Street Fighter V Trailer Leaks, Announced "Exclusive" To PS4 And PC

This past friday, a speculated trailer for Street Fighter V leaked onto the internet via a thread post on NeoGaf. Naturally this alone would be more than enough to send forum followers and fighting game-aficionados into a tizzy, but there was yet one last detail that made "Rise Up" the talk of the day. The fade-in text proclaiming console exclusivity for PS4 and PC! Gasp! could it be true? Could this be the very latest in a series of killing-blows in the arbitrary corporate contest that is the "Console Wars"? Sure looks like it. Check out that tear-jerking, nostalgia-inducing montage trailer above.

Hadouken!

Seriously though, this constant back-and-forth fiefdom of formerly console-agnostic franchises is getting tiresome. More often enough, with the obvious exception of key first-party titles such as Halo, Super Smash Bros. or God of War, you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that a "console-exclusive" installment in a major series such as Street Fighter or Tomb Raider will trickle their way onto other existing platforms eventually.

Why you might ask? Because video-game development is expensive and developers/publishers need to recoup their losses. It feels as though this trend of semantically-veiled "exclusivity" is only going to become more uniform throughout this console generation. That, or the post-release content for a major title is going to be preferentially rationed between one of the three consoles throughout that game's post-release life-span (e.g. Destiny on PS4).

Okay, enough of my soapbox. Check out more of those killer gameplay screenshots of Ryu and Chun-Li after the break!

E3 2014 - "Guilty Gear Xrd" Is Art In Motion

Guilty Gear Xrd was announced as a PS4 and PS3 exclusive at E3 with a slated western release for sometime later this year. And I personally can't wait, because I seriously want to spend a few weeks studying the absolutely impressive cel shading style that looks 2D during fights, but is anything but when the players pull off special moves and victory stances.

Following years of legal battles to reclaim the rights to the Guilty Gear franchise following them ending up with Sega after a merger that shifted the IP into different hands, the developer finally got a chance to develop a proper follow up in 2011. During those years of legal wrangling we got the Blaz Blue franchise from developer Arc System Works, which was touted as a spiritual successor. While it had the same vibe, it never quite gelled with me from a gameplay standpoint due to the mechanics. Either way, if you're into the fighting games this is definitely one to keep an eye out for.

Worth Checking Out - The Chainsaw Incident

After the success of the recent Skullgirls Kickstarter and the massive popularity of Divekick, it's time for another indie fighting game to step in and pull some attention. The Chainsaw Incident is a one-on-one fighter developed by the folks at ORiGO GAMES, composed of talent from the likes of Soul Calibur, Tekken and Virtua Fighter.

I'm always envious of an Indie studio's ambition to create an original IP in the fighting game genre, the amount of QA is enough to make a person's eyes bleed let alone the difficulty of breaking the game into the fighting community. The video does a decent job at showing a brief look at the game's fighting, but probably the most standout feature of the project is the game's art direction, featuring a style very reminiscent of artist Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz). 

While not a lot has been shown in-terms of the game's mechanics (outside of the 5-button layout for the game), the studio seems very keen on providing a top-notch fighter while maintaining a solid story. We can all agree that stories in fighting games have never been a strong suit, but ORiGO GAMES seems committed to the idea.

Clocking in a total at just under $20,000 of the $275,000 goal, the game is far bellow the required amount (fighting games are expensive, yo). Luckily 21 days remain, giving plenty of time to boost the game's chance of success. If you're interested in seeing more/donating to the game's development head to their Kickstarer page for more! 

Hyper Dragon Ball Z - The Most Amazing Fanmade Fighting Game We've Ever Seen

After yesterday's trailer for another faux videogame, Starr Mazer - I couldn't have predicted that I'd wake up to yet another amazing mockup trailer for a game that needs to be made. Hyper Dragon Ball Z is an absolutely stunning looking fighting game concept that hopes to address the issues that the franchise has had historically with their fighting games. And it just got revealed two days ago, on Akira Toriyama's birthday.

Their main inspiration being the golden age of Capcom's fighting game arcade domination in the late 90's with their CPIII titles like Street Fighter III - Third Strike and the birth of Marvel Vs Capcom. For some reason the Dragonball franchise never got a proper 2D adaptation to the bar that Capcom set during that era, and it looks like a group of hardcore fans and artists are finally setting out to fix that.

Using the open source fighting game engine known as Mugen (Quite fun to tinker with), a group of coders and animators have been at work for a few years to reach this point, showcasing some absolutely gorgeous sprite animation and fluid, fast paced combat that feels straight out of the show. One of the main concerns that the folks at Team Z2 are trying to address is capturing the cinematic action while imbuing each character with their own distinct fighting feel, an issue that has plagued recent 3D reincarnations of the series that simply relied on simply inputting button presses repeatedly.

