Street Fighter IV Review

Endless fun, but unfortunately poor online features.

I really wanted this to be the penultimate iteration of Street Fighter, but it's too bad that some poor online mode decisions are holding it back from that.

The game definitely is fun with very fluid controls and easy to execute special moves and combos. The new "systems" bring a nice new addition to my favorite 2D fighter. The Ultra Combos are snazzy and over the top but not annoying. Supers are just that supers. But really the greatest addition is the focus and EX attacks. The focus attacks will stun if hit when charged, and can help string together combos when used quickly. A really nice addition and adds a new level to the controls, that isn't tough to use like additions in previous versions (I'm looking at you parrying). As for the EX moves, they are special moves that are executed by using 2 buttons, and tend to do a bit more damage than regular specials. A good example for the EX moves is a good ole fashioned fireball fight. Throw out an EX fireball and it will cancel the opponents fireball, but another fireball will continue on the same path and make contact with your opponent.

If you've ever played a previous iteration of Street Fighter you'd be surprised how quick the muscle memory comes back to you. Right away you'll be pulling off special moves and even some of your old combos from previous games. The pace of the game is quite quick, and furious I don't think it feels anything like II, maybe more along the lines of 3rd Strike or the other fast paced fighters.

The selections for the characters are solid, the new additions are great and the choices from previous games in the series are solid (maybe just missing some Dee Jay, but that's a personal thing).

As for features, the Arcade mode is well Arcade mode, you need to play through it a few times to unlock all of the characters, and that is something that I'm not a huge fan of. The challenge modes are good addition, and offer a nice break from the online play. Trial helps learn you some new combos, Time Attack you need to progress through a certain number of fighters in the given time frame, and Survival you need to survive fighting a number of fighters in concession.

But really you're going to spend the bulk of your time with the online modes, which is by far the most enjoyable part of any fighting game, but the most poorly executed feature of this game. Essentially you only have the ability to play against 1 person online in either a ranked or player match... That's it! Where's the Quarter Matches? Where's the tournament modes? How can a 15$ game (HD Remix) get this so right and this 60$ game get it so wrong? This can be fixed with a patch, but why do I have to wait for a patch for basic online fighter functionality?

Overall I do love the game. Looks great, plays great and is a ton of fun. Unfortunately the online features cannot be overlooked and hold it back just the slightest amount. I'm really happy to see that 2D fighters appear to be making a comeback, dare I wish for a revisited Samurai Showdown?

8.5/10

I'm going to get back at this...

Even if nobody is going to read it!

I promised myself I would start blogging again, even if it is just a quick hit.

My first foray back into blogging will probably be some reviews of the games I've been playing lately:

Street Fighter IV
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
NHL 09
Ninja Gaiden II
Civilization Revolution
that should be a good start.. so stay tuned if you actually read this.

Long deserved update

Halo 3

So there was this little game release a couple of weeks ago, some people may have heard about it there was a little bit of media hype around it… of course that would be HALO 3. I thought I would put up my impressions of the game now that I’ve completed the campaign and played around a bit with the multiplayer. Most of my focus will be on the single player impressions mainly because I am absolutely terrible at the multiplayer. I think every time I’ve tried to play I’ve been either last or second to last in kills, both individual and team games, so I don’t play it that often. But enough about my personal pains. I will say and maybe this is biased because I am a huge fan of the series, but the single-player campaign more than filled my Halo need, also keep in mind that I played it through on Heroic (which everybody should do). The pacing is wonderful, those “OH S**T” moments where you get absolutely berated and out smarted by enemies are there, and they are there in droves. The AI which has always been a strong point for the series has been beefed up a bit I found. The brutes travelling in packs like before, but now they have smartened up quite a bit and will snuff you out and flank you if and when they have the chance, also there are a couple new flood that make life quite difficult on some of the later levels. If there is one minor gripe to the campaign, which is true for all the games in the series there is some backtracking, but to be honest the few times it happens it feels like you’re rushing out of a place to avoid it’s destruction. If there is anybody out there that is still worried about the graphics of this game, I’ll let you know while it is not Gears; it has this subtle beauty. The outdoor levels are lush and the indoor corridors, don’t suffer from too much repetition, oh and there’s a late level that is very “organic” that is stunning. I wish I got into the online stuff a bit more to offer my opinion to that but from what I’ve seen it is unbelievably deep: customizations, saved films, the Forge, and what I probably will play co-op. I have to give it a 10 from my experience in the single player, and the depth of the multiplayer options, there’s just too much to do here not to give it a great score.
10/10

