Virtua Fighter 5: Gut Check Time

Well, fellow online VFers, the real test arrived this week. We must all step our games up in order to continue any success we've been enjoying since VF5 Online released in October.

The Japanese have arrived.

A lot of players, particularly the most skilled or just the most confident, welcome the deeper and more vast competitive pool. After all, for many of us, regular matches against Japanese players are what we've craved for years. Others may be intimidated by the heightened level of competition, but that only underscores an unfortunate cultural discrepancy.

Too many players over here don't grasp the concept of player development, of starting weak and growing strong. Instead, out of some misguided pride factor, they feel they must either dominate immediately or spare their pride and leave just as quickly. To them, the rewarding long-term sense of having developed into a high quality tournament player is outweighed by the short-term damage to their pride, leading to the then-inevitable "why even try?" mentality. No guts. Disgusting.

This is maddening! It cripples the North American competitive pool permanently, because it makes it nearly impossible to get new players into games. We've barely progressed at all since the Street Fighter Alpha 3 World Championships nine years ago, in which we fielded 62 competitors to Japan's 10,000+!

It's not an absolute. Virtua Fighter 5 Online has done a decent job of pulling already-good players out of the woodwork, but there has already been a distinctive drop in players on the western side since the Japanese got their copies of the game days ago - most of the American players still here appear to be from the VFDC community.

It's truly unfortunate. Something will give; either American players will cowboy up, finally see what a great thing we have going here with Virtua Fighter, and accept how player development actually works, or they'll go back to their first-person shooters and continue pretending this whole fighting thing isn't really a part of the gaming world.

My hopes and expectations are quite opposite in this regard.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast

Street Fighter (EX)IV Aftermath

Street Fighter IV Unveiled

"...we can confirm that the game's graphics are polygonal but the gameplay is strictly 2D."

That's the nice way of saying it. I prefer: Welcome to Street Fighter (EX)IV.

The development team back in Japan now has Mount Everest to climb. There's a whole worldwide community of fighting gamers out there who have every reason to believe that there's absolutely no way a good Street Fighter game can be made without using a pure 2D engine - that is, graphics and gameplay alike. Even if it's technically possible, there's no way any team would put that much time and effort into simulating the 2D gameplay to that degree.

Right?

That's what they're up against. The amount of time, energy, and passion needed to take a 2.5D fighter and make it play like it's purely 2D will be astronomical, and that's what is ultimately going to be asked of this crew by the players. I once said that there was no amount of money you could pay me to be Smash Brawl lead designer Sakurai Masahiro right now, but he has it pretty damn good compared to this Street Fighter IV development team, which appears to be in a lose/lose situation. Fail to produce a fighting game that's up to par with expectations, and get laughed out of the genre. Succeed, and be sick of game development for life by the time it's all over. I really feel bad for them.

I still want to believe that this game can be good, but the big question is really, just how much effort is Capcom willing to put into Street Fighter IV to keep it from being "Street Fighter (EX)IV"? The answer, whatever it may be, will most definitely have far-reaching consequences for the genre and the only flagship series it has ever known.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast

Thoughts on Street Fighter IV

Just a quick disclaimer. Before I say anything here, I want to make it absolutely clear that I really, really want Street Fighter IV to come out and be one of the greatest 2D fighting games of all time...

...but the point of the post is, I just don't expect it. At least not right away. There's just too much playing against it.

From the looks of it, for one thing, just by reading between the lines, Capcom doesn't seem too high on the idea of releasing a full-scale and high-profile 2D fighter in 2009 or whenever it's coming. It is already well-established that Street Fighter must be 2D - and not even 2.5D will do - in order to work properly. You just can't get that same functionality any other way. Street Fighter EX was a good try. Yes, a good try. That fact alone should say everything.

But even if you look past dimensions, there's a greater problem facing Street Fighter IV, or at least, the game "Street Fighter IV" currently refers to. The simple fact is, you never get Street Fighter right the first time. Street Fighter IV will undoubtedly suck. Just like World Warrior sucked, just like Warriors' Dreams sucked, just like New Generation sucked. The quality will come in the inevitable upgrade kits, the games that will eventually take over the Street Fighter IV moniker, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Ideas must be tested. Testing produces upgrades. Upgrades produce quality. If upgrades couldn't happen, we would live in a world devoid of good fighting games. We would have never had Super Turbo (or even Hyper Fighting), Alpha 2 or 3, 3rd Strike, or many other fighters we enjoy today. Regardless of how Street Fighter IV turns out, it will have to be fine-tuned and grow just like any other fighting game, especially one that bears the Street Fighter brand.

