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Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia available now!!Dec 11, 2013 - Community Announcements If you're a Capcom super-fan, be sure to check out the Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia, available now on Amazon for less than nine bucks! The book celebrates Capcom's thirty-year legacy of brilliant character design with more than 200 pages of lush art, character facts, statistics, and historical information. Characters major and minor, current and classic, all have representation, so there's something for just about every Capcom fan ever. Check it out! Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia available now!!Dec 11, 2013 - Community Announcementshttp://images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/gregaman/9f6046911b84e2fe9404f9344191c9be.jpg?v=156150 If you're a Capcom super-fan, be sure to check out the Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia, available now on Amazon for less than nine bucks! The book celebrates Capcom's thirty-year legacy of brilliant character design with more than 200 pages of lush art, character facts, statistics, and historical information. Characters major and minor, current and classic, all have representation, so there's something for just about every Capcom fan ever. Check it out! The Most Insane Cyborgs In Japanese Video GamesFeb 19, 2013 - KotakuCyborgs in fiction are always associated with free will, morality, the importance of being human or the limits of the human body. Toughened up by the harsh, cruel worlds they live in, cyborgs are always insanely cool. We decided to collect some of the craziest ones from Japanese video games. Maxima (King Of Fighters series) source: ReXXXSoprano's LP Grobyc (Chrono Cross) source: Tom Pommes' LP Yoshimitsu (Tekken, Soulcalibur series) source: SDTekken Brad Fang (Contra: Hard Corps) source: LancerD1984's LP Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII) source: KotRFFXIV's LP Nathan Spencer (Bionic Commando) source: Capcom Wiki Ziggurat 8 (Xenosaga) source: Helsionium's LP Olga, Gray Fox and Raiden (Metal Gear series) source: Metal Gear Wiki There might be tons of other cool cyborg characters—you should add your own suggestions in the comments below, with visual support. Bionic Commando dev Grin worked on Strider reboot, Streets of Rage remakeFeb 21, 2012 - EurogamerThe developer behind Bionic Commando, Wanted and Terminator: Salvation worked on a Strider reboot and a Streets of Rage remake before it closed down. Spanish website AnaitGames, which is run by our friends at Eurogamer.es, was told of the cancelled projects by sources at Grin Barcelona, the satellite studio of Swedish developer Grin, which closed its doors in 2009. Artwork, screenshots and videos of a raft of cancelled Grin games have been released. Perhaps most eye-catching is a CGI teaser trailer of the Strider reboot. Grin Barcelona helped with Strider, developing assets for the first prototype of the game. The art team made the teaser video, below, with the help of animation studio 23Lunes. Strider was to be a reboot similar to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 Bionic Commando reboot Grin made for Capcom for release in 2009. The "Snow Teaser", below, is for a "video game project" with "no name". Also revealed are concept art, in-game assets and 3D models from the Strider reboot. The Strider reboot was apparently cancelled by Capcom a few weeks after the May 2009 release of Bionic Commando. Grin Barcelona, however, soldiered on, trying to build a prototype based on its work without the Strider license. It pitched the project to Ubisoft, but that deal fell through. After that setback, Grin Barcelona set upon a remake of Streets of Rage, to be published by Sega. It was intended to be similar to Grin's own Bionic Commando Rearmed, and released as a download-only title. Work on this game didn't last long, however. Only a handful of screenshots and art, below, were unearthed, but apparently a build of the game exists somewhere. Other titles supposedly in development at Grin before it collapsed: a new Silent Hill for Konami; a Wanted sequel called Cult; and a Final Fantasy spin-off called Fortress for Square Enix. Images for these games are below. According to the report Crysis developer Crytek offered to step in and buy Grin, but walked away from the deal after discovering the high asking price. In August 2009 Grin filed for bankruptcy. Some of Grin's former staff went on to found new studios, and some of these have already released their first games. Grin founders Bo and Ulf Andersson, for example, founded studio Overkill Software. Its first game was downloadable game Payday: The Heist. Some of the developers who worked on Bionic Commando: Rearmed formed Might and Delight, the developer behind upcoming downloadable title Pid. In May last year Bo and Ulf Andersson claimed Grin closed because of a "betrayal" by Square Enix. Grin had been working on Final Fantasy: Fortress but apparently received no money from Square Enix because agreed milestones weren't met, brothers Andersson told Swedish site Aftonbladet. Bo and Ulf Andersson announced that Grin had closed in August 2009. They cited an "unbearable cashflow situation" caused by "too many" publishers delaying their payments. The Anderssons mentioned an "unreleased masterpiece" that they "weren't allowed" to fin...Rumor: This Could Be A Teaser for a Cancelled Strider GameFeb 21, 2012 - KotakuBefore its demise, gaming studio GRIN was working on new entries in the Bionic Commando and Strider series, Spanish gaming website Anait Games reported today. Anait