The Human Game Boy

A recent power outage zapped all of my works in progress for a number of sites, so, bummed out and unmotivated to write everything back from scratch, I did the unthinkable - I went outside into society to see what there is to find outside of my house. Well, that's a real exaggeration - I'm very active at school and that's what has been sucking up some time as of late, but, recently, I was able to take a weekend to myself and head out to a local anime convention. While numerous video game cosplays were present, among the Pyramid Head, Resident Evil cast, Marios and more, one video game cosplay stood out heads and shoulders above the rest:

THE HUMAN GAME BOY!

It might not be evident by the picture, but, this gentleman, who I didn't have a real chance to speak to because I was promoting my own event and he was swamped with photo requests, took his human console one step further with wiring that turned him into a fully functional Game Boy. Yes, if you were brave enough and he didn't mind, you could play a full game of Game Boy Tetris on his person. I'm not too sure how many people are willing to admit they played Tetris on a man, but if the convention is to be believed, wearing a functional Game Boy is a great conversation piece and an excellent way to impress the ladies.

That being said, I'm currently developing a cosplay which will turn me into a human Virtual Boy.

Nick Baynes of Black Rock Studio on Split/Second

Nick Baynes has come a long way from his memories of playing his first video game, Punchy on the Commodore 16. Now actively creating games as a member of Black Rock Studios, Baynes is eagerly awaiting gamers’ responses to his newest project, Disney Interactive’s Split/Second, when it releases on May 18. Serving as the game’s director, he took time out his schedule Friday to give members of the press some development insight and detail rundowns of what he calls a “massive, action-packed, arcade racing game.”

A demo has been made publicly available for gamers to check out this new twist on the racing genre, but for those that haven’t been able to download the trial, Split/Second details a fictional reality show where some of the greatest stunt drivers compete in a season of races to determine the greatest. In video game fashion, the races are much more than jogs around a track, though. Littered throughout the course are “power plays,” with which the player can trigger rigged explosives littered around each course to wreck opponents, create shortcuts or even completely change the current route of the track. As Baynes describes the premise of Split/Second, “Just imagine a Hollywood movie director was given control of NASCAR for a weekend.”

Black Rock Studios is no stranger to the racing genre, formerly being known as Climax Racing and developing titles such as ATV Off Road Fury, Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge and the ’06 and ’07 versions of Moto GP, prior to being picked up by Disney Interactive in 2006. Baynes even indicated some members of the team had worked on racers prior to Climax, so it was noted the studio has a lot of expertise in the genre. Following the acquisition by Disney Interactive, Black Rock Studios began work on more projects, with the first being Pure, an offroad racer that was well-received.

Baynes indicated Split/Second’s development was started around the same time as Pure, with the projects dating back as far back as almost five years ago when the studio began judging what it could do with the current generation of hardware.

“We judged what we couldn’t do on the Playstation 2 and Xbox,” recalled Baynes. “Many of those games had customization and car damge … all of the innovation (in that generation) was based on vehicles. We saw an untouched potential in driving around a dynamically changing track.”

Before settling on the power plays, Black Rock Studios had some brainstorming sessions to decide how it would implement the dynamic element. Baynes threw out a few concepts that came up including severe weather conditions and even futuristic tracks with hydraulic lifts underneath them.

Black Rock Studios is now well known for its dedication to the racing genre and Baynes stated the studio isn’t worried about being “typecast” into future games in the genre.

“The goal is to stay experts and stay within the realm of racing,” he explained. “We don’t want to stand still and do the same thing. We thought Pure pushed what we wanted to do with that concept and we wanted to do street racing with Split/Second. We’re always looking at new, innovative ways to bring fun, new exciting gameplay to racing games. We are proud of the games we make and we have love for the games we make.”

The unpredictable nature of the game’s racing is complimented by the reality television show concept, which gives the premise some legs to stand on.

“With the TV show, we wanted to go larger than life the player is constantly blown away by the scale of the reality a little bit further,” Baynes detailed. “The presentation point-of-view provides a nice look and feel that you may not have seen before.”

Likening the setup to hit shows such as Lost and 24, Baynes also explained why the reality show setup will keep players coming back for more.


“There are tracks and hidden content waiting to be triggered,” he noted. “Players will go through the season mode, unlock a new episode, new tracks and game modes. Like Lost and 24, there is a concept of cliffhangers with teasers at the end of episodes where players get a ‘next-time’ trailer and they will want to carry on and see what happens in the next episode.”

Each episode in the season will have qualifying events. As players progress through the races, points are awarded based on performance and the player will need to have a target number of points across these races to join in on the final elite race in the episode. The top three racers in the elite race are invited back for the next episode and there are unlockable vehicles, tracks, modes and more to earn through the course of the game. Outside of the reality show season, players can come back to the game to enjoy modes such as survival (where players try to survive a storm drain run, inspired by films like Transporter and Terminator 2, where trucks throw explosive barrels at your vehicle), elimination, a detonator time trail mode and even another survival-based mode where a helicopter chases the players and rains down missiles at them.

Breaking down the gameplay and development of Split/Second, the first thing players may notice is the lack of a screen-topping HUD, which is predominant in nearly any racing game on the market. Instead of packing the top of the screen with text, Split/Second places a small HUD directly beneath the player’s vehicle. While this may seem out-of-place, Baynes fully defended the decision, asserting the positioning lends itself to the presentation.

“We’re not doing things for the sake if it,” Baynes began in explaining the HUD. “In racing games, it does seem there are certain aspects implemented because others do it. Many racing games have a lot of uncessary information on the screen like the best lap, current lap, spreads and more. We looked at what was needed for the player to play the game and this game is all about the environment. It seemed crazy to cover this up. We had the idea of putting it behind the car to free the screen up for the player. It was one of those things that once it went in, it was really popular with players.”

Even though Baynes stated the ideas and concepts of Split/Second were amazingly consistant throughout development, he did note some challenges and difficulties. With the unique premise of the title, he noted the development of the tracks became a larger process as opposed to going from conception to layout to scenery. Including power plays meant involvement from other teams in the studio, such as animation, and found the tracks being bounced around in a longer process. Baynes also commented on crafting a title that will please racing enthusiasts while still drawing in other types of gamers.

