Street Fighter IV System trailer

With E3 occuring this week in Los Angeles, new media from Street Fighter IV has been popping up across the internet. The video I've embedded below comes courtesy of Game videos and while it doesn't showcase anything new, it does at least provide a few seconds of footage for each of the characters in the game. Unfortunately the soundtrack also isn't as inherently cool as the Faith No More Street Fighter IV trailer, but you can't win them all...

Street Fighter IV Guide

Event Hubs, the group responsible for the great Street Fighter III Third Strike guide, has opened their initial strategy pages for Street Fighter IV. Currently the moves lists as well as basic game details have already been updated for the known cast of characters. I'm hoping that as time goes on, the Street Fighter IV guide becomes as all encompassing and visually impressive as the Street Fighter III guide is now. The use of videos in order to demonstrate specific examples really works well, especially with some of the more difficult techniques for new players to master.

Street Fighter IV is being released to arcades this week with the official launch scheduled for the 18th (all stats and data stored before then will be cleared on the day of the launch). Though some early reports are stating that some locations already have the final version of the game, I'm still looking for verification that this is accurate and not just testing versions pulled out prior to the game's release (since the last few test locations were able to keep the machines from my understanding).

Street Fighter IV will be here in the US at E3, ComicCon, and EVO. There's still no word on whether or not it's going to be offered through any sort of official arcade distribution channels however, so these may be some of the only chances US players will have to get their hands on the game prior to the consumer release later this year.

Street Fighter 4 Strategy Guide -- Moves, Hints and Tips

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom video footage...

Even though I have a post going that is updated with all of the new information I stumble across for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (which can be found here), a Gametrailers user earlier today put up a huge selection of videos from the location test that I feel is well worth its own post. There are quite a few shaky cam moments, but overall, this is the most coherent footage we've seen from the location test of Capcom's new vs. fighting game. I've embedded one below, but the rest can be found at the links underneath it.



Alex/Tekkaman vs. Tekkaman/Ken Washio
Tekkaman/Morrigan vs. Hurricane Polymar/Alex
Tekkaman/Alex vs. Soki/Hurricane Polymar
Soki/Yatterman vs. Tekkaman/Chun Li
Ryu/Batsu vs. Ryu/Casshan (this is followed up by the character select screen as well as a short burst of Yatterman/Hurricane Polymer vs. Ryu/Casshan)
Chun li/Alex vs. Soki/Yatterman

New(ish?) Melty Blood Actress Again promo

Sega's YouTube channel was updated earlier today with a video of Melty Blood Actress Again's attract mode from the Private Show earlier this month. For some odd reason, I could've sworn that I've seen this video before, but after glancing through some of the previous Melty Blood updates that I've done I'm not finding it anywhere. Never-the-less, here it is again, perhaps for the first time, perhaps not...

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Location Test Information

[Last update - 9:14 am, Saturday July 12th]

With the first location test for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom currently underway in Japan, I've decided to go ahead and post a link thread highlighting some of the random tidbits of information that is coming out of the test. This post will be updated throughout the weekend as new details are provided in regards to Tatsunko vs. Capcom's character roster, game systems, and maybe even the full details on the arcade hardware...

From early details of the event, there are currently only one set of vs. units at the arcade in Akihabara. I'm waiting for a few images of the set up, but once again the no camera policy looks to have been strictly enforced, so images may have to wait for just a bit longer (it seems like it's easier for people to get a few pictures towards the end of the test rather than at its beginning).

Over at Kobayan, the moves list/flyer from the event was scanned and posted online. It's a bit hard to read the moves list, but the four button scheme (weak, medium, heavy, and tag/partner) doesn't seem to be hurting the game much when it comes to their basic move sets. Now whether or not the loss of one attack button will hurt the normal move variety on the other hand is a completely different question...

Based on the list, Gold Lightan was not currently playable at the event. He only served to cap off as the 'boss' of the location test. A shame if you ask me, but I'm guessing Capcom needed a bit more work before they balanced his play type with the rest of the roster... Or perhaps he was never meant to be playable at all?

A few interesting techniques picked up from the flyer found here and here -
Assist - Partner/Tag button

Switch Character - 4 + Tag

Baroque - Tag + Any Attack
If you have any red remaining in your life bar, you are able to sacrifice the rest of the red bar with an attack cancel that will power you up shortly based on the length of the bar you sacrificed.

Aerial Rave - 23 + Strong
Same concept as Marvel, but everyone's Aerial Rave is now performed with Down + Strong.

