I thought it was pretty interesting that Abel started off as a girl/trap (don't we all), and while Juri's original design didn't feature any gender-bending functionality, her creation process was pretty cool in itself.

According the latest Super Street Fighter IV development blog, there were about 500 different versions of Juri at one point, including an old woman, an ice skater, and an—ahem—chubbier version of what we have now. The huskier Juri was supposed to be cute, but as she thinned out, she also became more evil. The team had a hard time deciding whether Juri should be associated with Shadaloo or S.I.N. but finally decided to associate her with Seth instead of M. Bison—the reasoning was that, as a new character, Juri would be a better fit for the Street Fighter storyline as a member of the newer organization.

Like that matters.

But anyway, this is what you guys care about: once the team had settled on a "bad and somewhat erotic" character, producer Yoshinori Ono decided that we should be able to see her (ample) sideboob which lead to the creation of her current outfit, which he likened to "a spider."

Here's where I would usually ask you what you thought about the idea of having an ice skater instead of the Juri we know and love, but what's the point? She's already the best thing about Super Street Fighter IV, and that's not even counting the lip-licking.

[Via Andriasang]

With Bayonetta out in Japan, Sega can finally concentrate on saturating the West with video trailers and promotional chicanery. Here's the first trailer, a new video that shows off the weapons and combos in Platinum Games' over-the-top action title. It really is an awesome game.

Of course, the quality of the game and what you do in it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Bayonetta's head is allegedly too small for her body. You may continue to make those baseless and untrue accusations while I continue to build my filthy, stained, slightly worrying Bayonetta shrine in the cupboard.

In amazingly mindblowing news that everybody cares about, it's being stated that almost a third of all Guitar Hero players are female. Wow.

"A very large group really wants great guitar music, and they don’t want us to confuse that," Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosenwig boasts to GamePro. "And there’s another group of people who love that, but also love to have more current music, more family music, music more popular for girls -- 30% of our players are already girls, and we want that to grow. One of the great things about having a franchise like this is you can really meet all kinds of consumer demand"

The very fact that I wrote this story should give you some indication as to how quiet and boring things have been this morning.

Seduce a SuicideGirl is a new iPhone App where you'll be playing a choose your own style adventure in order to make out with Zoli Suicide. Your goal is to chat up Zoli in a comic book shop and if you're good at bullsh*tting your way through the conversation, you'll get to have a "17+ make-out session" with her. Pick the wrong answers and she'll humiliate you.

Yup, this is a thing that is happening. If you win the game, you can make out with your ... iPhone. The App is available now on iTunes for $0.99.  

I don't understand how this will work or how this is appealing. The only way this would be appealing at all is if you could make out with a man horse, like Rey and Colette demonstrate in the gallery. Seriously, what the f**k.

Is it your time of the month? You on the rag? On the blob? More importantly, have you ever wanted to bleed out of your minge and onto Pikachu's face? If you answer in the affirmative to these questions, then we have a very special treat for you and your vomiting vadge. Yes, it's a Pokémon menstruation pad and it could be your for eight bucks!

Who knew that squirting out your uterine lining could be so much fun? The best thing about this is that it's completely washable, meaning that you can splatter it with your mangled endometrium time and time and time again. It is truly the classiest thing you could stuff up your baby cavity. 

If Pokémon isn't your thing, don't worry! These vaginal vampires are handmade and customized to be any way you want them to be. Perhaps you'd like Kratos or Solid Snake down there? Or maybe you'd like the cast of Dexter? Whatever you want. 

This story is only loosely connected to videogames in a vague sense, but it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter.

Trish Stratus as a brunette with glasses is stunning. She was always hot, but now she's just ... wow. 

Oh, right, videogames. Fitness model and former WWE actor Trish Stratus has teamed up with Frima Studio to develop a new yoga game for the Wii called Stratusphere. The game will make use of the Wii balance board and other Wii accessories in order to make it so you can do awesome things to yourself. Really really really awesome things to yourself.

Trish will be coaching players along as Zen 3D backgrounds play in the … background. Expect to see several video segments of what I’m assuming will be Trish Stratus bending her body in lovely ways.

The game has no publisher yet, but Frima Studio is shopping around to see who will bite. They’re expecting Stratusphere to release sometime in the second quarter of 2010.

Last time I talked about Trish on Destructoid, I included a bunch of photos of her. This time around though, you’re going to get some videos. Check them out after the break!

In other news: Am I the only one that ALWAYS says flame after reading the word yoga? 

Girls. They have stumped men for ages with their ways. The biggest mystery of all? Why they don't play games as much as men. A recent study from Michigan State University has discovered the conclusive truth (until another study comes along and proves it wrong). Women have better things to do and thus have no time to play games. They study found that men have more leisure time because women usually do about twice the amount of work each week than men do.

