Sorry guys, no real stats in this game, but I still have to upload the post as a formality. No worries, I’ll still drop some knowledge on you here. Super Smash Bros vs Capcom is inevitable and once it hits, it could very well be the 2nd greatest game of all time provided that there is a big cinematic story mode.
Capcom Fighting Evolution is definitely an obscure Capcom crossover. I may have seen the cover once or twice back in the day, but only briefly and I instantly forgot about it. Some of the roster decisions for this game were very odd, but I’m still surprised that it is not more popular. It’s a fun enough game although there is nothing really unique about this title. It just fills the bill as a fighting game and doesn’t try to do anything more with itself.
There is no story mode of course although every character does have an ending which is great. That’s something I used to take for granted in a fighting game, but with some titles not bothering with it anymore, it is fun to see. There are no openings for the characters, but I’ll settle for the endings. This game uses a tag team system so the beauty of this is that you unlock both endings for every time you do Arcade Mode. It allows you to see all of the endings a lot quicker than you would have otherwise.
Normally this is the part where I’d say that there is pretty much no replay value, but Arcade Mode is typically the only thing you expect from a fighting game. That’s still not a great excuse, but multiplayer mode is where you’ll find the replay value at. Find someone to play this with and you’ll have a blast picking from the various characters. The series that are represented here are Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III, Red Earth, and Darkstalkers. I have to say that it is a little iffy to have Street Fighter represented three times. Especially when there is one big Capcom franchise left out here. Need I mention which one? The Mega Man franchise!
Capcom has a very bad track record of leaving this franchise out to dry whenever they come out with a big crossover. Mega Man’s absence in Marvel vs Capcom 3 speaks volumes and the fact that Mega Man Volnutt/Trigger made it into Tatsunoko vs Capcom over the other Megamen is also odd. It’s a shame because a Mega Man rep being in the game would have guaranteed 3 more since each franchise got a full block of fighters. Yes, this is definitely a pretty big missed opportunity if you ask me. Another odd character exclusion is Morrigan from Darkstalkers. She’s the face of the franchise and yet she was skipped over. It’s very strange to say the least. I can’t say that I’m a fan of hers at all, but she still beats Felicia, who somehow got to be playable in this one. Also, what about Ken from Street Fighter? Surely he deserved a spot here given his iconic status.
There is also an original character for this game. The mysterious Ingrid, whose abilities are quite lethal. She seems to be a cosmic being who may be above all of these street level fighters, but we’ll need some more appearances to prove that she’s not just all talk. This character does have a lot of potential though and her powers are a lot of fun. We can always use more magical fighters even if they can be a little hard to control at times.
This is a retro fighting game that uses sprites so it is hard to really say how the graphics are. The character models are essentially ripped straight from the respective titles. The models all look pretty good, but they aren’t exactly new either. You won’t really be looking at the sprites much while you’re fighting either since you’ll need your full concentration. Regardless, the graphics definitely aren’t bad. I’d say that they’re totally standard and are up to snuff for this fighting game.
As for the soundtrack, it is good. It’s always fun to hear the Street Fighter themes although the Darktalker/Red Earth ones were very forgettable. In a way, it’s probably good that Street Fighter counted as three different series since it meant that we got more themes from those series although, once again…Mega Man themes would have been beyond hype. Those are the themes that we deserved. Still, the music works for the fighting.
I totally skipped over the actual gameplay angle, but I assume that everyone knows how this plays when I mention the words “Street Fighter” This is a 2D fighting game that is very bread and butter. You can kick, punch, and mix those attacks for various combos and super attacks. Yeah, that’s really all there is too it. This game uses the 2 vs 2 system, which is a blast since I always liked that way to play. My personal favorite is when you don’t die until both of your fighters are gone like Marvel vs Capcom, but any kind of tag team play is still pretty neat. I’m waiting for Super Smash Bros to implement something like that. Now that would be really awesome! Seriously, Super Smash needs to get on that!
