Top five games of 2009

I did intend to post this in 2009, but I was too busy drinking, eating, and generally enjoying myself away from computers and the internet to get around to it. So, here it is. Good job no-one was awaiting this with baited breath (or at all), as I'd hate to be responsible for anyone's death. Actually, scratch that, it's a blatant lie.

Another unapologetically 360-centric year end top five from me for 09, but that's hardly surprising - I've only got a 360 and a DS these days. The Wii REALLY doesn't count, and has been turned on about 3 times throughout the entire year. Pathetic box of crap that it is. Anyway, on with my choices.

5 - The Beatles: Rock Band

It helps being a big fan of The Fab Four, but The Beatles: Rock Band is a brilliant Rock Band game in it's own right regardless of your feelings on the band. A great selection of tunes from across the legendary group's (remarkably short) history, lovely stylised visuals, previously unheard soundbytes from John and co, and full downloadable albums available throughout the year all combine to create a music game I keep coming back to again and again, and thanks to Ringo's idiosyncratic drumming style, I can even manage to keep time on the skins. Yay!

4 - Resident Evil 5

Capcom set themselves a hell of a standard to beat with the utterly sublime Resident Evil 4 back on GameCube, and it shows - Resi 5 is basically the same game with improved visuals, different enemies, and a co-op feature. Sadly it doesn't quite match up to the majesty of it's prequel, but there was still enough fun tackling the infected hordes with Chris Redfield and new counterpart Sheva Alomar to keep me playing for weeks. The return of Mercenaries mode was most welcome, and the co-op feature was good with an online partner too. Shame it sucked in offline thanks to a ludicrous bordered split screen, but you can't have everything. Oh and it had Jill, so I was sold. Looking forward to more Valentine action with the forthcoming DLC mission packs in 2010, so Resi 5 hasn't done giving just yet.

3 - Modern Warfare 2

I had a real struggle deciding between this and Halo 3: ODST. I LOVE the Halo design, the armour, the weapons, the dual wield, and the overall feel, and ODST was a pleasant return to the universe, albeit from a slightly skewed perspective. Firefight mode was freaking awesome fun too, with wave after wave of Covenant dying for (and of) a bullet through the cranium. Oh, and it was packed with Firefly cronies, so basically all the boxes were ticked.

Modern Warfare 2 though, it just blew every other FPS this year out of the water. Sure the story was bewildering nonsense, and it still suffers from the shooting gallery syndrome, but it's done with such incredible polish it hardly seems to matter. The new Spec Ops mode was a brilliant touch too, adding much needed single and co-op longevity to a previously online-centric game. Speaking of online, it's as much fun as ever if my friends playlist is anything to go by, although I've only dipped my toe in that murky water once. And lost badly. Regardless, any game that makes me play it through three times in quick sucession is definitely a winner, and MW2 is that game. I tried not to like it, cos everyone else did, but it was just too difficult. Modern Warfare 2 rules

2 - Street Fighter IV

I've written a few blogs about SFIV in the last year, and it genuinely affected my well being. Love/hate/love/hate over and over again. Getting wound up online by endless Shoto spammers, then finding new tactics and enjoying myself. The Sagat flood of April 09. The sheer brilliance of Championship Mode. It's been a while since I've played it tbh, because the online competition was getting beyond my skills, but it's still got a special place in my heart. I LOVE Street Fighter, and IV is no exception. It just can't quite make the top spot, which will surprise a few people. Or would if anyone was reading yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, I can't wait for Super Street Fighter IV this year, so clearly the infatuation goes on. Chun Li will be back. Oh yes. She will...

1 - Batman Arkham Asylum

Surprise! I didn't have high hopes for this game. Sure, the graphics looked fantastic, but with the last decent Batman game appearing on the bloody Amiga, it's fair to say that a Caped Crusader based videogame being my game of the year has come as a bit of a shock. It's warranted though, as Batman: Arkham Asylum has been put together with real love and care, and it shows. It looks fantastic, with a chunky Batman facing off against a gangly clownish Joker, or a slinky sensual Posion Ivy. The voice work is brilliant, especially Mark Hamill, as the Clown Prince of Crime. The stealthy "Invisible Predator" sections work amazingly well too, with Bats picking off thugs one by one from hidden vantage points in the ceiling, under floor grates, over ledges etc.

