Pastiche of Life

I sit here now at the CD & Record Fair in Omagh with my stall of comics coming down with bargains and great choices but I am lacking in customers. Its strange i remember these fairs having a huge attendance with my teenage group but i think with the advent of digital purchasing and the loss of general taste has brought a death to the market in my home .

Coincidentally in starting to write this little blog post the lady who is running the whole thing came over to chat about the whole day being a bit of a bust and how quiet its been compared to any other day but i suppose that’s just my luck but taking on enough stock to run a few more days like this and breaking even isn’t to bad its just a pity i expended so much on Long boxes.

Just for a quick break down of my table check out the photos believe me there’s no point chronicling the rest of the room its all dealers and 2 Customers.

As you can see Quite a bit of Stock in view ^_^ and there’s even more out of view.

Last night i was feeling a little restless when i was trying to get some sleep and with no one in the house i wandered downstairs for a night of gaming.

My Brain poisons of choice this night are:

Naruto: the Broken Bond

MK Vs DC universe

Some mindless beat em ups wrapped around a thread bare storyline is what i expected and to be honest no major surprises, Naruto I have to admit was only boring because i followed the show so it was all retreading old steps for me but before i meander off point im going to separate this out for ease of understanding. Just to silence anyone who would moan or bitch that i shouldn’t be paying attention to story can politly go rape a fork i like stories its what makes a good engine great it’s all about implementation ^_^

Naruto:

Now this Game is a sequel to the Naruto game that came out a while back and it story picks up where the last one ended almost to the second, leaving you in control of a ridiculously overpowered ninja versus a main villain for a tutorial to refresh your knowledge of the combat system. This tutorial sadly continues pretty much for a full 2 thirds of the game.

But i digress, Story wise this game Is shorter than the previous incarnation taking you through some fun/pleasant plots all devised to introduce you to each of the characters you already met in the previous game. This is what i meant by a tutorial feeling through large portions of the game, As you introduced to characters who not just are familiar to fans of the series but also to anyone who had read the manual. This is interrupted with the big departure of one of the main characters as he decides to go off and join the side of the evil Jacksonesque villain you were beating up in the opening minutes of the game. At this point th game nose dives into a single story line that upon application of brain and intent to finish the game as expediently as possible meant that in just under 4 hours i had gone from opening screen to Postscript setup for another game.

This can be forgiven for the multitude of mini games and things to find but sadly upon inspection every item that is unlockable is collected from the main story so unless your a fiend for Gamer points, which i am not, your pretty much playing wth the gravel on the roadside rather than progressing anywhere.

I have an idea however, this is if they are listening at the developers After the events of this game and where it landed in the tv show there was almost a hundred episode of Filler material purists hate it (they would stop playing after they joygasmed to Cursed Sasuke anyway) but why didnt they Have the filler episodes play on and give you missions after the end of the Story. It gives you excuses for DLC or the possibility of adding missions just to have more characters more missions and to have the crowd Bawing for more. You missed a beat developers.

Derms Top tip: Make sure you Get the Ninja Cards for Tsunade, Sarutobi and Itachi <itachis card comes up late in the game untill then Use the Autoblock Scroll>

MK vs DC:

I don’t Like mortal Kombat i dont even like spelling it with a K so from now onwards there is Combat only in this article. Mortal Combat games Have annoyed me since the days of the snes, Like Street fighter it seemed to like punishing Players for making it to the final boss making them so unwieldy and unfair Dark Khan is no exception to this. But again digression has occurred let me get back on topic.

MC Vs DC could have been a delight, could have been a fun beat em up for mates to play together but sadly i haven’t had a fun game of it against person or computer, Playing the Story mode initially as the Mortal Combat Characters was frustratingly difficult i wasn’t sure if it was a balance issue or just how much i suck at Mortal Combat, SO In fits of rage i ended up mashing buttons between matches on occasion and thus missed out Parts of this Gleaming Turd of  a story. In my fits i still managed to spot some oddly entertaining Cut scenes.

Early cut scene for Liu Kang – He holds an elaborate view screen communicator to speak to Kitana… hang on didn’t they have those in the shitty Defenders of the realm cartoon?

Later on Still Liu Kang -Uses a different communicator this time audio only to communicate. I love the fact they have as many gadgets as Batman but for continuity sake why didnt they just use one or the other.

Sneaking suspicion is  that it was due to time constraints that <cough> High quality Hologram <Cough> Must have taken a few extra days so they didnt have time.  In fact there is many things about this game that feels rushed, hard to articulate but it gives the feel of an unfinished product.

Story wise when i moved across to play as the DC characters you do get treated to the Joker a shining beacon of madness in a Dull gray world of heroics.

Now i am utterly unfamiliar with the martial skills of WonderWoman, Superman, Flash and green lantern, but i have to admit I’m aware of how skilled Deathstroke, Catwoman and Batman are, this does come through in the game play as any time i played as a character who has to walk at all times rather than fly or walk on water i was treated to a good display of acrobatics and skill and good old violence, The moment i took control of Wonder woman however was a Chuckle as i Performed each special move to then pause the game, Giggle and take a large shot.

What is with the unbelievably shit looking Hurricane kick thingy.  I’m almost sure i saw the actress in the wonder woman tv show pull of that move but i kinda hoped that In a video game you’d go for flash over fidelity. As much as i might gripe about a few moves here or there the DC characters strangely enough were in my opinion much more playible that those of characters who have been in combat video games since the early nineties. Though this could be due to how easy they are to abuse in the game.

<I Just remembered the Justice league beat em up from years ago, that didnt count as i consider it a sprite re-colour of either a Capcom or SNK game God bless Post editing>

Story wise both fall weak using the story of Darkseid in metropolis (Is that every month now or was that just final crisis?) and of Shao khans Defeat in Mortal combat 2 or was it 3? anyway both get zapped as they try to teleport and end up fused together thus Dark Khan <—- Itd been funnier if it had been like plastic man and johnny cage but hey who wants my ideas ^_^ Plastic Cage or Johnny Man…. Instant classic characters like Necrid in Soul Caliber <Scoff scoff scoff>… Hang on a second, you could drop Johnny cage in  Dc universe make him the New Karate Kid and have him join the Legion! Perfect!

Im off to write that as a horrible Fanfic now then. Either than or finally get some sleep ^_^