The King of Fighters XII - Joe's Screw Upper!

SNK Playmore’s biggest franchise, The King of Fighters, just had it’s twelfth entry into the main series break street date at GameStops around the country and I made sure that I was able to get myself  a copy! I’ve put many hours into playing the game this afternoon before work, and then once again tonight after dinner with friends. I’ve gotten very use to the game pretty fast, despite that the fact that it really doesn’t play like KOF XI or KOF ‘98, which are the games in the series I’ve played most. Rather, it feels more like Capcom vs SNK 2 in terms of speed along with some of the character move sets being similar.

The game has been anticipated for over two years and SNK Playmore has put a ridiculous amount of effort into the final product and it shows. This game plays well and it’s now artistically the most beautiful fighting game ever created. The game does have it’s flaws in what it lacks, but makes up for it in what it brings to the fray in what myself and others are calling the Year of the Fighting Game.

What’s good?

The graphics are lush and lovely, featuring bright colors and exotic landscapes. There are only five stages in the game but a single stage in KOF XII is more lively and exciting than most fighting games’ entire collection of venues. One of my friends and I joked earlier tonight about one of the stages possibly being inspired by Water 7 in One Piece. The locales even have shadows generate on the character sprites depending on their location in the stage. The character sprites are bigger than ever and are very detailed, to the point that can clearly see their facial expressions and the details on their outfits.

The characters also feature far more animation frames than for any other SNK fighter, and this coupled with the games high-definition colorful graphics makes for some beautiful looking battles. Not only that, the explosions and effects from various actions in this game provide a lot of energy to the fight and in some cases provide some key visual cues for players to react to. The game makes great use of generating key effects for moments like guard attacks, critical counters, sousai cancels, and special attack start ups.

The fighting game mechanics are probably going to be the best in any fighting game. The franchise has taken a step away from executing long chains of combos and has focused more on strategy. Timing is key in this game because executing guard attacks and critical counters can determine the match’s victor.  Guard attacks are performed by pressing back, heavy punch, and heavy kick at the same time. When this happens, a blue flash will appear in front of the character executing the guard attack; this flash represents a period that a colliding enemy attack will be parried. If this happens, their move will be canceled and the guard attacking player will unleash a knock-back attack. What’s also great about this technique is that even if the parry fails, they move will still go off which has helped me beat novice players online.

Critical counters are probably the best part of this game. I’ve never felt such a rush while doing one, and that’s the idea. You’ll fill up a green gauge under your character’s health bar. When it fills up completely, it will begin to drain. You have that window of time to press back and heavy punch or back and heavy kick simultaneously will cause your character to strike with an orange aura around their attack. If the attack lands while the other player’s character is striking, a rainbow flash will emit around both fighters and the other character will fall prey to their knees to take a flurry of your character’s customizable combos of normal attacks, special attacks, and even being able to finish with a super combo move. It can turn a match around and even finish it and it doesn’t happen too much that it breaks the fight; in fact, it happens enough just to cause an adrenaline rush. I have shot myself out of my chair at times when I have initiated a critical counter and I have been good at experimenting, especially with Andy and Kensou.

Actually, that never happened. I play KOF standing up because I can’t sit down in fear of falling off of the edge of my seat.

Overall, the game mechanics are extremely balanced to promote strategy as opposed to memorizing combos. I’m really happy about this because memorizing button presses that are only useful in one game is inadequate and I’d rather focus on timing and predicting the movements of my enemy, kind of like chess. Basically, what I am saying a good fighting game is one that has tactics and mechanics that a smart person can take advantage of to win. Memorizing looping combos is a waste of time and is sonething that idiots will do. (Want to guess what game I am referring to that promotes this behavior?)

KOF XII, addition to featuring guard attacks and critical counters, has many other useful tactics like charging strong attacks(heavy punch and heavy kick pressed together) that can either stun an opponent or break their guard, evasive rolls( forward or backward, light punch, and light kick pressed together) that can help fighters dodge attacks, and sousai cancels that will cancel out attacks of equal strength when they collide at the same time. Air sousais are particularly sweet when two characters do jumping kung-fu kicks that clash at the same time; it’s like a scene from Enter the Dragon or Fist of the North Star.

