This just in (Or not) – Project X Zone announced for North America

 

Project X (Cross) Zone (プロジェクト クロスゾーン) could have been one of those awesome games staring the greatest characters of not only one, not two, but three game brands (Namco Bandai Games, Capcom, and Sega) all coming together in an epic crossover tactical role-playing adventure for the Nintendo 3DS – stuck in the home of its origin Japan. However the powers that be achieved greater wisdom and decided to share this gem with the entire world: Joy! Now there isn’t much info on the story or details of this title (or rather I can’t translated the info that is available) but after watching some youtube vids on the game and knowing some of the cast we get to play as I still want Project X Zone regardless – and I bet you all will too. Stay tune for further info.

 

 

 

 

Game Gifts of 2012 – Street Fighter X Mega Man

 

Ok, now this one Game Gift is a bit of a cheat as I’ve never played it before – however I have a good feeling it will do just fine: Street Fighter X Mega Man. To coincide with the upcoming 25^th anniversary of everyone’s favorite Blue Bomber, Capcom and a rather inventive gentleman by the name of Seow Zong Hui is bring to the masses this new adventure. Yes this is real thing, and unlike that Streets of Rage Remake, this pie in the sky platformer has Capcom’s full blessing so there won’t be any big corporate buzz kill this time. Set still in the future, I guess, Mega Man finally locks down Wily and his robot masters. However a robots work is never done as now the world strongest Street Fighters want to their mettle on his metal. And that’s pretty much it: MegaMan goes to a Street Fighter’s stage, fights their minions (didn’t know they had minions), and if he survives challenge them in a 1-on-1 brawl. Now you’re probably thinking this concept isn’t new (the Capcom vs series, most of them anyway); but this time around MegaMan has the homefield advantage as everything is in glorious 8-bit nostalgia and subjected to MegaMan reality. Even to the point where once MegaMan defeats them he gets their power, freaken sweet. The best thing of all people, its free 100%. Sure it’s only available on the PC but that’s a small price to pay for the most epic non-rap battle in history, and thus a perfect gift for Christmas. The download will be available at Capcom Unity on December 17^th.

 

 

 

 

 

Gameroween 2012 – Video Game Characters that make good costumes (Day 4)

 

 

For day four I decide on a more scarier choice, it is Halloween after all. Now the only question is what nightmare inducing character I should pick; gaming is no short of horror characters to choose from. I figured it would be best to pick a more current symbol of shrieks for this post, and then it hit me like a lightening bolt – it was perfect. Resident Evil 6… Itself. Yeah sadly this game was terrifying for whole other reasons; almost all across the bored reviewer agree that the game was quick time happy, had too many cut scenes, and was more a kin to a action movie than a horror story (though personally I like action films over horror). I was planning to play this game myself but still so I’m engrossed in Borderlands 2 (more on this in the next post) and DisHonored that I won’t be able to til next year. Anyway, with this suggestion you have two options: 1) make a sandwich board of the rez evil 6 cartridge box and wear it (but beware, people might want to rift you on the spot) or 2) wear your normal clothes, buy a copy of the actual game (return it later) and go as a fan of the game (again beware of possible rifting). Either way no one will believe you are what you are, but will respect you for trying.

 

 

Well at least someone liked it, I think.

Game Preview – Resident Evil 6 Demo

 

The Fall of Games is really coming on now; new expansive sequels are taking  over our lives (Guild Wars 2 & Borderlands 2 respectively), a sweet new console coming  around the corner (Wii U), and now this, the Resident Evil 6 Demo. Just to recap; you took down the evil Umbrella corporation, wasted an deranged cult (and saved a president’s daughter), and even took down insane eugenics mastermind Wesker in a volcano with rocket launchers. So you think  the world would be safe and Zombies went the way of the dodo, but nope. This time around unknown enemies are systematically attacks major (yet some of them fictional) cities with a biological weapons that infected most of their populace with, you guessed it, the zombie virus – including the president of the free world. So now old vets and new characters must team up to save the world the from a true Zombie Ragnarok. Sounds familar, yes! Still awesome, yes! Is there a demo to play now, yes! Get to it.

 

 

 

This just in (Or not) – Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 5 announced… And will be localized!

