Hello folks and welcome to my music journal. I am a huge game music fan, and in my old journal, I would try to write daily on certain video game songs, granted that didn't last long, and writing on a daily basis tends to get dry fast. "Here I am, talking about Bladestorm again..." So I'll be writing about a song each Friday. Yes I realize today is Saturday, so I'm off to an amazing start.
 
Music is usually the strongest memory I have of most games. For instance Sonic 2 for game gear was my first video game. I don't remember too much about the actual game, but I remember that intro music, and the creepy as hell boss music. So this is why I write about stuff like this. One day I can look back and go, oh yeah, that game really did have some good music. I'm not much of a musician, so I can't really explain songs well in detail, so my explanations may be a bit simple. Well, that's enough of the intro, on to the journal.
 
 This week's song: "Theme of Adon" ~SSF4 Arrange Version~ 
 
Street Fighter IV rekindled my addiction for Street Fighter. I never really played any since Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition for the Genesis. So obviously my hype for SSF4 is out of control. When the themes got leaked out a few days ago, I found myself loving the rock-styled theme of Adon. It sounded a lot like a Dynasty Warriors song (which as you'll find out, I love that music), so that was a plus. But I did some searching and found his Alpha theme, and it was pretty badass. 
 
I love the guitar work in the song, and the vocal effects relate it to Sagat's theme very well. It just seems like a badass song to fight to. It fits Adon's attitude very nicely. To be quite honest, I will probably use him quite a bit in SSF4, one of the reasons being this song. It's not THAT outlandish really, I main Fei Long now because I fell in love with his SSF2T HD song. Haha. 
 
 

Many PS3 owners (myself included) were waiting for Lead and Gold to be released yesterday, only to be confused when nothing showed up with the update.
 Europe had their version out yesterday, and there were announcements that it was supposed to be out yesterday? So what happened?
 According to the official Lead and Gold forums, it will not be out until Tuesday, May 4th. (The first Tuesday PSN update).
 
Robin of Fatshark explains the situation:
"The submission to Sony North America is separate from the submission to Sony Europe. One simply got finished before the other. Since we'd already released the game on Steam we opted for getting the respective versions out to our future players just as soon as we could rather than letting Europe wait for North America.

I'm sorry your version happened to be the one that took the longest but I hope you have understanding for the reasons behind our decision, we've just tried to get the game out to you guys as quickly as we can. "
 
While it is disappointing that NA PS3 owners get the game later, you have to give them credit for letting the ready versions out, instead of holding them back to wait for the other ones to get done. Of course, one can't help but wonder what this will do to the sales of the game. This knocks it to being two weeks away from the release of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption. While I believe that there can never be too many Wild West games, this isn't the case for everyone.

I am writing this on April 22nd, which is Earth Day. It is also my birthday. (I'm 23 today, and a zetta swell present would be having you follow me, I'll follow you back, Pinky swear! Okay, enough about that). But most importantly of all. It has been two years since The World Ends With You was released. So while most 21 year-olds would be testing their liver to see how much alcohol they could handle, I was getting cozy with this DS game. The crazy DS RPG from Square-Enix where you had to complete missions or you would be dead FOREVER. But yeah, in honor of my 23rd birthday, I am giving 23 reasons why TWEWY is my favorite DS game. These are in no certain order.
 

1. Sho Minamimoto- Dude used MATH. He had some pretty quotable quotes and most of them were math related, making it feel kinda cool to know math. Right? The typical villain trying to outdo the main villain, he was straight up insane.
2. Koki Kariya-  My personal favorite character, with his sarcasm and laid back attitude. There was always a sense that there was more to him than you ever found out. And his partnership for Uzuki was fantastic.
3. Twister- The main theme song of the game. Started with the anime style intro cutscene, my favorite intro to a game. and was the theme for the final battle. "Dragged by the power of dreams, that power is yet unknown."
4. Three Minutes Clapping- Hands down my favorite song in the game, and one of my favorite gaming songs. I use it as a ringtone, it's incredibly catchy, has a nice tune to it, and it just makes you feel good.
5. Emptiness And- My second favorite song in the game, a nice rock song, but was just an amazing boss song. Which leads me to...
6. Uzuki and Kariya Boss Battle- These two have been pestering you all game, and near the end of the game, when things are starting to get out of control, you finally get to face off with them. Emptiness And adds to the insanity of this boss battle, and for the first time in the game, it's 2 on 2. A crazy battle, and the second one is pretty cool too, especially when they pull out their Fusion Attack on you.
7. Fusion Attacks- These tag attacks were awesome, mostly due to the quotes that came with them. Not to mention Josh and Neku's meteor of destruction
8. Food Related puns- Gotta thank Higashizawa for these. The proof is in the pudding, the pudding of your doom. NOW WE'RE BOILING!!
   
