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• Artist Updates Classic Game Characters

  Over at a blog named Plan to Fail, there dwells a Canadian illustrator named Tom Rhodes. When Reading Week temporarily sprung Tom from the shackles of higher learning, he decided to celebrate by “updating” classic video game characters. His first revisions centered on the characters from Earthworm Jim and Star Fox: ”I've never played [Star Fox] for more than 20 seconds, because I'd been spoiled by flight simulators I liked a lot more, but I always thought the character looked cool, so that's probably why he came to mind.” The introduction of Krystal may have turned Star Fox into generic furry pin-up material, but in my heart, Fox is the last stand for genuinely cool animal-men. A few more examples of Rhodes' work follow after the jump. Read More... Posted Feb 26 2009, 09:18 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, earthworm jim, star fox, sonic the hedgehog, art, fan stuff, nadia oxford

• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li Is Not For Critics

  There's a famous Penny Arcade strip—the very same strip that first introduces the quaint and chaotic cartoon duo Catsby and Twisp—that begins with Tycho making some remark about how Kevin Smith had decided that his film “Jersey Girls” was “not for critics.” Gabe responds, “Wow, I didn't know you could even do that.” Seems you can. The latest film to shut out critics is “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.” That is to say, there won't be an exclusive screening for Ebert and his kin. If they want to review Chun-Li's searing soul-search, they'll have to get in line for tickets and popcorn with the rest of us mortal slobs. Chances are they won't. But hey, no reviews mean that we'll go into the film with clear heads, right? Yes and no. “The Cutscene,” a Variety blog, confirms what even the most optimistic Chun-Li fans know deep in their hearts: [I]n 95% of cases, not screening a movie is the studio's way of admitting critics are sure to hate it -- usually because it's bad, occassionally because it's a genre, like horror, that critics rarely appreciate. Read More... Posted Feb 20 2009, 12:23 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, resident evil, penny arcade, game movies, nadia oxford, resident evil degeneration, the legend of chun-li

• Two Stupid Viral Videos for Your Friday

  It's friday, everybody. Time for some brain-draining viral videos. First, a mildly funny and super overwrought Street Fighter parody made by a bunch of random azn's that will make you alternately groan and guffaw. It's saved in the end by the endlessly entertaining phrase, "Sonic Bloomberg": Read More... Posted Feb 20 2009, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, comedy, call of duty, cole stryker, viral video, the whitest kids u'know

• Game|Life's Street Fighter Basic Training

  I've never been the biggest fan of traditional one-on-one fighting games, mostly because mastering them seems to be entirely about learning the tedious arcana of the genre. This is why I've only really dabbled in Capcom's Vs. and Nintendo's Smash Bros. series; it's possible to play them like an OCD robot, but the casual fan can still pick up a controller and experience a few minutes of fun, flashy nonsense. The upcoming Street Fighter IV is advertising itself as a back-to-basics approach to the fighting game, which makes me more than happy, since I could never get a good grasp of what the hell was going on in Street Fighter III. However, there's still a lot at work under the hood, and a novice like me could stand to learn a little more strategy aside from "keep punching the other guy in the head." Lucky for me, the bombastic Chris Kohler and the TV's Frank-esque Chris Baker of Wired's Game|Life have put together a little video (with some help from Street Fighter experts) to break amateurs like me into the magical world of street fighting. And, unlike most situations in life, I actually walked away having learned something. Video after the cut. Read More... Posted Feb 11 2009, 05:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, capcom, fighting games, bob mackey, wired, street figher iv