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen remember almost a year ago I made the called to bring back Phoenix Wright (and all games that pertain to that series) to the western countries, translated, and enjoyed by all. Well I’m glad to say my words didn’t fall on deaf ears as many gamers felt the same way I did. So in what I imagine was an onslaught out pouring of emails, letters, and phone calls to Capcom for the lucky loser lawyer’s return – they had no choice but to cave it and give the people what they want: hail democracy! Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5) takes place one year after the events of Apollo Justice; Phoenix Wright gets his legal badge back and thus his ability to practice law. Sadly instead of celebration this moment his over shadowed by the destruction of a court room and the one accused of the crime is a high-school girl. So you know where this is going – Phoenix Wright takes the case to defend her and try to put here innocence, but does still got the skills to pay the bills? Now when this announcement hit, it was unsure if this game, like so many others in the 90’s, would make it in the west. But rest easy, Capcom will send this title our way and more information will be available as it happens. This is wonderful news people, before you know we’ll be solving crimes and dealing in court casesinvolving psychics, clowns, the mob, ghosts, and corrupt people in people before we know it. No objections here.

 

 

 

 

 

You didn’t hear this from me, but! – Evil Ryu and Devil Kazuya may be coming to Street Fighter X Tekken… for free.

 

According to an unconfirmed source  received by hadoken.net, Capcom is intending to release the $20 character pack for the PlayStation 3 and X-Box 360 versions of Street Fighter X Tekken a month early to coincide with the release of the games PlayStation Vita release. The pack already contains Street Fighters, Cody, Guy, Blanka, Sakura, Elena and Dudley as well as Tekken characters, Lei, Christie, Lars, Alisa, Bryan and a Jack series robot (dubbed Jack-X). As an apology to fans who opposed their DLC decisions, rumor is that Evil Ryu and Devil Kazuya will also be added to the pack with no extra charge. Other things mentioned in the article includes PS3 exclusive characters, Mega Man and Pac-Man being released in July (in part due to them being on the X-Box disc anyway), several proposed balancing and glitch fixes, other new DLC including gems and costumes and the name of the alleged new Darkstalkers game, Darkstalkers 4: Vampire Resurrection.

 

 

Game Review: Street Fighter X Tekken – Pandora’s Box is opened and the dark secrets are revealed, is hope all that remains?

 

TrueBackLash back again people and two weeks after its release, it’s time to review Street Fighter X Tekken (X is pronounced cross). Now I wanted to do this with voiceover and video, the works. Unfortunately Bronze blew our entire budget on his review of Mass Effect 3. So now I’m stuck doing a text review, oh well no use complaining, I guess.

 

(Hey! That was suppose to be a secret! – BB)

 

Also, if you want to know what I thought about all this “DLC on Disc” business, just click here.

So enough with the banter, let’s get to it.

 

 

Game Info

 

In an alternate universe where all the Street Fighter characters exist on the same Earth as all the Tekken characters, a strange metallic cube from space crash lands on Earth. Being dubbed Pandora, after the Greek myth about Pandora’s Box, the cube draws power from conflict, during which it releases a powerful energy. Fighter’s around the world are either want to find the box for their own plans (use it for evil, learn it’s secrets, destroy it etc.) or get dragged into the conflict because of the box. For some reason, this puts all the characters (notable exceptions notwithstanding) in teams of two, all with the goal to head to Antarctica, where the box crashed.

Similar to the Street Fighter IV series there are several modes of play. Arcade, where you run though the stories of the characters. If you pick a canon team, you’ll see them banter back and forth after wins, fight their own rival battle and have a shared ending at the end. Oh, there’s a multiplayer function her so you can also play with a buddy on the same team.

Versus are standalone matches where you can play with or against live opponents or the computer. There’s also training, where you sharpen your skills with the characters and Challenge which you can test your skill in Trial or Mission modes or lean how the game works in Tutorial mode. There is also Online Battle where you could battle real opponents over X-Box Live or PlayStation Network.

The fighting system plays similar to a mix of Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Tekken Tag Tournament. You have to select two characters, each has a one Super Arts or super moves and can perform Cross Arts, two supers at once with the other character. Cross Assault or fighting with both characters at once before the super bar is exhausted, can also be done. Characters can tag out to their partner off-screen as they please. The catch is if one character is defeated, the whole team loses.

There’s also the addition of Scramble Mode, which can be played in Versus or Online Battle. Two teams (four characters if you’re counting) are fighting at once. There is a catch however, each team shares a life bar and super bar, making it easier for a team to lose.

