This post is in response to the wonderful post over on Engadget about the latest release of NPD numbers concerning portable gaming.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/timber-ios-and-android-take-60-percent-cut-of-mobile-gaming-dol/

Saw an interesting story fly across the wire on Google Plus. Apparently, nearly 60% of all portable game software sold is on Android or iOS. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of the world’s high-tech industries are seeing major changes as mobile platforms become the dominate form of computing, business, and entertainment. Gaming is just one of many industries being completely changed from the ground up.

In the classic system, becoming a game developer on a console or handheld system is extremely difficult and expensive. First, you must contact Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo to obtain a very expensive development kit for your particular system. This is a hard enough barrier to entry. If you have the creative ability and development skill to put a game together, but don’t have the funds for the development kit, too bad. You don’t get to create a game. Even worse than this though is the fact that game companies can deny you the sale of the developer kit for just about any reason, especially if you are just one guy who wants to make a game. Its happened before and it will happen again. The next thing you need to worry about is licensing fees. Can your game make enough money to pay the console manufacturers off so they will sign off on your game and allow people to play it on their console? Hopefully. This is why games today have publishers and game publishing has become an industry of its own. Just like artists used to need record labels before the internet music scene changed everything. Video game developers need someone to pay the bills for all the big fees and purchases. As an indie developer who wants to put out a boxed copy of your game, the barriers to entry make it almost an impossible reality.

Game companies have been attempting to help the small guys out with online stores such as Xbox Live Arcare and Xbox Live Indie Games, the PlayStation Store, and DSiWare and WiiWare. These stores have helped a great deal, but it doesn’t help capture the one thing that will make an indie game endlessly profitable: Market. Yes, all of these stores have huge numbers of users, but for the most part, people are tied to a device that are tied to a wall. In the case of the PSP or DS, indie developers run into many of the same licensing and dev kit cost issues that console developers do. The price of entry is too damn high.

Enter: The Smartphone. With the meteoric rise of smartphones and powerful always-connected mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before games on these devices took over the industry. Recent NPD numbers indicate that iOS and Android mobile game sales account for 58% of the total revenue of U.S. Portable Game Software. 58% of the industry’s revenue is because of iOS and Android games. Even the once-proud king Nintendo is down to 36%. Nintendo has always had a very cocky attitude towards competition in the mobile space after they launched the original Game Boy in 1989, always quashing the competition without so much as a second glance. Even the PSP, their biggest competition yet, stood no chance against the DS’ onslaught of sales. Nintendo has always battled against other gaming companies, but they’ve never battled against a different business model entirely, and they’re losing the game. For the first time since 1989, Nintendo isn’t winning the mobile games race.

One point to consider: These numbers signify revenue, not sales numbers or profits, but actual money brought in from sales. Some may claim that the statistics are unfair to Nintendo and Sony, its two companies versus the entire world of developers, but that’s exactly the point: Smartphone developers have no barriers to entry (aside from the $100 or $25 developer fees depending on platform) to get into the market and sell their game to the world of smartphone users. People who want to develop for the DS or PSP need to jump through rings of fire to do so. The old theory from the IBM and Microsoft days stands true, if you make it easy for developers, that’s where the programs will go, that’s where the people will go, and that’s where the money will go. And that’s exactly what’s happening in today’s smartphone-powered world. Great games can be created with small teams and put out for sale in the public market for the cost of a developer account and the time it took you to make your game, nothing more. No publishers, no additional licensing fees, no hoops. Just you, your game, and your potential customers. At this point, the developer doesn’t need to worry about making enough money to cover fees (if you make a game for $1 on either platform, 30% is taken from that, not up front like most manufacturers require), they don’t need to worry about playing politics with exclusivity, they don’t need to find a publisher for their game, they only need to worry about one thing: Reviewers. Just like its always been, the great games rise to the top. The thing developers need to concern themselves with making a great game and making sure bugs are fixed. If that happens, if the game is good enough, it can make an incredible amount of money, with almost no overhead costs, and end up fueling their bank account for the next several months.

