Category Archives: video games

Pokemon Omega Ruby and My Fabulous Pageantry Adventure

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I’ve been a fan of Pokemon since before I first picked up Pokemon Red all those years ago. Since then, I’ve made an effort to play at least one game from each generation of Pokemon games. While I don’t mind the repetitive aspects of the franchise, and I appreciate the changes they’ve made in terms of storytelling, multiplayer, and more, after 15 years of fighting gym leaders and saving the world I wanted to spice up my Pokemon experience.

Then I remembered this post I made back in 2010. The gist of it is that I always thought that the addition of Pokemon Contests was unfulfilled potential. While it’s presented in the anime as an alternative path for trainers who don’t care about Gym Leaders, in the games it always played second fiddle to the main path to the Elite Four. However, with the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire last year, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to change my approach: I would become a Pokemon Coordinator.

Omega_Ruby_Alpha_Sapphire_Contest_May

I would also play in Japanese because the Pokemon games give you the option to choose now. “Why not?” I thought.

What would a “Contest Run” of Pokemon entail? Essentially, rather than my primary motivation being gym badges, I would instead value the earning of contest ribbons. While I would fight the Gym Leaders, foil Team Magma, and more, these would be more means to an end. Instead of caring about my Pokemon’s battle stats, I would mainly focus on their essential Contest qualities: Beauty, Toughness, Coolness, Cleverness, and Cuteness.

When Steven asked me if I was motivated to take on the gyms, I even answered, “No.” He seemed quite surprised!

One outcome of this path is that my Pokemon almost perpetually had impractical movesets, whether for single or multi-player. To give you an idea, here are a couple of my Pokemon towards the end:

277Swellow Albania the Swellow @Red Scarf
Coolness Champion
Aerial Ace
Fly
Brave Bird
Quick Attack

284MasquerainChiba Mamoru the Masquerain @Pink Scarf
Cuteness Champion
Bubble
Water Sport
Sweet Scent
Bug Buzz

Those aren’t just the movesets of someone who has no idea what they’re doing, they’re chosen so that each Pokemon has 3 moves according to their Contest specialty, (Bubble, Water Sport, and Sweet Scent are all “cute” moves in Pokemon Contests), and even their items, the scarves, boost a Contest quality but provide no benefit in battles. It really made me feel like I was grooming my Pokemon to have little to no practical skills, and that they could only survive in the lofty world of pageantry.

Of course, as it was a single player campaign I didn’t put in a Smogon level of research into all of this. I’m sure that any TRUE Contest aficionados could tear me a new one. I mean my management of berries and blocks (the things you feed to your Pokemon to improve their contest stats) was terrible!

Omega_Ruby_Alpha_Sapphire_Lisia

One cool new addition to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that made the Pokemon Contest path feel more significant was the introduction of a new character: a world-famous Contest Idol named Lisia (Lutia in Japanese). As the premiere Pokemon Coordinator and the one who sets you on your path to competing in Pokemon Contests, she becomes a motivating factor. Lisia was my goal, my aspiration, and the reason why I continued to make my Pokemon as clever and beautiful as possible. By the time I earned all 5 Master Rank contest ribbons and earned the chance to take on Lisia and her daunting Mega Altaria (Dragon Dance is amazing in Pokemon Contests), I had reached my own personal Pokemon League.

In the end, I became an overall Contest Master and even took on the Elite Four and Steven. Though I could also add “Pokemon Champion” to my list of achievements, in my heart it was more of a nice epilogue than the true climax of my journey.

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Thrall for Super Smash Bros.

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When thinking about game creator Sakurai Masahiro’s desire to celebrate gaming through his Super Smash Bros. series, one significant missing piece of gaming history thus far has actually been PC gaming. Even with the plethora of third-party characters, most recently Cloud Strife, all of them have been console-based.

