Life Lessons from Video Games Versus Mode: SFII v MK Finale!

On January 17, 2013January 19, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Opinions, Projects, Random Fun, Reviews2 Comments

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who prefer Street Fighter and those who prefer Mortal Kombat. Yes we can love them both, but if you were stuck on a desert island which would you prefer? We all have an answer. This will be no surprise, I’m a Street Fighter person.

Part of it has to do with my introduction to it. I learned it first so its moves in a one-on-one style tournament fighter became second nature to me. I’m not a fancy or elaborate Street Fighter player, I keep things basic, but I also win a LOT (right Mike? >: ) ) Here’s why I prefer Capcom’s Street Fighter to Acclaim’s Mortal Kombat. Keep in mind I’m only dealing with the 16-bit iterations of the games, not the later ones.

Longevity: I don’t mean one series has or will outlast the other. We’ve seen bad versions and weird crossovers for both franchises, I mean the longevity of these 16-bit games themselves. Street Fighter II is a fun game. All the special moves, all the different characters and strategies, it still feels the same way as it did when I first played it. Mortal Kombat has suffered the Duke Nukem effect for me. Despite all its violence and cutting edge effects…it all seems somehow…childish. As though maybe that kind of thing is only really cool to a 12-15 year old. Mortal Kombat’s brutality actually feels like a gimmick now.

SPAM: I think we’ve all done hadouken-hadouken-hadouken-hadouken or TIGER (high)-TIGER (low)-TIGER (high)-TIGER (low) against the computer or a live foe. I have. Especially Zangief and Balrog (M. Bison in Japan). But if you did that on a harder difficulty or against a competent foe you also saw a jumping roundhouse or a leaping short into a sweep. You can only spam fireballs for so long. I can beat Mortal Kombat by doing flying kicks and upper cuts. And JUST flying kicks and uppercuts. The flying kicks strategy is how I always beat Goro. I could usually get a flawless victory on him too. Even on tougher difficulties. It seems easier to spam cheesy moves in Mortal Kombat to me. So much so that I’d try to play fair then just say, “forget it I’m spamming to win…” I’m sure the MK masters out there know ways to break those kinds of things, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating when some chump starts doing it to you…or any less lame when you see it work on the game’s hulking sub-boss! One cause of this problem is reflected in the next item!

Diversity: I mentioned this in my Street Fighter post, but it wasn’t until I did my Mortal Kombat post that I realized how diverse Street Fighter is in comparison. Street Fighter had two characters that played essentially the same, Ryu and Ken. In Mortal Kombat, except for special moves, they all essentially play the same. And it struck me the reason why, no one really cared about the fight. I never did as a kid. I typically just rushed through the fight however I could…I only cared about fatalities and unlocking secrets. In a way MK’s secrets and violence kind of trapped it. By giving all the characters the same basic set of moves with the same range, speed, and strength, it made it essentially the same game over and over with different kills at the end of each round and those kills are what I looked forward to.

Fun: The most important thing to me. To this day I can plug in Champion Edition or Super into my Nomad or CDX and pick up right where I left off as though it was 1992 all over again. I can have just as much fun, find just as much challenge, and remember all my timing and moves through straight muscle memory. I admit I haven’t played Mortal Kombat since I quit playing it in the 90s (though I have played the newer ones!)

All of this is not an indictment of Mortal Kombat at all. I love the game. I loved the time I spent with it and I still cherish the franchise as the brutal cousin of Street Fighter, the Asia-gothic-hellscape fighting game that still has plenty of room to grow and reinvent itself at every opportunity. I just prefer Street Fighter. All of these opinions are of course mine only. I think Mortal Kombat fans also have good points as to why they prefer their franchise and I’d love to hear some.

Which do you guys prefer?

In my opinion it’s a clear win and a…

…for Street Fighter!

My original strategy guides from the 90s. Before the internet…books like these were the only way to get info!

Life Lessons from Video Games Versus Mode: Mortal Kombat

On January 9, 2013January 8, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Opinions, Projects, Random Fun, ReviewsLeave a comment

Mortal Kombat… I admit I never played Mortal Kombat in the arcades when the cabinet first came out (though I remember it took some of the crowd away from my SFII cabinet at the skating rink…) What got my attention with this game were two things: word of mouth and the ad campaign.

