Journey Review

                Ok, I’m going to make this review short and sweet because that’s exactly what this game is all about. Now, I don’t mean this in a bad way, as a matter of fact this game taught me more about having the bare minimum and being completely blown away by it more than any game to date.

                Journey, while it can’t be described by any simple means, is an artsy adventure/puzzle(very light on the puzzle) game that makes use of only two buttons and the joystick for the entireity of the game. There is no dialogue or recognizable text in the game, but the story focuses on a cloaked figure the player controls and his/her “Journey” to get to a mountain off in the distance.

                Throughout the game walls can be brightened to show some wall paintings that give subtle hints to the history of the land the character is traversing and the people that may or may not have once inhabited the land.

                In this Journey the players can meet other travelers online that are dressed in a similar fashion and are questing to reach the same destiny. The rest of the game is simply the progression of the character and the way they go about trekking through the gorgeously rendered landscapes that lay ahead of them.

                I can’t stress enough how absolutely gorgeous this game is. The sparkle of the sun reflecting off the sandy desert you start your journey in to the dark depths of the cave like environment you explore later on amazes the eyes with visuals comparable to that of some of the greatest classical landscape paintings ever created.  It really is a game that clearly sprouted from the inspired minds of brilliant game designers.

                Although the game may not be very long, about two hours in total, the feeling it gives you is one that ranges from pure joy to utter sadness. It almost feels like an interactive piece of art that can never be interpreted the same way twice. This pure emotion is accompanied quite appropriately by not only many vibrant colors ranging from deep blues and purples to hot tans and yellows, but also an amazing orchestrated soundtrack. This music plays on the feelings of the game and heightens the players senses to new levels that I didn’t even imagine possible within a two hour time limit.

                But that, in essence, is journey. It is a moving forward or progression that evokes a plethora of feelings and thoughts without the use of any languages or text and with merely two buttons used for control. It is the electronic embodiment of the thought “less is more” and by the end of your journey there is an acute sense of fulfillment I might even go so far as to call gaming nirvana.

                Without a doubt in my mind I can already say Journey has many awards coming to it in the future and with such devotion on display the developer “thatgamecompany” will have many eager fans expecting greatness from the company for years to come.

                But don’t take my word for it. This is a game that needs to be experienced before being talked about. The modest price of $15 might just open your eyes in a way a game never has before. 

Opinion Column Street Fighter X Tekken

                Alright, this is the part of the review where I get to speak in my own voice. It feels restrained  just writing straight reviews so sometimes I just have to get my own opinions out there, especially when I have as much to say about a game as I do this one.

                For starters, this game has far exceeded my expectations of what it had to offer. There is so much you can do in this game and so many things to accomplish that it took me about 30 hours to even start playing online matches, which as of now are a bit glitchy but that’s to be expected  the first week the game is out. Nonetheless, the fights are quicker than Street Fighter 4 and include Tekken characters that can’t rely on projectiles to create pressure which creates a game far less campy than what can be seen in many of the matches for SF4. It’s just a refreshing change of pace because it’s not quite the hyper fast, combo heavy rush that is Marvel vs. Capcom, but it’s also not the slower paced feel of SF4, it’s somewhere right in between which feels very natural for me.

                The gems created some doubts in the fighting community as to balancing issues and while there’s no telling what the future holds in regards to the new gems that will be available to fighters, I am happy to report that none of the outcomes of matches I played online(about 25 in total) seemed to be dependent on the gems that people had equipped.  Although there is definitely the potential for people to make extremely powerful combos of gems.

                Another big question was “would the non-projectile Tekken characters be at a disadvantage?” the answer simply put is definitely not. In many cases Street Fighter characters are at risk using projectiles against Tekken fighters. For example, if Ryu throws a fireball, a keen Law player can punish it with a simple jump kick moves that he has. Also, having played Tekken 3 and 4 I can confirm that a lot of the trademark moves and combos the Tekken characters had in those games transferred to this game giving Tekken fighters another strength in the fact that they have some straight up button commands, a la Tekken, to use whereas the SF characters have next to none. This sort of balance is found in many of the match-ups between SF and Tekken characters and most of the damage done to people isn’t done with single attacks but rather combos that result from switching your partner in.