Games says the above trailer, found on the website of Spanish animation studio 23 Lunes, is actually a teaser for the cancelled Strider game, which Capcom had reportedly commissioned from GRIN. Though eponymous protagonist Strider Hiryu has been popular for Capcom, appearing in several of its Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games, the platforming series has been silent in recent years. Its last full-fledged title was Strider II, released for the PlayStation in 2000. Nintendo released the Sega Genesis version of Strider on Wii Virtual Console last week. We've reached out to 23 Lunes and will update this story with any further comments. GRIN: Los juegos perdidos VVVVVV Spells Victory for the Final Nintendo Download of 2011Dec 29, 2011 - Kotaku The Nintendo Download ends the year on a high note with the release of Terry Cavanagh 's indie darling VVVVVV on the 3DS eShop, adding a 3D twist to the game's already twisted gravity platforming. If the 3DS does nothing more than get a few indie PC greats into the hands of the masses, then I consider it a success. You may remember VVVVVV from its starring role in the Humble Indie Bundle #3, or from its charmingly primitive visuals mixed with a simple yet satisfying gravity control mechanic. Help Captain Viridian find his missing crew and save the day by flipping gravity on its stupid gravity ass. I should write the back of video game boxes. There are things other than VVVVVV in this week's download as well, but typing out their names isn't quite as entertaining, so I only did it once. You can find those below. WiiWare (Wii) Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math Publisher: The Learning Company Price: 600 Wii points Bad news, detective! Those vicious villains of V.I.L.E are at it again. This time they've struck Big Ben in London, England! Just when we think we've put a stop to their trouble, they come up with a new scheme to vex us. The Chief wants ACME's best agent on this case, and that means you, detective. So grab your gear-you're headed to London! Carmen Sandiego is back and only you can foil her V.I.L.E plans. Travel the globe, solve brain-twisting math puzzles, and catch the villain behind the Big Ben Burglary. Crack the case of the Big Ben Burglary in single-player Story Mode. Perfect your math skills in single-player Practice Mode. Challenge your friends and family to solve math puzzles against the clock in Multiplayer Mode. In Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math, you practice your math skills and use them to fight crime. Ideal for grades 4–5, math topics include arithmetic, logic puzzles, fractions and much more! DSiWare (DSi / 3DS) Cake Ninja Publisher: Cypronia Price: $4.99 /500 DSi Points Become a true Cake Ninja warrior. This casual game invites you to slide the stylus across the screen to slice cakes into small pieces like a true ninja warrior. It's very easy to play. The more cakes you slice, the longer you stay around. The longer you survive, the higher your score. How long can you last? You can also challenge your friends to a multiplayer game and find out who's the best player. Slingo Supreme Publisher: Magellan Interactive Price: $7.99 / 800 DSi Points Create more than 16,000 levels, discover unlimited Daily Challenges and beat the Devil in new mini-games. Slingo Supreme is the sequel to Slingo Deluxe, packed with even more Slingtastic fun. It features a new Supreme mode that lets you build more than 16,000 different Slingo games. It also offers an infinite supply of Daily Challenges, new Powerups (including Reel Nudge and Instant Slingos) and the long-awaited introduction of Devil Mini Games. Now you can finally take on that Devil and beat him at his own game. eShop (3DS) VVVVVV Publisher: Nicalis Price: $7.99 There's something ...Game Boy Version of Bionic Commando Coming to Nintendo eShop on Dec. 29Dec 22, 2011 - KotakuWith classics like the original Tetris, Metroid II and Blaster Master released in recent weeks, Nintendo's eShop has been a retro cornucopia for 3DS owners. Capcom's announced that they're adding another old-school title to the download store with the impending debut of 1992's Game Boy version of Bionic Commando. You'll be able to grab the monochromatic adventures of Nathan "Rad" Spencer next week. Bionic Commando Coming to 3DS eShop Tony Holmsten's Video Game Art Is a Final FantasyJun 29, 2011 - Kotaku Tony Holmsten, formerly of Sweden now living in Japan, has been working as a video game artist since 2002 at two of Sweden's biggest studio's, Battlefield developers DICE and the now-defunct Grin. In that time, he's done concept art, level art, promo art and lighting for games like Battlefield 2142, Bionic Commando and Fortress, the sadly-cancelled Final Fantasy spin-off. Most of the art in this gallery is for that ill-fated game, killed off by publishers Square Enix only six months into development. Say what you will about Grin's track record in previous titles, the art for the game sure was looking lovely. You can see more of Tony's work at his personal site. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line! Why Would a Game With No Online Play Require an Online Connection?Feb 3, 2011 - Kotaku For some, the inclusion of DRM - "digital rights management" which prevents copying - is a provocative act. That makes requiring an online check-in for a game with no online component, like Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2, both perplexing and obnoxious. PlayStation 3 owners buying the sequel to Capcom's show-stealing hit of 2008 were greeted with the message that "you must log-in to the PlayStation Network each time to play the game." Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 has no online multiplayer component - unless you're counting the leaderboards for the game's challenge rooms. So the requirement, though Capcom first implemented it a year ago, is purely an anti-piracy move. The question is: How exactly does one pirate a console game acquired from a download service? The answer is, it's not piracy - not by the traditional definition covering piracy in PC gaming, or on illegally modified consoles. But it is file-sharing, specifically something called "PSN Sharing," which makes use of network users' privilege to download and install content they purchase on up to five different devices. This is meant to support the use of content across other devices like the PSP or PC. What had been happening were, say, groups of gamers dividing the $15 or $20 cost of a downloadable game, and then one friend either installed it on the other four's devices, or gave them his login information to go fetch it. They would then be able to play the game offline. The PSN connection check verifies whether the account running the game and the one playing it are the same. The requirement to be logged into the PlayStation Network at startup forces that comparison. That means multiple accounts on the same console - brothers in a family sharing a single PS3, for example - cannot play the same game. They'd have to check-in under one account and then play offline, which even for a game with no online multiplayer cuts off features like trophies or leaderboards. This goes back a year. Capcom implemented the same requirement with Final Fight: Double Impact, a port of two arcade games from the 1990s. Capcom ran into trouble when it didn't disclose the online connection requirement in the game's purchase window on PlayStation Network. The publisher quickly apologized for that. Although Capcom said the protection measure had been included in previous downloadables, it also indicated its use in Final Fight: Double Impact would be a test case to see if it cut down on sales lost to PSN sharing. This is not the same as the hated always-on Internet connection Ubisoft required for some PC games last year, and later abandoned, going only to a single check-in at the game's startup. The check on Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 is made only when the game starts up. After that, one could sign out of the PlayStation Network and continue playing. Technically, sharing the game across multiple users still is feasible, but isn't convenient. In a quick scan of the PlayStation Network's latest offerings, Bionic Commando: ...Scads Of Gameplay In This Bionic Commando 2: Rearmed VideoDec 4, 2010 - KotakuGametrailers got a three-minute look at Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 due early next year from Capcom. Packed with gameplay, fans should get a good idea of the game's innovative new features which, of course, include jumping. Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 will release sometime before the end of march on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Melt Down The Megacopter In Bionic Commando Rearmed 2Nov 11, 2010 - Kotaku This is how you bring down the Megacopter in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 - hang on its undercarriage, blast away at the engines and then - jump on a plunger so it shits out a clown car? Well alright. That's one way to finish off a boss in BCR2. Capcom released the following gallery o' images and characters, along with 90 seconds of straight gameplay, set to the beats of Simon Viklund, who did the original's outstanding soundtrack. BCR2 is due sometime early next year. Capcom Is Going To Make Games *Quicker*Jul 26, 2010 - KotakuCapcom, fresh off months of sluggish sales, is keen to make more video games. More video games might mean more sales! According to an article on Nikkei.com, Capcom is speeding up the development cycle on its games from 4 years to 1 ~ 2 years faster. The company currently releases about 2 name Capcom franchise titles a year. Moving forward, Capcom is planning each year to release 3 or 4 big titles like Resident Evil, etc. Capcom will continue to outsource development to American and European developers in order to release the vast number of titles it does. Dead Rising 2 was outsourced as was Bionic Commando. Street Fighter IV, for that matter, was also outsourced, but not to a Western developer. Osaka-based Dimps developed the title. Faster development cycles keep games current, relevant and manage expectations. When games are in development for five, six years, it becomes incredibly hard for them to meet the pent-up expectations of players. ゲームソフト、開発短縮 カプコンやバンダイナムコ Bionic Commando, Dark Void Last Straws For CapcomMay 17, 2010 - KotakuAfter not one, but two Western-developed sales blunders, Capcom is planning to stick with its home turf. Capcom's president, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, tells the Financial Times that the company is giving up on developing new franchise titles in the West after the catastrophic sales of two of its attempts, Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Predicted to sell in the millions, neither did better than 750,000 copies. Now, Capcom wants out. We already knew back in December how upset Capcom was about Bionic Commando's less than average debut. However, Dark Void may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Without the fan base or movie tie-in of, for example, its successful Street Fighter franchise, Capcom realized that original titles like Dark Void were too risky to keep investing in. From now on, the only reason the company will employ developers