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• 8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 2

  Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade. 5.) Final Fight CD – “Walk In the Park (Bay Area)” System: Sega CD (1993) Sounds Like: A sweaty nooner with Don Johnson. I always loved the premise of Final Fight. The idea of a city’s mayor stripping down to his underjohns and beating the shit out of unemployed people in order to stimulate job growth was really ahead of its time. Wait? Mike Haggar was actually fighting to save his daughter from an evil street gang? And here I thought the game was some kind of radical Objectivist propaganda. This Bay Area theme is classic whatever console you play Final Fight on, but the Sega CD version pushes it to the limit with gale-force porno guitars. Seriously, these riffs are like an F4 on the Fujita Scale. In my mind’s eye, the person who would get the most out of this track wears a ton of sea foam green and frequents Fort Lauderdale whorehouses. Sometimes, you just gotta be that person. When it comes to the Sega CD, the only thing sleazier is Night Trap. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo, actraiser, game boy, rare, capcom, hideo kojima, satellaview, top ten, final fight, sega, commodore 64, atari, chrono trigger, genesis, metal gear, super nintendo, atari 2600, mario paint, sega cd, tetris, star tropics, donkey kong country 2, kid icarus, solid snake, cyriaque lamar, radical dreamers, zoda’s revenge, matt gray, msx, last ninja 2, david wise, streets of rage 2, metal gear 2, yuzo kashiro

• 8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 1

  Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade. There are three reasons this list exists. First, I felt obliged to highlight 61FPS’s distinction as the gaming apparatchik of an internet sex publication. Second, I wished to showcase the unsung virtuosos of yesteryear who made masterworks using a limited palette of sounds. Finally, I intend to rebut those critics who still dismiss video games as low culture. Using the below examples, I intend to reclaim the carnal legacy of video games by evincing how early console music illustrated the gamut of human sexuality, from atavistic, heteronormative modes of eroticism to polymorphous perversity as delineated by Freud. Plus, the thought of people sticking penises into vaginas to Nintendo music is funny. 10.) Radical Dreamers – “The Girl Who Stole the Stars” System: Super Famicom Satellaview (1996) Sounds Like: Koyaanisqatsi composed on Mario Paint. Since roughly 95% of all human lovemaking involves someone with a XX chromosome pairing, I thought it necessary to seek out my female associates’ thoughts on which game music best applies to amore. The suggestions I received were few yet incisive — responses ranged from “the Kid Icarus theme” to “Who the eff effs to video games?” Ultimately though, I deferred to my own instincts and picked this pan-pipe jam from the Japan-exclusive, text-based sequel to Chrono Trigger. Composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda, “The Girl Who Stole the Stars” is easily the most romantic theme on our list. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, actraiser, game boy, rare, capcom, hideo kojima, satellaview, top ten, final fight, sega, commodore 64, atari, chrono trigger, genesis, metal gear, super nintendo, atari 2600, mario paint, sega cd, tetris, star tropics, donkey kong country 2, kid icarus, solid snake, cyriaque lamar, radical dreamers, zoda’s revenge, matt gray, msx, last ninja 2, david wise, streets of rage 2, metal gear 2, yuzo kashiro

• Game Endings Out of Left Field: Chrono Trigger and the Dream Project

  I bought Chrono Trigger for the SNES from a game store merchant who called it “The game that never ends.” If only. There eventually came a time when I had in fact seen everything the game had to offer, and all that was left was to gnaw on its bones in a future search for Schala. Still, the beauty thing about Chrono Trigger is its lack of a cemented beginning, middle and end. Sure, it's a fairly linear adventure the first time you play through...but after you've taken in your fill of the Moonlight Parade, you're encouraged to slip away and explore Crono's world from as many angles as possible. Even making the tiniest changes in the time stream before taking down Lavos could result in a whole new game ending. Go up against Lavos before you're scheduled to fight Magus, and Frog will fight him one-on-one. Visit the spiky bastard after unlocking the door to the Mammon Machine, and listen to Marle and Lucca make lewd comments about Men Through The Ages. Then there's my personal favourite: finish the game before it even starts, and visit the development staff. Read More... Posted Mar 27 2009, 11:32 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, snes, chrono trigger, super nintendo, nadia oxford, chrono trigger ds, game endings out of left field

