Game Update 19: Some PSN Games

These are all games I got on PSN in 2011 and never got around to talking about. They're all worth playing, although I didn't actually have to pay for half of them.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition


I got two Street Fighter games on PSN because Street Fighter Alpha 3 was the only one I owned, and I figured I ought to have a couple more, if only for history's sake. Street Fighter III is kind of an oddball, with only a few familiar characters and a whole bunch of strange new ones on the roster. Like there's a weird experimental creature than can change shape and a little goblin guy with one arm. I actually liked it more than the other one I got though, because the animation is kind of amazing to watch, it has a fun and deep fighting system, and the challenges that you're always making progress toward add something to the experience. I didn't manage to actually find any opponents online, though.

Super Stardust HD


One of many, many downloadable shooters this generation that you control by moving your ship with the left stick and aiming your fire with the right. I never played the original games Stardust HD is based on, but it doesn't take long to figure it out - you fly around the surface of various planets and protect them from asteroids and other threats with a variety of weapons. The game looks and sounds very nice and is pretty smooth to play. I wouldn't have gotten it if it wasn't among the choices for free games after Sony finally got PSN back up last year, but it's a fun little game.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix


As far as I can tell this is a graphical overhaul of what was considered the definitive version of Street Fighter II, with a couple other bells and whistles added on. The new backgrounds and characters look nice, but because the game has to stick to the same animation cycles in order to keep the gameplay the same, there's a weird disconnect between the smoothness of the images and the stutter with which they move. I ended up switching to the traditional sprites, though of course then you have the disconnect between the fighters and the backgrounds, which you can't change. Still, the core gameplay is full intact, and though it's not as smooth or modern as Street Fighter III, it's still pretty fun. Couldn't find any online opponents in this one either, though.

WipEout HD


The other free game I got when PSN came back was this, complete with the Fury add-on. All of the various futuristic racing games sort of blend together in my head, but WipEout seems like a popular one, and this HD version of it is enjoyable if not particularly original. The standard races are fun, but the game seems more fresh in its other modes, particularly the ones that Fury added. I'm not a huge racing game guy, but WipEout HD looks really nice and doesn't have any major issues.

Street Fighter Alpha: Generations

I don't have much to say about this. It's not very long. And it's not very good. I couldn't tell what was going on for a while. It seems to tell the origin of Akuma and then show Ryu for a while, although I didn't realize it was him. And I thought I saw the same girl in both parts but that doesn't really make sense. There's a couple characters that aren't from the games and they're pretty boring. Ooh, a wacky old man who's good at martial arts! Ryu's master was already killed, why does he need a new one? The animation is pretty decent, especially in the fights, but the character designs are pretty atrocious, both not matching the characters very well and also just being ugly. Um... you probably shouldn't watch it. The end.

Street Fighter Alpha

Alpha is one of several animated films based on the popular fighting game series, and as you might expect based on that statement, not very good. I liked Street Fighter II well enough, but this one isn't quite as fun. It starts off promisingly, with some smoothly animated, enjoyable little fight scenes, but as soon as it starts trying to tell a story it slows way down. There's a lot of familiar faces, with Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li predictable having the biggest roles, but some of the cameos don't make a whole lot of impact, and are just fan service. There's even a whole tangent with Akuma that's supposed to be dramatic or something but doesn't contribute to the plot or serve any purpose other than adding a few minutes to the runtime. If you're going to animate Akuma, at least have him beat the shit out of someone.

Anyway, it ends up being about some mad scientist guy having all the familiar guys fight so he can collect their data and eventually learn the "Dark Hadou" power from Ryu, so he can take over the world, I guess. There's a whole subplot with a little kid who claims to be Ryu's brother and also apparently has the power. But I kind of missed the explanation of what his actual deal was if it existed, because I was in and out for the last half. The problem is that once super powerful enemies get revealed, the action shifts from possibly well-choreographed martial arts to tired scenes of people powering up or writhing in crippling pain, taking a lot of potential excitement out of it. I would have enjoyed it more if it just stuck to what was working instead of going straight for the melodrama. It wasn't terrible, but I spent too long waiting until it was over.