Feel the fury of his tiny objections!

Only previously released in Japan, this Phoenix Wright plush is now available as a free gift with purchase of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations. This is an exclusive offer through Gamestop and the official Capcom Store.

This news is so fresh that the store may not even be updated to reflect the option for a few days, but keep your eyes peeled—there are very limited quantities, so pre-order immediately or face the consequences!

Think you’ve got the right stuff in Puzzle Fighter? Whether you’re an old-school pro or a novice with a knack for gem-smashing, you can see how your stats stack up against the rest of the best. The leaderboards are currently for the Xbox 360 version only. You can view the top 50 players in both X and X-prime modes, sorted by top players that week, as well as overall. How many other downloadable games have online leaderboards the day after a game launches? It’s because we love you (and we also think we’re pretty good at Puzzle Fighter).

Read more about the Leaderboards on Brian’s Blog

…or just jump straight to the Leaderboards!

FINALLY, after what seems like decades (but was actually only months), Part IV of Street Fighter: The Later Years is coming to College Humor September 7! If you don’t know what SFTLY is yet and yu’re a Street fighter fan, you need to get caught up by watching Episodes 1- 3 here.

Check out the preview for Part IV here

The 2007 EVO Championship Series is a wrap! Four qualifying events led up to this past weekend’s exciting conclusion in Las Vegas, attended by thousands of the best fighting gamers from 27 countries around the world! The action has never been hotter—stay tuned for more pictures and video, but in the meantime, check out this amazing teaser video of top player Justin Wong:

After being crushed by the devastating attack of IFC Yipes’ superfast Magneto, Justin was down 3 characters to 1, and left with only Cyclops (a comparatively weak character used primarily for his helpful assist). Watch as Justin battles back from the brink of oblivion as the crowd goes nuts!

EVO moment video

Full EVO Finals Results

Because arts and crafts rule!

Okami-themed Super Quilt! via Kotaku

With Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix hitting Xbox Live today and PlayStation Network tomorrow, the gem-smashing action is sure to be hot and heavy. Once you’ve had a chance to wet your whistle and build some giant gems, check out this quick primer on how to understand the game at a slightly deeper level. This is truly one of the greatest competitive puzzle titles of all time, so once you’ve got a handle on the basics, you can open your eyes to some of the nitty-gritty that makes this game so much fun for serious players as well as first-timers.

Puzzle Fighter Strategy Guide

While Monster Hunter has always been most popular with the dedicated fans, the latest installment has been winning over the critics as well. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 receives an 8.5 from 1UP.com, an 8.3 from IGN, and currently has an 82% score overall on gamerankings.com:

1UP.com

IGN

Gamerankings

GameSpy

I dunno about the rest of you, but personally Ive been waiting on this one for a while! So with no further ado, Capcom is proud to announce Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for download on XBL and PSN!

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix downloads Capcoms incredibly popular puzzle game into the new generation. This fall, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATION Network and PC in its greatest incarnation to date. The new version of the game features newly created 1080p HD graphics, several new game modes, improved game balance, new stage backgrounds courtesy of Udon Entertainment and online play.

Release Date: August 29, 2007 (Xbox LIVE Arcade), August 30, 2007 (PLAYSTATION Network), TBD (PC)

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATIONNetwork, PC Rating: E for Everyone
Developer: Backbone Entertainment-Emeryville
Price: $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE Arcade)

Game Description:
One of the most addictive games of all time has just gotten better! Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix downloads Capcoms incredibly popular puzzle game into the new generation. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, PLAYSTATIONNetwork and PC in its greatest incarnation to date, featuring enhanced 1080p HD graphics, several new game modes, improved game balance, and online play.

In Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, players compete in intense versus battles of wit and speed. As a linked pair of gems descends from the top of the screen, players move and rotate them to form groups and piles of the same color. By destroying these groups of gems with either a crash or rainbow gem, players can send counter gems to fall onto their hapless rival. When the opponents screen is filled up and no more moves are available, the player wins the game.

