Mario on Drugs?

Admit it, with those funky power-up items Mario takes, at one time or another, you've thought the Italian plumber was on something. He grows in size with a Super Mushroom, he can fly with a Super Leaf/Feather, and a Starman makes him invincible. Sounds like he's on one major acid trip.

He's creator, Shigeru Miyamato could also be doing some snorting/injecting. The man does like to garden in his spair time, so who knows what he's growing. Now I don't condone drug use, but the Mario games are widely regarded as some of the greatest titles in gaming. So this would be the one time where I'd say we should let the man smoke/shoot up/inject whatever he wants.

Favorite Mario Power-Ups

I've always felt the Mario games had some of the best power-ups in gaming, Super Mario Bros. 3's being the best in my book. Sure, anyone can fly with a cape, but flying with a raccoon tail? That's awesome! The Hammer Bros. Suit was also cool for having a fireproof shell and killing nearly every enemy in the game. You only got to fool around with Kuribo's Shoe in one level but it was more than enough to get an idea of how broken it was, which is more than likely the reason why it was only in that one level. And the Tanooki Suit! I want Tanooki Suits to become a real life item. That's all I have to say about that.

Outside of SMB3, the Mega Mushroom in New Super Mario Bros. was great. It was basically an improved version of Starman, except you had the added bonus of being friggin' huge!

So what are some of your favorite Mario powers?

8-Bit Christmas Music

Tired of hearing the same old Christmas songs? What you need is some 8-Bit Jesus. Not your typical Christmas album, 8-Bit Jesus is Christmas themed music with a dash of our favorite NES game songs. Just imagine the likes of Contra, Little Nemo, Mega Man and Kid Icarus meshing with Christmas tunes and you'll get the idea. You can download the album for free or donate $15 to get a physical copy. It's good music so check it out.

8-Bit Jesus

Happy 21st Birthday, Mega Man!!

So I was doing browsing some gaming forums like I usually do, when I read a message where someone wished Mega Man a happy 21st birthday. I cannot believe I'd forgotten the anniversary of my favorite video game character. For shame. I've only been playing the blue bomber's games for almost as long as he's been around. Really, screwed up economy or not, I should have remembered this!

Has it really been 21 years? Why, yes it has. On December 17th, 1987 in Japan, the first Rockman game hit the NES (he's called Rockman over there for all 3 of you that didn't know). The game made it to American in December of the same year as well, under the name Mega Man, only with far less appealing box art. Thankfully, said horrific box art didn't stop Mega Man from becoming what he has today.

My first encounter with Mega Man was the summer of 1989. I was haning out at a friend's place and like most kids back in the day, we were playing the NES. Of all the games my friend had, this one game really stood out to me. It was Mega Man 2. I wasn't very good at the game at all. I died on both Bubble Man and Wood Man's levels. But I was really liked the game and wanted to play more of it, despite my suckitude.

Long story short, that Sunday afternoon that I spent at my friends place is the reason I am now and forever will be a Mega Man addict. I don't care if the games are basically the same thing again and again. The little guy rocks and so do his numerous brothers. Thanks to the original Mega Man's creation, we have Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Battle Network, Mega Man Zero and so on. Here's to another 21 years of Mega Man.

Mega Man vs. All 8 MM2 Robot Masters... All At Once

You know how you always gotta fight the robot masters a second time in the Dr. Wily levels? Well this time Dr. Wily got smart and decided to throw away the teleporting devices. Instead, he's decided to sic his whole army on the blue bomber all in one go.

Rockman 2 Neta is a homebrew which pits Mega Man against all 8 robot masters at the same time. You read right, you fight all 8 of them at once, in the same room. Watch and be amazed. Play it and see if you too, can be a Rocking Mega Man. The download link is in the video description. No harm in using E-Tanks. Not everyone is as good a player as qzecwx.

Earth Man!!!

I would sooooo play this if it were real. Bonus points for paying homage to Mega Man 3's Japanese box art.

View the fake commercial here.

Rocking Manga

A few years ago, I read the first chapter of the Rockman Megamix manga. It's the kinda of action I've always wanted to see in anime form: Mega Man shooting up robots and looking sweet while he does it. Sadly, Rockman Megamix has yet to be translated and brought to the USA in the form of graphic novels. This is a crying shame. The Mega Man NT Warrior manga has been published in it's entireity in the states, and it isn't bad, mind you, but the manga fans really wanna see is the kinda pictured on the left! Seriously, Pokemon Mega Man doesn't have anything on his classic cousin.

