Street Fighter IV Ships 2M Copies

The unveiling of Lost Planet 2 wasn’t the only big news coming out of Capcom today. You might have heard of a little game called Street Fighter IV, which was released in the U.S. and Europe last week. Well, Capcom and retailers kinda wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it, if you decided to check it out in store shelves.

According to a statement released this morning by Capcom’s corporate office, the latest entry to the popular fighting game franchise has shipped more than 2 million units worldwide since its release. That accounts for the market in Japan, which sold out within its first week, as well as the markets in both the North America and Europe. Now, that doesn’t mean 2 million copies have been sold, only that they’ve been shipped out to retailers. However, based on the hype behind the game is any indication, people are snapping up the game at a record setting pace.

Personally? I think Capcom owes at least half of those sales to Kyle Orland’s review of the game here at Crispy. Of course, maybe that’s just our own hype machine fueling up.

Doritos: Dash of Destruction - A Bonafide Hit

Microsoft is touting the latest advergame on Xbox Live Arcade as one of its biggest yet. Apparently the game has done so well that it is getting some love from one of Microsoft’s top executives who is speaking at CES this week in.

“Doritos: Dash of Destruction has been the most downloaded game in the second half of December with just under 1 million downloads,” said Mark Kroese, General Manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Advertising Business Group, during his Game Power Conference Session presentation at CES.

Our own Kyle Orland, who is at the show this week, caught up with Kroese shortly after his presentation to ask him why he thought the game did so well, beyond being a freebie. He pointed out that Dash of Destruction was much better than other free games they’ve offered, like the Yaris advergame: “it’s actually a good game!”

And if you’re wondering why it doesn’t show up in any of Major Nelson’s list of Top Xbox Live Arcade titles in 2008, the answer is simple: it’s free.

Dash of Destruction is a free arcade racing advergame developed by Ninja Bee for Xbox Live Arcade to promote one of the world’s most popular snack foods. The game was released on December 17, 2008 for free and was based on a concept created by gamer Mike Borland, who won the Unlock Xbox competition sponsored by Doritos. His game concept was brought to life by Ninja Bee and released on Xbox Live Arcade.

While fans ate the game up (pun intended), critics derided it for having the most easily unlockable achievements.. ever. Most of them could be unlocked within less than twenty minutes of play. Easy or not, the game apparently garnered the attention of the Xbox Live community. The game also went out of its way to be cheesy, encouraging players to “get their Gamerscore on” or go on a “Gamerscore Rampage.” Personally there’s nothing wrong with being cheesy when promoting a nacho cheese flavored snack food..

Kyle Orland, live from CES, contributed to the report.

Wii For Dummies in Sept.

Are you a complete dumbass or do you know someone who is? Well, I cannot help you with that - seek professional help. However, if you have parents, grandparents, or a spouse that wants to learn how to use the Nintendo Wii with a slight amount of grace and some expert knowledge, then you might want to check out Wii For Dummies. The new book, which is set for release in September, is the brainchild of Game Trust member and Games For Lunch master Kyle Orland.

The book promises some in-depth help (explained in the simplest terms) on such topics as using the Wii with your broadband Internet connection, using the Wii controller (hopefully there’s a chapter in there about the evils of putting the Wii Remote through your high definition television set), getting the most out of all those Wii channels, creating the perfect Mii, surfing the Internet, uploading multimedia content, games for the whole family, and even how to use hacks.

The paperback book has a cover price of $21.99, but is available at amazon.com for $14.95 and at Barnes and Noble for $16.49 (and for members an additional 5 percent discount.