San Diego Comic Con 2011 Game Coverage: Part Two

Continuing on from last week's San Diego Comic Con International's coverage, today's feature will finish out the Capcom booth. Aside from having had some of the biggest fighting games of the year, which was covered last time, Capcom also brought with them an array of various other awaited titles from some of their A-List franchises! Mega Man Legends 3 was the biggest title shown, and will be a day one purchase for myself and many others (weeps silently into his hands again). In all seriousness though, Capcom has quite a list of games for release in the near future!

Resident Evil fans who have the Nintendo 3DS will enjoy the much anticipated Resident Evil: Revelations, which is slated for an early 2012 release date. This game is gorgeous on the 3DS, and is a throwback to retro Resident Evil gameplay. The player finds themselves on a consistent “out of ammo” diet, with many surprises lurking in the shadows. By utilizing the newly introduced “item finder,” a player may scan their surroundings and find hidden items that they would not have otherwise been able to obtain. The game is dark and desolate, and judging from the demo I played it should be a huge success! I strongly recommend you give this game a look.

Also for the Resident Evil fans, Capcom will be releasing Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, which is quite different from pretty much every other previous Resident Evil release. This will be the first game in the franchise’s 15 year history to be developed by a Western developer, which is a bit worrisome. The gameplay is fun, but it was at times a little too reminiscent of other zombie shooter games such as Left 4 Dead. A squad based game, Operation Raccoon City allows you to control various members of a team with different specialties, varying from weapons to demolition, and even one that can control the various types of infected. The demo was fairly short and only showcased the four person multiplayer mode, but try to remain optimistic and keep your eyes out for this one. It does have potential. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will be released in North America by the end of 2011.

A new version of Dead Rising 2 was also on hand. Titled “Off the Record”, this expansion will be a retelling of the events of Dead Rising 2, with Dead Rising 1 hero Frank West taking center stage. This version will reportedly play closer to the original Dead Rising, but with some elements of Dead Rising 2's play style and Prestige Points added in. Look for Dead Rising 2 Off the Record when it hits North America on October 11^th, 2011.

Finally, Capcom brought their new action game Asura’s Wrath: Rage Never Dies to show off. This game was ranked best action game at E3 and it’s easy to see why! The game looked great, but played even better, and was an incredibly fun way to tear apart tons of enemies and release pent up rage! The player controls the main character, Asura, even during cut scenes, and your actions there will directly affect not just the story, but what fighting style Asura uses later on. Combining elements of mythology and science fiction, this game will be a huge title in the near future! The game will release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2012, but has also been rumored to be an early adoption for the Nintendo Wii U next year.

Thank you for reading; this has been the continuing coverage of San Diego Comic Con International Part II! Next time on SDCC coverage, check back for info on the big N, their fall lineup (including information on the upcoming and highly anticipated Kid Icarus: Uprising, among other unreleased titles!) and other special releases direct from the granddaddy of all Conventions!

Submitted by: Corey Hall (Employee)

This Week in Famitsu

Weekly Famitsu #1185

Cover Story

Famitsu has declared this summer to be the 'Summer of Monster Hunter', thanks to the soon to be released Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village G for the PSP (now that is a LONG name) and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD for the PS3. Did we mention that the annual Monster Hunter Festival just took place, too?

Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village G (phew) is the sequel to the popular Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village (I'm not typing that again...). Basically, while there are monsters for you to hunt like any other game in the series, Monster Hunter Diary is more of a simulation game. You play a Felyne (the cat-like species that helps out the player in the main Monster Hunter series) as they talk to their fellow villagers, complete quests, and try to attract more Felynes to the village they are building. The game is something like Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter put together, if you can imagine that. It also offers cross compatibility with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd G by allowing you to transfer your custom Felyne from Diary. Various other items and weapons can also be transferred as well.

Moving onto the more 'normal' entry into the popular series, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD is a PS3 version of the same named (less the HD part) PSP game. The game features full HD visuals with completely overhauled textures and 3D support. The best part of all is that save data can be shared with the PSP version, which allows you to play both on the go and at home. The game is part of a new PlayStation 3 series from Sony called PSP Remaster. This series features PSP titles customized for re-release on PS3, taking full advantage of all the PS3's capabilities, especially the better graphics.

We've said it before and we will say it again, Monster Hunter is CRAZY popular here in Japan! It's so popular, in fact, that Capcom holds an annual Monster Hunter Festival here. This year's happened just recently, with attendees enjoying a wide range of exhibits, all of which were Monster Hunter related. They posed for pictures with near life-sized inflatable versions of some of the more popular monsters, compared their footprint to those of monsters featured in the game, had a chance to meet with some members of the development team, enjoyed food based off of the game, and competed in a tournament to crown the ultimate Monster Hunter Champion. Japan loves its Monster Hunter.

