I guess I messed up. And with only three days to go, it burns. Oh well. If you consider both a) this blog post and b) this article I wrote as entries, then I really only missed one day, and that's not too bad.

The article in question is written entirely for my own sake, and I believe it even says so in the introduction, so don't expect to get a whole lot from it. It's also part one of I don't know how many.

In other news, I woke up the morning wholly expecting this week's Virtual Console lineup to be the kind of stuff dreams are made of. I was only somewhat disappointed. Blades of Steel, pictured to the left, is easily the winner this week, being my favourite hockey (sports?) game of all time. I bought Ice Hockey when it was released, but only because I never thought Blades would make it, but here it is, and here I am 500 Wii Points poorer. However, I now have Blades of Steel on my Wii, and that is totally worth the price of admission. Did I mention just how much I adore Blades of Steel?

Also released were Rolling Thunder 2 (which I've never played and have zero interest in) and Donkey Kong Country 3. I bought DKC3, even though now I realize that the world mostly hates it (and the entire series, really), and I actually still enjoy it. I poured more hours into DKC3 than most people would feel comfortable revealing, but I eventually found every secret there was. It was possibly my most glorious achievement, and still remains one of the most dedicated efforts of my life. Will I do it again? All signs point to no, but I'm still going to at least give a good amount of time to getting to the end of the game.

It's not the cause for song and dance that I was hoping for, but Nintendo could still surprise us. They promised 200 games by year's end, and with only 187 currently available, they need more than one three-game week to meet that lofty goal. I'm hoping there's a huge Christmas VC blowout tomorrow to both make up for today's lack of complete awesome and so that they aren't liar liar pants on fires. Also, seeing some of the games on my wishlist show up would be nice. Hell, I'd sing Nintendo's praises from mountaintops if one of those games made an appearance.

It should be pretty well known that the United States get far more preferential treatment over Canada when it comes to material goods. Take Rock Band for example. Those cock-loving jackoffs over at EA decided to delay the release of the game in Canada for over a month so that they could ship more units throughout the States. I still haven't got a copy, and I'm pissed, but that's besides the point.

The more pressing matter is that the USA gets far more goodies than we do over in Canadaland. While they're rolling in Crunch Berries and Cookie Crisps, we're lucky to see a box of Lucky Charms on the shelves of our supermarkets. Cereals are jsut the tip of the iceberg too. We miss out on the most wonderful types of ice creams, cookies, chips, and all sorts of other junk food. During our most recent trip to the States, we found the following chocolatey treasures: Oreo Cakesters.

Honestly, I don't know, these might be available somewhere in Canadia, but I've never seen them, and I've searched quite fervently for them. You see, Oreo Cakesters are awesome. They're delicious sandwiches made of little puffs of chocolate with vanilla creme in the middle and oh oh oh I can't even begin to describe them properly. They're so soft and puffy, they just melt in your mouth. I only wish I had squirreled away a couple boxes for days like today that seem to exist solely to wear away at my soul.

Errr... Yeah, I suppose that's it. It's like... cookies. There really isn't that much to say about them other than that I wish I was eating them right now.

Again, I'm a little late. Not because I was enthralled in a sci-fi ARPG though. Went shopping again tonight, and I figured we'd be home by like 11. Yeah, nope. Did't get out of teh damned Wal-Mart until after midnight, so having a nap after dinner instead of blogging turned out to be a bad idea. Oh well.

In the spirit of my tendency to grow bored with personal projects and half-ass them towards the end, here's another crappy short entry. And it's the last time I'm going to talk about anything Sons of Butcher for a long time too, so don't worry about having to put up with any more after this.

Now that I've reviewed both of their CDs, I figure I might as well take a shot at telling you something about the show; in this case, the first season DVD.

To be completely honest here, at first, I didn't like Sons of Butcher at all. I tried watching it a couple times because I thought the commercial made it look entertaining, but it really didn't hook me right away. It probably didn't help that I just flipped to it during commercials while I was really watching South Park. A couple months after it debuted, I was playing Maple Story, and had Teletoon on in the background. SOB came on, and I actually ended up getting killed by those stupid low-level pigs because I kept paying more attention to the show than the game. It was at that point I started seeing that watching a whole episode made it far better than just watching small commercial-break-sized bits.

Anyway, the story obviously ends with me becoming a huge fan. Hell, I even recently had a whole conversation about them with an HMV employee when she noticed and complimented my SOB t-shirt. I barely talk to people I know, nevermind complete strangers. It was great. So then the DVD? Again, I'll have to break the honest truth: I haven't really gotten around to watching it yet. Oops.

On the other hand, I have seen all the season one episodes on TV about seven hundred times each. So I know the material pretty well. If you've never watched the show, it's pretty out there. A lot of the stories are very, very outrageous and nonsensical, but they're quite humorous at the same time. It's all about two of my favourite things ever - meat and rock - so I don't know how I couldn't enjoy it. The music is great, and the characters are hilarious. I think the thing I like about it best though, is that Sol totally reminds me of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys with all of his mixed-up sayings and expressions. The "Ricky-isms" compilation on one of the TPB DVD sets is one of the funniest clip compilations I've ever watched, and I can only hope there's a similar feature on the SOB season two set.

Speaking of extras... I'm not sure what comes on the Sons of Butcher season one set, if anything. The back of the case doesn't mention anything but commentaries, and nobody says anything about any extras in the Amazon.ca reviews, so I'm assuming commentaries are it. A little disappointing, considering that the Metalocalypse DVD set is all about the extras, but that's just the way she goes. The fuckin' way she goes.

Oh, and Doug's "Bitch, are you fo' real?" is totally worming its way into my regular vocabulary. So don't be surprised if by six months from now I'm saying it all the time.

The updates have been pretty slow over at the Smash Bros DOJO lately. From dull to slightly neat, there hasn't been much to fawn over for weeks now. Today's update though? Magic.

Solid Kirby FTW!

My brain is pretty much fried right now. I just remembered the other reason I hate Christmas, you know, besides working retail: shopping. In any case, I'm not up for much in the way of words today, so here's an easy one.

Metalocalypse is the brainchild of genius Home Movies creator Brendon Small. It's similar in the way that it parodies shit really well, but completely different in the way that it's not disguised as a children's program. Nope. Metalocalypse is full of swearing, blood, and metal. Oh, and it's hilarious too.

The season one DVD set is host to 20 episodes. They're all great, but I'm pretty sure I've gone over that somewhere on the blog here before. The real meat of this DVD set is the special features. As wonderful as the actual show is, the special features have to be twice as funny. There are almost a dozen band "interviews" on disc two, which have the band members give their opinions on various topics. The stuff on disc one is more varied, including a guitar "lesson" by Thor Von Clemson (Small), some random clips/compilations, and 20 minutes of Nathan Explosion reading Shakespeare. It's epic, and really puts most special features on other DVDs to shame. Stuff like this is the reason for DVD extras, not bullshit stuffing like set photos and cast bios.

