Tag Archives: video games

Thursday in the Zone

My Favorite Video Game Music

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Loving both video games and music as I do, the genre of video game music has drawn me since I was a child. Over the years, I’ve found that many video game tunes have stayed with me and become part of my music collection; music from video games has also been a way to bond with fellow players as we share about which music we like.

Today, I present to you my collection thus far, retrieved in the form of Youtube videos arranged alphabetically by series (with a small miscellaneous game section at the end). Click through and enjoy!

(Currently, I have music from these game series: Animal Crossing, Beatmania, Castlevania, Chrono Cross, DDR, Digital Devil Saga, Everybody Loves Katamari, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario. I know there’s plenty of other great video game music out there, but these are most of the ones from my collection so far 😀 )

Animal Crossing Series


K.K. Bossa – Animal Crossing for Gamecube


Marine Song 2001 – Animal Crossing: Wild World!


Neapolitan – Animal Crossing: Wild World!


The Roost – Animal Crossing: Wild World!

Beatmania & DDR Series


Sphere (Tatsh feat. K. Nayuki) – Beatmania IIDX


XEPHER (from Beatmania or DDR? No one can agree; I saw this–or a version of it–played on a DDR game)


The Legend of Max – DDR Extreme


MAX FOREVER – Flash Flash Revolution


Sakura – DDR Extreme 2


Can’t Stop Fallin’ in Love – DDR 5thMix


Exotic Ethnic – DDR 6thMix


Butterfly – DDR 3rdMix

Chrono Cross Series


The Girl who Stole the Stars – Chrono Cross


The Girl who Stole the Stars (amazing live musicians cover)


Radical Dreamers – Chrono Cross


Time’s Scar – Chrono Cross

Final Fantasy Series


Battle with the Four Fiends – FF4


Cosmo Canyon – FF7


Gold Saucer – FF7


Looking… (this is called Ahead on Our Way here) – FF7


Main FFVII Theme


On the Other Side of the Mountain – FF7


Aerith’s Theme – FF7: Advent Children


Suteki Da Ne – FF9


Not Alone – FF9


Terra – FF9


To Zanarkand – FFX


To Zanarkand – Final Fantasy Orchestra (AMAZING :D)


Hymn of Fayth – FFX


1000 Words – FFX-2

Super Mario Series


Water World Theme – Super Mario 64


Wing Cap Theme – Super Mario 64


Star Cove Theme (Cosmic Cove Galaxy Theme) – Super Mario Galaxy


First Battle with Smithy – Super Mario RPG


Forest Maze – Super Mario RPG


Second Battle with Smithy – Super Mario RPG


SMRPG Boss Battle


SMRPG Ending

Other Game Series Music


Bloody Tears (Piano Arrangement) – Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (Rey Tang, pianist)


Divine Identity – Digital Devil Saga


Blue Orb – Everybody Loves Katamari


Disco Star Prince – Everybody Loves Katamari


Wind’s Nocturne – Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete


The Forest of Hope – Pikmin


Still Alive – Portal: The Orange Box

Thursday in the Zone

AMAZING Fighting Game Moments, Captured for Posterity

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If you’ve ever played a fighting game, you’ve likely experienced those jaw-dropping moments–the move you can’t believe you pulled off (or have no idea how you triggered it to happen), or surviving a fight with so little health you thought you would drop any second.

Moments like these are memorialized in the following videos–some are compilation videos, while others are simply one captured moment. Click through and enjoy (and maybe even learn a new trick or two!)


EVO 2004 Semifinal–Daigo vs. Justin Wong. This is one AMAZING Ken vs. Chun-Li fight, which does NOT end how you’d expect!


Watch Player #3 in this Super Smash Brothers Melee Competition (with SSB:Brawl music), held in Ottawa, Ontario, in 2012.


This compilation video does start out kinda slow, but these are all epic SSF4 comebacks!


With only one half-pummeled character left on Marvel Vs. Capcom, this player battles against two nearly full-health characters on the opponent’s force…click the video to see what happens!


Marvel vs. Capcom 3/Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom Comebacks…you’ll watch these with your heart in your throat!


And this post would not be complete without a nod to Combofiend, who has MANY amazing fighting game moments to his name.

Thursday in the Zone

Game Glitches: A Source for LOLs Amid the Pwnage

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Most gamers don’t like for their games to glitch up, especially when it has something to do with saving the game progress correctly. But when the glitch results in strange character model behavior, odd map rendering, out-of-place scenery, etc., you can’t help but laugh at your screen–and, as Youtube proves, take a screenshot or video clip of the glitchy behavior.

Enjoy the following videos showcasing the accidental, hilarious, and just plain baffling world of video game glitches–we can all use a laugh when we’re gaming!


Weird glitches from the likes of:

  • Call of Duty
  • Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
  • Goldeneye
  • Red Dead Redemption
  • Grand Theft Auto
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee/Brawl
  • The Sims
  • Fallout
  • The Elder Scrolls
  • The Pokemon series


Video games of all types and franchises appear in this video. From Mega Man to James Bond, Mario Kart Wii to Street Fighter, dance games to first-person shooters, there are glitches, glitches, everywhere! (And it’s all set to music!)


