Not only does UDON make great comics based on the Capcom fighting franchises, they also translate the Japanese magna so westerners can enjoy those two. Now they are set to release DARKSTALKERS™ / RED EARTH: MALEFICARUM which is a magna with stories featuring the characters from Darkstalkers and Red Earth. This is probably a books fans really want to pick up as the Red Earth storyline is unknown to many.
Get ready for witches and wolfmen, demons and dinosaurs, knights and vampires – all in one manga! This fall UDON brings two classic Capcom® fighting games together in one action-packed manga title with DARKSTALKERS™ / RED EARTH: MALEFICARUM.
Written and drawn by Mami Itou(ROBOT, Pilgrim Jäger) Maleficarum is video game manga at its best. This standalone volume includes five short stories from across the monstrous Darkstalkers universe, as well as a four-chapter tale featuring the swords & sorcery world of Red Earth. You’ll see succubus Morrigan fight the wolfman Talbain, the devilish Jedah confront vampire lord Demitri, the heroic lion-man Leo questing to cure his cursed body, and several more fantastic tales. Also included are gag strips and artist commentary.
DARKSTALKERS/RED EARTH: MALEFICARUM Vol.1 goes on sales at comic shops and book stores everywhere October 13, 2010.
Usually I’d give a little commentary to go along with a video like this but after checking out this video of a live action Darstalkers production, I’m pretty much able to sum it all up with… “WTF?!”
VideoGames Daily’s Rupert Higham had a chance to talk to Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 producer Ryota Niitsuma. During his talk he got to grill Niitsuma about the lack of Darkstalkers characters in MVC3. The reasons he gave might surprise you.
Basically he said the Darkstalkers characters transform too much and when you are dealing with polygons and not hand drawn sprites it tends to use a lot of memory. According to Niitsuma the Darkstalkers that did make it into the game, Morrigan and Felicia, take their toll on memory.
Also Ryota Niitsuma said that a fighter like Demetri who transforms other fighters into the opposite sex might now sit too well with the higher ups at Marvel.
‘Darkstalkers characters are all complete memory hunger-mad characters because they constantly transform into things. They can’t just walk – they have to change into something when they move and it just uses a lot of data. Even just having these two is a big deal. To put Demitri in we’d have to have time to make a whole other game. Doing that in 3D is a big issue. Maybe it was one of those things that we could only do because it was 2D. But fighting games have started to catch on again so perhaps at this rate… you never know.’
UPDATE:Here’s a link to the full interview in which that quote was made.
Yoshinori Ono continues to make the interview rounds. This time he talked it up with Kotaku about Street Fighter X Tekken and why is it being made instead a new Darkstalkers. Here’s some of Ono’s quotes.
On if the game will play like Tekken or Street Fighter:
“Ultimately what we are heading for is a Street Fighter game, so everyone will have Street Fighter-esque moves. The Tekken characters will be entering the Street Fighter world, so they will play like Street Fighter characters but their moves will be Tekken style.”
How he fits Tekken Characters into the Street Fighter world:
“When I was going through all of these moves for Nina I thought ‘I’ve seen this somewhere before,” he said. “It boiled down to Darkstalkers. In Darkstalkers we have chain combos: Light, light, medium, medium, hard, hard. That is a Capcom version of that rhythmic input command.
We see great possibilities in these two mixing up. In that same sense, like how chain combos are used to play Tekken, we’ll bring back Nina and Law’s (If law is in the game) into Street Fighter X Tekken, incorporating that chain combo style.”
On why we are getting Street Fighter X Tekken instead of Darkstalkers:
“We decided to bring it up to our management but we thought the discussion was going to go on forever. We were expecting them to have a long discussion over years and years, but as soon as they had a one high management meeting together, they just stood up and shook hands two seconds after the meeting. That was the moment the decision to make this game was made. I was a bit shocked.
We have a weekly meeting with (Capcom’s Keiji) Inafune. I bring Darkstalkers up every week and Inafune has still yet to approve it… but I’m going to continue doing it.”
And finally:
“Street Fighter X Tekken is part of a grand scheme of making fighting games the biggest genre of all time.”
