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: 1994

1994 was a slow year for our two competitors, for arcades at least.  Midway was busy with the home ports of Mortal Kombat 2 and as usual Namco was not releasing games in English because… Because.  Both companies did put out at least one game each in 1994 though.  On Midway's side is a tried and true rail shooter that sticks to a lot of its companies established conventions and a stop motion fighting game.  On Namco's side is the beginning of one of the biggest names in fighting games.  It’s a one-on-one.  We shall see which game carries their company to victory.

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.

Street Fighter X Tekken Minimate Fun

Some time ago the Toys R Us I work at had some Street Fighter X Tekken Minimates on clearance.  Being the fighting game fanatic I am, I bought some of the little posable dudes for about $2 a pack (quite a bargain considering what they go for online).  Some of them were even Toys R Us Exclusive.

Tragically, we didn't have Rufus.

Their little size and posability gave me an idea.  I could have them interact with Nintendo's own cutesy little creations, the Miis!  With the Nintendo 3DS' Augmented Reality, I did just that and started posting pictures of Miis of various people I follow on Twitter with the Minimates.  For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter or don't even have a Twitter account, I'm making this post to put them all in one place.  I hope you like them.