September 2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

New Poll
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:57:33 CST
There's been many fighting game series over the years and many of them have received recent updates. However, there has been quite a few that haven't had this treatment that gamers desperately want. So, our new poll asks you, which fighting game series would you most like a new sequel to? Vote now!
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Poll Results
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:49:24 CST
It's that time again where we post up a new poll, but as always, here's the results of the last one:

Which of these games are you looking forward to the most?

36.1% - Soul Calibur III
13.8% - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
13.2% - King of Fighters XI
11.9% - Dead or Alive 4
6.1% - NeoGeo Battle Coliseum
5.4% - Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
4.7% - Samurai Shodown Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
4.6% - Guilty Gear Judgement
2.9% - Guilty Gear Dust Strikers
0.7% - The Con

Well, out of all of those games, it seems SCIII is the leader of the pack in terms of gamer anticipation by a country mile. Surprisingly, the new DBZ game has come in second, out-doing KOF XI and DOA4.
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MK: SM now available in PAL
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:28:16 CST
Midway have pulled a double swifty. Last friday we reported that Midway had shipped Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks a week earlier than originally announced. However, we didn't think this applied to PAL territories as almost all retailers listed the game being released this coming Friday. However, as it turns out, the game is now available in PAL territories as well, also shipping about a week earlier than expected. This is also a first for Midway with them shipping a MK game to both NTSC and PAL regions at almost the same time...usually PAL need to wait a couple of months more. Being only one week apart from each other this time around isn't too shabby.
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Capcom classics collection released
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:04:50 CST
Capcom's own compilation of old-school arcade games, titled Capcom Classics Collection is released today. We reported on this back in July but just to refresh your memory, this will include games like Final Fight and of course Street Fighter II, among a stack of Capcom's non-fighting games such as Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Ghosts 'n Goblins. Disappointingly, from the fighting gamer's perspective, there's no inclusion of any other SF games (besides SFII: Hyper Fighting and SFII: Champion Edition, which are just updated versions of the original SFII) or any games of the Darkstalkers series. Guess there's always CCC2 for that.

It's now available for the PS2 and Xbox, so if you're even the slightest bit interested in Capcom's old school arcade games, you'll do well to grab yourself a copy, especially at it's bargain $20 price tag.
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Sega opening new CG studio
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:05:46 CST
To keep up with the visual demands of their next-gen games, Sega is opening up a new studio devoted entirely to CG. Due to be fully operational in April next year, the studio is expected to not only be responsible for FMV's and cut-scenes, but all of the game's visual presentation.

This won't just be limited to games however...Sega also has plans to expand into other entertainment (and non-entertainment) media as well. They even anticipate they may take on the CG work of other game companies.
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MK: SM ships to stores
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:12:36 CST
Midway have announced that Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the new spinoff MK game has shipped to stores. But they pulled a bit of a swifty on us, and actually shipped the game to many stores before their announced release date. Originally announced to be released on the 26th (this coming Monday), many stores got their copies this week.

So, if you're interested in this game, get out there and hunt it down over the weekend...chances are you'll find it.

And people in PAL countries...never fear, you don't need to wait much longer. The game's due for a PAL release on the 30th, which is one week from today.
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TGS News: King of Fighters anime announced
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:27:26 CST
An odd piece of news to come out of this year's Tokyo Game Show is the announcement of a short running anime series based on SNK's King of Fighters franchise. Titled King of Fighters: Another Day, it is being released as part of SNK's promotional plans for the upcoming KOF: Maximum Impact 2 that we reported on a couple of days ago. It will be available in a variety of ways, including online.

Those of you having nightmares that things might get messed up in the transition to anime...you can sleep a little easier. The series is being produced by Production I.G.'s Studio 9 and it's lead character designer Hajime Shimomura. If you know anything about anime, you'll know that Shimomura is the mastermind beheind Ghost in the Shell. The script itself will be overlooked by Akihiko Ureshino, who himself has written several KOF novels and is currently also working on the MI2 storyline.

