This post brought to you by Atari Classics Evolved, now coincidently more British than ever.
Jumping right into the Street Fight podcast, the subject of the SNES controller comes up. If the old purple & gray had one advantage, it came from its thick shoulder buttons. Mapped to fierce, no questions asked.
My personal introduction to the series was in a theater lobby, where some older kids were grouping up whoever was interested. They were surprisingly gracious in teaching moves, signaling a new age of arcade competition. Before, it was single player or teamwork, but here it became a one-on-one showdown. You could read personalities just through playstyles, and comers of all ages preyed upon my seemingly innocent demeanor. Little did they know, a beast resided within my hear-aw, yeah right, they kicked my face all over town. Wasn't until Soulcalibur that my inner fighting demon, Pat, awakened.
Didn't stop me from playing in those early days. Every loss was close, and worthwhile. The charm of that era was sometimes in the legitimacy of a defeat, as compared to the juggling wankfests of today.
When the console editions came barreling down, the obsession spread like a Kuwaiti oil fire. Or a DC Riot, if you will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYeqEB9HDMThe oft copied bonus stages were highlights, and nights were spent aiming for secret endings by way of perfect playthroughs. Even today, some are convinced there is no singular correct way to pronounce Ryu. Unfortunately, instead of challenging
me, other players would waste my time attempting to prove their non-existent skills against the computer. Not once, not twice, but thrice had I spent the night with totally different players who had become hung up on CE Bison. They had to prove, to me of all people, that
they had the fighter's spirit zomg, not noticing that I already lay unconscious next to them. My interest waned, and by the time I stumbled upon a Super Street Fighter II Turbo cabinet, I had thought someone was playing a practical joke. You know, like NAFTA, or Ice Hockey.
Then the Major Motion Picture reared around with the lesser gore imitators, be it Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, or... Weaponlord.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNOf8VwvE7UThankfully, my interest returned after purchasing a strategy guide which featured pro interviews (Guile was thought to be the strongest character then) and loads of official art (which has since been given away in Dirty Santa, along with an official movie magazine and SF2 on Tiger handheld). So incensed was I to play one summer day, I ventured three miles in a hundred degree humidity for a copy of SSF2. When I returned, the cartridge didn't startup correctly until an hour after it had cooled down. The first PSX title I experienced to any true depth was Alpha 2, and it wasn't the improved animation or moves which grabbed my attention, but the character interaction. At last a fighter was attempting to immerse me beyond the gameplay, clunky quips and all. Once Alpha 3 for the PSX hit, it was all over. No fighter since has murdered as much of my time. The soundtrack was pretty kickin' too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdj6DXuCejYI've no inherent problem with fighters that opt to load on the characters, as I'll find one or two favorites either way. The problem with Street Fighter 3 was that the loaded on cast members were insultingly oddball to the determent of the rest. And this is coming from a freakin' Blanka fan. We went from Guile & Sagat to Necro & Oro, disgusting piles of meat that made bloated Zangief & leathery Dhalsim appear downright sexy. Character relation isn't just move sets and fan service, another virtue many current fighters have forgotten. It's design, believability by relation, and attitude.
Mortal Kombat, the series that initially understood this concept the best, came and went. Sure, everyone knew
of it, but the roller rinks & laundry mats weren't giving it anymore attention than the stained Pit-Fighter machine. However, by the time Mortal Kombat II landed, the phenomenon couldn't be ignored. EGM fueled the fires from the cover page, to the features, to the postal letter art, which once featured a Scorpion-clad Sonic the Hedgehog holding the gory dismembered head of Mario, eyes rolled back and all. Their throwaway comments on Shen Long & nudalities only served to further fan the flames. Mortal Kombat II in my area attracted a different crowd, a clear testament to its 'presentation'. Gang members and pimps alike would surround the machine throughout the day, but if you waited, you could play. Even with my respect for MKII's superior sound system and larger screen, the dusty 3-in-1 Samurai Shodown machine in the corner sucked up more playtime from my hours in-between Putt-Putt & Ski Ball. Why wait in line, when you had so many other choices flashing and beeping at you?
Then, we have everything jammed between. The Hi-Tech Expressions DOS-only edition of the original Street Fighter (that Parish mentioned finding in a bookstore) was dumped into big box stores the nation over, along with Mega Man 1 & 3, for the deceptive price of ten bucks. Controlling these mutant ports, however, would've been easier with a bucket of eels glued to your fists. Chun-Li Gets Naked and Beaten: The Home Video had a high profile rollout, complete with non-ending for further entries that never surfaced. And even when the series simmered down in popularity, the action figures were still moving off the shelves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYM137bXH2cThen: Mass Confusion. Street Fighter II: V. The USA Cartoon.
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. Alpha. X-Men Vs Street Fighter. EX (C.Jack 4life, yo). Alpha 2. Marvel vs Capcom. EX Plus. Ex Plus Alpha. Then at last, Street Fighter III, which itself had revisions.
From an accessibility standpoint, the series never learned. Capcom didn't catch on that foreign markets began to sneer in unison when the Super edition was released instead of III. By the time SNK vs Capcom rolled out, players had stepped back and were content to merely watch.
With Street Fighter 4, the talk of simplification is heartening, but will the habit of revisionism seep in once again? Or will the company let a work stand on its own for once, ports notwithstanding?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fekazysWHLA