Overall, Capcom Fighting Evolution is a fun fighting game. If I was a more dedicated Street Fighter fan then I may be upset at the wasted potential that is here. The character roster is very small and there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put behind the gameplay. The American cover is also pretty sketchy, but that’s more of a nitpick than anything else. It’s really just your standard Street Fighter game with a few broken guest stars. The big dinosaur feels so out of place, but I suppose that’s part of the appeal. It’s like having Sentinel in Marvel vs Capcom 3. It’s hilarious just how big he is. If you like Capcom then I definitely recommend getting it. It may not be fancy, but this is still a crossover. You’re bound to have some fun with it.
Overall 7/10
Stats time!
Medal Collection : 1
Arcade Mode High Score 1066800 (Bison)
EXP: 100
Normal Trials Completed 25/30
Hard Trials Completed 4/10
Attacks Unlocked 14/20
With Street Fighter V out, I decided that it was time to actually get into the Street Fighter franchise. It has always looked like an epic franchise, but SF IV is the only game that I had played. Well, that’s all changed with Ex 3 and I also bought the Alpha collection as a nice backdrop for after this title at some point. Ex 3 feels like the good ole Arcade Style of the olden days and it works really well here with one of the best Arcade Modes of all time.
Unfortunately, there is no real story here. Usually Arcade Mode has a nice opening and an ending, but that isn’t the case this time. There is a small block of text for each character upon beating the game, but that’s all. No rival cutscene and no opening makes this a standard fight the CPU mode. Luckily, that’s where the cool design comes into play. The first battle is always a 3 vs 1 fight. Let that sink in a bit since it’s rare to see this in a Street Fighter title. It’s a blast! You then grab one of your defeated foes as an ally and rinse and repeat as you go through the mode in other formats like 2 vs 2 and 2 vs 1. Finally, you go up against Bison in the ultimate battle as it’s 4 vs 1. I have to say that it would feel pretty bad to lose to him with the odds so heavily stacked in your favor. It does make the fight that much more epic though.
There are 27 fighters in the game, which is definitely an impressive amount. Oddly enough, it seems like over half of the characters (Or roughly half) are made up for the Ex series. You can tell because while their designs may have some slight personality, they feel a little generic. One character is literally called Area and some of the others have names that may sound eccentric, but probably didn’t have a lot of thought behind them. The characters were quickly just created and thrown into the game. Most of them at least seem to have fairly good controls and combos so there’s always that. I like the two Superhero/Supervillain character combo. Those guys are definitely a blast.
The actual gameplay is what you would expect to find in a Street Fighter game. It’s 2D and you have to punch and kick your opponent until his/her health bar goes all the way down. There are a lot of combos that you can work towards completing and you can learn them in the trials/training mode. More on that in a moment. Street Fighter basically invented the term “Button Masher” so you can still do pretty well against the computer is you just keep on pressing buttons. Due to the retro feel of the game, it feels like you can move very fast and fluidly. I also can’t forget to mention how the team function is so fun. You can switch out and pull off a devastating team combo before your partner leaves. It’s also risky if your partner gets hit in the crossfire though because you’re then taking roughly double damage for each hit. So, watch out, but it adds another layer to the game. The Arcade Feeling is cemented in the game and that’s definitely a good thing.
Back to the Trials Mode. This mode has you pull off combos and challenges so that you can gather EXP to unlock new attacks with. They can then be used on your original fighter so you can give him your personal 4 best special abilities. Imagine having Zangief’s Cyclone and Ryu’s Shoryuken. The possibilities are endless so your fighter will be very tough by the end. I did a lot of the challenges for fun, but they do get really difficult later on and without any actual prize besides buying abilities for a character that I’ll never use…there’s not much else to do there. Before going to multiplayer mode, you’ll just want to make sure that you have all of the characters. Beating the game 10 times will get you the 10 normal unlockable characters, but you have to beat it 8 times as Ryu and 8 times as Bison to get their true forms. They’re really like glorified alt costumes, but you’ll still want to have them unlocked for parties.