For me though, it's the feeling of BEING Batman that shines through; the selection of gadgets at your disposal, cleverly unlocking as you go through a series of sensible plot developments rather than just "LEVEL UP!!!"; or the incredible combat system, which truly makes you feel like the hardest man alive. I know it took some knocks for being a one or two button system, but the context specific moves coupled with the intuitive countering system create some epic punchups.
When you chain a few punches together, countering a swiftly closing-in goon, leapfrogging another, swirling your cape to disorientate a knife wielding henchman, finishing with a hard handed "face meets concrete" takedown, you ARE The Dark Knight. Awesome stuff.

So that's that, my favourites of 2009. Most wanted for 2010 coming up tomorrow, bet you can't wait.

*sigh*

Skimpy, busty, ninja lady!

Regular non-readers of this waste of time will no doubt be totally unaware of my Marvel comics obsession, nor my love for Kotobukiya's Shunya Yamashita Marvel statue line.

None of that matters though, as the next figure in the range is my absolute favourite Marvel X-girl, beating Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost and all the rest by virtue of being a smoking hot ninja chick. I'm easily pleased. Yup, Psylocke is on the way, as I already knew, but the first images of the sculpt have been revealed.

Not entirely sure I like it as much as the Rogue from last year if I'm totally honest - I'm a sucker for the Jim Lee look for Betsy, which I guess is a lot colder and harder than the Yamashita style. I'd also have preferred to see a Psychic Knife or some TK butterflies rather than twin swords, but it's still pretty decent. And pretty. Ms Braddock doesn't get enough love in the X-Men comics imo, and they can never really decide what the hell to do with her from one week to the next, chopping and changing her powers at a frankly silly rate, so it's nice to see a figurine.

As long as she stays a ninja in that costume though, I'll always be a fan. >_< I really need to get out more...

Happy birthday PlayStation!

As with everything I do, this is slightly late. A day late to be precise, but I was busy yesterday. Anyway, December the 3rd marked the 15th birthday of Sony's PlayStation brand, and the original PlayStation in particular. Has it REALLY been 15 years?

Emerging into a market dominated by Nintendo and Sega, Sony seemed foolhardy to many (me included), attempting to go head to head with Mario and Sonic's respective parent companies without any experience in the field. I for one wanted a Sega Saturn - Virtua Fighter looked awesome, as did Virtua Racing, and there was bound to be a Sonic game. In the end though, I couldn't afford one, and my parents bought me a new stereo for that Xmas instead.

Fast forward a bit and I find myself with a wodge of cash, and working at Domino's Pizza, where the manager just happens to have a PlayStation and some games he wants rid of. I just happen to have the right amount of money, and so the deal is done, and a Mk1 PlayStation is mine, along with a memory card, Worms, and Destruction Derby. I quickly traded those two stinkers in for Alien Trilogy, Ridge Racer Revolution and Thunderhawk, and played those three games for an eternity. It really felt like the most powerful machine in the world in those early days, although looking back at the games now you'd be hard pushed to see how! Hindsight's a marvelous thing, but I was hooked, tearing round Ridge city for hours on end.

I landed a job with Gameplay not long after, which only served to feed my addiction, and my burgeoning collection. I've well and truly lost count of the amount of PlayStation games I've bought, swapped, traded, and lost over the years, but here's my top ten list of PS games/series. In no particular order mind, as that's far too stressful...

Ridge Racer - Ridge Racer Type 4 is probably my favourite of the series, with its Ace Combat skies, brake light trails, and awesomely good soundtrack, but I could happily put any of the 4 PSone era Ridge games on now and drift my way to happiness for an entire evening. Arcade heaven, and easily one of my favourite game series ever.

Soul Blade - Another Namco triumph, I waited on this for months after spotting a preview in Play magazine. When it finally did arrive it became an obsession, prompting lengthy late night bouts against my mate John, pitting his Hwang against my Mitsurugi. It was like Ryu vs Ken with swords. Oh, and who could forget that intro! TO SHINE! This is the game that made me jump ship to Sega's Dreamcast (my all time favourite console), as the sequel was announced for the DC instead of my beloved PlayStation. So basically, I owe it a huge thankyou. Thanks Soul Blade!

