Thursday, October 30, 2008

Opinon: Best Game Music


Here I'm sat, writing this article, with YouTube open, and Three Minutes Clapping playing. When it finishes -Right after I've linked it, infact- I change over to Transformation. And Twister follows. And then Mute City. And Live And Learn. And A New Venture. And then much of the Smash Bros. Brawl and The World Ends With You soundtrack.

See, I've seperatly written an article -Which will go up on the new site in December!- on whether game music actualy matters, and so this is an article on my person #10 Favroate game songs of all time. I've mentioned my favorate Characters in my last article, so I supose I'll give this a shot...

1). The Legend Of Zelda: Titles Theme (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
2). Twister/Twister Remix (The World Ends With You)
3). Hidden Village (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
4). The Great Sea (The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker & Phantom Hourglass)
5). Three Minutes Clapping (The World Ends With You)
6). Super Mario Galaxy Main Theme (Guess.)
7). Super Mario Bros. (Almost every Mario game)
8). Corneria (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
9). Tabuu's Theme & Final Destination (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
10). Mute City (F-Zero GX & Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

Many a Sonic song (Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Dah-Dah-DAH!) also almost made it no there, as more from TWEWY (Someone is Caaaallllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingggg....) and, frankly, it was realy hard to pick anyway. But I think that's my definative list, so there you go. All should be on YouTube, so try looking 'em up. It'll be good for you.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Opinon: The UK's Top #10 Characters

Sonic. That's who the UK voted their favorate game character of all time. Sonic. The. Hedgehog. Not Mario as would of been expected, (He won Gamesmasters poll earlier this year, with Sonic in second and Link in third, afterall) but SONIC. A character who has been rather off-form latley. Sure, Chronicles, Secret Rings and the Rush games where good, but nothing on the likes of Super Mario Galaxy. Other followers to the hedgehog's crown? Lara Croft only got there because of her body shape, and the size of her "Assets" which is sad to say she's on a far better form now gameplay-wise than Sonic, even if Tomb Raider Annviersary left me tearing my hair out.

Ol' DK follows. Why? It's pretty mcuh sumemd up ni the scene from The Simpsons where he throws the barrell at someone's heard after they tell him "You suck!". A passer-by's opinon? "Hey, he's still got it!". But the even better example of this is Number Five: Pac-Man. He's even more dodgey then Sonic these days, (Pac-Pix was his best agme of recent days, if only because it isn't a rehash or badly-made game. And that was back in 2005.) but it's nostalgia that lives on in everybody's hearts. Sonic 2 is one of the ebst 2D platformers ever, (Only matched by Super Mairo World, infact) and Pac-Man's status as a household name and a bonda-fide classic is what assured it a place here.

I think it's about hime, half way through my opinons/judgement on the list, to say what MY Top #10 would be, where it up to me. Who are my favorate #10 characters of all-time? Watch and you will learn.

#01: Yoshi
#02: Luigi (Well, Mario, but Luigi>Mario anyday)
#03: Link
#04: Neku Sakuraba
#05: Sonic The Hedgehog
#06: Captain Falcon
#07: Sho Minamoto
#08: Mudkip (And Snorlax/Munchlax)
#09: Lumas (By Extension, Rosalina) (Super Mario Galaxy)
#10: Donkey Kong

No doubt there's a couple of choices that everyone will be thinknig "What the heck?" about, but all the same, they're my opinons. Many will certainly disagree with my Luigi>Mario, and putting one TWEWY character in, let alone two, and one of them is even in the Top #5. A). I think that Neku & Pi Face deserves it, and B). This is the opinon of one person.

But this survey was of lots of peeps, and is suposedly the officialy "Thing" run by the London Games Festival. And so, I heave back to my slog through the results. But nto before shwonig everyone Sega's way of celebrating the fact that they are finaly the victors over Mario...




Let's be glad they don't have that happen too often, then...

Oh, hang on, it's just Chunky promoting his new Tidey TV/KNTV collaberation.

