61 Frames Per Second : derrick sanskrit

iPod Games, You're Doing It Wrong

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Like it or not, the iPod/iPhone has become a gaming platform. There are tons of statistics out there and I'm not going to bore you with them, but the fact is a lot of people are making games for the iPod and a lot of people are downloading and playing them. This post is not about educating the blog-reading public so much as a friendly word of advice to the game developers out there.

iPod game developers, remember what your platform is. No matter how Apple dresses it up or the media hypes it, the iPod is first and foremost a portable music player. The iPhone is just an iPod that also happens to make phone calls. So please, when you want us to play your games on our personal music players, do take care when shutting off our music.

Just using the examples that are currently on my iPod Touch, the biggest offender is probably Scramble Live, Zynga's Boggle clone. There is no music in the game and very minimal sound effects, so why does clicking the icon automatically shut off my music? Are you worried that listening to Nas will distract me from finding words, and if so isn't that really more of my concern than yours? Scramble is clearly designed for short bursts of casual play, so every time I play a round on the train I have my music interrupted, then end the game and go back to start my music all over again. Not cool. The same goes for THQ's de Blob. The game does thankfully use the same wonderful music as the infinitely better Wii game (sans player interaction) but it asks you upon loading the game if you want sounds enabled AFTER it has already stopped the music. Why offer sound options after turning off the preexisting sounds? Just set sounds to "on" and I'll mute my iPod if I don't like them. Or better yet, let me paint the town red to the Replacements!

Some games get away with it because the music is so integral to the gameplay, as you'd think it should be on an iPod game. Newtonica, for example, has an incredibly simple gameplay mechanic in merely flicking a sphere around to catch crystals in the correctly colored quadrants, but without the bright and lively electronic soundtrack it would be dreary and impossible to play for more than ten seconds. Radio Flare plays like a 2D side scrolling Rez by targeting up to four obstacles or enemies at a time and blowing them all up in beat with the music. Neither game has a soundtrack I'd listen to on its own, nor particularly interesting gameplay, but the play and the audio element work perfectly together to make them compelling. Both games force my iPod to stop playing music, but they would be impossible to play set to any other music, so it's okay.

And then there are the games that simply get it right. The critically acclaimed RolandoEdge, a game that I've pretty much raved about on here before, is exactly the same story. Great original soundtrack, but no problem replacing it with your own mp3s. Aurora Feint, Sway, Adventure, all great games, fun for long stretches and short bursts alike, with wonderful sound effects and the ability to keep playing your own music while you play the game. has a fantastic original soundtrack, but it's more than happy to let you listen to your own tunes instead.

With OS 3.0 coming this summer - promising access to the iPod's media library within other apps - we can look forward to greater interaction between games and the user's existing music and photos (and hopefully a legit portable version of AudioSurf), so I ask you, iPod game developers, please, think twice before shutting off my tunes. If you have to interrupt Super Furry Animals, at least make the audio component an important part of the game.

Whatcha Playing: Earth Day Edition

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:30:00 GMT

April 22nd, the day we all take off from work and gather at our local mosques and synagogues to solemnly pay respects to our mother Earth on the anniversary of her creation... or something. So do your part and take your game time today away from blasting zombies and chainsawing aliens in half, instead playing games all about helping mother Earth. Here are the four games that I'm playing for Earth Day:

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol for Nintendo DS

Rather than cleaning up a house and helping with domestic troubles, this Chibi-Robo has been tasked with turning a barren field of sand into a lush flourishing public park. Like SimCity, you get to design your own world, laying paths and streams, rocks and hills, even benches, fountains, clock towers, statues, and mini-games to your liking. The nicer your park, the more visitors it gets each day. You also have to befriend local toys (including Molly Mapletree, seen above) to help you build up your park and battle smoglings who aim to pollute all the beautiful nature you've brought to the park, but the majority of gameplay is planting flowers. It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds, thanks to the charm and playfulness found in all Skip-developed Nintendo games.

Flower for Playstation 3

Nature is so relaxing for those first few levels, but the final stage really flaunts the nature vs. man-made-atrocities vibe. It's vindicating to smash your trail of flower petals straight through scaffolding and watch a child's swing-set color itself and start swinging in the wind. My only problem with this for Earth Day is that it romanticizes the wind more than the flowers. Playing Flower makes me want to go ride a bike, not water a tree. Still, at least it's prompting me to go outside.

Bonsai Barber for Nintendo Wii

This WiiWare title asks you to be kind to nature in a very different way, by playing the neighborhood barber in a village of anthropomorphic plants. Yes, it's a cute and quirky little topiary simulation. The adorable factor in this game is fairly high without ever becoming sugary sweet, and seeing your shrubbery clientele bristle with joy when you've completed their new 'dos might just make you want to go outside and trim those hedges.

Pixeljunk Eden for Sony Playstation 3

If the above games are a bit too casual and cutesy for you, though, here's a true hardcore platformer. While a bit more abstract, the main focus of the game is pollinating flowers. You essentially play as a spider who thinks it's a bee who has done some psychadelic drugs in the garden. Through the techno and bright colors, the message is clear: more flowers = more awesome.

Related articles:
Ecco the Dolphin: Was This Game Ever Considered Fun?
Comfort Through Gaming: Accomplishing Anything in SimEarth
Chiptune Friday: Spring Into Spring with Sonic

The Curious Appeal of Effing Hail

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Much like digital distribution on the current generation of consoles and handhelds has brought us charming, unique, and thrilling game experiences that would absolutely not survive in a retail environment, digital distribution of independant computer games allows us to become audience to gaming concepts that would likely never survive in committee. A majority of the most interesting games hitting the 'net these days are little more than proofs of concept, but of really freakin' neat concepts, and that makes all the difference. I would rather play a game in my web browser for five minutes and be left thinking about about it for hours than sink days into yet another epic console slugfest and have no idea what the point of it all is.

Case in point, I played Intuition Games' "Effing Hail" about twelve times this weekend.

"Effing Hail" is not a complex game. Presented as an isometric cross-section graphic similar to those seen in ecology text books (or the artwork to a certain rock album that helped some of us survive freshman orientation), the player controls wind gusts in order to hold the incoming hail stones in the atmosphere, accumulating greater moisture, mass, and volume, forming larger hail stones which are then flung into the unsuspecting people and constructs of the world in a vengeful God simulation.

There are only a few levels, and the only true challenge is beating the timer, but it's still a challenge and it's deceptively compelling. Still, having "beaten" the game within a half-hour of first playing it, why did I keep playing all weekend? Because I couldn't stop thinking about it! Destroying cities isn't new, we all aimed tornados at our power plants in SimCity. Controlling the wind isn't new, we've recently had console-based downloadable wind sims in LostWinds and Flower. Maybe it's the faux-scientific presentation, maybe it's the humorous and ironic nature of using Godly powers to control science and destroy humanity, or maybe it's the name "Effing Hail" and the end screen history book reporting on the record-setting hail storm of 2009.

Whatever the reason, I find "Effing Hail" a fascinating case study in everything I love about Flash games: a singular idea fleshed out just enough to prove it can be a fantastic game mechanic and then the game ends, move along to something else and tell your friends. Thank you, Intuition Games, and keep up the wild work. Click here to try out "Effing Hail."

