Humble Bundle for Android 5

As of this writing, there are 5 days left on the Humble Bundle for Android 5. Typically, I just ignore the Android Humble Bundles because I don't have a high-powered smart phone.  However, this one caught my eye for a couple of different reasons.  One is that Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP has been added to the list.  I like that game, though I play it on my PC through steam, and not on a tablet or phone.  However, if I had the appropriate machinery, I am sure I would want a copy of that game for Android, if for no other reason than it is pretty and the music is good.  Which brings me to my other point of interest:  my cell phone won't last forever, so at some point I probably will be upgrading.  At such time, I imagine high powered phones that can play many of these games will be available for used or for cheap, just like my current phone was.  I've actually really been wanting to talk about cellphone games, because I do spend a bit of time with them, and I am regularly searching for new games.

For me, the most important test for any cell-phone game is the toilet test.  That is the first place I usually try out a new game I've downloaded.  If the game holds my attention during a round of #2, then I will keep it, and probably play while I'm riding the train or waiting in line.  For me, cell phone games are as casual as they come.  That said, I have really torn through Angry Birds- by far my favorite smart phone game.

Other games I've been working on is Battleship (in Space), Math Workout, Wiki Trivia, Free Rice and a Puzzle Bobble clone.  I also enjoy the Word of the Day function on my Miriam-Webster dictionary app, but at this point I'm slipping out of the game zone.

Math Workout is kind of like a free demo version of Brain Age for the Nintendo DS.  It isn't as clever, it's more buggy, and there aren't as many options.  But it does have a fun graph of all of your scores in each mode!  I like making the graph go.  Basically this game is a series of timed math problems, for those of us that find that enjoyable.  

Battleship (in Space) is fun, but there are issues.  For some reason they interpret the rules that you can't place your ships directly adjacent to each other.  Lame.  And I didn't think that battleship was like pool, where you get a free turn after a successful hit.  And of course, the classic 'cheating AI' rules apply.  For example, the computer will be blowing up the aircraft carrier, starting in the middle, in a steady sequence, about to miss the final shot and give you one more chance.  Suddenly, the computer has a burst of inspiration and decides to backtrack and start blowing up the opposite direction, destroying the carrier with no chance for me to strike back before its gone.  It happens often successfully, and never happens in error.   Cheating.

Free Rice is a trivia game that is not formatted to fit my screen.  Which sucks.  I love the online version. I am particularly fond of the Geography "Countries of the World" series, even if it does have a tendency to repeat itself.

WikiTrivia's formatting is better than Free Rice.  But it has the poor design choice of having a "Select" button next to a "Next Question" button.  Each answer has a radio button to its left.  So what I end up doing is selecting the answer I like by highlighting the radio button, then clicking "Next Question."  The result is the question is skipped, my answer is not logged, and I don't get to find out if I'm right.  There is no 'back' button.  D'oh!

Bubble Shot (Puzzle Bobble Clone) is cool.  But I've never really gotten into it.  Idunno, my aim using the touch screen seems off.  It's a shame my cell phone doesn't have a stylus.  That would solve some of it.

What I've really been looking for is a good online chess app.  I wish gameknot just had its own app, but  there's nothing in the google play store by that name.  I've just downloaded "Chess Friends" but haven't played it yet.  Here's hoping.

All of the above games are free from the Google Play store.  Many or most of them have pay versions, but I just ignore those.  I am a cheapskate.  Another thing that may be noteworthy is that I play all of these games with the sound off.  I am usually playing in public, and I don't really like headphones for gaming except in special circumstances (Dear Esther, Proteus).


-D

P.S. Super Hexagon is also included in the Humble Android Bundle 5.

Musings on Nintendo's eShop

I've been a little busy in the Nintendo eShop, although "busy" for me is that I've downloaded four games (Gunman Clive, Castlevania: The Adventure, Art of Balance: Touch, and Mega Man II) and three demos (Art of Balance: Touch, Brain Age Concentration Training,and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate) since the beginning of the year.  The only curmudgeon I currently have, is that I started using my 3DS with the 2 Gigabyte card that came with the system.  If I had been thinking I would have used a separate higher memory card, say an 8 or 16 Gig card.  The card isn't just used for saved games and I found this out when I tried putting in a higher capacity card and upon booting up the system, all the games, applications and demos I had downloaded were missing.

