Steed Fighter at 11:08 AM

Anyone who opposes Fluttershy will be destroyed.

As we enter deeper into Fighting Female July, it behooves me to talk about a fan game that was announced while I was out, and was unable to react to.



See, I've always wanted to make a fighting game based around my favorite properties. Used to be Sonic and Disney, then DC and Marvel. I mean, I loved fighting games, and I loved Aladdin. Why not?



I've found even with the difficulty bar lowered, making a game probably still takes more time and skill than one internet addict has. And I'm pretty seasonal. It's why I never finished the Sonichu racing game. I moved on. Well, that and the slowdown.

Heh. It was to be funny.

But whenever I see people out there, toiling away at some cease and desist magnet of a project, I feel they are doing the lord's work. Because we've already had 20 Dragonball games, but no one's rushing to make a new Killer Instinct. They aren't gonna make it. But we need it. It needs to exist. We need to play as She-Ra and we need to play as Mona Lisa, but that's not how the world works.



That's why I wanna give a shout out to the Bronies(still hate the term) at Mane6, who are developing a Friendship is Magic fighting game. I found out while looking up info and tutorials on Fighter Maker 2002, the engine used to create Pokemon Type Wild and Super Strip Fighter IV. The idea crept up in my head slightly before, but you know me and making games. And now I want it. So bad.



And I mean, it makes sense. You have a big cast of characters with differing powers and skills, a wide range of settings and a big fandom. It's not hard to see each character fitting a playstyle. I mean, except for grappling, of course. It's probably possible, though.



However, in keeping with the franchise's theme, It should probably be a tag team game. I mean, pay me no mind, I don't even know if FM2002 can do tag teams and the game is probably halfway planned. Just... I mean, without tag teams, no one is really being friends, unless it's those really rowdy friends that punch each other and watch wrestling.



I am also concerned with balancing. I mean, Pegasi can probably play keepaway all day, and Unicorns can force choke the shit out of somebody, but earth ponies are likely to end low tier. If Celestia or Nightmare Moon step in the ring as playable, you bet your ass shit will be broken.

Dear Princess Celestia: Today I learned that spamming is not nice...bitch.

Outside of the main sextet of height defective horses, the cast is being kept under wraps. But being there are 16 planned characters, I can safely assume they are Spike, Princess Celestia, those fucking Cutie Mark Crusaders, Trixie, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna,Old Meme Eyes, and the Mayor. And you know how good I am at guessing casts. I know it's not nice to request(I learnt that in Mugen), but can we get some Twist up in this bitch? If not, I guess I'll be gravitating towards Apple Jack the old G and P-T.






Boasting is not nice...but it makes for good winquotes.

Either way, shine on, you crazy ass diamonds. Only two pieces of advice: Remember to back up your files as much as possible, in as many places as possible. That's why we don't have a Valis fighting game right now. And second...don't tell Hasbro you are making it, cuz they will shut it down, for sure. Don't tell Comics Alliance and Topless Robot, cuz they will shine praise, but bring the unwanted attention of the copyright holders. Just keep it between you and me and the rest of the world wide web. Because the world needs it. Nerds need it. I need it. God save you, Mane6: our hopes are pinned on you.

Steed Fighter at 11:08 AM

Anyone who opposes Fluttershy will be destroyed.

As we enter deeper into Fighting Female July, it behooves me to talk about a fan game that was announced while I was out, and was unable to react to.



See, I've always wanted to make a fighting game based around my favorite properties. Used to be Sonic and Disney, then DC and Marvel. I mean, I loved fighting games, and I loved Aladdin. Why not?



I've found even with the difficulty bar lowered, making a game probably still takes more time and skill than one internet addict has. And I'm pretty seasonal. It's why I never finished the Sonichu racing game. I moved on. Well, that and the slowdown.

Heh. It was to be funny.

But whenever I see people out there, toiling away at some cease and desist magnet of a project, I feel they are doing the lord's work. Because we've already had 20 Dragonball games, but no one's rushing to make a new Killer Instinct. They aren't gonna make it. But we need it. It needs to exist. We need to play as She-Ra and we need to play as Mona Lisa, but that's not how the world works.



That's why I wanna give a shout out to the Bronies(still hate the term) at Mane6, who are developing a Friendship is Magic fighting game. I found out while looking up info and tutorials on Fighter Maker 2002, the engine used to create Pokemon Type Wild and Super Strip Fighter IV. The idea crept up in my head slightly before, but you know me and making games. And now I want it. So bad.