Strange and hilarious game glitches from games both obscure and well-known. Be prepared to scare your neighbor with laughter. xD


Map and graphics rendering problems are only a few of the glitches this video catalogs. Character freak-outs, hilarious kill streaks you shouldn’t be able to do, in-game accidental cheats, and highly unrealistic actions, ahoy!

Thursday in the Zone

Irritating Moments in Childhood Gaming

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As a child of the 90s with a preference for Nintendo games, I was raised on the SNES, N64, and Gamecube, with occasional bouts on the Playstation 1 and even a Sega GameGear (handheld game system) for a brief time. So it’s little surprising to learn that many of my memorable childhood gaming moments come from that period of gaming, when it seemed every game side-scrolled, and controllers were physically attached to the console.

However, not all those memories are the most pleasant; some are annoying, some are frustrating, and some are downright laughable. Without further ado, here’s a short, audiovisual trip down “Argh! Not AGAIN!” Memory Lane. 😛

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Tune the following video to about 1:25 and you’ll see why Baby Mario infuriated me (as well as many other gamers). With that insistent crying, Baby Mario could potentially qualify as a teen pregnancy deterrent. xD

I was primarily a “button-masher” on fighting games like Soul Calibur 2 for the Gamecube…which meant that the science of doing combos went over my head, completely. Oh, sure, I could press all the buttons in sequence, but it would be in slow motion. Occasionally I would get a lucky combo to trigger (unlike on Mortal Kombat, next video down), but more often than not I stuck to “A does this, B does that, and A and B together do this.”

I had the same problem on Mortal Kombat–I’m not sure I ever got a combo to trigger on that game, because I was always too slow. Either that, or the quarter-circle and half-circle Control Stick commands messed me up. (This is a beginner tutorial, but it illustrates most of the combos, and their difficulty.)

Just recently, I found out I never truly finished StarFox 64. Why? Because I quit trying to fly through all those silly arches on the Corneria level! (Tune the following video to 2:30 to see them in action.)

As an 11-year-old, I found it difficult to maneuver the ship on the first couple of passes, and when I advanced to the next level without flying through them, I figured “well, it was probably only a level decoration anyway.” Some level decoration, huh? LOL!

Bonus: Other Annoying Moments Not Captured on YouTube

  • Getting almost to the end of a MarioKart 64 race in 1st place, only to be hit by a Spiny Shell in the last curve
  • Getting all the way to the end of a stage and dying before you can save (any game)
  • Making a series of epic jumps onto tiny platforms, only to get to the last jump and miss it, falling all the way back to the bottom (Super Mario World)
  • Being left behind by the uncontrollable side-scrolling screen and dying (any side-scrolling game)
  • Trying to get through an area quickly (without getting into any Pokemon battles)–and of course, that’s the moment you run into EVERY SINGLE TRAINER in the area. (any Pokemon game)
  • Making Diddy Kong do a super-awesome chain of cartwheels…straight off a cliff edge. (Donkey Kong Country)

What are your most irritating gaming moments from childhood? Tell me in the comments, and share the LOL!

Thursday in the Zone

Old-School Gaming, Part III: Donkey Kong Country

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As a kid, I loved just toying around on games, not having to beat a level in a certain time limit. Unfortunately, most of the games in my childhood valued completion under pressure rather than discovering every single nook and cranny within the game…

That is, almost every game I played except for one series: the Donkey Kong Country series. In this game series and this one alone (it seemed), the more you hunted around and tried new things, the more cool secrets you could discover–though some were harder to spot than others. Let me show you just a fun cross-section of the first game in this series…


The above video is the (hilarious) game intro and a playthrough of the first level, Jungle Hijinks. The main conflict in the game is that King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong’s beloved banana stash, and he and Diddy Kong have to fight to get it all back.


Each level ramps up just a little in difficulty and variety of challenges, but none of the levels are without secrets and fun stuff to discover along the way. This one is Ropey Rampage, the second level, which involves a lot of well-timed swings on ropes to get through the level, very unlike the level before it.


In this game, you have to use props more than power-ups to get around and complete levels–one of these props is the “cannon barrel”, which propels you more quickly across dangerous areas and can even get you into secret areas. (This particular example video comes from DKC for GBA, but it shows the barrel shooting accurately enough.)


The different scenery within the game provides new challenges with every section of the game map. For instance, the Underground levels have more bouncy tires (my favorite prop for jumping high or long distances), and the Underwater levels have waving kelp for walls, some of which you can swim through to get to secrets.


This game also had some of the finest background music of its day. Here’s an example of the Underwater level music…soothing, with just hints of how vast the water is. 🙂


This video, showing the secrets in the Oil Drum Alley map, is but an example of the hidden areas, items, and challenges sprinkled liberally throughout the game. Since the game isn’t timed, it’s well worth exploring around in each level and not trying to hurry through–you might just stumble across a HUGE advantage!


