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Update: Arcade1Up Street Fighter II Championship Edition and Riser

Read More Arcade1Up Ever since the arcades went away, I’ve always wanted my own personal arcade cabinet. A few weeks ago, I saw these Arcade1Up boxes at Walmart, and looking at the box art, they appear to be “full sized” cabinets for $300! …

This is just an update on my Arcade1Up’s Street Fighter II arcade cabinet. After purchasing the official Arcade1Up Riser, and playing the game for the last couple of weeks - I’ve been very happy with the machine.

However, I did want to address some issues that you may not be aware of.

Riser

Four extra screws were included to attached the cabinet to the riser. Unfortunately, the cabinet’s bottom are not pre-drilled, meaning you may accidentally damage the cabinet or artwork.

The Riser will only elevate the machine to about 1 foot. This means if you’re really tall, the cabinet is still going to be too small for you.

No artwork on the Riser, apart from the boring Arcade1Up logo. Wish they come with some other alternative artworks.

Control Board

After just three weeks of playing on my SF2 Cabinet - the control panel artwork is starting to rub off (see image below). This is a problem that Arcade1Up is aware of and will be sending out replacement decals and a clear plastic cover for protection. Future cabs will automatically come with the protective covers. Still, you would think with some beta testers, they could’ve corrected this problem before it went to manufacturing.

I’ve already mentioned that I did not love the ball joystick, as it turned out, the ball will fall off the stick when I’m playing.

Most SF2 fans have already replaced the joystick ball with “Batstyle” replacement tops, which is selling for $4.50 on Amazon.

I think over time, especially if the joystick breaks, I may replace the two joystick units for a metal/quality part with longer sticks.

Speaker

Only one speaker to create mono audio. The original Street Fighter II game is encoded in Stereo, so you are missing some subtle nuance in the original stereo mix

There are only three options: Off, Medium, and Max. (Wish there was a slider, as the “Medium” is still quite LOUD).

Software

There’s no way to update the software. If a game is broken (such as Gauntlet crashing at level 31), Arcade1Up will have to send you a brand new board

There are no additional settings. For example, an “easy” mode or additional display settings.

No highscore saves after you reset the game. This is could be a blessing, because if someone saves a rude name - it’s not permanent. Still, it would be nice to have the ability to save game profiles.

Availability

Based on my location, I’ve only seen these machines at Walmart and Gamestop. I have not seen them in stores at Target or Best Buy (they are online only). The Gamestop I went to actually don’t have the arcades in stock, you’ll have to order it online and pick it up in stores (I don’t know if this is the case for all Gamestops).

Prices are all over the place. Walmart is the cheapest, their price is $299 for the cabinet and $39 for the riser. Since the stores can set their own retail prices, some are selling it at $399 (retail suggested price) for the cabinet and $49 for the riser (Amazon is selling the riser for $130!) For Black Friday, these arcade machines were on sale for $249, which is the cheapest I’ve seen.

Some CostCo started selling Arcade1Up with an official stool, but was quickly removed on November 30, with Arcade1Up stating, “Due to unforeseen business circumstances, Arcade1Up will not be available at Costco.”

Some cabinets are rarer than others, based on popularity. For example, I’ve never seen certain titles at my local Walmarts.

These arcade machines are only being sold in North America and Europe. Arcade1Up have said that they’re working on distribution for the rest of the world, but for now, America first.

Wish List

I’d also like to see a cheaper version, perhaps only Arcade Tops only for $150 or less. The top will include the monitor and control panel, but you’ll need to add your own table or Arcade1Up can sell an additional five foot “Riser” for another $150.

Maybe create a "Bring Your Own Game" cabinet, providing only the screen and joystick with 10-buttons. Screen can be HDMI-compliant to make it easier for Modders. This could be a really cheap way for fans to get into the arcade scene (since Arcade1Up doesn't have to pay a software license). Imagine the possibility, especially because there are some games that is just too expensive (or not available at all) for Arcade1Up to license.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/X-Men 4-player Arcade cabinet. They already have a 3 player Rampage machine, so I’ll understand for cost savings that the TMNT machine is only 3 turtles (but boo!)

House of the Dead/Lightgun rail shooter cabinet. I haven’t done the research or understand the technology, but this would be so cool if they can make this a reality.

Double Dragon/Final Fight/Beat-em-up cabinet.

Tetris/Bubble Bobble/Puzzle cabinet.

