Towards Mecca

A few days ago, yet another new character for Street Fighter 4 was revealed. Rufus … a 500 pound tub of lard with a pony-tail and what looks like eye-liner. I kid you not, someone at Capcom actually thought this guy would bring joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces!

Actually, I think Capcom is too smart to think we’d like this character. I have two theories on way Rufus was made to begin with.

Another Dan

Capcom is notorious for coming out with joke characters. The best example is perhaps Dan from the Street Fighter Akpha series. The problem is, Dan is likeable! He’s a Ken and Ryu clone with a borrowed fighting style from Ryo and Robert’s looks (both from SNK’s Art of Fighting series). Dan was a character I would take against a weaker opponent to even the odds.

Rufus is no Dan by any stretch of the imagination. For starters, I don’t even know him and I dislike him already. With Dan, it was love at first sight. With Rufus, I’m just struggling to keep my lunch down.

A Diversion

I’ll be frank, I don’t like ANY of the new characters that Capcom has introduced in Street Fighter 4. D Viper looks too much like an SNK character, El Fuerte looks straight out of Virtua Fighter, and Abel looks like what my next door neighbor would look like on steroids. Still, as lackluster as those characters are, they’re a pure joy compared to Rufus!

Maybe that was the plan after all! I don’t know how most other people are reacting to the new Street Fighter 4 characters but my entourage seems to be in agreement that they generally suck. Maybe Rufus was thrown in the mix to make us feel better about the other three jokers. Seems to me this might be the most logical reason.

Either way, it seems like he’s here to stay so I’ll stop venting and just put another check mark in the “SF4 is gonna suck” column.

A British news site was asking for stories of how video games turned people to a life of crime.

If this isn’t ridiculous in itself, they are also offering money for these stories!

In response to what has to be one of the dumbest requests I’ve seen online, my co-worker wrote the following:

An X-Box killed my family, so I swore revenge, plunging myself into a dark life of loitering and jay walking.

Every night, I wander the streets, looking for streets to walk across.

That guy standing by the wall? That guy standing by the crosswalk — standing and playing his DS like a lifeless husk of a man who’s fell into the dark abyss? Yeah, that was me.

I’m not proud of it. No one ever is.

I’ve even joined a street gang. The Turtle Stompers. You’ve probably heard of us.

We play Mario Kart and stand in two parking spots at once on the weekends.

We are the lost.

We are the damned.

The road to vengeance is full of hate and tears. It’s lonely road. But it’s the one I walk every day.

Can I have my hundred bucks, now?

-Dan

The guys over at the Exploding Barrel wrote a great article about Console Knock-Offs! I’m embarrassed to admit I was actually surprised that such a thing existed. Why would I be? Everything else is knocked off with cheap ‘Made-in-China’ rips that have a near identical name and look. Why would consoles be any different?

So, are you a Chintendo fan-boy prefering the Vii? Or are you more of a Polystation kind of person?

Anyway, you can check out the whole article here.

Fans of the video game Okami? Or just fans of great video-game artwork? Hell, fans of any kind of artwork at all? Either way, the news that Capcom has just put an online Okami art gallery should put a smile on your face!

Go check it out, you’ll more than likely have a new wallpaper on your desktop before the day is done

Just thought you’d guy would be interested to know that the fine folks behind TFGBlog.com are holding a very easy contest that has Grant Theft Auto 4 as a prize!

See as how the site has only been up for a month, your chances of winning are probably pretty high! All you have to do is subscribe to their RSS Feed and post a comment. Easy as pie…

Finally buckling to years of pressure from fans, Capcom Japan has just announced the ever anticipated Street Fighter vs Care Bears game. Slated for a January 2008 release, this title promises to be the most anticipated VS title since Capcom vs the Muppet Babies. Experts are also expecting Street Fighter vs Care Bears to outsell all previous Capcom titles.

The delay in releasing this oft-requested game was primarily due to difficulties in balancing gameplay. Apparently, it was hard to make a level playing field between the Street Fighter characters and the Care Bear characters. The Care Bears are simply too powerful.

“We believe that the balancing is as good as it can get without us having to weaken the Care Bear characters to an unrealistic level” Said a senior Capcom game designer. Apparently, the biggest challenge came at the game-testing level. Capcom game testers simply refused to choose the Street Fighter characters preferring the loveable Care Bears. In the end, the design leads figure most players would also choose the Bears when the game is finally released.

Surprisingly, the game will not launch Worldwide upon release. Instead, Capcom opted to release the game in its two largest global markets; Iran and Madagascar. The Worldwide release is to follow a short 2 months later. The move has upset many American consumers who are now petitioning the US government to launch a “pre-emptive strike” against the government of Iran with the intention of annexing the country before the launch date.

Bad apples aside, the rest of the world is eagerly anticipating this title and are already sending mass e-mails to Capcom requesting a new Street Fighter vs My Little Pony game.