'Tekken' delivers a low blow

With 41 playable characters to choose from, it is hard to see how a game could get old so easily. Somehow “Tekken Tag Tournament 2” manages to do this. It took about 12 years for it to come out, and it is a non-canon storyline so the writers probably would not have to do as much work when it comes to the story. But Tekken leaves gamers high, dry and empty inside because, like many recent fighting games, more emphasis is put on online gameplay rather than single player.. “Tekken Tag 2” is slightly based on “Tekken 6” but does not follow the storyline of the normal Tekken franchise, which allows characters that have died or are no longer featured in the series to appear in this game. The general concept involves fighters from all over the world coming together to fight to become the King of Iron Fist. The player gets to use all types of people and even creatures to fight against opponents, either one on one or in a team up with another character of their choice.

“Tekken Tag 2” was announced in 2010 by the director Katsuhiro Harada via Twitter, saying he had an announcement at Tokyo Game Show. Many fans thought it had to do with another “Tekken” game or more news on the “Tekken x Street Fighter” franchise, but it was quite the contrary. The anticipation rose as memorable and fan favorite characters were announced to be on the roster, even including characters that have not been seen in the franchise for 12 years. Despite its upgrade to beautiful graphics and an amazing soundtrack, this game falls flat on its face. In addition to standard fighting modes, “Tekken” games usually benefit from added side modes that players can unlock and enjoy. For example, in “Tekken Tag Tournament,” after beating the game a certain amount of times players would receive “Tekken Bowl,” a bonus bowling game that featured characters from the Tekken universe.

 Ever since “Tekken 3” there was a beat-em-up mini game attached to the main game, but that is not found in this installment. “Tekken Tag Tournament” had such a huge cult following and legacy behind it that the seemingly small amount of effort to make this one memorable is somewhat baffling. Regardless of this issue, the game does provide some momentary entertainment. Besides team battles, time attack and survival which come with almost every “Tekken” game, there is a new mode called “Fight Lab.” In this mode players are able to build a robot named Combot. The player can adjust Combot’s fighting style to match any character in the game. Combot can have one character’s kick and another character’s punch, for example. This is a very interesting feature that could allow a player to create their own copycat character. This is unlike previous games which feature a wooden training dummy character called Mokujin who changes to the character it wants to portray in between rounds. One improved feature this time around was the ability to perform attacks with characters in tag mode. Players can either hit the opponent and switch out with the other character, or they can have the other partner assist them. While in the assist mode, heavy damage and a string of attacks can be delivered to an opponent, which gives off more of an arcade vibe. There are different ways a player can perform an attack while swapping out their character. They can either throw their opponent or have the entering fighter attack, or simply hit the opponent and have the character coming in attack them once more, creating a chain of attacks.

The game is far from catastrophic, but its weak points are very visible. It seems as though instead of introducing new techniques, trying to add features or doing something new, they just slapped every character from the previous games into a “new” game and expected that to be enough. The focus on online content these days is understandable. More people want to test their skills without leaving their rooms, gain achievements or even build a team and conquer the boards. But it should not draw away from the time that can be put into actually battling and practicing offline. Not every single gamer in the world likes playing online with other people. A lot of people still play games with local friends, not some random person who has logged up 85 hours of game play and will mutilate their competition in the blink of an eye. “Tekken Tag Tournament 2” receives 3 out of 5 stars.

'Gangnam Style' enters viral history books

It is all over the internet, has been on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show,” celebrities such as Britney Spears and Katy Perry have showed interest, and the video has reached over 100 million views on YouTube. It is “Gangnam Style,” and it has taken the world over in a unique fashion.

South Korean artist PSY busts out his "horse dance"
 at MTV's Video Music Awards.

“Gangnam Style” is South Korean rapper PSY’s (pronounced “sigh”) latest single. Released in July this year, it was another one of PSY’s jokester videos, merely poking fun at how ironic the character in the video is compared to the lyrics. The song is basically about a man calling himself Gangnam style when he is clearly not. Gagnam is a location in South Korea best compared to Beverly Hills, Calif. PSY is a far cry from other South Korean pop stars who have reached recent international success. He is barely on the Hallyu, or Korean, wave that includes artists such as Girls’ Generation who were in the United States earlier this year promoting their album on shows like David Letterman, Wonder Girls who are no strangers to the U.S. with a movie on Teen Nick and a new collaboration with Akon, and 2NE1 that currently have an Adidas commercial running in America.

But PSY has something different to bring to the table. Instead of a young, blond-haired guy with washboard abs, like most male artists in South Korea, he is a 34-year-old, chubby comic artist. Why does his video have so many views? Because humor is universal. Despite the language barrier, there is an offbeat zaniness that needs no translation. For this reason, he has become a success. Many Korean pop artists blend English throughout their songs to attract international listeners. PSY does this in the most important part of his song, the chorus. “Hey! Sexy lady!” is said multiple times throughout the song, drilling it into the viewer’s head. His video has a catchy beat as well and a dance that is a lot simpler than most dances in K-pop videos. He does not try to be artsy and theatric; instead, he is just PSY, and that is entertaining enough.