Wipeout - I HATED the first Wipeout, I'm not ashamed to admit it. It was too hard for my clumsy thumbs, and the way it made you stop dead for the slightest nudge against the track drove me up the wall. Thankfully 2097 sorted out the handling/stoping issues, and I was once again obsessed. Wipeout 3 is probably my favourite, but 2097 was played soooo many times with friends, so I've got great memories of it. Shame the PS2 version pretty much bummed it in the gob, but never mind.

Parappa The Rapper - A music game? A MUSIC GAME? What witchcraft is this? Arriving eons before music games became the phenomenon they are today, Parappa fused brilliant tunes with button tapping gameplay, and wrapped it all up in a paper thin 2D world of rapping dogs, kung fu onions, angry mooses and ragga frogs. Insane. If Sony announced a third game, I'd buy a PS3 in a shot.

Tenchu - I'd never have gotten this if an Activision rep hadn't brought it in one afternoon. Admittedly, it looked a bit rough, arriving fairly late into the PlayStation's life and going up against games with far higher production values, but my god, the gameplay! I've got a thing for ninja anyway, so the chance to be one and properly sneak around all stealthy like, rather than slicing everybody into pieces like Strider or shurikening all and sundry like Shinobi was enough to get me hooked. Luckily, it played just as well as the premise would suggest, and it became another late night favourite for me and John. John has ridiculous patience too, which certainly helps in a stealth game, but having seen him wait for 15 minutes to get the perfect kill, I think it's safe to say he's a bit good at Tenchu.

Resident Evil - The second game might have been better in just about everyway, but the original was so different from anything else I'd played up until that point. The cheesy acting, the choice of characters, the combination of zombie heads and shotguns, Jill sandwiches - how could you NOT like it? Late night stoner scares ahoy too, which always helps.

Gran Turismo - I've well and truly gone off real driving games these days, but when GT arrived in the office on Jap import, it was incredible. Already being a fan of crazy jap cars like Imprezas and Lancers, GT was a dream come true for me and a gew of the other lads in the GP office, and once again it became an obsession. I clearly have an obsessive personality... Tweaking the setup on a turbo charged Toyota Supra for hours on end, just to get milliseconds of a lap time became normal, and it introduced me to my current car, the Mitsubishi FTO. I loved it so much in the game, I wanted a real one, and now I do! Yay for fulfilling a dream.

Tekken 3 - Tekken was crap. Oh it was! Tekken 2 was pretty tidy, although nothing compared with Soul Blade in my eyes. Tekken 3 though, lordy, what a game! It must have been, as I paid over 75 quid for an import copy on launch week, which I'm fairly sure meant I was living on pasta for the rest of the month. Incredible graphics, loads of characters, Namco's genius CGI movies, and bags of replay value, it was easily the best fighter on PlayStation. Just a shame it's turned to utter shit sense then, Tekken 6 included.

Metal Gear Solid - Couldn't really have a PS top ten without Kojima's epic could I? Just as well I genuinely like it then, as I'm not a fan of the later games. MGS blew everybody away, with intelligent storytelling, stealthy gameplay, quirky touches a-plenty, and some truly standout moments. Psycho Mantis reading your memory card, and making the joypad move? Ninja? Any bit with Meryl? All genius. As was the music, with the game over tune always lurking in the back of my head. Fantastic stuff, and Kojima managed to walk the line between atmospheric storytelling and overblown anti-war 7 hour cut-scene nonsense, which unfortunately he's never managed since.

Vib Ribbon - I struggled to pick this last one. All the rest HAD to go in, but I had a few games left to choose from for number 10, and it was tough trying to whittle them down. Vib Ribbon will ALWAYS stick in my head though, and I've still got the tunes on my Walkman, so I guess it deserves it's place in the chart. Not that you'd know it to look at it, with its monochrome vector graphics and scratchy animation, but once you've experienced the sheer joy of Laughs & Beats soundtrack as you tumble merrily along that ribbon of white, you either understand completely, or want to leave and never come back. I understood. I have no umbrella. <3

Super Final Street Fight!

The Super Street Fighter IV new features drip-feed splurged ever so slightly this week, with not one, not two, but three new characters unveiled for the next instalment in Capcom's scrapper.

