VGM of the Week #35

Josh here again with another VGM of the Week. This time, it's a track from the newly released (in Japan) Black 2 and White 2. WARNING: There's a possibility that this might contain a Spoiler, so just in case, I'll throw in a break.

Let's Try That Again - Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Yes, we of course love Kirby here at Adamant Ditto and nobody loves him more than Ricky (except maybe Tim), so Ricky decided to play the classic Kirby's Adventure...But then he changed his mind and played the remake instead. So get ready to take on Whispy Woods, King Dedede, Tock Tick, kamikaze UFOs and green Waddle Dees in this GBA remake of one of Kirby's most classic appearances.




We've been kind of short on material recently, mostly because we haven't recorded much. Well, we have some footage for a future LTTA recorded but it's a long one so who knows when that'll go up. The point is, I'm sorry we haven't had much lately. But it's okay because Ricky decided to do a new Let's Play for us of Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. It's a pretty funny one, if I do say so myself. So be sure to check it out.

Adamant Ditto Review: Pokemon Conquest

 So, it's not as wizard as Ricky's release day reviews, but I still nabbed a copy and played the hell out of it so we can talk about it here. With that out of the way, who's ready for a new Pokemon game? Everyone apparently, since this game is selling like metaphorical hot cakes.

New Pokémon Sheet: Clefable

Man, I need to do more...It's been a while, yet again...I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, what with Black 2 & White 2 out...in Japan...I've been listening to some tunes from the game, and I think I may have come across one that I think you guys might enjoy *HintHint*

So, here we are, Clefable. A Pokémon that was said to come from the moon...Anyway, despite Clefable being a more or less bigger version of Clefairy, there's not much to say. I like Clefairy, so I like Clefable...It's a pretty cool Pokémon, with a great Ability in Magic Guard.

Next up are two Pokémon who evolved when a Shellder attached to either end of their body. (Yes, I know, this is really obvious)

VGM of the Week #34

Last time around, I promised to pick a song not from a Nintendo console.

I wanted to show some love to the original Playstation, and I agonized for a while over which game to pay tribute to. Eventually I landed on Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, easily my favorite Crash game and nestled snugly in my top 5 Playstation 1 games of all time. If you've never checked it out, I'd highly recommend downloading it from Playstation Network.

Here's a nice little industrial ditty that I catch myself humming from time to time; it plays during the game's sewer levels (The Eel Deal, Sewer or Later, and Hangin' Out) and it's one of the more memorable tracks in the game. It was between this or the music from the Jet Pack stages!




Did you know that Mark Mothersbaugh composed the Playstation Era Crash games? Yes, that Mark Mothersbaugh, from Devo? He also composed the incidental music for Rugrats and Rocket Power, but he was able to give Crash Bandicoot a fun, unique, Australian flavor of its own. Pretty cool.

3DS XL Breakdown

Wait, this thing is Real? And it's Coming sooner than you might think!

Let's Podcast - Adamant Ditto Two Year Anniversary

Yes, it has been over Two Years of Adamant Ditto and we decided to celebrate the occasion by recording a podcast involving us talking about all our favorite and least favorite moments as well as getting the chat involved to discuss theirs. The fun thing about this one is that it has a bunch of clips to go with it, making it like a Let's Podcast Clip Show. Which is why it's more than a little late going up. But hey, better late than never right? So sit back and enjoy our two year anniversary podcast!

I worked really hard on editing this so please watch it and love it and if you don't love it, lie and say you do.

First part's below, it links to the others.

Seth Killian Leaving Capcom

Seth Killian, community manager, PR and all-around nice guy, is leaving Capcom this Friday to pursue other interests. Seth has been working with Capcom for a few years now on many of their fighting games such as Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. So much so that the final boss of SF4 was named after him. Seth has always been a fan first and a Capcom employee second, but he's always been a great guy.

