#could lend itself to us seeing a different side of sonic

[wereh0gz]

I really hope we get to see sonic's more introverted side in frontiers

It already looks like they're going for a more serious story with a more somber/melancholic tone so it would fit to see sonic being a bit more reserved

And since his friends aren't gonna be around for a lot of it hopefully we get to see more of his thoughts and feelings when he's alone, and how differently he acts on his own compared to how he usually is around other people

[bltngames]

The Balan Wonderworld demo came out yesterday. If you haven’t been keeping up with this, it’s a game by Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, two of the original creators of Sonic the Hedgehog. A lot of that original team has gone on to do solo work outside of Sega, but this is the first time two former members of Sonic Team have gotten back together to make a new game.

If the demo is anything to go by, Balan Wonderworld (which I keep trying to type as “Balan Wonderland,” because it has a much nicer rhythm to it) is a game that lives deep in the shadow of NiGHTS into Dreams and Sonic the Hedgehog. It is very clearly trying to be an “Old School Sonic Team” experience, which it... sort of succeeds at, for better and worse.

This feels like a game they ripped straight out of 1995, warts and all, and remastered it with modern-ish graphics. I say “modern-ish” because in broad strokes, I think Balan looks pretty good. The character designs are charming, the level themes are interesting, but if you really stop and look at the game, it’s honestly pretty ugly, with simple lighting, limited detail and blurry textures.

One gets the impression maybe that’s because Balan is on everything -- Playstation, Xbox, PC, and even Switch. The gross texture work could be to squeeze the game down for Nintendo’s handheld, but apparently it runs extremely poorly there. On the PS4 Pro, it sticks pretty closely to 60fps, though there are occasionally hiccups here and there. Nothing worth fretting over, honestly.

But how does it play?

This is where the shadow of Sonic the Hedgehog looms large. Balan is designed to be simplistic to a fault: You get one button to control your character. Or, more specifically, every button on your controller will do the same thing (for the most part). This is right out of the Sonic handbook, as that game was also designed to be operable with only one button, as well.

Now, what your one button does can change. Scattered around levels are different costumes for your character to put on, and each costume has its own unique ability. The full version of Balan promises 80 different costumes, and there’s probably half a dozen in the demo. Each one serves a unique purpose, and some of them don’t even have the ability to jump. Which is fine, mostly, because you can carry a stock of three costumes with you that you can swap between sort of like the team mechanics in Sonic Heroes. Once you finish a level, those costumes get added to your dressing room, allowing you to customize a loadout of costumes at any checkpoint.

On paper, that much sounds fine. But this is where things start getting weird.

Costumes are not freely available to pick up. The jewels that hold costumes are locked with a key. This creates an obvious gameplay loop: find key, unlock costume, use costume to solve puzzle, right? Right.

Except that, at least in the demo, most keys are only a few feet away from any given costume jewel. On top of that, keys respawn. Crack open a costume jewel, grab the costume, but hang out for a little while and eventually the key will reappear. In doing this, you can stock up on keys early on in a level, smoothing out the process of acquiring new costumes as you go. I’m not sure why Balan does this. The time between key respawns is a few seconds too many -- just enough that it starts to feel tedious. But, as far as I can tell, there is no penalty for farming up a bunch of keys from the first key spawn point, either. It’s the worst of both worlds. If it was trying to be convenient, keys would spawn more quickly, but if it was trying to plan puzzles around acquiring keys, you can completely side step that by just waiting it out and hoarding keys early on.

You’ll not only want to hoard keys, but hoard costumes, as well. If you’re unlucky enough to take damage or even die while wearing a costume, it’s gone. You can build up stocks of costumes so you’ll always have spares to pull out of the dressing room, but that requires you to specifically go out of your way to get duplicates and bank them. If you don’t, you might find yourself at a puzzle that requires a specific costume that you simply don’t have anymore. When that happens, your only recourse is to backtrack in the hopes of finding a crystal that contains the costume you need, and characters in Balan aren’t exactly fast moving.

The chances of you losing a costume seem pretty low, admittedly. Balan Wonderworld doesn’t really seem like it’s aiming for anything resembling difficulty. Enemies exist, but only in very small numbers, and they’re easily dispatched. Most of the game is more about exploring the dream-like environments and playing around with the various costume abilities in order to solve basic puzzles.

You aren’t working against a clock, there isn’t a scoring system, and you usually aren’t being graded on your performance. Talking it over with some others, the vibe is that this could be a good game for young children. It requires little in terms of controller dexterity and is generous in every sense of the word.

The primary complaint against that, I guess, is that Balan Wonderworld is a weird game. Like, “Elsa and Spider-man Finger Family Youtube Video” weird. Every level is packed full of gently dancing ghosts that phase out of existence once you get too close to them. They’re all the creatures your costumes are based on, but they don’t exist as NPCs in the world for you to touch and interact with. Like I said, they’re ghosts, and they disappear the moment you get within a few feet. Those same ghosts will suddenly materialize when you touch certain checkpoints, throwing you something of parade. They interrupt the level music and everything just to play their own special celebration song. Move more than a few feet and they will fade back out of existence again, taking their special parade song with them, never to be seen for the rest of the stage.

It lends a strangely “uncanny” feeling to the game. I think the dancing characters are meant to add a sense of carefree fun, but they look like people wearing mascot suits, doing the same basic scripted routine over, and over, and over, for eternity. They don’t look like they’re having fun, they don’t appear to be choreographed to the stage’s music, and yet there they are, eternally dancing the days away. It’s kind of eerie. They were performing before you got here, and they'll keep performing after you leave.

The demo pits you against a single boss, which is notable for being someone who has the same powers you do, but combined and amped up. Seeing the same costume motifs come up in the boss as they draw from the same abilities that you have is actually a really fun idea, and the game rewards you for getting creative and swapping between costumes when you deal damage.

Balan Wonderland is a very odd game, and I’m not sure what to make of it. It took me a while to start wrapping my head around its aesthetic and vibes. It contains shades of something like Super Mario Odyssey to be sure, but it feels like it’s trying to elevate itself above that. Again, it’s a game living deep in the shadow of NiGHTS and Sonic, and in particular, it feels like it borrows NiGHTS’ penchant for putting artistic expression at the top ladder rung. Balan often feels like a very inscrutable sort of game, but in a way that seems to be reaching for some kind of greater meaning beyond simply gameplay. Everything in Balan feels like it might be conveying a message of some sort, even if it’s not immediately apparent. Its ideas do not come from a vacuum.

But here’s the deal: even though a lot of people couldn’t grok NiGHTS into Dreams, I did. I love that game to death. But with Balan Wonderworld, even I’m often left scratching my head. Despite its dead-simple gameplay, it may be just a little too high concept for its own good.

But at the end of the day, it’s not a game I hate. It’s strange, and charming, and even if it feels sort of impenetrably "artistic," at least that makes it interesting. The simple gameplay works its magic, making it an easy game to drop in to even if you don’t necessarily understand what you’re looking at.

Like, what’s the deal with the “Isle o’ Tims” between levels? It kind of has the vibe of a chao garden from Sonic Adventure, but the individual “tims” creatures don’t seem to have statistics or anything like that. You feed them so they crank a wheel, which builds a tower that helps them crank the wheel better. It turns in to a bizarre sort of perpetual motion machine. To what end? I don’t know. And what exactly is Balan himself, anyway? Some of his visual cues call to mind character designs for NiGHTS, but he appears to be a different sort of creature altogether. There’s a rather lengthy intro FMV, as you can no doubt see from the Youtube embed, but it’s more about swirling colors and hyperactive animation than conveying what’s going on or who Balan is. How much of this is even really happening, and how much of it is purely metaphysical? It’s very unclear.

I’ll be interested in seeing how the full version of Balan Wonderworld fares. I get the distinct impression that this will be another NiGHTS -- a game beloved by a core audience of hardcore fans, but shunned for being “too weird” by the populace at large.

I’m not quite sure which group I belong to yet.

[superwolfiestar]

Partners in Time Ch.15

With Young Zeus, he had just skidded to a halt when he faced a dead end at his front.

"Grrrr! Unbelievable! A stupid dead end!" Panchito shouted in frustration.

"End of the line, Zeus!" Panchito's voice came from behind him. He turned around to see the heroes glaring at him.

"You again! You just don't give up, do you?!" Baby Young Zeus hissed, but then smirked at the last sentence as he pulls out the Cobalt Shards. "Eat my cookies, will you? Fine! I'll eat the treasure instead!"

To their shock, Young Zeus ate two Cobalt Shards right in front of their eyes!

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" Panchito shouted in shock.

"Urr…" Young Zeus grumbled as he held his belly, until he cracked an evil smile. "Wow! Yum! Those shards were DEE-licious!"

"You… You're gonna pay SO HARD for THAT!" Panchito yelled.

"Yeah! Let's hold me!" Young Panchito said.

Both adults Super Caballeros walked towards Young Zeus and held him by his sides.

"Hey! What're you… LEGGO!" Young Zeus demanded while struggling from the adults heroes’ grasp.

"TAKE THIS!" Young Jose jumped on Young Zeus a couple of times with all his strength to try to force the shards out of him. "Come on! Spit them out NOW!"

"OOF! YURK! BLURB!" Young Zeus groaned from Young Jose's stomps.

"Wait… Do you guys hear that?" Panchito heard a familiar noise.

They stopped what they were doing and looked behind them, seeing some Shroob Saucers flying by. Two of those Saucers came back and looked at the group before leaving.

"…What are these Saucers doing here?" Jose questioned.

Just then, another type of noise was heard.

"And what was that other noise?" Panchito added.

They get a full view of the mountain, they can see that Moob was trying to climb up, but accidentally slid down, causing that other noise heard by the heroes. Three Shroob Saucers came back and one of them shot a laser at Moob, causing him to grow in size, and was now staring at the group!

"Is…that who I think it is…?" Young Panchito gulped.

"Uh oh…" Young Jose murmured.

"%$&#####!" Moob roared loudly, flinching the group, including Young Zeus.

"RUN FOR IT!" Panchito shouted in panic as everyone dashed off.

However, their progress was stopped when they were startled by Moob's tongue, trying to eat them. Luckily, the tongue barely missed them.

"That was one heck of a close call!" Panchito's eyes widened.

"%$&#####!" Moob roared again and latched his tongue to try to eat the young heroes.

"LOOK OUT!" Jose got in front of the youngsters, but unfortunately ended up getting caught by the tongue. "AAAAHH!" he and Baby Manny was eaten.

"JOSE!" the two heroes cried out, while the adult Panchito gasped in shock.

Soon, Young Zeus arrived…at the worst time, because he was the next victim to get caught by the tongue. "OH NO!" he gets eaten.

"This is not good!" Panchito panicked, only to be grabbed by Moob’s tongue next. "GAAAH!" he screamed as he was eaten, followed by Young Panchito, and Young Jose.

"%$&#####!" Moob roared once again.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Young Panchito, Young Jose and Baby Manny wailed out loud, which woke Jose up.

"Uhhh…" he groaned as he got up. He then noticed the three crying children. "Oh, great… What do I do?!" he had no idea how he would calm down three children at once. "GUYS! A little help here! Guys!" he tried calling for Panchito, who was lying on the ground unconscious, but he wouldn't wake up. The wailing then becomes louder. "Ohhh, come on!" Jose facepalmed. "Okey… Guess it's worth a shot…"

He tried to call the childrens' attention by calling them playfully and even doing a funny face in front of Young Panchito, but they didn't stop crying.

