Review: A Planet Lost and Found
Capcom started off this generation strong, with early announcements of new IPs in Dead Rising and Lost Planet, and it was as if the hype for one title boosted hype for the other (both titles were also under the supervision of Capcom star Keiji Inafune). The two games were somewhat of a pair of twins, both action titles with impressive graphics, and with enough of an original concept in each of them to make them stand out on store shelves. And while both were instant hits in retail upon their release, Dead Rising managed to become a cult-classic in the minds of many, while Lost Planet seems to have become “just another shooter” that failed to hold onto a larger audience. Going into these games, I myself thought that Dead Rising would be my preferred title of the two as well, but after hours spent with each game, there’s practically no doubt in my mind; I’m in love with Lee Byung-hun. [Rest of the review after the jump]
Dusting up the Streets
Street Fighter IV is being released today and so far the reviews have been rather phenomenal. The game also seems to have been a bigger success than anticipated in the marketplace; 
Amazon is currently sold out on both platforms and some B&M have sold out of pre-orders as well. Even in Japan, where Street Fighter never had the same dominating presence as in the States, the game sold out easily in its first day on store shelves. This doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be a sales juggernaut, it could simply be exceeding their predicted numbers, but it’s a good sign nonetheless.
For this game to overwhelmingly succeed would be a great sign of life for the fighter genre, a genre that’s been struggling for many years. Even moreso, the game is a 2D fighter, the likes of which been in even worse shape over the past few years as the stronger pedigrees these days tend to be 3D franchises (Soulcalibur, Tekken, Virtua Fighter). Is it traditional 2D i.e. hand-drawn sprites? Not quite, but the remnants of that style remain in the game’s play-control. I haven’t played the game yet myself, although I’m eagerly anticipating the first chance I get. I unfortunately won’t be buying it any time soon (out of respect to my bank account), but I imagine the online scene will manage to sustain itself for some time.
I’ve been a supporter of the majority of the decisions Capcom made with this new Street Fighter, and I feel that they may be the developer who can give the fighting games a second wind if the game succeeds enough. The most important step they made was the 3D-over-2D engine. It does alter the general feel a little, but with a fantastic trade-off. The 3D engine allows the game a more modular structure that’ll allow it to be much more easily upgraded over the next few years. King of Fighters XII, still rooted in sprite-work however, will likely struggle with the same issues of cost and time that it has struggled with for years in iterating the franchise. People joke about the Morrigan sprite from 1995, but there’s a reason for that, and Capcom made an effective and smart business choice by going with this 3D engine instead. In addition I feel they were smart to bring the game back a little from the greater complexity of Street Fighter III. I like that series from the limited time I shared with it, but it was never as approachable as the flagship Street Fighter II series. I don’t know if I’d have as much interest in playing something like Street Fighter II HD Remix now as it feels a bit bare in terms of fighting systems, but Street Fighter IV may play the perfect medium between the two. I do feel for SFIII fans who were annoyed at the complete lack of III characters in IV, it’s unfortunately just another business choice they made considering how many people were turned off by the almost completely new cast of III. I don’t think the original World Warriors are as iconic as Capcom wants you to think, but they’ve all etched themselves into the memories of everyone who grew up playing this franchise. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of direction Capcom takes with the inevitable introduction of other characters (aside from the 12 original characters and 4 new ones, the rest have been a mix of Alpha and New Challengers for the most part).
From what I’ve seen, the only blatantly disappointing aspects of the game lie with Capcom’s lack of dedication towards single-player modes. There is no dedicated single-player mode ala Weapon Master (from SCII) or the World Tour mode from Capcom’s own SF Alpha 3. Just straight up arcade, which is also the only way to unlock characters from what I’ve heard (this rings too familiar of playing through MvsC2′s Arcade mode again and again and again as it was the only realistic way of unlocking characters). In fact I just finished unlocking the last 3 characters in my save file the other day, after 7 years. Unlocking won’t be anywhere near that bad in SF IV, but Capcom should make it more flexible. Finally there’s no create-a-character mode despite that mode’s growing popularity in fighters. Can’t say I was expecting it, but it would’ve been a nice addition. For Capcom to add in more single-player functionality as DLC would be a little useless, considering most of these modes are there mostly to gain familiarity, but if they do make other versions (Champ, Hyper, etc.) for retail in the future, they should really keep these kinds of additions in mind.
It’s going to be interesting to watch how IV fares up in the long run compared to III. With this game, it feels like Capcom is once-again placing Street Fighter as a brand and they’ve given it a pretty decent marketing campaign. The Collector’s Edition comes with a new anime movie, UDON is doing a 4-issue length comic sub-series based on the new characters, and Capcom is doing the most work it’s done in a while to give the game it’s own visual feel (with the ink splotches that are added in battle for aesthetic affect, accompanying cutscenes for the arcade mode, the previously mentioned 3D engine, fancy super and ultra combos, etc.) In contrast, Street Fighter III wasn’t marketed well and not easily available to the average gamer. All three versions were ported to the Dreamcast, but the only other way to play the games were on the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PS2 and Xbox. Even there, III wasn’t the main feature (Third Strike was put in to complement the SFII Hyper Fighting portion). It was also in arcades, but by the late 90s, arcades were already long in the tooth. In contrast most every other Street Fighter affiliated franchise was all over the place: SFII was ported to just about everything, Alpha saw games on Saturn, PS1, DC, and even GBA, and the Marvel vs. Capcom series was similarly treated. To be fair, III has long-earned itself a special place in the underground fighting game scene, but Capcom never quite gave it a chance to be a mainstream success. It’s pretty clear they’ve learned from their mistakes with their positioning of IV, most telling is the port to the HD-consoles just a few months after the arcade release (and with a few additions to boot). Hopefully it works out well for them.
