With January coming to a close, I might as well try to remember how the month went by for me in terms of music.
I'll start off with my favorite song right now, which is "Hey Daddy" (Daddy's Home) by Usher as the video went up this morning on MTV. Even though most of his new album, Raymond vs. Raymond, has been apparently leaked, it is about time Usher put up an official music video for one of his songs. This is your typical Usher right here doing his thing and that's fine by me because I'm still eagerly waiting for the official album to come out since his last one was somewhat of a disappointment.
I have also been in a Sade mood lately with her new album out in a couple weeks. She has been on the comeback trail with "Soldier of Love" and its an awesome song. It is just nice and relaxing to hear some true soul music every now and then. I'm just hoping the album will deliver.
Lastly, I'll probably get hate for this for putting it up, but this month has been the rise of Ke$ha for her hit song "Tik Tok." I gotta admit, this is another of those one hit wonders every radio station plays and gets the club rolling. Yeah, people are sick of hearing of this nonsense, but hey we have to deal with it. This was definitely a song going crazy when I was at Vegas earlier this month in the clubs. I guess everybody will be trying to wake up feeling like P. Diddy now.
There's so much more I can cover for this month's music roundup, but I'll leave it for now. Since I update my top 10 songs I have been blasting on a daily basis, just check out that for more of your music needs.
Every now and then, there will be some random game that comes from the wonderful land of Japan and then it eventually comes out in America for some odd reason. No matter how random it is especially knowing how absurd it is, anyone will get a kick out of it whether for the good or the bad. This is the case with Muscle March, a WiiWare title that came out at Japan sometime last year and somehow got a stateside release thanks to the fine folks of Namco Bandai. In case you're wandering what in the world Muscle March is, it is surprisingly self-explanatory. Except the Japanese twist is that you are playing as roided up men in their underwear marching along to take down a thief that stole some random thing. It is as absurd as it may seem to be and probably better explained in a video rather than text, but Muscle March is meant to be played as an off the wall experience. For five dollars or 500 Wii Points, you get your money's worth out of it for something truly bizarre that will make your mind blow up of some sort.
As a game, Muscle March does not offer much as it is meant to be played as a pick up and play type of a deal. There's the standard single player modes of three stages offering three levels each and then there's the multiplayer that is an endless run with up to four players. Once you start, you can clearly tell that this game is meant to be played with a Wiimote and Nunchuk as the controls are simple to understand. It is almost like you are playing a game of "hole in the wall" while marching trying to match the leader's muscular poses (hence the title of the game) by tilting the Wiimote and Hunchuk in various ways. While the game lets you just tilt the Wiimote or Nunchuk up or down to correspond with the poses, you almost feel tempted to just flex like the actual poses the leader gives out, which makes it also bizarre. The character lineup is a collection of roided up men in their underwear from various countries with one exception being a polar bear, which is also crazy. Once you are following along to the leader's poses, you have a stamina meter of five hearts in which every mistake costs you a heart and losing them all in a stage allows the option to continue from that same level you lost. At least, a normal level will start out slow and steady, but once the other members mess up by slipping into banana peels, then it goes fast and frantic testing your reaction skills. These reaction skills will make or break your success in Muscle March and at times, the controls will feel unresponsive making it frustrating especially at the end of the third level where the Mech Muscle tries to trick you into following a certain pose. Once close enough, you have to shake the Wiimote/Nunchuk repeatedly to tackle the leader down and beat the level. After beating the last level of a stage, whether in the city, village, or a space station, you get ranked on your performance, which does not do much other than bragging rights. Gameplay wise, that is Muscle March in a nutshell as it is a simple concept, but can get pretty old pretty fast in long stretches and also frustrating at times when the controls just fail when needed.
Graphically, Muscle March looks as it is intended to be and nothing else. The three stages are diverse enough as environments for the marching to take place while the core gameplay remains intact. The character roster consists of your average everyday roided up stereotype from the country they live even though a polar bear that marches along and flexing seems too crazy for a normal person to grasp. Basically, the graphics are what you expect out of Japan and that is fine for a game like this. As for the sound, the same thing can be said for a game coming from Japan. The music consists of your generic J-pop, but the song goes along to the marching and once you're left alone with the leader, the song speeds up into something else. For the presentation alone, Muscle March does indeed look like you are playing something from Japan.
