This week we cleanse the reserve of the multitude of stuff we got over the holidays! There’s so much stuff that we didn’t even have a segment! That’s a lie, actually. We have so many new experiences to share, that our regularly scheduled multi-topical discussion IS our segment! We both have a ton of new games to talk about, a bit of new music, blu-ray, and some of the most hilarious craigslist entries you’ve ever heard!

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 25 - They Say An Enema Gets The Junk Out [1:51:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (281)

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Be sure to check in next week for episode 25.5. It’s an all chiptune music podcast, and it’s going to be great!

Show Notes:

Intro -- Hi guys…
US Weekly -- Christmas, College Issues, your mom.

DowntoforitX promo

Music: Lil Jon, Lady Gaga Christmas Song, Yelle, my little airport, Eluvium, Ying Yang Twins
Gaming:
PSN: Battle Fantasia, Bomberman Ultra, Gunstar Heroes, PixelJunk Shooter, ModNation Racers Beta,
Iphone: Soosiz, Tap Tap Revenge, Doodle Jump, Hi How Are You
Webgame: Tuper Tario Tros
Handheld: Bangai-O Spirits
WiiWare/Virtual Console: Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth, Wonder Boy III, Puyo Puyo 2.
Consoles: Muramasa Demon Blade, Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, Rock Band: Beatles, Assassin’s Creed 2, House of the Dead Overkill, Uncharted 2, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Anime/Manga: Ghost in the Shell 2.0, Ramen Fighter Miki, Trapeze
Movies/TV: South Park, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brasseye, Dollhouse Season 1 Blu-Ray, District 9

Funny/Odd Craigslist Personal Ads

Housecleaning

What’s the difference between pornography, erotica, and other works of adult fiction? I believe the answer lies in a manga called Maka-Maka.

On first glance, Maka-Maka doesn’t seem very special. There’s just Jun and Nene plainly on the cover. Then you see the subtitle, ‘Sex, Life, and Communication.’

Sex sells, but the ‘life and communication’ alludes that it may possibly be yet another boring slice of life Yuri manga all about ‘feelings.’ This isn’t the case with Maka-Maka though, not at all.

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Again, I don’t have a theme this week because I don’t like being restrained by your stupid themes. Themes are a global mind control scheme thought up by the evil corporations. Well, I guess the theme this week could be considered a set of new music followed by a set of classics followed by another set of new music. See, the corporations have controlled my mind without me knowing. Great, just great. Here’s what’s on the show:

 24.5 - Pretty Girls Get Shot [54:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (267)

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Total play time: 54:15

Electric Six – Body Shot
Intro [3:46]
fun. – All The Pretty Girls [4:09]
Sleigh Bells – A/B Machines [7:25]
The Flaming Lips and Stardeath And White Dwarfs – Speak to Me/Breathe (feat. Henry Rollins and Peaches) [11:03]
Segway 1 [16:21]
Pink Floyd – Us And Them [17:04]
The Clash – Charlie Don’t Surf [24:47]
My Bloody Valentine – When You Sleep [29:37]
Segway 2 [33:43]
Broken Bells – The High Road [34:18]
Fanfarlo – Ghosts [38:07]
Lil Wayne – Drop The World (feat. Eminem) [42:24]
Outro [46:12]
Converge – Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast [48:22]

I’ve begun to notice a trend regarding Playstation Home. Remember way back when in 2007 everyone hated on the PS3? There was definitely good reason to do so, but then it seemed like even after the PS3 was doing moderately successful, there were still tons of naysayers. It was programmed into their heads that “PS3 SUX” and would consider no alternative.

Late last year, and beginning into this year, that sort of “PS3 SUX” mentality started to dissipate. No evidence, really, all anecdotal evidence — but I’m sure you’ve noticed it too.

Nowadays you won’t hear people saying “PS3 sux! It’s too expensive! George Foreman grill!” or anything of the sort. At least not nearly as often as you would’ve a few years ago.

I feel that the same sort of thing happened with Playstation Home. Over the last year, since Open Beta was first introduced the staff have made many improvements and there are a ton of content, games, and events.

I’ve been using Home since September 2008. Not as long as some people who’ve seen it evolve since mid-2007, but most of us can attest that a lot has changed.

I feel that it’s sort of at a crossroads right now, similar to the one the PS3 endured before people stopped bashing it continuously. The program is a much better program now, there’s tons of people always on it.

Yet here and there, I still see stragglers who are like, “It’s boring!!!” or “Omg, I can’t believe you actually bought that!”

The reality is that Home is only what you make of it. It’s a community, and you have to try to be a part of it. It’s not for passive people, it’s for people who like to engage others. Sure, you can choose to be passive, but you’ll find that Home is not a ‘game’ and you won’t be as consistently entertained as you would were you to buy a $60 title off the shelves.

Not everyone’s going to like it, obviously. There’s tons of people who still don’t like the PS3, but at least the mob mentality of hatred has simmered down a bit.

I think it’s about time for that mentality to simmer down on Playstation Home as well. It’s kind of embarrassing to be in a conversation where people hate on Home because they think that snarky comments still amuse.

So, the point?

PS3, Playstation Home? Yeah sure, I know they used to be “cool to hate”. I enjoyed both of them, but I laughed right along with you. But these days, it just makes you look ignorant.

This was the year fighting games shed its skin, and grew into something one could proudly proclaim as part of the next generation of the genre.

Granted, 2008 wasn’t exactly lackluster with the amount of fighters, either. For purposes of this article, I’d like to think that 2009 started when Street Fighter IV was released. Before then, you saw the likes of Melty Blood Actress Again, King of Fighters Orochi Collection, Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, Arcana Heart, and Samurai Shodown Anthology. Shortly following the release of Street Fighter IV, you saw that tradition of “updated games” like King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match and Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus ship out.

