Greetings and salutations my friends! Sorry it has been so long since you got a post from beautiful little me! We lost a person at my new job and I’ve had to cover a lot of hours(tired but hey extra money is nice). Boy do I have some great news for you guys today. I just happened upon this whilst browsing the ol’ Reddit, it’s called the Droid 360.

Apparently a Chinese company has taken upon them selves to basically gut a PS Vita and turn it into an Android based ROM emulator. This little bundle of joy includes emulators for the Nintendo 64, Playstation(original), Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, NES, SNES, Genesis, and the Game Gear. That is quite a mouthful right there! You’d be able to store plenty of old games on the included 8 GB of onboard storage, but if you want more it does have a micro SD slot which supports up to the 32 GB card.

It does sport a 800x480 screen, which from the pictures and the video looks pretty legit to me. Pretty standard battery on there of 2800 mAh, it does have a mini usb slot for charging(and I would assume hooking up to your PC). For your picture taking needs, there is both a front and a rear camera. Although, the back is only 2 megapixel and the front is .03, but who buys these toys to take pictures anyway!?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0BN4txob1c]

Honestly, it looks pretty awesome and if it has a reasonable price tag I’ll be down to purchase one. If it is outrageous, well, I do already have a hacked PSP and I’ll call it a day!

Happy end of the weekend to everyone! Here at Retro Game Network, we have been quite busy around here over the weekend. With great vintage video clips, awesome retro gaming news, and of course, all of the epic music at Nerdapalloza, which is of course where RGN’s very own Matt, Jes and Adam are as we speak, as they wrap up their excellent weekend. Typically, I do my Retro Game Retrospectives on Saturdays, but take this as a tip: Save your work and save often. (Whoops!) But, better late than never! So today, we will be continuing our special three week series of Olympic style video games, naturally in honor of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. This week we will be advancing 9 years past “The Activision Decathlon”, and taking a look at a game entitled “Gold Medal Challenge 92”: A 1992 offering from Capcom for the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

Gold Medal Challenge was a title that was based on the 1992 Summer Olympic Games which for those with good recent memory, took place in Barcelona, Spain. This cartridge has a lot of events to compete in during the course of the game. There are 5 running events (100, 200 and 400 Meter Dashes, as well as the 4 x 100 Meter Relay & 110 Meter Hurdles), 3 jumping events (Long, Triple and High Jumps), 5 swimming events (100 Meters in Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Freestyle matches, as well as the 200 Meter Individual Medley), Shot Put, Javelin Throw, Gymnastic Vault, Weightlifting and the Marathon Run. This is for a grand total of 18 events, which is eight more than was offered on The Activision Decathlon 9 years prior. Since I discussed the concept some of these events last week, I’ll only give you a rundown of the events that are new for this title.

On the 4 x 100 Meter Relay, there are a total of 4 runners per country. Each runner will sprint for 100 meters, and then pass a baton to the next player at the end of their hundred meters. The new runner will then run for one hundred meters, and so on and so forth, for a total of 4 unique runners and 400 meters run in total. On the Triple Jump, the object is after a running start, to take as much momentum as you have, and jump the furthest, leaping three times total in hopes of obtaining the maximum distance. The 100 meter swimming events have the competitors swim in backstroke fashion (swimming on your back with your chest upwards of the water), breaststroke fashion (with your legs doing a “frog kick” and arms doing an outsweep/insweep/recovery motion), butterfly fashion (swimming with your chest to the water, doing butterfly kicks), and freestyle fashion (unregulated style, typically swimming front crawl). The fifth swimming event is an individual medley which combines all four relay types. Weightlifting is a competition in which the player has to lift the most weight. (Obviously!) Gymnastic Vault is when the gymnast runs down a runway, leaps onto a springboard, jumps onto a horse and perform an acrobatic handspring before landing. Finally, the Marathon is nothing more than a running race, which has a total distance of 42 kilometers.

On this game, you get to pick from 12 different countries to represent. These are the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, France, China, Germany, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. This already is a lot different than the previous review, where no countries were selectable. (Of course, this game is actually BASED on the Olympic Games.) I personally prefer it when games like this offer the various countries. Especially since the Olympics is a world wide event! There is just something very rewarding about seeing your country written in lights. (If you don’t think it’s a big deal, just go on your Facebook or Twitter feed this week. With all of the USA wins recently on this set of Olympic Games, someone is bound to be talking about it, whether they are from the United States or not!)

