Most people who know anime know that there’s a lot of baseball anime.  But not everyone knows what baseball MEANS to the Japanese – a few movies have jokingly breached the topic (Mr. Baseball and Major League 2 come to mind), but few sources have explained the importance of Japanese baseball like You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting.  I’ll attempt to cover the more salient points here and how they apply to anime and manga.

First, you must understand that to the Japanese, baseball is the ultimate team sport.   Americans might consider that to be football, where a single misstep from one person out of eleven could lead to a complete breakdown, but the collectivist society of Japan picked up baseball early in the 20th century and the post-war era cemented its place as a national tradition.  To a rebuilding nation, baseball was both balm and symbol, giving the shattered nation a reason to gather and salvage some kind of pride in baseball.

In the past century, baseball has become a kind of martial art to the Japanese.  There is a defined ‘right’ way to play baseball that reflects their entire culture, from expressing the importance of the team over the self via the sacrifice bunt to the relentlessly Spartan drills that testify to the Japanese belief in hard work over talent.  You have to slide into first on a close play to show that you have guts and the will to lay it all on the line for the team (even if it doesn’t actually help you get on first base).  It’s quite a cultural divide, and often jarring to American audiences when they watch 16-year-old kids being driven to exhaustion day in and day out in the sweltering heat of an Asian summer.

Enough of the summary – how does this actually apply to anime and manga characters who play baseball?  For one thing, baseball players in anime are ridiculously dedicated and self-sacrificing.  Baseball culture expects them to arrive early for warm-up drills, practice until sundown, and thank their coach at the end of the day after they’ve tended to the grounds.  The extreme example of this is Gouda Jouji of my beloved Akane Maniax, who can’t do anything halfway.  Even in his post-baseball life, he dedicates his heart, soul, and body so unselfishly to his chosen cause (in this case, romance) that it’s both painful and incredibly amusing to watch him burn out. The other end of the spectrum is the weak-willed character who finds strength in his teammates, such as the wussy-ass pitcher from Oofuri or the timid catcher from Princess Nine.  There’s no concept of ego or selfishness in your average baseball character, and if there is a character with an ego, he or she is held up for mockery (Kine in H2 comes to mind as such a character – he blows a lot of hot air and mostly gets ignored).

By the same self-sacrificing token, don’t be surprised when you see scenes of these kids getting worked into the ground by their coaches.  It’s expected in Japanese culture, and it’s actually pretty useful if they’re any good at the game, because the high school tournament at Koushien is played in the worst summer heat I’ve ever experienced, and these kids have to be pretty darn tough in order to play under those conditions for 9 innings.

I’ll probably come back to the baseball topic sooner rather than later, but this should serve as a pretty good introduction to the culture of baseball over in Japan.  If you have any questions or things you want me to clarify, go ahead and ask in the comments.

Greetings, Planeteers!

I’ve been a Sony Playstation loyalist for quite some time, and it took a lot of nudging to get me there.

I’ve already told you the story of when I got my first NES as a kid.  For the several years that followed, Nintendo and I were best friends.  We’d climb trees together, skip stones together, hang out at the mall together.  Yessiree, we were inseparable.  I would even hang out with his kid brother, Gameboy.

My family and I stuck with the company-that-mustachioed-plumbers built for the next couple of generations, completely ignoring that hedgehog and his ilk.  NES?  You know we did.  SNES?  Yup.  N64?  You betcha.  All of the Nintendo staple characters were on that system, and once upon a time Nintendo would actually put out games featuring those characters more frequently.  So Sega came out with a game that Nintendo didn’t have.  So what?  You could keep your echidna crawling all over previous cartridges.  I had Elvin warriors battling pig-faced douchebags and portly Italian guys throwing fire at fungi.  I even had third-party exclusivity with a power-stealing robot hunter and a fantasy RPG series whose finality was greatly exaggerated.  So, any games that didn’t come out for the system we owned didn’t really matter much.  Out of sight, out of mind.

But the video-gaming playing field changed in the winter of 1995.  Sony unveiled a brand new gaming system of their own.  And unlike the video game consoles that were on the market at the time, this new system used a CD format for their games instead of cartridge-based games.  I remember seeing the new Sony system right after it first came out (I worked at a KB Toys at the time).  It looked neat, and the graphics were definitely a step up from the SNES I was still playing, but the fact that there were “load times” (which seemed excruciatingly slow) kinda turned me off to the system.  Besides, I had heard that Nintendo would be putting out its own 64-bit system the following year and would still use cartridges.  Well, since I was poor and getting ready to leave for the Air Force after the holidays, my decision was resolute.  I’d be sticking with the company that made me the gamer I was at the age of 20.

