Triumphant Return

This summer has been insane. In the last 2 months, i have had barely any time to play video games, much less write about them. But now things are slowing down, and i must fulfill my destiny as a blogger or whatever.
But before returning to your regularly scheduled programming, a recap of the summer.

In June, I attended Video Games Live.

Anybody who has not yet had the chance to go, i strongly suggest it! I am one of those weirdos who actually listens to Game Soundtracks on a regular basis, so it was just my flavor of kool-ade. But even if you have a life, the concert is fantastic. Supposedly PBS is supposed to have been airing it over the last month, but none of my local PBS stations seem to have gotten the memo. Aw well.

One weekend in July I discovered 2 classic games that somehow... I missed.

The first is Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. I picked one of the short lived konga controllers up at a garage sale. After sitting in my living room for 2 months, i finally got a game that they worked with. How did I not hear more about this game when it came out? I remember seeing a little bit about it in Nintendo power, but beyond that nada! This game is amazing. I have haven't played a game that is so fun and original in a long time. The controls work very well, which is surprising since they look so hard. The tricks and combos you can pull off are insane, and if you do well the game will even give you tips on how to score bigger ones. It doesn't surprise me at all that this team went on to make the Mario Galaxy games with all of the creativity in this game. the only problem is that it's a bit short.

The next one is just sad. I, David O, have never played Kirby Super Star for the SNES. Alright alright, pick your jaw up off the floor. I wasn't avoiding it on purpose! It just never made its way into my hands. I am greatly saddened by this, because this game after just a few hours had made it on to my top games list. it is ingenues! And some of the best multiplayer available on SNES. It's interesting just how much of this game Sakurai carried on to the Super Smash Brothers series. Whole modes are essentially the same thing, such as the All Star mode. And many of the level designs reminded me of the Subspace Emmesary campaign in Brawl.
That weekend I played 22 hours of video games, which I am sad to say is more than the rest of my summer combined.

Also in July, I went to wait for it... COMIC CON!



It was a day of much rejoice (as longs as you're not expecting too many comics) and i won't talk about it all, here's some pictures.









There was one thing I wanted to talk about though. At Capcoms booth, they had a playable Demo of their upcoming game Ghost Trick from the creators of the Phoenix Wright series. Even though it was a bit too much reading for a convention type setting, it hooked me instantly. The visual style is great, and the humor seems just as weird and dry as the teams other games. You play as a man who has recently died and become a ghost who uses his ghostly powers to posses objects in order to prevent other people from sharing the same fate. It comes out this year, and I can't wait. Here is a link of some coverage from Nintendo World Report.


I also got to meet Rocco Botte from Mega64...

'Nuf said.

I will return soon with a new post about something cool!

Role Reversal- E3 day 2

Something has shifted in the Universe.
Microsoft announced nothing but motion control soft-core mom games.
But somehow, Nintendo announced nothing but BIG AMAZING GAMES!

The Show started with the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Despite technical difficulties the game looks great, the graphics are like a cross between Twilight Princess and Windwaker. Now, I thought a new Zelda game would be the high point of the show, but it just kept on getting better.

The New Golden Sun game was given a trailer, as did the Goldeneye remake. I'm excited for a new bond, but they really didn't bring their A game graphically.

They had a big demo of Epic Mickey, and somehow, it's no longer FUGLY. The game looks great, full of obscure references to classic Disney, a changing art style, and new 2D platforming levels. I can not wait for this one.

Donkey Kong Country Returns; one of the greatest things ever to happen. Retro Studios is back, and they are making a throwback to one of my top games of all time! 2D Platforming is absolutely not dead. The game looks like blast, and I'll be there day one.

The 2D platforming was continued by Kirby: Epic Yarn. This game has to be seen to be believed. It is done in a style that makes it look like it is made out of yarn, scraps of fabric, zippers, buttons, and anything else you would find in my moms desk. Again, I can't wait.

