dan, Author at The Lifecast Network • Page 2 of 2

Rare Games That Don’t Suck: GBA Edition

August 2, 2016 dan

Two months ago, I wrote an article about rare games that are actually worth their asking price on the Gamecube. I did this because like many collectors, I’ve noticed that there’s a glut of rare games out there that are so outrageously expensive not because they’re outrageously good games, but more often than not it’s because of things like limited quantities of a game, exclusivity, a certain version or cover or edition of a game, etc. Sure, there are plenty of rare games out there that are so rare because they’re such excellent games and everyone wants a copy–games like Chrono Trigger, Suikoden II, and .hack//G.U.–but then there are your Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, Cheetahmen II, and Spud’s Adventure sort of games that are only rare and expensive because of the aforementioned reasons: The games themselves aren’t very good, they’re just elusive. I wrote my first Rare Games that Don’t Suck on the Gamecube because it’s arguably my favorite console of all time. Now, I’d like to tell you about rare games that don’t suck on what is by far my favorite handheld console of all-time, the Game Boy Advance.

Final Fantasy VI Advance

Image Courtesy of GameFAQs

The first game I’m going to talk about is one that doesn’t really need much of an introduction. As the title suggests, it’s an enhanced port of Final Fantasy VI on the SNES. Final Fantasy VI Advance has been subject to critical acclaim, just like its SNES counterpart, with an 8.9/10 from GameSpot, a 9/10 from IGN, 9/10 from Eurogamer, a 31/40 from Famitsu and many more. On average, a complete used copy of Final Fantasy VI Advance is $59.48, with a brand new copy costing you about $80.

Final Fantasy VI is the story of a girl named Terra, who is captured by the empire and forced to fight against her will. She was eventually broken free and rescued by The Returners, who also want to use Terra for their own purposes in war, but they ultimately respect her freedom, and let her make her own decision. I’ll stop there because after that is when it gets really good. It has a fantastically told story, a truly unique world to explore, incredibly memorable characters, solid and consistent combat, and stunning visuals for what it has to work with. The limitations of the GBA caused a musical downgrade, but that’s really it. It’s still a faithful version of one of the greatest games of all-time.

Car Battler Joe

Image courtesy of GameFAQs

Car Battler Joe is one of the many, many hidden gems on the GBA. As a matter of fact a lot of the games on here are expensive because they’re hidden gems. Car Battler Joe is about this guy named Joe who is basically the standard kind of protagonist you’d see from a show like Beyblade or something, and that goes double for the game. It’s received relatively high acclaim from reviews (8.1/10 from GameSpot, 7.7/10 from IGN), and is one of my personal favorite GBA games. A used complete copy of Car Battler Joe will run you roughly $85. New copies for this game are incredibly hard to find, so getting an estimate on the overall price of a new copy is hard, but recently there was a copy sold on Ebay for $440.

You go around the world doing missions in your car, from fighting off bandits, to delivering packages, all the while collecting parts to either build new cars or upgrade your current one. These cars are equipped with various weapons that you can adjust and customize to your liking for combat. Basically think this weird version of that movie Death Race but if it were super anime, intended for children, and actually good. Mechanically speaking, it’s essentially a third person shooter/cart racer, but without the racing. In terms of sheer control, Car Battler Joe is fantastic. Each car controls differently and each weapon has different physics, and combining this with the tight controls means you’ll get consistently great gameplay. Customization is also complex, especially for a GBA game. The combinations of cars and weapons are incredibly varied, and just trying out different combinations will take up a lot of time in the game. It’s a truly fun experience.

Super Robot Taisen: The Original Generation 2

Image courtesy of GameFAQs

Alright, let me get this out of the way right now: I love me some mecha anime. Mechs are like the best things ever. Giant robots fighting other giant robots with high-adrenaline pilots and stupidly overpowered weapons? What’s NOT to love? Being a huge mecha fan, when I found out that there was a strategy RPG series about anime mechs fighting each other, I was all in. What I ended up getting was one of the best strategy games I’ve ever played, along with being loved by the others who have played it (8.5/10 from GameSpot, 85% from RPGfan). Good news, though! This is the cheapest game on the list. A complete used copy is worth about $45 – $60, and a new copy goes between $65 – $90. What a steal!

Super Robot Taisen: The Original Generation 2 (hereon referred to as SRT2) picks up right after the first game left off. I would explain the full story, but it’s so long and complicated that it’s not worth it. All you have to know is that in the first game, there was a war between our protagonists and a faction called the Divine Crusaders, along with an alien race called the Aerogators. What’s happening now is that the world is fixing up its mechs in case something like that happens again, and low and behold, something like that happens again. Only they’re much stronger than the Aerogators or the Divine Crusaders. The gameplay is just complex enough to encourage good decision-making and strategy, and it also has a really good difficulty curve; never getting too hard, but never being a total cakewalk either. The roster of mechs is diverse, and it offers many ways for you to build a personal team (mix and match pilots and mechs, upgrading mechs and weapons, etc.). It’s also absolutely gorgeous for a GBA game and has a fantastic OST.

CastleVania: Aria of Sorrow

Image courtesy of GameFAQs

Ho boy this game. This was back when CastleVania knew what it was doing. It’s no Symphony of the Night, but it gets pretty damn close, as shown in its ratings. 9/10s across the board from all sources. Everyone pretty much agrees that Aria of Sorrow is one of the best CastleVania games. A used complete copy of Aria of Sorrow will cost you around $70, where as a brand new copy will cost you more around $90. You play as Soma Cruz, who is basically the second coming of Dracula except not really, and you’re sucked into Dracula’s moon castle and are trying to get out while also stopping someone else who is also basically the second coming of Dracula except not really.

You’ve got your standard MetroidVania style gameplay, except much better in terms of controls. The previous CastleVania games, Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of Moon, didn’t control nearly as well as Aria of Sorrow. Soma has the perfect weight to him, feeling just floaty enough for the environment while still feeling like you have to move him around well to succeed. It’s got a soul-absorption system which basically gives Soma the powers of enemies he defeats, and then standard RPG stuff like armor and weapons. The game looks and sounds fantastic, though the story is fairly weak. Combat is incredibly satisfying, and the enemies and environments are very well-designed. My only real complaint is that it’s pretty short, but other than that, it’s fantastic.

