Game Music: My Favorites – Numbero 14: My week off!

More articles about gaming music

So, I got a week off last week. I was planning to relax, but I did a lot of other things. From family stuff to studying and working for my evening classes. I also got sick in the last few days. Which is a major bummer since I could have done a bit more if I was less sick. In any case, I think it’s time to write another article about gaming music. Also, thank you Kitami for providing me with this art. I was planning to use it a while ago for a new series I had in mind, but I kind of put it on hold. In any case… If you are new to this series of mine, I listen a lot to game music. It keeps me focused at work and it can cheer me up when I’m down. I try to avoid duplicates on this list. Also, one track per franchise per article. For example, no two Zelda tracks in one article… But in two, just fine. Also, no remixes except when I tell otherwise in the introduction. So, are you ready for a few tracks that are lately playing quite a lot for me…? And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the music and or the games. 

Giana Sisters – Twisted Dreams (PC) ~ Dark Giana Track 2

First Impression

I wasn’t lying in my first impression article. The music in this game is truly amazing. It wasn’t an easy one to pick just one track from this game’s soundtrack.

After some time deciding, I chose this one. Just the mix of chiptune and rock vibe is mind blowing. If only I could play guitar and play this track. But that won’t be for any time soon, since I couldn’t even play the flute back in high school.

Why did I choose this track? Well, because it reminded me a lot of the original game. It might be a re-imaging but damn, the remake of this track is truly well done. Also, I’m still surprised how they were able to mix elements of chiptune and rock so well together.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (DS) ~  Objection! 2004

I’m disappointed at Capcom for cancelling the Ace Attorney spin off. Well, not exactly cancelling. The Great Ace Attorney. Oh well, I hope I can find a playthrough with English subtitles somewhere on the internet. Thankfully, they are bringing Ace Attorney 6 to the west.

I once tried to write a rant about Japanese games never getting a western release, but it didn’t turn out that well. Because I was listing to this nicely made track from the Ace Attorney series.

That reminds me, I should write an article about the Ace Attorney games I didn’t take a look at yet. I’ll put that on my ever growing list of games I want to review or write about.

In any case, I don’t think I need to explain why this is one of my favorite game series. Go dig around on my blog, you will find a couple of articles why I think this is one of the best series ever.

Virtue’s Last Reward (3DS) ~ Blue Bird Lamentation

Review

This. Song. It gets me every time. Just like the “Don’t Say Goodbye” songs at the end of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon… The writing, the atmosphere and the presentation make this a hard to swallow track. Then, they add a track like this. It will play with your feelings. And it will give it a hard slap. Not once, but at least twice.

Just play this game and when you get to this point, when the song plays… You will understand why I’m saying this. I wrote this part of the article at least three times since each and every time, I just wrote the same thing twice. The emotions that this music triggers is just that strong to me.

It’s a damn shame I forgot about this amazing track in all my other game music articles. But I have another “excuse” to talk about this track. They finally, FINALLY announced the sequel and it’s coming to the west! Heaven YES!

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS) ~ Boss Theme One

Now, here is a game I really should play again one day. It’s a game I nearly finished before somehow I lost my save file. If I remember correctly, I stupidly saved while I was in a new game. Yeah, that mistake. All those hours in a RPG, lost.

Well, back in 2012, there was an article floating around that there might be a new Golden Sun in the making if the fans asked for it. I’m really curious if the developers are making a new Golden Sun title. It would give me a reason to play the games. This is one of the games I always want to play but another game comes and distracts me. But I’m sure, one day I will actually play this game again. I’m sure of it!

Oh yeah… The music. I nearly forgot. The music of the first boss was the most memorable to me. Recently, I got the tune back in my head for some reason… It might be a sign. A sign that I need to play this game.

Age of Empires 2 (PC) ~ Music 10

First Impression

Well, recently I replayed Age Of Empires II HD Edition with my friends. Various memories came back to me. Memories from playing sessions when I played a lot of this game and memories from when I played this game with my sister.

This game was a big part of my childhood. I always played some singleplayer maps where I tried to conquer my enemies with various tactics. The “funny” thing is that I’m really bad in choosing what units are effective. So, yes, I’m not that good at the game. But I still had and I’m still having a lot of fun with this game. Now, I only wish that they make a remake of the original Age Of Empires game for Steam. That would be a real blessing. Now, I have to use my retro game PC to play the original.

In any case, I think that this song is one of my favorites. Oh, if you wonder about the name… I wasn’t able to find the names of each track. Somehow I wasn’t able to find the original names of this track. If you know, feel free to leave me a comment and I will fix it in my article.

Oh, and the new upcoming content for this series makes me almost forget that we, most likely, will never see Age Of Empires 4.

