Feel the fury of his tiny objections!

Only previously released in Japan, this Phoenix Wright plush is now available as a free gift with purchase of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations. This is an exclusive offer through Gamestop and the official Capcom Store.

This news is so fresh that the store may not even be updated to reflect the option for a few days, but keep your eyes peeled—there are very limited quantities, so pre-order immediately or face the consequences!

The long-awaited networking patch for the Xbox 360 went live this morning. When you start the game up, you will be prompted to download the patch, assuming you are connected to the internet.

This update gives the hosts of matches the option to select one of 3 connection types: Default, Pattern A, and Pattern B.

More information about the update available here.

—Brian

Think you’ve got the right stuff in Puzzle Fighter? Whether you’re an old-school pro or a novice with a knack for gem-smashing, you can see how your stats stack up against the rest of the best. The leaderboards are currently for the Xbox 360 version only. You can view the top 50 players in both X and X-prime modes, sorted by top players that week, as well as overall. How many other downloadable games have online leaderboards the day after a game launches? It’s because we love you (and we also think we’re pretty good at Puzzle Fighter).

Read more about the Leaderboards on Brian’s Blog

…or just jump straight to the Leaderboards!

I had a great time at the X07 event in Toronto. I was there to work, of course, but I also got some great hands-on time with Halo 3 MP, Call of Duty 4, and a bunch of other great titles.

Anyway, I’m back in the office today. Puzzle Fighter came out on LIVE Arcade yesterday, and just hit the PlayStation Network store earlier today (be sure to pick up the PF wallpaper images from the PSN store!).

I’m pleased to announce that, thanks to my main web tech guru here at Capcom, Tom J, we now have leaderboards for Puzzle Fighter on the game’s website. The leaderboards are for the Xbox 360 version only. You can view the top 50 players in both X and X’ modes, for the week and for lifetime. How many other games have online leaderboards the day after a game launches?

We’ll also be adding a search function very soon so you can look up your gamertag, or your friend’s, and see how you stack up.

To check out the leaderboards, go to our Digital portal, head to the Puzzle Fighter page, and click on the Leaderboard graphic on the bottom left.

—Brian

FINALLY, after what seems like decades (but was actually only months), Part IV of Street Fighter: The Later Years is coming to College Humor September 7! If you don’t know what SFTLY is yet and yu’re a Street fighter fan, you need to get caught up by watching Episodes 1- 3 here.

Check out the preview for Part IV here

The 2007 EVO Championship Series is a wrap! Four qualifying events led up to this past weekend’s exciting conclusion in Las Vegas, attended by thousands of the best fighting gamers from 27 countries around the world! The action has never been hotter—stay tuned for more pictures and video, but in the meantime, check out this amazing teaser video of top player Justin Wong:

After being crushed by the devastating attack of IFC Yipes’ superfast Magneto, Justin was down 3 characters to 1, and left with only Cyclops (a comparatively weak character used primarily for his helpful assist). Watch as Justin battles back from the brink of oblivion as the crowd goes nuts!

EVO moment video

Full EVO Finals Results

Since Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix just came out on LIVE Arcade yesterday and PlayStation Network today, I thought I’d post an introduction to the mechanics of the gameplay.

I found this video, taken from I believe a previous arcade version of the game. It explains the basic rules of X mode (and the re-balanced X’ mode). It’s great, and shows how the rules work, how to set up combos, and more. It also gives you an idea of how the gems and breaking effects looked like in the original.

Once you have a handle on the basics, you should check out the advanced techniques guide written by one of our resident Puzzle Fighter (and Street Fighter) gurus at Capcom, s-kill (Seth). He posted it over on our forums, so go check it out.

—Brian

Because arts and crafts rule!

Okami-themed Super Quilt! via Kotaku

With Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix hitting Xbox Live today and PlayStation Network tomorrow, the gem-smashing action is sure to be hot and heavy. Once you’ve had a chance to wet your whistle and build some giant gems, check out this quick primer on how to understand the game at a slightly deeper level. This is truly one of the greatest competitive puzzle titles of all time, so once you’ve got a handle on the basics, you can open your eyes to some of the nitty-gritty that makes this game so much fun for serious players as well as first-timers.

Puzzle Fighter Strategy Guide

While Monster Hunter has always been most popular with the dedicated fans, the latest installment has been winning over the critics as well. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 receives an 8.5 from 1UP.com, an 8.3 from IGN, and currently has an 82% score overall on gamerankings.com:

1UP.com

IGN

Gamerankings

GameSpy

I dunno about the rest of you, but personally Ive been waiting on this one for a while! So with no further ado, Capcom is proud to announce Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for download on XBL and PSN!

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix downloads Capcoms incredibly popular puzzle game into the new generation. This fall, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATION Network and PC in its greatest incarnation to date. The new version of the game features newly created 1080p HD graphics, several new game modes, improved game balance, new stage backgrounds courtesy of Udon Entertainment and online play.