                The switching mechanic, as stated above can be triggered either after a simple combo or manually with a two button set-up. This leads to many interesting ways to gain the upper hand on your opponent and deal some damage, but it also comes at a cost. If a player sees that you have low health and you switch out manually the animation for this gives your opponent just enough time to counter attack and deal you a considerable amount of damage in return and if one of the people in your team is KO'd you lose the round. So there is a considerable amount of risk and reward that fuels both teams to be on constant attack and defense even when they might be at lower health.

                The trials are challenging as always and give the player a good feel for what characters they are interested in playing are capable of. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent on trials and learning how many of the fighters in the game are played. I don’t know how Capcom does it but every time I start a trial I think to myself “Oh, I’ll just stop when it gets too difficult” but somehow I persevere and fight until every trial for the character is complete because something about finishing those challenges is so rewarding I can’t even begin to describe the feeling.

                This game is just plain solid on so many levels and as always Capcom has really set the bar for the amount of quality work they put into just one game. Forget all those other fighters, fists are flying at THIS location, so pick up your copy and bring your own style to the fight.

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

                For as long as both franchises have been out fighting fans all over have been waiting for this mash-up of colossal proportions, now, the wait is finally over.

                Street Fighter  X Tekken is a 2D fighter, similar in aesthetics to Street Fighter 4, in which members of both the Street Fighter and Tekken universes do battle. In this game, however, fights are always consisted of two member teams where either member of the team can be tagged in or out by doing a specific combo on the opponent or pressing a two button combination.

                Through this mechanic fights are either won or loss by not only how good of a fighter you are but how much of a team player you are. Many high rank players are already figuring out intricate combos that can be executed through the switching in or out of a teammate. Of course, there is much more at work in this game than simply fighting, making it one of the most complex and satisfying fighters to be released in quite some time.

                First, Capcom made sure to share a bit of information on the storyline prior to release of the game. Long story short a box falls from outer space and fighters from both franchises team up in pairs to obtain the box and benefit from it in some way. Some seek to become rich and some seek it purely for power, the arcade mode of the game shows you the outcome for each fighter as they reach the goal. Endings vary from comical mishaps to unfortunate discoveries and while the stories aren’t as imaginative as something found in Zelda or Final Fantasy they are nevertheless satisfying and give a legitimate reason for players not interested in playing online matches to play the arcade mode.

                Beyond the arcade mode there is a challenge mode where players can choose from either tutorial, where beginners can learn the mechanics of the game, mission, a set of 20 challenges in which certain conditions must be met within a fight to succeed, and Trials, which allows a player to choose a character and perform 20 pre-assigned combos with the chosen fighter, similar to that of Super Street Fighter 4. The contents of this mode are, as the name states, quite difficult and require patience and timing that a veteran or training fighter might be interested in accomplishing to better learn a character and test their skills.

                As in any fighting game there is also a training mode that gives invested fighters the chance to work on their technique or invent new combos that they can use in the arcade or a versus match.  Versus consists of a few different modes of play that can range from one person battling two CPU’s to teams of two people against each other in a tag team battle. There is a scramble mode that can only be described as a mixture of Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter as all fighters are on the screen at once duking it out and the two teams have a shared health bar. This mode is quite crazy at times as you never know what move may or may not hit you or when you have to attack or defend.

                The online aspect of the game is very similar to Street Fighter 4 in that a fighter can participate in a ranked match that will either result in a loss or gain of battle points depending on if the fight is won or lost. There is also Endless battle where a player can enter a lobby and fight without the fear of losing their battle points. This game differs in that both modes allow players to invite their friends and use one character each to form a team that can be used to fight other team or just one person. This allows for four different accounts to be fighting at once, each account being able to gain or lose battle points, which is an option many fighting fans were hoping for with the release of this game.

                Lastly, there is a customize mode. This mode adds a huge personalization element to the game because players can customize the colors on their fighters as well as the sets of battle gems they have to choose from before a fight. These gems can range from either an attack or defense buff to being able to perform moves with easier button commands. The gems a usable in every facet of the game ranging from online play to the arcade mode and offer beginner players as well as advanced players a chance to give themselves a leg up where they think they made need it. However, the gems aren’t just a passive item, meaning they aren’t always in effect. To trigger their effects one would need to satisfy certain conditions within a fight, For example for one of the attack boost gems to trigger a fighter would need to have four of their attacks blocked, the gem would then activate for the next 20 seconds of the match. One last thing the customize feature allows players to do is choose battle titles that are displayed in online matches. These titles are acquired by achieving certain things in the game such as completing a trials for a certain character or winning their first online match. This can be compared to the titles in Call of Duty for those of you who aren’t too familiar with Street Fighter 4.

