September 2003

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

President of Capcom NA steps down
Posted by White_Pointer @ 13:06:00 AEST
Bill Gardner, who has been the President and Chief Executive of Capcom North America has announced his retirement after seven years in the job. Capcom have not announced a replacement as of yet but will probably do so before Gardner's specified finishing date of October 1st. There's little doubt he's done a great job and the quality of Capcom's titles now are amazing. We wish him luck in whatever he'll be doing in the future.
If you're interested, Gamespot have interviewed him about a couple of things like the 3DO and the recently finished Tokyo Game Show, if you like you can give it a read here.
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Monday, September 29, 2003

Namco continues relationship with Todd McFarlane
Posted by White_Pointer @ 15:15:39 AEST
If you've been paying the slightest bit of attention to anything that's been mentioned about Soul Calibur II, you'll know that Namco put in some characters that Todd McFarlane created; Necrid, who appears in all console versions, and Spawn who is exclusive to the XBox version. Well, Namco have extended this agreement further and are now creating a game dedicated to the big bad black dude Spawn (with the working title of...uhh...'Spawn'). It won't be a fighter, per se, but a 3D action adventure (with a lot of fighting involved) and is scheduled to hit all three consoles before the end of the year. This is a two-pronged agreement too, because Todd McFarlane productions are also creating Soul Calibur II figurines in exchange for Namco developing the new Spawn game, it seems.

"When developing SOULCALIBUR II, I was working not just on making the game interesting, I was concerned about the storyline and character design", says Producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama. "How could I bring alive 16th century warriors who bet their life and all their possessions for a moment of glory? Doing that was difficult and the most exciting part of the job. In that process, the opportunity to collaborate with Todd McFarlane on Necrid was key in enhancing the level of the product. As a fellow creator, I feel great pride in the creation of a new character that was developed by the world's greatest creator. In the Xbox version of SOULCALIBUR II, Todd McFarlane's Spawn will also appear. I'm confident that using cutting edge technologies from Namco such as CG modeling, motion, sound and character manipulation, along with focusing on the original images in the comic books, will bring Spawn to life as he should be. I am also really pleased with the 3D modeling for the SOULCALIBUR II action figures, which have brought this art to its highest form. Being a part of the extremely organic collaboration with Todd McFarlane, which has shown through in SOULCALIBUR II, has been a true honor. I don't know if I can wait for the Spawn video game that's currently under development in the US. It should be something really special."

"I've long been interested in the development of video games", says Creator Todd McFarlane. "Games breathe life into a creator's flat 2D images and bring them alive. As someone who develops ideas, my goal is to create strong characters that are both interesting to look at, and can deliver new and exciting game play. When Namco, who obviously is tops in its field, approached us on developing new characters and integrating my character, Spawn, into its SOULCALIBUR II game, I knew it would be a great opportunity to work with a company on the cutting edge of gaming technology. Their game play and engine design is second to none. I'm very excited and proud of the work that Namco has accomplished on SOULCALIBUR II and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this game. I am also pretty excited about the action figures my company has produced to accompany the game. We are experimenting with scale and other things, but I think game fans will be astonished at the detail and realism. I'm also looking forward to working with Namco on future projects and ideas, including the upcoming Spawn title."

Saturday, September 27, 2003

New info on new King of Fighters games
Posted by White_Pointer @ 11:25:36 AEST
Here's some information that will no doubt please SNK fans and KOF fans in particular. As we reported several weeks ago, the new KOF game will be developed on Sammy's Atomiswave arcade hardware, and it's now been officially named as King of Fighters 2003 (it only had a working title when it was first announced).

The second bit of info is for the new game in the KOF series being developed exclusively for the PS2. It currently has a working title of KOF (in other words, it hasn't been named yet) and it actually looks to be a 3D fighter, and is scheduled to be released sometime in 2004.