With all the absurdity and randomness, is Muscle March still worth your time and money? I would still say yes as it is always nice to see random Japanese games make way to the United States with no problem at all even though the content and premise alone may offend some. It is a decent pick up and play game for a few minutes at the right price and also something weird to show to friends about the wonderful world of Japan. Sure as a game, Muscle March could of have been better if more stages are in and the controls feel more responsive eliminating the frustration, but it is better as an experience seeing a twist of hole in the wall with buff stereotypical men. Even though WiiWare has been mostly full of shovelware, Muscle March is one of those games that makes the service unique compared to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. I can even imagine this game with Project Natal support on the Xbox 360 with full body motion of the flexing poses, but I can see why this game is meant to be on the Wii than the other two. It is as Japanese as it gets and if you're in for a cheap fix of random hilarity, then Muscle March is worth checking out.
Score = 7/10
Pros:
Great price for the content offered - Wouldn't buy if more expensive
Fun as a pick up and play game for a few minutes if you want to play something quick
As random and bizarre as it is intended to be especially it coming from Japan
A great experience if you're into the Japanese lifestyle as it is not frequent a game like this would come out outside of Japan.
Cons:
Controls can fail at times when needed making some parts frustrating
Yesterday, I was at the heart of Los Angeles for Gootecks's LA Riots II tournament, which took place in thestream.tv studios. At first, I was like where is this place even with directions. Turns out, it is in fact a small studio in a small building, but enough for everything to go down. I happen to part of a small audience getting hype along with thestream.tv staff and the players, which was pretty cool realizing how they make their shows such as Coin-Op TV and GTFO.tv happen. If you saw the stream at around 2 pm yesterday, Gootecks and John Rog (the host master of West Coast Warzone and now its sequel on April 2-4) provided commentary to the matches as well as "the people's champ" Mike Ross with other insights and Cami making sure the stream works smoothly. As for Street Fighter IV, this tournament was an invitational of eight of the best players in SoCal with Combofiend (winner of the 1st LA Riots), Keno, Kai, and the pad warrior Shizza making return appearances along with Alex Valle, Ken I, Yeb, and the 15 year old phenom Jayce the Ace locking their appearance from the Hooters Bar Fights tournament.
The brackets were set up nicely with great matches all around as Combofiend and Jayce the Ace faced off first. In case you forgot who Jayce the Ace is (pictured above), he made a big splash at the Hooters Bar Fights tournament making top 8 playing as C. Viper. If he didn't impress you then, he would of impressed you now taking more of SoCal's finest to the limit, but he went 2 & out losing to Combofiend and Ken I. It was a great showing by him regardless and he has what it takes to be an elite player at such a young age. Also highlighted in this tournament was the Chun-Li pad warrior Shizza stepping up finishing 2nd by taking out Combofiend to losers and beating Ken I twice (picture below of Shizza rocking an orange shirt along with Ken I's trademark orange sweatshirt as if it was on purpose). It goes to show pad warriors can be successful in Street Fighter IV and there are plenty of others out there that are pretty good. Ken I made a better showing as well than the first time by actually sticking to his main Rufus the whole way (exception being that he used Honda for one game against Shizza as if he is trying to prove Mike Ross that Honda is legit since Mike's main is Honda and he always gives him a bad rap even though he still wins with him).
The other player that went 2 & out in this tournament was Yeb, the Gen master from San Diego, as he lost to Keno and then Kai, who had another strong performance as well. Kai's El Fuerte was on point against Yeb and Combofiend, who he got revenge after losing to him last time in the match of the tournament (clip of that above). As the guy who is known for "hating Street Fighter IV," Kai's Fuerte is definitely a beast as the internet probably exploded with when he wake-up ultra-ed to peace out Combofiend. At the end of the day, it was Alex Valle taking another win defeating Shizza. Of course it was no easy ride for Alex, the SoCal Street Fighter legend, for victory beating Kai, Keno, and Shizza twice.
