[The following blog comes from our old friend Superfuzz, a self described Father, Husband, Gamer, Ex-Phantasy Star Universe Game Master, and lover of classic arcade gaming. Enjoy this first report at the recent Tournament for Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown here in San Francisco!]

On February 10th, Sega, in conjunction with iplaywinner.com and SouthTown Arcade held the first ever North American Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown tournament here in San Francisco. It was a fun night in which people came from across the country to play the only cabinets located outside of Japan! For many, this was the first time that people were able to play Virtua Fighter 5 with Jean Kujo and Taka-Arashi, both of whom were introduced/reintroduced in Virtua Fighter 5 R, which was a revision that was only released in Japan.

Few games have the history, or the hardcore following that the Virtua Fighter series. From its beginnings as the original 3D polygon based fighter upon the games release in December of 1993, the game has quickly built a reputation for being an extremely technical fighter that rewards smart play over flashy combos and button mashing. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown continues this tradition, while adding a more robust costume system and gameplay rebalancing. This was the first time that the public was able to play Final Showdown here in the states since the game was displayed at PAX back in September.

Although the arcade was packed with Sega fans eagerly awaiting their turn to be some of the first in the US to get a crack at Final Showdown, there was a lot of other Sega related items at the arcade that would have made the hardcore fans happy. From the Astro City arcade cabinets that were host to some of the newer Capcom fighters, to the large number of games that were still running on Naomi hardware, such as Border Down and Marvel VS. Capcom 2. One of the more exciting discoveries was Cosmic Smash, a game that I have never seen in person! I remember reading about it in the Official Dreamcast Magazine and being taken in by its visual style. The best way I can describe the game: mix the play mechanics of Virtua Tennis with the block-breaking gameplay of breakout, all with the visual style of Rez. Sounds good yea? The game was definitely an interesting piece of Sega history that took me by surprise!

It was a fun night and I will be looking forward to attending more tournaments at SouthTown in the future. Although the game is not on permanent play over at SouthTown, Sega will be bringing the game over to SouthTown over the next few months in preparation for the Xbox Live Arcade & PlayStation Network release of the title during the summer of this year. The following is a tentative schedule of dates in which the public can take part in a future Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown tournament. Since these dates are subject to change, it would be a good idea to check out https://www.SouthTownArcade.com for more information as the tournament dates come near:

• March 30th
• April 27th
• May 25th
• June 15th

Miss the event? Iplaywinner.com archived their full stream (including commentary!) for your viewing pleasure. Check the full stream here and pop over to flickr to view the event photos!

Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is out for the Nintendo 3DS in Europe already, and is launching in North America tomorrow, February 14th. You’ve already seen our launch trailer, but here’s your chance to see our TV commercials.

15 Second Version

30 Second Version with Sonic Ending

30 Second Version with Mario Ending