The 10th Hour 11.28.08: Top 10 Worst Games Affiliated with Street Fighter

Posted by Derek Robbins on 11.28.2008

This week on the 10th hour, 411's Derek Robbins breaks down which 10 games featuring characters of Street Fighter are the worst. Which games made the list? There's only one way to find out!

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour. As always, there are a couple of tangents I would like to go off on before I start the list this week.

-I am writing this on Thanksgiving day, aren't you a special group of readers? I'm pretty much just waiting for the turkey to get done and figured I'd write the 10th hour to make the wait slightly less mind numbing. Well, it's probably better for me than WoW…which I ashamedly have been fairly addicted to over the past couple of days.

-Chrono Trigger DS is a pretty nice remake, but I'm sure fans are going to be mad at some of the re-translations that were made. Frog doesn't speak in old English anymore (which makes sense, because nobody else from his time era does), several of the items got their names changed, and Johnny – the guy you race with – is no longer THE MAN. He is bro. There is also a hint towards Ayla being a bi-sexual. These are all pretty minor changes though (except for the Frog thing). The game is easily one of the best RPGs on the DS, even if it is a pretty old game.

-Yeah, I've been playing WoW a lot lately. The Death Knight is a pretty fun class and has made re-tromping through the Outlands less of a hassle than it may have been. I know a lot of people dislike journeying through a barren wasteland, but since I'm doing it with some badass skills…I guess I'm more forgiving.

Reader Feedback

I give my top-10 favorite games of this generation. Of course there are going to be some complaints! The Exploding Barrel Podcast guys thought my list was right on! That should make you guys more lenient right? Riiiiiight?

swanson leads us off

gta4?

no way

Yes way. A matter of fact, read what I started out that section on: The second trend I noticed is that everyone seems to be hopping all over GTA IV. People are criticizing it left and right for pretty much no good reason. Some even call it a bad game.

It's trendy to dislike GTA IV right now, so I'm just going to wait a little bit until people remember that it's a good game.

Jeff Modzelewski questions LBP's place

Little Big Planet has been out less than a month. I don't know how that can be listed as the Top 10 anything just yet. You need to give games at least a little bit of time before putting them on a list like this.

I had a cut-off month, but perhaps you are correct…a little more time could have been used. Honestly though? I don't see my opinion on LBP or Fallout 3 changing anytime soon. If I did this list in January, I think it probably would be the same, with the addition of perhaps Gears 2. Against my will. I see your point though and it's fair.

Snedpop isn't as big on NMH as I am:

No More Heroes? Top 10? Pfffft! No Chance!

It is! Look! It's right there! At number 10! There was a chance! It made it! Rejoice Snedpop! The little Wii game that could scraped its way onto the list, truly this is a moment we can reconcile about for ages!

Bryz follows similar suit.

"10-) No More Heroes"

*stops reading*

LOL

But you missed the rest of the list! There are other games there! When I say top-10 list it doesn't mean that there is only an entry for number 10! Something you really like could have been on there and now you'll never know! Arggggggh! To his credit, Bryz did come back and say the rest of the list was pretty good. So, uhm, thanks. He also gives some reason for the NMH hatred:


Different isn't always better. It's a mediocre game and there's *so* many different games that deserve to be on the list over it. However, I begrudgingly respect that this is your personal list, so whatever.

Hrrrm…fair enough. I agree that different isn't always better – look at the wii library (doh ho ho) – but in this case I think it is. There were probably a few other games that I forgot about that should have been on this list over it. I'm thinking mainly Twilight Princess…but there's bound to be more. So really? Fair point.

Butters4prez questions my age:

LMFAO, Little Big Planet???? Wow, just wow. I've agreed with some of your lists but this one just showed your lack of GOOD taste in games. Not even gonna touch on the Super Mario one, what are you, 15?

I think all of the games I listed are pretty good, and if you check metacritic I'm sure most of these titles were pretty well received. As for Super Mario Galaxy? I mean, dude, come on. That game is one you should be able to enjoy no matter how old you are. I hope you enjoy your constant barrage of shooters.

RavenTazECW gets his weekly comment in:

Hard for me to give input on a list where I own none of the consoles that were being discussed. I was kind of surprised you didn't mention Twilight Princess anywhere, not even in your honorable mentions. I played it for the GameCube but didn't get too far, but I thought it was interesting and would be a game you'd enjoy.

Didn't have my internet working for a couple weeks, but the cable company came over and fixed it on Friday. Found out the splicer outside was rusted and eroded and it destroyed my cable connection, and the cable guy thought it was amazing I had cable at all at any point in the past decade due to how damaged it was. My TV has never had this clear of a picture, heh. Over my break I did have time to beat some of my games, one being Battletoads. Before anyone gets on my case about it being impossible to beat, I did use the Game Genie for infinite lives. Still, the game was a huge bitch to beat due to no invincibility, and having to start over in the levels over and over and over again. Took a good 12 hours to accomplish this, and the 11th level will give me nightmares forever (took a good 3 hours on that one alone due to its unfairness).

