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Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
VideoGames expressed interest in seeing me make this thread, so here I go

Ever since I witnessed two of my friends in another place make a thread where they displayed their Top 50 video games and video game characters, I've always wanted to do something similar and expose a lot of what I love about video games to the rest of the world. The games that have taught me valuable things and given me unforgettable memories, and the characters that I enjoy and sincerely relate to, have all helped to make me who I am today, and hopefully by reading this thread, other people will begin to understand what makes me like these games and characters to the extent that I do

I'll be attempting to post each section of my list at least once every two days, at 7 PM EST, with a new game and game character going up at that time. I might run into at least a couple hurdles given that I'll be cross-posting these to two other places, but please bear with me while I get these all together; I want to be able to share this with as many people as possible, and I hope this thread can assist in learning about me and the things I love

With that said, please look forward to my 50th favorite video game and video game character to go up tonight, at 7 PM EST!

Favorite Characters List
50. Victor "Sully" Sullivan
49. Guzma
48. Doom Slayer/Doomguy
47. King Dedede
46. Eleanor Hume
45. F.A.N.G
44. King K. Rool
43. Waluigi
42. Asgore
41. Mimikyu
40. Cloud Strife
39. Lucario
38. Johnny Cage
37. Eizen
36. Bayonetta
35. Tom Nook
34. Damon Gant
33. Severa/Selena
32. Yuri Lowell
31. Martin Walker
30. Chiaki Nanami
29. Viridi
28. Papyrus
27. Nagito Komaeda
26. Apollo Justice
25. Rise Kujikawa
24. Laphicet
23. Beatrice Santello
22. Dick Gumshoe
21. Hades
20. Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
19. Manny Calavera
18. Velvet Crowe
17. Mae Borowski
16. Big Boss
15. Flowey
14. Phoenix Wright
13. Monokuma
12. Solid Snake
11. Tohru Adachi
10. Bowser
9. Sans
8. Yoshi
7. Sonic the Hedgehog
6. Pit
5. Kanji Tatsumi
4. Greggory Lee
3. Hajime Hinata
2. Junpei Iori
1. Fuuka Yamagishi

Favorite Games List
50. Rhythm Heaven Fever
49. SimAnt
48. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
47. Kirby Air Ride
46. Guacamelee!
45. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
44. Double Dragon Neon
43. Fire Emblem Awakening
42. Overwatch
41. Rayman Origins
40. Batman: Arkham Asylum
39. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
38. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
37. Spec Ops: The Line
36. Kirby: Planet Robobot
35. Sonic Generations
34. Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
33. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
32. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations
31. Super Metroid
30. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
29. Super Mario World
28. Pokemon Sun and Moon
27. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U
26. Shovel Knight
25. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
24. The Wonderful 101
23. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
22. Paper Mario
21. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
20. Yoshi's Story
19. Mega Man X
18. Metal Gear Solid
17. Tales of Berseria
16. Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2
15. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
14. Bayonetta
13. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
12. Banjo-Kazooie
11. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
10. Super Mario 3D World
9. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
8. Undertale
7. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
6. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
5. Sonic Adventure 2
4. Night in the Woods
3. Kid Icarus: Uprising
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Alfalfa The Roach fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jul 8, 2017

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Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #50: Victor “Sully” Sullivan
”We don’t get to choose how we start in this life. Real ‘greatness’ is what you do with the hand you’re dealt.”





First Appearance: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Nov. 19th, 2007)
Bio: One of Nathan Drake’s business partners, Sully has a talent for pulling people into financing his treasure hunts to cover his enormous debts. He has a close relationship with Drake, to the point where he’s considered his mentor and father figure.

---

As of these writings I still have yet to even start Uncharted 3, but for my money, Sully will always be the best part about the Uncharted series. What works about Sully is that he has a very simple desire to find some treasure and pay off his stupid enormous debts, but he also has a great relationship with his business partner Drake. The two of them are close enough together that they can crack jokes with each other, exchange some banter and helpful advice in the middle of a shootout, and support one another when one of them is in a jam. Even when most people think Sully’s just in it for the money, the amount of respect and friendship he has towards Drake is really something else.

Plus, Sully is just really drat funny to listen to. You’ll get great quips from him every now and then like how he compares things not easily found to “finding a bride in a brothel,” and his sarcastic nature is second to none in the whole series (well, maybe Drake can one-up him every now and then but I digress). It really makes the series come together as a fun adventure whenever he’s alongside you, and he makes every other companion not even worth your time (except Tenzin, he’s cool). Sure he can be kind of an rear end in a top hat and more often than not tends to focus more on the treasure above all else, but at the end of the day, there’s no one else I’d rather be stuck in the jungle with than Victor “Goddamn” Sullivan.

Question: Who are some of your favorite "humorous sidekick" characters in video games?
Alf's 49th Favorite Character Teaser: Gets really stressed out when they lose a fight

====

Game #50: Rhythm Heaven Fever
”Soon we will see we’re
living the dreams of
our generation!”




Released: July 21st, 2011
Synopsis: The smash hit rhythm game comes to consoles in this explosive new game! With 50 games to choose from, plenty of endless games, and games you can play with a friend, it’s a non-stop barrage of rhythm fever!
Chosen Music: Dreams of Our Generation

Between the two Rhythm Heaven games I’ve played (never owned the one for DS), Rhythm Heaven Fever is the one I happen to like most of all. Both of them are great games in their own right, but I don’t like a lot of the little things that Megamix does. The story is pretty neat (as out of place as it is), and I do like the selection of games it has, but I always feel bothered by a point-scoring system requiring pinpoint accuracy if you want a perfect score (which gets really annoying when you want to go for perfect accuracy opportunities on each game), way too many controls to keep track of for every game, and the weird decision to be forced to play through shorter and easier versions of previous games at the start of the game, only giving you the regular versions later into the game.

Fever on the other hand feels good to pick up and play immediately. The only buttons you have to work with are A and A+B, but it’s a control scheme that can be remembered for any of the games available. Then as the game gets more complex with newer versions of previous games and more varied Remix compilations, it’s much easier to keep track of what the game wants you to do, which is something I highly appreciate. It also helps that Fever has by far one of my favorite soundtracks of the Rhythm Heaven games (Tonight, Lonely Storm, I Love You My One and Only, Beautiful One Day, and Dreams of Our Generation are all great), and just about every game in this title is absolutely great to play (except Monkey Watch; gently caress that imprecise bullshit). It’s just a drat good game, and I have a huge affection for its rhythm games and soundtrack; if you have a Wii U and $20 to spare, this game is an absolute steal at that price.

