My favorite game music #6: Can’t stop writing these.

It’s that time again. Time to write another entry in my series of best game music ever made. Now, to be clear. This is my opinion. So, if you dislike a track, that’s good. It would be scary if we had the exact same taste. Anyways, give these tracks a listen and read the explanation I wrote next to the box-art. Maybe you find new music for your music library or maybe even new games to play. Apart from the story, I’m very into how a game draws people in and music is a big part in that. Generally, I’m look at content as an exterminator. I ask myself: “Why do people like this?”. I want to learn from that to bring even better content. Yeah. But before we start, let me say the usual again. In this article, only one track of a game for each article. If I like other tracks as well, that means I have to put them at another article. Feel free to leave a comment on this article with your opinion on this article and / or the tracks.

#1: Kirby’s Adventure Wii (Wii) – Super Ability

Link

I have only started playing this game rather recently. I’m even planning to write a first impression on it rather soon.

This game is full of amazing tracks. Sadly, they don’t always fit the scenery quite well. It’s such a shame.

This adventure isn’t a simple remake of the gameboy classic under the same name. Well, nearly the same name, with the “Wii” dropped.

This track is very upbeat and energetic. You can feel the power in your remote. In a way. This track is one of the main reasons why playing with the super ability is so much fun!

So, if you want to know my opinion of the game, keep an eye on my blog when I post the first impression of it. Otherwise, when I don’t find the time, here is my opinion in short. It’s one of the best Kirby games I have played. But there are some minor flaws that take away from the game.

#2: Alice: Madness Returns (PC ~ Steam) – Combat Theme

Link

Recently, I have written a first impression article about this game. I’m still quite surprised how this game has such a short OST from the results I get from Google.

Most likely, I was derping up when I looked for the full soundtrack. Why did I look for the full soundtrack? Well, I can’t fully decide which one of the tracks is my favorite one.

Most, if not all, of the tracks in the soundtrack of this game are good candidates for making it up on my list. They are just amazing and fun to listen to.

They draw you into the game without any problem at all. I want to finish this game for more reasons then the music alone.

I know that this is a sequel. Normally I always play the original first. But I wasn’t able to find the original. If somebody finds the original copy online somewhere, feel free to contact me. I’m quite interested to play the first game.

#3: Tetris (Gameboy) – Theme A.

Link

Some of you are having nostalgia right now for sure. I wish I put the music here from Tetris DX but that might be for another article. Since I have selected this track for this article.

And dayum, does this game have some big nostalgic memories for me. I have played this game to pieces. At one point I even had three copies of this game. I wanted to play this game with friends… so yeah, I got copies from garage sales and such.

This game is one of the first actual games I played in my life. For many, it’s Pokémon or Pac-Man… But for me it’s Tetris. Maybe that’s why I have such a big love for puzzle games. I started out with one of the biggest titles in puzzle game history.

And to close off this part, did you know that Tetris is one of the main reasons why the Gameboy was so popular? Yeah, look it up. Or I might talk about it in another article.

#4: Tomb Raider (PC) – Adventure Found Me!

Tomb Raider Survivor Box-Art.

Link

This short but sweet introduction track is one I played on replay when I was writing my notes for Alan Wake or my Tomb Raider articles. It just fits the mood of those kinds of games.

But I fell in love with this track when I heard this remixed into a hardstyle track. Kodex remixed this music, with the actual voice acting and such into their track.

And the quote, is actually one of my life quotes. Apart from the “Valour, for thy name is education.” … This is the quote I life by:

A famous explorer once said, that the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are. I’d finally set out to make my mark; to find adventure. But instead adventure found me. In our darkest moments, when life flashes before us, we find something; Something that keeps us going. Something that pushes us.

Yeah, it inspired me to do great things. Like starting a blog and meeting new people. It has been quite an adventure!

#5: Pandora’s Tower (Wii) – 1st Master Theme

Link

Now we didn’t get the Devil May Cry on the Wii, yet this game is extremely close. It feels like a clone of Devil May Cry but with some JRPG elements mixed in.

This game’s plot is leaning towards the “already seen before” area. Yet, it’s highly interesting.

Now, I have to stop myself, since I want to write a full article about this game in the near future.

I haven’t gotten far into the game just yet but what I have seen was amazing. I can only complement the game for that.

I totally enjoy the music in this game, it nails the atmosphere and it’s extreme fun to play. I’m currently playing this game together with “A Shadow’s Tale” on my Wii. These two titles are the perfect way to blow off dust of my Wii.

So, to close off the last game of this article, I advice you to keep an eye on my blog. Soon, there will be an article of this game.

Closing words

Well, that was another music article of mine. I hope you enjoyed reading it and listing to the amazing music I have picked out for you guys.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, I post updates often there. Like how I almost broke my baby toe and that I was unable to write for a day because of that. Believe me, it stings quite bad. And then you are glad that some nice game music can take your head from the pain.