Related articles:
The Hardcore Gothic Romance of Judith
Scarygirl is Out!
Indie Dev Moment: Jumpman

Conspiracy Theory: Assassin's Creed II Protagonist's Telling Name

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Assassin's Creed was the first game I played from beginning to end on a high-definition gaming console. It was kinda pretty, it was kinda fun, it was a whole lot of boring, but it did show a lot of really cool ideas, which is why I'm actually sort of excited about the upcoming sequel. The long-teased and only recently-confirmed Assassin's Creed II doesn't have a whole lot of info out just yet, only that it is set in 15th century Italy (at least, some of it is), based heavily on the work of Renaissance master Leonardo DaVinci, and that the protagonist this time is named Ezio.

People are justifying this name by stating that Ezio (that guy on the right) roughly translates to "like an eagle" in latin, much like protagonist Altair in the original game's name in Arabic, likely tying into the "eagle vision" skill used by the assassins in the game. Now, maybe it's just decades of sci-fi and comic books affecting my brain, but the name "Ezio" suggests a whole other meaning to me, one that I'm frankly surprised to see mentioned nowhere else that I've checked. I'm probably reading way too much into this. Then again, maybe I'm right on point.

Be aware that beyond this point I am going to be going into spoilers from the first game and a bit of rampant speculation on the second game.

We all cool with that?

Cool.

There, now, am I the only one who realizes that "EZIO" is "0123" flipped 180 degrees? Check out the graphic at right to illustrate just that point. Why might this be important?

Because in the first game you were actually playing as Desmond Miles in the year 2012, hooked up to a machine called the Animus in order to relive the memories of his ancestors. Clearly for the game series to continue, this shady research project must continue as well, and considering the narrative style of the first game it is all too easy to see a chapter of the game ending with its true protagonist waking up in a lab upside down and see the tag "0123" somewhere in the lab flipped around to resemble "EZIO". It's easy to believe that we may be playing as patient number 0123 or in experiment number 0123 or even that all the data collected by the kidnapped patients is being downloaded into android model 0123.

Considering how much the fans were worked up about the final screen of the first game, which showed statements regarding the end of the world in a variety of diffferent languages, you would think a potential clue like this would drive the internet wild, wouldn't you?

Am I crazy, or am I just thinking about this game a little too much? Probably both, right?

Related rumors and speculation:
If This is True, RIP Eidos
Castlevania Symphony of the Night 2: What is a Screenshot? A Miserable Little Pile of Secrets!
Rumors, Rumors, Riz-u-mors: Resident Evil 2 Wii and The Glory of Speculation

At Least PopCap Has A Sense Of Humor

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

PopCap Games knows how to make crowd-pleasing casual PC time-wasters. Their back catalog of bonafide hits includes Bejeweled, Zuma and Peggle. Their next release is the rather hilariously titled Plants vs. Zombies.

Let's let that concept settle for a moment, shall we?

PLANTS

VERSUS

ZOMBIES

As PopCap has never excelled in originality, but in the polish and presentation of tried-and-true formulas, it should come as no surprise that Plants vs. Zombies appears to be nothing more than a very well-designed tower defense game. PopCap are clearly banking on the appeal of the game's humor, and let me tell you... it's going to work. Just look at this teaser/music video they've released:

PopCap have also started a series of shorts where they hire one of the game's zombies as a temp while they finish the game:

I don't even like tower defense games, but I am definitely going to try Plants vs. Zombies. The music video alone was hilarious and exciting. Well played, PopCap. Well played.

Related articles:
There Is No Reason Not To Play Peggle
World's Office Drones Rejoice: Cyberslacking Boosts Productivity
Men Are From Hyrule, Women Are From Simville: If Gender Defines the Games We Play, Why Does Everybody Play By the Same Rules?

My Night At DJ School With Rhythm Heaven

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

I've written about Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven and its predecessor Rhythm Tengoku a couple of times before. I love them, they are my ideal games. Nintendo did not need to do anything fancy to get me excited about the game's long-awaited western release, and yet they were kind enough to invite me to their DJ School event hosted at Scratch DJ Academy last week. You guys are so good to me sometimes.

A decidedly casual affair outside of the hors d'ouevre, most of the people I talked to there were from local community meet-ups and hip-hop discussion groups, a welcome change from the depressingly stereotypical otaku at most of the Nintendo events I've attended. DS kiosks glowed on the dancefloor, surrounded on all sides by turntables, and everyone seemed to be having a good time playing around with both.

Describing the night's activity is kind of futile, though, so here's a video I shot to give you all a better idea of how it went down:

I did feel a little down that I didn't get to compete at the end of the night and show off the vinyl scratching skillz I'd picked up in the previous two hours, but considering I would have dominated in the DS portion of the competition, I also would have felt bad depriving somebody else of the prizes.

All in all, I had a blast. Chatting with real people about a video game they'd mostly never heard of or touched before that night which I'd already completed twice (granted, in another language) provided a fun new persepective, and getting a few pointers on scratching records was sort of a daydream-come-true for me. Add on that this was all to show off and promote what will probably end up being my favorite game of 2009 and DJ School may very well be my favorite game-related event I've attended in years. More like this, please!

Related articles:
Whatcha Playing: Tappable Rhythm Sequels
Fun Fact: Metroid Meets Metronome
Make The Music With Your Games, Kids!

Jimmy Fallon Making Good On His Promise To Gamers

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

When it was first announced that Jimmy Fallon would be taking over Late Night, I was unenthused. I never found Fallon to be funny or charming in his past work, and the flight to Florida wherein I watched him and Queen Latifa in Taxi was the longest and most uncomfortable two hours in my recent life to not involve work or girls. When he confirmed that his house band would be the Roots, I was simultaneously interested and disappointed. Hurrah, the Roots get a regular paycheck, but did they really need it so badly as to stoop to being a late night house band? When Fallon started talking asking the Twitter community for interview ideas and promised his show would treat video game releases as if they were movie releases, well, then my interest was officially piqued. Maybe this show will actually be okay. Better yet, maybe it will be worthwhile.

I watched the first week. Outside of "Slow-Jamming The News" and his interview with Tina Fey, it was not very good.

I wish I'd watched last night, though. Musical guests Yeah Yeah Yeahs are always fun, even if feelings are still mixed on the sound of It's Blitz!, but the guest lineup of rapper/actor Ice-T, muppet/pop-culture-icon Elmo, and video game news anchor/commentator Morgan Webb appeals to my nerddom perfectly. Throw in Tobias Frere-Jones and I might have just freaked the hell out while everyone else scratched their heads.

Morgan was there to talk about her new show G4 Underground, but she also brought along the new Punch-Out! for Wii. Jimmy embarrasses himself with that, of course, but the true beauty is before that when the whole panel of Jimmy, Morgan, Ice and Elmo chatting about games. Ice-T even shouts out is gamertag (sorry kids, his list is full, but he does challenge you all to Gears of War). Check it out:

More moments like this and I may actually watch Jimmy on a regular basis. And please, Jimmy, do "Slow-Jamming The News" more often. I would watch an entire show of just that.

Related articles:
Will Jimmy Fallon Help Bring Legitimacy To Video Games?
Video Game Television The Canadian Way, Eh?
The Problem With Punch-Out

Handjobs for Homebrew: Brawl Stage Studio

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT

If you're like me, you probably subscribed to Masahiro Sakurai's Smash Bros Dojo blog hyping the release of Super Smash Bros Brawl over a year ago. On a daily basis, Sakurai and company revealed fun new features of the game, some of which were standard and blasé and some of which were mind-blowingly awesome. The two most amazing, without a doubt, were the inclusion of fan favorite Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character and, of course, the level editor. Including a level editor in Super Smash Bros Brawl meant nearly infinite replay value, even moreso than the game's prior iterations which have long since owned the attention of gamers for years. The only problem was that controlling the level editor was finicky and many gamers, including myself, would often press the wrong button and delete all their hard work. Designing stages in the living room on the Wii was stressful. If it wasn't great, then you were deemed a failure by your roommates and loved ones. What started as a wonderful idea to extend the user interaction in a fan-favorite franchise had become a nerve-wracking and oft-ignored add-on.

