This is probably going to piss off a few people, but what I’m about to say is not said with that intent.
Capcom’s Street Fighter series has been around for a long time, and its age is starting to show more than ever.
The brawler started off life on arcade machines way back in 1987, and at the time it was considered a masterpiece and a moneymaker with kids putting every bit of spare change they had into the machines.
Street Fighter II also started out on the arcade machines, before being ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis if you’re from North America.)
This was the height of the series, the game was extreme fun, and more importantly for Capcom it sold over 14 million units. No Street Fighter game has managed to surpass that figure, and in fact no Capcom game has had such success ever since.
Now that says a fair amount about Capcom as a “top-rated” games developer. Street Fighter II is their best-selling game, on hardware less powerful than a modern calculator, and yet they can’t recreate the same success on modern high-end consoles.
In fact, as a player of each and every one of Capcoms games, I can say without any hard feelings that all of the Street Fighter titles in recent memory, especially on this generation of consoles, have been awful.
The gameplay is sub-par, far below the high and entertaining fun of Street Fighter II. The pace of the fighting is like that of a stuttering CD, constantly stopping and going, endless interruptions from mind melting over-the-top combos with more flashing lights than a high-class Amsterdam brothel.
Not only has the gameplay has deteriorated, but the business practices and customer service have fallen even lower.
Remember when you had to play the game to unlock the extra characters and outfits? They were the times that you paid your money, and you got a full game. A nice rounded off full game, maybe a few bugs and glitches, but they are added freebies.
Today isn’t the same world we once knew, with the introduction of download content, companies have seen this as another way to increase revenue. Capcom have abused this system, grantedm they are not the only ones, nor are they the worst (cough, EA, cough) but its a large factor in what is wrong with them as a whole.
Making you pay to download costumes is one thing, and I understand that as a business money has to be made, but as a consumer I can’t help but feel completely mugged and insulted when I am asked to pay for something as trivial as a costume, or an alternative color to a costume.
They aren’t just taking away your money, but also taking away from the gameplay experience. Having to replay the game to collect all the items, or unlock all the characters, learning new tactics and the best way to beat the game, they were all part of the fun. Now they are being taken away from the game and sold back to us, Capcom is actually taking fun and turning it into something horrible.
I’m not the only one thinking this, even the die-hard Capcom fans are starting to grow tired of Capcom’s weak attempts to create a competent game, and angered by their best efforts to take our money.
Capcom, if you want it, earn it.
Are you a Street Fighter fan? Do you feel a bit annoyed by the direction the franchise is going? Or are you in total disagreement with everything said above? Either way, let us know in the comments.