Then the 3DS came on to the stage. The little bugger looks amazing, you can watch 3D movies on it, it is compatible with Dsiware. And the smartest thing that the N has done in years, the 3D effect has a slider so that you can change the intensity of the effect, even turning it off.

But what is a new system without games? Well, here you go says Nintendo. The biggest surprise of the show came out to usher in the new era of Nintendo hand-held games. Kid Icarus: Uprising. the Project Sora game by Mr. Sakurai was revealed to be the game everybody ad given up on, and it looks almost like a wii game!

Throughout the day, many games have been announced for the DSi, a remake of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, A Remake of StarFox64, and even a remake of Ocarina of Time are among them. We still do not have a price or a release date, but I'll be there regardless.

All in all, it's a great day to be a Nintendo Fan.

Sony's press conference was not bad either, mostly they showed off their new MOVE controller, it was just more ME TOO. The only unknown game they announced was a new Twisted Metal game, which looks scary awesome. And they showed a Portal 3 trailer, and I'm always ready for that.
If this section seems small, it's because I own no Sony Platforms.

Tomorrow is Konami, more then!

Hippies, Dancers, and laser tag (or, Me too! The Microsoft story) E3 day 1.

Day one of E3 was a little underwhelming.

It started out with Microsoft talking about tons of useless junk for “Kinect”, Microsoft's new motion control add on for the 360. The whole thing reminded me of Nintendo's conference in 2007. Remember that one? The one where the best game announced was ANIMAL CROSSI NG WILD WORLD.

It's not even that I'm a huge fan of gritty Shooters, but the Microsoft show was just weak. Kinect is impressive, don't get me wrong, but they didn't even show anything remotely cool for it until the Ubisoft show. Being able to surf Netflix without the controller is great, but it certainly isn't the big announcement you hope for, nor is the “slim” Version of the 360

The Ubisoft showcase started out pretty great, with Tetsuya Mizuguchi showing off the new Kinect game Child of Eden which looks pretty great. The show then moved on to Assasins Creed: Brotherhood, for which I am crazy stoked, and then showed off Shaun White's new Skateboarding/law of phycics breaking game. But then the show moved on to weird Kinect tiger molesting games, breathing aid games, then something they invented in the 80s called laser-tag.
The new Rayman game that was shown looks great, I'm always ready for more artsy 2D platforming! But it comes with a catch. A big one. It is being made by one Mr. Michel Ancel, the director of not only the Rayman series, but Beyond Good and Evil. So in other words, at least for now, the dream of Beyond Good and Evil 2 lies bleeding at the bottom of a well.
The Conference ended with a Micheal Jackson Dancing game that was shown off by a group of hip young adults dancing to Beat It with the head of Ubi saying that “Anybody could learn to dance like that” A point lessened greatly with the revelation that the dancers on stage were in THIS IS IT.

The Trend this E3 so far seems to be bringing out attractive young models to show off Mom games. Only time will tell what Tomorrow Brings.

3 Es are me

I've been busy and unable to post for a while, but I'm back! And what better time to return than my favorite time of the year, E3!!!

This E3 is looking to be a big one. So each day I will be posting impressions on what happens. Plus, I will be going to Video Games Live on Thursday and I'll be posting about that as well.

I thought that I would kick this off with some hopes and dreams.

1: New Zelda- Obviously, just about everybody is predicting this one. I really don't care what it looks like, I just want it.

2: 3DS- I hope it's not the next virtual boy. It looks great, but goggle-less 3d sounds like possible eye bleed to me.

3: The last story- I want more details! And even more important, I want it to come to the US.

4: New star Fox?- There is nothing to support this, but we haven't seen the flying fox and his four fearless friends in a long time! And if someone outside of Nintendo is going to make it, I hope that it's treasure.

5: New Retro Studios game- Come on, we know you've been up to something

6: Star Wars battlefront III- After Pandemic went under this one seemed to disappear, but every few months we some sort of tease! I just want to know man. And on a side note, I do not care about The Force Unleashed 2, the first one was terrible.

