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Technodrome Interview from Armageddon 2011

Ashlee McKinnis
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Technodrome Interview from Armageddon 2011

During my many adventures during the Armageddon Expo in Melbourne last weekend I had the great pleasure to listen to some of the musical covers from the band Technodrome.  Doing video game music covers from Pokemon, Zelda and of course everyones favourite the Mario theme.

We sat down with the guitarist Danny Brickwel to talked about the band, how they got together and their plans for the future.

What is the musical background of the band?

Me and all the guys actually met studying a music course at Box Hill Tafe, coming from a jazz background as far as the studying went. The drummer Alex and I are complete metal heads, where our bass player Julio is into jazz, funk and Latin and our keyboard player Chris is into pop punk. It’s strange how we seem to gel extremely well together considering we come from very places, which is really cool.

How did the band form?

It started with Alex and Julio just started transcribing some Donkey Kong music just for fun and they told me about it when I was hanging out with them one time and I thought it was really cool. A little while later, this was before Mana Bar in Melbourne opened up, we had a look at their Facebook page and thought if they were having live music there, because that would be really cool. Then the two thoughts came together. We then asked Chris to join and things went from there.

Have you had a chance to play at Mana Bar?

Unfortunately no, being a small cocktail bar, there really isn’t room to fit a live band to play.  Although we have some good responses from the expos such as here at Armageddon and from the EB Expo last week in Queensland.

How did you start doing the video game covers?

Well after we got together and decided to do this whole ‘band’thing, we just picked some songs and jammed together and it just worked, which we were pleasantly surprised about. From there we put some videos up on YouTube, but we are in a weird position that most of fans are from outside of Australia, mainly in the U.S and United Kingdom, so we are trying to gather more fans here, where we can actually play.

What is the process of taking music from the video games to playing it live?

It really depends on the song, there are a few songs like the Battle music from Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow that was just listening to the parts, picked which instruments did what parts and then drummer boy doing the beat.  Then there are other songs like our version of Mega man 3 title music, which was a lot more interpretive and we put a lot more of our own spin on it. So it is really a song by song basis. The real challenge is that when the music was created, it wasn’t made for real instruments, so the trouble is decided what instrument plays what part.

What is the challenge in playing music that is mostly synthetic?

Again, it’s deciding what instrument is going to play what. Particularly when the guitar and keyboard is concerned, it can be hard for some songs because the keyboard would sound really good doing the melody for a song, but the guitar doesn’t sound good playing the chords behind it.

What other events have you done?

We actually haven’t been around that long, the idea of theband came at the start of the year and we started performing around March. We have been working towards is doing this kind of stuff in regards to the convention circuits. We have actually had some music ripped from out YouTube video and put on the rotation at Mana Bar, which is really cool.

Anything coming up?

Nothing live right now, we are looking more at recording a CD, or album. Hopefully next year we will be at the conventions again.

Check out the guys on their facebook, twitter and their youtube page. A must watch for any video game fans.

 

 

 

Namco Bandai On Level-5 Partnership

Joshua Spudic
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At the Level-5 Vision press conference earlier this month, Level-5 briefly mentioned the localisation of the Playstation 3 version of Ni No Kuni, which will be released Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Instead of self-publishing, Level-5 had handed over the duties to famed publisher Namco Bandai for both North America and Europe. Talking to Siliconera, Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing at Namco Bandai, talks about the partnership and how it fits with the overall aim of the Western side of the company in terms of making partnerships with Japanese developers.

“For us, if you look at the course of what we’ve done last year, we’ve narrowed our slate to really good titles. We focused on less is more. When started talking to Level-5 — look guys we have a great opportunity. We have a great team in the States and we can maximize the potential of the game in the West. Those are the kinds of things we brought to the table because at the end of the day we want to bring the best games to the market.”

There was also a brief mention on whether this new deal will be a multi-title deal, like with the other partnerships. This is how Choi responded to the question.

“That is still in discussion.”

A multi-title deal would be the best option for both Level-5 and Namco Bandai, considering what was discussed at Vision. Games such as Fantsay Life, Youkai Watch and Time Travellers would be perfect for the niche market that exists with some Japanese games.