I'm going to pursue the Wii again shortly so I can finally play Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Twilight Princess is a game that I legitimately forgot about. I honestly like TP more than I do OoT, so it's kind of a shame I forgot about it. I wonder why that is? I think it's because I still generally associate it with the Gamecube. After all, prior to its release – at least a few months before it – everyone thought it was going to be a Gamecube exclusive title. I remember at E3 when a Wii version was revealed. Even at that point, I never would have guessed TP would hit Wii before it hit the Gamecube. So, guys, I admit I am wrong. WRONG. No More Heroes should not be on this list, TP should be on there somewhere.

Wow…I hate having no internet. I feel so naked. I like sit by my monitor waiting for Kotaku or something to load. I am impressed by your game genie assisted Battle Toad run. I've never beat Battle Toads even while cheating, so I'm impressed that you did things the major league baseball way to get things done. Twelve hours though? Holy cow…that IS a challenge.

You may want to wait until after the holiday season to pursue that Wii. I think a Wii is STILL hard to track down. After all, our Toys R Us has the same sign it had last year with: "No, we don't have Nintendo Wiis in stock". So, good luck…people are still buying the heck out of that system.

trywryse could potentially win worst comment of the year.

Way to make the entire list out of games from the last year or two. LBP? Seriously? REALLY?

Do you know how long this generation has lasted? I mean, you know, it'd be hard to put any older game on this list. Sorry that, uh, Super Mario Brothers 3 doesn't qualify to be on a "Best Games of this Gen" list?

My good friend Andrew Breckenridge left a comment this week:

Derek Robbins!!!
*Slaps Derek with Glove of teh Intarwebs*
I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!

You have failed to mention Horsez on your list! How dare you! In the name of Archibald William III, my digital horse friend, I demand an immediate apology or ...

I can't even seriously continue that. So where's Twilight Princess? You know, the Wii Game. What? The Gamecube version isn't real. It's like that little brother of yours that we never talk about. You know, the one ... okay, I'll shut up.

And no Mario Kart? Really, I think these may be some fightin' words after all.

As for the rest of your list, I begrudgingly tell you that I generally, kind of agree with it. Like Fallout 3, AKA, "How many times can I hit this chick with a nightstick before I get bored?" I'm clocking three hours now ...

I would have put Horsez, but anyone in the horse community knows that Barbie's Horse Adventure is easily the best horse game in years. That's right, fans of Horsan 2: Electric Boogaloo…your beloved game has been surpassed. Or am I simply going against the grain? Time will tell.

Twilight Princess as has been mentioned was a mistake. It should have been there, it wasn't, and I am a fool. It will go down into history as the game that got away. I've never actually played the Gamecube version of the game (which makes it not being on the list even more weird). How does that control? After playing TP on the wii, certain things seem like they'd be awkward to control on the Gamecube.

I love Mario Kart Wii, but I think you and I would be alone in that. The online play for that game is something to be respected with quiet dignity. Unfortunately, its over-reliance on luck kind of prevents it from penetrating the top-spot. So, yes, Breck. THEM'S FIGHTING WORDS.

Also, glad you agree with the rest of my list. I can't hit one person with the night stick repeatedly though. Usually the die. Or uhm…I get bored. Yes.

FINALLY! Someone wants to talk about baseball with me! Raptor! Thank God!

With regards to the NL MVP, of course Pujols deserved the crown more than Ryan Howard. The problem is, neither of them were the most deserving. If there was any justice in the baseball world, the MVP award would have gone to the person who truly earned it. Sadly, since pitchers pretty much never get the award anymore, Brad Lidge was never really a consideration.

Even considering the Herculean effort Albert Pujols displayed in singlehandedly keeping the lowly Cards out of last place even with a nagging injury, Lidge's stats are truly mindblowing. He had a perfect season in which he completed every save he came out to deliver. He is the primary reason the Phillies went 89-0 in games in which they led after 8 innings.

In 2008, there was no player in the National League that made as big a contribution to his team's success as Lidge did. Sure, the Phillies won the World Series, but you still can't argue with perfection. In a season where every member of the team stepped up at different times to contribute to the title, Lidge was always the one constant. Sadly, he'll have to settle with a WS ring and a comeback award when he truly deserved more. Such is life.

