Developer Blog - Introducing Zapper
Today in our developer blog for Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers, we introduce a new member of the core cast. It's time to experience life through Zapper's eyes!
Click to embiggen!
Zapper spotted us interviewing her teammates, and immediately jumped at being next in line.
Tell us a little about yourself.
"Name's Zoe, but don't call me that. Call me Zapper. Y'know, like the great-grandaddy of all lightguns? Zappa zappa kapow. That's me. I mean, I'm not saying I'm old, I'm saying I'm experienced. You want someone who can speedrun House of the Dead 2, that's me. You want someone who never misses a shot in Lethal Enforcers, that's also me. You want someone willing to jump off a bridge with you, that's me. ...I've done that, you know. Jumping off a bridge. With a parachute, of course, I'm not stupid. Even if I didn't quite open it in time and really smacked the water hard. "
Why would you jump off a bridge, exactly?
"Y'know the saying 'if the other kids jumped off a bridge, would you?' That's me. I'm the other kids. Someone's gotta take the risks, if only to be an object lesson to others. And I gave up playing it safe a long time ago in order to embrace pure awesomeness. I mean... the universe ultimately doesn't give a !@$!% if you play it safe or not, yeah? So why play by its rules? Do your thing. !@$%ing own it."
How long have you been playing Fist of Discomfort 2?
"Pre-beta, baby! I was in the closed alpha test, along with luminaries like QueenBee. Man, you should've seen the goddamn mess the game was in before the public got it. I don't really care to follow the metagame or read extensive strategy guides but even I could tell that Akari was OP as !$!%^# and Tomokaze was bugged the hell out. They're lucky they didn't launch with the glitch that made her lose her clothes. Woulda gotten parents clutching their pearls over that one. Might've been fun to see, honestly..."
Tell me about Team Good Clean Fun.
"Oh, we're tight. Don't get me wrong about that. But... we're not exactly a Pro Tour team, yeah? We're not even a team. We all just happen to go to the same place to do our laundry and hell, there's FOD2, let's play some FOD2 together and have fun. I'm good at it, they're good at it, and eventually we just started playing it on the reg. The others aren't real serious about the game but that's okay. I mean, I'm focused right now on Metalgeddon IV myself, trying to shave some time off my speedrun. There's also an exhibition coming up for freestyle MG4, so I'm practicing my fancier gun moves -- y'know, twirls and no-looks and stuff."
Do you shoot guns in real life, too?
"Nah. I'm not comfortable around actual guns."
Really?
"Really. Look, a Hollywood blockbuster action sequence with old school John Woo style action, hell yeah. Gimmie more of that good good spectacle and fantasy. But I don't own an actual weapon, don't plan to, and don't think you need to own a goddamn Kalashnikov to go duck hunting. I eat a lot of !@#$ for that from the lightgun community on Tweeter and FaceWall but watch me not give a flying !@#$. I'm too busy being awesome to even pay attention to those whiny babies."
You certainly favor the word awesome.
"It's a guiding light, my dude. Skill, flash, prowess, and sheer badassness. Stylin' on a fool to show them who runs this town. It's a very purposeful word for me. But you know what word I don't favor? 'Winner.' Because thanks to whiny metagame drones on forums, most big-time winners are also the most boring turtle-safe players in the world. No. No !%@%ing way. If I'm gonna win a game, I'm gonna win it my way, with a balls-to-the-wall demonstration of absolute, unrelenting style. Either that, or I'm not gonna play at all. Period, end of line, full stop. "
Thanks for your time.
"My pleasure. Kick ass, stay strong. And hey, when you talk to the others, tell Rhapsody that they still owe me five bucks from that money match we had last week."