Features:

• Three different gameplay options:X-Mode: play in classic Puzzle Fighter style,Y-Mode: gems automatically break when three or more gems of the same color line up in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, Z-Mode: players move a 2×2 cursor around the screen rotating the positions of the highlighted gems; more gems are added from below, moving all the current gems toward the top
• Game balance options for X-Mode: Original X-Mode or a newly rebalanced X mode that makes every character a compelling choice
• Counter Gem Edit allows players to create their own drop pattern
• Multiple online gameplay options:Ranked Match using the TrueSkill system players are matched 1-on-1 based on their ranking points, Player Match non-ranked, casual Quarter Match setup allows players to view ongoing matches and stand by to become the next challenger
• Worldwide rankings and leaderboard

On August 31 (Friday), we will be conducting an extensive network update on Lost Planet (Xbox 360)!

With this update, players will be able to select from 3 different connection types when they create a mission.

By allowing the player to select the most suitable connection type for their environment, the game’s connectivity could be improved for the players who used to have problems.

There are 3 connection types. Choose the one that matches you best!

[Default]
This is the standard setting regardless of upload speed.

[Pattern A]
This is more suitable when your upload speed is fast.
Try this if your connection is unstable with Default.

[Pattern B]
This is more suitable when your upload speed is slow and your connection is not stable with Default.
Try this if your connection is unstable with Default.

More discussion and some additional details can be found here!

That’s right, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles is mere days away from release and you can check out the preview at the official Resident Evil website. There are a couple friendly faces you’ll instantly recognize and the return of another more infamous character

Coming to you live from the Evolution Championship Series in Las Vegas are some updated photos straight from the event organizer himself, Seth Killian. What is Evo? Only the largest and most international fighting game tournament in the world!

Check the photos out HERE

Capcom recently announced at Gamer’s Day that we have an upcoming new Digital Download title, Talisman! Talisman is based on an intriguing RPG board game designed by Ralph Horsley.

Check out the Interview about Talisman the board game with Ralph here!

Two heroes. One destiny.

Nobunagas evil scourge has now spread across time to affect the future. As Samanosuke prepares for battle, a new hero enters the fray: Jacques Blanc, French military officer. Together, this unlikely team must stop the King of the Demons. Starring Jean Reno as Jacques Blanc and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Samanosuke, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is the final chapter in the Onimusha Trilogy. Control the fate of both men as you journey from 16th Century Japan to modern day Paris and back to defeat the evil Nobunaga and his hordes of darkness. Let the battle begin.

Get it on Steam now!

GameTrailers.com has posted the new Devil May Cry 4 trailer that is currently being featured in the Capcom booth over at the Liepzig Game Conference in Europe. This over-the-top trailer is definitely the most exciting yet, feature super Dante vs Nero fight scenes. Definitely check it out by clicking on the link below.

(Please note that the contents are intended for a mature audience only, and you will have to pass through GameTrailer’s age-gate.)

GameTrailer.com.

Now that we’ve finally got Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in the bag, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is well into its development, it’s time to tell you about another one our Digital titles we have coming up that finally has a name that is short and easy to say: Rocketmen.

Rocketmen is a simple two-stick shooter, multiplayer co-op with up to 4 players locally or online. Theres a ton of character customization and upgrading and leveling up. Its based on a WizKids card-based game property, and should be out later this year for both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network.

For more on this cool shoot’em up, check out Brian’s Digital Blog, with tons of screenshots, by clicking on the link below.

Rocketmen Rockin’ The Download Space

A user in our forums became curious about what it is really like to work at Capcom, to which our Christian Svensson answered:

Our meetings usually consist of me flash kicking and sonic booming people who piss me off. Occasionally Jack will charge up his Mega Buster and fire a few lame shots my way until Nique dragon punches his ass into submission.

Yeah, that’s pretty much business as usual here.

So now that you know what it’s like to work here, naturally the next question is, what does the offices look like? Well, your prayers have been answered, as Seth has posted up some pictures of the great Capcom HQ! Click on the link below to see them.

The Great Capcom HQ!

Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix has been approved by both first parties and as promised we will be doing a near-simultaneous release.

