#And a quarter of them STILL ended up being from Mega Man soundtracks.
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neosilverthorn · 5 years ago
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We’re snooping on your playlist. Put your music library on shuffle and tell us the first ten songs that pop up. Then tag your victims.
So @risualto tagged me for this.  Well.
I’m gonna do 20, because I’ve got an absolutely gigantic music collection (largely video game soundtracks to boot), and my music player likes to dump songs from albums that are next to one another; it lowers the risk of there being nothing but Mega Man songs on here.
1. “Flame Man Stage” - Capcom 2. “Dr. Wily Stage (Mega Man 5 Arranged)” - Capcom 3. “The Alien Queen” - Jack Wall and Sam Hulick 4. “Main Theme/Leia’s Nightmare” - Joel McNeely 5. “Mr. X Stage (Arranged)” - Capcom 6.  “Hammering the Void” - Alexi Zakharov 7. “Sky Atlas” - Antti Martikainen 8. “Vermire Ride” - Jack Wall and Sam Hulick 9. “Welcome to the Collective, Cadet” - Dominik Hauser 10. “Flame Stagger Stage” - Yuki Iwai 11. “Revenge Twofold” - Kenichi Kuroda 12. “Chorale I - Za Ma Ba” - Adiemus 13. “Star Trek: Away Team - Introduction” - Dominik Hauser 14. “Cantus: Song of Invocation” - Adiemus 15. “The Fathiers” - John Williams 16. “The Arid Planet (Ambient Early)” - Griffin Cohen 17. “Hammering the Void (Phase 3)” - Alexi Zakharov 18. “Soul of Cinder” - Yuka Kitamura 19. “Boss 2″ - Yuki Iwai 20. “Planetfall (Ambient Late 1)” - Griffin Cohen
You follow me, you’re official tagged.  (And yes, Risu, you have to do it again.)
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altalksaboutstuff · 5 years ago
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Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero
From the 16th of this month, March 2020, to the 15th of next month, April 2020, Games with Gold has the excellent platformer – Shantae: ½ Genie Hero. As long as you have an active Xbox Live or Xbox Gamepass Ultimate subscription
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It's “FREE” to download during that period but even after April 15th, you can keep playing it, it won't leave your library and if you let your subscription expire it will still remain, you just can't play it.
I have had Gamepass for about a year now, I wanted to kind of document my journey and time with games on Gamepass and one of the first that I played when I got the service last year was Shantae: ½ Genie Hero.  Unfortunately, this game is no longer available on the service and I thought back in September of 2019 that I had lost my chance to talk about it in a relevant sense, but lo and behold its back now – kind of, in a zombie-esque way.
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The game expiring from Gamepass was actually the launching point for me to a Switch.  It was my birthday in September and Shantae was just about to be removed from the service, great present Microsoft.  I was kind of depressed that in this moment in my life that I had spent about a quarter of a year playing the game that was just going to up and leave.  Now I could have bought it and at a discount but if I did that I would be getting just the base game that I was practically done with.  I also had all this extra money from my birthday burning a hole in my pocket and instead doing something smart like putting towards my mortgage – I ended up buying a Switch to cheer me up.  And what does the Switch have but the physical version of Shantae: ½ Genie Hero that includes all the DLC.  
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THAT – and the fact that one of my favorite games of all time was just remade – Link's Awakening. 
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So I got those two games to cope with the fact that I wouldn't be able to play Shantae on Gamepass anymore in a few days ...but I had also gotten my wife a Switch Lite for our anniversary so I kind of wanted a reason to give it to them early and we had a Switcheversay on September 28th. 
NERD!
On a side note of this tangent – I feel like I'm always a little behind with Nintendo, with my earliest exposure to Nintendo being no different.  Way back in the dark ages of the early 1990s I was a Genesis Lad.  After school I was in a program where I first got to play a Nintendo game, there were NES consoles, games and Ataris as well.  While kids at school were telling me, “YA GOTTA PLAY Donkey Kong Country 2 and Mega Man X!” The cutting edge stuff of the time, I would root around and find other games like Donkey Kong Jr. and Mega Man 2 on NES.  Now don't get me wrong, those were great games I loved then and still love now but I was behind the times. I just didn't have a Super Nintendo, like most of my peers that I went to school with.  I just had the Sega. So when most were playing Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger and A Link to Past – I was playing Sonic... Sonic (Sonic 2)... and Sonic... (Sonic 3 but not & knuckles)
BUT Sonic is great!
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When my friends had a Gameboy Advance, I still had a Gameboy Color.  When the DS was the hot handheld, I got a Gameboy Advance, I got a 3DS around the time Fire Emblem Fates came out when it seemed like everyone was clamoring for a new portable technology and I got a Wii U when it was all but dead.  As previous stated, I only got a Switch last September.  Heck, I haven't even played the new Mary-o yet
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Pushing forwarding in the way back machine to the time when I was a still a young teen, at the age of 14, I remember a Gameboy Color game came out that I really wanted to get – Shantae.  I don't even know why I really wanted it other than it was a new Gameboy Color game when new Gameboy Color games weren't coming out.  Like, I remember the Gameboy Advance came out about a year ago but  I didn't need one according to my parents-
Me: Mom, can I get a Gameboy Advanced? Mom: You have Gameboy Advance at Home ::At home::
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So the impact of a new Gameboy Color game coming out - blew … me … away.  
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Of course - I didn't get that game either.
Now don't get me wrong, I still got games as a kid on birthdays and Christmas but I feel like the games I didn't get are the ones I look back at and think – If only...
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(^I never had a Neo Geo but I wanted this game)
Love you Mom and Dad
Back to Shantae though
Tangents aside – why do I think I like this game?