Release Date: August 29, 2007 (Xbox LIVE Arcade), August 30, 2007 (PLAYSTATION Network), TBD (PC)

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATIONNetwork, PC Rating: E for Everyone
Developer: Backbone Entertainment-Emeryville
Price: $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE Arcade)

Game Description:
One of the most addictive games of all time has just gotten better! Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix downloads Capcoms incredibly popular puzzle game into the new generation. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATIONNetwork and PC in its greatest incarnation to date, featuring enhanced 1080p HD graphics, several new game modes, improved game balance, and online play.

In Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, players compete in intense versus battles of wit and speed. As a linked pair of gems descends from the top of the screen, players move and rotate them to form groups and piles of the same color. By destroying these groups of gems with either a crash or rainbow gem, players can send counter gems to fall onto their hapless rival. When the opponents screen is filled up and no more moves are available, the player wins the game.

Features:

• Three different gameplay options:X-Mode: play in classic Puzzle Fighter style,Y-Mode: gems automatically break when three or more gems of the same color line up in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, Z-Mode: players move a 2×2 cursor around the screen rotating the positions of the highlighted gems; more gems are added from below, moving all the current gems toward the top
• Game balance options for X-Mode: Original X-Mode or a newly rebalanced X mode that makes every character a compelling choice
• Counter Gem Edit allows players to create their own drop pattern
• Multiple online gameplay options:Ranked Match using the TrueSkill system players are matched 1-on-1 based on their ranking points, Player Match non-ranked, casual Quarter Match setup allows players to view ongoing matches and stand by to become the next challenger
• Worldwide rankings and leaderboard

On August 31 (Friday), we will be conducting an extensive network update on Lost Planet (Xbox 360)!

With this update, players will be able to select from 3 different connection types when they create a mission.

By allowing the player to select the most suitable connection type for their environment, the game’s connectivity could be improved for the players who used to have problems.

There are 3 connection types. Choose the one that matches you best!

[Default]
This is the standard setting regardless of upload speed.

[Pattern A]
This is more suitable when your upload speed is fast.
Try this if your connection is unstable with Default.

[Pattern B]
This is more suitable when your upload speed is slow and your connection is not stable with Default.
Try this if your connection is unstable with Default.

More discussion and some additional details can be found here!

Hey, everyone. I know this update is coming pretty late at night. I’m in Toronto and it took all day to fly here from California. The reason I’m in Toronto is so that I can show off the Xbox 360 version of DMC4 at Microsoft’s X07 event tomorrow (Tuesday).

Anyway, Rey sent me a blog post update with a revised Vegas background today, so I wanted to get it posted as soon as possible and I won’t be back in the office until Thursday.

First of all, I would like to apologize to the artist that drew the background. As I mentioned before, this wasn’t an actual screenshot of the game. Actually I had taken the layers of the background and arranged them around to show as much of the new elements of the background as I could. The issue with the perspective and size of the SUV limo was due to my own error – I had put the layer with the SUV a little too high. This slight error made the people in the front look too small. Below is a more accurate representation of how it’s supposed to look. Of course, as with all the other artwork posted here, it may not look 100% like this in the final game.

Click through to keep reading.

=> Read more!

That’s right, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles is mere days away from release and you can check out the preview at the official Resident Evil website. There are a couple friendly faces you’ll instantly recognize and the return of another more infamous character

Coming to you live from the Evolution Championship Series in Las Vegas are some updated photos straight from the event organizer himself, Seth Killian. What is Evo? Only the largest and most international fighting game tournament in the world!

Check the photos out HERE

Capcom recently announced at Gamer’s Day that we have an upcoming new Digital Download title, Talisman! Talisman is based on an intriguing RPG board game designed by Ralph Horsley.

Check out the Interview about Talisman the board game with Ralph here!

Here’s the latest word from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix producer Rey Jimenez.

How are all you Street Fighter heads doing today? Last week I mentioned that I was having a hard time keeping up with all of the questions spread all over the place and to please restate your questions in the last blog entry. Thanks for that. It makes looking for the questions that much easier. I even noticed that the guys at the Capcom BBS and SRK have created new threads and forum areas to help organize everything in one place. Not that any of that was done on my behalf, but it just makes hunting down questions that much easier.

Before I get on to answering some questions from you guys, I wanted to show you a much requested background. I’m sure you can tell, but this is Balrog’s stage.

Click through to read the rest of the update.

=> Read more!

Two heroes. One destiny.

Nobunagas evil scourge has now spread across time to affect the future. As Samanosuke prepares for battle, a new hero enters the fray: Jacques Blanc, French military officer. Together, this unlikely team must stop the King of the Demons. Starring Jean Reno as Jacques Blanc and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Samanosuke, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is the final chapter in the Onimusha Trilogy. Control the fate of both men as you journey from 16th Century Japan to modern day Paris and back to defeat the evil Nobunaga and his hordes of darkness. Let the battle begin.

Get it on Steam now!

GameTrailers.com has posted the new Devil May Cry 4 trailer that is currently being featured in the Capcom booth over at the Liepzig Game Conference in Europe. This over-the-top trailer is definitely the most exciting yet, feature super Dante vs Nero fight scenes. Definitely check it out by clicking on the link below.

(Please note that the contents are intended for a mature audience only, and you will have to pass through GameTrailer’s age-gate.)