                There is also an options menu that allows fighters to make adjustments to the game like sound quality or picture output, but the only feature in this worth mentioning is the new ability for players to now customize the language voice overs for each character specifically. This is great news considering many players were very much for or against some of the US voice acting for some of the characters in Street Fighter 4. So now if you want Ken to talk in English and Ryu to speak in Japanese it can easily be done by just visiting the options.

                The music is very upbeat and energetic creating a nice combat vibe accustom to many of the other Street Fighter games. The levels, while there aren’t many of them are filled with a huge amount of background visuals that give way to not only the fray of the fight but display characters from both series’ as a shout out to hard core fans who care about Easter eggs such as this. A great amount of detail went into these levels and while there may not be an overabundance, Capcom was definitely living by the thought of quality over quantity.

                As in any fighter the characters have to seem full and created with a sense of purpose. All of the characters do just that and while many of the Tekken characters don’t have projectiles they have moves that make projectiles almost dangerous to use, giving them their own strengths. The three exclusive characters, Toro, Kuro, and Cole are all satisfying fighters with Cole having an electricity based moveset and Toro and Kuro the cats having movesets that mirror Street Fighter and Tekken mascots Ryu and Kazuya. The downloads of Mega Man and Pac- Man while bare bones in moves are fun to play with some signatures moves and a sense of comic relief that both franchise tend to show in their games. There is also guaranteed to be 12 more fighters released for purchase at a later date, an option Capcom has given to consumers many times in the past.

                On the whole this game is a great addition to its genre filled to the brim with quality design and a fullness franchises with long histories can only give. The mash up is a successful one and offers some new mechanics as well as old ones that both Capcom fans and Namco fans have both become acquainted with. If you’re a fan of fighting games and you want something new to play with you’re friends this is the game for you. This game gets 9.5 hadokens out of 10.

Street Fighter x Tekken DLC Controversy

It's only hours before the launch of Street x Tekken and Capcom is doing what it does best: talking DLC and infuriating their customers. A report today by Capcom stated the 12 announced DLC characters the PS Vita and PS3 will be seeing are physically on the disc right at purchase. These characters will eventually be unlocked to the public, the earliest release being Mega Man and Pac-Man Mar.13, and available for purchase on the Playstation Network  and Xbox Live respectively. While the thought of not having to download extra characters may be appealing to some most of Capcom's fans have much different thoughts in mind.

Many people are asking "why even wait to release the characters if they're already on the disc?" Well people, let's be honest this is Capcom we're talking about. Let's take a look at the company's track record in these sort of affairs.

Exhibit A) Street Fighter. wait no, I mean Super Street Fighter. No, sorry, not that Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition 2012. This is a game that has gained a huge profit off of downloadable costumes and extra fighters and download after download after... well, you get it. Fool me once, shame on Capcom.

Exhibit B) Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Take off Ultimate and you've got the original title. Not even a year after the initial release Capcom was already upgrading the game to make a little extra dough, and why not if they know it's going to turn a profit? Fool me twice, shame on me.

Exhibit C) Ok, this one actually is quite upsetting. Asura's Wrath is released and just days before it hits shelves consumers find out the game's only six hours long! Sure , they're promising DLC, but six hours? That's hardly a full length game by most people's standardsEspecially with the little amount of replay value that it had. No worries though I hear Super Ultra Deluxe Asura's Wrath GOD EDITION will be at least a 10 hour game. Fool me three times, well I must be a TRUE fan of Capcom.

My point is that at this point in people's experience as not only being a gamer of this era of constant DLC, but being a fan of Capcom would one not expect there to be DLC that you would have to pay for whether it already be on the disc or not? People who are fans of Capcom are such for good reason. Because they know they are in for a quality game experience when they make the purchases they do. So, to make it plain and simple quit complaining people, it's not like they force you to buy these upgrades. The only reason you do is because you know it's going to be well worth every cent. So stop griping about the future and enjoy the game that's sitting right in front of you. 

The review of this game will be in later this week so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading and remember the great words of a man named Ike who said "I fight for my friends."