Well look, I agree that Brad Lidge had a really impressive year and was easily the best closer that the National League had. The problem is, as far as closers are concerned, I'm really against them winning the major awards. Could you make a legit case as to why Lidge should win? Sure enough. You just did. I have a problem giving awards to players who don't play every day, and only pitch one inning at a time. Lidge helped close the game out, sure, but it's not like the Phillies had a bad bullpen or anything. It was pretty good, and certainly the best in the postseason (in my opine at least).

Did Lidge have a good year? Yes. He's the only reliever I would have considered for the Cy Young. Was it MVP worthy? I don't think so. If I had to pick an MVP candidate from your team, it would probably be Chase Utley. I see your points though, and I do believe they are valid.

Volourn closes up the comments this week with a fair criticism

"When a game offers you so many options but only one true ending"

WHAT? What WRPGs have you played? Most of them have multiple endings to go along with the multiple options.

Yet, you then proceed to place Oblivion on the list when youa dmit its endings is horrible. Not to mention the fact it is made by the same horrible devs who made that crapfest Oblivion (along with the rest of the overrated ES series).

I'm a huge FO series fan; but I have avoided FO3 thus far because I know Betehsda will just make a crappy game like the rest of theirs. I might get it when it's much cheaper but I'm expecting nothing but their usual ala horrid and juvenile writing (not mature at all), awful story, blaisse shooter combat, and the ability to explore a huge empty (usually a good thing in the FO universe) with unmemorable characters and boring quests, etc., etc.

On top of this, you admit to thinking that KOTOR is awesome when while it is a solid RPG; it'sd also overrated. there are TONS of WRPGs better than it including FO1, and FO2 despite them being 10 years old.

Meh. Sorry, I don't mean to come across as a punk... but the emntion of FO3 and Bethesda does it for me.

In the end, of course, we all have our likes and dislikes...

Overall, good article. And, way better written than any Bethesda game. That's for darn sure.

Hey, you're passionate about that genre. I'm passionate about ones like JRPG and Fighter, so I can understand where you're coming from. As far as WRPGs go, I am a casual gamer. I haven't tried anything super hardcore, just the fairly mainstream WRPGs and for the most part I haven't cared about them. It's interesting to see that a WRPG fan hates Oblivion as well. Seriously? Maybe I should look further into the genre. That game is trash, and I'm glad someone else thinks so.

The thing is though, I think Oblivion is trash and I LOVE Fallout 3. So maybe it's something you should check out. The story and the characters are both good and memorable. Arguably, it's the only game Bethesda has ever made that I've found enjoyable. Is it as deep and well written as the first two Fallout titles? Absolutely not. Is it a convincing sequel to those two titles? You bet'cha.

So, give me some WRPGs to try out. That way I can form an opinion on the genre outside of the shitty Oblivion. Thanks for the feedback.



Top-10 Worst Games Affiliated with Street Fighter

This week, I decide to look at the top-10 worst games to be associated with Street Fighter in any way. This is pretty much in honor of the released of the super amazing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. There was a problem making this list though – I couldn't think of ten video games the fighters have been in that are actually bad. That's right! And on top of that, entry 10 isn't even a bad game (it's a series). So for the first time ever, the 10th hour will include something non video game related into a game list. They are still games though, so it still counts. Right? RIGHT!?

Keep in mind, these games listed don't necessarily have to be Street Fighter games. The fighters themselves just have to be in them in some way. That's it.

Street Fighter is one of my favorite game franchises ever, so it should be fun to lampoon it a bit. Keep in mind, parts of this list are relatively tongue n cheek. So don't take anything too seriously.

10-) Street Fighter EX series - Street Fighter 4 isn't the first time that Capcom has abandoned the sprites of classic Street Fighter in favor of new 3D-style characters. Street Fighter EX is the first game to undergo this task. Now look, it's not like Street Fighter EX is a bad game. The thing about it is that it's a 3D fighter that plays like a 2D Fighter. It doesn't try to do anything different, it doesn't try to change anything, it just…is there. It's just mind-numbingly average and not really worthy of the Street Fighter name. The fact that it is average makes me wonder why Capcom decided to go back to 3D-characters for Street Fighter IV. Sure, it's proper franchise evolution, but the fans are probably skeptical.

What makes it so average though? Well for starters, the game is a lot slower than your typical Street Fighter affair. You notice how people like to play their Street Fighter fast? I mean, haven't they released a billion different versions of Street Fighter II ending in turbo? Well, take the speed of Street Fighter II Turbo and divide it by about four and you'll have the average speed of the EX series. It is slow and awkward…and just different. And not different in a good way, just different.

