Thundercats Roar was announced on May 18th, 2018, with an official announcement trailer breaking down what it’s going to be about. This announcement isn’t just a brief trailer, it’s a 3-minute preview of the creative direction of the show, with the official intro of the show at the very end.
My favorite part about Magic: The Gathering is absolutely how varied and interesting deck building is. With 25 years worth of cards and mechanics, pretty much anything is possible. As of late, I’ve been updating a few of my decks, and I decided that I want to share some of them. Today I’ll be talking about one of the first good decks I’ve ever used, a budget black/red (Rakdos) aggro deck that I affectionately call Super Weenie Hut Jr.
And when I say budget, I mean REALLY budget. It’s composed of nothing but commons and uncommons, but I’ve been able to make it see a good amount of success over the years. This is the most recently updated version of this deck.
x4 Rakdos Cackler
x4 Tormented Soul
x4 Rakdos Shred Freak
x4 Spike Jester
x4 Minotaur Skullcleaver
x4 Mogis’s Marauder
x4 Lightning Bolt
x4 Go For The Throat
x4 Untamed Hunger
x4 Madcap Skills
x4 Dragonskull Summit
x9 Swamp
x7 Mountain
Pretty straight forward strategy here. Play good value, low cost cards throughout the game and swing in with them as consistently as you can. Eventually use one of the menace-giving auras to make creatures harder to block and/or play Mogis’s Marauder and win the game. Let’s get into the meat of it, starting with the one-drops: Rakdos Cackler and Tormented Soul.
This deck wants to attack a lot, so these two offer some really good advantages. Rakdos Cackler is a super versatile card. Early game, you can Unleash and get a 2/2 on the board on turn 1, or later in the game, it’s still a solid card to play quite simply because it adds to your field of weenies and is mana efficient. The fact it loses its ability to block if unleashed doesn’t really bother this deck because it’s not going to do much blocking to begin with, plus if you ever have to be cautious, you can just not unleash it. That said if you’re playing defensively with this deck, you’ve probably already lost. The reasoning for Tormented Soul is the same. The fact that it can’t block is made up for by the fact that this deck doesn’t block much, and being an unblockable 1/1 that we can pump later with our auras is super good for how aggressive we’re trying to be here, especially since this card can help us get past threats that are simply too big for this deck to handle otherwise.
For our two-drops, we have Rakdos Shred Freak and Spike Jester.
Again, reasoning here is quite simple. Rakdos Shred Freak is a 2/1 with haste, and Spike Jester is a 3/1 with haste. Fast, easy damage. But let’s take a look at the board for a minute here. Let’s say turn 1 you play Rakdos Cackler and unleash it. That means if you play Spike Jester the following turn, you’re swinging for 5 damage on turn 2. Between the 1 and 2-drops in this deck, you pretty much never run out of ammo to throw at someone.
Finally, our 3-drop creatures: Minotaur Skullcleaver and Mogis’s Marauder.
These two are quite honestly some of my favorite cards ever printed. Minotaur Skullcleaver is a hyper-aggressive monster, coming onto the field as a 4/2 with haste. Skullcleaver is scary because it’s not only 4 damage raw the turn you play it, but the turn it’s played, it can deal with threats the deck otherwise couldn’t handle. Those threats being literally anything with 4+ toughness. He’s hard to block, super cheap and efficient. Mogis’s Marauder is this deck’s win condition for when you’re facing a deck that either doesn’t run red or black, or runs them but isn’t swarmy. That is, if you haven’t already won from repeatedly bashing your opponent’s face in. When Mogis’s Marauder comes into play, it gives X creatures haste and intimidate until end of turn where X is your devotion to black. Notice something about the cards in this deck? The only permanents that don’t count towards devotion to black are Minotaur Skullcleaver and Madcap Skills. Chances are when you play this, you’ve got enough devotion to black to pretty much give your whole side of the board intimidate, which you use to swing in and win the game. So long as your opponent isn’t running black. Generally speaking, if you’ve been playing well and drop Mogis’s Marauder on turn 4, you can probably win the game. If you’ve been playing well and drop him on turn 5, you definitely win the game.
Now as for instants, it’s quite simple. This deck is running two instants: Lightning Bolt and Go For The Throat.
So uh, what is there to explain? Lightning Bolt is an amazing card that can help keep your tempo going or just smack your opponent in the face for 3 damage. Go for the Throat is amazing removal for every threat that isn’t an artifact. Creatures in this deck don’t really go past 4 power, so if any really big threats show up, Go for the Throat can generally handle them.
As for enchantments, this is where the deck becomes really mean. Fun, but mean. We’re running 4 copies of both Madcap Skills and Untamed Hunger.
Menace has always been a really cool ability, in my opinion. It doesn’t make your creatures unblockable by any means, but it makes them incredible frustrating to deal with. being forced to double block is always something players dread, and when you’re being as aggressive as this deck, it makes it even more frustrating. Madcap Skills gives a creature +3/+0 and menace, and Untamed Hunger gives a creature +2/+1 and menace. By the time you end up playing these auras chances are you’ll have built up a solid board state of 3-4 creatures. Putting menace on any of them will make them terrifying, and force your opponent to deal with your offensive pressure in ways they probably didn’t want to. Generally speaking, Madcap Skills is preferred on cards like Rakdos Cackler and Minotaur Skullcleaver and Untamed Hunger is preferred on Spike Jester and Rakdos Shred Freak. But any combination of aura and creature work. Tormented Soul makes menace not important, but a 4/1 or 3/2 unblockable is still scary. Untamed Hunger also helps with Mogis’s Marauder by adding to your devotion to black. Menace also helps in conjunction with Mogis’s Marauder. If your opponent has a way to get through intimidate, you can still mess with their blockers by having a menace or two on the board.
