Tekken vs Virtua Fighter?

According to Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada, a Tekken vs Virtua Fighter game remains a legitimate possibility, with concepts from a potential engine already being tested. Interesting. Several potential issues immediately spring to mind, most notably the fact that Virtua Fighter focuses on quicker juggles and mix-ups, while knockdowns and wakeup games are a bigger element of Tekken. The 10-strings in Tekken will also have to be either incorporated or thrown out, but I personally haven’t used dial-a-combo since Tekken 3. Graphically, I’m a little more partial to how clean everything looks in Virtua Fighter, but I haven’t seen a game that illustrates impact quite as well as Tekken does. Either way, I don’t think that aesthetics are going to be an issue. Having a “Groove” system ala Capcom vs SNK would be a dream here, as it would allow VF players to have a block button and still give the Tekken players full reign over their left and right attacks. The good news is that there would likely only be 2 Grooves to work with, but given the massive move lists that are featured in 3D fighters, you run the risk of drastically condensing a character’s move set by eliminating a single button. An idea would be to add a 5th button that would serve as block under the VF Groove, and simply be non-functional under the Tekken Groove. Or better yet, you could use it to activate the Rage system that Tekken 6 implemented, but that would probably spawn a whole host of other balancing issues. In a perfect world, the game would be done Tekken Tag Tournament style, with 20 characters from VF (its full roster), and a selection of 20 “All-Stars” from the Tekken series.

I can’t see the game happening anytime soon, but given that Namco is apparently a willing partner, and that Sega hasn't been doing anything substantial with the VF franchise aside from last year’s VF5R, I don’t see why the crossover title couldn’t eventually become a reality.

うたばん & Yaguchi, 4 Years Later

Listening to:
矢口真里／エアバンド
「青春 僕」

Utaban got moved to Sunday nights, which is nice because it’s probably the one night of the week that I’m almost certain to be at home. I watched the entire two-hour special despite having several more important things to do, and Utaban still edges HEY!HEY!HEY! as the most entertaining music variety show on television. Yaguchi Mari was on for the first time in ages last night. I’m not a real huge fan of hers, but I tuned in primarily because I miss the magic of those old Utaban/Morning Musume segments. It’s no secret that Utaban host Ishibashi Takaaki is a huge supporter of Morning Musume, and the aforementioned Yaguchi went as far as to call him the “father” of the group in an interview several years ago. If you think about it, Ishibashi really did do everything in his power to keep the group relevant, consistently having them on the show even after their record sales began to plummet a few years ago. I could be mistaken, but I’m fairly certain that they appeared on Utaban to promote every one of their singles until their 36th or 37th, which broke the streak sometime last year. The reality is that the girls haven’t drawn big ratings in years, and Ishibashi and the producers of Utaban were really doing them a huge favor by continuing to feature them on the show for as long as they did. Even last night, Ishibashi dropped a couple of borderline irrelevant Morning Musume and Country Musume jokes during an EXILE segment. Their time as powerhouses in the industry are likely done for good, but it’s kind of nice to know that people like Ishibashi are still trying to keep Morning Musume's name out there.

Back to Yaguchi, her new song is okayish at best, but she’s probably good enough as a television personality to remain in showbiz for as long as she wants. Past or present, you can’t really say the same about too many of the group’s other members.

Christmas Came Early...

...because these things are so damn COLD.




I'd rather not discuss how much I spent on these puppies.

Wrestlemania 25 Preview

I haven't really been following the product (for obvious reasons), but I always find myself getting interested again when the big show rolls around. Just on paper - and maybe it's just me - this card is looking pretty darn good. Aside from the annual Diva trash, I don't really see a match that doesn't look to have some degree of entertainment value. If there's one issue that I have with the card, it's the absence of an ECW title match. How hard would it be to give 10 minutes to Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne? I don't really have much of an opinion on Swagger, but considering how over Bourne is, there's no reason why he shouldn't be somewhere on the card. Seriously, he was made for the Money in the Bank match.

The card:

Chris Jericho vs. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Rowdy Roddy Piper w/Ric Flair
What's this all about? Jericho is the company's best heel aside from maybe (MAYBE) Orton, and you have him fighting a bunch of senior citizens? I don't really see the logic, but maybe I just missed something.

Extreme Rules Match: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
Should be a good one. Might have been a good idea to keep the ECW title on Matt to give the belt some visibility, but oh well.

