Tales from the Vault: X-men vs Street Fighter

Posted by on Jul 25, 2010 in Blogs, Tales from the Vault | 3 comments

My husband and I were having a talk just the other day about our gaming past together, and one of the games to come up was X-men vs Street Fighter. This game has both a beautiful and sore spot in the history of our gaming marriage. It set a sort of precedent, if you will, as to how he and I play fighting games together. In fact, that’s probably why we don’t play fighting games together anymore.

It was around late 1998, well before Dan and I were married, that the Sega Saturn held the place of honor in our home. Any importer knew that the Saturn was the machine to have if you loved fighting games and didn’t care about importing them. X-men vs Street Fighter played perfectly on the Saturn, where on the PlayStation, you couldn’t swap characters out and it played with tremendous lag. Even better, as there were two of us, two controllers, and versus play, it seemed like it’d be a great game for us.

There was one thing I hadn’t factored on. Dan was better at it than I was.

He would win. And win. And win. So I had to resort to dirty tricks, and by this, I mean using Cammy. It was perfect. Dan hates Cammy! I love Cammy! I’m actually good with her bizarre combos! How could I fail? Even better, pair her with someone like Gambit or Sabertooth, and victory is assured! All of this went through my head as I moved the cursor over to Cammy and selected her. Hearing the annoyed complaints of my then-fiancé  affirmed the correctness of my selection.

He still beat me.

Even though he won, I had a lot more fun by laying on the annoyance factor. See, back in those days, I was a lot more of a sore loser than I am today, and I would be quite upset (to put it mildly) with my man. Being very much the young buck in those days, Dan would have to gloat and display his manly pride like the puffed feathers of a male turkey. Using Cammy was the great emotional equalizer. Instead of leaving me sore at my gloating domestic partner, it left me feeling a bit better that I could make a little jab. And yes, I did win a few games against him with Cammy, which helped soothe my sore pride.

Now that Dan and I are a good bit older and (hopefully) more mature, we look back on those days and laugh, though Dan insists my choice of Cammy didn’t irritate him nearly as bad as I remember. He’ll tease me from time to time and ask me if I want to play, to which I give him an emphatic NO, but I can’t help smiling to myself. Yes, it’s a video game, but the memories attached to it are, in my opinion, one of the building blocks in our successful marriage.

For the record, I’m better at Tekken 3 than Dan is.

About Jamie


Jamie DeVriend is a multi-format geek. She loves video games new and old, pinball, Marvel comics, Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, obscure things, Doctor Who, Supernatural, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. An Alabama native, she now lives with her equally geeky husband and sizeable cat, and goes to college while doing occasional freelance design work.

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  • Stygian Jim

    My fave was Marvel vs. Capcom 2, lots more choices, even if the music is a little repetative and boring. Loved it so much it’s the reason I’ve kept my Dreamcast all these years. Recently I got the XBoX 360 download, although the buttons are a little different, and some of the fun has worn out. For my wife and I the challenger is Soul Caliber, any version. I was nearly unbeatable on the old Dreamcast version, but she has caught up with me on the PS2 version, and now the 360. She uses Ivy, who’s another quirky female fighter that I disdain, but she can use quite effectively. Loved the article, fun memories of those older games.

  • Dan

    @Jim I heard the other day that they’re going to be coming out w/ Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

  • Jamie

    Jim: Soul Calibur is another one that Dan and I were really into! Ah, memories. I always stuck with Taki.

    Dan: It’s going to rock! Deadpool and Trish!