So my loving Street Fighter fans as well as all those guys girls and ghouls out there. Soon this year we will get the second edition of SF4 or as I like to call it Super Street Fighter 2 Alpha. This got me thinking about what should be abound for the next numerical sequel in the franchise.
I made a list at some of the things that would be great to have and not have in the franchise to help it grow and burn on instead of burn out like so many fighting game franchises today.
- Character Damage. This was done before its true but not in a Street Fighter game. I love to see cloths ripped, black eyes and maybe some teeth missing. Its a great visual ego boost to see the damage you dished out to an opponent.
- Less Old Characters Returning. I love to see old favorites come back but I hate to see them comeback every sequel with nothing added or taken away. It makes me think why bother getting the next game when its almost the same thing as the last one *cough* TEKKEN *cough.
- Background Interaction. I love it in fighting games when you knock an opponent through the wall or roof and get a whole new stage to fight on.
- Alot more fists and kicks. Now is the time to strip away the special moves and projectile attacks during the match. I like the Hadoken to be and Ultra Finisher only
- A Last Boss That is A Challenge. Bison and Geese were the final bosses I remember that were a real challenge to fight and not just some boss that was stronger or faster. Gill was not a bad final boss but his resurrection special was a bitch slap in the face of every SF fan. No matter how good you were Gill would come back and finish the job.
- A Real Story That Makes Sense. This is what I just cant understand in fighting games. Why is it so hard to make a story line for them. SF4 makes no sense and SF3 had a small (very small) story the characters endings didn’t make sense. That is why they need to ink out a full blown plot line before the game hits development.
- Better Stages. Why cant characters fight in more better stages like a bar or roof top? How about a mountain cliff instead of something so out of place like a frozen train yard.
- Better Combat Physic. I love to see characters really react to a certain punch or kick.
I remember this game on the PC and always hearing how kick ass it was. Too bad I never had the chance to play it during its hay-day. However, Thanks to Rebellion and Sega the franchise returns only this time its on consoles too. The multiplayer demo was just released and I have to tell you it was so much F, U, N!
Sure all you get is deathmatch and you don’t get to choose the type of character you want. That is OK because each character has its weakness and strengths. For instance Marines have the most fire power but they are slow and easily noticeable by their enemies.
The Predators also have fire power and can be cloaked until they get hit. The weapons while powerful are slow to use so its best to sneak up on prey rather then come out shooting lasers and razor sharp disks. My person favorite and biggest surprise is being the alien. They are really fast and agile like you wouldn’t believe. Not only that the can attack with an instant death move that fans will love. I also love waking on walls and dropping in unexpectedly on my enemies.
The game is just so much fun I cant wait for the full game. This might be a surprise hit of 2010 indeed!
This is it the winner of 2009! It was really difficult to pick a winner this year because gamers had a lot to be happy about in terms of games especially in the last few months. I talk to many others about the nominations I handed out but many often asked my why was Call of Duty MW2 taken out. Well that was my fault. See I usually rate game sequels based on their previous titles. With MW2 I did not, and I immediately pick it as GOTY material. However, after hearing some other gamers opinions about the game I rented COD4 and measured the positives and negatives.
It turns out that MW2 is slightly weaker then COD4. Some things that were in the game such as leaning around corners were taken out. I also felt the story was too much over blown in MW2. So it was because of that and other things that made me take it out. Sorry to all you MW2 fans but at least it won GOTY for other sites. I`m not saying that MW2 is a poor sequel or bad game. It is just my opinion that the game while great on its own I think I will stick with COD4.
Anyway time to announce the runner up. This game came out of left field. The first pics we got looked great but many wondered if it would look in action. However it made fans and gamers rejoice making this game a big time competitor for my GOTY. So the runner up is ……..
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM – I love this game and I congratulate the development team for their work. Its rare in this day and age that a movie let alone a game goes on par with the hype it generates. Sure its got its weak points but its a game that was a joy from begining to end. Well worth your money since on the PS3 you can also play challenge maps with the Joker and DLC was free.
SO now this is it the winner of 2009 Gamer Ks Game of the Year is………..
