Mongo Nation

Of all the characters from the rich history of Street Fighter from which to draw, Capcom made the smart decision to include popular Super SF2 combatants Fei Long and Cammy in the upcoming console version of Street Fighter IV. Perhaps lesser known but still memorable are Rose, from the Alpha series and Gen, whose been around since the days of the original Street Fighter. Inexplicably, they also saw fit to include Dan, who really only exists as a “F**k You” to SNK for copying Capcom’s character design in all of their fighting games. I would have preferred Dee Jay, but it is what it is. I suppose someone has to be the comic foil. Check out all the pics below:

Introducing: Dan

Introducing: Cammy

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More new console specific characters to be announced!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Ok so we essentially have three pieces of Street Fighter news that we need to get to here:

Number 1: Sakura has been confirmed as a playable character in the upcoming console release of SFIV, with pictures to prove it! This will bring great joy to fans of Japanese schoolgirl upskirt shots… The rest of us will be wondering just how goddamn many characters really need to be included that fight more or less like Ryu…

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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…

Well who is it already?

By Jeremy Azevedo

I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at the Capcom design meeting that birthed “Seth”, allegedly the new final boss of Street Fighter IV…

Lead Designer: Ooh! Remember that nearly naked guy from Street Fighter III that no one else remembers?

Assistant Lead Designer: Uh, no…

Lead Designer: The guy in the loincloth! What was his name… Gill? Urien?
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Sega and Capcom face off for best of show

By Jeremy Azevedo

If Sega was still in the console game today, I’d consider it safe to say that they would rule 2009 on the strength of their upcoming game catalogue alone. They had no fewer than 8 games on the floor (and behind closed doors) that are sure to be monster hits, some of which were even totally brand new IPs!

We’ll start with Bayonetta, an action game with a sense of theatrics so extreme that it makes Devil May Cry look like Connect Four. You play as a witch in 7-inch stilettos (that also double as machine pistols) with magic hair that can conjure up torture devices to destroy invading angels. Sounds crazy, is crazy, and looks all the more rad for it. Next up was Mad World, a black and white (and red) action game that looks kind of like Sin City but plays out more like “The Running Man”, only with 100 times more violence than any anything, ever. Surprisingly, Mad World is a Wii exclusive, much like the similarly violent but totally unrelated No More Heroes that quenched Wii gamers bloodlust this year.

Also showing at Sega was Sonic Unleashed, which features both a night and day play environment, one that has you running around as Sonic at speeds that made me want to take Dramamine, and one that has you playing more of a combat/exploration type game as “Sonic the Were-Hog”. Stormrise brings large scale tactical RTS combat to consoles, and Alpha Protocol looks like the spy version of Mass Effect. This last one in particular was one of the best of the whole show, a cool idea executed very nicely. James Bond can suck it!

Lastly we had Samba De Amigo for the Wii, Valkyria Chronlcles, a tactical RPG with a very unique looking cel-shaded graphical style, and Golden Axe: Beast Riders. I had heard that Golden Axe was cancelled a couple of months back so I was surprised to see it here in playable form, but it was a fun action title nevertheless, despite having nothing on Bayonetta. In total, an awesome showing from a veteran company in their finest form.

Square Enix was showing a new RPG called Infinite Indiscovery that looks to be the next big thing for the company (if it doesn’t fall too deep into the shadow of Final Fantasy XII), but it’s Nintendo DS gamers who are in for a real treat this fall season. In addition to the soon to be released Final Fantasy IV remake, there’s also Dragon Quest IV and the ever so long awaited Chrono Trigger port on the way as well.
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