Here are the five worst characters to have on your tail as a video game villain. NO THE GODDAMNED BATMAN IS NOT ON THIS LIST, HE IS A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER WITH A VIDEO GAME.

5) Sonic the Hedgehog/Link

At number 5 it’s a tie between Sonic and Link. Sonic is a hedgehog with super speed that can destroy most object by simplify JUMPING OR ROLLING into them. You build this amazing robot death machine only to have a blue hedgehog jump and roll it to death. To make matters even worse he can become a super hedgehog capable of destroying things just by touching them and he can breathe in space. They only thing that could stop this hedgehog is not having any rings (which the world seems to have an abundant supply of), drowning him (but you’d have to make sure there’s no cracks so air can leak or or have a completely underwater fortress and risk drowning yourself if Sonic does come through and beats the snot of out of your base),trying to crush him or trying to get him to fall into a pit(both of which are completely random). And no matter what you’re planning to do Sonic will always find out and show up pissed about it.

Link is equally annoying. Think about this you have this amazing power from the Triforce, you’re immortal and you are overall bad ass. Then all of a sudden a kid in a green tunic shows up and ruins everything. The most screwed up part about it? It’s a different kid almost every time. So you’re immortal and doomed to having a kid in a green tunic just tear you up all because it’s a tradition to give every kid a green tunic at a certain time. Why don’t you just kill off all the children in every village? Then you won’t have anyone to rule over. Catch 22.

4) Ryu

So you are holding a fighting tournament to try and find a new body for yourself? You’re an inter-dimensional being that just happened to be threatening two worlds at once? Are you the most brutal Muay Thai fighter ever and have no challengers? Well it sucks to be you because Ryu is probably going to show up and punch you in the face. Even if you’re just a regular fighter he’s still just going to punch you in the face. The man wanders the world LOOKING FOR FIGHTS barefoot no less. He has fought everything from aliens and giant robots to super heroes and demons. What makes it even worse is that in the chance you actually may be winning, he’ll tap into some hidden energy reserves and go evil making him even more dangerous. His moves are always so basic but they are insanely strong. Now that he has the Soul-Glo in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 this makes him that much more powerful.

3) Megaman

He doesn’t look like much. He looks like he’d be at home in a toy chest.If you are a robot that’s gone evil or renegade, then he’s the worse thing ever. Not only does he keep coming back if you defeat him. He has probably killed your allies and took their abilities to use on you or he is going to kill you and use your ability to kill your allies. What makes him creepy is that he always shows up without saying a word and just stares and blinks at you,later in the series he talks but for a few years he was a silent killer. And to think all this started because two old guys had problems with each other.

2) Snake

This includes the original Snake the one that the current Snake is cloned from. This man is a combination of spy, special operations soldier and mercenary commando from a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear which is usually a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha which is another word for giant robot. Usually Snake has to deal with people with ridiculous powers or armed with incredible skills to do so. You know he’s out there. You’re doing something that ridiculous you know that he’s going to be there and he’s not coming to negotiate anything with you, ever. While you’re trying to get your plan to completion, he’s either killing your allies or hes tranquilizing them and taking pictures of them in compromising positions, who knows what else he’s doing to them. You know what that’s going to be your fate too. This man has taken down so many organizations, robots, people in robots, ninja robots, vampires, ghosts, etc. that anything you can come up with he’s ready for. How do you stop a man like that? You don’t, you just pray that he kills you.

1) Belmonts

At the top of this list sits one family, the Belmonts. If you’re a citizen of the night this name strikes terror into your heart. If you’re a vampire and have a castle it’s even worse. These asshoels will show up at your front door, destroy everything in your house, steal your treasure and money, kill your tenants, find you in your panic room, beat the hell out of you and then sink your castle or destroy it. They ALWAYS show up and they more than likely will bring a friend or two. There’s really no way to get rid of them and they will always lecture you on morals and why what you’re doing is wrong. What if you’re not a creature of the night but have a castle? All it would take is one rumor from the towns folk and you’ll have them sniffing around in no time. I don’t think they even ask questions they just whip the hell out of everything and leave. And to top it all off they WILL be prettier than you with better hair and look cooler (in some cases) than you ever will.

