#chiptuning near me

[mohammadershadullah]

[false-savior]

how can you help me stardust is a banger holy shit

like i love songs where the genre changes midway (or near the beginning in this song's case) and how it went from rock drums to chiptune, it reminded me of you can't run encore which is also a favorite song

oh and the melody too with the "siffrin motif"

[petpetpinixy]

vocaloid songs i think are really really cool that you might not have heard

there's also UTAU, one SynthV, one VOICEVOX, and one CeVIO voice in this thread dont yell at me we're all friends here

idk what a genre is. i'm gonna tell you what i like about the song

MAN i love this song. i can't stop listening to it. i love the quieter vocals outside the chorus and the louder voclas in it & near the end. this song gets stuck in my head so often you have no idea

break bc long

TOXIC YURI TETO. also PLEASE check out jamie paige its music is so incredibly good. this song is so awesome and cool and AUAUGHH

Origin - 初音ミク https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm43596219

THIS SONG AAUUUGGGGHHH it's so full of light and hope and it's beautiful and everyone needs to listen to it. the vocaloid version is only on nicovideo (here's the self cover on youtube, it also has english subs). also the MV is beautiful (cw: small mention of suicide, it's nothing graphic but i feel like i should give a warning anyway)

this song. makes me cry every time i listen to it. it's also very full of light and hope. need me a community like this

this song is so cool. it makes me think about playing animal crossing late at night (sound wise, anyway. idk japanese so no clue what the song is about). until that second half and it just ?!!;):$:& WOAH. go listen rn

sooo a few of this person's songs used to be tagged backrooms, not sure why they aren't anymore but that's how i'm gonna sell it to you. it's cool liminal space/backrooms/whatever you wanna call it music! it's just as weird and slightly offputting as backrooms themed music should be. they have four songs i think fit this category, and you can probably tell by the thumbnails which ones they are. go listen if you like things a little weird (i think this MV needs a flashing and vertigo warning so. be warned)

WHY DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE VIEWS HELLOOOOOO this gets stuck in my head constantly!!! please please go listen to it it's so cool and very much underrated

this song Also gets stuck in my head a lot. i get the feeling the lyrics are relatable but i don't have proof. the MV reminds me a lot of Slump. i'm underselling this one Please listen i love it so much

i love this one :] the chiptune(?) instrumental goes very well with adachi rei's voice. i wish i could think of more to say but i just Really Like It

(flash warning? it gets glitchy) alright alright i know this one is over 100k but it's one of my most favoritest songs ever in the world so whatever. look at her sing :] i love her. god this song is good

this one's fast paced and has a really cool tone shift at one point! i like it a lot (help me i'm running out of things to say)

https://youtu.be/y4GORKV_aOw?si=5PFrraW0xQ5GN0nE

GUYS. BGUYS. HAVE YOU HEARD OF WINTERMUTE?????? one of my favorite artists EVERRRRR. no one knows where they went unfortunately, but all their music is still up to listen to and it's all so good. here's one of my faves

https://youtu.be/Gd4eR3jYCdc?si=j8ao16jeAzW7Dukc

ohhhh my god. higma. higma i love you. i love this song and the MV so much. higma is amazing please go check them out

https://youtu.be/wDFynhbltHk?si=x7D_p6z-9MDFCnLe

(flash warning!!) i love vocaloid artists with black and white aesthetics they're always good. Kangoku Catastrophe by the same person is also fantastic. squeak freak.

https://youtu.be/heVsAZ6w1-s?si=cRjLgC10MzHyt0_-

this song, out of all the songs in the world, got me through a real rough patch. i was unmotivated and really sad, but this doggy and the catchy melody kept bringing me back and cheering me up. 732 views at the time of this thread. please go support this song

https://youtu.be/-rgRqU0ujSQ?si=XwHeCRUwk5cXE2t0

i also found this song during that rough patch. i really like the more subdued vocals and the fast pace. (possible flash warning? it's not awful but the picture blinks on and off sometimes)

https://youtu.be/WE3TWosFOCk?si=bJ9dWJHvLbGjtEAp

wow Another song from that time in my life. i think the rest of this thread is gonna be dedicated to the songs that got me back into vocaloid. this one's incredibly catchy and i've never gotten sick of it :]

https://youtu.be/WDxvgUiq7PE?si=OxIuVzMl3JN1hJmo

another one over 100k, but god what a lovely song. idk what it is, but those boops in the background sound so sad. i think this one especially kickstarted me into a full-time vocaloid listener

https://youtu.be/MGZokrLIniA?si=o9sp0_2aPeprC8vl

oh my god i didn't even realize this person made Mesmerizer!! (HUGE flash warning for that one). please listen to this song too it's awesome

https://youtu.be/4Egmp6MCmSg?si=yevFcjnkG2IPWJHy

(flash warning!) this one is so nostalgic sounding to me. i love the unresolved note the first chorus ends on. this song sounds like it needs a hug

https://youtu.be/CRmj1vJNR6A?si=NqasRAXRmEH1Z-Fs

i love me a song with drowned out vocals. this one's really relaxing :] i like it a lot

https://youtu.be/dMdYxvl-wMw?si=nXqmU_SLjlJXkuMC

(idk if i should give this one a flash warning, but it gets a little blinky. so be warned) a really good fast-paced one minute song. idk what else to say go listen

https://youtu.be/m3ganYA9_lc?si=npl_ActsG8TfO9eF

a slower paced, boopy song with a music box. i love it a lot

https://youtu.be/P3PrQCIanxw?si=YhaQFEcnEKOUGj9J

oh man, this song and it's MV. where do i even start? first of all: i think the song has some disturbing elements (maybe suicide, death, possibly miscarriage) and the MV is a little spooky and has some blood and violence.

but WOW this video. the song is weird and dissonant at times, the MV is beautifully animated, and it's 5 minutes long. i'm absolutely obsessed with it. please check this person out

https://youtu.be/DUpJgdGe1Pc?si=wZN8jgUGYeoEffGv

(flash warning!) last one. i'm cutting myself off before this thread gets too long (it's already too long). this song is sooooo catchy :] i luv u

SORRY FOR THE LONG THREAD. idek if this will reach that many people but i have over 500 songs in my playlist at this point and so many of them are underrated.

k byeeeee *explodes*

[briannacarmel]

Okay. Time for a new pinned post.

My name is Brianna Carmel. I'm a 25-year-old musician (mainly a vocalist) and DIY show promoter from Sacramento, CA.

My main project is a sadcore indie pop band called @bloomingheads, consisting of myself and my dear friend Josiah. We have been active since late 2018, and released our debut EP in January 2021.

Our biggest achievement so far is probably opening for Crywank on their first US tour, at The Starlet Room in Sacramento.

My personal favorite show we've played that there is footage of, is the going away house show we played for our dear friend Autumn (Otto) Sky Hall, who moved to Pennsylvania near the end of last year. This is me gushing about how much I love them as a segue into the first song we ever wrote.