Our mana base is quite simple, with 9 Swamps, 7 Mountains, and 4 Dragonskull Summits. Really basic setup because quite frankly, this is all you need. You could replace the check lands with better ones like, say, shock lands, but then this deck wouldn’t be as cost-effective.
For a super budget version, you could run only basic lands and still have the deck function well, cutting the price of the deck down to about $30 USD. Just replace the 4 Dragonskull Summits with 2 swamps and 2 mountains. Roughy 1/3 of your creatures are hybrid mana, so getting mana stuck generally isn’t an issue.
Total price of this deck is just under $40 USD, $30 USD for the super budget version, and for that price, you get a fun, aggressive deck with interesting abilities.
And we’re back with more lore behind the colors of Magic: The Gathering! This time, we’re going to cover Red. The absolute definition of aggro, red is fast and to the point with its style of play. With cards such as Lightning Bolt, Goblin Guide, and more recently, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, red is synonymous with aggression.
Red wants freedom. Freedom from others, freedom from authority, freedom from personal restraint. Red is the color of passion and emotion, and believes that one should never let their emotions be restrained. Red believes that everyone is on a particular journey in life, and that the only way to go through this journey successfully is to let your emotions lead you to your destination. If you want something, you don’t wait for it to come to you — You go out and get it yourself. Right now. Live in the moment, and live to your fullest. Normally, people associate red with anger and love. In regards to the color pie, that is incorrect; It is a color of all emotions. Yes, it has parts of it related to anger and love, but on the other side it also represents happiness, sadness, camaraderie… Anything that one can feel passionate about. So when I say red is an “aggressive” color, that does not inherently mean that red represents only aggression. At the end of the day, red is about recognizing what makes you passionate, and acting on it regardless of what others may think or do.
Red, mechanically, is fairly simple to relate to its beliefs. As red is a color that lives in the moment and chases down what it needs in an instant, it is obvious that it’s going to have a lot of cards focused on getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. In this case, point A being the start of a game, and point B being winning. There are 4 major mechanics I see in this ideology: Haste, card draw, First Strike/Double Strike, and direct damage.
First off is haste, which is fairly simple to understand. In Magic, as well as many other card games, there is this thing called “summoning sickness”, which basically means a creature cannot attack the turn it’s summoned. Creatures with haste bypass summoning sickness, and can attack the turn they’re played. Haste represents red’s want to go out and do what it needs to right away, as opposed to preparing at all. Red lives in the moment, and the moment doesn’t involve waiting around.
Card draw with red is very different from card draw with blue. In blue, as I mentioned in this article, card draw represents the search for knowledge, where as in red, card draw comes with a price: Most of the time, when you draw a card, you must also discard a card along with it. This is because of Red’s mentality towards accomplishing its goals. If something you have in the moment isn’t helping you, throw it away and get something better. You need to win right now, and what you currently have isn’t accomplishing that.
First Strike and Double Strike are probably the hardest abilities to explain in Magic. When two cards fight each other, they deal their damage to each other at the same time. If a card has first strike, it means that when it fights another card, it deals its damage first, and if the damage is enough to kill, the opposing card does NOT deal its damage to the card with First Strike, because it dies before it can do that. Double Strike is when a card attacks with First Strike, and then attacks a second time at the same time as the opposing card. Basically, it does its damage twice in one attack.
How does this relate to red? Quite simply, it relates to red’s “shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality. Red is impulsive. Red acts on what it feels right from the get-go, so of course it’s going to be the one to swing first. As for double strike, well, who says it stops swinging after the first attack? That’s not how you win a fight.
Finally. there’s direct damage. Do I really have to explain this one? What’s a more efficient way of winning the game than hitting your opponent in the face or blowing up a creature that’s in your way? The answer: Literally nothing. Like I’ve been saying, red wants to get things done, and get them done quick. Direct damage is the purest example of this.
In relation to its other beliefs, there is one sub-theme of red that it touches upon: love. But not love in the romantic sense people tend to use it as. According to red, love is caring for anyone who is important to you. Family, friends, romance, pets, anything. If they’re important to you, to any degree, they’re worth keeping in your life. End of discussion. Red tends to get abilities that focus on camaraderie, such as Battalion, Bloodrush, and Battle Cry, and flavor in cards like Cathartic Reunion, shown above.
Well, that’s red in a nutshell. As always, I’ll leave you with the card I think represents red as a whole: Lightning Bolt, The Best Card in Magic™. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times in this article, simply because it’s too important and iconic NOT to be talked about. Lightning Bolt is simple and to the point: 1 mana, deal 3 damage to target creature or player. It can take out a creature early in the game for more damage, hit your opponent’s face for 3, or help take down a bigger creature none of yours can. Its goal is to help you finish the job as fast as possible, just like red wants to do. It’s also just a generally amazing card and if you’re in red you absolutely play it 100% of the time.
It’s no secret that I’m the resident fighting game guy here at The Lifecast. I’ve been playing fighting games for as long as I can remember. There are a lot of well-loved fighting games that simply haven’t gotten their time to shine the past few console generations, and they really deserve to get a new game. So many fighters have become almost entirely forgotten by developers. And in a time right now, in the wake of beloved games such as Street Fighter and Marvel Vs. Capcom being hated by fans and competitors alike for not retaining the spirit of its predecessors, I think it’s time a new game get its time in the spotlight.