“We have a deep physics model so the hardcore racer can paly and all of the subtlties are there,” he explained, “but we have layered enough on top for pick-up and playability. We kept the power plays down to a couple of buttons and didn’t add in reticules or aiming. The speed works well with the concpet as well. We tried to keep it open to more people, not just racing fans, but also people that like action. We don’t want to alienate those players.”

The greatest difficulty in piecing together a racing title, according to Baynes, was in develping the AI of opponents.

“The very nature of the race is pitting you versus opponents,” he said. “You want to win, but you still want the AI to give you a challenge. Making the race believable is a real challenge and is the most difficult thing.”


Of course, the real star of the show in Split/Second is in the power plays and Black Rock Studios spent a great amount of time developing these features. In order to trigger these attacks on the other racers, players will build up a meter by drifting, drafting, jumping and performing other extreme feats. The studio has taken time to balance the gameplay to allow players behind first place to catch up without the experience of any “blue shell moments” while not allowing first place racers to trigger and waste power plays.

“Some of the tracks and environments lent themselves better to power plays than others,” Baynes recalled in developing tracks and their associated power plays. “Coming up with the ideas wasn’t hard, but doing it in a way that was fun … that was tricky. Sometimes it’s easy to say, ‘let’s have a wrecking ball fly in and smash all of the cars across the road,’ but timing that and making sure it’s balanced is where the challenge is.”

At the same time, the team also had to have some restraint to keep things from getting too crazy.

“When you come up with these ideas, we want to push it further and further, but you can’t push it too far,” Baynes stated.

A specific example came in a casino, Vegas-style environment that was eventually axed from the game because, as Baynes explained, “from a gameplay point of view, it didn’t offer anything new.” The enviornment spurred an idea of having a giant, one-armed bandit slot machine that released a mass of explosive barrels when triggered.

While these features didn’t make it into the final game, the casino enviornment did influence some of the features players will see in the Downtrack track, which players can experience themselves when Split/Second releases on May 18. The final game will allow for two-player splitscreen local play and up to eight players in various modes online. Through the course of the title, players will be able to control around 25 different vehicles after all are unlocked through progression and milestones. Split/Second may be another racing game on the shelf, but Baynes indicated players won’t find the action of this new racing title in any other game in the genre.

“It’s the intensity of the experience,” he said. “Sometimes you have races where it doesn’t let up from start to finish. It’s an adrenaline-filled experience. In a lot of other racing games, you do get that, but it comes in bite-sized pieces. Players haven’t experienced any other racing game as action-packed as Split/Second.”

Prototype Controller Fun

I've been met with a number of obstacles over the past two months that have kind of kept me away from writing original material. After school and my seasonal work cleared up, I ran into a few computer problems that kept me offline but diving through the mess of folders on my laptop, I came across a photo I haven't seen in a few years and it ultimately made me realize that it was something I had never shared online and that I am perhaps the only person who still has record of this prototype contraption.

If I had you guess what this beastly controller was supposed to function with, we could be here all day, but those keen to the crafted arcade controller scene may recognize the trademark Ransai craftsmanship. While recent arcade releases of Madden, Guitar Hero and the like seems to suggest companies are trying to bring home to the arcades, believe it or not, there was a great period of time where companies strove to bring the arcade into homes. Seemingly, until the wave of guitar clones struck U.S. shores, it was perceived gamers in the territory weren't interested in shelling out for plastic instruments or mech-controlling twin sticks and this left nearly every single music game released stateside as only a shell of its original Japanese self. As such, companies such as Ransai and Desktop Arcade stepped in to provide premium controllers to those who would be willing to have a 100 percent complete experience in the home.

While Ransai's site no longer seems to exist, I was able to sample its wares not only at the 2006 East Coast Gaming Expo, but in 2004 at a local video game store, where the special guests pulled out this boomerang-shaped prototype specialized to act as an arcade-style controller for Harmonix's Frequency and Amplitude titles. To my knowledge Ransai never developed the controller beyond this stage but its design allowed for immediate four-player compatibility in multiplayer (two players on each side of the controller) if you had a multitap and once you got used to the layout, it was an interesting way to play the game.

Looking back on the controller, the only problems I had with it were with the sensitivity of input in the game, rolling the keys always resulted in a miss so you had to be really articulate with key presses and with key positioning, I felt the arrow keys were too far apart and the item activation key was placed near the top of the controller, basically out of reach from the player's stationary position. None of the problems stopped people from having fun with the controller or the game, though, and if it was really that much of a deal to someone, Pop'N Music 8 and 9 were just a television screen away (on Ransai's AC controllers, of course).

I'd never heard about or seen the Ransai Amplitude/Frequency controller since that day so I would imagine it never saw the light of day, but it's another instance of a video game peripheral spoken of but played by very few. While in 2004 a Frequency controller would have sounded absolutely crazy on the market, who would have thought back then that soon our living rooms would be filled to the brim with plastic instruments?

An Early Look at Galloping Ghost's Dark Presence

Back in the ‘90s, some companies were absolutely convinced FMV and “movies that you control” were the future. Unfortunately, the results of such efforts were deemed by the majority as below average at best and painful at worst. If capturing live actors in photo-realistic detail brought us anything, though, it delivered classic fighting games such as Mortal Kombat, which pushed the concept into the limelight in 1992. When you fast forward nearly 17 years later, though, many people might be surprised one arcade developer is giving the concept another go, even among the current explosion of 3-D rendered fighting games.

Located in the Chicago area, Galloping Ghost Studios has been long at work to bring arcades the title Dark Presence, which features footage of live actors fighting it out. Unlike the similar titles of yesteryear, however, the studio has the technology muscle of 2009 to back it up. The studio was actually formed back in 1994, when founder Doc Mack had ambitions to make a game in the same vein as Dark Presence, but the team felt the video quality and technology wasn’t up to par with what they wanted. Up front, the title will have eight playable characters, each stemming from live actors filmed at a 1080p (1920×1080) high-definition resolution. It took three years to film each actor, but that time will place 151,044 frames of animation in the game, giving each character more than 200 full animations, which includes attacks, reactions and finishing moves. The extra care to attention is the aim of the game, which has different animations for the characters’ left and right sides (removing the image flipping seen in similar games) and 437 strings of finishing moves that reflect the characters’ relations to each other – rivals will be more visceral with each other, but those with friendships and blood relations might be a little more hesitant to end one another’s life.

