The Misadventures of José Faxner

So much for writing about everything I want to, as often as I want - there’s just been way too much interesting news to keep up lately! I see little point in simply regurgitating what’s been said and posted elsewhere (also, I’m somewhat lazy), I’ll just give you guys the CliffsNotes version.

• The Harvey Birdman game has been released. I’ve downloaded it, but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. Looking forward to see if it lives up to my expectations.
• SEGA announced a patch for the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5. It will add mixing and matching costumes (a feature from the arcade originally missing in the 360 port), the ability to save replays of online matches, quick rematches against people not on your friends’ list, and a couple of small tweaks and fixes. Good news, but unfortunately SEGA also announced that they have no further plans for updates or downloadable content for VF5.
• On a related note, SEGA are holding location tests for the upcoming update to the arcade version of VF5, Version D, in Japanese arcades. Ver.D adds a brand new costume to each character, weapon items (used in intros and win poses), new single player modes and as always a slew of new costume items.
• The Sonic RPG for the DS has been named and unveiled. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is looking mighty purdy, and my excitement for the game is bigger than ever.
• Street Fighter IV had barely been shown to the world before Capcom announced the development of a new SF game - Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation. An entirely mouse-controlled online PC game, SFO will hardly set the global fighting game community ablaze, but it looks neat enough, not least because…
• Japanese toy manufacturer Kaiyodo, in collaboration with Capcom, will develop a series of figures based on Street Fighter Online for their excellent Revoltech line of figures. Between these and the previously announced Hokuto no Ken Revoltechs, 2008 is going to be an awesome year for the line.
• Capcom also announced that a playable version of Street Fighter IV will be available at the AOU 2008 Amusement Expo in Tokyo, February 15-16. I’m very very excited to hear impressions and hands-on reports, not to mention game footage and further announcements.
• The upcoming Bionic Commando sequel is getting a little brother! Yesterday, Capcom announced Bionic Commando Rearmed for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Windows. A remake of the classic Famicom/NES game, the title is being developed by GRIN, the same guys who are making the 3D sequel. Looks amazing, and I can’t wait to play it.
• Ikaruga and Rez will apparently both hit Xbox Live Arcade very soon. Rez is already scheduled for a January release (in other words, most likely this upcoming Wednesday), and Ikaruga is being demoed in fully playable form at some event in Akihabara this weekend, meaning the game is probably finished and just waiting to be released.
• A demo version of “The Club” hit Xbox Live without much fanfare a while back. I had never even heard of the game, but was happy to see that it was actually really awesome! This game had managed to completely evade my radar, but I’m really happy that they put out a demo of it - cause I’m very excited about it now. Hits in February.
• Leisure Suit Larry returns in a game of “mission-based exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving”. 2004’s LSL: Magna Cum Laude was hardly an icon of excellence, but I’m still a huge fan of the original series. I’m expecting this to end up kinda crap, but who knows? If it ends up actually being a fun game I’ll be happy to play it.
• A “Highlander” game was unveiled. The world collectively shrugged and moved on.

We’re barely a few weeks into 2008, and already it seems like it’s going to be chock full of great stuff. Let’s hope the awesome announcements will keep coming in the next couple of months as well.

The latest issue of Weekly Famitsuu features an article on Street Fighter IV, marking the first time the game has been shown in Japanese gaming media. The article seemed to mostly cover stuff already known from overseas media coverage, but did offer one major revelation - the announcement of the game’s first new character: Crimson Viper.

So far we’ve only seen in-game footage of Ryu and Ken, and while series stalwarts Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Zangief and E. Honda are all but confirmed, this is the first we’ve seen or heard of any characters new to the franchise. So what can be said about Crimson Viper? So far, not a whole lot, really.