Our next show is on January 29th at Cafe Colonial, opening for King Strang, with our friend Ash Bricky as another local opener. You can buy presale tix here.

I also recently joined Josiah's main project, a chiptune folk punk band called Little Tiny Knife (formerly known as Wayne Jetski). There's technically three of us, but our bassist Jim is currently away doing Real Adult Things™️. He's a cool dude tho, we share a birthday.

Here are screenshots from a video @xahferd took for us, during our most recent show at The Hatch in Stockton, CA.

I can't quite put into words how much finally joining this project means to me. Like, I have a fucking Wayne Jetski tattoo. Josiah's music is the reason we know each other, I've genuinely loved it for years and it's the reason I asked them to start Blooming Heads with me. I've never earned a spot in a band I love before. It's truly an indescribable feeling.

Here's a video of us playing with Jim during a Halloween show last year. This song is called "Long Division." Josiah was a target employee, Jim was bananarchy, and I was... A spooky doll girl...??? Idk okay I was just vibing with makeup

I'm also a solo artist when I'm not busy with anything else--I like to call myself a singer-songwriter with a folk punk soul. I've been writing on my own for fun since 2014 or so.

Here's a live session I did at Warm Robot Studios, inside The Library of Musiclandria, to promote my single that I released in September, "Skeletons."

My most recent release, "Building Blocks EP," was released on Bandcamp Friday in November. There's only proper live video of the first track, "Alone Again." (Shout-out to High House!!)

The EP is made up of three tracks, and can be found on spotify, bandcamp, and many other streaming services.

And, last but not least, yes, like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am a DIY show promoter. If you've ever been to a show in the Sacramento-area with "916 Growth Gigs presents" on the flyer, that was me. My main venue connects include The Colonial Complex (Cafe Colonial/The Colony Sacramento), The Library of Musiclandria, Golden Bear (21+), and the occasional house show or acoustic show at a park. I am on a hiatus of sorts for the moment, but plan on dipping my toes back in soon.

If you're a fellow DIY musician, especially if you're touring thru Sacramento, let's be mutuals! Even if I can't book you, I love making new friends. 🥰

[mesaprotector]

I began writing this Elden Ring review when I felt the game nearing a close. Today I finished it. First "AAA" game I've ever played to completion, and I have mixed but mostly positive feelings. At any rate, my life to come is going to be a bit different not fighting wolves for hours each week.

Graphics

Anywhere from "fine, but relentlessly grim" (Caelid, much of the Mountaintops) to "I want to move here right now" (Siofra/Nokron, Leyndell, the Roundtable Hold). The game looks very good, though I can't say the same about some of the enemies and NPCs. When the designers cared, they made some very cool-looking stuff - Astel, Naturalborn of the Void is one of my favorites.

Music

The region themes were definitely a highlight. Above all, the terribly sad theme of Leyndell, a lone city clinging to life in a world falling gradually to pieces. The way the horn-using enemies harmonized with that theme was a beautiful touch. I wasn't as impressed with the boss themes though that might just be my personal preference for chiptunes.

Characters

Overall, this isn't a character-driven game, and that's fine. The voice acting definitely lends a hand with best boy Margit/Morgott and other characters like the Blackguard; but most characters who are memorable are memorable because of their designs or combat abilities. I do have to ask, though, why do most of the characters have to die? Even characters whose arcs I completed just up and died at the end. Alexander should've survived!

Combat

I think for the most part this aspect was fun. I definitely can criticize certain enemies getting reused (those awful ulcerated tree spirits, if you're going to reuse a boss that many times at least pick one that's fun). The balance was a bit off, as the game very clearly expects you to be playing a Str/Dex melee-focused build with a lot of dodging, weaving, and blocking, and doesn't bother balancing for anything else. Never mind that you can snipe enemies from a distance one by one or mow them down on Torrent, and then certain boss fights are MUCH harder doing anything except melee. (Hi, Rennala... or any of the Crystalians.) I don't know if it was intentional that some dungeons are torture but have easy bosses at the end.

I played Dex/Fth, using the Treespear for most of my run until I went for the Blasphemous Blade later in the game, with the Cipher Pata as a backup. I was terrible at dodging and only attempted it on bosses with telegraphed attacks like Mohg and the Fire Giant. I spent most of my time on Torrent, because the Treespear is an S-tier mounted weapon, and turned into a stealth-sniper every time I was in a dungeon. People sleep on bows and crossbows - their damage is terrible, but they're fantastic for aggroing one enemy at a time or hitting those dungeon pillars that breathe fire.

Despise the weird balancing, I think my only major quibbles with the combat in Elden Ring would be that, one, items are mostly useless - why use a Rune Arc to try to beat a hard fight when it's not enough of a buff to guarantee a win, and you lose it permanently? - and that the boss fights being occasionally hard throws progression out of whack if you're anything other than very, very stubborn. Which leads me to my main complaint about this game.

Questlines

Oh dear lord. I've always hated "guide dang it"-type content in games, but it's fine if it's like, secret rooms that have a bunch of coins and a cool sword. Not if there are obscure quests that you're all but required to play for much of the game's plot to make sense. (Rogier! I'm talking about Rogier!) I'll get into this more in the "story" section but I scarcely had a clue what was going on for most of the game, because almost all the lore for the game is hidden deep in questlines which can easily be permanently missed. I praise Miriel his Holy Turtleness every day for being one of the only NPCs who tells you about the gods without you having to find the Dubious Runebear Medallion first (or whatever). Without him I'd have had no idea who Marika even was.

The game also punishes you, over and over, for daring to explore areas early. Nepheli and Corhyn both died because of this in my playthrough - I'd already explored the Albinauric Village and the cliff by the Royal Colosseum, respectively, so I didn't re-explore once they moved to those locations. Then they just both died when I burned the Erdtree. Thanks, game. Really appreciate it.

While I'm at it - gesturing should never have been a mechanic in questlines except when you're explicitly told what to do (like the Finger Snap to summon Blaidd). Same with the Prattling Pates - there was zero indication they were anything but a joke item and then suddenly, dead Boc because you missed the single chance the game gives you to use one. (Rebirth with Rennala didn't kill me the three times I did it... so why did it kill Boc?)

I'm not sure I'd have completed even a single quest had I not had the bright idea to look them all up after the Fire Giant. (Maybe Fia's?) Turns out that was already a bit too late.

Story

I will say that the game's story and world is very, very good. It's a shame it's so hurt by the poor quest design, because I genuinely wanted to learn everything I could about the demigods, about the conspiracies and factions and everything else. Unfortunately I've learned more from the game's wiki than from the game itself. Even when I burned the Erdtree I wasn't totally sure why I was doing it, except that Melina told me to.

I was told by a friend not to heavily RP my character because it'd make the game too hard, but I did do a bit of it. I played a tough old lady, pious but brutal, who would never dare talk to the Three Fingers or do the bidding of a heretic, but wouldn't hesitate to slay a god. I intentionally skipped Tanith's questline because of this, and left the Dung Eater to rot.

