I can’t decide whether I was mad or overjoyed while making points in this barely readable piece of stream-of-consciousness thinking that tries to connect the dots between amateur anthropology, Japanese fighting games, career advancement tips and beating people up in real life. Since there are repeated mentions of a certain character trait that is for some reason associated with a certain part of a human body, click on the ‘continue’ button only if you’re not easily offended. And you might end up offended anyway.
So, yesterday we had a “Career Advancement Workshop” here at work. Basically, they are getting ready to sack us due to the lack of funding and are now giving us a series of tips on how to prepare our resumes and prepare ourselves for job interviews – you know, the stuff you can google in like 15 seconds. Still, it’s the thought that counts I guess, so I was making a snide, dismissive remark only every five minutes or so even though my very soul screamed at me to climb on top of the desk, take my pants off and scream obscenities at the dead neon lights up in the ceiling.
Anyway, the nice HR lady who was in charge of the workshop explained to us that the very first step in preparing yourself for the adventure of looking for employment is to take a good look into yourself. To learn who you really are, she said. She also added that this is an extremely important step because that way you learn about your beliefs, values and wishes, your strengths and weaknesses too. You get to really know yourself. This process, she added, normally takes four to six weeks.
This was, I dunno, maybe the fifth minute of the workshop and the precise moment when I got the (almost) irresistible urge to scream “No, the way to know yourself is to get into a fistfight with another person!!1!1!!!”
I should probably preface this by saying that I am not a violent person and certainly not an advocate of violence. I simply do not have the same reaction to (real or imaginary) violence that most of my family and co-workers have. Working in the humanitarian sector I am very often surrounded by people who might or might not be Scandinavians who cringe at the very mention of physical violence and are almost sick if they have to see it, treating it as some alien concept that should not belong on Earth.
From where I’m standing, I lament the fact that people will rather fight than talk but I accept violence as part of our nature that we should generally work towards suppressing because it will make our lives easier but I don’t think it’s “bad” or “immoral” in any old metaphysical way. Violence is just a natural part of lives of most animals on Earth and, regardless of our strife to be better than most animals, it is an undeniable part of our nature. Should we work on getting it under control? Absolutely. Should we deny it as something dirty and unwelcome in our very genes? Absolutely not. It’s here, it’s part of who we are and very often part of how we survive. It’s after all part of our self-preservation instincts, the “fight” part of fight-or-flight reflexes.
So while I am saying I respect pacifists, I still feel that valuing everyone else’s life/ integrity above your own is a silly concept. Sure, if someone hits you, turn the other cheek, but if there is a raving mob heading your way with intent to grind you to a fine pulp and you happen to have a flamethrower ready, it’s barbeque time by all means for every person that I consider a person.
I should also probably explain this. You see, great late Bill Burroughs classified people into two categories: the Johnsons and the shits. The conventional classification divides us into men and mice, but since this one is not gender-balanced enough for my tastes, I prefer to think in terms of persons and pussies. Yes, I am aware that calling someone a pussy is not exactly the most gender-sensitive thing you can do on a hellishly hot office afternoon in Serbia, but still… It’s pretty clear which side of that fence you want to stand regardless of your gender. Over here we have a saying (stolen from a famous film from the eighties): Vagina is an organ. Pussy is a character trait.
With that pearl of wisdom behind us, I am eager to make my point here: if you need four to six weeks of intense self observation to get to know yourself, then I might as well save you some time right away. You, my friend are a pussy. Go outside, punch a random person in the face and then use the ensuing fistfight to really get to know yourself. It’ll last far less and you’ll have a nice night in the precinct ahead of you if you need additional time for contemplation. Because really, starting my hunt for a job with six weeks of staring down my own rectum would probably mean starving to death even before reaching the inevitable conclusion that, yes I definitely am a pussy.
Now all this pussy talk is getting us hot and bothered, no doubt about it, but I am actually trying to make a finer point here. The point being: Chuck Palahniuk was right. Dwelling on past or indeed future is a tragic way to spend your present. You should get to know the secrets of life through living, not through thinking about them. And conflict, physical or otherwise is a great way to actually become aware that you are actually living because on some level – symbolical or actually physical, your very existence is threatened whenever you are part of a conflict. And then, then when your person(a)(lity) is in danger of being cancelled and turned into void, then you can observe and learn about yourself.
