Gamespot Best of 2006 Awards

http://www.gamespot.com/special_feat...nre/index.html

Best Action Adventure game:
Dead Rising (X360)

Nominees:
Bully (PS2) - 8.7
Dead Rising (X360) - 8.4
Okami (PS2) - 9.0
Saints Row (X360) - 8.3
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, GC) - 8.8, 8.9

Best Shooter:
Gears of War (X360)

Nominees:
Call of Duty 3 (X360) - 8.8
Gears of War (X360) - 9.6
Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3) - 8.6
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (X360) - 9.2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (X360) - 9.1

Best Fighting game:
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (X360)

Nominees:
Dead or Alive 4 (X360) - 8.8
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (PSP) - 8.2
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (PSP) - 9.2
The King of Fighters 2006 (PS2) - 7.3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (X360) - 8.2

Best Platformer:
Daxter (PSP)

Nominees:
Daxter (PSP) - 9.1
Kirby Squeak Squad (DS) - 7.7
Mega Man Powered Up (PSP) - 8.5
New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 9.0
Yoshi's Island 2 (DS) - 9.1


Best Driving game:
GTR 2 (PC)

Nominees:
Burnout Revenge (X360) - 8.8
GTR 2 (PC) - 9.0
Ridge Racer 7 (PS3) - 8.0
Test Drive Unlimited (X360) - 7.8
Toca Race Driver 3 (PC, Xbox, PS2) - 8.5

Best Puzzle game:
Exit (PSP)

Nominees:
Exit (PSP) - 8.0
Gunpey (PSP) - 7.7
Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (DS) - 8.2
Mercury Meltdown (PSP) - 8.2
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) - 8.0

Best Rhythm/Music game:
Elite Beat Agents (DS)

Nominees:
Elite Beat Agents (DS) - 8.9
Gitaroo-Man Lives! (PSP) - 7.7
Guitar Hero II (PS2) - 8.7
SingStar Rockes! (PS2) - 7.2

Best Role-playing game:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, X360)

Nominees:
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (PS2) - 8.2
Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) - 8.5
Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - 9.0
Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC) - 8.6
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, X360) - 9.3, 9.6

Best Traditional Sports game:
Madden NFL 07 (Wii)

Nominees:
FIFA 07 (Xbox) - 8.7
Fight Night Round 3 (X360, PS3) - 8.3, 8.2
Madden NFL 07 (Wii) - 8.4
MLB '06: The Show (PS2) - 9.0
NCAA Football 07 (Xbox, PS2) - 8.8

Best Strategy game:
Company of Heroes (PC)

Nominees:
Company of Heroes (PC) - 9.0
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (PC) - 9.0
Medieval 2: Total War (PC) - 8.8
Star Wars: Empire at War (PC) - 8.7
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC) - 8.8

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

Best Action Adventure game:
Dead Rising (X360)

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No.

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Best Fighting game:
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (X360)

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No.

Daxter as best platformer is pretty heinous too.

I heard it was a pretty good game, though.

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Originally Posted by Tain

I heard it was a pretty good game, though.

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It is pretty good, but it's not better than any of the other nominees (except maybe Kirby).

Yay, Elite Beat Agents rules.

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

Best Traditional Sports game:
Madden NFL 07 (Wii)

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:wtf:

I've seen worse lists. Madden for Wii is funny, though. Plus, UMK3 is fighting game of the year because Tekken isn't online(fucking lazy Namco)

Dead Rising is better than Okami and Zelda? Other than that, I dont think the rest of the list is too far off.

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Best Rhythm/Music game:
Elite Beat Agents (DS)

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I don't even like rhythm games and I know guitar hero was better.

Why was Mercury nominated and not Lumines? This makes me sad.

edit:Oh, Lumines is too old for this. Nevermind. Didn't bother with 2.

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Originally Posted by SamuraiMoogle

Dead Rising is better than Okami and Zelda?

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Games where you play as a wolf can go suck a nut.

*waits for werewolf to post*

Actually, what happened to that guy? This is the golden age of wolves in games.

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Originally Posted by SamuraiMoogle

Dead Rising is better than Okami and Zelda?

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Dead Rising is better than Okami and Zelda. Way better.

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Originally Posted by elfneedsfood

Dead Rising is better than Okami and Zelda. Way better.

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QFT.

I definitely liked Dead Rising more than Okami. I haven't played Zelda, but it's good to see Dead Rising not getting forgotten. I loved it.

Also, Daxter is totally better than all of those other platformers, sans possibly Yossy 2, which I haven't played. Elite Beat and Exit are well deserved, too.

