arts // no. 8

 

Flawed by Design:
Fighting by the numbers

> The evolution of the tournament fighting genre

Adam Tatelman
Arts Editor

 

[ the primordial epoch known
only as “the early ’gos,” the
most fun anyone could have

was burning their entire college
fund on the altar of competition
to become the champion of the
arcade. The defining multiplayer
experience of the time was the
tournament fighting game, and
the undisputed quarter-quaffing
king of cabinets was the almighty
Street Fighter I, with Mortal

Kombat posing as a distant heir.
Today, Mortal Kombat X
dominates the console market
with an iron fist, leaving Street
Fighter V wallowing in the
remains of its own franchise,
abandoned by its disillusioned

fan-base. Oh, how things change.
At first, it was Street Fighter’s
flawless control, eclectic cast
of characters and split-second
timing that made it a hit. Though
it is less input-heavy than
modern fighting games, it offered
a free-form combat system that
allowed for impressive combos
to arise through happenstance
or experimentation. Despite its
primitive interface, it remains
one of the best-balanced fighting
games ever made. For this reason,
Street Fighter IT tournaments are
still held 25 years after its initial

release.
Mortal Kombat the first

offers no such technical

mastery. Although it used (at

the time) innovative motion
capture technology to animate
the characters, its control was
much rockier than SFI. Mortal
Kombat’s success sprang from
the strength of its marketing and
the controversy surrounding its
violent content, a feature which
spurred the creation of the
Entertainment Software Ratings
Board. Without that notoriety,
Mortal Kombat would surely have
landed in the dustbin of obscurity

decades ago.

Both franchises sequelized
to the Nth degree, marketing
sequels and spin-offs and
updated re-releases at a rate that
even today makes Ubisoft look
conservative by comparison.
But where Mortal Kombat
improved upon its formula,
Street Fighter stagnated. By the
time Street Fighter III had been
re-released as 2nd Impact, 3rd
Strike, and New Generation, MK
had experimented with Soul
Calibur-style 3-D movement
and polygonal graphics, where
its competitor never left the

2-dimensional plane.

From here, aggravating
trends began to appear in both
franchises. In Street Fighter
IV, the pace of combat slowed
considerably, placing a greater
emphasis on pure reflexes
instead of opponent analysis

and strategic anticipation. It was
a change akin to transitioning
from blitz chess to a game of
snap. Mortal Kombat went the
complex route, redefining the
formula with impressive-yet-
unbalanced combos based on
rote memorization of long input

strings.

Come Street Fighter V
and Mortal Kombat X, the
mechanics of each game only
barely resemble their respective
predecessors. Both retain their
iconic character rosters, but
Mortal Kombat has arguably
stayed truer to the spirit of its
predecessors—namely, the
comical, overblown violence.
SFV succeeded only in alienating
its already skeptical fanbase by
homogenizing the characters’
once-distinctive and unique
fighting styles.

Though many newcomers
bemoan the elitists who dislike
modern changes to the formula,
it is not elitism to suggest that not
all progress is necessarily good.
In the case of SFV, the choice to
simplify core features did not
draw nearly enough new players
to replace the veterans who
abandoned ship. Asa result, MK
has been primed to reign for years
to come. Let this be a lesson to
developers who forget what drew
audiences to their games in the
first place. Identity, once lost, is
bloody hard to get back.

Image viahttp://tay.kinja.com/

theotherpress.ca

  

Unforgettable
fish returns with
a big splash

> ‘Finding Dory’ movie review

Lauren Paulsen
Senior Columnist

 

OOOO

hirteen years after the

iconic Disney/Pixar movie,
Finding Nemo, fans finally
get their beloved fishes back
in a sequel this summer.
Finding Dory is something
fans won't want to miss.

As the title suggests,
Finding Dory focuses on the
endearing blue tang with short-
term memory loss. We learn
more about her past, as one day,
she remembers what it was she
has been looking for all these
years; her parents. Clownfish
friends Nemo and Marlin
join Dory to travel across the
ocean in search of her family.

Separated from Marlin
and Nemo in an accident,

Dory ends up in a California
aquarium, the “Jewel of Morro
Bay,” where she strikes a deal
with Hank, an escaped octopus.
As they search for Dory’s
parents, she starts to remember
more and more about her

past. Meanwhile, Nemo and
Marlin’s familial bonds are put
to the test as they try to find
Dory before she forgets them.

Although the plot
might seem a little silly,
and perhaps somewhat
predictable, Pixar manages
to execute the sequel quite
well. Finding Dory stands up
solidly against its predecessor,
delivering great humour to
the audience and tugging

on your sappy heartstrings
without ever becoming
schmaltzy or preachy.

The interesting thing about
Finding Dory is that there is
no villain character; the main
conflict is “character versus
self? dealing foremost with
Dory’s personal struggle against
her own disability. Arguably,
the film is much stronger
for it. Making such dramatic
concepts accessible to kids
without talking down to them
is what Pixar does best; they
aren't quite at the top of their
form this time around, but it’s
a great effort nonetheless.

The film is, unfortunately,
lacking in the pacing
department. It takes a bit too
long to get going, and the
suspense is drawn a little too
thin by the numerous false
finishes in the film’s climax.
However, there are some
truly touching moments on
offer, including a hard-hitting
emotional reveal that kicks
off the third act. The final
chase is truly something to
behold, boasting perhaps
the greatest comedic use
of Louis Armstrong’s
“What a Wonderful
World” in film history.

Grownups who remember
Finding Nemo from their
childhoods will enjoy seeing
the old cast of characters
mixed with the new, and the
younger generation of kids
will find much to marvel at in
Pixar’s wonderfully designed
underwater world. If you
enjoyed the first movie, you'll
have a laugh with Finding Dory.

Image via Pixar