Endings

I accidentally picked Ranni's ending. I was in the boss room after finally beating that obese flying salamander and instinctively pressed E when I saw a message below me, and instead of asking to confirm the game went straight into the cutscene. (Yet another example of this game being poorly designed for PC!) I think I was eligible for two other endings, and Fia's was my favorite concept of the three, though its 20-second cutscene I watched later on Youtube wasn't much. It does feel like the endings have the same issue as the rest of the game - very good ideas that never get explained well enough to be appreciated.

Overall

7/10; an amazing world with passable characters and very fun gameplay, but held back by the terrible quest design. If the game provided a lot more lore by default (for example, at the end of each major boss fight, or through Gideon and other NPCs who rarely change location), and made it very clear what the quest breakpoints were, it could easily be a 9/10. The game breaks the unspoken rule that hidden content should never be core to the plot. Anyone who plays this game should do it with a guide - not an exhaustive 100% checklist, but enough of a guide that nobody ends up dead without you intending it, and that you don't miss the most plot-relevant quests in the game.

[tfblovesmusic]

How Ian Bostridge Unlocked my American Elementary School Memories

I have been swooning over Ian Bostridge's voice since middle school.

From watching the David Alden film of Franz Schubert's Winterreise on Ovation TV to borrowing a CD of Johann Sebastian Bach choral works with the Choir of King's College Cambridge and the Academy of Ancient Music under the late Sir Stephen Cleobury (His rendition of "Deposuit Potentes" in BWV 243 was FIRE!) a couple of times from the local library while I was living in the USA, the three-time GRAMMY winner's voice never has since failed to amaze me.

But it hasn't been his timbre that has made him my favorite classical music tenor of all time.

In April 2024, Ginong Bostridge stopped a performance of Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations at the Brum Symphony Hall for a glaring reason - young people were taping or photographing him on their phones. He interceded out loud, "The lights are shining directly in my eyes – it’s very distracting. Would you please put your phones down?"

He wasn't aware of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's then-new policy that started enabling audiences to film in a maximum of a minute or photograph classical music concerts, in a vain bid to attract more young audiences.

But it came with reservations. The rules stated, "We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members and suggest that you take pictures and videos during applause breaks. Please dim the brightness on your phone, and do not use your flash."

Ginong Bostridge - oblivious of the new rules during his performance - wasn't having any of that.

This video STRAIGHT-UP metaphorizes Bostridge responding to an errant phone light or ringtone at a concert.

"You're looking at the audience and it's very interrupting and distracting to have phones being held up," he told BBC Radio 4, "It breaks the spell. I didn't know about this policy and I wasn't making a protest of any sort to begin with, I simply couldn't carry on because I couldn't concentrate."

"Performances are a dialogue with the audience," baritone Christopher Maltman (who collaborated with Bostridge several times) commented to a Classic FM post on IG, We as performers rely on the audience’s attention and concentration. We are flesh and blood artists who are not unaffected by how audience members behave."

"We can see and hear you as you can see and hear us, and are distracted by movements in the audience and the glint of light reflected off phones, faces and arms as they are held up, whether they are dimmed or not. Fundamentally, we spend thousands and thousands of hours during our professional lives to hone our skills to be able to accomplish feats of dexterity, memory, concentration and artistic expression which are at or near the limit of human ability."

"We need the audience to be with us on that musical journey and even if the physical act of filming or taking photographs isn’t distracting to the point that it is at the detriment of our own focus, it’s is at the bare minimum a moment of departure for those who film from the covenant of live performance which is the beating heart of what we do."

"No photo, no video, and no recording can ever even remotely reproduce the magic of live performance and any marginal fringe benefit in terms of social media likes is nothing compared with the damage that is done by saying that it is fine to switch your brain off and switch your phone on in the concert hall or opera house. I personally have had to stop in my recitals more than once to request people view me with their eyes and listen with their ears rather than watch me second hand on a screen."

Sir Simon Rattle would also be most disappointed with the phone policies. Back in BBC Prom 55 with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003, he stopped a performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring because someone's Nokia blasted an abridged, chiptuned version of Francisco Tárrega's Gran Vals during the bassoon solo. The reviewer of MusicWeb Int'l heard a fellow audience member seated in front of him call the offending other the w-word.

Funnily enough, Ginong Bostridge unlocked many core memories of watching orchestras perform live - during the Garden State Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Cinderella and numerous field trips with my elementary and private schools.

The most memorable elementary school orchestra-centered field trip was in 2001. And it WASN'T ANY JUST ANY ORCHESTRA.

IT WAS THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA.

I would be entranced by Lanky Kong's Trombone Tremor when I would play Donkey Kong 64. I would watch The Lawrence Welk Show on WEDU each Saturday night. Throw in mornings with Classic Arts Showcase on my public access TV channel; several documentaries (Howard Goodall's notwithstanding) and performances I would see on Ovation TV; and previous experiences seeing orchestras live, and I was WELL-PREPPED.

Our 5th grade teacher told us what to expect AND how to dress for the concert - no jeans, T-shirts, or shorts. I wore the closest thing to jeans but much dressier - a denim midi dress. And we were too young to have cell phones back then!

The finest moment of the FL Orchestra's performance I and my 5th grade class attended was their opening orchestral excerpt, the overture to Leonard Bernstein's Candide. As Asher pointed out, I wished I would've taped it. But with us too young to have phones, with phones then lacking video capabilities, AND with us knowing concert etiquette from the back of our hands, taping it would've been all but so inconsiderate.

I would've gotten into trouble at school if I had done that.

"(The CBSO's phone policy) ignores the fact that allowing the use of phones during musical or theatrical performances is bad for everyone," Alexandra WIlson griped in The Critic.

To Ginong Bostridge: here's our power anthem! LET'S DO A DUET ON THIS!

"It’s bad for the performer, who is distracted by a sea of bright lights, or by the blaring of ring tones, and struggles to get into the zone or into character. A live classical concert, what’s more, is not a recording session, and comes with an element of risk for the musician involved. The singer lays bare his or her soul, and in doing so relies upon a certain amount of implied contractual trust — the understanding that people aren’t going to stick that fluffed top note on YouTube."

"Phone use is also bad for other audience members, for whom this concert or play may be a long-saved-up-for treat, and who should have a reasonable expectation to be able to concentrate."

"You certainly don’t have to be a finishing-school graduate to be irked by a thoughtless neighbor who gives a damn about no-one but themselves."

"All live music is precious and fragile," Maltman summarized, "Switch your phones off and allow your mind to engage with the beauty of it. Please."

To conclude this post, lemme show y'all the March 1995 Beeb broadcast of various Henry Purcell choral works and songs! JUST scroll to 49:25 and press play - 30-year-old Ginong Bostridge in a FLUTIN' TRIO WITH DAME EMMA KIRKBY AND MICHAEL CHANCE is SO FIRE! Cell phones with touchscreens and built-in cameras had YET to stymie that magical moment back when it was broadcasted!

