My newfound love for Dragon Quest

This game escaped my childhood, only to re captivate me now. Growing up, I wasn't much a big fan of RPGs until Final Fantasy II (IV) was released on the Super Nintendo in 1991. My NES collection read something like this; Contra, Super Mario, and Mega Man. I remember seeing games like Wizardry, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Warrior back in the day, buy my feeble 8-9 year old mind rather be figuring out which weapon to kill which robot master or how to get to Dracula's Castle.

My first foray into the Dragon Quest world was Dragon Warrior Monsters (yes, I was infected with Pokerus like the rest of the world in the mid to late 90's). The artwork and monster designs were brilliant. What have I gotten myself into.

For years I've had a copy of Dragon Warrior VII sitting on my PlayStation shelf. I've yet to this day played it. Now let's press fast forward to the release of Dragon Quest IX.

Life as I know it will forever be changed. How did I know I'd be hooked as a Sentinel of the Starry Sky? How did I know I would attend every Canvas tagging event in a 50 mile radius of my house? Hell, who would have guessed I'd be a co-founder of a Dragon Quest IX tagging group with more than 100 members in the Los Angeles area? Not I.

I'm a traditionalist at heart. Old school Final Fantasy and other RPGs are some of my favorites. I've an avid Pokefreak, even though I've only managed to catch them all during the Gameboy and Gameboy Color era. So what was it about Dragon Quest IX that hooked me? Hell, I'll go as far to say that this game hit all my sweet spots and brought up fond memories of RPGs from an era past.

The game included the basic RPG formula that you can't go wrong with. Solid story, great music. Tons of quest to complete. I doubt I'll ever truly complete them. For a DS title, the graphics were awesome too. But there's two more things that got me hooked. Multiplayer and customization. Unless you wanted all the same Armor and hair styles, every Quester in the world of DQIX had their own distinct look. And this may sound funny, the last time I had multiplayer in a traditional RPG was Final Fantasy III on the SNES, and the only thing the second player could do was select attack commands during battles. This game lets another play enter your world to help you along with your quest, or get to the second to last floor in the Mayasuki dungeon. This game has win all over it, but every other Dragon Quest/Warrior game to be released failed to sell outside of Japan. How is this different?

Well, the marketing muscle of Nintendo was flexed in favor of this game. From TV spots and movie theater ads to a full fledged mall tour, this game was going to succeed.

But enough about IX, we all know how great the game is. Now I'm on a quest to complete every Dragon Quest/Warrior main game. Currently I own Dragon Warrior, Dragon Warrior VII, Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest IX. I've recently obtained Dragon Warrior III, Dragon Quest V, and Dragon Quest VI. I've located two copies of Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III for GBC at the local swap meet. Might take my SP with me to check if they work still before I buy. I've beaten only Dragon Quest IX and IV. I'm about to finish DQV hopefully this week, and erase my save from DQVI (I made the mistake and told Amos the truth, Momma didn't raise a liar).

So with my latest addiction to Dragon Quest/Warrior I've been reading up on every game, I even started a Caravan Heart game on the side. Too bad I missed out on the Retronauts Podcast. I still got some Dragon Quest questions I want to ask. Maybe Parish will answer them via Twitter.

It's Tatsu BAYBEE!

Well, we're a few short weeks removed from the release of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. And a few things have happened since then. Let's start off by saying I have a whole new appreciation for Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.

I've been playing it a little here and there, enough times to unlock Zero and Frank West. I'm still working on unlocking the Tatsunoko characters.. This game if fun. And I feel like it has a lot more balance. Now I wish I would have been all hyped for this game like my friend(?) John aka Cactus Boy. The controls are slick, three attack buttons and universal air dash for all. The only downfall for this game were the "Giant" characters. The multiplayer is pretty ambitious for a Wii title. And the whole friend code thing is a pain in the ass. I do like the ability to register people for rivals. Even thought most of the people I register is because we had some good games with little to no lag.

Now why would I bring up this past fighter? Well, after doing on research I've been watching the Wii/GameCube emulator Dolphin. This emulator makes Wii and GameCube games running at 720p BEAUTIFUL. So, I YouTube'd some TvC running on said emulator at 720p. Hot diggity. It looks marvelous. Now I see potential in this having some success has a PSN/XBLA title. Sell it for fifteen bones, and I bet it'll create a larger revenue than it's Wii counterpart. Especially with all the 2-D and Capcom fighting game hype taking place right now. Capcom, make it happen. Or at least port all of the Capcom cast from TvC to MvC3. Hell, throw in the Tatusnoko heads too (j/k).

In other news, I held my first cash prize tournament for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 at my buddy's store called @Tronix. It was a 16-man double elimination tournament with a ten dollar buy in. The first prize winner took home one hundred bucks. The tournament was fun, and the top three players were all amazing. It was anyone's ball game in the final three matches. Some kid named Keanu had an amazing Phoenix, and Josh had a great Taskmaster/Wolverine/Sentinel team, but it was Brandon who took home the 1st place title and one hundred bucks with a Wesker, Dormammu, and Sentinel team (sorry if I said them in the wrong order). I'm hosting another MvC3 tournament again on March 26th, but also adding a Super Street Fighter IV bracket. Let's see how well this does.

In my general gaming news, I've beaten Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the Nintendo DS. Twenty two long hours, and Psaro the Manslayer is no more. Now all I have left to do is the Psaro bonus quest and finish Hoffman's Pioneer town, which I let him name "St. Ralphsburg." Just in time for some Pokemon Black and White. I am tempted to hunt down, play, and complete Dragon Quest V. So far that's two Dragon Quest titles I've beaten this year (IX and IV).

