Check it out my brand new playlist here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8285BB19F2ADD4DC

Megaman has returned to the 8-bit scene where we all remember him from. Back to classic blue bomber style, Mega is back to his roots from his start in the 80s. One of the first things when I heard about this new game was that it was going back to 8-bit again. This is great for chiptunes fans like me who enjoy his music. I must say that the music does not disappoint. Some of my choice tracks include Tornado Man and Hornet Man. Something very interesting about the music selection is that some of the songs from Megaman II return to Megaman 9. Does this mean that Megaman II was the most popular Megaman in the classic series? After I heard the soundtrack I just knew that I had to get the music up on YouTube to share with everyone. You can listen to the entire soundtrack on my playlist.

Tornado Man

Hornet Man

 Here is another one of my popular vgm videos from Earthbound. According to my YouTube videos, this is one of my heavily commented videos. This is definitely the most whackiest songs in the game. The name of this is aptly titled. This does sound weird and must be what its charm is. Thanks everyone for supporting my videos. I am glad to share some truly great video game music with everyone in an easy to listen format. What better way than YouTube? Thanks again!

This is the final boss theme for Final Fantasy 2(4). Something that I have noticed about this game is that it has been remade several times on both the GBA and DS. So this particular title in the Final Fantasy series is still very popular since its introduction to the SNES in 1991. I have the SNES version and noticed how the quality of music got degraded when it was ported to the GBA. I listened to the DS version and it sounds much better than the GBA. There is just something about this music that sounds that has that creepy alien feeling to it that makes it so fitting for a final battle. Due to the immense reception from the YouTube community, I have decided to share more of my music videos with the rest of the online world. I really hope everyone enjoys video game music like I do. I just love those sound tests that these games have so I could just listen to the video game music all day.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=896B602BAE3908DD 

I just recently uploaded some more Megaman music to YouTube. I just cannot get enough Megaman. I have to say that Megaman rivals as best platformer ever with Mario and Sonic. With the blue bomber’s powers, I think that our little robo buddy has a slight edge over the plumber and hedgehog. This time, I have chosen to upload music from a game called “Rockman and Forte”, which is known under other titles such as “Megaman and Bass” and “Megaman 9″. As any Mega fan would know, all the characters in the Megaman series are named after various musical terms. Hence ROCKman, Roll, Bass, Beat, Treble, and Tango to name some. With Rockman and his sister Roll, together they make Rock’n'Roll ;). This music theme with the characters signifies the great Megaman music that Capcom continues to produce sequel after the sequel. The music is still strong after so many titles that Capcom lives up to their name as creating some of the best video game music ever.

Gameplay

In this sequel to the Blue Bomber’s series, you can finally choose another character to play as besides as Megaman. Now you can choose to be Bass/Forte who I actually prefer over Mega for several reasons. I like how Bass shoots his cannon shots rapidly if you hold down the shoot button. Bass cannot charge his shots like Mega, but can aim in several directions including above and at 45 degree angles. Bass dashes forward instead of sliding like Mega which means that Bass cannot pass under tight spots. I like Treble more than Rush/Beat so it is very refreshing to see a new character as being completely playable. Unfortunately, the boss weapons that you acquire are the same for Bass as they are for Mega.

Music

This game resides on the 16-bit SNES and I always liked the 8-bit music from the earlier Megaman titles. Not to say that the music is not good in this game. It is just that the music is not as memorable or as catchy as it once was. The constant reappearance of recognizable Megaman music is definitely was keep the Megaman image strong and alive.

Here are some examples:

Any Mega fanatic will recognize both of these songs right away.

Check out my playlist to hear the rest of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=896B602BAE3908DD

I recently uploaded the music for Pardious v2 which I thought has some of the best music in the entire series.

You can listen to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=EDB8BC82812D72C2

You can refer to this link to find out more about Parodius music:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parodius_Music

Here is a list that links a few of the more popular classical songs to their counterparts in parodius.

• Capsule Monster Capuchin - Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, 3rd Movement
• Cat Battleship Forever - “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa
• Dancing Panda - Bizet Carmen Prelude by Carlos Kleiber (1978)
• Run! Run! Run! - William Tell Overture (Finale)
• The Brothers’ Ships Move Again - “Ride of the Valkyries” by Wilhelm Richard Wagner

William Tell Overture (Finale) - Parodius (Run! Run! Run!)

William Tell Overture (Finale) - Original

I found this cool video on YouTube that celebrates Megaman’s 20th anniversary.

Video games in order of appearance:

• Megaman (Cut Man theme)
• Megaman X (X Intro theme)
• Megaman Legend
• Megaman Battle Network
• Megaman Zero
• Megaman Star Force
• Megaman ZX (Zero + X)

My favorite Megaman series would of course have to be the original NES Megaman/Rockman. I saw some of the newer version like Star Force and ZX. Star Force is just a 3D battle network and ZX is just Zero with X. Even though Megaman has transformed a lot throughout the years, his many incarnations still make him popular to this day. I am still glad that Mega is still in the scene after 20 years. As someone who grew with Mega since II, seeing him still outlast time is a sight for sore eyes. The fact that the younger generation appreciates Mega from his humble beginnings on YouTube means that the original 8-bit Mega will never be forgotten.

Since I love Megaman and I just posted Snake Man’s theme from 3, I thought that I would share this Flash movie that I found on Newgrounds. Similar to the one about Quick Man, this time Mega takes on Snake. The music at the beginning of the movie is Snake’s theme and it opens up with Mega blasting those bullet enemies found right out Snake’s chambers. The graphics and animation are really nice. Snake is looking cool as usual with his green viper helmet and lets loose a volley of search snakes at Mega. The music is well done as it is use appropriately throughout the movie. I really enjoy the remixed versions of Megaman music scattered about. I especially like how the movie shifts to Mega retrieving an energy tank that he found at Needle’s stage. Those tanks surely come in handy when you need them, do they not? The ending credits feature Magnet’s original 8-bit theme straight from the NES. This movie is a great throwback to the NES days and I am sure fans of video game nostalgia will enjoy taking a trip back to the past.