Question: How do you prefer a score and ranking system to be implemented in a game?
Alf's 49th Favorite Game Teaser: You can die by getting stepped on

Real hurthling!
Sep 11, 2001




Best character is kaine or maybe goro majima


Best game is sf rush on n64

Real hurthling!
Sep 11, 2001




Answer: Score systems need s ranks

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


I would rather games not rank me at all, especially mediocre ones. There's nothing more annoying that clearing a stage in a not very good Sonic game and being given a D. "I can do better" says Sonic, while I nod vigorously.

tap my mountain
Jan 1, 2009

I'm the quick and the deadly
I don't that care what rank Sonic gives me cause I give his lovely pose an F

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009
best character is the guy in fire emblem thracia 776 who says 'great job pissing off the pirates, guys' and kicks you out of his house

Help Im Alive
Nov 8, 2009

Alfalfa The Roach posted:

Question: How do you prefer a score and ranking system to be implemented in a game?
Alf's 49th Favorite Game Teaser: You can die by getting stepped on

It's maybe kind of discouraging sometimes but I like the platinum games/DMC thing where you get a rating after every single fight. It's satisfying once things start to click and if you really get into the game then trying to pull off a perfect run (SSS/pure platinum/rainbow V etc) is a fun challenge. Also the MGS rankings where they give you a codename at the end of the run are good too/big boss + foxhound ranks are more good challenge runs (and when I was a kid and didn't understand how the ranking system worked the game telling me my codename was shark or w/e made me feel extremely cool)

I was trying to think of a ranking/scoring system I dislike but I guess I'm usually glad they're there because they give you reasons to replay. Maybe the type of scoring you see in old arcade games where it's just points

and I don't know what it would be like since you already played Megamix but I think Rhythm Heaven on DS is probably still worth buying (i played them in order so idk)

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.

Help Im Alive posted:

and I don't know what it would be like since you already played Megamix but I think Rhythm Heaven on DS is probably still worth buying (i played them in order so idk)

I would probably like it more than Megamix anyways, so I will look into getting it when I have the time

Jay Rust
Sep 27, 2011

quote:

Question: Who are some of your favorite "humorous sidekick" characters in video games?

In my circle of friends, there's been a minor but nonetheless bloody nerd war happening for years now. It centres around which comedy sidekick from a classic computer RPG is best: Minsc from Baldur's Gate, Morte from Planescape Torment, or Sulik from Fallout 2. I mean, none of them are all that funny, games don't usually do "funny" so much as "goofy", but Morte has the savvy, the spunk and the sass to be my fave

bloodychill
May 8, 2004

And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life
Exciting Lemon
I like getting ranked because it appeases the same impulse that made me want an A in class back in school. I wish I was kidding.

Phantasium
Dec 27, 2012

Alfalfa The Roach posted:

Question: Who are some of your favorite "humorous sidekick" characters in video games?

It's Jansen in Lost Odyssey.

quote:

Question: How do you prefer a score and ranking system to be implemented in a game?

I absolutely adore how Tales games do it in that you're scored on every fight based on how much Grade you get, and then Grade is the currency you use to buy New Game+ bonuses. In Berseria it feels really good to get a 2x multiplier and fight a boss type monster without dying and while beating the poo poo out of them and clutching out absurd 300+ Grade totals.

And because it's just arbitrary numbers you can still feel good even in fights where you don't get that many because you might have just killed the monsters too fast to get many bonuses.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #49: Guzma
“The hated boss who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up... Yeah. Big bad Guzma is here!"


[x]
[x]

First Appearance: Pokemon Sun and Moon (Nov. 18th, 2016)
Bio: The leader of the villainous Team Skull, Guzma shows no mercy in a Pokemon battle and always strives to come out on top. His goal is to fight back against the traditions of Alola and establish himself as the strongest Trainer in the region.

---

One of the things that make Team Skull so awesome compared to previous evil teams in Pokemon is their leader, Guzma. In addition to being the perfect kind of guy to lead a team of tryhard punks, Guzma absolutely revels in the spotlight whenever he’s on the scene, calling himself “ya boy” with complete confidence. Unlike most evil bosses that prefer keeping their plans to themselves, Guzma puts himself and his plans out there all the time, only adding to the “gang of punks” mentality of Team Skull. He spends a lot of his time instilling fear into those around him, but he also respects those who have real strength, which is something he overlooks in anyone that isn’t a Kahuna or Trial Captain. Then he loses his poo poo when he loses a battle anyway because he’s kind of a sore loser like that.

Pokemon Sun & Moon Spoilers

Though it gets kinda hard to just laugh off those outbursts when you learn about how he failed to be a Trial Captain, or how his previous group got crushed really badly by one of the Tapus. He did have his successes in the past, as evidenced by the trophies in his room in the house on Route 2, but that doesn’t make it sting any less when he does lose. Even when his parents love him unconditionally, he still ended up taking his anger out on them, all because of his internal frustration with getting other people to recognize his real strength. When you look at it like that, it’s easy to see why he fell in with Lusamine, the only adult that actually recognized his potential, and the resulting trip to Ultra Space does a lot to ground him and make him feel fear for the first time in his life. It’s made all the more satisfying once he disbands Team Skull and decides to start all over again, showing that underneath his sometimes-childish attitude, his willingness to do better is real and earnest.

Question: How do you prefer a redemption of a character to be handled? Are there any examples you can name of a character's redemption done poorly?
Alf's 48th Favorite Character Teaser: Collects figures modeled after themselves

====

Game #49: SimAnt
”Ants. You’ve shared your food, your home, and your planet with them. You’ve stepped on them, sprayed them, cursed them and bombed them. Now you can BE them!”



