The 10th Hour 02.13.09: Top 10 Games Featuring Street Fighter Characters

Posted by Derek Robbins on 02.13.2009

With Street Fighter IV less than a week away, the 10th Hour wraps up its two week Street Fighter extravaganza. This week, Derek lists his 10 favorite games that the cast of Street Fighter has appeared in. From Street Fighter II to Street Fighter Alpha 3 and even Rival Schools, do your favorites make the list? The only way to find out is to check out the complete column!

Hello and welcome to the 10th Hour! As always, before I get started, I have a couple of tangents that I wish to hit on.

-So, I was pretty excited to see Christian return on ECW. A lot of people seem to be upset about it, but to be honest…it really makes sense to me. To be honest, the best you could have hoped for was for Christian to get the immediate: "I AM NEW, I DEMAND A TITLE SHOT" push that Jericho got when he came back and then go right back down to the midcard. I think on ECW, Christian will be able to get a decent build before moving to RAW or Smackdown. See, the thing about bring on ECW is that, most likely, he will be making lots of appearances on RAW. I figure he's a lock to move in the April draft, but you never can tell. I can say for sure that by this time next year he will not be on the ECW roster. I'm just hoping we get a Morrison/Christian feud. That would be so amazingly awesome. I don't see why so many people are freaking out over this, acting like Christian is being done wrong by the WWE. Pretty sure he said he wouldn't come back if he was just going to be treated like a mid-carder. Most likely, they have plans for him. Patience IWC.

-I was reading something about how Bud Selig wanted to suspend Alex Rodriguez. That's really not the right course of actions. In the years he admitted to, steroid suspensions were not in place. You can't just go back and say: "Okay, you're in trouble now!" If A-Rod gets suspended, it's only fair that everyone else on that ‘anonymous' test who tested positive gets suspended too. As for you Yankees fans who are calling for his head, god damn, settle down. You were more than accepting of Giambi and Pettite. I bet more of your Yankees tested positive as well. Just chill and give Rodriguez some credit. He's been nothing short of good for you.

-Coming into the year 2009 I was not super excited for Resident Evil 5. Sure, I figured it would be a good game, but I had more of a "so what?" attitude towards it. As the clock ticks closer to the release date, I find myself getting more and more excited over the playing of this game. I really think that the co-op mode in that game is going to be something we'll talk about for a long time. When I was playing with Drew, I had a lot of fun…so I'm hoping I'm right on that.

Reader Feedback

Last week I touched on my 10 favorite Street Fighter characters. What did you have to say about my picks?

We start out this week with a list! Well, I'll put on my critiquing hat once more. Heeeere's Thomas

i don't know what it is about him, but i fucking LOATHE Dan with a passion.
other than that, great selection.
Mine would be:
#10- Sean
#9- Guy
#8- Fei-Long
#7- Chun-Li
#6- Alex
#5- Sakura
#4- Akuma
#3- Ryu
#2- Yun
#1- Ken

How could you hate Dan? He just tries so hard. I mean, he combined Gouken's fighting style with muay thai! He's a real life CM Punk! Regardless though, let's see about your picks…

10-) You think Black Dan is better than normal Dan? If you say so.
9-) Was never a big fan of him for some reason. What's interesting is that my first exposure to him growing up was in SF A2. I rented Final Fight 3 shortly thereafter when I learned he was in though.
8-) I'm not too fond of Bruce Lee rip-offs.
7-) Solid choice, who doesn't love Chun-Li?
6-) The winner of the third street fighter tournament and arguably the strongest fighter in the world. It's hard not to like Alex.
5-) Who doesn't like the occasional Japanese school girl?
4-) I have an Akuma keychain, of course I love this pick.
3-) Ryu is probably good to have this eye. I kinda slighted him, but hey! I'm mean
2-) Yun number two? You're craaaazy. You seem to like SF III a lot though. Where is Ibuki then!?
1-) This choice made you awesome.

Good stuff all around.

Blodger pleads for Pokemon love

Please, please, PLEASE can you do a 10th hour for when pokemon platinum comes out.. Top 10 pokemon from all Generations? :D

I was thinking of doing something like that. I don't know if it'll be that exact list (I was thinking of doing weirdest pokemon designs), but given that I do have a soft spot in my heart for pokemon, a list on that topic is pretty much a sure thing.

Blanka somehow finds a computer to leave me a message:

NO LOVE FOR ME???

Yeah, I found it shocking myself.

Cam isn't a fan of my favorites I guess:


This column fucking blows

After I hit a certain age, the appeal of Evil Ryu kind of…died. To be fair, when I got Alpha 3 on the PS1, I really wanted to unlock him. He's not a canon character though. He's only theoretical. And that really hurts him. That and I'm just not a fan of "Dark" characters. Shin Akuma is canonical, but I really…don't think there's a need to list him. Regular Akuma is just fine. Who is Shin Bison? …Maybe I'm behind the times.

Brad (and several others) were quick to question the lack of Bison.

No M Bison is like not putting Vince McMahon on the Best Characters in Wrestling History list.

For another wrestling analogy that we all can agree to
Ryu = John Cena
Ken = Randy Orton
The cool kids played with Ken, though Ryu did the job. The cool kids like and hail to the Age of Orton, period.

