Injustice: Gods Among Us

Traditionally speaking, I’m not a fan of fighting games that don’t have Smash Bros. in the title.  Sure, I played several incarnations of Street Fighter 2, but so did everyone.  And like everyone else, I’ve been brutally maimed in Mortal Kombat.  But since those games on the Super Nintendo, I haven’t bought any “traditional” fighting games.  Honestly, I just was never that good at them.  When Injustice was announced, I didn’t really pay much attention to it.  So what if it was a fighting game with DC characters.  I didn’t buy DC vs. Mortal Kombat after all.

But then I started seeing some videos for the game, and it gained my interest.  The interactive backgrounds looked fun, the transitions to different sections of a stage looked fun, and the super moves looked amazing.  Still though, it was low expectations that I downloaded the demo.  And while, there wasn’t a lot to the demo, it was a good taste of what the game had to offer.  And it also was the final thing that convinced me to buy the game.

So, I bought the game early Thursday afternoon (had a couple days off from work) and finished the main story later Thursday night.  I don’t really have an hour estimate for you, but it wasn’t that long.  But really, it’s a fighting game.  What do you expect?  But what there is of that story is fantastic.  I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but it does involve elseworlds, which explains heroes fighting other heroes.  And yes, you can assume that some of those heroes have turned evil because of events that have transpired in this world.  

Wolverine: Adamantium Frustration

My roommate managed to destroy the apartment’s supply of HDMI cables, so I found myself searching for other means of video game boredom relief.  I fired up the ZSNES emulator and took a nostalgic trip back through the adventures of the 90′s favorite band of merry mutants, the X-Men.  I gave both X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and Wolverine: Adamantium Rage a playthrough…well, as much as I could in the latter’s case before I simply wanted to rip my controller from my laptop and hurl it across the room.

The X-Men’s tenure in the 16-bit era was interesting in that with one exception (Spider-Man and X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge), there were no direct ports between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.  All games that came out for either system were exclusive, and different developers were usually responsible for the titles.  You might think that since Wolverine: Adamantium Rage was released on both systems, it would buck the trend, but you’d be wrong.  The Super Nintendo version was developed by LJN, the same that put out Wolverine for the regular Nintendo, and it’s the inferior of the two, to be blunt.

But that’s the one I played, so that’s what we’ll be looking at today.

Remember that Telltale Fables game?

Well, that game now has a name, and that name is The Wolf Among Us.

According to IGN, the game takes place before the comic begins, and players will play as Bigby Wolf as he tries to keep Fables undetected.  Originally announced in 2011, I have eagerly been awaiting this game, and it seems like I only a few more months as this game (well, episode 1 probably) is released this summer.  Also by Telltale, make sure to play The Walking Dead, if you haven’t already.  The game is fantastic.

Some Marvel news from E3

Saturday, I told you about Injustice, DC’s new fighting game.  Now, I’m here telling you about Marvel’s new game, titled Avengers:  Battle for Earth.  This game will be released for XBox Kinect and Wii U.  According to the CBR article, Ubisoft hasn’t really said what type of game it will be, but will be based on the Secret Invasion storyline.  But judging from the screen shots on the article, it really looks like a fighting game.  Here’s the trailer.

A fighting game for the New 52

I’m not normally the type of person to post trailers for movies or games, but I came across this trailer on the blog Joystiq for the game Injustice:  Gods Among Us, and just had to post it.

To me, it looks ridiculous.  The Flash’s armor highlights the worst of the New 52 redesigns.  On the comic page, I haven’t really minded it being armor, because all it has added are a few lines for seems, but here, it’s a bit over accentuated.  And oh yeah, Wonder Woman is wearing pants.  It looks kinda like what was supposed to be in the Wonder Woman TV show.  Guess the developers were planning on that show still being around.  Or have been around to begin with.

I’m not much of a fighting game fan, but the thought of having two different classes of fighter, power and gadget, sounds somewhat interesting.  These classes determine how the character interacts with the environment.

Harley Quinn’s Revenge

Harley Quinn’s Revenge is the latest downloadable content (commonly known as DLC) for Batman:  Arkham City.  Unlike the previous DLC for the game, which has included character skins and challenge maps, this is a new chapter in the story of the game.  It should go without saying, but this happens after the ending events of the game.  And if you don’t know how the game ends, I’m not going to spoil it for you, but I imagine the title of the DLC might give it away.  Either way, the DLC does kindly tell all of this, in an attempt to not ruin anything for someone that has not finished the game yet.

