Guess who else is joining Ryu and Ken? 

Street Fighter IV seems to be shaping up to become a rebirth of the original SF2 classic, at least that's what many are being lead to believe with the recent reveal of more classic World Warriors. My guess is that even game development isn't safe from Hollywood insisting on doing reboots for anything and everything under the sun; but I digress. Earlier this week, Capcom revealed that Guile, Chun Li, Dhalsim, Blanka and Zangief will be making a return in the highly anticipated release.

We also know that there's word of some newer characters (i.e. Crimson Viper) which seem inspired by the SNK style which could totally change the dynamic veterans are used to. Judgment will be reserved until more players stateside have the chance to finally get some hand-on time with the arcade build. As for the story, well, the little which we know of it — a recent Gamespot interview with the producer Yoshinori Ono and Capcom's Director of Communications Chris Kramer hints that the alleged reason behind the classic characters returning might have something to do with a time parallel. No, I am serious and here's an excerpt of the proof from the "Street Fighter IV Q&A - Familiar Faces article…

"GS: When is the game's story set in Street Fighter chronology?

YO: Well, the [sequel] number has indeed ticked up one unit, but the story and time period is actually not after SFIII. This game actually takes place after SFII. Is it before SFIII? Does it represent some parallel timeline? I guess you'll have to wait and see…"

(Let's all do a collective "WTF?" God please no time parallels, that just sounds so cheesy)… 

Moving on, it looks like Famitsu has beat the rest of the general Japanese public and media to the punch as evidenced by new shots featured on their website. Below is just a small taste of what you'll find there including several close-up shots of the game played in a cabinet and (cleaner) official artwork scans of the aforementioned cast. Additional screens can be also found here.

Update: Gamespot has larger "high-res" screenshots available. Check them out here.

Be on the lookout for more reports to trickle out next week as the AOU 2008 kicks off on February 15 at the Makuhari Messe just outside Tokyo.

(more…)

Enjoy the first adventures for the first time (or all over again).

For those of you that prefer to indulge your gaming habits over paying bills with this year's tax refund, here's a quickie that shouldn't go unnoticed…

Konami has announced plans to release Metal Gear Solid: the Essential Collection, confirming recent speculation of a new commemorative package of the first three MGS installments for the PS2. The package will give newcomers and longtime fans the chance to (re) experience the whole saga before the release of MGS4: Gun of the Patriots.

"Since its inception, the Metal Gear Solid franchise has been one of the most successful game series in the history of video games, receiving worldwide recognition and praise," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment Inc.  "Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection represents a great value for gamers, bringing together three must-have classic titles which pioneered the stealth action genre."   
 

Contents will include the the original Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation game console, the director's cut of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 in a commemorative package with artwork by renowned Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa. I am hoping some added bonus goodies are included on a special CD to really give some added value to the package beyond the expected items; this IS supposed to be a special package after all, right?

Gratuitous profanity included for your reading pleasure.

The infamously opinionated (and potty-mouthed) David Jaffe, of Twisted Metal and God of War fame, has managed to once again ignite an Internet brouhaha, this time due to his comments in a recent interview with Wired.  The discussion began as follows:

Wired:  Apparently when Miyamoto first went to Retro Studios, they were making a car combat game, he said, "Why would you make that? Why would you put a gun on a car?" And they stopped development on the game. So maybe you should answer that question. Why would you put a gun on a car?

Jaffe:  You know, honestly, I've been too busy recently trying to figure out why the fuck go-karts shoot banana peels.

Well, well, well.  He might be slamming one of the most celebrated and accomplished figures in gaming, and he might be flame-baiting the legions of overzealous Nintendo fanboys, but the man does have a point…

As could be expected, this little snippet made the rounds on gaming sites, including the ever-reliable Kotaku.  Comments ranged from utter indignation to hearty chuckles to reverent admiration for a man who has no problem calling things as he sees them.

Fast-forward a couple days, and Jaffe is now attempting to quell the tempest.  In a video posting on his personal page, he decisively puts the throngs of humorless, online-enabled crybabies in their place.  The best line of the video sums it up perfectly:

"The fact that anybody out there actually thinks that I put my design skills in the same league as Miyamoto's, or I'm insulting the father of video game design, it's like, 'Go fuck yourself, man.'  And to the people that think I use bad language because I think it's cool, I think that's your fucking problem."

Well, I'm glad that little clusterfuck is all sorted out.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext's official opinion on the subject.