If there could be one character who would represent PC gaming in Smash Bros., who would it be? It’s a ridiculous question and kind of unfair to PC gaming, but ultimately I decided on Thrall, the heroic orc raised by humans, from the Warcraft franchise.

The reason why I picked Warcraft as a representative is because not only are its characters and games extremely popular, but it covers two different genres that blossomed on the PC: Real-Time Strategy and MMORPGs. Thrall, in turn, is the most iconic character of Warcraft.

I’ll admit, I never really played any Warcraft or World of Warcraft games, so I needed a good deal of help from a more knowledgeable friend. From him, I got the idea that Thrall would be kind of a mix of Robin and Dedede, a heavy hitter up-close with lots of powerful ranged attacks whose strengths are tempered by relatively poor mobility.

All of Thrall’s attacks come from Warcraft III, where he is a heroic Farseer, though the animations would be more in line with the recent Heroes of the Storm. Chain Lightning, rather than being area of effect, homes in on one opponent after the other, doing less and less damage per trip. Earthquake is similar to Bowser Bomb, except it can also trip nearby opponents. Side B would work like Zelda’s Phantom Strike, except that the recovery would be quicker and it would stun instead of damage the opponent, somewhat like a long-range Mewtwo Disable. Lastly, Windfury lifts Thrall up in the air, and before he lands his aerial attacks come out twice as quickly, replicating the higher attack speeds the move grants in other games. In a way, it functions similarly to Bowser Jr.’s Abandon Ship move, giving greater mobility and more dangerous offensive power.

Though Thrall does not learn Bloodlust in his own games, it is a representative ability of Orcs in Warcraft, so I believe it fitting to be his Final Smash. Instead of him casting it on himself, imagine Orc Shamans casting it on him instead. Bloodlust would provide a boost to movement and all melee-range attacks, with enhanced effects.

Well that’s it until Tuesday’s final Smash Direct! No matter what characters are chosen, I’ll still try to find time to do more of these, simply because I enjoy making them. I do have another PC gaming representative in mind, but we’ll see if people find it interesting. If you could put any PC gaming character into Smash, who would it be?

Previous Characters:

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Pitfall Harry (Pitfall)

Zoma (Dragon Quest III)

NiGHTS (NiGHTS into dreams…)

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A Couple of Mewtwo Videos For Ya

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I decided to make a couple of videos showing some Mewtwo things in Smash 4. Tell me what you think!

Walking, Talking, and Running: How Fighting Games Resemble Language

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On an October episode of IGN Esports Weekly, the Fighting Game Community’s Mike Ross and Smash Bros. Melee statistician Tafokints briefly discussed the differences between Melee and Street Fighter. It’s an interesting comparison that’s worth watching as a whole, but what I want to focus on are the following two statements (emphasis mine):

Tafokints: A Melee player is going to really focus on mechanics, right? Concepts like stage control and footsies become second nature in the game, because you can get away with just playing fast, and getting to mid to high level. I would say you could even get to Top 32 at a national [tournament] just by being technical, and having little understanding of the fundamental concepts of competitive gaming.

Mike Ross: Learning [Street Fighter] made [Bobby Scar] a way better Melee player…. He didn’t realize how smart of a game Street Fighter was…. He had to think about his opponent so much more in Street Fighter, like you do in Melee…. You’re not running around the stage, you’re really up close to your opponent the whole time, so you’re constantly having a dialogue with your opponent…. Once you answer to yourself what can you do, the next best question is, “What does he want?”

