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Written by Rhyme
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Wednesday, 24 September 2008 00:38 |
It has been decided by OBC's new council that the Online Brawl Community's tenth event should be held on Friday, September 26th. THAT'S THIS FRIDAY! It's truely been a while since we've revelled in the success of OBC9, so an even bigger and better event is what we're shooting for.
You can ask about the event here: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1836.
If you are new to this site and need help registering, please click here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7.
As a COMMUNITY, we encourage friendly interaction between members before, during, and especially after each event. If you would like to take advantage of the online group chat sevices that the OBC is proud to support, you should be able to find everything you need by navigating the following links:
Xat - viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1345
TeamSpeak - viewtopic.php?f=29&t=18 |
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Written by Leemaster777
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Friday, 08 August 2008 02:28 |
Now, before I begin, I'd like to give you guys alittle backstory on how I came across the game I'm about to review. It was late January, and I had just recently heard about Super Smash Bros Brawl being delayed (again). So, I went looking for a game that could keep me occupied until it came out. I was looking through the new releases in my local games shop, when I saw a game I had never heard of before. I looked at the box, and it seemed interesting, so I decided to pick it up. When I bought it, I found out that it was also the game's release date, so I had no idea what to expect from it. Little did I know that I had just purchased one of the most Off-beat and unique games I would ever play. I'm talking about, of course, Suda 51's No More Heroes.
Story
The game has you play as Travis Touchdown, your average spiky-haired anime nerd, who decides to buy a lightsaber in an online auction. After he does, however, he realizes he is completely broke, and decides to take an assasination job to earn money for video games. After completing the job, he learns from Silvia Christel (the woman that hired him to do the job), that he has just killed the 11th ranked assassin in the world. So, he does what anyone in this situation would do, he decides to kill the ranked assassins above him so he can be number 1.
The story is driven by a memorable cast of quirky characters, and I have to say, I really like Travis. When you first meet him, you just think, "oh, he's just a lightsaber-wielding bloodthirsty nerd with a weird obsession with lucha". But after you get to know him, you find out that... well, he IS a lightsaber-wielding bloodthirsty nerd with a weird obsession with lucha, except he has a kitten.
The ranked assassins you go after rest comfortably on the boarder of strange and bizzare, and make Travis look normal by comparison. They include (but are not limited to); a karaoke singing cowboy, a teenage girl with an afro who thinks she's a samurai, and, of course, a mailman who dresses like a superhero and shoots lasers from his crotch. I absolutely loved the bosses in this game, so much so that I was almost sad that I had to brutally kill them all.
But the main element that helps to set this story apart from any other game I have ever played is the humor. I'm not talking about "getting hit in the balls" humor. The funny in this game is much more subtle, but there are plenty of laugh out loud moments in the game. It's full of references to popular culture, and not just the obvious Star Wars references peppered here and there. I won't list any for the sake of spoilers, but rest assured, they're clever enough to make you laugh.
Gameplay
Gameplay is divided into two parts; missions, and between-missions. During ranked missions, you lead Travis through linear levels filled to the brim with bad guys all wearing the same suit and tie, and you have to slice your way through all of them to reach the level exit, which leads to a boss.
Combat is fairly simplistic, but still very satisfying. You can attack enemies with your lightsaber, and switch between high and low stances. The stance you are in determines how you can block and counter enemy attacks, as enemies will also attack you in high or low stance. You can also physically assault enemies with punches and kicks, which leaves them open to lucha-style wrestling moves. Hand-to-hand moves also use high and low stances, and can be used to break through blocking enemies. Think of the high and low stance system as a big game of rock, paper, scissors. Except if your opponent throws out rock, paper, or scissors, you chop his arm off. The only problem with the combat is that sometimes it can get alittle button-mashy, but despite this, it never really stops being fun.
There's also a random powerup system, in which whenever you kill an enemy, you have a random chance of gaining Dragonball Z-style powers (complete with glowing golden hair) for a set amount of time. The powerups are awesome, and some look really cool, but the problem with the random powerup system is that, well, it's RANDOM. You have an equal chance of your first enemy giving you a power as the last enemy in the room, and for some reason, it always seems to be the last one. But this is only a minor complaint, and when they work, they work well.
