Pink Squadron

The last Skull Girl is part Ninja, part Nurse

2012-02-22T21:16:00.000-04:00

In a campaign that started some time in 2011, the creators of the upcoming female focused fighter, have been slowly but surely introducing us to each and every combatant. The last to be announced is Valentine, whom seems as crazy and complex as the rest of them.

Part Ninja, part Nurse, Valentine sits a little closer to the sex symbol image than some of the other characters in the game do, but we're sure she's just as fleshed out as the rest in regards to moves and the way she interacts with the others.

She joins Filia, Cerebella, Peacock, Parasoul, Ms. Fortune, Painwheel and Double as the 8 character cast of this unique fighter that focuses on fluid animation and tight gameplay that promises to be something special for fighting fans of old.

Below, her trailer and introduction to her fighting style:

Borderlands 2's Maya, the new Siren on the block

2012-02-22T20:24:00.000-04:00

Continuing their trend of including at least one playable female lead, Gearbox introduces us to Maya, Borderlands 2 answer to Lilith.

While we really haven't gotten too much info on her just yet, it would appear that she's more than capable of putting down an enemy and wielding a gun or two as the team's Siren. We've snagged a few shots of her in action, but you can also check her out in the new trailer below.

Interestingly, you can also check out a quick teaser clip right near the end that implies we'll see Lilith in some form once the game ships on June 18th. Also noteworthy, Moxxi, from the Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot DLC for the first game, is spotted, alive and well. We've also include a few shots of characters whom we have no info on. Enjoy.

Gravity Rush was originally planned as a PS3 title

2012-02-18T13:27:00.000-04:00

NeoGAF has dug up some interesting info from Dengeki Online about the Vita title, Gravity Rush. Turns out, the project was started as and nearly completed as a Playstation 3 title under the name "Gavite".

Proposed to Sony as a PS3 "Gravity Action" game for retail back in 2008, the team had plans of extending the title further with DLC. Dengeki shares some shots of the game, early in production:

As well as some early production art work on character design:

So, what started out as a unique idea for a console game eventually got the green light to be turn into a full fledged (near) launch title for Sony's upcoming Vita system. Out in Japan already, the North American and European release dates are still to be decided.

Team Ninja to make the women of Dead or Alive 5 realistic

2012-02-15T00:20:00.000-04:00

Team Ninja's new head of development, Yosuke Hayashi, has expressed a desire for more realistic women in the team's upcoming titles, especially in Dead or Alive 5. Sitting down with Gamasutra, he explains "The old team was known for making games that just had two primary elements: Sex and violence," It was very obvious. The new team, we want to take it to a new level -- to a direction that contains emotional experiences that can move players."

On the Dead or Alive series in particular, he acknowledges the past of his team

"We've always had the sex factor in the game; in the past, the female characters had to have big breasts, they had to have scanty dress," says Hayashi. "In DoA 5 especially, we're trying to focus on the real women that surround us; the voice of a female, the mannerisms. We are being realistic about it."

and tried to explain exactly how they feel about it. What they hope to accomplish

"In the series up to now we focused on some kind of... Sports Illustrated [aesthetic]. like a magazine for high school kids, with women portrayed in that sense. But that's not what we want." "We want to show something that's more high class, that adult males of our generation could look at a woman [character] and be impressed with her as a woman, not just as a pin-up," he continues. "That's what we wanted to tell our fans."

"The team has always wanted to do it," he says. "The world has changed. People want something that's more substantial."

We here at PinkSquadron will be interested in seeing just how they pull this off and if such a move will sit well with fans. A concern going around is that fans buying the game for the sexualized women it sports will be upset with such a move. We say, fans of fighting games are generally more about the move sets and gameplay than they are with the lack of clothing the characters wear. Here's to Team Ninja and Hayashi for taking a step into maturity and realizing that women don't need to be sexed up and naked in fighting games.

