Very recently someone I know picked up a copy of the newly released Viking: Battle for Asgard, and having gotten quite of bit of time with the title a bit of a discussion was sparked. Viking is far from a bad game. It has a very rewarding combat system, it tells a tale that could only be described as epic (derivative, but epic) and it manages to tie in an interesting role-playing quest system to tie the bow on the package. My time with it was well enjoyed, and it was more time than I had assumed, as the game took upwards of 12-15 hours of playing to complete which now-a-days is a bit longer than the norm.

As a matter of fact, this game tossed a lot of my assumptions out the window. I hadn’t particularly heard much about it, but what I had heard gave me the impression that is was a generic God of War knock-off that wouldn’t play well or amount to any fun. That was a poor assumption, as quite of bit of fun came from this game, it played quite well and it was generally a good experience. Especially the large scale army battles. Those were intense.

This is where my interest was piqued, though. Battle for Asgard is, as I said, far from a bad game. However, it’s definitely not a great game either. It’s reviews have been all over the board; some good, some bad and mostly mediocre. This leaves me wondering, what’s wrong with a game being mediocre? The reality is that most people will look at the reviews and see that it’s received a 6.7 on Metacritic and simply pass the game up.

In my opinion, this is a travesty. Not because Viking is the must play game of 2008 (far from it, in fact), but because there’s really nothing wrong with “mediocre” games. They aren’t bad, they just aren’t as good as the heavy hitters out there. That doesn’t mean they aren’t fun though. This is a point I feel we’re missing a lot in today’s gaming community. If a game isn’t a triple A production than it’s not worth your time, even if it is fun or entertaining to play. Isn’t that what we want when we play video games? Sometimes I don’t want a masterpiece; sometimes I want to just sit around with a friend and enjoy playing a game. And besides, there’s no way that ever game out there will be the same quality as the best. Essentially, mediocrity is inevitable.

It’s one reason why I feel our review systems for games are broken. Scores should not be what people pay attention to, as they don’t really tell you anything about the game. Viking might not be a “10″ or even an “8″, but that doesn’t really matter. Viking is a fun game and that’s what matters. My belief is that there is a place in the industry for games like this, however the market doesn’t particularly allow for it because of a generalized review mechanic. Some places are getting rid of numbers, yes, but a letter will gain the same connotation as numbers do. Obviously there’s nothing I can do to “fix” the way reviews are done, but I do feel that just because a game gets a 5 doesn’t mean it should be skipped, and Viking proves that point.

You are a dot. A lonely dot, on a highway of guitar-laden asphalt. You’re the needle placed on the groove of awesome in this unique downloadable shooter “Everyday Shooter.” I wouldn’t go so far as to call it an ‘art game’, but it’s definitely different than a lot of other shooters past and present. It’s pretty straightforward: there are enemies on the screen popping up all over the place, and the intention is to eradicate them. There are also ways to get chains of enemies destroyed all at once. However, each level has a completely different enemy and chain setup. So with 8 levels, in some ways you’re playing 8 different shooter games (with the same awesome control scheme). Speaking of which, the controls are pretty simple. You can move your dot in any direction with the analog stick or the d-pad, and you can shoot with the right analog stick or with the 4 buttons. I like using the 4 button scheme, because it makes it feel more like an arcade experience.

As far as sound goes, there really isn’t a “soundtrack”. More or less, the aesthetic and the levels are made for the music and not the other way around. It’s very relaxing, yet can also be tense depending on the level. As opposed to most video games where the music is dumbed down to fit with the game, everything just fits in Everyday Shooter without having to sacrifice noticeable creativity to any parties involved. Sometimes I will turn this game on and let it sit on the opening title screen, just to hear the relaxing sounds. Now if only the game came with a demo mode, so you can just let it play different levels and have all the different songs on repeat.