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

I’m in the middle of this game but so far so good. I love the new control scheme; it just works so well for the DS and for a Zelda game in particular. If you haven’t heard yet, it is a little bit easy I don’t think it’s going to take me much longer to beat it, and there is no sense of accomplishment when you complete a puzzle because they almost blatantly tell you how to complete it. I’ll give a more detailed review when I finish it, but so far so good, easiness aside.

The Orange Box

I just picked this up on the week-end so not much feedback yet, Portal is awesome, I just hope that there is some replayability on it. I started Half Life 2, and so far an awesome experience, I don’t feel so far that I had to play the first game, but maybe further into the game some stuff might be lost on me.

Dying to play:

New section for me here’s a quick rundown of games released or to be released that I’m dying to play.

Bioshock (I made a promise to someone, and that’s all I say as to why I haven’t played this yet)
Mass Effect
Street Fighter 4
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Tiger Wii's The Way To Virtual Console Live Arcade Perfect Games

Wii, Wii, Wii, that's all that it's been for the last little while. Who would have thought that I would spend so much time with this system.
Still making my way through Zelda, I know I should have it done by now, but there was another game that came along and has swept me away, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. I fully acknowledge the issues with the putting / short game, how hard it is to hit mid-power shots, and the not so eye-pleasing graphics, but it is so much fun, I cannot put the remote/clubs down. As a long-time fan of the TW series, and I am what you would call a weekend golfer, I cannot think of anything more entertaining then swinging a virtual golf club in the middle of March (did I mention I live in Canada, and there are still a couple of weeks before I'll be able to hit a course). The one thing that the game is able to capture well, and it's very similar to real golf for me, when you hit that one sweet shot it feels really good, and all you want to do is replicate that feeling over and over again. I look forward to next years release, EA should hopefully have all the kinks ironed out by then. I highly recommend this years version for any TW fan or golfer.

Some other Wii highlights:

Virtual Console:

• Super Mario World - The game that blew me away me when I first saw it in 1990, still is tons of fun.
• Mario Kart 64 - Ahh the memories of long Kart 64 multiplayer session... the VC release does do the game justice, but something with the controls just doesn't feel right, use the GameCube controller.
• Kirby's Adventure - Never played this when it came out, thought it was kinda kiddish, boy was I missing out on a great game. Loads of Fun.
• Super Ghouls and Ghosts - Still as entertaining but as FRIGGIN HARD as ever.

Other Games:

• WiiPlay - Worth it only if finding remotes is as hard in your area as it is up here. Other than that nothing on this disc to replace or compliment WiiSports bowling.

Now as for WiiSports, I guess my crowning achievement came about 3 weeks ago. I BOWLED A 300... yep that's right a PERFECT GAME. I wish I had a digital camera, cause that picture would be up everywhere. In case you missed it I bowled a 300....

Oh the 360... I don't want to leave out the 360 I do still love thee, unfortunately just no games have come out since Gears that have really caught my attention. A friend of mine picked up MLB2K7, pretty awesome game, but unfortunately I do not have time to play 162 games of baseball to play a whole season. There are some highlights though.

XBOX Live Arcade:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Never owned a PS1 so I obviously missed out. Played a bit of it, and so far it's living up to it's hype. I mean fighting Dracula right out the gate, awesome design!
• Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting - Hadooken..... nuf said.
• TMNT 89 Arcade - Cowabunga, now this is something I remember dumping lots of quarters into. This will get lots of casual play.