Anyhoo, in addition to a few chapters of Rockman Megamix (the whole thing hasn't been translated yet), there's other manga like Rockman Zero and Go Go! Rockman. Here's to hoping more Mega Man manga gets released in America.

You can read some Rockman manga here.

The Toughest Met

Dr. Wily, Quick Man, Shadow Man, the Yellow Devil? Amateurs, all of them. They all pail in comparison to Mega Man's toughest foe, who is an unsuspecting Met, or Hard Hat for those that prefer to call them that.

View the epic showdown here.

Rockman 3 Goes On Forever

I love rom hacks. In a time where I hardly have the money to afford anything, rom hacks have been keeping me occupied for the better part of the year. Hot on the heels of Rockman 5 Endless is Rockman 3 Endless, a rom hack of Rockman 3 and my all-time favorite Mega Man game.

Despite Mega Man 3 being widely viewed as one of the best games in the Mega Man series, there have hardly been any good rom hacks for the game. Sure, there's Mega Lion, but it just replaces the character sprites with animals and alters what little text there is. For my money, Rockman 3 Endless is the best Rockman 3 hack you'll find.

Just like Rockman 5 Endless, Rockman 3 Endless is a never ending survival mode where you try to clear as many screens as you can without dying, much the same as Mega Man 9's Endless Challenge mode, which gave birth to these "Endless" hacks to begin with. On my first go, I cleared 57 screens before I bit it and I died on a bad jump in Gemini Man's section. Like Rockman 5 Endless, you havea all of your weapons and Rush forms from the get-go and you'll really appreciate the brokeness of Rush Jet in this hack. Tough areas like the Magnet Man section pictured above and be completely bypassed by using it.

Be sure to patch a Rockman 3 rom, not Mega Man 3 rom. Just click the picture in the link provided. As with Rockman 5 Endless, Rockman 3 Endless seems to get frequent updates. As I was writing this blog entry, I found out that a newer version has been posted. Check the author's site often!

Rockman 3 Endless Patch

Mega Man the Movie?

When I was a kid, I thought a live action Mega Man movie would be the bomb. Amazing what a little maturity will do for you. Regardless of my thoughts on a live action MM flick, it seems one has already been set in motion. You can view the trailer here.

If you wan to see some images of the film, just go here.

From the trailer, I can already tell you that Roll is annoying and if they really want to make something of film that is no doubt gonna suck on so many levels, Guts Man should throw a rock on here.

As much as I'd rather see a full length anime Mega Man movie, I'll still end up checking this out. My word, I need help.

Mega Man Was On Bad Mother...

This was an add for Mega Man 2 in Japan from 1989. Not only does the art look more X-ish, but Mega Man himself seems to have his bad mofo meter cranked to 11. Just look at what he's done to Wood Man. If I were the remaining robot masters, I'd be running in the opposite direction.

What Mega Man's Box Art Should Have Looked Like

The box art for the very first Mega Man game looks like crap. I know it. You know. The person who drew it knows it. When I see the image that someone on the net put together posted above, I can't help but think that's what the box art for the blue bomber's first outing should have looked like it. Better artwork may have helped the game's sales, but as the saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover. Abomination artwork didn't stop Mega Man from becoming one of the most recognized video game characters of all-time. Still, how many you think would replace their NES cover art with the above image if they could?

A Loser is You!

Despite the title of this album, LOSER: A Sega Genesis Tribute Album is made of win. This arranged album consists of 39 tracks from many popular Genesis games. Some songs are simply music arrangements (Tidal Surge), while others contain lyrics (Sonic). I think this album offers something for everyone.

Download LOSER: A Sega Genesis Tribute Album

If Louie Armstrong Sung About Super Mario World

YouTube user Brentafloss has done it again. I loved his renditions of the Mega Man 3 Title theme with lyrics. He cracked me up when he gave the standard Final Fantasy Victory theme music lyrics. This time he's truly outdone himself. Doing a Louie Armstrong imperssionation, he's created a parodic take on "What a Wonderful World."

Watch it. NOW!!!

Yep, More Game Music

If I wasn't a frequent member of message boards, I'd probably never find all these cool things to talk about. I'm digressing again. And Digressing sucks. Unless it's good digressing. Where was I? Oh yeah. Game music.