• Chrono Trigger's Box Art Still Makes My Head Buzz

  I've never been a big fan of Chrono Trigger's box art. I love the game to pieces. I love its story, its music and its character designs. “Akira Toriyama” will be the last words to burst from my mouth in a bubble of blood when Mouseketeer revolutionaries, seeking to empower western animation, unsuccessfully try to force me to renounce my love for the manga-ka. But I just don't dig on Chrono Trigger's cover illustration. It certainly doesn't rank anywhere in Mega Man's Hall of Box Art Horrors, but it's too busy, there's an inflated sense of intensity, and it was a jarring change from the quiet RPG labels I was used to in the 16-bit era. The boxes for Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III on the SNES weren't as stylish as their Super Famicom counterparts, but they were recognisable. The “T” styled as a sword in the American Final FantTasy logo, though not especially creative, was iconic. Square RPGs outside of Final Fantasy still featured calm box art that carried a hint of mystery about the contents within. Secret of Mana, for instance. Chrono Trigger's box art, on the other hand, is bold and loud. Though it's obviously a finished piece of work, it feels like a piece of concept art that was randomly selected to represent the entire game. I look at it and I'm helpless to stop my mind from wandering into Geekville. I start thinking, “Why is Heckran on Death Peak? Why is Crono alive on Death Peak? Wait, maybe that's 12,000,000 BC? Those winter clothes are actually kind of badass, but we never see anything like them. Why would Frog even bother to look for a contact lens that's buried in two feet of snow?” (I know, I know, it's the Arc Impulse Triple Tech—for which Marle is incorrectly casting a Fire spell). Read More... Posted Feb 20 2009, 10:07 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, snes, rpg, chrono trigger, final fantasy II, retro, 16-bit, nadia oxford, box art, final fantasy III

• Roundtable Discussion: The Relevance of Japanese RPGs

  Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Bob Mackey. This week’s conversation deals with the mythical and possibly endangered beast known as the Japanese RPG. The genre really seems to be suffering during this generation, for two major reasons: 1.) escalating development costs due to the new necessity of high-polygon, HD resources and 2.) developers’ inability to combat the most damning problems of the genre. Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a few JRPGs hitting the shelves that feel half-finished at best; and even when a fully-realized JRPG comes along, I worry that the absolutely abysmal pacing the genre is infamous for will end up sucking all the fun out of what could be a fantastic game. To start us off, I have two basic questions: 1.) What does the genre need to do to become interesting again, and 2.) what do you think it will do? On a side note, the only RPGs I’ve been interested in lately have been ports of remakes of classics. Is this a sign that the genre is becoming antiquated and only accessible to those (admittedly, quite a few at this point) with an understanding of its unique grammar? Read More... Posted Feb 13 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, final fantasy, rpg, japan, chrono trigger, cole stryker, square-enix, dragon quest, square, jrpg, bob mackey, mother, squaresoft, joe keiser, roundtable discussion

• Dialect In Games: It Don't Come Easy

  The rules of writing are as cemented and sacred as the playbook for Calvinball. My favourite authors tend to ignore minor grammatical roadsigns like the period and the quotation mark. Even so, there are two common pitfalls an aspiring writer should avoid: 1) Don't publish a book called “Hitler Was Awesome!” 2) Don't make your characters speak in any kind of dialect unless you know exactly what you're doing. Mastering dialect is a like harnessing a Tyrannosaurus Rex to a caravan of tanks: you'll kill millions of you fail (and it is very easy to fail), but if you succeed, holy shit, what power. Dialect has been slipping into more and more games writing, and results have been mixed at best. A good game localisation—indeed, good writing in general—does not require a bunch of funny voices to laugh at, which points at the main problem with employing dialect: many games writers and localisers treat it as a cheap means of adding depth to a character. Read More... Posted Jan 20 2009, 10:39 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, chrono trigger, writing, nadia oxford, dragon quest iv, dragon quest viii, dragon quest v, chapters of the chosen, dialect

• Crono: My First Aeris Gainsborough

  You remember Aeris' death in Final Fantasy VII, right? Sephiroth dropped from the sky, brandishing his very big sword, and he spit Aeris like a piece of sacrificial lamb on a shishkabob. Cloud broke out the pitas, Cid stirred up the hummus and—no, wait, that didn't happen. Aeris died in Cloud's arms and it was very sad. There, that's what happened. Aeris's death, though curiously dry (not a drop of blood was spilled—what kind of impotent Jesus stand-in was she?), was a stunning event for the gaming world. Until the moment Sephiroth fell on her as neatly as a dart flying to a pub's board, it seemed unfathomable that a game character could die. Forever. No take-backs. Unfathomable for some. Not so much for others. Read More... Posted Jan 08 2009, 12:01 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: snes, chrono trigger, Playstation, retro, marle, super nintendo, crono, 16-bit, final fantasy vii, nadia oxford, chrono trigger ds, aerith, aeris

• Chrono Trigger Musical: A Lovelorn Frog

  It's not easy being green, amigos. Especially when you're valiant Mr Frog from Chrono Trigger, and you don't want to risk offending your beloved Queen Leanne with suggestions of romantic bogs and external fertilization. What do frogs naturally do when they're troubled and/or horny? They sing, of course. They sing their hearts out. They lament their fate (“Oh God, so slippery!”). In this animated Chrono Trigger musical, Frog does just that. He doesn't expand his throat though, so don't get too excited. Read More... Posted Dec 18 2008, 10:44 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, chrono trigger, square-enix, nadia oxford, frog, musical

