Did you know you could make the future brighter just by fighting? Well, maybe not, but silly Japanese songs like this certainly brighten my day. Enjoy this absurd bit of, well, let’s just call it “culture”.

At the beginning of the month I was puzzled why 5pb, in bringing Cave shooters Ketsui and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label to the Xbox 360 in Japan, would choose retail as their distribution medium when digital download seems so much more fitting. As it turns out, they were given no choice… by Microsoft.

Famitsu magazine included some words from Masaki Sakari of 5pb recently. 5pb are responsible for the ports of the two Cave shooters. He revealed that they had a plan to port many popular arcade titles to Xbox Live Arcade and even convinced many of the original developers to grant them licenses to do so, only to be shot down by Microsoft.

Sakari had this to say of their transaction with the company:

We secured these licenses, and finally talked with Microsoft. There they rejected all of our proposals saying, ‘We are going to cut down faithful arcade ports.’ We felt so frustrated. We wanted to show them that their decision was wrong. So we switched our two most promising projects into retail.

If that’s how Microsoft feels it’s certainly unlikely we’ll ever see these games available in North America, as a retail release here of such niche titles would probably be completely overlooked and require too high a price point.

It’s too bad Microsoft would turn down more choice for its online users on the download front, but perhaps they feel they have their bases covered and these titles wouldn’t garner enough interest, in either region, to be worth the bother.

Seeing complete re-imaginings like Super Street Fighter II HD and Bionic Commando Rearmed, as well as a number of original high-quality downloads on PS3, may have Microsoft wanting to up the ante on what makes it on to their online service.

Hopefully, as many quality, hard-to-find, niche and independent games as possible can find greater audience and preservation on XBLA and PSN. Perhaps the quality of these titles just wasn’t there in Microsoft’s opinion. After all ,Ikaruga is still set to appear on XBLA sometime very soon.

Source: Neogaf via Xblah

Street Fighter fans out there may have been distracted by all the recent Street Fighter 4 info, but Capcom doesn’t want you to forget about its upcoming HD re-creation of the classic Super Street Fighter II. They’ve released a couple new screens and some info about a beta stress test coming your way.

Planned as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PS3, HD Remix is based off the original Super Street Fighter II game code while updating the visuals with brand-new, 1080p artwork. It will also feature online play.

To get the kinks worked out, Capcom is planning a beta test. Xbox Live Gold members will be able to access the beta by purchasing Commando 3 on Xbox Live Arcade, due out this spring. PSN users are out of luck, I guess. The beta will only allow play on one stage and include the characters Ken and Ryu. It will last for eight weeks.

If that sounds spartan to you, you’re not alone. Hopefully the test will serve its purpose and they’ll get the online play running smoothly.

The full release, arriving later this year, looks to be much more feature-rich. Aside from the original game, there will also be a “rebalanced” mode that makes changes to all the characters, an option to play in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, and a remixed soundtrack to augment the inclusion of the original.

Source: Gamespot

In an interview with several 1UP editors, producer Yoshinori Ono confirmed that Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li (and her thighs), are all going to be in Street Fighter IV along with a batch of new (mostly female) faces.

Ono also stated that Street Fighter II is the benchmark that will be strived for in the next-generation sequel’s gameplay, balance, speed and characters.

He used the word “preserve” throughout the interview, but we hope that there are plenty of surprises when Street Fighter IV is finally released and not before it’s ready.

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