No other information has been revealed about either of the new KOF games yet, but watch this space, we'll have the info as it becomes available.
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Friday, September 26, 2003

New Dream Mix TV World Fighters screenshots
Posted by White_Pointer @ 17:23:24 AEST
Don't lie...you've been waiting for them...you know you have...and now we've finally got them! Hudson, Takara and Konami have released some new screenshots and renders from their upcoming crossover brawler Dream Mix TV World Fighters, and we have them right here for your viewing pleasure! Check out the eye candy right here!
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Thursday, September 25, 2003

More DreamMix TV World Fighters info
Posted by White_Pointer @ 11:01:12 AEST
More information has been revealed about DreamMix TV World Fighters, the upcoming game that is being co-developed by Hudson, Konami and Takara. Apparently the basic gameplay is going to be similar to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Instead of dying immediately though, when a player is defeated they will shrink down in size and can still annoy the players that are still battling. The "soul" of the defeated character wil float randomly around the battlefield, although it's not known at this point what happens if another player manages to capture a soul.

We've also got an updated list of the characters that will be featured in the game. These are:

TwinBee (Konami/Twinbee/Stinger series)
Kinomiya Takao (Takara/Bey Blade)
Momotarou (Hudson/Momotarou Dentetsu series)
Simon (Konami/Castlevania series)
Rikachan (Takara/Rikachan toy series)
Bomberman (Hudson/Bomberman series)
Pawapuro-kun (Konami/Powerful Pro Yakyuu series)
Microman (Takara/Microman toy series)
Yugo (Hudson/Bloody Roar series)
Takahashi Meijin (Hudson/Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima series)
Convoy (Takara/Optimus Prime from Transformers)

Plus there's still six more characters that are yet to be revealed. The game is currently slated for a December release on PS2 and Gamecube...stay tuned for more updates!
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003

The Gamespot Top Ten Boss Battles
Posted by White_Pointer @ 20:07:09 AEST
Well, hot on the heels of Gamespot's "Best Games of all time" series, they also have another feature, the "10 best boss battles". The list is pretty complete with solid explanations throughout. So, who made the top 10 video game bosses and most importantly number one? Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII? Dark Falz from Phantasy Star? Mother Brain from Super Metroid? Ganon from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?

Well, while those bosses did get a mention somewhere, there's a fair amount of fighting game bosses in the final top 10 list. There's Mike Tyson from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Machine Gun Willy from Double Dragon, Goro from Mortal Kombat and Akuma from Karateka.

If you're interested in checking out the full list, take a look here.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Mortal Kombat II makes Gamespot's greatest games of all time
Posted by White_Pointer @ 14:34:26 AEST
Gamespot has several major features on their site, and one such feature is their "Greatest games of all time" series. Month by month they discuss a game they believe to be top notch and firmly cemented in video game history as one of the best of all time. In their September article, they add no other game but Midway's Mortal Kombat II into their hall of fame. Interested to read what they had to say? Check it out here.
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Monday, September 22, 2003

New Interview
Posted by White_Pointer @ 10:08:40 AEST
We've updated our newest feature addition to the site, our interview section, with another exclusive interview! This time we speak to Judy Elam, who is heading up the publishing team for the upcoming Multiplayer Online Fighting Game, One Must Fall: Battlegrounds by Diversions Entertainment. She talks about the potential future of the OMF series, how important the fans are and how the game is set to become the new standard in PC fighters. Check it out by clicking the Interviews link under the "Features" menu heading, or simply click here!
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Sunday, September 21, 2003

Movie theatres to impose new ratings on arcade games
Posted by White_Pointer @ 19:44:26 AEST
Regal Entertainment Group--which owns and operates one of the US's largest theater groups, composed of Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres, Edwards Theatres, and Hoyts Cinemas--announced a new screening process for the game content running on arcade machines in its theaters.

"Placement of certain video games is not conducive to the overall environment we strive to achieve," said Mike Campbell, CEO of Regal Entertainment Group's theater operations. "Parents of our younger moviegoers have concerns about the content of certain video games. We want to do the best job in evaluating which video games are acceptable by the majority of our patrons."

Saturday, September 20, 2003

Soul Calibur II PAL release
Posted by White_Pointer @ 14:18:40 AEST
Yesterday, Namco's Soul Calibur II finally saw the light of day in PAL territories. The game was released on the XBox and PS2, with the Gamecube version scheduled for a PAL release next week. So PAL gamers, you finally have a chance to play it and see what all the fuss is about, so go out there and get it!
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Friday, September 19, 2003

New Poll
Posted by White_Pointer @ 18:38:40 AEST
Well, it seems the norm that in a fighting game, you'll find a variety of characters. Typically, you have a large, slow guy who is really strong, a fast, smaller guy that isn't as strong, a guy somewhere in between that and usually a chick. There may be several characters that fall into each category. So, the new poll asks you which of these types of characters do you prefer to play as. Do you have a preference, or do you simply don't care and use random select? Vote now!
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Poll Results
Posted by White_Pointer @ 18:31:51 AEST
Well, it's time for a new poll, but before we get to it, here's the results of the last one:

How important do you think a story is to a fighting game?