Again, despite all my gripes and minor complaints, I’m still very happy with my Arcade1Up cabinet. I know I will likely pick up the Fatal Fight arcade cabinet, should it become available. Of course, knowing that the sale price can be as low as $249, I am more comfortable holding out on a sale for now. Bargain hunters are already reporting that some Walmarts have slashed their prices to as low as $148, so I will definitely keep my eyes out for this deal!

Arcade1Up artwork rubs off

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Arcade1Up Cabinet

Read More Games Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not out yet, but I was so excited about this game coming out on GOG that I pre-ordered it. This game is based on the Pathfinder tabletop game, which was and offspring of Dungeon and Dragons…

Ever since the arcades went away, I’ve always wanted my own personal arcade cabinet. A few weeks ago, I saw these Arcade1Up boxes at Walmart, and looking at the box art, they appear to be “full sized” cabinets for $300!

After doing more research and contemplating on the pricing, I’ve decided that it’s actually a good deal to buy a Street Fighter 2 cabinet.

Putting the cabinet together was pretty easy to follow, thanks to the pre-drilled holes and easy-to-follow instruction book. All the parts are clearly labeled, and anyone with a Phillips screw driver can put it together in under 30 minutes.

Some minor complaints:

The ball joystick could be like later generation Street Fighter 2 fight sticks that I remember (they were more sensitive to movement and was a little taller).

The other complaint is that it’s actually not a full-size cabinet, but rather a 3/4 scale. To solve these complaints, Arcade1Up actually released a branded riser to lift the cabinet up to about five feet… which will set you back about $40-$80, depending on where you buy it.

Some praises:

The artwork is beautiful and high quality. It’s brand new and faithfully reproduced from the original Street Fighter 2 cabinets by Capcom.

Joystick and six buttons configuration - it’s how SF2 was meant to be played! Spacing is good, and includes a second six button for a challenger!

After some research, I found out that the suggested retail price to these cabinets are $400. Most stores were pre-selling them at $400 (originally published pricing of $500), but then Walmart announced they were selling it at $300 - forcing the other stores to match the $300 price. I wish they were cheaper, but you have to think that the margin is already thin at $300 if the markup price was originally $400 or more.

I do have my eye on the next Capcom cabinet (Final Fight, Ghost n Goblins, Strider, and 1944: Loop Master)…. And I also want both the Galaga cabinet (Walmart is selling these for $250 as a Black Friday sale) and Pac-Man (for the classic artwork).

UPDATE: After watching and reading about these Arcade1Up from collectors who owns original arcades, some agreed that old cabinets are very expensive, heavy, and requires a lot of maintenance of aging obsolete technology (CRT monitors). One guy said it took two guys to carry a 200 pound machine up one flight of stairs and it nearly destroyed him. Imagine having to move two or three arcade machines? One of the benefit of a smaller Arcade1Up is that it's only about 60lbs, and a grown person can move it around easily. The other nice thing about the Arcade1Up is that pricing at $300 is fair, some people said it's cheap compared to $1,000 for a real machine... Still, we'd all like it to be cheaper.

As for the ball joystick, you can buy replacement "bat" top styling and easily replace the ball. The batstyle is only about $5 each, so it's reasonably priced.

The other complaint a lot of people have mentioned is that they wish the marquee would light up. It is a cost-savings issue, so I understand why they didn't include it with this initial release. I would love Arcade1Up to offer a more expensive "deluxe" version that lights up or comes with a taller frame (instead of having to buy an extra "Riser" to lift it up to standing level)... because I would shell out an extra $50 to get those things built in.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Humble Bundle THQ Nordic PlayStation Bundle 2

Read More Games Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not out yet, but I was so excited about this game coming out on GOG that I pre-ordered it. This game is based on the Pathfinder tabletop game, which was and offspring of Dungeon and Dragons…

As a weekend gamer (not even that lately!), I wanted to pass along another really good deal, if you're a PlayStation 4 player.

THQ Nordic and Humble Bundle have teamed up for their second THQ Nordic PlayStation Bundle at humblebundle.com

For $15 (you can always donate more money), you can get get Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, This is the Police, Titan Quest, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and more. According to Humble Bundle, this is $269 worth of PS4 games.

This is the perfect time to get into Darksiders, especially with the third game in the franchise is coming out soon. And personally speaking, just Titan Quest and Battle Chasers: Nightwar are worth the $15 alone.

Unfortunately, I do own a lot of these games, but considering the low price, I don’t mind having duplicate codes.

