My First (serious) Tournament

So last week a friend and I made the journey 90 miles north to the Minnesota Meltdown annual fighting game gathering and tournament. I ended up placing 9th out of 15 entrants in BlazBlue, which - while nothing to write home about - isn't that bad considering I took rounds (and sometimes games) from the 5th and 2nd place finishers. So although I have a lot of work to do, I made a lot of progress and learned quite a bit.

Lessons Learned:

1.) It ain't over till it's over.

More than once I resorted to my usually-useful "get them down to low life and turtle with projectiles" only to eat a Spark Bolt -> 720 for MASSIVE SOVIET DAMAGE. When playing in tournaments, playing it safe towards the end isn't always a good idea (especially when facing Tager, who I had no idea could combo his projectile into his Throw of Doom).

2.) Mind games are real.

It's amazing how much the "flow" of the match dictates what your opponent will do. There is a lot of "feeling" that you can get from the person next to you. You can tell when they're panicking, you can tell when they're nervous. It's a completely different experience than playing online. Dictating the pace of the match (and not letting your opponent do it) is the best way to gain ground.

3.) Don't Ride the Icening!

It's true what they say in the forums. Ice Car works better online than it does in person, and anyone worth their salt will know how to block it and punish you. Only use Ice Car to get across the screen or in combos. And if you lose your combo chain before initiating the Ice Car, expect a world of hurt if you go through with it.

4.) If something works on you, they'll do it again. (and again, and again...)

Two examples: versus a Haku and a Noel.

6A is frighteningly effective against j.B. So much so that he had me on lockdown for the majority of the match. Usually Haku is one of my better matchups, but I had a really hard time with the one I met there. He also managed to lull me into a false sense of security by jumping around and provoking my ice car, which always ended in badness (see above.) For some stupid reason, I couldn't stop myself from jumping in even though I was eating 6A every time. I guess subconsciously I must have thought that my placement was off and that's why I was taking the hit, but it turns out the priority of that move is godly. And he would gladly hit me with it every time I attempted a jump-in.

One of Noel's combos has a property that if you tech out the wrong way, you're going to get combo'd again. I fell for this not once, not twice, but 3 times. And another person watching even commented on it.

So yes, I gained a lot of worthwhile experience by going to this tournament. I think what I need to work on the most, rather than combo execution, is fundamental execution and pressure escape. Once I'm in a 9832749832 hit combo, I just start to mash and hope for the best. I need to study the best means of escape for the characters I have the most problems with - namely Ragna, Rachel, Nu, and Noel.

From Boom Blox to BlazBlue

Since I haven't done an entry in a while, I figured it'd be good to focus on a few things that have happened recently in the gaming industry, and particularly in my gaming habits...but rather than doing a lengthy introduction, I'll just hop right in.
Boom Blox and Why It Doesn't Sell

Boom Blox is, and will always be, a sad tale in the minds and hearts of the select few that were willing to give it a chance. The game's controls and innovative gameplay were PERFECT showcases for how to do a casual Wii game properly, the graphics were bright, colorful, and appealing, and the multitude of modes and level creation tools was second to none. It even had the support and input from Steven Spielberg (not that he's really a game designer in the first place). But my point is this. It had a lot of stuff going for it. So why, why, WHY were the sales numbers so blatantly abysmal while shovel crap like Imagine Babyz Partyz and Carnival Games shot up the casual charts? Well, the answer, I believe, is twofold:

The first problem is simple: price. The game launched at $49.99. Now, EA, I understand you spent a good amount of money developing this game. The fact it actually controlled well and looked halfway decent is proof enough of that. But casual consumers aren't looking for quality. They're looking for license/name recognition or, barring that, something cheap in the bargain bin. If you wanted to sell to the casual market, you should have priced the game accordingly - that is, $29.99 for a new copy.

The second problem is a bit more complex: lack of notoriety. The game's graphics look odd. The box doesn't tell you much about the type of game you're buying, and the game wasn't advertised to the masses properly. The combination of the graphical style (which some "casual" and a lot of hardcore users would call: "GHEY!11!!!") and lack of advertising basically doomed the game before it shipped.

I had the original game, and I sold it for pretty much the same price I bought it for ($30 used, from Gamefly).

A sequel was eventually crafted, but in a "slick" marketing ploy they decided to drop the Boom Blox moniker entirely and call it simply "Bash Party". I purchased this game for $30 on sale at Target yesterday, after my friends asked me one too many times over the last few months, "Where is Boom Blox? Why did you sell it?" Admittedly, the game's "screw your neighbor" video-Jenga was some of the most fun I've had with a third party title for the Wii - and apparently both my gamer and non-gamer friends agree that the game is appealing, not intimidating, and a whole lot of fun.