• The Five Characters You Won’t See in Street Fighter IV

  Written by Cyriaque Lamar On February 17th, a numerical Street Fighter sequel will come out in America for the first time in ten years. In an act of unprecedented video game democracy, the good folks at Capcom allowed fans to vote for the characters that would appear in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions. Their shortlist included such perennial favorites as the panties-flashing Sakura and the leotard-clad M16 agent Cammy. As in the 2008 presidential election, sex appeal commanded the polls. But what about those fighters who didn’t make the cut? Join me as I take a look at Street Fighter’s lesser-known pugilists and postulate why these lovable losers didn’t earn a silky-smooth 3D sheen. Rolento Who? Rolento debuted as a boss in the 1989 arcade beat-em-up Final Fight. As a boss character, he was entitled to certain amenities players were not, such as a baton, incendiaries, and a subscription to the Ginsu-Of-The-Month Club. When he turned up in 1996’s Street Fighter Alpha 2, he returned with all of his thwacking, exploding, and stabbing habits intact. Why He Should Have Been in SFIV Rolento is an absolute hoot to play. For a game full of high-flying karate-men, it’s surprising that the most agile character is the guy with grenades strapped to his pectorals. Rolento’s moves include a wide array of flips, rolls, and the ability to use his baton as a pogo stick. Playing him is like playing a paramilitary spider monkey. Furthermore, his backstory is hilariously bad even by Street Fighter standards. As he puts it, Rolento aims to create a militaristic new world order free of “panty-waist politicking”. Revolutionary rhetoric. Why He Isn’t We suspect his absence has something to do with all those unfair knives, grenades, and super moves involving trip wires and impaling opponents with crane hooks. The moment you bring a goddamn crane to fisticuffs is the moment you’ve left the realm of “street fighting” and gone headlong into “demolition derby” territory. Read More... Posted Feb 06 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, street fighter, xbox 360, capcom, final fight, street fighter ii, street fighter iv, arcade, street fighter iii, cyriaque lamar, street fighter alpha

• Street Fighter IV's Dress Rehearsal

  Street Fighter IV is coming, and the World Warriors are dressing up in their Sunday best for you. Palette-swap “costume changes” are something of a tradition in the Street Fighter series and other fighting games. Said costume changes usually involved Ryu standing in front of his closet and musing if he should wear his purple gi or his white gi. But the latest installment in Capcom's famous series will actually offer alternative costumes that are seemingly based on the characters' history, personality and whether or not they have a bum that looks good in tight leotard. Zangief wears the felt overalls of his hero, Mayor Mike Haggar. Guile remembers Charlie by wearing a yellow military vest. Vega dresses up in frills and a ballroom mask so he can run straight to Ken's son's Bar Mitzvah* after he claws out Chun-Li's eyes. Check out the video after the jump. It's a cute and welcome touch that stands to add a lot of personality to the new fighters and the ones we already know. Something about El Fuerte with a frying pan seems right. *Disclaimer: Ken probably isn't Jewish. Vega just looks so dolled up, y'know? Read More... Posted Jan 28 2009, 11:38 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, capcom, street fighter iv, nadia oxford, costumes

• Video Game-Grade Pretension: Not For Street Fighter?

  Topless Robot posted a video of Street Fighter IV's entire cast doing its thing—that is, kicking, punching and philosophising. This is probably the first time you'll hear the aging World Warriors banter about their pills and arthritis in English. If you're a Street Fighter veteran, it's almost certainly not the first time you'll hear them ask one another the meaning of life while they pulverise one another's kidneys. Read More... Posted Jan 21 2009, 11:30 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: ryu, ken, street fighter, street fighter iv, nadia oxford, eliza, topless robot

• Play Street Fighter in Youtube

  Can't wait for Street Fighter IV to drop? Why not pass the time by playing a clunky, but pretty claymation version within Youtube? This has got to be Youtube's killer app. Read More... Posted Jan 19 2009, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, cole stryker, fighters, youtube, street figher iv

• Gamers Don't Crave Gore, According to New Study

  Obvious to most of us, but comforting nonetheless, a new study proves yet again that moms and girlfriends have nothing to worry about when their loved ones play violent video games:  "For the vast majority of players, even those who regularly play and enjoy violent games, violence was not a plus," explained Andrew Przybylski, a University graduate student and lead author of the study. "Violent content was only preferred by a small subgroup of people that generally report being more aggressive," added Przybylski, however, even these hostile players did not report increased pleasure when playing more gruesome games. See, mom! Read More... Posted Jan 16 2009, 05:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, mortal kombat, cole stryker, video game violence, science, study