Games:

Lock's Quest

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - Director's Cut

This Is the Police

The Dwarves

Red Faction II

Black Mirror

Destroy All Humans! 2

Titan Quest

Darksiders Warmastered Edition

Sine Mora EX

Battle Chasers: Nightwar

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Pathfinder: Kingmaker About Pathfinder: Kingmaker The Pathfinder is a top selling pen-and-paper fantasy roleplaying game. It builds on more than 10 years of system development and the largest open playtest in the history of tabletop gaming to create an unparalleled fantasy roleplaying experience. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game puts you in the role of a brave adventurer fighting to survive in a world beset by magic and evil! Take on the role of a canny fighter hacking through enemies with an enchanted sword, a powerful sorceress blessed with magic by the hint of demon blood in her veins, a wise cleric of gods benevolent or malign, a witty rogue ready to defuse even the deadliest of traps, or any of countless other heroes. The only limit is your imagination! The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is an evolution of the 3.5 rules set of the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game, designed using the feedback of tens of thousands of gamers just like you. Read More Games Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not out yet, but I was so excited about this game coming out on GOG that I pre-ordered it. This game is based on the Pathfinder tabletop game, which was and offspring of Dungeon and Dragons…

This might be my last Weekend Gamer update since we’re in Rocktober and I know that I won’t have time for anything else this month.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I pre-ordered and looked forward to playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The game came out on Tuesday (September 25), and by Friday (September 28), the game had been patched three times with over 100 bug fixes (and a promise of a major big patch later this first October week).

I’ve experienced a ton of game bugs, which I won’t really go into (most of it was written and addressed in the changelog/fixes in the patches) - but let’s just say it made playing the game in the first chapter not a fun experience. While the bugs are annoying (game won’t start unless cloud saves synced, custom portraits not carried on cloud saves, disappearing items, balancing issues, resolved quests still showed as active/not closed off, game crashes), it made me think that the developers didn’t have any real-world play testers (or enough play testers) before the game launched.

They could’ve easily solve these bugs if they had just released the game as a beta a month or two to people who aren’t familiar with the D&D rules. Sometime these developers and hardcore fans don’t see / can’t see from the perspective of a fresh set of new eyes.

Even though the game came out on Tuesday, I actually couldn’t download and install until very late Tuesday evening - well into Wednesday. When I started playing the game on Wednesday, I noticed how incredibly punishing it was on “Normal” setting. Every battle was a challenge, because my starting character only had 11 hit points and were constantly killed right away with one or two hits.

Even the first side quest, I was murdered by swarms of spiders, because the quest giver didn’t bother to tell me that the spiders were invulnerable to everything except for fire or acid. That’s fine, I found the answer after visiting a forum that explains how to kill the spiders. Kind of wish that stuff was written in the game. Or, you know, have one of the characters with high world knowledge to mention, “maybe you should use fire on these spiders.”

The bear at the Temple of the Elk was impossible to kill on level two, but at this early point in the game, it’s not possible to level up to level four or above. You couldn’t kill it with all the buffs, potions, and best armor (at that early stage in the game). I was stuck for a while, until patch two came out and resolved the balancing issues.

With Patch 3, I was able to finally made my wait to the Stag King’s fortress. The fortress won’t appear until I finish another quest… which I didn’t know about so I accidentally finish other quests out of order. By the time I found the fortress, I noticed that I only had five days (you’re given three months to find and kill the Stag King) left. Since it took one full day to travel from the outpost to the fortress, I could only do this twice before the game is over.

The first time I attacked the fortress, there was this weird bug that automatically killed the Stag King (I didn’t even touch him!). I felt a little cheated, so I reloaded and had a proper fight the second time.

You don’t need to kill everyone at the fortress, just the Stag King. After I told someone at the outpost that he was dead, the game closed the quest and started Chapter 2 of the game.

In the second part of the game, the gameplay is slightly different. Now it’s part castle management and part RPG game. Although a lot of modern RPG games includes elements of management (such as Pillars of Eternity and Dragon Age: Inquisition), I have never found this part of the game fun. It’s not. You have to resolve the kingdom’s problems and try and maintain their happiness and loyalties. There are (there will be) quests that only certain team members can go on, but unfortunately if they’re on another quest, you’re screwed. In fact, many of the timed quests are problematic, especially if you haven’t found all the necessary team members.

The other thing that I don’t enjoy is the camping aspect of the game. Sure, the first time was kind of fun, assigning your team to various tasks before going to sleep. However, you have to setup camp every 12 hours, so you camp a lot. It’s time consuming, and I wish there was a way for you to disable this feature or speed it up/make it less of a chore.