First up, MegaCollection Vol 1. This is a collection of outstanding Medleys from the Mega Man games. There's six tracks total and while the Medleys don't go into the next song continuously, that does not keep this album from being a winner. Even more props for doing Medleys with songs from some of the under appreciated themes like Pharaoh Man, which has always been one of my favorite Mega Man tracks. I'm already hyped for Vol. 2 if there is indeed a Vol. 2

Download MegaCollection Vol. 1


I finally found a game rip to one of my favorite games for the Nintendo 64, Bettle Adventure Racing! Among other things, the N64 was heavily criticized for it's audio processor. Sega and Sony were living it up with CD systems and Nintendo was still stuck in the past using carts. When people knew what they were doing, the N64 produced some really sweet sounds. BAR's music was handled by Phil Western, Scott Blackwood, and Brenden Tennant. I think wiki sums up BAR's soundtrack pretty well. "The music in BAR is a groovy, breakbeat soundtrack with loud drums, organs, and guitars." It's realy flipping sweet.

Download Beetle Adventure Racing! soundtrack


You're probably look at the album art to the right and thinking "Downtwon What?" That's the Japanese name for River City Ransom, a cult favorite from the NES era. School kids just gotta kidnap girlfriends and rivals gotta team up to give said school kids a well-deserved butt-kicking. Only River City Ransom and a few Super Dodge Ball games made it to the states, but in Japan, the franchise is pretty famous. There have been titles on nearly every Nintendo platform overseases, a few of them have even been translated by fans.

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatri collects the music from each system that River City Ransom was on. NES, PC Engine X68000, and GBA That's over 70 tracks!

Downtow Nekketsu Monogatari: Complete Collection


I was originally post more beats, but then that would result in an insanely huge blog post. More late, kids.

Mother 3, In ENGLISH

It boggles the mind why Nintendo chose never to translate Mother 3 and bring it to the states. However, from what I've been hearing lately, keeping the game in Japan and ticking off the hardcore gaming crowd seems right up Nintendo's alley.


The Mother series began it's life on the Famicom and wouldn't come to America until 1995 under the name EarthBound and in reality, this was Mother 2. The game was widely regarded as one of the best RPGs on the SNES and gushed of excellents in sound, story, and humor.

I remember reading about Mother 3 in the late '90s, hoping the game would see a state side release. Since the Nintendo 64DD (the system Mother 3 was in development for at the time) tanked, so did any hope of seeing the game. But wait! Mother 3 was given new life on the Game Boy Advance in 2003, and then released in Japan in 2006. And wouldn't you know it, Nintendo didn't bring the game over to America.

A group of fans decided to take matters into their own hands. Sometimes if you want something done at all, you gotta do it yourself. Ladies and gentleman. Boys and girls. Mother 3 is now available in English. I haven't played it but from what I'm hearing, Mother 3 is enough to make grown men drop to their knees and weep. Apparently the game is that good. I just hope Nintendo doesn't send the fans who translated the game a cease and disist. After all, all they did was make a translation patch. At any rate, you can now enjoy Mother 3 and understand what the heck is going on. Hooray!
Mother 3 In English

Mega Man 9 Mini Manga!

Those that bought the Mega Man 9 Arrange Soundtrack got a nice little bonus: a 15 page manga by Rockman Megamix manga artist Hitoshi Ariga. The manga focuses on the events that lead up to the robots going beserk in Mega Man 9 and there's much more depth to the manga story than there is the game's. We all love Mega Man, but let's be realistic; the stories in the classic series have never been all that serious or on the same level as the X games. The Megamix manga does a admirable job of rectifying this.

Now if this is your first time reading a Rockman Megamix manga, then you may be confused on a couple of things. *SPOILER ALERT* You may be asking "Why are the robot masters from Mega Man 1 good guys?" Simple. In the first Rockman Megamix comic series, they returned to being peace keepers after Mega Man stopped their rampage. These guys were originally made by Dr. Light, afterall. *END SPOILERS*


On top of Ariga-San's sweet artwork, the story ain't too shabby either. Anyone that's played the Mega Man games will be trilled to see the Dr. Cossack, Kalinka (Cossack's daughter), and Bright Man appear, even if they only show up in a panel or two. It makes me wish for a proper Mega Man anime and for the rest of the Mega Man mangas to be brought states side.

If you want to read the manga, go here.