One of the reasons that people are buying games on smartphones instead of handhelds is that the smartphone markets offer better choices for consumers, a better buying experience, and a better way of treating your customers. When I buy a Virtual Console game on the Wii, I can’t play it on my 3DS. It doesn’t work that way, Nintendo wants me to buy it twice. No thank you. If I buy Fruit Ninja, however, all I need to do is download it onto my tablet, and I’m gaming in no time. Its that easy. I buy it once and I have it forever. I upgraded my phone to the Nexus S and all of my games re-installed, it was so simple. When I bought my 3DS and the e-store opened, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Even though I had bought games on the Wii, I thought a few would allow me to re-download them and play without being tethered to my Wii all the time, but no. They wanted me to re-buy them. The e-store on the 3DS is slow, buggy, crashes, sometimes downloads don’t complete successfully. All in all, its a bad buying experience. Because the e-store is so slow, I never open it, I check for new games every two months, if that. The e-store is simply awful to use. Now, with Android, I can read a game review of Angry Birds Rio, go to the Android Market website, and have it download without ever having to touch my phone. I get up from my computer and the app is right there on my phone. Seamless, easy, simple, helpful. These are the things I, as the consumer, should think of when I use an online store.

On Google Plus, Darnell Clayton shared this link with me and said, “Apple and Google are killing the gaming industry.” This got me thinking, are Apple and Google killing the gaming industry. Yes, but only this chapter of the industry. Here’s my response (which was a comment on the original post):

Actually Apple and Google are becoming the gaming industry. The gaming industry itself is just fine, alive and well, its just trading out cards, just like what happened with the fall of Atari. The big companies aren’t Atari and Commodore, and it isn’t going to be Microsoft and Nintendo anymore, with platforms that support open development without the need for hugely expensive SDKs and hardware, just about anyone can make a game in a few weeks that could become the hottest thing ever (see Angry Birds). Sony is in an interesting position because they aren’t only accepting this change, they are embracing it. With the release of the Xperia Play and their official PlayStation app, they wholly admit that the best gaming device is the one you have on you (like the best camera is the one you have on you), and they are making moves to thrive in that market.

If existing gaming companies don’t get a handle on the changing market, they’re dead. They will be killed by companies like Gamevil, Glu Mobile, and Halfbrick Studios. These tiny dev houses haven’t just survived the harsh gaming industry, they’ve thrived in it. Even EA Games, classically one of the more stubborn and un-inventive publishers, has made moves to exist in emerging markets like social network games (Facebook and Google+) and smartphone games. The games industry is like any other industry, when your industry is undergoing rapid change, you either evolve with it or die.

The next few years will be interesting. With Nintendo claiming that they’ll never embrace the future, clinging to their rotary phones and cassette tapes, and Sony jumping headfirst into the mobile phone space, things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

The first was simply put as the Iron Man fighting game tournament. I was in a group of 6 people and I had to face each of them in each of the following games- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Capcom vs SNK 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Breakers Revenge, and last but not least Vampire Savior which is the 1997 version of the Darkstalkers series. To be honest I was completely outmatched by damn near everyone that I had to go up against. Each game you played two out of three out of five rounds and I learned a few things right off the bat.

1: No matter how good I think I am or how decent I may be at a game someone will and can kick my ass no matter what I do.

2: Breakers Revenge is full of broken shit that allows me to do nothing all the while the people I go up against keep coming at me with an onslaught of terror.

3: Apparently I am a lot better at Vampire Savior than I ever would have thought (Felicia FTW!).

Yea shes a cat, whatever she kicks so much ass.

4: That my combo of Cammy, Ryu, and Sagat are hard to beat if in Capcom vs SNK 2 if I just remember how the hell to use sagat as a spam/distance fighter.

5: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure might be up there for the best fighting game I have ever played even though I cannot imagine what the hell the people were on when they made the comic and the two fighting games based off of it.

Regardless of all of that I went 5 out of 25 and did not advance to the next round. It was a huge learning experience and one of the many I had throughout the day. The best part was I started to realize that all these guys were like a community of friends and when they watched each other they wanted to give tips on what they could have done to do better. Even without knowing any of them I was quickly accepted and was involved in a lot of discussions with the overall group of people. Jesse also participated in this tourney but did not do as well…although I cannot recall his record.

Ok time for tourney two of the day and of corse as luck would have, it turned out to be a “Mystery Game” tournament. Essentially I was forced to play some of the worst titles I can ever imagine.You played two out of three rounds…if it was a fighting game and if you lose twice you are out of the tournament.

