Penny Arcade - Comic - A Hound Betwixt

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Penny Arcade - Comic - A Hound Betwixt

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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swift_chamois

First panel business Tycho is my new favorite thing.

bsctgod

Rough day at the Geek Squad service desk.

moosemaimer

These two really have gotten old. Once upon a time they would ask for the "big" strategy guide to a fighting game, and now they can't even figure out Smash.

dennis

I have never gotten SB, either. But unlike Tycho I haven't played all of them. I think I played the first one for like 5 minutes to figure out it's not for me.

Ringo

I've felt that way since Melee

Sunk a ton of hours into the original. Only grudgingly play the sequels

joshofalltrades

I think they caught lightning in a bottle with Melee and haven't been able to recreate it since a lot of the things that made the system deep and appealing were accidental.

Skull2185

I don't think there's ever been a dog that's had any feelings of delight during a fireworks show.

YoungFrey

As somebody who has never played a Smash game, I'm always in awe of the Classic Console room at PAX. It might as well be renamed the "All The Smash Games Or Why Are You Even In Here" room.

rembrandtqeinstein

You can tell they are all grown up

Only shit when it's appropriate

I don't think we would see that advice even 10 years ago

PLA

I feel this way about most things.

Ringo

PLA wrote: »

I feel this way about most things.

Only shitting when appropriate does carry over to quite a lot of circumstances

T-Danger

What's so hard to get about Smash Bros? You punch Nintendo characters and raise their damage until you can throw them off the screen to win points.

If you're talking about the competitive/tournament scene though, I totally understand the confusion. Talk of top tiers and wavedashing and other non-sensical techniques make me want to scream "Just play the game and enjoy yourself, you lunatics!"

KalTorak

I felt this way a little ways into Brawl - maybe I just needed to turn off items or something, but "hit the other people" got interrupted way too often by random bullshit, and that seems to have just increased with each iteration.

Tofystedeth

I loved slower floatiness of classic smash.

dennis

Skull2185 wrote: »

I don't think there's ever been a dog that's had any feelings of delight during a fireworks show.

Well, I don't know that I'd go that far. If you can call a dog chasing down a rabbit delight, then I've had a dog that "feels" similar about fireworks. She would chase those suckers down. The terror came when she caught them.

But I will agree with you that the vast majority of dogs that feel anything during fireworks aren't feeling any delight. I say "fireworks" rather than "the fourth of July" since that would imply my neighbors aren't "patriotic" on any goddam random day of the year.

RatherDashing89

The fireworks bring only terror. The delight comes from the hot dogs.

Edith Upwards

joshofalltrades wrote: »

I think they caught lightning in a bottle with Melee and haven't been able to recreate it since a lot of the things that made the system deep and appealing were accidental.

Same but with the original and the party atmosphere that it conjured forth whenever it was on.

cB557

Tycho changed shirts really fast.

Edith Upwards

cB557 wrote: »

Tycho changed shirts really fast.

Or he changed in front of Gabe.

RatherDashing89

He wears the hoodie under his short sleeved shirt. Like Spiderman.

Hawk one

From the newspost:

"Mostly it’s a funny story that burnishes my populist credentials, but it never occurred to me before now that the truly gruesome holes in my syllabus - Smash, Goldeneye, Majora’s Mask - are almost certainly the result of this practice. "

The poor man never got to play Majora's Mask...

...

...

...

This is the saddest thing I've ever read about Jerry. Also, it explains a lot.

sparksky

rembrandtqeinstein wrote: »

You can tell they are all grown up

Only shit when it's appropriate

I don't think we would see that advice even 10 years ago

I mean, it's not quite the same, but there's 7 years ago:

twmjr

one of the things you learn in parenthood is the concept of, "I never thought I would have to be explicitly clear about this, but..."

the location of poop is 100% one of those things

dennis

twmjr wrote: »

one of the things you learn in parenthood is the concept of, "I never thought I would have to be explicitly clear about this, but..."

the location of poop is 100% one of those things

Or, possibly like FIVE of those things, all in different variations.

Steel Angel

T-Danger wrote: »

What's so hard to get about Smash Bros? You punch Nintendo characters and raise their damage until you can throw them off the screen to win points.

If you're talking about the competitive/tournament scene though, I totally understand the confusion. Talk of top tiers and wavedashing and other non-sensical techniques make me want to scream "Just play the game and enjoy yourself, you lunatics!"

If someone played a good amount of more traditional fighting games, Smash being a game based around an elaborate Ring Out system can be really, really weird at first. I had to go out and read up on the mechanics to wrap my head around it in college before I had a Gamecube myself. Similarly an analog input system with how much you move the stick affecting what move comes out is not something you normally find in fighting games. I really enjoy the game now that I understand it but it wasn't the easiest transition from mostly playing Soul Calibur or Mortal Kombat previously.

I also do enjoy how there are layers you can choose to go down but it's still accessible enough to more casual players. It's rare to have a game that can both appeal to people just into the spectacle of Pikachu shooting a Super Scope at Kirby and also find an audience in the kind of player that has fun examining frame data.

GMaster7

Seriously, no one here recognized (or pointed out) that Tycho's outfit is a reference to the "at this point I'm too afraid to ask" Chris Pratt/Andy from Parks & Rec meme?