Variable Aerial Rave - 236 + Tag
Switches out a character during an air combo - the light glow that some people may have noticed during the Chun Li switch out portions of the promotional video were probably picking up on the Variable Aerial Raves... It uses up one bar.

Variable Combination - Tag during a Hyper Combo

Variable Counter - 412 + Tag
An Alpha-counter like assist maneuver.

Mega Crush - All 4 attack buttons
A strong attack that uses up two bars and some life...

Delayed Hyper Combo - Any doubts that this is a vs. game now?

Gamespot now has a short preview up from the location test. Though a lot of the information delves into what we already know, there are a couple of good points to pick up on from the preview. The first is that Capcom is currently testing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom in Taito Viewlix cabinets. This doesn't necessarily imply any specific hardware, but it is an interesting note from the location test. The second bit of information that the article brings up is a great breakdown of the characters at the location test. Though it doesn't go too much into details, the summaries posted are enough for fans to sink their teeth in while they wait for a more in depth analysis.

Shoryuken is reporting that Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will be at EVO 2008 for a location test alongside Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter HD Remix. If you haven't booked your flights for the event, now may be the time to do it...

A leaked image of the character select screen has been floating around now... It showcases the wheel system being used for the location test for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Unfortunately, it doesn't give any sort of hint to the possible number of characters, so I guess we're going to have to keep on guessing. I've heard rumors of around 24-ish, but take those with a grain of salt, as it's anyone's guess right now...

First video from the location test has been posted up on Youtube. With the game being featured on Viewlix cabinets, the monitors are all widescreen displays which is a bit odd considering that every screen shot we've seen so far of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has had a 4:3 aspect ratio. I'm not sure if the game is being built for a widescreen ratio or if the game at the location test simply had it's display stretched for the Viewlix cabinets...



(New videos will be posted below as I find them.)







Alex/Tekkaman vs. Tekkaman/Ken Washio
Tekkaman/Morrigan vs. Hurricane Polymar/Alex
Tekkaman/Alex vs. Soki/Hurricane Polymar
Soki/Yatterman vs. Tekkaman/Chun Li
Ryu/Batsu vs. Ryu/Casshan (this is followed up by the character select screen as well as a short burst of Yatterman/Hurricane Polymer vs. Ryu/Casshan)
Chun li/Alex vs. Soki/Yatterman

First Tatsunoko vs. Capcom video up on Nico Douga

Nico Douga registration required of course, but the video is pretty amazing... All of the shots from the leaked 2ch screens from yesterday are directly from this promotional video. I'm looking for possible YouTube links for an english audience... Once I come across one I'll be sure to post it as well.

Update - Youtube link found -


I'm really digging the music.

From the video an interesting fact is that it looks like Gold Lightan isn't able to be paired up with another fighter. He looks like he only has 1 life bar...

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom updates #2 - Release date

The wave of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom updates have been building over the last couple of weeks since the announcement of the game's first location test. In addition to a couple of flyers posted earlier today on the NeoGAF forums, another series of shots have been leaked from 2ch and feature some of the new characters and the game in some pretty detailed action shots. To round off the triumvirate of updates on Tatsunoko vs. Capcom today, AM-net is also revealing that the game is being targeted for a December 2008 release window.

There are a few things that we can gather from all of the information being posted today. In the promotional flyer, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is being featured with a 4 button layout similar in style to the one used in Sengoku Basara X. When this is taken with the relative 4:3 aspect ratio the screens seem to be sporting, it leads me believe that the game is more than likely being developed on the same hardware that Sengoku Basara X is featured on in arcades and will serve as an easy 'update' for arcade owners to switch out the game in the current Basara X cabinets. This is speculation of course, but it would make sense based on what we know so far (and roughly speaking - the game doesn't look like it's that far above what can be expected from the system 246/256's technical power).

4 more characters have also been confirmed. Though early speculation was spot on with the revelation that Morrigan and Hurrican Polymer were set to be featured in the game, the other two recently revealed characters (and part of the silhouettes featured on the game's official site) were a bit harder to guess. However they were confirmed with today's updates - Soki from Onimusha (Capcom) and Gold Lightan (Tatsunoko) will both be playable characters in the game.

The first location test for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will begin this weekend. The game's official website has been updated pretty quickly after character reveals, so hopefully the profiles for the new fighters will show up online prior to the location test.


With it being so early in the game's development cycle and so many characters already shown off, I'm beginning to wonder if the cast of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom may end up rivaling Marvel vs. Capcom 2...

Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit review

Dragon ball Z Burst Limit is probably not the game that fans of the franchise were expecting from the first leap to high definition consoles. After Budokai Tenkaichi 3 stretched the limits of fighters ranging almost the full breadth of the series, at first glances Burst Limit seems a bit tepid by comparison.

However, if Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was a love song to fans of Dragon Ball Z, Burst limit has taken a different approach and is instead trying to get the attention of fighting game fans first and Dragon Ball Z fans second. It is a risky proposal for a licensed fighter, but the efforts of DIMPS and Atari/Namco Bandai are not unappreciated here. Even in a freshmen effort on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, with Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit the franchise is finally making its first steps to fighting game maturity.

Despite all of the love that Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is given from fans of the series, the game was a lot of fat that was bloated by a clone syndrome among most of the fighters. Yes, the game allowed for people to fight as pretty much every one of the full cast created by Akira Toriyama. But if the number of unique fighters could really be broken down to a fifth of the game's total cast, it's a bit hard to get excited about sheer amounts.

Burst Limit has taken this fat and has trimmed it down to its bare essentials. While the cast of characters may be small, in Burst Limit, the fighters have their own set of characteristics and abilities matched with moves that better reflect the character's identity in the show. Even if some people may mourn the loss of their favorite random X fighter from random episode Y, Burst Limit's smaller cast means that each individual character can have a chance to shine on its own techniques rather than on fan love alone.

It may be a bit of a turn off for some Dragon Ball Z fans to see characters balanced more like a traditional fighting game rather than in respect to their show-based levels, but the balance was necessary to allow for a more competitive environment. It's not perfect (no fighting game is), but Burst Limit has more variety in its tiers than most of the previous Dragon Ball Z games. Of course there are a handful of standouts (Krillin for example is surprisingly abusive while Broly is sitting pretty on the top tier with his incredible damage output).

As I stated in my demo impressions post a couple of weeks back, Burst Limit is building off the Shin Budokai PSP releases. While the return to a 2D-centric plane may be a bit disappointing to some people who appreciate Tenkaichi's over the shoulder view, the choice does allow for more refining to be done by DIMPs to the game's core system. The perspective is also a lot more comfortable for traditional fighting game fans as it is instantly comfortable to anyone who has grown accustom to 3D-esque fighting games over the last ten years. While it's not as recognizably different as Spike's engine, in this case, the return to familiarity by DIMPs will probably work out more to the favor of Burst Limit to a tournament crowd.

Burst Limit plays like a tug of war match between opponents. Your fighter's health may be the core, but management of Ki levels is vitally important to success in the game since the use of Ki allows your character to perform maneuvers to save against combos and some of the more aggressive (and damaging) attacks. However, due to a faster recharge rate on the Ki meter, draining your opponent's Ki level is not always an easy path to victory like it was in Budokai 3.

In Burst Limit, it is far more necessary to focus on draining Ki and building fatigue, which in turn should open your opponent up to more powerful attacks and potentially devastating combo chains (which can mix in some of the game's Ultimate attacks). Another change to the Ki system from Budokai 3 is that the Ki level now doesn't build up as you are taking damage, meaning that a wise use of your teleport escapes are necessary to avoid getting stuck without an escape to an opponent's combo.

Timing in Burst Limit is probably the most difficult thing to master early on as it is slightly different than other fighting games and is entwined with nearly every aspect of the game from basic techniques to advanced canceling. Burst Limit is an incredibly easy game to pick up and play, but it is also very deceptive at face value as the game rewards you based on the amount of time you are willing to put into it. Everything from teleporting, to Ki canceling, to smash canceling, to the teleport counter moves all rely on timed button presses in reaction to either your own character animation or to your opponent's moves. Discovering the appropriate animation sequences and being able to use them in a practical manner are keys to success in Burst Limit. The timing on some techniques (such as canceling in a combo) are easy offline, but once you take the fight online it becomes necessary to 'relearn' your timing due to a finicky online set up. Even with all of the advanced defensive and offensive tricks that are now a part of Burst Limit, the game suffers a bit from an online mode that doesn't acclimate well with the game's strict timing.

The game's story mode is a pretty basic affair, but will probably be the high point for Dragon Ball Z fans. Even though it doesn't tread on new grounds, the strong animation and graphical flair should be enough for those wanting a high definition Dragon Ball experience. The general presentation is as sharp as it has ever been with the franchise, but despite all of this, I did find it a bit difficult to sit through all of the matches to unlock all of the characters in game.

