Street Fighter IV (NES)

 Street Fighter 6 released last year. I must step up the game otherwise I become outdated and Capcom fans club will kick me out of their membership. So today I’m playing Street Fighter IV (1993) made by Gouder. Wait! What?

Yes, it’s official Street Fighter IV. See that’s the Japanese castle roof as Ryu’s Stage in Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike. Fine. I was joking. All jokes aside, I have childhood memory about this game when I still owned NES. But there are official Street Fighter games on DOS that I played when I was kid. There’s the DOS port of Street Fighter 2 and I remember I could easily pull out Zangief’s 360^o motion special moves with keyboard but I can’t do that anymore now. But that’s probably DOS port has some easiness on 360^o motion execution compared to emulated arcade game. Then there’s another Street Fighter 2 where the roster only consists of Guile and Ken along with their variation like this guy can only do hadou ken, or this guy can only do summersault kick, or this can only do strange tornado kick. Ok, maybe the last example is not official Street Fighter 2 game. If I can get my hands on it again, I will review it for sure.

Anyway, let’s get into this (certainly) unofficial Street Fighter IV. There’s not much thing on option except for music/sound test and difficulty setting (that I keep as “Normal” as the default) so let’s hit 1-player mode! 

 

Here’s the roster and I already don’t like it because there’s no character’s name at all. I don’t remember what was my main back in the day but again 5 y.o. Werdito doesn’t understand the concept of fighting game mastery so his memory can’t be used as reliable preference. As you can see the roster is actually only 5 persons along with their double. It’s fine in Street Fighter 2 to have Ryu and Ken because there’s slightly different in visual and moveset. Ken can do fire shouryuken and Ryu can unleash fire Hadou ken. Meanwhile in Mortal Kombat 2, there’s similar ninjas with different color for sure but their moveset is entirely different. Reptile has exploding ball and acid spit, Scorpion has the ”Get over here!” harpoon, and Sub-Zero has ice blast. Whereas in this game, each character has the same moveset with their double and there’s only bit different in visual. So, we’re in bad start. Correction: turns out that 2 characters that resemble Lee from Data East’s Fighter’s History, are also “Ryu”. So, this game has total 4 discount Ryu! Sniper_jeers02.wav

 

So, I decide to pick Ranboo, who’s certainly not John Rambo. [Average Hadou Ken sized sarcasm]. My first opponent is Cliff who’s definitely bootleg Ryu with the name of this fighting stage. You can call this stage pit but that’s already taken by Mortal Kombat, mind you. 

The control is plain and simple. D-Pad to move around. Pressing up or diagonal up to jump. Pressing down to crouch. Pressing back when enemy attack to block. Pressing “B” button to kick and Pressing “A” button to punch. As for the special move, I have no idea. I just spam this drop kick repeatedly and it works wonderfully. It’s done by holding back and pressing kick button.

 

From his victory pose, we learn that Ranboo is discount Guile but without mohawk also shirt. Ranboo is proud with his quite visible nipple.

 

Naturally, as Ryu clone Cliff can throw some Hadou Ken. The reliable drop kick sometime can jump pass the Hadou Ken. I keep doing it until I can get close to him and hit him repeatedly. That’s my only strategy in this game.

 

I reckon that’s Guile’s uppercut but the range is so short. Where’s his iconic backhand that has long reach, huh? This is why I just keep using the drop kick.

 

Another reason why I like to use the drop kick very freaking frequently is: I can hit enemy with it while he’s in knocked away animation. In other word, this drop kick can be used to juggle enemy. Also, the recovery time for the drop kick is considerably short. Sadly, there’s no intermission dialogue. Neither before or after match.   

 

My next opponent is Bunny which is clearly bunny girl. But she doesn’t work on Casino. No. She’s at Circus’ parking lot apparently. I don’t think there’s Circus that employ racing car instead of some poor fated animals. If it does exist, PETA won’t sue them because they don’t violate animal’s right. But the drawback is high gasoline price and stunt racer’s wage.    

 

Impressive looking high kick there but that doesn’t persuade me to stop doing the drop kick rapidly.

 

Not even that graceful ballet spin. I thought Bunny’s moveset is similar to Chun Li’s but apparently not. She can throw some energy ball but can only do ballet spin instead of spinning bird kick. Also, no Tenshokyaku.

Next opponent is some Buddhist monk named Chunfo. He looks original and nowhere similar to Retsu in first Street Fighter. I can give some credit for that.

