Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again.  The time when you allow an obese man enter your home through the chimney, whom you've never actually met who wears exclusively red and abuses reindeer to do his bidding.  He enters your house, eats your food, wanders around a little bit while leaving...well I guess gifts and pleasant things around. Then he leaves to go back to the frozen North Pole where he laughs his face off while his slave labourers create tools of...well happiness and fun, I suppose.  Fine, Santa's not all that bad!

The point is that's it's Christmas, and so I bid you all a happy holiday and a very merry Christmas!  If you've gotten some video games under your tree or in your stocking, FIRE THEM UP!

In Defense - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Success is something that the Zelda brand always tends to achieve...each game strives for excellence and top-notch presentation, and for the most part they've reached their goal (except for those atrocities on the CD-i, but that's all we'll say about that). For years, The Legend of Zelda has been Nintendo's ace in the hole, which is hardly surprising given that just about every main entry in the series earns an average rating of 90% or higher. When people get a new Zelda game, it's a day to remember. Zelday, as I personally like to call it...and although I personally look forward to the next Metroiday much more than the next Zelday, I'm in the minority. That's not to say I don't like Zelda games...quite the opposite in fact, even if I have some different views from others with respect to my favourites in the series.

Coming Soon...

I had a whack of posts at the beginning of this month, and clearly that number has dwindled...but it has all been for good reason. The last while has seen the release of a disgusting number of high quality games, and I've been busy playing them when not busy. These include the recently released epics Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, as well as an extremely cool retro-styled 2D platformer called La-Mulana.

All of these games are...long and involved! Even La-Mulana is taking me forever to complete, and I can't remember how long it's been since it's taken me well over 20 hours to complete a sidescroller so it's certainly a breath of fresh air.

Very soon, I'll be posting reviews of Skyward Sword and La-Mulana, likely in that order since I've completed Skyward Sword already.

Check back soon for an update!

In Defense: Wizorb

Having heard of this game recently on GiantBomb, and also hearing that it was created by the same guys who worked on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, I knew it was likely something I would eventually check out. There was also the fact that it's a retro-styled Arkanoid or Breakout game...and that really got me interested. I've always liked games like that, particularly Arkanoid, so I decided to give Wizorb a shot. You can find it on the XBox Live Marketplace for 240 MS points, or $3.00 in real-world terms (it's also now downloadable on PC!)...and if you're into this kind of video game, it also happens to be more than worth every damn cent.

Experience Points: Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, Doom II, Crysis

Hey all! Another Experience Points entry here with my latest gaming endeavours...and trust me, there have been quite a lot of them recently. Quite a few long games, some delving into classics, and some extreme frustration at the hands of one in particular. I'm gonna review that one next though, so it gets saved up for another time! For now though, allow me to convey some quick thoughts on the latest games I've been plowing through!

World Ten: Creeeeeeeeeeeepy Games (Post-Hallowe'en Edition!)

Technically, by the time I have this entry posted Hallowe'en will have come and gone. It's been a busy and stressful month and unfortunately I haven't spent as much time writing blog entries as I would have liked...but I plan on starting November with a World Ten which I have long been promising, and what better list to do around All Hallow's Eve than one that's about creepy shit? This is my top ten list of games that can creep you out, and with a blend of old and new material from the land of video gaming, there's a decent amount of variety in here for you to sift through and hopefully some games that may have freaked you out as well!

In Defense: The Binding of Isaac

Just when you thought you were gonna get a World Ten entry...look at what has to come along and rear its ugly, grotesque head. I don't blame you if you haven't heard of The Binding of Isaac, as it's not an overly publicized game. Created by Edmund McMillan, one of the geniuses behind Super Meat Boy, on his off time, The Binding of Isaac takes a whole bunch of pages out of a whole bunch of classic games' books. This obviously makes it a perfect example of a new-age yet classic-style game, and throws it into the realm of this here blog. I've been playing the game since it came out about a week ago, and it's definitely a sharp, well-made creation that deserves more attention than it will likely get...so I'll do my best to explain why!

