So the Nintendo Summit is going on right now.  Unfortunately Campus Gamers is not able to make it out to this years event, but we hope to make it out in the future.  Information is now starting to spread of Nintendo latest and greatest tech.

If you didn’t already know, Nintendo has released the fourth edition to the DS model the DSi XL.  It was released in Japan in November and has been received well.  It will was announced in North America for March 28th.  The DSi XL is just like the DSi but now a larger model.  This is Awesome because the big problem with the DS is the kiddy controls are hard to play a game on.  A lot of the market that uses hand-held devices is growing older and are playing games like Brain Age.  Obviously Nintendo wants to take hold of this market and so they will be releasing the DSi XL.  This new DS actually is selling better than the DS in Japan.  It will be sold at $189.99.

Nintendo also gave a date for the Metriod: Other M project, June 27th.  This is supposed to be the darker more real Metriod game.  Nintendo is working with Team Ninja on this project, the people who brought us the excellent games of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden.  This will be a much more mature verison and will reboot and revitalize the Metriod series for Nintendo.

Now off to Mario Galaxy 2.  How does Nintendo do it, make these Mario Games that just make you feel good.  I remember when the first Mario Galaxy came out, it had such an old school feeling.  The game is expect to be released as of May 23rd of this year.  It’s successor did very well in sales, not as well as New Mario Bros but that was just a record breaking success.  Nintendo will be cashing in large with the Mario franchise and this will be an excellent 3D game.

Fight On! Presented by UWGamers and in association with POWNZ Gaming Centre

Date: Saturday, March 6th, 2010
1:00 pm-12:00 am

Location:
Student Life Center Multipurpose Room
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave W, Waterloo ON

Prizes/Prize pool breakdown (Subject to change):
Due to university policy, all prizes will be awarded in Future Shop gift cards.

Casual play is free and will be going on throughout the entire day, with a variety of different fighting games being played.

OFFICIAL TOURNAMENTS:

Street Fighter IV
1:00 pm – Registration Begins
2:00 pm – Street Fighter IV Begins
Entry Fee: $5

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
1:00 pm – Registration Begins
6:30 pm – Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Begins
Entry Fee: $5

Side Tournaments:
An extra side tournament can be run involving either Street Fighter: HD Remix or Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and potentially more if resources allow it (aka…enough games + stations) and will run in conjunction with the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom event. The decision to run this event will be made the day of the event based on participant interest.

Format for official games:

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (Wii)
$5 entry
Double elimination tournament [99 sec timer]
2 out of 3 games per match
3 out of 5 games per semi final match
4 out of 7 games grand finals
Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)
$5 entry
Double elimination tournament [99 sec timer]
2 out of 3 games per match
3 out of 5 games per semi final match
4 out of 7 games grand finals

Other info:
Please bring your own controllers/sticks/adapters, as we do not have enough to provide for everyone
If you are going to step outside and you are still in the tournament, please tell somebody so we are not looking for you. There is a 5 minute window before disqualification.

Venue
The venue has a Tim Hortons and a Bombshelter Pub within, as well as numerous vending machines.
The SLC floor layout once you arrive can be found here:
http://www.slc.uwaterloo.ca/Maps.html
The location is held in the multi-purpose room.
Ample parking is found around the campus if need be for $2-$3 dollars.
Please do not bring drugs/alcohol onto the university. The Bombshelter pub serves alcohol if need be, but it is not permitted in the SLC at anytime.

~Sponsored By~

Street Fighter 4 was the first Street Fighter that used 3D models. No that’s a lie, little remember the ever so failure of Street Fighter EX, an attempt by Capcom to jump onto the 3D market that was starting up with Tekken and Dead or Alive (little did they know Street Fighter is kind of stuck in the Second Dimension). Well, Street Fighter 4 is the first good attempt of using 3D models (or their 2.5D models) and it has brought Street Fighter years forward.

The original Street Fighter debut in 1987 and wasn’t too popular. You got to play as Ryu through a series of battles and the second player got to play with Ken. You didn’t have many options in the game, was pretty much a dulled down fighting game but it was ahead of its time. There are people saying the Final Fight was supposed to be its sequal but the idea didn’t fly.

By 1991 Street Fighter released a sequal.  Everyone remembers Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors. We all played it as a kid, well we all may have not been kids but I was. I remember sneaking quarters and wanting to go to the arcade to play it. I remember my older brother’s friend being so cool when he played it and I wanted to be one of those Arcade Rats who were so bad ass at the game.

