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Messages - JonLeung

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1
General Gaming / Re: Lame Jerks Rip Off Awesome NWR Member.
« on: May 09, 2012, 09:40:56 PM »
Hi, guys.  Wow, I haven't been here in forever.

Thanks for drawing attention to this matter, UncleBob.

While some may question how much work it takes to "reskin" Kid Icarus, what I think is particularly wrong is that Flip Industries has now taken artwork from deviantART (and elsewhere on the Internet), such as Kid Icarus fan art - and without credit.  This was added to their site sometime after I initially raised a stink about just my maps this back in January, so it's clear they haven't learned and they think they can continue to pilfer more things from other people over the Internet.

And what is extremely irksome is that if you were to contact Flip Industries directly, just to ask why their maps and artwork more than resemble work that is not their own, you will not get a response.  At least, not an official response.  Instead, if you happen to question them openly, such as on forums, you'll get trolls that pop out of the woodwork, always brand new users, vehemently defending Flip Industries.  So much so, more than any Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft fanboy ever would defend their favourite company, which is disproportionate considering Flip Industries has made two fan games, which is next to nothing and obviously not deserving of such intense praise, so obviously these defendants (who are typically very immature and offer no decent counter to any allegation) are just Flip Industries themselves.

Rather than admit any wrongdoing, or counter my claims (perhaps because they can't), it appears they would instead look for ways to discredit me.  For instance, there is suddenly recent activity including Wikipedia edits (again, by new users) on the VGMaps article, questions asked on Yahoo! Answers about the legality of screenshot maps (particularly on VGMaps by JonLeung of Canada - obviously loaded when the questions are that specific), and there is now a YouTube channel (and soon, probably videos) that claims to "alert the public" of the "catastrophe" that is me and my web site.

Look at the crap I now have to go through, just for speaking up against what's obviously wrong.

Flip Industries, and/or their associates, are trying to make this personal.  Even if I don't let that bother me in that way, it's still aggravating that they are getting away with taking other people's work without credit.  Not that I would want to be credited now, I certainly don't want to be associated with such people that are so callous and disrespectful.

Such immaturity is ridiculous, I'm not really sure what can be done about it though.  You'd think Flip Industries would find a better hobby, because their smear campaign against me can easily be turned back against them, but I'm not sure if they're using any kind of publicity - good OR bad - as a way to get more attention to their game.  So do I stop feeding the trolls, or do I continue bringing to light their artwork-stealing ways?

2
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Party to celebrate NES's 25th anniversary
« on: October 16, 2010, 03:55:38 PM »
We had this party last night, and it was crazy fun!

We subbed out Anticipation for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade game (and just played until we got Game Over, which was in the second stage, in the sewers) and replaced Super Mario Kart with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters.  Unfortunately we couldn't get to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it was still an insane night without it.

The half-hour per game we actually managed to stick pretty well to, surprisingly, but next time I'll set aside more time for the better game.  Every game managed to elicit some laughs regardless.  You guys were right, Geist was a little weak, though it still had its moments.  Crash 'N' The Boys: Street Challenge was tons more fun than I expected.

Because the party was such a hit, I've been asked to host more "Retro Nintendo Nights" in the future.  Can't deny people that if that's what they want!

3
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Party to celebrate NES's 25th anniversary
« on: October 02, 2010, 01:47:16 PM »
If you have multiple televisions, you could consider having players swap out to complete some of the co-op games.  And with Kirby: Super Star, you can always just play though the Spring Breeze part of the game.  Short, sweet and a great taste of the entire game. :)  Or, if you have it unlocked, The Arena could be interesting for some two-player time killing.

