Tournament Nite 18

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
- Sun Tzu


So tourney 18 kicked off last night over in sunny Leeds. Much trash-talking was done over the obligatory curry and both contestants were fired up for the grudge match of 2007. So how did it pan out ? Read on sir !

1UP - Ninja Emaki. Top down shooter with a difference. Not a bad game but I don't think we will be returning to it again. Both Buks and Balki were pretty terrible in practice sessions - a good litmus test is to see how many end of level bosses you can get to on one credit. Buks managed to defeat the first level boss on both his tries but Balki was less experienced and didn't manage to get past it on his first game. The second game was closer but not close enough. A good player would probably defeat the first 2 or 3 bosses on this type of game. Maybe we are getting too old ? Buks leads 2-0.

2UP - Liquid Kids. A great game this one - sort of Bubble Bobble meats Super Mario with the graphics of New Zealand Story. Balki was confident of a "home" victory in his first choice game but he had an appalling first game, closely followed by an even worse second game. Buks managed to beat these scores easily and was seen grinning from ear to ear while throwing glances at the trophy sat atop the machine. Buks winning 4-0.

3UP - Nova 2001. A confident Buks started this one up. Balki had reported an appalling practice score but this was due to his inability to read the controls setup (he didn't realise it was a two button game - DOH !). So having watched Buks amass a comfortable score using the correct controls, Balki then went onto trash Buks' score and then wipe the current high score as well. This was not good as Buks only needed 1 victory to take the trophy. The second game saw Buks beat his previous best only to then watch Balki double his high score. Buks still leads 4-2.

4UP - In The Hunt. The final game. This one is by the dudes who created R-Type and its a fantastic looking sideways shooter. Buks still only needs a single victory but Balkis previous 2-0 win had knocked his confidence somewhat. But it just wasn't going to be Balkis night as he posted an appalling score which Buks was able to beat with ease. Which meant technically buks had won but Balki wanted his last game to try and get a few consolation points. Disaster. Balki score exactly the same score as his previous attempt which once again, Buks managed to trounce. Buks wins 6-2.

Much trophy kissing ensued. Balki claims his wife was going to file for divorce if he didn't take the trophy home. Bless.

After the tourney we watched the DVD "Once Upon a time At Atari" which was excellent, but only if you are a retro geek. Funnily enough, the missus came home and we paused the video during an interview with some ex-atari dude and she said "Is this a documentary about beards ?". We laughed anyway.

Next tourney will be classic SNES and Megadrive games. Coolio.