Look, I understand they spent a lot of time working on the camping mechanics, and I know, for a fact, that some gamers love this sort of thing… but it’s just not fun to me. It’s just bothersome to assign someone to watch the camp, assign someone to hunt for food, assign someone to cook food, etc. Plus, sometime the characters would talk to each other, it’s awesome the first time… but I could live without this extra in my game.

I’ve spent 23 hours playing the game (restarting the game four with different character builds) and I love it so far with the latest patch. The game is beautiful, the game play is awesome, the music is amazing, and voice acting is top-notched. Unfortunately, all the bugs prevented it from being an instant classic. I think over time, with all the problems ironed out, this could be a great game.

If you guys are interested in the game, the game is playable with the latest hotfix, but I suggest waiting for the first big patch 1.04.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is out now on Owlcat Games / Deep Silver. You can purchase the game on GOG.com.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Weekend Gamer: Shadows: Awakening, Tower of Time, and Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Shadows: Awakening Read More Games For the 10th anniversary of the popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, its publisher Ubisoft is offering the fourth installment, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, as a free download. …

With the extra day off because of Labor Day, I had a little time to catch up on some games I’ve recently purchased and played. I mostly buy games on GOG, because I believe in DRM-free games and currently own over 200 games. Below is some recent isometric, top-down RPG games that I’m playing (or looking forward to playing).

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SHADOWS: AWAKENING
Released: August 31, 2018
Publisher: Games Farm / Kalypso Media Digital

This game Shadows: Awakening just came out on August 31st. The publisher or GOG gave me a free copy, I believe because I had previously purchased Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms.

A lot of people compared this game and previous games to Diablo - it is not the same. A lot of games tried to clone Diablo, but in all my years of trying them out, nothing comes close, with the exception of Torchlight.

If you’ve previously played any of the Shadows series, you know the gimmick: you play in the “real world” and a “shadow world”. It does take a little strategy, as you have to solve puzzles using both worlds to progress in the game.

In this new game, you start off as a demon bounded to one of three character types (Warrior, Rogue/Ranger, or Wizard). Gameplay is simple point and click, but adding the warping in and out of the two worlds for a tactical advantage (your character heals while you’re in the other world).

Love: Great graphics and dual-world gameplay. Voice acting dialogue.

Hate: Pre-made character builds. Linear storyline.

Tower of Time

TOWER OF TIME
Released: April 12, 2018
Publisher: Event Horizon

Tower of Time is an action role-playing dungeon crawler game. Based on that description, this sounded like my cup of tea, but unfortunately, I quickly realized that it’s not really all that’s cracked up to be. Maybe it’s because I’m only in the first few floors, but the layout is quite simple. You go here, you pull a lever, and you open up a new area. At first, I was playing on Normal, and it was a breeze. That is until you meet the first boss, who was incredibly hard to defeat. I had to turn it down to easy, just to get to the next level.

The real-time battle is also hard to manage, you can “pause” (it’s not really pausing, but sort of slowed down the action) and give directions. Again, I’m in the early stages of the game, so I only have three characters to work with… but it still feels like such a chore directing everyone to attack or heal. The characters aren’t smart enough to auto move and attack, but maybe it’s an option that I need to turn on.

Love: The RPG elements like rare loot and equipment. Great graphics and character builds.

Hate: Micromanaging the battle tactics. Unable to create your own character. Linear storyline.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker

PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER
Released: September 25, 2018
Publisher: Owlcat Games / Deep Silver

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not out yet, but I was so excited about this game coming out on GOG that I pre-ordered it. This game is based on the Pathfinder tabletop game, which was and offspring of Dungeon and Dragons, but with modified 3.5 rules set.

I own all the Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Dark Sun games, plus obviously already big fans of the Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale series, so I’m more than excited to see how they bring Pathfinder to life.

I’m hoping it will be similar to Pillars of Eternity (which is not an official D&D game), at least give me the ability to create and maintain a group of adventurers. We’ll see how it works when it arrives September 25, 2018.

Other games I’m looking forward to:

Fallout ‘76: I’m a mostly offline gamer, but Fallout is my all-time favorite game series… so there’s no doubt that I’ll be first in line to play this. I love everything about Fallout, from its 1940s music and art style to its SPECIAL and perks system.

Torchlight Frontiers: As previously mentioned, no other games come close to Diablo than Torchlight. This is the third game in the series, and hopefully will address some of its shortcomings in the previous two games. There are also mobile game version coming out… but I’m assuming will be a remake or re-working of their first two games.