Level-5 joins From Software (Dark Souls, Armored Core V) and Game Republic (Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Knights Contract) with partnership deals with the company. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is expected to be released in early 2012 for North America and Europe.

Dennou Coil DVD Giveaway

Luke Halliday
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We have just launched our monthly anime podcast, CC: Anime. Each month, thanks to our good friends at Siren Visual, we will be giving away a prize in a monthly competition held through CC: Anime, called “Who’s that Anime Character?”.

The game is simple enough, we will give a brief description of a popular anime character. Once you think you know who the character is send your answer in along with your name and address to [email protected]. At the end of the month, a winner will be randomly selected from the pool of entries that contains the correct answer. The winner will then be announced on the next podcast.

This month, we will be giving away a copy of Dennou Coil – Part 1, thanks to our good friends at Siren Visual. If you have yet to listen to CC: Anime you can do so here.

In case you missed it on the podcast, here is the description for this month’s “Who’s that Anime Character?”:

– This character wears primarily orange and blue.
– They are not from this world.
– However they have saved our world countless times.

Do you think you know who is it? Send your answer in along with your name and address to [email protected] Good Luck!

Competition only open to Australian and New Zealand residents.

CC: Anime Episode 01 – Pilot Bebop

Luke Halliday
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Introducing CC: Anime, Capsule Computers Monthly Anime Podcast! In our first ever episode, the CC: Anime crew discuss the latest anime and manga news, as well engaging in a debate about the quality of video-game adaptations.

We also announced a regular monthly competition called “Who’s that Anime Character?” Want a chance to win a copy of Dennou Coil – Part 1 from Siren Visual? Follow this link to find out how.

Cast: Luke Halliday, Travis Bruno, Matt Vella, Grace Mitchell and Josh Spudic

Music by: The Seatbelts, Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas and Kanako Ito

We hope you enjoy our first CC: Anime, be sure to let us know what you think.

 

 

• Subscribe to our iTunes Podcast Channel

• Subscribe to Podcast RSS Feed

• Download the Episode from iTunes 

• Download the Episode directly – (right click and save as)

Send all your anime, manga or podcast questions, hints, suggestions and feedback to [email protected]


Stories covered in this podcast:

Thanks for listening. Copyright Capsule Computers Pty Ltd – All Rights Reserved

 

Com2Us Dresses Up Its Games for Halloween (And Puts Them on Sale)

Julien Durand
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Com2Us, the prolific iOS game publisher, is getting into the Halloween spirit with some interesting updates to its games, and some good old fashioned sales as well.

The Halloween celebration sees Tiny Farm being updated with new animal storage, a Bell-making building, quest expansion, and Halloween items, which include everything from zombie horses to skele-pigs and jack-o-lanterns. World of Magic is getting a new pumpkin item, and Piggy Adventure’s update includes 12 new Halloween-themed maps (see our impressions of those here).

But most amusingly, Homerun Battle 3D allows your baseball players to don pumpkin heads while at the plate.

On top of the updates, both Homerun Battle 3D’s and Piggy Adveture’s price has been reduced to just 99 cents on the App Store for Halloween, down from $3.99 and $2.99, respectively.

While a lot of people see Halloween as a sham holiday, Com2Us have made it clear that they take it very, very seriously.

A Warehouse in Eureka event impressions, thoughts and a recap

Jessica Barabas-Bui
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A Warehouse in Eureka was different than what one would expect from a television convention. I wouldn’t even really classify it as a ‘convention’, it was a lot more personal than that.

Held in a UNSW law lecture theatre, there were a small – but eager – number of attendees. I’d say it was even more personal than the hundred-people meet-and-greets, and that was the perfect environment for Eddie McClintock and Colin Ferguson. As you guys probably saw in our interview with the guys, they’re about the coolest, funniest, most laid back guys you could meet that lead two awesome shows.

