Tiger? TIGER!

Ever since Street Fighter IV hit the home console scene I've had something of a love/hate relationship going on with it. I love the game to bits, don't get me wrong, but the online play and more specifically the online players drive me to distraction.

For a long while it was endless Ken spam, and it grew very very tiresome, to the point I gave up Ranked play and just messed around in Player matches. Things here were much better, with a greater variety of players enjoying actually PLAYING, rather than just picking a character they can spam high priority and powerful moves out of.

Then the Championship pack appeared, and warily, I dipped Chun-Li's delicate virtual toes in the online pool. Things were good - the new double blind character select stopped people picking JUST to counter you, and ended the pointless "you pick first" mentality that 80% of players seem to have online. Character variety was good, with a lot of different characters finally getting some use. It couldn't last though...

Within a week a new and insidious tactic had emerged - Sagat spam. With nearly every other match being against a Sagat, it didn't take long for his shit to get soooo tired. The fucker is super powerful, with a ludicrous priority on his Tiger Knee and Tiger Uppercut, and coupled with his high/low Tiger Shots, he soon becomes an utter pain in the arse. Not because he's particularly difficult to get round with these tactics, but because it's as boring as fuck. YES IT IS.

Add in an easily combo'd HUGELY powerful Ultra attack, and christ almighty, everyone is suddenly a Sagat convert. Lame. I enjoy winning, but I won't pick a character JUST to win. I'm sure there's plenty of long time Sagat players out there, and there are also plenty of damn fine Sagat players, but unfortunately at the moment he just looks like the spam chara of choice. Even my wife laughs when she sees yet another Sagat appear in Championship mode.

So, I took a week off, as it was starting to really really get on my nerves, and things have slightly improved. There's still a fuckton of Sagat's giving it the old Tiger? Tiger! treatment, but there's plenty of other stuff mixed in there as well. Shame most of it's Akuma, Ryu and Ken, but whatever. I've finally had some Chun vs Chun matches, Sakura pops up occasionally, and I'm starting to develop a decent game agasint Vega/Balrog/Guile, who I never got to fight before.

So after a break away going cold turkey, I'm back and more hooked than ever. Despite the anger, despite the infuriation, despite the endless cries of "TIGER", I'm still playing, still battling away, still going for "Just one more bout" before dinner/the dishes/work/bedtime.

I just can't quit Street Fighter IV. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could step away. It's easily the best game of this generation, and it's got me by the balls.

Ouch.