Extremists and radicals are responsible for fracturing the fraternity that exists between followers of the same faith the world over. And yet, as the violence they cause threaten disunity, a refusal to confront corruption from within the institution reveals a façade that is anything but harmonious.
I’m talking about football, of course. (“Soccer” is just another way to describe a hot mom.)
It’s the international sport with an international stage, one big enough to accommodate star players who can likewise kick and artfully display the result of the opposing team blatant foul. While such theatrics are just the tip of the iceberg that makes any enjoyment of the sport into an ultimately frustrating experience, the “beautiful game” does have one thing going for it: it’s deceptively simple. It’s so easy to understand that no time is ever spent arguing what the rules are, so that more time can be spent just plain arguing.
“Kick this ball into the heart of your opponent’s defence. And no hand-sies” is as straight-forward as you can get. And as this is one of the few sports that require no explanations *, it’s also one that can be translated into a video game instantly.
I’m not sure of when the first football video game was created, but with such clear rules to victory, all you needed are eleven similarly-colored squares kicking around a smaller square and hearing a spate of white noise whenever a goal is scored.
As exhilarating it may be to win the World Cup with your square team members, video games have become more life-like and relatable since then. Players have sprouted legs and arms and are animated to provide the best possible illusion of a human being trying to control a ball as another tries to stop him at all costs (yellow card notwithstanding).
Each new iteration gives us a new trick or feature, but in the end, it’s still just eleven guys on a field passing a ball among each other until victory, just like that first blocky game, because the rules to soccer have been perfect ever since it was invented.
It’s hard to compare video games with football because the latter has hundreds of years of tradition and history to make it what it is today. And yet, sometimes, the right people with the right idea under right circumstances make the perfect game.
That game is Soul Edge (1997). Almost twenty years later, the brilliance of this game has not dimmed, but instead confirms its place as a classic of its generation.
Despite the preference by gamers for sequels for being improvements upon a basic formula, Soul Edge is a game they got right the first time. Like football video games, all changes made in future instalments are cosmetic or improved features, but nothing fundamental about the gameplay has been altered.
Even though the roster would increase, cleavage would grow and the layers of cheese continued to build, later Soul Calibur video games all have have the heart of the original Soul Edge beating inside it: a simple-to-learn fighter with increasing complex combos to learn that graphically performs like a beast so you can enjoy every last moment of it—the bar was never set higher for fighting games than Soul Edge, and it’s a delight to watch it still perform wonderfully almost two decades later.
It is definitely much easier to see things in perspective once you get the advantage of seeing it as history, but alternatively, it’s much more exciting to discover something with the passage of time on its mantle. Players tend to eschew old video games, but they can’t ignore Soul Edge: it’s the “beautiful game” that was done right the first time around.
* Golf being the other one, in which it’s just like football except with no opponent, and the context is difference.
How far I got in 15 minutes: got my ass kicked as the ninja girl and the Greek
The good: It’s like looking a a star in the sky, looking back into million of years of history
The bad: no breast physics; apparently it’s a feature to be implemented for future generations
Would I play this game once this year is up: Between this and porn, I’d think anyone’s needs could be met
Days so far in the Year of the Play-a-DayStation: 20
Play-a-Daystation 