Stolen Pixels #54: Dead or More Dead 4

Kick, punch, it's all in the mind.

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This is gold for me, since it's almost exactly my experience with fighting games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Pm7BL-hyo

How does Mrs Pixel-Thief feel about your interest in pixelated underwear? It seems to have figured heavily into a few recent comics?

Here is my Quick Guide to beating people at fighting games you don't know, which I have used to great success:

1. Pick the character who was on the cover of the box.
2. Do whatever basic action the "good" players don't. Throw in Tekken, block in Dead or Alive, jump forward in Street Fighter, dodge in Virtua Fighter, etc.
3. Get right in their face and spastically mix up your fastest high, mid and low attacks, along with throws.
4. Ask around, find out how to do that one move with great priority and good range, and do it every time they are out of range for #3.

illiterate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Pm7BL-hyo

How does Mrs Pixel-Thief feel about your interest in pixelated underwear? It seems to have figured heavily into a few recent comics?

No! Honest honey! I'm just doing research for a comic!

Actually, she finds it as hilarious as I do. We have both made 3d avatars at various times in the past, and once you've spent a few hours trying to cut a few polygons out of the crotch area of a naked, untextured female without causing artifacts during articulation the whole thing sort of loses its shock value.

Having said the above, I think if I ever picked up the beach volleyball version of DOA I would need to make a comic capable of destroying your mind with its hilarity if I wanted to have any hope of justifying the purchase.

Shamus Young:
Having said the above, I think if I ever picked up the beach volleyball version of DOA I would need to make a comic capable of destroying your mind with its hilarity if I wanted to have any hope of justifying the purchase.

So... it's on your queue? :)

Where's the emo guy with no shirt. That assemblage of pixels is clearly wearing torso clothing. :c

The last fighter I enjoyed was Street Fighter II for the SNES. My technique consisted of hammering buttons at random until something interesting happened.

Shamus Young:
Having said the above, I think if I ever picked up the beach volleyball version of DOA I would need to make a comic capable of destroying your mind with its hilarity if I wanted to have any hope of justifying the purchase.

I do not own very many games for the original XBOX. DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball is one of them.

I rented it once, and found that the volleyball wasn't very good, the story was not very compelling, and without a walkthrough, I think it was impossible to know what the other girls liked without trial and error (though food things they seemed to give hints on).

What I DID find was incredibly addictive gambling, that had no time limit like the "3 matches per day" of the volleyball. Something about the standard hands of casino poker, if won, followed by progressive rounds of "Find the Joker" which doubled your winnings... Nothing quite like taking a full house on a max bet, doubling, doubling, and then getting nothing because you went for that one more doubling. Nothing like the yin and yang of "But if we get it, we'll have ridiculous piles of money!" warring with "We've already gambled too much. Take the winnings and run (out and buy that itty-bitty bikini)!"

The funny thing is that huge amounts of caffeine don't really help with fighting games at all. What you need (at least to progress from beginner to intermediate) is dexterity. Ever since Street Fighter II the ability to snap out flawless quarter circles and "dragon punches" (toward, down, down-toward) reliably and effortlessly has been pretty much assumed. Have you ever seen the controller inputs for Ivy's "Summon Suffering"? I think it's safe to assume that most players never pull off the move even once.

But in fact the genre has improved a lot since SSF-II-Turbo primarily by recognising that sometimes players other than the elite want to play these games and providing them with more interesting moves that can be easily triggered.

This is why I almost never play fighting games. Except you my lovely Marvel vs. Capcom. (Still havn't found the combo to use the special moves, so I just press all the buttons at once.)

Oh man, exactly how I feel about fighting game equals hilarity!

Generally, I think this is why I find fighting games where movement is important, even if not more so than the moves, because then I feel like I can do something for a bit before I get my steaming hot plate of ass kicking to my character. Interestingly enough, I've been playing Jade Empire and I can't but help have the combat remind me of fighting games and have it be fun because of the back flips, jumping, and rolling for dodges. I think that game involves looking at lady's underwear garments (and men's bare chests) too.

I don't know why I keep buying DOA, I can get through the story fights up to the third-to-last fight, then it takes me a half an hour to beat each one, and then an hour before giving up on the jelly lady final boss.

bue519:
This is why I almost never play fighting games. Except you my lovely Marvel vs. Capcom. (Still havn't found the combo to use the special moves, so I just press all the buttons at once.)

Full on agreed! That game is just silly amounts of fun for button mashers like myself. I nearly beat it once in the arcade years ago and was very shocked, I am sure I stink at fighting games - a notion I am repeatedly shown proof of whenever I go against another player. The second MvC wasn't too bad either.

xitel:
I don't know why I keep buying DOA, I can get through the story fights up to the third-to-last fight, then it takes me a half an hour to beat each one, and then an hour before giving up on the jelly lady final boss.

Fought her thirty times. Beat her once. And when I did, I felt nothing. No sense of accomplishment at all.

I wonder what percent of players ever beat her?

Shamus Young:

xitel:
I don't know why I keep buying DOA, I can get through the story fights up to the third-to-last fight, then it takes me a half an hour to beat each one, and then an hour before giving up on the jelly lady final boss.

Fought her thirty times. Beat her once. And when I did, I felt nothing. No sense of accomplishment at all.

I wonder what percent of players ever beat her?

