I'm a very happy Ryan today, as my copies of the Okami and Kingdom Hearts 2 soundtracks arrived this morning. Both are spectacular soundtracks, and I highly recommend both.
Yoko Shimomura's Kingdom Hearts soundtracks have been one of the reasons I've enjoyed the games so much; as fun as the gameplay is, and as much as I love the grinding/collecting/creating aspect of the synth systems, most of that joy would be moot if there wasn't a wonderful soundtrack to go with it. A lot of the music is comprised of remixed Disney tunes, but you know what? They're often so good that that barely matters to me, and the quality of the original work is so high that the soundtrack is worth owning even if you dislike the Disney tunes. This being the soundtrack to the second game, it seems to me that there's a lot more original stuff to, because there were so many more original environments in Kingdom Hearts 2 than there were in the original. At least, I think so. Taking actual numbers may prove the amounts are equal or at least really close, but I'm going to stick with my assumption. In any case, totally worth owning, and even moreso beause it was on sale when I bought it. Not so much anymore though. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I can't wait to see what Ms. Shimomura contributes to the Smash Bros Brawl soundtrack. If her work on Kingdom Hearts (not to mention Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi series) is any indication, it's going to be awesome.
Now the Okami soundtrack, that's a completely different beast (ha!). I didn't realize when I bought it (though I really should have, because nearly all Capcom soundtracks have similar "issues"), but it's five discs long. Why? Because along with the basic themes and BGMs, Capcom likes to add every little jingle and sting in the game on their soundtrack CDs. I'm not complaining or anything, but it makes it a little hard to quickly find the track you're looking for, especially when everything - even the MP3 tags - are in Japanese. But hey, it's totally worth it, because Okami has one of the best game soundtracks ever. Maybe you won't like it because it's all very medieval Japanesey, but I love it because it's so enjoyable and relaxing. It's the kind of soundtrack you can just turn on and do whatever to. Great for ambient music while cleaning, typing, browsing the internet, reading, whatever. Also I like that fact that nothing in my music collection (even the digital half of it) even comes close to resembling it. I can't really recommend it to everyone, but Okami is my favourite PS2 game, and that should say enough.
Oh, and because it's way too late to bother now, just consider this the replacement for the Band of the Month.
Needless to say, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's is fantastic. I mean, essentially, it is no different than any other Guitar Hero, but the fact that the soundtrack seems tailored specifically for me is very nice. Only 30 songs may seem like a gyp, but they're wicked awesome songs. And hard as hell too. Some of the solos on these bad boys will murder even the most seasoned GH vet, and some, particularly "What I Like About You", are just rough all the way through. It may lead you to believe that my life up until this point has been completely inconsequential, but playing "No One Like You" is probably the greatest thrill I've ever experienced. "Radar Love", despite being the inferior White Lion version, also makes me go crazy. I almost feel bad that I'm butchering songs I hold so close to my heart. Oh well!
Other news? Spent the morning and afternoon with my car. Its muffler has been blown out for a couple weeks now, and today I went to get that repaired, and coupled with the oil change it got on Sunday, I'm assuming it's a happy car. Also went and gave it a good wash down for the first time in months, so that's good too. The little guy really pulls his weight around here, and I think he totally deserves the best treatment. Ergo, perhaps I'm not the best owner for it.
Ummmm... elsewise I've been hooked on Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. It's kind of like an MMO, just without the massive or the multiplayer, and less online. But the idea is to take missions, and form parties, and while it's quite simplisitc, it's really engrossing. Probably has a lot to do wiht the historically aweome battle system. And the fact that I can have Reid, Lloyd and Senel all in my party at one time. It's a fangirl's dream come true!
Lastly, I rented Transformers: the Game today. I'll tell you how that goes later. Having loved the movie like a son, I'm hoping it'll be decent.
It would seem that the Toys 'R' Us "radio" is slowly turning into a bastion of horrible, horrible cover songs. First it was 900 bad versions of every Christmas carol back in November and December, but I guess those are to be expected. But once the Christmas garbage went away, things didn't get a whole lot better. At first, it was a Godawful version of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed", and that was enough to get me riled up, because nobody can sing that song as well as Paul. Nobody. Lately, it seems that a new offender has snuck onto the playlist, in the form of a mockery of U2's "Pride". And you know it's gotta be bad, because I've never really liked U2 to begin with.
I can't imagine that these bad covers will go away, and I know that more will amass in time, which leads me to my topic today: Women should not cover songs originally by men.