For instance, the hidden Ostrich-flying minigame…one of my favorite minigames in the whole series, just because you get to play as the Ostrich character and fly around collecting little golden ostriches to get extra lives.


Remember how I said some of DKC’s secrets are harder to get to than others? This video is a collection of how to find all the hardest hidden rooms in the game. (Now that I’ve seen this, I realize how much stuff I didn’t find on my last playthrough, many years ago! :O )


And, as with most video games of its day, DKC doesn’t fail to deliver difficult but rewarding boss battles. (This video covers all the boss battles in the game…I remember hating that purple squawking bird-thing with all the passion in my 9-year-old heart. xD)


There are also some funny scenes in the game besides the intro screen. For instance, if you lose a minigame and are playing Diddy as your primary character, he throws down his hat and stomps on it. (However, the player on this video got an interesting effect by having Diddy slide around just before the loss was triggered.) DKC has fun little human (or monkey) moments like this throughout the game.


One last secret: this video shows several warps to avoid certain levels in the game. And to think, I made it through every single level when I was a kid… 😛

To Play Donkey Kong Country

This game was released for the SNES in 1994, and was made available for various other systems through the years, including the Wii’s Virtual Console in 2006. There’s also a new game for the Wii called Donkey Kong Country Returns, which is a new story set in the same world as the original DKC.

Donkey Kong Country @ Wikipedia.com


Bonus: Though this is a ROM hack, it’s still worth watching–using a mine cart from later levels as a battering ram to get through the first level super-fast. I LOL’ed in real life watching this ownage. 😛

Thursday in the Zone

Old-School Gaming, part II: Super Mario Kart for SNES

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Continuing my foray down Gaming Memory Lane, today I bring you a post about Super Mario Kart for SNES, the game that introduced me to the “racing-game” genre, and probably taught me how to drive. (I may or may not be kidding, considering how I have to drive on the Interstate. xD)


As this commercial for Super Mario Kart shows, this game was (and still is) tons of fun. With a more realistic 3-D gaming environment (especially for 1992!), players were able to orient themselves a little better on the screen. (Not to mention that the choice of characters involved Princess Toadstool for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 2–this delighted my 7-year-old self.)

Drive with me along my fond SMK memories for a little while, via these awesome Youtube videos.


This was one of the more fun secrets in the game–taking the shortcut on the Ghost Valley level. I loved hopping across this little bridge not only in Time Trials (like this video), but during real races. What an ego boost to get around the course in so little time!


I enjoyed the Bowser’s Castle level, even though it was a little scary to play through; on this track, you could get some pretty awesome sliding action going if you concentrated and really worked at it…and if you avoided the Thwomps, of course. 🙂


Oh, the Rainbow Road course! It might make you dizzy, it might even make your eyes too dazzled to play, but it was AWESOME for my Lisa Frank-saturated childhood. It was one of my favorite levels, not least for the fact that I finally bested it on my 8th birthday. 😀


Oh, the horror! The Spiny Shell, the bane of every first-rate kart driver’s life. And yet, it was the unsung savior of those of us who seemed to get bumped to 8th place more than was proper. (The Spiny Shell, also known as the Blue Koopa Shell, targeted the person in first place and bowled them over; great if you’re not in first place, but if you are, well…)


I couldn’t find a SMK video to illustrate the Red Shell properly, so this one is from Mario Kart Wii. However, the mechanism is largely unchanged since 1992: the Red Shell targets the driver directly in front of you and bowls them over. Great for getting back at the cheating CPU player who just passed you for the 4th time. xD


Unlike the Red and Spiny Shells, Green Shells were randomized shells of chaos. Once fired, they would ricochet and zig-zag all over the course, only stopping when they finally hit a player. You could easily end up hurting yourself with Green Shells, but then again, you could potentially keep someone else from usurping your place. (I used to use the Green Shells as a weapon against tailgaters on the game. Kinda wish I could use a Green Shell in real life on the highway sometimes… :P)


With increased gameplay (and skill) came access to the Special Cup, the hardest levels in the game. Many a time I reset the game trying and failing to get a perfect score on the Special Cup, until I finally managed it about a year after I got the game. I remember being so happy I actually did cartwheels in the basement game room. xD


My favorite character to use on SMK, as mentioned above, was the Princess. Not only did I love playing the Princess because she was my favorite Mario-franchise video game character, but she was also the lightest (and therefore the fastest) kart in the game. Because she could hop over obstacles and skate across sand the fastest, her kart was the most forgiving of my early mistakes, and she could speed past others as I got better at playing. It was absolutely HILARIOUS to beat Bowser and even Mario in this game, doing a victory lap with the Princess waving the checkered flag–I reveled in it!

Summary

If you’ve never played Super Mario Kart (or any of the other Mario Kart racing games), I recommend it for some old-school fun. These days, the graphics may be a little dated, but the game is just as fun as ever! (I’ve recently enjoyed playing it through the Wii’s Virtual Console…ahh, reminiscing!)