8 posts tagged “street fighter”
Before Capcom's gamers day event, I had never been to the Broadway side of San Francisco. So you can only imagine my surprise when I showed up about 30 minutes early and realized that the entire street was nothing but strip joints. Luckily, my good friend Justin from GameTrailers (part of games journalism summer camp) showed up along with some other good folks to prevent me from wandering into a house of naked ladies. I also realized that I should either (a) spend more time in the rockier regions of San Francisco or (b) take up DDR again. My shins are killing me.
My time last night was torn between the spot on Attack of the Show (which went well enough) and Capcom's event, but once it settled down the business end of it was great. I finally got to chat at length and in-person with my buddy of mine at Capcom regarding his current projects, as well as some things we've got cooking in the future.
Beyond the points that are only of interest to me, our discussion revealed some really great, needlessly hardcore little bits of information regarding two of their announced titles, mainly Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (good lord) and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (my god). I guarantee you that I'm the only person ridiculous enough to get down to the business of frame data in my previews. Monkeys with press releases be damned. Times like these make me glad that I have to be my own editor.
This weekend though, I feel like I should get down to the business of actually playing some games outside of the norm. There are two new maps for Halo 2 coming out that need some attention, as do my skills. I know my aim is totally screwed up by now. I've also been really itching for some Marvel vs Capcom 2 and I can't explain why. Must have been all that Dark Prince, Clockwork drama.
Aside from making mudslide's and mojito's, Shelby and I spent our New Years Day watching a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon and playing bad fighting games. It has become something of a tradition with my fighting obsessed friends as every New Years Eve we gather around the television, cast away the typical 3rd Strike marathon and indulge our guilty pleasures. This year, we seemed to only have one hit on our hands as my good friend Mikey picked up a copy of Street Fighter: The Movie for the Sega Saturn the previous day. We've had the Playstation version of it floating around for ages, but the Saturn edition is special.
Unlike its Playstation brother, the Saturn version of Street Fighter: The Movie is a port of the arcade version, where the Playstation game is a bastardized version of something that could have already been considered an act of video game terrorism. It is, how do you say, a more pure experience. It is also a hell of a lot more fickle than we remembered as you can see from the video above. We found it near impossible to accomplish much of anything and I don't think any of us could blame the Saturn Nights pad we had on hand. Fisticuffs in Street Fighter: The Movie are about as graceful as a polar bear on Cabaret.
Also on the playlist for the evening was Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls (SNES) and Brutal: Paws of Fury (SNES) which, contrary to my memory, does not seem to feature any special moves whatsoever. If I wanted play Tekken for retards, I could have just popped in Primal Rage, you know. Missing in action this year was the abyssal Virtua Fighter 2 port for the Sega Genesis. While the original Virtua Fighter for the 32X was available, that wasn't actually half bad, even if the original game itself isn't worth playing today.
There is something so undeniably enjoyable about getting a group of fighting enthusiasts together to try and make something out of these shameful moments in gaming. All logic goes out the window as abusive technique and outside the box thinking becomes your only weapons. I don't think playing Bio Freaks will ever improve my Virtua Fighter game, but at least its good for a laugh.
The fourth annual ____ Of the Year Awards are upon us! A celebration of the past year in gaming, the awards pay tribute to the games that truly excelled at their craft, as well as those that probably should have never of been released. The awards managed to get Slashdotted last year, so maybe this year someone will just come and throw a rock through my window. Who knows. Let the ceremony begin!
Game of the Year: Viva Pinata (360)
Runner-Up: Elite Beat Agents (DS)
The most underrated and important title this year, Viva Pinata exuded raw brilliance that few games can match. It single handedly redeemed Rare as a competent developer and provided the XBOX 360 with something beyond shooting space marines in the face.
The media loves to pick apart Viva Pinata for missing its primary demographic, amongst other superfluous complaints, but the bullying is never for anything related to the actual design of the game. With incredibly addictive gameplay and depth to spare, Viva Pinata stood head and shoulders above all other titles. I've said it before and I'll say it again. . If you don't like Viva Pinata, you simply have not played it.
