In this post:
1. My Capcom Fight Club part deux report!
2. And another friendly reminder for this weekend.
Last night was the second Capcom Fight Club, just two days shy of the one year anniversary of last year’s shindig. Expectations were pretty high, since the previous installment was such an awesome affair. So how did round two compare? In the end, it was kinda… meh.
The main issue was how it just wasn’t the same thing. For starters, much of the “underground-ness” of last time was completely absent. One could attribute it to the change in location; instead of some dark, dank space in the ass-end of Bushwick (as atmospheric as that venue was, I certainly don’t miss it, especially the asbestos filled air in the basement), the throw downs went down at a super trendy shoe shop just north of Canal Street (only makes sense, since that’s somewhat the spiritual home for all Street Fighters, with Chinatown Faire as the capital, of course).
But the real culprit was Kotaku, who had mistakenly published the event’s info a few days prior. Granted, emails went out to a select few, including myself, that stated “DON’T TELL ANYONE, WINK, WINK” with the plan being that someone would invariably spill the beans, and word of mouth being what it is, excitement and buzz would surely ensue. Which is precisely what happened. But no one had actually bold-faced put the location online. So what was supposed to be an invite only thing, primarily intended for members of Capcom’s online community and a few lucky press peeps, became public knowledge; the PR team initially planned for about 150-200 bodies with 500 showed up instead. Hence why going in, Dave, Joe, and myself figured it was going to be a complete madhouse. And it was!
All in all, Capcom’s PR did an amazing job of dealing such a massive, sudden change in plans. I’m just glad that we managed to get in at all! Doors were supposed to open at 8, but by 7, the line was already massive…
… going all the way down the block and even wrapping itself around the corner. It’s hard to see, due to everything being so dark (since this was nighttime after-all) and the large bouncers in the way, but trust me, there was a TON of folks waiting.
Now, anyone whose waiting in line for anything in Manhattan, such as a big show, has most certainly encountered this before…
… Old people who go right up front and spend a good five minutes trying to figure out what everyone is waiting for. Afterward they’ll finally ask a person (and that someone is always me) what’s happening…
“What is everyone waiting for?”
“A video game.”
“What’s the name of the video game?”
“Super Street Fighter 5.”
“Who makes it?”
“Sears.”
… The types of people will always have some stupid, semi-creepy grin and will get WAY too close to your face. Anyhow, around 7:15, well before the advertised time, a chunk of people were let in to alleviate the crowding outside, including us. Thank goodness for Joe’s advice that we show up early…
The space itself was quite nice, but it also wasn’t very big. So with more people than before, and with less room… you can see where this is going. Though the first floor, which was mostly filled with Tatsunoko vs Capcom, was somewhat deserted in the very beginning. Even Street Fighter 4 wasn’t being touched, as you can see from above, mostly because there weren’t sticks attached. Instead, everyone flew down to the basement…
… Which became packed in almost no time flat. When I ran into Seth Killian amongst all the bodies, he jokingly remarked how he had given up explaining to folks that they weren’t playing Super SF4, but just regular SF4. Hence what would become the biggest issue with the evening, in most attendee’s minds.
I had mentioned previously how members of the press were not allowed to touch the game two days prior, for reasons that, while disappointing, still made sense (and which I’ll explain later on). It was then explained that the event was specifically designed for the fans, that being members of Capcom Unity, so they’d be the first folks outside of Capcom to touch the latest build. But it was never made clear how individuals were to be chosen, and I’d have to assume that any initial plans were immediately thrown out the window when the potential number of interested folks shifted from 160 to 500+.
At least there was still plenty of SF4, MvC2, and Tatsunoko vs Capcoms to be found downstairs as well. One could also find both Joe and Dave, testing out the new faces in Tatsunoko yet again; they got in a good amount of play at the Resident Evil trivia thing, till the game was eventually replaced with Darkside Chronicles…
… The new stick for the Wii is pretty awesome! Though only then did I realize that I’d be playing the game at home via the crappy Classic Controllers or the GameCube’s, whose digital pad is the absolute worst. Unless I sprung for sticks of my own, but for just one game seems a bit extreme. Hmmm.
Here’s the DJ they had spinning records all night long…
… Unlike last year, whenever the music started playing, half the power in the basement didn’t go out! Though I should perhaps point out what’s behind her: that’s where Super SF4 would be demoed later in the evening.
On the other side of the floor was a monitor that gave live updates from those Twitter-ing the event…
That mural a bit more of the ways done…
The best part of the space were all these nice posters hanging around, featuring assorted fighters…
About an hour into things, the entire bottom floor was flat-out uncomfortable. There was no avoiding all the shoulders in one’s back, let alone the smell of B.O. Once Seth came out to finally fire up Super and demonstrate the new fighters, I all of a sudden found myself stuck dead center in the middle of that mob that rushed to the back. Worst part being that I simply couldn’t see sh*t…
… At least I wasn’t the only one. Apparently there was a line of cameramen right up front, blocking everyone’s view. Not helping was the low positioning of the monitor, but considering that the ceiling was only about seven feet above, tops, it couldn’t be helped. Furthermore, I couldn’t hear anything from all the people yelling, mostly at the aforementioned viewing obstructions, and tall people in general. As well as this guy taking pics with his DSi, who told to “put that sh*t away!”
