P4U2 Arcade Update Releases Jan. 15, Changes Detailed

Arc System Works has announced that the new update to the arcade version of Persona 4 Arena's sequel—named Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold in Japan—will launch on Jan. 15. After several loketests in November, the company has finalized changes in the title and is ready to release it to the general public. 

Changes in P4U2 include not only character tweaks but also system changes to the game. ASW has made all those changes available to the public in a recent post on the company's website. The change list is in Japanese, but posters over at Dustloop are in the process of sharing translations in the character sub-forums.

Super Arcade is Moving

Southern California's Super Arcade is pulling up roots. In a tweet on Dec. 16, the arcade claims that it will use the Christmas holiday to move to a new, unrevealed location "very near our current one." The arcade goes on to assure its patrons that it is not closing, but does not give any other details on the move.

Super Arcade is one of the few remaining arcades in Southern California, and has spent more than 20 years at its current location in the city of Walnut. Owned by Street Fighter legend Mike Watson, the arcade held a Kickstarter in 2014 and recently remodeled its venue.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Update Coming March 2015 to Japanese Arcades

The second version of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will be coming to Japanese arcades in March 2015.

Titled Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Version B, this will serve as a follow up to "Version A Revision 1" currently in arcades and consoles.

Aside from the announcement, no other details behind Ver. B's core have been featured but it's expected to feature a form of character adjustments.

The release of Version B will end all ranking services for Ver. A Rev. 1. For arcade players, they can use their current cards to roll over to the newer Ver. B. Details will be announced soon. It hasn't been announced if the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions of VF5FS will feature the Ver. B changes anytime soon.

Round 1 Opens New Arcade in Illinois

Japanese arcade chain Round 1 has opened its first store outside of California. Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, Illinois, is now home to the fourth Round 1 that has opened in the U.S.

Round 1 Chicago includes the same Japanese arcade experiences that its fellow California stores have offered since the first location opened in the Puente Hills Mall in 2010, with games such as Project Diva, IIDX and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Round 1 is not done expanding across the U.S. There are currently plans to open new stores in Arlington, Texas, and San Jose, California. 

Take a Walk through Galloping Ghost Arcade

Brookfield, Illinois' Galloping Ghost Arcade has become one of the premier places to play fighting games in the Chicago area, with many NetherRealms' players adopting the team name GGA when they participate in national tournaments.

However, GGA is more than just a fighting game location; it also houses more than 400 modern and classic arcade machines, normally in their original cabinets. GGA even houses rarities like the unreleased Primal Rage 2 and a Mortal Kombat 3 prototype.

During a 20-minute walk around the arcade, owner "Doc" Mack takes viewers through the whole arcade, showing new machines or titles that have been put back into original dedicated cabinets. He also shows off several new parts of the arcade—separate areas for driving and shoot-em-up games, and a full-time pinball section—that have been added thanks to a recent fundraising effort.

Hit the jump for the video.

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High Level Footage of 1998 Fighting Game The Fallen Angels at Neo Amusement Space A-Cho

Kyoto's Neo Amusement Space A-Cho game center sometimes uploads footage of overlooked fighting games. Here is one of them.

Steel Hearts' Daraku Tenshi - The Fallen Angels is one of A-Cho's latest videos. Published by Psikyo in 1998, it was the company's second attempt to release a fighting game. Characters featured in The Fallen Angels bear similarity to characters in SNK games such as K' from The King of Fighters. Developers of The Fallen Angels moved to SNK to work on games including those from the KOF series.

Featured voice actors include Ikue Otani who plays as Pikachu in the Pokémon anime and the late Daisuke Gori who voiced Heihachi in the Tekken series.

Check out the latest video, uploaded yesterday, as well as past videos from A-Cho after the jump!

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Archive of Wolves Tag Carnival, Special Garou: Mark of the Wolves Team Tournament, At A-Cho

Players converged in Kyoto, Japan to compete in a tournament dedicated to the final game in the Fatal Fury series.

Wolves Tag Carnival was a special team tournament for Garou: Mark of the Wolves held at Kyoto's Neo Amusement Space A-Cho game center. This tournament brought on 59 two-man teams to see who is the strongest.

You can find the tournament details, featuring both team and player list, here. Preliminary and finals footage can be found below the jump!

