browsing through the Xbox Live Indie Game section today I notice a game called "LOLcats" with the following infamous image



it is literally a collection of LOLcats images. the description reads as follows: "Browse through over 150 LOL Cats." and I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm not quite sure if this is the greatest or worst idea ever for an XBLIG game, but for some reason I want this to outsell Remote Masseuse...

Hi again, sir or madam. I felt I wanted to update this just for shits and giggles and I couldn't come up with anything particularly interesting or relevant to anything besides one of my favorite genres of all time and how I grew to love it. I'll start at a very early age up to today and try to keep myself short. After all, you probably have better things to do than read a random Swedish persons blog on the internet, eh? If you don't, you're very sad.

A few years ago an announcement trailer for Street Fighter IV was announced... it all feels like it was yesterday. Yesterday it was released in North America and this Friday I'll be holding a copy of it in my very own hands.

My parents have been divorced for as long as I can remember. My dad is also an immigrant and when he met my mother he hadn't been in Sweden for a very long time. His language wasn't all that deep, he was pretty poor and didn't have a very paying job. I remember a few select memories from possibly the second year of my life, one being when we were searching for a family who could rent out a small place for my dad to live. At the time I had no idea why we were going around talking to random families while my dad was looking around their flats, which makes the whole thing kind of sad. Anyways, he eventually found a family and they had an NES. This memory is from 1995 - 1996 so the system was kinda outdated, but I had seen many games that looked very much like the ones at this new family's place at my cousins' on their "Nintendos" as I thought the consoles were called and gladly played these games. They had quite an odd selection of games, however with a game library containing no Mario games, no Donkey Kong, no Zelda, no Metroid, no Battletoads, no TMNT, no Double Dragon, the list goes on and on. At least I can't remember a single of these games besides from my cousins' "Nintendo." They had some that I can remember playing with a smile on my face: Track and Field, several racing games, Duck Hunt, Battletanks and what was probably my favorite of the bunch: Yie Ar Kung-Fu. I played the shit out of that game until I could finally beat the entire game. This was my introduction to the fighting genre, and what an introduction it was. It was so different from the other games with the characters you had to face with different weapons and moves, some that even inspired Street Fighter characters! (E. Honda's Sumo Torpedo is taken straight from a character from YAKF to name an example.) Beating my opponent wasn't the same thing as driving down a road avoiding cars or shooting down ducks. No, here your goal was always the same, but the way to reach that goal kept changing depending on what your opponent is doing. It was incredibly satisfying.

About 5 or 6 years later when my dad had gotten his own place a few years back he decided to buy me a video game console. My grandfather had already bought me a N64 and a Game Boy that I had to play with at my mom's place and I had so much fun with the console that I sometimes brought it over to my dad's house to play some more. My father bought me a Playstation which is the only console from that generation of non-handheld platforms that I still own that works. With it he bought two controllers and a few games that were decent such as Disney's Hercules (strangely I cannot think of more games...). He also copied a few games from a friend of his to a few CDs so that I had even more games to play, one that really stands out being the original Metal Slug which I can't find anymore. >:( Anyways, another one of the games he bought with the Playstation was Tekken 3. It blew my mind with all of the silly and cool characters, ridiculously long lists of moves and the multiplayer. I LOVED that game and have a friend who thought the same way and while he's not a hardcore gamer, bringing up Tekken 3 in his company can start some really good conversations. That and Metal Slug which is a story for another time. My dad enjoyed Tekken as well, but not as much as I did. Me, my dad and my friend played that game for countless hours. There was one thing that bothers me about playing Tekken: to this day I haven't bought a memory card meaning I would have to unlock everything in one sitting or just avoid turning my system off to get some of the cooler characters. It didn't bother me as much back then as it does today, though. Playing through the game with all the characters I unlocked was just a pleasure for me as that allowed me to play the game even more and just playing with the first 10+ characters. Today I don't enjoy Tekken very much, though. Besides the small amount of nostalgia I get from playing pretty much any Tekken game I don't think it's a very fun fighter to play. Opinions, opinions...

As I stated earlier I owned a N64 and one of my favorite games for it was Super Smash Bros. The idea of taking Nintendo mascots and making them beat eachother up was something I knew was a winning formula at this point in life. I played tons of it with friends and when I heard of the Gamecube with a sequel to Super Smash Bros. coming out for it I was probably as hyped for a game as I've ever been to this day. The wait for Super Smash Bros. Melee was agonizing but well worth it. What I got was a both deep and accessible fighting game that I play even to this day. SSBM was also what got most of my friends into fighting games. Everybody could play the game and with 4 players on screen with items flying around everywhere anybody could win. About 3 years ago a friend of mine introduced me to one of his friends. He was really good at Smash Bros. and he handed my ass to me. He was so good I never even got close to beating him. He one day showed me all of these videos on how to use advanced techniques in Smash Bros. and after that I trained and trained until after a month or two I could finally beat him. He also introduced me to the professional part of the Smash community here in Sweden and that along with him showing me the instructional videos has taught me three things that have made me into who I am:

- There is always someone better than you.