Busting out from the original Street Fighter game and the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series is Muay Thai fighter Adon, an annoying screamer of a character who I've never got on with. By the looks of things, I will have no desire to address that situation.

More exciting for me is the inclusion of Final Fight legends Guy and Cody, who have also appeared in the SF Zero series. Guy is a ninja, so he's a guaranteed winner in my eyes, while his jailbird chum Cody is a street brawler. But you already know this. At least someone would, if anybody was reading. Good grief.

New trailer below, with the three newly announced pugilists, plus the previously unveiled Juri, T Hawk and *spit* Dee Jay.

Still hoping to see Makoto or Ibuki from Street Fighter III, but we'll just have to wait I guess. Fingers crossed!

Strobo Nights in thigh high socks

Been meaning to post up Strobo Nights to my blog for ages, as I like to have my fave J-tunes on here so I can find them easily. Decided there was no time like the present and tapped in the title to YouTube. Got the usual returned files, but something new caught my eye. And here it is.

No idea who this girl is, but she gets points for cute dancing, points for bunches, and bonus points for thigh high socks. If only the X-Factor was more of this and less shitty Mariah/Cheryl/Robbie wannabes, I might actually have something to watch on a Satruday evening. A man can dream!

J-pop earworm of the week: Utada Hikaru - Travelling

I've had a shitty few weeks, with this current one being the worst of all. House sale falling through, house purchase collapsing because of it, and a death in my wife's family have kinda sucked the fun out of life.

Luckily I've got tickets for Hikki's February London show at the Islington o2, so there's some light at the end of this particularly dark tunnel, and I can't bloody wait. I'm already mentally preparing a dream set list, but tbh as long as she does Hikari and Travelling, I'll be a very happy boy.

So here, for all the people who don't actually read this here occasional blog, they are. The video for Travelling has more than a touch of New Order's "Blue Monday" about it, but I won't hold that against it...

Mari Yakuza!

Fast becoming the ex-Momusu of choice for Japan-o-phile gamers (i.e. me) Mari Yaguchi expands further on her gaming credentials by appearing in the forthcoming PS3 title Ryu Ga Gotoku 4, or Yakuza 4 as it's known over in the West.

Everybody's (i.e. me) favourite pint sized j-starlet already provides a column for Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, and has a long running obsession with Dragon Quest on her DSi. She's also no stranger to videogames, having appeared in digitized form in the Morning Musume Space Venus game for PlayStation 2, and in chibi form in the Mini Moni Shakatoo De Tambourine and Mini Moni Step da Pyon games on PSone. For my sins, I own them all. Good grief...

This is the first time she'll play a character other than herself though, appearing as a therapist in a massage parlour in the Yakuza game. Although she's still called Mari, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for her midgesty.

Here she is in the game, and in real life. Not a bad likeness, although maybe that head is a wee bit too big...

Fortunately, it's not likely to arrive on these shores (the third instalment never did), and I don't have a PS3 anyway, so I'm safe from the wife's wrath for now...

Girls Generation + Cup Noodle X Bubble Bobble =?

The oddest combination of ingredients ever have somehow found themselves into a genuine tv commercial for some Korean cup noodles.

Girls Generation, a bunch of teen K-pop starlets (and long time favourite of this blog), are doing the natural Asian girl pop thing - pimping product. Nothing unusual about that. The choice of theme song IS somewhat odd though.

It's not one of their tunes, or a variant on a traditional ad jingle like the Aya Matsuura Pretz CM's. No, it's a crazy take on the Bubble Bobble theme. Aye, you heard. Bubble Bobble, Taito's classic bubble blowing, girlfriend rescuing, cutesy dinosaur adventure. I don't recall noodles being involved in the game. Every other foodstuff going sure, but not noodles...

Surely only a matter of time before Girls Aloud are shifting Daz with the Jet Set Willy theme, or Sugababes are selling dog food to the sound of Rainbow Islands.

Super Street Fighter IV - Juri, DeeJay and T Hawk trailer!

