Posts Tagged ‘capcom’
Podcast: Street Fighter x Tekken
This week Fred is joined by special guest Obi (@ObiWanJabronE) to discuss two of the most beloved fighters of the 90s. Street Fighter II was a title that most consider to be the definitive 2D fighter of all time and Tekken is widely regarded as one of the best 3D fighters. We cover the history 0f both titles, initial impressions, and why Street Fighter II was so damn popular in the UK.
Opening Song – Rising Dragon (Ryu’s Theme) from Street Fighter EX Plus
Closing Song – Jin Kazama’s Theme from Tekken 3
Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
Originally hitting arcades back in 1993, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom was quite the oddity. It prominently featured gameplay similar to that of its other brawler brethren, specifically the combat system of Final Fight mixed with the license quality of titles like The Simpsons, but also with the added benefit of being part of the complex D&D story. Not only was the game addictive but mild RPG elements, power-ups, and branching paths that had you etching a unique campaign were almost unheard of in arcades. Unfortunately this gameplay style and a long branching campaign required two important things: time and money. It probably costs somewhere between $5-$10 in quarters to conquer the first game, and probably twice that to take on the sequel Shadow Over Mystara and at least an hour of your time. As it stood, I never completed this game as a child, either due to lack of time or money, and I always wondered how fun it would be to have this title at home. Well finally Capcom has decided to bring this classic arcade duo in digital format and finally give free rein to a pair of arcade games that are among my favorite of all time.
Retro Game Night: Beetle Adventure Racing and Sweet Home
Starting yesterday I am now doing a weekly show where I play retro titles that either I’ve always wanted to play, my readers request, or anything I just think is cool. It records every Friday night, gets uploaded to the YouTube channel late, and then I create a subsequent post here on Saturday. For the first week I decided to try a game I originally was recommended on a recent Video Game Outsiders appearance: Beetle Adventure Racing on the N64.
The next comes from one of our Japanese readers/listeners Fenian (@F3nian), Sweet Home. This was released only in Japan on the Famicom (NES) by Capcom and features RPG and puzzle elements as five people try to survive and escape a haunted mansion. Although based off of a Japanese horror film of the same name, many say this was the precursor to Resident Evil, complete with the opening door cinematic. It was only released in Japanese, but thanks to a fan translation and flash cart I present to you the game in all its English glory running on an actual NES.
Hope you enjoyed these episodes. Tune in next week where I will be featuring initial gameplay of Expendable on the Dreamcast and an attempt to complete the fighter Street Fighter The Movie: The Game on the Sega Saturn!
Review: Darkstalkers Resurrection
Capcom has continued to make its library as available as possible to the masses, especially when it comes to arcade re-releases from decades passed. This generation marks the first where old school arcade titles can be re-released at low prices, individually, with visual filters, online play, and perform exactly as they did in the arcade. Granted, it’s still a pain to figure out how to find each of these titles – a perfect example being Capcom Arcade Cabinet, which provides several of Capcom’s classic coin-ops that would seem to include Street Fighter II and Darkstalkers – but let’s face it, some games are much more marketable than others. The newest of this tradition is Darkstalkers Resurrection, an HD re-release of sorts, that covers the second and third titles in a series that never quite made a faithful translation to American households.
Night Warriors with smoothing filters on
As for the games themselves, they are not covered in this review so see our Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge and Darkstalkers 3 coverage respectively, and then continue on. I am aware that a nearly arcade perfect port of Night Warriors did release in the US on the Sega Saturn and Darkstalkers 3 was decent in its US version on the Playstation (and PSOne digital store currently), but I hardly think these platforms, especially if you want both titles, are the best and easiest way to play these games. Furthermore they are not without specific tech-based flaws – mostly visual on the Saturn and gameplay on the Playstation – and Darkstalkers 3 was so updated and altered in the home port that it’s barely the original arcade game. Putting all that aside, with the recent resurgence of the fighter genre, many hardcore fans have fight sticks or specific fighter game pads on their newest consoles that a 360/PS3 version can support. Capcom has also decided to keep this title digital only in the US, which also accounts for the low price point that is much more affordable than the 4,000 yen ($45) disc version in Japan. Now that this game’s presence is thoroughly justified, I must commend Capcom for treating a classic re-release with so much care because Darkstalkers Resurrection is the definitive way to play these games at home.
Darkstalkers 3
Also Known As: Vampire Savior: Lord of the Vampires in Japan
Console: Arcade
Released: 1997
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Ports: Playstation 1, Sega Saturn (as Vampire Savior: Lord of the Vampires in Japan only), PS2 (part of Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection, released only in Japan), Dreamcast (technically, see below, as Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service in Japan only), PSP (as Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower), PS3 (part of Vampire: Darkstalkers Resurrection, released to disc only in Japan)
Digital Release? Yes – As a PSOne game on PSN ($5.99) that works for PS3/PSP/Vita, as Darkstalkers: The Chaos Tower for PSP ($10.00), Part of Darkstalkers Resurrection in the US on XBLA or PSN ($15.00)
This is the game where Capcom went nuts. As the list above suggests, there were several ports of this game and in different forms. So many, in fact, that a brunt of this article is about the ports and differences themselves than the actual game. Darkstalkers 3 released to a very crowded arcade in 1997, most fighters at that time were also developed by Capcom might I add, and thus Darkstalkers 3 was almost unnoticed in an arcade in America. Furthermore, the dwindling US arcade market probably saw it releasing to fewer locations. Originally titled Darkstalkers: Jedah’s Damnation for the US, this title was dropped – I can think of a few reasons why – and the very generic Darkstalkers 3 replaced the title domestically. As it stood in 1997 you could walk into an arcade and choose between Street Fighter III, Street Fighter EX Plus, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and that’s just the Capcom fighers.
