Well now that they have some real funding behind them again with WB there should be no excuses for another less then stellar MK.
The fact that even mentioned SF discredits the article. Hes just mentioned it from the past. Does he fail to notice that it took 10+ years to get a sequel to SF3? We did get an update to SF4 and it was at a budget price. Unlike all the Guitar Heroes, Tony Hawks, Madden, Call of Duty, and so many other series that are on a yearly cycle. This is why I dont visit IGN anymore.
Come to think of it, we should let the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry die. Why don’t they come up with something totally new every year? Why rehash the same basic concept over and over?
/sarcasm
it was a very well written article. i understand alot of his points but what he has to understand that developers cant be as original anymore because games cost too much money to make and the risk is to great to make changes. When game companies do different things most of the time fans complain about it. It first it seem like he didnt want sequels to be made at all but after another read imo it seems like he doesnt want to see so many sequels being made which i can understand that, but why would you not want a sequel to a good game that had good mechanics?
*“As long as things are reproduced on a slightly overwhelming technical scale, with visuals that bedazzle, then we’ll never have to grow up and confront the artless reality of those dolls that once seemed so serious, beautiful, and real.”
*
This is a really great sentence and a genuinely thoughtful insight. The only problem is that he didn’t move onto the logical conclusion which has to be:
“Omg, I secretly despise gaming (or anything I enjoyed in my childhood) and want to do ‘grown up stuff’… and yet here I am making a living by writing about games. Time to slit my wrists.”
Agreed. What I find utterly ridiculous are fighting games who take their story modes absolutely seriously and then come up with the most redundant, half-assed, and minimalistic story ever conceived. For an example, let’s look at Street Fighter IV: Ties That Bind.
I don’t really mind a SFIV anime cash-in. Sure, it doesn’t have the pure awesome that was SF2: The Animated Movie, but it was made to coincide with a new game. Whataya gonna do?
The problem is how utterly seriously the story takes itself, and yet it rehashes the exact same story that we’ve seen in countless SF games. The Dark Hadou? Shadaloo? Akuma vs Ryu? Why is this shit still a factor? I understand that Capcom wanted to have a nostalgia factor to make old players comfortable, but that’s counter-intuitive. After all, the same people you’re supposed to be marketing this towards are the same ones who’ve seen it so many times, it’s a yawn fest at this point.
Now, this would almost be okay if they were intending to give things some sort of resolution . . . but no. The story ends on the same ambiguous note that it always does. Is Ryu free of the Dark Hadou? Who knows. Will Shadaloo and Bison finally be destroyed? Maybe. Will Ryu ever become the powerful warrior he seeks to be? Could be.
Why did you even bother with this if I wasn’t supposed to take it seriously?!
According to some, people like you don’t exist just because they say so. So I don’t know. 
While the article itself was well written, I do disagree with the usage of SF or Mario as an example, since for the most part, each game in the series (with the exception of the revisions of SF) usually take a few years to come out (or in the case of SFIII to SFIV, a decade).
I feel that in each of these games, while the core is the same, the tools are different, which makes SF or Mario different from a Madden or a CoD (I mean, we haven’t seen Karin or Kuribo’s Shoe in another game within the series). Also, without sequels we wouldn’t have some genres within games today, for example without a Metal Gear 2 or MGS, we wouldn’t have the Stealth genre as it’s known today.
So, while the author does have an understandable point that too many sequels are being made in games at this point in time, his examples leave something to be desired, but also he omits how effective sequels have been in promoting growth in games.
IGN gave GodHand a 3.0 rating. After that I could never take that site seriously ever again.
Wtf is the author even complaining about? Experiencing the same experiences over and over and over again except with a new coat of paint this time?
That my friends is what I like to call life. As long as the original experience was dope why whine about it? New experiences are mad overrated in my book.
how DARE they…!
I think the article was alright, my only annoyance is that the topic has been done to death already. I fear we’re entering summer time…one of those pockets of time where the industry slows down on big new releases and the press need something to itch beards about.
Here’s how you stay busy when the industry slows down and you’re in the press.
Take the following topics and write them down on seperate post its:
-Girls and gaming…how strange and niche!