- There is no point in giving up halfway through.

- One can always improve.

Meeting this one person has made me into a very competitive gamer. If I can improve in a game I like, I will.

When I was turning 9 I read about this game called "Soul Calibur 2" in a Swedish Nintendo magazine. I had never heard of the series before, but the graphics looked amazing and it looked very much like Tekken. I was very hyped for the release of this game and since most of my friends already enjoyed Smash Bros. they were pretty excited for this new fighting game as well. While SC2 wasn't as accessible as Smash Bros. it's still a very easy game to get the hang of. Much like Tekken you could mash buttons and pull off cool looking and damage dealing special moves or you could learn how to perform these. About half of the Smash interested ones got into the game and we had many good laughs and matches with Soul Calibur 2.

When I was about 12 years old a certain internet café slash trading card game center slash tabletop game center slash mini arcade place I went to to play TCGs got an odd looking arcade game in the cellar which is where they have the arcade machines. Next to the Tekken Tag Tournament machine and the mediocre shmup game was this game with three characters that I could remember from somewhere, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The characters from said game that I remembered had the names Ryu, Ken and Chun Li and that game was Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike. It was the first Street Fighter game I ever played and I sucked at it. Then again, so did my friends who had never played the game either. I somehow knew how to throw a fireball and a Hurricane Kick so I played Ryu most of the time. Turns out I had for some reason learned all of this on the internet. What was different with Street Fighter was that it seemed to favor the hardcore gamers as it had a VERY steep learning curve and had a ton of depth. There was so much tech skill involved with this game and the thought of having a game that I could play for years and years and still improve was just great for me. Sadly, I stopped visiting this place when I turned 13 and recently started going there so most of my skills in Street Fighter 3 have gone away, but I'm slowly getting back on the horse and I'm still pretty good at Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (as well as HD Remix. PM me if you wanna play me! :D).

As I wrap this up I can't stop thinking about Street Fighter 4. It's my favorite fighting game franchise. It's one of my favorite franchises probably just after the Mario series. I'll finally be there for the beginning of a hardcore fighting game. Maybe this time I'll be able to keep up with the competition.

The wait is killing me.

Good evening. you most likely don't know me as I created this account a few hours ago, but I've been lurking the site for a few months now and thought that I should create an account for shits and giggles. I have noticed, however that people have started making blogs called "x things you didn't know about me" and such so I thought that I might as well do that to maybe get people to know me a little better.

I love Bowser.

all right, so if you know me you most likely know this, but you probably don't know me anyway, so what the heck?

I believe that Bowser is the coolest video game character in existence. he's a fire breathing dinosaur/turtle with great hair who kidnaps a princess for seemingly no reason anymore. he spawned offspring for this sole reason as well with no sign of a real mother to said children. he also just doesn't give a fuck about his minions. Goomba gets in the way? stomp him! Koopa watching your back? knock him off a cliff! this clearly shows true leadership and should never be questioned.

I'm a huuuge fan of music.

since a few years back I have grown an incredible love for music. I mainly listen to rock from the 60's to present day with some favorites being Muse, Aerosmith, The Offspring and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. when nobody's around I will most likely be listening to music. lately I've been thinking about starting playing drums as well as I have a pretty good sense of rhythm if I may say so myself.

I don't like reading a lot, yet I'm a really fast reader and I'm striving to become a journalist.

I really don't know what to say here. the title says it all, really. I haven't read many books I have enjoyed lately and I think that has scared me away.

I drink Coca Cola like water.

at this very moment I can barely access anything on my bookshelf because of the empty bottles and cans that are standing in front of all the books and such. I put them all there because I ran out of space.

I was once a huge Nintendo fan. today, not so much.

I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything here, but I don't think that Nintendo's console is a very interesting console to own if you are hardcore even the slightest. there are honestly just a few games that are really worth playing such as Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart Wii. if you need a really cheap console then get one or a DS, but otherwise I would reccommend owning either just a 360/PS3 or a 360/PS3 and a Wii. I still think the DS is pretty cool, though.*

If there's something I enjoy that has depth, I'm gonna get better at it.

every time I get a game with depth, whether it is the latest Street Fighter or the latest NHL game, I will try to master the game as much as I can. I have for as long as I can remember tried to beat records in Track and Field or tried beating that friend that's better than me in Street Fighter. it's one of the main things that keep me alive, how silly it may sound but getting better at things I can improve in overall is something very important for me.

I'm actually a really jolly person.

now, when I talk with people I dislike over the internet I will often come off as a complete douchebag and people often assume that's my entire personality. I can fully see what creates this way of thinking, but I'm actually really merry. I always try to keep a smile on my face, I try to make as few jokes about others as possible (this gets hard when I am tired, however) and I try to be a gentleman as often as I can. I'm a person who strictly follows the saying "treat others like you want to be treated back."

I wish I could write more, but I'm terribly tired and I have some more things to do around the house. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and that you have a good day. Ta~!