XBLA – August 29th – 800 points
PlayStation Network – August 30th – $10.00

You may commence with the trash talk.

GamesIndustry.biz has finally posted an interview they did with Mark Beaumont, who is our boss here at Capcom Entertainment Inc. in North America, as well as the boss over at Capcom Europe. In the interview Mark you can read about the future direction of our platform strategies, who race between the next-gen consoles, and even a little about Resident Evil 5.

GI.biz: Resident Evil 4 was a success both critically and commercially. To what extent will you stick with that winning formula for the sequel, and to what extent will you introduce new innovations?

I can’t say too much, quite honestly. The dev team did the teaser trailer to keep people interested in what’s going on with the product. I can tell you we will absolutely doing some innovative things with the game and the gameplay.

There’s a reason why we picked the setting for the game, which is Africa, and it has to do technologically with light and shadow and things of that nature. Basically we will really push the envelope, so you should expect to see some new things in the game.

Click on the link below to read the whole interview.

Link.

Another new patch for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition PC has just been released. A bug where after the game is launched, if the user enters “PC settings” from the title menu before starting the game, and saves changes to PC settings, the user’s save data will be lost (it will be overwritten by the initial state of the game) has been fixed and the patch should now be live, and a restart of Steam may be required to start the update.

Serious Japanese Monster Hunter fans recently was able to attend a two-day Monster Hunter Summer Camp from August 14-15. Over 100 hunters who attended were split into 4 groups. Mock exams were given and players were able to play a special quest and acquire an item in game, as well in real life (a t-shirt).

Via Famitsu (Video) and J!-Ent.

A Mega Man fan has created a cool Flash animation based on Mega Man battling Quickman. It’s pretty well done, and worth a look. Click on the link below to check it out.

Link.

Yesterday’s big PC patch caused an “User Authentication Error”, displaying the ability to play Lost Planet. However, after some diligent work by our engineers, a new patch just released about 30 minutes ago fixes all the major issues our big patched caused yesterday. Among those:

1. Users should no longer encounter the “User Authentication Error” upon login.
2. All players should now be able to create and join multiplayer games.
3. Customized player names return! Lost Planet should no longer be displaying users’ Windows login name as their player name.

However, there is still an outstanding issue with levels and unlocks that were previously achieved but are now reset. This is being looked into, but there is currently no ETA.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

1st. Uzemono/Shiro Itachi/Matsuda
2nd. RX/Sugiyama/Roshihikari
3rd (tie). Momochi/Hirai/Yuki Otoko
3rd (tie). Take/Rikimaru/Yakkun

Amidst some of the stiffest competition in the world, all of the foreign teams, including the American entrants, were eliminated in first round.

Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition

1st. Kurahashi/Ohnuki
2nd. Taira/Shiro
3rd (tie). Sako/Nekohashi
3rd (tie). Noguchi/Hakase

The American brothers Alex and Graham Wolfe were able to make it through two very dramatic rounds before falling to 3rd Place finishers Sako and Nekohashi, to end up in 5th Place overall. Complete results for the Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition event can be found here.

Visitors to the Capcom booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2007 were able to watch Alex Wolfe compete in the EVO West finals, and to play against both brothers in exhibition matches after the tournament. During the exhibition, the Wolfe brothers performed stunts including defeating their opponents with one button, as well as defeating them by literally playing with one hand tied behind their back!

You can check out more of the Wolfe’s top-level play, as well as top competitors from around the world (including many of the Japanese Tougeki finalists) at next weekend’s EVO Finals in Las Vegas, NV.

Click on the link below to hear a dramatic reading of what may possibly be leaked Devil May Cry 4 script.

Link.

Actually, no, not really. It’s not a leaked script. At least, I hope not.

Via Destructoid.

Our own Christian Svensson has put up a post in our forums about the MotoGP event we attended a few weeks ago down in Laguna Seca, where I got really sunburnt and was peeling for over a week afterwards.