You likely know by now that we don't have much respect for Capcom anymore these days and seeing the one guy at Capcom who seems to actually give a damn what the fans think leave is absolutely heartbreaking. Seth has always been present in the fighting games community, commentating at events such as Evo and just supporting competitive players and fighting game fans for years. Capcom just won't be the same without him and I personally think with his departure, they now have nothing left to offer anybody. Yeah sure, there's Yoshinori Ono, but he seems to just be going through the motions and doing whatever Capcom wants at this point. Seth actually seemed to care about the games and the fans.

Thanks for being there, Seth. Hope we still get to see you at Evo and hope you go to work for a better company. Just keep being you, buddy.

Hackers do what Nintendon't: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Splitscreen Co-Op Mod

It's really impressive to see the kind of stuff people can do when they get their hands dirty in some of the game's code and turn it into something else.  Project M, DayZ, even fan translations for games like Mother 3, are all cool mods. Soon you'll have the ability to play 2 player splitscreen co-op in Super Mario Galaxy 2 where each player plays as one of the brothers instead of a cursor on the screen. It's apparently still early in its development with obvious hitches and no release date, but it shows a lot of promise.

The modder behind the project goes into detail in the comments about how he gets it to work:

It's two Mario objects, upon initialising the second object the flag that usually dictates whether it is Mario or Luigi that is loading is set to the opposite state, resulting in one Mario, one Luigi (and both characters have the physics that they're supposed to, i.e. Luigi comes with his low traction, etc.). As for the split screen, that was made from scratch by halving the render size of the game world, and on alternating frames, rendering the game world from both characters' perspectives

VGM of the Week #33

As though by some cosmic force I got the VGMW for Mother's Day and now I have Father's Day as well. Well, there's not I Big Daddy sort of video game to play off of Cooking Mama, feel free to correct me because I'm sure I'm wrong, but because of that I wanted to just post something from my dad's favorite game. Unfortunately he's kinda taken the course of hating video games and barely tolerates my gaming obsession. But he did love Star Wars, the old 1983 Atari Arcade game! Unfortunately, no one give a flying alliteration about that game's music. Literally, this is all I found:



So I'll go a little out there and give you this; the first console game I ever owned all thanks to him.


I swear I'll do something cool when it gets back around to me.

New Pokémon Sheet: Sandslash

Wow! It's been a while since I finished a Pokémon Sheet! Seriously, it's been 19 Days (Counting today)! I guess you guys aren't sick of me anymore...Anyway, onto the Topic at hand:

Sandslash is and always has been a bad-ass looking Pokémon. It's stats aren't exactly the best, aside from it's pretty great Attack stat. I've always wanted to make one in-game, but I never did...Also, this is more of a note, but what is it about Pokémon, and awesome looking mouse Pokémon? They're rodents! They shouldn't look so damn cute! (I guess Raticate has to fill the ugly rodent spot all by himself...)

Next up is a Pokémon who exclusively could have 'Magic Guard' as it's Ability in the Fourth Generation

Things I Would Like to see Happen with: The Wii U

So, I said I’d make this a thing, so it’s a thing...Not a thing that will happen very often, but a thing none the less (Yes, I realize that it’s been months since I last did one of these, and that was back before we knew that Black 2 & White 2 are a thing).

Wii would like to play with U!

 Now, I know that the Wii U will be out within the year, so, I’m sure we’ll hear stuff about this sooner or later...This is strictly based on the actual Console, so I’m just going to say now that I  won’t say things like “I’d like to see a Zelda on the Wii U!” The games are a given. ALL People want games on their consoles. It doesn’t need to be said, so again, this is strictly features I’d like to see on the console...

VGM of the Week #32

Finally, time for my VGM of the Week again. I have so many I want to do and I have to wait a whole month each time I want to do one. It's hard to not get anxious when waiting.

Anyway, my pick for today is a track from my favorite Playstation game, Twisted Metal 2. It may seem odd coming from such a die-hard Nintendo fanboy, but Twisted Metal 2 is a such a large part of my childhood that I can't help but be super nostalgic for it and play it all the time. I own both a physical copy of it and the download version on the PSN despite the fact that the PS3 will play my physical copy, that's just how much I like it.

