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DC Comics title "Secret Six" is running the following cover for issue 25 this month. It is very clearly inspired by the fighting game genre. Along with examples like Scott Pilgrim vs the World, this may be a sign of our genre's influence in popular culture growing. ...

Seth Killian, Special Advisor on the Street Fighter 4 team at Capcom, told us to expect surprises about the arcade version of Super SF4 on Capcom-Unity's Forums. Seth is responding to the question "Why did you nerf Gen from SF4 to Super?"

"While I see where you're coming from with Gen, I can at least tell you that the game balance and tweaking almost never starts with the idea "we should nerf so-and-so" (so Gen wasn't somehow targeted for being made weaker).

During the course of balancing, all the characters go on a bit of a rollercoaster ride of being stronger and weaker versions of themselves. For instance, the Abel that was shipped was one of the strongest versions of Abel that existed during SSFIV development. This wasn't part of a master plan, and there is no pre-set scheme to try and make the rankings look one particular way (like "Gouken should be #1, and Blanka should be 8th!"). When it came time to ship the game, Abel went out the door as a relatively strong version of his different incarnations. For Gen (always a tricky character to balance, given his large amount of moves, and unusual features), he was caught a bit on the lower side. I certainly don't feel Gen is somehow hopeless (and lord knows I've done my fair share of losing to him), but I see the issues and am certainly unhappy that a lot of Gen-loving players seem to like him less than they did before.

Arcade version of SSFIV may have some surprises in store, so stay tuned..." ...

I just ran across this tweet from Marvel's Chris Baker:

"I think the TGS batch of #MvC3 screenshots might be the best batch yet. All kinds of new reveals. And pretty!"

All kinds of new reveals? Perhaps that means new stages, along with new characters? We won't have to wait long to find out, with Tokyo Game Show right around the corner. ...

Capcom released the first in-game trailer for MegaMan Universe today. At the end, it confirms Ryu from Street Fighter as a playable character. The game looks like classic MegaMan, with a unique art style, rendered in 3d, but remaining faithful to the 2d gameplay. Still, much is unknown about this mysterious title. Being that it includes a lovable version of our favorite world warrior, we will keep you updated as news arrives.

The trailer is embedded after the break. (Update: Two trailers. Why do MegaMan and RockMan look different in these, when they are supposed to be two names for the same character?) (Update: Thee trailers. The last one has Bad-Box-Art Megaman. This looks pretty wild!)

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Thanks to a tweet from one Arturo Sanchez, I've noticed that the Seasons Beatings website has been updated with some very exciting news. The man responsible for keeping Justin Wong out of the Super Street Fighter 4 top 8 with Adon, known as GamerBee, is confirmed to be attending SB: Redemption this October 15th to 17th.

They also posted an interview with GamerBee, through his translator, so check it out below.

"SB: How long have you been playing fighting games competitively?

Gamerbee: About 20 years.

SB: How did you pick your gamertag “Gamerbee” and what does the name signify?

Gamerbee: I wish myself to work hard in games, as a bee does.

SB: Had you been to America before Evo?

Gamerbee: Evo 2010 was my first time in the USA. U.S. players are very passionate and it makes the tournament more exciting.

I am expecting to experience the same feeling in Season's Beatings again." (More after the break) ...

Juicebox over at BLGaming just started up his new podcast series, called Juicy Bits. The first episode talks about different ways to think about bad matchups in order to try to gain a psychological advantage over your opponent. Unfortunately, they have not installed a player, but it is available for direct download. ...

According to the full translation of the latest Marvel vs Capcom 3 developer's blog, the release of footage and gameplay for the character Dormammu came early. Producer Ryota Niitsuma said that a different character was planned to be shown with Viewtiful Joe, but the team ran into a major problem and had to delay the release of that character to the public.

"Changing gears a bit, last time Kadowaki, the assistant producer on the game, said that it was just about time to reveal a certain something to the public. Well, that "something" is a character reveal of course, but in our final checks we hit a bit of a snag. So we had to change up the characters.

Which means that, yes, the reveal that Dormammu is playable not the "something" that Kadowaki-san was talking about. We're ironing out the kinks, and we'll be able to properly reveal this character very soon, so please be on the lookout for that."

Niitsuma also confirmed that voice settings have been finalized, and that while Capcom characters will have individually selectable Japanese and English voices, the Marvel characters will be in English only. The full text from the blog is after the break. ...

Pentagon, baby.

The new episode airs Thursday at 11 Eastern, 10 Central, on SyFy. ...