Now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s talk specifics here! First off, kudos to Capcom for including such a wide number of events! Even though there are a lot of different variations of certain events, some of the unique events are very nice touches. But no matter how you organize the sprites on screen, just like most other games of this genre, it’s a lot of typical “button mashing”. For the all events involving track, field and indoor events, it should come to now surprise that pressing A+B rapidly will charge or run. Pressing A rapidly during swimming events generates a stroke. That is quite typical for this style of game. The NES offers something that the Atari games couldn’t, which is perfect for these kinds of games: TURBO! (Yeah, I know it’s cheating.) If you have a controller like the NES Max or the NES Advantage, trust me. Plug them in and use the turbo. Your poor thumbs (and your precious NES controllers) will thank you immensely in the morning.

The one event that is very unique to the cartridge is one that very often gets missed in games like this. (To be honest, I cannot think of any other game of Olympic Games that feature this one… Can anyone prove me wrong?) That event is the Marathon Run. Unlike all of the other games that are played live in front of you with all kinds of fast paced controller mashing, the Marathon will be playing in the background while you are playing the other games. (Trust me: I don’t think that anyone would want to be playing this event traditionally, with a 42 kilometer distance and all!) All you have to do is tell the Nintendo how fast you want your player to run, taking into consideration how much energy is left. Depending on your available strength and your speed (which you can adjust a few times throughout the game), will depend on how far you go. If you completely run out of power, you will stop running for a while to catch your breath. Updates on how your players are going will occur in the form of a “television broadcast” where the anchorman will give you a live news report on how the race is going. If a player runs out of steam, the next event will be “interrupted” by a “special report”. Like I said, this plays in the background, which basically makes this a logic and mathematic statistic game, which ironically, as weird as it sounds, is kind of fun to play since you don’t have to button mash. It’s the part of the game that will make you actually think. (So what I’m curious about now, is why couldn’t the math functions of Donkey Kong Junior Math be this interesting?)

Let’s talk graphics for a little bit, especially since this game is certainly not just Pitfall Harry in shorts. In some weird way, an interesting aspect with the running and field events especially, is that the contestants look like caricatures. The heads are almost bobble-like and are certainly not in proportion to the rest of their body. Sometimes, depending on the event, they also seem to suffer from “Jay Leno” chin. Their bodies are just so, small looking. You would think that in a game that involves a lot of physical attributes, that these men and women would be a little more on the muscular side. In comparison, on the NES version of “Track & Field II” (which incidentally, was released 4 years before this), the body sprites of the track runners and field players look rather muscular and much more realistic. But, if you like the looks of a cartoony looking character, the graphics are good. For a comparison from technology then to technology now, picture a game that could either have near photogenic quality sprites, versus playing the game using a Nintendo Mii character. It’s all in your personal taste, actually.

Now let’s chat for a quick moment about the music from the game. The music that plays in the background during the events are not terrible at all. In fact, they are quite good. But there is one major problem. As soon as you start running or swimming, or basically, once you start doing your thing on the event you are competing in, the sound effects from the workout interfere too much, so much to the point that the background music is unbearable. If you listen to the music on its own, some if it is rather pleasant to the ear. With a situation like this, it goes to show that sometimes, the option to turn the music off is essential. Sadly, this game does not offer such a feature, so you can either have the music/FX conflict, or turn off the sound and put your own music on. (I think blasting my copy of “Eye Of The Tiger” on vinyl would be a better mix anyway!)