The true replay value as always is simply playing the multiplayer mode with friends. There are enough characters so that you won’t ever have to get bored. Whenever you want a break from Ryu, try out Bison for a bit and then go back to Ryu. Evil Ryu and Bison 2 are secret characters, which also shake things up although they are not quite as intense as they will be in future installments.
The graphics are a little more pixelated than you may have assumed, but it does help that retro vibe. It’s also interesting to see the characters use their moves from SF V. It shows how true to its history Street Fighter has stayed over the years. Just about every combo in SF V is still around here even if it’s no longer a true combo or the attack may have become less effective. The final stage in particular looks great and I’m sure that a lot of effort was put into that one.
As for the soundtrack, it works fairly well. Once again, I’ll give a shoutout to the final stage for that. Beyond that level, the themes are a little more forgettable than your average Street Fighter game. It’s a good soundtrack while you’re playing, but you probably won’t remember it quite as vividly as you would for a title like Street Fighter V. I haven’t played that game in a while and I can still recall all of the big themes. Still, Street Fighter can’t knock it out of the park every time.
In case you’re curious, this game still loses to Street Fighter IV and V. It’s a blast of course, but those games are simply too good. I also have my doubts on whether or not it’ll be able to beat the Alpha games. It probably beats the original though (I played the mobile version) so there’s always that. Getting another Ex game someday would be a blast. Bringing back that team angle would make for some fun tournies!
Overall, Street Fighter Ex 3 is a complete success in my book. I know that reviews for the game weren’t quite as positive as the others, but it shows what a high standard Street Fighter games have set for the franchise. I’d still say that Ex 3 isn’t just a good game, but a great one. It really forces you to put on your nostalgia goggles and the gameplay has aged very well over the years. You can just pop it in the console and play it at any time and you’ll have as much fun as someone who played it when it first came out on March 4th in the year 2000. If you don’t own this forgotten Street Fighter game yet, then I highly recommend goinng out there and getting it ASAP!
Overall 8/10
Stats time!
31/45 PS4 Trophies
620 LP
Bronze Rank
Rank 71230
Player Level 203
Fight Money 277900
23 Titles
Character Levels
Bison Level 12
Ryu Level 17
Ken Level 17
Chun Li Level 13
Cammy Level 17
Nash Level 12
Vega Level 12
Birdie Level 12
Karin Level 12
Mika Level 12
Zangief Level 17
Dhalsim Level 12
Rashid Level 12
Laura Level 12
F.A.N.G Level 12
Necalli Level 12
Survival Mode Stats
Easy Mode Completion Time and Score
Ryu 4m 53s. 134000
Ken 3m 3s 180315
Chun Li 3m 21s 106105
Cammy 3m 22s 131947
Nash 3m 54s 89855
Bison 3m 54s 79640
Vega 4m 4s 98280
Birdie 140382 3m 1s
Karin 3m 42s 110253
R. Mika 4m 22s 84774
Zangief 3m 57s 66224
Dhalsim 3m 28s 114892
Rashid 3m 44s 79730
Laura 3m 30s 77275
F.A.N.G 4m 19s 96105
Necalli 3m 42s 118805
Normal Mode
Ken 12m 4s. 317245
Ryu 10m 4s 285830
Ah, this game is so controversial. Capcom basically made headlines with this game in every way possible. I was unsure about pre ordering this title since there are always remasters and such so I could potentially wait a year and get the game for the same price, but with more characters. That being said, I wanted to get into the hype right away and see the game as the meta was evolving like with Super Smash. I’ll never get into this game professionally and I’m content with being a casual, but getting it day 1 was fun. Especially since I don’t get games day 1 all that often. This was due to winning a Football Fantasy League (Along with Pre Orders for Pokken and Star Fox Zero. If I win again next year, it may go towards Kingdom Hearts III and FF VII depending on when they come out and if something else that’s even bigger isn’t on the way)
This is Street Fighter so I don’t really need to explain the gameplay right? It’s about as iconic as Mario or Sonic at this point and dare I say even more than Sonic? Next to Pac Man and Mario, I’d say that Street Fighter is the most popular game of all time. You can quote me on that one. If you want to get more technical, this Street Fighter game is different from the previous ones in the sense that it’s more about mind games. The health bars are more like Tekken in the sense that each hit deals massive amounts of damage so you’ll want to be very careful about attacking. You have to take risks in this addition and that’s part of what makes the game fun. It’s the kind of game where you can definitely picture yourself beating a pro and I have to admit that the balance is spot on. A relatively new thing is the introduction of the V Gauge. I only say that it’s sorta new since the idea of a final smash gauge isn’t new, but you can do reversals with this. Either way, you get the point about the gameplay.
