Going back to chip tune again, On To Grasstown is from a free PC game called Cave Story. This game’s design, artwork, code, sound, and music were put together by one Japanese man, Daisuke Amaya, within 5 years. While initial introduction was slow, the game gained massive popularity when translated to english, starting a new wave of indie games that still inspires young developers today.

One of Cave Story’s strength is in its tragic story. The story begins with Doctor laughing at what looks like a crown, then obtaining it. Scene changes: there’s now a text chat between a boy in a lab coat attempting to contact “Sue.” Another scene change: the protagonist wakes up in a cave. He’s mute, amnesiac, and defenseless. First thing he does is climb up, and travel further into the cave for a weapon.

If that sounded confusing to you, this is intentional. The further one progresses through the game, the more the details starts becoming cohesive. Shortly in the game, you’ll accidentally fall into a small town of rabbit-like creatures called Mimigas. You learn that the Doctor is kidnapping each citizen one-by-one. You find that the Doctor kidnapped Toroko, a Mimiga that’s mistaken as Sue. You meet Sue. There are Dragon eggs. The boy in the lab coat reveals himself. By progressing through the story, each detail makes the world more complete. In fact, even mentioning the name of the protagonist is a spoiler.

Cave Story is a Metroidvania game — a platformer shoot-em’ up like the Megaman series, but emphasizing on exploration over action. There are hidden items to collect, different weapons, and multiple endings. It’s difficult to find every one of them in the first run, so there’s a high replay value behind this game. The old-school graphics has a certain cute charm to it as well; a bit ironic considering how bleak the story becomes.

The best part of Cave Story, however, is its excellent level design and surprisingly polished story. Each level is intentionally designed to help introduce and demonstrate a new weapon. The game doesn’t feel too difficult until the very end. Also with the story, the fact that the protagonist doesn’t remember anything helps interject your own views of the world. As the details pour in, you become the protagonist, learning slowly what your purpose is, and how to fight it.

Cave Story is available for the PC, Mac, Linux, PSP, Xbox, and TI-83 Plus for free. A polished version is available for payed download on the WiiWare and DSiWare as a downloadable. Similarly, Cave Story+ is on PC and Mac via Steam and App Store respectively. Lastly, Cave Story 3D is now available for the 3DS.

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Extra!

Title: Cave Story
Game: Cave Story (Wii, DS), Cave Story+
Composer: Daisuke Amaya
Remixer: Yann van der Cruyssen

Title: Escape Route
Game: Cave Story
Composer: Daisuke Amaya
Remixer: Corran

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Here’s Psychonauts’ Napoleon’s Final Conflict, Revisited, arranged by Peter McConnell. This is a remix of an old Russian music, 1812 Overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. As its name implies both the original composition and the game context indicates the fall of Napoleon’s conquest. Unfortunately, revealing further would spoil the game heavily.

Psychonauts is a multiple-award-winning game directed by famed designer, Tim Schafer. Similar to Yume 2kki, Psychonauts takes a spin at Inception’s plot. Razputin, an enthusiastic and psychically talented child, manages to breach into a highly confidential psychic camp called Whispering Rock camp. The camp advisers reluctantly accepts Raz into the camp (he’s just a child, after all), but informs him that his parents will be arriving to pick him up in two or three days. Unwilling to return home, Raz successfully pleads to each camp adviser to train him to become a Psychonaut — a psychic agent that probes into other people’s minds for clues — as soon as possible. In between trainings, however, Raz learns that someone is stealing campers brains to control killer tanks, and taking over the world by force.

Beautifully meshing together Mario-style platforming action and Monkey Island-style adventure puzzles, Pyschonauts goes above and beyond many 3D platformers. Each mind you go through becomes progressively more insane, consistently shifting shapes and expanding in size as a person’s imagination would. Additionally, the game’s dark humor is hilarious. Whispering Rock’s campers are so devilish and/or insane, it’s surprising that only one person is considering taking over the world, instead of all of them. Raz himself frequently makes fun of the game, adding to the absurdity of the plot.

Despite high anticipation, poor sales left the game cold on release. It’s clear from the game’s open-ending that a sequel was planned, but it’s unlikely that’ll see the light of day. Aside from the failed publicity, the game have several glaring flaws: ugly graphics, slow beginning, and uneven difficulty. Yet, if you manage look past these (especially the slow training levels), you’ll be in for one of the finest platforming experience to grace on a gaming console. It’s a trippy adventure. But trust me: it’s a good kind of trippy.

Psychonauts was originally released for the original, older Xbox, and later, PS2. It’s also available as a downloadable on the Xbox 360, via “Xbox Originals.” Lastly, the game is available on Steam for both the PC and the Mac.

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Extra!

