Training Days

 I delved more into fighting games these past 4 months alone than I ever have since owning a console and definitely more often than the occasional visit to the arcades way back when.  While I'm too far along to ever make it to EVO, I don't wanna get bodied too hard online.  So I practice whenever possible, spending most of my play time on tutorials and challenges.

Mortal Kombat 1: Premium Edition (Switch)

Besides blowing my paycheck on flat-billed caps and amiibo figures, what keeps me going back to GameStop is the option to pay down in-store orders bit by bit so you're not paying full price on Day 1.  Which is the only cope I can think of after buying this game--for the Switch, of all things.  Within days since release, I dragged my feet through each lesson of the tutorial the way I did traveling to work during the rainy season.

As many will attest, MK1 was released with bugs, errors and frame rate issues up the wazoo.

As it got patched over time, though, the Switch port started to look and play (slightly) better.

After more than 2 months since release, characters from Kombat Pack 1 have begun to surface.  Including Omni-Man of Invincible fame, voiced by J.K. Simmons.  Photos of Spider-Man are sold separately.

And that's how the tacos are made.

Skullgirls: 2nd Encore

Next up is another Switch port that I've bought but slept on for ages . . . until now.  One of the stranger fighters in my collection, Skullgirls piqued my interest in light of recent controversies surrounding the game's developers.

The controversy in question covers a "censorship patch" released in June, which alters the appearance of every character sprite, cutscene and gallery pic containing 'questionable' material.

Except I haven't updated the game in months, and I'm always updating my games.  And I was careful to not do so before every play session.

Then I had to go and download the season pass, and as I feared . . .

This and the backlash that followed is a real shame because it shouldn't take away from Skullgirls' tight gameplay and oddball style.  And speaking of solid, oddball games . . .

ARMS

I've played every demo, beta test and free trial of Nintendo's exclusive fighter,  but I didn't pick up the full game until just recently.  But because I'm playing on my downtime at work, I'm not swinging my Joy-Cons around.

One major draw of ARMS is being able to pick up where you've left off, such as the single player campaign.  Without having to worry about starting over, it's a load off my mind as I punch my way to the finals.

Once there, however, I had an even bigger fight on my hands.

To improve my technique, I went through Training Mode while collecting new ARMS through minigames.

Like a testament to how lazy a writer I am, I haven't posted this blog just because I couldn't of a way to end it.  How's this: Another gaming blog's coming up, this time covering my return to the turn-based strategy genre.  Until then, thank you and good night.