I got kinda mad this weekend.

I had been looking forward to the release of Street Fighter III 3^rd Strike and decided to get it on PS3 instead of Xbox 360. While the 360 is my system of choice, it seems like everyone I know buys their multiplayer games on PS3 so I figured I’d start buying fighting games for my newer console. Since I love my Mad Catz Fightpad so much on my Xbox 360, I ordered one for the PS3. Good idea, right?

Nope.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on February 16, 2011)

You would think that with a smaller roster, a new art style and a retooled control scheme that Marvel vs Capcom 3 would be primed to disappoint series fans that have anticipated the third entry for ten years, but you’d be wrong. Every change has been for the better, and its reworkings, additions and yes, even omissions, all create a more solid experience than the evidence would lead you to believe.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is the third installment of the wildly popular 2D fighting series pitting Marvel’s roster of fantastic superheroes against Capcom’s stable of colorful and wacky characters. The first two games were largely similar, both featuring very similar rosters of characters and the same 2D art style and control scheme. MvC3 bucks tradition, employing a new 3D graphics engine (although the gameplay is still 2D), slimming down their selectable characters and simplifying the game controls to make it more accessible to newcomers.

All I really need to say about Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is that it manages to cram all of the features of its console big brother into a smaller cartridge. This isn’t just a portable version of SSF4, this is SSF4.

Granted, there were a few things that needed to be scaled down in the transition to a handheld: backgrounds that were full of life and animation are now static, and character model elements that were fluid before, like Ryu and Sakura’s headbands, are now stiff and immobile.

Honestly, though, those omissions aren’t even that big a deal: the game still looks great. The character models retain their personality from the HD versions of the game (and judging by screenshots I’ve seen, they look even better than the iPhone version). The 3D, which you wouldn’t think would add much to a 2D fighter, really adds a lot of depth to the game, with the backgrounds becoming layered and the fighters really popping in the foreground. The fact that Capcom is one of the few developers that still likes to use color in their games really shines here, and the game is a great way to see what your new handheld is capable of.

So I’ve been playing a whole crap ton of Marvel vs Capcom 3 lately. It’s an amazing game, and considering how much time I spent playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 on my Dreamcast it’s really no surprise how captivated I am by its sequel.

I’m getting pretty into it, too; I’ve been reading Shoryuken’s guides and I watched Level|Up’s “Wednesday Night Fights” event last week. I’m trying really hard to get better, even though I’m not having much luck.

I decided to try to sell my fightstick on eBay the other day, since I wasn’t using it, and I’d buy another fightpad so Christina and I could play together. We set up the auction and I was about to write the description, but as I looked back on the pictures from my blog post about it… I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t part with the fightstick.

I’ve written many times about how much I love Capcom fighting games. I’m drawn to them like a moth to a flame, or like a high school girl to a jerk who won’t pay attention to her. I had been meaning to check out Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for Wii for a while now, but I for some reason had it in my head that I didn’t want to play it without an arcade stick. Then I remembered that the d-pad on the Wii’s Classic Controller, unlike the one on the Xbox 360 controller, actually works, and my amazing wife added the game to our GameFly queue as a surprise.

We both really, really like it. Christina has given a few different fighting games a try but they’ve never really stuck with her. She doesn’t want to have to learn hitboxes and frame data (and honestly neither do I), so Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has been quite delicious to her, like a juicy orange on a warm summer day. It’s certainly technical if you want it to be, but it’s also very casual-friendly if you just want to learn a few special moves and button mash most of your way through it.

I haven’t really played Street Fighter much lately, mostly because I just couldn’t get used to playing with an arcade stick (and playing with the Xbox 360 controller is NOT an option). It wasn’t anything wrong with the stick itself, it just wasn’t the way I had always played Street Fighter. In the heat of battle I tended to get flustered and lose my position on the stick, and as a result I’d lose and get angry.

I had some good luck the other day and managed to pull a loot card in a booster pack of World of Warcraft cards, so I put the card on eBay and decided to invest in one of the Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Fightpads. They were advertised as a cheaper alternative to the arcade sticks, and I had heard nothing but great things about the d-pad they designed. I picked the one with the Chun-Li design because a) blue is my favorite color, b) I thought it’d be weird buying a controller with a buff dude on it, and c) c’mon it’s Chun-Li, the First Lady of Gaming.

This is the best 3 minutes of live action Street Fighter you’ll ever see.

I’m not going to make a habit of passing off cool things I find as blog posts, but this was really awesome. I mean, that IS Ken. Like, if Ken stepped out of the game into real life, he’d look just like that.

So Capcom has once again taken an amazing fighting game and updated it by adding even more awesome to it. What’s better than Street Fighter IV, if not SUPER Street Fighter IV?

As you may recall from some of my earlier posts, I am a huge Street Fighter fan. I’ve been through Capcom’s update cycles before (I’ve played/owned Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo), so when they announced late last year that they’d be updating Street Fighter IV, I didn’t interpret it as some kind of attempt to milk their customers as so many of the basement-dwelling internet populace did. I knew it meant Capcom would take what was so great about Street Fighter IV, tweak it, refine it, and add a ton of great things to it.

So I just got done playing some of the old Capcom NES Disney games. Rescue Rangers, DuckTales… man, those are STILL good games. The gameplay is still solid, the music is among the best ever on the NES, and they were based on awesome cartoons.

Now I really want a Hi-C and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I’m a huge fan of fighting games. I’ve been Dragon Punching, Flash Kicking and Yoga Firing for the majority of my life. I’m nowhere near as good at them as I used to be, but I’m still a sucker for them, especially for 2D fighters by Capcom specifically.

I still remember the first time I ever played Street Fighter II. It was 1992, and everyone in my second grade class was talking about how cool it was. Everyone said Chun-Li was the best character. I went home with one of my friends to finally play, and of course I picked Chun-Li because hey, everyone said she was the best. I don’t remember if I won or lost that first match, but I remember wanting more.