At the end of every level is a boss, and let me tell you, they don't disappoint. Each and every one is completely unique, you won't see any big versions of minion-type enemies here. While on easy mode, you can clear them with minimal effort and alittle button mashing, on harder difficulties they require real stratagy and attack pattern memorization to beat.
While the missions are great, the inbetween-mission stuff isn't quite as good. In order to take on ranked missions, you need to earn enough money, so to do this, you complete part-time jobs. These range from mowing lawns to pumping gas, and also range from pretty fun to kind of repetitive.
In order to reach these side jobs, you have to ride your bike around the Grand Theft Auto style sandbox, which is unfortunately the worst aspect of the game. It becomes apparent the second you set foot in the city that it is little more than a hub to house the missions. The entire city is a ghost town, there are very few people or cars around to see, few landmarks worth remembering, and when you DO see a car or person, thats it, you can only SEE them. You can't carjack people, and you can't use your lightsaber in the overworld, so you can't kill or rob anyone. It's a shame, too, as this is a big blemish on an otherwise great experience.
Controls
The controls pretty much follow the same pattern as the gameplay. During missions, moving Travis around the levels and the camera around Travis is easy and functional. Combat is equally well-done, as controlling the high and low stances are done by moving the Wii Remote from vertical to horizontal, respectively. Finishing moves and Wrestling moves are performed with swings of the Wii Remote, and the game picks up on them fairly easily, you'll never miss one because the game didn't register your movements.
On the other hand, the controls for the bike are pretty bad. Getting good at riding your motorcycle has a pretty steep learning curve, and the bike itself has problems with turning and colision detection. You'll usually find yourself getting thrown off your bike because you hit a car that wasn't even close to you. This makes the overworld even less fun than it already was.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are pretty bad... from a purely technical standpoint. However, what saves the graphics (in my mind), is the style. Everything is done in cel-shading, and combined with the art style, it gives the game a hand-drawn look to it. While playing, you'll find that it feels more like you are watching an anime than playing a game.
The game does have some small problems with slowdown, but this usually only happens when you've just decapitated 4 guys at once and are watching a fountain of blood and coins spurt from their neck-stumps, so it's usually forgivable.
Audio
On a scale of one to ten, the sound gets a WOW/10. The music in this game is simply great, there are tons of memorable tracks, most of which will leave you humming for days.
The major selling point, however, is the voice acting. I know I've praised good voice acting in the past, but any game in which I've liked the voices takes a back seat to No More Heroes. The great acting from the cast takes the already insane characters and, like Emeril Lagasse, kicks it up a notch.
Replay Value
Believe me, after you've beaten this game, there's still plenty to do. You can go through the story mode again on a harder difficulty, with all your upgrades and money intact. Or you could explore the city and find new clothes for Travis to wear, or Lovikov Balls to give him new abilities. After beating the game and continuing a new one, you can also collect various cards that depict characters and items in the game.
Fun Factor
There's no doubt, No More Heroes is fun. It's hard to really express in writing how great this game is, it really has to be experienced for you to get it.
The Good
Great story with interesting characters, fun combat, interesting style, five-star voice acting, fun yet challenging bosses, and great humor.
The Bad
Overworld sandbox is dull, combat can be button-mashy at times.
The Weird
Watching Travis, uh, "recharge" his "lightsaber".
Buy, Rent, or Avoid
I'm going to stress this as hard as I can, GET THIS GAME. It's too long to be beaten in one rental, and if you even like action games alittle bit, No More Heroes will leave your bloodlust satisfied.
Final Judgement
Now, based on everything I have written above, No More Heroes probably sounds like a good game, but not a great game. But this isn't the case at all, No More Heroes is truely a game that is better than the sum of its parts. You can tell just by playing it that the developers went out of their way to give us something we've never seen before. No More Heroes is worth your time, money, and sanity, so head to the Garden of Madness. |
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An Opinion on Stage Counterpicking |
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Written by Rhyme
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Friday, 08 August 2008 02:25 |
Alright, so you're in a tournament set and you've just lost match 1. Bummer. But that's OK. Now you are given the chance to turn the tide in your favor.