“While 3D and motion capture have made great strides, you can’t beat the level of realism provided with using actual actors instead of just textured 3D models,” commented Mack. “You can really see all the effort from the actors as they perform the attacks and reactions. For example with our fall animations, when our actors hit the ground you can clearly see the level of impact it has on them. Our actors were often covered in bruises from all the falls they had to film, which lent to realistic pained facial expressions. Honestly, it would have been a lot easier to just go the 3D route, but I’ve always like 2D fighting games better personally. With digitized characters, we are given a very unique look compared to anything else out there.”

The studio is also turning its attention to the backgrounds, which are developed using parallaxing. Each cabinet will have a GPS device that reads where the arcade is located, taking in account the current time of day and weather conditions. Mack is promising players that when it is night outside, the in-game environments will be seen at night; the GPS recognizes that it is raining outside, it will be raining in the game’s environments as well. Most impressively, this function is handled in real-time, so players in the middle of a match might notice the sky gradually darkening or rain could start up in the middle of a fight.

Mack also approached Dark Presence’s background by crafting a storyline that fills up more than 1,300 pages and counting. While the central plot line revolves around the character who has become to be known as the Mind Master and his quest of revenge, each character has a meticulous background story that allows players to understand why the characters are fighting should they choose to dig that far. The story also encompasses the in-game relationships of the characters and actions taken within the game will affect which of the multiple endings players will receive with their character. Mack is still plugging away at the game’s background, but it is also being written to transition into the events of a planned sequel for Dark Presence, entitled Conquering Light – a follow-up slated to have 18 characters (with only three returning from Dark Presence) and new features.

“I really tried to chronicle the entire lives of all the characters in Dark Presence and Conquering Light,” Mack noted on the storyline. “That is why the story is currently at over 1,300 pages, which makes it a little difficult to sum up quickly. You certainly don’t need to know the story to jump into playing the game and enjoy it, but for those who really want to know everything about the characters, the story is there. It’s basically a collection of short stories and really the order you read them in and what connecting stories you’ve read can really affect how you look at the characters. What I refer to as the Dark Presence story just follows the main eight playable characters and the one boss. However, several characters that appear in Conquering Light tie in with events that happen while or before Dark Presence happens.”

While there are no detailed accounts of how the gameplay will shape up, the still photos are looking great for the title, showing characters in combat and showing off a few of the brutal hits and resulting blood. The violence is there, but, according to Mack, it isn’t the focus of the game to just show off gratuitous blood and gore. Mack admitted while there is plenty of blood present that would naturally go hand-and-hand with brutal weapons-based combat and live actors, the team is putting most of its attention on the combat mechanics and the finishing moves were artistically implemented to convey the characters’ relationships to each other. Each character will have three fatalities to perform and Galloping Ghost has already stated each of the three fatalities can be linked into one execution move as players learn how to perform them. With the nature of moves depending on who the character is facing, the total fatality footage reel tallies in at an hour and a half of footage, ensuring those who enjoy messy fighters will be pleased with the results.

“We wanted to make our finishing moves a unique experience above and beyond just a vicious way to kill off your opponents,” said Mack. “Each character has three finishing moves that can be linked together. It took quite a bit of planning to come up with ways that they could all link. Everything was filmed from several different camera angles and then edited together, so it has more of a cinematic feel than finishing moves in other games. Since most of our actors filmed each finishing move with all the other actors, we were able to add variations. Sometimes it would allow us to show a greater connection story-wise for the characters. They are all pretty violent to say the least, but with how we filmed everything, we were given a lot of freedom to not just show an abundance of gore. Sometimes not focusing on the blood and centering the shot more on the characters and their facial expressions and such can make the scene have much more of an impact.”

Outside of the GPS tracking, Galloping Ghost also has a score of other plans for its Dark Presence cabinets. Through USB inputs, players will be able to keep track of personal stats, as well as participate in achievement challenges to earn in-game icons (there are 100 in total) that show how experienced the player is and players can also wager their icons against other players to win ones they do not have. A small touch screen panel will be implemented into the cabinet for players to set up these wagers, but the screen will also display special move commands as players discover them and allow arcade owners to display messages for tournaments, events and more.

The studio is anticipating a lot of customization options for arcade owners, allowing them to place 27 to 65-inch monitors in the cabinet, have prize drawer options and more. However, one of the more interesting optional features is the shock band – a wristband worn by players that generates a harmless jolt if they are hit by a fatality at the end of the match. Mack recalled the initial prototype bands had a little more juice to them, which the development team had a bit of fun with. On the other hand, the team also realized that having such a repercussion to the end of a fight made them fight more strategically and made matches more interesting, but Mack anticipates a lot of locations will opt out of the component and even for those who do not, players are not required to wear them to play the game.

“It was originally more of an inside joke to keep players from button mashing,” explained Mack. “Our programmer at the time made a prototype of the shock band and once we tested it out, we really noticed it was changing how we were playing the game. It added a whole new element of repercussions to having your character get hit and poor playing. The prototype shock band was pretty strong. It was a great motivator and elevated the strategy of gameplay quickly as you did not want to get shocked. We tested it well beyond anything that would be released to the public. It’s definitely not something everyone will want to experience but, it does really add a new level for the hardcore player.”

Currently, Dark Presence is set for a 2009 release with select arcade locations receiving test cabinets in the future.

An Early Look at System Flaw for the DSi

While the Nintendo DSi’s anticipated release has come and gone, it seems little has been done to take advantage of its features. With expanded audio features and two cameras, one would think we would be seeing more in regard to innovative games that take advantage of said features. Thankfully, Visual Impact Productions has teamed up with publisher Storm City Games in an attempt to fill this void with its upcoming Nintendo DSi release System Flaw. System Flaw will be the very first Nintendo DSi-only title to be released on a cart to retail and I even believe I overhead it being said that Nintendo had to create a brand new packaging label (“Only Plays On Nintendo DSi”) specifically for this game.

