Salads
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Posts
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Joined
Posts posted by Salads
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I can't say that I've played many battle royale games, but it's impossible that any could be greater than Super Bomberman R Online.
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Put all five remaining wrestlers in an Island Deathmatch each show via video wall. Paying fans get hours of wrestling for their money and it's completely covid safe.
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19 hours ago, Casey said:
The whole angle just feels weird. Why did Ogogo need to cover him with the Union Jack, and not, say, a flag with the Factory’s new logo on it or something?
Simple provocation. We all know how Cody feels about unions.
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Between the did-he-mean-to-say-that 'you didn't come here to live the England Dream', listing Gabriel Kidd as among the best wrestlers the UK has produced and not knowing what irony is, that was a textbook if stereotypical dumb American heel promo.
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I can't stand SRPGs, and considering the gargantuan state of my backlog and how long the things take I have no great inclination to try and change that.
That said, Into the Breach is one of the best games I've ever played so I'm definitely seconding that. Three controllable units, an 8x8 grid and minimal gear/exp modifiers prevented me from feeling bewildered at having a billion possible moves at my disposal like I normally would. I can actually sit and analyse the board like it's a game of chess before making my moves (which I assume is what normal people can do with regular SRPGs) and reject the notion that the winning moves were something that would never have occured to me when I lose.
After working my way up the difficulties almost every round of every game ended up some variation of 'There are six enemies about to attack five different targets. I have three controllable units, none of which has an attack strong enough to take an enemy out by itself and only one with the HP to withstand an attack.' with me eventually having to come up with a Rube Goldberg machine of push / status / block / exhaust / sink chain reactions so that miracle of miracle everyone lives just this one day. Then two more of the bastards crawl up out of the ground to join the rest and you have do it all again for round two of five only without some of the things you've just sacrificed because there was No Other Way. Many games present seemingly insurmountable odds for you to gain the satisfaction of surmounting but I think only Into the Breach has made me keep believing they were insurmountable with such frequency.
Fractured But Whole is a great, safe choice if you liked Stick of Truth. I rate both, as I do the Costume Quest rpg-as-role-players contextualisation it uses. On a similar note I'm currently dabbling with Chroma Squad. Not something I'd recommend (I don't like SRPGs, honest!) but I love its framing of SRPG battlegrounds as 'indie TV studio filming Super Sentai fights' which it runs with about as well as you could hope.
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When Mox challenged Nagata it seemed like he was crossing off a name on his fanboy wishlist to give people like us something to talk about.
Now it's happening on Dynamite it looks like a Saudi Prince booked it.
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No way was I expecting Shingo to get this much backing when he came in. I wonder how Sanada feels being the #4 guy in LI even after Evil left.
> Comes in
> Wins jr tag title after three months
> Is undefeated for the best part of a year
> Sets a points record in his only BOSJ
> Loses final, immediately promoted to heavyweight
> First ever double-NEVER champion (for seven months!)
> Spends 294 days as a heavyweight singles champ
> Needs Tanahashi to prise the NEVER title away from him, then a New Japan Cup final
> Loses NJC final, then does an Ibushi and gets the shot anyway
> Straight IWGP main eventing -
3 hours ago, Archibald said:
I kinda suspect that this booking is somewhat motivated by Naito, to be more specific, by his failure to replace Tanahashi way back then. When he was given more "freedom" he become very different character and likely is still their #1 money maker. I think the lesson here is that you can never replace something great by copying it. Replacement has to be just as great and, most importantly, different to what it is replacing. So they are not trying to create a new Tanahashi or new Okada or new Naito, they are trying to create new X and many older fans don't really like it.
After years of 'why haven't New Japan made Naito / Ibushi / whoever the guy yet' it turns very quickly to 'now what?' once delivered when the same guys are still facing the same guys. You mentioned Naito as an example of creating a new star, but I'd also use him as an example of reinventing one. Every now and again (Chono, Mutoh, Makabe, Nakamura, Naito... or Yano!) NJ have someone who's already up there as a mainstay but an almost US-style gimmick repackaging not only makes them more popular but is effectively a new character helping rematches feel fresh. If you can get that right it's priceless for an established name in a closed roster where everyone's G1ing everyone else year on year.
I would say Ibushi was a prime candidate for this. Seems like his God declaration was only marginally more convincing than Naito's shuyaku line, and he's going to need to tone his ring style down sooner or later. Is Okada going to be the Rainmaker for twenty years (balloon Kaz doesn't count)? Fantasy booking time but with excursions out of the question if those two names are the most rumoured to get some AEW interaction that might serve as a catalyst.