Just to be clear, both parties believe that their respective games have technical requirements and require smart play at the highest levels. While Melee has this large mechanical wall to climb, once you’re at the summit matches between top players can be considered intriguing debates featuring the sharpest of wits. For example, take a look at top Melee player C9 Mang0’s review of a Grand Finals match versus another one of the “gods” of Melee, MVG Mew2King. In it, he goes over the intricate dialogue that occurs at super high speeds and involves rapid-fire decisions:

In this respect, I want to posit the following: if fighting games are like a dialogue or a debate, then learning the mechanics of a game is like learning a language in the first place, and in this respect Melee is an enormously difficult language to learn. It’s like reading written Chinese, or learning Icelandic (which I hear is quite the challenge): certainly within the realm of possibility to become fluent, but mastery requires dedicated study and practice. As you improve at a language, it’s like the world opens up to you. You go from recognizing words to being able to read sentences, then novels and poetry. You discover the intricacies of how to piece thoughts together to form more complex ideas. This, I think, is where much of Melee‘s appeal comes from. To fans, wavedashing, dash dancing, L-canceling, DI, shine canceling, Scar Jumping, and more aren’t just Smash Bros. lexicon but the very grammar and vocabulary that lead to infinite possibilities of expression.

fc063347f3c29399fe8bd70ba773cbe5Basically like learning Fox

If that’s the case, however, then many players never truly learn to debate with their opponents. Those who consider the mental aspect of the game from the start will have the opportunity, of course, and that mental interaction is pretty much required at the tip-top level of Melee, but let’s go back to what Tafokints and Mike Ross had to say. Though there’s an upper limit, in Melee you can become a decent competitive threat without ever learning the mind games, but in Street Fighter you are taught to focus on mastering the art of dialogue from the very beginning. In contrast, what Melee will more often amount to is a debate where someone who is fully fluent in its language is overpowering someone who’s still just learning how to string a sentence together.

Again, to a Melee player, this is the charm of their chosen game: it is a complex and difficult yet beautiful language. Melee is a subject worthy of aesthetic appreciation, and those who reject it or see it as unnecessarily convoluted are simply not putting in the necessary work. With that being said, where Melee in a sense falls apart is when a player or indeed a game designer wants the central goal of their game and improvement at their game to be not so much the continual mastery of grammar, but a firm focus on the thrill of the debate or dialogue itself. Even if it is a simpler language, even if it takes less to learn overall, if one is able to immediately engage in the act of dialoguing, then that competitive game has achieved something rewarding. Rather than leaving that aspect to only the most skilled and talented players, it now becomes something that more people can experience. This, indeed, is where games such as Divekick, Smash Bros. Brawl, and Smash Bros. for Wii U come into play.

In the YouTube comments of the non-extended version (I don’t recommend you actually take a look), a lot of the debate descends into whether or not Melee is a “real” fighting game or not. The worn-out arguments of it being a party game without anything in common with “true fighters” are brought out, and in turn many of the defenders of Melee fall into these old traps. They will talk about how Melee is actually this enormously difficult game to learn and master because of its technical barriers, and will wear it as a badge of pride, while simultaneously talking down the other Smash games for lacking in this quality. They have essentially cornered themselves into a position where they are playing by their opponent’s rules. Whether by ignorance or by intentional scheming (most likely the former), Melee‘s detractors attack its integrity, but many of its supporters only know how to respond with, “But look at how intricate our language truly is! Can’t you appreciate that?” while failing to take into account that what some see as the true beauty of a language is when it leads to fruitful conversation.

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NiGHTS for Super Smash Bros.

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NiGHTS into dreams… is my favorite video game ever. No matter how many hours I put into Pokemon or even Smash Bros., NIGHTS always has that special place for me. Even before Melee came out, well before the start of this blog, I had begun to picture how NiGHTS as a character would function in Smash Bros.

NiGHTS into dreams… is a game about two children who fight to save the world of dreams from the evil forces of Nightmare with the help of a mysterious androgynous dream being, a rebel “Nightmaren” known as NiGHTS. The game evoked a real sense of flight while providing vivid dreamscapes for worlds. Though fairly obscure by today’s standards, you’ll still find people who love the game. For many, it was synonymous with the Sega Saturn, and even the Seha Girls personification of the console has NiGHTS-like features.

