When talking with people of a mature age, the consensus of fighting games is that they are too hard and intimidating to play with in multiplayer, or at all. I disagree. Fighting games in multiplayer are like playing a game of chess by tapping a xylophone. The chess game of outwitting your opponent is up to you. I will teach you how to operate the xylophone. Please set aside a hour for study time. This is a strategy guide for learning how to get a couple wins in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

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I cannot recall what prompted me to, but I remember going to the store one day craving a new game for my Dreamcast and I ended up taking a chance on a full-priced, new copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. At that time, I was kind of out of the whole fighting game scene – not that I was a hardcore fighting game fan to begin with – but the sheer chaos and fun that resulted from the insanity of the 3-on-3 tag fighting in MVC2 was most likely the catalyst that got me back into enjoying fighting games again.

MVC2 stayed in my regular rotation for so long that it resulted in my Dreamcast being hooked up to my television for way longer than it should have. I remember in my first apartment, my roommate and I would have nightly tournaments with our neighbors and we would play that game into the wee hours of the morning. For the longest time, I anxiously anticipated a sequel. This being Capcom in the middle of their Dreamcast run where it seemed like they published half of the Dreamcast library, I thought it seemed like a sure thing. I just did not expect it to take eleven years.

Eleven years have come and gone, though, and last week I finally got the sequel to one of my all-time favorite fighting games. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is everything I wanted it to be as it brings back the fast and furious 3-on-3 tag fighting we grew up with. Where should I start? How about the roster? Instead of the monstrous 50+ roster we got with the previous game, MVC3 features 36 characters, which is still quite a bit when compared to most other fighters on the market. On paper it looks like Capcom just sliced 20 spots, when in reality a whole lot more cuts were made because of the surprise amount of new characters debuting.

I do have to gripe a little about some characters that got axed; just keep in mind Capcom is already promising DLC characters down the line. With that said, why in the holy hell is Ken not here? It is almost tradition for every Capcom fighter to have both Ken & Ryu, but here we have Ryu & Akuma, and that’s just not the same. Plus, no Servebot? His Hyper-Combo was one of the defining highlights of MVC2. I am also a huge Iceman fan and find his exclusion among the roster to be a big one.
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SHOWNOTES

00:00-Show Intro
04:37-Drunk Dials
17:01-Mailbag
34:24-No More Heroes 2 Review (Wii)
49:07-Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)
1:00:55-Retro Review: World Driver Championship (N64)
1:08:69-Five Things
1:36:18-The Last Shot
1:37:11-Show Close

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DGR: 01.29.2010

Thanks for joining me in part two of the Top 15 Things You May Have Forgotten About the Dreamcast countdown. Just a reminder, this list is made up of things that may have been glanced over and not paid all that much attention to why the Dreamcast was as awesome as it is remembered. Additionally, some of these items are just some of my own personal favorite memories of the Dreamcast that I presume will be greeted with a few raised eyebrows. If you got a favorite oddball Dreamcast game and feel it needs a shoutout, don’t be shy and comment away at the bottom of this article!

9) Bleem!

Remember Bleem? The company that was advertising that through emulation they were going to be making every PSone game playable on the Dreamcast, with improved graphics and loading times? Bleem boasted they were going to do this by inserting a boot disc into the Dreamcast followed by your desired PSone game of choice. Seemed like an interesting proposition, considering the soon to launch PS2 was going to feature backwards compatibility with the PSone catalog. Unfortunately everything was not meant to be. Besides the obvious legal issues of a third party bringing PSone emulation to the Dreamcast, Bleem ran into many development problems (just how would they get dual shock games to work on the Dreamcast’s one-thumbstick controller?). The end result of what Bleem released was a fraction of what they promised. Three separate Bleem packs were released, with each one operating as a boot disc for one of three PSone games: Tekken 3, Metal Gear Solid, and Gran Turismo 2.

8: Tim Kitzrow Goes Crazy

Ever try to throw your Dreamcast games into a CD player? Sometimes pieces of a game’s soundtrack would play, but usually there was only some form of “Please insert this disc in a Dreamcast” message that would greet your CD player. Midway got a little creative with NFL Blitz 2000, where the track features a two to three minute clip of random commentary from in game announcer Tim Kitzrow. Nothing out of the ordinary until the final moments of the track where Kitzrow starts cursing like a sailor for no apparent reason; the expletives are bleeped out, but one could only imagine the harassment Midway would get from the NFL if the sudden foul-mouthed Kitzrow managed to work these mysterious play calls into the in-game commentary.  