The first game I played was entitled: Joy Mech Fight. This game was a fighting game made back in 1993 for the famicom. We played it on a top loader and I have to be honest, if you look at this game for a second you will say “Wow this game has to be one of the shittiest games I have ever seen.” Honestly I loved it, they had a lot of diverse fighters for a game that was released on Nintendo. I also just found out that it had a 38 player roster, which if you can your math most games in 1993 had roughly 15 so that is astounding. I won my fight using a character that was named Tiger and did it using his diving kick attack.

To me he is a cross between Sagat from Street Fighter, and Rax from Eternal Champions. Oh in other news the attack is called the eagle kick, and was my weapon of mass destruction.

The next game was DX Hird…which I would love to provide you with a good review or picture but it has been so long the only thing i remember is that it played like Battle Arena Toshiden 3 and was terrible looking. It is so obscure that I spent 10 minutes on google looking up and down for it and I have nothing but one man talking about how bad it is in a forum…I was unaware that a game could suck that bad that no physical evidence exists.

Next up was Masked rider Agigo, which is a game based off of the Japanese television series Kamen Rider. This game was one of the prettiest games that I can remember from the tourney and the actual movement from the characters looked great. This game was not responsive at all and even if you wanted to use one of your strong attacks it would take about 4 seconds to load the damn thing up before you could go and use it. None the less I won this game as well. Once again I cannot get a picture of the game I am referencing so deal with it.

After that came Heaven’s Gate which is a game so bad that wikipedia does not have an existing article about it. I remember it being for the PS1 and kinda reminding me of Virtua Fighter except way way worse. All I know is that I won this game as well but honestly I cannot remember anything about it upon seeing pictures other than what I just told you.

THIS GAME IS BAD! I also realize Jin looks like Hanzo from World Heroes.

The next game was Sailor Moon S, which as you could guess was a Sailor Moon fighting game. The control and response to this game are some of the saddest I have experienced. I mean they could actually be worse but holy god, I really think they just liked to rush fighting titles based on random cartoons in Japan because they know people would buy it. Think about it Sailor Moon was/might still be that popular over there so this makes sense. Once again this game was another win for the Martyr.

This game is a lot worse than it looks.

The only game I played that was not a fighting game was a heated match of Frogs and Flies. You are a frog who jumps in the air and tries to eat the dots they call flies that are on the screen. Two people go at the same time and it starts off as day and after every 30 seconds or so it gets darker and darker until it goes black and a winner is determined. This was the closest game I actually played during the entire Mystery Game match-up. It was also a great game to shout expletives as my frog would jump like a huge pussy or just jump way too hard off his lily pad due to the great controls of the Atari that we played it on. Chalk up another win.

This game is actually more fun because the controls suck so bad. I have never cussed more at a game in a short amount of time then I did at this one.

The final game I would win at was Natsuke Crisis Battle and it was for the Super Famicom. After getting my ass kicked the first round I had the misfortune of picking the female version of Zangief and somehow pulled off some of the biggest bullshit moves once I figured out she was just like him. I do not mean in the spamming lariat sense, but the 360 degree rotation while jumping to throw my opponent into the ground type of character.

Very obscure never heard of game of good god damn reasons.

Finally I was able to play a arcade game for the tourney and it was Karate Champ. This game has one of the least responsive controls I have ever seen in a fighting game. You play until you get two full points or the time runs out. Points are given based on the attack you use and where you inflict the attack. You use two joysticks, one moves you and the other helps attack. Depending on the two directions you move the joysticks, you can do front flips, jump kicks, and other crazy karate shit. Biggest problem with this game is that the hit detection has to be really perfect. If you are off by 1/18th of a second or if you are kinda too close to them the move will not be  completed. None the less I had a hell of a fight but still lost by a half a point.

There is not a better feeling than executing the jump kick for the full point. TO THE FACE.

The last game I was able to play for this was the very creatively named FIST. This by far was the worst thing that I played the entire day. I really wish I could get a picture of it just to show you how bad it is. The controls were terrible, the game play was worse. It was on the PS1 but I swear it looked and felt like a blind man made a game using random code that sounded good to him in his mind and he turned it into FIST. 

Yep this is all I could find. Thank you Ebay.