• Trailer Review: King of the Fighters XII

  King of the Fighters fans are a lot like people who tell you they prefer The Rolling Stones over The Beatles. They seem insane to us normal, Street Fighter-loving folk, and their predilections make us deeply uncomfortable on a fundamental level. I kid. Outside of the weapons-based affairs, like Samurai Showdown and Last Blade, I never cottoned to SNK’s two-dimensional fighters. I’m the first to admit that the King of the Fighters titles, and the series that birthed them, are all beautiful, well-made games, but the flow of their fighting has just never clicked for me. Call it Capcom brainwashing. I respect the hell out of the King of the Fighters series though. Fighting game staples like enormous character rosters, franchise crossovers, and team battles all have their roots in the series. I also have to give props to a series that was developed on hardware from 1990 for eleven entries over as many years. That’s awesome. King of the Fighters XII is an event for the series. It abandons all of the character sprites of yesteryear, loses many fan favorite characters, and it is built from the ground up for HD play. What’s more, every single facet of the game, from the backgrounds to the character sprites, is hand drawn. Read More... Posted Jan 08 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, trailer review, street fighter, king of the fighters, art of fighting, snk, snk playmore, king of the fighters xii, fatal fury, blazblue, samurai showdown, arcane heart, arc system works, guilty gear, street fighter iii, kofxii

• Games to Film: Street Fighter – The Legend of Chun Li Looks… Good?

  On the one hand, no Street Fighter movie could possibly match the unadulterated awesomeness of the image above. That’s Raul Julia wearing an M. Bison costume and getting kicked in the face by Jean-Claude Van Damme, known popularly as The Muscles From Brussels. It just doesn’t get any better than that. On the other hand, Kristin Kreuk is hot. Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 08:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, games to film, street fighter, jcvd, chun li

• Capcom, Street Fighter IV Cluttering My Home With Even More Useless Junk

  Collector’s, commemorative, special, limited, ultimate, and EX plus hyper deluxe editions of games are, by and large, pieces of crap and a truly lousy way to spend even more money on an already expensive leisure. This is, of course, a well-covered topic in our little neck of the cultural woods. Saying that collector’s editions suck is a bit like pointing at the moon in the gaming journalism world. But it’s worth mentioning again when a collector’s edition of a game is announced that is legitimately cool. Take, for example, what lucky Europeans picking up Street Fighter IV will get their mitts on. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 09:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, ryu, street fighter, capcom, street fighter iv

• Gift Idea: A Judas Priest/Ikaruga T-Shirt

  Yeah, you read that headline right. And when 100% cotton gets that high concept, that can only mean one thing: the 2009 Meat Bun T-Shirt collection is here. You know Meat Bun, because Meat Bun made those excellent 1942 and Street Fighter t-shirts that have been haunting your wish lists for all of 2008. You can still get those, with some in new, wonderful colors. But the real action is in the new stuff. The headliner is obviously Shooting for Vengeance, because if you sit and think about it black and white bullets hells really are f’n metal. Yet I’ll also take Street Fighter Club any day, as glow-in-the-dark retro horror somehow is a perfect fit with Blanka-based electrocution. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 12:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, gaming culture, joe keiser, clothing, ikaruga, meat bun

• Licensing Tragedies: Malibu's Street Fighter Comic

  This is an adequate time to be a Street Fighter fan. Thanks to the the launch of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV on the horizon, we have been given a reason to keep breathing throughout the day. Even better, we can go to our local comic retailer and exchange tuppence and a ha'penny for the very competent Street Fighter comic books by Udon. Purists can even help themselves to translated Street Fighter manga, full of bristling hairdos and hoarse oaths. Ah, but life wasn't always so beautiful. There was a time when developers were scared to let US-bound video games and Japanese culture touch each other, so American comic book companies were commissioned to break out their Crayolas and scribble some cash-in magic. Bad things happened, Malibu's Street Fighter comic being among the worst. Fans of The Simpsons might recall Marge Simpson's declaration that everything must be paired up: a woman for every man, a salt shaker for every pepper shaker and a dog for every cat. Malibu noticed that in the Street Fighter games, Chun Li wasn't paired with a man and they decided that must change immediately. So we have golden flashbacks where Ryu and Chun Li recall the love and laughter of their salad days. Of course, the narrative outside of the flashbacks are serious business. Things have changed, harumph harumph. Times are darker. Read More... Posted Nov 27 2008, 01:04 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, capcom, comics, nadia oxford, licensing, licensing tragedies, udon, malibu

