Tekken's Nina To Star In New Namco Brawler

Thanks to Gamers.com for the news that Namco has announced a PlayStation 2 spin-off title starring Tekken's Nina Williams, according to this week's issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu Weekly. It seems this Nina-starring game "...has the look of a 3D brawler along the lines of [but hopefully with better playability than!] Dream Factory's The Bouncer. It's tentatively scheduled for release in 2004" - more details/screens are likely at the Tokyo Game Show next week. In other Japanese news, the same issue of Famitsu also rated the Capcom-published Japanese version of Grand Theft Auto, giving it a relatively lofty 32/40, and a Gold award.

GTA in Japan?

[StellarEX]

I think I heard that GTA III/VC couldn't find a publisher in Japan, apparently because of the game's violent and sexual themes. Hopefully Japan can stay cleansed of such filthy ideas!

Why Nina??

[Mantrid]

IMO there's much more interesting characters to base a game on than Nina...how about Lei?

If you want a story about Lei...

[Auburn_Jack]

...rent one Jackie Chan movie where he's using Drunken Master style kung fu, and one Jackie Chan movie where he's play a Hong Kong cop, and play them at the same time. Voila.

Re:Why Nina??

[p_conrad]

I always liked her sister Anna better.

Re:Original?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sex sells, this is nothing new. Never has been.

Originality is overrated. Just look at Black & White.

Re:Original?

[gmhowell]

Originality is overrated. Just look at Black & White.

Gameplay matters. Just look at B&W.

Re:Original?

[Edgewize]

B&W was so fascinated with its originality and innovative technology that it completely forgot to be an entertaining game.

Not to mention that the state-of-the-art AI was still nowhere smart enough to be allowed to run free. The only sense of satisfaction I ever got from B&W was when I convinced my giant cow to stop eating villagers. That small victory did not pay for the hours of frustration spent training him to stop pooping on houses.

In the end, I deleted my saved games and left the game insta

Re:Original?

[Chuck Chunder]

Yes please!

Love the spin-offs

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully it'll be as better than Mortal Kombat Mythologies [gamespot.com]...boy was that a disappointment.

Re:Love the spin-offs

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much ALL fighting game spin-offs suck, if they expect to be driven by story at all.

I chalk it up to fighting games being based on action instead of story, but when they try to expand the story of one or more characters in any other game genre, there's just not enough meat to make the game compelling. The only exception would be puzzle games or other pure-action games where story doesn't matter (Puzzle Fighter, the Capcom vs. Psikyo mahjongg game, Gunspike/Cannon Spike, etc.)

Look at the Samurai Spi

They have backstories?

[BigumD]

I thought that they just had 20-second whacked out nonsensical cutscenes.

GTA3 in Japan

[MMaestro]

Screw ratings, I wanna hear and see how the Japanese public reacts to it. Here in the U.S. we got people blaiming GTA3/GTA:VC for directly causing crimes. What will happen in Japan?

'GTA3 causes Japanese teenagers to watch more hentai (Japanese animated sex) after being inspired from GTA3's ability to have sex with a hooker in a car.'

How's their physics modeling?

[Edgewize]

I'm sure plenty of teenagers are thinking along the lines of "the bouncers"...