Tekken 6 isn’t the series’ best soundtrack. I don’t think Namco are ever going to touch the awesomness that was Tekken 3’s soundtrack. But 6 is certainly the most varied of the bunch sonically. Each piece is completely different in style and tone to the last. Many of them you wouldn’t associate with a Tekken game at all.

Amongst the various styles that the Namco sound team play with, “Fallen colony” is my pick of the bunch. It’s just a bad ass piece of music. Distinctly Japanesey, yet with many musical styles thrown into the mix. Live drums, kickin’ guitar solos, strings, chants, trumpets, percussions, drum ‘n bass, synths and several bars of awesome.

Dishing out cans of whoop ass to this song feels incredibly gratifying. More so if you manage to smash your sucker of a victim through the glass floor of the stage this music features on, and then juggle their arse up off the floor. Good times…good times.

Listen: Fallen colony

Tekken 6 OST
© 2007 Namco Bandai

For the mp3 players: Fallen colony

Streets of rage’s soundtrack was way ahead of its time. During a period when every other game was going for those pieces of music that could simply only be pigeon holed as a video game composition and nothing else, and in many cases exposed the limitations of the hardware at the time – the Streets of rage franchise pushed the boundaries. By going with a more mainstream musical styling, not unlike anything you’d hear in a club or on the radio: Streets of rage ushered in a new wave of video game soundtracks. And let gamers know that a video game soundtrack could be funky, could make you dance, could be hella cool and sound good enough that you could play it seperately from the game. I found the soundtrack so fresh when I first heard it, simply because I’d never heard music like it in a video game before. I didn’t know a video game could feature music so funky and dance oriented until Streets of rage came along.

The original Streets of rage’s very first stage had one of the most memorable pieces of music in the whole game, and possibly the series.  With it’s hot synth work, funky horns and a break down: there was nothing better for you to stab, bottle and pipe swing suckers to. “Fighting the the street” is a classic that never gets old. Not matter how many times I hear it, I love it, and come over all nostalgic in the process and just wanna switch the game on, pick Blaze and watch her lay the smackdown in a skirt that’s way too short and too shiny for a lady to wear on the streets at night unless she’s Beyoncé and she’s filming a music video.

I loved “Fighting the street” so much, that I decided to re-do the song from scratch myself a couple of years ago – purely because I wanted a version of it that had more kick and didn’t sound so 16-bit like. So this version is my own re-do if you will. It’s exactly the same as the original. Only less MIDI-fied and with a bit more of a punch in the beat.

Listen: Fighting in the street (Random J’s re-do)

Original composition by Yuzo Koshiro
Re-done by Random J
Streets of rage / Bare knuckle OST
© 1991, 2007 Sega

For the mp3 players: Fighting in the street (Random J’s re-do)

Poor suckers who only own Wii’s exclusively were made to feel a little left out and like pieces of rubbish when Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 2 would be releasing for the Xbox Live marketplace and the PS network, but not the Virtual console (blame Nintendo and their file size restrictions). But now they can perk right up and rejoice, because Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is breaking out of Japan and is heading for the US and the UK! Can I get a “Yaaaaay!”

After a good 6 months of shedding tears over never getting the opportunity to play this game, Capcom have done what we thought was impossible and gotten the game green lit for a US and UK release. Still no word on if Australia will see the game. But given Capcom being full of awesome as of late – I’m sure gamers down under will be in on some cross over battle action.

Capcom have noted that the game may see additional features not included in the Japanese release of the game. Notably the possibility of extra characters and the all important online play.

If Capcom do not add online for the US release, then I will spit in the face of a Capcom employee. Not any of the ones who helped get the Western release though. Just a miscellaneous one who looks weedy enough that he won’t be able to beat me up. You cannot release a beat ‘em up in this day and age without online play. Unless of course, it’s released on Wii. I guess we best gets to praying again that Capcom include it. Sure, the Wii version would have those bastard Friend codes and be kept in check by Nintendo’s “No communication” policy. But it can’t be any worse than Street Fighter IV. Nobody talks on that game during matches, nobody wants to add you as a Friend or a contact, and the match making and lack of a proper lobby system is crap anyway. So Wii owners will hardly be missing out.

This is great news. Day 1 purchase for me. I may even buy some component cables so I can witness the awesome in ‘not true HD, only up-scaled to 720, but still better than composite signal’ glory.

With Street Fighter IV’s explosive release around the corner, Capcom are beginning to roll out the new footage and game info to keep players appetites whet. The new, but familiar faces of Street Fighter IV were announced some time ago. But we now have HD footage of them all in action. Check ‘em out after the jump!

Read more!

Chun-Li’s theme has been remixed and re-arranged so many times, that it’s often hard to even take notice. But Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has me sprung so badly, that I’ve been indulging in everything related to the game except playing it. (Curse Capcom for developing a great looking game, just to have Tatsunoko licensing screw its chance of getting a western release!)

After a bunch of Street Fighter related games which featured not so much as a hint of classic theme’s and a bunch of ever-so-forgetful new ones; Tatsunoko vs. Capcom see’s Capcom giving characters kick arse remixes of their classic themes! Yay!!!

Chun-Li’s Tatsunoko vs. Capcom theme is for the lack of a better term, downright funky. It’s a cool take on her theme – staying true to its essence, but giving it a cool new twist. I especially love the bass and the guitars. This is probably one of my favourite arrangements of Chun-Li’s theme. It’s great to hear a non CPS-2 mixed take of it.