By the fall of 1997, however, my allegiances were starting to shift.  I had just purchased an N64 for myself, and was enjoying it immensely – Super Mario 64, Shadows of the Empire, Turok, and a few other games were constantly on rotation in my Nintendo system.  Problem was, while I was stationed in Saudi Arabia for three months earlier that year (I was in the Air Force at the time), I had the opportunity to play my room mate’s Playstation.  The game?  Resident Evil.

Holy crap.

That game was mind-blowing.  At the time, Nintendo was still on a “no blood” and limited violence policy with their games.  Not so with Sony.  I was fighting zombies!  And they were eating my face!  With real (for what it was at the time) blood!  I was impressed with the graphics, as well as the fact that the load times didn’t seem so bad as they did when I first saw the system two years prior.  Between that and Crash Bandicoot, this was shaping up to be quite a fun little system.

Flash forward back to my purchase of the N64 (hey, it’s no more confusing than “Lost”).  Despite my pleasant experience cheating on Nintendo (different country; doesn’t count), I remained faithful to the cartridge-sucker (what happens in Saudi stays in Saudi).

But then something happened that made those allegiances change.  A game came out for the Playstation that would not be available for the N64.  My “out of sight, out of mind” mantra failed me, because the game in question happened to be from a series that I loved.  A lot.  Like, trying to ask it to marry you, but it tells you that it can only offer you a tawdry affair that you gladly accept because you want whatever hot, steamy pleasures it has to offer you.

…..

Here’s a towel to wipe yourself off with.  That was grody.  My apologies.

Back to the game that broke me and sent me into the arms of another console (I’m going to stop this metaphor, I swear!): Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

And from there, the titles just started to pile up: Wild Arms, Resident Evil 2, and the coup de grace – Final Fantasy VII.

My N64 started to collect dust.  Oh, I would bring her back out to play when Rogue Squadron or Ocarina of Time came out.  And when the RAM pack came out for the N64 to improve the graphics of certain games, my N64 got a little more play (okay, the metaphor really isn’t going away.  I’m so sorry).  But to be honest?  Playstation was really starting to do things better, and the fact that I played that system more and more was evidence of that.

Flash forward to the next generation.  I bought a PS2 as soon as I was able.  Gamecube?  Sure, I ended up getting one of those as well.  But by that time, Nintendo was starting to drop the ball on a regular release schedule of good games.  There were exceptions, like Eternal Darkness, but my loyalties stayed with Sony.

Then a third opponent entered the ring!  Microsoft decided that they needed a slice of the console gaming pie and put out their first system – the X-Box.  I resisted, despite the fact that the new console had a couple of exclusive titles that I really wanted to play.  Luckily for me, none of the titles I was interested in called to me like Castlevania.  Also?  My wallet was empty all the time.  You’d be surprised at how well that acts as a deterrent.

Over the last couple of years, I have continued to remain loyal to the Sony gods.  Sure, I bought a Wii, but that thing is just so much damn fun that I had to.  But the thing still collects dust more than not.  Meanwhile, I also upgraded to the next generation of Sony guts – the PS3 (I mentioned this before as well.  Seriously, don’t any of you read my stuff?).  Has the new X-Box 360 continued to try to lure me away with exclusive games?  Sure, but for the most part, there hasn’t been another Castlevania-caliber game that has been able to break my will and force me to move to the Isle of Gates.  “Out of sight, out of mind” prevails once more.

But, hold up.

The playing field has changed yet again.

You see, Microsoft has started to play dirty now.  There are games coming out for both PS3, as well as the 360.  And that’s fine.  You can play it on your system, and I can play it on mine.  Everyone wins.

Except they don’t.

See, the new trick with this current generation of consoles is the addition of what is called “Downloadable Content”, or DLC.  What this is, is anything from extra levels, costumes, and characters to almost a completely separate game that integrates right into the game you bought at the local store.  All you have to do is pay a few bucks extra and download it right onto your hard drive.  Install the DLC, and voila – you now have new life breathed into that kick-ass game you played the hell out of six months ago.

But as I said before, Microsoft is playing some dirty pool.

Microsoft has been paying for DLC content for big games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3 for use exclusively on the 360 system.

What the hell?

You know, I realize that the 360 is the more popular system, despite the fact that it chose a hi-def DVD format that lost the format war and despite the fact that most of the 360 owners I have talked to still complain about getting the “Red Ring of Death”.  But the PS3 is a good system as well.  I won’t try to debate on whether or not it’s better.  That’s ridiculous.  But, it is a solid system on its own.  It has an upgradeable Blu-Ray player that, combined with a seventh gen gaming console, gives you a pretty big bang for its buck.  It seems to be more reliable of a system (I’ve heard maybe 1/16^th of the complaints that a PS3 has died).  And, it seems to be just as good in the graphics and speed department as well.  Add to that the fact that it has a lot of the same cool features that the 360 has, and you have yourself a console that should be getting some decent respect.

