Street Fighter pops into my mind. I spent countless hours playing it as a kid. I fought my sister, dad, mom, friends. I got really cheap with E. Honda and still, to this day, can't beat Blanka to save my life. The M. Bison theme still gives me a sort of panic attack.
So today I went to go pick up Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade for the 360. I liked Street Fighter 4 (even though in a rage I had hurled it against the wall like a discus and shattered it), and I knew I would enjoy the game. Problem is that the person behind the counter got it mixed up with Street Fighter X Tekken.
I'm the adventurous type, so I figured I'd try it. The game held absolutely no appeal to me, mostly because I've never liked Tekken at all. But whatever, let's play. There's an achievement in the game for completing the tutorials, so I figured hey, what better way to acquaint myself with the game?
It starts off simple enough. Kick, punch, special move, super art. Familiar enough stuff. Then there's cross hits, tag switches, gem powers, ex power ups, assist gems, bonus gems, quick combos, Pandora mode. Holy fucking shit, when did fighting games become so damned convoluted? Street Fighter X Tekken is Byzantine with its myriad of special features, none of which really add much to the basic formula of the game (punch, kick, special move). The possibility of tagging up with your friends is nice. But if you're anything like me, you have no friends (at least none who are half as into games as you are), or you just don't care to wait around for them to sign in.
My brief and mostly unpleasant encounter with Street Fighter X Tekken reminds me of an even worse foray with Soul Calibur 5, a game with which the developers must have sought to inflict as much pain as possible on players.
It's amazing how little sword fighting there is in Soul Calibur these days. SC 4 annoyed the shit out of me with its new special moves, super-art esque moves and seemingly unending combos which made online multiplayer an exercise in aggravation and misanthropy. SC 5 ratchets up the pain on all levels - and the bizarre thing is, the basic movepool for characters seems to be shrinking! The Mitsurugi sword-sheathing moves seemed to have been completely removed, probably in favor of some stupidly complex combos (or for that idiotic costume creation mode, which legions of fans haven't quite yet realized is nothing more than digital Barbie mode).
So, are these games fun? Sure, for a little while. But they're so complex, so mired in years and years of bullshit from endless sequels and spinoffs, that the original winning formula which propelled them to such heights has been completely buried. I reflected on this as some god-like character repeatedly dropped a granite throne on me in the Soul Calibur 5 multiplayer - the series has completely lost its way. SC is one of the worst offenders (Street Fighter is bad too, but not quite as bad). Mortal Kombat is pretty bad as well.
Is it too much to ask that Capcom or Midway or other studios try something like creating a new franchise? Think about it - imagine the hype if Capcom decided to make a whole new fighting game from the ground up. Of course it would sell, but then it would require a lot of time and preparation, not like simply repackaging the same fighting game over and over, this time with a slightly sluttier Chun Li on the cover.
K
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