 

He can throw duplicate of his hands. Demoman_sf13_influx_small03.wav 

 

I’m sorry, Chunfo. I don’t fight like real street fighter who keep throwing projectile. I fight by keep doing the ol’ reliable drop kick until you run out of health but I win. :)

 

My next opponent, Pasta teaches me that throw exists in this bootleg Street Fighter game. My astounded expression is quite similar to the Ranboon’s when being thrown there.

 

To further convince me that Pasta is Ryu’s clone, he executes the tornado kick but with slight change. He travels in sinusoidal wave pattern rather than straight line like Ryu or Ken.     

 

If you expect me to change my strategy because I get injury several times, you’re completely wrong. Just drop kick him all the way!

Related to this Pasta guy, can you imagine Street Fighter’s name based on their favorite food? Chun Li’s name will be mien (Chinese noodles). Guile’s name will be Ration. E. Honda’s name will be Chankonabe. Or Zangief’s name will be Borscht. Awkward.

 

As I mentioned before that there’s no intermission dialogue. There’s only this versus screen which is quite bland. Anyway, it’s time for clone mirror match.

 

Apparently Stalong can perform Raiden’s electric fly but I’m not sure how you do that. Scratch that, since this is “Street Fighter” game, the move should be related to M. Bison’s Psycho Crusher. It’s fairly obvious that Stalong is derived from (Sylvester) Stallone.

 

If my enemy is knocked away far in mid-air, I can juggle him further until his health bar is empty even! This warship stage is very memorable to me. Those machine guns keep moving left and right. I don’t think they are currently firing bullets now because: 1) It’s dangerous situation where fighter is in the middle of fighting. 2) No spark come out from the muzzle or no bullet casing being ejected. Those guns just happen to move left and right for no reason.

 

I must commend Stalong for having sense to block my deadly rapid drop kick. Also, that’s clearly crouching block animation from Street Fighter 2’s Guile.

 

And this one is Guile’s standing block animation. Good thing Capcom never sue the developer.

By the way, looking at union jack flag on the left corner. It implies that Ranboo and Stalong works for British navy even though their name is reference to the famous America's one-man army: John Rambo.

 

I don’t think my next opponent is in roster. Look at that creepy grin he has. Ranboo has simple smile but that guy has clown-ish smile. Horrid!

 

I was about to say that Musashi maybe a Kabuki artist with that look. But I doubt the famous samurai is a kabuki artist. Because he’s not in the playable roster, I assume he’s boss character. Plus, he can counter my drop kick strategy with this aerial bending move. It has higher priority probably because of its short range.

 

Musashi can also throw projectile but it has the same color as that guy’s jacket. So you have take my word for it.

 

He can also do pirouette. Not as powerful looking as Zangief’s spinning Lariat but more graceful. I think. I have to give Musashi some credit because he can beat me in 1 round while others don’t stand a chance.

 

There’s another opponent after Musashi? He must not be the boss, then. Anyway. Goho Li is another Ryu clone who’s most likely the most similar one and I beat him with drop kick over and over again. Next opponent, please!

 

Tracy is bunny but without the rabbit ear. Also, she like to do ballet spin too.

 

I just want to show you what Ranboo does for standing kick. It’s 100% Guile’s hopping kick. It’s nice looking and all but I stick with the drop kick because it has significantly farther range.

 

Much to my surprise [Not sarcastic, once in a while]. Ranboo can do the German suplex like Guile. The input to do that is similar: forward + Punch in very close range but it’s finicky to pull it off.

 

Okay, yeah. Moon is Chunfo’s friend because they’re quite identical apart from his purple trouser. I want that trouser. I love purple. From this moment, I learn some jankiness in cross-up. Ranboo doesn’t automatically turn around if I keep doing the drop kick without pause so I’m forced to stop with my reliable strategy to give Ranboo some time to orient himself in correct side. The slowness of turning around is not as bad as -say- Dino Rex but it’s there.

 

Those senior monks are not impressed with Moon’s capability to defeat my repeat drop kick tactic. He and Chunfo will be expelled from this temple, soon.

 

Here’s another Italian Ryu’s clone. Maybe his name is based on Art of Fighting’s Robert Garcia. This factory stage reminds me of bit of Zangief’s stage because of that chain link fence.  While the fire in the black background reminds of 2nd Boss stage in Vice Project Doom.

 

The final opponent is: Conbon, Musashi’s cousin but with purple armor. He should be tougher than Musashi, right?

 

Not really. Both fighters are able to postpone my victory by 1 round, but that’s about it. Thus, Ranboo the champion of repeated drop kick, wins the tournament!

I hope you don’t expect some sort of exciting ending where Ranboo got some medal of honor by winning the tournament and send to Vietnam war return to his loving family, because there’s no ending after completing the game! There’s only this credit roll in form of film reel while funny music plays. There’s some mistyped word like “design” word there. Also, some fighters do some moves while the movie being rolled. I guess. It’s pretty remarkable, in a good way.

