Review #132: Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

 Even more Street Fighter goodness.

 Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is a collection of every single iteration, arcadewise, of the Street Fighter Alpha series. It'd take a while to get in-depth about each of the seven games, so I'll just talk a bit about every game.

 First up is the very first release, Street Fighter Alpha. This is, probably, the slowest SF Alpha game, it's pretty easy to notice, not that that makes it bad. This game introduced the basic mechanics on which the rest of the series would build upon, there's Air Guarding, Alpha Counters and the then-new three-tiered energy meter which you could burn on Alpha Counters or special attacks of varying strengths, depending on how much meter you'd spend. The game offers a then-respectable 13 character roster, and the very first time Final Fight would cross over to the Street Fighter world via Guy(even though it was already confirmed that both series took place in the same world). It's a decent time-waster, but having the much superior Alpha 2 and Alpha 3, there's no real reason to return to this one. Besides the Arcade mode, you get VS, Training, Survival and a very short "2 vs 1" mode. Oh, and the font is kinda hard to read.

 Alpha 2 introduces 5 new characters, various tweaks, new endings for every character and the addition of "Variable Combos", by spending meter and pressing either two kick or two punch buttons. There's no much more to say about this one, it's basically Alpha 1 with more characters. Then there's Alpha 2 Gold, which introduces Cammy, new moves for some characters and "Super Turbo" versions of characters returning from Street Fighter. To be honest, there's little point in to playing Alpha 2 when Alpha 2 is clearly the game with more stuff, even if most is just fluff. Both Alpha 2 and Alpha 2 Gold contain the same game modes as Alpha 1.

 Alpha 3 not only contains even more characters, but the overall gameplay received major tweaks. For starters, after picking a character you get to pick an "ISM", basically, an style. You get Variable Ism, which turns your Energy Meter into a two tiered gauge that allows for Custom Combos, Standard Ism, basically Alpha 1 style and X Ism which gives you a single energy bar and reduces you to only one Super, albeit much stronger than its Standard Ism counterpart. Clearing the game with at least one character unlocks Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, which is Alpha 3 with a ton of new characters and new playstyles, just as Alpha 2 Gold makes Alpha 2 obsolete, the same goes for Alpha 3 Upper and Alpha 3. Contains the same modes as the previous games, but the 2 vs 1 mode is fleshed out.

 Then there's Super Gem Fighter Mini-Mix, a fighting game featuring super-deformed incarnations of various characters from Capcom fighting games(Mostly from Street Fighter). It's a very different kind of game, much more beginner friendly, there's only a Punch, a Kick and a Special button. When you hit your enemy, or various objects that randomly spawn, they drop gems which you can pick up to strengthen your special moves. While it's very cutesy and easy to play, it does have a little bit of depth and it's fun for a while.

 After beating the previous six games with at least 1 character you unlock Hyper Street Fighter Alpha. Just as with Hyper Street Fighter 2, you can pick any iteration of a character and pit it against any iteration of another character. There's also bonus "Styles" based on Darkstalkers, Marvel VS Capcom and Street Fighter 3 to further mix it up. It's a great bonus but... only Training and VS player mode, disappointingly.

 Luckily, when it comes to presentation, this holds true for every game: Graphics are very good, very colorful, while the animation isn't as smooth as Street Fighter 3's, it has a very anime feel. Characters have big frames and even bigger muscles(Not as big as Street Fighter IV though!), alongside a very flashy presentation thanks to the FX and the style used for cutaways between matches and menus. Music excellent, offering a wide arrange of tracks throughout all 7 games, ranging from really good to catchy. Bonus points for having 0 load times after you pick a game! There's also a nice variety of extras in the form of secret menus and color edit on every character in every game.

 While I don't find Alpha as appealing as Street Fighter III, as a whole, this is a better compilation than the Anniversary Collection. Even if you only plan to play Alpha 3(Seeing how its got the most characters), it's nice to have the other 2(5?). If you love Street Fighter, or Fighting Games, this is a no-brainer.
 9.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

 Because I haven't had enough Street Fighter yet!