But anyways, let’s take a look at what we have.  There are going to be spoilers, but there aren’t really any major plot twists or major revelations to worry about.  The story starts some time after the end of Arkham City.  Batman has been missing for 2 days, after going back into the Steel Mill because Harley Quinn has abducted several police officers.  Robin, with Oracle in his ear, goes searching for him.  They’re both worried about how Batman has been acting since the end of Arkham City.  Robin fights his way past Harley Quinn’s henchmen, and comes across Batman’s utility belt. 

Comic Book Video Game Review – Batman: Arkham City

Full disclosure:  I love pretty much everything that Paul Dini has written that involves Batman.  I can’t think of anything that I didn’t like.  I really like Batman:  Arkham Asylum.  (Didn’t write a review when I finally finished it because I figured it was a few years too late.)  So, I’ll just come out and say that I loved this game.  This was the game that finally got me to enjoy an “open-environment” type game.  But, it’s really simple why I enjoyed the “open-world” aspect.  First, it’s a Batman game.  Second, and more important, the side quests aren’t mandatory.  You could play through the entire game without touching any of the side quests, and that would be alright.  But the side quests are worth doing, because they expand the characters and experience of the game.

There are minor spoilers below, but I promise, nothing big.

First, let’s start with the basic premise of the game.  Of course, it takes place after the events of Arkham Asylum.  (You don’t need to have played Arkham Asylum, but the game assumes that you did and won’t re-teach you stuff.)  Hugo Strange, with his TYGER security force, control a walled off a portion of Gotham City, and keep all of the cities criminals in there.  (Note:  I haven’t read the comics that happen between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, yet.)  During a speech, Bruce Wayne is abducted by TYGER security forces, processed, and put into Arkham City.  Of course, Bruce Wayne is able to escape the thugs by the entrance, and retrieve his Batman equipment that Alfred delivers via the Batwing.

X-Men in Video Games: Part 4

Let me tell you one thing, and I’m being completely honest.

X-Men, the 1992 arcade game, is incredible.  Despite what I may say in the rest of this post, the game is fucking incredible – and I try not to drop the f-bomb around here unless I’m really serious about something.  It’s my favorite X-Men game ever and I hope to one day own a copy of the 6-man cabinet.

There.  Now that we’re clear on that point – this game is a crazy hot load of mess.  But it’s the quirky kind of arcade mess that you likely never noticed in your youth, or simply didn’t care about.  Like where Shredder banished the Ninja Turtles into prehistoric times in Turtles in Time, yet still sent Foot Soldiers after them.

X-Men is an entire game of sending Foot Soldiers into the prehistoric past to defeat your enemies whom you’ve already defeated.

But let’s not dwell on the negative.  There’s a lot of positive to this game.’

Don’t hit Batman with bats

While playing Batman:  Arkham City a couple days ago, I indignantly said, “he hit me with a bat.”  The below picture was created by my wife to illustrate what her first thought was when I said this.

Batman is not amused.

And this is how my X-Men-based mind works

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Marvel’s Facebook game Avengers Alliance.  All of us here at Comicdom Wrecks! have been playing it.  And we’re not ones to get caught up in crappy Facebook games.

But as much as I have enjoyed it, I am an X-Men fan first and foremost, and thus I cannot allow something like this to be ignored.

This is Storm’s secondary costume, the classic Dave Cockrum design from Giant Size X-Men #1.  She wore it for quite some time (through the entire Byrne-era) until eventually ditching it for a leathered-out, mohawk thing.  She was going through a phase.

Have you noticed what’s wrong with the image above?

In that image, Storm is wearing a cape.  Sure, the cape is attached to her wrist accessories, but it’s still is a cape.  Storm doesn’t wear a cape – she never has.  Superman wears a cape.  Thor wears a cape.  Batman wears a cape.  Storm does not wear a cape.  Don’t believe me?

In actual dialogue, Storm refers to her costume attachment as a cloak.  Any way you put it, it’s not a solid cape, but rather two separate pieces coming down from her shoulders.  The separation is more evident when she’s in flight.

I’m just saying.