Ninja Five-O

Image courtesy of GameFAQs

There’s a chance you’ve heard of this one. It’s not incredibly popular, but those who have played it will say that it’s one of the best games on any handheld system ever. It’s received tons of ratings generally around an 8.5 – 9/10 from almost everywhere. But it’s also probably the single most expensive game in the GBA library, and by far the most expensive game on this list. A complete used copy of this game is worth an astonishing $356. What about a brand new copy, you ask? $515. Five hundred and fifteen dollars. And that’s not all. Even if you want just the cartridge, it’s still going to cost you over $100. This game is incredibly rare.

The game itself is a 2D stealth platformer where you play as a ninja, who can slash his sword and fling his projectiles. As you progress through the levels, you have to kill bad guys, rescue civilians, find keys to progress. You can use a grappling hook to traverse high ground, and also find power ups to make your attacks stronger and give you different projectiles. You really do feel like a ninja while playing this game; hopping up and stealth attacking opponents, catching them from behind to go for a kill, and sometimes even just running in guns blazing. The level design is top-notch, really lending itself to a slower-paced, more stealth and timing-focused style of game. Combine that with nice-looking graphics and a pretty nice soundtrack, and you’ve got a recipe for a fantastic game.

As I said last time, when you’ve got some spare cash, don’t be responsible and save it, go spend it on pointless video games!

Potential Builds for the New Pokemon

July 24, 2016 dan

In the past few months, competitive Pokemon has started to take over my life. I have yet to get into VGC, but I’ve been spending a lot of time playing the Smogon style on Pokemon Showdown. As a result, all of these new Pokemon announcements have been really making me excited to see what I could do with team building potential for Pokemon Sun and Moon. And after the newest announcement from earlier this week, with a few new Pokemon to work with, I want to make a few predictions on how I think they’ll play, along with a basic build idea for them. Keep in mind, I’m not the best at competitive Pokemon right now, as I’ve only been playing for about 2 months, but I feel like I know enough about the game and the way Pokemon work to give a good prediction. Just as a disclaimer: For the sake of keeping this article not stupidly long, I’m not going to do predictions for ALL of the Pokemon; just my favorites so far. Also, I’m assuming all of these Pokemon will have stats to make it into OU, just to make things easier to work with. No exact numbers, just generalizations like “really good” and “horrible”.

Mudsdale

mudsdale

Okay, so can we just talk about the Pokemon that the Assault Vest has been waiting for its whole life? Mudsdale’s new ability is Stamina, which increases its defense every time it’s hit by an attack. Judging from its ability, its Ground typing, and the fact that its design looks relatively bulky, I’ll say that Mudsdale is going to be a physical tank. If you look at its description on the Pokemon website, it says that, “Its legs are coated in protective mud, and the weight of this coating increases the force of its kicks. One kick, and a car is a pile of scrap!” So this obviously means it’s going to have a high attack stat. Or, hopefully, anyway. Judging from its ability and how the site talks about its power and stamina. Now, I don’t know if stamina translates into defenses or HP or both, but I’m betting on both. I believe HP and defense will be its highest stats, with attack coming in next. I’d be willing to bet its sp. def is, uh… Competent, with speed and sp. attack being its lowest stats.

For a potential build, let’s make it a bulky physical attacker. I would give this thing Stamina as its ability, and an Assault Vest for the item. Invest max EVs into HP, and then invest in defense and attack, with preference on defense. For its nature, make it either Impish (+def, -sp. atk) or Careful (+sp. def, -sp. atk) depending on how much “just in case” survivability you want to give it with sp. attacks. Being a ground type, it has access to Earthquake, which is a no-brainer choice. For other moves, I’d say give him Drain Punch (hey he may not have hands but that doesn’t stop Togekiss) for staying power, Grass Knot for coverage, and Stone Edge for another strong move.

Salandit

salandit

Now onto this cute little guy, Salandit. It’s adorable, and since I already love Krookodile, I love its concept. It’s got a poison/fire typing, which is a type I’ve been wanting to see for a while now. Unlike Mudsdale, we don’t have as much information from Salandit’s description to make as accurate a guess, but I’m going to try to make one to the best of my ability. Also, I’m pretty sure this thing is going to evolve, so let’s also assume that I’m talking about its final evolution, whatever that may be. Its information on the site says that “Salandit is not a very powerful Pokémon, but its cunning nature allows it to battle fiercely by throwing its opponents off balance.” This implies to me that its stats are gonna be something along the lines of a stall-y, utility kind of Pokemon. Its attack and sp. attack will likely be its weakest stats, with speed being its highest. I can’t really say anything else for stats because of how little the description gives away, but for the sake of a build let’s assume it’s got good sp. def, decent defense, and decent HP. Its ability is Corrosion, which enables it to poison literally any Pokemon, even steel- and poison-types.

I’d say the best way to make Salandit work would be a stall build, specifically, Toxic stall. EV investment varies on what its stats get, obviously, but let’s assume its high speed stat will be high enough that you don’t really need to invest in it for what it does. Focus max EVs into HP, and spread the rest out between defense and sp. def, giving more to sp. def. When it comes to this kind of layout, I prefer spreading it like so: 252 HP/80 def/172 sp. def. The investment into both allows for more well-roundedness without sacrificing bulk. Give it a Timid (+spe, -atk) nature just to guarantee it’ll outspeed most enemies. If it ends up that way regardless of nature, make it Calm (+sp. def, -atk). For moves, we wanna go for some lame play. Give it Toxic, Sludge Bomb/Wave, Recover/Slack Off/etc., and Roar/Dragon Tail. Toxic because Toxic, Sludge Bomb/Wave so Taunt doesn’t destroy it, a recovery move for staying power, and Roar/Dragon Tail to prevent your opponent from setting up on it. For items, Leftovers. If it doesn’t get access to a recovery move, give it the good ol’ Resto Chesto.

Drampa

drampa

THIS THING IS MY GODDAMN SPIRIT ANIMAL OH MY GOD

Uh… Aaaaaanway. I love Drampa. And I am absolutely using this thing on my team the moment I catch one. So let’s get into it. Drampa is a Normal/Dragon type with the ability Berserk, which raises its Sp. attack by one stage when its health drops below 50%. Along with this, its description says that “While Drampa is usually a very gentle Pokémon, it can fly into a rage if a child it cares for is hurt in some way. The Dragon Breath move that it fires off at such times is powerful enough to blow down buildings!” With this in mind, I’m going to assume its sp. atk will be its highest stat, probably with its sp. def and defense at second highest, with sp. def being a little bit higher than defense because of how calm and indifference he looks. Its attack will likely be abysmal, and speed and HP being okay.