I would love to go on and on about this game like how I usually do in these lists, but I really don't have much to say about it. The best I can do is put it in an analogy involving Thanksgiving food. Alright, like…Street Fighter III is like the turkey. Everybody loves Turkey. Street Fighter II is like stuffing. You can't have turkey without stuffing. The Alpha series is like the dinner rolls. They're very buttery, delicious, and something that's enjoyable to have no matter what time of year it is. Street Fighter EX is like…cranberry sauce. Like, it's just there and either you like it or you don't. People often skip over it when talking about delicious Thanksgiving foods, but it's there. Being average. Not detracting from anything.

SF EX is average. Not bad. Not Good. Average.



9-) Street Fighter II Slot Machine - Street Fighter II wasn't exactly shy about stealing away our hard earned quarters when we were younger, but it never went right out and blatantly stole our quarters. Alas, Capcom was not pleased with allowing you to get gameplay with your quarters. Now, in cooperation with Aristocrat, you gambling degenerates can throw your money away in a whole new way! Through gambling! With Street Fighter!

Decorated all over the machine are various Street Fighter bits of art. I mean, look, where it shows you what combinations win what you see Chun-Li. CHUN-LI! It's as if they are saying: "Chun-Li will marry you if you hit all 7's". Holy shit, who doesn't want Chun-Li to marry them? So, naturally, you have to keep playing and wasting your quarters in order to win that fabled Chun-Li marriage.

The Street Fighter art decorating the slot machine isn't the only Street Fighter association that the slot machine has. Look at the combinations! You have a Street Fighter logo that I have never seen used elsewhere. You have a dizzy looking rock that is supposed to symbolize the dizzy stars you see when you get stunned. You get a Shadaloo icon – which I can only assume robs you of money similar to the Robotnik icons in Sonic the Hedgehog. What else is there? There's also this blue token thing. What the hell IS that? I've never seen that in Street Fighter before. What's the matter, Aristocrat? Didn't want to expend the cash necessary to put Hadoukens on the wheel? That sucks, because you almost had my quarters.

As if that wasn't enough, this game doesn't even have one of those big fancy pull down levers that we all love slot machines for. After all, we call them one-armed bandits for a reason. Seriously, they could have even went cute with it and had a giant Ryu arm that you can pull. What did they do? Nothing. You press buttons in order to stop the roulette and that's just lame. So when you see SHADALOO, SHADALOO, BLUE COIN THING you didn't at least have the joy of pulling the lever. You just pressed some damn buttons which you can do at home. So all you have now is a lot of rage. A lot of it.

I hate slot machines because they are totally luck based. I have no luck, so anything gambling related is like kryptonite to me. Screw you Street Fighter II: Super Turbo Slot Machine Remix mach 2. I hope you got melted down to scrap metal somewhere.



8-) Spin Fighters - Imagine a game where you battle with tops. Yes, you shoot the tops out of this launcher thingy and they battle. Now, this battle I speak of…it's not like they're shooting out laser beams, it's not like you can control their various spinning…it just consists of them ramming into each other over and over again until one quits spinning. This sort of idea seems really stupid. After all, who wants to play a game that you have very little control over? (Well, I mean, I liked FF XII but that's a different story!) Production of this toy totally stopped sometime in the mid-90's but that didn't stop a horrible, horrible anime from ripping off the concept. Beyblade was just terrible.

What does Street Fighter have to do with all of this? Well it was the 90's. Street Fighter was king. Ryu and Mario were like equals at that point. There were three different series of spin fighters which had different expansion packs. (I'm lead to believe that other things were involved as well, but I can't find any information on it. They weren't available in big packs, at least.) Obviously, Street Fighter was one of them, but what kind of franchises could you butt heads against? I mean, would it be dream matches that we'd see years later with the Marvel branch? Would it involve Mario and/or Luigi? Something that could be nice in Smash Brothers.

No. What franchises went up against it were the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and WWF. That's right…in this crazy spin fighter arena you could send out Ryu to go one on one with Shawn Michaels in the ultimate spinner showdown. Do I need to tell you how moronic this sounds? Not only do these fights require absolutely no skill, no input, or no…anything (other than watching shit spin around), but you're telling me that Chun-Li and the Pink Ranger are on equal grounds? You're telling me Bison and the Undertaker are going to have one final match? This is insanity!

They also had it so you could wear your spin fighter merch on hats, jackets, and shirts. You could rock a badass Yokozuna hat, put some Tommy the Green Ranger on your shirt, and top it all off with a Dhalsim jacket. You would be so amazingly fly. Oh God, this was a horrible idea, a horrible toy, and just lends to the idea that kids will buy absolutely anything if their favorite characters are plastered all over it. I am glad that this failed so elaborately so I don't have to scold my youngest brother, David, if he ever gained interest in this thing.

Spin Fighters sucked and was a horrible usage of the Street Fighter license. Street Fighter the movie thinks Spin Fighters was garbage.