So far so good, GameSpot.

How did the PSP Alpha beat out SF Alpha Collection? Alpha Collection not only brought arcade-perfect ports of the Alphas to consoles BUT even gave a whole new level of gameplay with different ISMs pulled from other games.

Ugh.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

How did the PSP Alpha beat out SF Alpha Collection? Alpha Collection not only brought arcade-perfect ports of the Alphas to consoles BUT even gave a whole new level of gameplay with different ISMs pulled from other games.

Ugh.

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Seriously! That fighting game list is messed up! And where the heck is Hyper Fighting?! HF > UMK3.

That my favorite thing about this list. If you would have told me MK won, I would have said, "Oh Armageddon won eh". Nope, UMK3 for Live Arcade. LOL!

Why is Trauma Center: Second Opinion in the puzzle category? :wtf:

What other category of theirs would you put it in?

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Originally Posted by Sega saturn x

I don't even like rhythm games and I know guitar hero was better.

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Um... have you played EBA? The game is easily one of the best rhythm games ever made.

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Originally Posted by TaekwondoNJ

Um... have you played EBA? The game is easily one of the best rhythm games ever made.

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So is Guitar Hero II.

But they're different enough that I'd agree with either choice.

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

It is pretty good, but it's not better than any of the other nominees (except maybe Kirby).

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Yes it is.

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Originally Posted by Andy

Also, Daxter is totally better than all of those other platformers, sans possibly Yossy 2, which I haven't played. Elite Beat and Exit are well deserved, too.

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Yech. Daxter was shit, and it is total bullshit that they put it above NSMB.

Otherwise, I'm fine with the rest of the list. Some things not completely happy with, but not too far off to make a comment about.

And where was Godhand on the fighting list?! Oh, that's right, every game site hated it for some stupid reason.

360 takes every category that matters. Life is good.

No Sneak King?

I call bullshit on UMK3 winning Fighter of the Year. I would have given it to DoA4 (didn't play Dark Resurrection, so I don't know if it's better than DoA4). Also, Ramon is right--Alpha Collection should have been nominated instead of Alpha 3 PSP.

If XBLA ports are eligible, then SFII:HFE shits all over UMK3 anyway, so we'd don't even need to bring retail games into this for it to be bullshit.

Dead Rising is an acquired taste that I don't particularly like. I appreciate what the game does, but I'd pick Bully instead. Okami is too long and easy, Zelda isn't particularly innovative, and Saints Row is forgettable. Only the short length of Bully keeps it from being my favourite game this year.

Gears of War is a no-brainer for best shooter.

I like UMK3, but it sure isn't the best fighter this year. That award goes to KoF XI. They obviously didn't include it because it's an import, but that shouldn't matter to people around here. I don't think SF2:HF is better than UMK3, thanks to the horrible online issues in SF2. If it ever gets fixed, I might change my mind. Not that UMK3 is flawless, thanks to the arena rotation glitches and the disappearing characters.

Daxter has all the usual problems inherent in a 3D platformer and a few extra thanks to the PSP control limitations. Megaman Powered Up and NSMB are both way better. I'd give the edge to NSMB, because most of MMPU's brilliance comes from the amazing design of the nearly 20-year-old original.

I don't really play PC racing games, so I can't comment on GTR2. I did love Burnout Revenge on 360, however. It fixed pretty much everything wrong with the original current-gen version.

I'm not sure if it really counts as a puzzle game, but Every Extend Extra is awesome and one of the greatest PSP games yet.

Guitar Hero II is a little too hardcore for me. I think the near-perfect difficulty of the original was increased too much, so Elite Beat Agents wins that category.

Oblivion is a bloated and buggy mess with serious design issues. It's also one of the finest games I have ever played.

I don't play sports games, so I have no comment on the titles listed.

They didn't even mention Defcon in the strategy category. Blasphemy.

I think the GOTY is Oblivion, followed by Gears of War and Bully.

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Originally Posted by PBMax

Why is Trauma Center: Second Opinion in the puzzle category? :wtf:

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Puzzle has always been used as the genre for games that otherwise defy genre definitions. Music games were called Puzzle Games before they got big enough to make up their own genre.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

:wtf:

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It isn't suprising. It has better graphics than the xbox version, has all the features that were gimped in both the 360 and PS3 version, and the wii controls work really well.

Also NBA 2K7 is vastly overrarted.

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Originally Posted by bVork

Dead Rising is an acquired taste that I don't particularly like.

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I'd say it's the exact opposite. It's alot of fun for a couple hours then it gets increasingly dull and repetitive.

