With the recent release of Street Fighter IV, and with The King of Fighters XII and BlazBlue on the horizon, the next year is looking bright for gaming’s purest form of one on one competition.  The 2D fighting genre doesn’t garner the same respect as it’s 3D counterpart, but with the resurgence in popularity it’s sure to receive from the release of a new Street Fighter game, now’s as good a time as any to familiarize yourself with the high points in the genre’s history.  And they are, in no particular order:

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Street Fighter II is the classic that truly kicked off the entire genre.  HD Remix is a gorgeous update to the best version of said game.  As most gamers are aware, this game captured the arcade scene of the early nineties, devoured millions upon millions of quarters, and nearly made “shoryuken” a household term.  While the gameplay feels understandably dated (relying too heavily on a game of meaty attacks and reversals), it’s still the best fighter of its era and remains surprisingly playable to this day.  Whether you’re a SFII virgin or a seasoned vet, it’s certainly worth revisiting to see where it all began (in glorious HD, no less).

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For those of you that played it, what did you dislike most about Twilight Princess? Was it the bloom and brown that’s run the gamut of every title last year? Was it the completely useless items that muddled the reason as to why anyone would even call it a Legend of Zelda game? Was it the mind-numbing linearity and lack of side-quests outside of collect-a-thons? Or, perhaps, was it the lack of difficulty?

Well, chances are it was all of those things combined, but the whole easy-mode thing probably stuck out the most. There’s a mass of games falling prey to this idea, theory, and concept that games need to be far more accessible to help penetrate the market more. Developers around the world are doing research groups in order to meet the demands of people who will never play their games anyway.
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There’s a lot of heat passin’ around right now about the new Street Fighter IV that will be hitting home very soon. It’s received a lot of praise about the new graphical approach its taken, and in that respect its well-deserved. They’ve done 3D exceptionally. The primary factor that drives it above the competition is that it doesn’t try to be photo-realistic or gray and brown but instead achieves a wonderfully stylized vision that suits the series’s roots.

However, this post is actually about a franchise that is also being revamped. Granted, it’s a lesser-known series, but it still has a strong following. The King of Fighters has always held a place in my heart, at least. Whether it’s the ever-changing game mechanics that are fresh in each and every iteration, the sheer amount of characters that is ever-growing still, or even the sprites and animation that each have so much care, detail, and attention attributed to every single one, this fighting series has remained a strong underdog in this shrinking market.

With the latest chapter, SNK Playmore has taken it upon themselves to finally update the graphics from the more-than-a-decade old set they’ve been using for the last 11 or so games, in addition to other titles of theirs not a part of this particular series. Rather than going into the details of the full HD rendered sprites and the soft shadow and lighting effects, here is a fat truckload (go to page 2) of videos from the first location test for the game. I feel these three are the best.
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The upcoming Street Fighter movie may be set directly to rape all our childhoods (as well as make it its drug-addicted, amnesiac junkie of a crackwhore), but at least this latest trailer of the upcoming home version of Street Fighter IV isn’t. Farthest thing from it – it actually shows one of the best fights ever to happen in the Street Fighter storyline, and does it with as much style and as much finesse as only the series’ creators only could. Make no mistake about, this shit is legendary and will go down in history. It’s Gouken versus Akuma.

Created in the same stylized cel-shaded 3D animation with all the inkbrush strokes and splatters as in all the trailers, this excellent piece of eye candy depicts both Akuma and Gouken in a battle so fierce and violent that the earth literally breaks up around them, sending them into a fiery abyss. And even then they continue, trading world-quaking blows as if nothing had happened. Gouken seems to get the upper hand, but then Akuma reveals just how much of a magnificent bastard he is and does that move we all know and love.

Forget the Legend of Chun Li. If the studio could have just gone with CGI, maybe got some assistance from Capcom, then we’d have an awesome movie on our hands. It may not be more ‘Hollywood’, but at least you’d be doing the series the justice it deserves.

So if you haven’t heard of GoAnimate.com, it’s basically website with tools designed to easily create animations. The website includes theme packs to add characters and other works to your creations. One of those packs is Street Fighter, based on the popular video game franchise of the same name.

