So, anyway, videogames

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:31 pm

Donkey Konga is the tits. Buy the European version for the Jamiroquai tracks.

Post by **Delphine** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:38 pm

There you are!

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:40 pm

A poignant observation.

Post by **Delphine** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:41 pm

Well, I was wondering.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:45 pm

Bless.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:23 pm

Dache wrote:I skipped the US version of Taiko because the songlist looks fucking dreadful. ABC? Material Girl? Tubthumping? Jesus Christ, that song's been in nearly every music game since the dawn of time and it's just as bad now as it was then.

As a game though, Taiko is excellent.

Hey, I like ABC and Material Girl. =P Besides I rather take Taiko's U.S. list over Donkey Konga U.S. list:

Diddy's Ditzies
Bingo
Campfire Medley
Pokemon Theme
Kirby Right Back at Ya
We Will Rock You
Like Wow
Wild Thing
I think I Love You
Louie Louie
The Locomotion
Shining Star
All the Small Things
Rock This Town
You Can't Hurry Love
Right Here Right Now
Dancing in The Street
Rock Lobster
Stupid Cupid
The Impression That I Get
What I like About You
Whip It
Busy Child
Para los Romberos
Sing Sing Sing with a Swing
Oye Como Va
On the Road Again
Hungarian Dance #5 in G MInor
Turkish March
DK Rap
The Legend of Zelda Theme
Mario Bros Theme
Donkey Konga Theme

Neo, I personally reconmend getting the game that is packed in with the drum. I mean getting it without it is like buying a DDR game without the mat or Samba de Amigo without the maracas.

Dache · Post by **Dache** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 3:36 am

Yep, DK's song list is toss as well, but like I said, Ã‚Â£10 for a Ã‚Â£40 game.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 6:43 am

Somehow, I was hoping for Hot For Teacher to be on there. You know, like Heavy DDR for your hands.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:06 pm

Somehow, I was hoping for Hot For Teacher to be on there. You know, like Heavy DDR for your hands.

Would you settle for 'Don't Stand (So Close to me)'?

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:53 pm

Neo, I personally reconmend getting the game that is packed in with the drum. I mean getting it without it is like buying a DDR game without the mat or Samba de Amigo without the maracas.

You make a value point there. Alright, I'll consider buying it the next time I have a wallet full of money and when I have step foot in my local Gamestop or EB Games.
~Neo

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:23 am

Zeta wrote:
Somehow, I was hoping for Hot For Teacher to be on there. You know, like Heavy DDR for your hands.
Would you settle for 'Don't Stand (So Close to me)'?

No. And while I'm being difficult, I demand the songs Fireball, Achilles' Last Stand, and YYZ.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 4:09 pm

Doesn't Taiko Drum Master have the Katamari Damacy theme song? Or is that only in the japanese version?

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 4:19 pm

Yes, Katamari on the Rocks is in the U.S. version of Taiko Drum Master.

Bah, I forgot to mention this about my review of Taiko Drum Master. As I mentioned before the bottom of the drum is lined with grip guards to prevent the drum from slipping when being struck. Well, I found out in times of heavy drumming that it sometime do not work depending on the surface you place your taiko. My taiko usually sits on top of a very old stool with a few rough spots, but apparently, it is still smooth enough for my drum slide. Though I think I could remedy this by placing a towel over the stool's surface to prevent slipping.

I also just found out that Japan has about six Taiko games for the PS2 and it seems so far that if I'm going to play the rest of the series I have to import and get a modded PS2(or PStwo) somehow. =/

I also been meaning to talk about Technic Beat around the same day of my Taiko Drum Master critique, but I've been addicted to Taiko that I never got around it. Oh well, better late than never especially seeing that it is also a nice music game that also contains tunes from Namco and that it only cost $20.

Technic Beat is a non-periphial music game mixed with a teeny bit of the puzzle genre in which you create melodies by timing the notes just right.