Let’s go to some of the controversies. First is the censorship one. That’s easy since I definitely agree with the move. Cammy’s win celebration was toned down and likewise with R. Mika. I heard that Zangief’s was as well, although nobody ever mentions it so it’s possible that this isn’t the case or that nobody cared. It was a good move because these things weren’t necessary to the game. In fact, it’s a little disappointing to see how over the top the females were designed in this game. It almost goes to Dead Or Alive (Not the spinoffs, now that’s terrible!) levels here at times. Laura is very over the top and her introduction is really unnecessarily bad. This has never really been an issue with Street Fighter before so hopefully this isn’t a trend that sticks around for long. I doubt that I would have mained Laura anyway, but it definitely assures that I’ll stick with Ken and Chun-Li for the long haul. Either way, everyone has combos in this game so aside from a character like Zangief or F.A.N.G. they’re all good.
The next controversy is the fact that Capcom basically shipped out a 60$ beta. I made a topic on it over on Street Fighter Faqs and it was so inflammatory that it was taken down. You need to have PS+ to play online so let’s ignore that for now. Without that mode, you really only have 2 options. Survival Mode and Story Mode. Let that sink in for a little bit, there is nothing else to really do in the game. I know people like to spend time in Training Mode, but I find that boring to be honest and would rather train against a computer or play someone. Story Mode consists of 2-4 fights per character and you can beat all of the stories within 90-120 minutes. After that, it’s just Survival Mode and that’s not the kind of mode that you usually want to play for very long.
Survival Mode on Easy is very doable. It’s only 10 matches long and you should be able to beat it with everyone without any kind of struggle. Normal Mode gets very difficult as the first 25 matches are super easy, but then the difficulty ramps up to Hard Mode for the final 2 fights. It’s always very annoying to make it to the very end only to lose. Hard Mode is 50 fights and once again it’s easy until the very end where you’ll lose at the final level. I’ve only beaten this difficulty with Ken so far. After that is Hell Mode, which is an incredible 100 levels. I made it to the 70’s I believe, but it’s so time consuming that I’m definitely not tempted to give it another whirl anytime soon.
So, when you keep that in mind, you’re paying 60 dollars for what will amount to around 4 hours of fun gameplay and then you’re stuck unless you really like Survival Mode. Survival Mode is unique in the sense that you can spend your score to buy things like extra health or power, but it also makes the mode a lot longer as it needs to load between every match and it’s why the longer difficulties can be over an hour long. This game is really meant to be played for local versus mode and online. I can’t fault the gameplay so it succeeds there, but there is no excuse to not have other modes like Arcade or Trials.
A disclaimer is the fact that they are all coming for free soon. It’s just obvious that the game was released way before it was ready. What would probably get an easy 9 is definitely bumped down to an 8 for me. I may update the score with a brief update post at the end of this once more updates are here, but the question is…was it worth it to release the game this early? I’m going to say yes to be honest since I’m still glad that I got to play the game right away, but I can definitely see both sides. Some things are inexcusable like the long loading times and the fact that there is no penalty for rage quitting. That’s really bad and has been hurting a lot of people in the higher ranks.
The soundtrack is great and an easy 5/5. All of the themes are inspirational and they get you in the mood for some good fights. I have no qualms there. The stage selection is really small and I would have liked some more maps. I barely even notice them to be honest, but some are clearly better than others and more variety is never a bad thing. I don’t see why the game has no more maps unless….it’s going to be for DLC! The graphics are also very solid. I’m definitely not a fan of the character designs and the illustrations in Story Mode can be comically bad at times, but you can tell that a lot of effort went into the game as a whole. The graphics are certainly top notch, but it’s not as visually striking as Super Smash Bros.