Most of my videos on YouTube that have received the most feedback are 16-bit tunes. I still remember my 8-bit roots back in the 80s and so does everyone else. Here is one my 8-bit videos that have received a lot of response. It seems that everyone loves the Snake Man theme from Megaman III. I do have to say that this song is certaintly fun to listen to. Especially since Capcom chose such a cool animal to base a robot master on. I mean come on, snakes! Those cobra, vipers, and pythons can be pretty scary. Search snake is not exactly the best Megaman weapon ever. It is just pretty much bubble lead that can crawl up walls. I will take shadow blades as my Megaman III weapon of choice, but Snake Man’s still got a cool song. You have to admit, Snake has got an awesome helmet. I love that tail that just whips in the back. A very stylish robot master with a good theme some. So his weapon is not the best. Two of three is still pretty good. I mean, just look at Hard Man and Top Man. Snake looks way better than both. Then again, how could Capcom make hard and tops look cool?

Check out this snazzy image of Snake @ www.vgfanart.com

This is my most popular Killer Instinct music video at YouTube and this is also my favorite song. The orchested sound is really good and this theme stands outs from the others. Even though I used B. Orchid the most, I still like Sabrewulf’s theme the best. One of the most popular things that I believe Killer Instinct contributed to the tournament fighting genre was the fast multi-hit combos that could well exceed 20-30+ hits. These multi-hit combos became prevalent in later tournament fighers like Marvel vs Capcom.

Here is the website that you can use to read your most recent comments:

http://www.myvideocomments.com/

All you have to do is submit your YouTube username to read your most recent comments. The website makes use of the Google YouTube API (Application Programming Interface), which basically allows the website to interact with YouTube’s comment database. I tried the website out and I noticed that the API takes a while to update its comments compared to those YouTube. I realized this when I checked my YouTube account and it already has comments newer than those on the other site. If you are being swamped with comments like me and love to read them all, try this website. With this minor caveat, I am sure that it will still save you lots of hassle.

Here is a screenshot of a few of my comments using the website:

This is one of the ending songs to Chono Trigger. Such a beautiful song like this can only be created by none other than Squaresoft. I just love video game music when it sounds this good. Even though it has been over 10 years, the sound track for Chrono Trigger is still one of the best that has received a lot of buzz on YouTube. I am really glad that everyone is enjoying the music that I have uploaded. Sharing music that was once and still is a part of my gaming life on YouTube and receiving all the feedback makes it all worthwhile. Chrono Trigger has that effect on everyone, it can still draw communities forth and bring people together for several years to come. This is one of the songs that make it possible. My favorite thing to do is just head on over to the sound test section and listen to the video game music. I guess you could say that the sounds test were like music CDs back in the day before  MP3s existed. Such good times back then. Thanks everyone.

This is one of the snow/winter themes from Earthbound that also made into SSBB. Here is the Brawl version of the song.

The music has not changed drastically because 16-bit still sound very similar and recognizable to today’s vgm. Some of the more impressive Brawl tracks convert over 8-bit NES favorites. This song is played in Winters, which is aptly named for the both the environment and Christmas jingle. Jeffs is from Winters and offers the party valuable skills ranging from fixing broken gadgets into useful tools to using powerful and explosive bottle rockets. Many have said that Jeff is the most useless and weakest character in the party. Even though this is true to some extent, the main reason is that Jeff is difficult to use. Jeff has no PSI power due to lack of PP unlike the other characters. Also Jeff has a fairly pointless Spy command that can take peak at an enemies stats. How often to people use Pray or Mirror? Jeff’s relies a lot on his gadgets that he fixes from broken parts like the defense shower or heavy bazooka, which are both useful because they cost no PP and last forever. Jeff actually does have “PSI”, you just need to find and fix them.

You can check out the Flash at Newgrounds here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/424281

I have uploaded more video game music at my YouTube channel and this video has gotten a lot of response out of the community so I am sharing it here. Everyone loves boss music, especially when it comes from Squaresoft. The boss theme from Final Fantasy IV/III is one of the best boss songs that I have ever heard. The music really changed in this Final Fantasy sequel. The bass is a lot heavier this time around as Final Fantasy moves away from its traditional medieval setting to a more futuristic one. It is no wonder why FF VII is so much darker, colder, and sterile then its predecessor. As the Final Fantasy series makes giants leaps into new creative territory, their musical score also undergoes a major overhaul. Of course, some classic tunes like the traditional crystal theme, the victory fanfare, and the chocobo theme all remain the same. Final Fantasy explores uncharted land with each sequel, but its historical icons like Cid, moogles, and chocobos will always remain.

I am sure many of you receive e-mails similar to the following:

This is a typical e-mail that lets me know that someone commented on my video. Instead of just adding the actual comment to the e-mail, I have to click on that link that says “go to the comments”. What makes matters even worse is that I have to scan through the “time stamps” for all the comments of the video and find the one that was just posted recently. I find this to be too troublesome. Just put the actual comment in the e-mail.

Just More Hits

Come on now, how hard can it be? From the e-mail that I received I can tell that the e-mail was able to tell me the user who posted the comment and what video the comment is for. So why not just put the actual comment in the e-mail also? Why is there such a great need to get a couple few more hits out of me when I click on that link? YouTube already has the monopoly on online video so what will a few more pointless hits from this hassle do? Yes I know, it is all about the hits but I do not want to click on every single video just to view the comments. A site as large as YouTube has enough traffic already. How about we spend some time on creating a better user experience via cutting down on some unnecessary clicks?

