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Looking Back: Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES

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The Super Nintendo port of Street Fighter Alpha 2 confused many. While the Super Nintendo did have some fantastic Street Fighter ports in the past, many developers at the time (including Capcom) had already abandoned the Super Nintendo for the Playstation, Saturn and Nintendo 64. Capcom themselves had skipped porting Street Fighter Alpha to the Super Nintendo because the hardware couldn’t handle it.

So when this came out in 1996, it sparked a lot of questions. Why is this being ported to the Super Nintendo now? Do Super Nintendo players still want more Street Fighter? Is this port even any good?

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Tetris Attack is the Secret Best Tetris

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Back in 1996, Nintendo released a North American version of their puzzle game, Panel de Pon. You may remember it as Tetris Attack. You may also recognize this game as Pokemon Puzzle League on the Nintendo 64 or Planet Puzzle League on the Nintendo DS. If you do, awesome.

It’s a shame that Tetris Attack/Puzzle League have never taken off in North America, because this series of puzzle games are, in my opinion, the best puzzle games that aren’t regular Tetris.

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Pick Up Post: Just Dance 2

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The first Just Dance was nothing short of a smash hit. It was a game that did a great job catering to the Wii audience, in spite of the gripes I had from a hardcore gamer perspective; which wouldn’t matter to the vast majority of people who would play or buy this game in the first place. To be fair, once I stopped thinking about the game as a hardcore game reviewer and started thinking about it as just someone wanting to play a dance game with others, the original was a lot of fun.

Yesterday evening, my girlfriend went to pick up her copy of Just Dance 2, which might be her most anticipated game of the year. After a long weekend of Just Dance 1 madness with her, my brother, my cousins and I, my brother and I decided to go half on our own copy as well.

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Thoughts About the Upcoming Mortal Kombat Game

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I haven’t liked a Mortal Kombat game for a long time. I enjoyed the first one, thought the second one was the best and that the third one was a bit of a letdown. From there, I lost interest in the series when it shifted to 3D, added weapons and any other gimmicky stuff to keep the series fresh. To be fair, the Mortal Kombat games have always sold well, but the series hasn’t been relevant among hardcore fighting game fans or the mass audience in years.

Thankfully, the developers behind Mortal Kombat seem to be going the Street Fighter IV route by going back to what made the game great in the first place.

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Late to the Party: Street Fighter Alpha

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Street Fighter Alpha is a landmark game in my life as a fighting game player. This was the first fighting game that I completely missed in its prime during my 14 year run without fighting games. I didn’t plan on missing out on this game; I actively purchased video game magazines to read Street Fighter Alpha coverage. However, it came out during a time when I wasn’t going to the arcade and I didn’t own a system that could run Alpha at home, so I never played more than 20 minutes of it at someones house years after the fact.

This was the first game I picked up on Playstation Network after buying my Playstation 3. Even though I have other fighting games to attend to, I really wanted to go back and give this one a fair shake to see what I’ve missed out on after all these years.

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Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me – Why I’m Reluctant to Join the Call of Duty: Black Ops Hype Train

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Call of Duty: Black Ops is set for release in the next few weeks and based on the pre-order numbers alone it’s almost certain to be a monsterous success. Could it outsell the Infinity Ward developed Modern Warfare 2? It wouldn’t necessarily be out of the realm of possibility.

Will I be jumping in on day one, contributing to its success? Ha. I really enjoyed Modern Warfare 2, but that game was awesome thanks to the developers at Infinity Ward (before 1/3rd of the company bailed). Call of Duty: Black Ops is being made by Treyarch, who made Call of Duty: World at War, which I was less than impressed by.
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God of War Collection Impressions

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Prior to purchasing God of War Collection, I’ve never played a God of War game before. For years, I’ve heard great things about the series, but haven’t had a system to play them on. Now that I have a PlayStation 3, I figured that now would be a good time to see what the hype is about. A few weeks ago, my girlfriend gave this game her seal of approval, and I recently spent a few hours playing through the first God of War.

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I Think I’m Done With You, 3D Dot Game Heroes

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I’m in the Aqua Temple. I’ve been playing this level for over an hour, struggling to make my way through. I get to a point where all that is left is behind one more locked door before the boss. When I get to the door, it won’t open. Somewhere along the way, I missed a key and have no idea where. Crap.

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Peaceful Jay’s Colosseum

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I’m trying not to sound like an old man when I say this, but back in my day, Street Fighter was all about a bunch of players crowded around an arcade machine. There were always two people battling it out, while others watched the action, talking to each other while waiting for their turns. This was the foundation for many local Street Fighter communities around the world. Unfortunately, most of that community has disappeared in North America due to the death of the arcade.

However, in 2010, a Justin.tv user Peaceful Jay may have created the modern equivalent of that community on a much bigger scale.

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Early ModNation Racers Impression

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I’ve been looking forward to playing a non-Mario Kart kart racer for quite some time. Sure, Mario Kart Wii is great, and may still be the best kart racer to come out of this generation when all is said and done, but my palette is looking for something a little different right now.

Enter ModNation Racers. This PlayStation 3 exclusive is part Mario Kart and part Little Big Planet. I’ve only played about an hour of campaign and split-screen, but I don’t think it would hurt to share a few opening thoughts about what I’ve played so far.

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