The trailer is here. Go feast your eyes on James Chen’s latest creation showing off last year’s superb moments, amazing comebacks, and the return of a king. The full DVD set comes with 5 discs featuring 6 games for a great price.  Pre-orders will be available soon.

EVO2K for all your trailer needs!

Word on the grapevine (ok, Gamespot) is that Capcom USA is laying off some developers.

A former Capcom employee told GameSpot today that the publisher has closed its US development house Capcom Studio 8, laying off around 20 people in the process.

The studio had recently finished work on Final Fight: Streetwise and “was trying to figure out what to work on next” when the news came, according to GameSpot’s source.

This news is particularly puzzling considering that Capcom just reported 400% year over year growth for the quarter ending in December 2005. Rumor has it that that Capcom USA has been given the reigns to the SF franchise, so what does this mean for Street Fighter?

Everyone knows from my past review of the Street Fighter Anniversary Edition Pad by NubyTech that I love the original Japanese Sega Saturn Pad. It’s the best gaming pad for Fighting Games to have ever existed and, outside of using a good joystick, nothing is more comfortable to me. In fact, I can honestly say that during the golden age of the Sega Saturn (if there was ever such a thing), when all of the best Capcom Fighters such as Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, and the entire Street Fighter Alpha Series were released on the Sega Saturn, I was much more adept at using the Sega Saturn Pad than I was with any joystick. And most pad players I’ve talked to agree: the Saturn Pad is about the best pad you can find for Fighting Games.

Continue on to the full review.

A Microsoft employee recently e-mailed Kotaku the inside dirt on some upcoming XBox 360 releases. Among other things the mole said, “Right now a lot of work is being done of Street Fight 2 [sic] because the lag is very bad and they are having trouble getting it playable online.”

This would certainly explain the delay from early march to “Q2 2006″ earlier reported by Gamespot. Given Capcom’s track record on online play, I’m not holding out much hope for this one.

There is definitely something to be said about form vs. function. Function is obviously the most important factor in any product. I mean, you just want things to work properly. But oftentimes, if the form is bad, you won’t care how well it functions. Fortunately for the “Component VGA Box,” the form is a pretty significant problem until you get it working once, ’cause then you’ll never have to worry about it again. But it is still a problem.

I have a nice HDTV, but a lot of times I just want to play games in the comfort of my bedroom. But with the way game graphics are improving, playing games on my little TV in the bedroom seems such a waste when many of the games I play, these days, can output in beautiful 480p Progressive Scan. So I was trying to think of a solution and I came upon this “Component VGA Box,” which allows you to output console video games in Progressive Scan to your computer monitor. I’ve got a nice 19″ flat-screen monitor in my bedroom, so I figured I give this item a chance and Lik-Sang was nice enough to send me one of these to try out.

Continue on to the full review.

The Evolution 2005 DVD is finally finished! Unfortunately, there have been some problems with the duplication. We can’t release an official trailer until Customflix has worked out the issues, so instead we’ve whipped up a little clip with some highlights from the tournament. You know those clips you see in the movie theater like months in advance that don’t tell you anything about the movie, but have little out-takes and such? Kinda like that, only better. Anyway, enjoy. To see the video in its full glory, head over to Google Video.

Congratulations to winners of last weekend’s East Coast Tougeki Qualifer! Jonathan Sung, Mark Rogoyski, and a slimmer, sexier Justin Wong will take their Yang / Ryu / Chun Li 3rd Strike team on the road as the first team representing the United States to Japan’s Super Battle Opera later this year.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, there’s still one more chance for you to make the team at the West Coast Qualifier on March 25-26 at the Family Fun Aracde in Granada Hills, CA. Your best and last chance to prepare will be at the 6th annual Texas Showdown next weekend in Houston, TX. The Showdown has historically drawn the best talent from all over the country with a good time being had all around. This year’s tournament features 3 team tournaments and a whopping 10 (ten!) individual tournaments in Dead or Alive 4, Street Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and everything in-between. Visit the Official Website to signup now.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I’m not so happy with my DOA stick. The dead zone in the middle is just too large and the square template makes it too difficult to perform FB motions. Some of you may jump for joy to hear that the corners on the DOA stick are really fricking huge, but I’ve never had a problem hitting them before and prefer the silky smooth feeling of a Perfect 360.

So now I find myself in a bit of a pickle, with no usuable joystick and Hyper Fighter on the XBox360 just around the corner. That’s when I started looking at our Tech Talk Forums to see if there was anyone who could recommend a good stick. Boy, was I in for a suprise! You guys have some incredible craftsmanship going in there! My only experience to date with the custom stick scene was a pathetic pine box I built for myself to play some Alpha 2 on a super nova and the titanic MAS System sticks people are always lugging around at Evolution. The hardware you guys are producing is miles beyond either, IMHO. Really, good show. I’m personally most fond of the designs by finkle, but if his work doesn’t strike your fancy there’s plenty of other awsome crafters in there to choose from. I haven’t gotten around to ordering one (just yet), so I cannot vouche for their cost or how long it takes to get a stick, but the forums are filled with thread after thread of happy customers, which can only be a good sign.

I have only one gripe about the current custom-built hardware scene, and it’s that navigating a forum to find stuff is really painful. Aside from the index thread, it’s really hard to find anything. To help you guys out, I’ve given you a little section of Shoryuken.com to call your own in the Hardware Section of the wiki. Keep up the good work!

This crazy XBox Live Arcade thing is really picking up steam. 1up.com reports that two great new competitive games, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Cyberball, are making their way to XBox Live Arcade. Paperboy, Tapper, and Defender will make the transition as well, but for me a lot of the appeal of Live Arcade is the chance to play these classics online against my friends.

Notice to Capcom: get on the bandwagon! Can I get an Alpha game to go with that HF? How about a side of Puzzle Fighter?