Just Modify the SQL Query

The video comments are stored in a database so I know that all it takes is to extract the video comment out of it. Maybe something like SQL can do the trick? The query that retrieve the current information for the e-mail has to be modified to so that it gets the comment out also.

Something like:

SELECT user_name, video_title, video_comment FROM video_comments WHERE …

So you need to know the database structure, granted. But I know that this is just a simple thing to add.

Just Do It

Make things easier already and add the comment itself to the e-mail. I do not see the purpose of having to click on every single video individually and then scanning the time stamps to find it. Does anyone else find this to be a hassle. If you do or have any other comments, feel free to post them.

Game Pads are Disappearing

I know that you are already familiar with DDR, but I remember Nintendo with something that was a precursor to DDR. I have to admit, DDR is definitely something. The music is really good, my favorite song being “Butterfly” and it got everyone moving for a change. The console gaming scene has definitely changed over the past 20 years. Gone are the days where you just sat in front of the TV with a game pad all day. Now there are new input gaming devices like pads and remotes that are getting you up and moving around. The Nintendo Wii Remote is great in that it makes gamers exert some physical force. Swinging your arms around with the remote is at least better than just button mashing your old game pads.  You might know about the Nintendo Power Pad and how it too is very similar to DDR.

The Nintendo Power Pad

Surprisingly enough, console gaming back during the NES days also wanted their gamers to get up and move around. Check out this commercial for the Nintendo Power Pad.

This pad resembles the one used for DDR in that you step on the button on the pad to control your character. I find this so great in that alternative gaming input devices actually started way back in the 80s. The Wii remote did not just sprout over night. Another interesting observation to point out is the Wii Fit. Instead of a large pad we have a small platform. Wii Fit has the same objective as the Power Pad, to get kids up and moving around. I never had a Power Pad and I do not remember it being as successful because of the limited games that it supported but at least console gaming already had plans to offer alternative to the game pad. Does the popularity of the Wii signify that game pads will eventually disappear? Or at least, evolve to the point where instead of controlling the charcter, you are the character? The Wii remote is definitely heading toward that direction and it is interesting to see how Nintendo had plans for Wii Fit way back then in the ’80s with their Power Pad.

I still love the blue bomber and here is really cool Megaman Flash that features Megaman in his classic original form.

If you want to watch this Flash movie at Newgrounds, here it is:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/188383

Astro’s Card Trick

Something that I found weird was toward the end where Astro Man asks Mega if he up for a game of old maid. What a minute. Old maid? Cards? Astro Man is one of the million robot masters that Mega has to fight. Why is he asking Mega to play cards? Unless…they came from Magic Man. Yes, those are the cards from Magic Man. This is obvious trap that Mega is being tricked into. I thought that was strange. We all know that Astro is not the coolest of robot masters but offering a game of cards still seems fishy, even for him. What is even funnier is that Astro Man is weak against these magic cards. Very cool reference indeed. Mega can throw the cards back at Astro if he loses.

Megaman and Rush

Rush is Mega’s best friend. After all, a dog is a man’s best friend right? I took some screenshots of the movie to show the great rapport that Mega and Rush have with each other.

Here is the first episode in this series:

Check out the entire series at Newgrounds:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/408522

Another one of my video game music videos that is getting lots of attention on YouTube. I love music with heavy bass in the background. This song is commonly played against robots and other outer space monsters. When I listen to this song, I remember all of the different just like Chocobos in Final Fantasy. What I find strange is that even though Earthbound became popular because it was touted as a modern day role playing game (RPG), lots of RPGs that came after it are still either traditional or futuristic. It seems that only Earthbound could pull off using today’s world as the perfect setting for a different kind of RPG. One of my favorite things about Earthbound is how the battle are not random like Final Fantasy but rather you fight only enemies that you see on the scree, much like Chrono Trigger. Also, the swirly bright colorful patters in the battle background were always kind of trippy. I just wanted to share with everyone another song that you all like at YouTube. I am glad that everyone is enjoying the vgm at my YouTube channel. I am too. With the vgm playlists I can listen to these videos from anywhere. YouTube is the greatest!

You can check out sprite sheets for various video games here:

http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=video+game+sprite+sheets

While checking out Newgrounds I found a really cool Flash movies that were part of a series called 8-bit Theater that features the light warriors from the very first Final Fantasy. This series makes use of sprite-like graphics that resemble the sheets found at Google. The 8-bit comes from the fact that the original Final Fantasy came from the NES, which is an 8-bit console gaming system. Everyone is in 8-bit theater, your figher, black belt, theif, red mage, black mage, and white mage. My favorite character is the red mage because he is a well-rounded character who can cast both black and white magic. The red mage can also wield a sword unlike his black and white counterparts.

You can watch 8-bit Theater on Newgrounds:

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/8bittheater.html

I did some searching and found out that 8-bit Theater has a website that contains a bunch of comics:

http://www.nuklearpower.com/

They have comics also, which I know used to be popular before the Internet. We used to actually read before the Internet became to rich in multimedia. Now everything is video. =/

Favorite Final Fantasy Party

Since I am revisiting Final Fantasy now, I want to talk about what I believe is the best part for Final Fantasy.

1. Fighter/Knight
2. Black Belt/Master
3. Red Mage/Red Wizard
4. White Mage/White Wizard

Here is my recommended party of four plus their respective class upgrades. I like having the red mage because of his versatility. The white mage is your primary healer/defensive character since he can leave the highest level white spells that the red mage cannot. The fighter is your tank and will absorb damage while the black belt is a low-cost physical attacker. This is definitely the best party for your first time through the game.

