I’ll comment about both things that were announced, and my impressions about the conferences as a whole. There were 5 big conferences, and I’ll talk about all of them, though I will just skim through the less interesting ones.

And I know that E3 isn’t done yet, more could be announced, but this is just about the conferences.

So read on!

Microsoft

Expectations
None. I knew they’d talk about Gears 3, Natal, Fable 3, and Halo Reach. I didn’t expect anything more.

Opening
I don’t understand why they started this with a multi-platform game. Most likely because Call of Duty Black Ops will have its DLC on the 360 first, but this still wasn’t a great start. Mostly because the gameplay segments they showed for Black Ops were stupidly boring to watch.

The “hardcore” part of the conference
After the bad start with Black Ops, they showed all the “core” games.
It was cool finally seeing gameplay footage for Metal Gear Rising, it looks interesting for sure.
Then Gears 3 was shown, and that wasn’t too interesting. All it really showed was that it plays just like the previous 2 Gears games. Though I will say that I was surprised to see some color in there. Also, in this part, they called Marcus Fenix and Master Chief unforgettable characters… that was weird and false.
After that a bit of Fable 3 was shown… not much of it though. Nothing new.
Speaking of not showing much, they showed something called Codename Kingdoms, with a cinematic showing real people surrounded by bad CG. No gameplay was shown, so revealing that was completely pointless.
Then the Halo Reach demonstration showed that they basically changed nothing since Halo 3. Though it didn’t look bad.

That’s it for the “hardcore” part. The coolest thing here? Cliff Blezinski’s t-shirt. It featured a yeti riding a unicorn… fucking awesome.

Kinect Time!
After only a few minutes of “core” games, they devoted the rest of the conference to Kinect (renamed from Project Natal). They showed off various Kinect games, and showed off the technology, like how you can control the 360 with your voice and body.

The games shown were: Kinectimals (AKA nintendogs), Kinect Sports (a mix between World Class Track Meet(nes), Wii Sports and Track and Field 2(nes)), Kinect Adventures (which looks like a boring mini-game compilation), Your Body Fitness Evolve (which looks like a Wii Fit-esque application that seems good for Wii Fit fans), Dance Central (made by Harmonix, looks really fun if you like dancing), a new Forza game which looks like it’s just Forza 3 with Kinect features and finally a crappy-looking Star Wars game that basically involve waving your arms around at random.

Nothing really interesting was shown for Kinect, but the tech looks impressive… though I can’t imagine much for the “hardcore” gamer here.

Overall
Well… it was rather boring. Spending more than half the time on Kinect wasn’t a great idea, announcing nothing new was a terrible idea (everything shown for Kinect was known the day before), and barely spending any time on the “gamers’ games” wasn’t too good either. And the opening of the conference was just stupid. The high point was the Metal Gear Rising trailer, which was way too short.

EA

Expectations
Nothing really. I only watched it because it was there. If I’d say I had any hopes for this, I really did hope seeing Mirror’s Edge 2…

Opening
Starting with a new game announcement is a great idea. The trailer made it seem interesting. And then they showed some live gameplay… They couldn’t have made it look any more dull. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit looks like it could be good, and it IS made by Criterion, but they should have made the demonstration a lot more interesting.

The rest
They showed Dead Space 2, the new MMA game, EA Sports Active 2 (for all consoles), Madden 11, Sims 3 for consoles, Crysis 2, Bulletstorm and a cinematic trailer for Star Wars The Old Republic.

This didn’t really feel very good. It’s nice that they showed some gameplay for some of the games, but for the most part it was really boring talking.
On a positive note, the gameplay demo for Bulletstorm actually really interested me. Looks actually fun for a modern FPS, concentrating on fun weapons and fun ways to kills rather than all the seriousness in other modern FPS.

But please tell me, what’s the point of making an epically badass cinematic trailer for an MMORPG? I don’t get it. Don’t get me wrong, the trailer was awesome, but it felt pointless.

Overall
Relatively weak opening, the rest of the thing felt way too dragged out, and nothing was announced. Announcing Madden 11 doesn’t count, of course, and it was obvious they’d milk the cash cow that is EA Sports Active. The high point was… hum… the Bulletstorm demonstration I guess…

And the lack of Mirror’s Edge 2 makes me sad.

Ubisoft

Expectations
I had no idea what to expect, since I didn’t really care about what Ubisoft had to show. Again, I watched it because it was there, hoping for surprises.

Opening
The started with Child of Eden, a psychedelic shooter controlled by Kinect. My only thought through the whole demonstration was “Are they re-releasing the Power Glove?” Because frankly that’s what it looked like. But what a weak opening that was. The game doesn’t look fun. It looks too artsy to be any fun to play.

After the opening
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Shaun White Skateboarding (which looks sort of interesting), a “Real” FPS game that’s nothing more than an advanced version of laser tag, a Vitality Sensor rip-off with a “breathing” application that seemed stupid, a few Kinect games, a new Rabbids game involving time travel, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Driver 4, Project Dust (no gameplay was shown so it was ENTIRELY POINTLESS), there was the most exciting announcement at E3 up to that point (Rayman Origins), Mania Planet which is a hub for user-generated content games like Trackmania 2 and a few more, and finally a Michal Jackson game.