7-) SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos - Capcom vs. SNK 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I have wasted countless hours of my life perfecting the art of Dan. Seriously, for a year or two period this had to be one of my most played games of all time. When I first heard of this game, my hype couldn't have been higher. This was supposed to be Capcom vs. SNK 3! The sequel to one of my favorite fighters ever! No way could they mess this up!

Well, turns out…they did. They handed over the reigns of design to SNK this time. Don't get me wrong, I love SNK. SNK is one of my favorite companies of all time. They have released game after game that I have enjoyed. That said, they tinkered with the system that made C v SNK 2 such a good game and sort of devolved it. It was less high tech, it was less high skill, it was just…a worse game. Did it include Zero from the Megaman series? Hell yes it did. That I am thankful for. Outside of this though, there are few redeeming factors to be found here.

A focal point of newer fighter games, the air block, was removed from the game. This can be awfully disorienting at first, because you can try to block attacks in the air and wind up taking some damage. This is also an issue when playing Street Fighter II after ages of not playing it. Of course, Street Fighter II is ancient and can get away with it. This game? Not so much. It helps it feel positively ancient, and with the taking away of the brilliant groove system (!!!?!!?!? WHY!?)…it just felt like a game that was much older than it actually was.

The focus of the game was on quicker gameplay, which is fine…but it felt like I was using less strategy. It just felt like an old game. I'm all for games going retro to pull a point across, but I don't think that's what this game was going for. I don't think it was trying to go back in time with fighters – the decent graphics would certainly bolster this point – I just think they messed up fairly badly.

Is this game unplayable? No, not really. It plays like a King of Fighters title (but not as solid, in my opinion at least), so fans of the franchise will at least have something to enjoy. They also have a very good cast of characters, including god damn Hugo from Street Fighter III. Seriously, where is the love for SF III anywhere else? I hardly see Sean mentioned anymore. All I see are SF II characters…I really miss the SF III cast. An under-rated cast of characters to be sure.

SvC: Chaos is not a good game. It not only failed to live up to the first two games in the franchise, but also set a trend for bad SNK developed "vs" style games. There's one more to be placed on this list, and if you thought this game was bad? Just wait until I hit on the next one. It's…wow, it's just not good.



6-) X-Men vs. Street Fighter (PS1) - X-Men vs. Street Fighter was a pretty fun arcade game and also a pretty good Saturn game. The Saturn port was near perfection and was certainly worthy of ownership. Of course, it was never officially released state-side so stores often sold import copies of the game. (This is because Sega had dropped support of the Saturn in the states at the time of release) The Saturn port was really impressive, but what about the Playstation version? I mean, surely, the predecessor of Marvel vs. Capcom would be treated well on that console, right?

Wrong. For starters, one of the things that made this game unique was the "True-Tagteam gameplay". This may be familiar to you if you've played Marvel vs. Capcom before. This game introduced the ability to tag out to your partners, and this made it sort of a unique experience. You could keep characters alive longer than you may normally have been able to due to you switching them out. It added a whole new element of strategy. Where was this feature when the game came out? Nowhere. It wasn't there. You can blame the Playstation's lack of RAM for this…but seriously, this just sucks. At least the game is still high speed…right?

Nope. Wrong. It's slower. There are frames of animation missing (IN A FIGHTER WHERE FRAMES OF ANIMATION ARE ACTUALLY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!) and the combat is relatively slow for this type of game. It's faster than, say, the EX series but in comparison to Marvel vs. Capcom – even the PS1 version of it – it just plays far too slow. It takes out all of the charm of the original, and when you take that away? You have a fairly generic fighter to toy with, and that's not any good. As little skill as Marvel v. Capcom 2 takes, at least you can admit that it's original.

The PS1 just couldn't handle the sprites or RAM necessary to make these features work, and I understand that. It's hard to criticize a console that has no business running the game in the first place. My problem is, why couldn't they have released a RAM cart like they did with the Saturn version of the game? With the RAM cart, the game ran absolutely perfectly. You really couldn't tell the difference between the arcade and Saturn versions of the title. So why couldn't we have gotten that? I understand your frothing desire for money and how adding this probably would have meant less profit but…the final product would have been better.

BAH! You can have fun with this if you're totally desperate, but you're much, much better off simply buying the Saturn version of the game or downloading this over MAME. See, those versions of the game are actually good. This one? Not so much. The fact is the Playstation had no business running this game, they released it on there…and it sucked. Go figure.



5-) Street Fighter II (Gameboy) - Street Fighter II is a classic. If you've played a fighting game and haven't played a Street Fighter, most likely you're a minority. This is the game that put the franchise on the map. They released about a hundred thousand different versions of the game across every console known to man, so it was only natural that the series would eventually wind up on the Gameboy. (Why not the NES huh? If TMNT Tournament Fighters could do it…) The Gameboy was a popular system, and it was Street Fighter. Street Fighter on the road man, how could you go wrong!?