This one of my favorite boss themes from the game. A very calm and mellow song, a lot different than what you would expect from boss themes. Of course this is Earthbound, it breaks the traditional mold that Final Fantasy has crafted over the years. I like how this song has a strange errie omnious quality to it. It sounds like it is too quiet…almost too quiet. Definitely has that “something is lurking in the shadows” vibe to it. Another thing about Final Fantasy versus Earthbound is that Final Fantasy uses the same battle and few boss themes over and over. There really are not that many unique and distinct battle themes in Final Fantasy. Earthbound on the other hand has several battle themes and each one matches the enemies in every battle. This is first observation when I first listened to music in Final Fantasy and Earthbound. What do you think? Are there any other observations that you can make about these games or just anything else in general? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts.

http://www.vgmusic.com/

I used to check out the MIDIs at this site and the great part is that the site still continues to create new music for the newer consoles. Wii, Playstation 3, and XBOX 360 are all on the list along with my favorite 8 and 16-bit consoles. It is simply amazing to revisit this site after so many years and still see it currently active. If you are into video game music like me, give VGMusic a try. The MIDI files are very small and the quality may not be up to par with today’s MP3s but MIDIs are still a very important part of my video game past. If you like OCRemix, give VGMusic a try. These archive and reference sites are great when you want to take a trip back to your past.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=18AB71ABC1C0B3A4

One of my favorite songs has to be Wind Scene, which plays on the overworld map during 600 A.D.

Squaresoft (Enix) made the best RPG music ever and it really shows in the Chrono series. If you enjoy video game music like I do then check out my Chrono Trigger playlist which will automatically play every single song on my playlist. What I like to do is, is just leave the playlist running in one window and then just let it play the list on its own. You can listen to the music and continue on what you were doing. My other Trigger favorites include Frog’s theme, To Far Away Times, and of course the boss battle theme. If you have read my other posts then you know that I always love the boss fights. Squaresoft always knows how to make them sound perfect.

Before you check out my Chrono Trigger music playlist, listen to Wind Scene in piano @ OCRemix:

http://www.rpgclassics.com

The first thing that you will notice about this site is that look like it was made a long time ago. According to the site, RPGClassics has been around since 1997 or so. This was before 2000 and the great Web 2.0 craze. I actually prefer the Web 1.0 look of RPGClassics. The layout is much cleaner and content is surrounded with actual white space. Wow, white space. You can hardly find white space today where sites try to squeeze content into every single spot possible.  Where are the days when you could surf online and not have to deal with random Flash ads that call you out at every turn?

RPGClassics covers a pretty wide spectrum of gaming consoles ranging from the NES to the PS2. Each console is categorized as a shrine. Each shrine contains a list of games for you to browse. All of the content is either in a simple list or table, no distracting graphics that get in your way. The site is well optimized so that pages load quickly. If you want to read through long black and white text files that you have to search through, stick with GameFAQs. GameFAQs does have more detail but if you do not like reading plain simple text off the screen, then you should head on over to RPGClassics. This site has all of your favorite RPGs and still keeps things simple, clean, and fast. With Web 2.0 bombarding you with content all over the place, RPGClassics is a sight for sore eyes.

I am sharing another great song from Earthbound. This is one of the first songs that play in the game when you choose the names for your characters. What names do you like to name your characters? I usually use the defaults but I like to choose a Drill as my favorite thing. So all of Ness’ PK attack skills become PK Drill. Earthbound really has unique music. During a time where Squaresoft and Final Fantasy dominated the RPG market it is nice to know that new comer Earthbound has marked its territory and became a respectable addition to every RPG fan’s collection. What I like best about Earthbound is that it takes place in modern today instead of traditional medieval times like the older FFs. So instead of seeing knights, kings, and castles, you see dogs, robots, and strange star-shaped aliens. This modern twist on the RPG formula produced such a successful franchise for Nintendo. Even better, Ness and Lucas are in Brawl so there is still some love for Earthbound. Ah yes, Earthbound, today’s role playing game.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/164193

You can also watch it here split up into two parts:

Part 1

Part 2

This Flash movie pays tribute to some of the older titles in the Final Fantasy series because it uses traditional classes like knights, black wizards, and white wizards. Most likely, this movie is based on Final Fantasy V and back. What I really like about this movie is that it is completely in Japanese with English substitles. This is just like watching anime and it is great sinces it pays tribute to how Japan is the home of the world’s best RPGs. Without Squaresoft/Square-Enix, Final Fantasy would have never been the phenomeon it is and noone would have even known what an RPG is. This movie has all the classic Final Fantasy icons: chocobos, moogles, even Bahamut. The movie really show cases everyones personality. The fighter tends to be a bit foolhardy and rushes into thing. The black mage is the thinker and see through the fighter’s intentions. The white mage is caring and always looks out for his friends. Again, a really great Flash movie that pays tribute to the best RPG ever created, Final Fantasy.

Check it out:
http://www.ocremix.org/

What I really like about the selection being geared toward older systems like NES, Genesis, and SNES is that you can really hear a major difference in how vgm used to sound and how it would sound be it were remade today. I am sure that you have all heard the SSBB remixes on YouTube already and OCRemix does the same thing. OCRemix takes all of your favorite video game tunes and upgrades them to the 21st century. Some of my favorite vgm remixes on this site are from Final Fantasy and Megaman. Just let show you the kind of remixes are available at OCRemix. Since Megaman is mega awesome I am taking Metal Man’s theme from MM II to show you as an example. Metal Man is my favorite robot master from Mega Man. Best weapon ever, best theme song ever, and coolest looking robot master ever.

Before: Original Metal Man Theme (NES)

After: Metal Man Remixed

I noticed that a recent addtion to OC Remix is the embedding of Last.fm music players for their vgm remixes. This means that I can also embed them into my blog posts and share with you my favorite remixes from their site. If you are a vgm listener like me, go check OC Remix out. With SSBB out, I am sure that a lot of people will be interested in listening to how their favorite 8-bit chiptunes from the NES would sound today.