Ryan Harbinson, product specialist of Storm City Games, was on hand at the recent VGXPO event in Philadelphia and, as luck would have it, he brought a playable copy of System Flaw to the event. It’s not every day you get to see a Nintendo DSi unit suspended from the top of tent with a wire, but, then again, System Flaw is anything but ordinary.

System Flaw’s premise draws heavily from the philosophies of the Nintendo Wii, in which it directly involves the player in the game. The meat of the game pits players in a 360-degree arena where they must fend off dangerous alien-looking creatures before they latch onto the player and drain their health. While this sounds extremely ordinary for a video game, the big hook in System Flaw is in its use of the Nintendo DSi’s external camera. With what is billed as “360-degree optical flow/motion detection technology,” the playfield is reality – what you see is your environment piped through the DSi’s camera and the 360-degree gameplay is achieved by having the player physically spin to view more of the environment through the camera.

Meanwhile, the top screen is a HUD that displays the player’s stats as well as a radar that reveals where threats are approaching the player. This means if you see a blip at the bottom of the radar, you will have to spin your body 180 degrees to see the incoming creature. Once a creature is in sight, players will have to maneuver their DSi unit to put the enemy in the crosshairs and push one of the system’s shoulder buttons to fire at the enemy. What results an undeniably fast-paced and fun experience that most anyone that doesn’t mind physically getting into their games should enjoy.

Right on the cart, players will have 100 mission-based levels that start out with tutorial-focused levels before breaking into more intense fights, but players can also launch a survival mode where they engage in a standoff in an attempt to survive as long as they possibly can. Players will be fending off 10 different creature types with various movement abilities and strength. If a creature latches on to the player, they will have to shake the DSi in order to loosen the grip and stop their health from draining. Defeated monsters will occasionally drop power-ups for the player, however, giving them bonuses such as extra juice to their laser and allowing them to fire two laser simultaneously.

In my experience with the game, System Flaw’s functions operated as naturally as the concept appears on paper. You can literally just tell people to move the camera around and press the trigger to shoot and they will understand how to play the game, making it accessible and understandable to anyone (and admittedly, it can be entertaining to watch people play the game as well). While the environments of VGXPO weren’t exactly the most eye-catching, you can see in promotional screens for the title that players can find themselves in some interesting battles depending on their location. However – and I know I’m not the only that did this – I couldn’t help but smile whenever someone was in front of the camera and I couldn’t resist the urge to fire a laser at their face (the crotch was also a popular location at the show) for no reason. I found the surrealism of people living their everyday life in the background while I fought for my life amusing, but I suppose that is part of the game’s approach – through this unique device, only you can see these threats to humanity and everyone else is oblivious to the menace.

Storm City Games seems to be putting a lot of stock in the release of System Flaw, and for good reason. While in System Flaw, you can’t move forward or backward to create distance between yourself and approaching enemies, Harbinson indicated it was one of a few items the team would consider if a sequel was made possible. Seeing as the team is looking forward with possible ideas gives me the impression the studio is confident in what it has created and the title is openly billed as the publisher’s featured game. Even though System Flaw is being heavily promoted, the publisher does have a number of other Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, including a Nintendo DS port of the classic PC adventure Myst and Hands On! Tangrams, a game I was also able to try at the event.

There’s no doubt System Flaw is one of the most unique and innovative games we’ve seen lately on the format and I look forward to being able to unleash this game out in the wild. The title proved to be original and was definitely a hit among the crowds of VGXPO. In my short time with the title, I came away impressed and, honestly, the only negative thing I can think of about the title is in its portability – I can’t imagine a child would be able to bust this out and spin circles while riding in a car on a long trip. However, with the term handheld mostly replacing what we used to know as portables, it’s possible that no home will be safe from the System Flaw. We’ll find out when Storm City Games releases the title, which has a currently-scheduled release date of Oct. 27.

Seth Killian, Community Manager for Capcom, on Fighting Games

I absolutely love fighting games. Behind rhythm games, it is my favorite genre of video games and if you mix the two genres, with games such as Slap Happy Rhythm Busters or Draglade, I find the results to be euphoric. The magic about fighting games, though, is that legions of gamers share the same love for the genre, resulting in tight, competitive communities and even in the industry, there are fighting fans hard at work spreading the love for game publishers such as Capcom.

At Capcom, competitive digital pugilist Seth Killian sits as the senior manager of community for the company. Killian is responsible for much of what gamers see on the Capcom Unity community site, but that doesn’t keep him from getting his hands dirty with a little bit of game development for select titles. When it comes down to it, though, he also isn’t afraid to step down from his office chair and lay beat downs on Street Fighter players. An accomplished competitive Street Fighter player and long-time EVO supporter, Killian is just as crazy about the series and fighting games as any other fan of the genre.

Seth Killian was kind enough to accept an interview with us, so please read on as we reach into the deepest annals of the fighting game community and Killian details what got him into fighting games, the competitive fighting game scene, some of Capcom’s more obscure fighters and having the final boss of Street Fighter IV named after him.

Diehard GameFAN: You’re quite known for your competitive play, EVO presence, Capcom-Unity leadership and, of course, being involved with the Capcom company itself. They say every story has its humble beginnings, so what was it that originally pulled you into video games, fighting games and the competitive scene?

Seth Killian: I grew up playing games in arcades. I liked a lot of games, and was really good at a few, but with Street Fighter II, you weren’t just fighting for your quarter against the machine, you were fighting against another human – fighting for your quarter, for honor, for respect. Just like that, games became instant drama. I guess the magic of “winner stays, loser pays” was what drew me into the scene. I didn’t have that much money, so I had to win if I wanted to keep playing. The competitive SF scene was also taking off at the same time as the internet, so we basically used forums as a way of trash-talking other kids and then working out a place to fight – EVO grew directly out of that. I still have a picture on my desk of the arcade where I learned to play – it’s now a discount textbook warehouse.

