Street Fighter IV!

My day off just happened to be the first day of the SF4 testing in Kichijoji. I rode my bike over, waited about 15 minutes for a spot to park my bike, waited in line for about 10 minutes, and was thoroughly UNDERwhelmed.

I have been waiting for SF4 for years. The SF3 series wasn't my cup of tea, so I wanted SF4 to be good. I am extremely disappointed. Graphically it's amazing. The backgrounds are gorgeous. The characters look great (except for the faces, but I don't like faces in ANY 3D game...). It plays like a Street Fighter....

... if that Street Fighter was from two decades ago.

SF4 should have been the game to take the best things of all the different SF series, fix the problems, and present it in a new, refreshing way. Instead, it's taking the route of "all the recent games were shit, so we're going back to basics." The problem is, the result is TOO basic. Today's gamers are used to flash. They're used to having a ton of tools at their disposal and choosing when to use which tool. SF4 is basically 2 huge sprites poking at each other. Everything is very straightforward. The revenge attack feature is the only thing that felt new, but it wasn't enough.

10 characters, of which 2 are new.
2 colors per character.
1 super art per character.

I realize it's incomplete, but these things need to be addressed. The game looks great. Obviously a lot of time went into making the game. Unfortunately, they didn't put enough time into the "fun factor" of the game. It's just not fun as it is. Interesting enough to play it once, but not enough to keep you playing.

New Area, Same Result

Nagoya - Lost to Bas (and only Bas) in finals, got 2nd.
Shizuoka - Lost to Bas (and only Bas) in semis, got 3rd.
Nishi Sega - Lost to Bas (and only Bas) in first round. Got a golf clap.

Nagano - LOST TO BAS (AND ONLY BAS) IN FINALS, GOT 2ND.

I'm starting to see a pattern!

Results:

1. Bas
2. Me
3. Mulder

Yes, the top 3 in a Nagano tournament were all Tokyo players.

Granted, the best players in Nagano apparently weren't at the tournament (there were only 9 players total including Tokyo), but I still got some good streaks over the past two days. 24 with my real team. 15 with King, Blanka, Bison. 9 with Balrog, Blanka, Bison. 5-7 with Yamazaki/Kim/Ryo/etc., Blanka, Bison...

God, I love playing in the outer areas of Japan. :)

Ghetto Champion

Mikado finally put up the Z2 tourney from January. I downloaded my matches and put them on my YouTube account. Unfortunately, 1st round matches aren't recorded. My memory was failing me a bit when I wrote my report. I only lost one round in the matches they have. From these vids you can see why they call me Ghetto Gief.

My 2nd Round Match vs. Kazuta
My 3rd Round Match vs. you1
Me in the Semifinals vs. Yosaku
Me in the Finals vs. Leonhard

Nishi Sega and afterwards

Forgot to post yesterday. I went to Nishi Sega about an hour before signups to get in some practice time. Not practicing before the Mikado tournament had me perform like shit in my first few matches, so I wanted to make sure I was warmed up before the tourney. I got to play Tsugunosuke and Vega Curry a few times, beating them both and getting it close when I lost. I also played some random people. I felt like I was in good shape. This was going to be my first singles tournament in Tokyo in a long while. In Shizuoka, I beat everyone except Bas - losing to him in semis and eventually taking 3rd. In Nagoya, I beat everyone except Bas - losing to him like a dumbass in the finals to take 2nd...

I got Bas first round.

The streak continues. In the past 3 singles tournaments I have entered, I have lost to Bas and ONLY to Bas every single time. This sucks. I felt good about myself too! In teams, I ended up teaming with Yoshio and we took 3rd. We got a bye first round, I swept BEA and Konto-san, then we both got rocked by Mizoteru. That put us in the 3rd place match, which would have been against a solo Bas, but he had to leave so we got 3rd by default.

Afterwards, pretty much every name in the tourney went over to Mikado for some casuals (Nishi Sega is twice the price to play). I could hang with just about everybody there but Mizoteru. I beat Gao, Bari, Kousaka, Vega Curry, etc. Not decisively every single time, and of course I lost, but I think I'm getting better and closer to the upper level of players.

Today I talked to Bas, and some players are going down to Nagano next weekend for 3 days of CvS2. It's a 3-day weekend, but I'm scheduled to work that Monday. I requested it off, and my boss said it should be ok. I'll be heading down with Mulder in his 2-seater. Mulder's really cool. I've been talking to him more since the Shizuoka trip. Today I got to play against his Gief for the first time in a while. I used to marvel at how good his C-Gief was, but I think my A-Gief is getting close to that level. We go back and forth when we go against each other, and we can both take out mid-tier players pretty easily. Top-tier players, we at least make it difficult - which is the goal, since Gief really sucks. Today I went to Shibukan to talk to him about the trip and got in some good games. Playing against him makes me more patient. It's good practice. I played Bas and beat him twice - once for each of his grooves. If only I did that yesterday!