Why is it when I played Half Genie Hero in June of 2019 did I really got hooked on it well until the end of summer? I play, play, played it – all the modes, collect the endings, the tedious achievements like Queen of the Seven Cheese where you have to beat Risky Boots by just chomping at her as a mouse doing 1 damage at at a time.... ugh!  For achievements I even … gasp (teeth noise) … speed ran it.  And successfully, not on my first attempt though!  Or … at least successfully enough to get the endings and achievements.  I've never speed ran a game before, at least on purpose.  I drew bad fan art!  
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(^Unlike everything else on this post, I actually drew that [sorry])
For the first time in my life I even looked into Fan Fiction.  
Which, on a side note, I don't recommend you look at most of the fan fiction that I’ve seen if you are at work.
The game really got its hooks into me and I'm not exactly sure why but I think I might know.
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Well, it feels like a SEGA Genesis game – long story short.
Short story long - I think the best way to classify what kind of game this is, is Metroidvania.  You have a mini map and you unlock powers that later allow you to explore the rest of the levels you had previous been to and there are collectibles and upgrades you can buy in game.  As you play you can upgrade how Shantae attacks by purchasing upgrades for her hair whip attack or armor but the big mechanic is the transformations – you can turn into animals with varied attacks and abilities as well as some other inanimate objects and living things like this tree 
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- to help you better get across the stages and discover the secrets of Sequin Land.
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I've also read its kind of Mega Man– ish which I had never really thought about before but yeah, because I do love some Mega Man.  It has a lot of obstacles/the levels are kinds of obstacle courses like the early NES Mega Man games and there are two areas particularly in my mind – The factory in Mermaid Falls and the Hypno Baron's Castle part of the … Hypno Baron's Castle stage.  Well most of it is actually like an obstacle course now that I think about it
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The score is by Jake Kauffman and man, AND if I ever make a game I want that guy doing my music.  I mentioned the factory part of Mermaid Falls before – the best track in the game and maybe even in any game I've ever heard is Counterfeit Mermaids,  its such an earworm,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXd26E_Ynw
I feel like this song and Neo Town Burning are the two best games 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yParHIzy1nA
You are going to be in the camp that one is better than the other (though Counterfeit Mermaids is clearly the superior track, ahem)
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Its a great soundtrack, I find myself tuning into it during my commute to work and sometime even turning off my podcast or audio books to listen to this soundtrack (yes Even Neo Town Burning too).  The game's lead voice actress according IMDB is Cristina Valenzuela (sometimes credited as Cristina Vee) who sings the games title theme that also appears in the first level, Scuttle Town the first time you play the level and also when you first boot up the game its there too. POW! Give it a listen – sample plays and fades.  Its great.  This soundtrack is really memorable and still in my rotation almost a year after I played it for the first time.
The characters themselves too are varied in personality and the styles are now toted as being“in high definition”.  
Shantae is my least favorite but I think that works well in the sense of self insert. And that's not to say Shantae doesn't have a personality, she is kind of bubbly and she cares a lot about her ties such as to her family - such her uncle Mimic and her late mother - and to her friends.  The three main friends that back Shantae during her journey (that also get their own adventure in the DLC)
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Sky - a somewhat more responsible friend of your that is out to give you some counsel and a ride to each stage on her cool bird
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Bolo – who offers a bit of comic relief
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Rotty Tops the zombie that is a true friend that shows up to support you and cheer you on, in one time literally too.  
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By the way there is also Risky Boots (the best character, IMO) who is the larger than life antagonist to akin to a comic book villain.
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But even with the “HD” graphics, and incredible score everything about just feels like … a Sega game.  I can't really put it to words to do it justice, like, it has the essence of games I grew up with.  I know a lot of people already had that nostalgia rush with Freedom Planet or Sonic Mania but I only just got Freedom Planet on Switch
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Which is great so far, by the way
and Sonic Mania is on my to do pile 
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so for me – Shantae was it.  
I felt that joy like I was 5 years old playing Sonic 2 for the first time.  I took me something embarrassing like 8 hours to beat the first time.  But after I beat it, I immediately wanted to play it again.  I almost NEVER want to replay a game after I beat it – Best case is I take a break and play it again in a year. While it took me a laughable amount of hours to beat the game the first time but by the time I was really invested and on the 3rd or 4th time replaying it, I was completing it in under 2 hours.  I was looking up speed running strats and Youtube videos of people speed running the game to compare and contrast how I played the game.  I never, ever thought that I would speed run a game. Super Metroid still takes me an embarrassing number of hours to play and I've beat that almost as many times as Shantae now.
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Having played both the Xbox One and Switch versions they look pretty similar and seem to play about the same.  I noticed that the game seems to run a bit better on the Xbox One and the load times aren't as long
So I really recommend you get this game.  I'm super jealous if you've never played it, you get to experience it for the first time!  If you don't have an Xbox One but have a Switch you can get the physical version for pretty cheap, used I got this copy for about $20 and it has all the game content.  And with the DLC you can finally play as Risky Boots!
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It goes without saying that the game I am most excited for this year, 2020 is going to be Shantae and the Seven Sirens.
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If you don't have an Xbox or a Switch, the game is also on PC too. Steam has sales, last time the Ultimate Edition was on sale it was only about $21 (show pic) and with a plug and play controls great.  
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And just as I was checking before posting this, it is on sale for $20.99 until March 30th, 2020
Its also on PS4, I guess if you don’t have any other options
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duhragonball · 6 years ago
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Dragon Ball Z 138
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Last time on Dragon Ball Z, Krillin was alone before the overwhelming might of the artificial humans.  
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Piccolo’s sick of the androids beating everyone up and killing Goku and making out with Krillin, and whatever other damn thing they’ve been up to, so he heads to Kami’s Lookout to merge with him.   They used to be one Namekian long ago, until that Namekian purged himself of his latent evil to become Kami.   Said latent evil became King Piccolo, who fathered Piccolo Junior, blah blah blah everyone knows this by now.
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Piccolo is pretty blunt about this.    This isn’t a union of equals.  Kami is just going to provide a power-up for Piccolo.  