Released: 1991
Synopsis: As an ant living among your colony, you must gather resources and battle for survival within the confines of an ordinary neighborhood backyard. Crush the rival ants and claim the entire backyard as your own, or take it a step further and conquer the entire house!
Chosen Music: Title Theme

---

OKAY SO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A loving AWESOME GAME CALLED SIMANT



YOU SEE THIS DIPSHIT YELLOW ANT?! THAT’S YOU! YOU ARE A MEMBER OF AN ANT COLONY AND YOUR GOAL IS TO BE THE BADDEST ANT COLONY THIS SIDE OF THE BACKYARD

YOU DO THIS BY COLLECTING FOOD TO SURVIVE AND BEATING THE poo poo OUT OF THESE RED rear end in a top hat ANTS



BUT THERE’S LOTS OF CRAZY poo poo BESIDES THE RED ANTS THAT’S READY TO gently caress YOU UP, INCLUDING:

RAIN



ANTLIONS



THE LAWNMOWER



GIANT SPIDERS OH CHRIST



BUT DON’T WORRY, THROUGH THE POWER OF BEING A TOTAL HARDASS, YOUR ANT WILL BE REBORN FROM A NEW EGG AND poo poo BE LIKE



BAH-DA-DA-DA DAH-DA-DA-DA DA-DAH-DA-DA DAH-DA-DA-DA DAH

YOU CAN DO A QUICK GAME IF YOU WANT TO PUT THOSE RED ANTS IN THEIR PLACE, OR IF YOU’RE A REAL BADASS, YOU CAN DO A FULL GAME AND TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE YARD AND HOUSE



LOOK AT THIS FAMILY. THIS FAMILY IS WEAK. YOU HAVE JUST PROVEN THE FOLLY OF MAN THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR ANT BUDDIES. THE ANT QUEEN IS SO PROUD OF YOU

SO IF YOU WANT TO ENTER THE RADICAL WORLD OF BEING A DEATH-DEFYING, NO-SELLING, ZERO-FUCKS-GIVEN HARDBOILED ANT, JUST TELL ‘EM THAT I SENT YOU. THEY’LL KNOW WHAT TO DO FROM THERE

Question: What's your favorite Sim or general simulation game?
Alf's 48th Favorite Game Teaser: A fighting game with only one character that speaks English

Alfalfa The Roach fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Apr 4, 2017

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

quote:

There are a lot of subtle details in that house alone

If you mean subtle as a brick, sure. A lot of it is kind of spelled out for you. I did like how that character was handled, but I disagree with that part. Then again, Pokemon is a children's video game, after all.

quote:

Question: How do you prefer a redemption of a character to be handled? Are there any examples you can name of a character's redemption done poorly?

As for redemption of a character, completely glossing over what they did and essentially completely pretending what they did wrong (Especially if that was something pretty huge) never happened is what I think is a poor way to handle it.

There's a part in Ghost Trick that didn't sit completely right with me. Namely, when Yomiel rescues you in the submarine for the first time. While I like how the rest of how that character was handled, the part about him giving up his revenge plot was too rushed considering that he committed some murders (which did get undone, admittedly) and was planning on possessing Kamilla to kill her father not too long ago from that point in the game.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Apr 4, 2017

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Went back and edited a line in Guzma's write-up which was a pretty big oversight on my part. Sorry about that

bloodychill
May 8, 2004

And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life
Exciting Lemon
I like redemption arcs where the character really has to work at it, not just decide to use their big dumb superpowers to help the good guy instead of the bad guys. I call it the "Thor" redemption. A bad redemption in my opinion might be Bastila at the end of KotOR.They just wrote her fall/redemption in a lazy way. It's even worse because the main character of that game kind of goes through a Thor redemption, so they do it a good way with one character and a bad way with another in the same game.

I don't play a ton of sim games but the ones I tend to come back to, play, and enjoy a lot are Game Dev Story on mobile and Sim City on SNES. In both cases, they're pretty straight-forward, charming, and very replayable without having too much complicated stuff in the simulation.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #48: Doom Slayer/Doomguy
"In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood. Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him... the Doom Slayer."





First Appearance: Doom 2016 (May 13th, 2016)
Bio: A viciously brutal space marine, the Doom Slayer is awoken from slumber after a previous failed attempt to wipe out the denizens of Hell. Although his benefactor simply needs him to stop Olivia Pierce, he has only one objective in mind: kill anything in his path.

---

Usually I don’t like main characters that are mute and have to have a lot of their personality filled in for them by the player (looking at you, Crono), but Doom Slayer is absolutely great at this. Why? Because he and the player share the goal of killing poo poo all the time! He doesn’t want to wait around for some dumb explanation about Argent Energy and “the threat to humanity” or whatever, he wants to just get in and murder some demons! Yeah he’ll do the job you gave him to shut some machines down, but why do that when you can just CRUSH THEM! He won’t give a gently caress about the long-term consequences so long as he’s able to destroy whatever’s in front of him, and at the end of the day that’s just a beautiful thing (some cutscenes spoil this aspect and is more the fault of the game than anything, but I digress).

There’s a lot of lore surrounding Doom Slayer that you find in-game as well, but the amazing thing is it never feels over-indulgent. Hearing a demonic voice speak at length about Doom Slayer and how much of a badass he is gets you hyped and feeds into the thrill of actually playing as the Doom Slayer. It perfectly compliments all the cool poo poo you’re able to do already, and adds more gravitas to the mythology of the character rather than leaving him as “some space marine who happens to be good at killing things.” It’s a joy to play as Doom Slayer, learn about Doom Slayer, and most importantly, BE Doom Slayer, and it’s a big part of what makes Doom so drat good.

Question: How do you prefer silent protagonists in video games? Would they be improved if they weren't silent?
Alf's 47th Favorite Character Teaser: Gets possessed more often than not

====

Game #48: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
”You can fly over the rainbow with me; close your eyes and just believe!”



Released: December 2008
Synopsis: The best of Capcom’s video game warriors meet the greatest of Tatsunoko’s anime heroes! Choose from over 20 characters and engage in classic 2v2 Vs. series gameplay, while taking advantage of new mechanics such as Baroque and Mega Crash!
Chosen Music: Across the Border

---

Smash Bros. will always be the game that got me into competitive gaming more than anything, but Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was the game that really got me into fighting games in general. I remember my first memory of the game was seeing it in magazine scans for the Japan-exclusive Cross Generation of Heroes version, not knowing who the gently caress anyone was. Then I see a gameplay video and go “Oh my god, you can launch people into the air and do sick air combos?! That’s fuckin’ awesome!” I earnestly wanted this game when I saw it in action, even when I thought there was no chance in hell that we’d ever get it in America. But then a year later, Capcom decided to blindside everybody by releasing it internationally as Ultimate All-Stars, complete with online play and a few extra characters (RIP Hakushon Daimao tho). I was so excited. I bought it as soon as it came out and I proceeded to suck immensely at the one tourney I went to for it, and then as the years went on it got quickly forgotten and replaced by Marvel 3 (a much worse game if you ask me).

