The cover alone tells you they know their stuff.

I’m hardly a music connoisseur, but when it comes to video game music, be it remixes or orchestrations, I’d like to say I know what I’m talking about. That being said, I think the video game rock group Entertainment System's latest foray, Super Entertainment System, is definitely something worth checking out if you're into retro songs and don't mind hearing electric guitar renditions of old favorites. When I heard some of the track previews on iTunes, I deemed it an immediate purchase. After thoroughly listening to the album many times, I have to say I'm happy with my purchase give or take a few of the songs. Overall, Entertainment System knows what they're doing and stay true to the core melodies that invoke a high of nostalgia within the old-school gamer.

They're love for the original songs show, especially in songs like "F-Zero - Mute City, Big Blue, Port Town" where they open up with the countdown and GO! sound effects from the original F-Zero. Remixes and remakes are always nice to listen to, but when it comes paying homage to the games the songs came from, Entertainment System delivers in both reminiscent and humorous ways. This is certainly a rare treat and immediately makes this album a purchase for those with even the slightest inkling of nostalgia for games older than the current generation.

The song variety is all over the place; it doesn't adhere to one specific system nor one specific generation of gaming. You get songs from Tetris all the way up to Nintendo 64's Goldeneye 007. Additionally, different themes will often blend into each other; as evidenced by songs like "Kid Icaroid" where themes from Kid Icarus and Metroid are seamlessly switched. Some of the choices they had were questionable, like "Darkwing Rescue Ducks" which reminded me of my Saturday morning cartoon habits more than games I used to play.

Speaking of questionability, the only song I wasn't a huge fan of was one called "Little Samson - Golem's Theme". My dislike may have come from the fact that I've never played Little Samson, but the background lyrics used at certain parts made me feel like I was listening to Knuckles' awful theme in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. It's one song out of thirteen that I could do without, but that still leaves twelve other songs that range anywhere from good to astoundingly good.

So, if you're a gamer who hasn't recently purchased an album primarily out of your lack of musical interests, this is definitely worth picking up. If you're just interested in hearing rock-based renditions of some favorite themes, you're another group of people who should probably pick this up. Just about the only type of person I wouldn't recommend this to are those of you who have no interest in video game music or non-lyrical rock.

Track Listing w/ Rating

1) F-Zero - Mute City, Big Blue, Port Town *****

2) TMNT 4 - Sewer Surfin' *****

3) Goldeneye 007 - Frigate **** ½

4) Kid Icaroid (kid Icarus - Stage 1, Final Stage, Metroid - Title) ****

5) Little Samson - Golem's Theme ** ½

6) Mega Man 3 - Magnet Man, Top Man **** ½

7) The Moon ****

8) Kirby Dreamland 3 - Canyon *****

9) Darkwing Rescue Ducks *** ½

10) Mega Man 2 - Bubble Man **** ½

11) Arkanoid - High Score Theme *** ½

12) Life Force - Stage 1 *** ½

13) Tetris - Type A, B, C, DX *****

Yes, all three.

First, this is definitely the greatest Soul Calibur experience to date. If you are at all a fan or a fan that fell of the horse after Soul Calibur III, you should be quick to jump on this one. Yes, the Star Wars might be a turn-off, but they fit quite well in terms of gameplay and balance (NOTE: I am playing the PlayStation 3 version so my impressions are limited to Darth Vader). The combat feels a bit slower than previous iterations, but for me personally, it’s exactly what I needed to happen. SCIV still maintains the classical Soul Calibur feel, the one that’s indescribable and unattainable for most fighting games on the market. Again, I cannot stress enough, if you are a fan in the slightest sense, please buy it now.

On a side note and this is nitpicking on my part, the introduction video for this game is way, way, way, below SCII and SCIII in terms of excitement quality. I honestly expected more to come of this game, but it’s still something I can live without (maybe). It displays the new villain, Algol, two quick fighting sequences and Siegfried stabbing the ground and making crystals appear out of the ground. Again, it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s still LAME. If the intro videos mean anything to you, prepare to be disappointed, but if they don’t, just brush these comments aside.

For my first playthrough, I chose Cassandra (whose graphical upgrade I approve of) and started on Arcade Mode. Load times were surprisingly short without an install and installing the data later on virtually eliminated any presence of them. Each battle was quick to start and it helps alleviate the worry behind SCIII’s awful load times. The battles felt the same, as mentioned before, and the game didn’t suffer for it. The graphics look amazing on the 36” SDTV I was playing on, and the game will force two black widescreen bars even for those with full screen displays. The particle effects accent attacks and guard impacts nicely, and even hit contact sounds are finely tuned; for example, in a Darth Vader vs. The Apprentice battle I had, the two light sabers making contact sounded a lot different from a katana hitting a light saber.