[samwiselastname]

the show has a really baffling mix of music liscensing choices. the little chiptune "god only knows" near the end made me all verklempt but I had to watch gideon graves skateboard to cape cod kwassa kwassa so like, it evens out

[hex-flareheart]

Hex Reviews Pizza Tower

Boy, this review aged well.

Genre: Manic 2D Platformer Platform: Windows & Steam Deck Price: $20 Length: ~4 hour first playthrough Do I recommend it? IT'S FUCKING PIZZA TIME

QUICK NOTE: This review was originally written before I recognized some of the more questionable decisions made in Pizza Tower, most notably the notes of racism (and also McPig being kind of a prick). Most of my thoughts on the gameplay itself have not changed, but this is a significant enough thing that I felt it warranted mentioning retroactively. (This is also why I've revoked the 10/10 I previously gave it.)

I've never played any Wario Land games. Hell, I've never even touched Wario games period. 2D platformers generally aren't my thing, either; the most fun I've had with one was Celeste.

Up until this past week.

Pizza Tower is, for lack of a better way to put it, completely apeshit, in the best way possible. By this point, if you're reading this, you've probably seen how unhinged the art style is, and let me tell you: the rest of the game is just as unhinged. And it is a fucking blast.

You have a dash. Actually, given Celeste's existence, "dash" might give the wrong impression- you have a sprint. One which goes increasingly fast the longer you hold it, can turn on a dime, and will fucking destroy anything in your path. Really get going and you'll see enemies react in fear at the fat Italian charging towards them at Mach 3, for about a tenth of a second, before you barrel them over like a freighter rolling over a water bottle.

The thing with Pizza Tower is, I used "manic" as a descriptor for very good reason- the pacing of its gameplay is breakneck. The running mechanic already heavily encourages you to be moving fast as much as possible, given you're basically nigh-invulnerable at mach 3 and 4, and reaching the end of a level triggers an escape sequence. You have a timer. The layout has changed. Time to get the fuck back to the entrance before a sentient flying pizza comes to kill you.

And if you've cleared the level before, there's a floating pizza portal near that entrance. That sends you back to the end of the level again, to rush through again. You know, just to style. It's hard as hell, as the timer doesn't reset- whatever time you have left on it when you enter that portal is the time you have to complete the entire second lap. But by god is it satisfying to pull off.

The levels also have a ranking system; you get a ranking based on your score, which you get from miscellaneous collectibles throughout, but also from killing enemies. There's also a combo system- your combo increases with kills, while score collectibles extend it, not making the number bigger, but giving you more time to find something else to kill. This also plays into ranking, by way of giving you more score.

The highest rank you can expect to get on a first run through a level is A. But there's two ranks above that, which is the reason why I specifically clarified "first playthrough" on the game's length, as this is where the real meat of the game comes in- S rank requires you to reach a much higher score, which usually entails collecting every Toppin (major collectibles), completing every secret (there are three in each level), collecting the level's treasure, and often doing a second lap on top of all of that. All quite difficult, but doable.

The coveted P rank, however? You have to do all of that. Without dropping your combo once. Start to finishing lap 2, all one continuous combo. It doesn't even count towards 100% completion, as you'll likely accomplish everything that does during your S rank instead, but pulling it off comes with some of the greatest bragging rights in gaming short of being a speedrunning recordholder.

And you'll be doing all of it to some utterly fantastic music. Pizza Tower features a healthy mix of chiptune and electric guitar in its soundtrack, and let me tell you, this shit is fucking candy for the ears.

Altogether, this game's gameplay is extremely robust, and the game on the whole just oozes personality and passion out of every orifice. It really is hard to beat a game like this.

Hex Rates This: 9/10

[xsadcorebenji]

as i relinquish so many things that were once dear to me, i feel a lightness blossoming within me.

a fog clearing and a clarity of who i am.

or simply remembering who i am.

i sold off the modded gameboy along with everything else i had left in relation to chiptune (besides CD's, tapes, documentaries, etc., and a special cart for the Sega Genesis)

it helped me ease this strange tension i had with making music on a tracker.

if anything i was deeply obsessed with creating a more ambient, drone, and just generally lush flourishes but through a tracker.

i suppose it haunted me for years but, as i reduce down all the musical toys i have/had, it provides a cleaner path and concept on how to approach the things i do want to do at some point. but even then had i not already did what i wanted with chiptune and the community?

i performed at a few shows (live visuals), organzied several events as well as compilation albums. i definitely never attained a status in "popularity" within the community but generally i ain't everyone's cup of tea.(if anything an infamy, but so be it, today i thought to myself "i hope i become your most hated antagonist")

it's the indifference that makes me wilt, i either want you to have a positive or negative view of me, and i can't stand a neutral position.

but outside of this, i have been spending a lot of time reflecting on the "me" who moved to San Francisco alone. (Daly City, but little difference).

one of the first things i did was buy the Satanic Bible because i was hoping fill the "spiritual void" within me.

i absolutely abhorred the book, Anton Lavey just even then sounded silly.

and it's really not hard to understand why most satanists meander around being a libertarian, or just openly claim it.

if i wanted to indulge into the concept of objectivism, i rather take the loony Ayn Rand, over LaVey.

been reflecting on how i didn't sign up for the congregation, because i read Yelp reviews of the Satanist Church, and one review resides so vividly in memory.

the review stated how this person went there and was greeted by someone who shyed away from the entrance and apparently all this reviewer heard was an orgy and dubstep.

this review made me laugh too much, and it was the reason i avoided going.

although now looking back i'd kill for a chaotic energy like a "dubstep orgy"

in my exercise regiment today i added in a cardio workout(on top of my already exhaustive training).

i feel my body ache, and if anything i think i relish on self-torment and overdoing it.

it's as if i take every negative and petty thought i could ever have and just take it out on myself.

but adding back T25 which is essentially an HIIT regiment, was actually nice.

brought back memories of how i cold turkeyed going vegan in SF after my cancer scare, and all the soups and such i would cook.

after my workout i wanted to actually cook again and thought of all these ideas for meals and "meal prep."

and as i showered, i reflected on all of the things i used to write about, such as vegan philosophies and really scrutinzing the limits of it in a way that makes sense for me. (because i guess i'm still curious as to where the lines are drawn on the concept of the "living thing" and specieism, especially because there are animals near microscopic such as krill).

but i also thought about all the other topics i can just blog about such as thoughts on some games, maybe re-explore heidegger and foucault and i guess thinking about them within the context of time.

but also want to write about things such as the strange "stoicism" wormhole the media algorithms keep shoving to us.

it's strange how the constructs are asking us to be less social in one of the most asocial periods of human history.

