Top 5 Video Games to Play at 12:45 AM

Hi. I can't sleep. And it's 12:45. And I'm sick. And I can't sleep. And I have a lot of medication in me. Here are my top 5 games to play at 12:45 AM.

Number 5:

Now this is a video game you play when you play video games. You're like, dude it's 12:45 and I can't sleep. So let's eat some burgers. McKids (or MC Kids, because they're like related to MC Hammer) is a game where you're kids and eat burgers to gain the goal of spending time with Ronald McDonald. But he turns out to be evil and makes you fat.

Don't eat at McDonalds.

Number 4:

PS3 has no games.

Number 3:

The sequel to one of the best Beatles albums, Magical Mystery Mall is one game you won't forget. You play as two girls who go through the 9 rings of purgatory with some loser called Virgil, who wrote the Odyssey, and they meet Satan and the great stuff. Then they go shoe shopping and Santa Satan is like, "I can't find some nice shoes." Then you go and buy a Hattori Hanzo sword and kill your sister. And that's how the Book of Genesis ends. All in all, Mysterious Magical Mailbag is a good game entertainment experience.

Number 2:

This is a game someone plays when they want to play a video game. You play as two dinosaurs Jamal and Ringo, who live in Jurassic Park. The only problem is that Jamal didn't take a bath and everyone thinks he smells. The best thing they do is make bubbles, but the bubble brand they used is an evil Soviet brand. So Jamal's like, "Oh God. We're screwed," so they pop bubbles and they dance I think. This is a good game because the game's title is very accurate to what's portrayed. A realistic depiction of the Battle of Waterloo. Overall, Budweiser Boggle is a good prequel to Heavy Rain.

And my number one best game is

Now this is a top quality game that you should play at 12:45 AM. The game is so good that you don't need to not only press buttons, but you don't even play the game. The Kinect thought it was all realistic not needing a controller, but this is the real deal. The story of the game is simple. It's basically a retelling of Barack Obama's life as a CIA agent sent to go undercover in West Philadelphia and then being sent to Bel Air as Will Smith to gain information about the 1%.

Now the gameplay is what sticks out. You basically move and do things and there's Carlton and stuff. I really  like the game for being fun and a video game. It's just amazing that you can play a video game about such a deep and mind boggling topic. Overall, I love this game and give it a 14as/245.

Now to finish this blog, I will give you a score of the games. All of the games are perfect and get 10s, so to give my final rating I give all of these games 10 Carltons out of 1.

Thanks for reading.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

Hey guys. it's been a while since I've done a blog on anything and I'd thought I'd kickstart it again after playing some pretty awesome games (SONIC ADVENTURE IS A GOOD GAME; SCREW EVERYONE). I'll be starting off with a review of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Enjoy.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Platforms: PlayStation 3 (under review), Xbox 360

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Platinum Games, Kojima Productions

Release Date: February 19, 2013

Genre: Action

It’s no surprise that I am a very huge fan of the Metal Gear games. I literally marathoned through all of the Solids in the summer of 2012 and the experience was unforgettable. I am also a huge fan of Clover and Platinum and have enjoyed their games for years, starting off with the wonderful Viewtiful Joe and recently playing through the high octane Vanquish. Naturally, I would be very excited when Platinum Games gets attached to do an action game based on the Metal Gear Solid series. From the first trailer on, I was beyond excited and even though I never preorder games, I did so instantly with Rising. Was my excitement warranted? I would like to happily confirm it.

As a Metal Gear fan, do not go into this game expecting a deep plot with very large plot twists and conflicts with no true right or wrong. There is not a large emphasis on the plot, but it’s not exactly a bad thing. The story takes place after Guns of the Patriots and follows our sexily haired cyborg ninja, Raiden, now working for PMC Maverick Securities and training smaller nations in arms. A whole lot has changed in the world of military combat, and the use of nanomachine PMCs have dwindled over the years. Instead, cyborgs are used as the main method of combat. Things run smoothly until a mysterious company known as Desperado (who I swear have the biggest smiles in the universe) decides to crash the party and cause havoc. After getting his arm detached like a Lego and given the beating of his life, Raiden is rebuilt as a stronger cyborg and sent to destroy our deadly grinning baddies.

As always, Raiden goes through a phase of doubting and understanding of who he truly is. In the beginning he proclaims he is a helper of the weak and his tool is a means of justice for those who can’t protect themselves. As time goes on, he questions whether he is truly a liberator of the weak or just another man who enjoys killing. This concept is very well done and interesting in the story, but due to the lack of cutscenes (this is a surprising thing to say about MGS), the character’s thoughts aren’t explored as deep as I hoped. In fact, I never really felt a true “rising” for Raiden. The game simply ends without Raiden really finding his true calling and implies there will be a sequel to further explore his character. I am fine with this as long as there is a resolution.

"Don't worry. If you chop off my other arm, I can always use my mouth."

Having liked Raiden and Rose’s tragic stories in Sons of Liberty, I really fell in love with his character and felt for his inner suffering he had since he was young. His suffering seems to remain to be intact; and with the lack of a proper teacher figure such as Solid Snake, he does not have a true direction to go and has to make most of his resolutions himself. This causes him quite a bit of questioning and at times, he returns to his infamous Jack the Ripper persona, bent on killing and enjoying the blood of his enemies. Again, the Jack the Ripper idea was a smart move to implement, but it didn’t feel explored. Of course, if Platinum plans on expanding him in future games, my worries will be put to rest, but for now, I didn’t feel fulfilled with the resolution on Raiden’s behalf. It simply ended, akin to Metal Gear Solid 2’s ending.

The supporting cast is pretty good. We have Boris, who serves as the game’s Colonel Campbell; Kevin, similar to Naomi and Sigint and giving weapon and military strategies; Courtney, who saves your progress; and Doktor, who upgrades your equipment and is an expert in cyborg technology. You also get a cyborg dog. Yeah, it sounds stupid at first but he surprisingly grows on you. Each of the characters serve their duties properly and add some humorous dialog every once in a while. Although the charm that existed in the Solid games is not as prevalent, they are likeable characters, but they don’t exactly pose the memorable dialog you can quote from a lot of the Solids. I’m sure everyone quotes Otacon’s “Japanese animes”, Big Boss’s ramblings on food and movies, and Solid Snake making fun of Otacon for wetting himself while telling Raiden that it’s okay to visit women’s restrooms, but I can’t really remember many lines that I can exactly deem as memorable.

The character interactions just didn’t feel as great as the ones done by Kojima, but again, they are passable. Heck, even the main bad guy’s interaction with Raiden just felt tacked on and his reveal was more like the villain from a Scooby Doo cartoon than anything properly leading to it. This might be because he was introduced much later in the game, and by that time you’re just focusing on Desperado than the benefactor. I think Desperado themselves would be a much better main villain focus and I loved the idea of Jetstream Sam and thought he should have had more more of a spotlight. Honestly, it would have worked better for Kojima to write the games and characters, but again, the game’s strongpoint is not the story. It’s the gameplay.

This overly wide grin is brought to you by Colgate! Even with the blood splatter, you still can have a lovely smile.

The game’s main draw is fast paced action and by God does it deliver. Your simple attacks are based on high and low hits, which you can chain into combos. As you defeat bosses, you gain their weapons a la Mega Man, and said secondary weapons compliment the heavy attacks. I personally prefer the staff, which can help deliver quick and heavy blows that can easily up your combo count. As you chain away, you eventually break through enemy shields and are given the option of either chopping away at them with precision or doing a special finishing move. This is where the feature of Blade Mode comes in. Blade Mode is a mechanic that slows down time and lets Raiden slash away at any direction using buttons or the analog stick. This will let you surgically remove limbs from the enemy troops. While you use Blade Mode, you can chop away at a certain point to perform a Zandatsu, which extracts their spinal chords that contain electrolytes. Extracting their tasty robo Gatorade will fill up your entire health meter and get a much larger experience bonus. This was a very smart move by Platinum and making your health replenish so quickly encourages you to be precise in your movements while reducing the stress of looking for health. Zandatsus also allows you to replenish your Blade Mode meter, which runs out during usage (although it can be refilled with combos) and turning into Jack the Ripper.

