Artist of the Moment: Blaqstarr is one of the many talented artists on Mad Decent Records. I’m a little biased here because Diplo, the leader of the pack, is my favorite DJ. Thus anything he does is instant aural gold to me. I just think he has a real talent for fresh sounds, and finding fresh sounds, which leads me back to Blaqstarr. Blaqstarr was cited as sort of an unknown phenomenon in Baltimore. As many of you may already know from reading my previous posts, I’m a huge fan of Baltimore Club music. Which probably is a direct reflection of my love for Diplo’s music, since he, as well, is also heavily influenced/rooted in the Baltimore club style.
So how do I describe Blaqstarr? His sound is incredibly fresh to me, having listened to a fair share of Baltimore club beats. Bmore club is very repetative, which both lends to it’s unique charm and also it’s probable inability to hold the interest of people with short attention spans. Blaqstarr sort of takes this formula and cleans it out to it’s lowest common denominator. His beats are incredibly minimalistic, raw, and to the point. I find his stuff harsh, sharp, and hard-hitting and surprisingly enjoyable to listen to. I don’t know why, but his music really has a unique flair to it that is unlike any other Bmore club I’ve ever heard. This is probably the reason I love his music, it’s like a fresh gasp of air in a fairly uniform ocean of Bmore tracks.
……………………………………………………………
So today I’m gonna switch up the mix a little. Not because I worry my blog is getting too repetitive, more because I haven’t cooked anything since my succulent chicken fingers. So instead I’m going to talk about how I’ve recently gotten in touch with my inner consumer whore. I signed up for one of those marketing focus group things where they have you answer a survey and you test a product and all that jazz. It sounds pretty awesome to me. I basically sold my soul to satan (aka answered a few simple questions and gave my home address) and now they’re going to send me a “kit” with some accessories for my child (by child I mean my iTouch of course). Yes, I refer to all my technology as my children. Or sometimes as countries. Like my PSP, would be like Japan because it’s tiny but it’s super advanced and is beautiful to look at. My Xbox 360 would be my America, because it tends to favor media about shooting things, blood, and firepower. Also I’m pretty sure, judging by the power bar and loud hum of the fan, that it packs enough power to destroy my whole neighborhood if it ever overheats. Anyways I think I’ve thoroughly raped this analogy and should probably move on to better things. Like my new PSP game Patapon.
Yeah, so, Patapon is awesome for a lot of reasons. Mostly because it reminds me of Loco Roco, a game where you play in a super hypercoloured cartoon world of overly happy bouncing blobs in an overly happy world where everything has a face and smiles at you. It’s like one of those kids show cartoons where there is no such thing as “fuck” being “fucked” or “fucking”, only happy go lucky bouncing and fruit eating. Well actually, I guess I can’t really say there is no such thing as being “fucked” in this game, because the blobs are constantly being chased by evil flying black squid things that eat them, which is pretty fucked I guess. Also the blobs are able to explode into hundreds of tiny little mini-me blobs that can reform into one giant blob again, which is also pretty fucked. So while there is no “fuck” or “fucking”, there is plently of “fucked” or even “fucked up to be had”. But I wasn’t talking about Loco Roco, I was talking about Patapon, which seems almost like a distant cousin in the same vein.
In Patapon you continue the tradition of playing in a world that is proper “fucked” like its predecessor, mostly for the fact that you play as a war faring tribe of black eyeball people with little arms and legs. But what really makes this game awesome is it’s epic storyline. Get a load of this…
“The Patapon were a flourishing people until they were defeated by the evil Zigaton tribe. The player takes the role of their god and uses sacred war drums to direct the Patapon tribe to take back their land. As the story progresses, the Patapon also embark on a journey to Earthend to look upon “IT,” a sacred object whose appearance and purpose is unknown to the tribe.”
Now there are some definate things I find pretty awesome in this world, and a few of those things are 1) wardrums 2) commanding a legion of tiny tribal minions with axes and spears 3) commanding a a legion of tiny minions with axes and spears using wardrums. It’s also pretty awesome how hardcore these cute little eyeball men are. They constantly yell shit like “take no prisoners” and “to the ends of the earth” while they march which not only makes them a minion army, but a ruthless minion army; all my own. The army also has a war chant, which after about a half hour of playing, becomes imprinted in the very fabric of your brain. It goes something like this PATA PATA PATA PON. The little bastards also can go into fever mode if you beat the drum to their liking sending them into a berserker rage laying waste to everything in their path. So, the game sort of reminds me of Loco Roco meets 300.
The game is in a definite abstract Japanese style which further adds to it’s awesomeness. The creative rythem-game nature also lends to tried and true Japanese gaming conventions of past. I guess not everything is awesome about this game though. I mean most of it is a pretty magnificent, however the game’s biggest criticism comes with the fact that the gameplay can get mildly repetitive, which if that means you’re just constantly laying waste to an evil army and giant monsters with a legion of spear and axe wielding black eyeball men, then it isn’t an issue for me. The bigger, biggest criticism, though, comes with the fact that when your little mobile ocular army of carnage hits fever mode the tune they hum goes out of sync momentarily which can knock you off the prized fever mode. I personally didn’t find this that big of a design flaw because I think it may have even been intended. I mean, throwing the player off beat in a rythem game would make it more challenging, and isn’t that what video games are all about? Challenge? We can’t make the raping and pillaging of an evil eyeball empire an easy feat now can we?
Great game + cheap game + war drums and fucked up eyeball men + minor flaw = 9/10 final verdict. ^^
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.