Speaking of sound, the music has changed but it seems barely noticeable from what I’ve played so far. Victory and loss chimes are virtually the same, but the battlefield music hits on themes that weren’t previously present. In a spurt of guilty pleasure, I must say I love the fact that they added John Williams’ Duel of Fates to the Star Wars stages… Moving on.

Multiplayer has generally enjoyable, but the only I’ve played against so far, my mom, basically relegates her fighting style to button mashing. I won most of the battles, but my mom found some weird kick loop with Ivy that was hard to get out of. It’s a far cry from how she did on the original Soul Calibur when I introduced it to her a few weeks ago, but I guess it’s all the more telling of how far the gameplay has truly gone. I’m hoping to get online with a friend of mine who lives thirty yards away and comparing it to a coworker who lives a few miles away. I heard multiplayer is lagging, but I won’t know until I try it.

So far, my impressions tell me this is a five star game, but I’ll hold off on my official review until after a few more impressions and more quality time with the title.

~Carlito Cabada, Jr.

Since church starts in approximately three hours, I figured that I’ve put another all-nighter of Crosswords DS and Soul Calibur III behind me.  Seeing as how I haven’t written a blog post yet, I decided to write one in the spur of the moment if only to appease the few people who will read it.  This isn’t exactly the hard-hitting editorial content I want to put on, but I figured my first post shouldn’t be as epic as I originally planned it to be.

Anyway, I’ve been messing around with Soul Calibur III in preparation for Soul Calibur IV on Tuesday.  I plugged in my PlayStation 2 and my Tekken 5 arcade stick and set myself on unlocking every part of the game.  Unfortunately, the easiest way to unlock everything is to beat the Chronicles of the Sword mode many times over.  I appreciate Namco’s honest try at combining a real-time strategy game with a fighting game, but the entirety of that mode bores me to death.  Thankfully, my brother was able to unlock all the components needed to make KOS-MOS from the Xenosaga series and creating a character in her likeness has only made the game humorous and appealing.  I’m still going strong, and I’m getting extremely close to my goal.

In more Soul Calibur news, I put in my order for the Soul Calibur IV Hori Fighting Stick 3 a couple days ago and it should be arriving a day or two after the game comes out.  I don’t know what it is about fighting games, but I need to play on an arcade stick unless it’s Super Smash Bros.  On top of that, it needs to be the Japanese “ball-and-stick” configuration and not the North American “baseball bat” handle.  Call me a stickler, but I feel more comfortable that way.  I’ll post some impressions when the package arrives.

Another guilty pleasure of mine lately is Crosswords DS.  The game features crosswords as advertised, but there are also wordsearch puzzles and anagrams.  I’ve been particularly addicted to the anagrams; they’ve made the past few nights practically sleepless and it doesn’t help that I’m listening to old episodes of GFW Radio as well.  The game does sport very shallow offerings and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you don’t mind playing word games whenever you have some downtime.  The interface is clean and it clearly has the same simplicity that the Brain Age titles do.  Blah, I’m hoping Final Fantasy Tactics A2 will get me out of my casual DS gaming funk.

I also tried out the Elefunk and PixelJunk Eden demos yesterday and I must say that both are downloads that I absolutely must buy in the future.  I’ll see how my wallet holds up after Geometry Wars 2 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed release.  Still, Elefunk is amazingly deep for its asking price and PixelJunk Eden only reinvigorates my enthusiasm for the PlayStation Network’s downloadable lineup.  I purchased Zoolander from the PlayStation Store and the picture holds up really well even in standard definition (DVD quality); my girlfriend said she hasn’t seen the movie at all, so we’ll be watching that later today.

Speaking of downloadable content, I’ve been trying to unlock everything is Everyday Shooter as well.  The game certainly isn’t Geometry Wars in terms of its fun factor, but it’s nice to see a good game coming from the mind of a single person.  Anyway, the game is still hard to get through, even months after I first downloaded it.  My impressions haven’t changed at all though: If you’re looking for Geometry Wars on PS3, just buy Super Stardust HD instead.  Everyday Shooter lacks the same sort of fast-paced frenzy.  I mean, there's lots of dodging and diving involved, but it somehow feels slower.