A Quick Look at Anime Expo 2009

Review: Street Fighter IV vs. King of Fighters XII

Vs.





A lot of people wonder which game deserves the title of best next gen fighting game. The two games that mostly come to mind are Street Fighter IV and King Of Fighters XII. Well wait no longer because we decided to give you an in-depth review of both games and how they stack up against each other. Each game will be reviewed in an unbiased manner. Also both games will receive a complete rundown of all concrete details just to show you exactly what we mean.


Story:
In the Street Fighter Series there has always been a key villain trying to make some world dominating plan to either enslave humanity or destroy the human populace. Such examples are M. Bison, Gill and in this case Seth. The downfall with street fighter has always been their shaky storylines. So much of the stories are non existent and a majority of the rest has nothing to do with the main storyline. Mostly the only characters that matter are Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, M. Bison and whoever the final boss is. The Street Fighter Series lacks continuity with their very lax storylines and because of this the game suffers.


The King of Fighters series, however, has never had this problem. Each character or team (ex: Fatal Fury Team, Ikari Team, Korea Team, etc.) has a very well drawn out storyline and each storyline intertwines with the others. You had storylines involving Ash Crimson, the mysterious NESTS organization and Orochi, the demon with a large human flowing. The King of Fighters series has never dropped the ball when it came to the basic storyline and each character plays a part.


The Verdict:


Even though both games share some minor points the Street Fighter series has not evolved the characters and the storyline enough to make a decent impact. The characters stay the same and they never seem to ever experience personal growth of any kind. Whereas the King of Fighter series keeps interesting plot turns and twists happening to keep you buying those new games.


Street Fighter IV: 0    King Of Fighters XII: 1


Presentation:


The Pros:
Both games have some a long way from their predecessors. King of Fighters XII made a quantum leap with their new innovative design. Instead of the computer generated pixilated character they gave us strictly drawn characters. Not only did the characters have a fresh new look which made us do a double take but the backgrounds and the way the specials were drawn was incredible. The Backgrounds were very bright and innovative and it really got you into the game.





Street Fighter IV has also made an incredible impact on the fighting game world with this latest installment of the Street Fighter series. Capcom made a game with 3-D graphics on a 2-D plane. Not only did they do that but they changed the style of drawing so it has more of a calligraphy feel to it. Each stage also has a lot of background participation like when you hit something or fall on the ground various objects will fall or people will be shaken up. It is an incredible piece of gaming art.



The Cons:
Both games share similar problems but in a different light. King Of Fighters XII went too far with the graphics. The backgrounds aren’t bad but they are too good. The fact that the background is more distracting to the gamer than the move list is a very big problem. Street Fighter IV, however, made a slightly different error. They didn’t go far enough when it was needed. The calligraphy look is great from afar. However, when moves are being done up-close and you see everything it starts to appear ugly and deformed.


The Verdict:
After long hours of gameplay we have to pass the torch to Street Fighter IV. The main reason why is because they gave us a 3-D style game but without the 3-D fighting plane. The graphics are superb compared to King of Fighters XII and when Ryu charges up his Shinku Hadoken Capcom really shows us how good graphics can be in a fighting game.
Street Fighter IV: 1    King Of Fighters XII: 1


Gameplay:
Gameplay will make or break a game and no game title is exempt from this test. Street Fighter IV changed the way the Street Fighter series was played. The moves are a lot easier to apply compared to the older titles. Not only is it easier for a common gamer they added new features which include the focus attack, the ultra meter and improving the tech and parry system. They brought new characters like Crimson Viper, Abel, Rufus and El Fuerte and brought back some favorites like Gen, Rose, Dan and Sakura. The game is very innovative but it suffers from some flaws. Besides the fact that gameplay is slow Capcom has always had a problem with prioritizing moves in a very annoying way. Certain moves like Rose’s Super/Ultra will not miss unless you are on the other side of the screen but then again who would activate the move so far away. Also certain moves will just be overwhelmed by others. Blanka’s Roll Attack can be obliterated by Ken’s Shoriyuken. This is an annoyance for most gamers who use a move and get beat by one move because of priority settings.



King of Fighters XII has made new innovations for the King of Fighters series. They added the new critical counter mode which in a nutshell allows you to counter large combos which gives this game an added dimension in gameplay. As is a real fight a split second can turn the tides for any match. This game embodies that theory and shows that a split second can and will change everything. This game puts the phrase, “Never Say Die,” into action. The King of Fighters series has always had balanced gameplay and XII is no exception. You still keep the great balance of defensive and offensive maneuvers and the excellent finishers. However, each game comes with its share of bugs otherwise you would never buy another game. King of Fighters XII eliminated the tactical shift system which allowed you to shift team members without leaving yourself vulnerable just like Marvel vs. Capcom. Besides that they also removed more than half of the cast of characters and eliminated all teams which is painful for most gamers. So say a final goodbye to all the teams and many of your favorite characters.



