If there’s one thing Capcom loves..it’s crossovers, and this could be the strangest yet. Take a look at the trailer above, announcing some of the PS3′s exclusive content for the upcoming fighter Street Fighter X Tekken. Yep, that’s Pac-Man and the oddest choice of a Mega Man — the original box art Mega Man. Yup, the fat one.

Check out this Street Fighter II scene from last night’s episode of Family Guy. Now excuse me while I go load up my SNES.

Capcom makes the Street Fighter games, but they also make a ton of zombie games like Dead Rising and Resident Evil, Ever  wonder what would happen if they mixed the two?

Manuel Augusto Moura, a Brazilian illustrator has, and he’s conjured up these images of some of the Street Fighter cast with a case of the human flesh munchies.

Hey, what do you want? It’s a slow news day.

In the interest of full disclosure before I get into this review, you should probably know that I’m a Street Fighter fanboy/dork who literally skipped my semi-formal as a freshman at Melrose High School, in order to play Street Fighter 2 all night at a random arcade up at Salisbury Beach. So needless to say, this review is slightly biased.

Super Street Fighter IV takes everything from last year’s amazing Street Fighter 4, and spit shines it. First, the roster got beefed up. Added to the roster of now thirty-five (!) playable characters this time around are Guy and Cody from Final Fight, Adon from the original (and terrible) Street Fighter, Makoto, Ibuki and Dudley from Street Fighter III: Third Strike, the worst characters in the franchise’s history, T. Hawk and Dee Jay from Super Street Fighter II Turbo and newcomers Juri, who’s like a Tae Kwon Do expert, and the oil’d up Turkish wrestler Hakan.

Next, Capcom added some much needed depth to playing online. New are the the “Team Battles”, “Endless Battle” tournaments, and “Ranked Match” options. To me, the Team Battle is the best of the lot, as it allows for two teams made up of four players, which then go head-to-head in lobby tournaments.

Last but not least, there’s a new addition to the game’s core mechanics, and that’s that every character now has a second “Ultra attack” that you have the option of choosing at the character select screen. Now, that might not seem like much, but I happen to think it’s a pretty cool way to beef up your character if you prefer one “Ultra” over another.

There are some issues that even I, the admitted Street Fighter disciple, have problems with. The intro movies and endings for all of the character’s in Arcade mode are still corny as hell, and that prick Seth, who’s not only the worst named boss in fighting game history, but also the most unbalanced and cheap, makes his return.

But my petty complaints aside, this is a phenomenal game, and one of the best in the franchise’s history. If you liked the last game, you’ll LOVE this update. And if you didn’t bother to even purchase the last game (and shame on you if you didn’t) then you owe it to yourself to buy this version. That is unless you just don’t like 2D fighting games. I mean, if that’s the case, you should just seek professional help.

The Blast Factor: It’s Street Fighter IV, but with just more bells n’ whistles, and at the sweet price of just $39.99, it’s easily one of the best bargains for your fighting game dollar.

Note: A copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

For Super Street Fighter 4, it looks as though the experience of huddling in a group, nervously awaiting your next chance to play Street Fighter in a real arcade will be well replicated. ‘Endless Battle Mode’ allows up to 8 players to all be in the same lobby, all be able to speak to each other – including active fighters – and all be able to watch the match in progress. While many of you are likely too young to have experienced those real-arcade days for yourselves, I can tell you they were glorious but frustrating and expensive. Japan still has them, but Americans have largely called it quits.

The other new mode of note for SSF4 is Team Battle, where different players can fight in 2-3-or 4-man teams, with a total group  of up to 8. Possibly the coolest addition, however, could be the Replay Channel. The Replay Channel will not record every match you play, but reportedly only the ones the game deems worthy enough to expend saveable space on. The game is also smart enough to decide which replay is the best suited for sharing your SF skills with the world. In case you are not good enough to generate videos on your own, fear not. There are a host of originals which will no doubt be as educational as they are entertaining.

SSF4, of course, also includes 10 ‘new’ characters – 8 who have appeared in previous games and 2 that are legitimately new. The most recently announced, Hakan – an Indian Oil Wrestling Champ, has generated some interesting feedback. You can check out all the character deets at the official site.

Like Kotaku, at $40 I’m sold. Plus you get to beat up cars again. Super Street Fighter 4 releases April 27th. FIGHT!

With the Australian Open coming to an end in January, the beginning of the 2010 Tennis season started.  If you didn’t catch it or don’t care about tennis, for the purposes of this argument, I must describe to you how I draw the correlation between Video Games like Soul Caliber and Street Fighter and Tekken and Killer Instinct and etc. and Tennis.

When the match starts, both players are on equal playing ground, the first of many similarities between Tennis and fighting video games.  Choosing Mitsurugi or Voldo or Ryu or Yoshimitsu is just like picking a tennis player.  They all have individual strengths and weaknesses, they all train year round, and they all use the court and all of the tools involved as weapons to defeat their opponents.  Very similar to any video game is the sense of equality on the court.  Everyone has the same amount of health, and the ability to learn everything there is to know about the game.  Equality is important to judge any specific players skill level.  In the past, numerous wild card tennis players, players who are ranked much lower than number 1 but who luck out and get the draw to compete in a world wide tournament, have put up impressive battles in the final matches against some of the greatest players of all time because of how equal the playing field is in Tennis.  Some of them win, much like picking a character you are unfamiliar with and winning.

