The Video Game Critic

So, I don't know how many people here watched any of the Evo fighting games tournament, but I watched hours of it this weekend (IGN streamed it and has a huge pile of it archieved). And hours later I was left feeling better about games than I have after any other large event I've followed in years.

Where E3 is about the future, Evo is about wringing every drop out of games that already exist. Sure there were previews for the new installments, but there was a huge tournament for Melee, a 13 year old Gamecube title. There was an incredibly high end tournament for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, the arcade game! If you want to see crazy play, check out the replays of SSF2.

It strikes me that all fighting game fans (for all their super, hyper, turbo, upgrades) are retro gamers. They've mostly followed series for years, and as a result see old games as not worse, but just different. Some of the guys winning in King of Fighters 13 for example are also top of the ranks in the Neo Geo ones, and I even saw second place from KOF13 playing real high level SF2.

I suggest anyone feeling a little burned out by games (and the console wars stuff) check out some highlights from Evo (specifically watching RG Snake Eyez playing Zangief in SF4 is fun) and remember that you're not the only one who still just loves games that you can already play.

I love Evo, but I only watch for Melee. The tournament was really intense but Mango really deserved to win. Great matches. His Fox is insane.

[QUOTE=Rev]I love Evo, but I only watch for Melee. The tournament was really intense but Mango really deserved to win. Great matches. His Fox is insane.[/QUOTE]
The one thing watching Evo really taught me is how few really good characters are in any fighting game.  I always liked it when someone was doing well with a poorly ranked character.  In Smash it's just a pile of Fox, Falco, Marth, and Shiek.  That's why I liked Snake Eyez in the Street Fighter one, as Zangief is pretty specifically only for a select group of players at that level. I did see some high level Pikachu playing at least (he's ranked pretty low in Melee apparently). 

I watched a ton of Evo footage the last two years (along with footage from UFGT, aka the Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament, which sadly will not be continued next year), but I have only intermittent internet access now so I haven't been able to watch anything yet (I still have no idea who won anything). Super Street Fighter 4 was the only game I cared about in the beginning, but I've since gone back and watched quite a few other games (Marvel vs Capcom 3, King of Fighters XIII, Mortal Kombat, Divekick and Skullgirls). I've tried to watch Melee, but I just don't understand it well enough yet to appreciate it. One of my favorite tournaments to watch is the random tournament from UFGT; every round is a random fighting game, usually on an entirely different console, and they deliberately pick the most obscure (and often terrible) games they can. Hopefully next year I can have some FIOS-level internet and a stockpile of food and drink so I can just blow a whole weekend watching Evo.