The biggest challenge with NiGHTS is that they’re a flight-based character, and I don’t even mean that they “can” fly, as is the case with Kirby or Pit. Rather, NiGHTS’ whole identity revolves around flying, and it’s pretty much the only thing they ever do during gameplay. There’s no walking, running, or jumping—it’s either flying or bouncing into things. Given Smash Bros. and its sumo-style gameplay, that wouldn’t be very fair if left unchecked.

With that in mind, I thought it best if NiGHTS did not have 10 jumps or whatever, and instead would have relatively fewer multi-jumps (4 mid-air jumps, one less than Kirby or Meta Knight) that were supremely maneuverable. As you can see in the upper right hand corner of the image, NiGHTS wouldn’t get just a small bump from each jump, but would be able to make curves, weave in and out, and more, with each successive “jump.” On the ground, NiGHTS would hover, and many moves, as well as their dash, would give NiGHTS a low profile.

NiGHTS as I picture the character is nigh-impossible to edgeguard, especially because all four of their specials are recovery moves, with some packing impressive killing potential, similar to Meta Knight. In exchange, NiGHTS would probably be the lightest character in the game, even lighter than Jigglypuff who’s usually dead last, and would have low damage per hit.

Paraloop involves NiGHTS making a quick loop, though rather than NiGHTS’ body doing damage, it creates a vortex that can suck in opponents, damage them, and even KO at high percents. I decided to localize into a single special move rather than it having a constant presence on-screen, because while it would be an interesting mechanic, it might make NiGHTS too overwhelming in that the character would be able to fight without even pressing the attack buttons.

NiGHTS’ neutral special, Somersault Throw, is an extremely versatile move. A command grab where NiGHTS boosts forward slightly, grabs the opponent, then spins around once and throws them, the tricky element of the move is that NiGHTS can activate the throw portion at any point while holding the opponent. This means that NiGHTS can throw the opponent towards the nearest blast zone, including the bottom of the screen for what is effectively a meteor attack, or into a ledge for a stage spike. Also, just having a command grab that’s so strong makes shielding against the NiGHTS that much more dangerous.

Drill Dash and Dragon Persona (taken from NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams) are more similar to typical recovery moves, but each is unique relative to the other. Drill Dash can be slightly angled similar to Meta Knight’s Drill Rush (though is slightly better this way), while Dragon Persona’s direction can be controlled like Fire Fox/Fire Bird, only with wind-immune properties. This means that, if Mario or another character tries to push NiGHTS to foil their recovery, Dragon Persona can cut straight through it. Neither move is good for KOing, however.

As for Dualize, NiGHTS’ Final Smash, it’s based on the final battle in both NiGHTS games, where both child characters simultaneously fuse with NiGHTS. This would create a clone character that mirrors NiGHTS’ moves, creating difficult traps and greater damage potential. Think of it like Morrigan’s Darkness Illusion super in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Not quite a “glass cannon,” NiGHTS would try to out-maneuver the opponent into making a mistake, and then capitalize on it. Overall, NiGHTS would be a graceful character capable of giving any opponent the slip, with a tricky yet effective and surprisingly powerful play style.

For next time, the character I’ll be presenting will be a representative of PC gaming.

Previous Characters:

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Pitfall Harry (Pitfall)

Zoma (Dragon Quest III)

Drifting Along: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for December 2015

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Whenever I think of Christmas and anime, my mind immediately goes to Initial D: Third Stage. Does that count as a Christmas anime? I’m going to say yes, and try to make it official.

Here are this month’s Patreon supporters. As always, I’m happy that they have my back.

General:

Ko Ransom

Alex

Anonymous

Yoshitake Rika fans:

Elliot Page

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

We even have a new Yajima fan aboard! Seeing as how the character’s been developing in Genshiken as of late, I wonder if more will join.

It’s a pretty subtle change, but one thing I’ve been trying to do over the past month is put out content three times a week. I used to do at least two posts a week, with a Fujoshi File every other week, but I felt that it wasn’t quite enough.

