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Fighting Games Weekly | December 31 - January 6 | 2013 brings some new challengers!

Most of my arcade experiences were mall arcades, and while there were some sketchy kids from time to time, mostly it was some civil shit at the giant Super Street Fighter II cab. The Mortal Kombat II cab got sorta rowdy, and the nerdy kids would gravitate towards Samurai Shodown II, but nobody ever really got in fights over catching a loss or two. or four. Sure, there was salt, but my arcade experiences weren't anything like the 2001-2002 era Marvel vids you see circulated on youtube where motherfuckers are acting like twiddling a joystick and slapping buttons make them some sort of hardrock or whatever.

That shit always mystified me - the way people sublimated their need to feel hard via such a fucking square-assed activity. Like: if you wanna pretend to be a gangster, go slang nickel-sacks of pencil shavings & oregano outside the mall, shoplift 40s from the 7-Eleven. Don't spend 12 hours a day trying to build a rep as the best Mags/Storm/Sent at the Electric Circus inside the Lancaster Mall and think that's gonna count for ANYTHING resembling an actual "rep" anywhere outside that fucking arcade.
 
lets start 2012 correctly.

missiles is ass. lupinko is ass. vergil is for scrubs. firebrand is overrated bullshit. zero is better than your team. no, strange is not good. fuck you capcom we aren't playing sf x t.

j5ikF7FtzwxJu.jpg
 

CPS2

Member
one time i was playing tekken at the arcade and asked the guy to let me do a button check but he totally just came at me while i was trying to figure it out. And i just want to let all the ladies in the FGC know that i would never hit you in a fighting game.
 

Conceited

mechaniphiliac
MvC2, The Simpsons Arcade Game, ST, X-men (6 person cab), and UMK3 were the most popular games at my local arcade when I was growing up.

Marvel was by far and away the most popular of those, people loved dat roster.
 
MvC2, The Simpsons Arcade Game, ST, X-men (6 person cab), and UMK3 were the most popular games at my local arcade when I was growing up.

Marvel was by far and away the most popular of those, people loved dat roster.

Yeah, Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the most popular cabs at my arcade. The fighting games were popular, but never the biggest deals. NBA Jam? THAT game had fights break out. By fights I mean some shouted insults and sulking. But the fighting games were always like street chess more than anything. SERIOUS people lined up at those cabs, but they never got shitty with each other.

I only got good at Ms. Pac-Man because in that era, at my arcade, nobody played the "old" games, so I got to basically sit on the classic cabs all by myself for a couple hours.
 
I always burnt all my money on MvC2, Area 51, and
Killer Instinct
. I'm going to check out the Galloping Ghost Arcade on my birthday. $15 for free play all day sounds like a blast.
 
I always burnt all my money on MvC2, Area 51, and
Killer Instinct
. I'm going to check out the Galloping Ghost Arcade on my birthday. $15 for free play all day sounds like a blast.

I really wish you guys could live in Portland just to feel what it's like to know the single best arcade in the entire country, Ground Kontrol, is never more than 15 minutes away AT MOST from anywhere in the city limits.

$5 free play nights every Wednesday, every week. Alpha 3, SFII CE, SFIII: 3s, MKII, SamShoII, MvC2? So good. And people ALWAYS give a handshake and a "good game" after every match, win or lose. It's fuckin great.
 
I really wish you guys could live in Portland just to feel what it's like to know the single best arcade in the entire country, Ground Kontrol, is never more than 15 minutes away AT MOST from anywhere in the city limits.

$5 free play nights every Wednesday, every week. Alpha 3, SFII CE, SFIII: 3s, MKII, SamShoII, MvC2? So good. And people ALWAYS give a handshake and a "good game" after every match, win or lose. It's fuckin great.
I haven't been to a non-retro arcade in a decade, so I'm sure I'd love it even if it weren't as great as you just said, haha. My father collects and restores old pinball machines, so I usually go to expos with him. I always get looks of derision when I say I play videogames...

How many people usually show up on Wednesdays, and how long are the lines?
 
Kinda random but if you have a 360 (and I think it's on PC) Battle High is a decent fighter for just a buck. Reminds me a lot of an SNK game for various reasons.

