From: el27166@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (This Space for Rent)
Subject: Time Wasters
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 04:21:17 GMT

There's a new game out which combines the variety of moves in SF2,
the gore and fatalities in Mortal Kombat, and adds a few new things
here and there too.

I spent about five bucks learning to play it, and I had fun learning
the moves and being a newbie again.  My first impression of the game
is much more positive than my first impression of Mortal Kombat.  I
felt Mortal Kombat to be rather dull and unresponsive.  I still feel the
same way about it.  I'm excited about this new game, and know that
it will appeal to at least SF2 players.

First of all, it's a fight game, except that each of the characters
carries some weapon (lightsword, battle axe, hand axe, Excalibur,
chainsaw, etc.)  At any point in the game, each character can perform
his/her fatality move and lop the opponent's head off for an easy
victory.  Of course, if the attack is blocked, hit, or simply is misplaced,
the head does not come off.

In addition to heads flying off, you arms can be chopped off too.
There's a King Arthur type knight... and when his arms get cut off I
can help but think of Monty Python...

The characters are all unique and have unique moves, like in SF2.
So the matchups are always interesting.  Like Mortal Kombat, you can
change characters between fights, and can fight same vs. same char.
There are no throws, so you don't have to worry about 'cheapness'.
Each of the weapon attacks do a bit of damage.  We haven't had too
much problem of characters being too defensive.  The action is fast,
and strategy builds pretty quickly.

The one aspect of this game which makes it better than both SF2 and
Mortal Kombat is that the attacker can vary the height and distance
of his jumping attacks.  He can do a short hop and then attack, or
a long range jump and then attack.  This randomness gives an inherent
advantage in being the aggressor.  In addition, no character has
temporary invulnerability like in SF2.  You can land several hits
while you're airborne.  You can block in midair by clashing swords
(attacking) in midair.  You can block on the ground high and low,
as in SF2.  Simply blocking can be a challenge since each character
has a wide variety of attacks.

Characters have attacks ranging from headhops, slides, ram attacks,
and fatality attacks.  The number of moves for each character is
comparable to SF2-CE.  Given the freedom of aerial maneuvering, this
can make for a pretty chaotic game.

The button setup is easy:  5 buttons, 1 joystick.  It includes one
head button, two armo buttons, and two leg buttons.  If you happen
to push an arm button and that arm is missing, you squirt blood
menacingly at your opponent from your armless stump.

Generally, I pound on the right arm button, since that one holds the
weapon.  Occasionally, I'll push two arm or two leg buttons to
do a special move.

Overall, I consider this game very fun and exciting, even more so
that SF2 when it first came out.  It's hard to find one strategy
which works on all opponents (unless they suck, of course).

I'll list the characters and what their fatalities are in a later
post.


-- 
Eu-Ming Lee (aka CyberGeek)                      el27166@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
If you have nothing good to say, sit down, shut up, and post to USENET.