Wrapping up

I used this article to also talk a bit about announcements of games that are coming to us. Games that I’m truly excited about. Just today, I learned about Age Of Mythology’s new expansion pack. I linked an article from the official website. Also, are they creating a new expansion pack for Age Of Empires II HD?

In any case, I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Hopefully, you guys and girls discovered some new and nice music to listen too. In any case, I hope to welcome you in another article but until then, game on~.

First Impression: Age Of Empires II HD (PC) ~ Age Of Kings

Steam page

There are many games that call on my nostalgia. But this game is something special. It actually really defined my childhood. I can even give proof of that, since I made it’s way in my personal top 10 most influential games list. When I saw on Steam that this game was getting a remake, I was honestly hyped. I couldn’t wait to play it and play through the game again. I prepared myself for a flood of memories and nostalgia when I finally was able to click the download button. How was it? Let’s take a look! Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this game and or the content of this article. 

 HD remake?

I honestly don’t get why they put HD in the title. Since nearly exactly everything looks like how I remember the game. To me, the game looks more like a remastered version of the game. Maybe better said, an updated version of the game so that it can run on modern systems more easily.

While I don’t use all the new features, like Twitch.TV streaming, I’m extremely happy that this game got to Steam. While I don’t play RTS games for the story or the campaigns, I find this a very enjoyable game.

If I ever review this game, it might be possible that I don’t comment on the story. Since I love the actual core gameplay of building a city and destroying my enemy. If somebody wonders what my skill level in this game is, I nearly always beat the standard AI but the moderate AI is just a bit too hard for me. I’m not one of the best Age Of Empires players, but I know what I’m doing.

What this game does good, in terms of story, is a tutorial campaign. It helps you understand the bare basics of the game. Step by step you get explained how the game works. But it’s more then just a tutorial, it’s a true campaign! And if you aren’t careful, you might face more challenge then you first expected. But I agree with the real veteran RTS players, the tutorial doesn’t fully prepare you for the actual game.

Make more villagers

I have admitted it on Tumblr, I played this game more then I should have the last month with my great buddy MiseryLC. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t write so many articles at the start of this month. This is a good sign for a first impression, no?

The core gameplay is about putting your villagers to work, building up an army and attack the enemy. Don’t get me wrong, these are three very different tasks. Now, when I play a multiplayer match, one trend keeps popping up.

I’m more of a defensive player. I nearly always gather the most resources. My buddy MiseryLC is more of the army guy. He makes a great army to easily invade the enemy. My army cleans up so that I can use that land to expand our economy.

This is how I enjoy playing this game. I always have trouble remembering which units are strong against which units, so I have to focus less on military. I truly think that playing with a friend brings a nice balance to the game. You can really play in the style you prefer.

One of my favorite civilizations are the Huns. Simply because of the fact that I don’t need to use one or two villagers to spam houses down. This saves time and mostly wood. This wood can be used to build a navy. Now, here is where one complaint raises, if there is a any water, the AI will use it. And they will start building a navy. In some cases, this led to big frustration because I wasn’t able to build any dock since it got destroyed just a few minutes after  I build it. Trying to have one fishing ship out in the sea… It’s kind of a suicide mission.

Polish

In a later article I will talk more in depth about the music and graphics of this game. In this first impression of the game, I’ll mostly talk about the gameplay. (As I have been doing)

This game isn’t my favorite RTS game of all time. My favorite RTS game of all time is Rise Of Nations. While it’s different, some features could easily be ported over to Age of Empires. The biggest feature I would love to see make an appearance in Age Of Empires II HD is an auto-explore button for units. This would be really handy. Since the early stages of your game are crucial for the rest of the game.

But my biggest complaint is the reactions of the AI. When MiseryLC and I were playing, the AI would raise the alarm bell if one scout or one fishing ship was close to his dock. This is rather annoying. Also, when you ask him (or her) for resources, he always can never help. But if he does help, you get a laughable small amount. One match, I asked the AI to give me some food. I got some food and seconds later, he asks for food.

The most irritating of all is the placement of the buildings. I had moments when the AI started to build mine camps at locations where I had already mined out all the resources. In the end, the whole map could be filled with mining or woodcutter camps of your ally. This issue should really get looked into. Since it’s extremely annoying. One time it nearly made me loose the game since my units couldn’t arrive in time to save some important and strategic placed walls.

Anyways, I think I will leave it here with my complaining. I can’t deny that this game needs some additional bug fixing. This game might not be in early access, but that doesn’t mean that this game is 100% ready. The connection issues can surely prove that.

In any case, I think I’ll leave it here. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I prepared writing it. If you don’t get how the gameplay works while you were interested in the game, feel free to ask me about the game in the comments. Since I already recommend this game to every RTS or Strategy player. Yeah. Anywhoooo, I hope to see you in a next article! Take care~

10 most influential games (series) in my life.