Credit [Gamasutra]

Girl Fight - exactly the opposite of what we try to cover

2012-02-14T01:53:00.002-04:00

Browsing some news today, we've come across the headlines "Girl Fight announced" and "Girl Fight coming to XBLA and PSN" and instantly thought to ourselves "Great! A female fighting game, maybe it's a more realistic approach to something like Skullgirls".

From their description it would seem that perhaps this is just the case:

Fighting Styles and Character Options: Players can select from a wide range of distinct fighters, each with their own fighting style. Players can even create their own experience by customizing their fighter’s appearance and abilities.
Unlockables and Customization: Players will find a robust set of unlockables to further customize their characters by proving themselves as the ultimate femme fatale in the ring. Points can unlock new character skins, more varied abilities and codex entries.
Arenas: Girl Fight takes the players all across a virtual globe in many different arenas, filled in by augmented reality constructs. From war-ravaged San Francisco to the rubble of demolished Foundry buildings, reality and fiction blur in the virtual arenas.

So far, so good, huh? An all female cast, customizable characters, unique fight styles and varied fighting arenas. That all sounds rather promising.

Then we get some promo images:

An image of two girls straddling each other in what would be described as swimsuits, an x-ray pic that focuses on the breasts of it's fighter and a collage type image that features a sensual pair of lips, an extremely accentuated ass and a nude woman shooting at us from beneath her leg. Oh oh, don't forget the logo too! It kind of looks like a stripper is plastered in between the name of the game.

Being developed by Supremacy MMA developer Kung Fu Factory, the title boasts such lines as "Get Ready to Lick the Competition with Girl Fight" , "Brutal. Deadly. Gorgeous.", "The game brings together a slew of sexy women duking it out" and let's not forget "With hair flying, long legs kicking and the ear-piercing shrill of deadly vixens, Girl Fight is a unique all-female, fast-paced spin on arcade-style fighting games."

Classy, Kung Fu Factory (the developer), classy. This will probably be out last post on the title (unless we decide to further discuss our distaste with it) if it turns out to be exactly what we think it is... as it totally goes against what we, as a site, stand for. Luckily, we're not the only site that feels this game is a dirty grab at money at the expense of women.

Mass Effect 3's FemShep trailer: Behind the scenes interview

2012-02-11T00:26:00.000-04:00

Technically it's Saturday where we are, but we're still calling it FemShep Friday, dammit! Continuing their content trickle about all things Mass Effect 3 and FemShep, Bioware has put together a little interview with Neel Upadhye, the man behind directing a lot of Bioware's trailers, including the FemShep trailer you've seen today.

In it, they fire questions at Upadhye on the work behind the scenes, the character herself and what exactly it takes to make a successful trailer. Below is a small except, you can read the rest at Bioware's blog.

This is the first we’re seeing the new canon FemShep based on our community votes last summer. What was the thought process going into making this trailer?

Fans have been asking for a FemShep trailer for a long time so we realized that expectations would be high. As fans of the games ourselves, we wanted to do something that would excite people who know this universe. What makes people so jazzed about Mass Effect is that beyond the galactic war, you care about the characters. That’s how we came to the decision to make this a cameo trailer. We tried to fit in glimpses of some of the people you’ve fought with side by side. I knew that if I was a fan and I saw a few frames of my romance option from ME2, I would freeze the video going “WHOA wait, is that who I think it was??!” That’s the effect we wanted this trailer to have. If “Fall of Earth,” our E3 trailer, was for people joining the fight, “Reinstated” is for those who’ve been there.

Rosario Dawson voicing Lily Drawl in Syndicate

2012-02-10T20:09:00.002-04:00

EA announced today that they're bringing in Hollywood actors to voice some of the characters for Starbreeze Studio's reboot to the classic Syndicate.

While Brian Cox is also listed among the talent, we're happy to hear that Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Clerks 2, Seven Pounds) will be voicing the character "Lily Drawl" and just by the art work we've seen, perhaps adding her likeness to the character as well.