Street Fighter 2 was so popular that it was re-release it 4 times within five years. Unfortunately they weren’t very creative with the names, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Some people rumor that they didn’t make a fifth one because they struggled so much on figuring out a new name (dam it we used up all the combinations). No, actually the game was so good and popular that Capcom remade all the sprits and re-released in for the current 7th generation consoles on the PSN and Live Market Place – and yes it does sell.

What made Street Fighter 2 so good? Well it was one of a kind when it first came out. It was the first game that allowed two players to competitively fight each other with a selection of characters. Every character fought differently, they had an array of special move button combinations and they had grapple throws. This was something new no other game in the arcade offered in the early 90s. The original Street Fighter did exist but it allowed you to only choose Ryu and the second player would be Ken if he decided to play. This was a break through game for Capcom and they release so many sequels because yes it did so good.

Around 1996-1997 Capcom decided to let go of the Street Fighter 2 line and move on (finally, we get to see a sequel). Unfortunately the sequel didn’t go over too well. When Street Fighter 3: The New Generation came out well it was just that, a new generation. I personally grew affection for Cammy (what can I say I like little cute girls). When I saw Cammy didn’t exist in the new version it made me a little sad. What was also sad was seeing Ryu and Ken as old men. It was good to see they could still kick some ass in their old age, but it’s not what I wanted to see or play. And a lot of these other great Characters I did overlook and not play with – make me sad.

Honestly I didn’t really play it because none of my friend were playing Street Fighter 3 (sorry, when it comes to games I am a follower). A popular one that was being played with my friends was Street Fighter Alpha. Alpha didn’t have the harsh bite of Street Fighter 3 because it kept a lot of my favorite characters, and if anything they were younger. For those who missed the Street Fighter Alpha phase, it was essentially a prologue to Street Fighter 2. It gave background stories to all the characters we loved and introduced some new characters along the way. I loved it and found it fairly popular. Not as popular as the original Street Fighter but DAMN did it have so many cool characters.

Street Fighter EX was also released at this time, and like Alpha and SF3 it also had 3 sequels to it. Of course no one I knew played it. The only time I heard of it was, “Hey you remember that time Street Fighter tried to go 3D, you remember how bad it was”. Yeah that’s exactly it. At this time when Street Fighter 2 was dying off games for the PS1 like Tekken or Dead or Alive were coming out blazing. People loved playing these new creative 3D games and the plain old 2D games didn’t have the flair. When Street Fighter attempted to go 3D it seemed like a desperate attempt by Capcom to grab hold of the changing market. I honestly didn’t even know there were 3 versions of the game until I read it on Wikipedia – ouch coming to reality of what poor Street Fighter fan I am.

Now enough about Street Fighter failure, let’s talk about their epic success. Around the same time Street Fighter EX, Street Fighter 3 and Street Fighter Alpha were coming out Capcom was getting a contract with Marvel to make some Marvel fighting games. Someone in the office, probably up way to late and had too much fun mixing things together, thought “Hey how about we get the Marvel Characters fight the Street Fighter Characters”. The first game X-Men vs Street Fighter was released in arcades in 1996. This was so awesome, I remember the first time I saw Gambit and Ryu on the same screen I became ecstatic. And the fun didn’t stop there, this was also the first time they allowed players to have a tag team. Ah it was so awesome it ate far too many of my quarters. This concept of crossing over characters became more and more popular. Soon it was Marvel vs. Street Fighter, then Marvel vs. Capcom, and then Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Which each successive game the action became more intense and flashy and awesome until it hurt my soul. I would wake up in the middle of the night in cold shivers scared thinking that there’s no way Ryu could throw a fireball that would consume the entire screen. And unfortunately, that is when Street Fighter did become too flashy. Not that it’s really a problem, people seem to love it and recently Capcom released a Capcom vs. Tatsunoko which is doing pretty well – but not my thing.

Talking about failures, did you know there was a Street Fighter game base on the 1995 movie?  They used human models and based it on Mortal Combat styles.  Unfortunately it didn’t do that well. But really a video-game based on a movie based on a video-game – come on!

In 2008 Capcom tried another strike at the Street Fighter franchise with Street Fighter 4. The concept based around 3D modeling, Cell Shading and Water-Colouring concepts made for brand new graphics never seen before. At first a lot of people didn’t like the idea too much, and honestly some time it does make the characters look really ugly. But honestly they have brought the Franchise to a new level. There are many things that the game does graphically that they couldn’t do before (like spins and super flashy move) because they now have control of the 3rd Dimension. The game is considered to be 2.5D because really the characters move only in the 2D plane. To be honest I’m gad they do, if they changed this then it wouldn’t be that Street Fighter style we’ve came to know and love.