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Seconding that Okada dropping the belt was the start of the downfall rather than Omega leaving. No way you can include the build to Omega/Tanahashi in NJPW's 'golden age', the Ibushi/Cody three-way seemed like an open admission that booking had been replaced by pandering and it's clear that Omega's attitude/leaving threw a giant spanner into the planning that had previously been working well. It was hardly a Rikio but in hindsight still a waste of and step down from Okada's reign.
Will defend EVIL's title win. I've seen both New Japan and NOAH crash and burn after peaks and I don't think there's a wide realisation of the threat of it happening again. Goto, Yano, KENTA, Tanahashi and Ishii are over 40 and Shingo, Ibushi, Cobb and Naito aren't far off. Guys like Taichi or Yoshi-Hashi who seem 'new' in terms of roster presence are the same. In five year's time it will be a very different landscape, and who's replacing them on the native side? EVIL and Sanada make the third gen look like the four kings, but you've got to give them something before you're doing it because it's necessary. Putting the belt on 45 year old Ishii does not solve any problems or turn around business. I'd even argue it's not that interesting.
Okada and Takahashi aside, both divisions are short on future options. The prime candidates to link this age to the next in the heavyweight division are Okada, Ospreay and White. The latter two being Western star-getters that are under long term contract and in their 20s. With AEW around and in the ear of anyone WWE managed to miss the rotating foreigner spot isn't going to be able to rotate like it used to. You're probably thinking that star-getting isn't what NJPW needs, and I would agree with you... but it is?
I've been a New Japan guy since 2003, and I agree with a lot of the points mentioned about what would make their product more interesting. However I've grown to learn that what makes New Japan interesting to me is the opposite of what makes them popular and profitable. Didn't like the long NOAH matches in the 2000s. Didn't like the Kobashi run from a booking standpoint. I prefered plausible unpredictability over storybook templates. But Western internet fans loved them and business was on the up. New Japan start doing it in 2010s. Same result. Having loved seeing young talents rise through the ranks I couldn't stand Okada's push and Bullet Club seemed the worst kind of the many Americanisms I was seeing introduced. So of course they're quickly accepted as puro's brightest star and biggest merch sellers worldwide.
To me New Japan is about Ishii, ZSJ, Yano, Suzuki. In the past it was Nishimura, Fujita and whatever musclehead gaijin they flew in that month. Clashes of styles. Moxley in the G1? Welcome aboard! At one point Ibushi coming up from the Jrs was part of that. It's clear that NJ still values this but we know the names that made New Japan 'great' and it doesn't work to fly against that. Meltzer is the biggest promoter of New Japan in the West, and Western fans now do the unthinkable and actually pay to watch them, so that viewpoint affects their bottom line more directly than possibly anyone else. NJPW World also makes them vulnerable. WWE and AEW would have far more vocal red line issues for fans ala Ospreay if those companies were behind a paywall as opening your wallet requires a different level of engagement. I've heard 'Stop catering to Western fans' as a common complaint but it's not great advice when those fans are also now customers and they will stop paying if they don't like what they see. So cater they shall.
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Transformers Devastation reminds me of those old licensed games where they'd throw a license drape (or three) over whatever game template they had ready to go. In a good way. It doesn't really fit (why are the Autobots using swords?) but I bought it for 'Transformers + Platinum' and that's what I got. High sequel potential with I think only about five controllable characters which won't happen due to licensing, but can't fault Activision for having the license in the first place and putting their money on 'like Bayonetta but with vehicle form hit and runs for wicked weaves'.
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As someone who had an accusation made of them at work involving a colleague of the opposite sex comprehensively debunked later down the line but still gets soul-chilling moments when considering there may be people out there who only knew of the first part, it's scary how absent the developments from late last year are when this topic comes up. Teflon above deciding against trusting it is fair enough it's not like we can be 100% either way, but considering the level of Britwres sleaze we've seen I'm disappointed seeing Will widely described as a Scurl-tier offender based primarily on an individual tweeting something which they later walked back as an 'opinion' when information came out to the contrary.
It's clear at this point that Will's stupidity isn't something that can be masked by interviews so in my head canon that's his gimmick, that David Finlay tweet was kayfabe and him attacking his girlfriend to make a point that no one gets isn't surprising. He's not unhinged stupid, or too-trusting Sting stupid he just repeatedly makes life hard for himself by saying the wrong thing and making bad decisions. You've got to take your real-life qualities and exaggerate them.
I've always liked NJPW having IWGP titles with the suggestion of an independent governing body lending wider credibility rather than the 'this is the best guy we have under conract right now' vibe you get from championships named after the promotion itself. So a shame that this governing body is toothless and always goes along with whatever the holders want with promos about how challengers will mess with the titles in the event that they win.
