Who loves the Chunster? Everyone loves the Chunster! Ikeno-san, art director on Street Fighter IV, especially loves the Chunster. As Ono-san once said in an interview with 1up, "Ikeno likes his women thick." Not sure what the Japanese expression is for "thick," but I'm sure it sounds totally rad. "Thick-u," probably.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine has a loving tribute to Street Fighter IV in their Winter issue. The magazine has you covered with a full moves list for the arcade version of the game, character profiles, an exhaustively (literally: all the tiny words made my thinkbox tired) in-depth look at the game's play mechanics and an interview with Ono-san. PLUS, it has a truly gorgeous cover, sporting Ikeno-san Chun-Li artwork. Look for the Winter issue of Hardcore Gamer in your finer video game destinations and discriminating magazine sellers, or hit up their website to get your issue delivered directly!

Part the First: Chuck Klosterman is an amazing writer. If you like music, pop culture and a wicked smart sense of humor, he should be your go-to guy.  All his books are great; I'd suggest starting with the one that appears above, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, or Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. Any writer who can namecheck The Drive-By Truckers, Superchunk and The Replacements in a single book and is not me instantly earns my love. He also hates Coldplay, as all men should (I can't link to his actual quote about the band, 'cause it's all sweary).

Part the Second: If you've been playing Rock Band 2 (if not, the hell is wrong with you?), you've inevitably ripped through the new Guns N Roses song, Shackler's Revenge. You probably thought to yourself, "Really? This is GnR?" Believe it, sucka. Axl has been slowly working towards the weirdest third act in rock 'n roll history, and the oft-mocked record, Chinese Democracy, will finally! be! available! on November the 23, AD 2008, honest and for true. But only at Best Buy?

Part the Third (aka, The Premise of the Post): Over on The Onion's AV Club, Klosterman fires up Chinese Democracy and gives it a thorough listen, then gives us his thoughts. Klosterman, a recovering New York hipster and usually more associated with indie rockness, is, at heart, an unabashed midwestern rawker with much love for ballads inspired by the mid-80s Sunset Strip and all the Aquanet, heroin and fishnets that came along for the ride. Pairing Klosterman with Chinese Democracy is a brilliant tactic, and the review itself is gen-u-wine genius. There's too much good stuff to quote from the review, so I'll just pull the opening line:

Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn.

From there, it only gets better. Klosterman never really tells us if the album rocks or fails, but there are lots of interesting thoughts that pour out from his absorption of the bangin' nu chunez. Head on over and read the review here.

mmm... Forgotten Worlds... We'll get this out of the way, up front: no, there is no rotating controller, sorry. That being said, one of my favorite old school Capcom arcade games is now available on the Virtual Console! Forgotten Worlds is right up there with Strider, Bionic Commando, Black Tiger and Section Z, classics of the CPS1-era Capcom arcade dominance. Forgotten Worlds has a lot going for it, including one of the earliest appearances of Captain Commando (who was the unofficial Capcom mascot for a long time before being replaced by Mega Man), delicious Zenny and a funky 80's-style "futuristic" design. One of my favorite parts of the game were the shops where players could redeem their Zenny coins for new weapons and power-ups. This was a relatively rare feature in a 1988 arcade, as most games focused on getting players to drop in quarters as fast as possible, meaning that game designers never wanted the action to stop. Virtual Console Reviews has posted their thoughts on the game right here. If you've got a free slot on your Wii and a few bucks in loose change rattling around, treat yourself to this gem.

Sharp-eyed Unity visitors might have noticed this clever game parody from ToyFare Magazine's "Backpage" section -- we had it up on the White Board last week when we saw it in the new issue. It was pretty pixelated and not too easy on the eyes; Herc is a great camera, but is not a miracle worker, y'know. Fortunately, ToyFare has seen fit to put said image up on their own website, from which we've totally stolen it and present it here for you. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and subscribe to ToyFare, as it is always chock-fulla the stuff you spend your money on (when you aren't buying Capcom games, naturally).

Good news, everyone! We're pleased to announce that all of y'all in North America will be able to get your paws on Street Fighter IV starting Tuesday, February 17, while those of you from the Olde Worlde will be able to get in the ring on February 20! Capcom will be shipping the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions simultaneously, so regardless of your platform of preference, you'll be pounding faces and Focusing through fireballs day one.

Make sure to grab Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix when it (finally!) releases and start brushing up those fighting skills. For peace of mind, I'd also suggest pre-ordering the game so you're not left out in the cold, alone and friendless, while all the other cool kids are tearing it up with the World Warriors.