So where and when is this party and where's my invitation? ;)

I HAD the Arena unlocked.  Somehow in testing out the Super NES, a 100% saved file was still there on my Kirby: Super Star cartridge, but then after a couple tries (I've got vertical stripes on many Super NES games, that cleaning hasn't fixed yet, so I have to borrow another Super NES), the saved file seems to have been erased.  A possible battery problem?  Perhaps static?  Static is one theory as to why my N64 games kept resetting randomly and frequently on certain games, but after some use, the resets became less and less frequent and now it seems to be working perfectly fine with all games.  A friend suggested I keep my Super NES on for a day to kill the graphical stripes problem; do you think that would be a good idea?  Still, looks like I have to replay Kirby: Super Star to unlock the Arena again.  Though I suppose there are worse ways to spend my time.  :P:

I'm guessing you don't live in Edmonton, UncleBob, and even if you did, I had to keep my invitee list small, because of time limitations, that's why there were so many people who didn't get an invite who might enjoy this too.  I already think I invited too many people as it is.  Still, the idea of using multiple TVs is intriguing and might alleviate the strictness in the schedule.  A friend offered to bring a projector, too.  Hmmm.

Just 'cause you can't come to MY party doesn't mean you can't host your own party, and hopefully this has given you some ideas.  Seeing as how there's two weeks until then (if you need the same occasion to celebrate), better hit up eBay now.  It's probably easier for Americans to buy from other Americans as you probably have more shipping options (including overnight!), but when us Canadians buy from Americans, customs holds it up.  Maybe I shouldn't've bought a Power Glove alongside some of these games, the customs agents might play with it, or flag it down if it looks like some kind of weapon (like Sam apparently has in Transformers III, coming out in 39 weeks, but who's counting?)...

4
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Party to celebrate NES's 25th anniversary
« on: September 30, 2010, 11:31:23 PM »
Considering that we're planning to play fifteen games in seven and a half hours, that's thirty minutes for each, which is why I didn't consider any co-op games because of the unlikelihood of finishing them within a half-hour.  Therefore, no Contra/Super C/III, no Kirby: Super Star, no TMNT II/III/IV, no Final Fight/2/3, nothing like that.  (And no Nightmare on Elm Street, even though I recall liking that game, even though the initials also spell out NES (or NoES), and even though a modified Power Glove was featured in one of the movies.   :P: )  The Mario Party games, well, the mini-games seem too short, and any game mode seems too long.   :confused;

With that stipulation of no strictly co-op, I found that the selections for the NES and Super NES were actually very limited.  There are tons of co-op games, but very few pick-up-and-play competitive games.  Sports games bore me (if they're not arcadey) and I didn't want any of the Street Fighter wannabes.

Included with my eBay purchases, even though they're not officially on the list, are Tetris & Dr. Mario (Super NES), Killer Instinct (Super NES) and Mortal Jombat Trilogy (N64).  Me and/or my brother also already own Killer Instinct Gold (N64) and Pokémon Puzzle League (N64).  I will likely have NBA Jam (Wii) and Wii Party (Wii) before then, as well.  So those, and probably others I can't recall this second, are possible sub-ins.  Dunno about Just Dance 2 (Wii), though.  It was actually considered since it'll be the newest game by the time of the party, but if no girls are present, then I don't think any of the guys will want to get up and move, about seven hours into a gaming marathon and being around midnight.  :P:
 
I remember liking TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, so 'll consider a TimeSplitters game for a future party (there will be more, since I spent too much as it is!), but I still want to give Geist a spin, at least once.  Sure, getting it free from the purchase of my Wii is probably saying something, but I'd never played multiplayer with anyone other than my brother.  I'd actually finished the single-player story on a rental when it first came out, but it was funny that I'd never played my own copy until a few days ago.

5
Nintendo Gaming / Party to celebrate NES's 25th anniversary
« on: September 26, 2010, 11:01:03 PM »
Hi guys, long time no talk.
 
I decided to throw a party in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System next month.  Basically, it would be a seven-and-a-half hour long party, with half an hour spent on each of the fifteen games, three from each console.
 
I spent quite a fair bit of money in the past couple weeks obtaining the games and controllers I need.  So hopefully I have the makings of a good party.

Though I did buy an NES Four Score, I was surprised at the lack of good four-player games on the NES.

Similarly, there aren't many Super Multitap games that aren't sports games.  So I'm sticking with the tried-and-true Mario Kart and Street Fighter, even if they're only two players.

As I mentioned, I don't like sports games, but arcade-style games like NBA Hang Time I can certainly do.  The other two are pretty much givens.

