Digital Distribution

-I don’t know if you guys have checked out my collection of tier lists I’ve been compiling in this thread, but there’s some pretty good info in there, stuff from Gamest, Tougeki, Arcadia and the like. Take a look if you want to know where your favorite character kind of falls on the scale in your favorite fighting games.

-Fubarduck.com has a really good article on the death of the fighting game scene and arcades, and the potential solution of digital distribution. Highly recommended read, kind of makes you think about the swiss army knife strategy that some companies like Dave And Busters take to stay in business.

-Arcana Heart 2 has been previewed on the official Arcadia Magazine website and it looks awesome!

-It looks like Akatsuki Blitzkampf is getting an official arcade release, and the publishing will be handled by Subtle Style themselves. Not sure what the hardware will be based on, something Windows based would presumably make the most sense. Check out the flyers here: ONE TWO

-Smash Bros. Dojo dropped some pretty big previews this week about the online interface for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It would seem that the most recent update confirms the ability to schedule and generate online tournaments with up to 32 players at least, but of course we won’t know the full online tourney functionality for sure until it’s out.

-Big Bang Beat by NRF has been patched up to version 1.05. You can get the newest patch from their official site.

-I’m not sure how many of you are into fighting game cosplay, but Tokyo Game Show 2007 had some stellar examples of fighting game character cosplay. On this page here you can see a really good Shermie ( KOF ), Chun-Li ( SF ), Dixie Clements ( Rumble Roses ), Blue Mary Alternate ( KOF MI Regulation A ), and others. Be warned, page is NSFW ( they sell some rather indecent 1/6th scale painted figures of game characters ). Also check out Fighters Frontline’s 08/2007 TGS cosplay topic, featuring a really hot Iroha ( SS Tenka ), Nagase, Mai, Kula and Mignon ( KOF ), even a Honey from Fighting Vipers (!!!).

Almost forgot some stuff:

-Along with their crossover game using the Narutimate engine called Naruto And DBZ ( which is a strange game to see in the wakeof Battle Stadium D.O.N., but then again they also did a Full Metal Alchemist fighter using that engine ), CyberConnect has announced an as of yet unnamed Naruto project specifically for PS3.  One can preemptively say that it may play like the Accel games, but we’ll have to wait and see. They also have new shots of Accel 2 up on their site.
-We’re getting very close to the US release of Virtua Fighter 5 Live Arena for Xbox 360! If you haven’t heard, unlike the inferior PS3 release it’s going to be based on the Version C revision and looks to challenge Dead Or Alive 4 for online 3D fighting game dominance on the 360.

-SNK announced Days Of Memories ( I can finally date King! ), Sunsoft Collection ( Galaxy Fight and Waku Waku 7 on one disc! ), announced that the Samurai Spirits Collection will be available in 2008 for PS2 and Wii, and on the KOF front they’ve shown preview posters for King Of Fighters XII that feature the return of Goro Daimon, Terry in his original Fatal Fury threads, and Leona ( who I don’t think made the cut in XI ). They’ve also said that the game’s graphical quality will be a 2D/3D hybrid ( think The Rumble Fish 2 or Battle Fantasia and I think you’ll know what they’re getting at ).

-From Gamespot Japan- an interview directly with Falcoon involving King Of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation A 2. My understanding of Japanese is terrible but at one point he talks about getting the game into game centers / arcades and he mentions Super Battle Opera champion Keeroc, I think he might be trying to get MI reg.A into SBO next year? Translations would be lovely. ;_;

-Fatal Fury Special on the Xbox Live Arcade system has been doing very well ( although there’s that terrible thing they need to fix that enables a player being able to set himself to infinite health and ridiculous damage output – if you’ve owned an AES you know what I’m getting at, this has been a primary concern for some of the netplay players that needs to be patched / fixed ), and it seems like the next game dropping on XBL will be Samurai Spirits 2, big favorite of mine. Here’s hoping it turns out well, thank you SNK for the love.