Our pop-culture is built on stories and situations that depict or simulate conflict because conflict and its resolution through symbolical or realistic violence is actually the best, most intense way to focus your (subliminal and conscious) thinking on the very priorities of living/ existence. You are reduced to your instincts, skills, strengths and weaknesses when in violent conflict. The real you shines through. You want to know yourself? Be ready to wear some bruises on your face or on your ego – because this is the cost of learning.
Seriously. My first (and last) proper real-life fight as a (young) adult was me against nine people. The fight that I got out of with only a few bruises precisely because I was ready to fight first, talk later. I learned so much about myself in those 90 or so seconds that I emerged a totally different person from the experience.
Now, remember I do not really advocate going out and hitting a random person in a quest to know yourself… if you have acceptable alternatives. Lucky for us gamers, we have plenty alternatives.
We have Street Fighter. We have Melty Blood and Guilty Gear. We have Soul Calibur and Tekken. We have King of Fighters. And then we have Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Quakes and Unreal Tournaments, Starcrafts and Worlds of Warcrafts. We have an abundance of symbolical conflict with precisely defined systems of resolving this conflict through (virtual) violent means. We are lucky to have the opportunity to dive into ourselves every time we fight a person online or sitting on the same couch, observing and notifying the most important things about our characters, our personalities, ourselves. Every time I play Street Fighter or Soul Calibur over PSN I remind myself who I am, what my values are, what my strengths and weaknesses are. And I work to improve myself, technically and spiritually. Every time I fight my wife in Tekken I relearn what the core of our relationship is and how I can work to keep improving it. It’s important. It’s the most valuable thing in life and you get it through playing mindless, violent video-games. Think about it.
Also, think about what we spoke of here the next time we meet online. How turtling and cheap shots in Street Fighter make you look more like a pussy and less like a person. How learning precisely one combo with one character in Soul Calibur makes you look stupid, lazy and limited. How relying on infinite/ unbreakable combos and ringing-out in any fighting game makes you look unimaginative and rude, because you’re basically focusing on small details and/ or exploits. How using 56-hit combos to pwn noobs might make your penis look really big from where you’re standing but from where the rest of us stand, you’re a small man with a small penis. Even if you’re a woman. And that, my friend is who the real you is.
What does it say about you when all you do is hit one button as fast as possible? That’s my tactic in these games. That’s what I did as “The Rock” in Soul Calibur (*head butt* *head butt* *head butt* *head butt* *head butt* *head butt*).
In Street Fighter 2, as Blanka, I’d jump, big claw, land, *head butt* *head butt* *head butt*, than *rinse* *repeat*.
In Mortal Kombat 2, I’d take Sub Zero and just try to freeze everyone and then upper cut them, because that’s all I knew how to do.
I recently played one of those new fighting games. The latest Tekken maybe? I don’t remember. I played some chick with short white hair and a tight leather vest that had some amazing clinging abilities. All I did was hit one button over and over. I don’t even remember what button. I didn’t even look at the screen and I still won every match I played.
I am very annoying to play against in fighting games and not very good at them. At all.
So, I guess that would mean that I am lazy and annoying. Hrmm… Yeah. Sometimes.
Wow, wow…man, you really want to beat up some pacifists and pussies eh?
Seriously, this I did not expect from Tap-repeatedly. I’m not even sure it’s coherent. Insulting a ton of people for playing a game like they do (however you think it the right way to play or not) is great work (let’s not even get onto the comments on women and penis jokes, sigh). This might be a rant, but it is a pretty sad one, since it has so little point! Sorry dude, I don’t get it, and I’m not even sure if it is meant to be humorously done or absolutely serious either 🙁
I’m a little confused too, what if, like me and ajax, we’re rubbish at repetitive, time-button-bashing-based, quicktime-like-event fighting games? Hahahaha!
It’s cool, it really was a done-in-one, stream-of-UNconsciousness rant that barely arrived at some point by the end. A point made by Nietszsche in many better ways more than a century ago. But, let me assure you, I really do NOT want to beat anyone up, that’s what fighting games are for. Not anger management: introspection!!!
Fun article, and I was finding empathy until the utter rubbish in the very last paragraph. All tactics are valid if they win. I will turtle and ‘cheap shot’ (whatever that means) you in Street Fighter, and I will beat you doing it, if that’s the best way to do it.
Or are you saying I should play like an idiot and lose, just to make myself look like a bigger man?
No, I’m saying you are a pussy, there’s a difference.