After my two losses I had to get ready for the final tournament of the night and I am not sure where I finished exactly I just know that I did really damn good and came pretty close to actually getting to the final. I then had to prepare myself to be entered into the King of Iron Fist Tournament, or at least the sixth edition of Tekken anyway. As fate would have it I had to go up against my buddy Jesse in the first part of a round robin event. Each match was 3 out of 5 rounds and 2 out of three fights. The first match I decided to use Bruce and after Jesse dominated the shit out of me I looked him in the eyes told him I was sorry and picked Eddy Gordo. I do feel bad that I had to use one of the cheapest characters against a guy that never really plays Tekken too much but I needed to get that first (and only win of the day) so I chose him and beat Jesse’s ass. I decided that after the fight Jesse and I had that I had to pick a character I was good with that was not someone people knew how to defend well. I thought about Eddy again, but he is a beginner character so I knew I stood no chance with him…after several minutes of debate I said “Fuck It” and I picked Jack 6. Jack is slow as all hell but is very powerful and has great reach and the ability to put the opponent into the air to juggle…slight problem is that I am not good enough with him to know how to consistently keep the person in the air. Overall I faced about 10 different people and lost to all of them. Most of my matches were very close and I met a few people that will be at the Power Up event at the end of the month that I plan on attending.

While playing against all these great players I was told a few different things from some of the participants.

1: The fact that I chose Jack when almost no one really is comfortable with him, threw most of my enemies off because they did not know what to expect.

2: I am very good at blocking and anticipating low attacks which is key to keeping a match as close as it can be given most juggle attacks start from a low to high position.

3: That for it being my first tournament that apparently I was skilled a lot higher than anyone thought I would have been when I told people it was my first tournament.

4: That the word Perfect, is described as “The seven golden letters” and you better not let that shit happen to you.

Like I said before this was one of the best things I had ever done and I learned a lot from it. Met a lot of awesome people who seem to want me to go back, and I earned the respect of people I have never met because I had the balls to pick a character that no one plays with while trying to compete with people much better than my sorry ass. If you ever have the chance to go to Arcade Legacy you need to. It is 10 bucks to play all night, and all the games are free and set up so all you have to do is hit the start button to enjoy some classics such as Killer Instinct, MVC2, Point Blank and many others. For further understanding check their website.

http://arcadelegacy.wordpress.com/

Releases:

This month we’ve seen some interesting new IPs come out of the wood works.   The long awaited PS3 exclusive “Heavy Rain” brings adventure gaming to the next generation of consoles.  “The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom” for the Xbox 360 acts as this months “must get” indie game, with puzzle platforming to rival that of Jonathan Blow’s “Braid.”  “Star Trek Online” adds another frontier to MMORPG gallery.  And “Bioshock 2″ (a much talked about game on the site) brings us back to Rapture for another adventure; this time as a Big Daddy.

So it’s been another month that will be favorably looked upon throughout history, if history judges the past solely on monthly video game releases.

So what were we doing?:

This month Rob discussed his experiences with “Mass Effect 2” and “Bioshock 2.”  Speaking of “Bioshock 2,” Skizz also brings up his play through of the game and also talks about “WET.”

Chad plays some more of The People’s Games, this time featuring: “depict1,” “Cosmosa,”"Starfeld,” “Balloon in the Wasteland,” “Vatn Squid,” and “Nuclear Baby.”  He also reviews “Vanitas” and “Noby Noby Boy” for the iPhone and retrospectively looks at “Feel the Magic: XY/XX.”

And Tom plays for us another Battle Tunes.

Releases:

There were a ridiculously large number of surprisingly good games that came out just in this first month of the year.  Some beckoned us to be nostalgic with them: “Darksiders” and “Bayonetta” come to mind.  Some of them were critically praised sequels: “No More Heroes 2″ and “Mass Effect 2.”  Some of them were innovative in scope: “MAG.”  And some were nostalgically experimental: “VVVVVV,” I’m looking at you.

The greatest part about the releases this month was that there really was something for everybody.  A hardcore/indie game, an arthouse slash-em-up, a space opera epic, “Devil May Cry” with tits, “The Legend of Zelda” with portal guns, and a MASSIVE online shooter.

This better be a good omen for the rest of the year, or else twelve months from now, we’re going to be talking about “that one good January.”
“Yeah, those were the days…”  Then we’ll sip our beers as we watch the sunset off of our rickety, old porch swings.

So what were we doing?:

This month, Senior Skizz was playing Zuma and Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, going crazy with Arkham Asylum, and watching his girlfriend play Wii Fit.

Chad was up to his usual indie game snobbery with the People’s Games, playing Sunshine and Trundle, as well as indie titles, Guru Meditation and VVVVVV.  He was also playing Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and Sonic Adventure.

Rob gives his thoughts on Wings of Prey.

