July 2005

Friday, July 29, 2005

New Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance info
Posted by White_Pointer at 21:21:40 CST
You might remember back pre-E3 this year we reported on a new brawler game being developed by Capcom called Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance. Back then, for all intents and purposes, it was a 3D version of Capcom's own Final Fight series...basically a pretty cool 3D side-scrolling beat 'em up. Now however new information has emerged about the game which changes things quite a bit.

For the record, the single player game is still what they originally announced the game to be. It's the multiplayer side of things where it gets interesting. Instead of implementing a kind of co-op mode (or maybe as well as, we aren't sure yet), Capcom are going all out to create a 3D 1-on-1 fighting game as the game's multiplayer. In a twist similar to the KOF series, it will use a 3-man tag team system, where one character fights and the others cheer them on. The character switching is not done in real time, with cut-scenes used instead. Don't expect this to be a particularly deep fighting system as all the moves are executed pretty simplistically, although the game does feature an SC-like 8-way run system.

We don't know exactly how either the single player or multiplayer modes will work at this point, but it's looking promising.
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Pre-Order Shaolin Monks, get free figurines
Posted by White_Pointer at 22:25:00 CST
The pre-order page for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has opened up, along with a nice surprise. If you pre-order the game online, you'll receive 2 action figures (one of Liu Kang and one of Kung Lao) for free along with your order. The figures are 6 inches high with 16 points of articulation...not bad for something you'll get for nothing.

The game is scheduled for a release on September 20th. To pre-order, head on over to the official pre-order page.
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Marvel Nemesis announced for DS
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:38:00 CST
The Marvel vs EA crossover game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, which has got a bit of media coverage lately has another piece of said media coverage. Originally announced for the PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PSP, it was revealed earlier this week that the game is also headed to the DS.

Early screenshots indicate that the DS version isn't going to look much different to the other versions, and will play by and large the same way as well. It will have one play mechanic the other versions certainly won't have though...the touch screen. Tap the screen and it acts as a giant button to unleash your character's powered-up "rage" move. It will of course also feature multiplayer over the DS's WiFi. 18 playable characters have been announced for the DS rendition.

Stay tuned, we'll give you more information, including screenshots, when they are available.
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Jump Superstars character roster revealed
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:14:28 CST
You might remember quite a while ago we reported on the upcoming Nintendo DS fighting game Jump Superstars, which was the SSB-esque fighting game featuring characters from the popular Shonen Jump Anime series. Well, the character roster has now been revealed, and we are going to give it to you. Note that this may not be the complete roster. There's a lot in there, so buckle up (if you recognise all these characters, or even all the shows they come from, you're doing much better than us!). At this point we don't know whether all of these characters will actually be playable or whether some of them will just be appearing in the game in some form or another. So, here's the list (translation of most of the names courtesy of IGN).

Dragon Ball
Son Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Son Gohan [adult], Super Saiyan Son Gohan [boy], Son Gohan [boy], Super Saiyan Vegeta, Vegeta, Piccolo, Kuririn, Chi Chi [& Son Goku], Kamesenin, Bulma, Dende, KamiSama, Potara Earrings [item], Senzu Bean [item]

Eyeshield 21
Sena Kobayakawa, Hiruma Youichi, Kurita Ryoukan, Tarou Raimon, Cerberos, Mamori

Hunter x Hunter
Gon Freaks, Killua Zoldick, Kurapica

Ichigo 100%
Aya Toujou, Tsukasa Nishino, Satsuki Kitaooji, Yui Minamito

Hikaru no Go
Hikaru Shindou / Fujiwara-no-Sai

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Tsunayoshi Sawada / Reborn, Rambo

Pyuu to Fuku! Jaguar
Jaguar Jun-Ichi, Piyo Gen, Hammer

Gintama
Gintoki Sakata, Shinpachi Shimura, Kagura

Busou Renkin
Kazuki Mutou, Tokiko Tsumura, Captain Bravo

Kochikame
Ryotsu Kankichi, Keiichi Nakagawa, Reiko Akimoto, Daijiro Ohara, Maria

Black Cat
Train Heartnet, Sven Vollfied, Eve

Shaman King
Yoh Asakura, Anna Kyoyama, Hao Asakura & SOF, (Spirit of Fire), Horo Horo, Manta Oyamada

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Don Patch, Tokoro Angel, Heppokomaru, Dengaku Man, Girlfriend, Beauty, Hatenkou, The Service Man

D.Gray-man
Allen Walker, Rabi

Mr. Fullswing
Saruno Amakuni

Death Note
Light Yagami / Ryuuk, L

Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yugi Moto

Prince of Tennis
Ryoma Echizen, Kunimitsu Tezuka, Shusuke Fuji, Takeshi Momoshiro, Kaoru Kaidoh, Eiji Kikumaru & Shuichiro Oishi, Sadaharu Inui