You control one of the many characters that are available to choose--each with their own special abilties, strengths and possible weaknesses to move around on a square field and hit various marker notes at the right time to create a sound. The markers vary in size, are sometimes grouped in chains to create more complex sounds, and there is occasional single marker must be activated multiple times which is called the beat marker. You can also pick up a marker and activated while holding it or better yet activate it next to another marker and/or chain to create new melody and score big points! In addition you can do many advanced techniques such as delay/repeat tones, striking adjacent markers at the same time to create chords and even change the melody pitch. Failure to hit a marker will result in a "Bad" mark and a decrease in your tension bar which is located above the screen. Failure to pass the clear line over the bar will result in a Game Over(but you can retry a level depending which mode you chose)

Speaking of modes there are several to chose from:

Arcade Mode--Clear 2-4 levels depending on which difficulty setting you chose and recieve the interactive ending. Required if you want to unlock songs in free mode and certain pics in the Gallery. I think there is more to unlock by using this mode, but I'm not 100% sure.

Also in the arcade mode are special modes for two players and they are cooperative--work together to clear the level and battle--compete against each other for the highest score.

Free Mode--Play any amount of the songs you unlocked as you wish and save replays of your session.

Level Certification--Raise the level of your characters after an evaluation of three songs you had chose.

Challenge--Perform certain requirements to pass to the next stage.

Sudden Death--Clear all of the songs without missing a marker. Get one "Bad" rating and it's Game Over

Replay Mode--Replay your data you saved in Free Mode

Stats--Check out game and character records

Tutorial--Self-explainatory

Options--Save/Load game data, adjust music/sound, screen position etc.

Bonus--Endings(which are playable), Gallery, Character color change and other stuff I don't know about yet.

Overall, this game is pretty decent at 20 bucks as there are over 80 songs in this game and over 30 of them are like I said from Namco games and there are many more secrets in this game than Taiko Drum Master. There are no covers of popular songs so all of them are original creations save for the Namco tunes but it's all good. The sequel(I think it is a sequel and not a port), Technic Cute is coming out for the PSP so if I owned the handheld and brought the game over here I would purchase it. It also would make a nice pick-up and play title on the go.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 4:39 pm

Strange, I've never heard of this game. I'll have to try it sometime.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:24 pm

Yeah, that's a new one on me, too. Where'd you find that?

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:24 am

Sometimes, I lurk on the forums of Gaming-Age where they discuss the popular games to the little-known small releases like Mastiff-published stuff like Technic Beat. The game seemed to get great feedback on the board from a few who heard and imported this game so when Mastiff finally released it early Nov., my brother checked it out for me(he still works at Gamestop) and I liked what I played. So I got it(or rather my brother used my money to purchase it) during Gamestop's employee discount sale. Though without the sale, it really does go for $20.

That forum is also the place where I first heard of Taiko Drum Master and other preorder bonuses(i.e. SMT:Nocturne soundtrack) I wouldn't have known of otherwise.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:58 am

So I guess Namco originally published it? Is that also the original Japanese title?

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:16 pm

Yes. That is original title in Japan also. However, Namco didn't publish it in Japan. A company named Arika developed it and they were the ones who also published it there according to this.

That list also mentions that Arika was also the ones responsible for developing the current The Nightmare of Druaga. It could be possible that both Arika and Namco had a friendly relationship even before Technic Beat.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:49 pm

Arika used to develop stuff for Capcom. They did the Street Fighter EX games and EverBlue. So they've got hits and misses.

Post by **Squirrelknight** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 1:04 pm

I got Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories yesterday, and so far it's pretty good.

Despite it being a card-based game, the gameplay is suprisingly similar to the original Kingdom Hearts. Yes, you use cards to attack and cast spells and stuff, but the combat is as fast as it was in the original KH, and you'll be whipping through your deck pretty quickly-- Even the basic physical attack requires a card, so you're deck will probably be filled with them. Once you run out of cards, you have to hold a button down to reshuffle your deck and put used cards back into play. It really sounds more complicated than it actually is; really, like the battles in Kingdom Hearts, you can get by by constantly flailing around with physical attacks and casting the occasional healing spell.

