December 06, 2012

All Wii U exclusive Tekken Tag Tournament 2 features





Here's a blonde.bomb first: I haven't yet touched this version of the game myself (due to lack of Wii U), still, I'm happy to present to you a breakdown of Tekken Tag Tournament 2's new Wii U exclusive features, starring Nina Williams...

December 01, 2012

Shirogumi CG wizardry for Death by Degrees - Nina Williams





Tekken Bikini Swimsuit Costume CGI
In an effort to highlight the beauty of Shirogumi's masterful CG wizardry I put some of my direct-feed screen captures of Death by Degrees' stunning FMV cinematics through a very extensive (and in 2 cases several-hours-long) 'Photoshop remastering process'. Now that sounds pretentious doesn't it :-D Check out the results and a little history lesson on Shirogumi Inc. after the jump...

October 29, 2012

1996 Tekken 2 ad campaign starring Nina Williams





Tekken CGI Render Artwork
Nina Williams CG CGI Render
"Meet Nina. Blonde, beautiful - the girl next door. That is, if you live next door to a 22-year old paid assassin. This Irish Akido [!] expert will take out anyone - from a helpless lackey to a head-of-state. It's a matter of money. It's a matter of pride. That's why she's joined 23 of the world's greatest fighters vying for the title in Tekken 2. With three new fighting modes. 23 new stages. Brand new 3D animations, and more moves and combos than any game on Earth. Nina Williams wants to prove to the world she can break hearts and bones. Guess blondes really do have more fun."

Tekken 2 Ad campaign, EGM2 Issue #29 November 1996

October 21, 2012

A closer look at SFxTK Mobile for iOS touch devices





Street Fighter Tekken iOS
Kudos, Capcom. Before I get into the details, the point that stands out to me the most with their recent release of Street Fighter x Tekken Mobile is that this game really doesn't feel like a port, this version has been reworked from the ground up to suit touch screen devices. Read my review after the jump...

October 13, 2012

Tekken Ball is the latest love child of TTT2 and the WiiU





Tekken Tag Ball WiiU Nina
The TTT2-WiiU love story continues with the latest confession of love being the return of Tekken Ball for the Nintendo console version of the fighter. No word yet on a Ball DLC for xBox or PlayStation. This really bears very little relevance to Nina, other than the official screen shot above and finally having an excuse to put her swimsuit to good use... in a game of deadly beach ball. Guess I'm just posting this because I'd like me some of that Tekken Ball feeling here, please; my vacation is being terrorized by bad weather.

October 05, 2012

Craig on SFxTK Minimates Nina, Cammy and Lili





Street Fighter Tekken Minimates
I'm still on vacation, but having just checked the shipping status of my USPS parcel I can tell you there'll be some interesting things for me to write about as soon as I return. Part of this will be my review of the Nina Williams Minimate, which has been released a couple of days ago as part of Diamond Select Toys' newest assortment of fighting Minimates: Street Fighter X Tekken. For now I will have to make do just enviously looking at other people's pictures...

September 21, 2012

Complete list of Nina Williams' TTT2 customization optionsns





TTT2 Customize Items Costumes
head

Check out this complete list of all of Nina's customization options currently available in Tekken Tag Tournament 2...

Nina demonstrates Tekken Tag 2's best item move and I lol





TTT2 Nina Anna Williams Food Fight
After the jump, watch Nina demonstrate Tekken Tag Tournament 2's ultimate item move...

Street Fighter X Tekken Minimates Are Almost Here - Nina Williams VS Cammy battle shots





SFxTK Art Asylum Diamond Select
To preview wave 1 of the Street Fighter X Tekken Minimates that will be released next week, the folks at Art Asylum took the Series 1 figures and staged their battles 'on location'. More after the jump...

Tekken Tag 2 Wii U Edition - Exclusive Nintendo themed costumes





Zelda Costumes Kazuya Mishima
When Tokyo Game Show opened its gates to the industry and press people yesterday a new trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2's Wii U Edition was released and granted another look at this version's exclusive Nintendo themed costumes. Some marvellous, some hilarious, some ridiculous - all of them quite brilliant...

September 19, 2012

TTT2 'We Are Tekken Edition' artbook scans





TTT2 Cover Game Edition
I finally received my copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 last Friday, naturally I had to take a break from basically everything that didn't include me, my PlayStation, the 60'' and buckets of Coke (as in CokeZero). Long story short, my PlayStation died on me and I'm back amongst the living, and the blogging. If you have played the game you've probably come to the same conclusion as me: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is terrific! (Artbook scans after the jump)...