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And it won’t matter much that Kami will be gone, since the only thing he does anymore is sustain the Dragon Balls.  
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That’s harsh, but Kami gets it.    The irony is that Kami was once the strongest being on the planet until Goku and Piccolo surpassed him in the final arc of Dragon Ball.   In Dragon Ball Z, he’s been an afterthought.   The other characters have trained and become more and more powerful, but Kami’s probably about the same as he was when he first appeared. 
Meanwhile, even Super Saiyans are helpless against the current crop of androids, so it’s pretty clear that losing Kami to boost Piccolo’s strength would be a bargain.
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However, Kami wants to observe the situation more before consenting to the fusion.   This decision will be permanent, and he’s not yet convinced that the androids represent a sufficient threat.    Piccolo finds that insane, because he’s seen how powerful the androids are, and Trunks has told of the devastation they’ve caused in his future.   But Kami reminds Piccolo that his group picked a fight with the androids, and the androids spared their lives anyway.   Trunks himself has admitted that they’re not the same as the ones he fought in the future, so the situation bears watching.
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Piccolo is disgusted with Kami’s reluctance to act, so he plops his butt down and waits right there for Kami to make up his mind.   
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Meanwhile, Tien heads off to pick up Chiaotzu from Master Roshi’s, while Krillin and Trunks go to relocate Goku to... Master Roshi’s.  I feel like Tien could have just accompanied them.
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Meanwhile, at Goku’s house, Yamcha reads one of Goku’s books.   At least, I assume it’s Goku’s, since it’s about punching and kicking.  
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Meanwhile, the androids steal a van right in front of the guys who drive it.
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Meanwhile, Vegeta’s still mega ultra pissed about losing his fight with 18.  
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Meanwhile, a biker gang harasses the androids, who decide to play with them for a bit.   17 hits them with their van, and he drives like a maniac, basically daring the gang to follow them.  
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I don’t know what these guys are supposed to be called.    Their leader refers to them as the “Lords of the Highway”, so maybe that’s the name of their gang.   
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This whole scene is pretty fun.   There’s like a dozen guys in this gang, and they all look pretty cool.  One of them is a dead ringer for Fangs the Vampire Man from the Fortuneteller Baba Saga.  
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This dude looks like Van Zant, the guy who shoots Majin Buu’s dog about a hundred episodes from now.    For all I know he might be Van Zant.  
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The main thing about all of this is that the androids do not sweat these guys at all.   At one point 17 drives on railroad tracks towards an oncoming train, then swerves away at the last minute.  
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Eventually they get the androids to face them directly, but they can’t hurt them, of course.   Just when it looks like 18 might really get serious, the cops show up, and the gang use that as a handy excuse to withdraw.
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Oh, cool they have a girl in the gang.    I didn’t notice her back there.   She kinda looks like Teen Bulma with purple hair.  
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Anyway, the police are even more baffled than the gang was.    18 picks up their car and chucks it into a mountain.  
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So I’d like to take a moment to talk about the music for this show.    One of the problems people have with the Funimation dub is the fact that they used a different score.    The Ocean dub episodes (1-67), had a truly awful music, composed by Shuki Levy.   The Levy score suuuuuuucked.    I won’t deny that.    Every track sounded the same, and it all kind of sounded like someone was just sort of slapping stuff together to get the episodes ready for broadcast.   This may be the case, since I’m pretty sure the reason Funimation didn’t use the original score was because they didn’t have the rights to use it.   If that’s the case, they were probably in a hurry to get some music laid down as quickly as they could.  When Funimation re-dubbed Episodes 1-66 for the Orange Brick box sets, they used music by Nathan Johnson for the score.   This music is also unlistenable.   
But, from Episodes 68 to 291, Funimation used music composed by Bruce Faulconer, and most of it kicks a lot of ass.    Purists hate it because it’s not the original Japanese score, but Faulconer composed a lot of memorable themes for several characters and situations.   When I watched all of  Dragon Ball from start to finish for the first time in 2009, I watched the English dub with the Japanese score, right up to Episode 67 of Z, and then I immediately switched over to the Faulconer score.    This time, I’m watching it in Japanese, so I don’t really have a choice.   The Orange Brick sets let you chose which score you want when it’s in English, but you can only listen to the Japanese voices with the Japanese score.  
So this is really the first time I’ve watch the show with the Japanese score for the post Ginyu Force episodes.    I’ve heard all this music before, though, because a long time ago I bought a copy of “Dragon Ball Z: BGM Collection,” which is a three-disc album of the original score by Shunsuke Kikuchi.   Disc One has all the stuff used in the first 117 episodes and the first five movies.   Disc Two covers Episodes 118-199 and Movies 6-9.   Disc Three covers the Buu Era and the last four movies.  
Here’s the thing about the original Japanese score for Dragon Ball Z: It’s not that great.    The music itself is fine, on the same quality as the music from the original Dragon Ball.     The problem is that there just isn’t very much of it, and it’s spread very thin.    The three disc set I mentioned isn’t a best-of collection.   It’s the entire score (minus insert songs) for all 291 episodes and 13 movies.   It’s only about three and a half hours’ worth of music.  
To make matters worse, the music isn’t even distributed very evenly across the series.   The movie scrores are fairly long, and these eventually got incorporated into the TV soundtracks, but only after each movie was released.   In other words, the music on the Movie 5 score didn’t start creeping into the anime until well after episode 99.    And for the first 117 episodes, all they use is the music from Disc 1, which is only 70 minutes long.    About half of that is movie scores, the opening and closing themes, and the music they would play during the recap.    That leaves maybe 40 minutes of music that got used across over a hundred episodes.   You want to know what that sounds like?
