One of my favorite series in gaming is Konami's long-running Castlevania franchise, and an endearing element of these games has always been the incredible music. That being said, it's hard to believe that in over a year of making VGM covers that I haven't tackled anything from this series yet. I decided to right this wrong with a killer track from Aria of Sorrow, one of my favorite entries in the series! The rendition of Heart of Fire from this game is a mash-up of the track of the same name from the original Castlevania along with a track from the arcade release Haunted Castle. I hope you guys enjoy this one, and I'm sure there will be more Castlevania tunes to come!
The series may not be about car racing anymore, but it still has insane stunts
With F9: The Fast Saga finally hitting theaters more than a year after the studio intended (thanks pandemic!), I've been boning up and re-watching the series in anticipation. It's no surprise, then, that racing games have been on my mind lately. I've loved racing games ever since the first time I played Pole Position in the arcade and on my old Vectrex. I dabbled in games like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport over the years, but it wasn't long before I realized my favorite racing games were ones that completely defied the laws of physics. "Less braking and tuning, more power sliding and stunts" is my philosophy.
My friend sent me his Xbox One controller and wanted me to customize it. This was the first time I did this to an Xbox controller, as I usually do Nintendo products. He has his own YouTube channel and goes by Game Dad and wanted me to incorporate his logo into the build and use some of the colors. I ended up using some water slide decals to put his logo into the controller and some fun paint splattered on the side.
With all the hype around Mass Effect still in full swing we decided to very slightly branch off and discuss our favorite Sci-Fi games from across all genres and generations
In Episode 035, Addicted and MetalFRO dive back into the Psikyo catalog, to dissect an earlier shooting game from their canon. This time around, we look at the whimsical, but no less difficult, Gunbird!
Budokai is one of the first games I remember playing on the PS2. It has to be at least one of the first 5 games I saw on the system. I played a bunch of it with my brother and my cousin and we are all big DBZ fans. A couple years later we got Budokai 2 and I was amazed at the improvements. Along the way we rented Sagas and I remember him hating it while I was fine with it. Eventually we got Tenkaichi 2 and played a ton of it and after my brother moved out I was lucky enough to find Tenkaichi 3 for $20 at a Gamestop and played way too much of it for the rest of my high school years.
Needless to say I have a lot of history with these games.
Data East is a company most known for their arcade games, but like many Japanese developers, they made sure to get in on the lucrative role-playing game market of their home country. They would start their flagship RPG franchise all the way back on the Famicom, and this series was called Heracles no Eiko or Glory of Heracles in English. The series, as of 2021, includes six total games with five of them being in the main series and one of them being a spin-off released for Game Boy. The first four main titles would see two releases on Famicom and Super Famicom each. Data East would go bankrupt in 2003 and a chunk of their staff would end up at a developer called Paon at the time, now called Paon DP after a merger in 2015. Paon would buy the rights to some of the Data East properties, with Glory of Heracles being one of them. The fifth main game in the series, Heracles no Eiko: Tamashii no Shomei, would be developed by Paon with assistance from Studio Saizensen, known for developing Umihara Kawase and Code of Princess. Heracles no Eiko: Tamashii no Shomei would be published by Nintendo and release for the DS in 2008 in Japan. This would also be the first and only game in the franchise to see a release outside of Japan, being released as Glory of Heracles in North America in 2010.
I make it a point to try new music frequently. It is important to me to not get stuck in my ways with only comforting classics from my teenage years. Though many albums come and go, every once in a while an album will come along that becomes an immediate obsession. My current obsession is the Gazelle Twin album, Unflesh. I heard about it in a youtube video about albums with disturbing content and the background given in the video along with the cover art caught my attention. Gazelle Twin is the pseudonym of English songwriter and producer Elizabeth Bernholz, who created Unflesh, her second album, in her home. The album was released in 2014.
Wow, has it been two and a half years since the last Gaming Apologist article? http://(http://www.rfgene...logist-Volume-1-3841.php) Ah well, it only takes two to be a series, right? If the title or previous article was tl:dr, the idea is simple; here are a few titles that don't have the greatest reviews, and I'd readily admit have faults, but I have found well worth my time and I fully enjoy.
Sewer Shark is one of the first games by Digital Pictures, creators of Night Trap and Double Switch. Like most of these games, it tends to be looked on with a little derision. However, I played it and found out, it's actually good! It combines hammy FMV acting and story with some rail shooting and pattern following that's actually quite engaging. Shoot the tubes, dogmeat!
In this month's episode of the PlayCast, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) turn hepcats as they discuss Super Giant's indie darling, Transistor, and create a list of recommended jazz albums in this month's ConcertCast segment. Shawn is admittedly not a big fan of SG's first title, Bastion, so how will returning to play another game by this developer fair? The guys breakdown all of the ins and outs of the game, including gameplay mechanics, graphics, and the game's lush soundtrack. Is Transistor a crumbling utopian, sci-fi adventure that you should add to your collection or download queue? Stay tuned and fine out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on the games we play on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games in detail. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
A couple of months ago, some fellow VGM cover artists and I formed a group called 8-Bit Battleground where we each cover the same track and listeners vote for their favorite. This track from Ori and the Blind Forest was chosen for our second monthly cover, and while it was an intimidating piece to work on initially, I'm really proud of the end result and think it's one of my best covers yet! I hope you all enjoy it!
Long known as one of the top companies in the PC world, Microsoft began its foray into console gaming in late 2001 with the release of the XBox. The system would directly compete with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube, even though its third-party support saw several crossover titles with the PS2.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you the June 2021 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our July Community Playthrough title, reveal next month's shoot 'em up club game, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please continue to keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