While we reported that the Tokyo Game Show special site hinted at new characters for Marvel vs Capcom 3, game producer Ryota Niitsuma went ahead and confirmed it via the official MvC3 blog. Better yet, Niitsuma updated his post noting that announcements related to MvC3's showing could even come before TGS, and that we should keep our eyes open leading up to the event. They may have more to announce than characters, as it appears Capcom is bringing in some special guests related to MvC3 for the Japanese fans.

Tokyo Game Show starts September 16th and runs for four days. The first two days are for press only, while the last two days are open to the public. ...

The weird King of Fighters based vertical scrolling shooter, called Sky Stage, is finally get to release on Xbox Live Arcade on September 15th. Unfortunately, I believe this date may be Japan only. Included with the news is a video of the game in action. It has always been a dream of mine to fly around as Terry Bogard and Power Dunk spaceships. Thank you, SNK Playmore, for making dreams come true.

Update: Looks like the release date is good for the United States as well! ...

A great match video from the finals of Afroshoto popped up, featuring Justin Wong's Makoto vs Mike Ross' Honda. Justin makes some amazing reads here, and this may be one of the few chances we get this month to see him in his element, instead of his Pentagon. ...

A new interview with Yoshinori Ono, producer of Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter X Tekken, was just released by Italian site Next.Game. Though the interview was taken after GamesCom in Germany, the did ask some more for-fun style questions of Ono. Still excited to be working on SFxT, Ono does continue to lament the fact that he is not working on Darkstalkers. His love for that series is either deep, or this is just really damn good marketing. The translated highlights from the interview are included below.

"Nextgame.it: [Have you ever] fought against Daigo (one of the most talented players of the professional circuit Street Fighter, Ed)?

Yoshinori Ono: We once played a so-called "friendly" [match]. He is a boy so serious, so devoted to study and improving himself, that he has no sense of fun: I tried to convince him, I said "play against the producer of Street Fighter IV, this is a great opportunity! Ok, no need to let me win, but at least we can try to make it look even together, to show people the most spectacular things that the game has to offer ... and he laughed and continued to massacre me without batting an eyelid, KO within a few seconds ..." ...

A while back, we ran a video by Combonauts that didn't feature any traditional type of combo video content. Instead, it featured characters in Street Fighter 4 artfully avoiding each other's attacks.

Part 2 in this 'Zero Damage' non-combo movie just became available. It has a ton of moments that will make you say "I did not know that worked!". Enjoy the show! ...

Capcom released their playable game lineup for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show today. Though we have been hearing rumors pertaining to possible big reveals about the arcade version of Super Street Fighter 4 from the show, this story is about Marvel vs Capcom 3. Not only will this be the first major hands-on showing of the game to the Japanese audience, but the TGS special site is hinting at a new character reveal during the event.

As we know, Marvel 3 characters have come in pairs thus far. Where one new challenger appears, another is sure to follow. ...

Street Fighter X Tekken producer Yoshinori Ono did an interview with French website JeuxVideo about the upcoming crossover. According to some of the comments left on the interview, Ono specifically mentions 35 characters as the target number in SFxT.

Remember that Ono is the man who told us that Arcade SSF4 would not happen, and that 35 was already the upper limit on characters for the game to be considered a 'fighting tool'. We know now that Arcade SSF4 is coming and with additional characters. So what do you guys think of this? With the game not due until 2012, and with the possibility of reusing the models from Street Fighter 4 for the Capcom side, is 35 total characters too few?

The interview, in French, is after the break. ...

Great deal on a great game alert! Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is on sale right now on the Playstation Network. How does 50% off sound to you? This game is both great in its own right, and is a wonderful place to train and hone your 2d fighting game basics. The skills used to excel in ST and HDr will benefit you in nearly every 2d fighting game that exists.

If you do not have it yet, now is the time! Get it before the half-off deal ends. ...

Hori is bringing their brand new line, called the Real Arcade Pro V Series, out in the United States very soon. These will be available for both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. According to Hori's Facebook, you will be able to nab one of these by the end of the month. ...

Some of you may know that Seth Killian will beat members of the press during his rounds with only one hand. But, is some of the tricky stuff in the trial mode possible with just half of your available digits? From the desk of Desk comes a video of just that. He completes Ryu's trial mode with only one hand, video of his hand included. Whats more is that he reports that it didn't even take him very long. Thanks to BiffOTasty's youtube for this! ...

While competing at Super VS. Battle in London, England on Sunday August 22, 2010, Daigo "The Beast" Umehara was the recipient of a Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition certificate. The world renowned Street Fighter champion set the record ...