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Posts with tag clover

Sega on the Platinum Games deal

Posted May 20th 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Interviews


We hope Sega made a good decision when they decided to publish Platinum Games' works. Both Sega and Platinum (or Clover, really) are companies who make great games, but have had serious problems recently. We would like to see two of our favorite game companies succeed together.

Gamespot spoke to Sega of America president Simon Jeffery and VP of marketing Sean Ratcliffe about the deal and what drew Sega to Platinum. Jeffery believes that Capcom's Japan-focused marketing and organization contributed to the Western failure of Clover's products, and that because Sega runs a very Western-oriented organization outside of Japan, Sega can more effectively market Platinum's games.

A few interesting details about the deal came up, as well. This publishing agreement isn't just game-by-game -- Sega is Platinum's exclusive publisher for some unspecified period. Sega also holds the IP rights for the new games.

Gallery: MadWorld

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Sega partners with PlatinumGames, reveals first MADWORLD shots

Posted May 15th 2008 1:15PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Screens


Click to enlarge.

Earlier this week on DS Fanboy, we reported on a rumor that Sega had signed up to publish three titles from PlatinumGames, the studio formed by former employees of the vaunted Clover Studio. To our delight, Sega just sent forth a press release confirming the partnership, along with the first two shots of PlatinumGames' Wii debut, MADWORLD.

Described as a game that "straddles graphic novels and 3D worlds," MADWORLD looks every bit as stunning as early video footage had suggested. It's set for release during Q1, 2009, and promises weapons that range from chainsaws to street signs, irreverent humor, and sports commentary to accompany the slaughtering.

Finally, there's a fourth title that Sega is keeping under wraps for now -- all we know is that it's being directed by Shinji Mikami, whose resume includes the first three Gyakuten Saiban games, God Hand, Killer 7, Resident Evil 4, and Viewtiful Joe.

Gallery: MadWorld


[Via press release]
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Mad World to make violence cheerful again

Posted May 14th 2008 11:45AM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News



Are you sick to the back teeth of violence being so goddamn depressing? If so, Platinum Games, the developers formerly known as Clover, are right with you! In the latest edition of Famitsu, Platinum director Shigenori Nishikawa has declared that "cheerful violence" and "curb brawler" will be the themes of the company's first Wii title, Mad World. Echoes of God Hand, perhaps?

Mad World was unveiled yesterday through a shaky, grainy and spectacularly bloody video. Sporting heavily stylized black-and-white visuals, the only color to be found in the game was in the fountains of blood that regularly filled the screen. According to Famitsu, ultra-violence is very much the name of the game, which stars a troubled protagonist dedicated to committing his ultimate slaughter.

If you missed the footage (it was constantly being removed from video sharing sites), go past the break to catch up, and see how having a road sign lodged through one's face doesn't have to be a miserable affair.

Continue reading Mad World to make violence cheerful again

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It's a Mad World of leaked video from Platinum Games

Posted May 13th 2008 1:15PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Rumors, Video


Yesterday, DS Fanboy reported on the rumor that Platinum Games, the company started by ex-Clover Studio members (and Capcom luminaries) Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Shinji Mikami), was partnering with Sega for new games to be released on the Wii and the DS. This video of Mad World is not technically confirmation since it could be a total fake, but it sure looks real -- and it sure is getting taken down from Youtube and Gametrailers with alarming speed.

Mad World is a bloody, futuristic action game that looks (from the blurry video) more like a brawler than the kind of operatic sword maneuvering we know from Devil May Cry. We hate to mention it again (because we always do when talking about Clover), but it evokes a futuristic, really bloody God Hand.

It looks like we were wrong about one of the rumors, by the way: Bayonetta is a PS3 game (if any of this is real), and not a Wii game.

Continue reading It's a Mad World of leaked video from Platinum Games

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The Okami goofs continue: Clover contributions pulled from Wii port end credits

Posted May 1st 2008 8:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News


Poor Okami for the Wii. You just can't seem to get good press, whether it be through your hilarious advertising or more hilarious boxart (at least we got a pretty neat fix, though!) Now, the game's director, Hideki Kamiya, is upset that Clover's contributions to the game were cut from the Wii title's ending credits.

Trust us, we're not trying to poke fun, because, and we'll be complete honest here, we want to have Clover Studio's babies. We loved those guys and every project they had their hands on. And, even if it's a Wii port, we think him and other Clover staff members that worked on the game should be credited. Capcom doesn't think so, however.