M. Bison is awesome, but he's not one of my top-10 favorites. Honestly, I like most every fighter…the ones I listed I just like more than the rest. There are a few I dislike, but they're pretty few and far between.

I think that's a fair analogy, though I doubt Ryu gets the same ire that Cena gets. Unless we start getting a commenter named Ryu Sucks or something. Ken is a perfect Orton though. I could see him having a similar personality. Also, I love Orton, so Ken as Orton makes me happy too. My current favorite, if you're wondering, is Edge. I'm a heel guy I guess.

JP has an idea for a future list

Awesome column once again.

Idea for the 10th hour: Top ten video game weapons of all time.

It's broad enough that you can take it from anywhere.

Spread Shot in Contra? Rock-It Launcher from Fallout 3? Fire Flower from Mario Bros. 1? The Golden Gun in Goldeneye? Double Hookshot in Twilight Princess? Barbed wire 2x4 in No mercy? Red Shell in Mario Kart? Shrink Ray in Duke Nukem? or one of my personal favs the Plastic Bag in Manhunt?

There's a HUGE list to choose from, but to whittle it down to a top ten would be quite a feat, especially with your particular take on games.

As for this list, love it. A little disappointed that Blanka isn't on here since I just think he's one of the more original characters in any fighting game, let alone Street Fighter.

That is actually a really good idea. The problem is, I'd probably end up placing the buster sword way too high (or way too low) and I'd get a ton of: "WUT FF VII SUCKS" comments. That's not fun for anyone. Thank you, I probably will end up doing this list at some point. The double-hookshot will be receiving some much needed loving.

G-Walla plays one of the most under-appreciated fighters ever, so of course he's going to get mentioned:

Funny you should mention Capcom vs SNK 2. Looking at all the crap about SF IV made me want to play Street Fighter. I couldn't find my genesis copy of SF 2 Special Champion Edition, but I remembered I had Capcom vs SNK 2. I had only played it a handful of times, it didn't mean much to me since I had never played any SNK games, but I've recently put some hours into it.

My favorite SF characters? I've only played 2 and Alpha 1 (aside from the aforementioned Capcom vs SNK 2 and the Marvel vs Capcom series)

In no particular order
-Zangief (Russian Wrestler, duh)
-Cammy (I was the right age for a character in a thong to entice me when she was introduced)
-Guile (because he's awesome)
-Sakura (I dunno, I just like to kick ass as a schoolgirl (and I loved Rival Schools, so I'd rather have Hinata))
-Dalhsim(sp?) (my original main)
-Blanka (He's a green fuckin' wildman who can electrocute you or bite your head)
-Bison (He had a move where he stood on your head, that's great)
-Sagat (because he's a badass. Period.)

Okay, so outside of Cammy and Sagat, everyone's an original SF2 character. I would like to see DeeJay come back, though I don't remember how he played. And I'd love to try out Dudley, since he looks awesome and his storyline was he was trying to get back his car, I think. Oh, I liked Guy, too, since he was like a Ninja in Chucks in Alpha. I wish that Haggar could get in a game. I seriously want to have him and Zangief go at it.

falsechos, that was E. Honda. Another asskicker. Hundred Hand Slaps!

And Rose's backstory is somewhat like Kami and King Piccolo from the Dragon Ball series.

CvSNK 2 I kind of picked up on a whim because I was a huge fan of Capcom fighters. I hadn't played many SNK fighting games at that point, but after I bought it, I went on a bit of an SNK streak. To say the least, I respect the company and its history now. Hell, my ending quote I use in every column is based off of the Penny-Arcade where Gabriel salutes the (very shortly) deceased SNK.

Generally, I like your character list. A lot of the people who submitted their favorites seemed to have a strong preference for 2's characters. I guess that's why Capcom made sure to jam most everyone into SF IV eh? I was never really good with Dhalsim, maybe that's why I didn't give him a fair shake?

Dudley is one of the more egregious omissions from SF IV. He was way cooler than Balrog in my opinion. Balrog's story kind of places him as a guy who gets successful and then blows it all. Dudley's story has him as a dude who enters a tournament just to get his fucking car back. If I remember correctly, most of his car collection he won from bets in street fights. That's cool. Also, he's British, so you know he's got an awesome voice.

Regarding Rose's backstory: Yep. I just noticed that now myself. I think the reason I didn't see it before is because Piccolo didn't kill Kami. He instead absorbed him in the fusion process. It's kind of odd to say that there's a story out there more contrived than something you would see in Dragonball but, well, here we are.

Andy gets the final comment this week. TIER LIST DISCUSSION, BUCKLE YOUR SAFETY BELTS:

Derek,

I'm actually not a fan of tier lists, but the general consensus is that Guile is mid to low tier. Some OK combos but bad match ups against the top tiers.

Then again, there was a major Japanese tournament won by Dhalsim beating Sagat. Tier lists would suggest that's impossible. That, in a nut shell, is why I don't like tier lists.

My boy Zangief is pretty good, so that's nice to see.

Would have liked some Alex love on this list. I think it's often forgotten that he's the star of SF3 and a well designed character.

I like to know tier lists purely out of curiosity. I want to know how other people would rank my favorite characters. Generally, what tier lists do is evaluate players of equal value. Let's say that you and I are playing and we're of the same skill level. I'll choose my low-tier main and you'll go with your high-tier main. If we're exactly at the same skill level, theoretically it would be impossible to win due to the general superiorities of the higher tier character. Obviously, matches aren't scripted and I will probably squeak out a win, but generally you will beat me. If someone is significantly better as a low-tier character, they can hang with the high-tiers pretty well. It's just a basic guide-line and that's why I agree with them.

