10 minute sit-down with Hully

Dana, the UTSF blogger who takes all the fight money and candy from babies, took some time today to sit down with Provo's own Chris Hullinger.  We discussed his start in fighting games, who he picks in every Street Fighter, and who he wants to use in Ultra SF4.  Also, Chris shared his thoughts on Marvel and Injustice, and his love of holding casuals.


D:  Brother Hullinger, thanks for your time.  Why don't you take a minute and introduce yourself.

H:  My name's Chris, I'm originally from Baltimore, Maryland.  I grew up out there, came out here for high school.  I'm going to school right now, hanging out, and working.

D:  Did you get into Street Fighter out there?

H:  Yeah, actually out in Maryland we had this arcade called Sports.  It was massive.  It had an indoor miniature golf course, batting cages, and then just tons of arcade machines.  On the weekend, I played a lot of football and lacrosse, that was like the big thing out there.  My best friend and I, we didn't have sports on the weekend.  We would go to this place and just play.  We wouldn't get a lot of money from our parents, so we had to make it count.  We played a lot of fighting games.  A lot of games just in general. A lot of Mortal Kombat.

D:  What was your first fighting game, would you say?  Mortal Kombat 1 or 2...?

H:  The first one that I remember playing where I thought, "Aw, fighting games are sweet!" was Mortal Kombat 1 on the Genesis. 

I'll use my spear to break your fall!  It doesn't hurt on SNES. 

D:  (laughs) That was a crappy game.

H:  Right?  My friend came over, and he's like, "Dude, I've got this new game.  We've got to try it out."  "Oh, ok."  So we started playing, and he's like "There's this code you can enter in to make it all bloody and stuff" and you know, I didn't believe him and whatever.  Come to find out, like a week later he brought it back over and he had this code and there was all this blood and we were freaking out and it was pretty cool.

D:  Ok, and then you just kept playing ever since?

H:  No, when I moved out to Utah, well, even out there, kinda towards the end the arcade ended up shutting down and getting rid of a lot of the fighting games and the games that I liked and so I didn't play for a while.  I'd play here and there.  When I moved out here, I always like competitive stuff, whether it be like sports or games.  I played a lot of first-person shooters out here with my friends and stuff but they weren't big into fighters.  I mean, I wasn't huge into it when I played back in Maryland.  We'd play and I'd mostly get my butt kicked.  It's been more recently that I've gotten back into it.

There's foreshadowing here, I promise.  

D:  What got you back into it then when you were out here?

H:  HD Remix.  I played that with Rich a lot.  He really liked Street Fighter, and then he kept telling me that he did an internship in Japan about Street Fighter 4.  He played a lot of Street Fighter 4 out there in the arcades before it was out, so he kept telling me about it, so we got into HD Remix a lot, and then when Street Fighter 4 came out we started playing that.

D:  So it's just friends recruiting friends.

H:  Pretty much.

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D:  Ok.  In Street Fighter, you play Cammy.  What's up with that.  Cammy?  Really?  Top tier? 

H:  (laughs)  When we played at this arcade in Maryland, right, I was like, I dunno, anywhere between 10, 11, 12, 13....eh, probably right around there. Super Turbo.  Hey, you know, she was blonde.  You had to pick her--she was cute.  She was wearing....you know, when you're that young, that was hot. (laughs) I had to pick her.  In any game she was in, whether it was the CvS2 machine, she was in that so I had to play her.  I've just been playing her.  I really don't like playing anyone else in Street Fighter but Cammy.

D:  You're a character loyalist from the beginning, really.

H:  Yeah, nothing else.  I mean, it's nice that she's top tier.

D:  It has its advantages.

H:  It's Cammy.  She should be the best in everything.

D:  What are you looking forward to in Ultra, if anything?  Do you want to use Decapre?

You're not fooling anyone with that mask, Cammy.

H:  Yeah!  I'm way pumped.  I've never been excited for any of the new characters in Street Fighter.  Actually, I did want to play Juri once Super came out, but other than that, I never really cared.  I'm kinda nervous--she's a charge character.  I've never really played a charge character before, so I'll probably have to pick one up before just to practice, but yeah, I'm way pumped for it.

