Ninja Gaiden II Review Later This Week

Now I just beaten Ninja Gaiden II on Path of the Warrior, so expect a review later this week or the weekend pending on how finals go for me. Let's just say I had a great time with this game despite being a technical nightmare.

Here's the stats according to the NG2 leaderboards...

Current Rank - 581 (that's good I guess for now, probably be in the thousands as more people beat it on Warrior).

Karma = 21,474,038

Time = 9 hours, 54 minutes, 2 seconds

I probably try Path of the Mentor soon or maybe mess with the New Game+ to get two more Crystal Skulls.

My Favorite Show of 2008 is Back Again....

America's Best Dance Crew is already on its second season and the audition special was on yesterday (reruns throughout the week as expected on MTV). The first season definitely set the bar with my boys, the Jabbawockeez (pictured above) winning it and becoming superstars now being everywhere from Vegas clubs to Laker games. With this second season, its pretty clear that MTV wants more variety and originality since I don't think they don't want any crews that have a similar style (SoRealCrew is like Kaba Modern in a way) and not going overboard with races as well (Which I think why Team Millenia didn't get in the final ten - Even though they're pretty good (Fullerton!!!!), there are already like two full Asian/Filipino crews in the final ten and it may seen like overkill for MTV (There are almost as many Asians/Filipinos on this show than on TFC, which is crazy).

Overall, I'm happy with the top ten having enough variety and originality that MTV wants to have. The West Coast teams are too good and stacked, no wonder Team Millenia didn't make it (Fanny Pak definitely have that variety and originality that wasn't in the first season with their whole 80s attitude). My picks this season are:

SuperCrew (My #1 pick) - They're basically the b-boy group for this season and their moves are just insane. I just hope that they don't be one-dimensional with just those moves when they tackle the challenges. 

Supreme Soul (My #2 pick) - These guys have a rivalry with the Jabbawockeez at other dance competitions and they're no joke too. I expect them to do well with the challenges provided throughout the season. Then again, I don't think these two crews would both be in the final two, so it has to maybe one or the other.
I would also watch out for SoRealCrew (the Asian crew from Texas having that Kaba-like style), A.S.I.I.D. from Detroit (with the deaf guy that is pretty good), and Boogie Bots (from D.C. and another full Asian crew) this season. I also expect Sass x 7 (the cheerleader crew) to be first out this season when the show truly begins.

The judges are the same this season with Shane "You smashed it" Sparks, Lil Mama aka "This is season 2 yo, step it up," and J.C. Chasez, the voice of reason. Mario Lopez still hosts along with G4's Layla (The Feed) doing the backstage interviews. Honestly, Randy Jackson should keep this show going and stop being a judge in American Idol.

More Star Wars in Soul Calibur IV..

As if Darth Vader and Yoda are enough Star Wars in Soul Calibur IV, The Force Unleashed's protagonist is now a playable character in the Namco fighter. It seems likely he will be in both 360 and PS3 versions to balance out the Star Wars love with Vader and Yoda exclusive to a certain console. It is still too early too judge whether or not this secret apprentice has his own move set like Vader and Yoda, but it seems that way to me so far fitting in to the SC universe gameplay-wise (Yoda is indeed left field with his unorthodox style of lightsaber combat). It is still coming out next month and yet not everything is revealed or even how will the online play be implemented.

Some new SSFIIT HD Remix Footage

This is new footage of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for XBLA and PSN which is taking forever to come out (I'm being patient for this game). It is basically a combo video and some new ones are shown that I think can't be done in the original SSFIIT. The Chun-Li stage is also shown finally in HD, which looks okay as expected. The OC Remix music is also pretty good so far too. I did play Hyper Fighting for a bit at the arcade today trying to get my SF2 skills back to par, but I'm ready to play HD Remix seriously (as if it will be my most played online game - maybe Street Fighter IV too).

NBA 2K9 has their coverboy already

Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics is the coverboy for NBA 2K9, which is an obvious choice with Boston in the NBA Finals and quickly turning the franchise from a disaster to the best team in the Eastern Conference (along with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce).

They're losing right now being halftime in Game 1 against the Lakers (so far an entertaining game I guess).