I was already used to Street Fighter’s cartoon graphics and its somewhat Looney Tunes violence (even literally seeing stars when dizzy) but I heard a new game was out that upped the maturity level. It showed real violence and blood and, rumor had it, you could even kill people in this game! To a 10-12 year old this sounded amazing. I couldn’t believe any of this could be true! Then the ads came out for the home version. The epic commercial featuring 90s techno music and the single shout of “MORTAL KOMBAAAT!” got everyone’s attention. Followed immediately by the firestorm from parents’ groups and politicians saying the game was too violent for kids and should be banned. All this did was make kids like me who didn’t pay attention realize “hey I gotta see this bloody game!”

Again I got it for the Sega Genesis, and in this case I was LUCKY. While the SNES version bent to the will of parents’ groups and removed the bloody aspects, the Sega version just made you put in a code. This was before the internet folks so, like all the codes I learned, I went to the local FoodMax, opened up GamePro magazine, found the code (down, up, left, left A, right down) and repeated it over and over as I walked home. Voila. Bloody Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat was like nothing I’d ever played before. I half expected it to play like Street Fighter, it was what I was used to. I was shocked when pressing back didn’t block, and finding that block button was tricky! But once I got into it Mortal Kombat, and the superior Mortal Kombat II, sucked me in. The digitized characters looked more “grown-up” than the cartoons of Street Fighter. The flinging blood, the wild special moves, and the fatalities…oh the fatalities. Finding these out was a gold mine of gaming information. I couldn’t memorize them, I had to write them all down and then play the game over and over until I could execute each one. Ripping out spinal cords (I was a huge fan of Predator so this was awesome to me), pulling out hearts, uppercutting off heads, skulls spitting fire…this was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Again I felt lucky to have my 6 button controller and the Sega version on MK I. I learned Mortal Kombat, not playing alone, but with my buddy Mike, who was far better at it than I was (I still trump you in Street Fighter though, Mike…) We played it relentlessly and learned all the kills, environmental kills, and secret characters and levels. They still stick with me, after all these years, and its etched into my adolescent gaming memory.

So what gave Mortal Kombat its legacy?

1.) Maturity: Until Mortal Kombat the most “badass” game in the arcade was…Pit Fighter…shudder… Street Fighter was full of cartoon characters and cartoon violence, all the beat em ups had a similar look and feel. Mortal Kombat, with digitized actors playing the characters had a more “cinematic” ambience. By now I was into Tae Kwon Do and I could recognize the realism in the basic combat moves and appreciated it as a step toward “growing up” in gaming. The blood and violence just filled out what I expected as a maturing gamer to see more and more of. Boy was that right…

2.) Unique Control: After the success of Street Fighter many games copied its controls and animated style to varying degrees of success. Mortal Kombat was the first game of its kind to use high-punch, low-punch, high-kick, low-kick uppercuts, etc that I ever played. These moves were all designed to set up special moves that would do the real damage. And the special moves themselves were terrific and memorable, “GET OVER HERE!” Raiden’s nonsensical babbling during his torpedo move, and Sub-Zero’s Freeze attack. It didn’t FEEL like other fighting games at the time, but I’ve found, especially as 3D takes over the fighting game genre…the control scheme has become more popular.

3.) Fascinating Characters: As far as standard attacks, all Mortal Kombat characters essentially play the same. What makes them cool is their look and their special moves. Kano was one of my favorites, he just looked wicked with that cyborg eye. I usually played as Scorpion though. That vicious spear and 90s Ninja outfit made him a stand out option. Even non-playable Goro still sticks with me as one of the most memorable bosses in video game history.

4.) Marketing: Mortal Kombat hit at just the right time. Gamers were maturing, violence in gaming was a hot topic, and the market was expanding. All the noise people made in fear of Mortal Kombat just made it more interesting. It stays true to the cliche, no such thing as bad publicity!

5.) Secrecy: This concept goes hand-in-hand with Mortal Kombat. I didn’t believe fatalities were real until I saw one myself. I just assumed it was talk. I remember when a guy in my 7th grade class, Charles, mentioned Reptile the first time. I didn’t believe the character existed…then he did. For every secret proved to be true, two more theoretical ones appeared. For every one debunked five more appeared. If just ONE of all those proved to be grounded in some reality, it made us plug the cartridges back in again and buy the next sequel!

So there is my recollection of Mortal Kombat and why I loved it. As I mentioned Mortal Kombat II was even better. I never even tried to play the arcade of that one and just bought it when it came out (or got it for birthday or Christmas…yes kids…games have been 50-60 dollars for a LONG time…) Playing as new characters, adding new fatalities, kinds of fatalities, and stage hazards made the game fresh and fascinating. It, like Street Fighter has gone 3D, added new gameplay styles and mechanics, and even jumped genres (Shaolin Monks was an awesome game…), and while it didn’t retain the very basics of the original, they have generally felt true to the original, with secrets, wild characters, and crazy kills.