7: Kingdom Hearts 3- It's been teased, but we don't know if it will actually be the next numbered game. That's enough spin-offs! I want to know what Sora is up to!

8: Project Sora- Masahiro Sakurai told us that he was making "Something that Nintendo couldn't do on their own" I want to know what it is.

9: Final Fantasy 7 remake- Squre-Enix needs to either confirm or deny this, no more stringing us along.

10: Beyond Good and Evil 2- Maybe it died, maybe it didn't. They gave us one teaser trailer, and some supposed "leaked footage" and then haven't said anything since. Today is the Ubisoft conference, so either they say something or I give up hope.

The next few days are going to be quite a ride, so hold on to your butts cause HERE WE GO!

Grrrrr Finals...

Sorry I didn't post last weekend, and sorry in advance that I'm not posting this weekend. Finals are destroying my life a little bit. In the mean time, I will post this cool video.

Hey MAN, what you PACin'?!?

And THAT is the best Pun I was able to come up with I'm afraid.
Anyway, in honor of Pacmans 30th Birthday I am posting the coolest (and strangest) Pac-Art I could find around the web. And no... It won't top Google...















And this is a picture I've been working on. It isn't done yet by any means, but here is at least a taste.



It can be seen bigger here.

All Video Game movies suck…

Or perhaps not.


A few days ago this little number hit the web, and I have got to say, it’s one of the best fan films I’ve ever seen. I do not what is more impressive, the CG animated robots, the orchestrated soundtrack, or the fact that it is actually feature length. Sure it’s cheesy, but it’s cheesy on purpose. The story follows the game pretty closely so it’s obviously full of camp. A lot of the dialogue is genuinely witty though, and it's pretty well acted.



Here’s something to think about. Freaking Super Mario Brothers cost 42 million dollars to make, and this film was funded out of the crews’ pockets! The movie is completely a labor of love, these guys have nothing to gain from it.



Since Megaman is the intellectual property of Mr. Inafune, the team can not technically even make money off of the film. However, they CAN make money off of the soundtrack by Mr. Daniel James. The 31 track Soundtrack is up for download here and they are gladly accepting donations. They even have it in FLAC! Come on!

The film can be found here, give it a watch friends.

Paper Heart: Day 4

And today it is who else but Marth! King of Men!

Paper Heart: Day 3?

Well, I fell a bit behind but... SORA!

Paper Heart: Day 2 (Hey Listen!)

I am on a quest to make a paper craft every day this week.

Today I made the most annoying yet endearing little fairy ever to exist.

Paper Heart: Day 1

I am on a quest to make a paper craft every day this week.

Today I made what the call the Mario "Justman"



It came from this site here

Paper Heart

I came across a little web site a few months back called Nintendo paper crafts.com

It, unsurprisingly, is dedicated to printable Nintendo crafts of the paper variety. Some seem pretty fairly simple Others... Not so much...

I have wanted to try one out, but I've been a little scared to. So the goal is this; I will not only attempt to make one, I will attempt to make one EVERY DAY for a week and post pictures. (Whatever the result)

Check back tomorrow to see what happens!

Oops...

Well, It's been a while. Sorry to anybody who reads this blog (Hannah, kinda).
Midterms were like "Hey you! Lose your life to me!" And I was like "Bro, I gots things to do." And it was like "Bitch please!" And then I was sucked into a vortex from which I just barely escaped. And there were Zombies, yeah...I had to fight zombies! Ooh, and like, some sort of magic stone that kept me there and I had to collect the 7 oracles to break the spell. (That water temple was a challenge, lemme tell ya!)

Aaaaanyways, this week I'm gonna hit you up with a double dose.


First is this game.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a bear driving a car getting ready for hibernation? Well then... try this game I guess! It's really hard to play on my Netbook, but that does not make it much less awesome.
Download it here

Broken Dreams

The divide between the artistic elements of a game (The Music, the direction, the voice work, the story) and the actual gameplay is a hard one to balance. Fragile Dreams: Farewell ruins of the Moon is a great example of this.

