March 2005

Thursday, March 31, 2005

New SCIII screens and trailer
Posted by White_Pointer at 17:21:55 CST
Namco have released some new screens of Soul Calibur III, and I must say it's looking pretty sweet! In the new screens we discover more returning characters. Mitsurugi and Taki are in there as previously reported, and the screenshots reveal Ivy, Astaroth, Raphael, Voldo and Cassandra are also back for another go. Check out the new screenshots from our Soul Calibur Image page.

To go with the new screenshots, Namco have also released a new trailer! We now know which new character is which...Setsuka is the traditionally dressed oriental woman, Tira is the shorter girl dressed in green and Zasalamel is the big dark-skinned guy. The trailer also has a word from the producer of SCIII on the new character creation concept as well as other things. I won't spoil anything else for you, so you'd better head to our Soul Calibur movies page and grab it!
Post or view comments

Street Fighter comes in 2nd in Capcom's biggest sellers
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:30:21 CST
Capcom have released the cumulative sales data of their popular franchises as of December 31st, 2004, and the results may be surprising for SF fans. The Street Fighter series doesn't come in at number 1, but number 2 with 24 million cumulative units sold worldwide. The number 1 spot goes to the Resident Evil franchise, selling 26 million cumulative units worldwide (which doesn't include RE4 as that was released in January 2005). Interestingly, their popular early-mid 90's beat 'em up franchise Final Fight came in 9th spot with 3.1 million sales, and Darkstalkers doesn't appear on the list at all. The final list is as follows:

1. Resident Evil series: 38 titles, 26 million sales
   
2. Street Fighter series: 53 titles, 24 million sales
   
3. Megaman series: 95 titles, 22.9 million sales
   
4. Disney series: 33 titles, 13.2 million sales
   
5. Onimusha series: 10 titles, 6.9 million sales
   
6. Devil May Cry series: 3 titles, 4.7 million sales
   
7. Dino Crisis series: 12 titles, 4.4 million sales
   
8. Ghosts & Goblins series: 13 titles, 4.1 million sales
   
9. Final Fight series: 8 titles, 3.1 million sales
   
10. Breath of Fire series: 13 titles, 3.0 million sales
    
11. 1942 series: 3 titles, 1.2 million sales
    
12. Commando series: 2 titles, 1.1 million sales
    

KOF Neowave hitting PS2's
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:48:52 CST
King of Fighters Neowave, the first KOF game on Sammy's new Atomiswave arcade platform, will be making it's console debut when it hits Japanese PS2's in June this year, SNK have recently announced. Ironically, it's release day of June 23 will be the same day King of Fighters: Maximum Impact will hit the XBox. No word if we'll see a release of this outside of Japan yet.
Post or view comments

Soul Calibur III announced, but exclusive to PS2
Posted by White_Pointer at 17:04:20 CST
After a long period of speculation, Namco have finally announced that Soul Calibur III is in development, and is due for a release towards the end of this year. The catch is, unfortunately for Gamecube and XBox owners, it's going to be PS2-exclusive.

"Soul Calibur III expands upon the landmark achievements of the franchise and is undoubtedly one of the must-have games for PlayStation 2 owners in 2005," said Yoshi Niki, Namco's business unit director.

Mythic Blades goes gold
Posted by White_Pointer at 20:55:54 CST
Eric Petersen from Cartel Games has sent word to us that the PC fighting game Mythic Blades has gone gold, and should be available in stores very shortly! For more information you can visit the Cartel Games website, and check out our interview with Eric from last year in our Interviews section.
Post or view comments

Iron Phoenix ships
Posted by White_Pointer at 21:30:58 CST
Today Sega announced that their 16-player XBox-Live online fighting game Iron Pheonix has shipped and is available now. Although the focus is on multiplayer, included is a single player component as well. This is the first game of this magnitude attempted on a console, so it should definately be worth checking out!
Post or view comments

New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:03:20 CST
Kage no Oukami has decided to send us some of his new artwork to add to our Fan Art galleries. He's sent us some eye candy of Akira, Basara, Kazuki, LeiLei and one he calls "Axel vs Cody". You can check them all out, along with all of the rest of our fan art in our Fan Art section. If you have some fan art of your own you would like to submit, that's the link you want to follow (or click the fan art link in the main menu).
Post or view comments

New Review
Posted by Pube at 03:06:01 CST
It's been a while since we've done a review here, and it's been a while since this game's been released, but we thought "What the hey, we'll do it anyway." So check out our review in the reviews section on War of the Monsters. You never know, you might find out something you didn't know before.
Post or view comments

