My random musings are guaranteed to annoy you slightly less than a Fergie song.

Things are pretty quiet on the gaming front at the moment.  The summer blitz is over, and the big holiday releases are still distant on the horizon.  We had E3, Peter Moore's "megaton" announcement, and a confession from Microsoft that their Xbox 360 is slightly less stable than Mariah Carey.  Most of the current news out there is, quite frankly, filler material, and all the good stuff has been covered by other editors.

Rather than my standard one news item, I'm going to briefly discuss five news items (most of which annoy me in one way or another).  I'll give my opinions, and in the field below, you can tell me how wrong I am, how stupid I must be, et cetera.  Sounds like good, clean fun for the whole family, eh? So without further ado, here are five items that caught my eye, in no particular order:
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Uh… Gamers, we have a problem.

In case some of you have been wondering why a certain section of the front page seems, well… out of date - we recently experienced a recent data that affected our valued features section. The end result was nearly a year’s worth of data which we are currently working on trying to retrieve. The retrieval process isn’t going too well at the moment, so you can imagine that we’re not all smiles here at GotNext. Though all is not lost - our administration team is working in a contingency plan. But most importantly, we have some very cool new features in the works (some of which have already put into action such as the index sorting tools). Some features you will probably not see until sometime next year. There’s also another BIG change underway and if all goes well, you should be seeing it launch well before the 4th Qtr.

“Hello, Computer…”

Don’t fret everyone — we’ll make it right, one way or another, we’ll work on restoring as much content as possible (all the really significant content anyways like interviews and such). On behalf of the entire crew, we appreciate your patience and understanding during this unfortunate setback. Stay tuned!

Dead or Alive sticks everywhere rejoice, you're still the only option for Xbox 360 owners.

It looks like those wishing to profit from their Dead or Alive sticks will have another month until any competition arrives. The Hori-produced limited edition Virtua Fighter 5 stick has been delayed until early September. The stick cannot be pre-ordered from EB/Gamestop stores (according to 2 stores that I called), so you have to order it online.

With the Capcom remakes, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, as well as Virtua Fighter 5 and LIVE games such as Streets of Rage 2 (Yay!) on the way, let's hope the date won't slip any further. A lot of us prefer to use arcade sticks for much more than just fighting games, especially considering how horrible the 360 d-pad is.

Chibi Robo: Park Patrol for the Nintendo DS is a WalMart exclusive.

Why, God, why!?

According to a Gamespot article about why all Gamestop reserves for Chibi Robo: Park Patrol were cancelled, the official word from Nintendo was that the game is now only sold at the urban blight redneck paradise of WalMart.  While losing Gamestop's support for Chibi Robo isn't all that big a deal, seeing as there are many places in the world that sell video games, limiting its sales to… um…

Yeah, trying to figure out the WalMart demographic for Chibi Robo isn't working here.

Anyway, Chibi Robo: Park Patrol ships for the DS on October 2, and probably arrives on the shelves at a location near you a minimum of a week afterwards.  Now I'm just going to cross my fingers that smaller local suppliers aren't counted in the exclusivity deal.

[Via Gamespot]

Now you can enjoy over 15 years of SNK classic 2D fisticuff action.

For the slim price of $14.99, you can own a volume of fighting game history.  The great rival franchise to the Street Fighter series is coming to the PS2 in the form of Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Vol. 1. It comes packed with Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, and Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, and all the tweaks featured in the Art of Fighting Collection, all for one low price.

On the technical side, Fatal Fury was the first fighting series to feature a two-plane system, letting characters dodge incoming attacks in a way that's now taken for granted in 3D fighters.  More important to fans is this franchise marked the first appearances of unforgettable characters, such at the cruel Geese, the sexy ninja Mai, her reluctant love interest Andy, and the Hungry Wolf himself, Terry Bogard.

"With the release of FATAL FURY: BATTLEARCHIVES Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2 system, a brand-new generation of gamers will be introduced to one of SNK PLAYMORE's earliest fighting classics," said Ben Herman, president of SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION, "and gamers who loved FATAL FURY 15 years ago will relish the chance to revisit the golden age of 2D fighters."

This series became the foundation of the SNK fighting empire for a reason.  Great characters and solid action that still shine as a king before the King of Fighters.