Finish Him!

Mortal Kombat was one of the first game franchise I fell in love with. Although Street Fighter 2 was very popular at the time, I wasn't a big enough fan of the genre to completely enjoy it. I think the all-time great games converts non-genre fans into fans. Games like Resident Evil for example turned countless gamers into survival horror fans. Mortal Kombat was the game that made me get into beat-em-up games even though I sucked at playing them. There were several reasons why Mortal Kombat resonates with me so much as a young gamer.

1. The comic book influence

I was a comic book nerd before becoming video games so comic books influenced a lot of my collecting habits. Stuff like variant covers that permeates into the DVD and video game market all stems from the comic book market I believe. Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias was an inspiring comic book artist who created rich backstory for each Mortal Kombat combatants. It was fascinating to learn about Scorpion and Sub-Zero origins through the comic book panels included with the game. It draws you into the characters and the world before you even pick up the controller to play. 

2. The Van Damme factor

The 80s action movie genre was all about beefcakes, namely Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Then you have the lower tier action stars like Chuck Norris, Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme (JCVD). Somehow me and a bunch of friends always gravitated towards JCVD more than any of these action stars. Van Damme was leaner and more agile than his peers, he could actually do splits and flying kicks. JCVD later bridges the gap between Hollywood and Hong Kong movies which led to an entire new obsession for me. But also I think we were just a bunch of horny teenagers and JCVD movies always had sex scenes compared with other action movies lol. Anyway, Mortal Kombat famously have a JCVD type of character in Johnny Cage, arguably still one of the face of the MK franchise. 

3. The Hong Kong movie influence

HK movies influenced a lot of the design on the original Mortal Kombat. The plot was more or less Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and the background music on Select Your Fighter is distinctly oriental. You could say the series began to lost its appeal once it started to stray from its eastern influence in MK3. I was just getting into the HK cinema obsession when Mortal Kombat appeared. It was like a weird fusion of all my favourite things in one. 

So imagine as a young boy my only option of playing Mortal Kombat was on the Gameboy. The monochrome version lacking the Johnny Cage character in the roster! I remember buying this game at the video shop next to my tuition center on the street behind the arcades that I frequented to play SF2. The Gameboy version of Mortal Kombat played like it was on molasses. It's always a love hate relationship when it comes to handheld gaming for me and MK is a prime example of that.

How I Got the SNES

I remember thinking I had no chance of ever owning a Super Nintendo. After all, as a kid living with your parents and playing it without them finding out is practically impossible. But somehow I managed it when the opportunity simply just presented itself.

During  Form Two, one of my classmate had a Super Nintendo system which he bought in the Netherlands when his father was stationed there briefly. This was a PAL system of course when most of the system you could buy locally here were either Japanese or American system. He only had one game that came bundled with the system which was the legendary Super Mario World, quite possibly the best bundled game even till today. So without the means of online shopping back in 1995, owning a Super Nintendo with just one game isn't very entertaining after awhile. He was desperate to sell the whole thing and in this lukewarm market I gladly took it off his hands for $12 if my memory is correct. I remember packing the Super Nintendo into my schoolbag and happily carrying it home that day without my parents noticing.

I'm not sure if everyone would agree with the rationale of paying $12 for a console which you simply have no feasible means of buying games for at that time. But the way I saw it I was plucking $12 down just to play Super Mario World, anything else afterwards would be a bonus. I was definitely not disappointed and managed to finished it numerous times with nothing else left to play. If you were wondering how I did it, I moved an unused television set into my room and waited for my parents to go to bed before playing it late at night.

Many years later, I re-discovered this SNES along with 5 games which I gathered over the course of time. When opening the box which I kept everything, I certainly was surprised because I must have bought these games much later and only played most of them sparingly.

Against the Odds

Where do I begin with the Super Nintendo (SNES) ?

I supposed I can't talk about the SNES without talking about my first ever system, the Gameboy. You could say the Gameboy is my first handheld and the SNES is my first console although my experience with both systems are remarkably different. So much so that I practically forgotten I had the system tucked under my window all these years!