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On 3/12/2021 at 12:33 AM, just drew said:
It's the same thing with Kenny. In addition to his "crash as crash can" in ring style, I don't buy what he's trying to sell the audience right now, especially when the two guys he's programming with are maybe the two most authentic dudes in wrestling today. Listen to Eddie Kingston talk about being in the holding cell before his sentencing and then listen to Kenny Omega try to mock him by talking about detention in 7th grade. Either he's doing the world's best "pretentious dweeb" impression, or he actually is a pretentious dweeb.
Okada is also a colossal dork, but his game face is firmly on when the show starts. Similarly when most people find out Misawa was a big Kamen Rider fan they are surprised because Kamen Rider Fan was most definitely not his gimmick (though dressing as an anime character in-ring for several years should have been a clue).
It seems that Kenny doesn't have the right dork flavour to resonate with fans the way Hangman can, but isn't able to mask it like the biggest names can. At least I enjoy the stories Kenny tells even if I don't buy them. I remember people not being able to get into the Rock in his prime because they thought he was too goofy, and in-ring is where Kenny is likely ironing over the cracks for the kind of readership we have so I can see that alone being enough reason for some.
I soured on Kenny for a bit after his behaviour surrounding him leaving New Japan. I put it down to me committing the crime of being a Lion Mark with my sentence being not appreciating one of the great modern day workers. While I've since eased on that stance I've been trying to work out why it was so easy to me to do a 180 on him with only the slightest of prompts. Partly this was because his stuff was easy to buy into if you want to which explains why he's super popular in the wrestling bubble but not so much in the mainstream, but also because I was the co-runner of an e-fed in the noughties. Every now and again he gives me flashbacks to the kind of character I would see all the time and always hate:
Cool cocky heel? Check.
Leader of nWo rip-off stable? Check.
'Best wrestler in the world' gimmick? Check.
Almost certainly using the above gimmick to hide that it is their actual opinion? Check.
Extensive fued / storyline ideas exclusively involving their RL friends? Check.
Snarky shoot comments when they don't get what they want? Check.
Finisher that no one is allowed to kick out of? Check.
Career long rivalry with a frenemy which we know about because they and they alone keep on bringing it up? Check.
'You're stifling my creativity! I'm starting my own fed!' Check.-
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Suzuki (currently 52), Tanahashi (44) and Ishii (45) are the 'gotta be up there' 2021 entrants to this topic from NJPW's side.
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9 hours ago, Eoae said:
Wii U is a weird one for me. I feel like it was badly designed and marketed, so it probably deserved to fail, but I still like it a lot. The library of Nintendo titles is great. I think I enjoyed almost every game Nintendo published for it. Plus you get the Wii library, and a rather decent selection of virtual console titles. For some reason, I'm more nostalgic for it than I am about most game consoles.
But, man, some of those hardware design decisions were head-scratchers.
If it weren't for most of the library managing to later find a larger, more appreciative audience I'd probably be bitter and raving about the Wii U on street corners. It was always destined for failure which made the press assasinations seem needless. Right now it's primarily a great way to grab virtual console (esp GBA, DS and Wii) games digitally, affordably and permanently possibly for the last time.
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5 hours ago, Eoae said:
If anyone has any suggestions for under-the-radar Wii U digital games, let me know. Almost has to be an obscure Wii U exclusive or something that was ported from PC or handheld, though.
Using the extensive research method of looking at what I have, I'm surprised how little there actually is on the download side once the virtual console is taken out of the equation.
- Mighty Switch Force and The Gunman Clive games are good stuff but have since been ported to Switch. Similarly, I have Fast Racing NEO in my backlog but I think Switch's Fast RMX is an expansion of the same thing.
- Severed is available on other systems, but I would think best played with a stylus.
- The NES Remix games have some content not included in the later 3DS compliation port.
- Star Fox Guard should be on anyone's 'making use of the gamepad' checklist.
- Would've grabbed Mario vs Donkey Kong Tipping Stars if it were on sale, and Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails was tempting.
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8 hours ago, JLSigman said:
Question - I have a Windows 10 computer. Are there any good game controllers? I'm guessing I can't just go grab my PS3 or PS4 ones and plug them in.
In my experience, I have it on decent authority that just about any controller can work with PC, but they won't. Spent far too much of my life pissing around buying adapters, downloading drivers, configging everything button by button etc and I think the best I managed was 'my PC knows the controller is there, and if I run this program in the background beforehand I can use it without analogue control but only if I bought the game on Steam'. Obviously my failings don't mean you won't have great success but for peace of mind just grab any Xbox controller (well, 360 and newer) and it'll always work.
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1 hour ago, Craig H said:
Yeah, he's way more liberal with the stars now. I wonder if part of it came from going to so much SoCal wrestling and not really giving as much of a shit.