But even with how much I suck at it, and how it’s not even the best game in its own genre, I still really appreciate Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for giving me that taste of what traditional fighting games were capable of. I’d argue that it still holds up in comparison to the more recent Capcom fighters and it’s probably the one game I can think of where there’s very little about it that’s outright broken (biggest outliers would be Zero and Tekkaman Blade, and I don’t know much about the giants PTX-40A and Gold Lightan to really call them broken). I do wish the international version kept some of the features in Cross Generation of Heroes like the FMV endings, individual mini-games for each character (that got replaced by this lame Ultimate All-Shooters mini-game), and character-specific music themes, but all in all they did a bang-up job with this title and I’m hoping we can get a sequel sometime within the next decade.

Seriously guys, TvC2. Hajime Ichinose from Gatchaman Crowds. Instant platinum seller in my book.

Question: Which fighting game do you have the most nostalgia for?
Alf's 47th Favorite Game Teaser: Features extremely simple controls

Alfalfa The Roach fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Apr 6, 2017

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
silent protags are fine in more open wrpgs that at least give you the option to say fun stuff, or when it's not really important for them to interact directly with other characters. i run into them more often in jrpgs and they're never good there, rudy from wild arms 1 being silent is the worst because in a party of exclusively three people it silences most of the party dynamics as the other two characters have to carry the load and one of them spends a huge chunk of the game interacting with him, and ludger from tales of xillia 2 kind of suffers because they try to both make him a player insert but also give him a set personality and character arc and even lines of dialog that just don't play until new game+. they're both characters who would work a lot better if they actually had anything to say, even if ludger is a lot better off than rudy for having any kind of interaction with the rest of the cast

also yes, tvc2 with hajime would be badass

bloodychill
May 8, 2004

And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life
Exciting Lemon
Not a fan of silent protags even though there are a lot of games I really like that have them including Chrono Trigger and Wild Arms. The silent protagonist is never the appeal of those games to me and they take away more than they add in my opinion. "Choose your dialog"-style silent protags like in Fallout are good but I don't really think of them as silent protags since they are more straight-up player inserts approximating a pen/paper RPG experience.

The sole exception to this is Mario in the Mario RPG series because he communicates through all his weird gestures occasional exclamations which is so endearing.

Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag are probably the fighting games I most have nostalgia for because they were at the tale end of the time I spent playing in the arcades and with roomates in college and while I still know a lot of people who game, I have recognized that I will never capture that same feeling I had with them. I loved SF2 and Samurai Showdown but I don't have the same nostalgia for them since I played them earlier and never enjoyed them quite as much.

bloodychill fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Apr 6, 2017

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #47: King Dedede
”You can’t be mean to my Waddle Dees! Only I can be mean to my Waddle Dees!”





First Appearance: Kirby’s Dream Land (Apr. 27th, 1992)
Bio: The self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land, King Dedede’s selfish ambitions and abuse of power leads him to clash with Kirby frequently. More often than not, however, he’s willing to help Kirby defeat greater threats to preserve the peace.

---

There’s something that’s always delightful about seeing King Dedede on the screen at any given moment. He’s already fantastic just based on his character design, with a face that’s perfect for his wide range of emotions, and a giant hammer that lets him really throw his weight around. But he also embodies being the polar opposite of Kirby brilliantly; while Kirby usually eats in the company of others and only kinda tends to get carried away, Dedede’s gluttonous and selfish habits take center stage, usually at the expense of his own kingdom. It’s his own comical buffoonery and his attempts to pass himself off as a pimp that keep him interesting, though, and it gives him everything he needs to perfectly counterbalance his rivalry with Kirby (also of note is the Kirby anime giving him a southern accent, which instantly makes him even more amazing).

And yet, with all his self-absorbed swagger, you’d never think he’d be one of Kirby’s most consistent allies against a greater evil. Sometimes he just gets possessed or cloned by the main bad guy and that’s real lame, but stuff like turning off the Fountain of Dreams to keep Nightmare trapped inside shows that he has more concern for Dream Land than he lets on. The fact that he’s willing to work with Kirby of all people, despite really not wanting to sometimes, might be a hint that he respects his rival to some degree and shows his willingness to help him for the greater good of the world. Or maybe he just wants to get it over with so he can go back to telling everyone how great he is, who knows. But it’s all part of the fun about Dedede, and I appreciate every moment that lets him shine the brightest.

Question: Which characters in video games (or media in general) are so self-absorbed that you can't help but love them?
Alf's 46th Favorite Character Teaser: Ruined a comedy act after an arson joke was told

====

Game #47: Kirby Air Ride
”Kirby’s ready to ride!”



Released: July 11th, 2003
Synopsis: Kirby takes the racing scene by storm with Kirby’s Air Ride! Race against friends in the free-range Air Ride, race top-down in Top Ride, or gather power-ups in preparation for a big showdown in City Trial!
Chosen Music: Checker Knights

---

Kirby Air Ride is such a weird game in that you can completely remove Air Ride and Top Ride from the game and get all the enjoyment you’ll ever need out of City Trial. But they decided to include those two anyways, and... yeah, I’m not gonna lie, Air Ride is kinda boring outside of the gorgeous track design. But I do like Top Ride quite a bit; it’s got this nice, arcade racer kind of feel and there’s a novelty to watching chaos unfold from launching items everywhere and seeing the maps change in various ways. It’s mostly hurt by making the handling kinda awkward, and you’ll have to finagle with steering a bit until you get a good feel for how it works, but it's still a lot of fun. I also like the addition of the Checklist to give you plenty of goals to work towards, and the music is some of the absolute best in the Kirby series.

But of course, I and everyone else know that the real meat of the game lies in City Trial. The feedback you get from collecting stat boosts and applying them to your preferred vehicle (Wheelie Scooter boys represent) is immediate; every power-up has a purpose, and each one you collect makes an even more impressionable difference to separate your craft from the other players. That’d be cool enough on its own, but City Trial lets you do so much more; you can directly interfere with other players and ruin their poo poo, stealing what they’ve earned in the process, you can collect parts for two wildly different Legendary Machines, and you can benefit from or try to survive various different events like Dyna Blade, meteors, T.A.C. stealing poo poo, wrecking a mysterious-rear end pillar, or just getting on top of a UFO and grabbing power-ups. And the final matches at the end are even more varied: a dart board, killing enemies, flying as high or as far as you can, beating up each other, BEATING UP KING DEDEDE, on and on and on. It’s such a visceral, high octane, and endlessly customizable mode and it’s something I’d gladly play until the end of time.

I doubt we’ll ever get a Kirby Air Ride 2: City Trial Harder, but at the very least, I hope Air Ride can get a port or rerelease on the Switch so that the added benefit of portability can bring it a little closer to being a perfect game.

Question: What sort of features can make a seemingly mediocre game an absolute joy to play?
Alf's 46th Favorite Game Teaser: Features Chozo statues

David D. Davidson
Nov 17, 2012

Orca lady?

