It's what makes a game worth It's asking price.

So. I'm a fan. Yes, a FAN. A fan of a certain series that people shit on because of it's narrative, characters, and generally what it stands for. Yes, Naruto. This series is pretty much the forefront of the manga/anime surge that hit the west within the last 10 years, and I tell you what. I LOVE IT. But I digress back to the point I'm trying to make in this quaint lil article of mine. I recently read a review of the latest game to come from the Naruto series. Naruto Shippuden ultimate ninja Storm 2, or: Naruto [insert cool words here] 2. Oh dear. The review was positive, sure, it garnered a respectable 8 out of 10, which I'm glad to hear of course, but it was the reason it was marked down that caught my attention. A reason thats been widespread in reviews recently within the genre of fighting games...


The game was marked down for the fact that players had to UNLOCK CHARACTERS BY PLAYING THE GAME! I mean... Come on! What's the bad part of that? If the whole game were at my fingertips upon starting it up, I'd test each character out, pick one that looked cool and stick with them for the rest of my time with the game because I simply don't want to trawl through 40 or 50 characters to find one that suits me. The unlocking technique is far more fitting, as characters are slowly being introduced to me throughout my time with the game. So I can gradually look at what character does what and work them into my play-style if need be. This is a far better way to introduce the character roster to players, especially these days when many fighting series are reaching their 5th or 6th rendition and include umpteen bazillion characters with very little distinction between them, and let them all loose on you from the off. Take Tekken 6 for example. Sure, it has an impressive 40 odd character roster, but they all look the same, and most have some very similar attributes, I found myself gravitated to Kuma because he was a friggin bear in a sea of old men and 14 year old girls with DD's bounding around their chests. Had that game started with 8 characters and slowly introduced characters like... Well, more characters, perhaps I would have remembered some of them. I mean, not many people are going to remember past old favorites like Jin, Heihachi and Nina.

The point I'm trying to make here is that the process of unlocking characters is what makes a fighting game last, you're always adding to your roster, and with that, your skill-set. In fact, it's what makes a fighting game worth the money, there's more to play for to unlock everything, and i don't mean that image gallery bullshit. There isn't many people who strive to unlock that last picture in the concept art gallery, but say you'll give them a character that turns into a penguin and BY GOD they'll keep playing.

-Serde

Image credit: www.gamesradar.com,www.ps3chat.com respectively