A lot was shown, though only one REALLY interesting thing was announced. What really irked me is the Kinect part, showing Your Shape: Fitness Evolved… It’s okay to show the same game in 2 conferences, but why did they have the exact same script as in the Microsoft conference? That was just stupid.

Overall
Rayman Origins looked awesome. Very awesome. It was a huge surprise for everyone and it was the high point of the conference, and by far the most interesting element of E3 up to that point. The rest of the conference wasn’t very interesting, though I can see why some of the games that didn’t interest me would interest other people.

Nintendo

Expectations
Well, everyone knew they’d show Zelda and the 3DS. But otherwise, their stuff was pretty hush hush. There were some rumors, but nothing really precise. So Nintendo easily had the most potential to surprise. I had a few unreasonable hopes, as usual, but that’s what happens with Nintendo E3 conferences. Every year fans hope for a new F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Star Fox and various other things (like how I always hope for Star Tropics to be finally revived), but they never come.

Opening
One thing that sucked in every previous conference was the opening. Here, there was no fucking around. Everyone wanted to see Zelda, so they showed Zelda right away. The graphics looked nice, and Miyamoto was presenting everything. But there was a slight problem: their wii remote had trouble working, presumably because of wireless interference. They did show some of the gameplay, and what they did manage to show looked interesting. After the conference we did see videos of the controls working properly (such as on Kotaku) and that was nice, but it would have been cool to see it working properly on-stage. But still, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was easily the best opening of the conference.

Core games
NBA Jam, Mario Sports Mix, Golden Sun Dark Dawn, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey gameplay, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Dragon Quest 9, Metroid Other M, Donkey Kong Country Returns…
OMG. New Donkey Kong made by Retro Studios? New Goldeneye made in the style of the original with some changes? New Kirby? Badass gameplay trailer for Golden Sun Dark Dawn? Showing that the gameplay for Epic Mickey looks solid? Mario Sports Mix looking like a fun multi-sport title? That was fucking awesome. Seriously. A bunch of new games announced, dates given for already known games, and they concentrated on the gameplay rather than pointless cinematic trailers… just wow.

Just a note on Kirby… It looks really strange, and I’m not too fond of the new graphic style, but the gameplay looks solid, and it might be a nice change of pace from previous Kirby games. We’ll see. Though I really wonder what happened to that Kirby project that was being made on Gamecube… They did say it was “transferred” to Wii, but then it disappeared… weird.

And a note on Donkey Kong Country Return… I’ve been waiting for this since Donkey Kong Country 3, why did it take SO LONG for a new good side-scrolling DK game? This is a very exciting announcement, and the fact that the guys behind Metroid Prime are making it is just AWESOME.

Casual games
Surprisingly, barely any of them were shown. Just Dance 2, and Wii Party. While Just Dance is terrible, the first one sold a LOT. And let’s not forget E3 is a trade show, to show to investors what they have coming up, and Just Dance 2 made them very happy. As for Wii Party, it just looks like a very dumbed-down Mario Party… meh.

I like that there was almost no casual games, but that they still showed a few for people that it might interest.

Nintendo 3DS
That’s the big thing of the conference. I like how it was presented. It’s different functions were introduced, the fact that it’s NOT just a new DS was made very important, and then they showed off the first game. One thing to say here: HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. A new Kid Icarus? No one expected that for real, it was just false hope. And the trailer… was that a 3DS game? It looked as good as the best-looking Wii games. And then they name various other titles in some trailer/developers’ impressions video (Metal Gear, Street Fighter, Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Ninja Gaiden, Star Fox, Nintendogs+Cats for the casuals)… wow.

The presentation for the 3DS was phenomenal, and the high point of all of E3. There was sadly no way to show the 3D effect without experiencing yourself, but showing peoples’ impressions after the conference (people in the conference room got to try it) was a great thing, and was highly positive.

Overall
Now THAT’S how you do a conference at E3. Non-stop news and badass gameplay trailers. And the lack of Cammie Dunaway was a HUGE improvement from the last years’ keynotes. Strangely the Vitality Sensor was missing… that was weird, though understandable considering what was shown… And frankly who cares about the Vitality Sensor?

Sony

Expectations
Well, I expected mostly talk about Move, and maybe a cool new game announcement or 2. A lot was already announced before, so new stuff wasn’t what I expected. What I did NOT expect was that this would be the worst conference at this year’s E3.

Opening
The conference was opened with a presentation of Killzone 3 (there was some idle talking at the start, which doesn’t matter). I guess it was an okay presentation, though I found KZ2 to be a rather boring game. This looks like the same thing, but with different environments. Though the jetpack looks kinda interesting.

3D
There’s like 15 minutes of Sony talking about how they’re the first and ONLY console to do 3D… guess they missed the NES 25 years ago (Rad Racer) and Nintendo’s Conference (Nintendo doing 3D BETTER). So much talk about 3D, yet there was no substance whatsoever… It was a big waste of time.

And then there was a boring trailer montage. That’s not the only one here.

