AndrewTS

MK4 was the laziest excuse for a sequel I've ever seen in my life. At least by the time we got to UMK3 they seemed to actually be TRYING. A few new backgrounds + a bunch of palette-swapped ninjas = trying?

Not really. If you're doing it in the midst of the Christmas shopping season, you're just sane.

Basing entire series on running gags like "lets annoy this normal-looking girl by saying she's flat as a board, then she can roast us with a giant fireball" isn't high brow? Or a series where dry-humping is a recurring theme? Or an "action packed" series where you have go 10 episodes without a single notable plot development? I picked up DBZ from those three... what're the other two you refer to? Slayers and FLCL, respectively.

If only Square would put Squall in all their games, then gaming wouldn't be male dominated once MILLIONS of girls started playing them. Squall should be in another game. It's a little Sega/Square co-op title where you smash whiny bishonen in the face with everything from fists to lead pipes to kitchen sinks, etc. Even zoom-in/replay for maximum enjoyment! Picture a typical beat'em up with bishies instead of personality-lacking thugs and freaks. We shall call it, "Streets of Angst."

Basing entire series on running gags like "lets annoy this normal-looking girl by saying she's flat as a board, then she can roast us with a giant fireball" isn't high brow? Or a series where dry-humping is a recurring theme? Or an "action packed" series where you have go 10 episodes without a single notable plot development?

Is it possible to start a topic here focusing on Final Fantasy, and have it stay something resembling on-topic the entire time?

I think MKII is the best of the series, but I wouldn't say "undoubtfully." I was giving Sakura a bit of a hard time for declaring certain games "best ever" and so forth. It goes both ways. I hated every MK3, and while MK4 didn't really click with me, I liked it far more than any of the MK3 titles. Neither were actually programmed by Capcom. Well, the home versions of SF: TM were I believe, but not the arcade. Damnit Capcom, you screwed up your own record... You forgot about Street Fighter II the Movie. The Import-Only Saturn game...the FMV game.

If irony was a midget with a strap-on, Kamui would be getting banged in the ass RIGHT NOW OMG It's Eagan ban pweez!~

It's being changed tonight, so enjoy it while it lasts. Because the administration in office at a given time is the cause/blame for the economy. Not that Alan Greenspan guy. Nah. Whose he? I won't defend the "tax cut," of course. As for that whole vote thing--some one must support the idea of a direct popular vote for presidential election. AKA "make sure those densely populated urban areas get the most votes, as opposed to the election going to the majority of the big picture." The election of electors--yeah, that's a completely unnecessary middleman mechanism. Nevertheless, there's actually a point to the rest.

No offense to Sakura, Yuna, or anyone else who liked FFVIII, but I've gotten the general impression among some big FF fans, and some soaking in of consensus, that among th eHardcore Squenixites FFVIII is the least favorite FF. Depending on whether you count Mystic Quest or not, that is. Of course, the ones I've heard from are almost all male, so that could be a big factor.

"Magic" = an out for lazy writers. It would be funny if anytime there was a plothole in WWE they would say it was "magic." I know what her Japanese name was...but they should have gone with the closest thing to a literal translation--Bunnie. It'd have fit in perfectly!

Hmph. I did not know that. Thanks for the correction, though. Of course, this leaves virtually no excuse for them to not at least do a Smackdown there, since it's taped anyway and the matches would go over better than Raw's 3 minute resthold-laden specials. Provided, of course, they would give more time to the matches and have it be a show more along the lines of the shows before the recent Raw-izing SD has gone through.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?! WHAT ABOUT SQUALL?!"

If he was actually giving ideas to young talent and trying to market them somehow, I honestly don't see how it could be worse. Even the filler shows like HEAT carried over actual feuds during the start of it's run, and that was due to Russo creating enough characters for people to love and hate. The writing team now has given the fans nothing to distinctly cheer or boo for, thereby leaving them in apathy. Back then, there was time available to for those midcarders and such to get their characters over. Usually they got some mic time if possible. Of course, today that would get cut for the GM and authority figure parade...of course, we can always cut match times down to 40 seconds, that'll give 'em plenty of time to fit it all in.

I'd bet on it. Isn't that the board game where everyone keeps removing blocks, and the loser is the one who knocks over the tower? No no, that's Jenga. Xenophobia is the fear of video games with extremely long cinemas, idiot. With extremely long, BAD cinemas, may I add...

If your story's climax shares a similarity to "Santa with Muscles," you have problems.

Are we seriously getting so upset with the WWE product now we'd have Russo back? Not me. No sir. Back then, you had a rather competent overall writing crew that would filter out most of Russo's crappiest ideas. Today, you have a writing team that thought (or said they thought) that necrophilia was a good idea. Russo would just make things worse.

Worse than Acclaim?

The same reason I don't think they tape shows there. You see, the Japanese don't hoot and holler like Americans do. They sit and watch the matches, paying attention to the little details. American crowds will watch a match, and if there isn't a crazy spot within the first couple of minutes, they chant "booooring, boooring." Basically though, if WWE ran a TV show or PPV there, it would seem like the crowd was dead, and would hurt the enjoyment of the Western fans. Plus, it would have to be on a tape delay because of the time zone differences, and they typically want PPVs to be live all the time.

I think she's referring to Squall.... My bad. Still, Zidane rocks because he has a Saiyan-esque tail. A tail!! I wish I had a tail like that. Yeah, yeah, it's far from a necessity, but so what? I still have my appendix, and what the hell for? A tail would be far more useful than an appendix. I'd trade my appendix for a cool tail in a heartbeat.

How is Zidane a "pretty boy?" He looks like a typical old-school big-headed protagonist. Not extremely femmy or anything. However, he was rather unremarkable as a character.

I've seen the Japanese version before, and I like the MXC one better. It's funnier. Takeshi's Castle is stupid from the start, not serious, so that doesn't mean any difference to me, and isn't comparable to, say, turning Sailor Moon into a retarded show for 3-year-olds. It's hard for me to imagine the source material being any better, actually. Still, I watched sometimes because it was too terrible not to. Gotta love how you could have a superhero persona, look and act almost exactly the same, but because you have a shorter skirt no one realizes who you are. Sakura: Care to test that for us? How about cutting off 4 inches from one of your skirts...?

I didn't like what I saw of Squall, but I didn't play the entire game so I have to go with Cloud. OFF-TOPIC: Is there a way to change your lead's name in FFV? I put it in all caps, expecting things to be like they were in FFVI, and now I have Bartz's name in ALL CAPS while the rest of the party names are in lower case. It looks really stupid but I don't know what to do about it.

Since I never played the first, I have no complaints.

It's actually titled "Jak II." Having played Jak and Daxter to completion (every Power Cell and Precursor Orb), I thought the first was an excellent game and I'll probably give Jak II to a try. Hard to imagine it being better than this. Still, they seem very similar stylistically, and even share some gameplay elements. I'd say rent both, and get the one you don't like as much second.