Also, in regards to Alex, I probably should have mentioned him at some point, but I think his muscle-mass turned me off on him. I already had one muscle-man, and nobody beats the vodka fueled Zangief. He DID win the SF III tournament though, so he has that going for him. If I remember correctly, third strike didn't feature a tournament and everyone was just running around willy nilly. What did he do in that game?

There were a lot of great comments this week (including a very, very nice one from Joe Roche. That really meant a lot to me, thank you for that) but I don't have room to get to them all. I really appreciate your feedback though.



My Top-10 Favorite Games Featuring Street Fighters

Last week I started my Street Fighter IV theme and this week I finish it. You may remember a while back I did a list on the worst games that Street Fighter characters have appeared in. Well, this is the week that I finish that. This time, I talk about my favorite games featuring our world warriors. Basically, any game a character has appeared in is eligible for this list. It just requires one of the fighters be present. With that said, let's get this show on the road!

Please note: games not yet released in America are not eligible. So, no Tatsunoko v. Capcom. I apologize in advance.

10-) Rival Schools. Who it features: Sakura - Rival Schools is a very interesting little fighter. While most feature fairly serious men and women in martial arts contests, rival schools kind of lets its hair down and features a variety of students (and teachers) – interested of a variety of guys wearing weird clothes – and throws them together into a brawl that ends them all. I don't know a load about the story for Rival Schools – except for the fact that it isn't linked with Street Fighter – but each character's look tells a lot about their personality and I like that. It's not like Street Fighter where a lot of the player's outfits can look bland…everyone looks distinct and that is cool.

Some people describe Rival Schools as a 3D Marvel vs. Capcom, which makes sense. You see, you fight with two people, and while only one person does the actual fighting, your partner can perform double team maneuvers with you for extra damage. You can't tag – this is a Playstation game after all, be tactful! – but it certainly feels more frantic than your average Street Fighter. To sort of compliment the easier/more frantic play style, Rival Schools only has four different attack buttons as opposed to Street Fighter's six. This is more of an SNK format, but in my opinion it works here.

Rival Schools receives a sequel on the Dreamcast which is nothing short of amazing. Seriously, if the Dreamcast hadn't died such a horrid death, I think a lot more people would talk about how Project Justice was one of the finest fighters of all time. Unfortunately, the sequel removed Sakura from playable status and thus, takes it out of competition for this list. If it were listed here though, I assure you that it would be higher up on this than number ten.

It appears as though Rival Schools is largely a forgotten about commodity though. Ever since the release of Project Justice, I really haven't seen hide nor hair of the game. Capcom probably wouldn't release another one anytime soon either, which is a bit of a shame. The only mention I've seen of the game recently (and this isn't that recent, which makes me feel old), would be the appearance of Kyosuke in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Along with Kyosuke are Batsu Ichimonji and Hinata Wakaba. They aren't playable though. Kind of a shame, honestly.

I really do like Sakura a lot, I do. She's the reason I tried the game out in the first place. I was like: "Oh cool! A street fighter is in this game, it must be fun!" Damn my young mind. The thing is, Sakura wasn't what I kept coming back for. The game was just so darn fun, I couldn't put it down. It may have been relatively easy to pick up, but you don't really need a game that's super hard to play all the time, do you?

Plus, Tiffany was the best.



9-) Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo. Who it Features: Ryu, Ken, Dan, Chun-Li, Sakura, and Akuma - This game very recently got the Turbo HD remix treatment, but wasn't given near the publicity that the OTHER HD remix game got. (Though, to be fair, it was released about a year earlier. Maybe I forgot about it?) It's kind of a shame because Puzzle Fighter II is a pretty darn fun game that is easier to play with your friends than normal Street Fighter games. Also, I like how Capcom pokes fun at themselves with these ridiculously long names. I hope nobody thinks Capcom is trying to tie our tongues with these titles. That would just be crazy.

In this game, you essentially need to eliminate jewels by matching them up with jewels of a similar color. Unfortunately, that alone won't do it. You need a crash gem of the same color. Once you have that though, you're ready to go and every adjacent jewel of that color will be gone and be sent to your opponent's side as a "counter block". These blocks can't be eliminated by normal means for a little while. So, timing your combos right can be quite devastating.

If you haven't guessed, this game is kind of like a bejewled/Tetris sort of game. The Fighter part of the title is kind of irrelevant. Yes, ala Tetris Attack, you're facing off against an opponent the whole time, trying to get their meter to fill up before you, but that's really the extent of it. Just because you can't fight though doesn't mean the computer can't have a little bit of fun. While you try to defeat your friend with the power of the blocks, two characters will fight on screen against each other. This has no effect on what you do, but what moves they perform are based on what you do on the field. It's interesting to look at and can be very humorous and cute at times.

While the Turbo HD Remix of this game is pretty interesting and offers a brand new four player mode, they also manage to take out a lot of the game's personality. The music no longer speeds up as you get closer to the end game, characters only have one winning victory quote, Dan's (=() Tutorial has been removed in favor of lame, plain ‘ol text, a lot of the game's bonus content (such as Street Puzzle mode) was also removed. Sure, we got character endings because of this, but it just didn't feel the same. If they had just kept everything and gave it the graphical polish, we'd be grand.