Three vastly different GameCube games.  I even have four GBA-GCN cables and I'm borrowing two more GBAs to fully experience Four Swords Adventures!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be the last game of the night.  Another fighting game and another game featuring Mario reinforce the point made all night long that Nintendo has awesome multiplayer experiences.
 
So, what do you think of my selections?

6
General Chat / Re: Nintendo Vs. Transformers
« on: July 11, 2010, 11:49:21 PM »
Welcome back, JonLeung.

I would have to nod affirmatively in regards to all the comparisons except for Kirby and Unicron. My reason? Unicron is not Pink.

Thanks!

Yes, while the colours were the original reason for matching the others up, I couldn't deny the fact that Kirby and Unicron are both round and have a major appetite.  Plus, I wanted something a bit more fun and different to end the chart with.  (Though they're both orange, at least when Kirby has absorbed a power in Kirby's Adventure.  A pink Unicron would be odd, that's for sure.)

It's speculation at this point, but Kirby could probably destroy planets too, if he took Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch power before doing the Megaton Punch mini-game as seen in Kirby: Super Star...

7
General Chat / Nintendo Vs. Transformers
« on: July 11, 2010, 01:06:25 AM »
Long time no see, guys.
 
Thought I'd share something cool I made today...
   As a Nintendo fan and a Transformers fan, I was always aware that Mario and Optimus Prime shared the same colours - red and blue, with a touch of white.
   
 
But recently I noticed that other characters on both sides shared the same colours.  Now, bright colours are indeed common among characters that appeal to kids (or children of all ages), but when I remembered the Pikachu-themed Volkswagen Beetle, I began to think up some more connections between similarly-coloured Nintendo and Transformers characters. 
 
The results are here.
 

 
Or here's a 1680 x 1050 wallpaper-sized version:

 
...For those of you who forgot my previous geeky wallpaper I made, click here to see how Star Wars and Star Trek are connected...
 
My original topic on VGMaps.com is here: Nintendo Vs. Transformers

8
TalkBack / Re: REVIEWS: Bird & Beans
« on: April 12, 2009, 12:09:23 AM »
Is this the game that's based on Pyoyo (or whatever it's called) from at least one of the WarioWare games?  I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned at all in this review if that's the case.

9
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Dread is incredible!
« on: April 03, 2009, 06:23:41 PM »
Oh, don't worry about that.  I've got a Link's Awakening map as my wallpaper at work and it always gets complimented on when someone sees it for the first time. :)

Funnily enough, I was contemplating taking in my framed A Link To The Past map (http://www.vgmaps.com/forums/genmessage.php?topic=594) to work today.  Maybe I'll do it next week now that I found the wire and hangy things so I can actually hang it in my cubicle.  :)

10
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Dread is incredible!
« on: April 03, 2009, 01:08:09 AM »
vgmaps always has an entertaining April Fools joke :)

Thank you!  :)  I try my best.

Though I will probably scale back next year's...last year's and this year's took up way too much time.

I hope you guys find reason enough to stop by VGMaps.com more than once a year, of course.

11
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Dread is incredible!
« on: April 01, 2009, 06:08:40 PM »
:)

I knew I wouldn't be able to fool you guys.

Now, whatever happened to the Wikipedia article about April Fool's jokes on the web?  I couldn't post last year's The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Hours because at the time my site didn't have a Wikipedia article.  But now I do have an article, and I can't find any such listing on Wikipedia!  Maybe they stopped doing it because it was such a nightmare to control, probably.

But what really makes me wonder is if Rawmeat Cowboy of GoNintendo hates VGMaps.com or something.  This year and last year he seemed to snub the effort put into making these.  Sure, he doesn't HAVE to mention them, but when GoNintendo posts crap like lame-o boxart for some games no one cares about, and similar unnewsworthy posts, you'd wonder why a four-month effort gets the cold shoulder.  >_<

Anyway, like last year's anagram of "Falsia (the Zelda overworld) + Proodyl (the villain) = April Fool's", can you spot the anagram in Metroid Dread's "Ilpstra I"?  :P

12
Nintendo Gaming / Metroid Dread is incredible!
« on: April 01, 2009, 01:57:58 AM »
I just finished playing it (and mapping it).  See it here:
http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2009.htm#04

I thought escaping Ilpstra I was a bit tough than escaping Zebes or Aether, though - it actually took me a few tries!

