Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Eric Vs. 365 - Day 79 - Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 hit the scene two decades ago and was an instant classic. A status only solidified by a perfect Dreamcast port and (less perfect but still fine) ports to PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, and PS3. It is one of the top five greatest fighting games ever and is our featured game for day 79 of Eric Vs. 365. Click to read more and watch gameplay!

My apologies for a couple things in this video. One, I didn't actually talk about Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 very much and instead ranted about other related things. And, two, I don't play very well. I used to play a ton of MvC2 and halfway knew what I was doing, but that was something like 13-15 years ago and I haven't played much since. And even when I though I was "good" at it, things like the Storm / Magneto / Sentinel infinite combos and air juggles were, and still are, a total mystery to me. I have no idea how they worked. So, uh, don't expect super high level play here. Just listen to my rants instead.

The first rant is about how there aren't really unlockable or secret characters in games anymore because gamers are whiny babies who expect everything to be unlocked from the start. Even Smash Bros. gets a lot of pushback these days because people are offended that they have to actually play the game to unlock all of the characters. I'm sorry, kids, but unlocking stuff was the best part of games in the 90's and early 00's. It was satisfying to feel like you were earning new toys to play with, but also a genuine surprise a lot of the time because we didn't have the Internet to spoil who all of the characters were going to be months ahead of release. I loved unlocking stuff. Though, ironically, the reason why I played the XBLA version of MvC2 for this video is because everything was unlocked from the start and I didn't feel like grinding the Dreamcast version for hours to unlock everything again. If I had the time and didn't have to crank out a video every day for a year, you better believe I would have done it the old fashioned way.

The other rant is about arcade sticks. I honestly think they're a scam. Now, don't misunderstand. There are absolutely players of a high enough skill level that they need the precision offered by an arcade stick because their level of execution is ridiculous. The problem is that 99.9% of players aren't at that level of execution and don't need sticks, and aren't going to actually practice enough to get good enough to need them, but the FGC and stick manufacturers have convinced everyone that you "have" to have a stick to play fighting games properly.


Back in the day I never minded it because sticks were usually cheap. Usually $50 or maybe $80 at the high end. Then, all of a sudden, Mad Catz and others started cranking out "high end" sticks for $150 and this combined with the rise of EVO as an e-sport led to a rush of people buying expensive sticks they didn't need and didn't use much that ended up collecting dust. The most annoying part is that a lot of people buy these expensive sticks with the intention of putting different, even higher high end, parts into them. And regular dumb ass idiot gamers eat it all up because they think that this, finally, will be what will help them "get good" at fighting games. 

The way you get good at fighting games is by working your butt off and practicing every day. Thousands and thousands of rounds until you learn every character's moves and tendencies right down to the opening animations so you know what is coming before it even happens. Pro players are better than the rest of us because they worked at it and learned, not because they use a freaking arcade stick. A pro player will kick your butt just as convincingly whether they use a stick or controller or Kinect motion controls or a SEGA Genesis Activator. 

If you want to buy a stick because you think it'll be more fun, go ahead. You're probably wasting your money, but you aren't what this rant is about. Just don't decide you want to be a pro player and that buying a stick will be what finally motivates you to really start practicing every day. It won't happen. Start practicing and get good enough where a stick will actually make you better first, then buy one.