I know it sounds a little bit sexist, and it is, but you've got to respect that I actually have a somewhat valid point here. Beyond the two songs I've mentioned up there (which I forgot to explicitly explain were done by women), let's take another example that hits pretty close to home. A while ago, Damone released a video of a cover of Billy Squier's "Everybody Wants You". Now, I love the original song, and as those who pay attention know, I generally like Damone. This is a problem because their cover sucks ass. Watch the video clip. Or better yet, just turn it on in another tab and keep reading this, because the video is even worse than the song. "But Ryan," you say "It sounds exactly like the original!" You're right, but that's why it blows. There's no inspiration here! They pretty much play the song note for note, and I cannot respect this type of cover. Even worse is that Noelle's singing sounds so forced and disinterested, which is totally uncharacteristic of her. Half the reason I like Damone is because they have a vocalist who really seems to love what she does, but that doesn't show at all here.
You could argue that this doesn't fall into "covers by women" because the rest of the band is dudes, but it's still kind of there. In fact, I bet if I hadn't pointed that out, half of you would never have thought of it. Anyway, the point here is that in my experience, cover songs by women are sad husks of the songs they once were. I mean, it's not like no women have any musical talent, but historically, men have been far more successful at crafting fine music, and when women try to emulate that music, it generally ends up as a garbled mess.
I actually had a lot more to say, with points and counterpoints and everything, but it turns out that if you want to say something and not look like a complete dumbass, you either have to know a lot about what you're talking about, or do a lot of research. I have a pretty fair knowledge of music (taste being no factor), but I didn't really feel like going the extra mile to make it really good. I hate research, unless I'm doing it for fun, and I don't file "blogging" under "fun". The really sad part about it all is that I was going to turn it around and get to the point where I would be discussing how the women who are really good at making music are overshadowed by prepackaged pop idol garbage, and my apparent sexual bias would be defeated, but no such luck. So let's just say that any woman who's achieved any degree of mainstream success in music sucks (except the girls from Heart), and that all the good ones are underground.
Also, uness you're Paul McCartney, do the world a favour and don't sing "Maybe I'm Amazed".
News, everyone! Apparently E3 started... today? I dunno. I kept hearing about it, but failed to get caught up in the hype. In any case, my beloved dailies (Game|Life, NWR, Wii Fanboy, etc) are flooding with all sorts of information, and it's already getting hard to keep up. I kind of hate E3.
But, there's a big bright upside to all of this. No, it's not new Mario Galaxy footage (though that is pretty hot). In fact, it's the fact that RE: Umbrella Chronicles is apparently great. When I heard the premise of the game, I was not filled with hope, but if one of the few game journalists I idolize thinks it's wonderful, who am I to disagree? I suppose time will tell if I like it that much, but at least now I know that I probably shouldn't just ignore it completely like I'd originally intended to do.
Other things to say that I'm excited about? How about dates for Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Galaxy? I like those. Though I'm still twtiching in my seat waiting for more information on No More Heroes. I'd say that above all, if there was one game that sold me on the Wii, that would be it. Killer7 is one of the kickassingest GC games ever, and I can't imagine that NMH will disappoint in any way. I could live without Mario and Metroid, but damn, I needs me some No More Heroes! (To help illustrate how hyped I am for this game, I bought $90 sunglasses and have begun spiking my hair so I can be more like Travis Touchdown.)
You know what? I was going to discuss the annual Lac du Bonnet Canada Day parade, but to be frank, it wasn't really overly noteworthy. I guess you really can't expect too much from a small town parade though. Also, the window of me caring has long since past. To tell the truth, the whole weekend lacked anything worth mentioning. I think that the most important things that I accomplished last weekend were hitting the 400 mark in Pokémon and catching up on a couple episodes of Retronauts. Yeah. My life may not sound exciting (and it's not), but that's the way I likes it.
I don't really have anywhere to go with this then... Just thought I'd make my intentions (or lack thereof) clear. Also, the episode of Futurama where Planet Express Ship falls in love with Bender is on, and my attention can only be devoted to one thing at a time. Needless to say, Futurama wins over blogging.
Was out at the cottage for Canadia Day celebratations. Happy belated, by the way. I'll run up some general impressions/stories/whatever it is where you tell about a generally uneventful trip probably tomorrow or maybe even Wednesday. Now, more Ouendan chatter.
I've been spending a lot of my time away from Resident Evil 4 playing Ouendan 2, and while I've already mumbled a few uncoordinated sentences about it, I think it's probably worth a revisit to pick out the more outstanding nucances of the series, and what makes it so much more enjoyable than the basic rhythm game.