I really enjoy this game, and I highly suggest it to people looking to have some fun. You don’t have to worry about guns, weapons, storyline, or anything else really. You can just sit down with and play. It’s like a rock concert, but you get to shoot things and chill out. Finally, one thing I respect about this game is that was made by one person. For a game with such a minor staff, it sure does bring a lot to the table. I’m sure a lot of hard work was put into this game, because when you play it, everything goes together quite well. I suppose my only gripe is that sometimes I find the learning curve for each level can be unknown. Then again, I suppose that adds to the fun. It’s somewhat of a mystery just being thrown into a level not knowing how it works…and then dying quite a bit. I also assert that some sort of Remote Play feature for the PSP would be awesome, or a PSP version could really make things smooth.

You can purchase Everyday Shooter for the Playstation 3 from the PS Store for $10. Futhermore, if you do not live in the United States I do believe Everyday Shooter has been released in othe regions as well. In the Europe regions it is known as Riff: Everyday Shooter. If you don’t own a Playstation 3, you can check out Jonathan Mak’s other games on his website: http://www.queasygames.com/

I’d like to first inform everyone that, despite my intense fixation on this series, I am not actually a very good player of the games. I can’t reliably finish any of them, and I have never really worried about high scores before. I haven’t even played most of them, actually. These games have a surprisingly rich, history behind them, too, and I have an intense feeling someone is going to notice I don’t know the original Japanese names of the games and tear me a new one for expressing my opinion.

Alright, let’s cover some facts first. The mainstay of the Touhou games are vertical bullet-hell shooters. Compared to a lot of other vertical shmups, the mechanics are really simple. There are no missiles or beam weapons to upgrade. The pickups are actually only divided into three universal categories: main attack power-up, bomb stock, and point items, all of which are extremely self-explanatory. Simple controls, too: shoot, bomb, and move. You kill enemies, fight bosses, and bomb to save yourself from a bad situation. Six stages, twelve boss encounters, and an extra stage unlocked when the arcade mode is completed. Sure, there are some variations from game to game, but this is the familiar formula that the Touhou games follow.

Sounds boring? Meh, you might be right. Okay then, please dodge this.

Touhou is, specifically, a bullet-hell type shooter. As opposed to avoiding being blind-sided by the less-frequent and quick bullets of, say, Raiden or 1942, you must deal with a barrage of attacks, sometimes taking up almost all the space on the screen. There is a little memorization involved, as knowing what the patterns will look like is a definite advantage, but the generation of attacks is usually unique to every play-through, usually relative to the player’s position on the screen. To survive, the player must carefully weave through the intricate patterns, usually making use of the concentrated movement function present in the more recent games, which slows the character significantly for better control.

However, all this is still really not the trademark of the Touhou series. What does differentiate this game series from its counterparts is the emphasis it puts on its characters. Spread across eleven official games over the course of twelve years, there has been a staggering amount of characters created for the universe, each with their own personality and affiliation with the others. Barely any of this is present in the official games, though. Actually, the only hint of character development in the official series is the brief conversations during boss fights and the short ending sequences unearthed when beating the game. That’s hardly enough time to generate the sheer amount of content now available about the series.

What perpetuates all of that is actually the fandom itself. Around these simple interactions, fans have built the characters’ traits, preferences, habits, friends, and enemies. More popular characters have quite a number of fans behind them, their legion-esque care for their favorite almost a determinant for personality. Of course, this detail might further alienate people new to the series or shmups in general, as they do not already have an attachment to the characters. However, that only means that the fan-base is tightly knit and rabidly loyal.

Touhou is a game series, of course, but to anyone with the patience and interest to become involved, it is its own culture. A developed, detailed universe inhabited by a gigantic cast of individuals, Touhou crap offers a lot more than just a thirty minute lesson in how low your dexterity is. However, you will probably see a lot less Kaguya/Mokou guro if it is kept at just that.

In this interview, Black Flower Music sits down with forum member Love&Pop and discusses his career in the field of being noisy. You can find some of his music on our forums, I do believe.

WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR PROJECT NAME?
My project has a name. That name doesn’t have a name. Though, ロリータ・バイブ責め, or rather, Lolita: Vibrator Torture. The ’77 pinku-eiga, you know? From Hisayasu Sato. The one with dildo raped acid melted schoolgirls!

What kind of music is it?
It isn’t music! It is noise.

HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN DOING MUSIC? WHAT ARE YOUR ORIGINS? INFLUENCES?
Noise.
Two years, maybe?, No wait, a little more. I started making raw black-death metal with a trash vein with some friends, lost them, rehersed with a grindcore band, splitted that, recorded a noisecore cdr, found out that girl was a bitch, decided to go on a solo.
Influences? ’77 Hardcore-Punk, Idol Pop, ’80s Trash Pop, Junk shit; Yamatsuka Eye, Alberto Camerini, Juntaro Yamanouchi, Diana Est, Nerorgasmo, Minamino Yoko – to name a few.

Are there any foods that stimulate your creativity?
Popsicles.

Do you have any sort of mission statement for making music?
“spraying the drug LSD from the sky”. No “”seriously”", never thought about a ‘mission statement’. It sounds quite lame. Sure i know every “”"”artist”"”" needs a ‘clear and succinct representation of the enterprise’s purpose for existence’, yet mine isn’t art. It’s shit. Thus, if i had to find a proposition to sell my stuff [ that's fairly impossible, because no-one ever wanted to release something i created because of my attitude and because there's no creative process what i make. ], i would go for that AxNxBx quote. It wouldn’t work as fine as most of the other’s reasons, ye, but then again ART IS OVER [ GxGxGxGxGx ], and if i had to choose between that and a “noise means uncomfortable sound, then pop music is noise to me” i would not befool myself so openly. The “music” is already hilarious enough.
Fuck you Merzbow.

Any “dream collaborations” that makes you weak in the knees to think about?
Junko Hiroshige is the only one i would like to make music, i mean, sleep, i mean, play a concert with. I tried to contact Guilty Connector in the past because he’s kind of cool, but japanese dudes seem to believe they can skip over questions only because of their Yamato pureness. But, you know what?, once a portuguese guy told me Yamato is the 13th tribe of Sion, the lost one, and i found out there’s been a rush on jewish affiliations during the 60-70-80s there, and that stupid Marxy jew blames his brothers only because he’s an outcast amongst outcasts, and even if i do believe, like one of the many Murakami said, that “Japan doesn’t have high culture, only subculture. Or rather, the high culture we do have is floating on a cloud, as invisible as the emperor. Apart from that there is just subculture, from Beat Takeshi to erotic mangas, and then the outgroup of the otaku, or hobbyists. I think we won’t need art and artists some day. That’s why Japan is the future[...]“, which makes Japan one of the two coolest places in this stupid world, i hate people who doesn’t answer to your questions. That’s highly unpolite.

On the subject of live concerts, what is your setup? Explain how your concerts usually go? Do you works yourself up, and the climax? Or keep a steady pace?
I only played four live shows, because no-one is interested in what i do, as i previously explained. I’ve also never had a brilliant setup, because i’m always broke even though i work, i feel the urge of buying shit and many many many books and hard drives, i get too pissed on burning dvds to store data and i’m sure i will regret this laziness of mine, but wait, the question wasn’t about informatical piracy.

Usually, i use a chain of random pedals through a mic, mostly distortion FXs, a delay, a compressor, a phaser, effects like these, and some junk stuff to destroy. I turn the knobs to the highest and lousiest volume i can, and i start to destroy what i have found here and there. Once i had nothing, so i smashed my pedals. The last time i smashed some beer bottles, but it seemed to me no-one liked that performance. Perhaps, it was because of the skirt. I will never know why. I cut my right hand but the venue owner wanted me to clean the space from the glasses that flew all around, luckily there was my wife to help me.

Oh, no climax or steady pace shit. The rare times i play, everything ends in 15 minutes at max. There’s no need to stretch it for half hours and on. They’re noise performances, harsh noise performances, you don’t have to prove you’re a good improviser/creator to anybody. The more harm and damages you can inflict to yourself as well as to people who carelessly came to give a look and a smile at you, the better. There’s nothing to laugh about. I hate people. I wish they all could be dead, except for my wife, my north dakota nihilist and cold friend, my chinese canadian friend, my fake cousin, and a bunch of musicians or whatever we should call them.

