November is almost here and that means it’s time to get taken for a ride, all over again. Twelve new characters, eight new stages, and a multitude of salty mechanical changes are approaching fast in Capcom’s newest *ahem* edition into the fighting game fray. In the video above, our pal and fighting game aficionado Maximilian takes us uhh… for a ride through a visual breakdown of some of the important changes coming to Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, this November.

Don’t have a few minutes? Luckily, Capcom has lovingly broke down a few of the announced changes for us simpler folks, which you can go for a ride pour over after the break.

From Capcom:

1 – X-Factor can be activated in the air.

2 – The attack and speed increases for each character while in X-Factor have been adjusted. Additionally, the damage reduction minimum while in X-Factor has been decreased from 50% in MvC3 to 35% in UMvC3, and Hyper Combos performed during X-Factor will now be subject to damage scaling.

3 – A left/ right exchange during an Air Combo will take away 1 bar of your opponent’s HC Gauge.

4 – When you launch the enemy in the air with a Special Attack, hold the button down and your character will automatically super jump to follow the launched opponent. (This can be turned on or off in the Options menu.)

5 – The window for Aerial Exchange Counters has been adjusted, making it easier to land one.

6 – If you land a Snap Back attack on an assist character, similar to the landing it on the point character, the assist will become unavailable for a short period of time.

7 – It will no longer be possible to block during an air dash.

8 – The rate of HC Meter gain has been decreased by 10%, to 90% of what it was in MvC3.

9 – In MvC3, the amount of hit stun caused by assists was fixed, but in UMvC3 hit stun caused by assists will also be subject to hit stun deterioration during combos.

10 – For characters who have 8-way dashes, the speed on their down-back air dash has been slightly decreased.

Source: Capcom-Unity

Although far less vocal than fighting and sports game players, wrestling game enthusiasts are intensely particular about their genre; they more often than not, tend to go far lengths to experience new titles or support established franchises. This kind of genre-specific dedication is truly fascinating to me, but comes as no surprise, considering the huge impact professional wrestling has on different cultures. THQ, no stranger to the wresting game genre, is set to release WWE All Stars on March 29^th. Although wrestling games seem to come out at a somewhat consistent clip, All Stars looks to set itself apart from the pack by approaching the genre not from the traditional wresting simulation angle, but as a wrestling/competitive fighting game hybrid.

Although this has been done in the past with such titles as WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game, Capcom’s excellent Saturday Night Slam Masters, SNK and ADK’s 3 Count Bout, and more recently, AKI’s Gamecube/PS2 wrestler/brawler titles (based on the popular Kinnikuman anime) Ultimate Muscle. Wrestling/fighting game hybrids have had their impact on both the arcade and the console fronts, but have not enjoyed the success of either fighting games or wrestling games. THQ aims to fill that gap, and entice both fighting game players and wrestling enthusiasts, while ideally providing accessible game play that will bring in sports-arcade game players.

THQ has put Sal DiVita in the role of Creative Director to spearhead the development of WWE All Stars. DiVita worked on arcade style sports titles such as NFL Blitz and NBA Jam, so he knows a tiny bit about making your eyes explode. He is backed by Lead Designer Dave Friedland and ex-members of Midway San Diego, also all very versed in over the top sports titles, so the team behind the game is more than capable of creating the arcade look, and more importantly, the feel and pick-up-and-play nature of old arcade sports and fighting games.

In addition to the more arcade sports/fighting game play and look, THQ has chosen to not only use current characters from WWE’s stable of wrestlers, but add a slew of classic wrestling greats. With 15 current wrestlers and 15 classic wrestlers announced, and wrestling stars like Andre the Giant, “Macho Man” Randy Savage to Rey Mysterio Jr. and John Cena, THQ went out of their way to include as many WWE Superstars as they could. With the recent confirmation of DLC, there may even be the possibility of seeing other classic and current wrestlers and possibly even additional venues.

Even with the right developer in place, and all the obvious good intention, a solid fighting engine will have to work as a foundation for the action. It seems like THQ has gone with a completely different (or radically altered) wrestling/fighting engine, as the game plays more like a 3d fighter with an emphasis on linking attacks/juggles and combination throws/grapples. Game play looks fast and fluid with lots of strings/juggles and stagger/ground bounce states for extended combo strings. Characters fall into 4 different fighting classes that cover both fighting game and wrestling archetypes. The categories include the Acrobat, Big Man, Brawler and Grappler. Characters will fall in one of or a combination of those classes, and have some shared attacks, strings and grapples while also having access to character specific special attacks, grapples, pins, submissions and combos. Each character will also have super attacks, much like a super combo in Street Fighter, that they can use after filling a super meter. THQ has made quite the effort to cater to both player bases and has even gotten together with MadCatz to provide a WWE All Stars Special Edition fight stick. It seems THQ means business on both fronts.