Rockboard: Translated

For years I'd known of the existence of the Famicom game, Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! (such a long title) This was another one of those games that had not been localized and brought to the states. Perhaps the reasoning behind this lies in the fact that it isn't your traditional Mega Man game. Heck, Mega Man isn't even a playable character. Even so, this didn't stop a group of fans over at Mega Man PC Websites from translating the game into English. This is probably old news to many but to me, this is new and wonderful news.

So what is Rockboard? Well, it's a video game board game that has your favorite Mega Man characters buying up properties, gambling and... well, even after playing the game for a bit, I still don't know %100 how to explain this game. It is a bit like Monoply but not all the way. You can probably get a better understaning about the game by reading this here.

In any case, I'm glad someone finally translated this game so I actually know what's going on. You can download the patch here.

I'm Cranking Them Out!

The last few days I've been putting together compilation albums from my findings on the net. I'll try to keep this post short and I'll say a bit about each album. I've got more albums to do and a date with Dr. Wily in 8-bit Mega Man 7.

Mega Man Remastered

I found a Japanese website that specializes reproducing video game music, keeping it close to the original track, but enhancing it. Calling it remastered sounded good enough to me. There were a lot of Mega Man songs on the site (over 40) so I compiled 39 of them into one download. Listen to these with the volume cranked to the max or with headphones to get the most out of it.

Chrono Remastered

Eight tracks from one of my (and maybe your) all-time favorite games have been remastered and they've never sounded better! That's saying a lot when you consider the original score is pretty epic! This version of Battle 2 needs to be played at an Opera. Seriously.

SNES Remastered

Like Mega Man Remastered and Chrono Remastered. The SNES had one of the best audio chips for a video game system. Many gamers have a lot of soundtracks that came from this system.

SNES Remastered 2

Same deal with the first one. Koopa (the final battle music in Yoshi's Island) sounds like 500 levels of one bad mother...! Just download it.

Azell Arrange

Azell arranges video game music. She does a magnificent job of it, too! Some of the best arrangements I've ever heard. A few songs just cut off, but that's only flaw in an otherwise solid collection of tracks.

Azell Final Fantasy Arrange

Azell! Final Fantasy!! Arrange!!! Why are you still reading this stupid text?!

Full Moon

Nothing but Moon Themes from DuckTales, including one vocal track! I even tossed in a MIDI collection.

Chrono Fantasy

A collection of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy music from various Japanese fans.

The Red Wings

This UK-based band does a marvelous job pumping out rock versions of video game tunes. They've only done 12 songs and I've thrown them all into a single download. Check out their website here.

Mega Remixes: Finished for Now

I finished Mega Remixes 11-13 yesterday and that's going to be the last of them for a while. Finding remixes to make these albums was fun but very exhausting. The Mega Remixes 13 is heavy on the Doujin style music and it's pretty good to boot. I was able to find unique remixes for Tornado Man & Concrete Man's themes. On top of that, I found some remixes for the overlooked Mega Man Game Boy games, including a remix of the first Battle Theme from Mega Man IV, the Wily Boss Battle music, and Dr. Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Unless you're a frequent visitor of Doujin remix websites, I think these will be new to you.

I still plan to make more compilation albums. I've been wanting to do an all Magnet Man compilation album, an all Wood Man album, and an all Cut Man album along with some of my other favorite robot master's themes. I already found some nice art to tag the mp3s with.

Anyway, here's the last of the Mega Remixes albums:

• Mega Remixes 11
• Mega Remixes 12
• Mega Remixes 13
  

Falcon PUNCH!

I had no idea Capton Falcon's signature move, the Falcon Punch would spawn the ridiculous amount of videos that it has. Take this one for example. One of many that's up on YouTube. I need to learn how to do that.

Mega Man 5 Gets the Endless Treatment

If you haven't purchased Mega Man 9, you may not be aware of one of the extras the game has called Endless Challenge. The game thrusts you into random portions of the levels throughout the game and to clear each area, you have to get to the teleport capsule.

I haven't played MM9 yet, but I've read up on what sounds like a really cool concept. Thanks to Rock5easily, I've gotten a taste of what MM9's Endless Challenge is like. Rock 5 Endless does just what MM9's Endless Challenge mode does. Where you begin and will end up is completely random. You have all your weapons and special items to help you kill bosses and advance through the levels. However, there are no E-Tanks so the only way you can recover your energy is by killing bosses and picking up refills along the way.