If we're talking about playing arcade games, when I was a kid and beat SF2 at the local Walmart with Honda I gave the rest of my quarters to the kid watching (and who later helped me mash the punch button, lol) I was so fucking happy. Samurai Showdown 2 had mind-blowing graphics. As did the Virtua Fighter series. Tekken was great and 3 was an incredible leap. Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct were both a bit intimidating. I think XMEN vs SF gave me a slight seizure once. Other than SF2, Soul Calibur is what I played the most. I'd play the DC version (greatest launch game ever, nothing has come close to impressing me that much going from arcade to home hardware) and go to the arcade to play the inferior version against live people for a couple of summers.
 
I haven't been to a non-retro arcade in a decade, so I'm sure I'd love it even if it weren't as great as you just said, haha. My father collects and restores old pinball machines, so I usually go to expos with him. I always get looks of derision when I say I play videogames...

How many people usually show up on Wednesdays, and how long are the lines?

Lines aren't that bad. Thing about Portland is that awesome things end up getting taken for granted after awhile. Not to say it won't get crowded - but you're gonna get in on free play nights within 5 minutes at the most.

Upstairs is almost entirely dedicated to pinball machines, by the way. At least 30 of em up there, like Star Trek: TNG, Pin-Bot, High Speed, Lord of the Rings, South Park, Addams Family, etc..

Plus there's an open bar (hard liks/beer) and some pub grub. The site has some pretty decent pics of how everything's laid out, and this page lists the 90 cabs currently in rotation (they swap em out every so often - looks like SamShoII is no longer running.)
 
Does Chuck E. Cheese count as an arcade?

It counts as an arcade a hell of a lot more than it ever counted as a pizza place.

It was founded by Nolan Bushnell of Atari almost entirely as a means to get more arcade machines installed. The pizza was an afterthought. The kids were there to play video games, piss in the ball pit, and that's it.
 

Conceited

mechaniphiliac
Lines aren't that bad. Thing about Portland is that awesome things end up getting taken for granted after awhile. Not to say it won't get crowded - but you're gonna get in on free play nights within 5 minutes at the most.

Upstairs is almost entirely dedicated to pinball machines, by the way. At least 30 of em up there, like Star Trek: TNG, Pin-Bot, High Speed, Lord of the Rings, South Park, Addams Family, etc..

Plus there's an open bar (hard liks/beer) and some pub grub. The site has some pretty decent pics of how everything's laid out, and this page lists the 90 cabs currently in rotation (they swap em out every so often - looks like SamShoII is no longer running.)

That's a pretty sweet lineup of cabs.
 

alstein

Member
Most of my arcade experiences were mall arcades, and while there were some sketchy kids from time to time, mostly it was some civil shit at the giant Super Street Fighter II cab. The Mortal Kombat II cab got sorta rowdy, and the nerdy kids would gravitate towards Samurai Shodown II, but nobody ever really got in fights over catching a loss or two. or four. Sure, there was salt, but my arcade experiences weren't anything like the 2001-2002 era Marvel vids you see circulated on youtube where motherfuckers are acting like twiddling a joystick and slapping buttons make them some sort of hardrock or whatever.

That shit always mystified me - the way people sublimated their need to feel hard via such a fucking square-assed activity. Like: if you wanna pretend to be a gangster, go slang nickel-sacks of pencil shavings & oregano outside the mall, shoplift 40s from the 7-Eleven. Don't spend 12 hours a day trying to build a rep as the best Mags/Storm/Sent at the Electric Circus inside the Lancaster Mall and think that's gonna count for ANYTHING resembling an actual "rep" anywhere outside that fucking arcade.

Only got attacked once at the arcades, and that was over a crap SFA game where a scrub got mad cause I mad disrespected him after he talked shit by turning my back to the screen and beating him.
 

smurfx

get some go again
Back to the future...

Such a cool car. I remember getting on the ride for this IP at Universal studios in my teenage years. Flying into the T-Rex's mouth was some fucked up shit. The line literally circled around and around the building too.

