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Check Out My Kid Icarus: Uprising Review on Splitkick.com

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Apologies for the long delay, but my review for Kid Icarus: Uprising is finally live on Splitkick! It took me awhile to play through because of its surprisingly long length, and a really long time to write. I struggled with it for weeks, and wrote three completely different versions of the review before finally settling on one to submit for edit.

Thanks to the team at Splitkick for editing, and publishing the piece, as its a game I want to encourage others to try, even with its fundamental flaws. If you’re still on the fence about it, check out my review at Splitkick.


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Check Out My Viewer’s Guide to EVO 2012 Now on Splitkick.com

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Get hype!

The Evolution Championship Series is just a few weeks away. To get you ready for all of the action, I’ve put together a viewer’s guide to EVO, which you can now check out at Splitkick. This covers where to watch it, what games will be played, as well as some of the big story lines and players to look out for. If you have any interest in watching the event, definitely check out the guide for some additional context.

Universal Fighting Game Guide: How to Improve Through Losing

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The fighting game genre is defined by the process of at least two competing parties fighting each other to determine a winner and loser. As someone who has been playing fighting games seriously for the past few years, I’ve lost thousands of matches in virtually every way imaginable. I almost beat Arturo Sanchez in AE 2012 until I choked at the very end of the final round. I’ve been destroyed by Marlinpie at Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in a tournament. Most recently, I lost a match in Street Fighter X Tekken to an opponent who beat me by pressing only one button. Regardless of the circumstances around any given loss, the feeling that came with losing sucked every time.

In this installment of the Universal Fighting Game Guide, we’re going to focus on the least desirable outcome of any given match. Though the act of losing always spawns some level of anger, sadness and frustration (or in fighting game community terms, ‘salt’), it doesn’t have to end there. Losses today can be leveraged to help you gain wins tomorrow. Instead of simply getting mad, let’s talk about how to use losing as a means of getting better.

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How Capcom Can Fix Street Fighter X Tekken

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Street Fighter X Tekken is in trouble. The game has gone through PR hell over the controversial gem system and the on-disc DLC debacle. The game is off to a slow start in terms of sales. The game isn’t very popular in tournaments, as it routinely draws in less competitors and less viewers than Street Fighter IV or Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Maybe the most damning strike against it is the harsh criticism and feedback the game gets from disappointed fighting game players. Personally, I’ve had a hard time taking this game seriously since Capcom introduced the ridiculously overpowered assist gems and the game-breaking Rolento glitch.

The game is losing steam fast on all fronts. While Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have maintained a loyal and steady player base over the last few years, Street Fighter X Tekken is in danger of falling off the map completely in a matter of months. Even though I like the core of the Street Fighter X Tekken experience, I’m on the brink of letting this game go to play other games. What can Capcom do to save this game from oblivion? Here’s a few of my suggestions.

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Check Out My Editorial Piece “May The Lesser Man Win” Now on Splitkick.com

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Up now on Splitkick is my first editorial piece for them entitled “May the Lesser Man Win: Parallels Between Boxing’s Latest Debacle and Modern-Day Fighting Game Design“. The idea for the piece has been floating around in my head for awhile, but the recent bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley ultimately was the catalyst for me pulling those ideas into a fully-formed piece. If an op-ed piece about the role of field-leveling mechanics in fighting games is something of interest to you, definitely head over to Splitkick to check it out!

This is also my first piece as a Staff Writer, which Splitkick announced officially in their one-year anniversary celebration post. Thanks to everyone on the Splitkick team for embracing me as one of their own. It’s been a pleasure working with Splitkick and I’m looking forward our future endeavours!

Check Out My Review for Joy Ride Turbo on Splitkick.com

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Hot off the heels of Kinect Joy Ride is Joy Ride Turbo; the sequel to a motion-controlled game that ditches motion controls completely. On one hand, it’s a curious move to eschew the original’s key selling point. On the other hand, the key selling point in practice wasn’t very good.

If you’re curious about how well it turned out, head over to Splitkick.com to check out my review!

Unboxing the Qanba Q4 RAF Fightstick

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The Qanba Q4 RAF is one of the most sought-after fightsticks on the market for its ability to work with the XBOX 360, PlayStation 3 and PC right out of the box. If you have fighting games across multiple systems or regularly play in tournaments, then having just one fightstick that works with everything sounds a lot better buying multiple fightsticks to do the same thing. However, because of that key feature, this fightstick isn’t licensed by Sony or Microsoft, which means you’ll never be able to buy this at a regular store. Even tracking these down online isn’t necessarily an easy task, as the few online retailers that carry it are often sold out.

Luckily for me, I was able to purchase one at a tournament I was recently at. Let’s open this bad boy up together.

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My Experience at Toryuken

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(Me [right] vs. Rikir [left]  on the Toryuken main stage and live stream of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3)

The ability to excel in a high-pressure situation does not come naturally to most. I, for one, have found this to be the case with everything I do in life – especially in my foray into competitive gaming. I’ve suffered from a seemingly unshakable case of tournament nerves, which has plagued my ability to play to my full potential. It’s hard not to let the nerves get to you when playing for your tournament life in front of a large crowd that is judging your every action.

The cure for shaking nerves? Practice. If you put yourself in a high-pressure situation enough times, you body and mind should get accustomed to the situation. Going into Toryuken – my third tournament to date – I was hoping that this would be the tournament where I could shake off my tournament nerves once and for all.

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Universal Fighting Game Guide: How to Improve Your Execution

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When it comes to fighting games, your ability to input the right buttons at the right time is critical to success. If you’re an amateur fighting another amateur, the person who can more consistently pull off their special moves is going to have the edge. As you get better, the importance of execution continues to be a factor, as your opponent’s ability to hit you with a big combo in a crucial situation (or any situation for that matter) could put you in a really bad spot.

With that said, I think that execution is generally considered the most boring and tedious aspect of your skill-set to practice and improve upon. Because of how monotonous it may seem, it’s easy to just stick with what you’ve got and never make an honest effort to improve your execution. In this post, we talk about what execution is, different types of execution ‘concepts’ and a few different ways to approach improving your execution without boring yourself to tears.

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Game-Breaking Glitch Discovered in Version 1.04 of Street Fighter X Tekken

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In an attempt to fix infinite combos, Capcom has introduced a far worse problem. In version 1.04 of Street Fighter X Tekken, the game will crash if Rolento’s kunai makes contact with any fireball in the game. This impacts both the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 versions of the game.

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