MURAMASA: THE DEMON BLADE – Like I said it was a very tough call between this game and batman. This game wins because its the stronger title in that graphics, sound, music, gameplay and fun factor this game wins a full house. Batman was great in its presentation but sour patches like the bosses and the backtracking is what gave Muramasa the edge it needed to win. Vanillaware took the elements from Odin Sphere that were strong and thrown out the weak to make a game that is a feast to the eyes, ears and pleasure sensor to all gamers that love action adventure platformers. I wise I could give an award to them for their brilliant work and I can not wait for their next game.
OK, Im back here to give you more awards leading up to my pick for Game of the Year in 09. So lets not waste much time and get to the next batch of awards shall we…..
BEST MUSICAL SCORE – Winner: Muramasa The Demon Blade, Reason: Sure alot of game scores were good but this one really got stuck in my head. It fits the game perfectly and has many tracks that set the ton and mood for the entire game. To be honest thou it was a close call with Final Fantasy 13 being pretty good in the music department.
BEST HAND-HELD CONSOLE – Winner: PSP, Reason: I love my DS, no I really do but lets call a spade a spade here, the DS hasnt had a strong list of titles in awhile. PSP is like the PS3 its a really late bloomer. With some already good games and still some on the way PSP is here to stay.
BEST MALE CHARACTER – Winner: The Joker, Reason: Really, this is a surprise to no one. The Joker in Batman AA was awesome! He looked as creepy as Health Ledgers Joker, and was voice acting by the man Mark F`N Hamill who was the last great animated Joker and second overall great actor playing the Joker. You have to love a villain that makes you love and hate him at the same time.
BEST FEMALE CHARACTER – Winner: Moiji (Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2), Reason: OK so why did she win over Bayonetta? Well both females are sexy, but it takes more than that to win my vote. Moiji was designed to as a simple female student of Ryu in Ninja Gaiden DS. This was about the time Igarashi was still head creator for Team Ninja and had built a reputation for designing over sexually women. So it was great to be able to bring her back in Sigma 2 and give her more character with a new look that much sexier but still keeps her reserved.
WORST MALE AND FEMALE CHARACTERS – Winners: Jim and Barbara Gordon, Reason: For all my love of Arkham Asylum the game is by no means perfect. Example is this father and daughter duo. It seems the only reason to have them in there was fan service. Really you could take them out and it wouldn’t matter. Not to forget the voice actor for Jim was so out of place. Why not have got the actor from the animated series? As for Barbara every time she came on the headset she spitted out some useless advice or didn’t know anything about anything. Or she was whining about her father being kidnapped and slows the game down for a few mins.
OK guys, girls and ghouls that is all for today. Next time I will list some of previous years Game Of The Year winners! Then you will get my pick for this years GOTY. Stay Tuned.
OK all you guys girls and ghouls the year is almost up and with the lack of sensibility in the gaming community I felt the urge to give out some awards myself. No there is no trophies or an award show. Rest assured though if I could I would. Anywho, here are some awards I like to give out just before I speak up on January 1st to give you all my GOTY for 2009. The Award for……
- WORST GAME COMPANY – Winner: Capcom, Reason: Street Fighter 4 and Mega Man 9 were OK. However, with the news late this year that Capcom was gonna release Super SF4 and MM 10 would be another retro sequel I felt the game community was being ripped off. Not only that but 3 big titles for Capcom got later release dates just because its the new trend of game companies.
- WORST GAME DEVELOPER – Winner: Lucasarts, Reason: OK, so The Force Unleashed wasn’t all that they said it would be right? Many developers talk big about their games and in reality they were lack luster. But, when Lucasarts announced the Sith edition of TFU many felt it would expand and fix many of the games issues. WRONG!!! It was if fact the same game with one new level. What they were spending too much time working on the promo video for TFU2 to make their original game worth 40 bucks? Assholes.
- BIGGEST SUPRISE HIT – Winner: Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma, Reason: I have to admit i didn’t love the first game. It was a waste of time and money to have bought the first Sigma game if you played or owned NG Black. I assumed NGS2 would have been the same. I was really wrong and felt badly it couldn’t be nominated for GOTY. Even if the story was not great, or some bosses sucked but hey nothing is perfect.
OK that is all for now but, don’t worry more awards and winners are coming and its leading up to this years game of the year for 2009!!!
Yeah I know I posted some time ago about why I don`t like FF13 but, I like to be fair and now that I`m spending some time with the game it has started to grow on me. So here are 10 reasons you like FF13 in no particular order.
- Graphics – They look very nice and clean. Great detail with no jagged edges as far as I know.