The point then, is that while I do download a lot of games through Steam on my computer, I haven't purchased any game that is normally available for retail.  There are a number of games that are available  in the eShop (Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Fire Emblem Awakening, Brain Age Concentration Training, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D, Code of Princess, Mario Kart 7, BIT.TRIP.SAGA, Star Fox 64 3D, et cetera) that I won't buy, mainly because I don't want to have three or four memory cards with varying amounts of games and applications.  

Another issue, for me at least, is that the prices in the eShop are pretty static, especially with the retail games compared to the Virtual Console games.  And the fact that the eShop retail games are sold at retail prices.  eShop Mario Kart 7 is priced the same as Gamestop Mario Kart 7: $39.99.  For some reason, I'm not about to spend $40 on an eShop purchase.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's the multiple stages of acquiring money to purchase: buy set amount with my credit card, then using the "credits" to purchase a game.  Plus you can only purchase one of four set amounts, $10, $20, $50 or $100.  If there were different amounts or if you could set your own amount, I would find that to be a slightly better system.  I always seem to have little bits left over from previous transactions where I have to buy another $10 and then I can buy another game or two and end up with another $1.67 left.

Lastly, I'd like to say that Nintendo needs to have an MP3 application in the eShop.  That was the second thing I looked for when I first started fiddling with my 3DS almost a year ago and I'm surprised that I haven't seen anything about one out yet.  I take my 3DS with me when I go up to the clubhouse gym and run on the treadmill so that I can earn 1 Play Coin for every 100 steps for a maximum of 10 coins in one day.  While running with the 3DS in my pocket, I would love it to be able to listen to music (while the system is closed, maybe that's a problem/issue?) while earning mah Play Coins.  So, someone needs to have Nintendo do this so I don't have to have my phone in my other pocket to listen to music.

Overall, and using the information from the "Activity Log's" Software Library, I've used the eShop 45 times, spending an average of 8 minutes each time I visit the store culminating in 6h21m since June 2012.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It's Always High Quality

The World Baseball Classic is going on right now

Hey there everyone.  I'm going to take a minute to talk about sports, which are games.  Specifically Baseball, my personal favorite of sports.  For those of you who see video and card games as a refuge from the wide world of sports - I don't blame you, and please don't worry:  this post doesn't represent a tidal shift in the content of my writing.  I just want to be able to talk about sports sometimes, which, as I mentioned, are games after all.  

So, there's this thing going on, it's called the World Baseball Classic.  I found out about it because an Android application I have called Bleacher Report - has been mentioning it a bunch.  At first I responded with: 'who cares?'  Something about it just didn't seem genuine.  I think it was an example of: 'well I've never heard of it, so it must not be good (or important).'  This is an attitude I'm not proud of, but I do demonstrate it sometimes.  When I realize this, I usually feel a sense of irony, because I actually have an interest in showing people things they may not have heard of ie:  Independent Games.

What caused me to give the World Baseball Classic a second look is when I realized how many American Major League Baseball stars were going to be playing in it - but not for America.   Teams from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and even Canada each have MLB stars on their teams.  This I found interesting - not only does the American MLB employ a great number of international players, but some of those players are really good, and they present a real threat to America's ability to win this tournament.

So, about the World Baseball Classic.  This is the third such 'classic' - so the name may seem premature.  But it was originally associated with Olympic Baseball and the World Cup of Baseball.  I didn't know there was a World Cup of Baseball, but my experience following the FIFA World Cup (Soccer) in 2010 was very exciting, and I am happy to see my favorite sport is participating on the world stage.  The World Baseball classic is small - 16 teams, four divisions of four teams apiece.  Fully half the size of the last FIFA World Cup.  But I have hope that it will expand.  Another bit of information:  Japan won the first two tournaments, and is the favorite to win this one as well.  One more bit;  the US has not gotten any medals yet.  This last piece, I enjoy greatly.  