"PLEASE, Panchito! I need help! Wake UP!" Jose called out for his downed lover, but they still wouldn't wake up. "Urrrrgh!" he grunted stressfully; how is he going to calm down the children without his help? Soon, he got an idea: "Oh! I know! This will definitely calm them down!" he reaches through something in his pocket. "I just hope there's still enough space left in their stomachs."

He pull out Three Manny Cookies from his pocket. Once the children eyed at them, they immediately stopped crying and big smiles showed up on their faces.

"Yay! Cookies!" Young Panchito and Young Jose squealed.

"Yaaaaaaaaay!" Baby Manny cheered.

"Here you go!" Jose handed each baby a cookie and watched them munching on these tasty snacks.

"Cookies are soooo tasty!" Young Panchito exclaimed with cookie crumbles in his mouth.

Baby Manny chirped as he swallows the whole cookie with his tongue.

"Phew…" Jose let out a sigh of relief.

"Ugh…" he then heard Panchito groan. He was now awake.

"Oh, thank seven stars you're awake!" Jose said. "Even though I've already calmed the boys down by myself…" he thought.

"Uh… Where are we?" Young Jose asked.

"I surmise we're inside that beast's gastric chambers…" Stuffwell said after coming out of Panchito's pocket.

"Yuck..." Panchito cringed.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Young Panchito sweatdropped.

"Well that's a first, getting eaten by a monstrous Manny." Jose said.

"Yeah, but what's next? Getting eaten by King Zeus?" Panchito questioned.

"Oh, sweet no! *sigh* goodness, Panchito… Don't give any funny ideas when we get back home." Jose glared at him.

"Young Zeus and his bellyful of star shards should be in here somewhere, as well." Stuffwell stated. "I suggest we find him and get out of here with all speed." He flies back into Panchitos pocket.

Panchoto then saw a very tiny opening on the other side of the wall.

"Hmm…" he pondered. "Guys, I can see through this wall. But we can't go through it."

"I wonder if the kids can." Jose wondered.

Hearing that, Young Jose walked towards the tiny gap and tried to fit through it, but he couldn't.

"Nope. Too small." He shook his head.

"Then how about we take that spring over there?" Young Panchito pointed to a spring at the far right. "It's small enough for us. Maybe we can find something up there."

"You have a point. Let's hop on it." Young Jose said.

"We'll wait for you here." Jose assured.

With that, the youngsters jumped on the spring and it launched them upwards.

"Eh?" Young Panchito did.

They saw the Gray Manny trying to push a large boulder towards the hole. The young kids were confused at that.

"Push! Push!" the Manny struggled.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing?" Young Jose asked.

"Trying to push this boulder." The Gray Manny answered. "If I can get this rolling, it should make a way outta here. Can't seem to budge it on my own, though…" he then attempts again.

"Hm… It DOES seem likely that rolling that giant boulder down the hole we just came from will expand that tight passage…" Young Jose pointed out.

"So we have to find a way to move this boulder somehow!" Young Panchito told them.

Baby Manny began tapping his hoofs together.

"Hold on, I think Manny is trying to say something…" Young Panchito pondered. "I've been listening to Manny Language since I was a newborn, so maybe I can understand him."

He analyzed Baby Manny's movements one by one. After he was done, Young Panchito came up with a conclusion:

"I think he was trying to say that there may be other Manny's wandering around in here. Perhaps if we find all of them, that boulder could move!"

"Hey! That's it! All of the Mannys were swallowed by that monster Yoshi too!" Young Jose confirmed. "But all of them got separated? That makes me worried for them!"

"Alright, but first of all, we gotta call our older selves to us!" Young Panchito stated as he hits a Warp Block, making a Warp Pipe appear and the adult Super Caballeros came out of it.

"You actually found a way to send us to you?" Panchito was surprised. "Tell us, what did you see?"

The young heroes explained everything to the adults.

"So we have to go on a Manny hunt, huh? I can see different rooms in this chamber, by the way. I suppose they'll lead us to where the Mannys are." Panchito said, directing to the rooms.

"I suggest we split up so that we can get the job done quickly." Jose suggested. "We can go with each of our younger selves while Baby Manny come with us."

They all nodded and split up to each room.

At the west side of Moob's Belly…

Panchito and his younger self entered the room, were they found an RC Aliener threatening a red Manny with a radio-controlled moving bomb.

"%)$" the RC Aliener sung.

"Help!" the Gray Red Manny cried for help.

"This Alien deserves a lesson!" Panchito glared at the RC Aliener.

"You bet!" Young Panchito glared next before calling out to get the RC Aliener's attention: "Hey! You there!"

The RC Aliener heard him and turned around to spot the two Panchitos. He then sent the moving bomb towards them. The bomb stood in front of the Pancchitos for quite a while, and surprisingly enough it didn't explode yet.

"Okay, this is getting boring…" Panchito rolled his eyes before destroying the bomb with his jump.

"Seriously? That's all you got?" Young Panchito teased.

"#&!" the RC Aliener's eyes twitched as he ran straight for them.

"Guess we'll settle this with a fray!" Panchito grinned as he and his younger self stood in their fighting stances.

The RC Aliener uses his antenna to command a flying bomb at the Sonics, but they dodged it and the bomb blew up by itself. After that, Young Panchito did a hammer while Panchito did a double jump Attack at the RC Aliener.

The RC Aliener tried to use that same bomb again. Panchito dodged it while Young Panchito does a Hammer attack at it to send it to the RC Aliener, killing him.

"We did, me!" Young Panchito high-fived his young self.

"You're welcome! One day, You'll be able to master the power move once you grow up!" Panchito replied.

"I will? Cool!"

The Gray Red Manny got up, thankful for the rooster killing the Alien. "Thanks!" he thanked. The Rooster then told him about the dilemma at the main chamber. "Huh? Escape?" he then ran off, lending a hand to the Manny with pushing the boulder. Even that, two Mannys still weren't enough.

At the northwest side of Moob's Belly…

Jose and his younger self came upon a large bright red wall in the room. What was surprising for them is that they heard a Manny's voice from behind the wall:

"Isn't there anybody who can help me?"

"Did you hear that? There's a Manny trapped on the other side!" Jose said. His younger self nodded. "The good question is: how do we get him out?"

"Wow! Lookie! Colorful balls!" Young Jose eyed at a row of colorful balls above the cell's door. The order of the balls' colors were blue, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, yellow, red, red, yellow, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow and blue.

"It kinda looks like some sort of code…" Jose inspected the balls. He then noticed a small opening on the far right side of the wall where only his baby self could pass. "Hey! Me! Could you try to memorize the order of the colors shown here and then go down that opening?"

"Sure!" Young Jose nodded. It took a couple of seconds for him to memorize all of the colors, but once he was finished, he went inside the opening.

On the other side, there were tons of colorful buttons that light in the same three colors as the balls seen outside.

"Oh, that explains it." Young Jose pointed out. "Alright, here goes nothing!" he took out his hammer.

Some button hitting later…

"*bang!* …yellow… *bang!* …red… *bang!* …blue… *bang!* …yellow…and… *bang!* …BLUE!"

At the same time, when Young Jose completed the row of buttons, the door leading to the imprisoned Manny opened. The toddler then emerged out from the opening.

"Good job!" Jose congratulated.

"No problem!" Young Jose replied with a smile.

The Joses went through the opened door and greeted the Manny, which was a blue one.

"That…was scary." The Gray Blue Manny stuttered. Once the Joses told him about the situation at the chamber, the Gray Blue Manny went out to help with the pushing as well.

[eggoreviews]

20 Dream Games for the Playstation Classic!

The PS1 Classic came out last year. Everyone got excited for a minute, but then we found out it was missing almost everything! Here’s my personal list of the 20 games I reckon should’ve been included. I’ll stick to one per franchise to keep it fair, but I might have to break that rule once. Hope you enjoy/agree!

Note: This is just my opinion. There might be some ones you don’t agree with, and I might have cut some ones from the original lineup you liked. Sorry in advance lol

Before I kick off the list, thought I’d briefly list off the games I cut from the Classic’s actual lineup:

Battle Arena Toshinden

Cool Boarders 2

Destruction Derby

Intelligent Qube

Jumping Flash

Mr. Driller

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

Resident Evil (you’ll see why)

Ridge Racer Type 4

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Syphon Filter

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Twisted Metal

Wild Arms

Aight, let’s go.

1. Final Fantasy VII

The quintessential PS1 JRPG, of course FF7 had to stick around from the original lineup. Like it or loathe it, FF7 defined its console and is still highly regarded as one of the best JRPGs of all time. Playstation wouldn’t really be Playstation without this game. This was the game that pushed Final Fantasy into 3D, and firmly into the hearts and minds of players everywhere. There’s little else to say, other than that you kind of already know how iconic this one is.

2. Grand Theft Auto

The humble beginnings of a now mammoth franchise, the first entry in the now legendary GTA series was a top down weird thing that let you explore three separate cities in whatever cars you can find. While this doesn’t hold up especially well today admittedly, GTA was an important milestone, not just for its series but for its console generation and has certainly earned its iconic status to belong on the PS Classic. This one was a good choice.

3. Metal Gear Solid

Another obvious choice, MGS is where Metal Gear really became Metal Gear. Brilliantly cheesy voice acting, awesome stealth gameplay, suitably weird story and the birth of the now iconic codex screen, MGS is like the archetypal cold war film wrapped in a supremely fun package on the PS1. If this wasn’t here, there is no PS Classic and that’s just the tea.

4. Revelations: Persona

This was one I wasn’t expecting an appearance from on the PS Classic, but I’m glad it did. In my head, the beginnings of this extremely weird spin-off JRPG series is an essential piece of kit on a classic compilation. Everyone hoping to experience the best of what PS1 had to offer should probably try this one out and while it certainly isn’t for everyone, it’s certainly unforgettable and deserves its place among the rest of this lot. But hey, maybe I’m biased because I’m obsessed with Persona 5.

5. Rayman

The first in the franchise that spawned my favourite 2D platformer of all time, Rayman made his glorious start on the PS1. While some may argue that the second entry in this colourful, creative platformer series deserves the spot, I’m with Sony in giving the spot to the first instead. Despite the cringey, cliche villain name they went for, this game was innovative for its time and had its own unique art style that still holds up remarkably well today. This limbless boy has earned his place.

6. Tekken 3

The final game from the original 20 I’m carrying over into my list, my thoughts are that this compilation was in need of a traditional fighting game and Tekken 3 perfectly fits the bill. This acts as one of the most iconic fighters on the PS1, and is pretty much superior in every way to the previous two entries, bringing with it more characters, more moves to pull off and a better, smoother combat system in general. This is the perfect fighter for fans of retro and takes its place rather nicely on the classic console.

7. Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus

Here’s the reason why I cut Abe’s Oddysee, to replace it with what is arguably its vastly superior sequel! Oddysee is still good, but for newcomers to this extremely odd platformer, the larger variety of power-ups and potential strategies is a much better pick for those unfamiliar with the franchise. To put it simply, Exoddus just holds up better today than its predecessor. Get ready for what is kind of nightmare fuel though, as the slightly unsettling imagery and character designs are bound to make you feel a little uneasy as you traverse dystopian, industrial environments as a weird amphibian thing.