For some reason, these kinds of games were always a favorite of mine. I really can’t put my finger on it, but I always very much enjoyed playing them. It could be because on typical games, I often tended to be not so good. Since these games are typically “just press A + B very fast”, there isn’t much to memorize. (I still have a problem with some of today’s modern games, with the multiple analog sticks and sometimes up to what seems like a dozen buttons.) Games like this were perfect for the NES controllers. (Like I said earlier, with turbo, it’s even better!) And unlike The Activision Decathlon, where you could only play 1 player, this game goes to the other extreme, and allows you to play with a total of EIGHT people! That can be you and seven of your friends, playing together. Nice! (Of course, you can only play the game 2 contestants at a time, but who cares?) I think it was a nice touch to be able to play the game with that many people, without the need for special hardware or adapters. Goes to show that the people at Capcom realized that this was a game designed for competition, so multiple players were not an option, but a must. Just the simple act of thinking while programming is most appreciated with this game, and I would very much recommend Gold Medal Challenge ‘92 to those looking for some good old-fashioned button mashing goodness.

Next week, I’ll be performing the closing ceremonies this three week special “Retrospective” event in celebration of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Which game will it be? You’ll just have to tune in this coming Saturday to find out! (But please check us out throughout the week with more excellent stuff ahead!) Have an awesome week!

(Note: Video preview contains spoilers. Shows entire gameplay from start to end, but text is mostly from the Japanese version of the game.)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6gwz9GbGOE]

News of the new Archie Comics crossover event featuring Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog has been pouring in recently, and fans at San Diego Comic Con who attended the Archie Comics panel for this new series were finally given an official release point for the crossover.  This 12 issue crossover event featuring gaming’s most beloved blue protagonists, is set to begin in April 2013 with issue #24 of Mega Man, and here is how it’s going to work.

Rather than creating a separate mini-series, the 12 issue crossover will cover 4 consecutive issues of Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Universe. Few details have emerged on just how exactly the stories of Mega Man and Sonic are going to coincide. The Mega Man series of comics has followed the stories of the original NES games rather closely, but the Sonic the Hedgehog series, with has been an Archie Comics staple for going on 20 years now, has very much developed its own story that shys away from the games, and even includes original characters that can only be found in the comics.

One thing we are sure of though, is that there promises to be a lot of action and a lot of humor, especially in way that Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Wily interact with one another. It’s hard to find that surprising, considering that if there were ever were two evil mad scientist mechanical geniuses who have massive problems with blue protagonists, it’s those two gentlemen.

As details about the series are released, we will be sure to inform you of them here. In the meantime, you would be wise to check out some of the existing comics if you are fans of either of these franchises.

Well, maybe not stronger, but definitely much more fun! The game in question, and the first of my Rom Hack Write Ups section, is a rom hack I truly hold dear to my heart. That hack is called Rockman No Constancy. It doesn’t look too different from your standard Rockman 2 title screen, sans the actual logo and IKA’s (the man who made the hack AND programmed the music for this) tag, right? Well… That’s only if you’re playing the easy version of the patch, where Mega Man is pretty much the same as his MM2 incarnation. Then you play hard mode… Ohhhh Hard Mode, you give me nightmares. (I still love you, though, baby. I truly do.) Instead of Mega Man’s classic blue and cyan get up, he dons a somewhat hideous at first Lime and Forest Green costume. It grows on you after a bit, though, and really fits with the graphical overhaul of the levels (Spoilers: Most of the levels have SOME sort of blue in them. And white. Lots of white. The colors Mega Man dons in hard mode do well to contrast from the levels’ backgrounds.)

Mega Man isn’t only getting a recolor in hard mode, a la a 12 year old making his first “Bob And George” inspired webcomic. The amount of changes in hard mode are ridiculous, and are really the selling point of playing Hard over Normal. Firstly, and probably MOST importantly, is your hit-stun. It is literally non-existent. Your invincibility is about the same as your reeling back animation which is about 15 or so frames. After that, you are able to take damage again. This means small enemies like baby frogs and bosses that land on top of you are guaranteed 1-hit-KOs. You’d do your best to practice each level incessantly in normal mode so you can have a clear understanding of each level’s design, but it’s not absolutely necessary, especially if you like dying a lot and getting ultimately screwed over by the stupidest things. Another major point to note is that your shots in hard mode do HALF DAMAGE! Yes, half. That means instead of heat man taking 14 shots in normal, he takes 28 standard buster shots, and trust me, you don’t want to try and get close to him with the leaf shield to hurt him (he does 28 damage in one hit on hard mode). Keep that in mind with the fact that everything does double damage to you and you’ve got yourself a MAJOR challenge ahead!