By no means am I saying it will never happen, but it's way too early to get excited, especially when doing so basically overlooks upcoming titles like Super Turbo HD, Tekken 6, and SoulCalibur IV. All three of which we will most assuredly be playing in 2008, all three of which will most certainly be more polished than an inaugural Street Fighter installment (at least, provided Namco doesn't seriously screw SoulCalibur up again).

That's just history talking. Not me.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast

Thoughts on Super Turbo HD

I'm sure I'm not the only one keeping track of the STHD info seeping out of Capcom-Unity and Sirlin.net these days. Those first few updates really didn't do the scope of this game justice. Seeing what has been done to give T.Hawk and Ken that extra needed boost in the sixth edition of Street Fighter II clearly shows the care going into this game.

I already play four characters in ST myself (Ryu, Dhalsim, Balrog, Zangief), but looking at the fine-tuning so far, I'm really excited to give STHD Ken a shot. He seems to be the "expert shoto" in the mix this time. Not so big on fundamentals as Ryu (who has always been specifically built toward fundamentals), but lots of nice bonuses. There seems to be a greater risk to making mistakes against Ken this time around, and his potential stun output is absolutely terrifying. This makes at least one character I don't traditionally play that I'll have to take a good look at in STHD.

The other interesting thing about STHD Ken, and T.Hawk for that matter, is that they really show you the depth of the changes being made to this game. Sirlin did not say "sixth version of Street Fighter II" lightly, nor did I ever believe otherwise. However, now that we're seeing these changes on paper, there are some other specific characters that will be very interesting to watch as more information gets out.

I'm not sure if anyone could have seen T.Hawk's Diving Hawk changes coming, or Ken's Roundhouse Hurricane and across-the-board Dragon tuneup. So what's in store for characters like Cammy, Feilong, and Chunli? Along with the tournament-tuned Akuma, they will probably be the most interesting to watch as the coming weeks bring us more information.

This one has the very real potential to be the fighting genre's gold standard. ST, back in 1994, came very close and was arguably the best thing around until the likes of 3rd Strike and the later Virtua Fighters surfaced. If the balancing efforts being made in STHD yield a game with enough balance that all characters can at least be competitive, Street Fighter II will certainly reclaim its rightful place at the top.

This is where the attention should be, as opposed to Street Fighter IV, which is clearly over a year away from even existing, and probably at least two years away from being any good (some of you know what I mean, and I'll be posting on that soon). We know what we're getting here and we know it'll be good.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast

Evolution

The song itself holds no competitive meaning with its lyrics. An outside observer with a handle on Japanese may just wonder why people can get such a charge out of a completely unrelated J-Pop song beyond the name. Musically, however, Ayumi Hamasaki's Evolution blends perfectly with just about any competitive fighting game, and has been packaged as such for years. For many, just hearing a clip of this song can get the tournament fires burning. In fact, on my way to work one morning, I had my iPod land on Evolution suddenly. The result was immediate - I really wished someone would hand me an arcade stick and point me to the nearest game console running Virtua Fighter 5 or Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

Even to those familiar with the song's invigorating effects, it might seem strange that a player could get in the tournament spirit in early December, most likely still more than nine months removed from the next Evolution World event. Either these are newer players who haven't really gotten into the competitive swing of things, or they're simply the ones accustomed to taking six months off after every year's Evo. To the rest of us, sometimes the truth feels like a well-kept secret.

Evolution is underway right this moment.

The players who are currently departing Philadelphia as I type this, having attended the Northeast Championships this weekend, understand perfectly. How you prepare in December and January will very directly affect how you perform in July and August.

A more tangible, far-reaching testament to this fact actually happened throughout the year. Many players picked up PlayStation 3 consoles for the outstanding one-two punch of Virtua Fighter 5 vB and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. On the VF side, many other players criticized those who bought in, with an Xbox 360 version then slated for an August (eventually October 30th) release, complete with online play.

