Character Crisis

Often times choosing the right character in fighting games is a hard decision. The reality is your character, the one you thought looked the coolest, could ultimately let you down. After all, balance is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to fighting games and some characters unfortunately end up receiving the short end of the stick. Despite what seems to be a harsh reality, some individuals choose to stay loyal to their character making a commitment to use the characters strengths to beat their  opponents. It is a valiant effort to say the least but what happens when that character you loved so much, the one you stuck with through thick and thin doesn't make it to the next generation?  Will you stay, will you go?!

Recently, Charlie Nash, a returning character from the classic Street Fighter Alpha series was shown in action. You could almost hear the melody "reunited" starting to go off in the heads of those who greatly missed his absence in the latest reboot. It's funny to think that it all started with just 8 playable characters. Ultra Street Fighter IV, ended the series with 44 playable characters to date! Out of these 44 characters only 6(7 if you want to include Cammy clone Decapre) original characters were introduced to the series. It goes without saying that the character accumulation within the street fighter universe has grown quite large and with V coming just around the corner the fear is starting to creep slowly into players wondering if their cherished character is going to make the cut.

It's a development dilemma, at least one would think, to have to decide who stays and who goes. You risk alienating players, angering fans, and the possibility of losing a next gen convert. After all, it is not unusual for a player to stick with the previous game in the series. Even today, players are still enjoying Super Street Fighter II Turbo which was the last version of its' series.  It would seem that character crisis is a two way street for both gamer and developer in a lot of ways.

The hope, for me at least, is that the new Street Fighter promises the same increase of characters that the next Mortal Kombat is promising to provide its' fans. Even with some of the old guard returning, the latest trailer shows that a new generation of champions is upon us.  The ideas in the latest version of MK are grandiose to say the least and I genuinely hope that it can please both the casual and competitive end of the spectrum adequately.

It may be to early to start talking of disappointments though I was honestly disheartened when I saw a very young looking Ryu and Chung-Li in the first reveal. I would have hoped that Capcom would have made changes to these characters but I can't be to quick to judge until I've seen more.We all want to see old characters return. We also want to see something fresh as well. Where is the happy medium?!