So besides damage and being ridiculously unfair at times, what else is different about it? Well no true rom hack would not be without new stages, new music, and new weapons! Everything has been masterfully done by one man. IKA, who has a major history in the Rockman 2 rom hacking community. RnC is his most famous rom hack though. Weapons ranging from a light speed arcing metal blade to flames that emanate from your gun in place then fire after a 1 second interval. An Air shooter that shoots 5 air blades that fire in different upward directions at once, and the items that all have very different properties now. Stages are completely different than before, as well as the music, which is more my expertise (give me a song from this rom hack and I will name its original game and location).

I’ve spoken nothing but good things so far, but perhaps I should go over some of the cons about this game. The fact that it IS very hard might be a turn off to many casual players. Even Normal mode is a bear and a half to play for even seasoned Mega Man players. Stages are LONG in this game. They take a lot of time to practice and perfect, and when you have a hard mode like RnC’s perfect is all that’s accepted in order to make it through a stage alive (or just to the halfway point.) and then after that you have to deal with bosses that have really hard to read patterns at times. (READ: AT TIMES) That’s the only other gripe I have with this game. There are some bosses that are impossibly tough, and then there’s some that are snoozingly easy. Some patterns seem impossible while others are just so mind numbing that you can do them without knowing them before hand even with just buster.

 They’re nitpicky gripes but they’re gripes nonetheless that keep the game from being perfect. I personally cannot link you to the hack or the rom for legal reasons but Google is your friend if you are at all interested in testing the waters in this intensely tough rom hack! Keep it classy, Retro-maniacs and I’ll see you next week for another Rom Hack Write Up!

 Pixxel Papa here! This writeup was completed by Daniel Park, a guest author who is very well versed in ROM hacks! I hope you enjoyed his first post, because I have a hunch that you are going to see more from him ;)

The first indicator that Capcom hasn’t completely left Mega Man for dead comes to us in the form of a 10 disc soundtrack compilation. In honor of the Blue Bomber’s 25th year of existence, Capcom will be releasing a collection of the original soundtracks of the ten Mega Man games.

We can only hope that this is the first of many announcements regarding Mega Man’s 25th, as it is become well documented that the millions of Mega Man fans around the world are for the most part, less than pleased with Capcom’s recent treatment of their beloved hero. With the cancellations of both Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe still fresh in the minds of fans, Capcom has a lot of work to do in order to reel back in the legions of disheartened and irate fans of the series. Will this package offer fans any sort of reprise? Let’s take a look…

“Capcom, I’m so mad at you…but…oh f@*# it, take my money”

It’s hard to argue the sexiness of that package. I mean, c’mon people, it’s the entire assortment Mega Man soundtracks, that comes in an E-TANK CARRYING CASE. That. Is. AWESOME!

But, with that said, I have good news and bad news for all of you who may be wiping drool off of your shirts.

GOOD NEWS: 
As stated, all ten soundtracks and a booklet will be included in this lovely package titled the “Rock-can Sound E Can.” The first 6 games will have both the Famicom/NES and the Playstation versions of the songs, Mega Man 7 will be the original Super Famicom/SNES, Mega Man 8 will be the Playstation version, and Mega Man 9 & 10 will be the XBOX Live Arcade versions. Unfortunately, the are no arrange or remixed versions to be found, but, just having all of them together in that sweet ass case is a marvel in of itself.

BAD NEWS:
As of right now, this bad boy is slated to be a Japan-only release. Whether this, or anything at all will be released in the west is still uncertain, but hey, this is the 21st century, so provided that you’re willing to pay a premium, there will more than likely be websites that will be offering non-Japanese folk the chance to purchase one of these. The other thing that may potentially turn off buyers is the price tag. Set to the tune of ¥14,700 ($182), you’ll need to fork over a decent sum of cash in order to adorn this beauty on your shelf.

Do you think this will be the extent of Capcom’s 25th anniversary celebration for the blue boy? Or, do they have more up their sleeve? Like Mega Man fans the world over have been doing a lot recently, all we can do for now is wait, and hope for the best.