Move
After about 20 minutes of NOTHING, they finally showed Move, for almost an hour. They showed off Sorcery (which doesn’t look great, but seems better than any Move game I’ve seen for now), Tiger Woods which seems to be just as precise as the one on Wii (maybe even less, the person demonstrating it had lots of trouble playing) and Heroes on the Move (mixing Sly, Ratchet, Clank, Jak and Daxter) though no gameplay was shown making it pointless.

That was incredibly dull. It ended with them showing how overpriced the Move is. If you already have the PSEye, it’s 50$ for the Move itself, and 30$ for the nunchuk knockoff… Why did people applaud for this? That’s horrible pricing… I mean, 320$(+ tax) if you want enough for 4 players? And even more if you don’t have the camera? And no packed-in game unless you get the bundle with the camera? That’s bullshit. That makes the rumored price point for Kinect of 150$ sound reasonable, since you only have to buy one of them.

And it was very long-winded considering it had no noticeable improvements over the Wiimote…

The PSP part
What’s with that ad campaign? It’s really bad, and here I thought the Move commercials were bad. I have no idea why they wanted to show off that terrible ad campaign and I hope they get rid of it. After that a few trailers with barely any gameplay for a few PSP games are shown, and it’s time to talk about something else. Good thing the whole PSP segment wasn’t too long, since it was really boring.

The PS3 part
They start of the PS3 part with LittleBigPlanet 2, which is nice. They showed various features of the game, and it looked good and a lot deeper than the first one.

Then they revealed Playstation Plus, a service costing 50$ a month which gives access to free games/avatars/other stuff, as well as discounts on games. The downside? Well, if you cancel your subscription, you lose access to any free things you got during your subscription… that’s pretty bad. And people applauded anyways.

After that, it became dull again. Medal of Honor which was shown in a previous conference more in detail, Dead Space 2 got a small but unconvincing gameplay demo, then a small Portal 2 trailer with barely any gameplay, then… I missed the part about FFXIV (sorry), then a boring thing about Assassin’s Creed, finally a release date for Gran Turismo 5 (does anyone even care anymore? doesn’t seem that much better than Forza 3 considering the extra dev time), a cinematic trailer for inFamous 2 and the big “surprise”, a new Twisted Metal game that looks pretty good (but didn’t we know about this already?).

Overall
The big problem with this was that it was almost 2 hours long, and it was almost all padding. It wasn’t interesting to look at, there were barely any announcements, and when they showed games they almost always showed cinematic trailers rather than gameplay trailers, which is really not a good thing, and there were almost no gameplay demonstrations.

Though the opening was okay, it was all downhill from there. The only saving grace of the conference was Twisted Metal, which looks like a nice twist on the franchise.

Oh, and, on the internet side of things, it was very unstable. Lag all the time, streams not working properly, it was very bad in that aspect… I had to switch streams like 5 times because it kept fucking up.

Winner

This is clear, there is no doubt about it. If there was a “winner” in regards to conferences, it is Nintendo. The most interesting conference by far. No time wasted anywhere in there, they just went from badass announcement to badass announcement. There were some big surprise, and everything they showed (other than NBA Jam) gave us a great look at the gameplay. There was a nice balance between casual games and “core” games too. And the official reveal of the 3DS was incredible. They found the best way possible to present this new handheld, with its wii-level graphics, 3D with no glasses, a bunch of game announced for it, and of course the super surprising reveal of Kid Icarus Uprising. I mean, no one was expecting that. The other conferences felt rather pointless.

Though Ubisoft gets an honorable mention for announcing Rayman Origins, that looks awesome. And seeing Kinect in action in more detail than last year was really nice too, I am a bit more interested than before.

Nintendo, you HAVE to keep kicking this much ass. Sony/Microsoft/EA/Ubisoft/anyone else who wants to do an E3 conference: look at what Nintendo did this year… seriously. Learn from how bad the other conferences were and how awesome the Nintendo conference was.

Though, with all that said, we must not forget that E3 is a Trade Show. It’s made to show investors what will make them money. The conferences aren’t exactly made to be interesting to gamers. Which kinda sucks.

Share/Save

Well, I got my review out for the game, but one tiny element was missing from it. And that is the characters. I thought that, instead of just having a passing mention of each, I’d talk a little bit about each of them in a seperate post.

So let’s go right at it! (The new characters are in their own section instead of being in their respective side)
(NOTE: I’m not a pro at fighting games… so if i get some thing wrong, that’s why… cheers… comment if you want to offer insight)

The Tatsunoko Side

You migh not know what Tatsunoko is, but that doesn’t mean their characters aren’t worth playing. Definitely check them out, you might find a new favorite here.

Ken the Eagle

Ken is a bit of a basic-like character. He has good attacks, a good runaway game with some nice projectiles and hit and run potential. He’s one of those relatively easy to learn characters with good enough combos and easy to learn strategies and stuff. Overall… he’s good. Nothing more, nothing less.
His assist is slow and not really useful.

Jun the Swan

She uses exploding Yo-yos. Do I really need to say more? Okay… well she has some nice combos, her yo-yo attacks place explosives on the enemies which you can explode whenever you want which can be pretty good. The rest of her attacks are good, she has good range and combos. Her supers are acceptable and deal good damage. Nothing more to say really… SHE USES EXPLODING YO-YOS!
Her assist installs an exploding Yo-yo on the enemy which you can explode later when you switch characters, which can be quite useful.