Later in the game, you gain the persona of Jack the Ripper and with a click of the two analog sticks, you transform into this persona with a cackling laugh. As Jack the Ripper, your damage output becomes ridiculously overpowered and you gain the ability of chopping enemies into shreds. Heck, larger enemies can be taken down with a few simple hits. Of course, the main problem is that since you are tearing through people quicker, your experience gain is a lot lower due to the limited use of the Zandatsu, along with you having to restart your Blade Mode meter after it runs out.

All these tools are nifty, but what enemies are you going against that require this much energy? For the most part, cyborgs. Like you, the enemies are ridiculously strong, yet lack the ability to be a human food processor. As you get further into the game, the enemies get tougher and you go against original cyborgs along with a few familiar faces from Guns of the Patriots, like Geckos and Sliders. You also go against cyborgs with sledgehammers and gorilla-like creatures in the sewers. They may seem hard as first, but as you upgrade your weapons, the difficulty lowers significantly based on your selected perks and blade. If you want a good challenge, go on higher difficulties with lower perks and you will engage in long and fun parries with enemies. The only complaint I have with fighting the enemies is that sometimes you can get stunned after a good chunk of damage.

It slices! It dices! It even cuts through all of your delicious steaks!

Chopping away at enemies can be quite fun, but there’s much more than just mashing away at square. For one, enemies have parries and you can do the exact same with them. Parries can be done by pressing square in the direction of the enemy movement. This lets Raiden push the enemy back and eventually gain an attempt to chop at them. You can also gain a dodging maneuver to bob and weave through the flurry of attacks. Mastering the combat means being both offensive and defensive, and the best defense is a good offense and vice versa. As you get better, you learn to dodge different attacks in different ways and utilize the blade mode to chop off limbs to disable enemies from attacking you. Higher combos and taking advantage of the Zandatsu will allow you to gain much more experience points to buy new gear and upgrades for the swords. And trust me, as you go deeper into difficulty, you'll want to keep your health, meter, and combat upgrades. It'll get much harder than this.

Aside from the straight up sword fighting, stealth is also cleverly implemented into the story. Since this is an action game, Platinum had to be careful on how to implement it without ruining the core of the game and I have to say that the attempt has been a success. You can also have the option of going straight up Zatoichi on enemies, but you can also do very quick stealth kills to either dwindle the enemy number of straight up avoid a fight. With the simple press of the O button, you can silently destroy your foes and implement Zandatsu to gain some bonus experience. Of course, the enemies are not always the brightest and there have been times where I murdered someone right in front of his friend and he didn't seem to notice. Eh, maybe he drank all of the coffee again or maybe it's a glitch. Regardless, it can be quite fun doing these stealth kills and you even have the option of destroying certain environments over unsuspecting enemies. Nothing says hilarity like cutting the support of a bridge to knock the structure over an enemy or even destroying an entire Ferris Wheel over a poor, unlucky man's head.

Metal Gear enthusiasts will get quite a kick from this.

The gameplay seems very nice, right? But how does it look? Two words. Absolutely gorgeous. When Platinum was approached to make the game, Kojima Pro wanted to make sure that the game ran in 60 frames per second and boy did they deliver. The game runs very fast paced while still looking as smooth as silk. The game models themselves have a great bit of detail to them and after the stunning Metal Gear Solid 4, Revengeance follows through with the same superb art style. The background also looks quite nice, with a good change of scenery. Of course the war torn areas have been around way too much for me to be impressed, but the beaches and the Asian scenery inspired levels look very nice. Heck, even some of the offices look pretty cool. I guess my only complaint is that I wish that the office areas were used a lot less in favor of more lush looking environments. Of course, this can be just my spoiled side speaking, considering how Metal Gear Solid 3's beautiful environments made me so enamored, that I keep begging more of that and less of buildings and offices.
If you aren't as spoiled as I am, you will find some very nice looking environments. And everything looks very smooth with little hiccups. There is slow down every once in a while after a battle, but it's so brief and far few between that it really doesn't ruin the experience. And these slowdowns normally happen during checkpoints when the Codec goes off, so it's not like the combat is affected in any sort of way. Overall, although I could use less office-like environments and sewer levels (thankfully it's very few), everything looks and functions the way it should and lives up to Platinum's level of fantastic looks.The gameplay seems very nice, right? But how does it look? Two words. Absolutely gorgeous. When Platinum was approached to make the game, Kojima Pro wanted to make sure that the game ran in 60 frames per second and boy did they deliver. The game runs very fast paced while still looking as smooth as silk. The game models themselves have a great bit of detail to them and after the stunning Metal Gear Solid 4, Revengeance follows through with the same superb art style. The background also looks quite nice, with a good change of scenery. Of course the war torn areas have been around way too much for me to be impressed, but the beaches and the Asian scenery inspired levels look very nice. Heck, even some of the offices look pretty cool. I guess my only complaint is that I wish that the office areas were used a lot less in favor of more lush looking environments. Of course, this can be just my spoiled side speaking, considering how Metal Gear Solid 3's beautiful environments made me so enamored, that I keep begging more of that and less of buildings and offices.If you aren't as spoiled as I am, you will find some very nice looking environments. And everything looks very smooth with little hiccups. There is slow down every once in a while after a battle, but it's so brief and far few between that it really doesn't ruin the experience. And these slowdowns normally happen during checkpoints when the Codec goes off, so it's not like the combat is affected in any sort of way. Overall, although I could use less office-like environments and sewer levels (thankfully it's very few), everything looks and functions the way it should and lives up to Platinum's level of fantastic looks.If you aren't as spoiled as I am, you will find some very nice looking environments. And everything looks very smooth with little hiccups. There is slow down every once in a while after a battle, but it's so brief and far few between that it really doesn't ruin the experience. And these slowdowns normally happen during checkpoints when the Codec goes off, so it's not like the combat is affected in any sort of way. Overall, although I could use less office-like environments and sewer levels (thankfully it's very few), everything looks and functions the way it should and lives up to Platinum's level of fantastic looks.

High octane murder never looked this cool.

A lot of people may ask me what makes this game so great and that my previous descriptions may make it sound like a standard hack and slash like God of War or Devil May Cry. Here is what makes Rising such a fantastic game, the hype from the actions that you do. Let me give you an example. In the beginning of the game, you fight Metal Gear RAY, which is bent on destruction. How do you destroy it? You block its massive blade, run up the machine, and cut its limb off. Oh no, it still is alive and starts shooting missiles at you! So you start running up the missiles and give it a severe beating. But wait, its still alive and it throws you on a building. What now? Run down the entire building while it is exploding and missiles are flying past you while fast paced metal is playing. And just as you think you're done, you run down the entire machine and cut it in half. This happens in the first 30 minutes of the game and pales in comparison to the rest of the game. The over the top moments are so ridiculous that it would make Nathan Drake and Dante blush in shame.A lot of people may ask me what makes this game so great and that my previous descriptions may make it sound like a standard hack and slash like God of War or Devil May Cry. Here is what makes Rising such a fantastic game, the hype from the actions that you do. Let me give you an example. In the beginning of the game, you fight Metal Gear RAY, which is bent on destruction. How do you destroy it? You block its massive blade, run up the machine, and cut its limb off. Oh no, it still is alive and starts shooting missiles at you! So you start running up the missiles and give it a severe beating. But wait, its still alive and it throws you on a building. What now? Run down the entire building while it is exploding and missiles are flying past you while fast paced metal is playing. And just as you think you're done, you run down the entire machine and cut it in half. This happens in the first 30 minutes of the game and pales in comparison to the rest of the game. The over the top moments are so ridiculous that it would make Nathan Drake and Dante blush in shame.

This sure beats driving a car!