So, that might have been too much information for some. Anyways, I hope to welcome you at another article. Take care guys!

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NekoJonez: First Impression: Alice: Madness Returns (PC ~ Steam) – What Happened?

Wikipedia entry

(Warning, this article is written in a special way. I’m done quite fine, it’s written the theme of the game more. Also, this article is referencing an old blog I used to be a partner of.)

Dear readers. My fantasy might be real. 75 articles published by myself on the ButtonSmashers Blog. I don’t need a doctor about that. But the negative imagery is taking its toll on me. It’s hard as a writer to  see people you love and care about turn in these horrid monsters. Now that I’m back fighting in this land, it’s time to set things right. Or do I want to go back? I don’t know. I thought this wouldn’t be a pretty sight. That the game would suck. But as soon as I started playing it, it blew my mind. It’s actually good that I’m doing this. Maybe I have to let go. I have no clue. Possibly this game might provide the answers for me. Possibly, if I take a look into this madness I might find answers. Yeah, it will return… the madness. And feel free to comment on this, your opinion on it or on the game. Return… madness…

Bad cover hides a good game

Did the intro creep you out? Don’t worry, I won’t continue to write like that for the rest of the article. It would be too hard to talk about a game like that. But I thought it would make for a nice introduction.

The tale of Alice in Wonderland is most likely not a strange or a new one to you. Although, it might be that it has been quite some time since you have seen or heard of it. This game takes a rather interesting spin on it.

From what I can gather, after several years, Wonderland got corrupted. Alice gets visions from it and goes back to Wonderland. I haven’t gotten more into the story yet since I was more focused on the game then on the story. More on that later.

From what gather from the story, it’s quite unique. If I’m right and this game shows the scenario: “What would happen to wonderland if Alice went crazy?”… Well, then the story is doing quite well.

So, the title of the part is bad cover hides a good game. What I mean with that is that EA found it needed to have a “right in your face” protection for this game. With serial keys and verifying servers and all that lame stuff. Also, at first glance, the main menu gave me a bit of “meh” impression. But it gets better once you play the actual game.

Madness… MADNESS. THIS IS SP- nope. 

I have to admit something. I can’t judge on the keyboard controls. Furthermore, I saw that this game supports a controller. And when I see that, I don’t think twice about using it. Honestly, I sometimes prefer playing with a controller. It might have to do with the fact that I had keys popping off my keyboards…

Anyway, from what I can tell, the controls are smooth. I did to adjust the default settings a bit to have better sensitivity but hey, that’s why there are options.

In this game, Alice had various power-ups. You get them through the course of your adventure. Up until now, I got a shrink power-up and a special sort of gun. And then the madness begins. Oh, yes. It does.

This game offers you multiple paths with one being the correct one. But if you explore the hidden paths, you find collectables. While I have no clue in what these will be used for, it’s adding to the replay value, and it’s a good thing that they implemented this.

Talking back about the controls, they are good. Nearly each button has a different feature. But thankfully it’s so straight forward, you learn which button to press after some time of play.

The gameplay consists out of various platforming puzzles. You need to kill all the enemies or find something to activate platforms. You know, the usual stuff. What’s unusual though is the fact you can’t really die. Well, I’m not 100% sure about that. When you fall off cliffs, Alice bursts into butterflies and you get right back at the platform you died at to try again. This is rather neat.

So, why is the title of this part “Madness”? Well, because of the various collectables and the very variation in the gameplay… There might be too many things going on at once. And it works for this game.

Must finish?

The game has an automatic save-feature. Lately, I’m getting used to the auto-saving feature. This avoids that you are broken out of your immersion with the game.

Since I recently finished some games I was playing, I can now focus on this game. I want to finish this game because it caught my attention. The last time a PC game did that was Alan Wake.

The game has an amazing design. While it’s not going for the most detailed graphics and over the top visuals, this game shows off an incredible art style that really fits the story they want to tell.

You truly feel that you’re in a corrupted fantasy world based on the story of Alice. The animation, no complaints. I think it’s really well done. Maybe some PC elite may say that I’m wrong, but I find this game to be quite the eye candy.

To finish this article, let’s talk about the music. It has been playing in another tab while I was writing this article. And while I haven’t heard a lot of the soundtrack yet, the music I heard truly made my fantasy go wild. What’s going to happen to Alice? How are they going to continue this game? It’s a mystery to me but once I’m willing to solve. The sounds are fitting too. But I have to pay closer attention to give a more detailed opinion about it.

While I could have written something more special, I think that 100 articles is more fitted for that. Anyway, thanks for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. This game looks like an awful lot of fun and I can’t wait to see more.