Experience Points: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Gears of War 3, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, F-Zero GX

Well it's about damn time I wrote about something, isn't it? Lately I've really been busy and tied down by various happenings/distractions around me and projects coming to their finality, so unfortunately my writing has had to take a bit of a back seat recently. Despite that, however, here's a quick rundown of my latest gaming activity:

Recent lack of activity...

Hey anyone who reads this!

Just wanted to let you guys know that I realize there has been a distinct lack of activity on the blog this month. Unfortunately it's been a little bit busy lately what with various projects finishing up and a lot of running around, so I just haven't gotten around to writing anything significant yet, but expect a World Ten entry and a tally of my recent Experience Points shortly!

Quick Notes

Hey all! Just a few short things to mention:

1) A friend of mine just decided to start blogging about pretty much anything on his mind, but mostly pertaining to entomology, wildlife, and SWEET SWEET NERDERY! You can check out his site here and I'll also permalink it in the Links to the Past section, so be sure to swing by!

2) Speaking of Link to the Past, maybe you oughtta dust off your copy of it...or any Super Nintendo game for that matter, because as of yesterday the SNES is 20 years old. Happy 20th b-day to one of the best consoles to have ever existed thus far...celebrate by 16-bit gaming your ass off!

That's it!

Experience Points: Ultimate Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Gears of War 2, R-Type 3

Here's the latest edition of Experience Points, with a quick roundup of the loveliness (and/or torture) I've been subjecting myself to over the last little while:

Ultimate Ghosts 'n' Goblins - The latest entry in the GnG franchise came out on the PSP in about 2006 or 2007, and I'd always wanted to give it a go. A while ago, I borrowed a PSP from one of my friends and gave it a shot, but felt bad for having their PSP and just gave the damn thing back. Just the other week, though, I purchased a refurbished PSP mainly so that I could play Monster Hunter with some of my friends before they bugger off out of the country for a long time. I remembered this game and decided to give it a good go, and man am I glad I remembered to play it again. It's a tough one, just like the rest of the franchise, but I intend to fully conquer it. The layout is a little bit different in that it's not just a play-straight-through-and-win game. You can revisit old levels in order to find new secrets...something that you will likely need to do, because when you reach the last area, you're told that you cannot fight the boss unless you gather a certain number of Light Rings. These are scattered throughout the levels in just about every nook and cranny, so to find them all is a pretty good challenge. Of course, the hordes and hordes of relentless enemies don't make things any easier, and neither does the fact that stages are more difficult when you have to revisit them!

There's a lot of variety in this game...tons of weapons to pick from and master, 10 magical spells to equip and mess around with, 6 types of shields that you can store up and equip in order to defend yourself from attacks, and a whole whack of cool armors for Arthur to wear. A lot of these special items are needed to gather the rings that you need, such as the Angelic Armor and Dragon Shield that both allow you to fly, and types of magic that unseal magical barriers or destroy boulders that may contain your prize. It's a very cool approach to the game and I'm quite liking it...it gets you accustomed to the levels a little bit so you can (MAYBE) stand a chance at not being killed multiple times. There are also multiple difficulty settings: Novice, Standard, and Ultimate. I'm running through on Standard right now to get a feel for the game, but I certainly plan on taking on the Ultimate mode afterwards for a truly scathing experience!

I wouldn't want to be caught running around in this shit in just my boxers!

Gears of War 2 - Myself and a couple of friends finally sat down and crushed all 50 waves of Horde Mode, because it was just something we decided that we needed to accomplish before Gears 3 comes out in a month. Horde still stacks up as a damn fun experience, and I can't wait to check out the improved version of it in the third entry. Plus, having a whole team of Cole Trains is pretty much the best thing ever.

I eat Locust bastards like this for breakfast!