Anyway, I played BlazBlue against a guy who was several levels above me yesterday and all he did was turtle in the corner and attempt to special me when I approached. Naturally, it didn’t work and I destroyed him. Isn’t it fun when turtlers learn that this stuff doen’t work against anyone who has played the game more than three times?
My point being, it’s not about winning: it’s about the game. Sure, you want to win, but you want to win because you dominate, not because you exploit exactly one technique that you’ve learned. No one likes to watch a match where one of the players is doing exactly the same thing over and over. There are a lot of people in BlazBlue who destroy me because they are GOOD: they understand the frameflow, they can pull incredible combos out of thin air, they understand zoning and resource management. I respect them and I like those fights. Then there are people who win just because they repeat one and the same thing over and over. I don’t respect that even though I recognize they are beating me because I am not good enough to punish their singlemindedness.
Thanks for replying to a pussy 😉
Well, if you want to “play to look good” (of how you define looking good – which isn’t winning, it seems to be about impressing your definition of ‘skill’) or “just for fun” (of how you define fun, which is only your opinion), or so it’s “good to watch” (again, your opinion on what you like watching) then fair enough. If you want to try to win though, you’re going about it all the wrong way with totally the wrong mentality. If you really want to learn a competitive attitude of playing these kinds of game, start here:
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw
(& I’m no Sirlinite, but on this stuff he’s dead on).
How do you know that guy doing the same thing over and over and beating you doesn’t ALSO know all the stuff you call “good” & be better at it than the players you’ve played that you call “good”, but he’s realised he doesn’t even have to bother to do it, because you’re so bad at countering it?
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/2-the-sheathed-sword.html
If you can’t beat one thing repeated over and over, what does that say about you? Doesn’t it actually help you learn the game as it forces you to find the counter to that tactic. If that tactic is actually more powerful than the “good skill stuff” then it’s that tactic that actually is vital to the game, not the “skill stuff”. If there’s too much stuff that’s vital to the game (eg. turtling) you don’t enjoy about the game, then it’s not the game for you to try to play to a high level. It’s why I gave up on SF4. So disrespect the game all you like, but you should respect any player who plays and beats in any manner equally.
“Playing to look good” ends up being a flawed attitude because it’s only from someone’s own perspective, and it’s an attitude that will get you beaten. If I’m playing DeeJay against a good Zangief, you can bet your arse I’m turtling up to win every time unless I’m purposefully playing casually. If I get a knock down, I’m walking away from you and thowing a Max Out. Of course, according to your theory I should try to do some flashy cross up combo instead, lest I look like a pussy. And against a weaker Gief, that flashy combo could likely work well, but against the best, it’ll get me reversal SPD’d more often than not.
In the end, your fist fight analogy works pretty well. If you had a gun (turtling, repeating the same move over and over), and you were attacked by 9 people, would you use it, or would you just duck ’em up because if you got your gun out you’d “look like a pussy”.
I like the fact that you quote Sirlin because it actually proves my points: playing to win at all costs is exactly the opposite of being creative and fun. These games give you the opportunity to do incredibly attractive, flashy things providing you spend your time on learning how to do them and training hard to do them whenever you want. Instead you pick one thing that works for you and turn the match into a boring repetition-fest. You are small-minded, focused on the immaterial notion of victory instead of on the very material notion of beauty. You call it subjective, where the actual victory (as represented by the score on screen) is objective, and yet there is no question that I’d rather watch a fighter fight beautifully and lose than watch a fighter fight boringly and win. That’s the whole point of the article: playing fighting games reveals one’s character.
Note: the “you” in the above example is of course not meant to be you (Remy7777), just a figure of speech.
Hmm, no edit for the typos but hopefully you get the point of all of that above ^
I should add that I am genuinely interested in your attitude, cos whilst I consider it a “losers attitude” it does actually apply really widely to the vast majority of game players. ie: the ones who aren’t highly ranked (or even try to be) at any fighting game! (and even if they are, they could still be that much better if they truly learnt to use every option available to them).
No offence taken of course, even if you =did= mean me personally, I don’t mind as long as you’re debating intelligently which you are. 😉
“I’d rather watch a fighter fight beautifully and lose than watch a fighter fight boringly and win”
I get your point here, but again, you’re referring to a viewers external perspective on a game. If you say it’s about revealing your character, it should be about you. Would you rather be the guy that plays beautifully and loses, who tries the DeeJay cross-up combo vs a downed Zangief and gets SPD’d to death, the one who gets pummelled into a bloody mess by the gang of 9, than be the guy who plays ugly and wins; who gets out the gun. I agree it’s certainly more interesting to watch the 9 on 1 fight than it is to watch the “no fight at all” because a gun was drawn.
