[§hawnstaMentality]

Around and during the boring Thanksgiving Break, two games that I was waiting for came out. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe hit the shelves and Street Fighter II HD Remix came out on X Box Live Arcade. Both highly anticipated across the board by old MK, DC, and Street Fighter fans. I haven’t really played Mortal Kombat since MKIII, MKII still being the best in my opinion. Wasn’t particularly interested in many of the games that came out after that. As for DC, I’ve never been too big of a fan, but I like the direction they’re going movie-wise. So when I thought about these two major titles collaborating…I thought to myself, “Unbelievable.”

My roommate picked the game up on its release date. I started playing it the next day, as the night before was pretty busy for me. Unfortunately after all the hype was invested into this game, I found out that it was a decent fighter game. Maybe other people see something in it that I don’t but to me it lacks balance. Most fighting games have a “Tier system”, which is basically a ranking based on how certain characters fair in tournaments. But tiers are not a certainty…just a statistic passed on by people who are trying to be “pro”. However, in MK vs DC…there seems to be a certainty. Characters that lack spammable projectiles and teleport-attack moves seem to be SOL. The best defenses for the spammable attacks is either 1.) Calling your opponent cheap if your opponent is human or 2.) Blocking. Blocking in the game…is probably where my biggest concern comes in. Not saying that it’s absolutely unreliable, but it feels miscalculated to some degree. Logically, after getting hit by a slow-as-shit punch…you should be able to block immediately before another one comes your way, but instead on MK vs DC, your character gets knocked into a half second daze it seems like, setting you up for another one or two more punches that you probably won’t be able to block. Instead, you wait for the three hits to be over with, then block. It’s not the chain itself that is the problem, it’s the fact that a “heavy punch” initiated that combo.

Further on the blocking, there’s some type of kick that Sub-Zero can do, that will keep you locked in the attack. I held block all the way through it but I could not get out of it, until I lost. They implemented another type of block, that uses half your rage bar to do. It’s probably the only thing that could’ve saved me from that constant kick chain. There’s a lot of interesting moves that can be used in the game, but I feel like for the most part…it lacks strategy. It’s still sort of fun, but it’s just not something I feel I want to play extensively like Street Fighter.

Speaking of Street Fighter…Street Fighter II HD Remix is pretty damn cool. Here’s a few screenshots of it:

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Sagat vs Fei Long

They’ve taken a classic and actually made it immensely better in my opinion. Played it for the first time tonight when I came in, already thinking about unlocking the 100 Ranked Win Achievement for the 360 version. It’s well worth the ~$14.

Well, I didn’t intend to cut this short but I got sidetracked and now I need to go to bed. Too much Street Fighter HD D:. Later.

Heh, finally managed to get the site up and the blog installed, but I’m still working on learning how to make my own template in this, so give that a little more time lol. Sorry about the current theme, I basically just did a lazy banner edit to the top header. It will be resolved soon enough though, for now I just felt like posting. Anyway, I guess I should tell you a little bit about this blog that I’ve started. I’m going to be posting various details of my life in it. Not just daily happenings, but my thoughts and other things I’m working on will be posted here pretty regularly. Being a college student now, I feel like I have a little more to write about than the days when I spent most of my time secluded in my bedroom. I’m also at a point where I’m working harder to create. If I draw something or make an animation, I’ll post it and talk about it here. As well as any other form of content I develop. Again this will be the outlet for a flow of many thoughts that run through my mind.