I took my time doing it, but I’ve now unlocked all of the characters in Street Fighter IV other than the (very difficult to unlock) three bosses. I’m glad to have done so, because two of my favorite characters in the game were initially locked: Fei Long and Rose. But here’s my take on each of the six unlockable characters in Street Fighter 4.

Gen can be really fun to play, because he’s got so damn many moves. But that also makes him really hard to play. A lot of his crane style moves border on useless because they’re so slow, do so little damage, and hit in such odd ways. Switching styles to quickly react to an attack is almost a non-option because it takes so long. I like Gen, but aside from Rufus, he’s probably the character in the game I’m worst with.

On the other hand, playing Fei Long again was like putting on an old comfortable pair of shoes. He plays pretty much just the same as he did in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, except his fwd-fierce kick has changed, and he’s gotten that weird chicken wing kick. As soon as I unlocked him, I picked up the character and started playing without much of any practice. I heart Fei Long. The flip-over-your-enemy setup is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

Sakura has never been one of my favorites. Her special moves – especially the EX versions – make her a force to be reckoned with when played by a player who knows what he’s doing. But personally, I don’t love her.

Dan can be very fun to play. He’s the weakest character in the game. His fireball only goes a couple inches, and it’s pretty amazing how much slower some of his basic moves are as compared to Ken and Ryu. But he’s Dan. He’s supposed to be this way. If you’re used to playing Ken or Ryu and you’re playing against someone who’s not as skilled at the game as you, consider playing Dan. That’s what he’s there for.

Rose is another character that I absolutely love. She’s stronger than I remember from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and she’s got incredible range. I’m still finding reflecting fireballs to be very tricky, but some of her combos are very easy and her ultra does tons of damage. It’s safe to say that I’ll be using Rose quite a lot in online matches in the future.

Cammy is another character I couldn’t care much less about. That cannon drill pisses me off when I’m fighting against her, but I have a lot of trouble using it well when I’m playing her. I guess I just don’t care enough to practice with Cammy. She seems largely geared towards adolescent males who enjoy crotch-angle bathing suit shots.

And that wraps up my reviews of the major characters in Street Fighter. Not sure if I’ll ever unlock Akuma, Gouken, or Seth, but if I do, you’ll hear about it here.

When I think of the best levels in the best video games I’ve ever played, one of the first that comes to mind is the Shalebridge Cradle level from Thief: Deadly Shadows. You’ve got to play through 80% of the game before you’ll see the game’s penultimate level, but it’s worth it. I’ve seen some fairly well done haunted houses in video games – the one in Vampire: Bloodlines comes to mind – but it’s nothing compared to the Shalebridge Cradle.

The Shalebridge Cradle began as an orphanage, and later became an insane asylum. Think of John Cusack’s 1408, with a little bit of The Shining, and some Thirteen Ghosts thrown in for flavor. That will get you halfway there.

I don’t have the writing acumen to accurately describe how well-designed The Shalebridge Cradle truly is. But in March 2005, PC Gamer Magazine wrote a ten-page article about it. A single level of a single game. Ten pages. And the article (pdf) should give you a good feel for what I’m trying to convey in my sonnet.

And now, my ode to the Shalebridge Cradle

Behind a rusted gate it looms immense
A sinister abandoned old estate
My heart feels crushed as if beneath a weight
As I peer up at stark malevolence

With heightened pulse I slowly step inside
And wait in vain for crushing fear to pass
Beneath The Cradle’s black foreboding mass
I feel my trepidations amplified

Forsaken children once wandered these halls
Mingling with the criminally insane
The wrongness of thy history brings pain
But gems and silver treasure herein calls

So long I’ve been the monster in the night
Crouched in shadow, knife or club in hand
Yet these inhuman puppets you command
Fill even this monster’s soul with fright

Evil resides within these halls malign
Canst be no shadows deadlier than thine

The good folks at Gearbox software have begun a new web series to virally promote their new game Borderlands. This is actually pretty damn funny.