What instrumentation would you use?
Everything. From flutes to pitch shifting balloons [ NWW quote needed! ], AIDS life threatening bloody objects, sacks of menstrual mycosis, turntables, IKEA cheap stuff.
As long as what i pick can be destroyed, the show can go on.

Why the hell did you agree to this interview?
“The women of Thailand are so beautiful that they have become the hostesses of the Western World, sought after and desired everywhere for their grace, which is that of a submissive and affectionate femininity of nubile slaves – now dressed by Dior – an astounding sexual come on in a gaze which looks you straight in the eye and a potential acquiescence to your every whim. In short, the fulfillment of Western man’s dreams. Thai women seem spontaneously to embody the sexuality of the Arabian Nights, like the Nubian slaves in the ancient Rome. Thai men, on the other hand, seem sad and forlorn; their physiques are not in tune with world chic, while their women’s are privileged to be currently fashionable form of ethnic beauty. What is left for these men but to assist in the universal promotion of their women for high-class prostitution”.
Because you use a Hanna Montana picture. [ED: On the forum, the avatar of the author]

If you could drastically change your style of music, what would you change it to and why?
Idol pop tunes maker. Oh, i could work with so many cute pre-teen asian girls!

Where can we find some samples of your music? Are there any avenues in which we can purchase your music?
You can find more about my aesthetic here – http://chat-lolita.blogspot.com/
As for the music, you can find it at Turgid Animal record shop.

Not impressed. Then again, I’m not a huge tennis fan. Although compared to other tennis games I’ve played this generation like Hot Shots Tennis or Virtua Tennis 3, this game was kinda clunky. Slow to respond controls for everything, but that can be said about almost any game these days where Sonic appears in 3D (Oh man, cheap shot!). The ball will bounce past you, whereas in other games where I’d have the same reaction time I would have been able to hit it perfectly. The demo didn’t allow me to try out the minigames, but it looks interesting. The opening cinema leads me to believe there are puyo puyo, house of the dead, and samba de amigo related minigames later on among other things. Sega Superstars Tennis isn’t really a bad game, it’s just Sega can’t get it through their thick skulls that their control schemes aren’t the most appetizing. I would definitely give this a rent. I tried it out on the PS3, although I am curious if the Wii (given its space-age control setup) might have a better control scheme contained therein. I’m not going to bother to find out. You can miss this title if you already have a tennis game. I’d rather play Hot Shots Tennis over Sega Superstars any day. A bunch of classic characters in your game does not automatically make it good.

I honestly can’t think of any good reasons. Like initially discussed in my entry about that so-called “post-rock” stuff, I think genres are like…Not all that meaningful. Often times, journalists will use them because they kinda have to since being descriptive is really helpful when you’re penning a review about something. Perhaps also if you’re a radio DJ, which I suppose could fall under the same umbrella in some senses. I used to come from that perspective. Back in my days when I had a college radio show and wrote more reviews of music, I thought it was important. As a journalist, it was important to convey to the reader that what you were being exposed to was different than something else. I really don’t think you should much emphasis on genres anymore. I know some of you use the Last.fm website or other sites that have a ‘tagging’ feature. Effectively, I think genres should be taken as seriously merely as a tagging system meant to casually identify something and not set in cold stone.

Journalists can care about genres all they want. Personally, I don’t feel like the customer should have to. It’s not our job. It is our job as consumers to make up our own minds. Sure journalists and their “genres” could potentially help us have more informed decisions, but having an informed decision about a new band takes away half the fun! It really just irks me sometimes when someone refuses to give something a chance because it has a genre slapped across its face. I would really rather not act all pretentious as if some sort of label really would make a difference. At least for me, when it comes to music I feel like genres can act as a general guideline as the media intends them, but it seems like a lot of people feel like each genre is something that’s cut and dry. It really tends to take the enjoyment out of it doesn’t it? Why do we listen to music again? Really? Why? Last time I checked was because I wanted to receive enjoyment. Yeah, I know that sounds wild and radical.

You know…..genres are silly. They really are. However, I suppose they can be helpful to journalist to help keep themselves organized and such.