Upcoming: (Starting this spring a bunch of titles are coming out by the end of the year, this lineup and others could make the 360 the system to have)

• Forza 2 - Screeeeeech, that's pretty much all you'll hear from my TV once this releases
• Mass Effect - fingers crossed for a summer release, BioWare = genius
• BioShock - not sure release date on this, looks pretty cool
• GTA IV - give us some info Rockstar
• Devil May Cry - not sure if this will come out the same time as on the PS3, tough break loosing this exclusive Sony
• Halo 3 - Oh and there's another little known game called Halo 3, supposedly the first 2 have been decent and sold alright.

Gotta run, I have a crazy left to right putt to make on the 18th at Pebble... Quiet please!

Been Months, but been playing

It has been months since I last made a blog entry and quite a bit has happened during this time. I believe last time I did blog I was talking about which next gen system I was going to pick up, 360 or Wii. Well I've got them both, and couldn't be happier.

The 360 I picked up almost right after my last post. Got a decent deal on a Premium package with NHL 2K7 and PGR3 for 447$ at Wal-Mart. Originally I was only going to check out the prices there, but saw this package and had to pick it up. But the real reason why I got the system was for a little game that came out in November, and that of course was the beautiful Gears of War. This game really did make it worth buying the system, while a little to short for my liking a great experience through and through that has replayability for sure. Other games I picked up along the way are the quirky, yet suprisingly very addictive Viva Pinata, a great way to just kick back and relax. Also picked up Tomb Raider: Legend for 20$ this was well worth it, this game is a ton of fun, just need to get past the crazy boss that I'm stuck on.

Now the Wii... when I saw people lining up outside the night before release, I thought I would never be one of those people. Well I was fooling myself, as the hype increased I new I had to get my hands on one. So over the Christmas break I found out that the local Best Buy was getting some on the Friday before New Year's, so I a friend and me (both of us had the week off) decided we would spend the night outside the Best Buy and pick one up. I don't think I would ever do that again, unless the release date is closer to the summer, yes it was friggin cold. We showed up at 10pm and discovered that this BB had 25 units, we were 7 & 8 in line, by 11:20 all 25 units were spoken for so we were glad we got there when we did. Don't really have any interesting line-up stories, I think everybody was too cold to do anything. So since I picked it up been playing bowling, I think it's the only game worth playing on Wii Sports (227 my best). Also Zelda playing tons of Zelda, I've played almost every incarnation of the series and yes this is the best so far, I couldn't imagine playing Zelda any other way than with the wii-mote and nunchuck. Downloaded the obvious ones Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, and Zelda, all of which I don't have copies of so this is great.

I'm gonna try to get back into bloging again on a regular basis, hopefuly I can tear myself away from the Wii-60.

Bored at work

A little bored at work so I thought I would do a blog entry, nothing really exciting going on, yeah I know TGS is happening, but maybe I'll do a round up once it's done and highlight some of the games that catch my eye. So this time I thought I would give a little round up of some games I'm playing right now.

Xbox:
Madden 07, now I am a firm believer that competition brings out the best in people, and I'm starting to think that it's true with this franchise. I am a HUGE NFL fan, and have been playing Madden and the NFL 2K series for a long time, and quite honestly I want the 2K series to come back. Madden seems to be stagnating, no real progression being made, I do still enjoy the game don't get me wrong, it's just not great anymore.
Fable, this game is taking me a long time to get into. I love the concept and you cannot deny Molyneux's impact on the industry, but I think what's holding me back from loving this game is the combat, it feels very clunky to me, in comparison to maybe Jade Empire (+++ Amazing game).

GameCube:
Eternal Darkness, I'm loving this game to, this is one I wish I checked out earlier. It's just that I'm stuck so I've put it down for a bit should go back to it soon. Great work from a great Canadian developer!
Resident Evil 4, now I really don't need to explain anything here the game is as good as everybody says, the new control scheme / perspective is excellent, just wish I could get past the part I'm on. Can easily see why it was Game Of The Year, if you own a Cube or a PS2 you are doing yourself a disservice not picking this one up.

