Bit.Trip Runner

I cannot say how much I love the Bit.Trip series. They are my favorite games of all time. Anyways let’s get to the point. Runner is the newest addition to this beloved series. In this game you finally get to control Commander Video in his adventure. He will jump,duck, kick and more to get to the end and beat the boss. 

This game has the same length as the previous games, but that is only if you can go through the entire game without hitting anything. The second you jump on a meteor or run into a wall Commander Video will teleport back to the beginning of the stage you are currently in. Don’t let this discourage you though, this game consist of 50+ levels rather than the usual 3. Included in the large amount of levels are the bonus get retro challenges. You can only play these levels if you obtain all the gold coins in a level. You could consider these similar to the coins Mario loves so much. These bonus get challanges are similar to Pitfall, a game most children in this generation of videogames have not heard of.

As you run and jump your way through this game you will have no control over where Video will run. He will always run to the right, but it is your duty as the gamer to make him get through all of the obstacles and while doing so obtain all of the gold, which is usually put in hard to reach places.

This game is very challenging, just like the old days where games didn’t care how old you were. They had to be challenging because when you look at the game’s length you can see how short the game really is. Gaijin Games brings that back, as they usually do, in the best way they can. The player will get so frustrated at a level they will want to through the controller, but there isn’t any time to because the level has already restarted.

That is actually my favorite feature in this game. Instead of going through the usual steps to restart a level, either by going back to the main menu, or the “You have died, would you like to retry” method, the game just does it, and with that there is no break in the gameplay.

Definitely pick this game up if you have a Wii. The game is just $8 and is more fun than most retail games out there.

1 2 Freddy’s Coming for You

Freddy’s back, and in an amazing way.

Freddy is my favorite slasher of all time. Once I found out about the new movie, which just came out today, I was extremely excited to go see it.

The movie started out rather slow, killing off all the unnecessary characters, all of which were horrible actors. After they were dead the movie started to pick up the pace and it was defiantly worth seeing.

This movie was not a continuation of the series, but a reboot. Reboot’s as a whole are frowned at, usually because the movie does not stay true to the originals, but this one was amazing.

We got more back story on Freddy, and we even got to see some of the iconic scenes from the first redone. The first of which was the bedroom scene where the girlfriend goes flying around the room. This scene did not start the movie, however the movie almost back tracked to a few days before that event, expanding the original movie.

Some other scenes that were redone were the girl in the bodybag, the bathtub and the snowing scene. The scenes that were redone were not as good as the original, but were still decent. The new material was put together rather well.

The main problem I had was that the movie did not really finish. In the original, the mother was taken by Freddy, and the movie continued until Nancy ‘killed’ Freddy. In this new movie it ended with Freddy stabbing his knives through d mother’s eyes. They added more to the beginning, but they left out the end.

Jackie Earle Harley was also a great choice for Freddy’s reboot, and I hope he is willing to do a sequel. Anyone who is worried that a new Freddy is a bad idea, needs to get over change and accept the facts, this movie is good.

Starship Defense: DSiware

Sorry I’ve been gone for so long, originally my blog was for a class, and I enjoyed doing so, and ment to continue my blog but never got around to it. However I’m back and planning to do at least one post per week. Also I noticed how I posted something about Fox News, that was for a class and it accidently got on the wrong blog.

 I got one of these fancy DSi’s for Christmas, my first DS to be honest, and I have looked into the DSiware service for some good gaming. One game I called is Starship Defense which cost me $5 or 500 Nintendo Points. This game falls into the Tower Defense game genre, and was put together quite well.

The first thing anyone that has played this game before would notice how much white is in the game. Everything in the game is white including your ship and your weapons. The only things that aren’t white are the enemy troops that try to take down your starship.

In the game there are a total of 30 levels, 10 levels per difficulty, easy, medium and hard. Although the game will tell you that the level is an easy level, the earlier levels can actually be more difficult than later levels.

During the game there are several weapons to be unlocked and the player will start with a gatling gun, a berserker(missile launcher), and a ghost (laser). Each of the basic weapons have their pros to them. The ghost can shoot enemies that have a cloaking device on them, but they are a little weak, the gatling gun is fast and has a wide range and the final weapon the berserker is a strong missile launcher but is rather slow, and can miss its target. With just these three weapons you can make it rather far in the game with very good strategic skills, even though new weapons are introduced rather quickly.

