MogKnight
08-06-2004, 01:11 AM
Okay, another one of those interesting reads by me!
I'm pretty sure a good bunch of you people know of Street Fighter and it's many many MANY MANY MANY MANY... many many many.... MANY MANY MANY MANY... many many many.... MANY MANY MANY MANY... upgrades to their games. Of course, when you see stuff like "SUPER HYPER EDITION STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO" or etc etc, it's really just the same as "SUPER EDITION STREET FIGHTER 2!" Well, some people seem to think of this as a negative or bad thing, just something to drain money off of us. Of course, this is the American mindset we have here, we expect that when another game of the series comes out, it should be a totally different experience compared to the first. Almost, most of the American players are casual based, they mostly might not see the difference between Game A and Game A+.
Lets look at Street Fighter II and it's 4 upgrades. The original Street Fighter II featured only 8 characters and 4 boss characters. It was then upgraded to having 12 playable characters and the ability to select the same character for both players... then it was upgraded to faster gameplay and more special moves... then it upgraded to a better arcade system with 4 more guys... then finally it upgraded to faster gameplay and added super moves.
Now, within those 5 steps that they took from Street Fighter II to the last of the set of upgrades (we're not counting Anniersary because it doesn't offer anything new), why couldn't they just done it all in the first place or just make a new game/sequel with those upgrades?
Most of the games that go through an upgrade process (this also includes Final Fantasy International games), a lot of it is fan surveys. Players that play the game offer their opinions about what can be improved and what should be added, etc. This, of course, does not happen in the US because a lot of American based companies don't do this. Japan in the other hand get down and personal with players. To offer an opinion, they have to at least play a playable version of the game. While Beta Testing could of been done, you can only get so many good players to beta test the game for you. The best way to really test out a game is to expand it out to the people to play and see what they think can be improved. Getting rid of the bugs is one thing, finding what makes a game near perfect is another, something that beta testing with the same group of people won't accomplish.
For the most part, we've seen how Street Fighter has grown to have a huge fan base all over the world, Street Fighter II especially. To really reproduce the same product with a lot of tweeks and calling it "Street Fighter III" wouldn't be right since it's basically the same exact game.. just with a lot of tweeks. With how many tweeks Street Fighter II ended up, it would be rather shocking to end up with Street Fighter VII, not to mention they would have to find ways to make the games look/play differently than the previous Street Fighter game.
There is another series that seem to throw out upgrades rather than sequels. This would be the King of Fighters series. Now, this can contradict a few things I've said (i'm too groggy) but bare with me here. The King of Fighters games, from game to game, seem to have big changes compared to Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Champion Edition. Ususally when you have people perfering to play an older version to a newer version, that tells you right there that there are a good few gameplay elements that have changed between the old and the new. Do the King of Fighter games end up playing the same for the most part? That's a hard question to answer since the series have been around for 10 years. Of course with videogame evolution, there are a lot of things that happened in 10 years... wait now I'm just babbling about how good King of Fighters is.... MOVING ON!
A few good Final Fantasy fans are extremely pissed about how Japan end up with an exclusive International release. There's even that "Rather delay to get better stuff" kind of thing going around. Well, for the Japanese, it's pretty much a big change compared to the original. Not only do they get the bonus features such as Dark Aeons and all that but they also get the whole game in English. To those that really want to listen to the game spoken in English, this would be what they would buy. I guess it's also a Marketing ploy since their original Final Fantasy game would not be considered obsolete since the International releases don't have Japanese voices and any other things that they would want to get from the originals.
Sometimes tweeks are so minor, you would not notice them. Guilty Gear X2 was a game that was released worldwide... however, there was an upgraded version called Guilty Gear XX #Reload. When I played #Reload, the differences were hot to spot unless you knew the game like the back of your hand. Most of these differences can mean the difference between winning or lose a battle... but most casual players won't catch the differences between the two and really end up not giving a crap. Of course in Japan, they spend a good amount of time playing this with other players, eventually knowing the game fairly well.
Sometimes the tweeks are so major but feels so minor. This is clearly represented in the soon to be released "Street Fighter Anniversary Edition" which allows you to pick the Street Fighter II characters in any of their 5 versions (assuming they could be selected in that version). Now, when you read "Zangief's Damage is higher in regular version compared to his SuperT version", you'll think "Eh, so he does a little more, big deal..." When you put it into action and plan out your moves, it ends up being a huge difference in who will win a match between Regular Zangief and SuperT Zangief. In fact, a lot of characters in Street Fighter Anniversary Edition in their Regular Mode end up doing a lot of damage. When Street Fighter II barely came out, you can beat someone with just one combo fairly easily. Now if Street Fighter 2 was never upgraded, think of how much of a bitch that would be.