DHGF: We see a lot of people still claim U.S. arcades aren’t dead, even though a few comments from Capcom execs seem to prove otherwise (and keep us from having legal Street Fighter IV cabinets). What are your thoughts on the issue and what do you feel that arcades could offer that the console experience does not (or even vice versa)?

SK: I don’t think the life or death of arcades is up to Capcom, but there’s no question there aren’t as many as there once were. I still love arcades, and go to as many live events as I can. Arcades have an electric atmosphere that you just don’t get online, no matter how good the connection. For anyone that plays competitive games, there’s nothing like it. Capturing that arcade atmosphere was a big part of the reason we started organizing events and one of the core aspects of EVO. Online is great, but staring down the opponent, cheering, having to skulk away if you lose, etc. — that’s really what bonds people and makes them play with their whole heart. Playing in a live event is like nothing else in gaming.

DHGF: Obviously, with the success of Street Fighter II, there had to be an original Street Fighter title. What are your thoughts on the original title that only put players in the gi of Ryu or Ken? Do you ever pull this one out on occasion? There’s got be one of these cabinets floating around the office somewhere.

SK: Honestly, I was not a fan of Street Fighter. It opened the door to Street Fighter II, but when I do play SF1, I’m usually not happy that I did. It’s got a lot of great concepts, but the controls are terrible and controls mean a lot.

DHGF: It always seems like a no-brainer that it would be sweet to play video games competitively and earn cash for doing so. What advice would you give to someone who is considering playing Street Fighter or other fighting games on a serious, competitive level?

SK: Play for the love and you’ll be happy. If you’re in it to make money, my advice would be to finish school and get your degree. Even the successful top competitive gamers make less than most game industry professionals, and they probably work harder doing it. I am a huge advocate of competitive gaming and earning money for playing is well-deserved, but it may not be a smart life plan overall. Even if the dream comes true and competitive gaming replaces the NBA, you personally may not stick around long enough to see it or maybe nobody will care about the games you happen to be great at. The people who tell you otherwise usually have their own agendas, so think very carefully about what they’re saying.

DHGF: And with that, EVO2K9 is set to take place from July 17-19. The tournament has come a long way and has seen a number of famous battles and mighty competitors and includes a number of Capcom products. What is your thought on this competition? Would you like to see more competitions like this pop up in the U.S. or is there only room for one “big one?” Lastly, will we see Capcom step up on tournament support in the future?

SK: I love EVO. It’s the backbone of the worldwide competitive scene, and all of our greatest SF legends come straight from EVO finals. One of the best things about Shoryuken.com and EVO is that they have inspired so many competitions like this around the country. EVO is the biggest by far, but since it took off, there are now hundreds of similar tournaments around the country, where before there was 1 – maybe 2 – a year. So EVO and SRK are definitely big supporters of more tournaments (all of the other events use SRK to advertise), both in the US and around the world. Capcom is a big supporter of EVO in various capacities, but they are a product-driven company like anyone else. This means they are able to support events like this more directly when they have relevant games. Capcom has tried to support EVO even when they don’t have new games as well, so I have a lot of respect and appreciation for that.

DHGF: You seem to enjoy a span of fighting game products since you feature videos, fan creations and tidbits of Capcom’s fighters on the Unity site. On the other side of the fence, be brutally honest – what fighting games do you absolutely despise and why?

SK: There are very few fighting games I enjoy playing for long periods of time, but as a student of the genre, I learn something from playing even the crummiest fighters. They all have their own ideas, it’s just that most of them are really badly implemented. I also like seeing the fighting-game mechanics that show up in a lot of crossover titles, like the new UFC game, or even in God of War, both of which benefit a lot from Street Fighter-style thinking and designs, even if it doesn’t seem that way on the surface. I did hate Virtua Fighter 3 — just because I could play VF2 pretty well, but could not win at VF3 to save my life.

DHGF: In my recent review of Sunday X Magazine, I stated Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom had too many licensing issues to become a U.S. crossover fighter and it looks like you made me a liar (please start working on bringing Namco X Capcom over). While E3 provided a great feast of news on the game, can you detail why you fought so hard to bring the game over to us? Also, in a short hype blurb, can you tell people why they should be excited about the game?

SK: I fight for the things that I believe in, and I’ve been a big believer in this game since I first saw it. People should be excited about it because it’s the best fighting game on the Wii, it’s one of the prettiest games on the Wii period, and it’s really the next evolution in the “Capcom Versus” style. It’s got amazing amounts of style, attention to little details, love for the characters … exactly the kind of stuff you used to find only in sprite-based fighters, but we’re doing it in fully rendered 3D now. It’s also just a lot of crazy fun. I’m all for top-level intensity on the most serious fighters, but if we only made games for that type of player, the genre would disappear. TvC combines the best of both worlds – easy to pick up and play, but with real depth for the hardcore.

DHGF: Street Fighter II received a super upgrade with HD Remix last year. With a solid chunk of time elapsing after its release, do you think the game achieved its goal of being as balanced as possible? What things would you change or add to the release?

SK: That’s a complicated question – the competitive community hasn’t reached a consensus about it yet. Speaking personally, there’s always more work to do in terms of balancing but HD Remix is a new chapter in the SFII series and gave people a reason to go back and re-engage with a great game and remember what’s so fun about fighting games. As the 5th version of SFII, the original Super Street Fighter II Turbo mechanics were some of the most highly-evolved anywhere in the fighting world, so for me, HD Remix is really a nice dose of icing on a delicious cake. Having 15 *years* of player feedback on SSF2T really helped give a clear picture of what needed to change, and how. I love that so many of the weaker characters like Cammy are now a lot more competitive and easy to play. As for changes, I think Akuma missed the mark in some respects, but Akuma is always a big challenge.

DHGF: When people talk Capcom fighting games, all you tend to hear about is Street Fighter and the Versus series. What games outside of these franchises do you enjoy? Is there any love for series such as Darkstalkers, Cyberbots, Rival Schools and the like and are there any franchises you’d like to see revived?

