Can't quite find the point in SoulCaliber, though.
Fighting games generally are a strange beast. Something like Soul Calibur is a remarkably well designed game which will only really be played properly by a tiny percentage of its audience. And yet this strangely niche product can be sold to a mass market because the game's broad theme is highly appealing to plenty of people whose play never gets beyond mashing random buttons.
Or to put it another way: I doubt I'll ever be mystified by someone not liking fighting games. The mystery is why they weren't long ago replaced with something more mindless.
whose play never gets beyond mashing random buttons.
For example someone who is utterly hopeless at anything resembling a fighting game but can select Taki and press the kick button a lot :-)
Playing any of you "pros" and i'd be doomed though, it would seem to have a certain depth to it which I appreciate even if I won't ever play it like that.
I do win every so often but i'm sure you have theories as to why that happens :-)
Umm... sorry, that wasn't a general dig at fighting games. I rather like them. Indeed, I have many treasured memories of a mystified bateleur being stumped by my E.Honda strategy, until he figured it out and started winning consistently again.
(Man, was that a while ago.)
No, I specifically can't find the point of Soul Caliber IV. Maybe it's that I don't know the storyline from I, II, and III, but it seems that I'm supposed to be caring about a bundle of folks, for some reason or another, trying to destroy one or two swords that other folks seem to actually be carrying?
Also, I can play Yoda, but can't figure out how to get Darth Vader to load. Which was really the reason for buying the game.
But yes, I wasn't trying to denigrate fighting games. They're quite nice.
Also, I can play Yoda, but can't figure out how to get Darth Vader to load. Which was really the reason for buying the game.
Wow! EPIC marketing fail! :-O
If you bought the XBox 360 version there is no Darth Vader. He's PS3 only. (He's quite fun, but not interesting enough that I play him regularly.)
Man, was that a while ago.
I have fond memories of that - except that I don't recall ever managing to beat your Honda consistently. Many Vegas ended up very flat indeed in the pursuit of this goal!
For NOW. Clearly there's a slot for him on the character tree, plus there's footage of them fighting on ter intertron. Everyone expects them to release the different variants for each platform as downloadable (ahem - unlockable ;-) content in a little bit.
I bought it used at Gamestop, and the packaging was thus not entirely complete. So, really, probably my own fault. I don't think it's a marketing thing: all I knew was that Yoda and Darth were in SoulCaliber in one form or another.
except that I don't recall ever managing to beat your Honda consistently
If I recall, about the time you would have gotten the hang of it, I went to Japan, and by the time I came back, they changed the game to the new version?
but it seems that I'm supposed to be caring about a bundle of folks, for some reason or another, trying to destroy one or two swords that other folks seem to actually be carrying
I'm pretty sure this is the equivalent of saying "I just can't get into Busty Vixens III - what on earth was that pizza delivery guy doing in their living room anyway?"
Though actually I agree with you - a lot of games that everyone likes could actually have been BRILLIANT, if only someone had bothered to care about the plot.
You're right. Busty Vixens III had a ridiculous plot with only the most tenuous connection to the earlier entries in the series, shallow characters, and quite threadbare settings....
(In all seriousness, the comparison isn't entirely apt, because fighting games and porn suffer from two different, but related, problems. In porn, a bad plot provides purely superfluous motivation for the characters, who at the end of the day have at least one incentive for the action. The contrivances in fighting games have to explain the counterintuitive: why a bundle of puissant quasi-superbeings hang around in preposterous backgrounds to beat the heck out of each other some variant of a tournament setting. The plot actually has a lot more work to do in fighting games.)
Anyway, I actually do play fighting games in part for the plot, or at least, I used to play them for that. Learning exactly why the grizzled military veteran was beating up all of these folks was the reward for having become skilled enough to finish.
;)
Thanks for the recommendations. I just got a new X-Box as well. Can't quite find the point in SoulCaliber, though.
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Fighting games generally are a strange beast. Something like Soul Calibur is a remarkably well designed game which will only really be played properly by a tiny percentage of its audience. And yet this strangely niche product can be sold to a mass market because the game's broad theme is highly appealing to plenty of people whose play never gets beyond mashing random buttons.
Or to put it another way: I doubt I'll ever be mystified by someone not liking fighting games. The mystery is why they weren't long ago replaced with something more mindless.
Reply
For example someone who is utterly hopeless at anything resembling a fighting game but can select Taki and press the kick button a lot :-)
Playing any of you "pros" and i'd be doomed though, it would seem to have a certain depth to it which I appreciate even if I won't ever play it like that.
I do win every so often but i'm sure you have theories as to why that happens :-)
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Something along the line of "being kicked in the head repeatedly is painful"!
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(Man, was that a while ago.)
No, I specifically can't find the point of Soul Caliber IV. Maybe it's that I don't know the storyline from I, II, and III, but it seems that I'm supposed to be caring about a bundle of folks, for some reason or another, trying to destroy one or two swords that other folks seem to actually be carrying?
Also, I can play Yoda, but can't figure out how to get Darth Vader to load. Which was really the reason for buying the game.
But yes, I wasn't trying to denigrate fighting games. They're quite nice.
Reply
Wow! EPIC marketing fail! :-O
If you bought the XBox 360 version there is no Darth Vader. He's PS3 only. (He's quite fun, but not interesting enough that I play him regularly.)
Man, was that a while ago.
I have fond memories of that - except that I don't recall ever managing to beat your Honda consistently. Many Vegas ended up very flat indeed in the pursuit of this goal!
Reply
For NOW. Clearly there's a slot for him on the character tree, plus there's footage of them fighting on ter intertron. Everyone expects them to release the different variants for each platform as downloadable (ahem - unlockable ;-) content in a little bit.
Reply
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except that I don't recall ever managing to beat your Honda consistently
If I recall, about the time you would have gotten the hang of it, I went to Japan, and by the time I came back, they changed the game to the new version?
Reply
I'm pretty sure this is the equivalent of saying "I just can't get into Busty Vixens III - what on earth was that pizza delivery guy doing in their living room anyway?"
Though actually I agree with you - a lot of games that everyone likes could actually have been BRILLIANT, if only someone had bothered to care about the plot.
Reply
(In all seriousness, the comparison isn't entirely apt, because fighting games and porn suffer from two different, but related, problems. In porn, a bad plot provides purely superfluous motivation for the characters, who at the end of the day have at least one incentive for the action. The contrivances in fighting games have to explain the counterintuitive: why a bundle of puissant quasi-superbeings hang around in preposterous backgrounds to beat the heck out of each other some variant of a tournament setting. The plot actually has a lot more work to do in fighting games.)
Anyway, I actually do play fighting games in part for the plot, or at least, I used to play them for that. Learning exactly why the grizzled military veteran was beating up all of these folks was the reward for having become skilled enough to finish.
Reply
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