Well, it's quite simple. Reducing a six-button game to two-buttons isn't a good idea. It turns things into a mess, actually. To make matters worse, in order to differentiate between light and heavy attacks, you needed to press buttons with different severities. If you jammed the button down it was a heavy attack but if you barely tapped it, it's a light attack. Alright, this is a problem. It's a stupid idea. Let's say you're trying to mount a comeback, how are you pressing the buttons? You're god damn jamming on them. If you intend to do a light strike and do a heavy one, it can throw off your combo and send you into defeat. It's stupid and…it sucks.

The Gameboy was not a system that needed a fighter. Seriously, it's too simplistic to properly handle one. I even would argue that the Gameboy Advance had no business housing Street Fighter Alpha 3 (though that didn't stop them). Due to the storage size of the Gameboy cart, they couldn't even fit every fighter into the game! That's right, Gameboy users couldn't play as Dhalsim, E-Honda, or Vega. So you're telling me one of the characters on the cover of SF 2: Turbo can't be played? Ridiculous. You also couldn't play as any of the new world warriors. You just got nine Street Fighters. Needless to say, you're losing a bit of the charm. How can you make a Street Fighter 2 port with no Dhalsim? I mean come on.

This is much like X-Men v. Street Fighter on the Playstation. The Gameboy had NO business running Street Fighter. I'm sure anyone who wanted to play Street Fighter II had at that point – it was 1995 when it came out. Why did they bother releasing this game? It probably just made hardcore fans of the series furious, seeing as how they now had to navigate two buttons and simplified controls. This was purely a monetary move. I don't think they cared if the game was any good or not, they just wanted to release something that they figured people would want to play. It's Street Fighter. On the road!

To this day, there has only been one Street Fighter game that I have played on the road routinely. Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the PSP is a definitive port that plays just like the console version. It controls well, it doesn't' look awkward, and best of all…it feels like a console version. That game was released in 2006, more than ten years after this game was released on the Gameboy. Portable systems have JUST got to the point where they can accurately contain Street Fighter titles. Everything before this point, in my opinion, was purely a shill.

Stay the hell away from Street Fighter II on the Gameboy. It's not worthy of your attention, it's not worhy of emulating, it's just…something that needs to go away. Let it die!



4-) Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight - This game was indeed called Street Fighter in Japan, but it had very little to do with the actual game. It was sort of a sci-fi platformer that had a hardon for boss battles. Of course though, this wouldn't sell the game in the States. So, in order to market the game well, Capcom basically tied it in moreso with the Street Fighter world. The main character was no longer named Kevin, but Ken. That's right KEN MASTERS!

So here's how the story goes. Try to stay with me. Twenty-five years have passed since Ken was allegedly crowned the "king" of the street fighter circuit. Twenty-five years. So what does Ken do in that time? Apparently he becomes a scientist and turns himself into a cyborg. That's right, according to the US branch of Capcom, not only is Ken the canonical winner of the Street Fighter tournament, but he also is god damn part cyborg. Excellent work there. I wish I was making this up, but I'm not. Here, have this example of the story of the game from the US version:

"Ken had no interest in the Frontier, until his partner Troy was killed. Someone had broken into their lab, stolen their invention, and left Troy as a mere puddle of jelly on the floor. Even though it's been 25 years since Ken was king of the street fighting circuit, it's nothing a few good bionics can't fix.

Fortunately for him, the killer's path is very easy to trace. Every Frontier world the killer visited became quickly infested by the "cyboplasm" Ken and Troy had developed. In small doses, it gave people the strength they needed to remain alive, but an overdose and the cyboplasm would come alive, taking over the host's mind and body, turning them into mindless, violent mutants."

So basically Ken is keeping alive the whole world through his development of cyboplasm, he's a cyborg…and he's no longer into Street Fighting? Sounds great Capcom, but why is there no cyborg Ken in my Street Fighter IV? He just seems to GET ALONG SO WELL WITH THE OTHER CHARACTERS! It's like he blends in with the entire cast…guh.

Honestly, this game isn't so bad. It's a decent platformer that can remind one of megaman at times. Is it as good as a Megaman game? Absolutely not. But you won't be slamming your controller down in anger regarding the shit gameplay. It's fairly adequate I suppose, but the gameplay is totally not the reason this game makes the list. A game focused on boss battles is worthy of at least a play, and if it was released as any other game with a different lead character perhaps I would be more forgiving…

But this is STREET FIGHTER! You're telling me Ken turns into a scientist!? This is insane and won't be forgiven so easily. Forget Eliza, Ken has Troy and that's allllll he needs.

