Lookback: Barefoot Babe Gaming 2012

The year when the world was supposed to end is almost over, but thankfully we’re all still here apparently. So that means, MORE barefoot babe gaming to enjoy next year! But before we head off to uncharted territory, here’s a short look back at the year that was in virtual sole-hunting, the Highs, the Lows and some stuff in between.

Best Barefoot Babe Game of the Year is surely Sega’s Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. Hell, for a price less than any console fighter, you get what is perhaps the deepest fighting game you can get- an arcade classic filled with beautiful martial arts and a roster of cool fighters. Oh, and the cool Character Customization feature allows you to have each of the game's hot ladies barefoot, like any awesome fighting game should, as well as dress them up or down to just skimpy, sexy bikinis. I’ve been wanting VF5FS on my consoles for years, and FINALLY, my wish came true. Truly a treasure with barefoot babe hotness to be enjoyed as you please. All that, plus the game is super-cheap, so if you have a PS3 or an Xbox360, this is a Must Have!

Best Female Bare Feet in a Non-Fighting Game surely has to go to the lovely soles and toes in The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim on PC, once you’ve installed the awesome FemFeet mod. Created by the divine modder Phygit, the mod replaces the default, ugly melted wax stumps for feet we had to suffer through with truly gorgeous-looking bare feet. The detail is amazing, down to individual toenails to the fleshy realistic soles. This is probably as good as it gets for feet in videogames as yet.
This mod pretty much rescued Skyrim from being a total waste to easily the game that any foot lover MUST have- as long as they own a good gaming PC. Hell, if you don’t, get one- this game is just that hot. Install the mod, and live your sole-hunting dreams vicariously in this awesome virtual fantasy world and RPG.

Biggest Disappointment for me in 2012 was, without a doubt, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Namco-Bandai’s big budget, overstuffed tag team fighter came with pretty much every fighter worth mentioning in the Tekken universe, but sadly came as well with truncated, dumbed-down character customization that took away Bare Feet as an option. WHAT THE HELL? That’s about as basic as you can get, and they take it away? In any case, whether you were a barefoot fan or not, gamers generally found the customization feature in TTT2 lacking, so hopefully the next Tekken will bring back more detailed customs (and hot, sexy barefoot babes) for our pleasure.
Runner Up: Another Big Disappointment in the year was Dead or Alive 5. This Tecmo sequel threw in sexy bikinis for the ladies, but all of them came with shoes and sandals- BOGUS! Sadly, not even a petition for Shoe Toggling by some footfans online hasn't panned out yet- apparently there isn't a single foot-lover in Team Ninja. All of them are boobs. Sigh...

Biggest Comeback. To be fair though, at least while Tekken Tag 2 removed actual barefoot customization, it did give us more barefoot babes (and semi-barefoot babes) than the original ever did, and the sexy and funny new Item Move KO animations were pretty awesome. So Tekken Tag 2 is still a winner of a game, despite being a step back from Tekken 6. It also gave us another treat...



Leo. Yummy.

Big Barefoot Babe Surprise of 2012 for me was seeing Tekken tomboy Leo Kliesen barefoot!  Now, that wouldn’t have mattered a few years ago, when her gender was in question… but since the German cutie has since been confirmed as truly female, we haven’t looked at Leo the same way. Oddly enough, of all the females in TTT2, she has a couple of swimwear outfits that have her barefoot, and she certainly looks quite fetching in them. Yeah, there are a couple of other barefoot beauties in TTT2, but Leo just has that freshness to her and I found myself an all-new favorite hottie. Here’s to more barefoot Leo in the next Tekken games!

Best Barefoot Sequel in 2012 is surely Soul Calibur V! Yeah, this game may be a bit lacking in Single Player replayability and the Story mode kinda sucked… but the Character Creation is as sexy as ever, and the game’s character models are HOT. Well, ever since SCIV you can’t really go wrong with Soul Calibur… if only the feet and soles of the models were as detailed and nicely-rendered as in the Tekken games… Still, man, the babes in SC are hot as heck, and I can’t imagine my barefoot babe game library without this slash ‘em up. Hoping we see another tale of Soles and Swords in the near future!



Best. Closeup. Ever.

Best Barefoot Modding and overall Most Valuable Game in terms of Barefoot Babes goes to Streetfighter X Tekken on PC. For the whole year, barefoot babe lovers with a PC have been treated to mod after mod that thankfully de-booted the ladies in this cross-over fighter. By now every babe has at least one awesome barefoot mod, and I can’t get enough of the detailed feet and the cool, sexy views of this brawler. Barefoot Cammy, Chun-Li, Juri and Nina are my absolute faves in this one, and there’s even more soleful action to come, thanks to a large number of active modders. So much value for foot-lovers surely makes SFxTK well worth investing in a good PC or laptop for!

Chun-Li and Cammy: Barefoot and beautiful brawlers in Streetfighter X Tekken.

Best Barefoot Babe Heroines surely goes to Capcom’s flagship femme fatales, Chun-Li and Cammy in Streetfighter X Tekken on PC. These two make an awesome killer team, with Chun’s kicks and fireballs making her a versatile combatant, while the super-fast Killer Bee hits super-hard with her lightning quick Cannon Spike. Their team combos are easy to pull off and their styles just flow easily into one another’s…. plus both look freakin’ hot. Chun-Li’s goody-two shoes personality also meshes well with Cammy’s no-nonsense toughness. Someone put these babes on a pedestal (the better to see their hot soles with!) right away!

Best Barefoot Bad Girl goes definitely to Juri Han from Streetfighter. She was already smoking in her debut in SSFIVAE, but in Streetfighter X Tekken, she’s definitely smoldering, with her psychotic charm pumped up even more. Doesn’t hurt she gets some awesome, sexy mods- the best of which is surely the Flesh Pit Costume mod borrowed from another fighting femme fatale, Mortal Kombat’s Mileena- but of course, Juri’s even sexier in it than Mileena (thanks to the lack of Tarkatan looks!). I’m hoping that this TKD Vixen continues to stalk the good guys in future Streetfighter titles, and hopefully in the (upcoming) Tekken X Streetfighter.

2012 was a great year for foot-loving gamers, despite a couple of glaring low spots. I’m hopeful for more barefoot babes in the new year! Intriguingly, there future isn’t very clearly-defined… we don’t know fore sure what games will be coming in the months ahead, but I know I’ll continue to enjoy the tons of games we already have as we wait. I’ll continue to post about our shared passion here and renew my hunt for the sexiest virtual bare feet in videogames in 2013. Here’s to more soleful treats in store for us soon!