I like to refer to Bushido Blade as a fighting game that everyone loves but nobody has played. Everyone praises the game for its body damage system and innovations made for the genre, but most seem to have not played it despite talking it up. Kind of like Citizen Kane in that regard (did I actually just find a similarity between Bushido Blade and Citizen Kane?). As someone who has played it, I can vouch: It’s a pretty great game, and deserves to come back. It is the only fighting game I’ve ever seen to be founded almost entirely in realism. Most hits will instantly kill an opponent, and as a result, pretty much the entirety of Bushido Blade is neutral game, with huge reward if you win it. You can also sever or disable your opponent’s various body parts to help you gain an advantage in combat. Each weapon has its own set weight and size made to realistically resemble the proportions of the weapons in real life, and the only combos in the game are follow-up strikes that would naturally flow out of the first strike of the weapon. In a time where fighting games are really trying to become as accessible to as wide an audience as possible, a game like Bushido Blade which focuses almost entirely on strong neutral game would be able to not only bring a lot more people over to the FGC, but provide a fun and unique fighting game experience for everyone who plays it.
Rival Schools is a 3D team-based fighter on the PS1, released in 1997, and is definitely a black horse among Capcom fighting games. Many would compare it to Marvel Vs. Capcom, but to say it’s similar is quite the stretch. Your team is composed of two characters, but only one of them does the fighting. The other only comes in for a team-up attack once you’ve built up enough meter, and at the end of the round, you’re allowed to either stay as your character, or switch to your partner. Any form of team synergy is based entirely on your team-up attack, and what weaknesses your main has that your teammate can cover in round 2. It allows for a lot of really awesome mind games between matches. Take this unique system into mind, and then take a look at the fact that this game also has some of the coolest character designs in any Capcom game accompanied by a slammin’ soundtrack, and you’ve got one of the best fighting games on the PS1. Luckily for us, there is a sliver of hope for the return of Rival Schools, as Hideaki Itsuno has been wanting to continue the series. Hopefully we’ll get to see a long-needed Rival Schools 3 in its full glory some time soon.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE BEST GAME ON THE WII
Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom released on the Wii in 2010, just before I started getting into fighting games competitively. I had initially bought it because I loved Gatchaman and Tekkaman Blade (and still do), but a lot of what I loved about it happened after I returned to it a few years after I got into more fighting games, and noticed just how elegant and well-made this game was. The combos are hype, the music is incredible, it’s one of the best looking games on the Wii — even standing up to some of the HD games at the time in terms of looks — not to mention a great roster with a healthy balance of both fan-favorite and lesser-known characters. The game feels like a sort of middle ground between Marvel Vs. Capcom and Capcom Vs. SNK in terms of physics. You’re not so heavy you stay stuck to the ground, but you have enough weight to you to not feel like you’re flying. And not to mention Baroque mode, which is probably the best “X-Factor” style mechanic in fighting games. By pressing the partner button and an attack button to sacrifice the red health in your gauge, this enables higher damage and longer combos for as long as you keep the combo going.
Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom is an amazingly made fighting game. And while I’d be all for a TvC2, I’d be just as much for this game instead being looked at as a template for all Vs. games to come.
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness is better known as “The game Jin Saotome is from”. As one would expect, one of the most hype characters in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is also from an incredibly hype fighting game on the PS1. For the time, it played like a standard 2D Capcom fighter, but with a ton of potential customization to your own distinct playstyle. Each individual mech you can pick has multiple variants which change its arms, legs, etc. to give it different attacks, movement options, etc. Each of these options act as changes to an archetypal robot, of which there are many. The general idea for finding a characher is finding a mech whose style you enjoy, and then seeing which of the variants fit you the best. Or you could be like me and instead of matching your style you just picked the one you think looks the coolest. This kind of setup created a roster of characters that could more or less be tweaked to your own playstyle. If you find a character you like, you can also use the other variants to cover for your weaknesses while still feeling familiar with them, since they’re all variants of the same core robot. You can buy Cyberbots as a PS1 classic on PS3, but just imagine what the possibilities could be for a new Cyberbots today. With how far mecha games have come with customization, it would be awesome to see this core idea taken to the next level.
SNK is no stranger to making amazing fighting games. Samurai Shodown, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Fatal Fury, and The Last Blade are only a few of the well-beloved series that SNK has made over the years. Back in their prime, SNK was pumping out these games like they were nothing, and all of them felt incredibly good to play. Each game brought something different to the table while all still having that distinct SNK feel to them, ultimately connecting all of them into this huge family of fighting games. The reason these games need to come back is quite simple: They absolutely OOZE personality. Along with being well-designed games — Samurai Shodown being my personal favorite — they have some of the coolest and most lovable characters in all of fighting games. Mai Shiranui, Terry Bogard, Haohmaru, Butt, Blue Mary, Moriya Minakata, the list goes on and on. We’ve gotten rereleases of most of these games on various systems, but that’s not enough. We need brand new games in these franchises. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see SNK return back to its glory days.
It’s time for another Magic the Gathering color theory! Last time, I talked about MTG’s most iconic color, blue, but this time, I wanted to talk about white: The color of many iconic cards such as Serra Angel. Like I said last time, the colors of MTG each have different sets of beliefs and ideals, and each card in that color is created with these beliefs and ideals in mind. White is no different.