A couple weekends ago (pardon the delay, Comic-con and other stuff has kept me from getting this up), the only US-held MotoGP event attracted more than 100,000 attendees at Laguna Seca, just outside Monterey, California. Among the crowds were several Capcom executives from Japan and the US, including myself, eager to get our first look at a MotoGP event since we’d signed a long term deal for the PlayStation platform rights earlier this year.

We were escorted by our Dorna hosts and given the full VIP treatment (rides in the pace car at 160+ MPH, pit lane walks, air conditioned suites to watch the event, etc.). What we found was quite the spectacle. Mind you, compared to some of the events in Spain or Italy, which have 250,000 or 300,000 people, (where fans sneak in entire motorcycle engines into the crowd to rev the hell out of them until they blow rather spectacularly in support of their favorite riders) Laguna Seca might seem a bit “tame”.

Click on the jump to see the rest of the post and more pictures!

Link.

The new Mega Man site, featuring Mega Man Star Force, is now live! There are your typical game info, and downloadable suchs as screensavers and wallpapers (You can even create your own!), as well as mini-games. Customize your own Mega Man manga masterpiece, even print it, with the Color Me Rad activity. Finally, how well do you really know Mega Man? Test your knownledge with the Mega Match game. Can you finish all the levels on time?

Okami is like an award-winning ninja. Just when other developers think their game finally has a chance to win something, Okami pops up again out of nowhere and snatches the award.

A jury of five game-industry staff at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival in Edinburgh, UK, has just awarded Okami with the Edge Award, meaning it was their favorite game of the year.

Incidentally, two Capcom games were in the running among the final eight, with Dead Rising being the other Capcom title.

Maybe if we gave it enough awards, someone up there will decide to make a sequel or port it to the Wii?

Via GameSpot

Some great stuff is coming out of Japan’s Wonder Festival, not the least of which is this great Airman cosplay…

The show has a (Giga)ton of amazing fan created Monster Hunter figurines on display, some of which you can see on Senaka Blog’s Wonder Festival gallery.

Via Kotaku, Akiba Blog and Senaka Blog.

No one would ever pick him because he didn’t have fireballs and all that, but that’s okay, because Balrog’s got his own theme song and music video! He don’t need no fireballs!

Bonus points for the Power Glove reference.

Over 600 hundred Mega Man fans came out to a New York City GameStop this past Tuesday to see the father of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune, and have their various earthly possessions autographed by him. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I present to you, pictures from the event!

I can’t stop laughing…

Two photo sets from the EVO West fighting game tournament that took place during Comic-Con and was sponsored by Capcom. Check out the hot Toyota Yaris w/the “superdeformed” Street Fighter characters and some of the HQ cosplayers that stopped by, including “Sfdevotion” who performed Ryu’s entire normal move chart!

Cosplayers.

Tournament.

Lost Planet PC fans, mark down August 16th on your calendar! A new set of DirectX 10 enhancements for Lost Planet PC will be released as an automatic downloadable patch on August 16th. The will contain specialized DirectX 10 Geometry Shaders designed to take greater advantage of DirectX 10 capabilities to improve overall visual quality, including depth of field effects, motion blur and fur shading.

Check out our Flickr archive to see some comparision screenshots of new effects.

In addition, to answer one of the biggest requests from our Lost Planet PC players, a basic chatting system has been added for the PC version which includes four default message options that can be used to communicate with others in the lobby, in-game and result screen. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

Finally, PC Map Pack #2 will also be available as with the patch, wtih the multiplayer maps from the Xbox 360 Map Packs #2 and #3, which contained the following four maps: “Battleground,” an abandoned town scattered with rubble from ruined buildings, featuring indoor/outdoor areas with multi-level vantage points; “Lost Technology,” a throw-back to the good ol days of pixelated 8-bit gaming, “Ruins,” ancient temples set amidst a lush jungle; and “Ice Drop,” a frigid glacier with lots of peaks, nooks and crannies.

Xbox 360 fans, we haven’t forgotten about you. The “Lost Technology,” “Ruins,” and “Ice Drop” maps in PC Map Pack #2 are currently available as Map Pack #3 in the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet. In conjunction with the PC update on August 16th, all these maps will also be made available for free download on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Alas, a new patch addressing connectivity for players of the Xbox 360 version will be available in the next few weeks.

