411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Legacy of Ys: Books I & II, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, Stoked, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II (DS)
Ys I and II have seen many ports and remakes since the first one came out in 1987; they've seen the light of day on such systems as the PC-8801, Famicom, Master System, DOS, Apple II, Saturn, and PS2 to name a few. The most widely-known versions are contained in the TurboGrafx-CD compilation, and for years that release was considered the best. It's place at the top was eventually challenged by Ys Eternal as it sported upgraded graphics, effects, and artwork as well as extras like new characters and scenarios. Unfortunately, Eternal didn't include voiceovers and some say that the remixed music was not as good. Apparently, enough people weren't satisfied so another update known as Ys Complete, which is said to have better graphics but an inferior soundtrack, was unleashed. Despite my best efforts, I could not find any agreement amongst Ys fans as to which official release is the definitive version since each of the three does at least one thing better than the others.

Preferences aside, there is one thing that fans of the first two Ys games can agree on no matter which version they've played - Ys I and II have some of the best music you will find in a video game. Every place I visited for info makes note of how awesome the soundtrack is. Knowing this, I questioned whether or not it was a good idea to play the games on the DS for the first time when I could just as easily track down the PC version and patch it or download the Wii VC one. Granted, Legacy of Ys comes with a free soundtrack if you preorder and it is portable. Maybe it would be easier to just flip a coin...

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Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii) ...
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OXM UK reports that David Sirlin, one of the chief designs on Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, has slammed Street Fighter IV for not being accessible enough.

Sirlin reels off a list of odd game design choices but also says that despite the hype and press that the game is accessible, Street Fighter IV is anything but, especially in comparison to other games in the genre.
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Gamezine: "One of Britain's Olympians is now using Street Fighter IV as part of his training. He has full backing from sports psychologists.

Sportsmen are hard at work training for the London 2012 Olympics and to best our 2008 medal performance, one of Britain's Gold hopes has included a video game in his daily training.

Tyrone Robinson, a British International Championship Gold Medallist and a European Championship Bronze Medallist in Taekwondo, has turned to the classic beat 'em Street Fighter IV.

Now a best-seller, the game has been entertaining gamers around the world, even breaking world records, but now it's being tasked with training a potential Olympic Gold medallist..."
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Gamerdeals.net writes:

"For the week of February 24, 2009, Halo Wars continues to takes the top spot on the cross-platform Gamefly Top Ten 'Most Queued' list. Following close behind is Street Fighter IV (PS3/Xbox 360), and Killzone 2 (PS3). MadWorld is at the top of the Nintendo Wii Queue as well...

Queue up the complete Gamefly Top 10 most requested lists:"
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Gamezine: "Sales of Capcom's Street Fighter IV lead on the PlayStation 3 after its UK launch.

Despite the smaller install base and the continued lower-than-Xbox 360 hardware sales, launch sales of Capcom's Street Fighter IV led on the PlayStation 3 at 53%, with 47% selling for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The title fought its way to the top of this week's UK All Formats Chart, knocking off long time number one Wii Fit."
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The successful record attempt took place in London on Friday afternoon. Official Guinness World Records representatives were present to adjudicate the feat, which is now shortlisted for inclusion in next year's Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.
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Capcom announced that it has shipped 2 million copies of Street Fighter 4 world wide. Perhaps Capcom underestimated the popularity of its series. So much so that on Thursday Japan actually sold out of the game in every store.
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Capcom's revival of the Street Fighter franchise appears to be having success on a worldwide scale. The company announced today that Street Fighter IV has crossed the two million mark in worldwide shipments.
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BeefJack writes, "If, like the majority of us, you've noticed Street Fighter IV's boss character, Seth, to be painfully tough despite the difficulty setting, then there may be an explanation - and a fix - for this seemingly stupid imbalance..."
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Eurogamer's Face-Off coverage continues at a brisk pace, with an in-depth look at Capcom's first 10/10 game in some time: the ultra-playable, supremely rewarding, and utterly irresistible Street Fighter IV. There's the usual in-depth technical analysis, precision h.264 comparison movies and, of course, the requisite lossless 24-bit RGB screenshots gallery.
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Street Fighter IV was just released this week, along with the Mad Catz line of Official Street Fighter IV FightStick and FightPad controllers. While you may be able to find the game, the controllers have been tough to get, both online and in stores. A Chun-Li FightPad, which has a $39.99 MSRP, was going for as high as $149.99 through a third-party Amazon seller. There are also exorbitant prices on eBay, with the SFIV Arcade Fightstick Tournament Edition ($149.99 MSRP) going for $499.99.

I asked a few questions to Mad Catz Global PR & Communications Manager Alex Verrey, to help clear up a few rumors and get the details on what's up with the shortage and when gamers can expect to find them.
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Media Create has confirmed that over 86,000 copies of SFIV were sold in Japan last week, prompting increased sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Sales of Sony's PS3 approached 19,000 while the 360 sold almost 10,000.

