Over the past two days I got to play Continuum Shift at the Chinatown Fair Arcade in NYC.

Tsubaki and Hazama are really fun (especially the former) and the changes to the Barrier Burst and Astral Finish systems are great. The backgrounds are also absolutely gorgeous.

Japan is getting it June 1st of this year for the PS360 and if it goes like the original it will be released the same day in the US.

Aw man, got vids? Hows Chinatown Faire's comp compared to other places? I know its more well known for its SFIV, but hows BB there?

Sorry no videos maybe next time, although I'm unsure about their policy on video cameras.

Well, it's the only real arcade I've ever attended so I couldn't really give a comparison but there is a good mix of competition. The amount of people is also pretty vast, I've met people who traveled from Long Island just to play their for the day.

This is the first fighter I've ever really gotten into so while I'm not exactly a novice I'm certainly not tournament material. I'd say skill ranges from slightly below me to absolute insanity.

I've witnessed someone using Hazama against what I thought was an amazing Tao player just stare at his opponent going "I'm looking at you, I'm looking at you, I'm about to get a perfect and I've been staring at you the whole match." and actually pull it off with an Astral Finish to boot.

My only complaint would be the lack of character variety, everyone and their mother is a Ragna/ Jin main. I'm the only Carl player I've ever seen there, there are a handful of Tager's, Litchi's and Taokaka's, one Hakumen, one Nu and one really amazing Bang player.

I also know Arcadia/ King Games holds Tournaments once a month, if I feel I've improved enough I may enter over the summer when I am in the area full time.

Really? NorCal isnt huge about BB but i know SoCal is huge about it, and all i see are Jin, TAGER(esp), Litchis, and Carls. I am surprised theres Taokaka's there.

Thats pretty cool though. I would be interested to see if you would play in Empire Arcadia's stuff or some casuals too.

Well lemme say once Continuum Shift comes out i'll be using Hazama. I used to use Hakumen and Arakune but since they buthcered their movesets in the Continuum Shift I'd be better off going with someone new.

From what I can tell Hakumen was largely buffed.

Arakune wasn't nerfed, he was just made less-broken. I'd rather face a good V-13 than a poor Rachel or Arakune.

Ironically V-13 was replaced by A-11 and N-12 in Continuum Shift XD.

Well Lamda is was nerfed pretty bad from Nu and no one has any real idea what Mu will play like.