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Number Four:
I won the Hyper Street Fighter II tournament at Jump Festa on December 20th, and all I got was a really nice T-shirt.
I had first sampled the game at Tokyo Game Show, and while it excited me semi-muchly, it didn't feel "all there." The reason for this was most likely the fact that every demo station was equipped with an Ascii SvC Chaos joystick, and by god I'm really starting to hate Ascii joysticks. The sticks are too long; it feels like you're playing the game with a fist-held pencil, almost. Give me my Hori stick any day. Hell, if they'd have given my Hori stick, and I would have been able to play the game as God intended it, chances are I would have been motivated to buy the game already. As it is, I'm hesitating, by ripping the game's ass open whenever I stop by Famicom Yosshi down the street, then leaving satisfied, with the feeling of a Dual Shock still lingering on my fingertips.
Shitty stick or no, I whipped through the Hyper Street Fighter II tournament at Jump Festa, and I did so as Super-X Ken, for whatever reason. (I usually pick Hyperfighting Ryu.) The commentators were a Japanese girl with vampire fangs and Chun-Li. Yes, they called her "Chun-Li," which means that she probably wasn't just a model dressed-up as Chun-li, like one might have thought. And when she left immediately at the conclusion of the tournament, she was shielded by bodyguards in Capcom jackets.
I lit up every opponent in the tournament, and it had been more than three years since I had, in all seriousness, played Street Fighter on what one might call a competitive level. The first opponent was some kid as Ryu. The last one was a Guile. The Guile was played by a cosplayer. The cosplayer was cosplaying that one stubble-faced, unibrowed cop in Jump comics -- I think the announcer called him "Ryo-kun" at some point. He was a fierce opponent. He hit me four whole times, one of them being with a Flash Kick. I finished him with a four-hit Shoryuken combo, lighting him on fire. Ryo-kun screamed, jumped back, and bellowed like a tiger. He grabbed my arm and threw it into the air like a gracefully defeated boxer does to his victorious opponent.
The announcer, who had screamed at one point during the match, Chuck Franklin will testify, "Street Fighter isn't just a Japanese phenomenon -- they do it in America, too! It really is a game for World Warriors!" turned the microphone on me while Ryo-kun still had my arm in the air.
"Excellent work with Ken! So, what country are you from, America?"
At which point I said, "I'm not a gaijin -- this is just cosplay!"
This got something out of the crowd. What it got -- it's hard to explain, even for me.
The announcer moved the questioning along quickly: "So, you live in Tokyo?"
"You bet I do!"
"Whereabouts?"
"Itabashi-ku, woo-yeah!"
"Itabashi-ku, you say?"
"Naka-Itabashi," I said, grabbing the mic from her. I Englished in a competent Axl Rose impression, with my now Ryo-kun-free hand flashing devil horns.
"NAKA-ITABASHI! YOU SUCK!"
***
No matter how shitty the stick had been, I was filled with some kind of sick vigor thanks to the thrill of fighting games. Fighting games can always do that to me. I can always go for a good fighting game. And this year, I went for plenty of them. Well, two good ones, and plenty of so-so ones.
SvC Chaos is one of the so-so ones. And, fuck you very much, so is King of Fighters 2003. Just so you don't think I hate SNK or anything, I'll say this: Samurai Spirits Zero is so very, very nice.
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution is, without a doubt, the fighting game of the year. I've written a review explaining why, and it'll be as late coming up on this site as the game was in coming out after the arcade version.
Soul Calibur II is . . . kind of the runner-up. It's a little hard to tell.
In 2003, fighting games didn't really go anywhere. That's okay, though. Fighting games have been, for a long time, about two people beating each other into submission. It used to be that people would complain if two fighting games were too similar, and Capcom even went so far as to sue Data East because characters in Fighter's History looked too much like characters in Street Fighter II. Now, a decade after those turbulent-ish times, things have cooled down, and much as certain people regard this Street Fighter II remake with hatred-bordering apprehension, I find it a good thing. It's a chance for Capcom to relax and look back at something they did wonderfully right. It's a period of reflection we're in right now, when it comes to the fighting game, evidenced very cleanly in the fact that both Konami and Capcom are brutally guilty of ripping off Smash Brothers (with World Fighters and Onimusha Buraiden), which everyone had thought might be a breath of fresh air. Fighting games typically, in the console sense, launch systems. There is little for fighting games to do this late in a console generation.
The legions of fans loyal to SNK's King of Fighters series, perhaps, won't be the only ones in love with Terry Bogard in the near-ish future, perhaps, when SNK unveils that King of Fighters 3D game they're supposed to be unveiling. So yeah, it might be an interesting year for fighting games next year, as interesting as it was nice this year.
In closing, I regret missing the chance (by about for minutes) to enter this year's E3 Soul Calibur II tournament, because I'd have loved the opportunity to challenge Penny Arcade's Gabe. Here's hoping that this coming E3 has a fighting game tournament, and it involves a game I rock at.
[next: number three: the dude with a 'tude versus women who are rude]
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