The X-Hunters are a kick-ass metal band hailing from Southern New Jersey, who specialize in recreating the utterly amazing musical tracks from the Mega Man X series into epic heavy metal tracks. These guys have been around for a few years now, and have really begun to make a name for themselves as they play at venues and conventions all over the East Coast, and then some!

From local video game stores to the bright lights and big stage of MAGFest, the X-Hunters have been rocking out to the delight of not just Mega Man fans, but gamers and non-gamers alike! I recently caught up with bassist Andy DeMarco (pictured above with the Vile helmet), whom I personally go way back with, and I was fortunate enough to be able chat with him and the other band members about the band, their experiences, and the classic gaming community.

The X-Hunters rock the socks off of MAGFest attendees

RGN: “In your own words, tell us about the X-Hunters”

“The X-Hunters are a 4 piece metal band who turn SNES Mega Man X Songs into live instrumental music.”

RGN: “What made you decide to play music from Mega Man X?”

“Our mutual love for the Mega Man X series and its aggressive music.”

RGN: “Tell us about one of your defining moments as a band”

“Playing our first BitGen GamerFest about 4 years ago was the first. We had no idea such an awesome scene really existed and how huge it was. That’s what really started it all for us, and ultimately has led us to be lucky enough to have played two MAGFests and made so many friends across the country.”

RGN: “Any ridiculous or funny stories to share from your shows/touring?”

Avery (Drums): “Haha, in my year+ as a member of the band there have been plenty of ridiculous occurrences. There was the show where we got told we were too loud at National Mechanics in Olde City, Philadelphia and we had to play a clean, jazzy sounding set. That same night, we also got yelled at for not drinking enough on a free tab. That was funny. However, my first MAGFest was crazy. I’ve always been someone to yell and move pretty spontaneously once I’ve been drinking for several hours. Needless to say my antics gained popularity at MAGFest, particularly me yelling, “EY!” whenever I liked something and doing Andy’s stupid dance. I’m even on Youtube, “trolling” the legendary Nobou Uematsu (composer from the Final Fantasy series). Oh, and then there was the taping…I won’t go into detail. I’ll sum that up by saying I was nearly the first person to ever die at MAGFest.

Andy (Bass): “We’ve definitely had some good times. We’ve had plenty of ridiculous stories, some of which I shouldn’t repeat, haha, but Avery said it best. There was the taping… and I also won’t go into detail.”

RGN: “As of right now you don’t use lyrics in your music. Have you considered adding lyrics, or do you plan to add lyrics in the future?”

“Nah, definitely not. We think the instrumental element is key to our sound. The guitar melodies of the songs act as the focal point of the music.”

RGN: “Who are you guys’ favorite Mavericks?”

Avery (Drums): “As a kid, I always liked Crush Crawfish for some reason. That was awhile ago and I since have changed my mind to Spark Mandrill. We talk about it from time to time and that’s usually the one I’m compared to due to me being somewhat fit. Spark Mandrill’s music is also some of my favorite in the series and arguably one of my favorite songs to play.”

Adam (Guitar): “Everyone from X2 that isn’t Wire Sponge”

Andy (Bass): “Armored Armadillo’s stage is pretty sick. Plus, not only is the music a nice jam, but you can get the secret Hadouken in his level and one hit each form of Sigma.”

J-wan (Guitar): “Boomer Kuwanger cause he’s mad quick and stealthy and his armor is bad ass.”

RGN: “In your shows you wear the helmets of X, Zero, and Vile. Any plans to add Axl to the mix, or come out in full costume?”

Avery (Drums): “Possibly. I still think that a helmet might be pretty hot onstage, given the physical demands of playing some songs up to 180bpm, with certain parts exceeding 200, under the lights. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of some Sigma makeup, including the red gem. We’ll see…”

RGN: “Tell us about the fan community and how fans of retro gaming have impacted your success so far”

Avery (Drums): “The fan community of our particular genre of music is like nothing I ever knew before. I first got a really good glimpse of this at Bit Gen 6 when I saw what kind of show the video game music scene is capable of. The fans are a lot of fun and anyone knowledgeable about retro gaming is cool to me. Not to mention, everyone gets along amongst the fans and we all have at least one thing in common - a mutual interest in gaming. Overall, fans of retro gaming have opened me up to a whole other world that I had though ceased to exist when newer systems such as, PS3 and XBox360 were released and we can’t thank them enough for welcoming us to the family.”