I can't remember when exactly I got the SNES but it must be sometime after 1994. Why 1994? Because that's when Nintendo introduced the SNES peripheral called the Super Gameboy. It was a device that allows you to play Gameboy games on the SNES using this cartridge adaptor. I was immediately smitten by the idea of such a device, the ability to play handheld games on the television screen was pretty revolutionary back in 1994. Even more so when Nintendo released Donkey Kong 94 for the Gameboy as a showcase for what the Super Gameboy can really do.

The only problem was my strict parents would never entertain the idea of having a home console seeing how bad my grades were. In fact if you take away the SNES, the Gameboy was my only game system throughout my childhood until I graduated from university.

Sad but I suppose that's what makes this a great story - how I got a home console and keep it a secret despite strict parenting

Kept You Waiting Huh?

Time flies, I haven't had much to muse about in terms of games and 2 years passed since my last entry. Yikes

I loved writing and also reading my own blog, all these blogging are really meant for myself which some might find odd or ashamed to admit such. So while reading back some of my past entries recently, I stumbled upon a lie. Well not a lie actually but not the true for sure.

I do and still have a Super Nintendo.

Somehow when writing about Iwata passing in 2015, I have seemingly forgotten this and said I have always longed for a Super Nintendo. The Super Nintendo was not mentioned before unlike my early childhood years of playing the Nintendo Gameboy. Earlier this year while spring cleaning I stumbled upon my Super Nintendo. It was a great feeling especially when powering it up again, like finding a lost Christmas gift after all these years.

Sometimes certain memories just get buried away in some dark corner of the mind.

So now I have something to write about again.

Fad Gimmick

Nintendo is no stranger when it comes to the business of selling gaming peripherals such as the Wii Motion Plus. The wii motion plus accessory was introduced late in the Wii system life cycle. It was designed to provide accuracy to motion controls and simply breathe life into motion gaming which was quickly becoming a fad gimmick. Nintendo released a Wii Sports Resort game to compliment and showcase the new Wii Motion Plus accessory while third party publishers Ubisoft also made Red Steel 2 to be exclusive to Wii Motion Plus control.

But the one game that would forever be remembered and associated with Motion Plus is the Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. Releasing a high-profile AAA-game supporting the new hardware is always a sound strategy to move more hardware and software. It certainly worked with me as I bought the new Wii Motion Plus controller way before the Zelda game was released. There were only a handful of games that supported the device at the time and I owned none of them. Maybe I expected more Wii games to eventually support the new controller and I certainly never thought I would put it to use for only one game. 

The Wii popularity was quickly fading at the time and even the new Zelda failed to extend the life cycle of the system. Nintendo quickly released their next console system the Wii U the following year and we all know how that story ends. Looking back at the history of Wii Motion Plus, the accessory was released for two full years before the Zelda game came out and yet only 6 Wii games absolutely required it.

This is a classic example of Nintendo coming up with a idea and never fully embracing it for whatever reasons. And they are still doing this in recent years, like the 3D screen of the 3DS system and I suspect the HD motion control of the Switch will be next. Playing Skyward Sword made me reflect back on the MotionPlus controller and the novelty of the concept. As I have yet to finish the game, I realised it would be difficult to talk about it without referring to the Motionplus because of its deep connections to it. 

Of course, the Wii system was eventually sold with the Motionplus bundled inside but early adopters like myself who bought the controller separately really felt the pinch because of how poorly it was supported by publishers.

Open World Generation

After two generations of open-world games, there is little left in the genre that hasn't been explored. That's why it's pretty remarkable that Nintendo is able to come into the open world genre with something as refreshing as Breath of the Wild. And to do that with an established IP like the Legend of Zelda is certainly no small feat here. There are conventions and standards to honor, and I can say that all expectations of the legendary series are met.

The magic of Nintendo games has always been the simplicity by design. The result of this simplistic design is a game that is easy to pick up and appeals to gamers and non-gamers alike. The less is more philosophy is not very popular in modern games but Nintendo is an expert at applying this to their games and the sheer elegance of its simplicity is really the envy of the game industry.

