Natsume's Fighters

Natsume's Virtual and SD fighter combo machine Flying Dragon (known as Hiryu no Ken Twin in Japan) will be released at the end of August in the US, as scheduled. However, Culture Brain, the game's developer, is currently working on two new fighters - perhaps borne of the concept of Flying Dragon, but otherwise maturing into individual, expanded games for the Nintendo 64.

Hiro Maekawa told videogames.com that the first fighter, called Hiryu no Ken SD in Japan, is scheduled to be released there in October, and depending on how quickly the translation can come together, second quarter '99 for the US. The game will expand the concept of superdeformedcharacters as featured in Flying Dragon.

The other game, Hiryu no Ken Virtual, will be released in Japan by the end of December and will see US shores by the third quarter of '99. Virtual will be a more traditional-style fighter.

Natsume also plans to release the SD and Virtual games for the color Game Boy, with the Japanese version of Hiryu no Ken Virtual due out as early as the end of the year (with a US version close on its heels - possibly even before the US release for the N64). Stay tuned to videogames.com for more details.