Like MM9's Endless Challenge, Rock 5 Endless keeps track of how many levels you've cleared with a counter at the top right of the screen. The first time, I played, I cleared 40 stages before I was met with defeat from Crystal Man. The second time, I was able to clear 107 stages before I died. Word at the Rockman Perfect Memories forums is that it's easier than MM9's Endless Challenge. Some players there have cleared over 500 stages. Even with it being on the easy side, its pretty fun. I've provided a link with the ISP patch. Be sure to patch a Rockman 5 rom, not a Mega Man 5 rom. Click on the image in the link to download it. Enjoy.

Rock 5 Endless

Delzhand Does Mega Man

Delzhand, a forumite on the Penny Arcade message boards has been working on a HD Mega Man game in XNA and made these sprites. He wanted to keep the feel and look of the 8-bit Mega Man sprite. I think he did pretty well. If the sprites look that good, I cannot wait to play the actual game.

Delzhand has a site you can check out here: Delzhand.com.

Get Equipped with Tae K

I thought I'd seen everything with Mega Man music. This album I came across takes the cake. Released earlier this year, Tae K is a mix tape album that adds lyrics to some of our favorite Mega Man songs, fourteen to be exact. I've never really been one for rap, but Tae K is a huge exception. The author is obviously a huge fan of Mega Man so that scores him major bonus points right there. The mixtape take on Mega Man music works extremely well. My favorite track? "Money in the Bank" which adds lyrics to Dr. Wily Stage 2 from Mega Man 3.

Everyone loves free stuff and Tae K is available as a Free download. Even if you aren't into rap, I highly recommend checking this one out. I was pleasantly surprised.


Download Taek

An Overlooked Mega Man Soundtrack

Mega Man Battle & Chase was released in Japan in 1997 on the original PlayStation. Capcom had ran ads for the game in video game magazines in America, but Sony for whatever lame reason, didn't think the game was fit to cross over on American soil. The game didn't make it onto our scene until almost 10 years later when it was included in the Mega Man X Collection as an unlockable.

Battle & Chase may be one of the more obscure Mega Man titles, but it's still a fun game. For a Mario Kart knock of it was a pretty ambitious one. Winning races allowed you to get parts from the competition's carts and you could outfit your ride with multiple parts. This not only altered your cart on a performance level, it altered it cosmetically as well.

On top of the nice gameplay, Battle & Chase had a sweet soundtrack, comprised of nearly completely original tunes. My favorite songs are the various versions of Over the Top, Escape, Wind Carry My Words, Through the Air, Are You Gloomy, Chasers, but really, the whole score is quality stuff. Not a single remix has been made of from this soundtrack and that breaks my video-game-music-loving heart. Maybe someday someone will get hip to this awesome score and come out with some nice beats.

Mama Said Knock You Out

Great news, kiddies! Forget a Big Mac. It's allllll about Little Mac. Took Nintendo forever, but they've finally brought back Punch-Out!! and I cannot think of a more fitting system for a boxing game than the Wii. Look's like we're in for more 30 second KO bouts against Glass Joe, stuffing the Bull Charge, and more racial material than we can shake a boxing glove at. I'm off to do some road work while listening to the pass word music to Punch-Out!!

A Message to Mega Man Remixers

I could say Mega Man has more games than any other video game character out there and I probably wouldn't be exaggerating. The Classic series, X, Zero, ZX, Battle Network, Legends, this little blue robot has serious game. One of the things we all love about Mega Man games is the music. Capcom has been giving us great Mega Man music since the series was kicked off way back in 1987. Since Mega Man games have superb music, it's only natural that there have been a ton of Mega Man remixes. Unfortunately most Mega Man Remixers have been content to remix Mega Man 2 beats more than any other Mega Man game, Mega Man 3 being right behind it. Dr. Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2 is an amazing song. I love it, but it's remixed to death. Same with Mega Man 3's title screen, it isn't hurting for remix love. What am I getting at? What am I trying to say to Mega Man remixers? Remix something else.