Well no longer is this quite so harrowing an affair as programmer Xane has released the beta of his Brawl Stage Studio application, a homebrew program that allows you to build your Smash Bros stages from the comfort of your PC, save them to an SD card, and play them in Brawl. Fantastic! All the features are there, from conveyor belts and statues to the stage soundtrack, and even a few new features like setting the player spawn points and including your own custom thumbnail images. Plus, typing with a keyboard is much easier than using the virtual keypad on the Wii. But, as Levar Burton used to say, you don't have to take my word for it. Just check out this demo video:

Brawl Stage Studio is still in beta, which means ther are still some bugs to fix and potentially new features on the horizon. Download it and send your feedback to Xane here.

Related articles:
Handjobs for Homebrew: Mario Paint Composer DS
10 Games Nadia Played in 2008 Instead of Working: Super Smash Bros Brawl
Two Years In: The Wii's Feats of Strength and it's Disappointments

Chiptune Friday - Mega Man vs. Memphis Bleek

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Hip hoppers love video games, there's no denying it. More than any other genre of music, the hip hop community outright loves video games. Sure, Soulja Boy might not be the spokesperson we all want for either form of entertainment, but at least he's being open and honest about our shared nerdery.

This is why Tae K's Mega Man Mixtape should come as no surprise to anybody. Released online just over a year ago, Tae K takes the popular medium of the hip hop mixtape - wherein DJs provide their own beats for a variety of well-known vocal tracks - and used nothing but samples from the library of Mega Man games on the NES for his beats. This form of mashup mixtape is nothing new, having risen to prominence a few years ago with Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album" and Greg Gillis's Girl Talk project, but it's still damn fun and worth celebration. So crank up the volume, hit play, grab a drink and get your dance on while you think about busting up some robot masters, because here comes Memphis Bleek's "Like That" set to Mega Man 4's Skullman music:

If you dug this, you can download the whole 14 track mix, including some Nas, Outkast, Beastie Boys, Lupe Fiasco, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Ciara, the aformentioned Soulja Boy and more on Tae K's blog. I particularly enjoy the final track, Young Buck's "Shorty Wanna Ride" set to the end theme from Mega Man 3.

Related hip-hoppery:
Ludacris Presses The Start Button
You Got Soul, But You're Not A Soulja Boy
Chiptune Friday: Super Mario vs. M.I.A.

Fun Fact: Secrets of the DSi

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Though I've had my new Nintendo DSi for almost two days now, I've only had a few hours of playtime so far. Overall I am very impressed with the upgrades and the new features. A few minor features in particular have caught my attention that I don't think I've seen mentioned elsewhere. For your benefit, here's what I've noticed so far, including why I brought the DSi on my lunch break instead of my iPod:

The interior plastic (the stylus slot and SD card tray) are the complimentary color of the system's exterior. That means they're white on the black DSi and orange on the blue one. It would not be an unsafe assumption that a violet DSi would have yellow features, green would have red, and so on.

The SD card slot cover is not a hinged door like on most digital cameras but a slide-out tray of flexible plastic. You will likely worry about breaking it the first time it opens, just remember to slide out, not flip down.

The DSi supports high capacity SD cards out of the box, which means no storage problems for a long time. You still can't load games off of it like the recent Wii update, but maybe someday...

AAC audio files continue playing when you close the DSi as long as you're wearing headphones. This means you can use the DSi as your personal music player, but not as a boombox (unlike the iPhone which plays through the speaker when the screen is asleep as well).

Any effects you've applied to the song continue if listening with the DSi closed. Pressing L and R for added percussion works too. I totally walked down Crosby Street tapping handclaps along with a slowed-down Juan MacLean track this morning.

You can play along with some of the audio visualizers. In the Super Mario one, Lakitu creates a waveform with coins and you can make Mario jump to grab them by tapping L or R (adding percussion to the song). The Excitebike track is formed by the waveform pattern as well. Turning on the Radio filter will dull all of the peaks and valleys, while ramping up the speed with create sharp spikes in the path that send the racers flying off screen! Even in the wireframe space flight (a la Star Fox or Red Alarm), tapping L or R launches lasers shaped like your ship. There's no point to these, it's just kinda fun.

A few features also seem to mirror the iPhone:

Volume controlled by one vertical button on the left hand side of the device.
A single button press gets you back to the system menu, regardless of what you were doing.
Icons on the system menu shift to make room when you're moving them around (something I wish Wii Channels did).
The camera always makes an audible shutter sound, regardless of the system's volume or presense of headphones. The japanese sure do hate sneaky perverts.

All in all, I am very happy with the DSi so far. I never realized how much I would love being able to go back to the menu and play something else without having to shut the system off and on again. In-game brightness control is a fantastic feature we always should have had, as is a battery indicator that actually shows how full the battery is. If I didn't have an iPod Touch, I'd probably be happy to use the DSi as my personal music player. The camera's aren't great, but they're actually pretty good and fun. Art Style: Aquia's great too, but you all expected me to say that, right. Quite possibly best of all, the new WPA-encryption means I can finally access the wifi in both my home and the Nerve office on my DS. The web browser is expectedly worthless thanks to the DSi's still limited memory, but really, there are much better options for web browsing than a DSi, so who cares about that. I miss the GBA slot and using my flash card to run homebrew software (a problem which will undoubtedly be fixed soon with newer flash cards or homebrew on SD), but the DSi is definitely at least as big an upgrade over the DS Lite as the DS Lite was over the DS.

Related Articles:
Fun Fact: Metroid Meets Metronome
Fun Fact: Dylan Cuthbert - The Genre Masher
Nintendo DSi Has "Figured Me Out," Literally!

Chiptune Friday: Game Boy Hero

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Last month, Game Boy musician Cornbeat finally released his long-anticipated EP Chip Hero through 8bitPeoples. As the name implies, Chip Hero presents itself as a concept extended play, the soundtrack to a future video game where the player simulates the live performance of Chiptune music with synthetic controllers resembling the vintage game consoles the songs were originally recorded with. Sounds familiar, no?

As would be expected for the soundtrack to such a game, the five tracks making up the twenty-minute soundtrack are great fun and you might just find yourself wanting to press buttons in time with the bleeps as well. Here now, for your week ending enjoyment, my favorite track from Chip Hero, "Backseat Driver":

Download Chip Hero from 8bitPeoples here.

Related Chiptunes:
Twilight Electric's "Razor Blades"
USK's "Little Sound Disko"
Anamanaguchi's "Helix Nebula"

Nintendo DSi Has "Figured Me Out," Literally!

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:00:00 GMT

They've finally done it. Nintendo has finally made me want to upgrade my old white DS Lite for a new DSi (haven't decided on color yet, but I'm leaning towards the electric blue).