This is where Metroid should be, in glorious 2D.  Not that the Prime games were bad, they just weren't classic Metroid, you know?

13
If no one's reading it because it's too long, here's the one-line summary:

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony was disappointing; go see Video Games Live instead.

14
PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is a touring video game concert, which plays musical medleys from video game series with a live symphony orchestra and a choir.  It's been around for a few years now, and last night I attended their performance in their first night here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at the Jubilee Auditorium.

Those of you who have read my previous two recaps about Video Games Live know that I am supportive of video game music in this form.  However, it would be difficult for me to write this recap without comparing it to Video Games Live…in which case I will pretty much always say that Video Games Live seemed to do it lots better.  More often than not it was about the presentation and energy than about the music itself...but more on that as I continue with this recap.

There wasn't much in terms of pre-show events.  I thought VGL's pre-show with its merchandise hawking and various video game demos, swag, displays and a Guitar Hero competition were lacking at the time (as I've oft-mentioned, nothing seems as exciting if you've been to E3 2006)…but PLAY!’s attempt was very sad; it was barely an attempt.  I almost wonder if I possibly missed the pre-show events altogether, as the Ticketmaster site says the pre-show began at 5:30 PM and included "game competitions, demos, costume contest, prizes & more!"  But that seems kind of early, and way too early for them to stop if I came in at about 7:15 and saw...none of those things.  So I’m pretty sure not much actually went on.  Okay, there was a booth where Super Mario plushies were being sold, and a small group playing some video game music out in the lobby.  There were also two tables selling official PLAY! merchandise, but there wasn’t much selection.  (As we would find out later, today was also supposed to be the debut of the PLAY! official CD, but they were held up at customs.)  While looking around, I wondered if they bothered with a costume contest; all I saw was someone dressed as Big Boss, another guy with a red wig that I wasn’t sure that I should recognize, and not-originally-video game characters like a red Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger and Naruto.  It was nothing at all like VGL, where you’d easily find a couple dozen people dressing up.

I went over to the PLAY! merchandise tables and bought the official program book…overpriced at $15 and not even accurate.  I’ll just go over the program book for a minute because there are several things I can’t help but mention.  The cover shows a wide shot of a symphony orchestra, saturated with blue and black with traces of white and purple.  That’s it.  It’s not a good shot especially with the oversaturation of colours, and it has nothing to do with video games.  Why would you make a cover for a video games concert’s program book and not feature video games on it?  Oh, but at least there’s a list of the games/series that this concert supposedly covers, clumped in small text on the bottom.  There are 27 of them (28 if you see the program on the web site), which I’ll go into detail later.

If you flip through the book, you will see artwork from the various represented games, mostly the major ones.  There would be two pages for most series, one with composer and series details, and another dedicated for official promotional artwork and/or screenshots.  Reading through the descriptions of each, you can tell this is an old program from back in 2006.  You know how VGL couldn’t use Square-Enix footage in their concert?  I’m guessing Square-Enix also didn’t allow artwork to be used in PLAY!’s program book.  The last few pages, with only one each “dedicated” to Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross, and Kingdom Hearts, did not have any official artwork or even the official title logos of those games.  What struck me as incredibly odd is that the background image for the Final Fantasy page is a weird-looking cartoon dog.  No joke.  It’s not cute, it’s just weird.  It doesn’t look like any dog I’ve ever seen in the series.  If you couldn’t get official artwork, is it hard to find a picture of a crystal, or a sword, or something at least remotely related to the series?  Apparently it was for them.  Sorry about the dog rant, it’s just so bizarre.

Fine, so let’s see what possibly useful information this book has.  We have “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Suite” from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  We have the “World Of WarCraft Suite” from World Of WarCraft.  The “Castlevania Suite” from Castlevania.  The “HALO Suite” from HALO.  The “Sonic The Hedgehog Suite” from Sonic The Hedgehog.  So what you’re telling me is that I paid $15 to find out that the name of each medley from each game is “(game title) Suite”?  One of the few that actually has any detail is the breakdown of Final Fantasy’s music; it’s not just called “Final Fantasy Suite”.  Once you get over the fact that the weird dog is still staring at us we can see there is “Liberi Fatali, Aerith’s Theme, Swing de Chocobo, and One-Winged Angel”.  But as we shall soon see, this information is pointless too, and it will be very clear why.