The four-part series is set to start this holiday season.
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TGS News: New Samurai Shodown coming to PS2
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:38:34 CST
When Samurai Spirits: Tenkaichi Kenkyakuden (That is, Samurai Shodown: Tenkaichi Kenkyakuden) was first announced, it was only for the arcade and it was unclear as to whether we will see a home port of the newest game in the Samurai Shodown series. The question has now been answered by SNK at the Tokyo Game Show and rest assured it's on its way to the home TV screen. The game (which was released in Japanese arcades a few days ago) is coming to the PS2, and will be here as early as the holiday season, complete with new characters (more than 40 in total) and online play. It will also feature a customisable soundtrack and a neat little feature that allows the player to edit the colour palletes of each character.
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TGS News: Dead or Alive 4 release date set
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:15:49 CST
During the Tokyo Game Show, Tecmo took the opportunity to show off the next title in the DOA series: Dead or Alive 4, which will be making its debut on the Xbox 360. While nothing too new has been revealed about the actual game, Tecmo did reveal that the game will indeed ship the same day as the Xbox 360 in Japan, which is December 10th. Previously, we had only known that the game was going to be released around the 3-month period of the 360's launch. Whether the game will ship on the same day as the US launch of the Xbox 360 (November 22nd) remains to be seen, but if online retailers like EB Games and Gamefly are anything to go by, it looks very likely it will.

We've got some more screenshots of DOA4 in our image galleries as well, check them out.
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TGS News: KOF MI3 coming to 360
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:10:27 CST
Well, the Tokyo Game Show happened last weekend, where Nintendo revealed the controller for the revolution. That wasn't the only thing that happened at the show however...several new fighting games were announced and on display. Over the next few days we'll br bringing you information on these.

First up is King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 3 from SNK, scheduled for release on the Xbox 360. That's right, you read that correctly..that's number 3, despite the fact number 2 isn't even finished yet. No further details are known about it at the moment, but there is a strong suspicion that this will simply be a port of KOF: MI2 (currently scheduled for a release on PS2 later this year) with some extra features. We'll find out what the whole story is when SNK reveal more details.
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Revolution controller revealed
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:54:31 CST
A little light on the fighting games news today but not to worry, because we still have some big gaming news to report. At this year's Tokyo Game Show, president Satoru Iwata finally revealed the secret Nintendo have been keeping for so long...the controller for the Nintendo Revolution. See below for the pics:

Brand new forums!
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:25:30 CST
Yep, we've been working hard behind the scenes over the past few days to bring you a better forum experience and now our brand new forums are finally complete and ready to be used! We haven't just upgraded, we've moved into using completely new forum software that is much more stable, secure and easy to use. All of the relevant links have been updated, and best of all, all of your posts and details have remained intact. Just visit the forums like you normally would by clicking the links around the site, log in with your usual username and password and you are ready to go! Enjoy!
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More new fan art
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:27:58 CST
droberts has sent us some more of his drawings to add to our ever expanding fan art section. He's provided two images of Kokoro from DOA4 and one of Kasumi who appears in the other DOA games. Check them out in Gallery 7 of our fan art section, which now consists of nearly 170 contributions! If you want to be a part of it all and submit your own fighting game fan art, follow the above link for all the submission guidelines.
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Rise of the Imperfects pushed forward
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:11:49 CST
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, which is the Marvel vs EA crossover game that has been talked about quite a bit has not only been finished, but finished slightly ahead of schedule. The Gamecube, Xbox and PS2 versions of the game will ship on the 20th of September, a week earlier that originally expected. However, this change does not affect the DS and PSP versions, which are currently due to be released on the 11th of October.

We'll be hopefully bringing you more information on this game in the near future.
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New Fan Art
Posted by White_Pointer at 03:50:47 CST
We've had more submissions of fan art over the past week or so, and we've finally had a chance to publish them so here they are.

First of all, Joe Ikey has continued to send us his artwork with 2 new computer-drawn images of Yang and Adon. Secondly, Effix has sent us 2 awesome hand drawn portraits of Ayane and Kasumi from the DOA series.

Check out all the new contributions in Gallery 7 of our fan art section. Don't forget, if you are an artist yourself and would like to submit your ow fighting game fan art to the site for the world to see, visit our fan art section for the submission guidelines!

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MK: SM goes gold
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:18:53 CST
Midway have finally announced that Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the new spinoff game to the MK series, has gone gold. It seems Midway never have a problem delivering their games on time. In case you didn't know, this is the first MK spinoff game that has actually been developed with the core MK team at Midway.

The game is due to hit store shelves across the US on September 26th. Those of you in PAL territories...never fear, we'll track down the release date for you as soon as we can.
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New info on Psy-Phi
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:01:01 CST
Two days ago we reported that Sega had a brand new fighting game on display at this year's AM show, and we promised we'd give you more information on it so here it is.