Yeah, that's it for today. I could talk about how much I enjoy Metalocalypse forever, but not right now. Right now I need to decompress from a full day of shopping and fast food. Get the DVDs, if even only for the wonderful assortment of extras. Oh, and they're all hidden too, but not very well.

I mentioned in my most recent article that I'd like to see Secret of Evermore on the Virtual Console sometime in the near future, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim. The main fact of the matter is that it didn't go over too well. It's funny, because people both like it and dislike it at the same time. For the amount of venom people lay on it, they'll just as fast turn around and say it's not as bad as others say. Kind of a weird situation. The sad thing about it all is that it's the first step towards the downfall of the Mana series, even though it's not actually a legitimate entry into the series.

Secret of Mana made the series popular, and gamers everywhere seem to agree that the Japan-only sequel Seiken Densetsu 3 is pretty spectacular too, but after that things got sidetracked into badness. Legend of Mana was full of unnecessary crap, Sword of Mana is a lackluster remake of the first Seiken Densetsu, and Dawn of Mana is just crammed with bad ideas. Even Children of Mana, while fun to a point, was a meh-tastic dungeon crawler. Heroes of Mana, on the other hand, seemed at first like a sort of retribution of the Mana name. Before it was released it had a lot of promise surrounding it, and God knows I was actually excited about it.

Ideally, RTS games should be great on the DS. The screen may be a bit smaller than the computer monitors that RTS players are used to, but the interface sure works a lot better than controllers do. Heroes of Mana isn't the first RTS game on the DS, but it's the only one so far that's grabbed my attention. As great as it should be, it's merely okay. Though declaring a Mana game "okay" is actually a compliment to the series these days.

Blah blah blah, Heroes is your basic RTS game. You've got different units, collecting resources, building structures, and killing armies. The best thing is that you're commanding the totally lovable Mana series monsters! Isn't that wonderful? No, not really. After the ideas behind it, the game lacks a lot of other things. The first issue is the main characters. You've got six initial leader characters, and they're all pretty dull. Even the ones that join up later on don't have much depth to them. While it's essentially a prequel to Seiken Densetsu 3, the only interesting thing about the story and its characters is that they offer a bit of background on Seiken 3. Otherwise, it's almost painfully boring and clichéd. Not to say that it's really bad, but it certainly won't motivate you to play.

Controlling the leaders in battle is a pain too. Actually, controlling everything in battle is a pain. Units are very slow, and they're incredibly dumb. If you're moving more than one unit at a time, they will scatter all over the place, because their paths seemingly cannot cross any of the same panels, and on the off chance that they do, the two units will start weaving back and forth like when you're walking towards someone and you both juke the same way, and then you move the other way, and it goes on forever until someone just stops so the other person can go around. Only the units in the game don't figure it out so easily. Combat is exactly the same way, because you'll have the enemy targeted and the enemy will have you targeted, and the two units will dance in a circle forever, because neither one will be smart enough to stop and wait for an opportunity to attack. Such is the issue with making the game grid-based.

Using magic is almost as bad, because your most useful characters just get weapon enchantment spells, which can only be cast while the character is standing still or walking. Most of the time, when you want to use the spells, your character will be in the midst of a battle, and you'll have to try to stop him from attacking for a second so you can tap the "enchant" button. The basic idea of the last two paragraphs is that controlling units is a pain in the ass, mostly due to the fact that whoever programmed the AI was feeling like a dick that day.

Gameplay aside, the game isn't horrible. Using iconic Mana series monsters to destroy your enemies is a joy in itself, and controlling the rest of the game works really well. It's entirely controlled by the touch screen, with buttons being restricted solely to camera movement and rotation, and it works out quite nicely that way. If you want to select multiple units, you can make whatever shape you need around them, instead of being limited to a square like in most RTS games. There are even shortcut buttons to select unit types or single specific units. All your structures are built within your ship/base, which moves. Hence, if your base is under attack, you can simply fly it to a safer location. This isn't an issue early on, but it does become a necessary strategy once the enemies start piling it on. There are a wide variety of units to choose from too, but they are unlocked very slowly as the game progresses. I don't think you even have access to all the different unit classes by the tenth mission, but maybe that's just because it's a really long game. I'm not sure, I haven't gotten very much farther than that yet.

The music in Heroes of Mana is, like in all Mana games, quite good. Not as epically memorable as the soundtrack to Secret of Mana, but lovable no less. It's all done by Yoko Shimomura, who did the music for Kingdom Hearts, so that's to be expected. She's a wonderful composer in every respect, and I've loved all of her work that I've listened to so far. Graphics are also pretty standard for the Mana series, featuring colorful hand-drawn sprites. The character portraits look pretty nice too, and give the characters far more depth than their personalities do. Even the various interfaces look really nice and sophisticated, which is notable because I usually don't care much for the appearance of menus and whatnot. Let it be known that Heroes of Mana's presentation is by far it's greatest strength.

Heroes also offers some level of multiplayer functionality. There is a basic two-player battle mode, but the interesting thing is the Wi-Fi mode. Ironically enough, I've completely ignored this mode. It's got something to do with joining a clan and getting a high ranking to unlock something or other, but I couldn't be arsed enough to figure it out back when I was still actively playing the game, and I'm not going to try to understand it now that I've left it to the wayside in lieu of better games.

Overall, it's really not that bad a game. I may have overemphasized the AI's lack of said "I", but there are some issues. It's not the return to glory that we Mana fans were hoping for. I mean, it really wouldn't have been anyway because it's an RTS and not an ARPG, but it would have been nice to be able to associate the Mana name with the word "quality" for the first time in over a decade. I'll say it's worth a try if you're really into the Mana series or lighthearted RTS games, but otherwise you should probably just ignore it. Mediocrity is just something we Mana fans have been getting used to for years now, so it's not a huge surprise for us, but if the last Mana game you played was Secret, well, you'll just be floored by how far downhill the series has gone. And even with the flawed gameplay and monotonous narrative, Heroes isn't even close to being the worst chapter.

Holy Jesus I just opened this in my browser and it is way long.

You know, any old schmuck can go out and buy a bunch of crap to blog about, but it takes a special kind of schmuck to procure fanswag of this magnitude. Or at least a schmuck with connections.

It's too got-danged big to really fit anywhere, but yeah, I've got the Super Mario Galaxy standee. I must be awesome.

I told you back when I reviewed the Sons of Butcher's first album that there was another one floating around there too. Guess what today's post is about.