The game is not extremely long, and my huge dose of excitement did end soon, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. The game has no fluff or extra baggage to weigh it down and by the time I finished, I was completely satisfied. You also get access to over 80 VR missions (which are ridiculously hard) and you can carry over your upgrades to your next playthroughs. This made me want to try the harder difficulties, which add harder enemies that do a ton more damage. By Revengeance difficulty, your first fight is against a Gecko that can kill you in one hit. Yeah. But with your upgrades, the future playthroughs are less strenuous and trust me, you want to play through it again. After the first time I beat the game, I started it again on hard and wanted to experience everything again. I loved this game so much that I went through and went through it even up until Revengeance difficulty, which makes the bosses nearly impossible. But fear not, the newer blades you unlock can make the game much easier, especially Grey Fox's blade, which tears limbs apart. Plus, dude, you get to play as Grey Fox. Grey. Fox. Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid. Frank Jaeger. Dude, you play as Grey Fox. Aside from my love for Grey Fox, you also get more alternate outfits like a Desperado uniform and a Mexican outfit, complete with a sombrero (which can be put on the top of your box). But why did I play through so much just to unlock all of this bonus content? Because the game is so much fun.
There are rarely times that a lot of built attention on a releasing game delivers on your expectations, but Platinum did it. By the final scene, I was sitting there and smiling, with a phenomenal game finished. Yes, the game doesn't pose a deep story that roots in the questioning of right and wrong, memes of our generation, and the question between honor or loyalty to yourself. Yes, the game doesn't have a memorable cast. And yes, Raiden isn't as likable and complete as Sons of Liberty and even Guns of the Patriots. But what the game has is fun. Pure, unfiltered fun. This is an action game that ought to be remembered as something unique. Something indescribably fun. Something wonderful. Many may question a game's direction in story or tone, but with games like these, the smile on your face as you do something over the top and finish the game. It's moments like these. Moments where you finish an overwhelmingly fun game and remember why you enjoy playing games. And Platinum/Clover followed that mantra. Videogames that deliver original, beautiful, unhinged fun. And sometimes, you couldn't ask for more.
There are rarely times that a lot of built attention on a releasing game delivers on your expectations, but Platinum did it. By the final scene, I was sitting there and smiling, with a phenomenal game finished. Yes, the game doesn't pose a deep story that roots in the questioning of right and wrong, memes of our generation, and the question between honor or loyalty to yourself. Yes, the game doesn't have a memorable cast. And yes, Raiden isn't as likable and complete as Sons of Liberty and even Guns of the Patriots. But what the game has is fun. Pure, unfiltered fun. This is an action game that ought to be remembered as something unique. Something indescribably fun. Something wonderful. Many may question a game's direction in story or tone, but with games like these, the smile on your face as you do something over the top and finish the game. It's moments like these. Moments where you finish an overwhelmingly fun game and remember why you enjoy playing games. And Platinum/Clover followed that mantra. Videogames that deliver original, beautiful, unhinged fun. And sometimes, you couldn't ask for more.

The Zandatsu also encourages you to mark specific spots to make sure you can reap as much benefits from your kills. Not only are you motivated to extract spines, but you can also chop off arms from specific enemies to contribute research towards Doktor's new technology. Careful cutting lets you unlock wigs (which have returned from Metal Gear Solid 2), and in terms give you specific perks such as having infinite ammunition and Blade Mode time. All of these perks you gain don't allow you to be absolutely reckless and in terms encourage precise movements and combat. As you keep unlocking more costumes, wigs, and weapon benefits, Raiden gets progressively stronger and earlier enemies and even Geckos become pushovers as you can violently slaughter the incoming masses. The game knows how to reward the player for fighting well and you really start feeling awesome after you do a hundred hit combo with Zandatsus and no damage taken.

If you want to be a master stealth ninja or an unstoppable killing machine, you better learn how to implement your ninja dash and using your other equipment and visor. With you visor, you can scan enemies and civilians and recognize their patterns while setting traps. You can also set traps with a multitude of grenades and for some heavy fire, guns. You get a standard grenade launcher and anti-air missiles, along with smoke grenades and other disabling devices. If you want to go old school, you can also use a cardboard box and a barrel a la Solid Snake and sneak past enemies (though it's not as effective as the MGS games). I would not say that these strategies are 100% effective, but they do work if you want to give it a shot. It certainly does come in handy when you have attempts to rescue civilians for an XP bonus and the good feeling of being a nice and harmless person as you go running around, waving your giant sword, and turning people into delicious fruit salads.


The sound in the game is quite well done and again, the characters all have good voice actors, living up to the Metal Gear games. The enemies all sound fairly well and the standard slashes and cutting are all fine. And just to be extra kind, the classic alert sound still plays whenever you get spotted by enemies. I also do like the little quips Raiden throws when he kills his enemies. Even though he says it the entire game, I never really got tired of his phrases like, "Bulls eye," or his little finishing quips like, "Playtime's over," or "We're done here!" They may be little additions, but I still enjoyed them regardless. And if you are hoping for a replacement of the classic, "SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE," Raiden gets familiar screams when he dies, so that again is a nice little touch (though it gets annoying when you play on harder difficulties and constantly get the same yell when you die).

Collective Consciousness- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

A Stranger I Remain- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

It Has to Be This Way- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Let's get into the music. Oh my God, the music is absolutely mindblowingly, want to make you punch through walls, and do other awesome verbs with intense adjectives good. I cannot say enough how fantastic this soundtrack is and absolutely adore it from beginning to end. The music starts with heavy instrumentals playing and as you do something mindblowing on screen, the vocals start blasting through your speakers. Nothing can compare the experience of putting the volume on loud and just watching the visuals and music blow you away. The composition by Jamie Christopherson is masterful and is an example of perfectly complimenting the game's action. I mean this very seriously and you can quote me on this. This is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard from any videogame and this can easily be Platinum's best work. If you've played other Platinum games, you can understand the seriousness of my claim. Yeah. It's that good.

I cannot say how many times I sat there staring at the screen at the amazing action just flying at my face and it compliments the game so well that you never feel it overshadows the combat. Then come the boss battles, which are extremely fast paced and action packed. I dare not spoil what happens, but honestly, the only thing that I can say is that the game made me, normally quiet when I play a game, jump up at one point and shout, "OH CRAP," as I slaughtered masses of opponents. If there is one phrase I can use to describe this game, it's larger than life. Platinum knows how to get people's blood pumping and just awed at the action going on. Want to rip a robot's arm off and beat it to death? Got it! Want to jump in the air and chop a helicopter into bits? Got it! Want to jump in the air, stab an opponent, run up to a car full of enemies, chop it into bits, then run up walls, hide, then take out a staff of pain and deliver pure unfiltered destruction? By all means, you got it. These fights and boss battles are so long and epic that after the entire fight, when I did my finishing blow, I thought to myself, "Wow. This is something."

Thanks for reading.

Top 15 Street Fighter Characters

Pick your poison (though I legimately love the music in a weird way). Well, the character selection screen is amazing, so pick that if you want the best one.

Character Selection Screen- Street Fighter IV

Exile- Indestructible

Indestructible (Japanese)- Street Fighter IV

Hey, guys. After 7 months of no original content by me, I'm finally back to writing blogs and what better way to start it than cover one of my favorite video game series, Street Fighter? Now, I have played my share of games and I have grown fond of the many faces in the series. Now I'm here to make a Top 15 on my favorite characters.

What are the rules? Well, the attributes do matter, but memorability, fun, and personality will play a huge role and I won't choose characters I don't like playing as but are top tier. Also, no Street Fighter EX. It's not because I don't like it, but mostly because I didn't play too much EX, giving me an unfair judgment and not enough of an impression of a cast of newcomer that I'm not too fond of. Also, my reasoning is strictly off of the Street Fighter games, so no reasoning that comes from crossovers like Marvel vs. Capcom. However, I will mention the game series if it was a part of my experience with that character (though it will not count towards my rankings). Now, let's get onto the list. Enjoy.

Note: I am aware of most of the themes being the Street Fighter IV version. It's not my fault that the Street Fighter IV versions are so amazing.

Note 2: After a few months, I changed my opinion. M. Bison is better than Guile.

 

Guile's Theme- Street Fighter IV

Starting off #15 on this list is everybody’s favorite patriotic American flag tattoo wearing fighter, Guile. Initially, I was having trouble determining who would barely cling onto the #15 spot, with M. Bison as the completion, but Guile barely won with a few small factors. Now the real reason I didn’t rank Guile too high on this list is because I’m not really into charge characters, but man Guile can be really fun.

What makes Guile so unique for me is his Sonic Boom and kick that were really great to pull off in Street Fighter II. Somewhere along the transition, old Guile lost his large appeal in Street Fighter IV, but still remained one of my favorites throughout. That and he was the leading role in the brilliant Street Fighter film (I’m dead serious when I say it’s one of my favorite movies).