These packs are, of course, officially licensed, and Capcom itself hasn’t shied away from making use of the tools themselves.

The animations sure are impressive at the very least, and it’s nice to see Capcom continue to delve into the community, especially the American and European communities, which most Japanese developers tend to stay away from. Hopefully more developers and publishers will make similar attempts without jumping the shark.

Either way, Capcom continues to toy with my emotions.

It is no secret that both gamers and companies like remakes. While gamers like them because of the nostalgia, companies like remakes because of one thing: THEY PRINT MONEY! Cheap to develop, easy to sell, makes gamers happy, and it seems like a perfect plan, right? Wrong.

Pick a game that you want a remake, got it? Now think, you’ve already completed the game at least twice, you defeated the bosses, saved the world, the princess, etc., so why would you want to do it again? There are new games out there waiting for you, new tales, new battles, you see? A remake is never going to be as good as the original, mostly because that it’s not a full remake. (continue reading…)

Today, we have a few classics reborn, revitalized, and rejuvenated. They’re two similar titles with intense differences between them. I’ll get right down to it.

Notes on the Reviewer

The author (myself) is a fighting game enthusiast and has been following the material within this article for some time. He played the games in his youth, and does have a strong sense of nostalgia tied to his knowledge of the game lore within each. This is his favorite genre. He bought the first on hype, and the second after reading a review. Both games were played on the PS3.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix - The game is blistering fast. Every aspect of the game has you hurtling toward the speedy yet silky smooth battles that the game excels at. Those battles aren’t a cakewalk, however, as even on the “Easy” setting the CPU will put up a fair challenge, but the game has a very accessible online service that is just as fast as local play and offers a more equal challenge for those not up to the CPU.

It supports a beefy set of options that allows the player to customize the way it plays so that he can enjoy his particular play-style. The new HD remix mode offers some interesting balances over the original, but simplifies some commands that really didn’t need simplifications. This irks me somewhat–Zangief’s double 360 rotation is a staple to the series in all iterations–but I can see where this would be more inviting to new players.

Speaking of which, the game even includes several in-game help pages that offer some advanced play techniques and a practice mode that displays hit boxes to ease the transition a little more. With all the customization, though, it would have been nice to take the classic motions from the original game (which are included, but in their respective mode) and apply them to the HD Remix rebalance.

On top of that, the game doesn’t offer much in the way of a lengthy story mode aside from a handful of nifty redrawn ending slideshows, nor does it have any unlockables (press up for a toned down Akuma), but for $15, it’s hard to complain.

• Rundown - As an incredibly fast battle experience locally and online, this reasonably affordable fighter has several inviting features to introduce new players and the depth and classic challenge enthusiasts demand from a Street Fighter title.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – I had a difficult time believing that I actually enjoyed this game. It turns out, I do. This is the sort of revitalization developers dream of. It takes the things that made the classics good, and the things that made the new games good, removes everything that didn’t work, adds several new features, and creates a Mortal Kombat worthy of the franchise title, as hard as it is to believe.

The fighting system is based on strings of combos centered around a character’s style of play. The combos are much less akin to dialing a phone and feel a little more organic than previous installations. Even the characters all feel fresh and unique, especially the DC characters, who don’t feel out of place thanks to the clearly well-thought-out story.

The story mode, itself, has a lot of high points and a only few downs. Speaking for the high points, the cinematics work wonderfully. They’re written in a way that stays true to the series’s sense of chicanery and the comics’ lore that removes itself from the serious (read: GRIMDARK) tone of similar titles, while also doing a fair job at subtly explaining why Superman can lose in a fist fight to the Joker. Also, the characters animate amazingly with movements and facial expressions that stay true to life and stray for the oft mentioned robotic stereotype. The voice acting is better at times but occasionally is bad in a way that made me wonder why they would ever choose that actor for any role.

The graphics look great during the aforementioned cinematics, but some of the backgrounds just look ugly and plastic. In the same way, the actual in-game fight models aren’t as detailed as the cinematic models, but they still animate well enough and perform some classic MK animations I’ve come to expect. To be honest though, the female models look incredibly disproportionate and get hard to look at after a while.

