Mario, you’re in the wrong game! You are kicking ass though. (Brutal Mario hack)
Conversations Between Two Generations of Gamers: Rep
Cousin: “Hey do they have ‘rep’ on PS3?”
Me: “No, what’s ‘rep’?”
Cousin: “People on Xbox Live can lower your rep if they think you are cheating or being a dick. I think people are lowering my rep because I merc them so much.”
Me. “So? Cool. You’re notorious now, like an outlaw.”
Cousin: “Well if my rep is bad no one will play against me anymore.”
Me: “There are millions of people on Gears to kill, you aren’t dying to find a match!”
Cousin: “But I want to merc the same people.”
Wall-jumping Redesigned
I’m a fairly hard headed individual. When I believe I have the possibility to accomplish something, and it seems just out of reach, I will gladly obsess over it, figuratively stretching my arm until it is ready to snap just to get a touch of what it is I am after. This is especially true with video games, where issues like physical exhaustion and injury are non issues.
Recently I have been playing a romhack of Super Metroid known as Super Metroid Redesigned (clever name I know). As luck would have it, there was a spot that appeared as if it may be wall-jumpable. Before we get into that though, I have to mention the physics of the game. I quote drewseph from the hacks’ readme.txt:
Something that always bothered me has been the horribly slow falling speed in this game. Every time I jumped I felt like I was wasting time waiting to land on the ground. My reason for changing it is backed up by a Pirate data in Metroid Prime that states Zebes total mass nearly equivalent to Tallon VI. I also Favored changing the physics because in every SM hack I’ve played I get bored rather quickly because I already know everything there is. I know where I can wall jump, that I can bomb jump places, that I can easily get around this place by doing another thing. I have also modified bomb jumping to return to the fast falling speeds of M1 and Metroid Prime. Many tricks you knew in the original will need to be relearned which brings back that “unfamiliar” feeling of gameplay. THATS why I changed the physics.
So basically, you fall faster, throwing off over ten years of wall jumping muscle memory. This meant all things related to jumping were sped up, and facilitated new approaches to once common and simple jumps. You can see the change from the opening of the game.
As for the jump itself, Super Metroid players should get the gist of it via this mock up below.
For those who haven’t played Super Metroid, yet are for some reason reading an article about SM wall-jumping techniques, let me explain. Samus is moving from bottom to top. She nudges her way slowly to the furthest spot to the left of the small platform (Samus A). Afterwards you take a very small running jump that is just less than the animation of one of her steps (Samus B) before taking a leaping flip into the air (Samus C). If done precisely she will reach the bottom 1/4 of the highest block on the upper ledge (Samus D). In the instant she connects with the block she goes into her wall-jump animation and with quick reflexes can bounce off the wall.
Unfortunately once Samus comes out of her jump she will quickly bump into the diagonal slab of wall opposite the brick she jumped off of. Because of this, she has a moment less to turn her body, meaning the moment she wall-jumps she must immediately begin to transform into morph ball mode (Samus E & F). This will slow her fall slightly, and if timed correctly, will land you on the edge of the upper platform (Samus G).
After all this effort (and it was a lot for me) Samus finally reaches the doorway (Samus H). What was behind the doorway is of little importance, because sadly Samus did not have all the items necessary to deal with what was through there. In short, it was a dead-end. The sequence has gone unbroken for now in Super Metroid Redesigned, but at least I am proud of doing one hell of a wall-jump.
Looking forward to beating you up in Persona 4: Arena
Very excited for Persona 4: Arena. I have not played more than an hours worth of the original Persona 4 on which it was based on, but the fact that this is being made by Arc System Works, the people behind Blazblue and Guilty Gear, has me on the edge of my seat.
The animation looks great, the combos and fight style are clearly reminiscent of BB/GG and the characters seem way more over the top than I could have imagined in the hour introduction to Persona 4 could have lead me to believe. Not to mention news out of the Japanese fighting scene seems to indicate that this could be a viable tournament fighter.
It’s been a while since I stopped playing my last big fighting game, King of Fighters XIII, so a new fighting game is going to be necessary sooner than later. Looks like this is getting an August launch in the US though, so I still have quite a wait.