GameTrailer.com.

You see that computer case? Well, you can win that, along with all of the high-end components contained within, very easily. We are holding a contest, no purchase/play required, to win the ultimate Lost Planet PC (including a 24” monitor).

Here’s what you get, if you win:

(1) Coolermaster Case, hand painted with Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
(1) Intel QX6700 Quad Core Processor 2.66MHz
(1) 2×8800 GTX Video Cards
(1) 2GB (2×1GB DDR2) Corsair XMX2DHX
(1) 680i SLI Motherboard
(1) 120GB SATA HD
(1) DVD reader/writer
(1) X-Fi Xtreme Audio Soundcard
(1) G15 keyboard
(1) G7 Cordless Gaming Mouse
(1) Logitech Quick Cam Ultra 0
(1) PC Gaming Headset
(1) set of Z5500 Speakers
(1) 24” LCD Monitor
(1) Windows Vista Ultimate

To enter, go HERE and register by September 24. You can also mail your entry to us (see RULES for further info). Note that you must be a US resident and over 18 to enter.

And for an exciting twist, to all you Lost Planet PC edition faithfuls out there, you can earn extra entries just for playing online. Throughout the contest period, Capcom employees will be playing in matches anonymously at random times, and taking down names of people in the matches with them. If someone in that game has already entered the contest, they will get an extra 10 entries, 10 extra chances to win the ultimate gaming PC.

So, no purchase/play required to enter, but if you have the game and play on Steam, you dramatically increase your chances of winning.

BTW, thanks a ton to our sponsors, who helped make this contest possible. You can see who they are on our contest entry page.


—Brian

Now that we’ve finally got Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in the bag, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is well into its development, it’s time to tell you about another one our Digital titles we have coming up that finally has a name that is short and easy to say: Rocketmen.

Rocketmen is a simple two-stick shooter, multiplayer co-op with up to 4 players locally or online. Theres a ton of character customization and upgrading and leveling up. Its based on a WizKids card-based game property, and should be out later this year for both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network.

For more on this cool shoot’em up, check out Brian’s Digital Blog, with tons of screenshots, by clicking on the link below.

Rocketmen Rockin’ The Download Space

A user in our forums became curious about what it is really like to work at Capcom, to which our Christian Svensson answered:

Our meetings usually consist of me flash kicking and sonic booming people who piss me off. Occasionally Jack will charge up his Mega Buster and fire a few lame shots my way until Nique dragon punches his ass into submission.

Yeah, that’s pretty much business as usual here.

So now that you know what it’s like to work here, naturally the next question is, what does the offices look like? Well, your prayers have been answered, as Seth has posted up some pictures of the great Capcom HQ! Click on the link below to see them.

The Great Capcom HQ!

If you’ve read the Rocketmen: Axis of Evil introduction from producer Robert Hamiter, or have seen some of the coverage its received on various gaming sites and blogs, you already know some of the cool things about the game. If you visited our booth at Comic-Con in July, you may have even had a chance to try out an early version of the game. If you want to know more, or haven’t heard about it at all but want to see why it’s going to be one of the coolest downloadable shooters when it comes out, then keep reading.

Note that all screenshots are work-in-progress.

First things first. Rocketmen is a simple two-stick shooter, multiplayer co-op with up to 4 players locally or online. There’s a ton of character customization and upgrading and leveling up. It’s based on a WizKids card-based game property, and should be out later this year for both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Character customization is something that we’re starting to see more and more in games, but this new standard hasn’t really made its way to download-only titles. But I think Rocketmen is really leading the way in this regard, adding a lot more variety and value to the download model. You select your character’s name gender, race (Rebel, Venus, Mars), class (Warrior, Engineer, Outcast), hair color, skin color, and your clothing’s secondary color. And that’s just for starters.

Click through to keep reading and see a bunch of exclusive new screenshots.

=> Read more!

I just got word that both MS and Sony have approved Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and we are set to release it later this month!

If you want the Xbox 360 version, you’ll be able to get it on Xbox LIVE Arcade on Wednesday, August 29th for 800 MS points. If you’d rather play the PS3 version, you can get it from the PlayStation Network store on Thursday, August 30 for $10.

To tide you over until then, check out the short-but-sweet interview I did with the producer, Robert Hamiter, a while back.

And if you have an Xbox 360, don’t forget to check out the gamer pic pack and three Dashboard themes I created that went live just recently. I haven’t forgot you PS3 doods out there, either, so don’t worry. I’m working on a downloadable wallpaper for the PS3 and will send it off to Sony as soon as I can.

—Brian

Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix has been approved by both first parties and as promised we will be doing a near-simultaneous release.

XBLA – August 29th – 800 points
PlayStation Network – August 30th – $10.00

You may commence with the trash talk.

GamesIndustry.biz has finally posted an interview they did with Mark Beaumont, who is our boss here at Capcom Entertainment Inc. in North America, as well as the boss over at Capcom Europe. In the interview Mark you can read about the future direction of our platform strategies, who race between the next-gen consoles, and even a little about Resident Evil 5.