Checkout NESGuide here:

http://www.nesguide.com/

The best part about these videos is that there is no commentary or video edits. Just pure gaming. It is great to just watch these videos without hearing someone complain that it is too hard or splicing random videos inbetween the gameplay.

Need Wii Virtual Console Help?

If you are wondering what games to get for the Virtual Console on Wii, take a look at NESGuide and check the games out. Buying video games or anything for that matter just became a whole lot easier with the Internet. I remember the days back in the 80s when the Internet had not even existed yet and buying games was hard. All that I had was my Nintendo Power magazines and TV commercials. I had no way to even  watch video of gameplay unless I was at the actual store.

If you find any cool video game websites, especially ones that are related to retro/nostaligic gaming or video game music, leave a comment and I will check it out. I am alway interested in finding cool sites like NESGuide.

Characters: SOR >> FF >> DD

In SOR, each character has a bunch of different moves that you can mix up to beat those bad guys down into submission. In FF and DD, the characters really did not have the variety of moves that SOR had. In SOR, you could run which opened up even more moves. In FF or DD you could not run which was useful to get yourself out of a tight jam when surrounded by a group of enemies. Also, when you run into these cases in SOR, you have power moves that could clear nearby enemies. FF had power moves too but it still was not as good as SOR. The problem with DD is that you only have two characters, brothers Billy and Jimmy who form the Double Dragon. These two guys have the exact same moves, so much for character selection. I know that the DD story has to have these two brothers as main characters but at least Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter (SF) were different. Ken has his fiery dragon punch (shoruken) and Ryu has his stronger fireball (hadoken). Speaking of SF, both Cody and Guy were featured characters in SF Alpha because both FF and SF were from Capcom later ported to the Nintendo. Back to DD, same character, same moves, no variety. If you know about Super Double Dragon…yikes! What happened to DD on the SNES? I do not know what happened to DD here but Super DD did not make DD anymore super to surpass SOR that is for sure.

 In conclusion, SOR has the best character selection with the best moves. FF has fewer characters will a lot less moves than SOR. DD has no character selection (Billy = Jimmy) and since they are bros, no move variety here.

 SOR characters beat out FF and DD hands down.

 Axel = Cody?

I guess this is what every guy who wants to beat down a bunch of punks would look like:

• White shirt
• Half-gloves
• Short-bang haircut
• Blue jeans

I like Axel better than Cody because Cody does not have Axel’s grand upper, probably the most famous move from SOR.

Now that we have taken a look at the characters let us move to the music.

Music: SOR >>>>>>>>>> DD >> FF

Alright the music, you know that I love video game music (vgm). Visit my YouTube channel if you love vgm also. SOR has the best music of both FF and DD. I still remember the music after so many years. The Sega Genesis really produce some good tracks that got you pumped up to beat those baddies up. Since DD started on the NES and I love my 8-bit chiptunes, DD comes after SOR. That leaves FF last, I cannot even recall a single song that I remember from FF.

So in the music department SOR wins again! After Sonic, SOR has the best music on the Sega Genesis.

Now I conclude this review with some videos that I found on YouTube showing gameplay for each:

Streets of Rage 2:

Final Fight:

Double Dragon:

This is probably one of the most famous songs from Super Mario RPG, Mario’s first RPG game. This game was on the Super Nintendo and featured 3D-like graphics similar to Donkey Kong Country. Since fully rendered 3D were not achieved until the N64, many call Mario RPG and DKC only 2.5D. Due to the graphical limitation of the SNES, 3D was not completely possible until the next generation of consoles. This when Geno joins and I must say that Geno is one of the best characters in the game. Geno defintely earns a permanent spot in the party along with Princess Toadstool and of course Mario who is there by default.

King Geno

I have always seen Geno as a replacement for the other characters. Mallow is too weak physically and has no good attack skills. Geno’s Flash attack can destroy an entire army of enemies in one fell swoop. I have never seen Mallow’s star rain do that. What good is Mallow, the cloud/tadpole for? Same thing with Bowser. Geno’s physical strength is on par with Bowser but Bowser lacks decent skills. Bowser Crush? What is this? This skill does not come even close to Geno Flash. Not to mention Geno has that 9999 damage trick with Whirl. Geno is king and deserves to be in your party until the end.

Geno Videos

Check out these other videos on Geno.

9999 Geno Whirl

 Super Mario RPG - Forest Maze Song Rawest

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_Moon:_Tree_of_Peace

“Use the Wii Remote to till soil, water the crops, cut down trees, destroy rocks, and other things.”

I suppose this could be fun for a while. I defintely think using the remote to motion a specific action is better than just pressing a button. The main problem is having to move your character using a gamepad. The gamepad is just too slow and your character should be more like a cursor that you move with the remote. This is why PC games are best for micromanagement. You can move a cursor faster and easier using a mouse than a gamepad as your controller. We all know that RTS (real-time strategy) games excel on a computer for the sole reason that mice offer the best in micromanagement. The remote has the possibly to improve character/cursor movement in micromanagement games. What will make the new Wii version of Harvest Moon better is if you can spend less time harvesting and more time socializing or exploring the town. Growing crops is a large part of Harvest Moon but it would be better if you could streamline the entire process so that the tedious, repetitive, and monotonous crop picking does not become boring.

This is the battle song to your archrival Pokey from Earthbound. The 8-bit NES-like introduction was a nice touch as a throw back to 80s gaming. Yes, I know I mention the 80s a lot, but what can I say? It was the time when console gaming was becoming popular and mainstream. Just look at how good the game were given the limitations at the time. Lots of the video game music around this time was catchy because they were short and looped constantly. Console really knew how to create new music with the restrictions placed on them. Remember not to attack the eye as it reflects your attacks back at you. Launch a Multi-Bottle Rocket at Pokey to quickly put a stop to him. Then when it is just you and the final boss, have Paula keep praying to bring the world together to beat the final boss.