Released last month on the Wii, Fragile Dreams is a survival-horror esque game set in a post apocalyptic future devoid of human life, You play as Seto, a lonely young boy on a quest to find someone with whom he can share his life. Maybe an hour in, he runs across a scantily clad young girl who he scares the crap out of and runs away. Seto becomes obsessed with her and vows to find her, no matter what challenges he faces, Along the way he meets a few characters (None human, and thus not able to live up to our young hero's impossible standards) who tag along with him for a time and inevitably leave him and send him into yet another whirlwind of depression.

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Presentation.
Simply put, this game is beautiful. The characters are mostly voiced and animated very well, each having their own distinct characteristics and style. The music reminds me of the works of Joe Hisaishi and the Anime series Mushi-shi. The story is a little vague and doesn't make all that much sense, but in a very anime kind of way. So if you're into that you will probably dig it. The story is presented in a very interesting way. Seto knows even less than you do about what happened to the human race, and you both have to piece it together as you go along. This is done mainly through finding Items from which seto can hear the last thoughts of the person they belonged to. Through the items you find that while most of the victims had no idea what was about to happen, some knew quite exactly what was coming.

Gameplay.
This is where we get to the downside of this game, The controls are just not very good, You control Seto in an almost shooter game fashion; the control stick on the nunchuck controls his movements while the pointer on the screen controls where he looks. while just walking around and exploring the world the controls feel all right, just not as polished as I would hope, it's the combat that kills it. You spend a good 75% of the game fighting some sort of evil dog or ghost child, so you would think that they would have put a lot of effort into making it an enjoyable experience. But alas... Though it is in a third person action game style, the system lacks a lock on, so you constantly have to point frantically at the screen in hopes of facing the right direction. Seto can't block, which would be okay if not for the fact that he is SLOW AS BALLS so you just have to take the hits and stay stocked up on items to boost your HP, and when you get further in to the game there are enemies who CAN block... WTF??? To top it all off, as your weapons are "old and brittle" They have a tendency to break. So you may be in a hallway full of wave after wave of enemies, and lose your weapon.

Verdict.
About 8 hours in, I was almost ready to call it quits, I hadn't had measurable fun playing the game since hour 4 or so and the story was starting to lose it's grip on me. I checked a walkthrough and found that I was pretty near the end, so I busted it out one morning and saw it through. What it really boils down to is this. If I had actually payed for this game, I would be pissed. But as a rental, it's almost worth it for the story. I honestly just wish that it was an anime instead.

Hope Rides Alone

When you hear "Mega Man Rock Opera" you don't really know what to expect. You might imagine the Phantom of the Opera with a gun for an arm, Or perhaps The Rise and Fall of Mega Man and the spiders from Mars. What you probably DON'T expect is a sweeping epic,encompassing countless musical genres and intense emotionally charged vocal work,

I first discovered the Protomen in a 2005 issue of Nintendo Power, I looked them up on Myspace and though they only had 2 songs posted, I was hooked! I listened to them over and over every day for weeks, I couldn't get enough.

Unfortunately, I was broke and jobless. So those two songs on Myspace had to do, That Christmas, my amazing sister got me ACT I Their first album.

I was dumbfounded! Not only do they have amazing poetic lyrics to drive the story, but in the booklet there is a written story that comes in the instrumental lull between the singing.



The album tells the story of how Doctor Light created Protoman to combat the forces of Dr. Wily, but in the process made not just a warrior, but a son. So when Protoman fell, it destroyed him. In a rage , Dr. Light created a new robot, Mega Man. But Mega Man was not to be a freedom fighter. Light forbade him from entering the outside world, telling him that mankind is lost, that they have "chosen their own end". Mega Man defies Light, seeking revenge for his fallen brother.
The Album is 8 tracks of intense face melting righteous anger.