YuYu Hakusho
Yusuke Urameshi, Kurama, Hiei, Kazuma Kuwabara

Rurouni Kenshin
Kenshin Himura, Hajime Saito, Sanosuke Sagara

Naruto
Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Hatake Kakashi, Hinata Hyuuga, Neji Hyuuga, Rock Lee, Shikamaru Nara, Tsunade

One Piece
Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Nico Robin, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper

Bleach
Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki

Slam Dunk
Hanamichi Sakuragi, Kaede Rukawa

Dr. Slump
Arale Norimaki

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Jotaro Kujo, Dio Brando

Steel Ball Run
Gyro Zeppeli

Currently Nintendo has only announced plans for a Japanese release, which is the 8th of August. Thanks to importing though, if you really wanted to get your hands on it, it shouldn't be too hard. Don't rule out the possibility of it being on the shelves in your own countries though. We'll be bringing you more information on this game soon, stay tuned!
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New features revealed for MK: SM
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:41:22 CST
IGN has revealed through an exclusive video more information on the upcoming MK spin-off game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. In the video, the backstories of both Liu Kang and Kung Lao are explained, as well as what we can expect as far as their variety of moves and their playstyles are going to be like. We also learn what the role of Raiden in the game will be. The video is commented by members of the development team, including Ed Boon and John Vogel, and is well worth checking out of you are interested in the game. Head on over to IGN to see it.
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Tekken characters to appear in Urban Reign
Posted by White_Pointer at 22:24:07 CST
Urban Reign, Namco's upcoming street brawler that we reported on back during E3 will be featuring some special appearances of characters from Namco's flagship fighting series Tekken, the company has revealed recently. The two characters that will be making cameos are Marshall Law and Paul Phoenix.

Apart from that, not too much other new information has been revealed about the game, apart from the fact that it will feature nearly 60 characters and you'll be able to choose from a variety of playmodes, including a weapon battle mode. We'll bring you more information when we get it!
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DOA4 a 360 launch title?
Posted by White_Pointer at 22:06:06 CST
Well, this doesn't really come as too much of a surprise, but Tecmo have announced through Famitsu magazine that Dead or Alive 4 will be an Xbox 360 launch title, much like DOA3 was for the current Xbox. Well, at least in Japan it will be, as no representatives from Microsoft or Tecmo could confirm that this is the case outside of Japan.

We now know there will be a total of 20 characters in the game, which will be comprised of both new and returning faces. The big change however, in a bold move, is that Tecmo will be changing around many of the old moves and changing the playstyles of the returning characters to make room for more attacks.

"The fighting styles of the characters won't change without changing around their main moves. It's a real risk. This isn't something that's small as adjustments to the game’s balance," commented Itagaki. "Up until now, we were chained to the series' existing framework. But time had passed, and by the period that we were working on Beach Volleyball, we felt that it [the framework] didn't matter any more. We will be pursuing [to create] a game that plays more like a Dead or Alive rather than a game that plays like a fighting game."

Tecmo announces classic arcade game collection
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:33:50 CST
Tecmo is the latest company to announce a collection of their classic arcades games, following Midway, Namco and Capcom. Unlike those three however, there doesn't appear to be any fighting games in Tecmo's lineup. There's still stuff in there though for those of you who are after nostalgia. The full list of games to be included in the pack is as follows:

Tecmo Bowl
Rygar
Starforce
Solomon's Key
Bomb Jack
Tecmo Cup
Pinball Action
Pleiads
Senjyo
Swimmer
Strato Fighter

The official name for the pack is Tecmo Classic Arcade. Curiously, this arcade game collection will not be multiplatform, but will be exclusive to the Xbox. No release date has been set yet that we know of, but since this is a current generation Xbox release, we are guessing it will hit store shelves within the next few months.
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New Poll
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:39:40 CST
Many fighting games have been announced recently, stretching back to E3. Now that we have more information on these games, our new poll asks you which of these games you are looking forward to the most. Vote now!
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Poll Results
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:32:04 CST
Well, it's time to close off our poll, so here are the final results:

Do you think fighting games supporting 16 or more players will work in the near future?

33.5% - No
29.3% - Yes
19.4% - Probably
17.5% - Not sure

In the end it seemed like a pretty even split, although more site visitors didn't think 16-player fighting games would work. The result is still pretty close though.
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EA grabs more comic book talent
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:32:59 CST
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, which you might remember is the famed "Marvel vs EA" crossover fighting game, got a boost today as EA snagged comic book veterans Mark Millar (Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four) and Terry Dodson (X-Force, House of M) to work on the game. They'll be joining comic book artist Jae Lee on the team creating EA's cast of superheroes called The Imperfects, who will be making their debut in the game and will have comic books to follow.

