Of Sore Thumbs and Humble Pies
For over half a year now, the gaming community has been going crazy with the news of Street Fighter IV, and it's eventual release on next-generation consoles. Fans have devoured every tender morsel of information emancipated from the clutches of Capcom with a vigor most likely fueled by hunger a decade old.
It has finally been unleashed this week, and the beasts have started gnawing and chomping at it without remorse. The famished hordes who did not have the luxury of inhabiting Arcade-implanted citadels are now being served.
And it appears that the feast has just begun.
For the record : I never was much of a street fighter. Competitive gaming was not, and still is not my thing. I have however, from season to season, dabbled in fighting games of all makes and genres. My youth was spent in part around local arcade machines of Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters; some of these games were played at friend's houses, on SNES machines I did not wish to own myself (being too much of a SEGA fanboy...). The genre never obsessed me enough to forge the proper reflexes to compete, and beat my opponents with celerity and grace.
Inexperience is a flaw developped in time. And I do suffer greatly of that flaw. But it did not deter me from purchasing Street Fighter IV. Eighty Canadian Dollars for a game that will probably kick my ass and serve me my pancreas as appetizer, you say? An impulse buy, you suggest? Perhaps. Perhaps my sudden interest in the game is only the product of well-crafted marketing strategies. I must admit the pretty-looking 3D revamp did something to tickle my fancy, althought I'm sure the whole world is suddenly feeling quite ticklish. How can a game that looks so magnificent and easy to play, be too hard for a greenhorn like me?
Yesterday, I popped the Blu-Ray into the purring engine of the onyx obelisk wasting on my desk, and hoped for the best. Story Mode on Medium difficulty looked rather «casual», and so it was selected...and a double-serving of humble pie was freshly presented to me. I dug in, grumbling slightly, knowing very well that it was my «just desserts».
Of course, I was half-expecting the proverbial crap to be beaten out of me, but not during the second fucking fight in Ken's Story Mode! It looks like sore thumbs are on the horizon for this poor fella, because I don't plan on quitting this game. It will hurt, but I'll get better. Defeats are, after all, only attempts at success.
I'll see you online, or on a couch near you. Fight the Good Fight.
It has finally been unleashed this week, and the beasts have started gnawing and chomping at it without remorse. The famished hordes who did not have the luxury of inhabiting Arcade-implanted citadels are now being served.
And it appears that the feast has just begun.
For the record : I never was much of a street fighter. Competitive gaming was not, and still is not my thing. I have however, from season to season, dabbled in fighting games of all makes and genres. My youth was spent in part around local arcade machines of Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters; some of these games were played at friend's houses, on SNES machines I did not wish to own myself (being too much of a SEGA fanboy...). The genre never obsessed me enough to forge the proper reflexes to compete, and beat my opponents with celerity and grace.
Inexperience is a flaw developped in time. And I do suffer greatly of that flaw. But it did not deter me from purchasing Street Fighter IV. Eighty Canadian Dollars for a game that will probably kick my ass and serve me my pancreas as appetizer, you say? An impulse buy, you suggest? Perhaps. Perhaps my sudden interest in the game is only the product of well-crafted marketing strategies. I must admit the pretty-looking 3D revamp did something to tickle my fancy, althought I'm sure the whole world is suddenly feeling quite ticklish. How can a game that looks so magnificent and easy to play, be too hard for a greenhorn like me?
Yesterday, I popped the Blu-Ray into the purring engine of the onyx obelisk wasting on my desk, and hoped for the best. Story Mode on Medium difficulty looked rather «casual», and so it was selected...and a double-serving of humble pie was freshly presented to me. I dug in, grumbling slightly, knowing very well that it was my «just desserts».
Of course, I was half-expecting the proverbial crap to be beaten out of me, but not during the second fucking fight in Ken's Story Mode! It looks like sore thumbs are on the horizon for this poor fella, because I don't plan on quitting this game. It will hurt, but I'll get better. Defeats are, after all, only attempts at success.
I'll see you online, or on a couch near you. Fight the Good Fight.
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