Next post will be my final comparison and why I prefer one over the other (I’m sure everyone can see where this is going!)

And for bonus:

Life Lessons from Video Games Versus Mode: Street Fighter 2

On January 2, 2013January 2, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Opinions, Projects, Random Fun, ReviewsLeave a comment

Street Fighter II… Capcom’s sequel to the now-obscure Street Fighter changed the face of fighting games. Multiple, selectable characters, specific special moves, bright graphics; it took everything that could be learned from beat em ups like Double Dragon and simplified it into a one-on-one tournament fighting game.

I won’t go into the game’s colorful history. That’s not the focus of this review, this will just be my history of Street Fighter.

My first introduction to this legend of the arcade occurred in 6th grade. Our middle school typically took students with decent grades and no suspensions on an “incentive” trip to a skating rink or a bowling alley. That six weeks we all went to an local bowling alley for a couple of hours. I wasn’t interested in bowling really, but the alley had two arcade machines. I don’t remember what the other one was, but one was Street Fighter II. There was a queue of kids lined up at one stick, and a kid named Ralph dominating the other. I got into the queue, not knowing what this game was or why there was a line and one-by-one kids fell as Ralph took them out. When it was my turn I put in my two quarters, selected the character I thought looked the most interesting (I chose Blanka…all I thought was “wow big green monster!”) and preceded to lose two rounds. I didn’t do too badly. In fact after the fight I remember saying, “I didn’t know what I was doing!” with a laugh and Ralph telling me, “Actually you didn’t do so badly…”

I only went to the arcade on rare instances or when the school went to a place that had some machines so I had to wait for a home version in order to really play games. Despite having only played the game one time, I got swept up into the craze when Street Fighter II: Champion Edition came out on the Sega Genesis.

It was here that I really learned the game. The Genesis standard controller wasn’t great for these games, but buying a six button controller made it PERFECT for Street Fighter (in fact the licensed “Street Fighter” controllers that came out with the release of SFIV look suspiciously like Sega 6-Button controllers…) and I played the game religiously. So much so that on trips to the Rivergate Skate Center during 7th and 8th Grade incentive trips I started to run the Street Fighter II machine. I originally played as Sagat, having recently seen Jean Claude van Damme’s Kickboxer but eventually moved to Ken, and solidified using Ken once super moves were introduced in Super Street Fighter II.

So what makes Street Fighter II a legend?

1.) Design: Starting with the first thing a gamer would see when they first laid eyes on the cabinet or picked up the cartridge box. The characters were all unique (except of course the Ryu-Ken similarities) and colorful. Similarly the backgrounds were all character-specific and had great animations.

2.) Graphics: Tied to design, the graphics of the game were amazing at the time. The characters moved fluidly and smoothly, their jumps and attacks all looked better than anything I’d seen before, and the special moves truly looked special

3.) Diversity: All the 14 of the 16 characters in Street Fighter II Champion Edition were unique. Though similar commands were used for special moves, they didn’t execute the exact same moves (though they may be similar) and ALL the basic attacks were individual to each character. Also each character (except essentially the four “boss” characters) had unique story-based endings that gave the game massive replayability. Beating the game with Ryu was an entirely different prospect to beating it with Vega. Similarly, fighting each enemy took thought. You couldn’t always use the same strategy to beat Zangief as you did to beat Chun Li. Until you mastered it…your brain had to be awake for this game.

4.) Ease of Play: the most important aspect of a fighting game to me…and something I feel they’ve lost, even the Street Fighter series, over the years. Fighting games are GREAT because they are “pick-up-and-play” games. Like I said, I never played before losing terrifically to Ralph in that first game. But I did ok. It’s not button mashing, you don’t get far in Street Fighter doing that, but the attacks, moves, and special moves are all so easy to figure out and execute a player can easily learn how to play one or two characters after playing the game only a handful of times. This pre-dates the over-complexity that I feel has been added into fighting games. Long-strings of combos, idiotic “air-juggles,” and multiple counter moves are just more than I want in a fighting game. Keep it simple and fun for me…

5.) CONTROL: Tied to the last one but by far the most important aspect of the game. Street Fighter II‘s control was a revolution to me. It was intuitive to the player and even made sense for the actions being executed. Pressing “back” to block was a stroke of genius. Six attacks varying in strength, 3 punches and 3 kicks, all useful (thought admittedly I played for YEARS with just a jab-fierce and short-roundhouse button setup on PS1) “Down-Down+Forward-Forward” is actually the motion you’d expect a character to do when throwing a fireball. The same goes for the Shoryuken and the Hundred-Hand Slap. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game with more perfect control (but woe be unto the second player who’s used to playing first player…and has to reverse all those commands!)

