Annual event since 2003, the arcade tournament Tougeki is suspended this year. This is the executive committee that announced it on the event official website in a message both Japanese and English. According to the message, the suspension of Tougeki (as well as its qualifications) is due to difficult circumstances and a tumultuous entry in the 2010s, especially last year edition where home consoles tournaments were introduced, which was rather badly experienced by arcade players. Other events will still be held and the committee prepares a reborn of the Tougeki scene to fulfill the needs of fans. Let's hope that this break will be short and that the Tougeki will return in 2014!

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Arc System Works's Tottemo E Mahjong is the first Mahjong game out via Taito's NESiCAxLive. It will be available tomorrow. It is an adaptation of the PS Vita downloadable version released in September 2012. In addition to the 4 characters from the PS Vita version (Saki Nakano, Mashiro Asagiri, Hazuki Saionji and Shizu Tsubakino), a new student will be available in Tottemo E Mahjong. This is Aisaka Akira, a young 18 year-old girl who is the president of the student council. The player will have to overcome many different victory conditions to unlock illustrations (sometimes naughty) of the heroines. Other news about the NESiCAxLive: BlazBlue Chronophantasma Ver 1.2 will also be released tomorrow. Two new game modes will be added. "Unlimited Mars" mode: the player compete in 10 stages, opponents are greatly enhanced than usual. Player's results are recorded in the Player's Guild. And "Survival" mode: the player continues to play the game until the time limit expires. The difficulty increases after each battle. A national ranking will be available.

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It's been 2 weeks since Made in Asia 5 closed its doors. This new edition was a complete success with more than 34,000 visitors! Arcade Belgium was full packed the whole weekend and the two arcade tournaments were held in a great and happy atmosphere. On Saturday, Omar of the Player team won against ElderGoD at Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - Cross Generation of Heroes while Keurtis reached the third place. On Sunday, the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited tournament saw the victory of NeoNinja against Mishi Master and Dim. Note that this tournament led to the creation of the Tekken Belgian Community by NeoNinja. Check the dedicated Facebook page to join! You can find the full results of both tournaments and pictures in our short report. Thank you to all the visitors who came to see us. The next Made in Asia show will be held at Brussels Expo on March 14-16, 2014. Don't miss it!

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Version 1.43 of Square Enix's Gunslinger Stratos is released today. Bug fixes and weapons adjustments have been made. But the main new feature is the appearance of a new character: Ryusha-Lyudmila N Ignatova-, a 18 year-old russian genius in charge of counter-terrorism. Her real name is Lyudmila Nikoraevuna-Igunatowa. She has the particularity of having cyborg prothesis instead of legs and she's the only character who uses area of effect weapons. As for the other game characters, Square Enix has called a well known illustrator for Ryusha charadesign: Shirow Miwa (Dogs manga series author). This game could be released outside Japan.

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Out today is Taiko no Tatsujin Azure Ver., an update of Taiko no Tatsujin Shin Kyotai, the first game in the series featuring a LCD screen. This update adds new dress-up for Don and Katsu including a Hatsune Miku costume. Many new songs were added and none were removed. Here are some of the new titles: J-Pop songs, 4 karats TRIBE OF GOLD by Exile Tribe, Chocolate Disco (new version) by Perfume, UZA and Aitakatta by AKB48. In anime songs: Kimi wo Nosete by Azumi Inoue, ending from Laputa: The castle in the sky, Yajirushi ni Natte! by Rica Matsumoto, opening from Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!, LET'S GO OUT by AMOYAMO, opening from Gintama', V.I.P by SID, opening from Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic, Eternal Blaze by Nana Mizuki, opening from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, INSIDE IDENTITY by Maaya Uchida, Chinatsu Akasaki, Azumi Asakura and Sumire Uesaka, ending from Chu-2 Byo demo Koi ga Shitai and JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~ by Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga, opening from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure The Animation. In Vocaloid songs: Senbonzakura by Hatsune Miku. In game music: Great new! from Animal Kaiser!, Kyun~tsu new! Vampire Girl from Idol Master and New Highschool love! from Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U EDITION. Original Namco songs, variety and classical music complete the musical line-up.

