's fast style will be amazing fun, while directly contrasting Darth Vader's slower but stronger and sluggish style. I just question how they are going to explain why the lightsabers suddenly don't go through metal.

I can only hope this game turns out better then the last game Star Wars characters were in that was a fighting game, aka " Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi". That game pretty much sucked and didn't feel very Star Wars. It also had horrible visuals even for its time, with bad, unresponsive, controls. I am sure Soul Calibur will be ok though, it's a decent fighting game series.


Warning: New Challengers Approaching
This one sure shook up the Street Fighter community! Last month Famitsu released scans of a new character in Street Fighter IV, her name being "Crimson Viper". A lot of Street Fighter fans are upset over this character, as they feel she does not fit in with the rest of the cast. C. Viper doesn't really bug me though, why doesn't she fit in with the rest of the cast? That green beast dude sure does a good job of it!

Little is known about her at this time except for the fact she sports a crazy hair style and dresses weird.

Image:
http://burndiego.com/photos/60944_viploader555739_122_336lo.jpg

This month another new character was shown. His name is Abel, and he looks a lot like Geese Howard in my eyes, but he plays very differently.

Images:
http://cheats.ign.com/dor/street-fighter-iv/768984/images/street-fighter-iv-20080214072246497.html
http://cheats.ign.com/dor/street-fighter-iv/768984/images/street-fighter-iv-20080214072247450.html
http://cheats.ign.com/dor/street-fighter-iv/768984/images/street-fighter-iv-20080214072248247.html
http://cheats.ign.com/dor/street-fighter-iv/768984/images/street-fighter-iv-20080214072248997.html

Blazblue blazblue blazblue...
Coming out of nowhere last month, last months issue of Famitsu revealed Blazblue, the newest 2D fighting game by Arc Systems, makers of the successful Guilty Gear franchise. It looks even better than Guilty Gear does, with sharper visuals. I didn't even think that would be possible, but they've somehow did it.

I mostly look forward to the new crazy characters and the rocking sound track, two things that Guilty Gear is popular for, and it looks like this will carry over to Blazblue as well. Details at the moment are very little, but the game isn't related to the GG universe at all, so this is a brand new series it seems!

Images:
http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2aly5.jpg
http://img512.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3axd7.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1akv2.jpg

King of Fighters...
Not to be outdone by their old rival, Capcom, SNK has released the first trailer of their new game, King of Fighters XII. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjScFUY1uLU

It's still full 2D, and features high res sprites. Very very very sexy. I hope the gameplay stands up though.

Videos of the Month...
Finishing up each of these, I will post some awesome fighting game videos.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 - Justin Wong vs Santhrax

This happened in 2004 but this video pretty much shows how good Justin Wong is. For those not in the know, Justin Wong is considered by many to be one of the greatest fighting game players, winning hundreds of tournaments, earning tons of money, and kicking much ass. In this video, you can see Justin W. (Magneto, Storm, Psylocke) perfect Santhrax, a rarity in Marvel vs Capcom 2, seeing how in order to get a perfect all 3 of your characters must not get hit.

Garou - Mark of the Wolves: Gato versus Rock

This match is one of the best Garou matches ever. The fight involves Rock Howard who is a so-so character, versus Gato Futaba, a top tier character. This match up is normally very hard for Rock Howard, as Rock's best combos rely on a very hard to land grab. To add to that, Gato is a very mobile and agile character, making Rock's job just that much harder. The Rock player managed to rushdown and keep the pressure on Gato (or at least tries to) at all times, mixing up attacks so that he can keep Gato on the ground. Despite this, Gato perfects Rock in Round 3 with an awesome super combo. The final round is the most interesting one, with a shocking finish. Gato manages to interrupt Rock's super at the exact second needed to, for the kill.

The fight shows Garou at its highest level, and the wealth of strategy that occurs in the game can be seen there.  Both player's knew their characters inside and out, and it was a close call at the very end.

Street Fighter 4 Fights:
Ryu vs C. Viper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8_Gx3-_Xpk&
C. Viper vs Abel: http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17543 (excellent quality)
Ryu vs Edmond Honda: http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17544 (excellent quality)
Guile vs Zangief: http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17549 (excellent quality)
Edmond Honda vs Guile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFY8AluHgGc
Ryu vs Ryu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPPpff0-8g

All awesome stuff right here! The first videos of Street Fighter IV action.