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New Location Test Information For BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Ver. 2.0, Will Feature Celica Mercury & Lambda-11

Japanese players will soon be able to get their hands on the latest build of BlazBlue: Chronophantasma.

Four arcades across the nation have been chosen to be part of the three-day location test process for Chronophantasma version 2.0 from Aug. 7-10. Along with balance changes, which players can examine and send feedback, two new characters Celica A. Mercury and Lambda-11 will be playable in these tests. You can check out a gameplay trailer after the jump and a slightly obscured look at their move list here!

Tokyo's Taito Akihabara Hirose Entertainment Yard, HEY for short, earned a testing spot. Taito Station Osu Shop in Nagoya is the second to be featured, and Taito Station Osaka Nipponbashi will also host the test. To players living in Kyushu, specifically Fukuoka, Taito Station Fukuoka Tenjin is the last of the four spots. If you live near any of these gamecenters and want to try out the changes and new content before its wide release, make sure to attend this weekend!

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SG Chooses Lord Knight as Partner for Arc Revolution Cup 2014

As part of being the top placing U.S. player in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma at Evolution 2014, SG has been given a qualification into Arc Revolution Cup, Arc System Works' SBO-like event that is now in its second year. As BBCP is a 2v2 event, he has also been given the right to select a partner.

Earlier this morning, SG revealed that player to be Lord Knight:

"My Arc Revo 2014 partner will be @LordKnightBB ! Cheer us on! :D"

While supporters and detractors have already made their feelings known about the choice, it is important to remember that Arc Revo Cup will be played on the arcade version of BBCP. This almost completely disqualifies pad players and those who use special button configurations from being able to play in the event.

Arc Revolution Cup will take place on August 30 in Tokyo as part of Japan Gamer's Live.

Nyotengu Announced As New Character Coming To Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade

The newest character coming to Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade is a Female version of the series character Tengu!

Called Nyotengu, she bears wings similar to Tengu but features her own suggestive attire. The video reveal after the jump shows off her Tengu-like moves as well as her alternate outfits.

Currently Nyotengu is only coming to the arcade version later this month through an update. No information on her availability in the console versions of DOA5U is present at the moment so stay tuned!

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Japanese Arcade Leaderboards For Ultra Street Fighter IV By SSF4 Ranking

To players curious about who is doing well in Ultra Street Fighter IV in Japan, there is a database!

Compiled by French player Kyosuke, he updated his website SSF4 Ranking with the current leaderboards in Japan. Daigo Umehara, Kazunoko, Nemo, Jyobin, Amiyu, GamerBee are among the top 100 players featured.

Along with the battle points ranking list, Kyosuke also included character-specific leaderboards and a list of the players who collected the most battle points with one or more characters used with their NESiCAxLive card.

The leaderboards for USFIV, as well as additional lists, can be found here!

Sega-Sponsored Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Tournament Announced Before Arc Revolution Cup 2014 Qualifiers

Arc System Works' Takeshi Yamanaka (@Yamanaka_ARC) announced that there will be a Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- tournament, sponsored by Sega.

This event will be held at Game Corner Eastern in Sendai, Japan, on May 25, 2014. The tournament is not considered to be a qualifier for Arc Revolution Cup 2014, but will be another event for the players in Japan to show their strength before the beginning of the cup qualifiers starting on June 14, 2014.

On the same day, Game Conern Eastern will also hold a Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate Arcade qualifier for the APM Presents D-1 Ultimate Climax tournament, featuring DOA5UA and Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax.

Although there was no mention of a stream, be on the lookout for any possible announcements regarding the matter.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Tournament Videos From Game Newton Oyama & Game Spot Versus

Illustration by Yoshihara Motoki (@hell_a_shock)Celebrate the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike with high-level videos from two of Japan's major 3S spots!

Game Newton Oyama had the monthly 3rd Maniax 3on3 team tournament as well as the Random 5on5 Team Battle that happened during Japan's Golden Week. The latter event assigned all attending players to random groups, making for interesting team dynamics.

Nishinippori Game Spot Versus had the season one finale of the Versus Grand Championship where players fight each with three characters of their own choosing. Also featured is an East vs. West team battle from Aug. 2013.

You can expect players such as Tominaga, Kokujin, Pierrot, Rikimaru, Vanao, Jiro and many more in the videos after the jump!

Game Versus and Game Newton can be found on Twitch streaming 3rd Strike and more!

