video games

Universal Fighting Game Guide: Tier Lists

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If you’ve ever played a fighting game with another person before, I’m sure you’ve discussed the hot-button topic of which character is best. You may have tried to rank these characters from best to worst. For a handful of seriously dedicated individuals, you may have even gone through the painstaking process of trying to mathematically calculate that pecking order.

Tier lists are a hotly-debated topic in any sort of competitive game. For better or worse, their presence in the competitive fighting games can’t be understated. In today’s world of online discussion and information transfer, you’re just a Google search away from finding dozens of different tier lists for any given fighting game written by players with various levels of understanding. Before you cling to a tier list written by a random message board user as fact, let’s take a moment to learn what tier lists are, how they work and what they’re good for.

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Salty Bet: The Ultimate Realization of CPU vs. CPU Play

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As a kid, I had a weird fascination with CPU vs. CPU play. Though I never understood the point of including this as an option, I’d always run it at least once in every game that supported it just to see what happened. Sometimes the ensuing action was as dull as watching paint dry. Other times, it led to a few solid hours of entertainment. In particular, the classic wrestling games from THQ for the Nintendo 64 were my favourites for simulated gaming action, as those fights almost always were legendary.

It’s funny now seeing this phenomenon manifest in new ways on a much larger scale thanks to the efforts of the VGCW and Salty Bet; the latter of whom may have reached the ultimate end game for CPU vs. CPU play.

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Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the Execution Barrier

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Though I don’t talk about it much on this blog, I am no slouch in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series. Having invested hundreds of hours into it, I wreak havoc online and it’s generally the game I do best at in tournaments. Say what I will about having the #1 ranked Rose in Canada on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network,  my best tournament placing to-date across any game is 25th in MvC 3 at T12; a point that arguably holds more weight in my fighting game resume.

Having said that, I have a glaring hole in my skill-set that keeps me from ascending to the upper echelon of players: my inability to land the biggest combos.

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Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Single Player Review

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A lot of people forget that the original Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube wasn’t heralded as a premiere Nintendo experience when it first came out. Many knocked it for being too short and repetitive, which caused me to avoid it completely. Despite that, the game’s legacy grew with time to the point where we now have Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on the 3DS more than a decade later. Was it worth the wait?

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The Recurring Bosscast: 022 – It’s Gonna Be Dope

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Mat tries to lead our Grand Theft Auto retrospective, but the conversation is repeatedly derailed by Jett’s dreams of creating the ultimate drug dealing simulator. Jason also goes into great detail about his time with both Dragon’s Crown and Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Jett – In Third Person
Jason – Downstab
Mat – Biff Bam Pop

Tomb Raider Review

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The Tomb Raider franchise means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some associate her with their original love of PlayStation. Others adore her for being a pioneer of girl power in video games. There might be one or two people for whom Lara was their first crush on a video game character. For me, she didn’t mean much. As a diehard Nintendo fanboy during her heyday, I wanted nothing to do with that series. Nor did I feel I was missing much, as the series never won me over during the few times I actually played a Tomb Raider title. This reboot may have rubbed some purists the wrong way, but this is definitely more up my alley.

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Playing Capcom vs. SNK 2 For The First Time

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Up until the creation of this post, I had never played Capcom vs. SNK 2 or any of the games in its lineage. By the time of its release, I was long gone from the scene. However, there was a brief moment in time where I wanted this game in the worst way. As an owner of a Gamecube, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was something I wanted to try. Unfortunately, lukewarm reviews and the thought of having to play it on that Gamecube pad ultimately drove me away.

Many years later, when I started taking fighting games seriously, I discovered that this a favourite among fighting game snobs. With it having come out recently on PS3 as a PlayStation 2 classic, I finally decided to see what the hype was all about.

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The Thing That Drives Me Nuts About Lugi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

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Ever since I got it as a birthday present a few months back, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has been a part of my morning routine. Though the game isn’t terribly long, it’s taken me forever to work through it. The frustrating part of it all is that it really doesn’t have to be this way.

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The Walking Dead: 400 Days Review

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It’s been a few months since the final episode of The Walking Dead left me in tears. While Telltale Games isn’t quite ready to roll out the next full season, they’ve provided us with a special episode to bridge the gap between the two. Though The Walking Dead: 400 Days as an experience is rather short, it’s an interesting tease for what’s to come.

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