I said last time I talked about Ouendan 2 that I had been apprehensive about the soundtrack, and why wouldn't I be? My experience with Japanese music is shockingly limited, given my burning desire to seek out new music. And given that a lot of popular music in the North America region does in no way suit my tastes, I guess I was kind of expecting popular Japanese stuff to be equally off-putting to me. But quite to the contrary!
Not only do I find almost the entire soundtrack enjoyable, but a lot of the songs are really fantastic. The main factor here would be that even on the most basic level, Japanese music is so obviously different than North American - and even European - music, that it kind of falls into it's own category. Our Black Eyed Peas are one of the few bands that feature constant simlutaneous male and female vocals, and they have a weird sort of sound that merges rap and pop. Mihimaru GT, on the other hand, has the same man/lady vocal schtick, and they also do the rap/pop blend thing. But depite the simlilar nature of the two bands, I cannot stand the former, and cannot help but be entranced by the latter. Plus, if we're comparing Fergie to Hiroko, Japan wins hands-down.
And let's not just skip past the really high points for the sake of making a semi-intelligent sounding post. Have you heard "Bambina" yet? If not, get that embedded video above loading on the double! Hotei Tomoyasu is nothing short of a musical genius, and I don't doubt that everything he touches turns to gold (metaphorically, of course). That isn't to say the rest of the soundtrack isn't splendid as well; "Samurai Blue", recorded by ZZ - apparently Japan's answer to Fall Out Boy, given all the oh-oh-ohing - is fantasically catchy, and Mika Nakashima's "Glamorous Sky", when kept in the context of the Ouendan scenario, tugs at the heart like a box of abandoned puppies.
But the music in not the only thing that has really drawn me into the game. I discovered with Elite Beat Agents (Ouendan's North American counterpart) that iNiS' simple approach to rhythm-based gameplay was was fantastically addictive. Rather than confounding yourself with making sure you're hitting the right button/fret/whatever it's called on the dance pads, the Ouendan formula makes life easier by just having you tap beats in the right order at the right time. Of course, while the concept is simple, mastery of it takes time, practice, and most of all, good rhythm. That is to say, Jews are pretty much screwed. When you start out, the beats will appear long before they need to be hit, but once you get up to the higher difficulty levels, they show up almost right when they need to be poked. And the fact that once songs get beat-heavy, the chains will start intertwining, and you'll not only have to make sure your timing is right, but you also have to be careful that you're folliwing the numbers properly. Needless to say, it can get pretty hectic.
Of course, this is all before you factor in the ever-present "rhythm game life bar". You may know it better as a "Dance Gauge" or "Rock Meter", but it's all the same thing; basically a bar present of the screen that causes you to lose if it's emptied. The various gauges and meters in other rhythm games are pretty damn leniet, decreasing with a missed mark, and increasing with a hit mark. Ouendan's is a little more evil. Rather than being static between beats, the life bar in Ouendan is constantly depleting, and at higher rates in higher difficulty levels. Missing a beat altogether will cost you a serious chunk of the bar, and on expert mode ("Magnificanet cheering"), hitting anything less than perfect beats will only serve to slow the trickle. One song in particular, "Believe", is so slow that while playing on expert, I could hit every note (albeit not a perfect hit each time), and still fail the song halfway through because the bar was emptying faster than I could fill it. It took a long time, but eventually, I pulled of a long enough streak of perfect hits to make it to the end with but a sliver of life remaining. To put it simply, the game gets difficult. And it's not like you've got a Star Power gauge to carry you through the rough spots either. No, if you want to play Ouendan to its full potential, it's really a go-big-or-go-home kind of game. Like Bonk's Revenge or Bram Stoker's Dracula, where you can only play through the whole game if you're playing on the hardest difficulty setting.
So yes. I think that's about everything I needed to say. Also, if you haven't played them yet, or can't see them for some reason, I've embedded music videos for two of my favourite songs from Ouendan 2 in between the preceeding paragraphs. Hotei Tomoyasu's "Bambina" was an obvious choice, because it's not only like the best song ever recorded, but the video is wicked trippy too. The second, featuring Sambomaster's "Sekai Wa Sore Wo Ai To Yobundaze" is a great song too, and I really like the concept of the video. In conclusion, if you have a DS (or even if you don't), import it now. Buy Elite Beat Agents too while you're at it, because despite the somewhat sketchy track list, it's still incredibly fun. And more sales mean more sequels, so hop to it!