Forum

Voices!

Castlevania -- At first I thought Shanoa was Wendee Lee, but listening to the trailer again, she's definitely Michelle Ruff.

Shikigami -- First girl: Uh...Sherry Lynn?

Guy: I think Peter Doyle.

Second girl: No idea.

Agh..I fail at this...

ikillchicken wrote:

It's a shame that Soul Calibur seems determined to push it so far. It's a great series and I've got no problem with a reasonable level of nudity. (Reasonable in my opinion being about the level found in SC2) But with each sequel the outfits get skimpier, and Ivy's boobs get bigger. It's beginning to seem like it's more the focus than the gameplay.

I like the idea of breaking armor (keeps players from blocking too much), I just hope it's not just an excuse to have the women strip. Then again, maybe it’s equal opportunity, perhaps Siegfried wears a spotted leopard print bikini under his armor. Laughing

Great new column, it’s refreshing to read about video games from someone with a sense of humor instead of an inflated ego.

Oooh, I like this column! I'm glad I can find it here on ANN, and it works for me since most American games don't hold my interest for long.

In response to the actual content- I've never really played the Castlevania series, but this new installment has me possibly wanting to get it, if not only because Shanoa looks like quite the bad ass character, and the art in the game looks great. Soul Calibur- the armor comes off!? Anime cry

This game just keeps getting more disappointing for me. I wish there were links to images of the other manga artists' character designs though, so I could see who designed what. The Oh Great character is beautiful and surprisingly (and refreshingly) not another balloon-chested gal. Castle Shikigami- I'd not heard of this series before, but it reminds me of the old silly anime shooter game for the Dreamcast, GunBird 2. Looks fun, though the dialogue sounds pretty annoying.

Great job on the column!

Ataru wrote:

The X Button? Sony Fanboy! Razz

I'm a fan of the "Red Button" myself.

What? Sony fanboy? PS1,2,3, Xbox, 360 and every Nintendo product since SNES including at least one of the several dozen Wii controllers each have an X button. I think X was a good choice for a title, now if it were called the "Triangle Button"...

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh279/DerekTheRed/controllers.jpg

People are asking about Castle of Shikigami 3 so let me explain the whole series to you folks:

Shikigami no Shiro (or Castle of Shikigami) were originally Japanese arcade releases (1, 2 and 3). The game was never a doujin title, it was developed always by Alfa Systems (the company been around for 20 years). If I remember correctly Taito owns the company (and Square-Enix owns Taito). Alfa Systems are best known in the US for two light-gun games on the PS1: Project Horned Owl (average, published in the US by Sony), and Elemental Gearbolt (great game, published in the US by Working Designs).

Shikigami no Shiro I was ported onto the PS2, PC, XBOX, and I think the GC. The PS2 port was published in the US by XS Games under the name "Mobile Light Force 2." If I was you, stay away from that game. This is localization gone wrong. There's no TATE mode (or vertical screen mode), all the story is removed, and the whole port is a mess. The arcade game hardware the game ran on was the Taito G-Net board, which is a powerful Playstation with more RAM and more graphic power.

Shikigami no Shiro II (or Castle Shikigami II in the US) was ported onto the Dreamcast (small print run, most costly), PS2, GC, XBOX, and PC. XS Games published the PS2 port in the US as "Castle Shikigami 2." After tons of angry fan letter about XS Games screwing up the first game localization job they did much better with the sequel. TATE mode is in the game, and they didn't mess around with the port that much. Since the company is small, the translation is terrible (look at the back of the CD case, the manual, and in the game itself). The arcade game hardware for the sequel was the Sega Naomi hardware, which is a Dreamcast with more RAM. The Dreamcast port of the game is the only perfect arcade port of the game since the Naomi and the Dreamcast is the same hardware.

Now we are at number III. Todd explained pretty much most of the game. The game is also on the Xbox 360 (Japan only), and the PC. I own the PC version and it's pretty good. You do need a good spec computer to play the game at full speed. The arcade hardware for this game, the Taito Type-X board, which is just a PC with an Intel processor and an ATi graphics card.

