BlazBlue

I have had a literal flood of emails coming my way. Literally. I suppose not really literally. It's actually a way of saying, a LOT of emails. There's not that many things that can flood besides water, and I don't even think water 'floods'. I'm pretty sure it just rises beyond an acceptable standard. Actually that kind of shits me, who are we to judge water on how high it decides to rise? Well not me! If someone were to say to me, 'Mark, you're a bad-arse Viking, but you should stop charging people while wearing your helmet and impaling them and then going to dinner parties pretending you don't have a disemboweled corpse draped on your head' I would have to say, 'then how would people know that I'm a (hilarious) Viking?'

See people? Just let water do what it wants to do. It rises, it falls, we drink it and once a year we wash ourselves with it.

I hope you have enjoyed my review, from the gamer with horns on his...


Sorry readers. I get a little ahead of myself. This is mainly because of how passionately I support the Water Liberation Movement.

But back on track, I have received a floo...I have received a Fuck-Load of emails asking me questions, both professional and personal.

Today's blog coincides with a question from twelve year old Jurgen Axekillerolaf, who asked, "Viking Gamer, what is your favourite game genre and why?"

Hating children, I almost refused to answer this question, but loving myself so immensely, I am able to make this boys dream come true by talking about myself.

I love fighting games. For me, sitting down and figuring out the best way to use a character has a direct reward, as you can see yourself improving with each and every trial and error.

The variety and style of each character means there are literally thousands and thousands of ways to train and several different tactics on how to use each character and then different tactics on how to use them against other characters.

I'm not the kind of gamer who plays an adventure game and 'gets every reward' or goes back to 'pick up useless item that has no effect on the game play or whatever and waste three hours of my life and then call up the Viking Gamer and be all like, 'Hey did you get this item? Oh you didn't? But I thought you were a real gamer? Oh well, trophies aren't for some people'.

I actually do believe in some trophies. For instance, I met up with this guy the day after he called me, and now have his head on my 'endangered species' wall.

What I truly love about fighting games is that skill is apparent. You can see how well a person knows not only their favourite character, but how well they know every character. And that, ladies and gentleman, is someone who's very good at gaming.


BlazBlue is a 2d, anime-style awesome fest.

The graphics are beautiful and smooth, each character has their own unique vibrancy and their movements are complete (not this bullshit the fist is at their side, and then at your face without anything in between). The background scenes are colourful and lush without ever impeding the actual fighting. This has happened on several 2d fighters for me, as a persons clothes or action my be the same colour as something in the background, and due to that one misconception between a chicken flapping in a cage and a kick to the face, you lose the match, leaving a bitter taste in your mouth and getting grounded for having split the TV in two with your axe.

What I truly love about this fighting game is that it has extended the new trend of making special moves easier to do. No longer do you need double jointed digits or a broken index to pull off your big move, all you need to do is a half circle.

This is what make this game so great for me. You shouldn't ever have to be a joystick expert (snigger) to pull off a move. Sure they should be a little harder to pull off (SNIGGER), but the point of being good at fighting games is knowing when to pull it off (snigger...?)

The combat itself is another thing I've fallen in love with. Each character has their own unique speed, movements and actions, meaning great versatility and a different fight every time.

Does anyone remember using Venom in Street Fighter vs Capcom? Or the drunken boxer from DOA 4? Or any zany character that felt COMPLETELY different from every other character?

I can safely say that every character in BlazBlue feels this way. They all play exceptionally differently. And the great thing is, unlike the characters I've just mentioned, button mashing is not the way to be good with the characters. You can figure them out just as easily as you could figure out how to use Kuma from Tekken effectively (by that I mean square, square triangle. If you don't get it, regret your entire life and move to Mexico).

I would love to comment on the story, but I honestly don't get what the hell it's about. It is so, so much more confusing than FFXIII, but has the added benefit of not sucking so badly that you cry in the foetal position until someone comes and turns the console off for you.

This game has been incredibly hard to review as the experience of playing it can't truly be put into words. There isn't really anything else I can say about the game, other than that if you like fighting games, this is going to be the best fighter of the year. It's a bargain at JB HIFI for AU$60 bucks INCLUDING A FREE ARCADE STICK OMFGBBQ!

BlazBlue has set a benchmark for 2d fighters, and I'm sure this game will keep me and many other gamers like me entertained for a long while.

Mark's Marks: 4/5

Till next time, from the gamer with horn on his hat.