Archive for Reviews
Review: Art of Fighting on the Wii Virtual Console
The Wii Virtual Console is opening up the floodgates to some exceptionally excellent classic fighting games. We’ve seen the re-introduction of titles like Fatal Fury, but what about that SNK Street Fighter II clone that got everyone worked up? Art of Fighting, I found, was pretty lame when it hit arcades the first time around, mostly because it was such a blatant rip-off of what Capcom was doing with the Street Fighter franchise. Guess what? Re-introducing Art of Fighting to the world via the Wii Virtual Console doesn’t change much.
IGN had the opportunity to take the VC version of Art of Fighting out for a test drive and they were equally unimpressed with just about every aspect of the game. Characters? Hah!
Art of Fighting’s character roster leaves something to be desired, and especially so in single-player mode – there, you can only choose to be one of two different heroes. Fatal Fury was the same way, restricting the selection so the story would continue to make sense, but it’s not much of a selection process when your decision of who to use could be made by flipping a coin.
The rest of the picture doesn’t get much better. They say that it is “lacking any depth in its fighting engine.” The vocalizations for the fighters are “weak” and gameplay is “very bland and basic”, despite the introduction of taunting and a spirit meter. The only positive is the elimination of invisible walls in Art of Fighting, favoring a new “zooming, scaling effect that was very impressive for its time.” In the end, they give Art of Fighting on the Virtual Console a paltry score of 4.5 out of 10.
So, yeah, save your money for something else. Like Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting. Check out the full review here.
Virtua Fighter 5 for Xbox 360 is Better Than PS3
Virtua Fighter 5 is arguably one of the most technical fighting games available today. Although it only has three buttons — punch, kick, and block — Virtua Fighter 5 is incredibly complex and brings out some of the most amazing fighting games skills. Timing is of paramount importance, as is varying your strategy to suit your opponent. I’ve been playing the PlayStatio 3 version of Virtua Fighter 5 for some time now and while it is a heck of a lot of fun, it doesn’t offer much in terms of replay value. The Quest mode isn’t all that satisfying.
Contrast this to the recently released Virtua Fighter 5 for the Xbox 360, as shown above. Not only does the Xbxo 360 version feature online play — the PS3 version does not — some are saying that the graphics are even better than the PS3 Virtua Fighter 5. Imagine that, better than Blu-ray. When Virtua Fighter 5 came out for the PS3, Sega said that it just wasn’t possible to bring such intensely beautiful graphics to the Xbox 360. They also said that the ridiculous visuals would not be conducive to an online experience and that’s why they took the option out of the PS3 version.
I guess Sega is eating its PS3 Virtua Fighter 5 words now. Eating them all the way to the bank with vastly improved Xbox 360 Virtua Fighter 5.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for Nintendo Wii
IGN reviews Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for the Nintendo Wii, finding that the game plays and looks much the same way as other Guilty Gear XX fighting games — ridiculously fast-paced and stylized — but the Wii controls make this a “much worse game.” They highly recommend that you use a Classic Controller to get virtually the same experience as someone playing this fighting game on the Sony PS2. In the end, they give the Wii a version a paltry 5.9/10.
Let’s face it, the Wii Remote + Nunchuk setup isn’t the most conducive for fighting games. I don’t know if you’ve tried Mortal Kombat Armageddon on the Wii… instead of being intuitive and approachable, the controls are just awkward and stupid. That’s why I play Capcom vs. SNK 2 (GameCube) using an X-Arcade Tankstick Dual Joystick Controller. With the Tankstick, I almost feel compelled to put a quarter up on the screen to call “next.”