Other details were kept, like the way characters moved. For those who are really into Street Fighter know that each character in Street Fighter has their own fighting style. The hard kick in the air is done this way, and the medium kick on the ground is done another way. Not only that each character does it differently and each one reflects the style of the character. I love Cammy because she’s a little girl who moves fast and hits hard. She needs to attack physical and can’t keep a lot of distance between her and her enemy. Her style is a completely different then Vega or Zangief, and they depict it really well in the game.

Another thing that Capcom did well to revive the game was the online play. The problem with Street Fighter was not having anyone to play with, or at least someone of your equal skill. My father actually said he had a hard time believing that fighting games made their way to live play, because the quick button pressing would require a lot of bandwidth and speed (I’m glad technology is at the point they can support that). Having people to play with in this highly competitive game gave the option for World Wide ladders and playing with friends across the world. This was needed and fortunate for Capcom to step up and deliver it.

One thing that I have been fortunate to find out about was the underground scene surrounding Street Fighter. Like I knew about the comic and the art, but I didn’t know until recently there is such an popularity for competitive fighting games. People who are really good at this game can make money playing. There are clothing lines for Street Fighter and competitions in Las Vegas. I got to meet some people and play with them, all good people. Fans of Street Fighter thick & thin and they definitely appreciate that Street Fighter is going strong.

So what can we expect for Super Street Fighter 4? – A lot of disappointed followers.
When a Sequel was announced to Street Fighter 4 one of the first outcries were “why are they making another game instead of just making downloadable content”. Capcom is notorious of pumping out content for us to purchase and now they are making us buy a new game. Well, even I asked why? Turns out there is so much coming out and even the core of Street Fighter 4 is being re-balanced that it couldn’t be released in just DLC. Street Fighter 4 was out in arcades and in 6 month it was being ported out to consoles to keep up with its popularity. Super Street Fighter 4 has been in development since, balancing the characters and perfecting the faults. 9 new characters have been announced, and like the tradition of Street Fighter they are bring back old ones to keep their fans. They are even bringing some of the characters from Street Fighter 3 which I am very excited to see.

Actually right now you can see many trailers for Super Street Fighter 4. This is another awesome feature of the 3D engine of Street Fighter 4. Because everything is 3D they can pump out videos like nothing else, this is something that took tons of tedious work to keep up with all the drawing. Now we are gonna see Street Fighter like we’ve never seen before. I am excited for Super Street Fighter 4, it is gonna be Awesome.

Did you play Braid and have a great time but thought something was missing?  Was the missing element pie?  Well, you’re in luck, because The Odd Gentlemen’s new Xbox live arcade game, The Misadventure’s of P.B. Winterbottom, has just come out on Xbox live.

This is not a Braid clone in case you are worried about that.  P.B. is not the same time control game where time moves based on which way you’re going, and you do not have multiple time controlling powers.  Your main objective is to get the Chronoberry Pie.

The story is told in a rhyming fashion in text where the narrator seems to have a dislike for Winterbottom and you for aiding Winterbottom on his quest. All this is being told on a screen that is made to look like a silent film from the 1920s, because where else would you find a villain called Winterbottom with a huge pie craving?  The story itself will take you across five movies in which you relive some of Winterbottom’s thefts but fix the wrongdoings that you have done to the people of Bakersburg such as damaging a clock so that 7 p.m. will never come, making dessert and walking a dog through the park to relieve himself, but that never happens since the town seems to be on a strict time.

After a brief, yet highly amusing tutorial, you find yourself in the Theatre where the player is sent with Winterbottom back in time to fix a wrong that he has committed in his lust for pies and there are a lot of pies.  The controls are spot on for this type of game, but  there needs to be, especially when you’re walking a clone of Winterbottom through ovens, dodging mallets trying to  crush you, and attempting to cross sinking platforms.  Although the game is quickly finished, if you have played portal it leaves you with the same sense of satisfaction that portal has.  Using light, clones (both good and evil), and recordings of yourself will frustrate and entertain you at the same time.

All the visual aspects of this game are just great to look at and fits perfectly for the game. The dark 1920s cinematic design of the game is amazing in the 2-D platformer and keeps your interest throughout the game.

All in all, if you’re looking for a great platformer/puzzle-based game to keep you gaming until the next big title comes out or are just in love with 2-D games, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is worth checking out for 1200 Microsoft points.  For those of you who are looking at a number-based system in the reviews, this game gets a 5 out of 5 and this pie isn’t a lie.

Ever wanted to aquire Marvel vs Capcom, but wasn’t quite up for paying the $15 to download it from the Playstation Network. Well if that’s the case, then wait no longer. Campcom has announced they will be having sales on their premier content for the next few weeks.