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The video above is Track 14 from Disc One of the BGM Collection.   The title is “ Kyôfu no Ginyū Tokusentai” or “The Fearsome Ginyu Special Corps”.   It’s actually two songs.   The first one is about thirty seconds long, and then at 0:35 the second one starts.   You might assume that one of these songs is used when the Ginyu Force first appears in the show, and you would be correct.    The second, longer portion is played when the Ginyus first arrive on Namek and do their poses for Frieza in Episode 62.  
However, the music was first used in Episode 31, when Goku attacks Vegeta while using the Kaio-ken Times Three.    After that, Toei used it for various tense or exciting moments, or important battles, including:
Vegeta vs. Cui.
Vegeta vs. Dodoria.
Vegeta vs. Tsuno’s village.
Vegeta vs. Zarbon.  
Krillin vs. Dodoria.  
Anybody vs. Anybody.  
Pretty much anything even remotely exciting
No, they basicaly used this music in almost every episode.
The Namek Saga gets pretty dry, music-wise, because by that point, it doesn’t really fit to use a lot of the early tracks that were composed around Gohan training under Piccolo.  At the same time, they didn’t have a lot of movie scores to draw upon either.    So for a long stretch of episodes, the Ginyu Force song was pretty much the go-to music for almost any situation.   I got kind of tired of it, is my point.    It’s a good song, but it wore out its welcome.   
The nice thing about the Androids/Cell phase of DBZ is that now Toei is finally utilizing music from the second disc of the BGM collection, and they have disc one to draw upon as well.    The reason I say all of this here and now is because this episode used the Ginyu Force song once again (for the part where 17 and 18 face the biker gang), but it’s been about twenty or thirty episodes since I hear it last, so it’s not nearly as irritating.   
The point I want to make about the Faulconer score is that Bruce Faulconer actually tailor made some music for this episode.   There’s a song specifically for the androids messing with the biker gang.
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Now, it might not make for great listening in your car, because the song keeps switching back and forth between leitmotifs.   The hard, metal sound is the bikers, and the easy-going kettle drums are the androids chillaxing in their pink van.     Then at the end, you get this kind of old timey western saloon music that accompanies the hapless small-town cops who try to handcuff the androids.
But it made for good TV, because the music actually reflected the action happening on the screen.  To be sure, Faulconer would use bits and pieces of tracks like this to score other moments in the show, but they still worked, because he wasn’t just making a one-size-fits-all action song and applying it to every single situation.  
I think it’s telling that Bruce Faulconer’s collection of DBZ music is something like nine discs, and there’s a lot of his score that was never released, and he only did the music for about three-quarters of the show.    I’m not saying you have to prefer his score or even like it, but I think he deserves some respect for the greater variety and depth.    He clearly put more work into making the music work with the footage.  
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Moving on, Krillin and Trunks arrive at Goku’s place, and Krillin asks if the androids really are pure evil like Trunks has said.    Trunks assures him that they were terrible in his world.
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Of course, Krillin is only asking because the girl android kissed him and he kinda liked it, but he doesn’t want to go and just say that, so he plays down the question.
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From there, the boys fill Yamcha and Chi-Chi in on the situation, and then Gohan shows up and they fill him in too, and everyone piles into the air-bus-vehicle thingy to head for Master Roshi’s place.
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Now, maybe this is dumb how their big idea is to move Goku to Kame House, since that’s the next place the enemy would think to search.   The thing is, the androids aren’t exactly in a hurry to get to Goku’s house, so it probably doesn’t matter where they hide him as long as they can stay one step ahead until Goku’s well enough to hide himself.    One thing I like about the androids is that 18 thinks it’s stupid to drive the whole way, and yet she insists on stopping somewhere to get herself new clothes.    And 17 is basically the other way around.   16 is fixated on killing Goku, and yet he seems to be in no hurry either.    They all seem happier to have the company than they would be to save time. 
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Of course this whole saga is kind of circling the drain at this point.    Once the Androids beat the Z-Fighters and declined to kill them, it just sort of sucked all the tension out of things.    Everyone’s just sort of casually moving around from one place to the next, with no particular urgency.   The bad guys aren’t very bad, especially when the good guys include Vegeta.   
As much as I enjoy this leg of DBZ, I can’t help but feel that something’s missing.    The arc really could use a stronger villain.   Someone more motivated.   Someone more dangerous.   But where are you gonna find one of those at this late hour?  
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As it is, this episode ends with Bulma getting a phone call, like that’s going to lead anywhere.   It’s probably just a robocall trying to tell her she won a free scam cruise to the scam Bahamas. 
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mamaluigi2018-commsopen · 6 years ago
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Mama Luigi’s Top 10 Favorite Games of All Time.
Hey, everyone! Mama Luigi here. Just wanted to create this list to show appreciation to the games that have given me the most joys in my life and so you can all have an idea what kind of games I love. I will be going into small detail on each game, give a description on why I love these games. and also add my favorite track from each game. Alright. Let’s begin!
10. Mega Man 10 (heh....funny)
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This was the most recent Mega Man game we got until Mega Man 11 arrived. This was released in 2010 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and WiiWare, and now available in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The story is that a virus called “Roboenza” has appeared and have caused robots to go out of control. It’s up to Mega Man and for the first time joining his side, Proto Man, to stop the menace and uncover the cause of the virus. Many would think that at the 10th game, the gameplay of Mega Man would get stale. Not so! The platforming is still tight and a fair challenge, the robot masters are some of my personal favorites of the series with Blade Man, Nitro Man, Strike Man, and my baby boi Sheep Man. The music is fantastic with tracks such as Stage Select, Solar Man stage, and Wily Stage 1. The weapons may not have been as useful as Mega Man 9, but the good ones are really good like Blade Man weapon and Nitro Man weapon. Plus the added DLC with playable Bass and 3 stages based on the Mega Man Game Boy games are a great bonus!