Except that it isn’t.  Maybe that’s the fault of Sony’s US CEO.  He did overprice the damn thing when it first came out.  He also threw a fit when he couldn’t auction one off for more then a couple hundred clams.  He also threw a challenge to Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade, claiming that the PS3s were selling out just as badly as the Nintendo Wii (they weren’t) and offering G & T a check for every PS3 they could find in a store (they found a few).  Then he reneged on the offer when he was proven wrong (never renege on a deal with Gabe and Tycho, lest we forget the lesson that is Jack Thompson).

All of these things more than likely have helped to damage the reputation, as well as the sales, of the PS3.  But in the end, it’s still a decent system.  I enjoy it immensely.  I find myself on it all the time, whether it’s to play Blu-Ray games like Fallout 3 or Metal Gear Solid 4, to play downloadable games like Pain or the Penny Arcade RPG, or even just to browse the store or run on their new virtual environment called “Home”.  And I won’t even go into what else I can do when I hook up my PSP to it.  I find that the PS3 offers me a lot to do on just one system.

So why is the 360 the only system getting all the great DLC content?  It seems like PS3 owners are being neglected by the company that was furiously trying to oversell them the system in the first place.  We have the system!  You have our money!  We’re loyal to the Sony gods!  Now where is our DLC for GTA IV and Fallout 3 dammit?!  Take care of your customers like Microsoft takes care of theirs!

And the “out of sight, out of mind” rationale has been completely destroyed.  It was one thing to be able to talk yourself out of buying a new console for just a couple of games if you never actually played those games.  But this is a new trick.  We already have the games to play that we got extremely excited about.  But now, we can’t have the new content that everyone else is getting.  It’s already in our sights, and it’s already festering in our minds.

At this rate, another allegiance shift could be inevitable.  All it would take is just another “Castlevania” – another game or even DLC pack that would be just enough to push me over that line to start a new illicit, tawdry affair in the land of X.  It’s just a matter of time.

Oops, there’s that metaphor again.  You might wanna thoroughly wash out your eyeballs now.  And scrub your brainpan.

The Don hasn’t even gotten started on the concept of Achievements vs. Trophies.  And he probably won’t.

http://ninjasmacks.livejournal.com/70346.html

Sometimes, my friends are geniuses.

There is a question that everyone must face at some point in life.  A question so bold, it can turn brother against brother, mother against daughter, and friend against friend.  A question that asks the world to look within and define the very essence of “taste” …

…usually in the form of some silly online survey.

Oh yes, I can only mean that dreaded question, “Which is better?  Coke or Pepsi?”

If you’re anything like me, you really don’t care.  While your server is eyeing you with slight apprehension, wondering if you’re one of those people who will erupt at the question, “We have Pepsi, is that okay?” you’re thinking, Eh, same difference.  But although the taste of each of these carbonated concoctions is pretty darn similar, only one appeals to both my taste buds and my love of games – Coca Cola.

Forget buying the planet a Coke and some singing lessons, Coca Cola’s recent commercials transform video game worlds and players with just one sip.

The first game-infused Coke commercial I ever saw was a Japanese Final Fantasy IX/Coca Cola commercial I stumbled upon on a Final Fantasy fansite years ago.  My first reaction was, “HOLY CRAP, THIS IS AWESOME!” and my second was a feeling of insane jealousy over Japan’s superior commercials.  This commercial goes beyond well-loved characters making a cameo appearance.  It’s a meshing of IX’s world and the Coca Cola world.  If you look closely, you’ll notice the kingdom’s inhabitants gaining some pretty snazzy Coke armor, and if you’ve played the game, you’ll recognize a remixed version of Melodies of Life playing at the beginning, before fading into the Coke jingle.  It’s been a few years since I first saw this commercial, and it still causes just as much fangirling in my head.

Coca Cola has also teamed up with World of Warcraft to produce this Chinese commercial.  It’s definitely not the first time the whole “drink this, become powerful and awesome” or “sleazy guy wants more skin” angles have been taken, but it’s no less amusing to watch.  The CG work is really beautiful, as is the battle choreography.  I think I’d rather have something like this than some of the recent U.S. WoW commercials.  Who cares what character William Shatner plays!?

In recent years, the U.S. started to get its own game-inspired Coke commercials.  One of the most entertaining and bizarre came out in 2006 and featured the world of Grand Theft Auto getting turned upside down by the power of a Coke.  I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a big GTA fan, but this commercial is so cleverly done, I love watching it all the same.  I don’t think the future renditions of GTA will include choreographed street musical extravaganzas, but if they did, I’m sure they’d be just as awesome.