But you’re still muddying it all with your own opinion of ‘beautiful play’ anyway.
I find beauty in seeing someone playing at their utter peak of skill, even when it leads to stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8SUlK_5OM
That tells me these are both GREAT players. But also tells me to probably avoid SF4 😉
But why is a reactive / repetitive style of play ‘boring’ to you? In a better game than SF4 I do actually find it fascinating. The moment in a match between two players were both simply ‘do nothing’ and wait is an incredible moment. Who’s will cracks first? Who ‘makes a move’ first. As many who’ve played at this level say, it actually takes incredible willpower and ‘skill’ (if you like, although I am sure you won’t consider the validity of this skill) to simply, ‘do nothing’ (or turtle, if you like), when all your instincts and nerves tell you ‘do something! anything!’. The tension in a situation like this, and the real kicker in this debate for me, is that situations like these are the moments of total INTERACTION between the opponents & actually what is most fun about the game. Conversely someone dishing out some awesome dial-a-combo, no matter how ‘flashy’ and how much key-pressing dexterity it takes to do it, I find less interesting to play, and far less ‘beautiful’ to watch, beyond perhaps the first time of “wow you can do that”. After that it’s just muscle memory and physical dexterity. Getting into a position to LAND that combo… or that “single move over and over” is actually the real game. Perhaps I’ve got you completely wrong though. But I’d need to see some examples of what you consider ‘beautiful play’ to know exactly what you mean.
Also, why is victory at a game any more or less immaterial than ‘playing beautifully’ at a game? Seriously, I don’t understand your point here to even try to debate it.
I suspect how you play perhaps tells you more about how seriously you play that game to win than it does about your actual personality? As far as I see it, taking your argument here into account you’re calling the majority of top fighting game players who aren’t into some kind of ultra-aggressive combo-based rush-down style of play, pussies.
You probably need to play a game where rush-down tactics are dominant. This isn’t any version of SF though (although 3rd Strike with certain characters is closest), and also isn’t BlazBlue from what I’ve read of it.
I just had a soya burger for lunch so my reply might end up being less masculine than everyone’s used to. Apologises in advance.
Actually, you make many good points here, so I have to remind everyone of the context. The article we’re commenting on had a rather specific topic and it in no way tried to comment on fighting games as a whole. It most definitely was not talking about ‘serious’ competitive play, that is tournaments. There, I agree, winning should be everything.
I was specifically talking about casual play in that last paragraph and though that was obvious, but if not, then I hope I am making it obvious now.
I generally believe that what separates videogames from other games is the ‘video’ component, the fact that play can look more attractive than anything ‘natural’. Sure, the notion of victory being ‘everything’ in competitive gaming makes perfect sense and yet I don’t believe everything else should be sacrifised to it. I know some Quake players used to play with textures switched off because that somehow gave them an edge on their opponents. But at some point you should ask youself is it worth it. If you’re only using what makes you the most efficient at the expense of the rich artistic experience you could be co-creating then to me you might be playing the game in the wrong way.
Then again, of course your examples (including that hilarious fight you linked to) make a lot of sense. A lot of it IS in the setup and the mind games and I shouldn’t suggest that only 50-hit combos is how the game should be played (in fact, to quote the article: How using 56-hit combos to pwn noobs might make your penis look really big from where you’re standing… ). So I do agree with a lot of what you say there. I guess my idea of the best of both worlds would be exemplified in that match between The Beast and Justin Wong (too lazy to look for the link, but I am sure you know what I am referring to) where a lot of the fight is about preparation and mind games but when the shit comes down, it’s truly spectacular. The finale, where Daigo uses his widely rumoured telepathic gift to parry so many hits is incredible, and he even goes for a super after that even though a simple punch would do. That man clearly enjoys the beauty of the game in both senses, the tactical annd the visual.
But then again, take into account that I am old and ultimately very romantic about it all. It’s very similar to my take on hip-hop: I understand that complex metaphors and multi-layered imagery are in fact seen as archaic by many of the today’s MCs and that ignoring the opponent and claiming you don’t listen to his records is the ultimate in battling from a certain zen perspective but I can’t help preferring Rakim to Lil Wayne any day of the week desppite understanding intellectually that Wayne is very good at what he does too.