Title: The Catwalk Phantom
Game: Psychonauts
Composer: Peter McConnell

Title: Title and End Credits
Game: Psychonauts
Composer: Peter McConnell

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This time around, I’m introducing a medley from Earthbound, Get on the Bus, arranged by virt. This combines the following themes from the SNES classic, originally composed by Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu Tanaka, Hiroshi Kanazu, and Toshiyuki Ueno: What a Great Picture, The Metropolis of Fourside, Title Screen, and Good Friends / Bad Friends. I specifically chose this remix because it best captures the original game’s theme and composition, while heavily improving the sound palette from the outdated SNES midi set.

If there were the king of cult-classic games, Earthbound would easily take the crown. The original English copies auctions for $100+ on Ebay, and it’s direct sequel, Mother 3, is still one of the most requested game for English translation by it’s official producer, Nintendo. If that weren’t enough, the popular Nintendo fighting game, Super Smash Bros., consistently stars the game’s psychic protagonist, Ness (a play on SNES). So what’s with all the hype?

One of the strongest part of Earthbound is its well-translated story and its sense of humor. The game starts fairly simple: a meteorite falls in a small town, Onett. After weeding through grumpy cops and groggy neighbors, Ness finally approach the meteorite to encounter an alien emerging from it. The alien, Buzz Buzz, informs that he comes ten years into the future, where the universe is about collapse under the rule of Giygas. However, there is hope: the future predicting computer, Apple of Enlightenment, informs that Ness and three other talented children are capable of destroying Giygas, after they gain power from Earth’s eight sanctuaries. Thus begins Ness’ quest to find his three loyal allies, and the eight sanctuaries on Earth.

Despite it’s seemingly epic plot, the game art design is similar to the Sunday comics, Peanuts. Set in the 1990s US, the enemies Ness encounter (mind-controlled by Giygas himself) includes signposts, fire hydrants, stray dogs, cranky old women, and of course, the new age hippie. The weapons are equally generic, such as bats, yo-yos, slingshots, water-bottle rockets, and frying pans. Even the music collection — being heavily inspired by the Beatles and occasionally including clips from Monty Python — gives that humorous 90s feel.

Unfortunately, as an old-school, turn-based JRPG, Earthbound lacks any compelling gameplay. Combat mode only shows the enemy you’re fighting with — not your own characters — so the special effects are rather uninspiring and merely flashy. Indeed, it was marketed back in Japan as a game designed by a Japanese celebrity, Shigesato Itoi. From the US perspective, that would be like Steven Spielberg designing a video game (nudge, nudge; wink, wink). While the game sold very well in its home country, the translation back in the US was met with poor sales. During the time when it was competing with Final Fantasy, Earthbound stood no chance: its terribly uninspired gameplay must have phased many buyers.

Yet, Earthbound’s story still stands strong even by modern standards. A simple, yet compelling coming-of-age story, it starts with a weak, mute boy named Ness, who lightly accepts this epic task, only to become homesick frequently in his travels. After making various encounters and befriending Puala, Jeff, and Poo, Ness eventually gains the courage and understanding of his role as a hero. Finally, in a dramatic climax, Ness and his party fights against Giygas, becoming one of the most disturbing and emotionally draining moments in gaming history.

Earthbound was originally released in the US for the SNES. Only one Japan-only reprint for the Gameboy Advance was produced, titled as Mother 1+2. An English patch is available for the latter game.

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Extra!

Title: Flying Man
Game: Mother (Earthbound 0)
Composer: Keiichi Suzuki
Vocals: Louis Philippe
Comments: A medley with lyrics of The Jolly Flying Man and A Bad Dream.

Title: Welcome to Mother 3 World
Game: Mother 3
Composer: Shogo Sakai
Comments: A medley of Fun Naming, Welcome!, and True Welcome!

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Introducing the chiptune music introduced in Bit.Trip Runner, Blackout City, composed by Anamanaguchi. Granted, I’m cheating a bit this time around: the music was composed and performed by the indie rock band long before Bit.Trip Runner was released, but it’s still one of the finest composition that combines NES and Gameboy sounds, with a real guitar. Plus, both the game and the band needs better attention.

Bit.Trip Runner — winner of the Excellence in Visual Arts award in Independent Games Festival, 2011 — is the fourth game in the Bit.Trip series. It stars Video Commander, who escapes from Void (the previous game), joyfully running for freedom. During his victory strides, however, he encounters the first boss, Core, which seems rather displeased about meeting him. Seemingly unable to compromise with him, Commander tries to teach Core a lesson, making new friends along the way.

Bit.Trip Runner is best described as Guitar Hero, if it were a 2D platformer. Like the flash game, Canabult, Video Commander runs towards the right at a consistent speed. For any barriers and traps that the Commander encounters, he needs to either kick, block, spring, slide, or jump over the hazards. When you execute the right action at the right time, the game plays a musical note that blends in with the background music. Conversely, failure to avoid the danger returns the character back to the beginning of the course. Essentially, each stage in Bit.Trip Runner is like a series of note freights in Guitar Hero, represented as platforms, pits, destructible walls, and power-ups.

