PAX East 2013

Instead of doing the usual essay-like PAX write-up, I decided to do something a little different for this year's PAX East. The photo above contains most of what I picked up in the expo hall. Each item is labeled with a number, which will have a description below.

1) Delver's Drop is a 2D, Zelda-style action RPG. It is available on multiple (non-console) platforms.

2) This is actually a card for Atom Zombie Smasher. It was only picked up because they had no cards for Quadrilateral Cowboy. Quadrilateral Cowboy is a super cool-looking, "20th century cyberpunk" game. Tons of points to these guys for making something original.

3) This was a card received from one of the panelists of the "So You Want to Make Chiptunes" panel. He is the creator of a "web-based musical sequencer" called Pulseboy. While I most likely will stick with LSDJ, Pulseboy looks like a pretty solid tool.

4) GCW Zero is an open-source handheld. It's light, has a simple design, a solid screen, and can probably emulate any pre-DS era game. It's pretty pricey at $160, but I can't really think of any other handhelds like the GCW Zero.

5) Indie Game Stand showcases a new game every 4 days. You get to pay what you want for them too. Sweet.

6) Organ Trail is a zombie parody of Oregon Trail. As tired as the whole zombie thing is, this game is pretty fun. You can play it right in your browser, but the Director's Cut is available on Steam and on mobile devices.

7) Indie Royal is an indie game bundle. The more people buy the bundle, the higher the "minimum" price goes up. Though, if you pay more than the minimum, the price stays low.

8) There was a booth for the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game.  Each day, they gave out a new pin. So, I made sure to collect all three. It seemed like a standard Mystery Dungeon game, but in 3D.

9) Anne is the first part of my name. So, it's natural A.N.N.E. would get my attention. It is a pretty-looking "platformer with RPG elements."

10) Jungle Rumble is ridiculously cute. It is a rhythm game where you take control of cute monkeys, collect  bananas, and fight off evil monkeys. Your movements and actions are dictated through a beat. It's not out yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for it.

11) I did't need to play Mercenary Kings because I know it will be good. I did want those free stickers, though.

12) Another Usagi Yojimbo game, but this time it's for mobile platforms.

13) Rack'n'Ruin is another 2D, Zelda-style action RPG.

14) While at the Major Magnet booth, I was complimented on my Sonic shirt. The developer said, "We're big Sonic fans!" Playing the game, I could definitely tell.

15) Tanto Cuore was a huge hit with my group of friends. So, Kanzume Goddess definitely caught my eye.  It's another deck-building game, but $25 is a great price.

16) Dungeon Hearts is a fast-paced RPG puzzle game. If an old JRPG made a baby with Bejeweled, this might be it.

17) Romino Games went the way of Uber Entertainment and ditched all XBL support for AwesomeNauts. In other words, I won't be buying AwesomeNauts ever.

18) Boot Hill Heroes is like if Earthbound and Wild Arms made a baby, but it was more American and less Japanese.

19) The Spearhead Games booth was made to look like a lab, and it caught my eye immediately. In their game, Tiny Brains, you are some kind of cute, small hamster or mouse. It is a co-op, puzzle game where the solutions are infinite.

20) Replay'd sold used games and consoles. They also sold vintage game merchandise like a Mario cake pan and some Mario ceiling fan blades that looked like they were from 1986. (Unfortunately, they don't really sell anything online.)

Nutjitsu (not pictured) is cute little game from Ninjabee. You play a cute ninja squirrel with a sack of nuts, running away from foxes. It's not out yet, but I hope it comes out for more than just the iPad.

"Oriental Whore".... I mean "Whore of the Orient"

When I saw this, my jaw dropped and I yelled, "Excuse me?" either we just went back a hundred years, and we still somehow have Twitter or someone made a poor choice. It turns out it was the latter. (Though #AllBlackPeopleShouldKNow would be further evidence of going back in time.) Although "Whore of the Orient" is an old "nickname" for Shanghai, why dig up something like that and make the title of your "triple A" game?

