Written by: Alex Shaw

This is something that’s been bugging me. I’ve been playing since I was 12, which at 28 is more than half my life, yet being honest with myself, I’m not actually all that good.

I can beat the computer on easy, maybe normal and I can beat unpracticed players two out of three times if I concentrate, but put me up against someone online who knows a combo or two and I go to pieces. Maybe I’m intimidated by their silence. Maybe it’s because they always pick Ken and Ryu and those two characters are hideously unbalanced in terms of being able to pull of quick successions of hits (no matter what Capcom tell you). Maybe it’s just that I need to train, but something feels like it’s missing.

In the interests of putting things into perspective, let me set a one to ten scale for Street Fighter skill.

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1. You’ve never played Street Fighter before. You may have button bashed on another brawler but never Street Fighter.

2. You’ve played Street Fighter but you’re not very good. This is usually characterized by leaping all over the screen hammering all buttons at once. You say the moves are too hard to do.

3. You can play Street Fighter. You know how to throw a fireball, but it doesn’t always work and once someone gets you in a corner you just give up. You’re thinking of getting an arcade stick.

4. You know one character. (Usually Ken or Ryu) and default to them each time, when you fight competently.

5. You know a few combo’s. (Jump in, hard kick, crouch, hard kick, dragon punch, then throw if they’re stunned.) You may have owned Street Fighter games in the past and beaten them on easy and sometimes normal.

6. You can perform multiple combos for multiple characters, plus you’re getting the hang of focus moves and Ex moves. You almost definitely own a stick.

7. You win most fights against regular folks. You’re unfazed by their button mashing. You can do Super and Ultra moves every time and you know how to cancel and use it to your advantage.

8. You’re a pro. Street Fighter is your game of choice. You had Street Fighter III: Third Strike on the Dreamcast. You take ranked matches VERY seriously.

9. You’re a maniac. You hate every other fighter online and want to kill them, which you can, with Akuma, effortlessly. You are a master of all moves. You made your own joystick (possibly out of a shin bone).

10. You’re a world champion. We watch vids of you on Youtube and are left humbled by your prowess. You probably use Dhalsim or Dan to leave your opponents confused as to how you’re pulling this stuff off. You have a Street Fighter arcade cabinet in your house… which is otherwise empty.

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So looking at the scale, I’m more of a level 5 fighter actually. True Street Fighter players will scoff at this list and the leaving out of the various permutations of pro player, but this is from the point of view of an average gamer.

I think that applies to most of my games playing exploits. I’m never the champion of anything. Leaderboards are alien to me. But I do beat games. I soldier on, and I have level six in my sights. I’m going to master Ryu… or maybe Sagat to throw off the thirteen year olds who keep defaulting to Ryu and Ken.

Wish me luck, and if you meet me online… go easy on me.

Written by: Alex Shaw

As all of you will know, the recent acquisition of the 1up network by UGO left the whole site stripped of staff and most of the podcasts and shows they put up on a regular basis were either changed considerably or canceled altogether.

One of the latter (it seems at present) was The 1up Show; a weekly half hour slot featuring the journalists of 1up discussing the latest games, previews and industry news. I’ve been watching the back catalog to see what I wasn’t watching at the time and I can honestly say this show will be bitterly missed.

It is without a doubt, the smartest, most professional, truthful and occasionally hilarious video game show ever committed to camera. I cannot recommend enough that each of you go back and check out at least the last few months worth of episodes.

http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3145462

It’s more than just a look at games though. Through the show, we get a glimpse at their office life (albeit through a filter of comedy). It’s a warm, geeky, clever and honest place where people get paid to write and talk about games. Ironically in the end it was the high production values of this show and the various podcasts of 1up that left the Ziff Davies network in debt, leading to the sale of the site, and EGM to UGO. Obviously they worked very hard to keep the place together and clearly it couldn’t last forever in this case, but nonetheless, watching these episodes back presented me with a tantalizing glimpse at my ideal job. Now that it’s gone I feel like something hopeful in me has left along with it.

It’s not all sadness though. Several of the resilient folks behind the show pulled themselves together admirably and now have a follow-up series named Co-Op on their website; Area 5. They have set themselves up as a fully fledged game-related video company and they take donations. For what they put out, I’ll be proud to make one.

http://area5.tv/

Anyhow, that’s enough of my fawning. Check them out now. Remember to state your age properly if you’re over 18, otherwise you’ll be refused entry. It gets a little blue. 