There is a certain sort of dominant attitude, I have found associated with sports in the US, that really bothers me.   A sort of American Exceptionalism that makes me feel like a jerk just by association.  I get a smug joy out of seeing the US struggle in the FIFA World Cup. This feeling is a combination of light disdain, at what I perceive as a bullying attitude from US sports enthusiasts,  and satisfaction that resting on those laurels does not win the US any medals. In addition, there is a distant feeling that a thing that must be worked for will be that much more satisfying when it is earned. 

I get a similar feeling knowing that the US has not gotten any medals in the World Baseball Classic.  But this time it is couched in the fact that Baseball itself is an original American sport.  And it happens to be my favorite of sports.  And the US is home for the biggest and most lucrative baseball association in the world, the MLB.  So, in a sense, the US is always playing the role of 'host' to the World Baseball Classic, because the very existence of said tournament means that there are other countries - at least 15 other countries, around the world that are serious about playing Baseball.  

It is at this point that the warm fuzzies start to set in.  I am happy that the country in which I live is sharing this game that I love with the rest of the world.  It's like throwing a successful party.  People show up, and they like the snacks, and the activities, and they mingle and everyone is happy.  The US team doesn't need to dominate, I am content that the game is popular enough to have a competitive international tournament.  

So, for this reason, 'for love of the game,'  I want to see the World Baseball Classic get some press and viewership.  Currently, it competes with MLB spring training, which perhaps isn't so good.  It is still a young tournament, and I hope that the WBC will grow and thrive, and be a source of entertainment, inspiration and joy for many.  

-D

Demo Time: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate was released for the Nintedo 3DS three days ago on March 5th, 2013.  I recently had a chance to play the demo, which was available through Nintendo's eShop.  After spending 37 minutes on a single play through of the demo, I feel like it did it's job.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect having only watched the trailer that was released during the 2012 E3 and while there wasn't a whole lot of game play footage, I was still very excited about a new Castlevania game.  The biggest downside for me though, was that this is a sequel to a Castlevania game that I have never played.  I'm assuming that the "Lords of Shadow" tagline will be present in all the subsequent re-boots that began in December 2010 with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow released exclusively on PS3 and XBox 360.  And as it turns out, the development company of the Castlevania reboot series is not specifically Konami, but Spain based MercurySteam, so kudos to them first off for not only creating a reboot of a Japanese standard, but apparently doing it successfully enough to warrant more than one game.

I still find it interesting and on some levels annoying that a series will have different games available only on certain systems.  Take this Castlevania series for example.  C:LoS was released on PS3 and 360, C:Los-MoF will only be released on the 3DS and later this year, C:LoS2 will be released on PS3, 360 and for the PC.  It's one thing for a series like Final Fantasy, which do not have connected storylines to have their games on different platforms, but for someone like me who likes continuing stories and to not have a system that a game is on, it just makes me sad.  And, at the moment, I'm not so hard up to play Lords of Shadow to go out and buy a PS3 or 360.

Anyway!  The Mirror of Fate demo, that's why we're here.  Upon downloading, the demo lets you know that you have 30 play-throughs, which is quite a lot when you consider that it took me 37 minutes to complete a single play-through.  There wasn't any lead in, intro or explanation as to who you were or what you were doing and where.  But let's be honest, you don't always need that in a Castlevania game.  The demo consisted of four areas and two boss type characters that reminded me a lot of the original NES Castlevania game: start outside of the castle, cross a drawbridge, go through a church, go underground then battle outside of the main castle.  There were skeletons throwing bones, knights wielding axes what I might suspect to be Flea Men although they didn't attack, but were just there. 

The music too seemed very Castlevania-y, although it didn't sound like Michiru Yamane, the frequently used composer for the Castlevania series.  The tone of the music was more "background" although it did a great job in setting a dark, semi-serious tone.  I can't think of the music though at the moment, meaning I wasn't memorable as "Vampire Killer," but that's that.   the composer for the games in the Lords of Shadow series has been Oscar Araujo and from what music is "available" in the demo, it fits very well.

