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EA Sports MMA gameplay footage revealed during Strikeforce match

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 8th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Man, we have got to get into watching Mixed Martial Arts. Not only do the sport's leagues have like, the coolest names ever, but the televised bouts also occasionally contain sneak peeks into upcoming video games. For instance, on last night's Strikeforce (so, so cool) match, the first-ever gameplay footage from EA Sports MMA was revealed. You can find it posted just after the jump.

How does it look? We have no idea. There's plenty of punching and kicking, sure, and one might say these two techniques are used intermittently -- or rather, that they are mixed. Therefore, our initial, amateur analysis of the video concludes that it reeks of authenticity.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Confirmed: Car-bashing bonus stage returns in Super Street Fighter IV

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 5th 2009 at 3:18PM }

After scans from Famitsu all but confirmed it, Capcom today revealed that the crescendo of humanity vs. his own creations – car bashing – will return in Super Street Fighter IV. Though the image of Juri above is all we're offered by Capcom-Unity for now, various Capcom staff Twitter accounts lead us to believe we'll be hearing more about this bonus stage next week. In the meantime, we've dropped an excellent video of John Cleese beating up a car with a stick for you just after the break. You're welcome.

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Tekken 6 online patch in the works, says Namco

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 4th 2009 at 6:20PM }

Those of you taking your King of the Iron Fist Tournament fighters to the internet have been experiencing some major issues, notably: when trying to compete online in any sort of meaningful way, you're met with acute, game-ending connectivity issues. Namco recognized that today and issued a response, stating, "To improve the online game experience for players ... Namco Bandai games is developing a downloadable update which will be available as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures."

Unfortunately, no date for the patch has been given, though the publisher does add, "This is separate from the online co-op Scenario Campaign mode update." We've pestered Namco for more details on exactly what the patch will aim to fix and when we might hear more about it but, until that time, know this: something is being fixed at some point.

Arc System Works porting BlazBlue to PSP

by JC Fletcher { Nov 4th 2009 at 1:45PM }

The giant HD sprites of Arc System Works' fighter BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger will be shrunk down a bit. Famitsu has announced that Arc System Works is preparing a PSP port of the fighter. The portable release, out in Japan on February 25, will feature all the characters from the console game, and ad-hoc multiplayer for up to four. It'll also include a new Legion Mode in which players fight to gain territory on a game board. No screens or scans have been released yet.

Considering the prolific nature of Blazblue's predecessor, the Guilty Gear series, and the fact that there's already an updated version of the original game on the way to arcades, don't expect this to be the only port of Blazblue.

Rumor: Car punching returns in Super Street Fighter IV

by Justin McElroy { Nov 4th 2009 at 9:45AM }

While Street Fighter may be the perfect symbol of man's inhumanity to man, we always considered SFII's bonus stage (which used the punching of a car as a John Henry-esque metaphor for the struggle to maintain humanity in the face of an industrial age) as the more poignant symbolism. Capcom appears to agree, as some new Famitsu scans seem to indicate that the car-punching bonus stage will return in Super Street Fighter IV.

Also depicted is the barrel smashing mini-game, though that doesn't represent anything ... except that it's fun to smash barrels.

A ridiculously detailed guide to the changes in North America's Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

by JC Fletcher { Nov 2nd 2009 at 6:15PM }

forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php

We know about the "big picture" changes made to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for the North American release (and the Japanese re-release to follow): online play, new characters, no Hakushon Daimao. But those aren't the only changed. In every iteration of its fighting games, Capcom tweaks tiny behaviors and damage effects to balance the game.

The fighting game obsessives at Shoryuken have produced a list of minute changes that will affect how the game works. For example, the Megacrash move (which pushes the opponent to the opposite side of the screen) now pushes up in addition to away. And Roll's air dash is faster. Check out the wonderfully informative post for plenty more details that we never, ever would have noticed.