Now, all of the music in this game is really awesome. There's a lot of hardcore guitar riffs and rock tracks that seem to go hand in hand with the explosive nature of the game. While I could have gone with several different tracks like Holland or New York, my favorite has to be from Paris - Monumental Disaster. Not only is it one of my favorite stages in the game but the music is just so good. It's like a rocked out version of the song Frère Jacques but with more guitar and car noises. It's awesome and totally sets the mood for blowing up ice cream trucks, formula 1 racers and the Eiffel Tower.

Let's Try That Again - Wario Land 4

Waaah ha ha ha! Ricky takes on one of the Game Boy Advance's best games staring everybody's favorite king of greed, Wario Land 4. Join us as we explore all the areas surrounding the Golden Pyramid, find treasures, help Ricky deal with his plant fetish and do some pretty awful impressions. It's sure to be one interesting experience.





Amongst all the non-excitement caused by E3, you likely forgot we occasionally make Youtube videos around here. Well, I've been putting our latest Let's Play up over the last few days and to avoid interfering with Don's E3 news, I haven't updated about it. But E3's over so now you can enjoy Wario Land 4!

E3: Fire Emblem Awakening announced via Twitter

Of all places... Yes, Twitter. It's not like they did this whole showcase specifically for most of the 3DS games they got in the pipeline just minutes before this official statement. Nope. Never happened.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/210570017471864833

We are excited to confirm a NEW game announcement coming to the US: the new 3DS Fire Emblem! More info to come.

It's not like Fire Emblem is a big franchise to Nintendo or anything. Nope. Nobody hardcore gives a damn about this relatively niche title that sold poorly in Japan.

NOPE.

It should also be noted that the news didn't even originally come from Nintendo. Rich from IGN tweeted the following after the conference;

Reggie just confirmed to us that Fire Emblem Awakening is coming to the United States.

It wasn't until after Rich tweeted his tweet that Nintendo decided to confirm the rumors. So yes, Nintendo wasn't even the first to break this news that had the potential to actually make their conference interesting.

Good on ya, Nintendo.

E3: Nintendo's Second Chance Conference Live Report

All times are CST.

- 8:07 Show hasn't started yet so... here's what I want to see for the 3DS: Fire Emblem: Awakening, a game developed by Retro Studios, and a new Zelda game.
- 8:09 Show started and Reggie jumps on stage.
- 8:10 The guy no one knew from yesterday is going to be doing the presentation. Scott Moffit, new face on the block.
- 8:11 NON-SPECIFIC ACTION FIGURE!
- 8:12 Reggie making fun of the guy while sitting in the audience.
- 8:14 First up is Castlevania - Lords of Shadow - Mirrors of Fate. New trailer with voice overs.
- 8:17 Tak Fuji Dave Cox from Konami gets on stage to talk about the game in depth.
- 8:20 Kinda too lazy to talk about the gameplay details but it looks neat. You can swing around with the whip as seen in the trailer like in Super Castlevania IV and Spider-Man.
- 8:23 Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon! You can download the trailer on your 3DS!
- 8:25 Warren Specter joined by Peter Ong are on to talk about Power of Illusion.
- 8:31 Neat trailer showing off the gameplay. Coming Nov. 18.
- 8:32 Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Nate Bidoof Bihldorff from Treehouse is talking about it. Apparently the first game he's worked on was the first Paper Mario and he's been working on it since. The localizations for these games are great. Props to Nate.
- 8:35 Traditionally in battles there's a menu with attack and item commands and stuff. In this, the stickers is what you use to issue commands. I'm not sure I like this.
- 8:38 There's no experience points from fighting battles. You still level up in a way but you have to "look around" and help people.
- 8:42 There seems to be a roulette system. In a fight you can spend coins to try a match it up so you can use more stickers.
- 8:44 Kingdom Hearts 3D trailer. July. Demo coming to eShop we know this shit.
- 8:46 Scribblenauts Unlimited for the 3DS. Not sure what's different.
- 8:47 Showcase. Lego Batman. Transformers. Rabbids Rumble. Heroes of Ruin.
- 8:48 Scott's now reminding everyone about Pokey-mon Black 2 and White 2.
- 8:49 eShop is celebrating its 1 year anniversary today!!!
- 8:51 Fuck Nintendo Video.
- 8:52 Pokeymon Dream Radar and PokeyDex 3D Pro.
- 8:53 Lego Batman 2 DC Super Heroes demo available RIGHT NOW!
- 8:54 New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the first game available for purchase at retail and online.
- 8:55 Nate's back with some dude named JC to play for him as he makes an excuse about talking while trying to play "twitch" platforming games.
- 8:56 Golden Fire Flower... IT PRINTS MONEY!
- 8:58 Coin Rush mode has you play through a random selection of 3 levels where you try to collect as many coins as possible. Through Streetpass, a friend of yours could try to beat your score with those same levels.
- 8:59 Simultaneous 2-Player Co-Op.
- 9:00 Haha, these guys are pretty hilarious. Launches 8/19/2012.
- 9:02 Presentation's over? They didn't show off Animal Crossing or any of the things I wanted to see...
- 9:03 I'm upset. At least Reggie liked it.

