Hits-

Madworld – Hyper violent and hilarious, this game is a mix of one part Sin City and two parts MXC. A battle to the death futuristic game show (with hosts voiced by Who’s Line Is It Anyway?’s Greg Proops and John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender from Futurama), where our hero Jack uses anything at his disposal to kill opponents as gruesomely as possible. Best combination get the best points. Wrapping an enemy in a tire gets you a lot of points. Running a street sign through his head gets you even more. Impaling him on a spike on the wall get’s you even more. Do all three in a row and you’re rolling in it.

Madworld, for my money, is the new, and better, version of what Mortal Kombat was to the gaming industry in the 90’s. Let’s face it; the fighting mechanics (which sucked, frankly) were never the appeal of MK. Actually playing MK was kind of a chore. The appeal was the over the top violence. Well, dumping a flaming garbage can over the head of an enemy and impaling him, Vlad-style, on a spike certainly fits that bill.

This game is insanely violent, but it’s all very tongue in cheek. Or is that tongue impaled through cheek? Regardless, the massive amounts of gore and violence are belied by humour throughout. MK has lost its luster in the last couple of years and may be in jeopardy with the financial collapse of Midway. Madworld may be the new game of choice for people who want to tear their enemies in half for a couple of hours.

Minor issues exist with the camera controls and sometimes, due to the black and white art style, it’s a little hard to find where you need to go, but for the most part it’s a very well executed (pardon the pun) game.

Wii Music – As an actual musician, I hate Guitar Hero and Rock Band with a flaming passion. It’s just playing Dance Dance Revolution with, as The Monarch from Venture Brothers would say, “a little baby guitar.” Sorry, I play big boy guitars. Those rhythm based games are really symptomatic of a larger problem in the music industry- creativity and originality are non-factors. Don’t believe me? Look at the success of American Idol, which is more or less just karaoke on tv. None of them write their own songs, and as far as I can tell, none of them are encouraged to. Sure, they have songs written for them if they get a record contract afterwards, but wouldn’t it be more beneficial to have a songwriting competition? See who can contribute the best song to the musical world? Nope, that’s not as important as “you look pretty and can sing a high note.” And I’m sure producers and executives like Simon Cowell have found that to be the most important thing for sales. But that doesn’t make it right. It’s musical fast food.

Anyway, back to my point, Wii Music is a whole different beast than Guitar Hero. The point isn’t simply to replicate a popular song. It’s to come up with your own version; to put your own spin on things. Using the Wii-mote and the nunchuck, you mime the motions for playing anything from a piano to guitar to electric drums to bag pipes to an NES controller that plays like a flute and makes 8-bit sounds. There really is a shit load of instruments in this game, and you can intuitively control each of them. You’ve got control over whether you’re playing chords or arpeggios, and the pitch and rhythm. Want to take Swan Lake and turn it into a huge rock tune? Go for it. Want to do a traditional, sparse Japanese arrangement of The Locomotion? Give ‘er buddy! It’s really a lot of fun coming up with your own spins on things.

My favorites that I’ve come up with so far:

-         a stringed instrument version of Swan Lake that features Steve Vai-like ukulele solos

-         a big rock version of Every Breath You Take with a driving distorted guitar and extremely thick bassline (even moreso than the original)

-         a (bordering on) psychedelic version of the Mute City theme from F-Zero

There’s also a wide variety of mini-games and lessons that that add at to the experience. Another big plus- using the Wii Fit Balance Board you can basically replicate a full drum kit, using the board for the foot pedals. It’s not completely intuitive (you have to press different buttons on the Wii-mote and nunchuck for snare, tom or cymbals), but it’s pretty damn fun once you get the hang of it.

The big downfall of Wii Music is the song selection, which ranges from the juvenile to the public domain for the most part. For your average music fan, songs like Do-Re-Mi will do little to interest them. Which is a shame, because half the fun is taking something you don’t like, or would never listen to, and cultivating it into something that you would like. There’s also a handful of songs from video games (like Zelda, Super Mario, Wii Sports and the aforementioned F-Zero). These are possibly the most fun songs to play; there’s just not enough of them.

Still, as a creative game, totally separate from just a rhythm game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Wii Music is a blast. I hope we get a sequel at some point with more songs, particularly more contemporary ones, and even more instruments.

Misses-

Legends of Wrestlemania – Nothing can sum this up better than a one sentence review from Somethingawful.com. “Remember that great moment at Wrestlemania III where Hulk Hogan was prompted to press the X button, but accidentally pressed the Y button and Andre The Giant took the advantage?” This game suffers from too many of what’s called “real time” onscreen prompts. These are a reasonable gameplay element and they work out well enough in games like Resident Evil 4 or the aforementioned Madworld. Don’t ask me why, but it just doesn’t work for a wrestling game. The nostalgia here is great. But it’s a rental, not a purchase.