Typical - I go away for a week on holiday and come back to loads of gaming news and demos on XBL! Still, I'm not about to complain as Capcom have announced Super Street Fighter IV for PS3 and Xbox 360, promising to enhance, balance and generally rejig the already rather good SFIV, as well as adding a few more characters to the mix. Eight to be exact, with old favourites returning from various SF iterations as well as one or two new bods.

So far, and rather disappointingly, DeeJay and T Hawk have been announced, coming back from Street Fighter II: The New Challangers. Never liked either of them personally, and I'm fairly sure I'm not the only person who's not particularly keen. A resounding MEH from me then.

Of more interest is the first NEW character announced, a Korean taekwondo fighter called Juri. Nice to see a different style up in the mix, and more female characters are always welcome. Check out her Ultra in the vid below, from the unsettling tongue wiggle at the beginning to the too-cool-for-school taunt mid move, it's all good!

Hopefully we'll see some more characters announced soon, but the game isn't due until spring 2010, there's plenty of time. I've got my fingers crossed for Ibuki and Makoto from SF3, and I'd quite like to see some of the Final Fight crew from SF Alpha. Time will tell!

Official site: http://www.capcom.co.jp/sf4/

J-pop earworm of the week - Perfume: The Best Thing

Not done this for ages, but it was on in the car when I popped to the shops at lunchtime, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Usual Perfume rules apply, vocoded vocals, cuteness, catchier than swine flu. No video for this one, so here's a cheesy montage of random pics. Yay!

Cave cave-in!

After the recent NTSC-J only release of Death Smiles for XBox 360, coming warm on the heels of previous region locked releases, I'd given up on ever seeing any Cave shmups for my console. The announcement of Mushihimesama Futari rubbed so much extra salt into the wound, as the original is one of my favourite shooters.

Sure, I could get a Japanese 360, but they cost quite a bit to import, they weigh a ton so postage ain't cheap, and let's face it, 360's aren't renowned for their build quality. So no, I don't really want to go down that road. No Cave shmups (or Otomedius Gorgeous, or IdolMaster) for me.

Or so it seemed, until a recent poll from Cave gave me (and countless others) a direct link to the team. While they wanted to know what game Japanese fans would like to see ported to XBLA, they inadvertently opened themselves up to a swathe of westerners sending begging letters - begging letters that seem to have had a result!

Makoto Asada from Cave blogged the results of the XBLA poll this week (Guwange is the winner), and he took the time to address the Japanese only releases the company has made so far.

"Death Smiles" was released only for Asia, but the region for "Mushi-hime sama Futari" has not been decided yet. I believe it will be decided around the time of Tokyo Game Show 2009.

We are very happy to have received so many e-mails from overseas."

I sent one of those emails, and for once it's nice to have a company listening to it's customers. Don't let me down Cave, I want to be blasting bugs come November! *excited*

J-funk-a-delic

The boy Rag' has just pointed me in the direction of another anime I might like. K-On! is the title, and it apparently features four Japanese girls starting a rock band at school and having various hi-jinx and shenanigans along the way. Sounds good, especially as it's only 13 parts, and I HATE never ending anime series. Bleach, Naruto, Gundam, Dragon Ball, whatever, if it takes four episodes of filler fighting before we get to a story, I'm outta there, regardless of how enjoyable it was initially.

Stuff like Midori No Hibi, Azumanga Daioh and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are much more my thing, and with the intro to the anime being produced by the Haruhi ending team, I was pretty much sold on that alone.

Having now become hooked on the tune before I've even seen the show, I scouted round YouTube looking for full length versions. And found this beastie. I think I need a bass guitar again...Enjoy!

Marvel x Kotobukiya range expands!

One of the first posts made on artificialconstruct was this little missive, dribbling over the dream combination of Kotobukiya sculpting, a particular X-laydee and Shunya Yamashita's design skills. I was unaware at the time that other Marvel maidens were due the same treatment, with Black Widow already available as I type, and Scarlet Witch due by the end of the year.

Rogue, the object of my Marvel fanboy lust, still isn't out in the UK, but is due to arrive at the end of August. Which is perfect for my birthday - although I'll have to buy it myself, as my lovely wife has already spoiled me rotten with a Marvel vs Capcom 2 cart for my Naomi cabinet. ^_^

Still, while it was nice to see extra additions being made to the series, neither Black Widow or the Scarlet Witch are particular favourites of mine. I've never been a huge Avengers fan, preferring my super-teams to have X-genes. Lucky for me then, that the Japanese statue buying public have similar taste, as they've recently voted on what the next two figures in the range should be - Phoenix and Psylocke!

