SNK’s classic 2D fighter, recently announced for a Japanese XBLA release, should be coming Stateside as well, according to an ESRB listing.
A couple weeks ago when SNK took the wraps off its upcoming lineup at a Microsoft Japan event, I thought the most interesting thing that they revealed was King of Fighters Skystage, a top-down shmup starring King of Fighters characters flying through the air shooting things and causing massive explosions.
I was wrong – guess some people think that XBLA ports of classic 2D fighters that have been agonizingly rare in the West for years now are a little more interesting. Garou: Mark of the Wolves, which has gone from arcades to the Dreamcast and eventually PS2, will be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade. In Japan. And, apparently, in the US too: the ESRB has given the game a Teen rating.
Great news for fighting game fans, as the game was never ported to PS2 over here and has commanded high prices on the secondary market for the Dreamcast version. Hopefully it’ll have reliable online multiplayer and find a new audience with some of the younguns who are suddenly all interested in the fighting games again because of Street Fighter IV.
In other game-confirmation-via-rating-news, Gunstar Heroes, Treasure’s classic 2D shooter for the Genesis, seems to be coming to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, according to entries in the PEGI database (PEGI is like the European ESRB). Hopefully it’ll have online co-op, because I can’t wait to take Seven Force down alongside some schmuck from Indiana who will no doubt not be able to figure out the game’s weapon combo system and force me to do all the work myself.
