2023 is wrapping up with many critics claiming it resides shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best years in gaming history. My experience isn’t quite so stellar, but
Let’s go through some lists starting with titles that were released before 2023, all while realizing that the true best game I played this past year was Bloodborne!
Older Games Played:
Of those titles, I completed the 2D ones only. While I had played Rogue Legacy 2 on Steam the prior year, it was only when I got it for free on PS+, and could play from my couch, that I beat it. Admittedly, I lowered the difficulty to blaze through chunks that I had beaten before. In some ways this game is perfect: allowing for those changes to difficulty, a fantastic gameplay loop and incredibly-tight and responsive controls. Several of the theme songs stuck in my head for quite some time and it was a fun experience. However, my Old Game Of The Year, if that were a category, would go to SteamWorld Dig 2. It’s so funny, I got a trophy in the first game way back in 2013 and I remember playing it and abandoning it. No clue what drove me to return, but once I started, I was hooked. After blazing through the first title, I anxiously awaited a sale price for the second, eventually pulling the trigger without one, that’s how much I liked it. And the sequel did not disappoint, living up to and exceeding my praise of the first. I simply loved that game and, much like the emptiness felt after completing Elden Ring, I continually yearn for a similar experience, with no satisfaction. In fact, if I were ranking the best games of the year regardless of their release date, SteamWorld Dig 2 would be in contention.
The other titles all had qualities of their own, but not enough to keep me returning to them.
Moving along, now we look at titles released this year that I have yet to play in 2023:
There are a few games I’d like to try, but none here give me the burning desire to jump in. Games like Pikmin and Fire Emblem may be great, but do I care? Nothing above are a have to play game, despite how good BG3 appears to be.
Our final category is the games I have indeed played this year, and ranking them isn’t very easy.
2023 Games:
As I work through Lies Of P and Sea Of Stars, I quite like the former due to its obvious inspirations and feel indifferent towards the latter. I beat neither Zelda, much as I didn’t its predecessor, nor FFXVI, losing interest after numerous hours.
Thus, we’ve whittled down the list to four games, all sequels. As much as I love Mario games – and I do like the franchise – nothing about Wonder stood out to me, despite what everyone else thinks.
And then there were three. Xenotilt probably improves on everything in Demon’s Tilt. As DT is in my top-20 ever, I struggle to wonder which should be on that list. In either event: it’s not 2023’s GOTY.
Capcom ends up holding the trophy, as the remaining games are both theirs. And this decision is a difficult one. By all accounts, Resident Evil 4 should do what no game has ever done: won the trophy as both an original release and a remake! But while it effectively replaces the original, I think I have to give it to Street Fighter 6. The gameplay is honed. The systems are polished. The game is just fun and it’s the best launch-SF game since SFII. I absolutely love this title and have no reservations awarding it GOTY, even if RE4 is as good as it is – DLC included!
So there it is: Game Of The Year 2023 is Street Fighter 6!
Some links of abandoned/unfinished projects.
It’s no secret that Street Fighter is among my favorite gaming series ever. I’ve been with the franchise since the very beginning, as a pre-teen boy playing the first game in the arcades. Through the rise of SFII, the dearth of arcades in the late ’90s, the dark ages, the rejuvenation and the long, six-year journey of Street Fighter V, I’ve been there through it all. I just love this franchise.
And thus, with the nigh-inevitable announcement of Street Fighter VI – assuming the Capcom Countdown is true – it’s an gross understatement to state I’m excited.
Unlike most, I’m more intrigued by the roster, the systems and the timeline than the gameplay. I’m going to play it. I’m going to be average at it. But that’s ok.
There’s been a lot of speculation about the fighter list and while the reveal is possibly a mere two hours away, I wanted to poder this briefly. Deep down, I would love some deep cuts. SFII’s roster has been done to death and SFIII’s has some quirky, unlikeable faces. But the concept of Geki returning was always intriguing. Fei Long would be a welcome familiar fighter. Gouken or Goutetsu would be cool for lore. As always, I’d love to see some (all?) of Vega’s Dolls to pop up. I rue how underused they were in SFV
Luke is a shoe-in, and many clamor for G, but I’d love to see Lucia, Menat or Akira return. I love how Capcom doesn’t shy away from trying new designs and so I look forward to some of that whenever SFVI finally ships.
Even if the game is announced today, we won’t know the full roster for quite some time. I sincerely hope Capcom does a better job at the roll-out and initial launch than they did with V back in 2016. Single-player modes are a must and a kick-ass netcode will go a long way to appease all crowds. I’m tremendously-excited for what’s the come!
All of these anniversaries are catching up to us all. 25 for Resident Evil – we just passed Street Fighter’s 30th and Mario is celebrating 35. The worst part of it all? I remember them all launching. Getting old sucks.
