61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

(RSS)

Katamari Christmas - Rediscovering the Cosmos... Twice

December 23rd, I'm home for the holidays, as are both of my sisters. I am just finishing my self-appointed task of the morning by clearing 100% of the Chroma Dam in de Blob when my elder sister asks what the gameplay is like and if she can learn. I begin to describe and then compare the feeling to that of Katamari Damacy. She is intrigued. I hand her the case to the original Katamari Damacy for Playstation 2. Her eyes light up as she pages through the manual. "Can I play this one?" "Sure." I turn off the Wii and go to make some tea. "Can I play it now?" "Oh, um...yeah, okay!"

A bit of background very quickly. My sister is not an avid gamer, but she is also not a n00b. She is at present the typical "casual" gamer. She plays Brain Age, Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Scrabulous, but to the best of my memory she has not touched a traditional platformer since the original Super Mario Bros. And now here she was, playing a cult-hit Japanese game that required not one analog stick, but two!

Posted Jan 07 2009, 06:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, wii, playstation 2, casual, katamari damacy, iphone, namco, christmas

Worst Christmas Ever?

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back. Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Mine was great, except for one thing: This was the first year in my entire life that I didn't get a single video game!

Posted Jan 02 2009, 12:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: little big planet, xbox 360, wii, cole stryker, ps3, braid, christmas, nobi nobi boy

Donkey Kong Country: A Christmas Miracle

There's something special about spotting that familiar rectangular shape under the tree, which I've had the good fortune of looking forward to at every Christmas. Growing up, I usually got two games each year. One on my birthday and one on Christmas. Of course, I had a rich friend across the street (didn't we all?) with two of every system and all the games I ever wanted to borrow.

But for a moment each Christmas morning I would pore over the instruction booklet, jump around the room waiting for a game to install, or breathlessly set up a new console. For my last post before the holidays, I'll relay a particularly heartwarming Christmas memory.

It was the mid-nineties, and Rare had mailed me a promotional VHS tape.

Posted Dec 23 2008, 03:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: rare, cole stryker, donkey kong country, christmas

Unwrapped: Dragon Quest IV

Ahhh, Christmas. This is a nice time of year for a freelance writer. I’m going to ingest fermented liquids that take the edge off my passion for writing, and editors don’t feel like wading through my crazy letter soup to ball together the few sensible words that congealed in the broth. So I’m told “That’s enough, get outta here. Merry Christmas.” And I start blubbering about my little son Tim dying slowly of acidosis and rickets. Then I settle down and finally, finally get caught up on the games I was too busy writing about to actually sit and play.

First task: Finish Chrono Trigger DS and set aside the five thousand hours that’s required to sweep through the “bonus” dungeons. I’ve not experienced them fully, but I’ve been made to understand that the quotation marks are richly deserved. I can’t wait to find out why. I hear it has something to do with a fetch quest! Boy oh boy!

Second: break out and play Dragon Quest IV. Hell yes, Akira Toriyama double-feature. I’m an unapologetic fan girl and will remain thus until I drop my love for human-devouring dinosaurs bristling with spikes and unscientific add-ons.

STATUS, 22/12/2008: I still think dinosaurs are rad. Associated love for Akira Toriyama: Stable.

The original Dragon Quest III/Dragon Warrior III for the NES left an indelible impression on me; ask me sometime about the story I wrote that featured an original plot but lifted monsters straight from the game. On second thought, don’t.

Posted Dec 22 2008, 09:03 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments

Filed under: nintendo ds, square-enix, 8-bit, retro, nostalgia, nadia oxford, christmas, dragon quest III, dragon warrior iv, dragon warrior III, dragon quest iv: chapters of the chosen

Holiday DLC for You and Yours

Harmonix has just announced that next week’s Rock Band DLC content will be holiday themed, proving once again that they really get it when it comes to the music game market. The songs are, of course, pretty decent:

Barenaked Ladies – Hanukkah Blessings
Billy Squier – Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You
The Pretenders – Blue Christmas

This is the kind of thing that DLC is built for, especially for games that have built a business model around frequent DLC updates. Such a model allows for the industry to indulge yearly in a little bit of seasonal content, the same way Hollywood spews out the same cheaply-made movie about holiday family awkwardness every first weekend of December. I’m no fan of Christmas movies, but I’m happy and eager to drape games I already like in festive colors for a few days every winter.

