Niji Superfan

It's okay bro. Noob is in good hands when I play him!

I felt really sloppy. I'm mostly satisfied with how I played, but ugh, I was so tense. I've never had any difficulty stomping him before, but I had that lingering fear that maybe something would go wrong. Maybe he somehow got way better. Maybe I'd have an off day and play like total ass (It's happened before, though thankfully I was just playing some friends). Between that and the randomly dropped button inputs, I felt like I wasn't playing very... Tight. Now, the last Noob set was really strong, I felt. I'm pretty satisfied with the turnout there, other than the botched crossup near the end. I'll be playing another guy on sunday who is reportedly not a total scrub bitch (even if he's such an unfunny d-bag that I find it hard to take him seriously), so that one should be a lot more eventful. I might even be getting a guy with an HDPVR to record that one!

Well, on one hand, I think that's due to potential lag issues. On the other hand... Is having four people in one match really any different from having eight people in a KotH? At any rate, an Ultimate Mortal Kombat 9 is all but guaranteed at this point, which is presumably how NRS is going to address a lot of the shit they've been called on. As a lot of people have been saying, MK9 is basically their first real attempt to make a competitive fighter, so you can't expect them to get everything right on the first try. Because of that, a UMK9 seems likely, as it gives them time to gather fan input on what they need to change and address it in the expanded edition. Factor in that it'd be cheaper to make a UMK9 than it would to make an MK10, and the obvious nostalgic appeal of a throwback to UMK3. QED, there's no reason for NRS not to release a UMK9 at some point.

Yup, that's why I tried playing ranked: People constantly avoid me. My record isn't even THAT good, but I guess they assume it's good enough to pose a threat to their precious ratio. I almost hope I end up with more losses than wins at this rate, because at least then I won't have trouble finding a game. The issue with ranked is that I can just never. Get. In. I try to find a game, and I never get one. I'm guessing the issue is that it tries to pair me with new players that just aren't there. I might just keep at it long enough to see if it'll finally pair me up with people more consistently, but honestly, I just don't have the patience for this shit right now. Thankfully, I spend most of my time headhunting players I've heard good things about or getting KotHs going with my friends. Most of the people I play with are well above average, so they're always good practice. Milky Situation's Reptile is fucking Chris G-tier. Honestly, I love doing tag if it's some guy with a guest. For one, tag kind of amuses me anyway, and there's considerably lower risk of gay 100% combos if it's two separate people. Two, if one of them has a headset, you can guarantee that there will be bitching in the background. Fuck, it NEVER gets old.

...Bleh. My bad, I'll go delete a random right away. Try again in like, five minutes. EDIT: Nevermind, you're added. We're all good to go. Also, holy fuck, Barry White.

Yeah, this is definitely not the best measure of my skill. I was really tense because I was so worried he might ACTUALLY have gotten good and I'd look like a retard for all to see. The biggest issue I have with kids like this is the holy fuck random style of play. Scrubs man, I do worse against them than I do against GOOD players. If you treat them like a smart player, you get blown up. I can just remember the last real set, where I kept thinking "Would he really wakeup teleport that many times in a row? Naw, even he's not that stupid". Apparently, I gave him too much credit. I really hate to use this excuse, but it's so easy to overestimate scrubs. You try to play as you would against a smart player, because you think "Oh, it's cool, I can give him these openings because a smart player wouldn't even try to take a stupid risk like that". Ironically, that's what gets you. I swear, those are the only losses I really hold in my chest: The ones where you tried to play too smart for the dumb fuck you were matched up with. Feels bad, man. My ratio is just under 2.00, I think. I used to be pretty concerned with it, but honestly, I actively seek out people that I know to be as good as I am or better. I must've thrown twenty losses at Krebs (the guy who beat Tom Brady 3-1 in CEO casuals) just trying to adjust to his play, and I probably won 7 or 8 out of those. I'm just not worried about my record anymore, really. The way I see it, I've improved so, so much more since I started playing with the big dogs. I can't remember the last time I played a really good player I couldn't square with; even when I do lose, it's usually not by much, and I'll be DAMNED if I don't drag it to the third round. All in all, it's working wonders for me. If the tradeoff is that my record is going to go to shit, so be it: I'd love for all the dumbfuck boosters with superficial 4.0 records to challenge me for an easy win. I actually thought you were on PSN, so I wouldn't have ever thought to ask. I'm down, and uh, I guess my GT should go without saying now. Just send me a message with your GT or something so I know it's you, because I get a lot of randoms.

Ho shit, it's up.