Mega Man 4 has a stellar soundtrack, and yet it you can almost count the number of remixes the music for that game has gotten on one hand. Dr. Cossack's music (both themes) easily ranks as some oft he best fortress music in the history of Mega Man. And where the heck are those dope remixes of Bright Man's stage?! Where is the love for Dark Man stage music in Mega Man 5? Split Mushroom from X4? I always loved his jam and not a single solitary remix. As much as I hated X6, I did dig that game's music. Commander Yammark and Blaze Heatnix deserve to have their themes remixed. No one has touched Mega Man: Battle & Chase music, though this could be due to the fact that the game has remained in Japan for almost 10 years and didn't come to the states until the Mega Man X Collection got released. Even the Battle Network games, hobby-based as they may be have some good tunage (well except for Battle Network 4. That one had only about two good themes).

Mega Man music offers so much to work with and I think it's time remixers start thinking outside of Mega Man 2 and 3.

September Duels

This month's Dwelling of Duels was a Super Hero Month. Don't know who came up with the theme for this month, but I like it. The good news: no Batman Stage 1 covers for the NES game! Seriously, that track has been done to death. The bad news: a minimal selection. There are only ten tracks this month. A shame too because given this month's theme, there was more to work with than most people realize. Even so, what we got was pretty good. It's pretty much a metal month so turn up the volume, get out your air guitar, and enjoy.

September Duels

Mega Man Makes Wall Street Journal

I'm serious. In the state America is in, seeing an article on Mega Man 9 and in the WSJ of all papers is great news.

Radical!

Ever hear of a game called Radical Dreamers? It's cool if you haven't. Developed by Square, it was a game on the Super Famicom's Satelliteview platform, which means it never saw the light of day outside of Japan, not officially, anyway. Radical Dreamers was a text based, visual novel style game. You play as a guy named Serge and his friend Kid tags along for the ride. Do those names sound familiar? They should. Radical Dreamers can be viewed as a side story to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. A few of the musical themes from Radical Dreamers can be heard in Chrono Cross such as the Frozen Flame and my personaly favorite, Viper Manor.

Radical Dreamers: Thieves of Fate is the end result of combined efforts of various remixers from OverClockedremix.org. The website I just mentioned should be more than enough to get you to download this album. I've heard the music in the original Radical Dreamers game and it sounds fantastic. If Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer of the Radical Dreamers music were to hear this remixed album, I'm sure he'd be quite impressed. Go ahead and give a listen.

Radical Dreamers: Thieves of Fate

Jack's In Trouble

Forgive me for posting a picture of Jack Thompson's ugly kisser. I needed to have something to go along with this great news. You see, old Jack has been disbarred permanently beginning 30 days from now. He still has a chance at a retrial but if I were Jack, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Jack is known for his silly shenanigans against violent video games and overall annoying the gaming community. I bet if he'd sit down, shut up and played some video games, he'd have a lot of fun. Oh who am I kidding? There's a better chance of world peace breaking out before that will ever happen.

Along with his disbarment, Jack owes reimbursement Florida Bar fees of $43, 675.35. Snap.

Source

Well it took a while but it finally happened. Jack Thompson is OUTTA HEREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
I'm so happy.

His Power Level Is Incredible!

Once again, I'm late to the party but this time, I'm intentionally late. I came very close to buying Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (what a long title) earlier this year when it was still priced at $40. However, I knew if I showed some patience and waited, the price would drop. Sure enough, a few months later, it hit the $30 mark. A little more waiting and it was priced at $20. Score!

First off, let me say that I love fighting games but when I pick up a DBZ fighter, I'm not looking for the next Soul Calibur or Virtua Figther. I'm just looking for a good DBZ experience that's respectful of the source material. Now that I've gotten that outta the way, I can continue.

I played the first Budokai Tenkaichi a few years ago. I admired the approach it took to emulate the DBZ style of fighting but more often than not, it's flaws and glitches cropped their ugly heads. Having only a single life bar really sucked when you were up against dudes that could blow up a planet. Some of the super buffed out fighters (Super Trunks, Broly, Bojack) wouldn't even flintch when you hit them and they could inturupt your combo string anytime because of it. A number of battles in the story mode were ridiculously har. The fight where you have to defeat Vegeta in his Great Ape form comes to mind. If you wanted to win, you had to spam Kamehameha attcks because melee attacks would just wind up getting you killed. It was for these reasons that I skipped the sequel. Besides, I had a lot of fun with Super Dragon Ball Z even if the character roster in that game didn't even come close to BT2's.

When I started practice mode to get a feel for the controls, I could tell that I'd be in for a more polished game than the first BT. The controls feel a lot more tighter and fluid. Even flying around feels a lot better, faster.