Since the end credits were all one movie (which had the Clover logo at the end of it), Capcom decided to pull the entire credits. They claim that they had no access to the original source file for the logo, so they couldn't just pull that. If you ask us, that sauce is kind of weak, because in this day and age, the ability to quickly transfer information between parties is widely known and Capcom could've easily picked up a phone and called whomever they needed to. Also, there's, uh, e-mail.

If you want to see the original ending credits, cruise past the break.

Gallery: Okami

Continue reading The Okami goofs continue: Clover contributions pulled from Wii port end credits

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Print your own Okami boxart, IGN watermark optional

Posted Apr 28th 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News


In order to share the new replacement Okami boxarts with people outside the U.S. (to whom they can't ship the printed copies), Capcom has made the boxarts available as PDF downloads, in a big, take-it-to-Kinko's resolution. Capcom's one-time blunder is becoming more of a boon to fans every day.

We checked the new version of the original design for IGN watermarks, and didn't see one. That means that you can place the IGN watermark wherever you'd like! You now have the power to choose the size, location, and opacity of the IGN logo on your Okami boxart. For that matter, you could use any watermark you like!
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Okami guide also IGN'd?

Posted Apr 28th 2008 1:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News


Apparently IGN is the place to go for high-resolution Okami artwork. BradyGames' Okami strategy guide is also marred by IGN branding -- but a different logo, and in a different place. At first, we thought this was a windup from a tricky Kotaku commenter -- then we looked at the cover on the Brady Games website. Not only does the little D-pad-esque IGN logo appear next to Amaterasu's mouth, this watermark also features "IGN," and you can just see the ".COM" at the end there.

Okay, so the Kotaku commenter is absolved -- now we kind of think this must be a joke on the part of the person who made the preview image for Brady's website. If not, we can look forward to some decorative slipcovers.

[Via Kotaku]
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Okami keeps us hungry like the wolf for three more weeks

Posted Mar 4th 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News


Unless you have a PlayStation 2, you're going to have to be patient. Ready at Dawn's highly-anticipated Wii port of Okami has been delayed from its original March 25th release date to April 15th. Gamespot, who received confirmation of the delay from Capcom, conjectures that some of Ready at Dawn's resources were shifted to expedite the release of the PSP God of War game.

It could also be the case that Wii game publishers are quickly backing out of their March release dates, waiting out the coming Wii megaton instead of sending their games out to die. It's probably good strategy, although people who don't like fighting games are going to feel pretty unloved.

Gallery: Okami

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Capcom brags up Okami's Wii controls, teases at follow-up

Posted Feb 11th 2008 7:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News

Christian Svensson, Capcom's VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development, recently answered a few questions fans had for the upcoming Wii release of Okami. According to his report, preview copies of the game are being sent to media outlets this week, so it won't be long before we hear hands-on impressions for the PS2-to-Wii port!

While Christian warns gamers not to expect any new content or a special edition release, he makes sure to remind us why we wanted the game brought to the the Wii in the first place: "It takes about 10 minutes to get used to using the Wii drawing, but once you do, it's effortless and fast as compared to the PS2 version. The act of physically drawing also has an amazing feel to it and really changes the pace/feel of the game."

As if that wasn't enough to sell the game to anxious fans of the ARPG, he went on to add, "We have reasonable but modest expectations for the title ... If it happens to "destroy" said expectations, I'd definitely think hard about new content." It's a difficult promise to keep considering the current status of developer Clover, but stranger things have happened!

[Via Nintendic]
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Did Okami out-Zelda Twilight Princess?

Posted Feb 6th 2008 9:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News


In an effort to bait Nintendo fans generate interest in Ready at Dawn's upcoming Okami port, CVG has posted an article suggesting that Okami is a better Wii-ported 3D action-adventure game than Zelda: Twilight Princess. For mostly superficial reasons.

Specifically, the swirling, watercolor-like art style, exploding with color in every screen. CVG's contention is that simply exploring the world of Okami is more fun than the "mature" brown Hyrule in part because it's more interesting to look at. In addition, the paintbrush interaction with the world (and its inhabitants) makes Nippon more engaging than Hyrule.