As for a potential build, I’ll go for a bulky sp. attacker. Berserk now not only functions as an ability, but a good potential scare tactic because of how bulky Drampa is. It’ll be hard to OHKO or 2HKO. Give him Leftovers, and make him Calm (+sp. def, -atk) nature. For EVs, invest entirely into HP, and split the rest between sp. def and sp. atk, with preference to sp. atk to make Berserk more powerful. For moves, I’d run Draco Meteor, Recover/Slack Off, etc., Hyper Voice, and Fire Blast. Draco Meteor gets better use with Drampa because of Berserk making the drawback not as bad, a recovery move for staying power, Hyper Voice for your default STAB move, and Fire Blast for coverage.

Hopefully I (or you) will get to use at least similar builds to these when the actual game comes out. This generation has been on point so far with the Pokemon that have been released so far, and I’ve got a lot of hopes for the competitive scene once Pokemon Sun and Moon come out.

All images courtesy of the official website for Pokemon Sun and Moon.

Mighty No. 9 Review

July 3, 2016 dan

With its constant delays and the horrible business practices surrounding it, people thought the elusive Mighty No. 9 would never actually come out. Especially if you’re like me and have been following it since the Kickstarter was announced, three years ago. And hey, there’s good reason to lose hope. It seemed like this game just could never get away from delays. Hell, even the survey for the backers got delayed. But then, on June 21st, 2016, it happened. The magical day, it finally released.

Except the 360 version. Even after this game releases it still can’t get away from being delayed.

The general consensus of the reviews for Mighty No. 9 has been that it’s mediocre at best. Is this the case, or are these reviews overstating it? Is it as poor an excuse of a Mega Man successor as everyone is saying, or is there at least something there? Let’s take a look at it without keeping in mind the context around it, and just as what it was intended to be: A platformer intended to succeed Mega Man. Hopefully it doesn’t make me cry like an anime fan on prom night.

Gameplay

Out of all the things Mega Man is known for, the franchise’s biggest claim to fame is its genius level design and control. Seeing as how Mega Man is a golden standard of platforming for many, myself included, Mighty No. 9 has a huge legacy to live up to. But here’s the thing, drawing comparison to Mega Man OR Mega Man X is just not a good idea, because Mighty No. 9 is more or less its own thing. Of course it still tries to pull off a Mega Man kind of feeling, but the style in which you move around, how you fight enemies, and even the level design itself are like its own part. Try not to think of it as trying to bring back an older Mega Man style, but to try and create a different one. Drawing direct comparisons to Mega Man games won’t work, because its style is just too different. That said, you can still create a feeling of Mega Man while creating a new style of play, and that’s what I’m going to be looking at for Mighty No. 9.

Now, onto the big question: Does this newer style work? Well… Kinda. Mechanically speaking, Mighty No 9 feels great. Beck controls like a dream, firing his buster and landing hits is insanely satisfying, and the dash mechanic feels so good to use. He feels a little light, which is perfect for making you want to dash through levels and collect points, and some of his alternate weapons are pretty cool in concept. It feels like a style of Mega Man, for sure. And in a good way.

This is one of the big things, though. It’s great mechanically. From a level design aspect, it’s nowhere near a Mega Man standard of quality. Remember how I mentioned that you can retain a Mega Man style while not being comparable to any form of Mega Man? Well, this is where it fails. The level design in Mighty No. 9 is very basic, and the variety in levels isn’t as, well, various as it should be. For the eight stages at the start of the game, 4 of them felt unique, and the other 4 just felt like the same okay level over and over. They all did somewhat different things, but they were all executed in the same way, and no new concepts were really introduced; just new obstacles. Like, twice. That’s something that Mega Man in general, regardless of which one you’re looking at, just doesn’t do. Mega Man is about showing the player a new concept in each different stage, and then asking them to execute it. It’s about providing obstacles that take at least some form of tact or execution to get over, while still giving the player the resources to figure out a way to get through it without feeling cheated, and making these obstacles varied and new in each area to keep you on your toes. Mighty No. 9 does none of this. Everything you do just feels like you’re moving in a straight line, rushing to get to the boss and move on. No new concepts, no new ideas, no keeping you on your toes.

Image courtesy of VIDEOGAMER

And it’s not like making the player get through as fast as possible is something Mega Man doesn’t do; look at Mega Man Zero. It encourages speedrunning and going for higher scores, but it does so while also introducing new challenges consistently, and makes the stages so that to get the best score, you have to actually try. Unlike the cakewalk of level design that is Mighty No. 9.

That said, Mighty No. 9 does have some fun stages in it. They’re not all bad. I quite enjoyed the stages for Mighty Numbers 5, 6, and 7 (or as I like to call him, “totally not Proto Man”), along with that stealth-ish stage where you play as Call, and the final two stages of getting into the robot factory, and then the final boss. And on a few more stages, there are some fun segments. Objectively speaking, the level design isn’t bad, it’s just… Way too simple; too basic. For the number of fun stages you get, along with the good controls, I’d say that there’s just enough of good things to make it worth the $20 price tag it’s asking for. Not much more than that, though.

Looks and Sound

Now onto graphics and–

mighty_no_9.0.0

Okay yeah it’s not the best. That said, the trailer looks much worse than how the game does. Unlike many, I don’t really think Mighty No. 9 looks bad. It doesn’t look good, don’t get me wrong. But it’s… Fine. Granted with an almost $4 million budget, you’d expect much more, but it gets the job done. Characters look okay, environments are okay. Quality of the models is… Okay.

Aside from the pizza explosions. Those are actually real and they look exactly like that.

As for music… What music? You mean those incredibly soft tracks underneath everything going on that can barely be heard? I mean I guess it’s not bad music, but it doesn’t do much. There are a few songs I thought were pretty catchy, but it’s nothing I’m going to listen to outside of the game. A meh soundtrack that you can hardly hear to begin with.

Content

And now onto something surprising: Mighty No. 9 has a surprising amount of content. You’ve got the main story, which consists of 12 stages, and will run you about 5 hours. Then, you have challenge mode, which can be done in either solo or co-op. which contains numerous missions that can actually be quite challenging at times, and can actually get pretty fun, and the Ray DLC, which was free for backers and people who purchased the retail version, and is buyable for those who didn’t. This actually makes the game take up quite a bit of time, and definitely offers enough content for its price tag.

Conclusion: Should you buy Mighty No. 9?

For those of you who don’t care about the situation surrounding Mighty No. 9, it’s a decent game that’s worth its asking price. It’s not a spectacular game, and it needed a lot more work to live up to what it was made out to be, but I wouldn’t say it’s as mediocre as everyone else has been saying. There is definitely something there, and it’s trying to do something. It just needed better direction. It’s more good than bad, and it’s definitely worth the $20, but I wouldn’t pay much more than that.

Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator: The Best of the Best

June 21, 2016 dan

If you’ve been reading my articles, you may have noticed I have quite a love of fighting games. In addition to my love of fighting games, I also love heavy metal, and, on top of that, am complete and utter weeaboo trash. So obviously, Guilty Gear is a series that really resonates with me. The newest entry in the series, Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-, just came out two weeks ago, and I’ve been playing it ever since I got my hands on it. The previous entry in the series, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, was known as the most anticipated fighting game of the year after its announcement, and had received critical acclaim upon release. How does the follow up to Daisuke Ishiwatari’s passion project do? Well, let me be straight with you here: Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- is the single greatest experience I’ve had with a fighting game.

Gameplay

When people talk about fighting games with a lot of mechanics, Guilty Gear is one of the first that gets mentioned. Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- (from here on out referred to as just “Revelator”) is able to hold on to a lot of complex mechanics without making learning and adapting to them difficult, thanks to its incredible tutorial mode. Normally I wouldn’t talk about the tutorial mode in a review, but Revelator is able to do the one thing other fighting games can’t: teach the game well. The tutorial mode puts you in a fun minigame-like environment where they present concepts to you and then ask you to execute them OUTSIDE of a battle situation, which allows inexperienced players to learn much easier, and opens up the game to a broader audience.

The tutorial is fun! (Image courtesy of Kotaku)

Okay, now that I’ve gushed about how good the tutorial is, let’s get into the actual combat. Unlike Street Fighter, which is a 6-button fighter, Revelator is a 5-button fighter. In Street Fighter, you have 3 punches and 3 kicks, with each ranging from light to heavy. In Revelator, you have Punch, Kick, Slash, Heavy Slash, and Dust. Aside from punch and kick, I don’t really know what the names mean, but that’s what they’re called. Combos in this game focus more on chaining everything you can get together in a flurry of flashy hits and specials, as opposed to the more slow combos in something like Street Fighter. It’s very easy to make combos in Revelator, but to make good combos is going to take time and effort. Unlike in most recent fighting games where they are trying to lower the execution barrier, Revelator still retains the complexity the Guilty Gear franchise is known for. Don’t let that scare you off, though, because Revelator has this special little thing called Stylish Mode. A mode that originated in the other flagship Arc System Works fighting game, BlazBlue. Basically, Stylish Mode is a mode where you don’t need to have any skill in execution at all to do all these cool-looking combos, so you can just relax and have fun without going into a scene where everyone outclasses you. It’s a very good decision to include this because it allows the more casual audience to have fun and be invested in the game without having to spend hours learning someone that they might just wanna jump right into and mess around with.

Now, remember when I said that there are a lot of mechanics in this game? Well for the sake of keeping this review at a reasonable size I’m only going to explain the more important ones. That said, every mechanic in this game is important in some way or another, and you should totally learn the rest of them if you’re interested.

First off, there’s the Burst technique, which is a blast of energy that pushes your opponent off of you while they’re mid combo, mid block string, or anything really. It uses up burst meter, and you have to use it wisely, because of you burst and it doesn’t hit your opponent, you won’t get it back for a while, meaning your opponent doesn’t have to worry about being thrown away. There’s the Blitz Shield, which is a universal parry that everyone has, and making a good read and blitzing the opponent can lead to huge damage. You can also charge it for this really strong focus attack style move, which does good damage on its own and produces a crumple effect on the opponent, allowing for huge combo potential. Finally, there’s the most important mechanic of Revelator: The Roman Cancel. Red, yellow, and purple Roman cancels (here on referred to as RRC, YRC, and PRC), each do basically the same thing, but their uses vary on the situation. The RRC is used mainly as a combo extender. It interrupts your current animation and resets you, so you can follow up with literally anything and combo for even longer. The YRC is used when you need to maneuver a bit better, or start moving sooner. You use it to either adjust yourself to avoid an attack, or use it to reset your animation after throwing a projectile. Finally, the PRC is used in case you mess up and have to reset your animation to save your ass. Each mechanic is vital to competitive success in the game, and they reward players who master them very well, and punish players who don’t.

The Blitz technique. (Image courtesy of hitconfirm)

The focus on combat in Revelator is the perfect blend of fundamentals and execution, revolving around a strong neutral game, but also needing big combos to deal significant damage. But the neutral isn’t something like Marvel where you’re hit once and you’re down. The tools given to you allow for many different styles of play in the neutral. Moving around is very fast and free-flowing as well.

My only complaint with the gameplay is the online. It’s not bad by any means; When playing within a few hundred miles, it works perfectly fine, with little to no lag. The only big problems the online has is handling playing people more than a few hundred miles away from you, and that the searching for matches is really tedious. In an at-capacity server, which is normally filled with people looking for player matches, your search results will only show you 2 or 3 people you can play with, even though there are clearly much more than that searching. That said, the online is still solid enough to play well consistently, and so long as you know what to do to get good matches, you’ll pretty much always get them. Like I said, it’s not bad, it just needs some work. The game is also only two weeks old, so these issues will likely be polished out down the road.

Looks and Sound

Arc System Works has always delivered some of the best-looking fighting games on average, and Revelator is no exception. It is by far the best-looking fighting game of the current generation, and one of, if not the best-looking fighting game period. The characters are very well-designed, and their models are beautifully made. The stages have so much color and life to them, and the environments are insanely cool locations that I would love to actually be in. The game runs at a smooth 60fps, and the characters’ movesets look really cool and really flashy, which make for an entertaining time for both the player and the watcher. Just like in -SIGN-, the opening animations for the fights enter this 3D-ish world, and eventually pan to the point of it becoming a 2D fighter. When supers happen, it enters this kind of 2.5D animation style again for the moves, and also at the end of the matches, when someone gets a KO. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Hidehiko Sakamura’s art style fits the animation of the game perfectly, and I really hope we get to see this kind of style with even more Guilty Gear entries to come, because it’s one of the best I’ve seen in Arc’s games. Not only is it just a genuinely great style, but it’s able to communicate the game’s “rock n’ roll” aesthetic perfectly.

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS THIS IS (image courtesy of Arc System Works)

Now, not only is it the best-looking fighting game you can get right now, but it’s also the best sounding. As I’ve said before, I am heavy metal weeaboo trash. I love metal (and I’m a weeb but that’s beside the point). The soundtrack of this game is full of nothing but heavy metal and rock, composed by the ridiculously talented Daisuke Ishiwatari. Songs range from the lighter part of hard rock to the heavier side of traditional metal, with a little bit of thrash metal thrown in for good measure. You’ve got songs like Suck a Sage, which are more hard rock, and The Lily of Steel, which are more metal. Every song is catchy and well-written. There isn’t a bad song in the game. In addition, not only does it have Xrd tracks, but you can unlock songs from pretty much every Guilty Gear from the past.

