So remember that official Legend of Zelda timeline that Nintendo released earlier in the year? You would think that would finally put people’s debate regarding Zelda’s chronology to rest. But that didn’t seem to be the case. However, GameTrailers has just released this video to help make sense of it. They go through every game (except for the CDi games, for obvious reasons) to explain each placement on the timeline and the connections to other games.
Regarding the video itself, the transitions and music used are all influenced by the Zelda games. I’m pretty sure the score used was from The Legend Of Zelda: Symphony Of The Goddesses. It’s… beautiful, man.
Now it’s been mentioned numerous times, whether through articles or podcasts, that members of the NUReviews crew don’t like the use of the terms “gamer culture”, “nerd culture” or the general labeling of people being a “gamer” or “nerd”. Needless to say, however, that these trends will continue no matter how much a small review site bitches and moans about it. It’s often difficult to truly explain your disdain for something, but it really helps when you find like minded people who can articulate their feelings better. That’s where ActionPts comes in. ActionPts is a new youtube channel barely a week old, with only two videos under it’s belt. It describes itself as a place of “Considerate analysis, critical thought and a little bit of fun with video games and topics a few degrees separate.” The only video worth watching (because currently it’s the only video with actual meat on it’s bones) is the one included at the top of this article, “You’re Not such a Nerd: Commodification of Nerd and Gamer Sub-culture”. In it Mr. ActionPts (for lack of better thing to call him), talks about the bastardization of with term nerd, and how those who label them as such so willingly are anything but that. No matter what side of the argument you stand on this video is certainly worth your time, especially if you’re one of those people who label themselves as a “nerd”.
Also he says why The Big Bang Theory is a horrible show and you’re a horrible person for liking it, but that’s just a personal plus for me.
Fighting games are the epitome of the description “easy to learn, difficult to master”. Well, at least I believe that. However if you’re lucky, you can get away with button mashing. I won’t judge you if you do. I did that all the time while playing Tekken 2 thru Tag Tournament along with Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs Capcom 2.There was also Super Smash Bros, which was loads of fun in both the casual and competitive scene, despite being overlooked by the fighting game community(FGC). Even though I learned finally how to play Street Fighter and the Marvel/Capcom fighting games (thanks to MAME emulators), I still yearned to get better. It’s when I began to follow the Fighting Game scene, using ‘The Excellent Adventures of Gootecks and Mike Ross’ video series as a starting point.
“Excellent Adventures” is a show featuring two well known figures of the fighting game community: Ryan “Gootecks Gutierrez”, FGC video producer and skilled SFIII:3rd Strike player, and the people’s champion, Mike “Mike Ross” Ross, Street Fighter IV extraordinaire. Both are founding of team Cross Counter, a Capcom-based fighting game team who also produce videos as well, Excellent Adventures being one of them. Excellent Adventures comprises of videos of Gootecks and Mike Ross playing Street Fighter IV online against random opponents with live commentary (typically quite humorous). Both being pro, you would think that it would be boring, since you would imagine them just endlessly beating everyone they play. But on the contrary, Street Fighter IV is a completely different ball park online, which is a large reason why I find Excellent Adventures entertaining. When watching, you are witness to two pros adapting and changing strategies on the fly when playing online against an unknown opponent. Sometimes, the opponent is using a cheap trick, while others are legitimately more skilled than Gootecks and Mike. Every episodes always have a different outcome, varying from streaks of victories to chasing down an opponent that left the duo ‘salty’ (FGC term for bitter). And of course, the pair have great, at least seemingly platonic chemistry, always joking around and motivating each other.
Cross Counter also produce a bunch of other shows as well. Cross Counter Live is a weekly show (currently on hiatus) where the two discuss current happenings in the fighting game community, such as upcoming tournaments and games, while also featuring special guests who are prominent in the FGC, like Combofiend and Justin Wong. There are also other Adventures series as well, similar to Excellent Adventures, but featuring other games, like Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken.
Of course, the only real way of becoming better at fighting games is practice, whether it’s training mode, playing online or against friends on the same couch. But if you hit a wall, it’s never a bad idea to hop on the internet as trying to pick up some new strategies and combos. As for myself, I’m a bit rusty, due to lack of practice. But I’m also down for a match of SSFIV:AE 2012. Just don’t be a jerk when you wreck my E. Honda.
Here on NUReviews, we’re tend to keep things classy. Sure, most of us enjoy video games and other nerdy ventures, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gentlemen. And as gentlemen, we must strive to introduce plebeians to a more refined culture. Obviously, this sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight, but rather by one step at a time. So we’ll start with this.
The first video is a 8-bit cover of the song found in the second video. The song is ‘So What’ by Miles Davis, one of the most of the most influence jazz musicians in the 20th century. ‘Kind of Blue’ is Miles Davis’ best known album. Andy Baio would agree as well, so he decided to commemorate the album’s 50th anniversary (back in 2009) with ‘Kind of Bloop: An 8-bit Tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue”. Baio got promient chiptunes artists like Ast0r, Disasterpeace, and Shnabubula to create covers for the songs in ‘Kind of Blue’. The result: jazzy bloopin’ bliss.
As a fan of video games, I enjoy the viewing the products of what gaming has spawned, including this website. What is difficult, however, is finding quality works. Two examples of these works are of Egoraptor and of Jontron. Egoraptor is known for his zany flash animations, such as Metal Gear Awesome,Girl-Chan in Paradise, and Sequelitis.Jontron is also a well known video game connoisseur, providing top 10 lists and game reviews, both paired with sketch comedies. If someone would have told me two weeks ago that these two would create a YouTube channel and release let’s play videos daily, this would of been my reaction:
But nope. This is the real deal. Game Grumps is the virtual baby of these two highly acclaimed internet gaming ‘big cheeses’ (thesaurus.com actually suggested the use of big cheese). I’ll keep my fingers crossed regarding a Battletoads episode. And speaking of Goofy…
Above you can see my alternative persona, SwagLad! Every solstice, he appears in random alleyways to stop crimes… and only alleyways. Why waste time going anywhere if most muggings and such happens in alleyways?
But what’s that SwagLad is wearing(besides the shades, cape and styling ‘stache)? If you recognize what is on the shirt, props to you, good sir and/or ma’am. But if you dont, then the shirt is doing its job.
If you don’t know where the logo came from, here’s a hint.
Now where did I get this shirt? At PerplexiTees.com. The online store sells anime-related shirts and other products. But what’s interesting about it is that all of the products are subtle, as in they wouldn’t have the name of the anime. Instead, the shirts would be actual shirts that the characters in the anime have worn, or have emblems that are recognizable to only people who have seen the show. This site provides a way to show your love for anime, while, at the same time, “hiding your power levels” or be subtle about it.
Now why would you be subtle about it? I’m not one to judge, but when you look like this, you may activate an anti-social force shield around yourself.
Alright, I know this isn’t very professional, but I’m only going to do this once. I just finished my final project game today, and it’s up for download on indiedb.com. I’d like everyone who reads this to go check it out if they can, my team put a lot of work into it and it really shows when you play. You can check out the video in this post or just go straight for the download. I’d personally like to give my thanks to my entire team, because if it wasn’t for all the hard work they all put in, none of us would be where we are today, and we wouldn’t have such an amazing game.
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