Well lucky me, Capcom splurged on quick shipping and it was actually overnight! I received my package on Friday and proceeded right away to my game store to try it with my friends. Of course someone wanted to play me purely because I didn't know any more about the moves than he did... but he didn't know I was already familiar with T. Hawk from Super Turbo. We played it throughout the store's weekend (they close Sunday), and I'm happy to report that everybody found something else they're proud to work with. I'm pleasantly amazed someone could put up a good fight against my Zangief with Adon. Read past the break for details.
First up, yeah... the menu screen is still gay. Everyone thought so, and I'm wondering now if it's supposed to be a statement on America. Ken's the only one making love with his eyes. I'm disappointed that I can't view the ending movies at will, but that's just a minor disappointment. I love the ability to turn off bonus stages for the arcade. The slides for the intros are a bit of a turn-off, but they're bearable. The challenge mode is vastly improved, and I even managed to complete a couple characters already. It's really nice that colors and taunts get unlocked just by playing the characters, even in Versus mode, so we got a lot already. That's about it for the features now, because I know you wanna hear about the characters.
Adon: AKA Starscream. Damn, this guy just flies all over the place. I just about never expect a ground attack from him because everything about him screams flight! He makes for some interesting mindgames, because he can fake out his Jaguar Tooth attack and stop short. I still like Claw more for wall-jumps, but Adon's speed really works to his advantage. I expect him to be a competitor.
Cody: Everyone's favorite but mine. This guy's a total jerk! One of his wins actually says "tsh, you suck, man!" and he walks off the stage. I get it, the guy's bored, but this guy just has nothing to him. In actual play style, nobody here could really get him to work well, but I believe he has untapped potential. I might end up having to play him just to demonstrate his skill, but that won't happen for a while. I really hate this guy.
Dee Jay: Just as before, I can't play this guy. He definitely has some good stuff that'll make him a lot of fun to play against though, and also like his Super Turbo version, I fully anticipate him to be the best character nobody plays.
Dudley: Why is he all half-circle movements? One player who was fascinated by his playstyle commented that he feels like a charge character, and I can see how that's the case. He's going to be good for highly execution-oriented players, because this guy hits quick. He really gets in there and starts the rampage. I might end up playing him, but only for something fun on the side.
Guy: We're still rather puzzled by him. Obviously he gets around really quickly, but none of us were really able to take to him well. To be fair, I only played him once through random, but I had a lot to take in. I don't really have any comment.
Hakan: This guy's gonna be some fun to work out. People were easily able to take out my style for him initially, and I'm still not really good with him. The strange this, for a grappler, this guy likes to adopt a long range. He controls a lot of the board when he's oiled up, but that's also the problem. His strength is temporary. I need to find a lot of opportunities to oil up again, and that's where the grabs come in. Every last one of his grabs serves to put the opponent at the screen's edge, where they probably can't get to me. I'll at least be able to get light oil, and more will come based on the situation.
Ibuki: This one's gonna be tough all the way. She is definitely the new quick hitter even on top of Adon. You have to be just as quick on the buttons as she is with her overall speed, because she's got a lot of target combos. I don't think Akuma's got anything on her.
Juri: They really got her right. Not surprising, considering she was the first one revealed and therefore the first one to receive any feedback during development. I was actually surprised to find she received a projectile. It doesn't cover the full screen, but it covers enough to be annoying even with her high startup. It's an unusual projectile in that it has high startup, low recovery so she can just keep firing away. She does Tae Kwon do proud, and functions beautifully at any distance. The one thing with which I take issue is that she's supposed to be new player-friendly, but her first Ultra is really for experts. You do EX focus cancels with 1/4 super gauge instead of 1/2, and this technique is advanced even for me. In the hands of an expert, oh yeah, she'd be a beast, but beginners will have to work with something barely better than Ken's old Shinryuken.
Makoto: If someone figures out how to play her effectively, PLEASE let me know because I want to play her style so badly! She's EXTREMELY angry and fast. I don't really know how powerful her attacks are, but just from how much yelling she does, they've gotta be powerful. As it stands, she's currently my worst character even below Crimson Viper.
T. Hawk: We now come to my personal favorite. Even though he was low-tier in HDR, I still had a lot of fun playing this mobile grappler. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem quite as mobile here because the safety David Sirlin gave him is no longer here. Fortunately, that's ok because I don't need to get in there. He covers so much board control, certainly more than Zangief, that no matter where you go, I'll get you. I anticipate having the same problems I did with Akuma, but at least I really get at our best Ibuki. I've settled on using his second Ultra because of its great anti-air property, and his Super is about as good as his first Ultra, anyway.
New Ultras: The new Ultras for existing characters are all hit or miss. Sometimes the new one is generally better, as is the case with Ken. Sometimes it's simply introducing a different play style, as I found with Zangief (suddenly, they find themselves less inclined to Shoryuken my jump if they think they'll eat an Ultra for it). Sometimes it's generally just plain bad, as people seem to be referencing for Sagat (I'll have to test for that one). Fortunately, most of them do have their uses, so I think they'll be quite welcome.
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