News From 07/09/02


Evolution 2002 - USA vs Japan International Capcom Matches to take place since 2 Years

[ Shoryuken.com | Trailer(Mpeg) / Trailer(wmv) ]
Influenza Virus.
Capcom based fighting game themed side Shoryuken.com has announced that USA vs Japan International team matches will take place in their upcoming tournament, Evolution 2002.

The previous International match took place in November 2000 in Tokyo Japan, with 5-on-5 matches between USA and Japan in Super Street Fighter X (SSF2T), Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Street Fighter Zero 3 (Alpha 3), and Marvel vs Capcom 2. As MvC2 and and SSF2T are already a part of the general tournament of Evolution 2002, SFA3 and 3rd strike will be matched as a 5-on-5 played between the two teams.

Japanese participants scheduled for Evolution 2002 include Ohnuki, Bas, Chikyu, Tokido, LiquidMetal, Nun, Ino, and others. Daigo Umehara is not scheduled to come at the current time due to conditions of anthropophobia, and White is also not scheduled to appear due to studies for college enterance exams.

For more details on the tournament (August 8-11, Los Angeles CA), check Shoryuken.com. Special thanks to the SRK BBS / Kuni Funada for some of the information.


New York Times documents Midway's Financial Crisis, Stocks Dropped to Half Price in past week

[ New York Times | Article ]
Influenza Virus.
(New York Times.com, July 8th)
"On Tuesday, Midway, which is based in Chicago, said that it expected a second-quarter loss of $11.5 million to $12.5 million, instead of the $5 million to $10 million forecast earlier. Neil D. Nicastro, chairman and chief executive, said in a conference call that the company had "taken account of the fact that we've done a terrible job in predicting what's going to happen."

Before the announcement on Tuesday, Mr. Wallace rated Midway a strong buy, citing the lineup of games for the second half of 2002, which included a sequel to Mortal Kombat, scheduled for September. But on Tuesday, Midway delayed Mortal Kombat's release to November, risking the loss of some fall shopping season revenue.

A day after the warning, Midway shares lost half of their value, prompting several firms to downgrade the stock. On Friday, the shares closed at $4.50, up 65 cents.

Midway officials declined to be interviewed about sales projections and the company's future. But the next several months appear crucial for Midway, which has had great success turn sour before."

For the full article, check NYTimes.com.

Special thanks to Ishmael and Gen for the News.

Short Comment- The stock drop is actually from last week, as reported by Reuters. Still, the article does a good job in documenting a short picture of the footsteps that Midway took up to the current point in their history. - "Madman" Henry Moriarty


JoJo's Bizzare Adventure for the PS2 - Official Site Renewal Grand Opening

[ Capcom | Jojo's Bizzare Adventure ]
Influenza Virus.
Capcom has made a Grand reopening of the site for their upcoming Playstation 2 adventure game, "Jojo's Bizzare Adventure - Ougon no Kaze". The title adopts Part 5 of the Gothic horror series manga, with the main Character as the son of Jojo Part 3's last boss, Dio Brandeau.

"Jojo's Bizzare Adventure - Ougon no Kaze" is scheduled for release in 7/25, priced 5800 Yen. For the official subsite, check Capcom's site.

Special thanks to Oliver Hague' for the News.


Short Comment- Chest Guess Quiz:: Name all the Characters

This would be a male oriented subject, but here it goes. Check out this Quiz posted in the BBS, a who's who in chest shot guessings. Can you name them all? Scroll down through the thread if you give up. Cheers to Ferrio for taking the time to crop each and one of the images for his quiz. [ How well do you know your Fighting Females? ]

- Henry A. Moriarty



Short Comment- Anime "Overman King-Gainer" with Capcom's Kinu & Akiman

Here goes an interesting peice of news. A new anime by Sunrise called "Overman King-Gainer" scheduled for sattelite TV broadcasting in Japan, has two of the top Capcom artists working on it- Kinu Nishimura, and Akiman.

Kinu is one of the character designers, and Akiman is one of the mech designers. The top artwork of the official site is currently by Kinu, and she's also the first person to be interviewed for the site. There's also streaming trailers for visitors with broadband connection, so check it out if you're interested.
[ King Gainer ]

Special Thanks to
Rid Hershel for the news.

- Henry A. Moriarty



Short Comment- Capcom's Akiman, draws Capcom's Kinu

I kind of missed out on writing about it from a while back, so let me mention it before completely forgetting about it. Good thing the King Gainer subject came along.

Capcom's Akiman (apparently he's still an employee of Capcom, but he's taking a non-employee stance for tax reasons, he says in his diary) drew his rendition of the other Capcom illustrator, Kinu Nishimura. Diary input from around 6/22. Check it out if you're interested.
[ Akiman Site (Diary) ]

- Henry A. Moriarty



Short Comment- ToHeart Artist Site

This I've been forgetting to mention for a while as well, but the PC bishoujo game Leaf Co.'s former head artist and scenario writer duo have opened their official site.

The artist's style apparently changed over the years, but check it out for yourself if you've known ToHeart or any of the other titles from them. And yes, they've quit the company.
[ Bungle Bungle ]

- Henry A. Moriarty



Short Comment- Watanabe Seisakujo next title, Delayed

For those of you who have been waiting for the next standard fighter game release from Watanabe Production since "Party Breaker", looks like there'll be a need to wait a bit longer. The delay is to add in more characters to the game while still keeping a high quality of sprite graphics. No dates are promised for the release at the current time. [ Watanabe Seisakujo ]

Again, sample vids are available from the site presented in yesterday's Short Comment, Check em' out if you're interested. The site owner has been kind enough to write a bit in English for visitors outside of Japan.
[ Holy Multi Kingdom ]

- Henry A. Moriarty