Graphically, this is probably one of the best looking games on the GBA-- The character sprites are large, detailed, and insanely well animated, especially the bosses. The oft-hyped GBA based CG cutscenes are well done and impressive, but they don't really pop-up that often during the game. In terms of audio, the game is top-notch as well. Most of the background music is taken from Yoko Shimomura's compositions from the original game (though obviously, adapted to the GBA's sound chip), and the game has a ton of voice samples, much more than you'd expect. Sora does the same yells and grunts that he did in the console game, and almost every character has atleast a couple voice samples, even minor characters, like Cloud or the Genie. And yes, they use the same actors as in the console game, as the voices are just taken from clips from the PS2 game.

Story wise, the game picks up right where Kingdom Hearts left off, with Sora, Goofy, and Donald wandering around a world consisting of only green plains. They eventually arrive at a crossroads in the path, where Sora is met by some robed guy, who leads him to a place known as the Castle Oblivion. There, the robed figure promises Sora he will meet those he's searching for (Riku and King Mickey) by exploring the castle. In order to unlock the castle, Sora must explore worlds based on his memories (hence the reused Disney worlds), but as he gets deeper and deeper into the castle, he begins to realize that the more memories he explores, the more stuff he forgets. It soon becomes clear that the hooded figure, a member of a group known as The Organization, has manipulated Sora into going into the castle, and that Sora's memory loss will somehow help them accomplish their goals...

And that's about where I'm at right now in the game. I'll put another spoiler up after I beat the game. I hear the game ends right at the first few seconds of the intro of Kingdom Hearts 2, so that should be cool.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:14 pm

Squirrelknight wrote: In order to unlock the castle, Sora must explore worlds based on his memories (hence the reused Disney worlds), but as he gets deeper and deeper into the castle, he begins to realize that the more memories he explores, the more stuff he forgets. It soon becomes clear that the hooded figure, a member of a group known as The Organization, has manipulated Sora into going into the castle, and that Sora's memory loss will somehow help them accomplish their goals...

...The fuck?

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:49 pm

...The fuck?

Spiky-haired, dimension-traveling hero ends up in a castle that sucks out his memories and makes them real.

There. Simpler.

And I'm asking for CoM for Christmas from my Grandma.

There's an extra quest feauturing a playable Riku. Which explains what the fuck happened to Mickey and Riku after Kingdom Hearts. It was very vague. And it also explains how Riku and Mickey team up.

Riku needs another Disney sidekick to be equal to Sora. Horace? Minnie? Daisy?

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:16 pm

I for one would like to see them visit a Square world.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:47 pm

Hollow Bastion kind of came close. It was a traditional Square type of castle.

As far as KH2 is concerned, the hub world is Twilight Town, but there's also Mulan's China and the Beast's Castle. There's also some speculation going around that Tron's computer world might be the odd world out (the way Halloweentown was). I've heard rumors that there might be a true Square world in one of the sequels, though.

But yeah, I get sick of the Disney worlds. I play the KH games because the scipt, story, and combat are fun. I could care less if the characters were all just generic storybook characters with no ties to Disney. And they could've done that, too. I mean, look at the original Kingdom Hearts. They could've made Mickey, Donald, and Goofy humans with different names, made Halloween Town a generic world.

And have all the other characters be Square renditions of fairy tales - they're all in the public domain. Herculues, Pinnochio, Aladdin.

I problably would've liked it MORE that way. I haven't liked Disney since Hunchback of Pochahantas. GOD that sucked. And it signaled the end of any creativity or artistic integrity that the coproration may have had.

Then they go and do Hunchback - the single classic story LEAST fit to be a children's movie. And they make things worse with Herclues - the story of a bastard God who kills his wife. It's like trying to turn the story of O.J. Simpson into a G-rated animated movie.

plasticwingsband · Post by **plasticwingsband** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:51 pm

*crosses fingers for Lion King based world*