The set pieces (Drama Pieces) are at first nifty little additions to the game's 1 on 1 affair, but after seeing the repetitive scenes pop up randomly (and sometimes not so randomly) in a fight will tend to make you wish that there was a way to skip them. The basic Versus mode also uses a version of these Drama pieces that provides assists to your characters and while that is a bit more tolerable, I am glad that most opponents online tend to want to play with these off. It's a neat concept, but it's just not as fleshed out as it should be.

Like most fighting games, the bread and butter of Burst Limit is the Versus mode both online and off. I have no complaints about the offline versus mode. Picking up Burst Limit with a friend is a satisfying fighting game that is well worth the price of admission. However, if you have to rely on the online mode, you may come away with a little disappointment. Burst Limit is a step above the Wii's online component featured in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but even with this step up, Burst Limit's online mode never really gets off the ground.

The most aggravating part of the online mode is the seemingly random lag. I've had perfect matches against someone across the world only to have a mess with someone basically down the street. It's truly a shame that with all of the impressive combos and techniques that can be performed, the online play will often times devolve into a spamming fest of random button mashing. I believe that this may leave a bad taste in some gamers' mouths who may be unwilling to look past these faults to see the promise just underneath the surface. And as just a side question – is it really necessary for everyone to pick Vegeta online? It seems like he is the 'shoto' of the Dragon Ball Z world...

Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit is a slight change to the franchise. Even with some issues with the game's online mode and a bit of Dragon Ball overload over the last decade or so of releases, Burst Limit is the most refined Dragon Ball experience and warrants a look from fighting game fans who are wanting a fast and furious game to spend some time with prior to the deluge of releases later this year. If it was given a chance, I would think that a community could easily be built around Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit, but whether or not gamers are willing to give it a chance is the bigger issue.

With a lot of feedback on the game focusing on whether or not it is more of the same, Burst Limit may end up prejudged for its license rather than on its own merits as it ideally should be. It has its issues of course, but even with those issues, Burst Limit is what happens when DIMPs and Atari/Namco Bandai finally get the core game right. If only the online mode offered more support and the story mode was more interesting, Burst Limit may have been a lot more than it turned out being. But even in its current state, Burst Limit does have enough to stand alone, separate from what its Dragon Ball name may represent.

Score - 3.75/5



[Review copy based on the Playstation 3 version of the game]

Hey look, it's Akuma! ...And Gouken? (Street Fighter IV)

Despite being released later this month, another location test for Street Fighter IV was planned for this weekend, July 4th - July 6th in Nagoya. Because of this, I've been watching for updates as they may pop up on the official Street Fighter IV website and other Capcom fansites and was happy to find this morning that a new animated video has been posted by Capcom. The latest video (found here), is part of their animated feature that showcases the characters in Street Fighter IV in a series of promotional videos. The latest video shows off Ryu, Akuma, Ken, and for a brief moment, Gouken. Considering the hints that Capcom has been leaving that Gouken may be playable, it should be interesting to see if anything new pops up at the location test this weekend (or maybe left as a surprise for the game's official release?).

Street Fighter IV's alternative looks

Famitsu posted a short article today on the NESYS card system featured in Street Fighter IV. While it has been known for a while now that Street Fighter IV would be featuring stat tracking and alternative colors, the Famitsu article also showcases the first look at one of the new 'alternative costumes' that can be purchased via the mobile zeny shop with the currency awarded for fighting. For more information on some of the other items that will be available through the mobile shop, including ring tones and wallpaper, I recommend checking out the Street Fighter IV mobile site here.

Outside of the Chun Li costume, Famitsu's print magazine had a blurry image of Blanka's alternative costume. It's a bit hard to make out any details of it, so I'm waiting for a cleaner shot before I post it. Hopefully the Famitsu site will be updated with that as well in the next few days (if I haven't already missed it)...

Even though I do like the look of Chun Li, I can't help but think that the costume looks a little too familiar...


Mai - is that you?

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom updates - First location test and more new characters [Updated]

Over at Game Watch, the first location tests have been announced for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. On the weekend of July 10th - July 13th, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will be in Tokyo at the Akibahara Hey and Ikebukuro GIGO arcades. On July 25th - July 27th, Capcom will then move the tests to Osaka at the Sega Avion center.