Dude, I've been pulling for that fucking outfit since I started maining Subs. It's easily the best look he's ever had, and it was the only one where he really stood out from the other ninjas. Of course, it doesn't really stand out from Shredder, but whatever. The important thing is, he looked just different enough to stand out from Scorpion and Ermac, but not so different that he didn't look like Sub Zero. He still has Sub's style going on, and it's not such a drastic overhaul that you're unsure if this is even the same fucking character (I'm looking at you, Reptile). I think we need to just make 1000 Twitter accounts each and spam Boon until he puts it in the game. Granted, if he gets a UMK3 ninja outfit, that'll tie me over for a damn long time. I couldn't give less of a fuck for his maskless MK3 look, but the UMK3 ninjas were the shit.

I still KINDA have a hunch that the last costume will be two palette swaps as well, provided this one ISN'T going to have fucking Stryker of all people, but Liu Kang and Kung Lao seems pretty likely. To be honest, I'd probably be more inclined to play Kung Lao if he had his MK3 outfit. Hell, I really liked his MKDA outfit; I'd DEFINITELY pick him up if he had that. ...Now, if a pre-patched Kung Lao comes out and a pre-patched Sub Zero doesn't, mark my fucking words: I will hold off on that compatability pack until it's patched. I am not fighting pre-patched Kung Lao, no fucking way. Of course, if it's Cyber Smoke, I'll eat my words in short order. Nothing could stop me from downloading that post-fucking-haste.

Honestly, I kind of like Stryker's MK9 representation, for uh... The first time ever. The issue is that his MK3 alt is barely any fucking different, and I've seen two fucking people ever that actually want it. If we get Stryker and Sonya, I almost want to find a way not to download the costumes and still get Rain. Somehow. I'll post the videos here when they're up, yeah. Botzart closed his thread out of butthurt, anyway. He tends to do that.

...Who the fuck SERIOUSLY wants a Stryker alt? It's literally the same goddamn thing he has in MK9, just worse. Goddamn do I ever hope this just a funny coincidence. Video's still not up, by the way, but I wasn't expecting it to be up right this instant. Dill told me he was getting off work at around noon my time, and it's quarter to four now. It shouldn't be too much longer. Also, yeah, Botzart is a special sort of individual. I'm pretty sure he's like Magnus in that he gets easily irritated, the counter-trolls for attention. As sad as it is, he's a lot better at it than Magnus. Now, the really funny part is this shit: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/961032-mort...26749/663702943 This kid comes in and gets defensive because I said I don't give a fuck if he thinks the no X-ray condition is stupid, on the basis that he wasn't accusing me of proposing it. Apollo chimes in with him and suggests I can't read, oh so passive-aggressively. ...I explicitly stated that it was my condition IN the post, all four lines of it that no self-respecting individual should even be able to misinterpret. I'm telling you man, GFAQs is so much more enjoyable if you just treat it like a dark comedy.

Well, here's the thing: They linked to a picture of a blue slush as well. They linked to a picture of literal fucking ice, all flavored and blue-like. Hopefully, this is some kind of indication that we're getting something for ONE of the Sub Zeroes. We can keep our fingers crossed, I guess. I'm subbed to Tom Brady on Youtube man, I saw the 73%. The thing is, Brady is so sure it it's going to get patched that I wouldn't put any stock in it. His 55%, unfortunately, is probably here to stay. I guess I shouldn't bitch too much because I play Cyrax, but I have to admit it's a little steep. Also, I played some scrub from GFAQs in a bunch of recorded sets tonight, which will be going up tomorrow afternoon. Details here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/961032-mortal-kombat/59726749 Just uh, read my posts, I guess.

My issue with Subs having his damage toned down is that Ermac STILL does the same amount of damage that pre-patch Subs did, and he doesn't have to work near as hard for it. Hell, look at Cyrax: If you get one net and you have one bar, you get a fucking 50% combo. What the fuck? Is this a joke? Even then, if you get a dash in or a crossup? Same thing. Any situation that would allow a 2 1 rewards you with a combo for half of some poor fuck's health, which is retarded. The fact that Sub Zero got toned down to mediocre damage output when all these easy-spam characters run rampant is just fucking arbitrary. I still really doubt it's going to be Stryker and Sonya, granted, because 1) I've seen literally one person ever who actually wants MK3 Stryker and 2) I doubt any of them won't be mirrored skins. The first two were, and they're far from exhausting their repository of old palette swaps. I think they'll reach for that first.