Tekkaman

He has good range, about half the screen. He’s strong enough, he has anti-air and he has some good supers. I haven’t used him much, but he has some okay combos but I have to experiment with him a bit more. (Sorry I can’t say more, I prefer Tekkaman Blade so I kinda ignored the “normal” Tekkaman).
His assist is an anti-air, which can be useful in the right situation.

Casshan

This guy is really strong. His comboing ability isn’t huge, but just a few hits from him does huge damage. Otherwise he has lots of good single-hitting attacks too. And being able to summon his dog, Friender, to do various attacks, is quite nice, which actually really helps for combos/preventing your opponent from moving. His supers are pretty good too. The first is a huge wave that comes out of the ground, dealing quite a bit of damage. The second is a series of electric punches which deals good damage if you combo into it properly. His level 3 is slow and tough to use properly, but deals good damage(I’d suggest using it from super-close range). Overall he’s a good character, and not too hard to use either.
His assist is pretty useful. He slams the groung, hitting anyone near him.

Polimar

He’s pretty strong, he has simple combos, some option select attacks, good attacks and some okay supers. He’s fun to use too. His level 3 super is pretty powerful too. My only big problem with him is that he moves really slowly when he’s not attacking… It feels kinda weird, he barely moves at all if you’re not attacking or dashing. Otherwise though, he’s fun to use.
His assist is not bad at all. An instant 3-hit combo right in front of you to help out with your comboing ability.

Yatterman-1

He’s quite fun to play as. His attacks or close to mid range, they’re fast and multi-hitting, and a slight bit unpredictable. He has some good combos, and his suppers are okay. His first summons Yatterwan who does a tackle attack that deals good damage if the opponent doesn’t block it. The second one summons Yatterwan who does a short-range tackle, and then shoots fire which you can direct. His level 3 is not bad, it does tons of damage if it hits. Overall he combos well and has lots of potential for mindgames I’d say.
His assist is rather weak though.

Karas

While he does have good combos and some pretty good attacks, he has the low HP in the game (around 37000), so use him wisely. One thing that really annoys me with him is that one of his supers is a counter, and it’s really obvious when he does it so it’s easy to “avoid”. His other super requires you do be doing a certain of his specials and to do the required motion while that attack is going on. Not the easiest super to use if you ask me. Overall he’s not really easy to use and he dies fast, but he is considered very high-tier so it could be worth working on learning him.
And his assist is a really fast but short-range melee attack. I’d say pretty good for defensive use.

Doronjo

Doronjo is a pretty fun character to use (and strangely the only vilain in the game…). Fighting a good Doronjo player means the screen will be filled with things happenings, explosions, her 2 helpers stopping you all the time, and overall being assaulted nonstop. Her 2 teammates from the Doronbo team constantly come out for different attacks, there’s traps everywhere, projectiles… tons of stuff. Her supers are a mixed bag. One requires good timing, since the guy who comes out of the ground when you do it has to press a button for the super to actually happen, where, after a while, something falls on the field hurting the enemy if he touches it without blocking. The second one is a counter, which I’m not a bit fan of. The level 3 super is… insanity. It can be used to punish slow predictable attacks. It’s pretty strong though. Overall, she’s really fun to use, though she requires some time to learn.
Her assist is a bit weak. A slow, not strong projectile.

Ippatsuman

He’s good. His attacks are fast and rather strong. I find him a bit tough to combo with, but not a big problem. He also has a projectile. His supers are a bit weird too. One is an anti-air grab, which I find tough to use properly and not really easy to combo into. The second one summons a vehicle that spans most of the screen, damaging anything in the way. His level 3 is… unique. A giant robot appears in the background. You can make him do punches and stuff like that… and a giant attack that SEEMS unblockable (though I’m probably wrong), but deals around 90% of damage… I don’t like that level 3 much. Overall he’s a good character.
His assist is good too.

The Capcom Side

Capcom are probably a bit more familiar to you, though they went with a few interesting/unexpected choices here.

Ryu

He’s Ryu. He’s the basic fighting game character. He has the same moves as usual, similar combos as usual… One thing I like is that his Hurricane Kick is actually Ken’s, the multi-hitting one. He’s good, he’s easy to use. His level 3 super is a shoryuken, and it’s a bit hard to use properly. Well… He’s Ryu, nothing more to say really.
And his assist is an average speed Hadouken, it has some uses.

Chun-Li

I find her a bit easier to use than usual. She has lots of good combos, are attacks are good, she’s pretty fast and has some good air combos. Her super are pretty good too. Her Level 3 can only be used in the air, but I’m sure it can be used pretty easily.
Her assist is pretty good too. A few fast quicks in the air.

Alex

Alex… He’s big, he’s strong, he has a few grabs which deal high damage, and he’s actually kinda fast. He has a really good air attack too. His supers are pretty good too, though his level 3 is a grab so it’s a bit tough to use properly. Overall I find him to be pretty good.
His assist is nice too.