This is one of the main reasons he has done so well. The video itself has many hilarious and bizarre aspects to it. It begins with PSY daydreaming of a beautiful woman fanning him while in reality he is sitting in a lawn chair in the middle of a playground. Then he appears, nicely dressed, in the middle of a horse stable performing his “horse dance.” The video continues to follow him through different places including a sauna, tour bus and merry-go-round. One memorable scene takes place in an elevator. When the doors open, PSY is lying on the ground rapping while a man is standing over him pelvic thrusting. PSY had no idea his video would become so popular. When asked about it with in an interview with VH1, he said, “Not this far, I thought it would be like this in Korea, not over here.” Ascending into viral status has its perks. Now he has seen how much support he has all over the world. Many parodies have popped up on YouTube over the past couple of weeks from Singapore to Chicago.

The Chicago parody, titled “Gangnam Style Parody (Oppa Chicago Style)” has over 1 million views and was released three weeks ago. Along with the massive support PSY has even come to America. On the jumbotron at Dodgers Stadium, baseball fans are seen doing the “horse dance,” then eventually it lands on PSY. He shyly smiles and waves to the fans, then busts out into his dance jumping around and smiling.

 He has even been signed onto Schoolboy Records, a roster shared with the famous Justin Bieber along with making it onto the Video Music Awards this past week. “He is just so funny and that song is addictive,” says engineering student Becky Daniels. She had no idea what K-pop was before this video, and now she is open to giving it a shot, saying, “If this is how most K-pop sounds, then I’m on board.” Hopefully PSY fights off the viral curse and is able to keep producing knockout hits and prove that he truly has Gangnam style.

Obama's "daddy issues"

In author-turned-documentarian Dinesh D’Souza’s film “2016: Obama’s America,” many controversial issues, opinions and hypotheses are formed. When it comes to this type of documentary, one that is based solely on one-sided pseudo-facts and interviews with like-minded individuals, every aspect must be taken with a grain of salt. D’Souza takes a different approach to the “true nature” of President Barack Obama.

Director D'Souza interviews George Obama,
President Barack Obama's half brother, in "2016: Obama's America."

Instead of thinking he is a terrorist or Muslim, he thinks he is an anti-colonialist -- an accusation that could use some support. The film is spoken from D’Souza’s point-of-view and voice. He begins to speak about his life as a child in Mumbai, India, and how he used to read stories of empires around the world. He does not consider America an empire, he instead considers it something greater because almost all past empires have fallen. Eventually he mentions his life in college, and then finally speaks about why he is so interested in Obama. He claims his interest has to do with their similarities throughout life. They were born in the same year, married in the same year and even graduated in the same year.
As odd as this may be, he makes his point of how all previous presidents were known figures before they became presidents. Ronald Reagan was a movie star, whereas Obama was only a senator for two years. Where did he come from? To answer this question, D’Souza begins to search every possible aspect of Obama’s past to figure out what he is trying to do today and what will happen if he gets re-elected. D’Souza does bring up some odd behavior from Obama’s first term. Giving a bust of Winston Churchill back to Britain, cancelling the Keystone Pipeline construction which could have given tons of Americans jobs, siding with Argentina when it came to the Falkland Islands instead of siding with Britain as in the past, and even ignoring Syria are all used to support D’Souza’s claims. D’Souza does a decent job of backing up these allegations of mistakes Obama has made in his presidency by using actual clips from speeches he has made.

Other than that, the film is pure speculation and based off of words White House officials allegedly said. A lot of the ideas in the film stem from Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father.” D’Souza speculates that the main reason Obama acts the way he does is because of his father leaving him when he was a child. D’Souza even speaks to a psychologist about this, and he says that most children who are missing a parental figure in their life want to make it seem like they have a purpose. He goes on to speak to more politicians and speculates that Obama knows he is able to get people on his side very easily.
According to D’Sourza, people always want to help him, which is why he got into the business in the first place. D’Souza then begins to predict why Obama did certain things in his first term. He believes that, like his father, he wants to give to the poor and take from the rich, which is why he sides with the Occupy movement. He also wants the world to have fewer nuclear weapons so that the playing field can be equal. But he wants this to be done while all other countries feel the complete opposite. D’Souza predicts that in 2016, the Middle East will be united (with the title of the United States of Iran), and the United States’ defenses will have reached an all-time low while debt will continue to grow past the trillion dollar mark. These remarks seem a bit outlandish and are presented without evidence, fueled only by the filmmaker’s speculation. Attempting to sway public opinion with a poorly-developed documentary based on a book written by the director almost seems like an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” It just does not make sense.

Even when asked to state the basis of his opinions in an interview, he said he would but no reason is given except for the fact that Obama did not have his biological father while growing up and that he had a few socialist colleagues on his way up to the top. Associating every individual who has worked among a socialist, communist or otherwise “un-American” thinker with the movements that they represent is not an accurate judgment of a person’s political affiliation. Apparently a socialist and a republican are not allowed to be colleagues in America.
 “2016: Obama’s America” receives 2.5 out of 5 stars.