Kicking your Ass: Street Fighter X Tekken initial thoughts

Okay, so it's been rumored, it's been hinted, but it's announced now: Street Fighter X Tekken, the 2D mash up of Street Fighter characters and Tekken characters. How do I feel about this? In one hand, based on the idea alone, I'm disappointed. This is mainly coming from a big wish to see a new DarkStalkers game, but oh well, maybe sometime in the future... or at the very least, a HD version of that will come out. Hell. They also just announced Street Fighter 3 HDR, so who knows?

However, the idea of just Street Fighter Versus Tekken is disappointing because I had heard rumors of Capcom vs Namco, which sounded like it could have more potential! Think about it: KOS-MOS vs. Megaman, or Arthur vs Nightmare! That had endless possibilities and could be really bad ass, so to hear that both companies are limited to just Street Fighter and Tekken kind of disappoints me.

However, after watching the 2 minutes of gameplay shown, my feelings went from disappointment to slight interest. To see Ryu use moves like his wall bounce kick and then juggle into a shoryuken was exciting to see and the increased ease to do various combos is also a welcome addition, but at the same time, it's kind of funny that the Capcom vs Namco rumor said it would use the SF4 engine and while I expect similarities, I didn't expect to look just like SF4. I even made the comment: "IT'S JUST LIKE I'M PLAYING SUPER STREET FIGHTER 4: TEKKEN EDITION!"

Also, the way they demonstrated the tag out ultras seemed alot more clunky that what the game actually will be like. The Chun Li tag in ultra was all right, but everything else seemed too scripted. Then again, this is just a demo video and it'll probably be more complete down the line.

So my initial feelings on Street Fighter X Tekken? Slightly interested, but not crazy about it. I'd have to see move before I'm sold on it.

Anime Review: Welcome to the NHK

Ever had a bad day? A really bad day? On such days, do you ever wonder if something or someone may be conspiring against you? To force you into a state of mind that makes you act a certain way or just fall into some other conspiracy for the sheer purpose of just being evil? Well then, 'Welcome to the NHK' might support your theory, or maybe, it's just another device from those evil conspirators just to pull you further into that state of mind.

Something to tide you over

Still gotta get some kinks worked out of my next article, but here's a little hint about what's to come relatively soon.

Godhand: Be the Fist of the North Star! Jesus Christ!

If you remember, beat ‘em ups back in the day were awesome: Streets of Rage, Ninja Turtles, even the Avengers in arcades all over. However, since we’ve entered the 3D age of gaming, beat ‘em ups have always seemed subpar in comparison to other game types, with complaints like repetitiveness and the game being too easy. However, Clover Studios, creators of Viewtiful Joe and Okami, decided to bring the fun back to the genre with Godhand back in 2006. What made it so great?

Final Fantasy 12: Log 2

Okay, so it’s been a while since my initial report on Final Fantasy 12 and since then, I’ve received several comments, some of which note I spoke nothing about the plot of the game, well, lets fix that now, shall we?

Final Fantasy 13: Initial Thoughts

So I have my friend Kiyo to thank for letting me borrow Final Fantasy 13 after she beat it, roughly a week ago. Since then, besides studying and working on my Honors thesis and playing another game that I’ll be talking about shortly, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 13. I’ve been playing it for at least 25 hours, so I’ve more or less reached the end of the ‘tutorial’ phase of the game that holds your hand for the longest time. After posting my Final Fantasy 12 log, I’ve received a few comments saying ‘You’re going to play final fantasy 13, right?’ ‘I want to hear your thoughts about final fantasy 13’. Well, I figure I might as well give my initial thoughts.

Contra 4: AKA Ballbuster 4

Reviewer's Note: This Review was originally written in the fall of 2008

Who remembers Contra? Back in the days of the NES, this game was fun for its extreme difficulty, yet accomplishable levels. Not to mention the music was pretty kick ass. Even going back today, one can pick and play Contra and enjoy it despite its brutal difficulty. Now we have Contra 4, which may have it’s number count wrong, considering there was Contra: Shattered Soldier, Super Contra, and so on and so forth, but I’ve seen worse mess ups in terms of chronology. Does this DS title fit the bill?