MK9: The "it" game of my community

I've tried many ways to entice my non-fighting game friends to fighting games with me, whether it be Tekken or Street Fighter. They just can't take the time to learn the mechanics and get the 'feel' of fighting games and they just scoot their asses off to DOTA and some other lame online game shit. (It's the online games I hate, not DOTA. Who hates DOTA?) Until now.

Mortal Kombat 9 is the reboot of the MK franchise. It was released around April 2011 and it was developed by NetherRealm Studios. The storyline is set directly after MK: Armageddon but the timeline shifts and the game focuses on the earliest period in the Mortal Kombat series (MK1 through MK3) as Raiden tries to undo the mistakes of his future self.

What really caught my friends attention is that it was MORTAL KOMBAT. Mortal Kombat is easily remembered among them because back then, we had a Piso Coin Arcade Machine (the ones which house an SNES inside) at the local sari-sari store and it attracted them because they were familiar with the characters and the moves. Mortal Kombat always had a certain charm because it was not cartoony like Street Fighter or Blazblue, not over the top like the Marvel Series and not as serious as Tekken. In the world of fighting games, Mortal Kombat had defined it's own genre by using excessive gore and guts. This edition is no exception.

The next thing that got them hooked was the gameplay and control system of the new MK. Mortal Kombat makes a return to the 2D fighting system like it was before but this time, instead of sprites, they used 3D models and effects, kind of like Street Fighter 4 to a certain degree. The controls also have been tweaked the right way so that the veterans wouldn't have to adjust much and newbies can easily learn. The four attack buttons now represent the limbs of your fighter, kind of like the Tekken control scheme. There's also one button for throws and another button for blocking. There's also a Change Stance button which still mystifies me because it seems to have no useful purpose. There's also a Tag button but it's only available in Tag Mode.The new control system is very much loved by my friends. In a way, it's very reminiscent of UMK3. Many of the commands for moves have been simplified. You still need quick reflexes to enter in the commands at the right time, but with less effort on remembering what's next. The feel of MK9 did take some getting used to because the animation is less fluid. Some of my friend's combos didn't string together, others just drop because they didn't understand the timing yet. Most of my younger friends started complaining because they're not used to it but now,they're one of the deadliest to face. This also made the game popular in our area, because the younger crowd is starting to dominate and the veterans are noticing. Competition juices and fighting spirits are making a comeback!

I'd also like to mention that NetherRealm made good decisions to add new things and bring back old, effective features before. The addition of X-rays and Super Meters to the MK verse was very welcomed by my veteran friends as that was new. For the new ones, the Fatalities are always a treat for them. The Combo Breaker is the most loved by both sides, though. It's usually the determining factor of a win or lose in any MK Fight.

Overall, I thank NetherRealm for bringing back MK and making it good. We recently had our first tournament, all thanks to MK's tweaked system. Plus, no other fighting game lets you cut your opponents' bodies in half with a freakin hat. You can't find that anywhere else.

Peace Out!
-Chady

Life with Imaginary 1-ups #16

*You will know your hanging out with someone young when you sing the Pokemon TV Show Theme Song and they don't recognize it. It also makes you feel very old.

*When I was ten, I tried ordering an official strategy guide for Final Fantasy VII on the phone. I almost bought one if I just had a credit card. All because I couldn't get a Gold Chocobo. Kid frustrations.

*I've been obviously spending waay too much time on the interwebz. My speech patterns are all laced with memes. Why U no Believe Me?! Type all the things!!

-Chady

Greed and Ambition

There is a fine line between greed and ambition.

We all have wants,dreams and ambitions. Some of us want a better future for their kids. Some want to borrow other people's things so that we can try it out for ourselves. Others just want to ask money for whatever they would need money for. I get that. It's natural for humans to desire things.

Now with regards to desire, there's also too much of it. Enter Greed. What is greed, though? Greed is defined as "excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions." Now, that's a dictionary talking. Here's how I define greed.

Greed is whenever a person is given something, they look for something else or

something more. Greed is when you have second thoughts sharing your things.

Greed is locking yourself out from the world just because you feel so either separated from everybody else or talented about something to a point you're not willing to mingle with others. Greed is when I am not happy for someone else’s achievement. This is what greed means to me.

Of course, being humans that we are, you might give out rebuttals such as "Person X has a lot of money and is supposedly helpful, he should give money more!" or "Person Y should have this because he is poor and has no work." Let me ask though, if a man is rich or has a lot of money, is it supposed to be automatic that he should be giving out free food or cash 24/7? Also, what makes you say that a person has a lot of money nowadays? Is there a certain chart or statistic that determines this? Honestly, it's not easy to earn money these days what with the limited jobs and minimum payouts. Which brings me to person Y. First off, why is person Y poor? What put him in that status? If the reason is no job, has he even tried looking for one? If the reason is no education, then why didn't he go to school? A person can get over his limitations and stature with dedication and hardwork, not with dependence on others or hanging around your local area all day.

I know some of you will argue with me all day and all I have to say is, it's a fine line guys. It's really up to you to balance yourself out. Learn to respect others so that respect will be given unto you. Simple as that.