I've resisted for months. I already have two DSes, I don't need one with two 0.3 megapixel cameras, that's just stupid. I don't care if my DS can play AAC audio files, that's what I have an iPod for. And no GBA slot? Yeah, I hardly ever use it, but come on! I should have known Nintendo had an ace up their sleeve when it was revealed a few weeks back that Beyoncé would be doing their advertisements for Rhythm Heaven, a game that I want to encourage everyone in the world to buy and play incessantly. I'm not really a fan of Beyoncé (I could go for a little more "Bugaboo" and a whole lot less "Single Ladies") but I certainly don't hate her and this ad campaign is clearly effective (just look at Professor Layton's sales numbers since the Lisa Kudrow ads started airing...a full calendar year after the game was released!). Having read that the ad campaign was supposed to start this week, I flipped over to the Nintendo Channel on my Wii for a peek. Imagine my surprise when I see not one, not two, but three videos with the coolest, most soulful white boy in the world, Jamie Lidell!

Behold, his DSi-inspired-and-powered remix of "Figured Me Out":

That's the ultimate end-product of his Nintendo shoot, but there's also a really great "behind the scenes" video with Jamie demonstrating how he used the DSiSound program (pre-installed on every DSi) to tweak his already slick single into this mysterious pop euphony. He also goofs off with the camera a bit, but come on, he's a musician, he's there for the audio and boy does he sell it. The third video is a short clip of him enjoying a round of ping-pong in Rhythm Heaven.

Now, as a hip, young 21st century media packrat, the announcements of these standard DSi features did not excite me. If i wanted to goof off with photos for no good reason, I can use photoshop far more effectively. If I wanted to tinker around with music, there's a plethora of music software on my Mac and several rooms full of instruments. Telling me about these features does not interest me. Jim, though, has shown me how he used the DSi in exactly the same way I've used so many games to add new elements to songs I've recorded at home. I originally bought a DS just to play Electroplankton. I've mentioned before that I bought Gunpey DS just for the sequencer. I've recorded the drum set in the original Rhythm Tengoku and the acoustic guitar in Jam Sessions and the synthesizer in Korg DS-10. I often use the DS as a musical instrument, and seeing a musician I respect doing the same actually made me giddy.

Lidell, of course, is no stranger to commercially "selling out," as his track "A Little Bit More" was prominently featured in a Target campaign a while back, but I like Target, Nintendo, and Jamie, so I don't really mind. Keep in mind, though, that owning a DSi will not instantly give you the talent neccesary to produce remixes like this. Jamie knows what he's doing. Just look what he did with a sound board, two microphones, and his voice:

Still, my mind is swimming with new ideas for musical performance using DSiSound. Between that and new downloadable Art Style games (six in Japan, so far) I am caving and getting myself a DSi next week. I'll probably even enjoy the cameras. See how easy that was, Nintendo? All I needed was an outgoing British soul singer to convince me to buy the third version of the same portable game system. You win.

Related articles:
Here Comes The DSi
Style Over Substance: Why I Love WiiWare's "Art Style"
Make The Music With Your Games, Kids!

Chiptune Friday: 8-Bit Daft Punk

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Third Daft Punk post this month? Clearly March is all about robots dancing as far as I'm concerned.

You may have seen around the 'net that a new bit of NES homebrew was released last month in D-Pad Hero, a game that mimicked the now all-too-familiar Guitar Hero/Dance Dance Revolution style of tapping buttons in rhythm to a scrolling bar of icons, only it replaces the guitar controller/dance pad with a traditional NES game pad and high quality song recordings with size and medium appropriate chiptune. Gameplay is expectedly challenging, but the songs are divine, especially the chiptune version of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".

Something about those clicks and warbles just seems... appropriate.

Even though the original "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was popular when released back in 2001, it rose in popularity again in 2007 when Kanye West sampled it for his hit song "Stronger". You can download the ROM for D-Pad Hero here (you'll need some form of NES emulator). If you like it, click "support us" and PayPal them some cash to make a sequel. Maybe we'll get some chiptune Toto next time!

Related tunes:
NES Radiohead
Game Boy Postal Service
MIA vs. Super Mario Bros
RAC vs. The Legend of Zelda

Daily DS Sutra - Position of the Nail

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Today, we close our series of looks at the more interesting poses in amateur French developer Cid2Mizard's SutraDS, a homebrew Kama Sutra application for the Nintendo DS. Have we saved the best for last? Well, that really depends on what you consider "best."

One more time, if you are offended by imagery or discussion of a sexual nature, please do not continue reading this post and generally avoid the rest of Nerve.com

Just to be clear, even though we do not see this content as pornographic, it is most likely NSFW.

Please skip this post if you're in a position where you don't want digital representations of sexual activity on your computer screen.

If you're in Google Reader, just tap the J key on your keyboard to skip ahead.

Nobody wants a repeat of yesterday's shenanigans.

Are we all clear yet?

If you're someplace where it's cool to be looking at stuff about video games and sex (like your home, the Nerve office or the corner Starbucks), we're all cool, right?

If not, skip this.

Ready?

Okay.

Today's position: Position of the Nail

Wow. That looks uncomfortable.

It also doesn't look particularly pleasurable, but hey, different strokes, right? Very different strokes.

SutraDS does praise this position for "very intense stimulation" and "angle and amplitude of penetration exitante" which I understand translates to "exciting." It also warns "here you will have understood that the risk of wounds is rather raised. Therefore go with caution there." That sounds like a Liz Lemon joke gone horribly awry.

Ugh, this is going to be what I picture every time Stephen Colbert claims to have "nailed" somebody.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our week-long look at this very quirky homebrew title. Odd and unfinished as it is, I think it's certainly worth a look. The software is sorely lacking any sort of audio component, so I would recommend some MIDI Marvin Gaye to go along with it. If you'd like to read more about sex, just click "Home" at the top of this page. If you've got a Nintendo DS with a flashcart or even just a DS emulator, you can download SutraDS here.

Related articles:
Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Elephant
Daily DS Sutra - The Big Opening
Daily DS Sutra - Mobile of the Wheel
Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Amazon
Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity
God of War III Does Not Need Another Sex Mini-Game
Sex in Games: Daniel Floyd is a Smart Cookie, but No Al Green

Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Elephant

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Today, we look at another of the more interesting poses in amateur French developer Cid2Mizard's SutraDS, a homebrew Kama Sutra application for the Nintendo DS. Once again, if you are offended by imagery or discussion of a sexual nature, please do not continue reading this post and generally avoid the rest of Nerve.com

Today's position: Union of the Elephant

Can somebody please tell me what this position has to do with elephants?

Compared to the other poses reviewed this week, Union of the Elephant is downright bland, lacking all sense of adventure and wonder and offers a fairly superficial degree of penetration. What's it got going for it? Well, clearly comfort is a factor, as both partners are essentially lying flat on their fronts. This allows for increased opportunity for fondling, cuddling, and a general sense of intimacy, as your entire bodies are touching. A good pose for love, not particularly great for passion. But again, why elephants? Is this how elephants have sex, laying flat on their stomachs? That seems completely impossible. Worth noting, this position can be excellent for female stimulation, as SutraDS points out "the front wall of the vagina and point G are well stimulated."

"Point G." Thank you, SutraDS.

If you'd like to read more about sex, just click "Home" at the top of this page. If you've got a Nintendo DS with a flashcart or even just a DS emulator, you can download SutraDS here. Check back every day this week as we look through some of our other favorite positions in this quirky bit of homebrew.

