Haiku Review: PK Mao - Raptendo 64 Vol. 1-3 (self released, 2010)

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Vs Perfect Dark - Help Me Out


PK Mao
Raptendo 64 Vol. 1-3 (download)
/super hit or miss/
/hip hop with 64 beats/
/when it's good it's grand/

Haiku Review: Ryan Postlethwait - Mega Beardo (self released, 2010)

Ryan Postlethwait - Flash Man


Ryan Postlethwait
Mega Beardo (download)
/killer shredding man/
/mega power metal man/
/sweet riffs galore man/

OOPs: The Advantage - Underwear: SO BIG! (self released, 2006)

The Advantage - Gremlins II


You should already know The Advantage. The dudes who play punk math rock covers of video game tunes? And Spencer Seim, the guitarist for Hella, plays drums?

Well, I saw them back in 2006 and they were selling this tour only EP called Underwear: SO BIG! so I obviously bought it. The tracklisting speaks for itself. Clearly, you need to hear every single one of these songs.

Fester's Quest
Gremlins II
Gradius II: Boss
TMNT II: Technodrome
Megaman III: Sparkman
TMNT: Minefield
Solar Jetman: Truckstop
Final Fantasy

Yes, Gremlins II, Solar fucking Jetman, and the damn near impossible Minefield level from Ninja Turtles. These guys pick some of the coolest games to cover and they make them sound so badass. Like "Fester's Quest" is pure fucking evil. I know there are a lot of video game cover bands out there but The Advantage is hands down the best one ever. And I can't think of a single reason you shouldn't download this.

NES FTW

Bit.Trip Beat

Wellll fuck. There goes my idea. Aksys developed a game that Gaijin published and it's pretty much EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD HAVE MADE IF I EVER MADE VIDEO GAMES. But I guess since I don't make video games, it's best that Aksys made Bit.Trip Beat.

Here's the gist, which is very simple. 8 bit music + rhythm game + Pong = Bit.Trip Beat. Little blocks float from right to left and you bounce them off your little rectangle (controlled by rotating the Wii remote) in time with the beat. Super simple, super genius, super fucking awesome.

The game looks & sounds amazing. The music is ace and the visuals are a total eye fuck which helps make the game a bit (heh) more challenging. The crazy meteors and comets flying through the background make the beat blocks more difficult to see and add to the general sense of spaciness.

The game is available only on the Wii as a download from WiiWare. It's 6 bucks and if you have a Wii, you suck if you don't buy this. And if you don't have a Wii? Well, now you have every reason in the world to buy one. Check out the videos below of me playing through the first level and as far as I can get into the second. There's only 3 levels which is a little weak but if I can't get through the second then I guess it's not too much of a problem.

Level 1


Level 2

MP3: Bob Ostertag - w00t (Contra Excerpt)

Bob Ostertag - w00t (Contra Excerpt)


I know this is old but bear with me for a second here. I wasn't just like, "Oh, I never wrote about Ostertag's w00t so I should do that now." Not that that's a bad thing. But, well, whatever. Here we go.

I was surfing some netlabels, found a sweet netlabel blog (Netlabels Noises), and somehow ended up on Bob Ostertag's website where I found (and downloaded) a bunch of his older stuff and I was like, "Oh, I totally forgot about that w00t mp3 I have." So I listened to it again and realized how cool it is.

Instead of making regular 8-bit music from old Game Boy or NES consoles, he decided to sample the actual music and sound effects from various games, mash it up, and make it awesome. The whole thing is one long 50 minute track of video game chaos.

I had a favorite part, though, and thought I should edit that out and post that instead of the whole thing. So here it is. The part from w00t comprised entirely of Contra sounds. It is utter fucking mayhem and I love it. It makes me wish Contra actually sounded like that because then I'd probably play it daily instead of weekly.

If you're interested in listening to all 50 minutes of w00t, you can download it for free here. Also, at that same link, Ostertag lists the titles of games he used to create the song.

MP3: Hrvatski - Marbles

Hrvatski - Marbles


I just picked up Marble Madness for the NES a couple days ago. It's easily one of my favorite games ever with some of the best music (also included in that list would be Contra, Double Dragon, Zelda, etc). I grabbed it from the always well stocked Game Zone right down the street from me in Salem. Seriously, I could spend hundreds of dollars in that place and it would only take me 10 minutes. Partially because they have such a great selection of old and new games and also because they're used stuff can be a bit pricey. Dropping $30+ on an NES game is common and they usually have crazy rare stuff to boot. Like right now they have Earthbound ($100) and Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars ($80) and complete-in-box copies of The Punisher for Genesis ($100) and Final Fight Guy for SNES (a Blockbuster exclusive) ($500).

