You can now completely tell that the fighting game genre is back from its extended period of dormancy: we're now starting to see yearly sequels. But the fortunate thing is that it's nothing as bad as the multiple iterations of Street Fighter II, which took things a bit too far for the average consumer - though the price of cartridges back then certainly didn't help either. Quite a few people around the internet are surprised to see updates to games released as little as less than a year ago, but I don't see why. Heck, we already knew about some of them, like an update to Blazblue: Calamity Trigger.
Anyone who's played through Blazblue's story mode should know who these two are.
Though it was merely hinted at by developer Arc System Works earlier in the year - even before the console release of the first game - Blazblue: Continuum Shift was officially revealed within the pages of Famitsu a few weeks ago. But what ostensibly seemed like an update that could easily be provided via downloadable content turned out to be much more. It's actually a sizable upgrade over Calamity Trigger; too sizable, that is, for them to release it as a DLC pack. It not only contains at least two new characters, but new stages (while the older ones are revamped a bit) and quite a few balance changes. The last point is the primary focus for them, and it really should be since the first game's biggest problem was the serious character balance issues.
The funniest thing is that people are shocked to see that Blazblue is getting a new iteration so quickly, but I'm wondering if they were even paying attention during the last generation. That's OK, though, because it's only been a year since the genre returned to a sense of relevancy. Do you know how many releases and updates the Guilty Gear franchise had last generation on PS2?
From left to right:
(Top) Guilty Gear X Plus, Guilty Gear XX, Guilty Gear XX #Reload,
(Bottom) Guilty Gear XX Slash, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus. Whew!
Yup, that's six games. Ridiculous? Definitely, though Continuum Shift seems like more of an upgrade than lots of these, save Accent Core. Look forward to four more Blazblue games after this one!
(No, I don't think there will be that many. At least I hope not!)
It's going to take a while before this one hits home consoles. It's currently in playtesting stages in Japan, with an ambiguous release date of "this winter" for the actual arcade game. Given the time games like this usually stick to arcades, and given how popular Calamity Trigger was in Japanese arcades, I'd say summer 2010 is a good estimate...which would make it precisely a year after Calamity Trigger hit home. I hope it's not full price.
Oh hey, and there's also an update to Street Fighter IV coming soon as well, and they're calling it, well, Super Street Fighter IV. I believe the reason why they're calling it that is to signify how big of an update it is. It's nothing completely related to semantics, but the thing is that Super Street Fighter II was the first significant upgrade out of the four Street Fighter II received. So far, they seem to be capitalizing on that point, though most of what we know is through interviews with Capcom staff. I have no doubt, however, that they'll fully realize them.
But a lot of people definitely doubt that thus far, and think this move eerily parallels Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III's multiple iterations. They've already confirmed that they're not going to make the same mistake by saying it won't be a fully-priced release. That was precisely the reason why SSFII was a colossal bomb at retail, releasing at a whopping - if memory serves -- $79.99. Yeah, I sure miss buying cartridges! For a more recent example of this, just look at Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution's sales in Japan. It tanked badly, despite its arcade iteration being incredibly popular. It was released for full price initially, but retailers slashed the price in half upon realizing copies would never move at its introductory price. Fortunately, they had the sense to release it in America at a budget price.
Back to SSFIV, what we have seen so far is three characters. Two of them, T. Hawk and Dee Jay, are returning characters, while there's a new character named Juri (that's her pictured). Reaction to her has been mixed so far, though it's been surprisingly a tad negative in South Korea. I say "surprising" because Juri is a Korean character, the first for the franchise. Me? Oh, I think she's perfectly fitting for a Street Fighter game, and the internet reaction is pretty similar to when C. Viper was revealed for the original SFIV. So yeah, par the course.
There's not much known at this point, as you can see. But rest assured that Capcom is making sure they divulge every piece of information as slow as excruciatingly possible. In other words, they're building it up just like the previous game, which is pretty good for marketing purposes. Apparently, they don't know whether it will receive an arcade release or not, but it'll hit PS3 and 360 in spring 2010.
Yet in all of this talk, there's still one game that's regrettably left out of most conversations about the genre: Virtua Fighter 5 R. VF5 R is, well, an enhanced version of Virtua Fighter 5, originally released on PS3 and 360 - the latter of which with online play. Some vocal fans of the franchise outside of Japan have been clamoring for the game to receive a console release, but Sega won't budge. It's a shame, given all of the rebalancing and enhancements R has - including the inclusion of one returning character and one completely new - but it's perfectly understandable that they haven't. You see, the fanbase for this game is vocal, but it's undeniably niche, and a console port would be a hard sell anywhere. It's popular in Japanese arcades, but usually that doesn't equal brisk console sales, and the franchise was never that popular in America or Europe. It would be a gamble, and it's definitely one Sega isn't willing to take. It's a shame though, given how well balanced it apparently is, and how good VF5 is online.