TMNT: Mutant Melee ships
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:48:47 CST
The next iteration in this generation's Ninja Turtles games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee has shipped and is now available for the Gamecube, XBox and PC. Unlike 2003's game (which was primarily focused on the adventure mode), Mutant Melee focuses on 4-player 3D battles with an adventure mode thrown in for good measure. 20 characters in total (including the four turtles) are available to choose from in the game, and also includes party-style mini-games. So if you've been dying for another Ninja Turtles game...this just might be it. No word yet on a PAL release but we'll give you that information as soon as we can.
Post or view comments

Capcom releases Darkstalkers Chronicle
Posted by White_Pointer at 19:19:07 CST
Who cares that the PSP isn't out yet in the US? Not Capcom, because they've officially released Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower on PSP and is now available in stores.

"DARKSTALKERS CHRONICLE: The Chaos Tower is the first handheld fighting game to actually exceed its arcade and home console predecessors," said Todd Thorson, director of marketing Capcom Entertainment. "With all new game modes to the franchise and wireless battles, DARKSTALKERS CHRONICLE on the PSP is a must have."

DOAU tournament progress details
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:43:50 CST
You will know from our previous reports on this that Tecmo and Team Ninja are holding an official Dead or Alive Ultimate online tournament, and that the first bracket consisted of players playing against mystery opponents from Team Ninja Themselves. What you would not have known before though, is that DOAU creator and big boss of Team Ninja Tomonobu Itagaki has also been playing in a few special matches, and will be the opponent in the final round of the first bracket on Sunday March 20th from 10-11am PST.

After this, all of the players that made it through round 1 will go on to play in round 2, where they will be playing against each other in a bracket-style tournament, with the top 2 players landing the prize of going to this year's E3 in May and meeting Tomonobu Itagaki in the flesh. More details about round 2 will be announced next week.

Details about similar tournaments for Europe and other territories are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Post or view comments

MK: Deception wins best fighting game of 2004 at Gamefly
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:55:23 CST
At the recent Game Developer's conference, online video game rental store Gamefly announced the winners of it's 2004 awards, voted by the gamers actually renting the games. In these awards, Mortal Kombat: Deception took the award for best fighting game. You can read the entire press release, which also announces the winners of the other categories on Yahoo business.
Post or view comments

Namco gets a new president
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:50:12 CST
As of April 1st, 51 year old Shigeichi Ishimura will be Namco's new president. 61 year old Kyushiro Takagi, who is the current president, will move up into the vice-chairman's role. At 79, Masaya Nakamura, the original founder of Namco and current chairman, will stay in his role. Namco says these changes are designed "to bring the company in line with current marketplace conditions". This year also marks Namco's 50th Anniversary.
Post or view comments

New Mythic Blades trailers available
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:27:59 CST
Eric Petersen of Cartel Games has sent word that there's a new gameplay trailer available for the upcoming PC fighting game Mythic Blades. You can grab it from the official website at www.cartelgames.com, and you can still get the old one from here. If you want to know a bit more about the game, you can check out our Interview with Eric that we published late last year. It's now into it's final testing stage so it should be hitting store shelves soon.
Post or view comments

KOF: Maximum Impact coming to XBox Live
Posted by White_Pointer at 14:57:38 CST
SNK Playmore have announced that last year's successful PS2 game King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is on its way to the XBox, and will be Live enabled as an added bonus. Apart from that, SNK are saying it will be exactly like the PS2 version (although it's fair to assume it will have some graphical improvements). No more information has been released about it yet, so we'll bring you more coverage when we can.
Post or view comments

New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:10:53 CST
Joe Ikey has sent us some more of his great hand-drawn fan art. He concentrates on the SF series this time around with artwork of Guile, Cammy, Bison and others. Check out the new art in gallery 6 of our Fan Art section. If you would like to submit your own fan art, follow that link for the easy submission instructions!
Post or view comments

Boys kill friend imitating MK
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:08:27 CST
This is one of those stories you don't like to hear. Five boys, aged 13 to 16 in the northeastern town of Valmiera in Latvia, have been arrested for the murder of their 14-year old friend. Apparently they were imitating Mortal Kombat moves as they beat up their friend and threw the body into the Gauja river.

They explained "they used techniques borrowed from the video game Mortal Kombat in dealing with their victim", the spokeswoman, Kristine Mezaraupa said.

"The attackers tried to imitate some fighting techniques used in video games," said the head of the investigation division of Valmiera police department Salvis Stamers.

"They employed the use of the legs in a scissor fashion to try to break the opponent's neck," he said.

