Current game?

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Mortal Kombat's continued success baffles me. It has to be the worst playing of the major fighting game series and certainly the worst in terms of art and music. Finishers were a neat gimmick 30 years ago, but somehow the series rode on that this whole time.

[Booyakasha]

Oh, I'm right there with you-------------as far as I'm concerned, the games are the discardable packaging that the movies and the album came in. I wouldn't give a plug nickel about that dipstick Sub-Zero if not for 'Sub-Zero: Chinese Ninja Warrior'.

[Shane]

I only played Mortal Kombat Trilogy on N64 because that system had no other games. I agree that the finishers were kind of interesting, but the overall gameplay aspect of it never seemed to match other games like Street Fighter. I've seen some footage of the more recent games, and I can't imagine the reaction to the content from the people who were whining about sweating characters in the early 90s.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Those modern finishers really are pretty crazy when you think about it, but we're pretty desensitized these days. They almost make me squeamish sometimes.

What's amusing is as games have become more realistically brutal and violent they've also become more prudish with how they dress female characters, sort of an inverse of the past. I think that's actually not a bad thing, but it is pretty ironic how it's acceptable to destroy a female character in unspeakable ways but a little cleavage is forbidden.

I've always preferred Killer Instinct as my violent fighting game of choice. It's more like a cross between Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, though also still not as solid as Street Fighter (nothing really is, SNK gets pretty close). I'm surprised it went dormant but Microsoft is notorious for mishandling Rare and its IP.

[Booyakasha]

Those modern finishers really are pretty crazy when you think about it, but we're pretty desensitized these days. They almost make me squeamish sometimes.

They're gross. I'm sure there are people out there who like the MK characters-----------you know, I like Luke, and to this day it makes me a little upset in 'Empire' when he gets his friggin hand lopped off and he screams in pain and anguish. Do these people honestly not feel anything when they see Raiden get torn to shreds, or Liu Kang get sawn in half, or Kitana get all burned up? Weirdos.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Those modern finishers really are pretty crazy when you think about it, but we're pretty desensitized these days. They almost make me squeamish sometimes.

They're gross. I'm sure there are people out there who like the MK characters-----------you know, I like Luke, and to this day it makes me a little upset in 'Empire' when he gets his friggin hand lopped off and he screams in pain and anguish. Do these people honestly not feel anything when they see Raiden get torn to shreds, or Liu Kang get sawn in half, or Kitana get all burned up? Weirdos.

When it was pixelated sprites or s***** 3D models it wasn't too bad, I was swept up in the hype as a kid, but the last couple of games are bordering on disturbing.

[Booyakasha]

Yeah. I don't like slasher movies because I'm not big on gore-------------------seeing realistic eviscerations and bones snapping and all is too much for me. If it's just part of the fun for others, cool, but it's not for me.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

So I'm playing Pokemon Ultra Moon for the first time, just out of curiosity more than anything. It's the first generation of Pokemon games I skipped, and I haven't tried any since. I'm just barely starting so I can't form a strong opinion yet, but it's a mixed bag as expected. We'll see how it goes.

[Booyakasha]

Man. I love the Borderlands games, but sometimes they rumble me.

...my homey Shane and I are on a years-spanning stroll through 'Borderlands 2' (we started it a couple months after I got my X1), and we play it together. I soloed the first one shortly after it came out, then we played it co-op almost a decade ago, and we both decided not to go soldier for extra challenge (Shane went sniper because he's a terrible sniper; I went Brick because 'Mordecai and Brick' is a bad combination when your Mordecai couldn't hit a lake if he was drowning in it). Well, we wanted to go the same route in B2, but the game just glitched and gave him soldier. You know, whatevs.

It has been well over two years since the game has given me a halfway-decent assault rifle. BL2 advertised itself as having a million bazillion guns, but of course 99.99% of them are vendor trash, and the random gun generator has been giving me nothing but wank-ass sniper rifles, rocket launchers and pistols, and of course those have their place, but I'm playing Salvatore, and I don't have one AR equipped. Here I am trying to gunzerk with two pissy little SMG-ass squirt guns, and meanwhile Shane is racking up kills with his indefatigable turret. He's leveling faster than me! It's frustrating!

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I enjoyed the spinoff, Tales from the Borderlands, that was pretty funny. I think I heard they were doing another, that'd be cool. The main series didn't really click with me though.

Edit: I decided to check, apparently it already came out in 2022. Not sure how I missed that, but it got bad reviews from the looks of it, unfortunately.

[Booyakasha]

Well, the first one was from Telltale-------------they were very gifted storytellers, say that for them. Not terribly surprised Gearbox' homemade sequel wasn't as well-received.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

That makes sense. I thought Telltale worked things out and got the company back up though, too bad they couldn't have worked on it instead.

[Booyakasha]

I wish Telltale was back up. I wanted to play 'Minecraft Story Mode Season Two'-----------bought the season pass disc and all, but then I dragged my feet installing it, and now it's too late, it's gone.

I can play the first episode, because that's all there is on the disc.

Games go away forever, and no one cares.

...I hate this stupid world. 'Santa Baby' will always be readily available, but good luck finding a version of 'Pitfall!' on a modern console.

Give us the real 'Prince of Persia', video game industry, thou villain! Thou knave! Thou scoundrel! Thou blackguard! Thou wretch! Thou jackanapes! Thou vile cullionly cur! We all have the thirty pieces of silver thy black heart cravest------------so now give us 'Soul Blade' and 'Heart of Darkness'!

[Booyakasha]

Hey, whattaya know, I got a Switch. (It turns out I have a birthday and my mom is nice and all.)

So I'm kind of tentatively digging in. I will be embarking on my Mario Odyssey in short order (I'm glad it didn't predicate upon some 'Mario Iliad', although in a sense every Mario game begins with a dashing foreign prince absconding with the beautiful queen).

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Hey, now I can pressure you into playing old games with me nobody else is interested in. It's Joe & Mac time, Boo!

[Booyakasha]

I got Odyssey, and YIIK because I'm a reckless stupid, and FFVI (hey, get me, I'm going to play a Final Fantasy game, just as though I were a human man, with eyes and arms and shoulderblades and a soul!! Shower me in sarcastic praise, gang!)

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

You're gonna love Odyssey. I still prefer Sunshine, probably because of nostalgia and being a sucker for tropical themes, but Odyssey has flawless controls. I don't know how they did it, but Mario feels like controlling an extension of your own body.

I never did really learn to utilize Cappy for platforming though, it felt a little clunky, but wasn't necessary to use. Let us know how you like it.

[Booyakasha]

Hey, I love controlling extensions of my own body! Remind me to send you a link to my OF sometime!

[Booyakasha]

Hey, now I can pressure you into playing old games with me nobody else is interested in. It's Joe & Mac time, Boo!

Ooh, hang on. I don't know if I care about 'Joe & Mac', but I'd totally play 'Pocky & Rocky' with you. They just done the remaster, and it's stupidly "not playable" on the XBOne. 'Doom Eternal' is playable on the XBOne, but the new 'Pocky & Rocky' is not. Makes total sense.

[Booyakasha]

So I started 'Odyssey' yesterday. Poured about eight hours into it. Man, that's a wild game. Already I like it about a hundred times as much as I liked SM64, and that's not a dis on SM64, as much as it is saying Ninty made themselves a new Mario game that's about a hundred times better than SM64.

I'd be overjoyed to hear a country song that's a hundred times as good as 'Pancho and Lefty', only it'd probably just be Willie and Merle singing 'Pancho and Lefty', maybe with Charlie backing them up on fiddle and Jerry styling on guitar.