I'm the Strongest Blogger in the World!

A vast conspiracy to empty my wallet is afoot. The perpetrators are none other than the developers and publishers of all these "must have" video games that keep coming out. They got their foot in the door with Gears of War 2. They got their hand in my pocket with Call of Duty: World At War. They made a gutsy grab for my money with Fable 2. Now, adding insult to bankruptcy, the video game industry hits me with its very own 20-hit ultra combo finish.

Street Fighter IV was released today for Japanese Xbox 360 consoles.

When I first played the arcade version last summer, I thought it was all right, but just all right. It had nice character animation, tight controls and suitably high production value all around, but my honest first impression was that it was just a (mostly) cosmetic upgrade to the franchise. It didn't have enough playable characters, it didn't have enough moves, and where the hell was Cammy?

Little did I know that Capcom would eventually sweeten the deal for console owners by pouring a bunch more characters into the roster, adding a solid online infrastructure and giving players plenty of fun things to unlock. Now I think it's safe to call SF4 one of the best fighting titles the Xbox 360 has overall. And I'm not just saying that because I can't afford to buy any others at this point.

Some features I found pleasantly surprising in the console version of the game include:

• The ability to set each character's voice to either English or Japanese
• An option to allow online opponents to "buy in" while you play against the CPU in Arcade Mode
• Strong English localization (especially in the post-fight screens, which are genuinely funny)
• The fact that my Blanka skills of yesteryear somehow still prove relevant against today's competition

I'm going to be playing this one an awful lot, I'm afraid.