Reverge Labs' upcoming 2D fighter, Skullgirls, won't release in 2011, as expected. The developer is now citing a release "early in the first quarter of 2012." Reverge attributes the delay, in part, to its "gameplay first development approach," and asserts that it'll be using the extra time to polish up the game.

Reverge goes into a bit more detail about the delay on the game's official blog, explaining that some of the delay is also due to the incorporation of fan-requested features.

There are a lot of reasons behind this delay, but the overriding one is that we're just trying to make the best game we can. As tournament attendees and forum-goers know, we've done extensive tweaking and added new features based on community feedback. While many of these things are individually small, they add up over time and can delay other tasks – some companies call this "feature creep," but we call it the extra polish that takes a game from "good" to "great."

The newly incorporated features are listed below:

• Gameplay speed changes – 10% faster!

• Lots of new effects and overall presentation improvements

• Upgraded backgrounds to 3D

• Additional music from Michiru Yamane

• Requested color palettes

• Accidental pause prevention option – hold Start for 15 frames to pause

• PlayStation 3 custom soundtrack option

• Button macros to help when playing on a pad

• Innumerable balance and gameplay tweaks

• In-game art galleries

"We're still listening to your requests and may be adding more beyond these," Reverge notes. The developer also promises "more new features" and "community-driven polish" in free, future Skullgirls updates.