Related articles:
Daily DS Sutra - The Big Opening
Daily DS Sutra - Mobile of the Wheel
Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Amazon
Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity
God of War III Does Not Need Another Sex Mini-Game
Sex in Games: Daniel Floyd is a Smart Cookie, but No Al Green

Why I'm Excited For What WiiWare Could Soon Become

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Even though it was a firmware update that pretty much everybody called well over a year ago, it was still pretty exciting to see that SD Card channel go live on the Wii yesterday. Almost everyone who has downloaded more than one game from the Wii Shop Channel has felt the aggravation of having to "clean out the fridge" at some point, and with the twenty minutes of rearranging necessary for me to download the long-awaited Bit.Trip Beat last week, I was pretty much pissed at my favorite little white box. Getting home from work yesterday to see its inviting blue glow, I just wanted to hug the Wii and tell it that everything was going to be alright now.

First, I could happily move my Virtual Console and WiiWare games to the SD card without worrying about forgetting them forever. Then I could reinstall the Nintendo Channel and the Wii Fit channel I had to delete to make room for World of Goo. Ooh, and then I could finally install that Mario Kart Wii channel I'd been putting off. And then I can finish that game of Paper Mario I had to remove from the Wii when I downloaded Tetris Party!

Having access to these games without taking up precious system memory was not only liberating but a revelation. I'd been putting off or flat-out ignoring all but the most-desired WiiWare and Virtual Console games specifically to avoid having to delete old games, but now everything's changed! It's time to revisit the Wii Shop. Time to finally play LostWinds, Space Invaders Get Even and (yes, I'm terrible) Mega Man 9! I can actually look forward to upcoming WiiWare without having to worry, which is great because there are tons of great games coming out soon like Cave Story, Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, Cube Gardens of Zen, Super Meat Boy and Night Game. Oh, and Hudson's upcoming "first person soaker" Water Warfare. That may just be the first deathmatch shooter game I genuinely want to play.

Then, of course, I start dreaming about the potential...

Couldn't we get DEMOS now? I've downloaded plenty of demos on PSN. Some convinced me to buy the full game, some did not. Apple's app store has tons of Lite versions of games that serve as free demos (in fact I just downloaded one for Sway) and those have only proven to raise interest and ultimately sales of the finished products. Demos work in this day and age of downloadable distribution. I was perfectly willing to accept before that demos were impractical on the Wii because of memory limitations, but with hard drive space opened like this it should be no problem. The most Nintendo would need to do is add a page to the Wii Shop channel for demos specifically. I imagine the extra work for the developers to make a demo to stand beside the finished game would be negligible in most instances as long as Nintendo doesn't restrict file sizes any more than they would for the finished product. Think about it: not sure about Bit.Trip Beat? Try the first level. Think High Voltage Hot Rod Show might be for you? Here's one course to race around for free. Of course, these would not be mandatory and entirely up to the developer, but it seems like a fantastic idea to me, and one that would make users significantly more likely to try and maybe even buy otherwise unheard of games.

WiiWare should be the feather in the Wii's already fancy cap. As stated before, retail Wii games can not be updated once they're released, unlike PS3 and Xbox 360 games, but WiiWare can (I distinctly remember there being a Dr. Mario Online RX update at one point). The SD card solution released this week has made me exponentially more excited by the prospect of WiiWare and I already have plans to fork over more of my hard-earned money to the Wii Shop as a result. Take this momentum, Nintendo, and run with it. Make WiiWare great.

Related articles:
Everything You Need To Know About The Wii Storage Solution
Style Over Substance: Why I'm In Love With WiiWare's "Art Style"
WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Ain't Working Out
Whatcha Playing: Lost Winds

Reminder: Nintendo of Japan Still Gets All the Nicest Things

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's keynote today was actually pretty nice. We got the long-awaited Wii storage solution, confirmation and reveals of a bunch of downloadable titles, the reveal of a new DS Zelda game, and some insight into just how creepy Shigeru Miyamoto really is to work with. As ecstatic as I am to see Nintendo committed to promoting Rhythm Heaven in America (my early pick for "game of the year"), it's still hard not to envy Japanese Nintendo fans. Of course they get many of the best games we never do (Captain Rainbow) or get very late (Professor Layton...still waiting on either of the sequels), and there are a few times when the tables are turned (Japan will likely never get MadWorld), but Nintendo of Japan just gets to do things that Nintendo of America would never dream of. Japanese Wiis can control television browsing and order business cards with your Mii on them. Nintendo of Japan even sponsors an annual student game developing seminar, 10 months of programming, sound and graphic design training for forty lucky applicants, with the best of the final student games distributed at Nintendo download centers. Not only do we in the west not get a program like this, we don't even get to enjoy the fruits of their awesome labors.

Just take a look at Fufu Kirarin, one of the games made available from the class of 2008:

Feel free to skip the first 1:50 of downloading the software.

Blow into the DS's microphone to launch the happy stars up into the top screen in the ADORABLE shooter. Look at this! This could be a finished product! Sure, it's only 24 minutes from beginning to end, but considering it's student work it's pretty amazing. Add a few more levels, stick it in a box and charge me twenty bucks, please!

Today's the last day users with access to Japanese download centers can access Fufu Kirarin, but upcoming student games include a hilarious sounding voice-acting sim with "unexpected videos", an action game where you control things by moving your body (I assume "you" is the character in the game and not the player), and a game where you goof around with a character with no body, creating goofy faces and photographing them. Plenty of mind-boggling screens available at Nintendo's game seminar website. I would probably be very happy to take ten months out of my life to learn things like this.

Thanks to Andria Sang for the translations!

Related articles:
Everything You Need To Know About The Wii Storage Solution
Nintendo Might Just Hate You
Crossing the Uncanny Valley part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5

Daily DS Sutra - The Big Opening

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Today, we look at another of the more interesting poses in amateur French developer Cid2Mizard's SutraDS, a homebrew Kama Sutra application for the Nintendo DS. Once again, if you are offended by imagery or discussion of a sexual nature, please do not continue reading this post and generally avoid the rest of Nerve.com

Today's position: The Big Opening

I admit, today's pick was partially inspired by the announcement of the Wii's SD Card channel and the increase in capability to 32gig SD cards.

Do I even need to describe how this one works? You guys are adults (I presume), you probably already know what goes into where. The important things with this position are to repeat the raising and lowering of the leg several times and to alternate legs every so often. Penetration is good but not excellent, but that's all made up by the compression of the vaginal walls with each motion of the leg. According to SutraDS, this pose should be ideal for pirates as the man "enters a hand holding the peg leg drawn up". Kinky!

If you'd like to read more about sex, just click "Home" at the top of this page. If you've got a Nintendo DS with a flashcart or even just a DS emulator, you can download SutraDS here. Check back every day this week as we look through some of our other favorite positions in this quirky bit of homebrew.

Related articles:
Daily DS Sutra - Mobile of the Wheel
Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Amazon
Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity
God of War III Does Not Need Another Sex Mini-Game
Sex in Games: Daniel Floyd is a Smart Cookie, but No Al Green

Daily DS Sutra - Mobile of the Wheel

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Today, we look at another of the more interesting poses in amateur French developer Cid2Mizard's SutraDS, a homebrew Kama Sutra application for the Nintendo DS. Once again, if you are offended by imagery or discussion of a sexual nature, please do not continue reading this post and generally avoid the rest of Nerve.com

Today's position: Mobile of the Wheel

I have to say, this position looks dangerous. Definitely one you're going to want to be well lubricated for in order to avoid serious injury. The man inserts himself as is "traditional," but then proceeds to rotate himself around his partner 180 degrees using their connected privates as an axel. The animation loops here, so I'm not sure whether you are intended to return to the start position as depicted or go for the full 360 spin, though I imagine returning is less likely to cause pain to the man via twisting. Definitely a pose for the adventurous looking for something new and uncommon, SutraDS does warn that its very easy for beginners to slip out of penetration, so pay attention there.