 Firstly, a bit about my history with the Alpha series: The first game in the series I played was Alpha 2 on the PC. I didn't know anything about the series, as far as I was concerned, only 2 and 3 existed, and I had only played 3 what... 1-2 times on the Arcades. I instantly fell in love with it, it was beautiful, both in gameplay and graphics. I must've spent hours in front of the computer playing that damn game... and then I found out about Alpha 3 and the massive cast of characters, needless to say, it was a major factor in me jumping to the PS2 instead of the Gamecube from the Nintendo 64.

 Alpha 3 on the PS1 was beautiful, a ton of characters and a great single player mode, I loved it a lot. I didn't spend as much time playing it as I played Alpha 2 on the PC, mostly because I had a lot of other stuff to play on the PS2, but I did return to it every now and then.... and then the GBA port was announced. I think the GBA version of Alpha 3 was the game I've taken abroad the most, sure, the GBA's lack of buttons crippled the game, but it was still Street Fighter Alpha 3 and you got three(Eagle, Maki and Yun) new characters!

 You could say I like the Alpha series. I've just started it and I'm making my way through Alpha 1, and as a I played it I couldn't help but notice the amount of care that Capcom has always taken when it came to Street Fighter. Street Fighter 1 is best left forgotten, but 2, 3, Alpha and IV are all fantastic in their own way. Sure, they go over board with their updates, and ever since we got into the DLC era Capcom has gotten... greedy, to say the least, but they've always been quality games. Except Street Fighter X Tekken, Capcom just wanted money when it came to that one.

 So, what can I say? This compilation is beautiful.

Review #131 : Street Fighter - Anniversary Collection

 Now with double the amount of Shoryukens.

 Street Fighter 2 was the game that initiated the Fighting Game craze of the nineties. Street Fighter 3 is, sadly, a cult hit, but those who know it know the amount of depth that game has. So for Street Fighter's 15th anniversary Capcom decided to bundle both games and release them back in the PS2/Xbox era and this is what we got.

 It had been a while since I last played Street Fighter 2, but as soon as I turned it on, my god, it all came back, all the nostalgia surrounding that game. Street Fighter 2 is a timeless classic that has aged very little, and this iteration of the game is probably my favorite, when it comes to playing with other people anyways. This game contains the "Hyper Street Fighter 2" edition of the game, basically, a Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo tweaked to allow you to pick any available iteration of each character. Want to pit vanilla SF 2 Ryu, before he got any command moves or the super meter, against Super Turbo's Akuma? You can do it. Casuals won't see much differences between iterations, but not only is it fun to pick from any version of the character, it also allows you to see just how much the character evolved with each iteration, just look at how the 4 original bosses had a ton of recycled animations, but by Super Turbo their crouching normals got changed.

 The one aspect of the game that has seen better days is the graphics department. Characters sprites are ugly, when compared to other copycats of the era, the animation and sprites are gorgeous, but by today standards they are a bit on the ugly side. Luckily the gameplay still cements it as one of the best, that hasn't changed. On the other hand, the soundtrack in this game is glorious, almost every tune in the game could be considered a classic on its own. The bonus games(Destroying a car, destroying a pile of bricks, etc) are gone, while on a nostalgic level I kinda lament it, I would've probably turned them off after playing them once, so it's not too bad. Lastly, the game has barely any loading times, although for some reason, when switching menus it takes quite a while to load, but once the arcade ladder or versus'ing gets going, the loading times are gone.

 While the game is still a real masterpiece, there are a few nitpicks to be had. For instance, the AI is brutal, it can be challenging even at its easiest difficulty. You don't play the CPU to learn the basics of your character, no, you play the CPU to outcheese it. Now, couple this with the lack of modes(Arcade, Versus and Training mode) and you'll realize that if you meant to play by yourself... you are not gonna have much fun. Fighting games are meant to be played with other players, and it's especially true in this case. There's also not a lot of extras, it's nice that we get a gallery with the openings for all Street Fighter 2's editions... but why can't we get a gallery for the unlocked endings? Ah well...