Still though, if you've never played this game before, feel free to give the Turbo HD Remix version a download on PSN or X-Box LIVE. It's certainly a fun play and much easier to get your friends into than the more traditional Street Fighter. ALSO, who could resist super deformed Dan? Nobody, that's who.



8-) Street Fighter Alpha 2. Introduces us to: Sakura, Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma - There was once a dark period of time. Everyone else was playing these new-fangled 3D games and I was stuck wallowing in the 2D ages. I'd watch people play the super awesome looking Street Fighter Alpha and be instantly jealous. I wanted to play as Rose! I wanted to play as Dan! I wanted to play these new characters! I was…let down. I'd play Alpha 2 in the arcade and select Dan (No, I did not know the truth behind him at this point and yes, I did get my ass kicked) and be all like: "I wish I could play this at home."

Luckily, Capcom was feeling generous and decided to release Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES. It may have had horrendous load times and less than pretty graphics, but it was my Alpha 2 dangit! Unfortunately, I was quite bad at this game. I could do decently as someone like Ken, but in my conquest to beat the game as everyone…I just couldn't do it as Guy. I'd try and try and try, and every time I would just seem to get my ass kicked. It bothered me to no end and may affect my liking of Guy to this day.

The reason why I am putting Alpha 2 on this list is because it was not only the second first game in the Alpha series, but it was also very solid playing. I have a ton of love for Alpha 3, but I know a lot of people who simply said "screw that game" and stuck with Alpha 2. If you've played A3 before, you know this is a pretty big compliment to A2. I guess sequels originals stick strong in some people's minds, eh?

A lot of the changes from that one game were brought back for Alpha 2. I'm talking about the three-tiered super gauge, fall countering, air blocking and alpha counters. They also introduced the custom combo system. That is to say, each character has a special move where they can create their own super fast combo. I…honestly didn't like it much, but some people did.

My favorite thing about Alpha 2, the thing I'd like to see repeated in later iterations of Street Fighter, was the fact that each character had their own unique final boss encounter. While not all of these fights happened canonically, most of them did. It didn't feel like we were playing the game inaccurately and experiencing the same story with a different skin. It felt like we were controlling the life of a fighter as they had a logistic, unique final boss encounter. Not just BISON. I loved it and was very sad when it wasn't brought back for Alpha 3.

Compared to Alpha 3, A2 doesn't really hold up very well. It's slower, not as deep, has less gameplay modes, worse music and the roster isn't as good. That said, it's still a very solid fighter and worthy of at least one play. It also features one of my favorite levels in fighting game history – the grassy plain in Australia with lighting falling in the background. It feels like an epic encounter.



7-) Marvel vs. Capcom. Who it features: Ryu, Chun-Li, Zangief, Charlie (Assist only. Goes by the name Shadow) - We mentioned the "3D" Marvel vs. Capcom, so now let's talk about the real deal. The original Marvel vs. Capcom was a fun little title that didn't take itself very seriously. (Though it wasn't the first in the series. X-men v. Street Fighter beat it to the punch) It was a game that was very accessible to those who didn't play many fighters and featured a roster full of characters that most people are at least aware of. While the sequel eventually over-shadowed this game, and for good reason, it is still a pretty fun game even to this day.

Really, my only complaint about it is the number of Street Fighter characters actually in it, or even who they chose. I mean, yeah, Ryu and Chun-Li are pretty much no-brainers. I'd argue that they're the most well-known from the franchise. Really though, Zangief as your third playable character? No Guile? No Ken? Just Zangief? Odd. They make up for this though by allowing you to select a Ryu with Ken's moveset or Akuma's moveset. Thanks.

How you play MVC is by selecting two combatants as well as a special assist character. What you do, in the arcade version – and not the Playstation version which did not have technology to do this – is fight in tag-team style matches. That is to say, you switch out on the fly. You also have the ability to call a non-fighter partner out to cause a little damage. While the game is pretty broken – a lot of characters have infinites, which is not a good thing – if you're playing with your friends, particularly non-fighting friends, this game is a winner.

It also has a very interesting storyline. Well, the whole franchise does really. It's not canonical, of course, but it's worth noting. Zangief and Colossus teaming up together to save Mother Russia from Omega Red? Chun-Li joining the X-Men and Ryu turning both the X-Men and the Avengers down? Wolverine hunting down Akuma? Bison and Magneto teaming up to cause hell for pretty much everyone in the world? That's pretty damn awesome. Fun too if you're a fan of both franchises.

The canonical ending for the franchise is most likely one that Ken has –obviously not in this game - where he wakes up from a dream and spars with Ryu. In another ending, it turns out he was playing a game with his son and you were just playing Ken who was playing himself on the arcade machine. It's a convenient way of saying that none of this actually happened.

Marvel vs. Capcom is just a fun game. It's not the best fighter out there, but it's plain and dirty fun. If you're playing with similarly skilled people, you'll have fun. I guarantee it.



6-) Final Fight. Who it features: Cody, Hugo, Poison (non playable in the Street Fighter series), Rolento, Sodom and Guy - Some people may consider this entry to be a bit of a stretch since all of these characters were Final Fight characters before becoming Street Fighters, but given that they all made appearances in the series as fighters later on, except for Poison who acts as Hugo's manager, they get the honor of being considered part of the roster. How nice is that?