Favorite Track: Nitro Man
9. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
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Released in 1997 for the Playstation and rereleased on the PSN store and PSP as part of the Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles. After the disappearance of Richter Belmont, Alucard is tasked with invading his father’s palace and put an end to his reign of terror. Symphany of the Night broke the mold of  the Castlevania traditional platform gameplay with a non-linear explorative action adventure similar to the Metroid series, which coined the term Metroidvania. Later games would adopt the Symphony of the Night gameplay such as Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia. What I love about this game is just the amount of free roam the game allows for you to do and what kind of items you can find. If you are having trouble with a part of the game, there is a variety of solutions such as a certain spell or a certain weapon combinations that can help you out. The graphics are a clean, smooth sprite style and the music is some fantastic CD quality music. The love I have for this game makes me even more excited for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to come out in 2019.
Favorite Track: Dracula’s Castle
8. Kirby: Planet Robobot
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Released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. Planet Popstar has been converted in a mechanized world due to President Haltmann and his goons. Able to snatch one of the bots, Kirby embarks on a robotic adventure to free his planet from the machine menace. I love Kirby. I love Robots. Put them together and you get a absolute fantastic adventure with great Copy Abilities old such as Sword, Fire, and Hammer, as well as new such as Doctor, Poison, and ESP. The levels are well design to emphasized the robot theme and the soundtrack was given a more techno feel. The best parts are definitely the Robobot segments! It can not only smash enemies along the way, buy also copy it’s own set of abilites!
Favorite Track: Super Nova (vs. Star Dream Soul OS) or “P.R.O.G.R.A.M”
7. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
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Released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, Smash 3DS was a companion game for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Nintendo’s greatest are pitted against each other in battle to see who will come out in top. Due to not owning a Wii U, I was a bit skeptic about getting the 3DS version, thinking it was only a dumb down version. I can now say it was not the case! Smash 3DS is just about as a real Smash game as the Wii U version. Having a cast of 65 characters, there a character for almost anyone. The addition of Omega Stages allowed for any stage to be play for competitive match. The choice between For Glory and For Fun was a fantastic idea that allowed any kind of player to have fun. Smash Run was a fun game mode to run in a maze collecting power ups to face your opponents. The music was god like with themes coming from a variety of games and remixes included. So many hours playing with my friends, I know I will always cherish this game and am looking forward to Smash Ultimate this December. BTW, my mains are Pikachu, Luigi, and Lucina.
Favorite Track: Tie between “Gerudo Valley (Legend of Zelda)” or “Main Theme”
6. Shovel Knight
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Released in 2014 for the PC and Wii U, with later releases on 3DS, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, PS Vita, and Nintendo Switch. Shovel Knight stars our titular character on quest to stop the evil Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter with his trusty shovel. Steel thy Shovel! Shovel Knight is an indie created by Yacht Club as their first game, and man do they give it their all! Shovel Knight is styled after the NES days not only in art style and music, but in difficulty as well. With exciting stages with their own gimmicks and precise platforming, Shovel Knight is definitely for those who want to relive the NES days. The music is amazing, the characters have so much personality, and the 3 DLC are basically full games put in. Plauge of Shadows is a fun mode with combining different potions. Spector of Torment is my favorite mode with wall climbing, slicing enemies, and Scythe Skating (yes I said Scythe Skating). King of Cards is not out yet, but is showing promise to be just as fun as the 3 other campaigns.
Favorite Track: La Danse Macabre (Spector Knight Stage)
5. Sonic Colors
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Released in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles “Tails” Prower must stop Dr. Eggman from capturing planets for his Interstellar Amusement Park and free the captive Wisps. Sonic Colors takes the game play the day time levels from Sonic Unleashed and puts him in a high speed adventure with amazing level designs such as Tropical Resort and Starlight Carnival. The Wisp power up allow Sonic to absorb the Wisp and take a variety of forms such as the Cyan Laser or Yellow Drill. What I really enjoy is how the White Wisp the only thing that gave you the Boost so you had to plan out when is the best place to use it. The best feeling I get from this game is sense of speed I get.
Favorite Track: Planet Wisp Act 1
4. Hyrule Warriors: Definite Edition
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Released in 2014 for the Wii U, released for 3DS in 2015, and finally for the Nintendo Switch. The Dark Sorceress Cia has called the greatest villains from across the Zelda timelines. Now Zelda, Link, the White Sorceress Lana, Self-Proclaimed Hero Linkle( and best girl), plus heroes from the entire series must stop her and save Hyrule. An absolute fantastic hack n slash adventure where you get use your favorite Zelda Characters and just wreck everything in your path. With a fantastic soundtrack of original tracks and remixes of past Zelda themes. An expansive Adventure Map where you can collect heart pieces and unlock new weapons, collecting material to expand your characters strength. You can spend so many hours on this game and just have a good time.
Favorite Track: Linkle’s Theme
3. Metroid Fusion
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Released in 2002 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. After an expedition to SR-388, Samus is infected with X-Parasite. After being given a vaccine containing Metroid DNA, Samus is tasked with investigating the BSL Station. This game. This god damn game was my first horror game. It terrified my 8 year old self. The tense atmosphere, the feeling of isolation, the horrible monstrosities all being after you was made perfectly. And we can not forget about the the nightmare fuel that is the SA-X. That thing was horrifying! The gameplay is fantastic with just shooting down monster after monster and fighting to survive.
Favorite Track: Vs. Nightmare
2. Super Mario World
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Released in 1991 as a launch title for the SNES. Mario travels to Dinosaur Land to save Peach(again) from Bowser(again). Super Mario World was my first console game and I share many fond memories of it. The graphics are great with a nice color palette, the levels are fun and varied in design, the Super Cape is an amazing power up, allowing you to skip levels with the right timing. It also introduces one of our favorite dinosaurs, Yoshi. The music is catchy and is remixed into almost every track in the game. This game is truly a masterpiece.