To bring some zip to the gameplay, there is the addition of the gems system and the Pandora mode. The gems give you power ups that boost speed strength, defense etc, of certain conditions are met. Each character has two separate sets of default gems, but the gems can be customized and used in sets of three.

Pandora mode sacrifices a team member who has a limited amount of health. The remaining character will have a slight power boost and an infinite super bar. Catch here is that if the Pandora powered character doesn’t win the battle in a (very short) span of time, they lose anyway.

 

 

 The Goods

 

Fluid Gameplay: The core mechanics of this game is perfect. Both the wily fighting game veteran and the wide-eyed rookie will be able to learn the controls with a low amount of difficulty. For the Tekken fans, Capcom has went out of their way to give them many, many Tekken-like combos, moves and mechanics so they can deliver the hurt with their favorite Tekken characters.

Presentation: The actual game graphics are nothing new to those who’ve played the Street Fighter IV series. Like SFIV, the level of detail put the background is insane, sometimes I’m half tempted to see what’s going on back there then concentrating on the fight. The artwork and end cutscenes for the team storylines go way beyond beautiful. There were also some very funny moments in the various Arcade Mode stories.

Tons of New Characters: For Tekken purists, all/just about all the Street Fighters are new to them; Street Fighter buff may be trying Tekken characters for the first time. This goes double for the Tekken characters in a 2D-fighter environment. This is not counting the four new-to-the SFIV-engine Street Fighter characters, Rolento, Ibuki, Hugo and Poison (and for the PS3 Cole, Mega Man, Pac-Man Toro and Kuro).

Scramble Mode: Hardcore fun, nuff said.

 

 

The Bad

 

Glitches, Glitches, Glitches: The only real thing stopping me from giving this game the score it really deserved. Problems like the sound cutting out in online mode, Mega Man floating off-screen and characters having infinite combos have become a real issue. Capcom is probably going fix these issues, but most of these should have been caught, before the game’s release.

The Gems: To me, they are useless and they really don’t add anything new to the gameplay. I don’t even notice when they activate at times. I heard that there are more gems coming soon, but the gems I have are completely interchangeable.

Pandora Mode: This is more of a nitpick because this is an interesting concept in theory. I reality, there’s not much time to really be effective with it. Those opponents with more than 20% health or know how to evade until Pandora mode runs out will not be beaten so easily. I also don’t like that the health doesn’t get a bit of a boost.

 

 

Ranking

 

This game just edges past “IT’S OK” because of the glitches. The online play important is to a game like this and it’s suffering because of the glitchy netcode. The experience of playing 2D Tekken characters, gameplay presentation and Scramble Mode are what make this game pass. If it was just the Gems and Pandora, then Street Fighter X Tekken would have a higher score, because it’s possible to play and be successful without them. Getting hit with an infinite combo or suffering from online lag because of glitches could end up in an unfair loss. To sum it up, offline, it’s one of the best fighting game’s Capcom’s ever made and a great crossover (and I’m not a Tekken fan). Because of the glitches however, the rank literally can’t go any higher.

Capcom, Street Fighter and Additional Content (DLC, Locked ODC, updates)

 

Hey, guys TrueBackLash here, before, I get started with the article, I want to let you know that Boss Bronze is running behind, but he’ll be back with fresh reviews in a couple of days.

So all this talk about locked content for this game has got me thinking. The Street Fighter series has always been like this. Y’know adding stuff to one game and expanding it over the course of weeks/months. It annoys the hell out of people, but the Street Fighter series would be nothing without it.

If we stuck with just Street Fighter II, each non-shoto would only have two special moves, no super moves, no extra colors, no unlocked bosses, no necessary buffs and nerfs for balancing and no 5 new characters. I personally can’t think of Street Fighter now w/o Dee Jay and T. Hawk, and I know most fans wouldn’t be w/o Cammy and Akuma. The series stops there without all that content.

What about the other Street Fighter games? I found out about Sawada in the console version of Street Fighter the Movie, do you think I would have if Capcom didn’t rework the horrid arcade version? What about Alpha and SFIII, would they be the same if Capcom didn’t update them? No cult classic in SFA3 with one fighting games best rosters and features? No arguably the best 2D fighting game of its time(maybe still) in 3rd Strike? Scary thought.

