Swim, Ikachan!

If you’re interested in indie games then chances are you’ve played Cave Story. Then again, even if you’re not into indie games, you’ve probably seen it mentioned somewhere. The masterful, one-man project that took its creator, Pixel, years to complete. So famous is the game that it outshines all of Pixel’s work, which includes a few more quirky games, as well as a couple of programs.

One of those games is Ikachan, an underwater exploration game that I guess qualifies as a platform game. The player is in control of a young squid (as the title implies) and explores a sea kingdom contained in an underground cave. Along the way, Ikachan interacts with sea creatures and discovers that one Ironhead, the ruler of this cave, is a reactionary overlord, two, the food is quickly running out and, three, it would be wise to get the hell out of there ASAP.

What follows is your standard Pixel game; Ikachan moves in an open environment, battling enemies, obtaining power-ups, or a power-up to be exact, finishing quests and ultimately facing Ironhead. The controls are handled very well: the Z button will propel Ikachan through the water, while the left and right keys will change the direction the character is facing. The power-up allows Ikachan to smash through barriers and explore previously inaccessible parts of the cave. The game is also a bit of an RPG: by collecting fish you gain levels and by gaining levels you move faster and get more hit points to help battle those evil fish. Oh, there’s an inventory screen to help manage those items you collect.

When seen in context, however, this game is not exactly “standard”. Ikachan was released in 2000, four years before Cave Story. Many of the design elements that were standardised by the release of Pixel’s magnum opus were introduced in Ikachan, which I see as a spiritual prequel to Cave Story. Ikachan might be short – it takes less than an hour to complete – but it is a complete, substantial experience that serves as insight to the creative world of its creator and promotes better understanding of his body of work, as it allows for a retrospective look on the development of his game-crafting skills. Think of if as a short story by a well-known novelist, written right before a major novel.

And the creator seems to have a special place in his heart for this game, as evidenced by Ikachan and Ironhead’s cameo appearance in Cave Story and Ikachan’s cameo in Guxt, a recent vertical shooter.

Pixel has the ability to craft magnificent experiences and completely pull you into the mini-world he creates using his signature lo-fi, cutesy pixel art, his awesome ambient music and the usual excellent game design. A short, sweet, but memorable adventure.

You can download an English version here.

Reformat the Planet

REFORMAT THE PLANET is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip tunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results. 

Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, “Reformat the Planet” maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chip tune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

The trailer features music by Nullsleep (“Salvation for a Broken Heart”, “On Target”), Martin Galway (“The Neverending Story”), and Random (“Micawber’s Moan”), all composed on classic video game consoles.

The documentary by 2playerproductions serves as a very informative introduction to the lo-fi world of chiptune music for the uninitiated. It features interviews with prominent members of the scene and videos of live performances from the 2006 Blip Festival. The film explores the relationship between chiptune music and video games, provides insight on the fusion between visuals and music and ultimately demonstrates the adaptiveness of electronic music and the ability of musicians to use bits of technology completely unrelated to music as a medium of expression. A must-see if you ever liked the sound that used to come out of your video game console or home computer.

You can see the whole thing online over at Pitchfork.tv for a limited time only. There’s also a ton of videos from Blip and other live shows on 2playerproductions.com. Enjoy!

What’s beyond awesome?

Katamari Damacy is! This is the best embedded video you’re ever going to watch:

I’m a fashionable(?) four years late to the party. However!…

I haven’t been so excited by a video related to a game since I watched that Shenmue trailer eight years ago. But the intro to Damacy blows it away. The best part of the video is when the double set of quadraphonic ducks chime in. And, of course, the spandex-clad King of All Cosmos, as he emerges from the shadows, the lights on his head dancing to the rhythm of the music.

This game is the most intriguing piece of game/art design I’ve come across lately. I must have it. I must interact with it and enjoy the radness. Sadly, it hasn’t been released in Europe, because it seems we’re too conservative to handle it and would rather play fucking FIFA instead. It’s only come out in Japan and the US.

You might also want to know that I downloaded the soundtrack and listened to it. Repeatedly. It was a religious experience. I’m actually crying tears of revelation while typing this entry.

I’m so importing an NTSC PlayStation 2 to play this game.

My Famicase Exhibition 2008

If you’re following any of the major video game blogs, then you’ve probably read about My Famicase, an exhibition of NES cartridge art for games that don’t exist. This annual event is organised by METEOR, a Japanese retro game store. The group of illustrators, game designers, writers, etc. create a label for the cart, a company logo and also a concept for the fictional game.

Famicom cartridges come in different (mostly vibrant, mostly pastel) colours and sport an iconic design that makes them prime pop art material. I won’t even bother mentioning the grey, dull, ugly design of NES carts, because that would be sad.

I first found out about My Famicase Exhibition and the related Fami-mode (“a retro game-themed post-New Years party”) event while watching an episode of Points, an amazingly awesome webshow about video game culture that centers around Japan and Tokyo’s many retro game stores. I was mesmerised by the different cart designs and developed a strong interest in chiptunes, particularly those by KPLECRAFT, an outstanding electro-acoustic group with strong chiptune elements. You can watch them perform along with several other chiptune artists if you watch the episode I’ve linked to below.

So here’s a small list of goodness I’ve compiled for your viewing pleasure:

• My Famicase Exhibition 2008 (official site)
• My Famicase Exhibition 2006/2007 (hosted by Mushroom-Kingdom.com)
• Points Episode 01+ (show on video game culture – this particular episode covers My Famicase 2007 and Fami-Mode 2007; includes interviews with the owner of METEOR and various exhibitors)

Tetris!

That’s right, I finally post an entry after more than a month of inactivity and it’s about Tetris. Deal with it.

Item number one on my checklist is Tetris DS. I finally managed to locate a copy and have put quite a few hours into it. It took a while to incorporate the new features into my game, but as I made use of the “hard drop” move (it basically makes a piece drop immediately) and the “ghost piece” option (which allows you to see where the piece will land and position it accordingly), I found the game more and more enjoyable. Also new to me was the ability to rotate and slide a piece infinitely after it’s landed and before it locks into position. Tetris DS is clearly geared towards fast play. I enjoyed the variety of modes and a little bit of multiplayer, but could’ve done without the Nintendo branding. It’s done tastefully, but I could’ve used an option for alternative “skins” or, better yet, music. I still can’t recommend this enough if you like Tetris and have a DS. I’ve read it can be pretty hard to find though- took me a lot of searching myself – so good luck.

While looking around for info on Tetris DS, I came across Tetris: The Grand Master, a series similar to Tetris DS in gameplay. (Although saying two Tetris games are similar to one another is as obvious as observing that Mario is a fat fuck with a mustache who gets high on shrooms.) I even managed to download a fan-made version of Tetris that emulates some of the TGM arcade versions, called Heboris. I use an unstable version for Mac, but plan to get more into it once I have access to a proper keyboard (the one on my laptop wasn’t really made for Tetris).

Here’s a video of someone who’s clearly very good at Tetris: The Grand Master. Things become really crazy 5 minutes into the session when the pieces turn invisible. Oh yes.

After that I can’t really see how my new record at Tetris for the Game Boy will make any sort of impact, but here it is: 307898. I’m improving slowly but steadily. I wanted a score over 300k so that I can focus more on Tetris DS or Heboris from now on. I’ll keep you posted on any new scores, of course.

*Edit* 9/8/08: New personal best: 335806. Yay!