In September of Last Year, the Protomen released their Sophomore album "Act II, The father of Death" A Prequel, this Album tells the story of How Light and Wily created the first Robot, of how love was lost, heroes were made, and the world Fell under Darkness. ACT II Is about twice as long as the first, and has such a varying array of musical styles that it's hard to believe they came from one band. From 80s style Rock Ballads, to Rockabilly, to Electronica, and even into emotional Broadway-Esq pieces, it is an epic masterpiece.



In 2007, to combat the hunger for more Protomen that the band themselves were taking too long to provide, the house DJ Makeup and Vanity Set released "Makeup and Vanity set presents the Protomen. A cover album of ACT 1 done in an 8-bit style.



The band themselves are shrouded in mystery, they all have code names to hide their identity and they never break character for a second. Not even in interviews. They allegedly live in their home base the "Thunderdome" which is, as described by the band "high atop a green hill overlooking the desolate undertakings of an unrelenting new pop-country shit-storm."
The line-up has changed over the years, but the current band consists of
Commander
Panther
Murphy Weller
Turbo Lover
Sir Robert Bakker
The Gunslinger
The Gambler
The Nightwalker
K.I.L.R.O.Y.
Reanimator
and Frank Jaeger



If you like music or video games or love or world peace or meatloaf or any combination there of, check the band out at their Myspace, Website, or their blog.

Gamestop screws me over... or do they?

Now there are a lot of things to complain about when it comes to Gamestop. The fact that they buy games from poor unsuspecting children and sell them for 3 times the price, essentially making them legalized pirates, is not the least of these transgressions. But believe it or not, that isn't actually what this post is about. What this post is about is the fact that they like to take money from these same poor helpless children, promising them wonders beyond belief, and vanish into the night leaving them with nothing but broken dreams. Thus making them more like shady-ass gypsies. There's a difference.


I should explain. About two months ago I heard that the pre-order copy of the Wii game Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon would be shipping with a soundtrack disk of the game. I'm a sucker for free game soundtracks, so I signed the heck up!
Move forward in time to two weeks ago. It is the eve of the games release and I am practically wetting myself. No reviews have come out yet, but I've got faith that the game will be good! Heck, it worked last time I pre-ordered a
game...

The next day dawns and I check the order status. The game hadn't shipped yet. But I supposed I was expecting too much too soon. That night I checked the status again, still not shipped. Okay, kinda weird...

Three days later I checked the status once again, and the dratted thing had still not sent! This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I'm a patient enough fellow. But the reviews for the game had started trickling in and they weren't very positive. 3 days became a week and still no game.

I was now in rather a pickle! I still wanted to play the game for myself, but did I truly want to pay 60 dollars for a game with such reviews? Perhaps Gamestops cruel gypsy move was a blessing in disguise. Perhaps instead of becoming angry with the gypsy, I should just let her use her silver tipped cane and dispose of my hair covered monster cousin once and for all. But no, we are family! Even if nobody likes him...(no more gypsy metaphor, it's not really working...)

So i had an idea. I canceled the Order from Gamestop and subscribed to Gamefly. This way I could still play the game, but not have to blow 60 bucks on it! Plus this way I can experience the many other games I want to play, but not pay for.

I am now about 2 hours in, and it's actually not that bad. It's quite creepy and the visuals are nice. Though the best part is the music... if only I had the soundtrack.... DAMN YOU MUSIC STEALING GYPSY!!!!

The Beginning.

So here it is. My Video Game Blog. I'm no good at Introductions, so let's skip that shall we? Is that cheating... ?

Anyway, it is in this, the first post, that one says what a Blog will be about. My Blog is about Video Games. But not just the games themselves. I have become entrenched in the Arts and Culture inspired by, and involved with games. Part 1 of this Blogs aim is this: To every week highlight an artist, musician, website, movie, or whatever else that is inspired by Video Games.
I also occasionally make Game inspired art of my own, so I might be posting that from time to time.

I am not however, just an art geek. I am just a geek in general. I also PLAY games. So any time I play a game, I will be posting a short review for it.
I also might might throw some Movies or Comics into the mix. Who knows, I'm a loose cannon.