The most recent American gaming-meets-Coke commercial debuted in time for the 2009 Super Bowl.  Instead of focusing on one title, Coca Cola chose to focus on game and forum avatars, depicting generic forms of super heroes, catgirls, and “super deformed” characters, as well as hinting at some popular games.  About three seconds into the commercial, look closely at the girl crossing the street in the lower left corner.  She appears to have something hovering over her head, just like someone from The Sims.  About 25 seconds in, a Donkey Kong look-alike appears in the background.  In the final scene, the camera breezes past a character that strongly resembles a certain EverQuest girl and the last “avatar” looks like she came right out of WoW.  This commercial shows the wide range of users, young and old, that are present today, which I absolutely love.  Has Pepsi ever shown the world the secret game and internet goings-on of your fellow townspeople!?  I think not!

So next time you’re plagued by one of those silly surveys and are bored enough to fill it out, just remember, Pepsi may have had Michael Jackson back when he still resembled a man, and they may tout that they’re the “young” choice, but Coke has some the most well done gaming commercials around.

Came for the Vanilla Coke, stayed for the commercials made of pure win.

So last week, I realized my post was getting on in length and decided to split it up into two parts, this, being the second. As you may recall, we were discussing game music composition. A blogger over on Destructoid had written extensively on the downfall of game music, and I use this as a forum to say, “Not so, my fellow appreciator of the arts!” …But what am I doing? That post is only a few entries down at this point, so if you aren’t with me, scroll down and read it, ya lazy bums.

Everyone up to speed? Good. So this week I’d like to take some time to discuss some specific examples of composers I think are doing it right, and I’m not even going to depend on the examples I already provided last week to do so. All of my choices come from games released in (the states in) 2008, further proving that game music is not in fact, less interesting than it used to be.

But what do I mean by “doing it right?” A lot of things. Firstly, the music stands on it’s own from the game as a work of art in and of itself. If someone were to listen to it outside of the game’s context, while perhaps being unable to grasp the significance in its entirety, the listener can appreciate the music. This is of course, speaking regardless of genre preferences and simply appreciating music for what it is.

Secondly, the music added to the game’s presentation value. I’ll explain. Some moments in gaming wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for the seemingly innocuous music in the background fueling the player’s emotions. A battle hard fought and won, a gripping scene in an RPG, or a section of the game meant to induce panic – Yes, a ticking timer can do that alone, but what the player rarely realizes is how much the music is contributing to that heightened state of experience and response. That is, if the music is doing its job.

Third and finally, and this is important, is that the soundtrack as a whole is cohesive. This is what I was talking about last week: Composers who step forward in a game and introduce their own style. A single, stand-out song won’t cut it. I mean that every track does its job to contribute to a whole, whether that be via certain instrumentation, a single person’s voice, or a leitmotif that runs throughout the work.

But enough criteria. On with the show. My first example is a relative unknown, a man named Yoshito Hirano. So unknown, in fact, that he doesn’t even have his own page on wikipedia! But a quick googling reveals thus: Hirano is a composer for Intelligent Systems, a sub-dev of Nintendo. He participated in the scoring for a number of notable games, including Smash Brothers and Fire Emblem, but my case in point, as the sole composer for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Say what you will about the game – I didn’t think it had half the heart of its predecessors – but the music in that game was literally a driving factor in my desire to complete the story mode. This is Proud Soldier – Gage. Hit play, and keep reading.

As he has done throughout the series, Hirano roots Advance Wars in heavy metal and layers on the melodies from there. Well, it’s as metal as the Nintendo DS can get, anyway. But my hat goes off to him for Days of Ruin, where I think his themes for each of the characters help to define them in ways the game couldn’t even do through dialog.  Not only that, they make one of the slowest moving genres ever, the Strategy RPG, feel like it’s all occurring at breakneck speed. His cuts inspire the player to strategize, but to do so at the speed of war.  I would love to see this soundtrack fully realized by a Japanese rock band.

Also check out: Flight of the Coward – Waylon

The second guy I’m offering up has picked up slightly more mainstream notoriety, because he worked on the soundtrack to one of the most mainstream RPGs on the Sony PSP – Takeharu Ishimoto, for Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Anyone who says the music at Square-Enix died when Uematsu left obviously hasn’t played Crisis Core. Ishimoto has only recently stepped up from being a synthesizer programmer for Square into a full-fledged composer, and his debut has been nothing short of ground breaking. This is “Under the Apple Tree.”

It’s hard to call anything ground breaking in a series that has gone above and beyond the saturation point and is now being milked for all it’s worth. But I think the best part of what Ishimoto did for this title was bring his own game to the plate. Let’s face it: We’ve heard the tunes of Final Fantasy VII remixed, recycled, and reiterated over and over ever since Square-Enix realized how much money the now 10 year old FF7 can pull in from the fans. As one of those fans myself, I think it’s safe to say we’re tired of it.

What Ishimoto did, though, was breathe life into a tired soundtrack. He took the FF7 tracks and made them sit under HIS schematic of twangy, acoustic guitars, singing violins, and a theme exclusive to Crisis Core that runs throughout the game, overpowering the Uematsu melodies. A ballsy move to be certain, and one that paid off in spades. You don’t mess with those themes unless you’re going to get them right. But by the time we’d heard the numerous iterations of this tune, I doubt many of us cared what he did with Aeris’s theme, and I for one, forgot all about the dude with the silver hair.