Portable Game of the Year: Elite Beat Agents (DS)
Runner-Ups: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS), Daxter (PSP)
A game that a nation of a million Japanophiles couldn't hold back, Elite Beat Agents not only scored with camp value, but it also managed to best it's Japanese counter-part, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan in every conceivable way. That last bit of hype may be hard to swallow for some, but you're also probably white and, news flash, you'll never be Japanese.
Online Game of the Year Uno (360)
Runner-Up: Myst Online: Uru Live
This is the part of the awards where you start to say to yourselves, "You know? 2006 wasn't that great of a year." With games like Gears of War lacking in functionality and half of the free worlds population still playing World of Warcraft, it was up to freakin' Uno to pick up the slack. No offense to Uno, because it's great. . but seriously, Uno?
Action Game of the Year: Dead Rising (360)
No runner-up here. Raw action games were tough to find amongst the hybrids of shooters and adventures and whatnot, but Dead Rising picked up the slack. It's the ultimate homage to the zombie films of yesterday and despite a few flaws (running and shooting anyone?), wading through a crowd of zombies with an umbrella is nothing but sheer joy.
Shooter of the Year: Gears of War (360)
Not to take away from the brilliantly crafted Gears of War, but this was an ugly year for shooters. The Tom Clancy titles, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six couldn't create an identity of their own. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 would have been great if Episode 2 were right around the corner. . but now it's simply Half-Life 3 in chunks. Prey. . anyone remember Prey? Red Steel? Hah. I'm just messing with you. This was definitely not a good year for shooters.
Adventure Game of the Year: Okami (PS2)
Runners-Up: Bully (PS2), Tomb Raider Legend (360)
Seeing as how Zelda was too busy being the exact same game you've played ten times over (now with waggle-tech!), Okami filled in quite nicely. It also just so happened to be Studio Clover's first great game! Pow! Suddenly, throngs of manchildren have lifted from their seats, wiped the nacho residue from the fingers and declared war.
But seriously, Okami is great! Really!
Role-Playing Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)
Runner-Up: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
Last year, Dragon Quest VIII took this honor as the first Japanese RPG since the SNES days that I actually liked. This is, obviously, the return of Western muscle as the flagship of the cause floored just about everyone. Horse armor aside, Oblivion has also been used as the trial and error monkey of microtransactions, but even those have turned out fine.
Racing Game of the Year: Pocketbike Racer (XBOX)
Again, 2006 was seriously not that great of a year for games. With the exception of Namco-Bandai's The Fast and the Furious, I was not compelled to play a racing title for more than 15 minutes this year. And I love racing games. So why did the best one have to come with a double Whopper? It's just not right!
Sports Game of the Year: Fight Night Round 3 (360)
Runner-Up: SmackDown! vs Raw 2006
Typically known as the "NCAA Football Award", this is the first year that it has not won this award. Fight Night, aside from being the proving ground for "Next-Gen Gaming", Fight Night rebounded from a disappointing Round 2 to deliver a truly spectacular experience.
Fighting Game of the Year: Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (PS2)
Unfortunately: We're still playing more 3rd Strike than anything.
The fighting genre is effectively dead. You could count all the fighting games released this year on one hand, including this import gem, Melty Blood. Sure, less people play this in America than Virtua Fighter, but we'll worry about that one next year.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for the Special Awards! Who will take home the coveted P.N.0.3 Award for Worst Game Ever? What was the quote of the year? Which comment will have fanboys and manchildren alike booing and hissing from their mothers basement? Find out tomorrow!
What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.
Ah, a generic video games QotD! I'm going to be anal and split this up between my current top five and my all-time top five. Both of which are in no particular order.
Current Top Five Video Games
- Viva Pinata - Rare, XBOX 360
- Elite Beat Agents - iNIS, Nintendo DS
- Marathon 2: Durandal - Bungie, Mac
- Gears of War - Epic, XBOX 360
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - Square-Enix, Nintendo DS
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Capcom, Arcade
- Super Mario Bros - Nintendo, NES
- Halo 2, Bungie, XBOX
- Sam & Max: Hit The Road, Lucasarts, PC
- Mars Matrix, Capcom, Dreamcast
Halo 2 in there is obvious. I believe I've blogged about the impact that Sam & Max made on me as a kid growing up so we don't need to go into that. And while I'm nowhere near being some insane Dreamcast fan that won't let go, Mars Matrix struck the perfect balance between being a ridiculously hardcore shooter while not being overly pretentious.