The day itself started at around 10am, going all day, and was filled with playing episodes on the big screen, trivia and celebrity (the show characters) heads, and cool giveaways such as signed headshots and even some Café Diem napkins and pens. While this was happening the people who wanted photos and signatures were called out, the rest of us (though there were basically none left over) sat down to enjoy some old episodes of the shows.

Then Eddie came in for a Q&A session, which consisted of him running to each person with the microphone and then answering each question with hugely detailed, self-examining, and super funny answers. We got to hear about his close personal tie with Great Whites, his drawings, some stuff about the cast, his audition story, and why he got a personal trainer (someone commented on his ‘every man’s body’ and lack of exercise, which was untrue and hence inspired a trainer). Eddie was blatantly honest, and pretty personal with the group, he didn’t seem to mind showing off his inner geek as well as klutz. At one point he drenched himself in Diet Coke and turned it into a running joke.

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After Eddie, and lunch, Colin came in for the Q&A. Colin’s was quite different from Eddie’s, in a good way, there were less questions and more rambling on his part. Not to talk down the rambling, it was all interesting and personally, I quite enjoyed it. He talked a lot more about the cast and crew, what it was like working on Eureka, and personal stories about some of the other cast members. He also called Neil Grayston (who plays Fargo and was meant to be in attendance) via Skype and we got some Neil time, he also tried to reach Erica Cerra (Jo Lupo) and Alison Scagliotti (Claudia on Warehouse 13) but unfortunately was not able to, although we did leave some interesting voice messages for both of them.

The best part of the day, I would have to say, was seeing Eddie and Colin interact. They both have quite strong comedy backgrounds, and it comes through when they’re on their own but putting them together pretty much ensures that they’ll just keep playing off each other until you’re in stitches from laughing.

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And then there was the auctioning of shirts that they wore and drew on for charity. They both took off their current shirts, much to the hollering, whistling and whooping of the audience, donned the plain white shirts and proceeded to draw interesting and odd things on their shirts. Congratulations to the winners, who also got the shirts with personal messages and signed by each actor, it was a hard-won fight on both their parts.

Overall, I would say it was definitely worth it. The size of the audience was perfect for both actor’s attitudes, and the day was both casual and with a high level of excitement.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to film the Q&A session, but we did get a few choice pics for all of you that missed out on the event. Check them out in the gallery below!

It was great of Colin and Eddie to come down to Australia, sign our papers, take photos with us, and generally entertain us for hours. I hope that they enjoyed their time here as much as the audience to the event did.

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Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation Review

Jessica Barabas-Bui
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Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation Review

Name: Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
Developer: Gameloft
Publisher: Gameloft
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: 27 October 2011
Price: $6.99 – BUY NOW

Overview

The only FPS games I’ve ventured into on the iPhone is COD Zombies, cos, well zombies. But, looking at the trailer and screenshots for Modern Combat 3 (henceforth named MC3) I thought I would give it a shot.

Gameplay

MC3 has taken on the challenge of bringing an FPS game to iOS and from the get-go they’ve got a pretty strong handle of what they need to do to make it a success. They’ve got the plot of evil invading foreigners, the graphics and an aiming system that goes towards the enemy as if they’re a magnet. I know that a lot of people don’t like assisted aiming, but to be honest I think this is a good inclusion for the game, considering the inaccuracy of moving the aim by swiping on the screen. Besides, you can always turn it off if you want. Among this adjustable mode there is also gore, lefty mode, radar, hitmarker and hints.

The controls for MC3 are customisable with you either being able to move or aim on the left or right entire side of the screen, have just the move joystick on the bottom left sight, or have two ‘joysticks’ on the bottom left and right. You can shift the buttons around the screen and make them bigger or smaller, pretty much anything you want to do. Now, I like my physical controllers for shooters, I like having that tactile feel because I find it easier to be accurate. However, MC3 is obviously trying to make you as comfortable as possible with using the touch screen controls.

You can also jump over things in certain instances, although this doesn’t have the broadest application, since at one point I happened to get stuck behind a desk chair. Cos, y’know, battle hardened soldiers can’t make the step over office chairs. But that obviously has to do with level design and they didn’t want me to take that shortcut, so I understand why they’d want to do that.