from outside of Japan is to build sequels or new versions of their existing games. (See: Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, Dead Rising 2.) Tsujimoto said he in part blames the changing face of the game industry—now rife with downloadable games, social gaming, and new gaming platforms like the iPad—for the lower sales of new Capcom packaged game titles. He said Capcom will focus its efforts on developing new games for these new mediums instead. Capcom shuns foreign game developers Capcom Profits Plummet 73.1 PercentMay 6, 2010 - KotakuLast year was a rough year. Just ask Osaka-based Capcom. The game company, which is best known for the Street Fighter series, sales profits down. Way down. According to an official statement, Capcom saw new sales down 27.3 percent to ¥66.8 billion. Net profit was down 73.1 percent from the previous year to ¥2.17 billion. Sales were strong in Japan for titles like Wii game Monster Hunter Tri and PSP game Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Elsewhere, games like Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV continued to do brisk business. "However, weak sales of some new titles besides the releases of Lost Planet 2, Super Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter Tri for overseas were postponed to the next fiscal year significantly depressed sales compared to previous year," stated Capcom. Those "weak" selling titles, Capcom noted, were namely Bionic Commando, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dark Void. But with a battery of big titles coming out, Capcom should be just fine. Super Mario Crossover Creator Cut Luigi, Bionic Commando, MoreMay 3, 2010 - Kotaku Jay Pavlina recently released a sensation of a video game, a remix called Super Mario Bros. Crossover that allows gamers to play Super Mario Bros. as the heroes of Mega Man, Metroid and Castlevania. Other legends almost made it in. From a GameXplain interview with Pavlina about the making of the game GameXplain: Mario, Mega Man, Simon, Samus, Bill, and Link—that's a fantastic selection of characters, but were there any others you were considering adding? Were any cut for time or developmental reasons? Pavlina: Yes, originally there were nine characters, and I'd really like to get these characters in at some point if possible. The other three characters were going to be Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, Luigi, and the SOPHIA battle tank from Blaster Master. I also considered the guy from Bionic Commando. Most of the characters got cut due to time, but Luigi got cut due to a different decision. Originally, the game was going to have a story where Mario got captured, so Luigi recruited his friends from other videogame worlds to help get Mario back. But I decided not to worry about the story and just focus on making the gameplay awesome. Play the game as is, at Newgrounds. Dream of what it could have been. Super Mario Bros. Crossover Xplained: An Interview with the Creator Culture ClashApr 26, 2010 - KotakuThe man behind Mega Man is very busy these days. Not because of his 1987 creation and the more than 50 games it spawned since. No, Keiji Inafune's work is sadly free of the blue humonoid robot and his endless battles. Nowadays Inafune spends most of his time traveling the world keeping an eye on Capcom's other creations. As the game maker's new head of global production, Inafune says he has only one goal: To make sure that all of Capcom's games have that, to borrow a French phrase, je ne sais quoi. "It's a common comment I hear that games created in Europe aren't really Capcom games, that games created in Japan are true Capcom games," Inafune recently told a gathering of journalists at their annual Captivate event in Hawaii. "I want to put an end to that, basically saying that whether games are created in America or Japan or anywhere in the world, I will be the one overlooking it and so it will have that Capcom flavor that fans know and love." The news comes after a mixed year for Capcom. The past 12 months or so saw the publisher help to reinvigorate the fighting genre with the release of Street Fighter IV to consoles and the continued success of their Resident Evil franchise, but it also saw a few flops including Bionic Commando and January 2010's Dark Void. Capcom's biggest disappointments of the past 12 months have to be Bionic Commando, which received middling reviews, and Dark Void which was perceived, at best, as forgettable. Both were products of a new initiative by the Japanese developer to try and blend the aesthetics, artistry and mechanics of Western and Japanese game design. That initiative was announced at the 2009 Captivate event in Monte Carlo. At the time Inafune said that Capcom knew it needed to figure out how to climb out of what he called a pit that had Capcom at the bottom of the industry. The key, he realized, was to focus on globalization. The first result of that effort was the widely acclaimed Dead Rising, a game that other developers, he noted, said looked Western but felt Japanese. So last year they decided to push things further west, perhaps a bit too far west. Now, Inafune says the company is working to perfect this idea of collaboration not only between studios, but cultures. Dead Rising 2, for instance, is being created by Canadian studio Blue Castle Games, but Inafune is making sure that the game will still have that Capcom feel. "One of the biggest things we do is have more staff visits," he said. "We have a deeper collaboration through the sheer amount of communication, a lot more meetings, a lot more emails. "Rather than have the development team do what they want to do