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RipTen Review: SoulCalibur V (Xbox 360)

Todd Schlickbernd — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:00:35 +0000

Seventeen years after the events of SoulCalibur IV, the spiritual weapons that are Soul Edge and SoulCalibur arbitrarily decided they would start causing all sorts of nuisances because Namco’s not done making these games yet. Why have 17 years passed? Well, how else would SoulCalibur V feature many new characters, some of which are related to characters from the previous games? Magic? Yeah, but instead, 17 years DO pass, so let’s see if those years in-game meant anything in real life.

Yes and no. SoulCalibur V has everything fans of SoulCalibur have come to expect from the franchise and in spades, but one big change has occurred in the transition from IV to V: the story mode. Well, that, and no more Star Wars characters. There are some other new inclusions along with features removed, but we’ll get to those later; like maybe 800 words from now.

A huge piece of fighting games, for whatever reason, is to tell really bad narratives. I jest, I jest! Many a single player fighting game experience, for instance SoulCalibur IV, lets players choose whom they would like to play as through the story. The character is introduced in one fashion or another, with text being a very common and supremely lazy method, and that’s it. The player then goes through a series of events, fighting at different locales that bear some relevance to that character (as far as you know). There, they fight some people spouting very specific intro and victory lines, along with some people they don’t seem to care about and who are likely just in a bad mood. It’s easy to tell, because usually, if they know the other character they’ll say something like “You… killed my father! You’ll PAY for that!”, and if they don’t, they’ll say “Out of my way!” or “Do we really have to fight?” or “My what big eyes you have!”. Not really much of a narrative. Well, SoulCalibur V is taking a different route, with a set-in-stone storyline featuring Sophitia’s children Pyrrha and Patroklos and that’s it. To my knowledge, there are no alternate endings and no different characters to choose from; nothing of that sort.

Thanks to having a dedicated storyline, my initial cynicism and apathy (a brutal combination) towards the characters in this game slowly evaporated. There was drama, there was tension. I genuinely wanted to know what each character’s next move was. The tale of this SoulCalibur begins with young Patroklos, son of the Holy Warrior Sophitia, on a quest to find his kidnapped sister. She was abducted by the “malfested,” demons and staunch followers of Soul Edge, and Patroklos is determined to rescue her. That’s all good stuff!

However, while the little picture of Patroklos and Pyrrha’s adventures is interesting and even made me care for a bit (not too much since the story wasn’t nearly long enough), SoulCalibur V ultimately fails to capitalize on the setting it creates. There are several new characters in the game, and many of them are related to classic characters in some way. For instance, Yoshimitsu is Yoshimitsu the 2nd, but he’s nowhere to be found in the story. Several characters hailing from Asia, such as Leixia (daughter of Xianghua) get very little exposition, and even less background. Not sure why the whole game is setup on the idea of having progressed 17 years when many of its ties to SoulCalibur IV are hardly touched, but it’s disappointing. Indeed, Namco might as well have just gone with silly random fights and a big text document introduction, though the in-game cutscenes were appreciated.

Beyond the realm of the story, one very large piece of the game is missing: a proper introduction to the fighting engine. There wasn’t much of this in SoulCalibur IV either, but in V, a series of pop-up screens show up the first time you see something you’ve never seen before, such as combat, or the online section of the menu, etc. There are a lot of things about the game that are incredibly easy to miss, like how the critical gauge works, or how “Brave Edge” works or what it does, or the fact that parry is now gone and has been replaced with a modified guard impact. It’s a minor nuisance as these are things the player learns after a while anyways, but it’d be nice to be properly introduced to the game.

Other single player features include arcade mode, quick matches and this new bit called Legendary Souls mode where you face off against incredibly difficult CPU players. As far as I know, it’s just you losing to a certain character with a polearm until your head explodes, but surely there are other characters beyond him. So my advice is, if you like Kilik, play the Legendary Souls mode to see all of his combos acted out upon your face, butt, and other humorous bodily pain-receptive locations. Beyond that, I’m not sure why you’d submit yourself to such pain, but perhaps major enthusiasts and competent SoulCalibur players will want to test their mettle in this mode. In modes designed for sane people, the AI is pretty consistent and intelligent, however, like just about every AI for fighting games ever, it can be vulnerable to the old “infinite sweep” technique.

All that’s well and good, but how does it PLAY? How does it FEEL? It FEELS like SoulCalibur. For all the talk of being more accessible to new players, it’s certainly not varied much from its predecessors. There’s now a Critical Gauge, which behaves much like the super bar in any Street Fighter game, and each character has their own Critical Edge which does lots of damage and has a nifty animation with lots of sparkles and blade clanging sounds. This mechanic does absolutely nothing to help new players. Although, now they can mash something out and hope it lands, but it certainly doesn’t make the finer mechanics any easier to understand. At its core, SoulCalibur has not changed, and people who hated the gameplay in IV will hate it, and those who loved it will love it. If I have to nitpick, and I do, I’d say the game’s a bit faster and “in your face” now, but even that is only marginally so, though it is a welcome improvement.

SoulCalibur V is largely a game of zoning and poking, managing your character’s speed and reach versus your opponent’s and reacting to their strategy appropriately. There’s much to love here for core fighting game enthusiasts. Mixups are an incredibly large part of the metagame, pressuring slower characters, kiting characters with long reach, and landing powerful combos on those evasive characters. Something that never ceases to piss the hell out of me that SoulCalibur has always had though is ring-outs, which despite being a perfectly valid part of the strategy, will be a very large irritation for new players and even for experienced players during fights against advanced AI.