When we look at Meatlantis here, I could pretty much sum it all up right away. See, you can just take the general parts of the review of the first album and past theme here. The materal is very similar, maybe a bit harder. A lot of the songs lack proper context, and it's even more apparent on this CD (why is Doug singing about needing an arm?), so people who don't watch the show might be confused. Then again, I can't imagine anyone who doesn't watch the show would ever think to listen to the CD. Actually, those are really the only particularly similar things about the two CDs, so I guess I'm going to have to go into more detail.

Meatlantis offers a few "upgrades" over its older brother: most notably, the length. The disc contains 17 tracks this time around, and most of them reach around three minutes as opposed the the ones on the first album which often struggled to reach two. The newest version of Winamp is a dick and won't tell me how long the entire disc it, but I think it clocks in at around 45 minutes, which is short for a 17-track disc, but a large improvement over the 20-minute debut album.

Sons of Butcher featured a couple bookend tracks, but they didn't offer much, being mostly screaming and various sond effects over guitars. Meatlantis also offers bookend tracks, only this time they're completely awesome songs called "Meatlantis" and "Meatlantis (reprise)". Essentially two versions of the same song, but it's got some of the most wonderful lyrics I've ever heard. And not wonderful as in "smart" or "thoughtful", but wonderful as in "Meatlantis sounds like the greatest place ever". They're transcribed in full on my Facebook page under my favourite quotes, so check that out if you'd like to read them.

To be honest, I'm kind of running low on things I want to say. The songs are mostly just as fun as the ones on the first CD, but of course there are a couple tracks that aren't as awesome as the rest. Most are great though, and they're great to sing along to. The lyrics are tought to find on the internet, but not too tough to figure out on your own. "The Ultimate Drinkin' Song" being at the top of the list of fun ones to sing along to. I really just wish the SOBs would appear in a Guitar Hero game so I could play along (because I still cannot play a real guitar). It's a pipe dream because nobody outside of Canada has ever heard of the show, but I'd be ecstatic if, say "Party's On" or "Razors" were to appear on a GH track list some day.

OH! And there's a hidden track on Meatlantis. It is a hilariously graphic about... well, I'll let you find and listen to it yourself if you really want to know. And as hilarious as it is, you probably don't.

That about covers that then. Recommend it? Totally. Again, you'll probably have to order it online, because regardless of what HMV's website says, they don't carry it. Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and similar retail locations are even more of a dead-end. But ordering it online is great because you get the free air freshener! Also, SOB plushies are now for sale on the official website, and they're shooo cute! The stock is currently sold out though, so my dream of owning a Sol plushie will have to wait until another day...

When The Tall One turned 18, he got himself a new cell phone and one of them fancy-pants plans. That left his pay-as-you-go phone out in the cold. Over the next couple months money was passed under the table and blood was spilt, and phones changed hands all over the place. In the end, I ended up with a free cell phone. It's a third-gen hand-me-down, but hey, it's not like I ever planned to use the thing. I had no intent of getting a cell phone ever, but I accepted and it's actually bailed me out of a couple sticky situations.

In any case, as I am wont to do, I quickly started browsing for games to play on the thing. Yeah, I know pretty much all mobile games except Bejeweled suck, but it was something I needed to see with my own eyes. And that's why I have the mobile version of MegaMan 2.

Ya heard me. I downloaded MegaMan 2 for my cell phone. It was a horrible idea and overexpensive, but I stand by my decision, because really, it's not as bad as you might assume.

Don't get me wrong, shit doesn't even match up to the legendary NES version, even though it's almost exactly the same. The level layouts mimic the original perfectly, from each enemy to every power-up item. All the bosses are present, and they all follow the exact same patterns they did almost 20 years ago. In this respect, it's a perfect port. Oh, except for the disappearing blocks. Those are all gone. But personally, I consider that a plus. I fucking hate the disappearing blocks.

However, there's more than just content to worry about, most importanly being how the game plays. Maybe it works better on more powerful mobiles, but on my phone, MegaMan 2 runs at about half speed. This alone makes the game unabashedly easy. Remember how you could never get past QuickMan's stage because of those Godforsaken lasers? Yeah, at half speed, they're totally nerfed. I flew by the entire stage without even thinking about using the Time Stopper. Also, Mega jumps about 1.5 times his regualr jump height, and you can imagine that that makes things a lot easier too. If you put the game speed back to normal, the extra jumping power alone would be enough to see you through some of the most difficult parts of the game.

But there's gotta be other downsides to the game besides being too easy, right? Oh totally. The original music is all there, and it's decent quality too. The issue is that all the tracks are about half their original length, and do not loop well at all. For the first time in the history of ever, playing MegaMan 2 with the sound off is actually a good idea. Also, the stage backgrounds are missing, but that's a problem that I can easily see past. I actually didn't even notice they were gone until I got to FlashMan's stage, so yeah.

Do I recommend MegaMan 2 mobile? Honestly, no. It's playable, but it's still a complete butchery of the best MegaMan game ever. I can say all the good things I want about it, but you just can't match up to dusting off your NES and ricking the original. Capcom probably hasn't made a MegaMan Powered Up! 2 because they know that no matter how much they improve it, MegaMan fans will likely shun it as a bastardization of their holy grail. I'd sure like it though. But don't get the mobile one. Unless you totally suck at platformers and want to see the end. Even then you're better off just trying to find a Game Genie.

Okay, Okay, I know I missed a day. But this post totally counts for yesterday, becuase it's mostly about why I didn't manage to make a post in those 24 hours. Other reasons are that I only got off work at 11:10 and had to do some shopping immediately afterward. So I wouldn't have made it in time anyway. Ha.

So it seems people just won't shup up about Mass Effect. Before the game came out it was all hype, and now that it's released it's mostly nitpicking and disappointment. But me, I never cared about it at all. Until yesterday, when I stayed up playing until 7:00 AM. Yeah. The Tall One really wanted to rent it, despite "not having time for an RPG". I think he just didn't want to commit to Eternal Sonata. But anyhow, Mass Effect.

So he played it for a week and whatnot, and I picked it up for an hour on Tuesday, got frustrated with the shitty combat, and didn't even finish the introductory mission. But damned if I'm going to have a game sitting there with zero achievements! So I picked it up late Thursday night and hunkered down, finally sort of getting the hang of ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive. And then the game became fun! Once the lame intro mission is over, you're pretty much handed the world galaxy on a silver platter, and it's yours to do with as you please. Sure, you've gotta tie up some stuff before the space travel starts, but the Citadel is so big and full of things to do that a sequence of events that should only take about half an hour lasted me well into six. It's so wonderful!

And it only gets better once you can fly about the galaxy on a whim. It's a little intimidating at first, seeing as you've got a ton of destinations to choose from, but once you realize that you can only land on about a third of the planets you'll see, the overwhelming "where the fuck do I start!?" feeling starts to dissipate. The open-endedness of the game is really nice, and the fact that it's really just a well-disguised collect-a-thon bodes well for my opinion.