GI.biz: Resident Evil 4 was a success both critically and commercially. To what extent will you stick with that winning formula for the sequel, and to what extent will you introduce new innovations?

I can’t say too much, quite honestly. The dev team did the teaser trailer to keep people interested in what’s going on with the product. I can tell you we will absolutely doing some innovative things with the game and the gameplay.

There’s a reason why we picked the setting for the game, which is Africa, and it has to do technologically with light and shadow and things of that nature. Basically we will really push the envelope, so you should expect to see some new things in the game.

Click on the link below to read the whole interview.

Link.

Another new patch for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition PC has just been released. A bug where after the game is launched, if the user enters “PC settings” from the title menu before starting the game, and saves changes to PC settings, the user’s save data will be lost (it will be overwritten by the initial state of the game) has been fixed and the patch should now be live, and a restart of Steam may be required to start the update.

Serious Japanese Monster Hunter fans recently was able to attend a two-day Monster Hunter Summer Camp from August 14-15. Over 100 hunters who attended were split into 4 groups. Mock exams were given and players were able to play a special quest and acquire an item in game, as well in real life (a t-shirt).

Via Famitsu (Video) and J!-Ent.

A Mega Man fan has created a cool Flash animation based on Mega Man battling Quickman. It’s pretty well done, and worth a look. Click on the link below to check it out.

Link.

Yesterday’s big PC patch caused an “User Authentication Error”, displaying the ability to play Lost Planet. However, after some diligent work by our engineers, a new patch just released about 30 minutes ago fixes all the major issues our big patched caused yesterday. Among those:

1. Users should no longer encounter the “User Authentication Error” upon login.
2. All players should now be able to create and join multiplayer games.
3. Customized player names return! Lost Planet should no longer be displaying users’ Windows login name as their player name.

However, there is still an outstanding issue with levels and unlocks that were previously achieved but are now reset. This is being looked into, but there is currently no ETA.

A new patch was just released over STEAM to fix the user authentication issues caused by yesterday’s update.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or trouble the previous patch may have caused. It looks like today’s update has fixed the connectivity issues. If you are still experiencing any problems, please visit our Tech Support forum for LP, because your direct feedback really helps identify, isolate and fix any problems that may occur.

Thanks.

—Brian

Youd like to think that Mega Man’s Mega Buster Shot and a pair of Rocket Skates is all he needs to defend against any “no touchy touchies” in a crowd of comic book fanatics, but with the masses tipping the odds against him, Mega Man just can’t be too careful in a crowd. Resident Capcomer Francis Mao got the rare honor of getting Mega Man’s back for a day and came home with a few interesting observations.

Q: So whats it like guarding the Blue Bomber?

A: Having played almost every Mega Man game since his 8-bit original, it was a surreal experience to work so closely in person with a childhood video game icon! I had great pride in parting the sea of Comic Con attendees as we marched our way throughout the crowded Capcom booth and surrounding aisles.
“Excuse me folks! Mega Man COMING THROUGH!”

Q: Is he as tall as you thought hed be?

A: He was exactly how I imagined he’d be, because Mega Man’s more of a boyish age/size and as a grown man, I’d be traumatized if he was taller or bigger than me. Standing about 5’4” from boots to helmet top, Mega Man still had tremendous stature and presence.

Q: Was everyone excited to see the “Mega Man” himself in person?

A: Surprisingly so. I knew Mega Man was popular – this being his 20th Anniversary and all – but HOW popular was still a pleasant surprise as people of all ages bolted over for pictures or shouted “Mega Man!” as soon as they saw a flash of blue.

Q: Did Mega Man get a chance to get out on the floor and make his rounds of Comic Con?

A: Definitely. Mega Man was a featured attraction for Thursday through Saturday of the show to meet and greet visitors to the Capcom booth, pose for pictures, and even sign an autograph or two. On Friday, he was accompanied by Harvey Birdman for joint photo-opps.

Q: Did he have to face off with Dr. Wiley or any other baddies?

A: We encountered tons of attendees in costume including Akuma, Freddy Krueger, and other villains, but fortunately no Dr. Wiley. Although there was a guy that looked a lot like the nefarious Nemesis, but he wasn’t wearing a costume so I don’t think the likeness was intentional! lol

Q: Was Mega Man signing autographs?

A: He definitely did sign a couple, but it’s quite difficult having only one free hand while your other is holding his Mega Buster. For the most part, everyone was just happy to take a picture. It was a nonstop wave of digital cameras and camera phones, but one old-fashioned hand-cranked film camera, too!

Q: We ALL love Mega Man, but did anyone attempt to get a little too close for comfort to MM?

A: For the most part, everyone was extremely cool and cordial, but there’re always a couple bad apples in every bunch. Some kids (who were old enough to know better) tried rattling Mega Man’s helmet or yanking on his gun. A lot of guys got a little “too” friendly in hugging or posing too closely, so I had to move in to keep things clear. One huge guy asked if he could pick Mega Man up to pose with him and I was almost too dumbfounded to reply to such a moronic question. Another guy tried to cop a feel of Mega Man’s blue derriere as he put his arm around him, so I grabbed his hand and pushed it away, he pushed back, and well… That’s another story altogether. I was willing to risk life and limb to keep the Blue Bomber safe! lol

Q: Did you spot any OTHER Mega Men on the floor?

