Last week we went back to my childhood with Super Mario Bros 2, and now, with Christmas just around the corner, we’re going even further back into pure nostalgia with Saint Dragon.
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Game music: Saint Dragon
Game music: Super Mario Bros 2
There was no way this series would go a full year without a Mario game. But! Everyone knows the signature Mario themes, while Super Mario Bros 2 is a different story.
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Game Music: Halo
I really, really wanted to include this in my history series but that would have been cheating since I never actually played much Halo. This is a shame since the composers are both talented and fascinating, beating Valve to the punch on several points years before Half-Life 2. So this week, Halo: Combat Evolved.
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Game music: One Must Fall: Battlegrounds
“One Must Fall: 2097” was released in 1999 and remains my favourite fighting game ever. Piloting a 90 foot tall, hundred ton robot in a combat arena? What’s not to like? Four years later the sequel “One Must Fall: Battlegrounds” was a disappointing game featuring great music.
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Game music: Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders. Michiel van den Bos. ’nuff said.
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Game music: The Spirit Engine 2
Today’s soundtrack is an odd one – I’ve never played the game, but have used the album extensively as the soundtrack to a completely different game. Introducing Josh Whelchel’s score for The Spirit Engine 2 – my unofficial soundtrack to Minecraft.
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To kill a licence: Tekken Arena (Android)
Let’s face it: fighting games have no place on mobile devices. Just ask Street Fighter with its pitiful four stars, or SoulCalibur languishing at four and a half stars. Or in the Android world, how about Punch Hero, whose install base is a measured in mere millions? Thankfully, Namco Bandai are here with Tekken Arena to show these fools how a mobile fighting game should be done.
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Game music: Braid
Sometimes a puzzle game isn’t just difficult, it’s so neuron-wrenchingly frustrating that it needs a flawlessly written soothing score just to keep you from using your controller as a blunt instrument. Braid, obviously.
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Path planning and gameplay
Path planning, the noble art of getting from A to B, is an integral part of many games and has been the subject of a huge amount of research, not to mention wailing and gnashing of teeth. Like so many things though, pathing is something that the player will only notice when it fails – when it works it’s just another part of the game. There is more to path planning than work/fail however, and in fact the algorithms used, the decisions taken and the hacks compromises made can have a profound effect on gameplay.
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Game music: Pocket mine
What’s that you say? It’s been more than a couple of weeks since I posted anything by Big Giant Circles? For shame. Well then. here’s the latest game soundtrack he’s done – Pocket Mine.
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