video games

Super Nintendo Essays: Timeless

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The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!

Almost 30 years after the initial launch of the Super NES, Nintendo’s 16-bit gem returns in miniature form. Coming with two controllers, 20 classic games and one brand new game in the mythical Star Fox 2, this is about as good as it gets for a package like this. Unlike the NES Classic, where the novelty of it wore quickly when you realized that many of the games on it aren’t that good any more, the SNES Classic is filled to the brim with games that stand the test of time.

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Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Review

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Years ago, Disney ended the licensing of its video game rights to third parties in order to focus on making its own games in-house. While it was the decision that gave life to Disney Infinity and Marvel: Contest of Champions, it was also the move that prematurely ended the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series. Once the game disappeared from store shelves and digital distribution channels, it seemed like the series was never coming back.

But like the Phoenix (who isn’t in the game yet), Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite rises from the ashes to bring tag-based fighting action to the masses. Curiously missing a #4 in its name, it’s omission is clear once you see some of the dramatic changes that make it stray from the 3v3 format of yesteryear. Is this game still worthy of the Mahvel name?

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Super Nintendo Essays: Grasping at Nostalgia

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The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!

At some point during the Nintendo 64 era, my house got robbed. All of our gaming stuff was gone. It was a very tough time for my family and I, and our overall safety was probably a bigger concern than my gaming items being taken away. When it came time to move on, my brother and I decided against re-buying our Super Nintendo things, and instead focused what little money we had on re-buying our modern Nintendo 64 stuff.

Almost a decade after first receiving it as a birthday present, my parents got me a used SNES for Christmas. Alongside of it were two controllers, Super Mario World, Street Fighter II, and Super Star Wars. In that moment, it was one of the warmest and fuzziest feelings I’d ever felt. However, it also became a factor in the darkest part of my life to-date.

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Adjusting to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

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Years of Marvel vs. Capcom experience hasn’t prepared me for the uphill battle of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. With the myriad of changes made to game, these first few days have been humbling to say the least. So far, my experience has consisted of me putting hours into training mode, just trying to get a basic grasp of how the game works. With every new game, comes new challenges, and a new opportunity to prove myself.

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Super Nintendo Essays: Second-Hand

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The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!

Despite my disdain for the current $80 price point for new games in Canada, it’s a bargain compared to what I was contending with in the 90s. The additional cost of cartridges, combined with the wonky Canadian dollar, made new titles cost upwards of $100 in the early-to-mid 90s. Above is a screenshot of a Toys R Us flyer that I’m presuming is from the holiday season of 1995, where Mortal Kombat 3 is priced as a new title. Assuming that, the likes of Batman Forever would actually cost $140.92 CAD today.

I would struggle to pay those kinds of prices today. In 1995, when I was an elementary school student who wasn’t even getting an allowance at that point, new games were almost entirely out of the question. Because of this, I got most of my games used and was active in trading games away.

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The Super NES Essays: The Donkey Kong Country Tape

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The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!

In the summer of 1994, I received an unusual package from Nintendo. Just a few months before, they had sent me a copy of Super Mario All-Stars as part of a promo for buying an SNES. This wasn’t a game, though. Inside, was a VHS tape about the upcoming Donkey Kong Country. Though I didn’t know about it before watching the video, I knew that game like the back of my hand long before it was inevitably released later that year.

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One Last Time: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

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Playing this game once more before the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite!

Buy Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite Now From Amazon.com

Out Tomorrow – Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

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To say that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite has had a rocky PR battle throughout the course of its existence is a bit of an understatement. From the lack of X-Men characters, to the “downgrade” of 3v3 combat to 2v2, to Capcom mostly rehashing characters and animations from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, to the terrible story demo they released, to the poorly-worded quotes from Capcom representatives that reduced characters to just functions, to Chun-Li’s busted face, this game has been through the ringer.

On top of all of that, Capcom is fighting an even steeper uphill battle after breaking the trust of gamers with Street Fighter V. Layer on top of that the impending release of Dragon Ball FighterZ, which looks to be a worthy adversary in the tag-team fighting game space, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite appears to be in a lot of trouble before it’s even released.

So why then, am I buying a copy?

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Saying Goodbye to Marvel vs. Capcom 3

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From X-Men vs. Street Fighter to the recently released Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Marvel and Capcom have been crossing paths since the late 90s in some of the most legendary fighting games of all-time. While I was well aware of their collaborations, their output in the 90s and early 2000s was a reminder to my younger self that fighting games had moved on without me. As a Nintendo fan who actively played Super Street Fighter II, these crossover games were too complex for my liking. On top of that, these games never made it to Nintendo consoles, leaving me out in the cold.

I wouldn’t get a chance to play this series in earnest until the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The road was rough, and I wasn’t there all the way through, but my time with that game was key to my growth as a fighting game player. In a time now where its successor is in market, this post is for the fallen soldier that is the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series.

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