Back in November, an article in Financial Review mentioned George Miller acquiring the rights to Team Bondi's Whore of the Orient. It was the first mention of the game, but it was not mentioned again until Team Bondi updated their website today. Hence, the title of the game trending on Twitter. Unfortunately, I have yet to play L.A. Noir, and haven't kept up with any Team Bondi news. As far as I knew, they didn't exist anymore.

The game is about 1930s Shanghai, which actually sounds interesting with, "Western powers who greedily exploit the Chinese masses..." and "...the Kuomintang ruthlessly trying to suppress Communism and the labour movement." But WHY oh WHY would you call it that awful nickname Whore of the Orient? Team Bondi, did you know at one point in American History, Americans thought all Chinese women were prostitutes? They believed so strongly in this, the government made it almost completely illegal for Chinese women to immigrate to the United States under the assumption that they were all whores. To this day, Asian women are synonymous with sex. Just check out these Google image searches. While I don't have any opposition to what the game is about, why title the game with such a loaded stereotypical term?

Hip-hop for Fandom

My love for hip-hop and games were never mutually exclusive. I learned about Japanese hip-hop artists through Bemani games. Japanese hip-hop eventually led me back to American hip-hop, thanks to J-hip-hop influences and collaborations. While I appreciate all kinds of hip-hop, nerdcore is a sub-genre I can especially appreciate. Like most music, there's a lot of unfortunate crap you have to weed through to get to the good stuff. For those of you who may be new at this, I'm going to try and make it a little bit easier for you by making a few artist recommendations.

Random (a.k.a. Mega Ran) is my #1 pick. He was recently featured on complex.com for his amazing freestyling at E3, and his Mega Man albums are officially licensed by Capcom. He is lyrically skilled and is frequently backed up by familiar, but wonderfully remixed samples and beats. Find all of his music here. The best from Mega Ran is the tracks he did with K-Murdock. My favourite is below.

This next artist was introduced to me by my boyfriend (who will, from this point on be referred to as "Tanuki"). Tanuki works in information security. Information security has a small community. So, it didn't take long for him to find YT Cracker. His latest track was titled "#antisec" and was in regards to lulzsec being caught. He's a smart guy with smart lyrics. Find all of his albums here. Find one of his catchiest tracks below, "The Link."

Adam WarRock's music has a wide variety of subjects, from Mass Effect 3 to Parks and Recreation. Once, I randomly saw his name on an Asian-American blog. I thought, "Why is Adam WarRock featured here?" I had no idea he's Korean American! He's a lawyer turned rapper and keeps relevant with regular releases. You can find his albums here. Also, check this one out, it's about the best show on television.

These artists are just a teeny-tiny fraction of nerdcore. For a much more comprehensive list of nerdcore artists, check out nerdcorenow.com. I'll definitely be making more recommendations in the future.

The Gamer's T-shirt

Over two weeks ago, I visited friends and family for a weekend in LA. A good friend of mine, Emil, told me he was very conscious of the t-shirts he wore around my boyfriend and me because we always had "such cool and unique shirts." This post is for Emil, but I think some of you out there can find it useful too. Below are my recommendations on where to find the best t-shirts.

My number one choice is Meat Bun. Giant Robot in LA carries their shirts in-store, but you can also find them online at their website. The shirts incredibly soft and made in the USA. They are also the only place you can get Paul Robertson's artwork on a t-shirt. The shirts are still loud in their big designs and use of color, but when referencing a game, the imagery and text are not obvious as to where they come from. My only complaint about them is their complete lack of women's sizes. Though, I like them enough to buy a shirt from them and put the time into altering it so it fits me.

Another shirt company I recommend is Kineda. The shirts are limited run, so I suggest you like them on Facebook or sign up for their mailing list. Keep a look out for their new World Warrior collection which is officially licensed by Capcom. Their interpretations of game characters are simple and Hello Kitty-like. The screen printing on the shirts is absolutely perfect and they use my favourite choice in basic clothing, American Apparel.