According to the flyer posted, a new character will also be shown off at the event, but astute gamers will probably already recognize that the latest issue of Arcadia Magazine (scans can be found over at Kobayan) have shown that the two characters announced for the game yet not appearing in the flyer are Yatterman Gou and Alex. (Pics can be found here and here). With the two new additions, the character roster now features Alex, Ryu, Batsu, Chun Li, Tekkaman, Ken Washio, Casshan, and Yatterman Gou.

Over at the game's official website, a new update was made to the comic style information pages, including a brief blurb on the location test. On the page opposite of the one that showcases the location test's information, a series of characters are shown in silhouette with the only detail focused on the bottom half of Alex. While it's not clear who the other characters on the page are, it doesn't hurt to speculate...

Based on what I can see, the first silhouette from the left is Yatterman Gou. The second silhouette from the left appears to have bat wings coming from her head, so the basic assumption would lead me to believe it's either Morrigan or Lilith from Darkstalkers. As for the rest of the characters it's a bit hard to say. I can easily see Dante from Devil May Cry being the character just to the right of Alex that looks like he's holding a sword, but that may be stretching it a bit without any more detail.

If I'm right about these two characters, in order to even out the number of Tatsunoko and Capcom characters left in the image the last two characters on the page would have to be Tatsunoko properties.

Anyone have any ideas?

The silhouette in the background looks like it has to be robotic at the very least... I've also heard that the other character that is crouching in the lower right may be Hurricane Polymer...

(Location test information on Game Watch via Kotaku)

(Update - Dengeki Online has some clean images of Alex and Yatterman Gou in game here)

Virtua Fighter 5R location test video

A direct feed video from this week's Virtua Fighter 5R location test has already shown up online. Since Sega has enabled their match replay system for this test, more than likely this is just the start of quite a few more that we should be seeing over the course of this next weekend. If any show up somewhere other than YouTube in a higher quality, I'll be sure to post them. Otherwise enjoy the one I've found so far... (and let me know if you see any others)

And this is what Beta's are for...

As just a follow up to my previous post, I thought everyone would get a kick out of this... When I mentioned that I was interested to see what kind of shake-ups would occur with the Remixed mode in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, this isn't quite what I had in mind.



(Thanks to UC1 on NeoGAF for pointing out this 'enlightening' video)

Super Street Fighter II HD Remix Beta now on Xbox Live

For gamers who purchased Capcom's recent Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, Capcom has launched the free beta of Super Street Fighter II HD Remix earlier today. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to really sit down with it before work this morning, but from the little time I did spend I'm pretty satisfied with the experience. Of course it is a bit limited right now (I wish they would've given us someone other than Ryu vs. Ken...), but the promise of the additional features as well as an already fairly solid online net code means that the game may be able to win over some of its critics yet...

Considering the countless hundreds of hours I've already sunk into Super Turbo in arcades and online, I'm eagerly waiting to see all of the changes Capcom is planning for the Remixed mode. The tier lists in Super Turbo are pretty well set, and despite the game's impeccable balance, there are some characters that basically draw dead in certain match-ups. The Remixed mode has the possibility to change all that, and I'm hoping that enough has been done to really shake things up a bit. The prospect of 'relearning' Super Turbo has me excited.

I'm going to mess around with the beta for a little while as I wait for the game's official release. I'm still not sold that the game looks as well as I would've liked, but in the beta itself everything is slick enough that it doesn't bother me as much as I would've thought. The interface does scream 'Flash', but not in an obnoxious way.

Capcom has already launched a beta feedback forum for people to begin to talk about their experience with the game's online play (there are some people complaining about some hiccups and crashes, but that's what the beta and the forum is here for). There is still time to get involved in the beta by purchasing Wolf of the Battlefield, so if you haven't already and are interested, go ahead and take the plunge. Wolf of the Battlefield is a fairly decent game (a bit easy) and it gives you access to the beta until August.

US BlazBlue location test at Los Angeles Anime Expo

MarkMan over at NeoGaf picked up on a great press release sent out from Aksys and the Los Angeles Anime Expo revealing that Arc System Works upcoming 2D fighting game, BlazBlue, will be having its first US location test July 3rd - 6th at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Aksys Games will be handling the location test at the event, which should drive some interest for the fighting game (and perhaps promises for an actual US arcade release considering that Arc System Works has already launched an official US website for the game...).

BlazBlue has been going through the testing cycles in Japan quite a bit over the last few months. So far the reception has been well received, despite some early criticisms that the game didn't seem to differentiate itself enough from Guilty Gear. I've heard that it's truly beautiful to see in motion, which isn't hard to believe considering the media we've seen so far. It'll be interesting to follow its successes when it finally launches later this year based on the on-going performance of Guilty Gear Accent Core in Japanese arcades and on the Arcadia charts.