The game features 22 characters in this roster that are already unlocked and they are all awesome. Every one of them has their own strengths and weakness in categories of strength, speed, durability, striking, projectiles, grapples. anti-air attacks, and dashing attacks. One simple example of this would be anti-air special moves. Just about everyone has them. Some are easy to combo into, especially moves like the rising tackle or the jumping uppercuts; however, they have a period of recovery if they whiff, leaving them vulnerable to the opponent. Some characters don’t leave the ground when they do their anti-air special move, which won’t have as much range and it may be harder to combo into but the benefit is that their recovery time is greater and they probably have some other move that’s easy to combo into when both characters are on the ground. I think for this reason of balance, that some of the special moves of veteran characters were removed. Most characters have either three or four special moves and either one or two super combo attacks.

I’ve never seen so much dedication in making the roster of a fighting game so balanced as this that I don’t event think a tier ranking is even necessary for this game. This is wonderful news because tiers need to leave fighting games like quick-time events need to leave action games. It’s much preferable to have all the characters have their strengths and weaknesses balanced out so when matches are fought amongst players, the winner will be determined by who has both the better skill and understanding of the game mechanics and characters. The differences between the each character’s strengths and weakness also lend to different play styles of those who play fighting games, whether you go for speedy attacks, powerful strikes, or grappling moves, their are a variety of characters to fit your strategy well. The problem with some of the past KOF games is creating a team of three fighters that would fit your play style and one of them would be a dude. Thankfully, that is not the case here. In the future, glitches and other forms foul play may be exploited as they are discovered in the game; for now, things are going great.

What’s lacking?

While the design choices of the fighting system are genius and the roster very balanced, the game is missing some things. For one, it’s the smallest roster in any King of Fighters game. While it’s great to have 22 awesome characters available in the game from the get-g0, I and others wish there were more. Characters like K’, Kula Diamond, Mai Shiranui, and Oswald were characters  that I saw requested by many fans. I was also hoping for Rugal to be the game’s final boss. But wait, isn’t he dead? He is indeed dead in the cannon storyline; however, this game doesn’t have a storyline and doesn’t represent the KOF cannon. Therefore, I have no problem with him being back. It’s never explained why Terry Bogard is back sporting his old look, why Ralf and Clark shockingly appear roided up, or why Ash Crimson doesn’t use the flames he stole from Iori in the the last game in his move set, while Iori fights without it. With the story non-existent and inconsistencies unexplained, it was time for someone like Rugal to come back and remind everyone the wrath of SNK Boss Syndrome!

So what did we get for a boss? Nothing, and that’s the biggest disappointment I have with the game. SNK fighting games, especially The king of Fighters, always – ALWAYS – has a ridiculous final boss that is nearly impossible to beat. It may take hours if not days to conquer such menacing opposition. They fight dirty, have ridiculous attacks and priorities, and will always pull out some bullshit destroying move right when you are about to bring them to their knees. It sucks and you yell and swear and probably break your controller, or punch your girlfriend in the face. But you keep trying… and then you eventually beat the boss. Once the dust has settled and the realization of victory has connected with your mind, you feel like the god of fighting games and that is why SNK Boss Syndrome is necessary for The King of Fighters.

Whether it was Rugal, Magaki, or the lovable Igniz; we needed someone. Not having the boss battle made the single player arcade mode seem anti-climatic and the motivation to play arcade mode is not really there, other than to unlock achievements and trophies. In all honesty, arcade mode sucks; it’s just five matches done in a time attack setting and the the credits roll. Not even a character splash screen or animated ending to show what the characters did afterward.

The lack of some kind of storyline in the game hurts the overall experience and there aren’t any other options for the single player experience besides practice mode. What happened to survival mode, or the various character challenges that existed in the PS2 version of KOF XI? Remember when we had to have Robert Garcia deflect all of King’s low and high venom strikes with only the ability to counter with low and high projectiles of his own for 3o seconds and were rewarded by having him unlocked in the game? Okay, well I did it and when I beat that challenge, I felt a badass sense of accomplishment. I really wish challenges like that were in here again.

Final thoughts… for now

So if you really want to experience KOF XII right, then you’d better have some friends who enjoy playing fighting games or have the ability to play others online. Hell, if you don’t have any friends who don’t play fighting games, then ditch them and get new friends that do. Trust me, you won’t miss them when you start playing Garou: Mark of the Wolves with your new compadres.