Oh man, I almost forgot my OverClocked Remix of the day. This song is brought to you by one jdproject. It's called "The Ken Song." Enjoy.

Marvel Vs. Capcom-mania!

Well, over a decade of demand and we finally have it. Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is here. Was it worth the wait? Does it equal the hype?

I'm an avid fighting game fan. Since the moment I stepped into a 7 Eleven for Street Fighter II to the day I waited till midnight only to lose a free copy of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 at Wal-Mart (more about that later). First I want to go back about my experiences of Capcom's Marvel fighting franchises and it's "Marvel Versus" series of fighters.

First game that started it all was X-Men: Children of the Atom. This game was using Capcom's CPS-2 board and was the first Capcom fighter to introduce many techniques that exist in fighters today. Of these the recovery roll after being knocked down and the ability to super jump by tapping down, then up. The game made it to home consoles in the US and ported by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim. I spent many a quarters on this after school at my local 7 Eleven (yes, some of you may recall they did have arcade cabinets before).

A year after Children of the Atom, Capcom followed up with Marvel Super Heroes. Not to be mistaken for the Super Nintendo side scroller beat 'em up. Marvel Super Heroes kept with the main formula that made CotA a hit, with the inclusion of the Infinity Gems/Gauntlet. The Gem would bestow a special power once activated with one meter on your power bar. The character design and artwork was also a tribute to Jack Kirby, and for the most part was retained till Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. This game saw release in the US by Capcom for both the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The PlayStation version was part of Capcom's "Fighters Edge" banner.

In 1996 Capcom raised the bar when they released X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. The first in the series to introduce Tag Team fighting and assist type moves. Replacing the "Infinity Counter" from Marvel Super Heroes was the "Variable Counter." Also, any damage taken would drop your yellow meter, and the red shadow meter behind it was recoverable once that fighter was tagged out. This game also introduced the massive Hadoukens that are now a staple in the Versus series. Also, the final boss fight introduced the first larger than life boss battles with a giant Apocalypse. This game was released only in the US for the Sony PlayStation, but the ability to tag out left it lacking. Also, it led this blogger to importing the Sega Saturn version and a Pro Action Replay with the 4 MB expansion pack. Best deal ever. The PlayStation version remained under the "Fighters Edge" banner.

A year later Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter was released. The game dropped most of the X-Men roster in favor of those left behind in Marvel Super Heroes. Nothing else really changed except a few engine tweaks to help balance the game. You still Apocalypse, but after defeating him you had to deal with Cyber Akuma. The game also got a washed down port for the US PlayStation. So if you wanted a true to arcade experience, you had to scour eBay for this puppy.

Next up is Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. The game isn't a huge leap from its predecessors. The one major game changing change was the inclusion of limited assist characters. Which at the outset seems random, but can be chosen with a unique button hold command. Thus, we only saw Psylocke, Lou, and Colossus Assists. Another notable change was the ability to use three meters and summon in and fight with your second character for a short period of time with unlimited super meter. The game was ported to PlayStation in yet another watered down version. The Dreamcast port however was faithful to the arcade experience and was touted as a launch title only to be delayed till September 30th. The game was now under the "Capcom Edge" banner, which was formerly the "Fighters Edge."

Finally one of the biggest fighting games and still played to this day around the world in various arcade circuits. We have Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. One of the most outrageous and ambitious fighters out there. The gameplay mechanics saw the most major change with the switch to four attack buttons and the inclusion of dedicated assist buttons. The game itself saw many changes during it's life cycle with many drastic ways the game was played. From a more methodical approach, to a spacing approach, and now to a frantic rush down. The game has passed the test of time and has been ported to more recent systems such as the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade and on the PlayStation 3's PSN. Last's year's EVO Tournament series saw it's final display of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 action. Not too shabby for being a ten year old game and to garner that much respect and still be in the spot light.

An honorable mention, and somewhat spiritual sucessor to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Which in my honest opinion would have been a smash hit if it was ported to Xbox 360 and/or PlayStation 3. Instead it was left to die in the wasteland known as Wii Exclusives. Many of the mechanics that were brought into this game carried over to Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and now is also making me want to give TvC another crack. Maybe once I get a Tatsu-stick for my Wii.

Finally, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. A game MvC2 Champion Justin Wong, stated is "easiest and cheapest fighting game that was ever made..." Which, whole heartedly I can agree with. Chip damage was a big part of MvC2, and is an even larger part in MvC3. I've yet to come across anything bad and abuse-able of the assist system. Just spamming projectiles and assists can be rather annoying. The X-Factor mode has yet to show anything negative. There are infinite combos already out there, but some are situational and shouldn't merit any alarm just yet. I've been trying to play Ranked Matches on Xbox Live and keep getting the "connection to host lost" message. Player Matches on the other hand are fun and easy to get into. As for the lack of spectator mode makes 8-player lobbies a bore.

As for a quick run down, will this game stand the test of time like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Yes, and no. As long as players keep supporting it, it'll go far. If Capcom keeps supplementing the title with more DLC characters (Mega Man, Frank West, please?), the legs should be long on this one. Well, thank you for reading this, hopefully I can make a more routinely return to blogging.

Also, here's my OverClocked Remix of the Day in honor of Street Fighter. Enjoy.