(it's almost as if "stoicism" helps drive work, work , work culture, and really feeds the gluttonous, capital machine).

just so many thoughts flooded back to me, of foods i want to make and eat, and everything i wanted to blog and talk about.

and in this revitilizing reflection, i felt like i was remembering myself for the first time in a long absence.

and throughout this entire time my residual echolalia kept playing back a voice saying

"recaliberating"

(i was wondering for a while where this mysterious near-robotic voice saying "recaliberating" was from but i realized as i wrote this, it's from StarCraft II. it's the Protoss unit Void Rays, which come out and say "recaliberating void lenses"

either way, "my life for aiur"

and "there is no cow level")

[containatrocity]

"I put away the hymnals, I lock myself in my office and go over tithes and offerings, and whenever somebody turns up for confession, I stop sorting donations and writing my next sermon to sit in that cute little box over there and hear the dark secrets of our fellow man, and then, if I'm lucky, I call it an afternoon early, go get some dinner at the diner, and find something to do with myself around the Commune that isn't listen to Roulette... do whatever it is he does with his gameboy in the common room." The constant 8-bit chiptune was near insufferable after a couple hours, he was already praying for the damn thing's batteries to keel over- surely, it would be deemed an 'unnecessary frivolity' for replacements- Sin just had to be patient.

"It does make me feel better." If anything, because Esther was making an effort to know people- even more, that Ondine had at least one friend he could trust in town. "She's experienced a good amount of change, her and Joei. That is my fault." They look... upset. but shake it off quickly. "Now which one of us is being cheesy? Are you going to actually make a confession, or is this the kind of confession that ends with me on my back in the belfry?"

Esther puffed out her cheeks at the scold. Maybe they preferred being alone. "If it makes you feel any better, I have plans to see Ondine later. So see. I'm trying." The fact that trying really only extended to two people was neither here nor there. She didn't bother commenting on the him bit. Absinthe made their point.

Nodding, Esther pulled away to get to work. "What's on the docket today Father?" Their tone was mildly teasing, but still held an ounce of respect. Their relationship really was complicated. Her seriousness broke with a snort as they looked back at Absinthe with amusement. "That might actually be the cheesiest thing you've ever said. But, I could use giving a confession or two," they winked.

[nintendont2502]

The Definitive Offical Megalovania Ranking

1. MeGaLoVania (Homestuck)

2. Megalovania (SSBU)

3. Megalovania (Undertale)

4. Megalovania (Halloween Hack)

I tried to make this ranking as bias free as possible but me currently being fixated on Homestuck probably impacted my ranking slightly im gonna be real. The Homestuck version is genuinely really good though - the use of guitar (and that one solo near the end) just pushes it over the others for me

I have to rank the SSBU remix just above the original because I'm a sucker for orchestral sounding songs, and that bridge near the middle is just so good. That and the inclusion of the Heartache + Nyeh Heh Heh! motifs easily makes this the superior Undertale Megalovania IMO

Megalovania (Undertale) is undeniably a classic (and still goes incredibly hard) but it just doesn't do it for me anymore in the same way it used to. Compared to the SSBU remix or the Homestuck version it just doesn't hit as hard (which may partially be because it's mainly chiptune? Don't get me wrong - I love chiptune music - but the guitar in the previous two (and the orchestral bridge in SSBU) just goes harder.)

And finally we have the Halloween Hack. At first I was slightly worried my judgement might be biased since it's the only Megalovania where I haven't been invested in the source material at all, but after relistening to it I feel pretty confident in my ranking. It's basically the Homestuck MeGaLoVania without the guitar (AKA the best part)

[vivy-nx]

i feel like trying to learn how to make music is really weird nowadays. or maybe at least for me it is. the internet allows one access to just. so so so much interesting unique sounds and styles of music you’d never be able to hear in the past where that wasn’t accessible for most people. not even just music, but like all sorts of different kinds of musicians talking about how they make music. it’s more clear than i think it could have ever been before that there’s not really any rules at all for what music has to be or do. and this all makes a lot of sense to me just logically, what with all the other stuff i learn about (outside of music) that’s different from what some might expect and i can learn to accept. the problem now becomes understanding exactly what kind of music i really want to make. i’ve certainly narrowed it down a little bit because i like working with digital audio workstations and i am familiar with that kind of thing and i’m used to it, and i know what i like listening to from others, which is to say largely stuff that utilizes chiptunes and synths alongside samples of real instruments and stuff like that, but even that feels like it’s a very very small tip of the iceberg. i like melodic sounding things, but how do i go about making a melody myself? how do i go about figuring out what key would be best suited for a song i want to write? how do i take abstract ideas that largely tend to manifest as words and translate them into sounds, pitches and rhythms. i used to consume so much music theory youtube you’d think i would have picked up on some of these things by now, but i open up my daw and i pick a key at random and kinda half-consciously construct a 4 chord progression that kind of resolves and i don’t know what to do with it. maybe i put drums over it. mess with the tempo. i feel like i’m missing basic fundamentals, but i can’t really place what they are exactly, besides like, harmony. and it’s not like i haven’t written music before. like i know what intervals are, i can construct a chord. i’ve made some songs i’m happy with. but i just always feel like i’m kind of aimlessly wandering in the dark looking for some nugget of inspiration and then sometimes i can get myself to make a song. i’m not really going through a thought process and putting puzzle pieces together in my mind, and seeing what fits, i just bang rocks together until there’s a spark and i don’t know why. i have inspirations but i don’t know how to go about actually like, channeling them. i feel like the kind of music education i need isn’t so much learning the rules of classical music or whatever, i could just go to a music school for that, (though it probably could indirectly get me where i want to go), but like, specifically learning the conventions and styles of the music i actually do listen to. and that’s a damn shame because i don’t think there’s really anywhere near as many resources for that kind of thing specifically, so i still feel pretty aimless. it’s kinda funny that i feel like improvising a saxophone solo for a jazz thing is easy enough for me to understand. there’s just some notes you can play and you play those. sometimes you focus more on some notes than others depending on the chords. sometimes my brain will remember a song from a video game that had a neat melody and i incorporate that into the solo for a bit. i’ve played piano a lot longer than that but 4ish years of playing saxophone regularly feels like it’s gotten me a more feature-complete understanding of my instrument and place in an ensemble than 9 years of playing solo piano. i honest to god don’t think i even actually learned how to read sheet music for either of the instruments i play. with saxophone i just see the note placement and i think of a hand position, whereas on piano i have like 3 notes that work as frames of reference (g on g clef, middle c, and f on f clef) and then for literally all of the 85ish other keys on the piano that i read off of any music my brain has to manually do the math every time i see any note to figure out where my hand is supposed to actually be. most of my piano music has the note name pencilled in adjacent to the note head because i keep getting caught up on re-processing these notes every time. this worked well enough that i could learn to play some songs, mostly with the help of muscle memory i’d build over time. but it was kinda dogshit for being able to analyze how the song actually functioned and achieved what it set out to. i don’t even take piano lessons any more because i just got bored of learning how to play new songs, even ones i liked, and the greater understanding of how music actually worked just didn’t really get much time compared to me fucking around trying to get my brain to press all the right keys at the right times. i have gone between the phase of “i have no idea how chords work” and “chords aren’t that hard to understand actually” more times than i think a normal person would. i think it’s so confounding to me because with some other interests of mine there’s other ways i sort of ground myself and understand what i’m talking about that i don’t have with music. with visual art stuff it’s pretty simple because you kinda just draw what you see, and we use language to describe what we see all the time so it‘s fairly simple to look up something specific, like “how to draw a night sky” or “how to do cel shading” or “how to use blending modes”. with computer programming it’s extremely straight forward, there’s just a huge documentation manual or something, spend most of my time looking off of that, and then if i have any extraneous problems i can usually just google error codes and figure out things from there. i don’t know how to google my problems with music and when i try it doesn’t usually feel all that helpful. i don’t wanna just glue myself to some arbitrary rules that i will find insufficient for making what i want to make but i need some kind of understanding of common techniques and things. i get stuck on this stuff all the time if i try to actually think about what i’m making and it drives me nuts. it feels really weird to have been making things this long and still feel like this. i don’t feel like i hold myself to as much standards with visual art or whatever. like i’m sure people could tell i haven’t been to an art college or studied anatomy or whatever but that doesn’t really stop me from doing what i want to do. whatever my thing with this is is a weird middle ground where on one hand i do sometimes manage to create things that i like but on the other hand i don’t know how to translate ideas into sounds so all i get is like once every 2 to 6 months i can open up my daw and use enough of my brain that i can make a song that sounds like a song and it feels neat and i still feel like i’ve learned nothing after the fact. it’s a weird place to be in. reminds me a bit of that thing from mario maker where they locked off some of the parts you can use because it’s easier to come up with creative ideas for things if you have less options, and then my fucking infinite ambition ass is just like okay but i want to make video games myself. present me with the fucking infinite possibilities that i may make whatever the hell i want. but yknow i have to know what that is first of course which is the big hurdle. there’s so much cool shit in music nowadays that it’s overwhelming and i want to do everything i enjoy which is not exactly the easiest thing to learn how to do i guess. anyway i hope you liked reading this giant wall of text. thoughts are weird.