8. Resident Evil 2

And, predictably, here’s why I cut the first RE, because there was no way I was leaving this franchise off my list. It was a tough one, but the second just won out. In my mind, RE2 just improved upon the first one in so many ways. While the first was a horrifying, strategic blast through an infested mansion that became one of the PS1′s defining games, RE2 took what the first one did well and built on it immeasurably. More developed characters, a fleshed out story, more unique environments to explore. Even though the map got exponentially bigger, that feeling of claustrophobia never went away and it was awesome the level of horror they could achieve with 90s graphics. As a legendary horror game, RE2′s the one I would go with.

9. Bishi Bashi Special

I know what you’re probably thinking, ‘this arsehole cut Ridge Racer but they’re making room for Uncle Bean?’ Well, hear me out. A lot of you may not have heard of Bishi Bashi Special. It’s a little known Japanese party game that is the maddest thing you will ever play. And in a classic compilation filled with iconic RPGs and the like, I felt that injecting a little chaotic madness into the mix was never gonna be a bad thing. There’s nothing on the PS1 that even comes close to the level of chaotic fun this gives you and shows the pure variety of the console’s back catalog. I’m very firm on this game’s place. Fight me about it.

10. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

A hack-and-slash game with fully rendered 3D open environments, starring a kickarse silent vampire with glowy eyes. It’s a real wonder they didn’t put this on the starting lineup. For real though, Soul Reaver was ahead of its time in a lot of ways, really testing the PS1 to the limit with its graphics and control scheme. An awesome tech demo for the time that still holds up well today, but is also a solid game in general. Very worthy of this list.

11. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

As pretty much any PS fan will tell you, this game kind of has to be here. And everyone won’t shut up about it for good reason. While Castlevania made its start on Nintendo systems with the original trilogy, it really made its mark on the industry when Symphony of the Night dropped onto the PS1 in 1997. It took what made the other games so great and built on it all, providing a sprawling platforming epic filled with collectible power-ups, hidden places to explore and a story that, at the time, defined the franchise. Many would argue that the series still hasn’t topped this entry, and as such is an essential addition that is sorely missing from the real thing.

12. Tomb Raider II

Tomb Raider is, well, iconic. I’ve used that word a lot but it’s true. Lara Croft and the franchise she belongs to are iconic, especially to the Playstation. And like Castlevania, the lack of any Tomb Raider on the Classic is almost criminal. This title encompassed everything that makes the original Tomb Raider trilogy so great, interesting puzzles and areas that require a lot of strategic thought to traverse, a decent selection of weapons and vehicles and a sense of genuine fun and adventure that runs through the whole thing. Tomb Raider is cool, and it doesn’t need much introduction. And for me, this was the most glaring omission of them all.

13. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

While we’re on the subject of glaring omissions, here’s what was basically the PS1′s answer to Mario and Sonic, Crash Bandicoot. In particular, I’ve chosen Crash 2 because I feel it’s the best experience for new players. Crash 1, while it’s the original, is full of a load of fuckery that may put newcomers off altogether if they can’t master the jolty controls and the slightly unfair life system. Not a bad game, just not great for those new to the franchise. Crash 2 just sort of lends itself better to the classic, challenging but not too much 2D platforming the series is known for. Well-designed, aesthetically pleasing levels, consistently fun mechanics and even a story you can sort of follow. This was Crash at his best, and it needed to be here.

14. Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon

Yet another PS Classic omission that made people sad, Spyro acted as the lesser known, but still suitably iconic second mascot for the PS1. Unlike his orange counterpart, Spyro’s levels felt much less linear and were more of an explorative collectathon rather than a straight platformer. And of the original trilogy, it’s pretty safe to say that number 3 consolidated everything the first two nailed and made it as perfect as it could be. Year of the Dragon defined the series at the time, and it needed to be onboard as much as Crash.

15. Crash Team Racing

Look at me go, I’ve finally broken my franchise rule. But in this one instance, considering how wildly different the 2 Crash games are, I think we can let it slide. CTR was never really meant to happen, it was mostly just a side project for the guys at Naughty Dog to do while they still had the rights. And the result was an awesome, fast-paced and crazy experience to rival Mario Kart. Unlike Nintendo’s equivalent at the time, CTR had much heavier, clunkier feels to the karts you drove, which really made you feel like you were driving this hunk of metal. You had power-ups that kept everything interesting, shortcuts to learn and even a full-on Diddy Kong Racing style adventure mode. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the remaster to relive this one.

16. MediEvil

I’ll be honest, this was the one I was most disappointed to have missing from the Classic. I absolutely adore this game. I love the story, the concept of Sir Dan as a character, the combat and the lovely gothic areas you encounter from a mausoleum to ghost pirate ship. But most of all, the cheeky, totally stupid British humour running through the whole thing, particularly through the game’s archetypal villain Zarok, makes the whole game as funny as it is epic, with a suitably rousing soundtrack following you on your journey to prove you’re not the zero everyone thinks you are. Classic game, desperately needed a place on the lineup.

17. Gran Turismo 2

I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t care much for realistic racing games, I don’t derive a lot of joy out of them and they aren’t really my cup of tea. But in my efforts to keep this lineup as diverse as possible, I thought I’d include the game that really pushed the PS1′s graphical capabilities to its limits and almost created a game that surpassed its console generation in its looks. There’s a whole wealth of content here; a whole bunch of cars to unlock and a beefy career mode to keep you busy for a fair while. And this game differs from other racing games on the system by rewarding strategic thought and encouraging players to think through every action they take on the race track, which for me makes this the most immersive racer on the system.

18. PaRappa the Rapper

Okay, I know. I really did just put this here. But come on, PaRappa ended up in PS All Stars, so he’s gotta mean something to someone, right? It doesn’t matter how you slice it, this paper dog properly revolutionised rhythm games at the time, creating a fun and responsive, if a little short, experience that was certainly unique for the time. This is another that would definitely fall under the weird category, but it’s a bit of Playstation that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough and it’s worth a spot on pure fun factor alone.

19. Ape Escape

As one of the first games to rely entirely on the Dualshock analog sticks, Ape Escape is another that falls into the ‘must mean something to someone’ category, as Ape Escape also ended up with a character in PS All Stars. This one is a fairly simple foray, but it was met with a lot of love from fans, as you play as a tiny, chibi version of the dude from Yu Gi Oh (tell me I’m wrong) and round up a bunch of escaped apes in varying platforming levels with a cool selection of gadgets. It’s here because it’s here, let it be.

20. Silent Hill

Silent Hill is pretty much as iconic as horror games get, and yet I somehow managed to forget about it until I got the 20th and final game on my list. It was claustrophobic, gory, full of metaphors you really don’t want to dig into and, most of all, it was terrifying. The constant fog, while it was mostly implemented to account for lack of draw distance, worked in the game’s favour and became a staple in the series. For the PS1 era, this game and the series it belongs to properly nailed the scare factor and left everyone who went near it feeling at least a bit uneasy. Saying this belongs here is an understatement.

Cool, there’s my list. My probably quite badly justified list clouded by pure fan-ness. But anyway, hope you agreed with some of my picks and let me know what games you would’ve liked to see on the otherwise questionable PS Classic lineup below. Thank for reading !

[timeagainreviews]

Doctor Who and Video Games

We live in the era of the franchise. Everything it seems is getting the franchise treatment. After the success of the MCU, everyone wants that sweet sweet money. We’ve got the failed Universal Monsters reboot, the Harry Potter extended universe, and endless Star Wars movies. However, some franchises, it would seem, struggle to grow further than their core narrative. Star Wars never strays very far from the battle with the Empire. Which is one thing you can’t really say about Doctor Who. Doctor Who has done fantasy, sci-fi, period drama, schlocky horror, whimsy, and utter rubbish. I’ve always admired Doctor Who’s flexibility as a property. It lends itself beautifully to a wide range of mediums, such as audios and comic books. But what about video games? Are there any good Doctor Who video games? Could there be?

Over the past week, in preparation for this article, I've completely immersed myself in the world of Doctor Who video games. I feel uniquely qualified to have an opinion on the subject. But before we continue, I give a word of caution. I'm talking directly to you, now. Never in your life, should you ever play "Doctor Who: Return to Earth," for the Nintendo Wii. It's not worth the £1.80 that I spent on eBay. You don't ever deserve to do that to yourself. I don't care what you've done, nobody deserves that. If like myself, you have played this game, you have my deepest sympathies, especially if you paid for it new.

It doesn't interest me to make a list of the worst Doctor Who video games, as many people have done this already. It's nothing new to say that Doctor Who has a video game problem. When I wrote that Doctor Who should be run by Disney, I don't actually mean it should happen. I was merely illustrating that Disney knows how to take care of its properties. I would venture that Doctor Who has always had a bit of a management problem. Merchandise from Doctor Who has always reminded me of Krusty the Clown merchandise. So much of it is some bullshit they slapped a Dalek on said: "10 quid please!" Barring the occasional home run or third-party licensing, a lot of the merchandise is pretty uninspired. Which is bananas, because the world of Doctor Who has so much colour and potential.

Video games based off of movies and television are almost always as bad as movies and television based off of video games. They're rarely breaking the mould in their new medium. Most of the time, tie-ins such as these are quick soulless cash grabs. You can see this a lot in the Matt Smith era. There are at least seven games featuring his Doctor, and then a sudden decline. Matt Smith was the Doctor during one of the show's biggest points in popularity. Never before had the show been embraced on such an international level. Of course, the Beeb wanted to push as many video games out as possible.

The problem is, they didn't throw a lot of money at it, and not one project seemed to get the focus it deserved. I won't pretend to know the motivation behind the BBC's forays into video games, but it seems to be a trend with them to overdo something, and then be scared of it in the future. They changed the 5.5" figurine set to a 3.75" scale and nobody wanted them. Because of this, we haven't seen nearly as many 5.5" figures since. They once put out a figure of Lady Casandra's frame after she exploded into gore. We used to get figures like Pig Lazlo and the Gran from "The Idiot's Lantern." Now we'll be lucky if we get everyone's favourite- Graham O'Brien. They also did it with the Doctor Who Experience. They make this brilliant Doctor Who museum with the OK'est walkthrough story, and then put it right in the middle of Cardiff. They wondered why it never made any money. I've been twice, and I gotta say- they should have put it in London. It would still be open.

This isn't to say all of Matt Smith's video games are bad. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor adventure games referred to simply as "The Doctor Who Adventure Games," are some of my favourite in the entire lot. And as much as I would like to blame the BBC for their lack of caring, the fact is Doctor Who is not easy to translate into video games. Even if they do care, they still need the right team on the job. Oddly, it's one of the Doctor's greatest charms that makes Doctor Who hard to translate into a video game, and that's the Doctor's stance on violence. If the Doctor could pick up a laser pistol and just frag some Daleks, we'd probably have an entire series on our hands. Unfortunately, most developers go one of two ways. They either ignore the pacifism or we get countless mind-numbing puzzles.

Puzzles are by far the worst element of any Doctor Who game. In the browser-based "Worlds in Time," there were a plethora of Bejewelled type mini-games and pipe matching puzzles. The puzzles got increasingly harder even if the player wasn't also getting increasingly better. Even the platformer "The Eternity Clock," was mired in constantly stopping to do puzzles. They pop up in the Adventure Games, but other than the infuriating "don't touch the sides," puzzles, they don't detract much from the gameplay. There were moments where I felt a bit like a companion because I was decoding a Dalek computer for the Doctor, which is really the money spot for a Doctor Who video game. Any time a Doctor Who game can make you feel like you're in Doctor Who is time well spent.

