Video Game Review - Street Fighter III: Third Strike (1999 - Sega Dreamcast)

This game holds a special merit in my life, due to the fact that they got a fighting game right on the money. Let's start with it's name of Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
Street Fighter III: Third Strike is nothing more than an attempt by CAPCOM to wring out another buck of its top man-whore, the wandering brawler Ryu. From the first Street Fighter to all of the modifications made on its sequel and passed off as brand new games, to the Street Fighter Alpha prequels that beat out the Star Wars prequel trilogy by 5 years, and through the psychotic Marvel branch-offs, Ryu has seen it all and has changed very little. Unfortunately, neither have his enemies. Same ol' Bison and Vega, Barlog and arch-nemesis Sagat. The stage music hasn't changed much and is even harped upon in other games. That all began to change with the original sequel to Street Fighter II, sequentially titled Street Fighter III.

The original Street Fighter III brought over the usual suspects of Ken and Ryu, but with better animations, new characters altogether, new stages and a new art style. There was a catch to all this cool stuff: you only had the choice of ONE Super-Art (the Super Attack from previous games) out of 3 to choose from. That made it hard to trip up your enemy, but they made the Super-Arts work at different levels on the Super Meter so that one Super-Art can be used 3 times with good damage, while a Super-Art that uses up the entire bar will cause massive amounts of damage. There are moves that I wanna talk about, but only within the context of Third Strike, because those same moves can be found in Street Fighter III and its sequel, Street Fighter III: Second Impact.

Third Strike, the third "sequel" to the third sequel in the Street Fighter> series (read that last sentence back and you'll understand how ludicrous that is to everyone else, but not to CAPCOM execs) brings back some characters from the Street Fighter III series, adding new ones and one revamped old-school character. The formula would seem to say, despite its features, that this is nothing but an old retread of the other Street Fighter III games. That's where Third Strike changes it up with a very significant change to the music.

CAPCOM went straight hip-hop.
It was a shock when I played the game and heard hip-hop beats blaring as I beat my opponents and  in the menus. It also allowed me to get deeper into the game than I ever wanted to. There are several instances where Street Fighter gets me and keeps me playing. Example of that are:

• Ken getting 4 hits for his Flaming Dragon Punch (Street Fighter II: The New Warriors)
• Ryu and Ken both fighting an insanely hard Bison--together (Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams)
• Fighting Shin Akuma at Ayers Rock, Australia (Street Fighter Alpha 2)
• Ken's gets an Air Hadoken (X-Men vs. Street Fighter)
• The VISUAL strike effects (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The introduction of Captain Commando with the other 3 members of his squad as backup (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The option of using 2 characters (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The option of using 3 characters (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• Three characters combining their Super Attacks together (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• Star Gladiator's Hayato introduced as a 2D character (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• The introduction of Sean and Elena, two dark-skinned characters of African ancestry that don't suck, are evil or boxers (Street Fighter III: New Generation)
• Street Fighter III: Third Strike. The whole thing.

It took me long enough to say, but this game is awesome. The music is so great and makes you wanna go. The characters are good, especially new additions like Makoto (a karate mistress with exceptional power and spirit), Remy (a Goth version of Guile & Charlie), Hugo (a refugee of the Mad Gear gang from Final Fight) and Q (aka "the Unknown", neither man or machine). The most significant addition to the Street Fighter III character lineup was the re-introduction of the first female character in Street Fighter, Chun-Li Zhang.

She's dropped her Street Fighter Alpha tracksuit (so sad...T_T) and is back in her traditional costume. Her fighting style still has the high jumps and quick kicks, but shows a bit more grace in its animations. Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick has been changed so it doesn't look like she's doing a HEADspring and then spinning, but using a spinning momentum to get off the ground; so fluid it makes me happy to see it. She doesn't have a Kikosho, but her other supers are mean. Even her win poses are smooth, living things: Miss Zhang bows upon entering and the "V for victory" win pose is changed from static female-looking sprite pointing fingers upward to an excellent representation of Chun-Li having a silly moment.