Good memories
it always has a giant line no matter what it is. when i went to get on the simpsons ride it was giant line. at least they play some clips on tv's while you wait.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
I don't even think fighting games were popular in the arcades I frequented outside of the SF2/MK era. I never played 'em much, anyway.

My games of choice were:
- various beat-em-ups (early 90s)
- Daytona USA (mid-late 90s)
- Pump It Up + DDR (00s)

It's impossible to convey to modern gamers how absolutely mindblowing Daytona's 8-player attract demo was to a 10 year old in 1994, when your average home consumer's experience was limited to Genesis and SNES. Imagine that thing spread across 8 huge DX cabs and taking up an entire wall of the room. The game had an aura of sorts that few others ever matched for me.

All I can do when reminiscing on it now is balk at how modern console generational shifts feel completely inadequate. Diminishing returns for sure.
 
I don't even think fighting games were popular in the arcades I frequented outside of the SF2/MK era. I never played 'em much, anyway.

Had the same experience, golden axe or ninja turtles were eating up the quarters. For fighting games you had SF2 and that was about it. Mind you that wasn't half bad.

Didn't need em either.

capturexysga.png
 

CPS2

Member
There were tonnes of arcades in Sydney in the 90s with all the good fighting games, but they all had shitty MCA brand sticks and sticky broken buttons.
 
the only arcade with sf/mk in my small town of dominican republic was 15 blocks away in a small ice cream shop, and the older kids would beat us off the machnines after using our coins.

i blame this for my stick avoidance. Arcade PTSD.
 

Zissou

Member
Is The Wire that good? The Shield is my favourite TV show, but I stopped watching serials because they all suck in comparison.

The Wire is far and away the best TV show I have ever seen. In the same way that Band of Brothers is so great it makes every other WW2 film/series look like trash in comparison, The Wire makes every other police-based-anything completely obsolete.
 
Skullgirls is on sale on the PSN sale at the moment. Check it out if ever you were on the fence.
Skullgirls (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
 
FYI, Skullgirls is discounted on PSN right now:

Skullgirls (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)

Just following up on this with reasons why you might consider giving this game the time of day, if you're not familiar with playing it yourself.

  • Support the only major US-made fighting game franchise(that isn't Mortal Kombat)
  • Unique artstyle and game aesthetic by Alex Ahad
  • The animations in this game are sick and are definitely in the top 5 ranking for detail/motion for 2D fighting games, period(I think that even if YMMV on the artstyle, this should be objectively true)
  • Jazzy soundtrack by Michiru Yamane of Castlevania fame
  • Each character has a very unique methodology/style and each is their own beast to master(similar to Blazblue or Darkstalkers)
  • IPS system allows for extended combos and flexibility in designing your own, but prevents true infinites
  • Best netcode on the market (GGPO); post-patched it is possible to have a legitimate match with any stable connection under 210 ping(YMMV, but so far this has been both my experience and that of anyone I've talked to about it)
  • Tutorial system that actually does a decent job of introducing you to some basic FG fundamentals, such as dealing with blockstrings and punishing unsafe moves
  • Primary developer is probably one of the most-forward thinking guys with regards to fighting games options/featuresets in the current industry(though this isn't hard when your competition is largely Japan and Ed Boon)
  • Price is a fraction of what most fighting games cost today
  • Development team has extensive plans to flesh out the roster and further improve the overall series if they get funding

Give it a shot, seriously; if you come back disappointed you can... point angry fingers at me and disregard further recommendations I make.

EDIT: Whoa, hivemind.
 
Just following up on this with reasons why you might consider giving this game the time of day, if you're not familiar with playing it yourself.

  • Development team has extensive plans to flesh out the roster and further improve the overall series if they get funding

Give it a shot, seriously; if you come back disappointed you can... point angry fingers at me and disregard further recommendations I make.

Haven't they been saying this since Day 1?
 
Haven't they been saying this since Day 1?

They had the implicit promise of funding on Day 1 assuming sales were good enough. AFAIK sales were indeed good enough, but that Reverge firing incident happened. Their current publisher is on record as wanting to support them further, but they don't have the money to do it at the moment because of litigation with Reverge.
 
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