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Ultra Street Fighter IV Match Video Archive From Neo Amusement Space A-Cho

Here are new Ultra Street Fighter IV videos from Kyoto, Japan's Neo Amusement Space A-Cho game center.

The first video features an Abel player named "s t i g m a" going through more than two dozen matches with no losses recorded. The second is a more varied hour-and-a-half set with many different players. The last is from a weekly ranking battle that took place on April 25, 2014.

You can check out all three videos after the jump! You can find more A-Cho YouTube uploads on both their regular channel and their tournament channel.

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Archive Of ArcadeStream's First Friday Night Weekly Tournament, Featuring Infiltration, Saulabis & BigDanmul

The new South Korean fighting game center ArcadeStream, also known as DartStream, finished their first weekly tournament series and you can find archived matches after the jump!

ArcadeStream held their first Friday night tournament series for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 that featured players from the nation including Infiltration and BigDanmul. This weekly is structured in a single elimination 2vs2 team format.

Match results from the first tournament can be found here. You can follow ArcadeStream on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch!

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Archive Of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Versus Grand Championship At Nishinippori Game Spot Versus

Nishinippori Game Spot Versus in Tokyo, Japan brings in something new for their high-level Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike competition.

Versus Grand Championship, Game Versus' latest weekly series, goes beyond their usual danisen ranking battle and East vs. West team battle events by encouraging players to play secondary characters. Players battle each other with three characters of their choosing, similar to the format found in The King of Fighters. This event fosters variety as well as an individual's overall skill and knowledge in 3rd Strike beyond their main character.

3rd Strike archivist The Shend uploaded most of season one with the rest coming soon. You can find the videos after the jump!

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Full Armor Version Of Unicorn Gundam Arriving In Latest Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. Maxi Boost Update

To Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. players who have access to Maxi Boost and also play Unicorn Gundam, the latest update brings in a new version of the mobile suit.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. Maxi Boost will be releasing the Full Armor iteration of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn's RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. Still piloted by series protagonist Banagher Links, Full Armor Unicorn is equipped with a massive array of weaponry and can be switched into a mode similar to the original Unicorn Gundam.

The reveal video, found after the jump, shows that Full Armor Unicorn Gundam will always be in its "Destroy" mode instead of waiting for a cooldown period found in the original.

Full Armor Unicorn Gundam will be available in the coming weeks to all Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Maxi Boost arcade units in Japan; Hong Kong will also receive the Gundam when the game becomes available at select arcades in the future.

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ArcadeStream, New Fighting Game Center, Opens In South Korea

For those wanting to travel to South Korea, there is a new gaming center you can visit to play fighting games!

ArcadeStream is located in the northwestern area of Seoul called the Seodaemun District. The gaming center was created by Drakefang, a fighting game player who lived in the United States for some time before moving back to his home city of Seoul to help make ArcadeStream.

ArcadeStream provides free entry to all visitors and you can play Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 through authenic Taito Vewlix DIA cabinets. The center also offers drinks and snacks you can order on the spot.

For more information, including address, check it out after the jump! You can find ArcadeStream on Twitter, Facebook and Twitch!

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Finals Archive Of OVER THE WORLD -REBORN-, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Team Tournament

The major Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late tournament held on March 21, 2014 is now available for viewing.

OVER THE WORLD -REBORN- is the second significant tournament for the French Bread fighting game Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late that took place at Club Sega Shinjuku in Tokyo. This team tournament features multiple three-man teams from all over the nation to see who is the best.

Kagecchi Uri, a streamer known for covering the first OVER THE WORLD tournament in 2013 as well the STARTING OVER team tournament series for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012.

You can find all of the videos from the top teams after the jump!

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Super Arcade Kickstarter Launched

After months of speculation, Mike Watson has launched the Kickstarter for Super Arcade in Walnut, Calif. The project hopes to revitalize and keep open the arcade that has become a central hub in Southern California's fighting game scene. 

The effort, which hopes to raise $44,000 by May 2, 2014, would modernize the arcade with a new physical infrastructure, new fixtures including a display counter to sell stick parts and aparrel, a card system for the games and a new lighting and PA system. Watson also promises to cater to more communities with a wider range of games and introduce a membership system that will save frequent vistors money for their continued support.

For the full list of upgrades, as well as information on backing the project and rewards for donating, check out the Kickstarter page. Interested parties can also contact Watson on Twitter.