If you'd like to read more about sex, just click "Home" at the top of this page. If you've got a Nintendo DS with a flashcart or even just a DS emulator, you can download SutraDS here. Check back every day this week as we look through some of our other favorite positions in this quirky bit of homebrew.

Related articles:
Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Amazon
Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity
God of War III Does Not Need Another Sex Mini-Game
Sex in Games: Daniel Floyd is a Smart Cookie, but No Al Green

Alternate Soundtrack: Adventure vs. Adventure

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Longtime readers had to know this one was coming. Pitting the legendary Atari 2600 classic Adventure against the self-titled album from an electronic musician of the same name was all too easy. What's more, it's all too appropriate.

Warren Robinett's groundbreaking Adventure features absolutely no music and only the occassional sound effect for picking up and dropping objects, slaying or being attacked by dragons, and returning the chalice to the gold castle. There's a lot of silence, which is good for atmosphere but bad for fun. Let's see what we can do about that.

Oh yeah, much better. Adventure (aka Benny Boeldt)'s music adds a whole new dimension of grandeur to the lonely pixel's quest, and the electronic bleeps, bloops, clicks and hums blend beautifully with the bright blocky colors of the Atari 2600.

As always, feel free to leave your alternate soundtracks in the comments!

Previously:
The Original Adventure, Now Portable
Alternate Soundtrack: Noby Noby Boy vs. Daft Punk
Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat

The Periodic Table of Game Controllers

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:00:00 GMT

We've seen a good number of "history of game controllers" charts and graphics over the past few years, but none of them has captured my attention quite like this new one from Michael Vasilev, the Periodic Table of Controllers.

Clearly inspired by Squidspot's Periodic Table of Typefaces that hit the 'net earlier this month, this table arranges the control input devices of most of the major gaming consoles and handhelds in chronological order, along with information regarding their designer, CPU and more.

Click here to see it full-size. Believe me, you want to see it full-size.

Clearly, there's a lot missing (first thing I looked for was Virtual Boy's dual d-pads, nowhere to be found), but Michael says he's working on filling in the gaps and that this is only volume 1. I particulary enjoy looking through the handhelds. My, the N-Gage really does seem like a clusterfuck right beneath the Game Gear, doesn't it?

Related articles:
Artist Updates Classic Game Characters
Make Your Wii More Like An SNES For Only $75
Bringing Sexy Back: Retro Controllers of the Future

OST: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I've been playing Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for just under a week now and am utterly stunned by the quality of the product. The art is appropriately vibrant, the story is wonderfully goofy and the gameplay is nostalgically frustrating (seriously, the action is hardcore not unlike Mega Man and Castlevania). Of course, this finely-crafted other-worldly goodness would all be for naught without an accentuated atmospheric soundtrack to tie it all together, and Henry Hatsworth does not skimp in this department either.

Take, for example, "Pompous Adventurer's Club Theme" which plays on the overworld map:

My word, but that is hilariously pompous! The air of militaristic pride in the snare, cello, and trumpets is countered marvelously by the vocals, a mish-mash of drunken voices with stuffed sinuses, each trying to sing the incomprehensible "la," "nah," "yah," and "dahn"s louder than the adventurerer next to him.

Or what of "Go, Go, Golden Robo Q!" which plays every time Hatsworth activates Tea Time and dons his giant suit of robot armor:

The switch from harpsichord to electric guitar within the first six seconds perfectly encapsulates the voice of the game, using traditional adventurer stereotypes from television and film for comedic fodder and parody. Also, it's totally awesome.

Both of those tunes are presented wih tongue planted firmly in cheek, but here's one that just out and out rocks.

"Molotov on the Rocks" plays when Hatsworth enters puzzle mode during particularly tense parts of the game. The funky slap bass creates a driving rhythm while the ochestral blasts generate excitement, two things the puzzle mode at these times would not be fun without.

All in all, it's hard not to agree with the good adventurer Hatsworth when he enthusiastically exclaims "Good show!"

Related articles:
Trailer Review: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
OST: Big Bang Mini
OST: de Blob
OST: Everyday Shooter

Daily DS Sutra - Union of the Amazon

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Last week, amateur French developer Cid2Mizard released his homebrew application SutraDS which, as the name implies, is a representation of a timeless pocket guide Kama Sutra for the Nintendo DS. Putting aside all criticism for the application's lack of polish or practicality, I have to admire its mere existance, wonderfully embodying everything that's great about the DS homebrew community by creating a non-game that changes what the DS is used for. As this is the video game blog for a fairly prominent internet sex magazine, I feel it is my duty to report on and promote discussion of SutraDS, and as such I now present the first in a week-long series reviewing just a few of the 37 poses included in the application.

Note: If you are offended by imagery or discussion of a sexual nature, please do not continue reading this post. In fact, you probably shouldn't be on Nerve at all.

Today's position: Union of the Amazon

This position allows for a great deal of comfort and pleasure for both partners as well as a deep penetration and high degree of mobility. The partners will probably need to be a little flexible and strong just to initiate, of course. I mean... look at that. That's not a position that you just happen to find yourself in. I imagine a little bit of regular yoga for the guy should be enough to keep this one going for a while. The man has plenty of accessability to the woman's body for manipulative stimulation, and the woman maintains control of the actual penetration, which I'm sure we all know is ideal for sustained arousal and mutual climax.

This is one of the few poses in SutraDS that features a still image of a CGI-rendered couple rather than a looping two-second animation, but I'm sure it's easy to tell what the motion here would be. The program does warn that this position can be difficult to control and that the man may feel crushed by his partner, so attempt at your own risk, and for heaven's sake, stretch first. Nobody wants to pull a hamstring in this type of position.

If you'd like to read more about sex, just click "Home" at the top of this page. If you've got a Nintendo DS with a flashcart or even just a DS emulator, you can download SutraDS here. Check back every day this week as we look through some of our other favorite positions in this quirky bit of homebrew.

Related articles:
Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity
God of War III Does Not Need Another Sex Mini-Game
Sex in Games: Daniel Floyd is a Smart Cookie, but No Al Green

Chiptune Friday: Spring Into Spring With Sonic

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Though it's been feeling like Spring here in NYC for a couple of weeks (global warming has its occassional perks), the vernal equinox actually hits us at 11:44 am today. As the ice stages thaw, making way for beautiful fire flowers, should you happen to feel the urge to go outside and enjoy the world, we here at 61FPS are of course enouraging. However, since you're clearly somewhere with internet access, let's make this just a bit brighter and sunnier to get us all in the mood for months of sunshine and gaming. I can't think of a better way to kick the season off than with the theme to Spring Yard Zone from the original Sonic The Hedgehog:

(this loops for ten minutes, so feel free to hit play, jack up the volume and go for a good solid strut)

Oh yeah, that's the groove right there. You can practically hear the robot sunflowers in bloom.

Have a happy Equinox, everybody!

Previous Chiptune Holidays:
Christmas
Halloween
Independance Day

Ghostface & DOOM Bring The Ruckus To Chinatown

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Arguably the biggest game released this week was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS. It's an impressively deep, true-to-the-series, handcramp-inducing marvel, but when it comes to a series like Grand Theft Auto it's not about the game, it's about the street cred. Many were worried about a loss in credibility by putting such a controversial series on the family-favorite DS. Well, contemporary music snobs and hoodrats alike, take note, as Chinatown Wars gets a heaping helping of respect in its theme song:

Oh yes, villains, it's the legendary killer bee Ghostface Killah and the man in the mask DOOM (formerly MF Doom) in this sick cut produced by Oh No. That's right, hip-hop historians, on this one video game theme we have representatives of the Wu-Tang Clan, KMD, and Stones Throw. It's also worth noting that Ghostface and DOOM are two of the most critically acclaimed rappers of our time. A generally cool little number, the Chinatown Wars theme is yet another tease for the long-hyped GhostDoom album (and we know Doom plays well with others).

