Music of the Month; I’m cheating a bit here

It rained today. Screw the sunny music I was going to use, let’s go with this.

Reason? It wasn’t just raining today, it was thunder and lighting as well. ’tis also one of my favourite songs.

It’s going to be busy summer. I still aim at two posts per week, but lately not only my own schedule has been killing me a little bit, but my editor’s personal life also went through renovation. Life has a tendency on meddling with planned things like that. To add to this, the next few weeks will be living hell now that I’m going to finish with deadlines for the current project I’m involved with, which also means that I’m going to be involved in a new project that will kill me and most likely force me to work on graphics and we all know that I can barely do logos. Oh well…

To mention some more recent events, industrialised plagiarism lifted its ugly head this week because of Marimekko. Kristina Isola, the designer who plagiarised Maria Primtšenko’s, did nothing new or extraordinary. She did what people deem like a huge evil act is something we allow film directors, musicians, game designers and God knows who else to do on regular basis. The buzz here is mostly because the design Isola did became rather popular. Again, nothing new. However, I have to laugh a bit at Primtšenko’s grandson, Ivan, who says that The designer most likely didn’t do it on purpose.

I’ll tell you one industry secret on designers; almost all of them lie and plagiarise intentionally. They won’t tell you about it, because they hope never to be caught. They call it with other names, like being inspired or that they got the idea from somewhere. The customers allow this to happen in most cases, and by extension the industry allows it to happen. I repeat; this is industrialised plagiarism.

Quality design stems from professional craftsmanship. Be it industrial or whatever else. Isola certainly has enough experience and skill to be a craftsman, but because almost everybody turns the blind eye at plagiarism, she chose to be stupid.

Monthly Music; Under the Southern Cross

Once upon a time immemorial, when the Wii was still young, Nintendo hinted that they’d revive some of their franchises that we haven’t seen for some time. Naturally, we all began to wonder what games we’d see and how they would use the Wii controller. What we got was Donkey Kong Country Returns and the new Kirby games. DKCR was nice, but goddamn the Kirby games were below mediocre. Epic Yarn was just a new low, and offered very little. Kirby games in general are easy, but this game was just laughable.

All game companies have an extremely large amount of game franchises that are left in Japan. Few western developer do this vice versa, and it’s good. Nintendo had a rare gem that was meant for the Western market; StarTropics.

StarTropics is one of those games I spent a lot of time with. My grandmother bought it to me at a time when PlayStation was taking over. It’s one of the best games Japanese people have made for the Western market solely, thou the game overall had a lacklustre reception. So yeah, the game never saw release in Japan, which most likely is one reason why Nintendo forgets that it exists.

StaTropics is a Zelda clone with a dash of Goonies and other good 80’s adventure films. Your sword is a Yo-Yo and bananas are your ear-muffins. It’s a great game overall, even if it is derivative. The sequel expanded a lot on the first one, but otherwise it was a disappointment. For every step forward we got something that didn’t really work. Oh well. However, unlike The Legend of Zelda, the StarTropics games are completely linear in their nature. Then again, so is every Zelda game starting with A Link to the Past.

StarTropics has one of the best NES musics out there. Not perhaps based on what kind of samples were used (that goes for Sunsoft), and the second game is slightly better, but all the songs in there are a complete hit-or-miss deal. Some of them are awesome, while others are just another way to torture your fiancé.

StarTropics managed to gain a steady cult following, which seems to be in bed with the Earthbound fans to an extent. The possible return of Mike and other series overall is practically zero. While I’d enjoy a new entry in the series, we can all bet that it would be just like any other 3D Zelda game and would concentrate on the puzzles. Actually, the StarTropics decreases point amount for every defeated enemy, so the game kind of recommends leaving these enraged island animals and alien machines alone and concentrate on the bosses alone. Still, the fighting mechanics are just as good, if not even better, than what The Legend of Zelda had, and those were flawless. In the worst case scenario Nintendo would place it on the 3DS. If we were ever to get StarTropics III, I’d really love it to be set on the Southern Islands again. It’s an oddly exotic setting for a guy who is used to living amidst dark winter.

Monthly Music; そこに海があって

I forgot monthly music this time around. Funny how that goes.

I’ve got no real subject this time. I’ve been busy with things and thus I’m late with me schedules and plans regarding this blog, but things will come together… somehow. The LD player is in the works, kinda, and will see the day of light when I manage to nab proper screenshots and other stuff needed for it.

Otherwise, it’s winter here. The world outside is white again and getting colder. Winter was a reason I selected the above music this time from Soko ni Umi ga Atte, Mirage product. (Ha! I don’t need to label this post related to âge now.) I really like the song. I’ve got no idea what kind of genre it is or who made it or similar. I’m kinda inept and inexperienced with music that way. I know more about it’s production and what goes into it rather than who made what song at what time. I do know Dio and love me some Holy Diver, and Rhapsody’s Holy Thunder For–

Aww shit, now I need to tag this properly AND take that shot. Yes, I still keep my promise on drinking when referencing to Muv-Luv, or just talking about it. I wonder how in the world I manage to keep myself sober

Let’s point out the elephant in the room; Will I talk about Disney buying Lucasfilm? Yes, as soon as I’ve sorted my own personal feelings regarding the purchase. I need to read on the subject a bit, and at the moment we have very little info outside the upcoming Episode VII. That thing I’m hopeful for is the release of the Original Trilogy on Blu-Ray without those additions Lucas made. That would be a goldmine to Disney, especially if they include every single extra they can. Funny how the LaserDisc versions are still the best versions of the Original Trilogy next to the theatrical reels, as the DVD print that had episodes IV-VI had barely decent LD rips, where the screen actually paused for few seconds where the player turned the side of the disc. I can edit that out on my computer, so why couldn’t they? Most likely because they didn’t know about it.

I’m more concerned about Indiana Jones. But we’ll get back to the topic when the time comes.

There’s few articles sitting in the backburner at the moment. I’m not wholly satisfied how they are at the moment, and the other one needs rather slight revamp in context. The other one is pretty fine, it just has too much… Muv-Luv in it. It’s that time of the year, y’know.

It’s about a year since I started reading that. Technically, I started reading it the 30th, so the Anniversary day has come and gone…

Monthly Music; Miniskirt Guitar playing something upbeat

During these last few days (more like weeks) I’ve been tired and all that jazz. I think I need something fast, striking, guitar heavy and… yeah, that’s the one.