R-Type 3: The Third Lightning - I just decided to fire this game up again a little while ago on the basis that it's just a damn sweet horizontal shooter. It's still quite a difficult game, but I've always thought it was pretty unique in that rather than stacking up weapons and blowing enemies away faster, you actually have a lot of different tools at your disposal that give your strategy a bit more variety than usual. You have a standard shot, which can be either autofired or charged up...obviously autofire can make quick work out of swarms of small enemies, whereas a fully charged beam can level the larger ones. There's also a Hyper mode which allows you to charge up and fire multiple explosive shots for about 10 or 15 seconds, but your ship needs to cool down for about 20 more seconds afterwards, leaving you crippled for a while. You can still autofire, but charge shots are a no-go. You also get an upgrade known as a force, which sticks to either the back or front of your ship. There are three different Forces you can choose from, and they all act differently as you power them up. In addition, you can launch them at your enemies to take them out...which apparently does more damage to certain large enemies than I ever realized. I'm still going through this game and finding weak points that I didn't know enemies had and learning tricks that make getting through the levels a tad easier, which shows how deep it is for a shoot 'em up. Definitely one of the best shooters out there, so if you can find it for the SNES or download it on the Virtual Console for the Wii, DO IT!

Look weird? Just wait for the wall-mounted eyeball that shoots brain sperms at you!

That's pretty much it for now! I could cover Monster Hunter here, but maaaaaan that would take a long time! Just hurry up and release Frontier in North America, Capcom you FUCKS. I NEED IT. Also, that Contra: Shattered Soldier runthrough has been held up a little bit, but we'll get around to it eventually! Also I feel like writing up a World Ten entry soon...haven't done one of those in a while, so keep your eyes peeled!

In Defense: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Last time I probably made you scratch your head with a review of the game titled Aban Hawkins and the 1000 Spikes...and now I'm sure you think I'm doubly crazy with an article about something called Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. What the hell kind of drug is this guy on, and WHERE OH WHERE CAN I GET IT? Well, my answer is on the XBox Live Marketplace for about 1200 points...just don't tell anyone I tipped you off!

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (ITSP, for short) is a recently released downloadable game on the XBLA as part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade. Basically it's a program where, if you buy all of the games released during Summer of Arcade, you can then download another game for free. Unfortunately I don't think that all of the ones released this year are for me...however, as soon as I saw footage of ITSP and gave the trial a shot, I knew it was all I needed from the total offering to be content. It's a slick, side-scrolling adventure that not only offers some great, classic style gameplay, but also an amazing art style style that is reminiscent of other downloadable games such as Limbo and World of Goo. This is a very good thing.

Someone turned 25 today!

And it's this person right here!

That's right, today (August 6th) marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Metroid for the NES. Back in 1986 at around this time, people were already starting to sink their teeth into the very original entry of the series, and maybe some really good players would have already discovered at the end that Samus was, in fact, a lady in a purple unitard.

Experience Points: No More Heroes, Prey, SSFIV: AE, Shattered Soldier

I've been into quite a few games recently...here's my latest progress:

No More Heroes - I started this game up again recently on Bitter Mode...after having played Shadows of the Damned recently with my housemate, I was reminded about how damn good Suda 51 makes his games. I set out to go through NMH and NMH2: Desperate Struggle on Bitter mode as a result, but have hit a roadblock recently. A difficulty roadblock? Nope. The roadblock involves the fact that my housemate that I went through SotD with also started a game of No More Heroes and had never played it before, so I don't want to play it whenever he's around and spoil all the wicked boss fights for him. Once he powers through the game though, I'll pick it up again and continue with the sequel.

In Defense: Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes

I picked this game up maybe 6 months ago or so after seeing a thread about it in the forums over at SomethingAwful. Upon checking out the thread for some information about it and discovering that it was an 8-bit style, tooth-grindingly difficult side-scroller for the small price of only 80 Microsoft Points on the Indie Marketplace, I had already made my decision. Upon scrolling down and seeing one person comment that they'd love to see if there's someone out there that could manage their way through every level of the game...I also had a bit of a challenge to meet.

Profound Sadness: IGN on Boss Fights

Profound Sadness is a quote from Guy in Super Street Fighter 4 when he's depressed that he gets his ass kicked.