Favorite Track: Staff Roll
1. Pokemon Emerald.
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Released in 2005 for the Game Boy Advance, Pokemon Emerald is the 3rd game in the Gen 3 Pokemon games, following Ruby and Sapphire. As moving to the Hoenn Region, a young trainer travels defeating gym leaders, catching Pokemon and stopping the villainous Team Magma and Team Aqua. This is it. This is without a doubt my favorite game of all time. My very first game I ever bought with my own money. Many hours put in to catching all the Pokemon, training and raising different teams, competing in the Battle Frontier. Team Magma and Team Aqua were the first villains to actually feel like a threat, the Hoenn region is an amazing land scape with well known areas such as Mt. Chimney, Meteor Falls, and Sootopolis CIty. The Pokemon designs were made more excotic looking and the music is simple sublime with the use of trumpets. I love this game and I will continue to love and play for all of eternity.
Favorite Track: “Littleroot Town” “Route 120″ and “Ending Credits”
So what did you all think? Do you share any of my opinions on these games? What are some of your favorite games of all time? I would love to know! Have a great day to you all and this is Mama Luigi signing out!
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attract-mode-collective · 7 years ago
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Nothing Sez “Student Game” More Than The Dinosaur Evening News (that’s a good thing, btw)
The above is Mediazoic, which takes place in an alternate reality in which dinosaurs have come back to rule the earth and they've hired you, puny human, to make sure their televised broadcasts are dino family safe.
You moderate comments left on message boards, censor full frontal dino nudity, and so on. It's a student game alright, and one of my top picks from the NYU Game Center Student Showcase2018!
I was also fond of Dreams For Your Computer because CRTs, magnets, and cats...
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... Here's what it looks like in action, btw.
Though the one game that I liked the most, and which would actually fare well on the marketplace, would have to be Static...
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And honorable mention goes to an updated take on Flight Simulator, which recreates a 6 hour long commercial flight as a passenger...
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... The best part was the look on Stephen Totilo's face, who kinda didn't get it.
When was the NYU thing btw? Over two weeks ago, and it’s been even longer since the last update. Sorry about that. You know the deal: a million, billion things going on. As usual.
Hence why it’ll take not just one, but two bursting at the seams posts, to cover the second half of May! So onto part one…  
Please, please, PLEASE let these Game Center CX Blu-rays have an English language option (via miki800.com)...
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Not a day goes by in which I don’t wonder how that guy who appears in the instruction manual for Bomberman B-Daman is doing these days (via videogameartarchive & videogameartarchive)...
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I really love the “are you for real?” vibe that Samus gives off in the instructions for the original Famicom Disk System release of Metroid (via nintendometro)...
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If you’ve ever wondered what a pair of bosses from Mega Man 9 & 10 would look like with 8’s 32-bit sheen, well here ya go (via mendelpalace)...
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A print ad for the Famicom adaptation of Akira that wasn't all that hot (via videogameads)...
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Though whenever anyone hears the words “Akira video game”, this is basically what immediately comes to mind. Anything else is a disappointment, no matter what (via aaronkraten)...
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Welcome to the rabbit hole that is the Memorex VIS (via @ColinWilliamson)...
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Is the soundtrack to some ultra-obscure home banking software for the Mega Drive worth a listen? You goddamn right it is (via mendelpalace)...
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… The accompanying article is also totally worth a read.
It’s the Battletoads X Blue Swede mashup that you can’t believe hasn’t been done yet (via SiIvaGunner)...
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Replace Link with myself & Navi with my iPhone, which I use as an alarm clock, and you have earlier this morning in a nutshell (via nintendometro)...
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“So where you going?”
“Down a road. A low poly road…”
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“Where you headed towards?”
“Whatever’s at the end of this street. This low poly street...”
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“If you look up, what do you see?”
“Low poly buildings, under a low poly sky. Who knows, maybe there’s some low poly birds up there, behind those low poly clouds…” (via pmpkn)
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From looking at low poly skies to soaring high above them, but what a difference an arcade board makes huh (via kazucrash)...
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This is what Metal Max 2: ReLoaded on the DS looks like, at its normal resolution...
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And this is what it looks with the resolution bumped up (via gaucheartist)...
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Is this sprite of a BMX biker animated unusually well or am I just out of touch when it comes to 2600 software? Granted, it does come from a game made in 1989 (via segagenesisevangelion)…
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According to the law: “NO JUMPING” (via vgadvisor)
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“Hi guys.” (via beowulf-ultra)
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Such a heartwarming scene (via @PicturesFoIder)...
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This is what VR looked like many years ago, which is basically how it still looks today as well (via peazy86)...
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It’s Yuji Horii, from way back in the day, presumably before he had created Dragon Quest (via videogamesdensetsu)...
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Why yes, I have heard of the Ocelot Arcade System, by virtue of it being Quality Simon Carless content...
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... BTW, “Quality content” is in reference to this. Moving on: yes, I've also heard of VecFever. It plays games that you might be familiar with, since it emulates old vector MAME titles...
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Meanwhile, am only just learning that Tiger released their handhelds in Japan under the Game Vision label (via segacity)...
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The Sega Dreamcast: it's thinking... about you, cuz it cares about you (via posthumanwanderings)...
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"Wait… was he always there?" asks the official Sonic the Hedgehog Tumblr (via sonicthehedgehog)...
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And the final nail in the coffin for this gag came courtesy of the official Sonic Tumblr as well (via sonicthehedgehog)...
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"Good news everyone skyrim has been ported to the Bethesda offices carpet" 
"Who the fuck designed support pillars to obstruct a quarter of the hallway?" 
"Bethesda" (via mysteriouslypeculiar)
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Yet another "it's funny cuz it's true" (via highlandvalley)...
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So annoyed that I only find out about this Games Glorious shirt on the very last day of kylefewell‘s Japanese extrusion (via miki800.com)...
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Not a fan of the game (don’t hate, I just don’t find it very enthralling), yet for whatever reason, I REALLY want this vintage Mappy sweatshirt (via namcomuseum)...
