Eye of the Tiger.
I’m in a Street Fighter IV tournament, and I’m going on hiatus to train. I mean, you probably could have guessed that because I haven’t updated in like a month. But nonetheless.
However, while I am still at work, I’ll crank out a quick review and article.
Street Fighter IV rocks your balls off so hard it burns the hair off your head. As fantastic as Super Street Fighter II Turbo Ultra Mega HD Remix: The New Warriors: Championship Edition: Third Strike was, it has now become completely irrelevant to me, because SFIV is now my life. Everything about this game, from the art direction to the controls to the balance to the replay value is absolutely immaculate. In fact, I’ve put about 40 hours into the game so far, and the only complaint I can levy against it is the Radio Disney-esque theme song. It doesn’t even sound as legitimate as, say, N*SYNC or the Backstreet Boys, it sounds more like one of the even more blatantly manufactured boy bands, like Westlife or Boyzone. Other than that, I can’t find a complaint to make. The game has brought back Street Fighter as a cultural force, and even though it hasn’t reinvigorated arcades like I hoped (there are only like 15 or 20 SFIV cabinets in the country, possibly because the machines are $15000, and possibly because they’re import-only, which means they’re actually a lot more expensive than $15000), it’s done pretty much everything else I could have dreamed of.
Zangief is busted though. He is broken beyond belief. Way more powerful than he should be.
Anyway, back to the primary reason for the article. I am in a Street Fighter tournament. It’s the big national Street Fighter tournament being held by Gamestop. I’ve already won the store tournament, so next I’m headed allllll the way across town to Clinton Highway, where the next part of the tournament is. If I win here, I actually leave town and go to Chamblee, GA, and if I somehow manage to win there? A trip to San Francisco. All. Expenses. Paid. Hells yeah!
The prize for the next 2 rounds are a sweet fightpad and an even sweeter arcade stick. The weird thing is, they’re awesome, but they’re also made by fucking Mad Catz. I don’t know how to feel about them. I stopped using 3rd-party peripherals when my original Playstation (an SCHP-1001, which I found out recently is the equivalent of a $6000 audiophile CD player) was completely ruined by Performance-brand controllers and memory cards. I still have that model, and to this day, the only devices that work with it (and they don’t work very often) are 2 Performance controllers (they only work in the ports I originally used them in) and a Performance memory card (which won’t actually save any data). I swore, from that moment on, that I would never use a 3rd-party peripheral again, and so far I’ve kept my promise. But I think I may break it if I win these prizes.
So, that paragraph went on too long. The point of everything I’ve said so far is that, in order to win this tournament, I’m probably going on hiatus. I may come back. Usually I’ll be gone for a month, post to say I’m going on hiatus, then come back 2 days later. So we’ll see how it goes.
Also there are other things in the works. Keep looking here.
New Street Fighter 4 Character: Rufus
(Story from: StreetFighter4.org)
Some new Street Fighter 4 characters have been announced, including my new favorite opponent, Rufus.
Above: Movie studio ad copy writer Harry KnowlesFinally, I can live out my dream of beating the crap out of Harry Knowles.
Above: New SFIV Brawler Rufus