25-Diva "Miss WrestleMania" Battle Royal: Known Participants - Melina, Maryse, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Michelle McCool, Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, Kelly Kelly, Maria, Eve Torres, Katie Lea Burchill, Beth Phoenix, Layla El, Rosa Mendes, Candice Michelle, Natalya Neidhart, Jillian Hall, Tiffany, Sunny, Torrie Wilson, Molly Holly, Victoria and Jackie Gayda-Haas
Your obligatory bathroom break of the night. Actually, I take that back. Molly Holly!? At least she'll bring a little bit of awesome to the match. I still miss the days when Trish was still around and Mickie was still crazy.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Mark Henry vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Christian vs. Finlay
OH SNAP! MARK HENRY IN A LADDER MATCH! MARK HENRY IN A LADDER MATCH! That's reason enough to purchase this show. I don't really care who goes over in any of the other matches, but I'm pulling for my man, the Instant Classic Captain Charisma Christian Cage in this one.

Winner Takes All – WWE Tag Team Titles vs. World Tag Team Titles – Unified Tag Team Title LUMBERJACK Match: The Miz and John Morrison © vs. Carlito and Primo Colon ©
No shit, a Tag Title match at Wrestlemania? When was the last time we had one of those? I could do without the lumberjack stipulation, but I like that they're at least trying to make the Tag Titles look important.

IC Title Match: JBL © vs. Rey Mysterio
That, and we get an Intercontinental Title match as well? What's going on here? Kind of weird having a couple of former world champs fighting over the IC title, but I guess both these guys deserve their spot on the show in shape or form.

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
There are a few matches that have match of the night potential, and this is definitely one of them. It's kind of scary when you consider how good these guys still are at this point in their careers. Can't see any reason to end the Taker streak at this point, so the outcome isn't really much of a mystery. Should still be a real good match.

World Title Match: Edge © vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena
To be honest, I'm pretty lukewarm on all of these guys. Should be a pretty fun match at the least, with Edge or Cena likely going over. I'm actually not even sure what Show is doing in there.

WWE Title Match: HHH © vs. Randy Orton
Looks like the build for this one has been pretty well done. I'm starting to buy Orton as a sinister, conniving bastard, whereas I used to think he was just a dickhead. So yeah, it looks like he's been improving a lot as a heel. Logic suggests that Orton goes over and the Legacy runs Raw for a while, but again, you never know with HHH involved.

The Red Cyclone, Dominant Again

Street Fighter IV - Character Ranking (according to Tougeki)

SS: Sagat, C. Viper, Akuma, Zangief
S: Ryu, Balrog, (JPN M. Bison), Rufus, Blanka
A: Chun-Li, M. Bison (JPN Vega), Ken, Dhalsim, Abel, E. Honda, El Fuerte
B: Vega (JPN Balrog), Guile



Can't say that I'm surprised. I'd been using Zangief and Sagat as my mains, with Vega (Balrog) a distant third. It's been a while since Zangief has been this dominant and fun to use. Remember when people would groan when you chose Zangief and had a semblance of skill? The Red Cyclone is back, baby. And while we're at it, here are the latest Bloodline Rebellion tier lists:

Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion - Character Ranking

S: Steve
A: Lars, Lili, Lee, Law
B: Asuka, Armor King, Eddy, Ganryu, Xiaoyu, Julia, Jin, Devil Jin, Hwoarang, Feng Wei, Bryan, Bruce, Heihachi, Baek, Marduk, Roger Jr.
C: Anna, Alisa, Kazuya, King, Kuma/Panda, Christie, Jack-6, Dragunov, Nina, Paul, Bob, Lei, Leo, Wang
D: Zafina, Miguel, Yoshimitsu, Raven

Looks like Steve Fox is going to be sitting pretty at the top. I've yet to play the game, but I'm assuming that his priority is off the charts again. I'm glad that they seemed to have toned down Bob and Kaz, and really glad that Xiaoyu is at least in the middle of the pack. Can't wait for this thing to finally release on consoles later this year.

To close out all the talk about fighting games, I've been playing Soul Calibur IV during my free time. I was initially keen on the idea of having Vader in the game, but I haven't even used him yet because he just seems so damn out of place. I've actually been trying to recondition myself to use Ivy again. I did major damage with her in SCII, but I guess I just got frustrated with how different she handled in SCIII.



The overall game feels a bit too much like its predecessor (again), but that doesn't stop it from being a crazy good fighter.

I Only Drink The Finest Breastmilks

Breastmilks, you make my daaayaaaayyy!



Just saying.

Flyer Than The Rest Of 'Em

Listening to:
Wale
Nike Boots

The new semester starts up next week, and I've been busy doing a whole lot of zilch at work. I sat at my desk for close to eight hours today, thoroughly hungover and with absolutely nothing to do. I'm by no means depressed, but you have to admit that those are some pretty depressing circumstances. Oh well. I've learned to take the bad days at work with the good ones. More importantly (ha), I've been waiting for the delivery guy to show up with my late birthday gift to myself.

Hint: Wale's got 'em.