Final Fight takes place in the year 1989 in the town of Metro City, a fictional US town. A gang calling themselves "Mad Gear" has kidnapped newly elected mayor Mike Haggar's daughter. Naturally, as you are a gamer, kidnapping makes you SICK and it is your job to fetch her. Are you a bad enough dude to do it, though?

At your disposal are three fighters. First, you have Mayor Mike Haggar. Haggar is a very renown video game character for a few reasons. First, he's pretty much the mascot of our Fact or Fiction column. Second, I mean, he was the main focus in this legendary beat-em-up franchise. Third, I mean, fucking look at him. This gang is trying to mess with HIS daughter? Yeah, okay, I'm sure that will end well. This isn't exactly the Mayor of Townsville we're talking about here.

You also have Haggar's soon to be son-in-law Cody (Edit: I had him listed as son originally but...he actually dates Haggar's daughter. I go on and on about canon and I accidentally make an incest couple? Dear lord I suck), who would later go on to lead a life of crime and a fucking ninja named Guy. Guy would later go on to nail Rose a couple of times. Then do nothing of note. Anyhow, the distinction between these characters is fairly simple. You have your power type, Haggar, your balance type, Cody, and your speedy type, Guy. You could rush around all you wanted to as Guy, but his hits were pretty week. You'd be better off shooting them with a klobb. Cody is obviously excellent at everything and is for beginners. Watch out though, he'll steal your power-ups. He's a hood. Finally, Haggar, being the strong character, move slow but has a lot of strength. Since high speed movement in a side-scrolling beat-em-up is pretty useless, Guy is – YOU GUESSED IT – useless.

What you do in Final Fight is simply move from one side of the screen to another. It's very basic stuff. Then what you do is beat the hell out of anything that moves. You see, Haggar is pretty pissed, and if you even let one person survive, it's your head. So, basically, to save one girl's life, you're taking down a whole freaking gang. Nice. There are six stages in all, each with their own boss. Rolento and Sodom are both among the boss ranks. While not particularly difficult, they become recurring characters in the franchise.

There isn't a whole lot to say about Final Fight. Essentially, it's an old-school beat-em-up. You know what you're getting into. On the transition to the SNES, Guy was lost. Now I would say nothing of value was lost, but APPARENTLY he took the two-player co-op with him. Rolento also said: "Fook dees, Eye haete dah SNES. I'm gewing tew mai hewm lahnd." And disappears entirely. To say that it's inferior to the arcade version in every way would be an understatement.

If you have yet to experience it, either hunt down the Sega CD version or download MAME and play the arcade version. I mean, you just know you want to see some un-censored Poison action, right? This game is a classic in every sense of the word.



5-) Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Who it features: Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Chun-Li, Dan, Dhalsim, Guile, Ken, M. Bison, Ryu, Sakura, Zangief - To this day, MvC 2 is one of the most beloved arcade fighting games ever. Like Marvel vs. Capcom, it takes our favorite characters from two universes and smashes them together, but this time…Capcom super sizes it, giving us a very impressive roster. I never thought I would see Jill Valentine in a fighting game, but there she was. The game is pretty hard to find for the PS2 or X-Box and thus, price for the game has gone way, way up. It's hard to find it for less than $90, which is sad because I bought it when it came out for $30. Whatever though, people should just consider buying the Dreamcast version, which is the closest it gets to the arcade experience.

There really wasn't much changed in the transition from MvC 1 to MvC 2. The combat you do takes place through tag-team yet again, but in this game you have two partners instead of just one and there are no support characters anymore. It kind of made me sad that there wasn't any support in the game – since this would allow smaller Marvel or Capcom characters to contribute ala assist trophies in Brawl – but that's not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Your partners can now do moves which essentially replicate what the assist characters did in the last game.

MvC 2 also brings us a new technique called the "snapback" move. It takes one special meter bar, but what you can do with it, if you land the move, is switch out whoever the opponent is using with someone else. So if you don't want to face his Ken or something, you can feel free to switch it out. While I don't use it much myself, I will freely admit that this feature has a use. It adds a nice element of strategy to the game.

Unlike MvC 1, MvC 2 has a plethora of hidden characters. If you're playing in the arcade, which is doubtful considering MAME can't currently run MvC 2 and unless you own a cabinet, I assume you'd be hard-pressed to find an arcade that carries one, you unlock these characters through time played. It's called an experience system. For the console owners out there, you can unlock new characters and artwork through the "secret factor" menu. You unlock currency to use in this mode through normal play. So, it's pretty easy to get everything. A lot of people are down on unlockable characters, but I really enjoy them. It's nice having to work for something.

There's only one real complaint I have about this game, and that would be the ending. Every fighting game in recent memory has character specific endings, but MvC 2 does not. No matter how many times you beat the game or who with, you'll always have the same old ending. This is a pretty big let-down, because from the previous games we had come to expect somewhat wacky endings. I mean, for goodness sakes, Dan's in MvC 1 was a parody from Art of Fighting. That's just awesome. We didn't get that and it's a shame. I hope when the rumored XBLA and PSN MvC 2 hits, Capcom adds character endings after all this time. Maybe they could add a couple of new fighters too…*cough*Joe*cough*.

