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Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition content coming as DLC

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 9th 2009 at 4:20PM }

Remember when Capcom conducted a poll asking how we wanted to receive the additional content being offered in Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition -- in a boxed version of the game or as a DLC expansion to the original? Turns out the questionnaire wasn't a pointless exercise. A majority of the participants answered that they'd rather receive the new features (including motion-control functionality) as a downloadable pack. After deliberating with the RE5 team in Osaka, Capcom has announced that the new content will come to the U.S., Europe and Australia as DLC for the core game.

Considering Alternative Edition is going to Japan in a retail box, this move is fairly surprising. Perhaps even a little upsetting, if you've gone ahead and traded your copy of the game in towards the cost of Horse Life Adventures. Even more upsetting if you did that today. Like, right before writing this post. Gah!

Super Street Fighter IV trailer unlocks bonus stages

by JC Fletcher { Nov 6th 2009 at 12:20PM }

This latest trailer for Super Street Fighter IV shows off the new online modes, including the "Endless Battle" mode that allows up to eight players to play multiple matches, with the loser of each match going to the end of the virtual line; the "Replay Channel," which allows players to record and view replays together with voice chat; and a bunch of new tournament options.

It's all great stuff, but we know what you came here to see: If you skip to about the 2:30 mark, you can watch Ryu car bashing and barrel bashing! Check out how excited the kilted barrel-dropping machine operator is -- he loves watching his barrels get smashed!

[Thanks, Vince]

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.

Continued →

USK: Phoenix Wright holding court on Wii

by JC Fletcher { Nov 5th 2009 at 9:45AM }

A rating on Germany's USK database suggests that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is being planned for Wii. "Objection!!", you may say, thrilled to have the opportunity to work that in. "Didn't Ace Attorney Investigations producer Motohide Eshiro already say that the series would remain on handhelds?"

While it's true that future Ace Attorney games will probably be on handhelds, the series has already been ported to PC, proving that someone within Capcom -- and not necessarily anyone involved with actually making the Ace Attorney games -- has no issue with porting the existing titles, which is extremely likely to be what is happening here. And this is the same Capcom that said that Resident Evil 4 would be a GameCube exclusive.

Our guess would be an episodic WiiWare presentation of the first Phoenix Wright. Or a mistake in the rating description.

Dark Void dev diary focuses on that guy in front of the jetpack

by David Hinkle { Nov 5th 2009 at 6:30AM }

For us, the worth of protagonist Will in Dark Void isn't measured by his strengths as human being, but really just his awesome jetpacking. Airtight Games wants us to know there's more to like about the guy and aimed to make Will more in line with the typical Japanese game protagonist -- more believable and less of a "caricature."

The above video diary also shows us how Nikola Tesla ended up in the game. Tesla is just one cool dude, whether he's being played by David Bowie, building super awesome defense towers for the Russians, or -- in the case of Dark Void -- spearheading an entire rebellion by inventing jetpacks and gigantic airships.

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.

Zombified Londoners take to the streets for Resident Evil

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 4th 2009 at 1:00AM }

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles may not come out until November 27 in the UK, but a gaggle of Resident Evil fans recently took to the streets to celebrate the impending release regardless. Following the end of the London Games Festival, Capcom organized around 50 undead at the Tate Modern for a good ol' group shamble.

As you can see in the image above captured by The Tanooki, the event erred on the side of Shaun of the Dead rather than 28 Days Later. Though now that we think about it, we're not sure if it's more or less terrifying if zombies are smiling. We're thinking more.

[Image credit]

Ghost Trick returns to haunt us with new trailer

by JC Fletcher { Nov 3rd 2009 at 4:50PM }

Capcom's Ghost Trick was one of the most memorable games of TGS (in our opinion), combining a novel puzzle mechanic with a memorable style. We've been eagerly awaiting any new information or media that may (Ghost) trickle out, and now we've got a new-ish trailer to share for the 2010 release.

We say new-ish because it features the same intro animation seen in the TGS trailer. But this extended video also has brief snippets of gameplay footage, in which we can see Sissel possessing and "tricking" things like a cabinet door (to make a dog move). Check out the trailer after the break.

Gallery: Ghost Trick (TGS 2009)

[Via GoNintendo]

Continued →

The Street Fighter II HD Remix intro that never was

by Richard Mitchell { Nov 3rd 2009 at 4:05PM }

We're sure everyone likes the redrawn, high definition art featured in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, but did you know that Udon also redrew the original SSFII intro sequence? It's true, and Capcom Unity has the video to prove it. After the break, you'll find the intro movie that Udon created, though it never made it into the actual game. The video features Ryu doing his fireball thing, while Chun-Li poses and Cammy (for some reason) gives everyone a raspberry. Watch the redrawn trailer and the original after the break.

