Ooh Wah Wah!!! (Disturbed Rock Band DLC Impressions)

Well I bought half of this week's Rock Band DLC (The Disturbed Pack) - didn't care for the Jimmy Buffett songs. No Ooh Wah Wah!!! in these songs (This game seriously needs "Down With the Sickness" so I could do my best impression of it).

First up is "Indestructible" and it is a typical Disturbed song to play if u played "Stricken" in Guitar Hero III (Actually all these songs have a similar style of note patterns, so yeah). I think this is their first single from their new album that is out today and it definitely sounds like one hearing and playing it for the first time in its entirety. (Thanks to YouTube user Npaeen for being the trooper on YouTube to show these songs before people can buy them when they wake up every Tuesday - If there's FC runs, I'll put them up instead later like before).

Next up is "Inside the Fire" which personally is the easiest of the three (still watch out for the solo and Overdrive ready just in case). Actually I like this song better than "Indestructible" for Rock Band since those verse patterns are surprisingly fun to play.

Last up is "Perfect Insanity" which has one of the nastiest solos I seen in Rock Band and it comes quickly, so have Overdrive ready just in case because that can quickly lead to failure if u can't handle it.

The Disturbed Pack for Rock Band is great for fans of the group and those who want a new challenge to FC some hard songs. Drums look like fun as well according to various message boards (notice I put up Guitar Videos than Drums because I suck with drums). Vocals on the other hand, good luck trying to be like that Disturbed singer.

To remind why Rock Band needs "Down With the Sickness," here's their music video.

Ooh Wah Wah!!!!

WTF Story of the Week Already... Itagaki leaves Team Ninja / Tecmo

This is sort of BREAKING news in the gaming world with Tomonobu Itagaki confirming to 1up in this news story that he is leaving Team Ninja / Tecmo under bad terms. The bad terms is pretty bad when he is suing Tecmo's president for not being paid for completing DOA4, who was promised by the prez. Who knows how will Tecmo recover from losing such guy like Itagaki with all his work on the Dead or Alive and new Ninja Gaiden games (NG2 is officially his last game with them now). There is so much background on Itagaki's departure from Tecmo, so read the NeoGAF thread about this for more. With Itagaki gone, it is a major blow to the company and maybe future DOA and NG games won't be as good anymore (Tecmo Bowl and Rygar are the two major properties left for Tecmo now). All of this mess is pretty crazy. Looks like Ninja Gaiden 2 is Itagaki's swan song to the franchise after all.

Clip of the Day (6/2/08) - A Skateboarding Commercial with Lots of Effects!!!

Thanks to Kanye West's Blog, this Girl Skateboarding commercial directed by Spike Jonze is pretty sick. Looks like he "Michael-Bay-ed" this commercial up with all those exploding effects and awesome music. Some of those skaters felt those pops pretty bad, but it is pretty cool.

Enter Sandman on the Other Side.... Guitar Hero: Metallica announced

The big story in the gaming world (other than the MGS4 reviews fiasco) is Activision silently announcing Guitar Hero: Metallica for Q1 2009 as if Aerosmith, On Tour (DS), and World Tour are enough to whore out the franchise. Yeah, I get it... Its Guitar Hero and it is makes u money, but please stop whoring the brand out and eventually it will bite u in the ass Activision if the hardcore fans have enough. At least, this Metallica edition will likely have the World Tour features meaning it is a full band game with drums and vocals. (imagine the bundles for this game = Aaahhh!!!) Like Aerosmith (coming out later this month - Debating to buy this, DBZ Burst Limit, or Race Driver GRID this month along with Ninja Gaiden 2), this whole separate version would have been better as DLC than a full-on retail purchase, but nooooo.... Activision wants more money and the Guitar Hero name is good enough to sell copies. Another big concern among the gaming community regarding this announcement is whether or not Activision have now grabbed exclusive rights for Metallica songs to be only in GH games, which will be lame (look at Metallica's success on Rock Band with "Enter Sandman" and that DLC pack that was out the first week of its release). This whole exclusivity war of getting certain bands is getting out of hand and for gamers and fans of these games, it is pretty lame that certain record labels are likely to side with one game or the other (Then again, MTV Games hopefully has power to get whatever songs they want because they're freaking MTV) which is Activision and Neversoft are keeping GH World Tour's soundtrack secret for now so the competition can't use it for their game. This whole fiasco is just another example of rhythm games possibly losing it (refer to a previous blog post for more on that).