- Anime Inspired Characters – Yeah the characters all act like the same stereotypical characters but if you love anime you will like this game too.
- Same FF Story Progression – Villains try and take over, heroes join together to save the world. It sounds boring but its only half of the complete game experience and if you are not tired of that kinda story then jump for joy.
- Kinda Plays Like FF12 – There are some elements that fans of the previous FF will like. So don`t write off the notion that developers wished FF12 didn`t exists.
- Doesn`t Play Like FF12 – For those that really hated or just was disspointed with FF12 gameplay or story well you will be much happier with this game. Personally though I loved FF12 and anyone that thought it was disappointing because of gameplay is a tosser.
- GamePlay – Something old and something new in gameplay has been the reason Final Fantasy has been so successful.
- Female Characters – In any FF game their is always at least one female the boys can all drool over. This time we get alot of them. So guys better get some buckets ready.
- Male Characters – OK so their are many good looking female characters but, there is some male characters women and men will like. I personally like Snow cause he is not the whinny young male lead we seen in past FF games.
- Summons – Yeah so they can transform but, its at least something different and I can admire that.
- Game Length – I heard the game is between 60-80 hrs long. In this day and age RPGs would usually be a standard 40. So as long as the story keeps its pace it will be a great experience to have the game be longer.
Hello to all you guys, girls and ghouls! Time again for another installment of Wasted Franchises. If your new let me explain about this segment. See first off there have been alot of great game franchises over the years. Like everything I`m afraid, game franchises start to sour like milk and are either laid to rest or re-made later. Some franchises are still going on today but, because of gamers fan-dom they still buy the next lack luster title in the franchise they love so much. SO let get to the next entry shall we…..
I loved Mega Man since the very first game on NES. After that anytime I saw a new MM game at my rental store I rented it. I just about played all of the except some for the brick version of Gameboy. Currently the franchise has stalled because of public interest. The reason? Capcom took the revised Mega Man Network series and turned it into Pokemon with 80`s anime injection of over the top designs and lame story.
The franchise had already seen hard times before with the orginal series becoming weaker with its lame bosses and lamer story plots. In truth the franchise had been re-invented about 4 or 5 times. Lets look at the list….
Orginal Mega Man series – 1 to 10
Mega Man X – 1 to 8
Mega Man Network – 5
Mega Man Power Up – 1
Mega Man Legends – 2
That`s about all I can remember at this time. You can see that Capcom loved the blue bomber so much they kept on re-inventing the series for a new audience. Most had failed miserable. Some like the X-series started off great but then was wasted into mediocrity by terrible development. It was no surprise that Capcom took a last ditch effort to save the franchise by bringing out a new numerical MM game with a retro feel. It certainly worked but I can`t help but feel the franchise is on life support at this time. To fans delight though Capcom will make Mega Man hit a milestone with the 10 game in the original series. Do not hold your breath for anything special because Capcom listed the new bosses and some are way stupid. Looks like Capcom will never learn and as for Mega Man he get placed the the ward of wasted franchises.
I have come across many games that have had some good idea`s but poor execution. The Rygar game is a good example of what I`m talking about. The game had good gameplay and the style was great. But when gamers got their hands on the finished product with its liner gameplay mechanics, lack of enemies and lack luster story made worse with terrible voice/dialogue. The game was quickly forgotten and left out in obscurity.
Now we come to Dante`s Inferno! Slated for a release of early next year. Gamers finally got their hands on the playable demo. I was pretty excited myself because the story of Dante was always an intriguing one. My excitement quickly dissipated when I started to play for the first time. I felt as if I was play God of War! No, really that sums up the whole game. The way the combo system works, the zombie back stabbing enemy A.I. everything but the look itself was a GOW rip-off. Hell even the way Dante open the doors, pull switches, double jumps looks like it was directly taken from the GOW games.
Now some of you are thinking that the game being much like GOW is not such a bad thing right? Well let me ask you this? Are you gonna pay sixty dollars to play a game that is much like another game that will be coming out a few months later? Sure if the game is way cheap …say 25$ then I could make the statement that for a GOW rip-off 25$ is a fair asking price to hold gamers off till GOW3. But I know with the attention this game is getting (which I don`t know why now) the price will be the usual 65$.
My final word is SKIP THIS PIECE OF SHIT!!! Unless you can get it for 25 or less!
Gamer K