Also check out: The Price of Freedom, Night of Seclusion

Looks like I’m already going over my self-imposed line here, but my final shout out is to Simon Viklund, composer and creative director for Bionic Commando: Rearmed, a downloadable throwback to better times on PS3 and Xbox 360. Talk about a soundtrack that is both 100% faithful to the source material as well as being a complete modernization. It has to be heard to be believed.  I know for fact that the Rearmed soundtrack is available on Itunes.

(Whoa, whoa, WHOA.  Now, I could have sworn this posted properly last night… Don’t mean to interrupt, Don!)

…Your resident Crybringer, here!  Not much to talk about — I skipped on Katsucon for the most part, and the news front is quiet until I get my hands on either Street Fighter IV, Deathsmiles or The Seventh Dragon, gaming-wise.  But as it’s almost a year since I started using a little program called OpenCanvas (version 1.1!) I think I’ll spend the next few posts going in-depth and sharing what I learned.  It’s become one of my most invaluable tools and I heartily recommend it.

See ya’ll inna few — I’m going to revive Art on Saturdays!

Greetings, Programs!

We have a tendency to fall on one side or the other when it comes to important issues of debate:

Republican vs. Democrat

Roe vs. Wade

Elvis vs. The Beatles

Coke vs. Pepsi

Boxers vs. Briefs

We even take sides when it comes to our preferences in serial killers.

Yeah, you heard me right.

When the 1980s were in full swing, we were given a new dichotomy to choose between – a tall, silent type with a fetish for hockey-wear, or a wiry little burn victim who made a dirty glove with blades on it a fashion item.  Horror lovers everywhere had a decision to make: Jason or Freddy?

I have to admit, I was an exception to the rule (though I do lean more towards the Dream Master himself).  I grew up watching and loving the madcap, murderous adventures of both horror movie icons, through the classics as well as the stinkers (I’m looking at you Manhattan and anything after Dream Warriors).  But, since this past weekend offered a new Friday the 13^th movie and not a new Nightmare film (don’t worry, it’s coming), my current attitude as I write this article is “Bring on the deformed counselor-killer!”

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat – this film is not a new installment in the already stagnated series.  This is a “re-imagining”.  A reboot, if you will.

No, before you click away from this article feeling angry because another horror franchise just got butt-raped, let me talk you down.  This movie was actually pretty damn good.

Let me break it down for you:

By the time Freddy vs. Jason came out a few years ago, both franchises had already died as slow, painful death.  And I’m not talking about the kind of death that you get up from and come back to kill more lovelies in another sequel.  The showdown between two of the biggest horror icons of all time sounded the final knell despite what box office it was able to bring in.

So what does this new Friday bring to the table?

Let me answer that by putting it within the context of the world created by the original films.  The new Friday is the equivalent of Tommy Jarvis jamming a metal fence pole into the rotting corpse of Jason Vorhees, after which lightning strikes said pole and gives our murdering drown victim a chance to re-help himself to the removal of heartbeats from folks, starting with Arnold Horshack.  And all of this despite having a machete cleave his head in two a couple of movies previous.

So yes, the reboot is a breath of fresh air.  And the franchise needed it.

This movie does something interesting, as it actually acknowledges the original Friday the 13^th by featuring a flashback set in the year 1980 – when momma Vorhees tore a rampage through Camp Crystal Lake to avenge her thought to be dead son.

From there, the movie condenses the first three Friday as it jumps ahead to the present day and gets right into why you would pay money to watch a Friday the 13^th movie to begin with.  Kids show up at the abandoned camp to find a rumored marijuana crop.  Sex, drugs and rock & roll ensue (with a beautiful nod to the 80s by featuring Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” on one kid’s iPod).  And as you would expect, it isn’t long before bag-head Jason shows up to politely axe the kids not to mess with his stash.

With the opening kills out of the way, we flash forward again a few weeks as the brother of one of the victims is wandering around town asking anyone if they’ve seen his sister.  Enter the next batch of meat kids who are off to a cabin owned by the rich one’s dad.

Yes, the stereotypical victim-types are still present – the rich kid jerk, the cute and nerdy girl, the black guy, the girl who gets to do all the nudity, etc.  As an added bonus, the writers decided to add another minority to the mix.  This time an Asian guy gets to meet the sharp end of something nasty with the rest of the ex-lifers.

I don’t really need to go much farther into the film at this point.  The movie delivers exactly what fans want – guy searching for sister runs into new group of kids, pisses rich kid off.  One by one, all of the non-protags get picked off until sis-searching brother and nerdy girl who didn’t partake in any of the naughties that get you killed in this kind of movie face off against Jason on their own.  And they win?