So: Back to the official list, and we've just stumbled across Link. He was #3 in my list, and double that in the official one. (I'll call drop the quoteatino makrs in "Official" from now) The hero of Zelda is one of the best characters ever, no matter what incarnation he's in. The "Toon" form is my favorate, but it could be "Adult" Link, Young Link or any toehr Link at any other time of the day. Basicly, though, Link is an amazing character, even if he's yet to learn to speak.

But next up? Max Paine. How the heck did he squeeze his way into the list? His games are usualy bellow-par, just as the new film, but that's probaly what got him all his votes, all the same. An unworthy chocie, great british public. Just as Pikachu. Sure, he's the face of Pokémon, but I had a far mroe awsome Pokémon at the same spot in my list. (It was a coinicdence) Pikachu's an idiot. It's about time another 'Mon took the role as lead. Say, Lucario? Or better yet, Mudkip & Snorlax's tag-team.

Ah, but the best bit of the list? Niko Belic from Grand Theft Auto IV. Sure, ti's new, and, sure, many peopel love it, but form what I've seena dn played, Niko is a moron, and definatly not the sort of character you'd bring home to meet your folks. OK, this is a bit of a rant from me, even being a gamer, I'm still not exactly a GTA fan. I recon many peopel have "Got" that already, so there we go. I'll leave Niko there, even though a simualy-named character would have been a better choice. Hint: Replace the 'I' with a 'E' and the 'O' with a 'U'...

Blanka's the last entery on the list. Blanka? What the heck? She's a more-or-less unheard of Street Fighter, um, fighter. ANYONE would of been better than her. Who chose her anyway? Did they only ask 10 people?

To conclude this, I'll say what i think "By rights" should of been the list. Well, I'll do the Top #5, anyway...

#1: Mario
#2: Sonic
#3: Link
#4: Lara Croft
#5: Donkey Kong

Those are game characters who have genuinly made an impact on the world. While Pac-Man could of taken Number #5, Donkey Kong is still going strong, as the likes of DK Jungle Climber and more prove. Lara Croft's taken the world by storm, and despite a dip in quality control about 7 years ago, Legend, Annviersary and the upcomnig Underworld prove she's back on top. And Sonic's worthy of anything in the top five but Nubmer One. Only one character is allowed that: Super Mario.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Opinon: State of Play: DS RPGs


Having reviewed Sonic's first RPG, the DS' own Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, it left me with an odd taste in my mouth: When I reviewed the game, I hadn't quite finished it, but now I'm literaly at the tail end of the game, (Just the last boss to go, peeps!) it leaves me a question: What Next?

Sure, there's a sequal, but it's not realy what I'm after. The Sonic Role-Playing-Game idea was fun, afterall, and I've actualy enjoyed it more than it's DS rival, Mario & Luigi: Parnters In Time, but even a third game in that series leave a gap unpluged in my RPG diet. I can't actualy figure out what it is. TWEWY seems to of filled it, but sureley's there's somethnig else...?

Sigma Harmonics looks very promising, but that's about two years off. It's my most-anticipated DS game, coming largley from the same teams as The World Ends With You and Chrono Trigger. Actualy, while writing that sentance, it hit me that Chrono Trigger DS is comnig out next month in the US/early next year over here, and maybe THAT could fill the gap? Somehow, I doubt it. Final Fantasy IV is also out now, so it looks like untill I find a way to get back into Contact, it's back down to the shops for one more Square-Enix DS Epic.

I'll recomend Contact while I'm at this DS RPG "Spree" on the KN blog, mind. A Grasshopper-developed Handheld RPG? Sounds good already. It's only £10 in Gamestation, UK Readers, and it's worth it if only for the moment where hero (Ish. The plot with the whole "Characters" thing is complex) Terry ends up in an Airforce training ground. Seriously, it's superb

Oh! But I guess it's time to go. Sonic Chronicles' last boss is waiting: And we can't have that!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Opinon: Year In, Year Out


FIFA ‘09 was realised on the 3rd October 2008. And, as a result, everyone buys it, and we wouldn’t be remotely surpised if it gets to the top of the 2009 sales charts in Britan, just as it did last year.