When asking my friends what kind of Doctor Who video game they would like to see, many of them mentioned they would like a survival horror type game. We sort of get this in many of the Smith era games. In "Return to Earth," the mechanic is sloppy and infuriating at best. In "The Eternity Clock," and the Adventure Games, it's a little more manageable. It's a nice way to add a challenge to a non-violent gameplay style. It would be interesting to see what a game team from something like "Thief," or "Resident Evil," might do with the sneaking aspect.

Another way the games have completely side-stepped the non-violence and puzzles is by having the Doctor act as a secondary character. The player is put in the position of the companion or perhaps a UNIT soldier as in the case of "Destiny of the Doctors." If you've not played DotD, I wouldn't blame you. I was hitting my head against the wall just trying to figure out what to do. The only real reason to play that game is for one last chance to see the fabulous Anthony Ainley reprise the role of the Master. He's in totally smarmy ham mode, even if it's a bunch of gibberish they shot in a day. You can find the entirety of the footage on YouTube and it's surreal.

The problem with having the Doctor be violent is that it doesn't feel true to the character. Sure, Three did some Venusian aikido, Four broke that dude's neck in "Seeds of Doom," and even Twelve socked a racist in the face, but these are isolated incidents. The spirit of the Doctor is lost in 1992's "Dalek Attack," when the Doctor is forced to go full on bullet hell on a Dalek hover cart. It's funny then that one of my favourite Doctor Who games incorporates a violent Doctor. In the Doctor Who level of "Lego Dimensions," the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make villains fall apart in a very safe Lego style violence. I can excuse this mostly because the game is not primarily a Doctor Who game at heart.

Funnily enough, the Lego game does something I've always wanted in a Doctor Who video game. I've always wanted to have a Doctor Who game where you could regenerate into different Doctors, and also go into their respective TARDISes. Sure, some of the games on the Commodore 64 allowed you to regenerate, but it was pretty naff in its execution. I tell no lies when I say I spent a lot of time regenerating and reentering the TARDIS to explore the Lego versions of their respective console rooms. Really, the biggest problem with the Lego Doctor Who game is that it wasn't it's own game. Lego Dimensions was its own failure. If TT Games would come out with an entire Doctor Who game, I would buy it yesterday.

The overarching problem with every Doctor Who game is the same problem Torchwood had- if it wasn't attached to Doctor Who, we wouldn't be interested. While I did have a lot of fun with the Adventure Games and Lego Dimensions, not one Doctor Who game has every element right. One has a good story, but poor mechanics, another has great mechanics but doesn't feel right. It's a bit of a tight rope to find the perfect balance, but I don't feel it's impossible

One of the reasons I would love to see a proper Lego Doctor Who game is that they have a history of good adaptations. They're not exactly beloved games, but I myself play a lot of them. One of the most impressive things I've seen them do was in Lego Batman 3, where they made each of the planets in the Green Lantern mythos a visitable world. Could you imagine the same treatment for Doctor Who? Visiting Telos and Skaro, and then popping off to medieval earth or Gallifrey? You could get different missions depending on which Doctor you were, or what time you arrive in. And the collectable characters! So many companions, and Doctors, and baddies, and costume variations to unlock! Doesn't that sound nice? You can buddy Jamie and Amy with Seven and Twelve and have an all Scottish TARDIS! A Zygon could ride K9!

The fact is, we probably won't see a very expansive Doctor Who game. I would be very enthusiastic for an open world Doctor Who game, but even as I type it, it sounds difficult to pull off. I may be able to say what doesn't work about the games, but saying what would work is admittedly, not as simple, but this doesn't mean I can't think of at least one good game. Piecing together some of the things I mentioned earlier, I think the best genre for Doctor Who is point-and-click adventures. I know I keep singing the praises of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, but it's because I think they were actually onto something. It's sad then that they scrapped any further developments to work on the inferior "Eternity Clock."

Could you imagine a point and click Doctor Who in the same vein as "Day of the Tentacle," or "Thimbleweed Park"? You walk around as the Doctor, pick up bits, talk to funny characters and solve complex problems. If you throw in a bit of horror survival, you've basically got the Adventure Games, which is my point- Do more with what they've already done. Grow the concepts. Improve the mechanics. A Doctor Who game should be jammed packed with Easter eggs, unlockables, and mystery. The point is, do more. Even their phone apps are abysmal. You know how much I would play a “Pokémon Go,” style Doctor Who game? You go around trapping baddies in cages you set off with your sonic screwdriver or something. I. Would. Catch. Them. All.

We still have “The Edge of Time,” coming to PC and consoles in October, and I'm pensively excited. While the graphics seem really top notch, in no way does it feel like anything more than a fun little VR experience. The game is going to remain exclusive to that small subsection of gamers that own a VR headset. Before it has even been released, it's closed itself off to yet another section of its very wide audience. Let's just hope that it doesn't scare the BBC away from making a proper Doctor Who game in the near future. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to borrow my friends' VR set, because of course, I'm going to play it. It's Doctor Who.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun “researching,” this article. Playing Doctor Who games all week? Oh no, twist my arm! Sadly, a lot of these games are no longer available from their original sources. I was able to find a lot of them on the Internet Archive. If you want to give them a go, I would definitely suggest it. A couple of them are even capable of being emulated on your browser from the Internet Archive. The game I had the hardest time locating was “The Gunpowder Plot,” but I was eventually able to find it after some digging. I didn’t play any of the text-based games because I’m not very good with spatial awareness, and so text-based games are usually a nightmare for me. Sadly, Worlds in Time is lost forever, but I remember my character fondly. I also discovered I’m pretty good at Top Trumps: Doctor Who. Go figure.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Shenmue the Animation Is A Perfect Introduction To The Franchise

  In 1999, the video game world was introduced to the first-ever FREE (full reactive eyes entertainment) game Shenmue, now nearly 23 years later, we have the first-ever FREE anime with Shenmue the Animation. The Shenmue games have been a controversial spot within the medium, as there really is a love it or hate it mindset to them when it comes to certain fans. How does the anime adaptation (that covers the first two games in the series) lend itself to folks who might not have played these games originally? Could it give people who might not have liked playing the games a new opportunity to see the story?

  The Shenmue series has always had a strange following overseas, with some people whittling the games down to simple jokes, but at the same time, it’s garnered a cult following that allowed a third game to get crowdfunded in a phenomenal way. Due to that reputation and the games only being available on their original systems, people who hadn't played the games tended to stay away from them. On top of that, the games don’t necessarily play like games that were coming out in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s.

    Despite the influential nature of these games within the history of video games, they can be very intimidating and tough to go back and play without a walkthrough or guide. Since these are essentially 3D Japanese adventure games, which were not games that often came out overseas at the time, it can be difficult to understand the patient nature of Shenmue and what exactly you need to do. These are games that if you can wrap your head around its systems and slower style, are worth playing, but if that is not something you want to do, then thankfully, Shenmue the Animation is here for you to experience this story for the first time.

  RELATED: 4 Anime That Would Make Great Video Game Adaptations

  Despite the influential nature of these games within the history of video games, they can be very intimidating and tough to go back and play without a walkthrough or guide. Since these are essentially 3D Japanese adventure games, which were not games that often came out overseas at the time, it can be difficult to understand the patient nature of Shenmue and what exactly you need to do. These are games that if you can wrap your head around its systems and slower style, are worth playing, but if that is not something you want to do, then thankfully, Shenmue the Animation is here for you to experience this story for the first time.

    By combining the first two games in the anime, Shenmue the Animation uses a straightforward approach when it comes to the main story. The unfortunate aspect of that is that you miss out on some of the weird and goofy side content that can be found in these games. Ryo doesn’t get to hang out with Tom as much, you don’t have to continuously feed a cat to get it back in good health, and there isn’t an episode devoted strictly to trying to collect all the Sonic gacha toys. Although, two of those aspects do end up within episodes, so they’re not gone completely.

  RELATED: Shenmue Creator Yu Suzuki Reveals New Apple Arcade Exclusive

  The story of Shenmue is that of a traditional martial arts revenge story with Ryo attempting to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the treacherous Lan Di. Along the way, you meet a slew of characters that appear to help guide Ryo through his journey ranging from wacky to serious. Since the anime is retelling the main story of the games, it allows for some added scenes to help accentuate the main plot and provides more context for several different characters that show up. Not only does this help newcomers get a better understanding of the story, but it allows fans of the series to see things in a new light.

    One of the key components of Shenmue was the fighting, in which creator Yu Suzuki utilized aspects of Virtua Fighter — another game he helped make — to make the fights in the games stand out. That system has not aged the best when you go back and play the games, but the anime really makes each of its fight scenes seem incredibly impactful. Every blow carries a weight to it that makes them seem devastating and dangerous, which is what you’d want for this kind of martial arts show. This allows for the fight scenes to really excel in the anime in a way that they do more so than in the games themselves. Plus, you don’t have to worry about a fight getting interrupted by a quick time event popping up.

  After years and years of being lambasted or cherished by fans, it’s nice to see the Shenmue series have a new avenue for people to approach the franchise and its story. Shenmue the Animation is a fun adaptation of this series and if you’ve never played the games, but have been curious about them, it’s the perfect way to dive in.

  Were you a fan of the Shenmue games before the anime, or did the anime make you want to seek out the games to try? Let us know down in the comments below!

      Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup and author of One Shining Moment: A Critical Analysis of Love Live! Sunshine!!. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

By: Jared Clemons

[crystalnet]

Sonic Forces is Good

Sonic doesn't really slot into any of the semi-nebulous interests that this blog has previously covered but I just had to make an exception because I have thoughts on the blue blur's new game, especially in light of everyone going crazy for Mario Odyssey and the fact almost all professional reviewers as well as various critics on youtube have been basically taking a wrecking-ball to this game. Sonic fans themselves are left mostly enjoying the game (if the subreddit is any indication) and kind of sheepishly acknowledging the pretty low metacritic scores with a bit of a shrug--a pose any true Sonic fan has gotten used to taking in the past decade. I want to talk just very briefly about the problem with Sonic in 2017 and anytime past the year 1998 really and why perception of his non-side-scrolling games seem critically flawed and misguided...

First of all, 3D Sonic has basically always been a mess. Now I should mention before getting deep into this, Forces is my first Sonic game since Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance 2, the former of which wasn't even as fun as the flawed SA2 and the latter of which should be considered Sonic 5 (or 6 if you count Sonic CD) for all I care, in that it is an excellent expansion of OG Sonic style (shit like grinding on rails, updated Sprites and even Amy as a playable character were great additions). Those two games though are indicative of the whole series: the 3D ones are always problematic while the 2D ones don't seem particularly hard to make well. 

I think there is a big range of how fans and critics view the series, but it seems as if the 3D games are either held to the standard of Adventure 1 and 2, which were always pretty flawed games, or else held to some non-existent and unattainable standard. But we should be clear: Sonic never had his Super Mario 64. Adventure 1 comes close, and that game does a lot very well, but it introduces a lot of things which would plague the 3D games forever. I'm mostly talking about the fact A1 and A2 are want to have all these additional playable characters besides Sonic and yet, Sonic (or Shadow) levels are always clearly where the best level design and most fun is to be had. 