This movie did take a couple of liberties with the character established in the original franchise.  But, any liberties taken with the new film or with the character are almost completely forgotten once the stuff you really want to see keeps popping up on screen:

Body count?  Check.

Blood and gore?  Check.

Lots of nudity and sex?  Check.

Fun kills that make you cheer?  Check.

Jason donning the trademark hockey mask?  Check.

Open ending as it turns out Jason hasn’t really taken his last breath?  Check.

Ch ch ch ha ha ha ki ki ki’s?  Check.  But, I will say that they were used very conservatively in this film.  I think I only heard them three times, tops.  But honestly?  I think that it was a great idea to use it that sparingly.  Over the course of several movies, the soundtracks for Friday the 13^th films started to become overrun with the popular gutturals.  What this film does is save them for the precise moment when such a sound would enhance the tension and fear factor of the scene.  And it completes the atmosphere of each scene it’s used in perfectly.

I wanna leave you all with one last thought as to why I really enjoyed this new take on a horror classic.  By the time Jason showed up in the fanboy crossover of a few years ago, he had become a supernatural force of unstoppable evil.  Quite a transition from what he started out as – a deformed, retarded, back woods hick who stalked and killed anyone who dared venture into Camp Crystal Lake.  The new Friday takes it back to the roots and makes Jason human.  Not only does this almost make him a sympathetic character within the context of the movie, but this isn’t a guy who can suddenly appear and vanish mysteriously and impossibly.  This guy is just a large, hulking doof of a man with scoliosis who will chase after you and administer that machete piercing you’ve always wanted.  That’s what added the extra scare factor for me, and made me love this movie more than I might have otherwise.  This guy could conceivably exist in the isolated, wooded areas of the US.

By the time I walked out of the theater Saturday, I was pumped with adrenaline.  The new creative team behind this reboot had done it.  I was excited about a movie featuring Jason Vorhees again.  They took all of the things that made a Friday the 13^th movie great, added a couple of personal touches, and cranked out a solid entry in what will hopefully become a new, invigorated franchise.

Just hope they don’t eventually send him up into space again.

The Don is back.  He’s the man behind the MASK… toys that he’s playing with.

Over a decade ago, the nerds of network TV came in one flavor – awkward.  They followed the same carbon copy format of ill-fitting retro clothing, large glasses, a difficulty socializing with non-nerds, and in some cases, a disturbing love of cheese.  As loveable as characters like Family Matters’ “Steve Urkel” or Boy Meets World’s “Minkus” were, they were hard to relate to.  On September 24^th, 2007, all that changed.

CBS introduced a new take on the classic nerd with The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom surrounding two nerdy roommates, their two nerdy friends, and the hot non-nerd girl down the hall.  If this show was produced years ago, it’d be pretty easy to guess the weekly formula – nerdy guys pine over hot girl, attempt to woo her with science, “geeky” fandoms, or large quantities of cheese, and ultimately fail in a “golly gee, that’s okay” way.  But Big Bang tosses the clichés out the window and instead presents viewers with different variations to their nerd herd.  And best of all, they’re believable.

From mild mannered Leonard, obsessive compulsive Sheldon, aspiring ladies man Howard, shy-until-drunk Koothrappali to waiting-to-be-discovered-waitress, Penny, Big Bang has a cast of characters that are easy to identify with.  What’s most refreshing is that each of these characters is completely comfortable in his own skin.  This isn’t a nerd-turned-sexy-knockout kind of show.  These characters enjoy marching to their own nerdy beat.

Gamers will enjoy references to Halo and World of Warcraft, but will also be surprised at the attention to detail, like touching on selling in game equipment on auction sites – something the inexperienced MMO gamer might not have thought existed.  One of my favorite gaming scenes is when Penny tries her hand at Halo and proves to be a capable adversary.  Unfortunately, the idea that games like Halo are too difficult for most girls – especially the typical “girly girl” – is still very commonplace.  That’s why scenes like this give the show +50 likeability in my book.  And with references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, classic comic book characters, and more, there’s something for everyone.

Still unconvinced?  Watch this…

But even more than the nerdy references, the real appeal of the show is the characters themselves.  They mesh together so well, that after a few episodes, they start to feel like old friends.  Years ago, viewers could expect to see groups of nerdy guys in a school’s math or science club, with the main character wondering what they did to deserve such a fate.  On Big Bang the five friends band together for a variety of causes – from trying to help Koothrappali get over his phobia of talking to women to an intervention for Sheldon when the idea of luminous fish becomes more important than his job.  There’s truly never a dull moment.  And Big Bang is user-friendly.  The episodes don’t have to be viewed in order, and the humor can easily be grasped, no knowledge of Star Trek or physics required.

The Big Bang Theory can be seen Monday nights at 8:00 PM on CBS.  Get clips, cast info and more at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/

Want to see it from the beginning?  The complete first season of Big Bang is now available.