DS:
New Super Mario Bros., it capture the magic of the first 3 in the series, easy pick-up and play mechanics, but can be tough to master. Some of the levels do challenge your platforming skills, especially to get all the items (3 worlds left to complete all the star coins).
Mario Kart DS, you can say all you want about Gran Turismo or any other of your favorite racers, but this series for me is by far the best multiplayer racing game out there, hands down. And this version of Kart is possibly the best ever, besides the Double Dash mishap (really only the courses were weak, I enjoyed the new 2 racer karts) this series continues to be one of the most entertaining ever, often imitated never ever duplicated.
Mario 64 DS, this is just basically a port of Mario 64, with a few additions. It plays suprisingly well considering the lack of an analog stick. This game may seem outdated now, but just remember the wow factor when it was released, it truly was groundbreaking.

PSP:
Nothing going on with the PSP right now. I would like to pick up LocoRoco, but it's a little pricey at 50$, maybe should trade some of my older games in. Also was looking at Mega Man Powered Up, looks like an interesting change of pace for the series. Maybe I'll check one of these out, before Vice City Stories is released.

360 or Wii, it's down to 2

So I've finally narrowed my decision down to 2 of the "next-gen" systems. It's either gonna be the 360 or Wii, with some consideration for the PS3 in the years to come (or at least once MGS4 is released). So here's a little breakdown of pros and cons that I have with both systems.

360:
Now being an Xbox owner, the "repeat buyer" instinct should have kicked in by now you would have thought. But alas it hasn't, why? Well I'm still waiting on the "I HAVE to play that" game for the 360. Xbox had Halo, and that sold me. Now in the coming months, there's Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Mass Effect, and Forza 2. I have a feeling that some of those games are gonna be must-play level (I know I should play Oblivion, I just don't have the time to commit to that).
The price of the games are a bit of a deterrent 60-70$ in Canada, wow. I'm someone that you'll routinely find in the used game section trying to seek out a game that maybe I passed on the first time around.

Wii:
I must admit I was a bit of a Nintendo fanboy growing up, and playing all of my old faves, and maybe some classics that I missed out on not owning a Genesis sounds quite enticing.
I love my DS, and the reason why I love my DS, it's different. Now I don't think that you can just make anything different and it's better, but Nintendo does have a pretty good record of innovating new interfaces to video games (analog stick, rumble, touch screen). So even though flailing your hands around while trying to kill a Metroid may look silly, I'm sure it'll be fun, and that's why they invented curtains.
Now a concern that I have with the Wii, besides maybe 3 games announced around the launch window there really isn't much else I want to play, I have a feeling that it may still be another year until the titles really start to come out.

So I'm guessing that it really does as always come down to the games available. That's really what's going to make the decision. Is there enough games to keep me busy and interested then I'll buy it!

So You Wanna Develop Games for the 360....

Now you can. Microsoft has announced the upcoming release of XNA Express, a free download for Windows XP users. XNA is a development studio that is to be given to the "real" development houses for 360 development, but now students, independents, and hobbyists will be able to create they're own games for the 360. Now the download is for free but of course there is a small charge of $99 to actually test and run you game on a 360. There was no mention of regular users being able to play these games, but I imagine if any of these titles become popular we would probably see a XBOX Live Arcade release. I'm really excited by this news, maybe now I will actually get off my but (or actually sit my butt down) and start working on something.

Can you believe we're 3 months away from all "Next-Gen" systems being released, and I still haven't decided which console to go with. The Wii is definitely intriguing as I love innovation, but will it take a year for quality titles to come out like with the DS? The PS3 of course is a powerful and exciting machine, I'm not completely sold on Blu-Ray (my DVD player works just fine), but Sony has the 3rd party support which is huge. As for the 360, well the titles are starting to come out this fall, with Gears of War and Mass Effect next year, and the price drop on the Premium package up here in Canada is nice. This is gonna be a tough decision!