I'd be okay with Rain requiring meter for his BnBs. Truthfully, I don't even think Shang or Sektor do, and I'm not sure why people think so: Yeah, they can rack up more damage with meter, but Shang can easily hit 30% without it. Sektor can get up to around 35% without it, and 40% on a good day. They definitely play off the meter a LOT more liberally than most other characters, but they're certainly not shackled to it. People act like Shang gets bent over if he doesn't have a bar to combo off of, but he has practical solutions for 30% from midscreen. As for Rain playing like Sektor, uh... Honestly, I couldn't tell who the fuck he's supposed to play like from the trailer, for whatever reason. I could kind of see the Sektor parallels, though I see some Ermac in there as well. The control orb SCREAMS space control, and he seems to have a lot of juggle openings. I do think he needs to start sending Sektor a christmas card every year for ripping off his teleport, but other than that, I'm seeing more Ermac. I just really hope his normals don't suck ass. Look at Smoke: His normals make him look like he should be decent up close, but the reality is that Smoke needs to run the fuck away from anyone with even a modicum of rushdown potential. Christ, STRYKER is a match for Smoke in close quarters, what the hell is that? If Rain is so limited in that regard, it's definitely going to deter me from playing him. ...Oh who the fuck am I kidding, he could fight like a sissy girl and I'd still play him. Rain's my negro, always has been. I'm truthfully pretty content with how idiot-proof Kenshi was, because I got a very different impression from his trailer. Hell, I even like playing as him, and I've NEVER given a shit about Kenshi. I didn't really take to Skarlet, but I may just give her another go somewhere down the road; I think the big issue I had with her is that she just felt so... Unintuitive. I tried putting together combos with her, and nothing felt right. I spent all of an hour with Kenshi, and thought "Welp, I have 35% BnBs from midscreen and 40% BnBs in the corner, I feel like I'm making some good progress." With Skarlet, I felt like I had early onset Alzheimer's. Trying to get a feel for her erratic movements was shit-your-pants-and-forget-your-name-tier. Right now, I honestly just want to learn Reptile so I can understand how the fuck to stop him. The best player I know mains him, and while I can go back and forth with his Reptile, I feel so lost. I CAN beat him, but when I don't, I can't even understand what the fuck beat me. The reason I don't have an issue with Kung Lao is that I know the character inside and out; it's rare for a Kung Lao to beat me, but when it happens, I understand why. When a really good Reptile beats me, I don't have even the slightest clue what the fuck just happened. At this point, I feel like the only way I'm going to understand is if I learn the character myself. The big deal with beating Reptile is that the people I play with have rolled tourney players. Milky Situation, the guy who gives me so much trouble with Reptile, has a record of something like 15-3 with Krebs. Krebs beat Tom Brady 3-1 in casuals at CEO; he was also just shy of top 16 in the tournament, and considering Chris G eliminated him, I think that's pretty commendable. Hell, Milky's beaten THTB and Krayzie Bone, to the point where they both blamed "broken thumbsticks" (I think this is actually on stream somewhere). Lionheart, another guy we usually play with, actually beat a "TS Sabin" in ranked: I still don't know if that's the real Sabin's GT, but if it is, uh... Holy fuck. In any case, I think you can understand why being able to consistently stop this guy's Reptile would be a huge accomplishment for me. ...Granted, I fucking ROLLED Krebs with my Cyber Subs the last time I played him, so you can imagine I felt pretty good about that. I just watched TylerLantern's Kenshi compilation, by the way. On one hand, I'm seeing some interesting combo linkers in there that I really want to try. On the other hand, TylerLantern's videos are rarely anything more than a percentile pissing contest. I really don't mean to knock the guy and I have nothing against him personally, but let's cut the shit: His combos are rarely practical. I can remember seeing a video for a corner X-ray combo with Cyber Subs for a whopping 62%; you can imagine that grabbed my attention in short order. My excitement ended about three seconds into the video, when I realized the likelihood of landing it in a heated matchup. Like, cool, you can break 60% with a really contrived effort that's inconsistent even for a situational combo. I think I'll stick to my 57% corner X-ray; you know, the one that's actually going to work. ANYWAY, here was my corner X-ray, which is just slightly adapted from my original corner combo: F2 2 B1, 2 1 B2, F2 2 upslash, 3 X-ray That's 48% without a jump-in punch, and 51% with it. Basically, the issue is that I couldn't finish the last string and still hit them with the X-ray, so I had to find something that'd pin them in the air long enough to hit. I tried fucking everything, and I marvel at how ineffective these strings were. You'd think that his 1 1 1 would lift them high enough, but apparently the recovery time kills that. Is there ANY use for that string whatsoever? Christ. What I DID see over on TYM was a combo where a guy did a neutral 2 before the 2 1 B2 to squeeze just a little more damage out, before gravity walks in and shits on your juggle potential. What I'm considering now is doing the same with a neutral 3 the next time I take him into a lab, since it's the highest damage single-hit combo linker at his disposal. ...All I know is, if building combos with Rain is as fun as it is with Kenshi, I'm never going to leave my room again. It'll be like regaining my virginity somehow. ALSO, since I forgot to mention this, one of the devs dropped a hint as to who the next pair of DLC skins will be: "Blueberry and lime". Before Sektor and Cyrax were revealed, the hint they gave was ketchup and mustard. Before Noob and Smoke were revealed, it was salt and pepper. People have been saying "Sonya and Jax", but like... Blueberries aren't fucking BRIGHT MAGENTA. One of the other hints they gave was a link to a blue slush, which makes it pretty clear that the colors are blue and green. At any rate, likely candidates are Kitana + Jade, or Sub Zero + Reptile. If it's the first two, it'll probably be their MK2 outfits, which would... Really fucking suck. If it's the second two, it could be their MK2 outfits (which would be alright I guess), or it could be their UMK3s. We know the UMK3 outfits are coming sooner or later, so this might be how they're dropping them. If that is the case, I will bust a fucking nut. Sub Zero's my boy, even if he's not my main anymore, and I'd certainly have a lot more incentive to pick up Reptile if he didn't look like such a fucking tool. Sidenote: If it IS Subs and Reptile in any form, this means pre-patched Sub Zero shenanigans. Just... Think of the trolling, man. I just have this image of me running around with my sleek as fuck UMK3 Sub Zero, doing 40% from midscreen. Kids are screaming. My inbox is OVERFLOWING with hatemail. The butthurt outcries can be heard from miles away. ...Suddenly, I'm a little more okay with NRS fucking up with the free DLC skins! One last point of interest: According to MK wiki, Rain's EX control orb is going to stay active longer for more positioning time, and his EX roundhouse is going to have armor (holy tits this is awesome). On one hand, they don't have a source for any of this, but on the other hand, they had info on Kenshi's EX moves before he came out and it proved to be accurate. If nothing else, it's something to think about. P.S. I just want to point out that Rain's match entrance is so fab.