While lacking a huge roster of characters that more recent KOF games have had, KOF XII has characters that are far more balanced and detailed than ever before. The game depends more on skill and has a well developed set of mechanics that promote match variety, make comebacks possible, and turn good defense into devastating offense. While the single player experience is lacking as well as the story, the fighting system makes for legendary matches between skilled players, and that in itself makes The King of Fighters XII worth getting. It’s hard to say if KOF XII is the best fighting game of the past year when Tekken 6 hasn’t come out in the states yet and I still haven’t played BlazBlue. Even so, after a day of playing this, it already pounds the other competition that includes Street Fighter IV and Soul Calibur IV. Despite such claims, fighting games have more variety this year than in any other this decade in game choices.

I’m sure that later on I will develop new feelings about this game as a I play it more. I don’t know if it will have the potential to exceed the quality that other SNK games like KOF XI and Garou have established, but the potential exists. I for one can’t wait to play this game some more after I take care of the many responsibilities that await me in the near future. I hope by the, the online mode of the game is patched to remove lag so I can fight more people online. Hopefully, this game will be recognized as an incredible and well-balanced fighter that could be one of the games for EVO next year. We shall see. Until then…

Let the year of the fighting game continue!

Mai Shiranui

I am so freaking sick of reading “No Mai, No Buy” when I read about The King of Fighters XII on Kotaku. Seriously? Really? Granted, she has a massive popularity amongst otaku and, who along with her Street Fighter counterpart Chun-Li, where the first legitimate sex symbols of videogames – beating Lara Croft to the punch by years(suck on that, bitch). She started off as the love interest of Fatal Fury’s Andy Bogard and pretty much stalked him in every game they were both in, but then moved on to be one of the most jiggly 2D sprites of any commercial fighting game. She’s also a ninja who attacks with fans, fire, and sometimes nudity which is pretty much the depth of her character.

I won’t lie; I do find her very attractive for a fictional character, but not as much as Bonne Jenet, Vanessa, or Blue Mary – none of which along with Mai have been revealed(har, har) for KOF XII. But here’s what pisses me off: nobody is complaining about Mai’s absence from the game because she is a very useful character to have on their team. They want her for the same(and only) reason that the Dead or Alive series is popular: those sweet, voluptuous breasts.

I’m not crying out against hyper-sexualization in games. That’s just absurd. What does enrage me in this matter is that a bunch of people are threatening to not buy the game if a mediocre character does not appear in it, and make the rest of the fanbase look stupid, shallow, and pathetic by having to post publicly that they won’t buy the game for that very reason. There are way more awesome characters in the KOF universe that have yet to be announced for the latest installment. I’d rather have K’, Kula Diamond, Oswald, Yuri and Takuma Sakazaki, Rugal Bernstein, Yamazaki, Bonne Jenet, Heavy D!, and Vanessa before I would want to play as Mai. They are all better characters than Mai and far more interesting. Okay, maybe not Heavy D! but I wouldn’t mind the comeback of the sports team!

If people are going to complain about a lack of Mai, The King of Fighters ‘98: Ultimate Match is out on PS2 and that along with The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match will be out on XBLA in the not too distant future. Or you could just play DOA and stay the fuck out of my fandom.

I’ve been wanting to talk about this game on the site for a very long time! Anyone who’s in my circle of friends knows that I have love The King of Fighters franchise and that I have been pretty pumped about The King of Fighters XII for the past couple years. It’s coming out in America in just less than a month on both the XBox360 and the Playstation 3 and it looks poised to take on Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger for prestige of being the best fighting game of this year. All of the character and tournament videos have been looking great thus far, so I have a very optimistic feeling about this game. I am trying to avoid being over zealous this time because that ended up with me being somewhat disappointed with Street Fighter IV after I played it for a few months, though I’ve always expected KOF XII to be the better game in the first place.

So what’s cool about this game? Visually, it’s probably the most impressive looking 2D fighter to date, beating out Street Fighter III: Third Srtike and BlazBlue. Everything is hand-drawn(or hand pixeled, to be more accurate), colorful, and lush. Each character holds an impressive amount of animation frames for their full range of moves and motions, which makes this the most fluid-looking 2D fighter to date. One of the other great things about the artwork is that everything has been redrawn in bigger, high definition sprites that really do a great job of showing the emotion of the characters as they fight or get hit. That was something I felt previous KOF games were lacking. It’s not as over the top as SFIV, but it’s still pretty nice to see the characters showing off more personality than ever.

