GameSpoon - The King of Fighters XII

HELL YEAH!

SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters XII will be coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in July - worldwide! This is fantastic news, previously there had been no word regarding a non-Japanese release of this amazing hand-drawn game.

According to Kotaku's article, the game will be reinventing itself, returning "to a core set of characters, relaunching with a new look but retaining the classic feel" (Kotaku).

"I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to commemorate The King of Fighter's 15-Year Anniversary than with a gorgeously animated, high-definition installment that updates the KOF legacy for a new generation." said Shane Bettenhausen, New Business Development Director of Ignition Entertainment. "While other fighting games have abandoned the time-consuming process of creating beautiful 2D art, KOFXII fully embraces the refined aesthetic beauty that only human hands can produce" (Kotaku).

This is fantastic news to hear, riding on the tails of the Street Fighter 4 release. Combing SF4, KOFXII and the new Tekken that's in the works - it's time to seriously consider building out a custom arcade stick from Arcade-in-a-Box.

I think I know how I'll be contributing to the global economy

GameSpoon - Tekken 6

Tekken has been my favorite fighting series since the game launched on the original Playstation in the US. The speed of the game, the variety of styles and the unique control over the characters captivated me instantly.

Since my first experience with the game, I have always done my best to keep up with the series' releases and it's hard to ignore it when trailers, such as this one, are released!

This trailer, showcased for the "Atari Live" press event, gives you a glimpse at the gameplay of Tekken 6. This will be the first title, that I'm aware of, that will not only be released for the Playstation, but will be released on a non-Sony platform as well - the Xbox 360!

It'll be interesting to see the differences between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. I wonder how this change will affect the series, will any previous versions of the game be released on the Xbox Live Arcade to help promote the release? We'll see in "Autumn of 2009"...well, time to go hibernate.