| News flash: Cammy's the coolest character | |
| This is the most exciting issue of Arcadia magazine in a long time, so I'm writing a special in-depth review complete with pictures! | |
| Cammy cosplayer! Forget saving the best for last... let's start with Cammy! The cosplay section of Arcadia has been pretty weak these last few months (and so has almost all cosplay I've seen from Japan lately), but this month's issue features the best Cammy cosplayer I've EVER seen! There's the picture to the right. Click on it to get a better view. Unfortunately, it's a pretty bad scan, and I haven't been able to find any other pictures of this girl (her name is Tomu-chan) yet... but I'm gonna keep looking! |
 |
| Anyhow, this is of course ARSF Cammy from Cannon Spike (known as Gunspike in Japan). I've seen some especially good ARSF Cammy cosplayers, but this girl here must have worked incredibly hard on the armor. It's almost perfect! The only thing missing are the skates, but I think it's actually better without the skates. | |
| King of Fighters 2002 SNK is dead? NO WAY!! KoF lives on, and it's still going very, very strong! It's earned the cover spot this month, and not only that, but the back cover features a full-page ad for KoF 2002 too. BTW, this makes 10 of the last 13 covers that's featured a fighting game. But I just read that fighting games only comprised 4% of video game sales in the USA last year! |
|
| Anyhow, KoF 2002 is kinda disappointing in
that it looks to be some kind of greatest hits version instead of a continuation of the
epic KoF storyline. The teams in 2002 are... KoF '96 Team with Iori Yamazaki, Vice & Mature, KoF '97 Team with Blue Mary, Ryuji Yamazaki, and Billy Kane, KoF '98 Team with Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie & Chris, KoF '99 Team with K', Whip, and Maxima, KoF 2002 Team with Vanessa, Seth, and Ramon, KoF 2001 Team with Angel (what a great outfit!), Kula Diamond, and K9999, Fatal Fury Team with Joe Higashi, Terry & Andy Bogard, Japan Team with Kyo Kusanagi, Goro Daimon, and Benimaru Nikaido Korea Team with Kim Kaphwan, Chang Koehan, and Choi Bounge, Psycho Soldier Team with Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou, and Chin Gensai Ikari Team with Leona, Ralf, and Clark Art of Fighting Team with Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, and Takuma Sakazaki Women Fighters Team with Mai Shiranui, Yuri Sakazaki, and May Lee Jinju |
|
| No new characters... but all the greats are there. You know, with as many great characters as the KoF series has spawned, they really don't need to make anybody new. I like that they brought back some of the old guys and gals we've missed. |
|
| Anyhow, maybe should work on scanning the character artwork because KoF 2002 has some of the greatest character pictures I've ever seen! Mary's doing her "Bakkyu" pose, Yamazaki has the most insane grin you've ever seen, Goro has a little son with him, and Joe's hair is at least 2 feet tall. But what's really noteworthy is that Athena not only has a new outfit like she always does, but she's finally matured! She grew her long hair out again, and she's wearing an outfit that I can't really describe... so click on that picture to the right to see the new-and-improved Athena for yourself. | |
| Capcom's New Fighting Game Well, since I last reported about this game 2 weeks ago, there's not really anything else to add except that Haggar's in the game. Otherwise, it looks totally unoriginal. Sigh... |
|
| Strategy Arcadia is not only known for news and info, but they've got some great strategy articles too. This month's issue features VF4 Evo, Soul Calibur 2, Guilty Gear XX, Technic Beat, Rage of the Dragons, Metal Slug 4, |
|
| Ninja Assault There's a full-page advertisement for a new Guncom game called Ninja Assault. Unfortunately, there are only 3 teeny tiny screen shots on the bottom (you can't see much). The rest of the ad is mostly wasted space. I love Namco's Guncom games, but but this ad sure doesn't get me excited. Let's hope the game is better than the ad. |
|
| Mj.net Remember a few months ago when I told you about the giant soccer arcade game. And I've talked about other 'giant' arcade games from Japan on the website. Well, there's a new Mahjong game like that, and I've got a picture. CLICK HERE to check it out. That's big, huh? But I've seen bigger! I wonder what an arcade game like that costs? Japan really takes its video games to the ultimate degree, huh?! |
|
| Miscellaneous There's an advertisement for some new Guilty Gear XX trading cards. Those will be available in Japan on Sept. 20, and will cost 400 yen a pack (10 cards per pack), and 6000 yen a box. Trading cards in Japan are really cool, but damn they're expensive! |
|
| The arcade prize section has pictures of 3 great Ah! My Goddess figures, but nothing else that's interesting. | |
| The fanart section has all kinds of stuff this month. There are pictures from all the new games like SC2, Rage of the Dragons, Ikaruga, etc., buy there are also pictures from older games like Fatal Fury, Vampire Savior, Last Blade, Star Gladiator, Golden Axe, Last Bronx, and Rainbow Cotton. There's nothing especially exciting, but it is nice to see such a variety. | |
| Every issue of Arcadia comes with a full-sized poster! This month's poster is for Namco's Star Trigon. It's made to look like one of those plastic models where you gotta snap off the parts and put 'em together (e.g. Gundam), and it features some little Rockman type character. | |
| The end. See you next month. (let's hope the Tokyo Game Show will spawn some BIG news!) | |
