🚀 go-pugleaf

ct...@nodisk.webo.dg.com (Henry Tam) writes:

>how come we have so few msgs in this newsgroup?  i mean, there are usually
>people playing MK when I go to an arcade.  SF2 is almost dead but
>there are still a lot of msgs in alt.games.sf2.  could it be that MK
>is so simple that we've found out all the tricks, combos in it?

     It's hard to say.  Part of it could be because SF2 Turbo just came
out for the SNES, which would mean that the bulk of your SF2 fanatics
are saving their quarters and playing it at home.  Of course, it may
also be due to the fact that there isn't a home version of MK that comes
quite close enough to th arcade game.  The SNES butchered 4 of the 7
fatalities that Nintendo thought to be too bloody; the Genesis comes a
little closer with the now-infamous Mode A, but suffers a bit in the
graphics and sound departments; the Game Gear version, while it looks
like a very good one, has problems caused by the 2-button controller and
a dinky screen; and the Game Boy version is, to put it nicely, lousy.
(A footnote about the SNES version:  isn't it kind of a double standard
when the fatalities are screwed up and the blood changed from red to
grey (????????????????), but they left in moves like Johnny Cage's nut
punch?  Go figure.)
     I will admit that, for the most part, MK is not that tough of a
game to learn (fatalities aside).  Even the least skilled of players
are likely to go far once they learn the basics, like the foot sweep,
the throw, and the ever-popular rapid-fire punching trick (which, if you
do it right, will often work better than even the flashiest special
move...at least, in my opinion).  The special moves add a different
twist to the game, but let's face it:  what's the first thing people
notice about MK?  The realistic animation of the players?  Maybe.  The
cleverly designed special moves?  Doubtful.  The truth is, MK pretty
much had 1 thing going for it:  blood.  Gallons of it.  (And the
fatalities didn't hurt too much, either...at least not the people who
won.  :)  )  I hate to have to point fingers because I personally love
MK, and would gladly take it over SF2 if I had the choice, but it kinda
seems to me like MK could very well be a one-trick pony.  Besides MK and
SF2, how many other fighting games are out there?  (World Heroes 1 and
2, Samurai Showdown, Hollusseum (which I'm positive is spelled wrong),
Fatal Fury....I could probably go on for days.)  The thing that set MK
apart from the rest was that it was bloodier and more realistically
violent than anything else on the market (and still is.  :)  ).  I read
somewhere that the designers of MK thought that SF2 played a lot like a
Japanese cartoon.  I like cartoons, too, but let's face it:  we don't
live in Toontown.  (If you think you do, you may want to think about
giving up acid.)
     It's an interesting topic, I think, and one that needs to be
discussed more.  Let me know what you think, either publicly or by
e-mail.

-mu...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu