Tag: Mac OSX

#WeeklyGameMusic: Skate Park Shuffle (Create)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Regulars of #WeeklyGameMusic know I often find some rather obscure game music pretty often. Here’s one from a little-known sandbox game called Create, developed by EA Bright Light. That’s right, we’re checking out Electronic Arts game music this week! Ian Livingstone’s piece, Skate Park Shuffle, is a bit corporate at the beginning, but soon mellows out to a rather calming (and more interesting) conclusion.

A bit like the The Incredible Machine, the most game-like aspect of Create involves the player to use the items and tools available in the pre-made levels to push, nudge, and navigate an object from point A to point B. Much of these levels take place in the 2D plane to provide a simpler interface, though lanes of depth can be added like LittleBigPlanet. And of course, much like LittleBigPlanet, Create allowed players to create and share levels online, though as of this writing, the servers has long been shut down.

Create was released on PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. As far as this writer can tell, there does not appear to be a way to purchase the game online easily, but the official game page is available here: ea.com/games/create

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Opala (Two Worlds)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Sometimes, this #WeeklyGameMusic post series likes to look into tracks from unexpected places. Take, for example, Two Worlds by Reality Pump: a game touted as the Oblivion/Skyrim-killer…then fall into complete obscurity as rapidly as it came in. It once returned back to fame in 2016’s Summer Games Done Quick…where a speedrunner beats it in less than 3 minutes. Well, surprise, surprise, the game has a really beautiful soundtrack! Opala, in particular is a stand-out composition from Harold Faltemeyer.

(Psst! You can buy the soundtrack on iTunes! music.apple.com/at/album/two-worlds/699269326)

Two Worlds opens with the hero’s sister getting kidnapped and held for ransom. It turns out the kidnappers are planning nefariously to unseal Aziraal, the god of fire, from its tomb. It’s up to you to rescue your beloved family member…by taking on a huge number of quests factions give you.

As one would expect of a game dubbed Oblivion-killer, Two Worlds is an open-world WRPG. Customization and freedom is the key goal of the game, as the hero’s individual attributes and skills can be incremented per level-up in any way the player pleases. Naturally, the player can gain favors from the game’s 7 factions by taking on quests each one gives, thus changing their alliances. And of course, if you really want to, you can outright kill villagers if you so desire. Normally a bad choice, but said mechanic can be taken advantage of…such as the aforementioned 3-minute-long speed run.

Two Worlds was released on Xbox 360 and PC. A sequel for the game was released as well, this time on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, and Mac OSX.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: AIN’T NOTHIN’ LIKE A FUNKY BEAT (Lethal League Blaze)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Need a little more funk this week? We’ve got you covered! This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is from Team Reptile’s Lethal League Blaze. The highlight? AIN’T NOTHIN’ LIKE A FUNKY BEAT, composed by Hideki Naganuma, of Jet Set Radio fame. Definitely keep those ears peeled, because the moment you blink, you’l-

Lethal League Blaze is a fast-paced, innovative fighting game that’s shockingly easy-to-learn (even simpler than Super Smash Bros.!), yet hard to master. First, the iconic weapons each selectable cast member wields cannot be used to hit the other opponents directly. Instead, the objective is to hit a PONG-like anti-gravity ball into three (or less) other players like a baseball. Players who gets hit will lose health: when it reaches zero, it’s game-over.

But wait, there’s more! The move-set all characters share — strike, bunt, and throw — effectively acts as rock, paper, and scissors: useful for catching your opponents off-guard. Furthermore, each time the ball gets hit, it’s velocity increases. Meaning as time marches on, the ball will get faster, and the matches become less predictable. Lastly, every character has their own special, which spices up the way they hit the ball in unexpected ways. Utilizing all these tools effectively should help you overwhelm your opponents!

Lethal League Blaze is available on PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam. It’s also available for download and purchase on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Finally, the game has quite a following, including competitive tourneys. For more info, I highly recommend checking out Akshon Esports’s primer on it.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Lone Survivor (Lone Survivor)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

It’s been a couple of weeks now since you’ve locked down in your own apartment. How long can you go like this? To ease your mind, you turn on your favorite music collection, “#WeeklyGameMusic.” Superflat Games’ melancholic theme song for their game, Lone Survivor, plays. A fitting theme by composer and game designer, Jasper Byrne.

As you settle down, you think to yourself, where does it all begin? It started with a contagious infection. At first, it was just on the news. But you then hear a friend of a friend catch it. Then your neighbors. And now it’s just you. You, a lone man with a surgeon mask on at all times so as to not catch the virus. All of your friends, now violent monsters…

You snap yourself out. No! Focus on surviving through this terrifying apocalypse! What do I need to do? Well, obviously, you need to collect some food. With monsters infesting your neighborhood, that’ll mean stealthily crawling through every nook and cranny to find what limited resources you can find. Fortunately, you have a pistol to incapacitate the monsters. It’s not much, since you’re a bit short on bullets…and said monsters are probably your friends…and you’ll probably lose your sanity shooting them…but it should help.

Well, you have to start somewhere. Saving at the bed all day isn’t going to get you anywhere. Time to open the door, to the sanity-slipping outside world…

Lone Survivor is available on PC and Mac via Steam. It’s also downloadable on Playstation 3, 4, Vita, and Wii U.

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