You can play this game if you want, but close your eyes when any reference to the Street Fighters themselves come up.

- It even looks like a Megaman cover.

3-) SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS - Another versus game developed by SNK and another stinker. Ugh. As much as I love SNK, couldn't you have at least tried to make these games good? Couldn't you have put together a decent effort to make Ryu and Ken fit in with Mai and Terry? Bah, whatever, here we have one of the worst games on the Nintendo DS and that's saying quite a lot. This is a system that early on was full of nothing but gimmicky titles and bullshit. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters is even worse than THOSE games. Now that's something.

Look, I'm open minded to card battle games. You want a good card battling game? Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Gameboy Color was fun and challenging. It was not a quick shill for cash (well, err, maybe it was, but it was a GOOD one)…it was just a good game. This one was just…too damn easy. You get fifty cards in a deck. As long as you have a pulse, you can probably win battles against computer opponents. I found myself placing down random cards – often without a clue on how they work – and easily winning battles. I guess I could blame the game on not teaching me very well on how to play, but…I don't know how much better of a job they could have done. It's waaaaayyyy too simplistic and acquires no skill. There are differences between character, action, and counter cards but you don't really need to know them. Just try to place your stuff down and you'll win. You have to battle through several floors of a tower, but let me tell ya' – I really couldn't tell the difference from one floor to the next. It was just too easy.

Simplistic play wasn't this game's only problem. This game has, without a doubt, one of the worst translations I've ever seen. Characters spout horrible dialogue frequently and have horrid grammar. I'm not usually one to care about this sort of thing, but the game comes across as damn near un-finished. I like the idea of collecting Mai Shiranui cards as next as the red-blooded male – her art on the cover is…attractive – but I'm not willing to sit through this shit to collect them. Of course though…collecting all the cards is probably the worst mistake you could make.

When the game first came out there was a game-breaking glitch. When you were playing through a new-game plus (or whatever it was called), once you reached the ninth floor and talked to this one guy, the game would freeze. You had to beat this guy in order to continue. So basically, if you wanted to collect every card in the game you couldn't. It was impossible. So even the rare few who LIKED the game were punished. Luckily, SNK had a recall for the game and fixed the glitch, but that should never have been in the final version anyhow. It just goes to further prove my point that this game felt like an un-finished piece of garbage that should never have seen the light of day.

Unless you're insanely hardcore into card battling and absolutely must have your fix of Mai and Chun-Li, skip this game out. Of all the games on this list, even the two that I ranked as worse than this, it's the least playable. At least the next two have a: "Let's see how bad they are" factor. This doesn't even have that. It's just a bad game. I hate that I've had to lampoon SNK twice in this column, but damn. This was a bad, bad effort guys. Bad.



2-) Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade) We all remember how big of a fiasco the Street Fighter movie was. And if you don't? Well, I remember it so you don't have to. The movie just wasn't any good, it kind of lacked anything that made the games memorable. The film was poorly cast, poorly acted (for the most part), and just plain stupid. Of course, since they were expecting this move it be a big hit they just HAD to make a game version to go along with it. Instead of using common sense and making a brand new sprite-based Street Fighter, Incredible Technologies decided to do something completely different and have the characters look more realistic. They wanted them to look more like their film counterparts. Think "Mortal Kombat" and you'll have what I'm talking about.

Sprites aren't everything though right? Couldn't they have at least made the game play like Street Fighter II? NOPE! The game is instead more heavily focused in aerial combat and featured some weird ways to use special attacks. In order to execute certain special moves, the character needed to hold down a button and input a directional command and then let go of the button to pull off the move. This whole process is needlessly complicated and kind of a bitch to pull of. Wouldn't it have been easier to just import movesets from Street Fighter II and use that? The home version of this game was actually based on Super Street Fighter II turbo, so it wasn't a total abomination.

The game also has vital mistake of giving the player the option to regenerate some of their vitality. Doesn't that sound peculiar? Healing yourself? In a fighter? It just makes matches last far too long and if a skilled player can build their super combo gauge they can just use this to their heart's content. It makes for some absolutely horrible balance. You want an example of how this can be bad? Remember Gill from Street Fighter 3 and how when you kill him sometimes he can resurrect himself and come back at you with HP you previously took off? Yeah, well, imagine that but with everybody you fight ever. It's just something that has no place in a fighter.

They also had needlessly long reverals to throws, but I mean…what are you going to do? The game was already doomed to failure after being based off of the dreadful movie. It does do some interesting things though that, at least, are worthy of a little praise. Did you know that the game includes a tag-team mode? Now, this isn't to be confused with the tag-option in Marvel vs. Capcom or X-Men vs. Street Fighter. They're more like what you would find in Capcom vs. SNK. Whenever your character dies, someone jumps in to take their place. Of course, this isn't the only first this game does. It's the first time Akuma – a character who wasn't even in the movie – is playable from the get-go. In every other game he appeared in to that point, Akuma was unlockable. This time though? No. He was a starter character. Isn't that so weird? One of the most legendary Street Fighter characters first standard character appearance was in THIS game. It's just…it's just weird.

