I Wanna Dance!

Any truly hardcore gamer has more than likely spent some time with a little device called a "dance pad". It may be a brief attempt in which one completely humiliates one's self, or it could become an extreme obsession whereby any dance cabinet that is available quickly makes the feet itch for some dancin'.

Up until this point in my gaming career I had sadly never had the priviledge of giving Dance Dance Revolution a shot. Sure, I witnessed it in use at arcades, but any attempt to do what the current users of the cabinet were doing would most certainly have landed me on my ass. Scoring perfects all around and pulling off moves that would make Travolta jealous, the regulars at the arcade would not be interested in my, more than likely, very sad performance.

What was left then? The consoles! My hope had risen to new levels that I might indeed get to try a little DDR'ing soon as my sister-in-law (Nadene) recently picked up two Mad Catz dance pads, but unfortunately no video game retailer in our area would rent the games at all. They claimed that because you needed a dance pad (which they did not want to maintain), they would not rent it out. And so we struck out for a chance to play on Christmas eve.

In any case, I had all but forgotten about the dance fever within me until finally yesterday night an evening at the in-laws turned into a disco fiasco! With Nadene to the rescue once more, she had proceeded to go out and purchase DDR Extreme for the PS2 and two sticky mats to keep the dance pads from sliding around.

When the console fired up I was hesitant at first. I had viewed others dancing away but had never really considered what was involved in doing so. I started up a solo game (in front of my in-laws no less) and proceeded to pick the "light" setting. To say I got schooled is quite an understatement. I was falling all over the place attempting to somehow make some sense of the barrage of arrows affronting me on the screen. I understood the gist of it, but my feet did not seem to want to move where they were supposed to go.

After the laughter had died down, Dianne decided to join me on the beginner setting. She did much better than I did (I think women have a natural dance mechanism or something) but I was quickly learning the ins and outs of this game. My revelation began when Nadene's fiancee showed me that you do not have to return to the center of the pad every step, and I quickly began to make short work of the light setting.

Sadly, after only an hour or so of dancing away, supper was served and we had to shut it down for the night. I had a great time however and was actually a little out of breath by the end of it; DDR is a fantastic workout! So much so in fact that Dianne wants me to pick up a set so that she can work out on it. My wife tolerates my video game spending but rarely does she encourage it, so I am rather stoked about this and will comply immediately.

When I first introduced my friends to Karaoke Revolution, they all scoffed and laughed. It is now a regular occurrence for us all to get wasted and belt out a few tunes; guys and gals alike. I believe that DDR may become our new drinking binge pasttime. I cannot wait to snap a picture or two of some of my more "reserved" friends once they have had a few beers and rip up the dance pad.

Comments (5) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 3.9.2005

Covenant

The original Shadow Hearts was an interesting game. It was almost as if Final Fantasy had put the moves on Resident Evil and then both made sweet, sweet love together. The result was an RPG experience riddled in dark mythology but yet containing an excellent sense of humor.

Largely over-shadowed by other big name releases of its time, those who actually managed to play it found it to be a great game for one and all; even non-RPG fans enjoyed it. Me and the wife played through it and found it thoroughly amusing.

It is then with a heavy sense of irony that the sequel to such an over-shadowed game would also be released amidst a slew of heavy hitters. Will this forever doom the sequel to obscurity as well? Thankfully not; through an ingenious deployment which included the original Shadow Hearts as a pre-order deal (!), Covenant is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

And deserve praise Shadow Hearts Covenant most certainly does. I am about 5 hours into the game and enjoying it whole-heartedly. The RPG system is as generic as it comes and the voice acting is stilted at best but yet the rest of the game seems so very polished that you can't help but fall in love with it.

It is quite obvious while playing that developer Nautilus obviously considers this series a labor of love. Everything from the cool, wheel based combat to the humorous plot is finely tuned and extra care has been put into the little things that matter so much. So far there have been several laugh-out-loud moments for me and even Dianne can't put the game down.

I have yet to even scratch the surface of Covenant and I can already tell it will be a classic. Don't let this baby get lost by the wayside, try it out as soon as possible; Azure may not decide to release the entire game again as a bonus...

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 3.9.2005

Game Music

I find it somewhat amusing that I have not had the opportunity to talk about the subject of video game music in the past. It is a topic that is rather dear to me, though sometimes even I consider myself a little dorky because of it. If you had told me even 5 years ago that I would currently be sitting here at work listening to the soundtrack for a video game, I would most definitely have looked at you funny.

And yet, here I am. With the Wild Arms: Alter Code F score oozing sweet melodies through my KOSS ear hook headphones.

Game music, in my opinion, has truly made it to the point where I don't even really feel all that nerdy listening to it. Granted, it isn't exactly mainstream (I don't know any non-hardcore gamers who wouldn't look at me funny), but no one really questions me too much on the issue.

Personally, I listen to game music for a variety of reason. The first, and likely foremost, is that it relaxes me. I can be neck deep in the most convoluted programming algorithm known to Canada-kind and still remain calm and collected while the soundtrack to Xenosaga keeps me company.

Secondly, and perhaps no less important, listening to game music brings back some heavy nostalgia for me. Not too long ago I posted a blog about video game nostalgia, but in truth there seems no better way to relive a game (short of replaying it), than by listening to music from the score. Interestingly enough, doing so also seems to bring back memories of activities or occasions I may have been doing while playing the game. In short, this comforting music brings back many nice memories at the same time.

The last reason I will mention here for truly enjoying game music is that game music has truly become great! I look at it as sort of a modern version of classical music (how's that for an oxymoron?). I find it completely soothing, it combines wonderfully different instruments and is composed (generally) in a very professional manner.

Here are a few of my favorite albums (listing them all would take forever) that consistently see play time in my player:

Breath of Fire - Dragon Quarter (Hitoshi Sakimoto)

Here is a game that hit me from out of nowhere. I was completely not expecting to love the game as much as I do and I totally did not expect to love the music as much as I do. As haunting and appropriate a soundtrack as I have ever seen, Dragon Quarter is an example of how an entire video game project truly comes together to become one.

Chrono Cross (Yasunori Mitsuda)

Chrono Cross didn't exactly do for me what I had expected the sequel of one of the finest games of all time to do. The music however, far surpassed my expectations. Containing so many classic tracks it would be impossible to mention them all, the Chrono Cross soundtrack is the reason I first got into video game soundtracks (thanks to the "mini" soundtrack that came with pre-ordering the game).

.Hack - Perfect Collection (Chikayo Fukuda, Seizo Nakata, Norikatsu Fukuda)

The .Hack series may be kind of annoying (I still haven't finished slogging through the final chapter) but the music is mostly bang on. There are a couple of throw away tracks, but for the most part the tech sounding score does a good job of setting the mood of an MMORPG going completely awry.

Wild Arms 1 (Michiko Naruke)

The classic RPG soundtrack, Wild Arms' soundtrack was WAY ahead of its time in terms of quality. Easily the oldest soundtrack I listen to on a regular basis, the opening "whistling" theme would bring nostalgia to a dead man. The entire Wild Arms series in fact contains amazing music.

Final Fantasy X-2 (Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi)

I know I am going to catch some flames for this one, but I truly love this soundtrack. Much in the same way I loved the game, the soundtrack appeals to me so much due to its eschewing from the norm philosophy. Everything about the soundtrack is not what you would expect from a Final Fantasy performance, and I love it for that. It's not that I don't enjoy other Final Fantasy works, I just think that variety is the spice of life...

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 2.28.2005

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