According to the program (http://play-symphony.com/program.php), there are 28 games/series they have music for:

FINAL FANTASY®
SUPER MARIO BROS.®
CASTLEVANIA®
SUPER MARIO WORLD®
METAL GEAR SOLID®
BLUE DRAGON®
LOST ODYSSEY(TM)
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG(TM)
ACTRAISER(TM)
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS(TM)
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA®
HALO®
PREY(TM)
CHRONO TRIGGER(TM)
CHRONO CROSS(TM)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT®
APIDYA(TM)
KINGDOM HEARTS(TM)
SHENMUETM
SILENT HILL®
BATTLEFIELD 1942(TM)
THE ELDER SCROLLS® III: MORROWIND(TM)
STELLA DEUS(TM)
BLACK(TM)
DAYTONA USA(TM)
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK(TM)
THE ELDER SCROLLS® IV: OBLIVION(TM)
GUILD WARS®

(The list is the same as on the front cover and second page of the program book but has the addition of Guild Wars.  I don’t understand the order of the listing and why Castlevania is listed in between the Mario games…)

Looks pretty impressive, right?  You've got several major games and/or game series, though there are some obscure ones (Apidya) and some you wouldn't exactly think of (The Chronicles Of Riddick), but it seems pretty solid.  However, they apparently don't play them all at every show, and at last night's performance, this is all we actually got:

SUPER MARIO BROS.® / SUPER MARIO WORLD®
BATTLEFIELD 1942(TM)
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG(TM)
THE ELDER SCROLLS® IV: OBLIVION(TM)
KINGDOM HEARTS(TM)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT®
HALO®
GUILD WARS®
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA®
CASTLEVANIA®


Ten themes in total?  That’s a little sparse.  (By comparison, VGL had ten medleys in its first act alone.)  Now, while Final Fantasy doesn't have to be the center of the video game music universe, I really did find its omission odd, especially considering that famed music composer Nobuo Uematsu is apparently involved in this production, mentioned on the first page of the program showing that he's a good friend of conductor Arnie Roth, and that Final Fantasy is the first series mentioned on the program listing on the cover of the program book and their web site.  Oh yeah, and that they actually bothered to list the songs in detail in the program book.  Considering all of the above, it just seems wrong.

Speaking of which, and I might as well begin the recap with mentioning this; the first tune played by the orchestra is written by Nobuo Uematsu himself, a theme specifically written for PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.  Now, I'm not really sure I understand this...  If you're not going to open a video game concert with a video game tune or medley or suite of some sort, then you should open with something epic, exciting, energetic, or at the very least enjoyable.  If you go to the web site (http://play-symphony.com) you will be greeted with an auto-playing (and obnoxious) tune, which is pretty much this track.  I'm sorry, Nobuo Uematsu, but we all know you can do so much better.

Conductor and composer Arnie Roth came to take his place on the conductor’s stand, dressed fairly well.  I’m sure the composer and host Arnie Roth isn’t a bad guy, but he doesn’t quite stir the excitement that Tommy Tallarico and James Wall do for VGL.  Before each segment or two, he would introduce the segment or segments, and then after every single one he would motion for the orchestra (and sometimes choir) to stand up for another round of applause.  Also, during each segment, they would often cut away from the video game footage and show close-ups of the orchestra or choir as they performed.  I noticed the orchestra is up front and very well lit.  By contrast to VGL, I felt that these allowances were perhaps trying to show more respect and appreciation for the musicians, however, I still thought taking the extra effort to clap for them after already clapping at the end of each song got rather redundant.

