Toy importer Pop Culture Shock do, as they’ve published a gallery on Capcom’s site showing the factory in China where SOTA’s Capcom statues are put together and finished off.

Most of the shots depict SOTA’s Zangief piece being assembled then painted, but you’ll also see Sagat and Darkstalker’s Felicia pop up as well.

Makes you wonder why they don’t advertise “individually hand-painted” on the box.

Behind the Scenes With Pop Culture Shock’s Felicia and Zangief Statues [Capcom]

Osama calls it The NEStickle (not to be confused with the NES emulator) because, well, why not. It’s not like FightDeck or TurboConsole’s gonna make this look any less weird. The NES controller houses the stick’s USB cable, and it’s compatible with all consoles and PC.

Osama says Nicolas, his friend, had to carve a reinforced interior from wood “using nothing but his laser vision. This insures that I don’t over-zealously cave the NES in while pressing hard on those buttons when I’m losing badly to a cheap-ass who won’t stop throwing me.”

You can see more pics of the NEStickle and its construction over at the link.

Introducing the NEStickle! [Towards Mecca]

Over on his Gamespite blog, 1Up editor and staunch 2D-ophile Jeremy Parish despairs, when discussing the new Wii version of A Boy and His Blob, at the relegation of 2D games to the domain of the download-only or retro throwback. He writes:

The pervasive mindset that downloadable games are somehow less worthwhile than retail games. In truth, the ratio of cream vs. crap is about the same regardless of medium — most things are terrible, and the relatively rare good stuff is worth celebrating no matter what form it takes — so that’s a meaningless dichotomy to begin with. But it becomes even more irritating when you consider the aforementioned collective dismissal of 2D graphics and apply the logical transitive conclusion to these assumptions: that is, 2D games should be downloads; downloadable-only games are worthless; ergo, 2D games are worthless. This is not acceptable.

Allegedly – and this may be an apocryphal tale – during the PlayStation 2 era, Sony actively discouraged the release of 2D games in the fear such antiquated graphics technology would reflect poorly on the capabilities of their hardware. It’s not hard to imagine Microsoft thinking along the same lines with the original Xbox. Does the same mindset pervade the gaming community as well?

I’ve written before about the psychological barrier when it comes to downloadable games pricing and perhaps it’s also true of 2D games. The question remains: why?

Many of this medium’s finest experiences were crafted in 2D; from Pac-man to Super Mario Bros. to Street Fighter II. Why do we perceive modern 2D games as somehow less valuable than their 3D cousins?

I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

2D: Crisis of confidence [Gamespite]

What? Don’t tell me you can’t see it, too? The U.K. games festival Gamecity recently commissioned this and two other works – iconic games animated with just 15 pixels.

Explains Gamecity:

This year we commissioned design collective the Alaskan Military School to produce an animation package to communicate the ethos of the event. We recently launched a series of viral spots that are the first part of this collection of new work. They each take one of our favourite games at GameCity HQ and translate them into a 15 pixel grid. It’s Hyper pixel minimalism! We realised that you can communicate the essence of great, iconic games with minimal visual information. I think this approach echoes the values of the festival, to take a sideways look at games, and foster a creative space.

Gamecity squared will be Oct. 27 to Oct. 31 in Nottingham, England. At the link, you can see also Parappa and Noby Noby Boy done in the same style.

Parappa and Street Fighter in Just 15 Pixels [Tim Maughan Books]

All photos from Kiddy Land, a toy store in Tokyo’s Harajuku district.

Still, the Japanese Street Fighter IV official blog promised last week that they’d speak about a sequel this week. The writer came back and instead said something about promising there’d be more concrete information in the near future.

Some take that as confirmation a sequel is in the works. That would not necessarily mean Street Fighter V. It could be Super Street Fighter IV Tournament Turbo Alpha EX or something. Regardless of what it’s named, any new game brings up discussion of what characters will or should be included. Which you are free to do now.

Capcom Hints at Street FIghter Sequel [IGN]

Snow’s blog on Capcom-Unity showcased the six jumpers, ironed on with Dark Void, a zombie from Dead Rising, Mega Man, Salamander from Lost Planet 2, and the adorable Street Fighter babies (although I don’t think they’re from this piece of work.)

You know, the guy is single, but, I should talk to Seth Killian. I literally haven’t seen him in nine months…

Capcom Baby Swag = Cuteness Overload [Capcom-Unity via Go Nintendo]

These guys are nuts. I mean, I’ve seen some heated ping pong matches in my time, but none of them ever got to the point where one guy took his short off, let alone two guys.

[via Go Nintendo]

Confronted with his ex-girlfriend’s rather facile reduction of two experiences – travel and video games -to somewhat common traits, writer Jason Wilson’s first reaction is an enlightened outrage. Flitting across the world in Street Fighter, he’s convinced, is most assuredly not like one visiting those places for himself.

Yet then Wilson encounters a game on his Wii, plays it with his two sons, and finds himself taken to a place that feels eerily like ones he’s visited before. Not for their scenery or people – but for what he experiences, and remembers.

Travel Channels – How is a Video Game Like Travel Writing? [The Smart Set, Sept. 2, 2009. This essay was also published in The Best American Travel Writing 2009]

Not too long after we’d broken up, I came across the essay she’d referenced, “Nintendo and the New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue,” by Mary Fuller and Henry Jenkins. Fuller and Jenkins likened Nintendo’s Mario Brothers’ adventures in rescuing Princess Toadstool to the nonfictional New World travel narratives of John Smith, Virginia Dare, and Pocahontas in the lost colony of Roanoke. Both are “forms of narrative that privilege space over characterization or plot development” and “a different way of organizing narratives” that they call “spatial stories.” At the time, it seemed like the sort of loopy scholarship that got debated over a bong in someone’s dorm room. But now I’m not so sure.

I thought seriously about travel writing and video games this past year when reading hundreds of nominations for The Best American Travel Writing. I spent a lot of that period playing Wii with my two sons. We enjoyed a game called Endless Ocean, in which you play the role of a deep-sea diver who, along with a somewhat irritating companion, a marine biologist named Katherine, explores the fictional Manoa Lai Sea in a fictional South Pacific. The graphics are amazingly life-like, and over time a whole world with a diverse underwater ecosystem – full of whales, tropical fish, stingrays, sharks, and other sea life – slowly, gently emerges. In fact, calling Endless Ocean a “game” at all is stretching the definition. The challenges aren’t very taxing – it’s almost impossible to run out of air, and not even the sharks bite. There’s only a light plot involving the legends of native peoples of fictional Pelago. Most of the time, you sort of swim around, unscripted, collecting new species of sea creatures and exploring coral reefs, sea caves, and sunken ruins, But after hours of leisurely navigating, a strange emotional experience begins to take hold. Suddenly, the discovery of a simple seahorse or a bit of an artifact is a cause for joy. Upon uncovering an ancient, fossilized whale whisker, I found myself looking forward to surfacing and celebrating with my kooky shipmate, whom I now called Kat. Virtual as it was, Endless Ocean was beginning to take on the recognisable rhythms of travel.

All of which mean that Endless Ocean was becoming a little scary. I wondered if someday in the not-so-distant future, fake gaming worlds like Manoa Lai might replace, say, the real South Pacific as an actual destination. If the current economic and energy crises continue, perhaps my boys will have to skip the old backpacking trip to Europe and instead experience that formative travel though some type of gaming. I guess if that unfortunate outcome truly does come to pass, at least I take solace that some form of travel narrative might still possibly thrive.

- Jason Wilson

Weekend Reader is Kotaku’s look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.