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SDCC '09: Capcom
Of all the booths at Comic-con this year, the booth I spent the most time at was Capcom's. They really brought their A game this year, and I mean A as in Awesome. Capcom had a powerful presence at Comic-con, offering lots of great demos to play, exclusives, tournaments, and extra special surprises. After every panel I was at, I would walk by the Capcom booth to see if anything cool was going on, and most of the time there was. Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: After I bought the exclusives I could get on the Preview Night, one of the first things I did at SDCC was play a couple rounds of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. The game freaking rules, folks. It's great to see all these Tatsunoko characters getting some videogame love. Those that played the demo received a super cool Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom towel with the logo in the middle, Ryu on one end, and Ken the Eagle on the other. When you drape it over your neck properly, the logo is on the back of your neck with Ryu and Ken the Eagle on either side of you. Like a big fighting game nerd, I proudly wore the towel around my neck for the remainder of my time at the 'con that night. Dark Void: At the Capcom 2009 Line-up panel a special trailer for Dark Void was run that was much like the Captivate '09 trailer, but at the end were the words, "Capes are for Wussies." After the trailer, producer Morgan Gray said that Batman and Spawn don't count in that statement because they make capes look cool. Dark Void is the first game to use a vertical cover system which sounds especially dangerous when the hero needs to hide behind and hold onto his jetpack with one hand and shoot with the other. The game is about a guy named Will who gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle, but ends up teaming up with Nikola Tesla to save the other lost people from aliens. Morgan said that Dark Void will bring together a lot of the old conspiracy theories. Down at the booth, the Dark Void jetpack was spinning in a glass case and fans could get their picture taken in a "Greetings from the Void" photo shoot, sometimes with the guy dressed-up as Will. Sometime before Comic-con, Capcom said there would be hourly signings, but didn't say exactly who would be signing except for Battlestar Galactica/Dark Void composer Bear McCreary. Bear was signing Udon Dark Void comics with Morgan Gray for an hour on Friday. Between two of my panels I headed to the booth. I pulled out my BSG Seasons 1, 2, and 3 soundtrack booklets for Bear to sign to which Morgan said, "Wow, look at that! That's awesome!" I asked Bear if the 8-bit version of the Dark Void theme he did awhile back would be in the game somewhere. He said it will at least be on the soundtrack. I will definitely have to pick that up. Lost Planet 2 (with bonus Resident Evil 5): I've already covered the Lost Planet 2 panel and Sir Om-Nom-Nom so I won't go into detail about those here. One of the times I was walking past the Capcom booth Producer Jun Takeuchi and Director Kenji Oguro were doing a signing. They were signing some very basic Capcom signing cards, but knowing that Capcom likes to do surprises, I came somewhat prepared for just such an occasion. I pulled out my Resident Evil 5 instruction booklet for Takeuchi to sign. Later on during the 'con, Karen Dyer, the voice actress for Sheva Alomar was also doing a signing at the Capcom booth. I was damn lucky I brought that book with me. Exclusives: Capcom had a number of cool exclusives at the Capcom store this year. They had limited edition Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition Fight Sticks and limited edition Fight Pads each with exclusive artwork. I thought about getting a stick, but I already knew I was going to spend boku dollars at the 'con and that money would easily be used elsewhere. I wasn't that keen on the exclusive art of the sticks anyways. Capcom was selling the limited hardcover edition of Udon's SF20: The Art of Street Fighter book. I'm a sucker for Udon books, especially hardcover ones. The regular edition of the book is coming in September. The Dark Void statue was cool, especially with the light-up effects, but I was good with the small 4-inch version. Capcom also had a fine selection of games, t-shirts, bags, and some items from Japan. The Monster Hunter Felynes plushies were cute, and they had a cool Rockman 20th Anniversary mug with Bombman and Rockman on it that nicely complements the other Rockman anniversary mug I bought from them last year.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles: Unfortunately, I was unable to get to play the Darkside Chronicles demo which means I also didn't get a super cool Resident Evil t-shirt with a zombie face to put on my head. All the available times got booked immediately at the start of each day, so I was out of luck. At the Line-up panel, Producer Masachika Kawata introduced the game by saying, "Hello to all the zombies in San Diego," which got some laughs. I hadn't watched any trailers on it before, but it looks fun. Plus, bad-girl Ada Wong made an appearance right at the end of the trailer which caused some fans to cheer. Kawata mentioned that if you play the demo you get a Darkside Chronicles shirt and his translator demonstrated how the shirt worked by pulling it over his head, with the zombie face covering his. Fortunately, for the kids in the audience, he was wearing another shirt underneath and threw the Darkside shirt into the crowd. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: The first playable demo of Miles Edgeworth was at the Capcom booth and some fans that played the demo received a tin, towel, or phone strap thing. I overheard one of the Capcom guys telling a fan that the items were handed out at random. However, every time I walked near the demo and saw someone getting an item it was a cute girl. So, only random cute girls get the Miles Edgeworth goods? Exactly. Producer Motohide Eshiro also did a signing during the show. Spyborgs: Maybe I was just walking past at the wrong times, but I rarely saw anyone playing the Spyborgs demo. Those who tried Spyborgs received a free Udon Spyborgs comic. I didn't know a thing about Spyborgs, but I love Udon art, so I eventually took a little time to try the game on Saturday. When I tried to start the demo there didn't seem to be an option to play it single player, so I had to move the second character a little before the boss battle would start. Yeah, I went straight to the boss battle in the demo without knowing what the controls were or what the characters were capable of, but I was confident enough in my gaming know-how. I managed to get the boss down to half strength before some random person decided to join me. I died, though, and the screen said that my character couldn't be revived until the current enemy was defeated. Well, that looked like it was going to take awhile so I grabbed a comic and went on my way. Where's Waldo? I don't know. I couldn't find him, but I'm sure he was smack dab in the middle of those chesty Wald-ette girls again. If you found the official Capcom Waldo and Wald-ettes at Comic-con (the same three from E3), they would stamp your Waldo passport. You would then take the passport to the Capcom booth and be entered to win lots of stuff. Actually, I saw Waldo at the Capcom booth right before he went out on the show floor, but that didn't count for the contest. I ended up seeing two or three other unofficial Waldos, but not the real Waldo. Capcom brought it all to Comic-con this year and I have a feeling that next year is going to be even better.
- Shawn - 7/30/09 |
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