Thanks, Mileena.
I am a horrible monster. Like a shark under the spell of fresh blood in the water, I can not deny my most carnal of urges. Though unlike the great white predator of the sea, taking in such wounded prey is met with a particular amount of discomfort after the deed has been done. Call it indigestion -- like feeding a new born terrier a pound of chocolate. The blood thins out, the heart muscles stop functioning and bile is all thats left to erode the innards.
I returned to Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting tonight. I have now lost half a star of reputation. Don't eat the chocolate, it's delicious.
After the fiasco that was my last bout of Street Fighter II on XBOX Live, I swore never to return. I had done well on that promise but unfortunately, there was a patch. Chris called me out on his blog concerning the reason as to why I quit in the first place. The reason why I quit was because I grew tired of having my reptuation -- governed by an eBay-like system -- on XBOX Live be tarnished. What this update did was "fix" the problem concerning how the game deals with those who disconnect in the middle of a match.
What it did was make things worse.
Now, instead of no one going punished for such a cowardly act, both parties involved in the matter take a loss to their records. Once again, this is a case of the lowest scum on the Earth running the show on XBOX Live as now it is in best interest of all jerks to simply drop with every impending loss.
If I die, you're going with me.
Moreso than any other type of game, the fighting game always brings out the absolute worst in gamers. As someone who has had a knife pulled on him over a game of Street Fighter II CE, I can attest to this. Granted, everybody hates to lose, but what is it about fighting games that bring out such pure anger? Could it have something to do with a rough gaming childhood, consisting of nothing but merciless beatdowns from older siblings? Or could it just be the personal nature of the genre being pushed to a frightening extreme by the user? Regardless, thanks to these baffoons, I have taken a hit. I have done not a single thing wrong.
I know that I haven't done a single thing wrong because for the past week I have not only been in the Family gamerzone (Uhg), but I have also altered my privacy options on XBOX Live. Now, unless you are on my friends list, I can't hear nor recieve any sort of communication. It has made my experience much more enjoyable (A complete lack of human contact. Imagine that), but you don't exactly pay $50 dollars a year to be a virtual hermit.
While I won't be returning to the Street Fighter landscape anytime soon, my never ending love-hate relationship with XBOX Live will endure. Nights like these only serve to increase my anticipation of the Nintendo Wii, as Nintendo's online service will more than likely be a dearth of communication, much like the online world of the Nintendo DS.
When I was eight years old, a group of wannabe Filipino gangsters dragged me out of a bowling alley arcade and pulled a knife on me over a game of Street Fighter. Not to say that I was some sort of gaming savant growing up, but I knew how to play one mean Guile in the times of the M.Bison bicycle loop. I also didn't know how not to play in a shady area of San Jose. These punks in their late teens thought that I was joking around when I accepted their hussle. After the match, I questioned his manhood and the size of his balls for not paying up when he lost. I never did get another match with the misanthrope, but I also didn't get stabbed over a few good traps. Fair trade.
This is what I think of every time some poor smuck decides to open his mouth over a game like Street Fighter. I had to play in that god awful bowling alley because it was the only competition I could find where people would actually play me like a human being. Meaning, they didn't cry like little girls when I threw and they didn't call anything cheap.
Cheap. That fucking word.
I shouldn't be surprised by the actions of those playing Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting over XBOX Live. If you recall my last entry on the subject, I'm really not happy with the conversion, and it's even worse online. Still, I can not resist the smell of fresh achivement points. I shouldn't be surprised because the current crop of online players are the exact demographic Microsoft is gunning for. The type of people who will look at the game and go, "Street Fighter. I remember that!" and immediately jump online, completely unaware that the scene has evolved.
I believe I have filed more harassment complaints today than all my time on XBOX Live put together. It is, in a word, pathetic as to the actions some people take over such simple matters. Some will scream at a simple throw (Which just results in nothing but tick-throws from me). They will disconnect at the sight of a perfect round. Some will just pick one of the three mashers (Honda, Chun, Blanka) the next time they see you and pray that the gods of latency are on their side.
It's pathetic, really. Unfortunately, I expect nothing less from the XBOX Live community.
