Saturday, May 22, 2010

Pac-man parody lyrics

First off, sorry for not upload the other Level Ups yet. Its because I have yet to take pictures of the game and didn't feel like uploading it seperatly. I have taken most of the ones for the previous weeks and upcomming ones, I now just have to upload them. Be patient.

Now, on to the topic. If you're subscribed to Level Up, then you'll get a special episode today for Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. I figured I would be generous enough to post the full lyrics up (it's a parody of The Beatles "Sgt Peppe's Lonely Hearts Club Band")

It was thirty years ago today,

Namco released out a game to play

It soon became the latest style

And drove all of the masses wild
So may I introduce to you

After gaming all these years

My musical tribute to the game pac-man

So happy birthday to you pac-man
30 years of running ‘round a maze

I can start up any version of the game,

Sit back and play for days and days.

Wakka Wakka Wakka, Wakka Wakka Wakka,

Wakka Wakka Wakka Wakka Wak

Getting cornered by the ghosts
Is certainly a thrill

You get to the power pellet

Then you can eat some of the ghosts,
Then you can eat all of them.

I pretty sure that everyone knows

How the gaming of Pac-man goes
You eat the white pellets up

Keep going and he never stops

You think by now he’d need

After only eating all these years
A super-duper, diet weight loss plan

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Level Up: Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2


bwahaha

Sorry everyone. It’s just that SUPER Street Fighter IV came out this week. This just proves 90% of video game web comics right when they said that given any success in the Street Fighter series, Capcom will milk it for all its worth. Coming in the next month, Street Fighter IV Campion Edition, Street Fighter IV Turbo Remix and Super Street Fighter IV This Is The Last One Wink Wink. Don’t believe me? Well I’m gonna activate another “Capcom time” to look at Street Fighter 2 CHAMPION EDITION for the Sega Genesis.

So, you’re probably asking “What does the Campion Edition even mean?” Well, a quick bit a research tells us that it’s like the original Street Fighter 2, but with the 4 boss characters become playable. Really? You needed to rush a new title for it for that? Furthermore, a later edition would add more characters, so why not wait a bit, and release just one new game, new character and all of them playable. And heck, why not just call it Street Fighter 3 while you’re at it? Was the title “2” really that great? This (and the system it was released on) just made people not care once the REAL Street Fighter 3 came out.

Now, I have said it many times: I don’t like fighter games, but every time I say that, it comes with a game I really like. Well, time for me to talk about a fighting game I don’t like. The big, main reason I don’t like them is because most moves are hard to pull off. This system actually makes it worse, since there are only 3 buttons. This means to switch between punches and kicks, you need to press start, making some moves near impossible now. But for some reason, even if I read how to do moves, no matter what I do, I can only pull them off like 5% of the time, and just don’t know what I do different than the other 95%. This is made all the worse by the fact that the computer can pull off any move it wants no problem and that you don’t have a move guide in the game.

I have to say it, the characters are bland: half of them can be described as “a fighter”. And since most of the stages are in streets, I guess we have our title. Forget that, I don’t want just fighting in the streets, give me something more if I’m gonna be able to do anything spectacular. I want more then fighting, I want kill. I want to know that there’s death at stake in this combat. I’ll take some Mortal Kombat. Here’s Mortal Kombat 2 for the Sega Genesis.

I know, it might be cliché at this point to put these two against each other in a review, but they were actually heavy competitors at one point, like Mario and Sonic, and when I picked a team, I said Mortal Kombat. Why did I enjoy playing this game? Exact reason I introduced it: blood lust. Yeah, this is one of the games that lead to the creation of the ESRB rating system, and with good reason. Every punch sends blood flying and some of the hits are brutal. And we can’t forget the Fatalities; a wicked finishing move that violently destroys your opponent in awesome ways. Sometimes I’m still happy I lose if I can die by Fatality.

Graphically speaking, Mortal Kombat was just amazing. Sure Street Fighter’s ones look good and were smooth and all that, but I remember turning on Mortal Kombat 2 and thinking “Holy crap, real people!” The sounds are also superior from Street Fighter 2, but that’s by comparison. Just the thought of realistic people fighting like that was what I enjoyed. Though honestly, most of these are far from real people. Though most are “human” to start with, their skills list, training, appearance and other attributes suggest otherwise. A lot are just fun to play as.

Midway Games may not be the greatest game developers, but they kick Capcom’s ass in the fighting game department. Both games are good two players, have good button response, hit detection works right and all that, but Mortal Kombat makes you enjoy everything, even while you’re losing. I’m not saying Street Fighter 2 is flawed, no, they did everything right and pretty much became the basis for fighting games from then on. But I have 2 comments for that arguement: I’m not a fan of fighting games and you shouldn’t be celebrated for not screwing up, you should be celebrated for taking it a step beyond. Also, didn’t appreciate being jerked around with the rereleases, even though they’re doing it again… I give Street Fighter 2 CHAMPION EDITION 6.5 and Mortal Kombat 2 8 Levels out of 10.