Sammy Studios becomes independent
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:24:12 CST
Today, Sammy Studios announced that it has finally broken free of it's parent company, Sammy Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. Coupling the announcement, Sammy Studios have announced that they have undergone a name change...they will now be known as High Moon Studios which is a wholly independent and privately owned development studio. Not much has changed apart from the name...it's still headed by the same guys who founded Sammy Studios in the first place, and they are still as dedicated as ever to producing games. Their first game will be "Darkwatch", a Vampire-themed Western shooter. Will we see a fighting game on the cards, developed internally at Sammy Studios? It's possible.
Post or view comments

GC MK: Deception not coming to PAL
Posted by White_Pointer at 14:29:33 CST
In an announcement that is sure to disappoint gamers in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, Midway have confirmed that the Gamecube version of Mortal Kombat: Deception will not be released in the PAL format. Ed Boon has not provided any reason for this at the moment, but did say that they decided very early on in the development of the GC version that they won't be releasing it in the PAL format.

So PAL GC gamers, the only way you're going to get to play MK: Deception on your console of choice is to order a GC Freeloader Disc and import the game.

Thanks to Scott Howell from MK Online for the news.
Post or view comments

SF: AC ships for XBox
Posted by White_Pointer at 21:16:53 CST
Another thing we missed reporting on is the XBox Live release of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. This is a faithful port of the PS2 game, complete with XBox Live support. The game is also out in PAL territories already. It features "Hyper Street Fighter II", which has the following assets:

• Mix and match characters and their variations from all five entries to the “Street Fighter II” series which include: Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Champion Edition, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo
• A vast selection of characters - Concoct dream matches of epic proportions including battles with Ryu from the original Street Fighter II as he uses a rapid light kick while a second Ryu counters with a Super Combo from Street Fighter IITurbo’s unique Super Combo System
• Gallery Mode – Access a collection of the various introductions, music soundtracks, images and character background information from all conversions of the Street Fighter II series

It also features a totally converted port of Street Fighter III: Third Strike, with the following features:

• Grade Judge System — Player’s performance is evaluated at the end of each match. The evaluation is based not only on the outcome, but also the match play and how efficiently each character’s moves are used. Players must perform brilliantly to achieve a high grade.
• Progressive Hit Frame System — This programming technique enables a more realistic “Hit Frame” or “Collision Box” detection. The area in which a player makes contact with their opponent is precisely calculated and based on a single frame of animation.
• Super Arts Move – Players choose one of the three Super Arts available to each character
• Parrying – Player’s perform a dodge move by pushing the direction button towards the opponent at the exact moment of opponent attack
• Leap Attack – Move allows players to attack an opponent who is performing a crouching block

SF XBox fans...this should be what you have been waiting for...so nab yourself a copy and start playing!
Post or view comments

MK: Deception ships for Gamecube
Posted by White_Pointer at 12:16:34 CST
As of the 28th of February, Mortal Kombat: Deception is available on store shelves throughout North America. As previously reported, the game is essentially identical to the XBox and PS2 versions released late last year, except it does not have online play. To make up for this, it features two exclusive playable characters: Shao Kahn and Goro, plus a reworked Konquest mode.

"Bringing Mortal Kombat: Deception to the Nintendo GameCube demonstrates that this franchise, and specifically the latest Mortal Kombat installment, has an incredibly large fan base and the demand for the product has spread across all consoles," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "For the GameCube version, the Deception team has added some very exciting special features that are sure to impress even the most die-hard Mortal Kombat fan."

Tekken 5 ships
Posted by White_Pointer at 21:12:12 CST
We've got a bit of news to catch up on...the most important stuff first.

Namco have finally shipped the PS2 version of Tekken 5, and it's looking as sweet as ever. It shipped out on February 25th. With it, you get the first 3 Tekken games, completely playable on the PS2. As we reported earlier, there is also a special edition available which includes a custom made controller and a DVD case to put all those Tekken games in.

“TEKKEN 5 encourages franchise fans and newcomers alike to experience the next generation of fighting genre game play,” said Yoshi Niki, Business Unit Director with Namco Hometek Inc. “TEKKEN 5’s unparalleled combination of customizable characters, interactive environments and brand new fighting engine is a must-have for gamers this year.”

We're back
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:34:43 CST
Yep, we've returned after exceeding our bandwidth again last month. We've been trying to work out some way to avoid this happening in the future which doesn't mean taking our multimedia section down, and we think we've come up with a solution. Sorry for any inconvenience caused, but we are back, and there's been lots of news to report too, so stay tuned, you're going to get a little saturated in the next few days...prepare yourself!
Post or view comments