… I highly doubt he was blocking anyone’s view, but the whole crowd was rather salty. Many were clearly not happy that the one thing they were there for was just not happening. And while I’m fairly certain that the Capcom team made it loud and clear that only a chosen few would get to actually touch the controllers via the Unity message board, I’m guessing those who simply heard about the event via Kotaku were unaware of this rather important detail. Plus in the crowd’s defense, all the signage did give one the impression that it was there to be played by all.
Instead, you had Justin Wong, whose the top Street Fighter in North America, along with some other expert player, a dude that goes by the name Marn I was later told, and whom I had prior knowledge of, demoing the returning DeeJay and the new girl Juri as Seth did the explaining. Which brings up the next issue, and apologies for not being completely on top of things, but the crowd was also pissed that they weren’t seeing or hearing anything entirely new. Though my biggest problem… one that is shared by Joe and Dave… is how DeeJay, along with T-Hawk, who also makes a grand return, totally blows. They sucked back during the days of Super Turbo, didn’t particularity care for them during Alpha 3, and they’re still lame today. Sorry.
After the presentation was over, the monitor was shut off, which elicited loud “COME ON!” “WHAT THE F*CK!” and “BUT I GOT NEXT!!!” from most everyone. At this point, it wasn’t even 8:30, yet it was time to leave. Joe had done well for himself, with a 13 win streak in Tatsunoko, handily beating his 10 in SF4 from the year before. Dave unfortunately didn’t fare as well; his outstanding Blanka skills were still no match for some other player’s slightly superior Chun Li skills. Though it was the wait to get to that point that was worst; despite the decent number of SF4s with sticks, there still wasn’t nearly enough for everyone on-hand, so the wait to play was LONG. Another thing, there was a severe lack of booze as opposed to last time, where the Colt 45 was flowing everywhere, and that definitely blew. Instead, all you had was Mountain Dew (great) to wash down the pizza, which I didn’t bother to partake in, since I had yakitori with Dave plus Mallory and Katie beforehand. But I heard it was actually pretty awesome? In fact, people were somewhat raving about it afterwards on NeoGAF, and that’s kinda neat.
Here’s what the upstairs looked like by the time we left; packed to the gill, with people even lining up to play SF4 without the sticks…
… Previously, we had taken a break to get booze at a nearby deli, which led up to brown-bagging it across the seedier parts of Brooklyn, and a failed attempt at playing games at a laundromat before getting our games back on at the club. But here it was made abundantly clear that if you left, there was no getting back in, period. And because there was still literally hundreds waiting in line, biting at the chomps to get a taste of the inside, we figured it be best to make some room. So after a half-hearted attempt at nabbing a gift bag, which I figured there wouldn’t be enough of… and honestly, members of the community deserved them more than lame ass game journalists (most, at least the ones I personally know, were totally understanding, but I did overhear some douche who writes for a blog that no one has probably ever head of acting like a child because he didn’t get a free t-shirt for his “troubles”)… the three of us made our way to a bar we once hit in the heart of Chinatown for some relatively cheap beers. Last pic of the night: Dave and Joe, playing iPhone games, to cap the evening off. BTW, have they made an iPhone version of Super Puzzle Fighter? They should!
All in all, it was a thing. Not nearly as cool as last year’s, but all things considered, a decent time was had, at least amongst us three. Though I couldn’t help buy check out what others thought, via NeoGAF, later that evening. Here’s someone else’s two cents…
“Just got back.
Got on line at 7 got inside at 10, left about 10:10. Very small narrow two floor location, about twenty kiosks in total with SF4, TvC, and Marvel. Most of them did not have sticks on them. Yeah. SSF4 was no where in sight for people who weren’t in the initial batch of people allowed in and only Empire Arcadia/S-kill were allowed to play it. No swag bags for those who weren’t in the line early.
Sweet community event, sure was super.”
… Ouch. Three hours in line? I also love this quote…
“EX dread kick is crumple stun? And you can combo into it off a crouching jab? Fuck that noise. Deejay better have some shitty ultras.
… Because I had to read it five times to know what the hell was being said. Again, I’m not much of a Street Fighter player. I also found a pair of videos; here we have a few comments about the new characters from Justin Wong. First off, nice hair. Seriously! Second, hearing people that I don’t know discuss their video game strategies can vary from fascinating to mildly entertaining to flat out boring. Unfortunately, when it comes to fighting games in general, gonna have to go with boring.
Next we have that other guy I mentioned before, Marn. Remember how Capcom had their reasons for not letting the press get their hands on Super? Well, it’s clearly not done yet, but game journalists often like to ignore such important facts as they’re rushing to be the first to file the “OMG THIS GAME IS SH*T” headline, in hopes that it gets fanboys yelling and screaming, as well as their story passed around of course. So I can personally appreciate the want to avoid such a headache… hence why I suppose it’s a bit funny how, after all that being said and done, they still got a video like that. Just saying!
EDIT: According to Brian Crecente’s report, there was apparently a thousand people in line! Insane. And of course, he also fails to mention that the big K was the reason why things were somewhat of a clusterf*ck, let alone any details alluding to one in the first place. lulz. Then again, there’s far more important things to harp on Kotaku about, but that’s perhaps for another time…
I guess that’s it… oh, and don’t forget, this weekend is the Doomsday Film Festival, where both myself and Hilary will be talking about apocalyptic video games and comics. Come check it out!