Phoenix might be the more iconic and important of the two to the whole X-Men saga, but for this boy, Psylocke is where the money's at. Or where my money will be going, to be more accurate. Brit girl's mind in a Japanese ninja girl's body? With telekinesis/telepathy/teleportation (delete as appropriate, depending on whatever they're giving her this week)? In THAT costume? Ding dong! Preview sketch below, but in the meantime I'm setting up camp at online toy stores to get my hands on a pre-order as soon as humanly possible!

Day. Officially. Made!

More Street Figher art on the way!

Udon and Capcom have just announced SF20: The Art of Street Fighter. Yeah, I know, that'll be like the 3rd time, but there's promises of never before seen stuff. Plus, it also features more recent games not covered in previous Capcom or Udon SF art books, including SF IV and Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

Over 1500 images will be featured apparently, and looking at the images released so far it definitely looks like there is some new goodness.

Amazon are taking pre-orders at just $23.99, with an estimated shipping date of October. It's Udon, so that'll never happen, but may as well get those pre-orders in - that's a great price for what's bound to be a gorgeous art book.

More info at Udon's official page here!

Pre-order get!

Insert Coin 09 - a rare day out for artificial construct.

I don't go out much. There's inevitably other people involved. The promise of 250 arcade cabinets with loads of hardcore Japanese beat'em-ups and shmups in one room, on freeplay no less, well, that could entice me. Insert Coin 09 promised just that, and so on Saturday 18th of May at 6am, I jumped into the FTO and headed south towards Northampton for a day of arcade mania!

Arriving at the Saints Rugby ground at just before 9am, I met my brother Ross who had been there since the previous day, helping to set up the vast array of candy cabs. He'd been up since 5, and there was a mild panic amongst the organisers as they were short on kick harnesses for the huge amount of Capcom fighting games that had been brought along. One qiuck crash course later, and I'm helping my bro put together the much needed harnesses. We got finished just before 10, which was lucky as the event was due to start.

I've never seen this many cabinets in one room before, outside of Japan at least. Egrets, Astros, NAOMIs were in plentiful supply, as well as some dedicated machines such as OutRun 2, Ghost Squad, House of the Dead 2, Inital D 3 and more! The candy cabs were lined up down the centre of the hall, back to back, in one long line, and it was quite a sight! One side was primarily fighters, with the other featuring shmups for the most part. There were eight Atomiswaves linked up for Street Fighter IV, which proved to be a massive draw all day, with some great competition on display. X-Men vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3, Marvel Super Heroes, Arcana Heart, Final Fight, King of Fighters variants, King of Dragons, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and plenty more filled out the fighting game side. Only one SF3 unfortunately, but I guess I CAN play it at home anytime I like, so nothing to cry about.

The other side of the divide featured puzzlers and shmups, with Cave games getting a strong showing in particular. Muchi Muchi Pork, Ketsui, etc were busy all day, but Death Smiles was the highlight for me. Very tempted to import a Japanese 360 just for this, it's a great hori shooter, which is something you don't get so much of these days. Puzzlers included Puzzle Bobble, Puzzle Fighter 2, and a quirky puzzler based on Mushihimesama, which I could make no sense of whatsoever... >_<

Dotted around the outside where the NAOMI set ups, featuring Border Down, Ikaruga, Project Justice, Zero Gunner 2 etc, and the dedicated cabs. It was an awe inspiring sight, but it wasn't long before they were ALL busy! Time to get stuck in!

With the guys from Radio Sega playing Sega tunes over a seriously loud sound system and every game blaring away, it soon got pretty loud, but at least it wasn't smokey like a real Jap arcade! I flitted around the hall, catching up with Ross, and watching other people play inbetween trying my hand at a few games myself. X-Men CotA, X-Men vs StreetFighter, Marvel Super Heroes, and Street Fighter IV were all as enjoyable as expected, and I enjoyed giving Ross a sound drubbing on them all. He did win ONE round on CotA, but that's only cos I forgot Psylocke's moves. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Puzzle Fighter 2, Rainbow Islands and OutRun 2 were all enjoyed over the course of the day, as well as an aborted attempt on DOA2 - the counter button just didn't seem to want to work, and I got thoroughly fucked off with it.