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
Also Known As: Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers’ Revenge in Japan
Console: Arcade
Released: 1995
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Ports: Sega Saturn, PS2 (part of Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection, released only in Japan), PS3 (part of Vampire: Darkstalkers Resurrection, released to disc only in Japan)
Price: $20.00 (used) $49.99 (new) pricecharting.com
Digital Release? Yes – Part of Darkstalkers Resurrection in the US on XBLA or PSN ($15.00)
Not wasting any time, which is something you’ll notice from all popular Capcom franchises, a sequel to the original Darkstalkers was brought out only a short year later in 1995. It’s important to note that this was common for arcades back then with much shorter development time and a need to ride the coattails of any popular game franchise in coin-op form. The moment your game didn’t have anything new to offer and hardcore fans stopped playing it, you were dead in the water. While the original title mixed up the formula for Capcom fighters, Night Warriors was more of a refinement of the unique ideas its predecessor introduced. This time around Capcom focused more on adapting the “special” bar, now having up to 3 levels of power, and more complex chain combos. Additionally the animation was so well coded the characters moved on screen like living cartoons, no more awkward mechanical movements or odd frames of animation. Some say this was one of the first games that frame counting became a more complex and time-intensive activity and with new 3-gauge EX specials and combos, you could make or break your match. Players also have the option of playing a traditional style of gameplay or the new “auto-block,” which would prove popular to those new to the series and not cause any grief from veterans. Unfortunately the way Capcom staggered its release schedule of fighters, Night Warriors was the first of three major fighters introduced by the company in 1995 and somewhat fell to the wayside going into summer (this released in March, technically the end of winter). It’s unfortunate because some fans of the series, like myself, consider it to be the best of the three titles.
New character Hsien-Ko
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
Also Known As: Vampire: The Night Warriors in Japan
Console: Arcade
Released: 1994
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Ports: PS1, PS2 (part of Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection, released only in Japan)
Price: $11.18 (used) $455.00 (new) pricecharting.com
Digital Release? Yes – PSOne release for PS3/PSP/Vita ($5.99)
It seemed that all classic fighters started life with iterative trilogies. Seriously, it happened with Street Fighter II (original, champion, turbo), Mortal Kombat (1-3), Art of Fighting (1-3), ClayFighter…okay, scrap that last one. Darkstalkers, known as Vampire in Japan, was no exception. The first Capcom fighting game that wasn’t from the Street Fighter series, these games were less about building a new series and more about being a testing ground for new mechanics. That doesn’t make the games any less awesome, nor does it discredit the silky smooth gameplay and beautiful animation that was significantly improved over the Street Fighter graphics that had begun to look dated in 1994. While it may be a true timepiece that you either grew up in the mid 90s playing or missed completely, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors is a great starting point when learning the more hardcore mechanics of today’s fighters.
Review: Capcom Arcade Cabinet (XBLA/PSN)
Whenever I hear about another announcement for another arcade collection to be released individually I always think back to Game Room. Here we go again. Not only that but you would be hard pressed to not point out that Capcom has released these arcade gems before, most if not all of them (there are some games I don’t yet know about) appearing on the Capcom Classics Collection that appeared on Xbox, PS2, and PSP. Despite all of that against it – your interest and want in the specific games notwithstanding – Capcom Arcade Cabinet offers exactly what retro gamers purchasing arcade games on today’s consoles look for and all at an easy impulse buy price.
At its core it’s a lot like Game Room in that you navigate a main screen that displays the available games you have to play. Games that you have not purchased or that aren’t available yet are blacked out. Of the titles you do have, you can read a quick background paragraph on the game or enter its specific menu. As of now the selection is an interesting mixed bag of highly popular and relatively unknown titles from 1984-1987 – currently the three titles from 1987 have been released: Black Tiger, 1943, and Avengers – and the overall package looks to be consistent with that structure moving forward. Whether or not you want these games is entirely up to you and probably responsible for whether or not you’ll pick up anything, but this review isn’t about each individual game but rather the options and package you get with Capcom Arcade Cabinet.
Review: Final Fight CD (Sega CD)
Console: Sega-CD/Mega-CD
Released: 1993
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Sega (Sega/Mega-CD, 32X CD)
Instruction Manual: Not necessary
Difficulty: Hard
Played it as a child? Yes
Value: $21.50 (used) $76.00 (new) (pricecharting.com) – Price for Sega CD version only
Price: $23-$60 (used) N/A on US Version (new) on eBay
Other Releases: Arcade, SNES, Gameboy Advance
Digital Release? Yes – SNES version on Virtual Console ($8), Arcade version on XBLA/PSN as Double Impact ($10)
Final Fight is a pivotal late 80s arcade release for Capcom for two reasons: it established the norms that would make up the concept of the “beat-em-up” genre for its short-lived life (although it oddly enough didn’t introduce any of them) and it created the aesthetic and building blocks of Street Fighter II. Anyone who has played this game or SFII will immediately be familiar with that semi-realistic semi-animated graphical style of Final Fight that remained exclusive to these two titles moving forward for a few sequels (I’m considering the numerous re-hashes of SFII to be sequels). In full disclosure this is my favorite brawler of all time and definitely ranks highly in my overall top games I’ve ever played despite the fact that Final Fight doesn’t translate well to home consoles because it’s intended to take your money and prompt more quarters rather than be completed in a finite number of lives/credits. In order to complete the game in the allotted five credits requires you to memorize the cheaper boss battles and exploit the collision detection. For me it was just repetitive stupid fun.
Extra Credit: Resident Evil Series
Back before Gaming History 101 was a thing, Fred made a solo podcast about the Resident Evil series and it was shockingly less than an hour long.
Gaming History 101 