Speaking of the Fujoshi Files, at the moment they’re on a brief hiatus as I use that time to indulge in my love of Super Smash Bros. After the recent announcement that Cloud Strife is going to be a playable character (!), I’ve gone back to an old love of mine and have been designing movesets for what-if Smash characters. So far I’ve done Pitfall Harry from Pitfall and Zoma from Dragon Quest III, and there will be at least a couple more on the way.

I have more reviews this month, though as always they toe the line between review and analysis. Of course, there’s the requisite Genshiken chapter, and if you’re a Sue fan this is the one for you. I also wrote something about the use of kanji and words in Aquarion Logos, and then there’s my review of the new Digimon anime. If you haven’t heard about that last one, it’s actually a sequel to the original, with all of your favorite characters in high school. If you like giant robots, I also appeared on the Cockpit podcast to talk about Gaogaigar. I even made a new 1 Minute Review to celebrate the release of Girls und Panzer der Film!

As with every month, if you’re interested in requesting topics for me, it’s a reward for those who pledge $30+ on my Patreon. I of course don’t mind coming up with my own topics (and in many ways it’s actually kind of easier),  but I do miss being “forced” to look at something I might not have otherwise. In the meantime I’ve replaced the Ogiue Maniax Skype group reward at $2.00 with a new feature: I will include a link to whatever you want (within reason) in a special section in my sidebar. Remember, if you’re pledging already, you already have access to this, so send those requests my way!

The last thing I’d like to talk about is the whole social media thing. In the past, I’ve tried to make it so that each site I used had a different specialty. My tumblr, for example, was mainly for video clips. However, I realized that many people only look at their favorite social media platforms and rarely venture outside of them. That’s why I’ve been getting a bit more redundant with posts across different sites, to reach more people. My question is, are you someone who sticks to just one, or someone who sees different value in Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, etc.? I’d like to have a better idea of how to interact with my readers, so that I can foster interesting or even delightfully frivolous discussion.

 

Zoma for Super Smash Bros.

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Previous Characters:

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Pitfall Harry (Pitfall)

In celebration of Cloud Strife’s reveal as a new Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U character, I have once again been drawing movesets and concept art for how famous icons of video games might work in Smash Bros. This time around, it’s Zoma, the final boss of Dragon Quest III, aka Dragon Warrior III.

Square Enix began as two rival companies, Square (later Squaresoft) and Enix. If Square’s flagship title was Final Fantasy, and its greatest success story Final Fantasy VII, then Enix’s was Dragon Quest, and its crown jewel Dragon Quest III. Having sold over 1 million copies on its first day of release in Japan in 1988, which included many students deciding to cut class just to buy it, it is one of Japan’s most beloved RPGs. Amazingly, once you beat it, you find out that it was in fact a prequel to the very first Dragon Quest, and your player character becomes the legendary hero whose equipment must be collected in the first game.

However, instead of just going with Loto (or Erdrick) as a counterpart to Cloud, I believe it would be more interesting if Enix could be represented by arguably its greatest villain. Zoma, like all Dragon Quest monsters, is drawn by Toriyama Akira of Dragon Ball fame, and strikes an imposing figure. A demon lord who rules over the land of Alefgard, according to Dragon Quest IX he actually went there because he’s extremely popular with other monsters and is trying to get away from his fans. Zoma is shown to be much larger than the heroes, but like Bowser there does not seem to be much consistency with his scale, so I figured he’d best be a large, heavy target similar to other super heavyweights. However, where Zoma differentiates himself from the rest is that his attacks are not only powerful, they’re very quick to recover.

If you’ve fought a character like Mario in Smash 4, you find that he can move very quickly out of key attacks (Up Smash, down air, back air), and that it makes him difficult to punish. Zoma would be similar. While some of his attacks would have long wind-ups, such as his Side-B Kacrackle (the strongest ice spell in Dragon Quest), it is difficult to take advantage of him if he misses, as he can quickly transition into something like a jab or a forward smash. This is meant to reference the fact Zoma is actually able to attack twice in one turn in his source material.

