There was an update for Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix, a game notable–if for nothing else–for having an exhaustively long name. Not that this post has anything to do with that, it’s just that, damn, it’s a long name.

So, as those reading this who’ve been my friends for a very long time know already, I use to be a huge fan of fighting games. During the Dreamcast era 2D fighters were among my most played genre.  To this day I can’t escape a certain passion for King of Fighters character drama. Now that everyone’s up to speed, you may find it strange that I’ve never been too fond of the Street Fighter series. When the title was first released I was far more interested in playing Samurai Shodown, or Mortal Kombat (hey, it was cooler then). Even my friends were far more interested in these games than SF2, which caused me to naturally avoid the game.

Over time I eventually fell into place with Street Fighter when SF3 was released. I was a huge fan of the SF3 series, and to a very small extent even attempted to learn how to play Ken and Mokoto at a competetive level. I had a friend in New Orleans who helped me try to get up to speed with other competators so that I would at least be able to place somewhere above last. Long story short: that never happen.

Since that time I’ve fallen further and further from my fighting game roots. This had to do with a combination of things, first was the decline of the arcade. The few remaining ones in my area started shutting down until only one remained (which was constantly filled with High School freshman dropped off by there parents with no money and greasy hair). Shortly after that Hurricane Katrina shut down that last one, which also caused me to relocate to an area that had no arcades that I could find. Moving around a lot causes a man to lose touch with many of their friends, and also to try less and less finding new ones.

So here I am, 8 years after the peak of my fighting game salad days, back in the same general part of the country and without nearly any friends… again. I’ve wanted to pick up Street Fighter IV since its release any yet any motivation to do so goes out the window the instant I remember that there’s no one to play against. Getting back to that patch for the game: I did pick up SF2:Long Name for the PS3 because I don’t have to pay monthly to play online. Because Sony doesn’t even have a mildly respectable online framework, a patch requires me to slowly and painfully download the entire game over again. During that time I devised a plan.

 The Plan

So, here it is. Because SF2:LN actually has decent netcode and I can play versus real people online I’ve decided to attempt to regain any skill I use to have at fighting games and perhaps even grow in strength. Since the game patched I’ve had a chance to play and fought two opponent. Both games went three bouts, all of which I lost. Currently I’m working on my Cammy skills because she has a quick and frantic style which matches my play type.  Today’s discovery: I found that there’s a followup attack to her qcf+P attack! This should help my arsenal.