VGM Vinyls: Some PSP (& PS3) Nostalgia
A few new vinyls are in, harking back to a period between 2005-2015. Here they are, from left to right:
Loco Roco - One of the happiest little games I've ever had the pleasure of playing on Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable). Here you unusually use only about 3 controls, none of them on the d-pad(!). You use the shoulder buttons to rotate the world itself and send your rolling and singing companion from one side to the the other. Of course with a happy game there has to be a happy soundtrack, which in this case has most lyrics in a gibberish language that actually sounds really good tonally. There's a lot of variety in the genres and some soles even have your chosen Loco Roco singing along!
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - An awesome DLC for Far Cry 3 (which incidentally is my favourite in the franchise with one of the best villains of all time, Vaas). This one is different in that it's a shorter take that's reckless and a huge parody as if injected with comical values of testosterone from 80s action films. The cutscenes are ridiculous (complete with 16-bit sex scenes), the protagonist openly mocks the tutorials, there's lasers and laser dragons everywhere. There's even an assigned button to flip the bird! It also carries a really punchy synthwave soundtrack which invokes anemoia (nostalgia for something that never happened).
Lumines - A rhythmic block-dropping puzzle game, almost like ‘Tetris: The Musical’. This unique title debuted on the PSP and was really good for those commutes. You have a grid that's 16 blocks wide, and a scanline passing over two bars at a time, erasing any blocks that form part of a square. The blocks themselves consist of two colours, and led to some frantic placing to get as many squares as possible while you race said scanline. It goes without saying that the music gets into your head over time, and although more repetitive keeps that vibe moving as you zone in.
There will be more vinyls soon, but also a trip to the fabled EGX (Eurogamer Expo) hosted in the UK. Hopefully there will be much to play and experience, as well as some secret limited edition vinyls!
