Joystiq

Capcom is reaching for a broader audience to grow its business, including several upcoming mobile phone titles. A direct port of Mega Man II and a looser, but faithful port of Street Fighter II will ship in June; trivia game, Millionaire Music Edition, will be released in May; and MMO, Shade II, is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. All titles will be available on various carriers and support Java and BREW phone platforms.

Mega Man II and Street Fighter II may resonate most with long-time gamers. Capcom said that Mega Man II is a literal port of the original. Street Fighter II, however, has about "80 percent" of the original game's combinations in order to adapt to more awkward keypad mashing. In-development versions of both titles seem about as fluid as their originals; maybe there's more to this mobile gaming thing than trivia. (If not, there's Millionaire Music Edition, as in "Who Wants to Be A ...")

Shade II -- there were so many unanswered questions from the first Shade -- seeks to expand the MMORPG mobile space. Capcom was cagey with statistics about the popularity of Shade, saying that it has 600,000 unique users, but not saying how many concurrent players are in the game. Still, like the first game, Shade II will be a basic MMO with quests, leveling, cooperative play, and even PVP. Maybe that New York electronics law is to protect ourselves from injury if mobile MMOs become popular.

Prices will vary with carriers, but the games are expected to cost a couple dollars or less on a monthly subscription, or less than $10 to buy.