To me, a “post-rock” band is a band that’s set up similar to regular rock band. There really isn’t a specific thing to clarify how it’s different from regular rock. You kinda sorta just know. Some people say things like, “It’s rock instruments used for non-rock purposes.” Then perhaps that would make metal, post-rock? Come on guys, don’t be pish posh. Personally, I feel like the stereotypical stuff like Mogwai, Mono, and Explosions in the Sky is what people think of ‘post-rock’ when in reality bands like Mice Parade, Sigur Ros, Amiina, and yes……even Radiohead could be considered that as well.

I don’t understand some people’s infatuation with this style. A LOT of it sounds the same, you know…like a rock band was comissioned to do a fantasy movie soundtrack. While I do enjoy some of that sometimes, it does get real old real fast. So I tend to stick with the most mainstream of the post-rock bands. I know that’s pretty close-minded, and yeah I do try out new ones once in a while. But seriously…….I like things that are unique. Post-rock as a whole is pretty unique…But within the style, I feel that it is kinda stale.

Don’t know what post-rock is? Here’s a few sample albums to start you off with:

rururu – rururu (mediafire dot com /?hhlclwjngrd )

void’s anatomy – shades of a moment (mediafire dot com /?mywqyb3xgdl )

lite – filmlets (mediafire dot com /?uk2b35bixi0 )

Thanks to those of you at my forum for uploading these albums. Your work is much appreciated.

So here we are, here in America. Being American. Pretending to be irish. Pretending we understand some foreign holiday. When it’s really just an excuse to drink. You know, I try to respect other cultures, and I think it’s kinda weird about the whole actual “St Patrick” dude. Don’t get me wrong, we need to have a national holiday just for drinking, but should it really be stepping all over some guy?

We did it to St Valentines already. Ah, who really cares. Most holidays are bastard childs of their former selves thanks to evil corporations (but mostly because of the media and all that stuff). They are called holidays for a reason, you know. It’s a holiday, a day that is different from every other day. So you should spend that day in the method that is commonly accepted.

So what am I trying to say? Am I being a nit-witted naysayer being all like, “Oh I hate these evil corporations!!”…No of course not! Everyone has their place in this world, including them. God bless them! However, I feel like things should be more organized. Why have sham holidays named after serious events? It’s a sham! I just want some integrity, you know? Perhaps an international renaming of certain holidays is overdue.

You know, beer is a very ancient traditional form of celebration. They paid the dudes who built the pyramids with beer. It’s a part of a lot of people’s culture, not just the Irish. Why not have Love Day? Beer Day? Spooky Day? Why insult the integrity of the original holiday?

I dunno guys. I give it a big ol ‘meh’.

“I Am Legend” is due to be released on March 18th, but because I have special perks, I was able to rent a pre-street copy of this movie on Blu-ray disc. First things first, this movie impressed me. The basic premise is that you follow Will Smith in his journeys as scientist who is responsible for causing the apocalypse. The plot moves along in a nice way detailing survivors gone mad. At its core, I Am Legend focuses on the struggles between Smith and the catastrophe he feels he’s responsible for. Though on the outer shell it sprinkles flavors of a proto-vampire/proto-zombie sci-fi flick. I like this movie because while it wasn’t really a “horror” film like many others try to be these days, it is a well-crafted science fiction movie that actually has heart and soul. Granted, it may not be an avalanche of heart and soul though it doesn’t try too terribly at that either. “I Am Legend” is a fun film. Definitely a popcorn movie, with a little more than your standard flair thrown in. At first I thought to myself, “I hope this isn’t another weak vampire movie,” and I’m sure glad it proved to be much more than that.
Now, anyone could have told you that. But what is so special about the blu-ray release? Besides the stunnin crisp 1080p visuals and being able to access the menu in-movie like all blu-rays there’s NOTHING really. The Blu-ray version actually has some of the bonus features in 1080i/p whereas the DVD can only be up to 480p. There’s two documentary/featurette sorts of things, and there’s some comic books which were co-created by Orson Scott Card, which is one of my favorite Science Fiction authors. Granted, the bonus features have over an hour or so of content, but it’s nothing anyone will really watch. The comic book addition was an interesting twist. It fares well in the aspect that it puts all the extra content onto one Blu-ray, whereas with the DVD version, there are two.