Featured Games

Shinobi 3D (3DS): The long anticipated return of the fan favorite series will feature the classic side-scrolling action gameplay players have loved since the original. However, the game features a brand-new highly stylized art style and introduces a combo system which allows you to switch between melee, ranged, acrobatic, and ninjitsu-magic attacks. The game will also feature a new parrying system allowing you to dodge incoming attacks, even while in mid-air.

Resident Evil Revelations (3DS): Revelations harkens back to earlier titles in the Resident Evil series by offering a more strictly limited supply of ammunition and more emphasis on exploration and puzzles. It still keeps itself current, however, by keeping the popular control scheme and camera style of Resident Evil 4 & 5. It also features a new item, the supply scanner, which can be used to detect hidden items. The game takes place between Resident Evil 4 & 5 and follows Chris and Jill (separately, as they both have their own unique partners in this title) on one of their first missions with the BSAA.

Hardware Sales: Week of 7/25-7/31

• PSP – 33,582 units
• PlayStation 3 – 21,324 units
• Wii – 17,066 units
• Nintendo 3DS – 15,819 units
• Nintendo DS – 6,592 units
• Xbox 360 – 1,957 units
• PlayStation 2 – 1,046 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 7/25-7/31

• Everyone's Rhythm Heaven (Wii) – 83,325 units
• Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos (PSP) – 72,903 units
• Devil Survivor 2 (DS) – 62,246 units
• Taiko Drum Master Portable DX (PSP) – 24,494 units
• Sengoku Basara Heroes Chronicles (PSP) – 23,207 units

Apparently, Japan saw the news about the 3DS price drop as well. That's the lowest in the sales rankings we've ever seen it since we started doing this. Regardless, we hope you enjoyed this week's look inside Famitsu. We are now caught up again after our vacation, so they will now be back on their regular schedule. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever

This Week in Famitsu

WEEKLY FAMITSU #1176

Cover Story

This month's Famitsu has an in-depth look at all things Capcom. Capcom can trace its roots as a company back to 1979, when it was created as a branch of the IRM Corporation for the manufacturing and production of “Capsule Computers”, a term used by the company to describe arcade machines. In fact, Capcom's name itself is an abbreviation of CAPsule COMputers.

Capcom's first release was a coin-operated baseball game in 1983 called Little League, but its first real video game, a top-down shooter called Vulgus, wasn't released until the following year. Since then, Capcom has gone on to establish itself as one of the leaders in the video game industry. They have created some of the most popular franchises of all time, including Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Ace Attorney (Phoenix Wright), Lost Planet, Dead Rising, and Monster Hunter.

Besides a basic history of the company, the article is chock-full of interesting Capcom trivia. For example, since being released in 1991 there have been 16 different versions of Street Fighter II to appear in both arcade and home console form. The Mega Man series is actually known as Rock Man in Japan and has seen over 60 releases since its introduction on the NES, with the 67th release, Mega Man Legends 3, currently in development for the 3DS. In fact, the Mega Man Legends series is Keiji Inafune's, the creator of Mega Man, favorite of all the various Mega Man games.

The Resident Evil series is known in Japan as Biohazard. The name was changed because Capcom was unable to trademark the name Biohazard in the United States. The Ace Attorney series was originally developed and released for the GBA here in Japan, and it wasn't until the series was ported to the DS that it was released abroad in other countries. Phoenix Wright's name in Japanese is actually Naruhodō Ryūichi, which is a word pun; naru hodo roughly translates to 'I see!' or 'I understand now!'

Last but certainly not least is Monster Hunter, or 'Mohan' as it is known colloquially in Japan. While Monster Hunter has a small following in the United States and sells decently, the series is popular in Japan. Really, REALLY popular. So much so, in fact, that since the series debuted in 2004, it has sold over 18 million copies, with more than 2/3 of those sales figures coming solely from Japan. Ask any 13 year old Japanese boy what game he likes and he will tell you 'Mohan', I guarantee it.

In addition to creating some of the biggest franchises of all time, Capcom also publishes many Western games here in Japan. Over the years, they have been responsible for the Japanese localization of many of the most popular franchises abroad, including Grand Theft Auto, God of War, The Getaway, True Crime and until fairly recently Call of Duty (With the release of Modern Warfare 2, Square Enix now publishes the series in Japan).