This game brings a lot of memories, even if I could not get Rob to work. Those two discs are meant to press down on the red and blue buttons, which correspond to the A and B on the NES game pad. I know that for Gyromite, Rob presses down on the those buttons using his discs which causes columns to move up and down. This clears a path for you on Gyromite.

 Watch Rob in action in this YouTube video I found:

I found another video on YouTube that pays tribute to our robo buddy:

Balloon Fight symbolizes the greatness in simplicity. All that you have to do is pop enemy balloons. I still miss the music in this game. What made NES music so great was that they were simple and short. They could be on a loop and would listen to them forever. This music reminds of short little catchy ditties or jingles that hook you in instantly. After seeing Balloon Fight reappear on the Nintendo DS in WarioWare Touched, I realized how great Nintendo was in the 80s. During this time, all we had was an A and B button. Later on several more button were added to the game pad, X, Y, L, and R on the Super Nintendo. Now with the Wii, we have a totally different gaming device that evolved from the traditional gamepad. Having Nintendo last so long throughout the years ensure that video game past will never die. All of us old gamers are always glad to see our old favorite resurface after so many years of dormancy.

Now I leave you with two videos showing the original Balloon Fight on the NES and the new version on the DS game, Warioware Touched:

Balloon Fight for the NES

Balloon Fight for the Nintendo DS

I recently posted the theme for Magus so I decided to put Schala’s up now since they are both related. Magus AKA Janus is Schala’s brother. Schala is one of the more popular characters because she is one of the few who reluctantly fed the Mammon Machine that was draining the palace of its power. Even though her mother, the Queen of Zeal, forced her to feed the machine, Schala eventually refused but it was too late. Queen Zeal had been corrupted with the power of the machine but Schala saw through the machine’s evil grip and could no longer support her mother in using it to bring supposed prosperity to Zeal. Lavos has reawakened and will wreck havoc unless our heroes can stop it. Magus who disguised himself as a prophet returned to Zeal in 12,000 BC in hopes of destroying Lavos once reawakened from its slumber.

This the theme song for Magus AKA Janus, Schala’s brother. I love the howling wind in the beginning, it defintely adds some atomshpere and tension of things to come. Frog insists on dropping Magus a visit due to a feud between the two. When Frog, also know as Glenn, was young, his friend named Cyrus always protected him. Cyrus was a knight and Frog aspired to be one just like Cyrus. One fateful day, Cyrus crossed Magus and Cyrus lost. Frog now has taken over Cyrus’ role of protecting Gaurdia from Magus and has vowed swift revenge against Magus. When you fight Magus the second time on the cliff in 12,000 B.C. you can choose to defeat him and fulfill Frog’s promise to revenge Cyrus. On the other hand, you can enlist Magus as a playable party member and gain access to his power dark magic. I normally would allow Magus to join because I like having more characters to choose from. This is not necessary but I like to try out new characters. If you defeat Magus, then Frog will turn into a Prince during the ending with a scene involving Marle. I guess the whole Princess turning the Frog back into a “Prince” still holds true, at least for Chrono Trigger.

In a previous post, I talked about being able to easily add YouTube videos to your self-hosted Wordpress blog posts using a plugin called YouTube Brackets:

http://www.constantlimit.com/site/wordpress/2008/02/29/easily-add-youtube-videos-to-your-self-hosted-wordpress-blog/

Now I will discuss about a another really good plugin that I discovered while searching on Google. If you have videos on YouTube, you may have added them to your blog. If you have, you might have also wondered about how to bring the comments from your YouTube videos to your blog post. With this plugin called Genki YouTube Comments, you can do just that.

Check out this great plugin here:

http://ericulous.com/2007/05/16/wp-plugin-genki-youtube-comments/ 

This is very simple plugin that you can download for free and upload to your Wordpress blog. Even though the plugin can only display the lastest 25 comments for any given video in your post, it is still great to show your visitors how popular your videos on YouTube are. Since the newest comments are displayed, your comments will always been fresh as long as people continue to comment on your videos on YouTube. I tried this plugin out on my video game music videos on YouTube and it works perfectly. Let me show you what the plugin can do for your blog.

Check out one of my videos on YouTube here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=J7S0aQEfUX4

Now take a look at my blog post for that video:

http://www.constantlimit.com/site/wordpress/2008/03/14/earthbound-music-eight-melodies/

You will notice that the video on YouTube and my blog have the same comments. This makes your posts look active plus provide user-generated content for SEO (search engine optimization) since the user comments will be indexed onto search engines. When you look at the source code for any given webpage, any text that you find in that code will be indexed and spidered for search engines. Another nice thing abot this plugin is that the YouTube comments will not interfere with comments made directly on  your blog. This plugin along with YouTube Brackets really bridge the gap between YouTube and Wordpress. If you like adding your YouTube videos to your blog like I do then I highly recommed these two YouTube plugins for your Wordpress blog.

Do you have any comments about this blog post? Feel free to share them.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F5140DC900DD0BDB

A lot of your old favorite tunes have been redone for Brawl and they are amazing. I have not heard some of these songs in years and Nintendo did a great job and bringing these songs back to life.