One piece of gameplay that’s been removed is the whole weapon/ability/perk system-majigger introduced in IV. Thank bananas that’s gone! What a useless piece of gameplay. If that’s what Namco meant by making the game more accessible they’re wrong, it’s just less convoluted, but fine, we can give them a tally mark in the win column if they really insist (and they do).

Speaking of Namco winning, the increditacularly awesomepressive character creation makes a triumphant return in SoulCalibur V and it’s got tons more of the aforementioned bells and whistles, literally. Amongst a veritable bevy of customization clothing is now equipment, allowing players to affix realistic things like bows or scrolls, or slightly silly things like horns and apples, to their character to add to the customization. Surely this will result in many different perverted characters, and I’m just fine with that, and so is Namco. The fact that people have the option to do more or less whatever they want is awesome. If it’s not a perverted character you want, then go ahead and make some sort of anime chick, or a flamboyant homosexual, or an angsty teenager, or even your mother (hopefully, the two aren’t the same).

To go along with the much-appreciated color changing, is the option to imprint clothing with a variety of patterns. This would be great if the options weren’t mostly atrocious. The voice pitch and tone modifiers are also very cool, though sometimes both male and female voices can get a bit T-Painish, which is unfortunate if that’s not the desired effect. There are also stickers, which can be placed, altered and moved on most any part of created characters, adding for even more variety. The customization is freaking winsauce, and should (and can) be poured over just about every facet of your experience with this game. It’s also probably fattening.

The final, and arguably most impressive, set of features in SoulCalibur V is nestled in the online section of the menu. This is where Namco’s fighting game development experience really shines, demonstrating their expertise relative to other fighting game developers. Players can choose from the typical Ranked and Player match styles, the difference being leaderboard recognition and average level of try-hardiness, as well as a nifty thing called the Global Colosseo, named thus likely to make Ezio feel at home in this strange world.

This piece of awesome is a giant lobby where people can find matches for training or look for people they’ve met online before (like their rivals). They can join random matches, or search for their own by scrolling over each person’s Player License and decide whether or not they think they’ll have any fun with that person. The game also allows people to chat, which… is probably a really bad idea, but it’ll be awesome until the trolling sets in. To top it off, there are tournaments people can join which presumably last a week. Winning likely comes with nifty things like in-game prizes or people caring about you a little more than they did at the beginning of the week.

In comparison to other fighting games, namely Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (because it pissed me off), the online and lobby features are freaking amazing. You can search for lobbies by some obvious criteria (region, lag, rank, etc.), and once inside, you can chat via voice or text. If you join while a match is going, you can observe the information of the players around you, make them your rivals, report them for being douchenozzles, or ignore them and be enigmatic and ominous. Once a game starts, it is viewable in full screen, but if you’re still enjoying your chatting or looking at player’s licenses, you can view the game in a smaller windowed mode.

Oh, and the graphics are awesome. I’m really not a stickler for graphics as long as the game doesn’t look like an unwashed donkey’s behind, but you probably do, and yeah they look great and they don’t get in the way of the gameplay. The music is also very high quality, though ultimately, the only song I ever want to listen to while battling is Ezio’s character theme. So yeah. Neo-anime 3D presentation wins.

SoulCalibur V is a quality fighting game. As someone who enjoys the genre, I did indeed enjoy this entry, despite the amount of game-fighting I had to do as a traditionally 2D fighting game enthusiast. It takes some getting used to for newbies and unfamiliars alike, but ultimately, the mechanics are solid for a 3D fighter, and the variety of play styles featured in the characters is rather robust. For people who enjoyed SoulCalibur IV but are on the fence about upgrading, rest assured, all the new characters are decidedly different from their older (and in some cases dead-er) contemporaries, boasting new combos to learn and skills to practice. Old characters returning to the franchise are largely similar if not congruent to their previous iterations, so if you loved Mitsurugi and don’t want him to change, no problem, because he didn’t. It’s unfortunate that the story failed to capitalize on its premise, but it’s not the worst thing ever and certainly can be called a story rather than a collection of people fighting each other for no reason. If you like fighting games, character customization, and awesome weapons and stabbing things with said weapons and don’t mind a short story and a bit of a steep learning curve, definitely add SoulCalibur V to your gaming library.

Here’s The Rundown:

- Combat mechanics are solid
- Character play style is varied
- Customization is very robust and gives players many freedoms
- Online options are thoroughly thought through and implemented
- Swords

- Story’s too short and too minimally focused
- Steep learning curve
- No tutorial

8 and 8.5 represent a game that is a good experience overall. While there may be some issues that prevent it from being fantastic, these scores are for games that you feel would easily be worth a purchase. Read more about our scoring system in detail here.

SoulCalibur V was developed Project Soul and published by Namco Bandai Games and a Xbox 360 copy of this game was provided for the purposes of this review. The story mode was played to completion on normal in 3 hours and 8 hours were spent playing additional single player and multiplayer content.

Are You a Bad Enough Dude to be the UK’s Top Soul Calibur V Player?

Sam Naylor — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:44:32 +0000

With the launch of Soul Calibur V imminent, Namco Bandai are looking for players who hope to become the best in the UK.

You heard me correctly, there are people out there who not only play Soul Calibur, but also get good at it. It might sound odd to us “normals,” but it certainly seems that there are people out there buying Soul Calibur games for more than just looking at Ivy’s chest.

The first 200 gamers to get to the Chapel Bar in Islington from 12-6pm on Saturday 4th February will get themselves in to the game’s UK launch party, “where some of the world’s biggest fighting game champions will be in attendance.”

There are more details to follow, but the fights that take place at this even will lead on to the UK finals on March 16th “at a so far secret location with a whole host of exciting prizes up for grabs.”

So put down your good, proper 2D fighting games and try out this new 3D one. What’s the worst that could happen?

