July Hauls!

[BWprowl]

SH Figuarts MMPR Yellow Ranger – And the team is complete at last. Got her set up on the shelf with the other five last night, feels good man. I never have to buy any MMPR toys ever again, and I can do all sorts of cool stuff with these ones. Am I brave enough to try assembling the Mega Blaster and propping all of them up around it? Maybe one day…

But time for a related diatribe: See, this SHF of the Yellow Ranger uses a female sculpt (near as I can tell, it’s the Pink Ranger mold with the skirt stripped off and the Tiger Ranger helmet stuck on it). As some of you may know, Tiger Ranger from Zyuranger was a male character, who was repurposed into the female Yellow Ranger when that show was brought over here as MMPR. Well ever since this SHF line started, there was a lot of speculation and concern from MMPR fans over here about what would happen when they got to Tiger Ranger; IE: if Bandai would just port the male-bodied Tiger Ranger figure over in MMPR packaging, or if they would bother making a female-bodied version for us. But here’s the thing: Regardless of whether you were watching Zyuranger or MMPR, the in-suit monster-fighting footage was the same, meaning the Ranger in question LOOKED the same between both versions, IE: as a male in the yellow Ranger suit. A unique, female-bodied version would actually be less screen-accurate than just bringing over the male Tiger Ranger version, and it’s hardly an issue anyway since the Rangers have always looked like androgynous Japanese stuntmen anyway (even the female Ptera Ranger had guys wearing the stunt suit plenty of times). So all this hemming and hawing over needing a ‘female’ Yellow Ranger toy never rang true with me, since it didn’t need to look specifically female in the first place. What we ended up getting is *fine*, since the female Ranger body they went with is still androgynous enough to work (being only a little thinner all around with a bit of a chest, the SHFs don’t sport nearly the ridiculous female physiques the American Power Rangers female figures do), and Boi/Tiger Ranger wasn’t exactly the biggest guy to begin with, but it still just confuses me a bit that so many fans were so adamant about getting a version of something that was never shown on-screen to begin with.

[Onslaught Six]

To be fair, any Ranger footage from mid-Season 2 and Season 3 could conceivably been female, since all of that was American-produced. (The Zyuranger Red stuntman was even the MMPR Red stunt for the show up until something like Lost Galaxy, which lends the fight footage a little more credibility than you'd imagine.)

[BWprowl]

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late for PS3 – Oooooh man, this is the big one. Of course, if you’re not big into fighting games like I am, the Big Deal will rather escape you, but: this is the brand-new game from French-Bread, makers of the esteemed Melty Blood series, and thus far it’s every bit as great as those were. Under Night actually is getting a stateside English release sometime next year, but I’ve been craving this game since it game out in arcades over a year ago, so I went ahead and imported the Japanese version that just came out. It’s a fighting game, I don’t need to be able to read it to be able to play it (though the story scenes SEEM interesting, so I’m somewhat looking forward to checking out the English version for those). It’s a friggin’ blast so far, playing differently-enough from Melty Blood to feel like its own thing, and feeling very solid all-around so far. Graphics are light-years ahead of the blurry, ten-year-old sprites we got used to with MB, though the 3D backgrounds seem a bit sparse at times. I’m not wild about the new art-style either, though I acknowledge it’s important that this game NOT look like a Type-Moon production. As for the fighting itself, the new GRD system is really cool, even moreso than I expected, somewhere halfway between a super meter and a burst meter that rewards you for an aggressive playstyle and lets you convert that into utilities. Really changes the dynamic of how you might play the game or act in certain situations, can’t wait to see how this plays out with others (I need to see if the online works over here in Americaland). Thankfully isn’t too combo-heavy a game either, even less-so than Melty Blood thanks to not having Reverse Beats. I like it when games are more strategic and less about obscene touch-of-death loops (lookin’ at you, Blazblue). Gonna be playing the hell out of this for a while.

