Category Archives: General

Event, General

Final Fantasy Cafe In Singapore

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Singapore is having her very own Final Fantasy Cafe. From now till 10 February, come down to Watanabe Coffee at Shaw House Orchard road which has been transformed into a Final Fantasy Theme Cafe.

Things to Eat

While the full Watanabe Coffee menu is still available, the only special Final Fantasy dish is the Moogle Curry And White Stew set (Kupo!) with a choice of a Moogle Drink Or Materia.

Both drinks are flavoured drink. Nothing really that special. As for the Curry Rice, it was decent but not something that you would want to keep coming back for. My Moogle’s face is a bit distorted as well. Otherwise, it would have looked more like a Moogle.

Things to See And Try

The entire cafe is decked out with Final Fantasy poster and standees. Outside the cafe, you can take pictures with standees of well known Final Fantasy character like Sephiroth and Lightning.

Three PlayStation 4 loaded with the Dissidia Final Fantasy NT are available for you to try. The original Dissidia was only released in Arcade around Japan. It’s basically a fighting game where you can play as characters from the Final Fantasy universe. This game is not your typical Final Fantasy RPG but would definitely appeal to fans with affinity for fighting games.

Things to Buy

Even if you are not eating, which you can probably skip if you are not into themed cafe, there are things to buy as well. The plush toys are really popular. When we were there, the Cactuar, Moogle and Tonberry were all sold out. We were told by the staff that they maybe restocking but are unsure of when.

Things to Take Home

There are free coasters given to each diner. I ordered the Moogle set and got two! The coasters come in a few designs but are given at random. A free poster is given out to each customers as well. As of the time of visit, only two posters are available for choosing from Final Fantasy XIV which we thought Dissidia poster maybe more appropriate.

Worth it?

Overall, it is worth the trip only if you are a Final Fantasy Fan. The food is a bit overpriced as of most theme cafe and a bit underwhelming. If merchandise is your thing, it’s also a bit disappointing that most stuff are out of stock. Hey but if you are truly a fan, you would have come earlier to get them.

We came during lunch hours and there isn’t much of a queue. The same cannot be said for weekends. Nonetheless, given a week more to go, do visit the cafe if you have the time.

Details

Pop-up Date: 24 Jan – 10 Feb 2018

Venue: Watanabe Coffee (350 Orchard Road Shaw House #01-00)

Final Fantasy Menu: Available from 11 am onwards

Opening Hours: 8:30 am to 10pm (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun), 8:30 am to 11pm (Fri, Sat)

General, Retro Gaming

Who is Street Fighter M.Bison?

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Who comes into your mind when you see this name?

Does the evil psycho kinetic general comes into your mind first or the heavy punching slugger type boxer?

For most people, they may associate the name with the former. However for some, M. Bison is a boxer.

Take a look at the screenshot from Street Fighter 2. It was a match between E.Honda and Vega. Yes Vega, not M. Bison. So who is M. Bison then?

This is M. Bison, the all-too-familiar boxer from Street Fighter. But wait…

M. Bison is now the General and Balrog is the boxer?

Both versions of the Street Fighter II are authentic. The first version we have shown you is the Japan version while the other is the US version.

The boxer in Street Fighter was originally named M. Bison. The ‘M’ refers to ‘Mike’ and hence Mike Bison. Sounds familiar? Because it is. Mike Tyson, Mike Bison, both names even rhymes.

When Capcom localized Street Fighter II for the US, they decided to rotate the name of the bosses in Street Fighter II for fear of legal liability of M. Bison the boxer. So the name of the boxer was changed from M. Bison to Balrog. In fact three characters name were swapped.

Photo credit: ringsandcoins.com

In the latest Street Fighter V, the Japanese version still keeps the same naming convention.

So don’t get confuse by the names. Just understand the history.

Event, Game News, General

GameStart 2017 – Every Game You Can Imagine, It Is There.

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Main Stage of GameStart 2017

Board game, card game, console game, retro console game, mobile game, indie game, VR game or any type of games you can think of, you can find them at this year GameStart 2017. Let’s take you through a tour of the highlights at this year GameStart 2017.

Bandai Booth

Dragon Ball FighterZ

The much anticipated Dragon Ball FighterZ has previously received many positive reviews from media when the trailer was first released at E3 2017. It is touted as one of the most faithful adaptation of the anime into game.

The game itself looks as promising as the E3 trailer. At times, you would even think you are watching the anime. The queue to try out the game was constantly long but it was definitely worth the wait especially for the Dragon Ball fan.

Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人)

Taiko no Tatsujin game was also available for visitors to try out at the Bandai booth.

PlayStation Booth

The biggest booth of all, a multitude of PS4 games were opened up to everyone. If you tried out all four booth, you can get to win a small token prize much like this year IT Show 2017 PlayStation Booth.

PlayStation Booth

Get behind the wheels of Gran Turismo Sport in a futuristic Tron-like pod.

Gran Turismo Sport

By now, most of you might have tried out PlayStation VR before. We tried out Farpoint VR. While refreshing to try out a FPS on PlayStation VR, the combination of running and shooting in the VR world was too much for me to take. After a 3 minutes gameplay, I’m already feeling dizzy.

PlayStation VR

Doujin Market

Another of our favourite was the Doujin Market. There are many great artists in Singapore. There is where we can support them by buying their work. Rachta Lin is one of artist whom we really like her work and her works were  available at this year GameStart

Doujin Market

eSports

SEA Mobile Major

There are two main stage for the eSports lover. SEA Mobile Major took place at one of the stage featuring ShadowVerse. Mobile gaming has indeed come a long way in eSports from the days of Angry Birds.

At the other stage, players battle each other at many popular fighting game such as Street Fighter V, Marvel VS. Capcom Infinite and Tekken 7.

SEA Major 2017

Hitting the groin is allowed in the world of eSports!

SEA Major 2017

Tabletop Game

A huge area was dedicated to tabletop games. Even if you are not a fan of tabletop games, you can just check out some of the impressive miniature models in games such as Warhammer.

And of course there are many fun-loving cosplayers at the events itself that makes the whole experience even better!

FF XV Cosplayers