But, the celebrations are cool and this new poster, revealed today, was quite cool. I fully expect Capcom to embrace this franchise as we head into a new generation. However, as is, I own and can play Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 (remake), 3 (remake), 4, 5, 6 and 7 all on my PS4 – and thus on my PS5 – alongside 8/Village next year. Not sure what they’ll need to do to rope me into buying more, but I have faith in Capcom. Not necessarily in their anniversary might, but in their ability to get me to re-buy this shit year after year! Bring it on!
The longer I allow this site to go un-updated, the more weight falls upon each new post. But whatever, just post whatever, whenever! I realize, each update is an insight into the point I am in life.
Right now, I’m writing my third book (fourth, actually) and Bloodborne is contained within those pages. A few months back I started anew – overwriting my NG++ run. I didn’t get far, hitting a wall against our favorite: Father Gascoigne! I dispatched him as my kids watched – something I never did before. This game is far more violent than I typically let them watch. However, perhaps b/c its hordes of undead monstrosities and not humans, I’ve allowed. This led to some exploring, recalling those nooks and crannies, once again becoming enamored with the lore, the lush environments, the brutal combat. My son wanted to see the Blood-Starved Beast and, surprisingly, on my second try, he too was defeated.
Lower Cathedral Ward, sending NPCs back to Oedon Chapel, hoarding blood echoes – I’m drawn right back in. It’s just that good. And as I write this book, I’m thinking of commenting on my favorite games ever. Thus, I’m ranking them. The top 5, top 10 and top 20. As I look at these names, the greatest titles ever, I start to realize: Bloodborne is up there. Way up there. Is it good enough to dethrone Super Mario Bros. 3? Today – I think it is. Bloodborne is the best game ever made.
As I chronicle these, I’ll eventually put up my list. It’s a good list. But damn, it’s tough comparing Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha to Portal 2 to Symphony Of The Night to Bloodborne is not easy! But it’s a necessary evil. More on that soon.
I’ve been writing for so long that I haven’t really touched anything else. Today, for some reason, I felt compelled to check out SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match Of The Millennium on the NeoGeo Pocket Color. I was always disappointed that I couldn’t capture the bonus characters and I never had the patience to unlock them in any legitimate fashion. Well, thanks to ArtMoney, I didn’t have to! So, I finally captured the standing animations for the four bonus fighters: Bulleta, Vega, Evil Ryu and Gouki! And then why not grab the character portraits, now with the secondary colors as well?!! I’m pretty psyched to have these now.
Because I don’t know how to run web pages properly, you can find these at different sites. The standing animations are at my slateman site with the character art at SFGalleries. Or, why not just post it all right here? Enjoy!
Bonus Characters
As for character art, remember the NGPC’s screen resolution was like 160×152 so it explains why these are so tiny!
My excitement level for the SF30AC release is enormous but I must temper those expectations with a reality check. I’ve already written about these concerns, but I wanted to take the time to give an in-depth look at what these “arcade perfect” releases might contain. I truly believe this is one of Capcom’s greatest chances here. This could be a collection to remember forever, but a few missteps could leave us with a very empty feeling.
To start, we should look at the late ’90s. After a long wait of high expectations, Playstation and Saturn owners were treated to the first Street Fighter Collection, a disappointing two-disc compilation which was lacking the initial three releases of SFII. Of course, they would be issued later, with a few perks, as Street Fighter Collection 2. These were mostly bare-bones releases that left a bad taste in the mouth of fans even though the latter set the stage for Hyper Street Fighter II and HSF Zero.
We can fast-forward to 2006 when Capcom put out Street Fighter Zero: Fighters’ Generation. Unlike the former collection, this was utterly packed with modes, features and perks. Its sound test featured virtually every SF song ever. There were training modes in all games and dynamic battle was also present. It also featured Pocket Fighter! But the most impressive and most important part of this collection was the ability to play alternate versions with dip-switch access. The base roster of games (Zero, Z2, Z2A and Z3) exceeded the American and European versions by including a few items. It came with the American version of Alpha 2 (which had Evil Ryu) and the arcade version of Zero 2 Alpha (in addition to Z2’/A2G). It may be minor, but that attention to completion and to detail is just wonderful. Dip switches helped change every portion of each game. It changed the number of Vega’s Psycho Shots, it changed voices, dizzy effects, animations…Very infrequently are more options worse than fewer.
And that’s not even getting to Hyper Street Fighter Zero, a holy shit package that is fun, over-the-top and utterly broken. But that’s not a bad thing. I’m not even going to speculate about a MUGEN-inspired SF mishmash that simply will never happen in this collection.
And this leads us to SF30AC. The game promises arcade versions of twelve games, online support for four of them.
