A few weeks ago, you may have noticed that Street Fighter IV’s venerable producer Yoshinori Ono said he was looking forward to a new game called “Skullgirls.” A lot of you probably hadn’t even heard of the game before, so I’m here to remedy that.

Skullgirls is more than just a PSN fighting game, it’s the realization of two peoples’ long-held dreams… seriously! Creative director Alex “o_8” Ahad has been working on the characters and story since he was in high school, and project lead Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont had been working on a fighting game engine in his free time since 2008. When mutual friends introduced them to each other, Skullgirls was born. Joining the recently founded Reverge Labs team in 2010, they signed with publisher Autumn games, and at E3 Konami announced that it will be distributing Skullgirls.

Skullgirls takes place in the Canopy Kingdom, a country reminiscent of a 1940’s post-war America tinged with magic and intrigue. Hanging over the kingdom is the legend of the Skull Heart: this ancient artifact is said to be able to grant a wish to a young woman, but if her heart isn’t pure her wish will be twisted and she’ll be transformed into a living nightmare known as the “Skullgirl.” As the game begins, a new Skullgirl, Marie, has emerged and is terrorizing the kingdom, and so once again people are lining up to save the country from this menace and claim the Skull Heart for themselves.

Skullgirls’ initial eight characters are all females that range from the elegant to the macabre, and each has a distinct play style. In the future we’ll expand the roster with DLC characters, including (gasp!) men.

Thus far, we’ve revealed four characters:

• Filia is an amnesiac schoolgirl playing host to a powerful parasite creature named Samson. Wielding her shape-shifting hair, she’s nimble and excellent with combos.
• Cerebella wields a powerful living hat, Vice-Versa, in her dual jobs as circus performer and Mafia leg-breaker. With a wide range of powerful throws at her disposal, she excels in close combat.
• Peacock is a psychotic biomechanical monstrosity created to destroy the Skullgirl, whose weaponry manifests as murderous cartoon characters and deadly gags. With lots of ranged attacks and a teleport, she’s best when attacking from a distance.
• Parasoul is the princess of the Canopy Kingdom and leader of its elite military force, the Black Egrets. With exceptional attack range, projectiles and strategic command of her soldiers, she’s a formidable opponent.

Each of the characters is 100% hand-animated by our amazing art staff, and features an average of high-resolution 1300 frames per character, the most of any fighting game to date. Furthermore, our engine allows us to get really creative with their coloring, as well as light them in real-time.

Now just because we’ve got an all-girl cast (so far!) doesn’t mean we’ve neglected the gameplay: Mike’s primary goal is to make a truly balanced and competitive fighter by addressing a number of the lingering problems with the genre… but that will have to wait for another blog post.

One last thing…

We’re excited to announce our fifth character exclusively on the PlayStation.Blog!

Her name is Ms. Fortune, and she’s a cat burglar with a penchant for puns. While stealing a powerful life-giving artifact, the Mafia captured her, cut her up and left her for dead on the bottom of the ocean… but the artifact kept her alive through the ordeal, so now she can now detach her head, separate her limbs and generally dismember herself to perform a variety of amusing and grotesque feats of combat.

If you like what you see here, visit our website, Twitter @Skullgirls or “Like” us on Facebook to stay abreast of the latest developments and future public demonstrations.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to fighting you online later this year!