What’s your top 5 ? I’d love to hear it tweet it to me or post on the Facebook!

Aksys Games will sponsor the winning team of the BlazBlue Revolution US Finals by providing full airfare and hotel accommodations to Japan, along with the pride of representing the United States in the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals. Not only that, but if the US Team is able to take the top spot in the Japanese Finals, an extra bonus prize will be awarded to the US Team! Now’s the time to grab two of your most trusted comrades and prepare for the revolution of a lifetime!

BlazBlue Revolution US Event Details:

Finals Date: 2/25/2012

Location: Southern California, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Double Elimination, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND console version

Prize: Winning team will win full hotel and airfare to Japan and a spot in the Japan Finals

Restriction: Winners MUST have their US passport or equivalent document by 2/25. NO EXCEPTIONS.

BlazBlue Revolution Japan Event Details:

Final Date: 3/24/2012

Location: Japan, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Format Final Rules TBA, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (V1.05) Arcade Version

Prize: TBA + Special US Team Prize*

*The US Team prize is a monetary award that will be given if the US Team is able to take the gold at the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals.

Full rules and event details will be announced on 12/17/2011 here. Until then, stay tuned for more information on BlazBlue Revolution at www.aksysgames.com.

In light of keeping the series fresh through it’s countless number of sequels and reboots, Spike holds a number of unique treats that would put a smile on the face of the most devoted fans of the series. Opening theme song “Cha La (Head Cha La)”, from the original Japanese anime, was chosen for the opening sequence of the game and if that wasn’t cool enough, is accompanied by probably the best opening animation sequences ever done in the series featuring modern style visuals fans have been clamoring for since the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Kai. Your treated to battles scenes of some familiar face such as Goku, Vejita, Krillin, Trunks, Gotenks as they do battle with iconic villains Freiza, Kid Buu, Omega Shenron and even movie character Hirudegarn makes an appearance. The most noticeable aspect of this cinematic is the first time introduction of characters “Saiyan Hero” & “Saiyan Elite” from Dragon Ball Heroes, a Japanese only arcade game.

A main storyline is also included in addition to Hero mode, here you will play through the normal story of DBZ and spans into the GT saga as well this time around. The newest and best feature here are the epic boss battles to be had along the way, in style of Naruo Ninja Storm 2, players are treated to large scale battles against the staple villains and movie villains in a variety of speedy chase sequences, button mashing power struggles and QuickTime events that takes the feel of Toriyama’s world closer to home like never before. This is easily the best part about the game as a whole, it’s fresh, new and very well executed.

Sadly this is where the good news ends for U. Tenkaichi. The new battle system incorporated can barely be considered anything battle-esque, the fun of combo’s and melee have been heavily toned down in favor of a 50/50, or rock paper scissors, system that cuts any combo off after 4 consecutive melee button presses for a 2 option guessing game that gives the opponent a chance to break away. This system, all the well very cool in cinematic, will run tired since it is done every single time a string of attacks are made. There are only 2 options, strings these attacks into the guessing system, or use a heavy attack which auto breaks any guard only so you can go back to using the first option yet again. There are so many breaks in the action in favor of cinematic, after a while it doesn’t feel like your really doing anything when only one button press will determine the next 12 or so hits.

This is where the game falls short of actually being true to the spirit of Dragon Ball. Too much of a heavy focus on cinematic has cut the actual hands on fighting experience to a minimum, make this game more of a movie than something that’s playable. All super attacks are auto aimed, leaving no real sense of accomplishment outside of guessing correct for the landing, or out mashing your opponent if they choose the intercept with an attack of their own. The roster also suffers from a major chunk of serious holes that can be noticed by even novice fans. The saga reaches up to GT, yet are missing major key playable characters from the era such as Pan, Kid Goku, Super 17, Bebi, Bebi Vejita and both SSJ4 forms of Goku and Vejita. What’s so confusing is the inclusion of SSJ4 Gojita and Omega Shenron being recognized and playable. The list from the Z arc and those missing is massive so I won’t even bother with the details to avoid further tears.