Continued →

VC in Brief: Fighting Street (TG16) and R-TYPE (SMS)

by David Hinkle { Nov 2nd 2009 at 8:15PM }

This week's Virtual Console releases kind of pale in comparison to last week's stellar offerings; Fighting Street is a crummy game that helped spawn one of gaming's best series, whereas R-TYPE is a great game, though the version offered this week is the lousier port. There's been a way more competent version of the game available since 2006!

Fighting Street (TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
R-TYPE (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)

Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.

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]

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles cubecraft is sharp around the edges

by David Hinkle { Nov 2nd 2009 at 1:15PM }

If your fascination with the characters of the Resident Evil universe extends beyond the confines of each game, then you may like to know that Cubeecraft and Capcom Europe have teamed up to offer some papercraft versions of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles characters. With little more than a printer, some paper and the ability to fold strategically, you can make miniaturized and highly flammable versions of your favorite characters, perfect for reenacting scenes from the games. Well, unless your favorite character is Steve Burnside. He's nowhere to be found, which may or may not be a really good thing.

Gallery: Awesome Nintendo papercraft

[Via Cubeecraft]

Capcom expects Lost Planet 2 to sell 3.7 million units in second half of fiscal year

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 1st 2009 at 3:30PM }

Capcom's recently published financial report for the first half of the current fiscal year contains some fairly gutsy estimates for sales expectations of the developer's upcoming titles -- for instance, the report anticipates selling 300,000 copies of Resident Evil 5 Alternative Edition by March 31, 2010. However, the company expects one game to be its biggest blockbuster by a fairly enormous sales margin: Lost Planet 2, which, according to the report, will sell 3.7 million copies in the second half of FY 2010.

That's a fairly monumental increase compared to the sales statistics for the original Lost Planet, which has sold 2.28 million units life-to-date according to VGChartz. Don't get us wrong -- we've enjoyed what we've seen from the game thus far. However, if Capcom's hoping to approach that target, it may want to consider tossing some Pokémon in there. Perhaps a cameo by Master Chief, too, for good measure.

Read: Capcom Results of Operations and Strategies report (.PDF)

Reuters: RE5 sold 1.94M in US; Dead Space 2 in development for 2010

by David Hinkle { Oct 30th 2009 at 1:45PM }

In a story about the scarier games (it's almost Halloween, don'tchaknow?), Reuters mentioned two things we thought would be good for this website we got going here. First, there's Capcom's Resident Evil 5, which Reuters reports has managed to sell 1.94 million copies in the US, according to NPD Group figures.

The second part of the Reuters story talks about EA and its spookier titles for 2009: Left 4 Dead 2 and Dead Space: Extraction. While there isn't anything new on the former, in a discussion of the latter, Reuters revealed that Dead Space 2 is apparently planned for a 2010 release, which would seem to confirm what we've heard about the game so far.

Capcom posts strong Q2 2009 earnings, despite 'soft' overseas sales

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 29th 2009 at 2:01PM }

Capcom has posted its financial results for the six months ending September 30, 2009, and things are definitely looking good for the company. The publisher reported net sales of ¥38.892 billion ($426 million), up from ¥31.236 billion ($342 million) during the same period last year, which amounts to a 24.5-percent increase. The majority of those sales were generated by Capcom's home video games division, which pulled in ¥27.748 billion ($303 million) -- up from ¥16.486 ($180 million); a staggering 68.3-percent increase.

Capcom credits strong sales of Monster Hunter Tri in Japan, as well as continued sales of Resident Evil 5, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Ace Attorney: Investigations to its recent financial success. However, the company stated that overseas sales remained "soft" for the period thanks to the delay of Dark Void and the weak performance of Bionic Commando and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Joystiq readers will recall that Capcom leveled complaints at the same games in its first quarter report earlier this year. It's worth noting that overseas sales still amounted to ¥11.739 billion ($128 million), which accounted for 57-percent of the home video games division sales.

We suppose Capcom might consider that "soft," but the suits can't be too broken up about it.

Source -- Capcom | Favorable Financial Results for the 6 months ended September 30, 2009
Source -- Capcom | Consolidated Financial Results for the 2nd Quarter of the FY2009