Alfalfa The Roach posted:

Alf's 46th Favorite Game Teaser: Features Chozo statues

Oh I know this one, Metroid Other M.

bloodychill
May 8, 2004

And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life
Exciting Lemon

Alfalfa The Roach posted:

Question: Which characters in video games (or media in general) are so self-absorbed that you can't help but love them?

Risky Boots from the Shantae series is kind of perfect for this and like Dedede, will ally with her opponent to take down bigger foes just because they're standing in her spotlight. Her laughing poses during boss fights are also drat perfect.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #46: Eleanor Hume
"I won’t turn a blind eye to the consequences of my actions. I chose this path to seek the truth, not to deny it."





First Appearance: Tales of Berseria (Aug. 18th, 2016)
Bio: After a fearsome raid on her village by daemons took her mother’s life, Eleanor joined the Abbey and became an Exorcist to prevent anyone else from going through the same trauma that she did. She initially pursues Velvet with the intent to take her in, but a sudden event forces her to travel with her, and ends up changing her outlook in the process.

---

You gotta appreciate Eleanor for trying her best, even when she’s misguided for like half of the game. She has a very earnest sense of duty and a desire to do good for those around her, which helps add some balance in a cast that’s otherwise full of criminals. Some of her most hilarious moments in the game even come from her being a self-righteous stick in the mud and assuming she knows better (ruining Magilou’s act after she makes an arson joke and muttering out loud about Velvet’s clothes are some of my favorites). Even when she’s as caring and compassionate as can be, though, she has a very good reason to hate daemons, and her duties as a Praetor only hinder her understanding of daemons and malakhim alike.

Tales of Berseria Mid-Game Spoilers

That is, until the events of Palamides happen and Eleanor encounters Kamoana, a therion who only manages to survive after her mother, already a daemon, gives her life for her. The sequence of events and the personal irony associated with them come so fast and brilliantly, and they send such a shockwave through Eleanor, who experienced the same thing when her mother was murdered. Suddenly everything she was ever taught by the Abbey comes crumbling around her, and she realizes the lengths the organization she trusted will go to achieve their goals. It’s here that she really starts to see daemons as more than just monsters, and she takes Kamoana under her wing to take care of her in place of her mother (who she clearly expresses some guilt over killing, as evidenced by her side-quest). It’s a beautiful moment for her that helps her see the good in more than just humans, and it makes her desire to help others that much stronger.

Question: Can you relate to a character who believes they're doing the right thing?
Alf's 45th Favorite Character Teaser: Has a strange obsession with the number 2

====

Game #46: Guacamelee!
“I am CARLOS CALACA, THE GREATEST CHARRO THAT EVER LIVED... and died... BUT LIVES AGAIN!!!”



Released: April 9th, 2013
Synopsis: Juan Aguacate, a simple agave farmer, is killed during a raid on his village by the evil charro skeleton, Carlos Calaca. After obtaining a mysterious mask from the underworld that brings him back to life, Juan must use his newfound abilities to defeat Carlos Calaca and save El Presidente’s daughter from certain doom.
Chosen Music: Temple of Rain

---

Guacamelee is like if you took a Metroidvania, put it into a blender with elements from Mexican culture and folklore, then gave it sentience and put it into a class on how to be a good action game. That’s kind of a weird metaphor to start with, but that’s the gist of my argument; it’s a game that blends these elements drat near perfectly.

One of my absolute favorite things about this game is how it handles combat: You get different abilities throughout the game by breaking Chozo statues (and yes, they are actually called Chozo statues, just with an extra ‘o’ in the middle), and you get stuff like wall jumping, double jumping, and turning into a chicken. But you also get new combat moves like an uppercut, a headbutt, and a dash punch, and all of these moves can be configured into your playstyle to keep your combo going in encounters. They absolutely nailed the feel of deftly dodging enemy strikes only to continue your combo a second later in a two-dimensional space, and the ability to warp between the lands of the living and the dead to fight certain enemies put its own spin on combat. And of course, being a luchador means you get all kinds of different grapple attacks at your disposal, and it’s a joy to pull off every single one of them.

This all comes on top of it being a real good Metroidvania, with plenty of great puzzles to solve and areas to explore (though going for the true ending can be a bit of a pain), plenty of upgrades to get, and plenty of enemies and bosses to beat the poo poo out of. Top it all off with a seriously awesome visual style, a cool cast of characters, and great writing, and you’ve got one of my favorite Metroidvanias of the last decade. Any person who’s a fan of the genre should seriously check it out.

Question: What's your policy on games that give you new abilities over time? How should they be implemented in the game in a way that makes them gratifying and fun to use?
Alf's 45th Favorite Game Teaser: Opens with a Marco Polo quote

Alfalfa The Roach fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Apr 10, 2017

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


I like Guacamelee a lot, though I feel that Super Turbo Edition, while it added a lot of great things like more backstory for player 2 and an entire new donjon, made a pretty big mistake when trying to compensate for the Intenso Meter by adding enemies that can teleport out of your combos. These enemies just kind of break the flow of the game's combat, which both breaks your combo meter and leads to a lot of waiting around for the enemies to decide to reappear so you can keep fighting them. It's a pretty big black eye on what's otherwise the best version of a great game.

I enjoyed playing with the custom Zangief skin a friendly Steam person made.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
I never got around to playing the Super Turbo Edition actually, but that is kind of a bummer to hear. Still, I probably should look into it

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


There's a lot of new content, it's definitely worth a look.

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
eleanor is great

fridge corn
Apr 2, 2003

NO MERCY, ONLY PAIN :black101:
Sim Ant was a cool game

psyman
Nov 1, 2008
What self-respecting adult writes bios about Pokemon bosses and King Dedede, please stop embarrassing yourself OP and get a girlfriend/boyfriend

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.

psyman posted:

What self-respecting adult writes bios about Pokemon bosses and King Dedede, please stop embarrassing yourself OP and get a girlfriend/boyfriend

Writing essays about Dedede owns actually

Bogart
Apr 12, 2010

by VideoGames
Alfalfa is too genuine and honest for me to poo poo on this thread. :(

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #45: F.A.N.G
“Two minutes - I’ll finish you in two minutes!”





First Appearance: Street Fighter V (Feb. 16th, 2016)
Bio: The new second-in-command of Shadaloo’s forces, F.A.N.G prides himself on his Poison Hand fighting style and his cunning strategies. While he previously attempted to kill M. Bison, he now seems content with pledging his allegiances to him and helping him conquer the world.