The first medley is from Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World.  As expected for anything from the Super Mario universe the music was upbeat and catchy.  The video montage showed footage from various Mario games, though I think they only stuck to the “main” platforming ones.  It’s a no-brainer that people cheered at the opening portion of the main theme of Super Mario Bros., but the also-popular “underground theme” seemed all too brief.  There was also the underwater theme from Super Mario Bros., as well as some music from Super Mario World.  In the inevitable comparison to VGL, I thought VGL’s footage montage was much more varied (they included many spinoff Mario games as well), and most importantly, VGL’s was synchronized to the music.  It almost looked like it was meant to be synchronized, i.e. lots of underwater footage around the time of the underwater music, which made the lack of synchronization even more evident.  I will be complaining about the lack or total disregard of synchronization to the music in PLAY!’s versions a lot in this recap.

Battlefield (1942?) was next.  Whereas VGL was good about having footage approved for “Everyone” by the ESRB, I wasn’t sure that PLAY! went with the same guidelines.  After the first half of the Battlefield segment that seemed to focus on cut scenes and the like, the second half of showed a lot of gameplay action, and many a virtual soldier tossed their bags of equipment up in the air as they were shot down.  Arnie described this music as “epic” (a word he overused this evening), and I’m not so sure I remember agreeing with him in this regard.

Sonic The Hedgehog was next.  It retained the same feel as the Super Mario Bros. theme, being upbeat, familiar, and with colourful footage.  The montage began with a segment from the Sonic Unleashed teaser where, from Sonic’s perspective, he looks at a ring and tosses it into the air (though the footage cuts away before he becomes a werehog, if you’ve seen that particular teaser).  It continued with a silhouette of Sonic that had various game boxes of several of his games (but not all) flying by.  An amusing point is when the box for Sonic Unleashed came on screen, and an audience member said “boo”, followed by laughs from a fair number of others from the audience (referring to how that game wasn’t very good).  This is another game that has a VGL equivalent, and again, VGL handled it better, with its overall-series-spanning montage.  To be fair, I did like the footage from Sonic The Hedgehog (Xbox 360)…except they repeated parts of it (and too bad the game wasn’t good from what I hear, but that’s another story).

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of those games I wanted to play but just never got around to.  I hope the music and montage here are not representative of the game, as I found myself looking at my watch throughout this long piece.  The music was long and grandiose, but I’m not sure that it’s as “epic” as Arnie once again said.  Perhaps there’s something to be said about pre-familiarity with the game series to enjoy a montage, but I really don’t think I should be thinking “when is this going to end” when I’m watching it.  It almost pains me to say that considering how epic I’ve heard the game actually is.

A series I have played recently, thanks to my friend Pat lending them to me, are the Kingdom Hearts games.  VGL was denied Square-Enix footage, but apparently PLAY! was able to get away with using Kingdom Hearts II footage.  Most of it is from the opening sequence in Kingdom Hearts II which recaps the events of the first Kingdom Hearts game, and also some of what happened in the GBA “midquel”, Chain of Memories.  (You’d think that being allowed to use the footage would make this medley better than the VGL version, but when I think about it, there was really nothing wrong with VGL’s Disney-focused version.)  Speaking of memories, this could have been more memorable…

After those forty-some minutes, it was time for the twenty minute intermission.  Having only heard five medleys (ignoring that bad opening theme), I felt that something was amiss.  I figured that maybe they’d lump the remaining tunes in some big medley, but no, the second half was in the same format as the first.

World of WarCraft is something I never got into, as with many MMOs, as I guess I always had enough games to play and was never keen on spending a lot of time on a single game that’s never meant to end.  The music was indeed more epic for this one; the footage wasn’t bad considering it was entirely of full-screen pre-rendered cinematic scenes.  I wish I could’ve said more about the music itself but for whatever reason it wasn’t as rousing as I remembered VGL’s to be.  And again, it wasn’t synchronized very well if it was meant to be at all.

Halo was next.  I have played the first Halo, and I guess I’ll keep my comments to myself because of any Halo fanboys that may be reading this.  What I will say, though, is that the ridiculousness of Tommy Tallarico rocking out on the Halo 3 teaser which he did twice before in VGL was actually very rousing.  The Halo theme itself is supposed to be epic.  But unfortunately this is a review of PLAY!, and I’m not sure what I’m missing here, but if this is the same tune, why was it not exciting?

