On a very special forty-third episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, Zack has been called upon to travel to various worlds and dimensions to save Screech… or Mickey?

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"A hard game to ask for by name."

Kingdom Hearts is a series that is starting to have more “side stories” than numbered games. The latest entry, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, takes place after an event that happened most of the way through the first game and spans all the way up until Kingdom Hearts 2 begins (with Chain of memories taking place in parallel). But enough about time-lines.

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Pictured Above: Michiru Yamane

It’s no secret that I am obsessed with videogame music. I even remix it in my spare time. Working a desk job, I end up listening to soundtracks throughout large portions of the day, and I enjoy sharing music with others who might otherwise not hear the songs I love so much. But there are far too many fantastic composers for me to cover in a single article. So to remedy this, I’m going to focus on my one true love… the ladies!

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"Strong Bad VS Little Mac"

On a very special fifteenth episode of Barrel Roll! - A Video Game Podcast, we are joined by our friend Dan Diemer, graphic artist extraordinaire. That is, until he got sick and had to leave (feel better, Dan).

What have we been playing this week? Thanks for asking, the internet. Jonah finished episodes one and two of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. Jesse continues to work his way through Sir Togsef, but also played every character class in the new Monster Hunter Freedom Unite demo on the PSP. Brittany continues to play World of Warcraft in the Blueberry Muffin Tops JPAG guild. She also gave Personal Trainer: Cooking to the test, being someone who has taken real life culinary arts classes. Dan and his wife have been taking on the mind bending XBLA hit Braid, as well as a few iPod games.

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"...and it only took me 5 years!"

Aside from being a writer here at Wing Damage, I like to spend my time making electronica music (hosted at MainFinger.com) in my home studio. As I’ve mentioned in the past couple podcasts, I have been very hard at work, both finishing up my new album and building a completely new site. I’ve finally launched the site with the new album on it, available for download and streamable, absolutely free! I do, however, accept donations via PayPal if you feel so inclined. The donation button is located on the sidebar of my site.

In case you’re wondering how this relates to Wing Damage, a majority of the songs on the album are videogame remixes. The tracks range from well known series’ such as Zelda, Metroid and Sonic the Hedgehog to lesser known titles like Section Z. Each track differs greatly in style so there’s a lot of variety to enjoy.

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"Not a representation of the idea"

I played a decent amount of Action RPGs in 2008. Among these were games such as “The World Ends With You”, “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core”, and “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates” (subtitle within a subtitle? Yeah… they went there!) to name a few. At some point during the year, playing these games got my creative juices flowing. My brain gave birth to an idea and I felt compelled to write it down. There it sat, alone inside a notebook. But today, faithful readers, I will share with you my dream.

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"Here we go again... AGAIN!"

Awhile back, Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix + was announced for Japan. It was a 2 disc set containing a version of Kingdom Hearts 2 with several new boss fights and extra scenes, as well as a fully 3D remake of the GBA between-story, Chain of Memories. For whatever reason, Japan decided we had not saved up enough “cool points” here in the states and decided to only give us a localization of the second disc containing Re: Chain of Memories.

This is, by and large, the same game you played (or didn’t) on the GBA. If I had actually beaten the original, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered picking it up. I had quit about 3 quarters of the way through on the GBA version because the proper sequel was about to release. I ended up reading the game script for that last quarter of the game and considered myself ready for the release of Kingdom Hearts 2. I was pleasantly surprised when I did finally pop in Re: Chain, though. Adding a third dimension did more than just improve the aesthetic; it actually made it both more accessible and more fun to play.

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