The game play itself reminded me a lot of God of War, in that you had a basic whip attack, a slightly slower whip attack and when you combined those with the jump ability, you could perform different types of attacks.  For instance, when you jumped and power attacked, you would flip with your whip out and hit whatever it is that is under you mid jump; when you power attacked then jumped, you would spin in a circle creating a cyclone-like whip attack.  Other Castlevania-y type things that went on were using your whip Indiana Jones style to swing across gaps and special sub-weapons, which included in the demo was a boomerang-type blade reminiscent of something from Blade II.  That in mind, the demo played very much like any other Castlevania 2D side scrolling platformer, which while it is not entirely new or inventive, it is still fun and familiar with just enough new elements to keep the game interesting.

Now onto the 3D aspect of the game.  Overall, the 3Dness of the game was very well done and looked great, although there were some times when the 3D blurred a bit, possibly from the rotating camera and I wasn't properly adjusting, or I was just being too excited and kept moving the screen closer or farther away.  During both of the boss fights though, I turned the 3D slider "off" so that I could focus on trying to kill the creature and not dying.

All-in-all, the demo was a lot of fun and even though I died frequently figuring out the controls, the weapons, the enemies and such, it definitely got the point across and has made me eager to purchase the game, which is the whole point of demos being available.  Success on the Castlevania front from MercurySteam.  Good job all.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

This Music Makes Me Sad, But That's It's Job

Link Post

Time for another link post!  Originally I had this tagged to the back of the TMNT Emulator Hour, but then I thought it was better not to mix the link post with the TMNT post.  Almost no connection between the two. Except that James Nintendo Nerd reviewed TMNT- to which I have linked.  I'm sure many of you have already been to these sites, but I still think it's nice to have them in one place with pretty pictures.  Today's theme is:  Game Reviews.  

Many thanks for image to:  http://therealmcast.com/

Angry Video Game Nerd:

This is a popular series about a guy playing NES games and hating most of them.  He also likes to use really filthy language in his descriptions.  If you like NES and filthy language, you'll probably like this series.  To get you started, here's a link to his review of TMNT for NES.   He covers a lot of the same points I mention.

Tabletop

Wil Wheaton is back, with a clever idea and entertaining dialogue.   Tabletop is the premier place to find out about card games and board games.  It's pretty funny too.  Good going Mr. Crusher! 

Zero Punctuation

Yahtzee's game reviews.  This guy cracks me up.  This series has some of the best image-to-dialogue timing and content I've ever seen.  And of course, plenty of filthy language, but with a British ex-pat twist.  I recommend starting from the earlier shows, when his style was still fresh.  On an related note, I just started playing 6 Days a Sacrifice, the last in the Chzo Mythos.

  Indie Impressions

For a kinder, gentler approach to game reviews, RockLeeSmile's Indie Impressions is a series of videos focusing on Independent games.  The video collection is exhaustive, and the viewpoint can be a refreshing alternative to the vulgar negativity of Yahtzee or JamesNintendoNerd.  RockLeeSmile seems to have a genuine interest in promoting Independent games on a whole.    

Game Scores: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

Composer: Pseudo-Check
Emulator Hour Review: Check
Music: Checking

The music, composed by whomever it was that actually did it, is very good, considering it came out of  an 1989 era NES music chip, although other note worthy games with great soundtracks were Mega Man 2 and Dragon Warrior (1989 being their North American release).

The three tracks that I want to highlight are the "Overworld," "Mini-Boss Battle" and the "Title" themes.

Overworld:

Aside from the title music, this is the first in game music you hear, but unless you're there to listen to the music, you're only going to hear snip its of it in the first level as you're mainly in the sewers and not above ground a lot until the third level.  It's a great little ditty that got stuck in my head when I first played the game.  I've always wanted to drive around town in a van with this blaring.  It doesn't have to be in New York or with three other dudes (mutated or not), just a van and this music, because that doesn't sound shady at all.  Although Conklederp has a pseudo-van, so we might have to make this happen.

