Sun 9 Mar 2008
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a Street Fighter fan. I remember the very first time I played Street Fighter II in the arcades. I was 12 years old and I had taken my then 5 year old brother with me to the arcades. I chose Guile and he chose Dhalsim and I wasn’t able to land a single hit on him.
I remember being taught my first Ha-Do-Ken and quickly mastering it to beat all my friends in what we then called “fireball fights”. We pretty much took either Ken or Ryu (or Guile/Dhalsim if we were brave) and would stand on opposite sides of the screen hurling fireballs at each other.
Collectively, we quickly became local legends at our local arcade. I’ve spent as much as 37$ in a single day in quarters when I was first learning the game (yeah I had a lot of money as a kid, sadly not so much now). And as little as a single quarter for an entire evening once I mastered it.
I’ve always seen the other Street Fighter clones and had even tried to like many of them, including the King of Fighters conglomerate, but none came close to my beloved Street Fighter. To this day I own every incarnation of the Street Fighter license (except for Fighting Evolution but I can hardly be blamed).
When Street Fighter 4 was announced not long ago I was, like most fans, completely torn. I loved Street Fighter 3 except for some of the ridiculous new additions to the roster. I mean come on, Necro? Twelve? Q? What was Capcom thinking? At least Alex, Ibuki, and Dudley were great characters, the controls were on point, and the animation was the best for a 2D fighting game ever! But sadly, it didn’t do that well on the sales side.
The first question I had was, is SF4 going to be 3D? The news that it was broke my heart. I have a special place in my heart for the EX series which did some good and meant well, but didn’t come close to the original series on so many fronts. I have to admit that I’ve been following up with SF4 and have seen every screen shot and watched every video clip out there. It doesn’t look as bad as I had expected, but it was still 3D.
Then I find out that King of Fighter XII was coming out in beautiful 2D on both the 360 and PS3 and I’m ecstatic! True, I feel dirty. I’m lusting for a stranger with which I have had very little contact. I’ve played Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown before, and who could forget the brilliant Capcom vs SNK 2, but I’ve never had much love for the SNK clones otherwise. In fact, my biggest beef with Capcom is that one of their new characters, Viper, looks like an unimaginative SNK character. She doesn’t have the feel of a Street Fighter character at all!
So why am I considering a conversion from Capcom to SNK? Simple. I think 2D fighters should stay 2D. Of course I’m reserving final judgment for when both games come out, but I’m DEFINITELY leaning more towards SNK as I write this. Staying with 2D shows that SNK is devoted to their die-hard fans while Capcom’s move, thus far, shows their intention to grab a bigger market-share. It might be the better decision economically (only time will tell), but I value loyalty to fans more than loyalty to $$$.
Well I seriously hope I’m wrong. Better yet, I hope both games end up being brilliant!
March 10th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Hey!
) but I couldn’t agree more about the 2d/3d thing. I found MK in 3d wasn’t adding anything much to the gameplay. Sure you could move in and out to dodge fireballs, but a simple block or jump were doing it already. A game like Soul Caliber has more depth to the 3d gameplay since it was done for 3d. Furthermore, I’ve always like pristine 2d to crappy low poly 3d (although it is no longer really true…). The thing, is with 2d, you have more freedom to draw anything. In 3d you quickly reach the poly limit every time you try something a little complicated. Well that’s my take.
I never been a big fan of fighters ( couldn’t really master all those combos… didn’t have a truck load of quarters back than
March 10th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
great article…you are very eloquent
March 10th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Frank: I’m crazy for 2D
And you’re right, Soul Calibur was designed from the ground up with 3D in mind so it works very well. When converting Street Fighter to 3D, the most Capcom can accomplish is not to ruin the game by making it as 2D-like as possible. Why not just make it 2D to begin with?
Shadisakr: Thank you very much
April 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I could try to formulate an opinion or at the very least say something remotely productive, but instead I’ll go with a threat:
Osama, if you jump ship and swear allegiance to SNK, I will shun you like the heretic that you are.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Hahahahahahaha! That’s hilarious
Well only time will tell 
June 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Well, I guess it’s a matter of tastes. I’ve loved equally both SNK and CAPCOM fighters for 10-something years now (with some exceptions of course) so I’m pretty excited about both new iterations. SF4 - although in 3D - has 2D mechanics, and in all… that’s what matters in the end. Movement looks so fluid in comparison with KOF XII as well! Don’t get me wrong, I still appreciate what 2D with nice art direction can do, but I think SF4 has taken a risk for the better with its new look (Gotta agree that new character from SF4 seems outta place, tho). Besides, there’s gonna be SF2HD for 2D fans. KOF on the other side, seems nice too, but looks way too familiar… I dunno… doesn’t feel THAT new, and nowadays that’s not a good thing.
About gameplay: I still remember fondly that 2.5D game Rival Schools… so I’m confident in what Capcom can do. Fighter fans’ eyes everywhere are over them, so I guess they’ll at least put some effort into the game.
PD: 2.5D - Term used to refer to games with 3D graphics and 2D gameplay.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
King of Fighters characters look like crap to me. Benimaru? Please!
October 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
whats wrong with you people/ when I play 2d fighing games the graphics suck big time to on a next gen console…2d fighing games looks and belongs to consoles like Super Nes and Genesis. Have you played some of those KOF games that are 2d? the sprites are horrible and looks all glitchy on a big screen tv. I would like to see a street fighter game with graphics like soul caliber or dead or alive ..That would be AWESOME !! I do agree the new charcaters do look kinda sucky ..especially Rufus and El fuerte, and You’re right Viper looks like Those lame KOF characters. Kof XII looks like crap compared to Street Fighter 4 and mk vs dc.