Speaking of characters, while each character has an impressive amount of animations, this is actually the one of the smallest rosters for any KOF game to date with 26 playable characters. Considering how much time and money goes into redrawing every single character from scratch, each with a high amount of animation frames, it’s not too surprising to see a roster that small. I like the trade off though because I’d rather have a smaller roster of characters that I care about have lots of detail put into them than have that effort spread thin over a larger roster. This may result in some fans’ favorite characters being left out, but all of my favorites are in there. We got Terry and Andy Bogard for starters, then other greats such Joe Higashi, Kim Kaphwan, Leona Heidern, Elisabeth Blanctorche, Sie Kensou, and Ryo Sakazaki. Hell, everyone in the game is looking awesome now, even Raiden whom I initially complained about being in the game for looking slow and useless at first!

It would be nice to have been able to use characters like K’, Oswald, and Bonne Jenet once again; however, this won’t be the last KOF! What’s also interesting is that there are no new characters at all being introduced in this game. A rarity for the franchise and fighters in general. SNK wanted to go back to the basics, but at the same time was anyone going to use them? Street Fighter IV added six new characters to the series but half the people who play that game still stick with Ken and Ryu. To compensate for the lack of new characters, just about half of the roster has had their looks and move sets redesigned, most notably Iori Yagami, Ralf Jones, Sie Kensou and Mature. What I am concerned with most right now is whether or not there is a boss. SNK fighters are famous for having legendary final bosses who are so fucking impossible to beat that actually doing so is a life achievement. The arcade version didn’t have one but I hope the console versions have a surprise like the return of Rugal Bernstein. It’s not a complete KOF game without the famous SNK Boss Syndrome!

Like I said before, SNK wants to go back to the basics. The roster is focused on more familiar characters, and the series has returned back to the original 3 on 3 team format for matches. This means strikers and tag matches of previous entries are gone. There are no team leaders either(or the bonuses that come with that) and stocks for attack cancels and dream cancels have also been taken out. Instead, the rules have been simplified so players can focus on the fight itself. You pick your three characters and the order they will fighter and you do one on one matches with you opponent until all the characters of a team have been eliminated. You still have a lot of the classic combos and signature moves with new ones and the gameplay looks to rebalanced. Other added features include Sousai(Deadlock), Critical Counter, and Guard Attack.

Sousai occurs when strong kicks and punches and attacks of greater force collide. Instead of a possibly unfair priority being used to determine who gets it, the attacks will clash, cancel out, and by default the opponents will step back from their attack to give players some distance from each other. However, you can cancel that backstep after a Sousai with an attack of your own by entering any attack command. You can also move the joystick to make your character jump(and then attack) right after the Sousai occurs. You can do Sousai with characters that are standing, attacking from the air, or have launched projectiles from a distance. The drawback to Sousai is that your character will take a fraction of the damage from the attack your opponent tried to use on you, so be careful with how you use it!

Critical Counters come into play when the green bar under your character’s health bar is fully charged and an orange aura appears around your character. When that happens, you can crush an opponent’s attack with a strong punch or kick , leaving them defenseless to a flurry of moves that can now be chained together in unbelievable combos, but only for a short time. It works a little like Street Fighter Alpha 3’s custom super combos, but the start off if much different. In addition to being a nice way to make a comeback, I think it’s a great technique to counter players who try to jab into combos and super moves. You can also start off a Critical Counter differently: instead of unleashing a flurry of moves, you can instead use a powered-up version of your Super Move if your Super Meter is full. It looks insanely badass!

Finally, Guard Attacks occur when you are holding back to block and hit strong kick and strong punch at the same time to attack an attacking opponent from your guard stance. You will not only cancel their attack, but you throw them off balance so they can counter your attack! This is a nice way to counter and I think it will work better than SF IV’s focus attacks. Guard Attacks, like the other new features in KOF XII, are still going to depend on your timing and ability to predict your opponent’s moves. But in all honesty, any good or better fighting game will depend heavily off the timing of your moves and the ability to understand your opponent.

It looks like I covered quite a bit this time! The King of Fighters XII is the game I have been looking forward to the most this year and I think it will deliver. Much of the franchise’s fat has been cut and all the game features and roster is all killer, no filler. The artwork is more amazing than ever and the series has never looked more alive than this. The progress over the past couple years has been remarkable and it’s only a few weeks until it releases! I can’t wait to do battle once again with my friends and rivals to see who is the local King of Fighters and to see what online play will offer in addition to that. See you guys on XBox Live and at the local tournaments!