Well, to be honest I've beaten her at least once with every character, and the feeling was more of a "Damn, now I have to do this with the next guy."

xitel:

Shamus Young:

xitel:
I don't know why I keep buying DOA, I can get through the story fights up to the third-to-last fight, then it takes me a half an hour to beat each one, and then an hour before giving up on the jelly lady final boss.

Fought her thirty times. Beat her once. And when I did, I felt nothing. No sense of accomplishment at all.

I wonder what percent of players ever beat her?

Well, to be honest I've beaten her at least once with every character, and the feeling was more of a "Damn, now I have to do this with the next guy."

She is without a doubt the worst boss ever in modern fighting games. Not because she is super difficult (although she is) but because the tactics to defeat her are pointless and mind-numbing. Akuma in HD Remix was harder to beat, though - took me over an hour with Chun-Li, and I don't think it's possible at all with Zangief.

I was living in a two-couple household when DOAX came out. The women bought it.

They played it a lot more than we did, mostly because of the addictively poppy chick-friendly soundtrack, and the simple, fun mini games.

Animated body parts can be fun to look at, but I reach my saturation point of simulated jiggly bits.

I love fighting games. I'll never be THAT good at them, but I'll at least put up a fight before I get mangled. I usually get to the point where I know what everything does and how you should use it, but I never really manage to read my opponent's moves.

The Virtua Fighter series, grasshopper. You can become reasonably proficient by learning the basic block/punch/kick/throw keys, and having a good sense of distance and timing is more important than being able to push buttons really quickly. Becoming really *good* is more difficult, or at least I assume so, never having become really good, myself -- but at least you can get started without a fold-out chart for the super-special moves.

Also: Ha! I like this comic. :)

This is the most laughing you've got out of me on one of the Stolen Pixels comics. (Well, I think... another one may have gotten more, but if one did, I don't remember it. But this comic got me to laugh pretty heartily.)

Just thought you should be notified...

Only fighting game I ever liked was Bushido Blade. It was more strategy than rapid button-mashing.

I'm surprised you didn't include the dominant Soul Calibur strategy.

Why fight your opponent when you can just knock them off the stage?

Haha, the first two panels were the best :).

Hey, Shamus! This comic has reminded me and piqued my curiousity; how do you feel about/have you ever played Super Smash Bros.? Unless it's the watching women in underwear beat up shirtless guys you want, Smash Bros. is a pretty great source of beat-em-up action.

Especially considering it's actually, you know... fun. You get to play a game instead of watching an animation of your character getting mangled. Buuut that's treading into a flamewar ground I don't want to cover. I'm just very curious as to what you think of it.

Eldiran:
Hey, Shamus! This comic has reminded me and piqued my curiousity; how do you feel about/have you ever played Super Smash Bros.? Unless it's the watching women in underwear beat up shirtless guys you want, Smash Bros. is a pretty great source of beat-em-up action.

My affinity for fighting games is an extension of my love of martial arts movies. I love the graceful dance. The violence is just icing. SSBB doesn't really have that. Some goes for some of the old-school "stiff" fighters that only had a few keyframes, like the early Street Fighters. I never looked twice at a fighting game until the first time I saw Virtua Fighter in the arcade.

And I'm not crazy about the underlying mechanics of any of the games. In fact...

Crap. I'm blathering. Time to turn this into a blog post or something.

Shamus Young:
My affinity for fighting games is an extension of my love of martial arts movies. I love the graceful dance. The violence is just icing. SSBB doesn't really have that. Some goes for some of the old-school "stiff" fighters that only had a few keyframes, like the early Street Fighters. I never looked twice at a fighting game until the first time I saw Virtua Fighter in the arcade.

That makes sense. Smash Bros. is definitely about the gameplay (and fan-favorite characters) rather than the graphics and visuals (not that it necessarily lacks in those departments.) Though if you or anyone in your household is looking to indulge in a deep, addictive party game comprised of popular characters, I heartily recommend it. The single player campaign's not bad either. [/Smash Bros evangelizing]

And I'm not crazy about the underlying mechanics of any of the games. In fact...

Crap. I'm blathering. Time to turn this into a blog post or something.

Ooh, please do. Sounds like it'd make an interesting read.

I specifically signed up for the forums just to give you props for the PaRappa the Rappa reference.

Except now that damn song is going to be in my head all day, and my PS1 doesn't even work anymore...

That makes sense. Smash Bros. is definitely about the gameplay (and fan-favorite characters) rather than the graphics and visuals (not that it necessarily lacks in those departments.) Though if you or anyone in your household is looking to indulge in a deep, addictive party game comprised of popular characters, I heartily recommend it. The single player campaign's not bad either. [/Smash Bros evangelizing].

SSBB is one of the best at what it does -- it's definitely more of a button masher than something like an MK or one of the good Soul Caliburs, but for something to get 4 people around the Wii, maybe jumping in and out tournament style, it's pretty hard to beat.

"I am the kung fu foot!" keeps popping into my head, days later. Heh.

Haha! She did everything but rip his ass off & make him wear it as a hat.

Chuk:
I specifically signed up for the forums just to give you props for the PaRappa the Rappa reference.

Except now that damn song is going to be in my head all day, and my PS1 doesn't even work anymore...

I didn't think anyone else got it!

I thought the comic would be about Chop Chop Master Onion. I was let down... :[

Anyways, very funny comic. Keep it up! :D