[Shockwave]

What's your favorite fighting game? As in, if you had to pick one to label the best fighting game ever, what would that be? I do like fighting games but have only really scratched the surface of the genre. I've played every Mortal Kombat which is my fave so far, but I've also played things like Robofighter on the SNES, Killer Instinct, Primal Rage and Clayfighter. I even still have the Blockbuster exclusive Clayfighter 63 1/3 Sculptor's Cut. It sounds like Melty Blood and Under Night are well rounded and well made games, are they released here in the US and on what systems (I do see you've already answered that in your post regarding Under Night).

[BWprowl]

I love fighting games in general so much that I can't pick just one, but to narrow it down to just a couple, the absolute best, cream-of-the-crop, tops, it'd be Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Melty Blood. 3rd Strike is absolutely the best SF ever, though be warned that it's not terribly newbie-friendly, and takes some work to really get 'good' at. Immensely satisfying when you do though, it 'feels' very right. Still looks gorgeous after all these years too, almost nothing has come close to matching the fluidity of its animation. It's been re-released on plenty of consoles, including a very nice online version you can get off PSN for I think less than twenty bucks. Melty Blood is the game I've been a fanboy of since I was in high school, it's very unique, and moves and plays like nothing else out there, and has a style all its own in terms of characters and atmosphere (owing to being originally based on an adventure game/visual novel rather than designed as a fighting game from the ground up). Unfortunately, it's never been released in English. Most versions are actually based on PC though, and if you look around, you can find downloads that can easily work on your computer. One version, 'Melty Blood Act Cadenza Ver B Correction Edition' on PC actually got a full fan-made English patch. The very latest version of the game, 'Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code' can also be found for PC rather easily, but doesn't have a translation (not a huge deal, most of the game's menus are actually in English anyway), and that's probably the last version of the game that will be made, and in my opinion the best permutation of it so far (French-Bread really outdid themselves, adding a bunch of new characters as well as two additional playable 'styles' for every single character in the game). Melty Blood also tends to be surprisingly pick-up-and-playable, the fighting and combo system are very free-form and easy to enjoy, at least once you get used to its highly unconventional (but very well-designed) super meter system.

Other runners-up: Project Justice on the Dreamcast, The Last Blade 2 on Neo-Geo and Dreamcast, Capcom VS SNK 2 on Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox/GameCube/pretty much everything, Eternal Fighter Zero on PC, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core on anything Playstation, Street Fighter Alpha 3 on so many consoles I've actually paid for it at least four times, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate on PS3 (DOA as a franchise in general is worth checking out), Soulcalibur 2, 3, or 4 (steer clear of 5), King of Fighters XI on PS2, Garou/Fatal Fury IV: Mark of the Wolves on Neo Geo.

Those are just some of my all-time favorites.

[Shockwave]

The orginal Mortal Kombat is what got me into fighting games and it's really because just a couple years before that I was learning Tae Kwon Do and this was the first time I'd ever seen video game characters doing things that I could do in real life. I also still think it's the best of the series, the simple moves and gameplay structure and smaller core cast of characters make it really accessable to players new to the genre. But, I realize that in the grand scheme of the genre it's not the best, which is why I was asking your opinion. You certainly have more experience in the genre than I do. I'll have to check out the titles you mentioned, some of them I recognize, and some I've never heard of. I don't have a PS3, but I do have a 360 so I'll check out to see what's on there.

So do you prefer more complex fighting games or more simpler ones? I generally prefer simpler ones, which is primarily why I like MK I more than it's sequels. The combo systems and adding run meters and combo and aggressor meters all got to be a bit much for me. Combos I can handle to an extent but I never seem to be able to pull them off very well, at least not intentionally. Also, I think games with too many special moves can bog it down too. Again, this is one of my main complaints about later MK titles. The original only had a few special moves per character and one finishing move. Simple. But, then you got two fatalities, 1 animality, 1 babality (the less said about that the better), 1 friendship and 1 "pit" fatality per fighter. Sometimes you'd have characters with more finishing moves than special moves. It just got ridiculous. Case in point: MK Trilogy on the PSX. It has one of the endings is where you can see every finishing move in the game. I timed it. It literally takes about a half an hour.

