Not since the Halcyon days of two-thousand and seven have North American players been able to partake of the resplendent joys inherent to Sega's Virtua Fighter series. But hark, lo on the horizon, a messenger brings a communique from the Japanese publisher, sending word of the last arcade iteration crossing the great seas to our North American shores, by way of magical tubes, wires, and drives hard as the most adamantine steel. Forsooth, a new epoch of Virtua Fighter relevance may be upon us yet, but not for yet another year's span. Zounds!

*cough* Okay, enough of that. Indeed, Sega will be bringing Virtua Fighter back to American audiences with Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, the last arcade version released in Japan. This version, which features updates to the core mechanics and game balance, dynamic in-game arenas, online play, and 19 playable characters, will be coming as a downloadable entity for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

Sega doesn't mention anything about pricing in its press release, presumably because the game is a whole year away from release. Sega pegs VF5FS' release date as somewhere around summer 2012.

But hey, look on the bright side: at least you'll have a full year to dig up a copy of the original VF5 and get back into practice. Or you can just do as I do and intend to dig up VF5 and practice, only to completely forget about that idea an hour later, then continuously remind yourself to do so every time you see a new preview or advertisement for VF5FS, yet still continue to do nothing about it, eventually resigning yourself to just download the game and start fresh, only to go online and have your ass handed to you by people who did actually practice in the interim time between now and the game's release. Demoralized, you will stick to playing through offline arcade modes for the sake of achievements/trophies, and stare longingly at the online multiplayer menus, the way a lovesick teenager stares depressingly at the hottest girl in school making out with the captain of the football team.

Seriously, never do anything the way I do it.