Honestly, even if you do have to burn meter to get good damage out of him, I think it'd be fair. He looks like he has ridiculous fucking potential from that video, so I'd be okay with this being his tradeoff. Honestly, I just hope that Rain has a steep learning curve. Rain's been one of my favorite characters since I was a kid, arguably just behind Ermac. I don't want to see him get spammed to all hell by every scrubby kid online. Hell, I actually want him to have more of a Shang Tsung learning curve, so it'll take serious fucking dedication to pick him up. I honestly could not be more impressed with Rain, in either case. He has the control orb, which I've been pulling for since before the game came out. He has the SUPER ROUNDHOUSE, which is such a longshot that I'm amazed it was included. He has two fucking awesome fatalities at that, and the pressurized water blade is such a nice touch. I braced for disappointment with Rain, because I thought "I have such high hopes for this character that it'd be unrealistic to think NRS will live up to them", but like... They fucking delivered. I'm still pretty irritated with a lot of the little inconsistencies plaguing MK9, but if nothing else, their DLC has been solid. Nice work on the Kenshi guide, by the way. I actually have a corner X-ray combo I want to add to it that's 50% off a jump-in punch, but I want to see if there's a way to break 50 without a jump-in. I really feel like there should be some way to push this combo further, and I'm not giving up until I'm sure that it's a lost cause.

It really wasn't the case with Marvel 2 any more than it is with 3, and Marvel 3 has Phoenix. Voila, up the bullshit 200%.

xfd if you actually want to watch any footage of this game. This game is seriously the least-cinematic fighting game I've ever seen. SF4's combat looks barebones as fuck, but I can appreciate that for all the mindgames at work. MvC3 is just two jackasses flailing around the screen back and forth. You can hardly even tell what's going on half the time.

See, but several other pro players took him for serious and called him out on it. If anything, they'd know Daigo better than we would, and so I'll trust their opinion on it. I do agree that some of the American players get really fucking obnoxious with their USA bullshit, but I can imagine that people are going to want to blow him up if he gets exposed.