Street Fighter II revolutionized arcade gaming. Through various iterations of II, eventually Alpha (Alpha 3 is my favorite of the series by far…the most balanced and best character roster I feel), a 3D game (EX…ugh), and now back to 2D with Street Fighter IV (and its iterations), it retained basically the same controls. It’s heaped on many new complex concepts, and crazy characters, but at it’s based on the same framework.

Next time will be another arcade fighting game that revolutionized the genre, Mortal Kombat!

Off the Edge #2: Annoying Holiday Car Commercials

On December 26, 2012December 26, 2012 By James CastroIn Opinions, Random FunLeave a comment

Next week I’ll start the first of my legitimate Versus Mode! posts but since it’s just after Christmas I really wanted to get this one out while it was still relevant!

I’m sure we’ve all seen it, I’ll set the stage:

You’re watching TV and this soft music comes up. Some square-jawed guy walks through his overpriced house, by a Macy’s store-sized Christmas tree, and into a bedroom where he wakes his sleeping wife, who doesn’t have “I’ve been asleep hair or face.” He then leads her outside where, sitting in the perfectly snowy driveway, sits an Acura, Infinity, Lexus, or Mercedes with a ridiculous big bow on it. They celebrate, etc and voice over says something about a gift you both can cherish for years to come.

OK. I HATE these commercials… Truly. It’s pure commercialized fantasy and borders on absurdity. It could be that I don’t brush elbows with people in a high enough tax bracket that secretly buy their spouses cars for Christmas, but I’ve never heard of this happening for anyone. The logical person in me (who makes up 85% of my personality) has a few problems with this:

Who in the hell buys someone a $40-60,000 Christmas present?
How does one spouse spend that much money on the other without the other knowing about it?
I’d like to have been present for the conversations they have as they tried to figure out what the giftee spouse would like in a car…or did they care?
Where does one get car-sized bows and ribbons, how much do they cost, what do you do with it AFTER the car has been given as a gift?

I know, they’re just trying to sell cars, but the entire concept is so annoying to me, even as commercials go, I thought I’d rant about this one while the season was right!

Photographs below show the closest I’ve come to seeing a car wrapped up for someone. A friend and I went to Target in October and saw it sitting out there. I have no idea who the owner was but they have my pity…

It was definitely wrapped and decorated…but the owner was probably less than happy about it…

So here’s the fantasy:

Here’s the closest I’ve seen…

Next post is my Versus Mode Street Fighter II Reminisces!

Nashville’s Top Worst Drivers

On December 2, 2012December 2, 2012 By R. PettyIn Opinions1 Comment

I am an expert on Nashville drivers. For the last nine years, I have driven on average 40 miles a day, most times more. Last year, I sat in traffic for almost six hours due to inclement weather to travel 20 miles. A few years ago, it took me four hours to get to work due to a wreck. I know Nashville’s traffic and driving habits.

What inspired me to do this list are years of observation and experience. There are common stereotypes that women and the elderly can’t drive, and those with sports cars drive reckless. I disagree. I find the stereotypes of poor drivers lie within the driver, and specifically with the car they drive. So, here’s my list of Nashville’s top worst drivers, and although there are always exceptions, I challenge you to pay attention to the following makes and models:

Black-1995-Honda-Accord-LX-Front-Left-View — 1995 Honda Accord
Photo: zuoda.com

Honda Accord – Like to go fast even though they have little power. They will cut you off and pass you just to be first.

Jeeps – Get out of the way.

Saturn cars – Oblivious drivers who think they are the only ones on the road.

Ford Mustang – The only sporty car on the list. Coincidence? No, these drivers have an ego so huge it barely fits in their car. They speed, cut you off, and think they are awesome.

2000 For Mustang Red — 2000 Ford Mustang
Photo: americanmuscle.com

Tahoe, Suburban – Over compensation. These big vehicles take up lots of space, and the drivers don’t look when merging.

Ford F150, F250, big trucks – See above. I have one who likes to regularly honk at me because I won’t pull into oncoming traffic. We have exchanged hand signals several times.

Civics – The ones that are cheaply modified. These drivers want a reliable car that is cheap to mod, and they drive like they have a sports car. I cannot count how many Civic drivers have tried to race me.

