In what may be a ‘whoopsy’ moment, Kramez has revealed that Super Street Fighter II HD Remix will be out in November!  At what point in November is still a mystery, but its good to know that our absurd wait may finally be coming to a close.  See me online!

This week’s Crossup is with the naming contest winner, ThisGuileKillYa.  He is mostly an online player, but has a good competitive spirit and is eager to attend more live tournaments.  Read on to meet him.

Real Name: Jesse Goldberg
Handle(s): SnackCakes, ThisGuileKillYa
Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA
Current Residence: Cherry Hill, NJ
Age: 28

Keits: When/How/What got you into fighting games?

Jesse: It was definitely the arcade release of SF2 world warrior. I remember people telling me how to do a sonic boom like it was some secret code. I couldn’t do it.  I played my brother any time we could get to an arcade. I was obsessed. I think it was the sound effects, they mesmerized me. HadooOOken! Sonic BOOOOM!  Summer of ‘92 (World Warriors) was released for Super Nintendo. I owned it for 2 weeks before I was home and able to play it.  At that point it was over. If I played for 4 hours in a day, one would have wondered why I had cut back so much. The obsession continued and hasn’t let up in 16 years. Of course now I’ll play any 2d fighter put in front of me.

Keits: Do you only play 2d, then?

Jesse: I’ve dabbled in some 3d. I’ve come to respect it.  I put a little time into Tekken 5, Virtua Fighter 4, and Mortal Kombats 4-7 if those count.  But the time and study I put into all those games combined wouldn’t come close to the amount of time I’ve put into my worst character in my least played Street Fighter.  Did I mention I was obsessed?
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This month’s Play Magazine has the first in-game shots of Fei Long and Dan in Street Fighter 4: Console Edition.  Beyond these tantalizing shots, the article does mention that the ‘rollback’ technology used in HDremix uses too much of the CPU to work with Street Fighter 4, as it is already a system hog to begin with.  This is disturbing news, indeed, and near completely dashes any hopes of GGPO-like netcode making the next 5 years of Street Figher 4 the godsend it could have been to the extremely wide-spread North American fighting game community.  Raise your voice, and let Capcom know that they need to work harder! Anything less than spectacular netcode is not good enough!

The rest of the pics are after the break.

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Over at Gamemanx.com , Fallback has posted some great HD footage from the recent Street Fighter Club event in New York of sweet little Sakura.  This should give you more of a feel for how she actually plays, as opposed to just seeing a combo and super demo.  Enjoy the videos, and please thank Fallback for getting these up for us so quickly.

Within a span of three days, Triumvir gives us a preview of not just one, but three more tees from the Triumvir x Capcom collaboration: “Mike Bison” (shown above), and “Bosozoku” in Black and White. The only question is when, Triumvir? When? Click below to see the rest of the gear that I’m talking about.
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Exar, the makers of the Wii Neo Geo arcade stick, have unveiled their new line of arcade sticks to coincide with the release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom on the Nintendo Wii.  The game and arcade sticks are set to release on December 11th in Japan.  Click below for more info and images of both designs for the upcoming arcade sticks!

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One of the Street Fighter Community’s greatest champions, Alex Valle, was recently interviewed on the Gootecks podcast.  He talks in detail about his career as a player and the history of the fighting game community.  Its a terribly interesting listen for both older and younger members.  Please, do yourself a favor and check it out!

This week’s interview is not about the competitive mindset of a certain player.  Rather, it focuses on the directors of a recent major tournament.   Next week’s focus will be ThisGuileKillYa, the winner of the contest last week.   This week, we meet then men behind Ohio’s Season’s Beatings series, to talk about the past, present, and future of their event.

Real Name: Fugi La / Robert Marshall
Handle: Fugee
Hometown: NY
Current Residence: Columbus, OH
Age: 30-something

And

Real Name: Chris Hatala
Handle: Ghaleon
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Current Residence: Cleveland, OH
Age: 26

Keits: Thank you both for taking the time out to talk with me after such a long and difficult weekend.  What are your most basic thoughts on how Season’s Beatings 3 went?

Fugee: I felt we delivered on what the promotion promised, but it also spawned a turn out that (caused) a blemish with 2 communities.

Ghaleon: Yeah. Mixed feelings this year. Happy that Capcom went pretty well, but the overall tournament really blew up with big numbers like we wanted, and in some ways our processing of the events lacked some (because) of the numbers.

Fugee: I knew it was gonna be big, but in the last few weeks especially, when pre-reg was coming to end, Soul Calibur 4 and Guilty Gear blew up.  But overall, I feel it was fun tournament and that is all I wanted to come out of it.

Keits: Well, before get into the gritty details on these issues, there is a quick topic I’d like to get out of the way.  On Alpha-ism Radio, one of the guests said that this year was the last Season’s Beatings.  He claimed to hear it straight from Fugee’s mouth.  Is any of this true?

Ghaleon laughs and looks to Fugee.

Fugee: That is not true.  There will be another one, but it may not be SB4.  We may have outgrown MoMos (the tournament venue) and at the same time we are looking into taking it to other states!  “Seasons Beatings: New York City!” is a good title.

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Is there a standard abbreviation for this game yet?

The nice folks over at Gamersyde have a few new images of STHD up. Guile getting electrocuted has never looked so satisfying. Now if only we could get a release date…

New STHD images @ Gamersyde.

Depending on who you ask, you will get a different reaction and perspective on what happened in the Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament event at Evolution 2008 just two months ago. Today I bring you the thoughts of the man who was the announcer of the Evo Brawl finals, his opinions of the event, and to talk about pushing an entirely new format since the tournament’s end. Whether we think he’s crazy or ambitious, he’s Keits!

JAMMAR: First off, judging from the slick ties that you wore at Evolution, you do not just play Smash. What other fighting games do you currently play?

Keits: I’m well known for being a jack of all trades, master of none. I play a little of everything.

JAMMAR: And if I forced you to pick just one?

Keits: ST, CvS2, 3s, WHP, RB2, Garou, KoF98um, etc. If i were forced to specialize, id quit fighting games. I enjoy playing many different titles.

JAMMAR: Evolution 2008 is where it all started with the items (and stages) debate. Tell me what you thought of the finalized rules at the time. Did you think the Evo staff did a great job?

Keits: The debate started not with Evo, but even before Brawl was out in the states. Groups of melee players had imported the game and were already banning stages and items before the bulk of us even had a chance to play. Being interested in the game competitively, I took offense to this. Melee went through a lot before it became what it is. It needed the changes the community gave it because, lets face it, it was unfinished. Its lucky that the community ended up finding an end to Ban-road and ended up with a game that worked. So, when large groups decided they would just apply melee’s ruleset to brawl as closely as possible, I knew something was not right with these players.I dont blame anyone for jumping on the bandwagon, but I do blame the people who have recognizable names/voices in the smash communities who rallied everyone into a state where they didnt even want to test what was in the game.

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