I’m leaving for Dublin again in a few hours, so subhumanzoids will soon be broadcasting from overseas once more. In the meantime, I leave you with the watercolor painting below, which I did for a commission last month.
See ya!
Tag: games
halloween hype: splatterhouse
Yesterday was a bank holiday here, which is literally the least spooky thing in the world, so forgive me if I neglected to jump up and down screaming about it being the WEEK OF HALLOWEEN! There’s no better time of year, except maybe Christmas, but even that’s debatable.
There’s also no better Halloween game series than Splatterhouse. I recommend everyone pop at least ONE of ’em in this week; even the spectacularly goofy Wanpaku Graffiti would be more than appropriate. While you set up your emulators or dust off your consoles, peep this delightfully devilish drawing I did for the occasion:
castlevania’s most reluctant skeleton
I love most things about Super Castlevania IV, from the music to the cheeseball localization that had a dancing ghost boss pair renamed to “Fred Askare” and “Paula Abghoul.” Even the box art is great, but I think the version we got edited out one crucial element: Castlevania’s most reluctant skeleton.
The US box art:
Now look at this version:
Notice anything?
I like the idea that this one skeleton saw all this madness going down and was like “nope.”
kuribo’s ice skate
After a little bit of debate and more than a handful of failed attempts, I finally sold my Wii U a couple months ago. It wasn’t really doing anything other than sitting collecting dust, just as I promised it wouldn’t when I first bought it off a friend at launch. I couldn’t warrant something relatively expensive sitting around with no purpose aside from hope that flickered in the distance.
Now I really want Super Mario 3D World. As excited as I was for The Wonderful 101 and Platinum Games’ other sure-to-be-rad actioner, Bayonetta 2, I haven’t coveted a Mario experience like this for ages. The videos only had me mildly excited, but then I saw these screens Nintendo recently released.
I recommend clicking on those bad boys for an embiggened treat. It seriously looks incredible, and so fun. It’s Kuribo’s Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3… with ice skates!
Here, have more, I ain’t stingy:
It comes out in November, and while I don’t plan on getting another Wii U any time soon, this is definitely the best argument so far.
in the mouth of strider’s soundtrack
As some of you probably know, a new Strider game is on the way. While I have a handful of reservations about it—it’s coming from developer Double Helix (Silent Hill: Homecoming), which doesn’t exactly have the best track record—I think I’d be happy with a mediocre game so long as it retained the series’ insane music.
I played Strider on Sega Genesis so much as a kid that its tunes just became another matter-of-fact aspect of life that slowly crept into the background. Is music supposed to sound like this? Well, it does now, kid.
Beyond the relatively straightforward and safe opening track were bonkers jams like this:
And who could forget this absolutely mental ditty from the Amazon stage?
The music in the NES game is definitely more in line with Capcom’s offerings of the time, but I’ll never forget the cacophony of madness blasting from that rowdy Genesis sound chip. Here’s the full arcade version for good measure. Let’s all agree that, whatever Double Helix ends up delivering, it won’t be acceptable unless the soundtrack makes us question reality itself.
For the curious, the latest trailer for the 2014 Strider:
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