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Originally Posted by Saint of Killers

I'd say it's the exact opposite. It's alot of fun for a couple hours then it gets increasingly dull and repetitive.

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So they gave Gears GOTY. I have no problem with that.

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How did the PSP Alpha beat out SF Alpha Collection? Alpha Collection not only brought arcade-perfect ports of the Alphas to consoles BUT even gave a whole new level of gameplay with different ISMs pulled from other games.

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Didn't the arcade version of SFA3 have less characters though? No guile, thawk, fei-long, deejay, balrog, (these appeared in dc version) maki, yun, eagle, (recycled sprites from cvs2, included with gba version) and the new one from the xbox game etc

The psp version is still the definitive version for fans who want it all since it includes all the new characters that appeared in the home versions. (since home versions have extra stuff that the arcade one missed out on. Just doesn't seem right to me for example to only have the 3 of the four boss characters. I like Balrog alot now. It's not easy to go back to bare bones arcade SFA3) If you subscribe to the "more characters = better" school of thought you are getting a better version of Alpha 3 due to the number of characters available.

Order of goodness from oldest to latest:
Arcade alpha 3 (bare bones) <
DC (all bosses and some old faves like guile, fei-long, T hawk and deejay)
< GBA (used some Snk vs Capcom 2 sprites not seen in the DC version - very smooth animations!)
< PSP. (added one extra character. Most "complete" version.)

I don't own the alpha collection so I don't know which characters are missing in it. I'm assuming that because this is based on just the arcade original, none of the characters from the home versions are included SFA3 game included in the collection?

I'm pretty sure the Alpha Collection has an unlockable mode with all the new characters.

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Originally Posted by avatar

It isn't suprising. It has better graphics than the xbox version, has all the features that were gimped in both the 360 and PS3 version, and the wii controls work really well.

Also NBA 2K7 is vastly overrarted.

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Actually Gamespot said in their review that the graphics on Madden Wii is inferior to the Gamecube version.

Every single character from the Alphas are in it as well as different modes (Marvel, Darkstalker, 3S and World Warrior). Trust me, if any fighting game deserved to win it was Alpha Collection.

Damn. Gamespot, you suck. Just to go a bit OT.
Capcom: make me a Third strike port for PSP thanks. My DC is dead, my xbox 1 has been sold off (xbox360 is only semi-backward compatible) and I feel like owning a portable version of this.

There's nothing on that list that really offends my sensibilities. Zelda getting snubbed is kind of a shock but I love Dead Rising so I'm not going to complain.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

Every single character from the Alphas are in it as well as different modes (Marvel, Darkstalker, 3S and World Warrior). Trust me, if any fighting game deserved to win it was Alpha Collection.

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The PSP one still had Maki, Yun, Eagle, and Ingrid. Also, those extra ISMs are so broken! Friggin World Warrior (CE?) attacking for massive damage! All that aside, Alpha Anthology deserved to win over the PSP one. No questions.

I never played the PSP version and totally forgot about the new characters added in, but if I'm not mistaken aren't they copy and pasted from CvS2? And lols at CE. 5-hit combo = 98% damage. I don't even know if it's still banned in tournament play.

Alpha 3 is irrelevant (although it does have the greatest roster in the history of fighting games) because Alpha 2 Gold is the best playing fighting game ever made.

Bullshit.

Correct. The answer is 3rd Strike!

I love Third Strike, but Alpha 2 Gold is just perfect. Third Strike is probably my second favorite fighter (either that or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo).

If you want perfect, go to Marvel vs. Capcom 2. (not a joke post)

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

If you want perfect, go to Marvel vs. Capcom 2. (not a joke post)

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MvC2 is a blast to mess around with but it's not even close to balanced. MvC2 is Army of Darkness to Alpha 2 Gold's Citizen Kane.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

Bullshit.

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Alpha 2 is the best fighting game ever made. This isn't an opinion this is fact bestowed upon by Jesus himself, with the instructions to teach the heathens and savages of the world so that they too may be saved one day by the awesomeness that is Alpha 2.

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Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

Alpha 2 is the best fighting game ever made. This isn't an opinion this is fact bestowed upon by Jesus himself, with the instructions to teach the heathens and savages of the world so that they too may be saved one day by the awesomeness that is Alpha 2.

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It's nice to see someone else that understands the true meaning of Christmas.

I love how the defenders of Alpha 2 come out of the woodworks. Next thing you guys will be claiming is that the game is balanced when in fact it's as lob-sided as any other SF game. Only four characters are even playable: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Rose. When a level 1 Custom Combo can do 45% damage, you know it's broken.