See Brian’s latest LP blog post for more details.

Gametrailers.com has up a new Zack & Wiki video featuring puzzle tools gameplay. Check out the video see what all the hype of Zack & Wiki has been about!

Link.

Here’s a sample match from the EVO Super Street Fighter II Turbo finals from the Capcom booth at Comic-Con. A few notes on what youre seeing:

Play notes: This match features John Choi vs Jason Cole, playing in the winners finals to determine who moves on to the Grand Finals. Some notes on the play: Instead of a bunch of basically similar characters with palette-swapped heads, the characters in SSF2T have very distinct personalities with a huge number of totally different moves, and so are played in totally different styles. This leads to some really interesting matchups, and in many of them, one character may be considered to have some natural advantages against another. Dhalsim and Ryu are both very powerful characters, but top players generally think Dhalsim has the edge against Ryu—at least on paper. Most of these advantages stem from Dhalsims ability to counter Ryu’s fireballs. A lot of Ryu’s strength comes from using his powerful hadoken. Dhalsim, however, has lots of effective ways to counter Ryu’s fireballs, by using aerial drills, slide attacks, or just throwing some of fireballs of his own. You’ll see all of these happen in the match. On top of shutting down a lot of Ryu’s main offense, Dhalsim can also mount his own attack from a safe distance with his trademark long limbs, giving him the overall edge.

Dhalsim’s counters limit what Ryu can do, but he still has options. One of them is to try and charge up his meter to use the super fireball. The super will blow through Dhalsim’s fireballs and also has some invincibility, so it can even be used to attack right through limbs. This is a good strategy, but it isn’t enough all by itself, because it’s hard to charge more than about one super per round against constant pressure from Dhalsim’s pokes. That means you’re going to have to trade some blows with Dhalsim. It’s very hard to hit his limbs with Ryu’s own regular attacks, but fortunately Ryu has also got the mother of all punches: the (mostly) invincible dragon punch. The dragon punch will take out any of Dhalsim’s pokes, but the dragon punch doesn’t hit for very long, and if you miss, you’re wide open to counter attacks. To hit with it, you basically have to guess when Dhalsim is going to punch you. These uppercuts might appear somewhat random, and are sometimes referred to as “psychic dragon punches,” since it seems like the dragon puncher “psychically” read his opponent’s mind to know what he was going to do (or just got lucky). The reality is that top players are actually calculating very carefully when to attempt these attacks. There is always an element of guessing involved in this technique, but it is a very strategic and calculated kind of guess, based on careful observation and setting up your opponent to do certain things at certain times. Watch how Choi learns Cole’s attack patterns and predicts his next moves to increase his chances of connecting when he does these dragon punches that he needs to turn the tide in favor of Ryu.

Enough talking – keeping some of these match dynamics in mind, watch how these top competitors work to maximize their character’s natural advantages using spacing and mind games.

Footage notes: This is some “from the trenches” handicam footage (thanks to James Chen!), so here’s a bit of background on the rough edges. The players are playing on an unsexy-looking CRT monitor because we swapped out the 24” monitors we had in the ring for Lost Planet and Puzzle Fighter to avoid input lag caused by upscaling from the PS2 (we were playing Super Street Fighter II Turbo, from Capcom Classics Collection, Volume 2). Usually turning off progressive scan works but that wasn’t possible in this case, so we used the comparatively crummy-looking CRT monitor to insure perfect responsiveness. Some floor panels are also askew with some wiring shown. The natural look of the booth with the panels in place is seamless and pretty, but we had to remove the panels to hook up the CRT and get it wired into the video feed in a hurry, hence things look a bit rough around the edges. As for no fancy recliners, etc., there are of course chairs available, but many players choose to sit on the floor, and player comfort and perfect controls are our priorities. The pressures of a big tournament are hard enough so we try to accommodate any way the players choose to play. Many top players use their own custom-built or modded sticks, and prefer to place them on the floor to maximize stability. Other players (who you’ll see in subsequent videos) have different approaches to maximum stability, including bringing their own custom built steel stands. EVO isn’t always pretty, but, like the Aqua Teens, we’re #1 in the streets.