Why force characters like Big the Cat or E-102 Gamma down our throat, when almost all the Sonic levels are amazing compared to levels where you shoot at things or hunt for emeralds. Like extra characters are kind of intrinsically fun when your a kid, but it always felt a bit like padding to me to play the Tails/Eggman and Knuckles/Rogue levels in SA2. So the gold standard for the 3D games becomes about 1/3rd of the content in the first two games?

What I'm trying to say is that Sonic Team never knew exactly what they were trying to achieve with these games it seems. It's like they continued the tradition of Sonic 2 and 3 with Tails and then Knuckles being added by eventually just adding a shit ton of characters to every game, effectively diluting the experience. I'm not even a big fan of Mario 64, but clearly that game is critically lauded, whereas the Blue Blur just couldn't seem to make that same transition. Heroes is literally all about adding characters, along with bright, colorful presentation which barely masked the weakened level-design. Then beyond the critical face-plant that is Sonic ‘06, Sonic Team's goals with these games seem even more unclear than ever and the warm embrace of 90s Sonic seems further away then ever before during the past decade or so.

You have a couple of weird "story book"-style spin offs on the Wii like the Black Knight and Secret Rings which really push the boundaries of what a Sonic game can be (seemingly to mostly bad reviews), Sonic Unleashed, which is literally split between somewhat traditional 3D gameplay and the kind of totally different style of gameplay a la non-Sonic levels in the Adventure titles (werehog Sonic...) and then a few games that seem to be headed in a more stable direction: Sonic, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations and to a slightly lesser degree, Sonic Lost World . 

Like I said,  I haven't played any of these since Heroes, but I've been reading up and looking at all of Somecallmejohnny's videos on youtube to get a sense of how people feel about these, and these last 3 seem to be on the up-and-up in terms of critical reaction from both critics and fans. But Generations was in 2011 and since then it's been mostly an onslaught of Sonic Boom games and I'll do us all a favor and gloss over those completely. While Lost World tweaks things a bit with a run-button, Colors and Generations built on the more traditional half of Unleashed and heavily featured the boost mechanic which lends itself to a new kind of level design which is considerably different than that of Adventure 1 and 2.

I guess the long-winded point that I'm trying to make is that Sonic Team has basically been having an identity crisis since 1998. Not a single one of these stands as a true precedent for the series in that the best of their lot--Generations-- is still one of those meta, self-aware entries since it combines modern and classic sonic, quite literally. I do really wanna play those last 3 I mentioned because they seem like they are on the right path, but I'm sure for every fan, there is still a disappointed nay-sayer. 

This leads me to my final point though, and that is that Forces, for me personally, is a pretty damn good idea of what 3D Sonic is. I think people were putting a lot of pressure on it since it's been a while since a true 3D entry that wasn't a Boom spin-off, but also because of Manias success. Mania from earlier this year was really great, but it's great in a mostly regressive way.  Yes, the four new levels are fantastic and Christian Whitehead did a awesome job of capturing the "magic" of the first 3 games while refining things like the controls and amount of sprite-frames and adding some cool extras as well as those dope Chaos emerald bonus zones, but the success it had is based off of design-principles from nearly 25 years ago. 

I can't complain at all, because it's a really fun game and a great way to revisit classic vibes and levels, but I hope it's the beginning of a sea-change for Sonic Team's approach and not just a blip. Mania 2 for instance could revisit/remix the underrated Advance trilogy, or Sega could grow some balls and let Whitehead and other fan-developers like him step up to the plate and either design a full fresh side-scrolling entry OR something like oh I don't know Sonic Adventure 3?

Either way, the game generated a lot of hype which Sega capitalized on by dropping Forces a few months later. And me and like half of hard-core fans are pretty happy with the game and that's about it. Same old story since SA2: new 3D game comes out, gets mediocre reviews, half the fans are on-board while the other seem even more disappointed than professional critics. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of what Sega should be doing with their 3D games, but no one can really agree. 

Well I for one think Forces is on the right track. It's not perfect, but it's not really trying to be the next big game (they make that clear every single time they release a 3D title that isn't SA3). It's only 40 USD which I think denotes that it's to played in-tandem with Mania, so you got your classic Sonic on one hand, and your new-fangled and always-problematic-to-somebody 3D Sonic on the other. Also it's worth noting that I play this on the Switch. I think the Switch magically makes any game better for being played on it, and yeah I can't really imagine playing this on PS4. The option of portability makes any game better IMO, and Switch just adds this x-factor to any game right now, I can't totally explain it (will write another post all about it).

The game hold ups though, and beyond the novel trifling that is the character-designer/OC, the level-design is better in my opinion than most are letting on. I'm not sure yet if anything comes close to my personal gold-standard for 3D Sonic levels (Radical Highway and City Escape) but the sense of speed is often phenomenal, but I don't think there is any more of those moments where you are forfeiting control than there has always been since even the Genesis games, which is something I've seen some critics complain about. I admit I was slightly taken back by the locked camera, and often-times narrow corridor-esque levels, but once I got the hang of it, I realized that this is a more faithful translation of classic Sonic into 3D than the more free-roaming styled levels of Adventure games. 

People seem to get mad when there's too much precise platforming in Sonic (Marble Ruins..) just as some assail it for feeling like an auto-scroller at other times. It's like fans approach the series with the same confused priorities that Sonic Team themselves have sometimes displayed. I like the generally arcade-y feel of the levels though and re-visiting them for the purposes of refining my runs/time is enticing in the way it was back in the Sonic/Shadow levels in SA2.

Sonic is a weird, platypus of a genre unto himself: Neither pure platforming, racing or trick-based sports game a la Tony Hawk/SSX, he is all of these things and none of them at the same time. And I think these levels capture that excellently. What he isn't are slow and awkward Emerald-hunting levels or shoot-em-ups, but Sonic Teams seems to always shoot for more diversity in game-play than just Sonic levels would allow for, and that's where the Avatar levels come in, retaining the style and speed of the Sonic levels, while also expanding it slightly with Ratchet and Clank-style gun-play that seems to stand-in for awkward shit like the Eggman/Tails levels in SA2. And yeah this does mix it up nicely. 

Something else I've been seeing is that it's too easy and the levels are too short, and I just hope people are playing this on Hard mode (the requisite for hard mode is simply if you have played Sonic before according to the game itself). Other criticisms I've seen simply don't resonate, like people complaining about the controls of the Sonic levels, which just did not stand-out to me as being something I noticed. I like the variety of 2D and 3D, and think it strikes a good balance. 

So yeah, I basically just wanted to write this big ass post to explain why I think it's good and why other people should STFU, basically. Sonic isn't Mario, and never had been. His games are not explicitly all-ages, timeless crowd-pleasers. His games have always been faux-edgy, psuedo-platforming/racing hybrids that click hard with some and leave others cold. They are also explicitly for kids in a way that Mario games aren't, and it's a kind of complicated point but I think professional critics should take into account this shit was never designed for a 30 year-old to enjoy. That's literally why Mania exists. A 10 year old now-a-days might enjoy Mania, but a lot of that game nearly amounts to being a joke that someone born after 1999 couldn't really get. 

So, basically I'm all for trying new things, perfecting a formula that never quite existed and honing in on the good parts of some of the first Sonic games, and I think that's what Forces does. Also the story is sick. Some Sonic fans actually get caught up on the story which is insane to me because its like following the plot of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but this shit hit some fan-service high-points for me (great cast of characters that mostly glazes newer shit and honors OG Adventure 1 and 2 shit, a slightly "darker" tone, Classic Sonic seeming chill af compared to real Sonic, and cameos from old-school bad guys, for instance). So that shouldn't be a factor in your review if your over the age of 9, is what I'm saying, but I actually dig it despite that. 

Yes, it could be improved upon, but I think it’s an excellent starting point for the developers to build on, so hey why not add Whitehead to this team, as well as few of the level-designers from the other Boost games (Colors, Generations, Lost World), refine the controls and level design a bit and BAM, you got yourself a worthy candidate for the true, long-awaited Sonic Adventure 3 that all true fans have been waiting for forever (even though the Adventure games weren't perfect to begin with so this is a wish that contradicts my other points but still). What I think I'm saying, is if this is what they can do in a $40 title with a relatively small dev-team from what I've read, then what can they do when they go all in? Or are they too scared? Well these reviews might scare them off from even trying again and that's what I'm worried about, but Sega needs to grow some balls, and go all-in for the next release and lay-off the Pachinko-onslaught, or at least funnel some of that Pachinko-gold into developing the next game. Like I said, Sonic isn't Mario, and he doesn't need to be, or need to have games like the big cross-generational 3D Mario games that come out every 5-8 years or so. But you know he could if he wanted to, and I think Forces shows a pretty good way forward. Until then, try opening your heart to the Blue Blur if it's been a while-- who knows, you might just be surprised. Smell ya later, dreamerz~

[fmdtaeyongarchive]

↬ i hope this autumn breeze scatters our memories away.

date: august 2019.

location: ash’s apartment + a studio at bc.

word count: 1,881 words.

summary: ash said (sorta) fuck love... my impact...

notes: creative claims verification. please blame any part of this that doesn’t make sense on the medicine i’ve been on the whole time i was writing it.

mid-august 2019.

ash sat down at the piano bench and set his phone down next to it, voice memo app set to record. he hadn’t done this in a while. back in the days before he’d become so busy with solo schedules and proven himself as a creative enough for songwriting to be a real part of his job, he used to do this all the time. he’d have too many feelings not to let out in some way (he’d been less practiced at keeping it all in then) and the piano was a loyal friend who always listened. it had been his closest confidant since he’d been four years old. it didn’t matter that he’d been to so many different instruments to confide his troubles. in the end, they all represented the same thing, and that’s what drew him to even the most foreign piano.

a piano was the one thing that had been by his side in his life the longest. friends and partners had come and gone, but the relationship between ash and the nearest piano had never grown stale, even when schedules had kept him away for extended periods of time and caused neglect of their bond. no matter how short his time with the black and white keys was, he never forgot how to connect with them, and that’s more than he could say for so many of the people who had passed through his life — and for so many of the people who had once been his entire life. 

it’d only been a few months that he’d had a piano to call his own. moving out into his own place, a used baby grand was one of the first items he’d invested in for his new home’s interior. more than privacy or peace and quiet, he had a piano to call his own placed in front of the expansive set of windows that fronted his living room. he hadn’t had many opportunities to sit down at it and make music, but, as naturally as if he’d been doing it every night for the past half a year, he let his fingers spread out over the keys and start their push and pull, practiced endlessly until it had become nothing more than sheer instinct. like gentle waves crashing upon sand, taking and delivering in equal measure, his hands slowly traced out experimental notes and chords as he attempted to recreate the composition that had been forming itself in his head for the past few hours, itching to come out and be brought to life.

a piano was so different from the keyboard in his studio. the keys had lived a life of their own and they pushed back against the press of his fingers in a battle happening on the microscopic level, but it was a battle of passion, not wrath. there had been times he’d set to work at the keys with anger, but never toward the instrument itself. simmering anger was better for composing than the explosive type. art laid in the intricacies of a dynamic range, something more straight-on emotions didn’t lend themselves as simply to.

ash wasn’t able to put a name to all of the feelings he felt in the moment. there were too many and they’d interwoven with another until they became unrecognizable, only able to be expressed in the wave of his fingers.

it was a simple set of chords. it wouldn’t be anything notable for its complexity, but it was remorseful and unrelenting. there was a reluctance to follow the beat, and ash replayed sections as he figured them out multiple times to make sure the feeling was conveyed into the recording he’d be transposing over into his computer later by ear. 

it only took about an hour for him to have one final recorded memo of the composition that he was pleased with.

lyrics had come in bits and pieces as he composed, as tied to the music as the piano notes themselves. the words that came to him told a story that wasn’t his own. not now, at least. they were a story he’d lived time and time again in the past, but had never let come out in such bitter words.

love. it’d been the thing ash had sought out ever since he’d been a little boy with only the way his parents looked at each other and the way they sneaked kisses as they made dinner to idealize. he’d written more love songs than he could ever hope to release about every person who’d taken a piece of his heart since he was a teenager. even before then, ash remembered the elementary poetry he’d written about the butterflies he got from the boy who was so good at soccer at recess and the lengthy love letter he’d composed to his fifth grade “girlfriend”. love songs had filled most every playlist he listened to. even when he had gone through heartbreak, he’d listen to them to remind himself love was still out there.

now, he didn’t want to remind himself of that. where had love songs gotten him? they hadn’t ever made anyone stay, or kept insecurities from bringing love to a fizzling end, or made a relationship with his career and his own mind to contend with any easier. the mirage revealed its truth eventually every time, so why was it so hard to let go of the ideal he’d painted for himself that he clearly wasn’t meant to have?

if he could shatter his stupid heart on the floor of his living room like glass, he would.

late august 2019.