That's the idea, anyway. In online and in-person, stage counterpicking has always been a part of tournament play. However, OBC tournaments have never embraced this essential art. (Been in the rules but few seem to follow.)
So what are you going to do? Well, at this point there are several options open to you.
The quick, easy, and reliable option number one is what most people will choose: favorite stage. Everybody's got one. When you pal around with your friends, online, wherever, this would be the stage that you tend to secure the most victories on. It's the stage you know like the back of your hand.
For a Wolf player that stage might be FD. A Wolf with a camping based strategy sure wouldn't want the terrain to interfere with his laser's ability to impede the progress of his opponent, nor would he want to worry about the possibility of his edgescar failing. His smashes would always connect, and the boundaries are just the right size to favor Wolf's weight to killing power ratio. However, this stage might also be Yoshi's Island Brawl. Wolf's Uair and Bair, two of his better moves, have great leeway for when you can do them and still have them auto-cancel. (His Nair no lag cancels upon landing already.) Wolf can easily travel the gentle slopes and curves of this stage without interrupting his strategy. Characters like Fox, Jiggs, Ganon, D3, Mario, and even Pika could easily find themselves landing prematurely due to the gentle slope, which hurts their gameplay. Snake's 'nades and ROB's gyro don't work properly here either. Wolf's smashes are effective kill moves on this stage, the platform can add greatly to his comboability, and the support ghost can occasionally lend a helping hand to Wolf's horrible DI in recovery. So, for whatever the technical reasons, many players will find themselves a comfortable stage. That accustomed feeling can sometimes throw a match into your favor, so it's a natural counterpick choice.
What if you would like to delve a little deeper? There is another factor which takes moderate consideration to benefit from, and that is your opponent.
More precisely, what kind of game is your opponent playing? If your opponent is going to pick Falco and chaingrab your DK to death, consider a stage like Rainbow Cruise. No platform on this stage has any considerable length, which greatly limits how effective Falco's chaingrab can be. Is Olimar giving your Sonic too much pressure on Battlefield? Try a bigger stage that Sonic has room to manuver in, like FD or Smashville. Is your opponent spamming a hard-to-punish recovery strategy or edge strategy? Frigate works wonders if you can control the stage and keep your opponent to the correct side of you. Delfino might be an even better choice, as half of the stage transformations eliminate recovery and edge-games entirely. Maybe you need Battlefield's many platforms to mess with your opponent's aerial game. Maybe Norfair's uneven terrain will boost your own aerial game and prevent edgehoggs. Knowing how your opponent plans to fight against you and picking a stage that makes that strategy difficult could only help you.
So what if all that doesn't work and you're still having trouble? Well luckily there is one more major area that we have yet to cover!
The true art to counterpicking is figuring out what qualities of a stage would benefit you while simultaneously disadvantaging your opponent. These would be due to inherent qualities of a character.
For example: ZSS is quite lacking in recovery. Her best kill move would be the Bair, which can be difficult to land. Your opponent: Snake. Ouch. So let's think about what we've learned...we need a stage that will minimize the ease at which ZSS can be gimped (makes KOs for Snake more difficult), make her best kill move easier to land (remember that ZSS has a very high SH), and, as an added bonus, a stage that will make it harder for Snake to use his grenades. Options?
Frigate has very nicely-sized stage boundaries. ZSS will not live to a percentage where she needs the upB to recover (most of the time), the ceiling is noticibly higher than the sides are wide (harder for Snake to Utilt/C4 kill), and the platforms on the second transformation could potentially save you. The bad news is that Snake's grenades can still work on this level (though they can't be used as freely as on a stage like Smashville, which is nice). Snake is also all about stage control, so chances are that it'd be hard for you to stay away from that lack of edge on the right side (which kills you and Snake totally doesn't need). Not a bad counterpick, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
Norfair wouldn't be that bad of a stage either. The unevenness emphasizes Snake's lacking aerial game, lowers the effectiveness of his 'nades, and prevents gimping. It also allows for great Bair KO opprotunities (forces your opponent to be at an orientation to ZSS where it's easier to land her aerials), which is a huge plus. The downsides? ZSS needs 'some' flat ground for a few of her intricacies, like nB and overB, to work to full effectiveness. Snake's recovery is also boosted by this stage, as between C4 jumping, lava, and awesome height of the ceiling (relative to below the stage) he can survive to greater percentages just like you can. Not the best or worst, but it's certainly a viable option.