---

Full disclosure here, I have little to no interest in ever picking up Street Fighter V, but if I did, I’d try to learn F.A.N.G in a heartbeat. Having gameplay mechanics centered on poison in a fighting game is unique enough, but he absolutely loves just being a dick to everyone he meets. And not just like throwing his weight around like some of the other guys on this list, he has so much fun being an annoying poo poo to his co-workers and the other fighters that it’s kind of hilarious. But despite all his bravado and taunting, he has a huge amount of respect for M. Bison, which I happen to like since he initially started with trying to assassinate him.

I think why I ended up liking F.A.N.G more than a lot of other minion-type characters was due to me getting to him just after getting disappointed with D’Vorah’s role in Mortal Kombat X’s story mode. Maybe it’s just me, but characters that serve someone until it’s revealed they were an irredeemable double agent all along are starting to feel worn out and not as exciting anymore (unless they can do something interesting with how they became double agents in the first place). With F.A.N.G, he has every opportunity to kill Bison now, but he genuinely wants his new boss to succeed, which is something I hardly ever see in a minion these days. Not only does that give his character a huge amount of legitimacy, it makes his ridicule of the enemy all the better when you remember that he has the full might of Shadaloo backing him up.

Question: What kind of second-in-command evil characters do you prefer?
Alf's 44th Favorite Character Teaser: Made their grand return in Super Smash Bros... as a Mii costume

====

Game #45: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
"I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed..."



Released: October 13th, 2009
Synopsis: Treasure hunter Nathan Drake takes on a job to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from a museum only to be embroiled in a struggle to find the legendary Shangri-La. Along the way, he must decide who to trust and who to save, lest they all meet their fate by the hands of the ruthless warlord Zoran Lazarević.
Chosen Music: Nate’s Theme 2.0

---

When I got my PS4 bundled with the Nathan Drake Collection, I must have subconsciously told myself that the only reason I got that particular bundle was to play Uncharted 2. As of this writing, I haven’t booted up Uncharted 3 at all yet, and Uncharted 1, while it’s a neat Indiana Jones-inspired adventure, is about as perfectly average as you can get, even with its snappy dialogue and cool gunplay (the climbing and puzzles, while they help break up the action, can get a little samey and boring).

With Uncharted 2, though, they took what worked with the first game and amped it up immensely. I played it on Hard because I was too weak to try Crushing, but either way, the way the game plays out is incredible. There are more situations where the usage of every one of your options is important (grenades included), and there are more setpieces and encounters that change up your approach in new and interesting ways (shooting dudes while hanging from a signpost, shooting dudes on a train while avoiding a helicopter, shooting dudes while running around trying not to let them punch your head off, the works). You will be exchanging and going through different weapons very quickly, but that’s what makes this game really work; it forces you to adapt and change your strategy multiple times within a given chapter, and pulling it off every time feels immensely satisfying.

I do kinda feel like Uncharted 2 was the point where I realized the writing in the series amounted to a lot of quips and one-liners, but to its credit, it still makes a lot of characters really likable. Nathan Drake’s still a cocksure bastard with a heart of gold, Sully is THE MAN and an absolute joy to listen to every time, Elena and Chloe exist I guess, and Lazarevic manages to be a much more legitimate and imposing threat compared to Uncharted 1’s really lame business man bad guy. If I ever start up Uncharted 3 I’m kinda hoping for the writing quality to start picking up, but as long as the gameplay remains excellent, that’ll be enough for me.

Question: Do you think a story can be shallow as long as the characterization and dialogue writing remain compelling and good?
Alf's 44th Favorite Game Teaser: One of the most 80's-inspired games to come out in the past decade

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.

Bogart posted:

Alfalfa is too genuine and honest for me to poo poo on this thread. :(

You're a treasure, Bogart. Thank you

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


psyman posted:

What self-respecting adult writes bios about Pokemon bosses and King Dedede, please stop embarrassing yourself OP and get a girlfriend/boyfriend

:gb2gbs:

Ms Adequate
Oct 30, 2011

Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling



Dr. Fetus posted:

As for redemption of a character, completely glossing over what they did and essentially completely pretending what they did wrong (Especially if that was something pretty huge) never happened is what I think is a poor way to handle it.

Yeah I'd like to take Cullen Rutherfords for $300.

funmanguy
Apr 20, 2006

What time is it?

psyman posted:

What self-respecting adult...

If this described anyone on these forums then they wouldnt be on these forums.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #44: King K. Rool
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. Soon, Donkey Kong and his pretty little island will be no more!”





First Appearance: Donkey Kong Country (Nov. 21st, 1994)
Bio: The ruthless leader of the Kremlings, King K. Rool will stop at nothing to destroy the Kong family and take their bananas for himself. He has a habit of changing his profession with each encounter, and his plots range from kidnapping and extortion, to blowing up the Kongs’ home island.

---

King K. Rool has coasted to this spot almost entirely on rule of cool. Unlike a lot of other Nintendo villains that have sprung up over the years (save for people like Bowser, most Pokemon bosses, and arguably most Fire Emblem villains), K. Rool has always stood out for his sense of style and to just get poo poo done. Half of the time he shows up in the series, he’s donned a new outfit and has his minions follow closely to his own flavor-of-the-month theming to an almost impressive degree. I mean I dunno about you guys, but I’d love to fight an awesome alligator boss who dresses up like a pirate and forces his cronies to also be a band of seafaring brigands.

Nowadays he’s fallen to the side as other Nintendo villains have started to take up the spotlight, but I have a huge appreciation of K. Rool for being one of the best parts of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy. poo poo like the Kredits in his DKC1 fight and making KAOS out of his wife’s kitchen bowls as Baron K. Roolenstein is great, and I wouldn’t mind another game where he just goes as Kaptain K. Rool again. And even outside of that he has that incredibly sinister voice in DK64, his hilarious and foppish moments in the DKC cartoon (which admittedly I never grew up on), and a surprise reappearance in Mario Super Sluggers where he dresses in tribal clothing and his bat is just a scepter. We’ll probably never get to see him make his grand appearance in Smash Bros. (excluding the Mii costume), but he’ll always be at the top of my list of most wanted fighters.

Question: Will we ever see King K. Rool in Super Smash Bros.?
Alf's 43rd Favorite Character Teaser: Once tried to take over the world with dancing

====

Game #44: Double Dragon Neon
”Marian?!”
”Aw man, not again!”