I still have yet to beat this game yet, but I am having a blast with this game. One interesting thing about this game is that to progress to the second and then the later third difficulty settings you will have to perfect a certain amount of levels, meaning that you can allow any monsters to attack and then flee of the stage, which can be rather hard to do.

Talking about the monsters, there are alot in this game. There are really basic monsters, lets just call them ships for ease, that will attack your own ship. The enemy ships can suicide, ram into your ship and do many other things. I recommend this game to anyone who has every played a strategy game, and is looking for one to keep them busy for a while. However this game has 30 levels to complete, they are fun to play, and any completionist as myself will want to perfect every stage.

Fox News

When first opening fox news website the website is very simplistic and easy to look at. Everything on the website is organized well and has links to watch live events, and event that have full coverage.

One great thing about this site is that it does not try to overwhelm the reader with too much information and has the most important things on the home page, and allows the viewer to search for current news with the search bar or even more thoroughly with the tabs.

The amount of pictures on the site is well-organized when looking at the article. The articles with the most importance have a picture while the ones with the least importance. Also the text is very easy to read.

Topics that can be searched through on this site are U.S., World, Business, Politics, Entertainment, Leisure, Health, Scitech, Opinion, Sports, and On Live. ALso there are various other categories to choose from within each of these categories.

This site uses formal writing in its articles. Most of the articles are original while the articles that are covered in other parts of the world are taken from various places.

This site has videos, but no blogs or podcasts.

If the viewer has any comments or concerns as they are reading an article they can scroll to the top of the page and then click on as link which will allow the viewer to contact the editor of the article.

Advertisements on this site are few in number and are off to the side so they are not in the way. There aren’t any pop ups or scroll over advertisements. One advertisement seen on the site is for Facebook.

Overall this sits is very well-organized which is one feature I look for in a news site. I can see myself using this site to get more info on things that I am interested in.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

I have been awaiting for this new video game for weeks now, and I can say this is one of the best mario games I have ever played.  The game playes really nice, and has many nostalgic moments.

This addition to the Mario games is the first 2d one to hit a home console in 15 years. A much long awaited return of the overall wearing plumber couldn’t be accepted anymore than with this game.

This one has 4 player co-op all at the same time rather than having players chilling waiting for their the other player to die or finish the level so they could play.

But since there can be up to four people playing this game at the same time it is very hectic to keep all the players alive and to finish the level. In this game the difficulty was ramped up.

Pretty much all day, my friend and I played this game. We beat the game, but we did not 100% the game which is what will keep me coming back for more of this game. Not only that but for those of you that make it to the final boss are in for a treat for how epic it is. I won’t spoil anything, but it brought me and my friend a lot of fun. It took us about an hour to beat this one boss.

Anyone who loves Mario and owns a wii should pick this game ASAP. I had a lot of fun and will continue to when I finish my 3 exams this week. Right now I have to put this game away until Wednesday because 3 of my teachers decided to be meanies and put exams during what some people would call the biggest gaming week of the year.

Not only did this game come out but tomorrow night at midnight, Left 4 Dead 2 will be out, and my friends will be playing nonstop while I will be cooped up in my room studying. Oh well, I will get to have my fun just in time.

The Recent Discovery of Muse and a Bunch of Other Stuff

So just recently I found out how much I love the band Muse. I’ve heard their stuff before but recently all I want to hear is Muse. Not just the new stuff either. Their new stuff is okay, but youtube has become my friend recently so I can listen to some great hits like Starlight.

Speaking of which I swear that Muse got the idea for that songs music from a game I played as a child called Croc. It was a PC game where the player controlled a Crocodile in a 3d adventure game much like what the 3d Mario games are like. But the song reminds me of Croc, maybe I’m crazy but I guess I’ll never find out since I dont have acces to that game anymore.

But back on Muse I just cant get over how much I love thier music. I’ve recently found out my taste in music has become the Indie/Alternative Rock genre to be the best for my ears over the past few years. Groups like Arctic Monkeys and Tokyo Police Club are my favorites and Muse may be taking over Owl City’s spot for 3rd.