To avoid dragging this out into a string of lengthy paragraphs, I've decided to list the pros and cons out this game. I'll try to keep it brief but I'll elaborate on a few things.

Pros

• Tons of characters. Over 150 to be exact. This includes everone from DB, DBZ, and DBGT. Every single transformation is here, too. Even all the movie villains are here. I just wish we were able to get the DBZ version of Pan. GT pan is annoying to no end. Arale, from Dr. Slump, Akira Toriyama's first manga series is even playable and she's pretty tough.
• Customizing your figther. This has always been one of my favorite things about the console DBZ games. Dimps came up with the idea in the DBZ Budokai games, and Spike decided to keep running with it in the BT games. Smart move on their part. You can make your fighters that are already insanely powerful even stronger still.
• Improved graphics. They just keep finding a way to make these games look even better.
• Info on every character. There's a mode specifically made that give you the 411 on every fighter in the game. It was in the first BT but it's nice to see it back. With this mode, the game manages to do the impossible: Make Chi-Chi a likable person. She gives amusing commentary on everyone.
• No recycled music from the Budokai games! Thankfully they've decided to go with the music in BT. And what is sure to shut many fans of the original Japanese DBZ version up, the option for Japanese voices is there.

Cons

• A few stupidly hard fights in Dragon History mode. Don't bother trying to use Melee attacks against Perfect Cell after he's "died" and then powered up. Spam him with beam attacks and pray that you win.
• Still not crazy about the behind-the-fighter view.
• Rush attacks can get annoying since they home in on you.
• Some tournaments are only open at certains times in the game.

The good outweighs the bad. For $20 I got a sweet DBZ experience and I honestly believe this is one the best DBZ games out there.

Rockman Kenk

Everyone and their grandmother has hacked Mega Man 2. As much as I love Mega Man 2 hacks, it sure would be nice to see some hacks of the other Mega Man games. There aren't too many hacks of the original Mega Man but of the few I've played, I find Rockman Kenk to be the best of the bunch.Rockman Kenk was released in honor of Mega Man 9. The game is a modified version of Rockman Kai and is a lot more polished to boot. Having spent the last few hours playing the game (I'm at Dr. Wily's fortress as I type this), I can assure you that Rockman Kenk is a quality hack. Aside from the overdone falling segments in Bomb Man's stage, the levels pack excellent design. One of the primary annoyances of Mega Man hacks is the cheap hits from enemies to serve as a challenge, when in reality, all it really does is frustrate the player. Rockman No Constancy and Rockman Deus Ex Machina are fine hacks, but even those are guilty of doing just that. Rockman Kenk wisely avoids this. For this reason, Rockman Kenk may even be better than the original game that it's based off of. The game is still pretty challenging but not to the point of being unfair.All of the bosses have different weakness and due to some floor rearrangement, boss fights also play out in a different maner. If you can't play Mega Man 9 (like me. I don't have a Wii or any next gen system) or you're just looking for another Mega Man game to play, Rockman Kenk is highly recommended. Just make sure you patch a Rockman rom, not a Mega Man rom.

Rockman Kenk

Pretty Fly For a Thai Guy

Despite the fact that I spent many hours of my youth getting the crap kicked out of me by Sagat in Street Fighter II, I've always enjoyed his theme. There's just something very cool and relaxing about it. It's highly memorable and I'd probably rank it among the best songs in video game music history.

It would seem that the Bad Dudes really, really dig Sagat's theme because they've put out an album titled, Thai Guy and it contains nothing but Sagat remixes. 8 tracks, 2 bonus tracks with nothing but Sagat goodness. I've got it playing right now, and let me tell you, this is one sexy album. Most of the tracks tend to be on the soothing side, but there's some rock tracks in there for those that like to get up and move around. No matter how you slice it, this is an amazing album. And it's FREE!

Download Thai Guy

Mega Man 9 Soundtrack Reviewed

Sure, I could link you to several reviews of the Mega Man 9 soundtrack, but why bother when I could just tell you what I think of it myself?

Every Mega Man fan across the globe has been salivating to hear what the rest of the music in MM9 will sound like since the first footage was shown back in July, which featured music from from two of the robot master's stages. The clip was short but it was more than enough to wet appetites. Having heard the entire score myself more than once, I can tell you that the music is pretty good but it isn't perfect and I'll get to those imperfections in a bit.

