Here’s something I’ve been wondering and wonder what everyone else around here thinks.
What if a company (Capcom, SNK, etc.) released a new game today (not a sequel) that had:
-Great 2D (not 3D models on 2D plane) graphics (think the new KOF12 and 13, but without the SNK “fuziness”, LOL. Or even Blazblue).
-Lots of bright colors and shiny, flashy, lights on special moves for the masses.
But for gameplay played like SF2, in as:
-revolved around spacing, zoning, and poking
-had basic chain and cancel combos like SF2 games (3,4,5 hitters instead of crazy 8-32 hit, hit-confirm juggle combos).
-Only had special moves (2-4 per character) and maybe supers. No EX moves or 13 different gauges and bars to keep track of.
-No parries, or focus cancels, or guard cancel front steps, etc.
-No huge windows on doing special moves, reversals, etc (only SF4 does this out of all the new FG’s, I really don’t think it was necessary).
Basically what if SF2 was a brand new game that released today (but had graphics that meet today’s standards)? Would it be successfull or would it be deemed “too simple” because it didn’t have 25 hit combos and Super Special Extra Revenge moves, etc.?
I think tight, good gameplay would win out and it would be commercially successfull as long as it
A.) Looked good
B.) Was actually marketed (hello SNK!).
c.) Had some interesting (but not too weird) characters
It’s all about the marketing. Casuals don’t give a shit about reversal windows and generous blockstun, they just want to see big flashes and flaming uppercuts.
I don’t think it matters. A game like that would be looked at as being too simple today, and not just by the fighting game community. There are people outside the fighting game community who have a general idea of how to play fighting games, and they’ll know the difference between a game with few systems (such as SF2) and a game full of systems (such as blazblue). Also, let’s be honest, the only reason BB gets away with the art is the anime style, if it had pixelated, but still HD-video-game-style sprites, it wouldn’t look cool to the mainstream consumer. So I doubt it would have huge mainstream appeal. I’m not knocking SF2, it’s as good as any game out today (probably better), but it wouldn’t survive if it launched today, and I doubt any game that tries to go that retro in the gameplay department could sell without the nostalgia appeal.
Technically speaking, casuals don’t know what a game is let alone how one works. If SF2 was released today, it would be called SSF2THD3SGEA3R, or somewhere around those lines, can’t even get creative with names now a days it seems. If it was re-released, the least I can say is that it will outsell any SNK game.
I don’t think you were being specific. Do you mean what if someone just made a game today that plays like SF2 after we’ve seen MVC2, Guilty Gear, Blaze Blue, KOF, VF, and others? Or are you giving a “what if” situation, where there had previously been no fighting game genre up until now, and now we come out with a game that plays like SF2 (starting the modern fighting game genre).
If you're asking the first thing, then definitely not. On the second question, then it's a maybe. Honestly, you have to realize that fighting games are more of a logical step forward from beat-em up games. And you have to realize that beat-em up games dominated arcades before fighting games, and SF2 was just another beat em up game but with an expanded concept. That's why it was probably so easy for SF2 to catch on. If you had release SF2 (somehow since graphical limitations were present) in 1984, I'm sure it would not have been nearly as successful. So I think SF2 could only survive in the day and time it was released in.
Your question is kind of paradoxical since the games we would be basing judgment on the new game on were still based off of SF2, which now doesn’t exist.
Question is, would the genre as we know it even be the same if not for SFII? Or would Fatal Fury have been able to cause the same amount of hype as SFII (seeing as they were in development at about the same time). Would we instead be playing Fatal Fury IV SPECIAL instead of SSFIV? Or would we even be playing fighters as we know them?