The official Japanese Street Fighter blog is putting fans through one hell of a trial by teasing the announcement of another Street Fighter game, most likely a spin-off of SFIV.

Natsuki Shiozawa promised last week that she would say more about a sequel this week, but has now only said that we’ll hear more soon.

This seems like a pretty strong indication of more Street Fighter coming to the PS3 sooner rather than later. The announcement of Street Fighter IV took many by surprise, but now Ryu and co are back we’re not all that shocked that Capcom wants to get some more out of the series again. Rather than seeing Street Fighter V, though, we would expect a title more in the vein of SFIII: 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike, offering new characters and slight tweaks to the gameplay.

Seeing as the Tokyo Game Show is just around the corner we would expect to find out much more then.

Story via NowGamer.com

The biggest problem with visiting retro events is that they always come to an end far too quickly.

The same thing happened with this year’s Retro Reunited, a truly impressive effort pulled off by first time retro organiser Gordon Sinclair (or SirClive as he’s known on the Retro Gamer forum). Thanks to able help from the likes of Chris “Retro Fusion” Wilkins and Matt “Byte Back” Corne, Gordon was able to pull off a truly spectacular event that not only raised many hundreds of pounds for the homeless charity Shelter, but sold over 300 tickets and saw avid retro gamers travelling from all over the country.

Housed at the Cedar Court Hotel in Huddersfield (enabling many a visitor to stay overnight and indulge in both alcohol and classic gaming conversation) the even itself took place in two huge halls and was wisely split up.

Retro Reunited Part 1

The main hall featured practically every key console and computer you could think of (as well as quite a few other more obscure machines) while the second hall housed Acorn World and the many interviews that took place over the two days.

While Jon Hare was sadly unable to attend, Jamie Woodhouse, Jon Ritman, Archer Maclean and Charles Cecil were just a few of the celebrities who were on hand, and all of them gave fantastic discussions on both their pasts and the current state of the industry.

Archer even brought his new game Wheelspin down, which immediately impressed everyone thanks to its slick gameplay and fantastic visuals.

For many though the main reason for going was to play classic retro games and Retro Reunited certainly didn’t disappoint. Split into many zones, there were a huge variety of machines and games on offer ranging from the humble C64 and Spectrum, to more exotic fare like the Famicom Twin, PC Engine and PCFX. Arcade machines were on offer as well, including Tony Temple’s Missile Command (on which he got the world record) and John Stoodley’s Pac-Man cab. There was even a Battlezone standup, which I’ve not played since I was a nipper.

Retro Reunited Part 2

Seriously, what the hell happened to Bub and Bob? Swollen eyes, glazed look and bloated bodies; they look like they’ve just received hurried brain surgery from a baby. In fact, we reckon that if you were to stick a neon sword that launched fireworks into one brother, the other would just remain in that sedate state with that dumb expression splashed on his face for all eternity. Yep, something’s obviously not quite right here.

The new Sonic game is due next year and will be more in-keeping with the traditional Sonic gameplay of old, according to Sega. After a slew of so-so (Sonic Rivals) and lame (Sonic Unleashed) Sonic games, the Japanese developer has announced that the new title, currently codenamed Project Needlemouse (the original working title for the eponymous mascot before Sega christened him Sonic), will spin its way onto unconfirmed consoles in 2010.

Furthermore, and this is eked from the trailer, which gives very little away, ‘Speed returns in an all-new 2D adventure built from the ground up’ (we’ve italicised the important and promising words in that preceding sentence). Also, speaking to GameSpot, Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough confirmed that Project Needlemouse was a response to “old-school Sonic fans” who “have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay.”

So there you have it, straight from the brand manager’s mouth – Sonic is going back to his 2D roots and Sega has finally listened to what ardent and passionate Sonic fans have been requesting for years. Hopefully this’ll mean no more annoying preschool-looking characters like Charmy Bee or Big the Cat, no repetitive Crash Bandicoot bits, no guns or motorcycles, no Werewolves, Count Draculas, Swamp Things, or any other mythical creature taking possession of one half of Sonic’s body and gameplay, but instead a return to that exhilarating and classic Sonic gameplay that exudes elation and fun from every pixel.

So if we had to speculate as to what Sega has planned for Sonic, we’d hazard a guess that it’s going right back to the beginning with the franchise and is maybe looking to plant a younger and more spritely Sonic in the starring role (a bit similar to what Nintendo did with Super Mario World 2 perhaps?). We think the trailer kind of gives the impression that the game could take that direction – Sonic’s silhouette looks really quite tiny and the game’s telling project name seems to back this thinking. So what do you guys think?

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

Still with us? Anyway; to cut a long story short, in a bid to protect Cocoa Touch - the software building platform for iPhone - Apple’s SDK prevents third-party developers from releasing applications that have their own executable run-time images (roms) and it was thought that this revelation could spell the end of emulators appearing on the platform. However; the good news is that Manomio – the company behind the app – has tweaked its emulator to abide with the SDK and its release has now been given the all clear by Apple.

The emulator can be bought for £2.99 and now comes packed with the games Dragon’s Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Artic Shipwreck and Jack Attack, more games are on the way.

Download service Good Old Games is offering a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal on all Interplay games to celebrate it’s first birthday

“Looking back at the first year, I think we can say it’s been a really successful time for us – we’ve added lots of great publishing partners and amazing games. But we couldn’t have achieved any of that success without our fans, who support us in so many ways. We decided to say thank you to our fans and run this promo,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com.

That means you could snag any two of Interplay’s back catalogue, which includes such retro-tastic delights as Earthworm Jim, Fallout 1 + 2, Citizens: Giant Kabuto, Freespace, Kingpin, MDK and Shogo: Mobile Armor Divison to name but a few, for just $5.99. The site features over 140 classic games, including Heroes of Might and Magic I through III, Duke Nukem 3D and Beneath a Steel Sky, which is free to all GOG.com users.

The Interplay promotion lasts until the early hours of September 9, but NowGamer is also giving you the chance to win 15 titles of your choice from GOG.com. Find out details on how to enter on the NowGamer forum.

Invincible Tiger: The Legend Of Han Tao has been made available on the Xbox Live Arcade courtesy of publisher Namco Bandai. The game’s notable for being one of the first developed in true stereoscopic 3D – you’ll need an expensive new 3D TV to get the most out of it, however. We played it at Develop, and although Andrew Oliver had us just about sold, we’re happy to wait until the price of said hardware comes down significantly.

Invincible Tiger can also be played in 2D, however, and its Bruce Lee-style chopsocky antics are well worth a look. Players can also try viewing with the old-style anaglyph (red and blue) 3D glasses. Follow the link to read our Andrew Oliver Q&A, or scroll down to read some of the features from the game’s press release.

• Team up with a partner and take on the Evil Overlord’s diabolical army through Story Mode Co-op.
• Battle through each level, dealing with increasing difficulty and a shared Zen-meter.
• Learn combat techniques in the single-player game and use them to beat your enemies into the dust.
• Experience Endurance Mode where you’ll face an endless stream of enemies under a time limit.
• Post your scores online for bragging rights.

Story via NowGamer.com