Bit.Trip Runner innovates at merging music with gameplay and graphics. It’s a bit difficult to describe, but the way the way the game congratulates you for playing well is extremely satisfying, while the penalty for making mistakes feels heavy, but not disheartening. The game makes you feel like you’re composing its music, and it’s quite impressive how it does this. In addition, the notes generated by each successful move are dynamic, meaning you can play compose a different music in the same stages.

Bit.Trip Runner was originally released for the Wii console via WiiWare. It’s also downloadable on PCs and Macs via Steam. Additionally, a physical copy for the entire series (including this game) is available for both the Wii and the 3DS, titled Bit.Trip Complete and Bit.Trip Saga respectively.

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Extra!

Title: Galaxy Tonite (DMG Version)
Game: Bit.Trip Void
Composer: Nullsleep

Title: Epiphany
Game: Bit.Trip Flux
Composer: Bit.Shifter

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Today’s music is from Beyond Good & Evil, Home, Sweet Home, composed by Christophe Héral. That’s right: the first French composer I’m introducing in this weekly posts! Speaking of which, it looks like Cristophe will be composing music for the movie, Adventures of Tintin.

Beyond Good & Evil is another cult classic in gaming that innovated in story narrative and excellent art direction. Directed by the creator of Rayman series, Michael Ancel, Beyond Good & Evil is set in an alien planet, Hillys, that’s currently under attack against the parasitic invaders, the DomZ. The planet’s military, Alpha Sections, defends Hillians from these invaders, but as photojournalist Jade soon discovers, the military is hiding their ulterior motives.

Beyond Good & Evil is predominantly a stealth game, but includes short spurts of action, puzzle, photo-shoots, flight and racing. The game is a bit short, but does a good job at adding new gameplay that feels fresh and interesting. Visually, the game portrays a wide variety of aliens, with each citizen as a unique race. Unlike most modern games, Beyond Good & Evil makes sure the interactive allies are more varied than the enemies you fight with.

What Beyond Good & Evil does best, however, is its narrative. It was sold back when the US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, and was marketed as a criticism to those events. While I wouldn’t necessarily say this is true, it certainly highlighted the importance of protests. The game’s plot flowed well, introducing new events one at a time instead of the usual, “go defeat the 8 evil bosses” affair that was frequent back then. Because of this, the game was divided by missions, rather than levels (again, uncommon at the time). Additionally, the game requires Jade to frequent an ever-changing city where her underground muckraker group meets, and it is here where the game shines. As the player, you see this city gradually evolve from a naive and scattered population, to one that, despite decreasing citizen numbers, is unified and demanding of the truth from the military.

Beyond Good & Evil was originally released for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, but a release is available for Steam and PC. Better yet, Xbox 360 owners can download the HD version of the game, upgrading the graphics to a more smoother quality.

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Lets add in some lyrics in this one, shall we? Today’s song is from We Heart Katamari, Katamari on the Swing, composed by Yu Miyake and Yoshihito Yano, and sung by Shigeru Matsuzaki. This song is easily one of my favorite video game songs, trumping well over the more popular theme music — Katamari on the Rock — due to a better singer and lyrics.

If We Heart Katamari was summarized in one word, it’d be “weird”. Coming from a newcomer game developer, Keita Takahashi, We Heart Katamari acted as a direct sequel to the sleeper PS2 hit, Katamari Damacy. In fact, from the story standpoint, it even makes references to this. We Heart Katamari starts directly after Katamari Damacy ended: once the stars in the galaxy were restored (long story), the first game had such a huge fan-base, The King of All Cosmos and his son, Prince, decides to fulfill their many requests and favors.

To say We Heart Katamari is a surreal game is really under-selling it. The game’s objective is to roll a Katamari, a gravity ball that can pick-up objects smaller than itself, and make it as big as possible within a time limit. The more junk the Katamari picks up, the bigger it becomes. Consequently, the Katamari is able to pick up larger objects, allowing it to grow in size exponentially. Therein lies the charm of the game: it can pick up anything and everything. No ifs or buts. The art direction is certainly worth taking a look: it makes numerous jokes and references, including things like King Kong, Godzilla, Ultraman, etc. To take the words from another reviewer, We Heart Katamari is a game telling a big, hilarious joke with a stern, serious straight face.

While We Heart Katamari is a old game for the PS2, which may not bode well for many of the audience, its sequels are available on iTunes, Xbox 360, PS3, and the PSP. I definitely recommend giving it a shot. It’s an innovator that redefined the gaming landscape.

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Extra!

Title: Katamari On The Funk (Senor Coconut’s “Katamambo!” remix)
Game: Katamari Forever
Composer: Yu Miyake, Naotaka Higashiyama
Remixer: Señor Coconut
Vocals: Katamari Soul Train

Title: Overture II
Game: We Love Katamari
Composer: Yu Miyake, Asuka Sakai

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