At least Guitar Hero: Metallica is a better idea than Aerosmith with all those hard songs (yeah, this game is going to be pretty hard on Expert if I'm expecting GH3-like difficulty). I'm pretty sure Neversoft is to going make "Enter Sandman" harder than what it is in Rock Band and people are clamoring for more old-school Metallica in GH3 and RB, so this separate game might be good for them after all (Imagine the supportive bands if Neversoft is including some like in Aerosmith).

Clip of the Day (6/1/08) - Botchmania 44!!

A new Botchmania is out on YouTube and some of the recent PPVs (WWE Judgement Day and TNA's Lockdown and Sacrifice PPVs) are the major ones shown and the ones I remember recently. The last bit with the Orton / Angle at One Night Stand 2006 is pretty awesome because of the ECW crowd (they're honest and make their voice heard). No wonder those crowds don't happen anymore because the companies get exposed quickly (Some of those chants are pretty funny).

Finally Watched That King of Kong Documentary

So I finally watched the documentary The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters on G4 today (with commercials, oh well) and usually I'm not into watching documentaries, but this one delivers being about something I like and a good old fashioned good versus evil story (no wonder it is going to be a movie soon). As the movie progresses, the more I like Steve Weibe and I feel for him getting screwed time after time of beating Billy Mitchell (who seems like an a-hole and a coward) face-to-face in Donkey Kong. Along with Twin Galaxies siding with Mitchell till the end, I definitely wanted to root for Steve on beating the world record for Donkey Kong in which he did (at the time of the movie). This documentary does a good job unveiling a different side of classic gaming and the passion to have these rare world records. It definitely showed the fact that Steve is a good guy with a family, a job, and nothing to lose regarding Donkey Kong while Billy "always has a plan" Mitchell is that coward who is afraid to lose his image and street cred among the gaming community (That Pac-Man record is good enough for him) even though he still has that busy lifestyle of managing that hot sauce place. I been wanting to watch The King of Kong for a while since its theatrical release last year and maybe I should buy this on DVD someday.

The Latest on Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

I have been following the latest videos with YouTube user JudgeSpear2 and his crew making Mushroom Kingdom Fusion. Here are some of the latest footage with a new beta coming soon with all these crazy levels.

Four levels are showcased in this video with two of them being remade levels from Super Mario Land 2 (I liked that Mario game on the Game Boy). The last one is a throwback to the airship levels of Super Mario Bros. 3 as Sonic is the character used in this level (Yeah Sonic and Tails are in this game). Watch out for music from Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in this clip (good choices of songs from those games).

Next up is a new Mega Man inspired level which is the Cutman level from the first Mega Man game (and Powered Up - the music is from Powered Up). It definitely looks and plays like that Mega Man level with Mario in it. YouTube user StarsimsUniverse nails these levels perfectly and he is a big Mega Man fan as well. The other characters available in MKF can use the Mega Man power up (like Mega Man Mario) but in different versions.

Lastly, here is Corpse of the Behemoth, one of the hardest levels in the game so far with Tails being the character played. The ending of this clip is kind of funny, but I'm pretty sure it will be fixed for the next beta.

So far, Mushroom Kingdom Fusion is going along nicely with the levels shown so far. The next beta is going to have lots of content in with more characters and levels to mess with. Even with all that greatness already in this fan-made game, there's still more yet to be done like more Halo levels, Sega levels (A remade Green Hill Zone level is in the works), and other stuff.