I've just now decided that it's also going to be the recurring theme of my opinions on articles that I strongly disagree with and think are stupid. Case in point, this following article from IGN.

Boss Fights: A Relic of a Bygone Era?

Experience Points: Shadow of the Colossus, Duke Nukem Forever, Alice: Madness Returns, Shadows of the Damned

I've been playing through a lot of video games recently, and it was nice to wrap up a few this weekend. Here are some thoughts on my most recent video game excursions:

In Defense: Duke Nukem Forever

It has finally happened. Duke Nukem Forever has finally been released in North America as of June 14th, 2011. Going to the mall to pick up my Balls of Steel edition was almost surreal, and getting home and throwing the disc into my XBox 360 was doubly so. I played through the entirety of the single player campaign in the span of a day, on the hardest possible setting available to me (a harder one was unlocked after beating the game). I've already gone over the history of Duke Nukem Forever in a previous post, so I'm not going to rewrite it here...if you want that information, you can go check out my World Ten: Duke Nukem Forever entry. This is about the game itself, and whether or not I feel like it was worth my time and money, as it seems that a lot of the people out there who have played the game feel like it's a horrible, terrible thing that should be banished to the 6th circle of Hell and should never be played or experienced.

Experience Points: Alice, IHNMAIMS, Shadow of the Colossus

This is a new feature I decided to start throwing up on the site. Obviously I can only do so many massive reviews, entries, and reports per month/week/year/whatever timespan you want to use. Rather than do this for every game I'm playing, I'll post my thoughts about them quickly so I can not only cover more ground in the video game dimension, but also just blog more often without feeling overwhelmed by a massive post I'm working on. That's not to say that I won't do massive reviews of anything that appears in the Experience Points feature, as there are some cases where games just deserve more.

Carrying on!

New sidebar stuff

Just wanted to point out that from now on, I'm posting a list of all of the video games I've got on the go over in the right-hand column under "Currently Playing". This allows for two things:

1) You guys can see what the heck I'm up to in the wide world of video gaming as of late!

2) I can keep track of what I'm up to, because sometimes I forget about everything I've started up.

BUSY LITTLE BEE.

Video Games Live: Part 2

After the wicked intermission, we all got back to our seats to enjoy the rest of the show. The VGL orchestra kicked off the second half of the presentation with a bang: a Castlevania medley. As the orchestra played familiar tunes from Castlevania 1, 2, and 3, Tommy Tallarico (the creator of VGL) was wailing along on an electric guitar to give the tunes an extra edge. It sounded really amazing, and everyone geared up for the second half quite quickly. I was already on the edge of my seat again as I heard nostalgic tunes such as Vampire Killer and Beginning, performed along with flashes of nearly every CV game in existence on the screen in the background.

Video Games as art: A convenient follow up!

Saw this a while ago and figured it would be a good thing to link to, particularly considering I just wrote up a blog post about the subject a short while ago.

http://gaming.icrontic.com/article/nea-video-games-are-an-art-form/

In summary, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) of the United States considers video games to be a form of art. This can be seen in this particular paragraph, taken directly from the US Government's statement:

Projects may include high profile multi-part or single television and radio programs (documentaries and dramatic narratives); media created for theatrical release; performance programs; artistic segments for use within an existing series; multi-part webisodes; installations; and interactive games. Short films, five minutes and under, will be considered in packages of three or more.

Specifically the words "interactive games" pretty much cements it. That's one step forward for video games in this debate! BREAK OUT YOUR COPIES OF MARIO PAINT EVERYONE!

Video Games Live: Part 1

A little while ago, myself and a few friends attended a concert just thirty minutes away. This wasn't just any standard old concert, however...this was an event called Video Games Live. If you haven't heard of it, VGL is a show in which an orchestra plays various pieces of video game music. Some of these pieces are from very popular games, while others are lesser-known compositions. Either way, each movement is very well done and professionally performed, but with much less seriousness than you would expect from a usual orchestra. The audience is encouraged to cheer and clap whenever they hear or see something that they appreciate, and overall it's a very lighthearted show that's just fun to watch. I bought tickets for myself and my friends a good while ago, and it was awesome to finally get to go to the concert in April.