“Our findings suggest that one reason women play fewer games than men is because they are required to fulfill more obligatory activities, leaving them less available leisure time,” said Jillian Winn of MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and one of the co-authors of the study, which studied 276 MSU undergraduate students. Aside from the fact that men are evidently massive slackers, the study points out the fact that games aren't really directed at women, and if they were they'd probably be more interested. Also games aren't designed by women... blah, blah, blah. We've heard that stuff before.  

Also interesting -- maybe even more interesting -- is that while playing games does mean that less schoolwork gets done it does not mean a decrease in one's GPA. Hear that? Gamers are smart... or everyone had low GPAs to begin with.

One of these 16 lovely ladies could appear in the next Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) game as a virtual hostess. Sega went through 1,500 applicants and now need to figure out which lady will make it through.

There’s a photo, video and a personal blog link for each of the ladies to help you get to know them a little better. They all want to become a star in the next Ryu Ga Gotoku game and they need your vote to make it happen.

This is my dream job, by the way. Getting to judge models in a competition. Oh, also, this girl right here is a pornstar. Hot.

[Via Siliconera]

JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games is coming out with a yoga game for the Wii simply called Yoga. That’s not the story here. The story here is that international model Anja Rubik will be featured in the game. Actually, that’s really the entire story.

So just what does Anja Rubik look like? Well, I’m a very generous man and have looked all over Google Image Search for pictures of Anja for you all. I’ve shared them in the gallery mixed in with screenshots from the game below so you can get a really good look at what Anja looks like. You’re welcome.

Also, girl needs to get a damn sammich. Seriously.

Lara Croft has gone through a few changes in her life, most of them based around graphical advancements in breast rounding technology. Back in the day Lara was naught more than a couple of polygons stuck together to vaguely resemble large breasts and Angelina Jolie-esque lips. Yes, Lara has come a long way and Lara Croft fanboy Nicobass felt that it was time to update some of her classic sexy poses since the old ones really did look old.

Now that I'm seeing these side by side, old Lara was really creepy. Her head is way too big, her ass is unnaturally large and I'm pretty sure her lips would have to have their own zip code. Maybe my maturity level has been raised since those original images came out (doubtful), but I don't see what I saw in old Lara at all. New Lara on the other hand, well, I'd totally raid her tomb. Know what I mean? Eh? Eh? A nods as good as wink to a blind beggar.

[Images and story via Tomb Raider Fanboy]

E3 2009 feels like what a real E3 should feel like again this year. There's actually excitement in the air as people are hustling and bustling around going from booth to booth. I'm actually kind of sad since everything is quieting down right now as E3 09 is about to end.

My sadness has quickly disappeared though, as it's time for the E3 09 booth babe gallery! Oh yeah, you knew this post was coming. E3 brought back the booth babes and there were some mighty fine looking ladies around this past week. There wasn't that many booth babes as I would have liked, but it's a step in the right direction again.

Ok, picture this: an evening of entertainment provided by hot girls dressed like video game characters who then proceed to take off their clothes for an audience? Uh ... what I've just described is the wet dream of the majority of male gamers on the planet (and some female ones, ahem). Believe it or not, it went down this past weekend in Los Angeles. On May 9th at the Bordello bar, ladies dressed as Princess Peach, Samus Aran, Princess Zelda and Link, Chun Li and Rayne (from Bloodrayne) put on a grand show in the tradition of a good old fashioned striptease.

Feel like you missed out? Well, you can check out our favorite pics in the gallery, the full slideshow over at LA Weekly, or best of all, you can see the show happen again during E3. Devil's Playground will put on their encore performance the evening of June 3rd, which just might be worth taking a break from furiously pounding out stories to attend. Although, attending may mean I see a few other people pounding something, if you get my drift.

Time to clean house!  Nerdyshirts is closing out the last of our 08' Destructoid skull & crossbones shirts for $5 plus shipping (all men's sizes are sold out, sorry!) but here's how to get it for free: To get the coupon just copy and paste this exact self-referring thing into your tweet:

@Nerdyshirts is giving away $5 gift certificates to anyone who follows them & retweets this exact message! http://Nerdyshirts.com

You may also want a groovy Duke Nukem shirt while you're at it.  Also, Destructoid turns THREE friggin' years old next week so look for all kinds of contests and giveaways real soon from me real soon.  No need to sleep with one eye open: just eep in touch with us by following Destructoid on Twitter or via RSS feed. Thanks and enjoy! 

I wish real reviews were like this. I would be pumping out reviews left and right if I could do it like this.

Oh, and there’s a shot of a tiger in this video. Tigers are pretty effing cool.

[Via Faith's C Blog]