I’ll offer my two cents though. At first, I didn’t know what to make of her - I like the design, no doubt, but it doesn’t necessarily feel very Street Fightery. It’s a very typical modern Japanese design (but by no means a bad one), and if the plan was to make a game that would strike a chord with old fans of SF2 Turbo, I couldn’t get a good feeling of how she’d fit in. After having a day or so to let it sink in though, I’m starting to warm up to her appearing in SF4. And of course, it’s possible to tell from one picture how she’ll move, what her fighting style is like, and not least how well she’ll fit in with the rest of the roster. I can already say I like her better than the likes of Rose , T. Hawk and most of the misfits from the Street Fighter EX games, so who knows? She might be considered a classic SF character before you know it.
The article had a few other interesting details as well - for example, the game has been confirmed to get a 2008 arcade release! The chances of me getting to play the arcade version are slim to none, but it still excites me, as a console-only release would really have been a devastating blow to the game’s credibility.

To round things up, here’s a couple of screenshots. It’s shaping up pretty nicely, isn’t it?

For more pictures, a trailer and more, check out the Official site, and while you’re at it you might as well take a look at the Official blog. Not much there at the moment, but I’m sure it’ll be quite interesting in the coming months!

The other day, I saw an interesting thread at Swedish video game collector/enthusiast forum Cowabunga, asking “What games are you looking forward to in 2008?”. I of course knew of a couple off the top of my head, but I realised I hadn’t really made an actual concrete list of titles. As I was spending a few minutes thinking of what it really is I’m looking forward to, I couldn’t help thinking “hey, you know, this would make a great entry for my blog”. There’s a fair amount of games on the list, and as always I’ll be needlessly verbose, so I figured I’d split the list up over a few posts. Without further ado, I present to you: Games I’m looking forward to in 2008, part 1 of 4.

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The King of Fighters XII

Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: Arcade (Taito Type-X2)
Release date: TBA, but it damn better come out in 2008
Official website: None yet
Why I’m looking forward to it: Once upon a time, the King of Fighters series of fighting games saw a new release each year. However, due to budget and quality concerns, that ended with the series’ 10th installment, KOF 2003. In the years since we’ve seen numerous spin-offs, remakes and side projects, but no true sequels since 2005’s The King of Fighters XI. A stellar game, it turned a lot of series staples upside down yet remained distinctly ‘KOF’ with great gameplay and equally great presentation. As a fan of the series I look forward to each new installment with great anticipation, but this time I’m more excited than usual, as SNK have mentioned that they are in fact redoing all the game’s graphics from the ground up, instead of (partly) relying on groundwork laid by previous games - SNK’s M.O. for the last 11(!) or so years. To be fair, this graphics “recycling” is really not a big deal, but the fact that SNK have their sights set on renewal and staying contemporary deserves a lot of props.

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The King of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation “A” 2

Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: Arcade (Taito Type-X2), PlayStation 2?
Release Date: TBA, presumably 2008
Official Website: None yet
Why I’m looking forward to it: The original KOF Maximum Impact was one of the aforementioned spin-offs that came out in 2004 to fill the void created by the no-longer-annual KOF release schedule. Released for the PS2, and later Xbox, KOFMI took familiar KOF characters and settings, but replaced the hand drawn pixel graphics with polygonal 3D visuals. The game was not particularly great, but apparently it did well enough to justify a sequel; 2006’s KOFMI2. MI2 was a big improvement, and in fact led to the eventual release of KOFMI Regulation “A” - an updated version of MI2 with 4 new characters - in arcades. In an apparent attempt to out-convolute Capcom, SNK have now announced KOFMIA2 - a sequel to a spin-off of a sequel to another spin-off. Dizzy yet? In any event, I really enjoyed MI2 and MIA, so I’m looking forward to this newest installment. MIA retained MI2’s PS2-quality graphics, but I’m hoping MIA2 will if not be a huge step above that, at least look a little better. If nothing else, it’s always interesting to see what crazy new costume designs producer Falcoon will come up with.

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The King of Fighters ‘98 Ultimate Match

Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: PlayStation 2, Arcade (Taito Type-X1)
Release date: Spring 2008
Official website: Link
Why I’m looking forward to it: KOF ‘98 was a fantastic game when it came out almost 10 years ago, and it has remained one of the most well-liked games in the series ever since. Following 2004’s The King of Fighters ‘94 Re-Bout, SNK Playmore will now release a new enhanced PS2 port of KOF98 on its 10th anniversary. KOF98UM will not feature redrawn graphics like 94RB did, but it will feature a slew of new gameplay features, modes, additional characters, secrets and who knows what else. This greatly anticipated game has been in the works for close to two years, and I can’t imagine any fan of SNK being disappointed with it.

