My take on Tekken 5

Before I begin let me say that I won't hesitate to get into Tekken-jargon if it's appropriate, so if you've never played Tekken, you may have alot of trouble understanding what I'm saying sometimes. I guess I CAN at least put a reference...

The Tekken series was always a "Holiday Classic" for me. My cousins would bring their Playstation over on New Year's Eve, and we'd play Tekken 3 in my basement with other family members. I remember how Lei's d/b+3,3 seemed TOTALLY unstoppable. I spent the next few years mashing my cousins and nephews to death with Eddy once I realized he was EVEN EASIER to mash with, but I still didn't think much of it.

What made me think of Tekken as more than just a holiday season mash-o-thon was Soulcalibur 2. Yoshimitsu was my first character in SC2 and I remember reading a faq that said how playing Tekken would improve my game with Yoshi. I bought T3 that same week, and I ended up falling in love with King, the wrestler, and Ling Xiaoyu. I got into Tekken Tag Tournament (TTT) because the arcade where I played SC2 also had a TTT machine. The team of "King'n'Ling" was born! T4 was already released at this time, but I basically ignored it along with everyone else in my immediate community.

T4 is the skid mark on the underwear of the Tekken series. They made some tweaks to the fighting engine that were potentially interesting, but as the saying goes, "It's all in the delivery", and they made afew unforgivable mistakes in the delivery of Tekken 4. The first and foremost was to put King, my favorite character, in this STUPID cowboy costume.

Even VF3's wolf looked better in a cowboy costume. That's clearly what they were making fun of, but you can't bring your own character down lower than what you're making fun of just to prove a point. The costume desing in general was simply pathetic. They took one of the more respectable characters in the game, Heihachi Mishima, and put him in a "traditional sumo costume".



The sumo costume would be an ok idea if it wasn't a freaking DIAPER! These changes, and afew others, were enough to make sure that I never got into T4 enough to learn how someone could actually find the game interesting. There was also a subtle character-balance issue named Jin that, combined with the step-guard fiasco of SC2, made me stop taking Namco seriously for fighting games.

Now that I've tried out T5, I'm glad to see that they've learned from their mistakes. The game feels more like Tekken Tag, which proves to me that I'm NOT the only one who thought that T4 was a pathetic excuse for a Tekken game. The characters look more like they did in TTT too, but the visual quality is more similar to T4. The stages look sweet too.



I had been itching to try out Kind and Ling ever since I heard that the game was coming out, and the screenshots showed promise. King's new selection of airgrabs make his hopkick alot stronger now, but Ling is REALLY what's keeping me interested in T5. Since I never played T4 enough to see Ling fully in action, I now have all her T4 moves AND her T5 moves to integrate into my game. The stylish things she can do to juggle her opponent and give him a case of brainfreeze made her slightly more fun than King ever since TTT. I'm also fascinated with the concept of fighters who fight just as effectively with their back turned to the opponent.

The only problem is that I'm older now, and I'm just not into the arcade scene like I used to be. T5 is good, but it's not THAT good. But I will admit that I'm impatiently waiting for the console release. I might even buy T5 the day it comes out on PS2.

2nd Childhood

I was having a pleasant conversation with some friends of mine afew weeks ago, and I forget how, but the topic eventually shifter over to books that we enjoyed reading when we were younger. Considering we're all gamers, it's no big surprise that we started talking about old gamebooks "in which YOU are the hero".

Our host then vanished into his room for afew moments and came back with a box full of old fighting fantasy gamebooks. All in their original English (90% of the gamebooks we read when we were younger were French translations). The feeling of nostalgia was so overwhelming that I immediately asked him if I could borrow some.

Since then, I've completed Deathtrap Dungeon, Sword of the Samurai, and Talisman of Death. I also ordered Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series, which I completed when I was young, and that adventure marked me. I went through all four books as a Warrior because I didn't feel like memorizing spells, and now I'm presently running through book 3, The Seven Serpents, as a Wizard.

I had forgotten how much fun these books are. The nostalgia factor helps alot too. It's also great to keep busy during commercials while watching TV. I've missed entire football games after popping in games like Metroid Prime "to play during commercials", and I ended up checking up on the score every now and then.

Why is the NFL so uptight?

Last week Jake Plummer, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos was fined 5000$ for flipping a fan off during a home game where he wasn't playing well. Now from what I've heard, the fan was asking for it, but yesterday I saw footage of Plummer talking about how deeply sorry he is and how he truly regrets his gesture. Am I the only one who doesn't see this as a big deal? I mean it's not as if he went into the stands and started an all-out brawl like SOMEONE I could mention.

This got me thinking about other NFL "scandals", and I remember how, after incidents like Terrel Owens' MNF opening sketch, or the Janet Jackson fiasco, the commissioner of the NFL was saying stuff like how he's embarrassed for the league, and embarrassed FOR THE FANS. For the fans?!? Does this guy know who his fans ARE?

I mean we're talking about a sport where 200-pound guys run into each other trying to KILL one another for a ball while women in skimpy clothing cheer them on from the sidelines. Even if, for some reason, he didn't think he was specifically marketing his product to the "Men ages 16 to 40" demographic, this isn't exactly the kind of show I would qualify as wholesome family entertainment. I'm seriously convinced that most reactions were on the positive side of the scale when Janet flashed her boob earlier this year. I know *I* didn't feel offended or embarrassed, and I was kind of annoyed to see the NFL's main man say that he was embarrassed for me.

I understand that catering to prudes is the best overall marketing strategy when you're broadcasting something on TV, but do they really think they're fooling anyone? I think NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue should forget about what my mom would say while watching his product, and focus his efforts on making sure the hits are hard (while keeping the athletes as safe as possible), and the cheerleaders are hot.

An ode to Ratchet and Clank

A bit less than a year ago I was wasting time on the web and I happened to spend a little time reading random reviews on gamespot. I fell upon a little gem called Ratchet & Clank. This is a platformer/shooter for the PS2 that features some pointy-eared, furry alien named Ratchet and his little robot friend Clank. We follow these two heroes on their quest to save the galaxy.



Clank spends most of his time strapped to Ratchet's back, but every now and then the two will separate, and the levels where you control Clank are surprisingly entertaining. Ratchet has a wide variety of weapons at his disposal, some of which are downright wacky, like a beam that turns your enemies into chickens. The weapon design got even wackier at times in the two sequels: Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal, but I don't wanna spoil anything if I actually convince someone to give the series a try.

Another aspect that the Ratchet & Clank games excel in is making sure things don't get too repetitive. The weapons you use to blow shit up are quite fun, but they CAN get old if that's all you do. Throughout the galaxy, you'll run into vehicles you can pilot, and security doors to break through. Doing the latter always involves using some sort of security gadget and you'll have a mini-game to play through before you can unlock the door.

Right from the beginning, the story in Ratchet & Clank is presented with a snazzy sense of humor. The characters and the situations they run into are so likeable that you'll even appreciate the jokes that DON'T make you laugh. And the sequels teach you that Insomniac Games are truly excellent in the way they use their recurring characters.

All these factors have contributed in making the Ratchet & Clank series into a cult classic, and I can assure you that this is the best little 3D shooter/platformer that you've never heard of.