Mongo Nation

Capcom shoryukens the rumors once and for all..?

By Jeremy Azevedo

Any Street Fighter fan worth his or her weight in hadoukens should remember the classic 1992 EGM prank about unlocking Ryu and Ken’s legendary master “Sheng Long” in Street Fighter 2…

While it turned out to be an April Fool’s joke, gamers have (for some unknowable reason) never been able to banish Sheng Long from their imaginations.

The original prank in all it’s nerd-busting glory:

Now we have word that Sheng Long will finally make an appearance as a secret playable character in Street Fighter 4! Is this some kind of Japanese “September Fool’s” prank or the ultimate fan service? We have uncovered some official looking art, as well as received this suspiciously mischievious comment from SFIV Project manager, Natsumi Shiozawa:

Hello everyone!
Its been so busy here lately, I’m beginning to become a bit absent-minded here.

Today, I am glad to introduce you to a Hidden Character in Street Fighter IV.
Actually, I wish I could formally announce this information, but I can’t show that much yet so this will have to suffice… sorry!

Feast your eyes on this!
This is one Street Fighter IV’s Secret, Unlock-able Characters, Sheng Long!

Though… it’s been blacked-out and a little hard to see.
(I’m the one who blacked it out.)

(Cont’d)

Basically, you can see his long hair tied-up, his bulging muscles, and what he’s wearing. You get the idea.
Looks pretty strong, huh?
He should be! After all, Sheng Long is Ryu’s…
You’ll have to wait until an official character announcement is made for more information.

However, since this I did post this with the title “Secret Unlock-able Characters”, I couldn’t post this without telling you guys something.
For now, I’ll give you a hint on the whole “secret unlock-able” part.

1. Select Ryu as your character.
2. Win every round with a perfect until the last boss fight.
3. During the boss fight, perform a Shoryuken…

Oops, I’ve said too much!

Those who are quick to catch on should be able to do this no problem.
However, since the legendary character Sheng Long is about to come out, I won’t get away with this that easily…
But, this isn’t the game’s only secret though.

From the beginning, Sheng-Long hasn’t been the only planned secret character.
As I wrote the other day, the release is approaching its final stretch and I will be bringing you as much new information that I can.
What?! There’s going to be a special update?!

Don’t miss it!

Hmmm… Seems a bit fishy…

The image above is supposedly a leaked screenshot of Sheng Long, even though any idiot can see it is just a sloppy re-coloring of Ryu by some junior-level photoshooper…

So what do you think? Is this for real or have we been duped again? As awesome as this would be, my own personal bullshit meter is leaning hard toward the latter…

Topics for debate at the close of this year’s E3

By Jeremy Azevedo

Even after all those presentations, press conferences, and closed-door demo sessions, the gaming press still has unanswered questions about E3 2008. Let’s take a look at some of the hottest lingering rumors at the end of the week…

Rumor Number 5: Nintendo is working on a USB hard drive

Wii Ware the f**k am I supposed to keep all this shit?

There was no mention of WiiWare, the Virtual Console, or hard drive’s of any sort at the Nintendo press conference. But with Microsoft and Sony constantly intrducing new SKUs with bigger hard drives every few months, it’s about time Nintendo addresses their glaring storage problems. I hope they figure out something soon, or the WiiWare service is going to die in the cradle.
Read the rest of this entry →

Commence: Nerdgasm

Despite the fact that studio funding has been halted indefinitely, new live action Halo video and behind the scenes stills have recently surfaced, and we have them here:

Halo Live Action Video: Combat

While it seems that this footage is to be used as promotion for the upcoming Halo 3 release, rumors persist that it is actually test footage to be shown to investors in hopes of reviving production of the canceled Halo movie.

Similarly to the “Arms Race” footage debuted earlier at this year’s E3, the new “Combat” video was directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, in collaboration with Bungie Studios, Weta Workshop and Origami Digital.

Clearly the video is not up to the “A-Picture” standards one would expect, but it has to be said that it still looks pretty impressive. Especially when one considers that production of the Halo movie was supposedly halted nearly a year ago.

Microsoft, Bungie, Jackson and Blomkamp all seem committed to bringing the Halo movie project back into the light, and after seeing this promotional clip, I wish them luck. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, a Halo movie would be a more than welcome addition to next summer’s blockbuster movie schedule.

Halo Live Action Video: Arms Race