I'm also curious if you've played any of the titles I mentioned and if so, what you thought or how they stack up.

[BWprowl]

The orginal Mortal Kombat is what got me into fighting games and it's really because just a couple years before that I was learning Tae Kwon Do and this was the first time I'd ever seen video game characters doing things that I could do in real life. I also still think it's the best of the series, the simple moves and gameplay structure and smaller core cast of characters make it really accessable to players new to the genre. But, I realize that in the grand scheme of the genre it's not the best, which is why I was asking your opinion. You certainly have more experience in the genre than I do. I'll have to check out the titles you mentioned, some of them I recognize, and some I've never heard of. I don't have a PS3, but I do have a 360 so I'll check out to see what's on there.

There’s something to be said for old-school simplicity. Super Street Fighter II Turbo is still played competitively today, which says a lot about the staying power of that game. One of my favorite entries in the King of Fighters series is KOF ’98, which came out in…1998, and has a wonderful straightforwardness to it.

So do you prefer more complex fighting games or more simpler ones? I generally prefer simpler ones, which is primarily why I like MK I more than it's sequels. The combo systems and adding run meters and combo and aggressor meters all got to be a bit much for me. Combos I can handle to an extent but I never seem to be able to pull them off very well, at least not intentionally. Also, I think games with too many special moves can bog it down too.

I can go both ways, but I do tend to prefer a certain level of complexity. It can help balance a game overall, not to mention lending it its own identity in a ‘system’. Melty Blood, for instance, has the aforementioned very complicated super meter system, called Magic Circuit. The idea is that you have a three-level super meter, and can spend one level of that at a time to do ‘EX’ or super versions of Special moves using the heavy attack button. Once that meter gets to the third level, your character ‘activates’ into Heat mode automatically, and can use EX moves indefinitely until the meter runs out, or can use the meter all at once to use a true Super move called an Arc Drive. You can also ‘activate’ manually if you have at least 1 level of meter, or press the manual activation button after you’ve already automatically activated at level 3 to go into ‘Blood Heat’, an even stronger version where you’ll recover health and have access to even stronger Super moves. Is your head spinning yet? Maybe, but that complexity is what makes the game itself, and what drives how the game is played beyond what characters are in and what their special moves are. It affects the momentum and meta of the game, having to constantly juggle how much meter you have and gauge when you’re going to activate and go on the offensive, or activate manually to restore your health as a last-ditch survival effort.

Under Night In-Birth’s GRD system is even more complex. I won’t go into it since I just wasted your time plotting out Melty Blood’s whole thing, but suffice to say I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

There’s nothing wrong with simplicity though. SF3 3rd Strike was the other one I mentioned, and that game has an *enforced* simplicity: Every character has three Super arts to choose from, but you only get to pick *one*, which you do when selecting your character. You get that one Super art, which also determines the size of your super meter, and then you can use that for Supers and EX moves, and that’s it. Everything else is down to the character and the 4-5 Special moves they have, and the game is damn-near perfect for it.

Looking for pure, simple, martial-arts gameplay, I would specifically recommend the Dead or Alive series: Each character is based on a specific, real-world martial art, and aside from some obvious embellishments like some of the crazy shit the ninja characters can do, they remain true to that. Everything is tied to just the buttons you use to punch, kick, grab, and guard, there’s no extraneous meters (even the Supers they introduced in 5 are based on how much life meter you have), or overt systems to learn, just straight-up hitting and countering and using the (expansive and interactive) environments.

Another simpler fighter is the PC-based Akatsuki Blitzkampf, a SF-style fighter based in WWII, of all things.

