The long-awaited Minecraft server is up! Huzzah!

It’s my first time playing multiplayer and it’s been a lot of fun. Christina and I have been playing together each time we’ve logged on, and we’ve had a chance to play with Nooferdog, El Shamro and Hirushi so far. It’s really cool seeing what everyone else has been making, although it makes me feel a little bad about how I’m the least creative person ever.

The seed we generated is actually really cool; we’ve got forest, taiga and desert biomes all intersecting right at the spawn point and some really cool cave systems nearby. Christina and I have each run into a lot of chunk errors though, but they only show up for one of us at a time.

This has definitely gotten me excited about Minecraft again and will probably keep me stoked for a long time.

His Gamertag is “ScraggyFrags559.”

Saturday night Christina and I were lucky enough to be able to attend the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concert at the Boston Symphony Hall. We knew it was going to be an incredible event, but I don’t think either of us was really prepared for the emotional impact the evening had in store. It might sound like a bold statement – and in all honesty, it is – but it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.

I don’t really have anything deep or meaningful to say about the track this week, but Alex Mauer’s work is still awesome just the same. I first heard his stuff featured in Penny Arcade: The Series and immediately went to his site. He’s got a ton of great stuff and most of it is free (You should donate via PayPal if you like it though!).

“MO” is one of my favorite tracks that he’s done. I really love the fun, peppy vibe it has. It definitely invokes the carefree feeling of platformers of yore.

It’s some of the best pure chiptune stuff I’ve ever heard, and one of the coolest things about his music is how there’s no silence before or after songs; they just seamlessly lead one into another. I can put all of his music on shuffle at work and play it all day. You should definitely check it out.

Come on down!

The Price is Right Decades celebrates over 40 years of one of the most beloved game shows of all time. As a tribute to the source material it’s a resounding success; as an actual piece of entertainment software it has a few problems that unfortunately hinder the rest of the experience.

The one-player mode of Decades breaks the experience down into different ‘VHS tapes’ — remember those? — that each represent a year of the show’s history and a particular game that is played by actual contestants. The set, logo and intro text change to accurately reflect how the show actually looked that year; while Avatars are used, their modern clothing clashing with the aesthetic, it’s still a hoot to see how it has evolved over the years. Sadly, Bob Barker and Drew Carey are both absent in the game proper, instead relegated to bonus videos that are unlocked by beating different VHS tapes.

Read the rest at KINECTaku

C, Decent, Final Answer

It’s very hard to capture the tension and drama of a game show in a video game when said game show focuses on one contestant rather than a competition. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s single-player mode captures very little essence of what made the show such a runaway hit, and the shoehorned multiplayer would make Regis Philbin roll over in his grave. Y’know, if he weren’t still alive.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is structured similarly to the game show, where general trivia questions are asked and the player must choose from four possible answers. As the traditional “lifelines” from the show wouldn’t necessarily work in a video game context, the hint system has been restructured to feature the ability to skip a question and poll the in-game audience.

Read the rest at KINECTaku

The second installment of PK Radio (which I’m refusing to call “the soundtrack of my life” because that sounds stupid) is one of my favorite OC Remixes of all time, SGX’s “Save Me,” a remix of the songs “continue” and “heal” from the PlayStation 2 classic ICO.

There’s a lot of reasons I like this song, although I have a hard time explaining them. I’ll try really hard, though.

No backbone, but still solid

Unless you live under a rock like the franchise’s titular heroes, you know about Worms. Team 17’s long-running series starring surprisingly articulate worms shooting, blasting and blowing each other up with firepower that would frighten the world’s mightiest armies has always had a loyal fanbase despite few significant changes to the forumula over the years. Enter Worms Ultimate Mayhem, an updated port combining 2003′s Worms 3D and 2005′s Worms 4: Mayhem into a new HD experience stuffed to the brim with content, with six single-player modes and versus mode via local play or over the PlayStation Network for up to four players.

For the uninitiated, Worms is a turn-based game where your army of four worms attempts to take out an opposing squad of worms using a wide array of weapons like bazookas, shotguns, grenades, cluster bombs, mines and exploding sheep. While the series’ calling card has been addictive gameplay that’s simple to learn but difficult to master, the humour and charm of the series has taken good games and made them better.

Read the rest at Push Square

Don’t wreck-o my Mecho

Turn-based strategy games are a natural fit for portable devices, their slow pace unhindered by the somewhat erratic schedule of playing games on the go. While the genre has spread far and wide in recent years with many games that look and play quite similarly to one another, Mecho Wars sets itself apart with unique mechanics and a striking visual flair.

If you’ve played Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea or any of the dozens of other turn-based strategy games to be released in the past few years, you’ll have no problem getting started with Mecho Wars. The map is grid-based and you have a chance to move all of your units before ending your turn to let the computer have a shot. The only resource to be managed is money, which is earned by capturing bases. It accumulates each turn, allowing you to purchase new units to join the fray.

Read the rest at Push Square

I’m rolling out a new feature this week, where I’ll share J-Pop, J-Rap, J-Rock, Chiptunes or Game Remixes that I’m into every Friday.

This week is “Complication” by ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D, which was used as the second opening theme for the Durarara!! anime. I know the video is a Japanese song with Spanish subtitles, but hey, it was the only version of the music video I could find on YouTube.