Future Present

I’ve been adding a ton of stuff to the NewChallenger Youtube Group, please feel free to take a look at all the new footage as it’s usually updated daily. I’m not really sure how many videos a Youtube Group can hold, but as long as new and cool fighting game footage is added I’ll keep adding it in. Eventually I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to start deleting stuff and linking it into the NC Video Post under the specified company, this process will probably begin very soon ( i.e. when I stop being lazy ).

So let’s talk current events for a minute:

-The AM Show 2007 has come and gone, with big spots for Sengoku Basara Xross and Tekken 6 present ( Footage is up from both on the NC.net group – why does Bob’s second outfit involve him balancing a cheeseburger on his head? ). VF.Net enabled Virtua Fighter 5 revision C was present, and Tecmo’s booth was particularly nice; set up as a big company retrospective with cabinets for all their old arcade classics, including a very nice head to head setup for Dead Or Alive 2 Millenium. There was also promotional stuff for Arcana Heart Full’s impending PS2 release, and said game also has the Arcadia mook and the very nice Hori stick with Arcana art on it available from Play Asia.

-SNK’s support of NEO GEO games on the Wii console has begun with Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Magician Lord coming to the Virtual Console. Hopefully they will eventually have the entire line of NEO and Neo Geo CD games available eventually, this would make for a very nice experience especially with the Wii’s Hori Real Arcade Pro releasing for the Wii.

-Sengoku Basara Xross now has a very nice forum located right here. Movelists and combos are already up, taken from places such as various Japanese BBS and the 2chan Kakuge threads.

-Reportedly the NitroPlus game Nitro Royale Heroine’s Duel that’s circulating the web right now is merely a beta test version of the unfinished actual game which is set to release at some point soon in the future. Which is a good thing, because the game could definitely benefit from the extra development time and present a better product.

-This is pretty cool: Gigazine of Japan recently did an interview with ShoK, the creator of the notable doujin fighter MONSTER, which you can read right over here on their site. On the page you can see a bit of the current Tokyo Ranking Fighters / TRF setup, including awesome sit down arcade cabinets for MONSTER as well as NRF’s Big Bang Beat. ShoK talks a bit about the development of the new upcoming MONSTER revision, worth the read if you can translate.

-I’m about ninety percent sure that the video watchable right here via DailyMotion is actually a compilation of every high school / gakuen’s theme from Project Justice / Moero! Justice Gakuen. Really cool if you’re a Justice Gakuen head like me, but your mileage may vary.

-Recently released for PSP, developed by Cavia (Beatdown Fists Of Vengeance) and published by Capcom, Fate/Tiger Coliseum, a chibi fighter with the characters from Type-Moon’s Fate/Stay Night has been released. I’d love to actually see it in action but the web seems to currently be bare of video of it. The game seems worth trying out just for chibis of Rin and Saber. ;_;

-For those trying to keep up with the Soul Calibur IV hype, SoulCalibur.com actually has a news ticker placed here to keep you up to date on things like the new character Hilde, plus the new images of Voldo, Cassandra, Sophitia, Raphael, Astaroth, and more.

-I’m not sure if you’ve ever actually watched the Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Matrimelee music videos that SiliconeraNickFricke has posted, but they’re actually very cool and funny. I’m especially fond of Chinnen’s theme, “Let’s Go Onmyoji!”, and it’s kind of fond that they went to great lengths to do 3D modeled music videos after a fighting game character’s theme music. I actually can’t think of many other games that do anything similar….

-Guilty Gear XX Accent Core is out in the US for PS2! It’s a very, very good port, and I highly recommend you go out and grab it before it disappears!

Big Up!

First of all a big shout to  Tetsukichi1971, because for some reason or other I cannot fathom , but his post of the Zero Divide 2 song “Zoom”  has  made it impossible for me to stop listening to that song. The song is too good, and really kind of fits the early 90’s arcade kick I’ve been on a little too well.

Recent updates I made to the site:

-Added a Cronos Orion combo video by eoszero for Bloody Roar Extreme. There’s actually a lot of decent Bloody Roar Extreme content on Youtube now that I’m going to get categorizing, seeing as how that’s one of my favorite series ( why can’t Eighting get out of their Naruto phase for a bit and start making cool shmups and Bloody Roar again? ).