• Picking Chrono Trigger Clean

  Mackey just reminded me of something. Well, Mackey reminds me of a lot of things, primarily of when I was a sexy leopardess who drove across Canada, solving cold murder cases. Let's keep this in the context of games, though. Mackey's post reminded me of a different age of gaming, when we used to pull apart games like so much shredded pork in hopes of squeezing just ten more minutes of gameplay from the battered cartridge. Oh, to find one more secret. Oh, to tie up that loose end. The Internet in 1995 was polluted with gaming "secrets" like the exact rain dance you needed to perform in order to resurrect General Leo in Final Fantasy VI. And Schala could be revived in Chrono Trigger, of course. All you had to do was the hokey pokey while waving a chicken over your head. I performed a lot of these crazy rituals. I was desperate to find Schala. I thought the key lay in the Last Village--more specifically, in Janus' chatty purple cat, Alfador. I thought Alfador could lead me to the answers. He didn't, and I was very sad. Why were we so desperate to make these connections back then? Read More... Posted Dec 05 2008, 08:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, snes, chrono trigger, retro, chrono cross, 16-bit, nostalgia, nadia oxford, chrono trigger ds

• OST: The Great Mitsuda Music Heist

  Charles Caleb Colton once said "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but it's important to remember that he coined this aphorism far before the invention of modern copyright laws and Japanese RPGs.  That being said, Breath of Fire III composers Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki must've had Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mistuda dead in the sights of their flattery gun (it shoots flattery, you see) while composing at least one of the tracks of Capcom's long-running RPG franchise; the similarity between the piece in question and one of Mitsuda's own is unmistakable. If you're wondering why I've kept this news to myself for over a decade, here are some answers: A.) Chrono Trigger DS is out, so this is semi-relevant, and B.) The existence of YouTube means it's finally easy for the lazy (i.e., me) to easily provide such a comparison.  Square-Enix, when the lawsuit is over, I'll gladly take a generous "legal consultant fee." Anyway, here are the songs in question: "Secret of the Forest," composed in 1995: "Forest Theme," composed in 1997: Shocking, I know. Read More... Posted Dec 05 2008, 05:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ost, music, chrono trigger, yasunori mitsuda, chrono trigger ds, breath of fire

• The Best Chrono Trigger Ending

  In case you didn't know, the new DS port of Chrono Trigger has a brand spankin' new ending; but, as is the case with most of the game's endings, it isn't too much to get excited about. This new ending does kinda tie up the whole Magus-Schala thread, but after Chrono Cross, we learned that this plot wasn't necessarily worth tying up--at least, not in the terms of Cross' convoluted story.  Once I tried reading an FAQ to figure out just what the hell happened, and the entire left side of my body shut down for a few days. It may seem like sacrilege to diss the endings of Trigger, but most of them are essentially little goofy puppet show vignettes; though my opinion could be coming from the fact that I suffered through the PSX port to view most of them.  However, there are a few I genuinely like.  And my favorite is the sickest one of all: Yes, we have inter-species love far before Sonic 2006, and also the revelation that Queene Leene is into some sick, sick shit.  I wonder, what happened on their wedding night when the unholy union between man and beast took place?  Need to consult some fan-fiction.  Be back in a jiffy. Read More... Posted Dec 04 2008, 01:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: chrono trigger, chrono cross, bob mackey, chrono trigger ds, bestiality

• China Trigger

  Most of you out there are probably playing Chrono Trigger DS--or at least you should be. I have to admit that I'm a total hypocrite, though; if I do play through Chrono Trigger again, it's not going to be for a while.  Listen, when you suffer through hours upon hours of Chrono's abysmal PSX port to unlock some pretty pedestrian bonus content, you need to take a little break.  I'll be at the five year mark around springtime, so please look forward to my coverage of Chrono Trigger DS in April 2009. Believe it or not, there are versions of Chrono far worse than the PSX port, which was like playing a beloved RPG while immersed in quicksand. Our industrious friends in China actually produced their own pirate Famicom version of the game, as they've done in the past with many other games that have no business being on an 8-bit platform.  Maybe this video will show you why: Diagnosis: adorable--in a "broken toy on a thrift store shelf" sort of way. Read More... Posted Dec 02 2008, 02:45 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: chrono trigger, square-enix, piracy, bob mackey, chrono trigger ds, bootleg