That is the world of ranked matches. Last night, Chris and I took on a variety of challengers in a quarters match lobby and it was actually a lot of fun. We got a few serious competitors but it was still all for laughs. For once, it actually felt nice to play with a random group of people who actually enjoy the spirit of the game and not for reasons of serious business. It was the perfect example of how I wish the community as a whole would handle themselves.
Civilized human beings.
It's incredible as to the beating a mass of people can take in the name of blind devotion. Severe blunt trauma comes in the form of solid and factual information. Deforming laceration by means of past experiences. You can lead a horse to water but sometimes you can't beat it to the point where the blood forces it to stop fucking drinking it.
After a completely obscene amount of delay, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting made its way onto the XBOX Live Arcade tonight. It is awful. This should come to no surprise to anyone, but some people just had to take the dive.
Much like Frogger before it, I am completely stunned as to the complete lack of quality found in Hyper Fighting. This is a sixteen year old arcade game. We have in our possession technology that is so far beyond what was available sixteen years ago that they might as well have powered that arcade cabinet with a hamster wheel. There is absolutely no excuse as to why we can not get a perfect recreation of this at home.
Let me repeat that. There is absolutely no excuse as to why we can not get a perfect recreation of this at home.
There are two parties to blame in this whole mess. Firstly, there is Microsoft. Having put into place the same style of rigid requirements for any and all games appearing on XBLA as they do with your standard XBOX 360 game, Hyper Fighting passing this certification process is baffling. With a constant stream of reports that online play is nowhere near playable (As well as riddled with bugs), it should simply have not have allowed to be available.
Then, of course, there is Capcom whom in all their infinite brilliance decided it would be a smart idea if they out sourced this project to a smaller developer (Sensory Sweep) and gave them the task of emulating the already shoddy Playstation version of Hyper Fighting. Clearly, Capcom didn't even get out of the gate proper with this job. Add on top of this the mulitude of bugs (The hilarity of getting my DOA4 arcade stick), even more broken gameplay (How did I just manage a 3-hit redizzy?) and of course, the ol' Capcom try at online play. This is your third strike at creating an acceptable online fighting experience (CVS2 and Anniversary for XBOX prior) and no one has forgotten the online failures that were Steel Battatlion, Resident Evil and Auto Modellista.
Enjoy your newly acquired mountain of XBLA money you lazy assholes.
I run with a very hardcore group of indivuduals. So when someone within the circle declares a barbeque in celebration of their birth, typically the first thing that shoots to my mind is, "Hooray for 3rd Strike!"
Tonight was no different as the usual cast of characters was assembled for a night of cooked meat, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and a round of the classic gaming all-stars. After a rousing 3 hour session of 3rd Strike, I had to take a step outside because it was getting hot in there. I mean this both in the sense of competitive spirit and the fact that global warming is doing it's best to melt anything that you consider a part of Northern California.
After my Hugo was done demolishing everyone (Including an amazing parry into a one-frame Gigas Breaker through another Super) I realized that I was actually sweating. This may be do to the fact that the 100 plus degree weather had found it's way indoors and there was just no helping it.
Returning to the fray, I interrupted the Beatmania IIDX session with a proposition. It was time to play, what I consider to be, the two most balanced fighting games of all time.
Karate Champ and Urban Champion. Why? Because you can only be one character. . The same one as your opponent. The former of which caused the room to burst into the Joe Esposito classic, You're the Best Around. The degree to which the film Karate Kid plays into my life is odd, at best.
This bout of NES classics took a turn past the fighting game hilarity that was the state of pre-SF2 gaming and into deeper roots. While I secretly wanted to play Caveman Games for money, instead I was faced with a trifecta of sports gaming, namely Jordan VS Bird, Arch Rivals and Tecmo Bowl.
Situations like this always make me think about our current crop of consoles. About how funny it is to have consoles with four controller ports, or the ability to hook up more than two controllers and yet, I can rarely think of a situation where I've been encouraged to do so. This is why services such as the XBOX Live Arcade will do well, regardless of how people feel about the horrific future that is the Microtransaction. It's because no matter how far technology evolves, it just seems to be that when you want a good, multiplayer fix, nothing seems to beat the 8-Bit Nintendo.
Kind of horrible, once you think about it.
