EC2151

God Hand for the PS2 is one of the best action games ever made, so it is imperative that you play it, if you want a difficult, rewarding action game. I don't know if a PS2 game on a PS3 induces some sort of input lag, but something like that would be ruinous for playing God Hand. Also, the Metal Slug games are good for action.

Let's try to at least pretend we aren't making a game for 5 year olds (see: the original LoZ trilogy, N64 Zelda games). It sounds like the same kiddy crap like the DS games and is indicative that Aonuma once again doesn't know what he's doing.

I am just worried that the sequel will focus on Aonuma's trademarks of fetch quests, easy puzzles, and NPC interaction as opposed to LttP's action-adventure focus, but that's a topic for another day. In any event I'm pretty burnt out and skeptical after the awful DS Zelda games. EDIT: Yeah, now that there is a damn 'Lorule,' my excitement for the game is nonexistent. What a bunch of fucking clowns at EAD.

Well, how much you want to bet that Mighty Number 9 now has a prospective budget that is higher than what any official Mega Man game has had?

Nearly all the designs sans H are too busy - I would imagine it would help with establishing a brand/image if your main character designs stayed simple and iconic (see: Inafune's designs in Megaman 1). Though I do like what I -think- is Inafune's design, D.

Hopefully this won't sacrifice coherency in the soundtrack as a whole. That was sort of a problem with MM10 with its soundtrack.

You might as well call this the TF2 Machine, because that controller, and this whole idea are only going to be utilized to play Valve's First-Person Shooters, ie, TF2. Despite the gushing praise Valve Corp. gets from the entire internet, I remain skeptical. This is only going to cannibalize Xbone and PS4 sales at the most, and if either machine makes inroads and expands their market, it will be at the expense of the Gabecube. And the controller is a joke; sorry. Without tactile feedback, expect Kinect-levels of misinterpretation. The larger questions loom: why go through the extra hassle of making a OS just to play PC games on your TV? Is Steam really that necessary to the whole equation? How is this fundamentally different than the original Xbone (always-online, needs client software to run, well, software)?

With a lot of my earlier, earlier, still-learning-how-to-use-FL compositions, that was the exact same problem. I think the reason is that back then I didn't listen to Michael Jackson and know how good a simple kick-snare-kick-snare could be!

My opinion is that Mortal Kombat 2 was the best of the first three games. Though people tell me the later, later games are taken more seriously as fighting games. MK4 is just hilariously awful though. MK violence is stupid but it adds a lot to the fun feel of the game. If it wasn't fun to play no one would have cared. Well violence does naturally appeal to men, just on a base level - and I'm not going to explain that with any highfalutin psychology study or research journal. You don't find too many girls watching war movies, or playing something like Mad World (which I don't think is offensive at all. It's just silly and obviously so). However, I think there is a line, albeit vague and hard-to-always-define, between mature violence, fun over-the-top Tarantino-esque violence, and "kid going through their heavy metal phase" stuff. This post is dumb enough to be worth commenting on (namely: how dumb it is). There's little in watching Kill Bill or RoboCop (two fantastic, violent movies mind you) that prepares you for seeing actual human carnage. I'd question the 'maturity' on display here.

FPSes have to be really engaging to get me into them (see: Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, UT, System Shock). Those are games where, either because of technical limitations or just sheer fun-factor (usually both), you don't really care about the violence. Heck, the gruesome details really add to the sense of dread and foreboding in horror games like System Shock 1 & 2 (two games I recommend for fans of older shooters). To be fair, video-games are founded in competition and (at least implicitly) violence. Space War! being one of the first video-games and all that. Eating ghosts wholesale in Pac-Man can be gruesome if you think about it! Not to mention classics such as Warcraft, Ultima VII, Doom, etc. I think though what Avatar and other posters are expressing their aversion to is the type of pandering-to-an-immature-audience violence that has permeated games in a large way since the early 90s, as the industry slowly shifted from an 'everyone' targeting approach to the full-on console wars 'young boys' approach. The industry is still largely in that mode, though certain breakthrough games (Minecraft - still violent mind you!) show how successful alternatives can be. I mean, if you are not a young adolescent male, or have the tastes of one (not necessarily a negative), why would you be interested in a product specifically designed for that audience? Unless the game is good, I just ignore these violent adolescent games. I mean yeah I love the original Splatterhouse - but that's really a love-letter to horror movies (Evil Dead, House on Haunted Hill, Exorcist, Friday 13th etc) and is a fun game to boot. I'm at a point in my life where I don't really have my entertainment predilections dictated by what is current or popular, so I just sort of look at this stuff with the same sort of bemusement I viewed it with a decade ago.

We do have to salute the passing of one of the great pioneers of video-gaming; especially since this site is formed and based around an aspect of the gaming medium. And I myself, I suppose, since my formative childhood years were partly shaped by the products Yamauchi was able to bring forth. What I actually admire about Yamauchi was the fact that he wasn't himself a gamer (he never played a game in his life, outside of a few rounds of Tetris) - In my opinion that gave him more of an unclouded, pragmatic side to running Nintendo that allowed it to achieve such astronomical successes in the 80s and 90s. He had a keen sense of what would be successful (e.g. throwing boatloads of money and influence around to get Alexei Pajitnov's Tetris onto the Gameboy; offering insane deals to get NES's into stores after the Atari crash, which ultimately made Nintendo millions in income). Obviously, there was a Virtual Boy in there here and there, but not every swing is a grand slam. He was a pioneering (and ruthless) businessman at heart, and that's exactly what Nintendo needed to create some of the best games ever and secure some of the greatest talent ever (Gunpei Yokoi, Shigeru Miyamoto). You really wouldn't see Satoru Iwata be able to do the things Yamauchi did to succeed, because he lacks that iron willpower. Being a game designer himself makes him probably more sympathetic to Nintendo programmers, whereas Yamauchi would form rival teams and only select the 'winning team's' game to be published. It sounds (to softer ears) 'cruel' but it sure is one hell of a way to foster competition and quality control. Ultimately, Nintendo's successes are predicated on their adherence to Yamauchi's philosophy on gaming and hardware; the NES, SNES, Gameboy, Wii, and DS are all alike in that Yamauchi's influence looms largely over them. While Hiroshi Yamauchi did not have an active role in the company for the last seven years or so, I certainly hope Nintendo can find a like-minded spirit to replace him and remind the world why the company was so important.