• Your Way: Chrono Trigger and The Glory of Options

  I spent the Thanksgiving holiday not shopping, not overeating, not doing much of anything outside of that most traditional holiday pursuit: catching up with family. Not the extended fam, just the nuclear, and even then we weren’t all around. Sometimes work and obligation gets in the way and not everyone can make it home, just the way it goes. It was just me and the parents. And Chrono Trigger, obviously. A true homecoming, really; early winter playthroughs of Chrono Trigger have been, for me, as much a tradition as seeing loved ones during the season but I’d fallen out of rhythm over the past three years. Excited as I was to play the game again, I was going in with some trepidation. Not over the two new dungeons, the new ending, or the re-written dialogue. (The script, by the way, saw far more significant changes than was previously reported. The re-write isn’t bad by any means, but some of the charm of Ted Woolsey’s original is lost.) No, I was worried about the incorporation of the PS1 version’s animated cutscenes. I skipped the earlier re-release because the thought of slowdown in Chrono Trigger is nauseating, but getting to avoid the cutscenes was an added bonus. Nothing against the anime stuff, it’s fine that it exists, but the game’s story simply doesn’t need those scenes. Not to mention how they break the game’s seamless presentation. So it was a nice surprise when I saw this screen. Read More... Posted Dec 01 2008, 07:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, resistance, nintendo ds, the legend of zelda, mega man, gamecube, chrono trigger, super mario galaxy, mega man anniversary collection, persona 3, resistance 2

• Your JRPG Narrative is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

  I recently gave up on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World a scant four hours into my experience for one reason alone: the game was literally stabbing me in the brain with its narrative.  It's not that DotNW's story was exceptionally bad; actually, it was delightfully mediocre, which is really all I can ask for from a JRPG these days.  The biggest problem, you see, is that DotNW's stopped to show me its accursed story about every 5 seconds, like an attention-starved child waving a macaroni art project in my face. "Yes, I see. Very nice. Daddy's trying to play his game now." Listen up, JRPG developers: the stories you're trying to tell?  They aren't necessarily worth telling.  In fact, I can really only name two RPGs in the past decade that've had stories which ranked far above "serviceable:"  Final Fantasy XII, and Mother 3--note that the latter of these two was written by an actual writer.  I may come off as kind of snobbish with this post, though I think that just comes with age; there was a point in my life when I thought RPG plots were totally tubular, but that was back when I was in high school.  Turning into a cranky old man has given me the benefit of perspective; through experiencing a number of excellent narratives (across various media), I've obtained standards that I can't quite drop.  (Also, I need some way to justify my expensive BA.) The problem of lousy narrative is a pretty big hurdle for JRPG developers, but I've taken the liberty of coming up with some easy-to-follow and unsolicited solutions. Read More... Posted Nov 26 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: chrono trigger, mother 3, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, story, tales of, tales of symponia: dawn of the new world, narrative

• Devildom String Orchestra: Music, Masks, and Madness

  The hardcore American video game fan has been known embark on some pretty wild and awesome projects, even if some of them do happen to be complete fakes.  But there's just something about the industriousness of the Japanese hardcore that puts all of us to shame; just take a look at any Japanese-created levels of LittleBigPlanet, and you'll realize their devotion eclipses ours by a pretty large margin.  So what, exactly, am I getting at here?  Well, in researching Friday's post about the music of Mother, I stumbled upon a collection of YouTube videos that were too cool to keep to myself. The Devildom String Orchestra (at least, that's what I think the entire group calls itself) is a collection of Japanese musicians that arrange video game and anime music into real, live instrumentations. And they do all of this while wearing extremely creepy masks.  The most disturbing thing about this group, though, is that their videos really aren't getting the attention that they should.  You can access all of them by going to Tuengxx's YouTube page, but I've highlighted a few of the better ones below for your convenience. A very nice Chrono Trigger medley. More tunes after the cut. Read More... Posted Nov 24 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, music, chrono trigger, fan projects, bob mackey, final fantasy v, fan art, dragon quest iv

• Adding a Thirteenth to Twelve Delicious Flavors: Chrono Trigger DS’ New Ending

  *Spoilers ahoy* I’ve spent twelve years telling people that my favoritest game in the history of games is Chrono Trigger, and it’s the truth. When I scour my brain for one game, one singular work that embodies everything a game can and should be, Chrono Trigger is the one that springs to mind. The art, the music, the layout, the story, the music, the battle system, the music. Everything works in tandem, nothing is out of place. But you’ve heard this all before, from me, everyone else here at 61FPS, and every other soul typing away on the internet. It bears repeating today, though, because Famitsu announced that, alongside Chrono Trigger DS’ two new dungeons, the re-release is getting a new ending as well. Read More... Posted Nov 10 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, chrono trigger, chrono cross

• Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

  I spent a long time bitching and whining about composer Yasunori Mitsuda's (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears) lack of presence in current-gen RPGs, only to find out that he's still putting out music, albeit on quite a few games that have yet to make it to the states.  But there's something about his work on the DS--a system he seems pretty comfortable with these days--that feels a bit watered down to me; I eagerly await the day when he pens his next soundtrack for a system that can support the stellar work he did on titles like Chrono Cross and Xenosaga. But until then, we'll always have Kirite, Mitsuda's absolutely beautiful orchestrated concept album from 2005.  Square Haven gives a nice description of this amazing album: Kirite is a combined effort between Yasunori Mitsuda and Chrono series producer/writer Masato Kato. It adds a musical illustration to the accompanying novel Kato wrote, "Five Seasons of Kirite", which tells the story of a boy named Kirite, and the girl Kotonoha. The music plays out like Mitsuda's other standalone non-game albums such as Sailing to the World, with a gentle introduction comprised mainly of explorations of the album's main theme, followed by an element of mystery and unveiling, then capped by dynamic battle-style pieces and closed off with what amounts to an ending theme. Indeed, the album progresses much like your average videogame soundtrack. But really, you don't need to understand Japanese to get the most from Kirite; the music speaks for itself. Here's "The Market In Volfinor," which is one of my favorite songs from the album. Listening to it makes an RPG happen in your brain. All in all, Kirite feels like a true successor to Mistuda's Chrono Cross soundtrack, and it's definitely a nice snapshot of what the composer can do.  I shouldn't be spiteful about all the work he's putting out on the DS, but damn it, just listen to Kirite!  This is something we need more of. Read More... Posted Nov 07 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: ost, chrono trigger, chrono cross, xenogears, yasunori mitsuda, bob mackey, kirite

• Our Emulation Habits

  A long, long time ago (actually, it was just this past Friday) fellow blogger and 61FPS boss-man pined over his inability to emulate.  I'm afraid that I'm a bit less romantic than John, even though my feelings about emulation have changed slightly over the years.  But when I first started emulating--man oh man--it was like some sort of amazing technology I dreamed about but never thought would exist.  As is the case with most people who caught onto emulation, I got hooked on NESticle back in 1997, and spent the copious amounts of free time I had (I was a dork in high school, after all) downloading all the games from my past I was dying to play again.  If I'm not mistaken, I think this was also the year that SNES emulators--a baffling proposition at the time--first started to support sound.  I remember downloading a .wav file of the Chrono Trigger opening song as played through the soon-to-be released SNES9X and sitting there completely awestruck.  Yes, even then I realized how nerdy I was. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 06:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: snes, nes, chrono trigger, mother 3, translation, bob mackey, seiken densetsu 3, rom hacks, emulation

• The Weakest Link: Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross

  Chrono Cross is the official sequel to Chrono Trigger, and I often wonder if it should have been. I really enjoyed Chono Cross: the graphics are beautiful, the music is stunning and the cast (even though it numbers in the trillions) is generally fun to hang with. As its own game, Chrono Cross is a Playstation must-have. As a sequel to Chrono Trigger, however, it's kind of off-colour. Following up Chrono Trigger with Chrono Cross is like eating a zuccini right after an ice cream cone. Both taste good, but for entirely different reasons that don't mix well. There stands an excellent chance that Chrono Trigger DS will hammer some hasty bridges between it and Chrono Cross, and I really wish it wouldn't. The Playstation re-release of Chrono Trigger (avoid avoid avoid) already established links between the two, so I fear it's too late. You may have noticed that I mouth off a lot about how the quality of game stories can stand to be closer to what you'd find in a book. I don't know if there has ever been an author who took over a beloved universe and promptly killed off its cast in the most half-assed manner possible in order to move in his roster, but if there is, I doubt he made any friends. Read More... Posted Oct 27 2008, 06:42 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, chrono trigger, Playstation, square-enix, chrono cross, nadia oxford, game story

• WTFriday: The Chrono Trigger Anime

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week. We're all excited about Chrono Trigger again--and why shouldn't we be? This November, we'll finally have the chance to pay $40 for a game we could've plunked down $70 for back in 1995. I'm such an unabashed Trigger fan that I actually unlocked all of the bonus content on the terrible PSX port of the game. Hey, it was new, and it was Chrono Trigger, so I was all over it. So when the Chrono Trigger anime surfaced just a handful of years ago, of course I wanted to see it. It felt like some sort of crime that an animated version of one of my favorite games could be made and hidden from the world for so long. Only after watching it did I learn that the real crime was the making of the Chrono Trigger anime. But you don't have to take my word for it: Insightful criticism after the cut. Read More... Posted Oct 17 2008, 10:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: snes, rpg, chrono trigger, square, anime, bob mackey, wtfriday, chrono trigger ds