So it seems 2008 captured the niche audience, but 2009 revitalized the mainstream audience. One year, we had a few great fighters like Virtua Fighter 5 ver. C and Soul Calibur IV. Those games simply set the stage for the awesome titles that were released in 2009.

When Street Fighter IV came out last Winter, it took the gaming community by storm. It took what was great about the old, and mixed it in with a lot of new stuff. There were tournaments, contests, and all sorts of attention given to this game. It was like 1992 all over again.

Any gamer worth his salt was playing Street Fighter IV. Many games have communities that were dead six months after release. Even with these next games, this title still managed to go strong for the rest of the year with an update “Super Street Fighter IV” on the way next year.

For years, Arc System Works had been releasing updates to Guilty Gear XX.  When they lost the rights to use their characters quite some time ago, they had to create a brand new game. BlazBlue was the result of of incident.

While BlazBlue brought gamers a feeling of familiarity in regards to their Guilty Gear series, this game was more than a simple upgrade. This title brought an excellent online system into the mix, high definition graphics, a fleshed-out storyline, and incredibly unique characters.

It was largely different from Street Fighter IV, but it brought together that niche crowd from last year that was waiting for something ‘real’ and not just another upgrade. They were waiting for this, and it delivered.

One could argue that those were the only two games this year demanding any attention. King of Fighters XII was released a month later than BlazBlue, but lacked many features and had nearly unplayable online functionality. While I personally enjoyed it, King of Fighters XII tarnished the winning streak.

Several months later, Tekken 6 was released. The fifth iteration of this series was held in high regard, but the sequel took what everyone loved about the former and made it better. A lot better.

With a versatile story mode, diverse customizations, and  solid gameplay, Tekken 6 is worthy to be standing in line with Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue as one of this year’s savior’s of the genre. Not to say that the genre was necessarily dying from a popularity standpoint, inasmuch as fighting games appeared to be in a creative rut. In a year dominated by two great fighters, Tekken 6 was like a greedy child topping off at an ice cream shop.

These games collectively brought the fighting community out from hiding and into the public. This year, fighting games were made cool again.

This isn’t manga, but Frédéric Boilet considers himself a manga author. This brand of comic is put into the nouvelle manga category, a mixture of French and Japanese influences. Boilet moved to Japan in 1993, and since then he has been bringing the two worlds of Bande Dessinée and manga together in his own unique creations. Yukiko’s Spinach is widely regarded as his most popular work, and also only one of the few published in English.

*Hit the jump to read the rest*

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Over the past few months, I’ve been collecting games and systems that are known to be for a younger demographic.

Systems like the Mattel Hyperscan, Casio Loopy, and the Sega Pico have been victims of my curiosity for the duration of the past year or so.

In most discourses I have with others regarding such systems, I often receive strange remarks. Many individuals that I discuss this with, can’t seem to grasp the concept of buying consoles of this nature. Why do I buy these systems?  Is this just some sort of joke, or am I paying hundreds of dollars just to convey a message of irony? Am I a little girl?

It all started with the Mattel Hyperscan. I had read about it a few times, and I thought it was a stupid concept. One day I saw a bundle with all the console’s games for $10. As stupid as I thought the console was, this was too cheap to pass up. So I gave in to my temptations, and have been curious about “youth consoles” ever since.

The system was targeted for pre-teens too old for card games, but still too young for an expensive console. The Hyperscan’s main gimmick was that it came with a scanner. Each game came with a dozen cards with RFID chips built-in. The player would scan the cards, and load up such things as characters, stages, special attacks, and various other things.

The system is a joke, but I think that’s why I was curious about it. Before the Hyperscan, I had been collecting some other systems here and there that weren’t exactly cream of the crop, but nothing as embarassing or as childish as the Hyperscan.

As a hobbyist, I found a certain appeal in collecting systems that were universally frowned upon, like Sega’s 32x, Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, or the 3DO. To this end, my searches led me to more obscure systems. This time, however, they were not aimed at pre-teens, but instead they were aimed at much younger children.

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We have a facebook fan page now! If you hate leaving facebook like so many of us do, you can get all the important updates, events, and photos right on your wall by becoming a fan.

Interact, comment, and share stuff with us on facebook. We here at BFM love to socialize and communicate just as much as the next guy.

Facebook fan page

This week we wanted to represent what BFM is truly about, so we copped out and did a “list” episode! We’re all across the board, as we give our top nine things that drove us wild this year. In other news: Lil Wayne documentary, Japanese video game systems for  little girls who want to be princesses, flying dogs, blu-rays, graduation, and inter-dimensional travel!

We’ve also decided that google wave is awesome, and that everyone should join us on google wave while we record. It’s mega fun time!

 24 - Top Nine Nerdy Junk of 2009 [1:47:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (269)

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Hit the jump for show notes and our lovely video sampler that gives you the inside scoop on what we’ll be discussing. It’s kind of like spoilers, except it means a whole lot less!

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In case you could tell from the subject title, Black Flower Music now has t-shirts! We’ve created a handful of T-shirts for you all to enjoy. In the future, we’ll probably expand to awesome things like stamps and binders, but for right now we think it’s best to just stick with t-shirts!

You know you’ll feel cool when you’re wearing one of Black Flower Music’s “I Am A Hipster” or “Music Is Lulz” t-shirts! Now you can not only be stylish, but people will look up to you!

Our merch store can be found here, or at the top of every page.

Here’s just a sample of the variety of t-shirts we offer.