As I stated before though, the combat is pretty terrible. The aiming is clunky, and the game doesn't tell you half of what you can do. I didn't even realize there was a melee attack until my brother pointed out that it's one of the best ways to deal with close-quarters combat. And then there's the ally characters. Basically all they do is stand in front of you, absorbing all your fire. Yes, they act as nice meat shields for a little while, but if they would just get out of my way, I could spare them the pains of death by actually dealing with our foes! Oh well. Most of the other combat-related issues get better as weapon skills increase, so I'll just skip those minor inconveniences.

Other thoughts? Not much. Most of the achievements are nice and easy to earn, but require quite a bit of time. Sadly, I picked the game up only a day before it was due back, so we'll have to rent it again, but I'm almost ready to consider buying it. I don't know how gung-ho I would be about multiple playthroughs, but considering that I went from not liking it at all to playing it all night long two days in a row, I'd say it's probably worth splitting with the brother unit. I still really want Eternal Sonata though. I seem to have an affinity for games with charcters named after musical terminology.

I'm a huge fan of horror movies. I think most are aware of this fact. The thing is, I missed a lot because my search for classics rarely ever took me any farther back than the late 70's. As of late though, I've been really into the really old stuff, as I mentioned quite recently. Since any moives, nevermind horror, that are that old are hard to come across, I have a tendency to pick up anything I find that looks like it may have come before Jason and Freddy arrived on the scene.

And that beings us to the It's Alive trilogy. conveniently sold in a three-pack. It was only $12 at Wal-Mart too, so how could I say no? Matt had actually mentioned on his blog that he'd bought the first movie that day, and I thought it was more than coincidence for me to see the entire trilogy sitting there for what amounts to little more than pocket change.

The thing about movies though, is that I buy them by the armfuls, and then never feel like commiting the twoish hours to sit down and watch them. I did watch all three It's alive movies though, it took about a month, but by gum I did it! Didn't even sleep thorugh any! The great part is that they're actually pretty good!

The basic plot of the first movie is that a guy and his wife give birth to this freak baby, who immediately slaughters everyone in the delivery room, and then escapes and goes on a bloody rampage. You wouldn't know it, but it ends up being social commentary and haing a moral message of sorts. The second and thrid movies take the overall story and themes and expand on them, causing a little less bloodshed each time, but remaining interesting and (to some degree) meaningful.

The nice thing about these movies is that they very rarely give you good glimpses of the creatures. I mean, the first one was made in 1974, and puppetry wasn't quite up to standards at the time, but I like that way of doing things. It gives you a chance to imagine on your own what the little buggers look like, and in that respect, I'm a little disappointed that with each sequel, the creatures get more and more screentime.

When all's said and done, I quite enjoiyed the It's Alive trilogy. Some would likely debate that they go down in quality as they progress, but I think they keep up appearances long enough to make it through all three movies. Had there been a fourth movie, that probably would have been pushing it, but three is the charm here. For the price, this trilogy set is absolutely recommended, if only for the groan-inducing interior decorating in the fisrt and second movies. Oh, the early seventies, how tacky you were!

One of the things I've always liked about the Guitar Hero franchise is that it's an easy way to get into new bands. Sure, they only get one track a game, but it's still a good starting point. The bonus tracks are great for finding your way into the world of non-mainstream music, and I feel proud of myself when a song from a band I listen to shows up in the bonus songs. Makes me feel like I maybe have taste.

Anyhow, one of my favourite songs to play in Guitar Hero 3 is Muse's "Knights of Cydonia". The fourth song in the seventh set, it's not a terribly hard song, but the first half is built for people like me who played the Hell out of "Misirlou" in GH2, and the second half meant to break your strumming wrist. It's tons of fun though! I only recently got my five stars on it, and I've only felt that level of satisfaction when I got my five-star on "Psychobilly Freakout" (on hard). I imagine finishing "Raining Blood" will evoke a similar sentiment, but that's something I'm just going to have to keep dreaming about.

The point I'm slowly getting to here is that I went out and picked up Muse's Black Holes and Revelations on a whim one day, because I like "Knights of Cydonia" that much. To tell the truth, it's one of those things that kind of proves the "know what you're buying" adage I usually follow.

This isn't to say that it's a bad CD though. After listening to it a few times, most of the songs grew on me, but I'm pretty sure that if I'd downloaded it first I never would have shelled out the cash for it. That would be a shame too, because there are a couple other songs I really like on the disc. "Take A Bow", the opening track, isn't very musically complex, but it's got a lot of power to it and I quite enjoy the simple yet decisive direction it takes. "Starlight" is a song I'd heard before somewhere, and I really didn't like it. Turns out wherever it was I heard it didn't have a sound system that does the song justice, because listening to it over a decent system revealed that there's a lot to like about it, the thumping baseline and the surge of guitars in the choruses being the big ones. "Soldier's Poem" and "Invincible" remind me of Hawksley Workman (that's a good thing) and "Assassin"'s metal roots and killer drum highlights make it totally awesome.

In conclusion, while I might have passed it over if I hadn't been immediately commited to it, I can't imagine having missed out on Black Holes and Revelations. Featuring a decent array of musical styles and often poignant lyrics, it's a disc I would love to recommend to everyone. The problem is that the range of styles might turn some off, and they'll give up on the album before reaching its finale. Oh well, I recommend it anyway. On a last note, I have no idea why, but it seems to me like a CD that smart people would listen to.

I chose Dethklok to be this month's Band fo the Month, even though by most definitions they aren't a real band. All the work is essentially done by two guys, and credited to five cartoon characters. The band behind it may be fake, but the music is real and in fact, The Dethalbum is the highest charting extreme metal album ever. Not too bad for cartoons. But! Dethklok isn't the only band of its kind.

Indeed, the Sons of Butcher are also a band based on a cartoon, the biggest difference between them and Dethklok being that the main characters from Sons of Butcher are (based on) the people that actually write and play the music, so the band can tour to promote both their show and their music. The SOBs have been around for two seasons, and they aren't currently scheduled for a third, but hopefully the rabid fan demand for more will change that. Anyway, with both seasons of the show have come corresponding CDs. Their eponymous debut album is what we're going to be looking at today.

Sons of Butcher is a pretty fun CD, but has one glaring flaw. Obviously enough, the bulk of the material present is pulled directly from the show. The songs are extended and fleshed-out as compared the the snippets that appear in the show, but still end up being rather short, the longest track clocking in at 2:28. Having twelve tracks and only ten real songs (the CD begins and ends with filler tracks), it's pretty damn short. Just over 20 minutes, to be precise.