Feb 18th – 24th you can pick up Marvel vs Capcom 2 ($7.49)
Feb 25th – Mar 3rd you can pick up Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix ($7.49)
Mar 4th – 10th you can pick up Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix ($4.99)
Mar 11th – 17th you can pick up Age of Booty ($4.99)
Mar 18th – 24th you can pick up 1942: Joint Strike (4.99)

Great downloads and good prices, so if you have been waiting to get these games this is a great time to take advantage of these offers.

Psychological action thriller, Alan Wake, will be released on May 18th in North America.

Another 3 new characters have been announced, Ibuki, Dudley and Makoto. All three character appeared in the Street Fighter 3 line, so now this street fighter has characters spanning all their classic games.

Last Wednesday, Feb 10th, Devil’s Playground had a Dante’s Inferno release party at the Dragonfly Nightclub in LA. For this occasion Devil’s Playground hosted a burlesque show that brought comical light to the nine rings of hell and seven deadly sins. The event was quite a success and spread word of EA newest game release.

For those who haven’t been or don’t know what a Burlesque Show, it is a comical over-exaggerated theatrical show usually involving a strip tease by attractive girls. Devil’s Playground has been known for hosting video-gamed themed burlesque shows and in the past hosting a Star Wars themed show and Zelda and Princess Peach themed shows. Their shows add more culture and twists to the already existing video-game culture and the fantasy people may have about their video-game heroines. There is nothing wrong with divulging in a bit of sexual fantasy, a lot of our video games are already appealing to this (like Bayonetta and Dead Or Alive).

On February 10th the Devil’s Playground hosted a Burlesque show in LA to celebrate the launch of Dante’s Inferno. The show involved girls comically demonstrating the seven deadly sins. During the show guest were also given an opportunity to play Dante’s Inferno on 50″ Plasma Screens. Door prizes were given out which even included comic books and a copy of Dante’s Inferno – a pretty good price for the evening at $12 cover for the night.

Gamer Girl had coverage for this event, and attached is a link to their article which includes a video interview. Dante’s Inferno Launch Party

The works done by Devil’s Playground by hosting this video-game burlesque launch party for Dante’s Inferno shows that there is growing culture surrounding video-games. Both burlesque culture and video-game culture are a minority in our society, but there are the few people who enjoy both and enjoy being appreciated. Hopefully we’ll see more bars and clubs appreciating video-game release as media grows the gaming culture will grow with it.

There is no place on a resume for XBox Achievements

When I was a child I played far too much videogames. I was playing Populas on my computer when all my friends were running around playing with sticks (I was a young kid at the time). It was a great escape since I moved to a neighborhood which I didn’t get along with most of those kids. I had a Commodore 64 when I was born, a Nintendo, an Atari, I actually was the first person I knew to ever own a Super-Nintendo. I loved my Super Nintendo and had more games than anyone else, with more adventures than I can remember.

I remember there being a summer break from school that I didn’t leave my house and I played Might and Magic 3 the entire summer. The entire summer when kids where camping and playing outsides I sat in a dimly lit room leveling up characters. When I grew up I became more and more distant from gaming. I found gaming itself being something that was a waste of time that you’d work towards achievements that didn’t mean anything. I wished I could go back and enjoy those summer days instead of playing through the same old story again and again.

By my early teens I was very anti-videogames. I didn’t spend any time playing and if anyone talked about them I would rebuttal how they were a waste of time (never giving them a chance). Last year I had a roommate who kept offering to introduce me to multiplayer games and wanted to play LAN games of Starcraft – I would always refuse. Until one point my brother came back from Seattle with and I threw him a video-game party (he was really into video games and I was really into parties). I played Castle Crashers and experienced something I didn’t experience in a long time, comradery from playing a game together.

I started to notice that games could be used for something more, to build friendships. I felt that every time you play a game with someone you go on an adventure with someone. You also start to build a friendship on something you have in common, the love for the game.

Campus Gamers has been a difficult venture because I am now promoting something I hated earlier in my life. I realize that campus gaming life is something that can make people who have difficulty socializing find new friends. With our events we are socializing gamers and help building the community. From ground up Campus Gamers is trying to make friends, and it is good to see that video games can do that.

I have anxiously wanted to try out this game ever since I heard Joe Mad would be the character designer for it. I’ve heard many critiques reviewing it and from what I hear it’s very mixed love it or hate it. Essentially, the biggest problem is that this game steals ideas and game styles from many other different games and doesn’t create its own. That isn’t a problem for people who are not familiar with other games, and really if other people are doing it right then it works.

Well today it was announced that Darksiders will have a 90min demo released on Feb 25th. If you have been curious to try this game then this would be an excellent time to decide for yourself. It will include two boss scenes as well.

For more information about the demo fallow this link to Kotaku