I surprised myself last week when I was given the opportunity to take home a free copy of Street Fighter IV (no, not as a bribe from Capcom, thanks for asking)… and didn’t. I thought about it for a few seconds and realized that, great as the game looks and as much affection as I have for the Street Fighter series, I have no real interest in playing it. I like that it exists — I’m thrilled that it exists, really, because it’s another sign that Capcom gets it, probably better than any other major publisher. But it would be pointless for me to own a copy of SFIV, because I doubt I would ever play it. I’ll probably drop ¥100 into an arcade unit next time I’m in Japan, just for the quick gratification of playing it with proper controls, but in my own free time? Nah.
I’ll admit that I will regret missing out on Chun-Li’s freakish hamfists, though. Man, she could palm a watermelon with those things.
Honestly, I’m really happy that I can pass up a game this good and not feel like I’m missing out. There are so many good releases these days, so many games perfectly suited to my tastes, that it’s pointless to try and keep up with things that I’m only sort of interested in. I may run a blog about the good ol’ days, but I’m really motivated more by an interest in the history and evolution of the medium than some impossible sense of nostalgia. There was a big chunk of the Super NES era where I stopped gaming altogether because it was so hard to find releases that really interested me, and $70 was too much to spend on titles that were only tangentially of interest.
Dang kids these days don’t know how good they got it. Mumble grumble.
Bet you grabbed DQV instead. *sniffs* Jerk ;)
No, I passed on selections altogether. A game like DQV you gotta spend your own pesos on, however poor you may be.
Alright, more ham-fisted Chun for me.
Dude, come on. It may be the best fighting game of all time, sit yo ass down and play it! :P
Ooops… forgot my initials. Do pardon me.
Yeah, to each his own, I guess, but this is one heck of a wrong game to turn down. Haha… It would be like rationalizing that there are too many good movies out there, so why watch [insert masterpiece here]? For free. However, since you mention the controls, and the 360 d-pad is so dad-blamed awful, I understand your reluctance completely. I shelled out for two of the Mad Catz controllers (the regular Saturn-esque pads), and it’s the only way I would ever have considered buying it. So, with that in mind, I totally see why. No need to rationalize it any farther than, “I don’t want to spring for any more controllers, and this great-looking game is unenjoyable without them.”
EDIT: I sort of messed up. Left off my initials/Name in the previous post which, I’m guessing, gets deleted automatically. So, I’m reposting what I typed just so the prior comment, which was actually my subsequent comment, will make a bit more since. Maybe. Carry on… Carry on…
I definitely understand why you turned down the game. It would be like having a home port of the Simpsons arcade game or the X-Men arcade game. It’s a quick-fix game for you. Besides, you got through most of the game the last time you were in Japan and it seems like the brunt of your time with the home game would be spent beating Seth. It just doesn’t make sense to pick up the game if you don’t enjoy the minutiae.
Man, if there’s one thing I can empathize with it’s being overwhelmed by good games. There’s no point in grabbing SF IV if you just aren’t going to get around to playing it any time soon.
SHC:
You’re right, of course. It’s impossible for anyone’s tastes to differ in any way from some arbitrary standard. Personally, I understand exactly what he’s talking about.
I followed SFIV’s development with actually a lot of interest, but then one day I was watching a video of it and I’m like, man, this is just…Street Fighter. And even though I’m a big fan of what they did with the graphics, I was watching that “Evolution of Chun Li” thing on 1UP and you forget that the SFIII graphics were so sublime. 2D forevar!!
If you think it’s that good you would take it home and find the time to spend the 20 minutes it takes to play through it. Not to mention, of course, that it’s free of charge. Unless you don’t like fighting games that much.
My goodness! Apparently I don’t know my own tastes and interests and how I’d like to spend my free time as well as unknown people on the Internet do.
I struggle with myself to reconcile the fact that there are just SO MANY games these days. I’m used to a handful of blockbusters and a few niche titles a year, but the niche titles alone are overwhelming now.
Calorie Mate: Agreed. Used to be that a new strategy RPG (for instance) was a rare treat. Nowadays, there’s far too much stuff being released to take it all in, even if you only focus on one or two genres.
I could say I feel the same way about most RPGs these days. Although its too bad you’re not more interested SF4. Being a devoted fighting game fan that plays SF in some form on a weekly basis, I was really happy to see how many people SF4 has brought back into the genre in just the few weeks it has been out. The surge in local tournaments, g2gs, and just general chatter about it is really helping to fill that void that the US arcade scene left behind. Back when you played games in the same room with other people and you liked it dang nabbit!
You’ll be missing out on the closest thing to a Fighting Game renaissance the U.S. has had since SFII, but since you were around for that, that probably won’t mean nearly as it does to you as it does a younger SF fan like me.
You know, I almost wish the industry would shrink a little so that there wasn’t quite so much coming down the pipe. I used to try to play every good game. I don’t anymore, but my inability to do so still nags at me. Congratulations on achieving enlightenment in that area, parish.
I had to buy it since I bought the SFIV branded Tournament Edition arcade stick! Man, that’s a sweet arcade stick.
I understand passing up SFIV — especially now that there are so many viable inde developers in niche genres (you know, like the RPG puzzle genre), and the fact that hundreds of great old games are seeing new life, especially on portables. I actually love short games, such as the PA Adventures, or Braid, that I can both sample and finish.
That said, SFIV is brilliant. Truly the best melding of high-end 3D with spirited animation I’ve seen, period. I hope more 3D titles manage to look this expressive. Even the ink shading is spot-on.
I didn’t THINK my comment was so presumptuous. My apologies. I should’ve just said, “I think you’re missing out and left it at that,” I guess.
Hmm… a dollar at a crowded arcade versus free at home. No sir, that’s not good economics.
It’s a sentiment I can understand and kind of share. There are quite a few titles that I have passed on–Grand Theft Auto: The Lost & The Damned, Resistance 2, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Fable 2, Disgaea 3, deBlob, Tales of Vesperia, The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Killzone 2, etc.–in the last few months that I would not have hesitated to buy a year or two ago. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything because there’s just so many games that suite my tastes. I don’t feel the need to buy and play every good to great game that comes out anymore because there is so little time to play the games I am truly interested in.
I would’ve traded you a whole batch of my amazing chocolate chip cookies for it but TOO LATE.