The Video Game Revue

Console Gaming Buddies Redux

Fritzkrieg was over yesterday for one of the most intense gaming marathons that I've ever had. I can't even remember all of the games that we played, but suffice to say that there were more than a few unlikely titles thrown into the mix. The major focus of the day was definitely Capcom, and we spent quite a bit of time playing fighting games, a complete playthrough of the Capcom Quiz (Quiz & Dragons remix), and a quick playthrough of Final Fight. There was Zelda: Twilight Princess progress made, a demo of F.E.A.R. on my new PC, and Burnout: Revenge capped off the evening. I also found out that Fritzkrieg doesn't like Guitar Hero much at all. I don't know what lessons I learned about gaming yesterday (aside from, maybe, some trivia bits about Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Onimusha), but I am definitely tired. :)

Phf and Ace-High were also over earlier in the week. I continued to put pressure on Phf to get into fighting games, which is somewhat funny because he still insists that he has little or no interest in fighting games, yet it's easy to pressure him into playing more than a few rounds, and he's certainly not indifferent towards the game once the action has started. I don't think it's even occured to him that most people who really don't like tournament fighters can hardly even be bothered to try to win once the game has started, especially when faced with a more experienced opponent. Like most painfully inexperienced fighting game players, Phf is a bit of a button masher, but he does have a strategic mind and he pays attention to what he's doing to the point where he can duplicate basic moves. I'm impressed by his reflexes and I'm impressed by how much he honestly seems to care about winning. If Phf's interest in the genre is lacking anywhere, it's probably in lacking a desire to improve his skills, and sometimes I get the distinct impression that he doesn't realise how much room there is for him to improve. He seems to under-estimate the true complexity and sophistication of good fighting games, and from what I know of his tastes in gaming, I suspect that if Phf understood the truth behind what these games are like, his interest in them would swell.

The fighting game rivalry between Fritzkrieg and I continues to burn. It's something of a shame that I have had more time than him in recent history to play these games and improve a little at them, but otherwise I would say that we are pretty evenly matched (which is to say that neither of us is particularly good.)

posted by Parappa @ 11:35 AM