The smoothness of when you move your view around is also something you have to get used to. It’s not the best, but it’s certainly far from the worst out there. One issue I was having was the fire button being in the realm of where I liked to swipe my thumb across to shift my view, so sometimes instead of moving around I ended up firing at a wall or something. This was easily fixed though (see: customisable buttons, above).

It’s less about using tactics and being smart and more about being presented with a bunch of enemies in front of you and taking cover, ducking out and shooting, taking cover, shifting your aim to the next person and trusting that when you stick your head up the auto-aim will help direct you that bit more towards their head.

The enemies are quite easy to kill, and you do get the pleasure of a kill cam, though it does feel a little cheap if you get this off auto-aim. In regards to your armour, there’s a shop where you upgrade armour, ammo, gear, and so forth. These aren’t in-app purchases (as you’d expect from a game costing $7), but credits that you earn in gameplay.

Dying in combat means that you get sent back to the previous checkpoints, which are fairly enough spread throughout combat. Although, dying just before you’re about to reach the next checkpoint is a bitch. As with most FPS games these days, you’ve got Wolverine’s health recovery, if you’re low just duck behind a wall and you’ll be right in a bit.

As well as single player campaign (in which there are 14 levels, although I didn’t really see too much definition between them, but that’s just a staple for the FPS genre), there is multiplayer. Multiplayer mode features six maps and seven different modes ranging from death matches to bomb diffusion challenges, with both online and local Wi-Fi support.

Visual

MC3 looks fantastic, in case you hadn’t realised that so far. It looks like some of its close namesakes has been compacted, sure it’s a little rougher, but like I said before it is way above what you’re expecting for an iOS game.

The bar isn’t set high on iOS games, there’s only a limited amount of things you can do with the platform and the processing power. However, in my play through I didn’t get any of the bugs you’d expect from such a good-looking game. There is a reason the game is 1 gb in space, after all.

Audio

The voice acting is the cliché ‘Hey, I’m a really big dude and I’m all manly and a hardass soldier and whatnot’ but it serves its purpose. It isn’t very patient though, at one point I hadn’t been paying enough attention so I had taken a minute to go and try and get my bomb all set up, and during that time he kept barking the same order to me over and over and over again. The sound effects to the gun sounds aren’t that bad, they aren’t fantastic, but they’re good enough. I usually used logic or the radar to see where people where shooting from though.

Conclusion

Overall, Modern Combat 3 is a really good game, it’s great looking, has a fair few hours of gameplay in it, a decent enough storyline, and good handling once you’re used to it. You’ve got your explosions, your baddies, your guns, and that all adds up to some good old fashioned FPS fun, however the game is anything but old fashioned. It’s pricey for an app, but certainly worth it.

I give Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation

9-0-capsules-out-of-10

Plants vs Zombies 50% Off This Halloween Weekend!

Dustin Spencer
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Don’t you love holidays? Not only do we get to participate in the usual festivities, but it seems all kinds of iOS publishers enjoy treating us to sales. PopCap are the latest to get in on this, as Plants vs Zombies has now received a temporary price cut due to Halloween, making the title Half Off on the PC and iPhone/iPad.

This cut of course makes the PC version just $9.99, the iPhone version $.99, and the iPad tower defense hit just $2.99. As PopCap put it, “It’s like buying the plants and getting the zombies for free”. If you want to get in on this sale you may want to act fast though, as these herbs and undead creatures are only discounted until November 1st.

Dead or Alive 5 Combo Comp

Jessica Barabas-Bui
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Ever thought you had an idea for the most kickass fighting move ever? Well you’re in luck! (Unless it’s not for Dead or Alive)

Team NINJA – the developers behind Dead or Alive – have announced a contest in which you guys get to submit your fighting move for Dead or Alive 5 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Team NINJA will be reviewing and choosing which unique fighting move will make the cut for the game. As well as being able to see your move in the game and getting the bragging rights, your name will be in the credits, forever immortalized as the dude who made that move that one time.

