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Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, and More Fighting Game News
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is shaping up to be one crazy crossover fighting game with all loads of cool characters, including a non-human character from Okami. But Dante from Devil May Cry will be the character with the largest number of special moves. Does that make him the most powerful? Not necessarily.
And the crossover fighting game genre isn’t quitting there. A Street Fighter producer thinks a Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter game is an obvious choice. They both do the 3D fighting thing, after all.
On the flip side, a dev from the Mortal Kombat team says another crossover is inevitable: Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter. How would Shao Khan match up against, say, Akuma or Gouken?
Speaking of crossovers, we’ve all heard about Street Fighter X Tekken, but what about the sister game from Namco? Well, here’s our first look at Tekken X Street Fighter, but only the Ryu 3D model. What do you think? Yay or nay?
In related Street Fighter news, another Tournament Stick about to hit shelves and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade will indeed have more characters than the console version. DLC, anyone? Rumors are pointing toward Rolento and Alex.
What about Mortal Kombat? No, not the original, but the all new game still being heralded by Ed Boon? It’s looking pretty good.
First, it’s being promised as really bloody and the more characters have been announced: Cyrax, Kano, Sonya, Jax, Smoke, Kitana and Liu Kang.
The current schedule is pointing toward a 2011 release. The devs have said that they’re including the ability to “tweak” the game balance post-release without requiring full game patches too.
New Mortal Kombat FAQ
So, what do we know about the new Mortal Kombat game that is supposed to revitalize the franchise and draw us back into the world of fatalities and oozing blood?
I was on hand at E3 in Los Angeles earlier this month and, after lining up for almost an hour, I was ushered into a small room for a brief overview of the new Mortal Kombat game. Ed Boon is still involved, but the new title is flying under the WB Games banner.
1. What Characters Are in Mortal Kombat?
During the demo, only eight characters were playable: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Mileena, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Sektor,and Reptile. They’ve all been redrawn with a 3D-rendered look and they’ve taken great pains to make Reptile look more different than just a “green” Sub-Zero. That’s good.
Based on the selection screen, there are slots for at least 26 different characters, as well as a slot for a random selection and another slot for DLC. Does this mean that more characters will be available as premium content? Or is there a create-a-kombatant mode?
2. What Are the New Gameplay Elements?
They’re going back to their roots with over-the-top violence, blood, and gore. That means “real” fatalities are back, not like the muted versions we got in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. But that’s not where the violence ends.
We’re also going to see “enhanced” moves that are similar to the EX moves in Street Fighter IV. These use up one segment of the new super meter at the bottom and are more powerful versions of regular special moves. Sektor’s missile, for example, becomes a heat-seeker.
The other new element is the X-Ray move. You can do this when the super meter is completely full at the bottom and it’s akin to a Super or an Ultra in Street Fighter IV. The difference is that the move goes into slow-motion and shows the inner damage as it happens, including crushed bones, smashed tendons, and other internal damage. That’s why it’s called an X-ray move. Brutal. Johnny Cage’s version, for example, has him crushing nuts multiple times.
3. What’s This About Team Battles?
Borrowing another page out of Capcom’s playbook, the new Mortal Kombat will have team battles too. These are 2-on-2 fights where the characters can be tagged in and out at will, including in mid-combo. This makes for pretty crazy multi-character combo combinations.
4. What Else?
Other highlights include custom animations for each character, combo breaker maneuvers, a 2.5D presentation style, visible body damage that persists through the match, and the ability to link together whatever moves you want to create combos.
Looks crazy and it really does come back to what made Mortal Kombat so great in the first place. Blood, gore, and gruesome, gruesome violence.
New Mortal Kombat Movie and Game (Plus Other News)
Aside from Street Fighter, very few fighting games have reached the same legendary status as Mortal Kombat. It is largely credited as starting the whole war against video game violence and gore. Well, it seems to be rising from the dead, despite the downfall of Midway. That’s right. Mortal Kombat is back. FINISH HIM!
There are two parts to this story. First, it seems that a new Mortal Kombat movie is in the works and it seems to have Jax working for the FBI and he’s hunting down such bad guys like Sub-Zero. They seem to be changing some of the mythology, however, as Baraka is depicted as a rogue plastic surgeon who took the knife on himself (rather than some beast from Outworld).
You can read more about the movie on Slashfilm and check out the leaked trailer video here:
But wait. There’s more. They’re developing a new video game too and, from what we can tell, it’s simply going to be called Mortal Kombat. Based on the new trailer, the gameplay will return to the 2D roots of Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3, rather than the more recent 3D incarnations of Mortal Kombat.
The new Mortal Kombat will seemingly be akin to Street Fighter IV in that you get 2D core gameplay with 3D rendered graphics. The fatality by Kung Lao at the end of the video looks particularly impressive, as does the depiction of Shao Khan.
In other news:
- There’s a trailer for Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.
- Xbox 360 owners can get a new premium theme featuring Super Street Fighter IV gals in swimsuits.
- More Marvel vs. Capcom 3 screenshots are coming out, including these hi-res pics. More details have been released as well.
To cap off today’s roundup, here is a new Marvel vs. Capcom 3 trailer featuring Dante (Devil May Cry) and Marvel’s Deadpool. So sweet.