E3: Nintendo Conference Live Report

All times are CST.
- 10:57 Stream Started. My body is ready.
- 10:59 AHAHAHAHAHA They're showing off photoshopped versions of the picture they posted on twitter with Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie with their hands together.
- 11:00 Starting off with a teaser of Miyamoto with Pikmin and transitions to him walking on stage.
- 11:03 Miyamoto asks everyone if they notice anything around them. Cuts to the crowd with digitized Pikmin around them. Miyamoto's translator jumps on to stage.
- 11:04 Miyamoto is now talking about the black Wii U Gamepad on stage.
- 11:05 PIKMIN!
- 11:08 In addition to pointer controls, you can control using only the touch screen. Captain Olimar is not among the main playable characters. Why? It's a secret.
- 11:10 Miyamoto jokingly pretends to throw the Red Pikmin from his breast pocket.
- 11:11 Reggie gets on stage. "I FEEL JUST LIKE A PURPLE PIKMIN" - REGGIE
- 11:11 We'll see 23 Wii U titles today. I hope my body can take it
- 11:13 Sneaky Hulu, Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Video announcement because they don't have time to talk about the hardware and their focus is the games.
- 11:14 Reggie trying to get likes on Facebook.
- 11:15 Wii U supports 2 Wii U GamePads. Holy crap.
- 11:18 Miiverse stuff. Nothing new yet.
- 11:19 This was already known but I feel like I should note that Miiverse will not be available at launch.
- 11:20 New Super Mario Bros. U. Surprise!
- 11:21 BABY YOSHIS! FLYING SQUIRREL SUIT. The player using the GamePad can create blocks on the touch screen.
- 11:23 Harley talking about Reggie and introduces the president of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
- 11:24 UNIQUE version Arkham City just for Wii U titled Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition.
- 11:26 Reid Schneider, VP is now on stage to talk about the exclusive features. B.A.T. mode gives  Batman a super meter when filled, makes Bats do more damage. Remote Controlled Batarang similar to the Beetle in Skyward Sword. You'll be able to put explosive gel in places and detonate them individually on the touch screen.
- 11:29 Jeremiah Slackza now on stage to show off Scribblenauts Unlimited. Make your own creations. Multiplayer Mode. HD graphics. Wow.
- 11:30 Showcase video. Mass Effect 3. Some tank game. Tekken Tag 2 with Super Mushrooms. Trine 2. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, hopefully they fixed that. Aliens Colonial Marines. Hope I didn't miss any while typing. Most of these games are just existing games being ported over with additional features assuming.
- 11:33 "5 years ago... Yes, my body was ready" - Reggie
- 11:34 Wii Fit has sold 43 million around the world.  They're showing off a new Wii Fit... game? It's got some interesting new minigames where you spray a water gun and try to land after jumping on a big trampoline kind of thing. There's also some sort of sledding minigame.
- 11:37 New game involving everyone in the room called Sing. One of those party games. Glorified Karaoke.
- 11:39 They're now making it known that they will have most of the 3DS segment later. They'll still spend some time one it. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is all about the gold. Will be available on August 19th.
- 11:41 YEAH PAPER MARIO! "Paper Mario himself is evolving..." because of stickers! STICKERS! Paper Mario: Sticker Star. The stickers adds more game depth to the battle system as well as the overworld. For example, you can use a fan sticker to reveal hidden items in the area.
- 11:43 Luigi's Mansion 2! New ghosts that'll force you devise new strategies to approach and catch. Coming this holiday season.
- 11:45 Third party line up showcase video. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate. Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. Scribblenauts Unlimited... for 3DS. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.
- 11:46 Lego City Undercover. You guys remember the Lego GTA clone. Douse for hidden criminals using the GamePad. Change your disguise to go "undercover". Matrix parody. At the end of the video, the main character goes down a warp pipe. 3DS version in the works.
- 11:49 Reggie boasts Ubisoft and brought on Yves Guillemot to show off some games.
- 11:51 Xavier Poix takes Yves's place on stage to talk about games. Just Dance 4. They got a dance crew for Reggie. Reggie with the GamePad gets to choose the dance moves while the other players follow. "What's it like being the puppet master?" "Being the puppet master... it's kind of like being the President of Nintendo of America." Crowd laughs.
- 11:54 Trailer for Zombi U. Looks like a CG mock up of gameplay.
- 11:55 Reggie gets turned into a Zombie through the use of the camera on the GamePad and he cracks some jokes.
- 11:56 Another showcase video. Showing off all the Ubisoft games including Assassin's Creed, Rayman Legends, and a Rabbids game.
- 11:58 NintendoLand. A game meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the Wii U. Katsuya Eguchi, Wii U software producer, the guy behind titles such as Wii Sports, Resort, and Animal Crossing, jumps on stage to talk about NintendoLand. There are 12 attractions. 5 of which are at E3 and playable. They are Nintendo themed with attractions based on games like Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing. Miiverse will be integrated. Details at the developer round table.
- 12:02 Luigi's Mansion attraction will have "Asymmetrical Gameplay". Seems like Pac-Man Vs. The Ghostbusters have to work together to capture the ghost. If all the humans are downed, the ghost wins. You have to shine your light to revive a team mate. Batteries drains when you use your flashlight. Ghost can camp downed players for others who try to save him. Teamwork is essential to winning.
- 12:07 Each attraction has their own logo and they're all Nintendo related! Makes me feel all giddy.
- 12:10 "Together. Better." Their Wii U slogan.
- 12:11 Show ends with some fireworks going off in Nintendo Land.

