Monday Gamers: Pixel Perfect, the 8-BIT Saga PT. 1

Street Fighter... even without the back ground music (BGM for short), the sound effects, or even the basic shape of the characters, anyone who has played Street Fighter could tell who these characters are. Do you know why that is? It is the most basic of all character concepts... Color, and to a smaller extent Placement, but mainly color. These colors were usually rudimentary, and lacked pizazz, but it wasn't always about how a game looked.

In most modern games; there is a seemingly endless world of unique shapes and sounds, a forest of CG (Computer Graphics) creatures and 3D backgrounds. And hey, that is by no means a bad thing. But, there was once a time period where games were created in a format, where if a youth from today saw it the lack of intense graphics would render them unable to make heads or tails of what they are seeing, the fantastic world of the 8-BIT game. These 8-BIT games were far from visually stunning, and sound quality was usually that of a couple different types of 'Beeps' and 'Boops', BGM was also only a couple songs (nothing to amazing, more like some of the first cellphone ring tones) that played on a loop. So why then were these games so good?
 

The one simple reason is that they had depth. what is "depth" you maybe wondering, well first and fore most modern games do in fact have depth, but it is not the same kind of depth a game like The Legend of Zelda (first released in 1986) would have.

There are many kinds of depths that we could talk about, but that is for a later post. what we want is story depth. In 8-BIT games story was everything, from beginning to end the story would have been very involved with you the gamer. giving you dialogue boxes filled with information every time something happened, sometimes the game would need you to help supply information, by giving you choices on how to continue the story line (these were the first video RPG's or role playing games). now it is not impossible for one to find a modern game with these deep aspects, but even those don't completely revolve around story.

 ~ TO BE CONTINUED

P.S. The first to name the characters in order, gets the opportunity to choose next weeks "Monday Gamers" topic!!!!!!

Picture of Meaning

  First, let me start off by saying this picture reminds me of every kung-fu movie I've ever seen. The part in the movie where the hero gets his second wind and gains the ability to beat his opponent, to be exact. This image is one that represents my blog in a very unique way, it give an outward look at the inward expressions felt by me (and i assume others who have played a fighting game before) when I play a fighting game. The raw emotion conveyed by the girl in the picture is that of determination, and hopefulness, an active process to gain access to the next level. Butterflies float around showing the beauty of the game itself, whether it be cell shaded, 2d, 3d, or even the 2d/3d mixture each is a beauty in and of itself, made by a person who cares for the game deeply.  Given is a coin, a metaphorical way for safe passage to the underworld, to pay the boat man on one's way down to GAME OVER hell. It can also symbolize to coinage needed to continue forward to the next stage, or return after a gruesome defeat. The stars surrounding her contain a multitude of meaning. They represent a wish to accomplish one's own unique goals for a particular game. They can also represent astonishment at the game's wonder. Finally, they are a way of expressing the feelings of accomplishing your long sought after goals. All in all, this is defiantly a good representation of what video games mean to me.

WTF Capcom

So a couple weeks back an undisclosed insider from Capcom leaked footage of the two new characters coming out i.e. (Dark Ryu, Shin Akuma), but almost immediately after the leak Capcom threatened to sue Youtube if it didn't take down the videos. This however came to late as far too many people had already re-posted the videos all around the web. The reaction by Capcom came as a surprise to me as the new characters were being shown at a gaming convention, where the video was taken at. So let me ask you this Capcom why would you only show the new characters to a select few? And let me also pose this, was that leak really detrimental to anything in the end? Isn't all publicity good publicity?

In other news Tuesday will see the release of the highly anticipated 3rd installment of Marvel Vs Capcom. I for one can not wait being a huge fan of 2. Apparently they have made the game play and combos way cooler. i'm definently looking forward to some old favorites such as the Hulk and Megaman team up with newcomers like Crimson Viper. I am estimating somewhere within the realm of a 7.5 to a 9 rating from critics alike.