Psy-Phi (that's pronounced "Sci-Fi") will be unlike any fighting game before it. For starters, the game is controlled completely by a touch screen...there's no joysticks or buttons used at all. Each player gets their own screen to look at, with your character in the foreground and your opponent's in the background (think kind of like Super Punch-Out!!, if you can remember that). Your characters hover in mid-air and fight each other by throwing projectiles, which is done easily enough by tapping the screen in the direction of your opponent. Using arrows on each side of the screen, you can dodge your opponent's incoming attacks. However, the touch screen functionality goes further than that, as you can charge up special attacks by holding the screen down longer, and you can choose which special attacks to invoke at any given time.

Despite all this, the game still has a classic fighting game feel to it. There are still health bars and power bars, the match is still decided by a "best of 3" bout format, and there is still a countdown timer. Four characters were playable at the show: Vienna, Ness, Reid and Asys, though we have no idea what the count of the final roster will be.

We'll be keeping our eye on this one as it definately looks promising. We also think this may make an ideal port for the Nintendo DS...you never know. Hopefully we'll know some more after the Tokyo Game Show.
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New Virtua Fighter 5 info
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:26:32 CST
As promised, we have a bit of new information for you from the AM show on the newest addition to the Virtua Fighter series, Virtua Fighter 5.

No actual gameplay was shown at the show...Sega instead opted for a 60-second video which showed what they were made of. We know the following characters will be making returns in the new game: Akira, Aoi, Kage, Lion, Vanessa, Goh, Sarah, Jacky, Lei-Fei, Shun-Di, Jeffrey, Brad, Pai and Lau Chan, and Wolf. In addition to the familiar faces, there are two new ones; both of them female fighters that we don't know too much more about. Note though that we don't know what the final line-up of characters will be, this is probably an incomplete list.

We can also ascertain from the video, judging by the age looks of the characters (yes, they actually look older) that the game is a sequel in the VF story, rather than a prequel like what was originally thought.

Hopefully Sega is going to show off some of the actual game at the Tokyo Game Show, but the early signs are definately looking good. Stay tuned for more information, cause we'll report it as soon as we can!
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Fighting games at the AM show
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:04:33 CST
Last week we reported on strong rumours that Capcom may be possibly finally showing off Street Fighter 4 at this year's AM show. Unfortunately for you Capcom fans, there was no sign of the elusive title. In fact Capcom's entire booth was quite insignificant and barely worth a mention. If Capcom are indeed planning on revealing SF4, maybe the upcoming Tokyo Game Show is the place they will be doing it.

There was some good news coming out of the AM show though...Sega had a very strong presence, showcasing a number of upcoming arcade titles including Virtua Fighter 5 and a new very unique fighter titled Psy-Phi, and we'll be bring you coverage of these games in the next few days so make sure you stick around. Namco was also there, showing Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, the updated version of Tekken 5.
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SF Alpha 3 confirmed for PSP
Posted by White_Pointer at 19:37:16 CST
The entry that is largely considered to be the best in the SF Alpha series, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (known as Street Fighter Zero 3 outside the US), is on its way to Sony's handheld system. While not much has been revealed about it just yet, besides a vague release date of November and another word added to the title (the working title is Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper), the official website has opened up with some screenshots of the game.

Looking at the screens, we can confirm the following characters are in the roster:

Yun
Sodom
Eagle
Dee Jay
T. Hawk
Dhalsim
Chun-Li
Rogue
Cody
Karin
Ingrid
Blanka
Fei Long
E. Honda
Ryu
Sagat
Gouki
Guy

We'll bring you more information as it becomes available!
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Virtua Fighter 5 revealed
Posted by White_Pointer at 21:21:15 CST
You might have noticed in Tuesday's news post that another fighting game franchise is getting a new sequel...and Sega has now confirmed that this is the case. Virtua Fighter 5 is indeed in development on their new Lindbergh arcade board. There's no word yet on an expected console release, although we are fairly certain the game is also in development for either the Xbox 360 or the PS3...or both.

Sega are expected to announce more about the game very soon, so stay tuned and we'll give you that information. In the meantime, make sure you check out a couple of brand new sneak peaks of the game in our Virtua Fighter images section!
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KOF 2002/2003 Combo Pack ships for Xbox
Posted by White_Pointer at 04:05:35 CST
SNK have announced that the originally PS2 exclusive King of Fighters 2002/2003 combo pack has now shipped out for the Xbox. The pack is pretty much exactly the same as the PS2 version which shipped last year, except it has online play over Xbox Live, which includes an online tournament mode. So, if you don't own a PS2, now is your chance to re-live the KOF experience. As we reported yesterday, SNK have more Xbox and PS2 games headed our way in the near future.
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