 

Gouder’s Street Fighter IV (1993) is serviceable imitation of Street Fighter 2 if you accept a fighting game where everyone can throw projectile and no other archetype in the roster. No grappler, no rushdown character, no sumo wrestler, etc. So, it’s same-y to the one in Mortal Kombat then. But even so in MK, every character has its own specialty. Sub-Zero has ice-based moveset and can freeze opponent. Liu Kang can do low fireball and fast flying kick. Scorpion can pull enemy toward him and teleport punch behind enemy. Whereas in this “SF IV”, everyone is just clone of Chun Li, Ryu or Guile. So, the roster is pretty bland. Like a vanilla ice cream. Later I found out how to do Ranboo’s (and also Stalong’s) special move. You expect, they’re charge character so their special move input starting by holding back direction for seconds. Right? It seems the developer can’t figure how to make holding back direction count as part of special command input, so they settle with simple direction input. Thus, you only need to press back briefly then forward + punch. No need to hold the back for ages. That’s how you do the unpowered Psycho Crusher. There’s also special command input: down, up + kick which makes Ranboo jumps high and then thrusts his knees downward. On the bright side, the hit detection is pretty responsive and the game speed is fast enough. The music ranges from mildly grating to jovial. The sound effect is fairly not good.

 

To put it simply, the quality of “Street Fighter IV “(1993) is between Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter. Not as tedious as first Street Fighter but not as good as the famous Street Fighter 2. I give the game some credit for the more "proper" ending than my beloved Fighting Master. But on moveset department, FM is the winner for its originality/creativity. "SF IV" just copy some move from SF 2. You can play this game with your friend or relative. I did that quite a lot back in the day. Just don’t let your opponent know the secret of my “Repeated drop kick” strategy. It’s wonderful strategy to win every round. Maybe.

Will i play the real Street Fighter IV? Maybe yes. Maybe no. :P

S.U.A.V.E (PC)

 This is another day where I review Abandoware PC game that I feel interesting enough. It’s Alan Mackey’s S.U.A.V.E (2006) this time. 

Most arcade game has demonstration before or after title screen. Then there’s this PC game with title screen is just demonstration. Classic Doom does that to some extent but it has proper title screen. This game doesn’t. Nonetheless the demonstration looks fun. The tank running around and blasting those barrels with no worry in the world. The S stands for Sport, so I assume this game is multiplayer focus. Turns out, there’s no multiplayer mode at all! It seems “Default Map” is the main single-player mode. Then there’s survival mode. You can also make your own map with the “editor” option there but I’m lazy git so I won’t do that. 

The control seems simple. “W”, “A”, “S”, and “D” to move. Left mouse button to fire my gun. Mouse motion to aim and so on. One thing that bugs me is: what’s Time Device?   

I start with wonderful lightning effect. I can tell I like this game. 

I don’t immediately pick new weapon when I walk into it. I have to press right mouse button to get it and the weapon limit is 2, including the standard plasma gun. I don’t know what’s the reason behind this. It’s probably more make sense if the game is for Multiplayer but as far as I know the game is pure single-player in this current state.

After content destroying barrels on first room, I move on to next room which is more spacious also filled with automatic turrets and Daleks. I happen to pick invincible shield so no extermination for you, Dalek!

I can’t destroy this particular orb because it has shield that reflect my projectiles. I should move on somewhere else hopefully some place where I can get some armor refill.

Soldier_paincrticialdeath03.wav. I got exterminated by another Dalek. If only I can get something that restore my armor in time. But don’t worry, I had 2 life reserves.   

I take more tactical approach this time. I stand still shoot enemies from far away and it’s safer this way to engage enemies. Although the rate of the standard gun is pretty good, the extra weapons are definitely better because all of them have bigger damage per shot than the standard gun.     

There you are, armor restore item! It’s not far from the Dalek that eliminated me previously.

This is my main problem with the camera. Everytime, my vehicle moves the camera pulls up so I can’t see further. This camera’s behavior to create disadvantage when the player shoots and moves at the same time. Maybe, it’s meant to discourage hit-and-run tactic and encourage stationary aim. That sounds fine if the game is multiplayer focus and it’s not in this case! Moreover, the CPU controlled enemies are very accurate with their aim. I mean you can dodge their projectiles when you’re moving but because the camera is bad when moving, it’s rather difficult to retaliate.  

There’s no signboard or quest marker to point where I have to go. But these crates with direction arrow work pretty well in my opinion.

