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Street Blitz, Buster Blitz 2011
13 years ago
For the last part of the Buster Blitz Journal series, look at this link: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2065589/
Street Blitz
(Arcade 1995, Sega Saturn 1995, Playstation 1996)
The Buster Blitz team decided to try something different with their next foray into the Buster Blitz franchise, as much of their staff has been replaced with the goal of revitalizing the franchise. Sadly, this attempt at revitalization was poorly received for a good reason.
The game would have been a standard fighting game, a 3d take on the team mechanics of the popular King of Fighters franchise, but the controls often lagged and the character designs lacked appeal for most folks, being blockier than the original Virtua Fighter in an age where Tekken proved you can do 3d smoothly. The storyline also did not help, as it put an end to any humor from the series in favor of something darker and edgier.
After the apparent death of Doctor Muton, humanity rose up and began to kill off any mutants they could get their hands on. (How, if they were powerless before?) Any surviving mutants, including the Busters, were forced underground in order to survive. (That's how grateful humanity is? That they'd be willing to kill their saviors? What is this, the Marvel Universe?) One man had the idea of a way to bring out the hiding mutants for extermination: By holding a tournament. (How does that make sense?) Eight “gangs” (just to be edgy) fell for this ploy and are now forced to fight to the death. (Well, they're already ripping poorly off of Virtua Fighter and King of Fighters, so why not do a poor rip off of Mortal Kombat while we're at it.)
Street Blitz even phoned in the finishing moves, even though one could perform one at the end of the round, making them three times more common than any previously released fighting game that boasted them. They were all completely unoriginal, and suffered from a lot of cutting and pasting, with 24 characters sharing from a pool of about 10 fatalities total. Japanese releases dummied out that feature as it was not as fashionable in that country.
Overall, Street Blitz was an under-performer and the black sheep of the Buster Blitz Franchise. It was also perceived as it's death for a long time.
America Buys The Busters
Following the disaster known as Street Blitz, it was acknowledged by the Buster Blitz team that the franchise has run out of life. The team has disbanded to work on other projects, but the head of the team, Toshiro Sato, still held the legal rights to the franchise, only to have forgotten about it until 2008 when his lawyer received a phone call from an American game developer who was looking to do a reboot of the franchise. Mr. Sato was informed and sold the rights in exchange for a fair chunk of money and a role as a consultant in the game's reboot. This lead to the creation of the game known as Buster Blitz 2011.
Buster Blitz
(Also known informally as “Buster Blitz 2011.” Playstation 3 2011, Xbox 360 2011, Nintendo Wii 2011).
Heralded as a true return to form, this game was a reboot of the Buster Blitz franchise after 15 years of not seeing any use. This was an American production, with the Japanese creators serving as consultant executives. The story was an expanded reproduction of the first game, with extended backstory following Professor Gene and Doctor Muton, with occasional levels where the perspective would flip and players took control of villains instead of the heroes.
The game itself maintained the humor that got the original game its fans and even went for a feel not unlike a cartoon in terms of what kinds of gags they would throw in, which had a tendency to get rather jarring now and then when combined with realistic graphics. They did not actively exploit toon physics, but there was plenty of fun had with the fourth wall during cut scenes and especially during gameplay tutorials.
As far as gameplay was concerned, it was a one player affair where a second or third player could join in at any time by plugging in a controller and pressing start. Players could swap around characters during the game in a manner not unlike the Lego Star Wars games. Having all three players present also made Pack Attacks (from the second game) possible with any two characters although many critics have decried the game's controls as being a bit on the shallow side, but just as many critics have mentioned this as a good thing in a game where you want to shut off your brain and mash buttons.
Whether or not the Buster Blitz series will continue from this game or not is still up in the air, but the title itself does include unlockable ports of the first three arcade games as bonuses for beating the game once, twice, and three times respectively. Though Street Blitz has been deliberately left out at the insistence of the game's developers.
Game InfoStreet Blitz
(Arcade 1995, Sega Saturn 1995, Playstation 1996)
The Buster Blitz team decided to try something different with their next foray into the Buster Blitz franchise, as much of their staff has been replaced with the goal of revitalizing the franchise. Sadly, this attempt at revitalization was poorly received for a good reason.
The game would have been a standard fighting game, a 3d take on the team mechanics of the popular King of Fighters franchise, but the controls often lagged and the character designs lacked appeal for most folks, being blockier than the original Virtua Fighter in an age where Tekken proved you can do 3d smoothly. The storyline also did not help, as it put an end to any humor from the series in favor of something darker and edgier.
After the apparent death of Doctor Muton, humanity rose up and began to kill off any mutants they could get their hands on. (How, if they were powerless before?) Any surviving mutants, including the Busters, were forced underground in order to survive. (That's how grateful humanity is? That they'd be willing to kill their saviors? What is this, the Marvel Universe?) One man had the idea of a way to bring out the hiding mutants for extermination: By holding a tournament. (How does that make sense?) Eight “gangs” (just to be edgy) fell for this ploy and are now forced to fight to the death. (Well, they're already ripping poorly off of Virtua Fighter and King of Fighters, so why not do a poor rip off of Mortal Kombat while we're at it.)
Street Blitz even phoned in the finishing moves, even though one could perform one at the end of the round, making them three times more common than any previously released fighting game that boasted them. They were all completely unoriginal, and suffered from a lot of cutting and pasting, with 24 characters sharing from a pool of about 10 fatalities total. Japanese releases dummied out that feature as it was not as fashionable in that country.
Overall, Street Blitz was an under-performer and the black sheep of the Buster Blitz Franchise. It was also perceived as it's death for a long time.
Fandom HistoryAmerica Buys The Busters
Following the disaster known as Street Blitz, it was acknowledged by the Buster Blitz team that the franchise has run out of life. The team has disbanded to work on other projects, but the head of the team, Toshiro Sato, still held the legal rights to the franchise, only to have forgotten about it until 2008 when his lawyer received a phone call from an American game developer who was looking to do a reboot of the franchise. Mr. Sato was informed and sold the rights in exchange for a fair chunk of money and a role as a consultant in the game's reboot. This lead to the creation of the game known as Buster Blitz 2011.
Game Info 2Buster Blitz
(Also known informally as “Buster Blitz 2011.” Playstation 3 2011, Xbox 360 2011, Nintendo Wii 2011).
Heralded as a true return to form, this game was a reboot of the Buster Blitz franchise after 15 years of not seeing any use. This was an American production, with the Japanese creators serving as consultant executives. The story was an expanded reproduction of the first game, with extended backstory following Professor Gene and Doctor Muton, with occasional levels where the perspective would flip and players took control of villains instead of the heroes.
The game itself maintained the humor that got the original game its fans and even went for a feel not unlike a cartoon in terms of what kinds of gags they would throw in, which had a tendency to get rather jarring now and then when combined with realistic graphics. They did not actively exploit toon physics, but there was plenty of fun had with the fourth wall during cut scenes and especially during gameplay tutorials.
As far as gameplay was concerned, it was a one player affair where a second or third player could join in at any time by plugging in a controller and pressing start. Players could swap around characters during the game in a manner not unlike the Lego Star Wars games. Having all three players present also made Pack Attacks (from the second game) possible with any two characters although many critics have decried the game's controls as being a bit on the shallow side, but just as many critics have mentioned this as a good thing in a game where you want to shut off your brain and mash buttons.
Whether or not the Buster Blitz series will continue from this game or not is still up in the air, but the title itself does include unlockable ports of the first three arcade games as bonuses for beating the game once, twice, and three times respectively. Though Street Blitz has been deliberately left out at the insistence of the game's developers.