Seeing LA Riots II in person rather than online was a way better experience being a part of the small audience. Now I realized the hard work it takes to put together such events like these especially in a legit studio (congrats again to Gootecks, Cami, and thestream.tv staff for a great job!). It seemed very professional how things turned out in the end compared to other streams I have seen. Upcoming events were hyped up as well from the mysterious "Project Blocks" that will change your life next month, MarkMan showing off the new Super Street Fighter IV TE sticks (which I finally touched one in person and it looks better), and West Coast Warzone 2 hosted by John Rog in the Long Beach Mariott on April 2-4 (just after my birthday!). As always, it is great to hang out with the community as it just good times and laughs throughout. Most of the players were on double duty that day competing in LA Riots II and the House of Cicada 3v3 tournament last night (or this morning lol) at Moreno Valley with Mike Ross, Keno, and Combofiend winning that one with the team name "Always Bet on Black." (GS to them) Anyway, it was a fun afternoon at Los Angeles, which I'm rarely around that area these days, and I can't wait for more Street Fighter IV events in the upcoming months. It has been a great start for the year for that game and with Super in a matter of months, the hype can go only up from here.
Photos by Get Your Tournament's Kelly Bracha (Shout outs to the GYT staff that was there too providing additional coverage: Glenn, Kelly, and AJ "PotatoHead")
Note: This is a review I posted back in GameSpot in 2008 (in its exact text) of one of my favorite games of all-time and I wanted to give it the blog treatment here for a while.
Before Lumines, Meteos, and Every Extend Extra, Q Entertainment released Rez earlier this decade for the Dreamcast and the Playstation 2. It became a sleeper hit and a revolutionary game at the same time defining the rhythm genre into something else besides time yourself with button presses or Dance Dance Revolution style movements. The graphical style was out of this world and a simple shooter concept kicked in as well. Now it is 2008 and the second coming of Rez is here in HD for the Xbox 360. Those who missed it back in the PS2 and Dreamcast days should not miss this opportunity to play such an amazing game and witness how Rez was meant to be in true high definition. Veteran players should also buy it again because the HD graphics make a huge difference and adding in 5.1 surround sound support just solidifies the experience even better. Rez HD is a steal at 800 Microsoft Points considering how hard to find the original versions and it is arguably the best Xbox Live Arcade game now.
Rez HD is more about the experience than being a game, but the gameplay is pretty good for a rhythm shooter. It definitely has the approach of being easy to learn and difficult to master. Even the modes Rez provides both casual and hardcore experiences such as the traveling mode where you can play the levels without dying as some sort of practice mode before playing the actual game when health matters. You still have to play the real game to unlock the other levels and extra modes which gives the game some legs even in this world of downloadable games. For hardcore experiences, there is a score attack mode racking up points nailing chains and support items which adds online leaderboards support as well as replays that can be seen online. Extra modes such as direct assault, a survival mode of all five levels, also give players some sense of challenge if the normal game is too easy for them.
The simple controls of Rez HD translate well to the Xbox 360 controller with left stick being the cursor, A button being the shoot button, and B being the overdrive bomb type attack. Other controllers such as arcade sticks do work, but it feels slower to aim at enemies. Once you get in the groove of timing the A button for chains and max type attacks, it means that you are good at the game. The character's various forms is its health as one hit from enemy fire drops down a form and it is game over when your ball form gets hit. The way to level up forms and gain more overdrives is by shooting support items (some blue box for a meter to increase its level and a red box for overdrive respectively). The way to progress in these levels (with exception to the fifth and final area) is to hit these Rez portals to be transported into another zone of enemies (there are 10 of them with exception to area 5 again) which counts for the analyzation ranking. Speaking of rankings, after each level of killing a boss, you are also ranked on how many enemies were shut down and support items found (these are in percentages). The gameplay as a whole seems simple enough for casual and hardcore players, but deep enough to give them more reasons to play these levels for perfection.
As mentioned before, there are five normal levels in Rez HD (with exception to extra unlockable levels). The first four levels also feels like a warmup for the fifth and final stage, which is basically a culmination of everything in the game and longer than the first four levels combined. The final level alone is among the best levels ever in the world of video games which pretty much defines Rez as a whole. There is actually some sense of storyline in Rez, but it is probably not the reason you will buy this game. Rez is about the overall experience and that alone wants you to play these levels numerous times especially that last level.