This Dark Souls Trailer is Hardcore

Dave Oshry — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:00:18 +0000

Dark Souls is hard. We get it. However, Namco and From Software seem to love driving this fact down our throats at every available turn. In this latest trailer, you will die.

For more on Dark Souls be sure to check out the RipTen Review!

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo Downloaded Over 1.2 Million Times

Stephanie Gutowski — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:32:54 +0000

To celebrate Ace Combat: Assault Horizon’s demo hitting the 1.2 million download mark, Namco has released a special trailer for its fans. Be warned, if you’re already as hyped as I am about this game going live next week, then the trailer may just send you into a pre-release fit of joy. Having beaten the demo myself today, I can only sit here and salivate as I wait for more sweet, sweet Apache carnage. There’s nothing like swooping down on an enemy convoy, machine gun fire lighting up the streets as you give them a taste of sweet superiority. Bogey on your six? Come about and blow him to kingdom come. Get in my way and I’ll punch you in the face. With an F-16.

Watch the damn trailer.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon will be touching down on October 11 for PS3 and Xbox 360. I can’t freaking wait.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Online Modes Revealed and Detailed

Dave Oshry — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:30:10 +0000

Namco has finally revealed all the juicy details about the multiplayer modes in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. They include Co-op, Capital Conquest, Deathmatch and Domination. When I say they’ve given details, I mean ALL the details. Wall of text alert.

The first mode is Co-Op:

Namco has detailed it as such:

CO-OP MULTIPLAYER

In CO-OP mode, players team up with friends to take on deadly AI opponents. A total of eight missions from the Campaign mode have been specially re-designed and optimised for CO-OP play to maximise the enjoyment for 2-3 players sharing the adrenaline-pumping fun online.

Team up with friends for a variety of missions around the world

As in the Campaign mode, the CO-OP missions take place in different real-world locations with a rich variety of maps and situations, such as dog fights, attacking ground targets, protecting cities, escorting and even an attack helicopter mission.

Team play kicks in when players decide between themselves what different types of aircraft and weapons to use. For example, the player who chooses the aircraft best suited to dog fights will be assigned the role of intercepting enemy aircraft in the air, whereas the one who chooses the aircraft better equipped for ground attacks will be given the job of attacking enemies on the ground. Alternatively, everyone can choose the same aircraft and take to the air in formation.

Use DFM and teamwork to attack strong enemy aircraft

The enemies encountered in CO-OP are stronger than those in the normal Campaign mode. In addition, there are a number of enemy ace pilots that appear only in CO-OP mode.

The Dog Fight Mode (DFM) support comes into play against strong enemies that players can’t take on alone.

While an ally is attacking the enemy at close-range using DFM, the player moves in closer, and at a certain point will be able to go into DFM against the enemy quicker than normally, gaining a combat advantage. By using DFM support with 2 or 3 aircraft there is more chance of inflicting serious damage against fast, powerful enemies.

Have fun cooperating with friends in the chaotic aerial battlefield surrounded by a whirlwind of allies and enemies!

Attack massed enemy ground troops using ASM support

Similar to DFM in the air, in CO-OP players can use the Air Strike Mode (ASM) to fight against massed enemy ground troops.

When an ally has entered ASM and the player subsequently initiates their ASM support, they can enter the attack flight path right behind their ally. Up to three aircraft can attack close to the ground one after the other, raining down a ferocious bombardment on enemy ground forces.

And that’s just the first mode!! Next up is Capital Conquest:

Basic Rules

1. Players are divided into 2 teams and attempt to destroy the other team’s HQ within the time limit.

The team that destroys the other team’s HQ first within the time limit wins.

If neither team destroys the HQ within the time limit, the team with the most remaining on their HQ durability gauge wins.

Each HQ is defended by NPC ground objects and is resistant to non-ASM attacks (Attack power is increased when in ASM).

2. Secure TGTs to earn the right to go into ASM (Air Strike Mode) against the opposing HQ.

Destroying all of the TGTs on each map gives players the right to go into ASM.

Once the right has been obtained, an ‘ASM box’ for the enemy HQ will be displayed and the player can enter ASM via that point.

In the initial state, the right to go into ASM is given to the first team to destroy all applicable enemy TGTs.

Once one side gains the right to go into ASM, all enemy units are revived.

The right to go into ASM is transferred when all of the revived TGT enemies are destroyed.

3. Respawning lets you sortie again in a different aircraft, recover from all damage and replenish ammunition.

Players will return to the sortie screen if shot down or if Respawn is selected from the Pause Menu.

Respawning allows players to change aircraft, recover from all damage taken and replenish ammunition for weapons.

Players can respawn from their own HQ or any of their own bases.

4. Capturing respawn bases increases available respawn points.

They must belong to one of the teams, and they change sides if they are destroyed.

In Capital Conquest, the following rules can be set up / adjusted:

Map: Washington D.C., Paris, Moscow, Miami, Tokyo (DLC), Hawaii (DLC)

Time limit: 10min. / 15min. / 20min. / 25min. / 30min.

Players: 4vs4 (one squadron in team) / 8vs8 (two squadrons in team)

Selecting teams: Automatic / Manual (if manual is chosen, the players can choose their squadron)

HQ durability: High / Medium / Low

AI aircraft: ON / OFF　(When ON is selected, AI aircraft will be put into play)

Aircraft limitation: (Can limit the aircraft usage of Jet fighter / Multirole / Attacker / Attack helicopter)

Skill usage: With skill / Without skill

Respawning

After being shot or crashing, players have to wait a certain amount of time before respawning as a penalty.

The better the aircraft’s performance, the more penalty time the player incurs.

There is no penalty time if the player selects Respawn in the pause menu.

