Dear Santa,
First off, on behalf of the people of the world, thank you so much for your ongoing efforts to make this world a joyous place during the holiday season.
With the noble stuff out of the way, let me get greedy for a minute. Though I feel selfish, especially at this point in my life, I guess I’m still entitled to receive something from you as long as I’ve been a good boy this year, right? If so, can I give you a few gaming-related suggestions in no particular order?
There was a moment that occurred at T12: Toronto Fighting Game Championships that still makes me chuckle. This moment happened very early on in the Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition team tournament. On the big screen, two competitors both picked Yun, which made the entire crowd boo mercilessly.
If you haven’t been following the latest news when it comes to Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, I don’t blame you for not seeing the humour in it. However, serious Street Fighter IV players have been crying foul about Arcade Edition’s character balance since the release of the game. Yun and Yang in particular stand out as being considerably stronger than the rest of the cast, though a number of characters received some weird and unnecessary balance changes that made a lot of people angry. Although Capcom has admitted to intentionally making the game unbalanced, this proved to be a bad decision. Ultimately, Yoshinori Ono, the main producer behind the Street Fighter IV series, apologized to the community at EVO 2011 and announced that he’d make things right with Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Version 2012, set for release on December 13.
As Microsoft, Sony, and to an extent, Apple, went on their merry way in 2011 with their gaming ventures, it seemed like Nintendo sputtered all the way through. As a lifelong Nintendo fanboy and a Nintendo-only console owner up until this generation, it’s tough seeing what Nintendo has done (and not done) in 2011. If you’re a Nintendo-only household and you’re as hardcore into gaming as I am, I feel your pain.
Let’s look at Nintendo’s fronts, discussed what went wrong and their outlook going into 2012.
At In Third Person, we mostly focus on the fun and games of life. Unfortunately, life for many doesn’t have much in the way of fun or games. Through a donation to Child’s Play Charity, you can help bring the fun and games back to a hospitalized child.
Watching franchise fatigue set into a franchise you love can be heartbreaking. Sometimes, this process can happen in a very short amount of time; should a publisher try and cash-in on a franchise as fast as they can while it’s still hot without keeping the formula fresh. The most obvious examples of franchise fatigue from this generation are Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk.
If my early impressions of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (the third main-line Assassin’s Creed game in three years) are to be used as a gauge, then franchise fatigue is clearly starting to seep in.
In Third Person 