MvC 2 is a very fun fighter that is easily accessible. While not requiring a ton of skill, you don't always need to have a serious game to enjoy yourself. Thanks to the strength of perhaps one of the finest rosters in videogame history, MvC 2 makes it pretty far up the list.



4-) Street Fighter II. Introduces us to: E. Honda, Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Bison, Guile, T. Hawk, Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay, and Akuma - Please note, this is just a branching title for all versions of the game. I could just anoint SF II: Turbo HD Remix with this spot, but I decided that I'd rather just give it to Street Fighter II as a whole. You know, since apparently it's a game that can re-released itself every few years and people will still hop all over it.

Street Fighter II is a classic in every sense of the word. I remember going to bowling alleys as a kid, due to my parents being intense league bowlers, and wasting many quarters getting better at Street Fighter II. Hell, SF II is renown for being so fun that the developers would often get off schedule because they were having so much fun playing their own game. Given that by the end of a development cycle, developers often can't stand to look at their product, this is very high praise. This game pretty much single-handedly popularized the fighting genre and we can all thank it for that. Sure, something would have came around eventually, but I'm glad we got this one.

Perhaps what makes Street Fighter II such a timeless title is the fact that it's so balanced. I don't know if it's the most balanced fighter in the world, but I can say for sure that it is ONE of them. Given that this game came out in 1991, that's quite a saying there. Years and years later, not many companies have managed to achieve the balance that SF II did. That's very nice. If you had two people and a copy of Street Fighter, you were pretty well set for the next several hours.

A roster often defines how we remember a fighter. Think of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Pretty much everybody knew how the game would play and when a new stage or something was announced, most people just hemmed and hawed. They liked it, but they wanted a new character to be unveiled. The roster of a game is very, very important. Luckily, Street Fighter II has one of the most memorable line-ups in gaming history. Whether it's their attire (Chun-Li, Vega), hairstyle (Guile), or move (Pretty much everyone, but I'll say Ryu and Ken for the sake of the single most recognizable move in existence) the Street Fighters really stood out. I really dislike Family Guy, but if they can throw out a Street Fighter reference in hopes that their audience will get it, well, you know it has lasting power.

It also brings to the table some of the most memorable tunes ever. Ken's stage, in particular, stands out in my mind. Try playing Turbo HD Remix and not getting it stuck in your head. It's something crazy. Guile's theme is also quite iconic and wound up serving as my ring tone for a very long period of time. The music just makes the game stand out even more than it already does, and I really appreciate that. I don't think a Street Fighter since that point has replicated the tracks 2 had, and that's quite a shame. If Street Fighter III was able to do that, we'd be in "best game of all time" territory. Seriously.

Street Fighter II is an absolute gaming legend and any SF list without it would be pretty remiss.



3-) Street Fighter Alpha 3. Introduces us to: Jailbird Cody, Karin, R. Mika, Juni and Juli - This is the third second game in the Alpha franchise, and the game that takes place right before Street Fighter II. The events of this game set the events forward that led to Street Fighter II. The weaker Bison, Cammy becoming aware of her existence and turning against Bison, Charlie being dead, Zangief knowing Gorbachev…this is where all of that is explained. If you're direly curious as to why you're fighting, Alpha 3 is a must play for those reasons alone. I know playing a fighter for story is a laughable idea, but Alpha 3 is easily the most essentially storyline that the Street Fighter universe has come up with.

That's really not the shining point of this game. Only big Street Fighter nerds such as myself really give a shit about canon. This game changes the Alpha formula in a fairly big way. There is no longer a manual or auto option, but instead an "ism" option determining your style of play. You have the A-ism, which is your standard Alpha fighting style. That is to say that you have a three tiered system. In this game, to determine how strong your special move is, it depends on which button you press with your super move. So, if you were Ryu and wanted to do a level three Shinku-Hadouken, you would input the move and press "R1" as the punch button.

Next is the X-ism, which is similar to what you would find in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. With this, you only have one super combo move that you can access, but it is rather powerful. So, instead of being able to unleash several tier one moves in a match, most likely you'll only be able to use one X-ism move per fight. If you prefer a more old-school approach, X-ism is probably for you. Personally, I loved the A-ism quite a load, so I stuck with it. You also can't air block or alpha counter with this ism, so be warned.

Finally, you have the V-ism. This allows you to create custom combos like you could in Alpha 2. The V-ism isn't for you if you like doing super moves, it's pretty much there if you're feeling creative. So, it's no surprise that I never used this one ever. I can't help it! Thinking is over-rated, I like using pre-installed combos! While you're doing this, you may notice that your opponent is guarding your moves. What's this though!? There's a meter that prevents over-turtling!? Think Soul Edge/Calibur and you'll have an idea. Yeah, that probably should have been mentioned in a new paragraph, but I'll be damned if I'm having a two lined paragraph.

Sadly, Alpha 3 takes away the unique final bosses each character has. Usually, this would mean that the character's "true" final boss comes before the real one, but sometimes those fights never happen. In this game, everybody faces a souped up form of Bison, better known as Super Bison. He's a pain in the fucking ass because if he catches you with his Super Psycho Crusher, you'll be brought down to pretty miniscule health. If you go in without knowing what you're doing, you will meet a quick end.