It also features:
But the announcement doesn’t say anything about:
I don’t particularly need dramatic mode, but the idea is that merely having arcade and online modes will feel a bit empty. I’m not expecting SFZ3UU Mode Mania or anything, just hoping for more than two basic modes.
More importantly, training is a necessity and easily implemented. All of these games have had a training option in a home conversion in the past.
Most importantly is finding that one tr00 arcade version to play as. Some of these are going to be very simple choices. However, for others, like Zero 3, it’s not an easy choice. For this title, we know we won’t be getting the bonus characters found in the GBA or PSP port. That’s fine. But will we see the original arcade release with 25 base fighters? Or are we looking at the Naomi version of SFZ3 Upper which, with its 33 fighters, many feel is less “pure”. There’s no real right answer here, but I would be disappointed if it were the former. Certainly Capcom has to choose one to represent the online mode, but one must hope that both would be available for offline play, much like they were in SFZFG.
And to me, this is the biggest question about the upcoming compendium of fighters. Which versions will we get? So, for completion purposes, I wanted to look at which is which, assuming we don’t get a true compendium like Fighters’ Generation was.
Street Fighter
Only one version really exists for this game, outside of its prototype. This has been included in other collections over the past few years, on a bevy of platforms. I expect very little out of this one but its inclusion is nice.
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior – 22nd May, 1991
Initial boards were issues in February with its final release in May. The 910522 ROM is certain to be used. I believe this fixed some of the early glitches (particularly with Guile). Either way, it’s classic and performing some of Guile’s heavy combos are incredibly impressive!
Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition – 3rd August, 1992
Nine months on, the first CE board was issued and later saw two revisions. The first cabinets were shipped in March, an updated ROM was seen in May and a final version came out in August. These fixed various bugs.
Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting – 9th December, 1992
Due to the sheer number of bootleg ROMs, SFIIT came out merely months after CE’s final update. There were no revisions to this release. I don’t know how authentic the Xbox 360 version was, but this won’t be the first time Hyper Fighting will be online.
Super Street Fighter II – 5th October, 1993
The first SF CPSII board was issued in several regions. Though dated separately, there appears to be only two main versions, one in September and another in October of 1993. We’ll be seeing this version of SSFII.
Super Street Fighter II X – 23rd March, 1994 / 29th May, 1994
The final major SFII entry arrived merely five months after SSFII. The U.S. only received one update to the February 1994 ROM. However, the Dreamcast version in 2000 listed a different date (the second above) and also got an updated revision (00/12/22) which is likely the source of Tien Gouki. That title also shows a ??/??/?? revision which, well, we don’t know much about.
In addition, it’s all but certain we won’t see any changes found in the multitude of other versions of the game, in particular HD Remix and this year’s USFII. Considering its long-revered status, staying true to the final arcade revision is hardly a bad thing and it’ll be the first time the original version will be playable online.
Street Fighter Zero – 27th July, 1995
There were up to four different versions of SFZ though certain territories, like the U.S., only received one. On SFZFG three were selectable, the last being just seven weeks older than the first. Oh, I remember the summer of ’95 well. I thought being able to play as Adon was so cool. It’s going to be nice having this game playable. Outside of the PS1 version being made available on the PSN, SFZFG is the only release in the last 20 years.
Street Fighter Zero 2 – 30th April, 1996
Several revisions exist to this game. The last, which arrived in Brazil, is likely just the 30th April version. Recall that Evil Ryu was playable in the U.S. version and not in the final Japanese revision. Considering the game’s popularity, this may be the game we receive.
Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha – 5th August, 1996
Z2 may be popular, but this title is the best of all the SF games IMO. It was issued in four different territories on three different dates but all are likely the same version. The date above is the Japanese date.
This game was later modified for the home version of the aforementioned Street Fighter Collection. There it was given the title SF Zero 2′ (JPN), SF Alpha 2′ (EU) and SF Alpha 2 Gold (US). These home versions are not the same as the arcade version, however. The differences are minor, but each is better than the base Z3.
The real question is whether any of these games will be featured at all in the SF30AC. I genuinely feel no collection is complete without them, as they have some functional and substantial tweaks to the game system. This really is the main reason why I am hoping Capcom gives this collection the love that SFZFG received.
Street Fighter Zero 3 – 4th September, 1998? 2001?
A full two years after Zero 2, we got the finale, an over-the-top kitchen-sink version of the Zero series. Several iterations of this title were issued as well, of course, but that’s not truly the concern.
In SFZFG, Z2A was an entirely separate game. However, for this collection, it could be considered an alternate to Z2. If that were the case, it would be awfully nice for the Naomi version of Z3 Upper to be considered an alternate of Z3.
Long story short? Will we see the CPSII version or the Naomi board replicated in this collection? Whatever your preference, I think we can agree having both would be ideal! Unfortunately, the real question is which will be online?