• Achievements and Trophies and Unlocking, Oh Meh

  Amazing things are going to happen in 2009. In the first third of the year, we’ll be playing a trifecta of raw, unadulterated Capcom goodness in the form of Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 will finally come out and not look anything like the concept footage shown at E3 2005, we might find out just what the hell Alan Wake is, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll turn out that Final Fantasy XIII is actually a videogame and not just a three minute clip of a chick with nice hair. Home might even come out! Instead of the adorable little freak version of you that putters around your Wii games – or your Xbox 360, which is the exact same little freak but with hands and a selection of shirts from Old Navy – you’ll get to have a version of yourself that is iPod commercial ready, with glossy hair sharp enough to cut a Nomura character. You’ll get to go bowling, wonder why no one’s playing Warhawk and show off all your trophies. And you will have trophies, rest assured. Come ’09, Sony’s making them an obligatory component of any and all PS3 games. I don’t necessarily think achievements and trophies are a bad thing, especially for the type of player who enjoys setting themselves inane goals outside a game’s explicit ones. I just don’t understand why they have to be a necessary feature in every game. Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 03:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, street fighter, xbox 360, wii, bionic commando, street fighter 4, mega man, gears of war, mega man 9, street fighter iv, mii, final fantasy xiii, resident evil 5, alan wake, achievements, killzone 2, trophies

• Game Compilations: The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly

  Time was, I thought game compilations, museum, and anniversary collections, and anything else you’d want to call them were the cat’s meow. Greatest thing since sliced bread. The *ahem* tits. Then The Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Gamecube came out back in 2004. Fifty simoleons for all eight console Mega Man games plus an opportunity to finally play Mega Man: The Power Battle and Power Fighters? Sounds like a dream come true. Then I found out that instead of the A button making the little blue fella shoot and the B button making him jump, the buttons were reversed for the compilation. There is no way to change this control scheme. It turns playing Mega Man 1 through 6 into a personalized hell, the place where cheat code users go when they die. Compilations are dangerous business because, more often than not, the publisher puts no effort whatsoever into them and people buy them anyway. That’s how you end up with Mega Man’s jumping and shooting getting reversed, how Sega releases not one, but two Sonic the Hedgehog collections with fantastic unlockables that are almost impossible to unlock, and how Namco can release the same damn Galaga/Dig Dug/Pac-man collection nine-hundred times. Of course, they really can be a treat. Despite all the load times and inaccessible unlockables, the Sonic Mega Collection is still a great way to play Sonic at his best. Occasionally, budget numbers like the Capcom Classics Mini Mix, a no-frills GBA collection with Bionic Commando NES, Strider NES, and Mighty Final Fight, can come along and introduce you to games you’ve never ever heard of. (Seriously, Mighty Final Fight? When did that happen? It’s got mini Haggar!) They are a more palatable alternative to Virtual Console-style downloads too, as far as price is concerned. Sega’s just-announced Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 and Xbox 360 comes with forty games, and for thirty bucks you get what Nintendo would charge $120 for on Wii. Plus, they wouldn’t even all fit on the Wii’s memory! But again, the production values are highly questionable. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, pac-man, street fighter, capcom, bionic commando, nes, sega, mega man, sonic the hedgehog, strider, mighty final fight, game boy advance, virtual console, dig dug, Capcom classics collection, Capcom mini mix, galaga

• Finally: Playing Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter II HD Remix With Seth Killian

  If someone, some mad man or woman, decided one day that they had tired of hunting big game across the world, tired of hunting for basic thrills in defying death, and decided that the only thing left on Earth to hunt was 61FPS bloggers, well, we’d be pretty easy prey. A simple process: set a trap out in the woods, say a leaf-covered pit, and place a small box in the center of the trap as bait. Write the words “street” and “fighter” in conjunction on said box. Not even a full day later, this theoretical hunter would find me sitting in the bottom of the pit, pawing at the box, wondering aloud why I can’t make it do a proper dragon punch. We like Street Fighter here, a lot, and we’ve been waiting very patiently to play both of its latest incarnations. We’ve been thwarted in earlier attempts to get our greasy mitts on Street Fighter IV and were given only a teasing sample of HD Remix back in June. But yesterday, the wait ended with a hearty walkthrough of both, courtesy of Street Fighter guru and Capcom Community Commandant, Seth Killian. Both HD Remix’s director, Dave Sirlin, and IV’s lead, Yoshinori Ono, have made it clear that both games were made with the express purpose of both renewing Street Fighter as a cultural force and making the fundamental, genre-defining play as accessible as it possible without sacrificing its versatility and depth. This much is clear: they have succeeded. Read More... Posted Oct 23 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, street fighter, capcom, super street fighter 2 turbo hd remix, street fighter ii, street fighter iv, hd remix, seth killian, cammy, yoshinori ono, dave sirlin, el fuerte