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 3

  Donkey Kong Country – Snow Barrel Blast Donkey Kong Country isn’t the most fondly remembered SNES game out there. It was marketed to hell and back in 1994, its pre-rendered characters shoved down millions of gamers’ gullets as a final grasp at technological relevance before the dawn of 3D gaming’s rule. At heart, it’s a simplistic and fun platformer whose visuals have aged poorly. But certain stages in DKC still impress fourteen years later, thanks to a combination of inspired graphical presentation and deft sound arrangement. Snow Barrel Blast is the best DKC has to offer. An ice level that seems simple enough when Donkey and Diddy Kong emerge from an igloo at the start but soars when the sky starts to darken and the level goes from sunny winter landscape to brooding driving snow storm. It’s purely aesthetic, not informing the game’s basic platforming at all. But its beauty makes it the one thing memorable about DKC besides the hype. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:10 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 2

  Lost Planet – The Whole Game Lost Planet, Keiji Inafune’s attempt to make Halo for Japan, is one of this console generation’s most underappreciated games. The shooting is tight, the levels are impeccably designed, the automated-grappling-hook platforming is neat, and the Starship Troopers-bug baddies are some of the cooler looking HD threats out there. Sure, it has some clunky parts, but the good far outweighs the bad. What’s more, the entire game is all about snow and ice. The initial stages, wandering the frozen wastes of E.D.N. III, are still jaw dropping. It isn’t even the swirling snow or the ice-bound cities; it’s the sound, the crunch, of stomping through snow drifts. My teeth grit just thinking about it. The snowy setting is also behind Lost Planet’s health system. Your health is constantly draining because of the cold, so you’re forced to constantly collect the body heat of felled foes. That is cooler than crawling inside a Taun-Taun. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:05 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 1

  Autumn may only be a few weeks old, but, as it is with all seasons, you can feel its successor growing during the increasingly long nights. It’s getting cold and the chill has got us thinking about cool things, here at 61 Frames Per Second. As a result, we’re doing two things. One, we’re quoting Batman and Robin far more than we should. Two, we’re thinking about ice levels. Ice levels, like fire levels, refers to a theme more than a specific element. An ice level is more than ice. It’s freezing water, driving snow, strong wind, and grey skies. It’s gaming that makes you want to wrap up in a giant bearskin rug. Naked. Or not, to each their own. Here, we present to you, the top ten greatest ice levels in gaming history. – John Constantine Chrono Trigger – Death Peak *Spoilers. Big Ones.* The snow-capped peak is not an uncommon locale in role-playing games. You’ve been there before: there’s a giant monster, typically abominable, waiting for you at the summit, and the journey to him is guaranteed to entail solving an ice block puzzle or three. You are also guaranteed to find some convenient Ice Armor or even, if you’re lucky, a Fire Sword. Chrono Trigger’s Death Peak, the lone natural environment in the Lavos-ruined 2300 AD, is different. It is, ostensibly, optional. Like everything else in Trigger’s end game following the silent hero’s death, you can skip the mountain entirely, though ascending it is fundamental in reaching the plot’s true conclusion. Death Peak is the physical embodiment of everything at stake in Trigger’s conflict, a frozen place inhabited by stray creatures, cold, and Lavos’ offspring, growing fat on decay, waiting to leave the dead planet to claim others as their own. Its challenge is both environmental and emblematic: your surviving heroes must push against snow and wind, against nature, to both save the world and also their fallen friend. No boss waits at the pinnacle, just a dreary sky and a chance to use the Chrono Trigger itself. When Crono is resurrected, the wind and snow cease, the sun emerges from the clouds and is eclipsed. If you choose to see it, it is the turning point in the game, the moment hope overcomes despair. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• Japan Scares Me: Tokyo Game Show Rising, Strangeness, and Panty-shot Beat ‘Em Ups

  Does it ever. Japan has me trembling in my delicate booties. Typically it’s just one thing or another that gets me quaking in abject terror: a bizarre fan-made video here, a witch molestation game there. Today, Japan’s working overtime. Gaming exists, at the Japanese moment, in a state of flux. Traditional gaming appears to be dwindling – way back in June 2007, Screen Digest predicted that 89% of Japanese households would own a Nintendo DS, a number that will likely need to be increased after the DSi releases later this year – while simultaneously thriving thanks to Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable juggernaut. Major publishers continue to consolidate while the nation’s auteur creators start crafting more and more games to suit Western tastes and flock to Western publishing houses. Hell, the Xbox 360, an American console, outsold the PS3 throughout September. Things are topsy-turvy over there. It’s enough to make a man skittish, especially with the Tokyo Game Show due to start in just forty-eight hours. Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo ds, xbox 360, wii, psp, shadow of the colossus, ico, fumito ueda, team ico, chrono trigger, tokyo game show, japan scares me, dsi