Listen: Chun-Li’s theme

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom OST
© 2004 Namco

For the mp3 players: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom – Chun Li’s theme

The post header of course does not apply if you live in Japan, or have a freeloader disc or chipped Wii for that matter. It pains me how this game looks better with each new trailer Capcom put out, but there’s such un certainty that I’ll get to play it. *sigh*

Tatsunoko vs Capcom continues to wow me with it’s vast array of colour, over the top beat downs, classic 2D style gameplay and all-round Capcom goodness. I want this game so badly and am optimistic that Capcom will nab a lawyer as good as Johnnie Cochran to plead a case and get this game a Western release. But deep, deep down I know it’s not going to happen. It’s sod’s law that Wii FINALLY gets a solid beat ‘em up and a solid game PERIOD, yet it may not get a Western release. This truly does suck.

At least Capcom bothered to develop the game for Wii at all and at least it looks good. That’s something to savour I guess. The anime intro sequence looks kick arse! I’m glad Capcom are embracing fully animated intro sequences and are doing away with lazy GIF’s that slide across the screen. Though Capcom couldn’t resist bringing them back for their latest trailer. And as for the music, you gotta love that funked up Ayumi Hamasaki-esque theme song!

Tatsunoko vs Capcom will release on Wii and in arcades over the course of the first 2 weeks of December. Obviously for Japan only. But if Dark diamond readers and Capcom beat ‘em loving Wii owners pray hard enough, it may see Western shores. Now, bow your God damn heads and pray! Pray REAL hard.

Akuma’s back to grace the world with his spiky red hair, prayer bead necklace, bad teeth and geta sandals. Oh yeah! And his murderous intent. Akuma looks as though he’ll play similar to the way he did in Street Fighter III. The major difference here will be that Akuma will be able to execute EX specials – something he was not able to do in 2nd impact and 3rd strike. So he’s probably going to be a tad more powerful and a bit more of a bastard to fight against. I just hope his EX air fireball doesn’t cause him to lob two instead. I can see it being the case unless Capcom have plans to have Shin Akuma show his face.

I’m not liking Akuma’s remixed Shun-goku-satsu though. I prefer the grab, darkness, the 15 hits going off and then the pose. They also could’ve picked a better stage for him to have done it on for the trailer too. The hip-hop ho and the low rider in the background after he K.O’d Ken with it dampened the effect of the move ever so slightly.

Despite Akuma getting his cool own reveal trailer after the release of Sakura’s, (although he was confirmed for the game a good month ago) he is not exclusive to the home console versions of Street Fighter IV and is playable in the arcade version of the game.

Not much else to say really, except it’s good to have her back again! And how can you not love that “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”!? Just when I didn’t think Sakura could get any more charming!

It appears Miss Kasugano is still stuck in her Junior year at school. Beating up punks and fire-balling them in the street whilst keeping the Chuck Taylors squeaky clean and the panties on display obviously takes priority over her academic studies. It appears she’s been hitting that same gym as Chun-Li too. Her legs and arms are like tree trunks!

This is great news! Capcom can never be too generous when it comes to additional characters. I just hope it doesn’t stop with Sakura, Cammy, Fei-Long and Dan.

First Dark resurrection and now Bloodline rebellion. Namco seem to have caught the bug that had Sega re-release Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 in Evolution and R forms. The new version of Tekken 6 features 2 brand new characters: a dude named Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Bosconovitch and also 2 new stages. Players will also have access to new accessories and have the option to customize the hairstyles of characters. Splendid!!

Lars is some crazy dude who wants to create a new era and has a full name which makes him sound like a member of ABBA. And Alisa doesn’t really have much of a story, though her surname name bares more than a slight resemblance to Dr. Boskonovitch’s. It’s unknown whether or not there’s a relation between the two, but it’s highly likely. Both characters sport a futuristic style and look like they belong in an RPG’s. Lars’ design is somewhat decent – we can work with it. But Alisa looks like a Phantasy star reject. I’m not sure what it is with Namco and their re-release female characters. First Lili and now this Alisa chick. Both look like crap compared to the staple females Nina, Anna, Julia (in the denim mini skirt, cowboy boots and waist coat combo), Xiayou and cool recent addition Asuka.

Tekken 6 doesn’t have a PlayStation 3 release date as of yet, but it goes without saying it will end up on the system at some point and that Bloodline rebellion will be the version of Tekken 6 which gets ported. It will be interesting to see if Namco will let Xbox 360 owners in on the Tekken action; given that Namco spread the Soul Calibur love across both systems and that Sega did the same with Virtua Fighter 5.

Look out for this game in your local arcades. If your arcades are anything like the one I go to, the Tekken 6 machine will be surrounded by guys who eat and sleep on the machine and won’t let anybody else play it.

[The magic box]

Nintendo Wii owning Tatsunoko, Capcom and Street Fighter fanboys rejoice. Capcom latest cross over battle game will be making it’s way to Wii!! The not so good news is that due to licensing issues, there is still a great deal of uncertainty regarding a Western release. But Capcom USA are on the case, so it’s looking hopeful. With any luck Capcom’ll throw down an aluminum suitcase full of money in front of the Tatsunoko exec’s to help sway ‘em…just a tad.

I always had a feeling Tatsunoko VS Capcom would end up on Wii. From the start it seemed like it was potentially going to end up being a pity game for Wii in the absence of Street Fighter IV on the little white box that couldn’t. Not that I was ever complaining mind you. If this is Capcom’s pity, then I’ll take it in spades and skips! I’m actually more excited about Tatsunoko VS Capcom than Street Fighter IV personally. The game looks awesome! But this is coming from a complete whore of the VS. series. I own all the games. Even the God awful port of X-Men VS Street Fighter for the PlayStation. Yes. I am THAT sprung. Read more!