7) VMU Beep

You cannot call yourself a Dreamcast fan if you have no idea what I mean by the VMU beep. It is almost like a right of passage to any Dreamcast owner. The VMUs Sega introduced were unique contraptions, which were a hybrid of a memory card and a mini GameBoy of sorts so you could play mini-games on the go. Too bad not that many games took advantage of the VMU, mostly in part because of the VMUs horrible battery life. Within a couple of months of purchasing a new VMU, the battery would die. Not that it would matter (drained batteries did not delete save files thank goodness!) because I have no recollection of playing any of the few VMU games that came out. Unfortunately, this had a unique side effect when booting up the Dreamcast every time with a drained out VMU battery resulted in a short, excruciating loud beep. After awhile, just like crazy noisy Dreamcast processor, I got use to it, and if I did not hear that ear popping beep, it would be cause for concern to search all over my room to see where I misplaced the damn thing.
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Article by: Andrew Wallace

With this current generation of game systems, console gamers were finally graced with the ability to have their games updated, improved and expanded without the need to buy a new disc. 360 and PS3 owners are now familiar with the idea that their games don’t have to remain buggy for eternity. The content of their games are no longer limited to what was in the box they brought back from the store. Multiplayer games can evolve with community feedback. This infrastructure of online connectivity and downloadable content has had obvious benefits to console gaming on the whole.

Even in the advent of comprehensive console networks like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, it was easy to see how this could be a great feature for specific games and genres. One of the clear beneficiary genres is fighting games. Online multiplayer modes and persistent leaderboards have acted as an arcade renaissance allowing for a quarter dropping experience….without quarters.

However, for anyone even remotely familiar with fighting games, the promise of downloadable content and regular game updates was practically messianic. Back in the barbaric and archaic days of the 80’s and 90’s the only way to update or expand a game was to make another full retail release. Fighting games were particularly vulnerable to this inadequacy. Any new characters or gameplay improvements post-release required a new disc to be printed and a new cabinet constructed. Take Street Fighter II; a game that has had a full six arcade releases. While it is easy to see these iterations as quick money grabs from die-hard fans, the changes they brought were usually accepted or desired improvements. Now, with a internet-connected console, game companies no longer have an excuse to ask fans to shell out for multiple copies of what is ultimately the same game.

Despite franchises like Soulcaliber and Virtua Fighter embracing this system with paid DLC and free patches, it doesn’t look like Capcom is ready to let Street Fighter IV join this generation. To be fair, Capcom has shown that they are capable of improving their games through online means. The Championship Mode DLC pack was an appreciated and free addition to Street Fighter 4. That free content made the announcement of Super Street Fighter 4 even more confusing and frustrating.

Eight new characters and updates for every existing fighter sounds great to anyone who has enjoyed Street Fighter 4. Prior to the game’s release I crafted an arcade stick specifically for the game in the same fashion that a Jedi builds his own lightsaber (see below). I happily purchased the game on release day for $70. It was safe to say that the Super Street Fighter announcement was well-received news. I was ready to whip out my credit card and buy some Microsoft points to immediately purchase the Super Street Fighter 4 DLC pack on day one. However, I looked closer into the press release and noticed that my downloadable assumption had just made an ass out of you and me.

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Lately I have been getting out of my gaming shell to a certain degree. Until Resident Evil 5 I never seriously got into a Resident Evil game before. I tried on two separate occasions. The first Resident Evil game I played was Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, where I was introduced to the then series-standard tank controls that did not gel with me whatsoever. After failing to adapt to the controls and getting slaughtered by the first generic zombie multiple times, my frustration hit the boiling point and I went so low as to return the game for a refund at Wal-Mart citing that the disc would not work.

Resident Evil 4 on the Wii I had a chance to try out for roughly 10 minutes and thought “Hell yeah! Intuitive controls; can’t wait to dive into this some more!” Even though I wanted to get more into RE4, I had other games in my backlog I made a priority and I could not fathom playing many other Wii games, which led to me trading in the system and games for Rock Band (I have no regrets over that decision, got way more value out of Rock Band over the Wii).

Come a couple months ago in April and I find myself wanting to give Resident Evil one more shot. I picked up RE5 and almost immediately had a change of heart for the series. The only road block was upon starting Chris and Sheva’s adventure was getting accustomed to not being able to run and shoot simultaneously. That scheme ruined Metal Gear Solid 2 for me. (Sorry stealth fans, but I love to run ‘n gun!) It initially seemed clunky and unintuitive, as watching Chris have such a limited range in slicing with his knife seemed awkward. However, after a few checkpoints I found myself used to this rather unique scheme, and eagerly anticipating the next waves of zombies, excuse me, “infected” to mow down. I am relieved this was not the same Resident Evil I first tried nearly 10 years ago, while I would not be surprised Resident Evil die-hards were miffed with the new action-y approach in gameplay, I discovered it to be a far more enjoyable experience.
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The first time I played Bionic Commando, my friend Kevin and I went down to Wally’s Video, a stinky, porn-filled video shop in my home town. It was a pretty seedy place located near the railroad tracks, and Wally lived in the back room with his mother, both of whom weighed at least 400 lbs. each. Upon entering, the smell of B.O. and rotten food smacked you in the face. And then there was that smell. You know…that smell. The stink that lingers in every porn shop you’ve ever been to. I’m not sure if it’s the smell of desperation or just simply nut sweat, but that smell was thick in Wally’s Video.

It’s a wonder our parents let us go into that place, let alone give that fat pervert money. But despite the atmosphere, Wally had the best selection of NES games for rent in the entire town. And because of that, we happily gave him our money.

That day, Bionic Commando was sitting on the new release shelf, and it only took one look at the box art for Kevin and I to decide that this was the game we were taking home.

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