Capcom Posts:

Street Fighter X Tekken: Rivalry and Ass-Kickings Aplenty

By Chris Littlechild | April 20, 2012 @ 1:55 pm

Street Fighter X Tekken was recently released on consoles by fighting game behemoth Capcom. It’s the first time denizens of two of the premier fighting franchises have met in this way, and is a real dream setup. Many a geeky youth (my own included, but of course) was spent imagining fantastical scenarios involving this very concept. Rather like the notion of Sonic and Mario collaborating, it seemed unlikely to actually materialize beyond that. (But look at the two mascots now, the bromance has reached such a stage they’re likely to elope for a dirty weekend in an equally imaginary hotel room somewhere. There’s a piece of fanart nobody wants to see. It probably already exists though, the alarmingly amoral qualities of the internet know no bounds.) Tangential man-love musings aside though, Capcom have a wonderful premise on their hands here. But did they do it justice?

Play uses a tag team system. There’s a reasonably vast roster, comprising half Tekken and half Street Fighter characters. From here, you create your perfect pugilistic pairing and enter the fray. Unlike the hyperactively trippy Marvel vs Capcom 3, each player has their own lifebar but the match is lost if either is brought to a vicious fist-flavoured end. You’re able to use the ubiquitous fighting game super bar of great ravage to switch characters in instantly. This technique allows for some quite mindbogglingly intricate combos, and delightful gravity-defying beatings. As such, Street Fighter X Tekken is far more combo-heavy than its father of sorts, Super Street Fighter IV. If the aforementioned title made sweet, forbidden love to the Blazblue series, this could well be the result.

It probably wouldn’t bother calling after that, and certainly wouldn’t respect Blazblue in the morning. Street Fighter is one of those guys.

Resident Evil 6 Will Have Three Separate Campaigns

By Travis Shuman | April 10, 2012 @ 2:46 pm

It's just been announced that the latest installment in Capcom's zombie survival series, Resident Evil, will feature not one, but THREE separate campaigns that are all interwoven.

Players will be able to play as Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield or the mysterious mercenary Jake Muller, son of the one and only...Albert Wesker. Each character will have their own partner which means, yes, every campaign is co-op enabled, both online and split screen.

Albert Wesker: Why We Love the Red-Eyed Freak

By Chris Littlechild | April 9, 2012 @ 2:07 am

It’s an odd fact of gaming life that the bad guys are often the most cherished. No matter what heroic jaunt you’re sent on with the main character, the villain of the piece can be the most memorable personality. Largely, it’s a matter of charisma. How else can one explain Chucky having fans? Or support for slash-happy psychopath Freddy Krueger instead of the screaming teenagers he’s eviscerating? I’ve heard of cinema screenings where every gruesome kill was wildly applauded by the audience. Now, this could have been a room full of crazies with a terrifying brand of fetish the police should be notified about. I prefer to think of it as the inexplicable X-factor, something that draws us to this vast menagerie of evil entities.

Albert Wesker, steroid-addled loon and general nasty bastard, is a case in point. He first appeared in the original Resident Evil, leading the team that becomes stranded in the mansion. In the early stages of the game, he hasn’t advanced to full-on malevolence. He instead settles for shiftiest dude in the history of shifty dudes mode. Modus operandi: telling the squad to investigate an area (where ball-biting beasts are surely lurking). He’d love to help, he explains, but has something highly important to attend to... somewhere else. (Combing his Duke Nukem hair, most likely. Man, those two looked like doppelgangers in 1998. What’s that about?) He then pisses off on this enigmatic note. There was probably some fiendish cackling and hand-rubbing as well. Villains love that shit.

Later, he pretends that being utterly savaged by an enormous mutant-ogre-thing was all part of the plan. The guy's acting skills are revealed to be thoroughly toilet. (“WHAT? Don’t come this way! NO!”) He’s then reincarnated like Jesus. If Jesus pumped himself full of a shitload of drugs. Which I doubt. I’m a little hazy, sunday school was a long time ago.

Is There A Spanish Ninja in the House?

By Chris Littlechild | March 20, 2012 @ 2:08 pm

There’s always one. That character nobody ever seems to pick. The shamed. The shunned. These guys are the video game equivalent of the skeleton in the closet. The half-brother nobody in the family talks of, due to that incident at the pet store years back (those dogs will never be the same again). Possible animal-love aside though, I’ve always been keen to give these characters some attention. Fighting games with their vast casts of crazies are where this occurs most. With this in mind, our first stop on the underdog appreciation tour is Street Fighter’s Vega.

One of the issues here is probably first impressions. The Spanish Ninja is one effeminate dude. That hair? The high-pitched yodelling? It’s not the manliest of looks, all in all. Super Street Fighter IV’s alternate costumes only exacerbated this problem, with offerings that would look right at home in any drag queen’s closet. Finally there’s the emphasis on beauty. Insisting that he’s the most beautiful person in the world, and mocking defeated opponents by enquiring did my beauty intoxicate you? A special attack that produces a shower of flowers probably says it all. A vicious attack with a sharp pointy implement, true enough, but a flowery one all the same.

Next to the likes of Zangief, all testosterone, body hair, horrific over-tight wrestler’s underpants and general man-mountain, you can see how this could look bad.

Top Titles to Traumatize Gaming Grandmas: Resident Evil 4

By Chris Littlechild | March 15, 2012 @ 2:13 pm

Resident Evil 4 is the wildly successful 2005 revamp of the franchise. The series is well known for its tense, brooding atmosphere and jump scares, but this installment took everything one step further. The focus this time is on action, with the kind of relentless gunplay that would exhaust a whole cast of western movie cowboys. If Grandma has recovered from her experiences with Dead Space in the last article, let's see what she's up against here.

Your combat tactics are brutal, to say the least. Every weapon in the game is equipped with a laser sight (even the Longbow, making for an impressive piece of death-dealing tech indeed) allowing you to pinpoint weak points with ease. A shot to the head will cause an opponent to cover their face with their hands and stagger backward. While they're in this not the face! I was voted most handsome bearded shambling moron villager, European division, you bastard! My face is my livelihood! pose, you can step forward to bust out some fist-based justice. Oddly, it seems a swift kick from our hero Leon rivals the power of a gunshot. Again, impressive stuff. Later, the evil Zealot monks instead fall victim to a suplex that literally leaves brain-juice all over the floor. You'd never know it from the effeminate floppy hair, but Leon is quite the badass.

Special mention must also go to the variety of mutated nasties you'll come across on your jolly romp to rescue the President's half-witted daughter. Among others, you'll meet the Garrador, a blinded Wolverine-wannabe with acute hearing and impractical claws (I wouldn't want to even consider the hazards of going to the men's room). Not to mention the Regenerator, this bullet-resistant beast is a major ass pain. You can blow off both its arms and legs with a shotgun, and it will still crawl spasmodically toward you in an effort to feed its face-chewing habits. This persistent bugger also has the kind of rattling breathing that both heralds its approach and haunts your nightmares.