On the subject, Dawson says

“I was excited when EA approached me to play Lily Drawl in Syndicate. She’s an interesting and strong female character. How cool is it to play the mastermind who designed the military chip inside the player’s head!”

She also adds

“I’m amazed how videogames have become so deep in story, delivering fantastic worlds and memorable characters rivaling big Hollywood films.”

The game ships on PS3, PC and 360 on February 21st (24th in Europe).

Credit [PSU]

What do you do if your boyfriend is bitten by a zombie?

2012-02-10T18:13:00.001-04:00

Cut his head off of course! While this would outright kill the fella in one swift motion... it's not the case for Nick, boyfriend of Lollipop Chainsaw's Juliet.

Leaving nothing to chance, the first thing Juliet thinks of doing once her boyfriend is bitten? Rip up her trusty chainsaw and remove his head from his body, thus preventing infection. She then carries him around, dangles him from a string or even uses him to help her out or kill zombies in wacky ways.

Yep, this game is strange and humorous.

Coming out April 24 in North America, May 10th in Japan and June 15th in Europe on the 360 and PS3; Lollipop Chainsaw follows high school Cheerleader and zombie hunter, Juliet Starling, as she aims to take down the zombie hoard that has taken over her school. We've included the final boxart below, also make sure to check out the newest trailer below:

Today is FemShep Friday! Trailer inside

2012-02-10T16:52:00.002-04:00

So, the trailer has been our for a number of hours; we've waited on posting it because we were expecting some more FemShep (Female Commander Shepard for those not in the know) news from Bioware today as they've gone and declared today FemShep Friday. Sadly there doesn't seem to be much further news from the studio regarding Shepard.

Update: We've got 3 screenshots for you to enjoy as well:

The trailer itself (below) is EPIC :D Quite action packed, it's nice to hear Hale's voice once again. We also get tiny glimpses of (what seems to be) both Miranda and Samara, each whom we haven't seen too much leading up until now.

Tomorrow will be FemShep Friday

2012-02-09T17:48:00.001-04:00

Bioware has gone and updated their Mass Effect 3 website with 5 new videos for the upcoming conclusion to the epic trilogy. Each focuses on various aspects of the, including Gameplay, Arsenal, Co-op, enemies and Storytelling; all of which are worth a watch.

But, what really got our attention is the announcement that tomorrow, Friday the 10th of Feburary will be dubbed "FemShep Friday" and will coincide with the release of the trailer featuring out favorite heroine.

So, FemShep fans, keep an eye out as we'll be reporting on and have available the video for you when it gets released tomorrow.

They released this image to tease us:

Elise Riggs shreds the slopes in SSX

2012-02-07T18:31:00.000-04:00

EA has been hard at work promoting the reboot to their arcade snowboarding game, SSX; this week it's Elise in the spot light. Showing off some of her signature moves, including the lalala lock step, Elise makes it look easy.

The game ships on PS3 and 360 on February 28th.

Get a taste of Resident Evil: Revelations with it's launch Trailer

2012-02-07T17:56:00.000-04:00

Capcom's second Resident Evil title to grace Nintendo's new handheld, the 3DS, comes out today in North America. With it the team has crafted a trailer that covers quite a bit of the characters, situations you'll encounter and type of gameplay that the game sports.

Jill Valentine is seen amongst a large cast of other characters, taking on waves of baddies and even a few bosses.

Another look at Skull Girls

2012-02-06T12:39:00.000-04:00

We brought you our first look of the upcoming download fighter, Skull Girls, and since then there really hasn't been a lot of announcements from the studio behind it.

Reverge Labs assures us that the game is still on track for a 2012 release which will be bringing custom soundtracks with it, as well as some exclusive trophies for it's PSN outing. They've also outlined the basic modes in the game, those being:

Story Mode
Arcade Mode
Tutorials
Practice Room
Ranked and Unranked Online Play

Sitting down with Sony, the team describes each mode a bit more in depth, but also included the following trailer which gives you a nice re-cap to the story, it's characters and some of the features.