HOLD IT! Didn’t we say that it got the top of the charts “Last Year”, despite being realised in “2008”? Well… It was, only you’d more commonly know it as FIFA ‘08. Because the differences are little-to-none, as with every FIFA game. Every year, they promise “Revolutionary new engines” and “Amazing next-gen graphics and physics”. Every year they fail. Yet EA’s football game isn’t the only one guilty of this, oh no…

Activision and EA are quicker and quicker growing to be bigger and bigger evil corporations. Sure, EA realsies the likes of MySims and stuff which are actualy great fun, but compare that to the amount of games they re-realsie Every. Single. Year. Not to mention Activision’s merger with Blizzard, allowing them to also squeeze extra money in from Vivendi’s products.

FIFA, NBA, Tiger Woods, Need For Speed, Madden NFL, Smackdown, James Bond, Sim City, Medal of Honor, NHL, Boogie, and then the thankfully axed ones like Rugby, Cricket, Baseball and so on…

But -Frankly- The question we need to ask is DO WE NEED ALL THESE GAMES? Well, we’r enot complaining, but it seems as soon as you’ve spent fourty of your well-earned pounds, walked home and are just untieing your shoe lases, another FIFA game is realised. Sure, we’re using FIFA as the only example, but look at the current state of gaming in the UK. A certain member of the team happens to know someone who owns 12 FIFA games, that’s FIFA ‘02-’09, with the three streets, and ‘08 on both 360 and PS2.

And, frankly, that’s what sums it up. The person in question owns next to no other games. Realising a new FIFA game every year without fail and without much change should eb classed a a crime. Sure, Pro Evo’s not exactly evolving every single year, but Komani can hide behind their brilliant Gameplay, EA can’t.

Activision on the other hand… Their just lazy. Sure, we probably couldn’t programme a game year on year with time to rush out other ports and movie tie-ins, it’s still not exactly a good way to get a thumbs up from us.

We won’t beat around the bush here. At least Data Design are trying.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Character War

http://z14.invisionfree.com/KNIGHT_NUI/index.php?showtopic=4106

Go andf vote out your least favorate characters in the Knight-Nui Character War! Currently on Round #11, 13 Characters have gone so far, and many still remain. (Should be 37, probaly) Who will be crowned champion? Well YOU can help decide!

Visit the Character War and vote for your least favorate today!

...

Sorry for lack of updates latley. We'll have more soon. promise.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Opinon: Sin & Punishment 2 Is Coming!!

Many a time in history, I've wanted Nintendo or a simular company to make a game, or whatever product, and they haven't done so. I wanted an Internet Browser built into the next "Edition" of the DS, I wanted Punch Out!! Wii confirmed at E3, and I wanted to see a new Mario RPG on DS, following on from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time last year. In the end, none of these came. Until today.

See, Nintendo's Press Confrence '08 brought my dreams to life, but my highlight of he confrence was something that I didn't think of: Something I wasn't expecting, or dreaming of 5 minutes before E3.: Sin & Punishment 2.

The first game was an N64 Game, only ever realised in Japan, largley due to the timing as it appeared in the end of the console's lifespan. Untill recently when Nintendo of Europe (Who we infamously hate here at KN) decided it'd make an awsome addition to the Virtual Console libary, and so began the Hanabli Festival, seeing that games that didn't see the light of day in Europe finaly came out, and then hero Saki got a place in history outside The Land Of The Rising Sun and Importer's Hearts.

Having rushed to buy Wii Points soon as it was out, I played it rather far, eventualy temperoly deleting it because of space reasons. However, today I sat through the painfully long loading times of re-downloading a game, and LOVED IT. Basicly, it's a 3D On-Rails Shooter, where you shoot at robots a lot, but it always remains fresh and new. Oh, and challenging.

This fact that it's developed by Treassure (Looks like this was there "Mysterious Wii Project") means one thing: (Well, two) It's be hard as nails, yet extermely good. There's no doubting Treassure, they never let anyone down.

Punch Out!! may be good, (No, more then that, brilliant) but Sin & Punishments sits closley at the top of my "Most Anticipated" list.