No, but seriously, this is a really awesome opportunity and you guys should get on it ASAP. The contest will be judged in relation to how creative your design is and an understanding of DOA fighting techniques.

The contest runs for three weeks (until November 18) and you are allowed to submit your entry as much as you want. Submissions can be written, drawn or acted out.

To submit an entry and follow DOA’s progress visit:

Their Website: http://teamninja-studio.com/doa5/
Or
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/deadoralivegame

Dead or Alive 5 is scheduled for release in 2012 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Keep an eye out on the site for more DOA news as it hits.

1,000 Tiny Claws Review

J. Bradshaw
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Game: 1,000 Tiny Claws
Publisher/Developer: Mediatonic
Price: £1.99/€ 2.49/ $3.49
Platform: PS3 and PSP (Reviewed)/span>
Genre: Humorous top down action/adventure

Out of the hundreds of developers and the games that they have produced for the Minis section of the Playstation Store, there are a few that stand out from the rest. Mediatonic games especially shine. Whether it be fighting monsters that (probably) stole your princess, or explaining your side of the story to a Supreme Court of Super Heroes, Mediatonic games always have the charm and quality that make them seem like they should be more expensive than they really are (thank goodness they aren’t though! Us poor broke folk have to feed our gaming diet SOMEHOW.) 1,000 Tiny Claws is no different than the rest of the offerings from Mediatonic: it has quality, humor, charm and great gameplay.

At the beginning of the game your character is standing alongside her ship’s captain awaiting execution. Right before your death, however, the whole story of how you came to be standing there comes out. You see, there was this island and on the island was a stuck sword. However, being clumsy, you stumbled and wrenched the sword from where it was, causing a dreadful curse to fall across the land and releasing a horde of horrendous bugs that have now invaded. Although the Governor would still like to see you hanged, he has one mission for you: Return to the island and stop the curse. If you fail or try to run, the rest of your crew will be killed. There is only thing to do: Take your ship and Cap’n back to the scene of the crime and save the world. And that is where the game truly begins.

Thankfully, Mediatonic told the above in a cutscene that was much more entertaining than I can write. That opening cutscene was hilarious despite the grim circumstances that may have surrounded it. The animations used in it were also of very high high quality. The story in the game kept getting better and better throughout the game too.

Besides a rock solid story though, 1,000 Tiny Claws also has astounding gameplay. On your way to rescue everyone, you will face off against hundreds of the enemies that you released. Being the Sky Pirate that you are though, these measly little bugs don’t stand a chance, at least in the beginning. You can whack these nasty little creatures off the edges of the floating islands with a variety of moves. 3 strikes at them, as long as they are timed correctly, will unleash a devastating blow to a bug’s skull. If you run and strike, you can make the bugs fly even farther. And once you fill up a special meter, you hath the power to unleash the gates of hell with a horrifically stron super attack. In addition to your combat moves though, you can dodge and block.   Trust me. You will need all those moves to defeat the evil curse and clear your name. The game goes from being so easy that my dog could play it to being so hard that the devil himself would weep. Nevertheless, the game never loses its addictiveness. If the main story is not enough for you though, there is also a challenge mode and a survival mode to play, in addition to a ton of amusing unlockables to strive after.

If there is one weak point in the game, it is the visuals and audio. I did not have the opportunity to play the game on the PSP so the graphics may look better on that system, but the graphics on the PS3 version of the game could use some severe polishing. The soundtrack to the game is nothing spectacular but it is not horrible either. Its jaunty pirate tunes keep the atmosphere going but overall I found it hard to get excited about. Another ding on the audio is that there is no dialogue during the cutscenes. Although I personally found that it enhanced the charm and ambiance of the game, some may find it annoying having to read what is going on.

The Minis section of the Playstation Store is full of cheap, rushed games that barely have a right to be called games. However, if you search hard enough there are gems. 1,000 Tiny Claws and other Mediatonic titles are diamonds in the rough. If you want a blisteringly hard game with an uproarious story, this game is for you. It has a ton of replay value and its quality warms the soul. Plus, it is only a few dollars. It does not disappoint.

9-0-capsules-out-of-10

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