A good chunk of the community got in on the ground floor with the PS3 version anyway, while many others held out for the online version on the less expensive Xbox 360. The result was obvious; the players who played from the start, back in February, were far better-prepared for the online competition with a much more complete overall game than the people who waited until the Fall.

Tournament play is the exact same type of creature, and to an even greater extent. Without exception, the earlier you get started, the better prepared you will be when the big one rolls around in August. Even new players can get something going on that kind of timetable.

Whether it's NEC or just some nice solid rotation play in your living room with some friends, getting your game sharp early will give you more opportunities to expand on it throughout the tournament season. The players who start earlier will have the better chances to grow, and less post-Evo downtime with which to get rusty. What do you consider the real advantage of the single-event Evolution gathering turning into the Evolution Championship Series in 2006? This isn't just so we can have some early Evo-endorsed events, it's to get players better prepared earlier on than they were.

The spirit of Evo is far more than just five tournaments throughout the year. The spirit of Evo extends to any time players are making themselves better, whether it's at a tournament like NEC or Final Round, a local event in a mom-n-pop game store, or just three or four players making themselves and each other better with some console rotation play of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection or Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike on a Friday night.

Understanding that, and developing that ability to feel a true sense of competitive excitement regardless of what the calendar tells you, is a big step toward enabling yourself to become either a serious tournament player or a better tournament player.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast

Evo World 2007 and Fighting 101

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the Evolution World 2007 recap in Pro Gam3r #2. I know it could have and should have been more robust, but given the conditions, it was really the best we could have gotten before press time.

Basically, I wasn't even staff a week before press time. Abe Zarran and Jarod Reisin came to me the Tuesday before print (which was to be that Friday), telling me they needed a really fast Evo results piece. I had been out of the loop for nearly a year because of work and school, had not attended Evo, and had no idea what had happened there, but I agreed to bang it out as a pure research piece with the help of Kayin Wolf (my only available source that day). The four-page feature you saw in issue #2 was the result after seven hours of research and discussion. I am now the fighting writer for Pro Gam3r Magazine.

I have since gotten my Evolution 2007 DVDs, and it put a lot of things in perspective. If I had it to do all over again, I would have certainly put a lot of emphasis on Tokido's Vega (WOW!), Mike Wakefield's Makoto, and Myke's Kage, among so many other great performances at the event. Next year's piece will be done right, I promise.

As an aside, it was absolutely surreal watching the 3rd Strike finals. Mike Wakefield's Makoto, which I just mentioned, made it really hard for me to digest the fact that 3S is simply something I'm not a part of anymore. I've had those matches with Alex Valle myself (my Makoto vs whatever Valle felt like throwing at me), so I really got into that series in particular. Respect to Wakefield for the great performance there, really made me miss this game.

On to issue #3...

Just this morning, I submitted the final draft of "Fighting 101: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Original eSport" to Jarod after getting Myke's blessing on some of the more technical aspects of the feature. I really feel strongly about this one - it's specifically aimed at the Halo/CounterStrike/Starcraft/Guitar Hero/etc crowd, and for many of them, could be the first exposure they ever get to fighting games. I handled it with the proper amount of care in that light, and the whole thing ended up taking me nearly a month to turn out! By the time it was over, I considered giving Folgers a mention in the special thanks at the end of the article!

Fighting 101 will include a Cliff's Notes on the history of competitive fighting games (Evo in particular), brief details on ten of the current competitive titles, a look at four upcoming games, a section on basic strategy/psychology that I feel really strongly about for newcomers, hardware advice (sticks), and of course community links to places like VFDC and SRK. I treated this article as if it were the most important fighting piece to ever reach print, and I hope it really ends up being exactly that. I don't know what kind of layout we're dealing with yet, because I haven't seen what the artist has in mind, but this has 16-page extravaganza written all over it. I hope you guys enjoy it.

I will also do a write-up on NEC8, which is going on as I type this, but I've yet to decide on an exact way of covering it in light of how much they actually get done at this event. I mean, I've already broken 10000 words once for issue #3, and it took a lot of caffeine to make it happen! I'll be a slave to the bean in no time! :)

It feels strange being this excited for articles that won't even be published until after New Year's, but I can't help it. I firmly believe in this magazine and everything we're doing with it, and I really can't wait until you guys see #3 for yourselves.

See you in the arena,
Patrick aka Neobeast