Respawn in the pause menu is not available if the player’s aircraft is in DFM (Dog Fight Mode) or ASM

Use of Bombers

Once the durability of a team’s HQ falls below 20%, that team can then choose to sortie in bombers (B-1B / B-2).

Once the right to use bombers has been obtained, bombers will be added to the aircraft list when players return to the Respawn Screen.

Bombers are used under the following conditions.

They have no attack power during regular non-ASM flight.

Bombs cannot be used until in ASM flight. Only flares can be used during regular non-ASM flight.

Once in ASM, the MUGB (multi unguided bomb) can be used.

Capital Conquest is the only online mode in which bombers can be used.

But that’s still not all. Of course there’s also Deathmatch:

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi Goku vs. Frieza Gameplay

Dave Oshry — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:04:37 +0000

I’m goin’ goin’, back back to Namek Namek…

There are few battles in the history of animation as epic and legendary as the one between Frieza and Goku on Namek. You know, the one where he went all Super Saiyan for the first time ever?

It’s sort of a big deal.

Anyhow, in the new DBZ Ultimate Tenkaichi – you can relive that epic battle.

Get your KAME HAME HAAAAAAAAAAA going on October 28th.

Dark Souls Release Date and Gameplay Will Likely Kill You

Dave Oshry — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:27:23 +0000

Why? Well, because A) You may not survive until the October 4th release date (October 7th in Europe) and B) Because you sucked at Demon’s Souls and you probably haven’t gotten better at anything since then.

“With Dark Souls, we’re able to bring the uniquely challenging and rewarding style of gameplay popularized by FROMSOFTWARE back to the PlayStation®3, as well as to the Xbox 360® platform for the first time,” says Carlson Choi, vice president of Marketing, NAMCO BANDAI Games America. “With its massive, seamless open world design, deep exploration, tense dungeon crawling, extreme battles, and an innovative online component that allows gamers to draw from the collective experience of the community, Dark Souls provides a gameplay experience unlike any other.”

Go check out the new Dark Souls website at www.PrepareToDie.com. Yep, that’s the actual URL. Anyone else think they’re taking this OMG DARK SOULS IS HARD thing a bit far? No? Just me? Ok, whatever. X-p

Soul Calibur V Coming in 2012 (Trailer)

Dave Oshry — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:15:59 +0000

It is official, the eternal cycle of ruthless battle will begin again… in 2012.

Sigh… nearly another full year until Soul Calibur V. To pass the time, I will watch this video of an adorable baby panda eating bamboo:

Or you can watch this short teaser trailer from Namco’s press event in Dubai:

SCV director Daishi Odashima has been tweeting some details as well:

Soulcalibur V is a continuation of SC4. It’s not a spin-off or a different series.

The story of V is set in the future of IV. The main character is a young man named Patroklos. The hardcore fans should know who he is!

Stay tuned to RipTen for more on the fighting game respresented by the logo below:

Tekken Blood Vengeance CGI Movie Announced (Trailer)

Bryce Wilson — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:28:57 +0000

Craving some more Tekken action? Well you will definitely be interested in Blood Vengeance. Namco-Bandai has announced that it is a full CGI movie set in the Tekken universe.

Clocking in at just over a minute in length, this teaser trailer shows off some pretty impressive visuals and has definitely got me interested in how the project turns out.

The movie will be released in theaters this summer in full 3D. Hopefully it will be better than Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within… a bad movie.

Dark Souls Coming This October! (Trailer)

Dave Oshry — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:58:52 +0000

Namco Bandai has finally announced the release window for Dark Souls with a new trailer!

The “unofficial” sequel to Demon’s Souls is coming in October! Get Hype!

Stay tuned to RipTen for more on Dark Souls and NBG.

Namco: 3DS One of the Most Important Launches in Gaming History

Sam Naylor — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:52:27 +0000

Lee Kirton, Head of Marketing at Namco Bandai UK, has made the strong statement that the 3DS is “one of the most important launches in gaming history.”

“We are very confident of the Nintendo 3DS. We also have a strong line up of titles, including Ridge Racer 3D, Duel Pen Sports and Pac Man/Galaga,” he said. “We see it as one of the most important launches in gaming history and we’re very confident of all of our new titles.”

Big words, but what do you expect from a Head of Marketing? They don’t get those sorts of jobs by shying away, you know. What do you think? Is the 3DS really that important? Let us know in the comments.

Via Destructoid

“Namco-Bandai Games” and “Namco Networks” Fuse for Great Justice

Matthew Sims — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:23:50 +0000

Now, I know the headline is hard to make sense of, but what we are looking at is a combination of two companies into one. Sounds pretty clear right? Namco-Bandai Games makes some of the big titles that you’ve heard of like Splatterhouse. Namco Networks focused on the more casual gamer bringing titles like Puzzle Quest 2 to mobile platforms.

The integration of both companies under the Namco-Bandai Games America label is designed to give the company the best chance to compete on both home consoles and portable devices.

“Having the two companies join forces has proven to be the best decision for us to create games that appeal to both the casual and hardcore gamer,” said Kenji Hisatsune, President and CEO of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “Playing is Believing® and we are working hard to bring some of our existing and new IPs across many devices—the Brain series is a perfect example. “

For gamers, it is unlikely that this will change much of anything. This sort of corporate integration happens all the time. It’s a good bet that you won’t see much change in game development out of Namco-Bandai anytime soon.

Check out the below press release for all the details:

SAN JOSE, Calif., (Feb. 1, 2011) — NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., and Namco Networks America Inc., today announced the two companies have completed their integration under the NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. label. After making the initial integration announcement in August, the company moved quickly to strengthen its position in the gaming industry by broadening its portfolio of gaming titles and making them accessible across more genres and connected devices.