9. Farming pins- When I get in a certain groove, I love grinding and farming. So looking for certain pins became a slight addiction for me. Haha, Level one, hardest difficulty, trying to get certain pins.
10.  Déjà Vu- I owe so much to this song, words cannot even start to explain it.
    
11. Noise Pins- Kinda like Mastery Pins, each enemy type had their own special pin, and getting these were like trophies. Each pin had a certain type of attack found in a game. Wear them with pride.
12. A real life Player Pin- Got one of these offline, the ONLY gaming related item I had no problem wearing. If I happened to die, at least I would be ready.
13. Taboo Noise- These dark noise turned everything around, THEY WOULD HUNT YOU DOWN. Nightmare vision, checking to see if any noise were around just to see a shadow dart towards you. You would frantically try to get out of noise mode before it was too late.
14. BWAHHHHHHHHHHH- Oh Beat, your bewildered yell was so funny. And my sister would kill me if I didn't have this on my list.
15. Friendly Fire on Tin Pin Slammer- "I can control 3 pins at ONCE!! Unfortunately, not too well, they keep killing eachother"
16. Dress up- Oh yeah, make Shiki wear a bikini, or make Neku wear a bikini, cross dressing is a-ok. Customizing was pretty fun. Especially because of...
17. Character Items- Some of the really good items were awesome because of the stats, but really, because they were items belonging to the other characters. Neku's Headphones, Kariya's Hoodie, Sho's...EVERYTHING. It was a nice nod to have these items.
18. Drake- I love the design on this pin, the two swords crossed. Another real life Pin I got.
19. Josh- (Haha, did not mean that Nick reference), This guy was a mixed bag, you start off hating him, then he eventually grows onto you. Just in time for him to REALLY make you hate him. And this is all before...
20. The story gets goddamn INSANE- Composers, Designers, CAT. Just when you start to get the story, it gets weird, really weird. It becomes one hell of a mindfuck, and while some may say it gets a bit convoluted. I had fun.
21. To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be... Show me a fan of this game who DIDN'T have this memorized.
22. "To write the countless thongs of...dammit!" Best quote in the game.
23. I'd like to tell you what the last thing on my list is...it's probably one of the best of all. But I guess I'll save it for...Another Day

If there was one issue I had with Street Fighter IV, it was the fact that only some people had remixes of their theme music.
So while Rose, Zangief, and Cammy got themes, people like Vega and Balrog were left out.
 
Well, in Super Street Fighter IV, they get themes along with all the new people, and the ones I've heard are fantastic.
 

Warning: Your mind might be blown

Due to this quest system, I was encouraged to dust off my steam account and take a look around. I saw this game called Beat Hazard for $7.49. Seeing as it used your music in the game (Like Audiosurf), I decided to give it a shot, I mean hey, 7.49 isn't too bad, and this looks promising compared to XS Jr. League Dodgeball, which was a miserable experience, and I spent 6 bucks on that, so why not? And apparently it used to be a 360 indie game.
 
It's your typical dual stick shooter, you can use mouse and keyboard or a 360 pad. Having very little experience playing games on PC, it took time getting used to the controls. But once I got a hang of it, it was pretty fun. The visuals are crazy, explosions everywhere asteroids and enemy ships to gun down, power-ups galore. You can increase the Volume of the song to increase your fire rate, and power to do more damage. Bosses in the form of giant gunships will show up randomly as well.
 
There are 2 modes, normal mode is picking a song and trying to beat it, and survival is just that, how long can you survive?
 
The level system is cool too, the higher you score, the more experience you get, every level up gets you something, eventually you'll start out with higher volume and power, a higher multiplier, and more. 
 
The music is an integral part, the faster the song, the more intense the visuals. A faster song will increase your firepower. And you have to watch out for the tempo. Many times in the middle of a boss fight I have gotten screwed over by the song hitting a slow part, turning my fire rate to garbage.  But it's a lot of fun. Review coming soon.
 
 

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7
• Processor: 2.0GHz processor
• Memory: 512+MB of RAM
• Hard Drive: 40+MB of free hard drive space
• Graphics: 256MB of video memory
• Sound: DirectX-compatible sound
• DirectX®: 9 or later
• Controller: Xbox 360 controller