3-D Weapon Combat

The 1996 E3 show is already rounding up to be a festival of premiers. One of which will be a new 3-D fighting game from the house of Capcom entitled Star Gladiator. This title (making its premiere in the U.S.) is a futuristic weapons fighting game, in which the player can choose from any one of ten characters and go head-to-head with some of the galaxy's most powerful fencers. It represents a significant milestone as Capcom's first arcade game originally developed on the Sony PlayStation.

"As technology moves into the 3-D world, Capcom is poised and ready to meet the challenge of competing in this new market," said Greg Ballard, president of Capcom Entertainment. "Street Fighter placed Capcom at the pinnacle of the 2-D fighting game genre, a position gained by delivering incredible gameplay, backed with storylines and fully developed characters. We have already proved we can create arcade-perfect 32-bit games. We now add a focus to produce outstanding 3-D games."

In the year 2348, humans have been exploring space for the past four centuries, and have established contact with aliens. People now emigrate from one planet to another, and life is generally good. In steps Edward Bilstein. A Nobel prize-winning physicist, he uncovers the secret to humanity's "sixth sense," and discovers how to use it as an energy source he calls, "Plasma Power." After failed attempts to coerce other Plasma fighters to join him in taking over Earth, Dr. Bilstein is captured and imprisoned in a satellite orbiting planet Zeta. Six years later, Bilstein has built himself a powerful cyborg body, and has managed to escape from his cell, gathering a cadre of Plasma fighters at his side. After making quick work of Zeta, Bilstein again sets his eyes on earth. A panicked Earth Federation has only one recourse: to find people who could utilize the Plasma weapons against their own creator in a last, desperate hope to stop the mad genius before he can invade Earth.

The Star Gladiators are: Hayoto, Earth's hero and master of the plasma sword, Zelkin, the flying birdlike alien; June, the cute mistress of the Plasma Circles; the cone-headed Saturn and his Plasma Yo-Yo; Gamof, the hairy, axe-weilding alien; Gervelt the fencer; Rimgal, the mutated dinosaur; war machine Vector; the Indonesian psychic Gore; and the evil genius Bilstein himself.

The arcade version of Star Gladiator is scheduled for release in July, while the Sony PlayStation version is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 1996. It will have a suggested retail price of $65.95.

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