Part of a continuing series of images. Click on photo to see full size.

At 8 Mott Street, near the outskirts of New York City’s Chinatown, innocuously folded away between anonymous trinket shops and musty restaurants, a cavalcade of excitement awaits those who savor the thrill of arcade fighting competition. There, I’ve had my ass handed to me at Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, gotten a quick orientation/tutorial on Arcana Hearts 2 from someone who was just happy to have a human opponent, witnessed fanatical Puzzle Fighter matches on screens tinted yellow with caked on dust and cigarette smoke, and clapped hands with fellow competitors, not due to any particular victory (those are far and few between for me), but just because a match was well played, an exciting narrative completed. Believe it or not, vieogams are still being played the way that they were 30 years ago: elbow to elbow, with friends and strangers alike, amidst the warm glow of cabinet screens, a movie theater for your hands, a communal experience unlike any other.

I hear that the dancing and tic-tac-toe is excellent too.

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Posted by Kurt Shulenberger on March 6th, 2009 :: Images :: Tags : Arcana Hearts 2, Images, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, New York, Photos, Puzzle Fighter, Street Fighter IV
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Part of a continuing series of images. Click on photo to see full size.

Maybe it’s the precise sense of space that this ad for Spore achieves by being split up into two banners, or maybe it’s the indirect social commentary that it exudes (tons of microorganisms crammed into a limited area, much like the population of the city itself), or heck, it may even be the ironically sparse and oblivious pedestrians on the street below, but this is one of the best game advertisements that I’ve seen around my neighborhood.

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Posted by Kurt Shulenberger on February 5th, 2009 :: Images :: Tags : Game Ad, Images, New York, Photos, Spore
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