Another big issue with the game is naturally the fact that it’s going to be very DLC heavy. There are already 6 DLC characters planned this year along with Premium costumes. The game is expected to be supported for many years to come so it’s actually very likely that we will get at least 20 DLC characters or more by the time this is through. Supposedly there will be no other versions and this original one will always be relevant. Whether that is fully true or not, it is good to know since I wouldn’t buy any new versions. They’ll probably have some updates, but it’ll be in place of buying them separately. I definitely won’t spend any money on SF V, but the good news is that I won’t have too. There’s a new feature here called Fight Money. Every 100,000 that you collect is enough to buy 1 character. I currently have 300000 so I can buy the first 3 and the upcoming modes should be enough for me to earn some more. There’s already enough in Survival Mode to get over 1 Million I believe, but good luck beating Hell Mode with everyone. I’m sure that some people will manage to do it and I’ll be thoroughly impressed, but it’s too time consuming to be worth it to me. Still, the concept of fight money is very progressive and an awesome move on Capcom’s part. This is something that I can get behind.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the online component is very good. It’s heavily sophisticated and I’ll admit that it makes Nintendo’s look bad by comparison. You can look up any player by their tag and then watch every battle that they’ve ever had. So, you want to learn some Ryu combos? No problem, look up the highest ranking Ryu players in the world and just sit back as you take in the matches. I can’t emphasize enough how incredible this feature is. Everything’s out in the open now and there are no restrictions. Naturally, this means that all of you matches can be viewed as well, but it’s a good accountability features. Now if someone claims that you didn’t actually beat them, you can just point to the profile. It’s quite possibly the best new online feature that I’ve ever seen. While waiting for a ranked match, you can also chill out in Survival Mode or Train a little. Everything is connected and the game even tells you if you’re an offensive or defensive player. There are full ranks and tiers as well unlike Super Smash where there sadly isn’t a system like that. I deeply wish that there was and you could bet that I’d be playing a ton of For Glory every day if that was ever implemented. Ah well, it’s how it goes.
As for each individual character, Chun Li’s style is my favorite so far. Unlike Ryu and Ken, I don’t really know most of her specials at the moment, but she gave me the most success online where it counts so that’s definitely a good sign. I also heard that she was one of the better fighters in the game so that helped. In a game like this one, they’re all “One of the better fighters” so it may not be saying a whole lot, but she’s officially my main. My secondary is Ken. He’s just so easy and intuitive to play. I also gained a lot of respect for him in this game as he’s portrayed as a really cool character. I also like the redesign that he got as well as the emphasis on all of his fire moves.
Ryu is a close third and his attacks are tried and true. It’s cool how just about all of his attacks and combos have endured since the original Street Fighter. I don’t care for his personality and how it was depicted here though. Look at SF IV and Super Smash for how he should be acting. I suppose Cammy would be my 4th best character. Like Chun Li she’s really quick and has a lot of good offensive tools to work with. Not to mention that she seems more heroic than most of the fighters in her game and I can get behind her goal of trying to save everyone. 5th place would be Laura. It’s safe to say that I won’t be playing her very much, but her combos and command grabs are really good. If you land the hit, you’re almost guaranteed a grab and that’s a blast against opponents who like to block a lot.
6th is Bison. He’s a little slow for me, which is what hurts him, but he’s very cool. Since Akuma is not in the game, he’s the best villain by far and all of his attacks remind me of Bass EXE, which is really neat. I’m going with Nash next although it’s really close. He’s similar to Ryu, but maybe a little stronger while sacrificing some of Ryu’s safer moves. His final smash is definitely really cool and the teleporting gimmick never gets old. After that would be Karin. She’s a little slower than the other heroines, but her combos are very long and powerful. You can basically link two special attacks into a Critical Art and the laugh at the end of it is certainly classic. I have very little experience with her as most of what I’ve seen is from visual experience rather than hands on.