Again, this is one of my main complaints about later MK titles. The original only had a few special moves per character and one finishing move. Simple. But, then you got two fatalities, 1 animality, 1 babality (the less said about that the better), 1 friendship and 1 "pit" fatality per fighter. Sometimes you'd have characters with more finishing moves than special moves. It just got ridiculous. Case in point: MK Trilogy on the PSX. It has one of the endings is where you can see every finishing move in the game. I timed it. It literally takes about a half an hour.

I played MK Trilogy a bit and remember that. I don’t know that multiple finishers really contributes to the overall ‘complexity’ of the game though, being as they’re purely aesthetic. There’s a lot of them, and they’re there, yeah, but nothing’s stopping you from responding to the FINISH HIM with an uppercut and going about your day. To me it’s kinda like complaining that a game has too many colors to select characters in. They’re there for fun, and don’t intrude unless you want them to.

I'm also curious if you've played any of the titles I mentioned and if so, what you thought or how they stack up.

I played a bit of the classic Mortal Kombats back in the day. I enjoy their simple approach-based metas (the uppercuts and sweeps brought me my first brush with the mind-games I’ve fine-tuned when I play 3rd Strike) and unique atmosphere. I rather liked Trilogy, myself. MK9 didn’t do much for me, seeing it in action, it came across as very clunky, trying to take on a lot of the ideas of Street Fighter IV, but not quite getting them right. MK10 looks interesting so far, applying some DOA-style level interaction to a 2D fighter environment, I’ll see how that plays out. I rather enjoyed what I played of the original Killer Instinct, I mained Combo and really liked him. The game can be kinda seen as the genesis of the ‘combo fighters’ we see in BlazBlue and MvC and their ilk these days, though it felt more controlled there, and we should at least be thankful to the C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER for being the first implication of what would become the BURST in today’s games (and which really should be a standard). Not wild about what I’ve seen from the new one though, looks to be making similar mistakes to MK9. Not fond of Primal Rage from what I’ve played recently, the special move system is insanely clunky and unintuitive, thought the setting and style are definitely one-of-a-kind. Ditto Clay Fighter. Both games look decently interesting, but play in ways that just come off like watered-down attempts at Mortal Kombat’s gameplay style, in which case why not just play Mortal Kombat (this is a common occurrence in the genre, with lots of cash-in anime fighters these days just doing a bad Guilty Gear impression).

[JediTricks]

My PS3 died the day before Comic-Con, the shitty solder they use must have finally cracked - I might try to fix it, but I don't have a heat gun and using a soldering iron on a board this tight is inadvisable, so I dunno. My cell phone GPS car mount broke the moment I left for Comic-Con, really could have used it too. And when I got back, one of the light bulbs in the bathroom died. Weird.

I didn't haul in much this year at SDCC, HasbroToyShop had stuff I didn't want so I helped a few friends get stuff instead with that one.

Things I did pick up:

- MP Prowl, he was $10 cheaper than advertised, $60 with tax, so I pulled the trigger. Box is half empty and only has 1 accessory. Feet are very hollow, I wasn't expecting that. Shoulder missile launchers are very simplistic. A mixed experience overall, basically like Alternators taken to the next level of G1, but not entirely a "masterpiece".

- USS Excelsior, the Diamond booth sold out a few hours before I went to see it, so I bought it on Amazon for $20 less and it was on my doorstep on Monday. Not sure it's in scale to anything else in the line. No aztecking hampers it a lot. There are a few sculpt errors, and the red paint elements are problematic. This feels like something between DST and Playmates, "Playmates Plus" level of sculpting if you will. The thing has a ton of well-digitized Sulu lines from ST6, not many sound effects tho and not much in the way of interesting light choices.

- Bob Wilson Twilight Zone SDCC exclusive figure, hey, it's Shatner from "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", how could I not?

- Star Wars: A New Dawn (early reader edition, not fully proofread) signed by the author, this was free and pretty cool to get as it's the first novel in the new aligned continuity. Haven't read much yet, it's ok so far if a little slow.