And the always lovely Tom (King of the Site) was playing Half-Life 2 mods: Dear Esther, The Radiator, Goldeneye Source, and Missing Information.

We also discussed (in two parts) our Games of the Year, and there was a list of great freeware games that came out in 2009.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

“But, Tom!”, you ask, “Good Batman games have been made in the past! Remember this gem? ” Very true, but one thing is for damn certain. This was a high budget title. A game that was looked forward to. A Batman game. But more importantly, a superhero game. And now we’ve all seen it with our own eyes. Yes, dear readers, we not only have a good superhero game, we have a great superhero game. Not only does Arkham Asylum fit into the source material so well, but it satisfies Batman comic nerds, gamers, casuals, and the ever-growing category of Achievement Whores. This is a game that should be played by, truly, everyone, regardless of gaming style or Batman know-how.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Remember this? If that wasn’t painful enough… remember these? Well have you played this? The new Ghostbusters game that came out this summer is… good. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a great game. It has technical limitations and other problems that could have been fixed by more time in the dev-oven, but the point remains: This is not a bad game by any means. Saying that it is the best Ghostbusters game ever isn’t saying much, but reporting that this game is fun, is. This game contains fun, sticks wonderfully to the source material, is a huge compliment to Ghostbusters nerds, and most importantly, fun. Did I mention that playing this game was actually fun? I had real, non-diluted, 100%  not-from-concentrate enjoyment while playing this game. Yet another sign of the coming meteor strike that will wipe earth from this very galaxy.

The only thing left to happen (since Sonic and Mario have starred in a game together..) is for there to be an absolutely mind-blowing Superman game. Which we all know won’t ever happen. For now, Earth will continue on, but if you want a reason to plan ahead, here’s a list of why the end of the world won’t happen for some time:

• Nintendo is still making retarded changes to their handheld lineup.
• Nintendo is still making fucking weird Wii hardware.
• A Spyro film is coming out, and no one cares.
• Video game movies still suck.
• Bunjie is still making Halo games
• and fanboys are still buying these overly-hyped mediocre shooters.

Go ahead and make your own informed decision about the rest of your life, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I know lately we have not been putting new stuff on the site, and the entire 72PC crew is sorry for it. We have all been busy doing different things and had to take a break from the site, but never you fear children and adults alike. We soon we hopefully be back in full swing. I already have a few different reviews that I am working on that should be released within the next few weeks. We also would love your feedback on new ideas and things to make this site even better for the fans. Without your support this site really has nothing, so please keep reading our articles, and soon enough I will be introducing another new segment that I am really looking forward to. Just stay tuned and I promise we will not disappoint you guys.

Love,

The Martyr

This game has you picking a team of 3 players from the Capcom and Marvel universes. It has a tag system which is actually a good thing and makes for very competitive matches when you are low on health slamming the two buttons down for a crutial tag in. This game also has more than just Street Fighter characters for the Capcom side, they have Captain Commando (a character made for the Capcom company, the first three letters of Captain and Commando make up Capcom), Jin, Hayato from Star Gladiator, Sonson, and Mega Man with two other characters from that series. I am sure you can guess who the Marvel side is represented by the most, but they also have other random super heroes from different backgrounds which really can fill out the roster very nicely. Speaking of the roster it has a total of 56 people to choose from which is a big list. All the fighters can do their own super combos when your super meter is full but if you want to destroy with full potential you will figure out the way to have a team super combo which will destroy the other trio you are trying to make it past. The thing you need to do is experiment to find the best team with the best combo and I think that I might have found a few of them in my own right which I will talk about later in this review. Each player has their good and bad sides and if you spend enough time playing it you can easily find out how to be technical, speedy, powerful, or a cheap little bitch of a person with your team.

Mind you I am sure when this game gets released in the USA again that the character select screen will not be in Japanese.

I have to review this game for what it is so I can give you a preview of it in case you somehow have not had the pleasure of playing this game yet. This game is pretty…and I cannot say that enough. The art on every single person is nothing short of straight up beautiful. The backgrounds are artistic and they are perfect for this game. If the background had a clock in it, it would actually sync up with the clock in the machine to give you the correct time which is a nice touch. Every single animation is done perfect down to a T, they even include a 2-d version of Jill Valentine and the damn Tyrant that she fights in the Resident Evil series and that looks great as well. They spent alot of time getting all this together after they made the original Marvel vs Capcom, more or less because the fans wanted it and I am glad that these superpowers in the industries they are in decided to give the fans what they want.