Street Fighter III: New Generation – 4th February, 1997
Heading back in time a little bit, SFIII:NG came out just six months after Z2A. It was a particularly prolific era in Capcom fighting history, with Pocket Fighter, Street Figther EX, the Marvel VS. series, Zero entries and SFIII all being issued within a few years.
I believe there was only one arcade ROM for SFIII:NG and we’ve only ever seen one home port of it, 1999’s SFIII: W Impact. It’s OK that this won’t be online, it’s just gonna be good to have this available.
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact – Giant Attack – 30th September, 1997
Just half a year after NG, its successor arrived in arcades, again with no ROM upgrades. As Hugo was not complete for the February release, he arrived here in what, nowadays, would simply be a patched update. Taking a note from the Vampire series, EX moves were now available as well as Gouki’s arrival. Again, this only ever saw one home port but I look forward to playing this.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – Fight For The Future – 8th June, 1999
More than a year-and-a-half later, we got 3S, what is now considered one of the most highly-regarded SF games ever. At the time, though, SFIII wasn’t particularly loved outside of the hardcore fighting community and 3S added some rather unmemorable characters.
While we saw a release on the DC, PS2, Xbox and later the PS3 and Xbox360 in the form of Online Edition, they all were essentially the arcade version. A Japanese ROM was issued a month before it was in the west and a final revision came in June. This fixed Urien’s unblockable attacks and was the basis for virtually every port moving forward (I believe).
As this will be online, it’s pretty straightforward. I’m hoping this is the ultimate version of 3S.
So, that’s that. There are a lot of questions about what exactly SF30AC will look like and what it’ll contain. Capcom can really make this a collection to remember, much like SFZFG before it. I just hope they give it the care it deserves and don’t cut corners. The $40 price tag makes me a little worried, but I’m trying to remain optimistic. We’ll find out in May!
It’s finally been announced. The highly-anticipated 30th-Anniversary collection of SF games is now known. Containing (takes breath), Street Fighter, all five main iterations of SFII games, and a trio each from SF Zero/Alpha and SFIII, it’s a behemoth package with a dozen arcade titles. Four of those titles will be online with lobbies and both ranked and casual matches. In addition, we’re looking at art galleries, a sprite viewer which looks kick-ass, game-release details and a full timeline of the series. There will be a music player and even save states for its single-player modes. It sounds absolutely incredible and is one of those day-one purchases you knew you’d make before you knew it existed. The trailer, as well as the SFV:AE intro and the Sakura reveal, plus the full season 3 roster was one of the hypest (most hype?) deliveries in recent memory. And then you add that magnificent Capcom Cup finale – the losers bracket comeback by MenaRD over the legendary Tokida. It was simply marvelous.
But…
There are few things to consider here. The main thing is that these are arcade versions and not console ports. As exciting as “arcade perfect” may be, that means there may be no training, no special modes like World Tour, no Dramatic Mode. When compared to home translations of the past, these games may feel very bare-bones. I’ll say, I expect some sort of training mode out of it all, but that wasn’t mentioned in the trailer.
A second thing is that we don’t know precisely which version of each game will be made available. When you look back at SFZ: Fighter’s Generation (Alpha Anthology in the west), we had all three Zero titles alongside alternate versions, all with dip switches changing arcade board revisions. I really don’t know if this 30th Anniversary collection will entertain this attention to detail. Of course, since SFZ:FG/SFAA already had “arcade perfect” games, my fears of a very basic translation may be unfounded. But with that unclear, we simply don’t know just which version of each game to expect. Might we see the arcade SFZ2A upon which the home version of Alpha 2 Gold was based? Could Tien Gouki be playable like he was in the DC port of SSFIIX? Or is it just a basic final-revision title for each?
But enough of all these worries! Let’s look at some basic facts. There are twelve games in this package. SFIII:NG and 2I have only been ported over once, to the Dreamcast nearly 20 years ago. While they were usurped by the far-superior and all-inclusive SFIII:3S, this gives everyone the chance to play these integral parts of SF history. This also makes Zero 2, my favorite Street Fighter game of all time, available for the first time in over a decade. We can surely expect the usual filters to make it look less shitty than usual on my 55″ 4K TV. There will be wallpapers for all games. There are surely trophies and achievements which may be like the arcade ports of the last few years (SFIII:3SOE, Vampire/Darkstalkers:Resurrection, MVC:O). Everyone gets to try the original SF that I played in arcades as a pimply-faced 12-year-old. SFZ3 will be playable online for the very first time! This is just insane: a fanboy’s dream. And this fanboy cannot wait for May to arrive.
The 8-foot-tall Abigail joined the SFV roster two weeks ago and his size is almost a joke. While Hugo already dwarfed the rest of the cast, Abigail’s inclusion tops even him. Why not compare him to the quaint size of Zangief. Funny shit.