Muse’s new music is alright which is actually a thing that I’ve realized with other bands that I used to like. Some bands steadily get worse like The Killers, while other bands stop evolving thier music and sound the same like Linkin Park. I used to like these bands but they took their talent in the wrong direction, in my opinion.

I honestly don’t know too much about music though, so what sounds like Linkin Park sounding the same to me could sound like a completely new sound for someone else.

I did however take four years of drums however and it is easier for me to hear the drums of a band other than the guitar which is actually a hard thing to do. The drums are usually in the background of a song, but it is easier to hear them with experience playing them myself. That is actually one of the realson why I like the Arctic Monkeys. Their drummer is amazing, you can hear it especially in the songs Brianstorm and The View from the Afternoon. Both great songs, and you should check them out on youtube if you dont know of these songs yet.  The video for the second song actually focuses on the drummer.

Grand Rapid’s Zombie Walk

So last weekend was Halloween and also Devil’s Night. Last year Grand Rapids started to hold a zombie walk during Devil’s Night.

A zombie walk is when people from all over dress up like zombies in and walk the streets of the city where it is held.

My friends and I spent most of Friday to get prepared for our zombie makeup. To make the best zombie we take toilet paper and glue to apply the toilet paper to our faces as if it were a face mask. We give our selves two layers and then a third layer for where we want to apply a scar. After the layers dry, we rip the cuts upen, and then add some makeup, and then the fake blood that we made. Most people arent willing to try it but it tastes like chocolate. Althought the makeup usually looks good, we did not fully wait for my makeup to dry before applying the blood, so my scar portion fell off, and i ended up looking like a poor Two-Face with my forehead on the wrong side. Here is a pic of last year’s turn out.

On my way to Grand Rapids last year for the zombie walk

Last year we broke the world record of the largest zombie walk, but it did not get into the book because we could not afford for them to appear.

This year did not seem to be that great of a turnout as was last year. First thing: it was rainy, rain meansless people wanting to show up. The rain also helped remove my nose of the makeup, that made me and my friends laugh for a few minutes. Although our makeup was falling off we still got compliments on our makeup and people wanted to know how we made it.

Not only was it rainy but the walk was much shorter than last year. Last year the zombies got to walk the streets for about an hour. This year we got to go once around some block, and then there was a bunch of electronica music for everyone to “dance” to.

This year may have sucked but hopefully next year will be better, and we learned not to do the whole face with toilet paper. It takes too much time, and takes forever to dry up. Just do the scars, and then splash some blood on.

Saw VI

So last weekend me and some of my hall-mates went out to go see “Saw VI” the ‘last’ Saw movie.

This movie was defiantly good for this series. The last few entries were too different and not liked too much by fans. With “Saw VI” we saw the series going back to its awesome goodness full of unexpected turns.

This film dealt with a health insurance company owner and his game. I like how the movie put in our own nations concerns in this film along with the gore, putting a deeper meaning behind it.

 But not only was the movie good it “SPOILERS” left it wide open for a sequel. I remember hearing rumors that this would not be the last “Saw” but didn’t believe them since I heard that this was going to be six films in total. I guess when something is this good, you don’t let go of it. I do not know where the producers will go with this series if they decide to continue it, but heres hoping to “Saw VII”. Any fan of this series need to watch this one, they will be satisfied by it. If youve already seen the movie and have an idea of what will be done with the series please let me know your thoughts.

Pandora vs. Last

So unfortunately Bit.Trip Void did not come out this monday, so I will be discussing Pandora radio vs. Last radio.

Both Pandora and Last are online radio stations that are free. They supply the user the ability to create their own radio stations by band, song, or even music type. The stations will play music similar to the music of the radio station. However they have some differences.

Pandora is the first one i stumbled across two years ago from my roommate. With Pandora you can create you own stations, and they will be in a list so you can switch at any time. Pandora gives you the oppritunity to skip songs, and to even favorite them, so it will play music similar to that song. You can also ban songs you do not like. If two songs by the same band are banned than the band will no longer play unless you have favorited one of their other songs.