Best corner combo I've come up with so far is: F2 2 B1, 2 1 B2, F2 2 upslash, 1 1 4 charge. 41%, no meter whatsoever. You can improve this to 43% with EX upslash and EX charge, though... I don't know why the fuck you'd ever want to. You could always X-ray at the end, though. My midscreen BnB is: F2 2 B1, 2 1 upslash, 2 1 charge - 33% This one is pretty good as well, if only because it opens with his 50/50: 2 1 B2 upslash, 3 2 charge - 31% Unfortunately, I haven't found anything off his low starter that really hurts, but this one's still not bad: 3 2 upslash, F2 2 B2 - 26% I swear there should be a way to break 30% with this, but I couldn't find anything. If there were some way to bridge another string to 3 2 without an upslash, it'd be more than possible, but that's easier said than done. I really feel like Kenshi should be able to use some of his EX moves to bridge combos better or at least squeeze more damage out of them, but so far, they just don't do anything. EX upslash is actually HARDER to combo off of, and while it works in the corner, it adds sweet fuck all for damage. The same can be said of all his other moves. The only use I've found for EX upslash is as a wakeup or punish with a mid downslash. You can't follow a normal upslash with a downslash (consistently, anyway), but an EX upslash + downslash does an unbreakable 16%, which is pretty nice. Granted, normal upslash + charge is 12%, so this is only so useful. Add away. Just credit me as Altaire, I go by the same name on TYM. Also, FUCK YEAH RAIN GAMEPLAY TRAILER ON MONDAY. I'm guessing we'll be finding out what the next two free skins will be as well. Fuck me, I am entirely too excited for this.

I wouldn't say Kenshi is rape-tier. Like Nightwolf or Kung Lao, he's an all-around solid character, but not without his exploits. Everything he does is unsafe on block, and he really has no answer for rushdown. He zones like a mixture of Noob and Shang Tsung, and like Noob, he has some decent rushdown as well. Unfortunately, he also has extremely punishable specials like Noob, and Kenshi doesn't have Noob's unique uppercut or godly anti-air. Once Kenshi is crossed up, he's completely fucked. I actually really like Kenshi. Three of us just immediately jumped into a private KotH with him the minute we had him downloaded, without even stopping to learn the character. It was truthfully a lot of fun. I'll have to actually hit the lab with him later and see how he stacks up. You know what honestly excites me most about Kenshi being released, though? The fact that we're going to see Rain's trailer soon.

The irony in this post is overwhelming. I say again: Don't you have some worlds to stop from crumbling around you? ...And no Noob, no one is as big an anything fanboy as you are a Street Fighter fanboy, because most people have a modicum of self-respect.

Brady is pretty certain they aren't going to nerf Skarlet, other than some blood dash cancel she can do and the damage on her neutral throw. His rationale is that if her knives DO get any worse, it's going to make her bad matchups almost impossible. He doesn't even think Skarlet is S-tier, she just has a very turbulent matchup chart. Also, Kenshi still isn't out. What the fuck? He better be up on the marketplace by the time I get home.

I've only been comboed (I don't care that this isn't a word) by Scorpion because one of the guys I play with mains him. He doesn't play Scorpion like a scrubby bitch, so I can respect that. Also, I finally started messing around with Cyrax's real high damage combos, experimenting with his EX bomb + midbomb business, and holy shit. Why the fuck haven't I been doing this since day one? Why didn't I even TRY? Christ, I usually beat kids when I'm racking up 20% off a Cyrax combo, I can't imagine the kind of unjust sodomy I'm about to visit upon them now. Also also, I just watched ep8 of the Brady show like a good little boyscout, and according to him, Kenshi is going to be the anti-Skarlet. He half-jokingly claimed that he was put in the game just to ruin her. Like, this fucking guy does to Skarlet what Skarlet does to Sub Zero. ...Fucking bitch.

You know, I really can't bitch too much about Scorpion anymore. I see him far less often, and I'm finding more and more DECENT Scorpions when I do. I can honestly respect a guy who plays an honest game with Scorpion, even if he is the Ken of MK9. To be fair, he IS blindfolded, but I guess that's only going to block out so much light. Someone actually came up with a pretty good justification for this: They worked out that Stryker's flashlight is probably a torchlight, since cops do tend to carry them. Torchlights give off a lot of heat as well, so it'd still sear his face if Stryker caught him with it. I'm sure the dev team never thought of this at ANY point, but it makes perfect sense. Granted, Boon still put up the obvious answer to this one, and it shut that kid down hard. Also, some guy on GFAQs was preemptively bitching about how broken Kenshi is going to be. He said "So far he has ermac type force combos a very fast mid range sword slash that also throws back projectiles. what more could you want?" I said "a slide and an ice clone."

I wouldn't necessarily use it as a BnB since it's unsafe and not hit confirmable, but it's something to do. Used as a crossup punish, it's consistent.