As a character I can’t stand Birdie, but sadly his controls are actually pretty good. His command grabs are great and they come out of nowhere so your opponent needs to have very fast reflexes to keep up or he’ll be completely overwhelmed. Now we’re getting to the characters that I’m not a big fan of. Mika has a lot of the tools that the others possess, but I just find her hard to use. Likewise, Necalli is strong, but he feels so slow and I haven’t been able to get a hang of his combos. Rashid is the most perplexing character as he feels like he should be very fast and easy to use, but he just isn’t. Dhalsim’s great since you can spam his long range, but he’s incredibly slow and even worse..he’s boring to play as. I don’t care if he becomes top tier, I just can’t play as this guy. Zangief has no projectile which is a huge no no plus he’s a slow character. That’s a lose-lose situation if you ask me. Vega’s just incredibly weak and jumps around too much. F.A.N.G.’s another slow/boring character who I wanted to stop playing immediately. Trust me, he’s not someone that you want to play and I haven’t seen anyone use him yet so I’m guessing that a lot of people feel the same way.
Overall, Street Fighter V is a phenomenal game. I can see why some people already call it the greatest fighting game of all time. I will never say that as Super Smash Bros wins by a long shot, but aside from that?….Yeah, I think this may earn the title. It’s amazing just how well balanced and diverse the characters and their gameplay are considering that there are only 16 at the moment. I could easily play this for hours on end (When the free PS+ weekends are around) and I’m still partially a button masher at this point. It’s just such a fun game and everything about it just reeks of high quality. It’s definitely a very incomplete game at the moment, but if you have PS+ then you’ll barely notice. If you don’t…just play Survival Mode until you can’t take it anymore and then put the game down until March hits with the first new character and a lot of new features.
Overall 8/10
I have finally unlocked all of the characters! That Street Fighter V fundamentals training has served me well. I also beat Arcade Mode on the hardest difficulty for the lolz B)
All right, it’s time for a big name! Street Fighter is a video game series that is still immensely popular and there are even individuals who would say that it is better than Super Smash Bros. I would never go that far, but it certainly has earned the right to be called the most popular fighting video game of all time. A comic based on the franchise was sure to be a blast and I wasn’t disappointed!
There is no real plot as the game essentially shows you how the game should be played. Every time you win, a stronger opponent is there to take you out. So, we get some brief fight scenes as every character gets a win and then gets to lose. This means that we literally have nonstop action here and it works perfectly. There’s no better way to show off the Street Fighter universe than by having their best fighters duke it out.
The art looks very good and this helps the action scenes to be even more fun. Without good art, a series that is focusing on the fights would be very risky as the action just wouldn’t be enjoyable. This is one comic where the art is more important than the writing although it is very relative. You still need good writing in order to succeed and Street Fighter has that at the ready.
This doesn’t seem to really be a preview for an upcoming ongoing, but I’d certainly be interested in reading more Street Fighter comics. The franchise has always had a lot of potential and it is very interesting. There’s currently a rumor going around that Ryu will actually make it into Super Smash. If he does make it, I’ll definitely believe that he earned his trip there. Ryu is a video game icon and while he may not be as important to the industry as Mega Man, Mario, or Pac Man, he’s still a living legend and his moveset practically writes itself.
Currently, the best free comic is still Divergence. After that, I think Street Fighter can make a solid case for 2nd. It’s just that good and I think that Ryu may actually be in the Worlds Unite crossover that is coming out. I hope so as that would be fairly neat. Now, I only have a handful of free comics to read and I saved them for last as they didn’t look as interesting as the ones that I have already read. This means that there is a good chance that none of the issues coming up will be able to surpass Street Fighter so I shall have to savor this moment.
Overall, I veered a little off topic, but the comic is really top notch. There’s not a whole lot to say about it as there’s just a lot of fights to be witnessed and no real plot, but that’s what I like to see in a Street Fighter adventure. Ryu is still a likable main character and the other fighters meant business. I was surprised that Chun Li was nowhere to be found, but I suppose that she can’t come to steal the show every time right? Reading the comic will get you in the mood to play the games and that’s why this issue ultimately succeeded.