Visuals: 9 Absolutely amazing job done by Spike. Everything about this game is simply visually stunning and vibrant. Never before has a Dragon Ball game come so close to life until now.

Sound: 8 All the original Japanese and even DBZ Kai voice actors have assisted in keeping their roles alive. The soundtrack is the best to date and the ability to select different arcs of music during VS play is a plus. Melee clashes and Ki blasts sound crisp and appropriate where needed.

Gameplay: 5 The fighting was left out of this “fighter” in exchange for a more cinematic experience, making it difficult to appreciate the story in-between the larger battles. The lack of balance makes the appeal of the game short lived and straight robotic in longer sessions. The mechanics leave online play almost completely non-responsive when it comes to reversals, which wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t forced on you so much.

Replay: 5 Once your done, there is very little chance you’ll want to revisit anything outside of the boss battles.

Some serious potential has been shown here by Spike. Not exactly the worst way to leave an impression, but due to lack of actual fighting when that’s what Dragon Ball is truly about, it remains that much further from being anywhere near the best.

Rating: 6.5

You can find all the details about the tour here.

Thats right, everyone’s favorite assassin (except for his many victims) Ezio Auditore has joined the cast of Soul Calibur V. This is a pretty cool choice if I do say so compared to the other various guests Namco has thrown into the mix *cough* (Yoda/Spawn/Heihachi ect). He just seems like a perfect fit for a 3d weapons based fighter and not to mention he comes standard with a badass attire and attitude. His use will be on both platforms so don’t worry this time around about any console specific favoritism or having to shell out some cash for DLC a couple months after release. This news along with the previous mention of “super” moves being added to the gameplay is enough to give this title a good glance. Hopefully this means the need for meter management or even ex moves for each characters specials. HEY or maybe they have gotten rid of those terrible finishing moves from IV which were performed under non practical requirements. Well, before I get ahead of myself lets just see Soul swords are bringing to the table this go around.

Speaking with some of the booth staff I brought up my issue with tournament play (especially at EVO) and the roster. They are thinking of including downloadable content (DLC) characters as this game goes along. My main question was during major tournaments, since this game is being built to be played at a high level, DLC is not allowed as every console does not have connection to the internet and everyone plays the most updated version of the game and that’s it would there be a disc version of this game for those purposes. For reference many of the Mortal Kombat 9 characters that were released were not allowed at EVO, neither was Jill or Shuma Gorath in MVC3. Their answer was they had to think about it, maybe they’d include an unlock code or something. They would include characters as long as they were paid to pretty much.

Of the new characters I got to play, I played Ms. Fortune who can remove limbs and do all sorts of gross stuff to attack. One attack allows her to take off her head and you can control it as it moves along the floor. For the serious fighting game player we all know that being able to attack high and low would create a situation where you have an ‘unblockable’ attack. When I asked about this situation i was assured that there are no unblockable attacks but ‘almost’ un-blockables where the game gives you a chance (a small one) to react properly to what is being thrown at you. It seems that they agree with unblockable set ups being so cheap, they plague Marvel Vs Capcom 3 sadly

Realistically Skull Girls probably will not main event at EVO or any major due to some logistic issues. But I still think it will be a game that is featured at all of them. It’s funny, I played it once at PAX and I believed in it and kept telling people about how good it is. No one wanted to believe me ever, now that people are actually playing it and had sometime to really see it go everyone loves it, mmhmm. I just can’t wait till I have an option for a fighting game that is not Capcom.

Here’s some a screen shot gallery for you to enjoy also:

The first thing I have learned is that you are as good as the people and where you play. Meaning if you are an online warrior and you’re hunting people that are less skilled than you, you’re probably going to lose using online tactics offline. Also if you play within your circle of friends and you’re the best among them you are big fish in a small pond. My pools had no players from NYC in it but it was people from Canada,Seattle and other places so I was learning about the rest of North America. And I was doing pretty well. I am not a top player in NYC by any means but I was beating people who were the best or pretty good in their regions. I lost to the best ‘Sim player in Canada last game last round and was lack of match up experience that did me in. I also lost to a good Canadian Rufus after mind-fucking myself.

