Jet Li rising to honor in SF

SCEA's forthcoming Rise to Honor will give gamers the chance play Jet Li. Next week, they will have a chance to meet the martial arts superstar himself at the San Francisco premiere of the PlayStation 2 beat-'em-up.

The Rise to Honor event will kick off at 6pm on February 17 at the Sony Metreon entertainment complex. From 7pm until 10pm, live gameplay will be broadcast on the IMAX screen at the Loews Theatre.

At 7:30pm, the man himself will arrive. Li will make his entrance at a red-carpet reception before going to the eight-o'-clock presentation of the game with Rise to Honor producer Jim Wallace. At 9pm, attendees who buy copies of Rise to Honor from the Metreon PlayStation store can have their copies signed by Li. At 10pm, the show's over.

Rise to Honor was inspired by Asian action cinema and was developed at SCEA’s Foster City, California studio. Its fight mechanics benefited from input from Li, a five-time Chinese Wu Shu champion, and veteran action director/fight choreographer Cory Yuen. GameSpot kicked the game around in our preview.