Yearly Archives: 2018
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Review – Keep The Past Alive
The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is another example of Digital Eclipse going above and beyond to properly port and pay tribute to a bounty of classic Capcom games. This anthology includes 12 Street Fighter arcade ports in all, and four of the best have been updated for online play. You can also find plenty of insightful history to unpack outside of combat. From soundtracks to sprite animation breakdowns, to high-res design documents for classic and cancelled games alike, there's a wealth of high-quality reference material to round out the robust selection of games.
All told, the 30th Anniversary Collection includes the original Street Fighter, five versions of Street Fighter II, three iterations of Street Fighter III, and the Street Fighter Alpha, Alpha 2, and Alpha 3. It's great to have all of these seemingly arcade-perfect ports in one place today, and with any luck, for many generations to come. Eagle-eyed aficionados will note the absence of Alpha 2 Gold and Alpha 3 Upper, both of which were available in 2006's Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on PS2, but their omission is far from a deal-breaker.
Likewise, while it may be momentarily disappointing that your favorite console ports are missing (understandable given the lofty scope of emulating multiple consoles) what is here plays wonderfully. If you already love these games, no matter how you played them in the past, the 30th Anniversary Collection will deliver a great experience. In some cases, you may just be looking for a quick trip down memory lane, because let's be honest, the original Street Fighter isn't great by modern standards; it is nonetheless awesome to see it preserved so well and be so easily accessible.
The enduring qualities of the collection's more notable games remain as strong as ever. Capcom's prowess for making exciting and attractive 2D fighting games was almost unparalleled during the '90s, and thus a game like Street Fighter III feels only marginally retro 19 years after the fact. In a similar fashion, Street Fighter Alpha 3's roster variety and variable fighting mechanics make it a fan-favorite to this day for reasons all its own. Does every version of Street Fighter II feel worth playing? Maybe not in isolation, but the evolution of that game in particular meant a lot to the community that grew up around it, and its prominent share of the games list helps tell the complete story of an important chapter in video game history.
Street Fighter's popularity rose out of tense face-to-face arcade bouts, and every game in this collection was released before the popularization of online battles. Over the years, however, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike would wind up on various connected platforms. Those same games makeup the selection of online-enabled games here, and they exist under a single roof (one lobby can support fight requests for all of the available games at once.) Digital Eclipse has implemented a customizable framework that allows you to dial-in settings tied to input latency, giving you a small but meaningful advantage in the battle against poor network connections.
Just as the 30th Anniversary Collection breathes new life into classic games, its supplemental material helps you appreciate them in all new ways. There's an interactive timeline that chronicles 30 years of milestone and obscure events alike, often with breakout galleries accompanying the release dates of the biggest games. Each of the collection's 48 relevant characters has a dedicated profile with an interactive sprite gallery that lets you manually scrub through their most iconic attacks from each game, frame by frame. Perhaps most valuable of all, it's awesome to have complete soundtracks for each included game. There's a notable lack of video content given what was included in the 25th Anniversary Collection, but Capcom has otherwise given Digital Eclipse a ton of great and never-before-seen content to work with.
That's more or less the story of the 30th Anniversary Collection. It won't satisfy every specific demand, but it's still a big collection of awesome games and behind-the-scenes content that no Street Fighter fan should miss. Street Fighter is a series worth celebrating and Digital Eclipse has managed to do so in a manner that feels respectful to the series and to the people who keep the spirit of arcade battles alive.
Wreck-It Ralph 2 Images Feature the Disney Princesses
New images for Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 offer a sneak peak at two new characters, alongside the Disney princesses.
Per USA Today, one of the images includes Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) meeting Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Pocahontas, Elsa, Anna, Moana, Rapunzel, and Tiana.
Wreck-It Ralph 2 Disney princesses image, via USA Today.
Fallout 76: Gameplay Reveal, Release Date, Online, Map, Special Edition
Fallout 76 is an upcoming game published by Bethesda Softworks. It was revealed without additional information about platforms, gameplay, release date, and even which specific division of Bethesda Game Studios is working on it, so there’s very little detail to comb through until we find out more at E3.
For now, we’ve compiled all the information about Fallout 76 that’s out there so far, including news, trailers, and rumors. We’ll continue to update as more info rolls in, so if you don’t see what you’re looking for yet, keep checking back!