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D:  You also play Marvel and Injustice.  Why do you like Marvel and whom do you use?

H:  I don't like Marvel.  I just play it.  If people want somebody to play, I'll play.  I play Wesker, that's it.  I have Nova on the team;  he's just there.  And then Strider...you've got level 3 orbs, really, you're unbeatable.

D:  Fair enough.  Injustice...why?  Why NetherRealms' latest offering?

More like Joker's an injustice!  Yeah, I wrote that.

H:  I've always like the NetherRealm games.  I loved Mortal Kombat 9.  I thought it was really fun.  We had  a bunch of friends that played MK9 when it came out.  There was probably 5 or 6 of us in Provo that would play every week.  And then Injustice came out, and a lot of those same kids played it.  I don't know why I like it.  It's different, it's fun.  I think Injustice is actually a really good game.  I think it's balanced nicely.  Yeah, there's some stupid...

D:  Finally. Finally it's balanced nicely.

H:  Yeah, I agree. There were definitely some issues...

D:  *cough* SCOPRION!!!  *cough*  SUPERMAN!!!

H:  Oh my gosh, I remember when Scorpion came out, and Jay started playing him, and I wanted to punch him every time.  Dude, please.  This character...he's not supposed to be in this game.

D:  Yeah, NetherRealm.  Keep him in the underrealm in Mortal Kombat.
     Okay, so there's no Cammy in Injustice.  Who is left to pick?

H:  Originally, I played a lot of Harley [Quinn]. The first day the game came out, I had a lot of friends around here that picked up the game and really wanted to play, but weren't very good at fighting games.  Didn't really play them, didn't really understand the concept of the game.  The first day after I spent an hour or so with Harley, one of them wanted to play Green Lantern.  I just started messing around with him, and I thought, "I'll probably pick up this character" and I used them both for a while.  Then Harley just didn't fit my style.  Everybody says that Green Lanters is a big-time zoner and all that, but I really just like going at people with him.  I mean you have to play the spacing game.  And Harley...she's got a lot of really good stuff, but I don't know.  She just wasn't...

D:  She's more tricky instead of a straight-up rushdown character or zoner.

H:  She's got some really good stuff, though.  I've seen a lot of the players now that do a lot of cool stuff with her.

D:  Yeah, two years down the road, a lot of good tech has been developed.  She wasn't a Black Adam or a Superman, or even a Green Lantern.  He was pretty straightforward.

H:  He was very easy to pick up and learn.  I liked that.

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D:  You're one of a few people that holds casuals.  Why do you hold casuals?  Why not just go to somebody elses house?  Why not just play online?

Pun alert:  steer clear of Hully's Cammy!

H: I hate playing online.  If you're in endless, that's fine.  But lag!  There's just something about sitting next to the person...if you've got a question about something they did, and for me it's easier to read them if you're sitting next to them, you can kinda get a feel for what's going on.
     I like hanging out with people.  I like meeting new people.  The people that we already know.  I love when we have new people come to casuals, it's awesome.  It's a blast.  It's great to see them play this character, or this character, oh, sweet.  I've never played against that character before.  Show me something about that character that's gonna make me wanna play that character.

D:  Kinda gets you hype for the character, right?  Is there anything else you'd like to say?

H:  Yes, actually, I do. If anybody wants to come down to Provo casuals, come anytime. Anybody and everybody is welcome.  It's a blast.  We have a lot of fun.  We suck.  Well, I suck.

D:  Eh, there's a lot of "we" in there.  It's all good.

H:  If you want somebody to come down and beat on, you can at least come beat the crap out of me in any game.

     There you have it, another interview in the books, with more to come.  Be ready to come off the bench for an interview if you're called.  Thanks to Hully for agreeing to do this interview today, and please, come down to Provo and attend casuals on Wednesdays at Hully's Apartment at the Branbury, 1732 North 450 West #203, Provo, UT, usually from 6:30pm until Hully says you're out.       Also, don't forget the 2014 Great Salt Ranbats #1 this Saturday.  If you did, you'd be missing the first Utah ranbat of the year!  Don't let your ranbat points go to the unwashed masses!