For all those obsessed fighter players, now there’s a way to practice your combos, air cancels and all other weird moves without looking ridiculous taping your fingers in the air. This new cell phone strap from Strapya is designed to detect the special moves of Ryu, Ken, Dhalsim, and Chun-Li from Street Fighter and play the  sounds from the game. Selling it as a cell phone strap is quite a stretch though, the thing is bigger than a lot of current phones, but I guess you could put one of those little plastic cords to a toilet and call it a cell phone strap.

[Tokyomango]

ZEN Studios announced yesterday that they are working alongside Capcom to release a Street Fighter II themed table for Pinball FX, available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. While at first this downloadable table (decked out a la Super Street Fighter II Turbo) may seem like a great way to get your fix while you wait for Street Fighter II Turbo HD and/or Street Fighter IV, but upon closer inspection it would appear that this is the equivalent of Capcom leasing out their IP to make a pair of Street Fighter Velcro shoes; its a quick cash in that is riding the on the wake of the Good Ship Street Fighter IV. All aboard? Toot, toot!

Hit the jump to read more and to check out some screens from the Super Street Fighter II Turbo Pinball FX table.

Read more!

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.

Last Friday Yoshinori Ono, producer for Street Fighter IV revealed that due to the popularity of the Street Fighter 4 anime clips they would go ahead and produce a feature length anime. Made by Studio 4C, known for its quality animation and taking artistic risks, the anime might be bundled with the game, rather than sold alongside it.

This raises some interesting questions, is the western market going to embrace including a feature movie with every game? Will it be sold separately or made into a pre-order only item? More importantly, will the studio have to hold back on the content of the anime to avoid raising the game’s rating? In any case, don’t hold your breath for more of Chun Li’s hygiene habits.

[Gamespot]

The fun to play and actually decent, despite not being misunderstood and not that loved Street Fighter III series got a lot of love from me. I own all 3 in the series on the ill fated, but still awesome that is the Dreamcast. I’m easily swayed, and was instantly drawn in by how Ryu’s clothes seem to move all over the place as he lobbed fireballs. But once I sat down with the game I fell for it and commended Capcom’s decision to just start afresh with a bevy of new faces, an all new piece of hardware, and also a fresh sounding soundtrack.

The New generation and 2nd impact had cool soundtracks, but 3rd strike’s was bad asss. The little catchy jingles went out of the window in the place of full on dance, trance and drum ‘n bass fuelled compositions. The brilliant thing about 3rd strike’s soundtrack was that every stage had 3 versions of the same theme: one version for each progressive round, with the mix getting more and more intense.

Makoto’s theme stuck out for me instantly because it was cool, quirky and downright funky. You also don’t expect the track to progress and the beats to drop as they do as the rounds progress. “Spunky” is one of my fave tracks from the 3rd strike soundtrack. The whole of 3rd strike’s soundtrack was a breath of fresh air because it was such a departure for Capcom and the composers didn’t care so much about trying to re-create classic themes. They just wanted to make good music that you could humiliate and combo suckers to.

The version of “Spunky” below is versions A, B and C all mixed together.

And for those of you who didn’t know: Makoto is a girl. A very manly looking girl with a hair cut more boy-ish than Sakura’s, and big old man hands and feet to rival Ryu’s.

Listen: Spunky

Street Fighter III: 3rd strike
© 1999 Capcom entertainment Japan

Wired.com reports that a capcom.com poll held previously to decide which characters will be added to the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 versions of Street Fighter IV. The winner has been chosen, and producer Yoshinori Ono has announced her identity: Cammy, originally from Super Street Fighter II:The New Challengers. He also hinted the possibility of the infamous Sheng Long’s inclusion.

Wired.com

GameDaily reports that the console version of Capcom’s Street Fighter IV will launch in the US in March of 2009, to coincide with the late February release date of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li. Producor Patrick Aiello seems a little confused, as he believes this to also be the series’ 20th anniversary, which came and went last year. I suppose it would be the 20th anniversary of Final Fight, the Street Fighter-based beat-em-up, but that seems a bit esoteric.

This is just the first in a line of Street Fighter “collections” from clothing line Triumvir, and the rest of the line will follow in late 2008. The cap and t-shirt come together as a package, and are based off of M. Bison’s Shadaloo crime organization.

I bet most of you are thinking the red ensemble looks a lot sharper (and more Bison-like). Turns out the producers though the same thing—it will only be available at Comic Con this year. Only 200 pieces will be available worldwide (!), so the competition to snag them will be fierce.

[highsnobiety via / Kotaku]

Alongside the initial four (Ryu, Chun-Li, Casshern and Gatchaman) we now have Tekkaman: The space knight and Rival schools’ Batsu thrown into the mix!

I’m all for Batsu’s inclusion, as I was a big Rival schools fan. I’m hoping he has a super attack whereby he calls on classmates Hinata and Kyosuke to beatdown the opposition. Tekkaman looks really cool, but I’m hoping the final Tatsunoko roster are more varied in appearance. The 3 we’ve seen so far all have a penchant for white spandex and could easily be mistaken for coming from the same show. I guess that’s Japanese daytime anime’s from the 1980’s for you though. White spandex and visors were all the rage for heroes in those days.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom looks like it’s shaping up to be a great game. I can’t wait to see which Capcom characters make the cut and how big the final roster will end up. If Capcom’s recent string of original and successful titles are anything to go by, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom should be one to look out for. If this gets a console release, with some online play – I’ll be buying for sure.

I just love how Capcom’s throwing it back and having the classic beat ‘em up make a comeback.

[Famitsu]

This just released new trailer for Street Fighter 4 is pretty amazing. Starting with an ode to the great 2D classics and then showing us some gameplay clips, it frankly makes me feel like searching for the nearest arcade in the middle of the night.

Also I simply love the song! Its so damn heroic, like out of a Rocky soundtrack. I must have it, anyone know the name?