Rock out with a Pink 3DS this Valentines day

2012-02-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

While not exactly related to strong female characters in our medium (of video games), the fact that it's Pink and thus shares common ground with at least the name of our site, means that we're excited to see Nintendo release a 3DS in this color scheme.

They're marketing it as a device you could buy as a couple and share an experience with your significant other on this Valentines day, as it goes on sale on Feb 10th. Previously seen in the Nintendog/cats bundle, this new model is stand alone, packing just the system for the regular $169 price tag (in North America).

It's nice to see a company invested in diversifying their models to cater to each and every gamer's own unique tastes. Years ago you'd be hard pressed to find anything but a grey NES or black Genesis model; but today (eventually) you seem to have more options. We salute you Nintendo.

Is FemShep ready to shine in Mass Effect 3?

2012-02-02T21:07:00.002-04:00

When Bioware announced that the female version of everyone's favorite hero on the Citadel - Commander Shepard, would be featured along side the male version in the media train when promoting Mass Effect 3; we were just a bit more than excited. Sadly, we're still looking for that kind of promotional material.

Bioware first reached out to fans to choose the "default" look for the female version of Shepard that they would, in turn, be using in the material mentioned; posting a variety of images on their facebook page for voting, allowing gamers to choose a physical look and then the hair color for this FemShep (a term coined by fans who enjoyed playing as the Female Shepard). Votes tallied, Female Shepard had a face that would represent herself in the media along side the male version.

Voiced by the very talented Jennifer Hale, the female version of Shepard has been an option to gamers since the first game, offering up a very similar, but also quite unique take on the character; whom takes down the same baddies, gets mixed up in love interests and loves to promote her favorite shops on the citadel with a quick audio advert. So popular amongst fans, she even has fansites, deviant art accounts and dedicated hashtags on twitter.

Sadly, news has been a bit scarce and the only solid FemShep news we've heard since the conclusion to the voting and the announcement by Hale, is a confirmation that the artwork chosen will share space on the collectors edition's steelbook case.

A Trailer, featuring our favorite heroine, was promised; Bioware's Marketing Director, David Silverman, tweeted:

"There will be a #FemShep trailer," "We actually had a meeting on her yesterday. We are working on the look now."

back in June of 2011. The trailer, thus far hasn't surfaced and while we do get pretty consistent updates from Mr. Silverman when asked about FemShep (like this tweet, a few days ago):

you guys have been patient for a very long time. We'll definitely make sure it's worth it! #FemShep thanks you for your support :)

It's still hard to sit by and wonder why we haven't seen more Femshep thus far. With the game shipping to North American territories a little over a month from now (other locations shortly there after), we are left wondering what Bioware has in store for us fans of the leading lady and how much of a punch this content will pack.

Here's to hoping we hear something soon and that she rocks our socks off.

Pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw - become Ash (Evil Dead)

2012-02-02T19:12:00.002-04:00

In a move that screams cool, Grasshopper Manufacture, developers of Lollipop Chainsaw, have announced some pre-order bonuses for gamers that give a nod to the "Original Chainsaw wielding master" Ash, main character in the Evil Dead series.

While we haven't covered the game nearly as much as one would think we would follow it, (namely because of it's strong use of main character, Juliet, as a sex object in most of the trailers for the game thus far) we do have respect that Juliet is indeed kicking some major zombie ass in style. With the news that Ash will be getting a nod in the game, we decided to give this title a nod of it's own.

Depending on where you pre-order, there will be different outfits available.

These are the participating retailers:

Amazon – add Juliet to your pinup collection and pop cherries with Rockabilly!
Best Buy – head bang with the Goth Girl outfit. Step into the Funk with Juliet’s golden Foxy Funk outfit.
GameStop – become the original chainsaw master with the legendary Ash from Evil Dead. Bonus for GameStop PowerUp Rewards members – Get insane with Jimmy Urine from Mindless Self Indulgence.