• The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama

  Recent videos of Chrono Trigger DS reveal the same game we aspired to marry thirteen years ago (has it been thirteen years? Holy crap, I could've done something useful like rear a thankless teenager) but the sharp among us have noticed...ch-ch-changes. Specifically, it looks like the in-game text has been altered a bit. This means it's possible Chrono Trigger DS will be receiving the Final Fantasy VI Advance treatment. This treatment, by definition, aspires to keep the charm of Ted Woolsey's original translation, but will still fill out text that had to be cut because of space issues or censorship. Personally, I'm not even sure what can be restored. The blossoming shitstorm has fanned my fascination for The Chrono Trigger Re-Translation Project, a project that's considered about as useless as using an umbrella to deflect a falling piano. Unlike most fan translations, the Chrono Trigger Retranslation Project website doesn't open up with an animated .gif of Woolsey burning at the stake. Regardless, its existence rubs me the wrong way because it's so unnecessary. The Internet is a toilet bowl brimming with Useless, but this little turnpike on the Information Highway really just gets to me. Even though the project managers acknowledge that Woolsey did an okay job translating Chrono Trigger under the circumstances, this little bit of smugness gets under my fingernails: [S]ome essence of the game was lost or altered, given Nintendo of America's censorship standards and the inability of the game to hold all the original text when translated to English. SNES-era RPGs were so gosh darn playable, but I think they also owe some of their longevity to great translation. Final Fantasy VI was dark and brooding and despite Woolsey's best efforts, I sometimes felt like I was out of the loop--and there were instances where the censorship dusted the in-game content as carelessly as kitty litter covers...you know. But Chrono Trigger is a shonen game. A boy versus a great evil. Great story, to be sure, but lacking in depth. And that was okay because the game wasn't trying to be deep. Read More... Posted Sep 12 2008, 07:48 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: final fantasy vi, chrono trigger, fandom, ted woolsey, nadia oxford, fan translations, chrono trigger ds, translators, drama

• Ten Reasons Why Secret of Mana Sucks

  Caution: Humor and Satire Within. I want to make two things abundantly clear. I love Super Nintendo-era Squaresoft. I love those games with a ferocious passion that transcends nostalgia. I am not being cute or silly when I say that Chrono Trigger changed my life. It did. Had I not played that game for the first time in December of 1996, I would have never kept writing, would have never been listening to the soundtrack which led to my getting up the courage to making a move on my first serious girlfriend, and a number of other causal ripples coming out of that formative experience. I also want to make it abundantly clear that I have very little time for baseless hating on anything, whether it be a human being, a flavor of lollipop, a book, or videogame. That said, Secret of Mana sucks and I hate it. I have tried. Lord knows I have tried to play, to beat, and to love that game. I have tried so damn hard. But the truth is inescapable. It sucks and it will always suck. Here’s why! Read More... Posted Sep 12 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, top ten, chrono trigger, square-enix, virtual console, secret of mana

• Kenichi Nishi and Kenji Eno’s Newtonica Brings iPhone Gaming Into the Realm of Awesome

  I have been, in general, pretty resistant to the iPhone mania that’s overtaken many hundreds of thousands of folks. They’re attractive little devices but, well, them things are expensive. Plus, it remains to be seen whether or not it will come into its own as a gaming platform. The version of Spore Maxis has cooked up looks like a neat diversion but not many other games seem particularly interesting. For example, a friend of mine downloaded Super Monkey Ball and told me that when the game wasn’t crashing his iPhone, it was a chore to actually control anything. Newtonica, a new game from the ever fertile mind of Kenichi Nishi, now has me chomping at the bit to actually hand over some cashey money to Steve Jobs. Why? For starters, Nishi was the field designer on Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger, the founder of Love-De-Lic, and the designer of Skip’s Chibi-Robo. That’s what you call a pedigree right there. Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, mario, eegra, chrono trigger, iphone, chibi-robo, skip, Kenji eno, Kenichi nishi, love de lic, newtonica

• Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?

  Chrono Trigger is coming to the DS this holiday season, and we should all be happy.  If it were any other game, Square-Enix would be lambasted for bringining such a quick-and-dirty full-priced port (plus the typical five-dollar "Square tax") to its brainwashed fans, but this is Chrono Trigger.  Since the game has basically been out of print for 13 years, and available only as a gimped PS1 port for seven of those years, it's nice to hear that we'll get a legal, playable version of Chrono Trigger without a dead save battery and sans loading times.  I don't know what pushed my through the Final Fantasy Chronicles version of the game, but I'm going to go ahead and blame September 11th. One of the nicer bits of news about Chrono Trigger DS is that the soundtrack--one of the best, technically and musically--has actually survived the transition; this is no small feat, what with Square-Enix's GBA remakes sounding both tinny and crunchy.  You can credit the greatness of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack to the SNES sound chip--which certainly was a great tool--but Yasunori Mitsuda deserves most of the acclaim for putting together one hell of a soundtrack.  And it was his first! But in the past few years, it seems like Mitsuda has been slumming by working exclusively on forgettable DS RPGs. This is something the needs to change. Read More... Posted Aug 20 2008, 11:30 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: where is, chrono trigger, ds, yasunori mitsuda, bob mackey