- Fuel Rod cell phone battery backup, also swag, I was telling friends about this because they launched the pilot program during SDCC in the convention center - buy the lipstick-sized battery backup and either recharge it at your leisure or drop it into their stations to have it kick out a freshly-charged model - and then their swag-gals wandered into the Hilton where I was uploading pics and gave me one since I was plugged into the wall at the time. Works pretty well, simple as hell and the swag version didn't include the cables you get when you spend the $20, but I had my own cable and it worked, helped on my road trip home the next day. Hopefully this company branches out and gets into other locations soon, I like this thing.

- Batman Arkham Knight art lithograph, swag.

- build-your-own Transformers Hero Masher, swag from the Transformers brand breakfast. I built a figure with a Megatron body, Springer head, Bulkhead forearm and Starscream forearm for the other side (and then used the Drift right forearm as part of a weapon just because it throws the goats), upper legs are Bumblebee, lower legs are Starscream, Electronic Optimus shoulder armor and boots and blaster and shield and translucent knife fist and shoulder weapon attachments (I didn't know they were all from the same figure), Bulkhead backpack weapons system, and Deluxe Optimus gun. It's an interesting toy, but there are enough inconsistencies that limb-swapping isn't as fun as it should be - some figures have removable fists, others don't; some figures have forearms that are cut to allow elbow movement while others don't; some limbs grab the posts high and some low so there's slippage - and the styling is aiming for the younger kid set, chunky and rubber.

- 2 different, unrelated Star Trek dogtags, swag and swag.

- a collapsible katana, this was a weird impulse buy

- Sideshow Collectibles USB drive and $25 gift card, swag.

- "The most interesting man in the galaxy" Darth Vader t-shirt (the one where he's in a full tux, not just regular Vader like the other one), swag for asking a question at a panel.

- a few little odds and ends of swag, pins and free comics and bags and posters, I kept it in check for once though.

[BWprowl]

So one of my Targets did their big toy-section reset…and promptly put out absolutely no new TFs. Still no new Legends (in fact they went BACKWARDS and put out some old data-disc sets), no new Deluxes, no new Voyagers despite reports that Roadbuster/Sky-Byte are surfacing now. Ridiculous. What they DID put out, though, an aisle over, was new Rescue Bots, including the only one I’ve ever really wanted: ‘Basic’ T-Rex Optimus Prime. I’ve been in love with this design since we first saw the giant electronic ‘Optimus Primal’ version. It’s Optimus Prime, renamed as Primal because, turning into a T-Rex with BW Megatron’s transformation scheme. It’s amazing, and while I didn’t love it quite enough to shell out for the giant version, I’d been highly anticipating this smaller version. It’s adorable and the autotransform is a fun little twist to flick back and forth. And it’d be a cinch to customize into an adorable kiddie version of BW Megs, or even friggin’ T-Wrecks if you wanted to! I almost want to get a couple of those mini-dino guys to accompany him, at least Pterodactyl Blades looks cute as fuck.

Also picked up Terra Formars Vol. 1. I don’t go as nuts buying manga these days as I used to, so something either needs to be a from a creator I already really like (as with Akamatsu’s UQ Holder) or in this case, sell me hard on the idea. The high concept for this series is pretty brilliant, to me: Humanity sends cockroaches and moss to Mars as part of a plan to terraform it, then when they come to collect hundreds of years later, it turns out the roaches have hyper-evolved into humanoid monsters and they start killing the fuck out of any humans that set foot on the planet! Some fantastic juxtapositions of human/animal relations and how we see ‘pests’, and a strongly Gantz-esque ‘no one is safe’ mentality towards the characters, I’m halfway through this first volume and it’s been pretty good so far. There’s a couple plot points that seem inconsistent or have been clumsily implemented, but otherwise the driving ideas are so strong that I’m gonna have to keep reading.