Despite the success of the latest Street Fighter title, Capcom was beaten into second place by AlphaDream's Mario & Luigi RPG3.
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Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide.

This week's charts, with data taken from February 19th, 2009, find Street Fighter IV outselling all competition on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America and the UK, while Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Demon's Souls lead in Japan.

Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows:
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Xboxist.com Writes:

"The internet has been abuzz with stories of broken Street Figher IV standard edition (SE) FightSticks.

Released officially on February 17th in limited quantity, gamers counted themselves lucky to even score a stick. Those that did, brought their happy find back home, only to discover hours into playing their stick exhibited odd behavior, to the point of not being playable. Users reported that the controller stopped registering directional inputs or button presses, made grinding noises, or even had a "stuck" joystick. The problem was attributed to a loose metal washer scraping the printed circuit board (PCB). "
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Joystiq: We know not all of you could make it out to Capcom's Street Fighter IV launch party, so we snagged some gear for you. Well, for one of you. We did manage to haul in a bag full of stuff that's enough to "electrify" any Street Fighter fan, including a copy of the game for PS3. Interested?

Here's what we're offering up: A copy of Street Fighter IV for PlayStation 3, a Street Fighter IV black t-shirt (size XL) featuring the Hadouken combination, a cloth tote bag marked with the same Hadouken button combo, a Chun Li Street Fighter IV action figure (complete with massive man hands -- sadly, not detachable), a copy of Udon Comics' Street Fighter II #03 (with Special Power Foil Cover #17 featuring E. Honda), a Capcom Fighting Game History fold-out timeline and -- niftiest of all -- the full-size Street Fighter IV training manual with special moves list.
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411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?, Street Fighter IV, DoDonPachi Daioujou Black Label Extra, Shooting Love, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Metroid Prime Wii.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (PSP)
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is one of the best platformers I've played in years thanks to it's tight controls and above average presentation. However, this game is definitely not for everyone. In fact, I'm pretty sure that only hardcore platformer junkies and people with infinite amounts of patience will get past the first three or four stages without developing a desire to throw their PSPs at a wall in rage. But if you can hang on, getting through the game can be quite satisfying and is an achievement that is worth bragging about.

Street Fighter IV (PS3, 360)
It isn't necessary for me to go in-depth since every other site is already doing it. I will, however, bring to your attention one of the coolest features SFIV has - the Arcade Request system. Basically, instead of watching a static screen while waiting for someone to challenge you online, this system allows you to play against the computer and seamlessly accept a challenge when one comes your way. It's like going to an arcade and playing against the CPU until someone gets the nerve to plunk down fifty cents to take you on. If you set it to accept only Player Matches (unranked) you can keep things going by rematching or, if you don't want to play the person again, you can quickly and easily go back to arcade mode after your match and continue on with the CPU until you get another challenge. It's hard to believe that it's taken Capcom this long to implement such a system. I can only hope that SNK does the same thing in its home version of KOF XII.

DoDonPachi Daioujou Black Label Extra (360 Import)
Every shooter needs its own hook to stand out. While Trigger Heart has its grapple syst...
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1UP:

"Over the past two days or so, word has been circulating that the new Street Fighter 4 Mad Catz Arcade standard edition FightSticks are defective. This originated from a post made on the Shoryuken forums claiming that the standard edition sticks were experiencing some issues with sticking or getting caught in a certain direction, making it difficult to properly play or even navigate menus (see video below). Since then, numerous other posts have been made on a number of forums in addition to Shoryuken -- where the number of views on the original thread is rapidly approaching 40,000 -- including the Capcom Unity forums. The standard edition stick we have in the 1UP offices has encountered some of these very problems, while the tournament edition stick -- reviewed here -- has held up quite nicely. While there have been fixes documented, they require gamers to take the device apart, thereby voiding the warranty."
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Is Street Fighter IV missing your favorite character? Relax: Capcom has revealed that you might be getting them in the future.
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Who would have known that all the Street Fighter IV FightPads and FightSticks would be sold out so soon following Street Fighter IV's launch? It's a bummer, but a MadCatz representative urges gamers not to get discouraged or shell out "silly prices on eBay." More are on the way.

"The story is, new pads will be coming in. They will be replenished though March and April," said Mad Catz' global communications manager Alex Verrey. "Please be patient with us, and don't pay silly prices on eBay. These controllers are not a limited edition, there will be more; they're being made literally right now."
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Steven "Genfuyung" writes:

"About a week ago Capcom was pretty steadfast in the notion of not screwing their customers. There wouldn't be any DLC characters they said. That would make for an unbalanced game and could give an unfair advantage to the players willing to bend over the furthest to pay for new characters. Now, with Street Fighter having been out for almost a day, Capcom is mentioning the possibility of adding fighters like T. Hawk and Deejay to the lineup through DLC."
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