One thing that bothers Pandora users is that there are only a certain number of times you can skip songs, 6 per hour, but you can switch the station and you would have six more skips for that station. Another thing that users of Pandora dislike is that it recently added advertisements. There wasnt even an email sent out to its users that the ads would be added. They just sorta happened, like theyve been there all along.

The worst part of Pandora is that it becomes very repetitive with the music it plays, after about and hour or two it will start to repeat music you have already listened to, or start to play a bunch of music that does that not fit into your station.

The best parts about Pandora is the ability to combine radio stations so you can get a wider variety in you station, and that it is extremely simple to use.

I just recently found out about Last from a friend who truly believes that Last is better. Last is very different though, it has some similarities in Pandora but it is very different. Last also allows you to favorite and ban music. A really cool feature is that if you hear a song you like you can start a station from that song. Last also has descriptions of the bands being played, another plus.

There are a few things I like about Last. Last gives you the ability to skip as many songs as you want, instead of six per hour.  Another thing i like about it is that you can find out what your friends are listening to and see if you like their music. A neat thing of Last, kinda unnecessary though, is the slide show it will show of the band the song is from. It will show any pics that have been submitted of that band.

There are a lot of things I don’t like though. The site is a lot harder to navigate in. If you want to start a new station, you have to type in what is wanted in the search box, and then you will be put onto the page of whatever you typed in. After that you can actually choose to start the radio station, unlike Pandora, which will automatically start the music after a quick verification whether or not Pandora has the correct band or song.

Another thing I dislike, is when I want to use one of the many features of Last it may stop the station I am listening to and start another one in a completely new window. The site also runs at a slower pace. If you skip a song sometimes an error happens and you will have to wait for the station to restart itself.

The best part of Last though is it plays a lot more music and it is not repetitive after a certain amount of time.

The worst part of Last is its loading, and I think that is because of the slide show, and all the posts that you can post about the song.

Give either of these sites a try at either Pandora.com or Last.fm. I personally like Pandora better, but that may be because I have been listening to it longer. I plan on using Last for a while to see if I can get used to it, but if not I will stick with Pandora. I just like how you can go to Pandora and without even having to stay on the tab Pandora is on it will start playing music from whatever station was on last.

Completely off topic, but AIM 7 is up for all you AIM users, they dont seem to email their users about their updates. It’s really nice and anyone who uses it should update it.

Bit.Trip CORE

The second game in the Bit.Trip series is called CORE. Unlike the first game, I knew what this game was going to be like and was waiting for this game for quite some time for it to be released. CORE was released as the 100th Wiiware game in the US, and it deserved the milestone.

This game took the original game and put a spin on it. In BEAT you had beats coming at you from the left, but in core you have beats coming from four directions, with difficult patterns to confuse the player.

As I played the first level, I noticed that the layout of the screen had changed, there is a map in the bottom left corner to let me know how far a long I am in the level, and there is a bomb in the upper right hand corner. The first of the two additions was very important, and should be added to all of the remaining games. I am still confused when I play BEAT and am worried how long it is until I reach the final boss. The bomb on the other hand was good in theory, but is not of much help after a few playthroughs of the game. The bomb will remove any beats that are currently on the screen.

To see footage of this game in action go here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcaZDuxXkIM&feature=related. This is the third level so it is supposed to look challenging.

Another addition to this game was the super mode. When you hit enough beats you will hit the super mode which will raise your points much quicker than any other mode and only takes one miss of a beat to fall back down to the mega mode. I think that this mode was not the best thing to add in this game. After falling out of the super mode it is not very hard to jump back into super mode, making the game easier.

Overall this game is easier than BEAT but seems alot more confusing, but after a few playthroughs I can go straight through the entire game without falling into the nether mode, well, at least when im on a tv that does not adjust the darkness automatically when the screen gets darker.

The bosses in this game are also a blast. Some people may consider it spoilers, bit since no one knows the official plot other the Gaijin Games, I dont consider this to be spoilers. The 1st boss is completely original, but the second and third bosses are based off of two retro games. The second boss is based off of “Missle Command”, and the third boss is based off of “Asterroids”.

Hopefully next week I will be discussing my experience with Bit.Trip VOID, but as of right now the game has yet to be released.