I'm in no way saying that any of the other Alphas are balanced (V-Isms in A3 and retarded damage in A1) but Alpha 2 isn't the golden calf you think it is.

Even with it's flaws Alpha 2 is still better than every other fighting game ever.

cept 3S

SpoDaddy knows about as much as fighters as he does about... everything else. (Nothing)

Then again, I'm probably the only nutbag here that would have given the award to best fighter to Melty Blood. Given the games on that list, it's T5:DR and it's not even close.

EBA winning out over Guitar Hero 2 is also just wrong. EBA is solid but doesn't come anywhere near the accessibility (which is just unheard of for a music game) or the raw fun of Guitar Hero 2.

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Originally Posted by Dipstick

SpoDaddy knows about as much as fighters as he does about... everything else. (Everything, respek)

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Fixed, Merry Christmas!

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Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

Even with it's flaws Alpha 2 is still better than every other fighting game ever.

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No, it's not.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

I love how the defenders of Alpha 2 come out of the woodworks. Next thing you guys will be claiming is that the game is balanced when in fact it's as lob-sided as any other SF game. Only four characters are even playable: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Rose

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Honestly, if a fighting game has 4 characters that are viable for high-level play, it's doing better than most. Most of them boil down to one or two.

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Originally Posted by Tain

cept 3S

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truth x100

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Honestly, if a fighting game has 4 characters that are viable for high-level play, it's doing better than most. Most of them boil down to one or two.

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cept Guilty Gear.

3S forever though.

And War Gods.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Honestly, if a fighting game has 4 characters that are viable for high-level play, it's doing better than most. Most of them boil down to one or two.

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3S has three: Chun-Li, Yun and Ken. While they are the creme de la creme, each character is viable and can/have won tournaments. Dudley, Urien, Yang and Hugo have been known to be deadly in the right hands.

MvC2 and CvS2: These are the only two Capcom fighters where two characters stand out hella high above the rest. For MvC2 we have Storm and Sentinel. It's arguable that Sentinel just rapes everyone else (and it's pretty much true with his guard breaks, unfly, unblockables, full-life combos, etc.) but a good Storm or a GREAT (cannot emphasize this enough) Magneto or Cable can handle it.

In CvS2 Sagat and Blanka reign supreme. Huge hitboxes, high priority and adaptable to any groove makes them vicious. You'll have the A-Bison or A-Sak that can wait for an opening to wreck them but, honestly, these guys are broken beyond broken and every top player knows exactly how to abuse the fuck out of them.

A3: We have A/X-Dhalsim, V-Zangief, V-Akuma, V-Ryu, and V-Sak rounding out the top characters. That doesn't mean they can't be beaten though. A-R. Mika or a V/X-Rolento have been known to wreck shop when used in good hands and even a decent V-Dan has it all over V-Akuma, who is ranked the third best character in the game. Hell, given how V-Ism allows for easy as fuck CC infinites I'd say about a good 1/3 of the cast is playable and tournament worthy. I've seen V-Cody and V-Sodom devastate good players and I have seen some fantastic A-Guy scenarios that involve running and playing tag.

A2: Ryu, Chun-Li, Rose and Ken are pretty damn broken. Not only do their Alpha counters take out a pretty large chunk of life, but their CCs are ridiculous even at level one. Again, when I can take about half of your life with just one level CC, it's too much. It leaves everyone else pretty much out of the running.

So yeah, Capcom has more than one game with 3 or more dominant characters. I still don't see why A2 is the bees knees.

For me A3 is "fun" because of the rolling, flipping out, everyone having an airgrab, being able to whiff a grab/throw, and generally more options. Even if it wasn't that balanced I would still like playing it.

One thing about the alpha games though is, some characters that rely on anti-air specials like guile (poor old guile who barely got any upgrade since the original WW while everyone else advanced and learnt new tricks :D) are now in deep shit thanks to airblocking. Somersault kick ain't what it used to be. It goes without saying that the more characters that you chuck in a game the harder it would be to balance. So you got to choose between "is this fun to be able to have the character in the game to play?", vs "if we don't put the character in maybe the game will be more balanced and there won't be complaints about the powerful characters having too much advantage in competitive games".