[thoustve]

little masterpost for a self-care channel in a discord server :)

from distractions, to learning new things, to reminders on certain things/tips for self care..... here's a list for a certain channel in a certain server i'm in (they know who they are, as this will be linked to them, lol)

distractions, games, things that don't necessarily take a tutorial/learning to get into/play with!

galaxies // not the actual name of the game, but what you can create with it/mess with it kinda results in looking like a galaxy!

planetarium // view starts from a ground view near you, or wherever you'd wanna view starts from! get a pretty view of the night sky, stars, maybe even a glimpse of the milky way galaxy in general if you live in an area you can't see anything but stars!

star explorer // want to look more into stars? wanna learn about them a little bit? this is sort of like the planarium thing in viewing stars, but you can actually zoom out to view more in our sort of "starry" neighbourhood, click their name, learn more about that particular star you've clicked. it starts you off in our solar system, but you can zoom out and mess around, or you can sort of follow the way the site wants you to if you don't hit skip on anything!

discover an author with a similar writing style to you! // maybe you wanna see who you write like, or find new authors/favourites of people that write similarly to the way you do? this is a site that takes a look at something you've typed up, looks at your writing style, word choices, etc... and finds a famous author you write like. maybe you'll find someone you like or wanna check out the works of!

make a little tune with beepbox! // wanna just make a little chiptune or goof around with some music/sounds, but don't particularly wanna mess around with a music program and want something simple that you don't have to download? this is a fun little way of going about that and making little loops. it can take a moment to get used to/get a hold of playing with, but it's fun and can be a nice little distraction! and who knows, you may find greater musical inspiration through it!

physics games // a website for a lot of sort of science or math minigames, but it doesn't necessarily require you to need that knowledge of math or science necessarily -- just sort of has diff games from construction, demolition, stacking, etc. can be nice for just repetitive actions and kinda reminds me of coolmathgames, haha.

match colours in different ways! // match one hue to another, match different saturations, complementary, tertiary... a fun little colour game, and maybe it can help with getting a hold of colour picking/colour choices!

rainymood // a simple website for listening to rain/storm noises, if that's your sort of enjoyed white noise!

noise machines // if you want a more variable type of rain/storm noise, or want to look at other forms of white noise/background noise (some of which even include music, on this site), then you can look through this site for different "noise machines". most of the choices should be adjustable, so you can adjust whether you like a certain noise mixed into the background noise or not. don't like thunder? adjust that to be lower. want more cafe sounds? adjust that to be higher! want it to sound like it's raining but sound like you're in a car while it is? you got it. this site does wonders!

word matching! // match words to their similar meanings/words they can relate to, and in the process, help donate rice to vulnerable places and families in need!

play a digital piano // play a piano on your computer! or search up a song on the piano to listen to a piece on it, like canon in c, canon in d, pop songs, etc...

draw a stickman // click the menu if you want to change out the episodes with your little stickman fella. just sit back and enjoy the cute!

lofi room // find the instruments, hit the keys in time with the music to finish the intstrument, and find all to complete the song/beat!

little alchemy 2 // start with a few things like water, earth, fire, air. work your way into new things, new items.

birth year // what happened in my birth year? use this site to find out some things that happened the year you or someone you knew was born! get distracted and learn something new, perhaps!

you're getting old // some neat facts about different things to do with your age! how many breaths have approx. been taken, how man times the moon has orbited the earth since you've been around, what date you'll have been alive for 10,000 days at... things that happened in the years you were born, you were a child, you were a teenager. just neat to learn about!

find the invisible cow // volume warning, wouldn't recommend for headphone users/while wearing headphones as it's loud even for speakers, but you're basically finding an invisible animal based on a dude's voice/how loud him saying "cow!" gets. if you can handle loud noise/yelling, it's kinda funny hearing how scared of cows and goats the dude gets. you start with cows, then you can unlock goats, and then finally, foxes! but you can just stick to the cow, too :)

learn-how's, tutorials, get into something new!

guitar playing

learn another language!

build ships in bottles

developing film

origami

hand embroidery

make a glass terrarium

different types of coding

wood-whittling

make a candle

knit a scarf

backyard/amateur astronomy

yo-yo tricks and how-tos!

start a collection

make a personalized stationery set

learn to play chess, and learn chess set-ups/moves!

guerilla gardening

chart your family tree

easy party magic tricks

floral design/flower arrangement

learn to skateboard

turn your handwriting into a font

get into pixel art

reminders, self care, helpful websites for grounding yourself, remembering to breathe, etc...

yoga and chair yoga

emergency compliments/encouragements

repeat to yourself. validation/reminders

stress analyst. work through what's bringing you stress or use after a stressful experience. check back in on what your stress levels are like afterward. it'll offer tips and things to help.

you feel like shit. lets work on that, or little things that could be causing it - this is one of my favourite/most recommended resource here for getting yourself taken care of and either helping you through the root of what's making you feel bad, or at least helping make things easier for you now and for future you so you feel a little less shitty later.

make a thought diary

belly breathing for anxiety, and energy boosts.

trouble falling asleep? a few tips from a blog to help with that.

ways to remember to take your meds!

when you don't have the spoons/energy to shower.

who's the cutest? :)

do nothing for 2 minutes. take a moment. breathe!

one breathing exercise doesn't work for you? try some others. three different kinds to try out here.

sleep calculator, to figure out when you should sleep in cycles to be well-rested and not too groggy for the certain time you need to be up at.

more breathing exercises - this time in the form of following a gif, if you do better with a visual representation of the length of time you should be doing something!

some guided meditations by UCLA, if you struggle to meditate on your own!

vent. a site to share your feelings with a community that also might be feeling those feelings, or those who care. kind of a social media but for feelings.

what's affecting your sleep? check through these things, see if adjustments help!

mindful thinking. take in the things around you, remember how to feel in full when it feels like you have, or you actually have, been numb for days.