Whew. Excellent response Meho, that soya burger work’s wonders! I’ll have to try one (I had a lamb burger I’m afraid)… You know I was all ready to debate this further & pointing out all this “pussy” calling was actually sounding identical to any other ‘scrub’ mentality .. so I’m really glad you clarified this & aren’t knee-jerk responding. 😀
I’m glad you spotted the contradiction about the “56 hit combo” as I was about to point that out too, in fact isn’t:
“if there is a raving mob heading your way with intent to grind you to a fine pulp and you happen to have a flamethrower ready, it’s barbeque time by all means for every person that I consider a person.”
the very essence of “Playing to win”, rather than “playing to look pretty and please the crowd”?
For casual games, I’m going to be lazy and quote Sirlin again since he actually covered exactly what you were talking about:
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/love-of-the-game-not-playing-to-win.html
I do suspect part of the trouble with playing random people online is that it’s never really clear whether it’s a ‘serious game’ or ‘casual play’ as the online systems that run these games are still horrendously backwards and archaic in many ways. That’s a topic I want to write more about myself. (my blog’s linked on my name if anyone is interested 😛 /pimpin’ )
For interest’s sake (and not just for nit-picking, but just to fully explain it), the famous 3s Daigo vs Wong match “moment” you’re referring to is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7hkwbKmBM
It’s not so much Daigo’s “psychic” ability on display here; his Ken is actually baiting Chun Li into doing her super because he knows he’s got the skill to parry every hit. The parrying mechanic at times like this vs a multi-hit move is purely rhythmic and the same every single time, so it’s very likely he’s practised it over and over; it’s muscle memory repetition as opposed to reaction once the first hit is parried, and quite a lot of 3s players can do it! But what’s really amazing of course is him doing it under those kind of conditions in the final of a tournament, with zero health left where a single mistake will blow it.
BTW he also HAD to pull of the full link into super combo post-parry to win, if he’d just hit a single punch he wouldn’t have finished off Chun and so might not have won. I actually suspect if he could’ve won with a simpler move, Daigo would’ve done so. He is actually known for a pretty ‘dry’ zoning repetitive style actually in most games; that you might consider boring 😉 The “psychic” part of his reputation comes from his uncanny ability to do a relatively simple move – in this case his trademark is the “psychic dragon punch” – at such moments in a fight when it is actually highly unsafe to use, and he arguably shouldn’t be using it, yet he ‘reads the mind’ of the opponent so he seems to know exactly when to do it, purely on anticipation – as he does it at times that were actually impossible to react to. To some people (including me) this is a more impressive skill to perform and observe than any combo, or parrying technique (‘yomi’, to use the Sirlin vernacular!). Using a ‘trick’ like this is also sometimes known as a “shennanigan” rather than a stable strategy however. And if you watch some of his SF4 matches you’ll see quite a few of Daigo’s ‘psychic dragon punches’ go wrong! In fact this example, is really rubbish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gq1hm5DY4w
because he whiffs a DP immediately before the one that wins the game. Not so psychic, more like “repeating the same move over and over” 😛
I’d like to respond in detail now but you actually put everything nicely (including explaining Daigo’s behaviour and exposing my amateurism) but I am actually playing BlazBlue as we speak and getting my arse handed to me repeatedly…
I’d like to give BlazBlue a try, but I’ve now got to wait for 2010 for the euro release… Still, enough other things to play anyway. I played HDR last night and actually had a few scintillating moments at the top of my game where I repeatedly bested some really good players (who usually beat me more than I beat them) using every ‘cheap shot’ in the book – of course these being good players, they realise these aren’t ‘cheap shots’ at all but valid tactics that they also know how to use & counter.
On the Daigo vids – it just shows the difficulty with watching these kinds of ‘video moments’ of top level play online is that it’s actually really difficult for the “layman viewer” to see what’s going on and why it’s really happening (myself included), at least without an extremely talented commentator. (Great rant about this factor here: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=34757 )
Even my interpretation of that 3s match could be off, without speaking to Daigo himself about it we’ll never know for sure, but I suspect I’m right, given his actions in that whole game.
I think it’s actually why fighting games (or many video games) don’t make good spectator sports unfortunately. It’s also because they are just too fast, and commentating the real nuances at the speed of the games is just impossible (I’ve tried!), and of course, we don’t have any really good & experienced commentators like ‘real sports’ have. Madden commentating on Street Fighter anyone? 😉 “And y’see he throws out that big ol’ Shin Shoryuken and BOOM!!” *telestrates large red line explosive hit effect over the screen* (yeh I know he’s retired 😛 ).
