I recently found out about this awesome new fighter coming out soon. It looks to be a mix between Guilty Gear and Marvel vs Capcom 2 (and judging by the
character select screen, a Capcom vs SNK 2 ratio system).
This 2D team based fighter is being released on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network sometime this year.
The story is: There is a mystical artifact known as the skull heart that will grant a girls wishes, but only if she is pure of heart. If the skull heart deems her unworthy, it will corrupt her wish, granting it but with dire consequences, and the heart will transform her into the skull angel. And all the characters want it.
It has several noteworthy people working on it.
Mike Z - A notable tournament goer who is one of the head developers. He's also putting in never before seen mechanics to ensure there are no infinite combos.
Alex Ahad - The art director for the game. His previous works include Scott Pilgrim and some Street Fighter comics with UDON among others. This game, like Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, is fully animated by hand.
Michiru Yamane - The composer for the game. She is notable for her work with the Castlevania series (And you can totally hear the similarities).
The character designs seem excellent so far, and they've said there will be 8 in the full game. Mike Z has announced there will be DLC of some kind, but we don't know anymore than that. The 4 announced so far are...
Fillia - A young girl who woke up with amnesia and a monster attached to her head named Samson. She uses Samson to attack, and he can transform into many shapes. Very reminiscent of Millia from Guilty Gear and she seems to be quite an effective rushdown character.
Cerebella - A circus performer who acts as muscle for the local mafia. She fights using Vice-Versa, a pair of gigantic arms she wears on her head. She fills the role of the heavy, throw-type character.
Parasoul - Not yet officially revealed but scene on G4 in
this video.
Peacock - A young girl who was abducted and transformed into a killing machine to be used against a the skull angel. Due to her love of old 1920's - 40's cartoons, she turned into one. She attacks using various traps and tactics adapted from old cartoons. She's also full of references to all sorts of things from "Requiem for a Dream" to Gradius.
Click here for the current list.
This game is also bringing some new things to the genre. As for the above-mentioned anti-infinite mechanic, if your opponent is doing a combo and starts to repeat himself, all you have to do is press a button to escape. Of course all your opponent has to do is mix up his combo, but it will get pretty difficult after a while.
Also, for the first time in a fully 2D game is active shading. What that means is if your character stands underneath a light, they will be shaded appropriately. It really looks great.
LINKS:
Official Website -
http://www.skullgirls.com/home
Trailer -
http://youtu.be/wEakGFYBoRU
Peacock Trailer -
http://youtu.be/QYlqHDqwNRo
Music Sample -
http://youtu.be/HpkHq4uT29c
Early Version Gameplay -
http://youtu.be/2zN9bUCFrdo
Gameplay Footage with Peacock (Starts at the 1 hour mark) -
http://www.justin.tv/leveluplive/b/287816943
I can't wait for this to come out.