40.4% - Very Important, I want to know what I'm fighting for!
39% - Pretty important, it's interesting to know character backgrounds etc
17.5% - Fighting games don't need stories, just good gameplay!
2.9% - Not important at all, I just want to get it and start bashin'!

Well, it seems most people (in fact nearly 80%) actually do prefer a story of some kind in a fighting game. So us beat 'em up fans are more story driven than people think we are!

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Thursday, September 18, 2003

More New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer @ 12:41:30 AEST
BSinX has done it again and sent us another great piece of fan art! The newest addition to our fan art gallery is a hand drawn image of Iori from the King of Fighters series. Check it out, along with the rest of our fan art in our Fan Art Gallery. Remember, if you want to submit your own piece of fan art (for which you'll be given full credit), just click the Fan Art link under the "Features" menu heading and send it in!
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New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer @ 9:21:01 AEST
BSinX has sent us a great new addition to our Fan Art Gallery. It's a hand drawn picture of Evil Ryu from the Street Fighter 2 series. Check it out in our Fan Art Gallery here.

Don't forget, if you're a talented artist and would like to see your work published here on Blood-Sports.net, check out this page and send it in! You'll be given full credit for your work.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003

More DreamMix TV World Fighters info
Posted by White_Pointer @ 20:58:07 AEST
Our news guru Smurgen reported a few days ago that a new Super Smash Bros style game is currently in development by Hudson, Takara and Konami called DreamMix TV World Fighters. Well, here's some more info that's been revealed about this crossover game:

- There will most likely be characters featured from games such as Bomberman, Castlevania, Beyblade, Bloody Roar, Twinbee (aka Stinger), Momotarou Dentetsu and even Transformers!
- There will be 17 playable characters
- Multiplayer support for up to four players
- The game will include some popular video game characters from the 1980's, in an attempt to attract a slightly older audience

The three companies are planning on sharing the profits of the game's sales. It certainly sounds good so far! It's currently scheduled for a December release. We'll have more information as it becomes available.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Konami and Playmates toys team up to promote new TMNT game
Posted by White_Pointer @ 8:58:04 AEST
Konami have recently announced a huge deal with toy manufacturer Playmates to promote the upcoming brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. According to the agreement, Playmates Toys will promote the TMNT videogames by including secret game codes in over 1.2 million TMNT Action Figures. The secret codes unlock special features in the TMNT videogames that will be released on October 21, 2003.

In addition to this, three new enemies will be introduced to TMNT fans; The Foot Gunner, The Evil Turtlebot and The Giant Mouser. These will be exclusive to the video games and action figures.

"As interactive software, videogames are an exciting medium for offering players un-lockable features," said Erica Mason, product manager, Konami of America, Inc. "This innovative promotion gives us the opportunity to enrich the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles world and deliver an added value to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games and toys."

"Working with Konami on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles promotion - the first of its kind - has been outstanding in helping Playmates provide more entertainment value to our line of TMNT action figures and playsets, which will provide more value for our fans," said Jill Will, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Playmates Toys, Inc.

Monday, September 15, 2003

Another Street Fighter 2 game?
Posted by White_Pointer @ 0:06:51 AEST
Capcom's Street Fighter 2 has got to have the most spin-off games of any other video game in history, Hypers, Turbos, Hyper Turbos, Supers, Super Hyper Turbos...there was easily more than a dozen of them, and it seemed at least that Capcom had finally let the game go into the video game museum by concentrating more on SF3 and more recently the Capcom vs... games. But, it seems we have underestimated them! As part of Street Fighter's 15th Anniversary celebration things that Capcom are currently holding, they have announced a brand new SF2 game is coming to the PS2. It wouldn't be an SF2 spinoff without a kind of cliche` title either...the game will be called Hyper Street Fighter 2 X. Nothing else has been revealed yet about the game, not even a projected release date yet, but watch this space, we'll have the details as soon as they are available!
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Sunday, September 14, 2003