Exactly what my losses felt like

Which brings me to my second point, New York City is tough. NYC because of the sheer amount of people living in the the area has a higher amount of players than most states. The transportation allows these players to travel all over the city to play each other in tournaments often and congregate for sessions to just get better (8-bit dojo is an example of this). Going to a random local tournament you’d have to deal with guys like Dieminon, Arturo, Sanford Kelly, etc. It would be different living in another state where you’d maybe only see one or no big names there. The best example of this is in a non video game sense is take a look at the NBA, there was a point where the Western Conference was stacked. The teams were just so good, Lakers, Spurs, Jazz, Nuggets, Suns, Blazers ,etc. That teams that weren’t bad at all (and maybe be a mid to high seed in the Eastern Conference) still were very low seeds in the playoffs. New York is that tough for no reason Western Conference.

I owned the Eastern Confrence free.

A game play thing that I’ve noticed at EVO is that no one blocks.Not they they are always attacking but everything works at EVO. Part of it I theorize is because everyone’s so hyped up they want to put their stamp on the tournament ,provide hype or just dominate the match. Also there’s a level of familiarity that is lost when you play total strangers. All your set ups will work because no one has seen them before, so people fall for almost anything (I.E. Phoenix inferno at the start of a match) at least once or twice in your 2 out of 3 set. If you know what a character does,how a team operates, common set-ups and strategies before you get to EVO or any tournament for that matter you are going to do well for yourself.

A key thing is that you have to play with confidence and swagger. You have to have the confidence in yourself make those big plays, great reads and get stops when you need them. The people who beat me were pretty much pushed to the brink and they steam rolled the person that was waiting for them in the finals. The person in the finals talked a lot of garbage about how he had his pool in the bag and it was free. However the look in his eyes said other wise. After my first match against the same guy asked me for my gt (gamer tag) and said I looked familiar, some confidence eh? He looked concerned that he’d have to play me at some point. I would have liked to beat him but I guess that’s for another day.

Keep doing you

The last thing I picked up is that the community for the most part is full of good people. Maybe it was just my experience but as a player who sucked horrifically in Street Fighter IV to someone who is pretty decent in Arcade Edition, I can tell you that part of my growth basically came from the community. Other players like Justin, Arturo, Jago, etc were always beating me up but giving me knowledge. Playing at tournaments people have always been willing to talk and share stuff with me helping me understand their character in relation to my own. Evo was no different people were willing to share info, the ‘sim player that beat me told me that the match up depends on if I can get in or not and that me personally I should take more risks to do so because ‘sim cannot really punish too hard. I had theories about this but now that just confirmed it.

During Evo I got some pretty bad news first that our trailer/pilot was denied (boo) which was understandable because we definitely had some technical issues. The news that really got me was about my dog. I’ve had this dog for 16 years. She was/is like one of my best friends ever. This video sums up everything how I feel and went through in the two days I was back from Vegas:

The day she passed I was wreck and I really wasn’t up to full power, (I don’t feel that I am still but that’s another story) it definitely affected my thought process and how much I functioned for a bit. After while things sorta got back to normal I played in a few tournaments and did some events. At the first Guard Crush post Evo I did alright finished in the top 30 out of 55 which isn’t too great but I also took top 8 in the Japanese style tournament they had.

Here are some matches from that:

The Samsung Experience in NYC had a SF tourney that i attended with the weird gimmick of having to win a certain amount of matches before you can even play in the tournament. Basically I finished top 16 and got scrubbed out. I deserved it because I wasn’t ready mentally. I took my loss like a champion and I headed home.

However I learned that friendship is magic because on Sunday the guys at the 8-bit dojo chipped in and got me this incredible Cammy shirt along with a picture and a thank you for putting stuff together. The all knew that I was down and they did so to cheer me up and it did. I was able to get off my sorry butt and get back in the saddle with this writing gig. So it’s back to buisness and that’s buisness as usual.

So yeah that’s what I learned after EVO.

I spent a good amount of time after my loss just watching the rest of the SF tournament. I took a ton of pictures which are available here, I bumped into Kara and she did an amazing job as usual taking photos and those are available for your viewing pleasure here.