The game is still scheduled for a release in October for the GC, PS2, Xbox and also the PSP. More news on this as we get it.
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Sega basing arcade hardware off 360?
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:24:52 CST
Today, some interesting information has come from Japanese arcade distributors. At this point at least, it appears as if Sega's new arcade board, called the "Lindbergh" (which is powering the Upcoming House of the Dead 4 and presumeably Sega's next generation of arcade games), is based off the architecture of the Xbox 360. This makes at least some sense if you are familiar with Sega's recent arcade history, because their previous board was based off the current Xbox's.

If this is true (which it appears to be), it would mean that Sega's next generation of arcade games, including the next instalments in the Virtua Fighter series, could potentially be ported quite easily to the Xbox 360, certainly expanding the console's library of Japanese-developed games (and well known franchises at that). This might be a crucial step in Microsoft's attempt to raise interest in the new console in Japan. As you know from our news report on Tuesday, Japanese gamers are really not interested in the 360 at all.
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Behind the scenes look at SCIII
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:19:32 CST
Anyone interested in the upcoming Soul Calibur III will be very interested in this update. We've added a new movie to our SC movies page, which is an inside, behind the scenes look at how the new story mode is going to work in SCIII. Without giving too much away, we know each character will now have their own unique story and quests to complete, amongst other things.

Make sure you grab it from our Soul Calibur movies page.
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New details on KOF XI
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:18:09 CST
New facts have emerged on SNK's latest installment in their KOF series, King of Fighters XI, their second KOF game for the Atomiswave and the 12th mainstream game in the KOF series (despite the name).

Despite the new arcade hardware, SNK aren't really ramping up the graphics all that much in KOF XI...they will by and large be pretty much the same as they were in KOF 2003. The big change is the addition of a 5th attack button, which is used for knockback attacks, and this will no doubt create a big change in gameplay dynamics. The tag team feature is still in there, and is a step up from KOF 2003 where you could only tag in and out when you weren't executing a move. Now, as you may have guessed, you CAN tag in and out mid-move, or if the opponent manages to execute a move that cancels out yours (and vice versa). The final change to the gameplay is the addition of a skill gauge. Once this is full (you can keep 2 of them) you can cancel out of regular moves.

As far as the character roster goes, 33 characters have been confirmed to be in the game, and of course you can choose any combination of three characters as your team, as usual. Three new characters are being introduced: Elizabate - a sword-weilding female, Oswald - a guy who fights with a deck of cards, and Momoko - a stronger female character.

The game is scheduled to hit arcades in October this year. Stay tuned for more updates.
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Japan says no to Xbox 360
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:34:02 CST
A little light on the fighting game news today, so here's an interesting little tidbit of news about the next generation console war. Apparently, according to a recent survey, Japanese gamers are not the slightest bit interested in the Xbox 360, despite the fact that Microsoft have managd to sign some big name Japanese developers to create games for the console. Only 2 percent of those surveyed wanted the 360, compared to 60 percent who wanted the PS3 (where the remaining 38 percent goes is anyone's guess, but probably the Revolution). This comes as no real surprise in one sense, since Japan has never embraced the Xbox at all, selling well below half a million units in total since the console's launch in 2001. It comes as a surprise in another sense when you consider how much time, effort and money Microsoft is putting into marketing the 360 in Japan. At this point at least...it doesn't seem to be paying off.
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Rare to develop DS games?
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:49:46 CST
When Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, it didn't seem like we'd ever see Rare games on a Nintendo system again. But since then, we have indeed seen a couple released for the GBA. Now the plot thickens as it appears that Rare are looking to hire specifically with the DS in mind, which you can see on their official website. If this sounds strange to you, you aren't alone, as it doesn't seem to make sense that a Microsoft-owned studio would be developing games for one of it's competitor's systems. Yet the evidence is right there.