Playing Thief: Deadly Shadows recently, I was struck by how well the game would work with achievements. The game practically screams for them. In each mission, you can select from four difficulty levels, and in addition to increasing enemies’ perception and lowering your own resistance to damage, the higher difficulties will require you to collect a higher percentage of the level’s loot. If you start the level on “Expert”, as I have, you need to collect at least 90% of the loot. The catch is that if you reach the end of the level before you realize that you’ve only got 86% of the loot, your only choice is to retrace your steps through the level, looking for at least 4% that you’ve missed. On certain levels, it’s actually impossible to go back. You can see the problem.

How much better would this be were there an achievement (or bronze trophy) for each level if you got 90% of the loot, and a different achievement (silver trophy) for getting 100% of the loot? Now, not only is the achievement tiered, it also doesn’t prevent you from completing the level should you end up short at the level’s end.

Creating achievements for a thief game would be amazingly easy. Complete the game without harming any noncombatants. Complete a level without being detected. Shoot moss arrows into every pagan cornerstone. Steal 50,000 gold coins worth of loot. Complete every mission on expert difficulty (I’d be getting that one. Guess I don’t suck quite so badly at games as I’d thought) Although the game was released before the existance of achievements, it seems to be designed with them in mind. I guess achievements are here to stay.

Similarly, I’m playing an import version of Prototype that’s unable to log into GFW Live. Normally, this game does have achievements, but I can’t get at them. Since there’s no way I’ll be manually keeping track of how many infected I kill or how many vehicles I destroy, I can just forget about achievements entirely. I’ll still enjoy trying to get gold on every challenge, but there’ll be no record. It’s really odd that such a thing should even matter to me.

Here’s an IGN preview for a game that I’m getting more and more excited about. I love the cell-shaded look, I love the RPG elements which should hopefully make the shooter part less difficult as I progress in levels, and I love the notion of drop-in drop-out multiplayer.

In Upgrade Complete, you’ve got to upgrade everything in order to get it: the graphics, the music, the title screen, even the game itself. While the game portion is only mediocre, you’re not with it long enough to get bored, because the upgrade system is the bulk of the game. Oh, and it’s got the best ending screen ever.

Yes – you read right. I played for 82,257 seconds. That’s nearly 24 hours. Yeah, I went to work and left the game running cause I hadn’t upgraded enough to save the game yet.

Play Upgrade Complete

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

It’s an old game, and there have been many sequels, but I still really love the original Katamari Damacy despite the fact that I’ve never managed to complete the game.

Katamari Damacy has the same kind of simple addictive qualities as Pac Man. But instead of dodging ghosts, you’re racing against a time limit. Perhaps if I’d managed to perfect that dash move, I’d be able to get past the level that’s stymied me for years.

In preparation for the release of Muramasa: The Demon Blade next Tuesday, I bring to you now some trailers, courtesy of G4.

Lots of times, people look down on casual games as if they’re a lesser animal. Peggle could never be as good as World of Warcraft. Bejeweled can’t hold a candle to Killzone 2. But I find that sometimes I’m not in the mood to play the in-depth games. There are times when I’d rather play Bookworm Adventures than Street Fighter 4. Either because I’ve only got 15 minutes, or because I’m just feeling more lighthearted about what I want to play.

Casual games have certainly found themselves a place not only with casual gamers, but also with those of us who tend to play more hardcore games. Sometimes you just want a break. That’s why I purchased the PS3 version of Zuma. That’s why I enjoy popping over to Fairway Solitaire or Hexxagon when I’ve got ten minutes to kill. Even games like Plants vs Zombies or Pixeljunk Monsters have a somewhat casual feel to them when I’m not struggling to get an achievement or trophy.

Popcap is currently one of the biggest and highest profile of casual games manufacturers. With games like Peggle, Bejeweled, Zuma, and this year’s big hit Plants vs Zombies, I’ve been thinking about how well their games would work on the Wii, which has a traditionally casual crowd of players. Either as discs or as downloadable WiiWare titles, games like Peggle and Zuma would work perfectly on the Wii.

Although the version of Okami I played was a Wii remake of the Playstation 2 game, I loved it. It was not only the best-looking Wii game I’ve ever seen, it was potentially the best-looking videogame I’ve ever seen. This is because the designers didn’t shoot for photorealism, instead opting for a beautiful hand drawn style.

Now, Kotaku reports that they’re putting together a sequel for the Nintendo DS. It’s called Okamiden, and it should be released in 2010. I’m all over this one.