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When video game attire looks plausible IRL (via @cvxfreak)...
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Much like with regular attire, with cosplay, sometimes it’s all about the accessories (via frankiebalboa)...
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Don’t think I’ve ever seen this piece of Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter art before (via segacity)...
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For those who dig POC, as well those who dig VF, and also those who dig FV... that last one's Fighting Vipers, BTW (via fightersmegamix)...
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It’s a crying shame that Fighting Vipers is such an unknown commodity these days (via kazucrash)...
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Virtua Fighter vs Virtua Fighter… Kid (via segacity)...
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It’s a crying shame that Fighters Megamix is such an unknown commodity these days (via segacity)...
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So hyped for RPG Time, based solely upon the headline image used for this 10 ten list of BitSummit games (via @indiegameweb)...
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Please enjoy yet another thing that I originally posted on a Saturday late at night, whatever time it might on your end right this second (via contac)...
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Been a while since I’ve seen the handiwork of Joe Bleeps, largely since it’s been a while since I’ve been collecting Game Culture Snapshots; the man has certainly stepped up his game (boy mods) since way back when (via kotaku.com)...
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Am also very much impressed by the Game Boy Macro, though once again, am super irritated that GBA games do not rest flush with the DS Lite’s body...
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An example of function over form I guess (@gamesyouloved)...
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Familiar with Line Wobbler? Ever wished you could play it on the go? Are you into demakes? For the Game Boy Advance? (via @diskmem)
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Today’s corrupted GBA boot up sequence is (via corruptionasart)...
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Can anyone tell what Famicom game we’re seeing that’s all glitched out? (via mendelpalace)...
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My fave part of this NES 2 print ad is how, in order to truly drive the message of “EVOLVE OR BECOME EXTINCT” home, whomever felt it necessary to include a little picture of a dinosaur (via nintendometro)...
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Was this an ad for the SNES? I ask because it’s considerably more sophisticated when compared to what you usually encountered in gaming rags at the time (via nintendometro)...
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This ad for the GoldStar version of the 3DO, hailing from Korea, makes me so proud to be (half) Korean, you have no idea (via notablegamebox)...
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This Space Invaders tribute piece is like the cover art to some 80s heavy metal record (via shmups)...
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Meanwhile, the album art for the Metal Black soundtrack feels more Pink Floyd-ish than anything else (via reportal)...
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As amazing as it would have been to attend a ZUNTATA concert 20 years ago, I desperately wanted to see them perform various Darius cuts live just the other week (via miki800.com)...
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This cover art for a tribute album celebrating 25 years of Mega Man is still quite good, 31 years after the fact (via rnn-draws)...
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My recommended reading this time is a comparison of all the various Mega Man sprites that have been, including a few that you may not be familiar with (via retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com)...
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Apparently there was a Mega Man boss that was part arcade machine, but he only appeared in some mobile game, for f's sake Capcom (via mendelpalace)...
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Guess now’s a good time to share another random game canter pic (via gogopri)...
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Pathos at the game center, even among Sailor Scouts (via funnysailorm00n)...
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A pride & joy of my personal collection is both the original retail Japanese release of Jet Set Radio & the available via Sega Direct only edition: De La Jet Set Radio (via videogameartarchive & videogameartarchive)...
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Here's an alternate take on it’s alternate cover star (via @Drooling_Demon)…
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Putting together the necessary gear to properly grind the streets of Tokyo-to (via kiroziki-cosplay)...
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JSR tales place in a fictionalized, idealized interpretation of Japan, whereas this gif is a very realistic take, yup (via dehtyar)...
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Meanwhile and elsewhere, somewhere in the United States of America it would seem (via behexagusthegreat)...
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There's still dinner time in the future (via kirokazepixel)...
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My contribution to #WorldGothDay (via it8bit)…
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From dark & dreary, to warm & fuzzy, yet still black & white (via this old post from a few years back)...
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Old photos of a Japanese school kid obsessing over the Famicom are somewhat dime a dozen, but the PC Engine? A very rare treat (via gamingremembrance)...
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From black & white photographs of Japanese 80s kids playing consoles, to a full color animated gif of US 80s kids at the arcade (via tvneon)...
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Time to wrap things up by touching upon something that kept me awfully busy over the past few: Death By Audio Arcade X Dreamhouse II. Here's a rather mysterious image that appeared on the FB event page, and which was utilized in my promotional push...
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... Did it work? You’ll have to find out in my part 2 of my Attract Mode X Tumblr: May 2018 recap! Due tomorrow. Maybe.