What made Guile beat M. Bison couldn’t be the brilliant film, because Raul Julia was absolutely perfect, nor the animated series had me linking the “Yes” and “This is Delicious” videos. What made Guile beat Bison is the fact that I’m *cough* half *cough* American and Guile is the perfect representation of our freedom. Only a true patriot would have an American Flag tattoo and have his stage in an airfield. Let’s not forget his awesome Street Fighter II and IV themes, with the latter being my favorite (everybody disagreeing in 3…. 2…. 1….). Good on you, Guile, and Bison, I’m sorry. I love your character and all, but I guess this will not be a “delicious” victory.

Seriously , Bison, I'm sorry, but I never really play as you too much, despite loving your evil and sadistic personality. I promise I'll be the first man to invest all of my money into Bison Dollars after your eventual takeover.

Yang's Theme- Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

When I first played Third Strike, I never was into the twins, Yun and Yang. Their fighting styles were unique, but nothing I considered special. However, after playing as them some more in recent times, they slowly started to become a favorite. Now why Yang over Yun? I think Yang’s costume looks cooler. Shallow man I am.

Now what makes the twins so great is their rush tactics that I am getting fairly accustomed to, with swiping punches, heavy fist pounds, and swift dive kicks. It’s surprising how easy I could make a combo with Yang at a beginner’s level and how fun it is to execute said combos. His swiftness and well rounded arsenal of attacks have definitely made him a recent favorite of mine.

I guess Yang was one of those characters I never really gave a chance but ended up loving in the end. I also feel that if I play the game as him some more, I’ll definitely consider him higher on this list in the future. With extremely fun gameplay and a style that’s easy to pick up but tough to master, Yang gets the #14 spot. Oh yeah, and he looks cooler than Yun. Shallow man I am indeed.

Sakura's Theme- Street Fighter IV

Sakura is pretty much the stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl in every Japanese art and media. But the difference is that she’s freaking awesome and a wonderful character to play as. Now to many, Sakura Kasugano may just appear as a typical fan boy of Ryu, but she really doesn’t come off as annoying one bit (AMY, TAKE FREAKING NOTES). Instead, her cheerful personality and fighting spirit set her apart from the mold of a typical fan girl and transitions her into a personality you can’t help but enjoy.
Her play style isn’t bad either. She plays a bit like Ryu with similar Hadoukens and Tatsus, but with a small twist. Like Chun Li, her projectile cannot fly across the screen, but it can be charged into a larger burst. And her Shoryuken-like attack chains into a multi hit dash, while her Tatsu allows her to kick the opponent into the air for more damage and setting up for an Ultra if you’re playing Street Fighter IV.

Overall, Sakura is a very rare occurrence where a Japanese school girl fan girl ends up being really liked by me and not wanting to punch kittens repeatedly while I curse Japan for creating such a concept, and Darkseid reminding me that he has seen worse in the depths of the internet and that I should man up about it and Jawshy most likely coming in and making a suggestive comment, which makes me raise my eyebrow but not so much, because I expect that out of Jawshy. So yeah. With a fun scheme and a great personality that’s hard not to like, Sakura holds a solid spot at #13.

Abel's Theme- Street Fighter IV

Now, I really didn’t care about the newcomers for Street Fighter IV. While Gouken and El Fuerte were cool, they weren’t my favorites. C. Viper is like a rejected SNK character and Juri has made me hate her online, due to beginners spamming the heck out of her. Despite me enjoying Seth, Abel was the best newcomer out of the game, feeling pretty similar to Alex from Third Strike and mainly serving as a grappler.
As I said, Abel is a grappler. His main method of attack is to dash and hit his opponent up to three times, with the third blow being a throw. He also can grab his opponent and give them a good whirl in the air before slamming them into the floor. Along with his quick rolling, his Ultras and super have him going berserk and dashing into his opponent then giving them a repeating beating or throwing them into the air and slamming them into the wall.

When Abel fights, he gives a good beating and runs right into the fight, which is very contradictory of his French heritage.* I also did like his story as a man with no past and possible connection to Charlie, because of his recognition of Guile’s Sonic Boom. Abel is probably the most used newcomer to Street Fighter Fighter IV and for good reasons, which is why he’s at #12.

Authors note: I don’t hate French people and that was a joke. Don’t hurt me. ;-;

Cammy's Theme- Street Fighter IV

Ah, Cammy. One of the characters that I was instinctively good with, but rarely play as because it makes me look like a perv if I do (it’d be nice if she wore pants). This character first struck me not through her fighting, but through her stage in Super Street Fighter II. When I first fought her on the castle stage, I was initially swept away by her amazing theme and the beautiful castle setting. Her theme and stage are one of the first things that I associate Super Street Fighter II with and for good reasons.

Now Cammy is a very interesting character to play as. She lunges herself as a spinning arrow into her opponent (no arrow to the knee jokes, promise) and pretty much acts as a human projectile, with some devastating results due to her speed and agility. As I said, I kind of shy away from using her mostly because of her less than modest attire, but when Jesse is getting more than enough wins and we don’t feel like settling the score with MvC 2, I use Cammy. For some reason, her moveset comes very naturally to me and I usually have a blast playing as her.

I also find her story to be pretty cool, with the shock being that she was a hypnotized clone of M. Bison (Shadaloo must have horrible cloning devices, because she looks nothing like him) revealed to be his hypnotized lover at the end of Street Fighter II. It’s a pretty neat concept and her fun gameplay backs up her story to make her a fantastic fighter. Good enough to get the #11 spot. Now how about you invest in some pants and I might consider a higher position.

Dudley's Theme- Street Fighter III: Third Strike

Street Fighter III had a unique change of pace for the characters. Many of the Street Fighter II and Alpha faces were dropped in favor of new characters with similar movesets to the Street Fighter II crew. An replacement of Balrog to come out of Street Fighter III was Dudley, the classy British boxer who claims that his opponents have no dignity.

Dudley became a favorite of mine and kind of reminds me of a classy version of Balrog, especially with that epic mustache and hair. I also love the quickness of his fighting and I personally had an easier time to get used to him than Balrog with his quick uppercuts and devastating jabs. And let’s not forget about his rose throwing taunt and telling people that they’re gutter trash with his classy British accent. He’s everything you would want out of a classy boxer. And for those of you who don't like Dudley, you have no dignity.
I will admit that I wasn’t too much of a Dudley player in the past, but ever since I gave him a proper chance, I loved everything about him and was overjoyed to see him in Super Street Fighter IV. Albeit preferring him in Third Strike, he was a really fun character in IV and he’s one of the most memorable things from Street Fighter III, which is saying a lot.

Dan's Theme- Street Fighter Alpha 2

 Okay, I know exactly what you’re thinking. “WHAT?! Dan is in the top ten? How is he so special? He sucks!” No, he doesn’t. I absolutely love Dan and his personality is just hilarious and over the top, one that makes me laugh with his overall goofiness.

If you didn’t know this already, go pick up an SNK fighter (preferably King of Fighters ‘98). Look at Ryo. Notice anything familiar? A projectile fireball attack, gi with the sleeves torn off, and his American friend Robert Garcia? Yeah, he’s pretty much SNK’s Ryu ripoff. Now to playfully get back at SNK, Capcom parodied Ryo, but giving him a pink gi, an overconfident yet weak personality, and making hinm one of the worst characters in Street Fighter Alpha 2 with most of his arsenal being moot compared to Ryu. In fact his ending in Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter parodies another SNK character’s ending by having his sister say the final boss is their father (not canon).

Now what makes Dan so amazing is his personality. He’s an overconfident man trying to avenge his father’s death caused by Sagat. He developed his own fighting style with much weaker moves and he cries when he wins. Let’s not forget his Ultra where he does flashy punches and kicks, then an uppercut, finishing with a thumbs up and a teeth shining smile. Dan is one of the reasons I love Street Fighter so much and his overall goofy personality and fun in his fighting makes him worthy in the first place. And having fun is what video games is about.

And if that’s not a strong enough argument, I nearly perfected my friend in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with a team of 3 Dans, then did it again with a team of Dan, Roll, and Jill (she kind of did most of the work though). If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is.

Fei Long's Theme- Street Fighter IV

 Fei Long is a combination of two awesome things, Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken (which I don’t shut up about) and Bruce Lee. I remember him being one of the first enemies that I faced against in Street Fighter II and he was pretty awesome, with a rather annoying stage to fight in (the whole animal aspect in Street Fighter II was annoying).

