SFIV National Tournament!

On November 3rd,  Forgenjuro and I slid into the Street Fighter IV National Tournament at the Shinagawa Inner City Hall in Tokyo with press passes! (Jeah!) The SFIV competition was off the meter! I knew Dhalism was good but he’s Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 GOOD in SFIV!  Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom staff dropped a couple of new character announcements for the Wii release.  Viewtiful Joe being the most exciting addition to an already impressive roster and Fate Unlimited Code, the anime based fighter along SFIV were all on free play!  And of course the Capcom SFIV models for Chun-Li, Sakura, and C.Viper made an appearance!

The Shinagawa Inner City venue itself was spacious as hell and well ventilated. Which is very important when staging a video game tournament because “gamer funk” gets real nasty after a couple of hours of gaming!  The high ceilings made for a great museum space which Capcom put to damn good use by draping these giant character banners from SFIV down from the upper railing.  The back wall of the hall served as a stage with theater sized screen overhead.  This set-up made it very easy see the finals from anywhere in the hall but it would be nice to have some chairs yo’.   Uncomfortable as it may have been, the finals were so entertaining that many viewers ignored the pain as we sat in awe mesmerized by captivating high level SFIV game play!  Watch the video and I bet you can’t tell me that, “Dhalism ain’t Awesome!”

In the front Lobby, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom and Fate Unlimited Code held it down for the people not playing SFIV.  Fate is a cool game, it’s has the anime fighter feel of Melty Blood and Arcana Hearts. Fate is already out in the arcades here in Tokyo and it will be coming out on  with a collectors edition that comes with a Fate figure for the PS2 in the near future. But it is all about Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. TvC is that rainbow delicious splash of combo fresh frenzy on wheat bread with a little pineapple and flag on top!  But the big question is it Marvel Vs. Capcom 3?  No it isn’t.  It is a new edition to Capcom’s cross-over series.  But I will tell you this.  Ryu’s Shinkuhadouken is the BEASTYEST!  Don’t try to jump over it if you don’t think you can make it!  You can switch characters in mid-air during your air-combos and there is a combo breaker command which are both rather new concepts for the Capcom cross-over series.  Usually, you can pick 2 characters to make your team or you can pick the main robot from Lost Planet or this Golden Golem looking character from the Tatsunoko side.  He kinda looks like a golden blocky version of Metroplex.  They both count as 2 characters and deal heavy damage but they are big targets.  I’m definitely getting this game in December for the high-speed game play and I love the way the music changes as the characters enters the fray.  I’ll have more info on this game in December but be assured that my next report on Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom will be Viewtiful!

All-in-all, it went down as one of those days that I’m glad I didn’t stay home.  Plus, we got some more cool free Capcom stuff like this dope orange street fighter towel with Awesome Dhalism on it (Arigato Crasher Reiko for stylin’ it!), SFIV pins, and the ever so popular 5 wins SFIV hat! (Which I have 2 of now by the way! SUCKAS!)  So if you got this far, man thanks for reading my post and don’t sleep on the video above.