Oh yeah, videogames. You know, it's GTA, only it's on the DS. If you like both of those things, you'll probably love Chinatown Wars. I'm sorry, it's so easy to forget about that when you're groovin to the good shizz.

Thanks to the Stones Throw twitter.

Related articles:
New GTA Gets Europe's First 18 On DS
Exclusive: Peaceoholics Protest Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto 4
Grand Theft Auto IV's Post-Game Purgatory

Whatcha Playing: Tappable Rhythm Sequels

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

I love a good rhythm game, but Guitar Hero and Rock Band have always felt forced to me. Holding a plastic representation of the object I'm simulating using just feels awkward to me (the same reason I've not enjoyed my few sessions with Mario Kart Wii so far). PaRappa The Rapper and Dance Dance Revolution really did it right, making a game out of the music rather than a simulation. My favorite, as I've mentioned before, is Rhythm Tengoku, the Japan-only Gameboy Advance cart from the WarioWare team that's all about keeping the beat in a series of wild and hilarious cartoon scenarios.

It dawned on me the other day that Rhythm Tengoku's DS sequel is finally being released in the west next month as Rhythm Heaven and that it may very well be a deservedly huge hit for Nintendo. I brushed off my nearly year-old import copy last week for a refresher. I was joyously reminded of how addictive and utterly charming the game is. Using the touch screen to tap, hold, and flick isn't quite as precise as the original's button taps, but very few of the games suffer as a result. The all-Japanese text is a bit more daunting this time as they're most likely describing what you should do on the touch screen and you have to use trial and error to figure out what to do when, but I still managed to make my way straight on through the end credits without frustration. In fact, I didn't think it possible, but I find the DS version much more lighthearted and playful than the GBA game. Only one minigame returns for the sequel, the rest are all new with new characters, and it's hard not to have your heart warmed by some of them. Every time I do the mating dance with the little lizard-with-a-maraca-for-a-tail, its warm, approving chirps actually make me fall in love with it just a little.

I've also been pretty fond of Tap Tap Revenge 2 on my iPod Touch since its release a week and a half ago. The engine is overhauled and much improved since the original, which was little more than a touch screen Guitar Hero. There are local and online competitive play and achievement-like rewards, but the truly fantastic feature that keeps me playing is the licensed downloadable songs. The basic game comes with three tracks: Death Cab For Cutie's "the Sound of Settling," a world premiere of the Crystal Method's new single "Double Down Under," and a brand-new exclusive theme song from Stroke 9 (remember them?), the surprisingly awesome "Tap Tap DomiNation". As with all music games, most of the downloadable tracks are stuff I don't care about nor do I even want to try, but there are a few that caught my interest. Daft Punk's "Technologic" is a must. Breakbot's remix of Fatlip's now-legendary "What's Up, Fatlip?" is synthetic bliss. Tap Tap Revenge even had another world-premiere last week with The Prodigy's new single "Omen". Weekly updates promise a smooth stream of new material, and the casual affair is well worth the price of admission for a free application with free song downloads. I'll never be truly satisfied, though, until these games start bringing in more Professor Murder, His Name is Alive and B-52s, but hey, that's what the rest of my iPod is for.

So basically I'm spending my daily commute looking at bright colors and tapping on touch screens to catchy music. Ain't technology grand? And to think, now we've got Bit.Trip Beat at home to keep the rhythm going...

Related articles:
Make The Music With Your Games, Kids!
Fun Fact: Metroid Meets Metronome
Yuusha 30 and Wario's Micro Game Legacy

The 61FPS Review - MadWorld

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

First and foremost, let me say this: I loved just about every second of Platinum Games' debut title MadWorld. If you have a Wii and are even slightly interested in over-the-top violence, I say get the game as soon as you possibly can. If you enjoyed the Wii's reigning champ of hardcore tongue-in-cheek violence No More Heroes, you'll find a lot to love in MadWorld. If you're a fan of Clover Studio's past work, in particular Viewtiful Joe and God Hand, you will probably love MadWorld. If you are a fan of Frank Miller's Sin City and/or black comedy, you will absolutely have a blast with MadWorld.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get into the nitty-gritty. We'll start with the good stuff. MadWorld is visually stunning, and like Super Mario Galaxy and World of Goo, another prime example of brilliant art direction in a Wii game that makes you forget the system is so much less powerful than the competition. Videos online do not do it justice, you really have to take the game home and play it in your living room to see how crisp and perfectly stylized the entire world and all of its inhabitants are. The story, believe it or not, is compelling and brilliantly paced, slowly but steadily revealing details about the Death Watch games, its organizers, protagonist Jack, and more through a mix of in-engine animation and static comic strip art cut scenes at the beginnings and ends of most stages. I'm very intentionally leaving out details in this write-up because the story (written by Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII's Yasumi Matsuno) was one of my favorite elements of the game and I would hate to spoil it for those who should really experience it themselves.

Gameplay, surprisngly, doesn't get old thanks to a healthy variety in environments, challenges, and kills and a steady increase in enemy AI. Most of the stages play out as arena-style battles where you keep killing waves of baddies, accumulating points to unlock a big boss fight, so in this regard MadWorld is very much like the aforementioned No More Heroes, and just like in that game, the boss fights are really worth fighting for, with zany characters and big quicktime-waggle-event-based payoffs. Especially in the boss fights (and the later arenas) the dodge maneuver of shaking the nunchuck will be your best friend for making it out alive. The Bloodbath Challenge mini-games keep the slaughter fresh and enaging with fun new ways to mass murder.

This brings me to, by far, my favorite part of MadWorld: the audio. From the whirr of Jack's chainsaw eminating from your wiimote to the sticky squish of blood splatter, sound effects go a long way to bringing you into this not-too-distant future decent into madness (supporting character Leo, a dead ringer for Platinum board member Shinji Mikami's Resident Evil 4 protagonist Leon Kennedy, is a hospital resident born in 1993, so unless he's Doogie Howzer this has to be at least a decade from now). The original hip-hop soundtrack sets the mood for murder perfectly with an air of style and self-worth. Jack is voiced by Steven Blum, whom you may recall is a general voice acting badass for his roles as Wolverine in the X-Men Legends and Ultimate Alliance games, as well as the new Wolverine and the X-Men animated series, hero Spike on the anime Cowboy Bebop, and various other tough-as-nails bastards in God of War, Killer 7, Dead Rising, No More Heroes, the upcoming Bionic Commando and tons of other games and animes involving massive death and destruction. The dude's got a pedigree in stone-cold badassery. Last, but absolutely not least are the Death Watch announcers, voiced by Greg Proops and John DiMaggio (Futurama's Bender). Their back-and-forth banter throughout the slaughter was always welcome and often hilarious. The occassional repeats ("I like to wash down my scotch with another glass of scotch!") are noticable only because of how memorable every line of their dialogue really is. Their spot-on slander of the game's production team has made MadWorld's end credits my favorite of the year so far (and I really thought Flower's were excellent). The one-two punch of the dialogue and the outrageously over-the-top violence made the game utterly hilarious. Even my visiting sister was entertained by the brutality and profanity. Be warned, though, I'm fairly certain you will hear the word "motherfucker" more than the word "the" in MadWorld.