by themselves, Capcom is trying to inject the Capcom flavor into it." And, judging by what I saw earlier this month, it seems to be working. Dead Rising 2 feels like a game that has found the sweet spot between Western and Japanese game development. While Inafune may have been overstating things last year when he said that Japanese game develop...Mega Man Creator To Assure Capcom's FutureApr 22, 2010 - Kotaku Game Changers: Sequels That Scared The True FansApr 14, 2010 - Kotaku Yesterday 2K Games panicked some gamers with news that the turn-based tactics series X-Com will return as a first-person shooter. What other classic video game franchise have had their genres changed, and how did they weather the transformation? We're calling the phenomenon genre bending. You take a game known as being one of the best in its original genre, and give it a gameplay facelift, oftentimes modifying the core elements that made it a classic in the first place. To some, this is a refreshing change. To others, it borders on blasphemy. Let's take a look at how other classic franchise have fared when faced with genre bending. Bionic Commando Original Genre: Platforming Shooter New Genre: 3rd Person Action Adventure The Transformation: Capcom tapped developer Grin to recreate the 1987 arcade classic Bionic Commando as a full-on 3D action adventure game with 3rd-person shooting elements. Release in 2009, the updated game was praised for its visuals and ambitious gameplay choices, garnering average to high review scores. The Verdict: It sold like complete crap. Actually, given the right salesperson, crap might have sold better. Metroid Original Genre: 2D Exploration-Based Platforming Shooter New Genre: First-Person Shooter The Transformation: News that Nintendo was taking the classic 2D platforming series that started in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System and turning it into a first-person shooter did not sit well with fans at first. There were cries of blasphemy, along with much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair. Then Nintendo released the first Metroid Prime title in 2002, and it went on to become one of the best-selling titles on the Gamecube. The Verdict: I'd say the transformation was a success. Shadowrun Original Genre: Action Role-Playing New Genre: First-Person Shooter The Transformation: Fans of the pen-and-paper, magic meets cyberpunk role-playing game Shadowrun loved the first game based on the series, an action RPG that stayed as faithful to the source material as a 1993 Super Nintendo release could. When FASA Interactive and Microsoft announced a new Shadowrun title for the Xbox 360 and PC, fans were ecstatic, until they discovered it was an online-only first-person shooter, completely bereft of story. Despite the negative fan reaction, the developers pushed on through, producing a final product that both fans and newcomers to the series generally disliked. The Verdict: I like to pretend the second game never happened. Super Mario Bros. Original Genre: 2D Platformer New Genre: 3D Platformer The Transformation: More a product of evolution than an actual genre change, Nintendo was still taking a chance when it took its extremely successful Mario Bros. franchise from 2D to 3D. Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System was a gaming masterpiece, and the 16-bit follow-up, Super Mario World, sold countless Super Nintendo systems as a pack in-game. Bringing one of the most recognizable 2D characters on ...Where Posters, Packaging & Box Art Comes FromMar 29, 2010 - Kotaku A few weeks ago, I did a feature on a company that's responsible for game logos and box art. Today, then, I thought we'd look at something similar: a company that does box art and marketing material. The artwork you'll see in this post is the work of British firm Head First, an agency that specialises in advertising & design for both publishers and developers. This means they design stuff like box art, the back of a game's box, websites, posters, packaging, collector's edition packaging, and even the cardboard standees you see cluttering the aisles at your local GameStop. Dom Conlon, from Head First, reckons this kind of design work is far more crucial to a game's success than most people would give it credit for. "It's estimated that 40% of purchases are impulse", he says. "That's a pretty big chunk of people deciding right there and then to buy a game." "They could be gamers who have a vague idea of the sort of game they are looking for, or they could be Ma and Pa, looking to buy a game because little Johnny has eaten his peas. Now that's a pretty diverse audience right there, but let's assume they have all missed your advertising campaign, or at least that it's not the influencing factor." "It's the back of pack that is interesting because that can make a real difference here. Ma and Pa may well be looking for cover art that resembles what they've seen before so they will be drawn to "that sort of thing". That means they will be picking up the box and taking a closer look. They need to be impressed and convinced that the game will be right." Head First has worked with many of the industry's biggest names on some of the biggest games. In this gallery, you'll find examples of some of their more well-known work, including pieces designed for Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, Resident Evil and Red Faction (and even Onechanbara!). Interesting stuff! To read more, Head First run a blog, with regular updates on the challenges and inspirations to be found working in this oft-overlooked area of the industry.
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