Over the last several months, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., has launched numerous franchises across multiple gaming platforms—including SPLATTERHOUSE^® for the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system, iPhone^®, iPod touch^® and mobile, as well as Puzzle Quest™ 2for iOS devices, mobile and Windows PC.

“Having the two companies join forces has proven to be the best decision for us to create games that appeal to both the casual and hardcore gamer,” said Kenji Hisatsune, President and CEO of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “Playing is Believing® and we are working hard to bring some of our existing and new IPs across many devices—the Brain series is a perfect example. “

According to the Vice President of Marketing for NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., Carlson Choi, “We’ve already madeBrain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima™ accessible on mobile devices and More Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima ™available on mobile, Android, Windows Phone 7 and iOS platforms. To continue the momentum around the Dr. Kawashima Brain franchise, Body and Brain Connection™ will launch Feb. 8 exclusively for Kinect™, for Xbox 360, controller-free games and entertainment, with Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima 3™ launching later this year on Java, BREW, iPhone and iPad^®.”

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom only $23 on Amazon!!

Dave Oshry — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 15:10:08 +0000

Remember what I said about Alpha Protocol yesterday? Well the same holds true for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom today.

I know we didn’t review it and you may not even be aware of the game’s existence, but trust me, this is a good deal.

The game plays a bit like ICO – except you have real combat abilities and instead of leading around some brain dead girl – you’re followed by this giant, “Where the Wild Things Are” -esque creature that can knock down walls and crush enemies for you.

Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a copy – then get one for someone you like – they’ll probably like you back and you’ll still have only paid the price of one copy of some shit game like Rogue Warrior. (sorry Mickey)

BUY HERE

Amazon is having all kinds of crazy deals on older games too – check it all out HERE

Why Splatterhouse Is The Most Brutal and Metal Game You’ve Ever Played

Dave Oshry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:05:27 +0000

After nearly two decades, Splatterhouse is back. Not only is this reboot staying true to it’s roots, but it’s aiming to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty headbanger in all of us.

If you’re not familiar with the original 16 bit iterations of Splatterhouse – it doesn’t matter. They were side scrolling beat-em up’s where you played as Rick – a young man left for dead within a haunted mansion. Thanks to the Terror Mask, Rick is transformed into a hulking beast as he searches for his girlfriend, Jen. Side scrolling mayhem ensues and you pretty much beat the shit out of anything that gets in your way.

It looked like this:

But now it’s 2010 and Namco is re-introducing Splatterhouse to the world as a full on 3D action adventure bloodstravaganza.

Now, it looks like this:

If you’ve finished banging your head, you may have realized that not only has Splatterhouse gotten a 3D makeover, but it’s gotten pretty fuckin’ brutal and \m/etal as well. That’s all thanks to the game’s development team and producer Dan Tovar. Dan is every bit a metal head and he wanted to make sure the new Splatterhouse was every bit as metal as the original games were – even if they didn’t know it.

Over the past few months I’ve had the chance to hang out with Dan and play Splatterhouse on several occasions. During the times I was actually sober enough to remember to turn on my tape recorder, I managed to get all the gory details on just what makes Splatterhouse so brutal, so metal, and how it all came to be.

Dan, Big Rick and I - Ready To Spill Some Blood

DO: How did it come about to finally do a new version of Splatterhouse after 20+ years? How did you get that idea approved, and how did the game get to where it is now?

DT: Well, back in 2006 we were looking for new concepts and we got the go ahead to use old Namco IPs. Me and my buddy Mark Brown grew up playing Splatterhouse, watching horror movies and listening to heavy metal, so it was at the top of our list of games we wanted to remake. So we went and killed some beers one night and started scribbling down stuff we wanted to do and wrote up a concept doc, then spent a couple of months refining it and pitching it internally to sales and marketing and our managers. Eventually we knew we could sell this and action games are super popular so we knew we wanted to do something with tons of action. Survival horror is also a great genre but with this type of game and character you want more fast paced action. And horror movies do great, so it was a really easy pitch. Then we had to find a team and go through Japan to make sure they were cool with everything. They were, and the company has been nothing but supportive since. It’s been a bumpy road, but as you can see, the game looks better than ever. Quality has been the word out of everyone’s mouth, they keep pushing the quality and keep supporting us with as many resources and as much time as we need.

Watch as Namco blends the old with the new:

If you’ve been following the development of Splatterhouse, you may have heard that the original three games are going to be included as unlockable content. I had to ask Dan how he made that happen, when every other company is pushing extra content as paid DLC:

DO: How did you manage to include the original three games as unlockables when clearly you could have sold them as paid DLC on XBL and PSN? From a business standpoint, it doesn’t make sense and guys like Bobby Kotick definitely wouldn’t approve of this!

DT: Hah, yeah well as far as keeping the original games as freebies in the game, I literally had to fight for years to keep them from being paid downloadable content. I specifically wanted to do it as a big thank you and a nod to the fans of the original franchise who’ve been keeping it alive for the last 15 years. These guys are voracious, they’re amazing, they’ve been keeping websites active, and they even had a petition to get a modernized version of the game going. For 15 years they’ve been screaming from the mountaintops about how awesome this game is, so I wanted to be able to give them something back.

DO: So, when you say you had to fight, what sort of resistance did you meet from corporate?

DT: Well basically, we’re in the business of making money. Games are entertainment, but it’s a business right? So there were obviously a lot of people who saw this as an opportunity to make more money. It took a lot of convincing that it was worthwhile, to really give something back to the fans, without making them pay extra for it. It comes down to us wanting to re-invigorate the franchise, so what better way to do that than bringing back the old that everyone knew and loved, as well as introducing something new.

DO: The 2D parts of the new Splatterhouse are some of the most fun. Did you ever think of re-doing the game as just a 2D side-scroller and arcade title?