Most of his attacks are centered around quarter circle movements and you can chain his punches together rather well. He also has a pretty awesome flaming kick that can result in some great damage, as well as being rather swift on his feet. But they really turned the awesomeness up to 11 when they gave him his Ultra in Street Fighter IV. He starts his Ultra off by giving off a manly yell, followed by pretty much reenacting the 100 Crack Fist and jumping in the air and sweeping through the opponent with a kick, a la Kenshiro. The only difference is that Fei Long doesn’t say that the opponent is already dead, with the opponent blowing up in blood. Shame….

Other than that, I find him to be a really fun and effective character to use in Street Fighter, particularly IV. His fighting style is unique and reminds me of my favorite anime character of all time along with one of my favorite martial artists, what’s not to love? Fei Long is a tribute done right and translated into an awesome character.

 

Dojo Redemption (Makoto's Theme)- Street Fighter III: Third Strike

Makoto is a hard character to get into. Instead of swift combos, perfect timing and powerful blows are what makes up her arsenal, which can be extremely deadly if you are facing someone who actually knows how to use her effectively.

First introduced in Street Fighter III, Makoto was one of the last characters I really played as in the game, considering the requirement of some experience in Third Strike before jumping in. I also played her in Street Fighter IV, but didn’t enjoy her as much until the buff in Arcade Edition, which made her awesome again. A tough as nails personality and skilled fighting is what makes her a favorite of mine.

I personally love her delayed punches and sweep kicks that can easily catch opponents off guard and her powering up that makes her get sun burned, along with her Ultras that make her give repeated hard punches to the stomach. With an awesome moveset that is best played when you are doing, Makoto clings the #8 spot with no problems.

Akuma's Rival Battle- Street Fighter IV

Every hero needs a counterpart that invites him to the dark side, and Akuma fits that role perfectly, going as far as sacrificing all of his humanity and soul into the Satsui no Hado. Now Akuma isn’t evil like many speculate, mostly because of his “morals”. He only fights those he finds worthy and does not kill innocent people, but rather those who challenge him to a battle to death. Those who were unlucky face his hard hitting blows and techniques like the Raging Demon, a move so powerful that everything goes black and the announcer is too scared to say KO (ok, maybe I made up the last part). And let’s not forget his fatal fight with Gouken, that had him supposedly killing the master of Ryu and painting his symbol with the blood of Gouken's corps, increasing Ryu’s disdain for him.

Akuma plays similarly to Ryu and Ken, with the same projectiles and tatsus. However, he has the ability to shoot projectile in the air, slide across the screen at quick rate, release a more damaging Hadouken by doing the input backwards, and unleashing a move called the Raging Demon, which takes a ridiculous amount of health and ends with Akuma posing over his knocked out opponent. His hits also have the impact of Ryu with the speed of Ken. The only drawback of Akuma is that with his strong offense comes weal stamina, allowing him to get a KO easier than most of the other fighters.

That aside, Akuma is a lot of fun to play as, and his story is pretty neat with how far only living to fight can take you. He’s an admirable character and I especially had fun with him in Third Strike, where I actually learned how to use him. With a deadly arsenal of attacks, Akuma is a powerhouse not to be reckoned with.

Ken's Theme- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

I’ll admit, I was always a Ryu player and never played as Ken nor Akuma in my initial time with Street Fighter. However, once I started playing the greatness known as Third Strike (I sure do like a lot of characters in Third Strike), I began to appreciate him a lot. Ken Masters started off as a bratty child sent to Gouken for training alongside Ryu. Because of Ryu’s lack of interaction with others in his time at the dojo, Ken and him became more than best friends, but rather brothers.

Ken has also played a huge role in Ryu’s story, having been there in Ryu’s worst times and even offering his red headband as a sign of their friendship (hence Ryu’s red headband in Street Fighter II and later). He also trained Sean from Street Fighter III as a mentor, while continuing to participate in the World Warrior tournaments.

Gameplay wise, Ken is great. He essentially acts as a faster Ryu, but with weaker strikes in Street Fighter II. As time went on, Ken got his own exclusive moves, including his Shoryuken being much better than Ryu’s, with multiple flaming hits. His best form was in Third Strike, where he was easily among the best and I have a blast playing as him in that game and IV.

I always loved Ken’s confident and cheerful attitude that contrasted Ryu’s serious and stern personality. He always comes off as a fun guy, while being a strong supporting character. I also love his stage in the docks and his memorable theme in Street Fighter II. Overall, Ken is just a fun character to play as and made himself more than a mere Ryu imitator.

Chun Li's Theme- Street Fighter EX

Chun Li is a landmark character in the Street Fighter franchise. Being considered the first lady of fighters, she also is an extremely well made characters, breaking my initial trend of only playing as shotos (characters that play similar to Ryu with quarter circle projectiles and tatsus in case you don’t know that term) with her lightning kicks, wall jumping, and unique gameplay.

I enjoyed her quite a bit in the Street Fighter games, starting off with II, but I never grew to appreciate her style until Marvel vs. Capcom in the arcades. She just seemed like an overly complicated character (I still have trouble being good with her in IV), but if you put time into her, she’s quite a force to be reckoned with.
Her arsenal is a Kikosho (a variant of a fireball shot from one hand), her repeating kicks in one position, and Spinning Bird Kick, which has her flinging herself in an upside down hurricane kick with her two legs sticking out (that really looks painful). However, my love for her came in Third Strike, where she became absolutely ridiculous. That and I actually managed to be effective with her and rack up some nice combos.
Her story is rather simple, with M. Bison murdering her father (to him it was just a Tuesday (cookie to whoever gets the reference)). Wanting to avenge her father’s death, she uses her police woman skills to give beatings in the World Warrior tournament. While successful in avenging her father's death, she ends up making powerful alalies and friends like Guile (he hates Bison too) and Ryu.

Overall, Chun Li was a character that grew on me over time (thanks to MvC), and reached her top at Third Strike. I also really like her outfit compared to a lot of the fighters, though people may argue that it’s stereotypical. Though they kinda botched her portrait looks in this generation of Capcom fighters, they nailed it with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, making her look very similar to her old school look. Overall, Chun Li is a phenomenal character and one that I always have fun playing as.

Twilight (Ibuki's Theme)- Street Fighter III: Third Strike

#3 and #2 are actually a tie and you‘re probably saying that I can‘t do that. As Craig used to say in the Top Tens, “It‘s our list and we can do what we want.” And I asked for help on determining who should get #3 and #2 and Shiro_Shishi said Ibuki because she’s a hot ninja (perv, lol) and Stickman said Ibuki as well, before calling me a perv. But I was too lazy to edit the cards, so whatever. #3 and #2 are a complete tie and I cannot choose which one I love more.

So, remember how I said it’s rare for me to like a Japanese school girl in games because they usually are annoying? (KARIN AND LILI, TAKE FREAKING NOTES (YES, I FREAKING HATE KARIN, AND LET’S NOT FORGET R. MIKA. SCREW THEM)). She’s pretty much a High School (technically College in Third Strike’s ending) student and a ninja, which is the most awesome thing ever. She has an overall cheery personality, maybe perhaps a bit too girly in Street Fighter IV, especially with her crappy English voice actor (her Japanese voice is great).

Let’s not forget her awesome moveset. She has a variety of grabbing moves, which she can use to emit a beam of light, with her Ultra making her opponent fly across the screen. She also has a variety of sweep kicks and strikes that can make for some awesome combos, along with her rushing that allows her to even go through opponents. How about her kunai knives? Awesome. And one of my favorite moves, the necksnap, which is extremely effective in taking down the opponent from distances and stopping opponents from spamming.

Her second Ultra is pretty amazing, with her giving the opponent a beating before flinging them into the air with a flurry of kunai knives and slamming their head into the ground. She’s seriously an amazing character and I love everything about her, gameplay and character wise. Everything about Ibuki is great to me and playing as her is always a joy and blast.

Also, Nick, if you’re reading this, I hope to meet you at a future SGC event, because I want to fight your Ibuki in Third Strike or IV.

Rose's Theme- Street Fighter IV

Rose, one of my mains in the Alpha games and one of my 3 mains in Street Fighter IV. What’s just as awesome as being a ninja High Schooler? Having psychic powers, a magical Sham-Wow that you can put your power into, while having awesome purple hair, and being able to clone psychic versions of yourself! The only thing that sucks is her English voice making her sound like an old woman (her Japanese voice is awesome (I hate Street Fighter IV’s English voices)).