Delfino is a great choice. Half your time is spent on a stage which is far too small for Snake's 'nades, while the rest of the time gentle slopes will mess with his placement of 'nades and boosted Usmash. ZSS pressure game of her nB and overB can really be felt in the neutral transformation, and the platforms are so greatly spaced that a good jumper like ZSS can make great use of them. The other half of the time there is no need to recover, so her terrible recovery is no longer an issue. Snake can be gimped just as easily as ZSS can in almost every non-neutral transformation. Also, Snake's spiking move is hard to hit with when you're in the water, making it a relative safe zone. Many of the transformations support ZSS' unique type of camping. The terrain is flat but staggered in a few, forcing opponents to go airborn which lends nicely to her Uair/Bair KOability. As with any shifty counterpick this one should be approached in a careful manner, but it definitely gets my counterpick seal of approval. : )
So, let's review.
Being comfortable on a stage is priority numero uno. If you're not familiar with a stage then there's no hope of you ever using it as a counterpick. It's an added bonus if your opponent is uncomfortable with that same stage. Secondly, you want the stage to help you against whatever tricks your opponent has up their sleeve, be it chaingrabbing, projectile spam, or something else entirely. And then, once you've tended to these more primative factors, that is when you go deep into the metagame to figure out what gives your character the advantage over another character.
As a final piece of advice, there's none better taken than from a seasoned player. The true inspiration for this article is none other than Gimpyfish. Please do me, him, and yourself a favor and watch this.
That's the theory in a nutshell. Hopefully these words will inspire a number of you to embrace counterpicking in our, and other, events. In some time I plan to analyze a pro set and explain the in's and out's. I'll first see if this gets enough support to warrant that sequel of sorts. |
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The Force is Meh with this one. |
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Written by Leemaster777
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Friday, 01 August 2008 23:37 |
What do you get when you combine huge knives, big boobs, and a guy who wears spikes and mouth gag? Well, you either get the world's most disturbing porno, or you get Namco's most recent installment in the giant sword-wielding, jiggle-tastic fighting series, Soul Calibur 4. But wait, this time around, instead of just having fun with swords and skimpy clothes, we also get to play with lightsabers and mouth breathing, as Star Wars crosses over from a galaxy far far away. Will Soul Calibur and Star Wars make as good a team-up as Han Solo and Chewy, or will this game be destined to rest on the dark side of my game shelf? Well...
Story
Well, there are two magical, all powerful swords in the world. One good, one bad. And everyone wants them. Or wants to destroy them. And, uh, that pretty much sums up the whole story. Fighting games may not be know for having epic storylines, but Soul Calibur 4 is pretty much bare-bones in this case. The story mode in this game is almost criminally short, you get a few paragraphs at the beginning of each player's story, a cutscene at the end, and that't it. Not much else to say.
Gameplay
When viewed as a pure fighting game, Soul Calibur 4 is decent. Attacks are divided into two kinds, horizontal and vertical. And you can attack either high, low, or middle. As with most fighting games, there are various special moves exclusive to certain characters, and they each have their own use. You can guard against attacks, parry them, and counter them as well. It isn't the most complex system around, but it works fine.
A new addition to the combat this time is the Critical Finish, which lets you completely destroy an opponent in one hit if they defend too much. It sounds good in theory, but (at least in my experience), you'll probably never see one. I've been playing this game for 3 days straight, and I have yet to see a single Critical Finish, on or offline. Maybe I'm just a newb, but I couldn't even pull one off in Training Mode.
There are various gameplay modes to choose from; Story (which, as I've already discussed, is far to short), Arcade, and Tower of Lost Souls. Arcade mode pits you against 8 random fighters, and scores you on how well you did at the end. It's not the deepest mode ever, but as a way to kill some time, it works fine. Tower of Lost Souls, however, is probably the most engrossing single-player mode available.In it, you can choose to either ascend, or descend. If you choose ascend, you will have to fight various challenges against pre-set opponents with various abilities, and by completing various hidden objectives, you can gain new parts for the Character Creation mode (covered later). Choose descend, and you will have to fight against endless bad guys until you die, with rewards similar to ascend. Tower of Lost Souls isn't the greatest single-player mode of all time, but it's definitly the best that Soul Calibur 4 can offer.
