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Final Showdown ver. A in Arcadia

The latest issue of Arcadia also has some info on the latest version upgrade for VF5 Final Showdown. They showed off some of the new costume items that a few of the characters will get and shared some nice, albeit scant info about the upcoming upgrade. I don’t normally take snapshots of Arcadia itself but I like Virtua Fighter a lot more than other fighting games, so... yup.

Check out the discussion thread for more info!

Sega to donate to Touhoku victims

Sega has announced that a portion of the revenue earned from March 14th until April 30th by the games listed below will be sent to the victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Miyagi and Fukushima.

- Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
- Network Taisen Quiz Answer Answer Live
- Border Break Air Burst
- Shining Force Crossraid

Source: Official Sega press release

Historic Rivalry: Bunbun-maru vs Daimon Lau

El_Twelve posts a great account of an old and famous rivalry from the days of Virtua Fighter 2:

"Starts off with guys in Tokyo hearing about someone in Kyoto who was unbeatable at VF2. The weird thing was that practically all his wins were by ringout. Thinking that if the guy was only winning by ringout, he couldn't be that good, a bunch of 20 top players from Kantou (East side of the main island of Honshu) made the trip out to Kyoto to beat him down, and none of them could take a game off him. Daimon Lau was that player."

Read on in the Historic Rivalry thread for the full story, and videos!

Otenami Haiken AC Area Finals - Live Stream

Kantou Area B Finals

The LIVE stream is about to start (20 minutes from this post). Catch all the action on SEGA's USTREAM channel vf5fs-otenami.

Players you can expect in the Kantou Area B Finals include Yatsuki (JA), Iitdomo (KA), Jin (KA), Shimuso (GO), Donpacchi (BR), Papion (LI), Seikisei (SH), Saona (EI), Homestay Akira (AK), Oomitsugen (BR), JF (JE), Naoto (LE), Snafkin (SH), Miroku (AK), Yoshida-sama (VA), Hamichichi Gold (TA), Balm (PA), Natsu (JA).

UPDATE[/size]: The LIVE STREAM is over, but you can watch the recorded event on USTREAM: Kantou Area B Finals

"God of Thunder" Ranking Battle



Got a spare two hours? Thought so. Then you may want to sit back, relax, and watch some legends go toe-to-toe in an epic battle for the highest rank -- the God of Thunder!

At the conclusion of last week's VFR Bay Area Cup 2011 3-on-3 Tournament, Fuudo (SH) and Itoshun (BR) lock horns in a fierce ranking battle. They literally go back and forth for 1 hour and 40 minutes of the video. But then, someone eventually gets demoted and the likes of Yuutenji (LA), and Homestay (AK) step in to put an end to the winner's progress, and perhaps, use them as a stepping stone.

I highly recommend you watch the entire 2 hours, but if you can't afford the time, or you're an illustrious member of the tl;dr generation, then jump to the final 20 minutes and watch the dramatic conclusion unfold.

Thanks, as always, to kamaage for the stream recording and upload!

Yu Suzuki to be awarded with the Pioneer Award at Game Developers Conference, March 2nd, 2011

Congratulations to Yu Suzuki! Yu Suzuki will be awarded the Pioneer Award at the 2011 Game Developers Conference at San Francisco, California, March 2, 2011. From the Game Developers Conference website, the "Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history - paving the way for the myriads who followed them." An earlier news report of the award can be read from 1up.com.

In addition to the award, Yu Suzuki will be presenting a lecture, "Yu Suzuki's Gameworks: A Career Retrospective," at the conference.

Latest Character Distribution Chart
Click image for larger view

From D.K's latest diary entry #86, two charts are revealed. The first (refer to translated image) charts the latest character distribution.

As can be seen, Jacky and Akira are still the two most popular characters, which was also true when compared to results shown in a previous chart (diary #21) which dates back to VF5, and just prior to the release of VF5R. D.K. notes the stability in popularity with the main two protagonists of the series.

Sarah is shown as 3rd most popular, which represents a rise since the previous chart position of 6th. Previously, 3rd and 4th most popular were Eileen and El Blaze, respectively, probably due to them being new characters to the series.

This time round, however, the new characters Jean and Taka have somewhat polarising positions. Jean sits quite high at 4th most popular, yet Taka sits at the bottom representing the least popular -- perhaps due to his uniqueness as compared to the rest of the cast.

A final note on D.K's diary entry: there's a second chart showing the Ranking Distribution. I have nothing of real interest to say about this chart apart from noting the nice curve, which probably represents a health distribution

<span style="font-size: 20pt">One Day in Tokyo</span>
My First Showdown

From One Day in Tokyo: My First Showdown:

As some of you know, I recently went snowboarding in Hokkaido, Japan. While the trip didn't exactly have a happy ending, I can easily say it was the best snowboarding holiday I had ever experienced in the past 10 years. But, this post is not about snowboarding...

On my way to Hokkaido, I arranged for a one night stop over in Tokyo. My plan was to catch up with some old and new VF friends, and play FS for the very first time.

Follow the link to read Myke's ridiculously long blog-style post of his recent time in Tokyo and how he spent 17 waking hours in excruciating detail.

Sega will be live streaming Final Battle Audition, which will take place on Feb. 19th, the first day of AOU 2011, the annual arcade expo in Tokyo. You can catch the live stream of the tournament via Sega's UStream channel

Here's a lineup of the participants for the tournament.

Star Players: Senningiri, Tomalion, Monkichi, Fullswing, Fuudo, Byakko, Jin, Choutarou, YOU
Star Player cadets: Morimoto Leotard, Drum's Ko, Joseph, 23, Shindou Jacky, Kanzen Nitaku, Anaguma, Itabashi Zangief

Due to other commitments on that day, Gorgeous Eileen will not be participating in this tournament.

Update:[/size] If you missed the live stream, then the recording is still available for viewing. Head directly to Sega's UStream channel and enjoy!

{Originally posted by Reno}

Final Showdown ver. A Announced
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Sega announced Final Showdown Version A at the AOU show this afternoon, although there aren't a whole lot of details about what exactly has changed. They promised a lot of balance tweaks but that's about it. But what's interesting is that Dural seems to be playable...