Rose just cannot get a break. She’s a psychic who pretty much has the intent of stopping Bison while seeing potential in Ryu, wanting to protect him from harm. But Bison is like, “LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL I’LL JUST LET YOU KILL ME AND USE YOUR BODY AS A HOST,” and Rose is like, “NO! STOP STEALING MY BODY! ;-;” and Bison is like, “TOO BAD, I’LL JUST CRITICALLY INJURE YOU! YESSSSSSSSSS! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” In English, Rose and Bison accidentally shared the same soul after Rose seemingly channeled all of his energy out and it got into her body, giving Bison control to her body. Though she has no memory of this ordeal, Rose has a vendetta against Bison’s wrongs and does whatever she can to stop his evil

Also, Rose seriously has an awesome and creative wardrobe, with her overcoat and scarf she can channel her energy into. And for some reason, Capcom can make crazy looking hair work (see Phoenix Wright) with her awesome purple hair. And no Stickman, I am not a perv.

Her gameplay is sort of similar to Ryu, in which she fire projectiles from her scarf and can perform a charging maneuver when you use the kick button with a quarter circle. She can also use her psychic moves to grab and throw enemies across and briefly levitate to grab a jumping enemy for a throw to the ground. Her Ultra, the Illusion Spark (sounds like she yells fusion spark in her Japanese voice), has her grabbing her opponent with her scarf and channeling her energy into a form of shock that can have quite a reach. She could also clone herself into psychic clones in the Alpha games, which made doing large combos a lot easier.
Some may not be huge fans of Rose, as her style may seem a bit weird when compared to Ryu, but I seriously love playing as her. I find her personality to be great and her moves can be very fun to pull off. Overall, Rose is a great character with an awesome moveset. Great enough that she is one of my mains in the series and at the #2 spot (or is it #3?)

Ryu's Theme- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

This should not come as a shock to anybody who knows me. In fact, most of my avys and sigs are with Ryu and every time someone plays Street Fighter against me, there’s a huge chance that Ryu will be used countless times. But why you may ask? Well, it really is a long story, but I’ll try to summarize it.

Although I hated Street Fighter II when I first played it (foolish child I was), I bought Super on Virtual Console. I ended up loving it and one character stood in my mind, and that was Ryu. Normally, I am favorable when it comes to the ‘white knight’ characters, those who fight for good and usually the main character of the game. But it’s not just that. I honestly love the whole story and concept behind Ryu and his character.

While Ryu may just seem bland and boring to some, I love his whole character, being a strong and passionate fighter only wanting to fight the good fight. The dichotomy that lies in Ryu’s beliefs can either have him not using his full potential and falling weak or using all of his powers to destroy himself and his humanity, similar to Akuma falling to the Satsui no Hado. Although seen as very dry and cold, he is passionate about his fighting and his friends that he has made along the way, taking in every fight as an experience that he wants to use to better himself.

Ryu is also the most balanced when it comes to learning and attributes. His hits give off quite an impact, while he has good speed and vitality to back him up. He is also the easiest character to learn, with most of his moves being simple quarter circle imputs, having coined the phrase “shoto”. His moves consist of a fireball (the Hadouken), uppercut (Shoryuken), and tatsu (hurricane kick). In most games he can charge up his Hadouken for a Shinkuu Hadouken (or Metsu in IV) or the Metsu Shoryuken, which literally has him hitting the character so hard, the screen turns white. He gets even more overpowered when in his “evil” form, which has him being buffed like Akuma, with devastating blows, though he tries to prevent his evil side from taking over for the sake of his humanity and friends.

Ryu to me is the fitting archetypal hero that represents the entire Street Fighter series as a whole. Not only did he inspire a long list of heroes that were similar to him, but a lot of fighting games adopted his shoto techniques and controls. In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that without Ryu and Ken’s first adventure, fighting games would never be what they are today. Ryu has played a huge role into videogames and is easily near the top of my favorite video game characters.

When thinking about Street Fighter, I think about Ryu. It makes me remember the epic moments, like him and Ken fighting in a field in the gusts in the Alpha series or his many encounters with Akuma, or the image of him unleashing his Shinkuu Hadouken. I also remember the amazing stage on top of a building in the twilight, in my favorite music track in Street Fighter (or one of my favorite video game tracks).
A Capcom fighter without Ryu just cannot work. I can say that along with Mega Man, Ryu is the face of Capcom, being the lead in one of the most important games in the entire genre and kick starting the competitive fighting trend. Just this piece alone makes him the perfect #1 choice.

It doesn’t matter what Capcom fighter I’m playing; Ryu will always be my main in every video game that features him. His whole scheme is extremely easy for me to get into and I always have the most fun playing as him. Ryu will always be the face of Street Fighter for me and one of my favorite faces in videogames.

Thanks for reading.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review

 

Theme of Phoenix Wright (Turnabout Mode)- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Nova- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Hey guys, and welcome to yet another one of my reviews, this time detailing one of my most anticipated titles in years. Before delving into it, I want to give you guys a history between Marvel vs. Capcom and me. Back when I was a kid, my dad gave me a few quarters to play a few games at those long forgotten places called arcades. I discovered Marvel vs. Capcom, and although I didn’t have the faintest clue about Capcom, I saw that you can play as Spider-Man and Venom, which in my stupid child mind made it the greatest game ever. Years later I saw Marvel vs. Capcom 2 at an arcade, and saw that Spider-Man and Venom were in it as well, and in my stupid middle schooler mind, it was one of the greatest games ever.

Over the years, I delved into the series more, playing the earlier titles and loving them all. Now in my stupid young adult mind, any game with Spider-Man will get me giddy, but it wasn’t that factor alone that made me love the games so much. It was that they were fun. Just plain fun, something that I love out of games. You didn’t need to learn intense combos or make strategies. You just chose your team and had a blast. Once I got my PS3 on November of 2009, I got Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and still love it to this day. Come April of last year and I scan the words Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and I couldn't believe what I read. A series that I thought was done was coming back and the trailer looked amazing. Over the months I tried to only know what characters were in it and didn’t look through much information because I wanted the same fresh experience I had with the other games. This was pretty much my experience with the series and my expectations were soaring with the game, and now I have played it to reach my final consensus in this review. Enjoy.

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Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (under review), Xbox 360
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom, Eighting
Release Date: February 15, 2011
Genre: Fighting

I never thought I would be saying this, but Marvel vs. Capcom is back. After years since the outstanding Marvel vs. Capcom 2, there have been no signs of a sequel, and many thought the series was dead. Now Capcom has resurrected the series for the new generation of consoles, boasting the same insane gameplay with a bit of balance and enhancements to the formula this time around. Is Marvel vs. Capcom 3 a ride you want to take once more, or should we dust off our copies of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and forget about this game?

The first thing that you will notice about that game is the overall presentation of the game. It seems that it took a sleek and overall futuristic look, rather than Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s jazzy and upbeat feel. The menus are nicely organized and easy to navigate through, with an offline mode and online mode submenu, along with a menu to see your statistics and your play style, with the option of comparing yours along with your friends. Along with that is a gallery, where you can look through songs, art, and models based on the game. The only thing I wish was that instead of a question mark for character endings you didn’t unlock, there can be some indicator of the missing character’s extras, because it can get annoying to go through a manual to look for characters you haven’t beat the game on Arcade Mode with. Aside from that, the menus and presentation are rather nice and the menu is easy enough to navigate through, despite the slight inconvenience.

The story in the game is simple, with it being that Doctor Doom and Albert Wesker have both combined forces with various Marvel villains to conquer both worlds. Unfortunately, Galactus is awoken and is bent on destroying the Earth. Determined to stop Galactus from succeeding, both worlds combine efforts to bring an end to this fate. Overall the story in the game is weak, albeit slightly improved from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The thing that bothers me the most is how great the graphics and story trailers leading into the game were, but the end result were comic book cutout endings with the same music tracks playing through. It was just an overall lazy effort by Capcom and all of the promised cameos were uninspired, like Ryu fighting Iron Fist and Hulk beating up Nemesis. It would have been much better if Capcom went with the in game cut scenes, or at the very least have animated ones like in Street Fighter IV. Overall, this was a weak effort and a missed opportunity for Capcom to bring in a neat, or at the very least, entertaining story.