Mini-Boss Battle:

I actually like this piece of music better than the "Main Boss" music.  There's just something more driving about it.  And even though the song itself is only 20 seconds long, I feel it's one of those songs that can be repeated indefinitely and I just don't care.  And I think it's an easy song to sing/hum/whistle.  However, due to Youtube not wanting to allow me to embed the video I want, I will then just have to link it here: TMNT Mini-Boss Battle Music

Title:

Just listen to that MIDI electric guitar wail!!  I've heard some people (youtube "let's plays" mostly) complain about the music not being directly related to the cartoon, but if the cartoon music had been anything like this intro music, damn that'd be hot.  But, like I said, there's a riff that sounds an awful lot like the main riff to Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy."  That's one of the reasons why I wanted to know who the composer was to see if I could find out if they were influenced by Queen to properly attribute that one riff during the beginning of both songs to Queen.

With all of that in mind, I leave you with only three of 15 sound clips and songs from Konami's (pain in the ass) 1989 release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  However, because I like all of you who read our blog, I leave you with the best cover of the music that I've found.  It's by the NESkimos off their album "NESkimo Bloodshed" and the track is simply titled, TMNT.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Now Go And Scoop Your Brains Back Up.

Emulator Hour: TMNT (nes)

Friggin' sweet, right?

Jaconian's previous post- about the elusive composers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES game-- got me thinking about how bloody hard that game was.  Specifically this playthrough that he linked, for the purpose of showing off the thrilling dialogue, and more importantly: that there are no credits (you know, because 'fuck you' for beating this super-hard game?) Before watching that video, I had never before seen anyone beat this game.

Who Dunnit?: Music from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

First off, I'm referring to the 1989 NES game from Konami here.  And apparently, a guitar riff by Queen, but I'll get to that in the next post.  First, we'll go into a bit about the composer.

If you do a Google search for Keizo Nakamura, you'll find a great deal of seemingly mixed information.  The Video Game Music Database, which I will look at frequently for verification on early NES game composers, doesn't have anything for Keizo Nakamura before 1993, despite the fact that TMNT was released in 1989.  They do have a link to his Facebook profile though, whatever that ultimately means.  Another frequently reliable source, the Video Game Music Preservation Foundation has Keizo Nakamura's only credit as being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game which came out in 1990.  Then there is a disclaimer that says Kiezo Nakamura is not to be confused with fellow Konami music composer Kozo Nakamura.

If you do a Google search of Kozo Nakamura, you'll find a great deal of seemingly mixed information.  Woah.  The VGMdb doesn't have anything for Kozo Nakamura before 1999.  The VGMPF does have Kozo Nakamura as the composer for TMNT (1989) as well as Monster in My Pocket (1992) and TMNT IV: Turtles in Time (1992).  

And now!, (now as in a week after initially writing this, parts of the TMNT article from VGMPF have been changed/updated) there has been a third name to enter the arena.  VGMPF now has it listed that Jun Funahashi composed half of the games music, but for as to who composed the other half of the music, "because it has been such a long time, he doesn't remember."

IMdb and Wikipedia both have Keizo listed as the composer while IMdb lists Kozo as the composer for TMNT IV and MiMP, but not TMNT.  I have not found anything else internet-wise regarding Jun Funahashi being the composer for TMNT, but that doens't mean that he didn't do it.  The game doesn't even have a credit sequence to tell us anything about the creators of the game.  VGMPF says/ previously said that "it has become known that Kozo Nakamura is responsible for the Ninja Turtles NES soundtrack," although that sentence has been since taken down and replaced with "The game lacks credits, but Jun Funahashi has confirmed that he composed half of the games music."

So who is the composer for the NES game TMNT that was released in 1989 by Konami?  Based on Jun Funahashi's statement, it was him and some other people, which could very well mean that Kozo Nakamura and/or Keizo Nakamura were associated with the game's music.  I've sent messages to Jun and Keizo two weeks and a month ago respectively and have not heard back from either, possibly for obvious reasons.  For the time being however, we'll have to settle and accept the information at hand and be thankful that at least there are some people who care.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Catasrophe