One game clothing company I have always admired, but have never been able to afford is King of Games. They carry t-shirts, hoodies, and button down shirts. All of their designs revolve around retro games and their work is incredibly detailed. It even comes packaged in a cool box! Though, the shirts run ¥3500 to ¥6000. The bad news: after overseas shipping, you're pretty much paying BAPE prices on t-shirts. The good news: the chances of running into someone with the same shirt at PAX is slim.

One company I discovered recently is Bitmap'd. Their designs are simple and subtle. Though, I can't speak for the screen print or the t-shirt quality, there's only one way to find out. (They also do not carry women's sizes.)

Here are two places I don't recommend for gaming t-shirts. Shirt.Woot carries limited run designs, which is a good thing. Though, recently they increased their prices and stopped printing on American Apparel shirts. They switched those out for cheaper shirts made in Honduras. I wouldn't have minded the price increase if they stayed with American Apparel, but this move made me stop buying from them completely.

The other place I don't recommend is Threadless. They are a great company with good quality t-shirts, but do not buy their gaming shirts. Why? EVERYONE has my Space Invaders shirt and it's kind of embarrassing. Not only do I see it on at least ten different people every time I go to PAX, I even ran into an a grey-haired, overweight man at an appliance store wearing it. That's how common it is. Some people don't mind this, but I am not one of those people. I'm not saying don't buy from Threadless at all. The problem with my shirt is that I bought it as a re-print.  If it stays limited run, your experience with the shirt would probably differ from mine, but you never know if a limited run shirt from Threadless is going to be re-printed or not. 

Stay tuned for a future post on recommendations on what to wear with that gaming t-shirt!

Chiptune Favourites

Apartment Therapy is a blog about making a small home prettier and more livable. Why one of the blog's writers, Chris Perez, decided to make a post about "8-bit video game music" baffled me. (Their post on Zelda fireplace art makes more sense.) Maybe chiptunes make my life more enjoyable, but they are certainly not a way for me to improve the design of the World War II Cape Cod house I live in.

My house before chiptunes.

My house after chiptunes.

Perez included themes from Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaidan, etc. I am curious to know if the author knew anything about the current community surrounding chiptunes, and if he did, why did he not post about it? Of course this old music is great, but there are so many talented people who have remixed, rapped over, and mashed up old game music or made their own original tracks. Chiptunes are just a one genre of game music. There's VG rock, metal and nerdcore, but for now, I'm just going to show you some of my favourite chiptune artists.

For the most part, this artist does not create his own chiptunes, but he does a fantastic job of remixing old ones. He is the quintessential video game DJ, and he has the perfect name, DJ Cutman. I met him once at Katsucon 2011 and he was a super nice guy too. I recommend his Gamechops Vol. 1, as well as Gamechops Vol. 2. The one below is the one I've been listening to repeatedly for the past few days.



From the Smashing Pumpkins to Buddy Guy, some of the best acts in the world come from Chicago. I find most chiptune artists come from the East Coast, but there is one I know of from Chicago, and they are great. They remind me of Weezer and they are the only chiptune artist I know of signed to a record label. This summer, you can find them on the Warped Tour. They are I Fight Dragons. Check out this fantastic video of theirs, which was recently featured Nintendo Video (in 3D too).



You would think someone would be served a cease and desist letter somewhere. Well, it has definitely happened to Team Teamwork, and it hasn't stopped him. His mashed up mixtapes include Ocarina of Rhyme, Vinyl Fantasy VII, and Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. He is the master of the video game mashup.

Chiptune covers are also easy to find. My latest discovery is Quinton Sung's Radiohead covers. Considering OK Computer is one of my favourite albums of all time, it was great to experience the album again in a new light.



These are just a few examples from the big world of game music, and this definitely will not be my only post about it either. Video games and music are two passions of mine, and when you put them together, some kind of inexplicable magic happens.