 As for Street Fighter 3, the game packs the "Third Strike" version of the game, the last one and, arguably, the best one. It would've been nice to get the other 2(Especially since they have different backgrounds, different balancing, leap attacks were performed differently and Yang was a Yun clone in vanilla SF3!), but you'd probably forget about them pretty fast. What can I say about Street Fighter III? It's one of the deepest fighting games ever created, and a personal favorite, that never gets old. There's a lot of strategy in its mechanics, from the amazing parry(After I first learned of it, back in the day, I started wishing other games would implement it as well!), the fact that the Super Move you choose affects the amount of meter you get(Both in size and amount of bars) which forces you to consider how will you use the EX moves... It's an amazing game that sadly never got as renowned as it deserved to due to many characters being "weird" or new, gamers don't usually like new things sadly.

 The game is almost opposite of SF II when it comes to presentation, the graphics in this game are glorious(Like SF II's soundtrack), with smooth and detailed animation few 2D games can match. Music on the other hand isn't as good as SF II. It's not bad by any means, it simply is... a bit forgettable, and coming right out of SF II it's hard not to miss those great tracks. While it only has Arcade, Versus and Training, like SF II, the AI isn't annoying in this one, and you get unlockables in the form of Gill and more colors for each character! Plus, you can mess around in the "Directions" menu to alter how the game plays. You can disable Super Moves, Guarding, Throwing, Jumping among a lot of other thingies which could lead to some amusing situations.

 Before rounding up, let's not forget that the game packages the Street Fighter 2 movie. It's a decent flick, great music, good voice acting, great art-style, decent animation and terrible, terrible story. If you like characters like Blanka, Dee Jay, Cammy or Zangief you are outta luck, but at least you get to see all 16 characters from Street Fighter 2. The movie only comes with the American dub, which I found to be pretty good, but I know that some will hate the lack of Japanese voice acting.

 Street Fighter Anniversary Collection collects the most important entry in the series, and probably gaming history(SF II) and, arguably, the best one(SF III). There's absolutely no going wrong with this one, however, to make the most of it you are gonna need another player. It's also a bit hard to recommend this version of SF III when the HD edition on PS3/X360 contains the same game, but enhanced and with more single player content. But hey, at least you get SF II and a movie with this one!
 9.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Street Fighter - Anniversary Collection

 I just wanted to watch the movie...

 ... but the game sunk its claws on me and... I found myself playing Street Fighter II. Street Fighter III might be my favorite, but the movie is on SF II's gallery, so I went there... and kinda wanted to try out the game, for old time's sake and... I found myself engrossed in it. I had forgotten just how GOOD Street Fighter II was, definitely a timeless classic. And that music? My god, that music. is amazing.

 What else can I say? This game is a blast, and now I'm off to watch the movie, but I had to log that I officially began playing this one, I doubt I'll make a new entry for SF III though.

Archile's Grab Bag: Early Wednesday Edition

  New package!

  Dishonored - Game of the Year Edition: I've been wanting to play this one for a while, but since loads of DLC kept getting released I chose to wait. And here we are!

  God of War - Ascension: The God of War series is surprisingly good, and for some reason they decided to go back in time instead of continuing the story(We all know Kratos is alive). Hardcore fans of the series call it the worst in the series, and to be honest, knowing that it's yet another sequel kinda makes it feel less exciting.

  Mass Effect Trilogy: Another game(series) I've been wanting to play for a long long while, but decided to wait for a GOTY or a Collection.

  Spawn - Armageddon: Spawn on the PS1 looks terrible, Spawn on the Dreamcast looks like my kind of game, Spawn on the PS2... got mixed reviews, but I kinda liked it! It was time I got it again.

  Crash Team Racing: I've never been much of a fan of racing games, but I do love Crash, and since I plan to play every major Crash game I had to get it. Except Crash Bash, screw Bash.

  Samurai Champloo - Sidetracked: While I loved the series, I never much cared for the game... until I found out Suda 51 was involved. I need to play this.