Personalities, the glue of the network include Phil Kolar, Rob Bowen, Shane Bettenhausen, Ryan Scott, Nick Suttner, Alice Liang, Jay Frechette, Tina Sanchez, Richard Li, Sam Kennedy, David Ellis, Jeff Green, Ryan O’Donnell, Greg Ford, Jason Bertrand, Cesar Quintero, Thierry Nguyen, Anthony Gallegos, Matt Leone, and Matt Chandronait. All of them know their stuff and are thoroughly entertaining to watch.

Written by: Alex Shaw

As mentioned in this weeks episode. I got the new Street Fighter figure of Ryu. There’s a whacking great vile misprint on the back concerning Ryu’s Country of Origin. Kids should look away. On a side note, the figures are awesome. Â9.99 on Play.

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection.

(Or Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection to our British listeners)

After being hooked on 16-bit gaming for a week, Alex and Tony delve into why this is a landmark title in nostalgic game packages from past generations.

We also talk about Race Pro and Street Fighter IV, along with the latest news from the gaming world, including swearing Street Fighter figure packaging and speculations on a PS3 price cut.

Fans of Firefly get a treat at the end.

For Further episodes on Sega, check out Digital Cowboys 59 (June 12/08) for the Sega Special.

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The Next Five Years.

This episode we discuss the decisions Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft might make in the next five years, the directions that the market might move and possible strategies that the makers of the consoles we love could execute to regain their former glory or press their advantage.

Paul dissects Flower, Tony busts an eyeball ranting about the Bladder of Steel achievement on Rock Band 2, and we get cocky over GTA IV’s new expansion pack.

All this on the day that the long awaited Street Fighter IV launches. We have celebratory music to match and are likely to be discussing it repeatedly over the coming weeks.

We’re definitely nearing the quality in terms of content, focus and audio that we want to achieve with this podcast. We’re very proud of this episode.

Hadouken.

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Here in precise order are my favourite scrolling beat-em-ups. I’ve been playing a lot of these lately and I really would love to see this dead-and-buried genre brought back to us.

1. Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)
2. Alien Vs. Predator (Arcade)
3. Final Fight (Arcade)
4. Asterix (Arcade)
5. Streets of Rage (Mega Drive)
6. X-Men (Arcade)
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
8. Die Hard Arcade (Saturn)
9. The Punisher (Arcade)
10. Kung Fu Master (Game Boy)

Come and find us.

Here: http://twitter.com/Digitalcowboys

Kropotkin on Mobile Gaming.

We’re immensely pleased to have on Chris O’Regan AKA Kropotkin from the podcast Superhappyfuntimeshow this week.

We talk iPhone and Nokia gaming and how far it’s come along with the news, what we’ve been playing and your emails.

We close on a really interesting James Lipton-esque Q&A session.

-Apologies for the horrible sound quality of this episode. We had some technical difficulties and even after exhaustive editing it still sounds rough. We’ve ordered desk microphones so this shouldn’t happen again. A special hello to all listeners of SHFTS and GWJ. Please DO keep listening.

As promised, here’s a list of previous episodes you might want to check out.

Episode #75 – 16/Oct/08 = We talk about the community that’s built up around us personally in our gaming lives
Episode #70 – 11/Sep/08 = The SNES Special
Episode #68 – 15/Aug/08 = Piles of Shame and Braid
Episode #64 – 18/Jul/08 = E3 2008
Episode #59 – 12/Jun/08 = SEGA Special
Episode #58 – 5/Jun/08 = The NES Special
Episode #56 – 22/May/08 = The 10 Greatest Films Ever

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Well, as has been mentioned on the podcast many times before, I tend to Tony things, i.e. complete stuff as and when I buy/rent them.  So I guess this means that I don’t have a big pile of shame as such.  Don’t get me wrong though, there are still achievements, quite literally, I want to get in games, so here is a list of a few that might interest you.

1. Eternal Sonata – The only true pile of shame game I have.  Never have and never will play it.
2. Gears of War 2 – Need to complete on Insane difficulty.
3. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 – Need to complete all DLC Co-op missions.
4. Rock Band 2 – The Endless Setlist awaits me.
5. Kingdom for Keflings – So sweet, so time consuming.

I’ll keep you posted but don’t hold your breath for Eternal Sonata!

Tony

Below, there’s a link to the Gamers with Jobs website. If you’re looking for similar game-related discussions from non-paid though nonetheless incredibly professional and likable folks, you’ll find good stuff here.

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/