Here is an example of a before and after:

Before

After

http://www.gamespot.com/video/588301/6188215/miraculous-game-resurrections

I found this video at GameSpot that talk abouts a bunch of different video game franchises that should be brought back to the gaming scene. Among these include Punch-out, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and Blaster Master. I think that Chrono Trigger would be great because the game is still popular to this date and Cross did not uphold its end of the bargain. If Chrono were to come back, they need to use the Trigger characters and not the forgettable Cross one. The worst part about Cross is that most of the dual and triple techniques are gone because there were just so many characters. There were how many, around 40-50 characters for Chrono Cross? The elements grid/matrix was fun but it lacked the complexity and depth of FF7’s materia system. If Chrono reprises, it would most likely follow Cross’s steps and show up on the PS3.

Link needs too stock up on some more life and he is getting it no matter what. This Flash movie reminds me of the original Zelda where Link could not talk at all when you entered any of the shops. If you wanted to buy something you just went over to whatever you wanted. In later generations of consoling, voice was added. I still believe that reading it very important but the voices created a senes of realism as characters interacted with each other.

I believe that Super Smash Bros. Brawl could add friendships, brutalities, and babalities to their characters. This would add a bit more personality to each character and mix things up a bit. I wonder how this would be added to Brawl. There are issues to consider like how to have finishing moves with four players on the screen simultaneously. I know that MK is a violent game but certain playful elements like the friendships and babalities could have made their way into Brawl.

Here is a video of what friendships looks like in MK:

What do you think? Should finishing moves from MK have been added to Brawl? Feel free to post a comment.

I found this Flash movie on YouTube that I remember from Newgrounds. This from the Nintendo game Megaman II showing a battle between Megaman and Quickman. If you remember this game, Quickman is the one who had that stage with all the deadly lasers that could destroy you with one hit. Using the time stopper right before the lasers came out froze them in their tracks and made it easier to traverse through these sections. In the movie, Megaman takes on Quickman using his metal blades, which are my favorite weapon by the way, and his crash bombs. I really like the part where Megaman is switching between weapons and you can even see the MM2 weapon menu on this arm. This is the kind of detail that makes you appreciate the dedication that people have in ensuring that the movie is as accurate as possible. The best part is when Megaman uses the time stopper against Quickman. This is the exact same strategy that most recommend against him. Again, a really great Flash movie that pays tribute to a game that I used to play in the ’80s. Those were the days of 8-bit chiptunes.

This is easily the best song in Final Fantasy VI/III. I remember listening to this song over and over just because it was so good. When fighting bosses make sure that you have a good physical fighter and magic user. Some good characters to bring are Locke, Edgar, Sabin, and Gogo. Locke is always good to have around to steal rare items from bosses. If you use lore bring Strago. Against really hard bosses that you do not want to level up for, you can always use the vanish and doom trick to beat them.

 I have seen several videos that show the final smashes on  YouTube, but this is the best one. Not only can you watch this video in high quality but the video also shows how strong some final smashes are with a full screen of characters. After watching this video I will offer my thoughts and opinions on them.

 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpLIMqOeNZE&fmt=6] 

Bowser/Ganondorf

Same thing. Both turn into a big strong monster. 

Donkey Kong

The range is pretty short on his bongos. I wonder if you can move and at least use the short range to push and keep them off the platform.

Link/Toon Link

Same thing. There is defintely too much rehashing of final smashes.

Ness/Lucas

PK Starstorms in different color. What a minute. I thought Starstorm belonged to Poo…

Peach

Why do her peaches heal the enemy? It would have made more sense if they exploded and damaged the enemy if they touched them. This would make them more useful since you do not need to eat them anymore if you are already at full HP.

Pikachu

Why does Pikachu have the same exact final smash as Sonic? They both fly through the air and randomly collide into enemies. This is more of Sonic’s final smash since Sonic turns into Super Sonic when he has all of the chaos emeralds. Pikachu’s should have been different.

Samus

I actually like this one. This reminds of what Megaman’s final smash would be looked like if he were in brawl. Of course, Megaman’s would have been a lot flashier, because this is Megaman that I am talking about.

Team Star Fox: Fox, Falco, Wolf

Everyone has the same landmaster with a different color. Final smashes should have been unique to each character, not just a simple pallete swap.

Zelda/Shiek

I know that there is an alter ego thing going on here but can we at least not make them identical?

These are just my thought on the final smashes for Brawl. Which ones are your favorite? Feel free to post comments about this video.

 Here is a list of the kinds of video game music covers/remixes/renditions that you can find on YouTube:

• Game Concerts
• Instruments: Piano/Guitar
• Mario Paint (Composer)
• Original
• Remixed (OCRemix)
• Video Game Remakes/Newer Consoles (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

Unfortunately, you can currently only respond to one video with one of your own. I want to take one my videos and use it to respond to several other similar ones. For example, if I have an original theme from Megaman and I find several piano and mario paint renditions of it, then I want to be able to respond to all of them with my original theme. Right now, I have to pick and choose which videos I want to respond to with mine. I find this to be restrictive and you should instead be able to respond to an unlimited number of videos with one of your own. If you were listening to a guitar version of a Zelda song and wanted to know what the original sounded like, then someone would have to respond to that video with their original one. Unfortunately, if that original Zelda theme is being used to respond to another video, then it cannot be used to respond to the guitar one. It would be great to see every video game music video have video responses to every single version of the same exact song. The way that it stands now, I have to pick and choose the videos that I want to respond to. This means that others will have to respond to those videos using their own because mine are already tied up.

 Here is a screenshot showing the current YouTube limitation on video responses:

Video Game Remakes

Whenever a game on an older console like NES or SNES is remade into a new one like GBA, DS, or Wii, the music is always revamped but still recognizable to its precedessor. If there are videos for those newer versions of Final Fantasy, I would like to be able to take my original videos and respond to all of them. This would also people to hear the original theme and see how it has evolved in the remake. A lot of Nintendo music from NES/SNES made into Brawl so I would like to increase the video response limit for this reason also.