Surprisingly, there’s indoor area beyond the door that I went through. The center of this room is patrolled by these gun Roomba. They gladly run along the wall and never bother to move to the middle of corridor.

This door is locked from other side? This game turns into Survival Horror, huh? But the “Survival” part probably on the point because there is not much healing item in this game. 

 

There are crates in this indoor room. Some of them have skull & crossbones sign while other have this lip tight emote. But none of them are breakable. Indestructible crates in video game? Spy_negativevocalization03.wav

Then I enter this container area that pretty much reminds me of Classic Doom’s Containment Area. Inside that container maze, there are lots of Daleks and those invincible orbs. Shooting some bullets and then retreat to cover is pretty good tactic here.

I haste to get that armor restore item because I’m desperately need it but then I got killed by that hidden turret. Demoman_jeers05.wav      

I manage to be on of top scoreboard! But seeing the tank is ruined literally and figuratively (maybe), makes me want to continue. There’s no mean to continue where I left off. No auto or manual saving. Not even password! It’s very baffling that PC game in 2000 doesn’t have any continue feature. Even Classic Doom made in 1993 has manual saving, at least!

So, I must start from the beginning again. Right in the training area with barrels to shoot. I wonder if the explosion from barrels that I destroyed are harmful to me. And the answer is big yes with big kaboom. I think this training area need message “The explosive barrel can hurt you” but that’s just me, I think.  

 

Now, I’m armed with rocket launcher with projectile that’s kind of similar with Quake 3 Arena's rocket launcher. But I can’t aim the rocket at the ground to ensure the enemies get splash damage from rocket’s explosion.

The game teases me with extra life and nuke weapon behind the line of indestructible orbs. Is it possible to get those items? 

There's narrow alcove with another extra tank reserve but it’s guarded by this flamethrower turret. Let’s see if that damned turret like my rocket launcher.

 

I manage to destroy it after I use my next tank because the rocket is not suitable for close combat (obviously, duh). Using standard gun is better in that situation. Thus I can claim this extra life after using life so no life surplus for me. But I can obtain the flamethrower. I’m Pyro. I love flamethrower.

 

There’s another room that I can get into from the hub room with the patrolling Roomba and crates. Unlike the container’s room, this room is spacious with some crate that you can use for cover.

Most enemies can be dealt from afar. But this kind of turret can’t. If you’re far enough from it, it will be inactive but invincible. Once you are close enough, it reveals its rocket launcher and shoot you relentlessly but that’s the moment where it’s vulnerable. Luckily, this flamethrower is pretty effective for this situation. If you imagine male’s certain body part from seeing this flamethrower that consists of 2 fuel drums and cannon in the middle of them, I suggest you take your brain to nearest laundry.

Heavy_specialweapon03. I found this Vulcan gun. It’s devastating weapon against ant enemies. Don’t let the projectile’s size which is smaller than the regular gun’s, fools you. The Vulcan gun can decimate enemy way faster thanks to its very high rate of fire. I’m not sure if the gun has smaller damage per projectile than the standard gun judging by the projectile size but it certainly has bigger damage per second.

Then I get killed by that hidden rocket turret. I should save the Vulcan weapon for them. No. The real problem here is the lack of healing item! The developer should put some around here too besides at the container’s room. I realize too late that the game is pretty jarring to play thanks to the considerable lack of healing item. The game desperately needs some checkpoint that auto-save my progress and also provide some healing.   

This time, I carry nuke weapon and I destroy everything on that area including the invincible orb! That gives me idea how I can get that extra life behind the line of invincible orbs.

I launch the nuke but it’s reflected because of the shield’s effect that also doubled as reflector. The nuke explosion clears the line of invincible orbs but it also destroys me in process. Again, I get the extra life after sacrificing one so no life surplus for me.

I found this locked door in the hub room. What’s this Spencer Mansion’s antique? Or maybe Classic Doom’s because the key is color coded and not with cryptic icon like shield, helmet, etc.

I have returned to the containers area. There’s array of invincible orbs which I can use to clear enemies within these containers because they reflect my bullets.

 

I was able to pass beyond the point where I was “Game Over” in 2 previous runs. I think I found the door that was locked from the other side in the hub room and supposedly I’m in the right side to unlock it by clearing this room from all enemies. Spy_sf12_badmagic04.wav

I found one of the key card in the heart of the maze. I grew impatient and rush in here but it’s not successful attempt. Let’s try more patient approach.

Nope. Still not success. I feel like the enemies respawn behind me and proceed to snipe my backside. I wish the game had radar to detect enemies around me so this problem wouldn’t happen.