Mini Van/Vans – Guaranteed to go at least 5 mph. under the speed limit. Notorious for getting into fast lanes and slowing everyone down. Be careful to pass though because they swerve, too.

Group of 2005 minivans in desert — 2005 Minivans
Photo: autobytel.com

RVs – Too big to handle. People should have to take special classes to drive these. I was rear ended in a parking lot by one and almost killed on the interstate by another that was merging. Be very careful around these.

Pontiac GrandPrix – Speed and are impatient. Friday morning I had one pass me on my street to save him two seconds.

Dodge Strattus – Huge egos and reckless. They love to bully other drivers and start races.

Waste Management/Dump trucks – Will try to run you over and spray rocks. And they don’t care. Good luck reporting them because I have never seen a dump truck with a license plate.

Out-of-state drivers – There’s an unwritten rule in Nashville: Drive 5 mph. over the speed limit everywhere except for school zones. Out of towners are very slow and often drive in fast lanes under the speed limit. If you visit Nashville, be prepared to keep up!

Those are my picks! Do you have any model specific bad drivers in your area? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Off the Top of My Head #5: Winning Hearts and Minds with Goldie the Black and Yellow Garden Spider

On September 26, 2012September 26, 2012 By James CastroIn Opinions, Random Fun2 Comments

I once had a serious brown recluse infestation. A flat, cardboard glue trap designed to ensure that our cat, Sweetie, had beaten her flea problem, caught one giant brown recluse. Afterward more traps caught dozens, sometimes HUNDREDS more, of all sizes all over the room. Needless to say it caused nightmares and paranoia, but, believe it or not, after a while I got used to them. I’d sit in the floor, playing guitar or drawing, and see one creep by. I’d smash the life out of it, and then go right back to business as usual. I have since traded my brown recluse infestation with a cellar spider infestation. They EAT brown recluses but are harmless to people so I say it’s a fair, natural, “circle of life” kind of trade.

Spiders creep people out. Often the reasons for this are “they have too many legs,” or “too many eyes,” or “they’re dangerous.” Mostly I think it’s because they’re an unseen threat, we usually only notice them if something is wrong, like we’re bitten or we see them in an unusual are like a bedroom or kitchen. I think of it this way: I had hundreds of brown recluses stuck to glue traps. I only ever saw 20 or so running loose alive. As far as I know I was never bitten and who knows how many were actually roaming around that I DIDN’T see and weren’t in the traps. So maybe my infestation was good for me, it got me accustomed to them and taught me a bit about fear.

It gave me a new spider policy: I bring them no harm, no matter how dangerous they may be, so long as they’re outside. I’ve even released a brown recluse that a friend asked me to identify, she brought him to me in a cup and I felt if I killed her it would feel like executing a prisoner of war…somehow just wrong… If they are inside I typically bring them no harm if they are harmless. Woe to the poor brown recluse that staggers through my defenses into my room now though…dangerous ones in my space I treat like invaders…

But most people hate spiders, even those outside. During my vacation the first week of August I left my home and came across her:

She built her web at the end of our carport and I immediately recognized her as a gold and black, or yellow and black, garden spider. I knew she was harmless and her web was so impressive I implored everyone in the house to let her be. Everyone wholeheartedly agreed and, despite the fact that she was initially considered creepy by some, she has grown on us. She was named “Goldie” and we put up a sign to warn package delivery services to not destroy her web or bring her any harm.

Goldie the female Yellow and Black Spider.

Every morning we check her web, see if she’s caught any food (it’s usually in tatters from the moths and other insects she’s skewered) and every now and then she’s draining some poor meal (I still feel for the eaten bugs…what a way to go..)

Goldie Snack — That was a WASP. She had quite a meal there…

Goldie has become kind of an outside pet. We are pleased to see she’s eating well (I’ve tried to offer up some superworms which unfortunately flew straight through her web), we cheered when she built not one but TWO massive egg sacs, but we lament that, despite the safety of her location from birds, she will not likely find a mate in the carport…

Goldie the spider changed the hearts and minds of many around here who feared or disliked spiders. The fear of spiders is largely irrational; as are most fears. Remember a world without spiders is a world full of cockroaches, moths, and flies! And I for one am much happier with these lovely little killers out there.

Here’s a video of Goldie spinning her web. Forgive the raw version of it I took it in a rush THIS morning and haven’t had time to edit it yet. I had never before seen her doing this and was pretty excited to get it on video at all!

Revenant Publications

Category: Opinions