Street Fighter IV Official Art

Capcom has shared some new screenshots and official game art from Street Fighter IV with Japanese weekly magazine Famitsu, and since I love both Street Fighter and video game art so much I wanted to show them here. All 8 original playable characters from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior are back and look tougher than ever, probably because they seem to be made out of rocks. They are joined by newcomer Crimson Viper, an odd-looking chick in a business suit and yellow sunglasses. This new art style takes a while to get used to, but I’m digging it. As long as the game is balanced, plays as fast and furious as SFII Turbo and the fighting engine is as deep as SFIII I’ll be perfectly happy with Street Fighter IV, even if it's not in 2D.

Game Preview: Devil May Cry 4

With the exception of part 2, the Devil May Cry series has been great fun. Capcom has just released a demo of Devil May Cry 4 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and here are my impressions.

The demo is divided into two parts. On the first you can play through a bunch of the game’s environments for 10 minutes. What you do in those 10 minutes is up to you. The other part pits you against a few Frost enemies (remember them from the first DMC?) and then a boss fight with Berial, a big ass fire demon. There’s no time limit here but it’s all over way too quickly. As a demo it works because in the first part you’d like to just stare at the gorgeous graphics and jump all over the place breaking boxes, benches, crates and stuff to collect red orbs but you can’t because of the annoying time limit, and on the second part the stage ends when you beat Berial and with practice you can own him pretty quickly and easily. You end up with an itchy trigger finger and a thirst for demon blood. Capcom’s Dead Rising demo was similar and I ended up buying the game just because the demo was so damn fun.

In the demo you only play as Nero, the newcomer who looks way too much like Dante and controls almost identical. The only difference is that he only has one handgun instead of two and has glowing hand that does more than look cool. That hand (glove?) is called the Devil Bringer, and can make Nero perform powerful throws, travel to hard-to-reach places, like Link’s hookshot. Nero pulls of devastating combos with his sword, handgun and Devil Bringer, killing off enemies with just a few hits. I’m guessing the demo is set to easy.

The music is rocking, as expected, and all the familiar sound effects from previous games are back and sounding better than ever thanks to in-game Dolby Digital surround sound.

I’m really looking forward to the full game, that should be released on February 5 on both consoles. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.

Character Profile: Mike Haggar

After living his life as a wrestling street fighter, Mike Haggar turned to politics and won the election to become mayor of Metro City. He swore to rid the city of the terrible crime wave caused by the Mad Gear gang. This made Belger, leader of Mad Gear, royally pissed and arranged for Haggar’s daughter, Jessica, to be kidnapped. Rather than succumbing to Mad Gear’s threats, Haggar enlisted Jessica’s boyfriend, Cody, and his friend Guy to go down to Metro City’s meanest streets and beat the shit out of every single Mad Gear member.

Wasn’t the above paragraph fun? That’s the plot of 1989’s Final Fight, the game where the world was introduced to Haggar. I remember playing it for the first time at the arcade. Cody and Guy looked cool, but Haggar was a fucking shirtless pile-driving mayor with work pants and a huge belt over one shoulder. I had never seen an awesomer game character before. Is that belt supposed to keep his pants from dropping to the floor? Who cares? He’s Haggar, and her can wear whatever the hell he wants.

He was the slowest, but also the strongest. He singlehandedly made the pile-drive famous. Russian bear-wrestler Zangief made the pile-driver even cooler by giving it a spin two years later, and that’s why these two monsters of wrestling despise each other.

Capcom knew they had created an unstoppable muscle machine and decided to include Haggar as a playable character in 1993’s Saturday Night Slam Masters and its sequel, Ring of Destruction, a year later. He also made appearances in the Super Nintendo exclusives Final Fight 2 and 3, rejoining forces with Guy and recruiting help from newcomers Maki, Dean and Carlos. In 1999 Capcom USA released the god-awful Final Fight Revenge, a 3D fighting game with some of the worst polygon models ever. Haggar was a playable character but not even his awesomeness could save this steaming pile of rhinoceros anal discharge. Haggar had a cameo in 2006’s Final Fight Streetwise, teaching Cody’s younger brother, Kyle, some grappling moves. He ran a crummy gym and was no longer the mayor of Metro City. People barely remember him, if they remember him at all. That’s so sad. Why would Capcom do this to poor Haggar? Oh by the way, Final Fight Streetwise sucks the big one.