Crash Bandicoot - The Wrath of Cortex: Part of my Play all Crash games mission, the loading times sure are annoying.... ah well, I think I will go through 1 to 3 before tackling Wrath of Cortex(4).

Now Playing: Darksiders II

 Death comes to all.

 It's no secret that I adored Darksiders(10 outta 10), first thing I did after I finished? Looked up where to buy Darksiders 2, which I promptly did the day after(Today). I'm dead serious. There's so much I want to talk about that I don't even know where to begin with...

 Let's see, first thing I noticed after booting up the game? This music is amazing. Darksiders 1's music was nothing special, I barely even noticed it was there, which is why it surprised me so much. Guess I'll do gameplay next, well, the introductory segment up till the battle against The Keeper of Secrets/Dark War was fantastic, everything I expected Darksiders 2 to be and more, basically, Darksiders 1 with RPG elements, which sounds like a kickass idea to be honest. And then I reached the overworld... I dunno how I feel about it? It's a bit barren, sure, there are chests, pages and probably other stuff hidden away(And it's really cool how the barriers preventing you from accessing other areas are, well, the lack of tools to reach the entrances! I could already spot what looked like grappling points). Still, I liked Darksiders 1's narrower overworld a bit more, at least as far as I've played. After reaching the Cauldron I was afraid that the game turned into a Action-RPG with no puzzles, but my worries were laid to rest pretty early on, luckily. It's funny 'cause I usually prefer more straightforward action games, but puzzling is part of what made Darksiders so good, it had to return! Funnily enough, I couldn't avoid noticing that the game feels a lot like Kingdoms of Amalur, the greens and the golem-like enemies... it's very reminiscent of KoA, which is a bit odd, but it seems that DS 2 will take place over more... mystical lands instead of the remnants of Earth, which is a shame as the previous setting was great, but who knows the game might still surprise.

 Then I wanna talk about Death. I spent a bit reading up on TVTropes, avoiding spoilers, about Death, and it seemed like he was gonna be a speedster type of character. And it shows, his frame is slimmer and he doesn't wear heavy armor or huge weapons, unlike War. Actually, you can equip hammers and maces, which are huge, but Death attacks very slowly while wielding them. Regardless, I was afraid that he wouldn't feel as badass, or as strong as he is supposed to be, he is the strongest of the Horsemen after all... Well, as soon as you start fighting you'll notice that the way he zips around, shredding everything in his wake, he could totally stand up to War. Heck, the first boss is an apparition of War. The first boss! Going back to War, I love how they have very different personalities, and they made a great job at portraying him as very cocky, but considering his strength, confident suits him better. He also seems to have a very cynical sense of humor "They call me pup or lad, but I much prefer my own name, Karn", to which Death answers "Pup it is then". If I had to choose, I prefer War, both visually and personality-wise, but Death is very cool in his own right.

 Basically, I'm loving the game, I've mixed feelings about the overworld, but it might change with time.

Review #130: Darksiders

 In which I proceed to praise this game from top to bottom.

 Y'know how people with a terrible understanding of the word "mature" want a "mature Zelda"? This is that game. Developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ before their demise, Darksiders is a game that borrows a ton of elements from other games and blends them together seamlessly. The adventuring and puzzling from The Legend of Zelda series and combat mechanics that feel like a mix of Devil May Cry(the combo system) with God of War(The heavy feel behind the attacks, dodging), it's something that, surprisingly, hadn't been tried before, and it works. It works so well.

 The game takes place before and after the Apocalypse. You play as War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who comes to deliver the human race only to discover that the seals, which were placed to stop Heaven and Hell from invading the kingdom of man, hadn't been broken yet. War loses a fight with the demon Straga and spends 100 years in imprisonment while his wounds heal. Awoken and healed, he is directed by the Council to find out what happened and end all who were involved, placing him under the leash of a Watcher(Voiced by Mark Hamill!). The Story is alright, but where the game really shines is in its setting, the world itself, all the very memorable characters, fantastic scenes of badassery and some fantastic lines.