To balance this out, Zoma would have by far the worst mobility in the game, like if you weighed Ganondorf down with bricks. He would have decent jumps in terms of sheer distance, but would be extremely slow in terms of acceleration and max speed. His walk speed would be awful, and he wouldn’t even have a true dash. Instead, he would get a mini-teleport that still has all the restrictions of a dash. Think of him as being somewhat like Slayer in Guilty Gear.

All of Zoma’s attacks come straight from his battles across various games (he’s been a guest boss in a number of titles), and many of them are capable of freezing. C-C-Cold Breath is a super-charged version of the Ice Climbers’ Down B, and Disruptive Wave can remove status changes (both positive and negative) and even stun opponents very briefly. In one-on-one situations you won’t be able to capitalize on it, but it does travel far and is good for shifting momentum back into your favor, especially given once again how difficult Zoma’s moves are to punish. Bounce is a reflector and stage recovery move combined, making it useful for getting past projectile-based edgeguarding attempts, but is otherwise below average for a recovery, traveling far but very slowly. It is also impractical as an on-stage reflector. Kacrackle is both a powerful damage dealer and a way to seal stocks early, but can be difficult to land. At the same time, it can be thrown out similar to Meta Knight’s forward smash as a read in neutral.

Zoma’s Final Smash is a reference to the fact that Zoma originally covers himself with a protective ice barrier in Dragon Quest III that greatly augments his abilities. The only way to remove it is to use the Orb of Light, and seeing as no one has it in Smash Bros., I figured it would be better as a temporary measure.

Perhaps most important of all, Zoma would have all of the signature attack sound effects from Dragon Quest.

So that’s Zoma, one of the most infamous of JRPG villains. If anyone wants to design a Loto as well, by all means be my guest. As for the next character, it’ll be “the one I’m waiting for.”

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Pitfall Harry for Super Smash Bros.

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With the surprise announcement of Cloud Strife in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U, as well as the upcoming mysterious December Smash Bros. special report, I felt inspired to start up a new line of Smash character what-ifs. You can see the previous ones I’ve made below.

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Thinking about how 3rd-party characters in Smash tend to be ones from influential or important games (Cloud), or representative of entire genres (Ryu), I decided to create a moveset and design for Pitfall Harry, the hero of the classic Atari 2600 game Pitfall. If you don’t know who Pitfall Harry is, that’s probably not surprising, as 1) the game is from 1982 and 2) even if you know the game Pitfall Harry doesn’t have much of a presence. After all, this is what he looked like:

4136802-image.num1308669893.of.world-lolo.com

Pitfall is significant in that, to my knowledge, it’s the first horizontal multi-screen platform game, and in terms of its implementation on the Atari it is a technical marvel, like creating boeuf bourguignon out of leather shoes and ketchup. Because of this, I think Pitfall Harry could reasonably have a place in a pantheon of gaming icons, however unlikely.

However, the first challenge that presented itself is the fact that Pitfall Harry has no consistent design. In addition to the fact that his original sprite (although amazing for its time) has no real identifiable features, Pitfall Harry across adaptations and sequels changes size, hair, clothes, musculature, personality, and more from one iteration to the next.

pitfallharries

Possible Costumes?

As mentioned on the image itself, I decided to prioritize Pitfall Harry’s movements, because they’re what’s iconic about him, while trying to keep his silhouette closer to the original sprite wherever possible. If he can for the most part capture the animations of the Atari 2600 sprite in Smash, then his identity should come through. This should also be reflected in the audio. When he jumps, he should make that distinct Atari noise (or a higher-quality version of it), and when he does his Jungle Swing Pitfall Harry should yell out like Tarzan.

