Let me start by saying that I love MEGAMAN! If my wallet allowed it, I would buy up every piece of MEGAMAN related materiel and give it its own special venue to be enjoyed by those who can really appreciate it. Despite my passion for the Blue Bomber, the reason I choose such a harsh title is because of the choices Capcom has made in terms of some of its titles. I’m talking Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Street Fighter IV, and Strider. Before you flip a table, break whatever device you’re using to read this, and replace it, just so you can rake me over the coals, hear me out.
MEGAMAN rolls deep.
I am a huge fan of the MvC series. My little brother and I have been on since the first seeing Spider-Man throw Gambit through the wall of E.Honda’s bath house[1], but I have a major problem with the latest version. No Power Stone characters! I mean, are you messing with me?! For those of you who aren’t familiar with the name, Power Stone plays like Super Smash Bros., if SSB decided it wanted to grow a pair and went free range mode on the ass whooping. The story is center around magical stones of power that would grant you greatest desire and I just figured out were the name came from. *Puts face to palm* Anyway, the ever changing environments and the addition of a weapon creation system[2] in the second game made this a ridiculously fun game with an awesome arcade feel. The characters represented different cutlers and styles. Standard fair for most fighting titles, but then again I don’t remember a lot of other titles making really work at going aggro[3]. Actually, not true, SSB introduced the Smash Ball. The characters from the Power Stone Series are perfect for a game like Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, yet they give us Phoenix Wright. Really? While it’s safe to argue character parallels with She-Hulk(technically an attorney) and his relevance, you could do the same for, I don’t know; Ben Grim [4] Vs Gunrock, Falcon Vs. Falcon, Pete Vs. Ultron [5]. That’s right off the top of my head.
♪Jack & Jill go up a hill to throw down right-n-proper…♪
Let’s move on to a different fighter. Ahh, the Street Fighter series, great memories and fights to this name for sure. Hell, my bro and I still run 3rd Strike. I’ve even uploaded fights from my PS3 to YouTube. I cannot however, continue to support a franchise that puts out three of the same game with some changes. I mean, sure it’s their modus operandi, but nobody has the money for this shit. I pre-ordered & bought the collector’s edition of SFIV vanilla. Capcom later dropped Super SFIV, Super SFIV Arcade Ed(free to PlayStation Plus users). and a 25th anniversary set of the series featuring four different versions of the game and a plethora of swag. Now I hear they’re dropping Ultra?! I’m not buying any of this shit till they drop V. No one else feels like they’re being taken advantage of here? Being a diehard fan of this series can be comparable to an Apple early adopter, willing to pay whatever, for a crack at the latest unfinished product. Don’t even get me started on the DLC. It’s like when you meet that really cute girl that seems into you especially after you take her out to a nice place, but starts to loose interest when you can’t dote on her by buying the latest spring(?) fashion. I’m not saying Capcom’s a gold digger, but clearly they aren’t associating themselves with people of low income.
http://www.alvinleeart.com/2009/05/street-fighter-street-jam/ Also Blanka should’ve been in MvC3
Then there’s Strider. Actually, this game looks great! A nice fast paced side-scrolling, hack-n-slash, platformer is the change up my library needs. BUT WHERE THE CHOCOLATE COVERED CHRIST IS POWER STONE[6]! We are at the dawning in a new age of console gaming and you pull a side-scroller?! Why the hell would you even bother putting that out on the next gen? At least with Power Stone you have an open space, a huge array of objects and enough crazy in your story to justify pretty much whatever you’d like. For fucksake, the mega buster was a weapon in the game! The level potential is insane, and the character power modes?! Wang-Tang dragon mode all day son! Sure Strider is relevant thanks to his edition to MVC3, but why his game? Why not Ghosts’ N Goblins? Arthur was brand new to the series as a fighter. Strider’s last appearance not counting a fighter was a mobile phone game released in 2010(in Japan), which was basically a port of the original. Power Stones 1 & 2 was released together for the PlayStation Portable, the same time Strider was packed in the Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed for the PSP and PS2 (2006). In fact why didn’t you bother to port Power Stone to PS3?
Also featured on Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed. Probably still has a better chance of coming out than Power Stone 3.
If you were to ask me the first five series to come to mind, I’d say,
“Easy, MEGAMAN, Power Stone, Street Fighter, Dead Rising, Resident Evil.”, the three most prevalent being, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Dead Rising. I use the word prevalent, because those are the series Capcom turns out the most. You might have thought of those three plus; Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, or Lost Planet. Yet, how many of you are aware Capcom turned out a fighting game called Battle Fantasia? Set in a fantasy universe, with characters ranging from seriously badass, to sickeningly adorable, this is a fighter with a lengthy story mode for each of its twelve characters, but I didn’t find out about this till last year. The game hit PlayStation Network in December of ’09. So clearly, Capcom is about taking a chance on an IP and promoting the hell out of it. [7] So one might argue that if you were going to pick a series or franchises that bordered on obscurity, why not Rival Schools, JoJo’s Bizzarre Adventure, or even The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, seeing as how that particular game sells for bank on eBay.
Then again, if I had a game that let me enjoy these little guys for hours, I’d probably drop a half a grand.
The point I’m trying to make is Capcom is at that too big to fail level in the industry. We have developed a dependence on two of their major fighting series and they know it. They listen to their community enough to update and tweak their games, but it feels like after that they just kick back and let the revenue from DLC and merchandising run auto-pilot on the company. I have a small sliver of hope that the series will comeback. I plan to fore feed Capcom emails till it happens, are try and get a job with them (which totally an option after posting this) and make it happen from the inside. At this point, the one game I want from them more than anything, other than a new MEGAMAN Legends, is Power Stone 3: The Flawless Eternity Gem (feel free to take that one). So I challenge you Capcom. Play through those games again, take a poll on it, put it out for free to PS+ members, have a side competition at the next EVO event. Just take a good hard look and this series, then look me dead in the eyes and tell me that there is absolutely no, zero, so finite that the impossibility gains density and becomes a black hole that sucks up even the outside chance of being a potential hit.
Tell me none of these characters have no place in the market today.
[1]If you throw an opponent into a wall at least two times, you’ll move to another room. That’s right, secret stage, wooooh!
[2] The weapon creation system in Power Stone 2 required you to play through adventure mode collecting weapons and recourse in order to make new weapons.
[3] The key to the fights are the power stones that would pop out throughout the stage. Collecting three stones transforms the fighter into a stylized power house with amped up base attacks and two super attacks.
[4] Grimm got a hammer during the Fear Itself storyline and he’s played poker with fucking She-Hulk.
[5] In light of the Marvel Comic Con news.
[6] While was looking up a video to demo both games I found this. I had know idea this was a series! I am currently watching through all of them!
[7] Since this has been originally posted, this piece can also be viewed on Put That Back. It has been pointed out to me that Arc System Works is responsible for this title. I have no idea why I kept picturing the Capcom logo. Sorry for the confusion.
Monopoly On Distractions 