Hey there kids! Welcome back to the blitz. It sure has been a while. We’ll, during a down period at work, I put together an incredibly lengthy review of virtually all media that I’ve absorbed since we last spoke. I’ll be doling them out every couple of days. So keep yer stinkin’ eyes glued here, a’ight? I know that, much like the megaphone crooners of old, you just can’t wait to see what I have to say about things.

Anyway, I e-mailed myself the file from work, but didn’t count on it being such a long time before I posted the first review. So, I’m going to whip one up for you here in real time about various musicians that I know who’ve put together some pretty damn good albums in the last little while. Links included where possible.

Jane Ehrhardt- Songs from the Trajectory

For years, I didn’t even know Jane was a musician. I believe, if I recall correctly, that she was a member of the fondly remembered Fuzz, an all girl rock band from Riverview. I figured, however, that like so many good high school musicians, she had just given it up for a career and raising a family or whatever. Of course, only knowing her peripherally for years probably accounted for that. Anyway, when I ran into her at a New Year’s Party last year and heard she was still performing, I was interested to hear.

So, I looked her up on CBC Radio 3 and was pleased to find a nice, folkey, sort of alt-country sound. The songs themselves were well crafted (I particularly liked Join The Circus, the opening track to her first album, The Airs of my Heart), and her voice was great. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I caught her performance with Bette & Wallet in Moncton. The tour package (Jane and B&W each join the backing band of the other for their performances) put on a really good show, and Jane’s voice carries very well in a room like Moncton’s Manhattan. Jane’s new songs were really good, and that same indie-folk-country vibe was there ringing off the walls. On a purely superficial note, I have to say it certainly doesn’t hurt that Jane and Mary-Beth Carty of Bette & Wallet are both stone cold foxes. I’m just saying.

I gladly plunked down the cash to pick up copies of both her albums.

Then, as I drove home from the show, I popped the new CD in and a funny thing happened. Funky wah guitar started coming out of my speakers. “The hell?” Did I get a misprinted CD? Then, there was Jane’s voice. Make no mistake, if you’ve just heard her first album, or seen the current tour, Jane’s horizons expand a hell of a lot farther than you thought. The album runs the gamut from rock to country and everywhere in between. It’s catchy as hell and songwriting is very well developed. I can’t wait to see what Jane comes up with next.

Jane and Bette & Wallet are still on tour through Nova Scotia and Quebec for the next couple of weeks, check them out if you get a chance.

The Peter Parkers - We Were All Born on a Burial Ground

The Parkers, perhaps the most well known act in this particular article, have finally followed up one of my personaly favorite albums This is Sity Music. I’ll forgoe the personal stories and just tell you that I’ve been a fan of this band before I got to know most of the members and I still think they’re the best live act in Canada these days. The Parkers specialize in, by their own description, “evil rock vs. slow love making music.” To paraphrase a friend of mine, half the hairs in your ear will seizure, the other half will orgasm. They are an ear-bleedingly beautiful band.

If there’s one complaint that can be levied against We Were All Born on a Burial Ground, it’s more of the same. The sound of the band hasn’t evolved significantly since their last album. What has evolved though is their songwriting. Songs like Nod if you Can Hear, and To Thomas I Will Write are still presented in the same dynamic way that their older songs were, but the songs themselves are just wonderful. Dare I say it, there seems to be a certain maturity to the songwriting that may not have been there before. The band still rock with reckless abandon, but it seems to be more purposeful.

As it stands, this CD is in very high rotation in my car and, I expect, will stay there for quite some time.

Thee Requiems - s/t

It’s completely impossible for me to remain unbiased about a band where I used to be in bands with three of the four members. Nonetheless, I’ll make efforts. Thee Requiems is a great rock record. For a very loose (as opposed to sloppy) band, the production values on this album are pitch perfect. It’s noisy when it needs to be (Slow Man’s Fast Food) and etherial when it requires (The More You Take Away). The production seems well suited to each song.

Tracks like Mary Toft, Like A Heart Attack, Fashion and Eat Some Worms (which earned me a “thank you” in the liner notes as its an old Catboxer song) are great, and hint at even better potential. It’ll be very interesting to see where this band is in a couple of years. If they continue to develop, I very much look forward to a follow up album.

Well, that’s all for now kids. Or is it? Ok, this is the last bit. Enjoy a glimpse at the GREATEST ACTION HERO OF ALL TIME. He’s a real doctor!