The HD facelift for Rez on Xbox 360 makes the game achieves its full potential as a full experience of amazing vector graphics, no jaggies or slowdown, and consistent 60 frames per second. The vibrant colors and animations are better in HD as well as the various effects. This was Q Entertainment's full vision of Rez to be in high definition, no slowdown, and jaggies, which is why the Dreamcast and PS2 had its limits. Another cult phoenomeon from Rez is the infamous Trance Vibrator, which apparently works if anyone still has it. For those who do not, the substitute method is having all four Xbox 360 controllers rumble at the same time, which makes the overall experience even better than it supposed to be.
Rez HD is also known in its original release for its sound. Whether or not you like techno music, this game's soundtrack is among the best licensed (if it was) soundtracks in gaming today. If the game makes the songs better, then it feels like a success especially the song for the final area of the game. The music as you add effects to them as well shoot enemies and develop chains were executed perfectly. As a rhythm game, timing on the music side of things does not matter compared to something like DDR or Guitar Hero, It just feels like you are remixing these songs by shooting enemies up or some DJ spinning a different version of a track with all these varied sound effects. Even to this day, no game has ever replicated what Rez did to revolutionize the genre.
As a full game for the Dreamcast and PS2, Rez HD being a downloadable game almost feels like a retail game providing enough content to keep casual and hardcore players satisfied. The game feels like you are creating your own rave of sorts in some party you're hosting, which is a good thing and almost a point the developers want you to do it. For purists of the original game, Rez HD can be played without the HD and you will witness the differences clearly why Rez was meant to be released again in this HD era of gaming. For those who never played it, download this as soon as possible to witness a revolutionary. original, amazing experience that today's core games will never offer. To this day, Rez still feels original and it did pave the way for Q's recent games, but involving different concepts how to blend in music in games and controlling it instead of letting some orchestral song play in some modern first-person shooter. If video games do consider themselves as art, Rez is an example of that and its second coming is here as still one of the greatest games in recent years.
Apparently there's still the Tekken live action movie and finally a legitimate trailer surfaces on the interwebs. Obviously, there's the whole "Oh, its another video game-based movie, its going to suck!" mentality, but maybe it won't be that horrible. At least the Tekken characters in there seems to be accurate to their videogame counterparts like Raven, Eddy, Bryan, Law, Nina, and others. Would others give it a chance? Likely not, but I can see this being better than something like Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
Note - I bought this at a discounted price on the Playstation Store (half its original price) and plus this game came out about a few months ago too.
The four player beat-em-up is as old-school as it gets when it comes to video games. They are simple to play, but hard as nails to the point you keep spending your quarters to continue. That was the case with Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-em-up games. They were timeless arcade classics at the same time being true to the source material while being a blast with multiple people. These classics have that special edge or soul to them that makes them great in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The original was re-released on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2007 untouched being a true arcade port with online play, but it was inevitable that the sequel Turtles in Time would get the same treatment after the success it had on the Xbox 360. Instead of just porting the arcade version in its purest form, Ubisoft decided to go the extra mile and remake the graphics entirely to a completely different game, which adds in the Reshelled part of the title. While Turtles in Time is still a timeless classic, there is just something missing with this HD remake that makes it not as worthwhile as it was when it originally came out.
Turtles in Time Reshelled plays similarly to the original and it is as simple as it gets mashing the attack button against enemies and jumping at certain occasions. Just like any beat-em-up, the game does not take that long to beat which is good enough if you're feeling like playing something retro but with new graphics. The remake does add quickplay and survival modes along with the normal story mode at various difficulties, which bumps up the replay value a bit when playing locally. Playing at various difficulties does however make a difference in terms of enemy count, the amount of punishment enemies and bosses can take, how much punishment the turtles take, and the amount of lives you have. In single player, there is a continue option if you want to finish it at a later time and it is recommended you stay alive throughout the whole game to have a high score as continuing after losing all your lives resets your score. Also similar to the original, this game is not as easy as you think as pattern recognition and luck have to be your side to prevail. Even with this HD remake, the action feels a little claustrophobic than it used to take back in the day as the screen gets crowded with enemies at times which lead to chaos. The turtles do play noticeably different according to their stats when looking at the character select screen, but I'm pretty sure people still pick which turtle to play as just by their superstitions. Then there's the online play, which works fine from what I played, but it does suck when one person leaves a full room while playing, which totally can ruin the experience for some.