Another universal similarity is that the entire match involves only two people, unless you’re watching a doubles match, but either way Tennis matches are intimate duels with people on a global scale.  This represents not only the player, but the people behind whichever player they relate to and like to watch.  If I like Roger Federer (1) more than Andy Murray (4), I’ll be sitting sideline in my apartment with the flag of Switzerland draped over my legs watching Federer move with finesse and grace around the court like a dancer.  What fighting video game characters make the fighting look easy?  Rafael?  Astaroth?  Ryu?  Dan?

Scoring is similar in that players win points for each successful move and eventually add up their winnings until they’ve one best out of 3 or 5.  The first game of a tennis match normally has the players performing at their peek.  In the case of Federer vs. Murray, the final match of the 2010 Australian Open, Murray struggled to keep up with Federer in his first two games, but by the third game he was putting everything he had in it.  Some players, like Marcos Baghdatis (36) or Jo-Wilfreid Tsonga (10) or Murray might need the energy the audience projects to get them playing at the top of their game.  Some players.  Others like Federer or Rafael Nadal (3) are consistently good at the game.  No matter how your room of gamers or the stadium of fans explodes with emotion at the match; the playing is still the same for the best of the contestants in both fields.  Daigo, a world-renown Street Fighter champion, plays his game much like Federer plays his.  If it were only that easy.

Each player is unique in both games.  Some like the French tennis player Gael Monfils (12) play the game so uniquely and with so much energy that it’s hard to read and understand the moves he’s throwing at his opponent.  Ever wonder how Dhalsim just teleported from one side of the map to the other, while floating, to end up shooting fireballs at you when you first fought him?  You’d wonder the same thing if you knew as much about Tennis when Monfils flies across the court and snaps his knees back and forth like invincible rubber bands set on giving his fans some physical poetry to watch as well as confuse his opponent.  But, these uniqueness’s also have their drawbacks.

Dhalsim is slow, he has range, and uses voodoo, but a competent player of Ryu or Ken or anyone for that matter can see his faults and compromise on them.  Dhalsim can do the same for a consistent Hadouken Ryu, but either way the sport of tennis and of fighting video games utilizes the same plus/minus affair.  Any duel does for that matter.  In the case of Monfils, his "invincible," knees only appear that way causing his major drawback to winning a world championship to be because of knee surgeries and fatigue.  While I can compare Tennis to Soul Caliber and Street Fighter, I could also say the same about Fencing or Boxing but those are much more traditional and easier to draw the connection between the two.  In Tennis, no one is punching or trying to poke the other person.  It’s all about skill and sportsmanship with a racquet and a neon ball.

Essentially the world of competitive Tennis and competitive fighting video games are similar.  Where one player sits on the couch and taps directions and buttons, the other spends the whole year training on a court to revel in the victory they may have over some of the best players in the world.  One may be in much better physical shape, but other than that, the psychological elements of the two easily permeate with the adrenaline junky inside of me.  The luxury of sitting on the couch and playing alone is only a luxury when it’s not held in comparison to standing in the middle of a brilliant tennis court in front of the Prince of England to accept one of the many trophies you rightfully deserve.  But, at least the basics are the same.  Down ->Forward + Punch?  Say hello to the slice.

I don’t know about you, but every time I load up my iGoogle page it doesn’t seem to welcome me in the way I wish it would.‚  If I could virtually high-five with my computer I know I would, but alas, the technology isn’t here yet.

However, Capcom today announced the Mega Man and Street Fighter iGoogle themes perfectly fit for dressing up your tired and dull front page.

With these new themes you can check the news headlines, sports scores, maybe even stock quotes all in front of the muscular brawlers of Street Fighter or the iconic Mega Man.

Try out the Mega Man theme here and the Street Fighter theme here.

Friday morning, Capcom officially announced that Street Fighter IV will be coming to North American Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s on February 17, 2009.

The game will launch in Europe on February 20.

Capcom released a new Street Fighter IV trailer to the media this week.

“The theme in this one is watercolors, and it shows-off a fight between classic brawler Chun-Li and a new character named Crimson Viper!” said Capcom’s Chris Kramer.

Street Fighter IV will continue the tradition of 2D fighting games with improved graphics and 3D environments. It also brings back the classic characters from the previous games.

Street Fighter is one of the most classic active video game franchizes and spawned a motion picture in 1994 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which has developed a cult following.

There is no information on Street Fighter IV’s release date. It will be available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In anticipation of the AOU arcade show in Japan this weekend, Capcom has just released new screens and artwork for Abel, the 10th brawler to be unveiled in Street Fighter IV.

The new World Warrior’s back story describes him as “a man without a past.” Despite a terrible amnesia affliction, Able is searching for the remaining members of the Shadoloo.

All the characters Capcom has announced so far, including the original Street Fighter II cast and newcomers Crimson Viper and Abel, will be playable in the demo being unveiled Saturday at AOU.

Street Fighter IV looks to be the fighting game of 2008. The characters and environments are in 3D, while the actual gameplay and fighting remains true to the arcade classic 2D with additional 3D camera angles and movements.