A: No other Mega Men were seen. We did see another Harvey Birdman the day Harvey was with us and that created a very funny scene. The fan Harvey Birdman was actually quite peeved that we had a “commercial” Harvey Birdman to sully his name. All in good fun. :)

Thanks, Francis. I’m sure Mega Man and his safe blue derriere thank you as well.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

1st. Uzemono/Shiro Itachi/Matsuda
2nd. RX/Sugiyama/Roshihikari
3rd (tie). Momochi/Hirai/Yuki Otoko
3rd (tie). Take/Rikimaru/Yakkun

Amidst some of the stiffest competition in the world, all of the foreign teams, including the American entrants, were eliminated in first round.

Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition

1st. Kurahashi/Ohnuki
2nd. Taira/Shiro
3rd (tie). Sako/Nekohashi
3rd (tie). Noguchi/Hakase

The American brothers Alex and Graham Wolfe were able to make it through two very dramatic rounds before falling to 3rd Place finishers Sako and Nekohashi, to end up in 5th Place overall. Complete results for the Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition event can be found here.

Visitors to the Capcom booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2007 were able to watch Alex Wolfe compete in the EVO West finals, and to play against both brothers in exhibition matches after the tournament. During the exhibition, the Wolfe brothers performed stunts including defeating their opponents with one button, as well as defeating them by literally playing with one hand tied behind their back!

You can check out more of the Wolfe’s top-level play, as well as top competitors from around the world (including many of the Japanese Tougeki finalists) at next weekend’s EVO Finals in Las Vegas, NV.

Click on the link below to hear a dramatic reading of what may possibly be leaked Devil May Cry 4 script.

Link.

Actually, no, not really. It’s not a leaked script. At least, I hope not.

Via Destructoid.

The DX 10 Features Patch and new Multiplayer Map Pack for Lost Planet PC is now available, as well as news for the Xbox 360 Lost Planet community!

A new set of DX 10 enhancements for Lost Planet PC has been released as an automatic downloadable patch on August 16. These are designed to take greater advantage of DX 10 capabilities by utilizing the Geometry Shader to improve overall visual quality through better depth of field effects, improved motion blur and fur shading.

Click here to see some comparision screenshots of the new effects.

A basic chatting system has been added for the PC version which includes four default message options that can be used to communicate with others in the lobby, in-game and result screen.

In addition, PC Map Pack #2 is available for free download on the same day and includes the following four maps:

• Battleground, an abandoned town scattered with rubble from ruined buildings, featuring indoor/outdoor areas with multi-level vantage points.
• Lost Technology, a throw-back to the good ol days of pixelated 8-bit gaming.
• Ruins, ancient temples set amidst a lush jungle.
• Ice Drop, a frigid glacier with lots of peaks, nooks and crannies.

The total file size for PC Map Pack #2 will be 400 Mb.

We have also got some news for the Xbox 360 community of Lost Planet fans! The Lost Technology, Ruins, and Ice Drop maps in PC Map Pack #2 are currently available as Map Pack #3 in the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet. In conjunction with the PC update on August 16, all these maps are also available for free download on Xbox Live Marketplace. A new patch addressing connectivity for players of the Xbox 360 version will be available in the next few weeks.

2007 marks a momentous milestone for the Blue Bomber: his 20th Anniversary! Capcom celebrated in style on Broadway with none other than the game’s creator, Keiji Inafune. The executive producer and creator of the Mega Man series, traveled from Osaka, Japan for a mega signing event at GameStop on Broadway and 33rd in New York City.

On Tuesday, August 5th, over 600 die hard Mega Man fans came out to welcome and congratulate Mr. Infaune for his amazing work over the past 20 years. One group of individuals waited over 11 hours just to be the first persons in line to personally shake the creators hands.

He signed over 2,000 pieces of fan memorabilia collected over the last two decades: Nintendo 64, DS and GBA systems, games, iPods, t-shirts and even pairs of shoes!

Hundreds of requests for pictures and drawings did not stop Mr. Inafune from smiling in fact, on more than one occasion he offered to draw a picture of Mega Man for each of his fans. The fans will not forget his kindness and diligent style, which has been so evident in his 20 years of dedication to the Mega Man brand.

Some guests presented gifts of art pieces to Mr. Inafune to express their appreciation and gratitude, mentioning how he had been such an inspiration in their lives. We would like to sincerely thank Mega Man fans for coming out to support the brand and one of the most iconic game makers in the world!

See Photos of the Event Here!

Our own Christian Svensson has put up a post in our forums about the MotoGP event we attended a few weeks ago down in Laguna Seca, where I got really sunburnt and was peeling for over a week afterwards.

A couple weekends ago (pardon the delay, Comic-con and other stuff has kept me from getting this up), the only US-held MotoGP event attracted more than 100,000 attendees at Laguna Seca, just outside Monterey, California. Among the crowds were several Capcom executives from Japan and the US, including myself, eager to get our first look at a MotoGP event since we’d signed a long term deal for the PlayStation platform rights earlier this year.