“are you sure you wrote this?”

ash snapped his eyes from his computer screen to the woman standing next to him at her question. of course he’d written it. he wasn’t about to start plagiarizing and claiming someone else’s work as his own. and if he ever did finally abandon all of his morals, it wasn’t going to be for a proposed last minute addition to a track list that was supposed to already be finished. it’d definitely be because he had finally snapped and decided to end his own career because bc wouldn’t end his suffering for him.

“yes?” he answered incredulously and the first response he got in return was a laugh. it wasn’t a malicious laugh, but ash remained tense nonetheless, unable to catch on to what she was implying in his own fatigue-ridden mind and they way her tone was much more humorous than his. 

“sorry,” she apologized, seeming to catch on that his mind wasn’t working at a fast enough speed to read her tone. “it doesn’t sound like you. well, it does. i’ve heard your heartbreak songs. but this is so cynical. you wrote ‘some’ and those songs you wrote on knight’s albums. they’re cute. i don’t know. i expected something more like that.”

ash’s tensed shoulders relaxed, but not completely. the singles he’d promoted from i’m young and daydream had both been songs about heartbreak. he’d written more songs about heartbreak than happiness in a relationship or the butterflies of having a crush if he considered everything he’d ever written. negative feelings were easier for him to write about than positive ones most of the time. they were easier to lose himself in and they were more plentiful in his life for the past few years. why was it hard to believe he’d written this? not to mention cute had been off the table the minute bc had decided he had some sort of marketable sex appeal that they’d been neglecting.

“it’s not that out of left field. and there’s already songs with a similar feeling on the album. that’s why i was going to suggest adding it. the whole back half of the track list is about disillusionment with love, so it should fit,” ash countered, trying not to sound as defensive as he felt. “i geared all of the production to fit in with the sound of the album.” had he failed?

“wasn’t it supposed to be about the sad feelings after a break up? ‘disillusionment with love’ is taking that pretty far.”

ash wanted to argue back, but he didn’t have the energy and she wasn’t wrong. those exact words had never been raised when discussing the concept of the album, and he hadn’t envisioned it in such pessimistic terms when the album had been in its early stages either. it was only when he’d begun writing this song that disillusionment became such a defining term for him. he knew why. his own mindset had changed in the months since the album had begun and he himself had become disillusioned. “but does it work? for the album? do you think it’d be worth pitching?” he asked, more interested in getting an answer to the reason he’d asked her to listen in the first place than dwell on his own roller coaster of emotions recently. or the continuing roller coaster ride of emotions he’d been stuck on for the last four years, seemingly either unable to get off or purposefully torturing himself by refusing to.

“yeah, give it a go. it’s a good fit sonically. you’ve just got to convince them to take such a late addition,” the woman said with a shrug. “but clean up the percussion a little bit. it gets lost in itself.” ash assumed their conversation would end there before she quirked her head at him, one hand on her hip in a stance that prepared ash to be questioned. he wasn’t prepared for what that question was going to be, though. “i don’t want to be nosy, but did someone break your heart recently? you’re pretty easy to see through.”

ash was too exhausted to keep his expression from revealing the surprise at her inquiry. that really wasn’t any of her business and he didn’t consider them close enough to discuss that. they weren’t anything more than work colleagues and ash wasn’t even one for discussing his love life with his closest friends, but he wasn’t blunt enough to say that. she had good intentions, he was sure, but anyone who had sat in on writing sessions with him more than once or heard drafts of his songs should know he didn’t like discussing the details of his private life beyond what he willingly laid out in his songs. it wasn’t how he worked. too many people were under the impression they knew his life already for him to want to voluntarily share the truth with anyone not involved.

“nope.” he forced a smile and a nonchalant shrug similar to her own. he got a dubious look in return and ash swiveled in his chair to face the computer screen again. “really, no. but thanks for listening. and the percussion, i’ll fix that. thanks for the tip. i’ll send it over to some people and hopefully there’s still time to add it.”

he wasn’t lying to her. no one else had done the breaking. he couldn’t blame anyone else for something he’d done himself.

he’d thought his heart had broken so many times, but it was still there, beating and hoping in the background, even when he was the one doing his damnedest to fracture it beyond repair.

[aion-rsa]

Rap’s Czarface Comes to Life Through Throwback Vinyl-Comic Combo

In “First Weapon Drawn,” debuting Saturday for Record Store Day, rap and comics fans finally learn the secret origin of the dastardly hip-hop heel Czarface in an immersive audio-visual experience that resurrects a nearly forgotten storytelling format, to impressive effect.

It’s a scheme as visionary as any a mad scientist might concoct. In the real world, Czarface is the name of the hip-hop supergroup comprised of legendary Wu-Tang Clan rapper Inspectah Deck and veteran underground DJ/MC duo 7L & Esoteric, whose music blends vivid lyrical sparring with equally lavish head-nodding beats. On the page, Czarface is a nefarious antihero akin to the colorful archenemies of comic book and wrestling good guys.

DJ 7L compares the Czarface character to Eddy, Black Sabbath’s mascot, inspiration and avatar. Plainly inspired by classic Jack Kirby heavies like Doctor Doom and Darkseid, artist L’Amour Supreme’s depictions of Czarface have adorned the covers of all of the group’s albums and singles. Czarface’s metallic visage, signature red glove and cape primarily function as conceptual and thematic unifying elements to the music, but the character has been realized in action figures, tie-in comics and even a real-life armor set.

Until now, however, no one has truly known the character’s canonical beginning. And to tell that secret origin, the group wanted to find a way to not only share the tale but bask in its influences.

“Czarface: First Weapon Drawn,” written by Esoteric and drawn by Gilberto Aguirre Mata. Cover, Page 1.

Instead of Inspectah Deck and Esoteric trading barbs over 7L beats, their newest project sees Czarface taking a run at multimedia storytelling. Specially offered as part of the national vinyl-appreciation retail initiative Record Store Day, Czarface’s “First Weapon Drawn” is a throwback-style book and record set that packages a treasury comic detailing the character’s rise (or fall) from a career as a professional wrestler to an energy-crackling supervillain along with a vinyl album that dramatizes and scores the adventure.

CBR has an exclusive preview of the first six pages of the comic, written by Esoteric and illustrated by Gilberto Aguirre Mata, along with a preview of Side A of the Record Store Day release.

The project was modeled after the Power Records albums of the 1970s, which adapted Marvel and DC comics into bombastic read-along stories, with radio-style effects and voice actors. Long before fans could expect to regularly see their favorite super-powered titans in theaters, these albums were what brought characters to life in many readers’ imaginations. To achieve the intended effect, listen to the “First Weapon Drawn” audio while reading the pages, and feel the Czar-force wash over you.

Year One

Almost every supervillain’s origin begins with a slight — or at least a perceived one — and Czarface is no different. 7L & Esoteric had collaborated with Inspectah Deck in the past, but it was 7L who initially suggested they formalize the partnership. Esoteric was skeptical that he and his creative partner of 20 years would be able to land the famed Wu-Tang rapper for an album-length project, but given the chemistry they had all enjoyed on previous tracks, Deck agreed. Then, after Esoteric pitched the Shaolin rhymer on his idea for the group’s potential name and didn’t hear back, he got spooked.

Pages 2-3.

“I remember just talking to him about these different names. I had ‘Czarhead,’ I just wanted to go with something ‘Czar,'” Esoteric told CBR. He grew concerned that he might have offended the rapper he’d admired since hearing the iconic lyric “Swinging through your town like the neighborhood Spider-Man” on Wu-Tang’s “Protect Ya Neck” by suggesting a name too close to a contemporary.

Pages 4-5.

“[Czarface] was the one that we thought best fit, and I was like, ‘It kind of sounds like ‘Ghostface,'” Esoteric said, referring to Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah. “And I’m thinking, [if] it kind of sounds like Ghostface and he’s not hitting me back … Is he mad?”

But Deck loved it. “It never even crossed his mind,” Esoteric laughed. Ghostface would even go on to be featured on the group’s eponymous first album.

The Physical Challenge

Czarface’s 7L & Esoteric at Hub Comics in Somerville, Mass. (Photo by Sam Williams)

Now, three studio albums later, and Czarface is a phenomenon. After releasing the “A Fistful of Peril” LP in November, the group set sights on their creation’s next chapter. For guidance, 7L & Esoteric looked back to the roots of their friendship. “One of the first things that we connected on, when we first started making records in the early ’90s, was [7L’s] collection of Power Records,” Esoteric said.

They decided to recreate the Power Records sonics-meet-sequential-art experience that they had mutually dug in their youths. “We kind of always toyed with the idea that it would be a cool idea to do one of those,” 7L told CBR. When they began work on what would become “First Weapon Draw,” they had their model. “We tried to craft it, pattern it, model it after the things that inspired us back then.”

As with the action figures and limited-edition CDs they’ve made in the past, the project’s physical element held particular appeal. “We come from that,” 7L explained. “Collecting things and having things, you know — the latest issue comes out, the newest release, or just finding back issues or finding old records. That’s like in our fabric.”

While they understand the realities and conveniences of digital media and delivery, the Czarface guys are decidedly the types to appreciate a good dig in the crates, and the rare treasures that can turn up.

Page 6.

“Me, personally,” Esoteric said, “I don’t want to do anything if it doesn’t come with the physical copy.” Both his music and his comics have their places. “I want to have it and put it in the vault next to the other ones.”

A limited release aimed at drawing people’s focus off their digital devices and toward something decidedly more analogue held special appeal to the group, who had considered limiting their early music to underground, unofficial releases. 7L, the team’s resident vinyl-head, realized Record Store Day would present a unique opportunity to release something their diehards would truly appreciate.

Photo by Sam Williams.

“When we talked about the idea, [we realized] it’d be cool to do something that’s so limited that’s kind of different and specific that it’ll be this collector’s item,” he explained. To craft something worthy of the attention, they split the duties. Esoteric would pen the comic and radio script that told Czarface’s backstory (and lend his voice to the cast), 7L would compose the accompaniment, including a signature “Czarface Theme,” and all three would executive produce the effort.

