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This is the example for the Bitmob/1UP Field Week writing prompt called Extended Commentary. The goal is to take a comment you posted from another article and expand that to a 200-500 word piece. You have until Wednesday, May 19th to get your submission in, so get going.
When Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix came out the only character I wanted to play was Cammy. And I did very well with the British operative, but aside from her and sumo wrestler E. Honda I didn’t know how to use most of the characters properly, particularly final boss M. Bison.
The dictator was alien to me. What’s the difference between the Psycho Crusher and the Double Knee Press? Was there any point to those weird jump attacks? I also had a bias against evil characters, and I always hated that chubby sprite he had in the Street Fighter Alpha games.
However, in order to get better I needed to understand how every character operated. I was also sick of using Cammy all the time, so I decided to learn a character I knew nothing about. I took Bison online and struggled as my victory ratio fell to a hoard of Ryu and Ken players.
But I kept playing the dictator. While in earlier games I thought special moves were the only thing that mattered, Bison taught me that normal attacks are just as important. And even with my anti-villain stigma, I enjoyed when Bison did his victory pose and the screen flashed to his “I will weep when there are no more worlds to conquer” win quote.
However, like a lot of people I dropped HD Remix when Street Fighter 4 came out. I knew which characters I was going to play there.
It takes courage to post bad cubicle drawings on a major Web site.
I played Bison long enough to unlock Rose – who turned out to be the only character in the picture I played – and barely touched him afterward. But like before I wanted another character to use, and I began hopping from character to character. I tried C. Viper and Gen because I wanted to learn a complex character, but never got comfortable with them. Over the course of a year I went from Rufus to Ken to Dhalsim to Akuma. Somehow I forgot about Bison.
One day I went to my friend’s house to play and I tried M. Bison again for old time’s sake. I did well with him, stuffing my opponents' offense and giving them fits with his fast kicks. I went back to him again and again. About a month before its sequel, I finally had a secondary character for Street Fighter 4.
I now like M. Bison because he fits my play style and he was the first character I consciously went out to learn. I stayed away for years from a character I enjoy for what? Because his looks and back story didn’t gel with my biases.
If you're having trouble learning a game, try the characters that turn you off or even hate. Whether you hate freaks or grapplers or karate clones try learning them. Go with the character that fits your playstyle, and your appreciation will follow.
Original Article: Gaming For The Twitch-Deficient By Jeffery Sandlin
Original Comment by Chris Hoadley
There have been traditional fighting games with shortcuts for preforming special moves, like Blazblue and the GameCube and Xbox versions of Capcom Vs. SNK 2. I think with fighting games though some of the enjoyment comes from the fact that advance combos are hard to do, so that you feel like you accomplish something when you do learn them. Jeffery, have you played the online Championship Mode for Street Fighter IV that was released a few months ago? While it doesn't help the connection and people can still pick their opponents, it does give double-blind picks and divides players into skill levels. If you're looking for feint or trap-minded characters try Dhalsim or Blanka. Dhalsim's game is mostly using his limbs and teleports in a game of keep-away. He also does well against Sagat, Ryu and Ken once you learn the match-up. Blanka has problems against Sagat but he has a lot of tricks and feints with his rolling attack, slide punch and hops. Neither character relies on combos either.
Response by Jeffery Sandlin
Wow. I apparently have been front paged while I wasn't looking……*head explodes* Thanks everyone for the input. I really am floored that this article is getting so much sudden play so long after I posted it. Still I'm glad because I feel like it's a pretty big quandry in gaming. now to address specific points while i'm here. @chris I haven't tried championship mode mostly because it's intimidating as all get out. I don't want to try to succeed in online multiplayer anymore. I just want to play. I've even forced myself off of halo ranked matches because losing to some well oiled team because I don't have a group of friends to play with is too painful. As for using Dhalsim or Blanka in street fighter, I appreiate the suggestion but when it comes to fighting games I pick my character based off of liking them as much as liking their fighting style and I'm very partial to female characters and hate ugly things. I'm shallow I know. Pity me. @tom Jeebus I hope games don't swing so far into complicated territory that I can't play them because i'm too old. Even if they do i'm sure we'll still keep an old school gaming scene alive and get by. @Romel little big planet was just a level design mess in my opinion. Way too punative considering how floaty and finicky the jumps and background layer system was. Super mario is effing hard in the later levels and god of war lost me at the begining of the second one, but nearly lost me at the damn hell level in the first. I feel you on all fronts but I have more luck with platformers then you. It seems to me to be all about patience with mario. @Joe I mention team fortress 2 in my article, and that I play it on PC with a 360 controller. Do not misinterprit this as me playing passibly or average. I play it WELL on PC with a 360 controller. My main class is the pyro and I can torch with it. I'm usually not far from the top five of my team in a full game when i'm in a groove. I play a good medic and engie but I usually only do it when the team needs it because I got burned out on those classes after playing 40 or so hours of each. I've even started getting to be a pretty good soldier and have basic offensive rocket jumping down. I'm never going to be able to airshot or play sniper or spy but I've got it well handled when I bother to play. (got burned out and am taking a few months break from it to focus on coop games and single player RPGs)