Kicking Your Ass: Character Leaks

Hello and welcome back to part two of Fighting February. Last week, we spoke of changes to two of my favorite fighters, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and Super Street Fighter 4. This week, we'll be discussing something of a controversy that happened recently when Arcade Infinity managed to unlock two characters to Arcade Edition that weren't meant to be unlocked yet: Evil Ryu and Oni.

Kicking Your Ass: Balance Changes

Hello and welcome to Fighting February!

Elena vs Makoto, by Genzoman

There's no simpler way to say it: I love me some fighting games of all shapes and sizes, from Street Fighter to Guilty Gear to even Tekken every once in a while. I've even began my series to Fighting Games 101 a few months back and while I don't consider myself pro, if there's one genre of game that I love following, it's fighting games. Even what some could consider to be small things that wouldn't change anything ends up being so much a difference that it can completely change how effective a character is, but that's a discussion for another time.

This month on the Nerd Sanctum, we're going to discuss some of the recent history in Fighters. Most of this is old news, gathered from sources like Shoryuken.com, Dustloop.com, and Eventhubs.com but this is something of my own personal opinion of the events and changes. Firstly, we'll be discussing the balance updates to two of my favorite fighters, Super Street Fighter 4 and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. With both changes coming out around the same time and both having been extensively played, I have to say I'm really happy with the changes thus far.

Worst to Best Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy history is very vast and has grown so much since it's initial release back in 1987, both in technique and in popularity. It'd practically be impossible to find a gamer who hasn't at least heard of Final Fantasy, let alone played at least one entry in the series. In addition to the main line of games, the franchise has had spin offs, anime adaptations, even a couple of movies made from Square's graphics team themselves, not to mention more recently a successful fighter, Dissidia, which became the sole reason for most Playstation Portable owners to own the handheld in the first place.

Now, much sooner than one could hope could, the follow up to the famous fighter is coming, aptly named Dissidia: Duodecim. With the sudden rush of news about the latest in actual good products from Square Enix, I've decided this week to do something I've been wanting to do for a while now. List my favorite and least favorite Final Fantasy main franchise games and explain why I love or hate them so. Alas, while I have played and practically completed most of the Final Fantasy games, there are a few exceptions, namely Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 5. Though I have played parts of these games, I haven't played enough of them to fairly give them fair judgement. Also, while I have mixed feeling about the game, I probably won't put Final Fantasy 11 on this list just because of how different it is. Consider these exclusions as honorable mentions. Without further ado, lets get started.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Review

Hello and Happy Belated New Year everyone. My holiday festivities only recently ended, which by festivities, I mean, being very busy on the weekend, while working my butt at my job and development, but no need to worry about that! This week, we're going to be looking back at the first season of the anime I chose to watch this season, and previewed back when it began: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Back in early October 2010, I said that this would be a fun, if not great, series. Well, it's been a season and what do I have to say about this title?

Forced Continuation Disease

So after my article on the best of Metal Gear Solid, I got to admit that I had a bit of trouble thinking about what to review next and while I have a good number of ideas, one movie in particular came to mind. I won't say specifically which, but lets say it has to do with some old series that I used to enjoy, but as it went on, my love for the series deteriorate at a great rate. It doesn't help that I'm thinking about this in the shower of all places, but nevermind that.

The reason the series seemed to deteriorate was after it contracted what I like to call the 'forced continuation disease'. What is force continuation disease or FCD for short? The concept centers around a fairly good and enjoyable series, such as for instance, Naruto, that starts off fairly strong, only to be controlled by a demand by the fans for more and as a result, it goes down in quality.

Spoilers abound for a few series, so readers beware.

Parasite Eve AKA Much Ado about Mitochrondria

With the release of Final Fantasy 13 near the beginning of the year, Roleplaying games in general continue to advance in complex battles, plot (arguably), and needless to say, graphics. It’s almost surprising to note that Square, the company behind Final Fantasy, has made more franchises than just Final Fantasy, such as Brave Fencer Musashi, the just as popular Kingdom Hearts franchise, the Mana series, and lastly, Parasite Eve and since it's Christmas time and the game takes place during Christmas, what better way to celebrate than to be scared out of your pants.

Diamond Daydreams

Reviewer note: This review was originally written back in the Winter of 2006

Yes, tis that time of year where we all go and pay ridiculous prices for those we love. However, if you’re like me, then you don’t have a girlfriend or at least you had one and now because of the break up, you just lie awake at night and spend your days curled up in your basement crying yourself asleep and now you’re so pale that it hurts to go outside because the sun burns your eyes. If you fit this category, or if you’re an otaku who wants an anime that actually makes you feel something in the cockles of your heart, or perhaps even in the sub-cockles, then Diamond Daydreams might be your anime.