They break their comparisons down into a five-point list of aspects like "Support" (Midna vs. Issun) and "Main Character" (hilarious description: " No contest. Ameratsu has a mischievous charm betraying her position as a goddess. Link just rolls around shouting 'Huh?'") and in the end Okami just barely wins this arbitrary game by one point. But before you get all huffy about somebody saying that something is better in some way than Zelda: the point isn't exactly that someone considers Okami better than Twilight Princess. That such a comparison is even conceivable is a sincere testament to Okami's undeniable quality.

[Via OMGNintendo]
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Europe to wait for Okami, reckons insider

Posted Jan 25th 2008 9:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News

In news that caused us to throw our heads back and howl loudly at the moon, an "inside source" close to Eurogamer has informed the site that Europeans will have to wait until summer for Okami. According to the latest schedule, the game is still set to appear in the U.S. on March 25th.

It's not the first time this has happened with one of Capcom's Wii releases -- Europe may have had only ten days to wait for Resident Evil 4, but Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure took its sweet time getting here, and only launched last week. Then again, the Wii hardly sells in Europe, does it?

Aussies, it's not confirmed, but recent history suggests you might be in the same boat. Can you feel the love? Can you?
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Wii Warm Up: My style is impetuous

Posted Oct 20th 2007 10:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Wii Warm Up


Yes, it's true: Capcom answers prayers. At least, when those prayers concern porting their games to other consoles. They've made a lot of Nintendo fans happy by announcing a Wii version of their underappreciated, underselling PS2 game Okami. But, to us at least, they've picked the wrong Clover Studio game. Don't get us wrong-- we think Okami is great, and we'll be happy to play it on WIi-- but in Clover Studio's short lifespan they produced one absolutely perfect game, and it's not about a wolf.

It's about a dude, and his arm. We'd love to see someone take a crack at messing with God Hand's controls for a Wii game; we've got the real thing, after all, so if it didn't work out, we could just not buy it. But today's discussion isn't just about how amazingly awesome God Hand is, though we really wouldn't mind if that's where the discussion went. We want to know which Clover game you'd rather play on the Wii: any of the Viewtiful Joe games, Okami (which kind of wins by default) or God Hand. And if that's too limiting, feel free to branch out and consider any Capcom releases of the last couple of generations!
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Wii Warm Up: The Okami rumors are back

Posted Jun 1st 2007 9:00AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Rumors, Wii Warm Up



Just when you thought it was safe to stop hoping for an Okami port on the Wii, the rumors are back. Oh, not necessarily because anything new happened, except for folks apologizing for porting games to the Wii instead of making new content, but just because Stephen Munn at Aeropause thinks that, despite Capcom's loose denial of the possibility of a Wii Okami, the time is ripe. Your thoughts?
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Capcom, Clover, and a little Wii name-dropping

Posted Feb 20th 2007 1:55PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News, Interviews

If someone mentions an amorphous new Wii game in space, we're gonna hear about it, so when Capcom marketing VP Charles Bellfield name-dropped our favorite console in an interview with Kyle Orland over at Gamasutra, our ears perked up. But Bellfield was coy about unleashing any of the juicy details. "I would love to give you my product lineup for the next five years, but ... *laughs* ... we are developing a new title for the Wii platform. We will be making announcements in the coming months as to what these different titles are." Those former Clover employees who are not busily planting Seeds will be hard at work on this title, as well as others.

A new title indicates that it's probably not the Wii Okami you've been hoping for. In fact, Bellfield was quick to push the fact that Capcom is all about churning out original IPs. With the diversity of Capcom's stable of awesome, we can't possibly speculate on what they may have in store for us, but we'll be spending these "coming months" idly dreaming of zombie wolf attorneys.
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Clover bosses start Seeds, blogger strains to resist botany metaphors (update 1)

Posted Feb 15th 2007 12:55PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

Four months ago, we started mourning the sad loss of Clover Studio, the development house responsible for beautiful, original games like Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand. Well, now we can wipe our cel-shaded tears away! Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Resident Evil/Devil May Cry creator Shinji Mikami have held their V-Watches aloft, shouted "Henshin a-go-go, baby!" and transformed the moribund Clover into a new development studio, called Seeds.

And they want you! You know, if you're a qualified programmer or artist of some kind. According to the site, they are in the process of looking for new people to help them make some "weird, amazing games." We Fanboys are hoping that they (and whoever publishes their future work) turn their attentions to the two weirdest, most amazing consoles we can think of; given that the Wii is the go-to console for innovation these days (and the only next-gen console that a small developer could realistically afford to make games for) it seems like a natural fit.

[Via Game|Life]

Update: Those insidious italics!
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