Gaming Nostalgia #1: Memories of the past

Sadly enough, I’m afraid that I’m getting a little bit sick lately. I hope it’s something that flies over. Since the less time I waste being sick, the more time I can spend studying and maybe have some time left over to write an article so Q doesn’t have to write something to have an article each week. Anyways, I was reading my buddy’s theCredibleHulk’s latest article and he talked about my article once more. Yeah, he did. While I honestly disagree with his claim that Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine is “crap”, he said he likes to read articles about nostalgia. And being a blogger that talks a lot about nostalgia and old games… Hey, perfect combo no? Let’s talk young NekoJonez

Gaming history

I have a pretty good memory when it comes to my childhood. One of the first times I got in touch with games was when I visited my cousins in the Netherlands. They allowed me to play on their computer. Well, play as in drawing things with paint. As a young child, this was an awesome game in my eyes.

If I remember correctly, around the age of 7, my parents got a computer in their house. And I still remember that my mom allowed me to play a copied version of Tarzan on that machine. And that game drew me into gaming for good.

I’m on the hunt to buy this game, and if I see it at a garage sale, I’ll buy it and play the -bleep- out of it. I remember not getting extremely far and dying left and right, but I still enjoyed my time. But then, everything changed.

I got my hands on my aunt’s gameboy. That grey brick one. The only game we had was Tetris but it was enough to make me addicted to play over and over again. And that brings back fond memories of playing Tetris DX against my grandmother and my aunts. Oh, those were the days.

I can talk ages about my gaming history but I have to save more for other articles about this subject, so let’s talk about something different shall we?

Blast from the past

While I’m struggling with how I’m going to present these articles, a few idea’s are floating in my head right now. This segment is “blast from the past”. Where I’m going to talk about a game I really remember from my childhood.

Wikipedia entry

As a kid, I was never really good at a certain game. While my PvP skills have improved, I’m still a derp and multiplayer hasn’t been something I often do. But something I really like doing was sharing my opinion on games. This was one of the first games I made a video on.

My first way of expression my opinion was making YouTube video’s of poor quality. Since I wanted to show the people how the game really looked like on a gameboy screen. I knew I could record with fancier devices, but now I was sure that nobody could say that I tricked the footage.

But as a child I even uploaded stupid video’s, which I thought were awesome. I remember a video where I talked about importing a video from your camera into Windows Movie Maker and then exporting it. Then the video was smaller in size. Of course, that’s logical. It’s called rendering a video. But as a child I didn’t knew better.

I actually never really owned the game legit back then. Now I have my legal copy but I played the game back then on those fancy 100 in 1 games. Where you have only 10 games in one with the save feature ripped out. So, I had to replay the game couple of times before I could continue making footage.

Another memory was me playing the game on one of my various trips to the France or Austria. We drove there by car. And it was a drive of nearly a whole day. And my gameboy held me company for the whole road. And man, I nearly finished this game with my child like mind. I was so proud of myself.

Talking about this game and listing to childhood music makes me want to write more about this game. And I might, if I ever replay it in a holiday.

Gaming skills

How good am I at games? Well, most of kids in my time tried to be the best in the game that was hot at the time. The progressed at a rapid speed and they knew the game from front to end. And I was the weird kid on the block. I didn’t do that.

I looked more at the inner working of the games. Why was it so much fun and what was actually creative? Yeah, the critical sense was kind of developing back then. Together with my love for writing, I actually started reviewing games instead of trying to get good at them.

I saw games as a way to pass time. Not to be the best at it and defeat everybody and brag around the neighborhood. Games where a way to express my idea’s, feelings and opinions to others by using YouTube and my own blog.

And years later, nothing hasn’t really changed. My core personality of reviewing games and trying to be creative with the given tools is still here. You are reading an article about it.

But these days, I try to explore each and every game to it’s full extend. Even going as far as replaying games with cheats enabled to find spots and area’s where the devs hid something. And I’m not afraid to use mods. To see what other people have done with the game. I’m now into Pixelmon. I posted an image of a stronghold, that’s floating across a ravine, on my twitter earlier. I found that while playing Pixelmon 3.1!

I look at myself as a sort of jack of all trades. I don’t have a specialty in  a genre. Apart from some exceptions, there aren’t a style of games I’m really good at. But I’m able to beat games of all genres if I sink my teeth into it. Puzzle games, I crack those puzzles. Adventures? Sure, I finish them. Action? I will beat you down, bad guys. RPG’s? How can I defeat this boss without using a lot of items?

There are only two genres I rarely play. Fighting games and racing games. I can’t get into them. Bit of a shame really since I have friends who really want to play with me and play almost exclusively those types of games. Oh well, one day maybe.

So, we have talked about the history of my life in games, a big game in my childhood and how my gaming style evolved over the years. Not bad for a first article. If you liked this article, please give it a like and share it. It’s a sign for me to write more of these style of articles. But I’m going to leave other stories for other articles. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope to catch you next time here on my blog.