SK: Personally I’d love to see Cyberbots, just because I was really good at that game. I love Darkstalkers as well, though I got worse at those games as they went on. Although the IP isn’t popular in the West, I’d also love to take a crack at another Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure. From the fans, I hear a lot of love for Rival Schools, and lately there’s been a lot of noise about Power Stone, which I do think has a lot of potential.

DHGF: It’s no secret that Street Fighter IV’s end boss shares a first name with you. Was there a process involved with this? How did this happen? Also, does anyone ever rag on you over the fact you share your name with a naked, blue man (that could wreck said people with spinning pile drivers)? It seems a lot of press outlets didn’t make any sort of correlation and completely ripped on the name.

SK: The original docs (some of which are from before I started at Capcom) talked about a Cane and Abel pairing, but, although “Abel” stayed, “Cane” got replaced with “Seth” after we’d been working together for a while. They did ask me if that was okay, but that wasn’t a very tough decision for a lifelong SF fan. I thought it was especially nice since, as you mention, Seth is not the toughest sounding name, and on top of that, the “th” sound can’t even be pronounced in Japanese at all (they say “Sesu”). Hopefully they are happy with my work, though I don’t think he’s exactly a fan-favorite character.

The Arcade's 11th Frame

Here is one of the handful of arcade pieces I did on Blogcritics in 2006 that proved to be quite popular at the time:

It’s the 10th frame and I have eight pins down with two still standing – staring me in the face and laughing. As I palm my ball from the ball return I envision the destruction of the ivories at the end of the lane.

I line up my approach, cup the ball against my wrist and let the ball fly down the lane with a slight spin to the left. With not enough spin, I clip one of the pins on the right side and it flops to the back, leaving the other pin upright. With a sigh of disappointment, I leave the lane, leave the balls in the ball return, don’t return my shoes and put more tokens into the ball return for 10 more frames.

Ah, the convenience of arcade bowling.

I like to bowl. I’m not superbly amazing at the sport, but I really enjoy it. I love arcades. They may be close to dead in the U.S., but growing up in an era where arcade machines could do what consoles couldn’t, arcades have a special place in my heart. Not surprisingly, when the two are combined, I have fun.

U.S. arcades are pretty much in an era where if there’s no gimmick attached, you won’t find it. The simplicity of having a joystick and a button or two is lost among the lineup of deluxe cabinets sporting light guns, steering wheels and instruments. The name of the arcade these days is interaction – in most games in arcades now, you are the controller. But, so far, nothing I’ve encountered so far has matched the real thing pound for pound than the recent addition of arcade “candlestick” bowling to arcades.

While the concept is about two years in age, the actual product is starting to make its way into arcades on a more available basis. As the product is becoming more available, it is also becoming more popular, with a number of locations now operating leagues based on the machines.

The arcade machines are welcome for bowling as it offers a cheap, quick and easy alternative to renting a lane. For casual bowlers there’s no shoe rentals, you don’t have to spend five minutes picking out a ball and a full game costs about two dollars less than at most allies. As a bonus, good play is rewarded in some locations with redemption tickets. If I can score more than 100, that means Tootsie Rolls for everyone.

Most machines are also in bar locations, which mean the beer frame doesn’t disappear. With most machines supporting up to four players, the social aspect of bowling is still present.

Will the arcade machines replace bowling as we know it? No. But the fact that bowling could possibly be found at the arcades I love to frequent? That’s awesome.

Roll a Six to Hadoken

Ever since the World Warriors’ first console outing on the Super Nintendo in 1992’s Street Fighter II, something always bugged me and, perhaps, it should also bother me that such a trivial matter has stuck to my brain for the past 17 years. In the game’s arcade mode, everything is innocent enough for the player, which chooses one of eight characters and then battles through seven other competitors to tackle four boss characters to clear the game. Since Street Fighter II is a tournament, though, obviously the other characters can’t be sitting around waiting for a single fighter to compete with everyone – they have to fight against someone to progress through the tournament to meet the player at his or her current standing in the brackets. In a perfect world, if only eight fighters were invited to the tournament, the winning fighter would only have to fight twice (with each fight accompanied by Joe Esposito’s, “You’re the Best,” of course) before moving on to the Shadoloo goons. So the million dollar question is, who are the remainder of the Street Fighter cast fighting to advance to the same bracket of the tournament?

Thankfully, I think I finally found my answer this past weekend while scoping out my favorite used bookstore (The Dawn Treader Book Shop in Ann Arbor, Mich., if you must know) – sandwiched in among the tombs of Dungeons & Dragons manuals and homeless video game strategy guides, my good friend pointed out this highly amusing publication: White Wolf’s Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game. It’s no secret – I love Street Fighter. Going beyond the games, I own a number of comics, manga, figures, key chains, posters and the like. Seriously, if Capcom slapped the Street Fighter name on a do-it-yourself home colonoscopy kit, I would probably buy it, so purchasing nearly 200 pages of content based on one of my favorite series for seven bucks was a no-brainer. When my friend handed me the book, I was subjected to a cover featuring what appeared to be a 50-year-old Cammy arm barring a grizzly Blanka while what appeared to be Kamen Rider in a trench coat and Charles Bronson in a bandanna and army vest cheered on. From that moment, I knew these seven dollars were going to be among the best I had ever spent.

Packed with original art by a number of artists, the scenarios presented in the guide explain everything. While Ken was going fist to fist with Dhalsim in the first round, Ryu was fighting a half-naked Viking in the arctic north, T. Hawk was fending off a cybernetic lizard man and Cammy was engaged in combat to the death with a seedy fishmonger with crab claws instead of hands. Why are these characters not in the games? In fact, every game should have a seedy fishmonger with crab claws. I’m not sure why, but one of the pieces features Chun Li on a wharf, apparently breaking wind. I apologize if I’ve now ruined your Chun Li fantasies.