I used to be irritated with how revered his ratings were until he broke through the five star barrier making it clear he agreed. I forgot all about him handing out a seven, which remains tremendous.
1 hour ago, The Natural said:Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega are closing in on Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa for ***** and + matches. Might have surpassed them. The Young Bucks won't be that far behind either.
Surprisingly I only count 4 for the Bucks. There's a list on wikipedia with a handy league table of the top ***** earners at the bottom. Appropriately it goes up to 11.
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I was thinking that being in five star matches on consecutive days has to be a first, but thanks to rating escalation over recent years this is by my count the fourth time and the second for Ibushi.
Speaking of escalation, how's this for a five star rating scoreboard:
AEW - 6
The 2000s - 7
Ospreay - 13
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'Near or at the end of their careers' can get confusing in the world of pro wrestling where a career can have multiple endings or cameos extending decades beyond full-time activity.
WOR Dave recently described Minoru Suzuki as having the best year of work by a 52 year old in history. I thought that sounded like a cool spin on the wrestler of the year debate format - 'Wrestler of the Age'. Competition would be too crowded in the middle of the bell curve, but working in from the edges might be interesting.
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On 10/2/2020 at 6:59 AM, gordi said:
Apologies if this has already been posted.
The New Japan site is running a series of interviews with Tanahashi covering his entire life and career, translated into English. It's a good read, very interesting. I think even if you are not a Tana fan, the stuff about his time in the dojo etc is still well worth a look.
https://www.njpw1972.com/74377
This is great stuff but is spread across many pages (one per week), so not easy reading. And it's chronological so people may not get past the 'tell us about your childhood' material, so I've broken it down a bit.
'This is kinda embarrassing but I went back to visit Gifu recently, and my old school friends told me when I was a kindergartner I would constantly be trying to lift up girls’ skirts. '
Including his favourite match as a fan.
'No, we just wore costumes. I took a sharpie and wrote KENTA KOBASHI on a white T-shirt, but for some reason I drew a (Masahiro) Chono goatee on my face (laughs).'
Go to law school, focus on your Ultimate Warrior tribute act.
Love of pro wrestling and buffness costs jobs and gfs.
I had forgotten that Wataru Inoue existed.
'It was (Yutaka) Yoshie, then (Togi) Makabe, (Kazuyuki) Fujita, (Wataru) Inoue and (Katsuyori) Shibata. Then Masakazu Fukuda transferred in from Dream Factory in January ’99, then it was me and Suzuki. There were a lot of us in that dorm, and we were all big guys, too.'
Getting naked with Kenzo Suzuki, and why I couldn't sleep with Shibata.
Mad facts about Kazuyuki Fujita
Graduating himself out of young lioning
Also, nights on the town with Hashimoto and some Otani/Choshu goss.
I should've seen the explanation for their tag name coming.
Working in AJPW, first main events and American influences. Also, an unlikely choice for his favourite match of his from that era.
Choosing between NJPW and AJPW. Also, not going on excursion 'Well if you think of Japanese wrestlers who made it right to the top without that experience overseas first, it’s me and Kenta Kobashi really'
Thinking the same about Inoki as we all did
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Hope this hasn't been posted but I stumbled across the following picture showing some G1 stats for this year's entrants. The bits that stood out to me were EVIL already having a positive win/loss record going in, and 50/50 booking giving all five men who debuted in last year's tournament identical results.
Spoiler
Also of interest (to me at least) are the previews NJPW are putting up on their site (like this) showing the singles and G1 singles record for individual match-ups. Every match on night 6 has someone who has yet to beat their opponent in a G1, for example.
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21 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:
And I guess there was a directive to not yell like normal due to COVID but it was sad seeing Suzuki's entrance and not hearing them scram "Kazi Ni Nare!" I get why as there's a risk and all but props to them for cheering along best they can via clapping.
Out of context it would sound like the work of some kind of sinister COVID-spreading cult if they weren't so well behaved. Thousands of people attend a public event and at one previously-coordinated point expel the virus into the air with the full force of their lungs and the words 'become the wind'.
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I thought the Xbox One name was confusing because of how the Xbox became retroactively referred to by some as the Xbox 1 after the 360 came out (like the 'PS1'). I thought it was some kind of brand reboot to simplify things going forward, but without an Xbox Two why stick the word One after your third of four systems? 'XBox Series' should logically refer to the series of XBoxes that have been released, of which the first one has no name that can refer to it by itself and the second one has a 3 in its name. It's all mental.
Let's put a smile on that face.
in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
Posted
Was recently introduced to Dan Soder's Macho Man impersonation. I am absolutely smitten.
This has had me smiling all day (if you'll excuse the nsfw line in the middle):