White wants peace, though its methods of attaining peace are rather militaristic. It believes that in order to attain peace, one must first abide by a strict set a laws to keep the peace, and second, put the majority above the individual. If the sacrifice of one means the success of the many, then that’s good. White is ultimately looking out for the greater good at the expense of individualism. It builds up huge numbers of followers through law and religion, and these numbers swear towards the ideals of white. Amass large numbers and fight for white’s ideals. If a few soldiers die in the process, that’s fine, because they’re just soldiers. So long as the end of furthering their idea of order is met, the means are justified. To say white is self-centered wouldn’t be far from the truth. This is shown by through one of white’s staple mechanics, token generation. As with blue and card draw, token generation isn’t an ability exclusive to white, but white certainly has the best. White generates more 1/1 tokens than any other color, mostly through cards that have some sort of religious affiliation or renowned war heroes. Note how even the renowned heroes such as Hero of Bladehold still aren’t referred to by name, again, showing the “just a soldier” mentality.
The tokens that are generated are nameless soldiers whose intent is to simply swing in and get damage. Because you can consistently make tokens due to effects like Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth’s +1 ability, you’re less inclined to care about your tokens dying because you can simply make more next turn. They’re just soldiers.
Keep in mind, this is not some Orwellian dystopia of a color like you may be thinking. Beings in white are in white because it’s their ideal as well, not because white is forcing them to think that. Gideon Jura, the current face of white in MTG, is literally putting the lives of the entire MTG multiverse before his own in the current story. Not because white is forcing him to, but because he believes that is what needs to be done to keep the peace. Prioritizing the many over the individual.
While white seeks peace and protection for all, it will prioritize peace and protection for its own. This is shown in its vast array of spells that either give its creatures protection from a certain color or source (A creature with protection from a color/source cannot be targeted or blocked by said color/source), or cards that give buffs to other creatures in white. The best token creation is in white, the best buffs for those creatures are also in white. At the end of the day, you’re either with white or against it, and if you’re against it, it wants nothing to do with you.
We’ve talked a lot about what white does to further itself and how it protects its people, but what about those against white? This is where the other ideal of white comes in: Law. White believes that in order to keep the peace in the world, one must abide by a strict set of laws that keep everyone safe. A lot of white’s enforcement of these laws come from religious backing. White is the color of God, angels, priests, clerics, etc. because it traditionally represents purity. Divine intervention and religious figures is how white deals with those who oppose it. Most of these abilities involve keeping the opponent oppressed in some way shape or form, be it through preventing the opponent from using certain cards, keeping creatures tapped, or simply removing cards from play.
There you have it, white’s philosophy. It used to be mostly just about protecting people and healing the weak, but as of late it has also adopted a much more militaristic, group think kind of approach to peace. A quick note, not all cards in a color symbolize everything about the color. White doesn’t have to exclusively be about furthering ideals. There are cards that just care about protecting those who can’t protect themselves, regardless of if they’re for or against white, like Gideon, for example.
As for cards that do fall in line with all ideals, there is one card that I feel symbolizes everything about white: Wrath of God.
It only has one effect, but that one effect symbolizes everything white is about. The advancement of peace for everyone at the expense of the few, through divine intervention. Wipes the board against white’s opponent, and while it also wipes white’s board, white doesn’t care because its units are expendable. The effect seems fair, but since it doesn’t cause white as much of an inconvenience as its opponent, it’s actually a move in white’s favor.
TeamSoloMid have announced a new documentary series focusing on the Super Smash Bros. Melee player, William “Leffen” Hjelte. The series, simply titled “Hjelte”, will be 3 parts long, and will focus on Leffen’s time at EVO 2017. According to producer Andrew White, it will be “covering before/after Evo as well as exploring the Melee scene as a whole”.
While the primary focus is on Leffen, we see that in the trailer there is also a focus on his friends/rivals in the community, as shown by interviews with people such as Team Liquid’s Hungrybox and Cloud9’s Mang0.
One of my favorite games ever is good ‘ol Magic: The Gathering. I’ve grown a pretty large attachment to it over the years, to where I’ve reached a point where I’m watching deckbox reviews on youtube for fun. Though, when it comes to Magic, I feel like something that goes widely underappreciated about it, at least in my community, is the lore of the game. Especially when it comes to the meaning behind the big 5 colors of the game. A lot of players brush over the colors, thinking they’re just an arbitrary means of organizing different play styles, when they’re actually much more than that. The colors of MTG each represent different sets of beliefs and ideals, and each card in that color is created while keeping those beliefs and ideals on mind. This time, I’ll be talking about the most iconic color in Magic, blue. The color of MTG’s own posterboy, Jace Beleren.
In MTG there’s this thing called the color pie. It’s an image showing the colors in alignment/opposition with each other, and what each one represents in terms of ideology.
The Color Pie (via MTG Wiki)
Blue wants knowledge. Blue believes that the pursuit of knowledge is the most important thing in life. Blue believes that the world is ever-changing, and because of that it always wants more information. How will it know what to do in a situation if they don’t know every single possible outcome? Unlike other colors which hold things like morality, emotion, the self, etc. above all else, blue doesn’t care about that. All blue cares about is learning. What’s the most optimal move? What knowledge will it gain from this? So long as blue comes out in the end knowing more, it’s a good trade-off. Blue wants to know anything and everything about the world. This search for knowledge is shown in a lot of the staple cards in blue.
Drawing cards represents this search for knowledge. Each individual draw allows the player to gain more knowledge about the current game, allowing them to better assess the situation. While card draw isn’t an ability exclusive to blue (that would be way too powerful), blue certainly has the best (and probably just more) versions of the ability.
Blue is not just about the pursuit of knowledge, though. Keep in mind, blue doesn’t just look for knowledge; it retains all of it. By searching for so long and learning so much, it knows how to come out winning in many, many situations, to the point where blue has effectively solved Magic. Blue is incredibly smart; borderline omniscient in some cases. Knowing how to beat everything is exactly where another staple abilities of blue come in: scrying and counter spells.