Okay, so all of that is great, right? Now on to the not-so-great. The biggest qualm people will have is that the game is short. My save file read exactly four hours when I completed the normal difficulty (this does not include deaths, cinemas or quicktime events, as my Wii system memory counted nine hours by that point). Completing the game unlocks two new weapons and Hard Mode, plus the game is just fun, so there's plenty of enjoyment to be had in replaying it all, but still, the whole thing goes by very fast. All of the Bloodbath Challenge mini-games are available in multiplayer mode, but I would have loved to see these available as score attacks in single player too, as well as a cinema gallery so I could reexperience the whole story without having to fight my way through thugs, zombies, and goons for hours.

The multiplayer, while a fun and easy addition, also proved problematic. Players do not receive points for kills they achieve as in the single player Bloodbaths, but rather kills of specific characters. Player one gets points for thugs wearing bull masks, player two for thugs in geisha masks. It's very hard to tell one from another when they're all in black and white and half-size for split-screen, so you'll often rack up points for your opponent without realizing it, and there is no option to turn those masks off. Multiplayer for a stylized beat-em up should not involve paying that close attention to your targets.

Control-wise, the camera can be a bit frustrating at times, and locking onto enemies takes practice, but neither is game-breaking and the controls are otherwise solid. Quicktime events with bosses have the potential to wear you out from rapid waggling. I found I needed to take a break after every other stage for my muscles to relax again. Still, thirteen big crazy ranked boss battles is three more than No More Heroes had (including Henry), and the fact that they're all shorter fights is probably a good thing in most gamers' books.

All in all, I strongly recommend MadWorld to the mature Wii audience. The story is deep and rich, the gameplay is varied and visceral, the style and production are top-notch. Many worried the game would be too easy because enemies don't really attack much in the first few stages. Let me tell you, by the end of Normal mode, regular thugs are evading and blocking attacks, teaming up on you, and attacking you while you try to combo other baddies. Hard mode starts off there and keeps going up, crippling you with only one life, so challenge is there when you're ready for it. I'd love a few more options in play, but I will definitely replay again and again for bigger and badder kills, scores, and wicked laughs. The first game to come from Platinum, the quality really lives up to the studio's name and is at the very least worth a weekend rental. I very much look forward to the announcement of a MadWorld 2.

Final grade: B+

Previous Reviews:
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Killzone 2
Noby Noby Boy - part 1 & part 2
Big Bang Mini
Retro Game Challenge
Edge
Game & Watch Collection
Valkyria Chronicles part 1 & part 2
Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2
Prince of Persia
LittleBigPlanet part 1, part 2
Dead Space
LOL
Dragon Quest IV
Ninja Gaidan 2 part 1 & part 2
Metal Gear Solid 4 part 1 & part 2
Wii Fit
Grand Theft Auto IV part 1, part 2 & part 3

WTFriday: Won't You Be My Gamer?

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I watched a lot of children's television when I was younger (this morning counts as younger, right?). Sesame Street was essential, Lamb Chop was interesting, David the Gnome was enaging, even Barney was fun in an ironic manner years ahead of becoming a jaded teenager, but Mister Roger's Neighborhood never quite felt right to me. Fred Rogers himself was like a warm grandfather figure who never had anything better to do than play make believe and aks whoever he came across pedantic questions about their immediate surroundings and actions. Even as a child I found this unsettling.

Had I seen this clip as a child, though, I would have at least had an exact moment to pinpoint "that's what creeped me out about him." Fred Rogers visits the arcade in the back of a restaurant of some sort and proceeds to ask a young boy about Donkey Kong. The whole thing sounds like an exchange with the elderly pedophile on Family Guy:

See that? The way he hunches over the boy, getting close enough to breathe on him? The way he asks the kid the object of the game in a soft tone and proceeds to ask what other games the kid plays (hopscotch?)? The way he oh-so-naturally puts his arm around the kid as they step aside? The way he asks "is that fun for you to play something like that?" This is a portrait of exactly who your teachers and parents told you not to talk to if you didn't want to be abducted and raped. How fitting that they're talking about Donkey Kong, a game with an implied degree of abduction with intent to deflower.

Also, it's kinda creepy when that other guy is like "I'm here to collect the money" right in front of them, and then he pops the board open to show them the switches. And the kid says "Down is not really used in this game"! Has he never made it past the first level?

Gah, watching this clip just feels so wrong. I want to be very, very far away from all of these people.

Previously on WTFriday:
Don't S*** Your Pants Teaches Valuable Life Lessons
Gamestop's Guide to Women
A Sad Dog's Rush Cosplay

Sony's Trailers Are Graphics Whores

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

We get it, Sony, the Playstation 3 is the most powerful of the three current-gen home consoles. You don't have to flaunt it over and over to make yourself feel better for being in last place in sales this generation. You seem to be treating this as a beauty pageant, and you're certainly not in the running for Miss Congeniality with these repeated boasts.

I'm referring, of course, to the recent trend of all of the PS3's exclusive AAA titles featuring trailers of all in-game footage. This would be fine, in fact commendable, if not for the fact that they have to tell us, heavily implying that other trailers rely on CGI cutscenes (they mostly do). The latest offender is this one for Sucker Punch's Infamous. It may be all in-game footage, but I'm pretty sure all that excessive blur and reverse time were added in post-production (the slow-down may very well be part of the game):

Others on the docket include God of War III and Uncharted 2, both of which look like intro cutscenes, but we're guaranteed they are at least in-engine of not direct gameplay:

You know what would help convince us this was in-game footage? A HUD. Some sort of graphical elements to convey "this is what's happening". You know your games have these. At least the occassional your-character-got-shot-so-now-the-screen-flashes-white-and-desaturates that every action game does nowadays. Showing what could very understandbly be rendered footage and telling us it's all in-game isn't as convincing as it used to be (remember what happened with Killzone 2?). There's no shame in third place these days. Nintendo was third last generation and look at them now. I love you, Sony, just stop being so cocky.

Related articles:
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Facepalm: PS3 Hard To Program For "On Purpose"
Infamous: Unsung Contender of 2009
Screen Test - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

In Super Smashing Pumpkin Bros. Shy Guys Are Part Of Your Siamese Dream

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

I've known plenty of fine folks who've wasted many late nights reskinning ROMs of their favorite old NES games to resemble their favorite pop culture characters or make philosophical statements in self indulgent ways. This, however, is something I'm shocked to have not seen before, considering the ROMs are about a decade old now. Steven and David Pukin reskinned Super Mario Bros 1 and 3 with Billy Corgan and various Smashing Pumpkins related ephemera to create Super Smashing Pumpkin Bros 1 and 2. Then, Macbee reskinned Super Mario Bros 2 with the whole band to make Super Smashing Pumpkin Bros 3. From the attire, I'd guess the third game is set during the Adore era. Billy's always bald and dressed in all black, so it's all gotta be Infinte Sadness or later, right?

See below for a trailer of all three games and then a link to download the ROMs yourself like I just did.

Click here to find all three ROM files. You'll need an NES emulator, of course, and the internet is full of them, so I'll leave that up to you. My personal favorite, though, is Nestopia for Mac OS X.

Related articles:
The Mountain Goats sing about Toad and Mario
Space Invaders versus Röyksopp
8-bit Radiohead
M.I.A. versus Super Mario Bros
RAC remixes the Legend of Zelda