Rumor: Alisa leaked for Street Fighter X Tekken?

2012-02-01T19:23:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting leak if true. The ESRB has just rated Capcom's mash up title Street Fighter X Tekken, which takes characters from both franchises and pits them against each-other in a game style not unlike Street Fighter IV or Marvel Vs Capcom. In their description of the game's content, they note that Chainsaws are a weapon used by "Some Fighters" in the battles. Seeing as no character announced thus far, wields chainsaws, gamers need only look at the characters that aren't in the roster to make a guess.

Last seen in the CG film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Alisa, is an android character with removable body parts whom was introduced in Tekken 6 actually fits such a description as she's able to attack with the chainsaws embedded into her arms. The internet is a flurry with speculation as to whether the mention of chainsaws is actually referencing her.

The full listing is as follows:

This is an arcade-style fighting game in which players engage in two-on-two battles with characters from the Street Fighter and Tekken universes. Players punch, kick, and use special attacks (e.g., energy blasts, fireballs, electrical strikes) to deplete opponents’ life meters. Some fighters also use laser swords, chainsaws, metal claws, or explosives to knock characters across the screen or to the ground. One bear-like character can perform a flatulence attack to strike opponents, resulting in yellow gas clouds. A variety of female fighters wear revealing outfits that expose large amounts of jiggling cleavage; some sequences include close-up camera angles on their breasts or buttocks. The dialogue references alcohol and drunkenness (e.g., “Getting drunk isn’t really a good way to fight,” “[W]anna go for a few drinks?”), and one wobbly character uses “drunken” fighting moves. The words “sh*t” and “a*s” appear in dialogue.

So, what do you think? Could Alisa be the next (or final?) announced character for this mash up of fighters?

Mo-Cap session behind The Last of Us Trailer

2012-02-01T18:10:00.000-04:00

During Spike's Video Game Awards show 2011, Naughty Dog introduced audiences, both at the show and at home, to a project they've been secretly working on for a few years now (along side Uncharted). That title is, of course, The Last of Us. A take on a post human world where the survivors of our species are threatened by both the hard live of struggling to ward off enemies and the elements in an effort to get enough to eat and some shelter to protect oneself, as well as a devastating viral fungus that is the single devastating anomaly that has brought humanity to it's knees.

The game stars two characters; Joel, an adult male and Elie, a 14 year old female . Elie is said to be "Wise beyond her years" and we're told that she'll be able to hold her own in the game. Joel is being voiced and acted by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson will be voicing and acting Elie's part. We've split "voicing" and "acting" because each actor is also doing the mo-cap sessions for cutscenes and even to help out animators get a feel for the characters in game.

Below, we have a short clip featuring Ashley and Troy as they do the motion capture for the debut trailer that's found here.

Recruit Lightning as a team member with DLC in FFXIII-2

2012-02-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

Feeling nostalgic for Final Fantasy XIII in that you want to have Lightning on your team once more, to take on the baddies of the universe? With an upcoming DLC pack that Square Enix is prepping for Final Fantasy XIII-2 you will be able to.

We touched on the idea last week, and the fundamentals haven't changed, you're still going to be able to recruit Lightning for your party as long as you beat her in the coliseum battle. It'll be available for download on the 7th/8th of February in NA/EU regions. As of yet, we've got no confirmation as to the price of said content. However, Square was nice enough to release some screenshots of the pack in question.

Gravity Rush scores big with Famitsu

2012-02-01T17:32:00.000-04:00

Sony Japan Studio's unique, gravity controlling game for the Playstation Vita is about to hit Japanese stores and Famitsu, one of the countries largest gaming publications, has scored it pretty well.

