Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: 1996 & 1997

Like I said in the first King of Arcades competition, 3D gaming was in full swing in the latter half of the 1990s thanks to the Playstation and Nintendo 64’s polygon rendering abilities.  As evidenced by last time, Namco was already on that by this point, but for Midway, though they did dabble in 3D polygons in the past, the usual pre-rendered visuals were their reliable aesthetic, though even that started to change.

Both Namco and Midway were taking advantage of the new capabilities offered by Sony and Nintendo’s consoles in the homes.  I credited The King of Fighters 98 as being the first “Dream Match” game, because it’s where that moniker came from, but arguably Midway had already done the concept with Mortal Kombat Trilogy, a console-exclusive game that took everyone from previous games in the franchise and put them all in one PS1 disc or N64 cartridge.
 
Not only did Midway have Mortal Kombat Trilogy to maintain Mortal Kombt mania, but they also released the sequel to their hit 1995 Mortal Kombat movie.  People didn’t like it.  Personally I think it's a hoot.

Namco was also chugging along in the console space with PS1 ports of their arcade games, most notably Tekken and their new Namco Museum compilations.

Since home consoles were catching up to the technical capabilities of arcade games, they started taking the attention and arcade game development started slowing down, resulting in this competition having fewer games in both competitor’s arsenals and thus another double year round.  I might’ve skipped 1996 altogether, but I was able to find one game from that year and it’s a pretty important one.

Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: 1995

1995. The peak of Mortal Kombat mania.  Last year may not have had a Mortal Kombat game in arcades, but those home versions of the games were selling like hotcakes and the franchise was getting merchandised to hell and back.  There was the movie, which is widely regarded as one of the best video game to movie adaptations to this day, there was the promotional VHS of the movie and there was the live tour.

Mortal Kombat got so much attention that other companies were trying to get in on the digitized actors and violence, usually to poor results.

Oh yeah, Namco is in this.  They released games mostly in Japan and not in America so they got left in the dust, although Tekken was shaping up to be their heaviest hitter in arcades.  1995 was also the debut of the first Time Crisis, but I have never in my life seen that game.  I've only ever played the sequels.  Here in this competition, popularity, public recognition and hype means nothing.  All that matters is who made the best games.  The current score has Midway in the lead, 7 to 5.  Namco isn’t far behind and still has a few years left to take the lead.

Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: 1992 & 1993

It’s 1992.  Last year Street Fighter 2 kicked off fighting games in a big way and every company was jumping in on the new competitive martial arts gameplay, Namco and Midway included.  At least, Midway did in America.  It’s even slimmer pickings for Namco arcade games than last time.  Their 2D fighter Knuckle Heads didn’t come out in English, just like the majority of their games around this time.  There was the first Ridge Racer that came out…

However, I’ve never seen a cabinet for the original Ridge Racer in my life.

I could only get my hands on one Namco game and it’s from 1993 so you know what that means: another 2 year judgment time span.  They’d better hope Midway drops the ball again, but considering what I know is ahead, I don’t think they are going to.

The Fighting Game Character Shonen Otaku Awards

Characters are the lifeblood of a fighting game.  They are the means by which the players engross themselves in the game through their varying fighting styles and personalities as they clash in combat. From Mexican wrestlers to masked karatekas to flawed super soldiers, the guys you see in fighting games get wild.

Fighting game characters often shine in their own particular way.  Some are made to look cool first and foremost, some are meant to be the most fun to play with and others are made to be extremely difficult to use, but incredible in the right hands.  Over the years in the many many different fighting games I’ve played, I’ve identified some fighters that excel in certain ways that no other has ever matched.  To recognize those standouts, I’ve made this list of awards to celebrate the best of the best in fighting game history, the Shonen Otaku Awards!

The only criteria I have for these awards is that they cannot be from fighting games based on a license.

Fighting Game Camps: Mortal Kombat: Part 3 (For real this time.)

Continued from part 2.

Music

My brief single sentence describing the music in the April Fools version of this post wasn’t entirely off the mark.  Mortal Kombat’s music is extremely downplayed to the point that you may not even notice there’s music at all.  Where other fighting games have their music bombastic or energizing, Mortal Kombat goes for ambience.  In fact, in Mortal Kombat 9, there’s an ambience meter in the sound options menu.