Making up for this though, for the console version of the game at least, is the fact that Alpha 3 has more gameplay modes than Alpha 2. Alpha 3 introduces the awesome World Tour mode, which was the only way to unlock Evil Ryu and Guile. Again, I'll compare this to Soul Calibur. Play the Weapon's Master mode from Soul Calibur 2 and you'll essentially have Alpha 3's World Tour mode. It's very nice and adds some single player replay value to a game a lot of people may not play by themselves. World Tour also allows you to customize your fighting style. I'd love to see something like this return at some point.

From every aspect, as a Street Fighter game, Alpha 3 hit a homerun. It delivered interesting characters, story information for those who cared, and a hot new battle system that has been one of the very best in gaming since its release. It's a shame there were only three two Alpha games, because another one really would have been just fabulous. Also, why is Yun in this game on the GBA/PSP? I read his plot value in Alpha 3 and he doesn't do shit. Was he just added for fanservice? IF SO, WHY NOT MY IBUKI!?!?



2-) Capcom vs. SNK 2. Who it features: Akuma, Balrog, Blanka, Cammy, Chun-Li, Dan, Dhalsim, Eagle, E. Honda, Guile, ken, Bison, Maki (made an appearance in SFA III for the PSP), Rolento, Evil Ryu, Ryu, Sagat, Sakura, Vega, Yun, Zangief, Shin Akuma - Capcom vs. SNK 2 is a total departure from the other versus games that appear on this list. Unlike the MvC series, Capcom vs. SNK 2 is a much more serious fighter. This is definitely in thanks to the fact that Capcom is now facing off against another fighting company. You can tell Capcom wanted this to be taken more seriously too as the overwhelming majority of the Capcom characters from this game are from the Street Fighter series. Even the ones that aren't have appeared in a Street Fighter game and get counted. That's pretty intense.

Unlike the original Capcom vs. SNK, this game plays more traditionally like a Capcom fighter. You see, before this iteration, the game had four attack buttons with two sets of strength. This is very clearly an SNK play style. CvSNK 2 changes it to a six-button, three strength system and has the SNK characters altered to fit it. This style works pretty well and creates a more memorable fighting experience than the original.

What also helps along is the groove system. Since this game is bound to attract fanboys of both franchises, they have grooves dedicated to playstyles found primarily in the two main series: King of Fighters and Street Fighter. So, if you're a KoF fan wary of the more Capcom friendly system this game has to offer, no worries whatsoever. The groove system has you covered. Being a fanatic of the alpha series, it's not at all surprising that I went with the A-groove. It should also be noted that, like in Alpha, your groove changes how you fight. Certain grooves can't do certain moves. You must be wary of this.

The ratio system has also been altered for the game. Now you can select up to three fighters and assign them a ratio (up to 4 for three, 5 for 2, irrelevant for one). This ratio will determine how strong the fighter is. If you assign one three points they will be very strong. If you assign them two they will be kind of strong and, well, I'm sure you know about "1" ratio. Of course, if you don't like this kind of madness, just pick up the game on the PS2 where you can avoid it entirely just by selecting team battle or single battle making ratios irrelevant. Everyone is strong, yayyyy.

This game is not perfect though. In the gameplay department it may be stellar, but graphically speaking…it's not the same case. Capcom reused a fair number of sprites and in the case of characters such as Morrigan, they look practically ancient. SNK had all of their sprites re-drawn for the game and they look quite nice and up to date. Yes, there are some re-drawn Capcom sprites…but not all of them are and it makes the artists look pretty lazy. It's still a very fun game, but I wish everyone looked as impressive as say, Ken or Ryu.

I also didn't like that character endings are rather simplistic. Instead of some artwork with an actual ending, we get a character portrait with a very brief description of what occurred. What's worse is that you don't always get the ending. I believe you can only get it if you beat Shin Akuma or Ultimate Rugal, which is a pretty big pain in the ass. Given that this is a versus game, I'm pretty sure nobody came in hoping for a story. They just wanted fan-service and by-golly they got it.

The gameplay, the music, the groove system and especially the announcer make CvSNK 2 one of the most competent fighters ever made. It is certainly a 10th hour favorite, seeing as I mention it all the damn time. The game can't be emulated on MAME yet, so I whole-heartedly recommend you rush out and buy the PS2 version. It's easily the most comfortable pad of the three from last generation for this game.

Also no EO. It may be optional, but it's also lame as all hell.



1-) Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Introduces us to: Alex, Dudley, Elena, Ibuki, Necro, Oro, Sean Black Dan, Yang, Yun, Gill, Hugo (as a Street Fighter), Urien, Makoto, Q, Remy and Twelve - Street Fighter III may very well be the closest to fighting game perfection the world has ever seen. I know a lot of you may like Mortal Kombat or Tekken, but in my humble opinion a fighter has never been so balanced, so technical or just plain beautiful. For whatever reason, III is not as loved by Street Fighter fans as II is, and I think that's a darn shame.

First, let's start with a strictly visual point of view. From an artistic standpoint, a fighter has never looked prettier. The motions are all very fluid and when moves connect it looks very nice. The characters sprites are all exceptionally wonderful and the game just looks like a piece of art in motion. Characters like Chun-Li have never looked as good since the release of this game. It's just a thing of beauty. Normally, I'll be the first in line to say: "Oh hey, graphics don't matter." In the case of this game though, graphics enhance the overall experience. It's an excellent game without the graphics, but with them? It's one of the best ever.