Highlights:

-Ian Schreiber held a talk that not only proved that the argument for games as art was solved over fifty years by art critic Harold Rosenburg. He also explained how lessons from art history can be used to solve and influence many game designs. It was one of the most interesting talks I went to, even though much of his art histroy discussion went over my head. I’m not too sure about surrealism in game design, where games can not be comprehended how to play, but it does sound like it’s worth experimenting with.

-Dustin Clingman honored many game designers throughout history that have contributed much to games and have since passed away in his talk “Where do Game Designers go when they Die?” The talk was a little blue at first; however, Dustin built it up into a very inspiring speech letting those in attendance know that they are the heirs to the legacy left behind by many greats.

-Colonel Reverend The Fat Man George Alistair Sanger basically told us to “put our dick on the anvil” if we want to achieve true greatness. Everything that man says is amazing. It actually made me think a lot about what I am doing with my life these days. I think I’ve grown too comfortable in my current position and that is keeping me from truly growing as a person and a game developer. I think some changes may need to happen for me personally. I hope to find my bliss someday, that’s for sure.

-I missed Jason Rohrer’s presentation live but was able to catch it later on GDX’s website. He compared some big titles that have visual glitches and bugs to smaller ones that accomplished what they set out to do and told the attendance “don’t write checks you can’t cash.” His presentation had more to offer but that is what i got most out of it more than anything else.

-Richard Dansky, in his talk “Just a Lad”, proclaimed that “we are a young industry” is not a valid excuse anymore, noting that the videogame industry is older than the internet, disco, Star Wars, parachute pants, and most of everyone in the room. Because of this, he feels that it’s time for games to be better and that we take games and the content they can provide more seriously. I’d say that this was the most important presentation I went at GDX to and I agree with many of his points.

-Andrew Bains of Epic Games went into the process of how a single level of Gears of War 2 is created and visually showed us the steps. It’s a long process that takes many months that includes brainstorming, prototyping, multiple visual and scripting passes, bug fixing, and finally shipping. The amount of time and detail that goes into each level is very impressive and its a good thing Gears makes the big bucks for Epic. I think I will stick to making smaller games for now.

In review, GDX had a lot to offer to those who want to think deeply about where the industry needs to go next, as opposed to learning how to be a better programmer or artist. I think a lot of these lectures were very important for game students around the world to attend which made me wish that some of my students in attendance. Many of the SCAD students I met were very nice to me and I think Brenda Brathwaite and SCAD did a really great job hosting this conference and I hope a certain other game school does something like this on their campus someday. I feel like my mind opened up to some new ideas that I hope to implement in future games.

I never played the Lego Star Wars games that have come out. I grew out of the whole fandom of Star Wars and I don’t think I can really go back. Indiana Jones is still fresh on my mind after seeing that fourth movie that nobody really wants to talk about. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was okay but if you didn’t see, it’s not a big deal. The game can be two players or you can play it with an A.I. controlled partner. It looks like I will be going through the trilogy’s greatest moments(in Lego form) and beating up lots of stuff.

Anyways, I kinda forget what happened in the former trilogy for the most part, however the gameplay is similar to an old action sidescroller with “puzzle” elements. So I start of the game with what appears to be Indy and some guy with a shovel looking for the Lost Ark. I think. Indy can punch the crap out of pretty much everything and that is awesome. So I break Lego bushes and get Lego coins that I can use in groups of a thousand every time I fall into a cliff when I think I am jumping at a vine but not really.

Early on, the game seems to lack visual depth when you are trying to get past obstacles. You will fall off cliffs because they don’t look like cliffs at first. But in all honesty, I don’t think that you can get a game over in this game. When I relaized this, I started to play sloppy because there was no penalty for dying. This game is supposed to be for kids but when I was a kid, the games I played would make ou start over when you failed. I guess kids today are pussies. You have a partner with you throughout the levels and you can beat each other into pieces for enjoyment. When characters in the game are defeated they break into little lego man parts. So the shovel dude and I are journeying through a jungle and there’s not a lot going on. There are no enemies for a while and I am just collecting coins and pressing the red button to build stuff so that I can advance.

I spent much of the first level wondering where i am supposed to go as the level seems to lack visual clues that tell you where to go. Later on, I learn that I am supposed to jump on random hanging vines to open up doors. There are some spiders that keep dropping down but they are easy to kill. Spikes also come out of the ground and if they hit you, you die. if they miss, you can pull them out of the ground and throw them at enemies. There were also alligators in the lake I beat with a whip while on land.