I played a lot of games. On the computer, DS, gameboy and many other platforms. In this article I will talk about my list of games/game series that had the most influence on my life, game life and or style. This list is somewhat in an order, but sometimes this list can change for me currently. I won’t update this list but it might happen that I make another list with 10 influential games to me. But one thing is for sure. These 10 are the current games that have or had the most influence on me. They either made me love a game genre, a series, make me happy or made me change my personality. As experiment, I would like to know what games you guys think changed you. Drop them in the comments. Probably there will be similar games. But all these games on this list come extremely recommend. There is rule though, when I select a game from a series, I won’t use the series again in another slot. That’s why I allowed myself to pick game series.

#10: 9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors & Virtue’s Last Reward

I already explained why I liked Virtue’s Last Reward so much. In that review I also mentioned the game 999. This game didn’t come to Europe and I had to import this game.

I am truly glad that I imported this game for my DS. The story is quite thrilling and made me love the visual novel genre. Since this game, I got a harsh judge on game stories. I get somewhat disappointed when a game has a weak story that doesn’t draw me in. All thanks to this game.

I often listen to the music, which makes many situations intense. I often use it as inspiration when I am writing stories, whenever I have to write a trilling part. It makes the story write itself.

What I loved so much are the puzzles to escape a room. I often try the Android games where you need to escape a room. It doesn’t do the same thing to me but hey, nostalgia!

In addition to that, the different endings where genius. There were based on the path you took and really made you come back to see what actually happened.

#9:  Game Dev Story

 A fair warning, when you download this game onto your Android or iPhone, well be prepared to not put it down for quite a while.

This game is getting pretty popular to the point where GreenHartGames made a spin-off on it. But it’s this game that made me think. Are there good games on the Android market like this one? And yes, there are. I explored the Android Market and really got some fun games to play.

I was against tablets but thanks to this game I got myself a tablet for my last birthday and I sometimes continue my adventures on the Android market.

The game actually made me do something I always wanted to do. Make games and being the head of a game company. The amazing references really make the game have some humor that even make it less easy to put this game down. The other games of this studio are extremely fun and really a play worth but this game is where it started for me.

#8: Age Of Empires / Age Of Mythology

This game series was very important to me since it introduced me into strategy games. I recall many moments where I go online with the Age Of Mythology to do some matches.

It made me even go so far that when I played cop & robber with my friends that we got somehow to a version of this game. Yes, I swear that we played these kinds of things in my backyard.

This game series is nearly flawless, expect the major failure that is named Age Of Empires Online, and I still love it to this day. I follow blogs and people who make expansion packs on their own for the games and I often try them out.

This game really made me and my sister sit behind the computer for hours on end. We even asked if we could install the game on our parents their computer, so we could play over LAN. Those were fun days.

I once even entered a tournament where I lost, but I truly remember getting ready for it and trying new strategies out all day.

I’m now grown out of the game. It has been quite some time since I played one of the series. Well, maybe after this article I go get my game discs and install and play it.

#7: Halo (PC)

I hate shooters, yet I often play one. My view on shooters really changed thanks to this game. I might call myself a fan of the series. I don’t own a XBOX 360 to play the other games, and I don’t plan to. A good friend of mine told me that they are going in the wrong direction with the series.

This game I played online so often that my mother got angry that I didn’t play anything else then shooters. And I had to shut down the game for a while.

I played this game even with my girlfriend and I truly had some big fun. The story in this game was extremely well done and made me try other shooters. A genre I think is overpopulating the market now-a-days.

It also made my interests go to space for quite a while and when I heard there was a DS game under development I got extremely excited. And man, was I disappointed that this game was canceled or fake. I don’t know it for sure yet.

If you haven’t played this game, shame on you, get this game and play it after you read this article. It’s fun and after I finished this game again, I will sure to write a review on this gem of a game. But yeah, most people probably played this game already since the first XBOX got popular thanks to this game.

#6: Rollercoaster Tycoon

“Mom and dad, please don’t shut down our PC. We’ll lose our progress.”.  I don’t remember how often I told that to my parents when playing this game. The version we had, had trouble loading save files and we finished to scenario’s in one go.

My sister & I played this game an awful lot on the computer, and we actually took turns to finish a scenario. When one of us was playing this game, the other sat there watching carefully and enjoying seeing the park grow and getting more money.

As kids, we weren’t all that great in finishing this game. We made stupid decisions yet, we had some major fun.