Music Roundup for 6/4/08

This week's Music Roundup is another biggie with three "hyped up" albums in the mainstream world. (Note: I'm skipping Weezer's new album for now, supposedly it is not that good compared to their previous efforts. Also not giving Ashanti's The Declaration a shot yet, likely passing on her new one too. With that out of the way, let's do the roundup of what I have been listening to.

Coldplay's long awaited album, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends, is already leaked out to the interwebs and it is pretty good. It is better than X&Y at least and I think they took more chances to come up with a different sound, but still have their signature style and it came out great. This new sound definitely shows in their singles "Violet Hill" and "Vida La Vida" with the different instruments and whatnot. I do wish it was longer since it id only ten tracks in the whole album (unless you want to count the bonus acoustic tracks) being less than a hour long (it probably needed more tracks, but then it would be probably be filler stuff I guess). Obviously the hit songs are pretty good ("Viva La Vida" perhaps the best Coldplay song since most of their Rush of Blood to the Head stuff like "Clocks."), but you can probably find another favorite of these ten tracks like maybe "Lost!" This album is truly worth the wait for Coldplay fans and I think it lived up to the hype if there was any hype for it.

N.E.R.D's Seeing Sounds is another highly anticipated album of mine and I am liking it so far. All the songs in the album definitely feel like Neptunes songs with Pharrell singing the whole time. "Everyone Nose" is definitely that weird club banger I would listen to (The remix is amazing!!!!). "Spazz" is another cool song even though it is getting annoying to hear that in those Zune commercials now. This N.E.R.D. album is at least better than Fly or Die when more catchy songs, but of course In Search Of... is still their best album with "Lapdance," "Rock Star," and "Provider." Did I mention "Everyone Nose Remix" is awesome with Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T from the Clipse - this song took over "The Finer Things" as my new banger.

I actually made myself to check out the new Disturbed album, Indestructible, and sometimes I feel like listening to some nu metal with this album fitting that bill for me. Thanks to Rock Band, this album is not that bad with the title track being a great head start towards another head banging album from the guys. "Inside the Fire" is their first single for the album and my favorite of the bunch (The music video for the song does some sort of parental warning because someone commits suicide). Everything else in the album just felt the same, which is okay especially not being that much of a metal fan. This one definitely is for the fans that want more Disturbed (Ohh Wah Wah!!!) and good nu metal.

That's it for this week - Gotta go watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Lakers and Celtics.

Today in the World of Guitar Hero....

Guitar Hero is in the news again and everywhere!! Honestly, it is just sad to me that once upon a time Guitar Hero was the underground hotness in 2005 and now it has turned to a mainstream moneyhat thanks to Activision's "let's Tony Hawk the franchise with more games every year" mentality.

Let's start with another FC of "Through the Fire and Flames" which is always remarkable and amazing to see. Yeah, I would curse after doing that...

Next up is a preview clip of the God of War song being exclusive DLC for the PS3 version of Guitar Hero III, which is out tomorrow and free. Yeah, the 360 version got that Halo song and now it is Sony's turn to get their exclusive song and it is actually pretty good (probably better than that Halo song - well I have to see the full notechart).

Okay, this is when I feel like ranting a bit. Kotaku has a story about Coldplay being in Guitar Hero III as DLC in a week or two. It is not yet confirmed in other sites, but I can see this being true with "Violet Hill" confirmed as one song. Who knows if there are two more to go along with like the #1 song on iTunes, "Viva La Vida" (Yeah, that song is pretty good), but once again if this was Guitar Hero World Tour, then I would say yes, but Rock Band is a better game for them so you can do your best Chris Martin impression when signing. In addition, expect these songs to be hella easy (as if Disturbed songs on Rock Band are challenging enough). I'm pretty sure some would flip out if they have to play piano parts with the guitar. I appreciate the variety if this Coldplay DLC is true, but sometimes some bands are not meant with Guitar Hero or even Rock Band.

Now this is when it is getting overboard. We have Miley Cyrus trying to be a true rockstar for the kids of smashing GH guitars in her new music video, which is more like another plug to me that Activision is pulling off here unless they're pissed their products are getting smashed.

I still wished Guitar Hero stayed underground, but maybe I should accept the fact it is a mainstream monster that can't be stopped at this point if people continue to buy them. It is just lame to witness the madness with all the band exclusivity talk, peripheral support, smack talk, and GH World Tour still being a Rock Band ripoff for now in the past year.

Okay, one more Miley pic for the kids....