Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] Spotlights the Punch Pounding Mika
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], isn’t just bringing the action to PlayStation 4 for the first time, but also adding new characters into the mix, as well as a brand new story mode. Mika, the queen of fisting and good all-round grappler, is the latest character to fall under the spotlight in the run up to the game’s release.
A bubbly, fun-loving and often kind of dense young girl, Mika is a part of the Licht Kreis Execution Team run by her best friend, Orie. Blessed with super human strength and wielding giant armoured gauntlets called the Pachelbel Cannon, Mika functions as the muscle of the team. After Orie was sent on an undercover mission to Japan to investigate the mysterious Hollow Night phenomenon, Mika sneaks away to follow her.
Mika is quite unique in that she is a highly mobile grappling character – her In-Birth powers are the EXS of Fierce Advancement, which allows her to launch herself at her enemies like a missile. Moving around the screen at will and approaching at weird angles, she can make her way over to her opponents at the drop of a hat. Once she’s in, she’s able to play a terrifying mix-up game where her side-switching missile attack and lunging command grab leaves her foes guessing.
‘Mika’s Missile’ sends her flying across the screen, propelled by her jet powered gauntlets. She can use it both on the ground and in the air with the A version moving horizontally and the B version moving diagonally. It can be followed up on by inputting a direction and pressing the button again, this is called ‘Mika’s Homing Missile’, and can go in any direction regardless of if you used the A or B version. This gives Mika the ability to convert stray hits into combos quite easily, or to set up tricky side switches and odd-angle approaches.
The EX version has no invincibility but does increased damage and gives you up to four hits and direction changes to play with rather than the standard two.
‘Mika’s Cannon’ is her command throw, where Mika lunges forward and grabs her foe with her giant gauntlets and fires a blast that launches them into the air. This leaves them vulnerable for follow-up attacks. The A version is quite quick and grabs close, while the B version is a bit slower but Mika executes a long lunge to grab opponents from significant distances.
The EX version of ‘Mika’s Cannon’ moves faster, can grab the opponent from almost full-screen distance, does increased damage and is easier to combo off of.
‘Mika’s Tornado’ is her uppercut style attack where she twirls around and knocks her enemies down with her giant gauntlets. The initial attack moves horizontally along the ground, but pressing the button again sends her spinning into the skies. The A version has less horizontal movement than the B version. It’s a very strong anti-air move and remains active for a very long time, making it quite easy to use on defense against jump-happy foes.
The EX version has full invincibility and immediately launches Mika diagonally up, making it a great way to challenge pressure from the opponent.
‘Mika’s Crash’ is her Force Function (B+C) and sends her crashing diagonally down to the ground with a rocket powered punch. It can be used both on the ground and in the air and the air version functions almost like a dive kick. It can be comboed into in the air, such as after popping the opponent up with a Mika Missile, and followed up on afterwards with other special moves for extended combos.
‘Mika’s Revolution’ is her Infinite Worth and can be performed once she has full super meter. She launches a flying punch diagonally up and then smashes her foes to the ground. It has full invincibility, and due to the angle of the attack, it is a practical and devastating anti-air move against opponents who jump a lot, and a natural high-damage follow-up to her command grabs.
‘Mika’s Galaxy’ is her Infinite Worth EXS and can only be performed by pressing all four attack buttons (A+B+C+D) when her health is at 30% or below and she has full meter. Mika grabs her foe and launches them high into the sky, where she crashes into them with a powered-up Mika’s Missile. Landing this powerful all-out attack will always result in the end of the round!
Mika brings an energetic, explosive and unique play style to UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH with her combination of mobility, tricky side-switching mix-ups and command grabs. As a grappling character that is almost impossible to stay away from, she presents a very difficult challenge for her opponents. Mika is an excellent choice for players who enjoy high-mobility and hybrid grappling characters.
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] is releasing 9th February 2018 on PlayStation 4.