Personally, I'm gonna start blacklisting the "abusive" people in my life. They need to learn the balance of things and they should start respecting not only me but as well as other people.

You Know Who You Are.

Peace Out.

-Chady

Life with Imaginary 1-ups #15

*During my senior year of high school, we get to do our final exams first before anyone in the school does so that we can practice our graduation rites. Now after the exams, teachers would mostly leave us alone to sing songs and do pointless shit. Me, on the other hand, would skip most of the graduation rites practices and go home or not go to school at all. Most of my classmates thought I was getting sick or I was avoiding someone but all I did was finish a bunch of RPGs. Twas time well spent.

*Whenever people ask me what's the most scariest game I've ever played I always say Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I still haven't gotten over that stupid thing chasing me in the water-filled room of the Archive hallways. Bastard...

*Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken x Street Fighter, Tekken Blood Vengeance. Thats a lot of Tekkens for next year peepz. TekkenTekkenTekken!

-Chady

Why I hate Twilight

It’s not just that it sucks but because it has an aweful storyline, it corrupts the basic human aspect, it destroys some of the greatest stories of our past and yet, it's still very popular.

I tried reading the book but I burned it after the first chapter. I did watch the movies but I didn't enjoy them one bit. ( In fact, I watched two movies. The first one for curiosity sake and the third one because I was bribed and blackmailed by my gf.) I will probably also get blackmailed again into watching the fourth but hell noooo. A lot of people somehow enjoy the crap. These people could grow up thinking that things like stalking, possessiveness, depression and other abusive behaviours are okay because “Edward loves Bella” or “Bella seems lost without Edward” or the most annoying “Jacob looks hawt. LMAO!!”(WTF?!).

It also ruins the canon of vampires, a cool fiction monster and an icon of western culture. And don't get me started how they changed the werewolves...sheesh. It is also the embodiment of stereotypes about why all things girls like suck (Second only to Justin Beaver).

That is why I hate this franchise.

-Chady

Reason of Long Disappearance: In Bullets

Faithful readers! (If I still have any...)

You might be wondering where I've been gone to all this time and it's a pretty long and non-interesting story... So I'll just summarize... in bullets.

* For some reason, I couldn't access my blog for awhile because my domain-something-thingy could not be located. This went for about two weeks before it auto-corrected itself.

*I went to the Lab with Mortal Kombat 9 and Marvel Vs Capcom3 . Had fiendishly developed my skills for both games so I guess couldn't find time to write stuff.

* I forgot my password. :)

*Set up a sort of gaming session for my friends so that they too can learn MvC3, Mk9, Tekken and so on and so forth.

* Had a LOT of visitors in the form of Ma and Pa's friends. Different occasions, different timelines.

*EVO!!!

*Our net connection also disappeared for awhile because a stray dump truck hit our phone wire.

Stupid truck....

* And finally, I had Work. (Yes, I have work. And you can suck it.)

So that's about it. Hope you'll understand!

-Chady

Revisiting:Contra

Up,Up,Down,Down,Left,Right,Left,Right, B,A (SELECT,START is unnecessarily added by some.)Contra was one of the very first games I played (and hated) on the NES. For those who are not familiar with Contra, Contra is a multidirectional Run and Gun Shooter Arcade game released in 1987 by Konami. The player controls a commando who battles waves upon waves of enemies which include (but not limited to) humans, machines, mutants and aliens to reach his ultimate goal, which is to save humanity(duh). Much of the games popularity came from its two-player simultaneous gameplay, which was an uncommon feature in video games at the time. The game became widely popular when it was ported to the NES in 1988. The cheat code you see above is the Konami Code which gave the players thirty lives instead of just two.

I played that game when I was five years old and boy, was I introduced to the emotion "Furious". This game was insanely HARD. Who ever thought of the concept of evil henchmen running towards you and touch you even the slightest bit causes your death was both genius and psychotic. Who the hell dies from getting touched?! Don't get me started on the jumps as well...damn those jumps. It took me almost two weeks to just get over the first level without losing a single life, had a good weapon at hand(Spread) with a good score. (I was five,give me a break...) then of course, came the second level...and the third..and so on and so forth. No matter how hard I tried, I would only reach up to the third level on the default life settings which was pretty frustrating for me but not until I was introduced to the "Konami Code".I also assume that Contra was my first game to discover the presence of cheat codes in games. (But I'm not really sure that's why I assume...) Thanks to that, I was able to breeze thru the game without a care in the world. Looking back at Contra, I can say that it was one of those games that developed my level of skill with gaming, the dexterity of my hands and good hand-eye coordination. Unfortunately, it also made me hate jungles, little pixel dots that can kill and

also introduced me to my first 'controller throwing' moment.

Contra is one of those games that will test your patience and precise execution. A little bit of your memory as well. Even though it only has a few levels (that's for the whole series.) You'd want to try it over and over again just to see how far you can go with just this life or just this skill and that's where Contra shines. It's difficulty itself is a reason for it's replayability. Now, if they can release a proper Contra sequel for the nextgen systems and it's all set. Let's Go Konami!

peace Out!

-Chady