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RetailPlay is a weekly look at upcoming video game retail releases. Check back every Tuesday to see what to expect in the following week, and keep an eye out for DownloadPlay on Fridays, which looks at downloadable game releases.

The gaming industry’s butt still hurts after it took that massive dump of releases during the last quarter of 2008. This week Saint’s Row 2 gets released for the PC, in case any of mouse n’ keyboarders wanted to know. The rest…ugh, see for yourself.

Monday (1/5)
Paws & Claws: Pampered Pets (DS)
Saints Row 2 (PC)
M&Ms Adventure (PS2)
Paws & Claws Pet Resort (Wii)

Tuesday (1/6)
Bigfoot (DS)
Retro Game Challenge (DS)
Big Bang Mini (DS)
Jumble Madness (DS)
Hotel for Dogs (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, 360)
Fishing Master World Tour (Wii)

Friday (1/9)
Animated (DS)

Get in there and order it while it’s still up, so that you can gripe at them when they cancel your orders!

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I’m going to blame the whole “not being white” thing for having no idea who Roy Orbison was before writing this post. Now, I realize he’s the guy originally wrote that “Oh, Pretty Woman” song from Pretty Woman. Regardless of ethnicity, your parents are probably more excited about this track pack than you are. Big ups to Harmonix for their genre-busting DLC antics.

Track list and prices after the break.

Happy New Year! It is my distinct pleasure (being a huge fan and all) to announce that next week’s DLC will be 6 tracks by the legendary Roy Orbison. What a way to kick off 2009!

Claudette
In Dreams
Mean Woman Blues
Oh, Pretty Woman
Ooby Dooby
You Got It

All tracks are original masters. Tracks will be available each for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) or $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the full pack. The Roy Orbison pack will release on Tuesday, January 6th on Xbox 360 and Thursday, January 15, 2009 for PS3 (due to the holiday break).

This would bring a smile to any over-the-hill hedgehog’s face. A Kansas boy by the name of Judson King loved Sonic so much that he wanted to have a hedgehog of his very own. Unfortunately for him, Judson’s hometown of Lawrence had a ban on hedgehogs. In a bout of OCD, and unnecessary persistance, Judson spent every night in the past three years researching hedgehogs and getting the evidence to revoke the law.  More story and a video after the break.

In January of last year, Judson sent a letter to City Hall to plead his case, and in true governmental fashion, they took 11 months to put him on the agenda. Once Judson was able to get in front of the City Commissioners they found no real reason why Hedgehogs were banned and Judson got his hedgehog for Christmas. Now if someone would be so adamant to reverse the apparent planetwide ban on mediocre hedgehog games, we’d be set.

Via GamePolitics

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Last week’s strong Friday saw that all of our video game shares were in the green, with the exception of Eidos who lost 8%, and Gamestop, who moved sideways. Ubisoft and THQ were the biggest winners and both gained over 20%, my guess is that they were driven by positive holiday sales numbers of Prince of Persia and Saints Row 2. Xbox 360 was crowned the most played console of the new generation of systems, a fact that I’m sure didn’t hurt their doing the best out of the three console makers. Lets hope we have a couple more weeks like this, and work our way out of the hole that this recession has brought on!

Hit the jump to check out the numbers.

The Consoles

The Developers

The Retailers

The Hardware

Finally, an end of the year list that you literally cannot argue with! This one is based on numbers and facts, as far as I know. The good Major Nelson has posted the top 20 most played games on Xbox LIVE for this past year of 2008. The list is actually three separate lists: Top 360 LIVE games, this consists of full retail games, XBLA games, demos and betas; Top arcade titles, just full XBLA releases; and top Original Xbox titles, which includes playing old Xbox games on disc or downloaded from the marketplace. Hit the jump for the lists and some shattershot commentary.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1	Halo 3
2	Call of Duty 4
3	GTA IV
4	Gears of War 2
5	Gears of War
6	CoD: World at War
7	Guitar Hero III
8	Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
9	Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
10	Rock Band
11	Fable II
12	Mirror’s Edge Demo
13	Madden NFL 09
14	BF: Bad Company
15	Rainbow Six Vegas 2
16	UNO
17	Castle Crashers
18	COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
19	Forza Motorsport 2
20	Too Human - Demo

The top two games should come as no real surprise. Halo 3 and CoD4 have been battling it out for LIVE surpremisy for over a year now. GTA IV and Gears of War 2 are also not really much of a surprise considering how insanely popular they both were this past year. Original Gears is up next, which I will never understand. That multiplayer was not fun at all to me, but it’s good to see both Gears games on there back-to-back. Now on to the new Call of Duty, the only fall release other than Gears 2 to chart in the top 10. People sure do love their CoD, I’ll stick with CoD4 myself. Coming in at number 7 we have Guitar Hero III…wait what? Since its release in fall 2007 there have been two other Guitar Hero games put out, neither of which appear on this list. I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say it’s because it is probably very cheap these days. There are 4 demos and one beta on the list and I’m surprised that’s all. They are free, why wouldn’t you play them? Bad Company is the only demo (CoD was a beta, not a demo) whose full game is also on the list, but at a lower position. There are definitely some great games missing in action on the list and I wonder how close they were to making it. For example, Fallout 3, Mirror’s Edge, and Left 4 Dead are no where to be found. But Forza 2 is still going strong which does make me smile.