Now, I was very surprise that Todd talked about some of the old-school stuff (was very surprise that he talked about Castle of Shikigami 3). Also surprise that Time Gal was mentioned, and the Macross shooter (which is not bad at all). Would be nice in the future to cover the Japanese LaserDisc games in one of your future articles (Taito's Ninja Hayate, Time Gal. Data's East's Cobra Command/Thunder Storm LX-3, Road Blaster/Road Avenger, and more). If you're reading this Todd, if you want to do some research on these games, just LMK.

Jadress wrote:

The Oh Great character is beautiful and surprisingly (and refreshingly) not another balloon-chested gal. Castle Shikigami- I'd not heard of this series before, but it reminds me of the old silly anime shooter game for the Dreamcast, GunBird 2. Looks fun, though the dialogue sounds pretty annoying.

Psikyo's Gunbird 2. Good shooter, didn't like the DC port that much. I would recommend playing the game on MAME. If you like Psikyo's stuff you can get the ultra sweet Zero Gunner 2 on the DC as well (import only).

Will be waiting for the next article.

Shadowrun20XX wrote:

I hate to say it but,I don't think Street Fighter 4 is going to do it.Their Arika branch tried and failed horribly with EX and now Capcom goes and co develops it with Dimps (group responsible for Sonic Advance as well as an Atomiswave fighter named Rumble Fish).There are bigger and better games out now.

Capcom lost it's fighting foothold when they ignored fans that wanted more VS series.Opting for more console adventure games.SNK JP was out the door,Capcom had won.Because of this/ and unfortunately for 2d fighter developers,PC fans got lucky when elecbyte was building a lightgun emulator,but created a fighting engine instead.Fans got a hold of the coding and it became what is known today as MUGEN.Why play theirs when you could make your own?

Ark System Works was another group that swept up a big chunk of Capcom's fan base too.Capcom just waited too long IMO.I'm waiting for Blazblue and Battle Fantasia more than SF4.Or even SC4 for that matter.

What do you mean by "do it"? Going by the rest of your post, I guess you mean "actually draw fans"?

I don't know who you've been talking to, but the very concept of STREET FIGHTER IV has been something of a hopeless dream among fighting game fans for a while now, and yet, here it is, existing. It also has appeal outside of the hardcore - Street Fighter II was bigger than Jesus back in the day, remember, and the nostalgia for it is there. Everyone I know or have seen, both fighting game fans and those who haven't cared for fighters for years, are waiting for SFIV with bated breath. I want to play BlazBlue and Battle Fantasia too, but those aren't so much as a blip on a lot of people's radar next to SFIV.

Also, MUGEN has never dampened enthusiasm for professionally developed 2D fighters among those who still care about the genre. Playing an engine with a bunch of scrapped together characters from other games and some poorly made edits can be a fun novelty for a while, but it can't really replace the tight gameplay and much more balanced look and feel of an original fighting game.

And on another note, I'm convinced that people who dismiss the Street Fighter EX series as a whole so easily haven't played SFEX+@ (the one on the first Playstation) for more than five minutes. The sequels are pretty mediocre, by EX+@ is straight up simple Street Fighter glory. It's great stuff.

I'm a Castlevania whore so I'll but what ever they make until the manage to piss me off seriously some how with the series.

Also thanks to this column I've found out about Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles I'm all over this. I mean I love the goofiness and "homoerotic double entendres" of Phoenix Wright but something serious sometimes is good to.

Arika never was a branch of Capcom. The company was founded by former Capcom employees, but never was part of Capcom. They just developed the EX series.

I been playing fighting games for years, and the whole EX series in general is meh. Too slow (even the first game). EX3 was just very meh and average. Then again it was a launch title for the PS2.

I stop playing fighting games ages ago. No one good where I live to play against. And the online play on SFIV is going to be lame. Online lag in fighting games = fail. If they can follow the GGPO no lag online emulator client (http://ggpo.net/blog/) then it might be good.

Great new column, made me laugh out loud a few times Smile

The retro games section is a good idea.

I am very much looking forward to MGS4, however I don't have a PS3! I will probably wait until the 'director's cut' style edition of the game is released. Also, I might be the only one here who doesn't hate Raiden!

Can anyone tell me if Michelle Ruff who plays the main character in the upcoming Castlevania played Taki in Soul Calibur II as the voice sounds very similar.