The official website for the Anime Expo can be found here. I'm trying to convince myself I can attend the event, but it's probably not going to work into my budget this time around... If anyone's in the local area and is attending, I would love to hear how it turns out.

Battle of Destiny: Road to Evo hosting 2 Street Fighter IV cabinets in London

Neo Empire has teamed up with Capcom in order to offer UK gamers one of the first opportunities to get some hands on time with the final build of Street Fighter IV at the tournament promoter's Battle of Destiny event in London on July 26th and 27th. Featured at the event will be two linked arcade cabinets set on free play for heads up gaming. Perhaps with enough demand, this can be used as a signal to Capcom to just how desireable a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet could be outside of the Japanese market...

The latest playable build of Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix will also be shown off at the event (running on an Xbox 360). No word yet on just how much more progress the game has made since last being seen, but presumably more than just the Shotos and Dee Jay should be available for play (I would think).


Being hyped as a prelude to EVO 2K8 (which is being held in August), Battle of Destiny has players vying for both a plane ticket and paid entry into the EVO tournament series. Slots are being held for Capcom vs. SNK 2, Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, and Hyper Street Fighter 2 Anniversary Edition. For more information on the event, check out the official Battle of Destiny website.

Two new Tatsunoko vs. Capcom characters

Over at the Madman Cafe forums, The Shift posted two new scans from OtonaFami magazine revealing the latest two additions to the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom line-up. Joining Ryu, Chun Li, Casshan, and Ken Washio are Tekkaman from the Tatsunoko side and Batsu (from Rival Schools) from the Capcom side. Hopefully Batsu's presence will signify the addition of some of the other Rival Schools roster (I'm still dreaming that somewhere in Capcom's future line-up the Rival Schools are getting dusted off for a new entry in the series, but I digress...). From my understanding a promotional video is supposed to be shown off from the game soon, but when exactly Capcom is planning on unveiling it is up in the air.

[Update] - Kotaku posted a link over to Dengeki Online which showcases the two new characters in a few new images.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Combo video

Despite some wonky anatomy issues on some of the characters, the Super Turbo HD Remix project is coming around nicely. The official Capcom blog posted this video and a small write-up by the game's producer Rey Jimenez earlier today. The video showcases a few of the combos that are possible in the game's remix mode (one of Ken's combos for example look like they may end up surprising some people).

Even out of Captivate 2008 I haven't seen an official release date for SSF2T HD Remix yet, but hopefully it won't be too much longer. The build shown off last week added Akuma and Dee Jay to the current publically 'playable' cast of characters (which brings the grand total up to four counting Ryu and Ken) which isn't too promising for a time line, but fortunately an open beta test is coming 'very soon' according to Ray Jimenez.

With Street Fighter IV on the horizon as well, the window for SSF2T HD Remix may end up being very limited... It'll be interesting to see just how close together the two games hit.

New King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Promotional Video

The official SNK Playmore website for King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match has a new promotional video posted. The quality isn't the greatest (about the same as the older video that was first released a few months ago), but it is at least some more footage of the game in action prior to its upcoming PS2 release later this month.

The video briefly goes over some of the new additions that Ultimate Match brings to King of Fighters '98, showing you step by step what the new modes open up for your characters. I do have the game currently on pre-order and since King of Fighters '98 is one of my favorite NEO GEO titles, I'll be sure to post a review of it once it comes in. Whether or not that will be a video review, I haven't decided yet...

For those interested in the game, I've been a little lax on my updates about it, but the official website has finally been fully fleshed out. All of the character profiles have been posted, the system details have been updated, and a new screenshot section shows some bite-sized views of the game.

The game has done well in arcades since it's release, actually raking up the number 5 spot on the Arcadia listing in the July issue of the magazine. Not bad for a slightly tweaked upgrade to a ten year old game.

Stealthy pictures of Street Fighter IV's movelists

Frankie over at Hobby Media was able to sneak in a few shots of the movelist art at this past weekend's Street Fighter IV location test at the HEY Akiba game center. Some of the new character portraits on the overlay have been drastically improved since they were last seen, but it looks like the old adage of teaching an old dog new tricks is carrying over a bit into Street Fighter IV's move lists. There are some slight changes to the returning Street Fighter 2 cast, but for the most part Capcom seems to want to stick with the tried and true.