Get your nerdy fix before Heroes or 24, and prepare to be hooked.

I’ve grown into this habit of skimming gaming blogs to get my fix of industry news and updates. It seems to be the most efficient way of keeping up with things for the average, avid gamer. Sometimes I see articles that really catch my eye, and now, I am in turn writing about one such occasion.

Destructoid.com, more of a gamer’s community than a blog, posted a fan-written article by a guy calling himself Tascar, entitled, “Thoughts on why video game music might seem less interesting or good as it used to be.” Tascar could use a lesson in title brevity, but if it would interest you to read the entire article, (it is worth it, despite being somewhat organizationally challenged) check that out here. I’m gonna summarize his points, though, for those too lazy to do that.

Tascar provides two main reasons why video game music nowadays just isn’t what it used to be. These are in his words:

1. The role of music as a means of telling a story, developing characters, or establishing the world environment has decreased over the years in favor of graphics and voice acting.

2. The advent of large storage media has freed and many composers from the limitations of sound chips but in turn has pigeon-holed many other composers into pursuing a particular “sound” and in turn ruining the uniqueness of videogame music.

I agree 100% with his first point. The characters of a game have stolen the show from the music. They have voices now, more than six frames of animation, and facial expressions that do a better job telling their story than music can. As a result, the music of games takes a background role. It’s still there to provide ambience, and occasionally, swells to the forefront to convey the general emotion of an epic battle or a resolute speech.

As much as we can mourn for the good old days, that is its job now. I’m not sure how much sensory overload, and Tascar points this out too, we would have if both the characters and the music were carrying the emotion of the game at the same time. And quite frankly, I wouldn’t trade the voice acting and character animations for the scores of yesteryear.

Square-Enix’s last genre-dominating foray from its flagship series, Final Fantasy XII, is a perfect example of what game music is now. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto has some strong tracks that do the talking when they need to – but to listen to the four-disc soundtrack set is to commit to taking a nap. The majority of the pieces here are background music akin to a film score, another comparison Tascar is quick to point out somewhere beneath the blanket of his second hypothesis up there. Speaking on his disappointment with Harry Gregson-Williams’ contribution to the Metal Gear Solid series, he says, “…it is yet another example of a trend in videogames where developers are continuously abandoning the unique ideas and principles developed over the years in gaming in order to chase down, pursue, and ripoff what Hollywood has done.”

Again, I agree with his point here, but couldn’t disagree more with the medium he chose to use it on – I think Gregson-Williams’ score to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater stands out as one of the best overall soundtracks of the PS2 generation. I’ve also gotta ask: What unique ideas and principles are being abandoned in this soundtrack, or even in general?

Overall, his second point is where he starts to lose me, and I think maybe he even got lost himself. He praises composers like Nobou Uematsu for branching out into more of a rock sound (evident in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), Yasunori Mitsuda for his work on the Xenosaga series and its distinctive sound, and the Martin O’Donnell/Michael Salvatori team for their work on Halo, but comes down on the western sound of Metal Gear for being too film like.

Where is the line drawn? When does the fact that a game’s soundtrack resembles that of a film become such a bad thing? There have been excellent, and very unique film scores in the last decade, and video game composers would do well to follow in their footsteps, of course, in so much that they create a sound unique to the game, unique to what already exists, and unique in that it grips the player when it needs to as quality work.

I happen to like when game composers pursue a particular sound and make it their own, and I fail to see (and Tascar fails to explain) how that pursuit ruins the uniqueness of game music. I think it’s quite the opposite. The freedom from the sound chip limitations have only made game music that much more original.

Based on the “sound” alone, I could probably tell you in a few notes if a piece belongs to game composer Michuru Yamane, known for her work in the Castlevania series. Not only has she used some very distinctive instrumentation and styles, but her work has often been the saving grace of the series as far as reviews go, who have nothing but praise for her and lamentations for the games themselves.

Shoji Meguro, who often collaborates with vocal artists as well as contributes his own work to the Persona series and other titles in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, also has a very distinctive sound. Ask any avid SMT fan to listen to the soundtrack to Trauma Center: Second Opinion, a game entirely different in style and delivery, and I would put money on an identification of Meguro as the composer in under 10 seconds based on style alone.

What I’m trying to say to Tascar is that freedom from the sound chip and wider storage capacity doesn’t instantly mean the composer is going to go straight for that Hollywood feel. I think he knows this, but that’s about the point in his article where it got a little fuzzy. I’ve only listed two composers, but there are so many others out there who, when the chains broke for them at their various companies, they took flight and soared with their compositions.

I’m sure some developers have probably specifically said, “Let’s go Hollywood” on this. Bad on them. But for Tascar’s own examples, plus my own, it’s hard to say that video game music isn’t as good or as interesting as it used to be. Changed, yes. But that’s only because developers have the freedom to make that choice, now that the sound chip limitations and storage space isn’t an issue any more. It’s called progress. Just as we didn’t appreciate every piece of 8-bit music that was composed, nor will we do so now. And the broader range of it all gives us even more to look forward to as the composers are able to add such a great deal of flavor to the games we love.

