{"id":23,"date":"2007-08-25T08:45:31","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T21:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/?p=23"},"modified":"2007-10-30T02:31:47","modified_gmt":"2007-10-29T15:31:47","slug":"super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-hd-remix-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/2007\/08\/super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-hd-remix-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first impres\u00adsions of the SSFII remix came from pho\u00adtographs of a Cap\u00adcom pre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion<\/a> back in April. Wow! Ryu looks real\u00adly good, even if they did mod\u00adi\u00adfy his face to be more ani\u00adme\/S\u00adFAl\u00adpha-like.<\/p>\n

Ken\u2019s first sprite release was the icon\u00adic fire\u00adball pose. I thought it was decent enough, but the arms need\u00aded some work\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmore like rope than muscles\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand his thumbs gained an extra joint or two.<\/p>\n

Aku\u00adma<\/a> took the mus\u00adcled look a bit too far, but the style was still impres\u00adsive. I\u2019m not sure what the deal is with the flat blad\u00aded elbows, but I was\u00adn\u2019t very fond of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal SSFII Aku\u00adma sprite and this was an over\u00adall improvement.<\/p>\n

Guile<\/a> was\u00adn\u2019t so crash hot. It was our first hint that not all Udon artists are cre\u00adat\u00aded equal\u00adly. Dark spots for eyes, sim\u00adplis\u00adtic shad\u00ading and hor\u00adri\u00adbly<\/strong> inac\u00adcu\u00adrate mus\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adture. His face did\u00adn\u2019t quite fit either, and the age-old sprite-mir\u00adror prob\u00adlem was par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly evi\u00addent with the flags on his arms.<\/p>\n

A re-imag\u00adin\u00ading of Chun Li\u2019s defeat-screen ani\u00adma\u00adtion<\/a> came next. I want\u00aded to like it, but the nag\u00adging voice insist\u00aded there was some\u00adthing wrong. Some\u00adone in the blog com\u00adments point\u00aded out that she was sniff\u00ading her hand more than dab\u00adbing her tears. Fol\u00adlow that with a com\u00adpar\u00adi\u00adson shot of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal ani\u00adma\u00adtion (with com\u00adplete\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent facial pro\u00adpor\u00adtions) and a com\u00adment men\u00adtion\u00ading bukakke and that was it for Chun Li\u2019s new animation.<\/p>\n

T\u2011Hawk<\/a>, a char\u00adac\u00adter I\u2019ve nev\u00ader been com\u00adplete\u00adly con\u00advinced about. There was a lot of dis\u00adcus\u00adsion on his first frame release. Every\u00adthing was hap\u00adpy-la-la until some\u00adone realised his head had been trans\u00adplant\u00aded from anoth\u00ader artist\u2019s work drawn years ago. It\u2019s fine to be inspired from oth\u00ader artists; past\u00ading parts direct\u00adly on and then chang\u00ading half the sprite in order for it to fit decent\u00adly is anoth\u00ader thing. There are plen\u00adty of things wrong with this sprite that the new detail-work can\u2019t cov\u00ader up, includ\u00ading an unnat\u00adur\u00adal upper-body twist, a head that\u2019s not scaled cor\u00adrect\u00adly, and shoul\u00adder and head posi\u00adtions that don\u2019t reflect any of T\u2011Hawk\u2019s orig\u00adi\u00adnal impos\u00ading posture.<\/p>\n

Splayed through\u00adout the blog posts on the site are my crit\u00adi\u00adcisms, ques\u00adtions and sug\u00adges\u00adtions. I tried to avoid the \u201cmon\u00adkey fling\u00ading poo\u201d style of com\u00adment\u00ading so pop\u00adu\u00adlar on the blog (while cring\u00ading at the unwar\u00adrant\u00aded fan\u00adboy arse-kiss\u00ading). Through the com\u00adment shit\u00adstorm many rea\u00adson\u00adable ques\u00adtions did\u00adn\u2019t get answered, but the prag\u00admat\u00adic part of me under\u00adstands a con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive man\u00adage\u00admen\u00adt\u2019s unwill\u00ading\u00adness to give one per\u00adson the reins to a title\u2019s mar\u00adket\u00ading, espe\u00adcial\u00adly in the direct com\u00adpa\u00adny of the great unwashed.<\/p>\n

After the T\u2011Hawk deba\u00adcle Bri\u00adan (the poor guy shoul\u00addered with the blog) focussed on Super Puz\u00adzle Fight\u00ader II X HD Remix for a while (which comes with its own col\u00adlec\u00adtion of low devel\u00adop\u00adment bud\u00adget issues). Many, like me, were hop\u00ading for a re-post of updat\u00aded char\u00adac\u00adters now that we\u2019d made our opin\u00adions known. Instead, after weeks of wait\u00ading, we got this:<\/p>\n

\"Balrog's<\/a><\/p>\n

Com\u00adpare to the orig\u00adi\u00adnal SSFIIT stage:<\/p>\n

\"Balrog\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/p>\n

Or even bet\u00adter yet, the orig\u00adi\u00adnal dark\u00ader SFIIT version:<\/p>\n

\"Balrog\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/p>\n

Style-wise, the last one is the best of the lot. There\u2019s a visu\u00adal rich\u00adness that was lost with the SSFIIT change, and the new hires ver\u00adsion takes even more away with flat, washed-out colours (too much mid\u00adtone) and poor light\u00ading (way<\/strong> too much bloom). There\u2019s scal\u00ading prob\u00adlems (that must be an extreme\u00adly short or under\u00adage gener\u00adic biki\u00adni-clad girl) and the back\u00adground char\u00adac\u00adters are drawn so blunt\u00adly that they look like extras from a low-bud\u00adget Nick\u00adelodeon cartoon.<\/p>\n

Apart from the styl\u00adis\u00adtic changes which I dis\u00adlike, the increased detail and over\u00adall bright\u00adness intro\u00adduce a lev\u00adel of visu\u00adal noise that could make stages such as this dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to play on. Halfway down the blog a help\u00adful chap named Coy\u00adote links a pho\u00adto\u00adshop mock\u00adup he put togeth\u00ader using the back\u00adground and pro\u00adto\u00adtype sprites:<\/p>\n

\"Mockup<\/a><\/p>\n

Not jump\u00ading to con\u00adclu\u00adsions based on an unof\u00adfi\u00adcial mock\u00adup, but if that\u2019s a rough indi\u00adca\u00adtion of what the final game will look like, then either the back\u00adground detail will need ton\u00ading down or a stronger colour con\u00adtrast between fore\u00adground and back\u00adground must be introduced.<\/p>\n

Got\u00adta go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first impres\u00adsions of the SSFII remix came from pho\u00adtographs of a Cap\u00adcom pre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion back in April. Wow! Ryu looks real\u00adly good, even if they did mod\u00adi\u00adfy his face to be more ani\u00adme\/S\u00ad\u00adFAl\u00adpha-like. Ken\u2019s first sprite release was the icon\u00adic fire\u00adball pose. I thought it was decent enough, but the arms need\u00aded some work\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmore like [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}