We thought we had seen the ultimate street brawling crossover when Street Fighter X Tekken hit the scene. We were wrong. In fall 2012, Street Fighter and Hello Kitty will finally be one, at least from a merchandising perspective.
Hello Kitty parent company Sanrio and Capcom are teaming up to mash-up Street Fighter and Japan’s favorite feline in a line of co-branded merchandise featuring Kitty and friends dressed up in iconic Street Fighter garb. The announcement was teased yesterday during the Capcom panel at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, when an image of Hello Kitty in a Chun-Li outfit briefly flashed on the screen. I’ve not seen the image, but I assume it looked something like the above picture, the work of artist and illustrator Karen Hallion.
While no specific merchandise has been announced, we can probably expect figures, t-shirts, pencil case, and whatever else Sanrio has sitting around its warehouse, waiting for cat heads to be stamped on them.
“Capcom has long admired Sanrio and their ability to create memorable and cherished lifestyle brands so it is a distinct pleasure to partner with them for this new cross-over line of merchandise,” said Joshua Izzo, Director of Licensing, Capcom Entertainment, Inc. “The combination of Street Fighter and Hello Kitty will offer fans a whole new way to experience our characters.”
I’ll reserve my excitement until there’s a video game that lets me punch that little jerk Badtz-Maru right in the face.
Upgrade to Kinect-driven pet game adds a new adventure, pandas, grizzlies, and more; set for release as add-on or in bundled retail release this fall.
Last year’s Kinectimals allowed players to enjoy all the cuteness of baby tigers, leopards, and other big cats with none of the danger to life and limb. Microsoft is expanding on that idea, as today it announced an expansion that would serve the same need for those who love the idea of playing with bear cubs but hate the idea of being savagely mauled.
Set for release this fall, Kinectimals Now with Bears will be available as a $50 stand-alone retail game or a $15 downloadable add-on for the original game. As the name suggests, the expansion’s big attraction are the ursine additions, including a black bear, grizzly bear, polar bear, panda bear, and more. The game will also feature a new guide and a new plot in which the player and a cub explore Bear Island in the footsteps of a famous explorer in search of buried treasure.
A combination of pet simulator and minigame collection, the original Kinectimals let players adopt and care for a variety of different big cat cubs like tigers, leopards, and so forth. Using the Kinect camera, players could play with the pets, teach them tricks, and perform a number of more unlikely activities like racing them around obstacle courses on remote control cars.
Microsoft’s facial-expression-capturing Xbox 360 add-on arrives free for all Xbox Live users for a limited time; Kinect Sparkler confirmed for July 28 debut.
Avatar Kinect lets up to seven users congregate in virtual chat rooms as their Xbox 360 avatars. The Kinect tracks the users’ movements–from nodding heads to raising eyebrows–and maps them to their digital counterparts. The application also lets users set their chats against two dozen different backdrops, as well as record and edit video clips of the conversations to share with others.
Until September 8, Avatar Kinect will be free for all Xbox Live users. After that, only Gold subscribers will be given complimentary access to the service.
Microsoft also dated another Kinect utility today, revealing that Kinect Sparkler would launch July 28. The digital toy lets players use their fingers as virtual sparklers, painting a canvas with multicolored fireworks in three dimensions. Like Avatar Kinect, Kinect Sparkler will also have a means to save and share creations with others. When it launches, Kinect Sparkler will sell for 240 Microsoft points ($3).
“Avatar Kinect launched” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:50:39 -0700
The Carmageddon reincarnation has been officially revealed. It’s called Carmageddon: Reincarnation, appropriately enough. (The website appears completely broken at the moment.) And it’s being made by the same team that created the original two games, Stainless Games.
“Carmageddon has returned to its Indie developer roots, and the time is right to bring the game to a new audience.”
Are the words from CEO and co-founder of Stainless, Patrick Buckland. He carries on,
“Originally an ambitious title that tested the hardware limits of its day, we’re excited that the game will finally get the showcase it deserves on today’s platforms.”
Volition and THQ are already readying a third game in the open-world crime series, which will take the franchise in a “new direction.”
