411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Legacy of Ys: Books I & II, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, Stoked, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II (DS)
Ys I and II have seen many ports and remakes since the first one came out in 1987; they've seen the light of day on such systems as the PC-8801, Famicom, Master System, DOS, Apple II, Saturn, and PS2 to name a few. The most widely-known versions are contained in the TurboGrafx-CD compilation, and for years that release was considered the best. It's place at the top was eventually challenged by Ys Eternal as it sported upgraded graphics, effects, and artwork as well as extras like new characters and scenarios. Unfortunately, Eternal didn't include voiceovers and some say that the remixed music was not as good. Apparently, enough people weren't satisfied so another update known as Ys Complete, which is said to have better graphics but an inferior soundtrack, was unleashed. Despite my best efforts, I could not find any agreement amongst Ys fans as to which official release is the definitive version since each of the three does at least one thing better than the others.

Preferences aside, there is one thing that fans of the first two Ys games can agree on no matter which version they've played - Ys I and II have some of the best music you will find in a video game. Every place I visited for info makes note of how awesome the soundtrack is. Knowing this, I questioned whether or not it was a good idea to play the games on the DS for the first time when I could just as easily track down the PC version and patch it or download the Wii VC one. Granted, Legacy of Ys comes with a free soundtrack if you preorder and it is portable. Maybe it would be easier to just flip a coin...

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Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii) ...
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Capcom's Christian Svensson has stated that Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is not all about high zombie count and that the point of Dead Rising is picking up/using hundreds of objects to defeat enemies.
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In the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Capcom indicated that 2009 would be 'the year of multiplatform'. In 2009, they will be focusing on releasing primarily multiplatform games for both the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. This includes the sequel to the 360 exclusive zombie beat 'em up, Dead Rising. The sequel has finally been confirmed, and is due to hit in 2009. Capcom does promise some special goodies exclusive to the 360 version, in order to show it's good will towards the console.
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Dead Rising 2 details. Gran Turismo 5 in 2009? Tales of Vesperia on PS3?
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Stephen Totilo from MTV Multiplayer writes:

"'Halo Wars'Here's one more important "Halo Wars" fact that I learned during my recent interview with the game's lead writer, Graeme Devine:

-The Game's Text Won't Repeat The Mistakes Of "Banjo-Kazooie" - Several prominent Xbox 360 games have been programmed to display text in such small sizes that words can't be read on standard definition TVs. Pity the gamer who hadn't splurged on an HD set. This was an issue with Capcom's "Dead Rising" in 2006 (which was never fixed) and Microsoft/Rare's "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" earlier this year (which Rare plans to be fix)."
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Last February, a film production company owning the rights to the Dawn of the Dead film, filed a lawsuit against Capcom alleging that their game Dead Rising was an unauthorized remake of the film. Capcom has finally won the lawsuit, though it took a lot longer than common sense would've dictated.
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TGR - "Launched just under a year after the Xbox 360 was released, Dead Rising is still considered one of the best exclusives on the Xbox 360 to date and one that Playstation owners are envious of. Dead Rising is a survival horror game by the zombie masters over at Capcom that centers on Frank West, a photojournalist who ends up trapped in a huge shopping mall infested with thousands of zombies and it's up to you to try surviving the next three days and rescue as many people as possible."
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Capcom has published its sales target for upcoming titles. Resident Evil 5 sales are expected to reach 2.3 million units.
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The new Dead Rising game for the Wii which was shown in Famitsu Magazine has now been confirmed by Gamespot.com. What we didn't know is that the game is a port of the Xbox game and will be arriving this winter in Japanese stores. No release dates for any other regions have yet to be announced.
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From Kotaku

"You may remember that back in February McWhertor wrote up a rumor that Dead Rising 2 would be developed by a Western developer. Specifically, McWhertor wrote that development duties for the game have been handed over to Vancouver-area third-party Blue Castle Games."

Click the link for more details.
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Kotaku writes: "Back in late February, we brought word of a Dead Rising lawsuit. Capcom was being sued over the game by the MKR Group, which holds the rights to George Romerso's Dawn of the Dead film. MKR claimed that Dead Rising was essentially an unlicensed adaptation of the Romero film. Over the weekend, George Romero appeared at the Chicago Horror Convention, and Kotaku reader Tyler was on hand to get his copy of Dead Rising autographed by the famed horror director. According to Tyler:

I went to a horror movie convention here in Chicago on Sunday because George Romero was due to show up for autograph signing and I was hoping he would grace my copy of Dead Rising with his signature (not expecting that he would at all). Lo and behold he actually did, and on top of that, he was not even aware of Dead Rising...i had to explain to him what it was and he was happy to sign it. Makes me wonder if he is even aware of the legal battles Capcom has had to endure."
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An independent movie producer with rights to the horror movie George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead sued video game maker Capcom Co Ltd on Monday in the latest salvo in a copyright dispute.

The producer, MKR Group, alleged that Capcom's popular Dead Rising game was essentially a computer game version of its Dawn of the Dead movies.

Earlier this month, Capcom filed a case against MKR in a California federal court, seeking a declaration that the game did not infringe on MKR's intellectual property rights. It also sought an injunction to prevent MKR from suing the company.
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Capcom has filed a lawsuit requesting a declaratory judgement against MKR Productions, the copyright owners of the Dawn of the Dead films.

According to a Hollywood Reporter blog, Capcom filed suit in anticipation of a lawsuit over its Dead Rising videogame.
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You know the formula. A pure-hearted beauty falls into the evil grasp of some snarling, spitting, mustache-twirling megalomaniac. A noble hero, driven by honor, courage and - let's face it - hormones, rushes to her aid. A brief kiss ensues and, before you can say sequel, the hapless lady has stumbled into imminent danger all over again. Tale as old as time... classic "damsel in distress." Except sometimes, the damsel isn't worth the damn trouble. ... » Read More

Yougamers.com has done a bit of sleuthing and discovered that Dead Rising is slated to come to a PC near you before the end of 2007. The release date was originally set at September 28, but after contacting sources within Capcom that date has changed to sometime before the end of the year.

Either way, Dead Rising is coming to the PC before the year is out.
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Several retailers in Germany are reporting that Dead Rising is being seized this week and even sales of the game even to adults will be forbidden in Germany. Dead Rising was refused a rating by the USK in the past but that doesn't mean that it can't be sold or marketed in the region, so the seizing of the title is a new turn of event in German's ever growing intolerance of violent video games.
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Dead Rising producer Keiji Inafune has set the record straight on the current status of a sequel to the zombie-fest on Xbox 360, confirming that a follow-up isn't currently in production. However, it is a title under consideration at Capcom Japan. "...we're not making it [Dead Rising 2] right now," Inafune told Game Informer, but explained it's something he'd love to ... » Read More

Capcom's been one of the biggest success stories on the Xbox 360 so far. The traditionally Japanese-focused company has seen enormous sales on the platform through Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Much of that, however, has come from sales in the United States and Europe -- as much as 90% of sales totals, actually.
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To celebrate Dead Rising (and Lost Planet) shifting one million copies Capcom has released a batch of new content for the game over Xbox Live. Some of it will cost you and some of it won't. The firm may have just made a lot of money by selling over one million copies of the 360-exlcusive, but the accountants want even more. And quick too. Up on Live right now you should find the following according to Major ... » Read More

Capcom is celebrating 1 million copies of Dead Rising sold by... hitting 360 owners up for some Microsoft Points. Seven new pieces of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 game are now up on Xbox Live, including three freebies.

Hit the jump for all the detail.
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