 The game is set in the Kingdom of Men, or what remains of it, as War comes across the demon Samael who promises to take him to the Destroyer's lair if he slays the four Chosen of the Destroyer(The game is full of terms depicting badassery like these!). What this translates to is to War finding the dungeons, finding the boss inside and killing it. The game borrows a lot from Zelda in this regard, as the dungeons are filled with puzzles, and you'll usually come across a tool that will aid you in clearing the puzzles inside, defeating the boss, and then granting you access to treasures in the overworld that you couldn't reach before. Puzzles are very fun to figure out, and the way they gradually get harder as you advance through the game is very well balanced.

 While Puzzles are a big part of any Zelda game, the combat is usually just a means to an end(Maybe clear the room to open a locked door or what have you) and very shallow to boot. Not so here, War will do battle against zombies, Demons and Angels, aided by his sword, the ChaosEater, a Scythe, a Metal gauntlet and other miscellaneous tools that double as weapons. The game maps the ChaosEater to the Square button, and whichever secondary weapon to the Triangle, while tools are used with the R2 button. Controls are very simple, but combat is very fun and gratifying. While War's moveset isn't as large as Kratos or Dante's, it's serviceable and allows for simple juggling combos or switching weapons mid attack. Thanks to the weight behind each attack, it feels really good. He also has access to deffensive manouvers, a dash that doubles as a dodge and a parry/counterattack move by timing the guard button just as you get attacked. War also has four different spells that can be assigned to a four-slot palette accessed by holding the L1 button. Lastly, as you deal damage with the ChaosEater you'll fill your chaos gauge, once maxed, you can enter War's alternate form, not unlike a Balrog from Middle Earth, and wreck havoc on your foes.

 Killing enemies rewards you with souls, which you can then use to barter with Vulgrin in order to buy new moves, consumables or enhancements. There are 12 enhancements in the game, 2 that you can buy, the rest you have to find, these provide slotted and passive bonuses. Passive bonuses are granted just by possessing the enhancement, but you can also slot them to any of your three main weapons in order to gain better buffs. Speaking of finding, there's a ton, a TON of stuff to find, usually hidden behind puzzles, there's Life Shards(Collect four to extend your life bar!), Wrath shards(To increase your Wrath bar, aka mana), the Abyssal Armor set, relics and, well, the enhancements. There's no shortage of stuff to find.

 The art direction for this game was helmed by Joe Madureira and it shows, big, muscled guys sporting huge pieces of armor and weapons, but it's all very stylized. Joe Madureira's art has never been translated to 3D so faithfully before, and it looks glorious. Character design is excellent all around, the NPC demons, like Samel and Vulgrim, in particular look very good and detailed, War himself is no slouch either. The world of Darksiders is very beautiful, with a lot of different environments to traverse. Voice acting is just as good, with a ton of known names involved, like Liam O'Brien and Troy Barker, but the rest do a solid job as well, every Voice Actor manages to sell you on their character. As for the music... it's there? It's not that it's bad by any means, it simply isn't very notable.

 As much as I loved the game, there were a couple of minor inconveniences that I should at least mention. the biggest one being how limited your slots are. There are six tools but only three slots for them, which means that by the end of the game you could potentially have to go back and forth to the menu to equip and unequip some of them, especially if you want to use the Mercy. This also goes for the skills/consumables, there are four skills and a different variety of consumables, but they all share the same 4-slot palette, I played on normal and didn't use consumables at all, but I can see how this could become annoying. There's also a bit of input lag when pressing buttons, but nothing too bothersome.

 Darksiders is hands down one of my favorite games released on the last generation, I actually struggled coming up with bad things to say about it, which is why I called them minor inconveniences, as they didn't managed to put a blemish on this masterpiece. Some people might take issue with the game not having a single original gameplay mechanic to call its own, but when it does what it does so well, who cares? A game doesn't need to be original as long as its fun, and Darksiders is as fun as it gets.
 10 out of 10.