Given the heavy representation for Square so far, you might figure I'd go in that direction, and yeah, if you ignore the couple of misfires (*cough* The Bouncer *cough*), Square has a great history with the FF and Chrono series. I suppose, too, now that they're merged, you can throw in Enix's history as well and add the Mana series and a bunch of other stuff. But gonna say that I'm including quantity and diversity in this and say...
Capcom
Capcom has one of the longest running and most instantly recognizable game series in the form of Mega Man. The basic formula has maybe been overdone a bit to this point, but its a testament to what fun platformers they are that they can keep putting out sequels with the same core gameplay and still have people love them. Recently, they've revived the series with Mega Man 9 and 10, games you can download for a mere 10 bucks and are every bit as fun as the classic one. It's much more tactfully done than Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which they're putting out in "episodes," the first of which is only four stages long for 15 bucks and really isn't challenging whatsoever. There's also the Mega Man Battle Network games--RPGs with some action-y elements--which I've only played a bit of, but which I know have a pretty loyal fanbase. Capcom's also put out the Breath of Fire series, a more traditional fantasy RPG series with dragons and whatnot.Capcom is also responsible for the mother of all tournament fighters: Street Fighter. Back in the day, Mortal Kombat was always super popular amonst my fellow adolescents, what with people getting their spines ripped out and the line, but Street Fighter was always a much more polished and more fun game than the clunky motion-captured MK. Eventually, some Street Fighter characters appear in the X-Men vs. Street Fighter arcade game that would eventually become the Marvel vs. Capcom series. On current gen systems, Capcom offers both Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom, both fighting games but not really requiring exactly the same skill set. SF IV has more complex move sets where some moves might require a 360 or 720 degree rotation of your D-Pad/arcade stick to pull off, and thus encourages you to experiment with different combinations to find out how you can give yourself enough of a buffer to lead into a big move. MvC has some of the same strategies, but it has more standardized and simpler moves and thus is a little more about pure reaction time and knowing when to call your partners for an assist or a big crossover combo.
On the more action-y side of things, Capcom has the most celebrated survival-horror series produced in the form of Resident Evil. I've played though some of and watched a friend play through the rest of Resident Evil 2 and some of Code Veronica, but I can't say I've played the more recent REs. MC Chris gives Resident Evil 4 quite an endorsement though. There's also Onimusha, of which I've played games 1 & 3. The first is very much like a Resident Evil style survival horror game, only in feudal Japan. It had the RE style control where Up on the D-pad was always forward and went to considerable lengths to try and creep the hell out of you. Onimusha 3 was more of a straight-up action game and, just because, had Jean Reno's face and voice in it. It had more natural controls, the areas were a little less constrained and linear, and the gameplay was a little more varied. I had a ton of fun with it. Then there's Devil May Cry, which is kind of an Onimusha like-game, in that it's an action game where you might some demon sort of creatures, only it's turned way the hell up to 11. It's a big proponent of the Rule of Cool, and has some of the straight-up most ridiculous special abilities ever conceived.
Then there's the Phoenix Wright games on the DS. They're in the "visual novel" style and aren't much for replayabilty, and I can't say that they don't drag at points. Still, they represent a very novel concept that hadn't really been done before, like a lot of the best things on the DS. There's not much to the gameplay, but when the cases are at their most clever they make you think outside the box a bit and makes you use a bit of critical thinking. They also introduced two pretty enduring characters in Phoenix Wright himself and his pompous arch-rival prosecutor Miles Edgeworth.
There's a whole bunch more where these games came from. These are just games off the top of my head that I've played and enjoyed. Capcom has been around since video games are in their infancy and, yeah, has milked the hell out of their cash cows like Mega Man, but has also branched off in a lot of different directions at the same time. As time goes on, it seems like American developers are grabbing more and more of the spotlight, which is fine because it's not like the likes of Bioware don't make great games, but I hope Capcom sticks around for a long time to come.
Next: Day 29 - A game you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving
No comments:
Post a Comment