Toasty!!!

One thing ETP and I have been eagerly awaiting is the release of Midway Arcade Treasures 2, due for release in a couple of months (Oct. 11th is what I'm seeing today). It looks like they've dropped the original Mortal Kombat from the game, and are instead adding it to the SE version of the new MK game, Deception (due for release a week before Treasures, unless that's changed). That's kinda lame, but not that big of a deal - I never played much (if any) of the original MK, and probably would have just played it for the hell of it every now and then on Treasures. MK II and 3, however, are where it's at. Those are going to get some use.

Outstanding.

I'll probably end up getting Deception, or at least I'll play ETP's copy and then decide since I'm all but sure he'll buy it. Yeah, we may have to wait until it becomes a greatest hit and then I have to yell at him to buy it at Media Play one night, but he'll get it. I haven't gotten all that excited about Kombat in quite some time, though, but maybe playing the old school games and Deception will change that.

Excellent.

I never felt like the Kombat series quite survived the transition from 2-D to 3-D. It just wasn't the same, for pretty obvious reasons. Part of it is probably just personal preference since I spent a lot of time playing the older games, especially the third installment and its various incarnations (3, Ultimate 3, Trilogy).

Animality.

Man, was that one fucking fun. I got pretty damn good at it, partly out of spite. See, there was this one kid who we used to hang out with back in high school, and he was a fucking master at MK games. ETP and I would readily have our asses handed to us by him. But after playing it pretty much constantly, I got really good, and man was it satisfying to eventually be able kick that kid's ass on a regular basis. ETP got pretty good, too, but he didn't get in as much practice as me. He wasn't a lazy shit as he actually had an after-school job back then, whereas I just hung out and played Kombat.

Round two... Fight!

My best characters in 3 were Smoke and Cyrax. I fucking loved those guys, despite the fact that Smoke has the stupidest fatality ever. This in contrast to Cyrax's Predator and helicopter fatalities, which were among the best. Of course, my whole fighting "strategy" with my main men came down to repeatedly doing the following:

• Smoke: air punch, spear, HP+HP+LK+HK+LP
• Cyrax: net, HP+HP+HK+HP+HK+HK

And of course, you could get an extra HP in the beginning of the combo if you jumped into it. Christ, am I a fucking loser.

No, here's how big of a loser I am: I used those combos so fucking much that, to this very day, if you pay close enough attention, you can catch me tapping out one of those combos every now and then just out of nervous habit.

Oh, and just for the hell of it (and because it gets some laughs if you know what it's about), I'm going to mention the biggest bullshit combo EVER: Noob Saibot's combo that was nothing more than four low kicks.

Sub Zero... Wins.

Another reason why Kombat will probably never be what it once was is due to Dead or Alive. And by DOA I'm talking about the fighting game, not Extreme Barbie Doll Dressup (or, if you prefer Jared's nickname for the game, Extreme Beach Titty War). Nothing against that game, of course - we all know how big of a fan of that title I am.

Yeah, Kombat has some cool shit and fatalities and stuff, but it doesn't have Kasumi in a sailor uniform. And, yeah, some other digital hotties and tons of different outfits.

Then again, it will be nice to have the blood and fatalities that Kombat offers, so we'll see. It'll hopefully be fun to play with some of the older characters if they do it right. Like Mileena, who I kicked ass with on II, only for them to fuck her up in 3. Oh, and another thing I'm looking forward to: going online and printing up pages upon pages containing all of the moves and combos.

One thing I was reading about Deception is that the game includes several mini-games. I wonder if those will turn into the flyswatter game from Mario Paint?

Speaking of DOA, there's of course DOA Ultimate on its way. Or, as I'm calling it, DOA 2: Prettier. Alternatively, DOA: Now we don't have to spend time together to play DOA together. That's coming out on October 4th as well, and, fuck, couldn't they have spaced those release dates out a bit? I know that's all marketing strategy, but fuck them all the same. October is going to suck ass in the money department.

AGGRESSOR!!!!