The Verdict:
This is a very hard call to make especially since both games are very good but we believe that King of Fighters XII deserves this spot. Not just because they made a great formula but they kept a lot of things that were great in the games. Street Fighter IV has bugs that have been there since the beginning and it’s hard to see why they haven’t been fixed or changed whatsoever. It’s nice to see new characters but certain that annoy fans should be taken into consideration.


Street Fighter IV: 1    King Of Fighters XII: 2


Now we are not saying you should dismiss the latter of the two games both games are fun to play and are worth the buy. Capcom and SNK Playmore have really outdone themselves with these two titles and they are really fun if you own a PS3 or an XBOX 360 buy both games they will not disappoint you.
Street Fighter IV: 9.4    King Of Fighters XII: 9.5

Review: Battlefield 1943 (PSN, XBLA, PC)

DICE released another battlefield game and this time it’s actually a download! Well then, that means the people here at BC are excited to be taking part of WWII again. (well….kinda), but don’t get us wrong, this game is pretty fun to play.


Presentation:


Ok, since this a battlefield game, it should look good right? Yes, yes it does, the people from DICE know how to make their environment beautiful to look at. So let’s start with the basics, this game takes place in WWII, as so the title says, which takes place in the Pacific Ocean, where the Americans and the Japanese tried to control as many islands as possible. Basically it’s very similar to its 1942 counter-part, but it just looks better, the maps have been reduced into 3 areas and has been revamped in many ways. With that said, the people from DICE made this game to look as beautiful. The 3 Islands (Wake, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal) never looked so good: grass are green, Trees and buildings get destroyed, and of course, lots and lots of explosions, plus the maps are GINORMOUS!!!. As for the sound, well DICE never failed on that department. Guns of WWII sound very authentic and the distant noise of gun fire and explosions when battles are taking place immerse you in the game.

Now for the down side. Well since this game only feature 3 maps (plus a 4th hidden one), it gets old, too old. As much as it’s great for eye candy, we wanted more variety of maps. We know the game is just 15 US smackers, but c’mon 3? The buildings in this game weren’t that great either, the environment is great, but the buildings feel very bland as if it were a last minute thing. We see beautiful scenery in all islands and the buildings that are almost the same color as the sand or even darker or lighter than what the map is that it feels like it’s misplaced, but that’s just a small complaint though because nobody really cares if a building is “bland” if the game is fun.


Gameplay:


Speaking of fun, BF 1943 shows why the people of DICE are good with multiplayer. It’s the basic multiplayer everybody craves or it’s one of those titles where “simplicity is at its best”. The game has reduced the selection of types of units into 3: Rifleman, Infantry, and Scout. The rifleman is your basic troop type, it’s good for attack and defense and anti-infantry etc. etc. The infantry is your heavy hitter, they carry your sub-machine gun and Bazooka for a quick fix against tanks or any other enemy within range. The last class is the scout, the long range sniper stealth unit which takes out enemies from a distance. It’s a good balance of forces with each carrying their own strengths and weaknesses. Vehicles are also present in the game, which consists of planes, tanks, jeeps, and landing platforms, plus some turrets as well. The core of the game is basically conquest: capture as many territories, the team that has less territories will gradually lose reinforcement points or the little health bar thing on the middle-top of the screen. Also, you can integrate your BF: Bad Company veteran status in the game as well. The all-famous Frostbite engine makes another appearance in this game, which means only one thing: COMPLETE ENVIRONMENT DESTRUCTION! What this means that if there is andything in the game that can be destroyed, thou have the powerth to so. A sniper hiding behind a wall? Blow all cover into bits and pieces, you need a short cut through the buildings? MAKE ONE! Oh and did we mention that there is dog fighting in this game? As in aerial combat? Oh and on that note, the 4th hiddenlevel can only be unlocked if A certain console (either the Xbox 360 or PS3) reaches the recrd of 43 million kills, so the race is on. Basically you get what you pay for for this game isnce it only costs about 1200 MS points (XBLA) or $15 for the PSN.





The downside of the game is just a minor common complaint: WE HAVE SEEN/DONE THIS BEFORE! I mean the game is good, but seriously, another WWII? We’ve seen the weapons, we drove all the vehicles, we know the story and history which is simple: Axis bad, Allies good, so there is really no point on playing WWII games OVER AND OVER AGAIN! UNLESS, the game is fun and it gives of the new experience feel to it, like this game so we’ll let that one slide. The only other problem that this game has is that the controls can be hard to get used to at first and aircrafts take time in getting used to, aside from that everything is great.


So there you have it, for those people who got bored of their CODs or just want to have a multiplayer experience that is just simply fun, this is the game your looking for. DICE proves that you don’t really need to have so much good stuff in a game to make it fun, you just need the essentials. Besides, if you look beyond the WWII genere, you’ll find a great multiplayer experiece waiting. With all that said, Broken Controllers gives this game a:


Score: 8.6/10