Cyberpunk 2077: I love The Witcher series, so obviously I’m looking forward to CD Projekt’s next project.

Exanima: I’ve actually already pre-ordered this game, mostly because I wanted to check out their beta. And based on playing the Beta: it sucks! I’m hoping they fix the bugs and make it a more enjoyable game when it is finally released.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Masquerade Costume Contest at Minnesota Fan Fusion, Rivercentre (04 Aug 2018)

Read More Minnesota Fan Fest Minnesota Fan Fusion (previously known as Minnesota Fan Fest) is coming up on August 3-5, 2018. The event is, once again, held at the Rivercentre in downtown St. Paul. Everything is an upgrade ...

The big Saturday show of Minnesota Fan Fusion wrapped up yesterday with Masquerade Costume Contest organized by Best 3some Ever (a comedy podcast trio, featuring Nick, Robb, and Kevin).

Unlike last year’s Costume Contest at MN Fan Fest, this year had more contestants and a nice catwalk stage (which was a big improvement over Wizard World’s Costume Contest).

Some contestants strut their stuff, others quickly walk on and off. Don’t be nervous, it’s your chance to shine! Just a for any contestants, please strike a pose for about 30 seconds before turning and walking back. Some did a funky dance, some did what looks like a bad Fortnight dance, but it was all in good fun.

While the judges gave out points and made decisions, B3E entertained the audience with jokes and trivia. They didn’t interview the contestants, which is something that Wizard World did to buy some time.

I did agree with the first place winner (a themed group of Thor: Ragnarok), but it was somewhat unfair. Group cosplayers should have a different award category. If they had broken the awards out to two categories, then the Borderlands duo (Moxxi and Zer0) would probably be second place and Final Fantasy XV would have landed third. Maybe they take this suggestion into consideration and bring more random awards next time.

Personally speaking, I would’ve ranked The Rocketeer a lot higher, given the loving recreation of Dave Steven’s look and additional smoking/light-up backpack. Award for the most obscure reference is that lady from My Little Pony’s some episode featuring Fluttershy. What? No one would know what character that is except for some Bronies.

Winners of this year’s contest were:

Third Place: Freddy Fazbear from Five Nights at Freddy's
Second Place: Diablo III
First Place: Thor: Ragnarok

More photos soon in our writeup later (these are some selected photos I was able to dump). In the meantime, today is the last day for MN Fan Fusion. Sunday is usually the best day for shopping around, if you’re interested in picking up merchandises.

Thor: Ragnarok with Leeloo (did not compete)

Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok

Final Fantasy XV

Professor Genki (Saints Row) and She-Ra

Wolverine (did not compete) with Borderlands’ Moxxi and Zer0).

Firestorm

Nightcrawler

Splatoon

Freddy Fazbear (Five Nights at Freddy's)

Ant-Man

Diablo III

She-Ra

Professor Genki (Saints Row)

Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)

Masquerade Costume Contest group shot

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Vinyl Vaudeville: The Floor Kids Edition, feat. Kid Koala, Adira Amram, and DJ Jester, at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (30 April 2018)

Kid Koala Vinyl Vaudeville at Cedar Poster Kid Koala Setlist Halo Skanky Panky Floor Kids Battle Tracks (medley) Drunk Trumpet Medley: Gun (Emiliana Torrini) / So What Cha Want (Beastie Boys) 4 Bit Blues Yo Gabba Gabba Metal Medley Was He Slow? (Baby Driver) 7 Bit Blues Laptop Laptop Laptop Conjoined Octopus DJs Rave Piano Moon River 8 Bit Blues Tour Dates 5/5: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios 5/7: San Francisco, CA @ The Independent 5/8: Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater 5/10: Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf 5/12: Austin, TX @ 3TEN ACL 5/13: Dallas, TX @ AT&T Performing Arts Center 5/15: Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall 5/16: Washington, DC @ Union Stage 5/17: Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's 5/18: Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Hall 5/19: Boston, MA @ The Sinclair About Floor Kids Floor Kids is a new breakdance battle game featuring unique freestyle gameplay, rhythm challenges, and multiplayer sessions. Discover stylized hand-drawn graphics by award-winning animator JonJon set to an original soundtrack by world-renowned scratch DJ/producer Kid Koala. Innovative controls allow you the freedom to play the way you like with a dynamic scoring system that rewards your moves based on musicality, originality, and style. Build up your crew of bboys and bgirls, unlocking new characters and locations as you cross the city, busting hundreds of different moves and countless combinations on your journey from the corner to the club. Bring Your Skills. Build Your Crew. Find Your Style. Read More Kid Koala This is a book, completely written and drawn (with accompanying soundtrack) by Kid Koala, called "Nufonia Must Fall". It's a love story between a lonely office girl and an out-of-work robot. …

The Kid Koala-curated “Vinyl Vaudeville Show” just occurred at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis last Monday, April 30th. This isn’t the typical rock concert, but rather a variety show, celebrating DJs, entertaining theatrical dancers, singers, and a bit of burlesque. It’s not as racy as that sound, but there are elements of it.

