VGM Vinyls - More New Additions
More VGM vinyls have arrived, it’s always exciting to see these in the flesh! More info about these is below:
Sonic Mania - There have been many Sonic games played over the years (it’s one of my most beloved franchises as a kid). This one however is very special, it is a faithful attempt at what a sequel would have looked like on the original hardware, but it is also by far the most quintessential 2D Sonic experience outside of the originals. In fact it takes some of the original levels and adds some incredible mechanics, not to mention any Sonic fans will notice a tonne of easter eggs such as Game Gear sound effects during a particular boss battle. The nostalgia and happiness of my inner child was unmatched! But it also adds small but substantial changes like extra animation frames making the rotoscopy of the characters look even smoother, and other details such as depth of field with lost rings. Considering all there was prior was the disappointing physics of the Sonic 4 series, this was a welcome breath of fresh air. Of course, the soundtrack is also fantastic. It takes the original feel and elevates it to Sonic CD quality (being one of my lesser favourites, the soundtrack was nevertheless notably kick-ass). A little bit gutted that the reimagined Lava Reef Act 2 music isn’t on this, but still it’s worth having. Particular note to Studiopolis Act 1, one of my favourites!
140 - So I have a confession: I have a penchant for audiovisual and rhythm games, having been a drummer at one point. An interesting twist is this game, so named because of its tempo. It’s a very minimal, yet (as far as I can tell) unique type of platformer where all moving elements are synchronised with the soundtrack. This means timing and patience are key. Because of this, the game gels together really well as a cohesive and pure whole, giving a short (around 1-2hr) experience that is memorable, and for a pretty cheap price.
Nuclear Throne - Few in the indie developer community around the mid 2010s would not have heard of the legendary name of Vlambeer, the developers of this game as well as others. They were responsible for two main things for me; making a press kit much easier for independant developers to produce, and for their presentation on the ‘Art of Screenshake’. On the latter, they put forward the idea that you can turn up the screenshake to 11 everywhere, as well as add many other over-the top elements such as huge bullets and ricochets to make a game more exciting. No game expresses this ideology more than Nuclear Throne, a roguelite twin-stick shooter with ridiculously over-the-top risk and reward action, where games can end as quickly as they began. You can even use one character to explode corpses! The soundtrack is incredible and gives the game a sort of wild west mercenary-for-hire vibe that could also be sung as an anthem around a campfire.
That’s all for now, stay tuned for more!