I love me some guns!

Moving on to the graphics, they are nothing short of spectacular. While the series was always in 2D, the 3D brought into this makes the action so much lively and just as explosive as the previous games. The work from the MT Frameworks engine used in Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2 is obvious, making it a pretty and smooth game. All of the models look fantastic in the game, with jaw dropping visuals, both in the action and on the background. The game also runs at a very fast pace, just like the previous games in the series.

Stages are what steal the show in the visuals. Capcom took notes in what the fans wanted, and made a collection of stages based on the many properties, adding in a sleuth of detail. Stages range from a Ghosts N’ Goblins themed stage, having you traveling through a moat with the many enemies on the background, to The Daily Bugle with a giant Spider-Man balloon and many billboards of various characters, to a mixture of the Tricell and Umbrella facilities from the Resident Evil series, with Tyrant in the background and creatures breaking out if you cause enough damage. Overall, this game has some of the best looking visuals that Capcom has made, with fantastic stages. The only shame is the extremely low stage count, which is a disapppointment, considering how great the others looked.

You can’t have a fighting game without a diverse cast, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a great cast of characters. The series has some fantastic newcomers, such as Dante, Wesker, Deadpool, Mike Haggar, and Arthur from the Capcom side, and Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Phoenix, Dormammu, and X-23 (who is surprisingly one of my favorite characters in the game) from Marvel. What’s worth noting is how there are barely any useless characters in the game and how fun they are to play as. Many duos like X-23/Wolverine and Hulk/She-Hulk were originally thought to play similar, but in terms played completely different with their own diverse movesets. Many characters like Amaterasu were also cleverly given movesets to accommodate a fighting game, such as making the Celestial brush attacks implemented in the fighting.

The exchanges between the character pre and post-match are great and often hilarious

The best thing out of the cast is the wonderful exchanges and lines all of the characters have, which are very well done. These exchanges range from Spencer and Iron Man smack talking about each other’s robotic parts, to Deadpool mocking Magneto’s infamous “Welcome to die!” line from the X-Men arcade game. Speaking of Deadpool, he is absolutely fantastic and steals the show with his witty and humorous dialog. He constantly pokes fun at the other fighters (like asking the Street Fighter characters to autograph their spleens for him), including the players themselves, and goes as far as asking Capcom to be in the next Street Fighter. It’s just a blast hearing his constant talking and wit.

Capcom also took notes of the characters’ histories and threw in a few lines comic book fans can easily understand. These range from Deadpools’ replication of Ryu’s shoryuken, to Phoenix whispering “Scott” when she is knocked out, to Iron Man yelling “Avengers, assemble!” if you choose him along with Thor and Captain America. It’s these little touches that mean a ton to the fans, and the attention to detail is tremendous, with many of the character exchanges adding so much uniqueness to the fighting.

The only fault is that the Capcom side could have used a better cast, bringing in some more relatively unknown characters into the mix, or instead of so many Street Fighter II characters, brought in some Alpha or III characters like Ibuki or Rose. It also strikes me odd to see well known faces like Frank West, Gene from God Hand, and Phoenix Wright out of the picture, as they are very well established characters from Capcom.

A lot of favorites have been added along with some fantastic newcomers

Another thing I’d like to point out is that many of the characters have sported different looks from their popular models, with some turning out rather fine. For instance, Wolverine is sporting his Astonishing X-Men uniform than his popular 1990’s outfit, while Iron Man uses his Extremis suit. Many alternate outfits reference other eras in the characters’ histories, such as Spider-Man’s symbiotic suit and one of Viewtiful’s Joe’s outfits being a reference to Captain Blue.

The Capcom side of change felt rather unnecessary. Many characters such as Chris and Rad Spencer have on their outfits from the less popular games like the Bionic Commando reboot and *shiver* Resident Evil 5. Other than Wife Arm and Chris, the other character who I have gripes with is Jill. I mean, seriously. What’s your problem, Capcom? After months of hoping that she would be announced, you bring her in, but in the form that nobody likes? Way to go, you made my favorite character in the series my least favorite character in this game. Some of the choices like Wife Arm or horrendous Jill makes it seem as though Capcom was intentionally trying to troll the fans, in which they succeeded.

The gameplay has the same approach as the previous game in the series. You choose 3 characters, with 3 assist types, ranging from projectile to close hits. Assists can be done by pressing either R1 or L1, depending on who you want to summon, and holding either button switches to the specified character. One assist type that I have noticed being gone is the heal type, which is fine, considering how the game is more forgiving in restoring lost health through chaining Hypers and exchanging characters, all which allow you to restore lost health, indicated by the red portion of your health bar. Assists also play the same way, and have the same opportunity to lose twice as much as health if hit during performing an assist, although it is apparent that assist characters have a smaller amount of time to be able to be hit by the opponent, as they are invulnerable once they start their taunt after their attack.

You may be initially annoyed with an overhaul of controls, but they are absolutely fantastic

The controls received an overhaul and features a mixture between Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The square, triangle, and circle buttons are unspecified light, medium, and heavy attacks, while the x button is a launcher. Launchers, as the name suggests, launch your opponent in the air to start air combos. The air is also where most of the action takes place, where you learn to do air combos and exchange characters to extend the combos. In order to exchange a character during a combo, you must launch them in the air and proceed to start a combo. Once you have a combo flowing, you press the launch button, indicated by a red flash your character has. You can exchange up to 2 times, yet also have the opportunity to chain Hypers together.

Although there is the option of exchanging, the opponent can do an aerial counter by pressing the same direction and launch button as the combo breaker. This causes the person to lose their combo and gives the opponent time to regain ground from a safe distance.

Hypers are also done the same way as they were in the previous games, with pressing 2 attack buttons while making a stick movement simultaneously, with regular Hypers taking a bar away from the Hyper Meter, while a Level 3 takes 3 bars away. The Hyper Meter can be replenished by damaging or taking damage from the opponent, as well as blocking, and unlike the previous games, your meter does not increase from attacking without connection. The maximum amount of Levels a Hyper Meter can have is 5, with actions like Snap Backs and Cross Over Counters taking a bar each. Also returning is the dash button, which is used by pressing R2 instead of forward twice. This is a much needed return, as the console versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 didn’t contain it, making some combos a lot harder than they needed to be. Also, doing a Team Combo is much easier. With the press of L2, you can have your characters team up and perform their Hypers, which sets up for a high amount of damage.

Quite possibly the greatest move ever created for a fighting game

New to the gameplay are Level 3 Hypers, taking the cinematic approach from Street Fighter IV. It also seems that Capcom paid attention to the fact that the Ultras in the game were extremely overpowered, in which they made sure to not make the Level 3 Hypers too destructive. The cinematic approach taken is brief but all look great, with shots of the character giving a severe beating, such as Iron Man dragging his opponent through the floor, then throwing them in the air before shooting a large unibeam from his chest. Many of the moves are devastating and sometimes humorous, like She-Hulk throwing a car at the opponent while commenting on her disdain for Sunday drivers, or Deadpool literally hitting the opponent with his health and Hyper bar, before taking a giant baseball swing with the latter. Moves like these are absolutely hysterical and never get old. Overall, the Level 3 Hypers are a welcome addition and bring in even more insanity to the already insane gameplay.

If all of this sounds like too much, you can always use the new Simple Mode, which maps special moves and Hypers at the press of a button. I personally found this to be very unnecessary, as it adds nothing to the game and makes the gameplay itself much less rewarding, while adding nothing to the experience of what makes a fighting game fun.  Although the Simple Mode is pointless, the control system in this game is a very fun one, and has a good mixture of prediction and strategy blended in together.

The final thing worth noting about the new additions to the gameplay is the X-Factor, which once per match, boosts your stats for a limited period of time by pressing the four face buttons at the same time. The less characters you have, the longer you have it and the stronger you are. The X-Factor omits chip damage and allows you to regain your lost health from the red portion of your health. Overall, I found this to be very unnecessary to the game and it literally adds nothing other than a chance for the opponent to win. There will be plenty of times when you are on the verge of winning, but one X-Factor will destroy you. It’s just so meaningless and I would have preferred a better system or a way to disable it.

Always chaotic; never dull

The fighting overall is pretty deep, but mostly relies on crazy and fast paced action, which is exactly what the fans want. It delivers a ton of explosive action, while being extremely fun. This game will definitely be played for high periods of time just for the insane fun alone, and with the new system you always want to test out new characters and teams to see how they flow together. This is definitely one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a while.

