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Last weekwas the climactic conclusion to the four month longMortal KombatversusStreet Fighterdebate, and at last a winner has been chosen. While most people correctly predicted from day one thatStreet Fighterwould make it to the end, the winner from last week was nowhere near as unanimous as many debaters expected to see. Here are the results: Congrats to Ryu and all those who voted for him each round. Chun-Li caught up in votes several times last week, but after fighting various fiercefriendsandfoesin the past, Ryu has finally claimed the crown as this year’s best fighter....

This special limited editionMountain Dew(Mtn Dew? WTF?) can was stuffed inside the black goodie bag Activision was handing out to attendees this weekend. But it’s more than just a fancy can. It’s being used as part of a promotion, where players who take a picture of the can and send it into a special Pongr email address (no, I’ve no idea what a “pongr” is) will get a code to earn double XP....

If you haven’t noticed, a big Japanese role-playing game launched recently —Final Fantasy XIII. Even with the last couple of years chock-full of big RPG releases, this is one of the biggest. And it’s also one of the most divisive JRPGs, in part because, as aFinal Fantasygame, it represents what JRPGs are to pretty much everyone not familiar withDragon Quest(i.e. people not in Japan). You’ve probably heard the arguments for and against JRPGs, here or elsewhere, but suffice it to say that one can’t help but acknowledge that they’re need of more diverse design philosophies, its audience a bit too fond of tradition and comfortable conventions....

According to the chaps atNeoGAF, the latest issue ofNintendo Powerblows the lid on Rockstar’s Nintendo DS debut,Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Among the new information are some solid revelations over howChinatownactually plays. The game will be viewed from an isometric perspective — not quite the top-down angle of the original games, but not the up-close vantage point of modern titles either. The game is also going to be cel-shaded. I guess cartoon violence is a little bit easier to get away with on Nintendo’s handheld....

The one thing I’ve always loved about Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy games — excludingGhost Recon Advanced Warfighterand that Lone Wolf abomination — is the realism. When bullet meets flesh, the bullet always wins. In the case ofH.A.W.X., Ubisoft’s upcoming jet fighting game, realism is displayed through physics and environments.Ubisoft’s authenticity coordinator, Travis Getz, opens the above video by explaining the realistic ace up Ubi’s sleeve — a company named GeoEye.GeoEye archives and retrieves high fidelity satellite imagery of Earth....

FanaticalHalo 3owners have known for some time that dropping the game on the Xbox 360’s HDD was a bad idea. For whatever technical reason, playing the game from the HDD causes longer load times — a bad thing for a Chief on the move. Microsoft recently releasedHalo 3over Games on Demand and didn’t fix the issue even Bungie advised its users about. In an official statement released this afternoon (viaKotaku), the publisher admitted that this version of the game does indeed suffer from loading snags, but stressed that the gameplay — the pew pew lasers, the rocket jumping, the Ghost hijacking, etc....

[Handy created this awesome Destructoid themed Christmas poem! Merry Christmas from everyone at Destructoid!] It’s that time of year again. The time of year when we forget about all our problems and just try to enjoy ourselves for one day. And in celebration of this I’ve decided to spread the love here at Destructoid with a short series of Christmas themed blogs. So to begin I have a present for you, because that’s what Christmas is all about, the presents....

Even though I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a strategy guy, per se — any game that requires me to answer questions beyond “how will I shoot this thing in the face” and “from what angle will I shoot this thing in the face” usually makes my brain hurt — I would be remiss if I didn’t point out thatSolium Infernumis out, and from what little I’ve played, is also really goddamn good....

Those of you following our E3 coverage have already heard about Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime’s less-than-impressive showing at theWii Fitdemonstration. He tried the route of denial by claiming “heavy clothing,” and when that didn’t work, he hauled out the ol’ “muscle is heavier than fat” chestnut. Sadly, the truth was revealed — Big Reg is overweight. Wii Fitdoesn’t lie, and called out the Regginator’s Body Mass Index at 27.51 — that’s 5....

Yesterday we told youthat Crafts & Meister has set a solid Japanese release date for their upcoming Wii RPGEarth Seeker: June 23. Now we have new screenshots and artwork from this pretty title. See the treasures of our world all junked up, with weird metal beasts running around in front of them. There’s also what looks to be battle screens in the mix. And to top it off, there’s more of that busy artwork from the game in our gallery....

The press release forHuxley‘s new sitebegins with the phrase, “It’s really happening,” and I can’t think of any other game where that phrase would be more fitting, outside of perhapsDuke Nukem Forever. This ambitious FPS MMO has been in development for roughly ten thousand years, but developer Webzen Games looks to be nearing closer to release, forrealthis time. The site currently features a rather epic trailer that doesn’t reveal an awful lot, but certainly looks pretty....

[It’s time for anotherMonthly Musing— the monthly community blog theme that provides readers with a chance to get their articles and discussions printed on the frontpage. — CTZ] My case is a peculiar one. While many people enjoy a wide variety of genres, most everyone has at least one genre that they excel in. Whether it be resident Dtoider de BLOO’s hold on the fighting game genre or the SHMUP master Topher Cantler’s dream like runs throughIkaruga, excellence is not hard to find....

In a recent interview withEurogamer, Darren McGrath and Mike Lowry of InLight Entertainment shared their thoughts on developing for the DS and had lots of positive things to say: “The DS captures the market we’re targeting with this game – the ever expanding casual gamers sector. Nintendo has been very smart with making a fun system that is affordable so everyone can enjoy games like ours without breaking the bank....