Digital Spy readers vote Nina Williams favourite character





Tekken Nina Best Character Prize
There are plenty of people with excellent taste on Digital Spy, apparently. Nina claimed gold in their 'favourite Tekken character'-poll from a few days ago. Better yet, though unsurprising, she did so with a massive lead over her competition. Read the full story at digitalspy.co.uk

Anna Williams has her own shiny new blog




Just as we've come to expect from her, Anna is quick to follow her older sister's lead; she has a blog of her own now, too. ;-) It's run by an online-friend of mine and is written in Polish, so you should at least speak some /or know how to use Google Translate. If you're a fan of the Lightning Scarlet head on over to http://lightningscarlet.blogspot.com/ to get your fix of Anna Williams...

September 13, 2012

Street Fighter X Tekken Artbook - Nina-centric artwork and commentary




Kazuma Teshigawara Street Fighter Tekken
UDON Entertainment just recently released the English version of the Japanese artbook Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks. I've been waiting for this ever since I flipped through the Japanese one, realizing that there is commentary by the creators on almost every single picture. I'd feel really bad asking a Japanese friend to translate a whole book for me, so I was extremely relieved to hear that the wonderful people at UDON were working on an official translation. It took some time for it to come out, but what we got in the end was absolutely worth the long wait. It's 191 pages packed with character and production artwork, rough sketches, costume designs and creator commentary. There are interviews with Polygon Pictures, Akiman, Dimps and Namco Bandai's own Yoshinari Mizushima (Tekken's Visual Design Supervisor) and  Kenji Kimura (Art Director of Tekken X Street Fighter!!!). The artworks are gorgeous, as is the book; top-quality paper, detail-rich print, subtly embossed high-grade cover, effective easy-on-the-eyes layouts; it's everything an artbook should be.
Lots of pictures after the jump...

September 11, 2012

Me? I STILL bask myself in the thrill of anticipation... :-/





For some of us the wait is finally over. Today Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has officially been released across North America. I'm one of the unlucky Europeans who will have to wait until Friday the 14th for the game to be released. In my experience with pre-ordering via amazon I might get the game a day or two before it officially hits stores here, but my copy's current shipping status doesn't look too promising. I have actually also pre-ordered the US version via GameStop USA a few weeks ago (that bonus Williams poster was just too tempting), but that one won't be here any time soon either since it's waiting for a few other Nina goodies to be combined for shipping with. Some really nice stuff I can't wait to post about! Then there's this artbook I had on pre-order in the UK for a while now which should be here tomorrow. I'll post about it as soon as it's in my hands. Other than that I'm just hoping I can get all real-life stuff done by Friday night, so I can disconnect all phones and the intercom and lock myself in the parlour for a 48h session of TTT2. You Americans have fun playing the game while I bask myself in the thrill of anticipation,... still. :-(

September 07, 2012

Spoiler Alert: A look at Nina's CG ending cinematic in Tekken Tag Tournament 2





If you aren't one of the few lucky people who got Tekken Tag Tournament 2 early before its official release next week or one of the many lousy guys who snatched the torrent of the Xbox360 version, this might still be news to you. Nina finally got the Hollywood action movie type ending cinematic she deserves. Not that I don't like the more quiet (Tekken 2) or personal (Tekken 3) endings, or those with a humorous touch (Tekken 1, 5, 6), but I've always wondered why the Tekken games so rarely depict her in action heavy scenes. You know, the obvious standard assassin stuff: sniper guns, melee combat, acrobatics, stealth, an actual assassination for once... Well, we get all of that in her Tag 2 ending movie. I say it's been long overdue. It's an action packed look at the job that pays her bills and with a running time of 1:47 it's one of the longer endings in the game.
What's also interesting is that Namco seems to have used a high-poly version of her in-game model for the scene and not the Blood Vengeance model used in the game's intro movie. So I guess the character ending FMV's were created and rendered in-house at Namco, unlike the intro which has been created by Digital Frontier, the studio behind Tekken Blood Vengeance. Probably to cut costs. The in-game model works very well with the setting, though.
Get spoiled after the jump...

September 04, 2012

Warhol does Nina Williams - TTT2 countdown ...07, no ...06!!! days to go





Tekken Print Andy Warhol CGI
Andy Warhol

Official TTT2 arcade stick features Nina Williams artwork





Tekken Mad Catz Arcade
One of the most unique features of Mad Catz' stbr Tekken Tag Tournament 2 TE S+ arcade stick is the interchangeable artwork panel. You can easily replace the default shattered glass design with a panel featuring artwork by Tomio Fujisawa. Additional bottom padding, the PlayStation 3 version’s homage to old Namco sticks and the easy panel swap function are all great features, but this stick's best feature is definitely Nina's Artwork being all huge and focal-pointy...