Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Post 27 takes my favorite genre of games and showcases the bizarre that comes from it sometimes. This is the Top 10 most bizarre Vehicles in Racing Games.
Try bringing this to Silverstone
10. Construction Equipment from Extreme Rally
A relatively small time racing game from the folks at Neo Geo but out of all the offroad cars you can play as there is an option to play as Construction Vehicles such as cranes.
9. Dreamcast Controller from Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing Transformed
Quite low on the list as it's in a Kart Racing Game but considering the wide range of Sega Characters having an actual Controller to play as is bizarre even by Kart Racing standards, it's other modes include the Afterburner Jet and the Daytona USA Car.
8. Kloona from PS2's MotoGP
MotoGP is the premier class of Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing so racing against Klonoa in an otherwise serious simulation bike racing game leaves a number of racing fans baffled.
7. Javelin Rocket Car from Daytona USA
Daytona USA's Dreamcast release gave us a ton of interesting bonus cars including a Messerschmitt Micro car, a 30s F1 car and the Pace Car but nothing tops Javelin, a land speed record breaking Rocket Car.
6. Pacman and his UFO from Ridge Racer
Because Klonoa in Moto GP wasn't weird enough for Namco, they had to place Pacman into Ridge Racer riding in a UFO of all things.
5. Fishing Boat from Hydro Thunder
Between the Fishing Boat and a miniture Titanic, the Fishing Boat won only because the little dog onboard constantly barks at the other racers and it's the fastest boat in the game.
4. Cows from Super Skidmarks
Codemasters used to have a sense of humor and in the 90s, top down multiplayer game Super Skidmarks allowed you to race as Cows on wheels complete with sunglasses and fluffy dice, it even made the box art.
3. Tank from TOCA Touring Cars
Did I mention Codemasters used to have a sense of humor? TOCA Touring Cars is a relatively serious simulation racer but open the cheat book and you can drive a Tank and shoot the other racers for one of the funniest racing experiences you'll ever see; that along with pinball collisions and watching the AI fail at racing on the stupidly awesome Lavaland Race Circuit.
2. Unicorn Riding Cat from Trials Fusion
This one is so stupidly awesome that it reminds me of the days when Racing games were fun, Trials Fusion definitely didn't disappoint with this one even if it is DLC.
1. Shopping Trolley from Re-Volt
In this racing game you can also race as a UFO, a Clockwork Racing Toy and a Panda on wheels among normal racing cars but it takes a special kind of derp to play as a shopping trolley, keep in mind that this is an RC Racing game where everything is to scale so it's actually physically impossible to do a race with just Shopping Trolleys even on the Supermarket track because the physics on it fail so hard.
Post 22 continues the Sadistic Series with Mario Kart
Jaws Music
1. Blue Shell Hit Right at the Finish Line
Lets go one step further on the previous entry on the other list by actually stealing a victory on the line, because Blue Shelling anyone at that point deserves some rage.
2. Taking Someone Out on the Jump in Wario Stadium
Which will then make them have to do half a lap again, the fun of the N64 era.
3. Successfully Making the Shortcut on Rainbow Road N64 Three Times in a Row
Because nothing says ultimate troll like exploiting Shortcuts and lapping your opponent.
4. The Infamous Giant Mushroom Hack
Nintendo Wii's lack of security made it so hackers could program their karts to always be giant making themselves unbeatable.
5. Using the Small Racer Cheat on Super Mario Kart and Starting the Race
It means you will never win and you will always be flattened, bonus point if you were once a small naive child whose older cousin did this on purpose just to tease you, speaking of Lightning.
6. Being Thrown off the Track by Lightning
Nothing is more frustrating than a well timed Lightning Bolt that not only makes you small but throws you out the arena.
7. Having Your Moves Predicted by Your Opponent
Having played my partner long enough, she knows my driving style so well that she can place traps in the right place to make sure I hit them.
8. Steal Victory by Ramping Over Your Opponent
My favorite trick, Rainbow Road 7 and Maple Treeway are good ones to do this on.
9. Subjecting Your Opponents to Snes Rainbow Road, Baby Park on Extreme Items or Toads Turnpike Mirrored
Watch the insanity in the Multiplayer room as you become "that player" who wants to create mayhem.
10. Using the Replay Option to Remind Opponents of Their Wipeouts
The amount of videos created online through just the character reactions and body language from wipeouts to victories created a meme of it's own with Death Stare Luigi and Chariots of Fire Donkey Kong to name two. This is especially sadistic if the footage is any of the other entries I've listed.
Post 20 and I'm feeling somewhat sadistic today, (blame a thankless day job and being ill for nearly three weeks) so I'm going to look up some sadistic things you can do in Video Games, there may be more to come as these are not in any order.