Released: September 11th, 2012
Synopsis: Marian has been kidnapped by the evil Skullmageddon! Billy and Jimmy Lee must work together to get her back in their wildest and craziest adventure yet!
Chosen Music: Title Theme

---

For the longest time, my favorite beat ‘em up game was always TMNT IV: Turtles in Time on the SNES, mostly because it was one of the few co-op games I played with my brother back in the day. There were tons of things about it that I loved; the graphics, the music, the gameplay, all those voice clips, and the awesome boss fights. Then, when Double Dragon Neon came up on the horizon, I awaited the day where I could play it with my bro (or anyone, really) to recapture that magic feeling of beating the poo poo out of punks with a buddy by your side. That’s why, on the very first day of this year, I went out and got a PS3 controller, fired up a copy I downloaded on my PS3 some two or three years ago, and spent an afternoon mopping up the streets with my bro, and it was a drat good time.

Most of my history with the series itself comes from hazy memories of Double Dragon 1 on the NES, but Neon does an amazing job honoring the series’ legacy all the same. It takes full advantage of the time period it came out in to bathe the characters and visuals in a glamorous 80’s style, and it takes the time to mix in pop songs relevant to the era while also providing fantastic tunes and remixes by Jake Kaufman. The combat, while kinda stiff like Double Dragon games tend to be, is evolved through power-up bonuses for dodging at the right time, and a variety of different techniques and passive abilities gives you plenty of options to work with. It also does a lot of neat things with the co-op, like being able to revive a downed bro, and the high-five system, which lets you be as much of a bro as you want (for better or worse). It’s also got some of my favorite bosses in the beat ‘em up genre, including the main baddie Skullmageddon, who is literally just Skeletor from He-Man right down to the voice. It’s awesome.

It’s kind of a bummer that Double Dragon IV goes back to the NES visual style when Neon does so much to update the series for the modern era. I’d go as far as to call it the best beat ‘em up out there, with lots of great action, hilarious dialogue and in-jokes, and plenty of awesome boss fights. If you’ve got a bro and an afternoon to spare, get this game so you too can enjoy the thrill of punching Literally Skeletor in his stupid nerd face.

Question: What are your favorite kinds of beat-em-up games?
Alf's 43rd Favorite Game Teaser: Features a rabbit creature as an ally

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


Alfalfa The Roach posted:

Alf's 43rd Favorite Character Teaser: Once tried to take over the world with dancing

Gotta be Waluigi.


quote:

Game #44: Double Dragon Neon
”Marian?!”
”Aw man, not again!”




Released: September 11th, 2012
Synopsis: Marian has been kidnapped by the evil Skullmageddon! Billy and Jimmy Lee must work together to get her back in their wildest and craziest adventure yet!
Chosen Music: Title Theme

---

For the longest time, my favorite beat ‘em up game was always TMNT IV: Turtles in Time on the SNES, mostly because it was one of the few co-op games I played with my brother back in the day. There were tons of things about it that I loved; the graphics, the music, the gameplay, all those voice clips, and the awesome boss fights. Then, when Double Dragon Neon came up on the horizon, I awaited the day where I could play it with my bro (or anyone, really) to recapture that magic feeling of beating the poo poo out of punks with a buddy by your side. That’s why, on the very first day of this year, I went out and got a PS3 controller, fired up a copy I downloaded on my PS3 some two or three years ago, and spent an afternoon mopping up the streets with my bro, and it was a drat good time.

Most of my history with the series itself comes from hazy memories of Double Dragon 1 on the NES, but Neon does an amazing job honoring the series’ legacy all the same. It takes full advantage of the time period it came out in to bathe the characters and visuals in a glamorous 80’s style, and it takes the time to mix in pop songs relevant to the era while also providing fantastic tunes and remixes by Jake Kaufman. The combat, while kinda stiff like Double Dragon games tend to be, is evolved through power-up bonuses for dodging at the right time, and a variety of different techniques and passive abilities gives you plenty of options to work with. It also does a lot of neat things with the co-op, like being able to revive a downed bro, and the high-five system, which lets you be as much of a bro as you want (for better or worse). It’s also got some of my favorite bosses in the beat ‘em up genre, including the main baddie Skullmageddon, who is literally just Skeletor from He-Man right down to the voice. It’s awesome.

It’s kind of a bummer that Double Dragon IV goes back to the NES visual style when Neon does so much to update the series for the modern era. I’d go as far as to call it the best beat ‘em up out there, with lots of great action, hilarious dialogue and in-jokes, and plenty of awesome boss fights. If you’ve got a bro and an afternoon to spare, get this game so you too can enjoy the thrill of punching Literally Skeletor in his stupid nerd face.

Double Dragon Neon is an amazing game. The Wayforward team that worked on it was mostly composed of the people who went on to form Yacht Club, and the only thing I can say against Neon is that it uses so-so 3D models instead of the amazing sprite work that Wayforward is well known for, but that was a budget thing. I spoke a little bit to the lead dev when he was in my friend's stream, and there was an initial decision to make Neon not be too much of a throwback to the classic Arcade and NES Double Dragon games because they felt Double Dragon Advance had pretty much done a perfect job of taking that particular approach to a Double Dragon revival, so that's why Neon takes things in a fresh direction, in every aspect from story, style, and even gameplay (many of the subtleties of the combat are very different from the classic Double Dragon formula, for example how grabs work). The result is a game that mixes old and new in an awesome way and stands on its own as an entry to the Double Dragon series, instead of having to be compared too closely to the others.

Yacht Club has expressed interest in working on more Double Dragon games, and their use of Battletoads in Shovel Knight strongly hints at the possibility of a sequel to everyone's favorite stupid team-up, Battletoads and Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team. But that's entirely up to the rights holders, Atlus and Microsoft respectively.

Double Dragon IV is a straight up bad game, it doesn't even do a good job of being a retro NES nostalgia experience.

quote:

Question: What are your favorite kinds of beat-em-up games?

Beat-em-ups has always been my favorite genre of game, not least because co-op is so natural and fluid in a good beat-em-up, something that can rarely be said of other genres. I've played all the coin-munching arcade classics, all the floundering NES proto beat-em-ups that don't quite work out, the entirety of the Final Fight and Rushing Beat series, all the modern online co-op games that don't quite pan out.... and among all that punching goodness, I still remain a big fan of Technos. I have what could be called an unhealthy fixation with this long-dead company, to be honest. They created River City Ransom and Double Dragon, one of my favorite games and one of my favorite series respectively, and while not every game they made is as good as those classics (or even fun at all in some cases), I've always had a great fondness for their approach to game design.