DT: We did. Obviously there’s a lot of really cool elements about it, which is why we wanted to inject the side scrolling sections into the main gameplay. It’s definitely still a possibility, it’s not something we’re planning on doing in the immediate future, but its something that personally I’d love to do. I know a lot of the fans would really appreciate it, so hopefully we get the chance to bust something awesome out for them.

Check out some of Splatterhouse’s new 2D gameplay:

DO: Like a future downloadable title?

DT: Yeah.

DO: Sweet.

DO: So, how important was it for you to make Splatterhouse as brutal as possible, and after making it as brutal as possible, how did you make sure it was as \m/etal as possible?

DT: Haha, they go hand in hand don’t they?

DO: Oh yeah.

DT: Well Splatterhouse invokes very specific imagery, you’ve gotta have the gore you’ve gotta have the wetness and the blood flying and spraying everywhere, so that becomes a very central focus point as you’re designing the game. We looked at the original games and used them as a roadmap to design the structure, the enemies, the levels and the environment. But then you have to figure out, how can we make this wet? (The game looks very wet indeed) That’s where you start talking about the dismemberment, and regenerating his own flesh, and the bones snapping, and tearing guys limbs off and using them as weapons, and tearing one guys head off and chucking it at another guy. Then you’ve got the weapons, and you start chopping guys in half and watching their blood spray out, and you just inject that into every corner of the combat. So that’s the brutality, And then you’ve got the METAL. The original games were very well known for their soundtracks. We didn’t want to turn our backs on that. We do use the old games as roadmaps for music as well. So we do have reworkings of that stuff. But we did want to do something a bit more edgy, so that’s where the licensed heavy metal came in.

Watch here as Dan and composer Howard Drossin talk about the \M/usic of Splatterhouse:

At a certain point me and Dan realized that we’d both been longtime members of the NYC Punk/Metal scene and it was strange that we hadn’t met until this point. Then, when he told me that local Brooklyn metalheads Mutant Supremacy would be featured in the game, I almost lost my shit. I knew those guys, I’d seen those guys play in bars and clubs downtown – but now, thanks to Dan, their music was in a bloody E3 trailer. That’s when I knew Dan was legit, and that’s when I knew that this game was going to be so fucking metal that it might just make your ears bleed.

But I digress . . .

DO: How did you get bands like Mastodon and Lamb of God in the game? Was it an open calling for metal bands to be in the most brutal game ever, or did you hand pick them?

DT: Haha, I hand picked them myself. Mastodon was at the top of my list, I love those guys, their whole vibe just fits with Splatterhouse so well. Then we’ve got guys like Lamb of God, High on Fire, The Accused obviously invented splatter rock so we had to have them in there. Then we’ve got Mutant Supremacy, my buddies from Brooklyn and a ton of other great metal bands. Everyone was super supportive. Sometimes heavy metal can rub people the wrong way, but with a game like this with all the action and all the horror, it just fits right in.

Check out this trailer featuring Morbid Dismemberment by Mutant Supremacy:

DO: As a metal fan, how cool was it to finally make a game like this. A game that combines what you do, with the music you’re into?

DT: Ahh Im a kid in a candy shop man. This is the time of my life. Its been a pleasure and an honor to work on Splatterhouse and bring it back. The response has been great, everyone has been playing the hell out of it, laughing at the right places, cringing at the right places, so yeah its a dream come true for me. I’m just a 13 year old boy trapped in a mans body right now.

Splatterhouse is out today, so if you’re a metal head, go pick it up. If you’re into brutal 3rd person action, go pick it up. Hell, if you’re just looking for a bloody good time, go pick up Splatterhouse.

If for some reason you must wait, be sure to check out the RipTen review of Splatterhouse later this week. It’ll be finished just as soon as I wash the blood off my hands.

\m/

Why Splatterhouse 2D Will Not Be Paid DLC in the 2010 Remake

Dave Oshry — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:10:28 +0000

Hopefully, you’re aware by now that the 16-bit cult classic Splatterhouse has a full blown 3D remake due to come out next month. You may even know that the game has 2D side scrolling levels in it that pay homage to the original games. What you may not know is that the original three games will be included as unlockable content even though Namco originally wanted them to be paid DLC. In a part of our upcoming interview with producer Dan Tovar, he explains how he fought for years to keep the original games in, and why it was purely for the fans.

DO: Now, while I think it’s awesome, how did you manage to include the original three games as unlockables when clearly you could have sold them as paid DLC on XBL and PSN? From a business standpoint, it doesn’t make sense and guys like Bobby Kotick definitely wouldn’t approve of this!

Check out some old school Splatterhouse gameplay before we go any further:

DO: So, when you say you had to fight, what sort of resistance did you meet from corporate?

DO: The 2D parts of the new Splatterhouse are some of the most fun. Did you ever think of re-doing the game as just a 2D side-scroller and arcade title?

DO: Like a future downloadable title?

DT: Yeah.

DO: Sweet.

So first off, I’ve got to hand it to Dan for sticking to his guns to make sure that the original games were included free of charge. It’s a level of dedication to the fans that not many producers have and standing up to corporate is never easy to do. But, I’d also like to tip my hat to Namco for realizing that the fans deserved to have these games left in, and that sometimes it means more to do the right thing by your fans than it does to make an extra buck.

Hopefully, the fans will appreciate it, and this move will pay off when Splatterhouse is released on November 23rd.

Look for our full blown preview of Splatterhouse and full interview with Dan as we get closer to the game’s release!!

One Look At Dan and You Can Tell He's All About Splatterhouse

Gundam Musou 2 Gets New Scenario in Japan for Valentines?