Fate of Two Worlds- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Arthur- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Wolverine- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Spider-Man- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Ryu- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Theme of Amaterasu- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

I Wanna Take You For A Ride Remix- Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Aside from the gameplay and characters, the sound is another leading triumph in the game. To put it this way, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has one of the best soundtracks in a fighting game, bringing in many old favorites remixed, while also throwing in some fantastic new tunes that match the style and personalities of characters. Many themes such as the Ghost N’ Goblins theme have been revamped with a guitar cover, and many well known theme’s in the series, such as Captain America’s have gotten modernized versions of their themes, all of which sound fantastic. My personal favorite is Spider-Man’s, and many others such as Captain America, Amaterasu, Ryu, Deadpool (which is absolute nonsense, fitting the character perfectly), and a ton of others. The only theme that I was not a fan of was X-23’s which was just awful. Other than that, the soundtrack, even going as far as the music playing on the Continue screen is nothing short of fantastic, bringing in a mix of revamped and new, making it huge fan service, while appealing to newcomers.

Along with the fantastic music comes the fantastic voice acting, with many of the characters sounding right on par with how they ought to be. The English voice actors in particular did a fantastic job on newcomers like Mike Haggar, Arthur, Super Skrull, and many others. Other characters like Iron Man and Doctor Doom have a robotic tone in their voice, which is appropriate for their characters, while the Street Fighter characters sound like they did in Street Fighter IV (which I switched to Japanese). All of the characters sound fantastic, and it shows how much of an amazing job Capcom did on their characters.

The game may not have a ton of content, but the quality is tremendous

The replayability will mostly come from repeated playthroughs of the single player mode and the online mode. The single player is only an Arcade Mode, Training Mode, VS Mode, and a Mission Mode. Arcade Mode will have you facing 6 rounds of opponents, then ending with Galactus, which is pretty standard stuff. The offline multiplayer options is something I wish had more depth to, as Street Fighter IV has bots that played as they did in Arcade Mode, and it would have been nice if it carried over to this game.

The Mission Mode is basically a tutorial on combo making, starting off with simple combos to do, while eventually moving on to harder stuff like linking attacks and canceling them to extend and add more damage to your combo. While a standard tutorial for newcomers would have also been nice, this is a good addition for those yearning to pull off some well orchestrated combos.

Online flows rather well has the same matchmaking system as Street Fighter IV, which was based on skill. Your skill is determined through your License Card, which states your strong and weak points, and also gives you a rank, which is based on your wins. There are ranked and unranked matches, with the former increasing your experience and ups your ranks, while the latter is for casual matches. So far, the online has not been bad at all, and the slow downs really come down to whether you have a bad connection or not. While the online play is good, one large downer is the fact that you can’t save replays or there even being a Spectator Mode, like in Street Fighter IV. This is a huge loss, as sitting in the lobby with a group of friends is very boring and unexciting, as you can only see the fighters’ health drop. Hopefully there is a DLC patch in the future that serves this lacking area.

Mission Mode teaches the beginners some basic and advanced combos

Another fault found in this game is that Capcom never really worked on delivering a story or a mode to accommodate it, rather just throwing in the characters with lackluster endings in an Arcade Mode. There are character bios and unlockable art pieces, but some of the history is a bit sketchy and nor really researched. For example, they put Deadpool’s real name as unknown, whereas the comics have specifically stated his name is Wade Wilson, while Wolverine was stated as unintelligent in the game, whereas in the comics, Wolverine’s increased lifespan was taken advantage of by him to learn of many cultures and languages, making him a rather intelligent figure. While the inaccuracies are forgivable, the Story Mode felt like a missed opportunity. This is 2011, and many fighters before this have had Story Modes and have done a great job on it, and this laziness is no excuse. Hopefully with newer competition, Capcom can finally work on delivering an actual story with more modes rather than the standard modes we have been seeing for years.

DLC can also play a huge role in replayability, with the opportunity to add new characters, stages, modes, and many other elements to add some lasting value. This is great news, but my biggest concern is that Capcom will try to overprice their future DLC, taking advantage of the fans. This is evident by releasing DLC characters for $5 each, which is absurd, with the absurdity being the fan favorite STARS uniform of Chris being with other remarkable iterations of characters for another $5. This is just taking advantage of fans, and is a very unfair, smart, yet dishonest approach to people supporting the game, and knowing Capcom, a Super Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which makes the original invalid, can very much so be possible.

Although flawed, it's everything I wanted from an MvC sequel. In other words, it's perfect

While many may be turned off by these negativities, do not look into these issues too hard to detract you from the fantastic experience that this game has to offer. Albeit there being a lack of content outside of the fighting, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is one of the most fun fighting games in years, and one of the best times you will have with the fighting genre. The amount of effort put into the fighting and characters surrounding it is tremendous and the joy of playing the series’ basis of explosive action and ridiculous outcomes is intact. Fans of the series will fall in love with the game and have fun like no other. In the end, it might not be the fighter with the most outside content to offer, but it’s the fighter that with the most heart and fun. In my opinion, this is a love letter and thank you from Capcom to the fans who held the series dearly, bringing in fantastic graphics, music, dialog, and characters, all wrapped up in amazingly fun gameplay. Thank you Capcom for bringing back a series I loved and thought was long dead, and thank you for allowing me to have the most fun I’ve had with a game for years.

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Pros:

+Fast paced and ridiculous action that the series is known for
+The new button layout is easy to pick up and a ton of fun
+Ridiculously fun
+The online play flows smoothly
+Amazing graphics catching the comic book feel
+Mission Mode gives you some help in getting used to the game and combos
+The exchanges between characters are great and add personality to the mix
+A great cast of characters, with the Marvel side being excellent
+Most of the characters are useful and distinctive, making very little slots felt wasted
+Tons of references to the respective comic books and series
+Some newcomers like Dormammu and X-23 are surprisingly excellent
+Deadpool
+Level 3 Hypers are well done, yet not overpowered
+An amazing soundtrack bringing in many classics and adding some good ones
+The fighting will keep you coming back for more

Cons:

-The Capcom side is good, but could have been better
-The story is weak, with no effort in even telling it
-The number of stages is pathetic
-X-Factor is pointless and adds nothing to the fighting. It would have been nice to have an option to turn it off
-Some characters have the wrong incarnations, like Wife-Arm instead of Rad
-A Vs. for 1 Player and some more extras would have been nice
-No Spectator Mode makes lobbies a bit boring
-The DLC is ridiculously overpriced
-I miss MvC 2 Jill ;-;
-Seriously. How can I troll Alex, now?
-WHY IS RE 5 JILL IN THIS!? SHE SUCKS! STARS JILL IS 1000 TIMES BETTER! CAPCOM, I AM GOING TO MARCH IN YOUR OFFICES AND {censored] AND AFTER THAT [censored] AND WHEN I’M DONE, I’LL TAKE YOUR CUT OFF ARM AND [censored] UNTIL [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] In short, I was not pleased by this decision

Final Words: I love this game, there’s no doubt. My worries I initially had were swept away when I was blown away by the amazing fighting and fun gameplay. Although I wish there was a story mode and some extra content, the fighting is so addictive and fun that it doesn’t ruin the experience at all. While some may be turned off by the lack of extra content, the game is perfect for me. Being a fan since X-Men vs. Street Fighter, I was wary that the game might not reach my expectations, but I was blown away. Just the fact that I’m playing a game in a series I thought was long dead is a dream come true, and bringing in my favorite characters along with fantastic additions like Deadpool, Dante, and Mike Haggar makes this even more fantastic. I don’t care what anybody thinks of my verdict, but this is the most fun I’ve had with a videogame in years, and this not only has a firm chance of being my game of the year, but it’s the best fighter I’ve played this generation, with only Street Fighter IV coming close to surpassing it. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a firm reminder to me that at times the quantity may be low, but the quality is tremendous. Honestly, every person has a certain game that is perfect in their eyes and represents their enjoyment with this medium and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is it for me, being just as good if not better than its predecessor. Whether or not you agree with my opinion is fine, but Capcom has created a game that I can gladly call one of my favorites and reminded me why I like playing games in the first place.

Buy it or Drop It?- Buy It!