A very interesting tidbit found in the book is the fact each of the World Warriors featured has an official win-loss total. How many fights has Ryu seen exactly? How many fools has Fei Long knocked out? Take a look at the official standings as of the book’s printing in 1994:

Blanka – 58 wins/54 by KO, 3 losses, 1 draw
Dhalsim – 195 wins/80 by KO, 18 losses, 2 draws
Fei Long – 72 wins/45 by KO, 6 losses, 1 draw
T. Hawk – 54 wins/50 by KO, 4 losses, no draws
Zangief – 155 wins/103 by KO, 6 losses, 2 draws
Ken – 105 wins/91 by KO, 1 loss, no draws
Ryu – 102 wins/88 by KO, no losses, 1 draw
Guile – 92 wins/83 by KO, 2 losses, 2 draws
Cammy – 80 wins/65 by KO, 4 losses, no draws
E. Honda – 160 wins/105 by KO, 13 losses, 2 draws
Dee Jay – 80 wins/45 by KO, 3 losses, 1 draw
Chun Li – 74 wins/67 by KO, 3 losses, 1 draw

While most sane people would wonder who could have taken Ryu to a draw, immediately, my first question is whether or not bears are included in Zangief’s win total.

Being a fantasy game, however, Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game is all about creating your very own character, the results of which fill in the aforementioned holes in the roster. Players get points to assign to physical, social, mental, abilities, skills, knowledge and renown and are able to learn disciplines such as capoeira, kabaddi, kung fu, sambo, shotokan and more. Sure it takes a while, but anyone who takes any RPG character creation seriously knows the process isn’t a five-minute ordeal. I’d never played a pen-and-paper RPG before, so the Street Fighter motif was finally enough to round up someone and give it a go.

Seeing as I didn’t want to take a huge amount of time creating a character, I entered Garou: Mark of the Wolves character Khushnood Butt into the Street Fighter mix, a semi-reasonable fit for the shotokan discipline. Things didn’t go too well and I found out how fickle of a mistress RPG life could be when the very beginning of the story resulted in me waking up and getting electrocuted in the tub because of a nearby radio. I had five D-10s and not a damn one of them rolled a six or higher. Rest in peace Butt. I hope you find your billboard up there in heaven … or wherever the storyteller makes you go.

Ultimately the game allows players do just about anything and even institutes rules for using firearms and animal companions and as seen in the above example, the storytelling route extends to events outside of fighting tournaments as well. For the most part, as long as a player can roll six or higher and avoid ones (which result in extremely unfavorable events and cancel out successful rolls), everything will go their way and they can punch people in the face, stop drug cartels or succeed in asking people out on dates. My RPG career may have been a short one, but, hopefully someone out there has stories on how they gave Ryu a wedgie as, seriously, anything is fair game in Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game.

For now, though, I’m quite content surfing through the art and content of this book. There’s nothing like seeing T. Hawk hoisting a lizard up for a Titan-like (remember Saturday Night Slam Masters?) torture rack when I’m having a bad day and seeing M. Bison engage in a psycho staring contest with a warlock sporting a fu man chu just brings a number of questions to mind. When it comes to actually duking it out, I think I’ll just rely on my trusty quarter circle plus punch for a hadouken as opposed to praying that a dice lets me pull off the move without it sending me back in time or something. As for those unseen characters that test your opponents in the earlier rounds of the tournament, I salute you – yes, even you, really fat luchadore. With this book finally comes the solace of knowing my next opponent is fighting to keep their place in the tournament instead of watching reruns of Seinfeld while they wait for me to fly all the way to their home country.

The 10 Most Memorable LIVE Experiences on Xbox

Over at Diehard GameFAN, as part of my weekly Xbox LIVE Wrap-Up, I got together with some of staff to list some of the best Xbox titles to play on Xbox LIVE. In recognition of Microsoft pulling the plug on Xbox support for LIVE (I'm talking Xbox here, not Xbox 360, don't freak out), I compiled what I thought were the 10 games on the Xbox format that best utilized LIVE:

Halo 2
There’s no way this title couldn’t have been on the list. In fact, it was Halo 2’s free trail card to Xbox LIVE that got me launched on to the service and it could be argued that Halo 2 is what catapulted online gaming to where it is right now. Sure, maybe that means Halo 2 is where getting called obscene names by a 10-year-old originated from as well. However, Halo 2 still remains as the Xbox’s most-played game as people still seem to be popping this disc into their Xbox 360. While PC gamers had been experiencing the online battles for some time, Halo 2 definitely set the stage for console gamers to get in on the action and stands as our most influential Xbox LIVE title on the list.

Phantasy Star Online
If there was one thing you could say about the Xbox, it was definitely void of many RPG experiences. Although a handful of MMO titles were planned, nearly all of them ended with the crushing news of being cancelled, including the much-anticipated True Fantasy Live. Although it found its way over from the SEGA Dreamcast, some of our staff still had some fondness in store for Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II on Xbox LIVE. It was a foreign concept to me – I pay for Internet service, then I pay to be on Xbox LIVE and now I have to pay to play this online game. I loved Phantasy Star Online so much that it was a price I was willing to pay. Even though PSO isn’t massive in its multiplayer online gameplay, the Xbox handled the OG of online console RPGs well, and fighting through Boomas was just as fun as always.

Crimson Skies
Crimson Skies was packed in with initial Xbox LIVE packages giving players a game, a headset, and Xbox LIVE service, just like we still have today. However, I can’t say any game pack-ins have caught my attention much like Crimson Skies. The arcade-style dogfighting was a welcome change of pace during the time of its release, but when you loaded a full multplayer room and cut everyone loose, the true shining nature of Crimson Skies really breaks through. With lots of options, expansive maps, and explosive combat, Crimson Skies was a match made in heaven for the Xbox LIVE service and still holds up very well to this day. I’m sure fans have been holding their breath for a sequel, but, unfortunately, so far there has been no dice on that front.

Star Wars: Battlefront
With two games in the series under its belt on the Xbox, much like Halo 2, this series of Star Wars titles still sees its fair share of online gameplay. The Battlefront series combines two things many people like – Star Wars and the Battlefield series. The result is an epic, large-scale war that intensifies as you add in more players. While Battlefield has moved on to larger audiences and the Battlefront series has slid downhill, the first two entries were easily entertaining, especially for Star Wars fans that got to mow down Storm Troopers. The online playability might not match what we have today with Battlefield, but Battlefront definitely held its own on the Xbox and doesn’t disappoint fans of large-scale battles.