Although there are very few unlockables (two characters), there’s plenty of other modes, including a decent online, that offer loads of challenges and trophies, even though the story is meaty enough to justify a purchase. The Kombo challenge is a good (but occasionally infuriating) way of learning the more advanced maneuvers such as the pro moves and other tight bits of juggling and timing. And even though the game is rated T for Teen, it still delivers much of the brutality I expect, pushing the boundaries while not going too overboard, which is almost refreshing, really. That said, the Fatalities and Heroic Brutalities are just OK. Still, for $60, the game offers a lot for everyone.

• Rundown – A rejuvenating entry, MK vs. DC provides a great story and solid gameplay with versatility and depth that one doesn’t altogether expect from a Mortal Kombat game, much less a licensed one. It’s a solid fighter that anyone should at least try.

So, of the two, which is better? That’s tough. They’re two very distinct games that deliver very different styles of gameplay. Street Fighter is all about countering and penetrating your opponents offense and defense, while Mortal Kombat is more about stringing combos on your opponent to keep them defensless and get them down faster. Then there’s replay value: SF doesn’t have the many modes nor does it provide a decent story mode, but it’s online is probably the best for any fighter of this generation. Mk has alright online, but it’s bevy of modes, including the excellent story mode, provide an exhilarating and unrivaled experience among today’s fighting games.

If it came down to it? I’d have to choose Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix. That $15 price tag is hard to pass up. Do yourself a favor, though, and still pick up MK vs. DC. Rent it, at the very least. It’s an excellent game that deserves the attention.

There’s no need to argue at length over whether or not games are art. It’s just like any other form of media.

No. Games are not art. Some are artful and transcend into a form of art in their own kind. As a whole, they are not.

In that same line: Movies are not art, music is not art, writing is not art, sculpture work is not art, and canvas work (aka art) is not art.

Art is a culmination of thoughts and intentions that are formed in some way physical, material, mental, or supernatural that the audience then recognizes and receives and perceives to be beautiful. This perception is based on recognizing the intentions and finding that they have succeeded, which indicates that art is subjective, of course. In very rare cases, intention is reversed due to a mistake on the artist’s part and by chance invents something new, in the way that new devices are often created.

For games, artfulness arises from completeness and wholeness. It is not the story that is the centerpiece (this is the first mistake for most). Video games are games, and in this regard they must be fun to be artful. They must offer full forms of gameplay that blend and uniquely exploit its own designs and complements its other parts, such as sound and story, which must then, in turn, complement the gameplay, effectively compiling a whole entity and not a set of pieces. Graphics do not need to be “artsy”, but they do need to complement the gameplay so as to fit to the game’s design. Likewise, the story has no need to “compel” the player to the point of tears or convince him of political standpoints. The story must, again, compliment the set of elements in order make the game complete.

• One example of art by intention is Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. In this case even the packaging is set up uniquely: there is so much to it, the game needs to be sold in two parts in order to deliver it effectively. The game offered a unique and interesting implementation of speed-based gameplay that blends with the fresh platforming on every level, sound design that plays to the theme and aesthetic of each stage while capturing the feel of the character of Sonic, a story that was quick and effective to offer just enough to drive the player and link the stages, and graphics that were as sharp and as fast the characters they portrayed. The game represents full-form art that has yet to be replicated today, that still has fans clamoring for more, and still elevates Sonic to a high, popular status despite his floundering as a character today.

• An example of art without intention (or by mistake) is Street Fighter II. The game was a pinnacle of fighting games, but what makes it artful is the glitch that allowed players to cancel out of attacks and into others, effectively creating combos for the first time, and essentially creating the fighting genre as we know it today. This–in addition to the excellent gameplay, unique fighters, memorable sound design, and fresh graphics–drove this game to the top of tournaments and reinvigorated arcades.

These are opinions, of course, and are relative to myself; I cannot claim them as absolute fact. If you disagree, then certainly post what you believe to be artful. Let me just first say that Okami does not immediately qualify as art. It is an imitation of an art form and an imitation of another game. By this design, it is not automatically excluded, but it lacks the other necessary components to drive it fully forward into the realm of art. Even so, It’s still an excellent game well worth playing.

Post your thoughts.