1. Tomb Raider: - Deliberately Breaking Lara Croft's Neck
A simple swan dive in the mansion is enough to snap the heroine's neck, back in the days where gaming was much more simple.
2. Lemmings: - Using the Nuke All Button
It's a button that doesn't add anything to the game it just creates a fireworks show of exploding Lemmings.
3. The Sims: - Making a Sim Wet Themselves By Deleting the Toilet
Very cruel thing to do, complete with added tears.
4. Theme Park: - Creating a Disaster by Causing a Rollercoaster Accident
This may result in the dark tragic ending but causing chaos is still fun.
5. Worms: - Using the Most Powerful Weapon and not Giving a Damn About who Dies
This can be a troll move and the type of move that upsets pros but the destruction is still glorious, extra credit to Worms 2 on PC where you can edit the power of the weapons and shatter an entire landscape with a Minigun.
6. Dragon's Lair: - Watching Dirk the Daring Die in Gruesome and Hilarious Ways
Making the wrong decision often ended in various gruesome ways so seeing them all takes commitment to do and a lot of patience.
7. Speedball 2: - Injuring Someone So Badly That They Have to be Stretchered Off
Speedball is quite the violent game anyway but actually injuring someone is rare and makes for a funny scene.
8. Mario Kart: - Blue Shelling Someone on the Last Lap
Watch the rage build as you witness yourself drop from 1st to 8th from one shell and after spending that whole race in the lead.
9. Sonic Adventure 2: - Using Omachao as a Weapon
The happy talking robot chao is only trying to help but he does make for a convenient weapon, he had it coming though, his voice was irritating. Bonus to Shadow the Hedgehog for actually making Omachao a useable weapon.
10. Burnout: - Slow Motion Takedowns
Nothing says pure destruction and satisfaction like a slow motion crash scene.
Post 19 and we look at a game I played a lot in my youth, TIny Troops.
Amiga had the tendency to produce a number of games that would eventually come to nothing as franchises despite the games being reasonably good for their time; Tiny Troops is one of many games like that. Tiny Troops is a tactical warfare game as you take control of either the Klutes or the Furfurians (No side is better than the other) as you battle each other in wars taking place in gardens, toyboxes and beaches to name a few places as both sides are no bigger than ants, what makes this game clever is the variety of troop types you get as you have to plan a strategy that guarantees victory, this can consist from gunners, grenadiers and flamethrowers to tanks, paragliders and dune buggies, for such an early game its surprisingly complex and even has a two player option. I enjoyed playing it a lot as a child and I would so wish to try this game again.
Current State: Information is limited at best, it was released in 1997 and never had a sequel, it's kept alive by Amiga fans who offer emulators to download outdated games.
Why Should it be Revived?: The modern equal to this is Halo Wars, but I think there is more this franchise can offer as it already had so much range for just an Amiga game and since it's fairly common to set up a Tiny world in the vain of MIcro Machines meets Cannon Fodder there's very little to mess up and it was rated very highly on release by Amiga magazines.
Post number 10 sends us back to games with RPG Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.
Rhapsody is by Nippon Ichi Software, a company more famous for Disgaea. You play as Cornet, a girl who can talk to puppets, during a competition to win the heart of the Prince, he gets kidnapped by a group of demons and it's up to Cornet and her puppets to gather the Heartstones from the surrounding Kingdoms in order to save Prince Ferdinand from his stone prison. What seems pretty cutesy and kid friendly, like for instance the special moves are firing sweets, shortcake and pancakes and Cornet's main weapon is a magical musical Horn the game can actually get pretty disturbing very quickly as you progress, the decisions you make can change the very way the world sees Cornet and certain events can really hit you psychologically.
For instance killing one boss can curse the whole town and make them hate you for the whole game and don't even get me started on the rhetoric that is the Frog Kingdom, but that's a big spoiler, lets just say Romeo and Juliet story and leave it at that.
In the case of moral outlook it can really test you, especially if you were caught out by the result of said actions.
Finally worth noting is the whole Musical Adventure aspect as every so often you get songs sang throughout the RPG, to this day it's the only RPG to be told through Musical numbers.
The game can be quite easy for the veteran RPG player and Kururu in the DS remake is utterly broken to the point that you can finish the game with just her in your team but the story more than makes up for it and there is much fun to have in Rhapsody.
Current State: Originally released on Playstation in 1998 it had two sequels in Japan only as things led into the Playstation 2 era. They are readily avaliable on Playstation Network as late as 2014 and the first game had a remake on the DS in 2008, however no continuation of the main series has been done since 2000, but the game is part of the same universe as other Nippon Ichi franchises such as Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics.
Why Should it be Revived?: Despite the horrific glitches on the DS remake the game was still fun to play and the musical aspect made it all the more enjoyable so a big time remake would be appreciated.
