After a long hiatus, friend of the site The Greatest Bits returns with a Street Fighter II tribute album.
Capcom’s legendary fighter also contains some of the most iconic video game music of all-time. Each stage theme perfectly captures the personalities of each character and the on-screen action. The Greatest Bits sent me a copy of this album to listen to and I think this features some his best work yet.
If you like what you’re hearing from the track above, grab a song or the album on iTunes.
I owe a lot to the original Rocksmith. With its help, I achieved my lifelong dream of being able to playing the guitar with some form of competency. Sure, I have a long way to go before I can rock a sold out stadium, but I’ve developed a foundation of knowledge and skills to play music today with a clear road map for growth that I can follow with or without the game. Case in point, I was able to learn the song 22 by Taylor Swift without any assistance from the game, which I think was a huge milestone in the development of my guitar skills.
With that said, that original Rocksmith didn’t make the learning process as seamless as it could have been. On a fundamental level, it was a good teaching tool trapped in a bad video game, as its traditional career mode ended up hampering the learning process for players of all skill levels. This time, Rocksmith 2014 cuts any pretense of trying to be the next Guitar Hero to instead focus on being the best guitar teacher it can be.
Rock Band at face value is the logical next step from Guitar Hero. With the inclusion of drums and vocals, it took a rather solitary experience and made it one of the biggest multiplayer phenomenons of this generation. As a franchise, Rock Band has set the standard that all rhythm games should aspire for. Based on its merits alone, this game would have made my list regardless. However, it appears so high up because of the life-changing impact its had on my life.
I’ll never forget the moment when I first heard Royals by Lorde. Steff and I were in the car. As I tend to do, I flip between radio stations playing all different types of music. Stopping on our local alternative rock station, I was caught off-guard by the sounds of Lorde’s harmony over 808 drums. “Why is this station playing this song?” I asked. “No idea,” Steff replied.
Since then, it’s not just our alternative station playing it. Come to our neck of the woods and you can find Royals on our urban station, pop stations, rock stations and even our adult contemporary station. She’s managed to create what I call a ‘genre-neutral hit’.
There was a period in my life when drawing was a passion of mine. Armed with a piece of paper and a pencil, I would spend hours drawing assorted pieces. Then one day, I stopped. At a certain point, I could no longer find it in me to just let the pencil go where it needed to. Instead of a blank canvas being an opportunity to explore, it became an insurmountable obstacle. I haven’t drawn anything in earnest since.
There was also a period in my life where making hip-hop beats was a passion of mine. If you’ve ever listened to The Recurring Bosscast, then you’ve heard a few of the 100+ beats I created during my run. Though the process was never easy – especially since I was never formally trained in music – I honed my craft to the point where I was really proud of the jams I created. But just like my penchant for drawing, my ability to just go with it disappeared. Instead, I’d sit in front of FL Studio, making a lot of noise, while not piecing anything together to form a composition. I haven’t created any new music in years.
What happened?
As I continue down the path of guitar proficiency, I still reflect heavily on that one fateful day over 20 years ago when my dad tried to teach me how to play. He sat me down with his full-sized acoustic, and asked me to play a C chord until I got a feel for it. On that day, I never did get that feel. Instead, I felt the pain of the strings slicing through my fingers, the pain of my hands contorting in an awkward manner, and the pain of my childhood dreams being crushed by the presumed reality that I’d never be good enough. Until Steff gave me the Rocksmith guitar bundle last year as a Christmas present, I hadn’t picked up a guitar in earnest since.
In the last few months, I’ve overcome the once insurmountable psychological hump I created for myself back then and am enjoying the instrument with the limited skills I currently have. I definitely see myself continuing to work at it from this day forward. However, I can’t help but think about how I could have grasped the concept of guitar playing back then had certain things been handled differently.
Having gone to two Video Games Live shows to date, I figured that my experience with The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess would be very similar to that. Despite both being orchestral shows, they’re very different in feel. In the case of the latter, having a narrower scope to work with definitely worked in its favour.
Last year, I was totally bummed out over the fact that I missed out on the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess concert. I told myself then that if they ever came back, I’d buy tickets as soon as possible. In fact, I bought the tickets for tonight’s show so long ago that I almost forgot that it was happening.
From the deeply personal subject matter covered on Late Registration, to the emphasis on singing on 808’s & Heartbreak, I’ve always admired Kanye West for constantly pushing the boundaries of what hip-hop music can be. Kanye’s latest opus is his most daring yet. Featuring a heavy emphasis on grungy synthesizers and unusual vocal arrangements, this is an abrasive audio assault that the genre hasn’t seen since Public Enemy was in style. But is it good?
Have you grown tired of cutting a rug with Ubisoft yet? Based on how well the Just Dance series continues to sell, probably not. Just Dance 4 is the recent main-line entry to the series that’s mostly another one of those. However, for fans of the series, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Also, the Wii U version that I’m playing has a few console-exclusive perks that may be enough get you back on the dance floor once again.
In Third Person 