We make it in the temple after wondering around on a raft for a while and discovering the aforementioned vine trick. In here is a puzzle where one player presses a switch to lower spikes in the area and the other player will cross. When you are playing alone, you can switch between the two characters and the other will usually follow you around. I was afraid that when I switched characters, Indy would leave the switch; however, it appears that certain puzzles like this will cause the A.I. character to accomplish the task you want it to do on it’s own as Indy presses the right switches. So far the co-op A.I. has behaved quite well which is something modern games do not execute correctly. I suppose since this a very linear game, set up like a side scroller or top-down game, that setting up event triggers and navigation points for the A.I. is quite easy compared to FPS games where your allies are bullet shield and can’t drive vehicles.

I eventually get the artifact and re-enact the scene where Indy escapes from a rolling boulder, while jumping over pits. I keep falling into pits and eventually the boulder runs me over and takes me outside to meet people that probably want to kill me. I escape, and have a new parter with a wrench to team up with me as we fight the tribals and get the plane fixed to fly away. It was more or less a back and forth between the two objectives. The dude with the wrench had to do the fixing and upon completion, we were off.

After that I save and go to the college and explore and see all the various things going on, while breaking tables and getting money for it. I love the old school game logic here. I discover that I can unlock characters I don’t care about with the money i have saved and that I can either continue to the next stage of Raiders of the Lost Arc or try one of the other two movies. I must say that is a pretty cool feature in the game as it gives the player choices on how they will play. But I decide to continue Raiders and I have a female partner this time, and she has some important artifact. We end up in a bar for some reason and she can jump higher than Indy(because women can automatically jump higher than men, according to the designers) to solve the bar’s puzzles of going somewhere and holding the red button down. Man these puzzles are really well-though out and creative! After that, we have a bar fight against what might be Nazis but they aren’t wearing their swastikas. I could have sworn there were Nazis in the movie, what happened?

After we beat a bunch of people up, we go outside where it is snowing and I build a couple Lego snowmen and fight people who have guns. Shooting with a gun in this game is very simple. All you have to do is face the enemy you want to shoot and press a button. Why can’t all action games be quite like this? For giggles, I try to hit the woman I am with but whe is not affected. I switch to her and pound Indy into a pulp. What the hell? You can’t beat women in this game? How is it fair to be able to beat up your male partners for amusement, but not your female ones? I call shenanigans!

Back to the game. There’s also a horse that does nothing but I made him stand on a switch. you can ride him, but there really isn’t a point in that. To get across a bridge, I built something and carried it to a place that had an arrow over it. And then I killed more not-Nazis and blew up a truck. After that the level was pretty much over. It was quick with plenty of well-paced action, which I liked. Unfortunately, because I don’t remember the movies that well, I have no idea what is going on. All I know if that there is stuff to punch.

Man, everything about this game is so awesome! I’m a big fan of games where you can just violently beat the crap out of everything you see in stylish glory. Older games like River City Ransom and Final Fight did this well and newer games like No More Heroes and Godhand take it up a few notches in the visual department. Speaking of Godhand, Platinum Games consist of developers that worked on that title and other Clover games such as Viewtiful Joe and Okami, and others have experience with the Devil May Cry and Resident Evil franchises. These games feature visceral gameplay and inspired art direction so with an awesome background consisting of some of my favorite games, I’m sure this game will be quite a delight.

I’m looking forward to lots of intense action as Jack goes around Varrigan City just annihilating people in so many ways just for the common people’s entertainment. This game shares something in common with the classic Smash TV where the protagonist(s) is trapped in a setting that is actually a game show that is filmed for television and the goal is to pretty much kill everything and everyone else. There will be lots of crazy special fighting moves and mini-games that will be absurdly violent and over the top, color commentary to go along with the carnage.

The game seems to be focused on fighting and killing and little else, which to me is good. I hope that will be no grinding, fetch quests, matching puzzles, quick-time events or any of the other bad design choices that ruin action games these days. The game is sticking to the point and even the mini-games shown extend the violent nature of the core gameplay. The man darts event in the trailer looks like it will be pretty fun as Jack smacks opponents into an over-sized dart board. The trailer also shows some really crazy fights and Jack himself has a chainsaw strapped to his hand, so I am expecting much more creative violence implemented in the final version of the game. Right now, the game hasn’t been shown in playable form but I am expecting good things and so should you. I’ll definitely be talking more about MadWorld in the future.