Counterstrike
Surely PC fans scoffed at the thought of playing Counterstrike on the Xbox, but given the number of console gamers that surged through the past few generations of consoles, the system’s online gameplay made the Xbox a sure bet for the title. Being crafted to the Xbox controller and services, Counterstrike didn’t disappoint those willing to overlook the absence of a mouse and keyboard and still ranks among the most-played Xbox games over Xbox LIVE. Even though the format changed, the essence of Counterstrike was still embedded in the Xbox version and it made a lot of trigger-happy FPS gamers happy.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Although Sam Fisher didn’t exactly stay Xbox exclusive for long, the Xbox LIVE service made his third entry a big deal. Not only could two people team up to take on campaign missions with co-op moves, but players could also enter versus matches that incorporated the same tactics found in the single-player mode. Chaos Theory is, again, another title still seeing frequent play and for good reason. When you are able to take the stealth genre and inject some solid multplayer features into it, you’re bound to have a formula for success on Xbox LIVE.

Steel Battalion: Line of Contact
I can’t say Capcom’s Steel Battalion was played heavily by gamers, but you just can’t ignore that massive control panel that the game was sold with. Although Microsoft had MechAssault, Steel Battalion actually put gamers into the seat of a mech with an intimidating array of switches, panels and buttons. Once players learned the ropes, though, the experience was massively satisfying and the use of Xbox LIVE further perpetuated the experience. Perhaps the only thing that could pull you even further into the game are the interactive mech motion arcade cabinets. SEGA tried to recapture the spirit of Steel Battalion with ChromeHounds, however, it just isn’t the same.

Dead or Alive Ultimate
Dead or Alive wasn’t the only fighting game in town, but given how most of them played while being online, the general fighting game on Xbox LIVE was pretty much unplayable. Although Dead or Alive wasn’t perfect when fighting online, with the backing of Microsoft and the game’s exclusivity, these remakes were probably as good as it got for most fighting game fans. With a further bump up in graphics and content from previous versions, Dead or Alive Ultimate gave fans a new look at Dead or Alive 2 along with the original arcade title. With Microsoft’s heavy marketing, it wasn’t hard to notice the Dead or Alive franchise on the system, which is probably why the title was one of the most popular for its time on the service.

Conker Live & Reloaded
Showing up at the end of the Nintendo 64’s life, a lot of gamers did miss out on Conker’s Bad Fur Day the first time around. During the span of the Xbox and Gamecube, Microsoft notoriously snatched up Rare as Nintendo began to struggle pretty hard in the market and put them to uses that had gamers baffled. One result of the development studio was a re-imagining of Conker that infused Xbox LIVE gameplay for those that couldn’t get enough of the multiplayer battles. I never liked the multiplayer battles in Conker Live & Reloaded, but a lot of people did, making it, once again, another title that still climbs the Xbox charts to this day. Maybe it’s the vulgar content and maybe people just like playing the game. All I know is I won’t step in the way of gamers having a good time.

DanceDanceRevolution Ultramix
In the final spot on our list, I’m going bold and throwing this one in. Not only did the Konami team based out of Hawaii pump out some quality titles that actually changed the interface and stale conventions of the DDR series with Ultramix and inject relevant U.S. dance music into the series, but it launched what could be considered some of the very first digital expansion content in console gaming. Sure, you could play the game online, but these digital transactions helped shape what we current see with Rock Band – Ultramix’s purchased content even flowed into other Ultramix titles. There was a time early in the century where DDR was the untouchable king of music gaming. I don’t know what the hell happened to make these series nose dive into the dirt, but, yes, there was a time where DDR was arguably one of the most innovative titles in gaming history and we saw this even on Xbox LIVE.

Collecting Color Craziness

Oddly enough, here is another salvagable bit from Rithum.com. This bit from 2007 details Nintendo's push for new colored Nintendo DS systems and multicolored systems in general:

When I think of a product becoming available in a range of colors, I for some reason imagine the console in the game play format of Color a Dinosaur. Nintendo of Europe has revealed a new silver color of DS Lite being made available Oct. 12 and it makes me wonder what colors or designs I would like to see on my DS Lite.

As the DS Lite continues on, one would be suspect that Nintendo will release even more versions of its handheld system and while the U.S. keeps getting different colors, it would be nice to start seeing different designs made available in the U.S. akin to what Japan has been getting with both the DS and PSP. Just check out this sleek, white Final Fantasy VII PSP design going on for the limited edition of Crisis Core. Square-Enix has always been good about getting Final Fantasy consoles made, which includes the Final Fantasy III Nintendo DS Lite and the Final Fantasy Wonderswan Color and if we’re really going to go all out with new system appearances, what could we kick out stateside?

Retro has been a big thing for Nintendo, so another Famicom or NES design seems very likely down the road, with designs based after the Nintendo 64 being not too big of a stretch due to the processing nature of the Nintendo DS. And wouldn’t it be cute if there was a DS design made that hinged two Game Boy Advances together? Nintendo has a long-running franchise of retro material and million-selling IPs, so why don’t we see more limited edition action from them in both their systems and games? More realistically, I would love to have a frost/icy blue color to my Nintendo DS Lite (why not, Japan has one) but I really give Nintendo the thumbs up on its recent Brain Age 2 design that provides a sexy-looking red and black combination.

Given that I hardly ever play my PSP anymore, I’m completely content with my standard issue black because let’s face it - it’s black, shiny and looks damn sexy. It sure beats the white colored systems that have surfaced while the PSP has been on the market, but as a very nice digital media device, the PSP could match the iPod in terms of customization and choices. So, it’s no wonder Sony keeps adding on to the system as opposed to changing it because it is actually working just fine from the front of media. At the $199.99 price tag, the PSP is a disputable choice over an iPod with the expansions being made in memory sticks. However, the outside rarely changes. It makes me wonder what a red or blue PSP would look like straight from the factory but if given the same finish as the black PSP, it could rival in terms of shiny sexiness.

Yeah, I’m pretty random today and if you couldn’t guess, blue is my favorite color. However, that does not mean I am advocating Happy Happyism.