We were escorted by our Dorna hosts and given the full VIP treatment (rides in the pace car at 160+ MPH, pit lane walks, air conditioned suites to watch the event, etc.). What we found was quite the spectacle. Mind you, compared to some of the events in Spain or Italy, which have 250,000 or 300,000 people, (where fans sneak in entire motorcycle engines into the crowd to rev the hell out of them until they blow rather spectacularly in support of their favorite riders) Laguna Seca might seem a bit “tame”.

Click on the jump to see the rest of the post and more pictures!

Link.

The new Mega Man site, featuring Mega Man Star Force, is now live! There are your typical game info, and downloadable suchs as screensavers and wallpapers (You can even create your own!), as well as mini-games. Customize your own Mega Man manga masterpiece, even print it, with the Color Me Rad activity. Finally, how well do you really know Mega Man? Test your knownledge with the Mega Match game. Can you finish all the levels on time?

Okami is like an award-winning ninja. Just when other developers think their game finally has a chance to win something, Okami pops up again out of nowhere and snatches the award.

A jury of five game-industry staff at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival in Edinburgh, UK, has just awarded Okami with the Edge Award, meaning it was their favorite game of the year.

Incidentally, two Capcom games were in the running among the final eight, with Dead Rising being the other Capcom title.

Maybe if we gave it enough awards, someone up there will decide to make a sequel or port it to the Wii?

Via GameSpot

Some great stuff is coming out of Japan’s Wonder Festival, not the least of which is this great Airman cosplay…

The show has a (Giga)ton of amazing fan created Monster Hunter figurines on display, some of which you can see on Senaka Blog’s Wonder Festival gallery.

Via Kotaku, Akiba Blog and Senaka Blog.

We just created a brand new area in our forums for the discussion of all of our XLA and PSN titles. Namely, Puzzle Fighter HD, Street Fighter HD, Rocketmen, Talisman, with more on the horizon. Of course you can still discuss SF HD Remix in our SF forums. But this new area will be for the discussion of all of our download titles.

I’ve put the link for both the XLA/PSN titles forum and the Street Fighter forum in the description box to the right, so you can always know how to find it.

—Brian

No one would ever pick him because he didn’t have fireballs and all that, but that’s okay, because Balrog’s got his own theme song and music video! He don’t need no fireballs!

Bonus points for the Power Glove reference.

Over 600 hundred Mega Man fans came out to a New York City GameStop this past Tuesday to see the father of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune, and have their various earthly possessions autographed by him. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I present to you, pictures from the event!

I can’t stop laughing…

Two photo sets from the EVO West fighting game tournament that took place during Comic-Con and was sponsored by Capcom. Check out the hot Toyota Yaris w/the “superdeformed” Street Fighter characters and some of the HQ cosplayers that stopped by, including “Sfdevotion” who performed Ryu’s entire normal move chart!

Cosplayers.

Tournament.

A while back I gave a sneak peak of some upcoming DX10 enhancements for LP PC. Now I’m back to announce that these updates will be available on August 16 for you Vista users.

I also have some more new LP PC updates to share, screenshots to show, and Xbox 360 version announcements, after the jump.

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Lost Planet PC fans, mark down August 16th on your calendar! A new set of DirectX 10 enhancements for Lost Planet PC will be released as an automatic downloadable patch on August 16th. The will contain specialized DirectX 10 Geometry Shaders designed to take greater advantage of DirectX 10 capabilities to improve overall visual quality, including depth of field effects, motion blur and fur shading.

Check out our Flickr archive to see some comparision screenshots of new effects.

In addition, to answer one of the biggest requests from our Lost Planet PC players, a basic chatting system has been added for the PC version which includes four default message options that can be used to communicate with others in the lobby, in-game and result screen. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

Finally, PC Map Pack #2 will also be available as with the patch, wtih the multiplayer maps from the Xbox 360 Map Packs #2 and #3, which contained the following four maps: “Battleground,” an abandoned town scattered with rubble from ruined buildings, featuring indoor/outdoor areas with multi-level vantage points; “Lost Technology,” a throw-back to the good ol days of pixelated 8-bit gaming, “Ruins,” ancient temples set amidst a lush jungle; and “Ice Drop,” a frigid glacier with lots of peaks, nooks and crannies.

Xbox 360 fans, we haven’t forgotten about you. The “Lost Technology,” “Ruins,” and “Ice Drop” maps in PC Map Pack #2 are currently available as Map Pack #3 in the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet. In conjunction with the PC update on August 16th, all these maps will also be made available for free download on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Alas, a new patch addressing connectivity for players of the Xbox 360 version will be available in the next few weeks.

See Brian’s latest LP blog post for more details.

Gametrailers.com has up a new Zack & Wiki video featuring puzzle tools gameplay. Check out the video see what all the hype of Zack & Wiki has been about!

Link.