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noramoya · 7 years ago
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"THIRTH YEARS AGO , TODAY - ON AUGUST 31 , 1987 - MICHAEL JACKSON DEBUTED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED ÁLBUNS IN THE HISTORY OF POP MUSIC : BAD , THE FOLLOW -UP TO 1982's THRILLER , WHICH HAD ALREADY BEEN CERTIFIED 20 X PLATINUM BY THE RIAA UPON ITS SUCCESSOR'S RELEASE, WELL ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING THE BEST-SELLING ALBUM OF ALL TIMES . " " Undaunted, Jackson and producer Quincy Jones attempted to outdo themselves with Bad, setting their sales goals even higher the next time around. "I heard was that [Michael] was carrying around -- I can’t remember if it was a quarter and a nickel or three dimes -- but he was carrying around 30 cents in his pocket because he wanted to sell [that many million copies of Bad]," says Geoff Mayfield, retail editor at Billboard in 1987. Jackson would fall well short of that goal -- Bad had topped out at 6-times platinum in the U.S. by the time the album's promo cycle finally ended at the close of the '80s, and was finally certified diamond (for 10 million equivalent album units) by the RIAA earlier this year. But despite the lesser sales, Bad did achieve a feat that not only did Thriller not accomplish, but that no album in history ever had before: It spawned five No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Each of the set's first five singles -- Siedah Garrett ballad duet "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," storming title track "Bad," strutting love song "The Way You Make Me Feel," anthemic power ballad "Man in the Mirror" and rock-infused backstage drama "Dirty Diana" -- made it all the way to the Hot 100's apex, breaking the previous record of four No. 1 hits off the same album, initially set in 1978 by the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. For more than two decades, Bad reigned as the lone album to notch five Hot 100-toppers, until Katy Perry finally tied the achievement in 2011 with her fifth No. 1 off sophomore album Teenage Dream. So how did an album that largely failed to live up to commercial expectation manage to do something no blockbuster album had managed before? A lot of the answer can be found through the album's surrounding context -- in terms of Michael Jackson's career, in terms of the pop landscape in the late '80s and in terms of the Billboard charts of the time. Though Thriller managed "only" two Hot 100 No. 1s of its own -- "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" -- it raised the bar for how long an album's shelf life could last. "It’s one of those few records I can think of with three meaningful Christmas seasons," says Mayfield. "When I was at Billboard [in 1984] it was the third Christmas season for Thriller, and it was still one of the records that retailers cited as a traffic builder for them, and that’s unusual." The album also set new standards for the number of hit singles that could be pulled from the same record, with seven of its nine tracks becoming top 10 hits on the Hot 100 -- a then-record. "Having seven top 10 hits [on Thriller] was important," says Larry Stessel, senior VP/marketing for Jackson's Sony-owned label Epic in the '80s. "Because you had all of those songs that were being played on 98 percent of the radio stations in the country, whether it was some lesser singles... as long as they’re in the top 10 or top five, they’re going to have a tremendous impact." After Thriller, albums that previously would've only spun off three or four singles were now increasingly likely to have five, six, even seven songs pulled as A-sides before the artist would move on to a next album. Tellingly, Def Leppard's Diamond-selling Pyromania set, released just a couple months after Thriller in 1983, saw only four songs released as singles, but by the time of 1987 follow-up Hysteria, that LP spawned seven singles -- with the fourth and fifth single in the U.S. ("Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites") becoming the set's biggest Hot 100 hits, reaching Nos. 2 and 1, respectively. "'We should do a rock version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller,'" Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recalled to Billboard of producer Mutt Lange's goals for Hysteria. Also contributing to these albums' extended lifespans was the rise of MTV. Albums like Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984) and Janet Jackson's Control (1986) were able to generate at least five top 10 hits each (seven for Born) in large part because many of their singles were accompanied by captivating music videos that were endlessly promoted on what had become the world's most influential musical outlet. And Michael Jackson, who had helped the channel go truly global with videos for Thriller's "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and the title track, was the station's unquestioned male lead. "They were so hungry for Michael Jackson videos that we could’ve put out Michael singing 'Happy Birthday' and they would’ve played it," Stessel recalls. And when Bad was finally ready for release in 1987, a half-decade after Thriller had permanently changed the parameters for pop album scaling, it was given one of the great promotional pushes in record industry history. Walter Yetnikoff, then-CEO of CBS and Sony Music, was behind Jackson fully. At the time, Columbia Records (a CBS division) had mega-selling acts Springsteen, Pink Floyd and Billy Joel on its roster, but it was clear which artist was Yetnikoff's top priority. "As much as Walter loved those [other] acts, Michael was the king at the company,” says one former Sony executive. “The push behind Jackson kept Columbia from getting to No. 1 with their records. They over-aggressively promoted Michael Jackson, because that was what Walter wanted.” (Journey's Frontiers album on Columbia stalled at No. 2 for nine weeks in 1983, stuck behind Thriller.) The Bad album -- whose progress was kept as a secret even to Jackson's label, Epic Records, until shortly before it was delivered -- was first introduced to a who's who of radio and retail bigwigs at a private dinner at the pop star's house in Encino, California. "The first thing I thought was... we have to make Michael real to the industry again," says Jim Caparro, then-head of sales at Epic. "To make him real again I came up with this wild notion that we should bring all the accounts and big radio people to Michael’s house and have him debut the album to them." “Sony brought in Wolfgang Puck, he was the chef at the house,” recalls Bruce Ogilvie, now the CEO of Alliance Entertainment and the then-owner of the Abbey Road One-Stop distributor, about the summit. “They had all the Sony senior people there and [manager] Frank DiLeo was there, and so was Janet Jackson. They didn’t spare any expense. They picked everyone up in limousines to bring us there. It floated around the party that Michael Jackson was sleeping upstairs in the oxygen chamber but would come down later.” Bad was brought to the general public via a half-hour special, Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns, which debuted on CBS primetime the night before the album was released. The centerpiece of the special was the "Bad" music video, an 18-minute short film helmed by legendary director Martin Scorsese and co-starring a pre-fame Wesley Snipes. "It was on from 8-8:30 [on CBS] and it was the No. 5 show of the week," says Stessel, who wrote, produced and directed the program (along with Don Wilson), which also featured a short catch-up film summarizing Michael's career to that point. "It was a tremendous coup... we shipped 4.2 million copies [of the album], and we sold half of it the first week." All of this set the scene for a singles rollout that built on the momentum of Thriller and attempted to take it to new heights. "The album of your career is always going to put you on a higher plateau than you were before," Mayfield says. "And I would say that Thriller did some of the heavy lifting for Bad just by making his tent larger than it ever could have been prior to that album." Not wanting to mess with the successful formula of the latter, the release strategy for Bad closely mirrored that of its predecessor. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," with Siedah Garrett -- the more traditional pop duet without a music video -- was pulled as a single first (as the Paul McCartney collab "The Girl Is Mine" was from Thriller), followed by two more obvious modern pop knockouts with elaborate visuals to match in "Bad" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" (just like "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" an album earlier). "Everything was about, 'Let’s just do everything the Thriller way,'" Stessel recalls. "
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