Famitsu also polled its readers on a number of topics relating to Capcom for their article. Here are the results:

Top 5 Most Popular Capcom Series

1.) Resident Evil

2.) Monster Hunter

3.) Street Fighter

4.) Mega Man

5.) Ace Attorney

Top 10 Capcom Series That People Want Sequels For

1.) Breath of Fire

2.) Monster Hunter

3.) Mega Man

4.) Final Fight

5.) Resident Evil

6.) Onimusha

7.) Rival Schools

8.) Devil May Cry

9.) Ghost 'n Goblins

10.) One Piece

Top 10 Favorite Capcom Characters

1.) Ryu (Street Fighter)

2.) Dante (Devil May Cry)

3.) Mega Man (Mega Man)

4.) Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)

5.) Airou (Monster Hunter)

6.) Albert Wesker (Resident Evil)

7.) Amaterasu (Okami)

8.) Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney)

9.) Zero (Mega Man)

10.) Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)

Featured Games

Grand Knight History (PSP): So, many of you might remember last week's Dragon's Crown, by VanillaWare (Odin Sphere, Muramasa) for the Vita, but did you know they are also making a regular PSP game? Grand Knights History is an RPG with strategy game elements, with a world set around a great war between 3 countries. You control 4 knights at a time in battle, and you can make up to 3 teams of knights to switch between. It's playable over PSN, so you can battle and check your rankings against other players online. The art is the typical gorgeous fare VanillaWare always puts out, and if nothing else, it will be interesting to see why it's listed as being playable by 1 player to infinity players... They literally use an infinity symbol, I've never seen that in Famitsu before. It's coming out here in Japan this September 1^st, but whether it makes it over to the US remains to be seen; with the PSP on its way out, and VanillaWare hard at work on another title for the Vita, this could get skipped over. Be prepared to import this one, VanillaWare faithful!

Dragon's Dogma (PS3): Touting the call line of being Capcom's first 'open world action game', Dragon's Dogma is just that: a vast world waiting for you to explore, and of course, kill everything you meet on the way. You can choose between 6 character classes for your journey: warrior, ranger, sorcerer, assassin, mystique knight (that's what they actually call it, but it's probably an English mistake for mystic knight) and a magic archer. As you adventure through the world with your allies (played by other friends over the internet or AI characters), you meet a variety of mythical monsters who want to kill and eat you, so of course you have to kill them first. It's currently scheduled to come out here in Japan sometime in the first quarter of 2012.

Rebuild of Evangelion 3nd Impact (PSP): Based off of the popular anime series Evangelion, this music rhythm game is being developed by Suda 51 (Killer 7, No More Heroes), with the music being supervised and created by Akira Yamoka, the famed composer of the Silent Hill Series! The game will feature six different gameplay modes, all of which are based on different aspects of the Rebuild Evagelion series.

Weird Games Found Only In Japan

New Love Plus (3DS): Back in 2009, Konami released a game called Love Plus for the DS in Japan. Love Plus was a dating sim game that let you pick one of three different girls (each with their own unique personalities) to engage in a virtual high-school relationship (FYI: There is no sex what-so-ever). The game sparked a cultural and social phenomenon in Japan. Love Plus became so popular that one gamer became an internet celebrity for marrying his Love Plus girlfriend, and a travel company actually started offering real life vacation packages to go on with your Love Plus girlfriend...I kid you not. Love Plus has sold 500,000 copies, so a 3DS sequel was inevitable.

The game still features the same three girls that made the first one such a sensation, but thanks to the 3DS's technology, it features superior graphics, which are now displayed in 3d, and improved features. In addition to the visual upgrade, the game takes full advantage of the systems multiple cameras. New Love Plus lets gamers introduce their girlfriend to their friends, which then allows your friend to come up in casual conversations you have with her. The camera is also used for the game's "boyfriend lock" feature, which ensures that your girlfriend only recognizes you and will treat anyone else playing your game as a stranger. The 3DS's cameras will also be used in conjunction with the systems built-in gyroscope, allowing you to look at your girl from all sides. Be warned though: if you stare at certain 'special' areas too much, she'll get embarrassed. You'll also be able to take pictures of your girl via a camera mode, and if you're on good terms with your girl, she'll even pose for you. The game also utilizes the 3DS's online play to allow you to let your girlfriend interact with other players' girlfriends, which will in-turn create new story-lines and conversations to take part in.

Look for this game to be released in the United States NEVER!

Hardware Sales: Week of 5/30-6/5

• PSP – 29,519 units
• 3DS – 27,866 units
• PS3 – 15,270 units
• Wii – 7,056 units
• NDS – 6,832 units
• 360 – 1,619 units
• PS2 – 1,141 units
  
  

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 5/30-6/5

• Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D (3DS) – 61,306 units
• One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP (3DS) – 19,937 units
• Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS) – 11,860 units
• Phantom Breaker (360) – 11,789
• Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional (DS) – 10,613 units
  
  

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games: Based on survey results from 6/2-6/8

• Tales of Xillia (PS3)
• Final Fantasy: Type-O/Agito (PSP)
• Dragon Quest X (Wii)
• Photo Kano (PSP)
• 2^nd Super Robot Wars OG (PS3)

That's all for this weeks Famitsu, we hope you enjoyed it! Check back next week to see what is going on in gaming here in Japan! If you would like us to cover different subjects/topics please make sure to leave us some feedback in the comments section, thank you.

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever & Sherrie Blackwell