• Up All Night: Cannon Spike

  Come with me. Let us prance about at all hours and let us indulge in things not meant for polite society. Let us revel in exploitation, bask in the thick glow of trashy characters, ribald stories. Bring us busty, lusty babes and muscle-bound meatheads with pecks bigger than their brains and guns bigger still. Let these things be good. Let them be bad. Let us stay up all night. It certainly has been awhile, hasn’t it, since we indulged in a bit of the ol’ UAN? Sure, but it’s been longer still since arcades ruled the land. It’s been even longer since Capcom was slinging quarter munchers at gamers across the world from their Japanese stronghold, slaving over 2D fighters, brawlers, and all kinds of licensed goodness. I’ve stayed up all night with Capcom many, many times: sharing a laugh over Aliens vs. Predator, political discourse over some 1942 (awkward!), and some serious bonding over Street Fighter. The good old days have come back, in a way, with Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom hitting arcades, but all the reminiscing has me looking backward at those final years we shared together and the serious lunacy they bore. Way back in 2000, two things led me to believe that Capcom had lost its mind. Read More... Posted Oct 08 2008, 07:22 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, up all night, street fighter, capcom, 1942, cannon spike, aliens vs predator, marvel vs capcom

• Mega Man is a Dick

  From the good human being who brought us "BISOOOOON!" comes a video of Mega proportions: Mega Man 10: WTF? "WTF" is all you need to describe the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon that aired in the early '90s. No other cartoon licensed by Capcom or otherwise varied so wildly in quality. Yes, I am counting Street Fighter and Dark Stalkers. Neither of those had the dizzying high of Mega X (in which Mega Man X chases Vile and Spark Mandrill to the past and blasts the holy shit out of everything around him in spite of being a pacifist in the games) or the bowel-dropping low of Curse of the Lion Men (which simply has to be seen to be believed). Nevertheless, I followed the cartoon. I didn't often like what I saw, but "Day of Sigma" was still more than ten years over the horizon so I had to make do somehow. I would just kind of let my brain glaze over and jerk reflexively whenever I heard "Sizzling circuits!" But I never realised until seeing this video that Mega Man was an out-and-out dick to Roll so often. Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 12:30 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, mega man, mega man 9, nadia oxford, saturday morning, ruby-spears, dark stalkers, mega man 10, mega man cartoon

• Street Fighter IV’s Fighting Spirit, In Painstaking Detail

  In the year since Street Fighter IV was first announced, producer Yoshi Ono has been spreading the good news, making sure that every gamer, and not just fighting enthusiasts, knew about Street Fighter’s glorious return to the world stage. It’s rare that even a few weeks have gone by, especially following EGM’s exclusive cover story on SFIV last December, without Ono sitting down with journalists across the world to discuss the game’s ongoing development and refinement on the road to its release this past summer. But excitement for Street Fighter IV, at least in the United States where only a scant few imported arcade cabinets are available to players, is at a perilous stage, somewhere between tense excitement and frustrated impatience. We’re ready to fight, and even though the fall gaming season is just swinging into gear, it’s hard to ignore Street Fighter IV’s absence from the landscape. To tide over the faithful, Brandon Sheffield’s interview with ubiquitous Ono running on Gamasutra today has some of the deepest insights into SFIV’s structure yet to be published. The familiar territory of how SFIV has been built to bring casual players back into the fold is covered well here, but filtered through the perspective of the fighting genre’s most technical aspects. Ono also provides some fascinating perspective on the series’ history, particularly fighter’s-fighter Street Fighter III and why it’s taken some twelve years for that title to gain the respect and audience it has always deserved: Read More... Posted Sep 26 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, gamasutra, street fighter, capcom, yoshi ono