50 meditation tips.

some small tips for calming yourself or surrounding yourself with calming things.

what works for you may or may not work for others, there's no shame in finding very specific things that help you care for yourself when it comes to certain things. but at the very least, no matter who you are: do these things for me, and then get some rest. you can come back to the other things another day if you think they'll help you.

[cakeinpants]

Even when they were back to the overwhelming buzzing streets of Nolybab, Pat felt a lot more relaxed in Kyung's company. The dancer felt like he had someone he could trust near, so unfamiliar places weren't scary. He was curiously studying the building they were approaching when Kyung brought up a question for Maximus.

"This isn't exactly my usual place of choice to hang out, but I've been here a couple times." Max replied. The drone was a more common guest at bars or night clubs, but taking Pat to one of those places was definitely not a good idea.

As soon as they entered Arcadia, Pat found himself surrounded by a cacophony of flashing colors, chiptune music and sound effects from numerous game machines mixed together.

"This place is crazy!" The dancer said with a chuckle. He took a moment to look around the main room with a variety of game machines and the prize counter in front of them that was full of useless but fun-looking trinkets. "So you can win prizes here?"

"Yep." Max confirmed. "Do you like anything from here?"

"Oh, I don't know.. I don't really care about.." Pat said hesitantly, but then something got a small giggle out of him. "That one's silly." He pointed at a fluffy meep keychain on display with bright green fur and it's little tongue sticking out. "Reminds me of the meep plushie I had back home.. but weirder."

Home.. Pat suddenly felt a small sting of homesicknes. His room, soft bed, and among the pillows - that very plushie sent to him by an anonymous admirer. Quiet cooing of his pet bird and a neverending lullaby of echoes from people practicing singing and playing in the neighbouring rooms. How he wanted to go back there...

But the dancer quickly brushed off the feeling. He wasn't going to let it distract him from a fun day. "You know, maybe I'll try to get this guy." He said as he looked at the fluffy keychain. "At least, if I'm any good at those games..."

Max was immediately set on the goal. "Consider it yours." He smiled with enthusiasm. "Let's play some games?"

Pat chuckled. "Alright... I'd love to try out that whyrl-twirl-dancing one." He said cheerfully, than turned to Kyung. "What about you, Ms. Kyung?"

Pat was catching Kyung's every word, smiling at her contagious enthusiasm as she was talking about the plants from her homeland.

"Leelies? This is like a whole boat!" The dancer looked at the Giant Water Leely in fascination. "Looks like it could hold me."

"Well, you maybe." Maximus chuckled.

Then the company took a moment to admire the Mugnolia.

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. It looks so gentle and... fragile." The dancers expression turned pensive for a moment. "It's beautiful."

The vibrant red Warriors Rose was no less beautiful. But finally the little tour by Kyung came to an end.

"Honestly, I feel like I could wander around here forever." Pat chuckled. "But you're right, we should probably get going."

"Yeah, let's go." Maximus readily agreed. He was a little bored, and still frustrated about the female interrupting his plans, so he wanted to just get it over with.

Pat took a good look around one more time before the company headed to the exit. Soon they were back to the loud Nolybab streets.

[baphomet-media]

Techno Ninjas - A Cyber Shadow Review

Genre: Action

Subgenre: 2D Platformer

Developer: Mechanical Head Studios

Publisher: Yacht Club Games

Platform(s): All current platforms, reviewed on Xbox Series X

Release Date: January 26th, 2021

Cyber Shadow burst onto the indie scene back in January to mostly positive feedback. Being published by Yacht Club (the developers of Shovel Knight) is enough of an endorsement for me, so I was excited to check it out when it launched on Game Pass. The game is a clear throwback to 80s titles such as Ninja Gaiden but with modern improvements (not to be confused with the other Ninja Gaiden-inspired game, The Messenger that was released a few years back). Does the game live up to the hype, or does it get stunlocked into a bottomless pit? Let’s find out.

Story

Cyber Shadow follows the titular Shadow, the last in a clan of ninjas who is revived in a cyborg body to avenge his clanmates and rescue his beloved master from the clutches of the evil Dr. Progen who overran Mekacity with robots and wiped out the ninja clan. On the surface, the story seems like your classic MegaMan-esque plot, but as the game goes along the player finds the spirits of fallen ninja, text journals, and flashbacks that really flesh out the world and add a lot of mystery. I was seriously impressed with how deep the game’s story was, for its medium, presenting easily-digestible story chunks that made you think about how everything tied together without being overlong and outstaying their welcome.

Along the way, you even learn more about Dr. Progen and why he’s doing what he’s doing. The game never excuses his actions, but definitely makes you feel like you understand his motives in a believable way.

Aside from that, there’s not much to say about the story! This is an action game, so the writing necessarily takes a back seat while still establishing the world and motivations.

Gameplay

Cyber Shadow is a platforming action game in the vein of classic Ninja Gaiden games from the NES days. The game is presented across a series of levels where the goal is to survive to the end and usually defeat a boss. Along the way, you’ll have to contend with various mechanical enemies, environmental hazards, bottomless or spiked pits, laser beams, toxic sludge, and more. It’s all pretty standard stuff, but don’t get complacent, as the game is quite challenging. Enemies are near constant, and spikes and pits mean instant death, so getting through levels requires precision and mastery of the game’s movement and combat mechanics. Fortunately, there are no lives or game overs. When you die, and you will die over and over, you merely go back to the last activated checkpoint and can immediately continue. This means that even though the game is challenging, you never feel like it’s impossible, and you can always keep trying. Additionally, the game lets you spend its currency on upgrading the checkpoints to allow them to completely refill your health and/or spirit gauge instead of only doing half, as well as dropping a bonus weapon. This allows you to make difficult sections slightly easier for yourself without completely spoiling the game’s challenge.