Scrying is a mechanic that allows you to look at the top card(s) of your deck depending on how much the effect lets you, and decide whether or not you want to keep the cards on the top of your deck, or put them on the bottom. Looking at what cards you’re going to draw, and literally changing that if you please, is pretty much as omniscient as you can get in MTG, considering you’re more or less seeing the future. It’s also paired with other beneficial abilities a lot, like a creature with evasion or card draw.
While scry looks into the future, counter spells are the definitive form of blue’s overwhelming knowledge. Blue is able to stop pretty much anything in its tracks because it knows exactly how it works and how to beat it, hence why you have cards that literally just prevent other cards from working. Scry still has to assess some kind of situation, hence why a lot of the time it comes out at sorcery speed (can only be played on your turn). It’s only used at a time where you have the time to assess what to do. Counter spells happen at instant speed (can be played whenever), meaning that blue already has the necessary knowledge to know how to deal with the situation.
There is one card that I feel embodies everything blue is about, and it’s a little card called Cryptic Command. For 4 mana, it lets you do pretty much anything you’d ever want to do while playing blue. Stop an opponent from hurting you, counter literally anything, draw a card… It’s great. And you get to pick two of the effects.
And there you have it, blue’s philosophy in a nutshell. It wants to know literally everything. Because of this, it’s generally agreed upon that in terms of sheer consistency and power, blue is the best color in the game. It’s hard to beat something that knows everything about you.
WARNING: If you don’t want spoilers for any matches in top 8/grand finals because you haven’t watched EVO yet, I’d advise NOT reading this article.
Evolution 2017 concluded a little under a week ago, and every single game had a ton of hype behind it. Whether it be Guilty Gear, Melee, Street Fighter, King of Fighters, or any others, every game had at least a few moments that made you go “Damn, I love this game!” Every time EVO comes around, you know it’s time to get hype. Because EVO is more than the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. EVO is a celebration of fighting games as a whole! So join me in celebrating how amazing these games we love get, and let’s count down the top 5 most hype moments of Evolution 2017.
(starts at 12:45)
Tekken 7 is a game full of a lot of various, small hype things that come together to make the game exciting, rather than a game that has a few hype things that just tend to happen frequently. Generally this means it only truly gets hype when you have players who know how to abuse these small hype things to their greatest potential. One of these small hype things is called a “low parry”, where if you press down-forward on your controls, you parry a low hit and can capitalize with a combo after. On an unseeable sliver of health, JDCR low parries Jeondding’s about-to-be-game-winning low, and lands a combo with just enough damage to take the match, and the set.
(starts at 39:49)
Smash 4 is a mixed bag for me. Sets are either really fun, or really lame. EVO top 8 definitely showed that. But luckily, the game that lasted the longest wasn’t boring at all: ZeRo vs. Salem in grand finals. Both players were playing out of their mind, and game 10 was one of the most intense moments I’ve seen in Smash 4. Bayonetta down a stock AND in kill range only after taking Diddy’s first stock. And while Bayonetta is a character known for her 0-to-deaths, this is also ZeRo we’re talking about. Salem won, game 10, tournament point for both players.
(starts at 8:15)
The White Lion of Japan showing that Leo is more than you think. Every time he lands a hit, the crowd freaks out. Outside of top 8, T4M7 left a path of destruction behind him, most notably sending Ogawa, EVO 2015 world champion, into losers through a double perfect. This monster made it all the way to grand finals, where he finally lost to Omito. And while T4M7 was definitely a monster throughout all of top 8, I think that his double perfect against Ogawa — The former EVO 2015 champion and arguably the best Zato in the world — really goes to show that he was the star of the show throughout all of EVO.
(Highlight at 25:34)
I typically don’t watch BlazBlue, but I always make the exception for EVO, because it’s where it gets the most hype. Every year it’s been a main game, something amazing happens, and this year is no different. This time, we got to see Ryusei decimate all of top 8 with his incredible Carl Clover, and Fenritti (Fenrich) also decimate top 8 with his incredible Jin Kisaragi. The point of maximum hype came when both of these players ended up against each other in grand finals. Both players played out of their mind in every set they were against each other. Each match was a total slugfest, and even though I was rooting for Ryusei to take it all (which he did), I also couldn’t help cheering for Fenritti as well. As amazing as Ryusei’s pressure and offense was, I really have to give it up for Fenritti’s impeccable defense while taking Ryusei’s onslaught of attacks, as well. This is the outcome you get when you take two players who are masters at their character.
By far, the most hype moment in all of EVO this year was grand finals in Street Fighter V. Punk has taken SFV by storm these past few months, taking tournament after tournament. And at the young age of 18, he’s pretty much become the prodigal son of the community. Tokido has been a part of the FGC since before Punk was even alive. The flavor of this set was amazing. Who would win it? The rising star, or the old grandmaster? Everything was on the line for both of these players.
Punk cracked under pressure, and Tokido took full advantage of it, winning the set. He had won a ton of tournaments before, but EVO is different. I’m sure the entire time he was playing he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. Normally I’d share this video at a specific time to give an example of how good the play was, but this is a moment best enjoyed as a whole. This is why people watch fighting games: the emotion that comes with them, and the stories that they create. At the end of the set, both players were on the verge of tears for two completely different reasons.