Arnie told us that video game composer Jeremy Soule, who was scheduled to appear at tonight’s show, was sick and could not come to Edmonton.  So while VGL has a few guests, PLAY! meant to have just one and he couldn’t make it.  I guess that’s not fair to Mr. Soule, as it’s not like he asked to be sick, but in any case that meant we were stuck with Arnie Roth and his fixation on the word “epic” as he described the music from Guild Wars that Mr. Soule had written.  You could pretty much substitute “Guild Wars” in every occurrence of “World Of WarCraft” two paragraphs ago, except that it felt less “epic” and I haven’t seen any VGL version.  Let’s just move on.

The hindsight of PLAY!’s lacklusterness is catching up to me as I begin to recall VGL while still watching PLAY!.  I have some hope when Arnie announces Zelda (“It’s Zelda time!”, he says, which seems a little too casual) but is dismayed that he doesn’t use the word “epic” here when he should.  The Legend Of Zelda is probably my favorite game series, and I’ve always loved the music, so much so as to get teary-eyed when the original theme played during the end credits when I first finished Twilight Princess.  Twilight Princess footage makes up the bulk of the opening of the montage.  (Why does both PLAY! and VGL use the beta footage from the trailer where Link picks up the cats?  There are no cat-carrying scenes in the final version of this game that’s already two years old!)  Then it cuts to footage from the first Zelda game where the old man gives Link his first sword in lovely 8-bit style.  Why is the audience laughing?  I get that this is amusing when juxtaposed against the Twilight Princess footage, but for tunes that are supposed to span a whole series it should almost be expected that they would show games throughout the series’ history, including the beginning.  I’m beginning to think the audience is younger than I thought if it generated the response it had…  I will give PLAY! some kudos for including the Dark World theme from A Link To The Past.  However, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but VGL did it so much better with its montage and synchronization.  I really should have been more excited about the Zelda theme.

I am half-glad and half-disappointed when Arnie announces that there is one more theme left.  I was not writhing in agony throughout the course of this concert, but I never felt wowed.  With only one suite left to play, the wearied part of me was glad it was almost over, but another part of me (the cheap part?) was thinking “this is what I paid fifty-three bucks for?  At least give me more chances to be impressed!”  Taking a cue, perhaps, from VGL the last time it was here, the finale tune is from Castlevania.  Another series that I am a fan of both its games and the music, I should have been impressed.  But taking much of its music from Curse Of Darkness, a PS2 game I haven’t played (and heard wasn’t very good), with more footage than should be expected from Castlevania Judgment (the fighting game I rented very recently, which also wasn’t all that great), I’m really wondering what they were thinking.  Sure, they played the famous “Vampire Killer” theme, but not a whole lot of it.

Arnie walks off stage.  Applause.  Someone shouts “Encore!”  More applause.  Arnie returns and bows.  And…walks back.  No encore.  I always thought it was expected at concerts to have something saved up for an encore.  Didn’t VGL have TWO encores?  Arnie doesn’t return.  Oh well.

On the way out, I run into an old co-worker from my days back at Playdium (hi, Graham) and tell him Video Games Live is much better.  It was more a gut feeling at the time, but now that I’ve had a chance to look back at all this, I became more sure of it.  Of course, I also had more time to think about it last night while being stuck in the Jubilee Auditorium’s parkade for 22 minutes.

Anyway, the music itself in PLAY!, other than the video synchronization problems, I guess wasn’t too bad overall.  This is a symphony orchestra, after all, they do have talent.  But for whatever reason, when compared to the Video Games Live versions, there was a lot less energy and excitement throughout the show.  Maybe Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall (and their various guests) have more of a knack of being more relaxed, fun, and exciting, than Arnie Roth in his conductor’s suit and by himself.  It also hurt that the many advertised tunes weren’t played at all - where’s Chrono Trigger?  Final Fantasy?  Metal Gear Solid?  Silent Hill?  Don’t advertise what you’re not going to play.  Video Games Live had nineteen medleys last time, PLAY! had only ten.  Video Games Live has segments where a person comes on stage and plays interactive games with musical accompaniment; even if you weren’t the one playing, it was a lot of fun to see; PLAY! did not have anything like that.  VGL has relatively vibrant pre-show events, including a costume contest and game demos, PLAY! did not have much other than selling Mario plushies.