When you start out, Shadow only has the very basic techniques: running, jumping, and swinging his sword. At first, it seems frustrating that you can only attack in front of you, and it feels like being able to slash upward and crouch would be useful, but the game makes up for these in time. Soon you gain access to multiple special attacks that use your special gauge, such as shuriken projectile attacks, a burning uppercut that sends multiple projectiles upward, a dash attack that can one-hit KO weaker enemies in your path and propel you forward, a charge attack that can modify your other special attacks, and more. The shuriken is mostly situational, however all the other special attacks are highly useful, and the game actively rewards you for trying them out, as defeating enemies with special attacks is much more likely to drop special gauge refills, and with the dash attack it always does so. By the time you unlock the dash attack, it becomes an essential part of your moveset. One gripe I had with it, though, is that by default the binding for this ability is to double-tap the D pad in the direction you want to dash, which can be tricky to do in tight situations. Fortunately, the game allows you to remap the dash to the right bumper, which felt more natural for me. By the end of the game, you can constantly chain together dash attacks, double jumps, pogo attacks, and more to skillfully zip through the game’s later levels. This is a great example of the game making the player feel more powerful as they advance, making you feel like a true cyber ninja by the end.

The other main gameplay mechanic is bonus weapons. These are temporary upgrades such as a longer sword attack, an orbiting laser attack, a special gauge refill dispenser, and more that slightly augment your abilities. You can only have one at a time, and as you take damage the bonus weapons will degrade until after only a few hits they’re completely gone. I found these to be slightly useful, but mostly extraneous. They never felt like a tipping point between failure and success and were more distractions than anything.

Finally, the boss battles. About half your play time in Cyber Shadow will just be hammering away at bosses. Despite this, they never feel grueling or unfair, more, it’s just a matter of learning patterns and improving your skills to dodge their attacks and strike at just the right time. My favorite boss was the Mekadragon, a water-based boss which heavily reminds me of Serris from Metroid Fusion. Half of the challenge is just knocking down the whirligig robots in the boss arena to create temporary platforms for you to stand on just so that you can hit the boss.

Presentation

Cyber Shadow is a gorgeous 8Bit-inspired pixel art game that follows in the footsteps of similar games like Shovel Knight that present a modern take on 8bit visuals and music. Some of my favorite bits of art were some of the cutscene vignettes, which were highly detailed and expressive. The game’s music is a banger of heavy chiptunes that perfectly portray the dark and somber atmosphere juxtaposed with the bright and flashy 80s cyberpunk aesthetics.

Conclusion

Cyber Shadow is a quick but challenging game that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but does a great job at what it sets out to do, which is being a hard-but-fair throwback to retro titles, which I personally think blows them out of the water. If you’re a fan of retro-inspired games or just like a challenge, definitely give this game a shot. You won’t be let down.

Score: 8 / 10

[mytastessuck]

Ween: Quebec

LAh, Quebec. Hated upon its release, nowadays considered Ween's best album. Listening to this album, modern-day listeners may wonder why this album received such a chilly reception when it came out. Well, in between Gener's divorce, Claude's near-fatal car accident and just a general shitty time to be members of the band, the mood of this album felt drearier and noticeably more cynical than their other records. In some respects, this album is heavier than The Oneness and sloggier than The Pod. But its rawness works to its advantage in that this is one of the realest examples of art I've ever listened to and the fact that Ween could get this out while going through the wringer says a lot about their talent, determination and how blessed they are by the Boognish.

Let's get started.

1. It's Gonna Be A Long Night

As far as Motorhead tributes go, this is most likely the best. Try to find a better parody of Lemmy's voice. Don't try. You'll be embarrassing us both. This track goes hard as fuck while still being something you blast out your window while you pick your niece up from school. Bonus points for the scream at the end.

1975/10

2. Zoloft

Best tribute to a drug I've ever heard. Only pussies sing about cocaine and heroin. Real musicians give tributes to behavioral-modifying over-the-counter pills that let you deal with jackasses all day. Ween knows their drugs and they know who the real hero is.

25/10

3. Transdermal Celebration

Ladies and Gentleman, my second favorite song of all time.

When I heard this song for the first time, I broke down in tears. The guitar work (thanks to Carlos Santana's stolen guitar, oddly enough), the beautifully sung lyrics, the sheer mental imagery...I can't put it into words which makes me a really shitty reviewer now that I think of it but that's what you guys came for. I have three different versions of this song on my playlist and really, nothing makes me feel closer to understanding what it's all about besides this song and another one. This song...is universe.

ℵ0/10

4. Among His Tribe

A peaceful song about a day in the life of a man in a tribe. Pretty chill fare. Very cool to mellow out to while imagining how people from you might leave. Always a nice venture.

10/10

5. So Many People In The Neighborhood

A nice paranoid ditty about your neighbors. Bizarre instrumentation but it asks an important question about your neighbors: are they good people?

...

...They aren't.

9/10

6. Tried And True

A nice song to sing along with when you're around other people. If some brave soul asks where the song's from, say it's from the 60s. Hell, tell them it was by Harry Nilsson. That'll put an old dog toy in their craw.

11/10

7. Happy Colored Marbles

Here we get to the meat of the album, where one side of a man wonders about people's mental state why the other side just thinks about playing with marbles. Well, we don't have to pay any attention to the first part. It's not like it foreshadows anything about where the tone is going with the son---WOAH, THAT'S FUCKING LOUD! Jesus, is this what they play to get the guys on Twitch to scream like that?

2500/10

8. Hey There Fancypants

Ah, finally after all that horrid nonsense, we finally get to listen to proper music! Yes, this is a delightful tune that one can play in front of beloved Queen Victoria before we are taken into the Royal Loo in order to perform the Sacred Cunnlingus, as one is wont to do. Yes, if those Ween folks focused more on making music like this instead of all that other dreck, we might actually be able to do something about this Indian problem once and for all!

10/10

9. Captain

A song to be played at night while you're sailing back to shore as you see a storm gathering overhead. No other situation is appropriate.

9/10

10. Chocolate Town

Time to head down to Chocolate Town where all the folks look at you like you don't belong there, whether you were born and raised there or not. That's the vibe I get from this song or not. Seriously though, nice of Ween to creep a bit of darkness into such a pleasant sounding song. Always a sucker for that shit.

10/10

11. I Don't Want It

Love how this song manages to capture the feeling of how it feels to watch a relationship crumble before your eyes without being able to stop it. The divorce really shows it swinging dick in the latter half of the album and its super apparent on this track. I don't want to wish this situation on any of you but for those that have experience this...remember to hold onto the memories.

11/10

12. The Fucked Jam

Ugh, this song always makes me uncomfortable. I don't know if it's the voices or the instrumentation or chiptune-like mumbling but...yeah, this song just weirds me out in the wrong way. Nothing offensive here though.

5/10

13. Alcan Road

Ah, finally back on solid ground. Nice tune to trip out to while imagining yourself levitating up a mountain. Nice shit and a real step up.

9/10

14. The Argus

One of Ween's more downcast songs and it earns its tune by being one of their darker works. May the Argus cast his compassion upon us indeed.

10/10

15. If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)

Gene really airs it all out on this track and fuck, it's some of the rawest shit I've heard in music. He lets out all of the frustration he had about the marriage in one song and he kills it in a way that Taylor Swift, Eminem, or Carly fucking Simon could only aspire to. Great way to vent about divorce and great way to end an album.

11/10

Album Score: ℵ0+4605/10

Next time, we review White Pepper, probably Ween's second most underrated album. See you then.