What do you think? Should YouTube increase the video response limit? Feel free to post your comments or opinions.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/333995

Check out this video on YouTube to see its game play:

You have all your classic characters here. Mario, Link, Megaman, and Sonic are all part of the cast plus several other recognizable icons. There are also tons of unlockable characters just like the original Smash games. Even the menu system and the character select screen were made identical to the originals. When I tried this out, I chose Megaman because he never made an appearance in any Smash game and is still missing from Brawl. Megaman in Smash Flash plays just like he does in his normal games, all of his attacks are long range. He has no physical melee attacks since in his normal series, he just uses long range laser blasts. I thought this was pretty interesting to he how Megaman would be translated into this game.

Game Download

You can download the game here and run it off your PC to make it faster:

http://www.mcleodgaming.com/?page=downloads

Game Guide 

You can visit the site below to get the details on this game and how to unlock all the secret characters:

http://forums.mcleodgaming.com/viewtopic.php?t=154

Adventure Mode 

Another interesting thing about this game is the ability to play through Adventure mode. In this mode, you play through stages from the various characters that appear in the game. For example, you can choose Link and play through Mario stages. I think this was an interesting concept to see how other characters would fare in another character’s game.

I highly recommend this Flash game if you like Super Smas Bros. Have you tried this game out? Have any comments about it? Feel free to post about it.

Play It Right Now!

You can play it at my site right here!

You can check it out here:

http://www.aoamedia.com/audioextractor.htm

I downloaded the program and tried it out. This thing worked like a charm. Audio Extractor was fast and easily converted multiple videos at once. All you have to do is add your videos, browse where you want the mp3s to be stored, and just click start. I have to say that this program is amazing since it is absolutely free. No string attached here. No 10-day trial, converts only the first minute of media, and no limited functionality. This program is really some great hidden treasure that you just have to dig deep for.

Here is a screenshot showing the basic steps for  using Audio Extractor, click on it for a full screen image:

If all went well, you will received this message telling you that everything was a complete success:

Now you have your audio mp3s to use in your next project!

Have you found a free great online download that you think would be useful to everyone? If you have, or if you have any comments about using Audio Extractor, feel free to post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lxu8nbARYQ&feature=PlayList&p=718A7EF47B86DC9D&index=0&playnext=1 

This is my most popular Earthbound song on YouTube:

This is the eight melodies theme that plays after you visit all eight of your sanctuaries and collect the memories of your life with your Sound Stone. When your at Ness’s dream, you will absorb the power of all your sanctuaries once you defeat your nightmare. After gaining your new found power, your stats increase greatly and you are more than ready to finish the game.

It looks like Ness is returning to Super Smash Bros. Brawl with newcomer Lucas. Speaking of Smash, one of my favorite moves is to use Ness’s PK Thunder and shock yourself with it and user your body as an electrical charge to attack other opponents. I always thought using yourself as a weapon, literally was hilarious. Those were good times.

However, like R.O.B, Mr. Game and Watch is a great example of how Nintendo not only anticipates the future of gaming with their revolutionary Wii Remote, but also acknowledges their historical greatness. Longevity is very important in order to evolve and grow throughout the years and Nintendo has done a great job at outlasting their competitors. The once great Sega soon disappeared after the Dreamcast and has jumped on the Nintendo bandwagon. Even Sonic appears in Brawl and that is because Sega needs Nintendo in order to survive. I remember having one those Game and Watch handhelds back then. These game were a lot different than today’s Nintendo DS. The first thing that I recall was that were no video game cartridges for Game and Watch games. Each handheld device had only one game on it. So there was no swapping of catridges to play different games on the same devices. Of course, this soon changed with the Game Boy, which I also had. Video gaming was so great in the 80s in that you were entertained and satisfied with what you had. The need for fancy 3D graphics and stereo hi-fidelity sound did not exist back then. We had what was available and we still found the games to be fun. Now there is too much demand on perfection to the point where nothing lasts long anymore because society is placing to much pressure to have the next best thing. I do miss the slower days of the 80s where you could enjoy what you had and not worry so much about the newest and latest craze.

I found this image online of one of those old Game and Watch games back then:

Just look at this game. The characters are all in black and there are very few colors. Also, notice the animation. There are very few frames of animation present. The animations were like freeze frame slide shows, where the animation looked like snap shots with no smooth transitions between them. No “a” and “b” buttons here. All you get is up and down. This thing has a dual screen like DS but all you get is this one game where you deliver packages from left to right. The only thing you have to do here is to position the characters so that they properly place the items onto the conveyor belt. Gaming was great back then, simplicity at its best.

Mr. Game and Watch’s Final Smash: Octopus

You might all be wondering what the deal is with that Octopus that Game Watch transforms into. 

The octopus represents one of the games found in the Game Watch series. It is called Octopus and you play a scuba diver who goes into the ocean to collect buried treasure without getting caught by the Octopus.

The octopus behaves the same way as in Brawl, extending its tentacle to attack everyone. It has been fun reminscing about gaming in the 80s. If you have any comments or stories about Game and Watch feel free to post them.

I remember this really good Flash movie from Newgrounds where Link from Zelda thinks that Ganondorf is up to his old tricks again. Is it really true? Watch Link attempt to foil Gannondorf’s “plot” to steal Zelda or even worse…

If you want to watch the animation in Flash and discover the easter eggs, here is it on Newgrounds:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/105053

Easter Eggs

If you watch the movie from Newgrounds, then you will be able to discover and activate hidden easter eggs within the animation.

#1. Picture Bomb

When Link is spying on Ganondorf playing with the animals, you should notice a picture hanging on behind a window. Click on the window and a bomb will drop out from it. After a while the bomb will explode with a loud kaboom!

#2. Ganon Toy

When Link is watching Ganondorf sleep with a ganon toy, click the toy to make it squeak.