I personally don't mind it if there are weaker characters as it can be a challenge to use them. But I prefer if possible that the game had a "stone paper scissors" form to it. Where some characters are just generally stronger against specific characters and weak against others, while other characters are stronger against a different character but weak against the ones that other characters are not weak against. So if a person choose to stick with say sagat throughout the tournament and devotes his whole time to just one character, there is a better chance he will be matched up against a person who is uses a character that is strong against sagat in particular. (kinda like in a rpg or RTS where you have enemy-specific weaknesses against some things)

If possible damage scaling should be unique to who it is you are fighting rather than be across the board. I know it might seem a little stupid at first but as I mention above, characters like guile need more damage if he has not been given new moves.

Of course in the "storyline/timeline" guile (in alpha period which is a prequel) was supposed to be a bit a pussy or something because bison mentions in sf2 that "he isn't the runt he used to be" or some such crap so there you have this other group of people who might actually like an unbalanced game for story reasons. :D Maybe the reason guile kicks ass so much in "sf2 world warrior" is because of the intense training to get revenge for charlies death. I never thought of it that way. heh I mean if Bison (like Darth Vader/Anakin from the star wars prequels) was more powerful in his younger days (where he had demonically possessed the fat muscular body) and weaker in his later years (skinny bison with no screen-filling super), why not Guile being the reverse? (ie getting gradually stronger, faster, more abusable etc)

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

So yeah, Capcom has more than one game with 3 or more dominant characters. I still don't see why A2 is the bees knees.

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Yeah, but most of the time there aren't, even in some good fighting games. Garou is mostly Dong Hwan and Kevin Rain, but I love it all the same.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 gets criticized for being unbalanced, and while it probably has the most useless characters of any popular fighting game--by virtue of having the most characters, period--it also has a pretty decent lineup of competitive characters, and the near limitless combinations of those characters make for even more variety.

I can't believe we're having a conversation about the best 2D fighting game and everybody isn't saying Third Strike. I'm ashamed of you guys.

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Originally Posted by Dipstick

Given the games on that list, it's T5: DR and it's not even close.

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Confirmed. That's the game that made me un-hate Tekken. Seven months later it still holds up, and there are still mountains of content I haven't gotten to.

All the people still playing DoA4 have me kind of interested in it though. The demo left me kind of flat and it was kind of dismissed when it came out so I never really played it.

Third Strike is fun but I don't see how it's the best fighting game. EX-moves are overpowerd (a lot of them lead to insane juggling/chain combos: see Urien and Dudley), parrying promotes super turtling and it doesn't have much variety. (You can argue choosing your super gives the character variety and it does, but not in the way choosing -isms and Grooves does.)

I love playing 3S whenver I get the chance but after an hour or so the game gets hella stale.

I am going on record now as saying I dislike 3s. Artistic style aside, I find it to be the most boring of the major competitve fighting games. This year apparently Yun is the only character left (or so i have heard). I don't enjoy watching it, playing it gets tiresome as well. The Alpha series is more enjoyable to watch, I have very little serious experiance with it though.

Everyone just go play guilty gear (unless the most recent one ruined it)

Guilty Gear is the most boring game ever. Believe that.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

Guilty Gear is the most boring game ever. Believe that.

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Incorrect.

It's completely true. Play high level Guilty Gear and it's all Sol Badguy. (This is the last time I played/followed the game which was the summer of 2005.) You guys think Capcom games are unbalanced? Guilty Gear is a fucking one-man show.

Are you talking about the first Guilty Gear game, on PlayStation? 'Cause yeah, Sol is pretty overpowered there. But the XX games are pretty well balanced, thanks to a lot of the shared defensive techniques.

No, I'm talking about XX. The results for that year's Evo don't lie. Sol is the only character at the top.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

No, I'm talking about XX. The results for that year's Evo don't lie. Sol is the only character at the top.

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Its not about XX or Sol Badguy anymore. Thats old shit. Hell, Eddie was the shit on XX Reloaded . Everyone used him in EVO. It was pretty lame, esp since I dig Venom. I don't even know who's tops in the new Guilty Gear.

As far as Street Fighter goes, I LOVE Alpha 2. I know it isn't balanced or anything like that. When I have friends get together, we never use the reversals. Also, didn't Alpha 2 Gold tone down some of the more insane damage in the game? I have it on the Alpha Anthology disk and was wondering if any tourneys were running it.

3rd Strike is lots of fun too, even though I'm not that great at it. I know people bitch about Yun being the best now and shit, but honestly, I don't think the majority of us are at that high level in 3rd Strike play, so I think its more balanced than most games since, to me, it feels like most characters have a chance to win if you really know their shit. Destro 777 used to really suprise me with how well he knew Q . I NEVER gave Q a second glance, but in the right hands, he was a real threat. I had some good matches with some of you guys over Live. Wish Alpha Anthology was released on Live.