Everybody HAETS Sonic: A rant. at 11:30 AM

Let's talk about the good old days, when dudes where bad and Gamepro was  a timely source of info.Once, many concole cycles ago there used to be a little franchise known as Sonic the Hedgehog. Spanning 4  core games, multiple spinoffs, and a multimedia reach that spanned comics and multiple cartoons.

But today, that is all but gone. There seem to be two types of people in the world: Those who don't like Sonic, and those that like it a little...too much.

You know, when I was your age I had to DRAW my ill-concieved made up Sonic characters. Dang kids taday!

And I propose we have been looking at it all wrong.



Sonic, as he was in the beginning, was a faster answer to the platform based gameplay pioneered by the Mario games. Eschewing the methodical gameplay of the Italian brothers for more twitch based fast response game, and put a attitude infused Felix the cat Blue Hedgehog as the lead in a world that was less magical, and more aggressive.

And for it's time, that was quite high end.


See, before you could jump into cars and stash them in your garage or have sex with topless maidens, games had a lot of limitations. As I'm sure many of you know, you could put 20 Sonic 2 games in a burnt CD, but back then, you had to limit each sprite and pixel and songs where made from little sound and arranged. Your cellphone could play Sonic and Knuckles with ease. Speed problems and slowdown where known to plague many a game  that dared not to manages it's limited resources well.

It was either this, or Batman Forever.

So, the Sonic games came to prominence because they pushed the boundaries of what was expected of a game's quality, graphics and gameplay. But at it's core still lay running left and right and jumping.

But Sega's decline came, and with it the franchise itself.  But by the time Sega's last ditch effort at relevancy as a console maker with the Dreamcast the world had moved beyond running left and right and jumping. Game's like Final Fantasy 7 set the standards for Story, and even gameplay was taking a turn for the Cinematic, with Resident Evil being one of the key examples. The Genre Sonic inhabited drifted away from stage design and more into  goal based  item quests inspired by Super Mario 64. Clearly it was more of a matter than Horizontal  movements.

So Sonic Adventure came to be. Sega tried to put everything in there: Item fetch quests, an open hub world, a ridiculously convoluted plot involving Puma Pumku, vengefull Gods and Love and all that stuff, with Cinematics that clearly where the FFX before FFX.

And it was panned. It started a mindset among fans and critics that Sonic needed to return to his core elements and not be bogged down with  anything extraneous to what made the old games great. The next game reduced the ephemera and focused more on 3 core gameplay types. But it still needed to return to it's roots. The one after that tried again to center near Platform city while offering multiple characters at once and gameplay types. Still not there. So after that they threw most of the characters out, while leaving 3 fast Sonic like characters running in a 3D plain. Oh, but it STILL needed to return to it's core gameplay mechanics. So they made a new, mostly 2D one with  some extra hulking gameplay and it still wasn't rooted enought.

There was also two or three underrated Portable Plataformers, but nobody likes to bring them up. I guess they don't count?

The next game might as well have been called "Sonic: Are you freaks happy now?" But it settled for Sonic 4. It was as back to basics as it could, with some leftover mechanics from the 3d games. But the problem still laid there.

Recently a tralier for a Sonic 2 HD remake was released, and some people are not impressed. So the big question here is, should we blame the players, or the game?

Worth a shot, I guess?

What is this "sought after" core mechanic? What is returning to it's roots, when even a free repaint and a budget sized retread is not enought to satiate fans? Or have the games really have been that wretched?

I think it's a problem with the audience. People who grew up with Sonic still want to follow the franchise, but have develop enought taste that what a kid's plataformer has to offer always leaves them feeling empty. Kids today, they don't like Sonic that much. They are into other things, I'm gonna guess Bratz and Dinosaur King. You might as well offer them a Betty Boop game.

What should Sega do? Lay off the Sonic for a bit. Bring back other franchises, like Ristar, Alex Kidd, and Altered Beast. Let REAL nostalgia settle in, instead of this blank fog of "I liked it in the past".  Sometimes you need to step away from art in order to fully appreciate it. The franchise does need a new direction, much like Mario 64 completely changed the direction Mario games took.

Everybody HAETS Sonic: A rant. at 11:30 AM

Let's talk about the good old days, when dudes where bad and Gamepro was  a timely source of info.Once, many concole cycles ago there used to be a little franchise known as Sonic the Hedgehog. Spanning 4  core games, multiple spinoffs, and a multimedia reach that spanned comics and multiple cartoons.

But today, that is all but gone. There seem to be two types of people in the world: Those who don't like Sonic, and those that like it a little...too much.

You know, when I was your age I had to DRAW my ill-concieved made up Sonic characters. Dang kids taday!

And I propose we have been looking at it all wrong.