I've always liked how they put hidden special moves in their games, or the unique way grapples work in the Double Dragon series. To my mind a good beat-em-up just has to have weapons, grapples, and special moves, or it's missing something. Something that I think hurts a lot of classic arcade beat-em-ups is the usual issue of having theoretical infinite lives based on how much you're willing to pay, and the design being balanced around trying to get you to pay more and more as it goes along instead of providing a balanced challenge based on a fixed number of lives. That's why home console versions of beat-em-ups are, to me, almost always more fun than thier arcade counterparts.

Almost every game has RPG elements nowadays, including beat-em-ups, but few games ever did it as well as River City Ransom. Double Dragon Neon, Double Dragon Advance, Final Fight 3, Rushing Beat Try, King of Dragons, Streets of Rage Remake, River City Ransom, and TMNT IV(snes) are some of my favorite entries in the genre, and what they share is a good variety of moves and enemies, fun weapons, and good feedback upon hitting enemies. Oh, and stages that don't go on for a millenium (like castle crashers or Scott Pilgrim's) That's all you really need.

Alfalfa The Roach
Oct 13, 2012

You need to be a badass first.
Character #43: Waluigi
“Hey! You might be getting better, but nobody cheats better than Waluigi! You got that?!”





First Appearance: Mario Tennis (July 21st, 2000)
Bio: As Wario is to Mario, so too is Waluigi to Luigi. Sneaky and underhanded to the extreme, Waluigi has no qualms with cheating to get to the top, while simultaneously trying to ruin the chances of anyone in his way.

---

Man, there are a lotta assholes this early into the list, huh? Well whatever, these are all cool assholes, so we’ll let it slide.

Before Waluigi really embraced meme status with the advent of Brawl in the Family, Waluigi occupied a very specific niche as my flavor-of-the-month pick for Mario Party games from 2001-2002. There were a lot of cool things about him, from his purple clothing to his extremely thin mustache that told me “this guy is a cool-rear end dude and I’m gonna use him.” The feeling came and went as soon as Mario Party 5 came out and I wanted to try out some of the newer characters instead, and it wasn’t until years later (somewhere around the time that Brawl was still in development) that I remembered what made him so great in the first place. Then Brawl in the Family introduced him as part of an April Fool’s gag and I fell in love all over again.

It’s hard to really describe what makes Waluigi work, because a lot of things about him end up making his existence a complete paradox. He’s cool as hell and carries tons of swagger with him, but he’s also a gigantic loser who can’t take a loss gracefully. He seems powerless to do anything without his partner in crime Wario’s help, but he can somehow do insane poo poo like summon entire bodies of water and swim through the air for his special moves. He accuses everyone around him of cheating all the time, while he does his own non-stop cheating in every competition he enters. He’s one of the biggest cheaters and most self-pitying losers in the Mushroom Kingdom, but as Luigi’s foil and Wario’s partner, he’s perfect in every way.

(Please give him his own game soon, Nintendo)

Question: If Waluigi were to get his own game, what kind of game would it be? Should Waluigi even get his own game at all?
Alf's 42nd Favorite Character Teaser: Is a total weenie

====

Game #43: Fire Emblem Awakening
"There're better places to take a nap that on the ground, you know. Give me your hand."



Released: April 19th, 2012
Synopsis: The continent of Ylisse lies on the brink of war between the Halidom of Ylisse and the kingdom of Plegia. As an amnesiac tactician, you must assist Prince Chrom and his Sheperds in defending Ylisse from enemies of the present and future.
Chosen Music: Don’t speak her name!

---

Back in the early days of Fire Emblem starting to make waves in the West, I always hated playing it because of its perma-death mechanic. I can at least recognize the fact that it puts more emphasis on smart strategy and making each member of your unit more valuable, but it’s annoying to reset every time a unit dies to some lucky crit or when someone who wasn’t supposed to get hit suddenly bites it. So when I heard that Awakening was introducing a Casual Mode for people like me who hate perma-death, I was completely onboard, except even after I bought it when it came out, I still wasn’t too interested in finishing it and put it down for a long while. It wasn’t until Lucina and Robin were introduced into Smash for 3DS/Wii U in July of 2014 that I finally decided to play it more. Of course, I was still a little slow in playing it, but as soon as I reached “that chapter,” I was completely hooked.

That’s probably why I like Awakening for reasons other than the inclusion of Casual Mode: when it gets its moments to shine, the writing quality is top-notch. The story itself is a pretty by-the-books Fire Emblem plot - fight off an evil kingdom who wants power, also there’s an evil dragon involved because of course there is - but what makes it work is the lengths some of the characters go to in order to achieve their goals. There are themes of self-sacrifice and nearly murdering someone for the greater good at play here, and it’s all handled extraordinarily well. It also helps that the cast is very likable, with a helping handful of hilarious and sometimes touching Support conversations breathing a lot of life into them.

I used to think that Awakening had some of the best gameplay in the series before Fates came along (even when the story of Fates is a hot mess), but on its own, Awakening is still really drat fun to play. You can break the game over its head real fast with the Pair-Up mechanic on Normal, but it helps add plenty of depth and strategy to how you approach enemies, especially on higher difficulties. Pair-Up is also really good for building up Support conversations, which helps to play into how the children units turn out; not only do they make it work in the context of the story (which Fates failed to do), but it’s super fun being able to pass on abilities from parents to their kids, and it makes for a Fire Emblem game that’s far more customizable than most entries.

All in all, I’m really happy that Awakening got the success it deserves; it’s such an earnest and sincere love letter to the Fire Emblem series as a whole, and it’s helped to pave the way for the franchise coming back from the grave and eventually becoming a major IP for Nintendo.

Question: What's a game that you're really glad that you got to play?
Alf's 42nd Favorite Game Teaser: A game about heroes

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Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


Waluigi is cool for the same reason Robbie Rotten is cool. He's the absolute worst and always loses, but he does it with an enthusiasm and style that's charming. I always kind of had this feeling in my mind that since Wario is like a fatter, greedier version of Mario who lives in a golden castle, Waluigi is like an even unluckier and way more depressed version of Luigi. I imagine he lives in a run down shack a short way from Wario's palace.

The games have also given him some pretty out-there traits, from his ability to bend at unnatural angles, to his penchant for dance and stylish moves, to a pretty weird nihilistic and self-hating streak(he punches himself to bits when he loses in Double Dash, and embraces chaos in Mario DDR).

Some people may dismiss the Wa as an uninspired companion to Wario, but I think he's one of the Mushroom Kingdom's most interesting residents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9oVqRjUvqA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6CLfZl0m88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pX1YiT6UdA

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