On the upside, most of the tracks are enjoyable in some respect. Most of them are hilarious if you know the context (they're almost all written about situations in the show), and a few are funny on their own. Of course, it's an off-humour, so unless you find a song about, ahem, going "in through the out hole" funny, maybe it's not going to be quite up your alley. On the other hand, the music itself is of good quality, especially considering that it's from a TV show. The various riffs and baselines are respectable and have some level of integrity to them. Ricky's solos are pretty wicked too, and fit the party rock/light metal tone of the CD really well. Being that none of the main characters are drummers, the drums remain somewhat neglected on most tracks, and for the majority of the time are just there to help keep the rhythm and make the sound complete.

So yeah. Sons of Butcher is a realy cool album, and I recommend it. It's not quite as epic as going to see the SOBs live would be (as I've heard), but a good bit of merch for the fans anyway. If you order it off the official website, Sol, Ricky, and Doug will autograph it and send you a free meat-shaped air freshener too (comes with every order!), so that's probably the best way to procure it (that and the only music store in my area that carried SOB goods closed down a while ago). If you're thinking about checking out one of my recommendations, I'd probably say to look for The Dethalbum first, but that's only because Sons of Butcher suffers from being incredibly short, and the fun ends way too soon.

While we're throwing out curveballs here, I suppose I'll take this opportunity to talk about Pokémon Snap. Not the most popular game to grace the Nintendo 64, I was immediately drawn in by the game, mostly because at the time I was at the peak of my Poké-fandom. I played it a lot, actualy, which is odd, because I ended up thinking very little of the game. I guess I got a lot of entertainment out of it, but the conclusion I drew at the end was that it wasn't a very good game.

I guess I must have missed something though. A while ago, I was listening to the Pokémon episode of Retronauts, and while they only briefly touched on it, I got the impression that the cast generally enjoyed the game. And then it was announced for Virtual Console a couple weeks ago, and bloggers everywhere rejoiced. I was curious as to what exactly was going on. Did the world outside me and my circle of friends like Pokémon Snap? Seems so, as a modicum of research has proven that the game received pretty respectable review scores back when it was originally released.

This entire story culminates in the game being released today on the Wii's Virtual Console service. Swept up in the mania leading up to it's release, I downloaded it myself, and played for about an hour tonight. Somewhat surprised, I actually got into the game again! Dunno how, but while Snap is short and doesn't provide a ton of substance, it's actually pretty interesting while it lasts. It isn't one of the games I was really hoping for, but in the end, I'm of the opinion that this should have been on the VC long ago.

See, the thing about Pokémon Snap is that it is a textbook example of the kind of game Nintendo is trying to associate with the Wii. It's a totally casual game about taking pictures. There's virtually no pace at all, making it a pretty relaxing experience. You can take up the camera and play for a short while, but still walk away feeling like you've spent your time well, assuming you got some decent shots. People with literally no game-playing experience could pick it up and play so easily, becoming Poké-photography masters in little to no time. Again, it's short, but technically so is Space Invaders, and people have been known to spend hours with that. Pokémon Snap is not about getting to the end or completing Oak's Report, it's about getting unique and high-scoring pictures. A beefed-up sequel would be an excellent Wii title.

All of this, and it heralds a new age for the Virtual Console as well! Pokémon Snap is the first Virtual Console game with added Wii functionality, something Nintendo commonly talked about when the Wii was still known as the Revolution. In the VC edition of Snap, players can choose one picture a day to export to their Wii message board and send to friends. It's not much, but it's a sign that Nintendo is finally adding things to their classics. Hopefully something a little more significant is in the works (Leaderboards? Online multiplayer?), but for now let's rejoice that they're actually working a little something new in here and there. This may be even better than when they started doling out import games, depending on where it leads.

In the end, buying Pokémon Snap again for $10 isn't too bad. I think I'll get my money's worth from the game a second time, and possibly even moreso now that I can flood people's Wii message boards with pictures of Bulbasaur. Again, I think a sequel would be a great idea. It could be essentially the exact same game, but with more levels and all four billion Pokémon. Hell, it could even make a decent WiiWare title once that service launches. Probably just a pipe dream, but I'm certain it would sell more than the hugely disappointing Pokémon Battle Revolution.

Most people are aware of my dislike of Final Fantasy VII. Or at least, its fanbase. It's not a bad game, really, but in no respect is it the revolutionary game that the fantards claim it to be. It's a completely standard Final Fantasy game with "meh"-inducing 3D graphics and a cockamamie plot. The Materia system renders all characters essentially the same, save their limit breaks, and lacks the tactical joys of the Junction or gambit systems from later Final Fantasy games. In any case, my general disposition towards the game might make me seem a bit flip-floppy for owning the following figurine.

Yeah, it's Cloud. But for the record, I likely wouldn't have bought it if it had been a Final Fantasy collectible. Nope, it's actually the only Kingdom Hearts figurine we've ever stocked at the Toys 'R' Us I work at, and frankly, I thought it was pretty cool. Plus, I really liked the Kingdom Hearts games.

The Cloud figurine if from the second set of the Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts line, along with Goofy and Kairi. I'd actually seen the other two in a store in Grand Forks, but the Kairi figurine is kinda lame, and Goofy... well, I have no excuse for not buying that one. I've never seen any from the first set, but Amazon is telling me that the characters included in that set were Sora, Donald and Jack Skellington. After researching the line for a while, it would also seem that they're pulled from the first game (the Sora and Kairi designs kinda gave it away), so they must be pretty old. I can't find a date anywhere, but it doesn't surprise me that we only received them earlier this year. Hell, we only got the Advent Children action figures about two weeks ago. Oh well. I guess Square-Enix toys just aren't as cool as whatever the fuck Bakugans are.

Don't have much else to say. The figure is made of a decent-quality plastic, and not PVC like most Japanese-made figurines (maybe it was produced by S-E USA?), which keeps it from being exorbitantly expensive, but it's still got a great amount of detail. Cloud's glove, sword, and cape are all exquisitely detailed, and the rest of the figure looks nice too. Oddly enough, it actually looks a lot bigger than it is. Don't know why, but when you look at a picture, it seems like it's maybe two or three inches taller than it is in reality. Meh. It's cool, and Cloud spends his time sitting on my dresser beside my other decorative "toys", namely, my Jesus action figure, and my sweet Led Zeppelin 3D album cover.

For the longest time, I was pretty dead-set against the PSP. Neither it or the DS really took off right away, but the DS eventually became the hugest runaway success the video game world has ever seen. I often stop and laugh at people who said the DS would fail when I see them playing one, and I feel really good inside. On the other end though, I ended up feeling kind of sorry for the PSP. It's really not a bad machine, I just place my main loyalties with Nintendo. So in the summer of '06, I eventually decided to buy one. I've had some good times with it, but I can't say it was a wholly justified purchase. At least it wasn't until recently.