Overall 9/10
The King of Fighters series has never been quite as popular as Street Fighter. It got pushed over to the obscure arcade brawling side along with Virtua Fighter. There are definitely many fans of this series, but it just doesn’t get a lot of publicity anymore. At least the PS3 game is typically in stores. (And I will get to that era someday) I’ve owned the sequel to this game for a long time to I always knew that I’d buy the sequel someday. What I couldn’t have expected…was that I’d be playing over 400 rounds in this game!
Yes, I played over 400 rounds in this title. Shocking isn’t it? Well, there are over 20 characters and you have the typical Arcade Mode for each of them. The matches consist of a best of 5 rounds set so you’re guaranteed to be playing at least 3 rounds for every match. There are 8 battles per character so then you just do the math. 8*3*22= Over 400 Matches. The only problem with the Arcade Mode is the fact that it’s not very well done. There usually isn’t a whole lot of effort plugged into it, but you still expect some kind of opening and ending. There are no openings, but each character does get an ending. The problem is that most of the cutscenes are identical for each character. The dialogue is slightly reworded and it doesn’t even make sense half of the time. The writing can be so bad that it’s funny.
Of course, you begin to tire of the gameplay after the first 200 matches or so. I would actually say that it’s a decently good feat that I was able to complete the 400 rounds without feeling too exhausted. So, I have to give the game some props for that. Unfortunately, Arcade Mode is really the only thing to do in the game. This was in the era before Wi-Fi so I can’t say that I expected a real multiplayer option. Connecting two Game Boys together as a last resort was fun back in the day, but I need Wi-Fi!
The actual gameplay barely needs to be explained, but I’ll quickly reference it anyway. You essentially press your buttons as fast as you can to try and attack the opponent. There are likely combos and other tricks that you can try, but button mashing is enough to win. It’s like Street Fighter, but the gameplay isn’t quite as deep yet. This is a GBA game so it definitely had its limits at the time. The actual gameplay can still be fun for a while, but it’s not a real page turner like Smash Bros.
The soundtrack is pretty good for the game. The themes are pretty catchy although you may find yourself putting the game on silent to tune out the sound effects. The characters yell for every action and that can definitely get old pretty quickly. The graphics are decent. The game uses sprites and the actions flow together pretty smoothly. The sprites could definitely look a lot cleaner, but they do have to be compressed into a pretty small screen. The graphics definitely aren’t bad considering that this is a GBA game. The Battle Network titles definitely show this one up though.
I bought this game for a penny and then I gladly paid the 4 dollar shipping. For this price, it’d be a shame not to play one of the big fighting titles! This won’t make the series begin to compete with the others like Street Fighter and Tekken, but it’s a start. I remember Terry from the olden days of Capcom vs SNK. Terry is my official gamer name across all of my titles so it’s definitely good to see a fighter with the name. I can assure you that he is one of my go to fighters in the game. Assuming that I ever play it again of course.
The problem is that there is no replay value. Beating Arcade Mode 2-3 times will likely be enough for most people. After that, there is only so much that you can do with the game. The rest of the modes are more of the same. There is a team option, but it will just mean that each battle will be a whole lot longer. You can always increase the difficulty to test your limits and to see what the game has in store for you, but that will only buy you a little time at best.
Overall, This was a decent fighting game. It’s basically what I expected, although the score is slightly lower than I had envisioned. The one thing that didn’t come through for me was the Arcade Mode. I expected better endings to be honest and a more diverse experience. Having the same thing happen over and over again can get pretty tedious. The roster of characters is pretty large, which is always great and their attack methods are diverse. I recommend this game to the truly hardcore fighting fans who want to see how the mechanics will work on the Game Boy. The game is going for a pretty cheap price right now so it’s really a steal. I recommend going for it, but if you want more of a lasting experience..get Ultra Street Fighter IV!
Overall 6/10
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