On the antithesis of silly (i.e., serious), I present to you Ryu's Super-Art moves, starting with the Denji-Hadoken. An upgrade from the Shinkuu-Hadoken, Denji-Hadoken gives you the option to CHARGE the already powerful Shinkuu-Hadoken, much like Sakura's chargeable Hadoken in Street Fighter Alpha 2. The obvious drawback is that people can already prepare themselves for or act on the creation of a Shinkuu-Hadoken. The benefit is that it's UNBLOCKABLE. 'Nuff said for turtlers. That's not the end to his strength, for he also has the baddest move on top of that: the Shin-Shoryuken.
Normally, Ken is the better of the two when it comes to the Shoryuken, pulling off more than the single hit Ryu is capable of. Ryu has come back with a vast improvement over Ken's Shoryu-Reppa and Shin-Ryuken, called the Shin-Shoryuken. This Super-Art is so strong, it has a backup plan for when it misses its initial ground strike. On the ground, the Super-Art only gets three hits. It also knocks off an amazing 50% of health from the life-meter. The real gem is when the three strikes go off in sucession: Ryu hits with the first hand (a "closed body" camera shot), then the camera gets a close-up of the opponent's mid-section for a second hit (an "open body" camera shot) and ending with Ryu sending the opponent skyward with a rising uppercut. It may seem tedious to you, but to me it's ballet.
Lest we forget that if he misses the ground strike, Ryu has a chance to make a 15-hit aerial combo. It's impressive, but it doesn't pass Sagat's 21-hit Tiger Genocide from Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike is a milestone in gaming for me; it put almost everything into a fighting game AND not a lot of people hogged it up at the arcade. When something like that happens to a fighting game, that means there's something in it for me and will probably earn a high mark with me.

RATING: 8/10

Movie Review - Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Snow Falling on Cedars is a movie that means so much to me, yet had absolutely nothing to do with my current situation when it was released. For one, I wasn't in a forbidden relationship and there was no open war fought on two fronts. But I can sympathize with the characters in the movie, given the theme of love in a world that will not have it, despite the gains made in society to facilitate it.

Based on the 1994 book of the same name, the movie is set in two time periods: around the middle of the Second World War and a period ten years later. Our two main characters are Ishmael (Ethan Hawke) and Hatsue (Yoki Kudo), two kids growing up in a small West Coast fishing town. They would grow up to be lovers, but they could never be together because Hatsue is Japanese-American and Ishmael is White. In their teens, World War II comes to America's doorstep. All Japanese-Americans had to report to internment camps due to their being a "homeland security risk" in the war against Japan. While Hatsue is placed in an internment camp, Ishmael joins the fight and finds himself in the Pacific Theater. It is this period where the young lovers are changed.
Hatsue meets her future husband Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), a man in her internment camp who is shipped out to the European Theater and returns. Ishmael loses his arm--and his love for Hatsue--at Iwo Jima. Yet something inside Ishmael still burns...

Fast forward to postwar America: people are still against Japanese-Americans. Sometimes out in the open and sometimes behind closed doors. It all comes to a head when the small fishing town where Ishmael grew up has a murder mystery. It seems a young fisherman was murdered. The only suspect is the last man to have a dispute with the young man's family: his friend Kazuo Miyamoto. The racism in town has got Hatsue and Kazuo's father Zenhichi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) worried that his son won't get a fair trial, even with the help of Nels Gudmunssen the defense lawyer (legendary actor Max von Sydow). Ishmael, now a newspaper reporter, has evidence that could clear Kazuo's name, but will the jilted love of Hatsue stop him from doing the right thing?

The idea that there's this love story with history being used as a backdrop for a murder mystery is absolutely brilliant. I can't think as to why I went to see this movie... Wait! I think I know why: back then I had CRAZY yellow fever.
I was all about the Asian hotties. Hell, I used to rationalize that I admired the minimalistic beauty of the Asian woman as a man AND as a graphic designer. I used to say, in reference to the Asian woman, that God did so much to create a beautiful woman by doing very little. In many ways, I still feel the same but definitely not as strongly as I did during the time I saw this movie. When this movie ended, I cried quiet tears. I cried for the happiness and sadness of the characters. Most of all, I cried in recognition of Ishmael's silent battle fought to quell the feelings in his heart for Hatsue and to uphold a pillar of the newsman's existence: the truth.

Here be an excellent movie.

Video Game Review - Suikoden II (1999 - Sony Playstation)

Suikoden II is the second entry in the Genso Suikoden series. It's a story that focuses on the exploits of 3 teenagers in a time of war and the ancient Sword Rune and Shield Rune. It also has the most mini-games in an RPG I've played so far, giving this game a major bonus. Despite that, mini-games do not a game make (unless you're Incredible Crisis). There is a story in this game, and it involves the usual running about and collecting the 108 Stars of Destiny.

You play the grandson of the late warrior Genkaku, part of a trainee mission to scout the outer fringes of enemy territory in a land at war. You and your childhood friend Jowy Atreides run from the danger, jump into the river and are swept into the waiting hands of the enemy...our heroes from Suikoden, Viktor and Flik of the Blue Lightning!