One of the main reasons I even bought the thing was because I heard the game pictured to the left of this paragraph was going to be made specifically for the handheld. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a remake of one of the very few Vania games never to see light in North America, Rondo of Blood. You can head to a handful of the sites I ahve links to on the navi bar there, and get the whole drawn-out story on Rondo, so I'm going to concentrate on what I think of the game.

There are actually three games in the Dracula X Chronicles; the Rondo of Blood remake, the original Rondo, and the Playstation classic Symphony of the Night. I already own the Xbox Live arcade version of Symphony, so for me it's just nice to have a portable version, unlike for some people where its inclusion would be a deal-maker. Seems redundant, but you can never play through Symphony of the Night too many times.

The Rondo of Blood remake, which would be the feature title here (the other two need to be unlocked), is a great game. Decked out in superb new 3D visuals, it's remake quality on par with the Gamecube's version of Resident Evil. The game plays nearly identically, but there are minor adjustments and additions here and there that add so much more than the sum of their parts. For one, you can collect hidden music files and change the music of every level to your liking. This means, essentially, that you could put the BGM of every level to "Vampike Killer" should you so choose. The SotN music is available to choose from (once found) as well, so that adds a lot for people who are into the audio bit. And considering the Castlevania series' penchant for beautiful scores, that should be everyone.

The 3D aspect of the game is mostly for visual goodness, but it also makes the game slightly easier. While all the bosses telegraph their moves in the original game, the 3D models have much more pronounced animation sequences than the sprite versions, so it's a bit easier to see what's coming. That doesn't mean that the game is a cakewalk though. Old Castlevania games are tough as nails, and Rondo of Blood is no exception. Richter Belmont is a bit more agile than his ancestors, but that only helps so much. Maria Renard is newly unlockable in the remake, and she's got some pretty cheap attacks, but taking down Dracula and his hordes of monsters is still no easy task.

I guess there's probably some other stuff that I may have neglected to mention, but it all boils down to one thing: the game is fun. Maybe I'm a Vania fanboy, but it's the second most played PSP game I own next to Megaman Maverick Hunter X, and I own the FF Tactics remake. And now that I think of it, the PSP is becoming a haven for remakes. It's not quite as bad as the GBA was with all the direct ports of SNES games, but the fact that its best content has all been seen before is almost as sad as how badly the DS is stomping it. Meh. I'm not complainaing. Portable versions of some of my favourite games are A-OK with me.

Well, I said I was running low on on-hand reviewables. But I've been saved by the mail! Indeed, it's only a one-day fix (and sliding right under the line at 11:50 to boot), but it's something.

Eh? Whatever could it be? Oh, come on. Like the gold colour and the fairy doen't give it away.

You may not have heard about this promotion, but if you'd bought The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and registered it on Nintendo.com, they would send you this swanky feather pen stylus for free. Free! There's no better price, especially for special crap like this. I'm not sure if the offer's still on, but it's pretty worth it. I mean, if you've already got Phantom Hourglass, getting a sweet bonus for free is icing on the cake. It's no reason to buy the game, like some special offers before it, but neat anyway.

I'll admit I haven't used it to play anything yet, but it feels nice, being particularly larger than both the original and Lite stylus. It doesn't fit in the stylus notch in any DS unit (obviously), but that's hardly an issue unless you want to show it off in public. I don't think I'll ever really use it at all, myself.

Yeah, so you can see that there's a good size difference between the feather pen stylus and the regular types. I don't really know what else I can say about the thing. It's nice and clear. Ummm... Yeah. That's about it. If you have Phantom Hourglass, go register it for free goodies. If not... well, why don't you have it? It's a pretty good game.

I don't mean to destroy what little faith you may have in my ability to make posts for 25 days in a row, but it would seem that I'm already running low on on-hand material. Oops. I guess I'll have to consign some of these posts to less significant/expensive goods. Perhaps some will actually be Christmas related? Well, maybe I'll start on those types of items today!

Christmas, in addition to being a time where people go out and spend as much money as possible to make sure their family loves them, is also a time for delicious feasts! Yeah, most holidays call for feasts which may have some air of deliciousness to them, but Christmas has always been the most appetizing holiday to me. This can probably be attributed almost completely to my dad's mom, who pulls out all the stops when it comes to baking when Christmastime comes around. Cookies, cakes, pies - all the goodies you can ever imagine! And so many of them! So that's why I'm categorizing the following item as "Christmassy" when at a glance it clearly is not.

Pumpkin cheesecake. Oh yes. Oh yes. OH YES.

There are two things about me that everyone in my family knows: 1) I love pumpkin pie and 2) I love cheesecake. So pumpkin cheesecake? Why not? Trouble is, things are never as sweet as you dream them.

The pumpkin cheesecake had two major flaws. For one, and I did not notice this until it was too late, it was infused with pecans. Let me put this as bluntly as I can: I fucking hate nuts. They have a horrible history of ruining perfectly good baking, and while cheesecake isn't necessarily "baking", this is no exception. For reasons I will explain in the next paragraph, I could barely taste the bilious pecans, but they messed up the texture of the cheesecake. When I eat cheesecake, I want it to melt in my mouth. I don't want big gross lumps of hard in there. It completely ruined the experience for me, and I don't think I'll ever be able to look another pumpkin cheesecake in the eye again, even if it is sans pecan.

The other big problem here is that while this particular product is supposed to harness the powers of cheesecake and pumpkins, it tastes like neither. I don't know, maybe I got a defective one, but the thing was totally overspiced. Every bite was like pouring a cup of ginger into my mouth. Not a pleasant taste in the least. There was a little cheesecake in there somewhere, but it wasn't nearly enough to save it. By the time I was halfawy done with the cheesecake (I paid like $6 for it, I was damn well going to finish it!), I was already cringing at the thought of eating any more. I never cringe at the thought of sweets. Never.

Only now do I realize that the purpose of posting every day until Christmas was to recommend a bunch of stuff, but I guess that's gone to hell now. I cannot in good consience tell anyone that eating this pumpkin cheesecake is a good idea. Maybe some other company produces a good pumpkin cheesecake, but the President's Choice brand is utter crap. I did not enjoy it in the least, and almost almost regret my purchase. The only positive is that I got a pretty easy blog post out of it.

I've been pretty hooked on two channels lately: Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics. It got to the point of realizing I had a problem when I stayed up all night last Halloween watching a Boris Karloff marathon, even though I had to work the next morning. But so what? Old movies kick ass, and watching those two channels as much as I have recently has made me realize just how much everything that comes out of Hollywood these days kinda sucks. I miss low-budget special effects. I miss completely retarded stories that somehow contain a brilliant social commentary. I miss camp. Oh sweet Jesus, do I miss camp.

For years I've known the story of War of the Worlds, as well as the infamous radio version debacle. It's one of my favourite science fiction stories of all time. As I walked out of the newer version of the flick, pretty much all I heard was people complaining about the ending. What the fuck guys? It's an incredibly popular story, how the Hell did you miss it? In any case, I really liked it, Tom Cruise and all.