Firstly, the way Famitsu scores a game differs quite a bit from most publications (be they online or print) as they allow 4 reviewers to review the game and give it a score out of then each. Those 4 scores and then gathered and used to give a score out of 40. It's actually quite a useful gauge as you're getting a much more broad look at the game itself as 4 different people are chosen to look it over.

In the latest round of reviews, Gravity Rush (or Gravity Daze as it's called in Japan) has been rated with a 38/40, scoring 10/9/9/10 with the four responsible for taking a look at it. That's quite impressive! Two perfect scores and two near perfect scores is nothing to take lightly.

February 9th is the day Japan will get this title, but we don't have a solid date for it in other regions.

Mass Effect 3's actors indroduce their characters

2012-01-31T15:28:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, a lot of the original voice talent that has made Mass Effect 1 and 2 so memorable will be making a return for the series' third outing.

Jennifer Hale is returning as the female side of Commander Shepard and explains "You can't even conceive how big the war is in this game". Tracia Helfer is reprising her role as "Edi", the Normandy's A.I system and of course Ali Hillis is returning to give Liara a voice once again.

Newcomer to the series, Jessica Chobot will be playing "Diana"; exclaims she is "excited for the conclusion and to see what happens to Shepard".

Watch the trailer below to get an introduction to each as well as the rest of the cast.

Fairy wings and more coming to Soul Calibur V as DLC

2012-01-28T12:33:00.001-04:00

A few days before Soul Calibur V hits retail shelves, Namco/Bandi have announced that they are prepping 3 DLC packs for release shortly after.

The most striking of which, is the Fairy wings which comes in the first pack of DLC on the 3rd of February which is also packed with face paint, bikinis and original music from Soul Blade and the first Soul Calibur. On the 14th, another pack containing Kimonos, animal heads and breast plates along with music from SC 2 and 3 will hit virtual stores. The third round of DLC comes with some more face paint, masks and camouflage as well as music from Soul Calibur 4 and Broken Destiny.

Each pack is priced at 160MSP/€1.99 (or $1.99 presumably).

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the above announced price is for customization options only. All music released in the three planned updates will be made available at separate pricing tiers than the in game packs of items.

Check out some of the screenshots below:

Meet the fighters of Soul Calibur V in the launch trailer

2012-01-28T12:10:00.000-04:00

We've actually been covering Soul Calibur V quite a bit, with it's constant speculation on which characters will be appearing in the upcoming 5th title in the series, it's been an interesting ride. For the most part, the cast has been nailed down (and sorry Sophitia fans, we still don't have solid confirmation of her being a playable character) and the launch date is quickly approaching.

Namco/Bandi has done a rather decent job pooling together a good look at what you can expect from the game in this latest trailer. It starts off with people dressing up much like some of the characters in the game (Ezio, the guest character for the game looks especially cool) and then bleeds directly into the action.

The game ships for PS3 and 360 on Jan 31st in North America, a few days later for EU and AU regions.

Clash of Time trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2

2012-01-27T13:27:00.000-04:00

Seeing as there is only about 5 days left until Final Fantasy XIII-2 ships to North America (a few more days for EU/AU regions), Square is busy pumping out media to promote their latest project. Having already come out in Japan in December of last year, you may have seen a lot of this type of gameplay and CG before.

If you took our advise and downloaded the English demo on either the PS3 or 360, you'll of course be familiar with it's offerings, but a fancy new trailer sure doesn't hurt to build up some more hype for this beautiful looking game.

Enjoy:

Live action trailer for Gravity Daze

2012-01-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to feed the game concept to gamers via a different means. Sony has crafted this live action trailer that involves apples and their reaction to gravity like that which is manipulated in their upcoming title, Gravity Daze.

The video itself is being shipped around in special promotion boxes which contains a disc with the video, an actual apple and small insert letting you know it's all for the upcoming Vita title. The game itself ships February 9th in Japan and will be a launch title for North America and Europe.