I didn’t set out to write such a scathing review, but I really do feel that there are indeed better ways to spend the time and money.  If you are a gamer, which you probably would be if you wanted to see this concert, then save the $53 for another game.  If both Video Games Live and PLAY! come to your town, I would by far recommend Video Games Live.

15
General Chat / Re: Video Game Ring Tones
« on: October 28, 2008, 07:34:23 PM »
Ah, if only BitPim would work with my phone.  Unofficially it supposedly does, though I can't get it to work.  Ah well, I suppose that's a question for a BitPim forum...

Seems like everyone in the world has the Super Mario Bros. theme.  I need something more niche than that...but what?

16
General Chat / Re: Has anyone gone to the Video Games Live concert?
« on: October 28, 2008, 07:31:30 PM »
I haven't heard of VGL coming a third time to Edmonton - at least not in the dead of winter as might be expected as they had this year and last - but PLAY!: A Video Game Symphony is.

Which of the two is better?  They look to be about the same in format...though VGL was the first (I THINK, correct me if I'm wrong) and has Tommy...

17
General Chat / Re: Monday, Sept. 22 - Power Mimics' Day?
« on: September 26, 2008, 10:15:05 PM »
Actually, didn't the showdown at the end of the first season take place at the Kirby Plaza or something?

18
General Chat / Re: Monday, Sept. 22 - Power Mimics' Day?
« on: September 26, 2008, 12:08:13 AM »
I'm not sure why I made this image since it's already passed, but anyway...


19
General Chat / Monday, Sept. 22 - Power Mimics' Day?
« on: September 22, 2008, 12:03:30 AM »
Anyone else find it funny that Monday, Sept. 22 is the day:

-Mega Man 9 is released on WiiWare
-Kirby: Super Star Ultra is released on the DS
-Heroes (Season 3) premieres on NBC

And that Mega Man, Kirby, and Sylar are all able to take others' abilities?  o_0

20
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Mega Man 9 for WiiWare announced by Nintendo Power
« on: September 17, 2008, 10:44:35 PM »
VGMaps.com has two maps from the game...and it's not even out yet!

http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/Wii/index.htm#MegaMan9

The mapper, TenguMan, says he recreated the maps by watching videos of the stages.  Is that hardcore, or what???

21
Heh, no worries, guys.  I thought it was a little harsh but I don't care, I've been called worse.  :P

22
I found the connection between you and an even bigger loser.
No wait, they're one and the same. Carry on.

Funny.  :/

Though I did get owned, some guy pointed out that it can be done in four.  While my way includes my favorite characters Optimus Prime and Link, his way involves Namco x Capcom, so it has my brother's two favorite characters (at least it fighting games), Ryu and Mitsurugi.  And one of his favorite fighting games, Marvel Vs. Capcom.  Weird how that works out.  :P

23
As for this theory very interesting and lots of research went in to this.I applaud you.

Especially considering I don't like Star Trek and don't read comic books!  :P

Thanks!  :)

24
Jon Leung did you submit this news to gonintendo?

Looks like I wont have to, someone already did:
http://gonintendo.com/?p=50698
That would explain the hits!

And Arbok, I like your Wario Blast avatar.  In fact, that was one of the steps I cut out, originally I had it that Optimus has met Bomberman in DreamMix TV World Fighters, who has met Wario in Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman, who has met Link in Super Smash Bros.: Brawl.  But remembering about Solid Snake cut out that unnecessary step.  It's still a cool crossover though.  Heck, as you can tell, I like nearly any crossover.

25
I have figured it out.  I had eight degrees yesterday but today I got it down to six!  As in "Six Degrees Of Separation"!

Geek dream?  Well, not my geek dream, I don't like Star Trek.  :P  But this is still so exciting, I even made a wallpaper to explain it!



Or you could go here for the full explanation and higher-resolution wallpapers:
http://www.vgmaps.com/forums/genmessage.php?topic=784

Eh?  Eh?  What do you think?

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