Soul Calibur 4 also has a Museum mode, which lets you view cutscenes, artwork, and various other extras. Pretty much standard to the series at this point.
Probably the best part of the whole game, however, is the Character Creation system, which lets you build your own characters. There are quite a few combinations to choose from, and creative players will spend hours tweeking their warriors however they want. The main drawback to this mode, unfortunately, is the fact that most of the parts are locked from the start, and you have to play through the various modes to unlock them. Personally, I don't see why we couldn't have a full roster from the start, but that might be just me.
A new addition to the series is the online play, which, unfortunately, is completely hit or miss. Personally, I found it somewhat hard to just find a match and play, you almost always have to start your own room to play, which I found annoying. There's an online leaderboard to track rank, but sometimes the game won't register a battle on the ranking board, and your hard-earned win will be for nothing. The game includes headset support, but for some reason, you can only chat with players BEFORE the match, not during it, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Another somewhat annoying feature is that you can only play one match against opponents, then you have to search for a new one. I suppose this doesn't apply if you are playing with friends, but I don't have any friends that own this game. I will admit, however, that the ability to use custom characters online is a nice feature.
Does all this sound good so far? It should, because other than online play, not alot has changed between this game and Soul Calibur 3. I can understand not wanting to screw with a formula that works, but within the first 10 minutes, it became abundantly clear to me that this was the same game all over again. To make matters worse, the character selection is almost exactly the same as well. Take out the Star War and Bonus characters, and you'll see there are only two new fighters this time around. Two! That's a clear rip-off.
Controls
For the most part, controls are responsive, and other than the Critical Finish, most of the specials are easy enough to pull off after alittle practice. Not a whole lot to complain about here.
Graphics
Graphic-wise, this is a fairly decent game. Character models are detailed... especially the girls (cough). Backrounds aren't quite as nice, with the exception of the Star Wars themed levels, which look awesome. It's a pretty game, but these days, what isn't?
Audio
The audio doesn't hold up nearly as well as the graphics, again, with the exception of the Star Wars levels and characters. None of the music really grabs me, and, as always, this game has some mythically bad voice acting. Tira in particular made me want to run over a puppy. I suggest you switch over to japanese audio as soon as you get the game, believe me, your ears will thank you.
Replay Value
If you really get into the Character Creator, you can probably occupy yourself for some time getting all the parts to make the perfect custom fighter, but other than that, this game is alittle lax on the extras. And, as I've stated before, story mode is too short and dull to keep you interested.
Fun Factor
If you have a group of friends that own this game, or you can overcome the shortcomings of the online play, multiplayer is pretty much the only saving grace of this game. Character Creator is also fun if you put alittle imagination into it.
The Good
A solid fighting system, decent graphics for this generation, and a deep character customization system.
The Bad
Shallow story mode, Critcal Finish moves are too hard to pull off, voice acting is awful, online is a mixed bag, and overall not much has changed to the series.
The Weird
Realizing that Ivy has to fight her dad in that outfit.
Buy, Rent, or Avoid
Well, this varies depending on what group you fall into. If you are a hardcore Soul Calibur fan... well, you've probably already bought the game. If you've never played a Soul Calibur game before, rent first, then decide. If you already own Soul Calibur 3, and don't care about online play, there's no reason to buy this game.
Final Judgement
Now, I know I said alot of bad things about this game in the review, but I'll be honest, I liked this game... 3 years ago when it was Soul Calibur 3. But now it just seems like Namco took the same game, slapped on Star Wars and online play, gave it a facelift, and sold it to us again. Star Wars probably could have saved this game, but the novelty of ONLY having Darth Vader as a playable character wore off real quick (okay, I know there's some guy called The Apprentice in the game too, but I've never heard of him before, and I don't care enough to do the research).
All in all, how does this game rank among other fighting games? Well, its not Street Fighter 3. Its not Shaq Fu either. Basically, its average. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to beat Pikachu upside the head with a baseball bat. |
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