After beat’em ups died down and Final Fight’s future seemed bleak, a few characters from the series started appearing in Street Fighter Alpha. First there was Guy and Sodom, then Rolento, then Cody. Even Hugo Andore appeared in Street Fighter III, but still no Haggar. What the fuck, Capcom? Namco included Haggar in Namco X Capcom, but that game was never released outside Japan. Again, what the fuck?

You can see I’m passionate about Haggar and can only hope Capcom brings him back soon. If there’s ever a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 every character on Capcom’s side should be Haggar. Raise your hand if you want to be pile-drived by Haggar. *raises hand*

Game Commercials: Street Fighter II

My most cherished video game series of all time got zero respect from Capcom USA and everyone involved in the making of this commercial. It’s ugly, bizarre, and disturbing. When I played Street Fighter II: The World Warrior I never thought of old black and white movies and dinosaurs. What the hell, man?





Now this is more like it. This was the first time I saw live-action Street Fighter characters, and they looked awesome! That M. Bison guy is wicked cool, maybe because he reminds me of Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick. Guile’s hair will never look good on a real human being, but Chun Li looks fantastic. These two short commercials were included in a GamePro/Capcom promotional video for Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition, and are better than the whole Van Damme movie.




Far better than the one for The World Warrior, but still not as cool as the Japanese ads. Here Capcom acknowledges Mortal Kombat as a threat and had Blanka literally destroy it, making an old security guy soil himself in the process. What does the ad teach us? Don’t piss Blanka off.

Babes of Gaming: Felicia

Monsters are not usually considered to be babes, but Felicia is just too cute to ignore. She’s the catwoman from Capcom’s DarkStalkers fighting game series, but even though she’s basically a beastly freak of nature I can’t help but love her.

Catwomen are sexy, and Felicia is one of the sexiest kitties I’ve seen. She’s basically naked, with some white fur covering the naughty parts. I’m aware that she has disturbingly large claws on her hands and feet, but she would rather catch butterflies than maul people. Actually, she hates fighting, but mean people need to be stopped one way or another. When she’s not shredding bad guys to death she enjoys singing and performing on stage with her kitty friends in Las Vegas.

Felicia is one of the most agile fighters in DarkStalkers, known as Vampire in Japan. She can't resist bouncy things like yarn balls and is fascinated by butterflies. Naps are a top priority, especially right after beating someone to a pulp. She has a very kind heart and in DarkStalkers 3 she even turns into a nun and opens her own orphanage named "Felicity House".

Her popularity is massive among DarkStalkers fans and that’s why Capcom put her in other games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Pocket Fighter and Capcom Fighting Evolution. She was also featured in the DarkStalkers anime and the UDON comics, where this particular picture of hers comes from. The DarkStalkers series seems to be dead, but perhaps Capcom will add a new chapter in the near future and we’ll get to enjoy Felicia in full high-definition 3D glory.

First Street Fighter IV Screenshot

The guys over at EGM magazine got a hand-on demonstration of Capcom’s Street Fighter IV. Wow, I never thought I’d be typing a “IV” after “Street Fighter”. They have released the first screenshot and a few details on the game. So far only Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Dhalsim will be returning, and no new fighters have been shown. The game will have 3D polygon graphics, as feared by hardcore fans, but will have 2D gameplay. Hmm, now where have I heard that before… *cough* Street Fighter EX *cough* There will be new special moves and game modes, but it’s all being kept secret for now.

I’m a huge Street Fighter fan, but I’m more than a little worried right now. That screenshot doesn’t do much for me. Why is Ryu so ugly? Maybe his bandana is too tight. And look at his feet! Has he been kicking concrete walls for fun? The art style I’ve seen so far of Ryu and Ken is very different than in past games. They look super bulky, almost fat, like M. Bison in the Alpha series. Still, it’s Street Fighter, and after 8 years since the release of SFIII 3rd Strike I am seriously hungry for some beatings.

Street Fighter III Third Strike Combos

Watching these combos reminds me how much I suck at Street Fighter III. I'd like to see this guy perform those moves on a real opponent, but the combos are sweet nonetheless.