Here's something that I didn't mention in this episode: The background here is clearly New York City. If a player scoots backward enough that the camera moves, which isn't that hard since players naturally want added distance from the thrown basketballs for more time to parry, they can see the Empire State Building in the upper left corner. It's pretty easily missed, actually. Your eyes don't shoot right up there when Sean is tossing balls at you. Sean has some sort of relationship with NYC, though. His stage in New Generation is set there, and there seems to be some sort of background as to why in NG's Gamest Mook strategy guide. Sadly, though, it's all in Japanese, and outside of the katakana, there's only so much I can glean from it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first Bonus Stage episode. As we worm our way through the rest of the cast, we'll have another one right before we hit Ken (it will probably be obvious what that's going to be about sooner or later). Some inside dope- I actually tried to do more clever things with the editing in this one, but it didn't exactly work out, which is why some of the characters repeat. Not worth getting into what that was going to be, but it was a learning experience. For the clips on the right side of the page, and I don't know why I feel I need to apologize for this, but I was stuck using the record-able training footage from the SF 30th Anniversary Collection. For some reason, I couldn't get a second controller to work the other day when I was trying to do some little things (and my poor wife was even willing to help out. Very game of her), which is why you see the little "play" icons and stuff on the lower right side of a lot the side windows. I find that hideous. Sometimes, though, you just have to suck it up.
I probably should have also included some footage of really amazing parries, but I figured you can probably find a lot of that on the internet. For something to start with, here's a stone cold classic. There are more out there, just do a quick search after you're done watching my video and nagging all of your friends to do the same thing.
Lastly, for those that don't know the game very well, it probably sounds stupid that I called the blocking parry a "red" parry based on the footage in the side window. The thing is, a character flashes red when this parry happens, and this often doesn't come across in game footage running at 30fps, which this video series is. If you look for more parry footage on YouTube you'll find that this is a constant, but by no means egregious, problem. Just trust me, though, that if you're learning the game you've probably already stumbled into a red parry and maybe didn't know why. You're welcome!
Thanks again for watching!
