I was at GameStop early this afternoon, asking some questions concerning a few games that I plan to trade in. For the most part, it was a lovely little experience, give-or-take. Some of my games are old, and won't be accepted, but I feel like I'll get a minimum of $10 for my trade-in of 14 'eh' games. But thing is that 2 of my games, Wii games at that, are on the fighting platform.
I think that I may be a magnet to frustrating people when I walk into a game store. I've experienced more n00bs upon approaching the checkout counter at GameStop than I have eating at IHOP at midnight. Maybe it's a sexist thing, with female gamers being scarce in North Carolina (from what I can tell, anyway), maybe it's a sign from God telling me to stop going to the same GameStop every time I want to buy a game, but there reside many a sad/hilarious story of people making small talk with me in the checkout line to discriminate my style.
Today's lovely incident included me standing with a small handful of my games, maybe 5 or 6 of them, waiting to be assisted with my questions. The guy behind me apparently noticed that I had Castlevania Judgment chilling on top of my little game stack. Big mistake on my part, I suppose, because said guy tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hey, you tradin' that in?"
As I nodded to confirm that I was indeed planning on trading it in, he let me know rather quickly that he had played the game, that he enjoyed it, that he thought it was a bit dumb for me to trade it in, and then asked me if I didn't like fighting games.
Had said guy been a pre-teen/teenager like many of the other people who come up to me with these types of comments, I would have let his words go in one ear and out the other. He wasn't. I'd say he was in his mid 20's.
Well, to answer your question, Mr. Hat Man, no, I don't like fighting games.
I don't find fighting games to have much meat. Lots of blood, yes. But the plot line that each fighting game includes doesn't really seem to be a 'plot.' It seems more to me like a filler content substance used to somewhat distract the player from the mindless violence that really coins a fighting game.
I can't really help it - I like my games to mean something to me. I like the plot line and the actual gameplay to harmonize, not get in the way of each other or distract each other.
Aside from content, however, fighting games have a tendency of being too structured for my liking. It's as though I'm eating a five-course meal, and all five courses are brought out to me at the same time. In a video game, I don't like that. There's no surprise, not much of a goal of becoming better. You may get a power-up on occasions as you progress through your battles, but...the game just feels a bit boxed in, I suppose, if the five-course meal analogy doesn't make much sense.
Now I'm starting to consider finding another close-by GameStop to cling to...
Oh well.
- Cheryl-Buddy