I'd never seen the original film version of War of the Worlds until recently, when I caught it on AMC one lazy Sunday afternoon. I was lucky enough to flip by right a the beginning, and intrigued by the fact that it was the original, I decided it was something that I must watch. Not a week later I was out trying to find the film on DVD (needless to say, I loved it), and came across the beauty you see to the left.

Double/triple feature DVDs seem to be all the rage right now, as I see more and more of them every time I browse the movie sections at Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Most of the time, they don't seem like anything I care to invest in, but the odd time I come across pure gold, like the War of the Worlds/When Worlds Collide pack, and the It's Alive trilogy (more on that another day). I'd never even heard of When Worlds Collide when I saw this, but given that I was going to buy War of the Worlds anyway, and the double pack was the same price as the solo WotW, it was kind of a brainless move.

I'm going to assume that everyone knows the general plot to War of the Worlds, so I'll skip that part. If you don't have any idea what it's about, you might want to catch up on your genre-defining stories, you uncultured swine. Anyway, I like it way more than the new one. Yeah, it may lack fancy-pants special effect, but the crap effects are hilarious and take me back to a day I wasn't around to actually experience. The characters, though many more in number, are better if anything, and the entire movie has an undeniable charm that makes it totally lovable. The next logical step for me would be to, you know, read the book.

When Worlds Collide is a very similar beast, though mostly because old sci-fi movies all have a lot in common. Like the gigantic plot holes, for example! The premise for this movie is that a foreign planet is on route to pass close by to the Earth, with its sun following right behind, which is on a direct crash-course with Earth. So what to do? Build a rocket ship to carry a handful of people onto the new planet as it passes by so that the human race isn't totally wiped out when Earth is crushed by the oncoming star. This was totally sound in 1951, but knowing all we do about space and stuff these days, the timeframe of the movie really fudges up a lot of stuff. The most notable oversight being that the Earth would be burnt to a crisp long before the star smashes into it, which the movie completely fails to consider.

But it's okay! When Worlds Collide is otherwise a decent movie! The pacing is a little fast, because the plot runs over the course of about a year. In that respect, you miss some of the necessary gradual progression of things like relationships between the characters, but this fault can be overlooked, because otherwise the movie would be like five hours long. The characters are generally pretty likable, some in a "love to hate" way, and the plot is a pretty fun sci-fi take on early space exploration. Granted, I slept through about 15 minutes in the middle, but I'm happy to have watched this movie. It's the kind of thing you put on every once in a while to remind you that global disaster movies used to be good.

Do I recommend this DVD set? Hells yeah! These are two timeless stories that everyone should be able to enjoy. They're fun and touching, and I can't imagine why you wouldn't enjoy them. I know I enjoy a lot of crappy movies, but I firmly believe that War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide are two great films. That said, I'm old.

Since the theme around here this year seems to be really heavy on materialism, I think I've got a good idea! Well, maybe an okay idea. I've already got two days covered, so I've decided that until the 24th, I'm going to post and review one item I've recently bought per day. Kind of like a poor man's version of a certain other site's annual holiday countdowns. expect mostly movies and CDs, but possibly some surprises. Who knows? I haven't really thought it through yet.

Today's entry is going to play off yesterday's lengthy post, in that it's also Fullmetal Alchemist related. This time, it's the movie! Yes, that's right. After watching the series, I tried downloading this like three times, but always managed to get alternate language versions (French, German, and Japanese). I really wish people would tag their torrents better. So I gave up, and when I was out getting the season one box sets, I decided to pick the movie up to. For completion's sake, you see.

I'll note at this point that I got the standard edition. There was a two-disc special edition as well, but it was significantly more moneys, and the extra bonus features really didn't sell me on spending nearly double what I intended to. Plus, I'd never seen the thing, and I couldn't justify dropping that much on something I might end up not liking. I'm an impulse buyer at heart, but I only pick up stuff I'm gambling on when it's cheap.

Long story short, I think I made the right move. This is not to say that the Fullmetal Alchemist movie is a bad movie. In fact, it was a rather inspired movie, keeping with the general feel of the show, yet introducing some other, possibly even deeper concepts. Since it plays directly off the ending of the seires, I won't go into detail about the plot to prevent spoilers (even though by this point anyone who cares has seen every episode).

Much like the series, the FMA movie is mostly about plot and character development. A couple new people are in there and don't get quite as much screen time as you'd expect for a major character, but they still manage to give you more than enough details to identify with these characters and understand exactly who they are and why they're motivated to do what they do. The downside is that for anyone who isn't a fan of the show, most of the recurring characters and mechanics are only briefly introduced (Wrath in particular), and you'll have no idea who they are or how they manage to do the things they do. Of course, I doubt many people who didn't follow the seires will be watching the movie, but still.

In keeping with the focus on the characters, action sequences are kept short and aren't overly common, which again coincides with the show's formula. The movie actually opens with an undeniably fun action scene, which makes for a really good hook, but from there on in, it's about an hour until the next. I'm not griping about this or anything, just stating the facts. Fanservice is minimal too, and kept to fit with the plot. They don't hamfistedly cram any fan-favourite characters in just to please, excpt for when Scar sort of shows up at the end, but even that's a perfectly reasonable appearance.

In the end, I can't say that the Fullmetal Alchemist movie really lived up to the the series. It was a good way to end the story, but didn't completely satisfy. For all the good things that it brings to the table, the middle is uncharacteristically slow and somewhat dull. That's about all I ahve to gripe about though. The extras that come with the standard edition DVD are more than enough, including a huge 18-page booklet filled with notes on the movie's development, character and theme information, and artwork. Also included are a 40-minute "making of" documentary, trailers and art galleries. I don't remember what extras were on the special edition, but they weren't enough for me to justify spending almost double. In all, I recommend the standard edition to the fan, special edition being reserved more for the fanboy and those with money to blow. Outsiders will just be confused as all hell, so unless you intend to watch the entire series first, FMA newbs should just stay away.

Fullmetal Alchemist is an abberation in the world of anime. Firstly, it's probably the most competently dubbed anime in the history of ever. That, coupled with the fact that it's just plain awesome have earned it a rather large (and well-deserved) fanbase. Moreover, it's the only anime that isn't Transformers/a cheap game video tie-in that I've ever enjoyed. I don't think it's going to be paving the way for any more, but it's a pretty big step for me personally, being the "write off all anime because most of the popular ones are crap" kind of person that I am (read: ignorant).

I downloaded (quite illegally, I might add) the entire series over a year ago, and instantly got hooked. At first, so that I didn't waste entire days watching, would limit myself to two episodes a day. That quickly fell apart, as I wasn't working at the time, and I often would end up watching six or more a day. Needless to say, I blasted through the 51-episode series pretty quickly.

