Game and Watch: January 09 ‘Capcom Wallet Rape’ Edition

Rather unsurprisingly the release schedules for January have looked rather bare. In fact, about the only thing of note this month is Skate 2, which lands tomorrow (at least here in the UK that is). This is most welcomed, since I’m currently trying to make some headway into the many games sat on my ‘to play’ pile, but it seems the games industry isn’t going to give me too much time before it starts releasing in earnest again.

Looking at the next few months ahead and the upcoming releases I found that there’s actually quite a few games coming up that I’m at least a little interested in, a fair few I’m keeping a close eye on, and more than a few I’m definitely planning to get. In fact, there’s a couple of titles that I already have ordered. Of course some might not work out, or I might just not bother with, but here’s the list of things I currently have an eye on:

- Alpha Protocol
- Battle Fantasia
- Bionic Commando
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
- Chrono Trigger DS (very tempted to just throw down a pre-order for this)
- Dirt 2
- Disgaea 3
- Formula 1 (the GRID team doing an F1 game, could be interesting)
- Fuel
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- Halo 3: ODST
- Halo Wars (probably grab the LE if I do)
- Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
- I Am Alive
- Killzone 2 (pre-ordered)
- Patapon 2 (pre-ordered)
- Persona 4 (pre-ordered)
- Prototype
- Resident Evil 5 (pre-ordered)
- Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
- Street Fighter IV (pre-ordered and then some)
- Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X
- Velvet Assassin

Quite a lot to look forward to then, though the scary thing is the majority of that is due in the next couple of months or so.

Of those I’ve laid down orders for only two (P4 and RE5) are March, the others are all February. And of those I’ve ordered it’s actually Capcom’s efforts that I’m most excited about, especially Street Fighter IV, which is going to be doing a pretty good job of draining my bank account. I’m picking up the regular edition of the game for the 360, but also have the Limited Edition ordered for the PS3 (don’t ask). That move in and of itself isn’t cheap, but then there’s the rather pricey official SFIV MadCatz Tournament Edition fight stick, which I managed to nab a pre-order for (despite being lots of money I’m quite willing to pay for what looks to be a fantastic bit of top-quality kit). Topping off the SFIV wallet rape is a special 20th Anniversary edition guide, which is a hardback book that will apparently include an in-depth look at the history of the Street Fighter franchise, exclusive art and behind-the-scenes type stuffs, which I just couldn’t resist throwing down an order for too.

When you add to that Resident Evil 5, a somewhat promising looking Bionic Commando and who knows what else Capcom have coming up I might as well just hand over my account details to them now. Hell, if it got me a copy of Street Fighter IV any quicker I possibly would; I don’t think I’ve been quite this excited about a game for a long while, and the near-daily stream of new SFIV videos aren’t helping my patience (or lack thereof). Bring on February 20th!