In Comparison: Dead Space vs. Alien

There are multiple different genres of fiction out there in the world of entertainment, whether written down in novels or brought to life in the film media. Fiction can obviously be broken down into multiple categories: general fiction can be anything that's not based on real accounts; fantasy fiction often involves lands populated by elves, dwarves, golems, dragons, wargs, and the like; and science fiction, for example, usually incorporates space, aliens, technology, monsters, and other such elements. My personal favourite is sci-fi...that's why I prefer the war-torn wasteland of Fallout 3's setting to the sprawling, mystical world found in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, for example. There's something that draws me to that type of entertainment...I guess I just prefer railguns to wizardry.

However, one sci-fi creation can differ wildly from another. For example, while you may experience a less serious, more humourous take on an alien invasion such as in Duke Nukem 3D or Mars Attacks!, you can also find much more strikingly realistic experiences and fleshed-out universes such as those found in Mass Effect or the Star Trek series (I LOVES ME SOME TREK). While I love many forms of sci-fi, there's a particular movie series that has always stood out to me amongst the rest: the Alien series.

It's a Metroid kind of week!

Two things have cropped up about Metroid this week that I feel like I should re-post on my blog:

1) This article over at IGN about how awesome Super Metroid is. Clearly this panders directly to my gaming heart, considering the fact that Super Metroid is perhaps my favourite side-scrolling game ever. It's just a short blurb about what made Super Metroid so damn good...and rather than getting myself all gushy about it, I'll let the article do all the work this time and save even more of my Super Metroid sentiments for a later time :P

2) The Teefury shirt today is Metroid themed, and I snatched it up within mere moments of seeing the design:


It's only up for the rest of today, so be sure to get yours here! Pray for a true peace in space!!

Coming soon, I'll have a feature about the Dead Space series, which will hopefully be relatively interesting. Stay tuned!

Project Cafe?

If you've been keeping up on video game news like a good little nerd, you'd have heard by now that there are some rumours and information circling the internet about something called Project Cafe (i.e. Nintendo's next console).

It's interesting that news has come out now regarding a successor to the Wii, particularly after a few execs of the Big N had been questioned about the next console just recently, and mentioned that it wasn't in the works for now. Clearly they've been playing things down, as it seems that a fair amount of juicy info has been leaked across the net from multiple sources (third party companies and the like.) Here are the basics:

Endurance Mode: The Hunt for Red October

This is a new feature that I've been meaning to tackle for a while...the reason why I haven't until now is simply because I've never wanted to even look at or try the source material for it. Endurance Mode is titled as such because I play a shitty game and either beat the living snot out of it, or see how much crap I can take before I stop playing. For the first EM entry, I've chosen The Hunt for Red October for the NES.

Are video games a form of art?

A good while ago, an article surfaced that was written by Roger Ebert himself, titled "Video Games Can Never Be Art". Later on he posted another entry detailing his reasons why he shouldn't have made such a claim in the first place...there are far too many differing opinions on what is considered to be art, and so his argument fell apart as a result of many people believing otherwise. "Art" as a definition is always subjective and dependent on who is defining it. I guarantee if you go and ask 5 different people what art is, they'll all respond differently and you'll be stuck right where you started...scratching your head, without a definite meaning for the word.

The Smithsonian has recently put a poll out to the people of the world, as they are creating a new exhibit for the museum to be revealed in March, 2012. I was very happy and also quite surprised to find out that it's going to be an exhibit about the art of video games. On the website, one gets to choose from different video game eras and consoles in order to decide which video games are the most important ones...the kind that belong on display in a museum. A lot of people may scoff at this kind of idea but I certainly do not, so seeing this little poll pop up again gave me incentive to finally write an article about my thoughts on the situation.