You may have seen some of our Comic-Con and EVO coverage over on Capcom-Unity already. But here are a few pictures of the Toyota Yaris at the EVO West finals at Comic-Con a few weeks ago. Toyota is a sponsor of the EVO 2007 Championship Series, and we lent our Puzzle Fighter characters to be put on one of the cars itself. The Yaris features Dan on the front, Akuma on the back, Ryu and Chun-Li on one side, and Ken and Sakura on the other side. These photos were taken by James “Chensor” Chen (thanks!). He took a lot of pictures of the car and the EVO championships. Below are just a few shots of the car from his gallery.

Click to enlarge

Click through to see the rest of the pictures, including a shot of 100 Milla Jovovichs crammed into a boxing ring.

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With Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix so close on the horizon, I wanted to ask the producer, Robert Hamiter, a few questions about the game to help gear up for its release. He’s so busy, I literally took a mini cassette recorder back there, interviewed him, and then transcribed the tape, so he could get back to all his producing stuff.

Also, if you have an Xbox 360, be sure to check out the gamer pic pack and the three Dashboard themes that just went live yesterday.

BD) So how’s the game coming along?
RH) Great. We’re trying to wrap things up now, so we’re basically on the home stretch.

BD) What kind of online multiplayer support will the game feature?
RH) Both the PS3 and 360 versions will support 2 to 4 players. Two-player ranked matches, up to 4-player unranked matches, which will be very similar to Street Fighter Hyper Fighting on the 360 where two players play while two others can spectate.

Click through to keep reading.

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I’ve got the latest update from Rey, producer of SSF2T HD Remix. I’m very thankful, because I know it took a looong time to write all this up, and he’s extremely busy trying to actually make this game. There’s also a tiny bit of new artwork for you.

Click through to read Rey’s latest update.

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Here’s a sample match from the EVO Super Street Fighter II Turbo finals from the Capcom booth at Comic-Con. A few notes on what youre seeing:

Play notes: This match features John Choi vs Jason Cole, playing in the winners finals to determine who moves on to the Grand Finals. Some notes on the play: Instead of a bunch of basically similar characters with palette-swapped heads, the characters in SSF2T have very distinct personalities with a huge number of totally different moves, and so are played in totally different styles. This leads to some really interesting matchups, and in many of them, one character may be considered to have some natural advantages against another. Dhalsim and Ryu are both very powerful characters, but top players generally think Dhalsim has the edge against Ryu—at least on paper. Most of these advantages stem from Dhalsims ability to counter Ryu’s fireballs. A lot of Ryu’s strength comes from using his powerful hadoken. Dhalsim, however, has lots of effective ways to counter Ryu’s fireballs, by using aerial drills, slide attacks, or just throwing some of fireballs of his own. You’ll see all of these happen in the match. On top of shutting down a lot of Ryu’s main offense, Dhalsim can also mount his own attack from a safe distance with his trademark long limbs, giving him the overall edge.

Dhalsim’s counters limit what Ryu can do, but he still has options. One of them is to try and charge up his meter to use the super fireball. The super will blow through Dhalsim’s fireballs and also has some invincibility, so it can even be used to attack right through limbs. This is a good strategy, but it isn’t enough all by itself, because it’s hard to charge more than about one super per round against constant pressure from Dhalsim’s pokes. That means you’re going to have to trade some blows with Dhalsim. It’s very hard to hit his limbs with Ryu’s own regular attacks, but fortunately Ryu has also got the mother of all punches: the (mostly) invincible dragon punch. The dragon punch will take out any of Dhalsim’s pokes, but the dragon punch doesn’t hit for very long, and if you miss, you’re wide open to counter attacks. To hit with it, you basically have to guess when Dhalsim is going to punch you. These uppercuts might appear somewhat random, and are sometimes referred to as “psychic dragon punches,” since it seems like the dragon puncher “psychically” read his opponent’s mind to know what he was going to do (or just got lucky). The reality is that top players are actually calculating very carefully when to attempt these attacks. There is always an element of guessing involved in this technique, but it is a very strategic and calculated kind of guess, based on careful observation and setting up your opponent to do certain things at certain times. Watch how Choi learns Cole’s attack patterns and predicts his next moves to increase his chances of connecting when he does these dragon punches that he needs to turn the tide in favor of Ryu.

Enough talking – keeping some of these match dynamics in mind, watch how these top competitors work to maximize their character’s natural advantages using spacing and mind games.

Footage notes: This is some “from the trenches” handicam footage (thanks to James Chen!), so here’s a bit of background on the rough edges. The players are playing on an unsexy-looking CRT monitor because we swapped out the 24” monitors we had in the ring for Lost Planet and Puzzle Fighter to avoid input lag caused by upscaling from the PS2 (we were playing Super Street Fighter II Turbo, from Capcom Classics Collection, Volume 2). Usually turning off progressive scan works but that wasn’t possible in this case, so we used the comparatively crummy-looking CRT monitor to insure perfect responsiveness. Some floor panels are also askew with some wiring shown. The natural look of the booth with the panels in place is seamless and pretty, but we had to remove the panels to hook up the CRT and get it wired into the video feed in a hurry, hence things look a bit rough around the edges. As for no fancy recliners, etc., there are of course chairs available, but many players choose to sit on the floor, and player comfort and perfect controls are our priorities. The pressures of a big tournament are hard enough so we try to accommodate any way the players choose to play. Many top players use their own custom-built or modded sticks, and prefer to place them on the floor to maximize stability. Other players (who you’ll see in subsequent videos) have different approaches to maximum stability, including bringing their own custom built steel stands. EVO isn’t always pretty, but, like the Aqua Teens, we’re #1 in the streets.

