Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

As a gamer who married a gamer, I try not to take for granted not having to confine my hobby to a bubble of shame. I’ve known some who will mock those who clothe themselves in gaming-related accessories, and it’s never a fun stick to be poked with, even without the dookie on the end. That said, if you’re ready to rise up and wrap yourself in something cool and gaming-related, I’m here to help. There are a lot of places to get gamer clothes, here are some that I’ve taken advantage of in the past, and some I’ll likely take advantage of in the future.

Gamestop.

Everyone hates Gamestop, but they do stock a small quantity of gaming clothes. These tend to be of the official Nintendo variety, and usually very retro in nature. One I bought as a gift was a shirt that effectively read, “[small mario] + [mushroom] = [large mario]“. Have a look at the “Mario Chasing Mushroom” shirt at MyTeeSpot. I’ve never shopped there, but they seem to have a similar selection to what I’ve seen at Gamestop.

The best thing about buying a shirt at Gamestop is it’s easy to peruse their selection, simply because it’s so small. Every time I’ve looked at their shirts, they haven’t had a dozen there, including all sizes of the same shirt. It’s pretty anemic, and it sounds like a stupid thing to praise, but there you go. Half the time I go into a Gamestop it smells like ass in there, so who wants to spend any more time than that looking for clothes?

The Penny Arcade Store.

I was going to talk about gameskins.com, but it turns out they’re part of the Penny Arcade Store now. Looks like the same range of products has survived the move, that’s nice. While I love the Viva Miyamoto tee, I’ve picked up the RPG tee, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, I received the Lite Brigade tee as a gift.

In my experience, the stuff produced here is a bit higher quality and will sustain multiple washings without fading or crumbling apart. One last note: all their stuff has the Penny Arcade logo on the back. Your call on that one. I like it. My fondest wish would be to have some of my favorite P-A comics available on shirts, but how many shirts would they have to make to accomplish that… unless they were making them to order. Can I get a Metroid Space Dancer, please?

J!NX Clothing Company.

J!NX goes for that “attitude” thing. Their video game section is pretty expansive, and their selection is pretty unique. It looks as if most, if not all of their shirts, are designed in-house, meaning you shouldn’t be able to get them anywhere else. Sometimes their logo even shows up on a shirt.

They’ve got a skull in their logo, and they get bonus points as a result. The image here, Padawan Gamer, is on a shirt for toddlers.

T Shirt Hell.

I love browsing T Shirt Hell. These people run the gamut from funny to downright shocking, devoting an entire section of their site to NSFW photographs of satisfied customers. Gaming-related items are scant, but pretty funny.

There are a lot of laugh on the site, but as I said, NSFW, and certainly not for those with delicate sensibilities on any subject. Really great stuff.

Target.

It’s hard to turn down a nicely designed gaming shirt from a place like Target, which is always super cheap. I’ve bought several in fact, including a “distressed” Pac-Man design and “Triple Threat,” one with three of the four ghosts from the original Pac-Man. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. These shirts have faded and cracked after only a few washings.

Turns out you can find a good selection of Pac-Man shirts online and buy them right from Namco, but if the quality is no better than what was at Target, maybe you should pass.

Hot Topic.

Don’t get me started on how much I hate the mall. That said, Hot Topic doesn’t suck as much as they used to. Either that, or I suck now too, so now I like going there. No matter.

Hot Topic has a surprisingly huge selection of gaming-related shirts for sale. I’ve seen Leeroy Jenkins shirts, Nintendo franchise shirts, and lots of great retro shirts with fine pixel art. One of the nicest I’ve seen there is this one with some of the Four Swords concept art on it, which also makes me think of a Penny Arcade comic.