Well I'm starting to forget my point in this post... uh... go pick up something to play.
I'm pretty sure a good bunch of you people know of Street Fighter and it's many many MANY MANY MANY MANY... many many many.... MANY MANY MANY MANY... many many many.... MANY MANY MANY MANY... upgrades to their games. Of course, when you see stuff like "SUPER HYPER EDITION STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO" or etc etc, it's really just the same as "SUPER EDITION STREET FIGHTER 2!" Well, some people seem to think of this as a negative or bad thing, just something to drain money off of us. Of course, this is the American mindset we have here, we expect that when another game of the series comes out, it should be a totally different experience compared to the first. Almost, most of the American players are casual based, they mostly might not see the difference between Game A and Game A+.
Lets look at Street Fighter II and it's 4 upgrades. The original Street Fighter II featured only 8 characters and 4 boss characters. It was then upgraded to having 12 playable characters and the ability to select the same character for both players... then it was upgraded to faster gameplay and more special moves... then it upgraded to a better arcade system with 4 more guys... then finally it upgraded to faster gameplay and added super moves.
Now, within those 5 steps that they took from Street Fighter II to the last of the set of upgrades (we're not counting Anniersary because it doesn't offer anything new), why couldn't they just done it all in the first place or just make a new game/sequel with those upgrades?
Most of the games that go through an upgrade process (this also includes Final Fantasy International games), a lot of it is fan surveys. Players that play the game offer their opinions about what can be improved and what should be added, etc. This, of course, does not happen in the US because a lot of American based companies don't do this. Japan in the other hand get down and personal with players. To offer an opinion, they have to at least play a playable version of the game. While Beta Testing could of been done, you can only get so many good players to beta test the game for you. The best way to really test out a game is to expand it out to the people to play and see what they think can be improved. Getting rid of the bugs is one thing, finding what makes a game near perfect is another, something that beta testing with the same group of people won't accomplish.
For the most part, we've seen how Street Fighter has grown to have a huge fan base all over the world, Street Fighter II especially. To really reproduce the same product with a lot of tweeks and calling it "Street Fighter III" wouldn't be right since it's basically the same exact game.. just with a lot of tweeks. With how many tweeks Street Fighter II ended up, it would be rather shocking to end up with Street Fighter VII, not to mention they would have to find ways to make the games look/play differently than the previous Street Fighter game.
There is another series that seem to throw out upgrades rather than sequels. This would be the King of Fighters series. Now, this can contradict a few things I've said (i'm too groggy) but bare with me here. The King of Fighters games, from game to game, seem to have big changes compared to Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Champion Edition. Ususally when you have people perfering to play an older version to a newer version, that tells you right there that there are a good few gameplay elements that have changed between the old and the new. Do the King of Fighter games end up playing the same for the most part? That's a hard question to answer since the series have been around for 10 years. Of course with videogame evolution, there are a lot of things that happened in 10 years... wait now I'm just babbling about how good King of Fighters is.... MOVING ON!
A few good Final Fantasy fans are extremely pissed about how Japan end up with an exclusive International release. There's even that "Rather delay to get better stuff" kind of thing going around. Well, for the Japanese, it's pretty much a big change compared to the original. Not only do they get the bonus features such as Dark Aeons and all that but they also get the whole game in English. To those that really want to listen to the game spoken in English, this would be what they would buy. I guess it's also a Marketing ploy since their original Final Fantasy game would not be considered obsolete since the International releases don't have Japanese voices and any other things that they would want to get from the originals.
Sometimes tweeks are so minor, you would not notice them. Guilty Gear X2 was a game that was released worldwide... however, there was an upgraded version called Guilty Gear XX #Reload. When I played #Reload, the differences were hot to spot unless you knew the game like the back of your hand. Most of these differences can mean the difference between winning or lose a battle... but most casual players won't catch the differences between the two and really end up not giving a crap. Of course in Japan, they spend a good amount of time playing this with other players, eventually knowing the game fairly well.
Sometimes the tweeks are so major but feels so minor. This is clearly represented in the soon to be released "Street Fighter Anniversary Edition" which allows you to pick the Street Fighter II characters in any of their 5 versions (assuming they could be selected in that version). Now, when you read "Zangief's Damage is higher in regular version compared to his SuperT version", you'll think "Eh, so he does a little more, big deal..." When you put it into action and plan out your moves, it ends up being a huge difference in who will win a match between Regular Zangief and SuperT Zangief. In fact, a lot of characters in Street Fighter Anniversary Edition in their Regular Mode end up doing a lot of damage. When Street Fighter II barely came out, you can beat someone with just one combo fairly easily. Now if Street Fighter 2 was never upgraded, think of how much of a bitch that would be.
Well I'm starting to forget my point in this post... uh... go pick up something to play.