As for the attacks themselves, I feel that Pitfall and Pitfall II are where most of the game franchise’s influence comes from, and so they should be prioritized. His Final Smash is his “deadliest enemy, the crocodiles,” his Balloon recovery move comes straight out of Pitfall II (and is super vulnerable so only useful as a last resort), his Tar Pit trap references both the treasure and hazard aspects of Pitfall, and the Jungle Swing is iconic. The main exception is the Slingshot neutral special, taken from Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure and other sequels. If his son can use it, I’m sure Harry can as well.

Gameplay-wise, I picture Pitfall Harry as being average in weight, average in ground speed, a little above average in air speed, and below average in racking damage and KO power. He’s not that much of a fighter (unlike Mario, jumping on enemies just kills Harry), so he would function primarily as a zoning and trapping character who controls space with his specials, but doesn’t have as much sheer recovery power as Smash 4 Villager. If anything, he’d be closer to Duck Hunt. However, his trapping game is not to be underestimated. Tar Pit works like a souped-up version of a burying attack, both getting the opponent stuck and dealing damage over time. It would also be unblockable, which somewhat makes up for his tether grab. The caveat is that it is very obvious where it is located, with the big glowing gold bar to indicate the trap, but this also means that the opponent best steer clear of the location. Essentially, Harry could cut off a portion of the stage, such as Smashville’s platform or Battlefield’s top platform, and manipulate the opponent to get hit by a Jungle Swing or a smash attack (which would mostly involve fists).

Overall, Harry would emphasize cunning and ingenuity. To succeed as Pitfall Harry requires a clear understanding of space control, as well as adapting to a somewhat unorthodox neutral game.

So, who do you think I’ll be showing next time? I’ll leave you with a hint. “Japan shut down.”

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Let’s Talk About Cloud Strife’s Hair in SUPER SMASH BROS.

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By this point, you’ve probably heard: against all odds, and against all predictions, Cloud Strife is in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U. The very symbol of Square Enix (back then Squaresoft)’s departure from Nintendo consoles, and the most popular Final Fantasy ever, now challenges Nintendo’s greatest icons. I’m not going to show you a hype reaction video (all of my hype tends to be inward), but if you want to see one, this is my favorite.

Instead, I want to talk about this:

smash-cloud-ffvii smash-cloud-adventchildren

(No, I did not purposely use the Japanese trailer, it was just up on the Japanese Smash Bros. page first.)

As you’ve probably noticed, you have the choice between Final Fantasy VII Cloud and Advent Children Cloud. However, what impresses me is that Cloud’s hair is more realistic-looking in his Advent Children model.

That was totally unnecessary to do, but it’s this kind of attention that I love about Super Smash Bros. One aspect of Advent Children is that it updated the designs of the FFVII characters, showing off in the process the advances in 3D graphics that had developed since 1997. What I find especially impressive about this is the fact that the game ends up embracing both versions. While Cloud isn’t blocky like the Akira from Virtua Fighter Mii Costume, there’s still that sense of not just a different hair style but a more polygonal one.

Then again, given Little Mac’s wireframe model, this is exactly the sort of thing I should have expected…if I had expected Cloud at all.

Who’s even left at this point? Who could even top the surprise factor of this? At this point I’m calling Pitfall Harry, the first side-scrolling platform hero.

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The Comfort of Tech Skill in Competitive Games

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The question of how much technical skill or physical prowess should play a factor in competitive games is an on-going debate that really puts at the forefront the tension between “games” and “sports.” I’ve discussed this divide previously in reference to Super Smash Bros. with the intent to understand both sides, but a recent comment by Starcraft and Hearthstone community leader Day[9] has me thinking about the extent to which technical refinement can contribute to the competitive viability of a game outside of the environment of competition itself.

