ECTS: Capcom Shows Onimusha and Street Fighter EX3 on PS2

Because Capcom doesn't publish its own titles in the UK, its booth at ECTS was pretty small. In fact, if you weren't careful you could have easily overlooked the small Capcom sign standing over a plain, unmarked door. Inside, if had an appointment or could fanagle your way past the diligent Capcom security guards was a small presentation on Capcom's upcoming PS2 titles.

As we announced earlier, Capcom plans to start publishing its own titles in the UK, kicking off their plans with Street Fighter EX3 and Onimusha at the UK PS2 launch. Capcom Director of Marketing Todd Thornson showed us mock-ups of the Street Fighter EX3 and Onimusha cover art, then showed a brief video clip featuring both games.

The US and UK versions of Street Fighter EX3's biggest change is the code will be fully optimized, and the slowdown and loading times that plagued the Japanese version will be completely eliminated. Thornson admitted that the Japanese version was rushed and released before it had be fully optimized or debugged, and Capcom has been hard at work correcting the problems. The video clip showed scenes from the US version, and while impressive, didn't feature anything we hadn't already seen in the Japanese version. Street Fighter EX3 will be available at launch.

According to Thornson, Onimusha, Capcom's other PS2 launch title, will be Capcom's next big series and is expected to become as popular as the company's Resident Evil series. Thornson spoke only briefly about Onimusha, and wouldn't reveal any solid storyline information. The game will be very similar to Resident Evil, except that it takes place in Feudal Japan and involves a lone warrior on a quest against an evil warlord and his army of demon warriors. In the clip shown, we see the game's hero standing over a ridge filled with a legion of marching demon warriors, then battling individual enemies, then it cuts to a close-up of the villain's face. Another scene shows a princess alone in a room, then cuts to the hero running towards her door, then cuts to a blurred figure, moving so fast that all you can see is his glowing green eyes, then cuts back to our hero opening the door, only to find a single, somewhat evil looking moth in her place.

Unfortunately, the movie footage was short and Capcom didn't have any screenshots to release or a build for us to play. Both Street Fighter EX3 and Onimusha will be available alongside the PS2 US launch.