This past weekend was the fifth annual Boston Festival of Indie Games, a convention celebrating independent tabletop and video game developers, in the MIT Johnson Athletic Center in Cambridge, MA. Upon entering the venue, I was greeted with the sight of tons of indie game devs waiting to showcase their most recent projects, and when I actually got the chance to experience what these devs were working on, I enjoyed myself way too much. But with all of these games around trying to impress, some stood out more than others to me, be it for mechanics, aesthetic, control, even the people running the booth. So these are my highlights from the Boston Festival of Indie Games 2016.
When it comes to Now Everyone Get The F%$# Out, by the fantastic Starcap Games, I’m very well-acquainted. I’ve already played the game various times whenever I go to this great thing in Boston called Game Over, and when I saw it was going to be at FIG, it was one of the first booths I went to. Prior to FIG, only Kennedy and I had played NEGTFO, and now a lot of us here at The Lifecast like it. It’s a card game about getting people out of your dorm so you can study for a final, and you do this by forcing things like a live band or hard drugs onto your opponents to make the partiers go into their dorms instead of your own. You have actions to do special things like reuse cards from the discard pile, and instant actions which let you do something (normally counter a card your opponent plays) at any time. It’s an insanely fun game that gets even more fun with more people, and I play it every time I get the chance to. On top of that, the one running the booth, Pat Roughan, is super cool. Absolutely be sure to check this out; it’s honestly one of my favorite tabletop games. Now Everyone Get the F%$# Out! is available on Amazon and, though currently sold out, will have more in stock later! You can follow Starcap Games on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
Now, let me tell you about a game that I absolutely cannot wait for: Mech Deck. Now, at this point, it’s no secret that I love me some good old fashioned mechs. Be it eastern, western, Gundam, or MechWarrior. I love mechs. I mean hell, my tag online is MechaManDan. This board game was the coolest one at FIG. It sucks that it wasn’t at the showcase and that I was media. Because if I wasn’t media and it was in the showcase, I would have absolutely voted for it as best game. It focuses around free-for-all mech combat. Normally, you draft for parts to your mech, but in the effort to save time, we were given pre-built models. Your parts are split into the torso, legs, arms, and back. Arms are generally weapons, body supplies energy you need to move and do certain tactics, legs give movement perks, and the back, well, I don’t really know, since my back piece was immediately destroyed by our own Greg by the end of the first turn. Each mech has weapons with varying ranges, and when you get within range, you can attack. Combat is resolved by each side rolling 2 6-sided dice, with the higher number determining whether or not the attack goes through (attacker wins ties). Each individual mech’s piece is not just that one piece, though. Every arm, leg, jetpack, body, etc. is each their own part, and are held together through magnets. Meaning for each part you get for your mech, you get to make a piece that truly represents what you have, as opposed to a vague placeholder. Different terrain gives different effects, like defense bonuses or damage. You’ve got a lot of other things to affect your combat as well, like your pilot and their abilities, your Battle Fervor, or as we started calling it, your “Anime Meter”, which you can spend on special skills, and more. This mecha battle royale is insanely fun, and I personally can’t wait for it to come out. Mech Deck is still in development, but you can follow it on Facebook here and Twitter here to keep track of its progress!
GUNGUNGUN, developed by Mystery Egg Games, is a platforming, arcade-style arena shooter. The premise is quite simple: You’re running around this arena, trying stay alive as long as possible, and you do so by shooting everyone who is trying to shoot you. You control your character with the right stick, aim the gun with the left, and shoot with R2. As you kill things, you can use different guns, but they act more as temporary powerups that total upgrades. The controls are incredibly tight and responsive. The main character has a perfect weight to her, and every single gun is satisfying to shoot, and even more satisfying to hit with. In addition to that, each gun feels different from the others in terms of how the shooting feels. Jumping is solid, movement is fluid, and everything about the game just… Works. The music is awesome, it looks really nice, and it’s HARD. It’s super challenging to get a good score in this game. I remember the longest I lasted in one game was about 2 or 3 minutes, and that’s after playing it a bunch of times to get the feel of the game down. But this difficulty is genuine and fair. Every time I died, I felt like it was my fault and not the game’s. GUNGUNGUN is the kind of game you pick up multiple times in a day to try to beat your high score because it’s so addicting. GUNGUNGUN is currently on Steam Greenlight and has recently passed 50%, so please, if you can spare the time, please help greenlight this game for Steam. You can follow Mystery Egg Games on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
VR has always interested me, but up until this weekend, I had never really used it. I played Swingstar at PAX East on a Gear VR, and it was awesome, but I never really experienced a fully VR experience until Boston FIG. Kung Fu: Shadow Fist, developed by Digital Precept LLC, is officially my first “full” VR experience. I’ve got to say, it was pretty damn cool. I strapped on that HTC Vive and let me tell you, that entire experience was freaky. I loved it. Anyway, Kung Fu: Shadow Fist is a VR arcade-style beat-em-up. It’s still in early phases of development, but from what it is so far, I’m looking forward to its release (and my inevitable inability to play it because I’m too poor to afford an HTC Vive). You’re put into this environment where you’re put up against these crash test dummies, and then you give ’em the ol’ one-two. Swing your fists while holding those surprisingly comfortable HTC controllers and then you’ll beat ’em up. Raise your arms to block your face to block, and you can press the huge button in the middle of the controller to do a shadow step, which stops time and puts you right next to an enemy. That’s about it for controls. While playing the game, my reach did feel a bit short, and the sense of depth in the area was a little off, which made me miss some punches. Though that may also just be that I’m not used to VR, but it is something to be aware of. While I do think it is in need of some polish, that doesn’t stop it from being a really cool VR experience, and just being a genuinely fun game to play. It’s definitely worth looking into if you have a Vive. Kung Fu: Shadow Fist is currently on Steam Greenlight awaiting approval, so when you have the time, please help greenlight it for Steam. You can follow Digital Precept on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
Finally, I’d like to give some honorable mentions to games that seem awesome that I just didn’t get enough time with to write well about. First up is Tailwind: Prologue, a shoot-em-up game kind of like a bullet hell, but not really. The gameplay takes place while you’re falling down and permanently shooting, and you need to get behind the enemies to destroy them. It really breaks the standard shmup formula to do what it does, and is a super interesting game that I want to play more of. The other game is a board game that has been highly, highly acclaimed called Dragoon. It’s a strategy game in which you play as a dragon trying to take over the land and collect as much gold as possible to win. You’ve got to capture areas, destroy others, and do whatever you can to collect gold and take control. Sadly I was only able to play one turn of the game before the venue started closing, so I wasn’t able to get much of a feel for it, but from what I saw go down, it seems awesome.
