I'm under 10 games away from completing 52 games this year. For whatever reason, this has been a very challenging year to reach the 52 games goal. However, with the extra hour afforded to me by the end of daylight savings time I decided to play some a fighting game that's been on my backlog for a while, as well as another fighting game I played to wash the shitty taste of the first game out of my mouth lol.
45. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (PS1)
As I said above, this game has been a longtime resident of my gaming backlog. I knew before playing Wild Ambition that is was looked on as one of the least favorable titles in the Fatal Fury series. Still, I like to form my own opinion, however, this didn't end up being one of those situations where my opinion on a game strayed from the majority. Wild Ambition, like many 2D fighting franchises that decided to make a 3D entry in the late 90s, is not a great game, in fact, it's kinda bad. The gameplay is very cumbersome and clunky, and just feels slow. There are also some egregious balancing issues, most notably how the game goes from very easy to very hard by the time you reach your third opponent in Arcade mode. There is also a side step mechanic which is how it takes advantage of taking place on a 3D plane, and it's not implemented particularly well, nor did it lend itself to making the game more dynamic and fun. Other than maybe the first Fatal Fury game, this one has maybe the most annoying gameplay in the franchise. Visuals were not much better. I will say the 3D models for the characters were pretty well done, each stage takes place against a fairly blurry looking background with buildings, people, and other objects that look very out of place with the 3D elements. There have been 3D fighting games that have done this much better, for example the Street Fighter EX games, but Wild Ambition's are just ugly and jarring. The audio is a slight improvement, but overall its fairly forgettable and does little to enhance your enjoyment of the game. Unfortunately, Wild Ambition will go down as one of the worst fighting games I've ever played, and one I'd tell anyone else to avoid if they were looking for games in the Fatal Frame franchise to play. (11/5/23) [23/50]
46. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (PS1)
I am very familiar with Street Fighter Alpha 3, however I'm less familiar with its PS1 port despite having owned it for many years now. It's definitely an inferior version, mostly as a result of its frequent loading screens which are mostly not present in the Dreamcast version, but other than that, the gameplay and everything else is there to fully enjoy what's become one of my all time favorite fighting games. Alpha 3's gameplay, presentation, audio, and everything else about it are stellar, and every time I play Alpha 3 I'm immediately reminded why I adore late 90s arcade games so much. Alpha 3 might be my favorite Street Fighter game of all time given how insanely addictive and nostalgia inducing this game is. I hadn't played through Alpha 3 in a couple of years, and i ended up not jus beating it once with Ryo, but again with Akuma. It's just that enjoyable! (11/5/23) [42/50]