April 2006

So I was SUPER pissed yesterday at work; I had waited all day for Katie’s radio show at 4:00, and wouldn’t you fucking know, that’s precisely when the internet decides to die all throughout the school! And this was like my first chance to really listen to the whole show since Wednesday nights are usually reserved for movie night, which has been moved to tonight for this week only. Plus it was going to be right up my alley to, with the theme being either space or robots…. at least there’s always Katie’s podcast, which is basically an abridged, spruced up version of her radio show.

Anyway, last night I met up with Mike (dhex) and Joe (isfet) for drinks at Revival. We talked about the same old, same old: music, politics, Insert Credit drama, strip clubs, and guidoes. And of course, Mike just loves any chance to bring up the fact that I manage to piss so many people off (and furries), and with so little effort (though in the case of that random woman who called me an asshole, I guess she overheard me wanting to kill my roommate’s dog… though she obviously hadn’t paid attention to my reasons for doing so, which I’d like to think is totally understandable). Afterwards we went back to Brooklyn where I took them to this really decent Mexican joint in my neighborhood and then back to my place to show them some of the rare and obscure PSone games in my collection.

I started things off with the one game that I’ve been going on and on and on about at Insert Credit, especially since I’m almost certain that I’m only one of two people on this entire continent that has a copy of the world’s only girlfriend/mine cart racing/sandwitch making simulator, Love Love 2. And I’m happy to say that it lived up to the hype. Next was Masked Rider, a fighting game which does an incredible job of capturing the feel of those cheesy live kids shows from Japan in the late 70′s early 80′s; just think Power Rangers, with costumed super heroes fighting bad guys in really bad rubber suits, and huge explosions, but also with pompadours and huge lapels. All the fighting looks overly choreographed and flat out awkward, just like the real thing basically.

Joe brought along a few games, and showed us Speedpower Gunbike, which is sorta like Sonic the Hedgehog (well, at least the 2D bonus stage in part 2), except you’re a kid wearing a robot suit that can transform into a bike. Also, it has easily one of the funniest game over screens of all time; hopefully, Joe still has a screencap of it. He also had two other titles, Panzer Bandit and some FMV Mega Man game, both of which I was going to make copies off, but I didn’t have Toast installed (used to, but I forgot to re-install the program after the 15th or 16th time I had to re-intall Tiger).

Then I gave Vib Ribbon a spin for the guy, which simply blew them both away. And why not? The game is fucking fantastic. And both went pretty batshit when I popped in a Ministry CD (the game can generate levels based on my music CD you can feed it). I’d have to say in all honestly, playing Vib Ribbon to “Just One Fix” appears to resemble what hell might actually look and sound like, more so than Rez’s Trance Mission.

Plus, Joe bought my copy of Final Fight Streetwise off of me. The game was okay, just not my cup of tea (though there is something funny about hearing game characters you’re familiar with from your childhood say “asshole!”). I’m going to use the money towards a copy of King of Fighters: NewoWave, which I finally found at a record store in the city, and for just $20 (which is its MSRP, but the only place I’ve seen it at is Virgin, and they want $30). Either that or OutRun 2006, which came out yesterday, but I hear the Xbox version is pretty much impossible to track down.

Like I said, tonight’s movie night, which means I’ll be missing out on the chiptunes show that takes place at The Tank, so for anyone interested, this might be the last chance to see nullsleep play before embarking on that crazy-assed world tour of his and Joshua’s.

… BTW, if you’re reading this Jeremiah, you were totally spot on; Radilgy, and espeically Under Defeat, are both fucking tops…

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With E3 now less than 2 weeks away, its hardly surprising that there’s tons of news game announcements all over the place…

- Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team has obviously been very busy; 1UP (i.e. perhaps the most horribly coded and assembled major gaming news site on the web today) passed along today the first screenshots of Lumines 2, as well as some new shots of Every Extend Extra.

Plus there’s a port of the first Lumines, called Lumines Plus, coming out for the PS2 later this year. That’s awesome news and all, but it yet another reason why I’m in no rush to get a PSP anytime soon.

Also, a new version of Meteos is also being produed, one the incorporates Disney characters, called Meteos: Disney Edition. There’s no screenshots available yet, but I’m imagining something along the lines of Disney Tetris and Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Mix.

- Another guy who’s output seems like crazy is Suda 51 and his Grasshoper team; first Jeux_France reports that they’re producing a new PS3 game called Kurayami, which is inspired by the work of Franz Kafka. But later, they explained that its just a concept at this point.

Then comes word, via Gamefront.de, as translated by NeoGAF, that they’re 70% done with a new title called Blood + One Night Kiss, which is said to have visuals that are similar with Killer 7.

I many not have been the biggest Killer 7 fan, but I like the company and are looking forward to it (and I really hope their DS RPG, Contact, makes it out here soon). Plus, I really need to pick up their Samurai Champloo game that just came out…

It’s also worth mentioning that Grasshopper has a pretty neat homepage.

- Yet another game I’ll be keeping an eye out for at E3 is a title which 4 Color Revolution first broke news about this past weekend: Drawn to Life, in which you actually draw the main character in the game. Almost/sorta/kinda sounds like that Namco RPG in which you draw the expression of your character’s face depending on the situation that I mentioned a whiles back.

- They also recently posted links to some crazy commercials for Odama. I like the first one the best since it reminds me of that Queens of the Stone Age video from a few years back (the song’s okay, but that vid is simply brilliant). And the last commercial is pretty much spot-on; I can’t help but scream in the mic while playing either.

- Here’s something from totally out of left field and from Atari: its called HOT PXL, which seems to be like Wario Ware, meaning there’s its all twitch oriented minigames, but uber stylish. The last time Atari tried going the arty route was with Atari Retro Classics for the DS, which looked great, but didn’t play as well. So who know how this one will pan out, but at the very least, it does look pretty neat. Check out the screens from Gaming Age:

- Finally comes word (and pictures) of Jeff Minter’s new game!

… and I haven’t even gone into the Monkey Ball game for the Revolution, New Super Mario Bros getting a solid release date, and that Final Fantasy VIII-2 pic I saw at Insert Credit earlier this morning!

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