Fighting Game Camps: Mortal Kombat: Part 1

You may have noticed that the fighting games I’ve looked over thus far have all been from Japan.  The truth is, Japan has the heaviest focus in making fighting games nowadays.  There have been a few more western-made fighting games in recent years, like the new Killer Instinct and Skullgirls, but the only western fighting game franchise that has managed to stick around consistently is one of the first: Mortal Kombat.

The King of Fighters-i 2012 Review

Back in my retrospective of The King of Fighters 13 I briefly touched on The King of Fighters-i 2012. At the time I only knew some of the details about it from associates who owned it, but having gotten an iPhone of my own I’ve gotten much deeper into it to allow for a full review.

[Note that The King of Fighters-i is the name of the iPhone version of the game.  The Android version is titled The King of Fighters Android, and as far as I can tell it is the same exact game.]

An update from their previous app game simply titled The King of Fighters-i, KOFi 2012 is a portable app version of the core of KOF 13, the installment tied with 11 as my favorite in the series.  Even though I was looking forward to playing a portable KOF 13, I set my expectations a little low.  I had difficulty playing KOF ‘97 back when I played it on my sister’s iPhone, and porting a multi-gigabyte HD game to an app without cutting a good amount of content seemed like wishful thinking.

To my surprise, even though compromises were indeed made, KOFi 2012 is an extremely impressive replication of the KOF 13 experience that’s fun regardless of whether or not you’ve played the console edition.

Daidouji: The Ultimate Female Game Character

In discussions of feminism and the portrayal of females, I often find people citing their favorite female character from the media and why they are so effective for reasons other than sex appeal or for the story to have at least one token female.

When it comes to games, the most commonly cited examples in my experience have been the likes of Samus Aran and Alyx Vance.  With the possible exception of the controversial Metroid: Other M, the both of them have been portrayed as tough, but still human, treated with just as much respect as you would expect of a male hero, but not denying their gender.  I'm no feminist, but that's the way I see it.

I have a different icon.  Over the last year I've vehemently clung to a relatively new female character from an unlikely source.
Recall in my Senran Kagura Burst review when I stated that the unlockable character for the Hanzo side of the game is my favorite.  I didn't go into any more detail than that out of fear of spoiling an unlockable, but now that she's all over the marketing for the subsequent Senran Kagura games, I think the time for spoiling it has long since passed.

I was of course referring to the eldest playable character in the Hanzo side of Senran Kagura: Daidouji, my favorite female character in gaming!

The Undefendable, Reprehensible, Unbelievable Psyguy

For all my readers, I would like to inform you in advance that this is a serious post.  This is not a positive one about a game I like or anything of the sort.  This is an editorial of something that needs addressing, and it is quite dark.  If you're looking for the silliness, you may want to go read the Diary of Frank West.

Not long ago, Bryon Beaubien, also known as Psyguy, the webmaster of the rather-known website Fireball20xl.com, had a great many "allegations" pile up on him in a short amount of time, and boy what allegations they are.

The Rhythm of Fighters Review

When SNK Playmore announced that their next game would be a rhythm-based smartphone app, fans got a little agitated that they were spending time on something not related to The King of Fighters 14.  I meanwhile was excitedly imitating Hibari’s victory pose.  Recall in my review of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy when I said that there should be a rhythm game like it, but with KOF music.  With The Rhythm of Fighters, SNK Playmore gives us just that.  It’s like making a Rock Band game all about the Beatles; it's a good idea from the start.  Up until The Rhythm of Fighter’s sudden release onto the app store (with little fanfare, I might add), all I asked for was for them not to screw this brilliant concept up.

My prayers were answered.  For the most part, it’s just what I wanted.