After conference pre-recorded presentation from Iwata after the jump.

E3: Sony Conference Live Report

Going to be noting all the important and unimportant points from the conference. All times are CST.
- 8:10 New Project from Quantic Dream (developer of Heavy Rain) called Beyond: Two Souls
- 8:13 Trailer for Beyond is shown. CG looks really lifelike.
- 8:17 ELLEN PAGE. MOVIE OF THE YEAR.
- 8:20 PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale trailer. Uses music from Justice. Love those guys.
- 8:21 PlayStation All-Stars will also be available for Vita. Cross compatible between the two versions.
- 8:25 They're playing a match on stage while someone commentates on the match. Cute asian girl on stage, that must be noted.
- 8:27 Hey! It's Big Daddy. What a surprise.
- 8:29 LBP2 will be getting DLC that adds all sorts of new things like STICKERS and "Cross-Controller" functionality where you can use the PSVita as a controller for the PS3. Sounds familiar, don't it?
- 8:31 PSN games and PS+ talk.
- 8:32 They're giving out a free year of PS+ to everyone at their conference! Sounds familiar!
- 8:33 PSOne Classics coming to Vita such as Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy (Why wasn't this a thing already?)
- 8:35 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified for Vita. Move over Peace Walkr, Portable GOTYAY.
- 8:36 Trailer for Assassin's Creed Liberation. When you link Liberation and Assassin's Creed 3 on PS3, you will unlock skins. White Vita bundle that comes with Assassin's Creed Liberation announced.
- 8:40 Pirate's Creed Assassin's Creed 3 gameplay shown. Boat simulation.
- 8:44 Assassin's Creed 3 bundled with PS3. Exclusive content for it.
- 8:45 Far Cry 3 has four player co-op and the guy demoing this game has a super deep voice.
- 8:47 They're really into this co-op thing. Nice.
- 8:49 Here comes the PlayStation Move games.
- 8:51 Well that was quick.
- 8:52 "Wonderbook" uses the PlayStation Eye for AR type games or something. Seems neat.
- 8:54 I honestly don't know what to call this but "Book of Spells" is a story in collaboration with J.K. Rowling come to life through the magic of the Wonderbook and the PlayStation Move controller.
- 8:59 Oh boy, this is embarassing. The lady doing the live demo is having problems casting a spell to open the gate.
- 9:03 This might be cool for the kiddies and that second girl is cute but this is a seriously awkward presentation. Glad it's over now.
- 9:05 They will be bringing some sort of PlayStation functionality to Android phones. That's totally new.
- 9:07 PlayStation Suite renamed to PlayStation Mobile.
- 9:09 God of War: Ascension gameplay. Looks like God of War alright.
- 9:18 Room is dark. Eventually voices are heard. Of course, it's a trailer The Last of Us since they haven't showed that off yet.
- 9:20 If Ellen Page is also in The Last of Us, is that game also MOVIE OF THE YEAR?
- 9:25 Demo makes it seem the guy isn't even playing the game. The voice overs were way too situational. At least you knew they were actually playing the Wonderbook because they were screwing it up live.
- 9:28 Show's over. Final Fantasy Versus XIII wasn't shown. We've got a new Duke Nukem Forever, ladies and gentlemen.