Because I'm the kind of guy who prefers to legitimately own things, especially in cases of things I like, I quickly set out to purchase whatever FMA DVD sets I could find. Much to my chagrin, they were released in those Godforsaken 4-episode sets. I fucking hate when shows are distributed this way. My wallet likes it though, because I refuse to buy anything that is sold in sets of anything less than at least half a season. The likes of Fullmetal Alchemist, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), and Viewtiful Joe all fall under this umbrella of shitty distribution, and I hadn't bought any of them because of it.

Ninja Turtles was the first to rectify this issue. I still haven't ponied up the cash for any of the available sets, but I fully intend to, if mostly because I missed most of the episodes in seasons 2, 3 and 4. Fullmetal Alchemist finally began selling in half-season sets in Sepetmber, and while I didn't notice right away, the release of the second volume caught my eye and I went out immediately and scooped up both of the season one boxes. For two boxes of 16 episodes at approximately $45 each ($90 total), it seems like a bit much, but the four-ep packs cost about $30 each, and since I would have had to pick up 8 of them to finish season one, that would have run me just a wee bit more ($240).

Along with the fact that I think Fullmetal Alchemist is the only anime worth watching (opinion may be slightly biased), the box sets come with all sorts of neat extras that make them worth owning. There are little booklets that come four to each box, which are chock full of neat supplemental information and art. Also, there's a ton of cool stuff on the DVDs proper, like commercials, commentaries, image galleries, and music videos. After a little bit of research on Amazon, it seems like none of this bonus material comes with the smaller sets, so that's even more reason for the avid FMA fan to rush out and pick them up. The chumps who bought the little sets must be kicking themsleves right now.

Truth be told though, as much as I hate the stupid 3-/4-episode DVD sets of shows I like, it's not so much a matter of money that drives me to neglect them. I know that waiting for and buying the box sets will save me tons of cash, but I really don't have a huge issue with paying for things I really enjoy. No, it's the fact that buying dozens of full-size DVD cases for one show eats up way more room than necessary. When I can wait a while longer and get the box that only takes up one eighth of the space, I'm not even going to think twice about it.

So I'm not sure what this post was really about. It was one part hocking the Fullmetal Alchemist DVD boxes, and one part bitching about bad DVD distribution methods. Actually, score! I got two blog posts done at once. Now I feel happy. I'll be even happier come January 15th and the third FMA box comes out.

If you've yet to experience Metalocalypse, I highly suggest you expose yourself to it as quickly as possible. Monday nights on Teletoon, and God knows when on Cartoon Network (I don't get the channel). It's a Brendon Small production, so right there you should have a good idea of whether or not you'll like it. It's not quite as brilliant as Home Movies, but it's hilarious and the members of Dethklok are some of the most lovable characters I've seen in ages. The first season DVD was also released in mid-October, so maybe just go out and buy that. The special features alone are totally worth it.

Since the show is about a band, it's completely understandable that they would make at least one CD to cash in on the franchise even more. Dethklok's debut album seems like so much more than an easy cash grab though. It's a full-length CD, with complete versions of a bunch of the songs featured in the show, as well as a couple new ones. We can only hope that subsequent seasons of the show result in follow-up albums. Sadly, I do not own a legitimate copy of the album, as not one retailer in my vicinity stocks the damned thing. It's possibly the world's greatest injustice. I'll buy it online eventually, but until that day... illegal MP3s are all I have.

Blah, but enough about loosely-related things. How about the actual music? Well, it's most definitely metal. I actually intend to do a complete review of the disc, so I won't go into too much detail here. I will say that from the day I downloaded it to the day I lost my car, it's all that I listened to while driving. That should probably say enough. If not, you know the song "Thunderhorse" in Guitar Hero 2? Well, it's on the Dethalbum, only it kicks so much more ass you wouldn't believe it. I think I mentioned so in the past. I think I may have also posted an MP3. There are a couple songs that don't quite measure up to par, but overall it's a fantastic CD, and the bonus disc that comes with the special edition (pictured) is gravy.

So yes. If you like the show, you probably already own this CD. If not, what the hell is wrong with you? To anyone who hasn't seen Metalocalypse, I reiterate my point of "check it out now". Beneath all the blood and metal is some rather inspired satire. Also, jokes. The CD carries on most of those elements too, so yeah. Get it.

Metalocalypse on [adult swim]
Buy The Dethalbum
Buy Metalocalypse Season One

It's hard to believe that sometime during this month, I will have been maintining this website for five years. That's legendary for blogs that nobody reads. But maybe things will change this year. I've forgotten the site's birthday/anniversary for like three years in a row, so I guess it's time I make up for that. To celebrate, here's a fresh coat of paint! Also, a lolcake.

I've still got a long way to go to get things all up to speed (never finished the last redecoration, and there's still stuff to move over from the old Angelfire site), but we're off to a good start. Everything looks crisp and extra-virginal in the new white theme. I'll admit that it does seem a bit sterile, whereas the old black site had more personality, but the white look seems to be going out of style, and everyone knows it's hip to be behind the trends. Or, I think that's how it works anyway.

The first thing I would like to draw your attention to is the new NAVI Bar. It's a pretty basic sidebar, but nicer-looking and with Engrish flair! You'll notice that the rollover does more than just change the link color too. The spacing trick is a small touch, but still nice to look at, and if you hold your mouse over any link, a short description will pop up!

Eventually I hope to streamline most of the site to match this page, much like I had intended to do with the old layout. News archive pages will be stripped down to the base blog so that I don't have to worry about maintaining any time-sensitive things like links. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the articles page, but something will happen. And if you hadn't noticed, I'm still working in HTML with some help from CSS stylesheets. This could all flow so much easier if I were to take the time to learn PHP, but frankly, I know I'll lose interest before I can make any good use of it. If anyone were willing to volunteer some time to make at least the main blog and articles page stream together nicely, that would kick ass... but I'm not asking or anything. It would totally have to be a "from the goodness of your heart" thing.

So yeah. All the articles will be stuck into this stuffy layout too, somehow, so if you don't like it... Well, that's a problem. You have to admit that it'll look nicer than the randomly cobbled together pages I've got going now. Oh, and you'll get a cookie if you can tell me which site this layout is inspired from. The last one was ripped almost directly from an old GorillaMask layout, but this one is a ripoff in spirit alone. I reworked the code for it all by myself.

Speaking of code, that's the last change, as invisible as it may be. It's not quite up to standards yet, but I weeded out a huge amount of useless tags from the index code, and cleaned up what was left a little. You'll still get a headache trying to figure out what's going on in there, but it's better.

So that's it for now. I'm not sure what the next few years will have in store, but hopefuly they're more productive than the last year has been. Jeez, I must have published like, two articles this year? Oh well. At least the place looks prettier now.