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1	Castle Crashers
2	Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
3	Braid
4	A Kingdom for Keflings
5	UNO
6	Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
7	Fable II Pub Games
8	Duke Nukem 3D
9	Bionic Commando: Rearmed
10	Worms
11	SOULCALIBUR
12	Portal: Still Alive
13	DOOM
14	1942: Joint Strike
15	Bomberman Live
16	MEGA MAN 9
17	N+
18	Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
19	Marble Blast Ultra
20	Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Nothing on the arcade list strikes me as super surprising other than the rank, or appearance at all, of Kingdom for Keflings. I knew that the appearance of NXE avatars in the game helped its sales, but rocking it to 4 for the year when it came out in November is pretty impressive. Only game I’m sad didn’t make a bigger splash is Rez HD. As a matter of fact, just go buy/play that now. Let’s get it on the 2009 list!

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1	Halo 2
2	Fable
3	Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
4	Counter-Strike
5	Fable: Lost Chapters
6	Doom 3
7	Conker: Live Reloaded
8	Splinter Cell Chaos
9	SW: KOTOR
10	SW: Republic Commando
11	Star Wars: Battlefront
12	Burnout 3
13	Guilty Gear XX #Reload
14	Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
15	Call of Duty 3
16	Ninja Gaiden Black
17	Crimson Skies
18	MechAssault 2
19	Call of Duty 2
20	Rainbow Six 3

Who is playing these? I don’t think I’ve ever really seen somone playing an old Xbox game on my friends list. No shock that Halo 2 is king of this list, but it’s interesting to note that most of these aren’t available on the marketplace. People are actually playing disc copies of 5 different Star Wars games. Counter-Strike apparently has amazing staying power on console as well taking the number 4 slot. I am personally happy to see Conker and Crimson Skies both on there. Unfortunately, we will probably never see a sequal to either of those games.

So that’s the year in Xbox LIVE. What do you think? Do you play old Xbox games from time to time? Any other games that you’re surprised weren’t played more?

Looks like the Wii is continuing to break records, this time one that has been in place for almost 2 decades. Super Mario Bros. previously held the record at 40 million, but VGChartz is reporting that Wii Sports has reached the 50 million mark. That means there are more than 50 million people looking as ridiculous as the people in the above picture… Congrats Nintendo!

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Way of the Samurai isn’t the biggest Hack’n'Slasher on the block, but it just ensured that it will have a much larger market. Spike seems to think it’s also a good idea to release the game, which was once loyal to the Playstation, on the Xbox360. Way of the Samurai will be slashing it’s way onto your Xbox on February 26 in Japan. I should be happy, but I’m gonna hold off until an American release date is announced.

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HourPlay is a review format that looks at the introduction of a game rather than the game in it’s entirety. In HourPlay we judge the game based strictly on an hour of gameplay, not including cut-scenes, menus, or character customization.

Street Fighter is without a doubt the most prolific and influential fighting game franchise. Since 1991, when Street Fighter 2 was released, the gaming world has eagerly fed quarter after quarter into the Capcom’s arcade cabinets. As the series continued Capcom was sparing with it’s numbered sequels, releasing 6 iterations of Street Fighter 2 before finally dropping Street Fighter 3 in 1997. It’s been over a decade since the last numbered sequel, and while there has been a handful of spinoff games, fans have been hungry for Street Fighter 4. Our collective wishes came true in October 2007, when the game was announced with an artistically styled trailer that set the internet ablaze.

Details continued to trickle out over the next few months. The game was said to use 3d graphics, but fighting would take place on a 2d plane. It would do away with some of the complexities that made SF3 and Alpha less popular with the mainstream crowd, and would be closer to SF2 in terms of simplicity. The Parry system and Alpha Counters have been replaced with the ‘Focus Attack’, a system said to be more accessible to the average player.