Another Smash Brothers? Not Likely..But..
Posted by Smurgen @ 21:55:20 AEST
Hudson announced a new 4 player fighting game called Dream Mix TV World Fighters for GameCube and PS2, the game will feature a mix of characters from Konami, Hudson, Takara and Genki, confirmed characters include:

Bomberman

Simon Belmont (Castlevania)

Momotaro (Momotaro Densetsu)

Yugo (Bloody Roar)

Bonk (Bonk's Adventure)
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Saturday, September 13, 2003

New King of Fighters game on the way
Posted by White_Pointer @ 9:50:40 AEST
SNK Playmore have announced that they are teaming up with Sammy to create a new King of Fighters game. But this time, the series is having a whole new facelift. Rather than running on the NeoGeo arcade hardware that every previous game of the series ran on, this new game will run on Sammy's Atomiswave arcade hardware.

"It has long been the strongest series that we have. It is probably our most well-recognized franchise in the world." said SNK Playmore representative Akihito Kadowaki. "Up to now, it has been running on the Neo Geo platform; one that had limited capabilities. This is the first time that we will be working with another company's platform--the Atomiswave system. We hope to make this an opportunity to get motivated and do some good work."

Friday, September 12, 2003

New Bloody Roar 4 screenshots
Posted by White_Pointer @ 13:53:53 AEST
We've got some more screenshots of Hudson's newest addition to their beat-morph brawl series. Bloody Roar 4 is currently scheduled for a release on the PS2 later this year but in the meantime, you can catch a glimpse of the eye candy. There's a first look at some of the new characters to feature in the game as well as the character select screen, so check them out here.
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Thursday, September 11, 2003

Soul Calibur II breaks sales records for Namco
Posted by White_Pointer @ 9:01:56 AEST
We all knew Soul Calibur II would sell very well, but did you think it was going to sell THIS well? Namco have reported that it has broken all of it's previous sales records for any of their previous games and shipped over 1.6 million copies of the game on day one of it's US release (that includes all three consoles). Damn, that's a lot of Soul Calibur!

“The release of SOULCALIBUR II marks a monumental moment in Namco’s already rich video game history,” said Namco’s Chief Financial Officer, Robert Ennis. “Never before has a Namco title sold as well in its U.S. debut and we hope that this is just a glimpse at what is to come for the ‘Soul’ franchise.”

“SOULCALIBUR II is one of Namco’s most valuable video game franchises,” said Garry Cole, Senior Vice President of Sales, Namco Hometek Inc. “I think that the value of the property is exemplified in that we were able to sell through nearly 10 percent of our initial launch quantity on day-one alone.”

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

King of Fighters is coming home!
Posted by White_Pointer @ 9:28:01 AEST
That's right KOF fans, the series is now finally coming home. The recently opened US publishing arm of SNK NEOGEO announced today that it will be publishing King of Fighters 2000 and King of Fighters 2001 in a special combo pack exclusive to the Playstation 2.

Some of the new PS2 exclusive features of the games are numerous upgrades and additions, including “Memory Mode,” which will give players access to opening movie demos from previous KOF games. Additionally, brand new Strikers, never before seen in the arcade or on any home system, will join the KOF battle on the PlayStation 2. KOF 2001 will also feature original 3D stages and an additional game mode, “Party Mode,” where randomly generated computer opponents appear one after another to compete against the player character in matches with limited life energy and match times.

The combo pack is currently due out for release in the US at the end of November and will carry the price tag of US $39.99. No word yet on whether we'll see a PAL release.
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Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Sony Sells 60 million PS2's
Posted by White_Pointer @ 20:45:50 AEST
It's hard to believe, but Sony has announced today that they have sold 60 million PS2's since the console's initial launch 3 and a half years ago. Just as a point of interest, this is 1.6 times the amount of original Playstations sold after the same period of time, and a year and a month faster in penetration speed.

