Update: Blazblue will be released in the US midyear in arcades and for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

You may have heard that 2D fighters aren't 'dead', what ever that means, it's one of the popular phrases to throw around when you're trying to improve your gamer cred. I wasn't aware game genre's actually died, that there was some mysterious never before seen graveyard that they lumbered of to where they could die in peace, their precious ivory protected for all eternity, actually that might be elephants too.

I've been thinking quite a bit recently about hype and the mental process it invokes. Specifically about hype withdrawal; lets call it Gamer Blues.

So as we know longstanding games company Midway has almost finished imploding into itself and becoming a footnote in the history of gaming. The only things they really owned have been sold off, Vid Diesel’s game Wheelman to Ubisoft and Mortal Kombat to an as yet unnamed company (money on EA, expect two MK games a year for the next ten years).

If you haven’t downloaded the mysterious Capcom game announcement on Xbox Live go watch it right now, or better yet, while you’re in front of the computer click straight through to the film here.

So I did as promised and put a solid eight hours into Street Fighter IV and I must admit I did enjoy it. My thumb hurt like hell by the end of it and I’d unlocked all the characters save Gouken and played a lot of versus against my kids and even with my wife. She remembered the game from my long past uni days.

I’ve made my feelings on Fighting Games abundantly clear in a feature article (my first in fact) for That Aussie Game Site. I think they’re decidingly lacking in any sort of innovation and have evolved little in over a decade of pretty consistent popularity.

The story about new parents Alfie Patten, 13, and Chantelle Steadman, 15, has got me thinking about an argument that a good friend of mine had regarding Australia’s lack of an R18+ rating. Below is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Michael Atkinson:

“Your argument is that the act of participating in a video game is more harmful than viewing a violent movie. I argue that drinking alcohol or having unprotected sex (in real life) is potentially far more harmful, yet it is legal, because it is up to adults to choose for themselves and it is up to parents to do their job and educate their children. It is NOT up to you to put a blanket ban across anything that disagrees with your sensibilities.”

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