-Added a pretty cool Def Jam Fight For New York montage by greenslave2.

-Added a neat Japanese promo for UFC Tapout 2 which was actually published in Japan by Capcom, you can see neat create-a-character skins of E.Honda and Zangief in the vid!

-Re-added a thread for the lost Jingi Storm location test footage which is back up, will be adding the rest of that in for that underappreciated Naomi fighter.

-Added a playthrough / demonstration of beating Justice League Task Force Story Mode with Batman.

-Added a bunch of awesome One Must Fall 2097 combos done by FinnPanther. Those may or may not have “rehit mode” set on ( still not sure exactly what that means ), but they’re pretty freakin’ cool nonetheless.

-Added in some Armored Core match video threads, including noteworthy Japan tournament finals for the recent Championship Battle 2007 event for Armored Core 4 and some classic Silent Line match play. Hope to continue adding in Armored Core high level play as it comes out for 4, the latest and greatest.

-Added in a Kendo Coyote time attack for the Amiga version of Brutal Paws Of Fury. The Amiga version had some especially awesome remixed music tracks, arguably far outstripping that of its console brethren.

-Added those Blue Breaker Burst combo clips that burningfist / tobemorecrazy uploaded from Leaf Of Adaki but for some reason hadn’t put into the database quite just yet.

-Added a couple of KwonHo:The Hero Of Fist infinite combos that the players have found with the new version involving a glitch with the wall. Hope to begin adding in some good match footage soon ( also here’s hoping that wall glitch gets a fix from Ijji ).

-Added that match set of Toneman VS the cheap AI in Jaleco’s Dead Dance / Tuff E Nuff, since it apparently took me a century to figure out that was up.

-Added in some Robo Pit 1 and 2 footage, the cutscenes from the Saturn version of Robo Pit along with the bonus audio tracks set in one piece is especially nice.

-Added in a fairly recent Metal Warriors tournament final under Lucasarts. Hopefully people will continue to get into Metal Warriors, it’s a really good underplayed SNES game that has a lot of fun waiting to be discovered.

-Added in a vid of all the fatalities from Naughty Dog’s Way Of The Warrior for 3DO, the Japanese version’s voice acting makes it a bit strange / interesting to watch.

-Added the PV for Custom Robo Battle Revolution for Gamecube, mostly due to the fact that I can’t get Dream’s “Identity” out of my head either.

-Added a gameplay example of Sango Fighter under Panda Entertainment. Don’t be too harsh on its look, it came out in 1993. ( I’m wondering what’s up with this Youtube reviewer trend of bashing old games just because they’re old…… )

-Added the official PV for Parotte! Fighters Special Heroes Dynamite under Retsuzan. Retsuzan is actually one of my favorite companies right now; I highly enjoy Metal Gun III: Shout of the Arms and look forward to obtaining this awesome new game which looks to be a really cool throwback to old school fighting games with updated moe character design.

-Added a REALLY cool old school UK televised match for Cyborg Justice under Sega America. Evidently this show Head To Head was kind of like the USA’s version of Nick Arcade, where kids would go one on one in various games in front of a studio audience. The two kids seem pretty good at the game, and one of them confesses to be a Street Fighter player (!!!). I wonder what they’d say if they saw the match on Youtube now….

-Added a gameplay example of Fight Fever for the Neo Geo, which is one of those games that sadly I’m not even sure I’m capable of defending. ( I’m sure Neofcon would agree with me, lol )

I’d also like to briefly big up everyone who’s currently working on a blog dedicated to the idea of “hardcore gaming”, which is such an overused term at this point that I’m sure the definition of such is quite muddled.  To further that along though, I’ve noticed a dearth in the quantity of fighting game related podcasts. Outside of Critical Hit’s podcast episode that featured David Sirlin,  The Ask Dr. Subzero Show, Rushdown Radio, AlphaIsm Radio (defunct), DFPRadio, and Swoozie’s Vlog ( which is only really fighting game related to a certain extent ), there isn’t as much content to intake as I personally would like to see, considering how many fighting games are out there. Keep watching this space though, as I’m sure that we may have a similar feature coming down the pipe.

Mata!