Many people know Capcom from their fighting games, most recently, Street Fighter IV. Many others like their classic action games such as Devil May Cry, Mega Man, Bionic Commando, or the soon to be released Resident Evil 5. Older gamers even recall their multitude of beat-em-ups, based on everything from Dungeons and Dragons to the Punisher. However, they aren’t too bad at making role playing games either, as these two Super Nintendo games show. While they stick to the genre’s conventions for the most part, these two games contain some innovative quirks that help the series establish its own identity alongside the Final Fantasies and the Dragon Quests.

Note: None of these guys are anywhere near as cock diesel in the game as they are depicted on the cover. Well, maybe the horse-armadillo guy.
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In ancient Rome, the Gladiators were basically what pro wrestlers and basketball players are today. People would shell out money to see them, and a big name or skilled combatant could draw insane crowds. Many video games have incorporated the high risk and brutal action of the ancient sport in some way, be it Oblivion’s arena storyline or the forgettable Xbox game Circus Maximus. However, Lucasarts’s Gladius really brings the ‘sport’ home. It’s turn based RPG strategy with a twist, and it’s one of Lucasarts’s best games not named Star Wars. Come to think of it, it’s one of their best games period.
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Ok, so it’s not so much an “Obscure Find”, as it is a “You Need to Take a Look” feature, especially for those of you who are, like me, huge fans of video game music.

Overclocked Remix is a site dedicated to the remastering and reinventing of previously-composed video game music. It’s not a newbie to the internet and has been around for almost a decade, bringing together gamers and musicians and combining the respective loves of each into a community of enthusiasts dedicated to finding new ways of spinning old classics and new classics alike in the realm of game music. Eventually, what began as individual musicians making individual remixed tracks from all sorts of games, spawned into groups of the independents combining forces to produce remixes of entire game soundtracks. Hence, OCR Albums came about.

Many great game albums have been recomposed by some of the best OCR has to offer. Classic soundtracks came about, such as “Hedgehog Heaven” – a remix of the entire Sonic the Hedgehog 2 soundtrack and “Relics of Chozo” for the Super Metroid soundtrack. My personal favorite has to be “Project Chaos“, an entire remixing the the Sonic 3 & Knuckles game album.

Overclocked managed to gain some heavy notoriety with their site albums when their remix project of the Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix was actually featured as the in-game soundtrack for the release, featuring the ultra-talent of individuals like José E. Felix, Shael Riley, and even big-wigs such as site head David Lloyd and his trusty sidekick (err, fellow staffer) Andrew Aversa.

With the most recent release of “Summoning of Spirits“, an arrangement of the Tales of music soundtracks, these site-wide project album of OCR’s are most definately an Obscure Find you’ll want to check out.

This past week was my birthday. To celebrate, I have a double dose of my usual columns this week. This first part is an appendix to last week’s Street Fighter special, featuring 3 Capcom fighting games while the second part, due later this week, will deal with some RPGs. Once again, it’s my [belated] birthday, yet you get the gift. Click onward!
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“Final Fantasy IV: The After” or “The After Years” as it will now be known, is coming to the Wii. What is this game? Final Fantasy IV: The After – Return to the Moon is a direct sequel to Final Fantasy IV, the greatest game ever made, which was previously available only to Japanese cell phone users. Many North American fans have been wanting to get this game, but unable to even imagine a mechanism by which we might get it, but Siloconera has done a bit of sleuthing and found an ESRB entry for the game stating it will be released on the Wii by Square Enix.

Not much else is known about the North American release of this game. Will it be it’s own title, a Wii Ware game or on the Virtual Console? Any of those could fit so far as I can figure, but I’m just extremely glad that we’ll actually be getting this game. The cell phone game was released in monthly installments, though it’s too early to tell if we will be getting this game all in one shot or in similar pieces.

A quick look at this game’s graphics show it to be nearly identical looking to it’s 1991 predecessor. The story follows the events of the original game by some 17 years with many character having aged, being descendants of original characters, or being secondary characters we’re getting more of a showcase on. For example we have characters like Palom and Porom all grown up, Cecil’s son, and even character’s like Luca, the daughter of King Giot.

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Its finally here, and its awesome.

Welcome back to part 2 of our Street Fighter special. In the last part, we looked over some of the franchise’s more infamous parts. In this one, we look at Street Fighter EX, which was a highly controversial entry in the series, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and as an added bonus, we’ll take a look at a little known Dreamcast/Arcade title featuring characters from the franchise.
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This week sees the release of the highly anticipated Street Fighter 4. To celebrate, Powet presents a special 2-part $20 Game of the Week/Lost Classics/Maximum Letdown Special on some of the highs and the lows of the franchise. This is part one, in which we will feature the original Street Fighter (as an example of why you can’t go home again) and the two games based on a certain movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme which just so happens to have a name and cast of characters similar to Street Fighter. This weekend we’ll take a look at Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix along with one of the more under appreciated bright spots of the franchise.
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