So yes, I used Hrvatski (aka Keith Fullerton Whitman) as an excuse to talk about video games on my music blog. Whatever. Doing a glitch/breakbeat version of video game music is the coolest idea ever. His song "Marbles" is fucking awesome, probably one of the best video game inspired songs that's not strictly a cover I've ever heard. It's based on the music from level 3 in Marble Madness and even has the "Times Up" part where the music stops and goes back to the beginning. This guy is a fucking genius, I tell you. No matter what moniker he uses, he creates amazing music.

"Marbles" can be found on the self released Inedits, but good luck finding a copy. It was a 3" CD-R that he only made 50 copies of 7 years ago. So if you find someone selling it, let me know. 'Cause I want it.

MK vs. DC WTF

So, um, yeah. In case you haven't heard, this is the next Mortal Kombat game. Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe collide. Yes, Batman, Scorpion, Superman, and Sub Zero will all be fighting each other in the same game. But here's the kicker, according to Midway there will be significantly less blood and no fatalities. Mortal Kombat = fatalities. Don't they know that? I'm no bettin' man, but if I had to put money on it, my guess would be that this game is going to suck ass. It's a damn shame. Also, Midway? I think Capcom beat you to it. Like, almost 10 years ago.

Sigh. Here's the trailer.

You Have To Burn The Rope

A great flash game. To beat it, it takes maybe.....45 seconds? Yeah, it's good. It says on the website "Computer games are getting so hard these days..."

Give it a try. You have to burn the rope.

Tetroid 2012

What's this? An indie video game put out by a netlabel? Sounds ideal as a post here on Anti-Gravity Bunny. The game is called Tetroid 2012 and is a psychedelic mix between Tetris and Arkanoid set to 21 experimental electronica artists. I haven't quite figured out who did the game vs who did the music, but netlabels Monotonik and Entity are connected for sure and I believe the music comes from Entity's label. Anyway, here's a video (beware awful quality) of the game play. Check it out and download it from Entity's site.

ROM CHECK FAIL

This game looks absurd. It's a free downloadable PC game (which means I'm excluded) that combines all of your favorite classic games into one crazy mind fuck. You want to see Mario, Link, and Pac-Man mixed in with Gauntlet, Defender, and Space Invaders? Then go to the Farbs website and download it. Please, let me know how it goes.

Click here for fun.

Rock Band On Wii June 22

Harmonix has officially let us all know when we can play drums on the Wii and that glorious day is June 22. Of 2008. YES. I am a very happy man. Although, I could be happier because there are a few downsides to this bit of news.

1. Guitar Hero III controller will not work with Rock Band. Because Activision sucks.
2. No downloadable content. Even though WiiWare is on it's way. I want Siva!
3. It's (unsurprisingly) a PS2 port, meaning no Wii Waggle.

It retails for $170. Also, it comes with "five bonus songs for Wii gamers to enjoy" in addition the the normal 63. Let's hope they don't suck. But you know what? I don't care. I just want to rock.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

I've only played it for a few hours but I must say, it's just more of the same. It's fun, yeah. And the in depth story mode is great for playing alone. It's cool to play as Pit and kick the shit out of Sonic. And it's nice to be able to play online and having new characters and stages and such is cool but other than that, I must say I'm a little disappointed. But then again, I knew all of this before I got the game. Maybe I was just hoping to be reinvigorated by the game because I haven't played Melee in a long time. I don't know how much I'll play Brawl but, sadly, I'm pretty sure it won't be nearly as much as I played Melee.

Erik Svedang

I saw a recent article on Kotaku that mentioned a game called Blueberry Garden. I watched the trailer and really enjoyed it. This is the trailer that I saw...



The creator's name is Erik Svedang and you can check out his blog here. He made a post called "A Story From The Blueberry Garden" that is as follows

The birds and the party hats were living their peaceful lives at separate sides of the tower.

One day the birds decided to move to the other side of the tower where the party hats had their home. Since the birds could fly they ate all the blueberries before the party hats could reach them.

Now the party hats are dead.

That may or may not be the plot for the game, there's no further explanation of the story. But, a beautiful game that's depressing as hell? Count me in. It's planned to be released this summer on PCs.

He also created a game called Flipside Of The Divine that looks to be really fun and probably a pretty challenging. There's a beta out for it now, available here, but it's only for PCs so I sadly can't participate. If you give it a whirl, let me know what you think. Here's the trailer...



This guy seems to have some really great ideas and it's great that he's making games. I hope eventually he'll do some cross-platform (ie Mac) stuff so I can get a taste of the action.