Now as far as characters go this game is ridiculous with the amount of different styles that are in this game so I will have to discuss them in a pretty big scope here. There are very few street fighters that were in the series that were not involved in this game such as T-Hawk and Dee Jay, and they were not in this game I would guess to popular demand saying that they do not need both those shit-holes in the game to take up space and be terrible. See a lot of the characters are pretty similar to other characters in the game. Cammy is a fast yet not powerful character, so her speed makes her good against slow characters. At the same time Spiderman has the same type of style, him and Cammy even share a super combo that is pretty much identical, his being the Maximum Spider and hers being the Killer Bee Assault. Then again you have your standard middle of the road fighters such as Ryu and Ken who are just like they are in street fighter 2 except that Ryu’s fireball is fucking gigantic compared to Ken’s and even Akuma’s. There are also big ass slow guys that join the fight and can be awesome and terrible at the same time, for example Juggernaut is the most powerful person in the game but is by far even slower than the Hulk or even Sentinel which is incredible with how slow they are. Look for the sake of this I will discuss a few characters in more details just to tell you who to look out for and who to play as.

Gambit is fast, very fast in fact but obviously his power will be a little less than the average person. He makes up for it though with his super combos and even with his regular special move that freezes the opponent in place if they get hit with his “Kinetic Cards”. If you can stand to use a speedy person then he is one of the people you need to look for. Speaking of X-men there are two versions of Wolverine in this game, one being bone claw, and they other having his standard Adamantium  claws. Both characters are fast, and can do quite a bit a damage although Bone-claw Wolverine is slightly faster and not as powerful, while both of them can take a lot of damage….too bad he can not regenerate his health as fast as he does in the comics though. To finish off the speedy characters that I enjoy I have to say that Cammy is badass. In this game you can dash and it is not very hard to take advantage of this with her because she might be the fastest person in the entire game, if you are against a person that cannot avoid a rush all you have to do is go and dash towards them then Cannon Spike, dash back and repeat….if you want to be a cheap bitch about it all. I am a street fighter fan-boy, and I love Ryu and Akuma…but in this game based off a overall basis I have to give the advantage to Ryu. Akuma is powerful yes but they did dumb him down for this game so people could not just destroy constantly with him like they have in other games. Once again I must say that the fact that Ryu’s fireball takes up 3/4th’s of a character model when thrown gives you a great weapon to keep people at bay with. On the same level as him I think is Captain Commando, who actually is slightly faster than Ryu, and is probably  a little more powerful but to do combos with him is slightly harder than one would initially think. Up next is Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series. She is quick and actually can rack up some damage if you know how to use her. She uses dogs and zombies from the RE series to actually perform special moves, one of her super combos actually has her call up the tyrant to destroy your ass with three gigantic slices from his big claw. In my opinion her best move is how she has a counter attack where she pulls out her Beretta and as long as you keep hitting the strong punch button she will fire up to nine shots right into the person who tried to hurt you. Venom is a badass in this game and yes he is slower but his attacks are actually quite quick for a man of his size. His specials can do a lot of damage but you really have to get used to his style to use him effectively, Iron Man (and also War Machine) in this game is the same way so if you choose to use them be careful. Out of the slowest characters I can only stand Sentinel and Juggernaut. Juggernaut I will use almost never, but Sentinel is a very good character. When you are up against someone who must dash in and attack, or someone who cannot fight from a distance then you can be the worlds biggest bitch with Sentinel. He shoots out a laser from his mouth which can go the full length of the screen but nevertheless.

Jill summons the tyrant to completely obliterate SonSon and her little friends.

Personally I cannot stand any of the Darkstalkers characters in this game because they are not the people I used when I used to play the game in the arcade. Where in the Hell is my Jon Taliban, he is a werewolf and he is not in this game. I also hate a lot of the other characters in this game that are part of the Marvel side. There are so many generic characters that are useless unless your going to exploit the game which is what a lot of these people that play the game do. Mega Man is in this game and he is such a little bitch…I am sorry to say it I never was a fan of Mega Man but even I realize that Capcom has finally spent all their time making sure that he is between the ages of roughly 8-10 and that he is the biggest pussy in the fighting universe. B.B. Hood has more balls then Mega Man ever could. I will say this about my favorite fighting game of all time, there is something that I can easily gripe about.  Damn near every character has a infinite combo, which would not be so bad had they not been so easy to pull off. A little while back while I was at an arcade with a group of friends, I found a MVC2 machine and decided to play it. While kicking a huge amount of ass I had a random guy come up and ask to join me, and low and behold all he did was exploit the shit out of this game and yea he beat me but I actually held my own until about 10 seconds left in the entire match so to me that is a victory in itself. If you are going to play anyone in the arcade beware that your ass will get exploited more than likely, or even if you play this against a decent player on X-box Live you will have this happen as well.

