411 Games Fact or Fiction 02.05.08: Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Roster, Possible Re-Release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tony Hawk's Demise and More

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 02.05.2008

411's Jordan Williams and Armando Rodriguez tell us what they think about Super Smash Bros. Brawl's 35+ character roster, voting based on a candidate's stance on video games, Skate's effect on the Tony Hawk series, the chances that we will see another Marvel vs. Capcom game in the near future, the Cooper Lawrence / Fox News fiasco, and playing older games on the Wii VC vs. playing them in their original format in this edition of Fact or Fiction Games.

Welcome to another edition of Fact or Fiction. This week Jordan Williams and newcomer Armando Rodriguez took a few minutes out of their weekend to tell us what they think about some of today's most important video game news and issues. Before we start, let's take a look at what they do at 411mania -

Jordan Williams, the secret underground pimp overlord of 411games, posts Working Title every week. In this week's column he started part 1 of his new series on games that need a sequel. Jordon also writes reviews. His latest is a review for NFL Tour for the Xbox 360.

Armando Rodriguez writes Puerto Rico News and The Caribbean Corner for the Wrestling section. He also provides reviews, previews, and news for the Games section. His latest review is for Conan for the PS3.

Let's go -


1. There are at least 35 playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, including non-Nintendo characters such as Solid Snake and Sonic. Clearly, there isn't much to complain about as far as character selection goes.

Jordan Williams: Fact

Although, as with any game like this, people are going to complain. Hell, I complained about them adding Sonic but there's going to be the people who wanted Mewtwo to come back, or Mega Man to be added. We got 35 characters, a ton of NEW characters, hardly any clones, and everyone's favorites have returned. If people find something to complain about here, they are just looking too damn hard.

Armando Rodriguez: Fact

I personally think the character selection is great, but I agree with Jordan that people will always find a way to complain and that is understandable. Face it - Nintendo has created so many memorable characters that someone's favorite might be left out. I still think the addition of Solid Snake makes little sense since he does not fit well with the rest of the characters, but overall the lineup is top notch.

Score: 1 for 1


2. A candidate's stance on video games might be enough to sway your vote if you are on the fence come election time.

Jordan Williams: Fiction

For me, video games are a huge part of my life, but they just don't stack up to the other issues that have been brought to the table with this year's election. Now, if someone were to have a very strong stance against them or wanted to outright ban them, then I'd have a problem, but this fickle war on AO/M games stuff is going to be around forever and isn't as important to me as say, the war in Iraq or the economy.

Armando Rodriguez: Fiction

I agree with Jordan here. Unless someone wanted to outright ban them, video games are not a strong enough reason to sway my vote. It seems like I always say the same thing whenever the video game issue is brought up, but I think we have tons of more important problems in this country that need to be fixed. It seems there is a trend of blaming video games for everything when in reality the problem is not the games, but the lack of supervision by the parents.

Score: 2 for 2


3. Getting beat out in terms of sales by EA's Skate is the best thing that's ever happened to the Tony Hawk series.

Jordan Williams: Fact

THPS, much like Grand Theft Auto and other genre defining games, NEEDS competition as it forces video games as a whole to get better. I think if Skate hadn't come along Tony Hawk and his crew would've just kept phoning it in and everyone would've had to live with it since it was the only game around. Now that someone else has stepped up and set the bar, we will see the THPS developers go back and rework some things so that THPS can compete with Skate. Then Skate will we reworked to compete, and so on and so on. Wars make or break franchises. Without them they grow stale.

Armando Rodriguez: Fact

The last time I went out of my way to buy a THPS game was back when Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 came out. That's ages ago in video game years! Fact of the matter is the series was growing stale and boring. Skate came out and did some innovative things and introduced a new way of playing, enough to feel different from THPS and offer a more realistic take on the sport. Like Jordan said, this will force the THPS team to improve their game and thus, force the Skate team to improve theirs and keep the cycle going. Things like this will stop game companies from just releasing the same game every year with minimal improvements simply because they have no competition (coughMaddencough).

Score: 3 for 3



4. Now that the Marvel/EA multi-year deal has been dissolved, we can expect to see Marvel characters once again duking it out with Capcom characters on newer consoles in the near future.

Armando Rodriguez: Fact

Or at least I hope so. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 still stands as one of the greatest fighting games of all time and the fact that most retailers (like Gamestop) still charge you $40 for a used copy proves that the game is still in high demand. As a matter of fact, I spent almost six months trying to track down a used copy. Throw in the fact that Capcom has failed to create an entertaining 2D fighter ever since and I think it is a safe bet to say that Capcom will be very interested in the Marvel franchise.

Jordan Williams: Fact

But barely. Call me crazy, but I think the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise is done. I won't rule out a possible revisit or a new one in the future, but I think that ALL hinges on the success of Street Fighter IV. If Street Fighter IV doesn't break out big and prove that Capcom can still do a fighter, I can't imagine them bringing the series back again let alone adding Marvel characters to the mix.

Score: 4 for 4


5. Unhappy gamers giving Cooper Lawrence's book on Amazon negative reviews for what she did on Fox News was a good thing.

Armando Rodriguez: Fact

Or at least I feel we are even. If she can bash a video game without doing proper research, we can bash her book without reading it! If you are going to talk about something on TV, it is important that you do research yourself. She just asked some guy, he said it looked like pornography, and then she went on TV and said what the guy told her. That's the right way to do your job! Plus, I still don't get the media's fascination with video games when there are far more important problems in this country that should be getting attention. I think the problems with violence and drugs on the streets are far more important than two aliens getting freaky.

Jordan Williams: Fiction

Sure, it makes everything even but does it really help the stereotyped image of gamers? "Oh no! A lady went on TV and spouted misinformation about a game we like. Let's spam her book with bad reviews." It just seemed like a really childish thing to do. Sure, she was wrong, DEAD wrong, but letting her know about it that way was the completely wrong way to go about it. Emails, letters, and the things EA did were the right way. For a culture that wants to be taken so seriously, when we do stuff like this it makes us look like the "kids" they all think we are.

Score: 4 for 5


6. Despite the convenience of the Wii's virtual console, it is still better to play a game in its original format.

Armando Rodriguez: Fact

The Wii adds useful stuff like save states and such, but the real thing is better. I still have problems adjusting to the classic controller when playing Nintendo 64 games. Plus, the addition of save states makes the games easier than they where. I still hook up my SNES and Genesis every now and then and I prefer them greatly to the Virtual Console. However, this does not take away from the greatness of the Virtual Console, because the VC will introduce classic games to an audience that was perhaps too young to have played them.

Jordan Williams: Fiction

The games that they put on the VC are great no matter what you are playing them on. Sure, there's the matter of save states making the game easier, but that's something you choose to use. There's a bit of a nostalgia kick added when you are holding an old skool NES controller in your hand when you play an NES game, but if you need to have that feeling to enjoy the game more, then maybe you might be better off sticking with the old consoles.

Score: 4 for 6



We have a final score of 4 for 6. That's it for this week. Unfortunately, we keep getting attacked by a bear with a detachable head. If we can find something that can be used against it in the nearby incinerator, we'll be back next week.