Megaman Article on IGN

Saw this a few moments ago and thought I'd post a link to it. An IGN editor's discussion about why he considers Megaman 3 to be better than Megaman 2, which is widely regarded as the best NES Megaman entry. I found it was definitely worth a read to see his opinion, and although I personally find MM2 to be the better game overall, I know a few people who would agree with his statements. Hell, even I think some of them are pretty valid...but it's not enough to beat out MM2. Check it out!

Mega Man 2 isn't the Best Mega Man Game

...And checking it twice.

Just a few days ago, I decided to start a list of video games that I've played. I'm not sure why I wanted to do this...I guess it was mostly just to keep track of my gaming experiences and also for nostalgic purposes. After trying to remember all the ones I'd played, and using some handy lists to help spark my memory, this is what I've come up with. Here is a complete inventory of every video game I've played...EVER. A few things I should mention:

a) I've likely forgotten a few.

b) These are just games that I've PLAYED, not necessarily finished. Some I have not beaten, others I've only played once, and still others I've played through a ton of times.

c) There will definitely be more to come, but I'm not gonna update this list every time I play a new vidjagame.

d) I may have missed a few when I counted these up as well, but I know I'm in the ballpark: 910 games in total, last I checked (April 9th, 2012).
- EDITED: April 9th, 2012 - added 19 games to the list.

Now, on to my tally!

A couple of quick items...

Just a couple of things that I thought I would comment about today:

1) I found this interesting watch on YouTube called Sequelitis: Castlevania 1 vs. Castlevania 2. It's a 15-minute long video detailing the differences between the two CV games that's not only interesting, but also pretty damn hilarious. It's made by a guy going by the moniker of EgoRaptor, and he also manages to create other gems such as the Awesome series; basically a series of quick shorts making fun of specific video games. Probably the most hilarious example of this is Awesome Reach. Check it out when you get a chance!

2) Announced today, Duke Nukem Forever has been delayed by about a month. There is a metric pisston of people out there crying about it, but the fact of the matter is that Gearbox will add that extra bit of polish on it in the extra amount of time and make it the best product they can upon release. They wouldn't delay it unless they had to, so whoever the hell is out there freaking out about it and saying Gearbox are retards should probably continuously slam their head between the toilet bowl and seat until June 14th, the new release date for DNF in North America. Fact is that we're finally getting this game, and an extra month after 13 YEARS of pseudo-development is nothing to be whining about like a baby. When He finally appears to us and brings us into His good graces, Duke's beautiful resurrection will be nothing short of awe-inspiring! PRAISE BE TO NUKEM, FOR HE IS THE ONE THAT SHALL LEAD US TO TRUE GLORY!!!

(unless this turns out to be a week-early April Fool's joke and it's actually coming out on time...but it seems doubtful)

That's it for now!

World Ten: Soundtracks, pt. 3

Finally, the conclusion to my analysis of some of my favourite and most memorable video game soundtracks. Enjoy!

Donkey Kong Record Attempt: Today!

Just wanted to slam this link up on my blog for anyone who wants to check it out. It's a live text feed of the current battle for the Donkey Kong world record score. Unfortunately it's not a video, but at least there's something up!

http://retro.nintendolife.com/news/2011/03/live_text_the_kong_off

If you've ever seen The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, you'll recognize Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, the two champs from that documentary. As of late, however, a new challenger has stepped up his game and set a new all-time top score: a plastic surgeon named Hank Chien. His new record of 1,090,400 points is what all three competitors are attempting to shatter today.

Personally, I've always been a fan of Wiebe...so I'm rooting for him!

Shoot first, ask questions later...or maybe not at all.

This week, I replayed a game for the N64 that I haven't really cracked open in a long time...Doom 64. After having talked about it in my recent article regarding effective video game music, I had a hankering to play through it again. I don't really play too much N64 anymore...when it comes down to it, it's probably my least favourite of the Nintendo consoles. That's not to say that it's a bad system or anything, as we all know that it has some great games and had excellent capabilities when it was released; I just prefer to fire up the NES or SNES when I want some nostalgia. Despite this fact, playing Doom 64 again this week has been a really fun experience, and it's kind of ridiculous that I've still retained my old habits from when I used to play it religiously. I still tackle enemies in the same ways, I have all the secrets still memorized and stored somewhere in my otherwise useless brain, and I still know my ways around the convoluted levels without ever getting lost.

