To welcome Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars to the West, we threw a launch event over at NYC’s Nintendo World Store. A lot of our recent parties have been off the chain, but we’d never done an all-TvC party and didn’t know quite what to expect–after all, this was a game they said would never even come out in America.

Of course the fans came up BIG.  Although the event didn’t start until 11, there was already a line down the block when I showed up at 9:30.  We ended up bringing people inside ahead of time to get them inside and out of the cold, and the place was jammed for the rest of the day!

The main event was the Niitsuma-san signing, with a truckload of limited edition posters made specially for the event.  Miguel and Yohko were there to help translate, and even dried the signed ink on the posters so you could roll yours up immediately without fear of smudging.  That kind of attention to detail is the same kind of thing that went into TVC itself, so it was no surprise to me to see it in real-life too 🙂

Niitsuma-san signed the posters, as well as just about anything else people asked him to sign, including joysticks, towels, SNES carts, and more.  He actually ended up signing for over 4 hours SOLID, which actually wore the skin right off his fingers–we had to take him away and bandage him up, and hopefully the outpouring of excitement for the game heals all wounds.  

We also had a combo contest every hour, with most people opting for Roll “hyper broom” super into Yatterman’s fire-breathing Yatterwan OTG, though I also saw a cool Ryu/Polimar combo making creative use of Poly’s drill car.  

For the record, I should mention that two of our 4 combo contest winners were also cosplaying (as Frank West, and Yattaman, respectively), so the next time you see someone dressed up, remember they might also be really great at the game!

The other main event was a sadistic “Beat the Pro” competition, where we sent hundreds of new players to horrible deaths at the hands of some of the best players in the country 🙂  Our TvC pros included a group of NYC’s finest fighting gamers, including last year’s EVO MVC2 winner, Sanford Kelly, as well as his Empire Arcadia teammate and top 3 finisher Yipes, plus SFIV wrecking-ball Joe “Iloveujoe” Ciaramelli.  

TvC booster Keits and his frenemy Kurasa also came all the way out from the midwest to wreck shop, with Keits racking up a 70+ winstreak.  Those guys have really invested a ton of time into the Japanese release of TvC, so they were using their skills while also learning first-hand all the subtle adjustments we’ve made to the characters.  Regardless, over the course of the 4 hour event a few fans were able to take them out and win prizes–my hat is off to them! 

All in all, it was a pretty epic party for a game they said would never even be released in the West. Thanks to ALL the Unity fans that came out, familiar faces and new–if the game gets even half the warm reception that NYC-area fans gave it around the rest of the world, we might have to start planning our return for TVC2!

PS- A quick word about the Nintendo staff at the store:  they’re incredible.  If you’ve ever thought the people in Nintendo ads look a little too happy, you’ve clearly never been to this store, because unlike most people at busy retail outlets, everybody I met at this store looked like they were super psyched to be there.  Great people, very helpful, great store.  

PPS- a GIANT thanks to Gene Yraola for all the amazing photos he took while I was busy shouting at everybody 🙂  Check out a larger gallery here .