• The Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack - An Inside Look

  In this exclusive follow-up to our interview with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack producers David "djpretzel" Lloyd and Larry "Liontamer" Oji, djpretzel himself gives us a breakdown of four tracks from the game: E. Honda 'Dosu-Koi' djpretzel "This was the track that I set my sights on early in the process. McVaffe has had an excellent mix of this track on OCR for a long while, modeled after Madonna's song 'Music,' but Capcom weren't feeling it for in-game usage, so I decided to take a shot.  My initial version was way too aggressive, and got the hundred-hand slapdown itself, but I went back to the drawing board and did something mellower, with more of an emphasis on Asian instrumentation.  There's shamisen, koto, shakuhachi, AND taiko in there, so it's got the 'big four' of Japanese instruments (more or less) and is more appropriate to the sumo bath house setting." Read More... Posted Aug 15 2008, 01:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, battletoads, capcom, taito, double dragon, super street fighter II turbo hd remix, zelda, final fantasy vi, ocarina of time, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, tim follin, donkey kong country, street fighter ii, lemmings, mega man ii, super mario galaxy, xenogears, yasunori mitsuda, space harrier, streets of rage, alex kidd, final fantasy vii, lunar, david lloyd, solstice, liontamer, super maroi bros 3, road rash, shinobi, yuzo kushiro, super castlevania iv, silver surfer, zuntata, alph lyra, dave wise, ghouls 'n ghosts, masato nakamura, koji kondo, 61fps q&a, tokuhiko uwabo, revenge of shinobi, dream house, ecco the dolphin: defender of the future, blood on the asphalt, djpretzel, yasuhira watanabe, spy hunter, spider-man and the x-men: arcade's revenge, oc remix, smurfs, larry oji, kazunaka yamane, jose e. felix, big giant circles, the grammar club, jimmy hinson, prozax, justin r coleman, ae

• 61FPS Q&A: David Lloyd and Larry Oji of OC ReMix on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack (Part 2)

  What are some of your favorite game soundtracks? Favorite composers? djpretzel: Yuzo Koshiro, Dave Wise, Yasunori Mitsuda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, and Koji Kondo are all amazing... Super Castlevania IV, Revenge of Shinobi, Lunar (Sega CD version!!), Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy VI , Mega Man II, and Super Mario Galaxy are my favorite game scores at the moment. Larry Oji: Favorite soundtracks and composers tend to go hand in hand. I'm a big fan of Koji Kondo's work on the Super Mario series, Masato Nakamura's on the Sonic the Hedgehog series (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, though not his, was excellent too), Alph Lyra for the Street Fighter II series, David Wise for Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads, Kazunaka Yamane for the Double Dragon series, and Yuzo Koshiro for the Streets of Rage series. That covers a lot of the games I played as a kid. Since learning more about the history of game music, I love so much stuff now, I can't even rattle it off. But my second-favorite composer, little known in the States, is Yasuhisa "Yack" Watanabe. His stuff is a lot more known in Japan, including as a member of Taito's Zuntata group, but almost no one tries to arrange his material; it's pretty far out there, so I can understand why. Sometimes his stuff doesn't resonate with me, but he's put out some incredible compositions. Then my personal favorite is British composer Tim Follin, whose nearly two-decade career composing for games was unparalleled, as far as what I've personally enjoyed. Check out his compositions for Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Solstice, Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge and Silver Surfer. He always strove for creative techniques and cool textures with his chiptunes. Plus, his modern soundtracks like Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future and Lemmings for the PSP were equally impressive. I've been slowly plugging away at a small OC ReMix album project paying tribute to his work, so before the end of this year, Dirge for the Follin should finally be out there, lamenting the fact that he retired from the industry. Read More... Posted Aug 14 2008, 10:00 AM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: peter smith, battletoads, capcom, taito, double dragon, super street fighter II turbo hd remix, zelda, final fantasy vi, ocarina of time, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, tim follin, donkey kong country, street fighter ii, lemmings, mega man ii, super mario galaxy, xenogears, yasunori mitsuda, space harrier, streets of rage, alex kidd, final fantasy vii, lunar, david lloyd, solstice, liontamer, super maroi bros 3, road rash, shinobi, yuzo kushiro, super castlevania iv, silver surfer, zuntata, alph lyra, dave wise, ghouls 'n ghosts, masato nakamura, koji kondo, 61fps q&a, tokuhiko uwabo, revenge of shinobi, dream house, ecco the dolphin: defender of the future, blood on the asphalt, djpretzel, yasuhira watanabe, spy hunter, spider-man and the x-men: arcade's revenge, oc remix, smurfs, larry oji, kazunaka yamane, jose e. felix