Here's the overall breakdown:

Japan (including Asia and South Korea)
14.17 million units (launch date: March 4, 2000)
North America
26.42 million units (launch date: October 26, 2000)
Europe/Australia/other PAL territories
19.44 million units (launch date: November 24, 2000)

Worldwide Shipment: 60.03 million units

Pretty impressive huh? It makes you wonder what's going to happen with the Playstation 3.
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Monday, September 8, 2003

Soul Calibur II well on top at Gamefaqs
Posted by White_Pointer @ 21:54:14 AEST
Everyone should know about the Internet's largest resource of FAQ's for games, Gamefaqs. Even yours truly has submitted several FAQ's for various games in the database. Well, they have a small section on the main pages which shows you just what FAQ pages people are looking at most frequently. And I guess it's no surprise that right from it's US release, Soul Calibur II has topped the list and continues to do so. All three versions are in the current top 10 FAQ pages. The GC version is currently ranked #1, the PS2 version ranks in at #5 and the XBox version comes in at #9. Not bad for a game that's only been out a couple of weeks.
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Sunday, September 7, 2003

Atari to publish Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
Posted by White_Pointer @ 20:03:51 AEST
Atari have recently announced the upcoming games that they will be publishing in the coming fiscal quarter of this year. One of them is Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, due to be released on the PS2 in December. Dragon Ball Z fighting game fans should be excited by this news, it probably means the game is nearing completion. We'll have more news on this as it becomes available.
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Saturday, September 6, 2003

Interesting Japanese console sales
Posted by White_Pointer @ 21:44:17 AEST
Seems the sales of the Gamecube are on the rise. In the last week Nintendo sold more Gamecubes than Sony did PS2's in Japan, probably due to the release of several highly anticipated titles recently. The PS2 is still well on top overall, but the Japanese sales of the Gamecube are indeed increasing. As usual though, Nintendo are still dominating the handheld market with the GBA SP still the number one selling game system by a wide margin, outselling all the other consoles. Also no surprise is the fact that the XBox is still selling very poorly in Japan, despite Microsoft's best efforts to promote the machine better. In fact, it's doing so poorly that it's being outsold by the original Gameboy Advance and even the PS one at the moment.
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Friday, September 5, 2003

Analyst predicts console sales to fall
Posted by White_Pointer @ 21:26:07 AEST
Jay Srivatsa is a senior analyst for research firm iSuppli, and earlier this week he stated that console sales were indeed slipping, as opposed to the steady growth rate of the industry until now. Indeed, these days it's hard to pick an industry that was growing as rapidly as the video game industry. Apparently now it's slowing down and Srivatsa says that console sales will continue to fall until the companies release their new consoles in a few years.

"I would say it's a reflection of the economy as well as the fact that there's no big excitement in the industry now," Srivatsa said in an interview. "The only thing to speak of in the industry now is online gaming, but that doesn't do much for console sales... The whole game console market is really in the doldrums now."

Thursday, September 4, 2003

New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer @ 0:03:37 AEST
Richard Holmes has sent us a great new addition to our fan art gallery. This is a sketch of Ironman and is very well done, he seems quite the talented artist. View it in our fan art gallery here. To see the rest of our fan art, or to submit your own, just follow the Fan Art link under the "Features" menu heading, we'd love to receive it!
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Wednesday, September 3, 2003

A new console?
Posted by White_Pointer @ 14:28:46 AEST
But a new console with a difference. Nurve Networks has put down plans for a new game system called the XGameStation (gee, I wonder where they got that name from) that they claim will appeal to the masses, because it will be built and developed by the gaming community. The idea really seems to be taking off and the gaming community as a whole seems pretty excited by this. There's a site to check out over at www.xgamestation.com, so if you are interested in the XGameStation, check it out for more details.
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Monday, September 1, 2003

Capcom board games on the way
Posted by White_Pointer @ 23:49:10 AEST
You might not believe it, but Capcom are going back to the traditional way of gaming with board games. Living Room Games have announced that they have exclusively aquired the copyrights to publish board games based on some of Capcom's strongest fighting franchises...including Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Darkstalkers and Final Fight series.

Living Room Games is striving to help give the hobby games industry a boost, by combining our products with other aspects of mass media," says Joe Chan, president and lead developer for the Living Room Games/CAPCOM tabletop fighting game line. "We have planned a multi-phase approach to achieve these goals, of which the license of several classic CAPCOM titles is the first, big step. We look forward to working with CAPCOM throughout the next couple of years to bring to the market the best products possible.

"CAPCOM's fighting games have such a significant history, which has left an unmistakeable mark in the video game industry. The opportunity that has been granted to us to allow us to bring even more life to the characters in these games, and their stories, is a great honor to us. The people that we have brought on board for the project have always been tremendous fans of CAPCOM video games, and they are absolutely ecstatic over their assignments."