Having defeated the rival gangs of Stilwater at the end of Saints Row 2 and overthrown the influence of the Ultor Corporation, the Saints have found themselves with free reign over the city. They target a bank, attempting to airlift the vault out of it, but the alarm alerts the Stilwater PD and the Saints are incarcerated. In prison, they learn that the bank they tried to rob was owned by a huge international crime organization called the Syndicate, led by Phillipe Loren.
After bribing the police, the Syndicate capture the Saints’ leader, Johnny Gat, and Shaundi to try and negotiate a business plan with them, aboard Loren’s private jet. While in-flight, Loren tells them they will be allowed to live if they turn over two-thirds of their territory in Stilwater. The leader of the Saints rejects this offer, and a gunfight breaks out, with the Saint’s leader thrown from the jet.
With the Syndicate in full control of Stilwater, the Saints relocate themselves to the city of Steelport. Pierce is instructed to remain in Stilwater to make sure everything runs smoothly. Steelport is a city that was created as factories flourished with little city planning, and since has suffered from economic failure, contrasting the glamour of Stilwater. The Syndicate has already begun to take control of some parts of Steelport, focusing on vices like merchandise and gambling.
To extend their reach, the Syndicate had divided their control of the city through three gangs. The Morning Star, lead by Loren directly, are typically European men with impeccable taste, selling guns. The Mexican wrestler Killbane controls the Luchadores who deal with gambling. The Deckers, led by hacktivist Matt Miller, are computer geniuses, and handle the money laundering. The Saints see the opportunity to take control of Steelport from these groups. A government trained Special Tactical Anti-Gang (STAG) units will attempt to halt any violent activity whether it be the Saints or the Syndicate.
Poison, the dominatrix hotty from Final Fight headlined another four-character reveal for Street Fighter X Tekken at Comic-Con 2011. She will be joined by Dhalsim and, from Tekken, Steve Fox and Yoshimitsu.
During a panel defined by teases, in more ways than one, the audience briefly believed Darkstalkers characters would be confirmed for the game. Flashing a slide that said “Darkstalkers are not dead,” to wild applause, producer Yoshinori Ono then said Capcom management had not yet approved the characters. Reminding the crowd that at last year’s Comic-Con, they held up a dollar bill as a show of support for Darkstalkers’ inclusion, Ono implored the audience to hold a ten-spot. Everyone thrust money in the air.
2K Games pushes Digital Extremes’ sci-fi FPS to next year on all platforms; game will be playable at Comic-Con 2011 this week.
It looks as if The Darkness II will stay cloaked in shadow for longer than expected. 2K Games confirmed for GameSpot today that it has pushed The Darkness II beyond its previously announced October 4 release date. The publisher now expects to release the Digital Extremes-developed title for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 7 in North America and February 10 internationally.
The Darkness II will pick up several years after the events of the well-regarded original, with players once again taking the role of Jackie Estacado, now the don of the Franchetti clan. While he has controlled the chaotic powers inside him since the events of the first game, a reasonless attempt on his life kick-starts a full-on mob war in New York, a perfect situation for the Darkness to reemerge.
While the original Darkness game was made by Starbreeze Studios (The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay), development for the second installment has been entrusted to Digital Extremes. The Canadian studio is perhaps best known for 2008′s third-person action game Dark Sector, but it has more recently been working on the PC port of THQ’s Homefront, as well as the multiplayer mode of 2K Marin’s BioShock 2.
Along with news of the delay, 2K Games confirmed The Darkness II’s presence at Comic-Con 2011, which descends on San Diego July 21-24. The publisher will be hosting a panel for the game on July 21 at 12:00 p.m., and it will feature voice actor and Faith No More singer Mike Patton. Talent from franchise creator Top Cow Productions, as well as Digital Extremes, will also be on hand.
Warhammer 40,000 has had its share of good video games, and bad video games. THQ’s Warhammer 40K: Kill Team arrives onto Xbox Live Arcade in an attempt to add itself to the “good pile”. Does it succeed? Take a look and decide for yourself.
“Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team – Gameplay Movie” was posted by Ando on Tues, 19 Jul 2011