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Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Developer: High Voltage Software/Capcom
Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii
Release date: January 8 (USA)
Official website: Link
Why I’m looking forward to it: High Voltage Software hardly has a very respectable track record - with such games as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as the instant classic White Men Can’t Jump for the Jaguar on their resumé, it’d be easy to simply dismiss this game. It’s made by a largely unknown and rather dubious developer, and is based on a TV show to boot! However, the game seems to largely borrow the gameplay mechanics from Capcom’s highly successful (and highly awesome) Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series, only replacing all dialogue with fully voiced and animated scenes. Now, I don’t think the writing will be on the level of the GS games, nor do I think the voice acting will be particularly amazing - but it’s a simple enough premise, and as long as the writers and cast don’t screw up too badly, I think it’s actually going to be quite fun.

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NiGHTS Into Dreams…

Developer: SEGA
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release date: February 21 (Japan)
Official website: Link
Why I’m looking forward to it: NiGHTS Into Dreams… was pretty much the flagship title for the Sega Saturn, and it’s remembered by many as one of Sonic Team’s last truly great games. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that despite being both an avid Saturn fan and an owner of the original game, I’ve never really played it. Nevertheless, it’s supposed to be really good, and undeniably a real classic. Not to be confused with the recently released NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (the American-developed Wii sequel), NiGHTS for the PS2 is a port of the original Saturn game, with enhanced graphics and other bonuses. It might sound weird that I’m looking forward to a new port of a game I already own, yet haven’t been bothered to play, but I suppose it’s a matter of convenience. Having it on PS2 means I can play it on my PS3, without having to dig out my Saturn. Plus, considering the fact that graphics, load times and possible controls will be better, it just seems like it’ll make for a more enjoyable experience overall. And hey, being an old SEGA fan it would just not seem right not to be excited about this game.

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Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan!

Developer: SEGA
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release date: March 6
Official website: Link
Why I’m looking forward to it: I’ve written about this game before, and, well, let’s just say my excitement hasn’t exactly subsided. With every new piece of media revealed, this game just keeps looking more and more awesome. I’ve still yet to play either of the first two RGG games, but from all accounts they are supposed to be fantastic, and I see no reason why Kenzan! would be any different. Just download this trailer and TRY to tell me this won’t be the coolest thing so far on this generation of consoles. Uncharted and Ratchet & Clank be damned, as far as I’m concerd, Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan! is the first standout exclusive for the PS3. It still doesn’t excuse Sega for not making Shenmue 3, but it’s pretty darn close.

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Stay tuned for part 2.

Check this out:

My Virtua Fighter 5 IC card! (For those of you completely out of the loop, this card is used to store your personal data in the game; nickname, win/loss records, costume customizations and the like.)

So I finally got to play Virtua Fighter 5 in one of the local arcades last night. It’s sweet! Granted, I’m a complete beginner, and aside from some very crude basics I learnt in the (limited) time I’ve spent with its predecessor Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, I really didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Really looking forward to playing it more though, not to mention learn it properly.

As I mentioned, yesterday, we went on a field trip with the school. All of the new international students, as well as some of the Japanese students went for a bus trip to a couple of interesting places in the vicinity of the school.
We were so many people (around 110 or so), so we had to take two buses. For the first (and last) destination of the trip, the buses split up; our group first went to a sake brewery. I’d expected some sort of big factory or something, but it turned out to be a rather inconspicuous, Japanese style house. Once we got inside, we were divided into two smaller groups, and while the others were given a tour of the premises, my group were treated to some of the apparently famous Akita sake. As any friend of mine could tell you, I’m not really a big fan of alcohol… but this actually wasn’t bad! The flavour kind of reminded me of white wine, but I definitely liked this better than most white wines I’ve ever tried. As we were drinking the sake, we had some time to look around a bit. There were a couple of these really cool classic Japanese style rooms with the tatami mats, low tables and sliding doors and everything. I don’t know what they’re used for, but they sure looked nice.