A few months ago when Yoshinori Ono kept talking about wanting to make a new Darstalkers game and then he said he was going to make a new game announcement, many people thought we were finally going to get a new installment for the Night Warriors but instead we are getting Street Fighter X Tekken. Darkstalkers fans were dealt a huge blow as it seemed Ono had found a new dream project to work on. However Ono recently said on his Twitter account that he still very much wants to make a new Darkstalkers but it is Capcom who is on the fence about such a game. I guess the fans need to make some more noise. Ono has suggested in the past that fans gather signatures so if you haven’t signed a petition yet, get on it!
You know how we do this one guys. I present to you a female cosplayer, gamer, designer ect. and you tell me if you think she’s a “smash” or would you “pass”. Today I’m featuring a young cosplayer dressed up as Lilith from Darkstalkers. So guys would you let that Succubus drain your life force or what?
If you aren’t familiar with Eric Vedder then you must not be down breathtaking run as the curent artist on the Night Warriors series from UDON. Eric made a contribution to UDON’s Art of Capcom 2 book which turned out to be a massive undertaking. He managed to fit every Street Fighter, Final Fight, Rival School and Darkstalkers character! Yes, Even Ingrid is in there. Click the link below to head over to his blog where he talks about how he pulled it all off.
Ono-san has said quite a few times that he’d like to make a new Darkstalkers game. When he said he would be announcing a new game at Comic-Con many of us thought fans would get their long standing wish of a new Darstalkers game. Instead he announced Street Fighter X Tekken and hopes for a new game for the Night Warriors seemed dashed again. However, it seems Ono still wants to make it happen and on his Twitter account has told fans to collect signatures to let Capcom know that players want more Darkstalkers.
What can fans do to get Darkstalkers 4 made?
Ono: [Please do a] signature collecting campaign! It [will be] sent to Capcom USA!
Here is an interesting story. A guy by the name of Ken was asked by his niece to paint a mural on her wall for her sixth birthday. The mural was supposed to be of Little Red Riding Hood. However, Ken went with another character, B. B. Hood. How awesome is that? It is likely that his niece will not be the wiser though there is a cow skeleton on the thing.
“I showed my support for Darkstalkers this weekend by painting a scene from it on my niece’s bedroom wall for her upcoming 6th birthday. She wanted Red Riding Hood… I thought ‘R. R. Hood/B. B. Hood, what the hey…’”
So today’s Smash or Pass is Lindze Merrit and her portrayal of Morrigan from Darkstalkers. Merrit is pretty well known amongst cosplayers and her Morrigan is seen as one of the best. So I pass it off to you guys, would you “Smash” or “Pass”?
Those guys over at UDON are always on their grind and they are prepping two new shelf books for your personal consumption. The first is Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia which is a in depth look at all the characters that exist in the UDON comics (this is something I was hoping for but had no idea it was coming). The second is Darkstalkers Volume 2 which collects the recent Night Warriors series.
Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia
Enter the world of Street Fighter, where fighters of every size, shape, and color collide in a global battle for supremacy. Combatants fight for reasons as diverse as their nationalities, each which their own unique moves and fighting style. Now you can learn the whole story behind the world’s greatest fighters in The Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia! Inside you will find detailed profiles of every Street Fighter character, including their histories, strengths, allies, enemies, and more! Each profile is accompanied by pulse-pounding artwork by top UDON artists like Alvin Lee, Jo Chen, Arnold Tsang, Jeffrey Cruz, Joe Ng, and Omar Dogan.
Darkstalkers Volume 2: The Night Warriors (Paperback)
The ghoulish monsters and sexy seductresses known as the Darkstalkers are back! Morrigan, Demitri, Bishamon, and Donovan are joined by newcomers like Huitzil, Anakaris, Sasquatch, and Q-Bee. It’s man VS demon, robot VS mummy, succubus VS vampire, and more, as the creatures of the night battle for control of the darkness!
Finally the Darkstalkers comic by UDON has returned and it looks like the first issue of this limited series will be in stores next week. I can’t wait to check it out. (more…)
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