Sadly, they retained the look of the original - though they beefed up all the modes. I'm looking forward to trying it out with a group. However, its sales numbers paled even in comparison to the first game's. They did attempt to make some inroads with the casual crowd - lowering the launch price to $39.99 for starters - but it wasn't enough.

Brand recognition makes or breaks the Wii more often than any of us like to admit. If EA wants to make any money off of the Boom Blox franchise, I have an idea: if they are to do a third game, why not partner with Nintendo? The Boom Blox engine is great, but the blocky characters and generic backgrounds lack appeal. You want assured sales for your franchise? Here's an idea:

Mario's Bash Party

Those three words would solve any problems your franchise currently has. Nintendo's marketing plus recognizable characters plus your engine and decent minigames = SUREFIRE sales. If Mario and Sonic can sell millions, this certainly can, too. It would certainly be a better game Hardcore would buy it (for the franchises and gameplay), casuals would buy it (ooh, it has Mario), and Nintendo fanboys would buy it too (MARIO!). Imagine all the minigames that could be created using Nintendo star power plus the Boom Blox engine? Trust me, guys, it's a win-win situation for everyone.

You listening, EA? Get on it.


MAHVEL, BAYBEE!



OKAY. Now for a rant.

As an owner of the DC, PS2, and NAOMI (yes, arcade) versions of Marvel Vs Capcom 2, I was thrilled at the announcement of an HD reworking of the game with online play for release on the 360 and PS3. And after trying the offline-only PS3 demo I was even more excited. After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, they finally announced the release date - July 29...on 360 only.

What...the...fuck?

So those who wanted the PS3 version (for the better pad controls) were slightly screwed. Which was OK. I mean, I had plenty to play while I was waiting and it's not like I couldn't pop in the PS2 version if I was having a serious MvC2 craving. I wanted the PS3 version for the Dualshock support and also to be able to play on my SFIV TE stick, so I was willing to wait.

So finally, they release the game - or did they?

After hitting refresh on the PSN store for the 20th time at 4:30PM CST yesterday, I finally get to download...a 6kb unlock code....

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We've had the whole game for the last three months?! Ok, fine, some Xbox360 games do that too. Release demos early which are basically the full game, and then issue an unlock code later. So this in and of itself wouldn't be a huge problem - except for the bugs....

Yep...this game is BROKEN. Seriously broken. We were sitting on the full version of a game that, for all intents and purposes, was nowhere near ready to be released. I'm not a hardcore Mahvel player so I don't know the character specific glitches but here's what I do know:

1.) Online is busted. As in, certain features not only fail to work, but CRASH THE GAME. Like BlazBlue PS3, it will cause the console to lock up and force you to do a hard reboot. Unlike BlazBlue, it doesn't happen when randomly connecting to matches (which is another gripe I will address in the near future)...instead, it occurs WHENEVER YOU ATTEMPT TO SEARCH FOR A MATCH. Yes. You heard right. The entire match selection screen is broken. Someone in QA was asleep at the wheel.

2.) The widescreen is glitchy. Really glitchy. Yes, I know it's a reworked feature, and the game is technically being played in just 4:3 mode, so I understand some issues will occur there. But some of the issues I've seen range from stuff being chopped at the 4:3 barrier entirely, to disgusting sprite and animation glitches at the edge of the screen reminiscent of the MvC2 xbox version (as played on 360) - yes, sometimes it really is that bad.

3.) Playlist functionality is broken in Ranked and whenever voice is turned on. Yep. Prepare to be "taken for a riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide" if your opponent has his headset on. Joy.

This is unforgivable, Capcom. You released the full game to us (in demo form, waiting to be unlocked) on April 30th. As a software developer I'm aware how much additional time affects quality. And your QA should have found these issues. I understand the graphical glitches to a degree since the code is basically a mishmash of DC/NAOMI code and new features, but having entire features of the game causing crashes is something that no top-tier game developer should be able to get away with. You should have held the game back until these issues were dealt with. I'm hoping you have plans to patch some of this stuff, because as of now it's a pretty sad port of the game. I'd go as far as to say the PS2 version is superior - which is not a good thing.

With the fighting game renaissance in full swing, having serious online issues in a game that is so blatantly multiplayer is a cardinal sin, and if I would have known about this I most likely would not have purchased the game. Of course, at this time, since most of us voted with our wallets, there's really no way to tell Capcom that they fucked up. We all bought the game anyways, and it's apparently ranked high on both PSN and XBL's download lists.

And with that, I'm out of here. I have a BlazBlue tourney to practice for. Hopefully it pays off. "ICE CAR! ICE CAR! I'M CRAZY!!!"