I am a Street Fighting “newb”. Back in my glory years (early ‘90’s), I played Street Fighter II here and there in arcades, but my true love was Mortal Kombat. There was something magical about a listening to a little Nirvana and terrorizing all of Outworld as a partially decomposed, resurrected ninja whose hobbies include throwing spears at people and burning them alive. Watching Ryu and Ken vie for status as world’s top fighter by throwing identical fireballs at one another just didn’t cut it for me.
Today though, I am caught in quite the quandary. My love for Mortal Kombat is in question. The folks at Midway released a number of uninspired Mortal Kombat games (for the record, Mortal Kombat Vs. DCU was a step in the right direction, but they have some more ground to make up) and have paid the price for their betrayal, recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the gentlemen over at Capcom have developed generally high quality games, such as the Resident Evil franchise and Dead Rising in recent years (zombie games kick ass) and perhaps the most exciting arcade game of all time, 1942, in the past.
Street Fighter IV continues in this tradition of awesomeness in many respects. The combat (with a “c” and not a “k”, unfortunately) is good, the 3D look of the characters is new and eye-catching, and the anime intros and conclusions are a great touch (even if there are, at times, shameful gaps in the story). My one complaint – I don’t feel connected to any of the characters. None of them stand out to me. Consequently, I have been unable to integrate one of them into my being (I typically spend 3+ days in a self-made smoke lodge in a secluded section of a wooded area somewhere, abstaining from food or drink, before a character bonds with me – it’s a religious experience). When I play Halo, I AM Master Chief. When I play Soul Calibur, I AM Mitsurugi. Unfortunately, when I play Street Fighter, I am NOT Sagat. I merely control his movements. My kicks lack emotional content. Maybe that is because I did not grow up playing Street Fighter. Maybe that is because the story sucks. Maybe the characters are unoriginal. Maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Still, I am not going to give up. I’m going to keep playing. Maybe the next player I unlock will be The One. One thing I do know is that I will never play this game online against people I haven’t met. If I have to play idiot after idiot playing as Ryu and only Ryu any more, I think I may just give up on video games forever. Learn a new guy, Internet! Seriously. Still, that's a subject for another blog.
Today though, I am caught in quite the quandary. My love for Mortal Kombat is in question. The folks at Midway released a number of uninspired Mortal Kombat games (for the record, Mortal Kombat Vs. DCU was a step in the right direction, but they have some more ground to make up) and have paid the price for their betrayal, recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the gentlemen over at Capcom have developed generally high quality games, such as the Resident Evil franchise and Dead Rising in recent years (zombie games kick ass) and perhaps the most exciting arcade game of all time, 1942, in the past.
Street Fighter IV continues in this tradition of awesomeness in many respects. The combat (with a “c” and not a “k”, unfortunately) is good, the 3D look of the characters is new and eye-catching, and the anime intros and conclusions are a great touch (even if there are, at times, shameful gaps in the story). My one complaint – I don’t feel connected to any of the characters. None of them stand out to me. Consequently, I have been unable to integrate one of them into my being (I typically spend 3+ days in a self-made smoke lodge in a secluded section of a wooded area somewhere, abstaining from food or drink, before a character bonds with me – it’s a religious experience). When I play Halo, I AM Master Chief. When I play Soul Calibur, I AM Mitsurugi. Unfortunately, when I play Street Fighter, I am NOT Sagat. I merely control his movements. My kicks lack emotional content. Maybe that is because I did not grow up playing Street Fighter. Maybe that is because the story sucks. Maybe the characters are unoriginal. Maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Still, I am not going to give up. I’m going to keep playing. Maybe the next player I unlock will be The One. One thing I do know is that I will never play this game online against people I haven’t met. If I have to play idiot after idiot playing as Ryu and only Ryu any more, I think I may just give up on video games forever. Learn a new guy, Internet! Seriously. Still, that's a subject for another blog.
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