Point is, additional content is not a bad thing and Capcom needs to find a way to do it without angering the fans. Honestly, I just don’t see how. When SFII was adding, y’know, all the stuff in the second paragraph, there was no DLC yet so they had to make new game to do it. Fans were angry and it became the poster child for Capcom Sequel Stagnation. What’s that? THIS http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CapcomSequelStagnation.

When Street Fighter IV came out, some fans were mad because it relied to heavily on SFII characters, Capcom made a new game with 10 characters added and some buffs and nerfs for existing ones. Fans were angry because they didn’t do it on DLC, which the original game was incapable holding so much. Then they made a small upload for said game on DLC, featuring four more characters. Fans were angry for another update they had to pay for.

 

 

What is Street Fighter X Tekken but a big, fat, nerd rage - am I right?

 

With this game, Capcom made a game that can handle the DLC, then came Locked Disc-gate. Obviously, Capcom intended to cash in on the 12 characters and other misc. locked away. The probably did it to save money on making it true DLC and (maybe as a built in excuse/afterthought/intended side effect) it saves on hard drive space on the console. Obviously fans were angry, they had a gold bar in their gym locker but it was hidden in a small locker inside that locker and they don’t have the key for it even though they paid for the gym membership.

Of course the hackers gloating about their finds on YouTube didn’t help any. What Capcom did was lazy and stupid, but I really don’t think it was shady and unethical. If you do, that’s why you have local senators and congressmen (or like government for other countries) and tell them that you feel Capcom ripped you off.

As for additional content down the road, what then? What won’t make fans angry? New games of mostly same stuff and DLC (or Locked ODC) doesn’t seem to cut it. And while free DLC and hidden (not locked) characters from Capcom would be nice once in a while, don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re not a business.

New content carrier pigeons maybe? New content telegraphing? no. Got it, new content smoke signals, genius!

Oh, if you have any thoughts leave a comment below.

 

 

 

 

MegaMan: A fan based movie

We here at the Armada  encourage ingenious thought, inventive storytelling, and video games (natch); which is why  ”MegaMan” Fan Film is the best of all worlds. One of the down sides of the 8-bit era is that story for games were a little light, well this film made by Blue Core Studios fills in the gaps and makes the Capcom classic into a modern melodrama (with robot killing action of course). In some places you can tell its not Hollywood, but its also surprisingly deep, asking questions on what’s is real, alive, and what motivates why people (and some machines) do what they do. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

By the by, if you liked that (and I know you did) they’re also making a Sonic “fan film” as well… With Jaleel White reprising is role as Sonic the Hedgehog. So yeah, FTW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Characters of Color – Sheva Alomar

“Don’t worry. I may not be as big as you, but I can still hold my own.” — Sheva to Chris after gearing up for the mission

“Hey, I never argue with a lady with a shotgun.” – Me

 

 

Hey all, remember the Gamecube? Nintendo’s purple (I got the black one), cube shaped console that was a good system but was stuck in the shadow of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Do you also remember the Resident Evil series back in the 90’s and early 2000’s? Scary to be sure but the controls, dated graphics, and uninteresting story was scarier still. Well in the twilight (no bad movie jokes please) of the GC’s life span they released ‘Resident Evil 4’ and changed everything. RE4’s innovative combat controls, action based pacing (instead of pain in the butt puzzle solving), and modern graphics breathed new life into the IP (and kept the GC going long enough for the Wii to take the virtual ball and ran with it for years).  However if you asked anyone the one thing wrong with the game is the character Ashley Graham. Basically a walking Albatross; she couldn’t fight, couldn’t shoot, in the way all the time, whined like baby, and we had to protect her every step on the way. So when ‘Resident Evil 5’ was announced and there was going to be a partner for players to help in the adventure; all Res Evil fans everywhere demanded the partner be the total opposite of Ashley Graham –  thus Sheva Alomar was born.

 

 

Raised by a West African anti-government guerrilla group and recruited by the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance Sheva is no stranger to action. Skilled in many forms of firearms, explosives, CQC, and first aid she was able to keep Chris Redfield alive, put down a wide variety zombies and mutants, and finally put down that megalomaniac wannabe Albert Wesker – all in the same game. I’m not sure if she’ll make it into the next game but a) she should and b) Capcom announced that Ashley Graham will never be in another Resident Evil game ever again so yay for that.