After the jump there are a few other 2008 holiday DLC things to fool around with next to the fireplace this year. No, Guitar Hero isn’t getting anything (humbug). No, Rock Revolution isn’t getting anything either (hey, if you were Konami, would you support that game?).

Posted Dec 19 2008, 02:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: xbox 360, rock band, lips, ps3, dlc, joe keiser, christmas, santa hats on pretty girls, soulcalibur iv, singstar, holidays

Chiptune Christmas!

Christmas is almost certainly the holiday with the greatest quantity of specially-crafted pop culture to back it up. Christmas movies, tv specials, and music albums are all common in our commercially viable holiday season (seriously, have you heard Bootsy Collins' Christmas Is 4 Ever? I think you should...), and, of course, there's no keeping chiptune out of this. Last week, Cole pointed out the new 8-Bit Jesus album from Doctor Octoroc, but today we're taking a stroll down memory lane for me.

Five years ago, when I was first getting into chiptune as more than just a retro novelty, the 8bitPeoples released their second-ever compilation, The 8bits of Christmas (their first ep was all covers of the Beverly Hills Cop theme). Eight different chiptune musicians, each using a different piece of game hardware, each doing their own spin on a Christmas classic. All eight are delightful, and the EP quickly became a staple of my holiday playlist. Here now, my personal favorite, goto80's take on Wham!'s contemporary classic "Last Christmas," recorded using a Commodore 64:

Posted Dec 19 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, chiptune friday, commodore 64, 8bitpeoples, christmas, goto80

Santa's Welcome Bounty: Christmas Morning Games

I know everyone who reads 61 FPS was a model child who was very thankful for the gifts they received at Christmas. Nobody went home loaded down with socks and underwear, tears stinging the backs of their eyes. Nobody played wistfully with the Manger scene, replacing their unfulfilled toy soldiers and enemy aliens with Joseph and the Shepherds. No, we were always good and unselfish.

Okay, but the Christmases that left us with mountains of toys effin' rocked, right? We still spared a thought for the poor kids who woke up to nothing but a can of pumpkin mix, but kind of forgot about them as we attacked our loot.

We were lucky, but at the same time, Christmas was often the only time of year we could hope to score games. Maybe that's why the holiday makes me so nostalgic; I was sometimes gifted with items I hadn't even dared to ask for.

Posted Dec 18 2008, 12:35 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: game boy, retro, nostalgia, memories, nadia oxford, christmas

8 Bit Jesus: Holiday Chiptunes for Your Stocking

I know chiptunes are normally Derrick's game around these parts, but when I stumbled on Dr. Octoroc's 8-bit Jesus, I couldn't resist. It's an album of Christmasy chip tunes, half of which is available for free online as individual mp3's or a rar/zip file.

Posted Dec 09 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, contra, christmas, chiptunes

Making Black Friday Work for You

Man, have you seen the list of new releases for this week? Don’t even bother: unless you desperately want retro re-releases like Chrono Trigger or Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (and there’s no shame in that) the marquee title is the rubbery werehog opus Sonic Unleashed. Those that have been following Sonic’s downward spiral know this is no cause for joy. Nintendo even released Boogerman on Virtual Console. BOOGERMAN. It’s like everyone suddenly ran out of games to sell.

So somehow we have a barren week in November. Unsurprisingly, it’s also Thanksgiving week. The industry is sending a message loud and clear: stop buying games for yourself, and start buying them for other people.

And belts are tight this year. But that has also led to retailers turning Black Friday into less of a day and more of a season. You can use that to your advantage, if you figure out where to look:

-First of all, go to CheapAssGamer. Every. Day. I didn’t find every single thing in this list there, but naturally, they had them all anyway. They also have the full list of what you can get at those horrible door buster sales, so for those of you that enjoy risking life and life before the sun comes up in the name of sweet capitalism check it out. If you don’t make it back, we will try to get a good deal on your tombstone.

Posted Nov 24 2008, 02:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: joe keiser, recession, christmas, armored core, shopping, black friday

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.