I think the best part about the Boston Festival of Indie Games is that there wasn’t a single bad game that I played there. All of the games that I played, even the ones not mentioned in this article, were good, fun games that I would absolutely play again. The experience overall was really fun, and I am absolutely going to be returning next year to see what new content all of these creative developers can think of.
Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers came out a while ago, and I’ve been playing it nonstop since. I still haven’t beaten it, though, because on top of being really long, it’s hard as hell. I’m only a fraction of the way into the game and I’m already having trouble beating stages, something I haven’t really seen in a Super Robot Wars game in a long time. So, since my inevitable review of this game is still a ways away, I would like to at least give my thoughts on the game so far. Super Robot Wars is a series very dear to my heart, so prepare for a lot of hyping up, especially since this is the first time we’ve seen an English release of a Super Robot Wars game since the Game Boy Advance.
The Soul Saber finishing an attack (image courtesy of Gematsu)
Mechanically speaking, it’s more of what you’d expect from Super Robot Wars, but more optimized, which is a good thing. It’s still a standard turn-based strategy game, but with some if its own unique twists. Your team is composed of pilots and mechs, and each have their own individual stats. The pilots’ stats serve as modifiers for their mechs’ stats. Pilots have special abilities that offer different temporary boosts, like being able to have your next attack be a guaranteed hit, or taking 1/4 damage from enemies for a turn. There’s also terrain efficiencies, equippable weapons alongside the mechs’ base weapons, and the double up mechanic. You’re given a lot of ways to strategize for this game. The maps are very well-designed, and you actually have to use the terrain to your advantage to get hits in and damage done. They effect your accuracy and evasion rates, which are ridiculously important. Not only that, but the game has yet to feel unfair. Hard, yes, but not unfair. I feel like every time I lose, I lost because of a poor decision, and not because the game was screwing me over.
The game runs beautifully , and is absolutely gorgeous to look at. I never get tired of watching attacks; they’re so flashy and over-the-top, and literally everything ends in an explosion. The combat scenes have this great 2D-on-3D look to them, and the quality of the sprites and environments themselves look fantastic. The animation is fluid, and they transition from the smaller sprites to a full sized image of the mech seamlessly.
The Compatible Kaiser about to attack (image courtesy of Gematsu)
I’m especially enjoying the soundtrack to the game. JAM Project do their usual thing of being Japan’s best musical export with the opening theme. On top of that, the rest of the soundtrack brings back the songs from the previous games and makes them even better. When I first heard the new version of Ash to Ash (Lamia’s theme) and Brass Sincerity (Latooni’s theme) I had the biggest grin on my face. The music here is masterfully made, and I can’t wait to hear even more of it as I progress through the game.
As for the story, well, I don’t believe I’m far in enough to truly give it a go. I’m only just now getting to the point where stuff is like, actually happening. So I can’t really say. As for the characters, though, there’s not a single unlikeable one so far. This is something I really like about the SRW games. Their characters are always so well-made and so likeable. Be it Akimi’s love of all things super robots, Excellen and her stupid jokes, or even just the genuine coolness of someone like Sanger Zonvolt; All of the characters are insanely likeable.
Overall, I’m thoroughly enjoying Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, and am certain that by the time I’m done with it, I’ll love it even more. Everything about this game in incredibly charming, and I can’t wait to experience more of it.
Drama happens all the time in whatever community you look at. It’s a fact that you just have to deal with. As of a few years ago, Smash has been getting into the spotlight more and more as a competitive game, and for good reason. Not only does its competition get really intense, but the games are incredibly accessible, and generally easier to follow than most other competitive games. Sadly, Smash has obtained this reputation in the FGC for not being a “true fighting game” for almost no reason other than it being different. This whole debate between whether or not Smash is a true fighter has been going on for literal years.
Though, as of late, it’s gotten worse. Not only are Smash players being verbally attacked at basically every chance someone gets, but members of the FGC who encourage Smash and allow them good treatment at tournaments, such as Alex Jebailey, organizer of Community Effort Orlando, who I have seen multiple people on social media openly go after, are attacked for essentially being “smash sympathizers” and also get disrespected by members of the FGC. Basically, everything I’m talking about with community disrespect from the FGC can be summed up in this Redditor’s letter to the Smash community (WARNING: tons of harsh language). Now, before you say anything, yes, I know that post is from r/Kappa, and while r/Kappa is a generally toxic place anyway, this letter still does a good job at showing many people outside of r/Kappa’s position on Smash as a game.
The conflict between the FGC and Smash doesn’t stop there, though. It also spans into actual tournament organization. Smash 4 was handled horribly at EVO. Hardly any setups per pool in the 2nd or 3rd largest tournament there, some setups not having all the stages unlocked, inefficient space for the size of the tournament, and more. Smash 4 had it the worst at EVO.
