Weekend Update #3: Taking it Back to the Streets!

Didn't really get to spend time with online with BlazBlue this weekend (although I racked up a few good matches during the week). Instead, I found myself back with Street Fighter IV . This is partly due to my younger brother who had installed Street Fighter IV on his MacBook (running Windows 7 via BootCamp). Thanks to this, him and his friends have started running informal "tournaments" amongst themselves. Inspired by this, I decided to join in when a he brought a friend over and they had decided to play on my PS3.

At first, I did notice that I was trying to things that would only work in BlazBlue's engine (air dashing and wake up rolls). It took awhile for me to transition back to SFIV. I also noticed that, while my Cammy was nothing to really talk about before, I was terrible with her now. I ended up using my S-tier crutch Sagat to get a few wins against my brother's friend. Against my brother however, winning wasn't really an option seeing as he really is that much better than me (he runs a terrifying pressure game with Gouken). Still, I had fun, I even got inspired to give Balrog (Boxer) a run and did quite well with him.

Now after that, I was initially ready to go back to BlazBlue the following night, however a couple of other friends dropped by (one who plays a mean Zangief) and, after a few rounds of NBA 2k9, decided to challenge them to SFIV. Now, by this time, I had actually practiced a bit with both Sagat and Balrog meaning that my Sagat was unbeaten the whole night and my Balrog at least gave my friends Zangief a hard time. Also, I was able to get some good wins with my Cammy again (against Akuma no less). The key was not playing it like HD Remix (which I tend to do) and instead build my game around pressuring with her high priority Cannon Spikes. We also messed around with the other characters, including some low tier hijinks with Dan and Rey Mys..I mean El Fuerte.

All in all, it was good to get some decent time with SFIV. While I still will be maining BlazBlue, SFIV is still a solid and fun 2D fighting. Also, the game's more defensive, less combo reliant pace means that I had to really think about strategy and mind games in contrast to BlazBlue where the pace of the game tends to focus on offense and quick reflexes.