Video Games

Sorry, I've just spent so much time on Reddit, lately.

EDIT: also I am sooooo far left

Guess that's where we differ :/

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 just had a super dope trailer released too. I'm so pumped for that movie.

So, a review of The King of Fighters XIV, because whythefucknot?

KOF XIV is a very solid new entry in the franchise, as I anticipated. The game features a large character roster, including a staggering number of new, original and interesting characters. Among them include a green-haired Chinese hipster with demonic powers (Shun'ei), Kim Kaphwan's takewondo master (Gang-Il), Geese Howard's German bodyguard (Hein), a South Korean lunatic (Xanadu), a foul mouthed Egyptian dude with sand powers (Kukri), a boxing Brazilian amputee (Nelson), and a superpowered narcoleptic martial artist (Meitenkun). While some of the old teams are basically unchanged, namely Kyo's team, Terry's team and Iori's team, other teams are changed up quite a bit. For instance, the Woman Fighters Team apparently ditched Yuri in favour of a woman named Alice who's from one of SNK's pachislot arcade games, with York transferring to the Art of Fighting team as a substitute for her father Takuma. Additionally, beloved characters that skipped the previous tournament such as Ramon, Angel, Tizoc and the original SNK breakout badass Geese Howard. 

The story of the game isn't explored as thoroughly as in previous instalments. The plot mainly concerns a rich Russian man named Antonov who purchased the rights to The King of Fighters Tournament brand and hosted the new tournament simply to show off his own strength. Antonov himself is one of the best boss designs SNK have ever produced, full stop. For one thing, he's not evil at all, with his only real sin being his pride/arrogance, which is refreshing. He also doesn't have any cheap gimmicks like most SNK bosses, with his fighting style lacking spammy projectiles and broken combos. However (spoilers, btw), Antonov is in fact not the final boss of the game. The real final boss is a monster named Verse, who is basically your typical demonic SNK final boss, though he's not actually that tough, at least. While Verse actually did have a fairly interesting story as a creature spawned from Ash Crimson's massive time paradox from the last game as well as a possessor of the souls of many deceased SNK characters such as Krizalid, Orochi and Ash himself, Verse's base personality and design are horrifically generic. To be honest though, I guess no KOF game is truly complete anymore without some kind of mysterious, no-name demon as a character, eh?

The gameplay of this game is very similar to that of the previous game. Nearly every character is fun to play as, with each of them having unique play-styles. A number of classic characters have significant changes done to their fighting styles, which helps keep the franchise as a whole fresh and accessible to new players. For example, a number of Tizoc's moves were altered heavily to accomodate his new "heel" persona named "King of Dinosaurs", and Iori has his pyrokinetic abilities in this game once again while in the last game he only used his fists and ridiculously sharp fingernails in battle. 

Other things of note? The stages in KOF XIV are all alright, I guess, but many of them are pretty barren and lacking the flair of most KOF arenas, with the only exceptions I can think of being the Ikari Warriors team's stage and the Official Invitational Team's stage, as well as that upcoming DLC stage. Speaking of DLC, there are a couple of characters that I think would be good to add, though I wouldn't have put forward these ideas if SNK hadn't already revealed plans for additional content because the initial roster is good enough. 

1. Takuma Sakazaki - Ryo's dad is a classic SNK icon and a staple of the KOF series; while he has a fairly plain, generic design, you'd be surprised at how much you kind of miss seeing him on the character select screen next to Ryo and Robert, it's the damndest thing. Takuma always just oozes "badass" anyway, it's like he doesn't even need a flashy outfit or any silly gimmick, because he's so bloody strong and skilled.

2. Rock Howard - Literally the only reason I want Rock in the game is so that everyone else will stop demanding him to be included and start enjoying the game for what it is. Like, for real, I don't quite understand why this character is hyped up so tremendously. Rock Howard's alright, I mean, his gimmick of having traits of both Terry and Geese is interesting, but there are more cool characters in SNK's library.

3. Ryuji Yamazaki - Ryuji's a pretty obvious choice for a DLC request, sure, but he is one of SNK's most unique characters with his sinister yet over-the-top personality. Based on the silhouetted teaser trailer, Yamazaki is almost definitely going to appear at some point as DLC.

4. Hinako Shijo - Hinako is one of the strangest and most original characters SNK has created; she's basically a young woman who practises the art of sumo wrestling despite her petit build setting her back. Seeing that nearly every fighting game seemingly needs a sumo wrestler in its roster, it's surprising to me that SNK have left Hinako out of many of their more recent games.

5. Wyler - The final boss of Art of Fighting 3, Wyler has never been seen in the King of Fighters continuity before (though he has been referenced by Robert before in KOF XIV), but I feel that he would be an interesting, if highly unlikely, addition to the cast of KOF XIV. He's essentially SNK's own equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or the Incredible Hulk, in that he's a scientist who created a formula to turn himself into a powerful mountain of a man. In his hulked out form, Wyler is a pure brute with no real fighting style and weird extra powers; I guess he would be not dissimilar enough from Antonov in terms of gameplay but whatever.

THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION

The only upcoming games I'm excited about are South Park: Fractured But Whole (if it actually comes out in 2017 - grr) and maybe Mass Effect 4. Come to think of it, I don't think I even played Mass Effect 3. From the sounds of it, I didn't miss much. In the meantime, I'm back on Star Wars: The Old Republic and filling up the rest of my life spending quality time with my children playing Crusader Kings 2.