Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Just got a Wii U and Mario Kart 8, which is awesome. Really beautiful game, plays so smoothly and controls perfectly, it really is arguably the perfect Mario Kart. I miss some of the stuff Double Dash experimented with and the more punishing controls of 64, but I think this one really perfects everything about MK Wii.

I've also been playing Hyper Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter III on the PS2 Anniversary Collection. Such incredible games. I wasn't sure I was going to like III, but so far it's really interesting.

I really didn't care for SF3 at all. Ever since I tried SF4, I found I have no reason to go back. Except maybe for Alpha3, which was a glorious, glorious game.

Also: I want a WiiU so bad

Good job on getting a Wii U Bragatyr. I haven't spent too much time with mine, but I will when the time comes. In case you have not figured it out yet, system updates for the Wii U take a long time. When you start one, go do something else.

I know a lot of people don't care for III at all, and I wasn't sure I was going to, either. The first time I played it in arcades when I was younger I didn't understand it at all and I didn't like all the crazy new characters. Now I'm trying to understand it a little more, though it's so different from II, and I actually appreciate that they went with entirely new characters and didn't rely on the same old roster. Characters like Q and Oro and Ibuki really bring something new to Street Fighter. I wish they would add a few more of them to IV (glad to see Hugo and Elena made it into Ultra).

I actually watch a little IV on Youtube, but the one time I played the game I didn't really care for it. It's a little too slow for my tastes (probably ironic since Brawl is my favorite Smash game), and is a little too reliant on crazy combo execution. I just like that II rewards fundamental gameplay more. You get a lot more off a knockdown in II; you really can't afford to make a mistake, because you've got a 1-frame window to do a reversal on wakeup, as opposed to 5 frames in IV (which is ridiculous to me). Really makes II a sight to behold at high-level play. I like the way III handles meter and supers better than IV, too, I just feel like the players are biding time and camping until they build meter in IV, whereas III is so much more interesting with the footsies and spacing.

That might have a lot to do with the fact that I don't have a system with which to play IV, though, ha ha. If I did I would probably be playing it like a maniac. But I do want to learn to play III better, I think it's really interesting (although parrying is insane). But yeah, I've never actually played the Alpha games, unfortunately. I hear Zangief is really good in Alpha 3, which is awesome, he's always been one of my favorite characters. I play M. Bison/Dictator in II, mainly, with a little Zangief and Balrog/Boxer and Vega/Claw, and Q in III. Which characters do you play in Street Fighter, Aero?

Hey, S4, I definitely did some writing while the first system update was going through, ha ha. I didn't think it was too bad, but I did take advantage of my laptop to make use of the time. Speaking of Wii U, which games are you looking forward to? I saw where you were saying you didn't care for Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm really looking forward to X. I always thought Xenoblade would have been awesome with multiplayer, and apparently X is gonna have online capabilities.

I love to play with pretty much "quarter circle" characters and tend not to care for the "charge up" mechanic which is a shame because I'd be playing Guile all the time.

As a kid, I grew up my SFII days playing Blanka but quickly switched to Ryu. In Alpha I mostly played Ryu, Ken and Dan before discovering my deadliest weapon: Cammy. She is my favorite character now, I am deadly with her. In Alpha 3 I also loved playing Karin but she never came back to other games. In SFIV I am learning to love Juri a lot since she's fast and has many attacks that can easily handle trippy jumpers.

Bragatyr wrote:Hey, S4, I definitely did some writing while the first system update was going through, ha ha. I didn't think it was too bad, but I did take advantage of my laptop to make use of the time. Speaking of Wii U, which games are you looking forward to? I saw where you were saying you didn't care for Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm really looking forward to X. I always thought Xenoblade would have been awesome with multiplayer, and apparently X is gonna have online capabilities.

There aren't really a lot of games I'm looking forward to for the Wii U. Hyrule Warriors and Bayotta/Bayonetta 2, and the Devil's Third are pretty much it. Possibly the new Zelda, depending on the art style. If the trailer was any indication then I may be skipping it.

Aeroprism wrote:I love to play with pretty much "quarter circle" characters and tend not to care for the "charge up" mechanic which is a shame because I'd be playing Guile all the time.

As a kid, I grew up my SFII days playing Blanka but quickly switched to Ryu. In Alpha I mostly played Ryu, Ken and Dan before discovering my deadliest weapon: Cammy. She is my favorite character now, I am deadly with her. In Alpha 3 I also loved playing Karin but she never came back to other games. In SFIV I am learning to love Juri a lot since she's fast and has many attacks that can easily handle trippy jumpers.

That's awesome, really reminds me of my own Street Fighter history. I also started off playing Blanka as a kid, really liked him, and spent a little time with Dhalsim before getting into Guile for a while and finally settling into Ryu. He was my main character for years, until I stopped playing. A few years back I picked up my old copy of SF 2 on SNES and tried out Zangief, because he was like the only character I hadn't ever really tried, and really liked him. I don't tend to like to projectile camp, I just like to get in close and do damage these days or pressure in other ways like with Bison. I see you must feel the same playing Cammy. I play a tiny bit of Cammy in SF 2, and I have a friend who mains her in IV and plays her as a secondary in 2. I really like her, she's very damaging and a precision character in 2, you have to really know what to do with her.

But yeah, oddly enough, despite considering Ryu as my main after Guile in my younger years, I seem to have gotten away from the shotos and the more quarter-circle oriented characters and gravitate toward charge. I'm more comfortable playing Bison, Vega, Balrog, Guile, Honda, and Blanka than just about anyone else (I do occasionally play Dhalsim and a little Cammy).

I am currently playing a JRPG called The Legend Of Heroes: Trails In The Sky. I'm loving it so far, but I can tell it's going to be a really long game. I've already played it for about 4 or five hours and it says on my save file that I'm still in the Prologue. No idea how many chapters this game has. The story is pretty good so far, despite the main plot still having yet to show itself.

Atlinsmere wrote:I am currently playing a JRPG called The Legend Of Heroes: Trails In The Sky. I'm loving it so far, but I can tell it's going to be a really long game. I've already played it for about 4 or five hours and it says on my save file that I'm still in the Prologue. No idea how many chapters this game has. The story is pretty good so far, despite the main plot still having yet to show itself.

The game has Four Chapters plus the prologue. Also, hold onto your save file once you're done- this is actually only the first part of the Trails in the Sky trilogy, and you can port your saves down the line.

I am also playing this game, but that's in part because I am Falcom's willing slave.

At the moment, I just finished a complete runthrough of Doom: The Roguelike with the dual-challenge of going through 100 random levels (instead of 24) and only able to use melee weapons. I died a lot. I got through 92 levels of the game with an armor-piercing knife that I wound up making (no chainsaws spawned), along with an indestructible suit of armor and an equally indestructible pair of plasteel boots (thanks game for spawning two onyx modpacks!)

Now I think I'm gonna go either play Treasure Hunter G on the SNES or actually finish my Countdown to Doomsday playthrough on the Genesis.