Lately, the blog has been a lot of stupid bullshit about me driving listening to F-Zero music and playing Rescue Rangers on the NES. While I am a big proponent of stupid bullshit, I also have a serious side. It’s not big, but it’s there (that’s what she said). So today, I want to talk about the issue concerning the legality of selling violent games to kids that is on its way to the US Supreme Court.

What is currently happening is that the Supreme Court has decided to hear both sides of the case in regards to a proposed California law, written by State Senator Leland Yee and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The law was challenged by industry representatives, and deemed unconstitutional.

So Capcom has once again taken an amazing fighting game and updated it by adding even more awesome to it. What’s better than Street Fighter IV, if not SUPER Street Fighter IV?

As you may recall from some of my earlier posts, I am a huge Street Fighter fan. I’ve been through Capcom’s update cycles before (I’ve played/owned Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo), so when they announced late last year that they’d be updating Street Fighter IV, I didn’t interpret it as some kind of attempt to milk their customers as so many of the basement-dwelling internet populace did. I knew it meant Capcom would take what was so great about Street Fighter IV, tweak it, refine it, and add a ton of great things to it.

One time when I was driving home from my college class, I had hooked my iPod up to my car stereo and put it on shuffle. I had just gotten my iPod and I didn’t have a ton of music on it yet, but one album I made sure was on there was the Super Smash Bros. Melee soundtrack. So I’m driving home on the freeway, and Mute City from F-Zero comes on.

Hey we’ve hit double digits on podcasts! What a milestone. This one is actually pretty long, because our topic tonight is video game music!

PK Podcast! Episode 10 - 04/23/2010 [ 37:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Christina and I wanted to share some of our favorite video game songs with y’all, and as a result it ran pretty long. In case you were curious about any of the songs we discussed, here’s a breakdown of our selections:

1.) Dragon Ball Z Super Butouden 2 – “Son Gohan Theme” (Arranged Version) – Kenji Yamamoto
2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – “Overworld” – Keizo Nakamura
3.) Phantasy Star Online – “Image of a Hero” – Hideaki Kobayashi
4.) Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon – “A Pink Flower for Your Tabi” – Shigeru Araki, Kato Yusuke, Saiko Miki, Yasumasa Kitagawa (Goemon Production Team)
5.) Final Fantasy XI – “Gustaberg” – Kumi Tanioka
6.) Silent Hill 2 – “Magdalene” – Akira Yamaoka
7.) Gunstar Heroes – “Stage 5″ – Norio Hanazawa
8.) Ragnarok Online – “Theme of Prontera” – SoundTEMP
9.) Super Mario 64 – “File Select” – Koji Kondo
10.) Mother 2 / Earthbound – “Pokey Means Business” – Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka

[Christina's sidenote: Asking me to dice up "Pokey Means Business" into a 30-60 second chunk was like asking me to pick which finger I want to keep. It's a composition; It loses meaning if it isn't whole. Go listen to the whole song please so I don't weep.]

Let us know what you think, and let us know some of your favorites either in the comments here or over at the brand new forum!

Hey we have a forum now! Woo! I’ve been getting a lot more “conversation” comments on the blog posts, and a lot of you have even been talking to each other in the comments. I have the Facebook page, and I have the Twitter, but I realized that if I really wanted to build a community, I’d need a forum. And now I have one! Hooray!

Enjoy, and I’ll see you around the boards!

So I just got done playing some of the old Capcom NES Disney games. Rescue Rangers, DuckTales… man, those are STILL good games. The gameplay is still solid, the music is among the best ever on the NES, and they were based on awesome cartoons.

Now I really want a Hi-C and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I love achievements. There is nothing more satisfying that hearing that “buh-doop” after completing an in-game task and knowing your Gamerscore got a little larger. They add a new layer to games, and oftentimes add replay value that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

Hey the podcast is back! Hoorah! Tonight we play a little bit of catch-up, and discuss the perception of the stereotypical gamer. It’s a little disorganized this week, but we’re getting back into the swing of things after a few weeks off. We’ll be back in form next week.

PK Podcast! Episode 3 - 04/16/2010 [ 21:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The site I mentioned in the podcast is The Spartan’s Sanctum.

Also, if there are any weird audio hiccups or anything, when we stopped recording the podcast, Audacity crashed and broke the podcast into over 200 different pieces of audio. Christina, who is wonderful and amazing, just spent the last hour piecing it back together.

Hope you enjoy the podcast, and we promise not to miss any more for a while!

I’ve been training Pokémon since 1998. I’ve caught them all. I’ve had hundreds of battles and traversed five different regions. Next spring, with the release of Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, I’ll be doing it all over again. I’ve done everything there is to do as far as the Pokémon games go, and I’m not tired of them, even at 26 years old. I doubt I ever will.

The Pokémon games are my favorite franchise in video games. Period. More than Final Fantasy, more than Mario, I look forward to a new Pokémon game above all else. I’ve seen the games evolve (pun intended) quite a bit since their humble black-and-white beginnings, and I’ve loved them since the first time I ever picked them up.

No podcast again. We’re really, really sorry. We just upgraded to cable internet today, but when we tried to get it set up, of course it didn’t work, and of course, tech support was no help. In the meantime, we’re back on our slow-ass DSL line. To describe it using my favorite similie, it’s slower than molasses in January.

Next week we are FOR SURE going to have a podcast I PROMISE. Believe me, I feel like a giant ass for missing two in a row. I hope all you sexy folks can forgive me.

But! I have more comics for you. Remember to click them for full size, otherwise they break the layout. First one by Jacob, other two by me.

New Pokémon games were announced too! They’ll have more information on the Japanese television show Pokémon Sunday, so look for my thoughts in my post on Monday.