While Reshelled plays just like the original, the HD makeover ends up a disappointment. I mentioned earlier that this game felt like its missing something to be as special as it was back in the day and it is in the visual department. It feels like it is missing a soul of sorts to make it look worthwhile to fans of the old games. The makeover is based loosely off the CG movie with the turtles having their one-liners here and there when they speak. The backgrounds themselves feel bland as if they are just another lava level, sewer level, and so on with today's standards. As a whole, the graphics in Reshelled is a complete mess as well as the performance of how the game runs too. The framerate will slow down when there are too many things going on. At times, the turtles will glitch up at times randomly floating around, and other random stuff. The sound also feels bland as well as the developers did not use the original tunes as background music and they get placed by bland and generic tunes you expect out of a beat-em-up these days. In addition, the sound feels messed up when you are bumping it up as if the developers pumped the volume up way too much.
Turtles in Time Reshelled is a disappointing HD remake as whole to a timeless classic that certain gamers loved in the 1990s. While the gameplay is still on point, the visual makeover itself makes the game lose its charm and soul as if they should of kept the original graphics or have it as an option to appeal to the purists. Even the game itself feels like a boring mess from various glitches, generic tunes, and inconsistent framerate. At ten dollars, Reshelled is not worth your time and your money, but since I bought it at a discounted price on the Playstation Store, it is still a tolerable beat-em-up if you feel like playing something old-school with multiple friends together. It is probably best if you stick to the original game on Xbox Live Arcade for your times of kicking some shell or even you track down an arcade machine to play it the way it was intended to be as a good time with 16-bit graphics rather than this boring HD remake.
Score = 5/10
Pros:
Still as old-school as it gets when it comes down to gameplay
Quickplay, survival, and online modes does add a little more replay value
Better with four players both locally and online (assuming no one quits mid-game)
Cons:
The HD remade graphics are disappointing (makes the game look boring and bland)
Frequent slowdown when too much is going on
Bland and generic soundtrack replaces the original tunes
Action feels claustrophobic at times
As a whole, this remake is missing a soul that made the original the classic it was
My first tournament of 2010 for me was at my favorite spot for Street Fighter IV action, which is Arcade Infinity at Rowland Heights for AI Ranbat 3.2. Obviously, I did little to prepare other than just getting some games off at home to get into the groove and have my execution on lock. So how I did yesterday? Well, it was another 2 & out for me which is of course disappointing, but I lost to good friendly players. My first match was against Art who usually uses Honda, but decided to go with Dhalsim first, which surprised me a bit. In case you don't know, Dhalsim can be a frustrating matchup for anyone, but once you get in range (or on our SF4 slang terms... get in that ass), you're pretty much good unless Dhalsim telports out. It didn't take me until the second game to adjust to playing against Art's Dhalsim and it took a random lucky ultra after a blocked slide by me to take that same game. The final game was a close one as I lost the first round by a nailbiter and then got perfected. Then I lost to Nima's Akuma in losers pretty decisively as I'm 50/50 against Akuma players, but when those players are just on their A game, you feel like you can't do anything. Just like that, I was out of the tournament as I lost gracefully, but they were fun matches regardless against those two players. Other than me, the top 8 for this ranbat was pretty unexpected even though the result was similar with ComboJack taking the win and extending his lead in the overall standings. Mr. KOF, an AI regular and godlike at KOF games, takes 2nd place, and Joe Dubbs, one of the best Zangief players in SoCal takes 3rd. The day as a whole felt great hanging out with the Street Fighter community as always even though I didn't go to the Banana Bay after party because I was getting tired and I ate at Life Plaza earlier hanging out with Teresa, Naomi, and Cami. There was even a 3rd Strike ranbat tournament going on at the same time with Gootecks taking it with his Urien as if he still got it in 3S and lots of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 action at the back with KillerKai (also placed top 8 in SF4) on a long streak. So what's next for me with Street Fighter IV? Who knows, I will still play it here and there till Super SF4 comes out as I'm pretty much ready for that game to just come even though I wished I played it at CES last weekend. I discussed some of the details regarding Super with some fellow SF4 players, more specifically 2nd ultras and other things. More SF4 events will be poppin this weekend though such as LA Riots II hosted by Gootecks and the House of Cicada 3v3 tourney (both on Saturday!) as well as others in the future. In the meantime, enjoy some of the videos that came out from this AI tourney with commentary by Sanchez and Shoo.