Story

The story concept of the Guilty Gear Xrd games is quite simple. Back in the far away time of 1999, people created a source of limitless energy that they called magic. Yes, they scientifically created magic. I don’t think I’ve ever written something as stupid as that, like, ever. Anyway, this magic was immediately used for war (go figure) and was used to create these biological weapons known as Gears (the title Guilty Gear actually has a meaning, believe it or not). There was a war. Almost 200 years later, a being known as Ramlethal Valentine declares war on the entire world and its inhabitants. These had been another incident like this with someone else who went by “Valentine”, so everyone was like “dude this is real we need to fight” and then everyone went to war.

And then plot happens.

It’s not NetherRealm Studios levels of good, but it’s still a pretty good story, with a lot of nice fights and entertaining characters. Except Elphelt. That waifu trash should go back to BlazBlue where she belongs. It’s only about 3 – 4 hours long, so if you’ve got a free afternoon, you can beat it.

Content

The sheer amount of stuff to do in Revelator is insane. It’s got a pretty good story mode, the obligatory versus, arcade, and training modes, and fantastic tutorial, which you can go back to and play minigames. On top of that, you’ve got the always fun Medal of Millionaire mode, which is pretty much Guilty Gear’s equivalent to coin mode in Smash, except actually good. After that, we have combo mode, where you’re put into a training room and asked to do specific combos, most of which are worthless in actual fights and are there just for fun. Then there’s mission mode, which is pretty much just the advanced tutorial, but with a LOT of tutorials on general situations and mechanics, but if you go to the next page in there, you something no other fighting game does: Matchup tutorials. That’s right, there are specific tutorials that allow you to gain matchup knowledge against other characters/techniques. This is incredible, and all fighting games should do this.

But wait, we still have to talk about the best mode of all: Fishing. Basically, you walk up to a lake and fish for unlockable things, like songs that can play in battle (including ones from older Guilty Gear games), character colors, avatar customization items, concept art, and more. And yeah, you could also just save up your in-game currency and buy them in the gallery, but that’s no fun.

The lobby system, where you walk around as that cute little thing. (Image courtesy of Fighters Generation)

The lobby system, where you walk around as that cute little thing. You can also fish here! (Image courtesy of Fighters Generation)

Even outside of modes, Revelator still has other things to do. When playing online, you have an avatar that is the most precious thing in the world, and it walks around the lobby and you get into matches by sitting at arcade machines and waiting for other avatars to walk up and sit at the same one. It’s so cute. And the best part is that you can customize your avatar. You can give it little square heads of the characters in the game, and change their body color to your liking, though you have to unlock those. And then there’s your plate, which is more or less your trainer card for the online. You can unlock custom frames, change your profile picture, and give yourself a title, normally composed of really goofy words. Mine is Magic Manly Mustache.

Conclusion: Should you buy Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator?

Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator is the single greatest experience I’ve ever had with a fighting game. It has an incredibly unique and balanced roster, fantastic blend of fundamentals and execution, and well-designed mechanics, along side a fantastic score and the best graphics I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. It’s got plenty of options other than versus and arcade mode to keep you from getting bored, and not to mention a pretty good and fun story. Fishing is great, and despite some issues with the online, I’m still willing to give this game the best score I can, because the online still works well so long as you know what to do.

Rare Games that Don’t Suck: GameCube Edition

June 4, 2016 dan

Many things can make a game rare, but it’s usually something along the lines of limited quantities, exclusivity, a specific print of a game, or simply being so well-loved that anytime one comes on the market, there’s a few dozen people who want to own a physical copy of one of their favorite games. Despite that, reasons like limited quantities and exclusivity tend to be the bigger things that make a game rare, and because of that, a lot of rare games don’t tend to not actually be too good for their price. The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak on NES, for instance, isn’t anything special. In fact, for the time it came out, it’s painfully average. And yet, because it was just such an exclusively released game, it’s slipped through the grasps of many collectors, and is now worth around $1000 if it’s in good enough condition. This game, though, is only one of many examples of games all across systems that are just not worth the price their rarity is asking for. This got me to thinking about which games are actually worth that rare price that people might actually enjoy as a game rather than just as a collector’s item. Today, we’re going to be talking about the games on one of my personal favorite systems of all time, the Nintendo GameCube.

The first game we’re gonna’ be talking about is the fantastic Skies of Arcadia: Legends, a remake of Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast. Chances are you’ve heard of this one, because it’s received very high critical acclaim all around the board (32/40 from Famitsu, 9.2/10 from GameSpot, 9/10 from GameInformer), and consistently mentioned when people talk about the GameCube. Skies of Arcadia: Legends is a simple story about a group of sky pirates. Yes, sky pirates, and it’s just as awesome as you think it is. Sadly, neither the original Dreamcast version nor the Gamecube version sold well, and have become very hard to find because of it. I lucked out and found mine for $15 at a Gamestop, only to find out a few years later that this game is going for $75 on average for a good copy.

Image courtesy of GameTDB

The story is fairly simple, but not in a bad way. It’s the standard “evil group of people are trying to collect magic items to rule the world and our heroes must stop them” storyline, but what it lacks in how unique its concept is, it makes up for with good, engaging writing, characters who are loveable from the moment you meet them, and just the right amount of self-awareness. It has a lot of fun with itself and it encourages the player to have just as much fun as its having, if that makes any sense. You’re going to get your standard RPG gameplay here with random encounters, shops everywhere, elemental alignments, and all of that good stuff. While none of it brings anything new to the table mechanically, it’s done incredibly well. What it does bring that’s super cool, though, are airship battles. Keep in mind when I say airship, I mean that they are literally pirate ships that are flying instead of on water. You can build up your ship’s weaponry to fight other ships in a style that has you plan out your actions before hand, and then watch them happen. It leaves the standard RPG formula for these battles and instead goes into some weird turn-based strategy game. And these breaks from regular gameplay aren’t jarring in the least; they fit very well in the game. On top of this, you have a lot of sidequests, the bounty system, and new discoveries, most of which is not found in the Dreamcast version. Couple this with great graphics for its time and a pretty good soundtrack, and you’ve got yourself a game that shows that you don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to be impressive. It doesn’t try to be unique, it takes what it has and makes it the best it can be.