• The Street Fighter IV Boxart: A Warning of Things to Come

  Capcom recently released the box art for their upcoming home version of Street Fighter IV, so here it is--in case you missed it: Overall, not too bad; when it comes to the Street Fighter series, Capcom has done much worse.  What's troubling, though, is the emphasis on Chun-Li.  It's not that I have anything against Chinese women with gigantic legs; I just don't like to be reminded that another Street Fighter movie will soon exist.  That's right, if you've been trying to forget about it like me, I really hate to bring you back to reality--but Street Fighter: Chun-Li Girl Detective Mysteries (title embellished for mockery) is something that well-meaning people are making on purpose.  And nothing will stop them. Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, capcom, street fighter 4, bob mackey, box art, street fighter the movie

• Ne, Rokkuman! Yaranaika?: The World of Hayadain

  Yesterday afternoon, our hero John Constantine became frightened and confused when he inadvertently discovered Mario and the Western Show. In this jaunty showtune, which is set to music from Super Mario World, Super Mario and his nemesis Bowser haggle back and forth over which one of them loves Princess Peach more (and Bowser picks his nose hard enough to make it bleed). Both seem oblivious to the fact that Peach wants neither of them. In fact, she sounds like she's on the verge of initiating that sexual harassment lawsuit that should have been filed years ago. Mario and the Western Show is written by a Japanese remixer named Hyadain. Whereas America treats its video game remixes with the awe and dignity you'd expect with a revered hobby, Japan's remixes tend to be a bit more silly. Hyadin has become especially famous for cutting loose and giving us beauties like The World Warrior. The World Warrior features the cast of Street Fighter. Each fighter sings about what motivates them to get their face stepped on by M Bison. True to the series, Honda says, ”Sumo is the greatest fighting style in the world!” When is someone going to conjure up the stones to tell the dude that he's the #1 choice of n00bs? Nobody who doesn't want to be sat on, I guess. Other delights by Hyadin include Appearance of Golbez's Four Lords of the Elements and (oh God) CRASH! Let's Do It!, which is Crashman's love song to Mega Man. Don't act disgusted, you only wish you could make love to your hero while Airman fans you gently. Read More... Posted Aug 28 2008, 03:16 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, japan, mega man, final fantasy vi, game music, final fantasy iv, fandom, nadia oxford, hyadain, my first friend, crashman, mario and the western show, rockman, remix

• It’s Madness!: Evo Championship 2K8 Starts Friday, Baby

  The headline above may or may not mean anything to you. If it does, chances are you’re going to be spending August 8th through the 10th in Las Vegas screaming at arcade cabinets or constantly updating YouTube to check out the latest match footage. However, if everything I’ve just written reads like Sanskrit to you (not Derrick. The dead language.), the annual Evo Championship is the closest thing competition level gaming has ever had to a Super Bowl. Warriors gather from around the world and engage in combat. They don’t actually fight each other or anything. They fight in a selection of two-dimensional and three-dimensional fighting games including a number of Street Fighter titles, Tekken, and Smash Bros. It is an epic event. If this sounds silly to you, well, you clearly haven’t seen this. Read More... Posted Aug 05 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, street fighter, capcom, namco, smash bros, tekken tatsunoko vs capcom, evo championship

• Alternate Soundtrack: Mighty Final Fight vs. Radio 4

  Conceived as a sequel to the original Street Fighter, Capcom's Final Fight was an admitted take-off of Technos' Double Dragon side-scrolling beat 'em ups. Already a hit in the arcades and 16-bit consoles, Capcom took the next logical step with its new gang violence franchise: rebuilding it with super-deformed style anime graphics for the 8-bit and obsolete Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. Comically playing through the story of a city under siege by roving street gangs and the three dudes who fight it (including the burly bodybuilder mayor), Mighty Final Fight plays wonderfully with Radio 4's 2002 sophomore LP, Gotham!, a post-punk opus to a ravaged and dilapidated New York City. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 10:30 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: alternate soundtrack, street fighter, derrick sanskrit, capcom, nes, final fight, double dragon, mighty final fight, radio 4, dfa

• Street Fighter II in Your Financial Times

  This advertisement is full of win. The puzzling pop culture parody features the world leaders who comprise the G8 all dressed up as Street Fighter II characters. The ad ends with, "For millions of the world's poorest, this is not a game." Har har. Your average gamer is not likely to page through the Financial Times, so most people who see this ad are going to be very confused. Time to get a new brand manager, Avaaz. Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, cole stryker, advertising

• Bringing Sexy Back: Street Fighter Dress-Up Party!