Also back to the original article here & your comments about casual play – can you really consider this a ‘real conflict’ that the rest of article is about, if you’re actually just ‘playing for fun & to try out flashy stuff’ ? I think this contradiction is why that last paragraph wound me up enough to post in the first place. To me it’s like you’ve taken a good argument, but then completely miss-applied it.
BTW – wish there was more content like this article on this website. It’s exactly the kinda stuff I like to read (and write).
[…] Spectator Spectre I recently had an interesting discussion at Tap Repeatedly, one of the things that fell out of it is how difficult it is to even watch high […]
Remy: providing you have a Playstation 3, you can get the American BlazBlue since it’s, of course region free. I imported it and it works well and, if you look at my review (elsewhere on this site) you’ll see that the online play is very good and generally very much lag free. I will probably purchase the Euro version when it comes out too since they are announcing new characters and… er… moves?
As for the “spectator sport” comment (and the whole subsequent article youhave written) I actually agree that for the most part Fighting games are not a very good spectator sport for even when they are “flashy”, most uninitiated viewers still have’t a clue what is happening and why it is happenign the way it is.
But my point here (and probably shoulda been clearer originally) is that I don’t consider them to be mere sport to start with. I think that they have an artistic component and I don’t like to see this component suffer because of the sports component. Even with sports: I prefer watching a lovely looking, flashy, risk-taking soccer match than watching a match where both teams are turtling – even though the later tactic is usually better. I believe the victory is more worth when there is beauty in it (my definition of beauty, of course) and that in some cases even defeat is more worthy if there is a worthier philosophical cause behind it (think how Obi Wan allows Darth Vader to strike him down in the original Star Wars). I know, I know, this makes no sense to most people, but… there you have it.
Ah, well, if you read my blog about BlazBlue – and other games – the ‘Hitler’ youtube link pretty much explains my position on PS3 in a more humorous fashion than I could. 😉
(or to save you reading, this, 1:40: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0AZAGBaLSo )
Or in summary – no I don’t have a PS3 and don’t intend to get one ever, no matter what!
Your preferences in videogames and sports are of course fine, and it’s good to see that explained further; and I’m sure you’re not alone. I feel though you’re going to have to quest to find a game (or a sport) where your concept of beauty is very often correlated with winning. However I’m the sort that can find a 3-0 game of NFL football more thrilling than a “shootout” that most prefer. It’s all about the level of intensity and deep tactical play that results for me; but then, that’s what I find more ‘beautiful’ than the flashy stuff a lot of the time.
Oh and yep, good review btw! It’s how I stumbled across this site 🙂
That Hitler video is AMAZING. You may remember I already linked it in the BlazBlue review. Probably the best Hitler video on YouTube.
In other news, I am at the moment playing Melty Blood Actress Again. Apparently they have cancelled Bara Canceling (woo, bad pun) for this version of the game, but then again there are three distinct fighting styles for every character that actually make sense. I love Melty Blood games but I don’t believe I will be reviewing this one. It’s even more complex than Guilty Gear for one and half the features/ techniques I only discover reading about them on messageboards (not like I am using most high level techniques in GG games either, though). The other reason is it’s a Japanese only game… Still, I love it. Its controls are a little wild and there are bugs here and there (hitbox bug, for instance.. don’t know if it’s in this version too) and the sprites are still inexplicably lo-res but it’s such a complex, deep, yet accessible game that I can’t help but love it.
*laughs* I completely agree on your review of Hitler. Remember kids, the PS3 is so evil, that not even Hitler would play on one!
Nice to hear about MB:AA. 🙂 I’m vaguely aware of Melty Blood.. but honestly I’ve never got into any PC fighter, mainly cos I cannot stand fighting with my PC itself to get it all working with a decent joystick etc… Three people now have tried and given up on my PCs. They are so old and the OSs in such a mess that everything becomes so complicated… when you’re updating drivers for the 3rd hour instead of just switching on the 360… well I’ve just given up until I get a new PC. Now I have the screen & joystick (for my 360) that would theoretically work fine on a (new) PC too, I will be giving it a go again one day.
I feel your pain, but the good part here is that MBAA is a PS2 game. Won’t help much if you don’t have a PS 2 though.