Pictures within.



Also, I got a new Sony Bravia! I'm worried about upscale lag from my older systems, but I still have a 20 inch CRT in the other room. Wonder if I can get people in for some gaming action in the new year with the new setup.

Enjoy the holidays.

My fellow Team Fortress 2 arsonists, as you know there's a war going on. Demomen and Solders are slaughtering each other quite literally in the millions. While other classes are fretting among themselves trying to chose a side, there is little reason for debate among us. For we Pyros, the side to chose is clear: OUR OWN!

That's right. While those two gangs of idiots are busy blowing each other up, there is plenty chance for Pyros to get in there and rack up the points. Now while the excessive presence of explosive ordinance may make the situation seem daunting at first, there are two things that put things in our favor:

Close Range vs. Long Range

The Pyro was redesigned as the close range class in TF2. Demos and Solders don't really have that kind of advantage as using their primary weapons in close range places their own lives in danger. Take advantage of that! Get in close and set those bastards on fire! Take a page from the Spy's playbook and sneak up behind them. If you're the kind of player who uses the Backburner, you have an advantage with this plan. However, if you do go this route you pass up the second advantage...

The Airblast

Now we're talking fun. First off is the obvious use of clearing out all those damn stickybombs that are littering the place. This'll piss of the Demomen as they're denied kills as your team takes objectives without harm. The second use is of course defecting airborne projectiles. Grenades coming your way? Push them back. Send rockets back to the Solders who launched them. Just imagine the mess you can make when six of them bunch together.

Sure we already had our update, but that doesn't matter. Now is the time to take advantage of the situation and set people ablaze. Go out there and do your gasmasked brethren proud!

Happy Day of the Ninja! After a week of incredibly lousy polling, thanks to my own lack of planning, the list was knocked down to eight finalists. While the poll itself has yet to finish, we can make some early projections.

Tied for Sixth - Bang Shishigami, Sheik, and Raiden


Bang made a good showing for a character that was only introduced this year. Sheik made good on her Zelda background and appearances in Smash Bros. And Raiden proved that his reinvention in Metal Gear Solid 4 and own upcoming spinoff have helped cleared up the mistakes of the past.

Fifth Place - Ayane


While the Ninja Gaiden lead Ryu Hayabusa was unable to make it out of the 3d Action bracket (maybe next year), his co-star from his recent adventures and the Dead or Alive series was able to win it out in the 3d Fighter bracket. Raw power and sex appeal can get you rather far after all...

Fourth Place - Goemon


Konami's long-time rendition of the legendary thief still wins out with light-hearted charm and nostalgia for his classic adventures. While only a handful of the games he stars in have been released outside of Japan, he still gets plenty of fans.

Third Place - Shadow


From the grand classic of 2d RPGs, the mysterious mercenary ninja of Final Fantasy VI made his lasting impact out of a massive cast of memorable characters. The least we can do is wait for him for just a bit longer...

Second Place - Strider Hiryu


Capcom's covert ninja of the future still remains popular. After taking on giant soviet robots, globe-spanning conspiracies, and the Marvel Universe, Strider has earned his place.

The Winner of the 2009 Day of the Ninja - Gaming's Greatest Ninja:
Gray Fox


The overwhelming clear winner, Frank Yeager left a huge impact as the original cyborg ninja of the Metal Gear series. While his appearances in the first two Metal Gear titles did not give him much in the way of ninja qualities, his return in Metal Gear Solid as an unstoppable cyborg, consumed by his desire for rest, forever made him one of the most memorable supporting characters in gaming history. He well deserves this honor.

Next year I'll start earlier. Perhaps do a SaiMoe style runoff. Until then...

With a week away to Day of the Ninja, it's time for Destructoid to decide who is the best ninja of them all. After some nominations on the form and this blog along with some arbitrary nonsense I pulled out of my ass. Hey, I gotta figure out this mess somehow.

The ninjas have been placed into six groups of six. You are to chose the one best ninja out of each group. And then a week from now those six finalists will be pitted against each other in a final vote-off.

And here are the ninjas:

Group 1 - 2d Action
Goemon - Ganbare Goemon
Guy - Final Fight
Haggleman - Retro Game Challenge
Joe Musashi - Shinobi
N - N
Strider Hiryu - Strider

Group 2 - 2d Fighters
Bang Shishigami - BlazBlue
Galford Weller - Samurai Showdown
Hanzo Hattori - Samurai Showdown
Ibuki - Street Fighter
Mai Shiranui - Fatal Fury/King of Fighters
Scorpion - Mortal Kombat

Group 3 - 3d Action
Gray Fox - Metal Gear Solid
Hotsuma - Shinobi
Momiji - Ninja Gaiden
Rikimaru - Tenchu
Ryu Hayabusa - Ninja Gaiden
Tatsumaru - Tenchu

Group 4 - 3d Fighters
Ayane - Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden
Kage-Maru - Virtua Fighter
Kasumi - Dead of Alive
Nagase - King of Fighters MI2
Taki - Soul
Yoshimitsu - Tekken

Group 5 - RPG/Adventure
Armakuni - The Last Ninja
Edge - Final Fantasy IV
Shadow - Final Fantasy VI
Sheena - Tales of Symphonia
Sheik - Legend of Zelda
Yuffie - Final Fantasy VII

Group 6 - Wild Card
Ebisumaru - Ganbare Goemon
Ninja Golfer - Ninja Golf
Ninja Mono - Audiosurf
Raven - Tekken
Sub-Zero - Mortal Kombat
Vega - Street Fighter

That's one per group. Start voting!

As you may know, Day of the Ninja is but a week and a half away. And in that time, I want to figure out just who is the greatest ninja in all of gaming. After all, video games are just full of ninjas, but which one is the best?

So, starting out on the forms I've put forward that very question in order to create a list of candidates that can then be voted off until we know who are the greatest shinobi of them all.

I just want to make it clear that this is for ninjas that are original to gaming, so no licensed characters. Ninjas based off figures from history and folklore are allowed, however; there's all those Hanzos, Fumas, and Sasukes after all.

I want to get a proper poll going by Saturday. Help out!

When you're serious about fighting games, you're also serious about your controllers. And when you're so damn serious that you travel the country looking for tournaments, your arcade sticks show it. Sure, you can go out and buy a stick off the rack, but that's not enough. You need to add your own custom touches to the art and tweaks and adjustments to the controls. That may not be enough, however. You may feel the need to order your own custom stick from any one of the enterprising individuals who create these works of art. Or perhaps you're so hardcore that you just have to make a stick yourself.

This is just a taste of some of the controllers that showed up this past weekend at Seasons Beatings IV. You'll notice a lot of the new Mad Catz sticks have gone under the screwdriver this year, both on the outside and the inside. There's also the selection of hand-made sticks and kits as well. Each one is as unique as their owners. Who knows, perhaps you'll see some of these sticks yourself someday.