Much of the game world is populated only by wildlife and nature and while this may feel like barren, it actually creates a better sense of depth and exploration. Many other game will try and stuff as much events and things to do until the point where you need to stop and chat every 5 minutes. I can't tell you how many open world games I played where I'm not appreciating the details of the game world because my eyes are too focused on the mini-map to get to the next location. 

Breath of the Wild doesn't have a mini-map on-screen or even a map screen on the Wii U gamepad. While I initially loathe the idea of scrapping the Wii U Gamepad second screen for console parity with the switch version, I soon come to realise it made the game better and more immersive. In fact, I even made my Witcher 3 session more Zelda-like by removing the mini-map now and relying on my own sense of direction instead. It sounds like a crazy idea especially after relying on the mini-map for over 60 hours on The Witcher 3 but part of me realised I wasn't focusing on the game world as much as I should be even before playing Breath of the Wild. BOTW was just the final nudge that made me realised it and now this is how I would probably play all open-world game from here on. 

Another simplistic design element of this game is the musical score or lack of. There are no grand musical score except for the major cutscenes so for the most part, the game feels very lonely. I have seen divided opinions on the game musical score and so far, I don't really mind having less music in the game. It's certainly much better than hearing the battle score of Fallout 4 over and over again every time I play that game. I was a bit disappointed how little voice-overs are used in the game, there was simply too much text reading like the old Zelda games. 

The world of Breath of the Wild is pretty vast, I remember going from point A to point B without backtracking or fast-travel and it was days before I finally felt the need to go back to a village. If it's not about the destination it's the journey then that saying certainly rings true here. I always find that fast-travel detracts you from the open world immersion and would like to avoid using them as much as possible. What Rockstar did with GTA V when you switch characters is pretty cool where you don't see any loading screen, I only wished more open world games would do that. 

I could go on and on about the Breath of the Wild, I find the game so addictive without able to pinpoint what exactly it is that keeps me coming back. The intangible element that makes a game great, not the story or the characters, I guess you can say it's the heart. While I still don't believe any one game alone can justify the purchase of a system, Breath of the Wild make a pretty darn good case for that. 

Never On Time

A new Zelda game don't come around very often, that's why it's a pretty big event for the game industry and more specifically zelda fans.

I remembered the last few Zelda games launch very vividly, I remember the hype just as much as the games themselves.

I remember A Link Between Worlds getting released with a highly-sought after gold-plated 3DS. The timing of the release around Black Friday made it impossible to get one of those of gold 3DS locally without paying an arm and leg. I wanted both the system and the game as I have yet to own a Nintendo 3DS that time. I didn't managed to get the gold 3DS after all but I did managed to win a copy of the game, A Link Between Worlds shortly after buying a 3DS system. I finally played the game late last year and it was very bit as good as you would expect.

I remember the last Zelda console game the Skyward Sword was such a long wait coming that I actually bought a Wiimote Motionplus in advance. I didn't expect Nintendo to put out a rather affordable bundle of the game and gold-plated wii-mote that would quickly sold out. Once again, I missed out on another fan coveted Zelda piece.

Since the Wii was my first Nintendo home console, I had the grand ambitions of finishing both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess before the Skyward Sword came out. Somehow I could never decide when and which version of Twilight Princess to play and I felt no sense in playing Skyward Sword before TP. So eventually I ended up missing Skyward Sword at launch but the hype was very real and still vivid to this day.

I finally got around to playing Twilight Princess Wii version a few years ago when I already have Wii U system. I think I was also re-playing the HD version of the Wind Waker. Though long overdue, Twilight Princess didn't feel aged to me as the scope and scale of the game was far more than I was expecting. 

This year the hype is back as the new Zelda game is coming out in less than a months' time. I finally have a copy of Skyward Sword now and I'm just starting the adventure despite knowing I wouldn't finish it in time for Breath of the Wild. I have already pre-ordered the regular (and only) version of the game for the Wii U system. No more fancy bundle or special editions, not that there are any available for me to buy on the Wii U system. I just want to play the game and have a copy on my shelf as part of my Zelda game collection. 

This time, I will be on time for the hero of time.