Gallery: Tatsunoko vs Capcom (TGS 2009)

[Via GoNintendo]

Kenka Bancho 4 laser-eyes a PSP release

by JC Fletcher { Nov 2nd 2009 at 4:45PM }

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble isn't even out in North America yet (next week!), but in the period between its announcement and release, publisher Spike has already announced two more Kenka Banchos for Japan: a port of the original, and a new sequel.

Kenka Bancho 4: One Year War takes place in an inexplicably violent high school, as Yuuto attempts to become top "bancho" among the toughest kids in class. By beating everyone else up, of course. The "smashtalk" taunt system will return with unidentified updates. The school fight will start in spring 2010 in Japan. Stare down some screens at GAME Watch.

[Via Siliconera]

Namco announces 2.5 million shipped copies of Tekken 6

by JC Fletcher { Oct 31st 2009 at 12:00AM }

Namco Bandai sent out a press release today boasting that it has shipped over 2.5 million copies of Tekken 6 worldwide. Now, we don't want to tell Namco how to do its job, but these shipment numbers tend to be more impressive when you give the game a week or so in stores, so we can more readily infer a connection between shipped copies and sold copies.

The portion of those 2.5 million earmarked for Europe, for example, just got there today, and it's only been in stores for around two days in North America. All we know based on this is that Namco expects to sell a ton of copies, not that it is selling a ton. Although we're sure it will.

Maybe that's the idea -- to build excitement about Tekken 6 by showing how confident the publisher is. To print up 2.5 million of the things (some of which come in totally huge boxes), Namco must really believe it's on to something!

Gallery: Tekken 6 (GamesCom 2009)

Tekken 6 launch tournament promises to 'be hype'

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 22nd 2009 at 1:30AM }

If you're a fighting game enthusiast living in Southern California -- or a really big fighting game enthusiast living in Northern California -- you might want to check out the Tekken 6 launch party that's being hosted by a number of local fighting game community sites in Hawthorne, CA. Attendees who shell out for the $10 entry fee will have the chance to play the brawler on comically large screens, win some swag (such as the drool-inducing wireless fightstick bundle) and schmooze with some Namco Bandai developers.

You can be sure that we'll be in attendance -- we're going with the hopes of being able to shake the hand of the person responsible for the panda-booting screenshot above. That thing has brought so much joy into our lives, and we'd like to personally thank its progenitor.

Gallery: Tekken 6 (6/22/09)

Super Street Fighter IV's final boss being made even tougher to beat

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 20th 2009 at 11:00PM }

We're not sure how to break this to you, so we're just going to say it straight up: Super Street Fighter IV is going to have an even tougher (read: cheaper) Seth than Street Fighter IV. But we've got good news alongside that: You won't be forced to fight him over and over until you unlock that last playable character, as they'll all be unlocked right from the get go!

After Capcom's Seth Killian spoke with Kotaku earlier today regarding the unbelievably cheap final boss (can you tell we're bitter?), we shot an email to him to make sure he hadn't misspoke when he said, "Seth will be even cheaper and more irritating." Killian clarified his statement for us, saying, "[SSFIV producer Yoshinori] Ono himself promised that Seth would be even more challenging ... 'cheaper' and 'more irritating' are premature since the AI isn't finished but he isn't going to be a pushover."

When we wrote back, terrified that we'd never get to play the game's entire cast of characters, he reassured us that, "All characters are unlocked to start." We'll be getting our hands on SSFIV later this week and hopefully we'll get to find out just how much more difficult Seth is becoming.

Kenka Bancho: Banana Suit Rumble

by JC Fletcher { Oct 14th 2009 at 4:30PM }

How tough are the badasses of Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble? So tough that they can look intimidating in banana costumes, as demonstrated in these new screenshots. Not convinced? These dudes are so hardcore that the game's release date was moved up to face off with Modern Warfare 2. You have to be pretty ice cold to stand against that as a niche PSP game. We respect that.

