Dear Audience,
I believe it was the year 2010, when after 8 years of studying hard and getting good grades enabled me to stay in college as a senior on the verge of completing my Bachelors in Biotechnology. It was also a glorious year as my parents chipped in to buy me an " Ipod 4G touch " YES!!! Oh my Gwad I love my life!!!
So never been exposed to the I-products I started playing around here and therer, on the app store, and wait a minute what is this? An app for Street Fighter 4?? Really, Street Fighter 4, in all its glory could be played on an I-pod?? That’s AMAZING!!
So I spend my hard earned money, and gladly gave it to the the I-lords to grants me the access to this world of SF, that seemed quite distant, (8 years to be exact) at the time.
I was 14, when I played street fighter on my cousin’s computer, aahh…what a feeling…when Ryu would go “Abu-kit” well screw you! Its Abukit for me and I remember going around in the house jumping like Ken going SHHHOOOORYUREPPPAA! I guess it was one of the best feeling I have ever had as a kid.
But alas, the reality kicks in and NO MORE Street fighter for you young man, study…wahwahwah…whatever.
So you can imagine the excitement and the awe bubbling in my heart and gut, when I saw this evolved Street Fighter 4, OMG this has changed so much, the characters look human beings lol, this is sensational! SO I downloaded the game, started playing and playing, the SP buttons make it so easy, don’t they?
Anywho, 6 months later, Battle Protocol comes is, OMG, what?! You mean I can play with people all over the world with wifi, this is incredible!
Argh…Noooo, you didn’t tell me about the lag!!!
But who cares, I still played, wow I am learning so much from these different styles people adopt, NICE!
So this 20 some guy is busy playing Street Fighter after a short expose in early teens, on his Ipod touch, bet no one here is like me …right? :?
Well, fast forwarding to 2011, my birthday, my Mom such a sweetheart, bought me an xbox (for old times sake) lol. I should mention that within that time frame 2010-2011, I youtubed ssf4 and got to watch tournaments, tutorials etc (not quite helpful for ipod version though lol), but most importantly I discovered that people you a strange device call " THE ARCADE STICK"
So when I bought my Xbox console, I knew that the first game would be Street Fighter, after a lot research I found out that the main was Super Street Fighter 4 arcade edition. But I knew that I have to buy a stick too, because in my head, I am a pro and we do not use primitive controller…lol
So went ahead and bought this 170 bucks madcatz stick, btw these guys know how to make a box, dude I had the hardest time getting rid of it.
Anywho, so xbox…check, game in the CD-ROm…check, Stick…check, Xbox live…fail!!! FML
I got my butt handed to me so fast,that it crushed me, this was me during the first match, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhahahaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah it was just this blur, did not know what each button did, while the chun-li player took pleasures in handing me the beating of my life.
My first reaction, Sheesh, what did I get myself into??? I will never be able to Shoryuken as quickly as I used to on ipod, and I was literally crying in my heart.
Well after practicing and cooling my nerves for about two months, I still suck, but it doesn’t sting, its not that I have accepted defeat, it is just that I am starting to grasp the beauty of this game.
This game is not about punching buttons, and expecting a win, NO, I realize how much goes into understanding just simple mechanics, let alone the elite stuff. People who are good at this have been playing all their life and still when asked, they say oh they learn everyday.
This tells me that SF is not jut a game that has an end to it, no, its like life, continuous and gradual and ever evolving.
It’s funny but as I realized this, a feeling of despair cheeped in, maybe I am late to the party. But watching great players playing online on youtube, shoryuken streams inspires me, they are human beings, and if I put my heart and mind into this I too can come to a level of self appreciation…to be continued