P.S. - I never knew nerds partied so hard.

RGN: “Most of your music comes from the first 3 games in the Mega Man X series. Tell us about your plans, if any, to venture into the 32-bit era of Mega Man X music.”

“We have explored doing some of the later X music, but when it comes down to it, the most iconic and memorable songs for us are from the SNES era. We’re definitely open to branching into those later, and possibly even other games music as well, like we already have done with a taste of Donkey Kong.”

RGN: “Besides Mega Man X, what are some of you guys’ other favorite games?”

Andy (Bass): “Chrono Trigger and Earthbound are definitely up there, which their music alone could sell the game. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Mega Man 2 and The Legend of Zelda because they were the first two games I ever owned and beat. Ironically enough, the reason I decided I wanted to start playing music at a young age was because I wanted to be able to play songs from Mega Man 2, especially Wood Man’s stage. Since then, I got into the X series, which you actually got me into (Papa), X being my favorite of the three.”

Adam (Guitar): “Earthbound, Mario RPG, and Zombies Ate my Neighbors.”

Avery (Drums): “This list could go on FOREVER, as I’m sure most people in the VGM scene could say the same. Some of the games high on the list would have to include any of the Sonic games for Genesis, along with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 later on. Grandia II for SEGA Dreamcast is one of the greatest RPG’s I’ve ever played. Also included are Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and VII, the original Pokemon Gold/Silver series, Kirby’s Dreamland, and Donkey Kong Country for SNES. I could answer this one for hours.”

J-wan (Guitar): “Earthbound, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Diablo II”

RGN: “Last but certainly, not least, what are some of your upcoming shows/events?”

“Check us out at TooManyGames this Saturday and make sure you check out BitGen GamerFest 7, June 30 in Baltimore!”

I really want to thank everyone from the X-Hunters for taking the time to sit down with us! We will be looking forward to catching up with you guys at both Too Many Games and BitGen!

In the meantime, have a sample of all this awesome music we have been talking about! You can also visit the X-Hunters on their Facebook and Bandcamp.

Remember your days of old (or young!), saying how much you would want to see a movie about a video game? No, we’re not talking about the ongoing run of poorly designed movies that are based off of video games that has been present since the 1980s, of course.

This year, Disney is making every effort to break the streak! On November 2nd, the movie Wreck-It Ralph, will smash its way into the big screen, and it gives gamers plenty in order to make them anticipate the upcoming film!

This movie is about our main character, Wreck-It Ralph. Ralph is the 9 foot tall, 643 pound main villain of an arcade game appropriately named, Fix-It Felix Jr. In this game, the hero, Felix, must repair all of the buildings Ralph destroys.

Sugar Rush environment

Ralph, beginning to get sick of being just a villain, makes his way and escapes out of his game and into another, in hopes of proving his worth as a good guy. After his arcade cabinet travels, he manages to land in a game called, Sugar Rush, a kart racing game with a delightful theme of  candy and sweets. Upon landing in the game Ralph meets the character, Vanellope Von Schweetz, who is now aware they are faced with a dire situation that could effect the entire arcade, and Ralph may have inadvertently caused it.

Felix Jr. and Vanellope Von Schweetz

Besides already sounding like an awesome movie, Disney took it one step further at their D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. This is where they debuted their super awesome Wreck-It Ralph arcade cabinet.

Isn’t that insane?! Crazily enough, that’s not all that this love letter to 80’s arcade gaming had to showcase. As Disney already astonished you with a fully functioning arcade cabinet dedicated to this movie, they decided to take it a step further. That step? They throw in a handful of actual video game villains, as depicted by this (sadly small) image.

The ones that are seen here should require no introduction for many gamers, although, for clarity, from left to right we have Dr. Wily from Mega Man, Bowser from Mario, Zangief from Street Fighter and Dr. Robotnik from Sonic The Hedgehog!

Now, for those of you interested in actually seeing more about this movie, or even seeing a trailer, sadly, you are going to have to wait another day. The first trailer will be released on June 6th, 2012! It’s going to be debuting with Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Rock of Ages. So if you’re going to see either of those movies, be sure to look out for it!