For this 2018 tour, Kid Koala dubbed these 18 shows as “The Floor Kids Edition”, as it is also in part a promotion for the breakdancing video game called Floor Kids (available for the Nintendo Switch and coming soon to Steam), which he provided the music soundtrack for the game. It’s quite an interesting cross-promotion, as you rarely see arcade video game machine available for fans to test out at the show. The three Floor Kids machines were constantly used before the show started, so it was a big hit.

The show was also billed as kids-friendly, so there were plenty of parents and their children at the show. Unfortunately, many of the parents and children left early. It’s understandable, as it’s a school night, after all.... but you can’t help but think that this kind of kids show would better be held in the day (and preferably on a weekend).

Warming up the show was DJ Jester the Filipino Fist (aka G. Michael Pendon), who played plenty of medley of the 80s and 90s pop hits. You can tell what era he grew up in, playing David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” to Vanity 6’s “Nasty Girl” to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” to The Pointer Sisters’ “Automatic”, etc.

Although mostly pop/rock songs of yesteryears, there’s also plenty of odd wonders in there too, including King Missile’s “Detachable Penis”, Dead Milkmen’s “Right Wing Pigeons”, and DJ Jester’s theme song, Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time” (which we declared as a hit on our playlist in August 2009).

The other cool thing about DJ Jester is that all these songs were from vinyl records, played on two turn tables. It’s probably much easier and effortless to just bring a laptop and a harddrive, but where’s the fun in that? In the time Jester spent on stage, he must’ve gone through a crate of records (probably over a hundred 12” records).

Next on the “Vinyl Vaudeville” bill was Adira Amram & The Experience. Kid Koala “experienced” one of her shows in New York City and immediately fell in love with her act, which is part singing, dancing, and comedian. He begged her to be part of this show, and as a result, this was Amram’s first time in Minnesota. Thankfully, most of the snow have melted by this time.

Amram is joined by two dancers: Jessi “Jamz” Erian and Maresa “Body and Soul” D'Amore-Morrison. She loves her dancers so much, she actually wrote (and performed) a song for them (“Jessi and Maresa”, played after “Boom Boom”). Her set was rather short, but full of high energy dance routines. During the end of her set finale for “Pizza Party”, she body surfed to the DJ soundboard (where Kid Koala would sometime help out on his wireless sampler).

The Canadian turntable artist Kid Koala closed out the night. As previously mentioned, we’re actually big fans of his work since 2001’s Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Ninja Tunes). We love Deltron 3030 and amazed at his Nufonia Must Fall shows. Perhaps some of those, puppeteers from Nufonia joined Koala on this tour, but we can’t be sure.

Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” show was some of the most fun, most inventive show we’ve seen in a while. There’s just something really magical about watching puppeteers animate these homemade fabric puppets. There’s no computerize tricks, just old fashion hand manipulated puppets.

Koala’s set (please refer to setlist), used a lot of material from his 2012 album 12 Bit Blues... which is not his latest release. His current album Music to Draw To: Satellite was more of a collaborative album with Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini... and probably would require live vocal singing from Torrini. Instead, he sample her song “Gun” with “So What Cha Want” by The Beastie Boys.

Koala explained the secret origin story of his (now) infamous Koala suit he wears at shows. He jumped at the chance to appear on the children show Yo Gabba Gabba to show off what a cool dad he was to his daughter. The night before he was to fly to the Yo Gabba Gabba set, his wife asked what he was wearing on the show. He quickly realized that everyone who appeared on the program wore crazy outfits and costumes. With her trusty sewing machine, she whipped out a Koala suit for Kid Koala to wear.

He wore the suit for a year, after he lost a bet with his record label Ninja Tune, and now, despite his protest, is synonymous with the outfit.

For his “Was He Slow?” song, Kid Koala told us that he almost appeared on Baby Driver as a hand model because Ansel Elgort was busy filming a stunt that day. Thankfully, Elgort (who is also a DJ), stepped in at the last minute and saved the day.

