After the most busy week (working honestly!) i decided to finally purchase street fighter 4.
Now i know i said last blog that modern games are really easy, Well that just isnt true when it comes to fighters. Fighting games have always had the rep of "your either a pro or you button mash" I dont fall under either of those, Im proud to say it. I suck when it comes to them and yet..... I love them.
They hold that perfect line between challenge and skill, Im sure everyone who plays games has that one special time when they were stuck for so long and beat it. Street fighter 4 did that to me every step of the way and you know... It actually made me feel good to get over the hump.... But im getting ahead of myself lets slow down.
After getting back from eurogamer yesterday i noticed that the majority of the limelight was not on the new releases, It was the fighter games. Street fighter 4 has been out for many a moon and yet it featured many consoles with matching fight sticks and some older versions even featured in the arcade section of the expo. The game is not without its flaws (more on that later) yet the crowds gathered to see strangers compete against eachother in button smashing combat. Heck, It was even featured as part of a tournament that took place over the day which was a nice sight to see as it attracted a bigger crowd than most other events.
But after watching the pro players hammer into eachother with combos that never ended and roars of applause from the crowd with each victory I began to crave something. There i stood having owned 1 street fighter game in my life time and never feeling like it appealed to me wanting to play the game. It only hit me how badly i really wanted it when i realised i had memorised alot of moves from the game (HADOUKEN) despite never having looked at the manual for one.
So after declining a night out (sorry guys) i chose to spend tonights beer money on the game and told myself i would not exit the game till i had completed the arcade ladder. For the first time in fighting game history, I had pledged myself to seeing a campaign to its end on my first run. Not gonna lie here, I wanted to give up so many times yet couldn't. I spent 2 and a half hours learning chains and moves for no real time gain to prove to myself that i could actually do it. Below is my stage by stage analysis... Its a good read.
Stage 1 - Dhalsim, Standard match really was a punchbag for me the majority of the round. No real challenge and made me feel alot better than i was at the game.
Stage 2 - Zangief, Oh man. I'll just clarify now zangief has never been a character i enjoy going up against. On the last one i played he cleared me constantly. But you know im not going anywhere right? Zangief was a pussycat this round, Maybe my inner rage taught me how to destroy him..... or i was put on a pedastool by the difficulty.
Stage 3 - El Fuerte, Never seen this guy before must be a newbie. The ai made him seem very eratic, I took a loss this round then got 2 victorys. No challenge once i saw his moveset its all speed based so a few upper cuts and projectiles from time to time put him down a peg.
Stage 4 - Abel, Oh man this is where it picked up. I lost my first 2 rounds against this guy. His backstory reveals hes a very throw based character as well as using heavy striking moves to chain into his throws. I should have seen it coming as this guys a prototype for the boss (more on him later) who kicked my ass. Abel was my first real challenge as he is very hard to counter and u have to be good at opening against him.
Stage 5 - Blanka, Oh man the wildman himself. I remember how crazy this guy was in number 2 let alone in this version. I took 1 loss against him before i clicked at how to counter him, Hes also naturally hunched short which made it hard for me to tell when to use aerials and projectiles or even when to grapple him. This combined with his classic electric shock huddle that removes any attempt to land an attack made this a enjoyable challenge.
Stage 6 - M. Bison, The original badass..... Not as badass as i remember. Bison seems to be showing his age as he landed a few combos but was far to easy to juggle. Maybe by now i was used to the AI's chaining or it was taking it easy on me. Either way i scored 2 more vistorys without a loss.
Stage 7 - Balrog, Now were getting serious. Balrog has always been a bruiser. Someone notorious for slow but powerful attacks and he did not disappoint. I scored the first win and got a bit cocky which lead to me being destroyed a few times. The AI would always pull back from defeat and devastate me (though he never landed a ultimate attack on me) and eventually i learnt not to let him get a break and to lay him out asap.
Stage 8 - Rufus (final hurdle before boss) New guy who happens to be based off of american feedback towards what needs to be in the game. Rufus is the rival of ken (the guy i was using) and is a deceptive character. I wont beat around this point, He is VERY obese and looks to be the standard comedy effect character with a goofy attire with a major napoleon complex. the round began and i landed my standard opener when one punch got landed on me. that punch opened it for the AI who chained an unholy amount of combos on me cutting my health bar down to next to nothing. I managed to sneak a win now i was back in concentration but lost the round with 2 losses. Before i started the next attempt i did some research. A design implement added to this guy was an ultimate move that had a deceptive range, this explained the sudden death of my character and the crazyness on screen. Using my noodle i managed to fluke a win (after losing 6 rounds) and went on to my final challenge.
Stage 9 - Seth. Before i start this guys review, i knew this was gonna be a train wreck. I'd seen him on big screens being used by guys who would spam range till their opponent got close with next to no health and killed.
Now i managed to open alot better than i did against rufus and managed to fluke him down to 5% health each fight. Though i still lost i learnt that he was a interesting character and Capcom had admitted to making him over powered.
Finally i managed to get a win in and inbetween a drink i heard "NOW YOU WILL SEE MY TRUE POWER"...... If you have seen the terminator before you will know that when he goes down he knows the opponent and comes back swinging with more malice and intent.
Seth is no different, When he loses a match his counter ticks over and he goes into beserk mode, He teleports, spams and grabs every chance he gets. When i say every chance i mean the 0.5 second after landing a hit. I had no time to recover and would often be on the receiving end of a old school combo that would leave me down for the count. Eventually i managed to fluke a win and finished arcade..... when i say eventually i mean 38 agonizing rounds before winning 39th.....I was so close to quitting but each punch i landed made me crave another, I physically felt like i wanted to kill the guy who coded him. Hell i tried to work out how he worked code wise then used different techniques.
When i finally won i tried not to yell at the top of my voice...... Hell its a game right?
With a cinematic and one last achievement i turned the game off and relaxed.
Looking back on it, I wish i did get street fighter as a kid and picked up the new ones when i could have. The game gave me the challenge i'd been craving for so long and yet rewarded me with the satisfaction id been looking for all my gaming career of beating a hard objective. Defeating seth will take over my old achievement of beating halo 3 ODST on the hardest difficult in a few hours and will easily be a conversational point for my gamer friends who play street fighter.
Next time, What am i doing for my group project? You will find out soon.....