Atlus sent an email detailing the game's inventory system, which is pretty simple: every item of clothing includes a certain number of pockets, up to a total of eight per complete outfit. Which means you have to be super tough to take on rival gangs in just your undies, because not only would that be really embarrassing to anyone but the most confident of fighters, you can't carry healing items.

Gallery: Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble (PSP)

Street Fighter IV's Abel before he bulked up

by JC Fletcher { Oct 14th 2009 at 9:06AM }

The official Super Street Fighter IV development blog has revealed some unused character art for the first game, revealing a different take on Abel than the giant amnesiac in bike shorts we know now. Before he was beefy and uncomfortably pant-less, he was wispy ... and pretty much only in pants.

"With Abel," battle planner Taisaku Okada explained (as translated by Andriasang) we wanted to make someone representative of 'the weak can beat the strong,' and so he was originally a small judo character who could be mistaken for a girl." Eventually, it would appear, they opted for someone representative of 'the strong can beat the ... also strong."

The post also reveals E. Honda's skeleton, which, like all the characters', is rendered in full 3D. The other characters' hairstyles probably don't have bone structure, however.

[Via Andriasang]

Zero and Joe the Condor are the last two Tatsunoko vs. Capcom characters

by JC Fletcher { Oct 14th 2009 at 7:30AM }

IGN revealed today that the leaked Tatsunoko vs. Capcom character roster update was almost 100% accurate in predicting the characters added to the North American version (and the upcoming Japanese re-release). Joe the Condor (yet another Gatchaman character) and Mega Man X's pal Zero have joined the lineup. Only Yatterman #2 is unaccounted for. This isn't Zero's first appearance in a fighter; he appeared in his Mega Man Zero style in SNK vs. Capcom: SvC Chaos and Onimusha Blade Warriors. This is, however, his first appearance in a good fighting game.

Check out footage of both new characters in action after the break. Rather than being a simple palette swap of Mega Man Volnutt, Zero's attacks use his trademark energy sword. And Joe has a grappling hook/gun combo.

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Super Street Fighter IV producer wants to expand online mode, add more original characters

by JC Fletcher { Oct 8th 2009 at 3:00PM }

In an interview with Famitsu, Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono did a lot of hinting, but didn't really offer any specifics about the new Street Fighter IV update. For example, he declined to explain what's going on with the changed Ultra Combo gauge, though Famitsu speculates the mark in the middle is a Roman numeral I, to denote the first of multiple meters filling. However, there's still enough information to be interesting in Andriasang's translated synopsis.

Ono said he wanted to expand online play, to more closely approximate the excitement of being at a tournament. Online match viewing is something Ono hopes to add to the game, making Street Fighter more of a spectator sport. He also said he wanted to augment the Replay Viewer feature in some way.

As for the most noticeable new addition to Super -- the new characters -- don't expect Juri to be the only original character among a bunch of old Street Fighter series also-rans. Ono said he wanted to add more original characters who, like C. Viper, are at "the borderline of what fans might accept" using unusual fighting styles.

Rumor: Tekken 6 also bundled with 250GB PS3 in Europe

by JC Fletcher { Oct 6th 2009 at 4:30PM }

There's a confusing variety of 250GB PlayStation 3 bundles available in different regions. Put simply, the following theorem appears to hold true: if there's a high-profile PS3 game on the way this year, there is also a PS3 bundle for it somewhere in the world. The latest potential candidate for a bundle: Tekken 6, as suggested by this image posted by Dutch site Nextgamer. It matches the look of the Need for Speed Shift bundle box posted by Engadget, except it includes a note about the hard drive size, which is omitted from the Shift box.

Sony UK revealed a surprising lack of investment in its worldwide operations when it told CVG that "We're not doing that bundle but one of the territories might be." Even if it is real, you don't get an arcade stick with this bundle, so it seems less than ideal.