These are just two accounts of the FGC’s disdain towards Smash; there are many more. And all of them are acting like god damn children.
Now that we know a bit of the FGC’s side of the conflict, let’s look at how the Smash community responds to it. Spoilers: They’re acting just like the FGC; like god damn children.
Let’s look at CEO 2016. Smash players drowned out the awards ceremony for Guilty Gear Xrd by screaming “Melee!” constantly, not only disrupting the event, but completely disrespecting the players who put in just as much effort, if not more, in their game of choice, just like how those Smash players do in their own game.
As for responding to the fiasco at EVO, the way they treated it wasn’t much better. The community has every right in the world to be mad at the organizers for messing up as badly as they did. That said, the community had lashed out in a way that only harms them and the reputation of their community. Yes, EVO was a mess, and yes, you should be mad about it. But what you should be doing is not whining about how you’ll never go back to it, and instead try to work things out in a civil manner through connecting with members of the community that want to support you, because they are there.
This kind of behavior, from both the FGC and the Smash community, is completely unacceptable. Not only does treating games like this completely undermine all the hard work and effort the members of each community put into their games and events, but it also horribly damages the look that competitive gaming has today. Do we want to be seen as a group of kids who just argue about video games all day, or do we want to be seen as actual competitors in something much bigger than we could imagine? Do we want respect, or do we want to be looked down upon? Because right now with the way the communities are acting, the outcome is not respect. This kind of drama is what holds back competitive gaming as a whole, because instead of working together to improve the overall scene as much as you can, you feud and nitpick and piss and moan about how wavedashing isn’t as demanding as doing an FADC. In order to better the community as a whole, this fighting needs to stop entirely, and we need to work together to make both Smash and the FGC as great as they can possible be.
I love competitive gaming; I love the sense of community it brings to people. We need to strengthen this sense of community as best we can, and it’s impossible to do so if all that’s happening is people being pushed away from both sides. The only way we’re going to reach the point where both communities are working at their best is by having both sides get off their high horses and get it through their thick skulls that everyone is playing their games for the same reason: For some good matches and some good fun. To improve themselves and each other.
To get hype.
Pokemon Sun and Moon have been doing a lot of interesting things with the series. Hyper Training, the potential replacement of gym leaders, and, most importantly, the Alola forms of specific Pokemon. So far, we have 5 confirmed Alola Pokemon: Alola Vulpix, Ninetales, Sandshrew, Sandslash, and Exeggutor. Obviously, these aren’t the only ones that are going to be in the game, and I thought it would be a cool idea to share potential new Alola forms for older Pokemon. I personally feel like doing this kind of thing to older Pokemon is a really cool idea, and breathes a lot of new life into the game by adding a certain level of realism. My big rule here is that I’m not just going to pick Pokemon I want to see re-typed. I’m choosing Pokemon that I feel would fit into the ecosystem Alola has going for it and how their new forms would fit into the area.
Golem has always been a weird Pokemon for me. I’ve always wanted to like it, but felt no reason to. If we were to make its design a bit better and slap a fire typing onto it, I feel like I’d like it a lot more. Alola Golem (and by association, Geodude and Graveler) could be living around the tip of a volcano on the island, and being by the lava all this time has caused them to develop a fire typing to withstand the heat better. For aesthetics, I feel like it’d be a really simple change. Take all the grooves between rocks on Golem and fill them with flowing lava, and then make the rocks acting as his main body take on a darker color, closer to something like coal. The Alola Golem would basically have its stats flipped. Make it a special attacker, with high special defense as well. Regular Golem already gets access to Flamethrower and Fire Blast, so maybe Alola Golem can hold onto those moves and also learn Power Gem to seal the deal. It could get something like Flame Body as its ability or keep Sturdy, both work.
A lot of you may be thinking “but Dan, Bellossom is already doing a hula dance and has flowers in its hair, it’s already Hawaiian enough!” and you’d be right. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a regular Bellossom has already shown up in some sort of Sun and Moon trailer or image. But that won’t stop me from decking this thing out with even more flowers, changing its color scheme to make it brighter, and giving it a fairy typing which is honestly should have anyway. Way I see it, the Bellossom could be a more friendly Pokemon of the region, consistently interacting with humans, and as such, have been closer to the culture of Alola than in other regions. Because they’re more interactive with humans, they live closer to civilization, making them adapt to the life there as opposed to the wild. If Bellossom were to get a fairy typing, its decent defensive stats would actually be a lot more useful in battle, too.
Let me tell you, I love Mamoswine. I love its bulk, I love its typing, and I love its design. But wouldn’t it be super cool to see it as a fire-type? Alola has icy mountains, so you could still have the ice-type ones alongside the fire types. Mamoswine that went into the icy areas stayed as the ice/ground-types we know, but the ones that chose to stay in the more tropical parts of the area eventually developed into normal/fire-types. In order to survive the warmer climate, their thick coat of fur got thinner and thinner, and being in such high temperatures also gave them an affinity for the hot rather than the cold. The blue patch around their eyes is red now, too. In terms of new stats, Mamoswine’s defenses would be lower, but a little more evenly split, and its speed would be higher, as it doesn’t need to traverse mountainous landscapes anymore. Attack stat stays the same, too. For an ability, it could have Flash Fire or Defiant.
Adding any of these Pokemon, or any new Alola Pokemon, really, would be awesome.
But Drampa will always be the best.
All images courtesy of Bulbapedia