As you'd expect, MM9's soundtrack sounds like it belongs in an NES game, which is perfectly fine. I mean, MM9 looks like an NES game and anyone that's a fan of Mega Man loves NES Mega Man music. The soundtrack is a wonderful refresher of what can be done with 8-bit audio. Tornado Man's theme is great. One of my favorites but it's overshadowed by Concrete Man's theme. Concrete Man's theme is catchy, fast paced, but not too complicated to the point where it isn't enjoyable. Last week, I had that song playing on repeat for over 20 minutes. The song is that good. Other stand out tracks among the robot master themes are Galaxy Man, Hornet Man, and Plug Man. This isn't to say the other robot masters don't have good themes, but aren't on the same level as the aforementioned themes.

The boss music, while not as complex as boss music in other Mega Man games, actually sounds kinda sinister and that's what I like about it. MM7-8 lacked this quality when it came to regular boss music, so it's nice to see it return in MM9's soundtrack. My favorite Wily themes in MM9 come from Dr. Wily Stage 1, and Dr. Wily Stage 2. Stage 1, "Flash in the Dark" reminds me of Dr. Wily Stage 1 in Mega Man 2 while Stage 2, "We're the Robots" reminds me for Dr. Wily Stage 2 from Mega Man 3 when it gets to 1:11 in the song. Both these tracks have a dark tone to them, which is a very good thing. At times I think we can get too caught up in Mega Man music being catchy that we forget that Mega Man music is supposed to be all over the place, including dark, moody themes.

Now for the bad. A number of tracks are straight out of Mega Man 2. Game Over, Dr. Wily UFO, Dr. Wily Castle, Get a Weapon, Stage Clear, Menu, Game Start, all from MM2. Mega Man 2 is a great game, with great music, but I don't believe that great Mega Man music begins and ends with MM2. I know that Capcom wanted to make MM9 closer to MM2, but the fact that eight tracks are ripped straight from that game just wreaks of laziness. Compared to the rest of the music in MM9, they stick out like sore thumbs. If we get a Mega Man 10, I'm hoping Capcom's music department will bring us all new tracks.

Reused music aside, the Mega Man 9 soundtrack is pretty sweet. You'll want it if you're a Mega Man for or love the sound of 8-bit music, or just love video game music in any shape or form. If we get Mega Man X9, who thinks we'll get music that sounds like the SNES X games?

Castle Crashers Music

I have not played Castle Crashers, but word on the street/net is that it's a very good game. It's a beat 'em up in the vein of Knights of the Round. The fact that it comes from developer The Behemoth, the same folks who brought us the excellent Alien Hominid is more than enough to make me take interest in the title. I just found out that the soundtrack is available for a free download at New Grounds. So if you like free video game tunes (who doesn't?), enjoy.

Castle Crashers mp3 tracks

More 8-bit Mega Man 8 Screens

You've gotta hand it to the developers of 8-bit Mega Man 8. I enjoyed Mega Man 8 as a 32-bit game but they've got me on the edge of my seat to play it all over again in 8-bit glory. Development for the game seems to be coming along nicely as the official wiki site has been updated with some more screens.

I'm not for certain if they are going with this stage select screen or not, but I've always been a fan of Mega Man's mug being in the center a la Mega Man 3. Bonus points if they use this stage select screen AND have Mega Man look at the selected robot master.

Even the "You got " screen has made the translation to 8-bit! Sweet!

Is Aqua Man a handsome guy or what? (Get it?)


The weapon screen. You may not think it's anything special, but note the E-Tank in the lower right corner of the screen. We're getting E-Tanks in this game! Woo-hoo! Now while MM8 was doable without E-Tanks the some parts of the game were made more difficult without them. Also, the Mega Ball is going to be in the game, indicated by the "R. Ball" weapon in the screen.

I've been wondering how Frost Man's stage would turn out in this game. Two parts of the level are devoted to riding on a snowboard while being told to "JUMP, JUMP! SLIDE, SLIDE!" at just the right moments. Well, I don't know if we'll actually be hearing those words, but it would seem that the snowboarding segments are definitely in.

• Map 1 of Frost Man's Stage
• Map 2 of Frost Man's Stage

I don't know a lick of Japanese so I haven't been poking around the official site as of late. I'd like to thank Vixy from Rockman Perfect Memories for posting this info up on the Rockman PM message boards.