-The used video game sales conundrum…lets pull out pie charts and play market analyst!
-Narrative in games…let’s rub our chins and pretend gameplay isn’t the most important element in the medium.
-Games as art…let’s rub our chins and pretend gameplay isn’t the most expressive element in the medum. Also…why doesn’t anyone take my hobby seriously?
-Indie gaming…I’m down with it. Gimme some cred.
-No originality in the medium…I swear if something original came out I’d totally back it. BTW, check out my review of the most original game of the year. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t like everything else coming out this year so I didn’t know how to critique it. In fear of looking like a fool to my press peers, I fell in line and gave it a mediocre score. Lo and behold, most of my peers did the same thing!
-One console future…we’re just kidding that shit will never happen.
-A DLC future…because it’s a salesman’s wet dream to sell customers thin air!
-Piracy…see those egg shells on the floor? Start half steppin’!
-Japan…it’s wacky.
-Sexuality in games…it isn’t just boobies. Why doesn’t anyone take my hobby seriously part II.
-How to get into the game industry…suck cock. Just kidding…but seriously, get on your knees. What are you doing? God. You were really going to do it weren’t you? Hahahah. Oh man. Ok. So. Seriously. Cup my balls while you’re down there.
Put them on the wall and throw a dart at them. In some cases, someone from another organization will have thrown a dart first, posted an article and has had it linked by Kotaku. In that case, consider dropping the dart and dashing to your keyboard to bang out a rebuttal!
I’m not trying to be “fuck the press” about this, it’s just a cycle I’ve seen every year for…oh…13 years. I’m all for Tim Rogers having the last word on all of these topics so we can move onto something new.
P.S.: Moved to General Discussion.
People who write these articles have a disconnect with the communities that support them. Ok, I don’t know if there is a hardcore Mario community, but among SF players, the same basic experience needs to be maintained. Just like his analogy that he presented about poker, poker players aren’t itching for the chance to move on to the next new card game. They want to play poker. The world of competitive video games is different than the world of Mario.
Sosage pretty much nailed it.
Akuma is supposed to be the Alpha Omega of fighters he was meant to be the real boss for Ryu and Ken somebody who was a true master of his martial art. SF2 needs to end already the story needs to progress for the series to get better and for new characters to be introduced with new plotlines. How can our genre expand we people like are a majority and don’t care for any progress for the core of the game which is the story and setting.
We play second fiddle because the industry doesn’t want to understand how complex these games are and how much hardwork and effort it goes into mastering the games in this genre. Fighting games need to step up their stories and plots beyond fight tournament get money. If they could make story based fighting games with great vs it would be great but we are stuck in the arcade mindset of pick up and play. Plus if you look at this board most people don’t give a damn about story which honestly is the most important part of fighting games.
I cant believe you hit every single steretypical video game article! All of them! Have you considered a career as an editor?
epic post
Been there. Done it. It was fun, but only a few very talented people can make a career out of it (or should). 
what he said.
No. Not at all. There are about 20 things that are more important to a fighting game than this. Like balance, variety among characters (i.e. not having a cast full of shoto-clones), matchups, etc etc etc. I can sit here for about an hour and write all the things out, but I have to study.
You need characters first thing you can’t through random characters in a game it won’t make sense and it leads to the game being bad. A basic plotline helps build tiers and set up for priorities and the like and Matchups. Why do you think Sagat is so damn good think they don’t reference his story for that. Look at Sean prime example of a character nerfed for story relevance. Not to mention Ryu who got a new move based on him learning more as a fighter. Hell Iori lost his flames in the story and that followed into the game.
To be fair, I think you have it backwards.
In most cases, the developers think of a new idea and then make up an excuse why it exists in story. Perfect example is Akuma. He was brought in because of EGM’s Sheng Long hoax, but they completely made up some canned plot to fit him in.
Story isn’t as important as the gameplay in fighting games, but the problem is how SERIOUSLY it takes itself while clinging to that mentality. I know that Japanese storytelling usually requires more Suspension of Disbelief than Western writing, but come on. Is the story important or is it not? You can’t have it both ways.