Somewhere along the line, you'll meet up with your sister Nanami and then the story kicks into full gear. This game spans several countries and features many characters from Suikoden who still were around; this makes for a great treat for people who played the first Suikoden, like me. The aforementioned Viktor and Flik are there, as well as Pesmerga, Stallion the elf, the cooks Antonio and Lester, Humphrey and his Dragon Knight squire, Futch. Both Kasumi the ninja and the warrior Valeria are around to help the new hero. Kage makes a brief appearance, as does Leknaat and many other other characters such as Mathiu's dad Leon Silverberg, the innkeeper Marie, Cleo and Pahn (if you kept him alive). Clive the bounty hunter is still pursuing his quarry Eliza. Tai Ho returns as a playable character, but his buddy Yam Koo is not. Tengaar and Hix are about and still getting in trouble. Apple, pupil under the strategist Mathiu, returns with some age and experience, yet chooses to play second to Mathiu's star pupil Shu. makes Neclord shows up ("Again? I thought we killed him!" was my reaction) as does the weapon of his destruction: the always-sassy Star Dragon Sword. Even the main hero McDohl and his manservant Gremio (if you got all 108 before storming Gregminster) are available. The one person who I saw hide nor hair of in the game was the creature called Yuber. I wanted another go at him on the battlefield.

Speaking of the battlefield, the fights take place in open grassland instead of on the grounds of the castle you're trying to storm. Paper-rock-scissors still plays a part in the battle movements, but now there's the issue of range and terrain. It doesn't detract from the skirmish scenario experience, because you still get to have your duels. The bad thing about duels is that they are storyline-event driven; they are not guaranteed at the end of every skirmish.

Above: The hero of SUIKODEN II,
soon to have his life changed
by the Shield and Sword Runes.

While I'm on the subject of batle, the item access in Suikoden II seriously hinders survival in battle; you have to equip a healing item before you can use it in battle. This is a great way to get killed in battle when your item runs out and you have to spend another turn equipping something else. Then there's the fact that you can't use items at your leisure. For example: if I got hit by a Flying Squirrel and lost health, I could just use my equipped Healing Potion that heals a small amount of HP. If the immediate turn has me damaged by a Harmonian soldier, I'd have to use the equipped Healing Potion and disregard my healing food called "Chige Nabe" (heals a gang of HP.)

The story keeps you involved, but tends to drag ON and ON and ON and ON! Thought you were done when you killed that guy, right? Wrong! Now you have to go through another castle and fight an even bigger boss than that. Then again, the Suikoden series never lets you off the hook with a lame final boss. Final boss asides, the bosses in Suikoden II are grand and make you work to defeat them. From giant sewer rats to the Star Dragon Sword, your bosses show absolutely no quarter or mercy. Conquering the bosses always guarantees a kick-ass treasure trove, yet some treasures can only be obtained in mini-games.
Minigames can be found inside the castle you have for your army of 108 people; they must be entertained, so there are several ways to do that. There's fishing, rock climbing, investigations of your troops, the traditional game of Chichinronin (now Nerfed to limit your winnings) and the latest addition to the minigame spectrum--the cook-off, led by your army's cook, Hai Yo.

The story gets weepy at times but the minigames and extras more than make up for it. This is a great sequel to the original, particularly when both the new hero and McDohl (still bearing the Soul Eater, but with new animations!) team up for the first time. This game does what most movies can never seem to do: make a decent sequel.

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - PowerStone (1999 - Sega DreamCast)

CAPCOM's melee fighter game Power Stone, I can safely say, has taken advantage of one of my favorite time periods in world history: the years spanning from the late 19th century to the years prior to World War II. This time period had great discoveries in science and archaeology abound, with the invention of the Atom Bomb just ahead of us and the Haymarket Riots behind us and the Bolshevik revolt somewhere inbetween. Electricity, the invention of the automobile, manned flight, the excavation of the Pharaoh's Tombs, the initial concept of the computer and the atom, ideas on human evolution; all were found and reported on in this short period of time.

Other things came from these years, namely the stories, books and legends of the early 20th Century. The Red Baron, the mystics of the British Raj, the curses of Pharaohs and many more legends were competing with the more contemporary writers of the times like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burrows, Mark Twain, H.P. Lovecraft and several other authors who made strides to preserve their past--and visions of the future--in writing.

Most of these stories involved scientific marvels that had a basis in reality, and only had to be invented; thus the stories were called "science fiction."

sci•ence fic•tion. n. fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component[date:1851]

Motorized tanks, submarines, spaceflight, robotics, time travel, television, first contact with extraterrestrials, computers and the visit to another heavenly body (usually the Moon) all fall into the wishful writings of science fiction.The adventures completed during these science fiction novels in exotic locales served up exotic peoples-- mostly beautiful women, great treasures to be found, cunning foes and dangerous beasts (some of conventional design and others of radical or impossible biologies). These novels served to pump the blood and excite the imagination, awakening the heroic (by European standards), adventurous being in all males.
The same things can be achieved my almost any video game, rendering most books obsolete and almost all gamers somewhat illiterate. If you took the time to read the works of the aforementioned authors, you'll see the great influence that written science fiction had on the creative staff of Power Stone.