Growing up in the arcade scene, I have really fond memories of playing both the 90′s arcade sports games like NBA Jam and the arcade fighters/brawlers like Saturday Night Slam Masters and WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game. The time and team couldn’t be more perfect for this type of game and I am really excited to see what THQ San Diego has put together for us. Come on back March 29^th for a detailed review of the final build, and videos of Mr. Hawkins and myself going to town on this puppy. See you then!

GolgoHypeMachine is an open sounding board for our staff to concisely share their excitement about upcoming games.

Dark clouds foreshadow rain.  Similarly, the new Mortal Kombat live action video that made its way onto the web seemed to foreshadow a coming storm of new media for the almost-forgotten franchise.  Timing couldn’t have been better, in all honesty.  Just around the corner is E3, the place where video games can be reborn (or at least, given a second chance).  E3 is where many fans are expecting to see something new from the Mortal Kombat franchise, having just been acquired by a new developer.  It’s been a little less than a year since Midway went bankrupt and Mortal Kombat went to WB Games (now, NetherRealm).

That much time away from the spotlight can leave most properties in a stalemate of sorts.  Mortal Kombat is no exception to becoming stale, especially considering the series hasn’t been terribly relevant since the 3^rd entry.  The new Mortal Kombat movie on YouTube turned out to be nothing more than a really elaborate job application for an aspiring director.  However, it seemed to springboard perfectly into this: a true trailer for a truly new Mortal Kombat game, simply titled Mortal Kombat.

The trailer, which is now available to view any time on themortalkombat.com, was released just a bit before E3 and barely a week after the live action video was abuzz on YouTube.  What is shown is a phenomenal little trailer for a gorgeous looking Mortal Kombat game, easily the simplest and prettiest entry in the series in years.  But, despite the earlier proclamations otherwise, to call it new is a bit of a stretch.

Let’s call it a throwback, but not in a derogatory sense, because it throws back very, very well.  Based off of this short trailer, it seems obvious that Ed Boon and company are at least trying to make this game into the MK game fans have been waiting for since MKII.  It’s safe to say that the games had become a bit too diluted and had strayed a bit far from what made them the classics that they are.  Adding 3D environments, boats of new characters, weapons, and new stories are all well and good, but the world became too much and got too far from what MK fans had loved.

So, MK, it seems, is going back to its roots.  2D fighting, classic characters, classic environments, and classically brutal violence are all in this trailer attempting to showcase that Mortal Kombat is back.  No character shown is from any game later than Mortal Kombat 3.  The returning characters seem to have (for the most part) reverted back to their simpler forms, like Sub-Zero and Reptile who resemble similar looking ninjas, but not pallet swapped ones, and Kung-Lao and Raiden who have been given a modernized MKII makeover.

Environments that we see are ones that fans have been demanding, like The Pit and The Dead Pool as well as others, all given a modern sheen.  But most importantly, the game seems simpler, yet  almost simultaneously deeper.  The games in this genre that have had the most success have been ones that anyone can pick up and play, but with layers and layers of depth to give the hardcore players new nooks and crannies to salivate over.

Mortal Kombat has never been known as a game to feature a really in-depth combat system until the later games, at which point it almost became too complex, and no longer pick up and playable.  This trailer shows a game that’s in 2D, which will mean less complex controls, while at the same time showing what appears to be an intense combo system filled with crazy juggles and special moves.  It would be hard to argue that Boon and the boys had taken a cue from the latest incarnations of Street Fighter and have really taken a game that had lost its luster, simplified it, and added some much-needed depth.

But it’s also obvious that this game is here to please the fans, very similar to how Capcom did it with Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV.  It’s hard to argue against emulating success, and harder to argue with the success of SFIV and SSFIV, which have revitalized the fighting genre and thrust it back into the mainstream.  Can Mortal Kombat continue the fighting genres hot streak?  Calling all you suckers for the old school:  Whether it’s a reboot, a throwback, or what, it looks badass and it looks like Mortal Kombat is back.

As is typical of the internet, Hakan, the tenth and final (?) character to be added to the cast of Super Street Fighter IV, was debuted a couple days earlier than expected.  IGN’s Daily Fix posted the debut trailer earlier this evening and all I can say is wow. I don’t think that now is the best time to get into what I think about Capcom’s design philosophy for this title, but I am interested to see what you folks think.

Oddly enough, Seth Killian had mentioned that Hakan, a burly Turkish oil wrestler, was going to be pretty bizarre, and had what he thought was some of the craziest (read absurd) ultra moves in the game. Take a look at the footage yourself and have a gander at what Capcom feels represents Turkish oil wrestling down to the most minute detail…

The silliness is quite silly, but I have to admit that I am intrigued. Last, here is a match video of Hakan fighting Juri, another of the new characters, note the silly English voice overs.

So that is the last of the new characters for SSF4. Expect more footage and info on the character as we get closer to the April 27th release, including whatever super secret extra stuff owners of the original SF4 will be unlocking in SSF4.