Geek time. Fighting games have been an obsession of mine since their beginning. Something about the simplicity of the side scrolling fighter appeals to me more than anything else in the gaming world.
I think it pretty much started with this, the Grand Daddy of them all, Double Dragon. I was enthralled by the intense action and mind-blowing graphics.
But a lesser known similar, yet much harder game called Renegade was also played by a stoned me. This game was impossible. After you get finished beating up all those goons, the guy in the red vest back there always kicks your ass. Total bullshit. The later stage where you fight motorcycle riders is like the holy grail.
Right around that time, there was also Violence Fight, which I played a lot. Great button-pushing workout.
Then came Final Fight, a more advanced version of Double Dragon. You just walk around and endlessly punch goons. Pretty repetitive but revolutionary gaming at the time.
But right around this time a game appeared that revolutionized the fighting game... that's right. It's time for Street Fighter. This game added dimensions of technique that didn't exist before. With combos and an unheard of six button attack option, dorks were facing off in arcades all across town. Early stand-up arcade models had these over-sized whack-a-mole type buttons. I remember seeing players bashing at the consoles. Weird.
The next phase is where it really exploded. Street Fighter II and its many incarnations. This is Super Street Fighter II, but it's pretty much representative of the original game as the sprites weren't drastically changed.
And an example of a later, more hyped up version of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha. Dig the crazy wrestler chick character. Japanese guys are such pervs.
During the Street Fighter II craze, an alternate and very awesome fighter called Samurai Shodown was also on my radar. Here is the very first version. That green guy is a son of a bitch.
The Sequel. Samurai Shodown II. Improved graphics, faster game play, more animated blood. Yeah. These games always offered what Street Fighter could not deliver. Slashing with bladed weapons.
After II, the game designers rushed the sequels, so those kinda' sucked. I mean come on, "Yeah, it's a burnt-out charcoal field." Huh? I think someone just had a deadline to meet. But I still played 'em, geek that I am.
And yet another alternate was something called King of Fighters and its many sequels. This is the game that first introduced the concept of multi-character tag team matches. Awesome. The 2002 version:
Right around the same time, the same Japanese developer that created the Street Fighter phenomenon acquired the license from Marvel Comics to use its characters in their games. As a huge comic nerd (surprise), I loved the way the Japanese artists rendered the American characters. X-men, Children of the Atom was the first major side-scrolling fighter by Capcom featuring Marvel characters.
Capcom, the aforementioned Japanese developer then released more hyped-up, intense sequels featuring more and more marvel characters. Marvel Superheroes was a great quarter eater.
By this time, the platform was through the roof in popularity, so Capcom started getting really creative with the side-scrolling technique based fighter. With the release of 'Darkstalkers,' we saw some of the most iconic images associated with horror fiction transformed into super exaggerated anime characters. Really cool.
But when Capcom finally pitted some of its most popular fighting game characters against some of Marvel's most popular characters, I got the proverbial 'geek wet spot.'
Xmen vs. Street Fighter
And finally we come to Marvel Superheroes vs. Capcom. Awesome. This is one of my all time favorites as I feel it's the culmination of all the games that were shown above. Smoke a huge bowl, load up the emulator, and you and a stoned geek buddy can kiss hours away. Incredible speed and intense graphics. Endless combos, techniques, and special moves. Beautifully rendered characters and backgrounds. I actually prefer it in many ways to the later more 3d looking versions on the Xbox and whatnot.
The chain of evolution continues, of course, to the amazing 3-D fighters we have today, but I haven't gotten into those yet. I'll do that 'research' once the magazine is up.
Is this shit trippy to look at high or what? Am I high and on Christmas break or what?