While explaining why he believes that Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the best-designed competitive multiplayer game (emphasis on the word “design”), he organizes his argument into four key points that a lot of the best games tend to share: an engine that encourages interaction, room for strategy, variety of content, and some sort of execution skill with clear reward. In elaborating upon the idea of execution skill, Day[9] explains that it can often be difficult for players to feel a sense of improvement if the goal or evidence of improvement is too abstract. In contrast to the difficulty of tracking your decision-making, getting a basketball into a hoop has a clear goal, and the actions you take towards achieving that goal are immediately noticeable (did this help me shoot more hoops successfully or not?).

The reason why I want to focus on this idea of a high technical or execution skill is, first, that I can totally understand what he means from my own experience playing competitive games, and second, that it really opens up the idea of competitive gaming as being about so much more than just “winners and losers.”

In my time playing Japanese mahjong, I’ve run into a number of hurdles that made it difficult to truly gauge whether or not I’d improved. As much as mahjong takes skill, it’s still a game where luck is a significant factor, and when playing opponents who are equal or better than you, it’s not uncommon to go on a serious losing streak that makes you question if your previous wins were due to luck of the draw or if you’ve indeed progressed as a player. It’s only over the course of many games, as well as by facing players of lesser skill, that it becomes more obvious if your skills have improved. You begin to see the mistakes that you made in the past in the actions of other players, and you understand on a more fundamental level what made those decisions mistakes in the first place.

The big issue is that this is a painful way to go about improvement, and it would not surprise me if most people were not this masochistic about finding out whether or not they have become better players. One has to claw in the dark, finding bits and pieces of light wherever they might appear, and eventually find out if they’re now standing on something stable or a worn-out rope bridge.

Abstract thinking and decision-making are difficult to quantify, which is why something like a Training Mode in a fighting game is so appealing to players. As Day[9] mentions, even if you fall behind in terms of strategy, a game with a “high-variance execution skill band” can give players something to aim for (no Counter Strike pun intended) with very clear rights and wrongs. Compare trying to learn a high-damage combo to trying to understand intrinsically the concept of a “neutral game.” Some players are better at technical execution and others are better at grasping deep concepts, but I think both players would agree that the combo, the headshot, the waveshine are all much more tangible than what David Sirlin calls “yomi,” or reading the mind of the opponent.

This can be a problem, as explained by James Chen when he refers to fighting game players who try to master the art of complex attack patterns (mixups) that cause the opponent’s defense to falter (“opening up the opponent”) without actually understanding the fundamental goal is that you’re trying to psychologically intimidate the opponent into not blocking. James makes an important statement, which is that, while many people believe that the “neutral” (the game state where both players are fully in control and have equal dominance on the field) is all about the mixup, in fact the mixup is the reward you get out of winning the neutral. After all, what use is your amazing mixup and combo game if you never actually get to land it? It’s complex, I know, and it’s amazing that James is able to explain it so well.

Back to Day[9]’s point, what I find to be the major significance of this idea of high execution skill is that improvement becomes almost like a salve, a way of reassuring yourself that you’re not that bad, or that you see a clear path towards getting better. Unlike blaming your teammates (common to DOTA 2 and League of Legends), this isn’t merely a placebo; you’ve still gotten better at your game on some level, and the best players marry brains with brawn. When looking at discussions of competitive games, certain communities such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Starcraft will tout their games’ “high skill ceilings” with respect to technical skill as signs of their superiority as competitive games and as esports, but the presence of a high skill ceiling also becomes a comforting warm blanket. Even if you falter in terms of strategy and abstract thinking, you have the option to continually improve without needing it because you can advance your execution skill.

When I say that this idea seems to bring competitive gaming away from the competitive environment itself, what I mean is that, even though the improvement of skills (be they mental or physical) are generally supposed to accompany you to the moment of competition (whether it’s a tournament or a ladder), the ability to look back at your progress and declare yourself better than you once were is just as important. “I am not what I was yesterday.” Unlike strategy where the personal rewards can be distant and obscure, execution skill is both a short and long-term confidence booster, bringing the competitive game to be just as much about constructing pride as it is about victory or defeat.

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