You can check out the rest of the videos over on Shoryuken.com, who now have available all the videos from the West Regional finals that took place in the Capcom booth at Comic Con.

SSFIIT HD Remix producer Rey Jimenez recently spoke to the guys over at Destructoid about the project.

Click through to read an excerpt and jump to the full interview.

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As a reminder, today’s the day for those lucky enough to be in the New York City area to get an autograph from legendary game producer Keiji Inafune, the father of Mega Man, in addition to an appearance by Mega Man himself. The session will take place on today, August 7th, at the GameStop located on Broadway and 33rd in New York City, from 5pm to 8pm. Don’t miss it!

A few weeks ago I gave you a sneak peek of the 3 Xbox 360 Dashboard Themes, along with the gamer pic pack, I created for Puzzle Fighter.

Click through to keep reading.

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For this year’s Comic Con, we invited a slew of Nerdcore rappers to come and perform at our booth. If you couldn’t make it out to see it live, here are some higher quality (better than YouTube) streams of the performances.

Check them out!

We were lucky enough to have David Sirlin involved with the development of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix over at Backbone. He’s worked on a lot of things, including Capcom’s recent “Capcom Classics Collection” titles. And on top of being a professional game developer, he’s also one of the top SFII players anywhere.

Yesterday Mr. Sirlin posted an in-depth article on his website detailing how he went about re-balancing the X mode in Puzzle Fighter to create the new X’ (X Prime) mode for the soon-to-be-released game (yes, very soon – hope to get a date confirmed soon). This re-balancing was done to better even the playing field for competitive and ranked matches. As a huge Puzzle Fighter fan, David used to play it competitively, so who better to be in charge of the re-balancing than him?

Click through to keep reading.

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Can’t get enough Puzzle Fighting? Read along as producer David Sirlin takes you on an in-depth tour of the thought processes behind the rebalanced mode in the new Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix edition (and if you don’t like the changes, no worries, the original mode is still there too!)

My high level goal was to change as little as possible because the original game is very well-designed and fun. I would even go as far as saying it’s the single best competitive puzzle game. That said, it does have a problem: only 2 of the 11 characters are playable in a serious match. I did not want to get into any deep changes with the underlying formulas or rules becausecharacter balance asidethe game is very good already. So, I restricted myself to changing only three variables: 1) drop patterns, 2) damage scaling per character, and 3) the “diamond trick.”

You can the read the whole thing on David’s blog.

On what platform would you like to play the next Mega Man game on? Capcom Japan wants to know, and they want to know from you, the fans, directly! The Rockman (Mega Man) 20th anniversary site has up a new poll asking fans to vote on which console Mega Man should appear on next.

Because the choices are in Japanese, I have devised a handy-dandy super-high-tech translation chart to make it easier for all of you to make informed choices. Refer to the chart, then click on the link below to go vote!

Click here to vote (The poll is on the right side of the page).

We’re getting lots of excitement and questions about our new puzzle adventure for the Wii, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure! IGN just had a chance to pose questions to Takeshita-san and get some good details on what’s to come. Check it out here:

Interview on IGN with Zack and Wiki Producer Hironobu Takeshita

Matt Casamassina at IGN has also launched a Buy Zack & Wiki Campaign 2007. Matt has great taste, we think.

Check out some pics from 2007’s Capcom Comic-Con extravaganza. Including everything from nerdcore rappers to cosplayers to 100 Mila Jovovichs, all amidst non-stop tournament action, it was a very busy week to say the least.

These pictures and videos come from cameras both great and small (re: our phone cams, as well as a few real cameras), so the quality varies, but we’re including it all to do our best at sharing what it was like. If you missed us this year, make sure to make the Capcom booth your base of operations in 2008.

Click on the picture above to see the whole Flickr collection.

A circular pan of the Boxing Ring that was the location of our Lost Planet and Puzzle Fighter II tournaments.

VG Ultimate Battle skit from Comic Con 2007 Masquerade. We gave this group the Best Video Game Costume Award. If you look at the photo collection, you can see a picture of all the loot they won!

An Okami themed skit called Amaterasu Where Are You? We also considered this skit for the Best Video Game Costume prize, and I personally consider it the runner up.

Why? Because CvS2 is still one of the best fighting games out there!

GayGamer.net has posted their interview with Ace Attorney producer Minae Matsukawa that was conducted during last week’s Comic Con in San Diego.

In addition to the typical questions asked about the upcoming release of the third game, Matsukawa also talked about the possible release of the fourth game:

Yes, we would like to very much, and were working to make sure that happens. But its kind of pointless if number three doesnt do very well, so we want to make sure people know about that, buy it, and tell their friends!

Well, there you have it! So get out there and buy Ace Attorney when it comes out!

Click on the GayGamer.net link to read the whole interview.

Via Kotaku and GayGamer.net