On next attempt, I choose “Easy” difficulty and I don’t feel bad about it. The enemies have slower reaction but their aim still accurate. This time around, I manage to get the key and also move past beyond the spacious room with lots of hidden turret. I come across this room with invincible orbs that form a simple maze.

Hey! I found another key! Scout_cheers04.wav

I meet with outdoor area again. But this time it consists of long rocky corridor. There must be ambush along the way.

There’s some labyrinth in the middle of previous long corridor. Then I found this alcove with time restore item and plasma shotgun. But I prefer armor restore item. Anyway, I know what’s Time Device is all about. It’s slow-motion function. By holding the space bar, I can slow down entire world including myself so I can aim and dodge more precisely at the cost of Time Device meter. Theoretically, it’s not bad feature. I forget to tell you that the tank has high acceleration resulting in very fast tank’s speed. It’s good to have to dodge enemy’s projectiles but the nigh-uncontrollable speed also reduces my aim’s accuracy. On top of that, there’s the awful camera view when moving. Thus, hit-and-run tactic is hard to apply in this game. I prefer slower tank’s movement and the slow-motion feature is replaced with nitro boost instead.  

I knew it there’s ambush besides the loot that I found. I deal with this ambush with no problem but I didn’t notice there’s another turret ambush on the opposite direction of this one and that one kills me.

 

So, I restart the same area. There’s some enemy placement at the end of corridor. This like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

On one of branching path in the corridor I find enemy and another locked door. I can get through it because I have the corresponded key but I want to clear this area first. Oh, duh! I was dumb. The letter on key card indicates the color. “O” for orange. “B” for blue.

 

Another branching path is pack jammed with turrets but I found this shield power up to protect myself from their projectiles. I think they can get hurt from their own projectile if reflected by my shield.

I found another locked door but this one requires purple keycard.

Here, you are witnessing an intense rocket launcher duel. My enemy is stationary target but it only vulnerable when I’m close enough to it, making dodging rocket even more challenging. In fact, this entire room is solely filled with this type of enemy.

Then I end up in this indoor maze. I can see slightly inside that wall and there’s extra life inside of it! At first, I thought this is just another narrow maze area. But me and my enemy can destroy a block of a wall! There’s no crack on the wall or anything that indicate the wall can be destroyed. It looks the same as the indestructible wall that I have seen so far. The game changes the rule abruptly!

I desperately search my way to that extra life by shooting rocket on the wall and I incidentally kill myself. That’s it! I’m done!

 

At least, I’m on the top score 3 times consecutively. I uninstall it right away.

Alan Mackey’s S.U.A.V.E. (2006) is interesting tank game at the glance but the more I play it the more I hate it which is a darn shame because I want to like this game. If the game was PVP multiplayer, the game would be better in execution. I think. There’s lots of problem that I can address here. First, the overly long single-player map with very little amount of armor restoration. The map should be cut shorter to make it less slogging. Like 5 – 6 areas at most. Then the developer can make more maps in the selection. Another alternative is adding either manual or auto saving. Other problem is how accurate the enemy’s aim. Make either their aim has angle deviation by small degree or they can only aim at fixed direction. Then there’s the bad camera behavior when moving, which can be simply solved with fixed camera angle. The slow time ability feels nigh unnecessary. In the 2000s, slow motion feature in the video game is trending thanks to Max Payne. So, S.U.A.V.E must follow that but the implementation is not good. The last problem is the lack of healing mean but it can be easily solved with adding more armor restore item in significant number. Now on to the good things. The core gameplay is good. The weaponry is well varied and has their own use/benefit. Plasma shotgun has bullet spread with slower firing rate than the standard plasma cannon, but it becomes more powerful when use in close combat. Flamethrower doesn’t have bullet spread but only strong and useful in close combat. Rocket launcher is powerful from distant but dangerous to use in close range. Nuke is enormously powerful but it’s more dangerous than rocket launcher and you can only have 1 stock. Vulcan is all around good and definitely stronger than the standard gun. Apparently, there’s lightning gun but I can’t find it yet. No music to be judge in this game. The sound effect is fairly fantastic. Note that explosion sounds are stacking. So, if there’s multiple explosions happen, the BOOM sound also multiplied. Beware of that.

I think, S.U.A.V.E. (2006) needs multiplayer mode and focus on it. It will be like 3D Mass Destruction where you can choose between speedy tank or durable tank along with some customization. Maybe they can also add special ability to each tank like nitro boost, or smaller speed boost but you can use it to ram enemy. But as it is, the game feels lackluster and quite tedious to play. At least, it’s bit more playable than War World –Tactical Combat and the control is much simpler too.