Free Wins, Free Wins for Everyone!

Welcome to the first post in a series I'm calling Practice Makes Perfects, in which I chronicle my journey from fighting game failure to scrappy upstart, fierce opponent, and beyond! Follow along as I test my mettle against players online and at my local arcade ranking battles! Be there for the exultant victories and tragic knock outs! Ready? Fight!

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A few weeks ago, after years of excuses, I finally set out on a quest I've been contemplating ever since 2008, when the release of Street Fighter IV heralded the beginning of a fighting game renaissance and reinvigorated the genre's competitive scene. The goal of this quest: to turn my arcade-scrub self into a competent joystick jockey--no easy task. As a wise man named Sagat once said, "Until you see the fight as more than a wild free for all, you are no fighter." Actually, he's probably said it thousands of times, but in any case it's an apt observation of the spectrum of skill separating the glorified punching bags from the tournament champions. It can take years to develop the execution, quick reactions, and adaptability that are necessary at the highest levels of play.

Second Look: WCW/nWo Revenge

Ah, the wrestling video game. These days, they're as regular and consistent as any other sports title; annual releases with updated franchises and rosters, and occasionally an interesting gameplay enhancement. While consistently improving graphically to keep current and competitive within their respective console capabilities, these games have simply become serialized, much as their NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA brethren. I don't mean to cast a disparaging hue on this fact, but at the risk of sounding like Grandpa Scoundrel, these kids today don't know how good they have it.

Second Look: Crystalis

In 1990, the SNK Corporation (responsible for the Neo Geo arcade and console systems and the King of Fighters / Fatal Fury franchises) released an Action-RPG for the Nintendo Entertainment System called Crystalis. Armed with a very modest advertising campaign and going up against an impressive list of heavy hitting titles also released that year, namely Super Mario Bros 3, the very first Final Fantasy game, the second title in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, and Mega Man 3, Crystalis went mostly unnoticed by most gamers and was almost universally overlooked. Quietly, however, Crystalis was developing one of the most passionate cult followings of any game released in the third generation of video game consoles, and more than a decade after it's original release, it has finally gotten the praise and attention it deserved to begin with.