Everyone’s favorite importer of Japanese games and somewhat-smutty statues of Mai, NCS, has opened up pre-orders for the arcade release of Street Fighter IV. It’ll ship out of Japan on August 20 and will include the Taito Type X-2 hardware and hard drive, four decals, a versus communication kit for networking two cabinets together (that’s how multiplayer arcade games are typically done in Japan), and 100 SFIV Network ID cards for stat tracking and whatnot.
All this can be yours for a mere $2,590, $880 of which NCS will get from you immediately as a deposit. Of course, you’d still have to have an arcade cabinet to put all this stuff in. I don’t have a cabinet that would suit it–I don’t think it would work so well in my Missile Command cabinet. But I have to admit… super-tempted over here. That’s a lot of money, and sure, the game will probably end up on the 360 and PS3 by year’s end, but… no, no, I can’t. That’s just crazy.
Or is it? Don’t mind me, I’m going to have to to do some soul-searching over here. Seeing El Fuerte’s rad lucha libre look at the top of this post sure isn’t helping. I’m going to stare at my wallet for a bit and think about it, you go on ahead.
[UPDATE] Unfortunately, there’s been some sort of miscommunication between NCS and its supplier. The kits are only available in sets of four, so NCS has withdrawn its pre-order offer. That’s probably for the best.