While there might be some legal issues regarding to the licensing of this franchise, I just have to ask: Who the hell wouldn't want this? From the looks of it it's so far along that if I were Akira Toriyama, I'd bless the ever living hell out of this project to go ahead. Team Z2 has now allowed the project to go into the wild, and they've asked the help of everyone to help this project proposal go viral and get the attention of the right people. In an ideal world and a golden age of indie development, this will result in the project getting the funding and attention to go all the way, which is our hope. Go Team Z2!

This is how we envision a perfect Dragonball game. Gone is the sensation of every character being interchangeable and having the same style of fighting. Instead, we have characters with beautiful animations, cinematic moves, skillful combos, interesting movesets, unique traits and the kind of fanservice that'd make any Dragonball fan smirk. We drew from all sources and we committed to our vision, which we share with you. 

The graphics have that 2D charm that, in our opinion, have been lost in the transition to 3D games. The gameplay is intense, pulse-pounding and would look absolutely amazing in fighting game tournaments such as EVO. Counters, Air Combos, Dash Colissions, Super Projectiles, Beam Struggles, a large variety of fun character introductions and winposes... it's all in there. I can see people going insane over the intense battles that are possible.

Guilty Gear Xrd Arcade Trailer Is Looking Slick

I've never understood the convoluted story of Guilty Gear (Not that it matters anyway), but I've always been a sucker for the eye candy and wonderful ass-metal (Both courtesy of the multitalented Daisuke Ishiwatari) that Arcsystems has consistently delivered over the years. This new trailer for the upcoming Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-, the first installment of the franchise now that it's back in the studios hands following years of litigation with Sega over the rights is no exception. Showcasing some of the best 3D cel shading I think I've ever seen, this title looks like a fluid anime in motion, faithfully preserving the fluid look that made the franchise popular. Coming out sometime in 2014.

Guilty Gear Xrd Gets A New Trailer - It's A Work Of Art

Well damn, hats off to Arc System Works for elevating cell shading in 3D to heights it's never before reached. The latest trailer for Guilty Gear Xrd, the proper follow up to the popular fighting game franchise shows us just how damn impressive their Unreal engine powered visuals look. While we initially confused it for high end 2D sprite animation (Like the recent King Of Fighters entries) when the game was first announced, this latest trailer shows off the incredible shader work on the 3D models, which makes the models feel hand animated.

Instead of opting for a more 3D fighting game system (Like Tekken), the game will use a 2D plane that will move into 3D camera angles during special moves, kind of like Street Fighter IV, except this entry is going to look even slicker. I'm getting the feeling this franchise will be making a monster comeback in 2014 on PS3 and PS4.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Announced - The Return Of A Dormant Franchise

Following a long wait since the universally reviled 2009 title Guilty Gear 2: Overture, which broke the cardinal rule of well..Not being a fighting game, Arc System Works is finally working on a proper followup the franchise that garnered them international acclaim in the fighting game community.

Following the merger of Sammy and Sega back in the day, Arc System Works temporarily lost the rights to their own IP as the result of a screwup in the acquisition, but following some lengthy legal battles, the company reacquired the rights to Guilty Gear in mid 2011.

This amazing new trailer for Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- offers us a look at the series' main protagonists, Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske duking it out in a gorgeous new graphics engine powered by Unreal. This newest installment offers a perfect marriage of 2D and 3D like we've never seen, using some new cel shading techniques pioneered in the anime industry. As a fan of the series, it looks like we're finally getting a proper followup. About time!

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - All Star Battle Gets A Shiny New Trailer

Another new trailer arrives for the upcoming Jojo's Bizarre Adventure : All Stars Battle, a title that will thankfully be heading to US shores. The folks at Namco/Bandai have been doing a fantastic job of showing off just how faithfully they can adopt manga series into videogame form, especially ever since they finally nailed the formula with the Naruto : Ultimate Ninja Storm series.

Based off of the ongoing series by Hirohiko Akari, who has been writing and illustrating the series for 25 years now, the game will feature characters from the eight chapters created since 1987, with an emphasis on staying loyal to the narrative. You guys should really check out the manga if you're looking for something truly outside the box, the man has a knack for coming up with some of the craziest concepts I've ever had the joy of reading. Just to give you a frame of reference in terms of how influential Akari has been as a mangaka, he was invited by the Musée du Louvre to contribute work for their comic exhibition, as well as collaborations with Gucci, Lawson and other companies.