The reason I decided to type up a quick post is directly related to what I just mentioned...convoluted levels. Playing through this game again reminded me of a picture I saw maybe half a year ago. I tracked it down quite easily:

A Quick Mention

A friend of mine has recently co-created a site/blog called Wide Awake & Gaming. He and his fellow colleague that both contribute articles to the site are focused on multiple aspects of video games, so if you're looking for more articles be sure to go on over and have a look! JUST DON'T LEAVE ME, OH GOD SO ALONE...

*ahem*

They recently gave a shout out to my site, so I figured it was only courteous to do the same for them. From now on, you'll be able to find the link to WA&G at the right side of my blog under "Links to the Past." HAH! See what I did there??

World Ten: Soundtracks, Pt. 2

A continuation of the previous entry, here are three more games whose soundtracks stand out among the numerous ones I've encountered, with reasoning behind my choices and samples to listen to yourself. Enjoy!

World Ten: Soundtracks, Pt. 1 (also heart quiz answers!)

Music is a very interesting thing, and can be a tremendously powerful tool when used properly in various media. Although at its core, music is simply an arrangement of noises and sounds to produce a desired result, the correct combination of elements can produce much more than the sum of their parts. The main purpose of music is to convey and create emotion within the audience. As human beings, we all know much too well the vast array of emotions we undergo throughout our lives...joy, anxiousness, sadness, tension, and fear are some good but simple examples. When executed correctly, musical arrangements in media such as television, film, and even video games can bring these emotions out in the viewer or player. An epic scene can be accompanied by a dramatic symphony, while creepiness can be conveyed with emptiness and deliberate tones, with sounds arranged to make one feel uncomfortable. I'm sure that just about everyone has been affected by background music at some point in their lives, whether they realize it or not.

C'mon...have a heart!

Well, today's the final day in February, the month of love or something like that, so I figured I'd whip together a little something in honour of that. I've been distracted for most of this month and unfortunately haven't gotten a chance to write something substantial, so rather than me doing all the work, this time YOU get to do something with your lives.

The following is a graphic I've concocted from my sick little mind, loaded with 28 instances of hearts from 28 different games, one for each day of the month. I wonder how many of these any of you will be able to identify. Send this link around to your video game-inclined friends and see what they can pick out as well, and write down what you think in the comments section. I'll be sure to post the answers next time I post (likely next week at some point...I hope.)

Good luck!

P.S. Even though I know some stuff about Photoshop, I made this thing in Paint so it's not the highest quality.

In Defense: Super Meat Boy

In all honesty, I should've gotten around to this fuckin' review waaaaaaaaaay earlier than I have. Super Meat Boy came out as a downloadable game for the Xbox 360 in October, and it sure as hell came out with a bang. Not only did review sites rave about it, giving it insanely high scores, but it also came out for a discount during its first week on the e-market, meaning those that were interested enough to get it right when it came out were on the receiving end of a nice little bonus. That's not to say that SMB is only worth its weight in cash at a discount...in fact it's quite the opposite, and I almost feel like a thief for purchasing such a gilded creation at its lower discount price.

One of Square's little secrets

Just found this nifty little article. It seems that an NES game has surfaced, which was made by Square but never released for the system. It had a release on the MSX, but never made it to Nintendo Systems.

Aliens NES feature on 1up

Pretty cool if you ask me. The playthrough of the game takes around 13 minutes, so it's not terribly long. If this game was released at the time, it probably would've been pretty fuckin sweet! Upgrades to weapons, non-linear level design (sort of), and tons of other pickups to find...for a game created in 1987, that's pretty good. My only gripe is that the final boss is pretty terribly done.

It kinda blows my mind that this game has just suddenly shown up after not being seen for so long. Finding a brand new NES game in 2011? That just seems insane! Check it out!