Sean Mitchuson — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:46:07 +0000

Report from Famitsu that the sequel to Dynasty Warriors Gundam, cleverly titled Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 or Gundam Musou 2 in Japan is getting five new scenarios to download on February 12th. One is even themed!

Four of these new scenarios seem pretty standard, save the world type stuff but therei s one that really stands out. Apparently the evil forces have stolen chocolate, yeah chocolate. In a real war time Chocolate is a big deal, and this is a war during Valentines so you know chocolate is important on a whole other level.

Being the big hero you are, you have to go out and get the chocolate back from those bad guys. According to the screenshot posted above apparently they are carrying most the chocolate inside their own mobile suits. I know when I steal something as important as chocolate I don’t put it on freight ships to be taken far away from battle. I keep it right in the fray were it is most needed….

I am not completetly sure but I don’t think this is out stateside yet, but I do hope you guys get these missions if/when it does release because there is no thrill like that of getting chocolate back for that mobile suit loved one.

The content will be available on the PS3 and Xbox360 but not PS2 (sorry guys).

Source: Famitsu

Review: SoulCalibur IV

Dan Landis — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:08:47 +0000

Of all the new fighting games being released this year, SoulCalibur IV represents, like, half of them. Considering it doesn’t have much competition, SoulCalibur really didn’t need to try very hard to pillage the average fighting game fan’s cash. Instead of just phoning it in like some series do (*cough, Madden, *cough), Namco Bandai Games has hand-delivered a game that makes Street Fighter 3 Turbo Alpha Pro Edition look like Street Fighter 2 Championship Hyper Tournament Edition.

I personally have been of the belief that the time of the fighting game has come and gone. At some point, there was nothing but fighting games, and all I did was sit around at home and bitch with my brother that there were too many fighters and not enough RPG’s. Then the first-person shooter craze took off, and we sat around playing Mortal Kombat II on the SNES complaining that there were too many shooters… and still not enough RPG’s.

Fast-forward ten years and we have an abundance of RPG’s, and shooters managed to survive somehow (damn shooters!), but the fighting genre has all but died. So now with the release of SoulCalibur IV, we have a rarity amongst rarities — a fighting game that is so kick-ass that I, not being a big fan of fighting games, find myself surprisingly entertained.

Some of you die-hards might read that and think that if a non-fan of fighters likes a fighter, that fighter must not be made for the hardcore fighter fans — and you would be wrong. SoulCalibur IV’s combat system is so deep it needs a lifeguard.

At first I thought that perhaps the geek in me is giving this game automatic cool points just for having Star Wars characters in it… but then I remembered how stupid I thought it was that there are Star Wars characters in it. Don’t get me wrong, Yoda is a dyslexic doofus but a pretty fun character to play, and the Apprentice is fairly awesome as well. Vader, however, seems too “animated” for me, not the lumbering super-force he’s supposed to be.

While having these Star Wars dudes in SoulCalibur is kinda dumb, it does give me the distinct impression that a full-on Star Wars fighter in the vein of SoulCalibur could Force Push some ass. Perhaps a LucasArts/Namco Bandai collaboration is already in the works, and this was just a testing ground? Excited by the possibilities I have become.

So while the Star Wars characters are an on-the-fence feature, SoulCalibur IV has plenty of awesomeness to make up for it. The game presents multiple game modes: Story mode gives you a little narrative about your chosen character’s journey and how it relates to the swords Soul Calibur and Soul Edge; Arcade mode is essentially, as you’d imagine, just like playing in the arcade, where you plow through a series of combatants to beat the game with the best score; and the Tower of Lost Souls is basically a survival mode, where you ascend or descend the tower for unique rewards.

All of these modes can also be played with a customized character. Customization is both visual and statistical — the pieces of armor, accessories, and weapon all affect the attack, defense, and hit points of your character. They also may offer points in the different areas of special skill, like Impact, Power, Gauge, etc.

These skill points can be spent on the skills themselves, which can do anything from absorbing HP to increasing the chance you will automatically counter a grapple attempt. It’s quite the balancing act to get your character to not only look cool, but to also have the points available to buy all of the skills you want.

The special skills and stat bonuses don’t apply in Arcade mode, however, because Arcade mode is essentially the pristine ranked version of SoulCalibur IV. If you are planning on competing in Arcade mode, you might as well make an alternate version of your character that focuses mainly on looking like a total douche, just because it’s fun.

See how stupid you can make them look? Oh, wait…

One of the most impressive things I experienced with my created character was the ending cinematic in Story mode. When it first started, I thought to myself “That can’t possibly be in-engine graphics” but it obviously was because there’s no way they could have predicted what my character looked like to make a pre-rendered movie. It was amazing, and it really motivated me to want to unlock more customization parts so that my character in the scene would look that much cooler.

Character customization can be used not only to create your very own combatant, but you can also customize the already-included fighters, with some exceptions. For example, you can put all of Nightmare’s armor pieces on Astaroth and then give him a nice pair of bifocals to complete the outfit. You can’t, however, customize any of the bonus characters, which includes most of the unlockables as well as the Star Wars characters.

I tried to make a custom character right off the bat but found that I had very little options. At first I was pissed and thought the creation tools sucked. I played through the Story mode once, and then went back to the character creator to find that I now had more parts. The moral of the story is that you should play the game first before you start trying to change it.

After managing to make it through the Story mode that first time, I realized that I had very little idea what I was doing. I loaded up Training and looked through the moves list. One of the things I noticed that wasn’t really explained anywhere and didn’t show up in the moves list is that your fighter attacks differently depending on how he/she is standing. My fighter would stand differently after certain attacks, which would cause some future attacks to also be different until I found myself back in my default stance.

Adding to that complexity is the Soul Gauge (Force Gauge for Star Wars characters), which depletes as you block attacks (or use Force powers) and gradually refills over time and as you land successful attacks. If your Soul Gauge is depleted, it flashes red and makes you susceptible to a Soul Crush, which essentially puts you in a Mortal Kombat-style “Finish Him!” sort of defenselessness.

Once you are Soul Crushed, your opponent can destroy you in one ultra-powerful move called a Critical Finish. The Star Wars characters, apparently having no soul, cannot be Soul Crushed and instead become dizzy and uncontrollable if their Force Gauge is depleted.

Critical Finishers are pretty impressive.

One might think that this immunity to being Soul Crushed makes the Star Wars characters kinda cheap fighters, but you’d be wrong. The only way to get Soul Crushed is by blocking a lot, and blocking is for pussies. So basically, don’t be a pussy and you will actually have an advantage over them.

Another advanced technique is the Guard Impact, which stops the attack completely instead of just blocking it. This move is something that a non-blocking non-pussy like myself would never use, and that’s a big reason why I will never enter a SoulCalibur IV tournament. Blocking, dodging, and Guard Impacting are all above the relative button-mashing and special-spamming that I find to be all that I am capable of.

If you do find yourself being a big pussy and deciding to block all the time, Guard Impact is definitely a better option. Not only does it give you an advantage, but it also prevents your soul from getting crushed and your armor from breaking. When your armor breaks, you take more damage if attacked in that area, and you also take shame-over-time damage from having your underoos exposed.

This is a situation where some people might cry “pervert” in addition to the game supposedly being so focused on top-heavy chicks. To be honest, I really didn’t notice the boobage too much while playing since the action is so furious, and if anyone cared enough to look at these girls in the near-nude, they could just take all of their clothes off in the character creation menu and even change what style they were wearing.

Ironically, my unintelligent non-pussy fighting style has won me more games than it has lost. Taking the game online via Xbox Live, I found the battles to be virtually lag-free. Knowing what I know about Xbox Live and myself, however, I kept the headset off just in case I found myself calling some kid a pussy because he repeatedly used that cursed Guard Impact on me.

SoulCalibur IV also features local multiplayer, but there was one thing I didn’t like about it. SoulCalibur IV only loads one save file, so even if a friend brings his memory card with his custom character on it, there is no way we can make him fight against my custom character. This is something that should be a relatively easy thing to accomplish, and it baffles me that we’re unable to do it.

One final thing I want to mention is that SoulCalibur IV has a fairly complex (if a bit convoluted) storyline that stretches back through all of the previous games. It’s surprising the amount of lore involved, and it goes above and beyond the story of pretty much every other fighting game, with the closest competition being Mortal Kombat.

SoulCalibur IV’s Museum menu lets you look at the “Chain of Souls” which shows how all of the characters are connected to each other, and it also lets you view unlocked cinematics, artwork, and your fight statistics.

Overall, SoulCalibur IV is a highly polished fighting game that has surprising depth while still remaining accessible to non-fighters like myself. The lag-free online versus battles give the game the longevity it needs to make it worth the price of games these days, and the character customization keeps the single-player modes relevant and worth revisiting just to unlock more parts.

The only thing really missing is the Weapon Master mode from SoulCalibur 2, but it could arguably be stated that the Tower of Lost Souls and Story mode feature most of what Weapon Master mode used to be. Regardless, SoulCalibur IV stands as one of the best fighting games I’ve ever played, and will likely be the best brawler on a console until Street Fighter IV attempts to dethrone it… which it might not be able to do.

Piechart Tracks Power Struggle in Japanese Videogame Market (Video)

Cavin Smith — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:59:25 +0000

It turns out that setting your sales presentation to the tune of the Metal Gear Solid theme makes it a whole lot more fun to watch. It’s a fitting soundtrack for the epic brawl between various Japanese game companies slugging it out for market share between 1996-2007 in graph form.

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGzD2ykpaHI[/youtube]

Both Sony’s dramatic rise to power in the mid-90s and Nintendo’s more recent revival are documented, though it’s sad to see how easily Sega (and other competitors, like Bandai and their Wonderswan portable) are so easily squeezed out of the market as these two giants do battle. Not surprisingly, Microsoft’s presence is virtually insignificant.

E3 “Min-E3″ Conference Schedule Released

Chad Lakkis — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:58:47 +0000

E3, also known as “min-E3″, is being held this year from July 11th to the 13th at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA. Anyone who is familiar with the E3 of old knows that the new “min-E3″ pales in comparison to the event held in years past, that said … it is still better than nothing.

A schedule of events was released by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) for the show on the official E3 website.

Getting the ball rolling this year will be Microsoft with a “pre-E3 conference” at 8:30pm on July 10th. Next up will be Nintendo, offering up a tasty batch wii goodness, with a conference at 9:00 the next morning. Sony will bat clean up with a conference of their own at 11:30am on the 11th.

Time slots have also been granted to third parties such as Konami, Activision, Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, and few others. For your convenience we have posted the full show schedule below:

7/10/07:

8:30pm – Microsoft Press Conference

7/11/07:

9:00am – Nintendo Press Conference
9:00am-5:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
11:30am – Sony Press Conference
1:00-6:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games
2:00pm – Electronic Arts conference
3:15pm – Activision conference
4:30pm – Midway conference
5:45pm – Konami conference

7/12/07:

8:00am – Take-Two conference
9:00am-5:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
9:15am – THQ conference
10:30am – Ubisoft conference
1:00-6:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games
1:00pm – Namco Bandai conference
3:30pm – Disney Interactive conference

7/13/07:

9:00am-3:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
11:00am-3:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games

Booths will be set up for over 30 companies on the floor of the hangar, however we are sad to report that there are some notable names that will not be offering up formal conferences namely; Capcom, SEGA, and Square-Enix.

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