Now down to a technical standpoint. Street Fighter III's fighting system is one of the most beautiful to behold in action. The parry system allows for a whole new element of play. Essentially, what you do is press forward or backward at a precise time to deflect an enemy attack and give yourself a chance to counter. This can create some very interesting scenarios. The game also ditches the Alpha standard of multiple super moves but goes in a different direction than Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Now, at the beginning, you're given a choice of which move you wish to use. It all depends on your fighting style. Like in the alpha series, you can do various forms of super specials (referred to as Super arts in this game) depending on the button you press.

I also like that the game added the dash feature that was made available in Dark Stalkers. It makes the game feel like a faster one than its predecessor. Honestly, when you play Third Strike and compare it to Street Fighter II, the formers experience can feel quite archaic by comparison. Considering how fantastic SF II is as a whole, this really speaks volumes about the quality of Street Fighter III.

The reason I went with third strike instead of going with an overall branching title like I did with Street Fighter II is fairly simple. Out of all the iterations of Street Fighter III, third strike brings the most to the table. It has the most characters, and also introduces the guard parry. This parry parries a guard-breaker attack. It's handy. Third Strike also does something very unique in that it advances the story of Street Fighter III. All of the characters receive new endings and voice actors. This almost makes it feel like a new game, because in the past for these "new editions", the old endings were just peachy.

So yes, in Third Strike, Alex has already won the tournament, Oro has already defeated Ryu, Ibuki has returned from her mission to get documents from Gill. The majority of the fights in this game are random encounters. I actually think it leads more credence to the name "street fighter" than a normal tournament does. I know very few people care about the canon of this game, but as a whole it easily had more entertainment value than the other two versions of SF III. Even if Chun-Li's story was like patched together at the last second.

Heck, SF III even introduces a ranking system to let you know how well you do in matches. If you're able to regularly pull off B-ranks and the like, most likely you're a very competent player. I find this a very good way to practice and improve yourself. It is much more effective than just going for a high score. On top of this, the mini-games also work on your natural skills. Sean Black Dan's basketball parrying mini-game is very helpful if you're new to the game. Through it, you can get used to the system.

The only true fault with SF III I can think of would be the music. While it's far from bad, it hardly is as memorable as the tracks you will find in Street Fighter II. There are some good themes to be found within, but for the most part I always had some form of music playing during the game. Maybe the game was so enthralling that I never noticed the music before? I'm not sure, but if that's the only complaint I have about a game…it's doing a good job. Oh, and I'm not counting the AWESOME rap that accompanies the character select screen. Yo make your first move, so what's in gon' be?
You're trapped in the new world of Street Fighter 3
The 3rd chapter so what's it gon' be?
You're trapped in the new world of Street Fighter 3
Make your first move, so what's in gon' be?
You're trapped in the new world of Street Fighter 3
The 3rd chapter so what's it gon' be?
You're trapped in the new world of Street Fighter 3. 1up says it's cringe worthy!? BAH! What do they know. That fucking rocks.

Street Fighter III may very well be the pinnacle of 2D fighters. If IV can be as good as III, we'll have our game of the year already.

Also, just to be safe, yes I know not all of those characters debuted in Third Strike. I was just listing everyone who debuted under the SF III brand.



Also, just to be safe, yes I know not all of those characters debuted in Third Strike. I was just listing everyone who debuted under the SF III brand.

Honorable mentions: Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter EX 2 + alpha.

Edit: -
This is a pretty famous SF III video. Daigo's comeback. This is must-see material.

Well, that's it for this week. As always, if you wish to comment on this you may do so below or simply send me an e-mail at [e-mail]. Whichever works for you. Whether your feedback is positive or negative, I feel that it helps me improve, so I greatly appreciate what you have to say. This also concludes my Street Fighter series, so you won't see a 10th hour based on the franchise for some time now. Though I may mention it in my tangents next week. Who knows.

Before I leave, let's see what's going on around our game zone, shall we?

Johnny Richards writes An Ode to Ingenuity. Basically this week he's talking about games that have impressed him with their uniqueness. Hey, bonus points for Audiosurf.

Chris Vicari writes The PC-Spotlight

Drew hosts a Three Player Co-Op between Jacob Lopez, himself and err…myself. Yes, yes, the obvious joke would be: "So, Jacob Lopez and you then?"

Theo Fraser writes The Nintendophiles

I write B3yond the Report

Natalie Shoemaker unveils her new column Girl Gamer Chronicles. She is a talented writer, so make sure you check out the column, okay? Hope you get your internships at 1up or GI.

Tommy Coloma writes The Release List

Greg Bruno hosts a What IF between Ramon, Toddo, and himself.

John De Large writes What I Hate About You. Resident Evil gets its share of hatred.

Trace Aber writes Living LIVE

Rod Oracheski writes Achievement Unlocked

Jordan "The Ogre" Williams writes Working Title

Vincent Chiucchi writes the Hall of Shame. Last week he inducted the N-Gage, but I wanted to link to him anyhow. No Select and Start this week.

Joe Roche, who knows law better than I do, writes The Full Circle 360 News Report

AJ and Mike Minotti are the voices behind the Exploding Barrel Podcast

Well, that's it. I'm out.

'til the crossroads

Screenshots
All 9 The 10th Hour Screenshots