MYG2

{Doomboy} and SummErs, two VFers from Melbourne, Australia, recently made their presence known here on this board. Expressing interest in meeting other local VFers, like a bear nonchalantly wandering over to a stream full of struggling salmon, I just had to check these guys out.

Seeing as I had already planned a trip down to Melbourne for some serious bar-hopping and clubbing with friends, it was the perfect opportunity for me to meet up with them. I could only spare two afternoons to meet them, but we packed in as much gaming as we possibly could during that time.

I met up with these guys downtown around midday, only an hour after I had checked into my hotel. We grabbed a bite at a chillin' cafe, hoping to break some social ice, and get to know eachother better. Afterall, this was the first time any of us had met, and it's only right that the hosts get to know their guests before inviting them into their homes, right?

My first impressions of these guys? Well, {Doomboy} didn't talk much, but he was an all round nice guy. But when it came to SummErs and Shun it felt like we had known eachother for a long time, like we were old friends or something. The all round feeling was good, and I couldn't wait to get started.

We then made our way back to Shun's place (Shun is SummErs' friend), an apartment in the city, where the games were to take place. My eyes lit up as I walked into Shun's joint, seeing two Twin Sticks sitting on the floor, collecting dust. Immediately, I could feel his pain.

Let me take this moment to share with you the expectations I had of these guys. As the regulars on this board will know, {Doomboy} has been full of questions as of late, and he struck me as the type who loved the game and was eager to learn all of it's ins and outs. Don't know about the rest of you, but I personally love to see that quality in someone who's starting out in a game. The intelligent questions were a good indication of his dedication to learning the game. What's even more amazing is the total lack of a VF scene where he lives. He tells me has sorta has one person to play against. Anyway, I don't want to appear as arrogant in any way whatsoever, but my initial impression was that I wasn't going to face any heavy competition. Afterall, with no human competition I found it hard to imagine them being anything other than good CPU players. Boy was I wrong!

SummErs and Shun were pretty much in the same boat. Again, they were cursed with having no people to play against. SummErs would tell me stories of him sitting in arcades, playing VF3, just dying for someone to step up and challenge. But it wasn't to be. Again, I can empathise

When you consider the path these guys have taken to get where they are now in terms of individual skill level, I think it's pretty darn amazing, and I nod my head to each of them.

Onto the gaming. So we sat down and got stuck into business, {Doomboy} vs me, with {Doomboy} taking the win. My initial analogy of a bear taking swipes at helpless salmon quickly deteriorated. These salmon were armed to the teeth with heavy artliery and weren't afraid to use it {Doomboy} was primarily a Jacky user, and so was SummErs, but their styles were completely different. Shun was strongest with his Lau, but all three of these guys dabbled with other characters as well. I'll now describe each of their styles:

{Doomboy} - I have to reiterate just how impressed I was with his skill. Technically very proficient, however I feel he could go a long way in improving his game by exploring a more aggressive playing style. Currently, he was quite the safety player, and sometimes bordering on machi. This alone was tough to crack, but I'd really like to see him attempting to fight toe-to-toe more often. What I remember most about him were the 1 million low punches constantly searching for low kick MCs as Wolf, and choosing Taka's stage 99.9% of the time whenever he played as Kage

SummErs - His strongest character was indeed Jacky, and as I already had mentioned, he played a totally different style to that of {Doomboy}. For example, he almost never elbow-heelkick-pounced his opponent unless he had some serious catching up to do. Instead, he preferred to explore elbow flowchart options which always made the matches more interesting. However, two of the most memorable things about his game was his evil use of Jacky's Lightning Kick -- we lost count of the number of times people ate the last kick -- and his sly use of Kickflips. In fact, he tormented me with Kickflips since he knew just how much I loved to reverse them. This setup some fun guessing games. For example, his Sarah would attempt a pounce after the b+P+G throw, but my Akira would kip-up in time to avoid it. He'd then go for a kickflip -- the first time which I would eat (ouch!), but the second time I'd reverse it (yeah!). But he wisened up, and the third time, he throw me out of my reversal attempt (damn!) Those little guessing games were crazy fun, especially with all the shouting and yelling that ensued during the round. I got my fair share of kickflip reversals during that afternoon and it felt good, but I'm sure for every reversal, I must of eaten 10 kickflips

Shun - Had a promising Lau and Akira. Again, it was a laugh playing against him, especially when he'd miss many golden opportunities which would have resulted in an unbelievable finish and/or comeback! What I remember most about him was his DLC usage on the ground!!!! It's kinda suprising to see it outside of a float, and I'm sure I must of eaten one of them along the way.

That pretty much summed up the first day of play. My primary aim was to have fun, and show these guys as much as I could. I think I played every character except for Jacky, Sarah, Pai and Taka. It was a blast though, and all the laughing, yelling and screaming wasn't doing good things to my sore throat.
The second day of play took place on Friday afternoon. The hard drinking and clubbing that I had been preoccupied with for the previous two nights were beginning to take their toll on me. I was running late to meet these guys, and I also had lost my voice! I was still searching for the miracle drink to sooth my throat, and I later discovered that a vodka, lemon, lime did the trick nicely! Anyway, I'm digressing here. The gaming that took place that afternoon was more laid back, and it took me a little while to get my groove back (VF wise). This was probably due to us playing DoA2 first off. The games we had were pretty fun, but just got repetitive after a while (IMO). We then played some VOOT, where I had some pretty intense battles with Shun, who was pretty much the only guy really into VOOT. So we then settled back into VF for the rest of the afternoon, and it was all good, but again, in my mind, it was more low key compared to the first day of play. Probably due to the shift in games we played, but more importantly because of my completely knackered state of mind and health

Oh yeah, I also got to meet SummErs and Shun's friend, Hiro, who was a relative newbie to VF. He only played Wolf though, but he did show a lot of promise. {Doomboy} seemed intent on slaughtering him though, straight rounds, every time. What was up with that?

So that was pretty much it, we had a blast and that's what it's all about. Thanks again guys for the great games, and here's to more in the future! (Already thinking of my next trip to Melbourne)

And we got a lot of it on tape. I think it was 3 x 4hrs worth. When I receive my copies I'll do my best to get some of them captured.


__
m y k e
how ya gonna win when ya ain't right within?

 

The last thing I want you to do is apologise! Come on man, we had a great time, and that's what it's all about right? In no way did I mean to sound as if I was disappointed in the way you played. Absolutely not the case! In fact, it was the opposite, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned just how impressed and suprised I was at how well you, and the others, played!

From watching your characters, I just felt that Jacky was your strongest, even though as you say, he's not your primary choice. Yes, your Kage, Lau and Aoi were quite strong as well and as for being in constant kill mode, you might want to look at some form of regulation

Keep up the training, hopefully my comments, and the games we played will only make you stronger, and I'm seriously looking forward to the next time I meet you guys.

__
m y k e
how ya gonna win when ya ain't right within?

 

Oi! So you guys are ganging up against me now eh? Is that the thanks I get?

Well now I'm all hyped up with the Olympic spirit, and sure enough, next time I'm down there, I won't settle for anything less than gold! Forget the cans of whup ass (which I didn't even need to open the last time!), and prepare for a ride on the myke train!

__
m y k e
how ya gonna win when ya ain't right within?