Up next, we have Gotcha Force, from none other than Capcom themselves. This game is rare for a similar reason to Skies of Arcadia: Legends, but with one thing making it even more rare and expensive. See, instead of being a critically acclaimed game that didn’t sell well, Gotcha Force is a game that got a lot of mixed reviews that sold pretty badly, but retains a devoted cult following, one of them being me (though again, I lucked out and found this for like $30 at a Gamestop). The average reviews for this game were between 5-7/10, but when asking its following, they’ll say it’s one of the best games on the GameCube. For a complete used copy of Gotcha Force, you’re looking at a staggering $150 – $170 price tag.

Image courtesy of GameTDB

Gotcha Force is an action game focused around collecting toys to do battle. You’re put into an arena, which is normally just a regular park or a kid’s room, to fight other small toys with swords and laser beams in a style somewhat similar to the Armored Core games. You can compose a team of toys, called Gotcha Borgs. The Gotcha Borgs are pretty much if the Transformers in the show were the size of their real-life toys. Gotcha Borgs are separated into different types, and each have different stats, and having good team synergy is key to beating this game, because it’s hard. Very hard. Half because of its awful camera, half because of the actual difficulty. Content wise, this game is pretty long, with a story that will last around 10 hours, probably more of you’re as bad as I am, and if you want to complete everything in this game, you’re gonna need to dump in at least twice that. There are so many Gotcha Borgs to collect that just trying to find them all is going to run you a few more hours, and you may have to look for more just to complete the story if you see yourself getting beaten by a particular enemy a lot. It’s got some of the most fun multiplayer you’ll ever play, just because of how fast-paced and crazy the screen gets with four people going all over the place trying to kill each other. This game is great for parties. You know, if you don’t mind leaving your $150 game out for people to constantly play. Graphically, it’s a pretty nice-looking game. The Gotcha Borgs are well designed, and for a game with so many, they do a really good job at making sure they look unique from one another. Musically… Ehhhh. Not good, not bad. Gotcha Force is a game that’s really good if you just want to sit down for a few hours and have some fun, fast-paced shooting action while still looking at cute things and cool robots.

Now, we’re going to talk about the rarest and most expensive game on here, and one that has a very fun story to go with it as well: Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest. Cubivore was originally released in Japan as Animal Leader, and upon receiving mixed reception and bad sales, Nintendo decided to not bring it over to the west. Then, after hearing that, Atlus came along and decided to give it a North American release. A very limited North American release. Combine that with the fact that even in comparison to the limited release, this game didn’t sell very well over here and still had mixed reception, and you’ve got a recipe for a rarity. A complete used copy of Cubivore will run you between $175 – $220 depending on the condition. Yes, you read that right. $175 – $220. For a game about cubes eating each other.

Image courtesy of GameTDB

Funny story about how I got my copy of Cubivore. Back when I was in middle school, my friend needed to sell some games for some money, and just didn’t know what he had. Granted, I didn’t either because I was like 12, but point is, I bought this $175 game for $10 because neither of us knew about it.

Either way, Cubivore is… Weird. Is it an adventure game? Survival? RPG? You can’t really tell. You’re a cube who eats other cubes to evolve into a bigger and stronger cube in order to eventually become the biggest, baddest cube in all the land. You’re trying to become this better cube not just live better and longer, but to overthrow the Killer Cubivore, who reigns over the top of the food chain and who has eaten the essence of the land along with his allies, causing the land to dry up. If you can overthrow the Killer Cubivore and become king, you can restore the land to what it once was. You evolve by literally eating other cubes and absorbing their forms. But not in a cute Kirby kind of way where he sucks ’em up and then poof, new form. No, this is actually quite violent. You bite into the other cube, shake them around, and then literally rip their limbs off with your teeth. You then get a new limb, or a different limb. Each set of bodies/limbs functions differently, which means you have to change your approach when hunting. You progress by eating enemies and bugs, which bring color back to the land. And, well, yeah. That’s it. The main story takes about 12 hours to complete, but the game takes a lot of getting used to, since it’s so weird. So it’ll probably take you a bit longer. Cubivore is slow, but pretty fun. And it’s definitely one of the most unique experiences on the gamecube. All for the low, low price of $175. Oh, and one more thing. This game was developed by Intelligent Systems. You know, the team behind every Fire Emblem game.

SPEAKING OF FIRE EMBLEM!

Image courtesy of GameTDB

I’m not going to go into too much detail on this one, because so many people already know how great it is and how rare it is, but it’s something that has to be talked about. Path of Radiance is the other fan-favorite Fire Emblem game after Awakening, and it goes for around $100 used. Its incredible story (that is continued in Radiant Dawn which is an equally rare and expensive game on the Wii) and loveable characters make its more-dialogue-than-gameplay style very enjoyable, and the gameplay itself is very good. Path of Radiance is one of the harder Fire Emblem games, and it shows. It forces you to be very tactful in your decisions, and is not a game that you can brute force your way through. Great looks, great soundtrack, great everything, really. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a strategy game that you’re gonna want to pay the money to play.

Just remember, if you have some extra cash, don’t do the smart thing and buy something that will help you in the long run, spend it on a stupidly expensive video game, because that’s what money is for.

The Importance of Villains in the Fighting Game Community

May 31, 2016 dan

What is a villain? Well, when you think of a villain, you think of this antagonist who’s bigger and better than the hero. Evil intentions, scary, and just genuinely bad people, right? Villains in the fighting game community (or FGC) aren’t as over-dramatic as that, but still are a cause for a lot of tension and drama in their respective communities. That said, even though these villains cause a lot of drama, they’re a good thing to their communities. Be it through a persona they made for the sake of a good show, or if it’s just how they naturally are, villains generate hype, get the crowd invested, and make the mood of whatever it is they’re competing at much more intense, all by providing someone for the audience to root against.

Villains are a special breed of competitive player. They retain the skill and consistency to compete with the strongest players in the world, while also following up this skill with as much disrespect as possible. This can range anywhere from trash talk, to showboating, to really anything, so long as whatever is done contains major disrespect towards individuals, or the community.

Normally, the reaction to these kinds of people is disdainful, as it should be. They’re going out of their way to be disrespectful to others; of course they’re going to make people react negatively. This kind of behavior is generally known to be toxic, and when done by a regular member of the community, it is. But, when it’s done by the proper person, it changes from complete toxicity into nothing but hype building, and when it comes to the FGC, hype is the backbone of the community. Building hype increases player and audience investment, overall showmanship in major tournaments, and more. Villains generating hype through this kind of disrespect create a consistency that is otherwise not there.

