With the powerful technology of today, it’s truly amazing that 2-D gaming still exists. Many famous characters who got their start in 2-D have made successful transitions to the third dimension, likely never to look back at the days of left-to-right side-scrolling levels.

Yet as it turns out, those colorful sprites are tough buggers to kill, and it’s even safe to say that with the newest Mega Man game, 2-D gaming isn’t going anywhere. Ever.

Some of you may not remember this, but Lara Croft used to have gigantic boobs. Like the Barbie doll kind you would think would be detrimental to someone’s health. Even for a video game character they were unrealistic. A few titles later, the various creative teams scaled her chest down ultimately giving her a more proportional build seen most notably in “Tomb Raider: Legend”.

Arguably, this made her a much more attractive video game character to market on all fronts. Lara was no longer just a pretty chest to look at, but a strong-willed, more-than-capable female hero. However, to this day some characters aren’t so lucky.

Let’s state the obvious right off the bat: videogames are competitive. Online matches that begin as friendly skirmishes can quickly turn to all-out war in a matter of simple re-spawns. Before you know it, your attention becomes effectively narrowed to fragging that little 12-year-old who stuck you with a plasma grenade.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a little competition. However, everyone I know has had that very same 12-year-old terror in their match suddenly bust out screaming fanatically profane language like he’s tossing out candy at a parade, at least once. More often than not, matches can quickly digress from that healthy fun competition into a constant squealing and nasally stream of “explicative this” and “explicative that.”