Morrigan

I really like her. And that’s a bit strange. In her own games I can’t use her properly, but in cross-overs I always like her… weird. Anyways, she’s fast, she has good combos, some projectiles, and okay supers. Her first super, which sends a barrage of missiles, is a bit slow to start, but not too hard to use. You can also control the trajectory a bit. The second one deals insane damage, but it’s hard to use properly. Her Level 3 is not bad, but I feel it’s a bit hard to combo into. Overall she’s simple and straight-forward.
Her assist is a slow projectile. There’s probably some good ways to use it.

Batsu

He has good attacks, and gameplay-wise I’d say he’s pretty similar to Ryu. His attacks are a bit different, and I’d say a bit more interesting. Not exactly as easy to use as Ryu, but he has good combos and good supers.  Not much more to say about him. He’s a good character, not too tough to use, easy to learn.
His assist is pretty useful too.

Mega Man Volnutt

While I feel he’s a bit random for a Mega Man representative, he’s still a fun addition. His attack are pretty cool. One cool thing with him is that you can change his weapon. One thing that sucks is that all quarter-circle moves for him are “weapon change”, which is redundant since pressing down twice and an attack button also changes his weapon to the corresponding attack buton’s weapon(Heavy is Drill, Medium is Shield thingy, Light is Gatling gun). Though, when you get used to that, he’s a pretty versatile character with some pretty good moves. His supers are good too. One is a multi-hitting uppercut, the other is a machine gun. His level 3 isn’t too great though, since it’s a grab that basically requires touching the opponent. One complaint I have is his projectile… it’s slow and weak. Overall though he’s interesting to use.
Good multi-hit assist.

Kaijin no Soki

I haven’t used him that much, but I feel he’s an okay character. He has slow attacks, but he’s kinda strong. He has a cool move that seems to chain after most hits, which is nice for combos. His 2 normal Supers are really good. One being a medium strength slash that’s not too hard to combo into, and the other being more of an anti-air, but it deals damage in a big area too. His level 3 transforms him, but I’ll be totally honest here and say I have no idea what to do during his transformation. Overall he seems like a pretty good character. And I thought he was a cool addition since Dawn of Dreams is the only Onimusha game I actually properly played(only played the beginning of 3…).
His assist is average… not great, but still usable. A kinda slow wide slash of his sword.

Roll

She’s small, she’s kinda fast, she has good attacks, some okay projectiles, good supers. She’s actually(surprisingly) good. Her first super is healing, though if the opponent is above you when you use it, it damages him(though it won’t heal you if it hits the opponent). The second one requires a charge motion… it hits on the ground, it’s not too bad and deals good enough damage. Her level 3 is really short range and hard to use properly I feel. Her HP is quite low(40000), which isn’t surprising considering she’s a loli robot with a broom… Either way, she’s pretty good.
Her assist is a projectile, so it can be useful.

Saki

Saki apparently got a big boost from the first iteration. Lots of people are calling her this game’s Cable now. I think that’s wrong, but whatever. She’s a very good character. She has good range, her grenades are great, she has various types of bullets she can shoot all of which have different properties. Her supers are okay. One super loads a strong bullet which you can shoot anytime you want (only once, for course), the other shoots a diagonal beam which does quite a bit of damage(a bit tough to land properly). Her level 3 is a counter, which I’m not a big fan of, and does about 23000 damage. Overall though, if you learn to use her properly she has huge potential.
And her assist is a really slow melee attack, not really good.

Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe makes me sad. Why? Because he sucks, while I really wanted him to be a good character. I might be completely wrong, of course, since I’m not an incredibly talented fighting game player, but… Yeah, I can’t find any way to use him properly. His normal attacks have no range, his range attacks have huge startup and recovery times, his bomb attack is useless(and can hurt him) and his supers suck. His first super is a cannon that takes over 2 seconds to shoot and that is nearly unusable properly. His second super is a series of melee attacks which is initiated by a short dash, which is kinda comboable. And his level 3 isn’t too good. Overall… not to say he’s not kinda fun to use, but I can’t see him being competitive at all.
His assist just does his bomb special, which sucks.

The Giants

There are 2 giant characters. Both of them have similar features: they’re huge, they have lots of HP, they deal lots of damage, they both have super armors (unless 2 giants are fighting each other, or you’re fighting the final boss)…

Gold Lightan

He has reasonable speed, really strong attacks. He’s a bit slow though. He’s also the character with the most HP, at around 71500 HP. He’s not bad, but he has tons of recovery time after every move, making him a bit easy to deal with. He’s fun to use, despite not being super good. I highly doubt he’s very competitive.

PTX-40A

He’s not really fast, but he has good attacks. Really good air attacks, a nice tackle attack that switches out the other player’s active character. He has less HP than Gold Lightan (around 65000), but I feel he’s a bit more versatile.

The new characters

There are 5 characters that are completely new in this game. I decided to talk about them separately. For the unlocks, what count is which character deals the final hit on the final boss.

Tekkaman Blade

Takkaman Blade is unlocked once you finish the game with 3 different Tatsunoko characters.
I was quite surprised with him. Since he’s from a remake of the original Tekkaman, I was expecting him to have a very similar moveset, but it’s actually completely different. Tekkaman Blade is a bit faster, a bit stronger, and has really nice set-ups, though he does have a bit less range. He has okay supers too, though his beam super, which I thought would be the same as Tekkaman’s, is diagonal making is a bit tougher to use. His level 3 super is a bit hard to use too, since it has really short range(basically a grab), but it does pretty big damage. I think he’s good, but he has one major flaw: his dashes are incredibly delayed (because his “jetpack” or whatever needs to charge before he dashes). But otherwise he’s a very solid character.
His assist is a slow multi-hit melee attack, not incredibly useful.