I’ll bookend this with an excerpt from James Mielke’s review over at 1up. As you can see, he’s more than faithful in what this new entry could do for the franchise:
In my opinion Capcom and DIMPS have done an amazing job with Street Fighter 4. It’s obvious from front to back that the people working on this game knew the legacy they were contending with, and found the guts to finish this project with conviction. This is no mere copycat; this is a proud new addition. It’s a bold, confident fighter that celebrates its heritage while bringing fresh, new ideas to the table, arriving in a remarkably complete package that — if this were the last Street Fighter to ever be created — earns its rightful place in the series’ canon. It’ll be great to see the tournament-quality matches that arise from this fourth iteration (as well as the crazy exploits that only the best players can discover), and the future innovations it will awaken in Capcom. In all, it’s a fine return to form from the masters of the genre.
#2 – Devil May Cry 4
Not wanting to try and revolutionize the genre like both DMC1 and 3 arguably did, Capcom decided it instead would try and combine the best of both worlds to their ability. For the most part, I thought they succeeded. DMC4 wasn’t as inherently exciting since it wasn’t as fresh an experience as the previous two games were, but it helped show that their was a lot of life to the 3D action genre and that the games weren’t a one-generation wonder.
Rookie Nero’s adventure more than impressed me with his Devil Bringer mechanic, despite having only 1 weapon at his control. I admittedly stopped right at the infamous switch between him and Dante and didn’t pick up the game again for a few months, but this was a premature decision on my part. Dante’s quest was a step back to some degree (since Nero made chaining enemy combos much easier and fluid), but given some time, he was still a load of fun to play. Sure you were going through the exact same levels as Nero, another major complaint, but any DMC fan should recall that both the first and third title had a decent amount of repetition themselves, only just given a face paint. Both characters had a unique feel to them, and I don’t think any fans of the franchise expected them to both feel relevant and worthwhile, but that was the ace Capcom really pulled off in this game.
In my opinion, the franchise hasn’t lost a step in terms of how exciting the games are to play. And I think with this game, Capcom may have finally captured a unique aesthetic and style for the series. Yuji Shimomura’s cutscene direction also blew me away when most swordfighting action in film these days is just plain boring to watch (*cough* Advent Children). Most importantly, the enemy design has made a fantastic recovery since 3′s weakly done “7 sins + some chess pieces” style. Capcom wasn’t in a position where they could please everybody since 3 created some fractures among what the fans wanted, but with the direction they took, I thought they did an excellent job.
Will I be expecting a fresher game the next time around? Most likely, but my ambition for the next title hasn’t suffered 1 bit. Just…just rethink the music for all of us please.
[Screen from TeamXbox]
My top gameplay experiences over the year – #1!
As a consumer, I don’t have easy access to all the year’s biggest games, often I must instead look to years of missed opportunities for my fantastic experiences. So while all the big sites are doing their favorite games of the year, here’s a game-by-game recall of my favorite games that I actually got around to playing this year (and yes some of them are from this year). This is in no real particular order as entrance is more a reward than denial a red mark.
1. Genma Onimusha
Prior to playing Onimusha, I had just come out of finishing my first classic style RE with Resident Evil for the Gamecube. While that game was designed in a more modern day, the experience often felt forced and overdone. It wasn’t even about the controls or the difficulty, I just didn’t have that much fun in hindsight. Part of the appeal in Onimusha was that there was a certain charm to its general simplicity and lack of pretension. It was a rather straightforward adventure game with a great aesthetic, atmosphere, and design. It’s known these days as a DMC-lite, but when playing the game I didn’t feel that it would have benefited from a much more rigorously designed combo system. Some slashes here and a sidestep there seemed more than sufficient. At the time, I thought of the experience as a “gamer’s soul food” as I felt I could get a lot of fun out of Onimusha without having to utterly dedicate myself to the game. And sometimes that’s all that’s necessary to have a good time.
The greatest asset Genma Onimusha has going for it is a classy level design. It may be a bunch of consecutive corridors with some pre-rendered artwork plastered on the walls, but with some well-placed enemies, each location has a unique and memorable feel attached to it. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same of many games that come out today. Keiji Inafune produced the series and I can easily see the same attention to crafting a great package as was given to his Mega Man franchise. Onimusha is a classic example on how to follow the tenets of game design to control the experience rather than overloading the player with gimmicky systems and bloated periphery.
I have no idea why this game is not more often cited for the hilariously bad voice-acting though.
[Image off of TeamXbox]