First off, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. I don't think I can respond adequately to everyone who has posted in this topic, but I do appreciate everyone commenting and helping me reflect on the question at hand. A few main points: @dannthr specifically, I think you are right that there should be at least some bridges or creative flourishes even if your 'drummer' is in fact virtual. Especially in the business of producing remixes (which I swear I'll do one day!), but even in trying to produce 'professional' music (at least from your end of things), it's a good way to show a little bit of extra finesse in terms of production and composition. @SnappleMan - thank you for posting Billie Jean, because that was one of the examples I was thinking about when I was coming up with the question for the topic. Some songs seem to work perfectly fine with 1 or 2 drum patterns for the whole song. I guess it is a question of rhythm vs. just-drum-beats, something to consider how it fits into the overall sonic picture of the song you are trying to make. @Radiowar: the problem of putting everything in by mouse is that there is a tendency to sound mechanical, esp on FL piano roll sequencer. Another weakness is not knowing what people mean when they say fills and quantization (sorry Legion*)! The strength though is a good deal of control over the nature of the beat, allowing for repetition or variation as need be. It is good though to think in terms less of 'drums - strings - brass - etc' and 'rhythm section - lead section - backup section - etc' from time to time. *though I tend to listen to drum patterns over and over again to get a feel for their 'authenticity' even in mechanical settings.

A happy belated birthday to one of my early role models and supporters on this site; thanks for giving me a chance for working on the Dynamite Headdy project, and being positive and confident in my (then extremely green!) abilities! Happy b-day Mokram!

This will be great for making my workflow faster and more efficient. Very excited!

Though at this stage, I do have to wonder if it is Hideki Kamiya's fault that no one ever buys his games...

You would have to understand how Japanese corporate business culture works (I liked how one person I knew described professional white-collar culture: "You have to apologize to your superiors for existing") to understand how ossified most of these old companies are. It is very much anti-competition in terms of ideas (but very cutthroat in terms of performance). They are very resistant to ideas or concepts that do not come from board-room meetings; heck, Inafune was a top executive at Capcom and even he couldn't get what he wanted. Obviously, execs care about the bottom line, but Japan for a decade now has suffered from a serious failure to innovate and compete on a global scale, which is reflected in how bad its economy has been throughout the 2000s (talk of two 'lost generations' in a row). People I know who live and have worked in Japan for years say the last thing you want to do is work for the Japanese! Not to mention Capcom being bought out by a guy who has no knowledge of video-games whatsoever.

The 3D for me has always been a novelty. I never saw it used in a game on my brother's 3DS that enhanced the experience other than "Oh look it's 3D~". If you like it, it's fine, but I don't and never really did. I'm considering whether or not a 2DS would be more up my alley (cheaper price), or the extra money for an XL. Portability isn't a huge factor, because neither will really comfortably fit in your pocket. Though the fact that it could would always help - but then you get into the issue of the original 3DS's so-so battery life (in comparison to say, the DS lite).

Those are some ignorant and unfounded worries. The lady did the soundtracks for and Mercs for goodness' sake. Not to mention the great tunes in MM1. She's classic Capcom material.I probably will put down $40 for this myself. Really have been itching for a new Mega Man game for some time.

I was talking about this with someone else, and we both sort of agreed that the new music is trying a bit too hard to sound realistic, which makes it sound fake. The original battle-music horns were obviously midi, but weren't trying to be real horns - they were just trying to fit the song. But these days it's against the law in games to try and embrace being unrealistic!

If it's not too late, I'd like submit two tracks via email. Best of luck with the project!

Sorry I've been out of touch for a while. I should be working on getting the track over the next hump fairly soon!

The arcade is the single largest, most-underrepresented 'platform' on OCremix. I need to finish my Saturn and old PC mixes so I can jump into remixing the glorious VGM of yesteryear. But as XPRT said, the request forum is filled to the brim with unique requests. It won't take long to find something you like!

I was rooting for this project, and am sad to see that it didn't work out. The music though is really good, and you should be proud of it. It's excellent stuff!

A lot of times when making a piece I usually make an 8-bar drum pattern and sort of use it for half the song, and then one or two other 4-bar patterns as needed for different sections. A lot of times, when I listen to some game soundtracks, say by Nazo2 Suzuki or Hitoshi Sakimoto, or some older 80s sci-fi anime soundtracks, sometimes you get a piece where it's the same pattern repeated throughout the entire track, though there's usually a transition/bridge bar in there every 16 bars or so with some cymbal crash involved. Now, I don't try to make songs like some heavy-drummin' rock concert, but I always worry in the back of my mind if I don't mix up the patterns enough, it will get "boring" or (if I ever finish my mix projects ha) the panel judges will think likewise. So do you just try to put it in the background (if it's not the main focus of the track)? Or do you try to write at least 4 or so patterns per song with appropriate bridges?

That makes me feel a bit better about considering just the Mutations bundle, since I don't know if I need another 6GB of instruments to choose from!