I Cast Magic Missile: An Introduction (Part 1)

                When critics and even gamers look at games today, they base much of their judgment on how free their gameplay style is – how many options there are available for them to customize their character, where they can go, what they can do, and so on. Most games are limited by the development team’s size, time allotment, and the style of game they’re producing. But there is one game out there that has only one limit: the imagination of its players. A group of five people can sit down for a couple hours and come up with a game that has never been conceived before, all the while having loads of fun, and not even noticing the time passing.

                What is this miracle game, some may ask?

                Well, it is known by many names. Some call it stupid, nerdy, and a waste of time; others refer to it as the greatest game ever devised; most, however, know it only as Dungeons and Dragons (or DnD for short).

                Once one can make it around the negative social stigmas associated with DnD, it is truly the most enormous game playable. To begin, one simply needs an imaginative mind and a group of friends. While guidebooks are available for purchase, they are known as guidebooks for a reason: they serve only to give players ideas as to what they could do in the game. But before a prospective player can dive into even the simplest game, they must first know the basics.

                Present in every session of Dungeons and Dragons are the players – they are, after all, the center of the storyline. They generally number from two to six (though this limitation can be expanded if they are experienced), and fall within one of two categories: the adventurers and the Dungeon Master (DM). Adventurers are the most numerous of the group, making up the majority of those at the table, as they play the characters that the story generally revolves around. They can come from any walk of life, and have any amount of experience (or a lack thereof). However, the Dungeon Master fills a very important role: s/he is the one that controls the world surrounding the adventurers, from plot to geography and everything in between. Dungeon Masters are generally very experienced players that have been gaming DnD and know its subtleties well, though there are exceptions (such as myself) that jump into the role with no prior knowledge to fill a hole in a gaming group.

[Note: I've decided to divide this blog up into many separate parts, as it will be incredibly lengthy. So watch for the next part as it is released!]

(Blogging week 2)

Free Download of the Month: Cave Story

A while back, a friend of mine, Danny Davies, brought up the Japanese game Cave Story in casual conversation. I was intrigued, and thought that because it was a free download, it could do no harm, and I tried it out. I expected a meager, hand-crafted game with a few bugs and slightly choppy or unbalanced gameplay; I received quite the opposite. The original developer, Studio Pixel, had crafted a masterpiece in 8-bit, and didn't even set a price - though many players (myself included) would've been glad to pay, if only to support the creator.
How was this homemade game a masterpiece, you might ask?

Well, it all boils down to a couple of things: what makes 8-bit shooter games endearing - simple beginning controls with a learning curve easy enough to follow but also challenging enough to be interesting, fast-paced gameplay, and intense music (which I was delightfully surprised by - but this I'll return to later). Yet it also brings back an element many modern games lack that was generally present on the true 8- and 16-bit systems: a full-fledged plotline with twists and turns. All of these elements combined to make a wonderful game that I was drawn to complete in my first sit-down of 7 hours.

 After a cutscene showing a man in distress attempting to contact his sister, you awaken abruptly in a cave with no idea what to do or where to go. There’s no tutorial because the controls are so simple: the arrow keys move you, and Z makes you jump. As you explore the cavern you’re trapped in, you steal your first weapon from a smith you find asleep in his room, and you quickly learn that X fires the meager pistol of yours. Your first shots are taken at the bats that chip 1 of your 3 health away, and you eventually end up in a small city of humanoid animals. As the story progresses, you discover that your character is a soldier with amnesia, sent from the surface with a group of humans to explore the island floating in the sky that you’re on. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but the conflict is interesting, and there are many choices that affect gameplay and the storyline immensely. The music is interesting from the start, and completely 8-bit, which I adore – it sounds as though Studio Pixel even routed an original NES soundcard for the audio bits. Using a hand-crafted editing program, Studio Pixel produced tunes that fit each and every scene in the game, ranging from ambient cave percussion to intense boss battle themes.

 Cave Story found its way into my heart within the first forty minutes after I started it up, and I’m sure that if you give it a shot, you’ll love it as well.

English Cave Story Site

Final note: remember that this game was produced originally in Japanese, and that you must install a patch to play it through with its English translation. Both the original download and said patch can be found at the site above.

Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast

(Blogging Week 1)

Retro Gaming 01: Megaman, Mortal Kombat, and Scott Pilgrim

This blog begins what may become a series of retro (8-bit, 16-bit, etc) games...if it's received well enough and I like writing it. :D

Games such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Mortal Kombat, and the Megaman series may seem to have nothing in common when one merely glances at them. They emerged at different times, on different systems, and entirely different eras. However, they're tied together by a few key points in their core: they all float about (and generally improve upon) the generic 'beat-the-baddie' formula, their graphics and their music at least started in the realm of 8- or 16- bit, and how well they were received. I absolutely love all three of these games, and I'll be reviewing them today.

