IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!!!!

With the release of Marvel vs Capcom 3 just a few shorts but OH so long weeks away, I decided that today I'm gonna take a look back. But not to the game that the title of this blog references.

FREEPLAY FRIDAY

     I'm not going to go over the second MvC game. Nope. I'm going to talk about the first Marvel vs Capcom, the one that we had in our arcade.

     This was before the whole 3 on 3 got popular in the series. This was basic one on one fighting, with a little help from assists of course. There weren't that many characters to actually fight as, but there were quite a few hidden characters. Most of them were basically different colors of the same characters, but there was one that kind of went outside that box. And that would be Roll.

     The first time I remember playing this, it was actually on my PSone. I liked fighters and I was like "Eh, I'll give it a shot." I'm glad I did. It's so addicting. The play style just felt so refreshing and there were so many play styles to try out and go against. When this game actually came to our local arcade, I was more than ready to whoop some ass, and I did too.
     I usually used Ryu, but not normal Ryu. Some people will know what I'm talking about, and the others will need an explanation. If you do a half circle back plus one of the punches, Ryu will change "modes", basically mimicking the other shoto characters with their unique normal moves and supers. If you press medium punch, you get Ken mode. Fierce punch gets Akuma mode with level 3 super intact (the mode I used most). Light punch gets you back to normal Ryu. Each transformation takes up 1 whole Hyper combo bar, so you have to be careful.
    But yes, this game was VERY fun. If you have a PSone or PS2 laying around, do yourself a favor and go find this game, whether it be in an old nearby video game store, or online. Doesn't matter, just go get this game.

And today's topic is:

Well, I had to think about this one overnight. I was torn between two options, but in the end I chose this one. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for:

FREEPLAY FRIDAY

Yep. On Fridays, I'm going to talk about some of the arcade games that I played in the past that are worth mentioning. This week, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite driving games, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune.

 
When I first came across this game, I was currently playing the third edition of the Initial D arcade game, which was starting to become annoying because of the penalizing system for hitting walls. Then I tried out the second edition of Wangan. Let me tell you, it's not like any of those common racing games out there. Like Initial D, this game saves your information on a little card, so you can pick up where you left off.

     But unlike Initial D, this game does not penalize harshly for tapping a wall or two. The music is very upbeat in both the second and third editions, and I have purchased both soundtracks. Besides story mode, there is also a mode where you go through each of the different courses and work your way up 10 tiers to the top, and you can earn custom titles for perfecting all the tiers.
     One of the best modes in the third version though is the Ghost Battle mode. In this mode, your racing pattern is recorded, and the top times are saved as a "ghost" so that you can race against them as if you were racing against an actual person. There are different ghosts for each of the courses, and you can also earn a rare title for being on the top of all of the courses at once.
     Overall, this game is by far the most fun racing game I've ever played in the arcade. Only a few people could beat me when it came to versus, and I have humbled quite a few people who thought they were something special. I highly recommend you try to find this game in an arcade near you, because you will have a lot of fun!