But how does being so disrespectful generate hype? Quite simple, actually. Like I said, villains give the audience someone to root against. People don’t like seeing villains win, because they’re not nice people. So when a villain is up against someone who can compete against them and potentially take them down, that match will get the audience ridiculously invested, and the reaction to everything happen will be even greater than it would have been if it were between two other players.

This heavy focus on who wins the match makes it more exciting, and both outcomes help to make the community more invested in the game. If the non-villain wins, then the crowd goes crazy because they saw the villain get taken down. If the villain wins, the initial negative reaction to the crowd will eventually go towards an even better positive reaction when the villain finally does lose. Something big happened a few months ago with Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 villain Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez at Winter Brawl X. He had a match against Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 EVO champion Kane BlueRiver, and FChamp, also being an EVO champion in the same game before Kane BlueRiver, starts taunting him after every win. Yelling at him, talking down to him. Making it known that he is the best, and there’s nothing that can be done about it:

Video courtesy of Youtube user BasedMonster

Listen to the crowd when he taunts Kane BlueRiver. Listen to the crowd when he screams “THIS IS MY GAME!” Listen to the crowd every time he antagonizes Kane BlueRiver. He’s making the audience gain so much energy, making them get hyped up for this match, for the chance to see Kane BlueRiver destroy FChamp after being taunted. On top of making the crowd so invested in the game, his antics add flare to an otherwise regular exhibition match, which makes the event as a whole a much more entertaining show. This is the kind of impact a really good villain can give a competitive scene.

And it’s not just traditional fighting games where this happens either. Without a doubt the most notorious villain in the FGC is the incredibly talented Super Smash Bros. Melee player, Leffen. As much as FChamp has in his showboating game, and how much he taunts people while playing, there is nobody in the FGC who can compete with the sheer amount of trash talk that Leffen spits out.

Video courtesy of Youtube user Levoki

Leffen is a fantastic player, knows it, and isn’t afraid to say that he is. He generates hype in a different way than FChamp does. When FChamp does it, while he does trash talk outside of games, he does it in the moment more than prior to or after a match. Leffen will seemingly talk smack about anyone when given the opportunity. The sheer amount of trash talk Leffen speaks makes him a top contender for the “I really want to punch this dude in the mouth” contest. This whole situation between Leffen and Chillindude was started over Leffen trash talking him on Twitter, which Then ended up being a huge event at Apex 2015, where Leffen won. Leffen’s victory caused two reactions with the crowd: them freaking out because they liked Leffen, and he won, or people freaking out because they hate Leffen, and they’re mad he won. Either way, due to Leffen’s disrespect, he was able to make the huge crowd get involved in the match, and be the cause of what is probably one of the most well-known matches in Melee.

Without these villains to put into the mix, all we would have in the FGC are a bunch of really good players who all just kinda show up and play. The conflict and drama these people add to the formula provides a great show for the audience. Being a villain that is capable of generating so much energy within both the audience and community is a talent in and of itself. It takes a lot of devotion to the game and the community to be perfectly fine with being viewed as “that guy” for the sake of the game, and these villains need to be shown a bit more appreciation for what they contribute to this great community of hype.

Street Fighter V: Is It Finished Yet?

May 23, 2016 dan

Ever since its release, Street Fighter V has been under fire for being an incomplete game, and who can blame anyone for thinking like this? Upon release, people who put that game into their system were greeted with barely anything to do offline. With no arcade mode, no challenge mode, a yet-to-be-added in-game shop for unlockables, and a horrible online experience for the first week of release, anyone who bought Street Fighter V in its February release had essentially purchased a $60 training mode with bad online.

What a lot of people seem to forget, though, was that a lot of the game’s major parts were to be added in March. So, now that the huge March update has happened, is the newest addition to Capcom’s fighting game giant actually worth a buy? Let’s find out.

Gameplay

Fighting games are notorious for alienating the more casual scene due to their high execution requirements, requiring a small frame of time to mix moves together into combos. Capcom noticed this trouble with the casual scene, and has increased the window for combos in this game, making the creation of effective combos much easier to do. Most bread n’ butter (BnB; basic, effective combos) combos in Street Fighter IV only had a window of 2 to 3 frames where you could input the next move before you drop the combo. In Street Fighter V, that number seems to be closer to 4 to 5 frames. On top of this, the casual audience can also rest easy knowing that even if they don’t have combos, they can still get by on the regular moves, because the damage on all attacks in Street Fighter V is huge. A few random attacks can do some serious damage if they land. The best part about these two simple changes is that even though it is more welcoming to the casual player, it also brings the competitive scene for the game closer to its roots. By making execution overall easier, in combination with the high damage from normal and special moves, it shifts the focus of the game away from having a player that has both high execution and a good neutral game, to a player that really only needs a good neutral game.

For those unacquainted with fighting games, the neutral game is the point in a match where neither player is at a clear advantage or disadvantage on screen, and both are trying to get in on each other. This point in the game relies heavily on mindgames and prediction, as opposed to execution. Lots of limb-flailing going on here to keep opponents out or to try to get in on them. Punishing mistakes, applying pressure, everything to do with fighting games outside of execution happens in the neutral game. It’s the core of fighting game fundamentals. This change to almost exclusive focus on the neutral game is a smart choice. By having the gameplay focus more on fighting game fundamentals, it helps to develop the player into someone who is better overall at the game than creating a person with a flowchart of “that one combo they found” or keeping to one singular strategy. It encourages the player to learn, because they know that all they have to know to get by is their opponent, rather than any complicated combo list, while at the same time rewarding the player for knowing those combos.

Mobility in Street Fighter V feels incredible. Everyone has the perfect amount of weight to them and maneuvering around the screen feels incredibly natural. Street Fighter V is by far the best-feeling game in the franchise, even better than fan favorite Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. That said, mobility in a fighting game isn’t really something that can be graded, as how a fighting game feels to the player is almost entirely subjective. So while I feel that Street Fighter V feels the best, this is the part that will vary the most from person to person.

Zangief Spinning Pile Driver Street Fighter V

Image courtesy of GiantBomb user DryvBy

Now moving on to the actual mechanics themselves, Street Fighter V seems to have taken the series back to basics in terms of, well, everything. No more Focus Attacks, no more supers, no more Ultra Meter. In its place, we have Critical Art (CA) Meter, and the V-Gauge. The CA Meter is used for only two things: EX attacks, and a Critical Arts. EX attacks are powered up versions of each characters’ special moves that take one bar of your meter to perform, and Critical Arts are what’s replacing both Supers and Ultras in this game. Critical Arts are powerful moves you can do once you fill up your meter. Performing them takes all the meter you have, but if landed, they can be game-changing. You can charge your CA Meter by doing pretty much anything. Attacking, blocking, getting hurt – anything.