To be honest most of my time after the tournament was a blur of watching Sidekicks, hanging out at the pool. I would watch finals and support my friends (most of the east coast players, Justin and a few others). Watching those matches unfold felt like wrestling matches because they were full of flash, technique and substance. Especially Justin’s amazing Akuma only comeback with no X-factor.

The place blew up with Yipes on the microphone. And we were all on our feet yelling and screaming. In a word, it was Hype. I feel honored to be able to say I was there when Poongko powered up and perfected Diago’s Yun.

As much as people say they hate A.E. the place was absolutely coming down when Latieef defeated Diago. There’s a reason why Street Fighter is the main event and not Marvel and it is for moments like these.

The overall experience of Evo is tough to put into words. It’s one of those things where you have to be there to fully appreciate it for what it is. I was able to hang out with people I have not seen in a while,meet some new friends and party with kindred spirits. After Evo was all said and done I went to the Strip and I hung out with Chris G. at the Gameworks arcade. It was not anything like Japan’s arcades but it was nice to be in one. I got to play the Sonic fighting game (I used Knuckles) and played some VS Outrun and I got to play some Pump it Up after many year s(I was rusty as hell and sweating like a Baptist preacher on Easter Sunday). Speaking of you guys need to check out the Balrog movie (posted up top).

I did score some pretty sweet interviews with a few of the players and I will be uploading them once I transcribe them. It’s pretty interesting what the feel is important for players to work on.

What song did I play for my music in Outrun? I played the greatest song ever, Night Flight, of course.

Thanks for the support on Facebook and followers on Twitter

I was up and exercising at 6 A.M. and made my way down to the pools with Chris G to the main hall. Needless to say I was wowed by the size size of the venue. It took a little bit of searching but I found my pool which was 10 and I checked in. I saw that my match was at the end of the bracket so I watched the matches that preceded it like a hawk. Gathering as much information as I could about each players play style,the characters that they used and trying to relate that to the match up versus my killer bee. In the pool there were two no shows. Which struck me as weird why would you register for Evo and then not show up. When I was getting ready for Evo I didn’t not register until I had my flight and hotel squared away, it was more expensive but it ensured that I would officially be playing and not giving someone a free ride. In any case the characters in my pool were E.Honda, Dan, Vega (Claw), M.Bison (dictator), Rufus, Dee Jay, Dhalsim, Ken ,Cody, Zangief, Cammy (myself) I don’t remember the other ones they must have not made an impression on me. I was a little bit nervous because I sat through a few matches and I did not know how good my opponent was going to be. I was paranoid that he was some unknown killer and I’d start my Evo travel in losers.

When my name was called I sat down and put Applejack down at the station and then set up and made sure my stick worked since I had to do some surgery to it before hand. The reason why I brought her with me is to calm me down, she was with me in the arcades in Osaka and Kyoto and it allowed me to tune everything out and focus on the match. My first match was against a Cody. I know the match up for the most part but sometimes Cody can become a problem. I tested the waters with a opening hooligan and the dive kick ambiguous cross up. Once I saw that he had no answers for it I just locked in and went pure rush down. For the most part I did pretty and perfected him in the second set once. I baited his Ultra (he picked Ultra 1) with a high dive kick and punished. I really steamrolled my first match. I posted on Facebook results and it was waiting for the next.

My next match up was against a Bison player. Usually the standing roundhouse (heavy kick) or standing forward (medium kick) shuts down much of what I want to do. I have been practicing a bit more against Bison so I can punish things better on block such as his Ultra 1 and his EX-Psycho Crusher.However this Bison did none of that. He did a lot jumping around and teleporting on his wake up. The first round I took a lot of damage trying to chase him down but I closed it out. After the first hit or two I would back off and force him to come to me if he wanted to win. After a few seconds of him jumping backwards he realized I wasn’t going to chase him anymore. I took a few steps randomly towards the center and just waited, eventually he came to me (that’s what she said, pause) and I beat him.