The final boss in this game is hard, and if it’s your first time going up against the bastard named Abyss…you will lose unless you pull off a huge amount of bullshit. He has three forms and each form is crazier than the last. His first form has him dressed like a huge metal samurai, which throws lightning bolts and tridents at you, while he can also fire a huge laser from his chest. Fast characters are really good against him if you can just figure out exactly when to block and when to counter an attack with a super jump to just go over him completely. If you get past him you will face a green goo like substance that looks like it’s made of Slimer from Ghostbusters. This form will actually shoot lasers, and taunt you the whole time…attacking him with a close ranger character is not a good idea at all because of the damage he can cause so you really need someone from long range like Ryu or Gambit. The third form is a huge dog like demon from Hell. This thing is the length of 75% of the screen and the entire height of it if he is on screen at all. He constantly teleports and has the ability to keep shooting things from across the screen so your best bet is to constantly back up so you can block if he attacks and then just keep going for him. You must be careful though because if he hits you with a super combo he can kill all three of your players so fast that you will not even be able to react to what you just witnessed on the screen. I have not lost to the boss since the first time I went up against him actually. Once you figure out his pattern of all three forms he is not difficult but that first time you face him will be a monstrous  task to say the least.If you have a team with a good super combo it makes it a lot easier as well…any team with Gambit has an advantage because he can freeze the first two forms with his super combo. Honestly I still think the best super combo team I have found is Gambit with his cards, Ryu with a gigantic fireball, and to finish it up Iron Man with his cannon shooting a crazy amount of ammo at the sad sap in his way.

Example of the “Iron Man” Tony Stark owning face with his cannon.

Overall this game is almost perfect. I cannot think of a better fighter that I have played in my life. Even Street Fighter IV is not as good as this game in my opinion. You need to get ahold of this game on the marketplace, they have redone the sprites and made everything even prettier, you need to get it off the marketplace anyway because unless you own a Dreamcast and the actual game from 2000 when it was ported you kinda got fucked because all the other ports were apparently nothing short of terrible. I have no idea how much this game will be when it finally comes out but regardless what it costs I will purchase it. I have said before and will say it again Capcom could make me pay 50 dollars willingly to get this game all over again and relive the fun that I have had while playing it. If you play this game and you honestly do not like it, I will actually understand but will ultimately be confused at how you can not stand a game like this. It has a lot of ups and a few downs but all together this game does nothing but jut amaze me constantly every time I play it on my Dreamcast or in the arcade which is why I cannot wait to pick this up on the marketplace. Thank you Capcom and Marvel for listening to what the fans have been craving this whole time…although I hope in the future sometime that they will make a sequel to this game and revamp the series again.

I may be a fanboy but this asshole is just ridiculous.

Despite constant setbacks in the development of this game, I’m quite confident of its eventual rise to power. Duke Nukem took the fuck OVER when Duke Nukem 3D hit like Michael Phelps’ bong. Before that, 2 2-D games opened up a pathway for 3D‘s booting badassery. After 3D, developers at 3D Realms discontinued, um, caring about the quality of Duke Nukem games. They made Duke Nukem 64, which included less violence, nudity/sexual themes and no cursing, but they included new levels. One of which was a haunted house which had… no enemies…

What many people forget or didn’t know about DN3D is the massive amount of pop culture references, clever humor and beautifully superfluous violence that made this game so magical. For example, at one point you wander into a chapel of some sort after escaping your own execution. Doesn’t look like much, really, until you look up to find a woman in Puritan garb HANGING BY A NOOSE FROM THE CEILING. Fucked up, yeah? Tip of the iceburg, bitches.

One of many things about the game I recall being really guano crazy were the babes you were supposed to “save.” In 64, they were catering to a wider audience so they had to change what constituted a “saved” babe. All you had to do there was press the action button (which would be used to open doors and unlock… doors) and they would be transported. Here’s where they failed to deliver in 64, the reason the babes need saving is because the aliens were mating with them. That’s right, those babes were getting railed by sextraterrestrials to keep the species going. So most of the chicks you find in the later chapters of 3D were beyond the point of no return. Saying things like “kill me” (Aliens reference) while they stare at you with crazy red eyes, wearing torn (clearly ravaged) bikinis.