Joe the Condor

Joe the Condor is unlocked once you finish the game with 6 different Tatsunoko characters.
He’s a fun character to use, but quite tough to use. He seems a bit basic at first, but I find that his attacks are a bit awkward. He’s not bad, and his specials aren’t too bad. The supers are pretty good. The Bird Missile super deals damage at first when Joe’s plane passes by, and then, about 5 seconds later, a missile falls on the field and hurts both characters(funny stuff). The other is a series of projectiles. His level 3 is a short range melee attack which isn’t really easy to hit with. Overall I think he’s good, but I can’t really use him properly.
His assist is not bad… But not great.

Frank West

Frank West is unlocked once you finish the game with 3 different Capcom characters.
He’s one of the characters I wasn’t really looking forward to playing, but it ends up he’s not too bad. His attacks are weird. He can summon zombies, he has a zombie projectile, he has pretty good range, and his supers are quite good. One is… The Real Megabuster, where Frank puts on a Mega Man costume and shoots a huge beam. It’s REALLY FUCKING FAST and really easy to combo into. The second is a grab. The level 3 requires to be at a certain distance from the opponent, but there’s some ways to combo into it so it’s not too bad. Frank is the only character to have an extra Level 3 super for giant characters, which is pretty fun. Overall he’s really fun to use, though he’s tough to learn.
His assist just stuns your opponent for, like a few frames. It CAN have a use, I guess, but for an average fighting game player such as myself, it’s not really useful.

Zero

Zero is unlocked once you finish the game with 6 different Capcom characters.
I really like using him. He’s fast, he has really good combos, and he has good maneuverability. He’s not without flaws though. His HP is terribly low (40000, which is the same as Roll, and just a bit higher than Karas), his damage output is rather low and his supers aren’t too great. His first super is really bad… it’s basically impossible NOT to block it… Just a bunch of slow rainbow beams coming from the sky, it’s WAY too predictable. And his second super just modifies some of his special attacks for a very short while, which can have some use, but it’s not great. His Level 3 is not bad, but it requires being at just the right distance from the opponent, making it hard to use properly. Otherwise though, Zero is a very solid character.
And his assist is fairly good, dealing a Shoryuken-like attack right in front of you, good for combos and such.

Yatterman-2

Yatterman-2 is unlocked by finishing the game with all the other unlockable characters(again, what matters here is who deals the final hit on Yami).
She’s really fun to use. Similar to Zero in some ways… she uses fast attacks that deal relatively low damage and she doesn’t have a lot of HP, but she can combo like crazy if you use her properly. She has good combos and good supers. Her first super shoots a bouncy lightning ball which can deal multiple hits. The second summons a tiny robot that will fly around for about 10 seconds hitting the opponent at certain intervals, so it’s pretty good for comboing. Her level 3 starts with a slide on the ground, and it’s not too tough to combo into. Overall she’s quite good and not too tough to use. Her HP is a bit low (42000), but she’s good enough which is okay.
Her assist is okay, but a bit slow. A slightly diagonal melee attack.

Overall

I really like the cast here. It’s a good number of characters for a “first” game in a series. I find that, other than Viewtiful Joe, from what I’ve experienced, there’s a good balance in the game. The characters are all good, all unique, all fun to play as. The giants can be quite easy to deal with if you know what to do, but the “normal” characters seem like they are quite balanced… Or at least a LOT more balanced than Marvel VS Capcom 2(okay, that’s not really an accomplishment). People use a lot more varied teams from what I’ve seen, and choosing the right partners can definitely make up for the weaknesses of the other character. The cast is great, both on the Capcom and Tatsunoko sides.

Share/Save

Let’s go right away and define what “Gold Standard” means. It’s pretty simple. It has to be:
1. A game that defines the genre it’s in.
2. It has to be a high-quality game/series.
3. It still has to be fun to play.
4. Of course, it doesn’t need to be the BEST in the genre, but it has to be the one to have set most of the genre’s standards.
5. It has to be an older game, as much as possible.

So read on and see what are the Gold Standards in the gaming industry! Of course, if I’m missing a genre(there’s some I didn’t put in because I either could think of any 1 game that defined the genre, or that were too similar to another genre that I didn’t need to include them), or if you think about a game that I might not have thought about for any of the categories, be sure to comment!

Action

The Action genre is fairly new. There were multiple games in the genre starting in the Playstation generation, but they were rarely good. The genre really took off when Devil May Cry came out. At the time, it defined the genre. Fast-action, multiple combos depending on the timing of button presses, multiple weapons, badass cutscenes, no cumbersome QTEs… it had it all. Some tried to copy it and failed (*coughgodofwarcough*), others did a fairly good job at taking the concepts from DMC and making their own game(but never as good). But the genre was near perfected when Devil May Cry 3 came out. And THAT is when the Gold Standard of the genre was decided. It took everything from Devil May Cry but made it all better. The original DMC was held back by the fact that it used a slightly modified Resident Evil engine. DMC3 had it’s own engine and was a lot smoother and just overall better than its predecessor.