When I found out that the arcade version wasn’t officially being released in North America because of our dying arcade scene, I was crushed. The good news is that a few ambitious arcades have imported the game. The bad news is that none of them were in downtown Toronto, where I live, so I would have to make a road trip to play the game. Our first pilgrimage was a disaster, we arrived at Lovegety Station (an arcade, not a Train Station rife with prostitution) only to find out that the arcade was closed on Tuesdays. ONLY Tuesdays. But we were persisted, and finally got our chance to play the much anticipated Street Fighter 4 in our second attempt the next week.

When we arrived we expected a crowd around the game. Surely there would be a line of quarters decorating the bottom of the screen, signifying that there were players waiting to challenge the winner. There was no such crowd. A lonely player was working his way through the single player mode, so I put in my dollar and challenged him. I selected Ryu, everyone’s go-to character, and got started.

The first thing I noticed was the brilliant graphics. The non-HD screens used at Lovegety Station probably took away from the games visual appeal, but the game was great to look at nonetheless. After being disappointed with the games translation to 3d in Street Fighter EX, I was skeptical about Capcom’s decision to go 3d, but one look at the updated engine and my fears were put to rest. The character models look great, the animations are solid, the special moves are spectacular, and the backgrounds are full of action. The slow motion replays at the end of each round really showcase the games graphics, and I found myself watching every one of them to the end, even when it meant watching a frustrating loss a few extra times.

But enough about graphics, we all know that SF has been successful because of it’s finely balanced gameplay, so how does it play? Street Fighter 4 is deceptively simple. I was able to win a few rounds playing the game EXACTLY like Street Fighter 2. I’ve been getting my fighting game fix with Street Fighter 2:Turbo HD Remix, and the moves are nearly identical. Jump in with a strong kick, ducking medium kick, Dragon Punch? No problem. Ducking fierce punch into a fireball? Works like a charm. It wasn’t until I started experimenting with the games new ‘Focus Attack’ (Saving Attack in Japan) that I saw that the game had some depth to it.

Focus attacks are executed by holding down medium punch and medium kick, and can be charged to 3 levels. Each level of charge has it’s own benefits, with the longer ones leading to unblockable attacks that leave your enemy temporarily stunned (crumple-stun) and vulnerable to attack. Furthermore, these Focus Attacks can be executed during a special move, stopping your character mid dragon punch, and then can be canceled AGAIN with a dash, leaving you with a split second to execute whatever move suits your fancy. So if your hands can move quick enough you can start a combo, end it with a dragon punch, cancel the dragon punch with a Focus Attack, cancel the focus attack with a dash, and then execute ANOTHER dragon punch. Did you get all that? In my hour of play, I started to piece together some interesting combos, but wasn’t able to fully master the newly implemented focus canceling system. I’ll have to wait until the game ships on February 20th, when I can get a chance to experiment a little more extensively without my hard-earned coin on the line.

The roster in Street Fighter 4 has many familiar faces. All 8 of the original World Warriors are here, plus the 4 boss characters, 4 entirely new characters, and Akuma, everyone’s favorite (barely) hidden character. The new fighters are Abel, a French MMA fighter, Crimson Viper, an American spy with flaming kicks and electric punches, El Fuerte, a Mexican luchador, and Rufus, a tubby Kung Fu specialist that offers some comedic relief. I tried out each of the new characters and had little success, but this is less a result of their power and more a result of my familiarity with the classic roster. Overall the characters seem well balanced, and people who have played the earlier games will feel right at home with their favorite characters. The console version will be adding Cammy and Fei Long from Super Street Fighter, Dan and Rose from the Alpha series, Sakura, Ryu’s biggest fan, Gouken, him and Ken’s master, and Gen, an elderly martial artist.

I was quite impressed with the hour I spent with SFIV. At first I was a little underwhelmed and felt like Capcom had just remade SF2 in 3D, but once I took advantage of the new systems that have been implemented I started to appreciate the depth of the game. The nature of the 3D graphics mean that the controls aren’t QUITE as tight as SF3, so frame counters and extremely technical players may still look to SF3 for their fighting game fix, but SFIV definitely lives up to expectations. SFIV is a competent, and competitive evolution of a genre at risk of growing stagnant. Fans of earlier games in the series will feel right at home, and new players won’t feel alienated or overwhelmed by unnecessary complexity. Will it make fighting games relevant and mainstream once again? Possibly, but I doubt it. Will it achieve critical acclaim and post solid sales numbers? You can best you last quarter it will.

Will I play it again? Are you kidding? I’ve already pre-ordered my copy along with two of the official fighting sticks that Mad Catz is releasing alongside the game. If Capcom doesn’t shit the bed on the online game modes, I’ll definitely be wearing the paint off of the aforementioned fighting sticks during the same kind of late night binges that I had with Street Fighter 2 and 3. February 20th cannot come soon enough.