The V-Gauge is also only used for two things: V-Reversals, and V-Triggers. V-Reversals are exactly what they say: reversals. If your opponent is applying pressure, you can spend half of your V-Gauge to push them away from you. V-Triggers are special skills you can perform when your V-Gauge fills up. These skills vary from being something simple like an increase in overall damage for a short period of time, to a special attack that can put you at a serious advantage. Because of the higher utility the V-Gauge offers, it is harder to build up than the CA Meter. You can either build up your V-Gauge by getting hurt or using your V-Skill, a special move that varies from character to character.

That’s it for actual mechanics, though. The minimal mechanics help highlight the neutral game, giving the players just enough tools to deal damage and get in, without it being so full of mechanics you get lost in the sheer amount of options you have. With less overall options, it’s easier to learn your opponents and develop strategies for their specific style of play. It sacrifices complexity for the sake of a more involved mental game, and it works wonderfully.

One last thing I’m going to mention is that the roster is incredibly balanced. Every character has high points and low points that make them each good in their own way, where even the lowest tier characters can still make top 8 in tournaments.

Street Fighter V is by far my favorite Street Fighter game in terms of how it plays and feels.

Looks/Sound

Aesthetically speaking, Street Fighter V looks fairly lacking when compared to other fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat X or Guilty Gear Xrd. Not to say it looks bad, just that it could be better. The quality of the character models is very good, and the environments are bright and full of color. The biggest issue here, though, is that the environments don’t feel like they’re a part of the game like in previous entries. This has to do with the fact that, while the playable characters are animated at a full 60 fps, the backgrounds are only animated at 30 fps. Meaning the images in the back are going to look really off-putting while playing. The stages themselves look good, but when playing through them, I can’t help but feel detached because of this weird, unnecessary difference in frame rate.

Now, onto my biggest complaint about the visuals in this game: the color of the stages. You have all of these beautiful looking stages, with all of these colors that could be used really well to make them even prettier, and this just doesn’t happen because of one huge reason:

HARDLY ANY OF THE STAGES ARE WHITE BALANCED WELL

Image Courtesy of EventHubs’ Jonathan ‘Catalyst’ Grey

Seriously, it may seem like a small thing to some, but god damn is it horribly obvious in this game. The colors in the majority of the stages all have this really ugly blue tint to them from lack of white balancing, as shown above. And when it’s not an ugly blue tint, it’s an ugly orange tint. All of those great colors could have been brought out so much better if they just white balanced the stages.

Now onto the sound, and I’ve gotta’ say, Capcom nailed it with the OST here. You’ve got a bit of everything, from the hype-building Rashid’s theme, Ryu’s orchestral theme, Ken’s awesome hard rock, and F.A.N.G.’s… Dubstep elevator music? Yeah I guess that’s how you’d describe it. But it’s great, I swear! Point is, this OST is awesome, and huge props to Capcom for making one of the best fighting game OSTs of all time.

Story

lol

Content

Ah, here it is. This is where all the backlash is coming from. Does Street Fighter V have enough content to warrant its price? It certainly didn’t at its release. But now that the promised March update has happened, adding in a lot of the content that was lacking in the initial release, is it finally worth a buy?

Well, let’s add it all together, shall we? The amount of content in this game is as follows: Survival Mode, Training Mode, unlockables through the in-game shop, Challenge Mode, ranked and casual online matches, quick stories for each character, access to the Capcom Fighters Network, and yes, the online is now actually stable and working pretty alright now. If you want to count it, we’re also getting a cinematic story mode some time next month.

Survival mode is the closest thing this game has to an arcade mode, and it’s not as good as one. You go through a lot of stages, each increasing in number with difficulty, and try to beat the boss at the end. To stay in the best shape you can, you can exchange points you earn for winning fights for buffs in HP, attack, defense, etc. It would be so much cooler if it weren’t for the horrible AI. It’s pathetic for the first half of survival, and then is absolutely brutal in the second half, so getting through the whole thing, even after a little bit of practice, is still horribly tedious. That said, I still enjoy the occasional survival mode, and don’t really see why people hate it aside from unlocking colors. As a mode on its own, I feel like it’s perfectly fine. The AI may be jank, but going through it once you learn the game is kinda fun. You just have to get over that difficulty spike if you’re playing on anything higher than easy.

The stories take 5 minutes per character, are pathetically easy, horribly written, and have ugly art, though sometimes comically bad. And some stories are kind of entertaining. And by some, I mean just Zangief’s.

Doesn’t stop the art from being ass, though.

Challenge mode is the standard fighting game challenge mode, where you’re presented with 10 combos for each character that you have to pull off. You get nothing out of this aside from something to do and some help on your execution, which isn’t a bad thing. Especially since this is the first challenge mode I’ve seen where the combos in it are actually practical. A couple of the combos I came up with for Nash actually were in challenge mode. It was soul-crushing.

The Capcom Fighting Network is irrelevant if you don’t play competitively, but if you do, it’s a place for you to keep track of the top players and watch replays of pretty much any match that happened online. It’s a great way to learn more about the game.

There is plenty of content, but half of it won’t be revisited after the first play through.

Conclusion: Should You Buy Street Fighter V?

Okay, here it is, the big moment. After everything that’s happened with Street Fighter V, is it finally worth a buy after the update? Well, a used copy of Street Fighter V at Gamestop goes for about $45, and that’s the perfect price. I want to use that to prove something: Even after this huge update, with the extra characters, modes, unlockables, and everything, Street Fighter V still does not have enough content to warrant a $60 price tag. Even now that it’s price has been lowered to $50 for a new copy, that’s not going to be worth it until June, maybe. If the story mode isn’t 5 minutes like what we have now. I bought my copy for $60 on release, and I love it. It’s one of my favorite fighting games, and I feel like my money was well spent for the time I’ve put into it. But I can’t honestly recommend getting this game to anyone for anything higher than $45. I wouldn’t buy a game that was online-only for any more than $30, and with the content Street Fighter V has, it just pushes it up to $45 as a good price. It plays wonderfully, looks good, and sounds great. From the perspective of gameplay, Street Fighter V is absolutely fantastic, and if you want to play it, you should buy it for whatever price you want. But if you’re looking for content, this game just won’t deliver for full price. Get it used.