Seven Things I Want Announced At E3

Yes my friends, it’s that time of the year again. A time for us to all huddle around our computer screens for four whole days and watch as our favorite developers and studios go up on stage to either embarrass themselves or blow us all away. I’m of course talking about E3. When it comes to the gaming world, nothing is bigger than E3. All the developers get together and announce all kinds of new stuff to knock our nerdy little socks off. Well, unless you’re Valve.

You're a wizard, Eric...

This year’s E3 is already underway, with Microsoft’s conference already taking place, offering little fanfare and nothing interesting except Halo 4 and a South Park RPG. However, all the other companies have still yet to go so might as well get some last minute speculation in there. Here are seven things I’d love to see announce at E3. Now, I tried to be a little realistic here. No ridiculous pipedreams like an Elite Beat Agents sequel or even a Smash Bros. announcement. Just going with things that seem plausible. (For the most part.)

E3: Microsoft Conference Summary

- Halo 4 looks like Metroid Prime and Crysis
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklight
- EA Sports games
- Kinect Garbage
- Not Video Games
- Xbox SmartGlass, tablet or phone used as a controller. Sounds pretty familiar. Bringing it to Windows 8.
- Tomb Raider looks like Uncharted. Not necessarily a bad thing.
- Ascend: New Gods, from the makers of the Toy Soldiers games on XBLA (not the film)
- Matter, Kinect game
- RESIDENT EVIL 6, LEON DOING COOL SHIT. CROSS HAIRS IN MY RESIDENT EVIL? QTE'S EVERYWHERE!
- Wreckateer, XBLA Kinect game that's similar to Angry Birds and Boom Blox.
- South Park: The Stick of Truth, the RPG game by Obsidian. Stars you as the "new kid" on the block.
- Dance Central 3. Usher dances on stage.
- Call of Duty Black Ops II. GOTYAY until next year.
- Conference ends.

VGM of the Week #31

With two VGM of the Week posts back to back and this one arriving in the middle of the day, that's how you know the news is slow. However, it could just be the calm before the storm with E3 happening tomorrow. I recommend setting yourself up for disappointment so when the megatons hit, it'll feel like a gigaton! Anyway, here's my VGM of the Week.

This comes from a little indie game on PC called Dustforce. The entire soundtrack is amazing, the game looks so stylish, and it's pretty fun if you like 2d sidescrolling platform action. Check it out. You can get the game on Steam or the soundtrack at Bandcamp.

You can also hear music from the same guy in the Double Fine Adventure Documentary by 2 Player Productions.