I enjoyed “I Am Legend”, but it is not a great movie. This film isn’t bad either. It’s a good film, and I’m fine with that. As a Blu-ray release, it fails to deliver and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. However, it’s a fine film.

So I went to Megacon this year for three days of fun and excitement. Though not all was fun and excitement. Now, I’ve been to different sorts of conventions before. Some were huge (Otakon), and some were small (MTAC). With that said, my impression of Megacon was more of a middle-con. It took place it a fairly big size area convention center, and housed a large populace, especially on Saturday. The dealers room was actually pretty massive though, but as far as events went, I found myself bored more often than not. Hell, I left at six o’clock…on a SATURDAY. Isn’t Saturday night when everything cool is supposed to happen? On Friday we got there at 11-ish, and we were in what was thought to be the second panel of the day, but in reality no panels actually happened until 1pm? What a joke. I’m not trying to convey that I didn’t have fun.

It’s just that this con could’ve been so much better, but it failed to deliver. I wasn’t really a big fan of Voltaire, nor am I still. However, his concert was amusing to say the least.

I think the major downfall, was that it was run by an anime club. I don’t know who runs Otakon, but they do a good job, and the other convention I go to “MTAC” is run by volunteers who are promised free entry after a certain amount of work. Megacon really seemed lacking in content, and lacking in staff. Nothing against Anime Sushi, but it just doesn’t seem to work out if you try to do everything yourself.

I had a lot of fun, but I probably won’t be going back again. Something about it just didn’t’ feel right. Especially when an older gentleman won a raffle prize and they made fun of him and were like, “Well he’s outside of our demographic, but here’s your prize!”. Even though I’m only 21 that kinda stung. I mean, my dad was at the con with me (The whole reason I was at the con was because he wanted me to go with him and visit with him for the first time in a few years). I don’t think that’s entirely fair to that guy. I mean, older people like anime too. Anime has been around for quite some time, and I’ve met plenty of people who are older and enjoy Japanese media and that kind of thing. Perhaps it isn’t as common though, but still. It’s kind of a slap in your face when it’s just kinda expressed that Anime is only for young people… Which is sad… I guess. I’m getting older too, but I still enjoy anime quite a bit and different aspects of Japanese cultures (amongst others)

So yeah, if you’re in the Orlando area, I wouldn’t recommend going to this one unless you’re new to the anime scene. Then there might be something for you to enjoy as far as most panels and events go. Not to say there weren’t some decent panels. There were a few panels that were good like the SNK/King of Fighters panel (although that was just a bunch of rabid fanboys and yelling too. It was like…if you weren’t hardcore enough people would be mean to you) and the La Nouvelle Manga in which I discovered the recent trend of French artists and Japanese manga artists exchanging cultures and influencing each other thus creating a new ‘style’.

Then there’s another thing…The AMV contest. They basically just showed almost everything that was submitted. There was so many ones with bad quality, it was atrocious. Some of them looked like they had been recorded straight from the bunny ears TV set. And several used the same scenes over and over again, several of them had subtitles in them, and several had Linkin Park used as source song. It was pathetic. And now only this next year are they actually banning Linkin Park and DBZ videos. Took them long enough!

A lot of times when it comes to smaller cons they say “The con will be as much fun as what you put into it!” but this doesn’t really apply to this one. I mean, this con was a lot of fluff and hardly any substance. You can have a really small con, and still have a lot of substance. I think one of the things that frustrated me the most is that compared to the con I go to here in town called MTAC, which is usually held in a hotel, this one was actually at a convention center but had much less content than MTAC. I guess I’m just frustrated that we always ended up going home so early. I mean sure, Megacon has a lot of special guests, but you can’t run a convention only on special guests and a great dealers room.

I wouldn’t mind going back next year, but I’m definitely not going until I read the list of events. It would be a waste of time to go next year and suffer through the same lack of content.