  Yes, this slinky black number that can be unlocked for Chun Li in the imminent and fine looking Street Fighter 4 is an ample slice of cheesecake. It is not, in itself, bringing sexy back in any way, shape, or form. Cheesecake, as our good friend Patrick Alexander over at Eegra so deftly illustrated, is nothing new in fighting games. Nor are alternate costumes for the exaggerated characters that populate them. What is bringing sexy back is the thought that, ultimately, we’re going to be able to play dress-up with our Street Fighter characters as new content is released in both arcade iterations and home versions of the game. Here’s my thinking: that slinky black dress on Blanka. That will strike fear into all opponents! Read More... Posted Jul 01 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, street fighter, bringing sexy back, eegra

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 3

  Shadow Man As Pete said, Mega Man III started to strain the series' robot-masters-as-industrial-tool conceit. Silly as Top Man is, I have even more trouble getting my head around Shadow Man and his lair sitting at the bottom of a waterfall of lava. What was the civic-planning meeting like for this one? "Finally, we have used the remaining funds in 200X's robot-master budget to build a crazy-sweet ninja robot who lives in a rad fortress at the bottom of a lava flow. He will be protected by robot frogs and parachuting heads." "Madness! Why would you do such a thing?" "Because, sir. It is awesome." Know what? He's right. — JC Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:32 PM by Peter Smith with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 2

  Metal Man More than your average Mega Man stage, Metal Man's feels collosal. Who knows why — maybe it's the giant screws and gears in the foreground, or the dense, heavily animated background (technically quite impressive) of pistons and cogs. Or maybe it's that Metal Man's stage actually has somewhat less variety than most of Mega Man II's stages, thereby suggesting a larger size. Whatever the reason, the scope seems massive. The stage itself is relatively short, but it feels like just a small part of a vast, rusted-out fortress of industry. — PS Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:31 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 1

  Capcom, I don't really know how to say this. It's a little awkward, but damn it, it's the truth. We've known each other a long time, and you've always been a good friend to me, but this year, things have gotten more serious. With Street Fighter IV, HD Remix, Commando 3, 1942: Joint Strike and two versions of Bionic Commando, it's like you've gone out of your way lately to show me what I mean to you, and now that you've announced Mega Man 9, it's time for me to return the favor. Capcom, I. . . I love you. Jesus, I don't know what came over me there. But with Mega Man 9 just unveiled in all its eight-bit glory, my old-school-gaming glands are all swollen and red, and I think it's squeezing out the blood flow to my brain. The early Mega Man games are masterpieces of their era, and they feature some of the most unforgettable stages on the NES — a series of giant constructions that, high-tech though they may be, maintain a playground-like innocence. World-building obsessives that we are, we couldn't let this glorious day go by without commemorating the ten greatest classic Mega Man levels of all time. — Peter Smith Elec Man Keiji Inafune's first attempt at Mega Man was promising but ultimately half-baked. The play was there but the world itself was still confused, its six core stages shuffling back and forth between "gamey" abstraction and eerie pastoral. Elec Man's tower was one of the series' first real successes, an ascent that felt like a true structure and not a background for a sprite to jump about, a dangerous place pulsing with energy that could obliterate our diminutive hero using the very power that fueled his mechanical innards. — John Constantine Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• For Love of the Game: Street Fighter One

  In the hallowed halls of the Street Fighter series, there's really only one stinker — one game that's just not fun to play — and that's the original Street Fighter. It's a damn shame, cause the character designs are pretty cool (outside of a couple of generic muscle-men like Joe), and the graphics are really quite attractive for the time (Lee and Eagle's backgrounds are pretty spectacular actually.) But the actual gameplay... well, it's disastrous. You can only choose Ryu or Ken, they both control like your commands are mere suggestions, special moves are near-impossible to pull off, and enemy attacks seem to do vast amounts of damage randomly determined on a per-occasion basis. It's a pretty startling swing and miss for the normally infallible late-'80s Capcom, and though it was a decent-sized hit at the time (big enough, anyway, to warrant a markedly improved sequel) it's pretty much a historical curiosity at this point. But because the graphics are cool and the characters are classic (and because it's the first game in a truly legendary series), I've always wanted someone to make a revamped version that was actually playable. Well, someone has. Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 04:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: peter smith, for love of the game, ryu, ken, street fighter, capcom, street fighter one, metroid ii, capcommunications