Power Stone is set in the late 19th Century amidst the search for the legendary titular item. Said item has the power to make one wish--any wish--come true. Those that search for it will resort to fighting each other tooth and nail to get it. Luckily, there are MANY weapons lying around to hely the combatants fight each other for the best 2 out of 3 rounds for a win. The contenders for the Power Stone come from all over the globe, bearing with them great will and skill, multiplied several times over when in contact with pieces of the Power Stone. Let's take a look at our candidates:

FALCON

FALCON
Falcon is the son of Pride, a legendary aviator and treasure hunter. He could be the best bet for winning the Power Stone. When in contact with the Power Stone, he transforms into a red metallic, flying superhero that looks like "The Rocketeer".
The German flying ace Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (aka "the Red Baron") may have been the inspiration for Falcon.  The name Falcon, however, may have come from the type of plane the Red Baron flew during World War I: a Fokker Dr.I triplane. A guess as to why he's called "Falcon" as opposed to "Fokker" is a dodge against reviving Nazi ideology (the Union Jack on his shoulder would probably be an Iron Cross). Given that the German combatants were not Nazis during WWI, this has yet to be made clear.

ROUGE

ROUGE

Although One Thousand and One Arabian Nights was written well before the age of science fiction, it was re-explored by the people of the 19th Century. Rouge brings it back as a mystical, exotic woman. Touching the Power Stone turns her into a type of genie called an Efreet (more commonly known as an Ifrit). All fire and brimstone, she's a dangerous character to play against. In a nod to the myths about the area encompassed by the British Raj, Rouge enters on a flying carpet.

WANGTANG

WANGTANG

Yet another sendup of the Monkey King Sun Wukong/Son Gokuu of the Eastern epic Journey to the West (aka Saiyuki), this Asian boy bears the swirling crown symbol of Son Gokuu proudly as his belt. When he touches the Power Stone, he's more of a reference to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z's Super-Saiyans than anything else. Another nod to the Monkey King comes in the form of an extending weapon found in the game called the nyoi-bo, more commonly known as the Power Pole. 

GALUDA

GALUDA
A representative of the Native Americans, Galuda is frickin' huge. He is a note to the slowly disappearing Old West. Touching the Power Stone allows him to turn into a totem statue of great power. I refer to him in this form as the "wooden Optimus Prime." Twisting stereotypical ideas about native American weapons, Galuda can fire giant shining arrows at his opponent. Oddly enough, Galuda is another way of pronouncing Garuda, a name for a winged bird-like creature of Hindu (read: Indian) mythology.  The Indian may have been a mix-up with feather Indians and forehead-dot Indians, but Native Americans have been known to give great importance and spiritual significance to the eagle.

RYOMA

RYOMA

Fulfilling the necessary convention of having two representatives from Japan in a fighting game, enter our ronin samurai hero Ryoma. You'll see he's the most efficient fighter in the game because he brings his own weapon to the fight. The Power Stone transforms him into a super samurai in silver beetle armor, a character I sometimes call "Mushido" but am apt to mark as the X-Men villain Silver Samurai. One of his moves allows him to make several slashes in the air that home in on its target.

JACK

JACK

Jack was based on the mutilating murderer Jack the Ripper. The basis is changed some to reflect Japanese influence: Jack behaves like a ninja, yet his image incorporates ideas of the Pharaoh's mummies. Nonetheless, when he has the Power Stone, Jack turns into Robo-Jack, capable of rending the flesh from his opponent's bone in the span of a match.

AYAME

AYAME

One would think that she's a geisha in training, but her behavior is anything but geisha-like! Ayame  is a fun little girl who can do just as well as the boys can. Contact with the Power Stone transforms her into a ninja dressed in pink...with the largest shuriken ever on her back. Her specialty is throwing the large shuriken about, hoping it hits. It will indeed hit, and for 9 hits at that. Looking at her makes me think of the Pink Ranger from Power Rangers.

 

GUNROCK

GUNROCK

I'm not sure whether this guy is supposed to be a nod to Pancho Villa, but he's a big ol' Mexican dude who will hurt you if he gets you in a corner. In Power Stone mode, he turns into an earthen golem creature that bears a strange resemblace to the Fantastic Four superhero, the Thing. There's a lot of industrialization in Gunrock's stage; I wonder if it has anything to do with the industrialization of Mexico as seen by the eyes of Mexican artist Diego Parra.

These 8 heroes are all vying for the Power Stone, but undesireable forces would have them first. Such villains have set up shop in the lost city of what looks like Atlantis. Needless to say, the battle is on against the villains in all hope to save the world. Such grand goals from people across the world appeals to me at the basest of levels.
The control for this game is a bit hectic and rushed. It takes a while to get used to the craziness. The transformations are cool, their supers are cooler and the whole vision is absolutely wonderful. With all these benefits, could there be a problem? Not at all. 

RATING: 9/10