Archive for: October, 2008

Last Friday, Capcom held the second of its Street Fighter Club events, this time in Brooklyn at Chief Bodega. We partnered with Capcom on the theme, one that matched conveniently with the pre-Halloween event. We decided to focus on classic Street Fighter imagery, the effects of someone being electrocuted by Blanka (or Necro and Urien, for the Street Fighter III heads) which gives the player a look at the bony innards of the world’s warriors.

We wanted the t-shirt and poster design to have that rough Misfits/Cramps vibe, ultimately settling on a stark black and white silhouette of Guile getting the high voltage treatment. Only 250 hardcore Street Fighter fans got their hands on this exclusive design, but we may be able to find a way to get some into the hands of anyone who didn’t get their hands on one at the NYC event.

In addition to Meat Bun tees and posters, Club attendees got their hands on laser-etched Guile dog tags, Street Fighter IV headbands (to complete your Ryu cosplay), Street Fighter soap(!), Dragon Punch energy drinks(!!), and armfuls of Capcom and Meat Bun flotsam. Speaking of awesome products…

The I Am 8-Bit crew put together some excellent faux product for the Chief Bodega store front, including Dhalsim’s Yoga Fire and Yoga Flame instant curry, Edmond Honda Seasoned Salt, Hadouken lighters and even Shadaloo Kick Aspirin. Check out some snaps of the undercover Street Fighter dry goods from the bodega at Six Buttons’ Flickr stream.

Hundreds of frame-counting kids lookin’ to get their hands on Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix early waited for hours in line to be the first ones in. Even Zangief was there! For more photos of the Club in full swing, where all the curly mustaches at, can be seen at Hyperhal’s Flickr stream.

Big thanks to Kramer, Sissie, Jon, Mark and Adam for all their hard work in gettin’ it done!

So, yeah, Ed Boon just came over, and we played some MK vs. DC.

While Mike had to be all professional like, and take notes for Kotaku and shit, I got to chat about Noob Saibot. Ed got a big kick out of that. “Sadly, [Noob Saibot] is taking a break this round out.” You can tell Ed Boon is a real gamer. He’s the kind of guy you want hanging around your living room, hogging the controller, and getting pissed when he can’t pull off a Fatality after he beats you. (Mike then offered him a move sheet.)

But what’s even better is the fact that you can ask Ed about hidden characters in Mortal Kombat, and instead of pulling some rumor out of his butt like all your friends do, he actually knows. “I was in a KFC in Illinois, when I thought ‘Oh, we can just do a green palette-swap [for Reptile]. Then I drove back to the office and did it in an hour. I thought to myself, no one’s ever gonna find this. Two weeks later, you guys found everything. There was an arcade I went to later and they had a sign above their Mortal Kombat cabinet, ‘Find the Reptile Man and win a prize!’”

Mike then recounted our own experience trying to unlock Reptile in the original MK. We were going to college in Pittsburgh, and after reading about the existence of Reptile for the first time at Eide’s Entertainment, we rushed over to the super shady Grey Hound bus station across the street to give it a go. I kept the homeless guy trying to sell us drugs at bay while Mike executed a Fatality, obtained a double flawless victory, and never hit block during the winning round on the Pit stage.

MK vs. DC brought that feeling back. I found myself really enjoying the story mode. Having Ed Boon personally explain the plot difficulties for having The Flash fight Batman, though enjoyable, wasn’t necessary. Midway came up with a fairly elegant solution for why the two “good guys” would be brutalizing each other. And the transition from story cinematic to playable fight sequence was handled with equal finesse. But the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Amidst the confetti for pulling off a difficult combo in one of the training modes, I half expected Dan Forden to pop out and exclaim “Toasty!”

As things were winding up, I asked Ed if he still kept in touch with George Gomez. He said he did, so I gave Ed an Auto Hunter shirt to pass along to George. George, if you’re reading this, Spy Hunter is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I will own a sitdown cabinet one day. Hope you like the shirt!

Tokyo Game Show 2008 gave me the opportunity to travel to Tokyo for the fourth time, but this was the first trip that afforded me the opportunity to hit up Super Potato, Akihabara’s retro super shop. Want to sit on a throne made of Famicom cartridges? Want to buy a thousand dollar copy of Maximum Carnage? Need a PC Engine Shuttle? Official Super Mario World golf shoes? All can be had at Super Potato!

You can also get a copy of the Virtual Cameraman 2 Mega LD for your Mega Drive compliant Pioneer LaserActive.

Why would you want such a thing?

Because it supports the LaserActive 3-D Goggles for hands-free enjoyment. And you’ve got to dust off the LaserActive at some point. A night in with average Japanese bikini models from 1994 is a perfect excuse!

Frankly, there are hundreds of post-worthy nuggets tucked away inside Super Potato. From the copy of Nice Body — “for professional use only” — for the PC Engine to the Atari 2600 games curiously marked up to $25 a pop (must remember to hock our copies next trip) to the looping Kid Icarus soundtrack, there’s so much to see and do, it’s like a vacation within a vacation.

We’ll just leave with this parting shot of Veigues Tactical Gladiator, the TurboGrafx 16 game with the most deliciously phoned-in box art we’ve ever seen.

Previous rumors aside, Mike figured out a way to swindle Kotaku into flying him out to TGS again this year.  I was informed too late to book my own travel arrangements, so I’m completely depressed holding down the fort here in LA.  To make the best of it, I’ve found some local things that may pacify my yearning to be checked into the Cerulean Tower with the rest of the Kotaku crew.

I visited Waraku on Abbot Kinney Blvd. this afternoon.   Not quite the same as shopping in Ginza or Takeshita-dori in Harajuku, but it is definitely a taste.

Speaking about taste, we have an oddly flavored candy, newly introduced in the States, that would give any bizzaro-candy in Japan a run for its money (who am I kidding?  Japan makes burger shaped chocolate-filled cookies called EveryBurger.)  The item I’m referring to is Ice Breakers Iced Tea Lemon flavored mints.  It’s like mainlining a spoonful of Lipton Iced Tea mix.

And with a couple clicks, I was perusing some homegrown videogame cosplay that will tide me over til I get back out to TGS (or Mike posts some of his pic’s).  This anonymous 4chan’er is creating quite simply a masterpiece with his version of Tyrael.

I’ll be hanging out on Sawtelle Blvd. a lot this week, drowning my sorrows in sake if anyone wants to join me.