If any musicians’ work lent itself to such play, it’s Czarface. Their songs are not only littered with shout-outs to the Spandex set, they’re punctuated with audio clips from old records and cartoons and otherwise. 7L cites De La Soul producer Prince Paul as an influence, noting an appreciation for his use of interesting vocal samples. “I think the humor of it with the seriousness of it is a little bit of, not a template, but an inspiration for me as far as approaching certain things,” he explained.

They committed to capturing an authentic feel for the story. “Musically, we really wanted to nail that element of it sounding like it was from back then,” 7L said. “And not being your typical rap beat — more like the source of what people would sample in hip-hop.”

Marvel honored the cover to Czarface’s “Every Hero Needs A Villain,” left, with a hip-hop variant to “Thanos” #1 by Mike Del Mundo

A Hero’s Return

Already at work on their next album, the members of Czarface were given reason to reflect recently when they were included among Marvel’s Black Panther Nation initiative, which saw them profiled in the pages of Ta-Nahesi Coates’ “Black Panther,” and released an accordingly themed song, “All In Together Now.” Not long after, Marvel paid homage to the cover to their second album, “Every Hero Needs A Villain,” with Mike Del Mundo’s hip-hop variant to “Thanos” #1. For a group who grew up loving Marvel comics, it was a significant recognition. Marvel Assistant Editor Chris Robinson even told Esoteric that with the exception of a possible Kid ‘n Play interview in the ’90s, theirs was the first hip-hop artist interview in a Marvel comic.

Appearing in a Marvel comic, and especially having the opportunity to see his son find his father among the the pages, struck a resonant chord with Esoteric. Long before his musical success, the lifelong comics fan had parted with portions of his prized collection to further his creative dreams. “I sold ‘X-Men’ #94, #95, #96 and #97 to pay for studio time,” he shared, referring to the first four issues of writer Chris Claremont’s seminal run on the title.

Then last week, following a European tour, Esoteric returned home to find a box from Marvel containing “X-Men: Blue” #1, “X-Men: Gold” #1 and “Weapon X” #1. The MC said it felt like his creative life had come full circle. Maybe the new issues weren’t worth quite as much as the ones the he sold all those years ago, but it’s difficult to imagine anything more mint and valuable than the way they got there. Better still, his super co-creation could take on those puny X-Men, any day.

Czarface’s “First Weapon Drawn” Book and Record Set can be found through participating Record Store Day retailers.

The post Rap’s Czarface Comes to Life Through Throwback Vinyl-Comic Combo appeared first on CBR.

http://ift.tt/2oc290z

[mint-sm]

LOS CAMPESINOS! REVIEW/ANALYSIS: Hello Sadness

Okay, so this requires a slightly longer intro for context, because actually quite a lot happened that led up to this album being the way it is. The biggest word that immediately strikes this album is “change,” and it all begins with the stuff that happened outside of it and the band itself.

First of all, according to this interview from early 2011, this then-unnamed next album following “Romance is Boring” was intended to be a “more direct and poppier affair” after “Romance is Boring” started to breach more towards experimental noise pop. It’s likely to assume that it wasn’t going to be like a “Hold on Now, Youngster…” level of pop appeal, because not only did the band at the time not look fondly on that record as I’ve mentioned before, but also, indie music was going through a bit of a change at this point. This type of overly punchy, maximist “indie” style of previous albums was starting to die in its popularity, as it was slowly just kinda blending into the mainstream (and as we all know, mainstream means everything has to be boring now because shut up).

This wasn’t really helped by how the original team had already been in a transitionary period of shifting its lineup, and sadly, much of it entailed band members that really did lend Los Camp a lot of its unique and compelling energy: Drummer Ollie Briggs, violinist/keyboardist Harriet Coleman, and probably the most notable loss, lead vocalist/keyboardist Aleks Berditchevskaia, who actually left before “Romance is Boring” was released. A new lineup with Jason Adelinia, Rob Taylor, and Gareth David’s sister, Kim, was formed for the album, and while I’m comfortable with this shift, and it was inevitable since this is a band that at that point had been around for about 5 years, it’s still a shame, because damn, a lot of what made their previous records so dynamic, lively and colorful came from them.

Also, during this time, Gareth was apparently going through a really nasty breakup, and it shows in the subject matter and lyrics of “Hello Sadness,” and that statement about this album being “more direct and poppier”... well, the end result is definitely more direct, but poppy it is not. It’s the band’s most clear-cut breakup album, and it’s likely the darkest album they’ve ever released by a wide margin. Oh, some of Los Camp’s initial appeal still remains, with the catchy melodies and choruses, intricate poetics, and some genuinely poppier tracks, but here are all the things you have to consider:

The instrumentation has become less vibrant as a result of the moodier atmosphere the album’s trying to convey and possibly as a result of the changed-up band lineup. New vocalist Kim Campesinos!, while not bad, doesn’t have the sing-songy, colorful, or vibrant energy and chemistry with Gareth that Aleks provided in previous albums, and now she’s just more of a backup singer, meaning no more lively call-and-responses from here on in. The surrounding music scene has changed to prefer a more refined alternative-rock sound than the concentrated and blasting noise rock or punky influence of before. And on top of that, the album was recorded and released in what the band’s lead vocalist/lyricist described as “the year of the most upsetting breakup of my life.”

And it’s called “Hello Sadness.” Does it end well?

IT'S NO LIE IF THE WATERS ROSE / AND DROWNED THAT PLACE FROM COAST TO COAST / YOU WOULDN'T SEE THIS SMILE LEAVE / MY FACE FOR ALL ETERNITY /

Well, no, not really, but it does start very well, at least! The first few tracks of this album start off the band at its liveliest and poppiest, though there are some changes, primarily the nitty gritty of the production style. Much of the noise and grit that was found in the band’s previous works is gone, making things a bit more mellow, but tracks like “Songs About Your Girlfriend” come pretty close. It’s a very tight track, there’s a lot of really nice melodies and riffs, and while it doesn’t speak too much differently about Gareth’s lyricism -- it’s basically about being a fucking rock star in the face of an ex and her new boyfriend -- it’s still a fun bit of indie rock with a lot of potential for getting stuck in your head.

The first track, “By Your Hand” is also very catchy; I have to imagine this was one of the earliest songs made for this album before the band started to go in a moodier direction, because it’s just that nice to listen to. Again, it’s not as bombastic or dramatic-sounding as something from any of the band’s previous albums, but it is very lively and has a lot of pop appeal; those little looping e-piano riffs, the brass accompaniment in the background, and the catchy crowd choruses, and the lyrics are kinda just like some cute, kinda funny romantic encounter. I could imagine this playing as like maybe like a theme song to some teen-oriented high school movie or something, it’s basically just a decent, pleasant-sounding pop tune with some really nice choruses and some vibrancy to it.

YOU DO NOT LIKE US CAUSE / YOUR GIRLFRIEND LIKELY DOES / AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS AGREE ON HER SOFT-SPOT FOR ME / I'LL HAVE MY HARD HANDS OVER / HER SOFT SPOTS SOON, YOU WILL SEE /

However, the title track is where I think the band starts getting really interesting. Something I’ll touch on more in a bit is that the album honestly doesn’t do a very great job at presenting conflicting emotions, something that I’ve very much praised the band for, since most of the time, it doesn’t seem like we’re given enough context for any of the scenarios presented to feel anything more than just “sadness.” I’ll explain why I think that’s the case in a bit, but essentially, most songs from this album feel like they’re presenting one strong emotion, but previous songs of other albums presented far more.

The song “Hello Sadness,” however, I think stands alone since it IS able to establish more of an internal conflict, clearly illustrate it for us, and manage to bring us on Gareth’s side, as he just belts these gorgeous-sounding vocal melodies that paint a really strangely hopeful yet utterly futile-sounding and hollow mentality, but in a way that works to the song’s advantage as the production is probably the most simultaneous bombastic and heartbreaking on the entire album, building up to just this epic climax of wailing guitar riffs, epic drums and background vocals, and Gareth just fucking roaring his lines.

Throughout this album, Gareth is trying to bring us onto our side and convince us the idea that heartbreak is pretty much akin to death, and I think this song, more than any other on the album is able to do that and make it just so utterly epic.

I CHRISTEN ALL THE SHIPS THAT SAILED / ON YOUR LITTLE KISSES' SALIVA TRAILS / GOODBYE COURAGE / HELLO SADNESS AGAIN! /

Unfortunately, this album takes a bit of a nosedive starting from the middle section, and that’s where I start having a lot of problems. See, as I’ve said, Gareth is trying to build up a sort of emotional state where much of the enjoyment comes from thinking “wait, what emotion am I supposed to be feeling here?”, and never getting a definite an answer because it just makes their music that much more versatile. Sadness has always been a thing in Los Camp records, but it’s made much less overbearing by covering it under some other conflicting emotion, and Los Camp has shown to already be masters in making things feel equal parts of multiple moods and emotions at once, be it anger, disappointment, fear, sarcasm, or even joy.

However, with “Hello Sadness,” much of the songs feel content in just evoking a single mood of anguish and despair and that’s kind of it, and unfortunately they feel kinda boring after a while, especially since the instrumentals on songs like “Life Is a Long Time” and “Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions)”, just feel kinda standard and unsophisticated and not all that diverse or intriguing, sonically or lyrically.

A part to making heavily emotional artwork work is to have the artist(s) be able to bring the audience into their intended mental place, and give them context to be able to relate and convince them towards this feeling. Unfortunately, this album kinda lacks context, and it’s just not that compelling, and that’s a shame.

We can tell from the lyrics of a lot of these things as to what Gareth is feeling, maybe some of the circumstances, but despite how flowery and… interesting some of the lyrics are -- for example, the “three lions” of “Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions)” appear to be based on the lions on the English National Football logo, which come to life and start clawing him to death as a metaphor to heartbreak. Yeah. -- they just can’t move me, because I don’t really “get” or really relate to the context most of these songs were born of, and he doesn’t really do a great job of convincing me to get invested.

I can get the high anger and volatility of something from as harsh and abrasive as “Plan A” from “Romance is Boring,” and I can get the mildly cringeworthy but upbeat cheeriness, lighthearted joy of “By Your Hand” of this album, but I just can’t get a lot of the other lyrics that ultimately boil down to “I’m sad. I’m disappointed. Heartbreak is like death. Here’s another lyric about me being brutally killed by a giant animal to illustrate that. Would a bird do this time?”

YOU KNOW IT STARTS PRETTY ROUGH / AND ENDS UP EVEN WORSE / AND WHAT GOES ON IN-BETWEEN / I TRY TO KEEP IT OUT OF MY THOUGHTS /

Not that it doesn’t get a little better by the end, though. That bird line above is referencing “The Black Bird, the Dark Slope,” which does pick up a lot more energy, and honestly kinda feels like a darker-and-edgier reinterpretation of the band’s twee indie rock days. It’s less gritty and raw-feeling, Kim’s vocals, while not bad, are just kinda relegated to a background accompaniment, maybe with a few lines here and there, and the lyrics just get kinda ridiculously too edgy at times (seriously, THE ENTIRE SONG is about a giant black bird tearing him apart limb from limb), but it still works pretty well, again, kind of like a blacker, cleaner response to something from “Hold on Now, Youngster…”

But the ending doesn’t really do this album concept a proper service, I think. “Light Leaves, Dark Sees Pt. II” is just kinda… dull, and while I don’t dislike slower songs just by principle, this just feels kinda plodding and too listing to really make it feel any more than just kinda lazy. I much prefer “To Tundra” earlier on this album, which is still a little too basic lyrically and instrumentally, but it does have a more satisfying climax, or “Baby I Got the Death Rattle,” which is also not the most adventurous song on this album, but does have a little bit more viscerality and punch to it, and as well a pretty nice and funny outro.

