Author Archives: JD

Tunesday – Infinite Jukebox & Cartoon Network Groovies

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I missed last Tunesday because I was too busy playing with Infinite Jukebox. Now your favorite song never has to end.

Put in the tune of your choice, Infinite Jukebox finds different paths to follow through the song to keep it looping without it simply repeating. Sometimes the results are crazy, sometimes they’re scary, sometimes they’re scrazy.

You can pick some of the many songs that others have uploaded or upload one yourself.

Here are a few good ones I found:
Hanging on the edge of tomorrow, forever.

GLaDOS will never die.

Walking around in circles, walking around in circles…

And speaking of walking around in circles, last weeks Tunesday was going to be the Cartoon Network Groovies.

Back before it jumped the Jabberjaw, Cartoon Network had the best commercials. One example of that was their series of Groovies, songs made by surprisingly prominent artists, like They Might Be Giants and Will.i.am, even Sugar Ray and Coolio.

Here’s a playlist of a few of my favorites.

Cartoon, Cartoon!
JD

Tunesday: 2014 Pop Mashups

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Happy New Year, knurds!

The jukebox at the local bar only plays Sweet Caroline and Bohemian Rhapsody, and when I get home I just listen to the Attack the Block soundtrack on loop, so I don’t get to hear a lot of pop music these days.

After January 1st, I like to catch up on all of last year’s best songs. Luckily for me instead of binging on 52 weeks worth of Top 40 hits, all of the toe-tapping tunes I missed have been mashed up into a single megamix. Several single megamixes, actually. The future is now.
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Tunesday – Merry Christmas

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‘Tis the season for antiquated contractions.

Wishing all of the Shot Glasses knurds a happy, healthy holiday season. Team Shot Glasses is planning some big things for 2015, so sit tight and stay tuned.

Christmas Cheers,
JD

BOOSday: We’re Alive Podcast

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BOOSday: We’re Alive

Trick or Treat! In honor of Halloween, I’m playing a trick on you for this Tunesday and posting it on a Thursday. How GHOULISH!

Also this Tunesday isn’t even a song or album. It’s a podcast! FIENDISH!

We’re Alive is an audio drama about a group of survivors during a zombie outbreak in Southern California. It’s like one of your parents’ old-timey radio shows about who knew what evil lurked in the hearts of men, only with better voice acting, sound effects, and an incredible score. This podcast is dripping with atmosphere and can juggle action, drama, romance, and (of course) horror.

We’ve all seen a lot of zombie fiction in the last decade, but this has some of the best writing I’ve seen (erm, heard) in a while. All of the characters are endearing and interesting. Even the zombies have some fascinating surprises in store for you. OMINOUS!

Listen to it on iTunes here, if that’s your thing, or download the files from their website here. Listener beware, you’re in for a scare.

SHRIEKS!
JD

!em pleH
.dloc m’I
!slp PO

Tunesday – Eminem Zelda Rap Mix

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This song isn’t exactly “nerdcore,” but I’ve been on an Eminem binge since Sunday so just run with it.

The true title of this song is “Hellbound,” and the rappers you are hearing are Eminem, Masta Ace, and J-Black. I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of those last two. This song is from the album “Game Over” by Yosumi Records. I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of those last two too.

I discovered this song back into the P2P file sharing days when I was downloading all of the Zelda music I could find. The song was entitled “Eminem Zelda Mix”, three things relevant to my interests, so I downloaded it. The beat is actually a sample from SoulCalibur , “Sacrifice” by Junichi Nakatsuru. I discovered it the same night I discovered the trailer for SoulCalibur II, so imagine my excitement.

This is my favorite mainstream-ish songs with nerdy influences, followed closely by Cocoa Brovas “Super Brooklyn” and Li’l Flip’s “Game Over.” Not to be confused with Yosumi Records’ “Game Over.”

It also turns out that Eminem might be a bit of a closet nerd. The beginning of the song Rap God is sampled from a Captain America and Falcon comic and Marshall goes on to name drop Krypton and Asgard in the lyrics. Combine that with the numerous instances of superhero Cosplay and I think we have a fanboy.

Cheers,
JD

Why I’m Not Excited About Super Smash Bros. 3DS and WiiU

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In the Summer of 1999, I fell in love with Super Smash Bros. Actually, it was more of an addiction than an affair. It’s hard to describe the high of being an animate marshmallow baby suplexing a furry space pilot into a cartoon bomb, but the feeling had me hooked.

Super Crack Bros 64
Super. Craaaaaaack. Broooooooooooothers!

My addition grew worse when Melee came out. I played for hours. Days. I unlocked Mewtwo in a weekend. When Brawl came out, I brought a Wii just to continue chasing the dragon. I was the first person in Queens to perform a Final Smash (Kirby’s, of course).

But now with a new Smash Bros. game out and one more incoming, I’ve gone from addict to apathetic. Here’s why I’m not excited about Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and WiiU.