So the Gold Standard for action games is: Devil May Cry 3. As of the writing of this post, the game to follow the standards it set the best is Bayonetta. We’ll see if it becomes the new Gold Standard in the coming years.

Fighting

There’s really no doubt behind this choice, right? This is THE game everyone thinks about when you mention “fighting games”. It’s still one of the best fighting games, and it’s been at it for all of 19 years. Street Fighter 2 is without a doubt the Gold Standard for the genre. And what better example for what I mean by “Gold Standard”? It’s been around for 19 years, it has consistently been good for 19 years, and people still play it after 19 years(with occasional new versions from time to time). It will always be a great game. Every fighting game after it used the same basic gameplay as it, but they made minor changes to make it their own game. May it be concentrating more on juggling, different button input methods for special attacks, or adding a bunch of cancels, more speed, every fighting game is basically SFII.

So the Gold Standard for fighting games is definitely Street Fighter 2…. any of its millions of incarnations.

Beat’em Up

This is a tough genre to decide on a Gold Standard, mostly because most games in the genre pretty much play exactly the same. So for this one I just had to go for one that is highly recognized and popular. It’s timeless and still a high-quality game. And all that after 23 years in existence. The game I went with here is Double Dragon. No, not the NES version, but the original arcade version. A good Beat ‘em Up always needs multiplayer, which the NES version lacked. Since then there have been tons of Beat ‘em Up games, some just as good, and even better than Double Dragon, but at the basics all of them are following closely in the footsteps of Double Dragon.

This is why Double Dragon is the Gold Standard of the genre.

Platformers

I don’t even know WHY I have that genre on here. the answer is incredibly obvious. May it be Side-Scrolling or 3D platformers, is there a better choice than Mario? No, there isn’t. There were platforming games before Mario came on the NES, but none of them were anywhere as good as what Mario created with its NES incarnations. Mario perfected the side-scrolling platformer with Super Mario Bros 3. In the switch to 3D, Mario was eager to use the new dimension to it’s full potential, and Super Mario 64 was the perfect way of doing so. It might have started the trend of collecting a bunch of things instead of a more linear story progression, but it worked very well with idea.

Mario is easily the Gold Standard of the platforming genre. Super Mario Bros 3 is the Gold Standard for Side-Scrolling Platformers (and has yet to be surpassed). And while I think Super Mario Galaxy was a better game than SM64, it did just follow the standards SM64 set and didn’t really add innovation to the mix. So Super Mario 64 is still the Gold Standard for 3D platformers.

Shooter

By shooter, I mean shoot em’ ups. Side-scrolling or vertical-scrolling games where you control a spaceship or flying magic-user, shooting everything in your way, finding power-ups and dodging millions of bullets (sometimes literally). This is a genre that hasn’t been very well represented in recent years, but it’s still not dying. Neither should it, because the Shmup is one of the more exciting/challenging genres in gaming. What would best represent the genre? I think Gradius fits the best. Gradius 2 to be exact. The arcade version released in 1987. I feel it’s the one that solidified the power-up system(with multiple options) in the series and created better level design for the genre in general. It solidified the genre’s fast-paced bullet-dodging gameplay, had a nice comprehensible upgrade system, cool bosses, it was pretty tough, and being able to choose the upgrade “path” at the beginning set the basis of shmups with multiple characters and play styles.

So the Gold Standard for Shooters is Gradius 2!

Action Platformer

The action platformer is basically a mix of platforming and shmups. It’s not exactly a Shmup, yet not exactly a Platformer, but it concentrates a bit more on fast-paced action rather than the platforming. Contra set the standards for that genre. The NES version I’d say, the arcade original isn’t exactly as fun. There’s bullet’s everywhere, the controls are silky smooth, shooting enemies is fun, it’s challenging, the various different weapons are awesome, Co-op… and there’s the spreader. What’s not to love about Contra?

Contra definitely set the standards for its genre. A genre that is very under-represented nowadays, but a great one nonetheless.

FPS

Another hard choice. Because there are so many of them, and because it’s kinda hard to pinpoint exactly which of them started it all. To get some of them out of the way right now: it’s not Wolfenstein 3D. It’s not Doom or Quake either. Though each of those are definitely inspirations for the Gold Standard, they don’t have enough gameplay elements to count. It has to have, at the least, fast gameplay, cool weaponry and solid multiplayer. A good single player is a nice asset but not exactly a must. It’s a hard choice, but I think Unreal Tournament(released on PC in 1999) takes this one. There’s other good candidates like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, or even *shrugs* Halo. But UT took the basic multiplayer gameplay from Goldeneye and made it near perfect. It took all the modes and made some modes of its own, made the gameplay millions of times smoother, better controls than basically anything else on the market, the weaponry was a lot more interesting and it was a lot more satisfying to blow the crap out of other people. Not to mention the game’s modability.