It’s more akin to tribal drumming than the fanfare of other games.  There’s a lot of fast, looping drum beats, techno synth and long notes without any particular melodies.

Fighting Game Camps: Mortal Kombat, Part 3

Already going into detail on Mortal Kombat's key characters has taken up so much space it had to be divided into two pages, like the look into Blazblue's story.

And yet that is only the beginning.  We have not even begun to delve into the appeal of the Mortal Kombat franchise, because there are even more aspects that make the Mortal Kombat brand what it is.  If you thought the first two parts were long, you haven't seen anything yet.

Fighting Game Camps: Mortal Kombat: Part 2

Continued from part 1 after many, many delays.

Villains

Villains in the other fighting games I’ve covered have been of the moustache-stroking variety, always having a sinister plan and team of badasses at their beck and call to further their goals.  Mortal Kombat’s villains are very much the same.

Fighting Game Camps: Mortal Kombat: Part 1

You may have noticed that the fighting games I’ve looked over thus far have all been from Japan.  The truth is, Japan has the heaviest focus in making fighting games nowadays.  There have been a few more western-made fighting games in recent years, like the new Killer Instinct and Skullgirls, but the only western fighting game franchise that has managed to stick around consistently is one of the first: Mortal Kombat.

Fighting Game Camps: Introduction

You’ve seen it before: that point in your favorite action game where it’s just you and your enemy.  Your party is gone, there are no monsters around to fight, and you and the villain are on equal ground.  The resulting clash is nothing short of epic as both characters block, parry, dodge, and duel each other to the death in an awesome display of finesse and spectacle.

Now imagine if they made a game solely out of that.  Fighting games are built around those moments, having a variety of colorful characters fight evil and each other in mano-a-mano bouts of spectacular physics-shattering awesomeness.

Every major fighting game franchise has the same game objectives and even similar mechanics to each other, but the finer details in the way the games are played and presented all combine to form very distinctive styles that appeal to very specific kinds of gamers.  They all have their own heroes, villains, stories, art style, and game flow each one builds their games around.  And when so many of these games vary, the fans they pick up are some of the most dedicated you will ever meet.

Those gamers make up what I like to call the fighting game camps.  Every fighting game franchise has one: a community of dedicated fans that have played every game in the franchise to death, memorized every special move, can recite the entire decade-long story by memory, mimic characters in synch with them on the screen, and will probably roar in your face when you challenge them to their game of choice (except for the Mortal Kombat fans, who instead scream “MORTAAAL KOMBAAAT!”).  They’ll play other fighting games and enjoy them, sure, but they have their one franchise that they play three times more than any other.  They are the reason crossover fighting games are made: because that lets fans prove that theirs is better in the most surefire way they can think of.

You can probably single out some members of these camps.  Noah Antweiler is in the Tekken Camp, where nobody lets their opponent hit the ground.  Craig Skitsmas is in the Street Fighter camp, where everyone paces each other, make sure they strike at the right time and think ahead.  Patrick “Debaser” Breeden is in the Mortal Kombat kamp, where hospital trips are frequent, and I myself am in the King of Fighters camp, where everyone thrusts into each other and regularly combust.

They even have their own theme songs.

For this series of articles, join me as I explore each of these duel-centric camps by analyzing each franchise’s aspects and the appeal that comes with them: The story, heroes, villains, visual style, and gameplay, among other things.  For those of you who would like to get involved with one of these franchises, I will also point out which titles in each one I deem to be the best.  Finally, I will point out my characters of choice, as it’s always them that keep the story and play interesting as well as emotionally investing.  I never specialize in a character just because I play well with them; when I play, my opponent should be fighting ME on the screen.

Like looking into a mirror.

Keep in mind that while much of it will serve as a factual introduction to each franchise, Opinions as well as personal observations will be expressed.  I like all these fighting game franchises (they have their camps for a reason), but there are some I favor over others.  Do not let that deter you from loving the ones you do.

There’s a lot to cover, so to start out I’ll be looking at the granddaddy of all fighting game camps: Street Fighter.