Next Time: I’ll conclude this little commentary be providing a few concrete examples of some works by composers who have really defined their own style in game music and made the genre all the better for it. If you’ve got anyone you want me to check out before then, drop a line.

Greetings, Cavity Creeps!

As if you didn’t have enough shows to watch amongst all of the other geeky stuff you geeks like to geek…

Last week I reviewed a new cartoon the recently debuted on Nicktoons called “Wolverine and the X-Men”.  If I recall, I said some fairly positive things about it.

*looks up as he travels back into the flashback in his mind*

Oops, sorry.  I keep forgetting that I can’t take you all back with me in print.  I believe it was a round-rimmed glasses-wearing, spirit eradicating scientist who claimed that “print is dead”.  He’s probably right.  I mean, he told us about the Twinkie.  Look where that got us.

Well, I got another animated series to bend your ear about.  This one comes from that other comic book company – DC – and has an even more colorful history of animated series in its utility belt.

I’m talking about “Batman:  The Brave and the Bold”.

Now, Batman is one of only a small number of heroes from DC who has had consistent success in regards to television shows in general, starting with his campy, live-action series in the 60s.  But even before then, The Dark Knight saw some moderate popularity in two fifteen-chapter, black & white serials in the 1940s.  These serials, when re-released in the early 1960s, would be responsible for the launch of the Adam West series.

From that point on, Batman (and sometimes his boy wonder) would continue to show up in various animated and live-action offerings on television, like “The Batman/Superman Hour”, “Superfriends”, “Scooby Doo”, and even the head-scratching, short-lived live-action show “Legends of the Superheroes”.

Then came 1989, when a major blockbuster motion picture once again made Batman a household name.  It also made people scratch their heads once more as they wondered, “Michael Keaton?  Really?”

The movie was a huge success, and launched what could be considered one of the most successful animated series the Caped Crusader has ever had – “Batman – The Animated Series”.  The series would quickly redefine the look and feel for the character of the Dark Knight.

Batman would continue to evolve in animated form as he showed up in other animated series like “Superman: The Animated Series” and the “Justice League” animated series.  In 2004, he would get a reboot in an animated series titled “The Batman” that would last five seasons.

Now, Warner Bros. has decided to give the flying-rodent-man another reboot:  “Batman: Brave and the Bold”.  This series doesn’t carry any of the multiple-episode story arcs or series-wide continuity that the others did.  The series is simple:

Team Batman up with a different hero every week and watch them battle bad guys.

That’s pretty much it.  And oddly, it works.  Now, to be fair, I’m usually a stickler for continuity, and I love watching shows that have ongoing storylines.  But, this show is so much fun that I could give a flying Batarang.  The show is almost exactly like an animated version of the old “Brave and the Bold” comics. 

Each episode starts off with a jump-in opening – Batman and a random DC hero are finishing up an action caper.  Now, the show writers have decided to only pair Batman with the lesser known heroes of the DCU.  So, no Superman or Wonder Woman.  But, expect plenty of heroes the likes of Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, and Red Tornado (man, there are a lot of color-specific heroes in the DC Universe).  Then throw a couple of Green Lanterns (see?) in for good measure.  With the first companion hero set up for the opening, the show literally starts you right in the thick of the action.  After Batman and <Add Hero Here> save the say, the credits start.

And the credits are just as much fun as the show itself.  The new theme song is a jazzy piece that, combined with the imagery playing during the opening credits, harkens back to another light-hearted Bat-romp that aired in another time.  Let’s say, the 60s or something.

Once the credits are out of the way, as well as the stupid commercials (thanks, TiVo!), the show dives in head-first as Batman narrates the adventure.  And he gets yet a second hero to team-up with!  In the entire 20+ minute running time, there is enough fun to be had watching the show that one could almost exclaim “Holy Grin Sandwich, Batman!”  Though, I would only recommend you do that if you’re wearing a yellow cape, a red tunic, and green underpants.  And even then, you should prolly just do it in the privacy of your own home.

At the end of the day, “Batman:  Brave and the Bold” is just a fun romp.  And you don’t need to go in expecting to have to keep up with every episode, either.  Each episode stands on its own.  Don’t have a lot of time to watch yet another series that The Don has carelessly thrown into your lap?  No problem.  You can watch and episode here or there and enjoy each one for what it is – a half-hour of action, pithy banter, and enough “POW!”  “KABAM!”  “BLURM!” to make you want to put on footie pajamas and grab a bowl of your favorite cereal.

Just don’t wake up mom and dad.  They’ll wonder what the hell you’re doing back in their house.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na THE DON!  Yeah, doesn’t quite have that ring.