The Megaman game series had the first release of these three games, with the first of its many (now above 50) installments simply dubbed Megaman (or ロックマン - Rockman). Debuting in December 1987, this game's story revolves around the character Megaman, an adaptable robot set in a crumbling futuristic society that has mastered the art of building those similar to him. He was created by Dr. Light originally as a simple robot, but was refurbished with the famed Mega Buster to combat the evil Dr. Wily, whose 8 robot menaces conquered the world. Though the storyline may seem cookie-cutter, the intense run-and-gun on-rails shooter had many different possible playthroughs. The first installment had 6 Robot Masters that one could fight in any order. After defeating one singular boss, Megaman would gain their weapon, which he could then use in any other stage (though it had limited ammo, unlike the Mega Buster). After besting all 6 Robot Masters, the Dr Wily Stage opened, where one would proceed through 4 linked stages and a battle with all 6 Robot Masters, and then finally Dr. Wily.

My favorite installment in the series is Megaman 2 (available on iTouch as an app) because of its longer gameplay (8 bosses, 3 difficulties), catchy music, and generally fun nature.

The Mortal Kombat series came second, releasing first in arcades, and then on consoles as its popularity rose. It was a 2D fighting game known for the complexity of its movesets as well as the goriness of its 'Fatalities', which allowed players to absolutely decimate their enemies, reducing them to fleshy mush and blood. Because of these factors, it became a cult hit, and eventually spread over into the realm of consoles. Even today, it lives on, and though it is not as strong as it once was, it preserves its roots of goriness and complicated moves.

I personally love how Guile's theme goes with EVERYTHING. (Really. Look it up on youTube whilst doing anything and it will sync up perfectly. Especially exercise.)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the third of these three great games, and is the only one that is not (and most likely won't be) a full-fledged series. The plot is based upon the movie: Scott Pilgrim really wants to date Ramona, and thusly must fight the League of Evil Exes to be able to do so. Its gameplay is relatively simple compared to the other two games: you sidescroll through 8 worlds, fighting any number of goons, and eventually arrive at the stage's boss, who is any one of Ramona's evil exes. Though it may be considered dumbed-down to some, I find its simplicity endearing, and a wonderful introduction to the combo-based system that many fighters use today. Its music is upbeat and fun, and its stat and leveling systems are the epitome of what a casual game's systems should be.

Megaman II: Dr. Wily's Theme, Part 1

Guile's Theme

Scott Pilgrim vs the World - Another Winter

Have fun, good gaming, and remember: don't feed the trolls.

-Toast

(Blogging Week 1)

Awesome Game Music: The Elder Scrolls

Today, I was fantasizing (as I often do) about the upcoming game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, when the theme music popped into my head. I've got it practically memorized at this point, after watching the trailer so many times, yet it's still as awesome as the first time I heard it. The huge choir knocks me flat each time, though they're singing in a 'language' (lacking syntax or grammar) present only in the realm of the game. After I had played through its final decrescendo and wiped the tears of awe from my eyes, I realized just why this music was so amazing: it connected with what I had listened to in my earlier years - to be more specific, a game earlier in the series.
My friend Brandon got me started on the Elder Scrolls game series when I was but 11 years old, and then, the latest Elder Scrolls game was Morrowind, the third installation. Its opening theme used a rumbling bass, coupled with a piccolo, that struck up an epic melody with a symphony as the title of the game appeared on the screen, and it was the most awesome theme I'd ever heard (which was saying something - I'd played through Super Mario Bros Deluxe and Pokemon Silver plenty of times by then, which are both classics, in the realm of music and games). The next installment of the game, Oblivion, brought the melody from Morrowind back in its introduction theme, though much more subtly, focusing instead on themes that sounded more imperialistic and filled with doom.
Skyrim's introduction throws back to Morrowind's, but in a much more obvious way than the Oblivion intro had. It preserves the melody almost perfectly, using a full symphony with choral accompaniment. There are many differences, however, that are used to portray the nature of the game: the staccato notes in the brass and the choir are much more intense than the legato phrases played by the piccolo and the symphony in the Morrowind theme, the choir emphasizes the importance of language and vocabulary, and the general feel of the two songs are very much different. While the Morrowind intro piece is calm and beautiful, Skyrim's theme is (artistically) chaotic, loud, and more explosive.

I absolutely love the way that these pieces connect the series together. The games are in the same series, and are connected by this and the lore they share, but also are strung to one another by this music, giving the series a sort of fluidity that not many other games have.

 Morrowind Theme 

Oblivion Theme
Skyrim Theme

Note: it's highly likely that, in the near future, I'll be doing another blog about these games focused mostly around gameplay mechanics.

The Elder Scrolls Series and all that stuff are copyright Bethesda and such and such. I take no credit in creating any of the media I present, nor do I make any profit from presenting it.

(2nd Note: This blog is similar to another post made by another music blog I had started, The Eerie Noise, because I changed my blog's theme.)

Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast

(Blogging Week 1)