Report from Street Fighter IV tournament @ Arcade UFO

At Arcade Heroes, we often say that there’s nothing like standing with another player and competing side by side, and arcade gaming is still the best way to do this. Technology has brought us the wonders of online gaming and voice chat, but the feeling of being able to shake your opponent’s hand at the end of a hard-fought match is something that you can’t replace. As a result, it’s great when we see other people pushing the merits of arcade competition – in this case, Jason Witmer of Accent Online. He attended last Saturday’s two-on-two Street Fighter IV tournament with a friend, and took the time to write up the experience for Accent.

The piece focuses primarily on the author’s experience of the tournament, but it covers the general themes of competitive gaming well. He mentions the anxiety prior to a match, the diversity of the competitors, the unique atmosphere of tournament play, and general sportsmanship and supportiveness of the community surrounding the game. While I’ve never competitively played Street Fighter, these are familiar to me as they are experiences which cut across all kinds of competition, be they sports, martial arts, table top games or arcade games. As a result, it’s an excellent read for anyone who is interested in competitive arcade play at any level.

[Via Accent Online] [Arcade UFO] [Discuss on the forums]

National SFIV tournament currently underway in Japan

(Thanks to Aaron Auzins for the info!)

If you’re good at Street Fighter IV and you just happen to be in Japan, then now is the time to check out the national SFIV tournament. Qualification tournaments began on Jan. 16th and the final tournament will be held on April 4th, 2010.

Unfortunately that’s all we have on it for now, making this one of the shorter posts of the month!

[Via Famitsu] [Discuss on the forums]

SFIV sequel in the works? Most likely

If you know anything about the history of Street Fighter then you come to expect that Capcom will release an update or two for the game which adds more characters, moves and other items of interest to the game. So this news about a possible update to Street Fighter IV isn’t suprising at all, in fact Kevin WIlliams of The Stinger Report who sent us this link has pointed out previously that he has heard rumors about this SFIV update for sometime now so the question is really when will we see SFIV Turbo (or whatever it may be called) as opposed to if. Another question I would want to find out in case I purchased the arcade version of the game is how easily could the game be upgraded, thus giving new life to the arcade version for a season.

[SFIV sequel in the works? – The Escapist] [Discuss on the Forums]

With all versions of SFIV out, which is the most secure for tournaments?

While the headline is basically a rhetorical question since we all know the answer, the question is being raised with Capcom’s console division now that the PC and even Xbox 360 versions of the game have been hacked by users to change move sets and more. As Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report tells us concerning SFIV tournaments:

“The concern now is that prize tournament events will never be 100% secure unless carried out in a special location allowing the onsite monitoring of the players to ensure no cheating; this moving the amusement SFIV more and more as the only true tournament infrastructure for the game.”

Personally if I were going to compete on SFIV I would want it to be as close to the arcade as possible anyways but this does raise a good question in case anyone is concerned about the version being used to play. Speaking of SFIV tournaments, we also have some news on a recent SFIV tournament that was held in South Korea, all inside of an arena that they are becoming famous for. The arcade version is the de facto standard for their tournaments and it looks like this particular tournament was pretty big.

Of course I am not against doing tournaments using other versions of the game – personally I am going to hold tournaments using the PC version of the game at my arcade as unfortunately getting an arcade setup is just out of the question due to price. I wouldn’t allow for any hacks to be used of course and if I could hold tournaments on the arcade version I gladly would. I imagine any ‘official’ tournaments will continue to be held with the arcade version and that will probably grow in case they release a new version of the game to arcades soon.

[Discuss on the Forums]

Street Fighter IV PC Dilemma

So I picked this up on release a few weeks ago. I’d been waiting for the PC release because I have an X-Arcade stick and was looking forward to having the “arcade experience” at home. Much to my dismay, it appears SF4 only supports keyboard and 360 controllers.  I can assign keyboard buttons to the arcade stick for one player, but not for the other.

Apparently they want to make recreating the arcade set up at home harder than it should be.  In a way I can see why, otherwise it will be quite easy to take a high end PC and build your own cabinet. However this is not want I’m going too. So Capcom, please release a patch and support non 360 arcade sticks, please? Especially my X-Arcade stick!

[Discuss on the Forum]

Street Fighter IV Sequel?

According to a Capcom Japanese Q & A Blog, some hints were dropped that could mean theres a sequel on the cards to the popular arcade and console beat-em up.

Check out the translation of the Q&A over at Shoryuken Forums

When you think about it, it’s hardly surprising. Street Fight IV Turbo? Super Street Fighter IV? or Street Fighter IV Championship Edition if the translation proves correct. What ever it’s name might be, my main question is; will we see an arcade version of this, possibly as a kit? Lets hope so.

[via OXM] [Discuss on the Forum]

How about a homemade Vewlix tournament style cabinet?

If you really want to play something like Street Fighter IV in a proper arcade cabinet, you could buy the actual arcade unit or modify a standard Vewlix cabinet into something you could throw your consoles into or you could build your own Vewlix cabinet from scratch. While I doubt that many people will undertake the last option, it certainly is cool if you could manage to do so. And to help out, someone has created their own modified Vewlix cab, with two MadCatz arcade sticks and a good 32″ HDTV. They opted to use a PS3 to power the game although you could really throw whatever you wanted into it. The creator made the designs first in Google SketchUp 7 and then went to build his own – you can follow all of his progress by clicking the link below and you can even download his completed SketchUp files so that if you are willing and able to do such a thing yourself, you have the blueprints necessary to get started. 🙂

[Donovan Myers – Vewlix Tournament cabinet] [Discuss on the Forums]

Seattle Gameworks to host it’s own Fight Club tournament

Not long ago we reported that the Sega Gameworks in Phoenix Arizona had scheduled it’s own “Fight Club” tournament and now, the Seattle Gameworks is following in their footsteps. It does help that these recent tournaments have been organized by the same individual, so they are staying fairly consistent across the board in how they are being handled. The Fight Club at the Seattle GameWorks will take works on April 24th-26th and if you would like to sign up, the information should be on the GameWorks website within the next day. The games that will be on location for the competition: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter IV. For more details on how the tournament will go down (it is similar to the other fight club tourney), the details have been tucked in after the post break. BTW, the prize pool is over $1000, with the first place winner bagging $500 in cash.

[GameWorks] [Discuss on the Forums]

Seattle Gameworks to host it's own Fight Club tournament

Not long ago we reported that the Sega Gameworks in Phoenix Arizona had scheduled it’s own “Fight Club” tournament and now, the Seattle Gameworks is following in their footsteps. It does help that these recent tournaments have been organized by the same individual, so they are staying fairly consistent across the board in how they are being handled. The Fight Club at the Seattle GameWorks will take works on April 24th-26th and if you would like to sign up, the information should be on the GameWorks website within the next day. The games that will be on location for the competition: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter IV. For more details on how the tournament will go down (it is similar to the other fight club tourney), the details have been tucked in after the post break. BTW, the prize pool is over $1000, with the first place winner bagging $500 in cash.

[GameWorks] [Discuss on the Forums]

Bid on this custom Street Fighter IV arcade cab for charity

You may well be able to get Street Fighter 4 for consoles now, but as we all know here at Arcade Heroesthere is nothing better than the real arcade experience. Well here’s your chance to experience it in your own home with this custom made SF4 cab designed by Meat Bun which comes with the SF4 gameboard. This one off cabinet comes complete with Akuma beads and fog machine! The added bonus of winning this auction is that it’s all for charity too. Happy Bidding

[Street Fighter Arcade Game Cabinet Painted by Meat Bun]

[Discuss on the Forum]