Look at the screenshot I'm providing you from this game and tell me it doesn't look like a joke. The game was doomed for failure from the start, so it's only fitting that – like the movie – it was a disaster. It may not be the worst movie based game ever, but it may be the worst game, that's based on a movie that's based on a game ever. Boooo!

Of course, I think Akuma was revealed for the first time on the 3DO of all consoles, so perhaps this isn't so weird…

- Did you know that long teased character Sheng Long was actually supposed to be in this game? How weird is that.

1-) Street Fighter I - Street Fighter II is one of the finest games ever made, but you rarely hear anyone talk about Street Fighter I. Usually, when you ask a gamer, the first iteration of a game is always the best. I mean, if you look at cookie-cutter top-10 games of all time list you'll see Zelda 1, Mario 1, Metroid 1, various other "1's". So, why doesn't Street Fighter I get any love? There is a pretty good reason for it, and I'm sure you'll soon come to realize it: It's shit.

You know how Street Fighter 2 has a wide variety of selectable characters? You like using guys with different play styles and what not? Well…you don't get that here. You have two choices in characters and that is about that. You have Ryu and Ken. You know what the differences between these two characters are? Nothing. They are the same fucking character. Say what you will about them now, but they are at least distinct fighters. There is a noticeable difference between the two men. Then though? It was purely aesthetic. The game had a wealth of other fighters, but you couldn't control them. You could only fight them in the Single Player mode.

Doesn't that make about no sense? Why bother including all of these guys for you to fight against if you can't even choose them? If the second player challenges you, they get to be Ken! That's it! You can engage in super intense hadouken battles and call it a day! ALRIGHT! Of course, it'd be more tolerable if the game was at least fun…but it can't even pull that off. Everything about the title is slow and plodding, the combat system – which is still six-buttons based – is not refined and the special moves are all quite simple. It's nice that the franchise got its start here, but good lord is the game bad. It doesn't even FEEL like Street Fighter. It's just a run of the mill game.

It's interesting to note that characters from the Alpha series got their first appearance in THIS game. They didn't come back into the Street Fighter fold until years after this came out. Gen, Birdy, and Adon would be those three challengers. I believe that the character "Mike" from the United States later went on to become Balrog (Or, in the Japanese version, Bison. As in MIKE Bison). The only other character to be seen again in Street Fighter history is Sagat, who of course remains a focal point of the series to this day. The rest? Lost to time. Probably a good thing considering how their initial appearance went.

There has never been an improvement from original game to sequel quite like Street Fighter I to Street Fighter II. Street Fighter II is complex, balanced, and unique. Street Fighter I is simple, balanced (Well, there are only two fighters, it fucking better be balanced), and bland. It's like night and day, and yet…without the original game we never would have got accustomed to the world warriors. We wouldn't be waiting anxiously to play the fourth Street Fighter. So, even though this game is a steaming pile of shit…I appreciate it.

The game is bad, but if you are morbidly curious I recommend you try the game just to see where the Street Fighter series started from. Just download it, it's not too hard to find. It'll help you appreciate where it is now way more than you might already.



Well, that's it for this week. As always, feel free to leave a comment below or e-mail me your comments at [e-mail] Positive, negative, I don't care…I just want to hear from you! It helps me become a better writer. So thanks for everything.

As always, before I go, let's take a quick look at what's going around 411's game zone eh?

Theo Fraser writes the Nintendophiles

Vincent Chiucchi inducts Deadly Towers into the Hall of Shame.

Drew wrote his final Coming Attractions.

Chris Vicari writes the PC-Spotlight.

Jordan Williams writes Working Title. This is the 100th one, make sure to read it. He has a couple of guest writers write things in it as well. All around, a really impressive piece of work. I'm at around 50 or so 10th hours, so I have a bit of catching up to do. I'll catch you one day, Jordan!

Drew also did the PC-Centric Extravaganza this week. This is his new news beat.

Rod Oracheski writes Achievement Unlocked

Joe Roche writes The Full Circle 360 News Report.

Vincent Chiucchi writes The Select and Start News Report

I write B3yond the Report

AJ and Mike Minotti do the Exploding Barrel Podcast. They totally forgot to mention Street Fighter III in their "Best ever games with a III in them" section. Such a shame!

Well, that's it for this week. I'm out.

'til the crossroads.

- I still love Mother 3. I must be insane.