1 post tagged “over thinking things again”
That narrow *cough* overlap between beat-em-up fans and Star Wars fans are going to be squeeing into their bowls of marshmallow flecked cheeriholes this morning because Saul Calibur is going to contain Yoda (360) and Darth Mouthbreather (PS3) as playable characters.
I liked Soul Calibur. Not least because it was a awesome, well balanced fighter that looked great and didn't penalise those of us who aren't able to pull off nine Hadoukens and half a dozen Shoryukens before the other player has even realised the bout has started. Also it was a Dreamcast game described as (on Wikipedia anyway) "the greatest fighting game of all time, and even one of the greatest games across all genres" - a quote I've printed out in 22pt Comic Sans, laminated and placed carefully in my wallet and which I read to myself occasionally before crying myself to sleep at night wrapped in my Sonic jim-jams.
Also, I appeared to have a slightly suspicious affinity with the unnervingly insectoid Voldo - a man dressed in what can only be described as heavy-BDSM combat chic. An affinity that allowed me to regularly beat a friend who otherwise kicked my arse all over the shop at any other game, electronic or otherwise from straight Unreal, Project Gotham and X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter to his own versions of Drinking-Sudoku, Blindfolded-Quake, Strip-Diplomacy and sessions of Starcraft that somehow managed to involve acupuncture needles.
But I digress.
It's not like this doesn't have precedent - the previous 2 versions of SC contain Heihachi, Link, and Spawn after all. Super Smash Brothers had Samus Aran in. Even DoA 4 had a fricking Spartan (Halo not 300) in it .
That said something about this bothers me and I can't quite put my finger on it - maybe it's because I'm one of the few people who didn't feel compelled to repeatedly mouth "Best. Film. Scene. EVAR!" whilst staring bright eyed at the part of Attack of the Clones where Yoda gets his spinny death whirl on. Maybe it's because I'm slightly tired of The Industro-Entertainment complex doing mashups with the popular culture icons of my childhood (how long before Virtua Fighter gets Snoopy, Neo and one of the Ninja Turtles as unlockable characters? ... Actually that might be pretty cool.) in a transparent effort to extract every last bit of disposable income from my sobbing wallet. Maybe it's the fact that - even in a world where some people wield 6ft long sword and other people actually survive being hit by them - this is pushing credibility a bit too far. Lightsabres are beams of pure energy - capable of dismembering bar dwelling xenoassholes with effects friendly ease. Surely, no matter how strong Ivy's combat-lingerie is, it's going to be a one-hit one-kill kind of deal.
Maybe I'm just a grumpy misanthrope.
If you're going to go the mashup route then why bother topping Monty Oum's surprisingly well realised ultimate fan boy fantasy:
Halo! Metroid! A hint of girl-on-girl action! Predator references! Lightsabre noises! A Zatoichi-style ending dance number! Ooooh, I'm in Otaku heaven!
