The cat's cradle balance of Street Fighter II
Designer David Sirlin had a thin tight rope to walk in remaking and rebalancing aspects of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for its XBLA and PSN debut, and it's fascinating to listen to him delve into the minutae of those decisions, revealing just how precariously and artfully constructed the game is, especially when he slings jargon like:
Their complaints led me to try the fairly extreme measures of letting his jab torpedo destroy fireballs -- wow! -- with his Hundred-Hand Slap being lower damage and lower priority, and his deadly Ochio Throw no longer being repeatable and only retaining half its dizzy power.
If you're still the type that still struggles to appreciate the game as much more than a ratatat of flailing button mashing, I recommend watching this 2004 championship video to its end. Even if you can't fully appreciate the complexity (the storyline gist goes: it sure looked like the girl was going to get the guy, but with just the thinnest sliver of life meter left he delivers a stunning comeback), the reaction of the crowd is enough to clue you in that something earth shattering has just happened.
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macisaguy
#1 – 7:09 AM December 11, 2008
That comeback in the video is mind blowing. I thought I'd experienced some of sweet comebacks during my tenure as a 12 year-old on the SNES.
But this...this is the mother of all Street Fighter comebacks. Dear Lord that was impressive.
I'd say it's about time for another Street Fighter movie.
Rob Beschizza
#2 – 7:10 AM December 11, 2008
My back of the envelope calculation: about 2,500 hours spent playing Street Fighter II in the early 1990s. And I was a lightweight.
theawesomerobot
#3 – 7:57 AM December 11, 2008
Yeah, that's pretty much the singular high point of all Street Fighter matches ever, bar none. The epitome of epic.
@MACISAGUY - they're making a Chun-li film right now, it'll probably be awful.
DavidPFarrell
#4 – 12:58 PM December 11, 2008
Really enjoyed the 2004 championship vid.
Thing for me is, I fully expect all the top players to be able to block like that regularly.
And since it doesn't actually seem to happen very often, I have a hard time seeing the sport as more than advanced button mashing.
I'd like to see a fighting game that allowed a player to rise through the ranks by being an excellent blocker and opportunist, finding weaknesses in the opponents technique and striking appropriately