Like with the 3rd game. I was so thrilled when I got my stronger computer for Christmas and when I was able to play this game at home. Before I had to wait when we went to my grandparents because their computer was strong enough to run the game. I even remember that I had to write on their blackboard in order to ask permission to play the game. Yeah, bad handwriting.

But I never played the 2nd game in the series. Now that my collection is complete of this series, I am going to try the 2nd game rather soon after I finish the first game.

#5: Ace Attorney series

Playing as an attorney is boring! OBJECTION! It isn’t. At all. This game actually introduced me to the visual novel series, and I am grateful for that.

Nearly everything in these games is perfect in my eyes and when I’m going to review them, I will have some major trouble finding bad things in these games.

Some quotes of the game even slipped in my vocabulary and yes, some character movements actually slipped inside my handelings.

I’m extremely excited to see the 5th game in stores since we didn’t get one game in the series.

This series truly made my love for my Nintendo DS even grow bigger and I never could put it down since then. So HOLD IT, and give this game a go. You won’t regret it if you like games where you need to think and get a great story.

#4: Minecraft

Do you truly require me to explain why Minecraft has such a big influence on me? My review wasn’t clear enough about that? Oh well, let me tell you why it’s so important to me.

First of all, it made me travel to Paris again. For MineCon, where other Minecrafters gather. I rarely go outside my house. (Let’s ignore my theatre group here)

Secondly, this game brought my friends and myself pretty close. My best friend MiseryLC & I wouldn’t be such good buddies if it wasn’t for Minecraft.

Third, this game let me do what I want. Nothing in the game is going to limit me to play the game how I want.

And last point is, I met my girlfriend thanks to Minecraft. Long story, I’ll spare you guys. But that are 4 major reasons why this game deserves such a high spot in this list.

#3: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine 

Surprisingly enough, this game doesn’t get the number one spot. The game that spawned my nickname. I love the Indiana Jones series and actually it’s something that has been extremely important in my life.

I remember seeing the first movie in the rental store and after I watched it as a 7 year old, mostly not understanding a letter of what they were saying, I was hooked.

I watched the other movies and once one of my cousins learned that, he showed me this game. And I loved it right away. I didn’t play anything 3D before this game and when we started playing this game, like I told, I couldn’t stop playing.

My love for the Indiana Jones games went a bit downhill once Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb was released but I prefer this game above the other one. This is a game I know nearly by heart. I often try to play it and I got me sad when I found out that I wasn’t able to finish my LP on my Youtube channel.

I played the levels in my backyard together with friends. Yes, we tried to make it exactly go like how the developers made the level in the game.

Oh, and thanks LucasArts. Rest in peace guys.

#2: Pokémon (and all their spin-offs)

Find me one gamer of my generation that doesn’t know the first Pokémon game. This game is almost so well known it might just be popular then the flagship title of Nintendo.

I really love this series, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t finished the latest entries yet (I got distracted by other games),  and I plan to replay the games rather soon.

The many spin-offs in this series really made me love the series more. I loved to draw circles in Pokémon Ranger, and I even started to have interested when I played Pokémon Pinball.

Every game in the series has an element that draws me in and makes me finish the game.I’m really looking forward to the newest games X & Y. To see what they are going to do with the series next. But now, I need to finish the latest Mystery Dungeon game.

So, what’s your favorite generation? Mine is the 3rd one. The Ruby, Saphire and Emerald games are truly my biggest favorites and recently have beaten my old favorites Gold & Silver.

#1: The Legend of Zelda

The people who know me really should have seen this one coming. I simply can’t put down a Zelda game. I truly am a big Zelda fan. When I was on my trip to America, I bought myself a wallet, shirts and other merchandise of the series.

I nearly got a tear in my eye when I was able to hold an actual NES cartrigde of the first game. (I don’t own a NES, but I have the first game as the GBA release).

I am such a big fan that I even saved up to go to the concert of the Zelda music. Wait, that’s mostly classical music and I listen to electronic genres. Yes, my dedication for the series is that big.

I own even the Zelda Historia AND I pre-ordered my DS for the only reason that there was a Zelda game released on it. It was also my first game I played and did I enjoy it.

I can talk ages about the series but I won’t. I need to finish this article.

Honorable mentions.

Let’s just write it in a list. Freddi Fish, Broken Sword, God Of War, Dragon Quest, Time Hollow, Peggle, Tetris DX, Draw My Life, Corpse Party, Hungry Shark Evolution, Kirby, Desperados, Devil May Cry 4….

I can go on for a long time but this article has run long enough. It pains my hart that I had to leave out so many great games. I might even have forgotten some great games. Oh well, maybe I write another article about this subject where I talk about 10 other games that changed my life. But like I said, these 10 games are the 10 MOST influential. Thanks for reading and I hope that I see you another time on my blog.

Cheers,

NekoJonez~