Death Smiles and UN Squadron were the only shooters I really messed with, as every other one was pretty packed throughout the entire event. Oh, I tried Ghost Squad in Radio Sega's competition, but I was utterly shit. No big deal though, it was nice just to hang with my bro and enjoy the atmosphere.

Definitely gonna go again next year, and the entire thing was good enough to convince me to lay down the cash on a Marvel vs Capcom 2 cart for my forthcoming NAOMI setup. Well, I won it on ebay, but Jodi paid. Early birthday present get! ^_^

Scarlet Widow!

Marvel movies are notoriously unreliable for their quality. They're even more unreliable for their casting in my opinion, and never more so than when it comes to the laydeez of the Marvel Universe.

Anna Pacquin as Southern Belle and all round hottie hardcase Rogue? Not buying it. Famke Jansen as super hot(in more ways than one) mutant mentalist Jean Grey/Phoenix? Not a chance, she's too old for starters. Kirsten Dunst as the fittest girl next door ever, Mary Jane Watson? Get out of town, the girl just doesn't cut it, at all. Jessica Alba as blonde bombshell Sue Storm? OK, she's tidy, but she's not blonde, and looks far too latin for Mrs Fantastic.

Basically, I HATE it when they cast the wrong look/type for a part. Rogue was arguably the worst, especially as they didn't let her become anything like the comic character, leaving her as a whiny bitch who couldn't do anything useful, rather than an invulnerable flying tank who could scrap it out with just about anybody.

Then, out of the blue, comes Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Oh my stars and garters, what a quality bit of casting. She's got the lips, the eyes, the front and the back, and plenty of it to fill out the catsuit. Coupled with a top notch redhead hairdo, the girl IS Natalia Romanova - she even looks like the Shunya Yamashita Bishojou figurine for god sake! Whether she can manage the sultry hard faced bitch shtick we'll have to wait and see, but at least she looks the part.

Well done Marvel, and well done to the Iron Man team. The first film was great fun, if a little bit lightweight, so hopefully we can see some more action, more Tony in suit combat, and plenty of frisson between the tincan alcoholic and the leather wrapped can. Looking forward to it!

You're so pringles! Marvel vs Capcom 2 hits XBLA & PSN 29th July!

Quite possibly my all time favourite Dreamcast game, Marvel vs Capcom 2 hooked me in big time back in 2000 when it was released in PAL land. Ridiculously over the top three on three action with a massive cast of fighters, it was incredible fun. And still is, thankfully, as Capcom are punting the insanity onto XBLA and PSN on the 29th July! Yay!

To celebrate, Capcom have been pushing out some new trailer featurettes, so here's part one for your viewing pleasure.

J-pop earworm of the week - Perfume: Dream Fighter

Perfume's third album is out this week, and it's winging its way to my house as I type. Here's hoping CD Japan can be as on the ball as they were with the advantage Lucy album they managed to get to me in just over 24 hours last week.

In the meantime, here's Dream Fighter. I was gonna post the version of the Japanese guys doing their own dance routine to it, as it's guaranteed to make me laugh, but I'd rather have ladies on the blog. Easier on the eyes. ;p

Free 2D Japanese beat'em-up!

It's called Vanguard Princess. It's by an ex-Capcom employee called Tomoaki Sugeno. It looks bleeding lovely. It's free to download on PC. What a fantastic idea.

More new free 2D games please! 360 compatible preferably...

Meh, Onimusha NOT on the way.

It's a bit of a Capcom bad news double header today. First off, the teaser site that many assumed to be hinting at the return of the Onimusha series is actually for the 3rd in the Sengoku Basara/Devil Kings franchise - which tbh, I don't care about in the slightest. Dynasty Warriors is dull, so why Capcom decided to copy it is beyond me. Oh wait, there's cash to be made, and DW is HERUUUUGE in Japan.

Worse than that though, Milla Jovovich confirmed a 4th instalment in the stinky as old meat Resident Evil movie series. Just let it die!

Me am cry.