Gaming News Round-Up: March 15th, 2005

Today's round-up includes details on the Marvel vs. EA fighting game, an extension of Neopets to mobile phones, and an essential PSP fashion show event. - Electronic Arts has revealed that Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects will ship this fall for PlayStation, GameCube, Xbox, and PSP. The game, being developed at Bay Area company Nihilistic (previously the original creators of StarCraft Ghost for Blizzard, until development was moved to Swingin' Ape Software), will feature superheroes from the Marvel Universe, as well as a new set of characters created through collaboration with EA and top comic book industry talent including Jae Lee and Paul Catling. Early screenshots show off marquee Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man fighting custom EA characters, who apparently include Niles Van Roekel, "an evil alien scientist out to create a super army of vicious warriors." - In-Fusio has announced that it has signed a multi-year deal to extend the characters, stories and activities from the virtual world of Neopets.com to mobile phones worldwide. The company's application will provide access to the extremely popular Neopets online community via a mobile phone. Once connected, players can manage their accounts, buy and sell virtual goods, explore, play mini-games and care for their various pets. Neopets will be integrating exclusive wireless gameplay elements directly onto the existing website. - To kick off next week's North American launch of PSP, what Sony describes as "an extraordinary collection of fashion's biggest talents and rising stars" gathered for a special fashion show called 'Pret a PSP'. Designers included Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Jennifer Lopez, and Baby Phat By Kimora Lee Simmons, as "top designers created custom-designed accessories inspired by PSP and its innovative design including a pure gold case encrusted with seven carats of yellow and black diamonds by Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons." In addition, the LA fashion show apparently saw Jason Bateman, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Nicky Hilton picking up their PSPs before they hit shelves on March 24, in another example of game creators courting Hollywood to gain cachet for a product launch.