Monthly Archives: February 2012

Retro Weekends – Street Fighter II

Welcome to Fighting February! This month, we’ll be covering four retro fighting games. As they say, what’s love without pain. So sit back, relax, grab a loved one, and promptly break up because you’re being a cheap-ass with the hadoukens. Trust us, it’ll make us feel less lonely 🙂

In 2008-09, fighting games became cool again. Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, King of Fighters, they all made big splashes on the videogame scene. They were there to tell the industry that fighting games were back after nearly a decade. Of Course there were fighting games in that span of time, like Soul Calibur II, Tekken 4, Dead of Alive 4 and Virtua Fighter 5. But it had all fallen into a niche, and only the most devoted of fighting fans were really appreciative of these games. Coming into 2012, this fighting game boom shows no signs of letting up, with Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Street Fighter X Tekken, and Skullgirls keeping that fire going. But before we do, let’s take a moment to look back at the game that started the initial boom in the 90s: Street Fighter II.

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Disney Acquires UTV, Fate Of Ignition Entertainment Unknown

Uh-oh. Disney’s hungry, and it want to nibble on a bit of India. UTV is known for making TV shows and films in India. But to us, they’re the guys that own Ignition Entertainment, the publishers of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Dragon’s Crown, and Deadly Premonition as well as the developers of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. BBC reports that Disney saw the opportunity to increase their presence in India when they noticed that UTV had shares that they didn’t own, and seized a controlling portion of UTV. Once the acquisition is finished, Disney will delist UTV from the Bombay Stock Exchange. So far a brand name change is unknown. As for Ignition, this could be wither good or bad. Good because Disney could finance them after a rough 2011. Bad because Disney might either let them go to fend for themselves, or just shut them down, leaving the fate of PSV/PS3 game Dragon’s Crown‘s western release up in the air.

Walt Disney acquires controlling stake in India’s UTV [BBC, via Destructoid]

The Last Story English Trailer

And finally there’s a trailer for Mistwalker’s The Last Story with English voices. Since the primary market for the PAL release is European (obviously), the voices here are British, just like Xenoblade. Of course I have no problem with it, at all. And they seem to fit even more too, especially for the Lowell character (uh, no offense), even though we don’t hear his voice. Regardless, The Last Story is scheduled for release in Europe on February 24, with Australia getting it a day before. And remember, Xenoblade graces our shores on April 6th.

THQ Makes 170 People’s Jobs Go *Poof*

It just hasn’t been THQ’s week. First there’s the report that because of the poor sales of their equally poor uDraw tablet, THQ would be shuttering their kids division, thus nixing development on E-rated titles (and pretty much developing on the Wii). This after such a huge marketing push of the uDraw, and noticing that their more mature titles were selling higher than the stuff they were pumping out for kids. Soon after that, they closed out the day at 70 cents a share on the stock market. Ouch. Nasdaq then threatened to de-list them from the stock exchange. And now comes news that THQ will be handing pink slips to over 170 employees. So far no one knows if those 170 people are from the Kids Division of THQ or the part of the company that makes Saints Row and Metro.

While we hope this won’t be the case, an entire closure of THQ feels imminent. If not, then expect a major reshuffling of the company (if an ex-employee of THQ spilling the beans is anything to go by) and more safer-to-sell games coming out of THQ.

Report: THQ REALLY in Trouble, Sacking 170+ People [Kotaku]

New 2D Sidescroller Mario In The Works, Might Have DLC Stages

During an investor meeting, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata mentioned that a new Super Mario games was in development, this time being in 2D like the DS and Wii New Super Mario Bros. He also touched upon the possibility of Super Mario being a good place to add DLC stages. Obviously pricing hasn’t been talked about yet, nor how many stages would be available per pop. Hopefully these’ll be new stages and not stuff already on the cart. Iwata hopes to release the game in the next fiscal year.

Here’s hoping for some asshole-level difficult stages. One of the primary reasons why I liked NSMBWii, Mario Galaxy 2, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Bring it on Nintendo!

Nintendo President Mentions Downloadable Stages For Future Mario Games [Siliconera]