What’s in a Name

Since the announcement of Super Smash Bros. Melee, half of the excitement of awaiting the next installment of Smash Bros. has been speculating on the name. Which synonym for violence will they use this time? Super Smash Bros. Rumble? Ruckus? Beat Down? Bout? Conflict? Chaos? Battle Royale? Redemption? Anarchy? Mayhem? Armageddon? ANYTHING?

Super Crack Bros 64
Um, what did we all come here to do again? Party? Picnic?

No. Nothing. It must be laziness, but it seems unlikely that between the two development teams working on this game, not one person owned a thesaurus or knew how to Google.

Named sequels can get messy, just ask Rambo (oh, Super Smash Bros. First Blood is a good name too), but at least make a clean break and switch over to numbers, like you did with Mario Kart. Super Smash Bros. 4 sounds good. And then when you tag the system name onto the end of it, you get a free pun. Just naming games after their system was fun in the N64 days, gets less fun when they get ported to other systems, but still keep the “64.” Just call it Star Fox 3DS! And just call this Super Smash Bros. 4, for fucks sake.

Unwelcome Guest Stars

Oh, Namco is developing this game. I wonder, what are the odds that we’ll get a a guest appearance from Pacman?

All respect due, Pacman is an OG of the gaming world (Although technically Ms. Pacman was more successful, so maybe include her. At least as an alternate skin for Pacman, like with Robin. #YesAllWomen), so he has a right to throw down with the greats (Super Smash Bros. Throw Down it’s a good name too). Even more so with Mega Man, who was an early part of Nintendo culture and even a defender of Videoland, but what about all the other first party characters who haven’t made it to the roster yet?

Super Crack Bros 64
Everyone’s favorite first party character.

Dixie Kong swings into battle. Jodie Summer speeds in. Dark Samus corrupts all. King K. Rule reigns supreme. Ninten psychs out the competition. Samurai Gorath cuts in. Sukapon boots up to kick ass. Urban Fighter punches in. Ridley swoops in for the kill. Conker is ready to fuck shit up.

There are so many lists of characters that the fans what to see join the fray (Oh, Fray! Super Smash Bros. Fray is an awesome name!), but they were passed over for Shulk? With all of these gorgeous androgynous swordsmen in this game, Smash Bros. is starting to turn into Soul Caliber game. We really should not have let Namco near this.

We Want More Weegee!

This game was officially revealed in 2013, otherwise known as the Year of Luigi, so I was hopeful that there would be some major news concerning our favorite second fiddle. But Luigi’s time in the lime light came and went with no announcements. Man, what’s a Mario Brother gotta do to get a little respect around here?

Luigi Death Stare
No wonder he’s so pissed.

I love Luigi’s moveset, but he’s been a Mario clone for four games now. Differentiate him from Mario and give him moves based off of Luigi’s Mansion or the Mario & Luigi RPG series. Or replace Dr. Mario with Dr. Luigi, then give Mario a Paper Mario clone with moves from the Mario & Luigi RPG series. Or give me a new character called Mario & Luigi and give them moves from the Mario & Luigi RPG series.

Why the hell does Super Smash Bros. ignore the Mario & Luigi RPG series?

They could at least give Luigi some company. Daisy’s got next. Waluigi wants to party. King Boo is dying to fight. Professor E. Gadd is gonna school you fools. Polterpup is feeling scrappy (Super Smash Bros. Scrap is a terrible, terrible name, but still better than nothing).

I wish I could be more excited about Super Smash Bros. Brawl for 3DS and WiiU, but it’s so obvious that Sakurai sold out and designed this game to sell hardware (3DS and WiiU), software (Xenoblade Chronicles), and peripherals (Gamecube controller adapter and amiibos), at the expense of the fun (no more Ice Climbers or switching characters).

I guess I’ll just wait for the sequel to DreamMix TV World Fighters. Hopefully they finally buff Optimus Prime and bring him up to top-tier.

GAME!
JD

Tunesday: Sonic and Hip Hop

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Sonic the Hedgehog and Hip Hop is a perfect fit. And it’s not just because of his fixation on cool sneakers and gold rings.

Everyone knows that Sonic can really move, but most people forget that he also has an attitude. After all, he was the original bad boy (can’t stop, won’t stop, eh-eh!) of video game mascots. He had a swagger to him that Mario just could never match. Sure, it seems like Mario threw more parties, but that’s only because you weren’t cool enough to be invited to one of Sonic’s.

For this Tunesday, I picked three OverClocked Re-Mixes that combine Sonic and Hip Hop into a rhythmic Resse’s Peanut Butter Cup of awesomeness. So check out these great songs:

One of the coolest tracks from Sonic 3, turned into an ice cold instrumental for Just Us to lay down some below-zero auto-biographical lyrics. Brr!

One of my favorite tracks from Sonic Adventure, Unknown from M.E. Re-Mixed with some fun surprises, especially as Jose pummels the last verse with rhymes and references.

I loved OverClocked Assembled’s work on the APEX 2014 album and this track gives Sonic CD the same all-star treatment.

Never forget that Sonic was once voiced by hip-hop icon Jaleel White. Where was Urkel when they made, Shadow the Hedgehog? Am I right?

All the previous tracks are available to download for free from OCRemix, here, here, and here.

Cheers,
JD