My third match was against Dhalsim in the semi finals, the winner got to beat the snot out of this annoying Dee Jay player who really had an easy run to winners finals. Funny enough before the match he told me good games and no matter what beat that annoying Dee Jay player, I agreed and we played. Even though I almost beat Arturo I have no ‘sim match up experience. I did practice a little bit before I left on how to beat the teleport set ups but that was it. I got exposed the first set. The second match I was fighting a bit more comfortably and I was able to take that one. The third he beat me clean. My problem was I didn’t know how or when to punish his limbs, consistently. In the first set I almost won on around but then was close to having a time over victory but got impatient, I should have just taken the chip damage rather than try to punish the Ex-Yoga Fire. I still would have been up on life barely. I can point to some key mistakes I made. I was thinking that maybe I should have safe Cannon Drilled a little bit more. He apparently was the best ‘Sim player in Canada. He would go on to beat that Dee Jay and get out of pools.

As tough as it was to not beat myself up over those mistakes, I had to pull it together to play my next match. It was a new set,new game new opponent that had its own set of challenges. I would be facing a Honda player. I had to rally and make up for that loss. A good friend recorded the match so you can watch it. I think it will do better than my words.

My final match was in the semi finals versus the Rufus player. Who said the same exact thing to me that the ‘sim player did ‘Beat that Dee Jay, he’s talking way too much shit’. We both agreed and the fight was under way.

The first match first round was tough. It came down to pixels of health. I punished one of his moves wrong and he was able to punish my punish. And it was a real heart breaker. He went on to win the first set. I came roaring back in the second closing out one round by punishing his Ex-Messiah Kick with my ultra (finally got it right). The second round I just applied pressure until he eventually cracked. It was tough reading him because he went from playing offensive to defensive but he would switch randomly. He would not give me any chance to get in, he also didn’t ever try to use any of his anti-airs against me and opted to punish my jump ins on landing. The last game was very tense each of us taking rounds coming down to the last round. He played better and opened up the lead and never looked back. And that was the end of my Evo tournament experience.

I learned a bunch from this experience and just being around the other players. I’ll tell you about it as I get ready for the next Evo.

Thursday (28th) was my flight out. I originally was slated to leave for Las Vegas around noon-ish but then my flight got changed and I ended up leaving at 4p.m. However I also got a direct flight there instead of having to transfer which ended up working out in the long run because I got to Vegas a little bit earlier. That meant I could get to the hotel at a decent time, unwind and get ready for combat. I approached this weekend like a fighter, nothing too crazy the night before and after I just relaxed and took it all in (that’s what she said).

On the way there I mentioned that I felt like I was in Enter the Dragon, what did that feel like well it was very paranoid. I spend most of my time in the airport lobby refreshing Twitter, Foursquare and checking all the #Evo2k tweets to try and figure out who was there. I also spent a lot of time sizing people up and trying to figure out if they were players or not and most importantly if they were in my pool. I spent hours profiling people and potentially figuring out what characters they used. When I got off the plane that was made easier. In the span of five minutes I had twenty different people ask me what game I am there for and who was my main. Keeping cool and using my assassin skills I learned in Street Wars I said C.Viper was my main with Yun as an alt. I kept the poker face as I said it and talked about my trouble with Fierce Feint Fierce. I didn’t want to reveal any of my tech (technology) before the tournament. It was pure Kung-Fu treachery.

The Rio itself as a hotel is crazy, it has nightclubs, restaurants, shops two types of pools (normal and topless) and huge convention halls. Checking in I easily spotted some very familiar faces as well as some new ones. This being my first major I was impressed with the amount of space that was inside of the hall. I haven’t seen that many set ups and chairs (again first major) in one place before. The size of the convention center was bigger than about 100 8-bit and ups (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit). However this is the first night so I had to keep it simple in terms of my nightly plans. I got to my room and was pleased with the lay out, not going to like but I felt a little bit like a rock star. I was so used to the cramped hotel rooms in Tokyo and pushing the limit of most standard hotel room occupancy, it was really nice to sleep in a bed the entire weekend. I had no real trouble falling asleep that night. As I knew I had to be up early for my pools so I wanted to give myself time to exercise and properly wake up to be ready to play at my 8 am pool.

Save your game?