'Kay everyone, what's up and what's down? You? Aw don't feel that way; I'm here to cheer and pucker you up. Hehe well enough of that shit, I'm hoping everyone had a pretty great day and are planning on having an even better night; my birthday's only two days away and I want EVERYONE to live it up! You know, just in case I don't. But anyways, so today was indeed that SF tournament,..if you can call it that. True enough, it wasn't IV at all, but rather the HD Remix that only came out a few months ago (I believe), reworked by UDON and David Serlin (I think that's his last name; can't be too sure on that). I can't HONESTLY say I was really excited about that game, what with it basically being another remix of II (hell I think there's enough reworks of that one to give it a rest Capcom; how's about a rework of 3rd Strike in HD? Now THAT'D be some shit for sure, of the good variety), but I was willing to still go, as to firstly give myself something to do game-wise (rented Galaxy today at LAST, but doubt I'll be playing too much of it b/f I go to bed. Do plan on playing at least a few levels, just to get a feel for controls and all of that, but that's it) and also to play HD Remix, as I atleast wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
Now, keep in mind I'm not here to REVIEW HD Remix; not yet anyway. I've only played it a few times, at this very tournament in fact, and if I were to review it on shit like controls alone, I'd give it a D+. Honestly, I just can't use the 360's pad worth shit for a 2d fighting game, as it's pretty obvious by now what sort of games Microsoft had in mind when making that pad (ie NOT fighting games or 2d games). I even tried using the analog stick, but the difference btwn an analog stick and a joystick,..well they're pretty noticable hehe. Even so, I can give the game some props on other things. Even though we were playing on what looked like a CRT monitor size-wise (though I'm sure it was HD-capable; seemed that way to me), the graphics were very good. Actual animation was okay; basically Super Turbo frame-for-frame; this is NOT III or even CvsS2 or Alpha level here, but it doesn't need to be. The opening theme was pretty awesome; I'd download it if I could, as it's a pretty nice rock tune that fits it well. Also, dispite me more or less sucking b/c of unfamiliarity with the 360s d-pad and having not played II or any version of it in a while (seriously getting back into that game's pacing style and lack of stuff like parry and air block and guard cancels,...that really fucked me up, but that's me 'ya know), the moves did seem to be responsive when I knew for I fact I nailed the motions, which is always something of a goal for any competent fighter to shoot for.
Now, as for the tournament itself, well it wasn't really that much of anything near EVO level (speaking of EVO, I am really fending on going to one some time very soon. Just gotta practice a little more's all) as it was held at the local Gamestop. A pretty small tournament too since only eight people (including me and my friend) were competing, so it went by pretty quickly. The organizers were generous enough to let us get some practice rounds in b/f the tournament started and even allowed us to change our control settings (sans any dip switches obviously) at the start of every match, which-and I'm not sure on this but got a good feeling of-probably isn't allowed at tournaments like EVO, that much is for sure. Of course they allowed people to bring their own controllers (one dude was super-authentic; brought the arcade stick an' everything), but still none of that dip switching shit was allowed. And so it was, not a long while after the hub-bub and gathering crowd, that the tournament got underway. I could spend some time talking about every match but just to save time, I'll let you in on what I did specifically. Being smart, I decided to play it safe by getting one of the shotos, Ken (who's actually the best shoto for beginners in a particular SF game like I was with HD Remix; he has more offense than Ryu and better defense than Akuma by a mile. A sort of nice melding of the two you could say), as did my good buddy. Although a few more of the participants got a shoto as well, most of the favorite picks seemed to be charge characters like Guile (who, in the very 1st version of II, had one of the cheapest-and deadlist-combo sets ever. So yeah, he's a favorite of many hehe) or Dee Jay, or non-shotos like Dhalsim and Cammy. Interestingly enough no one picked Chun Li. Wierd, though that might be b/c she's low-tier in that game (like she seems to be in IV from what I've seen there, unfortunately. Sorry Chunny, your skills got gimped. Thankfully those thighs and nice meaty ass did not!!).
"So", you might be thinking, "you being a shoto, you should've torn up some ass right?" Well, not quite. Between using that shit excuse of a 360 d-pad and not really getting into HD Remix's pace and flow, I guess I could say the other guys were just more on their game than me. Then again, I just entered for the fuck of it, with little to no preperation beforehand. Sometimes getting your ass kicked can be fun, as I learned here. My friend managed to fare better than me...a lot better in fact. Made it all the way to the finals and eventually took 2nd place, so suffice it to say he'll have to go to the next site to continue. I could go, I guess, but honestly I'm just not THAT jivved for HD Remix to do that. If it were IV it would be a whole other matter; I'd go to each site even if I got my ass embarrased in the tournament (speaking of which my opponent did get one Perfect on me,...sucks, but ah well), but I never have really followed HD Remix rigirously, therefore there's no point. Maybe if and when I download it, I could get into it more, but at that same time I might also be playing 3rd Strike, or IV, or CvsS2, or even MvsC2,...in other words, games that fit my fighting fancy more. That's no harsh strike against II, but-to me-it's pacing and lack of features I've grown accustomed to like parrying, air blocking, rolling, dashing, super-jumping, guard-canceling, block-reversal, and air dashing (ah yes Guilty Gear, ain't forgot about YOUUUUUU. Now shoot me for impersonating Soulja Boy) really throws me out of the loop. II's gameplay just feels nigh-archiac to me now, and I know there are some that'll argue with me on that point (and they have every right to), but that's my personal opinion, preference, and stance, and likely will never change. Still, I'll always appreciate II, just not play it often I guess.
But that's getting a bit off topic. Overall I'd say the tournament was pretty fun, albiet short and lacking on refreshments (we could do with some chips or whatever, tournament organizers). Plus, I pretty much seem to be solidified in my belief that you can meet some of the coolest people at outta-the-blue tournaments. I mean, when you're in the company of a goddamn police officer who knows his fighting games, you really just can't quite beat that. Even though he got beat by the winner near the end of it all in a "just for fuck's sake" (or JFFS as I'm gonna call them for now on) match that was still pretty fun to watch. Here's hoping to more local tournaments; in fact they're already talking about one with either the new MK vs DC game (which I've yet to play so I might go to that one just to try the damn game out), Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (haven't played too much of it, but have been wanting to. It' s just hard as hell to find) or Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (which would be awesome, since I can show some fucking dominance in that bitch and redeem for the pathetic showing in this HD Remix tournament), though a Smash Bros. Brawl or even King of Fighters or Garou: Mark of the Wolves tournament wouldn't be a bad thing at all either (highly doubt the last two though; they unfortunately just aren't that popular, though admittably I haven't played KOF much and never played G:MOTW, but am gonna get KOF XII when that drops). Anyways, I guess my gaming for the next few days is gonna be split among Mario Galaxy, Iji, Smash Bros. Brawl, and Mario Kart, with maybe a bit of Parasite Eve for good measure, and that's actually a pretty well-rounded listing genre-wise. I'll be off now, and seeing you guys down the road. So until then, later out.
