The Misadventures of José Faxner

This video is in no way no new - but it’s so awesome I felt compelled to post it, in case any of you poor souls out there had managed to miss out on it. I don’t really think my translation does the lyrics justice, but at least those of you who are Japanese impaired can get a hang of what it’s about. Without further ado, I give you: Team Nekokan’s amazingly awesome song (and video!) “Airman ga Taosenai” (I can’t beat Airman).

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.

Last weekend Japanese toy company Kaiyodo held their (presumably annual) Revoltech Expo, to showcase upcoming figures in their line. Revoltech is a line of highly articulated 5″ figures based on various anime and other licenses, predominantly in the giant robot genre. I try to keep my eyes on it, and I’m a proud owner of the Revoltech Convoy - the ass-kicking truck/robot known to people outside Japan as Optimus Prime. It is definitely a cool figure, but as I have little to no interest in most of the anime that Revoltech figures are based on, I don’t really collect the line. At this year’s Expo however, an announcement was made that absolutely rocked my world.

YES. KAIYODO WILL PRODUCE REVOLTECH FIGURES BASED ON HOKUTO NO KEN.

As most of my friends know, I am an absolutely huge fan of Hokuto no Ken. And if there’s one thing I like as much as HnK, it’s highly articulated action figures. I have often lamented the apparent demise of Kaiyodo’s Hokuto no Ken 200X line of well-articulated 7″ figures, but these are more than a worthy successor. The smaller scale means less shelf space is required, the articulation will be even better, and perhaps most importantly, they will be significantly more affordable. The Revoltech figures retail at 2000yen, whereas the second hand value of HNK200X figures often go up to 10.000yen and beyond.

The rather impressive list of characters announced for the line so far are Kenshirou, Raoh, Toki, Jagi, Souther, Rei, Shuu, and the generic grunt dubbed “Abeshi” (after the famous death scream in the manga - seen here in a T-shirt print). The lineup is surprisingly populated, but it does make the absence of iconic characters Shin and Yuda somewhat curious. Hopefully they will be released later, along with Yuria, Mamiya, and with any luck the Goshasei as well as lesser villains like Heart, Kiba…. well, you know, they can release just about anyone and I’ll want them.

More pictures, courtesy of Akiba Blog (kinda NSFW)

As tough as it is to wrap one’s head around, Street Fighter IV is indeed on the horizon. The game has been shrouded in complete mystery up until this point. Who’s developing it? What characters will it feature? Will there be an arcade release? What will it look like? Will it be in 2D? Well, today the first few answers have started to trickle in as Capcom and 1up unveiled this:

So now we know that SF4 will use polygonal graphics - good looking graphics, at that - but retain classic 2D gameplay. Part of me really wanted to see traditional 2D pixel art, but realistically this is the only way things were going to happen. With the knowledge that the game will use 3D graphics, I am now left hoping it will be the first to succeed where others (Rival Schools, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, Battle Fantasia, et al) have failed, and create a 2D fighter with 3D graphics that actually looks better than its contemporary 2D counterparts.

Judging from the screenshot I’d say things are looking pretty good - Ryu’s design is clearly influenced by Akiman’s art, and hopefully that can give an idea of where they’re going with the art direction and character designs in general. I suppose visuals based more on Kinu Nishimura, Ikeno or Bengus’s work would’ve lead to a game that looked more like SF Zero or SF3 - something much more desirable by certain fans - but I like Akiman’s art as well and it’s about time we see it translated into in-game graphics. On the technical side, SF4 has an advantage over the previously mentioned games in that it doesn’t look decidely last-gen. As far as I’m concerned it looks good enough to compete with Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5 or Soul Calibur 4 on reasonably even ground. As long as the game is well animated and looks as good in motion as it does in that screenshot, I have little to fear regarding the game’s visuals.

The screenshot was followed by a press release from Capcom, confirming aside from classic 2-dimensional six-button gamplay, the presence of classic fighters Chun-Li and Dhalsim, but little else. It is however clear that 1up will release more exclusive pictures, news and video footage over the coming weeks, and that its print cousin EGM will have a big SF4 article in its January issue hitting newsstands December 18th.
The tiny sneak peek we’ve gotten today really brings with it at least as many questions as it has answered, but it has undeniably set things in motion and the hype machine is most definitely running at full steam. I don’t like to speculate, so until now I haven’t given SF4 very much thought. With the first look at the game, along with promises of more information in the pipeline though, I guess things just seem a lot more solid, as all of a sudden I’ve found myself incredibly excited about the game, to the point where I have difficulty taking my mind off it. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about a new game. But then, what could possibly be as monumental as Street Fighter Four?

Not too long ago, by way of the very cool and interesting independent games blog TIGSource, I caught wind of equally cool and interesting FreeRice.com.

The basic concept of FreeRice.com is that it lets the reader test his or her vocabulary, and for every word you manage to guess correctly, 10 grains of rice will be donated to The United Nations World Food Program. It’s a very fun and addictive game, and knowing that playing it actually might do some good only serves to make things even sweeter.

I always strive to improve my English vocabulary, and as far as alternatives to reading the dictionary go, FreeRice.com ranks pretty highly in my eyes. The game keeps track of your “Vocabulary Level” and decides the difficulty on words given thereafter, so the addictive nature of the game isn’t so much due the excitement of donating rice, but rather a result of the never-ending struggle to raise your Vocabulary Level.

How high can you get?

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