Lothars said:
I am curious but with the release of the XBLA/PSN Street Fighter 3 third strike, do you think it's going to take away alot of the players from SF4 or other online fighters?
Not really.
It's tough for fighting games to maintain / find an audience without stupid amounts of "hype" behind them.
I'm glad I'm being thrown a bone since I can't get my finances straight to build a cheap PC nor am I smart enough to get the port forwarding sorted out on GGPO.
Atlhough as much as I enjoy championing the quality work ASW has done with BlazBlue online, the game really isn't to my taste; so I know 3S will, assuming the netcode is solid, knock BB further out of rotation for me.
Speaking on the cast, comic writer Brian Michael Bendis had a great quote in an interview where he said it's silly to treat B-list characters like crap; because that character is somebody's favorite character.
I remember the butthurt over SF3 starting with a mostly new cast, but I didn't mind. The SF2 cast was also a mostly new cast when that game came out. 3 series did a great job of giving you new characters to learn
first then re-introducing old favorites over time. 4 really took the opposite approach, introducing a handful of new characters with a bunch of SF2 characters, then adding in more Alpha characters for the home release. I really don't feel any of the 4 characters are that strong an addition to the franchise. Drinky Crow summed it up best, they're mostly Fighter's History rejects. Though I'm sure to some folks they're new favorites, and the only good new characters IMO are Gouken and Hokan.
I don't really give a crap about the story and all that bullcrap, I just like the crusty old dude model and Gouken fits that (even if in SF4 he looks like his skin is wood - that issue isn't unique to him) and Hokan is awash in the hilarious racism that a lot of the old SF2 characters had. SF3 really lacked that racist stereotype character design and maybe that's why it didn't click with folks. Maybe?
Plus I loved, loved, loved all the butthurt and bitter tears when Capcom finally revealed Hokan. Still wish they'd give him a Sasquatch in Darkstalkers win pose where his daughters come out and they do a little jig or something.
Back on SF3, I'd still rather have a SF3 Collection. I love the art, sprite work, and background throughout the series and would love to have a definitive version of these in my game collection.
Good to see folks taking my posts in stride, I don't mind being GAF Dan. I have a lot of love for fighting games despite my preferences and hyperbole.
SonOfABeep said:
Well, mission accomplished. You've certainly demonstrated to everyone that you're a fan of the older, more hardcore, less popular thing and that there's no changing your mind to consider something newer.
Don't worry, my secret is safe with Nikashi and threi.