So… while it wasn’t exactly an easy choice, I think Unreal Tournament defines what an FPS should be. It might not have a great epic single-player story, but the single-player mode is still quite interesting and playing a LAN game with friends is tons of fun. To this day, all FPS multiplayer is based on modes UT created. (I know some people will disagree with me on this one)

Adventure / Action-Adventure

I originally had a section for both Adventure and Action-Adventure… But suddenly I realized both genres had a similar Gold Standard. I think it’s a simple to find who wins this one. Of course it’s Zelda. I had a few other choices(like Adventure on the Atari 2600), but none of them fit nearly as well as Zelda. The original Zelda is definitely a great adventure game. You have to find hints to get to the next part, you need to find new items to solve puzzles, there’s tons of hidden stuff. Definitely an adventure. There’s really no other game that’s as influencial to the Adventure genre than the first Zelda game. It sets a shitload of standards not only for Adventure games, but for gaming in general. For Action-Adventure games, I’ll says Link to the Past had a bit more influence on the Action part of the genre. The action was faster and more interesting, and the huge amount of items to use in combat just made it that much better.

So the Adventure genre has 2 Gold Standards: the original Zelda for Adventure games, and the faster-paced action gameplay of Link to the Past for Action-Adventure games.

RPG

The RPG genre has a ton of colossus. Giant super series that have existed for over 20 years and that are still popular. Sure, the main inspiration for the genre is basically Pen and Paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, but those definitely can’t count as the Gold Standard. There are 2 series that are the obvious choices for the Gold Standard: Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. But choosing which game in both series can serve as the Gold Standard… not an easy task. Both series set standards in the whole genre. Final Fantasy 1 and 3 went with the whole “custom team” idea and character classes, as did Dragon Quest 3. Final Fantasy 4 and 6 innovated the kind of story an RPG could tell, as did Dragon Quest 4, 5 and 6, with multi-character/multi-quest epic plots that spanned long time periods…

So let’s cheat this time and say that the Gold Standard for the RPG genre is both the whole of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series(up ntil the final SNES incarnations of both series), why don’t we? Both contributed greatly to the genre, and are the main inspiration to most RPGs now… Other than the ones that use a D&D system, of course. Those series also set the standards for RPG sub-genres such as the Action and Strategy RPG.

RTS

When I think RTS, I think Command and Conquer Red Alert. It’s the game that introduced me to the genre, and it was a very good game. But after replaying it not too long ago and having a bit of trouble with the controls, I realized it couldn’t exactly be the Gold Standard. Nah, the Gold Standard for this is a relatively easy choice: StarCraft. Great fast-paced RTS gameplay, incredible resource management, 3 unique races with completely different gameplay styles and… high-level games are just crazy to watch (not like I have the skills required to actually play in those high-level matches). It’s no wonder there’s still a ton of people playing the game online, and that’s probably not going to change, even when Starcraft 2 comes out.

There’s little doubt about this one(though I did consider WarCraft 2 for a minute there, before remembering that StarCraft exists), the Gold Standard of the RTS is StarCraft.

Simulator

The simulator… Now I don’t mean Flight Simulators, or Train Simulators, or Racing Simulators, or Rape Simulators. What I mean is games where you’re given a city, or people, or companies, and you have to manage them. Getting money to build up, keeping residents/clients happy, becoming as successful as possible… that’s what I’m talking about. Though my favorite in the genre is probably the original Roller Coaster Tycoon game, there is little doubt in my mind that Sim City set the standards for the genre.

With its multiple scenarios and innovative gameplay and features, Sim City set the standards for the Simulator genre (and spawned a needlessly high amount of sub-series).

Racing (arcade)

It’s Ridge Racer!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAACEEEEEEEEER!!!
(I could go on and talk about how it did things that no other racing game before did and such… but I won’t waste my time when just 2 words is all I need)

Racing (Simulator)

The racing simulator genre is still a young genre. The game that I think set the standards is Gran Turismo 2. Sure I think Forza 3 is a lot better and might be setting standards itself, but until Gran Tursimo 5 comes out (it’s not out as of the writing of this post), I’ll hold back and keep an older game as the Gold Standard here.

So Gran Turismo 2 it is!

Music

The music genre exploded recently. But it’s been going on for a while. Before Guitar Hero and Rock Band, there was only one: Dance Dance Revolution. Okay, that’s a bit wrong. Other games came out a bit before/around the same time in the genre(like Beatmania), but the first one to really have an impact was DDR. It started out a bit basic, but the fun and original techno music and the new type of fun gameplay had instant appeal. Sure, we all looked like morons playing the game (unless we had insane skills… which I didn’t), but we had lots fun(AND it was great exercise). The gameplay was fast and frantic, the music was occasionally interesting(though newer versions just slap on a bunch of crappy pop music… the older Konami Originals are badass), it was challenging, and becoming good at it was very satisfactory.

Now we have Rock Band, which takes the fun DDR gameplay in a good direction with multiple instruments and such, but the game that set all the standards for the genre is definitely Dance Dance Revolution. So that’s the Gold Standard this time.

Puzzle

One day I woke up and my Gameboy had Tetris in it. I could never get it out.
Also: Tetris music by Powerglove
And this too: Tetris God (it’s so true)
And maybe a bit of this: Brentalfloss
Why the hell not?: First-person Tetris (even like that it’s insanely fun)

I don’t need to say anything about Tetris…. Really. I think it’s the most obvious Gold Standard in the list.

Share/Save