Of course, this has sparked numerous conversations already on the net about possible Rare/Nintendo franchise revivals on the DS, such as Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong. In fact, considering Rare has been porting their popular SNES games to the GBA, it might not seem out of the question for them to bring their popular N64 games to the DS, including Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and yes, Killer Instinct Gold. However, be advised to take this as a grain of salt as nothing has been confirmed from either Rare or Microsoft about such things. But if this is true, we may see a revival of KI yet. We'll keep you posted.
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Amusement park workers charged
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:50:56 CST
Remember when we reported several weeks ago about the accident at Sega's Joypolis amusement park where a man fell to his death? We mentioned that the incident was being looked into, and now Tokyo police seem to be charging three of the workers at the amusement park for negligence. The first was the part-time worker who admitted he shouldn't have let Junichi Tsubouchi (the guy who fell and was killed) onto the ride in the first place because he was physically handicapped (and he also didn't secure him properly to the ride). The worker contacted his manager and asked if Tsubouchi could board the ride, and the manager approved, so the manager is the second worker charged over the incident (apparently, many people in the park refused to wear the seatbelts so the rides operated anyway, and the manager just considered this to be one of those instances). The third worker charged is the director of the park himself for failing to give his workers adequate safety instructions.

The Joypolis park was closed down while the investigations were happening but has since re-opened with revamped safety procedures. This may not be the end of the story though...Tsubouchi's family, who has remained quiet throughout this whole ordeal, may pursue civil litigation against Sega. Whether they will or not is unknown at this point.
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Sequel to DBZ: SW coming to DS
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:29:36 CST
It's been revealed in the latest issue of Shonen Jump magazine that Bandai are currently working on a sequel to the popular GBA fighting game Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors (or Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Tougeki). Unlike it's predecessor though, the new game, titled Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Ressen (what exactly this translates to, we aren't sure yet) is coming to Nintendo's other handheld...the DS.

What we know of the game is that it will be 2D, and feature a Capcom vs SNK-Esque character tag-team playstyle. It seems like there will be a total of 16 characters to choose from, and each of these characters as a "dragon power" ranging from 1 to 7 depending on strength. The player is then free to choose any combination of three characters with a designated total of dragon powers, so some strategy will definately be involved. Confirmed characters so far are Goku, Gohan, Super Sayan Goku, Piccolo, Cell, Android #20, and Android #18.

At this point you are probably wondering how this game will take advantage of the DS's hardware. Most of the action will be happening on the top screen by the looks of things, while on the bottom screen you'll see your other chosen characters. Using the touch feature you'll likely use this screen to tag your characters in and out or execute special unison attacks.

No release date has been announced for the game yet.
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Capcom resurrecting classics
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:31:24 CST
Following in the footsteps of what Midway and Namco have recently done with their classic arcade game collections, Capcom have jumped onto the bandwagon and will be releasing their own pack called Capcom Classics Collection. The announced titles to be appearing in this collection is as follows:

1942
1943
1943 Kai
Commando
Bionic Commando
Gun.Smoke
MERCs
Exed Exes
Vulgus
Higemaru
Ghosts 'N' Goblins
Ghouls 'N' Ghosts
Super Ghouls 'N' Ghosts
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Legendary Wings
Section Z
SonSon
Trojan
Street Fighter II (did you really expect it not to be there?)

These are all faithful ports of the arcade originals so purists should be right at home. Capcom Classics Collection is due to ship in September for PS2 and Xbox.
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New characters for Battle Coliseum revealed
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:22:50 CST
The official Japanese website for SNK's upcoming crossover fighter NeoGeo Battle Coliseum has been updated and reveals two new characters to be making their debut in the game. Mizuchi, who seems to be connected to Orochi, and Shin Shishioh, who is connected to King Lion of Kizuna Encounter. You can check out Mizuchi's page here and Shin Shishioh's page here, although they are both in Japanese. If anyone can read Japanese and would like to tell us exactly what these pages say about the character, please e-mail us by clicking the "Submit News" link in the menu to the left.

Thanks to forum member enshinkarateman for this news!
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More new fan art
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:08:03 CST
We've had quite a bit of new fan art submitted to us over the past few weeks, and we have more for you today. droberts has sent us a hand drawn picture of Ayane from the DOA series. Check it out, along with all the rest of our fan art in our fan art section.
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New fan art
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:52:45 CST
Regular fan art contributer Rachel York has sent us another one of her great artworks...the latest is a watercolour painting of Dan Hibiki from the SF series. See it in Gallery 7 of our Fan Art section, and remember, if you want to submit a piece of fan art yourself, that's the link to follow.
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Next DBZ: Budokai game date set
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:12:49 CST
The fourth entry in the DBZ: Budokai series for the PS2, titled Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi has had it's release date set in stone to hit Japanese store shelves on October 6th and to hit the US two months later. We still don't know too much about this title, apart from the fact it will be 3D and you'll be viewing your fighter from a kind of behind-the-shoulder view. The list of confirmed characters is Vegeta, Goku, Janenba, Piccolo, Freeza, Cell, Gohan, Majin-Boo, and Vegetto. Bandai has currently sold nearly 8.5 million DBZ games for the PS2 alone and will be hoping to hit the 10 million mark with the new title. Stay tuned for more updates.
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