An 8-Bit Deathstroke to Honor 31st US NES Launch Anniversary

Happy US Anniversary NES!
Deathstroke 8-Bit image by
Michael Ferguson (AKA sonikuu4)

Thirty-one years ago today, October 18, 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, was first made available on American shores. After the home console gaming industry collapsed in 1983 as signified by the symbolic and soon-to-be legendary burying of Atari on September 26, 1983 in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill, Nintendo Corporation of Japan felt like it could take advantage of the fall of the industry leader by learning from its biggest mistakes. 

Nintendo would create the Famicom (short for "family computer,") in Japan in 1983. The Famicom was the original incarnation of the NES, which would make its way to our neck of the woods shortly. But unlike Atari, who failed to restrict third-party developers from accessing its hardware system thus opening the figurative floodgates for a deluge of sub-par, crap games, the Nintendo's machines locked out third-party developers unless they were granted Nintendo's blessing to create for the new console. The resulting first-party quality control and licensing strategy allowed Nintendo to not only protect it's brand from bad games, but also ushered in a new revenue stream to the company at the same time. This move paid off huge not only for Nintendo, but for home-gamers as well as the once terminal industry rebounded and established market dominance over all other forms of modern entertainment.

So the now question is, "What does all this have to do with Deathstroke?" 

The answer is to this question is, "Nothing of which I am currently aware as Deathstroke never appeared in a NES game."

Then the next question is, "Then what is all this Nintendo stuff doing on a Deathstroke blog?"

The answer is to this question is, "I don't know other than the really cool NES-style 8-bit Deathstroke image that I found on DeviantArt that is pictured on the top-left of this blog post."

So the natural response to that statement is, "Works for me."

Looking Back at the Batman: Arkham Origins Deathstroke Trailer

It's not that Batman: Arkham Origins was a bad game; because it wasn't. It's just that Batman: Arkham City set the bar so high and, the inclusion of Deathstroke aside, overall Origins just didn't try to set it any higher. In the build-up to the Origins launch, the Batman: Arkham Origins Deathstroke Trailer digital short was released to hype Deathstroke as a playable pre-order exclusive character. This promotional short was outstanding as it brilliantly demonstrated to the Deathstroke uninitiated exactly how dangerous Deathstroke could be to Batman. I would have paid good money to have been able to see a full-length animated feature film this well done. Instead, we got Son of Batman. Don't get me started.

Unlocking Deathstroke in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

The Lego Batman series from DC Comics, Traveller's Tales Games, and Warner Bros. Interactive Games was released in 2008 to great reviews and great sales. Capturing the gameplay of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones series, Lego Batman presented players with the same quirky and fun gameplay that they were used to, but within the rich and deep Batman mythos. A 2012 sequel was released, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which expanded the character rosters beyond the scope of Gotham including Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and more. In 2014, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham was released with an even deeper character roster, with multiple forms of Deathstroke making their debuts as playable characters. As with many characters, all Deathstroke variations have to be unlocked to be playable, the methods of which will be covered below.

DEATHSTROKE (NORMAL)

Method 1:

Go to Area 2 of the stage "Big Trouble in Little Gotham." Find five of the objects that look like pinwheels or upright roulette wheels. Grapple the wheels to activate the them. The wheels will light up and spin when activated. Now shoot the wheels to destroy them. Once the final wheel has been destroyed, pick up Deathstroke's character token and then cash in 450,000 studs to acquire him.

Method 2:

During gameplay, hit the pause button. When the "Extras" menu opens, choose the "Enter Code" option. Enter the code "5SW59X" to unlock Deathstroke

DEATHSTROKE (NEW 52)

Download "The Squad" DLC. It costs $14.99 as part of the Season Pass, or $2.99 for just the individual DLC pack.

SLADE WILSON (ARROW)

Download the "Arrow" DLC. It costs $14.99 as part of the Season Pass, or $2.99 for just the individual DLC pack.

Beware the Injustice That Is...Spamstroke!

Is it any surprise that Deathstroke became

a figure of controversy in the Injustice: 

Gods Among Us community?

There are a lot of things that can be said about the online fighting game community, but one thing that can't be said is that honor is not important. A large amount of time, effort, and training are spent by gamers to learn and hone their skills and by extension, building their gamer reputation within the community. For the elite players, big money can even be made participating in high-stakes professional gaming tournament play. 

One thing that really gets under a fighting gamer's skin is a player that fights without honor. In my own days in the early fighting game community (which admittedly was just me and a bunch of other similarly unfocused early 90s slackers huddled around a Street Fighter II arcade cabinet at the local Dairy Queen), people with little skill were looked down upon if they resorted to "dirty" tactics such as crouching and hitting low kick ten times in a row to gain a victory. We used to say that they were "playing cheap," or "bringing the cheese." These days if an unskilled player hits the same move over and over again to eek out a cheap or dishonorable win, they are said to be "spamming." "Spammers," as the community calls them, rank just above terrorists in the great hierarchy of dirtbags in the world, though admittedly not very far above terrorists.

When Injustice: Gods Among Us was first released in April of 2013 it became apparent to the fledgling Injustice community that Deathstroke was going to be a problem. Deathstroke had two gun moves (Machine Gun - [ ↓ , → , Medium Attack ] & Quick Fire - [ ↓ , → , Light Attack]) that fires super fast multiple gunshots that can cover the entire screen. Inexperienced or otherwise low-skilled players used these two moves excessively, (aka "spammed" the moves) in online play inflicting large amounts of damage from an all-to-safe distance for the sake of honorable competition. Highly skilled "honorable" players found themselves beaten all too often by spammers using Deathstroke that the character itself earned the disparaging nickname of "Spamstroke." By utilizing these tactics dishonorably, Deathstroke spammers made few fans and fewer friends within the Injustice community.

A Deathstroke player "spamming" the Bane player from across the screen
from a video that teaches Injustice players how to defeat spammers.

The Injustice community spoke out about the spamming tactic to the point that NetherRealm Studios, the makers of Injustice, included some changes to the game in a patch. Some of the changes were that Deathstroke's gun damage during his Character Trait mode (were all gun moves are unblockable for a short time) was weakened, while his cooldown period afterword (where all gun moves miss for a short time) was slightly extended. Furthermore, the inclusion of more teleporting characters and tactics served to turn the tables on Deathstroke spammers by essentially eliminating their damage-from-distance advantage, forcing them to engage in a more honorable fashion. Needless to say, higher-skilled players within the Injustice community found this a bit more to their liking. I simply wonder, who in the world ever expected a mercenary rouge like Deathstroke to fight fair in the first place, right?