With this, I think you can really say that the genre is back among the living. We've received plenty of games in the genre this year (admittedly with some misfires), and Tekken 6 is due for a release at the end of this month; further proof that the genre isn't letting up -- unless it's also a misfire; Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Soul Calibur IV don't give me much hope. There will be quite a few to juggle, so it's a good thing they're not coming out right on top of each other like the five we had between June and July.
Anyone who's played through Blazblue's story mode should know who these two are.Though it was merely hinted at by developer Arc System Works earlier in the year - even before the console release of the first game - Blazblue: Continuum Shift was officially revealed within the pages of Famitsu a few weeks ago. But what ostensibly seemed like an update that could easily be provided via downloadable content turned out to be much more. It's actually a sizable upgrade over Calamity Trigger; too sizable, that is, for them to release it as a DLC pack. It not only contains at least two new characters, but new stages (while the older ones are revamped a bit) and quite a few balance changes. The last point is the primary focus for them, and it really should be since the first game's biggest problem was the serious character balance issues.
The funniest thing is that people are shocked to see that Blazblue is getting a new iteration so quickly, but I'm wondering if they were even paying attention during the last generation. That's OK, though, because it's only been a year since the genre returned to a sense of relevancy. Do you know how many releases and updates the Guilty Gear franchise had last generation on PS2?
From left to right: (Top) Guilty Gear X Plus, Guilty Gear XX, Guilty Gear XX #Reload,
(Bottom) Guilty Gear XX Slash, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus. Whew!
Yup, that's six games. Ridiculous? Definitely, though Continuum Shift seems like more of an upgrade than lots of these, save Accent Core. Look forward to four more Blazblue games after this one!
(No, I don't think there will be that many. At least I hope not!)
It's going to take a while before this one hits home consoles. It's currently in playtesting stages in Japan, with an ambiguous release date of "this winter" for the actual arcade game. Given the time games like this usually stick to arcades, and given how popular Calamity Trigger was in Japanese arcades, I'd say summer 2010 is a good estimate...which would make it precisely a year after Calamity Trigger hit home. I hope it's not full price.
Oh hey, and there's also an update to Street Fighter IV coming soon as well, and they're calling it, well, Super Street Fighter IV. I believe the reason why they're calling it that is to signify how big of an update it is. It's nothing completely related to semantics, but the thing is that Super Street Fighter II was the first significant upgrade out of the four Street Fighter II received. So far, they seem to be capitalizing on that point, though most of what we know is through interviews with Capcom staff. I have no doubt, however, that they'll fully realize them.But a lot of people definitely doubt that thus far, and think this move eerily parallels Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III's multiple iterations. They've already confirmed that they're not going to make the same mistake by saying it won't be a fully-priced release. That was precisely the reason why SSFII was a colossal bomb at retail, releasing at a whopping - if memory serves -- $79.99. Yeah, I sure miss buying cartridges! For a more recent example of this, just look at Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution's sales in Japan. It tanked badly, despite its arcade iteration being incredibly popular. It was released for full price initially, but retailers slashed the price in half upon realizing copies would never move at its introductory price. Fortunately, they had the sense to release it in America at a budget price.
Back to SSFIV, what we have seen so far is three characters. Two of them, T. Hawk and Dee Jay, are returning characters, while there's a new character named Juri (that's her pictured). Reaction to her has been mixed so far, though it's been surprisingly a tad negative in South Korea. I say "surprising" because Juri is a Korean character, the first for the franchise. Me? Oh, I think she's perfectly fitting for a Street Fighter game, and the internet reaction is pretty similar to when C. Viper was revealed for the original SFIV. So yeah, par the course.
There's not much known at this point, as you can see. But rest assured that Capcom is making sure they divulge every piece of information as slow as excruciatingly possible. In other words, they're building it up just like the previous game, which is pretty good for marketing purposes. Apparently, they don't know whether it will receive an arcade release or not, but it'll hit PS3 and 360 in spring 2010.
Yet in all of this talk, there's still one game that's regrettably left out of most conversations about the genre: Virtua Fighter 5 R. VF5 R is, well, an enhanced version of Virtua Fighter 5, originally released on PS3 and 360 - the latter of which with online play. Some vocal fans of the franchise outside of Japan have been clamoring for the game to receive a console release, but Sega won't budge. It's a shame, given all of the rebalancing and enhancements R has - including the inclusion of one returning character and one completely new - but it's perfectly understandable that they haven't. You see, the fanbase for this game is vocal, but it's undeniably niche, and a console port would be a hard sell anywhere. It's popular in Japanese arcades, but usually that doesn't equal brisk console sales, and the franchise was never that popular in America or Europe. It would be a gamble, and it's definitely one Sega isn't willing to take. It's a shame though, given how well balanced it apparently is, and how good VF5 is online.With this, I think you can really say that the genre is back among the living. We've received plenty of games in the genre this year (admittedly with some misfires), and Tekken 6 is due for a release at the end of this month; further proof that the genre isn't letting up -- unless it's also a misfire; Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Soul Calibur IV don't give me much hope. There will be quite a few to juggle, so it's a good thing they're not coming out right on top of each other like the five we had between June and July.
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