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This week-end, let's go to Brussels Expo for Made in Asia 5! For the third time in a row, Arcade Belgium will offer many arcade machines in free play with a 100% Japanese game line-up. There will be 4 Gundam vs. Gundam Next linked-up cabinets for heated up mutiplayer battles. Fighting games this year will be Sengoku Basara X, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes and the recent Shin Koihime † Musou and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited. Shoot'em up fans won't be forgotten with KOF Sky Stage and Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! After Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble, Sega Tetris and Tetris The Grand Master 3, puzzle game amateurs will be happy to play Tetris Kiwamemichi and Puyo Puyo Fever. The classic bloody beat'em up Zombie Revenge (The House of the Dead series spin-off) will make an appearance. On a happier tone, don't miss Taito's cute platform game Spica Adventure. While Ferrari lovers will be greeted with OutRun 2 SP Special Tours. Last but not least, Cobra the famous space pirate will be there with Namco's Cobra The Arcade lightgun shooting game. The two free tournaments this year are Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes on Saturday and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited on Sunday. Both tournaments begin at 13:00. Last rounds ands finals will be broadcast live on the "video games podium" screens next to the stand. As usual, prizes will be video games, Japanese comics, T-shirts and goodies. Attention: entries are limited to 32 contestants for each tournament! Registration is available at our booth at all time during the show. Entries will be closed 5 minutes before the tournament start, all registered people absent at that time will leave its spot to a new entrant. So if you were not able to register for the tournament, come to the stand at 12:55 and you might be able to enter. Arcade Belgium is located in Hall 8, directly right upon exiting the Patio. The doors will be open on Friday from 19:00 to 21:00, on Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00 and on Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. Ticket price is €10,00 (except on Friday which is free). More info at Made in Asia website.

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The 6th update of Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Full Boost is available. Only two new mechas are added. The first is the MBF-P01-ReAMATU Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu operated by Rondo Gina Sahaku and coming from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, a manga in 3 volumes released between September 2002 and October 2003. It features the following equipment: "Igelstellung" 75mm multi-barrel CIWS, Type 70 Beam Saber, "Maga no Ikutachi" Energy Absorption Claws, "Magashira no Hoko" Harpoons, "Trikeros Kai" Armed Shield System (50 mm High-Energy Beam Rifle, Beam Saber, 3 x "Lancer Dart" Hypervelocity Kinetic Energy Penetrator) and Type 71 Beam Rifle. The second one is the AMX-011S Zaku III Custom operated by Mashymere Cello and coming from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, an anime series in 47 episodes broadcasted between March 1986 and March 1987. It is equipped with: Beam Rifle, 30mm Vulcan gun, Beam Gun/Beam Saber, Hide Bomb dispenser, Optional Shield/Weapons Rack and External propellant tanks.

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AOU and AM Show shows merged into a new show named Japan Amusement Expo 2013 this year. It just ended at Makuhari Messe in Chiba after two busy days. As often with Japanese shows, access was opened to the public on Sunday, the entry price was 1000 Yen and free for children under 12 and seniors over 60 years. The games were in free play and many events took place as the national cranes championship... The editors have come up with many titles, announced some other and broadcasted trailers. Taito introduced Groove Coaster and many NESiCAxLive games: Tottemo E Mahjong, Arcana Heart 3 LOVE MAX, Crimzon Clover for NESiCAxLive, Do Not Fall, Ikaruga for NESiCAxLive, Chaos Code - New sign of catastrophe. Sega was also very present with many titles: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Ge-sen Love, Under Night In-Birth, Caladrius, Code of Joker, Under Defeat HD+, Phantom Breaker Another Code, Shining Force Cross Elysion Ver.C, Border Break Union Ver.3.0, maimai, Sega Card Gen MLB 2013, Star Horse 3 Season II - Blaze of Glory (medal) and Starboat Progress (medal). Konami presented a 100% music stand: DanceDance Revolution, Gitadora, beatmania IIDX 20 - Tricoro, jubeat saucer, REFLEC BEAT colette, pop'n music Sunny Park, Dance Evolution Arcade, Sound Voltex Booth II - Infinite Infection and Miraidagakki - Future TomTom. Bandai Namco brought Mario Kart Arcade GP DX and Taiko no Tatsujin March 2013 Edition. Finally, Square Enix unveiled Lord of Vermillion III and Capcom showed Monster Hunter Pugee Race.

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Konami releases Gitadora today, this is in fact next installment in the series GuitarFreaks and DrumMania... Cabinets of a similar size than SD versions of XG2 titles are new: however, GuitarFreaks cabinet features only one guitar and the raised stage of DrumMania has disappeared. The difficulty levels have been renamed: Novice becomes Basic, Regular becomes Advance and Expert becomes Extreme. Almost all the songs from past games were re-rating. Other changes include the return of the video background, the scores appear after the end of the song, players can now write their names in Japanese (Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana).

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The rumour was launched since January 25, it has now been confirmed by Bandai Namco: there will be a Mario Kart Arcade GP 3! It will be named Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix DX and a new logo was created for the occasion. The release is scheduled for this Summer and a first version of the game will be presented during the JAEPO show. Two new game modes will be added: the Ghost Battle Mode, an online mode where you can play against ghosts of other players and a Team Co-Op mode in which two players team up against the CPU. They can even merge their kart, a player drives and the other uses the attacks. 10 redesigned races are announced and 100 objects are already available. Updates will added new ones on the future. As a new character, Bandai Namco announced Don Chan, one of the two drummers of Taiko no Tatsujin, a course will have a Taiko No Tatsujin theme. Flying karts and diving karts will also be part of the game!

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