Stretch. Eat. Poop. This is the basic premise of Noby Noby Boy. You are a colorful worm-like creature with the magical ability to stretch over a simplistic map filled with different items for you to eat.

This game is the true definition of a sandbox game. There are no rules, there is only stretching. There are no lives, and there are no game overs. The only point is to stretch your BOY and earn more meters. When you have earn a decent amount of distance, you can submit it to GIRL -- a floating worm-like creature that wraps around planets. This is a collaborative effort between all players, and the ultimate goal is to submit enough distance to GIRL for her to reach new planets. For a $5 dollar Playstation Network title, I’d say it’s worth it.

In many ways, Noby Noby Boy is like Seti@Home. Everyone contributes to the greater overall project. It really is a team effort!

The game is brought to you by the creator of Katamari Damacy, and you will notice some similarities. The overall concept is fairly identical: get big. There are all sorts of things for you to encounter on a small map, and you can eat whatever you want. The bigger you get, the more you can eat. However, if you eat too much you will shoot out those items from your behind. And yes, there are fart noises! With the most recent patch, sound effects of each item are added. So if you eat a letter or a Japanese symbol, it will say that word when you shoot it out.

This really is a simple “game”. I would assert that this game helps me relax more than flOw or flower ever did. Anyone can just pick up and play this game. All you have to do is just move around the analog sticks and use the L2 and R2 buttons to eat and jump. A lot of people claim they don’t “get” this game, but there’s nothing much to get. It’s a simple little diversion, with a very interesting overall concept.

Besides the gameplay, the whole concept of community game progression is something entirely new. Everyone is working together, and nobody knows when this game will end. The creator said once in an interview that he hopes the game finishes before he dies. Those are some strong words!

There is also an in-game video recording function. I think I’ve said enough, now I will let the game speak for itself. Behold!

This week we had quite a lot of content to talk about. This week our segment was on the rise of popularity for fighting games, hence this week’s title.  We are still making slight changes here and there to our schedule in order to make things flow a little bit better.
What’s Your Week?

Segment 1: CON REPORTS -- Anime Detour & MTAC (Middle Tennessee Anime Convention)
Segment 2: Gosh, since when were fighting games popular again?

The Agenda:

Discuss Games — Valkyria Chronicles, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Nintendo DSi & its games
Discuss Anime/Manga — BASQUASH, Bokurano, Those Who Hunt Elves, MACROSS Frontier
Discuss Movies/TV — SAME OLD + Yes, Man
Discuss Music — Tony tries to go to a concert, Andrew performs at a concert. Also: Zeuhl music, Magma, and the C64 stylings of Welle Erdball.
Missed Connections: Al Franken? Is that you?

Oprah’s Reverse Book Club — Tony -- Welcome to the NHK. Andrew -

Housecleaning:

In two weeks, our segment will be about elitist snobs, and the dust particles that will inevitably fall into their upward facing noses.

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email podcast [at] blackflowermusic.com

 03 - Fight! [1:36:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (649)

In this post, I show you the sensational stylings of the Nintendo DSi Sound Channel.

There’s quite a bit of cool stuff you can do with the DSi. Expect some more videos in the future showing all the different functions.

Fatal Fury is a long-running SNK 2D fighting game series that dates back to 1991. Garou: Mark of the Wolves was released in 1999, and would serve as the last installment to date.

In the early 90s there were quite a few 2D fighting games, and various SNK fighters attempted to change up the pace. Samurai Shodown introduced weapons, King of Fighters introduced team-mates, and Fatal Fury brought the side-stepping from brawler games into the one-on-one fighting genre. Over the years Fatal Fury had abandoned the two-plane system. Then what makes Garou: Mark of the Wolves so special?

Style.

The game has an impeccable sense of style. While other games mostly retained the same style from the last nine years, this installment pushed the limits of the Neogeo platform. However, one shouldn’t judge a game solely on its appearance. The title is quite a spectacular fighter. The visual stylings of Garou compared to former incarnations is fairly obvious for anyone who tends to notice that sort of thing.

Fatal Fury’s gameplay has always been fairly concrete, but with Mark of the Wolves it becomes absolutely stellar. This game is a blast to play. Other fighting games from the time period such as The Last Blade II, King of Fighters, and Street Fighter III were fun, but none of them had the sparkle that Garou: Mark of the Wolves had. Similar in nature to King of Fighters, when you lose you have the option of affecting gameplay for the next round. There is also a special meter inside your regular health meter which allows for you to do certain special moves. You can pick whether you want that area to be in the front, middle, or end.

Besides some of the new gameplay additions, the game is very fluid all around. Whether it’s the animations, or the overall feel of the gameplay. Quite a few old fighting games seem to have very little replay value compared to modern fighting games, but if you pick the game up for Dreamcast and use a VGA adapter it will look almost as good as King of Fighter XI (except the backgrounds are less 3D as this was originally a Neogeo game)

Mark of the Wolves features almost an entirely new cast of characters in the Fatal Fury universe, but several of them can be seen in modern installments of The King of Fighters.

So if you have a Dreamcast or an import PS2, I highly recommend picking this up. It’s nowhere near as flashy as Guilty Gear, and not as complicated as The King of Fighters can be.  This games meets you somewhere in between, and delivers satisfaction when you are craving a good fight.

MTAC is a local anime convention here in our fine city of Nashville. Guess what!? It happens this weekend! I will be taking my video camera, and hosting some panels at the event as well. Expect some videos, and maybe one or two blog posts when it is all over with.

Both of my panels are on Friday. I’m running the Podcasting panel and the Yuri Fury panel. Hope to see some of you there!

BFM Podcast will also covering MTAC and Anime Detour in more detail AFTER we’ve actually been to the conventions. So expect awesome con reports in our next issue. I will go into more detail about how fun MTAC is and all that in the latest podcast, which can be found here or if you’re lazy and like itunes.

Enjoy your weekend! I know I will!

We’re a little late this week, but we’re still getting the hang of it, so it’s perfectly acceptable, IMO. We have a lot of cool stuff this week, and it was really fun to record. Hopefully it’s just as fun to listen. We have a new segment where we read the Missed Connections from Craigslist. I know it doesn’t “Sound” awesome, but it is quite possibly one of the most hilarious things ever. Trust me. TRUST. Me. Tony talks about MGC 2009, and we invent new words and catchphrases like usual.

Intro

What We’ve Been Playing: This is a surprise!

mini-segment: Tony’s Adventures at Midwest Gaming Classic 2009

Segment: Obligatory Whining about Nintendo leaving Hardcore gamers behind

The Agenda:

Games: Home ARG: XI, Wii Update 4.0 gives SD cards justice

Anime: Goku Zetsubou Sensei, Welcome to the NHK, Middle Tennessee Anime Convention + Anime Detour previews.

Movies/TV: Quantum of Solace, Swing Vote, Monkey Gang Wars.

Music: Mastodon, ISIS, Daft Punk

We Read Craigslist Missed Connections So You Don’t Have To: It’s like it sounds, we both pick 3 local random/funny Missed Connections from Craigslist and share them with you.

Oprah’s Reverse Book Club: We suggest something to each other and our audience. Tony says Tatsunoku vs Capcom. Andrew says Worms.

Housecleaning/Sign Off: This is the part where we tell you how to reach us, etc.

Email us: podcast@blackflowermusic.com | Stalk us on twitter |  Itunes | MP3 | RSS

Give us a call on skype at tearsofash, or leave a voice mail at 1-615-713-2016. In a few weeks, our segment will be about the recent surge of fighting games. Have any input? We’d love to hear from you.

 02 - Big Trucks and Hairy Arms [1:36:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (734)