I picked up...

This week's issue of Arcadia magazine. I mainly got it for the Virtua Fighter 5R section, which is pretty beefy this month, although last month's monsterous 16 page feature was bigger. This week it covers some new techniques related to throw escapes as well as some other character specific info. The section for SFIV is pretty good too with a good two or three paragraphs dedicated to each character along with combos. Also had a nice KOFXII feature.

The official Mega Man 9 energy drink! It tastes pretty yummy... kind of like Pocari Sweat. Really good stuff! And awesome packaging too!

The official Street Fighter IV Master Guide. I don't really play the game competitively because playing VF5R and Soulcalibur IV more than enough for competition, but I really like SFIV so I like keeping tabs on it all the time. Plus, like I said before, my friends play it so I play it too. It's got frame data, character endings, combos and strategies. It's a pretty good book considering the price (1500 yen)

This is a snapshot of the Saving Attack section in the system portion of the guide. It details pretty much everything you need to know about saving attacks!

This is El Fuerte's move analysis section. You can see how every move animates, so even if you don't play the characters, you can begin to recognize moves before they come. The frame data section is nice, but man... totally calculus-like, haha.

Didn't get to play any games tonight but I'm heading out to a random game center with a Japanese friend of mine to play some 5R, but the arcade we're going to is also a pretty big SFIV scene so I'll probably get in some games of that when I decide I'm getting owned too much in VF, haha.