Here’s where shit gets sticky: after completing every level you’re shown a screen displaying the number of aliens killed/how many left, how many babes saved/left, etc. You’ll notice the amount of aliens killed correlates with babes saved. Know why that is? Those lucky enough to play 3D back in the day are well aware. In Duke Nukem 3D, the only way to “save” babes is to FUCKING KILL THEM. That’s right, you have to kill them bitches! This pisses the aliens off like you wouldn’t believe. Whenever you kill a babe, whether they’ve been sexed up by aliens or not, a flock of enemies stampede at you. THAT’S how you kill all the aliens in every level. You have to find all the babes to do so.

Before I hit the real reason I started writing this, I’ll say something about the voice actor for Duke. His name is Jon St. John and he kinda seems like a prick. He might be a cool guy but when you attack my boy BRUCE CAMPBELL by calling him a “pampered” Hollywood actor, you’re asking for trouble. Here’s why it was brought up:

Many will recognize some key quotes like “come get some!” and “groovy” from the Evil Dead series. These quotes, as well as a reference to the infamous quote from “They Live!” (“I have come to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubblegum”), were IN DUKE NUKEM 3D. When questioned about these quotes, St. John started acting like a bitch and talking shit about Campbell. First off, Jon, were you even a little familiar with the career of Bruce when you called him “pampered?” He’s only recently been getting the attention he deserves… kinda… he deserves way more, actually. Not only that, but the reason you made so much scratch voicing Duke was because of gem lines such as “Come get some!” You should be giving him mad props, yo! (that’s what the kids are saying nowadays, right? “mad props?”) Anyway, I hope you were joking, sir!

Onto the reason I decided to cover this topic.

I’ve recently invested in a subscription to Game Informer. Not being around the 72 Crew as much as I used to severely severed my finger from the gaming pulse. So I read an article on Duke Nukem: Critical Mass coming out sometime in the Fall for DS and PSP. I’ve checked some screen shots on the intrenets and it DOESN’T LOOK BAD. Let me repeat this, as someone who has played all the Duke Nukem titles (not all the way through after 3D, of course), there is a CHANCE that Critical Mass won’t be a steaming pile of dung. Of course, without seeing actual gameplay it would be premature to say it is going to be a smash. However, don’t you owe Duke Nukem the benefit of the doubt? The answer is yes, unless it’s no.

If you have a DS or PSP, do this legendary video game icon a solid and shell out the cash to pick up Critical Mass. The gameplay for the DS differs from the PSP, but the plot is the same. Who knows, maybe the only reason Duke Nukem Forever is taking… forever… is because they see little interest from gamers. Which is a direct cause of their lack of direction with the other games, I feel. Games today are able to get away with so much, Duke wouldn’t have to feel the unforgiving saber of censorship. He was made for today’s gamers! Imagine that, playing a Duke Nukem game that has all the gore, cursing and scantily clad babes you remember from the days of DN3D.

Put Nukem back on the board, if Critical Mass does well in sales maybe the developers will finally take this project seriously! I’m not saying buy and love it even if it sucks, that’s just silly! If it sucks, let them know it sucks and you want Forever to be the best FPS you’ve played in a long time. Well, they should probably be made aware that there is a demand for Forever. Critical Mass may very well be the testing ground for this. Put a boot to the ass of the developers, as they are on a “when it’s done” timeline.

Doesn’t Duke deserve one last Hoorah?

I played it… Its five bucks on the app store.. and the iPhone doesn’t lend itself to FPS controls. Yes, I appreciate what iD Software is doing, releasing Doom and Wolfenstein on the iPhone in cleaned up form. Really good looking, great sound, clean textures, absolutely wonderful port… but the controls suffer. The game is somewhat playable. iD did a bang up job, including tilt-control, single axle, and dual axle support, but all of these are for naught… FPS control does not translate over to a multitouch surface… as much as I want it to. Don’t get me wrong, I love these games and grew up playing them, I love multitouch and new, shiny tech as much as the next nerd, but this simply isn’t working for me. Could just be a personal crutch, but I’d find someone that had it before plunking down the five bucks for this piece of nostalgia.