Fallout 76 Release Date, Platforms, and Developer TBA
- Release date: November 14, 2018
What the Life Cycles of Previous PlayStations Say About the PlayStation 5
Buy a hot new game system, and you’ll see an even better model the next day. That’s the stuff of lazy sitcom jokes, yet there’s an undeniable rhythm to the seemingly brief lives of game consoles. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera recently mentioned that the PlayStation 4 is in its “final life cycle,” prompting many to point out that the system isn’t even five years old.
We may complain, but it’s all part of the process. Sony follows the time-honored practice of piping up about a new system just as the current one hits its stride and the competition gets fierce. Yet if there’s a common thread in the PlayStation family, it’s one of dignified exits for old systems and overhyped entrances for the newcomers. Here's what the life cycles of the previous four PlayStations possible tell us about the PlayStation 5.
Why Daredevil Has a Lot in Common With Superman
Comic scribe Brian Bendis turned heads last year when he announced he would be leaving Marvel Comics after two decades to take over writing Superman at rival publisher DC Comics. With Man of Steel #1 out today, the first in a six-issue mini-series that aims to kick off a fresh start and set up key elements of his upcoming run on the Superman solo comic and its sister series Action Comics, Bendis shared some insight with IGN about how he approached writing the Last Son of Krypton. Given that his first major success at Marvel was writing a now-considered-classic take on Daredevil, it’s fitting that the lawyer with super-senses has been his biggest help in figuring out how to write Superman.
FLCL: Progressive Premiere: Adult Swim Launches US Concert Tour with The Pillows
To celebrate the upcoming premiere of FLCL: Progressive, Adult Swim is launching a US concert tour featuring alternative rock band The Pillows.
Adult Swim Presents The Pillows Featuring FLCL Mono Me You Sun Tour will begin on July 10 in Boston and concludes on July 19 in Los Angeles.
It'll be a limited six-city concert tour where fans can hear new songs from the anime series, such as "Spikey Seeds" and "Star Overhead," among others.
Former Smith Westerns frontman Cullen Omori will be opening up for The Pillows, with Japan's all-girl rock ensemble Noodles as the special guest in what will be the group's first US performance in eight years.
The full list of tour dates and locations are as follows:
Is Rick Still Alive in the Walking Dead Comics?
Warning: this article contains general spoilers for the current Walking Dead comics!
It's clear that things are changing in a big way for AMC's The Walking Dead. Yesterday the news broke that star Andrew Lincoln may be leaving the series at some point in the upcoming Season 9. According to Collider, Lincoln's Rick Grimes will only appear in six episodes total. Whether that means Rick is being killed off or somehow finding a happy ending amid the constant sea of misery that is life in the zombie apocalypse, this means that The Walking Dead will soon be without its main character.
Attack on Titan Season 3 Premiering in Theaters in North America
The Attack on Titan Season 3 premiere will be screened in select theaters in North America for two nights only.
Funimation Films will be playing the Attack on Titan Season 2 recap movie, The Roar of Awakening, and the Season 3 premiere back-to-back from July 10-11 across the U.S. and Canada. There will be a special presentation of Season 3's first episode immediately after the recap movie.
The movie and Season 3 premiere will be presented in Japanese with English subtitles on July 10, and in English dub on July 11. Advanced tickets will go on sale beginning on June 8.
The Funimation Films website will soon have a list of all 130 participating US and Canadian theaters. This will be your chance to watch the premiere two weeks before its television debut in Japan on July 22.
Krypton’s Lobo Explained
With the strength of Superman and the attitude of Wolverine, it's little wonder that Lobo is one of the most popular characters in the DC Universe. And now this bad-a$$ space biker is due for a major popularity boost in the years ahead, as he's making his live-action debut on Syfy's Krypton, has a spin-off series in development at the network too, and he could also finally be getting his own movie.
Reports emerged in 2018 that Transformers director Michael Bay had met with Warner Bros. and DC about possibly directing a Lobo movie, and had also given the studio some notes on a rewrite of the film's script. This all means now is the perfect time to brush up on all things Lobo and learn why the Main Man has earned himself such a loyal following.
Why Andrew Lincoln Leaving The Walking Dead Could Be the Best Thing for the Show
Update: Andrew Lincoln has now confirmed that he will be leaving The Walking Dead. Read on for our musings on why that could be a good thing for the show.
According to multiple reports, Andrew Lincoln is leaving The Walking Dead in Season 9, bringing an end to Rick Grimes' story after almost a decade on our screens. And in some ways, it's probably the best thing the show could do (short of ending it altogether).