Eventually we were let into the actual brewery part of the building, for the grand tour. We were shown all these rooms, machines and other stuff, and were given explanations on how sake is made. In all honesty I hardly remember anything of what we we’re told, so if you’re dying to know how sake is made, go look it up on Wikipedia or something. The tour was fun though, as we got to see all kinds of neat stuff, as well as get yet another taste of Japanese hospitality; as we went into the brewery, we were asked to take off our shoes, and wear slippers. When we went to the second floor we had to put on another pair of slippers. Now, get this - during the two minutes we spent in the room on the second floor, someone actually went and turned all of our slippers around, so we could just step into them. Simply amazing. As Wei Wei put it: “If this was back in Germany, the shoes would’ve been stolen!”
After that impressive showing, we went to some kind of mall or something to have lunch. I was really hungry at this point, and was somewhat discouraged to see what we were being served: two onigiri (????, rice balls). Onigiri can be pretty nice, but these left a little to be desired. One of them had a salmon and sesame filling, which could’ve been really nice had it not been sitting in a bus for half a day. The other one though, had umeboshi (??, pickled plum), and can only be described as vile. The situation wasn’t improved by the fact that I had (perhaps naïvely) assumed the onigiri didn’t have any filling, only to take a big bite out of it and dig my teeth into this horrifyingly foul thing in the middle. I’d tried nattou, an infamously hard-to-appreciate Japanese food, earlier, and while I didn’t like it - the umeboshi was even worse. Still, I was starved, so I somehow endured and ate the whole thing.
After that pitiful excuse for a lunch, we went to Kanmanji Temple (???). It was a really beautiful place, with all kinds of cool buildings, buddhas, wildlife, and a bunch of cute cats to boot. Some people even prayed, or made wishes or something, but I didn’t want to risk offending anyone by being the stupid gaijin who does it all wrong, so I just went around and took some photos instead.

Next stop was Mt. Chokai (???). Supposedly the view is great, but due to the weather, we didn’t really get to see that much at all. That didn’t stop us from having a good time, though. The souvenir shop had these awful, gaudy - and of course hilarous - tourist t-shirts… Naturally we had to get some. I was unfortunately unable to change on the spot, but you can see Carl’s awesome “KISAKATA TRIATHRON IN AKITA” t-shirt, at least. The greatness didn’t end there, though, as the place had some wicked vintage arcade machines as well. Sadly none of them were running (whether they were not working or simply disconnected I’m not really sure), but they were still really cool to see.

The journey continued as we went to the coast of the Japan Sea, to the place of “16 Buddhas”, where some priest had a bunch of Buddha sculptures carved into the cliffside a 150 or so years ago. The place was really cool, and I actually really enjoyed the smell of the ocean. It’s something I haven’t experienced in a long time, so it was really nice. Somehow the smell of ocean just feels like “summer” to me.
After taking a bunch of photos and generally just messing around by the Buddhas for a while, we departed for the final destination for the trip; Shirase Kinenkan (?????), a memorial hall and museum dedicated to Shirase Nobu and the Japanese Antarctic Expedition of 1911-12. We started off with a movie about the history of antarctica (entierly in Japanese, of course), of which I couldn’t really understand anything. That was followed up with another film showing auroras. It would’ve been nice, if it weren’t for the fact that it was projected onto the ceiling, and I was sitting in the front row, meaning I had to bend over backwards to see anything. Once the film finished, we were free to wander about the museum for about half an hour… but in all honesty it was really neither that big or interesting. One thing that was really fun though, was that we found a display telling about a member of the expedition called Tsuchiya Tomoji (?? ??)… who almost shares his name with my friend Tsuchiya Tomomi (?? ??)! Turns out they’re both from Yamagata prefecture as well. Tomomi seemed a little spooked by it, but I think she managed to see the fun in it like the rest of us.

About an hour’s bus ride later, we were finally back to campus, to have some long awaited dinner. It’d been a very long and tiring day (possibly not too much unlike this post), but of course a very fun and interesting one as well. I really hope I’ll be able to back to Mt. Chokai later in the fall, as it’s supposed to be very beautiful once the leaves start turning red.

In case you missed the previous entry, you can check out all of my photos from my field trip HERE.