AND I CHEWED MY ONLY NECKTIE / FROM THE METAL FRAME OF MY BED / WHERE I TIED YOUR WRISTS TOGETHER / SPENT ALL NIGHT GIVIN' (OH, YOU GET THE MESSAGE!) /

Overall though, this album is kinda boring, but totally listenable. It has a few really good ideas, and some of the songs from here do rank as some of my favorite Los Camp tracks, and overall it’s not really a tedious listen, but ultimately it’s just not the most engaging thing this band has to offer. If you actually do manage to fit that moody or darkly snide atmosphere it’s almost completely consumed with, I think this might do it better for you (there was a time of depression when I considered this my favorite more than “Romance is Boring”, so heh), but as its own thing, it’s kinda just meh.

It’s a shame that this wasn’t as dynamic as I was hoping it would be, or as compelling, but you know, times change, life hits you, and if this is all you can really feel like writing? Eh, go for it. Thankfully after this, Los Camp would later spend a longer while for their next endeavor, something that would stand out much more, and perhaps be… less sad? How could they do that? :O

Eh… we’ll get to that next time. (3/5)

FAVES: “By Your Hand,” “Songs About Your Girlfriend,” “Hello Sadness,” “Baby I Got The Death Rattle”

[tinymixtapes]

Music Review: Drake - More Life

Drake More Life [OVO Sound/Young Money/Cash Money; 2017] Rating: 4/5 A Playlist By October Firm: in which Drake adds to his already-expansive, fractured taxonomy of distribution methods (see: “retail mixtape”), and, by cooly recapturing the unfussy, dashed-off appeal of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and What a Time to Be Alive, he doubles down on the continuity and reflexiveness of his un-ending hot streak, thereby reaffirming his ascendency in the process. The album, in its cynical design and cascading cycle of hype, can’t contain Drake’s febrility, nor can it drain him of his energy. Indeed, Nineteen85 reckons that the playlist format isn’t a protracted hangover from VIEWS or a stopgap release, but instead the result of an abundance of “good ideas,” transmitted as such “without making it a big ordeal.” The Playlist is the anti-event, a testament to Drake’s consistency and workmanlike approach to his craft. He best articulates it himself: More Life means more chune for your headtop, you know? Then again, as someone of Drake’s stature intimately knows, the anti-event is itself a signifier of ambition. Yeezus proved it, IYRTITL and WATTBA proved it. The lack of a real spectacle, as well as a performative quickness usually reserved for minor endeavors like freestyles or SoundCloud uploads, takes on its own critical edge, apropos of the rapid cultural flows facilitated by the internet. More Life had a relatively lengthy gestation period, arriving about three months after its initially speculated release date, and I get the sense that it’s more measured and crowd-sourced than either of Drake’s 2015 tapes — like, where’s “Sneakin’” at? — but its arrival as a “playlist” lends it less gravitas than the album-event, and offsets critical and commercial expectation somewhat (though, to be fair, he’s had no problem on either account). In the “playlist,” then, the locus of Drake’s branded identity undergoes an epistemic shift. His personality and ego remain, of course, but the new categorization posits Drake as an omnipresent aggregator of cultural capital — his “playlist” consolidates immediate and long-held influences alike, while enabling a more explicitly collaborative, porous modality than any previous endeavor has suggested. In short, More Life is Drake as curator. This is not to suggest that Drake hasn’t already co-opted, or outright benefited from, the work of others. He’s always thrived on a network of contemporary sounds, be it a Gil Scott-Heron rework by Jamie xx, Just Blaze’s gospel choirs, or 40’s tried-and-true 808 ricochet. Still, for all the outside influences present in his earlier work, Drake nonetheless formulated a unique sound and perspective by the time IYRITL was rolled out, which TMTer SCVSCV characterized as a “consistency of vision that is tied to his ability to deliver an experience specific to himself.” He could fold as many other voices or producers into the alchemical smelting pot that constituted his sound, all the while sounding like nobody but himself. This is still a touchstone here, for sure, but the playlist is less an embodiment of the “experience,” Drake-playing-Drake via others, and more a headspace in which these voices, genres, and styles are given breathing room. More Life’s curatorial outlook sees a further expansion of Drake’s sonic horizons, incorporating the usual Pan-American ingredients — trap kits via Atlanta, dancehall via Jamaica, etc. — alongside an appreciation for the UK’s grime scene and South African house, among others. Accordingly, the playlist runs the aural (and emotional) gamut across its 22 tracks, with stoic Drizzy bangers “Free Smoke” and “Gyalchester” slotting alongside contemplative, sad-boy posturing (“Nothings Into Somethings,” “Teenage Fever”) and ebullient reach (“Portland” featuring Quavo and Travis Scott, the Kanye link-up “Glow”). Drake even diverts course and vanishes entirely on a couple of tracks, “4422” and “Skepta Interlude:” on the former, it is Sampha’s multi-tracked voice that pierces the bleary apparition of an instrumental; on the latter, Skepta lurches into a quasi-grime track that might’ve figured nicely as an addendum to his own record, last year’s Konnichiwa. Drake’s reticence to even show up is matched by a restrained easiness on the mic when he actually does. Never straying too far off-brand, he musters up a few provocative bars — he’s kissing his teeth here, taking a subtle dig at XXXtentacion there — but the overall performance is less terse than it was on VIEWS. “Free Smoke’s” willful boasting of Dom Rosé toasts and silk pajamas is gleefully inflected, eschewing Drake’s usual dourness; a lifestyle well-deserved, the come-up complete. Elsewhere, he’s open and honest, lamenting his fame on “Lose You:” “People like you more when you workin’ towards somethin’, not when you have it.” Of course, this is nothing new; Drake’s shtick has always been vested in the soft-hard, sing-rap dynamic. Nevertheless, this directness is a welcome return following VIEWS’s internally-coiled, shrink-wrapped angst, acknowledged as such on the final track: “I was an angry yute when I was writin’ VIEWS, saw a side of myself that I just never knew.” Plain admission aside, there’s a broad sense that More Life is a tacit mea culpa of sorts, a corrective to the icy distance elicited by his previous album. Drake re-establishes the critical connection by effortlessly cycling through the modes; we share in his joy, get all in our (his) feelings, and so on. On the concept of the curatorial, Aneta Szylak proposes a system of contextual implication and interactivity that reciprocates those who are included in it, however peripheral they seem. There are elements of this in More Life: different cultural contexts and histories intermingle and play off one another, contributing to the grander schema of the playlist; the lesser-known artists get a heavily expanded outreach and a few extra streams to boot. Detractors might regard this curatorial bent as a coded gesture, a matter of bandwagon-hopping, wave-riding, or otherwise biting predominant or underground styles, in a bid for endless relevance. Yet Drake never once forsakes the self-reflexive, paradoxical ego that made him interesting and engaging to begin with, and in the genealogy of Drake releases, this playlist has more in common with the varied, outward-looking bounce of Take Care than VIEWS’s wearisome opulence, and that can only be a good thing. For a moment, maybe he did lose us, outpaced by self-perpetuated hype and lost in rebounding streams of content. Thankfully, More Life is Drizzy’s homecoming, a vocalization of the heart in his heartless world, and a veritable return to form for it. Welcome back to the Firm. http://j.mp/2ntBXL4

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FEATURE: Shenmue the Animation Is A Perfect Introduction To The Franchise

  In 1999, the video game world was introduced to the first-ever FREE (full reactive eyes entertainment) game Shenmue, now nearly 23 years later, we have the first-ever FREE anime with Shenmue the Animation. The Shenmue games have been a controversial spot within the medium, as there really is a love it or hate it mindset to them when it comes to certain fans. How does the anime adaptation (that covers the first two games in the series) lend itself to folks who might not have played these games originally? Could it give people who might not have liked playing the games a new opportunity to see the story?

  The Shenmue series has always had a strange following overseas, with some people whittling the games down to simple jokes, but at the same time, it’s garnered a cult following that allowed a third game to get crowdfunded in a phenomenal way. Due to that reputation and the games only being available on their original systems, people who hadn't played the games tended to stay away from them. On top of that, the games don’t necessarily play like games that were coming out in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s.

    Despite the influential nature of these games within the history of video games, they can be very intimidating and tough to go back and play without a walkthrough or guide. Since these are essentially 3D Japanese adventure games, which were not games that often came out overseas at the time, it can be difficult to understand the patient nature of Shenmue and what exactly you need to do. These are games that if you can wrap your head around its systems and slower style, are worth playing, but if that is not something you want to do, then thankfully, Shenmue the Animation is here for you to experience this story for the first time.

  RELATED: 4 Anime That Would Make Great Video Game Adaptations

  Despite the influential nature of these games within the history of video games, they can be very intimidating and tough to go back and play without a walkthrough or guide. Since these are essentially 3D Japanese adventure games, which were not games that often came out overseas at the time, it can be difficult to understand the patient nature of Shenmue and what exactly you need to do. These are games that if you can wrap your head around its systems and slower style, are worth playing, but if that is not something you want to do, then thankfully, Shenmue the Animation is here for you to experience this story for the first time.

    By combining the first two games in the anime, Shenmue the Animation uses a straightforward approach when it comes to the main story. The unfortunate aspect of that is that you miss out on some of the weird and goofy side content that can be found in these games. Ryo doesn’t get to hang out with Tom as much, you don’t have to continuously feed a cat to get it back in good health, and there isn’t an episode devoted strictly to trying to collect all the Sonic gacha toys. Although, two of those aspects do end up within episodes, so they’re not gone completely.

  RELATED: Shenmue Creator Yu Suzuki Reveals New Apple Arcade Exclusive

  The story of Shenmue is that of a traditional martial arts revenge story with Ryo attempting to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the treacherous Lan Di. Along the way, you meet a slew of characters that appear to help guide Ryo through his journey ranging from wacky to serious. Since the anime is retelling the main story of the games, it allows for some added scenes to help accentuate the main plot and provides more context for several different characters that show up. Not only does this help newcomers get a better understanding of the story, but it allows fans of the series to see things in a new light.

    One of the key components of Shenmue was the fighting, in which creator Yu Suzuki utilized aspects of Virtua Fighter — another game he helped make — to make the fights in the games stand out. That system has not aged the best when you go back and play the games, but the anime really makes each of its fight scenes seem incredibly impactful. Every blow carries a weight to it that makes them seem devastating and dangerous, which is what you’d want for this kind of martial arts show. This allows for the fight scenes to really excel in the anime in a way that they do more so than in the games themselves. Plus, you don’t have to worry about a fight getting interrupted by a quick time event popping up.

  After years and years of being lambasted or cherished by fans, it’s nice to see the Shenmue series have a new avenue for people to approach the franchise and its story. Shenmue the Animation is a fun adaptation of this series and if you’ve never played the games, but have been curious about them, it’s the perfect way to dive in.

  Were you a fan of the Shenmue games before the anime, or did the anime make you want to seek out the games to try? Let us know down in the comments below!

      Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup and author of One Shining Moment: A Critical Analysis of Love Live! Sunshine!!. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

By: Jared Clemons