You can check out the rest of the videos over on Shoryuken.com, who now have available all the videos from the West Regional finals that took place in the Capcom booth at Comic Con.

As a reminder, today’s the day for those lucky enough to be in the New York City area to get an autograph from legendary game producer Keiji Inafune, the father of Mega Man, in addition to an appearance by Mega Man himself. The session will take place on today, August 7th, at the GameStop located on Broadway and 33rd in New York City, from 5pm to 8pm. Don’t miss it!

For this year’s Comic Con, we invited a slew of Nerdcore rappers to come and perform at our booth. If you couldn’t make it out to see it live, here are some higher quality (better than YouTube) streams of the performances.

Check them out!

Can’t get enough Puzzle Fighting? Read along as producer David Sirlin takes you on an in-depth tour of the thought processes behind the rebalanced mode in the new Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix edition (and if you don’t like the changes, no worries, the original mode is still there too!)

My high level goal was to change as little as possible because the original game is very well-designed and fun. I would even go as far as saying it’s the single best competitive puzzle game. That said, it does have a problem: only 2 of the 11 characters are playable in a serious match. I did not want to get into any deep changes with the underlying formulas or rules becausecharacter balance asidethe game is very good already. So, I restricted myself to changing only three variables: 1) drop patterns, 2) damage scaling per character, and 3) the “diamond trick.”

You can the read the whole thing on David’s blog.

On what platform would you like to play the next Mega Man game on? Capcom Japan wants to know, and they want to know from you, the fans, directly! The Rockman (Mega Man) 20th anniversary site has up a new poll asking fans to vote on which console Mega Man should appear on next.

Because the choices are in Japanese, I have devised a handy-dandy super-high-tech translation chart to make it easier for all of you to make informed choices. Refer to the chart, then click on the link below to go vote!

Click here to vote (The poll is on the right side of the page).

We’re getting lots of excitement and questions about our new puzzle adventure for the Wii, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure! IGN just had a chance to pose questions to Takeshita-san and get some good details on what’s to come. Check it out here:

Interview on IGN with Zack and Wiki Producer Hironobu Takeshita

Matt Casamassina at IGN has also launched a Buy Zack & Wiki Campaign 2007. Matt has great taste, we think.

Check out some pics from 2007’s Capcom Comic-Con extravaganza. Including everything from nerdcore rappers to cosplayers to 100 Mila Jovovichs, all amidst non-stop tournament action, it was a very busy week to say the least.

These pictures and videos come from cameras both great and small (re: our phone cams, as well as a few real cameras), so the quality varies, but we’re including it all to do our best at sharing what it was like. If you missed us this year, make sure to make the Capcom booth your base of operations in 2008.

Click on the picture above to see the whole Flickr collection.

A circular pan of the Boxing Ring that was the location of our Lost Planet and Puzzle Fighter II tournaments.

VG Ultimate Battle skit from Comic Con 2007 Masquerade. We gave this group the Best Video Game Costume Award. If you look at the photo collection, you can see a picture of all the loot they won!

An Okami themed skit called Amaterasu Where Are You? We also considered this skit for the Best Video Game Costume prize, and I personally consider it the runner up.

Why? Because CvS2 is still one of the best fighting games out there!

GayGamer.net has posted their interview with Ace Attorney producer Minae Matsukawa that was conducted during last week’s Comic Con in San Diego.

In addition to the typical questions asked about the upcoming release of the third game, Matsukawa also talked about the possible release of the fourth game:

Yes, we would like to very much, and were working to make sure that happens. But its kind of pointless if number three doesnt do very well, so we want to make sure people know about that, buy it, and tell their friends!

Well, there you have it! So get out there and buy Ace Attorney when it comes out!

Click on the GayGamer.net link to read the whole interview.

Via Kotaku and GayGamer.net