Man, a lot of game franchises are turning 25 this year, and Street Fighter is celebrating their quarter-century of existence in a way that is sure to Flash Kick you upside the head with more SF goodness than you can handle. This anniversary package will most certainly appeal to fans of the Street Fighter games of new and old, and we here at Retro Game Network couldn’t ask for a better type of celebration: Honoring the old while continuing to advance with the new.

You can Yoga Teleport over to your favorite game retailer and pre-order your collectors set today, as this is one of those items that will most certainly sell out and have extremely limited availability on the open market.

Holy Red Cyclone! That’s a helluva lot of Street Fighter goodies packed in one box! Set to Spinning Bird Kick its way into stores on September 18th in North America for $149.99, this box, unlike some other special edition games that have come out in recent times, is actually well worth the somewhat hefty price tag. Here’s a looksie into what you will receive when you open this baby up:

Street Fighter Games: Past and Present – The following games from the acclaimed series will be present and playable on your PS3 or XBOX360: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (complete with all downloadable costume packs ready to use), and Street Fighter X Tekken, packed with all of its current character and costume DLC.

Blu-Ray Video – This 2-disc duo of SF awesomeness will feature a documentary that the effect Street Fighter has had on its dedicated fans over the past 25 years. You will also be treated to the Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV anime films. to top it all off, you will also acquire every single episode of the Street Fighter animated series and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

A Totally Sweet Ryu Statue – This 8” statue will have figure lovers salivating with its exquisitely crafted image of Ryu starting up his patented Shoryuken. The blue flames beneath him even light up!

11-Disc Game Music Soundtrack – Have you ever wanted pretty much all of the Street Fighter music in the history of ever? Done! This epic compilation features music from “Street Fighter”, “Super Street Fighter II Turbo”, “Street Fighter Alpha 3”, “Street Fighter III Third Strike”, “Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition”, “Street Fighter X Tekken”, and fan composed remixes and original music! Now you can add Guile’s theme to everyday life, just like all those cool people on Youtube!

64-page Hardcover Art Book – A tribute to Street Fighter game fans from all over the world, this book contains submissions from an incredibly wife range of artists

Ryu’s Belt – Aspiring Ryu cosplayers need not fret! This epic belt has been crafted to karate regulation specs, and even has the classic “Fūrinkazan”　(風林火山)　kanji inscribed on it! Fun fact: That kanji means “As fast as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as daring as fire, and as immovable as the mountain”

Certificate of Authenticity – If it’s missing, you have free reign to call shenanigans on your purchase!

Capcom has another big 25th anniversary coming up (looking at you, Mega Man), and if it’s on par or as awesome as this collection is, we’ll have more kick ass boxes to look forward to.

How would you like to hold your mega moolah inside these sweet new Mega Man and Proto Man wallets? Fortunately for all of us who grew up dreaming of having the most awesome pair of robo-bros in their pocket or purse everyday, that dream will be realized on 7/30/12 when a retailer near you stocks these leather bound beauties!

Sizzling circuits! One look at AAA Distribution’s incredibly extensive list of Mega Man swag is all you need to realize that there is more Mega Man merchandise available now in the western world than there ever has been before. Keychains, patches, bags, phone charms, heck, even iPhone cases, are available for Mega Man fans to relish in.

The continued release of all this Mega Man merch comes as a great surprise to many a Mega Man fan, and we here at RGN are no exception.

At this point, it is no secret that Capcom has not been showing the poor Blue Bomber much love in recent ages, what with the cancellations of Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3 causing quite the backlash from the Mega faithful.

Capcom needs to cut it out. Eh heeeh eh heeeh…

Does all of this mean that Capcom is finally starting to realize that Mega Man needs some more love, and now they are trying to make amends?  Seven months from now is 25th anniversary of Rockman/Mega Man, and as of yet, there have been no official announcements as to what Capcom will do to celebrate the momentous occasion, if anything. If the barrage of awesome merch is a prelude to Mega Man games that are actually going to be released, then hopefully Mega Man fans will have more good news coming their way in the coming months.