Late in his set, Kid Koala asked the audience for participation. They were developing and filming footage for their upcoming Conjoined Octopus DJs story. A story about conjoined Octopus DJ brothers. The two scenes they shot at our show was a rave scene and a sweeping, quiet piano scene.

Koala closed out the show with one of his famous mix for “Moon River” (dedicated to his mother and “all the women over 60”) and set finale “8 Bit Blues”. The latter song is about being on the road, traveling from “Chicago to LA to NY” and catchy chorus “312 to 213 to 312 to 213″ samples. The finale song was a lot of fun, as Adira Amram and the Experience, dressed in flight attendants, threw out a ton of paper airplanes.

If you’re looking for a fun, kids-friendly show, go to the Vinyl Vaudeville: Floor Kids Edition show. If you want to find out more about Floor Kids, head over to Engadget.com and read about it. If you want to help support the game, you can buy it or add it to “your wish list” on Steam and it will help boost the games’ ranking.

P.S., Sadly, when a fan requested “Tricks N Treats” (which sampled “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” as Charles Schulz lived in St Paul), Koala had to politely apologized because he didn’t bring the record. Still, the Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” show was so much fun and entertaining, no one seemed disappointed when that song wasn’t played.

Adira Amram & The Experience

DJ Jester

Floor Kids Arcade Machines

Nufonia makes an appearance

Fan: King Mitch

312 to 213

Kid Koala at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (30 April 2018)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Weekend Gamer: Free Games (Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Grim Fandango Remastered, and Company of Heroes 2)

About This Game The year is 1715. Pirates rule the Caribbean and have established their own lawless Republic where corruption, greediness and cruelty are commonplace. Among these outlaws is a brash young captain named Edward Kenway. His fight for glory has earned him the respect of legends like Blackbeard, but also drawn him into the ancient war between Assassins and Templars, a war that may destroy everything the pirates have built. Welcome to the Golden Age of Piracy. Read More Games If you like games like early Final Fantasy, the semi-recent I Am Setsuna, Costume Quest, or Earthlock games, you'll love Battle Chasers. …

Read more Weekend Gamer.

ASSASSIN'S CREED BLACK FLAG
ubisoft.com

For the 10th anniversary of the popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, its publisher Ubisoft is offering the fourth installment, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, as a free download. The unfortunately thing is that you have to download U-Play, Ubisoft’s game launcher (similar to other game launchers like Steam, GOG, Blizzard, etc.) Still, free’s free, right?

I bought the first two games and can tell you that it looks gorgeous, but it feels very slow. The other problem I had with the original game, is that many of the mission requires a little stealth to pull off the assassination… which isn’t how I like to play my game.

Still, it’s a very popular franchise, even releasing a film (starring Michael Fassbender), a boardgame, and limited comic book series.

If you already own and played Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Ubisoft also released a standalone story expansion called Freedom Cry. The DLC explores Black Flag’s side character, Adewale. The expansion was free if a PlayStation Plus subscriber (which I’m no longer), but will cost you an additional $15 … which may be worth it if you’re getting the original game for free.

Anyway, I haven’t kept up with the game, but am fairly excited to get Assassin's Creed Black Flag for free.

Free offer ends December 18.

GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED
grimremastered.com

As you know, I am a huge GOG fan (current game count: 176) and have been buying many of their games on sale. I still call them “Good Old Games” out of habit, but I know the company wants to distance themselves from that name, as they want people to know they also offer new games. Anyway, this 2017 Winter sale features over 900 games on sale, and I’m sure I’ll be buying some more random games this house-bound weekend.

As part of the sale, GOG is offering Grim Fandango Remastered for free. Originally the game launched in 1998 by LucasArt, but in 2015 got the Remastered treatment. While I have played some adventures games, it’s really not my thing. I did grab it for free, but I probably won’t be playing it anytime soon (I actually have too many games…)

Oh well, the giveaway expired as of today (December 14 at 6am PT/2pm GMT), snooze you lose.

BONUS: You can get Company of Heroes 2 for FREE via Humble Bundle.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Read More GOG At least there’s still GOG (Good Old Games)... which will likely be my #1 PC gaming solution now. This company doesn’t require you to be online to play games you own. . …

If you enjoyed Joe Madureira’s Battle Chasers comics and turn-based role-playing game, you’ll want to check out Battle Chasers: Nightwar.

I recently picked the game up as part of the Black Friday sales on GOG, but the game is available on most, if not all, platforms (including PS4, Xbox, Steam… the Nintendo Switch version is coming in 2018), and have been playing it. I’m very early in the game, only beating the first boss on easy difficulty, but so far, I’m loving the game.

