Megaton News

The gameplay is looking much more interesting in this trailer, mostly due to the unveiling of the seconary characters. Mermaid girl should be the main non-dog character instead of the ugly boy.

According to a 4Gamers interview with members of the Nier staff, Cavia as we knew it no longer exists. The developer of offbeat original games like Nier, and Drakengard, and outsourced projects such as the Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, and Darkside Chronicles games has been dissolved by parent AQ Interactive. It seems all is not lost, as parent company AQ Interactive will take on Cavia’s staff members. What will become of them in the future is unclear as until now AQ Interactive has not been a developer of games directly, but a holding company, parent to XSeed, Artoon, and until now Cavia.

We join with the fans of Cavia’s unique games in hopes that their staff members will continue to produce games filled with incest, and transgenered heroines in the future under the AQ Interactive name.

Capcom today announced that they have shipped 1 million copies of Super Street Fighter IV. A huge success for this budget release upgrade to Street Fighter IV in an otherwise struggling fighting genre. Now this number is purely shipped to retailers not sold to customers, which Capcom is notoriously good at considering the <30k selling Bionic Commando shipped 500,000 copies to retail.

A new ZX? New 8-bit or 16-bit downloadable? Nope! A Mega Man Starforce/BattleNetwork crossover for DS. Oh well maybe next year.

GRIN managed snag the licenses to make Wanted, and The Terminator video games, and got the privilege to create the new Bionic Commando for Capcom, and they quickly failed with all three. Failing in this expensive HD world has consequences, and today it is rumored they are cutting 160 jobs! That’s out of apparently 230. It’s a shame for the people now out of work, but they should have made better games, and probably less of them.

The long awaited 8 bit sequel is here.

WiiWare

Mega Man 9 (CAPCOM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Cartoon Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Mega Man fans, the wait is over! The classic Blue Bomber that debuted in 1987 is back with the ninth installment in the classic series. It’s a new adventure for Mega Man done in an 8-bit style-graphics, music and gameplay are all like you remember them.

PLÄTTCHEN twist ‘n’ paint (Bplus, 1-8 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): PLÄTTCHEN twist ‘n’ paint is a crazy, challenging puzzle shooter that delivers more than 100 hours of fun, supporting up to eight players simultaneously. Guard the birth of ZeLeLi and free them from the menace of the evil black Shadow Plättchen. Play as one of the countless FantasyMEs and fight as an astronaut, butterfly, car or football against sharks, cowboys, asteroids and skulls in numerous, fabulous fantasy Worlds. Use items and multipliers in combos to fight yourself to the top of the high scores and find the perfect way to solve a level. Go wild in three completely different game modes of PLÄTTCHEN twist ‘n’ paint with more than 300 levels. Twist cooperatively with your friends or compete through many multiplayer modes.

Virtual Console

Super Dodge Ball (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): In Super Dodge Ball, you take control of the USA Dodge Ball team and travel the world in an effort to become the best dodge ballers around. Step onto playing fields in countries all over the globe and use a combination of normal and super shots to help take down your opponents. But be careful, as some destinations have surfaces that can affect your footing. Manage the team as you think best, and swap out characters with other players that better fit your playing style. Two players can enjoy a head-to-head game or play a spirited round of Bean Ball, a six-character free-for-all. Three difficulty levels are available (Easy, Medium, and Hard); which one you choose will depend on your skill and courage. Do you have what it takes to lead Team USA to the ultimate prize and win the world championship of dodge ball?

Vectorman (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Animated Violence, 800 Wii Points): In the year 2049, mankind is forced to abandon an over polluted Earth and seek out other planets for colonization while the mechanized Orbots stay behind to clean up the mess. When the Orbot leader, WarHead, starts blowing a few circuits and causes a war among the mechanical brethren, a sludge pilot named Vectorman is the only one willing to step up and fight him. You’ll morph into a speeding train, a power drill, a mechanical fish and a mighty dune buggy in this action-packed adventure. Equip yourself with weapons, pick up morphs and power-ups to defeat WarHead, and restore peace on Earth.

Capcom wants to “surpass Mega Man 2″ by going back to the basics, and holy shit does it look fucking amazing. It will have NES style sprites, music, sound, cutscenes and gameplay!

Robot Masters will include:

Galaxy Man
Jewel Man
Magma Man
Concrete Man
Hornet Man
Plug Man
Tornado Man
Splash Woman

These are from the upcoming Dreamcast 2 game CG animated movie.
Click to enlarge:

Click the image for full size.

1up has begun their exclusive Street Fighter IV blowout with this gameplay screenshot, and this little bit of info:

Though the screenshot doesn’t answer this question outright, we can confirm that the game’s graphics are polygonal but the gameplay is strictly 2D. There will be new moves, locations, and gameplay features, while the standard six button control scheme remains. Ryu and Ken return along with Chun-Li and Dhalsim, but beyond that the character roster is a mystery. And then there’s the issue of what platform(s) the game will end up on, which at this point Capcom is keeping close to its chest (if you search 1UP’s database, you’ll find listings for arcade, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, but those are just guesses based on the graphical quality).

Christian Svensson Capcom’s Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Research spoke about Capcom’s alleged murder of Zack & Wiki. Denying that they intentionally undershipped and failed to advertise the well reviewed/gem of a game.

“Our guys in Japan had a HUGE marketing push for this title. It’s only just come on the market there too so I’m not so sure how you’re passing judgements so quickly.

As for us, let me make a few things clear:

We can’t force a retail buyer to take it (though we got it on the shelf in pretty much every major retailer).
We can’t make a retail buyer expedite freight so it’s on shelf the day after shipment everywhere like Gamestop typically does (which is why Wal-mart and Best Buy only started getting it on shelf on Thursday/Friday).

So for those of you who only shop at Gamestop, either pre-order or look elsewhere to find copies. There were very few pre-orders at Gamestop on Z&W (especially relative to what we’re seeing on the first couple of days sales). If you want to see more units on the shelf day one in that particular retailer, then pre-order. Gamestop bases their day one number as some multiple of its preorders. Period.

A number of retailers we pushed to take more units than they did but they have their own thoughts about the game and the market and make their shelf allocations accordingly. Our day one number was a decent number by any measure, owing a lot to the reviews and PR work that we’ve done. We are not out of stock anywhere except for possible spot out of stocks at Gamestop (probably rectified already as they took their backup order after the first day of sales).

As I’ve said repeatedly, if you’re having a hard time finding it, Wal-mart has the most units and you’re most likely going to find plenty in stock there.”

Apparently Capcom is now an indie developer, and has trouble getting their games in to stores.

Cold. Blooded. Murder.