If you like games like early Final Fantasy, the semi-recent I Am Setsuna, Costume Quest, or Earthlock games, you'll love Battle Chasers. Not recommended if you don’t like grinding to level up, linear gameplay, or character / equipment management.

I never collected Battle Chasers, but I have some random back issues, and have always loved the character designs and artwork. Eventually, Madureira quit the comic book industry in 2001, and he concentrated his efforts in designing this Battle Chasers game. On retrospect, his characters always had a RPG element to it, from the master fighter to the barbarian (tank) to mage. Putting these characters to an RPG game works wonderfully.

The graphics are gorgeous, it combines Madureira’s 2D drawings with 3D rendering. The animation is good too, but sometime when you see the same animation loop over and over again, you do wish for a variety of victory animations.

Like all grinding games, the main problem is just the repetitive nature of fighting to level up your character. You’ll see the same enemies over and over, until you graduate to the next area in the map. I’m not far enough in the game to receive more than three playable characters, but I’m assuming any characters you bench (do not use in battles) are not going to level up.

I didn’t buy it, but am contemplating on purchasing the GOG option $6.99 extra package, which includes a PDF artwork and companion soundtrack compilation (in FLAC and mp3 formats) by Clark Powell and Jesper Kyd.

Characters	Class	Description
Garrison	Warrior / Fighter	Garrison is a legendary swordsman and owns a powerful magical sword. Trained in swordplay by Red Monika and mentored by Aramus.
Gully	Monk	Gully is a nine-year-old girl whose father, Aramus, mysteriously vanishes leaving a powerful set of magical gloves behind.
Calibretto	Barbarian / Berzerker	The last war golem of his kind after all previous war golems were ordered to be destroyed. His arms can fire projectiles.
Knolan	Mage / Wizard	A powerful wizard, approximately five hundred years old, who takes Gully under his wing. His companion is Calibretto, a war golem.
Red Monika	Thief / Rogue / Assassin	A voluptuous bounty hunter who originally trained Garrison, and has an apparent history with him.
Alumon	Demon Hunter	A new character exclusive to the game, added after a stretch goal was reached during the Kickstarter campaign. The drafts designate him as a demon hunter.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

I Am Setsuna

Overview I Am Setsuna introduces the authentic JRPG style of yesteryear to Nintendo Switch™! Journey with Setsuna as she prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice and save the people of her land. A powerfully nostalgic experience, blending a classic style of story-telling, battle system and gameplay. Read More Nintendo Switch I’ve wanted the Nintendo Switch since I first heard about it last October 2016. The system launched in March 2017, but it immediately sold out everywhere. …

I’m very close to beating I Am Setsuna on the Nintendo Switch. The Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) was developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square Enix and came out on PS4, PS Vita, and PC in 2016, but I bought it on the Switch because there’s a lack of RPG games on this very young handheld / console hybrid.

After 12 hours playing Setsuna, I have to say that the developer was clearly inspired by the classic Final Fantasy 3 (6 for Japan) and Chrono Trigger. While I do love those type of games, I forgot how tiresome grinding (leveling up your characters) can be. I don’t really want to spend hours and hours beating the same enemies so I can grow stronger for the next area.... but it’s something you have to do in these type of games.

The other thing that I got really tired of is having to read and read tons of text. I just kept spamming the ‘A’ button until it stops, often skipping over key clues and directions. Maybe it’s great storytelling back in the ‘90s, but games have progressed so much in the modern age. I wish they’d just hire someone to read the dialog or just let players skip over the sequence (or maybe just have it autoplay).

Graphically, it’s a huge upgrade over the old JRPG games, and looks beautiful. Unfortunately, the entire story takes place on a frozen, snowy island, so it’s white snow everywhere. It got tiresome after a while.

The game, maybe just in the Switch version, but it also sometime had bad bugs. Sometime the right sequences wouldn’t trigger, forcing you to replay certain scenes again. Sometime it’s not always clear what the game wants you to do, so I had to sometime look up walkthroughs to understand what the developers had intended.

There’s a lot of problems with this game, so I can’t really recommend it unless you’re a big JRPG fan, or if you can get it on a discount (it’s currently on sale on Steam).

Pros: Beautiful character designs Classic JRPG mechanics Great soundtrack by Tomoki Miyoshi Single Player

Cons: Repetitive battles Infrequent save locations in dungeons Unskippable long dialogue

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic